Mommy Time and Daddy Time

Since Rini has turned one, both James and I have tried our best to connect with our daughter more, to have some special times with her, basically having "Mommy Time" and "Daddy Time." Because I leave for work before Rini wakes up, and don't get home until dinner time, these "Mommy Times" are extra special to me. 

Weekday Mommy Time:

Sometime in July, I decided to take Rini to a local sento, or public bath house, called Yurara. It's about 5 minutes from our house by bicycle, which makes it really convenient. Every week, generally on Wednesday nights after dinner, Rini and I bike over and spend a relaxing hour and a half to two hours in various hot baths. On an average day/night, it costs 400yen for an adult, and 70yen for a child Rini's age, but there are many specials. For example, it's possible to buy 11 tickets for the price of 10, or there are special days when the price is halved, or when Yurara gives 3 points to the member's point card, making it that much faster to get more discounts.
Once I pay and get our key, Rini and I go into the locker room to undress.  I usually leave our towels just outside the bathing area, and take our soaps and sponges in. As we step into the bathing area, right in front of the door, there's a huge "sink" (not pictured here) where people use some small hand buckets to kind of rinse themselves off a bit. So once we've done so, we head over to the shower area. The shower area is made up of rows of seats with shower heads coming from the wall and a mirror at each spot, in front of which people sit and bathe. There are two types of showers: the one that can be seen in this picture has one faucet for hot water and one for cold, and people generally put their little bathing bowl (stacked neatly on the sides in the picture) under it to mix the water temperature as they see fit; and the other ones which have a regular shower head and cord coming from the wall, as well as a main faucet to use for the buckets. I generally prefer this second option, because it makes it easier for me to shower Rini off faster.
Once we're done showering and washing our hair, we head for our favorite bath. Here Rini walks around the little seating ledge, where the water covers half her body, while I soak and follow her in the middle. The middle area is pretty deep; when I kneel down, the water is up to my armpits roughly, so it's really nice and relaxing to float in. The water temperature is not too hot either, around 40C/104F. Lately, I've been trying to get Rini to be more comfortable in the water by jumping into my hands, so I could "swim" her around to another ledge. She cannot quite jump yet, more just steps into my hands, but we have a ton of fun nonetheless.
After we spent a good half hour here, I try to steer us to the water massage seats to the left. This is the same temperature water, and even at the deepest point, the water is only up to Rini's armpit, if even.  She doesn't like being in such deep water on her "own" yet, so generally she just walks all over me and the seat ledge, while water jets massage my back and feet.
After about 5 minutes, we head over either to this little wooden edge pool to "cool" off, or head outside. The temperature at this pool changes according to the season; during the summer it's really cold, but during winter it's around 41-42C/106-108F. Rini just likes to walk along the edge, as I sit on the edge myself and soak my feet. We generally don't stay too long, because Rini likes to go to the open air bath. The water here is about 41C/106F, and shallow enough to reach only my armpits when I sit in the middle, and up to Rini's chest as she walks around. The walls and floor of this bath are made up of these big stones, so it's a nice challenge for Rini to practice her balance as she walks around. Also, sometimes she likes to play with the little stones around the edge of the pool, so we both have fun.
There are two more pools in Yurara, which we don't really use. One of them is a scented bath, where the scent is changed once a week, and the other is a really deep "cool" bath (about 39C/102F), with some more jet streams.
Once we're done, we get dressed, go home, brush our teeth, and sleeeeep. It's a really nice way to relax.

Weekday Daddy Time:
Something James started doing with Rini on Thursdays is going to a play group specifically for 1-year-olds. The play group is from 10A.M. to 11:30A.M., where the first hour or so is just the kids playing with each other. Then, in the last 20 minutes, the parents sing songs with their children. I was able to go one time back in August and the play group was really fun.
Every week, I hear stories of how much fun Rini had at this group, all the little things she enjoyed playing with, and how she is developing.
I can't really write anything more about this, as it's James's territory. Maybe one day, he will write a post on his own blog. Until then, here is a little video I took back in August:

Mommy and Daddy Time Alone:

While we both enjoy our  alone time with Rini, sometimes James and I need to spend some time being just the two of us. For this reason, I asked a friend to help us find a babysitter service here in Fukuyama. Through her we made a connection with a Family Help Center, who connected us with an older lady, who used to be a nursery or kindergarten teacher. The lady is really nice, and Rini spent a few hours with her 2-3 times already. Luckily, Rini really likes her, and they have a good time together. They sing songs, go to the park, and other fun things. The hourly rate is pretty good too, and I hope we'll be able to set something up, where she could watch Rini for 3-4 hours every other week in the future.

Time just flies by... 19 and 20 Months

Mommy!!! Stop giving me funny hair-dos! ...
OK... They are fun after all. You can continue.

This blog post has been in the works for almost two months at this point, due to lack of time to sit down and focus on this. Rini's height and weight are as of October 15th-ish, but will add November's stats (in parenthesis) this weekend. The further down the blog goes, the more recent the entries are, with updates in Italic to reflect recent development in earlier writing.

Height: 82 cm (82 cm)

Weight: 10.15 kg (10.5 kg)

Vaccinations: Rini received her booster Polio shot just today (Nov. 11th), and boy, was it an interesting experience! As soon as we stepped into the doctor's room and Rini saw all the nurses in their pink outfits, she turned around in my arms, started crying and clawing the air towards her dad behind me. We could not calm her down, but at least the shot was over quickly, and she didn't become a puddle of tantrums on the floor. I'm wondering if her strong reaction against doctors and nurses has anything to do with the fact that the only time she's really been to the doctor was when she needed her shots. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, but at least now she's done for quite some time. We also decided not to get her the flu shot after all, as she's been a really healthy child, almost exceptionally so, and instead we'll just be a bit more vigilant of fevers and coughs this winter season. So if all goes well, Rini will not need to get another shot while we're in Japan.

BAAALLS!!!... Yes, they're that much fun! (^_^)

Clothing size: Still 80 cm, but just barely. I think any clothes we buy for her from this point on will be 90cm.

Shoe size: 12.5 cm

Diaper size: L; we switched up shortly after my last post, because we ran out of mediums. Thinking about switching up to L on FuzzyBunz, too, since she's starting to show a bit of her bum in the medium ones.

Teeth: This past month she's been busy growing her canines. I can feel all four of them just under the gum line, and see one (TL3) pretty clearly, too. Any day now they will start braking through the surface. Note: TL3 popped out on October 25th, and BR3 on October 29th, with next one probably being BL3.

Food: Nothing really new to report, except her amazing love for tangerines. She eats at least two at every sitting, and if she sees it on top of our fridge, doesn't matter what time of day it is, she wants some, and wants them now. I'm glad, since tangerines are chock full of vitamin C, so hopefully it will help keep colds away this winter season. Update on November 11th: She still really likes them, but now we think it's more of a fascination with peeling them, than the irresistible urge to consume them, as she often keeps peeling more after she had enough, which we end up eating instead of her.

