The Touchdown Dance

On our first night back from the hospital, the Patriots got killed by the Jets in the playoffs. Naomi saw how poorly the Pats played and decided it was time she start training. With the help of my dad, she learned how to catch a football. And of course had to add on her famous "touchdown" dance at the end of each catch. (she's screaming "I did it, I did it")

21 Months

I’ve been delinquent with my monthly updates for Naomi, I didn’t even do one for 20 months! She turned 21 months last week on Friday. It was the same day she came down with some bug while she was at daycare.
At 21 months, Naomi’s no longer a little baby, although I make sure to tell her every day that she is still MY little baby, she has officially become a little girl. She has started enjoying playing with other kids. On our vacation in Orlando, we traveled with another family, and she had so much fun playing with the kids, chasing after them, imitating them, coloring and looking at Disney pins with them, while it was so cute, it was also bittersweet when she would yank away from me or Austin so that she could run up and hold hands with the other kids.
She’s extremely good with names, she just needs us to point out who someone is once and she’ll be able to remember who that person is and most of the time make an attempt at saying their name. Whether or not it actually sounds like that name is another story though. My friend Priscilla is “sala”
She loves to sing and is just very musical in general. I’ve always hoped that she would share Austin and my love of music, and so far it seems like she does. She loves listening to music in the car, and not kiddy music, but everything from Michael Jackson to Christian praise music.
She’s very talkative and for the most part express what she wants or needs, although it does lead to much frustration when she can’t get us to understand what she’s saying. It’s so cute to hear her voice. She’s such a little girl but her voice can be really really loud when she’s excited, like if we’re at the grocery store and we see an Elmo balloon, I’m pretty sure the entire store can hear her shrieking, “HI ELMO BALOON!!”
At not even 2 years old, she’s already learned that being cute and sweet can help her get what she wants. Like when she wants to play with our iPhone’s, she’ll tilt her head to the side, and smile sweetly and whisper in the cutest little voice, “daddy’s iphone?”
She loves girly things like shoes, bracelets, princesses, necklaces and even makeup…yea I’ve found her with a bright red face, and my blush in hand.
She still has problems with hitting when she gets frustrated, but she’s getting much much better, hopefully the countless timeouts are starting to work…although one day when we were at Disney, she started acting up and hit Austin in the face. He put her down on the ground and asked if she wanted a time out. Naomi responded, “YEA!” and walked over to a corner and put her face against the wall. Ugh can rebelliousness start that early!?

Potty Time!!!!

After we got home from the city this afternoon, Naomi said, "POTTY" and walked straight to the bathroom and waited by her potty. We asked her if she had to go poo-poo, and she said, "YEA!!" So Austin took of her pants and diaper and she sat on her potty, (but then decided she needed her socks off too). After about 3 minutes, she did exactly what she said she needed to do!! It's probably a fluke, she is only 19 months, and we weren't expecting to really potty train her til she was at least 2, but it definitely is exciting! And of course it introduces to a new realm of cleaning out a potty..gross.

Babysitting

Austin and I had to go to a church function in the afternoon today and couldn't bring Naomi, so we hired our first babysitter! It's actually cheating really since we hired one of Naomi's daycare teachers who Naomi absolutely loves (she asks for her at dinner time). It just so happens that she lives less than 3 minutes away from us. Naomi was actually so happy to see her that she didn't cry, much less whine, when Austin and I left. She simply gave us a kiss, said "bye bye" and continued to color. When we got home, she was completely happy, had a great afternoon with not a single tear shed. Hmmm guess we'll be taking more advantage of this whole babysitting thing.

Awesome

Naomi's new word, is "awesome" followed
up by a high five. She learned this trick last night at dinner during a conversation where I said that the new Apple Tablet sounds LAME and Austin responded, "no it doesn't, it sounds AWESOME".

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Mommy's

Naomi has grasped the concept of who a mommy is. A mommy has a baby. She loves pointing out baby's and mommy's. In her storybooks if any character is smaller with a bigger character, one is always the mommy and one is the baby. She also likes to point out babies and mommies while we're out as well.

Ear infection

Took naomi to the pediatrician this afternoon. She was pretty much miserable all afternoon. Turns out on top of whatever cold/cough/stomach bug she has, she also has an ear infection. Great. We're giving her antibiotics for the next 10 days....

Good news is that she's really picking up on people's names. She can say Doctor Schein (shine). Pretty cute cause she always says, "doctor schein..Shine. Sun! Sun!! Kai Lan" Kai Lan is this Nickelodean character that speaks bad chinese and always talks tries to tickle the sun to wake him up.

Sick again

We made it 9 days into the new year before Naomi got sick. She came down with a fever on Saturday night, and still had one on Sunday, so I stayed home with her today. She was still warm this morning, so not sure she can go back to daycare tomorrow. Poor baby is so tired she fell asleep while eating her lunch (you know she was tired when she fell asleep in the middle of mac n cheese!!)

