Counting and stepping up and down

Counting and stepping up and down on a slippery pad of paper.

Little Hercule 2

Having fun taking photo with a real phone

Alyssa has a fake mobile phone and Mami and Papi don't let her play much with their mobile phones. So it was the first time that Mami allow Alyssa to play with the camera function of a real phone. She was very happy.

Say 'Excuse me' in Chinese - 借借

Our little hercule

Our little hercule! She can pick up a big box of diapers. She sounded strong too.

Saying mama and baba in Cantonese way

Know all the other family 'members'

Alyssa could find out Dilbert, what a surprise! Dilbert was in her room in one of the toy box and she could find it so quickly. Little kid's memory is amazing!!

Now Alyssa knows all the 'members' in our household, including Singing dog, Jacob the cat, Dilbert and Winnie the Pooh.

However, the way she said Dog (狗狗）and Dilbert (Dil) sounded like foul language in Cantonese.

We love hugging

Mami, Papi and Alyssa had so so much fun with hugging that evening. Alyssa was running between Mami and Papi to give them heart-melting hugs over and over again. Papi remembered to capture one of them :-).

When Alyssa gave a hug, she patted Papi/Mami's back too, it is so cute.

Words that Alyssa can say

In Cantonese,
1. Mama 妈妈
2. Baba 爸爸
3. Flower 花花
4. Milk 奶奶
5. Rice 饭饭
6. One, Two (but just follow Mami to pronounce it when they all up stairs) 一二
7. 子子to means Jacob 積及(she cannot pronounce 積, but pronouce it as 子 )
8. Bread 包包
9。Excuse someone 借借
10. Fly 飞


In German,
1. Guck Guck (means Peekaboo)

In English，
1. Mummy
2. Daddy
3. Hi
4. Bye

Sign Language,
1. Turn head to mean no
2. Nod to mean yes (more for saying yummy)
3. Clap hands to mean happy
4. Palms up to mean no more/disappear

Playing with big gym ball (2)

These days, we have dinner around 6pm (when we were in Germany, we had dinner around 7pm, but now Alyssa seems to be hungry around 6pm already, so we just follow her need).

After the dinner and before her 8pm-milk time, she has lots of energy to spend, it is kind of good as she goes to sleep pretty easily these days.

This is a video taken during this after-dinner activity time.

Nodding head

Alyssa nodded her head to say 'yes, it is yummy'.

The last month in Germany - some nice moments at the park outside our home

Walk up and down those big stones in the park. (Mami always count 1-10 in Cantonese while Alyssa walks her steps and now when she steps up and down staircase, she will say 1 and 2 in chinese as well.)








Walking outside home, babbling something on the way. (maybe this clip is not from the last month, Alyssa was not walking so well yet... maybe it is from earlier ;-P)



Rocking a horse!! Go wild !!

Self Spoon Feed Step & Nodding to mean yummy

Alyssa got a new highchair in US, she likes a lot the butterfly, bird and the frog on its cover and tried to feed them food from her spoon from time to time. Mami doesn't care much about her using of fingers these days , as she uses more her spoon with wet and sticky things and then sometimes pick some less messy food with her fingers.

Alyssa nods these days to say food are yummy (cos' Mami kept asking her if the food is yummy and then she nodded to mean they are yummy).

Shopping @ IKEA US

We have moved to the states for almost a month now. We found a cozy place to live and we furnished with our 'favourite' brand - IKEA.

These videos and photos have been taken from our third trip to IKEA, we needed to get only the last cabinet from putting next to the TV cabinet and return something as well.

This was taken when Alyssa and Mami waited for Papi to return an item. Look at the little monkey behind Alyssa, he was also good and waited patiently.


Alyssa played with the IKEA children abacus at the waiting area. Monkey was not so interested in the game. He likes more the camera.


Alyssa went to Papi after she had enough of the abacus.


Finally, we reached the kid's corner, it started with a slide.



