She signed plane!

Wow, I think Brigitta signed "plane" today. We were on bed, she was wide awake, and I'm trying to wake up when she heard a noise that sounded like a plane drone so she put up her hand, and signed "plane" while making a "rrr" sound. I thought I was seeing things but she looked outside the window and did the sign again.

I had heard that kids do the plane sign a lot coz they love planes but I didn't know if it's really happening. So, I got the Mac, tried to get some plane videos on Youtube and signed to her "plane" just to see if she does it but she just kept quiet and watched the videos. She likes the laptop too but I don't know the sign for it. :)

The other sign she definitely does is "more" and "puffs". I say "more" in malay and she understands it in both malay and english. "puffs" is her snack food - the kind that melts in the mouth. Anyway, I'll try and record she signing so you guys can see it.

It's so exciting, all our efforts since she's born seems to be working out. woohoo.. Now, to get her to say Mama and Dada to the right people. ha ha.

First Professional Family Photos

I've always admired people's photos that's taken by a professional photographer. Since Ilham was born, I checked to see how much the photographers charge and they're around $200 on average. So, I hemmed and hawed coz there were so many other things to get than photographs. Then, one fine day, a Mom from the playgroup association said that she's a professional photographer and that she's giving discounts for the group. It was for about $100 and the session will be at a park. I decided to go for it.

Before the day arrived, I then realized that I have to put some thought in how we all should match in terms of dressing. Ilham has one really nice dress and since it's in red plaid, we all had to find something that matches up with her. It's very holiday-ish colors, so I think if we do it next time, it'll be nicer to have a less formal look and less red. ha ha!

Anyway, here are some of the photos. It's taken at the Vasona Lake Park, beautiful area. It's near the hospital where Ilham was born. There's a lot of geese and ducks at the lake which looks nice from afar but their poop is everywhere. BTW, am still amazed that ducks fly here. (Malaysian ducks don't fly). The whole park is just wonderful for a walk, perfect for strollers and they have a big playground for kids.

The photographer was on top of a hill and she told me that it's to help with interesting angles, etc. Since it was about noon, the sun was directly down to us so we had to move a couple of places trying to find a shady spot. I was worried about some of the background coz there were plenty of dead leaves and branches but she said it all blurs out. There wasn't a lot of posing directions and I should have asked for more I guess, it would have helped us since we're not used to this. But, I smiezed (smile with eyes) like crazy, thank you America's Next Top Model. :) The hardest thing was making Ilham smile. She was serious almost throughout the whole session. One time when she was being taken solo, all three adults were playing peekaboo with her. We resorted to singing, dancing, toys, etc. Not much worked, luckily there were some shots with her smiling but very few.

Anyway, here's some of the photos. What do you think? Does it look professionally done? I'm just happy that someone else is taking our photos and that we don't have to worry about tripods and camera timers.

Brigitta Nurilham Schlosser (9 months)

Most liked family photo in FB. :)

My fav photo of her. Love the little foot sticking out.

House on my mind

Sigh! I'm in a heavy mood nowadays. Mostly coz we're searching for a house to purchase and the road has been tough and rocky. We live in an expensive area, so even with a good salary on a US average, it's not that big a deal here plus I'm not holding a paying job. My job is paid with kisses, hugs and huge emotional rewards but it doesn't impress lenders unfortunately.

So, our budget is tiny in this area. Ten years ago, we would probably afford a new house. Now, the houses we're looking at are usually 30 years old, with things we need to fix up and 90% of them are bank owned properties. What frustrates us more is that there's tons of real estate investors who are buying these properties with all cash. Banks and sellers love those coz there's no contingencies in their contract and it's fast. We have put in about 10 offers, and most are rejected coz the sellers got cash offers, though we have a couple who hasn't got back to us probably coz banks are also having tons of properties on their hands but usually, they have about 10-15 offers to look at. The surrounding areas of the houses are usually not the best but at this point, I like square footage better than location as long as it's not in a really high gang area coz I don't understand that and am respecting that it could be a bit dangerous.