Running a rat race....and probably coming in last

My parents left after Christmas, and this is my first week back to work after the holidays. Since October, we've had one or both of my parents at home while Austin and I work. Naomi was still in daycare save a few days here and there, and my parents pretty much spoiled all of us by having dinner ready when we came home. And to top it off, my dad walked the dogs so we didn't even have to worry about them!

Now, I feel like I'm constantly on the go, trying to get from one point in the day to the next without a chance to breathe. And to make matters worse, Austin has been super busy at work, so with the exception of yesterday, we've had dinner every night without him. Tonight he didn't even make it home before Naomi's bedtime.

My daily schedule goes something like this:

4:30am - wake up

5:30am - go to work

5:50am - arrive at work

4:15pm - leave work, run to catch train at the WTC

4:40pm - arrive at Hoboken - run to catch NJ Transit train

5:15pm - arrive in Lyndhurst, run to car

5:30pm - arrive at Naomi's daycare

6:00pm - arrive at home, take care of dogs, deal with a fussy Naomi who's hungry and tired from daycare, prepare/reheat/cook dinner

6:30pm - feed Naomi dinner

7:20pm - Naomi's bathtime

7:30pm - pj's, storytime, milk, prayer time

8pm - Naomi's bedtime

8:00-8:30 relax

8:30pm - go downstairs, clean up dinner

9:00pm - cook/prep dinner for next day

10pm - relax/get clothes ready for next day

11pm - go to bed and start all over again.

phew, even typing it makes me exhausted

18 month check up

Naomi went in for her 18 month check up today. All things checked out fine, and she got her 18 mth immunizations as well as her boosters for the h1n1 and flu vaccines.

Here are her stats:

weight 21.5lbs (12%)

height 30 3/4 (20%)

head: don't have the measurement, but it was 85%

Moving on up

Naomi moves up from the infant class to toddler class at daycare
today. She absolutely lives her infant room teachers and all of her
classmates, so it's a little sad to know he'll be in a somewhat
unfamiliar environment. Other than the people, the biggest change is
that she will nap on a cot rather than a crib. The daycare center
teachers assure me that the kids never has a hard time transitioning
to a cot, but I just envision all the kids napping while Naomi jumps
up and just starts walking around on her own, taking advantage of her
new freedom!!

Milestones good and bad

Happy New Year's. We've had a great holiday season with family and friends in town. It was a great Christmas with my parents and both brother's as well as Austin's sister staying with us! The last time my whole family was here was last Thanksgiving, so it was nice to have everyone here. Naomi loved having so much family in our house and constantly was asking for ah-ma, dodo, gu-gu, fish and sris. It was definitely sad when everyone left and we had a quiet and empty house on Tuesday evening. Every once in awhile, Naomi says someone's name and asks where they are (her exact words: "Ah-ma...go??" with her shoulders and arms shrugged).
It has been so nice to have a week off during the holidays, and as usual I'm amazed by how much Naomi learns every day.
- She tells us when she's gone "poo poo"
-She's starting to recognize letters of the alphabet, and asks for her "AB..(pause) C" book all the time.
- She can count to 4 but knows numbers up to 9 (after 4 it chaos is the only type of order)
- Her back molars are coming in...probably the reason for the couple weeks of bad sleep which have thankfully passed
- She walks around pretending to make and serve coffee
- She knows how to get into the pantry, find the dog treats, get Lilo and Stitch to go to their crates and give them one treat each, then walk back to the pantry and put the treats away
- She still loves to dance, but now is constantly singing while she's playing. incredibly cute.
- She's learned to use my iPhone...she knows how to unlock it with the slider, and navigate to either elmo or ni hao kailan videos, or one of the two games that i have on the phone for her. I thought it was a fluke when I found her watching an elmo video with my phone which i mistakingly left within her reach...until i saw her navigate over and over again this week.
- She's learned that her toys are hers and now says, "MINE" if you have something she wants.
- She's learned to hit, mainly out of frustration, but she swats at whoever is near her
- She has learned NOT to share, and will hit or push kids if she doesn't want them near her toys
- She's noticing what she is wearing and has a STRONG opinion about what shoes she's wearing (she is my daughter afterall) She also loves to wear her new winter boots that Ah-ma gave her, all around the house. I kept laughing at her and thinking she was weird...until Austin caught me wearing my new boots around the house after a trip to woodbury commons. sigh i guess she really does get it from me.
- She's learned to throw temper trantrums and cry when she doesn't get her way, which then causes her to have time outs.

There are so many more developments that I've noticed in Naomi this week, too many of which I can list, and some that are just simply escaping me. It's been a great week and I'm already feeling sad that I'll be going back to work on Monday. At least it's a short day since I need to leave work early to take naomi for her 18 month pediatrician checkup.

Anthro for kids!!

It's a slow day at work today, so I snuck up to Anthropologie to return some things. I've been on a bit of an anthro spree the past month, and seem to have a problem where I can't walk into the store without buying something. Even if it's to return something, I always come out with more stuff! (crossing my fingers, really really really hoping for a good bonus year). Anyway, this time I came out empty handed...for myself. But I picked up a couple of cute things for Naomi since their kids stuff was on sale. Too cute!

