New Year Eve

It's a shame that Elle and I slept through the new year eve. Hin was on meds, laying semi-consciously on the couch while the TV was broadcasting the new year countdown. We bid farewell to year 2007 silently.

Elle has made progress on crawling forward and even pulling herself up by holding on the furniture. She amazes us of her observation towards wee things. She can spot on tiny little things that we don't even realize they're there, such as a dirt, a stain, a scar, or a string of hair. I love the look of her when she concentrates on a thing. Her face expression is a mix of curiosity, wonder, and mind-crunching with a furrowed brow, as if it's the biggest discovery, the biggest mystery in the whole universe.

Happy reader

We read a lot to Elle when she was around 3 months old and since then we have been slacking off due to so many reasons and excuses. The only book she reads and chews on is given by her pediatrician in 6 months checkup.

Today, we finally made it to the library to get some books for Elle. There's a go-cart type of transport for baby-riding by the elevator. We thought it would be fun and were so excited to let Elle to ride on it. Guess what, the seconds she left our arms and placed into the cart, she started pursing her lips and crying, wanted to be out of it. We ignored the noise she made and pushed her around, hoping she would shut up and enjoy it after a while. As her noise level was rising significantly, we had no choice but to pull the screaming baby out of the cart. After all, we're in a library.

She acted a little bit cautious, grabbing a corner of my shirt, when we put her down on the floor exploring the books. It only took her a while to flap her arms and bang the books, pull them from the shelves, and gnaw on them. Pure joys!

7 months in red cap

Changing diaper and outfit has become a totally new experience for us now! It's ridiculous that two adults can't keep a baby from rolling over and sitting up during changing. The most horrifying moment is when her bum is covered with explosive poops. Gosh! We need some help! Maybe a few handcuffs and twine will do!

We suspect there's teething going on with Elle by her constantly licking the lower gum with her tongue. Keep our finger crossed. We have a fantastic day at home today. No meltdowns. In between meals, we play for two hours and then she naps for one and a half hours. It's a bliss.

Elle has a big head. It's sort of weird that she still fits in her red cap she worn when she was just born.

Elle got elfed!

Mama couldn't resist turning Elle into a singing, dancing, mirthful elf troupe and spread the Elfin' cheers to y'all. Click here to watch Elle, the elf troupe.

Clingy baby

Elle's clinginess has been escalated since a week ago. When we drop her off to the daycare, she'll purse her lips and hold out both of her hands, desperately wanting us to take her back. She looks so pitiful yet silly, make me want to wipe off the tears streaming down her face.

She wants to be carried a lot lately. She cries when we put her down or out of her sight. She doesn't let anyone else, besides mama and dada, holding her. We're very surprised that she totally enjoyed the company of Santa Claus, no crying, fussing, or frightening over the scary big beard guy.

Looking back the past 7 months, it's funny to reflect how Elle always throws us one or two curve balls that when a problem gets resolved, more problems surface. In the first 2 months, that was a period that she only wanted her granny and grandpa to carry her and she would cry colicky when we were holding her. Getting her to nap was a headache. In her 3rd month, she developed a blissful sleeping routine; however, she didn't want to eat and sleep in daycare, which worried us so much. 4th and 5th month were the months we dealt with her nose stuffiness, lots of mucus sucking and saline drops. Her bottle striking at home drove us over the edge, almost. 6th month is the whining month; however, we're blessed that feeding her is no longer dreading. 7th month is the month of clinginess and we're going back to sleeping problem again for the sake of her ability to sit up.

Merry Christmas!

I have been neglecting the fact that Elle is way different than she was a month ago. My baby is growing and has a mind of her own now. It seems to be a mission impossible to make her sitting still and not rolling and moving all over the place, not taking off the Santa hat every single time I put it on her, not whining and throwing me tantrum, so that I could take Christmas holiday pictures for her. This photo session has a lot of wrestling involved.

We helped Elle open her Christmas gift after the breakfast. At night, we drove through the
Nite Lites Christmas Light Display to spark up the Christmas spirit.

Merry Christmas to y'all! Ho Ho Ho!

T'is the season!

