Baby T is a pretty quiet guy, but he can communicate quite clearly with his small arsenal of words and signs. When we speak to him and explain a new word or point out a new thing, we'll often hear him whisper, repeat it and practice the word very quietly to himself, thinking nobody is listening. Then, when he's confident enough, the word will come blurting out. However, even though he's said it perfectly clearly, he's unlikely to repeat the word again. Maybe he's storing it for another time?
At 14.5 months, we've got these down pat:
English words:
"Mama" (Mama)
"Dada" (Daddy)
"Duck" (Duck)
"Melmo" (Elmo)
"Bah" (Ball)
"boo" (Spoon)
"Nooooo" (NO!)
"Cwatter" (Cracker)
"Bappoh" (Apple)
"Bawbo" (Bubble)
Chinese (sorta)
"wo-wo" (dog - woah-woah)
"nyiow-nyiow" (cat - meow-meow)
"toong-toong" (hurt)
"Che" (car)
"Baba" (Daddy)
"Nai-Nai" (Milk)
"Moh-Mohr!" (Don't touch!)
Signs:
"Potty" - left hand twisting motion
"More" - closed finger tips together
"Bird" - thumb and index finger open and close
"Ball" - Open finger tips touching
"Milk" - open and close fist
"Water" - points index finger to mouth (he made that one up)
"Eat" - fingertips to mouth
"Cracker" - fist knocking opposite elbow
"Outside" - open and close fingers to thumb
"Hurt" - touch index fingers
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
First drafts are go!
I used to be the kind of writer who would write a draft, check it a few times, format here and there, carefully add links and position photos just so, insert an intro, photo captions, and draw a conclusion at the end of my blog entries.
Oh...how long ago were those days. Those were also the days that I would buy a pair of shoes each month, prance around in high heels, put on makeup every day, treat myself to a designer purse to match a new pair of shoes, and wear fancy panties, even if the only pair of eyes to ogle my dressed up tush would be my own.
During my single days, I would blog about the above. My non-single days of blogging were centred around concerts, cafes, restaurants, and took a ridiculous number of photos of delicious food. Getting ready to wed, blogs were taken over by crafts and wedding details (holy, that was a boring time period!). After marriage, blogging continued to center on crafts, cooking, house decorating, and home improvement. Sadly, I've lost past blog entries, but it's ok, because I don't miss them so much anymore. I thought, that when we started our family, I would evolve right along with my little blogging evolution and become a mommy-blogger. You know the mommy that can record every milestone and take a picture every month along with her baby's stats at the last doctor's appointment.
I really thought I'd record all of Baby T's big milestones, post up pictures of his first tooth, and all that good stuff, but you know, I can't let go of my old habits of writing a draft, and doing all the editing before posting. So, when I think about all the work that could go into just one blog entry, I just get overwhelmed, and even though a draft gets written up, the entry never gets posted.
Just as we are decluttering our household, I'm also on a mission to declutter my draft folder! I've got a few new blogging rules for myself!
Rule 1: No drafts. Write it and post it. Maybe add photos later.
Rule 2: Atleast once a month
Rule 3: 100 word minimum. Meet that, and I've got a posting for the month.
With these rules, I could end up posting the text on the piece of paper closest to my computer (ie. bumgenius washing instructions). While that could be very interesting for some, I'll try to post something that would be interesting to the friends and family who want to see pics of Baby T (and don't have facebook!)
Ok! There's a back-dated draft about our birth story, waiting to be published!
Oh...how long ago were those days. Those were also the days that I would buy a pair of shoes each month, prance around in high heels, put on makeup every day, treat myself to a designer purse to match a new pair of shoes, and wear fancy panties, even if the only pair of eyes to ogle my dressed up tush would be my own.
During my single days, I would blog about the above. My non-single days of blogging were centred around concerts, cafes, restaurants, and took a ridiculous number of photos of delicious food. Getting ready to wed, blogs were taken over by crafts and wedding details (holy, that was a boring time period!). After marriage, blogging continued to center on crafts, cooking, house decorating, and home improvement. Sadly, I've lost past blog entries, but it's ok, because I don't miss them so much anymore. I thought, that when we started our family, I would evolve right along with my little blogging evolution and become a mommy-blogger. You know the mommy that can record every milestone and take a picture every month along with her baby's stats at the last doctor's appointment.
