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10-Month Update
After this update, I’ll be anxiously waiting for her.first.steps. She seems really close to walking on her own! So I will be armed with my videocam wherever she roams these next few weeks. In the meantime, let’s see what she’s been up to in the days preceding month 10…
Milestones: shortly after she turned 9-months, she advanced from her belly “army” crawl to an “on-her-knees” crawl. She is also good at “walking” if she has something to hold onto. We bought her the Radio Flyer Classic Walker Wagon
Toys: besides the walker, I also bought a Rockabye rocker that was on sale on Zulily – it got pretty good reviews on Amazon for the fraction of the cost so I thought why not… plus it was SO CUTE, I couldn’t resist. Cute colors, prints, patterns… there are too many adorable baby things out there and I’m a sucker for them all.
She’s so happy in her rocker… it plays music too!
Words: she can say a total of 4 words – mama, baba (dad in chinese), apple, and opposites. Yea, that last one is strange huh?? Of all the words she could be saying right now. We think it’s because we read her Sandra Boynton’s Opposites a lot. She says it more like this though… “OP-PO-THIS”.
Happy 10-months baby girl! Mama loves you!
8-Month Update
I started my full-time job about 3 weeks ago, so blogging has fallen by the wayside. The question I get asked the most is, “how has it been adjusting to full-time work? Has it been hard?”. It wasn’t “hard” per say, but the first week definitely wasn’t easy and I missed her like crazy. I think about her every minute of my day, and as soon as I’m off I rush home to be with my baby. Though I’ve found a rhythm and working has brought a good balance to my life. These days, every minute I get with her is that much more meaningful.
Plus, I get to come home to this greeting every day:
Did you see that initial smile and how she leaped onto her belly towards me? Makes me feel so special and loved! It’s our reward for those endless feedings and lack of sleeping. 
This month, both S and I were in the bridal party for a wedding in SF, so we left N with my in-laws for 4 days over Labor Day weekend. It was the longest we’ve left her to date! Before I had a baby, I didn’t understand when parents would say they missed their children and couldn’t wait to get back to them. I wondered, “wouldn’t you want some downtime away from your kids?? Isn’t it freeing?”, but now I get it! I totally get it!
One tough thing about going on a trip without N is that I’m still breastfeeding, so it was a challenge pumping and trying to bring all my milk back with me. It didn’t help that I brought only a manual hand pump (not to mention I hate pumping). I dumped the first 6 ounces cuz I had nowhere to store it. It broke my heart and I couldn’t get myself to do it again. That stuff is like precious precious gold!! I was determined to bring every last ounce back with me. At one point I was sitting on the bathroom floor of a nail salon pumping away cuz I had nowhere else to go. I even skipped a session or two because of time constraints and I really had nowhere/no time to pump – that made me worry that I was going to lose my supply! Whew, that was stressful.
Here’s the lovely couple practicing for their big day at a beautiful winery – the bride is a big sass, can ya tell? ;)
Milestones: this has been my favorite month to date, and I have a feeling it’s only going to get better. She’s so much more independent now. I can set her on the ground anywhere and watch her as she plays on her own while I sit back and enjoy. She still likes to be in my arms, but not for very long before she’s off again exploring on her own. She’s a super fast crawler, but she doesn’t crawl on all fours. She crawls on her belly with her forearms leading the way – army style! Check it out:
Her top two teeth are also fully grown in! So now she has a total of 4 teeth. Here’s a big smile from my girl:
Playing with grandma…
I managed to come home from work and snap a few photos for this month. Since it was the end of the day, she was out of it. Good thing there’s still summer daylight. Hope I can keep up with the photos as we head into the fall/winter season!
You are so loved Noelle.
GooGooGaGa
Noelle’s been cooing a lot lately. Sometimes it even sounds like she’s really trying to have a conversation with us… and maybe she is! Who knows what goes on in that baby brain of hers…
These two videos are both from today:
Noellie’s 1st Roll!
