Happy Hypatia

I love Hypatia. This kid always acts so pleasantly surprised to see me--even after I've been holding her for the past 8 hours. What's up with that? Whatever is up with it, I love it! So funny, adorable, cute and every other trite description one could give a baby's actions. But it's so true, though! It is extremely adorable...not to mention hilarious! She makes eye contact with me, her eyes widen with shock and she smile. It is as if she is saying, "Whoa, mom, where'd you come from?! I'm so glad to see you!"

6-month-olds were made for kissing and cuddling, indeed!

She has started to pull herself up to stand with the help of the sofa. Pictures to come.

Daphne Dreams

"Mommy, I had a dream about furry people and computers."
-Daphne

First Dental Visit

Today, Daphne & Lotus visited the dentist for the first time (which is horribly late because you're supposed to take them when their teeth first come in).

Lotus had her teeth cleaned and examined. It was pretty awesome! She was pretty awesome! She was very cooperative, sat in the examining chair and followed directions. I wish I had had my camera! No cavities!

Daphne was also very awesome. She actually had x-rays taken of her teeth. She loved that she had strawberry flavored paste. She was also cavity-free!

Lotus was a handful, though, when she wasn't sitting in the examining chair, and she kept telling me she "wanted to go home". When the dentist gave her stickers, she responded by saying, "Ah, stickies! Sank you! Sank you so muts!" Translated, this meant, "Ah, stickers! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

All in all, I think they were both very stoked about having their teeth cleaned.

Picnic!

Today we enjoyed ourselves outside by having a wonderful picnic in our front yard.



Daphne and Lotus enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches, crumble donuts, a berry cream cheese danish, and yogurt pretzels. Afterwards we went to the backyard, dug holes, watered the lawn and pulled out some old cement blocks that I had put up to surround our now defunct garden.

Red Ribbon Adventures and Illness

We went to Red Ribbon for lunch on Friday, just the girls and me. It was sort of nutty. I ordered them Sotanghon first, but they saw the Palabok of the people sitting next to us. We also enjoyed chicken empanadas. It was somewhat stressful, and I don't think I'm going to venture out to eat with all three girls in tow. Maybe when Lotus is a little older, it will be more enjoyable. The Palabok was tasty, though.

Nothing interesting has happened since the filming of that video. In fact, the baby has been sick. For the past three days, she could not sleep without being held. So, we've been holding her. The worst of it was on Sunday night. Emmanuel stayed up until 4 AM holding Hypatia. He was so delirious that when I asked him to give Hypatia to me, he just kept grunting and shaking his head. I think Emmanuel may be the most empathetic human being I know personally. He just couldn't stand seeing Hypatia in so much discomfort, so he actually insisted on holding her while she slept. I think he thought he'd be able to put her down, but she really was un-put-downable. Despite that, he just kept holding her. I wouldn't have been able to do it. Did I mention that Emmanuel has finals this week?

We went to the doctor yesterday morning. I really love the girls' doctor. He recommended that we just allow Hypatia's illness to take it's natural course, especially since there are no cold medicines that are approved for babies as young as 6 months. I love the girls' doctor. He is so awesome. He actually held a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.

I don't know what else to blog about. The house is messy. I have to stay home all day today because I'm anticipating the arrival of a package that needs to be signed for.

One is Healing, the Other is Falling Ill & Potty Training

Daphne woke up without a fever today, but she had a persistent cough. Lotus woke up slightly feverish. It will probably peak tomorrow (along with her crankiness) and subside within the following two days. Hopefully, Hypatia doesn't catch it.

Hypatia consumed another 3 ounces of pureed squash today at lunch. She's a very enthusiastic eater. I think it really amazes Emmanuel.

For the past few days, Lotus has been going around the house knicker-less to help her get in touch with her bladder and to help with her potty training. So far, so good. The past week, we hadn't had any accidents. Yes, a completely accident-free week! Almost unbelievable. I thought today would be a good day to take it to the next step--training undies. What was the first thing she did after I got her panties on? She shut herself in her room and pooped in them. Great. Great.

We had lunch at Kick Back Jack's. For the most part, it went smoothly, and my eggs in my Eggs Benedict were poached to perfection. Lotus wet herself, though (yes, I was audacious enough to venture out in public with her in training undies). Thankfully, her training undies absorbed most of the pee. Emmanuel dealt with that fiasco, so my Eggs Benedict experience went unmarred.

When we got home, I had Lotus go around naked from the waist down, just as she had been. Total fail. She had diarrhea (courtesy of her fever, no doubt) and let loose in her room. This is just great. I really hate diarrhea. Potty training was put on hold last time because of her incontrollable diarrhea. Totally not her fault. I really hate diarrhea.

Daphne has started taking showers by herself as of last night. She really enjoys them. She soaps herself up and everything. It is really quite remarkable, and I have a hard time believing she has actually started showering by herself!

Integration is the Name of the Game

I am happy to say that I have finally and successfully integrated all the kids' blogs into my one family blog at Joy in Family. I am also having Facebook automatically publish my blog posts into the "Notes" application. Hopefully, I'm able to keep my commitment about writing at least every other day.

If you check my archives on my blog (accessed by clicking on "others" on the left panel), my posts now date back to July 2004. I've been blogging on and off about motherhood for almost 6 years now. Lol, I wish I had been more thoughtful, deliberate and regular in my posting. Well, I'll try to be from now on!

Hypatia Crawling/Teething...Baby Books

I forgot to add that Hypatia is starting to crawl. She is also starting to teethe. I'm on the fence about whether I should get some Baltic Amber for her teething. I wanted to do something where I got one for each of my daughters and one for myself, too. They aren't too costly but buying 4 of them will be.

I was thinking about purchasing the necklaces from Amber Artisans. Does anyone have any experience with this company or with Baltic amber and its analgesic affects?

I am so ashamed of this, but I haven't started on any of my daughters' baby books. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise, and I'll have 3 marvelous, completed baby books documenting each of their first years by the end of this year?

Updates & a Commitment

Hypatia is now eating solids! I'm feeding her organic, frozen baby food. Of course, it is thawed when I feed it to her. I started her earlier this week. I can't believe how much she's able to eat! It reminds me of how I started Daphne on solids, and she still had her tongue-thrust reflex, so most of it would end up on her face and chest.

Lotus is so hilarious! She is so great at imaginative play. She approaches me telling me about her imaginary glass slipper which is on her foot. I pretend to steal her imaginary slipper, and she is totally outraged until I return her invisible shoe. I need to film this! Lotus is exactly 2 1/2 years old.

Daphne has a fever. She'd had it since yesterday. I kept her from school today, and she's improving quite steadily. I'm probably going to keep her from school tomorrow, too. If the fever isn't gone by Thursday, I'll have to take her to the doctor.

I'm committing to update this at least every other day!

Daphne Says the Darndest Things

Here are a few conversations Daphne and I had this week:

Daphne: Do you like the sparkles on your strawberry?
Me: Sparkles?
Daphne: Yeah, there are sparkles on it.
Me: Where are the sparkles?
Daphne: These little things on the strawberry. *points to the seeds* They are sparkles.
Me: Ohhhh, those aren't sparkles. They're strawberry seeds.
Daphne: Oh. They taste like sparkles.

What an exciting month this has been!

This month has been so awesome! I feel like I'm finally getting into the groove of this. I hope this will hold up long after the new baby is born!

I've been planning lessons for Daphne the past two months (ever since June), and this month went particularly smoothly.

Allow me to summarize our lessons (usually grouped by a weekly theme):

July 1-6: Our theme was "Our Nation's Birthday". This week we did a flag craft that required Daphne to color a flag and then attach 50 star stickers in the correct place. She also colored and learned about the Liberty Bell and the Statue of Liberty. We discussed what a symbol was, and how those landmarks are national symbols. I hosted a 4th of July Potluck for a mom's group I am part of on the 3rd. The kids made noise makers, flag cakes and designed their own firework t-shirts. On the 6th, Daphne made a bald eagle puppet, google-y eyes and all! She's so adept at using scissors. Books we read: Happy Birthday, America!, Hats off for the Fourth of July!, and The Flag We Love.

July 7-10: Since July is National Picnic month, Picnics were the theme of this week! On Wednesday and Thursday, we made 2 baskets out of stock paper. Daphne and I explored the differences between fruits and veggies. I then had her cut out fruits and veggies from grocery advertisements and sort them using the baskets we made. Friday was National Teddy Bear Picnic Day so we read, The Teddy Bears' Picnic as well as crafted a little bear with a patriotic shirt (to help reinforce last week's lessons). She glued this onto a brown paper bag and we went on a a teddy bear picnic. Other books we read this week included The Bears' Picnic (Berenstain series) & We're Going on a Picnic!

