Cynthia Moments

Since Cynthia is getting older, she is learning so much. She is talking - not that most of it is understandable and she is way to clever for her own good. Well, since she is starting to do and say some funny things, I have been wondering where I should record them. So that we can look back on them in years to come. I decided what better place than right here. They are going to be titled "Cynthia Moments" and it is just going to be something cute, funny, serious, really anything is Cynthia.

Cynthia Moment 1:

This was around the end of November. Cynthia had started to teeth her last 4 teeth before she had a complete toddler set of teeth.

Mom: All you want for Christmas is 4 more teeth

Cynthia: No

Mom: What do you want for Christmas then?

Cynthia: See-Shees

See-Shees are Goldfish, Cynthia's favourite snack.

Cynthia Moment 2:

Around October/November. Cynthia and I had just run to the store. One our way back to the car she was jibber-jabbing. Amongst all the non words, I heard her say "happy."

Mom: What about happy?

Cynthia: All gone

Cynthia Moment 3:

With our 2008 tax returns we bought Ben is Leather-man that he has been wanting forever. He always wears in on his belt. So he uses it on a regular basis. The other night Cynthia wanted to open the battery compartment on one of her toys. Since it was screwed closed, she could not do it. Off she went to Ben, when Ben would not help her open it, she walked around to the side that his Leather-man was on, opened the pouch and took it out. She then proceeded to try and open the compartment with the closed Leather-man. When that did not work, she grabbed Ben's hand, put the Leather-man into it and moved his hand to the toy. It was so funny to watch. It really is an eye opener to see how much she watches us do.

The Funny Juggler

I bought Layne a Christmas present online and it never arrived until half-way through January, I bought it at the beginning of December. To make me feel better for not having his Christmas present ready by Christmas time, I bought him a tin and put a batch of fudge in it. I told him that I will refill the tin whenever he has finished the fudge. Lets just say that he got excited. Last week he calls and tells me that his fudge tin is empty. So we arrange to have it refilled at Cynthia's birthday party on the 6th. Then yesterday he calls me and asks if I can make a batch that afternoon and he will pick it up on his way home from work. So last night he comes over to pick up his fudge and ends up staying for dinner. While I was finishing getting dinner ready, he played with Cynthia. Cynthia loves him so much! The game was: Layne juggle and Cynthia laugh (her laugh when she thinks that something is the funniest thing in the whole wide world!). Every time he would drop a bowling pin, Cynthia would run over, pick it up and give it back to him. We had to hide all but three bowling pins because Cynthia wanted Layne to juggle will all 6 of them.

OCD in the Making

Ben and I worry sometimes that Cynthia is going to be OCD or something. Tonight our neighbour dropped off a birthday present of her. Later we found her doing this:

Organizing and smoothing the tissue paper that came with her present

On another note about Cynthia and OCD. A few weeks ago we were at McDonald's. Cynthia took a bunch of serviettes and started to unfold them and place them one next to another on the table. Once she had successfully smoothed and straighten, she arranged fries on the serviettes evenly spaced parallel to each other. It was very interesting to watch.

A friend was telling us that his wife helps to teach their kids colours and shapes in toys by cleaning them up in colours or shapes. For example: all orange toys first or all squares first. I thought that would be a good idea for Cynthia. Then Ben reminded me that we might be feeding her OCD if we do it that way.

Window Cling-Ons

One of Cynthia's birthday presents was a thing of window cling-ons. Tonight I let Cynthia put them on the window. Oh did she have some fun. At first she was confused as to why they were not sticking to her face. But once she figured out they went on the window. She would put them on, take them off, put them on, take them off. It was fun though.

Such concentration!

Playing with Carson

Cynthia loves babies. It does not matter how big they are or how old they are (even if they are older than her), every time she see a kid in the arms of mom or dad she starts saying "Babee" over and over again. If we do not acknowledge her, it gets louder and louder as well. Well Monday's and Fridays I watch our neighbours kid, Carson. I have not watched him for the past few weeks because of the whole ectopic pregnancy thing. But we started again this week. Cynthia was in her element all day long! After Ben got home I took some pictures of them together.

Cynthia and Carson having tummy time together. Cynthia would kind of copy Carson. If he was on his back, so was Cynthia. If he was on his tummy, she was on hers. Cynthia is waving at me, that is why her hand is in front of her face.

Tummy time part two. Just like most kids, Carson did not like being on his tummy, so this was short lived.

Tickles or something.

Hugs! Cynthia loves to give Carson hugs and kisses.

Guess Who Is Two?

Today was Cynthia’s birthday! It was a good day – for her. For me, it was a crazy day trying to get her cake ready, her dress completed, every fed (I failed a bit on that one), the house looking good for guests. In the end it turned out alright – except for last minute cancellations – if you RSVP and say you are coming, then come, people have planned for you to be there.

Cynthia with her cake. We found some super cute candles at the store, the funny this is that it says '2' and has three wicks. The stand that the cake is on was a Christmas present from Ben.

A big thanks goes to all family that called, sent emails or gifts. It all helped to make the day a little more special in the end.

Presents:
The Cockcrofts – Little People Fairy Tree house
Oupa – bowling set
Cindy and George – a cute dress, window stickers and a cash register
Sudhir and Bindu – a See ‘n Say and a ‘I love hugs’ shirt
Ben and I – a cute little dress, colour-in book, puzzles and board books

Cynthia birthday dress. Out of all the dresses that I have made Cynthia, this one is Ben's favourite. On the left side of the dress the white area are two roses that I made out of left over white material.

