The kIsS

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The ToUcH

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tHe IcEdRoP sErIeS

I haven’t posted personal stories for a while but I have a number of them kept in my draft folder. Before I go offline again, it’s time to publish them else they’ll end up staying in the D folder forever. “D” is either for “draft” or “delete” – I’d better put them in “P” as in “published post” now. :p

I owe you stories about our CNY vacation back home but I don’t think you’ll have it as a whole. Bits and pieces they’ll come. Posting the pictures was an easier task, and Hannah re-emphasized that to me :) I sticked to “pictures speak louder than words” in that case, hahaha. I’ll still do that with this post. I think the facial expressions of my daughter in every picture speak for them, lol.

As an introduction though, let me tell you that she never got the chance to eat icecream here in Taiwan not until last Saturday. It was the cold weather that deprived us of that. During one of the warm days we were vacationing in Cavite, a familiar bell sounded from afar. I asked hubby to call the pedicab vendor and got ourselves chocolate icedrop and pinipig. Jade excitedly watched us open them as she willingly obeyed my word when I asked her to sit down on the kitchen door floor. And the rest of the story lies in the following pictures…

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The Magic Pig

Small circle, small circle, big circle,
Small circle, small circle, big circle,
Mama’s ear, papa’s ear and a big big smile,
Six times six, six times six, thirty six,
Six times six, six times six, like a magic pig!

This is one song I remember learning from my early childhood. The lyrics and the drawing activity that come with it stucked in my mind but from where I learned it slipped from my memory. I started to sing and teach it to Jade when I saw her holding a pen trying to write on a paper after Tita Rosie taught her how to hold a pen and draw lines. I also taught this to her cousin Ate Alex during our vacation. I was surprised to know that my younger sisters don’t know it. I thought they knew it, afterall we came from the same elementary school.

Last week, I heard her mumbling something like bicycle but no! It turned out that she’s starting to sing the song while drawing. The “cicle” word she was uttering is meant to be circle. Then few days after, I hear her singing more lines, now with “mama’s ears, papa’s ears” then “thirty six”. I look forward to hearing her sing the whole song and watching her able to come up with her own magic pig soon.

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Pictures speak louder than words...

My first post for year 2008! It's not that I forgot publishing in Page 101 but I've been busy and overwhelmed uploading hundreds of photos in my multiply album, most of which are set to be viewable only by people in my network. I may need to set a time to filter the pictures suitable for posting here and will have to find the words to draw the emotions that came along with those pictures.

Anyway, after Christmas, we had a busy weekend - a year ender family getaway in an indoor hotspring (more of a bath house) in one of the oldest hotels (1950 built) in Yangmingshan followed by a fun-filled cold Sunday in the grounds of Taipei Municipal Children's Recreation Center. We had a happy New Year celebration, hubby and I waited for the countdown on the TV while Jade went to sleep and didn't want to be awaken. We celebrated New Year's daywith friends and colleagues at home, we served lunch this time. First weekends of January were spend outdoors - mainly meant for Jade to enjoy. Full stories to follow soon. Just to let you know that I'm still around :) Here are some of the pictures, insignificant number compared to the collection :)

The family enjoying the warm soak on a cold Saturday night,

last Saturday of year 2007

Dynamic Jade enjoying the grasses on a cold Sunday afternoon,

last Sunday of year 2007

Cheers to Year 2008

The family celebrating with friends on New Year's Day

(Jade had her first taste of red wine, just a single drop)

Another family outing on a cold Saturday,

1st Saturday of 2008

(Mini-San Francisco Bridge on the background ???)

Jade displaying her independence by taking the slide by herself,

1st Sunday of 2008

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Eyes on Barney

Seldom does Jade pay attention to TV shows. She’d ask for the television to be turned on, watches local cartoons or DVDs for few minutes and turn away from it to get back to play. But not until she came to love the Barney series we got on a CD bought back home. She can stand to watch one whole 30-minutes series without any interruption. She’d join the kids singing and dancing. She loved the “bunny hop hop hop” thing from the “animal friends’ series”. She’d even run towards the TV screen in an attempt to join the kids hugging Barney. One of the things she learned from it that we love is to kiss and hug mom and dad when she hears the “I love you” song.


One time, in a scene where the camera focus was shifted from Barney to the kids, somewhat getting him out from the picture, Jade cried out to look for him and even searched the side of the screen in an attempt to find Barney there. Dennis was the one who noticed it. Then when Barney showed back; she smiled and cheered. At times when our phone rings that required us to tone down the volume or to interrupt the show to hear the other line, she would protest with a cry. She’s learning words, actions and good stuffs from the Barney shows so we’re not stopping her to watch unless it gets to disrupt her eating habits.

Jade would sit watching for a while but when the singing and dancing start,

she'd leave her seat and join the fun

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anticipation or instinct?

During our 2006 summer vacation back home, we dropped by Tam-awan Village after the family's Asin swimming. I was a no-first timer to this place however it was my first time to see the artists stationed there and offering sketch services to the place's visitors. We took a quick look at the displayed images but decided to head to the coffee shop first as we were all famished. Then my sisters went back to the artists' post and asked my niece to pose. At first, we thought only one artist will work on the subject but it turned out that two guys actually got their papers and pens and started to chalk out my niece who was behaved well during the entire course.

