It is the rainiest stretch of days I have ever seen in Singapore, or maybe that I have ever seen! Despite this I am feeling remarkably accomplished as I have tackled this looming, ominous, milk allergy insurance task (looming since October of last year) and though not complete I have taken a giant leap forward (did I mention how much I loathe paperwork? Serious serious issues with the admin side of me life) and feeling rather smug about it, I dare say. I am sort of procrastinating doing my Korean homework at the moment. Yes - I am taking Korean. And while I still require some practice I am making some headway. But the whole 'honorific' thing drives me nuts. I mean, if you have a birthday, then it's a 'birthday', but if your grandma has a birthday, it is a totally different word for birthday! I think this is the part from before where I lost interest. I mean, it is hard enough for me to speak correctly in the colloquial sense, let alone having a whole other layer of honorific! BLAH!
All this rain is making Charlotte sleepy - so much so that Matt and I were actually BORED yesterday. ..
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Week 41 - Xiamen
So I have survived my first trip away from Charlotte. I thought I was strong willed and all but was missing Charlotte really badly on the flight to China - probably because of all of the other kids on the plane on top of the fact that I was reading a tear jerker of a book Let's Take the Long Way Home, which made me really happy that I have a dear and wonderful friend in Nicole, and how lucky I am to have her as a light in my life.
I was in Xiamen to finish sourcing some things for our house in the US. Ji Hong, a colleague of one of Matt's colleagues in Beijing, met me and took me around for 4 days. I had curtains made, outdoor furnishings made, various bathroom items purchased, stainless steel piping made - a trip not for the faint of heart and one I probably could not easily do again.
Ji Hong was very hardworking and sweet. My Chinese is no good and her English was equal to my Chinese - so there was a lot of phone calls to people in Beijing and Taiwan to assist in our communication. We first got me a phone card (as my pay as you go Singapore one did not work in China) and then had lunch. It was hot pot and it was funny. I feel like I am pretty adventurous (let's say on a scale of 1 to 10 I am about a 7) in terms of food and this lunch was definitely an 8 or higher. You picked your own meat at the buffet, lots of it was largely unrecognizable (though I think that there was some brains there). Everything ended up being cooked in a hot pot in the center of the table. Ji Hong asked me if I wanted some of the frog legs, which I respectfully declined. There was also fresh shrimp - so fresh that the stronger ones were jumping off the table to save themselves! After this trip I believe that dying in a vat of boiling broth is the least desirable way to die, for me anyway.
My last night I met up with Thomas and we had dinner and coffee together. I also got a wicked bout of food poisoning (this sometimes happens when I go from eating no Chinese food to eating several days worth of Chinese food - this is what happened when I moved to Hong Kong in 2004). I am amazed that I still have my internal organs as I was convinced at four in the morning that there was nothing left inside of me. Yesterday was rough. I tried to sleep on the airplane but my hands and feet were freezing cold. Luckily I feel more like myself today.
Happier times in Charlotteville. She is shaking her head no (yet she scoffs at us when we shake our heads no to her) and is using her walker, and her friend Hero's walker in the park (there is a cute video link here via Facebook - not sure if everyone can see it. Thanks Lee for taping it in my absence). Sadly our local park is closed for renovation - for 6 to 7 months! Must find a new stomping ground..
Charlotte is also cruising the furniture - videos to come soon...
Wow, I am so happy to be home! Singapore is a wonderful place....
Xiamen pics:
Frog legs:
Shrimp holding on for dear life:
Octopus holding on for dear life:
Thomas in a cute coffee bar that hopefully did not give me food poisoning:
Getting outdoor furniture made - in the outdoors!
And Charlotte pics:
In her pj's:
Morning face:
Standing on her own!:
In a cute nautical outfit (thanks for the shirt Jisun!):
With daddy:
I was in Xiamen to finish sourcing some things for our house in the US. Ji Hong, a colleague of one of Matt's colleagues in Beijing, met me and took me around for 4 days. I had curtains made, outdoor furnishings made, various bathroom items purchased, stainless steel piping made - a trip not for the faint of heart and one I probably could not easily do again.
Ji Hong was very hardworking and sweet. My Chinese is no good and her English was equal to my Chinese - so there was a lot of phone calls to people in Beijing and Taiwan to assist in our communication. We first got me a phone card (as my pay as you go Singapore one did not work in China) and then had lunch. It was hot pot and it was funny. I feel like I am pretty adventurous (let's say on a scale of 1 to 10 I am about a 7) in terms of food and this lunch was definitely an 8 or higher. You picked your own meat at the buffet, lots of it was largely unrecognizable (though I think that there was some brains there). Everything ended up being cooked in a hot pot in the center of the table. Ji Hong asked me if I wanted some of the frog legs, which I respectfully declined. There was also fresh shrimp - so fresh that the stronger ones were jumping off the table to save themselves! After this trip I believe that dying in a vat of boiling broth is the least desirable way to die, for me anyway.
