11 and a half months already...

My baby girl is almost one year old...already. I can't believe that this past year has flown by so quickly...I wish I could rewind it and play it all over again...in slow motion. I blinked and my baby girl is already walking around on her own two feet and calling me Mama. We have been so blessed...Tay has had two colds and one episode of running a fever due to some antibiotics I had to take for my appendicitis. Other than that, she has been quite healthy and growing like a little weed. The last time she weighed in, she was 10.5 kgs (23 lbs, 2 oz.)...but we didn't get her height. I'm hoping to get all her measurements before we head to the states for her first birthday party. During her first year, Tay has traveled quite a bit...we took her to Bristol, VA, Atlanta, GA, and Melbourne, FL. She also traveled to Koh Samui, Thailand, when she was almost six months old. Then she traveled to the Philippines when she was eight months old. Now as she is about to turn one year old, I think of when she was first born and how much she needed me...completely helpless to do anything by herself. Now she is already turning into a little independent lady who wants to do things herself...but lucky for me, she still needs me some of the time...:) hehehe...

I love her so very much...I miss her tiny-ness, but I am so proud and happy that she is becoming such a beautiful little lady.

First Steps!!!

Our little Tay has taken her first steps! Last night, 14 Jan 09 around 7:45pm, Tay happily toddled over to my open arms and gave me a huge hug! In a frantic response, I hollered for her Dad to come over with the camera to see if she could do it again. SHE DID! :) We got a great clip of her posted on youtube taking her first steps.

http://youtube.com/srosaryals

She's half dressed, though, because we were getting ready for her bath when she took this huge developmental leap!

I can't believe it...my baby's growing so quickly!!! I don't know what to think...

10 Months Old...

My little Tay...she has already turned 10 months old today. I can't believe how fast time flies and how quickly my baby has grown up. I can't imagine what our lives would be like without her...she has been such a sparkling gem of joy for Jeff and me. She brings smiles and laughter into every day.

Her latest activities include cruising all over the house...including along the wall, pointing at what she wants and saying "goh" or "gok," clearly calling me "Umma" and waking daddy up by giving him a big wet open-mouth kiss. :) Jeff loves that...especially when it's at 4am. :) She is also getting two teeth on top now, but they're not right next to each other! She's gotten the left front and not the right front, but then the one to the right of where the right front one will eventually come in...:) She's also great with hugs and her favorite game these days is playing "hide-and-seek / peek-a-boo" behind your back while she hangs on and pokes her head around your shoulder. :)

I love her. She's so interesting and amusing...and loveable. I want to spend every second of every day with her...

Happy 10-month birthday, my Baby. I love you.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Our beautiful family had a wonderfully cozy Christmas morning together. Tay woke up around 4am, but we coaxed her back to sleep for a while and finally woke up with her around 6am. We lazed around in the bed with her and took some funny pictures...:)

She was only pretending to sleep here in this photo...

She was up and playful only seconds later...

Jeff's the one who had a hard time waking up. Tay was so ready to get to the presents...:)

We started the morning by taking a family photo by the tree and then we proceeded to open the presents. Tay enjoyed helping tear the wrapping paper off, but didn't have much interest in the presents themselves...at least not for any length of time.

I made some "breakfast grains" with blueberries (off of weelicious.com) for Jeff and me, and Tay just had some frozen blueberries to chew on in her mesh teether (which stained her little chin blue...).

Jeff also made his fabulous cheesecake today and I made some chocolate chocolate chunk cookies. Very chocolatey...

Tay's getting so good at pulling up and standing without holding on to anything. Her balance gets better every day. I'm worried that she might start walking very soon...early walkers tend to fall much more, so I want to avoid that as much as possible...that precious little head of hers...I don't want her to bang it up any more than absolutely necessary. She's also gotten quite efficient at crawling. She can make her way around the house with no problem.

She also has started pointing at things she wants and trying to call out for it...mostly just ooo's and mmm's, but it's so adorable when I'm feeding her lunch and she points at her sippy cup and goes "ooo, ooo" because she wants a sip of water. :) I love her so much! It's amazing how quickly she is developing and growing...it seems like just yesterday when she could only lie there and coo. I LOVE how interactive she is, and Jeff's really getting a kick out of the fact that every morning when she wakes up, she points and him and goes "ba-ba" or "da-da" and flashes her beautiful two-tooth grin at him...:)

Every day is more and more exciting and I only wish I could spend every moment with her so as not to miss a thing...

Merry Christmas! Hope your holidays are filled with joy and love!

Love,

Rosa, Jeff, and Shingil

Eight Months!

My sweet little girl is eight months old today. I can't believe it. Every day she grows a little bit cuter, a little bit sweeter, a little bit more lovable...I just can't fathom what my life was like or would be like without her.

