15 month checkup

Elle's 15 month checkup is almost one month overdue because of her doctor took the whole month of August off. She's supposed to get two shots in this visit, but since she had a fever yesterday and her temp is still slightly higher than normal, the doctor advised us to come back next week for the shots.

Oh boy, she put up quite a show when we put her into the scale for weighing. She's way over the top, deep-red-scrunchy-face screaming, with strings of tear-pearls spilling out the sides of the eyes. The nurse was trying to weigh her as fast as possible while she's throwing fists and feet inside the scale. After the drama at the weight station, we went back to the room waiting for the doctor. We let her roaming around the room and her favorite was to crawl underneath the chairs. The doctor came in at the moment I was pulling her out from underneath the chair. At first she quietly sat on my lap staring curiously at the doctor with his stethoscope pressed against her chest and back. She was not startled at all when the doctor checked her reflexes by hitting her knee just below the knee cap with a hammer-like instrument and her leg kicked out. Things went smoothly until we laid her down to check the mouth, joints and bottom. It took 3 of us to hold her down: her dada held both of her hands over her head, the doctor kept her torso from jerking up in the middle, while mama was holding down her feet. Gosh! She still managed to move her body across the exam table to the edge that the doctor kept saying "She's a very very strong girl!" and pulled her back to the center of the exam table twice. My poor baby was still very upset and cried sadly after we got this over.

The doctor said her throat is red and swollen which explains why she has refused to drink or eat since yesterday. He got a swap in her mouth for strep test, the test result was negative so we'll just let it run its course. At 15th month, Elle weighted 25 pounds, height measured 31.75 inches and head circumference is 47.5 cm. She's again at 75 percentile for all three measurements. She's growing steady and healthy. It's funny that she gave the doctor a very mean look when he was ready to leave; however, she did not hesitate grabbing the cookie from him when he handed her one.

It's hilarious to see her running straight out of the building without looking back the moment we put her down.

Summer Finale

What a great finale to labor day, the unofficial end of summer season, was another burning hot day.

We went to Ann Arbor, stopping over at Cabela's shopped for fishing rod, buying groceries at an Asian market and then heading towards Makielski Farm picking fall raspberries. The raspberries were not very juicy probably due to the droughty weather, tasted a little tart yet flavorful. Elle shoveled them into her mouth in a lightning speed, running back and forth between rows of raspberry bushes like a drunken sailor. Sometimes she picked the green one among the red ones, and even those laying on the ground and eat them. When it's too late for me to stop her, I just had to keep an eye closed pretending I never saw what she did. It's drop-dead hilarious to see her dada stuffed his cargo pocket with loads of roasted peanut bought from the Asian market, cracking the peanut shells and popping them into his mouth while he's picking the raspberries.

We ate a belly full of raspberries and picked about 2 quarts of these goodies home. Yummo!

Hot beach day

There're tons of people flocked to the beach on the labor day weekend. The scene was jaw-dropping. The shoreline was packed with hundreds of beachcombers. We strolled along the south pier and stayed under the shadow of the lighthouse, watching all sorts of boats passed by and daydreaming our boat we'll have one day. It's amazing to see Elle's totally mesmerized by the passing-by boats.

Later on, we decided not to squeeze ourselves in through the sea of bodies to find a tiny spot on the beach to settle down, so we drove to the North Beach thinking there'll be fewer people there. We were totally wrong! Aside from the terrible traffic on the way to the North Beach, everywhere was packed with people, and we had spent at least half an hour circling around to spot for a parking space. Finally when we got our feet stepping on to the beach, holy moly, the sand was scorching hot and burning our feet! We tiptoed through the burning sand and quickly settled down near the water. It's a piping hot day and we're basking under a blazing hot sun. I squinted into the sun and wished we're laying under one of those beach umbrellas which was "abandoned" by the owners who rather baking under the sun. Quickly I slathered lots of sunscreen on Elle and off she went digging into the sand and spying on other kid's beach toys laying around. We sprinkled sand all over her feet and covered them with sand, enjoyed a cool dip into the water and walked along the shore. Elle seemed to be intimated by the crashing waves. She was scare and excited at the same time when she walked into the water towards me. She shrilled in joy when I got her hands and swept her up into the air. We had funs, but it's a little bit too hot for our liking.

The Amazing Castle

It's a fun exhibit showcased in Kalamazoo Valley Museum, letting the children to role-play the characters in the castle and work together for a community to function.

