Growing Up
The 'little bad egg' (Xiao3 Huai4 Dan4) has been keeping me busy and tired the last 2 weeks, so I haven't written much. But here's a wordy, wordy update on what she has been up to:
(a) Physical
Both bottom front teeth have emerged. But now, the top ones are irritating her, so she has been quite 'high-maintenance' this week, needing lots of hugging, cuddling and comforting. And I threw in a few nursing sessions as well, both to soothe her and to provide more nutrition since she didn't like to suck from her bottle this week. It didn't help that Mei Xi was quite clingy to me, which, while endearing and helped me to develop strong arm muscles even without pilates or yoga, meant I had little chance to rest unless she was sleeping. Don't know whether this is a more difficult period for her or for me. Thankfully, she seems better these past 2 days and has been more cheery, talkative and playful. She smiled at me quite a lot too. Hee!
(b) Socially
Mei Xi is still a super-friendly little creature, smiling at every stranger she chances to meet, and thus winning them over with her charm. Human faces and voices interest her a great deal, so I try to bring her out for a daily walk, whether it's just around the estate or to the grocery store, so that she gets to hear and meet other people. She likes to smile at her own reflection too, and it's a good way to distract her when she is crying or whimpering. Of course, she doesn't know that it's herself she's smiling at... And there's one day when I carried her in front of me in the Snugli carrier and looked into the floor-to-ceiling mirror in our gym. She started smiling at herself, then smiled at my reflection in the mirror. After that, she kept staring at my reflection and looking up at me, as though she couldn't quite reconcile how I could appear in the mirror and be carrying her at the same time. Ha ha!
(c) Play
More milestones: First, Mei Xi was able to roll from her back to her side, and to sleep on her side if she so desired. Now, she is able to roll over at will, both from tummy to back, and from back to tummy. Unfortunately, this means she wriggles more during diaper changing time, and I've to try to get her to keep still by distracting her with a rattle or some other toy. When she is in an active mood, she makes some motions with her legs to proper herself forward. It doesn't always work, though, so sometimes she ends up spinning around the same spot like the hands of a clock!
In addition, she is gaining better control of her hands - more able to hold her rattle, book and teething ring herself. She has also been reaching out for her toys, so if I put something within her reach (e.g. on the ground when she is on her tummy, or on her tummy when she is lying or sitting down), she would grasp it. As she seems to be ready to hold her own cup soon, we've gotten an Avent 'Magic Trainer Cup', which comes with a two-handled attachment for her to hold. Can't wait to let her try holding it. Once she can hold it, getting it to her mouth shouldn't be a problem, since everything that she grasps these days goes into her mouth pronto! Her favourite toy at the moment is a fabric book. She can spend at least half an hour gumming the book, crushing the pages and flipping the pages. For some variety, we've bought her another one of such books, but it comes in more vibrant colours and has teethable rubber surfaces at the corners of the pages. Yum!
(d) Reading
We've started reading one Tang poem or Song lyrical poem every night. That's for her 'Chinese literary education'. But she doesn't seem as interested (maybe the book doesn't have interesting pictures and big words)... so I'm still sticking to singing Chinese songs to her and conversing with her in Mandarin. Of course, we talk to her in English quite a bit too. Tried reading her chapters from the Bible too, as that's the longest English book in our house, but that too, didn't capture her attention much =p Not as much as various kiddie books I've borrowed - they aren't designed for babies, but they at least have colourful pictures and few, big words to captivate her. She also likes to read women's magazines, which has colourful pictures and pretty people, so we spend some time every day flipping through the magazines when she is a bit tired and willing to sit still for a while. Minhui borrowed a book that gives ideas on teaching babies to read, and he suggests we could try some of those ideas too to occupy baby's time. Okie, we'll see how that goes!
(a) Physical
Both bottom front teeth have emerged. But now, the top ones are irritating her, so she has been quite 'high-maintenance' this week, needing lots of hugging, cuddling and comforting. And I threw in a few nursing sessions as well, both to soothe her and to provide more nutrition since she didn't like to suck from her bottle this week. It didn't help that Mei Xi was quite clingy to me, which, while endearing and helped me to develop strong arm muscles even without pilates or yoga, meant I had little chance to rest unless she was sleeping. Don't know whether this is a more difficult period for her or for me. Thankfully, she seems better these past 2 days and has been more cheery, talkative and playful. She smiled at me quite a lot too. Hee!
(b) Socially
Mei Xi is still a super-friendly little creature, smiling at every stranger she chances to meet, and thus winning them over with her charm. Human faces and voices interest her a great deal, so I try to bring her out for a daily walk, whether it's just around the estate or to the grocery store, so that she gets to hear and meet other people. She likes to smile at her own reflection too, and it's a good way to distract her when she is crying or whimpering. Of course, she doesn't know that it's herself she's smiling at... And there's one day when I carried her in front of me in the Snugli carrier and looked into the floor-to-ceiling mirror in our gym. She started smiling at herself, then smiled at my reflection in the mirror. After that, she kept staring at my reflection and looking up at me, as though she couldn't quite reconcile how I could appear in the mirror and be carrying her at the same time. Ha ha!
(c) Play
More milestones: First, Mei Xi was able to roll from her back to her side, and to sleep on her side if she so desired. Now, she is able to roll over at will, both from tummy to back, and from back to tummy. Unfortunately, this means she wriggles more during diaper changing time, and I've to try to get her to keep still by distracting her with a rattle or some other toy. When she is in an active mood, she makes some motions with her legs to proper herself forward. It doesn't always work, though, so sometimes she ends up spinning around the same spot like the hands of a clock!
In addition, she is gaining better control of her hands - more able to hold her rattle, book and teething ring herself. She has also been reaching out for her toys, so if I put something within her reach (e.g. on the ground when she is on her tummy, or on her tummy when she is lying or sitting down), she would grasp it. As she seems to be ready to hold her own cup soon, we've gotten an Avent 'Magic Trainer Cup', which comes with a two-handled attachment for her to hold. Can't wait to let her try holding it. Once she can hold it, getting it to her mouth shouldn't be a problem, since everything that she grasps these days goes into her mouth pronto! Her favourite toy at the moment is a fabric book. She can spend at least half an hour gumming the book, crushing the pages and flipping the pages. For some variety, we've bought her another one of such books, but it comes in more vibrant colours and has teethable rubber surfaces at the corners of the pages. Yum!
(d) Reading
We've started reading one Tang poem or Song lyrical poem every night. That's for her 'Chinese literary education'. But she doesn't seem as interested (maybe the book doesn't have interesting pictures and big words)... so I'm still sticking to singing Chinese songs to her and conversing with her in Mandarin. Of course, we talk to her in English quite a bit too. Tried reading her chapters from the Bible too, as that's the longest English book in our house, but that too, didn't capture her attention much =p Not as much as various kiddie books I've borrowed - they aren't designed for babies, but they at least have colourful pictures and few, big words to captivate her. She also likes to read women's magazines, which has colourful pictures and pretty people, so we spend some time every day flipping through the magazines when she is a bit tired and willing to sit still for a while. Minhui borrowed a book that gives ideas on teaching babies to read, and he suggests we could try some of those ideas too to occupy baby's time. Okie, we'll see how that goes!
posted by Thechias at 7:24 PM
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