Joy & grilled cheese

I just had to take a video of Joy enjoying her lunch today, she is just too cute! I thought it was pretty funny that when she heard me talk about how she usually feeds Rudy...she then decided "Oh yeah, I should feed him some of this too".

Joy & Rudy Playing

Joy LOVES Rudy....Rudy tolerates Joy when there is a toy...or she is feeding him chicken :-)

Christmas in England

Since we finally put away all our Christmas decorations here in HK (yes...it took us forever to get up the gumption to haul out the boxes from under our bed and put it all away) I thought I would post some pictures from Christmas. We spent our Christmas vacation in England where Grandma & Grandpa Condie live. Authie Ruthie came from Oregon to visit, which was GREAT!

Joy got a cute fabric doll from Grandma & Grandpa Christensen (and some books that they mailed to HK so we didn't have to lug them back in the suitcase) 

 Little People Nativity Set from Grandma & Grandpa Condie, very entertaining toy!

 Grandma reading a book to Joy. It is a very annoying board book called "Look they grow" but she LOVES it.

 Christmas day: wearing the dress that Grandma made her

 Christmas eve, reading the Christmas book that Auntie Julie & Uncle Tyler gave her

 Christmas day breakfast (Ruthie taking the picture)

 Out on a country walk with the family...yes it was quite cold and muddy but beautiful

 Playing board games with a baby is a little hard, but we managed!

 Tired out after a great first Christmas :-)

Where has January gone?

It is hard to believe it is almost February and Joy's first birthday is just around the corner (I guess I should starting thinking/planning her party!).

I worked at my old school 4 days this week helping out with admissions testing (a job I used to do along side my ESL job). I was a little nervous about how it would all work out with Joy but it was great. The tests were ready for me to score during her naps and when Brad was able to take her during his lunch break and after school. We were able to use a staff apartment on the 7th floor which was very convenient. Joy's naps are very predictable now so I was able to leave her upstairs and then work downstairs and come up as she was waking up.  It was fun to see Brad during the day. However, evenings were very hectic since I couldn't do laundry, wash/stuff diapers, cook dinner, clean the house during the day. It is great to not work at school this Friday so I can catch up on all my regular jobs!

11 months oh my!

 

I am way behind in my blogging. We still have so many posts to write about our great Christmas break. Christmas break is now over and we are getting back into the swing of regular life. We have been home for four full days and jet lag is waning. We didn't pack away all our Christmas things before we left for break so we still have some big tasks ahead of us this weekend.
p.s also YES our Christmas tree is still up....we didn't take it down before we left and we juts haven't had time yet. It may be up until the end of January :-) 

What Joy is doing 

• Over Christmas break, Joy mastered the art of crawling correctly (no more "swimming" to get to her next destination). Joy is a very busy girl and is in to everything. Thankfully our house is very baby proof.
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• Joy loves to feed herself and isn't so slow anymore. I look forward to meal times because it keeps her strapped to one place for a while :-) However she is catching on that mom and dad's food is more tasty and she would rather eat what we are eating.

• Joy has two bottom teeth and TWO top tooth.  Thankfully we seem to have had a few weeks of reprieve from teething. 

 

Eats

• Nursing:Joy still eats every 4 hours and once during the night. Over Christmas break, with us all in the same room Joy fell into some bad habits of nursing more than once a night. However now that she is back in her own room she seems to be sleeping much better. 
• Solid food: Joy loves to eat! She would eat carbs and MEAT if that is all I let her eat. She does love fruit and veggies I just have to give them to her first. She has started to "fish hook" our her food and look at it, which is very messy. 
• Loves: pumpkin, carrots, green beans, apples, pears, bananas, peas, zucchini, egg yolks, oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, flax seed, eggs, pasta, lentils, kiwi, chicken, turkey (tried on Christmas day)
• Verdict is still out on: Avocado 
• Introducing this week: I'm loosing creativity with new food introductions. Joy has such a large variety she eats and likes, so I think this week there will be no new introduction.
• Joy still can't hold the sippy cup herself, but doesn't drown with every sip anymore. 

Sleeps:

•  Night time: She still sleeps for 12 hours(although the last few days have been 13 hours, I think she is making up for loss of sleep during jet lag). During Christmas break we adjusted her bedtime to 7pm (and wake up to 7am) and that has been working much better for us. It gives us a little more time in the evenings together.
• Naps: Joy is taking 2 naps a day, 9am and 1pm (one hour each). As I think back to her first few months of life and how hard naps were, I am very thankful that we have reached a happy nap schedule. 

Weighs: Joy weighs 18 Lbs (last checked in England 3 weeks ago since we don't have a scale).

Likes:

*Bear (and sucking her thumb). Grandma and Grandpa Christensen send her bear's cousin "Frog" so now we have two (which helps with washing  and if he are to "gasp" ever loose one). She loves bear a little more than frog but he does the trick still.

* Recently Joy also likes to sleep with my bathrobe in her bed. It started as a desperate jet lag measure one night and she loves the thing. Great....now she is getting attached to a HUGE bathrobe and not just two small cuddly stuffed animals! 
 