Getting ready for Halloween maybe?

Nursing: It seems to me, that she's been nursing more later than earlier, as in closer to 5AM than 2AM. Not every night, but it is happening slowly. I'm kind of hoping this means that she might wean herself off. (I know, I know... dream on...)

Sleeping: For a few weeks now, Rini has been waking up sometime between 6:30 to 7AM, unless she fell asleep late the night before. I don't know if this has to do with the fact that she's been more consistent in napping for an hour to hour and a half around mid-day, or that she wants to make sure she still finds me home in the morning before I go to work. Maybe it's a little bit of both. The main result of this early waking is that I have almost no time to blog. I generally try to blog on Saturdays (even if it doesn't get posted until later), while she is asleep. I used to have an hour or two for this every week, depending on how early I got up. Now, however, I'm lucky to have 30 minutes or so.

Milestones: She's getting faster every day. Though not quite running yet, she will be before Christmas for sure. A few days before Halloween, she learned how to peel a tangerine, and since then, she doesn't allow us to do it anymore. She is also much better at handling her utensils and food, so much so, that she rarely makes a mess on the floor.

On a side note, I finally (around Halloween) got her to "jump" into my hands when we're at Yurara, the public bath house near us. That is, from the shallow water, she "jumps" into deep water where I catch her before she goes under. This is a pretty big step, because the past 6 months or so, she was quite fearful of being in the water. She also lets me "swim" her around a little... very little, but still much more than before. 

Further Update (Nov. 11th): She's been practicing jumping up from the floor. Her feet don't quite leave the floor yet, though, but what matters is that she is trying!

Laughing with Daddy!

Potty training: This is a new section, which I'm starting because we began discussing potty training at home. We have not started yet, as she is too young, but we've been keeping an eye out for signs of readiness. Some things, like saying the words for pooping when we catch her in the act, or saying "stinky" if it's a particularly odor-full diaper we're changing her out of, have been going on for some time now. She even says the word stinky and uses the hand gesture when it's appropriate, usually during diaper change. But lately, I started showing her what's going on while I'm on the toilet, and she finds it rather fascinating. She's been following me to the bathroom for months now, so doing this little extra step was not a big deal. I think she might have learned the word for pee in Hungarian (pisi) in the past few days (from Nov. 11th), but I'm still testing this theory. Overall, we're thinking of getting her one of those child seats that go over the regular toilet soon, just so she can try it out once in a while, if she's interested, but we won't start anything "serious" until Christmas break.

Words: During the last week of October, she has learned the words "no" and "nem," both meaning the same thing, just one is English and the other is Hungarian. Though she prefers using "no" over "nem" in general, when it's just me and her, she does say the Hungarian word a little bit more. She also mimics a lot of new words, but they're so rare and fleeting, that I'm not sure if they're quite set and can be considered learned, yet. Anyways, I'm sure they will come soon, as she is quite the chatterbox.

Wearing great-grandma's
dress for the first time.

Favorite toys: Same as last time, but add cards to it. She looooves playing with cards. We have a set of plastic playing cards that have pictures of common words on them, and the words in Japanese and English, which I bought in the 100yen shop. I use these to try and teach her words as we play with them. Not sure how much good it does, but hey, I'd rather try than not.

Likes: She really likes cereal in the morning, and oatmeal, too. Also, she loves copying whatever we do or say. It's funny watching her wipe her nose with a tissue, just because one of us just did it a moment before. She also wants to eat and drink what we're eating and drinking, using the same style utensils and cups. So, sometimes when we're drinking soda during dinner, we trick her by using the same cup, and giving her water in it. Of course, the cups we use for soda are not see-through, so generally she's none the wiser.

Dislikes: I don't know if she has any new set dislikes, but she's definitely more capable of telling us when she doesn't want something right at the moment. I did notice lately that she hasn't been quite as eager to wash herself when we shower together, like she used to.

Mommy/Rini update: I've been noticing this the past couple months, but last week have confirmed it, that I've been gaining weight again. I'm up to 64kg, which is not bad, but I rather not go beyond. For this reason, I've been thinking of what I could do to keep my weight at this level. One thing that came to mind was, I need to eat a more balanced breakfast. I mainly eat cereal with milk, and bread for breakfast every day, and that's probably not the best. I need more fruits and vegetables in my diet, smoothies and salads. Also, maybe I should bring some fruit/veggie snacks to school, so that I won't want to eat so fast and so much during lunch time. School lunch is generally pretty healthy and balanced, but I get served a lot of rice, that I probably don't need. Also, a little veggie snack shortly before I leave school would maybe help me not get nauseous during my bus ride home, which in turn makes me want to eat a buffalo, when I get home finally. So, in general, less bread and more fruits and veggies from now on is what I'm going to do. I don't really eat sweets and fatty things, so that should be alright. I've considered working out again at home, but with Rini waking up so early, it's almost impossible to keep it up on a regular basis, and I need the routine.
On a different note, as the weeks pass by, I have a stronger and stronger yearning to stay home with Rini. I still like my job, but I'm anxious to spend more time with her, while she is my only little girl. I probably mentioned somewhere before that depending on things, we would not be opposed to having another little one as early as sometime the end of next year. This also means, that there's a high possibility of me being pregnant before I say goodbye to this job. Learning to be a stay-at-home-mom, while being pregnant is a little scary to me, though not enough to make me wait. I know I'll be able to do it, I just want to make sure I give as much attention to Rini as I possibly can, before I have to focus on our new baby.

Enjoying one of the last warm November days.

Happy 1 and a Half Birthday!

I love this comic nonetheless.

More enlightened people (parents I trust) told me about six months ago that the term terrible twos doesn't mean one has an angelic and easy-going child until she reaches her second birthday at which point all hell breaks loose like in the comic to the right, but in fact that it's the second year of the child's life, the time between the first and second birthday where the difficulties start, and who hasn't heard of the terrible twos with their tantrums and constant "no"-s?

According to a parenting advice book a friend of ours gave us, called Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old by Louise Bates Ames, toddlers and children tend to be most unbalanced emotionally during their half birthdays, not when they turn "a year" older. As a child hits her different milestones, there's a time of figuring out how to control the new set of "powers" and a time when they're considered "mastered." In general terms, children master the new skills of their particular age around the time they hit a birthday, making half-birthdays the time when figuring things out is in full swing. This means a whole lot of frustrations between parent and child, with the half-birthday being the peak of this.

Of course, this is a generalization, and each child is different, but my point is, Rini turned 18 months old today! It boggles my mind how much she has grown so far, and I can't wait to see where she will go from here.

