One More Day!!

Bambino's first birthday and party day is in one day!!  I know she's excited.  I can see it in her eyes...and screams...  All the decor I've been busy planning and making are starting to materialize (in other words,  house is a mess).  I will post about the entire party, including decor, cake, DIYs (note to self: need to take lots of pics to document!), but not til after I have a breather after the party is over.

My friend's baby is 6 weeks older than Avi, but she can say so many words already.  It's not that I need Avi to be caught up but I just think it'd be so much nicer than trying to decipher which screams mean what.  So when my friend said she "made" her baby talk, it dawned on me that I just need to "make" Avi talk with some tough love.  First mission, the word "more", as in "more" Cheerios.  After trying to refrain from giving her more of her beloved Cheerios unless she said something along the lines of "mm-mm", she started saying, "mm-mm"!!  It worked after only one eating session!  Now I just have to keep working at it so that she can be consistent.  In the meantime, still lots of screaming and banging hands.

Side note, I think my bambino is the cutest baby ever with the most squishable cheeks.  They are so soft and bouncy to kiss!  I don't think I'm biased at all...lol!

She's growing up fast!

I haven't updated in awhile because I've been busy planning for Avi's big "1"!!  A party that was supposed to be small, of course never ends up small when it involves my family.  Since my last post, Avi had another eye infection that started just 2 days after she finished her first course of oral antibiotics.  It took a week and a half and changing antibiotic ointment and drops twice before it resolved which I'm thinking, it probably would've just resolved on its own.
Things Avi can do now: She can cruise a little bit but prefers to grab a hold of me and walk.  She says "dada" a lot and "mama" sometimes, more often when she's upset.  Yesterday, I called the hubs with the speaker on and told her it was dada and she enthusiastically said "Dadadada!!"  Even though she can't say what she wants yet, I can tell she understands when I say "milk", "water", "more", "Teddy", and "let's go to school".  She just recently can "blow a kiss" which looks more like hand to and from chin while saying "vah!"  Just this morning I was singing, "Miss mary mack mack mack, all dressed in black black black, with silver buttons buttons buttons, all down her back back back" while putting on her new big girl coat  and she sang along "buh buh buh".  It's amazing to see how much information she's absorbing!
She dressed as a monkey for her first halloween!  I thought the costume fit her energy, constantly climbing and moving all over the place!  I may be biased but I think she must be the cutest monkey ever!!
After the last screaming session at Fu Fu's a few months ago, we kinda shied away from eating out with her.  But now that we have a better rhythm with her eating and sleeping, we started exploring eating out for dinner with her again.  Albeit, the timing has to be right and eating out is not like it used to be.  It's tricky trying to ration out her food so that she doesn't run out before we get to eat.
This week at school, she already started transitioning to the next class!  Every morning at 9, she (and her buddy Matthew who is 1 wk younger than her) goes to the next class for about an hour to sit in on their "lesson".  Such a strange concept to me considering she can't walk yet and can barely sit still for a minute.  Today Ms. Le tells me, in vietnamese, "Her voice is so loud!  Her parents speak so nice and softly, but she is so loud!"  Yes, Ms. Le, we've noticed =)

Firsts

Not all "firsts" are good firsts.  Avi baby got her first eye infection this week in her right eye.  The same eye that has had the clogged duct that I've been hoping would unclog as she got bigger but it hasn't unclogged and probably made her more prone to getting the infection.  I guess surgery will be inevitable...we'll have to see at her 12 month check up.  The good thing is her eye doesn't seem to bother her at all but maybe her runny nose and cough is cuz she's been waking up an hour earlier than she usually does (6am instead of 7am).  Once she feels better, a little sleep training refresher may be needed.
Some positive firsts: she can pull up to standing with ease now.  She can also go from crawling to sitting position.  I caught her unsuccessfully trying to climb to standing in her crib so hubs lowered the crib to the final lowest setting.  She's attending her first birthday party this weekend.  Her friend Audrey is turning 1!
Still waiting for her to say "mama" ...

**Update: She can pull up to standing in her crib easily now and I see why those teething rails are necessary...little chipmunk! =)

Still in good spirits even with an eye infection and a cold

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Bambino finally learned how to clap!  She does it very enthusiastically, a lot of times randomly, when she's happy, hungry, and even when she's frustrated.  The most surefire way to get her to clap is of course to start singing, "If you're happy and you know it...".  She'll drop what she's doing and start clapping.  As hubs eagerly pointed out, "just like Pavlov's dog!"...

