Saturday, December 15, 2007

Walk Around the Block

Actually, it's a walk around The District, a new shopping center in Tustin. Danica's not the best follower when we go for walks right now.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Contain Her Not

Here’s what it’s like when you take Danica to the store. At least she entertains herself.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

This is Why

A couple of posts ago, I told you that the video I posted was not of a “typical” walk with Danica. Here’s why:



As you can see, she kinda wanders all over the place and isn’t really great at coming to you when you call to her. We don’t take Danica for a walk; she takes us.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

19 Months

Can you believe it? Just five more months until Danica’s TWO! Crazy.

There’s still a lot I haven’t covered with her, since she’s going through another growth spurt, mentally. She’s picking up words really quickly now. She doesn’t pronounce them well, but she’s trying. In the past week, she’s added “birdies,” “car,” and “cold.” She’s also a big fan of the word “ball.”

Just yesterday we noticed that she’s really started to pay attention to her surroundings, especially when we’re outside. I took her on a walk around the complex yesterday, and she pointed to all the bushes, grass, and rocks. We were on the sidewalk and walked by a rock, which she pointed to, then knelt down and pointed at the sidewalk as if to say, “That’s a rock, just like this is a rock?” It was pretty cool.

She’s also very enthusiastic about things she knows the names of, so every time we head to our garage and when we are driving around, she likes to point out all the cars. Oh, and she’s recently also picked up the sign for “motorcycle,” which is just holding your hands like you’d hold bike bars and twisting your fists (see below):



Anyway, that’s just another quick update. More later.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Quick Update


As evident from the lack of updates, I have been pretty busy with work. Way too busy. Anyway, here’s a bullet update of things that are new and/or cute with Danica:

Her favorite word is “baby.” Shocker. She’s started talking more, and it’s a lot of fun hearing her copy words and sounds. So far, she’s got “hi” and “bye” down, and she says “bvoo” for balloon and blueberries. She also says “uh-oh” a lot, which is very cute.

Danica’s also picked up and created a lot of signs recently. She rubs her leg for “lotion,” rubs her lips for “lip gloss,” and has created “phone” by holding her hand to her ear. Definitely her mother’s daughter.

She still loves babies and baby dolls, which she asks for a lot in the morning.

The Girl’s preference for either Kindra or me is generally based upon which one of us gets her up from her crib in the morning. It’s seemed however, that she does oscillate between which of us she prefers every couple of weeks.

She loves leading people around by the finger. I spend a lot of mornings with her being led around to her room, to the bathroom, and to the bedroom. She’ll just walk over to wherever I’m sitting and grab my hand and try to pull me up. If’ I’m laying down, she’ll grab my hair or ear to get me up. Really her mother’s daughter.

Doors are her favorite play toy. Ever since she’s figured out she can reach the handles, she loves opening and closing them. She’ll even say “hi” and “bye” when does it, occasionally.

We’ve moved beyond the baby tub and let her sit in the regular bathtub now. She loves to lie on her back in the bathtub like she’s doing the backstroke. I have no idea why, but it makes it pretty difficult to give her a bath. Still, she giggles like crazy when she does it.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Taking a Walk with Danica

This actually isn't a typical walk with Danica, but I'll explain later. Enjoy.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

I'll Take a 30, Not a Full

Here’s how attached Danica is to dolls these days: At Danielle’s, our daycare provider, there is a Cabbage Patch Kid that Danica likes to play with, carry around, and feed. Yesterday, Kindra called me and told me that when she got to Danielle’s to pick The Girl up, Danica was crying and Danielle was holding her.

Apparently, Danica was playing with the CPK when Sophia, who’s about five months younger than Danica, took it away. Danica got annoyed, went over, and shoved Sophia over by her face, and took the doll back (yay!). *Ahem.* I mean, that was not something that we condone, and so Danica earned her first “timeout.” I suppose Danielle sat her in a corner and made her stay put, because I can’t imagine how else you would put The Girl in a timeout. When Kindra got there, Danica had just finished being punished.

[Off the record, how cool is it that my girl’s not gonna stand for having things taken away from her? =)]

All of this brings me to a question that, ironically, was asked of me yesterday by a co-worker, and that is whether or not Kindra and I have a discipline system in place for Danica. I suppose we don’t right now, beyond telling her “no” for the big dangers, “inappropriate” for things that are, well… inappropriate, and taking things away from her when she doesn’t listen. Fortunately, she’s young enough that she’ll throw a fit for about thirty seconds and then forget what she was throwing a fit about.

