SHE loves going to Sophia's house

Yummy lunch - meatball soup from Trend restaurant

Playing ball together

Chalk drawing outside

Sierra loves doggies and cats

When Sierra sees a dog on the street, she ALWAYS coos "awwww... doggie". She LOVES dogs and cats. She got this from mommy.

And contrary to what I thought, loving animals is not a natural thing to little kids. Like Sophia ignores the cats when they're over, even when I held Naya for her to pet.

SHE has an owie!

SHE's at the Lemma Memorial Dim Sum Lunch

Goodbye to the Best and Meanest Cat ever. We love you Lemma!

SHE's hanging with the neighbors!

M-O-U-N-A-T-I-N

Today we were walking up the street and saw a street sign with the word Mountain on it. I asked Sierra what the first letter was and she said "M". Then kept asking her the next letter and she recognized all of them - and was just about right on order too. So surprising and impressive.

SHE's drinking and driving

Where's ra-ra's weiba?

I should have posted this months ago. At least in the spring, if not earlier. If you ask her "Where's Ra-ra's weiba? (or tail?)" She pats her butt over her diaper. It's really cute.

SHE's smiling

this picture is from Thursday, in the driveway before her leaving for her chinese playdate with skyla and caitlyn.

SHE's snacking post exercise

SHE's at Gymboree

I

For at least a few weeks now, Sierra sometimes refers to herself as "I" instead of "Ra ra". As in, "I sit" instead of "Ra ra sits".

SHE's enjoying a hot summer evening

SHE's sharing a gourmet meal with Sophia

SHE's trying to potty

Sierra enjoys sitting on the potty more to read her guang gao dan and books. I caught this great video of this scene as she reads books and magazines to herself. She didn't actually pee.

Ra Ra has that

[post from daddy]

Yesterday, when I walked in to Ra Ra's room in the morning, I was wearing my Twitter bird shirt. Sierra has a shirt with the same bird on it. The first thing she said when she looked at me was "Ra Ra has that!". When Gran-Gran walked in a few minutes later, she said "Ra Ra you zheige" (which means "Ra Ra has that" in Chinese) and pointed to my shirt. She always seems quite excited when she sees someone else with something that she owns too. She has a good mental inventory of all her stuff. At Tiny Treks, she also pointed out that another kid had a similar snack trap.

SHE went to Tiny Treks Hakone Gardens

Sitting by the Moon Bridge

Feeding the Koi

Looking at the view from the Moon Viewing House

The View!!!

The verdict on cucumber

I got this nice fresh crispy Japanese cucumber from the Japanese farm at the farmers market. I sliced a piece and gave it to Sierra... "Yummy", SHE pronounced. :)

(I had tried giving her cucumber in the past, though at least a couple months ago, and she was not a fan.)

SEAWEED

I can't believe I have not posted this yet.

Sierra's favorite food (more than rice krispies, though this might be because she gets rice krispies more often) is seaweed. We have the green kind you sprinkle on rice (I got plain with no seasonings, which have sodium and often MSG) and also the sushi type (pre-cut into strips and the sheets) that you can sprinkle on soups, rice (and according to the package, salads, spaghetti, and other Western foods I wouldn't suggest - which people in Asia (I'm thinking Japan and Hong Kong - both of which seem to enjoy weird Asian Western food mashups) do a lot)).

Sierra likes it sprinkled on her rice and plain in strips. If you bring it out during meal time, she'll just forget about the meal and keep asking for more and more seaweed. "Seaweed!" she says. "More seaweed!" she insists. (she says "more" in English now, in addition to "hai yao"). Careful not to say the word "seaweed" or she'll ask for it.

The other day, I bought her seaweed rice crackers, which turn out to be surprisingly hard (something you don't think about prior to having a toddler). When I gave it to her, she sucked on it until it was soft and chewable, kind of like a teething biscuit.

