Don't Worry Baby, I Got Your Back...

A-ha! As promised, I continued my cleaning this morning so Daddy was able to capture some photos of Sarah. Actually, I really didn't 'continue' to clean - I just brought out the vacuum so that Daddy could see for himself how scared she was. Aren't I mean? ;)

Anyway, little Sarah was still as freaked out of the vacuum as she was yesterday. While this hand-vac of ours is honestly very loud, it is so funny to feel Sarah behind me, hiding and clinging on to my back for dear life. Even Daddy thought it was hilarious to see her so afraid and even saw her jump when I first turned one the machine. The look of fear on her face was priceless :)

In any case, I don't think I will continue with this charade for the time-being because our not-so-baby Sarah just got her first bout of the sniffles today. Poor thing. She is still her usual cheery self but wasn't napping well today. I knew there was a reason for a rocking chair in the nursery and now I kind of regret not having one for times like these. In fact, we could have had it sooner so that Uncle Rog wouldn't have to resort to rocking Sarah while standing in a darkened bathroom ;) But I digress... Anyway, hopefully Sarah will get over her cold soon because Daddy is quite distraught to see his little Pooker like that :)

If I Were A Boy, Even Just For A Day

Although Sarah may look like a boy sometimes, her 'girly' side is certainly becoming more and more apparent these days. Take for example today. It has been a while since I last vacuumed (okay, a long while :)), so this morning I thought I would take up that chore after breakfast. As soon as I started up the machine, you should have seen the terrified look on Sarah's face! Not only did she whimper but she also had to hide behind me the entire time I had the vacuum cleaner on, standing while clinging to my back for dear life. It was so funny and cute to see her so afraid! I guess it's a sure sign that I need to vacuum more often eh? ;) Anyway, it is too bad I was home alone so I don't have any evidence of this, however I am planning to continue my pre-Chinese New Year cleaning tomorrow so hopefully I will have some pictures or a video by then :)

In other news, Sarah did another funny thing tonight. As you know, she has a Rubbermaid toy-box in our living room that she digs through from time to time. Anyway, tonight she decided that she would empty out the entire box while still searching for whatever it is she keeps looking for. It is truly amusing to watch her examine each toy briefly before tossing it aside and continuing her hunt!

Here is an idea of how much junk she pulled out from the box - luckily it was easy for us to clean up afterward :)

We're Gonna Party Like It's 4707, Chinese-Style!

Remember how I told you that Sarah is getting into everything these days? Well, being the small kid that she is, Sarah managed to get herself literally under our barstool. She looks trapped but really she just crawled under the chair and pulled herself up using one of the footrests. She is one adventurous little girl!

With the Year of the Ox right around the corner (it lands on January 26th this year), I am teaching Sarah some proper 'little kid' etiquette for the holiday. Here she is learning how to 'ching ching' for red envelopes. I already have an outfit picked out for her to wear that day - actually, it is a traditional outfit that my mom bought for her when they were in Hong Kong. I can't wait to see how she looks in that - hopefully it won't look too hokey :)

And finally, since I have not recorded any clips of Sarah fresh out of bed lately, I thought I would do so this afternoon. With her new-found and well-practiced mobility, we always seem to find Sarah standing at the side of the crib, waiting for one of us to get her when she is done sleeping!

More Outdoor Play

It's another sun-filled day in our sometime paradise. Sarah finished her lunch more quickly so we had time for a short afternoon walk. Normally, I struggle with deciding whether to have her strapped in her stroller - especially when she's already 'tied' to the high-chair over lunch - or let her play freely indoors, but we just had to take advantage of the warm sunshine so I made an executive decision and went with the former. I am glad that we went for our walk and I think Sarah misses it too for we used to go every day in the summer. Also luckily, with Sarah being able to stay up longer, we still had ample time for indoor play-time when we got home so my decision wasn't a hard one to make :)

PS. For those smart cookies who noticed - yes it is another stroller :) We have become quite the stroller junkies and thinking ahead to vacations and a walking Sarah, we sold our Skate and got the Maclaren Techno XLR instead. This Maclaren is WAY lighter than the Skate (by 20+lbs!) and while I miss that stroller, this one is more convenient for carting around and will be perfect for wherever we decide to go for vacation this year!

Oh Mr. Sun Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, Please Shine Down On Me

While our place is well above the fog line, we had a lingering thick blanket covering us this past week, so the sunshine we had today was a warm welcome. I love when it is nice and brisk like today because I can finally open some windows to let the fresh air in. Not only is it good for the home but the fresh air is apparently good for helping babies sleep ;) Sarah has been having issues with her daytime naps so I think it might be time to tweak her schedule again and either lengthen her playtime or shorten her naps. I told you the guessing game never ends! ;)

Anyway, taking advantage of the weather, Sarah and I basked in the sunshine for a few minutes out on the patio. I had wanted to take her for a walk after lunch but she did not finish until later which would mean a short walk and it isn't worth it given the time it takes to get her ready to go. Despite that, Sarah enjoyed her time outside and liked watching the three cars go by (yes, we live in a quiet neighbourhood).


Following our little siesta outside, we continued our play-time indoors. Sarah still loves to dig through her toy box to find 'new' toys to play with but we can always count on Sophie to be her (and most other babies') favourite for a while. We even had to get a second one just in case we lose this one!


