Black Eyed Girl

As each month passes, Little One is becoming more physically active. However, she does not always know what's safe or unsafe. Well...this month she ended up with a black eye when she smacked into a bed post. In many of the photos this month, she has a bruise underneath her left eye. It took awhile to heal, but she finally recovered around Thanksgiving.

(1) In this picture, Little One is running towards the camera.
(2) This is a funny photo of Little One making a face. In this photo, she looks scared of her Curious George stuff animal. However, she really enjoys playing with her dolls/puppets/stuffed animals and gives them cuddles, hugs, and kisses.
(3) Here, Little One is studying up on her A,B,Cs..... (4)Litte One looks like she's catching up on the lastest news....

(5) Little One likes to build towers with her blocks. She says "wow" each time she sets a block down on top of another.

(6) More photos of Little One playing with her animal friends....

(7) Here's a photo of her with two ponytails. Mommy was just trying to see what she would look like with this hair style.

Little One has been adding new words to her vocabulary. She's trying to pronounce her words more clearly, but Mommy & Daddy do not understand what she says sometimes. She is even trying to sing parts of songs (e.g.. "ABC" song, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Wheels on the Bus"). She is also picking up on new signs from Baby Signing Time vol 3 & 4.

The Animator

As she grows, "Little One" is becoming more animated and physically active.

(1) She enjoys playing with this Cabbage Patch Baby Doll, Sasha. Here she is carrying Sasha and letting her fall from the stool to the floor. I'm sure Sasha would have head injuries and bone fractures if she wasn't just a doll. Poor Sasha!
(2) "Little One" likes to crawl underneath the breakfast table to play. Here, she's playing with Baby Pluto. She's likes to say "woof woof woof woof" while she plays with Pluto.
(3) Daddy was reading this Sesame Street book to her, and she's trying to copy what's illustrated in the book.
(4) Mommy gave her the actual telephone to play with this time. Somehow, "Little One," seems to have gotten the impression that you can multi-task while talking on the phone. She says "Hewwow" into the phone and acts like she's listening and carrying on with a conversation.

(5) "Little One" is stacking her blocks up into towers these days. However, in this photo, the tower broke apart in mid-air. It's just a neat photo.

(6) After playing with her blocks, she plays with the box that is meant to hold the blocks. She decided to use it like a helmet. Look at her smiling as she walks around the room with it.

(7) "Little One" is scribbling now a days. I guess it's a start towards actually drawing or writing.
(8) It was "Little One's" first Halloween. Mommy took her trick or treating around the neighborhood for candies. She was only trick or treating for the spirit of the holiday. Daddy enjoyed eating all the candy she had received. Yum..yum... (9) Before the night's end, she had a chance to play with several packages of candy while waiting for other trick or treaters to come by the house.

Non-Stop Action, Action, Action

This month's photos show a very active little girl. She is becoming more independent and physically stronger.

1. "Little One" is playing her xylophone. "Hubbie" says she prefers to play with the underside of the xylophone.
2. Everytime "Hubbie" folds up this quilt, she drags it back out. She's strong enough to drag this quilt around these days.

3. She likes to push and pull this corn popper toy around. We're hoping that it will be good training for later on with the vacuum and lawnmower. heheheh.....
4. Here is a photo of "Little One" standing up. It is more difficult to take good photos of her, because she either trys to grab the camera or she's running around too fast for us to take a picture.
5. Mommy placed her into the playpen for individual play time. Perhaps "Little One" is reading to Minnie Mouse and Elephant.

6. "Little One" had her first excursion to the beach when we took a mini-vacation to San Diego, CA. She really enjoyed the water. She did not know what to make of the waves at first but soon began to step deeper into the water. By the time we left, her shorts and diaper were wet from the incoming waves.7. "Little One" likes to say "hat." She likes walking around with the hat covering her eyes. I don't know why, but she seems to enjoy this activity. 8. She is getting better at feeding herself. "Little One" prefers to use her hands and fingers, but will also try to use utensils (spoon/fork). Mommy still has to help her out once in awhile. As far as cognitive development, "Little One" is beginning to follow some directions.

