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| #macamyes. Does she look like me from behind? Don't ask me why my portable piano is like a table. |
Well then, she has been sleeping in her own little bed (attached to ours) for a whole month now, minus the few nights we let her sleep between us when she had the sniffles. (She also slept between us while we were away from my in-laws' home - KL and our own flat in Batu Feringghi.) I am glad that she took to it so well, even though I miss having her and her precious scent right next to me.
Nananananah....
Some updates (cf. the 17th month's updates here):
1. The child-lock in our car on her side is now a permanent application, since she figured out how to unlock her door from the inside and open it on her own. And she seems to think that opening the door while the car is at full speed is the coolest thing to do. Her attempts to do so are often accompanied by a sidelong glance in my direction and the cheekiest of smiles. Oh dear.
2. Somersaulting on our bed. It all began when she had her head down and buttock up in the air one day, trying to peer at the upside down world between and behind her legs in childlike wonder. Thankfully, she was on a padded surface. She rounded her back on a whim, leaned forward, and rolled over thanks to the momentum generated by her legs. While I was in shock, I went (also on a whim), "Would you like to see mummy somersault?" She nodded eagerly and the rest is history. I now somersault a few times each day for her viewing pleasure, and she does likewise. I have mixed feelings about teaching her the stunt at her impulsive age though. While I am happy that she is discovering what her body can do, I am just afraid that she might somersault on her own, do it too near the edge, and roll right off our bed - which has already happened once. I did tell her that she should only somersault when mummy is around. Oh well.
3. Cute new words, that aren't of sign language.
"Bahhh.... SSSS" or just "SSSS" for bus.
"Wah... Tahh" for "water".
"Um...ah" for "umbrella". Speaking of which, she would go "Um...ah" whenever she catches sight of anything that resembles the curved handle of the umbrella. Fence panels. Traditional walking sticks. Candy canes. A shepherd's staff. Caught us off-guard she did when she indicated that Jesus, the Good Shepherd in one of the pictures on our walls, had an "um...ah" with him! Haha. To shelter Him from the rain, I suppose.
"Bear-bah" for "Bear-bear".
"Urrr" for "R" and whenever she sees a Red traffic light.
"Meh meh..." for "mummy" when she wants to be cute. This is spoken with a higher-pitched-than-usual, sugary sweet voice, if you can imagine.
"Maeiii..." for "don't want". A sign of her Hokkien roots. I do hope that she will speak proper English when she grows up though.
"Bao" for "carry" (Mandarin) is back after she replaced it with "Bohhh" for many months.
"Da" for "Sophie". Don't ask me why or how. When we point her out in pictures and ask, "Who is this?" she would point to herself and say, "Da." A little like "Na" in Korean for "me", but with the D.
4. Hearing the alphabet song has her doing the actions of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" simply because they have the same tune.
5. Crossing her pointers to indicate that she has seen a cross somewhere. One evening, we passed by our church, and she crossed her pointers (don't know how she spotted the cross from where she was though; its view was hidden by many trees). We asked her if she meant "Jesus" and she nodded. She pointed in the direction of church. "So Jesus is in the church? What is He doing there?" I asked. She made a sign for "sleeping". We didn't know whether to be amused or worried.
6. Signing "one" when you ask "How old are you, Sophie?" One year old indeed. Then she does the same whenever you ask her, "How are you, Sophie?" Haha.
7. Selective stranger anxiety. Actually, we are not entirely sure what it really is. From a rather sociable, you-may-carry-me-if-you-wish personality, she is now a touch-me-not-stranger kind of person. She won't let you carry her or shake hands - and if you insist and cross her boundaries, she will smack your hand just to let you know that she is being SERIOUS. Just last weekend, we noticed her averting her gaze when our friends (whom we bumped into at the supermarket) addressed her. And pretending to be sleepy, with her eyes half-closed (didn't know that she would be such a brilliant actress). Hmmm. She isn't quite as reserved with us though. Or the people next door, whom she encounters on daily basis, almost. Or the waiters/waitresses who make funny faces at the restaurants. The only strangers whom she takes to with compelling eagerness are the furry stuffed animals that talk in high voices sounding like her mummy on a gulp of helium:
"Hello, Sophie! I am pleased to meet you!"
8. Eating with her hands or fork from a plate placed in front of her, with much less compulsion (than before) to lift up the plate and fling food onto the floor. I do this over the weekends, when we are on our own (or eating out), in order to minimise my MIL's distress - because let's face it, most toddlers are messy eaters. Creating bite-sized snacks for her has become one of my favourite weekend-away activities. She is rather like me in the sense that she can be hard to please when it comes to food, particularly its texture as well as the size of the morsels that land in her mouth. And so, nothing too dry or rough (like most meats), nothing too cold or too warm, nothing too fishy, and no morsel bigger than a 3/4 a teaspoon. I think we can never go wrong with good ol' peanut butter sandwiches cut into 1cm X 1cm squares - minus the chewy crusts, which happen to be my favourite things, by the way. She is still into her chips. Or fries if you like. Those with golden, near-crispy exteriors... fluffy interior architecture... and just the right amount of salt. (My mouth is watering while I type this.)
9. Screaming. High-pitched, drama-queen, girly kind of screaming. I don't know where she learned that from. She screams when she is happy. She whines when frustrated. This toddler phase is really something.
10. A longer attention span when it comes to books. Nowadays, we can sit on the couch for up to twenty minutes, going through book by book. As she prefers me to tell her stories from the pictures (instead of pointing her to the words), I will stick with that for now.
11. Hitting. I've heard that toddlers grow out of it as long as they know that we mean business when we say, "No hitting!" She hits us when she is angry - or when other kids unconsciously bring her to her boiling point by taking her toys away without her consent or coming too close when she is in a touch-me-not mood. It feels like a tight slap. Haha! I don't really believe in hitting her back in order to teach her that hitting is wrong. It seems to intensify her rage. Instead, I'd rebuke her firmly (when she is doing it for fun or out of curiosity - just to see how you would respond), empathize and put words to her feelings (when she is agitated), suggest non-aggressive ways with which she could communicate her feelings, help her to calm down, and move on. Easier said than done of course - and it is never easy when we are as upset as she is, if not more. Well then, I must be thankful that she is capable of apologising when we tell her that she is hurting us - by stroking our faces gently. When she's calmed down of course. Otherwise, she is usually very loving. Random affectionate kisses for us and her furry friends. Kind, dimpled smiles when I am down. And her huge welcome home gestures that make us feel on top of the world after a long day at work.
And so, onward we go to the 2nd half of the year. As Sophie's mother, I pray that God would help me to walk closer to Him instead of further away. It is so easy to forget that life is all about resting and reciprocating (to His Spirit's movement within me) in His love and grace when I am so bogged down with matters of the ordinary.
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