New Year Eve

We're having potluck at Ida's house celebrating the coming new year. As usual, it took a while for Elle to warm up to mingle in. She put on a very mean look as if everyone in the room had annoyed her somehow, which was so hilarious that cracking us up. Oh boy, once she broke the ice, she was a loud, wild one, hanging out with the boys and mimicking everything they did.

It's funny to see her trying to jump on the bed like the boys and fighting toys with them. This naughty girl yelled out "NO" and slammed the door in my face whenever I was trying to peep into the room. She would then lock the door and scream "help me help me" from inside, calling others to open the door for her. Azman was together with this naughty girl in the slamming door act, standing by her side watching her slamming the door and then helping her to open the door when she's screaming in distress as if the world would collapse if the door didn't open right away.

While Ida was busy frying munchies in the kitchen, she kept going to the kitchen with an empty bowl asking Ida for more fried goodies, which really cracked us up. Zul made a kick ass apple pie from scratch, yummilicious. Just 10 minutes before the clock struck midnight, we bid farewell to the host and on our way to downtown. The fireworks blasted upon the sky while we're driving towards downtown. We pulled the car into a parking lot with the crowds, watching the fireworks inside the car. Elle was oohing and aahing with us when the fireworks were shooting into the sky. We welcomed the new year in a blast of fireworks. By the time Elle got to bed, it's already past 1am.

Chicago trip

Lots of cryin', laughin', hoppin', runnin', climbin' and throwin' tantrums. It's exhausting, but a great family time together. During our two days stay, the weather was windy and chilly even though we had gorgeous sunshine.

Drink like a big girrrl

Merry Christmas!

What a bright sunshine Christmas day we have today. We had a wonderful time playing in the snow, sliding in the playground, stomping through the snow, pulling sleigh around, and lying on the snow.

Season's greeting

We have plenty of snow this season, about 12 inches of snow accumulation, and it's freezing cold. Today, it starts raining and the snow turns into mushy slush on the road.

My lil' santa baby wish ya'all a jolly merry Christmas!

Cry-baby complainer

Elle has been complaining a lot, pointing at the "bully" and mumbling away. It happens whenever mama doesn't give in to her or says NO in her face, she'd run to her dada, making a big deal of her being bullied, and then firing away her accusation of mama's wrongdoings. These pictures were captured while she's filing a complaint to dada of mama saying no to her drinking from the cup.

Meet Santa Claus

After fourty minutes wait in line, we got three shots of Elle crying on Santa's lap. Well, she's more like fake crying and screaming, expressing her dislike of being placed on the big jolly man's lap. It did not cross my mind that she'd cry when meeting the Santa. She loves her Santa hat and calls it "Santa". She has been calling "Santa Santa" when she's seeing the red suit white beard man during her TV time. Not to mention she was happy like a seal, swinging her body along with the holiday music while we're waiting in line. Don't we just love the surprises our baby throws at us in our parenthood? Last year was a pleasant surprise though that when we expected the worst, she's acting mischiveous with Santa pulling his beard and laughing at him.

I'm done!

Since a couple days ago, Elle annouces she is full by saying "I'm done! I'm done!". She'd put her silverware inside her bowl and then put her bowl away from the tray to the dining table. After that, she'd start pulling off her bib with her almighty strength until it gets off. It's hilarious to see her face turns red and her veins bulge out as she's straining with the bib, looks exactly like someone is doing some heavy weight lifting.

She insisted having the whole fish placing on her tray and dug in by herself. When we took it away, she'd point her finger at the fish and then at the tray saying "Put!" or "Sit!", commanding us to put the fish back to her tray. It's cracking funny but heart warming at the same time when she's trying to feed us and help us filling up our bowl with food.

Lil' gymnast

Elle is getting pretty wild and thrilled over rough play. Screaming in excitement when we're spinning her around. She looks funny in these pictures, holding her bangs with both hands while spinning around. This silly baby loves saying "Hi" in her Downward-Facing Dog yoga pose.

Talking about bang, it's getting longer and the frequency of her pulling out the hair clip is increasing, which means, her bang gets in her face and eyes all the time. In good mood, she'd sweep her bangs up like a suave shampoo advertisment. At times her bang ticks her off so much that she growls and moans, rumpling her hair frustratively like a grumpy old woman.

Merry-go-round

A drama episode of Elle taking a spin on the carousel ride. Seconds after I had her fastened on a horsey, before the carousel started, she had already gotten impatient wanting to get off it. I coaxed and distracted making her to stay put and be glad that the ride finally kicked in in another minute or so. It's wondrous to watch her face lit up with astonishment the moment her ride started going around. She was so excited throughout the ride, looking out at the world spinning by with shrills of joy. When the ride came to the end and stopped, she got that puzzled look on her face wondering why it didn't go on forever. I told her "no more" and unfastened her seat belt ready to get her down. Here's when a merry ride turned sour. She started screaming, refused to get down and had her hands glued to the horsey. The woman stood next to us gave me a sympathized look, saying "Uuh Oh!". After several attempts, I finally got her off the horsey, carried her inside my arms while she's screaming at the top of her lungs with tears spilling like a fountain, making a very dramatic scene to the crowd. She's so sad about it that she's still sobbing when we're heading towards a shop. I put her down to walk by herself, thinking that she should get it over by then. I was wrong. She grabbed my hand, dragging me to the way back to the merry-go-round!

Elfin' greeting

Holiday cheers to y'all!

Playful

Put strainer over her head and say it's hat. Pick up imaginative food from the strainer and pretend eating as if it's finger licking good.

