Driving around the town

Update

Inserted this post > 17 mth Cheyenne .

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Swim

I make swimming (actually fact is just playing in the water) in the tub a regular activity for Cheyenne. Once or sometimes twice a week. While I fill up the tub with warm water, she would stand by the side and watch. Daddy, Gugu and I would take turns with the "life guard" duty by the bath tub side. Today, when Daddy told her she would be doing swimming, she went to the living room and returned with the swimming tube.
Though she is 17months old going 18, this 12month swim wear is still a little loose for her. I use a bead chain from one of those clothes' tag to hold the strips together. I thought I am quite clever. Hee hee.
As Cheyenne loves to lean forward, Daddy used the water scoop filled with water to weight her down, preventing her from toppling. It works very well.

When she has enough fun, we would know. After all the fun, I always like to rub her wrinkled feet.

Dish washer

Cheyenne is not very tall, but she is tall enough to reach for most knobs, such as the dishwasher one. Many times, we caught her starting the dishwasher without our knowledge. Every time someone is loading the machine, she loves to watch. Sometimes, when we are not looking, she will wanna touch the dirty dishes or take the utensils basket for spin. Today, she strikes again. This time, she put her blue pot lid and a purple bowl in the dishwasher. We caught her in the act. This was hilarious.

Our little rock star

I bought her a pair of shades and she really loves them.

Walking on the snow

Cheyenne's first step onto the still soft snow. She was delighted!

first snow storm

The first snow storm arrived last night. We woke up to a white car park. Nearly couldn't find Heipi. I lent Eric a hand in getting the snow off Heipi and came home with 3 snow balls. Stacked them together and it is a mini snow man... First one of the season.

Leaving Cheyenne

Last evening, Daddy and I went grocery shopping. Usually we will all go together, but we decided not to bring Cheyenne just so that we could spend some time together by ourselves. Since Gugu is here with us, we asked her to stay at home with Cheyenne. This was not the first time we did this. Ever since Cheyenne got used to Gugu's companionship, there were couple mornings she stayed at home while I sent Daddy to work.

I told Cheyenne where we were going and bid goodbye to her. She was upset and hugged me tightly, not willing to let me go. She even took her shoes, wanting to go with us. I felt really guilty. Still, I knew that I needed this break and she needed to learn to be apart from me. I hard-heartedly bid a quick goodbye to her and closed the door. The last glimpse was her frowning face. My heart sank.

Later that evening we came home, I was welcomed by a super duper happy toddler! She came running to my arms. And I gave her a super duper big hug and tons of kisses. Gugu told me she frowned for a while and started to play with her. I was so glad to know how well she managed when we were apart.

Grazing Cheyenne

It has been almost 2 months since Cheyenne has any proper meal such as porridge, cereal etc. She is happily surviving on crackers, cookies, cheerios, crunchies, some formula milk and smoothies. She is a grazer. Today, I tried her ex-love - yobaby, a yogurt made with whole milk and has fat. I was surprised that most yogurt on the shelf has non fat, low fat or even fat free. For a developing toddler, she needs all the fat for her growth. I can't even remember when was the last time she ate her yobaby from the spoon. We have to blend it with other fruits into a smoothie to get all those good stuff into her. She prefers to drink from the straw and rejects our spoon feeding. Perhaps it is her way of declaring her independence to us. This evening, I tried to get her interested in yobaby. I let her hold the spoon. She licked the spoon which I previously used to stir the yobaby and wanted more. She let me feed her again!

I was so nervous, so afraid that she would stop and change her mind after a few spoonful. I kept giving her spoon after spoon. Not only did she finish the cup of Yobaby, she came back to lick the last bit from the spoon when I asked her to.

She always shed some light when we are at our wits' end.

Cheyenne's first Coach bag

Cheyenne's first Coach Bag is a Coach paper bag.

