I feel terrible that I've been so bad about updating this blog,
especially when I love reading old entries in posterity. But life has
been so busy - in a great way!
We had a busy summer, but it was such a memorable one!
1.
We went on our first airplane trip! in late august, we took a short
family vacation with sy's sister's family to atlanta! sy and i were
pretty nervous about getting on a plane with emily for the first time.
but we hoped that bc it was a short flight of just 2 hours, it shouldn't
be too bad. good news was - emily was great on the first plane ride -
bad news was we were terribly delayed. our plane was stuck on the
tarmac for 2 hours - not even moving. we filled emily with snack after
snack after snack - and she watched a ton of little baby bum on sy's
phone. i had bought her headphones to use on the plane, and after maybe
20 min, she no longer wanted to wear them, and was happy to just watch
it on his phone with no audio. so strange to me - but i'm glad it
worked! emily was great despite the long flight, and we had also been
blessed with a free upgrade with more legroom. emily didn't cry, nor
shout. people complimented us after the flight was over that emily was
the perfect baby! on our return flight, we again, we were delayed -
this time in the air. and we spent an extra 1 hour in the air. emily
was crabby for this flight bc she hadn't taken ANY nap that day, and was
getting more antsy to move. she had a few outbursts of yelling NOOOO!
but at least she didn't cry. afterwards, sy and i were so proud of how
well she really did on both flights considering how badly it could've
gone. and it's given us the courage to keep trying to go on more
flights!
2. atlanta was great! we rented an airbnb
with sy's sister's family, so it was really nice to have all the kids
together. we went to the georgia aquarium and emily was scared of any
large creature or creature that looked a little scary. she was so cute
how she clung to us in fear. the pictures we took make us laugh so
much. interestingly, she was not scared of sharks at all bc of her love
of Baby Shark. hahaha! and she also loved penguins so much bc of her
book at home that has a picture of some penguins sleeping. so everytime
she saw penguins, she went shhhh. emily loved eating georgia peaches,
and had such a fun time running around as much as she could. eating out
was always a struggle with her and the kids in general. emily has
gotten picky with food and while we were at restaurants, we didn't
always have much luck with getting her to eat what we chose for her -
even though they were things she normally would've loved! who knows if
it was bc she was out in public, or if she just wasn't hungry. but that
was definitely the most annoying part of the trip. on that trip -
emily had her first day of not napping at all. we were pretty nervous
she'd be a hot mess, but it turned out she was not that bad. she was
just her usual active self - maybe just a tad more impatient. overall -
the atlanta trip was so much fun. emily got to explore and play; we
made some good memories as a group family trip; and it felt good to
finally go on a real vacation!
3. sleeping - sadly -
emily has officially transitioned over to 1 nap per day. at first, i
had thought maybe it was just a fluke bc we were on vacation and just
not giving her the chance to sleep properly, or bc we were out so much,
it just messed with her schedule. who knows if those are what caused
it, but emily is now a once a day napper. i'm still waiting to see if
she will now sleep longer as a result of it. some days she sleeps 1.5
hours, other days she sleeps 2.5 hours. i hope for my own sake, she
will sleep at least 2 hours and we can all get some peace!
4.
in the first week of august, we went on a short vacation to Boston! we
rented an airbnb apt and drove up to boston first thing in the
morning. to prepare for this, we purchased emily a new car seat - one
that was roomier - in the hopes that she wouldn't hate the car ride. i
was prepared to basically feed her snacks the entire car ride up, but
luckily, she DID fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion for a small bit.
she cried a whole bunch leading up to it, but at least she slept! once
we were in boston, we had SO much fun! it was a short trip - basically a
day and a half - but we jam-packed it with so much sight seeing - like
the boston public garden, the park, the water side, etc. emily loved
running around, eating so much bread and snacks, and basically hanging
out with us all day. actually - we had taken that whole week off - and
we went on a several small day trips. we went to go get lobster rolls
in port washington on 1 day - and that was emily's first taste of
ketchup. and man, does she love ketchup now. we went to boston for 2
days. we went to greenwich, CT for a day. emily had so much bread, ice
cream, fries, and ketchup. it must have been so fun for her too!
5.
zoo - we took emily to the zoo with a bunch of our friends with kids.
and emily really enjoyed that as well. she was scared of any animals
that looked scary - but again - super surprisingly - she was not scared
of bears bc of her love of bears. hahaha. what a funny girl. she
loved penguins again, and was fascinated by the red pandas. she held
hands with a boy for the first time, and it was the cutest thing i ever
saw.
