Guest Post from Gramma

----- Forwarded Message ----


From: linda elman

To: Clover Huang ; Joshua Elman ; Don Elman

Sent: Tue, May 31, 2011 7:02:00 PM

Subject: What a WONDERFUL Weekend



Visiting our grandchildren this weekend made for the best weekend we have spent in a long time. Both Sierra and her cousin Robbie have turned into absolutely charming toddlers--and of course, I'm not biased at all. They are both very verbal and capable of making their wants known. They are also becoming increasingly independent and showing their personalities. There were so many special times with Sierra, it's hard to remember them all.

We loved taking a walk with Sierra, holding her hand as we walked down the sidewalk. We loved listening to her "fill-in" words as Li Ling and Gran Gran sang Twinkle. We loved watching her ride her various riding toys, climb up her school bus and slide down on her own. We loved the time she was pulling one of her riding toys with the ribbon under her chin. When we all started to chuckle, she gave us that cute smile indicating that SHE knew SHE was being cute. We loved watching her tell us SHE was hungry and then after seated in her high chair feed herself real food. SHE clearly loves broccoli. We loved hearing her switch from Chinese to English. We loved hearing our names of Grandma and Grandma. We loved the fact that SHE seemed genuinely pleased to see us. I love the fact that Sierra and I both love the color purple!

I loved having both Sierra and Robbie together in the same place. They didn't really acknowledge each other much, but since they have that special place in my heart, having them together created love on an exponential basis.

Perhaps the memory I will hold the longest about Sierra at 18 months was our trip to the Mountain View Farmers Market on Sunday. SHE was willing to hold my hand the whole time. We had a great time strolling through the market and then watching the harpist. I bet SHE could have stood there for half-an-hour listening to the music. SHE seemed absolutely rapt! Then, when she "sat down" as we were walking I bent down to pick her up. I carried her to hear the guitar player, and next thing you know, SHE was out like a light on my shoulder. I may be well padded in places, but not on my shoulder. Guess she just knew it was a safe place to take a nap. I was so sad not to be there when SHE woke up, but was happy to be able to FaceTime with her later that day so that SHE could see that we were back home in Seattle. I am already thinking about my next trip south.

Love

Grandma

SHE's trying on hats

Picnicking with SHE

We went to Edgewood Eats this evening for dinner. Edgewood Eats is a bunch of gourmet food trucks gathered in one spot in Palo Alto. There were a lot of families with young kids there, which makes sense since it's fast food.  Josh stood in line for Chairman Bao and I walked around with Sierra. Families were sitting on picnic blankets and camping chairs enjoying their food.   We spread out our picnic blanket and started to eat (Sierra ate before we left) while Sierra sat in her stroller. She saw me spread out the blanket and immediately insisted "Ra ra zai zheili zuo zuo" (Sierra sits here) pointing at the blanket. I told her to sit in the stroller (otherwise we'd be chasing her around), but she kept pointing and saying "zai zheili zuo zuo". I took her out and she sat down and stayed on the picnic blanket the whole time we ate (shredding paper napkins, but still!).  We could not believe she just sat there for the whole 10 minutes. It might have been that she saw all the other families sitting nicely on their blankets and she decided she would do that too.  When we were done, she picked up a shred of paper napkin and took it to the garbage can.

SHE fell asleep on grandma

SHE's getting a special tour from Grandma

No wonder baby's clothes don't always match

SHE's dining with family

SHE's feeding the ducks

SHE's listening to grandma sing

SHE is walking with grandpa

SHE loves grandma and grandpa

The Little Gym

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Josh Elman
To: "cloverh@yahoo.com"
Sent: Thu, May 26, 2011 2:05:36 PM
Subject: Re: Thank You for Joining Us!


:) Mature and smart. I love our Ra-Ra


________________________________

From: "cloverh@yahoo.com"
To: Josh Elman
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: Thank You for Joining Us!


Yeah, but Wilbur was within the range of a normal goofy friendly dog. There are
lots of dogs who run around hyperactive and don't come when called. It's
called being a dog!

Ra ra is a little more unusual perhaps in that way? I don't think it's in a bad
way. I think she being independent and confident at such a young age is truly a
testament to how mature and smart she is.