We went on Monday, see how empty it was! So comfortable to go on a weekday.

This time the two monkeys were not running around in the warehouse as Mami was holding the tail from one monkey.

Feed a goat

Weather was so nice on Friday and daddy was not home for dinner. Mami and Alyssa headed off to the Südpark in the afternoon to pet some animals there, this time Alyssa gave some eichorn nut to the goats. All ten fingers were still there after the feed.

Feed baby doll

Mami got the idea to play this feeding game with Alyssa from a book. Alyssa can do it :-)), so cute.

Carry and rest on Jacob

Jacob the cat is a good friend of Alyssa's.

Self Spoon Feed Step 3

After the last blog on self feeding stage 2
Here comes the update of Alyssa's self feeding progress.

For food that are bigger in pieces, she prefers to use finger. Mami has to tell her not to do so from time to time, sometimes it worked. When Alyssa haven't had enough sleep, she would be cranky and if Mami didn't let her eat with fingers, she would throw a tantrum.... Still a long way to go before independently eating by herself.

5 Major Skills ;-)

5 major skills that Alyssa has.

1. Clap hands
2. 'Hurray' hands
3. Peekaboo
4. Give me five
5. Blow kiss

First handbag

First time carrying a handbag in a 'lady' way.

Brushing teeth

Phase 1: Used a damp cloth to rub against her first two teeth
Phase 2: Used a pigeon baby phase 1 toothbrush to brush her teeth for her (sing her a brushing teeth song before bringing her to sleep)
Phase 3: Alyssa seized the toothbrush and got very angry when Mami seized it back (she got so upset that she couldn't settle down to sleep ... very bad..)... It is dangerous to let her bring a 'stick' to the bed.
Phase 4: Bedtime ritual sequence has to be changed. Milk drinking and toothbrushing cannot be the last and the second last activity. It has moved to the beginning and after that Alyssa got her bath and then be settled down to sleep.

Now it is okay again for settling her down to sleep.

First ear of corn

Mami suddenly remembered auntie Bonnie gave ear of corn to QQ as finger food (from their blog), so she gave Alyssa her first ear of corn recently.



Alyssa likes it a lot. No much were left behind.

Fall in Düsseldorf + Pigeons

Fall is here, see the yellow leaves on the ground

Talking on the mobile phone

Mami doesn't allow Alyssa to play with her real mobile phone, but Alyssa got two mobile phone toys, with them she can talk to those she love.

Once she was catched grabbing Mami's mobile phone and mimicking talking to someone while it was charging on the table. When she realized Mami was watching her, she quickly put the phone down and headed to the other toys and pretended that she has never touched it. She obviously knows that that is a 'no-no' toy.

Playing sand again

Sand and tube offer a lot of fun.

Petting zoo again

Alyssa and Mami went to the Südpark again to it's petting zoo, this time with the friends from the baby swimming class. One set of Mami and baby is Korean and another set is Japanese. They bet the Germans have no clue how to tell the differences between Korean, Japanese and Chinese.


One more take with Mami.


Anyway, we all had a wonderful time. Unlike last few times, Alyssa had more interest in the animal this time and she had no fear to pet the sheep

Reading her favourite book

Alyssa loves to flip through books, this is the second book that she likes a lot. This one is difficult to flip than the other books, maybe that's the reason why she likes to flip through it.

It is a German book though.

Playground in Germany

Alyssa have had 104 degree F fever last weekend for two days. After that she was always in bad mood and cranky for the whole week. Maybe she is still not comfortable with something in her body.

With a cranky baby at home was not easy, so Mami tried to bring Alyssa to the playgrounds outside their home when there was time and when the weather looked better. These days, it can be as cold as 13 degree celcius in the morning outside... geez..... but it could also be able 23 degree celcius in the afternoon for one/two days.

This evening, Alyssa rode and rocked the elephant.



Children playgrounds in Germany are covered with sand, on one hand, children can play with the sand and on the other hand, it is a good protection when they fall (provided, not on the hard stone floor with sand... that will make more damage than when it is without sand).

