Marisa's Size 3 Visual Clothing Inventory

Marisa is currently transitioning into 24mos/2/2T size clothing. I'm starting to collect size 3 clothes. I need a little help keeping track of what I already have. They all go into a box and I can't remember what I've already bought her. So this will be a Visual Inventory to remind me of what I have in the box. This will be easier than trying to go through the box cuz everytime I do that she will try to "help" by pulling everything out of the box. Then I end up having to refold everything...

I think I'm pretty much set with Size 3 clothes.... perhaps a few more short sleeve shirts, short sleeve bodysuits, and pjs (both long sleeve for winter & short sleeve w/shorts for summer).


LONG SLEEVE SHIRTS (17):


Yes, I somehow got two of the same cupcake shirts...



SHORT SLEEVE SHIRTS (16):








LONG SLEEVE BODYSUITS (7):




SHORT SLEEVE BODYSUITS (3):




PANTS (20):

It's hard to see with the bad lighting on the photos with the black/white comforter in the background, but there is a coral colored pant that is exactly the same as the other coral colored pant taken against the brown coffee table. Dupes happen...



JACKETS (5):





SKORTS (1):




SHORTS (2):






DRESSES (5):




I'm not sure what size this Minnie Mouse dress is. It is from Taiwan and the label says "100". I'm guessing it's about size 3, cuz I don't see M wearing this at 2 yrs.




This is a 2-piece outfit consisting of a dress and a jacket. It's from Hong Kong and the label says size "2 1/2 yrs". It looks a bit big for her at 2 yrs.




PAJAMAS (5; 2 long sleeve long pants; 3 short sleeve w/shorts; 2 short sleeve w/shorts and long pants):







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M in her Lego box

M just loves climbing into things. She will climb into an empty laundry basket if I happen to leave one on the floor; she also likes to push it around the house too. The picture above shows her in her Lego box. She will take out all the legos and then climb into the box. It's really cute when she does this, although I do worry about her losing her balance and toppling over (which has happened!). She will sometime grab my leg and steer me towards the box, indicating that she wants me to step into it. I always tell her that Mommy is too big to fit in the box, but I don't think has quite grasped the big/small concept.

The orange thing in her hands is Ojo, a stuffed bear. Like her drag-around blanket, Ojo gets dragged all over the house, on the floor, everywhere. He gets pawed at while she is eating, while her hands has food it it. I cringe when she does that with Ojo or the blanket, however I have learned to choose my battles. The blanket can go into the wash. I try to spot clean Ojo. When it gets really bad I will throw Ojo in the washer and see how he fares. I don't understand why stuffed animals are "surface wash". They really should make them machine washable.


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M Speak

Words added to this list during Jan/Feb 2007.

I thought I'd start working on a list of M Speak. I was thinking of compiling such a list for the inlaws when they babysit her for 2 nights next month... just a little something to help them understand what she might be saying. I know I won't be able to sit down and complete this in one sitting, so I'm just going to chip away at it...

She tends to drop beginning and/or ending sounds to words.

Sign Language video links:

ASL Browser:
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/

ASL for Babies:
http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro

ASL at lifeprint.com:
http://www.lifeprint.com/

Born to Sign Infant Sign Language dictionary:
http://www.signwithme.com/002_browse_signs.asp

Words she knows how to sign include: apple, auntie, baby, cereal, change (as in diaper), cheese, cracker, daddy, grandma, grapes, hot, medicine, milk, mommy, more, pear, please, thanks, up, water. Of course, she signs some of these in her own way.

ah-ba = up above(when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
air-pay = airplane, she usually points up at the sky while waving her arm
air-peh = hair clip
a-j = orange color
a-j = Ojo (stuffed orange bear)
annie = auntie
ar = are (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
at = hat
ate = eight
a-vee = heavy

baby = baby
baby = blanket
bah = banana
bah = black
bah bah = backpack
bah-doe, buh-doe = button
bahp-mm mahb-mm = no clue what this means, but she tends to say this when things are copacetic
beh = bear
bo = spoon
bo = bowl
bok = block (Legos)
bol = ball
boo = blue color
book = book
bye = pants
bye = black color
bye = bag
bye bye = bye bye

cak-ko = cracker
car = car
cell-yo = cell phone
cell-yo = cereal
chs = cheese
coe = cold
cook = clock
cup = cup
c-yo = cereal

dah = what she says to refer to something she doesn't know how to say
dah? = "what's that?"
dah-doon = thank you
dah-doon = daddy
di-doe = diamond (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
dit = Stitch (stuffed toy)
doe = dog
doe doe doe = no clue what this means. it usually follows mahb-mm mahb-mm or bahp-mm mahb-mm, and she tends to say this when things are copacetic
door = door
doot = Stitch (stuffed toy)
down = down. she wants down, or she want to be picked up & moved to the other side.
duck = duck

