BushChang Family Web Site

Home of Steve, Christine, Katherine, Ally, Rosebud, and Rex

You are here: Home / 2003 / Archives for November 2003

Archives for November 2003

Moving at the Speed of Katherine

Moving at the Speed of Katherine

Taking pictures with our Canon Elph has become very difficult. The lag between pressing the button and having the picture taken can take up to say a second. In that period of time, Katherine has moved on to some other activity, and we’ve missed the picture.

Katherine is learning to cry to get our attention – either to get her milk cup or to have us pick her up. She will “wahhh wahhh” and we basically try to determine what she is saying. She’s also interacting with us and problem solving. Today, she played with her shape blocks and carried them one by one to Steve. As she handed to Steve, she would say “Dad!” or “Da Da!” and give us a big smile!

It’s so fun to see Katherine grow up and start interacting with us. Mom and Dad take turns trying to make her laugh and exposing her to new sights, sounds, and experiences.

Quality Weekend with Katherine

We had a wonderful weekend with Katherine. We got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday. Katherine’s been getting up earlier and earlier these days. We suspect that she’s trying to spend more time with us before we go to work in the mornings. ๐Ÿ™‚ Anyway, at 5:45AM she managed to wake me up. Steve took duty until I got around a bit later, and we had a nice time playing until I headed off to the gym. Katherine took over a 2 hour nap! Afterwards, we did a variety of errands from getting dog food, people food, a new shower part and generally catching up from last week. Katherine finally dozed off in the car, we made dinner, got Katherine to bed and watched a fun movie – the Italian Job.

Along with Katherine and Patty, Steve’s been fighting a bad cold. He’s been hacking away and we were determined to stay home today and get some rest. This is especially critical since he’s got yet another business trip this week. So, we stayed indoors (windy, rainy day!), played, baked cookies and had some friends over in the afternoon. Katherine played with her older buddies, Derek and Adam, and had a good dinner. She’s now snoozing away, and I expect that she’ll be back up for a snack in a couple hours.

Katherine and Bisco

They are becoming fast friends. Katherine regularly visits the bag by the door to get Bisco’s leash. She loves it when we put the leash on Bisco. She will then stand or sit next to him and sometimes pet him as well. Before dinner, I also caught Katherine giving Bisco a piece of bread that was supposed to tide her over to dinner. I gave her a small piece; she wobbled around the corner to the family room, extended her arm to Bisco giving him the bread! She also realizes that he loves her orange ball. Steve would give her the ball, and she would walk to the couch and hand Bisco the ball!

Sesame Street

To date, Katherine has shown no interest in TV whatsoever, including the Baby Blah series. This afternoon while she played in the TV room, we popped in a Sesame Street DVD with Ernie teaching the 123’s with lots of music and dancing (think Elmo in metallic pants). Katherine was entranced for 5 whole minutes. She sat on Steve’s lap and watched the DVD until she got bored and headed back to her toys. While we’re pretty happy that she’s not too attached to TV, it’s good to know that she has an attention span when she wants to focus on something.

Eating Everyday Food

Katherine is getting accustomed to eating the same food that Steve and I eat. She ate a couple wontons last night – stuffing and peel. Tonight, we made her tofu and spinach in soup stock and she wolfed it down. We also gave her egg whites for the first time today in the form of scrambled egg. She tentatively ate the first bite. I then spread the egg on her tray and she two fisted it a lot of it into her mouth. No allergic reactions so far.

Tanks!

Katherine now loves to give things to me or Steve. It may be a book, or a Lego or her Little People or whatever. We say “Thanks” and I think it’s finally taking hold. Derek played with Katherine, following her around and picking up her bowls and handing them back to her. I would ask Katherine “what do you say?” and she would say “Tanks.”

Little People

Katherine loves the Little People she got for her birthday. Quick explanation: it’s a line of Fisher Price toys with people who fit in buses, go to zoos (along with Little People Animals) and go to the amusement park. She carries this yellow plastic bus all over the family room. If it’s not the bus, she’s got an animal or person in her hand…What’s pretty exciting is that she’s finally got the hang of cleanup or putting toys in something. So, she puts almost anything in her bus and her Lego bin, whether it fits or not. ๐Ÿ™‚

I also played with her today and showed her how to roll her Little Person wheelchair seat into the back of the bus thru the rear door. She imitated me. How cool is that?

 

Are You Watching Her??

Steve and I must say this to each other at least several times a night now. We can’t turn our backs on Katherine. She’s a little speedy toddler now who can stand up without any assistance and who is on the verge of running. From a sitting position, she can stand in one of two ways. She can go from a sit to squat and then to a stand. Or, she bends on one knee to push herself up. She used to walk in a wide stance. Now, she places her feet more in front of each other and she can walk quickly from the family room to the front door in no time flat.

One of Katherine’s favorite past-times is rummaging around the brown leather bag near our front door. She bends over and reaches in for one of Bisco’s red retractable leashes. She used to put the leash in her mouth but has learned that we’ll take it away from her if she does that. Instead she’ll walk throughout the house clutching the leash, perilously close to tripping on the nylon. We’ve clipped it to Bisco several times and Katherine is well aware what the leash is for. She will tug the leash and try to take Bisco for a walk!

We’re also teaching her to be gentle with Bisco. She’ll pat him on his back and occasionally pull his hair. Bisco is a total sport. ๐Ÿ™‚ We’ve also caught Katherine try to hug Bisco. She places her cheek next to his fur and then gives a big grin. It’s just adorable.