The sales assistants at this Coach store adore Cheyenne. Previously when we went there, they complimented her pretty stylish outfit and actually remember her for that. She was called the "pretty outfit baby". We did not expect them to remember her. One of the sales assistants came out with a little paper bag with stickers for her! At first Cheyenne dare not take the bag from her. She was shy, then everything was history quickly. She held it tightly in her hands through out the shopping trip.

A day at the mall

Buckland Hills car park has awesome sunset colors. There are only 2 big malls near our place. We go there almost every alternate weekend. The last time we came here, we merely sat and watched other kids played the carousel. This time, we let Cheyenne tried and she played it for 3 times. First time with Daddy. When the horse went down and up, she was so thrilled. 2nd time, with me, we took the jumbo elephant. Bad idea. The big elephant ears block out 3/4 of her face, making it difficult to capture her excitement. 3rd time was with Gugu, we picked a black horse. Gugu told us, she knew exactly where to hold on without guidance. For the record, she was the happiest on the first ride. Diminishing marginal utility.

Before and After Swimming

Good morning!

First morning after the snow... I peeped out the blinds and the ground was not white. The cars have a few shakes of snow icing on their tops. That was it. No accumulation of snow. No snow man yet. This may not be a bad thing since we are still in the search for Cheyenne's snow mittens. Mittens are easy to find, but those water resistance type in her size is not easy. Most of them are too huge for her small palms.

Morning sun was great! I geared up and went downstairs to take some pictures. Can you spot Cheyenne and Daddy?

Gym time

Today is the 3rd time we went to the Gym. It has been a while since I last exercise on a machine. The feeling after brisk walking on the track mill machine for just 1omins left me floating a bit. I baby carry Cheyenne on baby Bjorn while I worked out. Her left hand was holding her princess handbag and the other hand was a Aquadoodle pen until I took them away. I bet she enjoyed the motion and people watching in the gym. I didn't run, otherwise she would be bouncing up and down. She was as usual happy being baby carried on baby Bjorn. We did 30mins and it was a good workout for me and maybe her too.

Fetching Daddy

We were at Daddy's office. Went to fetch him for lunch today. See how happy he was?

Blue pot where are you?

Daddy noticed some chocolate stain inside the blue pot and when he wanted to get it cleaned, it was missing. With 3 pairs of eyes, we went around the house looking for it. We combed through all the possible spots but, the blue pot was no where to be found.

The missing pot got us all very interested. We took a break and started wandering around the house looking for it. Under the quilt? No...In the bath tub? No...In the kitchen cabinets? No...In the trash bin? No.... In the fridge? No....Then finally! Daddy found it under Gugu's bed!

I walked Cheyenne to Gugu's room when we heard Daddy's exclamation. He flipped the bedskirt and it was indeed sitting there. Cheyenne was so thrilled that we found her secret hiding spot and the blue pot! We should have thought of this spot. She used to hide all the circle shape stuff under the bed too!Cheyenne is such a playful girl!

Shopping with Bag bag

That princess handbag we bought Cheyenne weeks ago has been her favorite lately. She has been carrying it with her for the past days. Sometimes,it would be empty. Sometimes, I would find 2-3 pieces of her toys inside. When we carry her, she would still hold it tightly in her hand.

Last evening, she started to say "bag bag". She was playing "shopping", walking around the house, browsing things. If we were to carry her up, leaving her handbag behind, she would cry "bag bag!".

Today we wanted to visit the shopping mall. After she was dressed up, she grabbed her handbag, standing at the foyer, waiting for me to put on her boots. That was so cute. And yes, she brought her handbag to the mall.

Movie Marathon

We spent the Thanksgiving holidays watching movies. And Blu-ray is the best discovery for us. I borrowed some Blu-Ray Disc from the library without knowing the difference. We don't own a Blu-Ray player, but fortunately Eric's Sony Vaio laptop can play them. The quality is excellent. I am very impressed.

Our movie sessions usually starts after Cheyenne sleeps. It has been a while since I catch a movie at the cinema. I loan some older titles from the library and rent some new release on DVD from Redbox machine at the supermarket ($1 for 1 day). A few times Cheyenne would walk out of the room looking for me in the middle of the movie. And I would have to resume "my duty". All in all, it was good fun watching movies on small laptop screen on the comfort of our cozy home. I am just contented with that.

