Week 58 - A long post, not entirely sure why

So I think Charlotte has outgrown our house.  Nevermind that we have (by many standard metrics) a rather large house - the universe is vast and our house is nothing more than a miniscule dot of where I can run.  And boy can I run!

So yesterday we took her to the mall mid day - if for nothing else than to burn off some energy.  She loves the mall - she walks into every store (Sketchers, The Diamond Store) and smiles and charms all the sales associates.  Matt and I have no idea where this 'charmer' instinct comes from - as I was probably the shiest kid in Dayton / Stone Mountain (I could not make eye contact until I was, I dunno, 25) and Matt is among the shiest adults out there in new, foreign sales associate situations.  Charlotte also has a fascination with all things dangerous - i.e. the escalators. 

We found a house to move into in a couple of months - our aforementioned large house is running a bit expensive so we found a house that is on a quiet street, is smaller (still 4 bedrooms but on two levels) with a garden and a block away from an amazing park.  Which is awesome for Charlotte as she will have a place to run to but I am a bit worried as I cannot walk to a proper grocery store and I am OBSESSED with being able to walk to a proper grocery store. 

I was just reading the story of Oli and his bedtime routine and it occurred to me that Charlotte still has no interest in reading or listening to reading.  Will she get over this?  I mean, Matt and I are by no means serious readers but we have been known to crack open a book or two in the last 5 years or so.  Matt suspects a future in mechanical engineering (perhaps like her honorary uncle Jorge) as she is fascinated with all things electronic.  A few months ago she was playing with the air-conditioning remote and all the setting had changed.  Matt tried to use the remote in our bedroom and asked why everything was different and I had told him Charlotte was playing with it, to which he rolled his eyes and responded, "Yeah, right, you are going to blame CHARLOTTE for this."  Well, we went to a friend's house this weekend (with a newborn) and Charlotte was playing with the remote, switching all of the settings, and I was finally vindicated. 

She also knows how to turn on my iPod on our alarm clock dock.  She turned on some music and started dancing like Stevie Wonder.  Priceless!

I keep forgetting to mention that I cut Charlotte's hair two Sundays ago.  Nothing too dramatic - just trying to minimize the mullet and cutting off the wispy tendrils on her front sides.  Now she looks like Maria from The Sound of Music:

We also tried giving Charlotte milk yesterday (a slight bit in her oatmeal)- and I think the allergy remains as she pooped a lot yesterday. :( 

Oh, I am cured from my weeks of coughing.  I have.... acid reflux - something I cannot feel but that is causing me to cough.  And I thought I had mycoplasma.  So a little antacid every night is my fitting dessert.  Also no tomatoes, green peppers, spicy foods, curry... I mean, what is left to eat?  I will live, albeit more blandly.

We have transitioned Charlotte's shampoo as I think the Johnson's is causing her front her to fall out.

We are also adjusting Charlotte's sleep schedule - I mean she is.  She is still taking 2 naps (thank goodness) and sleeping up to 3 hours a day - all that walking makes a toddler tuckered.  But her second nap starts around 4 and she won't fall asleep till 8 at night.  So she is sleeping 8 to 8 instead of 7 to 7.  Not so bad really - more time with Daddy in the evenings.

Speaking of evenings - we are finally weaning her off of her night milk.  Progress progress!  But Alimentum is here to stay for the day, thanks to the milk allergy...

Oh, I celebrated my birthday on Sunday!  Yeah !  Just when I stopped coughing...

We went to a Korea Night event for my Korean class.  I am trying on a han bok but Charlotte is not so sure about it:

Charlotte's first merry-go-round ride at the local mall - she liked it!

Charlotte is getting increasingly more difficult to photograph.  A rare still moment - of course involving a snack:

On the go:

In a new dress from Aunt Tolu:

Looking guilty as she drinks water from Bucky's bowl!

Week 57 - Brought to you by the letter W

Admittedly when I write this blog now it feels a bit anticlimactic now.  Is there that much more to update after the 1st year?  I don't know.  It certainly doesn't feel a lot different.  Certainly there are weeks that feel like nothing has changed, and then there are weeks where so much has changed it is hard to begin to document these changes.  I am not sure where this week fell.  Remember my rant last week about how she isn't speaking?  Well, she is now speaking.  Kind of.  She often says "Double U" - an odd thing to say but she says it maybe 500 times a day as of Saturday.  Plus her intermittent signing is back - she has recently signed ball, more (2 new words) and thank you (because we think she is saying thank you, but when we ask her to say it she just signs it).

Speaking of signing,  Charlotte has no time for TV anymore.  None.  All she wants to do is walk.  In fact, it seems like walking is even trumping... afternoon napping.  2 days late last week she didn't nap in the afternoon.  We haven't had the 'talk' but needless to say we aren't ready for her to transition to one nap a day.  Matt and I watched her alone on Sunday and Tuesday (wow - 3 holidays in May - yikes) and she tuckered us out.  I mean serious tuckering.  Luckily she has napped a bit better over the last couple of days - so maybe the erratic napping we can chalk up to sickness.

Speaking of sickness - Charlotte is 99% well - a little night cough here and there but overall she is a champion healer.  I, on the other hand, am healing oh so slowly... luckily green phlegm is gone but the night hacking remains.  It is as if I have a mucus drip on the back of my throat - like when you leave your faucet to drip in cold weather (so I hear anyway).  O well.


