sinbadx81

Miyo moments of late:

Tapping on the shoulder - She will tap you to get your attention or just keep tapping you for laughs.

Evil grin - Whenever she's about to do something she knows she shouldn't, she turns her head, looks at you, and smiles. Great early warning system for danger.

Papa point - For some reason, sometimes when she sees me she points and in a loud "whisper" says a drawn out and overly-dramatic sounding "Papppaaaaaaaaa". It's like I'm a ghost or something. Maybe I've put on enough weight to look scary.

Blinking gestures - Outside my in-laws house they've set up Christmas lights. Now, whenever she sees blinking lights, she'll open and close her hand to simulate the blinking.

"No" - She can shake her head "no". The "terrible twos" might be creeping up soon.

Bowing - I forgot if I've written this before, but she can bow. Sometimes she keeps her balance.

Separation anxiety - She wakes up a lot more during the night reaching out for mama and mama only. My sleeps ok, but Chi has to sleep with the little monster.

A really cool-looking fruit I got at the department store supermarket. A red dragon fruit, aka Costa Rican pitaya. The taste doesn't quite match its appearance though; it's rather bland.

Miyo is now a little over a year old. I'm not going to sugar-coat it; raising a kid is rough. Doubly so when said kid has no concept of "stillness". The first three months were hell - little sleep on top of a job that I'm not exactly in love with. By sixth months, things got slightly easier, but there were always one or two hair-pulling fiestas to each day. From that point on routine and comfort got turned on its head. She moves on from milk to solids, from crawling to walking and grabbing everything within reach (no a dream situation in a tiny apartment with little storage space about 3 feet). She grows fast and there's very little time to catch up. The last stretch until now she has become more independent but at a price; if things aren't her way, then the tears start to fall...loudly.

That said, there still are the moments that keep one in the game: her smiling, laughing face can move mountains (unless said "face" is the result of tearing the kitchen apart); the times she speeds over to you because she needs you; the funny things she does like dancing to the happy birthday song. Those moments can feed the stressed parent to push on and are probably the memories that are least likely to get repressed when waxing nostalgic to new parents years later.

It's been a definite roller coaster and not one for the faint of heart or mind. Happiness shines through the stress-lined clouds. It changes everything. Let's see how the next year goes.

I guess this has been a long time coming. I've been busy and the little free time I do get I'm usually busy researching other stuff or going through email, etc. Anyway, here are the most recent milestones:

- Starting to walk - She can walk a few yards by herself(I've really gone metric. I typed "meters" first...). If we're holding her hand, she can walk a good five minutes or so until she gets bored.

- Moving to solids in a major way - She can eat nearly anything if it's in bite-size pieces and soft enough for her. She's been eating a lot of broccoli, pasta, cheese, and apple jello recently. The others can be hit and miss though. For example, she seems to have gone off rice. Half the time she spits it out.

- Pointing - She now directs us when she's carrying her by pointing. She can also use it to draw our attention to something. Once I pulled the tap-on-the-opposite-side-of-the-shoulder gag on her but she turned around and pointed to me as if accusing me. Coincidence or just scary smart for a 1 year old? You decide.

- Beginnings of speech - She's had "mama" down for a while, but tends to still use it indiscriminately. Everybody and their mama is "mama". She can say "papa" too, but doesn't use it to call me or address me much yet. Other words she appears to be able to say include "duck" and "doggie" (she says it in Japanese as "wan-wan"). "Duck" is probably because the duck is her bathroom toy and "wan-wan" is because her grandparents here have a dog.

- Drinking by herself - She hasn't taken the bottle by herself yet, but she can drink from a straw cup. She's finally able to use the cup my brother and his fiance got for us. Thanks guys!

- Falling asleep without being held - This is still a work in progress. If we dim the lights, set her in one of our futons and lie down next to her for a while, she'll fall asleep in 15-20 minutes. She's usually rolling around like she's drunk; her head goes up and she teeters forward as if to crawl but slips and falls down face first. Anyway, better than holding her for that time.

- Vampire tendencies - For some reason she thinks it's funny to come at us open-mouthed, slobber her saliva on us and bite at will. She hasn't drawn blood so we think she's still human, but she doesn't have all her teeth yet so...

- Likes chasing games - She loves being chased around the apartment. Chi or I have to crawl after her and it's hard on the knees, but it keeps her entertained for a good 20-30 minutes before we get tired. She, on the other hand, seems to have inherited genes from the Energizer bunny somehow - she never stops moving.