She now has two little teeth on the bottom front, she's growing a little more hair, but still none to really call hair...she can crawl quite efficiently, she can go from crawling to sitting, pull up to a standing position, and can almost stand up from a crawling position except she can't figure out how to get from a bear crawl position to standing...yet. :) She's just so fun right now! Loving and entertaining - laughs so much and smiles at everyone. She babbles all the time now...her latest (which Jeff is proudest of) is da-da-da-da-da-da...:) She hasn't quite gotten down ma-ma yet, but she's getting close...she's gotten na-na-na-na...:) I love her so much. Her first consanant was a soft ba-ba-ba-ba, and moved on to ga-ga-ga-ga and then it was da-da. :) Now she's gotten to na-na so maybe she'll get ma-ma soon. :) She knows she never really has to call me, though...'cause I can't stop looking at her and I'll never stop loving her!

Another interesting part of Tay is that she seems to prefer the vegetables to the fruits...or maybe it's just that her sweet tooth isn't developed yet. She makes faces when I give her pear or apple sauce, but when I give her avocado (which is her favorite, lately) or broccoli (today's first introduction) - she loves it! She eats up green beans and broccoli like candy! Strange, but I'm glad she enjoys it. I'd be worried if she had a sweet tooth like Jeff or me. I also gave her a little fish for the first time today and she seemed to enjoy it. She kept opening her mouth as I ate my meal, so I gave her a little bit and she just ate it up! I'm going to have to bake some fish for her...yay!

I've never been much of a cook (Jeff will be the first to tell you that), but now that I've had Tay, all I can think of is what I can make for her - healthy choices for her to eat. I taste everything she eats before she eats it, and if it doesn't taste good to me, I don't give it to her. I love that I can so easily make such tasty food for my little one...and Jeff gets the benefit of eating some of the food I make for her before I puree it. :) It's a win-win! The website I've fallen in love with lately is weelicious.com. It's a fabulous baby food site with great advice. :) Every mom should check it out. Healthy snacks and meals for everyone in the family...:)

Tay and her Daddy had this past week to spend a lot of time together because I was off to Camp Casey play Army games. I only came home to sleep a few hours before I had to head back off to tent city. Jeff got up with her in the morning, got her dressed, took her to the sitter, picked her up after work, and played with her until I got home around 8pm. Then it was bath time and I went to bed with her to wake up at 3 to drive back to Casey. Ugh...it was quite a rough week for me, but Jeff and Tay had a wonderful bonding time while I was gone.

I love her more each day...more and more and more. :) It just makes me happy. :)

Kisses from Tay

My little Tay has started to give me drooly, open-mouth kisses! :) At first, I thought she was just trying to eat my face like she does everything else, but she wasn't! She gently takes a hold of my head with her two little hands and brings her face ever so sweetly closer and closer to mine until her mouth plants a big wet one right on my cheek/nose/forehead/temple and holds for a second and then pulls back with a huge grin on her face. :) It is literally the sweetest thing ever...:) I Jeff got a picture of her giving me one...so once we get it uploaded, I'll post it here. I love my little girl...she's growing up so fast!

Seven Months Old!

Little Tay woke me up around midnight the night before last whining, so when I went to pick her up, I noticed she felt warmer than usual, so I took her temperature. It was 100.9! I was so surprised and worried. I took off her nightie and got a wet wash cloth to cool her off. I continued to take her temperature probaby every five minutes until around 2am when the temp finally went down to about 99 degrees. She still hadn't sweat at all, which is very unusual for her, so I was still worried but she was feeling better so she fell back asleep. Around 4am, she was awake again and her fever was back. She was only sleeping in a diaper! Her temp was now up to 101.2 and I thought about calling the ER, but decided against it because she was still nursing strong and when she cooled off a bit, she was happy and wanted to play. I cooled her off again with a wet wash cloth. At around 4:45am, her fever finally broke and she soaked the sheets where her head lay. We fell asleep again, Tay cuddled in my arms. Then, around 6am, we woke up to my alarm and I took her temperature again. It was back up to 101, so I debated ditching work and just taking her to the hospital, but I had read that really all they'll do for an infant over six months who doesn't have a fever over 103 will just be given some medicine and sent home. Also, Korean hospitals these days are too quick to medicate, so I didn't want to default to that yet. She wasn't lethargic or overly cranky, and I knew she was due to pop her first tooth soon, so I just cooled her off again. I let her play a bit as I got ready, and when I was ready for work, I noticed her fever was back down again. I took her to the sitter's and asked her to check her temp every 15 minutes or so and to let me know as soon as it started going up again. Luckily, the fever never went up beyond 99 again, so I worked only about half a day and went home to take care of Tay.

When I got to the sitter's to pick up Tay, she told me that she thinks there's a tooth that cut through the gum! I looked and felt it with my finger, and there was! She has sprouted a little tooth - the front bottom right one! :) My baby got her first tooth one day before her seven month birthday! :)

I can't believe little Tay's already seven months old. She has grown so much! She now knows how to roll front to back to front, pull her body up off of the floor onto her hands and knees, scoot forward, backward, and in circles, sit up all by herself, and wave hi and bye! She's just the most adorable thing in the world and I love her more and more each second of each day...I still can't believe it.

That's about all for now...

Love,
Rosa