To commemorate Xuan turning 18 months, I decided to write a post on 18 quirky things I love about Xuan that just shows her character and personality:
(1) Little Monica – Can obsessive-compulsive disorder be inherited? H would say yes. He insists that Xuan takes after me in Monica-ness. When she eats, sometimes she would drop something on the table, and she would insist on cleaning or get me to clean it before she resumes eating. She hates black marks whether they are on her highchair or her hands, as a result of her scribbling with a pen. Xuan loves to wipe tables, chairs, toys with hankies or a wet wipe. She has a serious hanky fetish. One night, she wanted the hanky I was using for her wipedown, but I wouldn't give it to her. She went to her laundry basket to look for a used hanky, but couldn't find one. The next thing we knew, she was shaking the laundry rack and we couldn't figure out why, until H looked up and saw a hanky hanging there. We think she was trying to shake to rack to get the hanky to drop down, so she could get it!
(2) Gadget Chick – Xuan loves handphones, cordless phones, remote controls, electronic keys, blackberries, cameras, camcorders, etc. When Xuan was 16 months old, we went to my in-laws place for a visit. While she was there, she discovered that they have a remote controlled fan and she could turn the fan on/off with the control. A week later, we took Xuan to my mother’s house and she found a little remote control similar to her one at my in-laws house. She picked it up and pointed the remote control at the fan and pressed the buttons. When nothing happened, she looked at me and said “oh” while gesturing at the fan and twisting her hand. I think she remembered she could turn off the fan at my in-laws’ house and was wondering why she could not do the same at my mom’s place.
(3) Playful Baby – Xuan is a very playful and enthusiastic baby. She loves to play peakaboo. She would hide behind curtains or chairs and yell out “tak!”, which is her baby version of “chak!” When one of us carries her and the other hides behind doors and walls to play peakaboo, she pumps her body and legs up and down in excitement and squeals with laughter. Xuan likes to bounce enthusiastically on pillows, bolsters, mummy and daddy. Recently, she accidentally knocked her head against mine and I let out a loud “ouch”. For some reason, she finds this really funny and would lean forward and gently knock her head against ours, just for fun. She is also extremely ticklish, the slightest tickle in her ear, neck, ribs and legs would send her into peals of laughter.
(4) Scaredy-Cat – Xuan has a little green vein on the bridge of her nose that is just visible when you look carefully. My mother-in-law says that babies with this vein tend to scare easily. True enough, Xuan is scared of insects, lifts, thunder, the blinking lights on the alarm panel, etc. When Xuan turned 12 months, she could tell us whenever she was scared, by patting herself on her chest. Once, Xuan was hogging the Sudoku puzzle that H was trying to do, when she suddenly realised that her hands were covered with black ink squiggles, and she had a major freakout moment. This was all nicely captured on video:
(5) Bookworm – Xuan loves to look at books, magazines, newspapers, letters, brochures, pamphlets, company annual reports and even receipts! When she was 4 months old, I gave her a magazine to amuse herself with while I was doing some housework, the next time I checked on her, a corner of a page was missing and I had to dig out the remnants from her mouth!
(7) Small Baby with Tiny Appetite but Boundless Energy – When Xuan was born, she was below the average newborn weight of 3kg. In the first 6 months, she became quite a chubby baby and was comfortably above the 50th percentile in the Weight Graph. Since she turned 9 months old, her weight gain has been excruciatingly slow and now she hovers just above the 3rd percentile! Her paediatrician has been urging us to feed her more, but Xuan just doesn’t eat much. The amount of food she eats can be measured in teaspoons! Thank goodness, her appetite has improved recently, although she still doesn’t eat much, she certainly wants to eat almost everything!
(8) Small Baby with Big Ego – Xuan has no problem with her self-esteem. When she began feeding herself at 14 months, she would stop after each mouthful, look expectantly at us and clap her hands to show us what a clever girl she was. She would also expect us to clap our hands along with her!
(9) Generous Baby – Xuan loves to share her food and drinks, after she takes a sip from a drink, she would point at H or me and ask us to take a sip too. When we ask her if we can have some of her food, she will nod her head most of the time. Aside from feeding herself, she also wants to feed H and me her food. The problem is, sometimes she wants to feed us her leftover food...from her mouth! Well, it may sound disgusting, but she is our baby! The only food she refuses to share with us is watermelon. Watermelon is her favourite food by fair, and when we ask her “Xuan, can Mummy/Papa eat your watermelon?” She would shake her head vehemently and start shoving the watermelon pieces into her mouth.
