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.

bean's favourite books - as of 2 ys old

sheepishly, i have to admit that my biggest extravagance is books for the bean. she has a lot of books, some presents from friends and relatives, but the bulk from mommy (not even daddy).

while there is a big shelf of books the bean does tend to make beelines for a select few, although some days she can go through nearly every single book on a shelf.

here are her current favourites:
- the p.b. bear series (written by lee davis and now out of print)
- dr. seuss's abc
- dr. seuss's 10 apples up on top
- eric carle's the very hungry caterpillar
- the spot series
- ginger (by charlotte voake)

hot on the heels of the above:
- karen katz's lift-the-flap books
- dear zoo
- where the wild things are
- the snail and the whale
- we're going on a bear hunt
- bouncing ben and other rhymes
- mog the forgetful cat
...most lift-the-flap and pop-up types are pretty irresistible to the bean.

turning 2 yrs old

we had a very small celebration for the bean's 2nd birthday. no big party, just a cupcake with 2 candles and the opening of her presents, which wasn't a big pile by most middle-class kids' standards. we just commemorated it by filming the event on a proper videocam.

from her daddy she received mainly clothes: a uv rash vest, a short-sleeved uv suit from ripcurl, cotton pjs (jonasjodie), a dress from chateau de sable (the bean gave an excited cry when she opened it up and took out the dress), and 2 long-sleeved tees with a pair of pj bottoms (from a new malaysian brand). the only non-clothing pressie was a very soft sheep toy from kiwistan that he bought whilst on a business trip.

from me: 2 new wooden puzzles (slightly more advanced than the ones she'd had) and 2 books.

but her favourite present has to be the dog soft toy (from friends of dh's family). it has a collar and a short leash, a simple detail that makes a world of difference between any run of the mill soft toy and one that can "come alive". the bean was immediately smitten with it and took it for a walk around the living room as well as tried to sit on it. (she does have a weird tendency to want to sit on her toys, as if they could be mounts like her rocking horse.)

i think at this age she would be impressed with most anything she receives - every present merited a "wow" or an "ooh". the major part of the fun is actually tearing off the wrapping paper. we had to keep asking her to come back to look at the present after she'd torn up the packaging; to the bean, the paper tearing part was probably the objective and she would get up and start wandering off once that's done.

she does seem to understand that birthdays are pretty significant events, unique from a routine day anyways. when she received a new birthday card the next day (i didn't tell her it was a birthday card, i just told her that it was for her and that she could open it) and saw the birthday cake with its candles on the cover, she immediately sang the happy birthday song. she couldn't read what the card said of course but she made a show of looking at the text inside as if she could. very funny.