6. beach - we took emily to the beach twice this
summer. the first time, emily was so weirded out by the sand. she
kept telling us to "ddakkuh" - which means "clean this" in korean. but
trying to clean the sand off her feet was an impossible task bc she just
kept on getting sand on her feet. emily loves the water so much - but
she was definitely a bit scared of the ocean. she was scared to be put
down into the water - but it could also have been bc of the sand. so we
ended up staying just like 30 min at the beach. haha! the 2nd time we
went to the beach, she again was not happy about sand, and was still
scared of the water. but sy was persistent to get her to keep trying to
step in the water when the waves came up, and soon she was loving it bc
of her love of splashing in the water. we all got drench in our pants
bc she just wanted to stay and play and splash. we ended the night with
a pizza dinner before the long drive home. (ps. emily LOVES pizza
now.). it was such a fun night that sy and i will always treasure.
7.
pools - emily spent a lot of time in the pool this summer! like i
mentioned - she loves the water so much. sy has a friend who has a
pool, and she was always so happy to go in the water. she's actually
pretty natural and likes to paddle her feet too! sadly - she also seems
to get sick almost every time we took her to a pool. so that was not
cool. haha! we also bought an inflatable pool to use at sy's sister's
house. emily and her cousins pretty much spent the whole summer in that
kiddie pool like every other day. they loved playing in the pool so
much. it started off with them playing inside large kimchi tubs, and
that's when we invested in the pool. haha. on the first day that emily
used the large kimchi tub as a pool - we didn't have swim diapers yet -
and emily pooped in the tub. hahaha! the rest of the summer - carol
talked about the time emily pooped in the pool. hahaha. but overal -
emily loves the pool. she loves splashing her feet, she loves pouring
water, she just loves being in the water. i even bought a water table
for our house to put on our balcony. she loves it and it's impossible
to get her out! hence - now she LOVES bathtime too. she probably just
thinks it's more pool time!
8. overall travel - we've been
doing lots of stuff with emily all summer. she loves taking the train,
so going to the city is a lot more fun. with each activity we do, we
find it gets easier and less daunting to try to do stuff with her. and
then it becomes so rewarding when we make these fun memories and not
just stay home playing with her usual toys.
9. roseola -
for memorial day - we went on our annual hamptons trip with our
friends. one of the babies there was really sick, and then lo and
behold - a few days later - emily was terribly sick. we discovered she
had roseola when the rash broke out. it was one of the toughest
illnesses she's ever had. she had zero appetite and wouldn't eat
anything but snacks and yogurt pouches. she had so much trouble
sleeping and we regressed so much with all the rocking her to sleep and
middle of the night wake ups. seeing her body covered in little red
bumps was so sad. i really hope she never gets roseola again.
10.
crib - which leads me to the next story. after emily got sick after
one of the pool events, she regressed as usual to wanting us to hold her
to sleep. when she was all better, we had to re-sleep train her bc she
wouldn't sleep unless we held her til she got drowsy and that was not
cool. i was fearful that emily would climb out of the crib, but sy
didn't believe me. and one night, while we were trying to eat dinner
while emily cried for us, i kept panicking that emily was going to fall
out. she kept trying to lift a leg amidst her crib slats. sy thought i
was overreacting, and then just when i started yelling - she's going to
fall over - and sy started to run down the hallway - we heard the
thud. she had climbed out and fallen out. she had landed a little on
the step stool we keep near the bed bc i'm too short to put her in the
crib. she did not cry - just laid there stunned. we ran in there and
immediately picked her up and her silence scared me more than if she had
cried. she just was so stunned and in shock that she had fallen out of
the crib that she literally had no words. i was scared that maybe the
fall had impacted her speech capabilities bc our normally chatty girl
was silent. we had to try to coax her to say something to make sure she
still knew how to talk. it was a scary night. and we lowered the crib
the next day. man, i really wonder what we will do when she outgrows
this lowest level of the crib. what if she falls out again? it's
really terrifying!
11. talking - emily is a talking
machine! the sheer volume of words that she knows is so incredible.
our doctor thinks that emily is definitely a little advanced for her
age. most kids her age should be able to speak about 15 words. emily
is definitely over 100 words. we've lost count on all the words she
knows. emily can name almost every image in the vocab book she has, and
she can identify so many things when we're out in public. emily also
knows the sounds that lots of animals make. it's so much fun to test
her on them: dog, cat, whale, cow, monkey, chicken, shark, bee. and
she's lately begun to sing a little. she can sing the first verse of
baa baa black sheep; she can sing A, B, C, D; and we just discovered she
can sing Baby Shark a little bit. she says "baby shark doo doo doo"
and repeats for mommy, daddy. it's pretty impressive how she knows the
sequence too! i swear for baa baa black sheep, i heard her trying to
say "have you any wool. yes sir, yes sir"! it was so cool. we also
randomly found out that she knows how to count from 1-10! she obviously
memorized it from songs - but still! sy and i were stunned that she
knew which numbers came next and could just do it! sadly - every time
we tried to record her doing it, she stops and won't. eugh. she's so
camera shy! emily is also starting to use 2 word phrases. it mostly
comes in the format of emily's ___. she likes to point out emily's car,
emily's bear, emily's water, etc. but she's also learning to say the
phrases we tell her to say - things like "i love you," "goodnight," "i
miss you." she mimics us, and though it's super garbled, it's really
adorable.