July 11: We went on a 3 mile hike at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. They had a neat interpretive trail and interpretive center.

July 13-17: This week's theme was boats. We did a sink or swim activity on Tuesday. This activity required Daphne to collect a few items from around the house and predict whether they would sink or swim. We filled a dishpan full of water. Daphne then took each item and placed it in the pan to determine whether her predictions were correct. She then recorded the outcome of her experiment. On Wednesday, we went to the San Diego Maritime Museum. There, we were able to explore a REAL Soviet B-39, a replica of an English Frigate (the one they used in the movie Master & Commander), a ferry, along with many other historic ships. The kids were so thrilled because we actually got to ride on a historic boat! It was an hour-long boat ride, and Lotus held up pretty well! We read Boats, Boats, Boats, and watched a DVD called Paddle to the Sea based on the award-winning book.

July 20-25: This week, we're going to be learning about the earth, the moon, the sun & astronauts to commemorate the first moon landing on July 20, 1969. Yesterday, we read the following books: Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle, One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong by Don Brown, Rooftop Rocket Party by Roland Chambers & Man on the Moon by Anastasia Suen (sorry I couldn't provide the authors for the other books, I forgot them). Daphne also colored a picture of the Earth, the sun and the moon. Lol, she pointed out how the Earth had arms. I had to clarify that the earth really didn't have arms. She kept disagreeing, citing her coloring page as evidence! Today (or sometime later this week), we'll be make astronauts using toilet paper rolls and affixing pictures of each girl on their respective astronaut. The top off this week's astronomy adventures, we'll be participating in the Louis Rubidoux Nature Center's Star Party and Evening Nature Walk this Friday at 6:30 PM. Here is a description from the Nature Center's page: Come view the night sky with telescopes from the Astronomical Society! Take a guided evening walk along the creek. Make a scrapbook page! Crafts, refreshments, and much more!

Needless to say, I'm very excited about this all! This morning, I tried on my Babyhawk Mei Tai and discovered that I can still comfortable use it while pregnant! Also, Lotus actually likes it. She was actually very upset when I took it off.

July 25-21: Our theme will be sea life. We'll be learning about octopi, walruses, dolphins and starfish. Crafts this week include making an octopus windsock, a jumping dolphin craft, and textured starfish necklace. This week's theme will actually spill over into the first week of August (3-7) when we will cover, sharks, sand dollars, eels and fish. This two-week theme will end with a visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific on August 8.

Daphne's Brother

Yesterday, Daphne introduced me to her brother, Donut Carly. She interacted with him throughout the day. Emmanuel even witnessed it.

Today, she wanted me to make a tiara with her. I was really tired, so I asked her to have Donut (as she often refers to her brother) to help her. She interjected, "But...but, Donut doesn't have skin. He's only pretend."

SO HILARIOUS.

Our Emmanuel-less Sojourn to Huntington Gardens

So, we got Free Day tickets to Huntington Gardens, and I took the kids ALL BY MYSELF! We stayed for about 2 hours, and then we went to the El Monte Library to return some books that we had borrowed a few weeks ago.

Enjoy the pics:

Making Money Jars

Today, Daphne and I made money jars. Hopefully, I find some time later to post pictures. It was a pretty fun craft. Crafts are becoming increasingly fun to do with Daphne.

We also went to Barnes and Noble. We're going to participate in their summer reading program. If Daphne reads 8 books, she gets a coupon for a free book from the store. Pretty neat.

Most Barnes and Nobles have stages set in a Winnie the Pooh theme. Daphne loves to dance and sing on the stage. I heard her sing some pretty hilarious lines today:

Little mermaid...wanted feet. She talked to the octopus and became a woman!!! She had no clothes.

Yes, she was singing quite loudly.

She also made a funny comment when I was dressing to leave.

Mommy, I like your fing (thing). I like your white fing. Your white boob fing. That white fing for your boobs. It's nice.

Yes. She was admiring my bra.

She's so hilarious.

Lotus was pretty cool today, too. She was so cooperative in the bookstore. She sat with me and watched Daphne perform, and she'd even clap at the end of each performance. Today, she actually did something she usually doesn't do--she returned a book on the shelf after I asked her to! Of course, I clapped, and she beamed with pride.

My girls are so awesome. I love them so much. I have a feeling they are just going to get funnier and funnier.

Daphne's Dream

Today, Daphne woke up and told me that she was in the jungle but "only in her eyes". I assumed this meant that she DREAMT that she was in the jungle. I told her to tell me more about it. This is more or less what she said...more or less verbatim:

I was in the jungle, but only in my eyes. I was with the jungle people. The animals were biting me. No one helped me. Then a squirt went into my mouth. A squirt is a bug. It was a sad, scary dream.

The humor in this lies in the fact that when she recounted this dream to me, she said it all quite matter-of-factly. Maybe she understood that it wasn't real!

In any case, it was really cool!

Videos in the Making & Lotus' New Phrases!

I have a crazy amount of videos I still need to edit. We've had lots of adventures the past few weeks, but I have yet to edit the videos.

I feel so ashamed about lagging in reporting this, but Lotus is now using phrases!

She's has been able to point and name her body parts for the past two months now, and it surprised us about two weeks ago when she woke up with Emmanuel, and while they were making breakfast together, she declared, "So hah-pee, so hah-pee, so hah-pee (so happy)!" This morning, when we woke up, she cuddled up next to me and said, "Hah-pee deh, hah-pee deh, hah-pee deh (happy day)!"

I think she does understand what she's saying because she repeatedly says "happy" over and over again whenever she seems pretty happy.

Here are a few other words/phrases she's been using the past three months:

I huh-gree, I huh-gree (I'm hungry)
Hurrt, hurrt (She says this when she's hurt)
Butt! Butt! (She says this because sometimes, she wants us to rub her bottom--go figure!)
Shoe (I don't know if this counts because I think it was her first word)
Whenever she puts on new clothes she still likes to rub her belly and say, "Preh-tee, preh-tee (pretty)!"

She's still is quite demanding when it comes to being read to (a few of my readers know this). She shoves books right in people's faces and says, "Read! Read! READ!"

I need to go because Daphne wants to go outside and ride her bike!

Dinner and a Movie

The whole family went to go watch our second movie together! Here's a clip to summarize our evening:



Enjoy the pics, too:

Fiesta Village

We went to Fiesta Village. Here's the video to summarize our afternoon. It says we went on February 29, but it was actually March 29!



Enjoy the pictures, too:

Santa Monica Beach

We went to Santa Monica. We had fun at the beach and the surrounding area. Reading about our adventures isn't nearly as fun as seeing it, so here's a neat little video that summarizes our time:



Hope you enjoy these photos, too!

Daphne Cooked Dumplings with Me Today

Today, Daphne helped me seal the edges of the dumplings that I made. She did a superb job. She was very proud of how careful and thorough she was. I'm so glad I had a little helper! It helped speed up the process a bit, and it kept my hands just a tad bit cleaner than usual. When asked about how the dumplings tasted, she responded, "It's sooo good!"

Lotus ate a few so they must have been decent!

No pictures, but I'll be getting my camera tomorrow. So prepare for a flurry of images then!

Potty Training Lotus

Yesterday, Lotus informed us three times that she had to pee. "Pee-pee, pee-pee," she would say. Two of the three times she urged us that she needed to use the bathroom, she actually peed in the toilet! The other one time, she pooped!

I guess this means toilet training has commenced...at exactly 18 months! I wonder how long it will take until she doesn't need diapers at all.

Hsi Lai Temple

Today, we visited the Hsi Lai Temple with our friends Eliza and her kids, Jiufu & Nikki. Daphne and Nikki had great fun running up and down the courtyard. We all enjoyed the monastery's vegetarian buffet.

Daphne and I were able to watch three women make these wonderful little red bean & vanilla filled pastries outside the tea and reading room. I just realized I failed to take a picture of it! They were delicious, though. Emmanuel was (finally--after our third visit) able to enjoy a cup of Bodhi tea in their tea room in quasi-quiet repose.

Daphne forwent the purchase of a beautiful, red Chinese bracelet with rose quartz for a key chain with a pink stone attached to it.

When asked about her visit to the Buddhist Temple and about her favorite part, Daphne responded, "It was really good...wait a second. The blocks." I believe she was talking about running up and down the courtyard (pictured below).

After our visit to Hsi Lai, we went to the 99 Ranch Market in West Covina, and we bought some crab.

Pietro's Italian Cuisine

Tonight we had dinner with Masa, Cheryl and their daughter, Liberty-Belle at Pietro's Italian Cuisine, a restaurant that was voted as having the best pizza in the Inland Empire.

