color me this

Leona at 8 months (and a few days) now, has a favorite shape and favorite color. I kid you not! When she dumps out the blocks, or is digging around in the bucket, she has a radar for this one specific one, and she'll keep it in hand throughout.

But first, a little bit about where she's at:

• Huge developments in the dexterity and mobility department over the past couple weeks
• Can get into sitting position by herself (started a week and a half ago, approximately)
• Can crawl (this morning did her first real crawl forward one meter)
• Can pull herself up and stand very steadily (when holding on to something)
• Can clap her hands
• Is starting to wave good-bye
• Can pick rice and broccoli up easily and bring it to her mouth
• Has amazing investigative focus
• Loves labels and tags
• Loves zippers
• Loves scratching surfaces and materials to feel and hear their different textures
• Loves her wooden blocks
• Loves her tea-boxes and lids
• Loves things that makes noises
• Still does not like to be just held in lap or embrace
• Has recently started eating 'solids' daily (we have been lazy up until now...there's of course a story behind it)
• Is especially fond of buckwheatmeal with breast milk
• Tried expressed breast milk from a bottle for the first time a few days ago, and had no qualms about it at all!
• Huge HUGE weight off my shoulder regarding starting a (future) job come the new year
• Loves to drink water
• Will feed us blocks to eat (as we now feed her with a spoon - while before it was only her feeding herself food so the concept wasn't there)
• As mentioned, has a favorite shape and color:

[Happy girl]

[Oo, target aqcuired]

[Change of strategy]

[Got it!]

[Wohoooooo]

[Her second favorite one: also a long cylinder but in natural wood]

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the flight

One of the aspects of our intercontinental move that had me carefully dreading it was the flight over. I was dreading being the 'sinking-heart' passengers. You know the ones, I'm sure. The ones when you get on the plane, and you see them, and your heart goes "ugh, I'm not going to get to have any quiet rest on this flight". The standards are sickies and kids...and then the 'hidden' ones - the ones you don't know until later - are the thunder-snorers.

So we had joined the ranks of those that make you go 'ugh'. Making it all the more worrisome is that Leona is not a girl who likes to be held sitting down, or likes to sit still herself. She thrives in movement and new views, and when is confined to the lap or arms of someone for too long is very good at letting it be known she wants a change of pace or space.

We were lucky with our tickets though. First flight was to leave around 8pm and last about 3.5 hours to Bangkok, meaning it was smack-dab in the middle of her usual first round of sleep. We'd then have a 1.5 hour layover and then the next flight would last 12 hours to Oslo. I still had good hopes of lots of sleep for her for the first half of that flight at least. Then a few hours in Oslo and a 1:45 hour flight to Tromsø.

We also packed a 'new toy' bag with some items she's never seen before, as she can be quite concentrated for periods of time if she's investigating something she finds interesting and new.

All in all, the dread was mostly in vain. She did really quite well. Though she required me to hold her almost the whole time on the flights, she didn't cry once, and only began to fuss if she was hungry or a little hungry and tired, and so I was able to help her through that easily enough with a quick nurse.

[In her PJs ready for our first flight]

[Sleep? When there's so much new stuff to see?!]

Some highlights and lowlights and interestinglights:

• Checking in our luggage and finding out our limits were not 2 x 23 kg each for us two and 1 x 23 kg for Leona as I had found online and we had packed for, but rather 1 x 20kg for each of us and 1 x 10 kg for Leona. What?~!? Luckily we had packed one that was planned to be a carry-on from Oslo to Tromsø, so we were only 1 piece of baggage over (around 20 kg...which would cost NT1,000/kg from TPE to OSL), and then perhaps a few kg over on the other ones, which the lady let us get away with. The 1 piece we left with Judge's friend who had come to see us off, and he sent the stuff through the mail later. Thank goodness for him!
• Getting to Bangkok, where each and every airport employee who saw Leona just lit up in the warmest, most genuine smiles ever.
• Getting to the boarding area in Bangkok that was full of Norwegians - and I was the whitest one there.
• Getting on the plane in Bangkok, have someone take the seat beside us, and his friend come over and ask him in Norwegian how he liked his seat in 'paradise' (looking over at us), and the guy answer "Ugh, yeah, I'm really happy I have to sit beside this pig" (not sure if he meant me or Leona). I could smell alcohol on their breaths, but was still wondering how they were able to assume a white girl heading to Oslo couldn't understand Norwegian. Thankfully the flight attendants offered us our own row of seats (yay!), and when I got up I said to the guy "I'm Norwegian, by the way" (in Norwegian of course). Wide-eyed: "Oh sh*t! I'm sorry". Me: "One says what one means" (no way I was going to say 'that's ok').
• Getting into our new seats and there being a family with three kids sitting in front of us, the youngest about 1 year old, and him being much more fussy and cry'y than Leona (1st of all, it totally didn't bother me, and 2nd of all it made me feel way more comfortable if she did fuss a little)