My last night I met up with Thomas and we had dinner and coffee together. I also got a wicked bout of food poisoning (this sometimes happens when I go from eating no Chinese food to eating several days worth of Chinese food - this is what happened when I moved to Hong Kong in 2004). I am amazed that I still have my internal organs as I was convinced at four in the morning that there was nothing left inside of me. Yesterday was rough. I tried to sleep on the airplane but my hands and feet were freezing cold. Luckily I feel more like myself today.
Happier times in Charlotteville. She is shaking her head no (yet she scoffs at us when we shake our heads no to her) and is using her walker, and her friend Hero's walker in the park (there is a cute video link here via Facebook - not sure if everyone can see it. Thanks Lee for taping it in my absence). Sadly our local park is closed for renovation - for 6 to 7 months! Must find a new stomping ground..
Charlotte is also cruising the furniture - videos to come soon...
Wow, I am so happy to be home! Singapore is a wonderful place....
Xiamen pics:
Frog legs:
Shrimp holding on for dear life:
Octopus holding on for dear life:
Thomas in a cute coffee bar that hopefully did not give me food poisoning:
Getting outdoor furniture made - in the outdoors!
And Charlotte pics:
In her pj's:
Morning face:
Standing on her own!:
In a cute nautical outfit (thanks for the shirt Jisun!):
With daddy:
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Week 40.5 - A brief update
I am off to China tomorrow on an exciting sourcing expedition for our new and empty shell of a house sitting in Madison, WI. This is my first time away from Charlotte and I am ok - it is far better than taking her on said trip. So this is the pre-emptive 'I won't be able to blog on Wednesday because I am not sure how shut out I will be on the internet in China' disclaimer.
So until then (I am back on Thursday) I bid you adieu and bid myself safe travels!
So until then (I am back on Thursday) I bid you adieu and bid myself safe travels!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Week 40 - Out as many weeks as in
Charlotte has now been out of the womb in equally as much as time as she was in. So tomorrow marks the time that she is out of the womb longer. Yay!
Charlotte has also celebrated her ninth month of existence over the past week with little fanfare except for a doctor 'wellness' visit yesterday. She is 9.64 kg (21+ pounds) yet her head has not increased at all in circumference in the last couple of months. So maybe her body is catching up to her head or... I don't know what.
We have gotten into our groove with sleep training. She now sleeps (generally) 2 hours a day or more - a vast improvement over the 1.25 hours she slept (at most) before after much effort to rock her to sleep. I say this as we had 2 days last week of hour long crying. An hour long! Yikes...
I find it to be helpful to wake her in the morning (at 7:30 or so - otherwise if she sleeps till eight her first nap suffers). Wake, bottle, diaper change, park time, breakfast, bath, play, bottle - all in two hours or less. Even not going to the park will suffer some consequence of no sleep.
I also had the privilege (?) this week of giving Charlotte a bath TWICE that resulted in poop in the tub. So here are the vital stats: Charlotte 2, Imee 0, Matt 0, Ho -2. Yeah. I rule.
Charlotte's look has gotten a bit less frilly of late. This is because she needs to wear pants most of the time to avoid floor burns. We don't have tons of pants so she is wearing a lot of the same rugged clothes. Which does little to help our 'is it a boy or a girl?' situation.
In the meantime, we are trying to complete our renovation of our new house in Madison, WI - a circuitous, squirrel-filled journey worthy of a blog of its own. We have gotten a lot of furniture made in Singapore that we will be sending next week via container to the US. I am also traveling to China next week to get some other things made that will ship at the end of January. Yes - we cannot just go to Rooms To Go anymore. Complicated sourcing is our middle name.... so needless to say - while Charlotte has been sleeping, we have been busy...
Ok - on to the more exciting things!
Charlotte, in a hodge podge outfit, is not distracted by annoying squeaky shoes as she is determined to crawl:
Charlotte laughing at talking through the plastic donuts:
Charlotte does her famous headshake to "Nobody":
Charlotte on a morning mission:
The mission - get to the slide!
Dumb mosquitoes won't even phase Char:
Charlotte loves hugs!
Like this shot:
Uncle Joe and Aiden:
Lilith perturbed:
Uninhibited joy:
Charlotte loves tandem sliding!
Charlotte has also celebrated her ninth month of existence over the past week with little fanfare except for a doctor 'wellness' visit yesterday. She is 9.64 kg (21+ pounds) yet her head has not increased at all in circumference in the last couple of months. So maybe her body is catching up to her head or... I don't know what.
