August 2010: August turned out to be a very busy month for everyone. Jon finally sold his Civic. There were parties almost every weekend. Wai Po and Wai Gong came up for a visit. We spent 4 days with the Pollack-Howards on Cape Cod. And then, it all came to to end when Kathy had to return to work.

Physically, Aurora is way beyond her (almost) two-and-a-half years. She has been hitting milestones months before the average kid. For example, she has been able to go up and down stairs by herself, alternating her feet, for months (a 3 year old milestone). She started jumping before she was two and is now learning how to hop on one foot (jumping = 2 years, hopping = 3-4 years). Making a tower of 8 cubes is a 2-3 year milestone which she has already mastered.

Intellectually, Aurora is already showing many signs that she is quite smart, if not smarter than both Mama and Baba. She knows way more than six body parts, in both English and Chinese (2 year old milestone). Aurora knows a few letters of the alphabet, and can "sing" the whole alphabet song by herself now. Not only can she recognize and name one color (2.5 year milestone), she can identify the whole rainbow plus white, black, pink and brown in English, and a few on Chinese (red, green, and yellow). She can count up to ten in both English and Chinese (5 year old milestone!). Even more scary to us is that Aurora already knows how to "work the system" by asking the other parent for a treat or a favor when the first one she asked said no. She is extremely observant, watching and copying eveything around her. In an example of our poor parenting, Aurora now prefers to eat her food in the living room rather than the kitchen, because that is where she sees Mama and Baba eat most of the time.

Of course, she is not a total genius. Aurora still does not know how to play well with other kids. She is usually good about sharing toys and taking turns, but sometimes she gets impatient with waiting. She rarely interacts significantly with other kids, either at a party, at the playground, or at Gymboree. Like Mama, Aurora often prefers to do her own thing even though there are lots of other people around. She can be very willful at times, refusing to have her diaper changed or not putting on her shoes (or clothes) when it is time to go somewhere.


August 1, 2010: We headed off to the Southwick Zoo. We went hoping for pony, camel, and elephant rides. Unfortunately, the elephant died just a few days before. Aurora did get to go on a pony ride and a camel ride. The camel rides were meant for kids at least 3 years old. We took advantage of Aurora's height and snuck her on anyway. It was a bumpy ride, and she got a bit nervous. She could hardly wait for the camel to finish making the loop around the short track!


Immediately after getting off the camel, Aurora wanted to try out the mechanical rides. They all looked like they were from the 60's or 70's, but she didn't care. The first ride was on a rocket (she called them airplanes) with a gun on the front. She had no idea what the guns were, other than something to hang on to during the ride. In the last photo here, she is already checking out the ride next to this one.


Video: Round and round riding a red rocket

Classic Corvettes! You can see how seriously Aurora took the responsibilty of driving.


Video: Vroom vroom

Then, since it was a zoo, we walked around to look at the animals. It was definitely an older zoo, with small cages for many of the animals. Luckily, some of the bigger animals are starting to get larger and more natural enclosures. After lunch, Aurora found the carousel. Of course she picked an "inside horse" to make picutre taking that much more challenging.


Watch out Rora! You might get eaten by a lion!


Do you see all the birds over your head? Bet Jon is glad he's wearing a hat!


Before we left, she tried out the moon bounce. She was able to hold her own against many bigger kids. In fact, it was hard to get her out of the moon bounce once her "ride" was over!

Video: Bouncing 1

Video: Bouncing 2

Video: Bouncing 3


August 3, 2010: We spent many Tuesday mornings at the Natick Collection for Family Fun Day. Most of the time, Aurora likes to have her picture taken, but sometimes she acts like a diva, refusing to look at the camera or frowning.


Here she is dancing and goofing around with her stroller.


And here she is enjoying a snack. I think the muffin is as big as her head!



August 6, 2010: E Ink's annual summer bash! This year, it was held at Milton Academy. Aurora started off by trying out the pool. Then she moved on to playing ball with Joanna and Baba.


By far the best thing, according to Aurora, was the bouncy castle. She had a blast!


Video: Bouncy castle

We managed to get her out for a break to get a balloon bracelet made.


Video: Running into the sunset

Aurora is Jon's kid, and they both hate to leave a party early. At the end of the evening, the last few adults also climbed into the castle for some fun.


Video: Everyone bounces!


