Riding in cars

Nothing like free and easy entertainment. I love that Isabella and Victoria don't need money thrown into these cars and music/movement to be entertained. Thank goodness some things are still easy. Saturday was a bit cold and muddy (from the previous winter storm) to be doing something outside, like go to the zoo or the park. So, we were mall rats, instead, for family time.

2009-11-21

2009-11-21

The girls as roommates

The girls slept in the same room for the first time, for both nap-time and night time sleep, Wednesday of last week. Not sure exactly what the hesitation was in putting them together, a combination of factors really: one waking up in the night and waking the other, no one sleeping with the excitement, having to grab Victoria in another room when she wakes in the night. Both girls scream quite well when they're upset, but Victoria's in her own category of decibels. Good thing, for the most part, Isabella is a sound sleeper. Victoria, not so much. She wakes much more easily, especially in the early morning hours. As for waking in the night for nursing, Victoria wakes once or twice a night these days. Believe me, that has absolutely nothing to do with failure to do sleep training or spoiling her. If you were actually here, you'd see how things go. Anyways, the air in the mile high city is super dry, we haven't hauled out our humidifier yet, and well, Victoria is simply a different child from Isabella. I actually do lay her back into bed awake after she has nursed and she understands it is bed-time. That first day of them bunking in the same room went quite well, and we haven't really looked back since. In fact, if it weren't for company coming tomorrow, I was thinking about putting away our Pack 'n Play.

2009-11-18

Leading by the hand

Isabella took to the idea of taking the idea of holding hands with Victoria and running with it. Victoria enjoyed the chase but not the constant tugging from her sister.

2009-11-18

Scaling the high chair, the littler one

2009-11-17

Um, okay, Victoria is clearly the more adventurous one of the two. Over and above Isabella, she is willing to risk the dangerous. Isabella also climbs on to the high chair herself these days, but she is also bigger and older. Saw Victoria climbing up there on her own, for the first time, today, twice. I guess she saw her sister do it over and over again, so Victoria thought it was time to try; and mighty proud she was. Me, too.

Victoria is 18 months old today!

2009-11-16

I say this with each passing month, every time she turns a month older; but seriously, I cannot believe the baby of the family is already 18 months old. Not little, no not at all.

18 months later, a lot has changed and nothing has changed. She loves to run. She loves to speak, get excited, yell. When she is excited, she dances. Eats just about everything - curry, jambalaya, yogurt, fried rice, avocado . . . She likes to chew on apple slices for a bit, and once she feels she's gotten enough of the juice, Victoria takes out the pieces she was chewing. She's taken to copying me by picking up miscellaneous items off the floor, like hair, and throwing it in the trash; she's say "diu diao" (meaning "throw away" in Chinese). Still loves to nurse.

SEVENTEEN months, already?

The youngest baby in our family turned 17 months old today. This age thing and concept of being the youngest has been a bit trying for me. For most of my childhood, I was the youngest in the circles in which I ran, with my own friends and with my sister's friends. Yes, I followed my sister A LOT when I was young; I looked up to her tremendously. Fast forward. Starting college at 17, I was definitely on the younger side, and this was still the case as I started graduate school. These days? I'm an old fogey in the lot. I mean, students at Denver Seminary talk as if people in their 30's are OLD. Whhhhaaaaatttttttttt? I am NOT old. You take that back. I'm just a few years older than you (then I think and realize in my head, "no, I'm more than two to three years older than those 26-ers"). Shhhhhhh, don't tell anyone. I told people my last birthday that I turned 24 (more like the 1oth anniversary of my 24th birthday). Oh, and, did I mention that I was the baby in my family growing up?

Anyhoo, I am certainly not the baby in the family now. We currently have a three year old and we have a 17 month old. Oh I forgot (in my old, feeble mind). When I started this post, I was talking about how I couldn't believe our youngest child is already 17 months old.

I still remember the commotion and hoo-ha around her birth, with my obstetrician constantly checking the health of the baby, around the time I was due, since I was going for a VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section). When it came time, I was also determined NOT to go to the hospital until Victoria was ready to make her own entrance into the world (I'm pretty convinced a large part of Isabella having to fight to live and survive in the first days of life in the world had to do with being induced; I do not ever want another induction - wish I never had had one). I was due Mother's Day, May 11th, 2008. Who's to say how accurate due dates are?

Anyways, come May 16th, I no longer had any experiential doubts about any differences between Braxton Hicks contractions and labor contractions. Labor contractions aren't uncomfortable, they hurt like #$(%@#!, especially when they come regularly and without much break in between. I had more confirmation that Victoria was head down in the final stretch than ultrasounds; like her sister, she spent a lot of time kicking the crap out of my rib cage and happily so. Unlike my pregnancy with Isabella, I wasn't in that much of a hurry to usher Victoria into the world, except for the fact that if I didn't deliver soon, my ob was threatening a C-section. The day Victoria joined the world will not be a day I will soon forget. OMG, I can't forget it. I certainly wasn't planning on delivering her without any pain management; it's just that I got to the hospital in enough time to pop the baby out, but not soon enough to get an epidural or not soon enough for them to plug me up to an IV ahead of time. Dude, they had to role me onto a gurney and TEAR my clothes off of me.

Here's Victoria. Darling, precious Victoria. I told myself and Troy that if I hadn't seen her come out of me, I wouldn't believe she was mine. When she was first born, she looked nothing like me. And, she looked nothing like Troy. Seriously people. It is NOT the case that all Asians look alike (plus, our daughters are not just Asian). With time and with her growth and development, she is looking more like me. Kind of interesting, Victoria looked nothing like me at birth and now looks more like me. Isabella was a carbon copy of me as a newborn, and now she looks much more like Troy. Go figure. I wonder who they'll resemble when they are all grown.

Hark, who do we have here?

2009-10-15

One of my best friends, Christine, has load Isaiah & Belle's costume to Isabella. Actually getting the costume on her was a doosey. Barely fit over her head, and she was unhappy about the initial passing over her head. Once it was on her, however, we had a very happy Elmo-fan camper.

A nickname I never guessed would be mine in my wildest imagination

2009-10-8

I have had a plethora of nicknames - lil, lilliput, tigerlily, lilllian (even though 'lily' is not short for lillian) - just to name a few. Some more recent additions include hon (by my husband and oddly by some of Starbucks baristas) and waterlily. Victoria has given me one, too, besides "ma ma." Nai (pronounced kind of like "nigh"), which means milk, is her favorite way to call for me or call me these days, especially when she wants immediate delivery of milk or comfort directly from the milk truck. Fortunate for her, she can still drink directly from the milk truck. This is fortunate for me, too, since she's been waking up one or twice in the night. This girl's screaming not only escalates, but she can do two octave simultaneous screaming; and there's nothing like giving her some mommy's milk and both of us drifting back to sleep. Anyways, makes me giggle, twirl, and laugh that she calls me "nai" sometimes.