Since we visited the doctor for her well-child visit just yesterday, I will include some extra information in this month's development post. Our height and weight measurements between these check ups are done by us at a well stocked nursery area of a local mall, and are probably not quite accurate. The stats below were measured by nurses, so please disregard the apparent shrinking of my child.

Height: 77.8 cm

Weight: 9.84 kg

Head Circumference: 48 cm

Chest Circumference: 47.2 cm

Vaccinations: So far Rini has finished her Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hib, PCV7, Measles, Mumps, and Chickenpox vaccines. She still needs her booster shot for Polio, which we'll get sometime in November, probably along with her influenza shots. This will complete all her shots while we live in Japan.
We've decided no to get her the BCG or tuberculosis vaccine, until we know for sure where we will settle down for good after Japan. If she would get the vaccine, she would have to have a chest X-ray every year in the US when she's in school, because she would always test positive from the vaccine, and that's not something I'm quite prepared to deal with just yet. I will have to do research into Hungarian vaccination practices as well as US ones, sometime before we leave Japan, just to be clear on what is expected.

Clothing size: 80 cm

Shoe size: 12.5 cm - She's been slowly outgrowing her little size 3 sandals we picked up for her in the US in the spring, so I'm glad the weather is turning cooler, and she can wear sneakers now.

Diaper size: For night-time and going out we still use Moony, size M (6-11 kg), but it's starting to feel a bit short on her back. The next size up is for 9-14 kg, and I expect we'll switch up before the end of the year. At home, she still wears FuzziBunz Mediums, and will continue to do so for some time, I'm sure.

Teeth: All 12 of her teeth broke through fully. While a couple are only half-way to completion, they are all visible and well formed. I do have to note, that it's been much harder to catch the exact day a new tooth breaks through her gums, mostly because my husband is the one brushing her teeth and I keep forgetting to ask for updates. Speaking of brushing her teeth, Rini began using a small, but regular toothbrush a couple weeks back, which she seems to enjoy much more and is more willing to brush her teeth, than when she had her baby toothbrush. She's getting better every day at brushing her teeth on her own, though as I mentioned just before, my husband does a once over in the end just to make sure every one of her little teeth is pearly white. So far, we've only insisted on brushing her teeth before bedtime, but lately, she wants to brush with us when she sees us brushing our teeth in the morning, too, so I guess, it might be time to settle into the twice-a-day routine.

Food: Now that Rini has some molars, we've began giving her more textured foods, or at least, we don't cut them into quite as small pieces as before. She's also been getting much better at manipulating her spoon, so that she doesn't spill quite as much liquid, whether it'd be soup, or cereal and milk, as before. This helps a lot in broadening her pallet into the wonderful world of soups and stews, just in time for fall and winter.
On a slightly different note, I should mention that she quite prefers adult spoons and forks to her child size ones. So much so, that sometimes the difference between a happy meal and a not-eating child is the size of the utensils we give her. Oh, and she tries real hard to use chopsticks and can hold them to scoop up bits of food, like with a shovel.

Nursing: We're down to once a night nursing, not counting bedtime of course. As for the time she wakes up, it can be any time between midnight to 5:30AM, though generally it's most common around 3AM. She might wake up after 5:30AM, but I'm usually out of bed by then. If she wakes up before midnight, she usually goes for her sippy cup. There has been one or two night lately, when she woke up before midnight for her sippy cup, then slept through the rest of the night. Those nights were glorious for me.

Sleeping: Rini is still a "nap enigma" as James puts it. The only thing he can tell me about Rini's napping habits, is that if she wakes up earlier in the morning (around 7:30-8AM), she is more likely to nap earlier, too (around 1PM). When she wakes up a bit later (8:30-9AM), then she's more likely to nap after 2PM if she naps at all. Going out in the morning to play in the park or to playgroup will make her napping more likely. Generally speaking she either falls asleep during the bike ride home, or comes to James to nap in his lap. Both times James is usually able to put her down on the bed once she falls asleep, where she sleeps for about an hour. Then she wakes up a bit, looks for James again, and snuggles into his lap for another 30 minutes to an hour of napping. In any case, we make sure she doesn't nap past 4PM (even if she hasn't napped yet), as that interferes with bedtime.

Milestones: Two major milestones that happened this past week are walking backwards intentionally (as opposed to stumbling back and falling), and being able to throw and kick a ball. I think she learned how to play with a ball when she spent some time with her new babysitter, because the next night she brought her big yellow ball to us after dinner, dropped it into my hand, then stepped back a little and waited for me to throw it to her. Then she did the same thing with her dad. The three of us played pass-the-ball for a good 10 minutes or so that night, and a couple more times since then! It's quite cute, and a new entertainment for all of us. This was also the night I discovered she is able to walk backwards.
I just missed where she kicked the ball all around... she seems rather tired here.

Another new thing is she (sometimes/when she wants) sits down on the diaper changing mat and waits to be changed. This is mainly after her bath, when she's naked and needs her diaper, not from a dirty to a clean diaper, but still. She also lifts her legs up when it's time to put powder on her. Also this past month she started asking for soap and soaping herself up during bath. She usually tries to wash her privates, her feet, and her hair, and is not doing a bad job with it either, though I do re-scrub, just to make sure she didn't miss a spot. I'm hoping to help her to find her underarm and her neck, and then we'll be more or less set for her to wash herself on her own. She also tries to brush her hair, and is getting better at it.
Finally, there's a little nursery rhyme in Hungarian about walking that goes like this:
Sétálunk, sétalunk, egy kis dombra lecsücsülünk, csüccs!
It means roughly "We're walking, we're walking, we sit down on a small hill, plop! (here we squat down)" Point is, whenever I say this little rhyme, even before I reach the word csüccs, which she knows already as the act of sitting down, she squats down for a second. Even if I stop saying the rhyme after the first two words, she waits a couple beats and squats, like I've never stopped. There are times I absentmindedly say the rhyme as I walk with her, and she squats down and doesn't get up until I squat, too. It's really cute!


Words: She started using "bye" regularly this past month. When she wants something she uses the sound "datdat," which I take is a form of "that." Finally, she started using the word "stinky" with the hand gesture in front of her nose. This usually happens, when her diaper is changed, but also sometimes when she pooped in her diaper.

Favorite toys: Balls, books, blocks. Also, her little wheeled animals she got from her grandma in a care package a few months back.

Likes: She really enjoys listening to Japanese children's songs, like the ones she hears during playgroup. These little songs usually have simple words and hand gestures, and I'm thinking of buying a CD or something so that we can play it together. It's so interesting how much I've forgot from my own childhood, when it comes to rhymes and games. I'm hoping to learn them back soon!

Dislikes: She not really into eating fried rice anymore, which even just a month ago was quite crazy about. Outside of this, there's not much else new.

