I am very delinquent this month (and cheating by dating it a little earlier – it is actually much later in December that I’m writing this entry but I’m fudging the posting date to make myself feel a little better). But I will try to faithfully capture what’s happened until her 28 month birthday rather than going further than that.
Well the girl has been progressing steadily, and is now speaking in half-sentences! It’s crazy! We are amazed by how far she’s gotten in just one month. But first she says hi:
[[image:2010-28month12.jpg:Hello, how do you do?:center:0]]
And yes, she can actually say that!
Just a refresher – Allie only started speaking six weeks ago (starting with “toe”) and you can read about it here. But here she is, six weeks later just going crazy with the verbal communication. For one thing, everything that she says will somehow relate back to her most favorite TV show – the Wonder Pets. She sees a picture of a tree, and she will say “cow, stuck in a tree! The Wonder Pets save the cow stuck in a tree!” (which of course they did). And since the Wonder Pets have saved most of the animals you can think of (and then some), and Allie has watched as many of these episodes as we can DVR, she can always relate any animal and many situations back to a rescue story. It is quite hilarious.
Oh! Plus, she has now switched to calling me “Mama”!!! And she addresses Vin as “Papa”!!! Yayyyyyy!!! I’m no longer the lady she points at and grunts, or “Nana” but I’m finally “Mama”! Ha! *cue maniacally happy laughter*
Her sentences include – “turn the light” (to request a light be turned on), “take pants off” (nuff said), “how do you do?” and others that just constantly take us by surprise. She can count to fifteen in English, fourteen in Malay, and consistently to five in Spanish. Also even counting to five in Mandarin, courtesy of Ni-Hao Kai Lan. She knows half the alphabets now (A, B, C, D, E, O, P, Q, R, S, U, W). The funny thing is that she actually now gets frustrated if we don’t understand her words – a) her pronunciation can sometimes be a little off and b) she’s quite often coming out of left field and a propos of nothing just dives into a topic that might seem to be unrelated to the current conversation (but ultimately will lead us right back to the Wonder Pets, I’ll wager). When she wasn’t speaking it never used to bug her when we didn’t understand her. But she keeps trying and we keep our ears peeled. It’s just amazing to have her be able to tell us if she wants to drink milk, or eat toast, or eat mangos or plums. And her vocabulary constantly amazes us – the girl was paying attention to us the whole time she wasn’t speaking. Her vocabulary has grown from 5 words or so, six weeks ago, to at least 120 words. We couldn’t be happier!
But, she’s still the same sweetheart who runs around and dances and enjoys life. She seems to sing less now and instead chatter to herself, although when she does sing she is actually using words. Maybe singing with words is more difficult and requires more of an effort so she doesn’t sing as much now? I don’t know. She’ll yell out letters that she sees on billboards when we’re driving in the car, and will tell us the letters if our t-shirts have words on them. She’s definitely a bundle of fun! (Sidebar: Allie is now a front-facing rider in the car. She stopped being rear-facing on the drive to the airport for our Malaysia trip so she was about 25.5 months old when that happened). She is so into her crayons lately, drawing and coloring and really taking an interest in what comes out. We draw families of animals (e.g., Mama Kitkat, Papa Kitkat, Baby Kitkat, Opah Kitkat, Atok Kitkat, Irfan Kitkat). Opah = Grandmother, Atok = Grandfather, Irfan = Allie’s cousin Irfan. Now when it’s cats, it’s not so bad. She’ll then ask us to draw donkeys or kangaroos and families of them – never mind that my donkey looks like a goat and my kangaroo more like a dinosaur with a congenital bone-deformity condition. It’s still fun for her though. It sure makes me wish that we had Allie’s Pak Yope (Hisham) around to draw her world class animals.
Bedtime has changed somewhat – Allie no longer wants us to read Hop on Pop. Instead she chooses the book she wants and she likes to have multiple books read. She also seems more tactile at bedtime so many of her bedtime books lately have been the “touch and feel” type. Prior to this, Allie slept without a pillow in her crib. She now sleeps with her old nursing pillow as her pillow. It’s quite funny to see how she dwarfs that thing!
And now let’s get to the pictures and see how Allie spent her 28 month birthday. She started the morning off by sitting on her froggy potty (preliminary potty training – it’s not been very successful)
[[image:2010-28month21.jpg:Modeling her milk-filled sippy cup:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month19.jpg:Mama’s here!:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month18.jpg:Drawing drawing:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month17.jpg:Mama, why doesn’t my cat look like Pak Yope’s cat?:center:0]]
Believe me, Yaya, I still ask that question myself. 🙂 It’s time for a wardrobechange – the addition of a skirt:
[[image:2010-28month16.jpg:Sitting demurely:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month14.jpg:Mangos at lunch time:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month15.jpg:All sweetness and innocence:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month13.jpg:Napping on her little bed on the floor:center:0]]
Note the toy golf ball in her hand, yes? Here’s a look at the whole new outfit she’s picked out:
[[image:2010-28month01.jpg:Sitting and chatting on the sofa:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month02.jpg:Telling Mama what letters are on the stencil:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month03.jpg:Time for a dance party!:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month04.jpg:”Pick up Kitkat”:center:0]]
Lily was not having any of it though and escaped safely. She did allow Allie to pet her for a bit though.
In the evening, it is time for fun and games! Mama is done working for the day, so we run around the house!
[[image:2010-28month10.jpg:”Yaya running”:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month09.jpg:”Two points!”:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month11.jpg:Little miss attitude and Purrsley:center:0]]
Poor Purrsley. He is definitely much loved (and much tortured as you can see). Happily for Purrsley, she moves on to playing with her bongos. She’s discovered that the bongos are fun in multiple ways.
[[image:2010-28month08.jpg:Drumming on the bongos:center:0]]
They also roll well and so Yaya sets them rolling down the hallway, and runs after them laughing the entire time.
[[image:2010-28month07.jpg:Set! Go!:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month06.jpg:Dance and bongo:center:0]]
[[image:2010-28month05.jpg:Your turn, Curious George!:center:0]]
It is late, and another day filled with fun and laughter is over. It’s bath and bedtime for little girls (and her exhausted parents). It’s been another fun month and we are amazed and thankful that she’s finally talking and her speech seems to now be on an accelerated learning curve. YAYYYY!! It might have taken almost 28 months for her to say “Mama” and “Papa”, but it only makes it that much sweeter and more appreciated that we had to wait for it. Happy 28 month birthday, baby girl! Love you!
See the rest of y’alls next month!
[[image:2010-28month22.jpg:Geram Papa!:center:0]]
