Abby

Up until now, Rosie has shown fleeting interest in her stuffed animals. Sure, she'd give them warm hugs and sweet kisses, but it wouldn't be too long before she'd toss them aside and move on. Then the other day Rosie noticed, amongst the piles of stuffed animal characters, two big eyes peeking out back at her: Abby Cadabby. As we were walking around the store, Rosie really took to this little fairy. The two of them were caught having deep conversations ("Pa-co?" translation: Would you like a popsicle?), playing games (Rosie would hold Abby in between clothes on a rack, wait a few seconds, then whip her back out and yell "PIZE!" translation: "Surprise!"), and being affectionate with each other (hugs, kisses). There was something about the way she was interacting with Abby that really melted our hearts. It's only been a day and her interest in Abby hasn't waned.

Walking up from a nap and cuddling with Daddy-O and Abby:


Sleep over:

Lunch date (notice the matching paper towel bib!):


Gazing:

Morning walk

Notice her choice of shoe.

weaned

It's been 2 days now of Rosie being officially weaned. We had decided to wait until the moment felt right and natural to transition her. And the time had come! We had Rosie be a part of connecting with her new milk sippy cup that she was going to use in place of "bu bu." She went through her normal nighttime routine, except got to enjoy her new Winnie the Pooh milk. Guzzled that thing down! Then we laid down together (a cosleeping habit that's continued since vacation and since we've had the house staged). Rosie asked to bu bu a couple times but then we'd remind her that she's done with bu bu and had milk. She took it like a pro and was her silly pre-sleeping self before she finally dozed off. The rest of the night was more or less typical for us.

It was a great comfort knowing the time was right after seeing Rosie transition so smoothly. It was a sad moment for me (Mommy) to come to an end of such a special time with my baby. The first night Rosie was dozing off and put her hand on my cheek that got me close to tears. Then in true Rosie fashion her finger quickly slipped up my nose and she giggled. I love that little peanut warrior.

Dear Baby,

Advanced notice of when you are planning a 2.5+ hour nap would be appreciated, though not required. At least it's a beautiful day out!
Love,
Mommy

Snapshot 7.26.12

At the petco "zoo". Rosie loved the fish most. She also bonded with the parakeet:


And was about as excited about these dogs as the real ones:


Face timing/ tree hugging with Delaware aunties.


Feeding Jacob Jr. oranges:


Music in the Glen at the school around the corner:

Willow Glen storytime

We were sad to find out today was the last storytime for the summer and probably our last before moving. Rosie got her groove on. It was amazing to see how she engaged with the songs compared to when we first started going. She was attempting to count and sing along. She'd shake her little tushy the coming jumping back into my lap with a proud look on her face. I could tell she remembered the routine from when Maria would take her. After 5 minutes of stay-and-play time she grabbed snacks out of my bag and headed for the courtyard. Good times!

Rabbit!


Peekaboo!

Baby shower, baby friends, babysitting

Catching up on the last few days!
On Saturday we went to a baby shower for Auntie J (and Cau M though it was girls only). She looked amazing and healthy. There we saw Ba H, just back from Vietnam.



Helping open gifts:


This present is Rosie-approved:





Sunday we hung out with BFF P again (trying to fit in as much time before moving):



Hawaiian dresses:


Dance party!


Pre-bedtime snack:





All tuckered out and loving P's new toddler bed:


Monday we met up with a friend D and her new baby I. I forgot how little three weeks is! So sweet:


During Mommy's class on Tuesday Tia G and cousin A watched Rosie. She had a blast with them and also got to spend time with cousin J before she heads to Arizona, Uncle G and his girls B and A. Basically, surrounded by lots of love!

20 months

Highlights of 20 months:

• Lots of talking! Rosie is picking up words left and right. We really have to be careful what we say around her because there is no getting past her. 
• Master of micro expressions. Maybe it was all the Lie To Me that Mommy watched during her pregnancy, but Rosie is really picking up on emotion and using it to communicate. She is a master manipulator of her eyebrows, i.e. the puppy dog face. She is also turning into quite the jokester and will do things for pure comedic value.
• Rosie is still drawn to the little ones, babies especially, and loves to be social. Along with being social, she has started to remember and ask for people she cares for. This includes family members and her best friend, P. 
• Pretend play. It is really cool to see Rosie be able to pretend and role play. She will pretend to feed her koala stuffed animal, Caleb, by picking from the imaginary blueberry bush. After being told not to pick Vavô's grapes, she would pretend to pick them and eat them, sharing with us as well.
• Sing/read along. Rosie has begin to remember words to songs and books and will sing along. Notably, "I'm a pout pout fish with a pout pout face, so I spread the dreary wearies all over the _______ (place!)". She loves the Winnie the Pooh theme song, and will interject with "Pooh!" and loves saying "silly old ______ (bear!)". She's starting to recite her ABCs, though she doesn't get past B on her own. When we ask her to sing she's started to come up with her own la la la tunes. It is THE sweetest thing in the whole wide world.
• Tech baby. Rosie is able to navigate around the iPhone and iPad...for good or for bad. She has mastered finding the netflix app and turning on Dora the Explorer (Swiper, no swiping!) without any assistance. A little scary.
• Sign language. Rosie's pick up a few more signs and it's always surprising how quickly she does so now. After just a few times she picked up "peach" and "delicious." It's been really helpful in figuring out what she wants. She frequently asks for "pear" and "berries" using words and sign language.
• Eating. Rosie's diversifying her palette...just a bit. In addition to fruits (still her favorite) she's a little carnivore. We are still working on veggies. Her favorite is by far peppers (or is that technically a fruit?).
• Sass. Along with all her other changes has come a growing amount of sass. She gets upset when she doesn't get her way and will bang her head against the wall to show you. She will stuff something in her mouth quickly when you ask her to share (though she is getting much better at sharing now). She developed a yell/clap thing that was not so exciting, but only happened once so hopefully won't be recurring. We expected and hoped for a little fireball and now we enter the stage of helping her manage it. 

Moral of the story: we love this girl and are forever in awe of her!

Happy Hollow, happy uncle

Today we spent the morning at Happy Hollow with H & baby Ju. First we hit up the carousel:


And fed the goats. This was the first time Rosie was interested in feeding them. In fact she's the one who initiated it and got a big kick out of goat tickles:


Big tortoise on the move! Made us think of cousin J, the turtle whisperer:


Later in the day we headed to Uncle N's new house in San Jose. We are super bummed that we will miss out on being neighbors with them after the move. Their house is awesome. Rosie felt right at home (this was the first thing she did when we got there):



Rosie helping Uncle N garden:





Testing out the new dog door:


We had a super tasty BBQ feast and had a great time catching up with Uncle N. Our plan is to spend lots of time with Uncle N and Auntie J before we move.

B(est)F(lower)F(riend)

One of the things we will miss most about leaving SJ is being in the same hood as Rosie's BFF. They have grown even sweeter with each other. I've missed some awesome photo ops the last few times we visited with P so made up for it while she was at the house yesterday.

As I was changing Rosie I mentioned that P was coming over. Rosie jumped right up,pressed her face to the glass, and called out her name. She continues to do that on the couch looking out to the street:


Snack time with P:


Rosie hopping up and down chanting P'a name (I kid you not):


"Look at what I'm doing!":


I put their snacks in 2 bowls to avoid grabbiness but they decided to consolidate to one bowl. There were a few cracker casualties:


P was askin for her mom so I explained to her that she was getting a massage. This led to a most welcome round of back rubs:


SMOOCH!:


Building with blocks in the backyard:


After a lot of playing (and some fussing) we retreated inside and had this amazing quiet time. They sat here quietly reading books and snacking for a good long while:

Relocation

Over the past month we had been wrestling with the idea of moving. We love our life in San Jose - great friends, warm neighborhood, comfy house. So it was bittersweet when we decided to put our house on the market and set our eyes on Pleasanton.
We have spent the last weeks preparing to sell our home in Willow Glen. We found a nice realtor and spiffed up the house in a flash. Over the weekend we had some hopping open houses and on Monday received 4 offers for our wonderful bungalow. We think the staging really helped us get great offers. Check out the art over the mantle!


Since we had to leave the house in San Jose for the Open Houses we spent the weekend in Pleasanton and Livermore. Saturday we arrived in Pleasanton and checked some homes and caught a tasty lunch of Mussels and Lamb at Nonni's on Main St. Then we headed to Vavo's house to cook a tasty dinner. We then went to Tia G's and Tio R's house to watch a movie and enjoy family. We really got a feel for what it would be like living closer to family with impromptu visits and we even dropped Rosie off for a spell to get some work done. Sunday afternoon we returned to Pleasanton for more house hunting and enjoying downtown Pleasanton. We grabbed some ice cream at the Dairy (drive-thru grocery!) and Sushi on Main St.





Everything is coming together nicely and we get more excited about the move with each visit to Pleasanton. We will keep you all posted with upcoming news!

Yacht

...of sorts.


Hung out at our good friend/Rosie's Auntie's pool with friends (including baby Ju). It is always so heartwarming to see her connect with other people. I didn't get many good shots this time but there were plenty other photographers on hand:


Rosie in model pose:





After expending do much energy swimming, we had to reload:





Learning to share, even with something as prized as a chicken leg: