41 Months

Another impossibly quick month has passed. Don’t ask me where the time went. Despite my best efforts, this entry is quite late and (guiltily) backdated. My excuse: work. I had a lot to accomplish before handing off for maternity which meant that I had to work through the Christmas holidays even! Excitement and nervousness abounds – Yaya’s Adik is scheduled to arrive on December 29th, and we have much to do to be ready! Yaya was stellar throughout this period. She didn’t complain that Mama was always in the office, making me feel all kinds of guilt. But as always, she is an absolute joy for us. [[image:2011_yaya_41months_03.jpg:Got milk?:center:0]] Food status: she has proclaimed mangos to be back as part of her accepted diet. But it has to be “crunchy” – meaning pureed, frozen, and slightly thawed. She still doesn’t like normal mangos – she did surprise me by trying […]

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40 Months

So the girl is now 40 months old! Three and 1/3 years old. This month has totally flown by and it’s definitely been a crazy one! For one thing, we had our first October snowstorm during our last work trip out to New Jersey until after the new baby arrives. It was a fun time, and everyone was so kind to us out there, friends, co-workers, the hotel staff that has become like family to us. We will miss everyone until we get to go back on the road, the traveling troupe + Adik by then :-). But that won’t be for quite a few months, and we’re definitely looking forward to being home for the next few months straight. It will be different, and certainly new for all of us. Yaya has been part of the traveling troupe now since she was 13 months old, and I hope she […]

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39 Months

At 39 months, Yaya is now becoming aware of the seasons changing – the need to wear jackets to go outside, the leaves on the trees turning color and falling off the branches, etc. It’s amazing since last year she really didn’t pay that much attention to these changes. Here she is playing in the leaves. She liked to throw it around and jump around in it, but eventually she did help Papa bag these autumn leaves. [[image:2011_alya39months1.jpg:Throwing leaves around:center:0]] Food status: no change. Potty training score: Yaya 5500, Mama & Papa 400. We had to move her potty chair onto the stage (gradually closer to the bathroom) as she was beginning to just hang out sans underwear on the froggy potty chair in front of the tv for hours on end. With it on the stage now, she only sits on it when she has to go, and for […]

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38 Months

So Yaya had her 38 month birthday while we were in New Jersey. Another quick and fun month has gone by, and here is the girl lounging on the bed in the hotel while Papa calls in a delivery dinner order: [[image:2011-0922-yaya1.jpg:No barrettes for once!:center:0]] Food status: no change, although we did discuss when she used to eat more stuff (like plums which used to be her ultimate favorite). And she corrected me (I called plums red and she said they were purple) and she remembered that she ate it from a spoon and Papa stirred it around before he fed them to her. She also talked about mangos and other fruits so maybe if she’s in the mood she might try those fruits again. One day, she’ll eat more stuff. She will, god willing. Potty training status: jeng jeng jeng… Success!!!! She is diaper-free now, except for nap- and […]

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37 Months

Hey everyone! So the girl is 37 months old today. We had her 3-year checkup this morning and she was 40 1/4 inches tall (102.2 cm) and 38 lbs (17.2 kg), and at the 99th percentile for both height and weight. Her speech and vocabulary now seems advanced for her age (what a change from last year’s checkup and the not talking at all business!). She counted to 25 for the doctor (skipping 16 which is the norm for her), and correctly identified the stethoscope used, and what it was for. She liked opening her mouth and saying “aaah” and letting the doctor shine a flashlight in her ear. She didn’t mind the sphygmomanometer that took her blood pressure and “hugged” her arm. She didn’t even cry when she was given one jab, and was very pleased with the tweety bird bandage that she got for it. Everything is going […]

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The one with the rainy-day party