Wear colander as a hat and put it over the face playing peekaboo. Guess what she's doing in the last picture?

She stopped playing out of a sudden and went hiding in the corner had her face covered up. Seconds later, I smelled what she's up to. Yup, she's pooping!!! Hilarious.

19 month checkup

Poor baby freaked out and burst into tears the moment she stepped into the exam room. Those unpleasant memories of shots in this room must have flooded into her mind. She's getting two injections today, one flu shot and one Hepatitis A shot. She's squealing like a piggie for the first shot, crying her heart out. The second shot was a bloody scene. Her muscle was so tense as she was trying to squirm her way out that the blood was spilling like a fountain when the second shot went in. Aside from losing many droplets of blood, being teary and weary, she's healthy and stays in line with the developmental milestones. At 19th month, Elle weighted 29.12 pounds, 34 inches in height and head circumference is 49 cm. A whooping 90th percentile in height, and 75 percentile for both weight and head circumference.

Attempt to sled

down the hill in a float after an hour of hassling with an inflatable snow tube. Proven, float is only intended to be used in the pool. Nevertheless, Elle has a fantastic time playing in the snow!

19 months old

Dear Elle,

We're going through the "Everything is MINE" phase a couple weeks ago before you turn into 19 months old today. You scream out "Mine" and take immediate possession of your "Mine" things away from us. The word "Yours" apparantly doesn't exist in your vocabulary yet.




You love reading as always. You wave the book in front of our face saying "Book!" and then snuggle in our laps reading together. We can go through ten books at a time, reading each book more than twice. The same story can be repeated a hundered times if we allowed you. Ever since mama and dada pick up the "Baa Baa black sheep" song from a book, you always flip to that page and say gleefully "Baa Baa" and then we start singing the song together. Your lyric is a mix of "Baa Baa", "Aah Aah" and a bunch of baby gibberish, utterly cute and silly. Mama even crazy enough to sing it over and over again to make you stay put in your potty chair during potty time.

You roar with an open mouth, imitating a lion sounds when you see a lion in the book. You count one to ten. You say "Bye bye! See you!" to bid farewell. You say "看" when you want us to turn on the TV for you. You almost drive dada crazy by saying "痛痛" gazillion times a day. Last week, we found 3 bug bites on your left hand which you couldn't stop scratching and yelling "痛痛" with a pitiful voice. Your dada put some ointment on and covered them up with a plaster. From then on, we'd go through a battle of pulling the plaster off your hand during bathtime. Before we could completely dry you up with the towel, you have alreay opened the medicine cabinet, taking out the ointment, followed by the plaster, stuffing them into our hands and saying "痛痛" with your finger points at the bug bites.

Don't we have fun cheering on the drinks and foods we eat? During the mealtime, we toast on almost everything, saying "Cheers!" out loud . When we're trying to take a bite off your food from the tray, you'd hold your hand out like a stop sign, yelling NO! to shoo us off. Then you'd quickly pick up the food and stuff them into your mouth before we get them. You're such a funny little thing yelling NO NO NO when you see us pouring water to the orange juice before giving it to you.



You now dance with each foot stepping, as if a robot moving, as if tap dancing, as if a dog go peeing because your left leg always lifted much more higher at an angle like a dog is peeing. When mama says "Music Please!", you'd push down the song button on your toy. Then, you'd either tapping your feet along with the music in your signature style, or you'd start turning around and around getting all giddy and dizzy that you fall down to the floor with a big smile on your face. After a few rollings on the floor, you'd get up and then we'd do it over and over again.


You're so full of energy and constantly on the move. You enjoy so much running away from us and then running back into our arms screaming "Ahhhhh...ahhhh..." with arms flailing in the air. While we're watching the telly, you'd stand your feet onto our feet, or sit on our feet making us bounce you up and down. This evening, you put your feet in and out the snowboots for god's sake half an hour. You pull your wig down to you face, walking around and saying "Boo Boo" to us. You're such a mischevious one, giving us rounds and rounds of belly laughters.



You discover the fun of jumping. You're getting there but not quite yet. You look so serious about getting your jumping act right. You stand with your feet together, get down to your jumping squat position with arms at sides, and then you're ready to leap up with all your strength and determination. However, you hardly jump an inch off the ground, instead you stomp an inch forward shakily. It doesn't spoil your thrill over trying to jump over and over again.

You adore snow, happily stomping through the field of fluffy snow like a little warrior. You don't mind at all falling into the snow on your four. You're getting better and better with your throwing arm.




Happy 19 months old, baby! Our love to you growing more and more.

Love,
Mama

Hugs

A daycare snippet when I dropped off Elle this morning. The moment she stepped into the ladybug room, a little boy greeted by her name, baby Jordan came over wrapping her arms around Elle giving her a hug, followed by another boy, and then Jordan again. Baby Jordan must be a hug bear! Awwww, they looked so cute and sweet with the huggings. While holding on that sweet thought, I just remember Elle was bitten AGAIN by an anonymous one on Tuesday. Ouch!

Snuggly baby

Every once in a while, when Elle's getting sleepy, she would climb up to dada, snuggle under his arm lying cozily with him. In no time, she'd fall into slumber blissfully. At that moment, dada would show a proud look on his face singing his own praises, as if waving a victory salute.

It's snow fun!

The winter chill has melted away as Elle's giggles and jolly laughters spreading through the air. She was having heaps of fun, waddling like a penguin in her snow boots, scooping up a handful of snow and throwing it towards us. It was a blast!