Though I was exhausted, it was due to barely sleeping at all, not due to a fussy baby. It's not a treck I'd want to take often, but it was definitely doable!

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adjustings

Life is starting to settle down again, in this new life of ours. Some big adjustments have been undergone, and some are still in the works.

The snow is not an issue (we love it and wish we could be out playing in it often), but rather the cold. The cold for us is ok, but figuring out the dynamics with a little person in the mix is taking some time, especially when taking a bus or shopping as outside/inside temperatures differ.

The darkness I think is ok much of the time - though of course 24 hours a day of sun will do wonders for our vitamin-D deficiency we've started to face.

Then there is the 'remoteness' and transportation non-convenience. Due to lack of driver's license, we only have access to our own legs and the public transportation system (except when we head out with my mom of course). To get to town we have to take a 20 min bus drive, but there is another shopping mall area only 10 min bus away, and a supermarket 5-15 min walk, which is reasonable. However, this is still very different when compared to Taiwan - especially for Judge as he's used to scooter and car convenience (for me I have started getting used to no scooter - and no car if I'm alone - since Leona's been born).

Oh, and that brings us to food! I think the item needing adjusting to the most is eats. Of course there is the fact that it's different, but even more so that we have to make it all ourselves ... all our meals! Craziness. (OK, so that's perfectly normal almost everywhere, but Taiwan = food uber-convenient-and-cheap...so much so that one can purchase all (really tasty) meals without breaking the bank, plus in our case we've gotten used to 7 courses + 2 soups home-made dinners at grandma's every night these past few months).

Overall I think we've done really well. And it's so wonderful to be living upstairs from my mom, because that means we get to make-and-have dinner together every night. Not to mention all the help she's showered upon us both prior to and post our arrival, to help us adjust and feel at home.

And right now my sister and BiL are visiting for 10 days. This is the first time the 6 of us have all been together like this, ever! Even first time in a looooooooong time that me, my sister and mom have been together for this long (we had perhaps a week's stint 7 years ago). So good to be back!

[FINALLY some long-awaited auntie-n-niece time] 

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the hunt

Being in Norway and having our money just flow in one direction (and to make us feel it all the more, the moneys are our Taiwanese savings...not the direction one really wants to take savings due to cost-of-living differences in the earned-vs-spending countries) is taking its toll in terms of stress.

To alleviate this issue, I began my hunt for work two weeks ago. The positions (three so far) I have found online all have application deadlines in the first days of January, thus I cannot expect to hear from them yet. This is causing some pins-and-needles action as they all range from pretty to very perfect for me (on paper), so I am hoping the HR people think so too, and am anxiously waiting their call.

Then I have registered with a few placement agencies, but since it's Christmas there's not much going on there at the moment.

Then today I finally took the leap and headed in to a few businesses that have not advertised positions but that I thought could be a good match for me. Two of the three I went to are a bit bigger, and thus I was shot down before getting to even hand over my letter of interest and CV, as they advertise all open positions.

The third is Visit Tromsø, who said they're in fact looking to hire two people immediately, and when they heard that I speak English and Mandarin fluently, they basically offered me a job on the spot. I could wait to start until first or second week of Jan if I wished (my sister and BIL are coming up this Friday, so I'm in no mood to be working while they're here).

The positions are in customer service - helping answer tourists' questions when they come in, help them plan excursions, and due to my Mandarin skills I'd be the key person to help all the Chinese and other Mandarin speaking tourists (whose numbers have been increasing a lot these past few years), along with the TV shows that come from that neck of the woods. Plus, working there would give me intimate knowledge of all that is fun in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, and so I'd be kick-ass at planning what to do when friends visit us.

Yay! you would think, right? The only hiccup is that it pays about half or 2/3 of what I need to bring in for us to feel comfortable and safe.