17 month cheyenne

Her wants:
Wants to pick her own clothes.
Wants to pick her own shoes.
(Her pick is always her faux fur boots.)
Wants to hold her own water bottle.
(Sometimes, she holds it with her teeth - hands free, my god!)
Wants to feed herself.

Food she puts in her mouth:

cheerios
cocoa puff
butter cookies
Gerber crunchies
Happy Baby Organic Puffs (a.k.a flowers)

Loves to explore and figure out how things work.Loves to play with new stuff.
Love to pretend play.Loves to try on new things, especially Gugu's things.

Her loves:

Loves to carry a handle.
Loves to laugh and be silly.
Loves to play pretend. using her toy spoon to feed us imaginatively.
Loves to go shopping with her bag bag.
Loves to play with gugu
Loves to play catching with mommy when changing clothes.
Loves to shake her head to say no.
Loves to kiss us on the lips.
Loves to explore new environment.
Loves to make sure all the shoes are on the shoe rack.

Words she speaks:

ball ball,
bye bye,
oh No.
gor gor
bag bag
elmo
bay-b
bear bear
meh meh ( the sleep sheep )

what's on your mind?

Why you don't like to eat porridge?
Why you don't like to eat pasta?
Why you don't like to eat yobaby?
Why you don't like to eat fruits?
Why you don't like to eat?

West hartford Center

We spent the Sunday afternoon at West Hartford Center (aka The center and the square). Had lunch at Au Bon Pain, because the queue time at The Cheesecake factory was 45mins!
Loitered around and settled down at Barnes and Noble to keep warm.
Cheyenne had fun walking and touching the books. Children books are so colorful and interesting!
At the kids' corner, there was this 22 month old little boy kept coming back to look for Cheyenne.

Just a simple way we spent a Sunday afternoon.

Just a happy Saturday

It was sunny but chilly.

Borrowing the reflection from neighbor's car to take a group picture.I love that malls here have sofas for visitors. And most of the time there are empty seats.I believe her finger must be really delicious.At the restaurant, Cheyenne always wanted to foot the bill (with Daddy's credit card).I love shopping at Target!Easier to shop when she is in the shopping cart.It didn't take long before she started to make noise and wanted to get out of the cart. It was because we were at the Toys' section.I love playing those toys at the Toys' section. So does Cheyenne.Cheyenne shopping.It was difficult to get her off the toys' section. She refused to leave. I can imagine her rolling on the floor and kicking her legs in the air when I refuse her request to buy a toy in the near future.

Why I love his boss

The reason I love weekend is simple, because Daddy is not working. Our weekend begins on Friday evening. And thanks to his laid back boss, who often leave on the dot if not earlier, always leave early on Friday evening. The best part? He will make it a point to walk around the cubicles, bid goodbye to everyone and even asks them to "get out of here". I so love this boss

Solo ride

Since the day Cheyenne was discharged from the hospital, she has never ride in the back seat without companion. Today was the first time we wanted her to try solo ride on the back seat.

I dropped Daddy at his work place so that we could use the car to go for the Toddler Time at the library. If she were to fuss and scream, I intended to keep driving and focus on the road. Surprisingly, she did not. On the journey back home, I caught her playing with her own fingers, occasionally looking out of the window. At the last junction before home, I turned to call her and she turned too. We exchanged a pleasing smile. Inside me, I was overjoyed.

After a short nap, we got ready for the library. During the rides, she was fine too. She was so good that I even got suspicious.

Another milestone. (^_^)

love used toys

I found a Fisher Price Little People School Bus Ride on from craigslist. ONLY $5!

***
Daddy told me this little toy was parked at the seller's mail box, a few feet from her trash bins, in front of her yard. And it was the trash day. Fortunately it was not mistaken as a trash by others. Daddy just dropped the $5 buck into the mail box and fetched it home. Trust system~
***
After a bit of cleaning, it is Cheyenne's new toy! Since we don't get hand-me-down, we buy and sell used toys and baby stuff. A way of recycling.
***
She still doesn't know how to use her feet to push herself along, but I am sure she will figure out in no time.

