babyboba

Tori’s one year birthday has come and passed, and our little girl is quickly becoming a toddler. One small step at a time. She took her first steps last week, on July 26th. Or at least, the first that her mom had seen. It was when no parents were in her immediate vicinity and she took 3 little steps between couch and chair. Of course, the moment I exclaimed at her brilliance, she sat down because she didn’t know what just happened.

To celebrate the big birthday, we went up to see the grandparents and had a nice family party with relatives. As the first grandchild, and the first baby out of all my cousins, Torito is the center of attention for everyone and the recipient of many many presents. However, I also know that being the oldest comes with responsibility, so while she gets to be the most spoiled, she will also eventually be the one who has to occupy all the other kids, find games for them to play, be generous with her toys, and be in charge of holiday performances and playing the piano for Christmas carols. For now though, she held everyone’s attention as she pushed toys across the floor and got spoiled as they kept a steady supply of strawberries and blueberries in her grasp. We got to dress her up and did our version of zhua zhou. For our version, we had a music box, a ballerina, a pen, a calculator, a tennis ball, a necklace, and a violin. After dressing her up in the chi pao grandma bought for her, we let her loose and she went straight for the calculator. The next 2 times, we added a strawberry to the fold, but she missed her culinary calling and picked up the necklace and then the ballerina. So, if we take all that into consideration, maybe she’ll be a dancer that comes out with a fashion line and then owns her own business! It was lots of fun. We also got her a little cake and she enjoyed digging in and stuffing her face.

After coming back to LA, we had a baby party where we had like 5 kids come over to swim in the apt pool. It was so cute. We started Tori swimming too late. She is now very clingy and not really willing to let go. I’ve been taking her into the pool more often now that the weather is so warm so I’m hoping she’ll start to feel more comfortable in the water and relax.

Also since her first birthday, her hand eye coordination is getting so much better. I love watching her as she picks up blueberries one at a time and puts them into her mouth. She’s discovered that sometimes they are tart and sometimes they are sweet so now she will often take a bite to try it before stuffing the rest in her mouth. She’s learned how to climb up on the couch now, using her arms to pull herself up.