We have switched to a new pediatrician. The switch was officially determined when Abby said, "I like her" as the doctor walked out of the room after the exam.

The doctor determined she was a healthy, happy, and smart little girl. No vaccinations are necessary at the 2 Year Well-Baby and the doctor gave her lots of stickers, so Abby was a happy camper throughout the visit. I have never seen Abby be so cooperative with a doctor and I thought for sure the doc must have been doing a little magic behind her back, but she assured me that at around 2 years old, kids start to understand what needs to be done and become extremely easy-going during doctors' visits. Very modest woman!

My favorite advice she gave us today was in regards to potty training:

Doc: Do you have any questions?
Me: We're starting to venture into potty training. Do you have any advice?
Doc: Does she go to daycare?
Me: Yes.
Doc: Then relax and don't pay any attention to what you read or hear. Let peer pressure do the potty training. She'll eventually want to be able to do what everyone else is doing and then you just support her. You can encourage her by taking her shopping for some big-girl underwear and letting her run around the yard one day to see what it's like to not need diapers. Then, just let her decide when she's ready.

StatsHeight: 35.25 inches (80th %-ile)Weight: 25 lbs 15 ozs (45th %-ile)Head Circumference: 19 inches (70th %-ile)

Probably the most significant fashion that defines the Chinese is the Qipao, worn by women since the mid-17th Century. Its simplicity and elegance make them timeless and beautiful.

Over the weekend, Abby got a chance to wear her very own Qipao - that Uncle Allen bought for her when she was born - and run around Gong-Gong and Po-Po's backyard.

I have always considered my education to have been decently comprehensive, but comparing it to what my 2-year old has picked up in daycare, I'm beginning to see several holes. I entered the US education system at age 4 when I went to pre-school at a local church and when I began elementary school and moved beyond that, it was during a time before music programs were being cut for more "academic" sessions, so music was a big part of my education. Well, apparently my knowledge of children's songs and nursery rhymes is severely lacking!

These days we are always playing the game of "Guess That Song" with Abby. It's a lot of fun, but I have had to resort to a lot of internet searches to solve the clues. Abby's favorite time to sing to us is in the car. As we're driving along, she'll start humming and singing out loud, typically accompanied by a lot of hand gestures, which they do at daycare to make the songs more interesting for the kids. At first, she mumbled words, tunelessly. Now, it's very obvious when she's singing.

Can you guess that song? Let me try to recapture some of our first clues. Let's try a couple of games.

We'll start off easy.

Game #1 Clue....
(We're driving in the car. I didn't quite realize she was singing.)
Abby mumbling softly: "un...un...un...bumblebee...mama...OUCH! He stung me!!!"
Me, startled: "You okay?"
Abby: "Yeah!...Squuuuuuish.....a mess a mess! Mama, mama, I made a mess!!!!"
Me, still no clue she's singing: "Ok, clean it up."
Abby: "I lick it...hehehe...all clean!"

At this point the singing is over and she ends up spitting on her hands and licking her arm for the next 5 minutes before we can convince her to stop. My mother figured out she was actually singing one day and asked Paul if he knew any songs about bumble bees. Luckily, Paul knew immediately what it was.

Answer: Baby Bumble Bee - one of the less insane versions

Game #2 Clue...
Abby: "Chompa monkey tree...can't catch me...SNAP! Yaaaay, sing again?"

And that was all we got for months. Complete with hand gestures as she sang verse after verse, but neither Paul nor I ever figured this one out and it drove us nuts until we finally asked another parent from Abby's class, who clued us in.

Answer: Teasing Mr. Crocodile

Thanks to bussongs.com I now know the lyrics to Teasing Mr. Crocodile as well as a ton of other songs she's been singing.

In case you were curious, this is how Teasing Mr. Crocodile goes:

Five little monkeys
(5 fingers held over other arm (4 for next verse, etc))
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
(teasing faces, hands up to face like moose antlers or one hand in front of nose)
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
(finger up to mouth like SHHHH)
Quiet as can be
SNAP
(Both hands clap together like a crocodile's mouth)

Four little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
SNAP

Three little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
SNAP

Two little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
SNAP

One little monkey
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
SNAP

Missed me!

What is the aspect ratio of YOUR cat?

A friend of mine from high school introduced me to a photographer friend here in Denver who was very good working with kids. I wanted to have some professional pictures of Abby around her 2 year birthday, so we booked a session with her for today and took Abby to a beautiful park in Lone Tree for the photo shoot. We spent about an hour and a half running around the park and Abby had a great time. The photographer was so good with Abby that at the end of the shoot, Abby wanted to hold her hand as we headed back to our vehicles, completely ignoring Paul and me.