George, Cynthia and Cindy



Playing with her cash register (gift from George and Cindy). It has a play microphone on it and Cynthia gets so close to talk into it that it goes in her month. It is funny to watch her play.

Playing the little people (present from the Cockcrofts)

Cynthia had so much fun. She would open a present, play with it for a few minutes, then go and open the next present. That way she got to play with everything. So loved her new toys and kept mixing and matching them.



Blowing out her candles. Ben has been training Cynthia for the past couple of months to blow out candles. Today all his hard work paid off.

Cutting the cake - don't worry she was extremely closely supervised!

Another Christmas present from Layne - a checkerboard cake pan. Red velvet and white.

Cynthia, how old are you?

Birthday Cake

Cynthia's birthday cake - need I say more?

I used a stencil for the writing - a Christmas present from Layne

Side view 1

Side view 2

With candles

Christmas/Birthday at Chili's

For Christmas Shared and Britney gave us a gift card to Chili’s. After the whole ectopic pregnancy thing, I have been very attached to Cynthia. So to help celebrate Cynthia’s birthday we took our Christmas present and went out to dinner. It was so much fun. Cynthia enjoyed it so much! We got their 3 for $20 deal and Cynthia just ate off out plates. We took the camera to get some pictures, but when I turned it on to take some pictures I noticed the batteries were dead. So we were only able to get a few pictures. Sorry to Daddy/Daughter ones this time.

Cynthia in the toddler chair at Chili's

Me and Cynthia with our brownie and ice-cream dessert

Mommy feeding Cynthia

Cynthia feeding Mommy

PS. Ben dressed Cynthia - so cute!

Little Rodeo

Cynthia loves to play on my exercises ball. She jumps around like she is practising for the rodeo. Here is a quick video of her playing around on the ball, you can also see her jump around. It is the best toy that mom could ever give her kid!



PS. Please let me know if the video does not play. I am having a hard time getting it to play, but it says that it has loaded, so it might just be my computer being strange.

Family Photo

The week before my residency interview, we took some family photos. Cynthia was on her best behaviour. She just sat and posed for all the pictures, and because she sat so still and was so well behaved, we only had to take like 4 pictures before we got this one.

Ames Family 2010

Cynthia posing on Ben. It was just so cute. All she wanted was to get her picture taken.

Before we were all dressed and ready, Cynthia helped me get the camera in the right position and get all the lighting correct. This was just a random picture that I took of her, but once we zoomed up onto it... well WOW is all I can say. Her face looks so airbrushed. Cynthia truly has perfect skin and features. I really am going to worry when she is old enough to date.

3 1/2 Weeks

Sorry there has been no new post over the last free weeks. Things have been kind of crazy. But as of 6:00pm Saturday, January 16, 2010 my computer is back up and running. Thanks to Shared and Clarence for all your help. Honestly, it could not have happened without your help. Now for the update from the past 3 ½ weeks.

First:
Cynthia learnt how to climb out of her crib without hurting herself. So we had to get rid of the crib since it was not holding her in any more. This last weekend we packed up her crib and put out a foam mattress for her to sleep on. Let’s just say she is having a very hard time adjusting to the new sleeping arrangements and spends most of her time banging and crying against her door. She also sleeps there. Not sure what we are going to do about that one.

Second:
As of January 12, 2010 I am a resident of the United States. YAY for me! Now if only I can find a job that allows me to work nights so I can stay at home with Cyndie Kim all day. Any one know of anything like that? Anything will help.

Third:
Around Christmas time we got a positive confirmation that I was pregnant. We had our suspicions since I was already 2 weeks late on my period. Then around New Years, I started to spot really badly. We called the doctor who ordered blood tests. According to dates I was supposed to be about 6/7 weeks along but according to my HCG levels I was only about two or three weeks along. Since my HCG levels and my dates never added up, the doctor could not do an ultrasound to see if there were any problems. So she ordered more blood tests. The second round of HCG levels went up more than 50% so the doctor was happy about that. But it was still not enough. So more tests were ordered. My HCG levels never went up as much as the doctor wanted and the spotting had gotten worse. She decided this was a non-viable etopic pregnancy and sent me to the cancer center for a methotrexate shot (for those of you who would like more info about an etopic pregnancy or methotrexate click on the words for links to information). The nurse at the cancer center told me that this was classified as an emergency since they did not know where cells were growing. I spent the weekend in discomfort, since I had two shots (one in each hip) that did strange things to my body. The following week was companied by cramps, sharp pains and other cool things like that on my left side (personally I think that it was an etopic pregnancy in my left tube, mainly because that is where it hurts). After three more blood tests to monitor my liver – make sure it can handle the methotrexate – and to make sure that HCG levels are decreasing, my doctor informs me that I have to keep going for blood tests until my HCG levels are in the negative and that for the next few weeks I am still in danger of having an etopic pregnancy in a tube or somewhere else so I need to be very careful and watch for all the warning signs.

Apart from the above mentioned happenings, Christmas was good. Cynthia had a great time playing with her new toys. Ben and I got her 4 little animals – elephant, giraffe, zebra and lion – she play pretends with them and when you ask her want sound they make they all make a deep back of the throat growl. It is rather cute. I put together a recipe book for Ben with all the recipes that we use – he really likes it. And my favourite present was a 3-in-1 waffle, snackwhich and grill. It comes in handy all the time.