Elise on break

Elise started talking about missing school and her teachers and friends yesterday (3rd day of break).  She made something and she said, "I want to show Ms. Gina".  Today, she was slumped in a chair and looked sad, and said (in a sad voice,  "I want to see Ms. Gina.  I want to see Ms. Christine.  I want to see Isla."

Bryant thinks that if homeschooling her would be child abuse.  Hahaha.  Elise loves being around other people.

Elise the boss

One of Elise's favorite phrases is "no, my turn."  She has to do everything by herself which is a typical toddler trait of asserting independence and sense of control in an otherwise chaotic world.  Some examples from today:

- during lunch, Elise would not eat her food and so Bryant tried feeding her a spoonful.  After chewing for a few seconds, she realized the act of unacceptable dependence that had just occurred, spit out the food, said "no my turn", and then re-ate the food with her own spoon.

- right before nap time, she asked for her "birthday bear" and so we all tried looking for it.  She told us it was in the living room and went there to look for it.  I eventually found it in her room and she became exceptionally upset.  She screamed, "No!  Elise found it in living roooooom!!"  I had to surreptitiously throw it in the living room and let her have the privilege of locating it.  Once she found it, she beamed with pride saying, "I found it!"

Iphone Love

This is what happens when you give your cranky toddler your phone while you are driving.  She takes a million selfies.  Of course I am dying of laughter when I scroll through my phone and see all these photos. 

Elise's favorite "toy" is definitely my phone.  I recently deleted the PBS app but she hasn't noticed at all because she enjoys all the other interactive apps on it.  Her favorite are the puzzle apps.

Elise is currently sleeping in her new big girl bed!  This was such a huge step for her and we're so proud of her for making such a smooth transition. 

I can't remember if I've written this before but Elise's FAVORITE thing to do is to put all of her stuffed animals to sleep by tucking them in in various arrangements with different blankets over and over and over again.  She did this for about 2 hours today.  Sometimes she gets really frustrated when the blanket is not folding in the way that she wants that she will scream and throw the blanket.  She then recollects herself and tries to start over.  It is so hilarious.

Elise's ducky prize

Elise advanced to the intermediate class for her swimming lessons and to commemorate the moment, the swim center gave her a certificate and let her pick out a prize (a small rubber ducky).  Elise was SO proud of herself!  Despite the fact that Elise has at least 5 rubber duckies, she held onto this ducky the entire day.  At one moment, we were dancing to Christmas music, and she said "ducky, too!" and ran and grabbed her ducky and had it dance with her.  She hung Christmas ornaments and said, "ducky, too!" and tried to make the duck have the privilege of hanging the ornament.

Switching gears, we experienced one of the scariest moments of our lives yesterday.  This is so hard for me to even type.  We were at Target in the customer service area, and I sat down with Elise on a bench (Bryant was standing by us).  In a split second, she tried to climb over the bench, which happened to be on a 3rd story balcony, and while I was able to immediately catch her, Bryant and I saw in our minds what could have happened in the worst case scenario.  I basically had an emotional breakdown and couldn't stop crying.  I still feel pretty traumatized.  We stayed home from church and just spent family time together.  We had to return something to Target and just the idea of going to that customer service area again gives me major anxiety, so I had to ask Bryant to do it.  Anyway, I just want to put this experience behind us but please pray for me when you get a chance.  I could use some peace!

Also, sorry that we are not really posting pictures and videos here.  Everything gets automatically uploaded to our flickr site now.  I'm assuming only family is reading this, but if you'd like the password, let me know!

Morning Munchies

Elise is not sick but she has thrown up all of her dinner the last two nights.  She has a very easy gag reflex and she throws up A LOT.  Anyway, this morning, she woke up at 6 am, and immediately started naming the food that she wanted, "bam (bbang, which means bread)" and then followed by "gapes" (grapes).  I went and got her a bowl of grapes and she proceeded to inhale it and immediately asked for more.  She ended up eating 3 bowls of grapes and I really should not have given her that last bowl because she started complaining of a "tummie owie". 

At Thanksgiving dinner, we were at our Aunt Alison's house in Irvine, and one of the dogs (Mimi) started to eat some food Elise had accidentally dropped on the floor.  Elise got a KICK out of it and has since incessantly talked about how "the doggie ate my food!". 

Proud Mommy

Elise's teacher told me today that Elise was "really going to be something" when she grew up.  Hopefully that "something" is a good thing.  ;)  She definitely has a unique spunk to her.

Class pictures

I can't believe my little baby is at the stage where she is taking class photos!!!  They come out in a few weeks, but here is a snapshot of her class, and her beloved teachers, Ms. Gina and Ms. Christine.  I can't express how happy I am that she is thriving in daycare.  I even tried to put it off a few months because I was afraid she wasn't ready, even though I knew she wasn't a big fan of going to the babysitter's.  Her teachers tell me that she is extremely precocious, active, and engaged.  She's definitely the most talkative one and she is very affectionate towards her teachers.  One time last week, as Bryant was picking her up, Ms. Gina was asking the class a series of questions, and although Elise was across the room being carried out of the class, Elise was yelling out all the answers.  I'm glad they're at the stage where she's too young to be called a know-it-all.  ;) 

Oh, Toddlerhood

Ever since I weaned Elise, her mood has shifted, and she's becoming more whiny and sensitive.  We're not full on in terrible 2s yet but just in this last week, she threw some of her first (relatively calm) tantrums.  I'm still waiting for the inconsolable screaming, thrashing, kicking legs variety.  Anyway, she had her first tantrum in a public place today, and of course it was at the Target checkout line because she wanted a pink headband (which we did not buy her).  Usually she is OK when I tell her no to things, but she was really upset this time.  I read somewhere that tantrums are usually due to the kid being either tired or hungry, and since it was 5:45, she was probably hungry.  Lesson learned.

