It's been aaaaaaaaaaaaages...

...and so much has happened!  We've been to Canada (September 2010), Lyra and daddy went to Denver (November 2010), we visited daddy's family in Florida (December 2010), and Lyra turned 2!  Not to mention incredible growth both physically and developmentally....sadly, though there has been some hair growth, there hasn't been a lot, so the ponytail is still sparse...but definitely cute!

Lyra enjoyed her first real birthday party, at one of her favorite places, My Gym.  Friends (some of them new) in attendance were James, Min Jae, Do Yun, Kalyana, and the Kaupps (Lucy, Ruby, Brendan and Trevor).  Everyone had fun - the bubbles "car wash" was a highlight!  As was the beautiful and delicious cake.  Happily, all grandmas and grandpas attended as well, plus Aunt Jessie and Uncle Markus.  A fun weekend was had by all!

2 year checkup stats: Length 38 inches (height of an average 42 month old!), weight 32 lb. 11 oz.

Progress notes: so much has happened developmentally, I kept meaning to do updates and now I'm afraid I'll leave something out and won't remember it later...

Food: Picky Eater comes and goes....other times, Awesome Eater aka Eats All in Sight makes appearances.  Milk has been changed from whole to skim, but she doesn't even seem to notice the change.  Utensil use has improved.  Vegetables are greatly in vogue - lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sugar snap peas, squash, the list goes on.  Imagine my shock when she chose to eat plain lettuce over chicken fingers!  Thank goodness, though, that she is not a veggie-hater.  Please, please let her stay that way!  She has also now eaten pizza (on her own, even), and also enjoys the juice popsicles made for her at home.  We no longer need to use the cup straps when we go out to eat (which attach the cup to the highchair) as she's not so liable to throw the cups on the ground.  However, food is frequently thrown...

Motor: Running and running and running around.  She can now truly jump (catch air), and we all used to enjoy when she did the Snoopy dance (kind of like Running Man), though she seems to have grown out of it, sadly.  She also briefly did the "shake and bake" dance.

Speech: has really quite advanced for her.  She has a few phrases/short sentences, including: "There is it!" "I see you (really more like "Shee you!")!  She has numerous words including lots of colors, and some more listed below (with actual word followed by "her" word):

Ice - ishe
Susan - Shee-ya
Baby - baby
Elmo - Lala
Mickey - Mimi
Train - choo choo (how do all kids do that?)
Broccoli - brah-kee
Please - pea or peas
Thank you - thag
Wipe - why
Flush - flah
No - no

That's right...the head shaking is no longer her only way of expressing negativity...what a big step.  Also, within 2 days of her 2nd birthday, she picked up "Mine!"  SO endearing.

Excitingly, while family was here for her birthday party, she chose (or rather, agreed to) names for all 4 grandparents: The Chuang grands are now Baba and Mima, while the Plerhoples grands are Pop-pop and Nonny.  She also recognizes and calls by name Jessie (Jeh-ee) and Markus (Mah-us).  Of course, she has long called Cora by her nickname "Coco" and sometimes by her real name pronounced "Kaya."  Cousin Alex's name is "Ah-ux."

Well, if I keep waiting to finish this entry it'll be another month before it goes up!  So we'll split this one up.  I'll be back after the trip to Disney World!  We'll just leave you with a few recent pictures...

2 years old?!?!?!

Happy Birthday, Lyra!

So tall! So happy! So babbly! So smart!

That's our girl!


It has been a verrrrrry long time since I last blogged. Much has happened, and shall be discussed, very soon....

Our little human being!

Fun swinging with the Grandpas

Hangin' with the grands

Well, it has been a while since the last real post.  There's been a lot going on here in the Chuang-Plerhoples household, much of it fun!  We are pretty recently back from a trip up north to Lake Winnepesaukee where we stayed at a great lake house and had fun with various family members.  Lyra had the best time in the lake, when she wasn't (intermittently) crying due to the scary seaweed clinging to her legs.

