Things to love about Iris

As Iris is smack dab in the middle of her two's, we continue to marvel at her learning, her personality, and interests. Last week, she started sleeping on a mattress without her crib. So, she is comforted by many stuffed animal friends, and enough blankets to cover her whole bedroom floor. She loves her blankets, with the yellow one that we brought to China as her favorite. Lately, she wants to wear it like a dress tied around the back.
Other things we love about Iris:
- her growing desire to cook in her play kitchen and serve plastic food to us and friends.
- her hobby of squirting the bottle to clean her playhouse and other patio furniture
- her new desire to play "ABC" (she says, "EZ") games on the computer.
- her saying, "no, sing mommy", so that she can sing her versions of "Old Mcdonald had a Farm", "Baa Baa Black Sheep" "Jesus Loves me" "Do you know the muffin man?"
- how she laughs when she hears herself snort
- her "uppy" when she wants one of us to carry her
- Saying "take it" when she means "get it" or "keep it"
- reciting lines from books, such as Cinderella, Go Dog Go, and Green Eggs and Ham
- her signal to "watch" a video from her growing video collection (Note: Blue's clues and Vegie Tale series are still popular with her)

Here's a photo of her sitting with new vegetable "toys" knitted by dear Aunt Ruth. There's an eggplant, tomato, two cucumbers, two pea pods, and a carrot coming soon.

As you can see in this picture, she continues to enjoy painting and asking mom to draw Big Bird and Barkley because of the video, "Big Bird in China". I can't wait to see how she channels her creativity. I also wonder what she really thinks about her mama and Dada when we're being silly and making her food talk.
Well, this entry could go long, so let me close by saying that we still enjoy being her parents and are constantly asking ourselves, "What's the next change and/or issue to address with Iris?" Disciplining her "cuteness" is a toughy. Please pray that we'll respond her with firmness and love.

From house to house

For two months, Iris has been saying, "Wendy house" that refers to her playhouse that Dad has been building in the garage. So, the house is up, thanks in part to our two tall, young nephews that helped carry the floor & walls and hammered together the pieces to place the new playhouse in the backyard. Although the doors and windows still need to be put in, it looks very good and Iris loves it. She's into using a squirt bottle and a towel to clean around her house. Who knows why! I think she likes water and likes the control of spraying around. Here's a photo with her Ai-yi Ruth.
In addition to that house, Iris recently took a trip to see Dad's side of the family. It was to celebrate Grandpa and Grandma's 50th wedding anniversary. She stayed with the grandparents for two nights and one night with an aunt. There were several cousins who enjoyed watching her, especially in the pool. Iris really liked the "boat ride" on the inflatable raft that Dad pushed her around the pool in. The worst part of the visit was the cough, runny nose and fever that Iris suffered on the day she returned home. She is on the mend, but the cough was bad enough to change her voice. I think the travel was just too much after days of excitement with relatives that she's only seen a few times.

She is not quite back into a routine and she'll be attending a week of Vacation Bible School at Mom's church next week. As she continues to say more words and ask for things, it will be interesting to see what she learns there next week. Summer school for me starts, too. It is for keeping sane with all the summer activities and busy-ness of work that I would like prayers. God help us all!

Iris at 2 1/2 years

Each day I marvel at the small and big developments in Iris's life. What does she like/dislike? Why does she do or NOT do things? What's behind the crying and whining? Yeah, yeah..I know that she's two years old and that explains a lot, but not all. Before time gets away from me, I want to put down all the fun facts about Iris at this age:

Books: Her current favorites are "Red is a Dragon", "Cordoruy", "Ten Apples up on Top", "Green Eggs and Ham", and she's starting to like the Charlie Brown "Peanuts" comics.

Songs: "It's raining, it's pouring", Ring around the Rosie", "Joy is like the Rain", "Holy, Holy, Holy", "Jesus Loves Me",

Foods: The 4 C's- cookie, cake, chocolate (Thanks to Dale F.!), cracker. She also associates donuts in the large hall where we see friends between worship services at the church. She continues to enjoy milk, juice, yogurt, all kinds of fruit, and noodles. She has eaten and enjoyed avocado, papaya, and hummus at different times. Getting her to eat vegetables still seems to be the challenge, but I've discovered a food item called "Yottabar" that has 9 kinds of vegetables with apple mixed in. They're convenient to pack and don't taste too bad.

Activities: watching videos, painting, finding roly poly (a.k.a. potato) bugs or worms outside, splashing in puddles with her boots on, and "reading" books. Popular videos include "Snow White", Kai Lan or Blues Clues (Nick Jr.), and "Nemo". Dad also likes to watch Wallace and Grommit, "Babe", and "Toy Story" with her.