However, one bad thing about this is, you really have to teach young kids not to eat sand / small stone there. After 2-3 months training, Alyssa is still eating sand sometimes. Now Mami understands why those German mums don't mind to give back bread that have been dropped on the street to their young kid's hand. Cos' they eat sand anyway when they are at the playground.

Understand some words - instruction to go to the mirror

Little domestic helper - wipe floor

Other than helping to pass clean laundry from the laundry to Mami for her to fold, Alyssa started to practice the skill of floor mopping.

Switzerland - from the garden to the kitchen

We picked blackberry and rasberry in one afternoon from the garden of the T family's. The berries are so very delicious and Thanks S for making delicious Birkermuesli with them for us.



Organic berry tree with a lovely snail.


We didn't harvest much as Mami, Sonja and Angelina kept eating during the 'harvest'. It is always so nice to look at a bowl of fresh berries. Don't know if it is possible to grow them in CA.

Switzerland - Swiss girls and swiss cows

It is always nice to meet friends :-) Look at all the girls.



Alyssa's first encounter with Swiss calf (the so-called Kuhli in swiss german :-)))


Here is Alyssa's little friend Angelina. She has grown a lot since we last met her.


Here is Mami and Alyssa posted in front of the Swiss country side.

Big ball and small baby

After almost 2 weeks since the first step, Alyssa is quite confident in walking now. She likes a lot to hold things and walk (that is so understandable as she couldn't do it before when she was crawling).

But this big ball is the biggest things she has held and walked so far.

Riding Jacob and sing song (唱大戲)

Alyssa was riding Jacob the cat and she seemed singing a traditional Cantonese song (唱大戲). So funny...

Switzerland - Swimming

The weather was so nice during our stay in Switzerland. We went swimming at the Zug strandbad one day.

Alyssa stood and walked on the grass field in her swimming diaper.





Here is Alyssa with Angelina at the background. They were having fun with sand and water.





There was a swan joining them as well. He looked not so friendly though, at the end, Mami had to take Alyssa away from that spot.

3rd day walking

Alyssa is progressing well with her walking skill.

Walker as scooter

Alyssa used her walker as walker, as a 'bobby car' and also as scooter. She saw other kids on the playground playing scooter, maybe she learned from them.

Fell asleep during lunch

Mami found that babies are so cute when they fall asleep during meal time :-*

Stand up and walk a few steps !!!

Mami couldn't capture the first few steps from Alyssa. She was simply too happy for her and couldn't believe her eyes ! Papi reminded her to take video. Therefore, this video is not the first few steps but the second try of walking all by herself for Alyssa !!

Well done, honey !

'Ask' for milk

Tonight, Alyssa was cranky during dinner, Mami excused her from the table after half of the meal (that is took her out of her high chair).

These days, they eat at 7pm the dinner and usually by 8:30pm, Alyssa will get her last cup / half cup of milk and then she will sleep at 9pm.

Tonight, as she ate only half of her meal, by 8:15pm, she was hungry and 'told' Mami the first time that she wanted milk.

How did she 'tell' Mami? She usually stays in the living room when Mami is there too. But tonight, she left the living room and crawled all the way to the kitchen. By then, Mami knew that she wanted milk.

Self Spoon Feed Step 2

Alyssa can 'sort of' scoop yoghurt up and feed herself with spoon. She learned also to use small piece of bread to dip yoghurt.

Usually, Mami lets her eat her breakfast but feeds her for the other two meals, but Alyssa likes more to eat by herself than being fed, but she lacks the good control / skill to scoop food up by herself. Mami has to find different way to make her eat more and at the same time not making a super big mess.

Share food with Mami / Feed Mami

Good girl !!! Alyssa can follow instruction and share food with Mami !

First Kiss

Alyssa gave her first kiss (lip to lip) to Mami and Papi yesterday. So precious :-)))).
Mami tried to teach her to give kiss on the face, but she figured out by herself that she wants to kiss the lips instead.