The other day, she was having some seaweed with her breakfast. Josh commented, "very Japanese." This morning, gran gran was sprinkling broken pieces of the seaweed crackers in her dou nai nai (soy milk) and cereal to get her to drink more. She thought it was great. (I guess if you don't have any preconceived notions about how seaweed should be eaten, it might be good.) Anyway, I wonder what Josh would say about this combo - even the package with the random combinations didn't suggest this one!

English!

As we were getting ready for bed the other night...

S: Wheelbusbook (yes sierra runs these 3 words into 1 word :) )
Gran: What?
S: Wheelbusbook
Gran: Are you speaking English or Chinese?
S: English!
Me: Do you want to read the "Wheels on the bus" book?
S: OK

Please

Sierra has been adding "please" to her requests. It's so sweet. Josh said "how can you say no when she says that?" So true.

SHE hid Big Bird

Gu gu (hide and seek) Big Bird

She hid Big bird behind her toys. Then she went to put a newspaper on top of him. Josh thought this was cutely clever. Actually, she hid him there the other day and then I added a newspaper on top, so she got that idea from me. Apparently, Sierra thought that was a good idea. :)

Give it a try!

Last night while falling asleep...

Gran & Josh were singing songs by request to her.
S: Sophia's song
Gran: I don't know Sophia's song
Josh: I don't know it either
S: Give it a try! (in Chinese)

SHE's at the playground!

More on the Make Money Shirt

So I was putting on a nice white blouse for Bill's BBQ and she commented "make money shirt" which makes sense since I do wear it to work meetings. Then over the weekend I put on my plaid flannel shirt and she called it a "make money shirt" too. Tonight it suddenly dawned on me that the thing all these shirts have in common (starting with the shirts josh wears to work everyday and takes off first thing when he gets home) is they are button up shirts!!! hahaha.

Trimmed off her tail

We have trimmed her bangs many times, but never the back of her hair... until Friday August 12. Her hair in back has grown into a little tail with it longer in the middle. Gran gran trimmed it off while she sat on the master counter munching earth's best graham crackers. Her hair looks much neater now!

The farmer in the dell

I wrote a few days ago that this one was in progress. She knows it now. She sang it to sleep.

She heard this song on youtube for the first time, a baby einstein version. She kept asking to watch this video, so it's now one of her faves.

Zhei shi shemma sheng yin?

Ra-ra knows how to ask zheige shi shemma? (what's this?) and now she has zhei shi shemma shengyin? (What's that sound?)

Tonight as she was trying to fall asleep:


S: Zhei shi shemma shengyin?
Me: That's gege's daddy taking out the garbage can.
[Repeat 2 times for each of: the recycling bin and the yard waste bin]

:)

SHE's watching corn grinding!

SHE's at the farm with peacocks and the Ranadives

SHE's at Bill's House BBQ

Dinner Time!

Playing Ball with Langston

Name That Tune!

Gran gran got her a xylophone. Josh tapped out some tunes and we had her guess what they were. She got them all except one (which I can't remember) on the first guess: Twinkle twinkle little star, Wheels on the bus, Zum golly golly, Liangzhi laohu, If you're happy and you know it... plus a couple others. One of the songs Josh played was Baa baa black sheep and she said Twinkle twinkle little star. Josh started to correct her. And then realized they had the same tune, heheh.

She wasn't that into the game though. If she's into a game, she'll say "hai yao!" afterwards. She was more focused on something outside while we played this game.

Songs Sierra Sings

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Chinese & English)
Liangzhi Laohu (2 Tigers)
Ba Luobuo (Pulling the turnip)
Pai pai shou, chi guo guo
Xiao laoshu (Little mouse)
Wheels on the bus
Mei mei bao zhe (I actually don't know the name of this song, but these are the first words)
Sei sei sei (a Taiwanese song Liling taught her)
ABC song
Baa baa black sheep
Ring around the rosie (her latest)
The farmer in the dell (in progress)

And she also likes to hum Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

She does not sing or hum that often (shy like mommy?) but when she does, it's such a special surprise - who knew she knew all the words all this time? She also sings softly. Sophia's dad says Sophia doesn't like singing in public either. How do they at this young age know self consciousness?

