Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Naomi, what's your name?

When we ask Naomi what her name is, she responds, "Ella" and then laughs hysterically. Ella is a girl in her daycare.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Anthro for kids!!

It's a slow day at work today, so I snuck up to Anthropologie to return some things. I've been on a bit of an anthro spree the past month, and seem to have a problem where I can't walk into the store without buying something. Even if it's to return something, I always come out with more stuff! (crossing my fingers, really really really hoping for a good bonus year). Anyway, this time I came out empty handed...for myself. But I picked up a couple of cute things for Naomi since their kids stuff was on sale. Too cute!


18 months


Naomi turned 18 months on Saturday. That's 1.5 years old! Hard to believe we have a toddler living in the house. Gone are the days where Austin and I would turn to each other and say, "you know, she's so quiet and sleeps all the time, sometimes I forget we have a baby". This past month has been incrediblly exciting and yet incredibly challenging as Naomi becomes more and more independent and more aware of her needs and desires.
She can understand almost everything we say to her, and can resond in 1, 2 or 3 word phrases.
She's become very picky with what she will and won't eat...there are days when all she'll eat is rice, and will keep saying "rice rice rice rice, pleeeease rice!!!" She also went through a strawberry phase, a blueberry phase (bebees and boobies, oh and by the way, eyeglasses are asses).
She absolutely loves to dance, as soon as I pick her up from school she starts moving her arms and asking for music, particularly "Down" (by jay sean). yes we have Wei family dance parties everynight before bed now.
She's a great imitator, and mimics everything we do. eeks time to be careful here! She even knows how to use our iphones and can switch from app to app, and knows how to operate the games we have on the phones for her. She also knows how to say iphone (i pone, sounds almost like how she says apple).
She adores her grandpa and has given him his own nickname. In chinese she would normally call him "Gong Gong", but when she was just learning to talk she couldn't say G's, so she called him "Do Do" and the name has just stuck. Terribly cute.
I used to think Naomi wasn't the cuddly or affectionate type baby since when she was little, and you tried to hug her, she'd stiff arm you in the neck. These days, she loves to give you unsolicited kisses and hugs, and her hugs are real embraces now. Best thing ever.
I suppose the biggest change in Naomi this month has been her vocabulary explosion. The number of words she knows now has easily tripled. My mouth literally dropped open the day she asked me for my iPhone. And when we put up our christmas tree, she ran right up to it and pointed at the tree topper and proclaimed, "STAR!!".

With Christmas and the New year coming up, I'm excited to have some time off with Naomi and Austin. I'm utterly amazed at how much my little girl can learn in a day, and it makes me sad to think that I'm missing a lot of these new milestones while she's at daycare. Although I'm grateful we've found a center where the teachers adore naomi and naomi adores her teachers.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Faux sho!!

In my quest for cute/affordable and practicle winter wear for Naomi, I stumbled upon these boots from Crazy 8

Faux fur boots!? Yes please. They're so cute, ok probably not practical since they're not water proof...but I like that they're all white, Naomi will look like a little marshmallow princess. I know I couldn't pull of a look like this, so poor Naomi might just have to wear them for me.

Construction of a tower

Taking a break from our regular sleep updates, here is a video of
Naomi working on constructing the worlds tallest block tower

.

Iron will and legs of steel

Naomi woke up at 9:30pm last night, jumped up, hung onto her crib railing, and didn't lie down. When I left for work this morning at 5:30 I snuck into her room, and she was out cold, head on the crib railing, butt sticking out, her legs must be completely exhausted. I dont even like standing up for 30 minutes at a time! (the good news is, since she's so used to standing up, maybe she'll hold up well in the lines when we go to Disney World next year). Since I knew she was asleep (she was snoring), I tried shifting her again so that she would be lying down. She woke up as soon as I moved her (proof that even though she's asleep it't not deep enough to really be giving her enough rest). She pointed to her rocking chair and told me to "sit". I tried patting her hoping she'd fall back asleep, but she didnt. As soon as I left she was back up on her crib rail, cried for 2 mins, then was quiet (and hopefully asleep).

update: I just got off the phone with a nurse at our Pediatrician's office. She told me to keep doing what we're doing. Don't go in there and let her stand up. Each night she'll stand up a little less. (NOT TRUE). I told her it's been about a week of this, and she said she highly doubts she's been standing up 9hours at a time. I told her she does, I'm literally up all night watching her on the monitor, I HAVE THE MOST STUBBORN DAUGHTER OF ALL TIME. she said, it didn't matter and that I absolutely should not go in and take her out of her crib until morning time

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Ooops she did it again...

Yup folks, she stood up ALL night again. Lets just say a good portion of today was NOT fun as we dealt with a clingy, uber fussy baby. We finally gave her motrin cause she started to feel warm...and like a miracle drug..it kicked in and we had our happy baby back. I think she's teething...she's extra drooly, keeps putting stuff in her mouth, extra irratible, having trouble sleeping, runny nose, pulling on her ears...hopefully this is all just a phase!

She's sleeping right now, on time, at her usual 8pm bedtime, so we already have a one up on yesterday's performance. Here's to hoping for a good night of sleep.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Still Standing..

