I am ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille

Look who has finally managed to score two little bottom teeth. Even a few months back, she'd smile with her tongue over her gums, she is now happily hamming it up for the camera, bearing her tiny little crop of pearly whites. Yes, indeed, she is ready for her closeup. That, and her new little curly-ish head of hair, which blew in the wind when she was on the swing the other day, nearly squeezed a tear out of my eye, thinking it is only a matter of time before Pantene calls us up and asks her to be a spokesperson. The bald patch is almost gone now we will have to confess.

She actually can clap her hands, when spurred on by the Chinese cheer of "Ho Yeh!", she also knows the word for to go out "Gai gai" (literally translated to "street, street"), the word for airplane (because we live within the flight path of planes going to JFK), and tick-tock for clock. We are not sure how many more words she knows but these are the ones we figured out she knows.

And we have seen her go from oh so hating tummy time, to doing her Boomcha dance while standing on Aunty Helen's hands, to not wanting to crawl at all, to mastering the downward dog yogic pose in her crib, to crawling backwards, to actually crawling forwards (Whooo-hoo! Today!!). Hey, maybe I can finally get some help from her with stocking up her formula and diapers!

And of course, she is now so beyond the usual formula and stuff for her meals. She demands fresh baguettes from the city for her itchy little gums and who are we not to comply when it means she can actually give us 20 minutes of quiet when we eat? Sometimes our wonderful Aunty Angela even lops off the ends of her crusty Italian bread from dinner so Roan can have it.
Atkins diet, I don't think so. This girl is the Starch Queen of NYC.

And she has managed to actually like wearing shoes. And like her mom, dad, Aunty J, and Uncle Goober, she is a fan of Crocs! In her case, it is Mocs, 2 for $15 at The Children's Place, courtesy of grandma. Oh, we have come a long way since the days of her crying over her red Converses.

Well, I guess this is why I have been so delinquent in posting. It's like every day I am seeing this different kid who is mastering being a little human bean way too quickly and I am so super fascinated and awed I barely have time to get onto the computer and digest/expound on the coolness of it all. I feel like Darwin witnessing her little attempts at survival in the big wild world.

Manaolo Blahniks or Bust

Well, these are officially the Bean's first pair of "shoes". I don't think I spent as much time deciding on shoes for my feet. But for her, thankfully, I had help from Aunty Ying, who looked for the right size, made sure the box contained both right and left shoe (we didn't want her being traumatized and wearing two left shoes which would have very well happened if left to my own devices), the proper shoe construction (Aunty Y scoffed at the Robeez loafers- flimsy she thought given how expensive it was, true.), practicality factor (Aunty Y suggested to go w/ the velcro straps but me being shallow wanted a happy color and the velcro ones only came in black), and value. But at last we chose the Converse All Stars in Red, for the Bean's first shoe. The cheapee in me was defeated and I did not wait till she was able to walk to get her shoes. Dr. Smith suggested the old Italian tradition of having whoever discovered her first tooth to buy her her first shoes....and told me to pretend to see nothing. Well, in true mommy fashion, I bought them 3 sizes too big, but what the heck, she can wear them for awhile. Now, not only is she wearing a jacket 2 sizes too big, she is now wearing big sneakers that makes her looks like she has clown feet. Ah well, all for the sake of being economical. The times we are living in.















Of course, the Bean wished she had gotten more girly shoes...and threw a bit of a tantrum. Or was it that she was so horrified at her softy little toes being forced into these hard canvas numbers? Well, I guess it is nothing like foot binding, as Aunty Y and I reminisced. True.














Eventually she got over it and is now sort of a fan of her little sneakers. Oh the things we will have to teach her....like tying her shoelaces. Well, who will do that depends strictly on whether she is a lefty or a righty.

The Big Sleep

Saturday marks The Bean's 9th month anniversary. And I just had to dig out the picture of when she was still laying in the bed at NY Presbyterian with all her luggage tags, and hospital issued strait jacket and oversized newborn diapers still on and then one from this morning, with big girl clothes, white frilly socks and binky in place. Big difference...well, clearly her size these days, even as the dr said she was in the 50% in weight (15 lbs 8 oz) and 10% in height (27 1/4")...umm..duh (with us shorties as parents). The other big difference, these days, she prefers to sleep on her side, like some of us grownups. It is strange to see her now struggling to find a comfortable pose to sleep in. Who is this mini person who tosses and turns and looks like she is dreaming of far away lands of endless jars of BeechNut banana puree and a well of eternally available binkies?

Sail Away, Sail Away

That Grandma Brown is a smart one. Her technique of leaving Roan in a dry bathtub has been a real help when I need to do some baby-free activity like posting a blog, or emailing.

The Bean now sits up contently for 10 minutes at a time and with all her favorite toys on board, she is sailing to all sorts of wonderful destinations...all on a plastic bathtub and on hardwood floors.
Sort of like her dad when he was a wee boy, sailing with the sea scouts on the North Sea. Oh, the adventures she will hopefully have.

Purty please

Purty please with sugar on top.
Post a comment or two. It is just too sad writing stuff and not knowing who has been visiting or checking out The Bean's little world. Of course, this request is not directed at Quick Draw McDraw, Aunty Ying and her not quite so speedy to reply Aunty J but who makes up with more words per line. I didn't know there was a setting to uncheck until now that you can post comments Anonymously or as someone who doesn't have a Gmail account.
We need our audience. ;-)
Thank you.

PS Posted the most pathetic picture of The Bean looking sad.

So Close and Yet So Far....

A picture is worth a thousand words. We baked
some cookies tonight. And well, The Bean thought this is definitely something interesting.

She reaches out and just about snags a cookie
with her lightspeed reflexes.
But much to her sadness, mommy's reach was quicker
and she is denied some very tasty cookies. Needless to
say, she cries and cries and cries till nothing but....
her binky could console her.
Daddy teases her with one cookie, just for her
to hold and taste.



But after one too many crumbs fall onto the floor,
Daddy decides perhaps her green frog gel teether
may be better. But she is not fooled.
He then presents with her favorite remote. And
she decides, well, this isn't half bad.
And she chomps on her remote while the rest of us
gorge ourselves on some tasty chocolate oatmeal cranberry
pecan cookies. Poor little girl.
We'll have some price to pay for inflicting such cruelty on her nibs.

Pucker Up!

A big day in Bean history: she had her first taste if food from the real world, not pre-packaged and pureed with love (not!) from Gerber. She was so fascinated by Grandpa peeling an orange, that he had to give her a segment. She didn't know what to make of it. These days, she plays mostly with her plastic toys, shiny, hard, colorful and smooth that to feel the sticky, plump, mushy, orange is definitely strange. She reached out and withdrew her little hand like the orange was alive and would latch onto her and never let go. After a few timid attempts, she put the orange to her mouth like everything else she does these days, and never looked back. It was a lovely taste sensation, even as it made her little face implode into itself.
She had fun putting the orange on its side and watching it rock on the table and squishing it in her little hand until it became a soggy drippy mess. We almost didn't want to take it away. But the neatness freak in mommy couldn't stand the stickiness it would create. We can't wait to see which next food group will be the recipient of her curiousity.