Okay, now that I am finally finished catching up with the photos from Sweden, I have some time to catch you up on the latest "news" with AB.
New teeth! After finally getting the fourth tooth on the bottom (that came in 6 months after the third one on the bottom), the 5th tooth there came in right at the same time. Now, she has a molar on the same side (see photo), and it looks like two more teeth will be cutting through on the top, pretty soon.
Along with that is a new sign sentence (that really amazes me). She signs "pain" right at her mouth, and then signs "medicine." Translation: "my teeth are hurting, I need medicine!" How absolutely cool is that!? So - she doesn't cry and fuss, she just tells me her mouth is hurting and it's time for some baby Orajel or chamomile teething tablets.
New phrases that I also love... "hodju" (hold you) and "help you." We are still working out the pronoun thing, obviously, but I LOVE this. AB: "hodju, hodju, hodju." Me: "Do you want Mama to hold you?" AB: "hodju!" Same thing with "Help you," though I hear that one a bit less.
She's still nuts about the dogs and calls them "ki-ki" and "co-co." Pretty close!
She says "off!" with regard to shoes, socks, clothes, and other things that she can't get herself out of.
She signs "airplane" complete with a "whoosh" sound. She signs "I love you" (that's not new but I had to say it anyway). She doesn't quite get the hand shape just right yet but I can tell when that's what she's signing.
She's really turning into a parrot. Today, we were playing with blocks and I said "can you make a stack?" and she said "STACK!" She repeats equally in both languages... and she did start saying "hej" and "ja" in Sweden. :)
She likes to pat the ground and say either "zuo" or "sit" in order to get us to sit. She loves to jump, but she still doesn't get both feet off the ground. She'll crouch down low and then yell "JUMP" and stand up fast - sometimes one foot gets off the ground, and usually she falls over, but she thinks it's funny.
Oh! She says yummy and yucky! Well, "nummy" and "gucky." "Nummy nummy" comes out now without prompting when she's eating something she particularly likes. "Gucky" is a joyous shriek when she puts something that is not food in her mouth and waits for me to say, "don't put that in your mouth, that's yucky!" I figure I will have to come up with another way to say "Seriously, don't put that in your mouth" because she's now doing it just for the reaction.
Candy is nummy and she can sign candy. The sign for candy is to twist your index finger in your cheek as if indicating dimples. AB adds her own special twist by sticking her finger in her ear! It's pretty funny. Actually I have shown her where to place it on her cheek and now she signs it right, but I liked the candy in the ear sign too. :)
She loves to knock on doors. Any time anyone went into the bathroom or any other room in Sweden, she'd go pound on the door and yell "uncle" or "ayi!". I'd tell her to say "Open the door, it's AB" and she'd holler her name and go "oppie!"
And she says (and signs) "again." Toss me in the air again. Spin me around in the chair again. Read the book again. (oh yeah, and she says "book" and "read" too).
OH YES - there is one more thing I have to tell about. She has finally had her first real tantrum. I seriously don't think that in nearly a year (yes, next Tuesday we'll have been together ONE YEAR - can you believe that!?!?), she had not really had a tantrum until the flight from Amsterdam to Beijing. Yep, that's right, great timing baby - right at the beginning of the 8.5 hour flight. I thought surely we'd be getting dirty looks from everyone for the rest of the whole flight, but everyone was actually really nice about it.
So anyway, yes, she does cry sometimes, but not very often. There have been a few crying spells but she's usually very quick to recover as soon as whatever was wrong is right again. But this... oh my... I had never heard the child scream like this...
Here's what happened. I requested the bulkhead row of seats so that she wouldn't have a seat in front of her to kick (as she did most of the way from Beijing to Amsterdam on the way there). I tried to keep her from kicking, but she wouldn't stop... luckily the person in front of us didn't seem to get upset about it. I decided to ask for the bulkhead so that I wouldn't have to hope for another mellow person in the seat in front of her. So we get on the plane and the car seat won't fit in the seat because the arm rests don't raise. I asked them if they could just move us to another row but they said the plane would be full and that they would stow the seat for us and I'd have to hold her during take off and landing, but that she could sit in the seat by herself for the rest of the flight.
Well, little miss A did not want me to hold her during taxi and take off - she wanted to get down and walk around. Not like I had any choice - I had to hold her - putting her in the seat by herself would not have been safe, and letting her walk was out of the question. I swear, it was the longest taxi of my life - it was an eternity before we were in the air. As soon as we were up, I put her in the seat next to me and she calmed down right away, but was still gasping for air after all that screaming. I asked the two people in the seats behind ours if they would mind trading seats, and asked the flight attendant to bring back the seat, and we swapped and I strapped her into the seat and she was asleep in about 2 seconds. She slept for a couple of hours and then woke up her happy self and she did a great job charming and entertaining everyone. The guy that we sat next to after we moved seats was kind of a young guy, and I thought he'd probably be irritated that he was going to have to sit next to The Screamer, but he was REALLY nice, and he played with her, and let her listen to his i-Pod - that was the cutest thing, they each had one ear bud, and he was singing along and wagging his index finger to the music, and AB stuck up both of her index fingers and wagged them along with the beat too. She offered him cookies, and he very nicely accepted them. After the take off, it was really a pretty good flight.
Flying is getting a bit more challenging now that she is so mobile and she wants to get down and walk around. But, being in the car seat helps because it's not ME restraining her, it's just the normal car seat thing that she is used to. She did do the "hodju hodju hodju" thing in the car when we were in Sweden, when I obviously couldn't hold her, but she didn't get too upset when I told her she'd have to wait until we got home. I'll have to remember to ask if the bulkhead row has moveable armrests (in some planes they do) when I arrange our seats for our flights in December.
One more funny story - I bought her some of those Color Wonder markers - the kind that only write on special paper. I figured this would be a good idea to take on the plane so that she couldn't write on the seats or on the person next to her... She is only interested in drawing for short periods at a time so far, so it wasn't a great time-killer for the flight... but it was a good thing it wasn't a regular marker, because the first thing she did after drawing a line on the paper was to stick the marker in her ear! :)
Okay - she is starting to toss and turn (she's napping) and I had hoped to get some of the photos on the dining room table into albums today... so I'd better get to it.
Hope all is well with all of you!
headed upstairs with Uncle M
wish I could see the little men
this is how you play pool, right?
foos-pool
the balloon was a huge hit
Mr. L in the middle of two cuties
darling G
big girl sitting on the windowsill
mama and AB (our PJs kind of match!)
most of the gang
having lots of fun
3 out of 5 looking at the camera, wow!
everyone loves Nurse R
was barefoot, now bear foot!
what a cutie
checking each other out
hugs for the little ones
he really liked her shoe
kids in motion (I forgot the flash but this is still a neat pic!)
vogue
it's fun playing with the big kids!
dancing...
and spinning!
dancing girls
foosball!
the two oldest of the little kids crew
sweet AB
aww, sweet girl G has had enough!