Very watery though.................. was not able to take photos to capture the heartwarming moments

Toilet training

Mami didn't try much before to let Alyssa sit on the baby toilet ring as she usually poop during the meal.

Recently, her poop time is more predictable and Mami tried this morning to let Alyssa to sit on the toilet ring (which is on the adult toilet) again.

She was very afraid at the beginning. Mami got a chair and sit in front of her and kept playing with her for maybe 20 minutes or so. Finally, it happened !!!!!

This is the very very first lesson of toilet training for Alyssa :-)

Ride in a big box

This is a box that Mami will use it to send stuffs back to Hong Kong to Auntie Wendy. The box is big and if the weight is less than 10kg, the price is EUR 55 and if the weight is less than 5 kg, the price is EUR 40. Mami will definitely fill it up until 10kg.

Before using it for sending stuff, why not using it for some fun.

Korean dinner

Mami and Papi went out more and more often for dinner with Alyssa. But since many months, she went to bed at 8pm. Therefore, it is very inconvenient to go out with her, cos' then Mami and Papi have to act as 'Cinderalla' and leave the lastest at 8pm and let Alyssa sleep by the latest at 8:30pm. Recently, they tried to push the bed time of Alyssa's later by one hour. Mami and Papi 'implemented' that for a few days already, but that 'mess up' a bit of Alyssa's schedule and she was cranky and lack of sleep for a few days now. Hope it will work.

Duck

Hello Ducky.

PEKiP Class - farewell party

After a year of PEKiP lesson, all babies 'graduated'. We have today a farewell party at one of the mami's home. The weather was nice and we had BBQ. She has a big and nice garden in Düsseldorf.






Alyssa enjoyed very much the swing there.





And also the small 'see-saw'.






All the babies grew so much during the last 1 year :-)))).


A photo that has been taken when they are around 3-4 months old.

Walk by holding someone's hand

Mami bought the walker for quite long already, however, Alyssa found it too fast to control until recently.



Yesteday, Alyssa had the confidence for the first time to hold Mami's hand and walk. Before that, she only found the very very stable chair trustworthy to push round as walker.

Mami was so overjoy with this and went straight to a shoe shop to buy Alyssa a pair of 'Lauflernschuhe' (yeah... a pair of shoes that is good for learning walking!!!). Mami and Alyssa found a very good saleslady and she introduced us the following pair of shoes. The soles are so very very very soft but yet with all the good protection to the little feet. Mami guessed it must feel like wearing no shoes ;-). The size is EU 22. Quite big.



So today, we were so eager to try it out outside. Alyssa was all ready for the outing.




Alyssa used one hand instead of two for the support of the stroller. She insisted to hold things on her other hand most of the time.



We arrived home after the 'walk' just outside our home. And we took a photo just in the hallway with the big mirror there. Alyssa still held on to her sand toy.


She slept for 3.5 hours after lunch.. That's pretty long...... (btw, only 1 nap recently... finally..).

Belgium - Brussel

We left Brugge and moved on to visit Brussel. Below is the famous boy fountain, someone told me before that he has different costume every day. When we visited him, he was in this blue sailor outfit.


We did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour.


Alyssa... relax... don't bite too hard on the camera bag, no good for you teeth.


Here is a big building from an Expo many years back. It is an atom they said (atom !!??? It looks more like a molecule than atom....) anyway... It looks quite nice for a photo. The very top ball contains a restaurant.

Belgium - Zeebrugge 2

Below is the new stroller that we used for the first time in this trip. We like it a lot so far, especially the big sun canopy, see how far it can go and Alyssa was well covered from the sun and also from distractions (and hopefully that make it easier for her to fall asleep on the way).


After the little princess went to sleep, Mami and Papi could sit down, relax and enjoy their lunch and delicious Belgian beer!


Finally, Alyssa woke up and totally recharged for more fun on the beach.