Sophie Unwraps

Sometimes, you don't need elaborate and expensive presents to make a kid happy. It's Christmas morning and Sophie was unwrapping her presents. See how she got really excited to find a huge Hello Kitty colouring book! She even gave the kitty picture two loud smooches.

When Sophie opened the book, she had a realization and dropped the book immediately. I thought she was bored and ready to move on to the next gift. And it wasn't what it seemed. And actually I only realised what she was trying to do after playing back the video.

So Sophie dropped the book, had a realization, and ran into the kitchen shouting "curry! curry!". That's because she opened the book and realized that it was a colouring book. So she ran into the kitchen to look for CRAYONS, because she knew which drawer they were kept in the kitchen. She wanted to draw in her new colouring book! What a funny girl! But I think her trotting away is really cute!

MOCHA!

The first time Sophie took the car rides alone at Happy Hollow, she freaked out.

The second time she took the rides again, she totally enjoyed it. She even requested for a second ride and a third ride.

And now this is her favourite video-always requesting to watch it. When she kept shouting MOCHA! MOCHA! and tapped her fingers togethr, I was wondering why she wanted Coffee! It turned out that she meant More-Car!

Jollibee bee

Sophie chomping on Jollibee drumstick in the car. Oh so unhealthy, but besides bread there was nothing else for her to eat. She loves chicken recently!!

Sucking...

Chewing off the cartilage...

Crunching away at the bone...

Yummy!!

Sophie's first ponytail

Small and wispy!

Little girls love feeding fishies

Our original plan of going to the indoor playground was thwarted because Sophie had a fever, but gramps took us to Botanic Gardens for a stroll, so all was good.

 The tots love feeding the fishes (although we were not supposed to...). The pond was filled with turtles, luo-han yu and catfish. They all gathered around for a feast. The catfish just opened up their mouths like a hippo, the luo-han yu getting some and the poor turtles plainly losing out. Gloria demonstrated feeding and Sophie quickly caught on. Watch their wind-back!

Soup GIrl and Milo Girl

These two chaps were up at 5 am because we were catching a flight to return to reality.

Gloria loves Milo. Sophie loves Soup.

Sophie is really improving on her fine motor skills. See how she can coordinate her left hand to hold the bowl with her right hand to hold the spoon and drink up! This was very salty, porky fiish ball soup at the T3 food court. But who cares, I'm glad that she enjoys her soup!

This Authoritative Toddler

Sophie is a really authoritative toddler especially when it comes to sitting down (and where to sit down)!

Tangerine Peeling

Yesterday, the daycare was closed for Veterans Day. What a fantastic excuse for me to take a day off so Sophie and Mommie spent more time together.

And I discovered another of Sophie's new talents-peeling a tangerine! The tangerines on our tree are ripening, and those hanging on the bottom branches are always luring Sophie to go pluck them. Maybe she learnt how to peel them when the gramps took care of her last week. She was so into peeling them that she had 4 tangerines yesterday! That's a little too much fruit for a little girl, not forgetting that she also had strawberries, grapes, and pears. As I always say, she's a bird (likes fruits too).

Here's Sophie hard at work peeling her tangerine. It's like watching a monkey peel a banana...
And after successfully peeling it, it's time to chow down!

Sophie being Sophie, is always on the alert for birds, beeping cars and any sound...

Sophie in Police Car Ride!

Sophie's first ride alone. I put her in the seat and buckled her up and she was ok. But the moment I walked away she started wailing. I was told to stay behind the fence, and poor Sophie was on her own. Here she comes, without a clue in the world and looking for mommy!

Happy Hollow again

Daddy is out of town so today only mommy and Sophie went to happy hollow zoo.

Whenever I ask dd if I should use the carrier or the stroller, he always prefers the stroller. Today I took a leap of faith and decided to carry Soph or let her walk herself. The zoo isn't very big anyway and it's meant for the kiddos to run around. The rule/choice of the day is "Either walk and hold hands or be 抱抱". It turned out to be pretty effective and she held my hand 90% of the time. That's a winner of the day for me as I don't have to take care of a runaway toddler and a stroller.

We checked out the meerkats, lemurs, turkey vultures and birds. Sophie spotted this elephant and I asked her if she wanted to take a picture with it. She said yes and this is her way of doing cheese (peace sign) 

We found a bench and sat down for lunch-gyozas, egg, peas and corn and fruits. No lunch struggle so it was good.

Enjoying her peas and corn...

Sophie tried a new ride where she had to sit in her car by herself and the car goes round and round. She totally freaked out when I left her to sit in the car by herself, and jerked backwards when the ride started, which startled her. But after a few rounds, she was ok, although she refused to go for a second time.

Of course we had to stop by her favourite ball station. We also went to the playground and she did the slide many times.

Waiting in line for Danny the Dragon ride.

Watching the puppet show for the first time.

On the carousel. Still not willing to sit on one of those animals so we always end up taking the seats.

Sophie wanted another picture! She did a cheese again. Byebye happy hollow and major accomplishment for me!

Super heroes!

Superman, Spiderwoman, and Supergirl...

Receiving a cookie treat from Superman. Sophie wants the cookie but is terrified of those blue fingers!

She found a favourite chair at a store...

Double-checking on her spoils...

Halloween weekend

It was trick-or-treat on Saturday at downtown Menlo Park! We are the super heroes! Superman dad, Spiderwoman mom and Supergirl Sophie! Sophie was terrified of Superman, especially when dd had the mask on. I think she hated his blue fingers. Sophie had her first tries asking for candy. As usual, after a while she was running amok again.