We have gotten into our groove with sleep training. She now sleeps (generally) 2 hours a day or more - a vast improvement over the 1.25 hours she slept (at most) before after much effort to rock her to sleep. I say this as we had 2 days last week of hour long crying. An hour long! Yikes...
I find it to be helpful to wake her in the morning (at 7:30 or so - otherwise if she sleeps till eight her first nap suffers). Wake, bottle, diaper change, park time, breakfast, bath, play, bottle - all in two hours or less. Even not going to the park will suffer some consequence of no sleep.
I also had the privilege (?) this week of giving Charlotte a bath TWICE that resulted in poop in the tub. So here are the vital stats: Charlotte 2, Imee 0, Matt 0, Ho -2. Yeah. I rule.
Charlotte's look has gotten a bit less frilly of late. This is because she needs to wear pants most of the time to avoid floor burns. We don't have tons of pants so she is wearing a lot of the same rugged clothes. Which does little to help our 'is it a boy or a girl?' situation.
In the meantime, we are trying to complete our renovation of our new house in Madison, WI - a circuitous, squirrel-filled journey worthy of a blog of its own. We have gotten a lot of furniture made in Singapore that we will be sending next week via container to the US. I am also traveling to China next week to get some other things made that will ship at the end of January. Yes - we cannot just go to Rooms To Go anymore. Complicated sourcing is our middle name.... so needless to say - while Charlotte has been sleeping, we have been busy...
Ok - on to the more exciting things!
Charlotte, in a hodge podge outfit, is not distracted by annoying squeaky shoes as she is determined to crawl:
Charlotte laughing at talking through the plastic donuts:
Charlotte does her famous headshake to "Nobody":
Charlotte on a morning mission:
The mission - get to the slide!
Dumb mosquitoes won't even phase Char:
Charlotte loves hugs!
Like this shot:
Uncle Joe and Aiden:
Lilith perturbed:
Uninhibited joy:
Charlotte loves tandem sliding!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Week 39 - Mad skills
It has been raining cats and dogs in the afternoon many days this week in Singapore. so the afternoon park activity has been precious and infrequent. I am now taking Charlotte out in the mornings (as part of the Dr. Weissbluth regime) and it is nice as she gets to spend some time outside everyday (as it seldom rains in the mornings).
Speaking of Weissbluth - sleep training has gone very well. Charlotte still protests going to bed (I mean, if you had the choice of play or sleep, what would you choose?) but generally under 20 minutes she is down (after 20 generally something is amiss - like she has pooped and is pissed off that we are not tending to that). What is remarkable to me is that I can allow my baby to cry herself to sleep - and it was not as torturing as I thought it would be. Certainly no picnic but tolerable. The added bonus is that we often see her play quietly in her crib when we are looking at our video monitor.
Overall - I very much recommend sleep training. I feel like everything is a bit more orderly now (plus I don't feel so rotten for not being able to rock Charlotte to sleep).
So Charlotte seems to have picked up some mad skills this week - including ascending stairs (assisted - but we will still count it), eating cereal with her hands (baby led weaning!) and waving goodbye to us with one hand. I really want to get a video of this waving business but she does this sort of sporadically.
Charlotte also wears a lot of pants these days because she (or we) want her to get carpet/floor burns.
She seems overall a lot more content moving around in our house. It is as if a valve has released of her own device and frustration. She still gets bored but much less so.
Anyway - here are the videos of the week.
Charlotte crawling up the stairs:
And Charlotte with zen Bucky:
And photos!
Charlotte in a question mark pose:
Lee and her son Aiden:
In her new car (a gift from a neighbor. Thanks neighbor!):
Extreme close up!
Cheeky and one-shoed:
In a great shirt from Aunt Becky:
The shirt goes along with this video (but I ask is there a dance of some sort? I am confused):
In mid sneeze - this moment makes me laugh:
Practicing for frozen flagpoles everywhere:
Pensive:
Teach Charlotte how to Bucky:
Speaking of Weissbluth - sleep training has gone very well. Charlotte still protests going to bed (I mean, if you had the choice of play or sleep, what would you choose?) but generally under 20 minutes she is down (after 20 generally something is amiss - like she has pooped and is pissed off that we are not tending to that). What is remarkable to me is that I can allow my baby to cry herself to sleep - and it was not as torturing as I thought it would be. Certainly no picnic but tolerable. The added bonus is that we often see her play quietly in her crib when we are looking at our video monitor.
Overall - I very much recommend sleep training. I feel like everything is a bit more orderly now (plus I don't feel so rotten for not being able to rock Charlotte to sleep).
So Charlotte seems to have picked up some mad skills this week - including ascending stairs (assisted - but we will still count it), eating cereal with her hands (baby led weaning!) and waving goodbye to us with one hand. I really want to get a video of this waving business but she does this sort of sporadically.