Boo, you would think, right? But then I got to thinking that while I'd love to get to chat in Chinese and help TV shows plan what they're going to shoot (and maybe even head out with them as their local guide), perhaps the main bulk of the job - answering tourists questions day-in-and-day-out (and in the high-season there can be super high traffic through the shop) - may not be what makes me giggle and dance.

So though the stress of needing to find a job still persists, I think I will be holding out for interviews at those perfect-for-me jobs I've applied to. Unless of course Visit Tromsø decides they need a management accountant who can double as Mandarin question-answerer-and-TV-contact-n-guide ;)

[Me with sleeping-babe-in-sling with Tromsø City lit up behind me - taken about 1:30pm last Saturday]

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field of flowers

Before we left Taiwan, during our last week or so, we searched and found some fields of flowers - they are rice-fields that are being 'rejuvenated'. Leona loved it!

Bending forward to get a closer look:

Settled down for some real investigation:

Destruction!

Oops, probably shouldn't eat that~~

Some really awesome flowers too:

And tons of busy bees (do you see their pollen leg warmers?):

And me!

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the pictures have arrived!

I have so much to share yet so little time. How is that, you ask? Because we're having too much fun over here, squeezing in as much as we can before we head out.

I wanted to share the long-awaited glamour shots though, at least, as it's been something I've been trying to get my hands on forever it seems - yesterday we *finally* were able to pick them up!

Quick recap. October 16 (1.5 years after we got married, to the date) we - our family of three, Cecilia's (sister-in-law) family of three, and the parent-in-laws - headed to Taipei to get all dolled up and (photo) shot.

A couple weeks later Judge, Cecilia and I went in to select 20 photos to make into a big A3 sized book to celebrate their parent's having been married 30 years (they do this shoot every 10 years). We ended up selecting 23 - 13 of just their parents, 5 full and semi-full family shots, and the rest variations of 'us kids'. (I'm not going to be sharing all the shots, as I feel many are not mine to share).

First - my favorite full-family shot:

[I love the balance and set-up of this one]

Next, the other two full-family shots (if you want a bigger look just click on them):

[Yes, Judge got put on a step - arg. Also note the set-ups imo are not as stellar]

Then us with the 'rents:

[Ah how I love Leona and Owen's expressions in all of these :P]

Then the three of just us - we ordered just the 2nd for the thank-you cards and the 3rd for the big-honkin-huge one outside the banquet entrance, but Judge's mom called up after and said she wanted a stack of each of the three for thank-you cards (they're placed out for guests to take at the banquet):

[I absolutely love how Leona's 'never stop moving' personality shines through,

and also love the natural heights of us all, as this is really who we are]

[Like our big smiles on this one...and that they had gone from the 'two phone-books' tall step to a little bit of a lower one...it wasn't until after that I realized we could have taken more control of the shoot, but at the time we were 'a tad' bit uncomfortable and kind of just wanting to get it done with]

[I like how you can kind of see a hint of exasperation in my face - well, I can see a hint at least, not sure about you - and yes, this is the two-stacked-phone-book-height~~]

I cannot not share these next three:

[Super cute! Photographer tried to get us to do it too, but we said 'nah, that's ok' :P...but it totally works on them]

[My nephew Owen - also too cute!]

Now, as it was the three of us selecting the photos to be included, that meant we had absolute freedom. Of course we wanted the pictures to be the best they could be as it's an important memento for his parents, but we couldn't not include this one:

[The look on Judge's dad's face just cracks us up every.single.time!!]

And yes, we are all so free of arm-flab, our skins are all so pearly white, and none of us have wrinkles!


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beta after the first month

After a month of this, I have found that I have gotten a lot better at remembering to do the exercises. Sure, perhaps sometimes it's after I have just gone to bed, but the great thing is, since it is (currently) just 10 movements / about 5 min, I feel like I can get up and do them no problem.

These past two weeks' "up-the-ante" in movements have gone pretty smooth. In the beginning, the first 'notch up' (clasping our hands behind our back and driving our fists down and elbows in while doing some of the movements) was more tiring than any of the other exercises. It's become smoother though, so that must mean there's progress, right?

And I found that the second 'notch up' from holding an elbow plank to holding a push-up position plank, that the notch made it actually easier for me. But I made sure to really focus on correct form as coached to us, and tightening all the muscles in my body the whole time through as suggested (rather than trying to be lazy about it to get through the time, as really I am doing this just for me so I'd just be 'hurting' myself right?), and it felt good! And these past few days I've been adding some seconds to the hold, while waiting for our next 'notches up'.