Hard to believe our girl just turned 18 months!  It's also hard to believe that she just gets cuter and cuter to us as she continues to develop and really start acting like a person, a person with definite likes and dislikes and the increasing ability to communicate those preferences - e.g., choosing a book to have read to her, shaking her head "no" to certain clothing choices.

18 month stats: Length 35.5" (height of an average 28 month old!), weight 32 lbs. (I think?)

Food: We still have a Picky Eater in the house, and even worse than before.  The previously always happily-received, de-lush-ious backberries are now greeted with a yucky face and are quickly thrown on the ground, or smashed juicily onto the highchair tray, for example.  However, there is some progress in terms of self-feeding, - she tries to use her fork and can eat food off it.  She is somewhat less successful at picking up food with the fork and sometimes tries to use her fingers to put the food onto the fork tines.

 Motor: Gaining confidence as a toddler, actually running around now.  She has figured out how to push herself around on the little plastic tricycle, inside.  She is going to MyGym at least once a week for the "Waddlers" class and it has definitely helped her learn and practice different motor skills; she's now not scared to walk up an inclined surface, and will try to go down a slide on her own.  She doesn't quite understand how to jump yet, and when on the trampoline will just sort of bounce a little.  The dancing, however, has really progressed...there are steps, and head waggles, and shoulder shimmies, and the latest, tushy wiggles (which she will do on command).

Language: More and more words that we can make out.  She may even have started with some phrases, though not very intelligibly.  We both swear we've heard her say "I like it" while eating!  Most definitely (and most scarily) she understands everything you say.  She doesn't really say "yes" or "no" but definitely knows how to shake her head when she doesn't want something!  "Do you want to get ready for bed?"  Reply: violent head shake.  "Do you want to come out of the pool?"  Reply: violent head shake.  She says "quock quock" when she sees a duck, too.

Social: She increasingly imitates others' actions.  For some reason, I find it especially endearing that as soon as she received her awesome hand me down plastic kitchen/laundry room, she started trying to get ice by putting the toy cup up to the icemaker in the "fridge," and will do this on command as well.  I didn't realize she had noticed that we did this, and understood what was going on!  There has been both more need for discipline as well as more actual understanding and (sometimes) following of said (repeated) disciplinary actions/commands.  We started her going to the MyGym classes as one way to have her be around other kids more, but it's really still the parallel play stage.  Overall, though, she remains a mostly happy and smiley child who is always smiling at and flirting with anyone she sees (for example, 3 tables of other patrons while out to eat last night, plus 2 waitstaff and both restaurant owners - at the Mile Away where we got married!).  She is also learning various social mores.  She knows to pick up pieces of carpet fuzz and give them to you as trash, or she will actually go to the trashcan and throw it away herself.

Sleep: Not too much to add here, she is still a parent's dream in terms of sleeping.  Now down to one nap a day in the early afternoon, around 1.5 hours usually.  She still sleeps with "Purple Blanket" and her most recent other bed buddy is the blue elephant with the rattle in its tail.

Play: She LOVES her little inflatable swimming pool on the porch, and will happily splash around in it (without even needing actual toys) for half an hour.  This is not surprising given how much she has taken to liking her bath.  She likes her Legos (Duplo) and is learning to put the pieces together.  Both she and the cat, Denali, have habituated to each other and Denali will actually (mostly) placidly stay put as shrill shrieks pierce the air, and even when Lyra does her latest thing called "tickling the cat" where she actually rubs the top of her head against the cat's head, or tail, or back.  Really quite hilarious to watch and I will need to get a video of that.

Cutie-pieness: How could I forget - she now "blows kisses" (slaps her palm on her mouth) and "kisses" (either air-kisses or comes at you with her open mouth).  Adorable.  If she doesn't think you deserve one she'll violently shake her head when asked for a kiss.

