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.

Accidental Attached Parent

So I am not really into all the mommy wars about this camp or that camp and just kind of do things based on my own intuition guided by a lot of reading and research.  I honestly used to think people who labeled themselves as "attachment parents" were kind of nuts.  I also thought co-sleeping was crazy and breastfeeding beyond a year was unnecessary.  I've met attachment parents who adhere to all its tenets because they are subscribing to a philosophy.  I honestly thought that was weird.

My friend shared this article with me about a mom who became an "accidental attached parent" and I kind of resonate with it.  I didn't really know what attachment practices really entailed, but after reading this, I'm kind of shocked that it describes me to a T.  Here are the main points:

1) Having a natural birth: I wanted a med-free birth but I wasn't hellbent on it.  I actually think I want an epidural for #2, just to see what it's like.

2) Breastfeeding beyond a year: I was fully planning on ending breastfeeding at 12 months but I decided to continue due to Elise's dairy allergy and because it's very useful for putting her to sleep in the middle of the night and when she gets upset/hurt.

3) Co-sleeps: This is the biggest shocker for us.  We're still semi co-sleeping, mostly because it is the only way we can get sleep since Elise is a frequent night-waker.  We also needed to put her crib in our room because I needed a desk in her nursery to work.

4) Practices gentle discipline: Not really sure what this entails but I do not plan on hitting.

5) Babywears: We love our Ergo!  Our apartment is a walk-up so it's a pain to wrangle a stroller up and down those stairs, anyway.

6) Speaks in a nurturing way: I don't understand why this is attachment parenting  But yes, everyone knows that I am a very big advocate of speaking in a respectful tone at ALL times.

7) Infant massage: Yup, did this when Elise was a baby.  Lots of great research on this!

8) Allows flexibility in schedule: We have a set schedule but I don't freak out if I'm off by an hour or so. 

Playing with the Liang girls

It is so sweet to see how Elise plays with other kids. I think she actually prefers older kids than kids her own age. Yesterday, she was following trinity around and she apparently does the same with Olivia when she's at her babysitters.

Dream Home

As Bry posted, we found our dream home.  We are definitely not in any kind of position to buy but now that I have a job lined up and we are settling here, we can start making some long-term plans.  Ironically, all of our younger married sisters have bought homes fairly recently!  We've always been happy to live in a small apartment but ever since becoming parents, we've been daydreaming about what it would be like to have an actual house with a yard.

So one of my irrational hobbies is to look up homes on Redfin.  Irrational because it will be years before we can save a Los Angeles-style down payment.  I came across an amazing home within a reasonable (for LA) price range and so we decided to check out the open house today.  It was swarming with people and we overheard someone saying that it was the most crowded open house they've ever been to.  I guess we are not the only ones who thought this was a dream home, too.

Here is the best thing about the house: the amazing VIEW!  The home is perched on the hills of Altadena and you really feel like you've been swept away to another world.  This picture does not do it justice.  It is just breathtaking.  OK, so now I will be daydreaming about this home for years to come.  Sigh.

Here's more info about the house: http://www.redfin.com/CA/Altadena/4040-Canyon-Dell-Dr-91001/home/7253330

Descanso stroll

I (Bry) took Elise to Descanso Gardens for the second time on Tuesday.  The first time was when we took her there for photos, with Nana, when she was quite young.  Somehow, both times happened to be on the one free day each month, completely unintentionally.  (And today, I got 20% off on boba for having a faculty ID--life is good.)

Elise LOVED the gardens, especially the forest part, with all the flowers, and hills to walk up and down, and benches to climb on.  She also had a ball picking dandelions in the meadow and pulling them apart.  I think I'll try to bring her back on the third Tuesday of each month.

Here are some of the photos I took on my phone.

weekend update

Here are some photos from yesterday at Griffith Observatory.  I love her expression in the first one.  The last one is Elise making friends with Nicolai, who was visiting from Seattle.  