Sleep: It's great when she finally gets down. She's definitely getting more particular about how many books we read before laying down, where she sleeps (crib or futon bed), and whether she has her sleeping bag, many blankets, a tissue, or a book, OR all of the the above when she is going to sleep. I'm planning to read a book on healthy sleep habits that another mom recommended.

Language: "No" is still prominent, followed by her name "Iris". She started saying "mine", as she grabs things. I'm trying to explain that she should ask by saying "May I..." before "taking" things. She says, "Sorry" even when I should be the one saying it to her. (She must hear it a lot from me.) It's funny when she randomly refers to things that happened hours or days before, such as needing a bandaid for a "boo boo". She is understanding so much because she repeatedly tries to say a word that I may not understand. For example, she says something like "umber" for "umbrella". I find it fascinating how she mixes Chinese with English. For example, she says "fang here", which means "put (something) here".

Of course, crying and whining are part of her communication, but it's hard to train her to calm down and use language to communicate what she wants. In one Kai Lan video, there is a lesson about calming down when one of the characters gets mad. I say that to her as she sits in a corner (my attempt at timeout) before I can respond to what she wants. It's tiring for her, as well as for me and Dada.

Dressing herself: She has one favorite purple tank top that she wears as an undershirt. She has a fascination with wearing tights, too. She has been noticing more things about people's appearances like colored fingernail polish, earrings, buttons, and tags (I tell her "tag in back").


We're very thankful for her happy nature, resilience, and neatness (When there is a crease or crumple, she flattens out one quilt that is laying on the floor of her bedroom.) Just how long these tendencies/preferences will last? God only knows, and it is in Him that I put my trust for her development and well-being. That's about it for now!

Enjoy these photos from recent outings:

Spring is here!

I can't believe April has ended. I had so many intentions of posting more than once. So, what happened?

First, Easter came. The Saturday before Easter Sunday, we met some friends (Lynette and Bobbie) at a park for a candy egg hunt, complete with a 6-foot tall bunny. There was a raffle of prizes, but we didn't win anything. On Easter morning, Iris dressed so nicely in her white dress. She fell down and scratched her chin. It was a rainy day, so after church we stayed home to have our own Easter egg hunt with plastic eggs. In the afternoon, Dada worked long and hard on the "Wendy House" (a.k.a. a playhouse) that he's building for Iris. It's going to be soooo nice and will be big enough to last several years. The materials cost a lot, but we think it will be worth the fun and laughs Iris will have. She already loves it, and it's not all put together yet!


Second, Iris has been enjoying playgroup, park visits, and visits from A-ma and A-gong (even though she says, "no, thank you" when they first come over.). The Monday playgroup met at our house the Monday after Easter, and it was the largest showing ever! There were about 13 children and 10 moms in our modest-sized home. It was great to see sunshine because then the children could go outside and explore our backyard vegetable garden and toys. Sometimes after her preschool time, Iris and I go to the park for awhile before I go to work and before Dada comes home. Several times, my parents helped out with babysitting while I attended work meetings. It's great to hear Iris laugh with them. It's even nicer when they come over because A-ma brings or cooks good Chinese food AND washes dishes. I want Iris to hear the lovely songs that A-ma sings, too. On April 17, there was a Spring social sponsored by the local moms club. Iris liked the food and the balloons. Before we left the event, we noticed the great sculpture/stature of Schroeder and Lucy from the Peanuts gang. What a cute photo op!

Finally, there was the celebration of Dada's birthday. Although he would have rather forgotten it, we had a great excuse to indulge in a delicious mocha chocolate cake, courtesy of my mom. Auntie Ruth stopped by for a quick visit and delivery of a hand-knitted poncho. It is beautiful! On the Sunday of his birthday, Dada decided that it would be good to go to the beach. After attending early worship service, I came back in time to pack up the car to go to the coast. The water was cold, the weather was sunny, and the sand was hot! There was just enough wind to see kites flying. Iris totally loved it and increased her vocabulary to include beach words. We didn't find any good seashells or crawling creatures, but she truly enjoyed splashing and jumping into the water as the waves came close. Playing in sand is always a hit with Iris, too. We were hoping that she would sleep on the drive back in the afternoon, but she only slept 10-15 minutes before we had to take her out of the car and put her in her room. She absolutely did not like that! She cried for over 1/2 hour and never went back to sleep.

Some side notes:
I had to be the single mom for one week early in April and will do it again next week, as Dad goes on business trips. This is new for me, but I thank God for friends who help and in whom I can trust to love Iris. Also, this past weekend, I was away for two nights, so Iris and Dada had some 24/7 bonding time. Through it all, she still seems to smile when we are around. I guess she likes us...a little.
Also, I sewed some curtains for Iris's room. I really need to take sewing lessons because it took a loooong time and the curtains are way too full. Oh well, they add a splash of color to her room, as well as block out the sunshine during naps and early morning.