Happy 10 months to my ball of sunshine!

They Grow Up So Fast

Picked up the Bambino from daycare after not seeing her for 4 days and she was elated to see me!  She still remembers me...Phew!  After just 4 days, she's noticeably changed so much already.  Her hair looks longer (bald spot just almost covered!), she's babbling new sounds, and she was able to pull herself up to standing with very little support from me.  Sigh....they grow up so fast... I don't know if I want to leave her again next month when we go to Wisconsin/ Chicago for a wedding.  What if she starts walking?!

Bambino-less

First trip without the bambino!!  It was a big deal in multiple ways.  I don't think we thought through the logistics of leaving a baby somewhere other than home (i.e. how much crap we'd have to bring over to grandparents' home) and also since I'm still breastfeeding, how often I'd have to still pump while vacationing.  Also, leaving a baby at such a young age (9.5 months), we could've missed a monumental milestone!!  Overall though, I think everything went fairly smoothly.  I think my parents has her figured out now so that next time (in just another month!) it will be easy peasy...or as easy peasy as caring for an infant can be.  Although we missed the bambino a lot during our trip, I'm really not sure how we would've been able to do anything if we had brought her.  Sorry Avi, but until you tone down your screaming and be a little more chill sitting and sleeping in your stroller, we can't take you on trips!  (that is, until Mar 2014 when we go to Colorado for your auntie's wedding)  We got back from SF late last night so we weren't able to pick up Avi.  Grandma (Ba`) took her to daycare this morning so we still haven't seen her yet.  I can't wait to see you bambino!  I hope you still recognize me!!

  Just a few necessities for 4 days at grandparents' house.  

The back seat had to be put down and Avi is not in the car.  

Clinging on...

Lately Avi's been exceptionally clingy to me.  Like Hubs has been having to pry her off me, esp when she's cranky.  When I sit down to play with her, she just wants to climb on me and have me hold her.  All this attention is flattering but makes it difficult for me to do anything!  Sometimes I have to hide from her so that she can continue to play and I can go do what I need to do.
When we went to look at daycares for the bambino, we saw some kids sleeping with their butt way up in the air and we thought that was the funniest (and strangest) sleep position ever.  Who knew, now Avi has taken a liking to that position too!!  How can one fall asleep like that?!

Milestones in a nutshell

I just want to recall all her milestones that I can think of in this post instead of writing several separate posts.  Let's see...

• 9 months: saying "da-da-da" indiscrminately
• almost 9 months: fairly good with pincer grip, imitate waving "hi"
• almost 8 months: saying first consonant sound "bap-bap-bap"
• started to sit around 6 months but not steady until about 7.5 months
• Crawling at 7.5 months (July 7th) 

• 5.5 months 1st tooth! (lower incisor)
• 4.5 months discovered her thumb while in Boston (her first plane trip!) and never looked back at her pacifier again...seeing braces in her future =\
• Rolled over at 4 months and 1 week, just as her pediatrician predicted at her 4 month check up!
• First day at Montessori Learning Institute Feb 11 with Ms. Le.  Avi and I handled it pretty well when she was dropped off but when I came to pick her up she was wailing sitting alone in her swing.  I didn't feel so great about that.  

Look! She had a double chin and hardly any hair!!

• Had her first bottle at 3 weeks old and had no problems.  Little did we know, she decided she liked it straight from the source A LOT more.  Struggled with the bottle i.e. hours of tears and screaming every time until a couple of weeks into daycare when she realized she had no other choice.  Even then, she was unpredictable about whether or not she would take the bottle.  Hence, we were never able to have Daddy help with night feedings...lucky him!  Finally by 7 months, she started to love the bottle...reaching with eager eyes every time she sees it.  
• Laugh out loud by 3 months
• First professional photo shoot at 8 days old with Jayka Photography.  It took almost 4 hours including feeding and getting her into poses.  She was quite the fidgety one so it wasn't easy getting her into certain poses.  Did I mention it was also a nude photo shoot??  She managed to poop on our blanket during one of the poses.  

Hi Avi!