*When Mommy says "Come here," she will usually follow these directions. According to the Day Care Worker, "Little One" plays very well with the other little girl whose only 1 month older than her. They play dolls and follow the leader.

*Mommy discovered recently (in the last 2 weeks) that "Little One" knows how to say "Give" (in Cantonese), and she will actually hand something over. We laugh when she says "Ernae" for Ernie from Sesame Street. "Little One" says "Elmo" really clearly now.

* "Little One" likes to pick up a phone and say "Hewwo". It really looks like she's having a conversation with someone.

*She is now starting to stack her blocks instead of just knocking them down.

*When it is time to get her dressed, "Little One" helps by pulling her shirt over her head, sticking her arm through the sleeve, or stepping out of her pants.

* "Little One" has been on this mission to learn to walk backwards. She'll look back every couple of steps and approximate how far she is from an obstacle.

* She's becoming a "sneak" because she'll quietly go to the "no no places" when Mommy and Daddy are not looking. When she's discovered, she smiles innocently and walks away.

"Little One" is on her way to becoming a "Miss Independent."

This month's photos....

1. "Little One" is lounging on her chair while watching "Baby Signing Time." "Little One" gets 20 minutes/day of "Baby Signing Time" during the weekend. There's no tv time for the weekday because we're doing other activities with her then. She knows almost all of the signs covered in both volumes now. She isn't just learning American Sign Language from "Baby Signing Time," she's picking up words in English and Chinese (Cantonese). She's becoming a tri-lingual "little girl."

2. She insists on trying to brush her own teeth. It's not very thorough but it's a start. Mommy & Daddy will help her afterwards.
3. Look at her...All smiles after her meal. She's ready to get up and go play.
4. She really is on a mission to conquer walking. "Little One" knows that she'll get to walk when we put on her socks and bring out the shoes. In fact, she sticks her foot up for the socks.
5. She's walking towards me and doing the "Aaah--oooh" sound of dogs howling in the moonlight.
6. "Little One" is dancing with her Daddy here. She enjoys listening to music with a beat.
It's so funny because she not only will bop up and down but, also, twirl around. When she's dancing on her own, she swings her body side to side.

7. This is her first puzzle and she is slowly getting the idea of putting the pieces in the right spot. Mommy & Daddy are saying the shape and color of the pieces. She is really picking up on naming the colors. She knows how to say purple, blue, yellow, red, and orange. She has not picked up saying green yet. She repeats "oval" when we say "oval."

It's a bit amazing to see that she's associating the colors to other objects around us. The other day, she pointed to my denim shorts and said "blue."

8. "Little One" seems to have picked up playing with dolls and stuff animals a bit more over the last couple of months. She hugs and kisses them. "Little One" had spent 10-15 minutes in the play pen playing with her dolls on her own. Aaah...A little rest time for Mommy & Daddy.

According to the day care person, she and another little girl (same age) play dolls together. The girls pick up the dolls and gives them hugs & kisses. Then, they trade dolls and do the same things over again.

9. We had a number of special visitors this month to come play with "Little One." This is a photo of "Little One" with her orphanage "sister." They're only 2 weeks apart in age and were adopted at the same time. Aren't they adorable? Their feet were touching in this photo.

We really enjoyed their visit. We'll have to visit them the next time so that the girls will know each other as they grow up.

10. "Little One" looks less like a "baby" and more like a little girl in this photo.
In September, "Little One" will be 1 1/2 years-old (aka: 18 months). It makes me anticipate and wonder what she'll be by age 2.

"Little One" AKA "The Energizer Bunny"

This month's photos show such an active little girl.

1. "Little One" is putting her Legos together and then pulling them apart again.

