Playing around...

Karina's personality has started coming out more and more in the past several weeks.  She is a very easy going girl and pretty laid back. Karina is very generous with her cute smiles, to both family and strangers alike.  She likes to wander around the house and get into things, and is communicating more and more.  She knows a few words, like Daddy, Mama, Jie-Jie (big sister in Chinese), bao bao (hold me in Chinese), Go-Go (the neighbor's cat), ball, book, etc.  She also signs a bit, too.  Even though her spoken/signing vocabulary isn't very big yet, she clearly understands a LOT of what we say, and is able to follow lots of directions, as well as figuring out when we are going to the park, or the car, or wherever.  Her favorite thing to do is shadow Eliana, which 50% of the time Ellie enjoys, and 50% of the time she finds rather annoying. 

Karina often adopts an item, whether a pen, spoon, or small toy, for an hour or so, and carries that around everywhere she goes, forcing her to play with other toys with one hand!  So we'll often find kitchen utensils upstairs in our bedroom or a tube of toothpaste downstairs.  In the picture below, she's adopted an apple as her favorite object, and would nibble on it every once in a while.  The apple also left a huge wet mark on her shirt from all the hugging it got.

Karina has recently learned how to shake her head.  She likes doing it, maybe because it feels funny.  We don't think she knows that it means "no", because sometimes we'll ask her, Do you want some food?  She'll shake her head "no" and then reach for the food.  Here she is practicing this new skill...

Karina also likes to invent new variations of old games.  With peekaboo, she recently started playing this version at the dinner table.  With one hand, she'll cover her face and with the other, she'll do the sign for "Where?"

And our poor Karina has had a runny nose or cough for the past several weeks.  But then this past Friday, she took a turn for the worse, crying a LOT and even more congested than she had been, and the doctor at urgent care diagnosed her with a sinus infection.  That explained why she had been so fussy.  She's been on antibiotics ever since.  The only silver lining is that she LOOVES the stuff.  Every time she sees the syringe filled with the pink stuff, she goes bananas!

And here is a picture that big sister took of Karina.  She was eating a post-dinner dessert of frozen Gogurt, which she loves.  As you can see, Karina's hair has really grown.  We've had to trim her bangs several times now and the sides and back are quite long.  She is growing and learning more every day!

Pumpkin Patch

A couple weekends ago, we had a fortuitous break in the rainy weather.  We couldn't have planned it better because we were going to meet family at the local pumpkin patch (or "pumkim patch" as Eliana calls it).  We got there in the morning and the first thing we did is go on a hay ride to head out to the pumpkin fields. 

There were thousands of pumpkins to choose from. 

So pushing wheelbarrows, we head on out.

Eliana's girl cousins decide to strike a pose. Eliana LOOOOVES her cousins and the feeling is mutual.  She looks up to them and copies things that they say.  Eliana's cousin, Lena (2nd from the right), lives in Seattle and has been taking Chinese language classes for a while.  Later on when hanging out, the two girls counted from 1 to 10 in Chinese together just for fun.

Eliana obediently smiles for the camera. 

Karina is less sure about posing for the camera.  Although Karina is walking very well now, she needed to hold someone's hand while walking on the uneven terrain.

We were allowed to bring home one pumpkin per person.  With Grandma's help, Eliana picked out the one that she wanted.

We brought the pumpkins back to the main area and cleaned them up at the washing station.  Eliana helped to pump the water.

There was another station where you can launch softball sized pumpkins into the air.  If your pumpkin makes it into the white 55-gallon drums in the distance, you win a prize.  Despite many close calls, we didn't actually make it in.

There was a section where one can feed and pet farm animals.  Eliana liked the bunnies the best.  Not sure if they liked her.

You can also climb the pyramid of hay (pictured in the background) or ride on the tractor/bicycle.  Eliana's still learning about steering, so Elvin had to help her along so that she wouldn't run into unsuspecting bystanders.

We put Karina onto the hay stack.  But she didn't like it at all--too prickly I guess.

 And for $3, kids could ride a pony.  Eliana spotted this as soon as we walked onto the farm grounds.

And that was our 2011 pumpkin patch experience!  We'll be carving the pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns pretty soon.  For Halloween, at first Eliana wanted to be a princess.  Then she wanted to be Emily Elizabeth (from the book Clifford the Big Red Dog).  Then when Emily brought out some costumes from out of storage, Eliana wanted to wear a Tigger costume she found.  But now she's back to the princess,  or maybe a fairy princess, or a ballerina princess.

Karina is growing up!!

Karina is rapidly transitioning from baby to toddler/little girl!  It is kind of hard to believe, as this year has flown by, especially compared to Eliana's first year.  All of a sudden, she knows how to play games, and is signing more, and understands a LOT of what we tell her (go get your shoes, time to eat, time to pray -- she reaches out to hold hands at the dinner table, say good-bye, go get your blanket, etc).  Karina and Eliana are learning to play together more and more, and most of the time really enjoy each other's company...until they don't anymore.  =)  The following video is clips from the past month, when she was 13 months old.  Karina is now actually 14 months old...so this is a tiny look back.  Enjoy!