Play with Crayon

About 10 days ago, Liz told me they draw/paint in the day care. I was really surprised that they can play such complicated games at this age. So i bought some crayons home to play with amy. She just loves it! Of course she'd try to lick the crayon everytime i gave it to her. But once she started to draw her little lines, she just forgets all about the urge to taste. She can sit there filp the deck of paper i give her and draw or dot little things on it for 10-20 minutes without any complaints. Sometime if i praise her, she'd have this really proud and shy impression on her, which makes me just want to "bite" her little face...
I just love her day care. Sure, she got virus from time to time, and maybe they don't hold her as often as i would at home (she is just toooooo heavy. :p). But they teach her all these things that i couldn't think of. That little brain surprises me every day. And most of them are because of the day care.

Also, after about 1 week's patient observing, today amy tried to play with her stacker for the first time and she actually succeed in putting the rings back there!

nonononono

Yesterday i took amy to my office after day care. Normally she's really friendly, waving at everybody who's passing by. But not yesterday. Everytime i told her say hi to my collegues, she'd shake her head. It's like "i will say hi when i want to. i wont say it just cuz you ask me even if i want to myself." I really didn't know kids are gonna be like this so soon. I thought it's for teenagers.

Then during the night she woke up by this cough and refused to sleep. Everytime i told her "night night" she'd shake her head again and again, even if she's so sleepy that she can't open her eyes. We fought like this till 3 am this morning. Towards the end i got really mad at her and yelled a little. Of course i felt sorry and bad for that. But i just couldn't help. I comforted myself by saying that every parents do that once in a while. But still... especially this morning on our way to day care, amy yelled a little, too. I can't tell what she's saying but i know she learnt that from me. Sigh.

Strong personality

This morning when i dropped amy off at the day care, Alma and Nareen told me she has been a little bit 'out of control' recently. I actually have noticed that at home, too.

The key "symptom" is that she has to be the one who decides everything. Like when i give her a cup of water, she'd shake her head vigorously. And then no more than 5 seconds later, she'd ask for one. When i finally give it her on her demand, she'd have this impression, like "i say when!", on her. She does that to everything.
In addition to that, we can't push her into doing anything. The more we push, the more she fights. They have this music lesson every Thursday. Amy loves it a lot. She'd sit there very quietly and smile, or dance a little. But she'd never touch anything the teacher put there. They tried to make her play the drums or other instrument. Everytime it ended with her scream. Actually she started to do that even when she's really little, like 4 or 5 months. Everytime when i tried to hold her hand to touch something, she'd fight really hard.

I talked about it with Alma and Nareen for a while. And the conclusion we reached is that Amy's like her daddy, has a strong personality.
Not long ago i was afraid she might become a push-over like me. Now that i found out she has a strong personality, i am still worried!
sigh, I am such a typical mom!

Confused bi-lingual kid

Now amy knows 7 words, some english, some chinese (light in Chinese, ah-oh, pooh, birdie, calculator in chinese, milk in chinese, and cracker in chinese). I know she'd face the bi-lingual confusing situation sooner or later. But i didn't expect it would happen so soon. About 1-2 weeks ago, amy learnt how to say milk in Chinese when she's hungry. For some reason she likes to say it twice at the same time. I've got used to it pretty quick and thought it's really cute. What i didn't realize, though, is that if you repeat milk in Chinese twice, it sounds exactly the same as "night-night". The other day when i was chatting with Nareen, i told her amy can say this and that... Out of curiosity, she asked me how to say milk in Chinese. After i told her, she thought for a second, and said, "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so that's why she kept saying night night these days". All of them burst into this huge laugh. It turned out amy has been saying it in the day care for quite some time. And everytime she says it, they take it as "night-night", and thought she wanted to take a nap. So they put her into her crib instead. My poor amy, starving in her crib... :p.

To be frank, i am rather amused than worried. I guess i am really bad in term of protecting amy and stuff... I just have confidence in her. She'll figure it out sooner than later.

