Crayola Factory

We spent the day at the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA yesterday (it felt so good to take off from work!). I have been planning it for a few weeks now and was very excited to bring baby K there, but I didn't want to get my hopes up too high in case she didn't like it. Fortunately, she had a great time (as we all did). The place wasn't that big, but we spent a good amount of time on each activity they offered. Baby K even made early birthday cards for gong gong, por por, and grandma. She was so busy enjoying herself that she didn't nap until we left at 4:00pm (at which point she promptly conked out in the car). Here are some pictures from our day of fun. As usual, my little girl doesn't like to smile for the camera.
Out of the 126 photos taken yesterday, here's my favorite one:

Family Day

It was nice to have this past Monday off (thank you, past presidents!). We spent the morning in New Brunswick, where the State Theatre hosted a "Family Day" event, offering children's activities (most of them requiring a fee) throughout the day. We took advantage of the free activities and enjoyed a mini-concert at the Crossroads Theatre. I thought the music would be too loud for baby K, but she seemed to enjoy it (despite the blank stare on her face as she was watching the kid's rock band "Starfish" perform). Afterwards, we visited the United Methodist Church where the front of the sanctuary offered a display of animal pelts, courtesy of the Philadelphia Zoo. It probably wasn't worth the 20-minute wait it took to get to the front since there weren't many real animals to look at and baby K wasn't interested in touching the pelts (not that I blame her), but she did get to see a cute little hedgehog. We also took pictures with a few costume characters and baby K experienced her first visit in a fire truck.

VeggieTales Dance

It's been a while since baby K has watched VeggieTales. She's been on such a Sesame Street craze that all other characters have been put to the back-burner. Maybe she's finally getting over it since she was going through her collection of DVDs the other day and asked to play "Where's God When I'm Scared." It's good to know my little girl hasn't forgotten her beloved veggie friends. This video captures her dancing to the theme song (for the second time in a row). I love how she's all out of breath by the end of it and automatically plops herself down on the couch to watch the rest of the show.

Bouncing Fun

Baby K came down with a terrible cold on Friday... to the point where her daycare called me three times and had me go pick her up early. She didn't have a fever, but was crying non-stop and pretty much inconsolable. She looked so miserable that I was afraid we'd have to cancel our plans the next day to go to JG's birthday party in Long Island. We didn't decide until we woke up Saturday morning. Fortunately, baby K seemed to be in better spirits by then and the leaky faucet (otherwise known as her nose) was halted.

We got off to a late start since none of us slept well the night before, but made it to the party place just in time. Baby K had so much fun going through the inflatable slides and bounce houses that we may consider having her next birthday party at a similar place.

Toddler Talk and Songs

Before I became a mom, there would be often times when I spoke to a young toddler and didn't understand what he/she was saying; I would look to the parents for a translation and was always amazed at how they knew exactly what their child was saying. Now that I have my own, I totally get it!

Some classic examples:
Kayla = Teeya
Eva = Eba or Ebup or E-up
Kim = Tim
Ashley = Ashie
grandma = sanma
excuse me = sushi
see you tomorrow = see you moro
broccoli = brokki
Thomas = Prize
cookies = choochies
water = wata
Yo Gabba Gabba = Da Da Ba
silly band = seely ban
hair tie = seely ban
three = bee

Despite the Christmas season being over, baby K will once in a while launch into her own rendition of "Jingle Bells" or "Oh Christmas Tree." Needless to say, it'd sound foreign to any outsider hearing her sing, but to us, it is music to the ears. A few other favorites of baby K:

• Jesus Loves Me: I am still amazed that baby K knows this song. She's only heard it a handful of times at Calvary Chapel Old Bridge when we're there on Sundays and I brought her over to sing with the 3-5 year olds. She doesn't know all the lyrics yet, but would repeat the chorus over and over again.
• Farmer In The Soup: Baby K has a book titled "Farmer In The Soup" that she likes. M and I have changed the words from the song "Farmer In The Dell" to "Farmer In The Soup."
• London Bridge Is Falling Down: Baby K must've learned this at daycare since we never sang it at home, but instead of singing "my fair lady" in the last line, baby K would sing something that sounds like "I love you." That's the version we've adopted at home now.
• BINGO: I think baby K's class was learning colors one day and the teachers used the melody from BINGO to teach the kids. As a result, baby K only knows the chorus as G-R-E-E-N, not B-I-N-G-O. That's all she remembers from the song so she would sing G-R-E-E-N over and over again. Hey, at the age of 2, my little girl can spell the color green; who am I to complain?

Slow Progress

It has been over two weeks since my last post, and I am disappointed to say that little progress has been made in the potty training front. Baby K has been willing to sit in the toilet at daycare when it's time to change her diaper, but other than the one-off earlier this month, she hasn't actually peed in the toilet. She did pee in her potty chair today, but that was the first time in over two weeks. Yesterday she refused to put on a diaper, so I allowed her to wear only underwear under her pants. I would ask her every five minutes if she had to go (to the point where even I got annoyed at hearing me ask, "do you have to pee pee?"). The answer was "no" every time. The second I walked away, she decided to go. Eghh... how did I know that was going to happen? Fortunately it was only pee we had to deal with, but still a mess to clean up.

I told myself I wasn't going to force the issue... that I would let baby K wean off of diapers when she's ready (I just wish she'd be ready sooner rather than later). Baby K understands the concept; I just don't think she's comfortable going in the potty chair yet. We are down to the last box of diapers and I was hoping we wouldn't have to restock, but it doesn't look very promising at this point.

Potty Training Progress

Tuesday morning marked a great milestone for baby K: she peed in her potty chair (at her own free will) for the first time! She had just woken up and was playing in her crib. For the past few weeks now, I've been asking her every morning if she wants to go pee pee, and the answer is always no. To my surprise, she said yes that morning, so I brought her into the bathroom and plopped her down on her Dora toilet seat. She sat for a while, then decided to get up and sit on her potty chair instead. She switched back and forth a few more times. After about 20 minutes (God has been teaching me much about patience through my little girl), she finally peed in the potty chair. I was practically shouting for joy at the top of my lungs, and she just acted like it was no big deal, giving me a look as if thinking, "mommy, you're weird." I shared the news with baby K's teacher when I dropped her off at daycare, and to my delight, she peed using the toilet later that morning while there. Minor progress was made on Wednesday and Thursday as she became more and more willing to sit on the throne. This morning marked another success - baby K peed using the toilet at home (a step up from her potty chair). I am so proud of my little girl! Hopefully this is the beginning to the end of diapers!

H Mart

This morning, we made a trip to H Mart, a Korean chain supermarket, that recently opened up in Edison. I was pleasantly surprised with the shopping experience. Everything was nicely organized (though I guess that's to be expected since the place is new), there were free tastings throughout the store, it wasn't too crowded (absolutely no comparison to the one we used to frequent in Flushing), the prices were pretty reasonable for most of their products, and best of all, baby K had a blast. She sat in the shopping cart at the beginning of the trip, but after the first five minutes, demanded to be let down. There was a brief moment of defiance when she started running around the supermarket on her own, but we got her to calm down and had her push the shopping cart with M. The best part came when we were checking out. There was Korean music playing over the loudspeaker and baby K started dancing... right there in the middle of the store, not caring who was around her. It was the funniest thing; I wish I could have captured it on video. Even as we made our way towards the food court, baby K continued to jump while walking. Fortunately, she got all the excitement out of her system by the time we finished eating and didn't give us any problems about leaving. Next time we suffer from cabin fever, I'll know where to go. In the meantime, I'll have to solicit some Korean music from M's niece (who's a big fan).