eh = eight
eh-vee = heavy
elbow = elbow
enk = oink, the sound a pig makes
eye = eye

fay = vest
fee = feet
fee = three
fee = vest
fie, fye = five
foll = fall
for = fork
for = four
free = three
froh = frog

gag-m, gog-m = grandma
gago = cracker
gato = jacket
gagato, gagado = we're still trying to figure out what this one means
gee = green color
gogo = goldfish crackers (she sometimes signs fish for this)
gogo = twinkle (while singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
guy = sky (usually while pointing upwards and waving arm around)
guy, ga = grass

hep = help
high = high (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
how = how (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

i-doe = no clue what this means, usually follows "i-know"
i-know = no clue what this means, usually followed by "i-doe"

key = key
kye = sky (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

mahb-mm mahb-mm = no clue what this means, but she tends to say this when things are copacetic
mama?! = pick me up
may-no = tomato
muh-muh-muh = "i want a taste of what you're eating"
moe = tv/dvd remote control
moo, more = moon (sometimes pointing upwards at sky)
more = more ... especially if she signs more.
more = milk ... especially if she also signs milk.
mow = moo, the sound a cow makes

nana = banana
nana(nana) = "i'm hungry" or "i want attention"
nananana-uh! = same as above, but with emphasis :-)
nay = what she says when she sees herself in the mirror or in pictures.
neigh = neigh, the sound a horse makes
nie/nye = nine
night night = night night, goodnight. she usually signs bed when saying this.
no = no
no = nose
noonoo = noodles

oh-voe = Ojo (orange stuffed bear)
ot = hot
owl = owl

pea = please. she will also sign please when she wants to emphasize that she wants something.
peh = pen
peh-pa = pepper (Peter Piper picked...)
pih = picked (Peter Piper picked...)
purpa, purpol = purple color
purpa = poo poo

rah rah rah = ruff ruff ruff, the sound a dog makes
rah-rye-toe = ravioli
reh = one

sai = slide (at the park)
seh-yeh = seven
shak = sock
show = shoe
sigh = slide (at the park)
sih = six
sit = sit. either she wants to sit, or she wants you to sit.
sit = yes

ta = tongue
tar = star (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
tai-to = towel
tea = tea
tee = empty
tee = teeth. when experiencing teething pain, she may say this and also point to her cheek/mouth
tee-too = tissue
teh = ten
too = two

uh uh uh (with arms waving) = asking for the Wiggles, her favourite tv show
up = up

wawa = water
wawa = flower
wah wah?! = where are you?
wall = wall
wee-toe = the Wiggles, her favourite tv show
why = white
wok = walk
wow wow wow = bow wow wow, the sound a dog makes
wuh wuh = wonder (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

yeh-yo = yellow color
yoyo = cereal


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Paint everywhere...

No, no, no, it's not what you think. It's not wet paint. Thank goodness...

But we had a little surprise this morning when we went to get M. She apparently stood up in her crib, reached over and picked at a crack in the paint on the wall behind her crib ... and tore at it! It got all over the place ... on the carpet, in her crib/bedding, and even in her diaper(!). Needless to say I spent some time cleaning it up, doing laundry, and then moving the furniture around in her room.

Not quite the way I wanted to start my Saturday morning...

Teatime... today we're drinking Peet's Pride of the Port, a black tea. I drink a lot less black tea these days than I do non-black teas. Right now I tend to go for Oolongs, Pu Erhs, and Greens.

Yay, I managed to play a bit of The Sims today. It's a nice little diversion for me. Thinking about creating my next Sim Family, they'll be Indian. Got some names in mind. For the ladies, I'm thinking of Kayuri, Srilatha (Shree for short), Anusha. For the guys, maybe Vikram, Rajesh, Vignesh.



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B&B

Emily3Cat showed off her "B&B" in a beautiful rose color. I'm not sure what B&B stands for, and am trying to find that out. But it got me thinking about the other B&B which I am familiar with ... bed & breakfast inns....

It's been quite a while since I stayed at a B&B. That would have been Sept 2004, when we stayed at the Grand View Inn in Pacific Grove, CA. I really like the Seal Rocks room there. We've stayed at this inn twice. I really like staying at B&Bs, it's just so much nicer. My other favorite B&B is Grape Leaf Inn in Healdsburg, CA. Love the Chardonnay Suite there. This place has a speakeasy where they have wine tasting in the afternoons. Breakfast at this B&B is awesome. We've stayed at this inn twice also. The B&B that started it all was Inn at Depot Hill in Capitola, CA. It was OK, but I don't think I'd go back there cuz there really isn't much in Capitola.

