Disneyland!

So our first full week or so in San Diego is complete, and it's been a great one!

Some fun new things from Xinyi this week are:
- she loves twisting caps, off and on and off again! She now knows how to open her twist top puff jar, to my dismay!

- she had her first trip to the beach

- she loves to dance, bobbing up and down with her little body, and stamping her little feet to fun songs :)
- she absolutely knows yes and no, nodding her head up and down, or side to side when she is offered food, toys, etc.

- she loves playing the piano, and found a baby sized piano at mommy and me!

- for the second time, Xinyi has had full on crying fits at the doctor's office - she seems to have a very strong personal bubble and loudly protests when that bubble is crossed by a stethoscope or ear checker thingy... She also refused to get a butterfly sticker on her hand during story time for the same personal bubble reasons...

- first park play date with cousin Nathan!

- she learned to smile on request!

- she says a horse says "neigh!"
- and last but not least, she had her first trip to Disneyland with the Fung families! Oh and we had dinner at our favorite chinese place pre Disneyland!

Clara's first selfie during her first ride at California adventures! 

In front of Boo's door at the monsters inc ride!

Waiting in line for Peter Pan with mommy!

She was a little ham for the camera and loved time with both Fung families! Wonderful memories!!

My little imitater

We're all moved into our temporary living situation in San Diego! Yaaayyy, says Xinyi!




























Actually, she's doing the motions for the song, "Mr. Sun" but that's okay :).

For the past few weeks, baby girl has started to consistently match colors and shapes! She has a color and shape puzzle and knows where everything goes!! She recognizes most animals, but still only moos or baas :D.

We read books all day together and I usually ask baby to bring me a book, then I pat my legs to tell her to sit in my lap. Well she's taken to patting my legs after I pat my legs, smiles at me, then goes and grabs a book, and then sits in my lap. Too cute!

She still loves cheese and bananas and says "chiz" and "nana" when she wants them!

Here is daddy and baby just hanging out! Tired from all the pre-move packing!

And mommy holding baby's hand during our last local LA story time.

Our church friends gave us a sweet goodbye (several times over) and here is a picture from one of them!

Baby tackling duck to the ground for fun!

And wearing a cape, because why not?

Super girl!

Hugs from Auntie Crystal! Yay!

And a confused look to follow :P.

Hanging out on the ground like a teen, eating her snacks...

And exploring the Dinosaur exhibit with daddy at the LA Zoo (on our last day in LA!)

Now that we are in San Diego, Xinyi has two grandparents' houses' to play in and wreak havoc upon... daddy calls it Baby Disneyland :).

She has so much more room to play and run, it's adorable! And yet, she still loves to read. 

That's our girl! We're taking her to the beach today, for a proper San Diego introduction!! Until next week!

We're Moving!

So the big news is out: we are moving back to San Diego! This is how Xinyi feels about the move:

Just kidding, she has no idea what is happening, other than that there are boxes everywhere!

After 3.5 years in LA, we've decided to move back to San Diego to be closer to family :). We want baby girl to know her cousins, grandparents and great-grandparents, almost all of whom are in San Diego!

As an aside: here is daddy wearing baby's backpack!!

After 15 months, Xinyi finally signs water! She used to sign milk for milk and water, but now she clearly signs water and knows the difference between the two!

Baby girl loves her songs! Now, when we sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" to her, she claps when the song lyrics say clap, and stomps when it says stomp, and raises her arms up when it says hurray! She used to only clap!

She also starts marching when she hears the song about Dinosaurs Marching, raises her hand to make a sun when we sing the song, Mr. Sun, and clicks her tongue to ask me to sing "Hickory Dickory Dock." She dances like crazy to "What does the fox say?" and "I'm a gummy bear" - two songs that I never thought I'd listen to, but baby loves it! And I've already listened to the 100 toddler tunes one hundred times too many :P.

Here we are saying goodbye to one of Xinyi's baby bff's!

Baby tries to zip her jacket together but can't quite figure it out, so she holds them together as if it were zipped up instead. But when I ask her to go to her (high) chair for breakfast, she toddles over and patiently waits to get lifted into her chair! When I say it's time to go, she goes to the baby gate by the door and waits for me to open it! When I say it's time to sleep and she's busy playing, she throws a fit! She understands sooo much!

And the newest thing she does is she gets frantic every time someone leaves the room she is in - to go get something, to go to the bathroom, to throw trash away.... doesn't matter.... separation anxiety!!!

She also continues to climb up sofas, chairs, couches, anything she can swing her leg up on! She's a little acrobat!

Xinyi also loves to hug her lovey before she goes to sleep. It's a new thing that started last week, but has continued strong this week. Every day when she wakes up, she is playing with lovey. Every nap, she falls asleep holding lovey. Every night, I watch her roll around hugging lovey. It's the sweetest, cutest little thing!!!

Well, that's all the pictures I have this week... too many boxes to pack :). Thank you LA friends for a wonderful 3.5 years. We will miss you all! Hello again to SD family and friends, we'll see you soon!