Leni's Words

My girls sure have the gift of gab, if nothing else. They just love to talk, talk, talk...

This is what Leni is saying these days:

mine
bubble (she means bath)
Dora
foot (in korean)
tickle
food (in korean)
what's that?
over there
Elmo
mommy (in korean)
dada
puppy
quack-quack
bap (she means diaper)
pee
poop
big sister ("un-nee")
please
stop
here you go ("hugo")
water (in korean)
no (in korean)
hi
bye
snack (in korean)
lion (in korean)
hippo (in korean)
ball

Gemma, my little genius!

On the weekend, Jesse and I were taking the trampoline down and packing it up. Gemma was out there with us the whole time, wanting to help. Obviously there wasn't much she could do, but once I had the net and mat packed up into boxes, I just told her to come and write on the box for me. So I started calling out letters and telling her where to write them, not really expecting anything, just thinking that she would just scribble all over the place. To my complete surprise, she wrote down all the letters!

I don't know if the "R" is supposed to be lower case and the "P" looks a bit odd and the first "N" is backwards, but Jesse and I were just peeing our pants with pride (is that even an expression???). Completely unexpected. My little smartie pants.

can... but won't!... and vacation

So, Leni can officially walk. I think we stopped counting after 27 steps in a row. However, she still much prefers to crawl. Hmmm? 

Gemma's first two-year molar has completely come through! 

Last Friday, Jesse took Gemma to Vancouver to his parents' house. Leni and I joined them on Sunday and we flew back together on Wednesday. Gemma was having such a great time there - beach, playground, boat, fishing, play-doh (which we don't allow in our currently for-sale home), walks, etc. When I got there on Sunday, she basically was so disappointed that I had come and ruined her time (mommy is the only one to say no to anything). She pretty much told me flat out to go home. 

Surprisingly, Leni played "strange" right to the end. Actually, I think that is the wrong word. Even to the moment we were leaving, she didn't really care for my in-laws too much. It always had to be either Jesse or me. I think that was partly due to the fact that we left the kids behind for our anniversary supper and my in-laws took care of them during that time. I think the fact that we just snuck out of there was semi-traumatizing for Leni. I remember when Gemma was younger, she would always play strange with everyone, but for some reason she always was quick to warm up to Jesse's family, even though we only saw them twice to maybe four times a year at most. It was as if you just couldn't fool blood with her. I think Leni too will come around soon, especially when she begins to realize just how much funner grandma, grandpa, auntie, and uncle are compared to mommy and daddy. 

I have to say though that Gemma hasn't listened as well since we've been home. 

Flight-wise, Leni did very well for her first flight. Jesse took the camera so I didn't get to take one of those cockpit pictures like I did with Gemma. She did really well until we landed and were just waiting to leave the plane. Then, she just wanted to get the heck out of there and started losing it when it was taking too long to get off. But other than that, she was pretty good on both plane rides. 

It definitely was a really nice trip out there. My in-laws moved to their new place a little while back, but we haven't been there with the kids yet. They are super close to the beach and even though it's only the next province, it feels like a completely different place. As the kids get older, we'll visit more and more.

Three steps

I think Leni is getting more motivated to walk. She is standing up all the time without holding anything and will take steps on her own. Three is far as we've gotten so far, but it's encouraging to see she's more willing now to try. Maybe there's still a chance she'll be walking by my brother's wedding on Thanksgiving weekend!

Two-year molars!

Gemma's sprouting her molars! Right now she has the bottom left and top right molars coming through. She's handling it like a trooper, not cranky, not sleep-disturbed.

What? It's mid August???

Has it really been a month since the party? Crazy. I know I've been slacking big time with this blog, but with the construction of our house, I hate to admit it, but that blog is getting more of my attention.

Gemma is finally getting her 2-year-old molars. I noticed she has been a bit more of a crybaby as of late and also she is more willing to nap, even though she is getting up slightly later. For a little while there, she was getting up right around 6 AM, but now she is back to her usual (and my preferred time) of 7-7:30. Today I looked into her mouth and saw the tooth really close to the gum surface. I think it will poke through soon ???? and hopefully it won't be too hard on my poor little Gem. 

Gemma's so funny. Each and every day I have moments where I'm dumbfounded by the things she says, like where the heck did she learn these things???? She wakes up in the morning and knows exactly what shows are on in what order until Harmony comes home. She'll just turn the TV on herself and knows that 17 is Treehouse and 115 is Disney Junior and so just changes the channels on her own. We try to not have her watch too much TV after Harmony comes home though. I know this is poor excuse, but I let her watch TV in the morning so that I can get some work done, so I don't have to work til the late hours of the evening...

Leni is such a little ham. She really likes to tease you. She loves to climb up the slide we have and just lean back, barely hanging on, maybe swinging a foot out to the side, all just to give you a heart attack. I know that reacting to this makes her do it more, but she scares the bejeebers out of me when she does that! 

She loves the neighbor's dogs and always points to the window, wanting to see out into their yard to see if the dogs are out there. She says "pa-pa" for puppy and it's so cute. She gets so excited when she hears them barking. I think maybe Leni would've liked Reggie more than Gemma ever did. 

She is still extremely reluctant to take steps on her own. She is much better at walking while holding one hand though. It's weird because she is so proud of herself when she is just standing, not holding anything, but she's so scared to take steps. I sometimes wonder if it's because her one foot is turned in a bit, whether that hurts her to put weight on it like that or what. Or maybe it's just because she is the fasted crawler in the world and feels no need to put all that effort into walking. LOL. 

