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: