Lily @ 20 months

Do you remember, my precious little baby girl? The little lump I used to cradle, nurse and carry around in a sling? Her skin all wrinkly and covered in fine, downy hair. Her smell of new baby skin, clean and milky. She lies there, a little helpless, just gazing at you. She gurgles, coos and smiles... Remember THAT baby??


Well, she is that baby NO MORE! She puts on her own shoes, picks her own clothes and carries a handbag on her forearm like a grandma, not necessarily in that order! She puts 3 words together, to try and make a sentence. She climbs the fort and jumps in the trampoline with her brothers.

Oh dear, where has my baby gone?


Eating

She loves her food, and just eats whatever we have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Her favourites are sausages, mash and peas, spaghetti bolognese, fried rice, noodles and egg. She picks apart her sandwiches. She loves fruits - peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, mango, kiwi. She drinks cows milk from a cup, 2-3 times a day. She is very independent with her eating. She feeds herself, but gets food in her ears, nose and hair! One thing that sets her apart from her brothers, is that she won't take another bite until everything in her mouth is chewed and swallowed. Where as the boys just shovel their food down like there's no tomorrow!

Playing & Activities

She loves her dollies. She loves playing cooking and tea cups. She's a girly girl. But occasionally does play with her brother's cars, trains and trucks. She gets very territorial at times, not wanting to share her toys. "Mine, mine, MINE!" She chucks a hissy fit when her toys are taken from her. She enjoys puzzles, loves to read. And she wants to read her favourite book over and over and over....and over again! She holds her pens and pencils in a palm grip, and just scribbles whatever she wants to.

She is one brave girl when it comes to swimming. She jumps too eagerly into the pool and dunks her head into the water although she hasn't found a way to swim back up for air! Yes, a little too "brave" for my liking!

Motor skills & Coordination

I must say, Lily is very coordinated in her own ways. We used to have all sorts of baby safety paraphernalias with the boys, but they've been thrown out, given away or even sold online! Lily climbs up and down, weaves in and out of furnitures very very carefully. She rarely gets stuck and gets herself out of tricky situations a lot better than the boys. She follows her big brothers around, climbs up and down the ladder of the fort, hurtles herself off the slide. She climbs up the ladder onto the trampoline and bounces along when her brothers jump. She does it all slowly and steadily.

Language

She can say many words now, and even throwing a few words together. Her first 3 syllable word: NIN-JA-GOOOO!! She surprises people with what she can say. She picks up the phone and says "Hewow?" She knows her daddy's name, mummy's name and her grandpa's name. She practically just repeats everything you say like a parrot. One day she surprises us by saying "har kau (prawn dumpling in cantonese), siu mai (pork dumpling), yue chi kau (shark fin dumpling)" what we've ordered at a recent yum cha session! What a cracker! My sister in law is now trying to teach her a few words in Hokkien.


Tantrums & Emotions

Oh yes, we are starting to see some signs of "terrific" twos and threes. She throws a tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants...sometimes. And she is very VERY loud. She screeaaammms, screeeaacchh, yeelllls and it often sounds a LOT worse than it actually is. She is also very loving and readily give hugs and kisses.

I can't help getting all nostalgic again, knowing that my LAST little baby has grown out of her baby skins.