We had a couple of good nights of uninterrupted sleep. Then Naomi caught another bug, I'm guessing from daycare. So she has a runny nose and a bad cough again (and guess what so do I...I stand by my claim that daycare is full of carrier monkeys). With the sickness, Naomi's had a harder time getting to sleep since her nose is so stuffy, and as soon as we leave the room, she pops up, props herself up on the crib railing, and falls asleep standing up. As soon as I go in to try and lay her down, she wakes up and cries. So consensus amongst everyone we've asked for advice, says to just leave her. (someone actually told me to chuck the video monitor and go to bed,..which I did, and found her asleep, standing up, at 4am when I woke up for work). So i'm taking consensus' advice, and leaving her be. She might be uber cranky tomorrow, but hopefully it'll help her decide that sleeping lying down is a lot more comfortable.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Baby Gap luxe!!

I've been really good about not buying Naomi new clothes this winter. (let's not talk about shopping habits for myself of late...hey but at least I'm not growing anymore!)

Anyway, if I WERE to purchase anything, it would be these cute pieces from babygap's winter luxe line.

Love love love these shoes.....but anyone that has been to our house knows, Naomi has more shoes than most adults. Thankfully her feet are tiny and dont seem to be growing much, so she gets tons and tons of wear out of them!
Ok a faux fur coat? Too cute, and totally impractical. I could see Naomi chomping and licking the fur so she ends up looking like she's wearing a matted dog.


Love the silver brocade material. Do they make this in adult sizes?





Wednesday, December 16, 2009

She fell asleep standing up...

Yes that's right. Standing up. We've been lucky to have several days of excellent sleep. Even though she was sick, Naomi's sleep patterns were back to normal, in bed by 8, sleeping through the night til 7 or 7:30. Last night, the first night she was feeling better and fever free, she didn't want to go to sleep. She ended up crying for around an hour before finally just deciding to stand up and talk to herself in her crib. At 10, 2 hours after I had put her to bed, I went in to try and get her to lie down and settle down. Big mistake. She was fine while I was in there, but afterwards she was all worked up and started crying again. After a little bit of back and forth with me then Austin going in, we decided to try and let her work it out and hope she'd fall asleep on her own. The last time I checked on her on her monitor, was around 2am, and she was STILL standing up. My heart was breaking and I wanted to go in and tell her to lie down, or at least to rock her to sleep. But I knew if i went in, she'd get worked up again, plus I was woozy from some cold tylenol pm I had taken since i've been feeling under the weather myself. Finally I woke up to get ready for work at 4am and saw that she was STILL STANDING. I finally went inside figuring if she was awake I'd just rock her. When I went into her room, I felt my heart break into a thousand pieces. she had fallen asleep with her arms up on the crib rail, and her lambie cushioning her head. She was wobbling around, like you do when you're about to fall asleep on the train and catch yourself. I picked her up and lay her down in her crib. She looked up at me for a second, and then fell back asleep, this time in a deep sleep. The poor girl is probably going to be completely exhausted today, and possibly sore from standing up in that terrible position all night long.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The best part of my day

Is when I first see Naomi after a long day of work. She's been sick with a fever the past couple of days, so she stayed home with Ahma and Gong Gong yesterday. When I walked in the door, i heard her little voice call out, "mommy!!?" Then I saw her head peek out from around the corner, right before she came running towards me with her arms open wide and a huge smile on her face. You really really can't beat that.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Who needs sleep anyway

Naomi has decided that after almost 18 months of giving us very little problems in the sleep department, that it was time to start challenging us. We've been having a hard time getting her to sleep on her own at night. And when she wakes up in the middle of the night she hasn't been going back to bed on her own unless we go in to soothe her. Last night was the worst when she decided she didn't want to sleep from 1am til 7am!! We definitely got her out of the routine of sleeping on her own when she was sick and we'd stay in the room with her til she had fallen asleep. But now that she's better, Austin and I decided it was time to for sleep training. We had used the cry-it-out method when she was a baby and it had worked really well. She never cried for more than 20 mins and within a few days was going to bed without crying at all. Now, she could probably cry for hours and hours if we let her. Seems we usually end up caving in and going into to rock her again. Maybe we're just perpetuating the problem here, but it is SOOO hard to let your kid cry when she's screaming out mama and dada!! Today I checked out 4 books from the library with various titles such as "the no cry sleep method", "baby whisperer" etc. So far most of them are kind of hokey and stuff we already know/do, like set a good bed time routine etc. I just hope we get her to get back into a good sleeper soon!!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Shiners and runny noses


It's been a long time since I've posted...I'm finally back to full form, back at work and Naomi for once does not have a runny nose or a cough! Austin however has taken his turn in the sickness department and was running a fever before he conked out at 8:30 this evening (gasp he even fell asleep before Glee!!!).

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with over 25 guests, and thankfully enough food to feed everyone! Pictures to come later (yes I still need to post pictures from our vacation in Cabo and San Fran). For now, I'm just sharing a picture of Naomi's most recent accessory - her shiner. yes yes this is indeed the SECOND black eye that she has gotten in her short (less than 18 months). Although i argue the first wasn't REALLY a black eye...this one is unquestionably, and unfortunately a black eye. According to her day care teachers, she was "NICELY" playing in daycare, and lost her footing, and fell straight on a toy kitchen set. She banged up her cheek, and two days later has a couple marks on her cheek, and a nice black eye to show. Ironic that I was considering getting her a toy kitchen for christmas this year. I may reconsider that choice...just because.




Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Plum tuckered out...

After a long day at the office. Naomi is wiped!

First Train Ride

Naomi's on her way into the office with Austin, taking her first train ride ever! And i'm missing it, still lying in bed sick at home. UGH . Hopefully she'll be nice to daddy and wont have too many spazz out fussiness attacks while in the office =)

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

sick

i'm sick sick sick and i fully blame the little carrier monkeys at naomi's day care. lol.
anyway, after sleeping for almost the entire day, i still feel completely exhausted. i better get better before turkey day!!!!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Daily dose of cuteness

Naomi enjoyed an unusually warm winter day at the park

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Exercise does the body good

We've been exercising a lot in the Wei household, trying to get into
better shape. Naomi likes to get in on the push-up action.

Daily dose of cuteness.

Just because. And proof that Naomi loves daycare.

Monday, November 16, 2009

A Material Girl

Naomi loves her accessories. Bags, shoes, bracelets, hats, sunglasses....you name it. Tonight she took apart some of the links to her baby toys and made then into a multi-colored set of bangles. They even matched her outfit!




Saturday, November 14, 2009

A born shopper

Naomi is a born shopper just like her daddy. Lol.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Projectile

Naomi is feeling much better these days, but she's still has a nasty cough. When she gets a coughing fit, she gets so worked up that sometimes she gags. And if she's recently had something to eat or drink, she gags and then pukes. This has happened so many times this past week I can't even count the number of extra loads of laundry I've had to do. Last night, right before going to bed, she must have choked on some of her milk, cause she started coughing and coughing and finally, projectile vomit! Why is this blog-worthy? Cause the girl has talent. She managed to soak my sweatshirt and pants (nasty), she got her Izzy and Lambie comfort dolls, and got maybe a radius of a 1meter circumfrence in her room. and yet, NONE of this got on her except a little drip on her lip.
Amazing

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Roseola


Yesterday I got home at 5:30 to find Naomi sleeping. This was the second day in a row she's taken multiple naps. This sickness is really wiping her out!

At around 6, I finally woke her up since I wanted her to still be able to sleep at her normal bed time of 8. She was fussy and clingy, not surpring. But I noticed her face had little red bumps all over it, and upon further inspection, found that she had a rash all over her neck, back and chest. A call to our doctor left us with a diagnosis of Roseola.


Roseola symptoms:

High fever of 103-104 for 3-4 days - Check

Once the fever breaks, a pink rash with small flat spots or raised bumps - Check

Irritability - CHECK

Mild Dirrahea - Check

Decreased appetite - Check

Swollen eyelids - Check


The good news is that now that she has the tell tale rash which is what doctor's usually use to determine Roseola, the sickness is almost over, and hopefully within a few days our happy baby will be back.


In the meantime, we're letting her sleep in, and get as much RnR as possible. Here's a pic of Naomi, fast asleep at 8am as Austin left her in the morning. (can i say thank god for grandparents who are around to help with sick babies!!)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Piano Girl

Naomi plays a little piano and shows off her bopping skills.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Baby diva part 2.

Because chris thought this video was cuter I thought I'd post this as
well.

Baby diva



Naomi loves to dance. Even while she's been sick the first thing she asks for when she wakes up is for music to dance to. She does this by making dancing movements with her arms. Last night she picked up a new trick by grabbing one of our rockband mics. This kid is meant for the stage!!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

All good things must come to an end.

After 2 weeks and 2 days of vacation, I’m back at work. It’s only been a couple of hours but I’m already exhausted and missing Naomi like crazy. Naomi got sick the last couple of days that we were in Cabo, and never fully got better. On Friday night, she ended up getting a fever of 103. On Saturday we took her to the doctors, confirmed she did not have the flu (thank goodness), but she still had a high fever, and hasn’t been eating well. She’s also been waking up in the middle of the night, coughing, vomiting, screaming for mama and dada. Needless to say, the last couple days of our vacation were exhausting, and I could use a couple of good hours of sleep!
Having a sick baby is difficult because your only sign of the baby’s discomfort is from their cries. Now that Naomi is talking, you have a whole new set of challenges to face. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she’s not just crying. She’s screaming your name, it’s a lot harder to hear your child screaming for you, “MAMAAAA, DADAAA” as opposed to just random cries. She’s also very demanding, and will ask for juice, water, you name it. But offer her something she doesn’t want and you’ll get a strong, “NO NO NO”
Thankfully my mom is back, and she is taking care of Naomi today, and most likely tomorrow since Naomi woke up with a fever again this morning, and isn’t allowed back at daycare until she’s fever free for 24 hours. Naomi has been more than excited to see her Ah-Ma. If we’re out of Ah-Ma’s sight for even just a few minutes, Naomi starts screaming her name, and runs around trying to find her.
It hasn’t been all difficult though. Despite Naomi being sick, being home with her was just amazing. I really do wish I could be a stay at home mom. I watch how she picks up new words, skills, comprehension every minute each day and think about how much I’ll be missing while I’m at work.
On Friday night, Naomi had woken up in the middle of the night, and threw up all over her bed, her lambie and izzy dolls, and even managed to project some out onto the floor and rug. After a quick clean up, we were ready to put her back to bed, but anytime either Austin or I tried to leave the room so that the other could take care of her, she would start screaming and crying. She wanted both of us to be in her room. Exhausted, we finally tried just lying down on the floor with her on her playmat. With the three of us cuddled up, Naomi turned to me, reached for my head, and pulled me in close to her head. I thought she wanted something, so I asked her, “whats up Naomi?” And she proceeded to kiss me. Then I laughed, and she did it again! Then she turned to Austin and kissed him. She did this back and forth for awhile til I was literally crying about how sweet she was despite her being sick and feeling awful. Then she started asking for Elmo and her Ge Ge (our friend Lois’ son Caleb). Haha. Then we were just laughing. Anyway, only 4 more days til the weekend.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Happy Halloween