I've been saying "Hi Avi!" very enthusiastically and waving my hand like a total dork for the past few days because I realized she's able to mimic me now!  She's not quite as adept as I am.  Her waves, her give-me-fives, and her hand smacking on the table look pretty similar but I promise you her responses are not coincidental!

An update on the sleep training: She's just as sporadic as she was when our sleep train goal was 9 hours.  She did 10 hours w/o a sound, then 11 hours w/o a sound, and then took a few steps back and woke up after 9 hours and every hour after that.  She likes to vary it to keep us on our toes.  

We plan to go to SF for a wedding in September and our plan was to take her with us.  However, she's been especially difficult to take out lately and very stubborn about sticking to her bedtime (7pm).  Last weekend we went to eat for lunch.  We didn't time it well and it ended up being close to naptime.  Boy was that a mistake.  After a lot of loud screaming and people staring, we had to have get our order to-go and hubby had to take her outside while I waited for our food to be packed up.  In addition to this, SF is 2 hours behind...do the math...she will start getting cranky around 3 pm...blegh. 

One little monkey jumping on the bed...

Last Friday, I put her in her play yard so I could get her bottle ready.  (These days, she's so mobile, there are only a few places I can put her and be sure she doesn't go after a dog toy or get into any other trouble.  It's a rotation between the bouncer, play yard, and high chair)  We haven't lowered her crib or play yard yet but I knew it was time because during her earlier nap (or failed nap rather) I found her with arms hanging over the rail...yikes!  So as I got her bottle ready, she had pulled herself up in the play yard and had her arms and head peering over the edge.  I thought, there's no way she can climb over.  I was right, she couldn't climb over, but she was able to push her legs, reach, and slide out head first.  I couldn't get there in time =\.  Her first big fall and she handled it quite well--better than me!  No bruise either!  Needless to say, both play yard and crib are now lowered because we've got a little monkey on our hands!

Sleep training Part Deux

For some reason, the first time we did sleep training, I was eager to not have to get up to feed her every 3 hours and her crying didn't seem to bother me that much.  This time, now that we've finally gotten her to sleep 9 hours, feed at 4am, then sleep more til 7/8am, I'm hesitating to sleep train to eliminate that one night feeding altogether.  I think it's because I know that she's much more aware now so I feel guilty leaving her crying.  Anyhow, night one: cried at 3:55am, fell back asleep on and off on her belly until she finally turned on her back and slept continuously from 5:08 til 7:20am! (and continued to play in her crib until we went to get her at 8:30!).  Not too bad for the first night.  Now, if only I can relax myself and actually sleep when she's sleeping.

B-B-B-bap!

So it was July 19th, around 4am, I just fed Avi and I'm changing her diaper and she starts to say, "bap-bap-bap".  Er?  Out of nowhere, she says her first "word" i.e. consonant sound that has no meaning.  I remember the date and time because the date is her daddy's bday and the time is the usual time she's been waking up.  We started sleep training her at 5 1/2 months.  We did everything by the book.  We let her cry it out and never went in until the 9 hour mark (7pm-4am=9hours).  Unfortunately, it's apparent that Avi did not read this book because it took her 3 months to finally consistently not wake up sooner than 9 hours.  Now that she finally figured it out (or so we think she has), she's old enough to sleep 12 hours without a feeding so we're thinking of sleep training this weekend!  Yikes, for the first time in almost 9 months, I won't be waking up at night to feed her!  I know I should be relieved but I feel torn!!  My baby's growing up fast!

Weeeee!

Last Sunday, around 5pm, Avi was getting really fussy (an every evening occurrence), so I suggested taking a walk to the park and trying out the swing.  Avi loves being outside so any time she's fussy, taking a walk outside usually helps pass the time.  I think her first swing experience was a success!  It only lasted less than 5 minutes because we were melting in the sun but she didn't cry and seemed to mildly enjoy it.  First thing she did when we put her in, like she does with everything else, was taste it =)

Gotta love those chunky legs!

Just to start off...

I honestly hate writing (and to think, in 5th grade, I told my parents I wanted to be a writer...) so I apologize in advance if my writing consists of ramblings, run-ons, and incompletes.  At least I won't be ranting about my dental school patients (lol...good 'ol xanga days).  You're probably wondering, why "bambino"?  I'm really not sure where or when I started using the word, but it's fun saying it and it usually elicits a smile from, well, the Bambino =).
Now it's time to backtrack through 8.5 months and see what I can remember....stay tuned!