This afternoon, after we all went to the open house of our dream house, hidden up in the hills (and surprisingly affordable!), I (Bry) took Elise to Lacy Park in San Marino.  I forgot that non-San Marino residents have to pay $4 on the weekend.  We had a great time, though.  Elise loved the 3/4-circle tunnel with all the holes in the side to peek out of.  I thought she would be scared, but she immediately climbed all the way through 3 or 4 times, then discovered the holes in the side and played peek-a-boo with me for awhile.  

Tonight she just about melted my heart.  I was putting her to bed (rather late), and after fussing a bit and rolling around for awhile, she came up to me, put her head down on the pillow about 1 or 2 inches from mine, rested her hand on my mouth, whispered "hi" and smiled.  She usually would roll away at that point, but this time she just stayed right there, said "hi" a few more times, and then closed her eyes and went to sleep. I was tempted to just stay there for the rest of the night to enjoy her sweet face snuggled up next to mine.  

Wipe my nose and flowers

Elise has had a runny nose all week and she hates it.  As soon as a tiny bit of snot comes out, she starts pointing to her nose and yells "no!" (nose) so that we wipe it.  She is very demanding about it.

Today, we went on a short hike near Griffith Observatory.  All along the hike were tiny yellow flowers and Elise was going CRAZY because she wanted to pick them.  She was yelling, "wer!" for "flor" (flower in spanish).  One of her favorite things to do with her babysitter is to go flower hunting.  They will go on walks in the neighborhood and when she spots a tiny yellow flower in the grass, she will pick it.  So, when she saw thousands of yellow flowers on the hike today, she was just beside herself.  At some point, we let her down and let her pick a few flowers and she was in heaven.

She is starting to say a lot of words we don't understand.  I think they are in Spanish because her babysitter says that she knows how to say a lot Spanish words.  She will say a word like "beee" and make a hand motion but we have no idea what she's saying.  She'll say it a dozen times, getting more frustrated each time, and she is nearly crying at the end because we can't figure out what she's saying.  I have to say, it's pretty hilarious.  

Manners

Elise is learning how to change the volume of her voice depending on the situation.  When she is supposed to be sleeping, she whispers, "hi".  When she wants to say hi to someone from a distance, she yells "hiiii!".  It's amazing how their little brains develop to know how to do this.

She is really good at saying "thank you" and will keep repeating it until you say "you're welcome".

Her vocabulary is really expanding but now it's at the point where I don't understand what she is saying and she gets frustrated.  For most words, she can only say the first sound.  So for example, the word "bba" refers to bath, ball, bread, brush, and maybe a few others.  Example conversation:

Elise: Bba
Me: ball?
Elise: No.  Bba.
Me: bread?
Elise: No.  Bba.
Me: You want to take a bath?
Elise: No.  Bba! (getting frustrated)
Me: Brush?
Elise:  Yeah!  Bbah!
Me: OK, you want to brush your hair?
Elise: Yeah!  Yeah!  (smiling)

Toby playdate

Another play date with Toby and Amy at the Americana. Amy just got a job and so we're trying to take advantage of the time we have together. They are going to be in the same class this summer at lake preschool.

Window Shopping

I want the most expensive thing, Mommy.

Midnight Playtime

Elise has been sick again and so she's been waking herself up at night with her coughing.  However, when she wakes up, she just wants to play.  She skipped dinner last night because she was so tired (short nap) and then she woke up at 1 AM begging for bread.  Worried that she was really hungry, I took her out and gave her bread.  She rejected it.  Then she asked for an orange.  I peeled it and gave it to her.  She wouldn't even take one piece.  Then she asked for crackers.  At that point, I tried to put her back to bed.

It was clear she wouldn't sleep and she kept asking to look at our wedding photos- her new favorite hobby.  We have our wedding photos framed by our room and she loves pointing out all the people.  Dada, Mama, Nana, Mi (for Hami), Mo (for Eemoh for Grace and Esther), Dee (for Auntie for Lindsay and Andrea). She'll learn Grandpa and Habi soon enough! 

Today, I bought a little flip photo album and am going to insert photos of all the important people in her life.  However, I can't let her see it when she's away from us because one time when my mom was watching Elise, she saw a photo of Bryant and became inconsolable crying "Dada....Dada..." and holding the photo.  

Weeee!!

That's what Elise says whenever she sees a park. She's finally at the age where she enjoys them. Yesterday, we checked out a park near Caltech and there were people from all over the world there speaking different languages. It reminded me of when we lived in ucla family housing.

Silly Elise

Elise is starting to trick us.  Now when we are trying to put her to bed, either at bedtime or at a middle of the night waking, she will insist that she's hungry by signing for "eat" and saying she wants bread.  I take her word for it, bring her out, and give her bread, and she doesn't even eat it and just wants to play.  So then I'll take her back to be and then she will say "pee-pee" or "poo" and point to her diaper.  Of course, she doesn't need a diaper change.  Tonight, we gave her bread while she was in bread, and she took one bite and then said that she needed to eat an orange.  I remember that Judy's daughter Kiara did this and so it's interesting to see Elise start, too. 

15 months!

The last 3 months have been amazing.  The difference between 12 months and 15 months is just crazy!  At 12 months she was still a baby, but now she is really a little person with a mind of her own.  One of her defining characteristics is that she is really funny!  She loves to make us laugh and she does all sorts of silly things.  During dinner tonight, she was eating her food in a really dramatic way and it was clear she was doing it for humor's sake. 

She is so social and loves saying hi to people.  However, despite her extroversion, she still has really bad separation anxiety.  She still screams her brains out at Little Lambs and Life Group.  I have to get her midway at both.  I am just reallllly hoping that by the time she transitions to preschool this summer that she will enjoy it there.

I found the secret for her to eat veggies.  She loves minestrone soup with the veggies and beans cooked until soft.  If this is the only way she will eat her vegetables, then I don't mind making minestrone soup every week for the rest of her childhood.  I must put at least 10 vegetables in there.  :) 

Photo dump from Bry's phone

Margaret helped me to realize that the photos on my phone from the last 2.5 years were stored on a Micro-SD card.  I got an adapter and was finally able to transfer them to my computer.  Here is a random assortment of people, places, and fun, starting from around the time we moved to Pasadena and ending last August.  

Pittsburgh for MathFest 2010

Din Tai Fung with Lindsay

Lindsay's new friend at APU

Travis meets Sichuan

Lindsay and cousin Greg

Coconut water at Sunset Junction

El Matador Beach in Malibu

Sushi

Amandine in Santa Monica

Getty Center

Mar and the girls from Lifegroup

Thanksgiving weekend house-sitting on Mt. Baldy

Hollywood Bowl

the Segerstrom turtles

biking near Monterey

lunch in Carmel-by-the-Sea

Big Sur

Beignets at Cafe du Monde

last minute ticket to the Sugar Bowl ($20)

halo at Westmont College, Santa Barbara

hiking Eaton Canyon

Huntington Gardens

Freedom Tower

you never know what you'll find in Times Square

Geometry

Yankee Stadium in the mist

mysterious, I know

high-flying fun

High Line Park, NYC

Nashville vittles

Grand Ole Opry

canoeing in Michigan

redesigning the curriculum

Lindsay & Jared's old house

Fuller Seminary after windstorm

our street, Oak Knoll Ave

Kanye West & Jay-Zee at Staples Center

one of the most bizarre experiences of my life!

cute little package

do you have a neck?

beautiful afternoon at APU

unrealistic optimism

David, Amy, and Toby in their new house

ICERM at Brown University, Providence, RI

best sandwich ever

Research Experience for Undergraduate Faculty

soccer in Portland