________________________________

From: Josh Elman
To: "cloverh@yahoo.com"
Sent: Thu, May 26, 2011 1:55:32 PM
Subject: Re: Thank You for Joining Us!


yes, SHE's special. it's kinda frightening like Wilbur. Maybe it means we're so
good that she has all that confidence in the world.



-Josh





________________________________

From: "cloverh@yahoo.com"
To: josh_elman@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: Thank You for Joining Us!





To add insult to injury, the staff member was like "A lot of kids cry in the

beginning because they are shy and not used to it." (granted, that is probably

the case with many kids). My mom was trying to explain that she's not shy and

that wasn't the problem, but I don't think they are used to dealing with special

kids like Ra-ra.









________________________________

From: "cloverh@yahoo.com"

To: josh_elman@yahoo.com

Sent: Thu, May 26, 2011 1:10:04 PM

Subject: Fw: Thank You for Joining Us!





They quote a satisifed parent as saying:

"After a year of Parent/Child classes, my 3 year old now goes into class all by

herself. I miss having class together, but I love the independence she's

developed."



This perfectly sums up our experience of why this was a bad match for Ra-ra. All

the other kids clung to their parents. Ra-ra wandered around and I would have no

doubts she could go to this class by herself (good luck to the teacher though! :) )





clover









----- Forwarded Message ----

From: The Little Gym of Mountain View

To: cloverh@yahoo.com

Sent: Thu, May 26, 2011 2:22:02 AM

Subject: Thank You for Joining Us!









Dear Clover,

Thank you again for attending an introductory class today!

We wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed having Sierra in our Wednesday

Birds class. We hope you both found it to be a positive experience and enjoyed

it as well.







We can't wait to watch Sierra develop and grow over the course of the semester.



Simply give us a call at (650) 961-8100 or enroll online to join the progress,

fun, and high fives.



We look forward to hearing from you soon!



Kind Regards,



The Little Gym of Mountain View





Other Parents Say It Best

"After a year of Parent/Child classes, my 3 year old now goes into class all by

herself. I miss having class together, but I love the independence she's

developed."  Heather McGrath

Singing along

Today I noticed Sierra singing along to Twinkle twinkle little star. "Up above the world so high" she said while it was playing on her iPod. I wasn't sure the first time. But then at dinner she did it again. I said "Is she...?" and Gran said "yes", smiling.  She only sings when no one is paying attention.  She doesn't like singing publicly. :)

Later I told Josh and he said "I know... and she doesn't even sing the easy part 'twinkle twinkle"; she sings 'up about the world so high'"  I asked how long she's been doing this and he said he noticed it last week.

First night out

Last night, I went out for the first time since Ra ra was born and did not rush back for nursing her to sleep.  Ayi stayed until 8:20 and then left. After she left, the house was quiet.  Ra ra said "ee?" (which is what she does when she wonders something" and repeated this a few times. Gran thinks it's bc she was wondering where I (and Josh) were.  Gran did her bedtime routine with her and she fell asleep like a good baby.

My coworker Terry (who has 2 daughters) told me this would be a big event (this and: 2. being able to eat real food with you, i.e., so you can eat the same meals and eat out, and 3. being out of diapers).

SHE's in her new tent (and learned a new word!)

The new word being "tent"

When I brought up the box and was popping up the tent pieces, Sierra played with the balls and wandered around and said "ooooh!" again and again. She did this when I opened her new sandbox toys a few weeks ago too.  It's cute!  I have to record it next time I get her a new toy.

Requests

Sierra has been making requests of specific people.

"Gran bao" (pick me up)

"Mommy draw!"

"Ra-ra draw!" (when she wants the crayon back so she can draw)

"Ayi zuo zuo" (sit down)

and today...

"Gran gran read!"

Favorite color: Purple

1. As I've reported many times before, she loves drawing with purple crayons.

2. When I gave her a choice of brown or purple pants to wear, she picked the purple pants.

3. When I asked which hula hoop she wanted out of many colors, she said "purple" first.

4. I ordered several sunglasses from Amazon and she immediately picked out the purple ones and refused to try on the other ones.

Sierra also likes flowers:
1. We tried on an outfit with flowers on it and she was fussy when we took it off and wanted to put it back on.

2. She likes picking flowers on our walks, unlike other kids, it seems.

3. "hua hua" (flowers) is a word that she whispers.  Words that she whispers seem to be special ones.

