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.  :)