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! :(:(

Gorilla

Melody imitates the gorilla! Buts she's so cute, looks more like a baby monkey! :):)

Reading

Reading has become such a big part of our everyday routine. Though she doesn't concentrate on the words, she would try to identify names of pictures that she knows. We have a stack of Chinese and English books that we keep underneath the table, and she knows it. Evernight, we spend about half an hour I think on flipping through all the books. She started with saying "nah nah" and reaching out towards the table to signal that she wants a book, but now I would ask her "你要什么？”(What do you want?) and she would answer“书”(book). Sometimes, I say “你自己拿”(take out a book yourself) and she would crawl over to take a book out.

I think we have about 15 books under the table but recently she chooses only the book she wants to read. If she sees a book that she doesn't want she would ask for another one. The teachers at the infant care also commented that she can concentrate quite well on books :):)

At the playground

The 3 poles are for step up exercises, I think? but my girl would want to sit on it and swing her legs. When I carry her up I always make a "yee-yah!" sound so she imitates me whenever she exerts :):)

Sitting down

We don't have any push carts for our toddler so she pushes the little chair instead. By the way, the yellow chair was Mama So's baby chair as a child :):)

Notice how she climbs up onto the chair first before turning around to sit down. I'm not too sure why, maybe because she can't really judge the distance if she backfaces the chair?

I like the way she swings her legs after she sits down :):) So relaxed, so contented, like the“怡”in her name-怡然自得。

Falling asleep

A video hard to get by, cos usually she's sleeping at the infant care, or if we're at home we make sure the room is completely dark, with Piano Spa music playing lightly in the background. Can't take pictures or film her sleeping time cos there's no light.

Quality sleep is very important. During my pregnancy I slept with (the same) piano spa every night. Too lazy to change the cds. So Papa So has been listening to the same tracks for about 2 years now :P Mama So usually fall asleep by the 4th track so I don't really know the later tracks heehee. Now little boy (baby no. 2) also get to hear Piano Spa in my tummy cos I'll be lying down with Xuan and I usually fall asleep before she does :P:P:P Her sleeping time is around 9+ 10 at the moment.

So You Think You Can Dance

"I'm going to Hollywood!!!!!"

Merry Go Round

Xuan and Papa So chase each other round the baby cot for at least 5 full minutes :) When you are that tiny I guess the house is like a big maze and obstace course with all the furniture lying around.

I am constantly amazed at how little actions can amuse her for so long. To hear her laugh again and again, I am also amazed at how patient I have grown to be, playing peekaboo for, like, 20 times at a go without feeling stupid :)

Cute Melody

She looks absolutely adorable in this blue dress :):)

Light Switch

Xuan has learnt how to switch on the light!

Self feeding

Xuan shows interest in feeding herself! :) So one fine day, after psyching myself up, I gave her the spoon. The first feeding session wasn't so bad, she just kept dipping the spoon into her bowl and feeding it to me. I have to pretend to eat off the spoon though she didn't scoop anything up. Watching her feed herself makes me very nervous. Most books just say "if you cannot bear to watch the mess, just turn around". Yah I have to do that cos otherwise I just freak out.

Peek-a-boo

Instead of us playing peek-a-boo with her all the time, she has learnt how to play it with us! :):)

Wearing socks

Xuan has suddenly taken a liking to wearing shoes and socks. Maybe she knows it means we are going out, or maybe she just like wearing something over her feet. The cute thing is how she lifts her foot up as high as possible so that we can put on the shoe/sock for her :) Think all the “这只手……那只手”“这只脚……那只脚”that I say when we put on clothing for her helps to learn.

Climbing down

I was happy to see her climbing down the sofa cos I know she'll be careful and more importantly, safe, and I don't have to scream everytime she tries to get down from somewhere high. Actually she has already fallen from our bed twice when she was younger. Ever since then she'd stop at the edge and cry for us if she wants to get down. Good that she learns from "setbacks"!

Walking2

My little girl likes walking :) and wierdly, with her hands behind her back. Makes her look as though she's inspecting something! :):) This video is taken outside her infant care.

Walking!

My baby has officially started walking today! :D:D All of a sudden, she took an interest in walking around the room and would not stop :):) She's walking slowly and carefully so when she falls, she always lands on her Huggies-protected-butt and she pushes herself up, saying "Up!" at the same time :):) So motivating!

Sharing2

My little girl seem to show signs of playing with another toddler rather than just playing beside him :):)

She has been progressing rather fast lately and it's amazing to see how much she understands. She was standing up on her feeding chair that day when I said sternly, 坐下. She squarted down with her head bowed slightly lower but observing me all the time, and then I said, 脚放好来. She sat down immediately and out came her tiny legs hanging down the chair :):) Maybe it's my body language, tone and words all added up together, but she definitely understands my Mandarin (Mother Tongue, literally!) now. When I ask her 要不要__ sometimes she shakes her head! :):)

Night routine

Every night xuan rolls about our bed with the bottle in her hand/mouth, and she will roll til I switch off all the lights, lie down beside her and watch her roll...then I'll be asleep and I dunno what happens.