Other than that, we don’t really have a system. Guess we’d better start reading up. Sure, we’ve talked about a lot of things including what’s okay, what’s not, and punishments in general, but a lot of scenarios we discuss come up from situations we hear about or went through. Consequently, those situations tend to be with older kids. Fortunately, up until recently, Danica’s been pretty mellow, and even at her most difficult, she’s still a good girl. *Cross fingers.*

Oh, and since we’re on the subject, here’s another funny story that Kindra relayed to me (how come, as much as I’m around, I never get the really good stories? *sigh*): Danica was being naughty for Kindra the other day, so Kindra slapped her on the butt a little… Danica just smiled and then started slapping her butt herself. She did it again last night when Kindra was getting her ready for her bath. Kindra had stripped Danica down, at which point Danica looked at Kindra, slapped her own behind, and giggled… Sheesh.

Kids are nuts.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Pullin' Out All the Tricks

I was lying down next to our couch today with Danica standing near me drinking out of her sippy cup when I caught whiff of a diaper in distinct need of changing. I asked Danica if she’d pooped, to which she shook her head “no,” in reply. I’ll take this opportunity to mention that over the past couple of months, she’s developed a real aversion to having her diaper changed. We’re not really sure why, but we have to distract her by giving her an object to inspect while we change her.

Now, I’d told Danica that I was lying down to take a nap, and when I started to get up, she dropped her sippy cup, grabbed my shirt sleeve, and pulled me back down to the pillow I’d been lying on. She then proceeded to put the blanket back on me that I’d been using, and laid her head down on the couch next to me, then ended up moving closer to me and snuggled up next to me.

Anything to get out of having a diaper change, I guess. I should also mention that she tends not to lay her head down for very long in any circumstance, so it’s not like she was going to end up taking a nap next to me. I was surprised she managed to lay her head down for more than five seconds. Still… I’ve got a super cute (albeit manipulative) daughter.

For Twenty Years She Survived Without a Scratch...

And twenty years later...

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

I Guess You Don't Mind Playing with Dolls If It's Your Kid...

I guess there really is such thing as the “maternal instinct,” because Danica’s exhibiting it big-time. A little while ago, I mentioned that Danica had a thing for babies, signing “baby” at every opportunity and generally having a good time with the three-month old at her daycare, as well as “playing” with her friend, Sophia. I say “playing” because Danica’s still a little too young to understand how to play with another child, but she does like to hand items to other children. Regardless, she goes nuts when she sees a baby, either in real life, on TV, or on the boxes of diapers we have around.

It was about two weeks ago that Danica really started taking an interest in Kindra’s old Cabbage Patch Kid that we found when we visited Iowa back in July. Since then, she’s been pretty attached to it, carrying it around the house, giving it hugs and kisses, and dressing and undressing it. After a couple of days, she started wanting to feed the CPK with her sippy cup, putting the spout to its lips, and asking for a napkin to wipe its mouth off because it was wet.

It’s getting a bit out of hand now, because Danica also has a small baby doll given to her by Kindra’s friend, Gina, and she just received a doll that’s in between the CPK and her small doll in size. So now we’ve got three “babies” that need different amounts of care at different times. For some reason, one of them needs to be drinking out of a sippy cup at any given time. In fact, Danica will grab a doll and a cup and bring them to us to have us given them a drink. I think it stems from the fact that none of the dolls has a bottle that fits inside its mouth, and so Danica gets a little frustrated when she’s just placing the cup to their lips and they don’t do anything. I’m wondering why she thinks that we can feed them… Still, it’s pretty cute, so I don’t really mind having to take care of her dolls every once in a while.

Oh, FYI, the title comes from something Kindra said to me a long time ago... We were walking along one day when she just suddenly blurted out, “I guess you don’t mind playing Ninja Turtles if it’s your kid.” She was thinking about her friend Tracy, who Kindra had seen playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with her four year-old son the day before. I thought she was crazy at the time (who wouldn’t want to play TMNT?), but I guess she was right.

Monday, October 15, 2007

FYI

For those of you who tried the link to the Flickr photostream above the photos to the right and got nowhere...
Thanks for not telling me.

In any case, I've fixed it, so if you want to see all of the photos in Flickr and not just the newest one, you can click on that link to get to the full photostream.

You're welcome. Enjoy.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

A Reason Not to Buy Food at the Target Snack Bar

The fam took a little walk to our neighborhood Target this afternoon to pick up a couple of things that we needed and as a way to get in a little exercise (though it’s more exercise for Mom and Dad than Danica, since we push her in her stroller to the store, then have to chase her around the aisles when we let her out). I’ll mention that one of the things we needed was Kleenex™, or more accurately, Puffs™, since the Little One’s got a bit of a cold. Don’t worry, it’s just a runny nose, not anything crazy (*cross fingers*), and she probably picked it up from one of the kids at daycare (inevitable).

When we got to Target, Kindra wanted a little snack and I wanted a drink, so we ended up getting some popcorn and a drink (for a buck!). I’ll preface the rest of this story by saying that yes, we know that you shouldn’t give popcorn to kids under the age of two. Okay, so that pretty much tips off the fact that we let Danica have some popcorn as we wheeled her around the store. Everything went well until we stopped off at the returns and exchanges counter to return some stuff we’d bought last week.

Danica was standing by her stroller as Kindra and I got our returns out from the basket when I was called up to the counter. Just at that moment (naturally), she started coughing because she was choking on some popcorn. Kindra knelt down beside her and started patting her back, and I saw a little popcorn and some spit-up come out of Danica’s mouth, so I figured things were probably okay. I tossed some napkins to Kindra and went to quickly finish our return, since I’d held up the small line a bit anyway.

Of course, as I’m handing the receipts over to the clerk, I hear Kindra say, “Oh, boy.” Danica had spit up a bit more than we’d anticipated and got some of it on her shirt and stroller. It wasn’t a full-blown vomiting episode, but it was a bit more than a couple of napkins’ worth. Kindra ended up having to change Danica’s shirt and got a little bit of it on herself, but all in all it was okay. It’s just the first time the Girl’s pulled anything like that in a store. I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Obviously, the moral of the story is to not buy any snacks for Danica at Target. That, and to never tell this story again because I look like an ass for returning merchandise while my daughter is coughing up her lunch. From now on, the story is that Kindra was at Target with Danica feeding her popcorn and Danica threw up.

Kindra finds this story amusing because her friend Martha’s son, Gavin, threw up at a Target once after ingesting his first French fries from In-N-Out a few years back. It’s either a coincidence that it was at a Target, or we go to Target way too much.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Dim Sum Danica

Here’s proof that dining with Danica is not always the pleasurable experience it seems to be. A couple of weeks ago we went out for dim sum, and I filmed a couple of things as we were finishing up as a reminder that The Girl is definitely a little sugar AND a little spice. Here are a few new tricks she’s picked up in the last couple of months:

  1. Here’s how it all starts:


  2. This is what happens when you try to get your kid to quiet down and it ends up being fun for them. Kindra heard a long time ago that one of the best techniques for getting your child to quiet down is to pat their mouth with your hand when they are being loud. Seems that Danica finds it amusing and now does it herself when she realizes she’s making a ruckus:

  3. As you all know, Danica knows what she likes and dislikes and what she wants and doesn’t want. What she doesn’t like is having a dirty mouth, and she’s become more demonstrative when she says, “No.”

Monday, October 8, 2007

New Big Sister Skills

Here’s Danica practicing so she can help us out in a few months.



Guess we still need to work on that “gentle” thing.

Whatever. Kids are resilient. Oh, and sorry, I forgot my phone only takes video in the horizontal position.

At Least She Thought About It

Last night, I was sitting in the living room playing with Danica around her bath time, and I asked, “Do you want to take a bath?” Normally she says yes, rubs her chest (the sign for bath), and gets excited about it, but this time, she shook her head, “No.” I tried explaining to her that if she took a bath, she could go to sleep and when she woke up, we’d take her to our daycare provider, Danielle, so she could play with little baby Teegan and her other friends Sophia and Ben. The Girl looked up toward the ceiling, chewed on her lip a bit, looked at me and shook her head, “No,” and then went back to playing with her doll. Oh, well. She knows what she wants.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Fond Farewells

Yesterday, we bid farewell to our friends Martha and Greg and their kids, Gavin (5), Paul (3), and Hazel (1) as they finally began their journey across the Pacific to their new home in Indonesia. The Copeland family departed LAX on Tuesday morning, October 2 at 1:40 a.m. PDT on a Malaysia Airlines flight bound for Taipei, Taiwan and then Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia. From there, they’ll fly to Bali where they will spend a couple of days before arriving at their final destination of Salatiga, Indonesia.