Mommy/baby update: We've been spending more time together, which I'm really happy about. I've also started looking into places we could visit on a nice day as a family, like the zoo and amusement park. We're planning on visiting one such place tomorrow, in fact.
Last, but not least, we were able to sign up for a family helping service in the city, which basically means, we got paired up with an older lady to watch Rini when we need some time for ourselves. This older lady is (or used to be) a kindergarten or nursery school teacher, and she is really nice. She watched Rini only once for us so far, on the weekend of our anniversary, for about 3 hours. That day, I dropped Rini off at her house, stayed about 25 minutes or so, then said goodbye, and went to enjoy our time off. When we came to pick Rini up, she was happily playing away, listening to children's songs and doing some gestures as well. The lady told me they went for a walk around the block a couple times and have been just generally playing little games. Overall, Rini seemed to have had a nice time, and I'm hoping to set something up for every other week for 3-4 hours, just to give James and I some "us" time. Of course, there's a small fee, but it's very reasonable, especially when it's calculated into our monthly budget.

17 Months Down

I have to say, I'm really glad I started keeping monthly update blogs on Rini. It helps me remember all the little things, and I just wish I had started doing them since her birth. So without further delay, here's Rini as a 17 month old (up to August 15th).

Height: 78.5 cm

Weight: 10 kg

Clothing size: 80cm

Shoes size: 11.5cm (or 3 in the US)

Diaper size: medium

Teeth: Most of those teeth I discovered last month have come in quite nicely. The top two molars (#4s) have a full surface now, as well as her left bottom #4. She's currently working hard on the bottom right #4, and bottom left #2, which was discovered on August 10th. This brings her up to the total of 12 teeth! She's halfway there!

Food: Rini really LOVES corn on the cob. She devours a full cob on her own easily, and keeps asking for more. Another big hit are peaches, and can anyone be really surprised? The ones here are really delicious, even if a bit annoying to part with their pits. Broccoli came back recently, too, after a few months of indifference.

Nursing: We shift between 2 times a night to 3 times a night, including bedtime nursing, depending on Rini's mood, and how tired or thirsty she is. Generally after bedtime, she nurses between 1 and 3 AM, them sometimes around 5AM.

Sleeping: Lately we've been having a little problem with her napping really late, and then not falling asleep until past 9PM, sometimes almost at 10PM. My husband tries to make her nap soon after lunch, but she refuses to do so. This past month she mainly napped around 4PM for an hour, if she even napped at all. This is especially hard on me, because trying to wait her out at bedtime, after she nursed, guarantees that I fall asleep before her. This is not very helpful when I'm hoping to work a bit before going to bed. So many times have I waited patiently 30 minutes or more for her to nurse herself to sleep, just to be wide awake as soon as I move away... On days when I know I really should stay awake and she needs to be asleep before 8:30PM, I started to take her for a walk or to the play ground in the evening, right after dinner usually. This works most times in tiring her out enough for her to fall asleep fast.
However, the question of nap-time eludes me still. The main problem is that I can't tell if we're the ones at fault, not doing something right to get her to nap, or she is just leaving her nap stage behind. She has never been a great napper. Until her first birthday, we were surprised if she napped more than 20 minutes at a time, twice a day. Then it slowly started getting longer to 30 to 45 minutes, but dropping morning naps pretty quickly. She has always been the type of child who was wide awake and playing until she was not and asleep. We couldn't make her nap when she didn't want to, and when she did, she would crawl to us, and fall asleep quite fast in our arms on her own. Now that we, as parents, got used to this behavior, and she coming to us later and later in the day, I wonder if a change of attitude and tactics is necessary.

Milestones: This past month was more about fine tuning skills she already has, instead of gaining major new ones. She can now build blocks up to 13 blocks high, for example. She also holds onto us and lifts her leg to put ON pants, not just when we take it off. She's trying hard to put her own sandals on, and at least half the time manages up to the buckle part. In the last few days, I've seen her try to put on her own pants and shirt. Though she can't really manage it without help, it's the first time I've seen her wanting to try. Furthermore, when I hold her PJs out to put on, she holds her legs, then her arms out automatically.
Now, with 17 months of age comes the reason terrible twos are terrible: tantrums. Yep, our quiet and sweet little girl has entered full tantrum-mode this past month. It's been slowly building up for a couple months, but until now we were able to quickly distract her or quiet her whenever she started crying because we wouldn't give something to her. Now, many times she throws herself down the bed wailing, or hits things (sometimes even us), if she doesn't get her way. It's been hard on both my husband and me to deal with it, mainly because we're still learning how to balance that fine line of letting her deal with her emotions without bottling them up, and trying to make her understand that at the minimum, hitting is not allowed. I also have a feeling that since our parenting styles are somewhat different, we might confuse her as to what's allowed and what is not for her to do. Finally, we're trying our best to learn the possible signs of an upcoming tantrum and counteracting it in time, like has she had a snack, is she tired, does she need to go outside and work some energy off, and so on. It's so hot now in our city, that going out seems like a chore, and I just hope the weather cools down soon, so she'll have more space to explore and play.

Here's Rini after we tried several times to stop her from trying her best to crawl behind the TV. In the end, we gave in to see what happens. Beware, the video is LOUD!


Last little bits of milestones: she likes playing with our tiny broom and to sweep the floor with it. She also uses wipes to clean up around herself, and whenever we accidentally leave a child-lock open, she goes and tries to close it back up. She seems to have a great tendency for cleanliness, which I appreciate and hope we can cultivate in her.

Rini loves to help out whenever her Daddy does anything on the balcony, whether it'd be laundry or beating the futon.
 
Sorry about my reflection in the door glass. I didn't want to open the door, in case I startled her away from what she was doing.

On a final note, for a couple months now she has been bringing books to us to read to her, like Eric Carle's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear..." and "From Head to Toe." The reason why I'm mentioning this under milestones is because she has been able to do all the gestures "From Head to Toe" now for a couple weeks at least, even when we don't read the pages to her in order, or show her the pictures. I've been meaning to catch the whole thing on camera, but with no luck so far.

Words: She keeps on babbling as usual, many times imitating words, but I'm not convinced she knows how to use them regularly, yet. However, there are a few words she has been using more consistently, one of which is "így" from Hungarian. It means, "like this," and I have been using it around her quite a lot when I show her how to do things. Another expression she started using lately is "oh-ooh." She uses it whenever she drops something, or something goes wrong. It's quite cute! Finally, she's been saying "hi" regularly now, whenever she meets someone familiar, and sometimes she even waves bye, though that's still somewhat rare. Finally, she's also been saying "csüccs" a lot, which is the sound we use in Hungarian with kids when we sit down, so I guess it kind of means "plop."

Favorite toys: Books, blocks, and crayons. She loves flipping through books for pictures, and brings all kinds of books to us to read to her. She still loves playing with blocks as well, so I'm really looking forward to getting Legos for her for Christmas. She loves to explore and be outside. A week or so ago, we bought a little inflatable swimming pool to put out in our balcony, and she loves playing in the water.

