Weekend Update

Just some of the recent photos of Kaya doing what Kaya does.

Just in the last couple of days, she has figured out how to use her walker toy to actually walk!
Reading with Papa in her bedroom (which she sleeps in all by herself all night every night! Finally! Yay!).
Sometimes, she looks so much like her dad that it freaks me out. This photo is one of those times.
Every single day, several times a day, Kaya yanks all the books she can reach off the shelf and throws them on the ground. Picking them up and reshelving them starts to feel like a Sisyphus-ian task.
This face makes it all totally worth it.

Pajama Party @ the Park

You are growing up so fast, it's fun and amazing and scary and sad all at the same time. Every single day, you are more of a kid and less of a baby. You do things that I had no idea that you knew how to do practically on an hourly basis. I watch you crawl to the edge of the bed and I gasp and start running toward you to catch you and break your fall but you just look at me like "what?" and swing your legs over the edge, gently lowering yourself to the floor. I have to admit that sometimes when things like this happen, I start to feel sad and I force you to nurse, even if you just ate or aren't hungry at all. I just need to prove to myself that you are still a baby, that you still need me. And then you will lay in my arms, at my breast, staring up at me and if I just look at your face and ignore your long, chubby body that doesn't even fit in my lap anymore, you are my tiny little newborn again. All is right with the world for a few minutes, I feel strong and maternal, I reassure myself that even if you aren't hungry, my breastmilk is important- that you need the antibodies, it's flu season, you haven't been vaccinated- whatever I need to tell myself to almost start to believe that this is for you, not me. But, inevitably, you will start to pull at my necklace and put your fingers in my nose and mouth, losing interest in the task at hand. You will unlatch and roll off of my lap, "byebye mama" you say, crawling away. I try not to cry. My baby. What happened to my tiny little baby? I love you little girl. Today and every day, even when you're old and gray.

Spoiledy Girl

Auntie Teri loves to spoil the little lady. She bought her this beautiful chair today and we love it. She is so cute sitting right next to Papa in his La-Z Boy.

Kaya's 1st Thanksgiving

We started Kaya's 1st Thanksgiving with brunch in Long Beach at Auntie Tee & Tanya's house, where we got to see Great Grandma, Grandma Ladda & Grandpa Jim, Auntie Teri and David & Misuzu and the boys. Kaya wore her fancy party dress and her tights and headband and ate her first pumpkin pie. She impressed everyone by showing that she knows how to bow to Great Grandma when they say Sawat De Ka. I think I was too busy shoving pie and bacon quiche into my fat face to take any pictures, unfortunately.

Then we went to Grandma & Grandpa Kim's house and got to see almost all of Mommy's family: Kelsey & Patrick, Kirk & Antonya, Amy, Uncle Gregg & Aunt Nicole with Rachel and Chase, Uncle Kirk and Aunt Kathy with Simon and Danielle, Great Grandma Emmy, Great Grandma/pa Hallam, Uncle Mark & Karen, cousin Mark and Sarah, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Nan- everybody! Some people had never gotten to meet Kaya before and others hadn't seen her since she was a newborn and no one had seen her in her fancy dress and headband before and everybody loved her. I loved watching her play with Grandpa Kim and watching her show-off by waving and yelling "byebye" to everyone. She loved the kids and the dogs and eating yams and mashed potatoes and pie and rolls.

Afterwards, we went to Uncle Rich and Aunt Chris' house and got to see Katie and Dan. It was late and we were tired but Kaya was hyper and hilarious. She was waving and laughing and yelling "byebye" and "mama" and "baby". Grandma Ladda was there and she couldn't believe how funny Kaya was being and kept insisting that I must have fed her something with too much sugar. It might have been the pumpkin pie but I think Kaya just realized that it was a special day and was excited by all the family and attention.

We had an amazing day, managed to see everyone that we had hoped to see and now we are getting very excited for Christmas!






I was having too much fun to remember to take any photos but I know that other people did. Hopefully I can get some of those. For now, all I have are these ones that I stole from Grandma Kim's facebook. I kind of hate some these, I look like a melted puddle of thighs and pointy chin but Kayabelle is cute and some of our favoritest people are in them so here they are.

Kaya of the Day

The calm before the storm. Quiet walk in our PJs on Thanksgiving morning.

Pretty Pretty Princess

Shaun and I have made a conscious effort to avoid gender stereotypes with Kaya. She wears monster pajamas and Star Wars t-shirts, she was Spiderman for Halloween, she plays with dinosaurs and robots, we declared a moratorium on pink, lace and anything with the word "princess" or pictures of crowns. But, I have to admit- sometimes it's really, really fun to play dress-up with my gorgeous little girly. Grandma Kim and I bought her fancy dress for Thanksgiving and got to shop for all the fun things like tights and patent leather Mary Janes and teeny headbands with satin bows. Grandma Ladda gave us a red velvet and white tulle Christmas dress with satin bloomers. We also went to the consignment shop and got some new warm pants and jammies for winter, it's getting cold! 

I like to think that the corduroy trousers and overalls, purchased for $2 each from the boys' section of the baby thrift store balance out the diva accessories and the fact that she is going to be buried under a mountain of velvet and bows for Thanksgiving. 

Panqueques & Eggy Eggy Eggs

Papa has been working very hard making a movie. He leaves the house early in the morning, while it's still dark outside, before even you are awake (Little Miss 4:45 am=PARTYTIME!). You and I get up together every morning and go into the kitchen in our jammies. I make coffee while you sit in your highchair.



