santa & ms. elf

Makayla met Santa at a community health fair last Saturday. She was surprisingly not afraid of the big hairy Santa...maybe she knew he was daddy's friend who dressed up as giant penguin on Halloween?! And of course, how can we have Santa without his super helpers! Makayla was happy to see this pretty elf that looked a lot like Auntie Jada! :)

little lady

Our little girl is growing up so fast! At 10 months going on 11, Makayla has learned to respond to certain words and started to copy what grown-ups are doing. She is super sensitive to sound...doesn't matter if it's loud from the TV or a random sound from somewhere, she would turn to the source and check it out. As soon as she hears music or even a drum beat, she would start swaying/dancing. It's really fun to watch :)

Some things she started to do lately: wave goodbye, high-five, nod when she hears 'yes', shake her head when you say 'no'...when the phone rings or when she hears someone say 'hello', she would put whatever she's holding in her hand up to her ear, whether it be a broccoli, piece of chicken, the ipod or an actual phone. But I think what made her daddy most proud was her ability to say 'hi dad' on demand. She probably doesn't know what it means yet but that doesn't matter. Daddy's heart melts every time she says it.

Mak got her first holiday dress last week from tai po (great grandma) and was asked to wear it on Sunday for church (thanksgiving service). Finally...no one asked if she was a boy today! Here're some pics of our little lady...

stair master

Makayla is now 10 months-old, and she has achieved an amazing feat that no other baby that we know has done before in our house - climbing our full set of stairs! The video shows her third time doing it today, but the very first time she did it, we weren't even trying to get her to do it. She just crawled to the stairs herself and zoomed up. Heidi yelled for me so that I'd get behind Mak to catch her in case she fell backwards, but she only slipped a couple times because she looked back to see me. Otherwise, the proud look on her face when she accomplished her inaugural climb was priceless. I wish my eyes could take digital photos to capture moments like this.



Next step, learning how to go down the stairs not headfirst.

food art

Today was a typical cold, rainy November day...perfect for a hot bowl of PHO! We took Makayla to 'I Love Pho' and let her try pho for the first time. Yup, you guessed right, she loved it! I guess that's no surprise since she loves rice and pho noodles is just another form of the same thing. But then again, what doesn't she eat?! (she did try something and didn't want more...lemon pulp...hehe...'no thanks mommy!')

So we went to the restaurant half hour before it closed. Mommy and daddy finished their dinner while Mak slowly but ever so diligently shoved and savored pho noodle pieces into her tiny mouth. Mommy was worried that the restaurant owner would kick us out (as we were the last customers there and even the waiter had his dinner and finished) so she started helping Mak finish her noodles. Due to the urgency to finish and leave, noodles were fed rapidly into the direction of Mak's mouth but didn't always end up in there. Instead, they were stuck around her mouth. This gave Mommy an idea...'hey, a sticky baby face makes a great medium for food art!'

Now the urgency to leave was not so urgent anymore. Instead, the following 'living art' was created and appreciated by a little laughter for the next few minutes. We packed up and left shortly after (while Mak was still trying to grab food that was caught in her plastic bib).

Untitled
Mix Media: basil leaves, slightly moistened baby face, hungry baby
2010

first halloween

We had so much fun making this costume. We didn't want to spend a fortune buying something already-made that she's only going to wear once...instead, we wanted to come up with something cute and somewhat original. The result...nacho libre! okay, this was probably not the bestest idea given that Makayla has been mistaken for a boy since birth until now (even if she's wearing all pink with flowers everywhere). But if we don't do it now, we may never be able to do it in the future - making her into a cute Mexican wrestler after Jack Black's character, Nacho Libre.

She's even cuter without a shirt like the character in the movie...but we won't embarrass her any further :)

she said it!!!

Makayla said it! she finally said 'daddy'. Well, it was more like "da" "tsi". She said it this morning when we were playing in our bedroom. Unfortunately, daddy was in the bathroom and didn't hear it. We've been trying to get her to say it again but have not be successful. Will keep trying!

Daddy & Makayla (8.5 months) We couldn't find a good recent picture of daddy and Mak so we borrowed one from Auntie Kristie.

eating monster

This girl never gets tired of eating...I wonder where she got that from. Maybe it's from my liberal (as in variety of food) eating habits while I was pregnant...despite the many well-meaning but often contradicting food advice I got from everyone...and their mother...and their mother's mother. I pretty much took every advice with a grain of salt, pun intended, and ate everything in moderation. Yup, even watermelon! ooo...

first time eating chopped up angel hair and bits of ground turkey. yummmmm!

One thing that we noticed is that when she's feeding herself, Mak would start by grabbing a piece of food and hold it in her left hand (notice the clenched left fist in the pic above). Then she would use her right hand to feed herself the rest of the food on her tray, all while holding the initial piece of food in her left hand until the food was all eaten. Lastly, she'd finish off what was in her left hand...before demanding more...

9.5-month update

okay, 1.5 months is a little too long without an update. Makayla has grown so much since our last posting...don't even know where to start!

Age: 9.5 months
Weight: 19lbs and counting...
Height: 2'4"

New sounds:
* mamamama
* bababababa
* yeh yeh yeh yeh
* smacking lip sound (tai po/great grandma taught her to close her mouth so she can keep her drool in)
* miew (aka milk)

New foods:
(3rd level Gerber dinners)
* spaghetti in meat sauce
* chicken noodle
* mixed vegetables

New 'self-fed' finger foods:
* yam/sweet potatoes
* banana (one whole banana in one sitting to be exact)
* grapes
* broccoli
* chicken pieces
* watermelon
* rice
* pasta

New skills:
* crawling on all fours
* super fast crawling when she's heading to a 'forbidden' area in the house and is about to get caught
* supported standing and grabbing EVERYTHING within reach
* dancing/swaying to music or strong beats
* holding bottle
* waving
* nodding

Favorite activity: still eating...