I ordered Daphne mostaccioli (essentially penne without ridges) pasta, but she was displeased, so I ended up ordering her spaghetti. We packed up her mostaccioli, and she promised to eat it tomorrow. Lotus loved her mostaccioli. She split her time between feeding herself and walking around the restaurant. She's a peculiar one. She sort of just wanders about, comes back for a bite of food, wanders around some more. I always wonder she could possibly be thinking.

Daphne started to rhyme during dinner. She's getting quite good at rhyming.

We were swimming in soiled napkins ten minutes after receiving our food (courtesy of Daphne and Libby), but we had great fun.

Lotus demanded to sit on Cheryl's lap a majority of the time, which kept Cheryl from eating. Sorry, Cheryl, but like I said at the restaurant, if you don't want to be so popular with the kiddies, you should consider not being so nice. Your motto should be, "Think twice before you're nice!"

The place was totally empty which allowed us to let the kids to run around after they finished with their dinners. We got to finish our dinners in peace! Well, at least I did.

I had the yummiest Veal Picatta!

You may be asking yourself how eating out can be mildly educational. Well, it gives children the opportunity to learn and apply a myriad of skills such as table etiquette, indoor & public behavior, etc.

"I want to be dirty!"

Daphne: I want to brush my teeth!
Emmanuel: No, not right now, we'll brush our teeth after you take a bath.
Daphne: ...I don't want to take a bath! I WANT TO BE DIRTY.
Me: Are you sure you want to be dirty?
Daphne: Yes, I WANT TO BE DIRTY!

Daphne is Fighting Monsters!

For the past few days, Daphne has been fighting monsters who have been trying to make their way into our living room. What amuses me is that they are all vegetables. Two or three days ago, she said she was fighting broccoli. I told her that she should eat him. She paused momentarily and said that he had an ugly face, so she couldn't.

Just a second ago, I asked her what monster she was fighting, and she replied, "Carrot." Before I could say more, she added, "I don't want to eat him."

What a ham. She's sooo hilarious. She's fighting the carrot with water. While she was hosing him down, she was chanting part of a fire truck song that goes, "Shoot that water! Shoot that water!"

Funny Conversation: Lasagna? No, that's Hawaii!

Daphne: (about puzzle piece) Oh, look, mommy, I found it!
Me: Oooh, yes, you did. What state is that?
Daphne: Uhmm, lasagna?
Me: Uhh, no, that's Hawaii.

Funny!

While widening one eye open with her fingers:

Mommy, my eye is cold.

Writing and New Friends

Here is a picture of the words "TIGER". I wrote the word on the top, and Daphne wrote the one on the bottom. She is 3 and a half.



Daphne has been coloring pages from the coloring book, tearing them out, folding them into compact little squares, and then taping them up. She then gives them to me saying, "I have somefing for you. A gift." When I tell her I am having trouble opening her gifts, she tells me to "uh-tuck it". I think she means "attack it", though I am unsure. When I ask her to clarify, she responds by saying, "With your finger." Lol, she then tries to swipe it open with her finger the way we do with sealed envelopes.

New Photos!

Erin, a soon-to-be professional photographer (although her photos will surely trick you into thinking that she's an established pro), photographed Lotus & Daphne a few weeks ago. Because I'm a Mrs. Lazybones, I haven't posted them.

Here they are:

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3


Set 4

Beautiful, right?

Thank you, Erin, for the magnificent photos! Check out her portfolio here.

New Photos

Erin, a soon-to-be professional photographer (although her photos will surely trick you into thinking that she's an established pro), photographed Lotus & Daphne a few weeks ago. Because I'm a Mrs. Lazybones, I haven't posted them.

Here they are:

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

Set 4

Beautiful, right?

Thank you, Erin, for the magnificent photos! Check out her portfolio here.

Daphne is Growing Up!

Daphne is getting so old and so capable--a little too quickly! Today, we went on a tour of the local fire station. She really enjoyed herself. She's becoming so good at sharing! Whenever one of my parents call, she tells them about all the friends she has made. She names them off, "Malinda, Elijah, Liberty, Sam, Nickie."

The other day, she picked up mushrooms at the park. I got scared, so I made up a song about how mushrooms are dangerous, and how we shouldn't pick them up.

Daphne is also very enthusiastic about brushing her teeth. We buy her special glow-in-the-dark floss and mouthwash that she can dispense herself. I also unearthed a three minute hourglass to help her determine how long she should brush. She initiates brushing her teeth, like, 4-6 times a day. This is a big jump from never wanting to have her teeth brushed.

Lotus Now Walks!

Lotus started walking a few days ago! She's so adorable. I think she's going to be runner.

Daphne's First Play!

Today, Emmanuel took Daphne to her first play!

Emmanuel reports that Daphne enjoyed it, though her attention was waning during the last 15 minutes. She had a break down when I went to go pick them up because, apparently, she wanted to show me the witch's edible house! "Mommy!" she said, "Let's go back! I want to show you the house!"

I am so disappointed with myself because they had a meet-and-greet at the end with the characters...AND I DIDN'T BRING MY CAMERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot possibly put the disappointment I felt into words. I was near devastated! I need to buy a big purse and just carry around my camera (and extra kid clothes, diapers, wipes, portable kid potty seat, water bottles, etc. etc.)!

Next performance, I am going to bring my camera. I have tons of beautiful pictures I have yet to upload! Stay tuned! I have been really tired lately! There have been tons of things to do!

Tomorrow is the last Riverside Family Fun Sunday! I hope I don't forget my camera. It's really hard, though, taking photos while the baby is in the Moby. Ah, well.

Boogers

Hilarious conversation, just happened right now:

Daphne: Oh, look a booger...Look, mommy, my booger. LOOK! LOOK!
Me: Yeah, I see it.
Daphne: Look, my booger. Here it is.
Me: Yeah, I see it. Yuck, a booger.
Daphne: Want to have it? Here, take it!

She them proceeded to pick her other nostril.

Daphne: Ooh, look. My booger! My booger.
Me: Oh yeah, yucky.
Daphne: Look!
Me: Yeah, I see it.
Daphne: ....I eat it.
Me: Yuck, no!

But it was too late.

Cruisin'

Lotus is also now a cruiser! This means that she pulls herself up to stand and, while holding on to something to steady her, walks.

First Teeth!

Lotus is now the proud owner of two brand new teeth! She sprouted two at the same time--the two lower, center ones.

Pictures soon! Check our Flickr account!

Funny Conversations

Daphne was eating a Danish at the table, and I sat down to join her. She sized up the size of my Danish (which happened to be bigger than hers), then offered her Danish to me, saying, "Do you wanna trade?"

We had another funny conversation a few days ago:

Me: Daphne, can you throw this in the trash for me?
Daphne: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. You do it yourself, okay?

Daphne at the Park

Here are some pictures of Daphne at the park.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Lotus Now Crawls!

Lotus is now crawling! I will upload some footage soon!

She learned how to crawl gradually. It began with her scooting herself forward with her arms and legs, and now, she is quite the accomplished crawler.

Lotus with her big sister in matching outfits!

Adorable!

Here are some photos of Daphne and Lotus in matching outfits!

SO cute!

Daphne's 3rd Birthday!

Here's the video:



Here are the photos:

It's a Big World!

I am so sad that Lotus is growing up! She's on the verge of mobility! She's already so big and so aware of the world, I just can't believe it!!!! Here is a compilation of photos and a few clips to commemorate her "little-ness" which is fading way too quickly for me!!!



She is such a good-natured baby! I know I've written about this a million times, but I just can't get over how lovely she is! All you do is give her a little, quick smile or a little hug or cuddle and she reciprocates with the most dazzling, brilliant grin or the most lush laugh you've probably ever heard!

Daphne Knows Her Animals, Shapes & Colors

New video, everyone! Check it out, and check back later because I still have a ton more clips to edit and upload! Don't forget to check out Lotus' blog for her new video!

Snobby Snobster, Jeeves and Wooster, Going to the Library, Poo in Potty

The same day Daphne peed in her potty, she also pooped in her potty. After she made her poop, she stood up and started to call for me to help her. When she saw the poop she had made, it was so massive and ugly, she freaked out and cried! She was weeping and saying, "Oh no, oh no" while staring at her poop in horror. She has not used the potty since. She has been very defiant and has been actively avoiding the potty. Very sad. I wonder when she'll start using it again! I can't believe she got freaked out by the sight of her own poop!

A week or so ago when Emmanuel was at the park with Daphne, he told me that a five-year-old boy was blocking her way down the slide. He was yelling, "No girls allowed, no girls allowed" while waving a stick, I think. Daphne, in response, apparently turned around, crossed her arms, and TURNED UP HER NOSE at him. Emmanuel told me that all the adults laughed, he was very proud, and that the little boy looked annoyed. My cousin Catherine, a week before this incident, had said that she imagined Daphne growing up to be a sort of snobby elitist, and I suppose (thanks to Emmanuel, of course, not me) Catherine will end up being correct.

