English 101

Keira has been trying to talk so much lately. Before, when she would try to communicate, it would just be a little grunt here and there. Now, she will look you right in the eye and very "matter-of-factly" state something along the lines of "Blah blu blaout blou bla!" After that, she would usually smile and run off on her tiptoes in a whirling baby blur.

She has expanded her vocabulary with words such as Daaaaaaaaddy, Maaaaaaaa, NO!, Uhhhhp, Dahhhhw (down), BAAAAAAA! (meaning look at me- I'm doing something funny), Iaaaaaaaay (pointing to either her eye or sometimes her ear), Dooooohhh (pointing to her nose, then trying to stick her finger inside her nostril, Ehhhhhhhhhtsh (The letter X), Oopppppsh (oops!), Deeeeeeeh? Deeeeh D'OOOOOH!!! (Ready, Set Go!), Uh OOOOOOOH! (I dropped something, please pick it up before I scream), HI!!!!!, Buuuuhhhh! (Bye), Brrrrrruuu?? (Can you either hand me my sippy cup or take it away from me because I'm finished with it now), and BuhtDEEZ. This means buttons, snaps or anything button like in nature-even a belly button.

She's so cute when she tries to talk and even cuter when she tries to sing. She loves to make animal sounds and sings "EEEEEEYIYIYO!" which is Old McDonald. Her favorite songs right now are Old McDonald, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Bear's Now Asleep, Mooooooove Like an Emu Moves from the Wiggles as well as The Sport Utility Vehicle song from Veggie Tales. Dan says "Great! One of the first songs my daughter will know will be a sarcastic song about SUVs!"

So why the Taz picture you ask? Who do you think that Dan said Keira reminds him of lately with the conversations that we've had with her? Who else? "Blah blu blaout blou BLAAAAAAA!"

Where has the time gone?

Wow! Things have been so hectic, I haven't written for a while. We've been working on some home improvement stuff- painting the house, gardening etc. I've also been having some problems with my health (nothing serious, but I've gone to the dr. a few times and the chiropractor). Apparently, from what they can tell, I tend to internalize stress and although it usually never shows that I'm experiencing stress, it ends up manifesting itself in other ways physically. Stress? I have no idea what they are talking about! ;) We'll see...

In between all of that going on, we've still been running around and playing with the little one here. We took her to the Water Park in Vista to play in the water and she finally seems to have conquered her fear of Rippity's Rainforest. It's a playarea that has the water shooting up all over the place etc. She does great at the Legoland water area (not the big area with the buckets etc, but the smaller area) but has been too scared of the water areas that have bigger jets etc. I unfortunately don't have any pictures since Dan took the camera for a project he's working on with work. I'll take some soon...

On another note...wow! I can't believe that it's already 5 months that we've had our little girl. Time flies so fast. She's definitely been keeping me busy and has definitely been growing! It's so funny..granted, she can still fit comfortably in 9 month onesies from Carters, but she also is finally fitting in 18 month old clothes that friends and family bought for her as gifts for when she first arrived! Thanks so much to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts. She is getting so tall! Once in a while, I will put pants on her that are 9-12 month old and although they still fit her waist-wise, she has definitely gotten much taller. They are total floods now. Very funny!

Pink

It was a pretty lazy day for Keira and I. Dan and I have been painting the outside of the house over the past weekend and have been pretty beat up. We're going to do more painting this weekend (thanks Auntie Lorraine for babysitting Keira when we do this!) and although I SAID I was going to do more painting this week...it just hasn't happened. Everytime I get into trying to start, Keira wakes up from her nap. Now you KNOW there isn't going to be a whole lot of painting getting done with a little toddler running around and wanting to be into everything.

For some reason...I wanted to try Pinkberry. I had heard so much about it and really wanted to see if it lived up to it's hype. The closest one was in Temecula so off we went once she woke up from her nap.

I'll be honest....I'm not exactly WHAT on earth I was thinking... It's a little over 20 miles which wasn't the bad thing about the adventure. It was that it was almost 100 degrees in Temecula today! I watched the temperature gauge in my car climb in numbers until it reached 98. Ugh...all I have to say is that this Pinkberry stuff better be good!

What is Pinkberry you say? Well....it's a frozen yogurt chain in LA that is supposed to be really fantastic. The first thing that struck me as interesting as I opened the door was the graphic in the window. You know how you see signs that say "No shirts, no shoes no service" etc? Well, in the window was a slashed out picture of a camera. Apparently no one is allowed to take pictures. Weird...

There are two flavors. Original and Green Tea. The lady at the counter gave me a taste of both. Hmmm.... The green tea was really strong. I normally really love green tea ice cream, but there was just something about this taste that didn't appeal to me. The original flavor tasted kind of like a tart almost lemony taste. Difficult to describe. The interesting thing is also the toppings. Many of the toppings are actually cereals! I ended up with a small Original Pinkberry with strawberries and Cap't Crunch cereal.