(10) Sudoku Fan – Xuan loves to do Sudoku with H. Whenever she sees him laying the newspaper on the floor with the Sudoku page, she will park herself in between him and the paper, sometimes sitting on the newspaper. She will ask for a pen and scribble all over the Sudoku puzzle. Half the time H can’t finish his Sudoku puzzle because it’s all covered with Xuan’s scribbles! This is a picture of Xuan doing Sudoku with her Daddy:
(11) Hot Babe – Xuan is sensitive to heat. She doesn’t like hot food and if we tell her to be careful because her food is hot, she would not eat it, or blow on it before she puts it in her mouth. She would sign “hot” by waving her hand in front of her face and blowing. She also doesn’t like to go out in the hot sun. If we go out in the afternoon, she would cover her face, wave her hand in front of her face and pull on the collar of her shirt to tell us that it was hot.
She also doesn’t like spicy food. A couple of months ago, Xuan wanted to drink the tom yam soup I was drinking although I told her that it was “lat lat” (spicy) while waving my hand in front of my face. She still insisted on having the soup, so I gave her a little taste and she burst out crying and rubbing her lips. A month later, I was eating some Korean noodles, which were also spicy and Xuan again wanted to have some. My mom told her that the noodles were “lat lat”. Immediately, Xuan waved her hand in front of her face and shook her head when I offered her some. She remembered what “lat lat” meant and didn’t want to eat the noodles anymore.
(12) Addictive Personality – Xuan starting to show that she has quite an addictive personality. Aside from being addicted to the TV, she is also addicted to juice and jam. Once, I gave Xuan some mango juice as I was using the juice to disguise her cold medicine. This worked like a charm and she would down the medicine with no complains, compared to 2 adults struggling to hold her down and syringe the medicine down her throat (which only caused her to choke and throw everything back up). The problem was, she really loved the mango juice and kept walking to the fridge and crying until we gave her more juice. After she recovered, I decided not to have any more juice in the house. Xuan behaved like a recovering drug addict suffering withdrawal syndrome characterised by temper tantrums and uncontrollable crying. I told H that I felt like I was weaning Xuan all over again, after weaning her from breastmilk, I had to wean her from juice!
(13) Stubborn Xuan – Xuan has a stubborn streak a mile wide. H says that she got it from me, but of course I think she got it from her. I just hope she didn’t get it from both of us, that would spell trouble. It gets tiresome when she whines and whines for things that she wants, like the TV or H’s blackberry or some food that she’s not suppose to eat. A week ago, we had to let Xuan sleep in the buff when she insisted on taking off her clothes and refused when we tried to make her wear her pajamas. After 15 minutes, we gave up and just let her run around stark naked, and she settled down to sleep by herself within 5 minutes.
(14) Baby Babble – For the past month, Xuan’s talking has increased 100 fold. She doesn’t say many actual words, words that we understand. But she chatters and talks almost non-stop making so many different sounds and sound combinations that actually, I am surprised she’s not talking much yet. She sounds like she is speaking several foreign languages, she started with Tamil, then spoke French for a while and occasionally speaks Japanese. When we talk to her, she would respond to us, just like she was having a conversation, but we don’t understand what she is saying. She loves to grab any handphone or cordless phone, hold it up to her ear and “talk”, even when there is no one on the other side. The funny thing is, she doesn’t talk when there is someone on the other side, she would just hold the phone and listen. She loves to listen to H’s voice on the phone when he calls home, and almost always cries when he hangs up. Before bedtime, she would babble on and on, perfectly happy to carry a one sided conversation peppered with H or me saying “Xuan, go to sleep!”
(15) Expressive Baby – Xuan still doesn’t talk much as 18 months. However, she understands a lot of things we say and is very good at communicating what she wants. For instance, she has always been sensitive to the gravity force when we go into the lifts. Even when she was a few months old, she would grimace until her face turned red. When Xuan was around 16 months old, we went into a lift and she gestured to us that she was scared by patting herself on the chest. We asked her, why are you scared?” and she responded by showing a falling motion with her hand. H and I were so surprised, we think she was trying to explain to us the falling motion of the lift that she doesn’t like.
(16) Affectionate Baby – Xuan didn’t use to be affectionate at all. For months, we would be spurned by her whenever we asked for hugs and kisses. Recently, she seems to have gotten in touch with her inner self. Now, she spontaneously lavishes us with hugs and kisses. She would run towards us and suddenly hug our legs. Or she would come and kiss us, without being asked. Actually, that only happens when she is trying to get us to turn on the TV for her. Usually, H would ask Xuan for a kiss if she wanted him to turn on the TV. One day, I told her no when she asked me to turn on the TV, she turned towards me and kissed me, then pointed at the TV. I was so shocked (my heart experienced spontaneous combustion) that I turned on the TV for her! The other day, H got a nice surprise when he was walking up the stairs. She pointed at our decorative couple kissing statues and turned up her face to him for a kiss. Wow, that must have melted daddy’s heart!
(17) Naughty Baby – Xuan is a naughty girl sometimes. And she knows it too. When she drops/throws something from the highchair on purpose, or has done something wrong, she would look at us in the eye, and swat herself on her arm while say “thump!” Maybe she is hoping that by swatting herself first, we would not swat her ourselves. It is hard not to laugh sometimes, when she does this. I wish I could get this on video camera, but I have not been successful so far.