Happy 1st Birthday Katherine!

Our log entry is a good week late, but better than never. One of our big commitments was to celebrate not only Katherine’s first birthday, but our getting to Katherine’s first birthday as well! To that end, we hosted two celebrations – the first a Chinese dinner that my Mom cooked on Katherine’s actual birthday and the second a big party at our house with lots of kids and parents.

The dinner with family was very nice. Steve’s immediate family attended and Katherine opened her gifts. She surprised all of us by saying “Kevin” very clearly! She also played with her cousin upstairs in our TV room. They competed for a push toy, and Kevin ended up next to a wall trying to keep it away from Katherine. This was especially note-worthy because this was the first time that Kevin and Katherine really interacted and were able to “play” actively together.

About 35 adults and 15 children/babies attended the Saturday party. No other word can describe it except chaotic. Kids were running around. Parents were milling around eating the food and attending to their children. This was sort of like trial by fire – everyone barely fit in our house and our friends, family, and PEPs group got a chance to meet one another.

A couple funny things happened at the event. First, Katherine slept two hours before her party. As a matter of fact she was sleeping when the first guests arrived. Steve took her picture as she snoozed. Second, she passed on her birthday cake (not like her mom at all!). We put the cake in front of her; she squirmed and wouldn’t taste the frosting. Oh well…we also had a storyteller come and tell a few stories to the kids. I think some of the children enjoyed the stories; others looked rather dazed. Anyway, Katherine started to squeal halfway through.

After the party and a 90 minute nap, Katherine woke, we ate and opened gifts. Katherine had a blast. She took all the cards from the gifts and brought them over. She also grabbed paper and tried to rip it off the boxes. The gifts were all very nice and we put many away for a later surprises. She’s now busy enjoying her “Little People,” her caterpillar, little books, wood puzzles and all of her other toys. I’ve tried to put a bunch away in her closet, but boy does she have a lot of stuff…

Katherine’s First Year Checkup

Katherine is still a skinny beanpole – 90% height at 30.5″, but only 19 lbs still at 25%. Here’s a picture of happy Katherine on the scale before the 3 shots in the arms. She had a blast on the table ripping the paper and walking all over the room.

My Name is Katherine, Hear Me SHRIEKKK!

That pretty much sums up Katherine’s new verbal skills. She started shrieking this past Thursday. It goes like this….she stands or runs around the house, babbles to herself, ex. “da da ba ba shriek!!!” It starts at a moderate volume and ends at an ear splitting volume. She’s not hungry, angry, or tired. We’ve read that some children like to do this because they like to experience the sensation of shrieking in their throat. We’ve also heard that lots of verbal discussion and shrieking signifies intelligence. Whatever the reason, we hope this phase passes quickly, or we grow more accustomed to it.

One byproduct of this is that we will be eating out less often. Saturday evening, her piercing verbal skills reached such a volume that we got our meals to go. On Sunday, we went to brunch at a salad restaurant and she was on a tear. She dropped all of her food on the floor and screamed bloody murder for no apparent reason. The only saving grace is that other kids were screaming too. ๐Ÿ™‚

Mobility Increases

Katherine’s walking skills are progressing. She can now turn and walk the other way, without having to fall and get up again. She can stop and start with ease, bend over and pick items up, and stand on her tiptoes when looking in drawers or boxes. She can carry toys around (ex. her puzzle box) and even suck her thumb while cruising around. We probably see her spending more time on her feet now, than crawling around.

She truly is “curious Katherine.” She opens virtually any drawer she can get into and repeatedly tries to open the same drawer. Katherine understands when I say “uh huh” or “no” or “Katherine that’s not your drawer.” She’ll look up, go back to her drawer and then reach for her bottle drawer one or two minutes later. We’ve placed spatulas and brushes in our draw handles to prevent her from opening them (you have to see this…). Our baby proofing service arrives in a couple weeks; we’re hoping nothing happens before then!

Halloween (chatter chatter)!

For those of you in the NW, you know that Halloween was eventful this year because it was sub-freezing. Our thermometer read 28 degrees at 7PM (holy cow!). We visited four neighbor houses with Katherine bundled up in her red winter jacket with her black kitty cat cape on top of her jacket. Steve and I cut short our trick or treating (no, we didn’t collect candy), and spent the evening wondering where all the trick or treaters were. We only got 40 which is low compared to our all time high of 80. And, a bunch of these kids didn’t even want candy! They were on a scavenger hunt and asked for some pretty strange items.

Katherine was a bit taken back by the whole experience. The doorbell would ring and kids would talk to her in all sorts of costumes. One little boy who knows Katherine had a ghoulish mask and spoke to her from it. Her face fell and she started to cry. ๐Ÿ™‚ Apart from that, she would stand next to me as I crouched holding her and the candy bowl, and watch me hand out candy to her friends. Unfortunately, we were supposed to go to a party that evening but Katherine was congested so we didn’t go.

Quality time with Katherine

Since our team at work launched our new product, we received Halloween day off. I spent the day with Katherine running errands and having her rest to get over her congestion. We went grocery shopping and bought her new shoes. Her starter walking shoes (size 3) were starting to get a bit small, so I bought her two new pairs of Stride Rites (size 4). One is a pair of white/pink everyday sneakers; the second is a pair of patent black Mary Jane Stride Rites. They are both adorable on her. I can’t believe our toddler is wearing sneakers! Katherine loved the shoe store. They have toys in a big cardboard box and she would peer in and want to pull out all sorts of toys. I cooked dinner and we had a nice time with Steve that evening.