Least favorite activity: putting clothes on

pics to come...

$1.00 playpen from Target

We found a new way to keep Mak in one place with all her toys!

Needless to say, this method only lasted 3 minutes.

oregon coast (cannon beach)

First time going to the beach and playing with sand!

(pic 1) Just in case it gets cold at the beach...

my yellow hammer

We read from one of the baby websites that at week 34, babies’ temperament is indicative of what their personality might be like in the future. So far, Makayla seems pretty mellow and easy going. She likes to smile and hasn’t shown much signs of stranger anxiety (thanks to recent family reunions of over 100 relatives and weekly church visits). Sometimes she likes to stare and study faces of people who she’s not familiar with (or have forgotten she’s met before). Not sure if it’s too early to draw any conclusions about her personality from these observations.

We do notice that she has certain toy preferences which are a little surprising. Lately, we’ve tried to introduce Mak to some new interactive toys…colorful ones with lots of shapes, textures, some with rattle/sounds, and some with lights. But time after time, Mak seems to prefer toys that are simple with not much frills. Her favorite one would be the famous yellow hammer which can be found in almost every recent picture because Mak likes to hold it 24/7. She takes her bath with it and goes to bed with it…first thing in the morning, looks for yellow hammer! Basically, it’s a bright yellow plastic toy with a football shaped part as the hammer and a pear shaped ring as the handle.

One day, Abe and I were thinking…so why does she like that yellow thing so much? We came up with a few possible reasons and analysis of what these might mean:

• Hammer is light and easy to hold – It’s big enough for Mak to hold with one or two hands (Meaning: um, not sure)
• Hammer is multifunctional – it can be used as a teether toy, as a hammer to bang on things, or an instrument to make all sorts of sounds depending on what object it’s hitting on (Meaning: Mak is creative, maybe will go into drumming like daddy?)
• Hammer is yellow (Meaning: yellow may be her favorite color…she seems to gravitate towards other yellow things like the (adult size) exercise ball…or maybe cuz it’s just the biggest ‘toy’ in her room.)
• Hammer is simple – (Meaning: Mak finds pleasure in the simple things in life)
• The fact that Mak always goes back to this toy may indicate that she knows what she wants and doesn’t change her mind easily – maybe early signs of stubbornness? Or we can call it loyalty and dedication. =)
• Hammer was part of a FREE gift from doing a child development survey at our childbirth class (Meaning: Mak is frugal and likes to find a good deal!)

Okay, this is probably not the most scientific analysis of our daughter’s temperament/personality/qualities but it was fun imagining what kind of person she will become. I guess we’ll see!

the army crawler

Mak is crawling! Well, more like dragging with one arm and one leg. This is what usually happens:

• Spots target object (ie: remote control)
• Turns body to face target. If in a sitting position, will lean forward, sticks butt up and falls into tummy time position
• Right arm moves forward and drags rest of body with the help of left leg
• Left arm steers and reaches out for target object
• Left leg is just there for the ride
• If it’s a highly desired object, crawling process will be accompanied by high-pitched ‘mm’ sounds

new “words”

After mastering the ‘m’ sound, Makayla recently moved onto the ‘b’ sound. Her recent favorites include “Ba ba ba baaa baaa” and “Bhbbhbbhhh…” coupled with spit shooting out of her lips. Of course, we still hear a lot of “ah”, “eh” and sometimes, it sounds like she somehow understands when we ask her a question, she would answer with “uh huh” followed by a few seconds of nodding.

Not sure where she learned it but lately, Mak has been into nodding. Most of time she nods whenever she’s in a sitting position. Sometimes on demand like she’s copying what you’re doing. It’s quite cute and funny to watch.

gratuitous cuteness

Here's some gratuitous cuteness for today!

The cutest one always ends up blurry!

We don't even know where this bonnet came from - if it was a hand-me-down or a gift. Heidi found it in Mak's closet of clothes. If Mak looks this cute when she's 16, wearing this exact same bonnet, then she can have the keys to the car. But that would mean her head would be extremely small for a 16-year-old.

family time

Here are some pics from 2 of 3 summer family reunions. First, it was with the Wong's in Redmond, WA at Yeh Yeh/Mah Mah's house. Next was in Vancouver, BC with the Chung's.

With the Wong's:


With the Chung's:
Thanks to 2Bak, 2Bak Leung, and Nathan for letting us crash at your place for a few days!


Coming soon: with the Chiu's...

i scream for mum-mums!

It's been awhile, and my little brother Jeremy has been getting on my case to update the blog. So here are a couple nice pics to start. Beware, torture sequence to follow. All these photos were taken by Uncle Jeremy.


Last week, Uncle Jeremy came by to visit and play with Makayla so I could get some stuff done. Later, this is what I find later on my camera:

Makayla loves her Baby Mum-Mum rice crackers. Enough to endure the torture that Uncle Jeremy put her through. Somehow, in the end, Mak ends up with an interesting rice cracker moustache.

Here's some video footage of how Mak goes cookoo for Mum-Mums:




What? Another video of the same thing? Actually, this one is a little different since Mak is actually nodding her head in response to wanting Mum-Mums.