At Target, she looooooved looking at the Christmas trees and hanging various ornaments on them over and over and over again.  Bry and I have decided to get a small real tree this year since she will probably be obsessed with hanging ornaments on it.  I bought 4 little stuffed animal ornaments at Target and she adores them.  Hopefully, we can score a good fake tree during after Christmas sales.  Those suckers are expensive!  

By the way, Bryant is putting Elise to bed right now and after a few minutes of quiet, presumably as she is falling asleep, she all of a sudden screams, "THANK YOU JESUS FOOOOR....TOBY!"  And now I hear her thanking Jesus for all of her different friends and teachers. 

Our plan is to have her sleep in her own room sometime in December.  She is also going to potty-train then, too, at the request of her teacher.  I would actually like to put off potty training as long as possible (since I love the convenience of diapers) but she has been begging to use the potty.  A few weeks ago, she saw one of her friends using the potty at church and she begged to try it.  The following Sunday, while Bryant was helping with Sunday School, she asked him for the potty, and when he put her on, she was sooooo excited.  Here she is, so READY to use a big girl potty.

Baving Soup Fun

Elise and I just attended her third Daddy & Me swim lesson at Waterworks Aquatic Center.  Mar found a Groupon for four lessons, so I started taking Elise the Saturday morning when Mar was at the conference in Dallas.

The first time we went, Elise was very excited to put her baving soup on and had fun getting used to the water and the games that Teacher Natalie led us through.  She was not too enamored of dipping her face under or floating on her back with her ears under the water, though she did kick a little bit and loved knocking the turtle over after she "swam" to the wall.  Even more fun was the changing room with Daddy and toddler showers right next to each other.  She wouldn't let me turn the showers off.  She does this funny thing where she gets down on hands and knees and sticks one of her legs backward into the stream of water.  I think she's trying to avoid getting water in her face!  As we were leaving the building, she started to get upset and said "More swimming pool!"  So I knew it was a success.

The second week, Mar came along to watch and take pictures.  Not our best idea ever!  Once in the pool, Elise kept clinging to me tightly in fear and looking to Mama to rescue her from the scary swim lesson.  She cried a lot.

This week, we were sure to leave Mama at home, but I was still a little nervous that we might have a repeat of the previous week. However, Elise had been practicing all week in the bathtub, putting her mouth under, kicking, even singing "Humpty Dumpty sat a wall, Humpty Dumpty sat a wall, wheeeeeeeeee!" which they sing while sitting on the edge of the pool before jumping in.  She was determined to make this work.  And she was amazing!  She was all smiles and giggles from the start.  In the wading pool before the lesson, she was showing the octopus how to do Humpty Dumpty.  During the lesson, she kicked like a froggy, smiled after we dipped her mouth and then eyes under the water, knocked over that turtle, lay motionless on her back while I held her head with her ears in the water (!), and walked from one end to the other of the foam choo-choo train three times, jumping off into Dada's arms the last two times.  Teacher Natalie gave her lots of high-fives and told her that she can go into the intermediate class next time if we want.

I was so proud of her for trying so hard and trusting her Dada.  When we were showering, I put my face under the water for literally two seconds, opened my eyes, and she was gone!  She must have been watching me, and the second I closed my eyes, crawled under the door and out into the main area.  It freaked me out, but she crawled back in three seconds later with a big guilty grin on her face.

As we were talking about the experience on the way home, I told Elise that we can go swimming together again, but not until next Saturday.  She, said, "No, swimming tomorrow!" which was the first time I had heard her say "tomorrow."

I was planning to stop after the Groupon runs out next week, but now I think we might have to keep going!  It's great daddy-daughter bonding time, and it's fun to see her learning something feeling so proud of her accomplishments (regularly clapping for herself, of course.)

New phrases

Elise is talking up a storm and saying new phrases everyday.  Some from yesterday:

Grace was over and as she was saying bye, Elise ran to her jacket and said, "You have to get your jacket".

She's starting to share mini stories like, "I went swimming with dada in the pool.  Mama took a picture.  I wear baby soup (bathing suit)."

Now instead of saying "no", she'll say "I don't want" preceded by whatever is that she doesn't want.  Almost everyday, she does not want to change out of her PJs in the morning or change into her PJs at night.  "I don't want to wear PJs".  She hates changing her clothes.  She really puts up a fight.

She helped make corn mini-muffins yesterday.  She saw me making them and became very insistent about wanting to help, since she made them in her class.  She stirred the batter and poured it into the pan one spoonful at a time.  She loved it!  I may designate this task to her every time even though it can get kind of messy.

  

At the doctor's office yesterday

We were at the pediatrician's office yesterday and within the 45 minutes we were waiting in the office, Elise managed to: 

•  slap 2 boys in the face
• climb a table
• scream "hello!" 100 times at the top of her lungs because the office was so quiet
• talk to every grandpa about her dora bandaids (she loves grandpas) whether he welcomed it or not
• lie down repeatedly in the middle of the floor saying "Elise go to sleep" and lose all muscle control whenever I tried to pick her up so she became 1000 pounds 

She is quite the active child.  At her school halloween party, out of her class of 12, she was the only one dancing and singing like crazy to all the songs.  The teacher would say, "ok, let's dance!" and all the kids would just sit and stare but Elise would say "yeah!",  jump up, and start dancing.  She was also the only kid who did not cry.  For whatever reason, all the kids started crying once their parents arrived.  Maybe they were confused by the break in routine.  Right when we got there, Elise had a very confused look on her face for a long time and perhaps she was close to breaking down, too, but she managed to hold it together.  The whole morning was just very hilarious.