Home sweet home and a little chat-a-holic

We got home from Cabo on Friday night. Our suitcases are still lying in the middle of our bedroom floor, our house is utter chaos. But it's so good to be home, sleeping in our own bed. It was an incredible trip and I'll post pictures later. But the best part of the trip by far was having so much time to spend with Naomi. She has really grown up so much over the past 1.5wks! She's saying over 50 words now and picking up more and more each day. It's incredible she'll point things out that we never even really made the effort to teach her yet, she's just so observant she picks so much up. (we definitely need to be more careful with what we say going forward!!) Last night her Nai Nai (Austin's mom) called, and Naomi was quick to grab the phone as always. We were in the middle of skypeing our friends Gene, Jaime and Alli, and Naomi was rudely ignoring the conversation and having one of her own! Here she is on the phone with Nai nai. And yes, Nai Nai was really on the other end...possibly for 10 whole minutes or longer!! Every time we told Naomi it was time to hang up and say bye bye, she'd say, "Noo no no"

Friday, October 23, 2009

Plum turkered out

Naomi has been doing her best to adjust to the three hour time
difference. But we've had to get creative with where she naps. Here
she fell asleep to baby shark on daddy's lap.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

And we're off!

We are off to San Francisco today for my cousin's wedding. From there we fly straight to Cabo to join Austin's family for a family reunion. Now if I could just finish all my work, and finish packing.

Monday, October 19, 2009

16 Months

Naomi turned 16 months today. While our baby will always be a baby to us, I have to say, she is definitely a little girl now. She's got her own opinions, desires...she's basically her own little person. Day care has been going incredibly well. This month she really bonded with all of her teachers, two in particular, Miss Irina and Miss Fabiana. She comes home knowing so many new songs, dances and has had the opportunity to finger paint, draw with markers, paint with a roller. While I'm sad that I get to miss out on spending my days with her, i'm so glad we chose a daycare that has provided her with so much stimulation. She's become so social and loves waving and "talking" to people we meet outside, especially at the grocery store. We had a couple of rough days after her finger accident, and with her catching a couple of colds. But she's feeling all better, and back to her usual playful self. My dad has been with us for the past month, and she loves giving him hugs, tickeling him, and giving him high fives. Every night after dinner, once she gets out of her high chair, she has to run to him and give him a high five. Pretty cute.
Her vocabulary is growing at an exponential pace. Each day it seems like she tries to imitate us more and more. She can almost call all of her grandparents by name (ah-ma, nai-nai and yeh-yeh) Ironically, the one grandparent she can't call is my dad (wai-gong). Whenever we ask her to say Wai-gong, she laughs and points to my dad. I guess it is a little harder to say.
Other words new words this month are
Nana (banana)
Wow
Geh geh (Big brother)
Abble (apple)
Cheeeeese
Eyes
Rice
Silly woo (silly goose)
I ooob oop (i love you)
Yea
Bye
Up (coupled with throwing her arms up in the air)
Maooo (for what a cat says)
Baaa (for what a goat says)
eep eep (for what a bird says)

She is incredibly quick, she's starting to run and likes to chase us around the house.
She still loves to dance, her new moves consist of squatting, swaying side to side, spinning around in a circle, and swinging her arms up back and forth.
She's also proving to be a little monkey and loves to climb up on the coffee table, couches, chairs, you name it.
This month, following her accident, we also babyproofed a little more, mainly the drawers/cabinets in the kitchen. Considering she used to have free reign over all the cabinet doors, she's taking things pretty well. Partly because I leave her one cabinet where she can go in and out of and play with all the tupperware and other fun "toys". She's also allowed to play in some of the lower drawers.
One of the negative things I've started to see more of is her jealousy. She gets extremely jealous if Lilo and Stitch go near her toys, shoes, backpack, you name it. One day Stitch tried to take her Izzy doll, (one of her two comfort items), and she lost it. She ran after him, snatched it back and "yelled" at him in baby gibberish. While it was cute, i hope it's not a precursor to her not wanting to share.
But balancing out the negatives, today she finally learned how to pet Lilo and Stitch gently, and was stroking Lilo's fur today. And she gave Stitch a hug several times in the evening when we were skyping with her bff Alli.
She's also gotten good at asking for things. When she wants to sit in a chair, she usually grunts to get our attention, then pats the chair.
When she goes to her toy section, she grunts to get our attention, then points to the toy she wants. It's interesting to see how she never takes her own toy out. she always waits and sits by the toy she wants until austin or I go over to her to "allow" her to play with it. (We'll see how long this one lasts).