I really thought I'd record all of Baby T's big milestones, post up pictures of his first tooth, and all that good stuff, but you know, I can't let go of my old habits of writing a draft, and doing all the editing before posting. So, when I think about all the work that could go into just one blog entry, I just get overwhelmed, and even though a draft gets written up, the entry never gets posted.
Just as we are decluttering our household, I'm also on a mission to declutter my draft folder! I've got a few new blogging rules for myself!
Rule 1: No drafts. Write it and post it. Maybe add photos later.
Rule 2: Atleast once a month
Rule 3: 100 word minimum. Meet that, and I've got a posting for the month.
With these rules, I could end up posting the text on the piece of paper closest to my computer (ie. bumgenius washing instructions). While that could be very interesting for some, I'll try to post something that would be interesting to the friends and family who want to see pics of Baby T (and don't have facebook!)
Ok! There's a back-dated draft about our birth story, waiting to be published!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Out of the Bubble
Yikes!
It's been 11 months since I last blogged! Time to do a little catchup. I can't catch on everything that's happened in the last 11 months in one post, but I figure that if I do a little bit each day, I'll have this blog up to date!
It's about time to start blogging again. Why's that? Now that my baby boy (we'll call him Baby T) is HERE and growing and changing everyday, I'm finding it hard to keep up to date in my little handwritten journal. When was the last time I recorded his weight? November. I don't want all these little details to get lost, so that's what this blog is for! Also, being a fulltime mommy, I don't want to stay enclosed in the little bubble of the world occupied by just me and Baby T. I've read moms can get so cut-off from the outside world that they lose touch with what other people are interested in. I know Baby T is the most interesting topic in my life, but not everyone will agree. I talk to new people almost everyday in my business (yay!), but I think blogging will help me get those mommy-thoughts out without boring the poor people who have to listen to me blabber on and on....
In a very quick nutshell, here's what happened in the last 11 months (details to follow!):
- Suddenly lost my grandfather and travelled by plane at 33 weeks
- Had an awesome pregnancy until the 37th week
- Had a beautiful and amazing baby shower thrown by one of my best friends ever
- Had a very scary delivery involving cholestatis, getting induced, a fever, infection, and an emergency c-section (all in that order)
- Had, and still have, a beautiful and perfectly healthy baby boy
- Travelled to Vancouver with a 2 month old
- Attended 3 weddings
- My sister got married
- Opened up a green, baby, clothdiapering business
- Had an amazing Christmas at home
- Travelled to Jamaica with a 7 month old
- Took Parent and Tot swim class, joined a mom community, and attend playgroups
- Welcomed 7 new little friends for Baby T (Dawud, Ella, Victoria, Samantha, Rebecca, Khalil, and Prajna!)
- Got spoiled by having S at home for the first 9 months of Baby T's life!
Phew!
It's been 11 months since I last blogged! Time to do a little catchup. I can't catch on everything that's happened in the last 11 months in one post, but I figure that if I do a little bit each day, I'll have this blog up to date!
It's about time to start blogging again. Why's that? Now that my baby boy (we'll call him Baby T) is HERE and growing and changing everyday, I'm finding it hard to keep up to date in my little handwritten journal. When was the last time I recorded his weight? November. I don't want all these little details to get lost, so that's what this blog is for! Also, being a fulltime mommy, I don't want to stay enclosed in the little bubble of the world occupied by just me and Baby T. I've read moms can get so cut-off from the outside world that they lose touch with what other people are interested in. I know Baby T is the most interesting topic in my life, but not everyone will agree. I talk to new people almost everyday in my business (yay!), but I think blogging will help me get those mommy-thoughts out without boring the poor people who have to listen to me blabber on and on....
