One Year Gone By

All smiles on her big day!

In a blink of an eye, our little girl is ONE! What an exciting year for us, watching Emma grow and develop into this little individual that is starting to decide for herself, do things for herself and express herself. She is quite the busy body now, as she’s learning to walk. I don’t think anything can make you feel this happy and proud. If you’ve been following my blog, a year of being parents has been an absolute amazing experience. There has been no single highlight, every month or every day has been a highlight, something new is always learnt or done.
We had Emma’s birthday party (cupcakes and ice-cream) on her actual birthday. I had been preparing for this for the past month, I think I was more excited than anyone else, actually felt like I was preparing for Christmas or something. Buying gifts for Emma that I liked as a child, in hopes that Emma will like them too.

Rod’s family (the Kings) - Aunty Peggy, Uncle David, Tracey and Eric, as well as my older sister, Nicole made a special trip out to Durham, NC, to be part of this special occasion. It was so special to have them here with us to celebrate. The party was small, but big enough and two hours was just enough before all the kids/babies started getting fussy and ready for their afternoon naps. Emma got totally spoilt and just had a great day. She was a star, so happy, no crying or fussing. I wasn’t too sure how she’d be with lots of people around at one time, but she did great, she knew she was the centre of attention.

Emma got her first taste of icing – we were hoping she’d go mad with the cake and get icing and cake all over her face and get a good taste, but she wasn’t really interested in the cake, more so the candle – trying to grab it, hence the icing on her hands. Her pretty blue and white dress got covered with the bright pink icing we had on the cake, thankfully it washed out. What a great day seeing your baby attempt to blow her candle out and ripping at the gift wrap. I thought I’d would be quite emotional that day, as I had been leading up to it, but I probably was so caught up with everything going on that I didn’t have time to get emotional. Shew!

So during the week that the Kings and Nix were here, Emma learnt so much. The one day while sitting on Tracey’s lap, she grabbed Tracey’s fingers and pulled herself up to standing and took a few steps. After that she just wanted to walk everywhere. Now she’s pretty particular how she wants to hold your hand/fingers when you walk with her. Tracey and Aunty Peggy taught her Round and Round the Garden, which in Emma’s head seems to go, Round and Round – Tickle Tickle (click to watch the video). Tracey would play with Emma and have Emma sneak up to people and give them a fright…well now every back that Emma sees she tries to tap and says Baa! We were standing in the line at Costco and Emma was reaching out to the guy in front of us saying Baa! Baa!. Tonight while running Emma’s bath water, she came up behind me and hit me saying, Baa! Oh boy! With the few times that Nix bathed Emma, Nix taught Emma how to dry her toes.

So much in a short space of time – I’ve always noticed when family is around Emma catches onto things so much quicker. This morning I was trying to teach Emma to snap her fingers, she watched me repeat this action a few times then attempted it herself, using her thumb and index finger, it’s a start. Quite cute, watching her take it in and attempts it herself.

Rod and I got Emma an activity walker for her birthday – Emma took to the activity part right away, the day after her birthday I had placed her behind to hopefully walk, instead she remained on her knees and pushed the walker back and forth. Today she finally stood behind it (or I stood her behind it) and she started taking steps. After realizing how much fun this was, she carried on walking and eventually became brave enough to let go of the walker and stood for a couple of seconds. The sense of accomplishment on her face – priceless.

Other accomplishments on Emma’s part – we’re teaching her to brush her teeth (although I think she’s more soothing her gums than anything else), we’re slowly getting better at eating with utensils, Emma’s is getting good at opening and closing doors, switching lights on and off, in the mornings we always hear a dog bark, so now each time I ask her what sound is that she hears, or what sound does a dog make, she’ll make this almost silent, “woof” sound. Emma’s mind is a sponge, I just have to show her something or say something once or twice and she can repeat or attempt it straight away. AMAZING! Something you don’t expect her to understand, she does, we really need to be more conscious how we say things now and how we do things, doing and saying things the way we would want her to do and say. This morning I was making our bed, and I asked her to help mommy make the bed, not thinking she would do anything, she stood up at the one side of the bed and started pulling at the covers, as if to straighten them. Such a great little helper.