You are definitely a morning person just like Mama and it's when you are in the best mood of the day. Breakfast is also your favorite meal of the day. You had your first egg last week and it has quickly become one of your favorite foods. You like them scrambled hard in big pieces so that you can pick them up and feed yourself. This has worked perfectly for Mama because scrambled eggs are the perfect place to hide the tofu and broccoli that I have not been able to get you to eat otherwise. While I cook your egg, I play you the Thai kid's song about (eggy eggy eggy) eggs that you love.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpEHGDayaVI)

You don't enjoy most kid's music but this song makes you smile and clap and wave your arms. You recognize Thai as your language because of all the time that you spend with your grandma and your aunties and this makes me so much happier than I could even tell you.

Some mornings, I make blueberry pancakes which you love. You don't like to be fed anymore, you grab the spoon out of my hand when I try. So, you eat your pancakes and eggs with your hands and we watch Thai music videos and I try to confuse you even further by teaching you words in Spanish. The word "panqueques" cracks you up everytime so of course I say it again and again.

Just this week you have started to wave and say "bye-bye'. You wave to the waiters as we leave restaurants, you wave to Grandma when she leaves, you wave to the bathtub as I pick you up into your towel. Also, this week you have started using your words much more often and more clearly. When I stop at the front door to put my shoes on and take my keys down from the rack you point to the door and say "Go!". You call for Mama all day long and when Papa gets home at night, if you're still awake, you rub your head up against his chest and say "papapapapa" over and over again.

Double Digits

I can remember this day so clearly. It was January 23rd and I could not believe you were 10 days old. You were so tiny and fragile, you rarely slept and you cried for hours and hours each day. I felt so helpless, not knowing how to make it better for you, having no idea what was wrong.


Today, you turn 10 MONTHS old. You are chubby and fearless, climbing up, over and onto everything in sight even though you can't even stand up yet. You sleep through the night in your own bed in your own room which I wasn't convinced would ever happen. You only really cry when you need something now and you are finding more and more ways to express yourself everyday. It's so much fun watching you grow up & I can't wait to see what you learn to do next.

Happy 10 Month-iversary, sweet girl.

IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?

Hey Family:
As you know, the main purpose of this blog is to record Kaya's first year as a virtual baby book for her to have someday. But, I know that a couple people who don't get to see the girl too often were also using it to keep up with the latest Kaya news. I am running out of photo space in my free Blogger account and will need to either 1) pay for a premium account so that I can keep posting photos and videos or 2) take it off-line & just make it a Word document. So, if anyone reads this, leave me a quick comment. If it looks like people are still interested, I will keep it online. If not, I'll just keep it on my computer for Kaya and I. Thanks!

วงศ์

There are a lot of things that we love about living in Long Beach. Our neighborhood is perfect for walking, we have the beach a couple blocks away, a park a couple blocks away, tons of restaurants and shops and new things to see everyday. But, by far the thing we love the best is having Grandma & Grandpa and all of the aunties and cousins right here for us to play with any time we want.

Kaya loves her Grandma more than anyone and they are very silly together. Kaya starts grinning right when we walk in the door because she knows Grandma is about to do something crazy to make her laugh.

Grandma, Great-Grandma & Auntie Teri speak Thai to her and she is starting to recognize and understand her language. She recognizes "Sawat De Ka" and knows that she is supposed to do something with her hands but hasn't quite figured out how to do it.

Auntie Teri loves Kaya so much and loves to play with her and spoil her. Last  week, she bought Kaya a new walker and she loves it. She isn't quite big enough to ride on it but she loves to stand behind it and push it. She's pretty wobbly on her feet though. I know that some babies start walking around this age (I even talked to another mom at the park yesterday who told me her son walked at 8 1/2 months!) but I don't think our girl is quite ready for that. Watching her play with her new walker, I can see that she still can't balance herself well enough to stand on her own & her ankles just don't look strong enough to support her weight yet. I'm actually completely okay with her walking a little later. She's already such an adventuresome, dare-devilish, curious kid-  climbing all over the place & making mischief and messes. 

We are so lucky to have the cousins right across the street from Grandma's house, too. Kaya loves playing with them and all of their fun toys. I am SO extremely excited for Kaya's brand new baby cousin, Delilah who is due on Christmas Eve. Kaya won't be the baby or the only girl anymore. I think they are going to be best friends and I can't wait to meet her!

Besos

♥

Kaya of the Day

What I get for leaving her alone for 5 minutes. I get it though. Sometimes you've just got to rip off all your clothes, throw all your stuff on the ground and just concentrate on your music for a little bit. Get down girl. Go ahead, get down.

Kaya of the Day

Just sittin' around being pretty. No big deal.


Tonight, I got to brush your tooth for the very first time. You have been in my arms for the past 24 hours, sobbing if I put you down for even a minute, chewing on my wrists and hair and chin. I think you are confused about this hard, painful little thing poking up through your soft gums and you want to make sure that I know it's there. I went and bought you some Homeopathic Teething Drops for the pain and a baby toothbrush. You seemed to find the whole thing very funny while I brushed your one tiny tooth tip and your gums. You kept making eye contact with me in the mirror and giggling. At that moment, I realized that this is something I will do literally thousands of times throughout our life together, every morning and every night. But, tonight was the first and that made it special for me. I love being your Mommy and getting to take care of you.

There Will Be Gnashing of Teeth!

My Sweet Little Kayabelle,
Your first tooth popped through your gums overnight. You don't seem uncomfortable, just a little bit drooly. Right now it's just the little ridges of your bottom left front tooth poking through. It's so adorable but makes me a little bit sad because you are growing up so fast. Hopefully you won't bite me while you nurse! You aren't very fond of me sticking my grubby ol' fingers in your mouth to try to feel and see your lil tooth so I haven't been able to get any good pictures but I will try again when you are asleep! I love you so much, precious girl.
Love, Your Mommy


Frozen ring for the ouchy new toof.