We'll just leave you with this video of Lyra enjoying the lake:

Little Lyra, Giant Ball

Just a great picture!

May-ish

Just some more pics, no longer that recent but still cute...from May 2010.

Such a big girl

Yeah, ok, I couldn't think of anything better to title this post.  It's been a while since I wrote a real update on here.  Lots to be excited about as our girl continues to grow up, develop her personality, and charm us continually!  I don't want to forget how fun this period is and all the things she's being doing.  She turns 16 months tomorrow!

15- month visit stats: Weight 26 lb. 11 oz, Height 32"  (I think I'm remembering correctly!)

Food: The little girl who ate everything has disappeared, sadly.  One day, tofu is yay yummy and the next day, it's spit-out gross.  Funnily enough though, she will still happily chow down a Gerber Graduates meal.  Maybe she's developing a better palate though - last night and today she LOVED the sweet and spicy Italian sausage pasta Daddy cooked and even wanted it instead of her baby yogurt.

Motor skills: Finally walking as of her 14-month-day.  Mostly very steady, but sometimes just falls on the ground for unclear reasons.  She still loves to push everything around:  her little chair, the bike trailer, mommy's desk chair (with mommy in it!).  So far no major accidents.  So far.  Loves climbing the stairs (on hands and knees) and will do so by herself if you aren't watching (and she's QUICK!).

Play: She finally understands the shape sorter!  her skills, though, are...still developing in terms of matching the shape with the right opening.  She also now will build with her little silicone blocks.  Also fun is putting things in and taking them out.  Drawers are fun though she does not understand how to close them without getting her fingers caught.  She just today wreaked havoc on several kitchen drawers - I still haven't figured out where else I can put our chopsticks!  She loves looking into the microwave since it's like a mirror.  She has graduated from her toddler tub to the full grown-up tub and LOVES her bath.  We dread the moment of having to remove her from it as she not only screams bloody murder but also flails wildly about making it difficult to diaper her.  She enjoys driving her basketball to the basket to dunk (her new basketball net!) and will also dunk her sippy cup and various stuffed animals.  She also loves burrowing into various soft objects: her whale, her froggy, her purple blanket.  She actually literally dives at them from standing which is really endearing to watch.  She will then proceed to roll around on the soft object in great delight, which is hilarious.

Sleep: Still sleeping like an angel at night though she sometimes takes 30 minutes or more to fall asleep.  She doesn't cry, though.  She just hangs out, and sometimes plays with her crib buddies.  Yes, she has found her transitional object: Scout the talking dog.  Morning and night she squeezes his paw so she can hear him sing the morning song, the evening song, and the L-Y-R-A song "about you"!  Unfortunately she also sometimes rolls over him while sleeping leading to "5 minutes of bedtime music"!  We may really regret this attachment given his size, difficulty being washed, and possible interruption of her sleep...She also sleeps with her purple blankie that she loves.  Naps are still 1-2 per day though she is transitioning to one a day.

Language:  Still not too many (intelligible) words though lots of babbling as always.  However, it's just so fun to see her increasing comprehension - every day it seems we are telling each other about the newest thing she's shown us she understands.  She may not say "mama" but she does know how to differentiate between mommy and daddy's belly buttons!  She won't point at her own nose yet but will point to her own belly button if you ask her.  She can bring us: her ball, the froggy, her "laptop", her other ball....She does say "dada" - sometimes indiscriminately, but clearly sometimes in relation to daddy, as when she looked straight at a framed photo as we went by it and said "dada"; it was a picture of daddy with Grandma P.  Amusingly, she knows that when we say we want to Skype someone, she needs to head over to the office where the computers are!

She (and mommy) also survived her first week away from mommy when daddy took her down to Florida to see the grandparents P.  We Skyped every night, but busy Lyra had way too much to do to pay attention to mommy - like play in the pool, run around with Grandpa while shrieking.  It was so amazingly wonderful to have her back at the end of the week!

