10.31.2010

Secret

I have a confession to make. I like to sneak into Charlotte's room at night and snatch her away from her crib. My hope is that she is so sleepy that she will just fall asleep in the middle of the bed between Kayu & I and we can snuggle. I have tried this twice with no success. The little baby wakes up and becomes aware of her surroundings. Then she tramples around our bed, climbs over us, makes cute sounds, and decides that it is time to party. Sometimes we just lay there still and pretend we are sleeping. That usually results in her doing something funny like grab our hand so she can give us a high five and we all end up bursting out laughing. Hopefully one day she will sleep in bed with us.

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10.30.2010

High Five!

I am pretty sure that Audreya (Brandy's oldest daughter) taught this to Charlotte. I love how she pauses with her hand in the air before she actually hits your hand.

Animal Sounds

We just started introducing animal sounds to Charlotte when we were in San Diego and she picked them up really fast. We are still working on the cat, dog, monkey, and duck sounds. So far we can get a "Eee Eee" sound for the monkey but no "Ew Ew" sound for the second half. The newest sound she makes is "Uh oh!" which is my favorite.

10.24.2010

California Love

Day Numero Uno:
I think we need some frequent flier miles for this baby! This was the fourth time Charlotte has flown in a 13 month period. Kayu complains every time that we need to start buying C her own seat but this mama is too cheap. In my opinion, she does exceptionally well on the plane. At times she was a bit feisty and wanted to get out and move around, but can you blame a toddler? The lady that sat next to us on the plane was kind enough to share her mini M&M's with C. She enjoyed shaking them and indulging in the chocolate (Hopefully she won't become an addict like her mom). On our way to the baggage claim, a couple of the passengers commented on how cute she was and how well she did on the plane. That night we went to a hibachi place and the staff loved her there. C was very mesmerized by the chef...either because he was Asian or because he was flipping spatulas.

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Day Numero Dos:
A trip to California would not be complete without a trip to Sea World! We spent the day checking out the sea life and watching the shows. And I learned that Shamu was actually a girl....who knew?! Apparently Mamu was the first whale that was adopted by Sea World. When the female came along, they decided to name her Shamu for the "she" version. Towards the end of the visit we came upon the Sesame Street kid's zone. Charlotte had fun playing with the life size xylophone and crawling through the tunnels. At one point a little Asian boy decided to get in the same tunnel as Charlotte. She was not very fond of the little boy and scrunched her face in disdain until he left.

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Day Numero Tres:
We took a nice morning stroll to a local diner in Coronado. We enjoyed some breakfast and fed the juke box some quarters to listen to some oldies. Charlotte drew in the attention of the customers by dancing to the music. Then we visited a local outdoor mall where I shopped until my heart was content. In the evening we went to Imperial beach where Charlotte sported her new kitty hat. Kayu kept saying that she was going to look like a freak on the beach with her hat on but it was chilly enough that a couple of other people had hats on too.

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Day Numero Quatro:
We headed to the children's museum for the day. It was our first time going to a children's museum so I was very excited about the excursion. I think Kayu and I might have had more fun than Charlotte since there was more "older kids" stuff. We got to climb the rock wall and ride the wooden segways. Charlotte explored the barn dance room and played in the rain house which had real water coming down the rooftop. She had the most fun pushing the grocery basket around towards the end. There was a little boy that came and sat on my lap when I was playing on the floor with Charlotte. Charlotte became envious of the little boy and immediately came over and laid her head on my shoulder to stake her claim. Later that night we got to see Auntie B and Uncle T. Charlotte was very shy around them at first but in no time she was running around showing off her new walking abilities.

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Day Numero Cinco:
Sunday we hit the sea for a harbor cruise. We indulged in an endless array of food and drinks....sushi, made to order omelets, crab legs, chocolate covered strawberries, caviar, shrimp...and most importantly mimosas! Before B & T headed back to LA, we made another trip to the beach.
Charlotte had a blast playing in the sand and making sand castles.
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Day Numero Seis
We explored La Jolla shores and were pleasantly surprised when we got out of the car and heard the sea lions calling. Kayu and I took turns climbing some rocks and got some really great views of the sea lions that were lounging on the rocks. You could tell that the sea lions just ate up all the attention they were getting from the tourists. We walked further along the beach and found a sea of seals sprawled along the beach. At first glance, they looked like a whole bunch of rocks but upon further examination, they were just a bunch of lazy seals chilling on the beach.
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Day Numero Siete
This morning we woke up to a wonderful surprise (insert sarcasm here). Kayu went to go get C this morning and I hear "Shannon!" I go into her room to find smudges of brown stuff all over the sheets. At first glance we thought it was poop and she was covered in it. Turns out it was puke. I'm not sure what made her get sick, put after a bath she seemed perfectly fine. After the munchkin was all cleaned up we headed to Brian's 24 for breakfast. We did some window shopping around the Gas Lamp Quarter and then headed back to La Jolla for a much sought after cupcake at Cups. We devoured a minty wonderland cupcake and some to-die-for strawberry milk. Mmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We ended the trip with a nice dinner at C level where we had a great view of the water and skyline. Unfortunately, gone are the days of the quiet relaxing dinners. Charlotte was rather fussy that night so I didn't get to fully enjoy my lobster macaroni and cheese. All and all we had a really great trip and we were really thankful that my uncle let us stay in his condo down there.

10.19.2010

One small step for man; One giant leap for mankind

Charlotte took five steps toward me today! I knew it was coming soon because she has been trying really hard to walk lately. She usually comes charging at us like a mad bull and unfortunately gravity takes over and because of her big noggin leaning forward, she bites the dust. Today I was in the living room working on the paperwork for her new daycare and she was busy climbing on top of the suit case. She managed to climb on top and sit there. I was watching her from afar curious to see how she was going to get herself down. She shimmied to the edge, thought for a minute, and then turned herself around. As soon as she got off she stood up and then took five wobbly steps toward me. Tears filled my eyes from all the excitement. I gave her a huge hug and she just giggled in my arms. My baby is growing up so fast.

10.10.2010

Pumpkin Picking

Our veggie share had a thing this weekend that if you went down to the farm, you could get a free pumpkin. And anyone that knows me knows that I love anything that is free! So after a morning of chillaxing and eating some scrumptious pumpkin waffles, we headed down to Wellington and set out to find our "Great Pumpkin." Charlotte boarded her radio flyer and we hit the bumpy terrain.Not after long, we found a great sized fat pumpkin.




I told Kayu to plop C on top of one of the pumpkins to get a picture. Luckily Kayu looked first, because there was a massive spider hanging out on the pumpkin. Eeek!

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While on the lookout for a second pumpkin, drops of rain scattered around us. We decided to be troopers and keep looking around. Not more than a few minutes later, a torrential downpour came down. We grabbed a pumpkin and booked it back to the car. Poor C had her head in the nook of my arm to try avoiding the soaking rain. If I wasn't afraid of getting my camera wet, I would have gotten some pictures of our crazy family running around in the rain to get the perfect pumpkin.

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10.03.2010

Fashion statement

Yesterday Kayu went into Charlotte's room to get her out of her crib in the morning. I heard him laughing hysterically and he came out with Charlotte looking like this...

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Apparently our little baby is trying to make a fashion statement. The off the shoulder look is coming back!

I went in there this morning to get her and she did the same thing again. Silly baby.