This month for almost half of the month we'll be on vacation with various family members. I'm so looking forward to month 16!!


Sorry the picture is blurry, but I love it since it was a typical night of Naomi sillyness, mid swaying side to side

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Wowwwww

This past week, Naomi has started picking up more and more words. Granted 99% of what she says is still gibberish (my dad says she's talking in Ewok language), she's imitating us more and more, and starting to get really good at it. Her favorite word to say over and over again is, "wow". She'll say it over and over and over again. She also says Guh-guh, for big brother, when we call her boyfriend Caleb. he calls her "mo-mo" and they both say hi. So they're skype conversations go something along the lines of, "Mo mooooo, HIIiiieeeee", "Hieeeee, Guh guhhhh, Hiieeeee" "mo mo". Exciting times. She calls Elmo, Na-Na, says, "yea" when you ask her a question, and constantly asks for "cheeeeese"
She's also good at saying Bye-eee, and she tries and tries to say, "i love you". It's the cutest thing, but it ends up sounding like, "I oof ooop"

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Shoes shoes shoes

Naomi's feet are finally growing, she's finally wearing a size 3, which means that she can fit these. I bought these pretty blue Seek Kai Run shoes back in May when they were on sale. They're so cute, I only wish I had gotten them in a bigger size as well.




Now that her feet are growing, it's a lot easier to find shoes for her. Finding walking shoes for a kid who's feet are same size as a 3mth old is extremely challenging. Most of the shoes that did fit her were crib shoes, made for babies who couldn't crawl, much less walk. I'm currently in love with a few styles from See Kai Run, but I'm also loving these purple mary janes from Livie and Luca. I love the lavendar and the cute little bird. Seeing how slow her feet grow, I'm trying to justify the price tag by saying she'll wear them for a long time! heh

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The daycare that keeps on giving....


It took Naomi exactly one month to catch a virus from daycare. Well actually, to be fair, I think she caught the "perpetual runny nose" on her second day of daycare. But this Saturday, Naomi woke up with a slight fever, a ridiculously gross drippy nose, and a heavy phlegmy chest cough. She's been incredibly moody, and extremely tired. She even took two naps yesterday. She also hasn't been eating very much, it's been about 3 days now since she's had a real meal, but our doctor said as long as she's drinking liquids she should be ok. Thankfully Austin and I had already taken tomorrow off since daycare is closed due to Columbus Day, and we decided to make it a family day. Unfortunately it looks like we'll be stuck at home for the most part, like we have been all weekend, but at least Naomi will get some much needed rest, and we'll all be able to spend time together. I'm glad she's getting sick now rather than right before our vacation next week!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Kiss Kiss


I love this picture. We bought Naomi a new red wagon for fall apple picking season. After putting it all together, Austin gave Naomi a ride around the yard, she loved it and kept signing for more everytime he stopped. At the end of it all, Austin's work was paid off when he received the sweetest thanks he could have asked for.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Simple things

Last night Austin got out of work a little early, just as I was finishing up dinner and Naomi and her grandpa were watching Ni Hao Kai Lan on tv. It’s such a nice treat when Austin gets home before 6:30, which is when we normally try to have dinner because it means we have more time to hang out before bath and bedtime for Naomi. Last night was such a great night, Naomi was in a great mood with very little fussing. We ended up just playing in our living room, with Naomi running back and forth between Austin and I. She’d walk (stomp) towards Austin with her arms wide open, ready to give him a hug, a huge, toothy grin spread across her face. As soon as she made it into Austin’s arms, she’d give him a hug, lean her head into his shoulder, then use him as leverage, push off and turn around to repeat the action towards me. She did this back and forth hugging for at least 20 minutes. It’s incredible how something as simple as watching her go back and forth can make up such a fun time, and something I desperately want to remember.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Happy Mid-Autumh Festival!!!


It's Mid-autumn festival in Asia. I'm definitely missing mooncakes from home, but thought we'd have a mini celebration by dressing Naomi up in a chinese shirt that Claire bought us when Naomi was born. Love this picture of Chris and Naomi saying cheese. I dont know if it's the silly smile, or that both of them have crazy morning hair...it just makes me smile

Naomi and Alli

Naomi and Alli had their first "playdate" when they were just a few months/weeks old. Alli cried the whole time while Naomi slept the whole time. It wasn't the most exciting playdates ever, but over past year we've evolved from Naomi actually being awake, to them slowly being aware of each other, to this past weekend where they finally interacted with each other. At 16 and 15 months old, Alli and Naomi have officially started playing together. It was so cute to see them playing with blocks, sharing snacks, waving hi to each other, coloring on the chalkboard, giving each other high fives, hugging and even playing ring around the rosies. Of course it wasn't all smooth sailing, I definitely saw some jealous tendencies of Naomi come out, as she saw Alli moving into her turf...especially when it came to playing with Lilo and Stitch's crates.








Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tidbits of Naomi

I realize I've been a little melodramatic with my posts recently. And yet there is really so much to be thankful for because along with some of the struggles we've had this month, we've had some amazing times as a family as well. It really is a joy to watch Naomi grow and learn new things every day. Austin just finished up this video he's been meaning to put together for awhile, and I have to say, I cried after watching it. It's crazy to see how much Naomi has changed in just a few months. Anyway, here's the video, the first clip is of when she was just learning to crawl up steps, and here she is today, walking all over the house like she owns it.


Here’s to a better October.



It’s been a rough month for us in the Wei household. All within a month we’ve had to adjust to life without my mom around to baby us and taking care of Naomi, figure out scheduling with dropping and picking Naomi up from daycare, dealing with two colds Naomi has gotten from daycare, a nasty stomach bug both Austin and I got, being locked out of our house for 2 hours after a family walk when our garage keypad stopped working, a nearly lost finger, a car accident, a weird rash Naomi is getting on her leg and back, a spill backwards down some steps at a friends house, my credit card was stolen with $8,000 in fraudlent charges…honestly I think the list goes on.
The good news the month is almost over and I’m all for thinking that October can only get better. Afterall we have a trip planned for San Francisco for my cousin’s wedding which will be a great family reunion, followed immediately by a week in Cabo for Austin’s family reunion.



Thursday, September 24, 2009

This is the temper tantrum that never ends...it just goes on and on my friends


Naomi is an incredibly easy going kid. She has a fun tempermant and usually doesn’t have a ridiculous amount of temper tantrums, and when she does, it’s usually pretty easy to soothe, distract, or figure out what’s wrong and make her happy.

Yesterday was an exception. The only things that I could think of that might have made her difficult yesterday was that in the morning, after 5 straight days of me being home, I suddenly wasn’t. Then at daycare she developed a really bad diaper rash from all the explosive poopy diapers she’s been having due to the antibiotics the doctor put her on for her finger. When we’re at home, since we’re constantly watching her, we’re able to change her diaper as soon as we see (or smell) that’s she’s gone. At daycare I guess the change doesn’t happen as quickly and with the yucky diapers, the poor thing developed a rash.
Anyway, I digress….from the moment she woke up, Austin dealt with a fussy baby who didn’t want to eat breakfast, didn’t want to get dressed, and wanted to be carried all morning. When I picked her up from daycare, her daycare teacher told me that Naomi was a little bit up and down. I didn’t really know what she meant, but just assumed that Naomi was probably a little fussy, something her teachers haven’t really witnessed yet, other than the initial separation anxiety in the early mornings.
When we got home, I got to witness this “fussiness”, or what I like to call temper tantrum madness, first hand. Austin ended up having to stay late at work, so I was handling an overly tired, overly fussy baby all on my own. It was a hard night trying to get dinner ready, dinner fed was an even bigger struggle. Most of her food probably ended up on the floor rather than in her belly, as did her dishes and plastic ware. (thank goodness for sturdy ikea kids dinnerware!!) We managed to get a couple bites of mashed potatoes in only after I let her eat with my spoon out of my bowl. Bathtime was a struggle as Naomi crawled in and out of her baby tub and wrestled with me to put her clothes back on. Anyone listening in would have thought I was abusing her if they were to have heard her scream while I tried to feed her her antibiotics. Even drinking her milk before bedtime was a struggle as she refused to sit in her chair, and only wanted to sit in my lap, and I had to be sitting in the rocking chair, any other chair or heaven forbid, the floor, did not work.
Finally it was time to put her to bed, and my calm, happy, sweet Naomi came back. She cuddled up to me as I sang her her lullabye and kissed my cheek before I put her in her crib. She was so sweet, that I ended up holding her for just a little longer letting the calmness from the lack of crying melt away any tension I had felt earlier in the night.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Good child, bad child

I'm still at home with Naomi today, monitoring her finger and making sure it's healed a little more before we bring her back to daycare tomorrow. I love being at home with Naomi, especially now that she's older and more interactive, I have so much fun spending one on one time with her, it's a treat that's so rare these days with our busy work and weekend schedules. Though now that Naomi's older, she is getting more and more willful. We've had days where Austin and I put her to bed exhausted after nearly a whole day of temper tantrums and whine fests. We've struggled on ways to discipline her mainly because she's just so little and honestly has no way of understanding what she's doing is wrong and is probably just frustrated in most cases.
Today however, as I was digging in the freezer trying to find a pack of frozen dumplings that I was going to cook up for her lunch, Naomi kept walking over to the freezer to try and play with the drawers. I kept pulling her away and trying to distract her (yea our freezer is jam packed and it took me awhile to find the dumplings). Finally, her bandage ended up falling off through all of her struggles, and digging, and despite that she still wanted to dig through the freezer some more with an open wound. I finally ended up picking her up despite her screaming and kicking protests and decided to try giving her a time out. I put her in the corner of our kitchen, which was a struggle in and of itself since by the time she had her arms and legs wrapped around me. After getting her stranglehold off of me, and having her on the floor, she sat there, but wailed and cried loudly. It broke my heart. I found the dumplings immediately after that, and in what was less than 30 seconds, had naomi back up and was carrying her back upstairs so we could re-dress her finger. She was clearly upset but just rested her head on my shoulder, almost in resignation and acceptance of her punishment.
After we finished dressing her finger, which for the first time, she sat absolutely still and held her hand out for me, Naomi was in a great mood. We went back down to the kitchen, and it was like I had a whole different kid. While I cooked her dumplings and broccoli she walked around the kitchen with her Izzy doll, played with lilo and stitch and literally sang and hummed the whole time. While we were eating lunch, she ate everything by herself with her own fork and completely cleaned her plates, drank some of her water, then smiled and signed "Thank You" to me. She was rubbing her eyes by then and we cleaned up and got ready for nap time. After a quick song she was in her crib, and hugging her toys and blew me a flying kiss and waved bye bye, and within 2 minutes was fast asleep. Have to love that little kid, even when she makes me feel guilty about giving her her first time out!! =P