Daphne has been doing this hilarious thing where she performs a faux-curtsy and says either, "I want to wear a coat" or "I want to wear clothes." Then she sticks up her two pointer fingers, and wiggles them while saying, "dinky-dinky." It is the cutest, most oddest thing. We don't know how/where she learned it. I will post a video of this soon, so check back.

Emmanuel and I have been watching this old (from the early 90s) English comedy series called "Jeeves and Wooster". It stars a mid-20s Hugh Laurie (Dr. House on House, MD) as Wooster, a man of the English leisure class, and his brilliant, clever valet, Jeeves. Daphne ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT. She will watch entire 1-hour episodes over and over again. She actually asks us, "Want to watch 'eeves and 'ooster?" When Daphne was younger, she used to LOVE watching "Seinfeld". She must have a thing for comedies, I guess?

Daphne also loves the library. The other day, we entered the library and she YELLS, "OOH, LIBRARY" and I had to shush her. She has been asking me to take her back again, so we are returning today. She has been saying, "Want to go to wibrary, mommy. I want to go wibrary." Hilarious.

Daphne is such a big help with Lotus. She likes to baby-talk with Lotus. When Lotus wakes up from naps, she will tell me, "Baby wake-up, mommy." She loves to sit with Lotus and amuse her with funny faces.

I also got Daphne this cooking utensils set and now she sits on the floor for hours pretending to cook. Ikea was selling kid-sized cooking and baking sets that can actually be used to cook/bake, so I think I will buy her that so she can cook with me! How fun!

I got Daphne the cutest leggings. I will post pictures of this soon, so check back.

Almost Crawling

Lotus has been lifting herself up on her hands and knees lately, but she always slides down on her belly before she ever gets anywhere. I'm pretty sure she's going to start crawling soon.

She grabs at anything in sight! She grabs our plates when we're holding her in our laps while eating. She basically will grab anything you wave near her. My midwife had advised me to take fish oil because of the high amounts of omega-3s and DHA, which are reported to help brain and eye development. From the looks of it, she can see quite far (babies her age are reported to only see 1-3 feet in front of them). She can spot her daddy from halfway across the room.

She's a very calm baby, and she loves people. Daphne only liked seeing Emmanuel and me. Lotus will smile at everyone. She's very content just sitting in her Bumbo while watching me perform various tasks. She seldom cries--only when she is tired. Another way she differs from Daphne is that Daphne always had to be breastfed or rocked to sleep. Lotus cannot stand to be rocked or breastfed to sleep. She needs to be put down and left alone. I did not think it was going to be this easy.

She giggles now, too. Her giggles are very soft. She loves it when Emmanuel "eats" her belly.

Sorry if my posts are not very cohesive. I do not have lots of time to post, so I try to think of everything I can, and it just sort of pours out in no particular order.

Daphne Used the Potty!!!

So, Emmanuel and I have been trying to get her to use the toilet, and after many accidents and washer cycles later--SHE FINALLY DID IT ALL BY HERSELF TODAY!

Emmanuel was actually the one to initiate our potty training efforts. She was running low on diapers, and I had ordered late from Amazon.com, so he decided to put a pair of panties on her to see how she would fare. We even rented a toilet training DVD from the library! She watched that DVD over and over again, but to no avail. We were still having to mop up and disinfect our floor every couple of hours.

At one point, we gave her a cup full of soy milk and sat her down on her potty with the DVD in her portable DVD player. But she demanded to get up during the third viewing of the DVD, only to soil herself 15 minutes later!!!!!!!!!!!

Daphne actually witnessed Lotus take a wee-wee on her potty. Emmanuel believes witnessing Lotus successfully use Daphne's potty stunned and amazed Daphne. He believed that it would drive Daphne to want to use the potty, too.

I'm not sure if her achievement today was spurred on by being one-upped by her younger sister, but I'm glad, regardless.

Here is a quick summary of how it happened:

I was sitting at my computer, paying bills online, with Lotus next to me in her Bumbo. Daphne came and started chattering, and I was absentmindedly agreeing to whatever it was she was babbling about (she was probably trying to tell me she needed to use the potty--I know, I know--how horrible of me). She walked away and came back with her potty. She set it on the ground and started babbling again. I noticed it, asked her if she was going to pee. She replied in the affirmative. I wasn't really excited because she has told me in the past that she needed to pee (usually right after she had peed), and then she'd sit on the potty for a few minutes, then get up when she got bored (no pee or poo in the potty). So I told her to take off her panties and sit on her toilet, and turned back to my bill-paying. She calls for my attention half a minute later, and there she stands; her panties still on, but her potty is full of urine!!! I wish I had seen it! Her panties where all wet, but most of her pee was in the potty. I don't know if she just couldn't get her panties off in time, she just wanted to pee in them, or what. Hopefully, she will do it again!

Independent Sitter and Elimantion Communication...

Last night, Lotus sat up all by herself!

On Sunday night, Lotus peed in the potty! I know, I know!

I had researched about Elimination Communication (EC) and wanted to try it out. However, I never really got around to it. We have been desperately trying to get Daphne to use the toilet, and I think Emmanuel felt disillusioned by toddler toilet training and wanted to give EC a try. So, I gave him a brief run-down on what I knew about it, and lo and behold--by that night, he was able to help Lotus use the potty! I know I should built upon his effort and work, but it's more difficult to be receptive to the signals of an infant when you've got two kids to worry about.

Lotus was sick during the holiday season (along with the rest of us--my excuse for the lack of updates), but she wasn't too bad. She's all better now!

Hopefully, I will find more time to update!

"Have a berf-day, family-mommy."

Just right now, Daphne approached me with a sticker in her hand and said to me, "Happy berf-day, family-mommy." She then tried to stick it onto my face while telling me to "put it on!"

She is growing so quickly. It makes me very, very sad. Recently, she got a hold of baby pictures of herself, and it struck me how big she has gotten.

When we were at the store the other day, I walked about five feet away from her (she was sitting in a cart), and she yelled, "Mommy, come back! Play with me! Come back!"

She also likes to open up her mouth to show me the food she has been chewing--she beams with pride when she does this.

She has been sick lately, and I can tell she has trouble falling asleep because of her congested nose. I gave her decongestant, and she says to me, "No, poo-poo." I told her that it was good and that she should drink it, and she responded, "No, you drink it, a-mommy. YOU DRINK IT, it's poo-poo!" Lol, now, as I type, she is pretending the little measuring cup is a car. She's pushing it along my desk, making "beep-beep" noises. Gosh, she's so funny.

"Turn Off Rain"

Today, Daphne wanted to go for a walk. However, it was raining, and I said to her, "Sorry, Daphne, we can't go for a walk today, it's raining."

So she stood in front of the window for about 15 minutes, watching the rain fall.

She approached me again and said, "Mommy, turn off rain. Turn off rain."

I wasn't sure if I heard her correctly. I responded by asking, "What?"

"Turn off rain, mommy. Turn off rain."

"You want me to turn off the rain?"

"Yeah, turn off rain, outside."

"I'm sorry, Daphne, but mommy can't turn off the rain."

She looked despondent after hearing this. Then she just walked away.

Daphne learns how to say "Hate you!"

On Thanksgiving, Lucie yelled, "I hate you!" at Daphne, and ever since, she has been yelling "I hate you!" whenever she gets upset.

It makes me so sad. I am trying to figure out ways to deal with it. I think I will just ignore it--hopefully it goes away!

What mean, ugly, hurtful, DIGUSTING words!

Sticky Fingers, Diaper-throwing

Here are some conversations I've had with Daphne today:

In the middle of eating her Kare-Kare, Daphne says: Mommy, sticky fingers.
Paula: Huh?
Daphne: Sticky fingers, mommy, sticky fingers.
Paula: Oh,do you want want to wash your hands?
Daphne: (nods) Mmm-hmm.
Paula: Okay. (Takes Daphne down from her high chair)
(Daphne runs off to the bathroom to wash her hands, and then returns)
Daphne: Look, mommy, clean hands.
Paula: Ooooh, yeah, very clean.
Daphne: More food, please. More food, mommy.

