1 year photoshoot

Today, we finally had our family photoshoot. It was originally supposed to be on her actual 1 year birthday, Sept 3, but due to mis-communication, it didn't happen. It then got postponed another time due to rain. So glad today finally happened. We picked Allison up from daycare at 3:45pm and then headed over to the Nassau Museum of Art. They have a beautiful outdoor garden area where many people use to do photoshoots. It's free too, which is even better. Allison had so much fun running around in the grass!! I bought a rainbow set of balloons and she had soo much fun playing with them. One hour flew by really quickly and we had to end a little early because it started to rain. I hope we got some good shots! Here is the only video that we captured of the session. See how happy she is!

Give me your normal poo

Allison has had diarrhea every day for two whole weeks now, ever since I gave her eggs one time. Doc gave me the green light after she turned one. I suspect that she has an intolerance rather than an allergy. We will be testing her for food allergies (milk, egg, food panel). Hope this will she'd some light. So yesterday she didn't have a bowel movements at all and then this morning, finally, a normal bowel movement. I had purchased probiotics yesterday to give to her but didn't have a chance to before the bowel movements got normal.

Transition to coconut is going slowly but surely. She takes one 8 Oz bottle during the day now. 2 oz of coconut milk for 2 week, now increased to 3 oz for another week or two. She fought the bottle a little at the beginning of the 3 oz week but this is just what we'll have to do to get her used to it.

I am still breastfeeding her in the mornings and evenings. I would like to wean by 18 months. To do that, she has to be able to drink 100% of coconut milk. Then that can be served during the day and evening. I am more nervous about weaning the morning session. It helps us all to get extra sleep bc she wakes at 4:30am 8 hrs sleep from 8:30 pm) .

Yesterday we eliminated the nursing that happens during bedtime itself. I thought it was a requirement for her to get drowsy. But it seems that as long as she is tired, she will go down as long as Tom is there to pat her away to sleep. I can't do it bc she will just want to be close to me. Tom left the room after 5 mins and she only cried for a few seconds before sleeping. I am so proud of her!!!

By the way, at one years old, she only needs a total of 16 oz of milk a day.

Family

I am thankful for a weekend in which my family got to spend quality time with Allison. We slept over their house on Sat night. Everyone was so delighted to wake up to her on Sun morning.

Mischievous

I fell asleep on the couch while Alli played by herself in the play area. I wake up and don't hear a sound or see her. I found her underneath this side table. She snuck in through the left to go inside to pick at some cotton like thing on this air cleaning filter that was under the table. Bad Alli!

Cousin love

Here is a pic that my sister found of a drawing from Alyna at age 5. It is very sweet.

Fall 2014

Today I finally put away her smaller sized clothing (mostly summer season) and went through my inventory of next sized up clothing (fall and winter season). The weather is getting colder so I finally have a reason to do this which usually takes some time. All of the inventory comes from Allison's cousin, Alyna. I am grateful to have many clothes to choose from. There are a few that I would like to buy myself though. I recently bought her a winter coat using store credit.

Allison is still fighting a cold. It seems like ever since she started daycare she is always sick. She's also been having diarrhea for a week now and I believe it is due to egg white intolerance (not allergy). So I will be holding off on testing dairy on her just bc we don't want to deal with diarrhea.

The past two weeks she has been a very poor eater, sometimes not eating any meal all day. I'm so happy that for the past two days, she's been more open to eating all 3 meals. I hope it stays that way!

personality snapshot

I know it doesn't count when a parent says this about their own child, but Allison has a really cute personality. She is quite playful, and will do a variation of peekaboo where she hides her face and then reappears. She'll hide behind some peice of object or simply turn her head away and then bring it back. It is coupled with a high and low pitched sound she makes to differentiate the "peek"and the "boo", if that makes sense.

