Daddy is so funny!

Look at me stand

Joy has been practicing kneeling this week. Then yesterday she attempted to stand up. She still gets a little stuck and needs someone to rescue her from standing (or the splits :-)

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree.....

.....why are you so enticing?

After a little time of exploring this great new "toy" in our house with mommy and daddy watching carefully....the ottoman is now securely in front of the tree and for the time being Joy hasn't figured out how to get behind the chair. I'm giving her about a week to figure it out. This baby has a great memory. She now knows where the dog food is kept and makes a bee line for the bathroom door if it is ever left open. :-)

Setting up the Christmas tree

Brad had Friday off work (for Thanksgiving) and we set up the Christmas tree (I have been waiting patiently for weeks). We did it in shifts while Joy napped because putting up a tree with a little one around is a little hard. Joy loves the tree and will "sit" with Brad and look at it..or should I say strain and try to propel herself towards the tree so she can touch it. So far she has just been in the walker so we will what happens to the tree once she is crawling around. We may have to rig up the baby gate somehow :-)

 

9 months of cuteness

 What Joy is doing: 

• Joy loves to move! She is still doing her crazy "swimming" crawling.
• She finally mastered sitting but she hates to sit and likes to stand up. She can get up to her knees (sometimes) but can't pull herself up to a standing position. She has fallen over a few times when standing so when she is in the standing position she holds on for dear life. 

• Joy has two bottom teeth and is working on her top teeth but nothing is poking through yet. 

• Everything still goes into her mouth still. The finger nail clippers are still her favorite toy as is my lanyard from grad school. 
• 

 Eats

• Nursing:Joy still eats every 4 hours and once during the night. 
• Solid food: Joy loves to eat and really puts it away! She likes to feed herself cheerios and peas.
• Loves: pumpkin, carrots, green beans, apples, pears, avocado, bananas, peas, zucchini, egg yolks, oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, flax seed
• Verdict is still out on: I just introduced egg yolks and they are a strange texture. Joy eats them but is a little unsure if she totally likes it.
• Introducing this week:Lentils, chicken 
• Joy has mastered drinking out of a sippy cup without drowning in the water. She still can't tilt it on her own...but she is getting close

Sleeps:

•  Night time: Nothing has changed in this department. She still sleeps for 12 hours and goes to bed at 6pm.She is still swaddled loosely and once the weather gets cooler she will try a sleep sack. 
• Naps: Joy is taking 2-3 naps a day. Many days she only wants to take two naps,  so we are still trying to figure out the new schedule. She hasn't slept in the carrier at all this month. 

 

Weighs: Joy weighs 17 Lbs. Although weighing her using my homemade method (aka sling attached to a suitcase scale) is getting more tricky now that she is so wiggly!

Likes:
*Bear (and sucking her thumb) and Joy are inseparable even during waking hours. He comes in the car,in the stroller,  in the carrier and sometimes when she is playing. Thankfully Grandma & Grandpa Christensen are mailing us bear's brother "frog" and we will get him at Christmas.
*Joy is a people person still. She greets each new person who enters an elevator or who sits next to her with a cute little screech.
* She likes screws in things and metal objects (like the door stop) and will 'play' with them for a long time.
*  Joy loves trying to climb out of her bath tub....it is a dangerous and slippery endeavor.
* Joy gets a kick out of other babies and gets very excited when she sees one.
* Joy loves Rudy, especially when he is close to her. Rudy has been a little traumatized by her recently because she has been crashing into so many things with her walker, chases him around the house and wants to be in his dog bed. So we moved Rudy's dog bed to the back so he has a retreat from little miss Joy.

                                              
Dislikes: Separation anxiety are in full swing, but at church she did let two people hold her for a few minutes. She also still doesn't like her stroller. Joy is very vocal about expressing her dislikes, as you can see in the picture below (she didn't want to be sitting anymore :-)

Favorite event:Joy went to her first Thanksgiving lunch at church this past Sunday. Mommy and daddy are going to another Thanksgiving dinner on the actual day but are leaving Joy with a babysitter. This will be the first time someone other than mommy has put her to bed. We hope it goes well!