August 7, 2010: After a big party, the best thing is to have ice cream the next morning. We went to the Farmers' Market to get produce, and Aurora quickly spotted the ice cream booth. She chose chocolate almond coconut ice cream in a cone but seemed to prefer Mama's raspberry lime sorbet.



August 12, 2010: Aurora's version of "American Gothic"


Jon sold his Civic this week. Here are Jon and Aurora saying good-bye to "Baba's old car"



August 14, 2010: Aurora adores the two outdoor cats our next door neighbors own. She gets so excited when she spots "Skitty" or "Persian" in our yard.



August 15, 2010: We went to the annual ADP alumni picnic. Despite the fact that the water was less than 70 degrees and her teeth were chattering, Aurora loved being in the pool.

Video: Push off



This was a busy day! After the picnic, we rushed off to a pirate's birthday party for a bit, then met up with Wai Po and Wai Gong. Aurora also got to try out the ride at Babies R Us.

Video: Riding with Bob the Builder



Reading with Wai Po.



August 18, 2010: Aurora insisted that I take a picture of the bunny she made from her milk.



August 19, 2010: It's a Gymboree day! Aurora is a master of the space, comforatbly playing with the equipment by herself and coming up with games to play with Mama.


Video: Up and down (cheese!)



Video: Tunnel peek-a-boo



Video: Cube peek-a-boo



Video: Inner tube peek-a-boo



Video: Jump and bounce


August 21, 2010: We went to Ariana Wood's 1st birthday party. It was at a dance studio, so there was lots of space to play in and stuff to play with.


Video: Hula hoop

Video: Trampoline

Video: Having a ball



Singing happy birthday while eyeing the cupcakes


Aurora has never met a cupcake she didn't like.


After the party, we headed up to New Hampshire to meet up with some of Jon's friends for indoor skydiving


Video: Mama's first flight


August 25, 2010: We are on Cape Cod! Aurora thought we'd never finish packing, and was very anxious to get on the road yesterday. Our vacation started out rainy, which led us to find the Cape Cod Childrens' Museum. There was so much to do there! Aurora's favorite? The train table.


The skies cleared later that day and we wandered out onto the edge of the golf course near the condo we rented.

Video: Flying (sorry it's sideways)



Video: Jon catches a fish

Aurora starts to show Greer how to do all sorts of "big kid" things.


Video: Two flying toddlers

There's nothing like sitting on the patio, enjoying drinks.



August 26, 2010: Aurora's first day at the beach! We rode our bikes over to Crosby Landing Beach and met up with Amy, George, and Greer, who kindly took a bunch of our stuff in their car. It took Aurora a few minutes to be OK with having sand on her feet, but then she had a blast. She loved digging in the sand, but was a little less eager to get into the slightly chilly (and very seaweedy) water.


Video: Testing the water

Video: "Swimming"



Aurora kindly made Baba a sand birthday cake.


Video: Happy birthday Baba

On the way home, we saw a snapping turtle on the bike path.


Video: Turtle crossing


August 27, 2010: Another day, another beach. Today, we tried out Breakwater Beach. Before we left, Jon discovered a flat tire on his bike. While he changed it, Aurora found a golf ball near the patio.


A beach classic - playing with a beach ball.

Video: Throwing it high

Video: Catch 1

Video: Catch 2

Another beach classic - jumping over waves.



Video: Wave jumping 1

Video: Wave jumping 2

Video: Wave jumping 3



There was a rock sticking out a little bit offshore and older kids were climbing up on it. Aurora, of course, wanted to go sit on it too. And so did Jon, so he carried her out to it.


Then it was back to digging in the sand.


And another trip out to the rock.


On the way back, Jon tries to get Aurora to touch some of the seaweed. She refused.


Video: No seaweed!

Making footprints in the sand.


In the parking lot, Aurora is excited to see a big motorcycle parked next to our bikes.


After a quick stop at the condo for showers and new clothes, we headed out to dinner on the southern (ocean) shore. Aurora enjoyed looking at the boats, but it was "too sunny!" for her to smile at the camera.


Video: Aurora is a crazy driver!


August 28, 2010: The last day of our Cape vacation! We stopped in Hyannis to see the Cape Cod Scenic Railroad. Tickets were all sold out for the day, and it made Aurora very sad that she couldn't ride the train. Maybe next year!