Such a Chen

Lately Abby has been taking her nap anywhere but her crib.  I titled this post "Such a Chen" because being able to sleep in any position, anywhere and at any time is definitely from my dad's side of the family.  I actually consider our ability to fall asleep at the blink of an eye a gift.  There's nothing worse than lying in bed for 30-60 minutes before falling asleep.  How inefficient is that? 

Yet another random update

Mega Blocking with Da-Da - one of her favorite things to do.

Chubbers McGee

Me attempting to get a picture of the 2 of us but Abby's mind was elsewhere.  Better luck next time.

Everyday she looks and waits for Da-Da to come home.  So cute.  :)

Classic goofy mischievous grin - I just love it.

Lao Nian and Elliott.  Elliott's smiling too - so cute!

I gave this to Ruby to use on Elliott since Abby didn't really like it when she was little and we decided to give it another test run.  It works great except that Abby wanted OUT ASAP. 

Mr. & Mrs. Chin, Abby and Lao Nian

The Windy City

Where have I been, you ask?  Chicago!!  I love going to Chicago and this time I got to kill two birds with one stone.  I represented the Baker Family at Eric & Christine's wedding and I finally got to meet baby Aaron!  It was a fun filled weekend of family, friends and food - my 3 favorite "f" words (in that order too).  :) 

Grandpa Bill has 4 great kids and the eldest son Eric was the happy groom.  :)  It was a sunny outdoor wedding and everything went perfectly.  It was fun to see and meet new family and hopefully we'll get to see them again this Christmas!

David, Sarah, Eric and Steven

As always, I had a blast staying with the Yu's again!  This trip was extra fun since I got to meet Aaron!  I feel like I know him so well since Janice and I skype quite often.  Aaron is just as happy and chubby in person as he is on my computer screen!!  Janice posted some great pics from our weekend already so I won't repeat but here are a couple just to give you a sneak preview. 

Janice just picked me up from the airport and Aaron is thinking "Who are you?"  :P

But by the end of my trip, we were best buds.
See you in 6 weeks!  :)

One of my favorite places to eat is at CPOG and we always manage to hit it up but I did not take pictures because I was too busy stuffing my face with salad, awesome bread and a sausage grinder.  I also got to eat at Hot Doug's for the first time.  It's another Chicago hot spot and oh so yummy.   I did manage to get a pic of our food before we devoured it. 

Luckily we got there before the line got too long.

Foie Gras & Sauternes Duck Sausage with truffle aoili, foie gras mousse & fleur de sel
Mango & Jalapeno Sausage with passion fruit mayonnaise & smoked gouda cheese
Tater tots with cheese and two corn dogs
Can you say YUMMY!?!?!

All in all it was yet another wonderful trip and I was ready to come home to be with Bryce and Abby again.  I missed my daily hugs and kisses from them both.  Bryce had lots of fun being a single parent and was glad for me to get home too.  Then today Abby and I went to Ruby's house to meet up with our mom and Mr. & Mrs. Chin!  They have known us since we were one year old and it's always fun to see three generations together.  :)

Lao Nian, Ruby, Elliott, me, Abby & Mrs. Chin

Abby is 16 months old!

Happy 16 month Birthday, Abby!  Mommy and Daddy love you!  :)  Thank you for bringing constant joy into our lives and always putting a smile on our faces. 

Someone missed her Daddy... :)

As I mentioned before, Bryce was out of town last week and I think Abby is now big enough to really miss him.  He's gotten TONS of cuddles and kisses this weekend and they are having so much fun together.  She's such a "daddy's little girl" just like I am with my dad.  :)  She gets sooo excited when Bryce gets home from work.  When I see his car pull up the drive way, I tell Abby "Da-Da's here!" and she drops everything and simultaneously runs and squeals her way over to the door to greet him.  It's the best.  :)  Here's a quick video of Abby waving at her Da-Da while he's mowing the backyard again.  We do this for the front yard too. 

Here she is trying to help Daddy vacuum.

Here she is reading to Daddy.  Haha - just kidding!

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.  :)