Thinking that our daughter may be not be willing to be seated for a long time, we didn't follow suit. But after my niece's sketches were completed, we eventually decided to have Jade take the subject's seat. For few minutes, she kept still and behaved well but realizing the absence of entertainments around her made her start to get bored and attempted to get free from mommy's arms. The other artists then started to make different sounds and actions to make her calm. Everyone noticed a cat around so they called feline near the artists sketching her such that they could still take a look at her face. Finally, the wait was over.

At that time, Jade had very short hair and may have even looked more like a boy so we were grinning to see how the sketched looked like. Expecting us to question it, the two artists explained to us right away that they lengthened her hair so that she'll appear girlish. We were pleased for the consideration they regarded. Somehow, it made sense to us. We brought her sketches with us here in Taiwan and having no space to display it in our small apartment, they were kept in our document storage bin.

The younger artist displaying Jade's sketch

Jade: Who is that? She doesn't look like me at all!

The senior artist finishing touches!
Jade: Mommy, bring me down! I want to go play with Manang.

We didn't think of it until several weeks ago, hubby asked me to look at Jade as he exclaimed “she looks like the painting now!” I asked him what painting he was talking about and he told me “the one from Baguio”. It took me a while to pick up what he was saying until I realized “ah, the sketches from Tam-awan.” I stared at our daughter and seconded Dennis statement about her now looking like the way she was sketched six months ago. I opened my online album after that and realized that she looked more like the sketch done by the younger artist compared to that of the other guy. (I forgot their names, they have etched it in the papers but I'm too lazy to dig them now.)

Closer look at the 1st artist's piece.

Jade looks closely to this.

Jade's latest studio picture

Doesn't her hairdo resemble the sketch?

Nah, she was too serious she didn't even smile.

Now, did the artists anticipate that she'll eventually sport that kind of hairdo or was it a father's instinct they exhibited there? Hmmnn, I'm not even sure if they are family men. But no matter what, we appreciate it.

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The conscience-smitten mom and the joy that results from conciliation treat

Guilt over scolding Jade to sleep the other night hit me as I saw her cuddle to her dad in an attempt to get the right position to sleep. At that time, I ran out of patient because after more than an hour of trying to put her to sleep, all she did was toss and turn and either scratch the back of my arms so lightly that it tickles or kick my tummy and legs with all her might. I started to tuck her to bed at 9:30pm after the usual evening games but she just couldn’t keep still. She would pull me up so I’d carry and swing her then she’d point at the bed as her way of telling she wants to lay down. Then she would pull me up again and point back to bed. She has been doing that for sometime now but that night was different. We actually allot one hour till she gets to doze off as we know that much as her eyes are already drooping, she wouldn’t really get into wonderland yet. But then an hour passed and she was still turning, hitting me here and there. Her dad arrived and offered to put her to sleep but I hesitated knowing that she would be crying instead and will make her awake even more. 11pm ticked and I decided to just get her up to play such that she’ll eventually get exhausted and sleep. I tickled her and made her laugh then I brought her out to the living room to play her toys and I even gave her a cookie to munch. I didn’t check the time anymore but when I noticed that her eyes were already turning red and she kept on yawning and started scratching the eyes, we put her back to the bedroom but no, she didn’t sleep right away. I think it was already past 12MN when she finally went to wonderland.

I felt slight aches from her powerful kicks but when I embraced her, I shed tears resulting from the guilt feeling of the scoldings in between the attempt of putting her into sleep. With that in mind until yesterday afternoon, I decided to bring her out to make up for the night before. Hubby’s working overtime again so date was only for me and Jade. I fetched her up and with her porridge ready, we went to the apartment to pick up the backpack with the entire toddler’s stuff and off we headed to the bus stop.

Jade may not really know and understand that I’m bringing her out to “pay” for mom’s misbehavior the other night but I didn’t really care. The treat was part of the mother-daughter bonding anyway. I brought her to KFC – with her porridge, we dined and shared the set of meal I ordered then I brought her up to the kid’s playpen and allowed her to enjoy. She was really very happy to be there and it was the first time that she slid down the slides in a correct way, and to her delight, she did it several times happy to know that she got it right this time. She also got the chance to play with another toddler whose mother was trying to converse with me but in the language that I still don’t understand. She wanted to play more but it was time to get back home. Good thing she was satisfied that she didn’t resist when I placed back her shoes signalling her it’s time to leave. Last night, she still did the toss and turns but mommy had the patient afterall.

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Sweet 16

Jade turned 16 months old around 2 weeks ago. She's now officially in her 2nd quarter of toddler-hood. We regularly check our book "What To Expect the Toddler Years" or the web to see if the changes that take place monthly aligns with the expected milestones in a particular stage of her toddler development. In some cases, we either find stuffs she can do that are not listed or stuffs listed but she is not able to exhibit yet. But then, we do keep in mind that different toddlers have distinct development patterns. Even authors note in their articles that every child is unique; each develops at his/her own pace and since few children are perfectly average or typical, comparison is not very useful. Authors also say to parents not to worry should they see that their child's development seems to be lagging as they can catch up later with great leaps. Should parents worry, they are advised to consult a doctor if they want to have the child's development evaluated.

