Too good to be true

I had a little conversation with the staffs when I picked up Elle at daycare this evening. They raved about Elle is such a good baby, a good eater, and an active player. No cry nor whine. At times when they're too busy with other babies, she has no problem playing and exploring by herself and sometimes she even chips in to help rocking other babies for them.

My response was like "Are you sure you're talking my baby Elle?". The baby I know is loud and naughty. She cries, whines and throws tantrum a lot. We're getting a lot of feeding frustrations at home lately. She fusses and plays with the food making a mess everywhere. Rub her eyes, hair and cover up her face with both hands whenever the spoon heads towards her mouth. Probably because of her two upper teeth are breaking through and the holy moly hot weather.

The only thing I can't agree more is she has tons of energy playing. She can play till she drops.

Pardon my manner

Strawberry U-pick

T'is the season for strawberries, the blistering sun and its hot, humid breath. It already hit 85F degree by the time we arrived at the strawberry farm in the morning. Despite the grueling weather, these lovely strawberries were so yummy that the juice burst out in every bite as we popped these babies into our mouth. In just a few second, Elle splattered the vibrant red juice all over her face, shirt, skort and hat, on her dada's white shirt and mama's hair.

Baby Alesha was coming along too. A year ago, Elle was in the car seat baby Alesha was sleeping in when we were picking the strawberries with her grandparents in this farm. She was so tiny then and now she's toddling in the strawberry field.

Another storm came in in the afternoon. We have been having some dreadful hot weather, t-storm with hail and 70 mph gusts of wind for the past few days. The rains do not carry away the heat at all. The sweats literally oozing out of the pores every few seconds. Elle's hair drenched in sweat after the nap. She takes at least two baths a day now.

13 months old

Dear Elle,

Mama and dada begins to see a toddler in you. We're watching you growing up in front of us everyday and yet we were totally in shock on the day we realized that you're going to leave behind your babyhood anytime soon. Crawling days were behind you. You waddle around the house like an energizer bunny. Your baby fats around the arms, belly and legs jiggling like Jell-O, yummylicious and yet an eye candy. Mama can just eat you up.

You pick up a few new words lately. "Owl" and "Wow! Wow!" like a puppy sounds. Mama almost knocked the head against the wall when you blurted out "Wow Wow" to the duck. To you, "Wow Wow" means almost everything, not just a puppy. Mama understands now.

Happy sweet 13 months old, smoochie! You're always our baby even when you are fifty or a hundred years old.

Love,
Mama

Reading

Elle had a very short attention span whenever I was reading a book to her. She would rather explore the book by biting its edges, flipping and banging it. That made mama pretty fed up and gave up the reading part for quite a while.

It has been a dramatic change since we borrowed some books from the library last weekend. She's totally hooked! She would bring the books to me initiatively and want me to read to her over and over again. The sweetest of it is the part of her climbing up and sitting in my lap when the storytelling time begins. She blows me away when she starts giving kisses to the characters on the books. She would always give a muak to the baby snuggled between mama and dada on the last page of "Sam loves kisses" book and to the fish and duck in "Bear in shapes" book. She just melts me from the inside out.

Guess what's the first thing she did when she woke up this morning? Oh yeah, reading books!

Pool fun

Elle was having a ball at the pool. After warming up on the side on the pool for a while, she's all ready to get into the cold water. She was giggling as mama was pushing her around the pool. Gosh! This baby even thought pool water was yummy. After swimming, she was treated with a bbq feast. Oh! She loves satay!

Pool and BBQ. It sure feels like summertime now.

Sunday

Elle had the greatest sugar rush ever after savoring this delicious strawberry shortcake sundae. After the dessert, we took a walk in the parking lot watching people swinging their bats inside the batting cages at the Putt Putt fun store next door. Elle walked like an energizer bunny in circle as we're each holding one of her hands. She almost tangled us up by twisting our arms. It's a surprise to find a lovely gem of purple wildflowers just behind the parking lot.

As the sugar spike kicked in like a vengeance, she's acting up crazy flailing her arms, throwing punches in the air, kicking legs and screaming like a drunken sailor. It took at least half an hour for her to finally crash down and fall into sleep. We enjoyed a peaceful moment reading some magazines and having a cup of Joe at B&N while she's asleep in the stroller. Heavenly.