This conversation was while I was changing Lotus:
Paula: Daphne, can you throw this diaper in the trash?
Daphne: (she stares at the diaper in my hand for about 5 seconds) Mommy, throw diaper on couch, diaper.
Paula: Uh, can you throw it away in the trash?
Daphne: (continues to stare at the diaper for about 3 more seconds, takes it from me, and throws it on the couch)

Daphne, after washing her hands: Mommy, wet sleeve, a wet frog (there were frogs on her sleeve).
Paula: Oh okay, go wring it out in the sink.
Daphne: Mommy, wet sleeve, a wet frog.
Paula: Yeah, go wring it out.
Daphne: A take it off, mommy, take off clothes.
Paula: Oh, okay. (takes off Daphne's shirt) Put it in the hamper.
(Daphne runs and puts her shirt in the hamper)
Daphne: (Upon returning, she has also taken off her pants) Mommy, I put clothes a hamper, a clothes. Clothes, a get it, mommy (meaning, she wanted me to get her new clothes).
Paula: You get your clothes. Get new clothes for yourself in your drawer.
Daphne: You get it.
Paula: No, you get it.
Daphne: No, you get it.
Paula: You get it.
Daphne: You get it.
Paula: You know where your clothes are, you get it.
Daphne: Okay.
(goes gets clothes then returns with a shirt and shorts)
Daphne: Look, mommy, a clothes. Flowers. (she chose very flower-y clothing)

Hahahaha, Daphne is soooo funny. The other day we were at the park and some kids took her doll stroller, and she went around looking for it, calling out, "Stroller, where are you? Where are you, stroller?" Then she saw it and got all freaked out that other kids were playing with it, and she tried to call my attention because I was bending over to get her sweater. To get my attention she said, very frantically, "Mommy, stroller, mommy, mommy, mommy, Paula, stroller, over there! MOMMY! TA-DAAA, TA-DAAAAA!"

Yes, she said "ta-da". She said it as if she were presenting something to me. It was soooo sad, yet so hilariously adorable.

Weekly Update

Lotus had a CT scan on Wednesday because it is protocol for babies whose head circumference measure "off the charts". Please pray that she doesn't develop cancer later in life, as recent scientific surveys have shown a correlation between pediatric CT scans and developing fatal cancers later in life. Hopefully, this is merely a correlation and not a causation.

There isn't visibly wrong with Lotus. She is healthy, active, and reaching all developmental milestones ahead of schedule.

She is smiling a lot, lifting her head around, and she even giggled once after I cracked a joke about Emmanuel! Coincidence? She's an extremely attentive baby, but she sometimes gets overstimulated by stuff she sees. Those are the times when her new Moby Wrap comes in handy!

I bought a Moby Wrap for her on Saturday because her Simple Sling had torn. I got a simple, chocolate-colored one. The Moby is easy to use, and I'm happy to say that it distributes her weight evenly across my back in a way that her Simple Sling did not. The Moby supports her excellently despite her weighing 14 pounds!

Weekly Update

Daphne has learned to sing "Happy Birthday to You."

She knows what a triangle is.

We made picture frames on Saturday using Christmas-themed confetti and pom poms. In fact, we went to Michael's and shopped for craft supplies so I could do more crafts with Daphne. She is learning to dispense glue very well. I will post a picture of what she decorated later, so check back!

She is very proficient is distinguishing and naming different colors. However, she calls the color black "black bear." I think her confusion comes from the time I taught her the word "black bear" to help her distinguish between a "panda bear." I don't think she understood that "black bear" was the NAME of the animal, not the color of the animal. So now every time we see the color black she proudly exclaims, "black bear!"

Daphne Talks & Loves -- has also Learned Colors and Emotions

Daphne is becoming so talkative. She is starting to string together adjectives and nouns, nouns and verbs. Very cool!

She has also learned her colors. She knows black, red, green, yellow, blue, white. I think she learned her colors because of the Play-Doh I bought!

Here are some videos of Daphne expressing her love:





Also, she has learned to express her emotions! The other day, I was feeling frazzled because Lotus needed me, but Daphne was asking for my attention. I told Daphne to hold on for a minute, and then she started to whimper and say that she was sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She said something like, "Sad. I'm sad. I'm sad."

I have been trying to teach her to express herself with her words because sometimes she uses inappropriate actions to express herself (like throwing books). So I made up a song using different emotions. I just sing the name of the emotion over and over while expressing the emotion on my face and with my body. I have been trying to teach her about happiness, sadness, frustration, anger and surprise.

Very cool, huh?!?

Daphne uses complete sentences! WOW!

The past few days, I have been teaching Daphne songs. Today, sometime, in the evening, Daphne started singing the ABCs all by herself! And then, at the end, she yelled, "SING WITH ME!"

I WAS SO SURPRISED!!!

Another surprise that occurred today--I was looking for stuff in my bedroom, when all of a sudden, Daphne rushed towards me yelling, "I GOT YOU!" Then she insisted that I run away from her while she tried to catch me! It was the funniest, cutest thing ever!

I feel disappointed that I haven't been able to take her to the park for the past week, though. I made it my goal to take her to the park for at least an hour everyday, but Emmanuel and I have been so busy trying to get his graduate school applications ready. Sort of stressful, but exciting!

On Saturday, we are going to visit the Getty Museum! They are having this cool event that I thought Daphne would enjoy! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures to post!

Old Videos

Here are some videos I took over the summer that I finally got to edit! Hope you enjoy!

Daphne at the pool:


Daphne "reading":


Together as a family at a concert at the park:

7 Week Check-Up

I forgot to blog about the baby's 7th week check-up on the October 23, 2007. She weighed 13 pounds and 4 ounces.

She is now wearing 3-6 month sized clothing.

Lotus' First Halloween

Lotus was a very cute pea pod. We didn't really get that much trick-or-treating done as Daphne was being very temperamental. We had to take her out of her costume and just hold her in the middle of trick-or-treating because I think she was getting uncomfortable.

SHE WAS SOOOOOOOOOOO ADORABLE, THOUGH! She just looked so chubby and cute in her costume!

Daphne's 2nd Year Trick-or-Treating

So my parents got Daphne this adorable monkey costume. Really, really cute. However, Daphne has been adamantly refusing to wear it, so it was no surprise when she freaked out tonight refusing to even have it near her. So we ended up trick-or-treating without a costume. Which made me really, really sad. Maybe it will still fit by next year? Last year, she was a pumpkin and she LOVED her costume. I brought it out again this year, but she was freaked out about the pumpkin costume, too!

Well, anyway, tonight, after a brief walk around our neighborhood, we were sitting around in our living room talking and eating chocolates. Daphne was snacking with us and had just finished a piece of chocolate. I noticed her looking at her chocolate-stained fingers. She then started to look around her for something to wipe off the chocolate. After a brief pause, which I suspect she took to quickly think about her problem, she reached up to the top of her head AND WIPED HER HAND ON HER HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I told her that she should use a paper towel to wipe her hands, and she ran off towards her dad asking for a "ta-el perper".

It was hilarious.

New Activities

Yesterday, I bought Daphne Play-Doh, a 48-pack of Crayola Crayons and safety scissors. She really enjoys playing with her Play-Doh. I've taught her how to make spheres and snakes with the Play-Doh. I've also shown her how to roll out the Play-Doh with a rolling pin. She seems to really get a kick from it.

She loves to color. She is starting to color within the lines. She's also learning her colors.

Along with teaching her how play with her new toys, I've also shown her how to properly put her things away. She knows that she has to put away the Play-Doh she is playing with before she can open up another color. She knows she has to return a crayon into the box before she takes out another one. When she's done coloring and cutting, she returns her crayons and her scissors to her pencil box that I also purchased for her.

Daphne threw a book in anger two days ago. I realized that we should start disciplining her. Emmanuel and I have agreed on putting her in the corner for 2 minutes whenever she expresses herself inappropriately, i.e. hitting people or throwing items. We're going to reserve the corner for very serious offenses so that it doesn't lose it's effectiveness. It's proven to be quite effective. For other infractions, we've decided to take away privileges. For example, if Daphne doesn't want to clean up her toys after she's done playing, that's fine, we'll clean them up--BUT, she won't be able to go into her playroom for a few hours or perhaps even a day. We want her to know that she has choices, but her choices have consequences. I don't want to bully her into cleaning up after herself, but I want her to learn that she can choose not clean up after herself, but, just like in real life, that choice has a logical sequence of action that follows.

When we put her into the corner two days ago, and it was so sad! She stayed put, but she cried and cried. I think she thinks she's invisible because she yells out, "I'm here! I'm here! Help me! I'm here!"

I'm looking for really good toddler books to read to Daphne that will show her how to appropriately express her emotions without throwing stuff or hitting people.

Oh, yeah, I also bought her alphabet flashcards that have both uppercase and lowercase letters, so she can learn her lowercase letters. I plan on using them to teach her the sound of each letter, too.

I also got her Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends. She really, really likes it. She likes to recite the poetry with me, and she even helps me act it out. In fact, she fell asleep last night while Emmanuel read some poems to her.