Go on her regular diet recently

Amy has this regular dieting period. She just decides she doesn't want to eat anything from time to time. One of the reasons i guess is that i am not that good a cook. Another thing is that she is picky, both on flavor and on texture. Babies are so sensitive to things that it amazes me. I'd make exactly the same thing for her. Even if i put in just a touch more salt, she'd refuse to eat it. She also is lazy and very reluctant to chew on things. If the texture is a tiny bit too hard, she'd spit it out.

After the cold, the diaper rash, now the picky diet. She is really driving me nuts from last weekend. Maybe today i'll take her to the playground to have some fun.

Lazy girl

Amy now has passed the phase during which she's really interested in walking. She's become this lazy girl. Everytime we went out, after we got to downstairs, she'd walk directly to her stroller and wait there. Even when we got to the trail outside our apartment complex, she refused to walk by herself, just sitting in her stroller very comfyly and contended. The only thing that can make her stand up is the ants. So i have to cheat her by yelling "ants" even there is not any to get out of the stroller. Fortunately when she gets out of stroller, she's easily distracted. So hoefully she won't feel betrayed.

A little cold again

Amy's waking up last week was actually for a reason. I falsely accused her of being bad.... Not a good mother. She got this cold and passed it to both me and my husband. It's really painful at the beginning of this cold. We appear to be ok. But actually our throat is killing us. So i guess amy suffered the same uncomfortableness last week. No wonder she kept waking up during the night.
Now her cold is getting better and she sleeps much better.

This morning she tried to say "Daven" and "Thank you". Of course not very clear. I guess only me and her daddy can understand her. Now she's at a stage that she likes to repeat everything we say. But she can only pronounce "b" and "d" well... so her vacabulary is quite limited.

After a weekend, this morning at day care she was extremely happy. Me, too. :p.

Sigh...

I guess amy just had too much fun at day care that she doesn't want to be left alone any more. Yesterday night around midnight she woke up for no reason at all, AGAIN! This time i learnt my lesson. I didn't cave and go to check her at all. It's just during the whole 1.5 hours that she's fuzzing around, i became really furious about her, about myself, about the situation... She did fall in sleep by herself eventually. But i found out she had bad diaper rash this morning. She had a bowel movement during that awake hour. Now i am really not sure if i will go in next time she does this. Sigh...

Alma said Amy's smart

But what i sensed is that she's the geek in the group... Here's the story. Alma taught all the babies some sign language, like thank you, i love you... which i don't even know. Yesterday she showed them "more". During lunch, amy kept doing that. The other girls are looking at her, like she's a weirdo or show-off or something. This totally reminds me of my primary school time. Some time i'd even make some mistakes intentionally in the exam, just to be more like others. I guess that's my problem.

I can use a straw cup now - 09/25/2004 

She did it again!!!!!!!!! But, NOT a bad girl.

Just when i thought i'd have a good night of sleep, Amy did it again! And this time it's not even my fault. This morning 4am, she woke up for no reason at all,kept whining and whining... The other day i swore i will never "interfere"with her sleeping pattern again, NEVER. So today i just lied there, hoping she'd fall into sleep by herself. But she just wouldn't stop. I gave up again mainly because she sometimes has her chubby legs stuck in those crib bars. I had to check. So there i was, 4:20am in the morning, tiptoed to her room, opened her door without a sound (i swear, no sound at all.) . What i found is that she was just sitting there, looking at the door, and of course she spotted me in no time... Long story short, we went over everything in the other night, AGAIN!

Later when i dropped her off at the day care, i couldn't help complaining about this to naureen. I said, amy was really bad this morning. Naureen corrected me immediately. She said, no baby is bad. Liz said the same thing before to me. I felt so sorry at that point of time. I really shouldn't say this in front of Amy. Right now she still doesn't really know. When i said the B-word, she's happily chewing on her animal cracker. But I am sure sooner than i know, she'd be really hurt by my unintentional words. I have to watch out for that more carefully. HAVE TO!

