Vocab2

Recently she has been picking up words at an amazing speed. I'm trying to record down all the words she can say/recognise at the moment. Try my best to recall everything.

Family: 爷爷，爸爸，妈妈，奶奶，婆婆(credits to Papa So)，zeh zeh, 妹妹，zorzor (gorgor), 弟弟，阿姨，姨丈 (or pronounced as yi-dan at the moment), and "Eddie" without the "uncle" (picked up roughly in that order)
She understands and can point out who is: Xiangxiang, Uncle Joe, Aunty Zoey, Aunty Yirong

Animals: bird, 猫/cat, dog/wohwoh/狗, 鸭/duck, 鸡, 猪, 马, moooo (cow), 鱼，蜘蛛，bear/小熊, lizard, giraffe, frog, rooaarr (lion), ooooooooo (wolf)

Action: fly, 跑步(or "babu"), 跑跑跑 (said while running)，抱抱 (or "yee-yah!"), 走走(if she wants to come down to walk by herself)，游泳(or "yaya"), 丢/throw, 踢/kick，跌倒, up (when she goes up the stairs, or pick herself up from a fall, or when I go up a flight of stairs while carrying her), down (or "pom!" when jumping down from a chair), 跳/jump, 开, siang (sayang), shya (刷牙），洗，kiss/mmm-muck!, bye，peekaboo!(with action)，睡觉(with rather hard patting action, and the doll must be sleeping face down)，shhhh, ah-choo, 拜拜 (with the praying action, when she sees temples or 神台) , sitsit/坐
She understands: 给，躺下来，穿鞋，穿尿布/穿裤子(to which she would run away with a cheeky smile and expect me to run after her and say "抓到了！羞羞，没有穿裤子！")，吃(which she would say "mum mum" to my GREAT displeasure), 冲凉 (or pompom, again, to my GREAT displeasure), 哭 (with eye rubbing action) and her most recent word is “喝”(drink plain water from her straw bottle)

Food: Nana (banana), apple, 奶/milk, 鱼, rice, pear(she understands 梨 too)，菜, papa (papaya)

Objects: Umba (which is umbrella), 杯, star, sun, moon, ball, clock, shoe/鞋，书/book, bus, 车/car, bike, van, 树，flower/花, 灯, 暗, baby, boyboy, gerger, 衣 (she would tug at her top) , chair
she understands: 天空，云(she will point outside the window. I asked her tonight, 现在有没有太阳？she said "没有"), 风 (she would stand in front of the fan to find it)，裤子 (she would tug at her bottom), 下雨了 (she would cover her head or say "umba") , 佛(the big belly and bald ones)


Body parts: 脚，eye
she understands: 鼻子，耳朵，眼睛，嘴巴，手，头发，屁股


Words to show her needs: 必要必要必要必要 (usually said at least 4-6 times stringed together, means 不要actually), 没有，there (with finger pointing somewhere, means carry her there!), painpain, 怕怕

Words that she can read at the moment: 大，人，不 (thanks to my mum and the 治家格言on her walls), 8,1,2,5

She can count 1,2,3,4,5,(6),7,8,9,10 in chinese and english, sort of, and ABCDE (she will repeat after us from A-Z)

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Some speech patterns that I found in her:
1. She started saying "b" words first (bye, baba, ball, bird, 8, bus) and can say more "b" words.
2.She can't pronounce "g" yet. "l" too.
3. She is speaking mono-syllable words, at most 2 syllabus but not 3 (she can pronounce "ba" but she only says "nana". She can pronounce "ya" but she only says "papa")
4. I speak to her in both languages. Usually I repeat myself. She chooses the easier word of the 2 languages to vocalize
5. When I pronounce 第三声properly (down then up again, as opposed to the Singaporean way of just saying a low sound), she imitates me, which is the correct way
6. She recognise a lot of nouns, but verbs come a close second. Which means vocalizing every action and object aids in her learning.
7. With the exception of "mum mum" and "pom pom" which are the most commonly used words at the infant care and among most grandparents, she doesn't say any other baby words, and can speak the correct word (instead of "gai gai", infant care teachers say "outdoor" so she says "outdoor", or just take her shoes and linger around the door and wait for us to leave). Which really goes to show garbage in, garbage out.
8. We don't use a lot of repeated sounds (only 抱抱，拜拜，"sitsit" is said by caregivers at infant care i think, bear bear, which she prefers just "bear" or 小熊 now), and she learns all the words just as fine.
9. Strangely, she hasn't picked up colours and shapes yet. We teach her colour quite often. But it doesn't bother me.
10. My sign languages didn't work. Other than "bye" and "下雨了" she doesn't "act" out her words. But then again if she can say it, why bother signing it. I'll try signing words again with my baby boy. Boys supposedly talk later.



She's picking up words like a sponge everyday. I'm extra sensitive about the singlish/bad grammar spoken around her now. I wish people would just speak to her in Mandarin. As much as I can, I repeat the correct version/grammar so that she won't pick up too many wrong vocab. My English is not perfect but at least I got a B3 lah, hahaha :P:P

For Papa

Papa So is away in Russia at the moment (19/8) so this video is for my dear hubby to hear his little little ger calling him "papa" :):)

In the video xuan was initially banging on the toilet door (if it was me in the toilet she'd be crying til I came out) then she heard papa sneeze so she said "ah-choo", then after playing with the arm chair she toddled off to find papa again who wasn't out yet :):):)

Xuan cuts her hair

When she was younger, she just need to be distracted, and generally she can sit through the

whole session, but now once the 'towel' (she hates to be wrapped around by blankets and towels) is around her neck she will start to pull and cry. We went on cutting her hair without all the towels eventually, and she cried throughout the whole torture. Poor thing! :(:(