Lotus Loves Carly

Lotus likes to sing along with me. She particularly likes Carly Simon's "You're So Vain."

Differences between Lotus and Daphne

Lotus smiles much more than Daphne did at her age. Lotus smiles mostly when I interact with her. She likes it when I sing to her and blow into her face.

Lotus can also, at 2 1/2 months, already lift up her head when she's lying on her tummy.

I can't wait until I hear Lotus' first giggle!

Lotus Cinnamon-Estelle

Lotus Cinnamon-Estelle was born on September 6, 2007 after about 7 hours of labor via natural water birth. She was 9 pounds & 13 ounces at birth.

A more detailed narration of the labor & birth to come later--check back again soon!

Daphne knows her letters! She also refers to herself as "her".

I feel so horrible that I haven't blogged in so long! I can't believe I haven't posted in a year!

Daphne has learned her letters. She knows how to identify all of them! We don't know exactly how she learned them all--odd, huh!?! One day, I noticed she spent most of her time playing with her frog telephone toy. The telephone frog toy has buttons on which are each individual letter of the alphabet. When one letter is pressed, an animal whose name and species corresponds with the letter that is pressed. For example "K" would be "Kerry the Kangeroo." Emmanuel accidentally noticed that Daphne had memorized the animal that corresponded with each letter. So he would quiz her every so often.

So now, she's able to identify letters when we point to them and ask her what it is. Or we will say a letter and ask her to point it out for us.

She also refers to herself as "her." When she is talking on the phone with people, she will greet them and tell them that she is "her." Whenever I point to pictures of her and ask her to identify herself, she refers to herself as "her." Really odd!

She knows so many words now! Here is a brief list--it isn't very comprehensive:

meat
donut
pants
shirt
socks
shoes
sneakers
sandals
glasses
bath
soap
pillow
cup
plate
spoon
fork
hair tie
comb
T.V.
paper
pen
marker
crayon
messy
dirt
dirty
paper towel
toilet paper
diaper
fall down
help me
please
thank you
more
don't want
Where are you?
Daddy's work!
flying
eating
pretty (she usually uses this word to describe clothing--her own and other people's)
dress
Oops!
Ow!
Stop it! (she uses this when we wash her hair)
Go away! (she uses this whenever we're trying to take her back home from the park)
drawing
walking
park
You okay?
sorry
Help me!
stuck
sleep
goodnight
baby
sister
Lotus (although it sounds as if she's saying "otis")
water
drink
grape juice
banana
apple
orange

There is more, but that is all I can think of right now. She strings these different words together to convey what she wants.

She also knows how to count to 13! When we go for walks, she likes to count the trees. When she sees the moon, she greets it ("Hi, moon! Where is moon? Bye, moon!").

She likes to draw. She primarily like to draw with crayons and markers. She will show us her drawings so we can "ooh" and "ahh" at them!

She's very helpful with the baby. She will retrieve wipes and diapers when I ask her. She really likes this one show on PBS called Super Why! I think it also helped her to learn her alphabet!

Jeez, I really do regret not posting more often. I look back on my last post nearly a year ago, and she has grown so much! She's practically using sentences! I will try my hardest to keep this updated! I really do need to be more consistent when documenting her development!

The following are videos where Daphne refers to herself as "her" and where she is identifying letters. She's only 2 years and 8 months old. I wonder when she'll start reading!

Fetching her own diapers, pointing at body parts, and saying hiiiiiiiiiiii

Daphne is now 20 months old. I feel horrible for not updating this more.

She can now get her own diapers. When we wake up in the morning, I say to her, "Diaper, Daphne, go get a diapie!" She runs to the closet where I keep them, grabs one, and returns to me.

When prompted, she can point out her head, her nose, her feet, and her belly.

She can also feign sleep and snoring.

We play this game where she pretends she's sleeping, and I'm trying to wake her up. She gets a REALLY big kick out of it. Her eyes are clamped shut, but she has this big grin on her face. She pretends that my efforts to awaken her are futile. It's sooooooooooo hilarious.

When we were at the drug store the other day, there was this young woman walking around with her cell phone. Daphne kept following her around, and when the woman would briefly pause, Daphne would stop and stand RIGHT next to her leg, look up at her, smile and say, "HiiiiiiiiiiIIiiiIII." She did this over and over again.

The lady looked really annoyed. Hahaha, it was really hilarious. She looked like a freshman at the University.

Daphne scoffs at crawling, her first time at the Getty & a playground

Only after a little more than a month, Daphne is already a full-fledged walker. She refused to crawl unless when she's rushing at something (like the bathroom, for example, when the door is ajar and she spots us going towards it with the intent to close it from the corner of her eye) and she knows she won't be able to reach it even if she walked her fastest.

I took her to the park for the first time. And I totally forgot to bring along the camera (jeez, you'd think that will all the time I took researching to find the perfect videorecorder and the money I spent on it, I'd use it more often, huh). How was I supposed to know who excited she'd be? How was I supposed to know how cute she'd look walking towards other children, trying to engage them with her limited vocabulary of grunts and squeals? How would I know that she would learn how to take her first step UP during her first park visit? I should have known. Jeez. Well, yes, she did all that and more. She loves walking. I love that she loves walking. She's amazing. It was actually after this first playground visit that she decided to never crawl again (except when lunging towards an open bathroom).

This past weekend, Emmanuel, Daphne, Grace, Genevieve (Emmanuel's sister), and I went to the Getty. They had an exhibition on Courbet which none of us really had any interest in, except, maybe Grace. Emmanuel indulged his love of impressionist and baroque paintings, while I just ate everything up. I was really touched when observing Emmanuel explain things to his sister. He's so patient and thorough and kind. He explained about every single thing we saw to her--from ancient manuscipts to Rococo furniture. It was endearing. I could imagine him doing the same things with Daphne one day. Grace kept whispering, "There are naked people," whenever we happened upon a nude painting and sculpture. It was pretty funny.

Daphne is very friendly and good-natured. She hardly ever cries or whines. She has actually begun to sort of whining, especially for things that she really shouldn't be playing with or eating, but I am firm. After about 3 seconds of her faux crying, her attention is usually diverted elsewhere. I don't know the cause of her good-naturedness. It could be in her genes. Who knows. I'd like to think it's the way I've raised her thus far. I've tried to make sure to stop everything I'm doing, within reason, to fulfill her necessary baby-needs. If she wants to breastfeed, I will quickly comply. If she wants to be held, I will hold her. I made sure that I held her as much as could when she was an infant. For about 3 months, it seemed to be the only thing I was doing. I'd wake up, put her in the NoJo and sway. Either that or plop her on a pillow on my lap and let her nurse. It's really hard those first couple of months. Just all a blur. Especially difficult when one does not know what to expect. I feel like now that I know what to expect, I could do it all with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back. It's really hard. I do remember telling myself when I felt like I couldn't take anymore baby-slinging or breastfeeding that I'd thank myself for it one day. For some reason, I knew deep-down inside, Daphne needed to be held nonstop. To not hold her, to not keep her close to me as much as I did would have been unnatural. She was encapsulated in my womb for 9 months, how could she immediately go from that to sleeping alone, being allowed to lay by heself for hours at a time or being fed through a hard, inanimate plastic nipple with milk meant for a calf?

So this is all. Forgive me, readers. I've been very delinquent in my posting. Forgive me, future adult Daphne--I have been very busy trying to engage you.

'Til next post.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Daphne's first steps!!!

Daphne took her first, independent steps today!!!!!!! She saw Lucie walking towards her, and so Daphne tried and successfully took two steps towards Lucie!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

KDJFAOWIERJOAWIJEKFAOWJROAWEJKFDKLJAOIERKJFOJWOIER! How exciting!!! I wish I could have videotaped it.

She knows how to dance now!!!

I've taught Daphne how to dance! I had been noticing that she goes up and down on her tippy toes when music is playing and had been wondering if it was because she was trying to move to the music. So I decided to show her how to move her hips and torso around by having her stand up and moving them for her. I did this while chanting, "Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance." We took a break and a little while later, I started to chant "dance" again, and lo and behold!!!! She started to shake her little baby booty!!!!!!!!!! HEhehehehe, she is soooooooooooo adorable!!!

Also, today while Emmanuel and I were playing with her, she figured out that allowing herself to fall back onto pillows is much fun!! So she kept doing this over and over and over again. She'd roll over after she allowed herself to fall back, and repeat. She thought it was HILARIOUS. I was going to video tape it, but everytime I bring out the camcorder she want to play with it.