Old Mystick Village

Old Mystick Village

Bye..

The one word Cheyenne is best with is "bye". I would consider this is her first word, not counting those "mama" and "papa". Even when she is grouchy, she can still say it with her sweetest tone and with a smile. Then, afterward she would continue her whining or whatever. How she switches her moods amazes me. She says and waves "bye bye" in tears at times, but she will never forget that smile. (^_^)

Oven Baked crispy chicken thighs

I always wonder how to make crispy chicken without deep frying. And I found the answer! Oven bake them! I have had so many failures before I got there. The trick is pre-heating the oven. And the temperature and the timing of the oven! SO important to get it right.

Gina shared this oven bake chicken recipe with me over an online chat session. It was as easy as she said. And as yummy as she said it would be.

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. For easy clean up, line a large shallow baking pan with foil sprayed with cooking spray.
2) Season chicken on both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder and dried rosemary. Place the chicken pieces onto the pan, allowing space between the pieces.
3) Bake chicken pieces for 45mins. The chicken should be crispy and browned and juice clear.

*Note* over-baking will make the chicken less juicy.

Holding my breath

This morning, I was watching the Super WHY with Cheyenne sitting on my lap. It has been a week since she eats anything besides snacks, yogurt, fruit smoothies and formula. I decided to offer her a slice of whole wheat bread. I didn't want to give her any pressure, so I casually pinched a little bit and gave it to her, she turned me down. I was pretty prepared for her rejection. Then she picked up the whole slice of bread with her two hands. My first thought was she was going to toss it to the floor. She usually does that when she does not want to eat. My hand was anticipating like a goalkeeper. I guess she was going to toss it to the right, my hand was ready. Instead, she took a bite! She totally surprised me! I held my breath, did not want to interrupt her. I watched her quietly as she chewed her first bite of whole wheat bread. I wondered if she likes it. I wished I was sitting in front of the mirror. She watched a little TV and took her second bite. Then third bite.... then later another bite. My baby is eating!!! I couldn't wait and called Eric immediately.

Day trip to Historic Mystic Downtown

Hat day

Today, she is willing to put on this hat! I think she knows it keeps her head warm... and she looks pretty in it.

Trip to New Haven

16 month Cheyenne

Loves to laugh when we laugh.

Loves to explore new surroundings.Loves to laze on the bed in the morning like Daddy.

Loves to walk or crawl around on our mattress.

Loves her new britax roundabout car seat.
Loves to look out of the window during car ride.

Loves to go shopping.
Loves her new handbag.

Loves to play with gadgets such as ipods and mobile phones.
Loves to watch video clips on it.

Loves to drink from our new Camelbak bottle.
Loves to refuse food when served.

Gugu's birthday!

