And so another month has passed. The numbers are rising! And the girl has definitely come a long way in 51 months
[[image:2012-yaya51month-14.jpg:Yaya loved the train ride at the outlet mall:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
We had another fun month, but no traveling this time! A nice stay at home month for us (or has the hibernation begun?). Food status: slight success. Yaya ate home-made pancakes! She ate them dry and without syrup, but she ate them. I made them special Yaya-sized little medallions and she ate some of it. We were terribly proud! We thought perhaps we could springboard from pancakes to other bread-like foods, like naan bread, or nutella or peanut butter on her toast. But no luck. The pancakes were it. So now, as an incentive for her to try something new, we told her no new games on the iPad until she tries a new food. She doesn’t have to like it, but she has to try it. She has been trying to get us to download the Peppa Pig Sports Day game, but until something new is eaten, we have a moratorium on iPad games or other toys.
Diaper status: Yaya is still diaper free and has had no night-time accidents (knock wood!). Yay! Nuff said! I think the diaper chapter is over for Yaya. Now to get Adik diaper free and we’ll be done forever *muahahahaha*
Yaya is randomly remembering how some words are spelled – oh dear, looks like Vin and I might have to learn a different language to tell each other stuff we don’t want Yaya to know about! Or at least download a thesaurus so we can spell a large and complicated synonym for simple ones, like “zoo” vs. menagerie. We have a lot of pretend-play still of course, and Yaya does a lot of drawing. She also begged her way to a Doodle Bear (last toy before the moratorium on games and toys) which is a bear that comes with special markers that you use on said bear. A turn in the washer and dryer later, and it’s ready to be doodled on again. Yaya has lots of fun with her. We always have to monitor her to make sure that she doesn’t become a Doodle Yaya as well (or Adik becomes a Doodle Adik, which luckily has NOT yet happened). Yaya has had her doodling on self issues. Yaya has also been into singing lately. She will listen to a song over and over again to memorize the lyrics. She actually does better than me to pick out the words (I’m not that much into lyrics). So it’s been fun playing some songs over and over and hearing her sing along. She also learns the songs that we sing to each other (e.g., sometimes I sing “Hush little baby” to Adik to quiet him and Yaya calls it the “Bockingbird Lullaby” – that’s how she says mockingbird). One fun activity is when I play the piano and Yaya sings (ABC, Twinkle Twinkle, and Adik’s personal favorite, Old MacDonald). It’s a whole family activity because Yaya sings and dances and makes Vin be the audience and Adik loves to bop along and dance with us as well. It’s quite fun.
TV-wise, Yaya has turned more towards PBS/Sprout channels, enjoying Kipper, Wibbly Pig, Caillou and other shows (you should hear her sing their theme songs). Yaya still shies away from more dramatic shows, even fairy tales, as she hides away when the evil character is introduced or any conflict is introduced at all. Even when we read a storybook, she will run and hide when conflict occurs (e.g., the characters refuse to share a toy and it gets ripped when they each pull at it). So I don’t know when she will be ready for something more advanced than what she is already watching. We shall see I suppose.
And now for the pictures of what the girl has been up to this month!
[[image:2012-yaya51month-08.jpg:Posing with her building block sculpture of an elephant in an artsy zoo enclosure:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya51month-12.jpg:There’s Violet, the Doodle Bear:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya51month-13.jpg:Close up:center:0]]
A little preview of Halloween on the day her costume arrived:
[[image:2012-yaya51month-05.jpg:Happy pirate:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya51month-06.jpg:Arrr mateys!:center:0]]
I asked Yaya to make faces of expressions so I could photograph them and we both laughed at the outcomes. Here are a couple of my favorites:
[[image:2012-yaya51month-01.jpg:Yaya’s scared face:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya51month-02.jpg:Yaya’s angry face:center:0]]
That was her fourth try at angry, I think. She didn’t think the others were angry enough but was very pleased with the above! Next are pictures of Yaya hanging out with her family:
[[image:2012-yaya51month-03.jpg:Cuddling up with Adik:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya51month-04.jpg:Jom naik wagon!:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya51month-07.jpg:Manjaing with Papa and Adik:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya51month-09.jpg:Modeling sweaters knitted by Chris C:center:0]]
Thank you Chris! The sweaters are awesome, we love them! Rajinnya to knit and thank you for sending them to us, what a wonderful surprise delivered by the postman. Now a couple of actions shots:
[[image:2012-yaya51month-10.jpg:Playing hard:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya51month-11.jpg:One nanosecond before she jumped into the leaf pile:center:0]]
And so we will see you next month! Happy 51 month birthday baby girl! We love you!!!
[[image:2012-yaya51month-15.jpg:Happy girl with tocang dua (2 ponytails):center:0]]
