Your expanding vocabulary and responsiveness....

You are a copy cat. Everything mummy says, you repeat. Shan has got two new pets, Pegasus and Star she named them. They are chickens, the small type. Ayam Semarak my colleague tells me. When we ask you, "Where's Pegasus & Star?", you point outside and say "asus tarr". Daddy is now "dedi" and you still don't say mummy. Somehow, the 'mee' just doesnt roll out so easily. Mummy's anxious now. *sigh* When its about time and you hear a car approaching outside, you go "dedi dedi dedi" whether its daddy or mummy. You let out a sharp, "Yeeeeeeee! Yeeeeeee!" when you are 'geram'. This is usually when mummy doesnt give you what you want.

You know where your eyes, nose and belly-button are. Mummy calls belly-button 'tootchi', you laugh whenever I say this word. It is a funny word come to think of it. I think its a Sabahan thing, or it could be a Wong thing. You like flowers and when mummy mentions flowers, you point at any flower you see be it a real one, plastic, embroided on your blouse or a print, in a picture frame, you name it. You are very clear on YES and NO. You nod your head for a yes and shake it left and right for a firm no. And when Kakak Mon tries to force feed you, you give her a tight slap on the cheek or a sharp pinch on the hand. This is hilarious. Serves Kakak Mon right, no more forcing!

Another thing, you have mastered the art of fake laughing. Anytime mummy and daddy laugh in your presence, you come up with your own little joke to laugh about. And then this little hilarious action makes us laugh even harder which is such a treat for you. You are so amused and entertained by this you let out an even more exaggerated laugh. This goes on and on until either baby or mummy and daddy cannot keep up.

You love books. We try to make it a habit to read to you before bed time, but this doesn't always happen. What amuses you is the flipping pages action, the colorful pictures, and the sounds mummy makes when imitating the animals. Haha! You ocassionally read on your own. Mummy doesnt disturb and watches silently. You flip the pages, sometimes the book is upside down, other times you flip back and forth between pages and you even read the back leaf. As you try to get a better grip and flip the pages of the book, you read the story aloud. Of course this is only deep mumbling and sometimes you manage to add in a tune or two. Ah such an amazing experience to watch you read!

For a while you enjoyed playing 'Round & Round The Garden' on yourself. You would point at your palm and move your finger across trying to imitate Shannon who taught you this in the first place. When mummy saw this for the first time, I thought you were pretending to write. Wah, my baby's a genius! You enjoy the first part, 'round and round the garden, like a teddy bear' but get a little stiff (smile still plastered on your face) when it gets to the last part, " a 1 step, a 2 step....a tickly under there!".

A while ago mummy wrote about your roaring like a lion. You have not forgotten this. Something new you learned during our trip to KK, roaring like a lion or tiger at the sight of:

a) A Tiger Beer trademark - mostly on kedai kopi advertising and sometimes on mummy's/daddy's beer can.

b) Maybank trademark - on any Maybank bank
So everytime you roar, we look around everywhere for either a real lion/tiger (haha) or a Tiger Beer advertisement or a Maybank.

When we say, "kai kai' or "vroom vroom" you know this means were going for a ride. Your excited face will take over and you will be kicking your legs away. Sometimes you respond by saying "broom broom".

And finally, you can walk! But this deserves a post all on its own. So watch this space.

xxx
mummy