Let There Be Light

Happened two weeks ago: Maggie translates too! Well she used to say Hoi Moon (open the door) for every type of door/ lid/ box and later on it was just Hoi for something that is not a door (open the wrapper off a new toy etc). later on she learned to say "open!". Anywayz one day last week she wanted me to turn on the light and she said "Open Light!" So funny! I laughed so hard but she didn't know what was so funny about it. haha! Anywayz, I've since taught her to say "ON light".

Baby Jesus

Ya know in the movie, Talegdega Nights when Will Ferrell prays with all his sincerity to "dear baby baby Lord Jesus, we thank for this meal..." I think that is also Maggie's view of who is Jesus right now.

We were reading through my book, a children's bible storybook in Chinese. Actually I can't read that fast so I was just telling the stories in Chinese. We started with "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". And we got as far as Samson. She was very interested! She flipped ahead to the New Testament and she saw a baby! I explained to her that was baby Jesus! And she kept saying Baby Jesus, Baby Jesus. So I took the opportunity to pull out some Christmas books about the nativity and those have been among her favorite books ever since. In fact on Saturday night she insisted that she hold one of the Baby Jesus books to sleep.

I heard that a child can have a spiritual imprint of God and Jesus before the age of two. I think it's important to tell them about a Jesus they can understand. Maggie loves babies, so I guess she can totally relate to a baby Jesus. And since Maggie knows about "fishes" and "boats" maybe later I can tell her about Jesus as the Fisher of Men, and about how Jesus calms the storm, and then eventually Jesus as her Savior.

Duck Duck

It's funny how kids at this age will call every furry animal Woah woah (dog). That was a few months ago. By now she can totally distinguish alot of things obviously, she knows Mow Meow (cat) and Moose and quirrel (squirrel), seal arp arp (seal), jeng jeng jeng (di ban jeng, for elephant), hung (mouse, cuz in her book there's a mouse walking). She knows jek tsi or birdie (bird), and fey fey (airplane). Ew is a mosquito or bug. Actually one time she saw an ant and she called it a woah woah. Hey it moves with legs! Turto, Duck duck, fishes or fishies. So cute! Whether they're in an aquarium, in the bathtub or on the computer.

But what really tops the cake is when we were reading a book about dinosaurs, like there's a dinosaur for every letter of the alphabet, she called them "Duck Duck!" Specifically it's the one that is a total vegetarian and is the largest of all the dinosaurs. I guess if it were white all over and if it had an orange beak, it could totally pass as a gigantic duck duck. But it's just interesting cuz some scientists do believe that dinosaurs and birds are closely related. So weird! So amazing how the world seems through the eyes of a child!

Let's Pray

We've been teaching Maggie to say grace at mealtimes. She has decided that we need to pray at snack time too!

Usually we have her seated in the high chair and we prepare the snacks for her on a regular plate. That gives me a bit of extra time to prepare my own dinner or snack plate. When we are all seated together at the table, we put our hands together to pray, as we say in Chinese - KAY TO. Automatically she knows to put her hands together (though she hasn't quite figured out to close her eyes yet.)

Well today I sat down to eat my snack and I totally forgot about KAY TO. She put her hands together and looked right at me, as if to remind me that we needed to pray and say thanks, even for a little bit of apple and cheerios!

How wonderful it is to teach little ones the simplest spiritual habits. Even at such a young age, they learn! Imagine how much she could be understanding about God based on what I've already told her. Actually I haven't been telling her very much or often enough! So talk to your child about God!

She talks

She's been saying words like "Daddeee" and "Ma ma" and "Nye Nye" (it means milk) for a while. Recently she said "Na Na Na" which I'm guessing means bananas cuz she literally goes bananas when I start chopping them and place them on her plate. She also does the sign for "please" while saying "peace peace". She's really watching me do the signs, though of course I'm saying the actual words in Chinese.

She loves the swing! She loves her megablocks. And she has email. Here's a blurb from a mail she "sent".

"What else is new.... I ate hamburgers at Harvey's Free Hamburger Day last Sunday. They gave me my own burger! I like spaghetti and macaroni and cheese, and rice too. I hate carrots though. My favorite foods are still grapes, blueberries and strawberries. I like to feed my mommy and daddy cheerios.My favorite thing to do is move my pile of megablocks from the wagon and into the giant bag of megablocks. I can walk two or three steps if my mommy moves the bag too far away to reach. Sometimes I can build things but it is more fun to take everything apart. I also love the swing. I think my daddy will post a video of me flying through the air sometime soon.That's all. M"

Look who's one!

She turned one a week ago and we had such an awesome birthday party! She's walking if I hold her hand or if she's grabbing onto the wall or the table. She's babbling lots and communicating to us in all kinds of verbal and non-verbal cues. Haven't really been keeping this blog up to date at all, and there is already another one on the way in July.

Maggie says "Mum" and "Neh"

I'm pretty sure she's saying Neh for NI-NI which means milk. And Mum, it's been pretty random but she says it more. Otherwise she's saying DEH or DA for both mom and dad! Funny girl. She talks so much, dis dis dis, wey wey wey wey, noooooo. Vffoooom Vfooooom is probably referring to car. She definitely waves hi and bye, and even opens her mouth real wide to say "hi".

Her favorite toy is definitely a little tiny cloth giraffe from the magnetic Noah's Ark gift set. She can climb the stairs and/or play for most of the afternoon with that little thing in one hand or in her mouth.

She eats huge amounts of brocoli florets, cheerios/ nutrios, and blueberries cut into quarters. She'll still do baby cereal, congee and jar or homemade baby food vegatables or fruit, but forget about the meat and broth kind. She'd rather eat shredded chicken or turkey by hand.

Next we'll try toast, bagels? and maybe even a good hearty soup.

Maggie climbs the stairs!

She's been crawling since seven months. At eight months she pulled herself up to standing and of course now she does it all the time, even when she's done with the potty. Now at nine months... yesterday she climbed up two steps before she looked back and rolled down again.

She's been at the home daycare since the start of January and I must say she loves it there! The lady takes very good care of her and is very nurturing. And Maggie has two older playmates too. She plays with cars and trucks all day long.