Monday, September 21, 2009

An accident filled Sunday


This Sunday marked a milestone that I hope we don't have too many of...
At church, Naomi was playing in one of the rooms that had folding doors and without getting into all the details, she managed to crush her little baby finger in there. I was right next to her and had tried to get her away from the door, but I was too late and her little hands were too quick for me. I quickly picked her up thinking she'd calm down in a couple of minutes after the soreness went away. To my dismay I realized she was screaming and shrieking louder than she had ever screamed before, and when I looked back at her finger, it was dripping blood everywhere. Thankfully we were at church where people calmer and of clearer mind than myself were able to help us clean out the cut and bandage her up. And again thankfully, our pediatrician network has an office that was open on Sunday and only 5 minutes away from our church. We drove her to the doctor's office where they decided against stitches and chose to wrap her finger in a pressure gauze, and to keep her from pulling the dressing off, ended up wrapping up her whole hand. We learned that the cut was so severe that had it been any deeper or lower on her finger, she could have lost her finger entirely. As it is, she may not have proper sensation in that finger for the next year (not that she'd be able to tell us).
I never thought I'd be the kind of mom that cried when her kid got hurt, but seeing Naomi in so much pain,and not being able to explain to her what was going on, or that the doctor was hurting her and wrapping up her hand for her own good, and how close we were from facing real major trauma to her finger, was just too much for me and I totally lost it, I was bawling at church in front of everyone (what made it worse was when ppl tried to comfort me!!) and I lost it when our less than sensitive on-call doctor told us we were lucky her finger didn't get amputated. I bawled like a baby on the ride home, even as Naomi had calmed down and had nodded off to sleep, and I cried again when I saw her playing with her blocks with one hand and she adapted and quickly learned how to maneuver and stack her toys with out her dominant right hand.
To make matters worse, on our way home from Target while picking up my brother who was coming over to visit us that evening, we backed right into a parked car at the train station. Thankfully no one was hurt and the damage was relatively minor, but it definitely didn't help our day get any better!
The day finally ended with poor Naomi exhausted and with her hand re-wrapped unprofessionally by Austin and myself after she had managed to slip her tiny hand out of the dressing.
Since it was unwrapped, we ended up taking pictures and sending it to my brother so he could take a look and perhaps give us any other advise. I'll spare you the gore and not post that pic here.
Today after another check up by our own pediatrician, we are all feeling much better after learning that yes, the cut was extremely severe, but that she was healing up nicely, and that the doctor felt comfortable with us just bandaging up two fingers, so Naomi has the use of her right hand back.
Of course as soon as we got home, she ripped off the dressing that was covering her two fingers since it wasn't secured around her whole hand, there really wasn't anything preventing it from falling off. So now we're down to just wrapping one teeny finger up with a single Hello Kitty bandaid. Hopefully she'll keep it on long enough for her finger to heal!



Saturday, September 19, 2009

15 Months


Naomi turned 15 months today. Though I didn't post an update on her 14th month, I feel like the difference we've seen in her development from 14 to 15 months was staggering. Although admittedly I probably tell myself this every month. One of the most noticeable is her willfullness. Naomi knows what she wants, and if she doesn't get it, she'll let you know through fits of tears and shouting. Right now we're trying to simply distract her. but pretty soon we'll need to have better methods of discipline!

Here are her stats from her 15 mth checkup, although all of these measurements are questionable (and probably on the high side) since she refused to sit still long enough to be measured.

Weight: 20 lbs (15%)
Height: 30 1/4 (60%)
Head: 48cm (60%)

Naomi's is pretty proficient at walking, she hardly crawls anymore. She's still very prone to falling down and for awhile was averaging a fall flat on her face every other day, and has the bruises to show it. She's bruised on her forehead, cheek, nose and even gotten a cut up and swollen lip. Surprisingly she hasn't skinned a knee or scraped any elbows or hands yet, but I'm sure that's next to come.
She's very vocal these days as well, most of what she says is gibberish, but she does know how to say a few words like
Mama
Mommy
Ah-ma (grandma)
Dada
Daddy
Stitch (our dog...although it sounds more like ditch, and no, she doesn't know poor lilo's name)
Hi
She can sign a bunch of words now too, which has made understanding some of her wants and needs a whole lot easier.
signs she knows are:
Book
Please
More
Drink
Thank You
All Done
Milk

She understands us more and more, we're finding ourselves having to spell things out, like M-I-L-K, S-T-R-A-W-B-E-R-R-I-E-S...

