HAELEY KWOK

We finally got our act together and decided that it's time to revive the blog we started for Haeley. It's been over a year since we last blogged and we feel terrible for not keeping it up. Sorry Haeley girl. But better late than never right. We thought we'll pick it up from where we last left off, which was when Haeley was 9 months old (she is now 22 months) and posts some highlights from the later half of last year. Looking back at these pictures, it is amazing seeing how much Haeley has grown over such a short time span. Her babytalks of goo-goos and gagas have now been replaced with words, full sentences, commands (yes, Haeley is very demanding) and a slew of expressions. She moved on from humming to singing songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, Barney Song or Baa Baa Black Sheep. Her latest fave number is the ABC Song and she can sing it really fast or in slow motion. One of the most exciting change is seeing her personality shine as she grows. We'll chat more about her recent development in the next blog.

Haeley's biggest milestones in 08 was her learning to walk. She took her first independent steps in December, shortly after she turned 13 months old. She must have been very motivated by her older pals in class who were running and jumping about after she joined the Infant II class at daycare when she turned one. Haeley's vocabulary also grew by the time she was one. Daa Daa, MaMa and Bye Bye were some of the first words she mastered and understood what they meant. Her favorite negative phrase was "No Want" accompanied by head shaking.

Enjoy the pictures of Baby Haeley and stay tuned to the next blog of Haeley into toddlerhood!

Christmas 2008 at Kurt's grand father's place (13 months)

Thanksgiving and make-up Birthday Party with Grandparents - November 2008

For the first time, Haeley is heavier than the turkey!

Haeley with Cousin Jade

One Year Old Check Up back in November 2008

We do the same pose every check-up!

I need an escape plan

Singapore Trip & ONE YEAR OLD BIRTHDAY! (November 2008)

Haeley watched Barney's for the first time on this flight!

Sleeping on mama is way better than sleeping in the bassinet

The bakery obviously didn't listen when we told them how to spell Haeley!

Celebrating her first birthday at gong gong and po po's house in Singapore

Waaahhhh-ing with Uncle Ashley and Auntie Tricia

I thought the whole cake is mine!!

Haeley with Jordan. Jordan used to go wakeboarding with us when she was 3 months old!

With Aunt Fiona and Clara

Aunt Jennifer and her charming boys, third baby on the way

Haeley is so excited eating at the neighborhood food court

Haeley's First Halloween - 31 October 2008 (11 months)

At VMWare's company halloween party. Haeley's a little kitty Cat

Meow!!

Tracey got me a devil bear!

11 months old (October 2008)

Caught on camera, Haeley's first solo stand

Lake Tahoe - October 2008

Mmmm ice cream!!!

Buddy Tristin's 1st Birthday Party at Golden Gate Park - October 2008

Haeley hijacked Tristin's trolley

Big kisses for Tristin!

Can you spot Haeley??

10 months old (September 2008)

Divine Nine

Haeley has officially started crawling (Hooray!)! To be exact, it happened on August 18 (9 months 1 week old). Haeley is absolutely thrilled with her new skill and is a now a crawling machine. The first week, she took it slow and easy and would only crawl a few steps and would sit up and rest. She would crawl only if she feels the absolute need to, like to grab a piece of tissue on the floor (I'll discuss this later in the blog) or a Cheerio that dropped on the floor (yucky). But now, she is ready to participate in a baby crawling race! She crawls towards anything thats shiny (like our garbage can), anything that can help her pull up (like legs of chairs, low tables or even the stairs) , and any of her favorite toys. The best is when she follows mama around the house. Apart from 2 gates, a couple of electrical plug protectors and some corner cushions, we haven't really quite baby-proofed the house yet...I know, it's time to get moving!

---Haeley's Top-5 Favorite Things ----

Favorite Item: She is wild about tissue paper. Once she gets hold of a piece of tissue or paper (sometimes she'll take them out of the tissue box), she would start shredding it up and putting in in her mouth and eat it. Of course she finds it both hilarious and irritating when we get all panicky trying to dig the piece of tissue out her mouth, or sometimes she'll get really upset if we take it away from her. Check out the video below (if you have ear plugs handy, put them on!)

Favorite Game: Peek-a-Boo! While in bed, she would pull the sheets up herself and cover her face and she would waits for us to ask "Where's Haeley? Where's Haeley?" and then she'll pull the cover down and starts laughing. We do this a number of times till she gets tired and is ready to sleep. Sometimes, just for fun, we keep silent when she's expecting us to say "where's Haeley?" and she'll mumble something under the sheet as if to say "com'on, hurry up!"

Favorite Toys: Apart from things like our cellphone, remote control, laptop and mouse, which she simply likes to grab or tap, Haeley loves small and simple toys, like stacking cups and rings, shape sorters, small balls and water squirting toys during bathtime. She is also fond of peeling out the alphabets from the foam ABC floor mats and travels around the house with them. Her favorites are the smaller pieces like the hole in the letters O and D and number 9! In school she'll get to play with all kinds of big fancy structural toys.

Favorite Moves: clapping hands, giving high fives, kissing, and dancing to children songs. Whenever Haeley hears those childern songs, she would shake her body. In fact I think she's more in sync with the beats than her daddy is.

Yeah, high five!

Clapping hands in a hardware store!

Favorite Food: Some of her fave finger foods include Cheerios, apple puffs, fruits like banana, peach, melon, carrots, peas, bread, soft cheese.

Haeley continues to be a great eater (testament to her bulging belly) and chomps down almost everything we feed her. She is now more interested in self-feeding and loves mini pieces of food that she pass from hand to hand and put in her mouth. There's two neat tricks that Haeley uses occasionally when she can't quite use a pincer grip - she picks up her food with her palms, squeezes it tight into her fist so it sticks to her hand, then she carefully brings it to her mouth and licks it up. The other method would be to squeeze her food real tight till it pops out around the top of her fist and she sucks her food up. You can probably imagine the mess she creates nightly.

What are you staring at? Is there something on my face?

Ermm... where the cheerio I tried to put in my mouth?

----Physical Developmment----

Haeley had her 9 month well baby visit early August. Everything checked out very well. Those who are into health and fitness can try to figure out her BMI: she's a whopping 20 lb 11 oz baby which puts her in the 75-90 percentile, and she's 28 inches tall which is around 50th percentile.

Her two top front teeth came out about a month back. So now she has four teeth and a fifth one is starting to protrude on the top rack!

Wanna rub my buddha belly?

Where do I sign up for gym membership, Dr Laura?

Paper fetish

Hey, why do we always take the same pose each time I get a check up?

----Play date with Tristin -----

Approaching Trisitn for a welcome kiss *muak*

Having a great time with T!

---- Family Gathering ----

Kurt's sister has 2 boys (Nathan and Nicholas) and the family has been living in Shanghai for the past 5 years . Each summer, the whole family would come back to the Bay Area where they used to live.