So how was it? Was it worth the journey out in almost 100 degree weather? (Drumroll....)

Wow! I think the jury is still out on that one. It was good, but I'm not so sure that I'm so addicted to it like some people seem to get. Although, it might be because I've heard such rave reviews that after that kind of build up, you're bound to be disappointed. I just don't know... I think that I need to have another one just to be sure ;)

Anyway, here is a picture. Since you can't take a picture in the store, I found this picture that someone else took...obviously in the store. So much for them really enforcing that rule, huh? :)

The Baby Brawl Part II

Actually, I should call this "What COULD have been the Baby Brawl Part II" because nothing ended up happening like last time. As you recall with the first Baby Brawl, there was a cute little girl that for some reason butted heads with Keira. They kept going at each other wanting to fight and to be honest, I turned away for a second and didn't see who the initial instigator was. After yesterday, I'm 99.99% sure that it wasn't Keira and was the other little girl.

Yesterday, In between running errands etc, I took Keira to the mall to run around Playtown and get some of her energy out. The second I put her down for her to run around, who do I see? Yes...that same little girl that she was brawling with before. I was going to try and keep them away from each other, but I figured that kids need to learn to get along, so I didn't. I just decided that I was going to watch how they both interact very carefully.

There was a moment when they both stood there toe to toe staring each other down. I was sure there was going to be another showdown, so I started to move closer to stop any fight that might have started. Soon after that, Keira turned around and walked away looking for something fun to play with. That was the end of that...

Why am I so sure now then that it was the other little one that started it? Well, when watching Keira play, I would take a look every once in a while to see where the other little girl was. Twice, I saw her walk up to other little kids and would give them a clonk on the head that was completely unprovoked. Eventually her mother took her away since she couldn't play nicely. I'm pretty sure now that in that second when she was standing over Keira last time they met up, she probably clonked her as well--thus causing the little baby brawl. Keira fought back which was a good thing I guess... I think... I don't know... is it? I definitely don't want her to fight all the time and want her to know her limitations, but I also don't want her to be a pushover.

The Potty

Keira has been definitely showing signs of being interested in the potty. It all kind of started with me having to take her into the bathroom with me. It's funny how little ones pay attention to everything that you do....half the time you aren't even aware that they have noticed something. Well, lately, whenever I go to the bathroom and she is with me, she keeps trying to get toilet paper to wipe my behind....yikes!!!

Well, she also has been a little drier when she wakes up from her naps as well as started to get whiny when she has a poopy diaper...is it time???

Dan said that it might be a good idea to get her a potty just in case. I went to Babies R Us and who would have thought there would be so many potty seats to choose from. They even have ones with a flusher that makes a clapping "yay" sound when they flush. I decided to go with one by Boon which doubles as a step stool as well. It has it's own toilet paper holder and is kind of cute as far as potty seats go. I'll post a picture.

I brought Keira into the bathroom and showed her how the top lifts up. She now lifts it and sits right down whenever mommy is going to the bathroom. She will also take toilet paper and throw it inside. She really likes it.

Well, the other day when I was getting ready to give Keira a bath, I decided to take her clothes off and sit her on the potty seat. Mind you, she was hoarding the last bite of her food and decided that she didn't want to swallow. I was trying to explain to her that I wasn't going to give her a bath until she swallowed her food. She still wasn't getting it. It had already started to liquify and was oozing out of her mouth at this point. I picked her up and brought her to the sink to spit it out. She wanted to keep it, so she wasn't too happy about that. I put her back on the potty seat and she started to cry. I filled up the bathtub and reached over to pick her up and put her in the tub when lo and behold.....I noticed that she peed in the potty!!! Now mind you, I'm sure it was a fluke and I haven't gotten her to be able to repeat it yet, but still...I was so proud of my little one! I think it's still too early since she can't really understand the sensation of peeing in her diaper yet... it also is not possible yet for me to explain things to her and have her understand. Nonetheless...I'm proud of my little potty girl :)

Sorry Folks! We're having technical difficulties here. For some reason, I can't seem to add a title to this post. Don't know why. Therefore, I'll just put a titles in the body. You can figure out what I'm trying to say :)

Vivian Lam's Birthday

Last weekend, we were invited to Vivian Lam's 2nd birthday party. Thao is Vivian's father and a friend that I work with. I haven't seen him since I left work on my leave of absence, so it was great catching up with him on everything that is going on. I also ran into Art Lowery, who was one of the team leads at work that retired not long ago. He has been traveling alot and has been working on building houses which sounds like alot of fun but way more work than I would have been able to handle. My friend Terri and her husband built their house in Anza from the ground up. It was great hearing the stories of the progress, but boy... I just couldn't imagine being able to do all the hard work that went into it. Anyway, Vivian was trying to get Keira to stay in her little playhouse with her, but I think that Keira was still a little freaked out about the feeling of grass on her feet. She did start to get a little used to it after a while though. I'm including pictures of Vivian and Keira playing.