*Joy is learning to like the stroller. My goal over the next couple months is to get her to really love the stroller. So far this week we have gone on two stroller outings and she has done GREAT. 

* Joy loves to read and will sit for about 20 minutes while we read to her. Quite an attention span for a little creature. She definitely has her favorites and will not put up with her non favorites being read to her. This week her favorites as: Llama Llama Wakey Wake, 10 Little Fingers & 10 Little Toes, Foot Book, Disney seek and spot and any book with animals in it.

* On the animal note, Joy loves DOGS....she has a love affair with Rudy (although he is not so sure he shares the same feelings) and squeals with delight whenever she sees a furry four legged creature.

* I must say that Joy must like to fly because she does an amazing job at it. She doesn't sleep tons but is so happy the whole flight. We had minimal crying, even in the middle of the night. She loved exploring air plane food (which I was happy to let her play with because I usually think it is gross).  I get quite motion sick on the plane so Joy enjoys snuggles with daddy while mommy tries to keep it together during take offs and landings.

Dislikes: Joy is not a fan these days of playing alone and would rather someone sit with her while she plays. 

Favorite event: Joy had a great time in England with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Ruthie. She enjoyed walks in the country and exploring Bruges (Belgium). She really enjoyed spending the day with grandma so mommy, daddy and Auntie Ruthie could go to London for the day. We are going to  miss having grandma and grandpa babysit now that we are back in Hong Kong!

A picture from Christmas just to entice you. Next blog Christmas in England and a quick trip to Belgium.

Christmas break here we come

It is almost Christmas break in the Christensen house. All that's left to do is for Brad to come home from work Emily to finish tutoring and do some packing. Tomorrow evening we fly out to England. We are hoping that since it's a night flight Joy will sleep most of the time. We are very excited to be spending some time with the Condie family.

10 months of delight

 What Joy is doing: 

• Joy loves to stand. She has figured out how to stand up and then get back down and "swim" to the next destination. She has also started to move along the furniture. Watch out world! This last week she has barely fallen which is great because our apartment is all tile and when she falls she is pretty sad. She is always on the move, so there aren't as many pictures this month of her sitting with a cute smile :-) 

    

• Joy loves to feed herself but is super slow. I try and sneak in bites between her feeding herself.
  

   

• Joy has two bottom teeth and one top tooth. Her second top tooth is close to poking through. Teething is a very LONG, slow and painful process for Joy (and us). There were two weeks where her night time sleep was really disturbed by teething. 

• Everything still goes into her mouth still. 

• Joy has started giving us "kisses" (that are very wet and slobbery) and high fives. Also yesterday we distinctly heard her say 'Bye bye" as she waved to Brad.

 Eats

• Nursing:Joy still eats every 4 hours and once during the night. 
• Solid food: Joy loves to eat and likes to feed herself, especially her dinner meal. Her favorite combination is peas and brown rice. We are trying to teach her the sign for all done, so she doesn't SPRAY her food when she is full.
• Loves: pumpkin, carrots, green beans, apples, pears, avocado, bananas, peas, zucchini, egg yolks, oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, flax seed, eggs, pasta, lentils, kiwi
• Verdict is still out on: Joy likes egg yolks to be scrambled and not hard boiled!
• Introducing this week:chicken
• Joy still can't hold the sippy cup herself.

Sleeps:

•  Night time: She still sleeps for 12 hours and goes to bed at 6pm. She sleeps in a sleep sack and thankfully took to that well.
• Naps: Joy is taking 2 naps a day. I am enjoying this new routine because it means we can get out a little more. However,  it is a little hard to meet friends for lunch dates because Joy naps during that time.

Weighs: Joy weighs 17+ Lbs. She is too wiggly in my homemade scale and I can't get an accurate reading. So I will weigh her on a regular scale at Grandma's house in a couple days. 

Likes:

*Bear (and sucking her thumb) ...I will stop writing about Bear because Joy's love for him (and her thumb) will last a life time :-) 

 

*Joy bored at home and needs at least one outing.

* She likes playing with her blocks and we find her by her books countless times during the day. We have to make sure that the silverware closet is closed because she LOVES to play in it. She also still loves the dog toys and I have to admit we do let her play with them from time to time. 

*She loves her bath and likes to play with her stacking cups (and is really interested in the shampoo bottles).

* Joy loves it when people on public transportation pay attention to her. She is constantly trying to touch them/pull their hair and get them to interact with her. So far everyone has been very obliging in entertaining Joy.  

*  Joy loves the Christmas tree and playing with a couple of the ornaments. We have the tree barricaded in the corner so she can't pull the whole thing down.

Dislikes: Joy is usually a happy baby, but we are realizing that she wears her emotions (both happy and sad) on her sleeve. When she is tired, or wants to get down from her high chair or is left in the room alone for a moment (while I go to the bathroom) she lets us know she is UNHAPPY.

Favorite event:Joy has gone to so many fun Christmas activities. She went to her first cookie exchange, countless Christmas parties (including a mom's group Christmas party). She also went to her friend Elena's birthday party. In less than a week she will get to see Grandma and Grandpa Condie in England!

We love you Joy and can't imagine our lives without you. You are precious and full of life and laughter. We are excited to have our first Christmas as a family.