Almost a Year Old--Can Clap and "Close-Open"

Daphne is 11 months old now! Wow! She is such a communicator! She has learned to clap her hands. It started when I took her arms in my hands and clapped them for her, and ever since then, she's been doing it independently. I was very surprised when she started to do it herself after I had let go. She started to independently opening and closing her fists repeatedly after only a few times I demonstrated for her, too. She points to things, and when she's angry, she vehemently says, "Da da da da!!!," as if she were trying to scold us! She's beautiful! Here's a picture of her and her daddy on her Baptism.

Latest Update--Baptism, Four Teeth, and More

Daphne was baptized on Saturday, January 7, 2005. My dad cooked for it. There was Mechado, Bopis, Chicken Curry, and Beef Stew. The Mechado was gone by the end of the baptism and the Beef Stew was practically gone (only one piece of meat and some veggies left)!! He also made lime dessert. My mom helped set up everything and basically took care of everything in the morning. Emmanuel's Grandma Lucille baked white chocolate cookies and coconut cookies. Very delicious! Emmanuel's Grandma Estrella brought a Tres Leches cake with mocha with walnut filling. It was extremely good. Grandpa Steve made barbecue chicken which was gobbled up, too.

Daphne received many great gifts!! Thanks to everyone who came! I will be posting pictures as soon as Eman gets the server working! Ahh! When will that be?!

Daphne Jade now has four teeth--two teeth on the bottom and her two front teeth on the top. She's always smiling and laughing! She's interested in everything and can even stand up by herself, unsupported, for a substatial amount of time! No walking yet, though! More updates later. Sorry it took so long!

Oh yeah, I will be planning her first birthday, soon!! I'll keep everyone updated!

She plays so well...

As I type, Daphne is sitting down in the living room playing all by herself. It's so cute to watch her amuse herself! For some reason, I find it remarkable. She looks so, so, so, so, soooo cute, I could just gobble her up!

I have absolutely no idea why it's so funny to watch her. She just looks so intent and focused...like she had serious work to do! Hehehe.

She has a rash on her knees; it looks like eczema. She had a slight fever this morning about 101.4 degrees. I found this odd because she had been exhibiting cold symptoms for the past week, and it seemed to be clearing up. All of a sudden, though, she had colored mucus! How odd. It had been clear and runny before. But it got substantially better, no fever now and we're back to the runny nose again.

Darn. Sick Again.

Daphne and I are sick again. Darn. Well, at least she isn't feverish.

Oh yeah, one last thing.

I forgot to mention that Daphne does not like eating with her baby spoons. She will only eat if fed with a fork for some reason. At first, I thought it was that she didn't like baby food anymore because she was refusing to eat it, but oddly would gladly accept food we fed her at restaurants (like broccoli or Indian food). Today, I tried to give baby food one last try. She would feed it to herself with her hands, but wouldn't take it from her baby spoon. I was eating at the same time, so decided to scoop up some of her baby food with my fork, and she gladly took it.

Heh, she doesn't like eating with her baby spoon, but she just loves carrying it around. Eman made this observation today. He commented on how she just wouldn't let it go and was crawling around with it everywhere.

Oh yeah, I remembered.

Daphne rapidly flaps her arms up and down when she is excitedly happy or upset. It's really funny. She knows now that raising her arms conveys that she wants to be held.

And probably the most endearing thing of all:

When we walk around the condo, she follows us. One time, I went into the bedroom to quickly grab something, and behind me I hear this really fast breathing and slapping noises. I turn around, and lo and behold: I see Daphne grinning at me, trying to crawl as quickly as she can (which is pretty fast) to catch up.

Eman told me that when he's taking care of her, she loves chasing him around. However, apparently, after one lap, she'll give up, sit down, stare at the carpet, and sigh despondently. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW, how funny is that.

Daphne is just wayyyy tooooo adorably expressive.

Lots of things, so little time.

Ahhhh, I haven't updated in forever!

We were all sick for quite a while in October. I guess because I hadn't updated, I sort of lost my groove. So allow me to get all of you updated:

Daphne and I were sick for about two weeks in October. It was really weird. First, she was feverish for three days. I got here these BeKoool head things, and they worked like a charm. I only had her wear it while sleeping because body temperature rises as one sleeps, and hers was just becoming unacceptably high (up to 103.6, but only as she slept). I was sort of worried about her brain swelling and causing brain damage. I know they say this only happens if the brain reaches a temperature of 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but everyone is different. So she had the fever, but displayed no cold symptoms. She also wanted to be held, so this meant that she was not achy which could have meant the flu (AHHHHHHHHHHHH)! So the fever went away in about 2.5 days and half a day later, she starts to display cold symptoms. Near the end of her fever, I felt like I had the beginnings of a sore throat (which, yes, became a full blown sore throat within a day or so). So I assumed she, too, had a sore throat when she started to become congested. I gave her Pediacare Decongestant. We went to the doctor (two different ones because I didn't trust that the first one evaluated her throughly enough). This sickness was sort of difficult to deal with because she was waking up hourly. It was so sad to see her so uncomfortable. We bought a humidifier, and it took forever to pick one out because it was difficult for me to choose between the cool mist humidifier and the warm one. Also picked up some Baby Vicks Vapor Rub. Poor kid.

Then Emmanuel got sick or at least claimed he did. He had congested sinuses, but I never know if it's because he's really sick or because of his allergies. So I went ahead and gave him Tylenol Allergy Sinus. My sickness was pretty gnarly. I always get sinus headaches. I hate sinus headache meds because of the dry mouth and lightheadedness. What a worrrld, what a world.

Daphne is now 2 and a half feet tall! Today, she learned to pass toys between me and her daddy. She was playing with a toy and I was watching her as I remembered an article I read about baby milestones. This woman had written about how her daughter and learned how to pass toys to her, and I wanted to see if I'd be able to show Daphne. I went down to her, outstretched my hand and said, "Please give." She looked at it and started to slap it with the toy. I wanted for her to hold it still and then I took hold of it and gently tugged. She held on to it, but I slipped it out of her hand. I thanked her. I then pressed it against my chest to sort of emphasize that I had it. After a second or two, I held it out and said, "Here."

I repeated this. She caught on quickly. She giggled (I've read that they giggle when they learn), and it wasn't long after that that she started to outstretch her arm towards me while vocally motioning for me to take what she was offering. She'd do this by making a staccato "unh" sound.

It was soooooooooo exciting! I quickly called Emmanuel who then came to play with us. I wanted to show Daphne that she could also pass things to other people so we set up this little triangle where I would hand it to Emmanuel while saying, "here." He would then thank me, hold it against his chest and hand it to Daphne. Daphne would turn to him and take it, then turn to me offer it to me and say, "Unh." It very, every exciting. Hahaha, so exciting we didn't stop doing this until about 10 minutes later. It was, of course, Daphne who decided to stop. We probably would have been able to do it 10 more minutes, we were just that amazed.

Hmm, there have been other moments where I've mentally made a note to blog about, but now, they slip my mind.

I'll post those things as soon as I remember (gosh, I hope I remember). It's sort of difficult to update because it's not like I can just drop everything the moment something memorable has happened. It's extremely important for me to do this, though. I was reading this snippet a woman wrote about finding a journal she kept while raising her baby, and in it, she had written a list of things about her daughter. One of the things on the list was that her daughter's hair was like marshmallow in the morning right after she woke up. She remembered and was amazed because without that journal to remind her, she would have forgotten (up until that moment, I guess she hadn't thought about it).

Oh yeah, as soon as Eman fixes the server, I'll be able to post pictures and VIDEOS of Daphne! So stay tuned, readers!

Eats solids amazingly well and stands!

I cannot believe I have not been posting! So many new things are happening! Daphne can now sit up straight and well-balanced. She can pull herself up and support herself on something while standing! I could not believe it the first time I saw it. Even the second time, the third, the fourth, or even the fifth. I probably will still not be able to believe it if she did it right now! She is not even seven months, yet. I suspect she will start walking by nine months. She already crawls like a pro! One minute, she is on one side of the room, the next minute she is on the other. Amazing.

I really cannot wait until she starts talking and walking. We will be able to walk, go places, and then talk about what we see! Very cool, indeed.

In case anyone is wondering why I am writing so oddly--without contractions and all--it is because Emmanuel put this weird setting with the keyboard so he could use macrons when typing in Latin.

Eating Solids...

Daphne is now eating solids. She started a few days ago, but I forgot to post. The first thing she ate was banana, next peas, and today she just finished her jar of sweet potato. Yum.

More updates soon.

Can Almost Crawl...

Daphne can get up on her hands and knees now! She can't move yet to crawl, but she can rock herself back and forth.

I'm very excited to see the first time she crawls.

Hehe, above average baby!

Today, Daphne is exactly 5 months old!

On the 11th, she had her second round of immunizations. As soon as we got home, I gave her baby Tylenol. She didn't gag at the cherry flavor, so I think she's about ready for solids. She handled her shots better this time around.