Hail to princess Elle! She was cooking a feast, planting vegetable, and running in and out of the castle. The funniest must be when she's collecting the eggs from the nest, she blurted out "BALL BALL" at the eggs. She's so afraid of the dragon, Herald, who would pop his sleepy head out of a tower when someone solved the tower's puzzle. She would bury her head in my chest and grasp me tightly. Silly one.

What's not so amazing about this trip is when we're home I couldn't find the camera's memory card, which contained almost all of the photos taken at the exhibit. I must have dropped it somewhere when I exchanged the fully-loaded one with a new one. What a bummer! I lost all the shots of her eating a feast, playing inside the castle and the dragon.

Little friends

We met Kennedy with her dad at the beach. What a rare first name for a girl! She's a wild one, rolling all over the sand and throwing herself into the water.

Elle and Kennedy were very curious about each other, playing together on the beach and passing sand to one another.

Say Halo

Tom & Jerry

Picnic day

We lazed off the day under the shade of the trees, wiggling the toes in the water, and swinging the rods on the fishing pier, simply let the time slipped by on this beautiful sunny day in Yankee Spring. It's relaxing and peaceful, aside from moments when Elle's yelling and crying. She had fun playing rocks with the two big kids, let them holding her hands walking in the woods. Very sweet.

Elle conked out during the car ride home and slept through all the way till the next morning. Unbelievable.

Sleeping beauty

This little piggie spent most of the time sleeping on this day again. We have never seen her so tired before, just not being her usual self, an energizer bunny, at all. When she's awake, her mood swing was like a rollercoaster. One minute she's laughing with you, the next, she's dropping herself to the floor throwing tantrum, rolling from one corner to another. We believe she's in full-fledged teething mode now. Hopefully, this shall pass soon.

In the morning, while the two were still in the dreamland, I sneaked out to the farmer market alone. This week, the new crops include cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn, roasted sweet italian pepper, asian plum, rock melon, asian eggplant, and teddy bear sunflower. I had my 10 bucks well spent getting a load of fresh produce back home.

On the mend

Elle's fever has finally stayed down in the morning. Her fever lingered around 99F and 103F for the past 2 days and she had a hard time sleeping, kept tossing and turning on the bed.

Today, she has been sleeping almost whole day long, waking up at 10:30 am and then drifting into sleep from 11:45 am till 4pm. At around 7pm, she went back sleeping again. My sleeping beauty.

Elle has become a Miss "NO", shaking her head and saying "No No No No No" when she doesn't want something. Even though she looks super cute when doing this and makes us laugh, we know we should not encourage this behavior. So we start to teach her saying the word "YES". Somehow she has a hard time pronouncing "Yes" and we improvise to teach her saying "Yes, sir!". They come out from her mouth as "Yeah see Yeah see" and become one of the favorite phrase she chants all day long.

When I get back from work, her dada shows off to me that Elle knows how to high-five to him. Whenever her dada raises his hand saying "Hi-five", she'd slap his hand. Awww, so cute! Also, her dada described a funny incident happened in the afternoon: Elle snatched his wallet and walked away. He followed behind her asking her to give it back to him and she responded "No" to every single "Give" request. Until when he used a plush toy to make a trade with her, only then she's willing to hand over the wallet. She's learning barter system now.

She has been very interested in opening the door with the key and practicing putting the key into the keyhole recently. Look utterly cute holding remote control next to her ear and shouting out "Hello", pretending like us taking on the phone.

Water gun attack

Boo Boo!

It's a bliss that Elle and I had a 3 hours nap in the afternoon. We need that nap badly due to a couple of late night partyings during the weekdays. When she's awake, she's busy making a mess in the apartment. Gosh! She loves hanging out in the kitchen, taking in and out the pots and pans from the cabinet, stacking and banging them. While I'm washing the dishes, she pulls my leg and says "boo boo" with the colander covered her face. She looked so silly yet funny with her new breed of peek-a-boo game.

We haven't come close to the point where she's quiting the bottle completely even though she has been using sippy cup only at the daycare for over a month now. She acts very upset looking for her bottle when we give her sippy cup at home. Whenever she wants milk, she'll come to us saying "Nai Nai" and then wander off to the kitchen looking up to the counter space where we always prepare the bottle for her and chanting "Nai Nai! Nai Nai!".

