Charlotte climbed to the counter where the sink was in the bathroom to grab soup. She kept getting the soup last night but Mama didn’t know how she got it because the soup was put up high. Every time Mama put it back and walked to the bedroom, she had it on her hand right away. She did this for like 3 times last night and finally got caught today. She also climbed to the counter of the dresser by stairs and made a noise. Mama ran out the room and saw her climbing. She seemed to get scared herself for being that high and was crying saying 怕怕。

We went to Li Qian’s house today. Charlotte gave pacifier to Kasia and was holding it for her like feeding her. She’s a sweet sister. She was kissing her head while Mama nursing kasia at home too. Charlotte had too much fun with Reesie jumping on the bed and we were all singing “five little monkeys jumping on the bed”. Charlotte sang too and put her index finger up and wave when she sang “no more monkeys jumping on the bed”.

Kasia got strong back support and Mama put her on the horse ride toy. she liked it. Mama let her sit on my tummy and trembled her, so laughed so hard. Once I start for a second, she would laugh and stopped as I stopped.

we went to Zhou Hua’s house for gathering. Kasia really like grandma Zha and attached to her face so closely and sometimes kissing her cheeks. Kasia made her so happy and took some pictures together with cousins so that grandma Zha could see them when she got back to China

.

Charlotte hopped on her when she just got to their house. Charlotte took mama’s animal crackers from the purse and shared with the kids. When mama found out all the crackers were gone. She gave the container to mama and said “饼干没了crackers are gone “. She got trouble for that because Mama told her to ask for before she could have one and had to be Mama open it for her. But she’s too cute when saying crackers were gone and Mama just couldn’t get mad at her.

Kasia is 4 month old now. She’s an very alert baby. Someone said she looked like 8 month a few days ago because she’s always so aware of the surroundings and has her eyes open big.

She’s able to roll to her side but not quite to her tummy yet.

She can sit up for quite a while in the exersaucer, and loves watching TV with Charlotte there.

She loves grabbing , she grabs Mama and Charlotteas hair. Charlotte always cry out when Kasia does it.

She has big big smiles and react to you so much when someone talks to her. Charlotte would play with her in the morning when they are both awake. Kasia is always so happy playing with sister. Charlotte would hold Kasia’s hand so that kasia cannot grab her hair.

Kasia is able to sleep over night with Charlotte,about 12hours straight for both of them.

Sophia and Landon came over to play. Sophia took Kasia’s pacifier and put in Charlotte’s mouth pretend that Charlotte was the baby and doggy too. She dragged Charlotte around the house and fex her water. Charlotte listened to Sophia throughout the time. When Charlotte accidentally bumped her head to edge of bed and cried. Mama asked Sophia to put pacifier into her mouth and Charlotte stopped crying.

Landon was trying to entertain Kasia because she had not been good today, cried much and didn’t want to lay down or sit in the exersucer for too long.

Mama tried to put both Charlott and Kasia for a nap every day but always takes too long. Kasia would fall asleep after a while, but Charlott can lay down with us for as long as 2 hours without falling asleep. Good thing is they can both sleep through the night in their bedroom. Sometimes Charlott might wake up during the night without crying and come to daddy and mommy’s room and hop on our bed to sleep with us. She’s an easy baby now since she doesn’t take her shoes off all the time anymore after grandma left.

We went to library for learn and play. It’s Halloween activity day. Charlotte loves the singing and dancing, loved when dancing the “little chick” when it danced very fast. Charlotte just kept spinning and laughing smiling. After that they had small trick or treating. Charlotte ate all her candies, good it was only 2 candies.

We went to children therapy to check on Kasia. The therapist said Kasia’s head is more round now and the difference has shortened down to about 9mm. The 1st time was over 12mm, 2nd time was over 11mm. We need to get it down to around 5mm. But she’s very happy to see Kasia is doing so good and have no worries for the next visit. Kasia’s motor skill is right at 50% average. The therapist said Kasia was much more expressive this time, smiling and ‘talking’ more.

Daddy got Starbuck and Charlotte loved it and kept wanting to drink. Mama asked her to take a sip and play with Kasia and she did back and forth. Mama asked her to wipe Kasia’s mouth and give kasia a kiss, she did it right away. The Starbuck just bribed her out.

Charlotte kept saying 谢谢妈妈，谢谢爸爸，谢谢哥哥 ( thanks Mama,baba, brother) yesterday. She said 谢谢姨姨 today when auntie Emily gave her some grapes.

A funny thing tonight. Mama threw a pajama on daddy and was thinking to put it on later myself. After I was ready to go into the room. Mama saw daddy was trying to put it on and I laughed and asked ” what are u doing? This is for myself”. Guess what, daddy thought that was for him to wear and he tried so hard to put on but couldn’t get it fit. We ended up both laughing so hard. We have matching pajamas.

Today Charlotte is 2 years and 4 months old! We went to walk daddy home for lunch, Charlotte copied what mommy did-Mama keeled down to take pictures for her, she keeled down too, when i squatted down, she did that too. She gave mama’s prenatal and wanted mama to open for her, like what she has always been doing. I told her to give to mama to eat, she played with it for a few seconds then gave to mama. She thought that’s Mama’s candy and grabbed it saying 妈妈的糖糖. She liked to sit in Kasia’s exersaucer to play, she could go in but couldn’t get out herself .

We walked to Target to buy some yogurt. it was so cold and windy. Charlotte didn’t want to wear her coat. Mama kept saying if she didn’t wear, she wouldn’t get to go out. She kept saying 不要不要，until Mama said ” 我再给你最后一次机会 i am giving you last chance”, she said 好 ok, lol.

Charlotte is learning so much at this age. A few things that she does:

-Sucks her finger regularly, especially when she’s tired or bored. it’s easy to tell whether she falls asleep because she would make “jiu jiu” sucking sound when she falls asleep. She likes to grab daddy or mommy‘s pinky finger while sucking.

– When mama shakes prenatal bottle, she runs to get the prenatal right away, Mama always tells her to feed Mama the prenatal . She would pretend that she’s not giving to mommy and hides her hands behind her, play with it for a few seconds and then puts into mommy’s mouth. She thinks that’s mama’s candy.

– She carries a stool with her a lot trying to reach higher, such as for brushing teeth, see daddy/mommy cooking, reach snacks.

-she loves climbing, on the slide, chair, couch by the fence,bed, sometimes table.

-if she realizes that we are going out, or eating something that she likes, she would say 快快快 (hurry….) while running over to daddy or mommy and stop whatever she’s doing.

-if she hears daddy saying going to work, she would run to daddy and have daddy hold her.

-she likes pulling mommy’s eyelids up because it’s funny, she would do it to Kasia and sometimes herself too

-she likes to wave at people on the street. if mommy ask her to say hello, she would wave say hello. Mommy asks her to say bye, she would wave and say bye-bye.

– she likes to eat animal crackers and candies and knows mommy have them in the purse and look through my purse. When she doesn’t know how to open, and ask for help, she would say 一个就好 (just one), because when mommy gives her a snack, I always tells her you can only eat one, and you need to be good and say it repeatly.

Days likes Alexa, Amazon echo, she says “happy” if she wants to listen. Mommy would then ask her if she wants to listen to a certain song, she always says “hao”, after the song ends, she would say “repeat” because that’s how mommy asks Alexa to repeat what she was playing.

– she likes putting things on her fingers like donut toys or little people and sing finger song.

-When she sees something that scares her , she tells mommy 怕怕 ( afraid), like bugs, Halloween videos, hair dryer noise

Words she can say: 好，不要，奶奶没了，爸爸/妈妈的袜子，裤子，毛巾，妹妹的床，妹妹哭哭，妹妹睡觉，姨姨，爸爸，妈妈，奶奶，徐妈妈，爷爷，糖糖, 爸爸上班班，外公/外婆上班，爸爸/妈妈/哥哥厉害, 谢谢妈妈/爸爸，happy birthday,,,, etc..

Translates into:

Yes, no, grandma is gone, daddy/mommy’s socks pants towel ， sister‘s bed, sister is crying , sister is sleeping, auntie, Baba, Mama, Mama Xu, candy, daddy is working, Grandpa/grandma is working, Daddy/ mommy/ brother is awesome, thank you Mommy/daddy

Songs she can sing quite well:

“Happy Birthday” (English and Chinese), “Wheels on the bus”, “finger songs”, “baby shark”, “twinkle twinkle little star”, “head shoulder knees and toes”, There are other songs that she would sing a sentence or two like: ” Johny Johny yes papa”, “ring around the Rosie” ，“Mary had a little lamb”, “itsy bitsy spider”. There are more because she loves listening to the kids songs.

Charlotte got diapers rash tonight and had poop but was crying when daddy trying to wipe. Daddy went to buy diaper rash cream right away because she saw Charlotte crying so hard and couldn’t wait. Daddy loves you girls so much. Kasia pooped tonight and daddy was trying to change her, as daddy opened up the diaper, Kasia’s poop came out like she was peeing, and got over her cloth and changing table.

Kasia slept on the crib by Charlotte since daddy was going to take care of the mess and mommy wanted to put Charlotte to sleep right away. Charlotte saw Kasia and kept saying 妹妹little sister and then 妹妹的床 sisters bed. It took almost an hour for Charlotte to fall asleep and she kept wanting Mama’s pinky that it hurt. If Mama doesn’t give a finger, Charlotte would want her feet to touch Mama’s hand. Charlotte learns what timing is. When Mama doesn’t want her to do something and start to count 1,2…When Mama counts 1 she usually stops what she’s doing right away such as climbing and walking out the door while putting her to sleep.