She can make the sound of a snake: Hsssss
She can make the sound of an elephant and do the arm motion of an elephant's trunk

She knows how to tickle, blow raspberries on daddy's belly, pick her nose (don't ask), point to her head, eyes, ears, toes, big belly and belly button.

She's obsessed with hats, socks, shoes, purses and jewelry

And she hates when I wear a ponytail and always tries to pull it out and sometimes cries until I pull my hair down, after which she starts laughing and smiling. silliness.







Thursday, September 17, 2009

Adjusting

Yesterday was Naomi's 5th day of Daycare. Every day when Austin drops her off, she kicks up a fit and cries as Austin tears himself away and heads off to work. Yesterday, when Austin dropped her off, Naomi went over to her daycare teacher Irina, asked to be picked up, kissed Austin goodbye, and didn't shed a single tear as he left. We're all slowly adjusting to daycare life.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Goodbye Ah-ma

My mom's leaving for SanFrancisco today, then she'll be heading to Singapore and then the Philippines. I can't even imagine how we're going to survive without her here. We've been so spoilt having someone home to take care and love Naomi while we're at work, and she even made dinner for us to boot! She's been here to take care of me when I'm sick, tired, and just demoralized or exhausted. I'll miss having her here to talk to when I get home; my best days are when Naomi and my mom are waiting outside for me when I get off of work. I know it's only for a short while and we'll see her during the holidays, but I still can't help but be sad. We're going to all miss her! Naomi has already learned so much from her, how to dance to silly songs, how to find her ears, eyes, nose, clap her hands...they've formed such a special bond and it's so fun to watch them interact. Thanks for taking care of all of us mom!!






Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Day care day 1

On Monday, Naomi had her first official day as a full time daycare kid. When she first got to the center with Austin, she definitely knew something was up; she clung to Austin's leg and her Grover doll and for a few minutes refused to even lift her head up to look around. She slowly got up and eventually was up and playing with toys before Austin left. Though she did shed a few tears when he got up to go, this was expected, and was no where near as bad as the tears we experienced her first time at daycare back in December. Her daycare teachers said she did great, after their morning walk at 10, she didn't shed another tear, not even when she was put down for a nap, or when she woke up in a strange new place. When I got there in the afternoon to pick her up, she scrambled over to me and gave me a hug. As we were leaving she walked out with her backpack, lambie blankie and izzy doll in tow, waved bye bye to everyone and blew flying kisses to all her teachers. The kid definitely won everyone over.

When we got home, ah-ma was waiting eagerly for us, and Naomi was so incredibly happy to see her grandma, lilo, stitch, and all her toys. For the new few hours before bed time she was all over the house, dancing, chatting (it was almost as if she was telling us all about her day in her own secret language), laughing, and shrieking with joy. I think she was happy to be home. =)

My mom and I kept pointing out how she seemed so much older than when we had seen her before daycare. Is it possible my little baby grew so much in just a few hours away from home?

Happily things went smoothly and she seemed to enjoy her day at daycare. It's definitely more exhausting to have her out of the house though, between earlier wake up times, extra driving/commute times, packing her snacks, clothes etc...definitely makes me realize how spoiled we've been with my mom here taking care of us.

dressed and ready for day care.

clingy at daycare

excited to be home!!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Salon les mommy

In preparation for daycare, I decided to trim Naomi's hair again. Her bangs are always in her eyes, and while that's something easily remedied with a cute little barrette, I know the likelihood of her coming home with any clips we put in her hair are close to none. So Sunday night we turned on the tv to elmo, plopped naomi in her high chair and I went to town on her hair. The end result was more uneven than I wanted and definitely shorter than I had originally planned on going, but the baby makes it work =)








Monday, September 7, 2009

Day Care

Naomi starts her full time spot at daycare tomorrow. I know she's more than ready, she's been doing so well at the church nursery and hardly even cries when we drop her off now. I also know how much she'll benefit from the stimulation and socialization from all the other kids there. Still, a part of me is sad that she'll be out of the house every day. That someone outside of our family will get to watch her as she grows up and develops on a daily basis. And I'll miss being able to call my mom during the day whenever I miss Naomi to get an update on how she's doing, or to talk to Naomi on the phone. Thankfully this is a short week and my mom doesn't leave til Saturday, so we all have a little breaking / transitional period. Not looking forward to tomorrow though. And even more so, I'm not looking forward to when we have to take my mom to the airport on Saturday. ugh

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Dancing queen II

As you may have noticed, Naomi likes to dance. Doesn't matter what music you play, it could be Happy birthday, or beyonce, she'll start shaking her booty. Well on Friday we received a beautiful skirt from auntie jen from her new girl's clothing line. Naomi LOVED it and as soon as she had it on, and ah-ma started singing, she started breaking it down. Thank you for the skirt auntie jen!!!