So far, she is still a very happy and easy-going kid.  Bryant and I are so thankful.  I also finally weaned her from breastfeeding during this past weekend while I was in Texas for a conference.  So far, she is taking it much better than I had anticipated, but I can still tell that she is sad.

Meeting the "polieeshman"

The police department visited Elise's school today.  Here's a photo that her teacher took.  One thing I love about her school is that they regularly take photos and post them for parents.

Good morning

I just dropped off Elise at her school and her teacher told me that when she says, "Good morning, class" during Circle Time, Elise is the only student to respond and she yells, "GOOD MORNING MS. GINAAAAA!!!"  I so wish I could watch it happen.  :)

Laughing while tantruming

Elise has started to do this really funny thing where she gets really worked about something and wants to tantrum, but when she starts, she finds the behavior really funny and starts laughing.  So for example, she will be crying in bed because I won't read whatever book she wants me to read (to stall sleep) and then she'll start thrashing her body and immediately start cracking up and then realizes she's still upset, thrash, and laugh again.  It is so hilarious. 

Singing

Elise loves to "sing".  She is learning songs at daycare and today she sang "Jesus loves me" with hand motions.  Bryant and I were SHOCKED!  We had no idea that she knew the words to the song.  She was also singing another song I don't know.."walk walk walk to Jesus" or something like that.

Being a parent is incredibly fun right now.  It's also the easiest it's ever been.  Elise is very easy going and happy.  Even when she is crying, we can easily make her laugh.  Her teacher says that Elise is her little helper because she is the most verbal one in the class and therefore either reiterates what she says to other kids or tries to redirect kids herself.  If a kid is acting mean, she will say, "be nice" or if a kid is crying, she says, "be happy!".  So hilarious.  Her teacher also mentioned to me that Elise has a really great memory.  She most definitely did NOT get that from me!  

Now that parenting is so easy now, I can't imagine plunging myself back into infant days again.  But when we do have a #2, it looks like we will have to name him or her "Carr".  

Cuteness for the day

• As Elise was falling asleep tonight, she was singing "Open, shut them" to herself and doing the hand motions.
• Her favorite phrase is "No my turn" and needs to do everything herself
• She is no longer frenemies with Kiara and now runs over to her and they start a silly gigglefest together.  So sweet to see her actually playing with other kids.
• As soon as she wakes up, she asks for "peanut buh waffle".  She licks all of the peanut butter out of the waffle grooves and refuses to eat the waffle.  Drives Bryant crazy.
• Her favorite activity consists of putting all of her stuffed animals to sleep with their individual "bankies" (blankets).  She does this over and over again with each stuffed animal because she has to get the blanket just right.
• She loves anything birthday related.  When I asked her the other day if she wanted a hello kitty birthday cake, her eyes got really wide and she started screaming "yeah!"- as if it were the best idea in the universe.  Hello kitty + birthday + cake = win. 
• Nana and Baba visited last week but Elise got sick on day 2.  She vomited for days and poor girl lost weight.  Several people (with no knowledge of her sickness) mentioned to me today at church that her face looked skinnier.  Seeing her throw up is hearbreaking.  She just repeated gags and cries.  I can't get the image out of my mind.  :(
• She still likes school.  Thank God.  She still cries at life group and I usually have to retrieve her so that she is not taking up the babysitter's energy watching other kids
• Still very much a mommy's girl.  I am still nursing and I really thought I'd be weaned by now.  I have too much on my plate right now to tackle weaning...will do it over winter break.
• I have several friends who are pregnant with their 3rd.  Just thinking about it exhausts me.  I feel like I should really start thinking about #2 now that I'm 33, but I can't even fathom it.
• But all in all, being a mom is much less exhausting than I had anticipated.  The first few months were rough, but things have been pretty smooth since then.  I am actually sleeping better as a mom because I have to force myself to sleep in order to have energy for her the following day.
• I love Elise's strong personality.  She is definitely our child, hahaha.  She also has a great sense of humor and she knows it, too.

So behind on blogging

I think this might might be coming to its end.  I just have no time to update.  I'll poke in here and there because I want to try to remember some of the funny things that Elise does.  Elise has been sick so I stayed home with her today.  I really wish I could have more days like this, not her being sick, but just the two of us spending the entire day together.  A few funny things:

• Elise likes to notice all the humorous things of life and says "funny" when she sees it.  Unfortunately, this also includes things she knows she shouldn't be doing.  For example, she dumped out her piggy bank and started throwing her coins all over the room.  They would make different sounds as they hit different surfaces and she got a kick out of it.  She would throw a coin and say "funny" each time.  Right now, I can hear her saying "funny" as she watches Bryant water the plants.  Who knows what is amusing her right now.
• We went to the grocery store and at the entrance was a bunch of stuffed animals.  I picked out a few for her to play with in the cart while I shopped.  When it we put them back, she grew especially attached to one small bear and wouldn't let it go.  I had to talk her through it for a few minutes, explaining that the store was the bear's home and that she had a lot of animals at home.  She was pretty sad but made peace with it.  We came home, ate lunch, and she took a nap.  When she woke up from her nap, she immediately started talking about the bear and started crying sadly a little about, saying "bear home", because she wanted to bring the bear home.
• Last week, we were hanging out at the Liang's and I was holding baby Caselyn.  I asked Elise if I could nurse Caselyn (as a joke) and she immediately proclaimed NO.  Since then, she has been saying "baby Caselyn no mama neh-neh.  mama neh-neh elise.  baby Caselyn Judy neh-neh" and then asks to nurse CONSTANTLY EVERY DAY.  I think I traumatized her.  And then one day, I repeated the phrases to her, and she was so happy that she almost started crying.  
• She is FINALLY playing more independently now.  Hallelujah.  We can finally get little things like cooking and cleaning done
• She is obsessed with Hello Kitty.  She also loves Mickey Mouse and Elmo.  She seems to have laser vision when we are shopping because whenever she sees like the tiniest character item from a distance, like a Mickey balloon or Hello Kitty napkins, she goes crazy and wants it.  
• Her personality is definitely very spunky, excitable, happy, talkative, social, adventurous, curious, and funny.  Whenever I see her with other similar aged kids, whether at church or other play areas, her personality definitely stands out.
• She still hits other kids if they get into her personal space.  She also seems to hit Kiara every time they're together.  :(  But surprisingly, she doesn't hit other kids at daycare and other kids hit her. 
• If we ask her where we work or where the other parent is, she says "APU" or "dada work APU!" and then laughs to herself
• She's been sick and has been vomiting a lot at night.  Elise is very prone to vomiting.  This is the main reason why we are still co-sleeping because every time we try to sleep train her, she cries so hard that she throws up.  
• She is still pretty mellow in the sense that she does not tantrum or cry much.  Other than having pretty major separation anxiety, she's always pretty happy!

Preschool!

Elise started preschool this week and I have been a ball of nerves because of it.  When we dropped her off yesterday, she cried hard for one hour straight.  When we picked her up at noon, she seemed happy but she was still doing the post-cry sniffles and it broke my heart.  However, when we were going home, she kept saying, "No home.  More school.  More Ms. Gina".   Yay!

Today, when Bryant dropped her off she cried again.  So I was kind of nervous all morning.  I picked her up at noon again, and she seemed happy again!  Ms. Gina said that she only cried for a few minutes and then went to go play.  She also didn't want to go home and wanted to stay at school.  I really didn't think it would be this easy. 

Elise is super social and loves being stimulated by new things.  The school has a pretty active curriculum, including dance, music, story time, art, snack, and playtime.  I think she loves it!  You could tell she was so proud of her first art project, a blue whale with a big stick-on eye.  She wouldn't even let me hold it initially. 

Elise is really spunky, giggly, energetic, and curious.  I see her compared to other kids her age and it is really neat to see how her uniqueness is emerging.  She is definitely not a wallflower.  A part of me keeps wondering what she is going to be like when she is older but I also want to fully appreciate each moment now because it is already flying by so quickly. 

Here's a snapshot of her daily report.  

  

Elise's sweet tooth

Make no mistake, Elise is definitely a girl and she loves her desserts.  Last week and the week before, Bryant and I each took turns taking Elise to our favorite ice cream shop, Scoops, after picking her up from Angelica's because it happens to be just down the street from her home.  And since this is Elise's last week there, we want to take full advantage of it.  When I picked Elise up today, she said, "Ice Peem" a few times and I told her that we would go tomorrow. 

Elise LOVES being home and knows exactly where she is right when we turn onto our street from Lake Ave.  Usually when we make that turn, she starts to excitedly say, "Home!  Home!'.  But this time, when I turned, she said, "No home!  Ice Peem!" 

Luckily for her, I had some leftover chocolate chip bread pudding.  When I gave her a bite, she smiled and shouted, "Yeah!".  You could see the wheels in her head turning as she was chewing on it, as she was thinking to herself, "Nom nom nom nom."

Instagram

I just joined Instagram.  Since I'm so horrible at posting photos here, maybe I can make up for it for posting over there.    http://www.instagram.com/elisemath

Some photos:

 

 

 

19 months

Oh man, keeping up with this blog is so hard!  And I know that it will be even harder once my job starts, so many apologies in advance.  :) 

Elise is now 19 months and she is just becoming more amazing, joyful, and cute everyday.  How is that even possible?  She's been sick the past few days and so we've been getting A LOT of cuddle time in lately.  When she's sick, all she wants to do is nurse and cuddle for hours straight.  It's amazing.  She also hates taking her medicine, which we've been giving her every 3 hours (alternating between Tylenol and Motrin) and she says "all done medicine" all day long everyday. 

She's been speaking in sentences now.  It was funny, one day she woke up and realized that she could put words together.  Those first few days, she did a lot of experimenting and it was so cute.  For "mama bybye" she would be like "mabybye...mamabye...mamamabye...mamabyebyeb....mama byebye!  mama byebye!"

When she's sick, she also gets REALLY talkative and so she's just been a little chatterbox.  It cracks us up.  She says the sweetest and funniest things.  She has such a sweet and tender personality that is really emerging.  I don't think she's had a full-blown tantrum yet and she's mostly a very good-natured kid.  Other than wanting mommy, she rarely cries, even when she gets hurt.  She is still incredibly clingy and attached to mommy and has a lot of separation anxiety.  I think this is just part of her personality and will be sensitive to this part of her as she develops.  I used to think these things were cultivated by the parents but now that I'm a mom, I know that Elise has been this way from day 1.  I'm always amazed when I see other infants sitting happily in their bouncy seats because Elise would never tolerate those and always needed to be held.  Of course as a mom, I don't mind.  :)

There are soooo many funny stories that happen every single day but I'm too busy to document them.  But here's one at the top of my head:  Yesterday, Bryant took Elise to the zoo.  It's their thing.  She wanted to pet all the animals, especially the bears, and she had a hard time coping with the fact that she had to enjoy them from a distance.  Later that day, I took her to her new daycare to check it out, and there were 2 huge stuffed animal bears sitting on the ground.  I think she thought they were real because she asked me if she could pet them and I said yes.  She tip-toed up to them, and stared right into their eyes for a good while.  Then, she started to gently pet them while saying "hi".  When they wouldn't respond, she stared into their eyes again, and then walked away and told me, "beoh night night".  My heart melted.