Don't know when DH & I can make it to a B&B again. We're thinking of a trip to Carmel sometime in February. The inlaws have agreed to babysitting M for 2 nights. Yay! :-)

Need to start working on the babysitter checklist & info sheet ... not that I would expect them to read it.

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While reading a phonics/word book with M, she saw a picture of the number "5", and identified it by saying, "fie," which is how she says five. She tends to drop off the endings of words. Wow, I thought it was so cool that she recognized that number. We've been practicing saying the sequence of numbers 1 through 10. She skips over 1, 2, and 7. I can understand 7 being a bit more challenging with 2 syllables. I usually start by saying, "1, 2," and then she follows with, "free, four, fi, sih, (skips 7), eh, ni, te."

Still not doing very well in the nap dept. She had transitioned from 2 naps down to 1 nap. Now it looks like she is trying to shake off her 1 nap, and that is just bad bad bad. She is such a fuss bucket without any nap.

My latest challenge has been getting her into her highchair. DH is able to get her in, but she doesn't want to sit it in when I try to put her in it. On the upside, she is getting better at sipping out of a real cup as long as we hold it for her. She wants to held it herself, but we know that she'll fling it around and drop it, just as she does with her plastic sippy cups.

I finally sat down and sorted through photos from the past 6 months. I had to pick up the better ones for my inlaws. As I was going through the photos, I observed that the photos were much better 6 months ago (more in focus). Most of the recent ones were not very good because M moves too much.

During our last visit to the inlaws, she climbed the 10 steps up to the 2nd floor for the very first time. She got to the top and then immediately wanted to be picked up. She was extra clingy that day. Partly teething related I think. She's still teething (big bad molars coming), poor girl.



The two pictures above were taken outside The Fish Market restaurant in San Mateo, CA. It is one of the restaurants my mom likes AND it is relatively baby friendly. Mom loves good food, usually in restaurants that aren't very good for M, and is also picky about her food (not to mention sensitivities to foods). My restaurant choices are limited to "family" restaurants, chain restaurants, and any other place that is generally on the noisy side (and preferably with a baby changing station in the restroom). Mom wants to go check out Myth ... a dinner-only place and not baby friendly. Right now I can only think of 3 restaurants which Mom likes and where M would be welcome: The Fish Market, Mimi's Cafe in San Mateo, and Elephant Bar Restaurant in Daly City. Sigh... it'll be a while before I return to Chapeau! or Boulevard.

BTW, besides decent seafood, The Fish Market has a great flourless chocolate cake.

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In some ways it is a good thing I am too busy to keep up with current events. I don't even get to read or watch the news. And whenever I do hear of something happening outside my little bubble of a world, it's usually something bad. Why don't they report good news?

What is happening to this city?

I am shocked at the shooting of officer Bryan Tuvera, which happened not too far from where I live. And on the same day, there was a tiger mauling of a zoo keeper at the SF Zoo. It was a busy night for my friend T who works at SF General Hospital. Can't believe someone shot (several times) an Irish tourist while trying to mug him; he lived, btw.

I can't believe that someone stole a stroller 5 blocks away from where I live. Someone left the stroller outside the copy shop while taking care of stuff inside, and I guess when he/she came out, the stroller was gone. Who would do such a thing?

Ah, but this isn't as bad as my neighbors (I'll call them X), who live on the same block, who think it is OK for their kids (and their kids' friends) to run around on 2-story high rooftops. This happened on March 6, 2005. One kid broke and fell through a plastic awning of my adjacent neighbor's house and tried open the gate to run down the stairs towards the street. Unfortunately, my neighbor's gate has one of those locks where you have to use a key on either side to open it. So this kid climbed back up, tried to run across our plastic awning, broke and fell through, but managed to hang on and pull back up onto the roof. So DH goes down to X's house to inquire whether that kid was OK. The adults in that house gave him the brush off and said, "they were just playing." WTF, just playing?! I really want to move to a nicer neighborhood where the neighbors don't think running across the roof is a normal thing. BTW, these are the same neighbors who jumped over their backyard fence to their adjacent neighbor's yard just for the heck of it. Yeesh. The people in the X household also like to call other people in the neighborhood by derogatory names, well, everyone except perhaps my Russian neighbor because they can't think of a derogatory name for her. I really feel bad for the Italian guy who lives adjacent to the X house. He's a very nice elderly gent, retired, who spends most of his time doing volunteer work and stuff for his church. The X neighbors think he's gay, which he is not, but I think they jumped to that conclusion because he has gay friends who visit him (or was it his brother, I forget which, but it doesn't matter). On the upside, he is out of his house most of the day. ..... I can tell you lots of strange things about the comings & goings of the X household, partly due to having spent a year breastfeeding M around the clock. It's amazing what you see going out outside in the wee hours of the night. But I won't mention all that and other stuff (noise disturbances, domestic disturbances (complete with police presence), etc). I guess the best way to sum up the X household is that they fit every bad stereotype.

