Days of our Laives

Kira turned 1 year old on Jan 20th!  We had a party for her on Saturday, the 17th, and it was FUN!  I invited my mommy friends (mostly former co-workers), and their babies and husbands.  In total, we had 19 guests.  I was worried about space and food, but luckily it worked out fine.  Here are some pictures: (click the picture to see more) Unfortunately, Trevor didn't take many pictures of the decorations.  Here is a picture that one of the guests took.  (I will source it if she wants me to, but usually she likes to remain anonymous on the web, so I'll leave it unsourced for now.)  The paper lanterns are Martha Stewart, and I purchased them at Michaels.  The Happy Birthday banner is homemade, modeled after something I saw on Martha Stewart's website. For lunch we had my mom's wontons, sticky fried rice, teriyaki shrimp, broccoli chicken, stir fried veggies, salad, baby soup, fruit salad, Konditor Meister cake, and apple pie.  Mmm...it was a great menu.  I had tons of he...

More info on toddler nutrition: Children's Hospital (a lot of info on behavior, but also some food group examples) iVillage (clear explanation of calories, and also easy to read discussion about behavior) Dr. Sears (#15 was most useful for me) I'm undecided about peanut butter versus nutella.  They both have a lot of sugar (nutella more than peanut butter), and peanut butter has more salt than nutella.  Maybe I'll just give it to Kira once in a while. Another fact I came across that I'm having difficulty coming to terms with is skipping meals.  Several websites say it's normal for toddlers to skip meals and that over the span of a few days, it all balances out.  But, I have a hard time letting Kira skip meals when her doctor is telling me she needs to beef up. Ugh.  I have to cut this post short.  Kira is dropping banana slices on the floor.

Wow, it has been a long time since I've blogged about anything. I need to do some catch up!! There's a lot I want to write about to let you guys know what we've been up to, as well as for documentation purposes for me to look back someday. Some of these topics include: - traveling with baby (summary of our Florida trip) - holidays with baby (Christmas and Birthdays - yes, plural) - discipline (napping and going out) - Kira's development (details from her 12-mo appt, new stuff she can do) - thinking about going back to work (and starting day care for Kira) For now, my new obsession is researching toddler nutrition. I've been scouring the web for information about how to feed my baby. There's so little out there!! Right now, Kira is in a "transitional stage", where she is no longer dependent on formula, and she is starting to eat more adult foods; however, there are still some foods from which she needs to stay away. Confusing already, huh?? So, f...

Its been a very busy few weeks leading up to the Christmas and New Years holidays. We've been busy with shopping, baking cookies, and meeting regularly with lots of family. I just got around to post processing pictures from Christmas in Boston - I still need to get to the New Years pictures while down here in sunny Florida. The weather has been perfect and I've gotten in 2 golf rounds in the past week that we've been here. That's nearly as many times as I played during last summer's season. Anyways here are the pictures: Over the last few weeks Kira has been learning new things...here is a list: Imitation - by copying what we do she has learned some new things. She sticks her tongue out when we stick our tongues out. When we sniff her diaper she does the same. Now when we tell her to kiss her toys she goes in with her mouth to the toy and makes a "muahhhh" sound. She is saying a lot more words. She says the following "Mum mum" meaning food ...

Some pictures...finally!  Sorry I haven't been posting pictures.  It's been a busy time for the little Lai family.

A couple of nights ago, Trevor and I were reflecting on the past 10 months and talking about the ups and downs of being a mom/dad.  I'm going to blog it so that when times are tough, we'll remember the pros. CONS:  - disgusting poo diapers  - getting peed on, on a regular basis  - trying to keep a wiggly baby still (very tiresome during diaper changes, dressing, and bath time)  - crying in the night (teething, bad dreams)  - worry over doing the right thing (see feeding)  - less time to do things we want to do (hobbies, friends)  - losing what you thought was your identity  - boredom, repetition every day PROS:  - watching Kira grow  - seeing how Kira learns  - playing with Kira  - Kira's laughter  - bringing more joy to family members  - living in the now Trevor and I always get such a thrill from seeing Kira grow.  Every now and then we think, she's heavier!  Or we look at how long her hair has grown, or we notice how many teeth are starting to come in!  She's big...

I think feeding is the most difficult thing to accomplish successfully with Kira, and perhaps with any baby.  What do you feed her?  Is it good for her?  When do you feed her?  How much?  Is she still hungry?  Is she thirsty?  Is the food too cold?  Is it too hot?  What about texture?  Does she want something she can chew on?  Nope, she just spit it out.  I guess she doesn't like that... When we first started Kira on baby food, she hated it!!  It took 4 weeks of force feeding for her to accept cereal.  And, many advised to start feeding her vegetables before fruit so that she would be more accepting of the less sweet veggies, but in the end, we gave her fruit before she was totally accepting of veggies, just so she would eat!  Eventually, from about 7 months of age until about now, she ate baby food very nicely.  I'm actually very lucky that she eats so well.  Regardless, it's still tricky. These past couple weeks she has been refusing baby food, and I'm not exactly sur...