Gran gran commented that she is a girly girl. She likes:
music, dancing, drawing (with her crayons), flowers, and shopping

Online playdating

This morning we had Sierra's first online playdate. We know a few babies she has hung out with, but this was our first that I found online through a posting on the Palo Alto Menlo Park Parents Club (PAMP).  There isn't a Mtn View parents club, so a lot of Mtn View residents join PAMP. Anyway, I first attempted posting a few months ago for a playdate, but didn't get any good leads.  More recently, I thought I should post for a Mandarin speaking playdate, which our nanny keeps commenting would be good for her Chinese development (and I think our nanny would enjoy the company). I got a bunch of responses right away!  I think it has to do with people looking for something specific. 

Today Skyla, a 21 month old, came over. Sklya came in, slid down her slide and then picked up the mommy little person toy.  Ra ra said "mommy" and then proceeded to give Sklya the daddy and the baby little people. Ra ra spent most of the time giving and showing Skyla her various toys, cards, and how to ride on her ride on toys, which Skyla kept getting on backwards. Sierra asked Sklya to "come" in Chinese - "guo lai" so she could show her the ride on toy a couple times. Sierra is a good sharer of toys. :) Skyla's mom commented that most kids do the opposite and won't let other kids play with their toys.

Come to think of it, when Jaden last visited, she really tried to show Jaden how to work her farm tractor toy (i.e., you push the button and it goes; more subtle than it sounds).

The only thing is, both kids (Skyla and Jaden) didn't really pay attention to her teaching and were not that interactive. It might be because they were at someone else's house though.  Sierra is definitely moving beyond the parallel play stage though.

SHE saw auntie daisy

Surpise visit from Auntie Daisy

Today Daisy visited from Alaska. It was a surprise last minute visit. She had an ASME awards dinner in San Luis Obispo.  Mudder stayed the weekend (and ended up inadvertently helping with bedtime weaning, see other post). 

(Mudder seems to prefer that Sierra use her name Daisy, and not Phoebe, my personal preference. :))

When she got here, Daisy waved through the window and Sierra watched curiously. Daisy came in and Sierra looked at her while she introduced herself, and then went back into the kitchen.  Then Daisy fed Sierra lunch, which I had just finished preparing (turnip greens and baozi, both from the farmer's market that morning). Phoebe fed her the minced greens while Sierra ate the baozi chopped into small bites.  Sierra ate really well for Phoebe! Then they went to the living room and Daisy looked through our photo album with Sierra, while Sierra helpfully pointed out "mommy", "Ra ra", and "daddy" in the photo album to Daisy.  After that, Sierra had to go nap. While she napped, we hung out in the kitchen and had strawberries from the farmers market.

When Sierra wakes up from her naps, she likes to be held and cuddled. This time, Ra ra woke and Daisy held her afterwards. Sierra really felt comfortable and nestled right into her shoulder. I wonder if she could tell she was related to her mom and gran gran? :) Gran gran said "do you want gran gran to bao?" and she quietly said "no". Then she said "do you want auntie day to bao?" and she softly said "hai yao". So Daisy held her until she had to leave. 

An all too short visit from Aunt Phoebe.  Too bad it was pretty much timed with Sierra's nap, but at least we got to hang out while Sierra was sleeping.

Anyway, I really wish Sierra could get closer to her and know her. Hopefully Daisy moves close by after graduation!

Bedtime weaning

This is the 3rd night of Sierra not getting nai nai before bed. It was actually quite unintentional how it started. Friday night, Josh flopped to sleep on the couch as he commonly does. Mudder was here so Mudder and I put her to sleep. We went through her bedtime ritual and by the time it was bedtime, she had not asked for nai nai. So I didn't give her nai nai. Same thing last night and tonight.

Unfortunately, the dawn weaning is not going nearly as well. After a rough start (and stop and start and stop and start) over the first 1-2 weeks, she hasn't been getting dawn nursing. This means she wakes up at 6am many mornings and doesn't go back to sleep. She cries as Josh tries to get her to fall back asleep, which it seems there is a less than 50% chance of.  It's really sad. And tiring for Josh. 

I think this bedtime weaning has worked more smoothly, at least so far, because we have been disassociating nai nai from actually falling asleep. She gets nai nai, then brushing her teeth and reading, and *then* going to sleep. In contrast, dawn weaning is associated with falling back asleep. She usually will fall back asleep if it's before 6am. After 6am, it's harder, probably 50% chance or less.