Finally, just short of a month ago we've received a care package from my mother-in-law, and with it came crayons that can be used during bath time! She loves scribbling on the bathroom walls with them. Though initially we were worried that she would start scribbling on other walls as well, she's been pretty good at avoiding them, except for the one curtain in the living room, but luckily those were done with washable crayons, and caused no lasting damage. Speaking of which, she loved those bath crayons so much, and taking away my pens to draw, that we ended up getting the washable crayons for her to draw with. She still needs adult supervision, just in case, but it's been one of her favorite past times.

Likes: Besides the things I just mentioned above, there's not much new going on. Luckily, she's not a picky eater, and generally eats anything in front of her, if not everything. Fruits, like peaches, watermelon, and Asian pears, are 9.5 out of 10 are a big hit; corn, including popcorn, is 10 times out of 10. She loves feeding us as we eat, and sometimes she actually waits to see if we eat the food, before she eats some herself... almost like if she's checking to make sure we didn't put poison in it.
Oh, by the way, though this is old news, I don't remember mentioning it before, but she's getting great at blowing things that are hot before putting it into her mouth. She's done this for months now, maybe even since she's turned one, but it's quite cute to see how she went from pretending to blow, because she just didn't get the mechanics behind it, to now, when there's actually some air coming out.

Dislikes: Recently we switched Rini to a "big kid" toothbrush, and she seems to be a bit more enthusiastic about the prospect of brushing her teeth, so that's good. She's still not thrilled about being in deep water, but more about that in another post.

Mommy/baby update: I've been trying real hard lately to spend more time with Rini, partially because I really want to, and partially because I know that once school starts up again, I won't have much time to do so again. The biggest thing that I've started doing with her is to go to the nearby public bathhouse with her once a week. I'll write about the details later in another post, but it's been a lot of fun! I hope that I can keep our relationship close while we're still in Japan, because I don't want to miss a single precious moment, if I can at all help it!

Enjoying summer on the balcony. Glad we got this little pool!

Sweet 16... months...

Looking cute with pigtails!

I think this is starting to become a monthly post of which I am glad, though knowing me, I will not hold my breath, just in case.

Height: 78 cm

Weight: 9.5 kg

Clothing size: 80cm

Shoes size: 11.5cm (or 3 in the US)

Diaper size: medium

Teeth: I don't know where they came from but this past Wednesday (the 10th) I looked into Rini's mouth and she had 2 new teeth, another's point just poking out, and one more right under the gums! More specifically, Rini's 7th and 8th teeth are her Top Right and Top Left #4s, which are halfway out. Her 9th tooth is her Bottom Right #2, which by yesterday had a nice thin line showing, and her 10th tooth is suspected to be the Bottom Left #3 or #4, but can't really tell yet, since she only has #1 on that side. I think one of the reasons we didn't see them coming was because on top she already has 4 teeth, concealing things in the back. Also, while she did have a slight (mommy-instinct-only) fever a few weeks back, she also had a bit of a cold soon after, so we just chalked it up to that.
Anyways, the point is, this girl doesn't do anything in bits and pieces it seems. She grew her first 6 teeth within a month and a half, then nothing for 5 months or so, and now here are another 3, with the 4th expected to be out by the end of summer for sure. I must keep a better watch, lest she sneaks another 2 or 3 by me, while I'm not looking.

Eyes: I think I will remove this section from now on, and comment only, if we notice something change.

Food: It was the cutest thing when a few days ago (maybe Thursday), while my husband was slicing some lemons for dinner, Rini became curious and asked to taste the half lemon on the table. Seeing as she's well past her first birthday, the age before which people advise to steer clear of citrus fruits, I saw no harm of her tasting it a bit. What came next was a bit of a surprise as instead of taking a lick and making a frowning face because of the intense sourness of it, she went ahead and happily sucked and licked away, sometimes making an "AAAH" sound, like the one we tend to make after drinking a refreshing cold beverage on a hot day. In the end we gave her a thin slice of lemon, no rind, and she ate it all up, with a few more slices after that. I'm really glad that she's more adventurous than not when it comes to food, and I hope she will keep this as a trait in the future.

Nursing: A few months back, I read somewhere that one way to gently discourage night-time feeding, especially when the family shares a bed, is to let the father sleep between the mother and child. This way, supposedly the child doesn't smell the scent of the mother as easily, and will not wake just for the sake of nursing and comfort. We tried this method before going back to NYC and saw positive results.
Now that we're definitely back in our usual sleep routine, we decided to give it a try once more. We moved our futons around a bit and changed positions, where now I sleep next to the wall, my husband next to me, and Rini on her little futon next to him. We also decided to once again stick to our predetermined nursing times of bedtime/after midnight/after 2AM/after 4AM, with the understanding that if Rini wakes up around 1:30AM or so for the first time to nurse, she can, and the next time will be after 4AM. When it is time to nurse, Daddy would hand her over to my side, and Rini would sleep between me and the wall for the rest of the night, unless we were awake enough to put her back to her futon after she was done nursing. If Rini woke up any other time, Daddy would take charge and offer her water and soothe her back to sleep.
This past month she's been nursing 2 to 3 times a night (bedtime, 1-2AM, maybe 4-5AM), with bits of water in-between. Although we have the A/C running on low at night, I don't fault her for being thirsty, as I am thirsty as well. I also realize now, that the past month's frequent feeding might have had something to do with her teething, so I guess we're doing much better overall that I thought.

Sleeping: Now Rini sleeps 12-13 hours at night, waking up roughly 3 times, out of which, at least one is for water only. More often than not, she wakes up as I wrote above, gradually going from 3 feedings down to 2, including the one at bedtime. This has helped me to get a much better night's rest, especially when I decide to just go to bed when she does. I'm hoping that by the time she's 18 months old, we could count on a single feeding through the night, and by 21 months, have only the bedtime feeding and her sleeping through the night officially. Finally, we'll stop bedtime nursing once she turns two, I think.
As for naps, she still naps for a relatively short time, I think on average from 30 minutes to an hour once a day. Would this be a new occurrence, I might be worried, but even as a teeny-tiny baby she didn't nap longer than 15 to maybe 30 minutes, so I guess that's just the way she is.
Also, we finally set up her crib, and she seems to really like it. She likes to play in it for quite a while, and often asks us to put her in it. Not to mention, after she falls asleep on her Daddy, he's able to put her into the crib without a hitch, and she doesn't get frightened when she wakes up there. Maybe someday we'll try and see if she could sleep there at night, too, but we're in no rush.

Milestones: She's walking now like it's no one's business. She has picked up some speed too, so going for a walk is much more about the walk itself, than walking practice, if this makes sense. I wouldn't say she can run yet, more like just taking quick steps, but I'm sure we'll be there sooner rather than later.