It’s crazy, but there are times I still can’t believe Emma is ours. Life has definitely changed, but honestly wouldn’t change it for the world. Emma has been the most rewarding thing in my/our lives, besides the tantrums and refusals to sleep. She’s been meeting her milestones, doing something new every day, filling our days with so much love and joy. And not only ours but our families that are spread all over the world! It’s just been a wonderful experience. I’ve been seeing other little girls running around, and I can’t even imagine Emma running around and talking in sentences, and I know that’s just around the corner, soon she’ll be running away from me, rather than toward me.

Being parents have made us realize so many things, so many little things that we didn’t think twice about when we were younger, or even when we were preparing to have a baby. Like the sacrifices our parents made to give us the best upbringing, how much they really love us, what being a daughter/son really means to our folks.

Well One year gone, and so much more to come, before we know it Emma will be 16. It’ll actually be amazing to see at 16 if she’ll have the same expressions or ways as she does now. Until then I’ll keep blogging (hopefully) and just take in every moment with our little munchkin, embrace every hug and kiss we can get and just enjoy those special moments.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY EMMA!

And we're 1!!

Today was a big day, our baby girl turned ONE!!!
I'm knackered after today's events, so will leave the formal post for later.

Just want to wish our baby girl a HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!
One year filled with so much love and joy, we are so lucky to have you in our lives.
Can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you little one.

All Our Love,

Mommy and Daddy
xoxo

Emma sounds hugs.

Emma gives hugs and not only gives them but makes the sounds that goes with it.
A while ago we went shopping and Emma was in the ergo carrier.  I had asked her for a hug so she pressed her head against my chest and made this sound, I realised it's the sound we make when we give her "big hugs".  I finally managed to get this on camera and had to share it with you all.

You'll see too that our little darling is becoming quite the actress, making sure you're looking at her and giving you the cheesiest grin ever! She's thoroughly enjoying the attention that she's getting from Aunty Peggy and Tracey.  Ever since Emma has learnt to smile on command, her smiles have become cheesy, even so, we still can't get enough of this munchkin.  You'll see a bit of this smile in the video too.

Happenings over the week and weekend

This weekend was a pretty relaxing one, getting the house ready for our visitors (Aunty Peggy and family arrive tomorrow and Nix arrives on Thursday night!) and just hanging out with Emma.

Saturday morning I went for a haircut, during that time Rod got to spend some one on one with Emma and took her to the Marbles Museum.  I've been wanting to check out this musuem for a while now.  I thought for a change Rod could experience one of Emma's first reactions.  She's been getting so excited seeing new things these days, squealing, pointing, making Oo Oo sounds.  This place was maybe a little too old for her, but none the less there were sections she could enjoy, like a huge ball pit.  Emma was quite excited coming out of the museum, the funniest though was while Rod was telling me about what they did,  Emma kept looking at me and smiling, and had this look on her face like, you look different mom, do something new to your hair?? 

During the week I got together with Reed and Emilia, met for lunch and then let the girls play at the Kidzone, or more let Emma play, as Emilia is still a little young for this playground at the shopping mall.
Emma loves this, "paddle wall", she'll spin the wooden blocks continuously.  Emilia took interest in this and tried to touch these moving blocks.  I had to tell Emma to be gentle, so not to catch Emilias hands.  After a while Emma slowed her spinning, put her hand where Emilia had her hand and almost guided Emilia trying to teach her how to spin the blocks.  It was too cute. 

Emma's starting to say words that we ask her to say, or more like she makes a sound that sounds like the word we just said.  While driving home from the hairdresser and museum it sounded like Emma said "Apple", so I repeated the word and she said it back, more like Aaa-Boo, she continued to do this 3 more times after I said the word, and then again today.  Later that day we went to the mall , it was just Emma and I, we were waiting for the elevator, while waiting I was explaining to Emma that we were going up.  When the elevator arrived, Emma said, "up".  Coincidence?
Then this morning we were reading books and we saw a "Turtle", when I said this, Emma made a sound that that sounded similar "durtle", she repeated this about two times after.  She's used to the word, as I point them out in her blow up pool.  Can't believe my baby is "talking".

This afternoon we spent some time at Annie and Emile.  Emile grilled us some steaks on the BBQ, it was great.  Annie has visited a few times, so Emma has taken a liking to her.  Quite sweet seeing Emma put her arms out and be willing to play with other people.  We were trying to "show off" Emmas talents, but obviously she didn't do everything we asked her to do.  Em got to explore another home and garden, and then played at a new playground - quite a fancy one with go karts....I took some really sweet photos, I'd like to share them with you.  Looks more like a day with Annie than Emile and Annie.