And then Sunday we were at Happy Hollow Zoo. Forgot about the Halloween event but many kids were dressed up. Sophie wasn't, but that's ok. She didnt really like the super girl costume anyway. 

A little grumpy and clingy when we were at the zoo because she just woke up.

The day always gets better when ball-ball appears.

Enjoying dance performances on the lawn.

Lisa's wedding

I only took one pic in my phone from Lisa's wedding!

Sophie is such a handful...

Goodbye Good Sam...

Sophie said Byebye to her first daycare today and will be moving on to her new daycare on Monday. 

Why? Because its Chinese, cheaper and they provide food. I'm sad because she has been always happy at Good Sam so   I hope she will be just as happy at the new one.

Sad to say Byebye to one of Sophie's besties-Jakie.

Giving Sophie a Hi-5!

Hugs!

Goggles!...

Sophie jump!

Sophie attempts a jump-haha one leg is still on the ground. Listen at the end where she noticed a bird in the sky and said "bird bird!"

Small but mighty!

Sweet cheeks is 19months! She may be petite and tiny but she's packed with power!

We went for a wedding last Saturday. And initially the kids were shy. But Sophie was the first to hold out her hand to ask an 4-year old girl to hold hers. Before long, she assimilated into the group of older girls, and they were holding hands and dancing in a circle, singing to the tune:

Ring-a-around the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!

And falling down when they sing the "falling down" bit. Sophie was apparently being dragged along in the circle, but she seemed to be having lots of fun.

Sophie can sign sleep, star, moon, book, and milk. She catches on quickly after watching the Baby Signs DVD. Her favourite cartoon is Kailan...which she affectionately calls it "Ka!".

She loves playing with her puzzle toys. She can place the gears in their right colours for the spinning wheels gear toy and knows the geometric sorting board. She knows how to use the buttons to make the animals pop up for the safari pop-up animals toy.

She slipped into the shoes herself!

Better with eating

Sophie has been improving with her eating habits these days. She has been spending a good amount of time at the dinner table eating her porridge/yogurt, and gnawing away at chicken and broccoli and peas/corn. I think it has a lot to do with taking away her milk before meals. If we give her milk before meals then I think she's not hungry enough so she gets very restless. 

This was dinner time at the Korean food court. She finished all the broccoli and peas in her tub and proudly slammed it on the table when she was done. She did alright with the rotisserie drumstick, but at least she tried. She ate a couple of fried dumplings and requested for more of the Korean rice. The most peaceful dinner outside with Sophie to date.
Of course when she's full and settled, she will not waste a extra minute in her seat, shouting 'All done! All done!", pointing at her bib and shouting "bib-bib!" which means that she wants us to take her bib away so she can get out.

Almost the end of summer

But Sophie still enjoys going "outside" to play!

She loves to ask for water from the hose to fill up her watering can.

Kiwis are almost ready. We pick up those that drop to the ground as they are usually soft by then. Pretty sweet-with a powdery like texture.

We also have persimmons this year. They are easy to pluck because the fruits hang so low. But I'm not excited at all because I don't care for persimmons haha.

The motherly side of Sophie...Not.

I asked Sophie if she can feed pooh pooh some milk. Yup she did accordingly. Wow, I thought. She's pretty nurturing. After 3 seconds, she throws pooh on the ground. Duh. Ok she's not the type that's into stuffed animals.

Flower for UUU!!

Up and running again!

Running amok in the toy store.

Having a nice cheap $1.99 breakfast at Ikea.

Sicko

Who would have thought the chirpy...

ferociously-eating...

kiddo would turn so sickly overnight?

The many faces of Sophie

Dear Sophie has always never been the type of tot to sit down at meals. She seems to do well at school, eating with the other toddlers. When we go out to a restaurant, she only lasts 5 minutes in the high-chair, before she decides that she has other better things to do in life than sitting down. Giving her fruits like grapes and blueberries buys us about 5 more minutes. Lychees buy us another 2 more minutes. Mealtimes outside become stressful because we can never sit down peacefully for a meal. Of course, the non-eater is never really enticed by the food on the table. I hope this phases passes soon.

Seattle

Seattle Seattle... come and gone. It was a quick four days, in and out of Seattle. No Vancouver as planned, because we forgot my green card! Wasted one night's room stay (x2 rooms!) in Vancouver, oh well lesson learnt.

We took a night flight, and Sophie was crying throughout. Probably she was tired and the fella in our room kept chatting with us. Anyway she fell asleep on the light rail ride to the hotel, where she woke up and continued crying. What a bad start to my holiday, I thought. 

Naturally she was still so tired the following morning that she crashed in the stroller while we were heading out for breakfast.

As it turned out, the next few days weren't that bad after all. She was back to her silly self, always wanting to run everywhere, and not caring for milk milk or eating. Always makes me wonder where she gets her energy from.

Some touristy stuff that we did were the space needle, the chihuly glass museum (they actually sent us the photos for free, don't have to pay, so rare!)

And Sophie got to hang out with her new buddy for 2 days.

Sophie goes berserk when she sees balloons-running to them and not wanting to leave. We got her such a nice teddy bear one but I guess it's nowhere compared to a plain round balloon.

We also got to hang out with the chin-chows where they kindly let us stay at their place for 2 nights. Sophie became really buddy buddy with them for their juicy watermelon and raspberries.