Climbing up the piano chair...

I've been asked how Alicia can climb up the piano chair on her own...

well, the agile little one demonstrates it here in this video:

New (Fisherprice) toy car!!! 嘟嘟! Vroom Vroom!

After our trip to Siloso beach today, we went to 1 Lok Yang Way for the Mattel warehouse sale (you can read the details of the sale in my Chatterbox on the right column)... Of coz we were there mainly for the toy car that she's been wanting so badly these few days... she keeps sitting on her pooh bear and going "嘟嘟"!

When we finally found the toy car (Fisherprice), there was a choice of pink or green... there wasn't much to choose really. Pink vs green. It wasn't hard to choose at all... :D

Anyway, she kept going "嘟嘟" non-stop after she saw me with the car and she kept indicating that she wanted it! :D We knew it was definitely the right buy!

Here she is, checking out her spanking new car at home!:

Move, Move!

Alicia just mastered how to move herself on a 'car' yesterday but I didn't manage to get it down on video... but we got it today!!! :D

Water play... is it really just play?

I gave some water to Alicia to play with yesterday and she had a great time transferring water from one container to another! I thought to give her some opportunity to practise some gross and fine motor skills and have fun at the same time since she loves water!

While blogging about this, I happened to chance upon this site (which you may be interested to read about the benefits of this activity).

Here she is, concentrating very hard on her task:

And halfway, she started dancing as the DVD was playing one of her favourite parts of Elmo's World (but her eyes remained on her cups and water):

And a short video of her enjoying herself during the activity:

Eventually, she found more containers to transfer water to, making use of her imagination as she used little parts of her toys as 'containers'.

This activity's rather messy though and you've gotta constantly have a dry cloth around to mop up the water that lands on the floor in case the child slips. You've gotta also have some drinking water to replenish the cups of water when the water eventually all gets spilled somehow - Alicia likes to sip from these cups and pretend-cups so drinking water is a must!

Another point I noted during the activity:

Alicia tried transferring water with both her right and left hand and I realised that her right hand's so much more accurate than her left! :D

Development in the 16th month (Oct 09)

Walking

Started really walking on 12 Oct.

Teeth

Last incisor out (I forgot to record when the other 2 lateral incisors emerged...)

Speech

Word count:

7) cat: said "cat" when reading her book and can point to a cat and say "cat" on 25 Oct.

8) no: said her first "NO" on 13 Oct while shaking her head and waving her hand at the same time to communicate her preference

9) quack: said "quack" when pointing to a duck in the book,

10) dog: said "dog" when reading (30 Oct)

11) drum: said "drum" when reading (31 Oct)

Others

Can nod and shake head very well by 1 Oct to indicate her preferences.

Can pick out the right flashcards when asked (23 Oct).

Showed ability to understand limits: stopped at the 'forbidden corner' in the bedroom, said "no" and waved her hand, then walked past it :D

Development in the 13th-15th month (July - Sept 09)

Speech

Alicia started calling 'mamma' and 'daddy' specifically (well, most of the time!) shortly after her first birthday.

And on 17Aug 09, it was the first time she responded to requests of calling 'mamma' and 'daddy'.

Her 6th word

She referred to herself as "cia" (pronounced as 'sher') on 5 Sept 09 as we tend to call her that instead of "Alicia". Hehe..

Teeth

Her top central incisors emerged on 12 Aug and the lower left lateral incisor emerged on 27 Sept.

Climbing

She showed off her climbing prowess by climbing up our sofa (which is quite high) on 6 Aug 09.

Walking

Took 1 firm, independent step without stumbling on 28 Aug 09.

Took 2-3 firm steps on 14 Sept.

