Happy New Year!
It was a very festive weekend as we celebrated the Year of the Dog. On Saturday morning, Steve and Katherine headed down to Gene Juarez salon for Steve’s haircut with Katherine as a curious observer. She did well, all things considered, watching our hairdresser wash, cut and comb Steve’s hair. Allison and I then met them at Paint Away, a local ceramic painting store, where Katherine slathered six different colors on a small valentine dish. Steve’s original intent had been to surprise me with the dish. If you ask Katherine though, the dish is for her baby sister. How’s that for sisterly love?
Afterwards, Katherine had her regular haircut and we headed home. It became apparently clear as the afternoon wore on that Katherine observed not only a haircut that morning but also the pedicure and manicure area of the salon. She repurposed one of her kitchen wooden trays to include utensils, a comb, hair bands, barrettes and a bib. She sat next to me and gave me a faux pedicure – which consisted of taking a plastic play knife and moving it around the heel of my foot. Then…she asked me to pick a color and used the corresponding utensil to “paint” my toenails. Lambey received a haircut as well, with the bib serving as a cape and a baby blanket as a towel. That evening my mom came over for a noodle dinner and gave the kids the traditional red envelopes.
This morning, Steve’s parents came over to visit with the girls briefly. We took care of some errands and went to my mom’s for a New Year’s celebration with Steve’s Aunt Pat, Uncle Art and his mom. Katherine had a blast – eating her way through two eggrolls, curry dumplings and other treats that my mom put out for dessert. We had a nice time catching up with family and kicking off another healthy and happy year!
You’re Getting Hotter, Cooler…
One of Katherine’s occasional games is hiding this blue squishy thing that her Grandma Dottie bought her at the aquarium. We tell her to leave the family room while one of us hides it then exclaims “done!” Katherine then wanders into the family room using hotter, colder as hints to find the squishy thing. Funny enough, she loves to hide the squishy thing but doesn’t realize that she needs to be quiet during the hiding process. During one of her turns to hide, she told me (while Steve was in the hallway), “It’s with the gears.” The next time, she dropped it behind the couch, but made such a racket with the plastic gear box that we all knew exactly where she put it!!
Need Milk, Mama
I can’t figure out if Allison is a really fast learner of sign language or if she was just waving at me this morning. One of Allison’s more endearing qualities is to wake up at 4AM with a dirty diaper. It’s almost like she’s on East Coast Time. Anyway, as I was cracking open Allison’s diaper at 4:30AM this morning, she let out several wails and proceeded to open and close her little fist as if saying “I want milk!!” I had been using this sign with her that day. We’ll see this coming week if she continues to use this sign – hopefully not at 4:30AM anymore.
Allison’s vocabulary of sounds is growing. We’re hearing “awa,” “adada,” “ava,” “aza” – lots of good consonants. Everyday she is growing and developing. This seems to be a huge period of growth. I can’t wait to take her to her 9 month checkup to see how she’s tracking.