Photographing Cheyenne is getting challenging. She either walks towards me when I wanna take a picture of her, or she simply looks the other way when I call out to her. Talking about talking group photo, it's a pain! But thank God there is one thing that attracts her attention - the beeping of the self timer! She will look at the camera when the beeping goes on. And she will smile when the shutter shuts!
That was how we managed to take these 2 shots.
~~~~~
Happy Birthday Gugu!

Halloween at Townhall

When I signed Cheyenne up for this Halloween event, it was merely because I wanted her to wear her costume more than once. We arrived late because we couldn't find Cheyenne's orange polka dots leg warmers, which was later found in her leggings she wore. When we arrived at the Township Leisure centre, the lazer show has already started. In darkness, we made our way to the seats. We couldn't see clearly, but the turn out was quite good. I could tell many adults and kids were in costumes. When the lights were switched on after the show, we realized we were the only Asians. And most of the people were Black. We felt outnumbered, but not intimidated though. Most of the kids were older than Cheyenne. Being the only Asian toddler at the event, she grabbed a lot of attention, many complimented her cute ladybug costume. There was a costume parade for the kids to cat walk and showcase their costumes in front of the judges. We could have won if Cheyenne did not turn her back at the judges when it was her turn. :P

The whole event was quite boring for us. I am not sure about Cheyenne though. Hahahaha..

Pumpkin painting

Testing the brush color on the newspaper.I think she was painting the desk.This was done by an Art student. This was done by us.Our complex organized this pumpkin painting event for the kids to celebrate Halloween. Sadly, only 2 kids and 1 teen did the painting in the clubhouse. It was Cheyenne's first painting experience and it went on pretty well, considered she didn't make much of a mess, except that, instead of painting the pumpkin, she painted the desk.Some pretty corners around our complex.

Swimming at home

Though she did not smile in the picture, I could still tell she enjoyed.
She protested when I took her out.

Shoe Addict anonymous strikes again

My dear friend was on a shopping spree again. She ordered numerous pairs of shoes online, requesting me to send them back for her. Gosh..and my little girl seems to like shoes too.

First Halloween for Cheyenne

I tried to get some budget costume for Cheyenne, but not much luck from craigslist. We ended up paying $19.90 for this cute little ladybug costume from TJMAXX. The workmanship and made exceeded my expectation. There were not many choices for her size, but this one caught our attention and we knew this was it. Thinking back, I am glad I got this piece as Cheyenne's first Halloween costume, because she looks so pretty in it.

Daddy helping to dress little ladybug.

That evening, when we let her try it on, she was thrilled. Walking around the room in it smiling. It was so difficult to get a good picture of her since she was moving around all the time. She even checked herself out at the mirror.
~~~~~~
Today, we went to Westfarm Mall after visiting pumpkin patch.

Cheyenne checking out the candies the lady at the shop stuffed into her handbag.Our little ladybug and DaddyWe arrived late. Most of the shops were out of candies.There was some event going on for the kids. And we met Mr Incredible.

Walking around doing "Tricks or treating" can be very tiring. Time for a rest and some milk.

At the end of the day, she only collected 7 candies cos she only visited 3 shops.
Guess we were really too late.
Be earlier next year!

Pumpkin pickin at Pickin' Patch

Fall foliage in Connecticut is amazing. Our drive to Pickin' Patch is so scenic. What makes a route scenic is the beautiful tree colors, landscape, the houses along it. These road limits are usually slow, i.e. 35 mps, making it a good ride to enjoy the view, without getting honks from tailgating vehicles. But the few experience I have on the road were pleasant ones. I didn't hear any honks so far. It is true people in suburbs have more patience, especially with such nice scenery outside, who wouldn't be in a good mood?Gugu was busy snapping pictures.

Cheyenne was enjoying the scenery.

Just a 15mins drive and we arrived at Pickin' Patch. Welcomed by these tiny pumpkins.
And more pumpkins! There are more variety than we thought.

...and a bed of collard greens.

...and some happy fake pumpkins too.

We hopped on to the free hayride to pick our pumpkin.Cheyenne's first hayride, but she was not sitting on the hay though, she was sitting on Daddy's thigh. Haha~ Maybe that was the reason she was not happy?Hay!Daddy was showing Cheyenne how to pick a pumpkin.

Firstly, sit on the pumpkin to make sure it sits level.

Secondly, the appearance must be pretty. Check for smooth and uniform skin.

Thirdly, knock the shell to hear the sound. If you are looking for a ripe pumpkin, you should expect a "hollow" sound.

Lastly, never pick a pumpkin by the stem. It will break off easily. So be sure to support/hold from the bottom. Otherwise, your feet might get hurt if you drop the pumpkin.

There were so many pumpkins to choose from.

After getting all the tips from Daddy, Cheyenne was on her own to pick a pumpkin.

but most of them were too heavy for her...and too big too.

There were more options over there.

It's ok Cheyenne. It's ok to get dirty.

Finally, Daddy had picked the perfect pumpkin.

...and Cheyenne found her perfect one too!

Don't like pumpkin? They have sweet corns too.

Time to leave!