So on Sunday July 24th (Vin’s birthday! Happy birthday, babe!!!!) we had Yaya’s birthday party. As in previous years, we had invited the neighbors and our friends and planned a cook-out. The house was clean and there was a bunch of cooking to be done! Mandy and I had stayed up assembling Yaya’s present the night before (I hate assembling toys!) and Papa went to play baseball in the morning. [[image:2011_0724_party02.jpg:Birthday girl in her jammies:center:0]] Mandy had balloon duty and inflated a bunch of helium balloons for the party while I cooked. [[image:2011_0724_party01.jpg:Birthday girl gets a balloon!:center:0]] When the guests arrived, it started to rain so we had to move the party indoors (cue scrambling to clear the counter of stuff so food can be put out). Luckily Vin did manage to grill the burgers and hot dogs before the deluge started. The uncouth girl made a beeline for the […]

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36 Months (aka Third Birthday)

Not too terribly late this month! And here is the 3-year-old Yaya on the morning of her birthday! [[image:2011_0722yaya01.jpg:3-year-old Yaya says Hi!:center:0]] Before we start, just a note that this is going to be the last of the long monthly blog recapping her entire day. While I’m torn about the decision, I think three years of this has been a lot. I’m not going to stop blogging on her birthday, just not quite as long an entry just chatting about what she’s done or accomplished, and maybe one or two pictures. Three years is a long time. I’ll miss it. But there will still be long entries when we have stuff to say. Plus with Yaya’s Adik’s impending arrival, inshallah, in the interest of equality I will try to do a monthly blog for the new little one when the time comes and Yaya will no doubt be prominently featured […]

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35 Months

Can we just pretend that this is on time? Or at least not so late that the girl is almost 36 months old? No excuses really. Anyway, here is our 35 month old Yaya (almost 3 years old now!!!! wooooo!). [[image:2011-0622-yaya24.jpg:I’m in a hotel crib!:center:0]] June was so long ago I barely remember it. We drove home from the work outing in New Jersey on June 2nd, and had lovely weather (for a change). No complaints from me. But we had a busy month though. Lots of work (for Mama) and then on the week leading up to the big 35 month birthday, we did a ton of traveling, and this time for fun! Yay! First vacation of 2011! But before we get to that, quick report: food intake unchanged. Still very limited options of what she will eat. Potty training: Yaya 4000, Mama and Papa 0. So that means […]

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34 Months

This might be a new record in the tardiness of the monthly blog entry. The same excuses and the same apologies, but here she is our 34 month old Yaya. In less than two months (from today) she will be three! Unbelievable, right? 😉 [[image:2011-0522-yaya24.jpg:I’m a traveling Yaya!:center:0]] We had more rain in May. Seriously – we had rain almost every day in April and the first half of May, and that’s no joke. Certainly we did not have two consecutive days of sun during this stretch. On the plus side, the lawn looks lovely! But we all got cabin fever. The weather finally broke in mid-May and we finally got some nice sunny weather.  Nothing new to report on the food end – still a moratorium on most foods. Same with potty training – no advances. Hopefully as the summer progresses we can have her run around outside sans pants and try to […]

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33 Months

I’m just not even going to mention how late this entry is or the reasons why because they’re all the same boring reasons recycled month after month. At any rate, the girl is now 33 months old! 2.75 years old already! [[image:2011-0422-22.jpg:Fashionably bored?:center:0]] Honestly, I like the picture above because we rarely see this expression of calmness and peace about her.  😉 * As usual, mouse over the pictures for captions It has been a quiet and rainy month. Poor Yaya only got to go to the playground maybe twice this entire time we’ve been home (and we didn’t go out to New Jersey this month). Why? Are we just lazy parents trying to raise a couch potato? Well, not quite. It’s just rained almost every day for weeks now. The backyard will be sprouting mangroves and alligators will be migrating there soon. We are all getting such cabin fever […]