Last week I thought that the yogurt was a miss - but it actually is a hit!  Charlotte likes it and there seems to be no major adverse effects.  Next up - cow's milk!  If Ava (Charlotte's cousin) is any indication, the milk may not go well.  But at least we can give it the old preschool try.

We did this post mother's day tea thing at the Swissotel Merchant Court Sunday- I would not necessarily go again but we learned that Charlotte loves roti prata (kind of a buttery flour pancake).  Could not get enough of it.  The fresh roti prata was noteworthy, but little else was (the scones!  My god they were a disaster.  A tea buffet should always be about the scones!)

On a completely different tangent - for my friend Tina in Baton Rouge - here is the sewing project that I did yesterday.  It was fun!  Can I sew straight?  Not exactly but this was a quick and satisfying project.  Photos to start:

I got kind of lazy with the lining too:

Charlotte sashays:

It is official - Charlotte walks twice as fast as her mommy!

A sweaty stop for a moment:

While getting the hang of swinging - this is clearly an activity Charlotte does not imminently enjoy:

After her fill of roti prata - Charlotte charms a Toblerone from the front desk clerk at Swissotel:

And the videos:

Charlotte plays in the bath...

... and her pool.

Check out 8 seconds into this video for a "W":

Week 56 - Back in the blogging groove, sort of

Charlotte is almost 13 months old and I am getting a tad worried that she is not saying words yet.  I know, I know, I am being silly as our doctor has said 15 months is usually the marker for such things... but you know.... we know kids Charlotte's age who are already speaking.  Charlotte is saying words, but rather indiscriminately and when you ask her to say "mama" or whatever, she just smiles and looks at you like you are nutty.  As if this tiger cannot be tamed.  Sigh.

What Charlotte is doing is walking.  All the time walking.  We can't get her to stop walking.  We try to put on TV - and she would rather be walking.  She has mad skills she needs to put to use.  I don't blame her, but you know, being Asian and all, I want to foster her more cerebral side.  We want to read her a book and she has no attention for it (and she never has really).  These days even books are somewhat off limits because she wants to eat the binding (and I am growing more reluctant to lose a finger to try to get the paper bits out of her mouth).  So yes, I wonder about her intellectual stimulation.

Why am I so neurotic these days?  O yes, it is because I have the double whammy of being both jet lagged and sick.  The doctor yesterday confirmed it was just a benign viral infection and to let my body fight it off but needless to say I have been coughing a lot and am surprised to not see a lung next to me when I wake up in the morning (Matt, too has been less than pleased).  So I have just been inhabiting this fog, this gray anti-matter of a space where I feel like I have accomplished little but stay in my head for too long.  Oh and Charlotte is sick too but has a much more spirited temperament than I.

We are trying new foods on Charlotte - sometimes she likes and sometimes she doesn't.  She doesn't much care for carrots plain but broccoli plain is ok (?).  We have started her on yogurt and that seems to be going well although she was grumpy the first day and I was convinced it was due to evil dairy... and it wasn't.  Sometimes kids are just grumpy.

I brought back a baby gate from the US - and it has been great as we have made the 2nd floor of our house a new walking zone (see video below).  We also have discovered that Charlotte loves our remote controls - less about the control (although she loves to push buttons - soon she will teach me about my smartphone!) but I think it is the SHAPE - she loves to carry something roughly 8 inches by 2 inches.  She also likes carrying a lotion tube of a similar size.

Mother's Day came and went this past weekend and I was sick and alone as Matt was traveling and we both forgot it was Mother's Day on Sunday.  Sigh.  Too much traveling made us forget.

Here is Charlotte whizzing down the living room in her toy car:

A day in the life of Charlotte in her new 'gated' second floor:

Charlotte and mommy going to the park alone (e.g. no one else there) on a hot Mother's Day:

Carrying that infamous 8" x 2" device:

Walking outside:

Liking or not liking her purse:

Eating pasta and looking tired - all that night coughing!

Petting our resigned Bucky:

Week 55 - Back in Singapore

Well - not so much to report except I have the worst bout of jet lag ever.  I did myself no favors by sleeping most of the day away today.  It is nice to be in sunny (er, rainy) Singapore - spending time with Charlotte who miraculously still remembers me and all the good times we had (I think).

Charlotte is now walking the neighborhood - she seems to hate sidewalks as much as I do.  She requires some handholding which she doesn't like but we don't live in a cul-de-sac, you know (but we will when in Wisconsin - thank goodness).  She is also walking up the stairs and is a keen climber as mentioned previously.  O, and I realized while walking her around the neighborhood that she walks faster than me - at 55 weeks. 

I should mention - right around when I left (e.g. Apr 24) she got her 8th teeth in (front right).  So that should be it with the teething issues for at least a little while....

Here are a few pictures - some from before and some from today.  I haven't been around so much so there aren't so many outfits to choose from here...

Feeding herself at Brussel Sprouts near East Coast Park:

Enjoying an ice cream float from that White House Coffee Place:

I know - this party is the post that won't die - here is a pic of the front of our 'Moon Drake Cafe':

I came back to Charlotte with these spider bites on each side of her face - yuck:

Only recently am I contemplating shaping the mullet a bit:

Don't know what is so scary about the bath - you have 2 every day:

Brushing the back of her teeth: