15 Months!

It's been awhile since our last monthly update, so we've got some catching up to do. Kaitlyn is now 15 months old! She's an active toddler that loves exploring and is learning new things each day.

• She is 19 lbs, 6 oz. and 30 inches: I can't believe she still hasn't hit 20 lbs yet!
• Walking: Kaitlyn was taking solid steps by 13 months and quickly picked it up from there. I think the turning point of her walking ability came when we went camping in August. After a whole weekend of trying to walk through the uneven grassy campground, by the time we got home she was walking steadily around the house. By the following weekend she was practically running.
• Eating: Kaitlyn has always been a good eater but lately it's been hit or miss. At mealtime she will either eat anything we give her or will take one look at her food and refuse everything. The only foods she never refuses are goldfish crackers, cheese, yogurt, and fruit (she goes crazy for melons, berries, and peaches/nectarines). She also loves those squeeze pouches, especially the applesauce pouches from Trader Joe's. Lately the biggest challenge has been getting her to eat enough protein. She never seems interested in the meat dishes we give her, unless it's jarred baby food, which I would prefer to not give her at this point. I need to work more on disguising the meat with cheese or fruit so that she'll eat it!
• Talking: Kaitlyn is still a chatterbox talking in her native "Kaitlynese." The only real words I've heard her say are: bye bye (while waving), dada (Daddy), baba (ball, bubble or balloon), hi, and "dah" (yay). Her daycare teacher insists she also says "si," "gracias," and "leche," but I have yet to hear it.
• Sleep. I can't complain anymore about Kaitlyn's sleep. We put her down between 7:30-8pm each night without a fight and she sleeps solidly until 6-6:30am. She still takes two naps a day, with her first nap being around 10am and second nap at around 4pm. At some point she'll need to consolidate naps but right now keeping her awake for any time beyond 5 hours is really pushing it. 
• Teeth: She currently has four upper teeth and four bottom teeth. It's been awhile, but we think she's starting another round of teething. In the past few days she has been waking up in the middle of the night crying, cranky at home, and drooling up a storm. I hope it doesn't last too long this time.
• TV: We *try* to avoid having the TV on all the time, but there are two shows that always catch Kaitlyn's attention: Sesame Street and Mister Roger's Neighborhood. I DVR'ed a few episodes and whenever she hears the voice of Murray at the beginning of Sesame Street or the tinkling music of Mister Roger's Neighborhood, she will drop whatever she's doing and head straight to the TV. She is absolutely mesmerized by Mister Rogers - it must be his soothing voice and gentle demeanor, but unlike other shows or cartoons, Mister Rogers will always hold her attention for at least 20 minutes. We don't want to become dependent on the TV for entertainment, but sometimes it's a good way to help her calm down (and buy us a few minutes to get other things done).
• Personality: When she is with people she's comfortable with, Kaitlyn is talkative, playful, and curious. She loves to get our attention and make lots of noise, whether it's yelling at the top of her voice or banging on objects around the house. In contrast, in group settings such as music class or playdates, she tends to sit back and quietly observe, and it takes her some time to warm up to those around her. Kaitlyn is selective in how she reacts to strangers. Sometimes she gets very shy, clinging to me or hiding behind my leg when she meets someone new. Other times, she'll see a stranger at a grocery store or mall, and will do everything she can to catch their attention (point, wave, stick out tongue) - it's very cute. :) Overall Kaitlyn is a happy, fun little toddler and these past few months have been a blast.

In the coming months I'm hoping that Kaitlyn will learn some more words, be less picky about the food we give her, and drop the use of her bottle and pacifiers!

San Diego!

We went on vacation to SoCal last week, and spent a few days in sunny San Diego. I loved hanging out with my cousins, and enjoying the beautiful hot weather! We got to go to the pool, beach, and Legoland!

I need to start going to swim class again. I was pretty nervous in the pool, even though Mom and Dad were holding me.

This was my first visit to a beach. At first I didn't like the feeling of the sand under my feet and kept lifting my feet up every time Mom tried to put me down. But after putting on some flip flops I felt more comfortable. My favorite activity at the beach was playing with all the rocks. I had at least one in my hands the entire time and kept trying to bite them.

The next day we went to Legoland. We wandered through mini cities made out of Legos and checked out the Star Wars exhibit.

San Francisco

Both made out of Legos!

I was actually scared of most of the Lego statues at the park. Whenever Mom brought me close to one I would clench onto her tighter, and I refused to touch them. I guess I'm not used to seeing giant 3D faces yet that don't move or talk. 

It was a hot day and one of the best parts of the park was the water fountains. I could have stayed here all day. 

Of course I didn't bring a bathing suit and got soaking wet. Good thing Mom packed a change of clothes.

Since I was too little to go on most of the rides, I spent a lot of time at Duplo Village playing with the giant Legos.

We did so many fun things on this trip but the best part was spending quality time with my cousins. I followed them everywhere around the house and wanted to do whatever they did. They took such good care of me!

During the San Diego blackout, Alex shared her crayons with me and I happily colored nonstop.

I was glad to find other people who were as awake as I was at 6:30 in the morning.

Here's a video of the three of us hanging out.

I love summer! Yay for vacations!

Music Together

We just finished the summer session of Peninsula Music Together classes. It was a fun program and Kaitlyn really enjoyed hearing the instructors sing, watching the other kids, and playing with the different instruments. In addition to singing, we did lots of other activities including the big parachute, rolling balls, dancing, and playing with musical eggs, sticks, and scarves. The best part of class though was when the instructor would take out the big blue box of instruments and lay them all on the ground. All the kids would go crazy and run to grab their favorite instruments. Kaitlyn's favorites were the maracas and drums.

And here's a short video of her during "free play" time and learning from a fellow classmate.

Wine Country Weekend

Another weekend, another road trip! We had an amazing time in wine country this past weekend. Mommy and Daddy rented a great house in Kenwood with a big backyard. It was a perfect getaway with lots of space for me to play and for them to relax.

I always seem to know which cupboards I'm not supposed to get into.

The huge backyard even had a miniature vineyard.

On Saturday we spent the day hanging out with the Grandon's and friends at their amazing rental house in Healdsburg.

Lounging poolside with Daddy

Playing a game of bocce ball with Jon and Teddy.

Celebrating the Grandon's ten year anniversary with a picture perfect sunset dinner.

The next day a group of us visited Sonoma TrainTown, where I enjoyed my first train ride.

The train took us to a miniature town that I got to explore by foot.

Excuse me, some privacy please!

The highlight of TrainTown was the petting zoo. I absolutely loved the llama, and giggled every time I got to touch him.

It's so fun to go out now that I'm old enough to enjoy all these activities. I love weekend trips!

Camping!

I just came back from my first camping trip and boy, did I have a blast! We headed up north near Pt. Reyes to Olema Campground, where we met up with the Chiu's, Kwan's, Yuen's and two other families. There were lots of kids for me to watch and to play with. I got so dirty walking around the campground and playing in the grass and dirt! 

Hanging out with Daddy in front of our tent.

I slept surprisingly well in the tent. Mommy and Daddy put me to sleep in the Peapod, but both nights they returned to the tent to find that I had crawled out to the middle of the sleeping bag. It was so much cozier there and I enjoyed getting to sleep between them all weekend.

Although we were supposed to be "roughing it" there was definitely a downside to camping: ask Daddy if he enjoyed waking up at the crack of dawn each morning to stand outside in the cold while he waited for water to boil to heat up my bottle. They will never take electricity and bottle warmers for granted again.


One of the highlights of the trip was taking the short drive to Tomales Bay Oyster Company, where we bought bags of fresh oysters to grill and eat raw.

I also made a new friend named Sumo. I adored him. Every time he crossed my path I would point and smile and call him "Budda." 

We took a late afternoon drive to see the Pt. Reyes lighthouse. I was so tired though that I crashed out in the car for almost two hours! Daddy had to stay in the car with me while Mommy took the half-mile trek to the lighthouse. It was a very scenic walk.

On the way back to the campground I finally woke up, and we stopped for some ice cream and enjoyed the view.

I was just happy to spend the weekend outdoors hanging out with the big kids.

Overall we all had a great camping experience and hope it becomes a family tradition!

Children's Discovery Museum

Here are some pictures from my trip a few weekends ago to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. We went with Mom's friend Bernice and her 2.5-year old son Booker.

There was a special section upstairs just for infants and toddlers, with lots of different activities and spaces to play. Mom made me wear this silly chipmunk vest while I played in the pretend forest.

I normally love looking at myself in the mirror, but this was a little too much. So confusing...

There was also a dark room with a carousel projecting colorful lights. It was pretty trippy.

I loved playing at this sand box, especially with the scoops.

We saved the best for last. The big water exhibit. I spent almost half an hour here, playing with two of my favorite things: water and balls!

What a fun afternoon! I love museums!