Uncle Steve:

Steve and I used to work together over 10 years ago and have always kept in touch. He is so funny and always had a hilarious story to share. Most of the time, it wasn't even so much the actual event that would make you laugh, but the way he would tell the story. He's so animated! Anyway, Keira got to meet Uncle Steve this past week and had a great time. We headed over to his place in Hillcrest and walked over to Corvette for lunch. We got entertainment in the form of a dance by the "World Famous Corvette Dancers"...at least that was what they CALLED themselves :). Here are some pictures of them dancing as well as Keira and Steve coloring.

THE Face:

There is this particular face that Keira makes that never fails to crack Dan and I up. She puts her hands up as if to ask why and .....well.....it's hard to explain. I was finally able to kind of get a picture of THE face although it still doesn't do it justice. She's such a little clown. She does it now specifically because she knows that it makes us laugh.

Fourth of July

Fourth of July- The Celebration of our Country's Independence. It's celebrated nowadays with parties, barbecues, The Twilight Zone Marathon on the Sci Fi channel( I know...I'm a weirdo) and fireworks of course!

Dan and I used to live Downtown in a cute little place just a few blocks up from the Harbor. I LOVED living downtown and honestly wouldn't mind living there again if it were more kid friendly and didn't have so many pervs with blue dots down there (Megan's Law). There was always something going on downtown which would result in a fireworks display that we could either see from the rooftop patio or from the living room. The first couple of times we were very "Oohed and Aahed", but after that, it starts to be no big deal. Because of this, although we do honor the Fourth of July, we don't go out of our way to see fireworks. This year having a baby with us makes it very different and we were dying to go so that she could experience fireworks.

Where to go...where to go... I remember seeing them years back at Mission Beach and with the crowds it took me 4 hours to get home. That obviously wouldn't work. Since it would be fairly late and starting into her bedtime, we wanted to definitely avoid those kinds of crowds. So where did we go? Legoland of course! Like we're not already such regulars there, right? Well...it turned out to be an EXCELLENT choice! The fireworks display ended up being right in Miniland so we got to see fireworks over New York...at least the Lego version of it! I've always loved when they do fireworks synchronized to music, which is just what they did. It makes it so much more enjoyable seeing a "story" in the show.

Keira did pretty good. She was a little scared at times, but most of the time she would say "Wow wow wow wow wow!" Here are some pictures of the fireworks and New York. Also of Dan and Keira looking up at the fireworks (you can tell which one was of her when she was scared) and Keira playing with a little girl next to us.

Hope everyone had a happy, fun and safe Fourth of July!

Random Observation

It wasn't long ago when I used to run out to a parking lot, get into my car and drive off in no time flat. Now with a baby, a stroller, my diaper bag usually tucked in the stroller underneath as well as various things that we've collected along the way on that particular journey, it takes me much much longer. In a crowded parking lot, people without children can get pretty annoyed with it. I have to admit...back in the day, I probably was not nearly as patient with the time that it takes to load children and things into a car as I am now.

The other day, I was waiting for a parking space and the only "soon to be available" spot was a minivan with a lady trying to put her baby in the car. I sat in my car with my signal light on (yes, it was that crowded and I didn't want someone coming by snagging MY space) waiting for her to clear the space. She looked flustered trying to hurry in loading her baby in and trying to get her stroller broken down to fit into the back. It obviously was a new stroller that she hadn't quite figured out yet and was really having a hard time folding it up. She would look up every once in a while at me with a frantic and apologetic face. Finally, I rolled down the window and said "Don't worry...I know how you feel. I have a little one in the back as well. Do you need help with folding that up?" The look of relief on her face was priceless. She laughed and we joked quickly about how much faster we both used to load a car before she was finally able to load her stroller.

When I first used to load Keira into the car and would experience impatient people, it used to fluster me as well. Even though I load things up fairly fast, I've even had someone honk at me to hurry up. I intentionally slow down just for those people now :). I know...bad. I intentionally slowed down for a lady at the gym the other morning. She had her window rolled down and I could hear her saying something along the lines of "Come on already!" There were a ton of other spaces in the lot. She just specifically wanted MY space because it just happened to be pretty close to the entrance. In the time that she waited for my spot, she very easily could have found another parking space further away and been inside already. Uh....you're going to the gym... to work out...and you are trying to park as close as possible? That cracks me up. People that fight to try to park in the closest spot possible at the gym. They want to walk the least outside so that they can go inside and....uh......walk? God forbid they burn anymore calories by walking from a parking lot. Funny. Let's just say that it is actually a joy s---l----o-----w----i----n----g down for those people :).