For us, checking the book serves as our way of cross checking and making sure that Jade's development is normal. I have noted from our book and from some websites that monthly milestones or simply stated as "what your toddler may be doing now" are separated into three groups such as "should be able to", "will probably be able to" and "may possibly be able to". I have gathered some excerpts from different websites talking about the 16th month development of a toddler and will put some comments.

Here's from www.thenewparentsguide.com

Most toddlers should be able to . . .

Turn pages of a book when you read (she does it quickly to get to her preferred pages)

Gets attached to stuffed animal or other object (she has a very simple baby doll we named Aine, an Irish name pronounced as On-ya that she hugs and sleeps with)

Walk well (she does, she runs well too)

Sing and like to sing (she sings randomly – lately we hear her sing adididi-adododo)

Get upset when frustrated (she even throws things and kicks out of frustration)

Some toddlers will probably be able to . . .

Walk backwards (she does, she also walks without looking at her path)

Start to climb and explore (we use the elevator to get to our apartment, only when we go to the grocery that she gets the chance to climb the stairs)

Help around the house (this is one thing I somehow enjoy because I can ask her to fix her toys, pick up stuffs from certain locations around the house, fix her bottle or cup on the table and do some other great things as long as she understands what we're asking her to do. She is now able to give me some hand.)

Say up to 10 or 15 words (let me check later how many words she knows already, I think it's more than 15)

Some toddlers could possibly be able to . . .

Become picky about certain foods (good thing she's not picky yet)

Take off an article of clothing without help (not yet)

Separation anxiety lessens (it's opposite in her case, her separation anxiety especially from mommy is at its peak now. I actually call it her mommy syndrome. )

Dance to music (she gladly does)

Trot and prance around (since she learned how to run, she somewhat forgot how to walk :)

And here's from www.babycenter.com

Your 16-month-old's physical development: Grand ambitions

Your toddler is still likely to explore her surroundings the way she has for the last few months — grabbing random objects, inspecting them closely, putting them to her mouth, banging them on the floor. But you'll also notice that she likes to challenge her physical limits. She knows she can walk, so she wants to try to carry a heavy load, like a box of blocks, while she's at it. She's confident that she can climb up onto the sofa, so she'll want to push a chair to the kitchen counter to climb higher and investigate what's up on the counter tops.

Other developments: Stacking and drawing

Your 16-month-old is becoming more adept at using her hands and fingers. She may be able to stack two or three blocks into a tower, and will delight in immediately knocking it down. When you read books, she'll insist on turning the pages for you, and by now may be capable of turning one or two pages at a time instead of simply flipping from front to back. If you hand her a crayon, she'll know exactly what to do with it, but will probably scribble on anything that's in front of her — books, furniture, and walls included — so "coloring" is an activity that you'll probably want to monitor closely. She may even be able to insert a round block into the proper hole on a board with various shapes.

( I didn't introduce crayons to Jade yet, maybe soon. On inserting blocks properly, Jade is able to do that in her shapes and colors sorting toy.)

Your 16-month-owl's social and emotional development: The toddler connection

Even at this young age, your toddler is learning that he is rewarded with positive attention — hugs, laughter, praise — when he behaves in ways that people around him think are "right," and that he is punished or ignored when his behavior is "wrong."

The social interactions you're most likely to witness now are basic — waving, smiling, playing peekaboo, and following simple instructions — but these are all first steps in establishing his personal social style that are learned through imitation. A 16-month-old is also able to initiate displays of affection and he'll give back what he receives. If you show affection with hugs and kisses, he will likely, too.

(Even when Jade was still less than one year old, we always clap our hands everytime she successfully does things like being able to say a word or finish her meal. She got that from us that until now, she initiates it by herself. Now, we also give her a kiss and a hug if she does “bigger” things. She also does that to us in return.

On the other hand, her social aspect I think is on the right track :) We are thankful that she gets the opportunity to play with kids within our compound. Moreover, she shares the same nanny with a 4-month younger toddler whom she gets to play with during the day.)

Other developments: Developing self-awareness

A newborn isn't able to differentiate between himself and his mother or between himself and any object he sees. Tasting, touching, smelling, and hearing what's in the world around him are ultimately what help him understand that he is a separate being. At about 16 months, your toddler understands that he is his own person, but that he can use you as an extension of himself.

At this stage, your toddler knows he is powerful and he is the center of his world. He uses your attention and amazement and appreciation of his accomplishments to attempt even more. He wants to succeed at everything he tries, though he often won't.

( One funny thing about Jade is when we ask her who the baby in the picture is, she just says baby. Or when we ask her where the baby is, she will point at the her framed baby picture. She has no clear awareness yet that the baby and she are one and the same.)

There are stuffs that Jade can exhibit other than those listed in the book. I attempted to write it all but decided to stop, I might as well do it some other time. From all I read, I know Jade that is in a normal pace and her development is just right on track.

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