We had a wonderful time at the German Christmas market, Christkindlmarket, in Chicago. It's filled with festive holiday atmosphere: the gigantic Christmas tree, sparkling lights, fragrance of food, the puppet show, the crowd and the holiday musics.

Elle was very excited and tired at the same time when we were walking around the market. She was like jumping in our arms joyfully in one second, squirming and whining in the next second. We had been waiting about 45 minutes in line to the Santa House. Her whimsical behavior made us thinking that we should prepare for the worst, screaming, yelling and kicking, to happen when she met the Santa Claus for the first time. Out of our expectation, she was not startled at all when we passed her to the Santa. She sat quietly on the Santa's lap and looked curiously at the red suit, big white beard jolly man. Being a good baby for a few minutes, Elle started acting mischievously. Grabbing the Santa's beard with two hands and then pulling his mustache! The funniest was she turned to us giggling at what she just did. She definitely looked proud! It's a killer! Everyone in the room burst into laughter at these classic acts.

Tabblo:Christkindlmarket

Sitting up

Elle has discovered using her hands, knees and butt to pull herself up into sitting position now. She lifts her butt high in the air, bends one of her knee and shifts her butt to one side, turns one leg over, and voila! she's sitting up! It's amazing that she can do this, rolling, rocking, sitting up, on the bed for 3 hours straight. She's just one energizer bunny! Getting her to sleep takes much more longer now because she wants to sit up all the time. When Elle is about to get into deep sleep, she'll suck her thumb rhythmically. It's so funny to see her suddenly sitting herself up when we thought she's about to sleep.

This evening, Elle somehow got around the pillow fort we built and fell off our bed. I dashed into the room when I heard a loud thump sound coming from the room. She was laying on the floor, surprisingly no crying. Probably because of she had not recovered from the shock, or she was pretty stunned when seeing mama storming into the room screaming crazily.

Inconsolable

Another meltdown exploded last night for no reason. We were having funs and laughs for an hour and suddenly she switched into a very grumpy mood, screaming Ma-ma Ma-ma Ma-ma.. Na-Na Na-Na Na-Na.. Teething, gas, over-stuffed, over-tired, or just being a spoiled brat? We almost pulled our hair out, thinking all possible causes.

This picture reminds me how sweet she is.

Let it snow!

We have a 6-inch of snow accumulation over the night. Kalamazoo becomes a winter wonderland, covered with a blanket of snow. The sun shining through a clear blue sky, making the snow glistening like crystals. Absolutely gorgeous and stunning.

It's the perfect day to visit the Christmas tree farm. The snow just made it look more christmasy. Don't be fooled by the sunshine, the wind chill was below freezing. We woke up our sleeping bug in the carseat, bundled her into the snow suit and ventured into the wonderland. It's funny how the crispy cold air chased away Elle's sleeping bug in a finger snap. She's all curious and excited for this new sensation and experience. She stuck out her tongue a lot, probably trying to get a lick or two of the evaporated snow in the air? The freezing weather made us acted real fast, snapping a few pictures here and there and we hopped back to our car.

It's a beautiful day, despite a few baby meltdowns. Elle spit out Na-Na Na-Na for the first time when she acted up cranky at our lunch-out today.

Stand up!

I was jaw-drop stunned when I turned around and saw Elle holding onto the slates and standing in the crib. Gosh! She was lying on the crib just a few seconds ago; all of a sudden, she was standing tall and proud! She seemed to enjoy her new perspective of bird-eye view. In no time, Elle started chewing and licking on the teething guard along the rail.

Rock 'N' Roll

Elle is raising herself onto her hands and knees rocking back and forth, and doing a few push-ups. I can't help having silly thoughts of these baby push-ups have something to do with the spinach we added to her diet just a couple of days ago. Hin and I were joking about Elle's biceps bulged from her powerful arms, just like the Popeye, the sailor man, after she gulps down the spinach.

You can tell from the pictures that it's very ungraceful of her throwing arms and legs in the air, tossing and rolling all over inside the crib. Well, it's a delight for her.

E-L-I-B-O-M

That's right! Mobile spells backward. Yay! Elle's newfound backward mobility!