I've read everywhere that toddlers often just get up at 6am and to get them to sleep more, you need to just get them to bed earlier, which is hard for most families including ours, since Josh gets home so late.

SHE's a market girl

SHE's ready for the market

Curiodyssey

Today we went to the renamed and rebranded (but not remodeled, as far as I could tell) Coyote Point Zoo and Museum. It's now called Curiodyssey.

Sierra's favorite part? The gift shop. She takes after her grandma. :)  "Haiyao zai zheili!" (I still want to stay here!) she insisted everytime we tried to leave. She sifted through most of the toys at her level in the shop.

She also really enjoyed (picking) the flowers in the nicely blooming garden.

She went up to a mom and her 2 years, 4 months old sitting on a bench snacking, pointing at his sippy cup and saying "water". The mom said "very good, yes that's water!" and then she said "blue" pointing at the blue sippy cup and the mom was like "wow you know your colors" while Sierra simultaneously said "yellow" and pointed at his yellow cup, which the mom did not hear.  She spoke Chinese to her son. Mudder started speaking to Sierra in Chinese too.  Later Josh commented to us that if she spoke only English, she'd be speaking in paragraphs by now!
I suppose her favorite animal was the otter since they were at least very active. It was kind of hard for her to take much interest in the other (mostly) dozing animals. We saw the otters at feeding time and had a front row seat, but Sierra was not all that interested. I think it's bc she sees Lemma and Naya eating all the time. Animals are not that new to her!

Otter torpedoing towards Josh

Elderly racoon

Ra ra contemplates picking more flowers

Gu gu (aka hide and seek)

Liling has been playing gu gu with her. At first, I thought "gu gu" means hide and seek in Chinese. Then Liling said she just made up the word. Whatever.

Anyway, Sierra loves playing gu gu where we hide musical things for her to look for, like the Christmas tree book and the good night bear (a 3" tall bear). She gets so revved up. I tell her to sit down while I hide the object and she sits, but gets up as soon as I turn around. I have to turn around several times and she will get up and sit down several times. :)

Last night, I told her to sit down and (for the first time) close her eyes. She squeezed her eyes shut. I ran down the hall and hid the bear. She was hot on my heels. You can hear her thumping down the hall with her toddler run.  I would say that she takes after her daddy thundering down the hall, but all toddlers run that way. :)  Anyway, she finds the bear, and turns and says "gu gu bear" to me and I tell her to sit down and shut her eyes, and we repeat. It's so fun and cute to test her patience as she sits down and squeezes her eyes closed in eager anticipation.

SHE's regressing

Here she is sitting in her infant bouncer chair, which is propped up against the wall since when she sits in it now, she is so heavy, the back goes flat!  Anyway, in this picture, Josh said "smile!" and she put her hands on her cheeks and smiled. Liling taught her to do this.

Liling also taught her to wring her hands (like wiping away tears) when you say "sad" or "cry"

SHE's cuddly

SHE says Hi Snowman

SHE's looking skyward

Ice cream truck

Sierra has eagle ears. Night after night the ice cream truck comes by around 8pm as we are getting ready for bed and she hears it in her room. Although, we tell her it's the ice cream truck, she has no picture of this in her head. Finally on Wed night Gran sent me out rushing to go hold the ice cream truck. Turns out a bunch of kids were in line and it was no rush. We got her a Haagen Daaz vanilla bar with chocolate and nuts on the outside (the only Haagen Daaz they have). A nice neighbor (from the Los Altos side) said he would pay for everyone's ice cream! Gran bit off the chocolate from the top so SHE could eat the ice cream (she has not had chocolate or nuts yet), and she actually tasted some of the inside, and more than once! I think she was surprised at how cold it was, so moved her mouth back as soon as it touched the ice cream each time. "Ice cream truck" she kept saying that night.

Friday night, Josh was actually home by 8pm. We were sitting there and she immediately said "ice cream truck" before any of us could hear it. Slowly it became louder and we could hear it. Out we went. This time she had a couple more licks of ice cream. She may come around to liking ice cream after all!