One Year Update

Kaitlyn will be 13 months in four days but I couldn't ignore the one year update. It took me this long to get it together!

Big update this month! I still can't believe my baby is one year old. It has been amazing watching her grow and change over the past twelve months.

• She is 17 lbs, 5 oz. and 27 inches long. I had sworn that by now she would have hit 20 lbs, especially given the amount she eats during the day and her little potbelly. I was surprised when I saw her weight on the scale. She remains in the 3rd percentile for weight and 5th percentile for height!
• Food. Kaitlyn will pretty much eat anything we give to her, although she still prefers foods that are smooth and don't require effort to chew (ie. purees or yogurt) over foods that are grainy or textured (ie. rice, risotto, ground meat). Kaitlyn's absolute favorite food is cheese and she will eat it any way it's given to her, whether sliced, melted, or as a sauce. Other favorites include plain greek yogurt mixed with blueberry sauce, noodles (especially udon noodles - thick and chewy!), and all kinds of berries. She also loves to snack on Joe's O's, goldfish crackers, and her beloved Baby Mum Mums.
• She's transitioned to whole milk. It wasn't very difficult to transition, but Kaitlyn still prefers her milk warm and from a bottle. She'll drink up to 24 oz. a day. It's going to be a challenge getting her used to drinking cold milk from a sippy cup.
• Teeth: Kaitlyn currently has three visible teeth, two on bottom and one on top. The second top tooth looks like it's just about to break through, and we see signs of a third top tooth and bottom tooth on their way.
• Talking. She continues to babble nonstop, but we haven't heard any distinct words yet. She tends to use "dada" more often than "mama," though we can't say that either is purposeful.  
• She's taken her first steps. I can't really say when this happened. When we were down in Huntington Beach during July 4 weekend, she would stand holding onto a table, then let go and take tiny steps toward me (usually just one or two before lunging forward and falling into my arms). She's been practicing this over and over the past few weeks. Just last weekend (at 1 year, 2 weeks) she started standing on her own without support. She's finally put the two together and can take a few small steps from a standing position.
• Sleep. Alas, Kaitlyn finally started sleeping consistently through the night at 11 months. We had it pretty rough with sleep training, as we battled teething, colds, loneliness, and other developmental milestones. Although she's pretty easy to put down at night, there are random nights when she'll wake up and cry for us. Sometimes she'll go back down after a few minutes, but other times she'll cry hard for up to an hour before I give in and have to rescue her. And since I don't want to bring her into our bed, we'll end up sleeping next to each other on the floor of her room. She actually sleeps really well when we do this, but I hope it doesn't become a habit. There was also a phase in the last month when she was sleeping through the night, but then waking up consistently between 5-5:30 every morning, ready to play. Thank God that phase is over.
  
• Things she can do on demand:
• stick tongue out and wag it from side to side
• hold a brush to her hair and pretend to brush it
• clap her hands together when I say "yay!"
• put a phone (or any object) to her ear and pretend she's talking on the phone
• wave goodbye
• blow kisses goodbye
• kiss us on the cheek (if we hold our face close to her)
• put both hands on her head when I say "oh no!"
• clasp her hands together and twist them when I sing "itsy bitsy spider." At the end of the song she always claps.
• Other things she does (not necessarily on demand):
• point at objects, especially her favorites: bubbles, balls, and balloons 
• flip through the pages of a book, point at the pictures, and babble like she's reading the book (she even raises her voice a few pitches)
• starting to feed herself with a spoon. She loves holding the spoon and dipping it into the bowl, then bringing it to her mouth. I usually have to help her to get the food onto the spoon. At least she gets the idea.
• Kaitlyn's schedule: Kaitlyn plays hard and tires easily, so we don't see her consolidating to one nap any time soon.  On weekends, we usually need to purposely run and errand or go for a ride so that she can wind down a little and rest in her carseat. Although her schedule may differ during the week at day care from the weekend, in general it looks something like this: 
• 6:00am:  Wake up, Bottle
• 8:00am:  Breakfast  
• 9:30am:  Morning nap 
• 10:30am:  Bottle 
• 12:00pm:  Lunch 
• 2:00pm:  Bottle 
• 2:30pm:  Afternoon nap 
• 4:00pm:  Snack 
• 6:00pm:  Dinner 
• 8:00pm:  Bottle, Bedtime

Enjoying her raspberries and blackberries.

"On the phone" with the Flipcam

It's amazing how quickly Kaitlyn is picking things up now. Each day is different and she is changing so fast. Before we know it she will be a walking, talking toddler!