She also holds her cups really well, and rarely spills her drinks. She's great at holding her spoon and fork, and bringing food to her mouth, though I probably should have mentioned this a couple months ago already. What surprised me mostly in this though, was the way she has been holding her spoon and fork. She never just grabbed it full handed like we expect most babies/toddlers to do, but instead holds them almost like an adult would, resting the handle between her thumb and pointing finger, and using the rest of her fingers to help as necessary.
Next, we're either becoming better at understanding what she wants or her communication skills are getting much better, or maybe it's a bit of both, but there seems to be a much better understanding between all of us. For example, she understands and follows simple commands in both Hungarian and English. So far I've noticed her doing this when we tell her to come here, to stand up or sit down, when I tell her to give something to Daddy, or give something to me, when we tell her it's time to bathe (we don't have to do anything except tell her, and she heads to the shower area on her own), or that she shouldn't put something in her mouth. She also goes and sits into her little feeding chair when it's time to eat, without any prompting from us most times.
She doesn't like to respond to the general "No," but she has a pretty good understanding of what's allowed and what's not. This is especially apparent, when we walk in on her doing something that's generally not allowed, and she get flustered a bit, and smilingly stops what she's doing or tries to give us the object, like that's all she ever planned on doing. She's quite sneaky. (^_^)
Speaking of bathing, she also lifts her legs and steps out of her pants now, and holds her hands up when we take her shirt off. And while brushing her teeth, which we started doing nightly a bit before her first tooth came in, is generally not one of her favorite things to do, there are days when she moves the toothbrush around in a way that gets most of the job done.
Finally, something I've noticed a week or so ago is that she stacks blocks! Not just 2 or 3, but I saw her stacking as high as 7! I can't wait to get her Legos soon! (Maybe for Christmas?)
Edit to add: I completely forgot to mention that she can stay on a swing by herself quite comfortably, and enjoys it whenever we go to the park.
Here's a video from June 22nd:

Words: Few days ago, Daddy heard Rini saying "mommy" quite clearly. Otherwise, she's just generally more active in trying to imitate whatever words we say, to the point where I could recognize some things (like kitty in Hungarian), as she repeats it, but she doesn't use these words on her own yet. I can't be sure, but I think I have heard her say "add ide," meaning "give me" in Hungarian, and at the correct situation too, but I'm hesitant to believe it, as I generally use the more polite (and complicated) form of "kérem szépen" when I ask for something from her. Regardless, she's definitely trying her best to communicate with whatever means she can.

Favorite toys: Lately, blocks have been quite a favorite, as well as her "cell phone" and this little blue singing bear that we got from our good friends.She also likes the detachable stars from her crib, and plays with them quite a while as long as we're willing to attach it back for her, so she can pull them off again.
We recently bought her a little drawing mat, which works buy putting a bit of water into the accompanying pens and the mat turns from white to pink where it gets wet, to go back to white as it dries. It's a no fuss way for her to draw and she seems to enjoy it well enough.
Finally, she has a couple shapes-into-holes toys she likes, even though she's not very good with it yet. She manages to put the circle and square into their appropriate holes, but not much else yet, so while she wants to play with them, she gets frustrated easily and asks us to do it for her.

Now what is this that I've found?

Likes: Orange juice is a big hit! She loves being on the swing, too, and can hold herself pretty well, as I gently push her. Rini also enjoys when I put things on her head for her to balance, which she in turn tries to put on mine. Other times, we act silly by passing a ruler to each other with our mouths, and other games like that.

Dislikes: Brushing her teeth, most times; changing her diaper, sometimes... It's hard to tell, as there are not many things. Even her recent fear of water has been getting better. Though she still refuses to sit in water, she at least plays with water in the basin. I'm hoping that by visiting some pools and beaches this summer we can befriend her to swimming.

Mommy/baby update: The biggest change I think this month has been how she doesn't cry as much when I leave the house, as she used to. So much so, that a few times she even happily waved bye to me and went back to playing. This is great, if for no other reason than I won't have to sneak out of the house in the morning in case she wakes up before I leave.

Something I Found and Wish to Remember

The blog post below was taken from a blog called UnTangled. It moved me deeply and I wish to hold on to it, because it summed up my thoughts on the subject so well. One day, I wish to show this letter to my daughter (and son, if we'll have one), in the hopes that it will be one of her main guiding lights in life.

So without further ado, I present to you:

A Daddy’s Letter to His Little Girl

(About Her Future Husband)

April 17, 2013

Dear Cutie-Pie,

Recently, your mother and I were searching for an answer on Google. Halfway through entering the question, Google returned a list of the most popular searches in the world. Perched at the top of the list was “How to keep him interested.”

It startled me. I scanned several of the countless articles about how to be sexy and sexual, when to bring him a beer versus a sandwich, and the ways to make him feel smart and superior.

And I got angry.

Little One, it is not, has never been, and never will be your job to “keep him interested.”

Little One, your only task is to know deeply in your soul—in that unshakeable place that isn’t rattled by rejection and loss and ego—that you are worthy of interest. (If you can remember that everyone else is worthy of interest also, the battle of your life will be mostly won. But that is a letter for another day.)

If you can trust your worth in this way, you will be attractive in the most important sense of the word: you will attract a boy who is both capable of interest and who wants to spend his one life investing all of his interest in you. 

Little One, I want to tell you about the boy who doesn’t need to be kept interested, because he knows you are interesting: 

I don’t care if he puts his elbows on the dinner table—as long as he puts his eyes on the way your nose scrunches when you smile. And then can’t stop looking.

I don’t care if he can’t play a bit of golf with me—as long as he can play with the children you give him and revel in all the glorious and frustrating ways they are just like you.

I don’t care if he doesn’t follow his wallet—as long as he follows his heart and it always leads him back to you.

I don’t care if he is strong—as long as he gives you the space to exercise the strength that is in your heart.

I couldn’t care less how he votes—as long as he wakes up every morning and daily elects you to a place of honor in your home and a place of reverence in his heart.

I don’t care about the color of his skin—as long as he paints the canvas of your lives with brushstrokes of patience, and sacrifice, and vulnerability, and tenderness.

I don’t care if he was raised in this religion or that religion or no religion—as long as he was raised to value the sacred and to know every moment of life, and every moment of life with you, is deeply sacred.

In the end, Little One, if you stumble across a man like that and he and I have nothing else in common, we will have the most important thing in common:

You. 

Because in the end, Little One, the only thing you should have to do to “keep him interested” is to be you. 

Your eternally interested guy,

Daddy

15 months...

Daddy's feet are a bit bigger than mine...

It has been 15 months since our little girl was born, and boy, has she changed!

Height: still 76 cm

Weight: 9.4 kg

Clothing size: still 80cm

Shoes size: still 11.5cm (or 3 in the US)

Diaper size: medium

Teeth: still the same 6 from last time

Eyes: While they have not changed from their beautiful greenish brown, we have noticed that her eyes tend to be more green when she's upset or sick.