A Few More Recent Glimpses of Cuteness

Baby Love

As in, I am totally in Baby Love!  Hard to believe since I wasn't too sure about this whole baby business for a long time.  Is it really possible that she is getting cuter and cuter as she develops into an actual person instead of a very cute, but relatively uncomprehending little creature?  Is it really possible that I am waxing so cheesily and Stepford mommy-like when I previously told friends to slap me if I did the "do you want to see a picture of my baby" thing and happily discussed baby poo issues in great detail?  Well...yup.

All kinds of adventures...

Here, Lyra enjoys a nice, comfortable box!  I put up this picture because, even though there are others of her smiling open-mouthed with joy, this one reminds me how lately she has being doing all kinds of funny twisty things with her mouth.  She likes standing, sitting, and being pushed around in her box(car).

Here Lyra and Daddy enjoy a beautiful, sunny April day in the Boston Public Gardens while Mommy attends a CME.

Below are some pictures from the Palm Springs/Las Vegas trip which started with Uncle Tim, Aunt Alicia, and cousin Cora in Palm Springs, then moved to Las Vegas where we met up with Grandma and Grandpa P, as well as Aunt Tina, and Todd.  Lyra didn't always enjoy sitting in her carseat (many "adventures" with puking), but when she did, she enjoyed sitting with her legs stretched out to the sides...some might say it wasn't lady-like!  Below that, hiking in some red rocks - it was windy!  At the bottom, Lyra and cousin Cora enjoyed their time together in the backseat of the minivan...and got really thirsty sometimes after being dragged all around the trails.  It was a wonderful trip, and we all had a great time with the Plerhoples family, including celebrating Grandma's 60th birthday!

Cute baby walking!

Yes, the day has arrived.  After some fakeouts (a few steps here and there) for the past month or so, our girl is up and running (not literally running as yet, though).  She is officially a walker today, based on how much of the day she spent toddling around.  So...I just need to remember this - that she started walking at 14 months (which is today)!  Here weeeeeeee goooooooooooo!

Aunt Tina's music!

We just had a great time with the Plerhoples family in Palm Springs/Joshua Tree and Las Vegas.  More later on that, but for now, enjoy Lyra dancing yet again, but this time to a recording of Aunt Tina singing with her college a capella group.  Cousin Cora watches wide-eyed and ponders how to learn those moves!

ooops...

...Too early to crow, I guess.  "Da"-like syllables are popular and seem to be used alot, somewhat indiscriminately (though "dat" does seem to mean cat...).  When asked what sound the cat makes, she made her roaring noise.  Oh well.  At least she consistently roars when asked what sound a [insert animal name here] makes.

Red letter day

Wow, today our baby demonstrated a number of language skills that made us SO proud....within 30 minutes, she said "da" multiple times while slapping at Daddy for his attention, she named the "dat" (cat), and when asked what the lion, and then the tiger (as we pointed to them in the book), says, roared.  Not the first time for the first two items, but a first for the roaring, and overall impressive to see them all in such a short time.  It is SO rewarding to see her development after repeating these things over and over again...and also funny how as a parent, you suddenly feel like your baby is SO smart while doing what every baby eventually does.

Hello there...

...would you ever guess, looking at this cherubic face, that I am the Destroyer of Worlds? At least, that's what Daddy and Mommy call me sometimes. Not sure why, although I suppose SOME people might think that beelining for anything that's in any sort of order (like the stacking rings, or the tower of boxes toy) and knocking it over is sort of destructive.

An example of me NOT being destructive, but rather, creative ("dancing" is creative, right?):

B-day girl gifts!

Just some pictures of the birthday girl with various presents...from top left: lolling about with Tama the Tortoise combo stuffed toy/pillow/blanket; playing in the personalized toybox also from Grandma C and Akong; inspecting one of the cool boxes in the box-in a box- in a box toy from great-aunt Xiaogu; standing up and showing off the 1st birthday princess crown, again; not quite sure what to do with the pink popper toy from Susan (nanny); and, caught standing next to the fun Leapfrog activity table from Uncle Joe, Aunt Kim, and cousin Alex. Yay!

