Cupcake face

A toddler's elephant memory is pretty amazing. Since we had a lil' cupcake at B&N on her 2nd birthday, everytime when we drive by the outside of B&N, she has already jumped up and down inside the carseat shrilling excitedly "Cupcake! Happy birthday to you!". Ever since then, she wants a cupcake whenever we hang out at B&N. These are her happy cupcake face indulging the frosting.

This evening at dinner table, I asked her if she wanted more rice, she surprised me by saying "No thanks." to indicate she's full.

Sunday morning

10:30 am in the morning and it's rare that Elle was still asleep. That's her signature horrible sleeping posture. This clumsy baby still fall off from our king-size bed in the middle of the night when she's sleeping with us.

Saturday

Elle has been battling with fever, cough and running nose for the past four days. The coughing, moaning and crying day in and day out really drive us into insanity that it feels like a decade has passed. We were worried and sleep-deprived and be glad that she's on the mend.

I started my early morning off with a stroll at the farmer market while the big and the lil' ones were still in the dreamland. The farmer market is such an eye candy, no to mention the smell of the fresh produce that make you feel so alive and wonderful. It's a delight to walk in an open air market checking out what kind of produce is in season. I treated myself a great cup of joe at my favorite coffee joint in downtown on my way back. I miss the distinct roasted coffee flavor and aroma, the smokiness, and the hippie people work in the cafe.

It's a gorgeous sunshine day, a perfect day to get Elle out of the apartment to get some fresh air and soak up that Vitamin E at the arts and crafts show in Milham Park. It's ironic that I've missed this art fair in all the years I've been in Kalamazoo. I'm surprised it attracted such a big crowd with babies and puppies in tow. White tents scatterred around under big shady trees with plenty of unique arts on display. We had so much fun strolling from one tent to another admiring the creativitiness of these artists.

Wicked laugh

It's wicked funny to watch her making a fake laugh out loud. Today, out of nowhere she surprises us with her new trick: Cross her arms over her chest, tilt her body to one side, turn her head away from us, squishing her eyes with a cheeky smile saying "NO"! Too funny.

Happy father day!

Catch of the day

A walleye caught at wolf lake this evening. Yeah! We'll have fried walleye this weekend.

Let's go for a ride

Elle is so thrilled over her lil' pink and purple tricycle.

Swimming

Elle always says she wants to go to swimming pool. She's so crazy over her swim suit that she'd carry it and walk around in the apt. The pool is officially open now. Even though the day is sunny and a high 70F, the water is still really cold inside the pool. She just teased around at the pool area, pretended going to jump into the pool but then quickly turned her back away from it. Finally when we got her into the pool, she's wrapping her arms and legs around dada for dear life.

Strawberry u-pick

T'is the strawberry season again! We have been to Mandigo strawberry farm for 3 years straight since Elle was born. Elle was very excited about picking strawberries and what cracked us up was she only wanted to pick small small ones and green color ones. All three of us enjoyed a long afternoon nap after a hard labor picking under the summer sun in the morning.

The breakfast place

I love you

Frederick Meijer of Garden

Love the BoA's Museums On Us program. In the month of June, we picked to visit Frederick Meijer of Garden in Grand Rapids. The day was gloomy and it's in fact raining lightly on and off, but we had a great time walking around. FMG is a surprisingly nice gem in Grand Rapids.

Elle was so scared of the cactus in the greenhouse. She called them "Yucky" and ran off in between rows of cactus like a monster chasing after her.
In the tropical garden, we saw the biggest screwpine plant I have ever seen in my life. At first, we had doubts that it's fake so we touched and smelled to verify its authentication. We had a scare that the stroller was almost running into the pond as our busybody gal pushing it around.
We spent lots of time at the children's garden. There're so many things to see, to touch, and to play with for the toddlers: the water fountain, five senses garden, the story telling garden, and so much more. Elle was running and hopping like a wild kid on the loose, giggling like pillsbury dough boy. She loved the suspension bridge, running back and forth with no fear.



She called this statue "ACC". What a fun alphabet statue.

25 months old

Dear Elle,

Another month passed so quickly that mama almost forget about your monthly update. We spend lots of time at the park, on the beach, and in the library. Is there a caterpillar season going on right now? We see caterpillars everywhere, wriggling around. You say hi and bye to them. We'd squat down and watch them closely.
A major milestone mama discovered while you're playing at the playground is your motor skill is getting way better. All of a sudden, you're able to climb up the cargo net and rock climbing wall all by yourself. Oh, the spinner! You have so much fun spinning yourself till you drop to the floor, let a breath out saying "晕了!晕了!". Mama is so proud of you.

Everything has to be "baby small small one" and "mama/dada big big one". You'd cry if yours is not the small one. You'd cry if we say we'd like to have the small one and you get to have the big one.

Potty training comes naturally to you. You'd push us out and shut the door when you're doing serious business inside. When you're done, you open the door and come to us saying "I'm done.".

It gradually becomes a routine that every morning when you wake up you'd say "早安!" to us. If we try to steal a few minutes lazing on the bed, you'd shake us and scream "早安! wake up! wake up!". It's a total enjoyment to watch you singing "itsy bitsy spider", "twinkle star", and "I love you" incorporating hand gesture along. Your innocent voice and face impression is simply too precious.
You blurted out "Baby too fat!" when mama was trying very hard to tuck your hand into the sleeve of the dress. It's funny that you call dark colors as "yucky" color. One morning while dada was tying your shoelace, you blurted out, "Baby white. Baba white. Mama yucky!". The way you commented the color of the shirts we wore simply helpless hilarious.

You're a happy camper sitting by yourself at the back of the car now. You love to climb up into the car and buckle up all by yourself. When we drive through the McDonald, we'd hear you screaming "Coffee! Coffee!" from the back. When we drive past any playground, you'd alert us by kickn' and yell'n "Play! Play!" excitedly.

You're getting more sneaky that you'd try to melt us to give in by saying, "please, thank you, i love you!" in one shot. You'd say back "welcome" when we say thank you. You start to shoo us away by telling us "Go away!". Isn't a sign of independence or rebellion?

It's so ridiculous of us spending so much time picking the bugs off the slide so that you can slide down in peace. You'd halt at the top of the slide when you spot a bug or two way down the slide, covering your face with two hands and started screaming and crying over the yucky bugs which are in your way. Oh! What a cry baby you are! We really hope to get through the phase of your constant crying and whining over teeny things or nothing. It's unbelievable that given ten fingers and ten toes are not enough to count how many time you cry in a day.
Love,
Mama

BBQ frenzy

24 month checkup

Elle's 24 month measurements of weight/height/head are 33.9 oz/35.5 in/49.5 cm. It's a shock to find out that Elle is off the chart for weight at 103.6 percentile, and her height is at 98.7 percentile. Gosh! She's growing like weed. The doctor advised giving her skim milk from now on and no more than 40 oz per day.