Sunflower

We see sunflowers everywhere in the farmer market, brighten my day and make my heart sing. I can't resist to bring a bouquet of sunflowers home. I put them outside on the balcony under the sun. They make me smile everytime I glance at them from the living room. Whenever Elle sees the sunflowers, she'll point at them and say "flower"! Too sweet.

It's funny that Elle can't pronouce word more than 2 sounds. Our belly hurts from laughing when she says "butterfly" as in "But-bye". She's really good at saying "NO" now and use it in the right context. Michelle's mom was so shock to hear her blurting out "NO" to Michelle when Michelle was trying to snatch her yogurt drink. We're trying to work on the word "Yes" with her.

This morning, Elle shocks us by saying her name "Elle". It's a moment as great as the first time she said mama and dada.

Diva

"She's a little Diva!", said by one of the staff at the daycare while I was chit-chatting with them during the pickup. That's by far the funniest comment I have ever heard. Elle is very picky which staff she wants to be with at the daycare. Anyone who is not in her A-list trying to take care of her, she'll turn into a drama queen whining and crying. I bet most of the staff must have get a taste of her diva temperament.

I got a call from TY saying that Michelle will be brought back to China this weekend. We dropped by their house to bid farewell to this little friend yesterday. The last time we met was 3 months ago since they have spent most of time in New Jersey. Michelle had her head shaved and new hair starts to grow in its place. They were just coming back from grocery shopping and I'm shock to find out that Michelle was diaperless! She is diaper-free most of the time and drinking from a big girl's cup already! She's such a sweet little baby as always, friendly, independent and flashing smiles all the times. On the other hand, Elle was clinging on me like a koala bear wanting to be carried most of the time. Well, I couldn't blame her since it's way past her naptime and she had a busy day at the daycare. Elle apparantly looks fatter and bigger than Michelle. It's utterly cute to see Michelle giving hugs to Elle from her behind. On the other hand, Elle kept leaning her cheek towards Michelle's mom asking for a peck on her cheek. Crack us up! It's really sad that we'll not able to see little Michelle for many years.

Peek-a-Boo

Cover her face with two little hands, shout out "Boo Boo!" and uncover her face giggly. Too cute!

We heard her saying "MeMe MeMe" at home for the past two weeks and have no idea what she meant by it. Until yesterday, we finally found out "Meme" is a bunny plush toy she plays at the daycare. We had to bring "Meme" home because she didn't want to let go the little bunny when I picked her up.

Two new words she picks up today: Camel and banana. She says them "A-mel" and "Nana". Crack us up.

SAHD(Stay-At-Home-Day)'s snippet

In the afternoon, I got a call from Hin saying, "Guess what's baby's waist measurement?!".

Holy moly, it's 22 inches!

Peach U-pick

This weekend weather has been a dramatic change from last weekend's sizzling hot weather. It begins to feel like early Autumn already at lower 70c.

Peach u-pick season has begun. However, most of the peaches are not ripe yet probably due to it's still pretty early for the peach season. Elle was holding her big peach in her hands wandering around the orchard, taking her own sweet time bitting into the juicy peach. Peachy face had the juice running down her chin and dripping off to the shirt. It's a mess! Oh, you should see the sour crying face she turned into when she dropped her precious peach to the ground. She immediately became the spotlight among the crowd.



We stopped by a nearby beach after the picking. Wow, the sound of the crashing wave and howling wind was so loud that we can hardly hear each other's scream. I saw goosebumps all over Hin's arms. Elle was pretty intimated by the stormy-like Lake Michigan. She had a blast playing in the puddles along the shore.

Ribfest '08

Smiley face after diggin' in the blue raspberry snow cone. What's new in ribfest this year is it's filled with family activities, including art and craft projects, storytelling, face painting, balloon making, and little chef cooking. We made a bracelet and put lots of stickers on a cup holder together.

Pigtails

Dropping Elle off to daycare with one pigtail on top, picking her up in the evening she's having two pigtails! Double the cuteness!

We spent a leisure evening at the Ramona Park. Elle loves sand and water, screaming at the boats passing by and the birds flying across the sky. She even dared to walk by herself to the water leveled as high as her armpit. She ate sands too! Uurgh!!




After beach fun, we checked out the recently built playground in the park. It is floored with soft padded material, which is just perfect for 1 year old and above. Elle's happy as a clam roaming around, climbing up and down the stairs, banging on the musical instrument, even attempting to do the rock climbing thingy, and sliding down the slide all by herself over and over again. Too much fun!