18 months

Naomi turned 18 months on Saturday. That's 1.5 years old! Hard to believe we have a toddler living in the house. Gone are the days where Austin and I would turn to each other and say, "you know, she's so quiet and sleeps all the time, sometimes I forget we have a baby". This past month has been incrediblly exciting and yet incredibly challenging as Naomi becomes more and more independent and more aware of her needs and desires.
She can understand almost everything we say to her, and can resond in 1, 2 or 3 word phrases.
She's become very picky with what she will and won't eat...there are days when all she'll eat is rice, and will keep saying "rice rice rice rice, pleeeease rice!!!" She also went through a strawberry phase, a blueberry phase (bebees and boobies, oh and by the way, eyeglasses are asses).
She absolutely loves to dance, as soon as I pick her up from school she starts moving her arms and asking for music, particularly "Down" (by jay sean). yes we have Wei family dance parties everynight before bed now.
She's a great imitator, and mimics everything we do. eeks time to be careful here! She even knows how to use our iphones and can switch from app to app, and knows how to operate the games we have on the phones for her. She also knows how to say iphone (i pone, sounds almost like how she says apple).
She adores her grandpa and has given him his own nickname. In chinese she would normally call him "Gong Gong", but when she was just learning to talk she couldn't say G's, so she called him "Do Do" and the name has just stuck. Terribly cute.
I used to think Naomi wasn't the cuddly or affectionate type baby since when she was little, and you tried to hug her, she'd stiff arm you in the neck. These days, she loves to give you unsolicited kisses and hugs, and her hugs are real embraces now. Best thing ever.
I suppose the biggest change in Naomi this month has been her vocabulary explosion. The number of words she knows now has easily tripled. My mouth literally dropped open the day she asked me for my iPhone. And when we put up our christmas tree, she ran right up to it and pointed at the tree topper and proclaimed, "STAR!!".

With Christmas and the New year coming up, I'm excited to have some time off with Naomi and Austin. I'm utterly amazed at how much my little girl can learn in a day, and it makes me sad to think that I'm missing a lot of these new milestones while she's at daycare. Although I'm grateful we've found a center where the teachers adore naomi and naomi adores her teachers.

Faux sho!!

In my quest for cute/affordable and practicle winter wear for Naomi, I stumbled upon these boots from Crazy 8

Faux fur boots!? Yes please. They're so cute, ok probably not practical since they're not water proof...but I like that they're all white, Naomi will look like a little marshmallow princess. I know I couldn't pull of a look like this, so poor Naomi might just have to wear them for me.

Construction of a tower

Taking a break from our regular sleep updates, here is a video of
Naomi working on constructing the worlds tallest block tower

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Exercise does the body good

We've been exercising a lot in the Wei household, trying to get into
better shape. Naomi likes to get in on the push-up action.

A Material Girl

Naomi loves her accessories. Bags, shoes, bracelets, hats, sunglasses....you name it. Tonight she took apart some of the links to her baby toys and made then into a multi-colored set of bangles. They even matched her outfit!

Roseola

Yesterday I got home at 5:30 to find Naomi sleeping. This was the second day in a row she's taken multiple naps. This sickness is really wiping her out!

At around 6, I finally woke her up since I wanted her to still be able to sleep at her normal bed time of 8. She was fussy and clingy, not surpring. But I noticed her face had little red bumps all over it, and upon further inspection, found that she had a rash all over her neck, back and chest. A call to our doctor left us with a diagnosis of Roseola.

Roseola symptoms:

High fever of 103-104 for 3-4 days - Check

Once the fever breaks, a pink rash with small flat spots or raised bumps - Check

Irritability - CHECK

Mild Dirrahea - Check

Decreased appetite - Check

Swollen eyelids - Check

The good news is that now that she has the tell tale rash which is what doctor's usually use to determine Roseola, the sickness is almost over, and hopefully within a few days our happy baby will be back.

In the meantime, we're letting her sleep in, and get as much RnR as possible. Here's a pic of Naomi, fast asleep at 8am as Austin left her in the morning. (can i say thank god for grandparents who are around to help with sick babies!!)

Home sweet home and a little chat-a-holic

We got home from Cabo on Friday night. Our suitcases are still lying in the middle of our bedroom floor, our house is utter chaos. But it's so good to be home, sleeping in our own bed. It was an incredible trip and I'll post pictures later. But the best part of the trip by far was having so much time to spend with Naomi. She has really grown up so much over the past 1.5wks! She's saying over 50 words now and picking up more and more each day. It's incredible she'll point things out that we never even really made the effort to teach her yet, she's just so observant she picks so much up. (we definitely need to be more careful with what we say going forward!!) Last night her Nai Nai (Austin's mom) called, and Naomi was quick to grab the phone as always. We were in the middle of skypeing our friends Gene, Jaime and Alli, and Naomi was rudely ignoring the conversation and having one of her own! Here she is on the phone with Nai nai. And yes, Nai Nai was really on the other end...possibly for 10 whole minutes or longer!! Every time we told Naomi it was time to hang up and say bye bye, she'd say, "Noo no no"