No, not jelly belly rolls… though she has plenty of that too! :)
On April 12th, my chubbywubs rolled over for the first time… and I caught it on video! She was propping herself up pretty firmly on her arms and rocking from side to side, so I decided to pull out my flip on the off chance that she might roll over.. and she did – not once, but twice (in a row)!
On another note, Noelle’s 100 days (Baek-il) is tomorrow, so we’ll be doing a small celebration with family and eating lots of rice cakes of course (Korean’s celebrate with rice cakes for almost every big occasion). My MIL has been bringing home different types of rice cakes for me to try in preparation for this day. There are so many different varieties and they all carry their own symbolism.
My little baby is growing up… *sniff sniff*.
The Morning Blossom
This is easily my favorite time of day – when I go into Noelle’s room first thing in the morning and unzip her from her Woombie. She looks like a little peapod in this thing! It’s so cute when her limbs finally break free and she starts stretching her arms and kicking her legs. I like to give them a couple of squeezes and kisses before I do anything else. She’s soft and squishy, just the way I like ‘em.
We’ve been using this instead of a traditional swaddle and its worked like a charm for us. When she wakes up in the morning, she is such a happy baby. Sometimes I’ll walk in and find her entertaining herself in her crib by staring off into space somewhere laughing at goodness knows what!
My lil’ Ellie – I hope when you read these posts one day, you don’t think your mama embarrassed you too much (but just enough). :) I apologize in advance for all the pictures and videos I’ll make you sit through.
3-Month Update
As a newbie mom I got advice from other mommies telling me to “trust my instincts” and to “follow your child’s cues”, but that just made me more confused than ever! This past month, I finally got it. I know that she doesn’t mind it when daddy sits down to watch TV as she lays there against his chest, but when I do it she gets seemingly uncomfortable and squirmish. I guess mommy’s chest is not as soft or plush as daddy’s. I know she enjoys being held upright, cradled in my arms, but the moment I try to rock her horizontally she’ll fuss and whine until I prop her back into the position she desires. I know that nothing can calm her down the way music can, even when she’s hungry, bored, or irritated. I know that a poopy diaper doesn’t bother her and that’s almost never the source of her cries. I know that the moment her eyes glaze over and she starts staring off into space that it is time for a nap, and that nap almost always happens within an hour on the nose. These are the things that no amount of reading or expert opinion can teach me. I know my daughter. She is unlike any other.
She only wakes up about once per night now – she can sleep a pretty long stretch from 8pm-5am! Though I caught my first cold in about 2 years, which kept me up anyway. I’m just grateful Noelle didn’t catch anything from me. Breastmilk has immunities that protect her from catching my cold – again, I’m amazed at how God thought through every detail when He created us.
Favorite Toys: this month, the toys that hold Noelle’s interest the longest are her Tiny Love Mobile and Tiny Love Lights & Music Activity Gym. Both play music and have bright, dangling things attached to them that make her googoo gaga all over the place… as you can see…
She loves music so much! She’ll kick her legs and flail her arms to the sounds while staring wondrously at the hanging toys. Other times I’ll just play Pandora and she’ll have the time of her life as I bounce her up and down on my knee or rock her in my arms. I’ve been reading to her daily now, and she seems to really like it – her favorite board book right now is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? – it was a favorite of mine as a child too!
Look how she loves her mobile:
Milestones: Noelle has such strong head control already and can lift her head 45 degrees when laying on her belly or on mama's tummy. She's also able to "stand" with a little help. She has really strong, long legs! She tries to roll but can only go about halfway onto her side... she'll get there in her own time. She continues to smile responsively and makes lots of cooing noises. She knows how to self-soothe herself back to sleep too by sucking on her fist through her woombie.
There was no 3-month pediatrician visit so I don't know her current weight/height, but she doesn't seem to have grown too much more than last month. She's still in 3-month clothing so maybe she balanced out! We shall see, she's due for a growth spurt soon.