SHE's at Gilroy Gardens

We went on:
boat ride through the flower garden (she most enjoyed looking at the swan and duck paddle boats in the big lake next to us, and towards the end was saying "all done")

car ride (loved it and said "hai yao" at the end, so we went again. she said "hai yao" again but we distracted her by saying "want to go on the train?")

gift shop in the red barn (she pointed at the "barn" and josh decided we could waste a few minutes here; well, there were toys inside and a pile of balls that she kept throwing and we finally got her out by saying "want to go on the ferris wheel?")

ferris wheel (she got bored while we were at the top and they were unloading people and did not say "hai yao" at the end)

train (we just missed fitting on; sierra was a good sport and despite the fact that we kept saying "want to go on the train?" while we were waiting for it, she was ok when we walked away since we could not spare another 8-10 minutes for the next one because...)

merry go round (this was the grand finale and SHE went twice and of course wanted to go more. she was actually not too fussy at the end like last time. i think she is getting used to merry go rounds more or just had been on so many rides that it was ok)

Just as we were leaving, she announced "e e" (hungry). Perfect timing.

On the way home, she had her favorite thing for lunch:
every kind of cereal and cracker we have.

she also had a box milk, 1/2 string cheese, a slice of american cheese (which she shoved in her mouth in practically one bite),
2/3 of a banana, 1 oz of pear sauce and a couple scoops of banana peach rice cereal in a jar.

She said "diaper" a couple time in the car and I assumed she was peeing. Then about halfway home, she said "poo poo" and then made poopy grunt noises (that Liling has taught her - i later learned this is called "elimination communication").  I asked "do you have to poo poo?" and she said "hai yao. zai zheili" (pointing to my seat). I asked "do you want to get up and stand here to poo poo?" and she repeated "hai yao, zai zheili (pointing to my seat)".  So I told josh to pull over and we got of the freeway and pulled into a parking lot. I took her out of her carseat and stood her in my seat (she always stands to poo) and had a ginormous poo.  It was a 20 minute break by the time we were back on the road...  (Two points to this story: 1) she can tell us she has to poo! yay! and 2) I never knew back when I took Chinese that its best use would be for understanding my own daughter!)

We got home at 2:30pm and she has been napping since then. It's 3:55 now.

SHE's multitasking

She enjoys pull along toys. (She has a doggie and a helicopter pull along.) She does all kinds of variations, such as pulling 2 toys by holding both strings in one hand, sitting in the car and holding one string in each hand while someone pushes, or in this picture, pushing the lion with one hand and pulling the doggy with her other hand.

"Diaper"

Around Thanksgiving, Josh was very excited when Sierra started saying "diaper". Sierra later started saying "diaper" when she farted. I'd say "you farted, ra ra!" and she'd say "diaper" and pat her diaper in back. The other night she said "diaper" "pee pee" and she had peed in it. Mudder said she does that now.

Happy 18 months, SHE!

Blogger deleted all May 11 posts due to a technical problem. That happened to be SHE's 18 month birthday!

I said something like this:
"Happy 18 month birthday, SHE! Sierra is at such an enchanting age right now where she is learning and developing so much. There are cute new stories everyday and I wish I had time to document them all in this blog!"

Last weekend, I ordered her the Pottery Barn Kids owl and it just arrived today (the day after her birthday). I put it in her blue bouncer chair in the hallway. After her nap, gran held her and walked into the hallway, with her eyes gazing tiredly as usual when she wakes up. Then, she spotted it. "Owl" she said. She went and picked up Owl and kissed him. Then put him down and said "gran bao". Later, that afternoon, I said "Where's owl?" and she said "zai zheili" and pointed to her bed, crawled into bed and kissed him.

Ra-ra has learned "zai zheili" (It's here) so when you ask where something is (which happens a lot), she no longer just points, she often says "zai zheili" and points. It's such an adult sentence in Chinese that is sounds amazing coming out of her.

Happy 18 month birthday, SHE (original, recovered post)

There has been so much to blog about lately. This is an enchanting age for Sierra where she is learning and developing so fast! More to come soon.

SHE's getting a haircut

Actually, a bang trim, which she has gotten many of. She doesn't like staying still for these. We still have not cut the back of her hair since birth!

SHE wishes mommy a Happy Mother's Day!

SHE does not like dairy

So I haven't written about food in awhile. She has expanded her repertoire quite a bit, and really enjoys meat and veggies that I chop up on my wooden cutting board. She also loves rice and noodles.