Taking pictures of a 2 year old wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Abby had very specific ideas for what she wanted to do and how, so taking direction from the photographer didn't work out too well. In the end, I think we got a couple hundred photos, with hopefully a dozen or so good shots. We will have a chance to proof the good photos in about a week.

So, we don't have any photos from the shoot yet, but below is a picture of Abby on our way to meet the photographer, showing you her bunny.

Abby turned 2 years old on July 7th, but we celebrated her birthday with family, friends, and a large bouncer this past Sunday, July 12th.

Abby had a couple of her best pals from school over at the party. 4 little kids in total and they had a blast with the Sports Bouncer we had purchased. Originally, we had intended to rent a Jumping Castle for Abby - after all, she'd been asking for one for months - but we were lucky to find a Step2 bouncer for about $10 more than a 6 hour rental. Figuring that our little jumping bean would love to have this available for future jumping needs, it was more cost effective. Also, the rental would have meant an outdoor set-up and since it rained during the entire party, we really made the right choice when deciding to buy the Sports Bouncer, which fits nicely in our living room.

We got her a ladybug cake, which she thought looked like a butterfly.

Birthday #2 was drastically different from Birthday #1. She understood the purpose of the party and her excitement was contagious. She patiently waited for us to sing her Happy Birthday before blowing out the candle and she was thrilled opening birthday presents.

Abigail had a blast and completely wore herself out.

I was disappointed that I didn't realize my camera was in a Manual mode for most of the party - it was so frustrating watching every shot turn out too dark or blurry. Regardless, we got enough photos to capture the essence of the party.

Below, you'll find a slideshow of photos from the birthday party as well as a video of the cake and candle blowing portion.

Cake and Candles from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

Italian psychologists have found that bilingual children are more flexible at learning speech structures than monolinguals. When given the opportunity to simultaneously learn two different regularities, bilingual infants learned both, while monolinguals learned only one of them.

The study also showed that although the acquisition rate between bilingual and monolingual infants when learning speech is about the same, the bilinguals learned approximately twice as much about language in the same given time. We've seen this evidence with Abby. Although her speech appears to be roughly the same as that of her peers at school (vocabulary and elocution) she can express herself equally well in a completely different language with vastly different language rules.

This interesting post summarizes some of these observations. If anything, the Eddie Izzard video on being bilingual is quite funny:

Bilingual children learn language rules more efficiently than monolinguals

It is very hard for me to believe that my baby is 2 years old today. To think that she is not even 1000 days old and seeing how much she has accomplished is astounding! I am so proud of the little girl she is and the strong person she is turning out to be. She has brought so much joy into our lives. We are the luckiest parents in the world because Abby is our daughter.

With the celebration with family and friends this weekend, Paul and I wanted to make today something sweet and enjoyable, so we took Abby to get an ice cream cone. Dressed appropriately in her ice cream outfit, she thoroughly enjoyed her little treat.

We had just finished dinner and Abby was out of her booster seat while Paul and I still chatted at the table.

Abby: Mama poopy?
Me: What?
Abby: Mama poopy? I change you.
Paul: [Laughing hysterically]
Me: I'm not poopy. Anyway, Mama's potty trained. I don't wear a diaper and I don't need a diaper change.
Abby: [A silly grin on her face and a finger pointing upstairs.] Mama downstairs? (She gets upstairs and downstairs mixed up.) Lay down. Diaper change!!!!

So, in an effort to avoid the embarrassment of going through a diaper change process - where I'm the victim - we introduced to Abby Poopy Bear. (She actually named him.) Poopy Bear is going through early stages of potty training and uses our toilets a lot. He also goes through 10-15 diaper changes in a matter of half an hour.

Using her imagination on everything but the diaper, she is able to put on gloves just as her daycare teachers do when changing diapers, use wipes, wash the bears bottom, put on diaper cream and rub Paw-Paw ointment on his legs and arms (because Poopy Bear suffers from itchy eczema skin like Abby), and get the bear diapered. And every so often, Poopy Bear would prefer to use the potty and he will sit on the toilet, Abby will flush afterwards for him, and I will help wash his hands.

Believe it or not, Paul and I are having a blast watching her go through these motions in so much detail, mimicking all her caregivers. It is amazing to see how much she has observed!

Note: Her daycare teachers have started getting her comfortable with the potty and we will probably be starting the extremely frightening process of potty training in a few weeks. She is ready for it, but timing has just been a little bit tricky with the move.