strange animal sounds

have to update with the bean's latest: making animal sounds for the beasts she recognises instead of saying their names.

she used to be able to say "cat" and "dog" but now she prefers to just make muffled woof-ing (for 'dog') and a strange kind of strangled noise for cats. (or has she forgotten how to say the words?!) 'cow' is of course just a "mooooo", and 'sheep' is "ba".

with dh's encouragement, she now can raise her right arm followed by an approximate elephant bellow. a guttural pseudo-growl is for 'lion'. she can make the sign for 'monkey', which she does by raising both elbows (arms akimbo) and hanging her hands down, but she doesn't do the "oo oo oo" noise yet.

the only animal she can pronounce is "duck"!

she still calls a butterfly "fwy" and a flower "fwah". "Car" and "star" are okay though. but for 'aeroplane' she would do twists with raised elbows and make a "rrrrr" noise.

her favourite books are dear zoo, the karen katz baby box of fun trio, and poppy cat's dream. (generally, lift-the-flap type books score well with the bean.) when she first received the last mentioned --- it was one of her 1st birthday's prezzies --- she would be happy to hear it read half a dozen times. it's usually this book she's thinking of when she insists on a "buk".

her funniest words/phrase though is "ah oh" for "uh oh" . it therefore amuses her popo greatly to say "ah pei" (teochew for "ah white") in response, as "ah oh" sounds like "ah black" in the chinese teochew dialect.

ok, a list of the other things she knows (that i can remember off the top of my head):
- body parts: elbow, hands, fingers, toes*, feet, knees, bellybutton, head, hair, ears, nose, mouth, teeth (which she shows me by opening her mouth and running her tongue over her top row of 4 teeth!), and tongue (she waggles her tongue and makes a funny ululating sound)
- other animals & things: chair, door, hat, shoes, socks*, baby, bird, fish, octopus, dolphin, giraffe, bear*, frog* ("fwog"), rabbit, caterpillar, turtle, polar bear, snake, apple ("puh"), milk, mommy, daddy, popo
- concepts & actions: bye*, round*, up & down (most of the time i think), pat, clap, walk, no (but she does it anyway!...roll eyes...), sing, dance, kiss

*words she would actually try to say, even if some are not very distinct sounding.

she walks!

it's been a week now of dd toddling --- sometimes unsteadily, ok --- but it's a definite milestone marking her preference for walking over crawling.

the short chronicle
my parents came up and were amazed at the difference a two-week absence made. when they were last up dd was just beginning to take a couple of tentative steps. then it gradually became more (as documented on this blog). but something must've clicked last week. it occurred i think when we visited a friend and her son (who's 2 weeks younger than dd) last tuesday (27 march). for the first time, dd didn't mind walking in front of other people (read: non-family members), and was happy to toddle for a few steps here and there, clutching food and/or toys. when we came home from that visit, leah seemed more confident and walked a lot more than usual. when dh came home from work he noticed that her demeanour had changed and she seemed very happy about walking.

then the next day (28th) when we visited our local mommy-&-baby fitness centre, dd toddled into the studio from the little play area outside, all on her own volition. she was still a bit unsteady, and would fumble to her hands and knees after several steps but at least she was brave enough to venture on her own.

when my parents came up on the friday (30th), they were very pleased to see that she could toddle loads, and would even toddle to look for them wherever they were in the flat.

then the next 'breakthrough' came on tuesday (3 april), when dd seemed to ONLY walk the whole day. in fact, she did laps around the sofa until my parents wondered if she would get dizzy from walking so fast so much. it was as if she was practising! but that was the day i think she decided that she truly preferred to walk than crawl.

this is not to say that she doesn't ever crawl. she still does, but for a purpose, e.g. if it's a short distance to grab something and it's not worth the effort to stand up and toddle over. or if she thinks that it might be faster to crawl. nonetheless, these moments are becoming fewer.

and once again, it's a sweet-sour feeling, to see that my little baby is growing up.