New bed, new table, and new attitude

Ah, yes, the blog post that is long past due.

In case you wonder, we did not have a good experience with Canon support, so we decided not to give them the pleasure of milking more money out of us. We ditched them and bought us another camera from another brand.

No, Renee's sleep has not got better, although I do appreciate all the comfort words! Our solution made things better, though, so you should just read on, if you have not got the cue from the title already.

This month also marks Renee's great, and I mean GREAT, improvement on her speech. It is like a breakthrough. She suddenly figured it out and start repeating everything we say. She even learned the first part of a silly Chinese song "大头大头". Sorry if you cannot read Chinese. I am trying to get her to learn a Chinese poem, no luck so far.

Here is Renee playing with Hanhan on a visit to Jing and Weili. Looking at this picture, I am surprised to remember that this evening went pretty well. Why do I say that, because recently (I guess) Renee has developed an unexplainable fear to anything that crawls, especially baby. We went to visit another friend on a weekend. Their baby was really outgoing. She crawled quickly to Renee, and touched her. Renee immediately broke into crying, which lasted for good five minutes. The whole time we were there, she kept an eye on the baby and climbed up to me whenever the baby got close.








This is a picture outside the Point Rey visitor center. I was asking her question "how old are you?", followed by "show me!"

We reached the lighthouse at Point Rey, by which time, Renee was too tired to enjoy the beach view. She slept on my shoulder on the way to the lighthouse. She did wake up to enjoy the view when we reached the lighthouse, though.

We got her a new table from IKEA. This has made her meal time a lot better, well, for us at least. She does not like the highchair anymore and it has been really hard to get her sitting there long enough time. With her own table and chair, she get to stand around the table and keep eating. It is still hard sometimes, when all she wants to do is playing. I don't know what we will do without her grandma chasing after her.

Ah, yes, a new bed. This is our new weapon. We bought a queen size bed, so that when she cries in the middle of the night (which is every single day), one of us can go and sleep with her in the bed. We just found out that if it is her mother, she will get back to sleep right away. Somehow, with me she will keep crying for a while, and still might wake up crying some more. A bit frustrating for the farther? You betcha. But what can you do? Kids...

When I take her out for a walk, she sometimes puts her hands in the pockets, very cute.

We went on a play date with Ethan. To our big surprise, she held Ethan's hand long enough time fro me to take this picture. By the way, the Bay Area Children's Discovery Museum is great for the kids.

Walking on the Stairs

Our camera broke during my ski trip and is at the Cannon repair center, so we don't have any pictures for this month.

Renee can now walk up and down the stairs now. She can even take a few steps without using any help. When she feels like it, she can walk up or down all the way by pushing the wall.

She can also counting from one to ten now, which is really cool, especially when she does not skip either four or six. She is also interested in putting words together. So I am trying to teach her sayin "fat uncle" to show off on our next friends gathering.

I have been writing Renee's Chinese name to her because she seems to be interested. Now she actually knows to pronounce them as I am writing. I have not tried enough test to see if she just says that for any Chinese characters or she really remembers these three.

Renee's mobile skill is also improving. She can jump up and catch the air. We only let her do it upstairs where it is covered with carpet, because half the time she will lose her balance and stumble.

Renee also learned racing. She and I will stand by the dining table. I call out "one, two, three, go!" and we will both run to the sofa at the end of the room, with her climbing through the arch way of a little playset and me stepping over it.

Renee's sleep is still on and off. The only diffenece is that I don't get upset anymore. It is interesting how you can get used to your chilld's behavior. I am guessing that is also how they get spoiled.

BTW, we have found out that Renee is going to have a brother!

End of 2008

The past few days are really tough for me. Somehow Renee start refusing going to bed. She would cry her eyes out. My latest failed attempt was today, when I tried to calm her down for good 20 minutes.

I am just not in the mood to write anything, to be honest. So here are the pictures that I have picked out.