The one thing we cannot for the life of us get her to eat is most dairy products. This is not good bc before age 2, she should be drinking whole milk and whole yogurt since they need the fat and cholesterol. She hates yogurt (though gladly points out "yogurt" in magazine and newspaper ads to you), ice cream (she also enthusiastically points out "ice cream cone" in her books), all cheese except occasionally mozarella string cheese (and not the fresh ball kind), and even less occasionally American cheese. I bought her kids ravioli and she spat that out. She barely will eat macaroni and cheese. She won't even touch pizza - she throws the pieces on the floor. We try to tell her its bread, but she's too smart for that!

She is OK with milk, but not a big fan. Actually today was a milestone in that she drank a kids' boxed milk (8 oz)! She might have just enjoyed the novelty of the straw/box form factor, so hopefully it continues. The only thing is they only make them with 1% fat. I am surprised they don't make boxed milk for toddlers.

I have been trying to get milk fat into her in other ways, specifically, butter. But she spat out the fresh baked crossiants (imported from France with 38% butter, no less) yesterday. She took 1 bite of biscuit (which is made of mostly butter) and refused any more. At least she eats butter on her waffles. I really should try making cookies and quick breads for her using butter. I just have not had the time.

Baskin Robbins

We live a couple blocks from Baskin Robbins. Gran gran likes to take her there on walks. Gran gran really, really wants Ra ra to start liking ice cream, but so far, everytime she has tried it, she spits it out. This doesn't stop Ra ra from wanting to walk to get ice cream though. You just ask her "Do you want to get ice cream?" and she says "hai yao!" and she heads towards Baskin Robbins. Why? She loves the cones! So now they go to Baskin Robbins, get a cone for her, and then sit outside on the bench, with Ra ra munching away at her cone, while all the other kids are licking their ice cream! It's a funny sight.

Pigtails!

Dirt and magazines

I somehow have not blogged this yet, but Sierra is not only a "diao le" reporter but also a "dirt" reporter and picker upper.  When Sierra sees something like hair or a piece of dirt on the floor (which she then tries to pick up and go and throw in the garbage if we don't stop her and pick it up with a tissue first) or stuck to her hand, she points and says "gyuk gyuk". She also says this when she sees a photo in a magazine of a kid with a dirty mouth or hands, which there are a surprisingly large number of photos advertising cleaning products with these dirty kid pictures in parenting magazines. Today, I was picking up some dried flower petals tracked in from outside and she kept saying "hai you" (still more) bc I didn't get them all. I made a few trips to the garbage can before I got them all. 


Speaking of magazines, Sierra really enjoys reading magazines, like Parenting magazing or Sunset magainze or Pottery Barn catalog or anything. She loves looking at all the photos from the articles or ads or whatever and learning about all the objects.  Liling will put her in the playpen while she does the dishes and toss in a magazine and she'll sit there and read it. It's similar, I think, to how she enjoys reading "guangao dan" (newspaper ads, like Target circulars). She can look at photos of real things and learn what they are. Liling likes pointing out items in the photos to her in Chinese.

In the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, there are these plush toy owls on some pages sitting there on the beds or on a kids bookshelf. She loves flipping through and looking for these owls and pointing them out. "Ow-ul" she declares when she gets to a page with an owl. They don't look like real owls, they are more crafty/modern art looking. I think I might order one of them for her.

So like her parents, she enjoys reading magazines. Unlike her parents, she notices and cleans up dirt.

Pottery Barn Kids' Owls from their website (they are more "hidden" in the actual catalog)

Bilingual colors and letters

Josh read this aloud from Babycenter tonight:

Your child's ability to recognize different colors heats up at around 18 months, the same time he begins to notice similarities and differences in shape, size, and texture. Then it will be a while longer before he's able to name the colors — most children can name at least one color by 36 months.

Ra-ra knows and can say all her colors in English and Chinese. She probably started learning a bit around 15 or 16 months and now knows them all.  Josh asked my mom if she knew her colors in Chinese and my mom said "yeah" like no big deal. My mom is not very clued into child development and not as interested in tracking milestones as Josh is.  Mudder is much more interested in her happiness and well being.