Charlotte also wears a lot of pants these days because she (or we) want her to get carpet/floor burns.
She seems overall a lot more content moving around in our house. It is as if a valve has released of her own device and frustration. She still gets bored but much less so.
Anyway - here are the videos of the week.
Charlotte crawling up the stairs:
And Charlotte with zen Bucky:
And photos!
Charlotte in a question mark pose:
Lee and her son Aiden:
In her new car (a gift from a neighbor. Thanks neighbor!):
Extreme close up!
Cheeky and one-shoed:
In a great shirt from Aunt Becky:
The shirt goes along with this video (but I ask is there a dance of some sort? I am confused):
Teach Me How To Bucky from Logan Cascia on Vimeo.
In mid sneeze - this moment makes me laugh:
Practicing for frozen flagpoles everywhere:
Pensive:
Teach Charlotte how to Bucky:
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Week 38 - Happy New Year
My apologies for not getting this out on the normal Wednesday. I too have been jet lagged and it just was not in the cards yesterday. My jet lag is good for my jogging - I had a great run this morning to the Pet Shop Boys! Jogging is a great place to enjoy my danceteria music. Yay me.
The reverse jet lag of Charlotte has been remarkably sane. She has been sleeping about 18 hours a day which has been fantastic. We have also in earnest begun sleep training, which too was remarkably ok given she was so jet lagged she would have fallen asleep standing up. She is a bit more rested today - and it took a good 15 minutes to get her down. Wow- who thought I had nerves of steel? It is true you get desensitized to your baby crying.
Charlotte's skin has cleared up quite well save a couple of dry patches on her legs. Mine too but I could probably use the services of a large Brillo pad on the face.
People say Charlotte has slimmed down (that is true) and her face looks different. Maybe her eyes or rounder and her lips more pronounced. I am not sure - I see her everyday so cannot tell the difference.
I got a flash for Xmas - Nikon's SB-600 which is truly a beast compared to ninny SB-400. But what it does to the pictures!
Ok - on with the show. A ton of backlogged video to follow:
Here is Charlotte dancing to Grandpa Kwang's accordion.
And Charlotte at the tail end of her crawl to nowhere:
Charlotte opening her first Christmas gifts at Grandma Burk's:
Charlotte with her new car (staying in America for now):
Charlotte with Brooks in their cars (sorry about the unfocused camera work here. Also sorry this is long but VERY cute):
Charlotte opening gifts at Grandma Kathy's:
Charlotte's first (happy-ish) moments in the snow:
Charlotte started crawling on Xmas day. I finally got around to taping it while in the airport in Tokyo. The flight attendant on our Tokyo flight called Charlotte Candy Cane (thanks Min for the onesie). Those flight attendants on UA881 rocked...
Ok - picture time.
Charlotte in her new stroller:
Charlotte strategizing her next move in Tic Tac Toe:
Standing:
In the bath:
Fourth attempt at a decent picture with daddy (she was not into it this morning):
The reverse jet lag of Charlotte has been remarkably sane. She has been sleeping about 18 hours a day which has been fantastic. We have also in earnest begun sleep training, which too was remarkably ok given she was so jet lagged she would have fallen asleep standing up. She is a bit more rested today - and it took a good 15 minutes to get her down. Wow- who thought I had nerves of steel? It is true you get desensitized to your baby crying.
Charlotte's skin has cleared up quite well save a couple of dry patches on her legs. Mine too but I could probably use the services of a large Brillo pad on the face.
People say Charlotte has slimmed down (that is true) and her face looks different. Maybe her eyes or rounder and her lips more pronounced. I am not sure - I see her everyday so cannot tell the difference.
I got a flash for Xmas - Nikon's SB-600 which is truly a beast compared to ninny SB-400. But what it does to the pictures!
Ok - on with the show. A ton of backlogged video to follow:
Here is Charlotte dancing to Grandpa Kwang's accordion.
And Charlotte at the tail end of her crawl to nowhere:
Charlotte opening her first Christmas gifts at Grandma Burk's:
Charlotte with her new car (staying in America for now):
Charlotte with Brooks in their cars (sorry about the unfocused camera work here. Also sorry this is long but VERY cute):
Charlotte opening gifts at Grandma Kathy's:
Charlotte's first (happy-ish) moments in the snow:
Charlotte started crawling on Xmas day. I finally got around to taping it while in the airport in Tokyo. The flight attendant on our Tokyo flight called Charlotte Candy Cane (thanks Min for the onesie). Those flight attendants on UA881 rocked...
Ok - picture time.
Charlotte in her new stroller:
Charlotte strategizing her next move in Tic Tac Toe:
Standing:
In the bath:
Fourth attempt at a decent picture with daddy (she was not into it this morning):
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