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.

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.

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

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"

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

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!

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.

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.

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.