Cruising

Sherrie can cruise confidently now...... she can pull herself up very quickly while holding onto the edge of the playpen or any surface with a grip. She has even tried going up the wall but then with no grip, she lands on her bottom! Haha... She has also tried to let go of both hands and stand but can barely stand for 2 secs and then I have to catch her. She finds it a fun game and does it quite often. Before she lets go she looks at me as if to say, 'Catch me if i fall, mummy!' and of course, i am there to do just that... Very amazing how babies can communicate without speaking our language.

Speaking of language, she has some rather definite sounds now and can quite certainly identify the difference between 'mama' (me) and 'dada' or 'baba' (Vincent). She doesn't say biscuit but at the moment, it's her favourite food. When she sees the biscuit box, she squeals in delight.. when we stop giving her biscuits, she whines... and when she has finished eating one piece she raises her hands and waves them about, along with her legs and goes 'mmmmmmm' to indicate she wants more.

When she is in the playpen, she plays with the toys for barely 5 secs and she grabs one of them in her hands and then stands up. She then throws the item she is carrying over the side of the playpen, slowly emptying it of the toys. I wonder what she is really trying to do! But it's so funny how she climbs up still holding the toy in her hand. She is doing the same now when she crawls around the room.. she grabs onto a huge paper flower and crawls around with it...... As if she is going shopping! haha... Oh yes, now she will move very quickly from a crawling position to a sitting up position and sit there for a while. Very often she will hold an object in each hand and knock them together to see what sound is produced. She will smile while doing so and it is quite fun to watch that. Now i feel very comfortable leaving her to sit up on her own. Of course, occasionally (very rarely actually) she does lose her balance so of course I cannot be leaving her by herself.

Food wise, she is now open to eating more fruits on their own. She can eat one slice of pear, 2 grapes and 2 tablespoons of banana and she doesn't push them away. We tried feeding her pasta and cheese the other day and she wailed! I think she really is a chinese baby... hehe.. what are we going to do in the US huh! I guess she will just have to get used to it..

In terms of teaching her words and all that, I feel that i'm not putting in enough effort. Maybe i really should have some kind of system, but i feel that i should relegate it to when we are in the US, when we can really settle on some kind of structure. At the moment, I'm just helping her with her physical milestones but not neglecting teaching and talking to her to expand her vocab. It's just that it is incidental and not deliberate. I really wonder how I can make it more so. I try reading books to her but all she wants to do is to flip the pages... maybe i shld just do so, with her listening and enforce it.