I’m so proud of Jubilee. She can now complete her Thomas the Train Engine Puzzle all by herself! (Picture to come later.)
Archive for September, 2006
Jubilee and I met up with a friend to go to a farmer’s market. I knew Jubilee would love it because of all the yummy fruits. And there’s free samples. It’s like Baby Heaven. Anyway, I bought some delcious green seedless grapes and Jubilee could not get enough of them. On the way home, I heard rustling in the back seat. After a few minutes, Jubilee figured out how to pull the bag of grapes onto her lap, reach into the bag, pull out some grapes, and spit out the stem..
There’s a fly that’s buzzing around the house. Jubilee sees it and points at it. I also see her eyes attempt to track it. A few months ago, Jubilee watched me swat a fly in the kitchen. She was delighted to see me fling the swatter. When she noticed the fly, I asked if she wanted me to swat the fly. She said yes!
I got the swatter and together we followed the fly into the bathroom. We closed the door, thus confining it to a smaller area. Of course the fly flew into the ceiling where one of our flourescent light panels is missing. Eventually it came out. I attempted a couple swats without luck. Then fly landed on the floor.
*SWAT* The swatter meeting the floor created a deafening slap…right in front of Jubilee. Immediately she began crying hysterically, signing “all done!”
My heart was bleeding for her and I felt so bad that I scared her. To top it off, I missed the fly.
Jubilee is copying us throwing (used) t.p. into the toilet, but that’s what she likes to do. I’m getting a little more suspicious of her motives, for today I caught her throwing torn pieces of newspaper into the toilet.
Jubilee likes to blow her own nose. A few weeks ago, she even asked me for a Kleenex so she could blow her nose into it. Of course, nothing really happens. Yesterday, she wanted to blow her nose. After her nose-blowing attempt, I realized I had a very slight sniffle. So I took her Kleenex and wiped my nose. She then wanted the Kleenex back. I obliged, she blew her nose, then she gave it back to me to blow my nose. We traded the Kleenex a few times. Good thing there wasn’t any serious snot in the Kleenex!
Some of you may be sick of hearing about Jubilee eating dirt. I just couldn’t help but add this tidbit. This morning she decided to eat dirt, and so I tried to get her to wash her mouth out. Well, giving an 18 month old a bottle of water to rinse their mouth out does not result in a swish-swish-spit-out experience. It results in a…you guessed it…gulp-gulp experience.
I took the water away from her and tried to clean her mouth out myself. Her mouth was now wet and it still had dirt in it. She had a mud pie mouth and I thought I was staring at a black hold in space. Blech.
Follow Jubilee’s analytical mind:
1. Garage door opens.
2. Ba-Ba enters kitchen.
3. Therefore, Ba-Ba is home!!!
A. Washer is near garage.
B. Washer sounds like garage door.
C. Therefore, Ba-Ba is home!!!
Today I got through to Jubilee that the sound she was hearing was the washer, not the garage. So the rest of the washer’s cycle revealed the following logic:
I. Washer is making noise.
II. Washer is not the garage door.
III. “No Ba-Ba!!!”
This evening I was on a ladder trimming our huge Silk Tree, and I felt something touch my feet. I looked down and Jubilee had climbed the three bottom steps of the ladder and was then trying to climb onto the step I was standing on! She called out, “Ma! Ma! Ma!” as she usually does when trying to get someone’s attention.
So I set down my hand saw and stepped down to the ground, and she immediately started climbing higher. I held my hands behind her, not touching her, but there in case she needed help. I was amazed as she proceeded to climb the steps of our eight-foot ladder, one after another, without much struggle at all. When her head reached the top step, she spotted the saw and eagerly grabbed it up. Her face lit up with excitement. But that was enough of the proud-daddy-not-paying-attention-to-the-danger thing… I wrestled the saw from her grip and plucked my daughter off the ladder. This was not the time to teach her new vocabulary or test her obedience to my command.
It was exciting to see her so gung-ho about climbing, but sheesh.. she’s only a year and a half old. What is she going to climb next?!
Jubilee loves to walk in my slippers. Today she actually removed the inserts. At least that’s what I assume because I found the slippers had traveled out of my bedroom and into the hallway, while the inserts were nowhere in sight.
At one point Jubilee and I walked by the slippers in the hallway. “Engh!” she cried out and pointed to the slippers. “That’s okay, we can put them away later,” I told her.
Several minutes later, I went back through the hallway. The slippers were gone. I went into my bedroom. Apparently Jubilee returned the slippers, along with the inserts! I racked my brain, wondering if I had been the one to do this. One quick slip of my feet into the slippers verified it wasn’t me, for each insert was in the wrong shoe.
Jubilee amazed us today with several spoken words.
At breakfast, she asked Ba-Ba to “chaw” (sit down). She also signed it. I tested her by asking if she wanted me to sit. “Chaw” she answered.
Also at breakfast, she pointed into her cereal bowl and said “nai nai” (milk).
At lunch, Pau-Pau asked Jubilee in Cantonese, “Who am I?” She replied, “Pau-Pau.” “Who is she?” Pau-Pau pointed to me. “Ma-Ma,” Jubilee answered.
Throughout the day, I would say a word and she would copycat the same word. Sadly, I can’t remember them!
So far, our daughter is “hearing” English, Cantonese, American Sign Language, along with smatterings of Spanish, French, and Mandarin. So many parents limit their child to one, at most two languages because they think their child will be confused. That really saddens me because it’s totally untrue. They may interchange the languages at the beginnning, but they will grow out of it.
Every person is capable of producing any sound from any language. For example, neither David nor I can roll our “r’s.” This isn’t genetic, it’s an issue of “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” So we want Jubilee to hear any and every language!
And please, roll your “r’s” so she doesn’t suffer the same fate as her parents!