In a very quick nutshell, here's what happened in the last 11 months (details to follow!):
- Suddenly lost my grandfather and travelled by plane at 33 weeks
- Had an awesome pregnancy until the 37th week
- Had a beautiful and amazing baby shower thrown by one of my best friends ever
- Had a very scary delivery involving cholestatis, getting induced, a fever, infection, and an emergency c-section (all in that order)
- Had, and still have, a beautiful and perfectly healthy baby boy
- Travelled to Vancouver with a 2 month old
- Attended 3 weddings
- My sister got married
- Opened up a green, baby, clothdiapering business
- Had an amazing Christmas at home
- Travelled to Jamaica with a 7 month old
- Took Parent and Tot swim class, joined a mom community, and attend playgroups
- Welcomed 7 new little friends for Baby T (Dawud, Ella, Victoria, Samantha, Rebecca, Khalil, and Prajna!)
- Got spoiled by having S at home for the first 9 months of Baby T's life!
Phew!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
What a difference a year makes...
A year ago, S and I were still getting over the shock of seeing a little 12-week old being on the ultrasound screen. A year ago, we were nervous about bringing someone into this world and scared that our little person might leave us before arriving into the world. I was so scared to talk about it, so scared to even imagine what our baby would be like, I decided not to speculate, for fear I might lose it and be disappointed.
Today, I look at my 6 month old son and can not believe that he is actually here! He is in my arms. He cries for me when he is hungry, and hangs onto my shirt and wraps his little arms around my neck when he wants comfort. He smiles when he wakes up and see my face. He laughs when I spin and do a silly dance. His laugh, oh his laugh, is such a perfect and infectious laugh. His whole face lights up, his nose scrunches, and his body wiggles when he laughs and the giggles spill out like popcorn poured into a tiny bowl. He is beautiful and perfect. He is HERE.
Today, I look at my 6 month old son and can not believe that he is actually here! He is in my arms. He cries for me when he is hungry, and hangs onto my shirt and wraps his little arms around my neck when he wants comfort. He smiles when he wakes up and see my face. He laughs when I spin and do a silly dance. His laugh, oh his laugh, is such a perfect and infectious laugh. His whole face lights up, his nose scrunches, and his body wiggles when he laughs and the giggles spill out like popcorn poured into a tiny bowl. He is beautiful and perfect. He is HERE.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Nesting - the bizarro phase
Nesting has started in the Lai household, and man, it's bizarre.
First of all, I am the Queen of Clutter. Seriously, if there are 20 stacks of bills dating back to 2005, I don't really mind that much. I know that I don't throw anything away, so if I need that gift receipt that I need to honour that warranty for the toaster oven we got for my bridal shower, I know it's in the third pile from the right. Receipt for that taco lunch I had during the third week of exam-grading in grad school during 2004? Yup. Got that too. My decluttering must be a sign of nesting, because I have given up on those receipts and have managed to sort and shred various pieces of paper up to 2007, whittling the piles down to just 3 and those 3 piels fit nicely in a cardboard box. At this rate, I'll be caught up by the time the little dude gets here.
These days, I'm also finding that we're making frequent trips to Ikea and Home Depot to get optional things DONE before the baby arrives. For example, when we moved into this house 1.5 years ago, S had repainted the WHOLE interior on his own. 1.5 years is not that long ago, but for some reason, we decided that the largest room in the house, the dining/living room that spans the entire house from front to back, needed to be repainted. And not just repainted. It needed to have a chair rail installed around the room, and the upper half needed to be repainted a lighter colour. So that meant 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of light brown, over half of the chocolate brown wall.
Then, we painted installed chair rails in the baby room and repainted the bottom half for contrast. Baby's room also received a dark brown dresser, a baby-height shelf (we want his toys and belongings at baby-level a la Montessori), a glider and ottoman, various baskets, fantasy and superhero-themed artwork prints, and a dark brown crib. Photos? Sure. One day.
When we had first moved in, the home was a mess. The previous homeowners did almost NO cleaning up, so we had bags and bags of garbage in the garage, and layers of dust and grime to get through before the home was livable. During that moving in phase, the cheapo venetian blinds were quite low on the list of things to get clean. The other day, I noticed just how filthy they were, and S found me on my knees, in bathroom, donning a pair of rubber gloves, and up to my elbows scrubbing the blinds with Mr. Clean and a scouring pad...
