Sick family, Growing girl, Expanding vocabulary, Galleria

WARNING:  This is going to be a long post!  Congrats if you make it to the end of my babbling!

This must be a new record.  Ten days since my last post.  Believe me, I've been itching to post in the last week but things just kept coming up.  To start off, Abby got some sort of virus (again) two Tuesday's ago only this time her fever never got over 100.8 deg F.  She broke out in a post fever rash all over her body again as well.  I mean, it was head to toe. 

If you zoom in, you can see the red dots on her face.  She was being such a trooper even though she was sick.  Nothing a little Ni Hao, Kai Lan can't fix!

Then by Thursday I was feeling under the weather - serious body aches where I couldn't even stand up.  No fever for me but I haven't felt that bad in a loooong time.  It was so hard to take care of Abby while I was feeling bad myself.  Even changing a diaper just wore me out.  Somehow I think Xiao Xiao knew I was sick because I got lots of hugs and kisses and we actually cuddled on the couch a lot.  By Friday Bryce was starting to get sick too.  After Xiao Xiao went to bed, Bryce and I loaded up on meds and both slept in on Saturday and felt MUCH better.  WHEW! 

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Bryce was in CA again this past week so we packed up and headed to Lao Nian and Lao Yie's house.  But first Xiao Xiao had to give Daddy a big ol' hug before he left!

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But before we left on Monday, we made a quick trip to the doctor's just to confirm my 'Dr. Mom diagnosis' of a viral infection before heading to Pearland.  Abby weighed 25 lbs and grew 1/2 an inch in the last 3 weeks!!  She's now 32.5" tall!  Her legs are getting noticeably longer now.  So my poor baby has her 10th tooth (bottom left pre-molar) coming in, went through a growth spurt AND had a virus!  That really explains my needy, cuddly, sleepy, unpredictable behavior baby lately.  In hindsight, she was such a good sport about it all.  :)

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Abby's vocabulary is always expanding and I realized I'm not very good at keeping  track of it all since I hear it all day.  But when we got to Lao Nian and Lao Yie's, they noticed she was saying more than before so I made a conscious effort to record as much as I could.  She's at the age where she understands what I say but doesn't know how to say it back yet.  It never ceases to amaze me and yet I find myself continuously underestimating her ability to understand what I'm saying to her.  You'd think I'd pick up on this by now.  It doesn't even matter if it's in English or Chinese.  I'm convinced she actually understands everything I say to her now - even if it's with words I've never used around her.  And if I repeat a new word to her a couple of times, she figures it out right away.  Man, I really enjoy watching her learn.  It is absolutely inspiring and so rewarding.  So for record keeping sake, here is my rough list of new words, as I'm sure I've left something off.

1.  My dad taught her how to say "niao" which means "bird" in Chinese.
2.  She says "mao" and points at Zeus which means "cat" in Chinese.  Her first word was "cat" but she doesn't say it as much anymore. 
3.  When I tell her it's time to "sua ya" which means "brush your teeth," she points at her teeth and runs to the bathroom.
4.  I taught her how to say "dan" and "egg" since I make that for breakfast for her and she uses the 2 words interchangeably too. 
5.  She loves pictures of cows and always says "moooo" and points at them.  Then genius Bryce taught her to point at the utter and say "nai nai" (aka milk).  Yup.  That's his contribution to her vocabulary.  :P 
6.  Bryce taught her "knee" and "feet" which she happily points to.  Although truthfully, she'll also point at your elbow sometimes and call it a knee too.  :P
7.  I taught her to say "yia" which means "to press" when she pushes buttons on her toys too. 

She says "durp durp" which means "daiper" in her own language for a few months now to let us know she is either about to pee/poo, is currently peeing/pooing or just peed/pooped.  So we  got her a little potty training toilet just to start some early potty training.  I did research and she could do 9 out of the 10 "How to know when you are ready to start potty training" things so we thought, why not?  So far she knows to sit on it but we actually haven't used it yet.  This will be a work in progress for quite some time.  Her 3 most favorite and frequently used words du jour are "MA-MA,", "UP!" and "nai-nai."

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My mom wanted me to look for a little table and chair for Abby to have at their house and I found the perfect thing!  Most chairs are still too tall for Abby to get on and off of (generally start at 2+ years) so I got her this awesome picnic table for 1.5 - 5 year old kids and it's PERFECT for Abby's size now.  She LOVES her new table and it was a cinch to assemble (I love assembling things). 

I just like this picture because she's wearing my mom's house shoes.  :)

It rained really hard for a bit and Xiao Xiao was watching intently.  She called it "wa-wa" which is "water" in her language.

Moment of reflection.  :)

Wa-wa!

This was HILARIOUS - but most likely one of those things where you have to be there to laugh like we did but Bryce works out with kettlebells and Abby likes to imitate him which always makes Bryce break his rhythm from laughter.  :)  Wish I got a video but here is Abby imitating her da-da by doing squats with water bottles instead of kettlebells.  She is making grunting noises - hence the pursed lips.  So cute!  And yes, she is wearing my mom's apron - don't ask.  :P

 

With all the cuteness and knowledge comes new found defiance as well.  Lately she's taken to YELLING MA-MA to get my attention rather than her former, sweet, gentle ma-ma.  Here she is refusing to give Jo Jo his watch back.  She will now jolt her head back and forth if she doesn't want to eat something or do what she's told.  Or she'll stomp her feet on the floor and make a stink out of the situation.  It's outright annoying yet adorable at the same time.  Someone asked me a few months ago if Abby had started biting yet and I said heck no and thought my little baby would never do that.  Well, I ate my words this past week.  We're at Bryce:1, Rosa: 2.  Ouch!

Here is a good picture of Abby with her Lao Yie.  :)  I love this picture!

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And lastly, me, Abby, my mom, Ruby and Elliott met up for lunch at Del Frisco's for Houston's Restaurant Week.  I love going to the Galleria because it's like my home away from home.  That's where I worked for the past almost 8 years and it just feels as familiar as my own backyard.  Elliott did really well again although Ruby had to nurse him for the first time in public but he was a trooper once again.  Here are a few pictures from lunch.

Walking around with Lao Nian

Coming over to give cousin Elliott a kiss!

Lao Nian and Elliott

The Galleria has a new kids play area and it's designed to look like the Galleria area.  Here are a few pictures of all the fun she had!

So much to do!

I can't believe I was able to capture this sequence of events.  Here she is all excited about crawling through the Williams Tower tunnel.

{BONK!}

"What the heck!?!"

"Oh I see.  You have to crawl."

"I made it through.  No more."

Me and Abby on top of my old Post Oak office building.

This was me getting into work by 6:50 AM.

Me parking the ol' Volvo in the Orange Parking Lot.

Me shopping at Macy's during my lunch break.  :)

Me leaving work to avoid the parking garage traffic as well as the traffic getting home.  Aaahh, those were the good ol' days.  :)

And lastly, Xiao Xiao slept hard after a long day of playing.

The last picture reminded me of this picture taken when Abby was just 6 weeks old.  :)