At her 18 month old appointment, she was about 25 pounds and 32.5 inches.  My doctor refuses to tell us what percentile that puts her in because she thinks that knowledge makes parents neurotic, haha.  I think Elise is on the heavier side, at least compared to the other girls her age at the church nursery.  That's a surprise to me because she's still a picky eater!  But she loves what she loves (carbs) and hates what she hates (vegetables).  Just recently, I've been allowing her to enjoy sweets more, including ice cream and cookies.  She has a hard time saying the "k" sound so she calls them "ice peen" and "doodies".

I am loving this age the best, but I've been saying that about every stage!  

Waiting for the Liangs with Church's Chicken!

view full image

"Waiting for the Liangs "

Water table fun

Judy gave us their water table and I introduced it to Elise today.  Given her obsession with pools ever since swimming at Grace's, she desperately wanted to swim again.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Confusion

So Elise's favorite thing to watch is STILL Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Today, I decided to surprise her and play the Mandarin and Dutch versions. When I first played the Chinese version, she was so confused and mesmerized by Mickey Mouse speaking Mandarin. It was so funny...wish I got it on video. She kept asking to watch it over and over again.

After that, I played the Dutch version of the Mickey Mouse "hotdog" song.  Here's a video of her dancing along.  (BTW, she is shirtless because she had just gotten soaked with her new water table and she needed to eat dinner before taking a bath).

Elise's happy tears

Elise has such a sweet and sensitive spirit.  Her favorite song right now is "Happy Birthday To You", which she learned from Angelica.  She asks me to sing it daily and she loves it when I say her name and when we blow out the candles at the end.  She calls the song "Happy to you" and since she has no idea what a birthday is, she probably thinks the song is about giving someone happiness.

Today, I decided to sing the song, but replace her name with "Mama".  When I got to that part, she was so surprised and then started smiling while tearing up.  I then sang it again and replaced it with "dada" and then all of our family members.  She totally started crying while laughing.  She made sure that we sang "Happy to you" to every single person she could name.

I tried it again tonight, but decided to sing it to Mickey Mouse ("Bao") and she burst into tears again.  We then sang it to Elmo, Bobo (the monkey in the Hug book), and then all of our family and friends.  Now she requests all the people that we should sing it to and makes sure not a single person, dog, or cartoon character is left out.


I wasn't able to get it on camera with her bursting into tears, but you can still see her sniffling and getting emotional.  I would love to know what is going on in her brain.  Elise has always been an extremely sensitive and tender girl and I just love that about her.

First owie

We had our first bloody accident just now.  Elise tripped over done Tupperware, and her tooth cut the inside of her mouth.  I freaked out to see her mouth full of blood when she was crying.  I tried to wipe it up and she stopped screaming as soon as she nursed.  Here she is, chewing on a frozen teething biscuit.  

A bigger place means more accidents.  She's already had a few close calls.  Gotta be more diligent!

Dinner

It's a working dinner for Elise tonight.  Butternut squash risotto while checking email on her laptop.  I have no idea where her bibs are right now.  

First night

Last night was our first night in our new home.  We took Elise to the empty apartment beforehand to have some closure and say goodbye to each room.  When I told her that we were going to say byebye to our "hohm" she started crying and saying no.  We've been sleeping in all sorts of different places for the last 3 weeks, including my mom's the last few nights, that all she wanted was to stay home.  No more new places!

By yesterday, she was in a really bad mood.  Her babysitter told me she was acting grumpy for the first time.  All the transitions have been clearly affecting her.  After we said byebye to the apartment and arrived at our new house, Elise was in one of the worst moods we've ever seen.  Our friend Sally was over trying to play with her so that I could continue unpacking, but Elise would not have it, she just wanted to be with mommy.  

Last night was awful. She wanted to nurse allllll night.  As soon as I tried to put her down, she would just freak out even though we were all in the same (new king-sized) bed.  I didn't get any sleep.  

By morning, she was in much better spirits.  While I was taking a shower, Elise brought me her rubber ducky.  She's never done that before and I'm thinking she felt like I needed something familiar, too.  She spent the early morning playing in our yard with her new playset rather than being cooped up in a small apartment.

When I dropped her off at her babysitter's this morning, she said "hou" to Angelica, explaining that she was in a new house.  It is neat to see her little brain process such a huge change.  Given all of our traveling and uprooting, she's doing remarkably well.

I just meant to write about the rubber ducky but I kind of rambled.  :)  

Chair score!

Walked into target with the intention if buying a utensil divider and came out with 2 patio chairs for 50% off! Both wouldn't fit into our Camry and so I sat in the parking space with one chair. :).

Out first housewarming gift

It turns out that our good friends Howard and Courtney live just a few homes down from us! They brought by flowers and coffee cake.

Elise's Zara shoes!!

I just wear flip flops everyday but I'm a sucker for cute kids shoes. Yay for the bi-annual Zara sale!

One day post move @ 6 pm

Yup, still a disaster zone.

Guess I won't be using that unsweetened baker's chocolate!