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32 Months

Well, this month I am (yet again) late with the entry. The girl is now 2 years and 8 months old – she’s 2 and 2/3 years old! Not long to the big 3! She’s quite the character: [[image:20110322-yaya29.jpg:Hi everyone!!!:center:0]] I have no real excuse – sure, lots of work and all that. But it’s both work and procrastination I suppose. This has been another quick month – we had another trip to New Jersey (and in fact Yaya’s 32-month birthday happened while we were there!), and the month does go by extra quickly when we’re on the road. Yaya continues to amaze us with all the talking and singing. When we’re home we still listen to music while we eat dinner, and there’s lots of drawing. Yaya still refuses to eat most things – no change there. And sadly, we’ve had quite a snowy March. Seriously depressing. We are all getting cabin […]

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31 Months

It’s a miracle! Only a few days after the girl’s 31 month birthday, this entry is being written? What’s gotten into me? 🙂 Anyways, this past Tuesday the 22nd, Yaya turned 31 months old. Here she is: [[image:20110222_05.jpg:Aww shucks!:center:0]] Another fast-paced month has passed by. We did our first 2011 New Jersey work trip in February, and had a lot of fun. Yaya was chanting “Yaya goes to hotel!” all the way in the car. Needless to say, it was a long 11-hour drive. Poor thing. We kept telling her, yes, we’re going to the hotel but it’s still a long way away. Her enthusiasm was unflagging, “Yaya goes inside hotel!!!!” and variations of this statement occurred. This was also the first road trip where she seemed to really take a huge interest in her surroundings – “Mama, look at all the trees!”, “Mama, look at all the buildings!”, “Yaya sees birds”, “Ni Hao […]

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30 Months (She’s 2 and a half!)

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 – […]

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29 Months

Another month, and how quickly it passed! Granted, I only fairly recently wrote her 28 month blog (cheating and dating it earlier than it was actually written, but whatever). 😉 At least this month I’m able to work on this entry only a few days after the fact (hooray to client holiday shutdown period!!). Here she is, saying hey y’alls: [[image:2010-29month09.jpg:Hey y’alls:center:0]] Allie is definitely a chatty kathy. There are nights when she keeps herself from falling asleep just talking away – to us, or to her stuffed animals. And the minute she stops talking she falls asleep almost instantly. It’s quite amusing (although not so much when you’re waiting for her to fall asleep so you can go eat some dinner). She refers to herself as “Yaya” (which is what we’ve called her from before birth even, Alya – Yaya, get it?) now, and almost never answers to Allie. But it’s always funny […]

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Allie’s 28 Month Birthday

I am very delinquent this month (and cheating by dating it a little earlier – it is actually much later in December that I’m writing this entry but I’m fudging the posting date to make myself feel a little better). But I will try to faithfully capture what’s happened until her 28 month birthday rather than going further than that. Well the girl has been progressing steadily, and is now speaking in half-sentences! It’s crazy! We are amazed by how far she’s gotten in just one month. But first she says hi: [[image:2010-28month12.jpg:Hello, how do you do?:center:0]] And yes, she can actually say that! Just a refresher – Allie only started speaking six weeks ago (starting with “toe”) and you can read about it here. But here she is, six weeks later just going crazy with the verbal communication. For one thing, everything that she says will somehow relate back […]

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Trick or Treat! ROARRRRR!

Last year a buzzy bee baby graced us at Halloween. This year, we went with mammalian and feline, an inspiration from the zoo visit at Allie’s 26 month birthday, and since Allie does love cats so much. So… [[image:2010-halloween01.jpg:Happy smiling lion:center:0]] In the jungle, the mighty jungleThe lion sleeps tonight… Just keep that song going while you read the rest of this entry, ok? I know you’ve seen the lion costume before since we posted spoilers in the 27 month birthday entry, and I toyed with the idea of skipping the Halloween entry, but this year we actually went trick or treating! Only 5 houses, our nearest neighbors, but still this is momentous, right? Allie’s first trick or treat filled Halloween? Here’s more of our little lioncub running around in the house: [[image:2010-halloween03.jpg:mrowwwwww bashful lion:center:0]] [[image:2010-halloween04.jpg:Wait where’s my mane?:center:0]] [[image:2010-halloween05.jpg:Hey what’s in a lion’s paw?:center:0]] Finally it is time for […]

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