Food: She finally likes milk!!! I can't even begin to express how happy this makes me. Not just that, but she also drinks her milk from a regular cup.

Nursing: We have become much better at nursing only three times at night. Though there are some slip ups here and there (mostly when I'm too tired), but I think we're doing pretty well overall.

Sleeping: 9 times out of 10 Rini sleeps 4-5 hours straight from the time she goes to bed, and I have even noticed her waking up only almost at 2 A.M. a few times. Luckily the weather has been mild, so no A/C has been necessary yet.
She has also returned to her normal 7:30-8 P.M. bedtime, making me think it was just a form of jetlag for her not wanting to sleep until 9 P.M. Needless to say, because of all these alterations in her bed time routine, or more so, trying to get back into our previous bedtime routine, we didn't bother with the crib at all.

Milestones: WOW! What a month this has been! On Saturday, May 25th, she learned how to slide down on a slide. True, it's a tiny baby slide, but she got the technical parts down of one leg forward, then next, then hold the side, and slide. (^_^)v

This is not a slide I'd let her do alone, yet... but it was cool!

On Monday, May 28th, Rini was comfortably walking around with holding only one of our hands, as well as talking 1-2 steps on her own. She went from not daring to take a step unless we held both her hands to this in just 2-3 days. By May 31st, she managed to take 4-5 steps at a time without falling. By June 2nd, she was walking on her own pretty well, though she still had the little waddle in her step, with her little hands to the side for balance. On June 4th, she comfortably walked up and down on the stairs in our building by holding onto the side rails only. By the time she turned 15 months old, she needed no assistance in walking or managing the stairs, and would only lose her balance, if the road was really uneven and her foot got caught on something.
It is great seeing the progress she is making in a matter of only a couple weeks really. It has also made our lives much easier that we can rely on her to follow us without assistance. I know that my back for one is definitely happy.

Kitty!!!... Didn't I see you not long ago?

Words: Nothing new really.

Favorite toys: Once again, nothing new.

Likes: Her likes haven't changed much, except with regards to milk.

Dislikes: Her dislikes haven't changed much either.

Mommy/baby update: I've been trying my best to spend more time with Rini, and it has helped us connect better. My aim is to spend one day during the weekend being just the two of us, bonding. Hopefully, we can keep it up for years to come.

And that is all. (^_^)v

As Time Flies By

Once again, I've been too busy or not inspired enough to write for over a months now I think. I have started posts but they aren't quite ready to come to fruition, so I'll just do a quick update on Rini's progress in the past couple months.

I'm eating Hungarian mákosbejgli, and it's goood!

Height: 76 cm

Weight: 9.2 kg

Clothing size: 80cm

Shoes size: 11.5cm (or 3 in the US as we recently found out)

Diaper size: medium

Teeth: still the same 6 from last time

Eyes: They also have not changed from their beautiful greenish brown.

Food: One of her main foods is definitely rice. Since she doesn't like mushy food anymore, but can't quite manage most foods without the hazard of choking looming over the meal, we have been giving her rice to help with texture. It's working out real well. Also, unfortunately strawberry season is over, so we're trying to find new seasonal fruits to give to her. Watermelon has been a great hit, we just take out any seeds beforehand, and make sure she doesn't wear her nicest outfit.
The one thing that has been becoming increasingly difficult to deal with is her tendency to ask for a bite from our (or when I'm around, specifically from my) food. Now this would generally not be a problem, except there have been a few times when I've been eating something she really shouldn't have, so when I tell her no, it causes tension and problems. Well, OK, to tell the truth, it's mainly my almost complete lack of ability to keep to my "No" is what's causing the problem. I'm working on it, but it's true that my parenting style is more lax than I originally thought it'll be, probably due to my desire to keep her happy during the short time we share together. This is a really dangerous territory of spoiling that I wish to avoid and it definitely needs work.

Bottle/Milk: After some tough nights, it seems like we were able to coax her to not expect milk anymore from the feeding when she goes to bed until midnight, and be content with her dad helping her get back to sleep if necessary. I feel like that because of this, she has been waking up less and less between 8P.M. and midnight, with usually first waking up between 1 and 2 A.M. However, once she wakes up, I feel like she comes to me almost more often than before, every hour-ish to be exact, until about 4-4:30A.M., when I'm getting out of bed soon after anyways. I think our next step will be trying to rule out those feedings between midnight and 4A.M., to have a final schedule of feeding at bedtime, midnight, and 4A.M. Another interesting thing I've been seeing is that at bedtime she seems to want milk from both breasts, which is somewhat a first for us.

Sleeping: Lately it's been harder to get her to sleep before 8P.M. Our routine hasn't changed, and she's still eagerly awaits her bedtime feeding at her usual time, however she doesn't seem to fall asleep anymore during these feedings. Instead, after she had her fill (usually 10 minutes or so), she gets up and starts crawling and bouncing all over the place. Then she comes back for a little more, then bounces all over the place again... and repeat. This has been making bedtime for me really difficult, because if I try to leave to let her play herself out on her own, the crying begins. On the other hand, if I stay, it's impossible for me not to fall asleep, losing out on some precious hours that I could spend with my husband or work when I must. If my husband tries to help out and take my place, that's still not good enough for her. I understand her, because the time we spend together during the week is mighty short, but it's been making our previous battle of keeping her asleep until midnight almost useless, if I'm right there next to her sleeping. I've been thinking about maybe letting her stay up just a tad longer, but I'm afraid of starting on a downward spiral of ever later bedtimes.
On the up side, I feel like she has stopped traveling around the world, or at least her and our futon, and has been sleeping more in the same spot than ever before since she's been mobile. Although I'd love that same spot to be on her own futon, I'll content myself for now with her current position of right in-between the two futons. She also has been much better at detaching herself after a few minutes of nighttime feedings, though if she catches me in a bad position, I still cut things short.
Finally, we've been toying with the idea of moving her from the family bed to her crib. If we could get her comfortable with it, I feel like she could play there safely whenever she's not ready to sleep yet, and could even help us with establishing some self-soothing techniques and possibly sleeping through the night more. Though to be honest, that's not a battle I'm looking forward to, so we might dilly-dally a bit longer, and see if things improve when she doesn't want to feed quite so much anymore.