Toronto

We are in Toronto after a whirlwind few days of travel.  Here are a few highlights:

• spending time with Jiae and Nic and staying at their cool downtown loft condo
• going to my aunt's church and hearing her preach about Revelation
• dinner with all the cousins at Dan's cool train-station loft condo
• shopping at the Jcrew outlet and spending a somewhat obscene amount of money due to their super cheap prices.  Bryant LOVES their jeans, which are $135 in the states, but only $35 in Canada!  He bought 3 pairs!
• Hanging out with Bryant's family (Nana, Baba, Lindsay, Jared, and Elliott) 
• Letting Elise slide down the big kid's slide by herself for the first time, only to have her do it 50 times more.  Whenever a big kid got in the way when she went up the ladder, she would try to push them away so that she could focus on the slide
• Food so far: thai, fancy brunch, chinese dumplings, caribbean, fancy grilled cheese, ramen, nicaraguan, pizza...and we're only halfway through our trip!
• Walking through Yorkville, Queen St West, University of Toronto, Distillery, downtown
• Seeing Elise and Elliott "connect".  Thankfully, Elise has not been too rough with Elliott and she calls him "baby"
• Elise is starting to sing along to songs.  She says certain words, does hand motions, and requests songs by name
• Elise has had a runny nose and as soon as the tiniest bit of snot comes out, she yells "noh!  noh!" so that we can wipe her nose.  We're going through a lot of kleenex.  Once, a big bubble came out of her nostril, and she said "bubble!"
• She loves coming "home".  Even though we've only been here for a few days, as soon as we enter the loft building, she starts getting all excited and says "home".  When Bryant's family came over, she got really hyper, as she usually does when guests come and visit.
• We are really happy that our trip came right after all of our escrow craziness so that we're able to take a step back and just reconnect with normal life again.  We should get final word within the few days whether the house is a for sure go or not.  We're just submitting the whole process to God and know that if it doesn't work, that it is in his will. 
• I brought a new pair of flip flops to wear.  Bad decision.  It's the first time I bought non-reef sandals and now the last time.  My feet are covered in painful blisters and bruises! 

We'll be in Toronto until Saturday and then headed to Michigan.  We'll be back in LA on the 19th.  

Breastfeeding Benefits Babies' Brains

This research shows that exclusively breastfed babies have better developed brains than formula-fed or partially formula fed babies.  Elise was partially formula fed.  The article also states that breastfeeding beyond a year showed significant brain growth, too!  Really fascinating.  I guess a part of me feels like I am making up for all of that formula during the first year by breastfeeding longer. 

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2013/06/breastfeeding

Escrow

Our escrow process has turned into a total disaster.  I'm glad Elise is too young to know what is going on but I have been freaking out.  Not happy.

Some new funnies

Daily, I have these "I need to blog that" moments, and I always forget them at the end of the day.  Here's a few:

- Elise has a little stuffed dog and she apparently gave him a name "Roaw Roaw". I have no idea where she go that. She makes Roaw Roaw nurse on me before she nurses

- She is learning how to feed herself with a spoon.  Today, she had mac and cheese (and hidden carrot) for dinner and she would get one macaroni on the spoon, bring it to her mouth, and then the macaroni would fall on her bib.  She thought she ate the macaroni and so she would put the spoon down, clap, and say "yayyyyy".

- She makes her stuffed animals kiss each other

- We were at the paint store today and Elise asked me to give me my bag.  She wrapped it around her neck, said "byebye" and ran off.  Before, she used to check to make sure I was close, but now she just runs off in any direction.  

- She really is fearless.  She climbs on the ottoman and then leaps onto the couch.  She does this over and over again.

- She has a laptop toy that she never plays with.  We had a playdate with Judy and Rebecca's kids and when they tried to play with her laptop, Elise became really possessive of it.  Thankfully, she forgot the word "mine".

- When Bryant or I pick her up from Angelica's, she runs to the CD player and asks to turn it on.  Once music plays, she starts dancing and spinning like crazy.  She loves to show off.

- She pinches Bryant's cheeks because he likes to pinch hers

- One of her favorite things to do is list all the names of all the people that she knows, including dogs. She is such a girl.
 

Sensitive Elise

This is a really simple book with only one word "hug".  It is about a baby monkey who is searching for his mommy monkey.  He sees all the other baby/mama animals giving each other hugs and so he gets sadder and sadder as he searches for his mom.

Bryant read this to Elise for the first time in a month or so, and when he got to the climax of the book, Elise burst out in tears and started wailing!  She felt so sad for baby monkey!  I read it to her yesterday and she cried again, clutching onto my shirt as she cried for the poor baby monkey.  Once the mama monkey comes, Elise starts laughing in relief and she wants to read the book again.

I am really surprised that Elise can be so empathetic and sensitive at such a young age.  I cry in virtually every sad book or movie so I think she must get it from her mama.  :)

"Dada Bye"

Bryant is in Minnesota for a conference and I believe it's the first time he's been away since Elise was born.  She definitely misses him and kept saying "Dada Bye" to her babysitter today.  She asks for him the most in the mornings and right before bedtime since he usually puts her down.  It is sweet yet sad to see her sad little eyes and voice asking for her Dada!

I can hear her talking in her sleep right now and she is saying, "Nnnnnno!   No!".  I wonder what she is dreaming about!  

