bubbles bubbles everywhere

last saturday the bean was given a bottle of bubbles with a wand in her music class (which she then didn't want to let go off the entire day) and it's been another fixation ever since.

if it wasn't "daddy blow bubbles" it would be "mummy" or "nai nai" but usually it's "ye ye blow bubbles". and when the bubbles are blown, she instantaneously turns into psycho baby, shaking her hands, dancing on tip toe, stamping on bubbles that have landed on the floor or waving at them, all the while squeaking staccato phrases: "ooh ooh ooh!" "bubbles!" "oh oh oh!" "bubbles! every-where! every-where!"

at one point, her ye ye heard her actually cry out, "too much bubbles!" as if the excitement was overwhelming.

let's hear it again...and again...and again...

it's interesting how the bean can get fixated on a particular nursery rhyme or song and would be able to endure multiple repeats of said song/rhyme almost ad infinitum.

nai nai and ye ye bought her a cd of nursery songs sung by a playschool host and it's since been the most requested (in fact, the only requested) cd in her collection. everyday it's been "dee-dee!" (i.e. "cd") and "george sing please!"; then it seems she'd pick a song from it to repeat.

so today the tune of the day was "the sailor went to sea to see what he could see see see..." i decided to put it on repeat mode so that i needn't keep going back to the stereo when it ended.

two days ago though, her song of the day was a nonsense one about 3 elephants having fun up on a spider's web.

oompah oompah!

the bean has been learning a few new songs* from her ye ye and nai nai. one of the early ones that she used to like she has now decided she doesn't. that was "we're riding along on the crest of the wave/ and the sun is in the sky/ 2-3-4/ keeping our eyes on the distant horizon/ look out for passersby..." and she used to like doing the actions to the words, albeit a half second later. then recently everytime we tried to sing it in the car she would stick her fingers in her ears and say, "no no no. not that one."

her latest favourite is "gingangoolygoolygooly whatcha gingangoo gingangoo". on our recent hunter valley holiday, to please her, we had to sing it several times in a row as we headed back to the cottage from a day's wine-tasting. she particularly liked the "oompah!" with raised fist that her ye ye does to punctuate the end of the song.

although we're back home now, tonight, during bathtime, knowing how much the bean likes the song her nai nai decided to sing it to her. and when she got to the end, before any prompting, the bean raised her left fist and shouted "oompah!", giggling hysterically after she did it.

later on, her nai nai told me that we'd need to watch it as we wouldn't be able to put anything past the bean.

*these are very very old cub scouts' songs.

a bossy ("bosshee") bean?

talk about backseat driving...

our little miss manners here not only says "bless you" to a person when he/she sneezes, but she also likes to remind folks to "seat belt buckle" (i.e. to buckle one's seat belt) when she's in the car.

when she thinks daddy is driving too fast (e.g. when going downhill) she'd call out, "be careful daddy!"

with prompting the bean will also help us to signal left or right when turning the car - by raising whichever arm is relevant.

and when we arrive at our destination, no matter where it is, she would announce, "home!"

manners maketh the bean

the past couple of weeks has been very exciting for the bean...and dh and i too.

we had dh's youngest brother and his girlfriend over from the uk to stay with us. our party was later enlarged by the addition of dh's parents so the bean could get reaquainted with her ye ye and nai nai. the last time she saw all of them was a year ago when she turned 1, but because of skype sessions and phone calls, she was quite familiar with ye ye and nai nai's faces and voices, so it didn't take her long to bond with them. however, it was quite different with her uncle william as she had only seen his photos and had hardly spoken to him. i don't think she can remember anything of him and was rather scared/shy for the first 2 days. she didn't have a problem becoming friendly with his girlfriend though. it's interesting that she is more at ease with women in general. i guess it's social conditioning - she spends all her time with me and when we go to our playgroups and classes it's usually the mummies or female carers with other children.

anyhow, with all the adult attention the bean has begun picking up more and more new words and is stringing together more sentences, as well as using phrases in the right context.

some new vocabulary:
- superdooper ("hooper dooper")
- fantastic ("fan tash teek")
- holiday

we've been trying to inculcate some good manners in her as well: to thank someone when he/she does something for her, to use "please" for requests etc. and it appears that this is paying off...not all the time, but it's becoming obvious that she is not an impolite child.
e.g. last evening, without being prompted, she said "thank you nai nai" (pronounced "sang kew nai nai") after her granny read her some stories.