2. She's hugging her Pooh bear. She, also, has a tendency to pat the stuff animals in the rear after hugging/cuddling with them. Hehehe...I don't know where she got that idea.
3. She has finally learned to drink from a straw sippy cup. She looks so much more like a toddler with this sippy cup. Look at her multi-tasking (walking while drinking her water). As you can also see, she's still not too stable on her two feet but she's getting more stable every day.
4. This is "Little One" in her other playroom. In this photo, she's walking towards Mommy because she wants to play with the digital camera. It's difficult to take photos around her now. She wants to press the camera's buttons.
5. Daddy allowed her to take a simulated "drive" with his car one morning. Can you tell that she's been observing us behind the wheel?
6. "Little One" has one of her first pony tails. Mommy thought it was too cute. Too bad...She doesn't have enough hair yet to hold the pony tail for long.
7. "Little One" has been teething her molars & incisors and so has a tendency to bite on things. "Hubbie" & I think she looks like a little piggy when she does this. She is showing great interest in reading books. She anticipates what's on the next page of the book by saying or animating what's to happen.
8. This is "Little One" multi-tasking. So much to do at play....heheheh...
9. We took her to the Aquarium of the Pacific this past month. In this photo, she's looking at the Puffins bird exhibit. This girl loves to see animals in action. She whined in protest when we showed her the jellyfish exhibits. I guess they're too slow moving. She really enjoyed the colorful fishes, seals, sea otters, sharks, and birds.In this photo, she was observing the Puffin birds swimming under water. She was really in awe. It's really amazing how much expressions she's showing now. This is the 2nd time we took her to the aquarium this year. This time, she pointed to where she wanted to go and commented on what she sees in "baby babble" when she doesn't know how to say it.

10. In mid-July, we took her to Music in the L.A. Zoo night. It was her first time going to the zoo. She really enjoyed the animals and music. Can you tell? She was out like a light as soon as she was buckled into the car seat.
"Little One" leaves Mommy & Daddy very tired at the end of each day. There are no weekends of sleeping in anymore.

1-year ago versus now

This photo of "Little One" was taken in July of last year:

Look at her one year later:

She's walking! (aka: Waddling...hehehe)

Now, we can actually say she's started to walk (aka: waddle). The following are several photos we thought sums up what she has been doing the past month:


1. She's getting pretty good at controlling her remote control school bus around. "Little one" loves to play with remote controls. She's quite a high tech baby. If we allow her, she enjoys sitting in front of the laptop computer pushing the keys and using the mouse, also!

I bet you're thinking that this is the school bus she's controlling. hehehehe.. Nope, this is not the remote controlled school bus. It's a great photo of her laughing and having fun.

2. She enjoys hanging in the pool on hot summer days. This one is a rare photo of her with a hat. "Little One" doesn't like to wear hats.

3. "Little One" cruising around the family room (aka: 2nd playroom). She's holding the Little Einstein DVD but she doesn't really like it too much. We think that it is not enough music throughout the DVD.
Her favorite and only DVDs she watches is "Baby Signing Time" volumes 1 & 2 and Diana Krall's Live in Paris Concert. We don't know why but she seems to like listening to the Jazzy and deep voice of Diana Krall.

3. This photo is "Little One" walking with the guidance of "Daddy" on our front yard. She's actually very curious about grass and the water hose. That's why she's looking down while she's walking on it.
4. This is a photo of her, taking off from the sofa.
5. She's pondering what she wants to do next.
6. On July 4th, we took "Little One" to our city's annual "Kid's Day Parade & Picnic." In this photo, she's waving her American flag and clapping as the parade proceeds.
On the communication side, she's really picking up the sign language. She's signing eat, drink, banana, milk, more, bear, hat, thank you, and a bit more. There are certain signs she knows how to do but doesn't know when to apply them quite yet. Some examples are Hurt, Sorry, and Please. She's mimicking quite well.

"Hubbie" & I think she has a pretty good memory because she'll anticipate what's next in the many books we read to her or on the "Baby Signing Time" DVD. As far as verbal skills, she's picked up a couple more words this month (i.e. bear - "bearbear," bird - "jerkjerk"(in Cantonese) or "birdbird," and flower-"faafaa" (in Cantonese).

Her favorites this month are: (a)Mommy singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and the "ABC" song. (b) putting things in and out. (She's starting to fit the pieces into puzzles and shaped toys now a days). (c) feeding herself (She's making such a big mess on the high chair.), and (d) having mommy & daddy read Baby Elmo's So Big! book repeatedly.