A Weekend of Milestones

Despite battling a nasty cold, I can't believe how much my little girl was able to accomplish this past weekend! Here's what she was able to do:

• Walk by herself.
• Drink formula/milk out of the sippy cup instead of a bottle (though M and I are to blame for this one... we never really tried giving baby K formula in a sippy cup until this weekend, and only after her teacher at daycare urged me to do so). Baby K has been using the sippy cup to drink water for quite some time now, so I wasn't surprised that she was able to transition fairly quickly, but her caregivers at daycare were ecstatic to learn that baby K no longer needs the bottle.
• Blow kisses, but as always my little girl does not perform on demand, so seeing this one will be a rarity.

We are up to five ounces with the regular cow's milk at night now, and I even started mixing in two ounces of milk in her morning bottle (or cup, rather). Baby K seems okay with the dairy so far; we haven't seen blood or mucus in her poop to date and it's been about two months already. The only thing we did notice are dry patches on parts of her body. It might be eczema that may or may not be the result of an allergic reaction to the dairy, but it hasn't flared up with the increase of milk, so we're not sure. Hopefully the pediatrician can shed some light on it when we go for her 15 month visit... but just based on how "helpful" they've been so far, I wouldn't hold my breath. I think I'll just ask for a referral to an allergist.

Baby K should really be called "toddler K" as she starts this next stage in life. I contemplated on whether or not to keep the "baby K" reference; it didn't take me long to decide that I will. I could just picture myself blogging in 17 years time... writing about my little girl (who won't be so little anymore) starting college, and I'll still be calling her "baby K."

Baby K's First Steps

Here's baby K having a conversation with daddy... then taking her first steps! She's been able to walk while holding my hand for quite some time now, but hasn't mustered up the courage to take the first step by herself until now. What a bittersweet moment! My little girl is growing up!

On a side note, don't you love the flying hair?

Dancing Baby

Here's the tail-end performance of baby K's dance to "The Wheels On The Bus." This is no doubt the first of many children songs that I will get sick of hearing. After playing it for the millionth time, baby K finally decides to cooperate and show her moves in front of the camera.

Voice-Mail

When I get a call from baby K's daycare, my heart always beats a little faster with trepidation. In my mind, I wonder, "Uh-oh... what happened? Is my little girl okay? Did she get hurt?" Today, I missed the daycare's phone call, but they left me a message. I must say, it was probably the best voice-mail I've gotten in a very long time! MP, one of baby K's caregivers, called to tell me that baby K was talking up a storm. She couldn't tell if baby K was speaking Chinese or if it was just baby talk (I wish my little girl was that advanced, but unfortunately, it's the latter)... it sounded coherent but nobody could understand what baby K was saying. MP said it was the most adorable thing she's ever seen and she just had to call and tell me.

This is the first time I've ever gotten this kind of phone call from the daycare and it absolutely lifted up my mood for the rest of the afternoon. It's not uncommon for baby K to babble non-stop at home, so I can't imagine it being too different from what I've already seen, but just hearing about how she's making everyone in her room smile... it makes me so proud of my little girl!

Meat Lover

For someone who loves eating veggies as much as I do, who would've thought my daughter would be the complete opposite? She'd chow down all the pieces of meat we give her, whether it be chicken, beef, or even pork (which came as a surprise since pork made me nauseous when I was pregnant with baby K), but when it came to vegetables, it would be an instant no-no. It didn't matter that we gave her both meat and veggie in one spoonful. She'd scoop the whole thing in her mouth, chew and swallow the meat, and spit back out the veggie.

I could not live up to my role as super-mommy tonight. I got home too late and didn't have time to do everything that needed to be done, so baby K was spared of her bath. I debated whether I should bathe her and delay her dinner by half an hour, but that would've meant an extra thirty minutes of hysterics, so I decided to satisfy my baby's tummy instead. Her crying and screaming for food was limited to the last five minutes of cooking when I stopped putting Cheerios in front of her.

I only had time to make pasta, so that's what was on the menu for dinner. I mixed in some zucchini into the sauce, nearly slicing my finger off while I was chopping them up (note to self: not smart to be rushing and using a knife while my eyes are on baby K!). Baby K ate the first few bites fine, but then started giving me trouble. She would take in the spoonful of food (with both pasta and zucchini), and just when I thought her mouth was empty, she'd stick her tongue out and the piece of zucchini would fall onto her bib. Dinner was a challenge and eventually ended in tears (hers, though it may as well have been mine).

What to do tomorrow? I am determined to give my little girl a bath. If I don't get home in time to cook, guess that'll mean take-out for dinner. At least there will be meat, so maybe baby K will eat a little more than she did tonight.

Feeding Mommy

Baby K is finally over her stomach virus (and daddy is recovering as well, thankfully!). It was great to see her appetite back last night. M made stuffed peppers with rice, and baby K ate almost as much as I did! We kept having to refill her plate with food. I don't think I've ever seen her eat so much in one setting! I guess she has to make up for three full days of no solids in her body last weekend.

Once in a while, baby K likes to pick up whatever food is left on her tray and feed it to me (i.e., pieces of chicken, rice, vegetables). I would let her put it in my mouth and even express how yummy it is. A few days ago, I was giving her some apple sauce. About three-quarters the way done, baby K stopped eating and got very fussy. She kept pointing at the spoon, so I tried to let her hold it and feed herself, but she'd refuse. When I put my face close to hers, she used her fingers and tried to pry my mouth open. That was when it dawned on me that my little girl wanted to feed me the apple sauce. What a revelation! It's pretty scary sometimes how much our little ones learn from observing our actions and then try to imitate us. Hopefully baby K will only be picking up our good habits!

Future Mozart In The Makings

My poor piano has been neglected for well over a year now. I've barely touched it ever since I was pregnant and my tummy got so big that my fingers could hardly reach the keys when I sat on the bench. I haven't had much of an opportunity to play it since baby K's been born either, so more recently, I've been putting her on my lap and letting her bang on the keys just to make some noise out of it. Yes, like all other Chinese parents in the generation before mine, I am determined to make a musician out of my little girl.

Last night, I attempted to exercise my fingers... granted, the piano hasn't been tuned in a year and a half, but I think I'll have to practice some more in private before I let M take a video again. Consider yourselves warned: you may want to shield your ears from the racket you are about to hear.

BRACK and WOOH

For the past few weeks, baby K has been saying "BRACK" a lot. M and I would look at each other in puzzlement, wondering where that word came from and what it meant. Was it something her Russian caregiver taught her? Was that her version of saying mama and dada? Was she trying to tell us hi? We had no idea.

Eventually, M figured out that baby K was trying to say "Where are you?" For months now, M has been saying "Where are you?" while playing with baby K. He'd say it whenever I'm out of the room in an attempt to get baby K to look for me, or would yell it out when he's in another room himself. Now we realize that when we ask "Where are you?," baby K imitates us with "BRACK." She's made some progress though. The "BRACK" has evolved into "BREAR" and even into "WHERE" once in a while. Next steps: all we have to do is teach her "ARE" and "YOU." Funny how these will probably be the first real words out of her mouth instead of "mama" and "dada." (Although to give her credit, she does say dada and mama... I just don't know if she connects it to M and me at this point.)

We've also been trying to get baby K to associate words with objects. Since Winnie the Pooh is plastered all over her room, we always ask her where's Pooh, and then point to the picture of Pooh on her wall. She's started copying us, but would say "Wooh" instead of "Pooh." Normal parents teach their kids simple (and perhaps more significant) things like mommy and daddy. But are we normal? Of course not! We have to start with words like "Where are you?" and "Pooh!"