As for Sarah's afternoon nap, the several minutes of fresh air has seemed to do the trick so far - fingers crossed - but it could also be that Daddy is back at work that is getting things back to normal for us at home! ;)

Wining and Dining

With Sarah in tow, we normally hit the regular Chinese and/or kid-friendly restaurants for grub, so it was a rare treat to go somewhere with white tablecloths and candlelight tonight. And it wasn't only because it is the annual Dine Out Vancouver event - we all went to The Cannery to celebrate my sister's birthday. Given the annual discounted dining event, the Asians were out in full force but it didn't seem as bad as in previous years. I guess with the better restaurant manners, it wasn't as embarrassing :)

Considering the restaurant's environment, Sarah did surprisingly well and did not fuss while sitting in her seat, although she didn't care for my dad's looks (sorry Dad - not sure what it was). As you know, Sarah is adventurous with her food repertoire, so I let her have some bread and try some of my potato and corn chowder. She actually quite enjoyed the soup but with the paprika in it, it was a bit spicy so I only let her have a taste.

All in all, we enjoyed a nice evening out and I was happy that Sarah behaved herself and didn't really fuss even though she was getting a bit sleepy (guess the dim lighting didn't help either). I think the best part of the night for Sarah was getting to take home my sister's birthday balloon. The best part for me however was getting to put Sarah in a fancy schmancy dress for the night! :)


Finally, just for kicks, here is a new favourite picture of mine. Sarah likes to socialize while having her meals and she gave me the biggest and happiest grin while having some water from her juice box after lunch yesterday. So cute! :)

Baby Babbles

I have been diligently identifying people to Sarah and so far she has 'Daddy' and 'Mommy' down pact, looking in our direction whenever we ask, "Where's Daddy/Mommy?". As for talking, she has started to add a combination of sounds to her vocabulary, saying words like "ga", "ka", "la", etc. along with her other babble. She continued to do this over dinner tonight and didn't stop even after she was done. It is simply the most adorable thing to watch her do. Anyway, here I was feeding Sarah dinner tonight when suddenly out of the blue, she said "Da" out loud for the first time! Of course, Daddy is very proud of Sarah for saying that and I am also very excited that she is starting to make out words, although secretly I am hoping that "ma ma" or "mommy" will be her first real word.

Here is a snippet of her baby babble. But beware, it is VERY cute (in my biased opinion) :)

In other news, as you know, Sarah has no shortage of new toys from Christmas and has been having a grand old time with all of them. In fact, we should probably invest in stocks of the Energizer Bunny because practically every toy she likes requires some sort of batteries. So much for the 'natural' toys from our time. Anyway, here she is having fun at her Laugh & Learn Kitchen from 'Po Po'. As you can see, she no longer likes to sit still and prefers to stand whenever she is playing with something!

Help, I need somebody...Help, not just anybody...Help, you know I need someone...

Hack. Hack. This never-ending cough is making me miserable and I am sure that Sarah isn't fond of it either, for story and singing time are not quite the same with me losing my voice half-way through a book or song. In any case, Sarah is enjoying Daddy's week off at home and even "helped" him put together her new walker toy. Here she is reading the instructions to Daddy.

And of course, this includes having a taste of the paper...

...before Daddy decides to read the instructions to Sarah Pie instead.


This extra time with Daddy is hard to come by and Sarah and I are lucky to have him home with us for the week because he will be starting a new job on Monday. However, with the new commute, he will likely not have as much time to spend with Sarah before her bed-time, so his special one-on-one games with her will have to make do. Her favorite game to play with Daddy right now is "Super Girl" - it never ceases to amuse her and she absolutely LOVES flying high and low all over the house. She even finds it more fun if you "fly" along with her!


PS. Thank you Uncle Homee and Auntie Capital M for the cute Hello Kitty shirt - it looks ADORABLE on Sarah and I have already put her in it 4 times since we got it :)

The Bottom of the Barrel

YAY - I am finally on my way to recovering from the last bit of the flu. While my appetite still needs to improve, I did eat more than I have eaten the last several weeks at Wendy and Kevin's tonight. Thanks for the wonderful hot-pot dinner guys - it really did me some good! Yum.

To get out of the house and some much-needed fresh air, I took the afternoon off yesterday (before it started snowing hard again) and did some post-Christmas shopping. Actually, I had to exchange a few gifts and pick up a few necessities that I had been meaning to get before I fell sick. And of course, no shopping trip would be complete without getting something for Sarah. This time, I picked up her first pair of Puma sneaks from Foot Locker. They are so cute and look so great with the Roots sweats that Daddy picked up for her. I know, I know - it is a bit much, but remember we are only having one kid so we don't mind treating her to a nice wardrobe while she is young. It will be a different story when she gets older of course ;)

Finally, I went through our video archives and thought I would post a clip from early December since I haven't added any in a while. Here is Sarah digging through her Rubbermaid toy chest, looking for something that was obviously stuck at the very bottom. I never did figure out what she was looking for, but it was fun watching her try her hardest to get at whatever it was!

Happy New Year!

After 12 days of laying in bed succumbed by the blasted flu, I finally emerged and feel almost back to normal. The coughing is slowly starting to go away and my appetite is nowhere near normal yet but I am at least up and about. And I certainly don't mind that I have shed much of those dreaded preggy pounds during these past several days ;)

With my sudden stroke of misfortune (not to mention the multiple dumps of snow), Sarah's first Christmas was not the best that it could have been, though it was memorable. Daddy took her to a pre-Christmas dinner at her Yeh-Yeh and Ma-Ma's house and then to Christmas Day lunch at Auntie Wendy and Uncle Kevin's place while I stayed in bed. He was also planning to take her to my family's big Christmas shindig but I was feeling pretty rotten and he didn't want to go so far that night.

Anyway, being that it was Sarah's first Christmas, you can imagine the score she got. I did not get a chance to tally everything but if you feel so inclined to count, feel free to do so!

Oops, I forgot to include these...

And one more...

With all these new toys and including some RESP money she received, Sarah is well-stocked for now. Her first birthday comes up in a few short months so hopefully we will be able to find new things for her to explore.

Thanks to all of our family, friends and neighbours who helped make Sarah's first Christmas the very best it could be!