Milestones: Her biggest achievement, at least in my eyes, is her finally able to give us kisses and hugs. Her first ever kiss happened while we were waiting for our flight at Hiroshima Airport during our NYC trip, and it was completely unexpected. It's the cutest little thing, and warms my heart beyond words every time she does it. Sometimes she kisses me when I ask her to, other times it's completely out of the blue, sometimes she'll only give maybe the one no matter how I beg, sometimes she gives me more I can count... or at least it feels like as such. She also gives the deepest of hugs, putting her little arms around my neck, snuggling her head on my shoulder, and I can actually feel her strength of pulling me in close to her and holding me there. It's such a different feeling from when she's holding on to me for support, but I can't really describe it.
Lately she's been vigorously practicing standing up on her own by pushing with her hands on the ground, instead of pulling herself up as she holds onto the table or wall, which is a pretty "old" skill by now. Most times she succeeds and stands for 10 seconds or more, before plopping down on her behind again. Although she has been able to stand at least this long for quite some time now, she only used to manage it when her attention was on anything but herself standing. This consciousness is what makes this a new and exciting milestone for me.
She is also much more comfortable at cruising around the house, and my husband tells me she's been trying to take her first step without any help. She has not succeeded in that yet, to my knowledge, but I feel like it will happen any moment now.
TMI alert: As a side note, I'd like to congratulate my daughter for going 1 year, 2 months, and 5 days without pooping into her bath water. That was a learning experience for all parties involved, and a prime example of jinxing oneself, as my husband and I just had a conversation maybe a day before about how we're looking forward to summer and swimming, and me arguing the non-necessity of swimming diapers, since she has never pooped in the water before. Yeah...
Update 1: As of Saturday, May 25th, she learned how to slide down on a slide. True, it's a tiny baby slide, but she got the technical parts down of one leg forward, then next, then hold the side, and slide. (^_^)v
Update 2: As of Monday, May 28th, Rini comfortably walks around with holding only one of our hands. She went from not daring to take a step unless we held both her hands to this in a matter of 2-3 days. Can't wait to see what comes next!

Watermelon hat... It's the new style, don't you know?

Words: There have been no new words in the past couple months, however, she has become much more expressive overall. Her babbling seems more purposeful lately with more intonations and varied syllables, making it sound like she's using complete sentences in a language we don't speak. She's also learned to shake her head for "no," and in the past week or so, we have seen a nod or two as well, as an answer to our questions.
For example, just last week, when I was trying to decide what clothes she should wear for our trip to the zoo, I decided to ask her about it. I showed her an outfit and asked her (in Hungarian), if she would like to wear it. She shook her head. Then I brought out another one in similar colors (it was light blue vs the dark blue from previously), and again she shook her head no. So I pick out this cute little orange dress with flowers for the third choice, and she looked for a second, then nodded. And there it was, she made her choice. Whether this was a coincidence or not, I don't know, but she did not fight me when I put that outfit on her, like the way she usually does.
There was also another communication highlight around the same time, where I gave her a banana halfway in its peel as a snack, then went back to doing something in the kitchen out of sight. After a few minutes I came back to the living room for one reason or another, and couldn't see the banana peel anywhere. I asked her where it was, and she grabbed it from behind the laptop and showed it to me. Needless to say, I was gushing about this for a long time. (And I guess I still am.)
There are two other communication skills that she's been using for some time now, but I don't think I've mentioned them before. The first is that she has pointing down to the T, and the second is the "AAAH" sound she makes whenever she wants to eat, or just have a bite from my food. She also often uses this sound lately when she wants to be fed in the middle of the night.

Favorite toys: While we were in New York, my mother-in-law took me and Rini on a shopping trip. One of the things she got for Rini from my suggestion was this little seahorse, which emits a soft glow and plays gentle lullabies mixed with ocean sounds for about 5 minutes at a time, when its tummy is pushed. I originally saw this seahorse years ago at a friend's house, while I was watching their son, and have decided to get one whenever the need arose. Unfortunately, while it's possible to buy this seahorse in Japan, it costs at least three times its price in the US, so I decided to wait. Anyways, here we were in the store, and they had the blue little seahorse, which turned out to be one of the best gifts Rini has ever gotten. It makes putting her down for the night much easier now, and lately she has hugged it a few times like it was something she was quite fond of. If this seahorse ends up being her lovey, all the better. I also love that there are two volume options, making the lower setting the gentlest little thing as she drifts off to sleep at night, while the higher one is great for nap times when it needs to counter all the noise of daytime.
Another favorite of hers is the walker that she also got from grandma. It makes a gazillion sounds and she likes to push it around, too, though there's not much space to do so in our teeny-tiny apartment. The only thing I don't much like about this particular toy is how it cuts itself off mid-song which it started up on its own, too, without any sort of input from us. Also there seems to be little to no difference in some of the buttons when we switch between the two modes of play. I feel like this was not the case while she played with it back in New York, so maybe it's not a design flaw, but instead something happened to it during our trip back here.
The final toys that she seems super fond of are a big round Spider-man plushy and the Oregon Duck Pillow Pet, both of which we got from friends. When it comes to the Spider-ball, my husband tends to very lightly throw it at her, which makes her giggle and then she tries to climb on it and wrestle with it. As for the Oregon Duck, I just have to say the Hungarian word for duck ("kacsa") in a funny voice as I hold it and she giggles and giggles. (I should note, this does not work with any other duck figure.)

Likes: She loves to make the sound of "bah" at random times to make us laugh. It's really quite hard to explain, and we should, and indeed must take a video of it soon for the future, because it's quite adorable. She also loves buttons, especially on the laptop. (Thank goodness for the child-lock for the keyboard!)

Dislikes: Her dislikes haven't changed much in the past couple of months.

Playing in the library. YAAAY, horsey!!!

Mommy/baby update: I've been putting in much greater effort in spending more time with Rini. I try my best to get home as soon as possible, and then once home, focus only on her. I've also been trying to have mommy/baby alone time for at least 3-5 hours during the weekend, where we go somewhere and play. Up until recently, these places have been the park near by and the shopping mall (Ito Yokado) with its child play area, and once we also went to the zoo. Luckily, I was able to add another place to the list just last week. On the fourth floor of our library there's a kids play area, which is waaaay cleaner, more varied and fun, and overall better than the one in the mall. The age of the children is also much closer to Rini's, which is another bonus. The whole area is carpeted, and there is a little play structure, complete with carpeted steps and two baby-sized slides. I think from now on, I'll try to take her there whenever it's too hot to stay outside under the sun.

Mommy only update (TMI alert): The only thing that has been foremost on my mind lately is my period. It changed dramatically from before I was pregnant, many ways which I have not anticipated at all. My cramps are still quite as annoying as before, but they last significantly longer, going from a single day or maybe two to 4-6 days of almost constant annoyance. My period also became a couple days longer, from 5-7 days to 7-9 days when all things are said and done. It's now also much much heavier, so much so that I was forced to buy the biggest tampons Tampax offers (level 5-out-of-5) and still needing to change them in less than 3 hours. Just to give a bit of perspective, the heaviest Tampax I needed pre-pregnancy was a 3-out-of-5, and it lasted for 4 hours easy even on my heaviest days. I guess I'll just have to see if this is just my body trying to adjust back into this whole mess of ovulation and what comes with it, or if it'll be a permanent feature from now on.

And that is all. (^_^)v