Fine motor skills

I started exposing Alicia to the doodle board when she was young but of course she wasn't keen or interested in holding the 'pen'. But on 16 Aug 09 (1 month after her first birthday), she decided that she wanted to hold the pen and doodle away! And there has been no end to that ever since! :D

Others

Alicia started imitating (or at least in my records) since 14 July 09. And she started displaying her 'love' for doing housework on 15 July 09 as that was when she started to imitate me wiping the floor. She'd just grab a tissue or cloth and start wiping the floor or table... and she's even more fond of doing this these days (at 19mths). Haha.

On 28 Sept, Alicia also learnt to shake her head to indicate that she doesn't want something.

Of clapping and teething...

The first time Alicia showed off that she could clap and could clap on demand was on 9 May 09. :)

It so happened that on that same day, her first teeth cut through too!!!! After 3 weeks of troubled eating (and feeding), she finally got over her swollen gums as the first bits of her lower central incisors emerged!

The first wave and the first words

Alicia learnt how to wave bye-bye and showed it off for the first time on 4 May 09. She also learnt to say "bye" while waving and could wave on demand. :D

I believe "bye" is the third word she said, the first being "ma"! She said her first "ma" at 4mths and subsequently when she was 7mths, she said "mummy" four times though it was definitely non-specific. :) It wasn't a one-off calling of "mummy" so I'm sure she said it!

Words spoken (by 10mths):

1) ma

2) mummy

3) bye

Sitting up

Another overdue post. :) And lots more coming up - I try to update the blog whenever I can...

The first time she sat up on her own from a lying down position was on 9 March 2009.

And the next day, she sat up another three times on her own.

I remember her amazement at herself when it happened. It was written all over her little chubby face then. :) And whenever she managed to sit up on her own, she'd look at me for approval. hehehe...

I'm really glad to be able to have the privilege to be a sahm, to watch every little milestone that Alicia reaches! :P

Flipper!

Since I only started this blog not too long ago, almost all of Alicia's milestones and achievements are gonna be super backdated posts. In fact, I realise that I only have records of her milestones and such from Jan 09 coz that was when my hubby got a PDA phone for me to record everything about her, from feeding time to the amount of food she eats for meals, diaper changes etc. Before that, I relied on a notebook, penning everything down manually. But I think I had only time enough (and energy too), for just noting down feeding time and the number of hours she slept. To me then, that was what mattered I guess.

Anyway, the first time I noted down that she flipped from back to tummy was on the 21st Jan. Kinda late I know. But well, that's the earliest record I have of her flipping since I only started recording down stuff about her since 1 Jan 09. And on 2nd Feb, she mastered flipping both ways and started using rolling around as a means of getting around and to things she wanted to lay her hands on. She's come a long way since, isn't it? :)

Here's a video I tried to capture of her flipping around in the early days. She kept still whenever I took out the videocam and flipped only when I kept it. Hence, I managed to get the end of one of the flips in this video. Other videos I took were of a smiling baby who just simply refused to flip despite all my cajoling!

You can tell she wasn't very pleased with me for filming her flipping in this other video:

My titillating, toddling toddler!

Alicia started pushing the walker on her own without help on 13 July. Earlier, she needed close supervision when she used the walker because we were afraid she would fall flat on her face.

Here's a video of her pushing her walker happily across the hall on one of the days after she could push the walker confidently:

She took her first independent steps on 30 July. Baby steps. It happened so suddenly we had no time to get a camera to film it down. Besides she took only 3 baby steps and it was over so quickly. And so it was: she kept taking baby steps at unexpected moments so we couldn't really capture it. But there was this night when I happened to be taking a video of her playing on our bed, she stood up and walked the famous baby steps. You must be patient when watching this video coz she only stood up and walked later in the video:

Nowadays she toddles around the house. And somehow she loves to carry things along in her hand(s) when she toddles around. Here's a video of her toddling around with a box of buns meant for her breakfast the next morning:

She's walking more these days and even when we go out, she insists on walking on her own instead of sitting in the pram or be carried. But she's not so good yet walking with shoes so we still have to hold her little hands as she walks. It must be really exciting for her... but for us, it's simply back-breaking. :) Yet another parenting hazard... hehe...