So the girl is now two and a half! Years!! How crazy is that? Time really does fly. Especially in 2011 since suddenly I am so very very late with this entry. Yaya’s getting close to 31 months. But my excuse is work commitments. It’s been a very busy 2011 with work deadlines and working on weekends and such. But enough on my excuses – let’s just get to it.
[[image:20110122-17.jpg:I’m a big girl now!:center:0]]
Oh also, Happy Belated Birthday to Yaya’s Wan Yong and Pak Yope!
We have had a very snowy month of January, so we have all been stuck indoors for the most part. Which, given my crazy work hours really hasn’t affected me that much. But Yaya doesn’t seem to mind too much – we do have plenty of things to entertain her with at home. She’s been very into jigsaw puzzles and building blocks – she’s mastered her 12-piece puzzles and she’s even trying to make things into puzzles (e.g., foam magnetic letters that are peeled off a stencil – she’s been putting the letters back and getting upset when she can’t find all the pieces). It might be time to get her some more challenging puzzles. She’s talking and singing (words) like crazy, and running around being completely amusing. She comes up with the funniest things to say and do (which I know every parent says about their children). She loves to dance and we’ve had some dance parties after dinner. Dinner has been a new tradition of all of us sitting together and eating, with Vin and me trading off on music choices. Yaya’s getting exposed to all kinds of music now! She’s starting to recognize the sounds of the instruments – she knows what a piano sounds like, and what a brass instrument sounds like (she calls them all “horns” or “trumpets” but she’s two and a half, so the fact that she can recognize that it’s a brass instrument is pretty cool no?), and violins and guitars. She knows the entire alphabet like the back of her hand (including a number of small letters). She’s recognizing many numbers and can almost accurately count out things – she does have a penchant for skipping over items when she counts. We’re trying to introduce the sounds that the letters make but she hasn’t been too interested in that.
Food-wise, there is still a moratorium on most foods. She will consistently eat raisin and cinnamon english muffins (“circle toast”), garlic bread with cheese, and bananas but nothing on a spoon. She has eaten some grated parmesan cheese but for the most part, she refuses everything. She has been drinking a lot of milk though.
She’s becoming quite the seasoned traveler – we went to Savannah, GA from December 28-31 last year and she flew well. She did go through some more refusals of foods pretty much subsisting on toast when we were in Savannah, but she was still pleasant and friendly to everyone. I meant to blog about the Savannah trip – we had a blast! Maybe I’ll just share some of the pictures another day. But we had an awesome time, the food was great, the weather was consistently 10-20 F warmer than at home, so what more could we ask for? We’ll try to visit again during the warmer months and maybe go to the beach and stuff next time.
Also she may have gone through a growth spurt (despite the fact that most of her nutrition is coming from milk instead of foods) as she is now wearing 4Toddler pants and they fit her perfectly in length. Anyway, enough chatter, time to see how the girl spent her birthday! (Also Yaya’s Wan Yong’s birthday!).
She woke up that morning and even though it was a Saturday, Mama was already downstairs working. So Mama came up and took pictures of her in her crib.
[[image:20110122-01.jpg:Good morning Mama!:center:0]]
Then we all went downstairs and Yaya had her milk and was playing with Mama’s empty water bottle.
[[image:20110122-02.jpg:Morning TV with milk and water:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-03.jpg:Lily roly-polies a birthday wish for Yaya:center:0]]
After circle toast for breakfast, Yaya runs around the house doing different things.
[[image:20110122-04.jpg:What? I have nothing on my arms:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-05.jpg:Want a donut?:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-06.jpg:Papa and Yaya:center:0]]
See the snow outside in the background? Grrr…
[[image:20110122-07.jpg:Bringing the ball popper into the playpen:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-08.jpg:Climbing Papa’s belly:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-09.jpg:Self portrait with Mama at the piano:center:0]]
She also loves to wear our shoes:
[[image:20110122-10.jpg:Tromping around in Mama’s brown shoes:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-11.jpg:Slippers can be worn upside down as well:center:0]]
And then some sofa time:
[[image:20110122-13.jpg:Yaya sits with Lily:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-14.jpg:Hey I’m talking to you:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-15.jpg:Look at my dinosaur slippers!:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-16.jpg:Are you still taking my picture?:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-18.jpg:Building the Great Wall of China with building blocks:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-19.jpg:Home made flag:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-20.jpg:Self portrait with Papa:center:0]]
And then it was time for dinner! I forget what music we played that night, but we had fun. Yaya ate more circle toast. Don’t ask me what Vin and I had for dinner.
[[image:20110122-21.jpg:Holding both of Mama’s telingas (ears):center:0]]
[[image:20110122-23.jpg:Whip those ponytails about!:center:0]]
[[image:20110122-22.jpg:What a fun dinner!:center:0]]
And then it was bed and bathtime for little girls. It was a fun day and another fun month.
I can’t believe how big she’s getting, how much she can say and do now. Before we know it, she’ll be a little girl running around with her friends and such. But for now, we are enjoying being with her and seeing how she’s growing up. Happy birthday, baby! We love you!
See y’alls next month!
[[image:20110122-12.jpg:Cheeeeese!:center:0]]
