Sherrie is walking!

My baby took her first steps on her own (i mean, not us placing her away from us and asking us to walk to us but her removing her hands from the wall/stationary object and walking off on her own) last weekend! I am so proud of her! She has taken her time and she is so cute now! She wants to walk, which is much better than forcing her to! And i can tell she likes the thrill. I can see her consciously trying to control her muscles to bend down, squat and stand. She can walk very fast if we hold her by one hand and she enjoys it! I think she will be walking fast soon. Maybe in a couple of weeks time.

She has begun to be more expressive and she is able to tell me what she wants. For instance, she picks up a book and shows it to me, telling me she wants me to read it. And then when i say to her that she's too far away and ask her to bring it to me, she drags it on the floor all the way to where I am. Also, when she wants to eat Goldfish, she will go to the dining table and stare at it or point at it. When she wants milk or something to eat, she will go to the kitchen and stand there. It's so good being able to know what she wants, without having to guess. It's liberating!

She is also able to say some more words. Besides ball, she can say 'bear' and 'bike'. Also, she can say 'duck' and 'ba' - for butterfly. I can tell that she understands what I am saying alot more and responds appropriately to my words. Though she may not say everything - in fact she says alot of kotokoto and dogodogo but I think she is actually talking in her own language. One day, those words will come out! haha.. it's so amusing to watch and tonight i actually laughed quite hard when she very seriously pointed to the pictures in the book and the lego blocks and said 'kotokoto'. It's almost as if she means what she is saying.

Foodwise, she is still picky. She loves her fruits - which is good, likes porridge on and off and has gone off mac & cheese totally. She likes sliced cheese, yogurt and our cereal. Now it's not just cheerios but also bran, honey oats etc whatever cereal we eat. I still don't know what else to cook for her to entice her to eat. the other night she wanted my chicken rice and then the beef hor fun.. so we thought she wants our food. but the other night, when we had sweet sour pork and rice, she didn't want to eat it! Hm.. this is the most challenging part for me. Well, i'm sure with time she will know how to tell me what she wants to eat.

Tonight she was so sweet. She packed up her toys after i read her all her books. She put the lego blocks into the box, then she put the small boxes into the big box. And she tried to put the small lego blocks into the cups too! After that, i changed her diaper and she was quietly lying down. And then i changed her clothes cos they were wet, then i brushed her teeth and then packed her off to bed - all this with no protest. Aww.. simply melting my heart! I love my baby. So much.

Sherrie has taken her first steps!

So, my baby is starting to take a few steps.. when i put her standing up in front of me, she takes 3-4 steps towards me.. grinning all the way and lunging to fall on me. It's so cute to see and i try to put her further each time.. when it's too far away, she just sits down. I think she will try to stand up and walk on her own soon. Most definitely by the time my parents come.

She has more definite words besides ball and balloon now.. She says baby, bear, all the words she knows starting with 'b'. Just tonight, she said 'duck' when looking at a duckling. And she can identify the rabbit - thanks to a board book with a huge rabbit on it! I love seeing her try to talk, and come up with her own kind of language. Very super duper cute!!

She is still eating macaroni and cheese for dinner, but the other night i tried to give her some curry... since it was hot, she literally said 'hah' and opened her mouth. Then she had a bit of diarrhea. Ok, no more curry for her.. haha.. Yogurt is also a hot fav, and teddy biscuits! She points at the teddy and says 'bear'.

She has gotten a new friend, Millie - a soft toy cat from Freya's france trip. Freya has the purple one while Sherrie has the pink one. They are like 'sworn sisters'!! Same clothes, same cat toy.. haha... so fun! They really enjoy each other's conversation and literally 'talk' to each other... it's so fun to see them play together.

Potty time has been fun too. She can just about pee and poo in the potty but really the timing is rather difficult..sometimes miss sometimes hit. But I guess it's a good start. At least she enjoys being in the potty and does occasionally do her thing. I just have to be more consistent.. it's actually quite annoying cos we have to stop her activity just to put her on the potty. If there's nothing, she will sit there for awhile, then soon she will ask to be taken away.

It has been fun spending lots of time with Sherrie. Of course, at times I feel lonely but i'm thankful that she is so alert and observant that I can have a mini conversation with her. Of course, it will be better if i could talk to adults, but i just have to make do with what i have.

Oh I must not forget our trip to Washington DC to see the cherry blossoms. Sherrie was very well behaved! She slept through the whole journey there and then we arrived at the Cheesecake factory.. where she ate our pasta with prawns.. she didn't touch the salmon though. Then we had a good time in Downtown Washington. Taking in the cherry blossoms in the sunset, chasing after many differennt kinds of dogs, taking lots of pics... Most of all, eating lots of biscuits and drinking milk. I totally enjoyed the trip. At night, she just crashed out in the car and then on the bed. There was the case of her missing shoe - we actually had to search for it in the lobby, back out to the road where the car was, but still couldn't find it! I thought I had lost it along the way, but distinctively remember taking the shoes off. So, anyway, we found it near the foot of the bed. Must've flung it off when taking off her clothes! Thank goodness, else we'd have left it behind. No super sleuths to help this time!

The next day was just as nice.. we went down to the White house and again to the cherry blossoms. We also walked around the Washington Monument. By lunch time, we headed back to the hotel area to go to the zoo. It was sooo packed and the poor animals looked so sad! I think cos the weather was so good, many people swarmed the park. Furthermore, it's free entry! In the end, we didn't really stick to our plan of driving back when she was sleepy. She was so tired out by then she slept all the way back to the hotel. When we were about to leave, she woke up! Gosh, did we dread the journey back. Thankfully for milk, biscuits and songs, she did so well and the 2.5 hours passed relatively quickly. I am so proud of her!! I think though, that it's time for us to get a new car seat... the forward facing one. So that's the end of our trip. Hoping to plan for the next one - not sure where it will be but am looking forward to it!