However, there's a house that we are in contract with at the moment. It's not 100% there yet coz we have the appraisal due and we suspect that it's not going to reach asking price. If it doesn't, then it's up to the sellers if they want to sell at the appraisal price or take it off the market. They're also not that desperate coz they haven't found a house to move into yet. I found out about this house by letting people know I'm looking for a house and one of the Moms on the playgroup told me of houses that's for sale in her community. We checked it out and find that it's big enough for us, the housing density is low, common area is well kept and Brigitta will have friends just a few doors away. The outside neighborhood is a bit suspect (that Mom told me beforehand..so not just my view) but it's in front of a church which according to her helps to protect the area - coz the gang members usually respect that. She used to be a high school teacher of high risk kids and was telling me all sorts of interesting stories.

All in all though, we really like the house and the community, furthermore it's near freeways. There's a few things we have to fix but the bones are good, and it's not that old, it's a young teenager still. :) But, I'm so, so afraid that we won't get it. Our lease is coming up next February, it's coming up fast coz we have been looking since September. This is grating on my nerves and my head coz I like to have things in control especially regarding where I live. So, as long as we're unsure, I feel like I have an ongoing migraine and tummy ache. Kevin doesn't seem to have the same problems as I do, he's more relaxed about this. Guess who nags him about this all the time.

Anyway, will post up any info as soon as we hear of anything. Could you do us a favor though? Please pray that we get a good house in a good area and within our budget ...before Feb ends. :)

First time on Bucket Swing

We went for a walk last weekend in the park nearby our house and wondered if Brigitta would like trying out the swing. They have something called a bucket swing where infants can sit in it safely. She was a bit surprised at first but quickly got used to it.

One time she kept chewing on the front part of the swing so Kevin pushed her head back. But we then figured out that we can stop it by correcting her sitting style. Duh on the parents.

Anyway, here's a video of her swinging.

Halloween 09

We didn't do much on Halloween. I caught the flu the day before which really made me angry. Brigitta had a couple of events to go to on the day before Halloween and Halloween itself and due to my stupid flu, we weren't able to go.

So, it was a quiet day all in all. Brigitta did manage to wear her costume since Monday though. Halloween was on Saturday. She had her Mandarin music class and the teacher said the week before that kids can wear their costumes. Well, I turned up and Brigitta was the only one wearing a costume. Ah well, she's too young to feel embarrassed. It made me aware that I have to double check on things like this in future when she is of an age that will. Everyone liked what she wore and thought she was super cute which was nice.

Kevin likes to make his own costumes ever since he was a kid. So, we were thinking of what to make for her for the longest time. Recently, Brigitta had learnt how to babble and make loud sounds..almost like a yell. With that yell and also the fact that Kevin teases me about her Bugis heritage, I said why not make her a Pirate. Bugis are known to be great warriors and also infamously as pirates.

Anyway, we thought it'll be kinda cute to play on that. So, I went to an arts and crafts store called Michaels and got a foam pirate hat (that was way too big for her), silver and black foam sheets for the sword, and red material for her sash. She already has the cutest black boots which is for winter and looks perfect for the part. I sewed the pirate hat to fit her, and Kevin made the sword. It was a fun project.

Here she is at her music mandarin class. It's playing with balls time.

Arr...I need my puffs!

The other time she managed to show off her costume was at her playgroup date. Other kids had their costumes on too, and they looked so cute. One Mom said that she thinks Brigitta's costume is the best though which made me all happy. The video below is taken after we're ready to go home from the playgroup. It's one of her friends from the playgroup, Maximo, and I thought it was kinda funny.

On Saturday, we did go out briefly to get candy for the trick and treaters. I was so sick the day before that I didn't dare drive on my own. Kevin had to even work from home to help me out. Chocolate candy is much cheaper during Halloween than any other time by the way. Since we were not going to any parties, I dressed her up to go to the store coz Kevin hasn't seen her in the whole costume.

Target is our usual place to shop for candy.

She likes clapping her hands. It's also a sign for "more" in context.

Later that day, we carved our pumpkins..that has become a family ritual. It's creative and it's a bit like sculpting too. This year, we got 2 big pumpkins and one small one. My design was more modern and art deco-ish (in my mind at least), Kevin's was more traditional and ornate. I got to do Brigitta's coz I finished early and tried to make a cute design for her. See the photos below? Her pumpkin's mouth is actually the word "Boo".

Before

After