(18) Strange Sleep Habits – Since Xuan was weaned, she has developed some strange sleeping habits. She has always been a restless sleeper, easily covering all four corners of her queen size mattress in one night. Often, we would find her partly on the floor. Sometimes she would want me to pat her to sleep, or rub her feet, or massage her legs, or stroke her cheek, or just hold her hand. When H was on leave for a week, Xuan grew attached to him, and would only want him to massage and rub her feet. Sometimes, H and I both have to rub one foot at the same time. Once, she actually slept naked because she didn’t want to wear any pajamas. Yesterday, she fell asleep with half her body under the dresser. The whole of today, for her nap and bedtime, she insisted on sleeping on the floor instead of on her mattress. I wouldn’t be surprised, if one day I would find her snoring in the bathtub or hanging upside down sleeping like a bat!
18 Months Milestones:
Weight – 9.0 kg
Height - 74 cm
Xuan can walk very well, run, climb up and down the sofa, climb up and down the stairs by herself. She can feed herself very well. She can complete a 20 piece jigsaw puzzle by herself. She knows her left from her right. She will let me know once she has done a poo in her diaper.
She can say “papa”, “mama”, “star”, “bath”, “there”, “mum mum”, “nah” and her all time favourite is “no no no no” while shaking her head or pointing her finger at you! When we ask her where certain items are (umbrella, bear, car, etc), she will say “there” and point to the item. When I ask her what happened to a bracelet of mine which she once broke, she would say “prak!” and fling her arms open to show how she broke it. A couple of days ago, she started saying “pou pou” while holding up her arms when she wants us to carry her.
Although Xuan doesn’t really say many actual words, she seems to understand us quite well. She can follow simple instructions such as “keep your blocks”, “park your truck”, “go sit on the sofa”, etc. When we ask her “where is the ball/book?”, she would fling herself flat on the ground and peer under the sofa. When we ask her questions like “where is your milk” – she walks and points to the fridge, “where do you go bathe?” – she walks to the bathroom and says “bath bath” while patting herself on the chest with both arms. When I ask her to “close your eyes and go to sleep”, she will cover her eyes with her hands. She also loves to nod her head or shake her head while saying “nah” or “no” when we ask her questions, although her answers are not always consistent. Her yes/no answers are more consistent when we ask her what she wants to eat “Banana? Bread? Cheese? Banana cookie? Cranberries?” Xuan loves to go out, so whenever we ask her if she wants to go “kai kai”, she will clap her hands and walk to the door.
She can understand and sign the following words / actions: kiss, hug, pain (pat side of head), sleep (put hand at side of neck), star (open and close both palms held up), elephant (pat ear), clap hands, friend (pat someone on the shoulder), wash hands (rub hands together), rub tummy with oil (rub hands together), scared (pat chest with hand), socks, shoes (point at feet), close eyes (cover eyes with hands), giraffe (point at neck), “kai kai” (means going out, she will clap her hands), clever girl (clap her hands in self praise), spectacles / sunglasses (put thumb and fingers together in front of her eyes), hat (pat hands on head), dress (pat her chest), “lat lat” (means spicy, wave hand in front of mouth), hot (for food, wave hand in front of mouth), hot (for weather, pull on collar of shirt), “pou pou” (means full, she pats her tummy), put lotion (rub hands on legs), bracelet (pat her wrist), watch (pat wrist), rubiks cube (put hands close together and twists them), mum mum (means hungry / eat, she points at her mouth and says “mum mum”), and drink milk / water (put her hands by the side of her mouth, tilts her head up and slurps!).
When we say the following words, she can identify or point at the corresponding pictures:
- Anatomy: head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, neck, stomach, hands, legs, knees, feet, toes
- Clothes: spectacles / sunglasses, hat, dress, watch, socks, shoes, slippers
- Items in the House: light, fan, bathtub, bed, window, door, sofa, vase, television, telephone, table, chair, dustbin, ball, comb, balloon, candles, umbrella, teddy bear, clock, rubiks cube
- Items in the Kitchen: teapot, sink, spoon, straw, cup
- Items in the Garden: flowers, bird, fountain
- Nature / Weather: rainbow, rain, stars
- Fruits: watermelon, apple, orange, papaya, banana,orange
- Food: carrot, broccoli, pumpkin, fruit juice, bread, cake, biscuit, Cheerios, cheese, jam, milk
- Animals: elephant, lion, tiger, giraffe, panda, orang-utan, monkey, butterfly, dragonfly, spider, ladybird, fish, bird
- Musical Instruments: drum, piano, guitar
- Vehicles: car, bus, train, motorcycle, van, bicycle, ambulance, aeroplane, oil tanker
- Verbs: clap, cook, cry, dance, drink, eat, draw, kiss, laugh
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