Both of the girls are absolutely crazy about daddy and when he's home, Harmony and I might as well not exist. But really, I don't blame them. He is the ultimate dad - full of love, nonstop play, nonstop attention. They really are lucky.  Then again, so are we.

Little Piggies

Last week, I took the girls for shots - Leni for her 1-year immunizations and Gemma for her third and final hepatitis B shot. The nurse asked if I had any concerns before she began the actual appointment and I asked if I could see a dietitian.

You see, my kids... they love, LOVE to eat. As soon as they make eye contact with me (or any of us for that matter), they ask for food. When they eat, it's never enough. For the most part, unless we've just had a meal, we can't even stay downstairs because both kids just whine for food around the kitchen. I myself feel like they eat more than plenty and am really conscious about trying to feed them healthy food in proper portions. I really put in a lot of effort and even so, Gemma has always been in the 90+ percentile for weight. I'd imagine she'd be off the charts if I let her eat as much as she wanted, when she wanted, what she wanted.

I know it may seem crazy to obsess over my kids' weights when they're not even 3 years old, but I really don't want them to have to struggle with weight when they're older. I myself don't really have a sweet tooth or a snack tooth, and really that's my only saving grace that I'm not bigger. I love fat more than anything and have such a hard time controlling portion sizes. I am always struggling with my weight and unfortunately, other than my mom, no one is naturally "thin" in our family. I just know the kind of a toll weight issues can take on a young girl and I just want to prevent as much of that as I can.

But anyhoo, the nurse commended by concerns but felt that the girls were within the normal range and charting appropriately and so she felt that as long as I was feeding them healthy foods, I didn't need to worry. Of course, I knew she was going to say that....

So I guess that really is all I can do - keep them off the junk and control their portion sizes for as long as they let me...

Happy Birthday!

Gosh, it's been 4 days already since the part. Just goes to show you how I don't seem to have any time to sit and catch my breath these days. We still have Jesse's mom and dad over and so it doesn't feel like everything is quite "over" yet. 

But anyhoo, what a fun little party. I think we had about 40 guests come, only one family of no-shows and one surprise guest. Leni did very well the whole time, no screaming, just enjoying the attention. Gemma was being a bit of a drama queen and cried a couple of times, but she too had fun playing with her cousins, friends, and balloons. 

The main event of the part, the doljabi, was an interesting one. Gemma didn't hesitate and went straight for the pen and pencil. Leni was really not sure and would crawl a couple of "steps", then stop, then whine a bit, then crawl up again, then sit, then whine. Then, my mom sat her up in front of the items to choose and she still couldn't make up her mind. We sat around for like 5 minutes waiting for her to pick. I picked up each item briefly just to get her interested, hoping she'll get the hint that that's exactly what she's supposed to do, but still no. I could see her eyeing the book and the bowl of rice, not sure which one to pick? then finally... finally! she picked up a grain of rice that had fallen out of the bowl. LOL. So that's it! RICE! I was happy because that's what I had hoped she would pick. Abundant/healthy life. 

Anyway, the party ended, but we had my brother and jesse's siblings here until yesterday, and as mentioned above, Jesse's folks are still here. It's so nice having all these extra people to watch the kids and I've been able to work starting early in the morning and finishing early! 

Anyhoo, at 1 year old, Leni is not yet walking and has no interest in it. She is sleeping about 10 hours, then we give her a bottle, then she goes back down (usually) for another hour or two. She has gone back to the two naps and has seven teeth. She loves any affection from Gemma, but most of the time they fight and Leni ends up crying because Gemma has stolen a toy she was playing with. Equally, she always wants to have/do what Gemma has/is doing and so then Gemma gets annoyed and cries. She is now drinking homo milk (since 2 days before her birthday because that's when we ran out of formula) and doesn't like to drink it straight out of the fridge. She says "umma" (mom), dada, kkot (flower), hi.

As much as she screams, she is incredibly affectionate and loves to cuddle. Her smile and nose crinkling just makes my heart melt. I love you Leni! Happy Birthday!!

and.... ready!

I can't believe it, but I think we're ready for Saturday. Last night, Jesse finished the last DIY project for the party and I think we're good to go!

Leni is unfortunately working hard at teeth #7 and 8, the two bottom lateral incisors. She is a drooling mess and I hope she can keep her chin clean for the party! 

I think she is trying to lose her afternoon nap and it's driving me crazy. Gemma, right when she turned one, decided to go down to one nap a day too (right now, she is no-nap). In a way, it makes life easier in that I don't have to try to work my day around two naps, but just one, but still it just goes to show how quickly my baby is growing up and it makes me sad. She is at the perfect age right now where she is just so cuddly and sweet and curious (even though she screams). 

On Sunday, we had our family photo session with Debbie from Debbie Wong Photography. I only have a few pics to look at so far, but they seem alright. 

Family stars pouring in Wednesday, i think? We're expecting 46 people for the party, with 9 of them staying at our house, at least for a night.

Bring it on!

Dol..dud.

I suppose it's my own fault for procrastinating.

With Gemma, I had most of the DIY projects for the party done before I went back to work. Now I'm scrambling, trying to do overtime at work while we have it and at the same time trying to organize this party. I still have so many missing details, forget the DIY stuff. I'm trying to do things a bit more different this time, but it all seems to be ending up to look the same as Gemma's dol. 

i haven't even decided on whether I should do a cake this time or do cupcakes again! 

I feel so bad... my brain is constantly elsewhere and when I get a moment to relax, that's what i want to do - RELAX - not sit for another hour burning the crap out of my fingertips trying to glue tiny beans onto a cardboard cylinder... 

But I promise you, Leni, IT WILL GET DONE! 

lol...