Video catch up

Bumpity Bump (7-31-2011)

Twinkle Twinkle Dance Jam I (7-9-2011)

Twinkle Twinkle Dance Jam II (7-9-2011)

She's trying to trick us (7-4-2011)

This is the bing gan game she likes to play with a book she knows super well (but jokes that she doesn't, i.e., everything is binggan!). Unfortunately, Josh put his finger over the microphone pretty close to the beginning so the sound is muted out. We tried to get it on video again, but she always notices the camera and wants to see.

7:55 owl

The It's Ok to Wake owl is set for 7:55am now.

Sierra got a runny nose last Saturday and had trouble falling asleep the first few nights so she didn't fall asleep until 9:40pm. We reset the owl for 7:55am. She's been able to sleep until at 7:30 or 7:40 then the last 2 days, and Josh can keep her quiet and in bed until the owl turns green just by asking her to wait until owl turns green.

Make money shirt

[From Daddy]

When I got home tonight, Sierra was already in her room just starting to wind down for bedtime. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and started to take it off. Sierra looked at me and said "Take Off Yifu" (yifu = shirt). Then she said "Make Money Shirt". I couldn't help but laugh. Gran-Gran has always told her that when I leave the house for work or meetings, I'm going off to "make money". So somehow she connected that wearing this shirt is part of the whole process!

from clover:
Liling taught her to say mommy or daddy is "making money" when we work. Josh always takes off his outer shirt when he comes home, hence Sierra associating it with making money.

Same!

Sierra was running around with her purple shirt in her hands saying it's the same as the one I drew on a picture of her this morning. "Same" she kept saying.

Hmm, I wanted to confirm she knew what "same" meant...

Me: Ra-ra how do you say "same" in Chinese?
SHE: yiyang

She knows!

***

2 things she enjoys doing:

She likes pointing out what matches. Especially what's the same (yiyang) as Sierra's.

Ever since she learned her colors, she also enjoys pointing out colors. She especially likes to walk up to other kid's sippy cups on the street and point out what color they are (this inevitably impresses the mother who is obviously right there... see the coyote point blog post).

SHE's at Tiny Treks (from Friday)

Note from daddy:
Tiny Treks is a special program that Clover found that sets up "classes" each week in a park around the Bay Area. Since we hike a lot, we thought this could be a cool way to get Sierra some exposure to outdoors and a fun activity. They have a full year program that you have to sign up for, but some test classes in the summer, so off we went to Huddart Park in Woodside for our first trial. When we got there, we first gathered on the grass for circle time and songs. After 10-15 minutes, we were then off on our main activity - the hike! We hiked about 0.5 miles total with 13 kids and parents trundling along. Sierra seemed to love it - she held Daddy's hand the whole time and enjoyed seeing and pointing out (and saying) the moss, at grass, at the horse poop, at the banana slug on the horse poop, spiderwebs, and more. She enjoyed walking on logs like balance beams when she got a chance too. Along the way, we all stopped for snack and story time on a tarp. When we got back to the main area, the teacher set up a craft project and Sierra made her first caterpillar (with some help from me). She didn't interact too much with the other kids (most were closer to 3 than 2), but I think she enjoyed hiking in the bigger group. All in all, quite a nice experience and I can see how this would be a good program for more exposure over the year though I'm not sure what they do in the rain. The bummer was that Gran-Gran ended up getting a tick bite (ouch and yuck!!!) from the hike or story time so we may not do this as a real class yet...

Note from clover:
It's not a test class in the summer. They just have shorter summer sessions. We signed up for the August session which is just 2 weeks.

Email from daddy

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Josh Elman
To: Clover Huang
Sent: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 10:14 PM
Subject:


Sierra has become an English/Chinese dictionary. Today she went up to the printer and said "guan diao" over and over. I said "Clover, what's guan diao?". Clover said "i don't know." Sierra jumped in and said "OFF". We then played "what is X in Chinese?" for quite a while tonight. It's amazing to watch her development

Little English-Chinese dictionary

So now Sierra thinks it's a "game". "Play game," she says. And we ask her all kinds of English words in Chinese. It's the first time Josh & I have been able to comprehend just how much Chinese she knows. The answer? A lot. She also thought she could try the game on me. "Window in Chinese?" she asked me. I had to think about that one.

Josh asked her how to say shirt in Chinese, then I was about to ask for pants in Chinese, but she beat me to it:

J: How do you say shirt in Chinese?
S: yifu
C (to J): Isn't that clothes?
J (to C): She distinguishes between that and pants.
C: How do you say...
S: pants in Chinese.
S: kouzi
S: kou kou [shortened alternative]

My Chinese is better than Josh's so I can play this game better. Example:

J: How do you say mouth in Chinese?
S: zui ba
J: No, that's tail.
C: That is mouth. Wei ba is tail.
J: doh.
S: Play game!

Sierra also knows Chinese tones:

J: How do you say eyes?
S: yan jing [with the eyes tone]
J: How do you say glasses?
S: yan jing [with the glasses tone]

I don't even know the tones hence the lame tone descriptions in brackets. :)

Amazingly she somehow knows how to say grandmother on the mother's side in Chinese:

S: Gran gran in Chinese?
Me: I don't know Gran gran in Chinese. What's gran gran in Chinese?
S: Waipo

Get up!

Today Sierra was playing at Bubb park and there was a 3 year old boy. His mom was telling him to get up. Sierra saw this and said "GET UP." Everyone started laughing!

(I wasn't there. Gran gran & Liling took her.)

What's your name?

Last Sunday we went to the Lobster Shack and Sierra had fish sticks (or picked at them) while immensely enjoying the big german shepherd sitting at the next table. The waiter came out to check on things and said "What's your name?" and she said "Sierra" (no whispering). :)

Random cute moment tonight: Tonight she was studying the stickers on her door that spell her name and saying "Sierra".

yea-eah

Sierra often says "yea-eah" with a sweet upward tone to the second part. It's hard to describe in words. It would be good if we could record it (Josh).

Yiyang

Sierra likes to say "yiyang" ("same as" or "just like"). For example, when she sees something that Sierra has, she says "Ra ra yiyang". She repeats this multiple times like it's very important to know this. :)

Also, when she drinks her pink water at night, she says "Sophia yiyang". Since Sophia also has a pink stainless steel water bottle.

When we got Sophia's potty 3 weeks ago, she saw it and said "Sophia yiyang". We got the pink version; Sophia has the green version, but she still recognized it.

She walked up the stairs when she returned from Sophia's house last week and said "Sophia yiyang."

Winka winka winka

She likes to says this for fun. I don't know why. It's cute. :)

Zheige shi shemma?

She now asks "zheige shi shemma?" (what's this?) in Chinese. Very useful phrase to know!

Other

Sierra likes using the word "other" as an adjective to point out which thing she is talking about these days. One example is "other owl" (since she has 2 owls).

We knew it was coming

Last Friday night as Sierra was getting ready to go to sleep, Gran gran said she was going home and good night. Sierra said "Bu yao gran gran hui jia." (I don't want gran gran to go home.) We knew it was just a matter of time before she would say this. In the past, she just gave sad looks. So gran gran went home saturday instead. :)

Little translator

Excerpt from tonight (not in order):

Me: How do you say book in Chinese?
S: shu. Hai yao!
Me: How do you say leaf in Chinese?
S: ye ye. Hai yao! [It's a game!]
Me: How do you say owl in Chinese?
S: mao tou yin
etc.

She also translated apple, pear, walk, socks, shoes, eyes, nose, hair, etc.

Josh tried to video tape it on his iphone, but she immediately saw it pointed at her and ran towards it asking to look at pictures. Ah well!

She definitely knows more Chinese than I do at this point. I told Josh that from now on, we can just ask her for the Chinese word if we need a translation!