Also, below:  pictures of the Chinese New Year/Valentine's/birthday weekend (it was a full weekend!) with Akong and Grandma C...

A year already??

Yeah, it is really hard to believe!  The little bundle of joy we first saw 1 year ago is now a sturdy, happy, almost-toddler!  As you can see in the above video, she enjoyed her birthday quite a bit.

Although it is a little sad not to have this little single armful of baby any more, she is so much more fun now than a newborn, I have to say.  Smiling and giggling (funny mouth noises are great fun right now!), motoring around, paying a bit more attention to certain toys...  I'm sure I have many more deep thoughts I could share here about my feelings on this whole issue, but to be honest, it's all I can do to even put posts on her blog at all...don't have it in me right now to go digging deeper.

Lyra says:  Thanks to all the friends and relatives for the birthday presents...I really did not have enough toys before this (Mommy says, that's not true!).  Thank you Grandma and Akong for cleaning me up after the smash cake!

Skillz and other things:

Motor: Still crawling all over the place and cruising where there are handholds.  Also standing unsupported more often and for longer periods of time.  Not quite able to walk yet, though she can walk if you stand next to her and hold her hand.  Daddy claims she took a couple steps towards him, and today while standing drinking her milk (i.e., distracted), she definitely took ONE step.  It is definitely harder to hang out with her as she must be pretty much constantly watched.  Everything must be picked up, examined, tasted and/or bitten.  Sometimes the bitten includes Mommy or Daddy's leg.

Language: Doesn't seem to (consistently) have actual words yet, or maybe we just don't recognize the Lyra dialect of English.  Sometimes she seems to say "da"! when she sees Daddy.  Also, I think sometimes "mamamama" during meals is "more."  Today at dinner, I swear, I thought I heard her say "more."  Sadly, she does hear that word more frequently than "Mama", I think.

Foods:  Still loving her ability to eat dairy, has liked sharp cheddar, Monterey Jack, and swiss cheeses.  Today for dinner had tofu with sweet potato.  Tried quinoa and mushrooms for the first time (along with peas, not new) yesterday and today, wouldn't really eat it until other flavoring was added.  Also today had her first peanut butter (on toast)!!

Sleep: Still sleeping the sleep of the righteous (or something) from about 6:30ish to 6:30ish.  Man, are we lucky!  Still taking 2 naps a day (today's experiment to let her go longer before she napped - in an attempt to move her to one longer nap - failed utterly).

Stats: 24 lbs. 13 oz, 32.25 inches (average height of a 20-month old!)

Good job!

This is Lyra at the Weathervane restaurant near our house, for her (early) birthday celebration dinner with my parents. Here she is showing off the skill she developed fully in the past few days (or else she developed the desire to actually use it!) once Grandma used some hard love and just put the sippy cup on the tray in front of her and didn't hold it up for her to suck. I don't know why this particular thing she is doing makes me so happy. Literally, every time yesterday and today she picked up her cup yet again and not only put it to her mouth (which she did very occasionally before), but properly tipped it back enough that the milk actually went into her mouth (which she didn't seem to get before), I felt so, so happy and proud. She even completely emptied 4 oz of milk tonight! Maybe it especially thrills me because it is so obviously purposeful, unlike her standing unassisted for several seconds, which just seems accidental.

Oh dear

Now that Lyra is mobile, crawling (very fast sometimes!) and cruising, we have stay much sharper than before...otherwise things happen....like coffee mugs getting knocked over, slippers and shoes getting mouthed.  She is starting to stand sometimes for a few seconds at a time.  Walking independently can't be far behind...then we will really be in trouble!