Loves shopping

Amy loves shopping. I guess girls are born this way. She especially like colorful display, like a santa clause, a painting, a bright-colored-bowl, or, even a salad tray with tomatoes and celery. For us, it's a pain, though. She keeps messing with all the merchandise that she can reach, dragging a huge bottle of conditioners across the aisle, banging a spoon on the floor, or licking some boxes. But since she enjoys it, i try to take her with me to do grocery shopping as much as i can, if time and my energy allows, that is.

Yesterday i took her to the sam's. She didn't give me too much trouble. Mostly because she's paying all her attention to this other family. It's an indian family with 2 girls around 8 or 9 and a smaller boy around 5 or 6. Amy keeps following them around whenever i took her out of the shopping cart. She'd wave at them and dance for them. The sisters liked her a lot. The little guy is another story, though. The mom noticed amy and "offered" to take her home. Amy didn't mind at all. She was happily holding one of the sisters' home, pretending i don't exist at all. The little guy suddenly screamed, "no!!!!!!!!!! our house can only hold us!!!!!!!" :)

Torture

Amy tortured us yesterday night. Maybe i shouldn't complain too much since she's such a good girl that this "torture" only happens once in a while. But still, i am like a walking zombie right now. So i need to complain! Plus, when Amy grows up, i will show this post to her when we have the "sex" talk so that she'll know the consequence is bad bad bad bad... :p

Around midnight, i went into her room to check if she's warm enough. I was really careful that i swear i didn't make any noise. But somehow she still sensed i was there and woke up. That's when she decided to play with me. At first i just fled the room and let her cry. But she wouldn't give up that easily and cried for like 40 minutes. I gave up, stepped in, hugged her, rocked her, put her back to the crib... I don't know at which point during this process, but suddenly she became wild awake, started to smile at me, poke me, and even laugh out loud. I tried everything, from pretending this is the 8pm and going through the bed-time-ritual to just giving up and playing with her... Nothing worked. She became more and more awake. But at the same time she was really sleepy, kept rubbing her eyes...In the end, around 3pm, i got really mad and just left her in the crib. She cried furiously for about 15 minutes and went to sleep. At that point, i was so tired i didn't even check if she's warm enough...

Now that i told the whole story, somehow i felt i was the bad one. I was the one who woke her up, the one who cursed that i'd sell her on ebay, and the one who didn't care if she's warm enough... Sigh, how did it turn out this way? Maybe i won't show this post to Amy after all...

Sweetheart

Yesterday Naureen, one of the teachers at the day care, told me Avory is gonna go to the young toddler room pretty soon. She said then i won't meet my favorite baby for a while. I told her i have a second-favorite, Daven. Turned out Daven is Naureen's favorite. Then Naureen told me Amy's her sweetheart, too. I know she probably just said that cuz i am there. But still, that makes me happy. Mommies are pretty vein, i'd say... But i wouldn't mind being vein...

Then in the afternoon when i picked Amy up, there's this little tiny baby taking his bottle. I stepped over and played with his chubby feet for a while. Amy didn't mind at all. I was a little surprised. The other day i was trying to hold her and Avory at the same time. Amy got really mad. She was pushing Avory away pretty hard all the time. I thought she'd get jealous when i showed affection to that little baby. But she didn't. Alma told me she's really sweet with all the tiny ones. She'd go over, petting them very gently (thank God not like she pets the bugs...), and smiling. I'd say she's a sweetheart, too!

Very easy to be satisfied

Everyday when i pick Amy up from day care, she's very hungry. So i always give her some snack on the way back. She's quite a messy eater. So there's crumb everywhere in the car, especially on her car seat.
This morning on our way to the day care, she managed to pick up some crumbs and stuffed them all in her mouth. After swallowed those days-old crumbs down, she made this yummy noise and laughed out loud. I couldn't help laugh with her. She's so easy to be satisfied. Life is so much better when you are little.

Birdie! 