In terms of the last stretch movement that goes on our thighs, I don't feel much of a stretch I have found - but I think that is because of the gymnastics I did when I was younger and all the stretching I did up until a few years ago (in various sports, then in dancing). But again I focus on form, and do get some stretching in, so I'm content to just go along with the program and increase slowly so as not to bite off too much and then stall.

After a month of doing it, I'm happy to have been able to be pretty consistent in doing it, and since it is a progressive program, am not stressing over the movements that are perhaps not so challenging yet, or the lack of length, as the aim is start small so it can be long-term and making it a part of life rather than overwhelment. Plus I know it will increase every couple weeks - and we are encouraged to add to it if we wish.

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and done

Make-up banquet status: Survived!

Will be getting more photos, but for now, here's one of me, A-Po (Judge's grandma on his mother's side) and Judge:

[Sunglasses due to recent eye surgery]

It lasted a total of 5 hours from arrival to leaving. The telling of the story (with more pictures) will be left for another day.

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taster

Just got a photo of the dress I will be wearing on Saturday (not the same dress as worn on glamour-shot-day):

So perhaps it is not as yellow as I remembered it...or perhaps the color isn't exact on here. It's also slimmer than I remembered it - but that may have more to do with the mannequin-vs-me than the dress itself ;)

On Thursday we will be going up for a final fitting (where I've decided to ask if the 'butterfly-cape-thing' in the back can be removed), and also picking up the loot from our shoot.


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EC at the 6 month old mark

Well, 6 month old-and-a-bit mark I should say, as yesterday and today so far (9am) has 'important' developments.

We've now been ECing hard-core for about 3.5 full months...or so. Well, not fully hard-core per se, as Leona is not diaper free 100% of the time - or even 15% of the time, and we do not catch 100% (or even close to it) of her pees and poops (yes, we are discussing these again).

[If you would like to refresh your memory, I introduced our ECing journey here, and had a little two-week-mark update here.]

Up until about a week ago, we (now, when I say 'we' here, it is mostly referring to me) had caught all poops except for maybe 3 over the preceding two months. Yes, it is quite exciting.

The improvement came as her intestinal absorption ability has improved, so for the latter month there had just been one or two poops a day - the upon-first-awakening one (with a big pee to bout) and usually one in the afternoon, all of more substance though still a good-lot quantity, and no leaks for a long time.

The joy of not having to rinse and wash poopy cloth diapers, and wipe down a poop-exploded bum-and-back is phenomenal, let me tell you.

We were also catching many a pee, though there were still an average of around 2 or 3 or so little-bit-wet or very wet cloth diapers during the day, and then the night-time full-loaded disposable one to throw away in the morning.

Our more stable routine that we were enjoying, consisting of sleeping/napping, walks, and hanging around on the bed (= play area / sleep area / diaper changing and most-pottytunities area / nursing area) allowed me to kind of get a good feel for her elimination needs, and give her opportunities at opportune times.

We even had one day where we used the same cloth diaper the whole day. 100% catches! The sense of accomplishment was sublime, I tell you.

Another exciting development was that I had started to feel comfortable enough to give her pee-tunities when I was out and about. First time against a tree by a park bench, next few times towards some bushes, a few other times towards the back tire of the car in parking lots. I mean, if dogs can pee there why can't she, right?

It was empowering. It was liberating.

Then last week we started to be off on timings, and she did not want to be held over the potty often. Our routine was a bit off - as Judge is now full time stay-at-home so we often head out in the car in the afternoons, and she was teething (back molar as the first tooth...I think - still not completely out ... am assuming it is a tooth and not white gum spots). Sometimes, just a minute or so after she was given the opportunity, as she was sitting happily on her cloth diaper, that is when she'd go poop.

Though I was at first a bit dismayed that we had slid back so far, after a couple times I was able to remember to relax again. If I realized she was pooping I'd just cue her, and say "You're pooping" or "You pooped", and "I think you're done" - just like I would over the potty - same tone and expression and all, as that is what ECing is about.

[I use the same tone for if she goes or doesn't go. "You don't have to go pee?" "You went pee." - so as to try and avoid her feeling pressure to 'perform'.]

Same went for the pees. Each and every cloth diaper would be a little or a lot wet. As I totally have no clue when she's peeing if I'm not cuing her diaper free and seeing the trickle or fountain, I just had to let these be as they were, and believe that when I was able to tune in to her better again they'd be back 'on track'.

