Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 3 Week 8)

Last week's lesson at JG was really quite different. And the difference was that Alicia finally agreed to speak to her teachers. :P Usually she doesn't say a word to them but she will whisper quietly to me in class. I guess she's just not comfortable to speak to people she's not familiar with.

Well, it was also the first time she's been asked for an opinion during class time. Her teacher who was demonstrating the artwork for the day asked her if he should put 1 or 2 scoops of glue for the craft and she pondered for awhile, then said TWO, enthusiastically, but raising the wrong number of fingers... lol. She usually raises the correct number of fingers but I think she was so excited (coz she actually jumped up from my lap to answer the question), she just raised her whole hand instead.

During the demo for art, the teachers will also usually say 'stop!' when they stop putting the glue/ glitter/ paint. Right after the teacher finished saying 'stop', and when he was about to move on to say something else, Alicia again excitedly jumped up and shouted "STOP!" lol. Everyone was very amused with her that day. :)

Later while waiting to do art at one of the tables, she went to get her letter S stamp. The teacher asked her to say "please". Usually she'd just look at him and not say a word. But that day, she went up to him, really close to his face and almost spat out the word "please" at him. Really hilarious. Subsequently she said her "thank you" and named the letter S and the sound it makes accordingly. The teacher said she has made remarkable improvement. Haha. Actually she has been able to speak, just that she doesn't speak to him. LOL.

I wonder whether she'll continue to speak up in class this week! :)

Alicia busy at work...

Alicia's in love with colouring with her crayons and drawing too... She obviously can't colour very well yet and she's always asking us to do the colouring and sometimes, she'd ask us to hold her hand and colour/draw away! :)

She can identify the colours of the crayons I gave her so far and she's able to tell me which colour to use for the parts of the picture! *happy*

Concentrating hard...

Purple!!! Colour (with it)!!!

Please? :D

Time for some green in the picture....

Time to buy a toy car???

Today I went to the kitchen for awhile and when I came back to the hall, I found Alicia riding on her pooh bear like it was a car... the pooh bear was in her room earlier so she must have ridden on him all the way out from the room, along the corridor of the rooms and out into the hall! And she still added sound effects as she moved around on him: "嘟嘟" (the mandarin equivalent of 'vroom vroom': something she picked up at Julia Gabriel's classes) so I echoed her words...

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.

Her first "DADDY"

"Dad" was the fourth word she said (20 May 09), followed by "Daddy" the next day. :D Does that count as two separate words? Hehe. I think soooo.... so I shall record it as such. Hahahahaha....

The word count:

1) ma

2) mummy

3) bye

4) dad

5) daddy

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

The latest book craze

Yup, this is it. The latest book that she's crazy about. She now insists on reading this book over and over. And yes, she loves it more than "Jesus is Born" now, though over these few days, she's beginning to show a strong liking for both; it used to be just "Hermie" this, "Hermie" that and "Hermie" ALL the time when she first got the book. There was one night, I swear, I read this book at least 10 times over.

Anyway, this book was given to her by my friend when we went to his place last Monday. It kinda slipped our minds when we reached home but at night, when she saw it on the dining table, she kept pointing at it and shouting "that" and so I read the book to her that night. She was mesmerised and sat through the whole story. After the story ended, she still sat there, waiting. As if she was expecting something more. She's so adorable!

Anyway, there are a few concepts and words that she has come to show understanding of and she demonstrated these when I read the book to her. For instance, she can repeat the word "Wow" when it occurs in the book and she can flip to that page that contains the word and say it correctly. Also, when we come across the word "up", she raises her hands up in the air and when we read the word "yawn" she does the action. She's beginning to flap her "wings" (i.e. hands) when I read that phrase since a couple of nights ago. She's picking up things really quickly now!