A little geek

Believe or not, Amy's 5th word (except daddy and mommy) is calculator in Chinese. I was always hoping she'd grow up like a princess, into art and beautiful stuff.... Now i see the chance of that is getting slimmer and slimmer.
My mom bought her this book. It's like a deck of flash cards with pictures in it, all kinds of pictures, veggies, fruits, animals, flowers, kitchen appliance, office supply etc. Her favorite page is a calculator. Even when she won't take her food, as soon as i show her that page, she'd be happy to take whatever i give her. Calculator in Chinese has three characters, it's kind of hard to pronounciate. But she manage to say that. Of course i don't think anyone else can tell what she's saying. It's clear enough to me, though. Yesterday after she pointed at the page and said it herself. I gave her a real calculator. And she said it, too.
Books, keyboards, pens, now calculators...... Poor amy is gonna grow up like me, a geek. >_<

Playground is tooooooooooooooo far away.

Bugs

Amy loves bugs, especially ants. Everytime we went out, she'd spend some time watching ants. If we are lucky,there are a lot of them, she'd scream her joy. She always trys to use her finger to follow the ant. As a result, she had accidentally killed a dozen of them. Now she became much more violant. Yesterday she used my keys to bang on the bugs. The "crime scene" is so bloody i have to take her away. :p. I did tell her that we should love living creatures by patting them. Didn't know if she heard me, though.

Chasing around

Yesterday after dinner i took amy to the trail outside our apartment complex. We watched some ants and bugs for a while, pointed at birdies, said hi to all the doggies...... We also played chasing around.
Everytime i chased her, she'd try run away, even after she fell down, she'd get up herself and run. We both laughed silly for a long time. Later on i got tired. So i just sat there and said "mommy's gonna get you~", she still laughed silly and run around all by herself. That was some QUALITY TIME together. :D

Frustration

Amy has reached the age that her emotional development exceeds her language development a great deal. She started having problem expressing her feelings, especially frustraion, more and more often. The babies at day care also "taught" her some tricks. For example, when she wants something and we can't figure out what it is, or we don't want to give it to her, she'd start scream, or, throw stuff, or, in the most extreme situation, pull her hair really hard. I believe the pulling hair part is either from Avory or Daven. :p. We did try to distract her everytime she did that. But she is quite a stubborn girl. This morning i even gave her a remote control when she wouldn't eat her breakfast. Still it didn't work. Eventually i caved. I know i shouldn't. But most of the time i just want to move on... Again, parenting is so hard!

"Play" mommy

Amy started to "play" mommy over the weekend. I was trying to clean her nose with some Q-tip the other day. She got hold of one and tried to lick it. So i was like, "nooooooooooo, you are soooooo gross". She was apparently quite amused, pretending to lick it and watching for my response. Everytime i say "no!", she'd laugh out loud. And then she'd pretend to lick it again. I know i shouldn't play with her with respect to RULES. But still, i couldn't help entertaining her by pretending it's a big deal. Laughing together with her is so much fun!

Birdie and Pooh

Amy knows how to say "birdie"! This morning when i took her out for her walk, there were a lot of birds flying around. She kept pointing at them. So i told her, Birdie~ (Normally i'd speak chinese. But bird in chinese is really hard to prononciate). She hesitated for a couple of seconds, then said, "deeber". I couldn't help laughing out loud. She was forgiving enough to laugh with me. After a couple of times, she started to point at the birds and say "birdie" herself. Later on we even show off this to her daddy. :)

She also knows how to say "pooh" now. Before she'd only whisper "pooh" when we say it to her. Now she can pick up the toy pooh and say it herself. The only problem is that she thinks all fluffy animals are "pooh", even some animal she never seen before at the leasing office' play room. Today i tried to correct her by telling her the one she picked up is piglet rather than pooh. She got really mad and throw the piglet away. Now that i think about it, i think i shouldn't have ruined her fun. Pooh for every animal is good enough for her and for me, any way.

Actually today i read from the internet that some baby can read more than 100 chinese character when she's the same age as Amy. I am NOT jealous at all. And this is not one of those "sour grape syndrom". Honestly, i don't want Amy to be extra smart or something like that. I even think too smart is a bad thing for kids. All i want from Amy is that she is happy, healthy and decent.