Oh....this was the funniest....Rod was trying to drink his beer with Emma in his arms, Em kept wanting to grab the bottle and drink from the bottle.  While unsuccessfully trying to stop Emma from grabbing and touching, Rod had no choice but to chug his beer with Emma in his arms....Em thought it was the funniest thing....quite a sweet moment, beer and all (hopefully noone calls social services on us).

Another weekend past, one weekend closer to our little one's birthday!  We hope you all had a good weekend.

Distractions Distractions!

For a while Emma would refuse to eat her lunch or dinner from a spoon, she would want to feed herself using her hands (much to my moms disgrace :p).
Had to think of fun fingerfoods to make...meatballs, fish fingers and tons of veggies.

I finally found a solution that allows me to feed her with a spoon and to eat more than just 4 spoonfuls before I get the NO NO NO (shaking of her head).  Besides, adding more rice to the dish - simple solution since we are Asian, and DISTRACTIONS!! 

It's great how something in the hand will automatically make the mouth open, or showing her Cookie Monster and how he will eat the food if she doesn't.
The bad thing about giving her things to play with is that Emma's food tray can get mighty full with all the toys/items to keep her busy, the other bad thing is that you can't have anything in sight that she might want to grab, which means practically clearing our kitchen counter and table.

Emma's little finger points to everything, and we get an eh, eh, eh and then a bit of a temper trantrum if she doesn't get what she wants, we try teach her that she can't moan for everything, and that she can't always get what she wants....hmmm....almost seems pointless at this age when she'll carry on moaning and you finally give in just to keep the peace.  Am I being weak?
We're already at that stage where we can't eat things or drink things that she can't have just as yet, as she starts asking and pointing for them.

Emma has gone from Little Miss Sunshine to Little Miss Demanding....ai yi yi!

She surely keeps us busy, and now I can't take my eyes off of her, as she's so fast and crawling all over the show these days.  I've taught her to climb the stairs, which is great, as it's another activity for her to do, and I make her repeat this a few times a day so to aid with her napping - horrible mom, yes I know, but, whatever works!
Now she heads for the steps whenever she feels so we definitely can't just leave her, I've already turned my back for a second and she was on the third step - happens so quickly.
We purchased a safety gate for the top of the stairs (still to be installed) and have yet to find one for the bottom - but hoping we can get away not getting one?

2 more weeks before Emma's party and we're getting organised.  So exciting planning it, although I have to remind myself it's just a small party and she's not going to remember much so don't go all out, save it for later when she can appreciate things more.

Some updates on Emma while I'm at it.  Things happen so quickly I don't get the chance to document it all.  Plenty of times where I wish I had the camera ready and when you get it out, its hard to get that moment back. 

This weekend Rod purchased a paintbrush to paint our outside deck, Emma has not witnessed us painting, yet she grabbed the brush and started painting the wall....how did she know?? future artist??

Today at Walmart I purchased Emma's first toothbrush, when I told her what it was, she brought it to her head and tried brushing her hair - good job Emma, knowing the word brush, but we have to work on the difference between hair and tooth.

She received a balloon today and Emma called it a Ba, just like her Teddy Bear, she calls Ba.
While eating lunch I asked her where her balloon was and she looked toward it and pointed, I then asked where mommy was, she looked at me, then I asked where is Emma, she wasn't too sure what to do, so she looked up.

Yesterday I thought to take Emma to the Kidzone at the Mall, I've been taking her lately as she's mobile and loves watching and interacting with kids.  I had to let Rod see her in action and the excitement on her face, he could not get over how she was squealing with excitement and pointing at the kids when I picked her up to see the play area. I took her inside to a not so busy section, she almost jumped out my arms.  When I put her down, she was off, pushing her way through the other kids to get to a particular activity toy, a little panick stricken on my part as it was so busy and kids running all over the show.  But she loved it.

So much more....but those are the highlights from the past few weeks and days.

Emma is becoming so expressive and it's great that we now know what she wants and doesn't want, likes and doesn't like.  Amazing how she'll point at things that catch her eye, like birds flying, or the elephant on a surfboard in a tv commercial (occassionally I let her watch tv while I prepare lunch or dinner).  Communication is improving.  Although I do miss the times where I could just feed her anything and she'd eat it, give her anything to play with and she'll play with it.....she can make decisions now and we've got to honor them or not.

My Baby Wheelbarrow