Yesterday and today things have started to once again feel aligned though, thankfully. Poops and (almost all) pees being caught. Yay!

And then I re-skimmed the pages I had previously dog-eared in the Diaper Free Baby book (this is seriously a super-gem! The website is also stellar for info...pretty much everything you can read in the book is here) as I had taken it out to lend my sister-in-law, and realized there were several hints in there that I had forgotten about, that pretty much explained what had happened to the T, and that also gave suggestions for how to deal with it.

I share some of them with you here, that are applicable to us as we are now:

Signs that Leona has to go to the bathroom

• Passing gas
• Straining
• Squirming, wiggling, kicking
• Arching the back when being held
• A change in behavior (sudden fussiness, suddenly quiet after babbling, just seeming unsettled)
• The above three are sometimes cues, and I think sometimes not - so not always the easiest to know
• Timing (when waking, before and after going out, right after a meal, before or after a bath, before bed, after being taken out of a sling, car seat, etc.)
• Biggy
• Looking at you
• Popping off the breast while nursing
• Especially before when she was younger. I thought it was she was looking at me adoringly as I was her...then I realized it was she was happily taking a wizz.
• A certain vocalization (that babies may be doing to try to imitate your own cue sound); this is going to be unique to each baby
• Not yet but expected in the future
• Moving toward a potty, playing with a clean potty, staring at a potty or at the bathroom
• Staring at potty - a few times
• Signing your sign-language sign for potty 
• She hasn't perhaps truly started doing this, but also expected in the future...and sometimes she plays with her diaper flaps, but I'm not sure if this is her telling me she needs to pee or if she's just playing with the flaps
• Intuition (a sudden feeling your baby probably has to go; this is usually also based on a loose, unconscious awareness of baby's timing and when she last went)
• Also biggy
• Blowing raspberries 
• Not sure - perhaps she peed sometimes while doing this - hadn't taken note of it or linked it specifically
• "Warning" pees - a slight discharge of urine shortly before a real pee 
• The little-bit-wet diapers I sometimes (and sometimes often) have~

Potential reasons for misses and potty pauses

• Milestones (teething, learning to crawl, walk, or talk)
• Illness or some other discomfort, such as an injury
• Baby is becoming more independent
• Baby is resisting interruptions
• Baby wants to try something different, like the big toilet, another potty, or a different location
• New baby or visitors
• Family is moving
• Marital strife
• Travel

How to deal with these

• Switch from potty to toilet insert or vice versa
• Switching potties or locations or bathrooms; bringing potty to baby's play area
• Having baby pee in places other than a potty (bathtub, outdoors, in a cup)
• Getting together with other ECing families and letting your baby see those other babies on potties
• Step back, offer much less, and give your child much more say in initiating pottytunities
• Step up your open-bathroom policy
• Cue your child's dolls or stuffed animals
• Have your child watch an older sibling, friend, or other ECed babies use the potty (the latter is particularly effective!)
• Change your activities while on the potty (we don't chillax on the potty, but perhaps in the future?)

Like I said, gems!



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bananas...yum?

We've officially started our non-breast-milk-foods adventure!

First taster: bananas (time-frame - 2 minutes).

I stumbled upon the 'philosophy' of baby led weaning (previously it was probably just called 'feeding your baby'), and the idea of having the option to just feed her foods we're eating is super appealing (caveat: the foods are unsalted, safe for her consumption - both in terms of size and 'form' as well as ie no honey or cow's milk etc).

I don't think we'll be straight-edged about it though - perhaps sometimes some mush (who doesn't like butter-lathed mashed sweet potatoes?), and sometimes her eating it out of our hands (ie below you will see she chose not to take it from my hand with her hand but to lean forward and taste it directly).

Did she like the bananas you ask? I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

[She bit off a piece and then pushed it out]

Conclusion? I think it can be summed up with 'interesting'...what do you think?

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beta going into W3

I've been on the beta fitness for moms program for two weeks now, today being the first day I will go up 'the notch' on a few of the movements.

I have found that the hardest part about the program is to remember to do the exercises. I always seem to remember at a time when it's not feasible to do them - out and about, or nursing Leona, or putting her to bed, etc. Yesterday is a perfect example - I intended fully to start the 3rd week by first watching the instructions for the two switch-ups, and then forgot completely until this afternoon.