Anyway, here are a few other personality traits of little miss A @ 1 years old:

• active (always on the move)
• curious (always touching and grabbing new things)
• social (makes eye contact, seems to draw energy from presence of people around her)
• happy (always smiling)
• mischievous (throws folded laundry on the floor)
• silly (hold objects in her teeth like a cigar)

Things she can do:

• clap her hands on command (we simply say "clap hands"in English or Vietnamese)
• play chase
• say "mama"or "dada"
• her walking is improving day by day since 11 months. She can walk around for longer periods of time before losing balance. 

emotional thoughts

Tonight, as I put Allison to bed, I held her in my arms in an upright position. I love it when she is tired, she rests her head on my shoulders. Perhaps because classical musical was playing in the background, it got me very emotional. Allison is growing up, both in size and personality, and she is slowly escaping me. She will never be this little and fit into my arms the way she does now. She loves me so much now, but in a few years it will be a different kind of love and dependency. So Allison, while you are this little, I will hold you just a little bit tighter, and just a little bit longer. I will baby you just a little bit more, because these moments won't last forever.

Allison says a new word!

http://youtu.be/ta6bDtHuDxs

Allison is officially 1 years old!!!

Today is Allison's official birthday! I'm so happy that this day is finally here. Tom and I took the day off to spend with her (that means she didn't go to daycare). We were going to do a photography shoot with a professional but that had to be postponed. We wanted to do something fun with her but today she had a consistent fever of 102 degrees. Her body was very hot to the touch. She was very tired and took 2 long naps instead of one, and at the end of the day we realize that she teething. I felt the 7th tooth cutting her gum. This explains the drooling, food refusal and ear pulling.

Anyway, now that Alli is officially one, I can experiment with more foods such as egg, shellfish, honey and cow's milk, which isn't advised before one. Cow's milk is still something we will experiment with given the fact that she had an allergy to cow's milk protein (casein) which we discovered at 9 months.

This also means that I have been blessed to have been able to exclusively breastfeed her for one year, which is a major accomplishment! I am very thankful that it has been a pleasant experience for me, which is not always the case with everyone. My supply was in great danger at one point but thankfully was able to bring it up and maintain it.

wearing a pretty dress that paternal grandma bought for her. 

Preschool musings

today starts a new "semester" at the preschool; little A moved up to the next level class; new teacher and classmates; had a parent teachers meeting last Fri; she starts eating school provided meals (that means I don't have to provide it anymore and means she will be eating all new things); will be learning all kind of things including sign language; and will be following a stricter schedule of activities. This is kind of surreal to me given that she is only 1 years old; thought this would happen only around 3-4-5 years old. Good luck "little miss A"!

Decorations from Alli's birthday party

The photo montage was a DIY project the night before. cardboard box wrapped with repurposed wrapping paper; repurposed ribbon tied to the back; pics held up by tiny red clothing clips that I picked up in a Chicago craft store years ago. I splurged the $6 on the glitter letter stickers bc it was the perfect color and so fun. I also made that headband out of felt paper. 

This is the 5x7 pic that I had printed which went into the 1st year frame

This is a memory book where I can fill in things about the baby's first year

Rainbow themed decor

(stock photo)

wall decor - the top piece with the 1s and the animal faces I repurposed to decorate a printed menu that I created for each table (animal and 1 on each side of the fold)

party favor for the kids

also, each balloon centerpiece was held down by a clear container filled with skittles. The containers are originally toothpick holders; it was perfect bc there was a small hole which I could put the strings through and then tie on the inside. The balloons and skittles were a hit with the kids.

hi all

it's been 6 months since I last posted to this blog. Life has been busy with balancing work and family life. So much has happened developmentally with Allison, it's hard to keep up. We just celebrated Allison's first birthday on Aug 31, with her real birthday being Wed, Sept 3. I will be retroactively posting things to this blog bc I want to be able to look back at it in the future (and also so that close family members can see in a central location). So, I hope you won't mind the flood of emails you might get if you subscribe to this blog. Cheers!