Very Cute Things She Started Doing Lately: She is babbling even more than before, but some of the noises are completely new, little "uh" and "oh" and "wo" and "oooh" sounds when she is pulling herself up, crawling, etc.  It's very, very cute as she sounds like she's making tremendous efforts to do these things.  Not sure, but I think sometimes (especially when eating) the "mamama" sounds may mean "more."  Flailing her hands toward the bottle or bowl also means "more."  Flapping, slapping, and pushing at incoming bottles or spoons, very clearly means "no more!!"  These actions also lead to lots of various food products on the floor, Lyra's hands, the highchair, and mommy.  Recently she started frequently doing this kicking motion back and forth with her legs straight - while lying flat on the changing table, or being held up in the air...it's very cute, and I think when I start saying "kicky-kicky-kicky" it makes her do it again.

Unfortunate New Things:  She used to love "brushing" her teeth.  Now, she very firmly closes her mouth, shakes her head, and even sticks out her tongue in her efforts to avoid the dreaded toothbrush.

Exciting New Things: Lyra can now deal with dairy!!  No more "milk protein intolerance."  She loves cheese (sharp cheddar cubes - yummy snack), whole milk (completely off her pricey formula - though we were getting it free through health insurance anyway), yogurt.  Thank goodness...it seriously expands the range of  "real" food we can feed her.  Also, she has been off the Dr. Brown bottles for the last month or so.  SO happy about that...those bottle parts were such a pain to wash.

Newest Foods Tried: Besides dairy products, curried fish, Indian food (Tandoori chicken, chapati bread, aloo gobi - too spicy!, saag paneer), pasta, whole peas, corn (of course, the kernels came out whole in ...her you-know-what).

In less than a week she turns 1 year old.  It is almost unbelievable to me that an entire year has passed...so much has happened and we have so loved watching her change and grow...

First Christmas!

Finally getting around to putting up some pictures of Lyra's first Christmas!  This week was spent in Florida, half on the east coast (West Palm Beach, at the Chuang condo family compound) and half on the west coast (Sarasota at Grandma and Grandpa Plerhoples's home).  The best part was having everyone from both sides of the family together, even if briefly.  It was so great to have all 6 kids there with the 3 grandchildren.  Alex (Joe and Kim's son) got to meet Cora (Tim and Alicia's daughter) and Lyra for the first time, and Lyra got to see cousin Cora for the second time.  They are all basically the same age - or at least we will think of them that way eventually, since 1-2 months, which has seemed like this gigantic difference for the past year, will mean nothing later on.  So here it is:  Lyra was born February 15, Alex March 27, and Cora April 2...bam bam bam!

Lyra also got to meet certain Plerhoples family members for the first time - Great-Aunt Stella and Great-Aunt Jim.  She also of course had fun and flirted with various other new friends.  This was also the first time Lyra ever flew on an airplane, and she did great!  Well, on the way back up she was a bit whiny but when you've missed your morning nap...you're going to be cranky!  And how could I forget...first time in a pool.  Loved it, of course...

She did not really get the concept of opening gifts and so they were all opened for her.  She got lots of cool presents and currently most of them are strewn around our family room floor, or tucked away in her little Radio Flyer wagon.  Can't wait until next Christmas, when she will actually be cognizant of what is going on, and very excited!

Just a few words, again

Well, it's been a really busy couple months for our family....Xmas week with family, the St. Lucia vacation...busy parents working...I will post a more detailed post later regarding the recent vacations, but for now, before I forget, I just wanted to mention a couple of really endearing things Lyra has been doing: turning the book pages at bedtime (as long as you let the flap loose only when you're done reading the page, you don't have premature page-turning), and swaying in time to various "musical pieces", including off-key singing, drumming on the table, etc.  She is really enjoying the music in the morning and at bedtime from Scout, her green stuffed dog who says things like "Hi Lyra!" and sings a Lyra song that spells out her name (nifty Xmas present from Grandma and Grandpa P!).

Oh, and above - cute (tiny) (first) ponytails!