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!