YingYing’s baby shower, Kasia so excited when mommy asked her to smile

We were at Grandma waipo’s house because she wanted to cook a meal for us since Mama had been busy with kids. Charlotte was outside playing and saw airplanes flying. She was so excited and pointed to the planes with both hands and shouting ‘飞机，飞机，看，飞机 airplane….Look….”.  Kasia pooped  at Grandma waipo’s house – When Mama heard one poop sound, the poop leakedb out to her cloth and Mama’s pants.

Kasia sucking her thumb, if you can tell >.<”

Charlotte stole a candy 山渣片 and eating underneath the tables during Bible study because we had trick or treat. Mama saw her and called out her name asked what she was doing. She wrapped her candy and gave it to Mama because she knew Mama didn’t want her o eat more as she already ate some. Kasia grabbed grandma Zha’s finger and wouldn’t let go when we were about to leave church.

Corey’s birthday, Landon really wanted to seat by Charlotte

It has been busy for Mama since grandma left for China. Charlotte misses Grandma. The first word that she says after waking up in the morning is 奶奶没了 (grandma is gone). We tried to let her sleep by herself in her room and Kasia still sleeps in the bassinet. The first night Charlotte woke up during the night and went to our room. Daddy said she probably cried for a while because neither of Baba or Mama heard her crying, and she was holding daddy’s hand standing at bed edge and trying to sleep on his hand. Daddy woke up later and put her on bed with us. The second night Charlotte woke up again and came to the room, this time Daddy was prepared so he woke up right away when Charlotte came. Mama must have been very tired and wasn’t aware.

Last night Charlotte didn’t wake up at all until 9 am. She has been a little fussy in the house since grandma always took her outside during the day, but Mama is too busy with 2 kids that I barely have time for them. Mama needs to cook, do laundry, nurse Kasia and etc.. just feel like there’s always something to do. We brought lunch to Baba’s work and ate there with him, it was a little chilly but Charlotte was so happy going out. We took a walk around the pond and saw the golden fish. When coming back home, at the corner turn to Crimson Dr.. Charlotte yelled 回家喽 （ going home), when grandma was still here, when we made a turn there, she would be sad pretending she’s crying .

Kasia has been surprisingly good these two days. She woke up today and lay on bed for almost 2 hours without crying. She didn’t cry at all today, neither much yesterday. Charlotte and Kasia can play together, but Kasia likes to grab long hair and Charlotte would cry if Kasia does it. Kasia grabs Mama s hair a lot when being nursed.

Kasia was sucking her thumb today, hope she doesn’t suck as much as Charlotte. Baby has been singing << baby shark>> and use hand dancing gesture, very cute.

Grandma Nainai went left us for China today. We all went to the airport to see her off. We all knew it was hard for Nainai to say goodbye because Charlotte liked her a lot and Nainai loved playing with her every day. Charlotte knew that Nainai was leaving. Daddy said she was a little upset when she saw Nainai going through the security line and wanted to go with Nainai. She was okay in a little bit though. On the way back Mama asked her “where is Nainai”, she’ll said “Nai nai is gone”. Kasia cried in the car so we stopped to nurse her. We stopped at Saigon Market to get some grocery. On our way back Kasia cried all the way to home.

Everybody took a nap after lunch today since we all got up earlier than usual. Kasia slept for over five hours from 11:30ish to 5 pm and still went to bed at her normal time before around 9:30 pm. I was surprised.

Our home seemed to be quite today and it’s cold so we didn’t go outside. Daddy and Mommy tried to play with Charlotte and Kasia. Charlotte was all okay that Nainai is not here anymore. Kasia was very happy after her long nap. When Mama asked Charlotte where Nainai or where YeYe was, she kept saying 奶奶没了（Nainai is gone），and sometimes followed with 爷爷也没了（Yeye is also gone）. A few times she would be sad and pretend that she was crying while saying Nainai is gone. Mama took a video of her “fake crying” and she would say 奶奶哭哭 (Nainai crying). When it’s about sleep time, Mama asked Charlotte to go sleep with Nainai, she kept pointing to the basement and said “nai nai mei le”. Charlotte was aware that Nainai was going back to China. She didn’t look for Nainai today, only when we asked her where Nainai was, and she would say Nainai is gone. I told Charlotte Nainai was going to take airplane and go to China, if she wanted to go take airplane too. Nainai had been asking if Charlotte wanted to take airplane with her to China many times too. So Charlotte knew Nainai wasn’t coming home with us for a while.