Greg will be teaching art at the Mountainview International Christian School in Salatiga, while Martha helps Gavin, Paul, and Hazel adjust. Fortunately for both Martha and Greg, they are accompanied by a recent college graduate named Mari Yamamoto from Washington who will act as the kids’ nanny. The first time they met in person was Monday night at LAX, as Mari flew in from Washington a few hours before the whole gang was to leave on their trans-Pacific journey.

Gavin will be starting kindergarten when they get there, though his biggest worries seem to be that there won’t be any trick-or-treating to be done at the end of the month and that Christmas isn’t widely celebrated in Indonesia, since the roughly 87% of the population is Muslim (in fact, Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, though it is a secular state). Paul seemed excited for the trip, especially about getting to ride on three planes and being able to order drinks on the flights.

This is Martha and Greg’s second stint in Indonesia and at Mountainview. They went as a couple shortly after they were married, but had to return following the events of September 11 back in 2001. It will almost be six years to the day when they finally arrive at their new home in Indonesia, this time with a family in tow. They go as a part of OC International, so if you’re interested in helping them out, check out the website or let us know and Kindra can give you some more information.

Kindra, Danica, U.B. and I want to wish the Copeland family all the best in the newest chapter in their lives. They are incredibly brave and faithful. We are fortunate that they have also been great friends to all of us.

You can read about their adventures on their blog at:

http://copelandfive.blogspot.com/

It's also listed to the right in my "Links" section.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Daily Danica v2.0

Welcome to the new Daily Danica. Let me know what you think. Most of the functionality of the old site is still here, so you can still see daily pictures of the girl and see what she's up to. It will also allow anybody to comment on the blogs, so feel free to say hi or whatever. Just click on the "comments" link at the bottom of a post.

The older posts are still available at the old site and should be for some time. The old site's address is:

http://360.yahoo.com/shc32

Don't forget to bookmark this new one. ;)

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Daily Danica - Morning Edition


6:35 a.m. – Wake up, don’t feel like getting out of bed, play with books and have a drink in bed. Shriek occasionally.

7:05 a.m. – Dad decides to get up (finally! Mom’s been awake for an hour). First diaper change of the day.

7:10 a.m. – Give Mom kisses as she goes to work. Fuss at Dad to make him hold you for the next 10 minutes.

7:20 a.m. – Play with magnadoodle for 10 seconds alone while Dad heads to the kitchen to make breakfast.

7:20:10 a.m. – Follow Dad to kitchen with magnadoodle. Make him draw animals for you. Think that every one is a bunny.

7:25 a.m. – Beg Dad for something to drink while complaining that you don’t get to watch him cook eggs.

7:30 a.m. – Sit down to eat breakfast, starting with eggs. Complain that eggs are too hot. Dad blows on them. Seems funny to you.

7:32 a.m. – Whine and ask for a fork.

7:35 a.m. – Pancakes! At last!

7:37 a.m. – See a car in an advertisement on Yahoo! Let Dad know. Loudly.

7:38 a.m. – Ask for more. Don’t really know what you want more of. Dad gives you pancakes, eggs, and a cup of milk. You’re pleased.

7:42 a.m. – Continue eating while Dad checks his e-mail. Whine and complain about something – anything just to get Dad to show you funny YouTube babies. Sign “baby” vigorously.

7:45 a.m. – Watch more YouTube babies.

7:47 a.m. – Throw cup and fork overboard. Dad gasps as if you’ve done something wrong, you think it’s funny. Smile. Throw fork overboard again after Dad picks it up. You’re pleased.

7:47:30 a.m. – Dad asks if you’re done, you stare back as if to say, “Duh.” Smile, shriek, and clap.

7:48 a.m. – Complain that Dad is wiping your hands and mouth off.

7:49 a.m. – Run off to play with… something. Find out “something” is your piggy bank.

7:51 a.m. – Dad wants you to put the coins the top slot of the piggy bank. You don’t understand why, since putting them in gaping hole on the side of the piggy bank is easier. If only Dad would open it.