12. playtime - emily's playing has evolved
over the past few months. she feels like such a toddler now. she loves
to "color" with her crayons, pens, and paper. she always finds her
crayons and demands paper to be given to her. she also has started
doing imaginative play by pretending to pour tea and drinking out of tea
cups. she loves sitting in her "car" and putting her stuffed animals
in the trunk. and she also needs to make sure she feeds her animals
whatever she is eating and drinking. puppy has become her new favorite
stuffed animal. she must sleep with puppy, and she brings her along to
most things. she loves stuffed bears and always wants her bears to
participate in her activities. she really likes to run around and climb
stuff. so it's really cute to see when she's at her cousins' house and
they race down the hallway over and over. emily also loves toy cars,
trucks, and trains. i wish that we could have a bigger house so that we
could get her larger toys to play with. at her cousins' house, they
have a battery operated car that she loves to drive. and she enjoys
things like scooters even though she can't really use it yet. we bought
her a mini table and chair set bc she loves sitting in her own sized
chair - we just haven't found the time to set it up, nor can we decide
where it'll fit in our house. she likes getting getting behind our
living room curtain and playing "where'd emily go?" by saying "emmy go"
over and over. she also plays this game by going in and out of my
closet in our bedroom, and also sy's closet. she recently discovered
our ottoman opens up. so she likes going inside there and putting toys
in there. she's also obsessed with bubbles and balloons. she makes us
do bubbles at least once a day. and whenever she sees a balloon, she
must touch it. we once brought a balloon home from a party all the way
from the city. it was quite a pain.
13. eating -
emily is a full blown toddler now and now really eats regular people
food and has become much pickier than her baby days. as a baby - emily
ate anything and everything. now - the word no is much more prevalent.
if she doesn't like it, she'll cross her arms, turn her face and say
No! she also goes through phases of liking and disliking stuff. right
now, she's loving all kinds of soups/guks. she's currently going
through a phase where she doesn't like rice-y stuff. still love pasta
in red sauce. not so much a fan of chicken pieces. she still loves
bread to death. she no longer likes kiwi. went through an anti-banana
phase, but i think she's back now. loves strawberries, watermelon,
blueberries - but disliking melons. she still loves yogurt, but she's
kind of anti yogurt pouches. she loves eating bagels with cream cheese,
and man, she loves pizza. when we finally introduced pizza to her, she
went nuts for it. even her pronunciation of pizza is spot on now!
emily still eats pretty well for the most part. but on days when she
doesn't, man, it's so mentally exhausting and frustrating. those are
the days that sy and i fight the most bc we both are so on edge from
dealing with her tantrums and trying to figure out what the right thing
to do is - and then our different parenting styles go head to head. i'm
always on the side that she needs to eat - needs the calories. if she
won't eat, then i'll give her something else. sy is on the side that
saya she needs to learn how to not be picky and eat what she's given. i
don't want emily to go to bed hungry, he says it won't kill her. we're
both right, but what's right in each scenario? aside from that, she's a snack-eating machine. she has an endless snack
belly. but it's also interesting to see how her snack preferences
change through time as well. she used to love dried fruit, now she
likes it less. sometimes she likes cornflakes, sometimes she doesn't.
same with cheerios. she officially doesn't like honey grahams anymore.
but she loves goldfish, most salty snacks, triscuits. sometimes she
likes bbongteegee and popped rice rolls, but sometimes she says no.
it's fascinating. i guess she's like us - sometimes you're just not in
the mood for a certain snack.
14. stranger danger -
we're learning that emily is a pretty shy person. even though she's
super social and active when she's with us and family, when she's with
strangers, she sticks close to us. she usually hides herself between my
legs or burrows her head into my neck if she wants to hide. while
she's still good and doesn't cry when people try to say hi to her, it
does make me a little sad that she's such a shy girl. the good thing
is, she usually warms up after about 20 min of seeing that you're a safe
person. but it's still tough. church service is only about 30 min
long. she usually spends the first 20 min sitting with me before being
brave enough to venture out away from me. and then by then, it's time
to go back home. she especially is scared of men. she'll warm up to
women a little faster. i hope that this phase continues to get better
bc i do want her to be a social person. but i guess i can't force it if
it's not her personality. my poor brother in law - emily was so scared
of him for so long. and even now, she still doesn't like him much.
but at least she's warming up to him after spending more time with him
this summer.
there's probably a ton more that i could
keep updating on, but it would take forever. i'll stop here for now,
and try to do a better job of updating more frequently. she's growing
up so fast, and i don't want to forget any of it. these blog entries
help preserve these memories so much better than my brain can in a few
years.
sigh - love that girl so much!