Operation Christmas Child

The mom's group that Joy and I are part of is joining the school where Brad works to contribute shoe boxes to Operation Christmas Child. So Joy and I ventured out to make a shoebox for a baby girl. It was lots of fun to start some Christmas traditions with Joy. We should have bought a bigger box because we could barely fit all the stuff we bought.

Here is what we included: wipes, baby powder, tissues, sippy cup, fleece blanket and winter slippers.

"Rubby Ducky....

..and finger clippers your the ones you make play time oh so fun....."

 

A few of Joy's favorite toys....

This morning Joy played with some of her favorite toys while I did the dishes (basically anything "new" is her favorite at the moment). Joy loves the whisk, beaters, plastic containers, wooden spoons, the Nalgeen insert.....who needs baby toys? I have to get really quick at snapping pictures because as soon as she realizes that camera is out she moves FAST because she really wants to put the camera in her mouth.

Door stop and mirror

A couple very cute videos of Joy. Joy likes EVYERTHING that isn't a baby toy. Joy agrees with us that she is the cutest baby in the world and loves to look at herself :)

Around Tai Po

I don't have an iPhone (...yet) or a camera phone so taking pictures while I am out and about with Joy is a little hard. However, I thought my readers would enjoy seeing what some of our daily adventures are...Thank you to Google Images for some wonderful pictures.

This week so far Joy and I have enjoyed the cooler weather and ran some errands around Tai Po (the area where we live). 

A stop at the grocery store (Park n Shop, which I find funny since most people walk to the store, it should be called Walk N Shop) 

 

You can see our food comes from all over the world here in Hong Kong 

 

Bought a birthday present for our friend Isaiah and new pair of winter slippers (I'm thinking ahead, since we are still in shorts here) for Joy in the wet market (for some reason the pictures on Google were just of the gross meat section, which I ALWAYS avoid)

Took the 64K bus to the post office. As long as Joy can eat Cheerios or be entertained by the fellow bus riders she is happy to be on the bus. I let her chew on a spoon (while she was in the Ergo so I was watching her VERY carefully) and I got in big trouble. I told Grandpa that I am sure she would be fine, but he only spoke Cantonese and I only spoke English.....

Mailed Isaiah's birthday present, lets hope it gets there BEFORE his birthday which is over a month away.

 Took a walk  after the post office and discovered a cool old temple and a street market. Most of the items being sold were not items I usually buy but we did pick up some carrots and pumpkin. Frogs being sold as food...always catches me off guard

 

Took the MTR to Mom's group. This is the beautiful artwork at our MTR station (below picture actually from a friend's blog: http://nestinginskyscrapers.blogspot.hk/). We had a clothing exchange and Joy scored a few shirts for later and a pair of tights for this coming winter. I even scored a dress (which I can't nurse in, but hey I won't be doing that for ever).

 And today (which of course I forgot to take a picture of, even though I had my camera handy) we had a brunch play date at our house. Joy had fun playing with her friends and I of course love hanging out with other moms. Playing with friends must have tuckered her out because she has been sleeping for two hours!  However, no blog post is complete without little Joy so here is a picture :-)

Ng Tung chai

We took advantage of a free Saturday (Brad has had to work the last two..boo) and went on a family hike. The weather is only in the 80s now so hiking is only a bit sweaty, ok to be fair we still sweat a lot. The hike was really up hill (and it took us longer than anticipated ) but we did get to see some amazing waterfalls. We even changed a diaper at the base of the waterfall. Joy loves hikes but soon Brad may have to start carrying her on up hill hikes because I'm out of shape!

Yay for postcards

 

 I'm not sure what this says but the paper sure tastes good!

 Ok enough pictures mom!

Joy loves getting mail, ok her mom loves getting mail! Grandma Susan and Grandpa Paul have been sending Joy postcards from all their travels this fall. Grandma and Grandpa live in England and have traveled to Kenya and Spain, lucky ducks! Joy likes to look at the picture but then wants to eat them, so they are safe on the fridge until she can look at them without eating them.