...at 3 am.
I was only up that late because the belly was making things hard to get to. I'm sure I would have been done by 1 am if I had started 2 months ago, before the belly was really out there!
So what does this nesting phase mean? Does it mean that at the back (well, it's at the front now) of our minds, we know that life will be crazy when our little guy gets here, and that we won't have time to get to all these house things? I'm not even sure why we decorated his room, since we plan to co-sleep and it's unlikely that we'll move him into a crib in the first year. It must be something in our genetic programming that causes us to feel this overwhelming urge to make a personal space just for our little one. To us, nesting is preparing the household, but really, to the little one, all the nesting space he needs is in his mama's arms!
First of all, I am the Queen of Clutter. Seriously, if there are 20 stacks of bills dating back to 2005, I don't really mind that much. I know that I don't throw anything away, so if I need that gift receipt that I need to honour that warranty for the toaster oven we got for my bridal shower, I know it's in the third pile from the right. Receipt for that taco lunch I had during the third week of exam-grading in grad school during 2004? Yup. Got that too. My decluttering must be a sign of nesting, because I have given up on those receipts and have managed to sort and shred various pieces of paper up to 2007, whittling the piles down to just 3 and those 3 piels fit nicely in a cardboard box. At this rate, I'll be caught up by the time the little dude gets here.
These days, I'm also finding that we're making frequent trips to Ikea and Home Depot to get optional things DONE before the baby arrives. For example, when we moved into this house 1.5 years ago, S had repainted the WHOLE interior on his own. 1.5 years is not that long ago, but for some reason, we decided that the largest room in the house, the dining/living room that spans the entire house from front to back, needed to be repainted. And not just repainted. It needed to have a chair rail installed around the room, and the upper half needed to be repainted a lighter colour. So that meant 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of light brown, over half of the chocolate brown wall.
Then, we painted installed chair rails in the baby room and repainted the bottom half for contrast. Baby's room also received a dark brown dresser, a baby-height shelf (we want his toys and belongings at baby-level a la Montessori), a glider and ottoman, various baskets, fantasy and superhero-themed artwork prints, and a dark brown crib. Photos? Sure. One day.
When we had first moved in, the home was a mess. The previous homeowners did almost NO cleaning up, so we had bags and bags of garbage in the garage, and layers of dust and grime to get through before the home was livable. During that moving in phase, the cheapo venetian blinds were quite low on the list of things to get clean. The other day, I noticed just how filthy they were, and S found me on my knees, in bathroom, donning a pair of rubber gloves, and up to my elbows scrubbing the blinds with Mr. Clean and a scouring pad...
...at 3 am.
I was only up that late because the belly was making things hard to get to. I'm sure I would have been done by 1 am if I had started 2 months ago, before the belly was really out there!
So what does this nesting phase mean? Does it mean that at the back (well, it's at the front now) of our minds, we know that life will be crazy when our little guy gets here, and that we won't have time to get to all these house things? I'm not even sure why we decorated his room, since we plan to co-sleep and it's unlikely that we'll move him into a crib in the first year. It must be something in our genetic programming that causes us to feel this overwhelming urge to make a personal space just for our little one. To us, nesting is preparing the household, but really, to the little one, all the nesting space he needs is in his mama's arms!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Maternity shoot - 30 weeks
Usually, we aren't big on posing for photos (I secretly laugh at the really cheesy poses in wedding studio shots, but only if the bride and groom are really ugly), but something got into me and I HAD to have belly photos taken. I just couldn't skip this opportunity to commemorate our "first pregnancy" belly. Who knows, by the time the next one comes around, my belly could be a red, roadmappy, stretch-marked mess, so might as well do it now.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Belly shot
Yeah yeah. Everyone wants to see the belly!
Here is a carefully edited belly shot. That's right, no face!
Little dude is starting to take up more room and I look like I'm hiding a large basketball these days! Thankfully, he has dropped a little lower, so I can now breathe a little easier and don't look so...umm...apple-shaped now! Next week, I hope to have some nicer pics to post up, with S, Me, and the belly!
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