7:53 a.m. – Finally finish putting coins in piggy bank. Dad asks you to “put it away.” You think, “Isn’t that your job?”

7:55 a.m. – Ask Dad to read you a book.

7:55:25 a.m. – Ask Dad to read you another book.

7:56 a.m. – Ask Dad to read you another another book. Dad asks you to put your other books back in the book basket. You look at him like he’s got to be kidding. Turns out, he’s not. Reluctantly drop books into basket. Dad is ecstatic. It’s weird. Repeat entire process three more times.

8:05 a.m. – Want a drink while Dad is in the middle of seventh book. Get up and get your drink.

8:06 a.m. – Want up on the couch. Dad puts you up there.

8:06:15 a.m. – Discover that you left blankie by the dining table. Whine for Dad to get it.

8:06:20 a.m. – Dad tells you to climb down and get it yourself. Whine some more, find out Dad’s not kidding (again), climb down and go get blankie.

8:08 a.m. – Want up on the couch. Dad puts you up there.

8:08:15 a.m. – Climb down from the couch.

8:10 a.m. – Poop, but don’t let anybody know it.

8:15 a.m. – Dad catches a whiff, but decides to ask you if you pooped. Shake head, “No.” Distract Dad by wandering off, picking up your cup again and leaning against the couch while drinking from it. He is amused. Heh.

8:16 a.m. – Hand your cup to Dad. He asks you to put it on the table. Wanting to please him while still being a little rebellious, look at the table, take the cup from him, and set it down… on the TV stand. Dad thinks, “Close enough,” and is amused. Heh.

8:18 a.m. – Dad tells you that it’s time to change your diaper. Shake your head, grab your bag, and wander off towards your room.

8:20 a.m. – Try to distract Dad from changing your diaper by pounding on the cabinet that holds your toys. He distracts you by handing you a ring that rattles. You are amused.

8:21 a.m. – Smile and shake the ring. Have butt wiped clean. Get scooped up when Dad realizes that the only diapers in the house are in your diaper bag.

8:23 a.m. – Complain that there is a breeze. Smile and shake ring. Make Dad think you are being a good girl as he numbers off the buttons as he snaps your outfit back up. Right when he gets to the last one, start squirming.

8:24 a.m. – Discover you know how to open the door to your room by using the door handle. Dad is proud, but dismayed.

8:26 a.m. – Wonder why Dad left you in your room, wander out with blankie, and discover that Dad wants to return to the room to get video of you opening the door. Follow him back in.

8:30 a.m. – Wonder why Dad left you in your room, wander out with blankie, and discover that Dad is putting the video camera away. Yelp at him to follow you back to your room. He does. Good Daddy. You’ve trained him well.

8:31 a.m. – Ask Dad to pull out Elmo TMX box you haven’t played with in months. He does. You play with it for thirty seconds, then move on to actual Elmo TMX and spend the next 10 minutes putting a bag over his nonexistent shoulders.

8:41 a.m. – Tickle Elmo (accidentally). Give him a cross look as he contorts his body. Give him a hug anyway.

8:42 a.m. – Tire of dumb, shoulderless Elmo TMX.

8:43 a.m. – Wander out of your room, head for the front door and pick up a pair of shoes.

8:44 a.m. – Dad tells you that those are Mom’s shoes. Drop them, pick up a pair of his.

8:45 a.m. – Dad tells you that those are Dad’s shoes. Drop them, pick up one of yours.

8:46 a.m. – Dad nods, tells you that it’s one of your shoes, takes it from you, and picks you up and moves you into the family room.

8:55 a.m. – Get bored of Dad’s “entertainment” ideas. Play on your own.

9:01 a.m. – Dad asks if you’d like to take a nap. Shake head “no.” Really mean “no.”

9:05 a.m. – Look thirsty. Dad gives you water. Smile.

9:08 a.m. – Look cute by lying on couch pillows and appear to try to get comfortable. Shake head “no” when Dad asks if you’d like to take a nap. Really mean “yes.”

9:09 a.m. – Grab blankie while Dad picks you up. Ask for Lulu when you get to your room. Rest your head on Dad’s shoulder like nothing could be more comfortable.

9:15 a.m. – Dad tries to lay you down in bed, but you stop him with a preemptive whine. Ha-ha! Another silent victory.

9:17 a.m. – Dad finally lays you down in bed against your wishes. Cry and whimper, but don’t really mean it. Fall asleep.