Edit: I just heard her say "appo" which could be hippo, shampoo, or apple.  It sounds a tiny bit different depending on the word but I can't tell this time.  :)

Bah-Bull

I (Margaret) put Elise to bed for the first time tonight in weeks. Bryant's been putting her down recently so that Elise can learn how to fall asleep without nursing. But since he's leaving for a conference tonight, it's now my turn. Anyway, I read her the picture Bible at her request, and I actually read the entire thing 3 times. It is a pretty long book for a kid's book, it being the bible and all. After the 3rd time, I decided we were done, and Elise threw a fit. She kept screaming "bah-bull!" over and over again! Elise rarely throws tantrums but I never thought that she would throw one because she wanted to read the bible for the 4th time.

Bry and I were trying to figure out why she loves the Bible so much and we think it's because each page is a completely different storyline, characters, and colors. She likes to point out all the major players in each story and tell us who they are. Her will is definitely growing. We are now in toddler land! The last few times we took Elise to a restaurant has been a TOTAL disaster. She just can't sit still and wants to explore everything and say hi to everyone. I know that some kids seem to do fine in restaurants but Elise is definitely not one of them. I find myself feeling really exhausted after the end of the day because there is so much boundary-setting, negotiating, and hardcore playing that needs to be done all the time. Our upcoming Toronto trip should be very interesting.

The Bedtime Routine

As Elise is able to communicate her thoughts more clearly, bedtime is getting more and more interesting!  If she wants to delay, she says she went poo-poo or asks for water or her bunny.  If she has a lot of energy left, she insists on getting down, then runs around to the foot of the bed, uses the little trash can to climb up, and crawls across the bed, over me (Bryant), and repeats.

We mostly read books and sings songs, and she has names for a lot of the books and songs now, so I don't get to pick anymore!  If she doesn't like what I am reading or singing, she will definitely let me know.  If I turn off the light before she is ready, she passionately says "Yite!  Yite!" to get me to turn it back on.  When she does get sleepy, she is more aware of it than before.  When she is ready to go to bed, she will say that "Yeah," I can turn the light off, and she says "night-night" and puts her head on her pillow.  Sometimes she wants to put her bunny "night-night" too. She will put him on his back on the pillow and pats his tummy and says "night-night."  She still usually rolls all over the bed for another 10-15 minutes, but eventually falls asleep, usually leaning back against me.  Usually she falls asleep more quickly when I sing her hymns.

Elise loves the picture Bible that Nana and Grandpa gave her.  Last night, I read it twice, and she wanted more, but I was too tired.  She loudly shouted "Bah-bull!  Bah-bull!"  for five minutes.  She likes all the  animals, trees, stars, and people that she can point to and name.  I think Margaret was cracking up in the other room that Elise was upset at me for not reading the Bible to her enough times.

I treasure these times of putting her to bed, even though it takes awhile sometimes.  She says "Dada" and points to me a lot, leans in for random kisses, giggles a lot, and gives me tons of smiles.  She is growing up so fast!  I feel like she has a whole new level of personality and sense of humor since about a week ago.

Toby and Elise Kissing

Little Ham

Elise is really social and hammy. She gets really excited when we have people come over and she likes to show them all of her favorite toys. We had a few friends come over last night, and she wanted me to read "Blue Hat, Green Hat" to her. She laughed extra hard at all the funny parts and kept looking at my friends to make sure they were laughing, too. I keep thinking about it today and cracking up to myself. Now that we know we are moving, I can't WAIT to move! We are seriously busting at the seams in our current apartment. I can't fit one more toy or book here. Elise also gets restless indoors and much prefers playing outside. I am creating a mental list of all the outdoor toys I want: water table, sandbox, cozy coupe car, and a plastic playset with slide. Thank goodness for Craigslist.

Diaper changes

I never thought the day would come but now Elise is obsessed with getting her diaper changed.  She loves it and asks for it even when she doesn't need it.  She gets a diaper pad or a blanket, puts it on the ground, grabs the diaper cream, sometimes gets a diaper or wipes, and lies down on the ground asking for her diaper to be changed.  It's the most hilarious thing.

Girly Girl

Very interesting to see Elise's gender preference emerging.  I have done my best to raise Elise in a gender-neutral environment, limiting pink and avoiding princess stuff.  We had a playdate at Judy's this week and Elise saw a tiara and immediately put it on her head.  She has never seen a tiara before.  She also saw two necklaces and immediately put them on and smiled.  She's also quite nurturing and likes to feed her stuffed animals and gives them sips of her water.  Sometimes I have to brush off or clean the mouths of her animals because there are crumbs or food marks. 

I bought her an Olivia the pig book without reading the story.  After I purchased it, I read that it mentions Olivia wanting to be like a princess.  I kind of winced and am considering giving it to Elise's friend Olivia who is already into that kind of stuff.  At what point do I just give in and embrace the inevitability? 

Starbucks break

Bry's at a conference and so we are enjoying a mommy and baby date at Starbucks. Yay for $2.95 breakfast sandwiches we can share!

Doing "house"

It is taking all my energy NOT to plan and dream about how I want to decorate our new potential home.  We won't have funds for awhile and so we'll probably have to live pretty minimally in the beginning.  The only big thing we need to buy is a dining table and chairs.  I think they are leaving all the appliances- yay! 

It is very exciting to think that we have 2 spaces to decorate- our home and the studio guesthouse.  I really feel like we just purchased 2 homes, which I guess we essentially did.  We have friends whose primary residence were even smaller than our guesthouse!  I love decorating small spaces and the challenge and creativity involved to make them look livable.  I'm going crazy with excitement and anticipation! 

We got the house!

Amazing.  No words.  Found out today that we got the house for $15,000 less than the highest bid.  Still feels unreal.

http://www.733earlham.com/ 

I'm not really superstitious but 3 and 7 are my lucky numbers (March 7th).   Interesting.