As for moving to another neighborhood, I'd like to add that it would be nice if it was a neighborhood where people wore helmets while riding their bicycles, and where they don't have 2 people riding on a non-tandem style bike (viz. a bike designed for one person). M will eventually get to that age where she will want to have her first bicycle. It would be nice of the neighbors set good examples for her and don't give her any reckless ideas...

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I have done zilch in the knitting dept ... see M's nap reference above. For a while I was getting quite a bit of knitting done in the car while she napped. Now I'm getting nowhere with my knitting. Wondering whether my first finished object of 2007 will be in February...

I still haven't touched M's mitten, which I botched. I mentioned this in this 12/25 post ... gosh, has it been that long? I'm thinking it'll be summertime before she gets her mittens. I should concentrate on working on the first mitt. Hopefully I won't suffer from SMS after that. No, no, not Storage Management System or System Management Server. That would be Second Mitten Syndrome (similar to SSS = Second Sock Syndrome).

Can't knit fast enough. I have three scarves to make, all new designs, one of them for myself. I suppose I'd do better if I knitted stuff for Barbie, lol.

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Itching to play The Sims. I recently reinstalled the game and started a new neighborhood. It will be a diverse neighborhood. My newest family are the MacKennas, Dubhlainn and Aedan. Dubhlainn works at home as part-time art investor while building his skills to open his new home business of pressing Elberberry Nectar. Aedan had a bad start in the Entertainment track when he missed his first 2 days of work (oops!), but is now doing well in the Science track.

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Oops, forget to add teatime ... I drank Peet's Jade Mist organic green tea. Love Peet's, it's a local company which originated in Berkeley, CA.

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My baby is growing

I can't believe my baby is growing. She's transitioning into 24 month size clothes now! It's been cold here lately. Last week I noticed that her 18 month size shirt was too short for her. When she raised her arms and stretched, her shirt would become untucked and more than her belly would show. This is not a good thing in winter. So I washed all her 24 month shirts/bodysuits last week, and put away her 18 month shirts. Most of her 18 month pants still fit her, so I'm taking my time washing all the 24 month pants. It's always sad when I have to put away her outgrown clothes. Don't ask me how many boxes of outgrown clothes/stuff in the garage...

M had her 21 month appt last week. She weighed in at 22 lbs 4 oz, and over 32 inches (32.25"? 32.5"? I'm not very good at remembering numbers). Her memory is definitely getting better. She seemed to remember the place, and started wailing as we walked into the exam room. In past visits, she would let us undress her, maybe get her weighed on the scale, and only start crying when the doctor got close to examine her. And she used to cry when she got her shots. Well she threw us a curve ball during this last visit. Besides crying upfront, she did not cry at all when the nurse gave her a shot. We were really surprised!



My MIL made this cross stitch stocking for M. Working on black must be more challenging than on white, I can imagine how hard it is on the eyes. I dabbled in cross stitch back when I was in college, but the hobby didn't stick with me. I much prefer knitting, it's easier on the eyes... (except when I knit with very dark yarn)



Here's M opening one of her presents. She is enjoying Christmas this year more than last year. She didn't know what to do with the presents last year (when she was 9 mos old). This year she knows that there's stuff inside that you can pull out. :-)

My MIL & SIL like to carefully unwrap their gifts, so that they can save the gift wrapping paper and reuse it when wrapping gifts in the future. Yes, I've even received gifts with the same gift wrap I used for one of their previous gifts. Knowing her predilection for saving gift wrap, this year I managed to use a total of 4 cm of tape to secure my MIL's present, a medium size box of about 15" x 10" x 7", at 3 points (main section, and each end). I prefer to gently rip the giftwrap, it's more fun that way. I don't save gift wrap, but I may save a few now that M is around. She can play with the wrapping paper, and even draw on it if she pleases. In fact, I'd love for her to draw on the gift wrap ... that would sure beat her drawing on the coffee table (which happened 2 days ago while DH was watching her). How do you remove crayon from a wooden table? Our poor coffee table is showing signs of wear. When M was younger, she would stab at it with pens, rattles, blocks. There are scratches and pock marks. We are definitely not getting any new furniture until she grows up...

M is becoming such a chatterbox, and she is quickly learning how to speak. She is learning sequences (ABCs, 123s, books/songs). She knows what comes next in Moo Baa La La La and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She has learned a handful of colors. It helps when we have a night lite that changes colors. :-) She likes books we can sing to her like The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani, and Wheels on the Bus by Raffi and Sylvie Wickstrom. She loves Mother Goose rhymes.

Teatime... today we are drinking Lupicia Lichee Oolong. It's good. DH prefers the Lichee Black more.

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