She weighs 20 pounds and is 26 inches long. I forgot the circumfrence of her head, but she's in the 95th percentile. She's in the 95th percentile for her length, too, and above the 95th percetile in her weight.

We put together the exersauce, and she can entertain herself for about 20 minutes on it, which is great. She is also liking her swing more. She used to hate being in it before.

She can effortlessly flip from back to tummy and back again now, and she's mastered her thumbsucking technique.

Emmanuel moved the server and something happened, so its down now, but he's bound to get it up soon. I have new pictures, courtesy of Cousin Catherine.

Things I Do Not Want To Forget...

I don't want to forget the funny way her eyes droop as she's falling asleep. I hope I'll always remember the way she wiggles around, the odd way she twists and tilts her head to see things that catch her attention, her funny little squeals, and her little bite-size tamale feet.

Look at that baby's muscles!!!

Before I forget, I have a story to tell.

Emmanuel and I were at one of his friend's house, and his friend had a daughter. She saw Daphne and started to talk, coo, and sing to her. It was the cutest thing EVER. She started to sing a variation of "This little piggy went to market..." to Daphne while fiddling with her toes.

All of a sudden, she gasped and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, that's the cutest thing, ever." And starts to look for her mom. She wanders around the house calling out for her, "Mom, mom...mom? Where's mom?" She finally finds her mom, brings her to Daphne and says, "Mom, look, this baby has muscles!" I was at first so confused until I realized she was referring to Daphne's arm folds!!!! She went on stroking Daphne's "muscles," saying, "Oh my gosh, you are so cute. These are the cutest muscles I've ever seen! Aww, look. Wow, what muscle-y shoulders! One, two, three, four--you have four!"

"Four shoulders?," her mom asked. "I don't think so."

"No, four muscles on each arm!"

Then she proceeded to count Daphne's leg "muscles."

Type-riffic Baby!!!!!!!!

I was standing in front of the computer with Daphne in her sling sitting kangeroo style, and all of a sudden, she starts typing on the keyboard. I quickly opened up KWrite so I could save what she was typing.

Look:

b cxllllllllkkkkknjjkkkkkkk;;;;;;;;;oll n9jjkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkbbb mmmmm bbbbbbbbbbbbbb v c i hhhhhhhhhhhhngbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbvb ccccccxgh hhhhhhj vcv v cccccc szzzzzzzkkmmmmmmm ;;kooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohbokopoooommmm
mmmmm9090oooooo m9./kkkkkk-9090j uiuuuo8uiiiiiu67777777743s3eee 0.....;;;;/;/l.n /.

She really likes the spacebar. =)

Daphne Jade is just too cool in so many ways!!!!!!!!

Not really a milestone, but I can't help writing about it...

Daphne is growing up so quickly. I recall being pregnant and a bunch of mothers telling me that babies grow up so quickly and thinking what liars they had been the first few weeks following Daphne's birth (haha). But apparently, they had been very, very, and quite sadly correct. She's two feet long now, and everyday I see more and more they kind of person she's becoming.

For example, today, she was really cranky while I was nursing her to sleep and I stroked her forehead. She was very annoyed with my stroking because she immediately made this annoyed grunt, and I just thought it was the funniest thing, EVER. She's grabbing everything now, and it's just so amazing because I clearly remember her when she wouldn't even unfurl her fingers!!!

Man... ::shakes head in disbelief::

Oh, and I mustn't forget about her very expressive eyebrows. They are always going up and down. Sometimes she just raises one eyebrow, and occasionally, she'll make one go up, take it back down, and raise the other one, so it looks like her eyebrows are doing the wave. Heh, what a funny kid.

Playing with toys...

Daphne can now reach out and play with her toys all by herself. I put her down today with this butterfly-looking toy with a rattle in the center of it that turns, and she reached out and started rotating the rattle. She brought it closer to her and touched it, looked at it, played with it's rattle. It's pretty exciting to see. I put her down with a toy so she could entertain herself momentarily while I did something, but I was so in awe of her newfound ability, I just sat, watched, and occasionally helped her out when the toy seemed to frustrate her because it wasn't doing what she wanted it to do.

I'm so proud of her. =)

I really ought to go buy more film so I can photograph her more.

Daphne Rolled Over

Yesterday, Daphne Jade rolled from her back to her stomach. It was the funniest thing to watch--she kept lifting her head forward, trying to use it as momementum. Hahahaha, I wish we could have videotaped it.

I wish we had a video camera. Le sigh...

First Immunizations...

Ok, last time I posted, she wasn't able to get her immunizations. There was a mix up.

She got them today and, BOY, is she cranky. I feel so sorry for her. I thikn she's sore. I'm going to give her some baby Tylenol, and then maybe all will be well.

Daphne's First Laugh

Today was the first day I heard my beautiful, intelligent daughter laugh. She laughed RIGHT NOW. More on it later.

Pictures Updated and Daphne Growing Quickly!

Well, I updated the pictures page.

Daphne now fits into her 3-9 month old clothing. She fits in it a little too well, actually. Which means I actually should have had her wearing it about a week or so ago! I need to go looking for 9-12 month clothing! Or maybe she will slow down.

Today, Daphne will get her 2-month immunizations. I'll write how that goes. The appointment is at 3:10pm.

The end.

First Time, Thumb in Mouth

Today is the first time I've seen Daphne Jade put her thumb in her mouth! She actually did it. But then she gagged.

Now she is trying to eat her fist!

Sling Miracle!

Thank the Lord Daphne is one of the kids who like to being in the sling. I was worried she wouldn't be, but I was so glad when she took to it! AHHHHHHHH! Now I can go places! Hooray!

She sucks her hands now, too!

Daphne now eats her hands now! She had been trying to do it for a long time, and now she's finally got a hang of it! What a cool kid, indeed!

She Smiled at Me!

Today, she was lying quietly on my lap, and I said hello to her and asked her how she was doing. You know what she did?? SHE SMILED AT ME!! I got really excited and started to kiss her all over and then she smiled again! and again! I'm absolutely certain that those were real smiles! She's made faces before that resembled smiles, but I doubted if the truly were. I really don't think they were. But these smiles were real!! YAY!

What happened?!

I just finally got Daphne to sleep at 3:00am! What happened to being able to sleep through the night, Daphne?? WHAT HAPPENED?! I'm going to read about babies and schedules.

Breastfeeding is WONDERFUL!

I never, NEVER, NEVER, never, never, never, never, NEVER EVER, NEVER EVER thought I'd EVER admit it, but breastfeeding is seriously the coolest thing in the world. I absolutely DREADED it in the beginning. I remember at the hospital, breastfeeding the baby for the first time. The first time, actually, wasn't all that bad. I don't even remember if I was doing it correctly, but I remember it not hurting. However, the next several feedings WERE EXCRUCIATING. I would ABSOLUTLY DREADED feedings. I tried and tried and tried, but it was so painful, I couldn't stand it. I would struggle to remain calm to unlatch the baby with my pinkie, but the pain was sooooooo intense, I'd just pull her off. What made this worse was that Daphne had low-high risk of case of potential jaundice. BLEH! So she was bottlefed formula. Probably, over the course of her entire life, Daphne has drank 150 fluid ounces of formula, give or take. I am determined to let that amount be the only amount she ever eats, EVER.

She went cold turkey on bottles when Daphne was about 2 weeks old, and it was SO hard. My nipples weren't sore anymore, but they were still tender, and she still hadn't learned to latch on quickly. She was latching on correctly, just not quickly enough. There were so many times after I said good riddance to formula did was I tempted to fetch a bottle. It was JUST SO HARD. She'd struggle to find my nipple and when she couldn't find it immediately, she'd start to cry! Sometimes, she'd be inconsolable. There were times when Eman was even tempted to give her the bottle. But I was SOOO determined. I rationalized that the tenderness was BOUND to go away sometime, and I had no excuse not to breastfeed. There are hundreds of women who have had harder time trying to breastfeed that I had, so there was absolutely no excuse. It was hard for me because I was impatient, and I constantly thought, what would that mean if I gave up on breastfeeding because I am impatient? It's not like I had anything else that demanded my time. I wasn't going to work, I wasn't going to school. I had no legitimate reason. So I kept trying and kept trying. Slowly but surely, I stopped dreading feeding her and the pain subsided.

Now she is a purely breastfed baby. Thinking back on it, it would have been so difficult for me to bottlefeed her. I'd have to get up, prepare formula, warm it up. I actually think what really did it for me though, what convinced me to go cold turkey, was that I'd pass on antibodies to her and that there was almost a zero percent chance that she'd get diarrhea or become constipated due to bacteria in the bottles or making formula too concentrated.

Yep. Now it's time for a diaper change.