Sofia's First Birthday Accomplishments Update - Feb 1, 2010

So Sofia is officially 1 years old, here's an update of the things she can do:

• Say "dog!" when she sees the word dog (and the actual dog, of course)

Dog! - Jan 24, 2010 from Sofia Liswan on Vimeo.

• Correctly turn her head or point to the picture of "baby", "elephant" of course..."hippopotamus", "lion"...she'll say rowr... but for some reason, she REFUSES to acknowledge the tiger I don't get it
• Favorite book, "The Little Lion King", I'll say "go get Simba" and she'll go find the book and hand it to me to read
• Drink from a straw
• Say "yu yu", meaning fish
• "Leng leng" meaning pretty, she'll point to herself
• "Bao bao" meaning full, she'll open her palms and pat her tummy
• "Hair" she'll grab her hair, or your hair
• "Er duo" or "ear" she'll point to her ear, some times she'll miss and get her hair instead
• "Woh woh" is the specific toy dog she has, she also interchanges b/t calling Brownie "dog!" or "woh woh".
• Slurp noodles! At first, self feeding noodles were a real challenge, they're so floppy. Now she knows that she can suck in the ends that are dangling out of her mouth.
• "Mu-ahh", that's her signal for blowing a kiss. I used to say "flying kiss" but that didn't stick.
• Gimme Five! - She'll hit your open palm and say "DA DA DA" which means hit hit hit. She also knows to "DA" the things that hurt her. So if she fell on the floor and hurt herself, she will cry and "DA DA DA" the floor while she is crying.
• Wash hands (or rub hands) - I always either sanitize my hands or wash them before I pick her up, so she copies my hand rubbing motion after pointing to the Purell
• Nod "yes", shake "no" - this works better for "no", she'll shake her head no when I say no

Clapping and standing... from Sofia Liswan on Vimeo.

• "Mo!" and open her palms indicating..."no more!" - "mo" is the word for no more in cantonese

Mo!! - No more!! from Sofia Liswan on Vimeo.

• "Si" and point to the TV - "Din Si" is the word for television in cantonese. If the TV is not on, she will point to the TV, say "si" and "mo!".

Hmm, that's all I can remember for now. All this and she still can't walk! :)

Sofia's First Birthday! - January 30/31, 2010

Sofia's first birthday was on January 31, 2010 but we decided to have a party for her on Jan 30th because that was the day most of our friends could make it out to celebrate with her. Ricky and I were up until 3AM and 2AM respectively cleaning out the house. Unfortunately, Sofia did not know the lateness of our bedtime and woke mommy up at 7AM, as usual. No matter, I will had so much to do before guests arrived.

It was the fastest 5 hours ever! Before I knew it, the food delivery arrived, and just a few minutes later, so did our guests. Fortunately we had two wonderful helpers (Yuliana and Olivia) who came early to help me with the decorations, otherwise I do not know how I would have made it.

Yummy cake... from Sofia Liswan on Vimeo.

In the end, it seemed like everyone had a great time. Sofia, especially had lots of fun, she LOVED the helium balloons, her wonderful birthday presents and of course all the attention she got. Thanks to all of you who came and joined us to celebrate!

I love balloons!! from Sofia Liswan on Vimeo.

P.S.
Mommy worked too hard, and talked too much, got laryngitis...have been mute for 2 days now. Haha...I guess we all needed some peace and quiet.

Sofia's First Snowstorm - Dec 19, 2009

Sofia "experienced" the first snow storm of her life! In reality, of course, she spent the whole day indoors as the snow came down. It was too cold to go out. The next day, we took her out to take some pictures. The northeast got some 2 feet of snow, it looked like something like a foot or more in our yard. Sofia was unfazed by all the white stuff.

Sofia's First Picture with Santa Claus!

HO HO HO!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS! Sofia doesn't look too merry, in fact she looks a little sleepy...hee hee. But at least she is looking at the camera, thanks to the fast trigger fingers of the professional Santa picture takers at Short Hills Mall. This was probably a 2 second window during which Sofia looks at the camera as she scans from the right to the left. Most of the time on Santa's lap, was spent studying Santa..."my what a white beard you have, stranger...!" Well at least she didn't cry.

Sofia's First Words - as of Dec 17, 2009

Sofia uttered her first words, with meaning, at around...hmmm 8.5 months or so. Her first "word" that we could for sure say was actual communication was "mum mum" which commonly means "food" (cantonese). When she ate, we would say "mum mum...yummy mum mum", when she eats or wants to eat, she will say "mum mum"! :) Very cute.

Now at 10 months, her vocab's grown a bit (really just a bit):
- "bao bao" means hug me
- "nyai nyai" or "yai yai yai" means I want milk
- "dog!" actually sounds more like "dut!" she says when she sees pictures of 4 legged animals. It used to be just dogs, dogs on TV, in books, live (when she see Brownie), then she expanded the word to include lions, tigers, etc.
- "Mama" she only uses in distress, when I ignore her or if she's upset and wants me, she will yell "MA!!!"
- "Baba" she says well whenever daddy is around. Not 100%, but often enough for me to believe she does know what she is talking about. She'll go on and on and on "bababababababababa".

Words she understand but can't say:
-"mickey" - Sofia LOVES Mickey Mouse, she has little stickers of him on her window and whenever you say, where's Mickey? She would turn and look at her window and smile.
-"No!" well I can't tell if it's my tone of voice or the word itself that stops her but it does give her pause.

Other developments:
- She will try to do the itsy bitsy spider...of course she isn't coordinated enough for it but she'll stick her little fingers out touch them together and turn her wrists.
- Also tries to "twinkle" the little stars... :) But she doesn't touch her finger tips, instead opens and closes her whole palm.
- "Dim Chung chung" - this is a little cantonese finger game, she'll stick out her two pointer fingers and touch them together when I ask her or show her to dim chung chung
- "Ching ching" that's holding both hands together and moving up and down, just the thing to know for Chinese New Year...this is how babies ask for red pockets! :)
- Clap clap! - Recently we have been showing her the "Your Baby can Read" DVDs and she now claps with she sees the word "clap"
- Arms up! - She lifts both hands up above her head, for 2 days (last weekend) she LOVED to do this, kept doing it and giggling.

Phew...I think that's it?? Grandma can add if she remembers anything else. :)

Sofia picking "grass" - Dec 3, 2009

Sofia Picking "Grass" in Times Square HKG - Dec 3. 2009 from Sofia Liswan on Vimeo.

By special request from grandma, here's the video of Sofia picking "grass" at the Times Square Christmas display. She had SO much fun there.

Sofia in Hong Kong - having fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Sofia had the best time in Hong Kong with Grandma and Grandpa! With the wide open space at Grandma and Grandpa's Sofia got to crawl around a lot, climb on all the furniture, oh and not to mention Grandma bought Sofia tons of new toys and clothes. Best best best of all though, is that Sofia got the BEST food in HK (like the rest of us right?). Everyday she got chunky congee with meat and veggies made with special nutritious rice, blended fresh fruits and vegetables, oh and who drinks plain old water? Sofia drank apple water, pear water, carrot juice, carrot and pear juice blended...lucky little girl. Of course she also got lots and lots of attention and cuddles.