Craziness

The last few days have been one of the craziest periods I've ever experienced.  One week ago, it was not on our radar AT ALL to buy a home.  In fact, when I saw the listing, I even forwarded it to some house-hunting friends.  Fast forward one week, and we have put a bid, counter-offered, and are now waiting for their response.  For an impatient person like me, the waiting is really excruciating. 

On top of that, Elise has been sick, projectile vomiting, and we spend most of the day and evening yesterday in the ER.  She had a 104.6 fever, was shaking, and had blue-ish lips.  They ran a bunch of tests including multiple attempts at a blood draw by 3 different people.  It was one of my hardest moments as a mother to see them poking and prodding her constantly when searching for a vein.  At some point, I had to walk away and compose myself because I was afraid I was going to have an anxiety attack or something.

I am extremely sleep-deprived.

I also have a MAJOR school deadline by tomorrow which I am working on.  I should stop writing now but I just wanted to immortalize this very insane moment in my life. 

PS: Thank you to Grace Eemoh for coming over to do our dishes, fold our laundry, and play with Elise! 

"Wait"

I'm so proud of Elise!  She asked me if she could take a bath this morning and I said, "No, we'll take one at nighttime" and she made the sign and said "wait".  Woohoo!  I didn't think she'd understand this concept but she does!  One word can go a long way with an impulsive and impatient toddler.

Found another house!

We found another house that we are seriously thinking about.  We checked it out today we really love it.  We're going to be doing some serious number crunching over the next few days to see if this could work!

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Pasadena/733-Earlham-St-91101/home/7194545

Parenting

Sorry for the lack of posts but we've been busy with it being the end of the semester!

I just wanted to quickly write that Bry and I are amazed at how EASY Elise has been lately.  She is always happy....dancing, laughing, joking, playing, etc.  She is rarely moody and only cries when she has separation anxiety (she's definitely much more sensitive in this area compared to other kids).  She's always been a pretty easy and mellow baby/toddler, but these days, it just seems like she is always smiling or laughing.  We just love it.  I know the terrible 2s are probably right around the corner and so I'm just going to savor this period.

People have been commenting to use that she is very "social".  She loves saying hi and bye to people and she even asks them to sing a song together.  She is starting to recognize our friends and will sit in their laps, hold their hands, interact with them, etc.  She is still as chatty as ever and can probably say at least 100 words now.  When we are with other friends with similar aged kids, I notice that she is the most active out of all of them-- exploring every nook and cranny and trying to be a ham. 

It is neat to see her personality emerge.  I am soooo glad that she has a sunny disposition!  

Separation Anxiety

It has now been a little over 2 months since Elise transitioned from Olivia's home to Angelica's home for her daycare.  She did not take the transition well and became extra clingy in all other areas of her life.  Within the last week or so, she has FINALLY stopped crying at drop-off, but she still cries whenever we leave her at the church nursery, life group nursery, or when she's with my mom and I leave them.  It's been stressful on all of us and it makes me sad to think that she was somewhat traumatized with the daycare setting change.

She is transitioning to preschool starting this August and I am REALLY stressed out about it!  I don't think Elise is going to handle it well and so I'm trying to think of ways to make the transition easier for her.  I've also driven myself crazy reading research that says that it's best for a baby to be home with their mom for the first 2 years of life, which is of course, impossible for us.  So I'm just going to start praying now that the transition is as seamless as it can be.  I do envy moms who can stay at home for those first critical years and I hope that by the time Elise is a mom that the workplace will allow for more flexibility for families.

Anyway, here are some of the things I'm going to do to prepare Elise for preschool:

• Buy her a backpack that she can start using with Angelica so that she associates it with school
• Visit the preschool a few times this summer so that she can become familiar with it
• Read books about kids going to school.  Thankfully, there are a lot out there since this is a common problem
• Try to get a photo of her teacher (learned this from Amy)
• Have playdates with Toby and Sarah, both of whom will be in her class

Pics from Angelica

Elise at her babysitter's today

Daphne's tongue and bounce house

We made a little photobook for Elise so that she can familiarize herself with all the important people in her life.  We included a picture of Elliott and a tongue-wagging Daphne.  When Elise saw the photo, she started cracking up because she thought it was so funny that Daphne's tongue was sticking out.  I wish I had video of that moment of her laughing and copying Daphne.  Here's another video of her and Daphne, and also identifying Habi, Hami, and Nana.


I just dropped Elise and my mom off at an indoor playground.  We haven't been in a long time and when Elise walked in, she started screaming, jumping, and just being in a general state of euphoria.  She ran straight to the bounce house and rolled around (not bounced) to her heart's content.  Here's a video:

Pic from Angelica

Angelica, Elise's babysitter, just sent this photo. I miss her so much!

Elise loves seaweed

Add seaweed soup to Elise's favorite food list. It seems very random but then again I did eat vats of it post-partum (Korean tradition) so she probably recognizes the taste.

She also loves crackers and snacks. Here she is eating a rice cake...a good alternative to chips!

Playing with dada

Happy birthday Sophia!

We attended Sophia's 2nd birthday party today. Elise loooved the bounce house and was actually quite fearless about it. Some people commented on her rambunctiousness as she bounced to her heart's content with little regard for her safety, much to her dad's chagrin. Bryant almost had 5 heart attacks today (he's much more cautious and careful than I am).

Thanks Annie!

We received the most fancy gift ever in the mail today. Thank you so much Annie for the lovely dress. Elise loved opening the package and admiring the dress. I must say, Ralph Lauren knows how to send beautiful gifts! We felt very spoiled today.