She knows many letters, but not all.  Tonight as we were changing her to her PJs, Josh pointed at letters on his shorts and then wrote some letters on her magnetic writing pad (on her play telephone hand-me-down from our neighbor) and asked her what they were. She got many of them right!  I am not sure how she picks this stuff up!  It's definitely not me.  Liling might teach her a little, but she really just speak Chinese with her.

SHE's sending Grandma's mother's day gift

SHE's merry-go-rounding again!

SHE on the carousel at Vasona Park

Last Saturday, we went to the Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose. We had visited last year when it first opened after years of renovation. Apparently, it is a much beloved children's zoo to the San Jose community, and it was packed last time. Also, she was too young for it at the time.

This time things were different. As soon as you enter, there is a carousel with not just horses, but all kinds of zoo animals, like an aardvark. I asked Sierra if she wanted to ride the merry go round. She looked at it and softly said "no". And then a few seconds (of thought) later, she said "hai yao" tentatively. So we got on. Josh strapped her to a horse that went up and down (she has previously only been on a stationary horse or carriage on merry go rounds). While we waited for it to start, she started fussing. I told Josh to take her off if she didn't like it and not make her ride. But then, it started. She went silent and totally enjoyed it. As usual, when she is super interested in something new, she is quiet and observant. After it ended and Josh took her off, she burst into tears and we weren't sure why. I said "do you want to go again?" and she said "hai yao" in between chokes of tears. So Josh took her again. And again. And each time, she was in tears to get off.

Sunday afternoon, we were thinking about going to Vasona Park to ride the carousel and train. As soon as I mentioned "merry go round", Sierra started racing around and insistently saying "merry go round" (in Sierra-ese, actually hard to understand out of context) again and again. I said "Do you want to go on the merry go round?" "Hai yao!" she said. And off we went. Sierra rode the carousel 4x. She loved the music and bopped her little head to it (like she does when she enjoys music) when we waited for the carousel to start. When the ride was over, the bell rang and she softly said "all done." Each time she was quiet and observant. And each time she was in tears at the end.

We took a break to go on the choo choo train, which is great. It goes across a bridge on a creek and around a huge grass field and on a nice little tour of this part of the park. She enjoyed it too, but as soon as we got back to the station (where you could see the merry go round), she was like "merry go round" and pointing at it. When we got home, she was saying "merry go round" and "choo choo train" in Sierra-ese. These words must be hard to say for a toddler.

Speaking of Sierra-ese (aka Sierra's accent), I figured out how to tell what she is saying if we can't understand it (certain consonants take longer to learn how to say). Like tonight, Josh pointed at his T-shirt of a panda bear and a brown bear and said "what's this?" (pointing at the panda) and she said "binda". Then "What's this?" (pointing at the brown bear) and she said "deddy bear" and we were debating about if she said teddy bear or dirty bear, as Josh kept asking her again and again. Finally, I said "Is this a teddy bear?" and she said "hai yao" and then "Is this a dirty bear?" and she said "no." So we knew that she said "teddy bear." :)

And speaking of asking her what things are... last weekend she (as usual) picked up her box of cards and wanted me to go through them with her. Instead of just asking her what the pictures were, I played a game with her. It went like this. I would show her a card of a fox. I would say "Is this an apple?" and she would say "noooo" and then I would say "Is this daddy?" and she would say "nooooo" (laughing) and then I would say "Is this a fox?" and she would say "hai yao"! I played the game with her again more recently and rather than waiting for me to get to what it is, she would yell "huli!" (fox in Chinese) with an "I totally know what that is, silly!" expression.

Also, I should add that Sierra is very brave. On each of the merry go rounds, I saw another toddler about her age riding (also on a horse that goes up and down). One of them was crying to get off and grabbing at his mom. I felt bad for him. The other other one was gripping his mom for dear life wanting her to pick him up. After he got off, I saw his whole family applaud him for being so brave. Both were boys.  Sierra on the merry go round? No problem. She sat very confidently holding on to the pole with both hands, going up and down around and around and observing all the view. While we were waiting for the carousel to start, she pointed up at a painting with a rainbow and said "rainbow".  And I hadn't even noticed all the paintings up there on the inner wall of the hood of the merry go round!

SHE loves nai nai

Actually she loves mommy nai nai.

She is OK with dou nai nai (soy milk)

She is less OK with niu nai nai (milk, literally cow's milk in Chinese)