It's been good so far. Felt good. Feels good. Great to be on a 'program' in terms of motivation and a sense of support. Great to also have support from Judge (he knows how much I miss 'active' - and he misses me 'active' too - so though i.e. the strength movement is 'laughably' simple, he doesn't laugh at my current strength level).

The first week I think I got 4 out of the 5 days done (and one or two days where I did the first 4 to 7 movements, sometimes when I was taking my walk I'd do the first 4 in stride), and in week two I think I got in 5 days.

I've also made a deal with myself that I will not over-do it. As in I will follow the program specs for timings etc, and if I want to do more, I will do more in other ways than with the 10 movements, as I often get in the habit of competing with myself, which can easily lead me to go too far too fast, and then it becomes so big it's hard to make it into a daily life-style thing.

I have been successful before though - for example back in Vancouver when I took up running. Other times I've tried it, I've ran so far and/or fast the first time that I've felt like I need to throw up, and then I don't run again for a year or two. But that time I started with a jog around the block - literally, one block, as that is all I was up for. Next day I doubled it (two blocks, literally), and then it progressively grew until I was running more than 10k maybe 4-5 times a week - even getting up before the crack of dawn when it was frozen outside!

Sure I was competitive with myself (and others, of course, otherwise I wouldn't be me now would I), but I was able to do gradual progression. Key.


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half-a-year old

Already! I know, craziness eh.

Leona at her 6 month mark:

• Hardly ever cries any more, except if hungry and we're driving in the car and not able to pull over right away, and sometimes fusses fighting sleep (this is huge folks, HUGE!)
• Loves to sit (can sit on her own very stably, though cannot sit up by herself)

[As she was on a sloping table here - new to her - Judge's hands were on her, 

and good thing as he just barely caught her before her face would have hit the smooth stone~]

• Loves to stand (can stand holding onto something - but of course not yet stand up by herself)

• For the above two, originally we were going to go 'natural developmental progression only' - meaning she'd do all this on her own as she developed the skills when she was ready (same as tummy time - which she does now that she can roll but we only did randomly for about 10 seconds every once and a while before) - but we capitulated to a certain degree ;)

• Smooth roller to the right, not so smooth to the left
• Loves her Leona elephant (made by her auntie Kate)
• Loves to go on walks / be outside looking at the world and everything in it
• Has recently started to smile hard...like crinkle-her-nose hard
• Loves to play with little plastic bags that our teas come in (yes, under supervision, of course)
• Is teething at the moment (we believe) - saw a hint of white off to her bottom-left side, but still unsure at the moment (there are no other pearly whites yet)
• Between around 7:30pm and 6am she sleeps all the way through - with two snacking breaks before midnight, and every 1 or 2 hours after that (the past few weeks at least)
• Stays awake for about 1.5 to 2 hour stretches during the day, then sleeps 1 sleep cycle
• If falling asleep when out on a walk still does her 'pre-sleep-discussion' sounds
• Loves to splash in the tub
• Does not like the feel of standing on grass - the ever eager stander-upper held the soles of her feet tight against each other in order to avoid the prickly greens a second time
• Has started to show clearly if she wants someone to hold her (slight wave and stretching of her arms)
• Has started to miss me when I'm not in the room - when I come back she will smile and laugh for about 1 sec and then semi-cry and wave-stretch her arms towards me
• Has become more stingy with her smiles (with strangers especially, and not-mom-or-dads in general as well)
• Still chews on her fingers - does not self-soothe by sucking them though
• Does not take pacifiers to self-soothe (we tried for the first time a couple weeks ago as we've given up on the finger-sucking hope) but has recently started to chew on them as well (we keep giving them to her to grab and play with, hoping on the side that she will start sucking on them...since as she doesn't suck on her fingers it would be helpful for her to have something to self-soothe, for when I start working in Jan)
• Will start her food journey in the next few days most likely
• When I am diligent enough she can have no dirty diapers for the whole day (happened once so far :P) - meaning of course it's all gone in the potty or sink
• Says / cry-complains 'nene' when she wants to nurse (when she's hungry or tired)...nene I know is a common sound for her age, but also just happens to be what they call milk (for babies) here in Taiwan
• Eyes are pretty much brown
• No such thing as 'still' time unless she's sleeping (takes after her papa)
• Still has very little hair
• Height and weight stats uncertain at this time

I'm sure there's more to share - she's such a hoot! And very expressive facially~

Few more pictures from our outing today:

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