We set her on the floor and sit in front of her luring her with all sort of toys. It's funny that the more she wants to move forward, the more she scouts backward until her bottom gets underneath the crib. We'll have to pull her out and start all over again. Elle doesn't seem very fond of scouting on the floor. After moving for a while, she'll wah-wah-wah to protest. If we do nothing about it, she'll just take a break and lie on the floor and suck on her thumb.

She is a great performer in gymnastics on our king-sized bed. She loves slithering on her stomach and rolling across the bed, screeching with joy. Elle will roll back and forth between me and her dada when we lie down on each side of the bed.

Holding her becomes more like wrestling with her. She wriggles in our arms like a worm, left, right, upward, downward, and upside down. Her new stunt is pushing up off our chest, lift her butt high in the air, straighten the legs and stand on our lap.

For Elle, there's nothing more intriguing than the remote control, place mats, papers and stuffs on the coffee table. She hardly sit still on our lap. Our wriggly bug leans her body forward and stretches her upper body muscles to reach every possible things on the coffee table. Until everything gets knocked off from the table, she will stare at the objects on the floor and give the innocent what-are-you-doing-on-the-floor look. From time to time, we have incidents of all of a sudden the TV being shut down, the channel flipped from one to another, or sleep mode being turned on. It takes no time to figure out what's happening when we see Elle have the remote control by herself.

You bet life is getting more interesting when she starts crawling.

Swing into pre-X'mas spirit

Elle met the mini version of the white beard, red suit Santa.

Just because we had 20 minutes to spare before the fried chickens got out of the fryer, we wandered around the Christmas decor aisles. Elle's eyes were glittering with curiosity at the festive Christmas decorations and fascinated by those funky dancing musical figurines.

We had a little drama going on with the fried chicken. The fresh batch of fried chickens were already gone when we got back there. Unbelievable! What's the chance of the person before us buying all those chickens?! By the time we finally got our chicken, another half an hour had passed. Elle was already very hungry that she could gulp down an elephant.

Who to blame? Me. Because of me spending too much time on taking pictures. Hin gave me some attitude for this incident, trying to make me feel remorse of what I did. He said I should learn where to draw a line between taking photographs and everything else. Hmmm...

Sunday Morning

Breakfast time! Dada cooks the breakfast, mama enjoys her eggs over easy and Elle chews on her whole grain bread with no hand. She's eating like a puppy. It's so funny of her looking around with the bread hanging from her mouth.

Ornament me!

A diaper, babylegs, a bib and a hat. That's the way mama dresses me up!

7 months old

Dear Elle,

You bring out the child in us
We become fun, silly and childlike again
Yet, you make us grow up and step up to be a parent
We become papa bear and mama bear, flaunting our paw with shinny claw

Happy 7 months old, baby bear! You sprinkle magical happy dust on us every day.

Love,
Mama

My darling

Everyone raved about Elle so darling in her cute outfit when I picked her up from the daycare this evening. Mama just went frenzy snapping a couple hundreds pictures of her. Here's one for show and tell.

Just talk my ears off

Elle is really into talking now. Baby talking is totally music to the ear. It rhymes: Da-da Da-da pbbff.. Ta-ta Ta-ta pbbff.. Ah pbbff.. Ba-ba Ba-ba pbbff.. Yes, Elle loves remixing talking with blowing raspberries in her la-la land.

Three of us snuggled up in bed to get more sleep after a morning feed. It's utterly lovely to be awaken by the most angelic sounds in the universe. When I opened my eyes, Elle was talking to me with her sweetest tone, looking into my eyes and caressing my face with her tiny fingers. We just let the morning slipped by as we laid lazily in the bed. I can imagine myself getting addicted to this.

Oh! Capricious baby!

One second she laughs her heart out, the next second she bursts into crying. My capricious baby just acts ridiculous and silly. No doubt, there's a mild separation anxiety developing in her now.

I'm just a new mom who loves to tease my baby, make her cry and the fix my bads by making her laugh again. We have a new game going like this:

Mama disappears from Elle's sight
Elle looks around for mama with a clueless face
Mama peeps from the hideout
Elle spots mama peeping and giggles
Mama disappears again and stays put in the hideout (no peeping this time)
Elle can't find mama and starts sobbing
Mama pops right in her face to come in rescue
Elle's crying turns into hysterical laughter

Oh dear, so much fun!