Ni Hao, Wo Jiao MAP

Map running around at home

Map was now attending Chinese playgroup.  Daddy and Mommy believed Chinese would be very useful in the future for Map.  Since our family did not speak Mandarin, the only way for Map to pick up the language was to immerse her in Chinese speaking environment.  And what best would be to start her as early as possible.  In Map's Chinese playgroup, the majority of the children were from Chinese-speaking families.  Map's Chinese teachers did not speak much English, so Mommy had to rely on other mommies who speak both Chinese and English to translate what the teachers were saying.  For one and a half hour, the class was conducted entirely in Chinese.  All the nursery rhyme songs were all in Chinese.  Well, it was certain Map would be picking up Chinese much faster than Mommy from this class.  

A lot of babies in the class had both English names and Chinese names. Maybe we had to come up with Chinese name for Map - just for fun.  

Playtime at Chinese playgroup

Today class was about the color pink - 'fen hong se', so all babies had to come to class dressing in pink.  There were a lot of pink stuff in the classroom today.  

Map busy playing with a doll

Can you tell I'm not Chinese?

So many toys 

Map and her main Chinese teacher

Could you guess what was the first Chinese word that Map spoke?  It was 'wa wa' for doll.  Today she saw dolls in class and started saying 'wa wa'.  The teacher had taught her 'wa wa' the other day. 

With one of the mommies

The class

Map looking at the teacher

Playground time

The class at the playground

Peekaboo, can you see me?

Catch me if you can

Practicing going up and down the stairs

What should I cook for lunch?

I'm taking this truck with me

Hey you over there!

I'm frying greenpepper

Mommy, do you think there is enough oil in this pan?

Playing with tunnel after the snack time

Hello Monkeys

Map was now 16-months old.  And it seemed once her vocabularies had reached 50 words, she learned to speak new words faster than before.

Map at 16 months

Her new vocabularies since the last blog:

• Hand (for hand)
• Wokk (for walk)
• Gi-yaf (for giraffe)
• Oc-to (for Octopus)
• Kile (for crocodile)
• Juu (for shoes)
• El-mo (for Elmo)
• Ee-yor (for Eeyore)
• Hot (for hot)
• Eeek (for 'more' in Thai)
• Bub-ble (for bubble)

Yelling and frowning because she didn't want to go home but wanted to go see cats

Map could now make frowny face to show her protest/unsatisfaction/annoyance/irritation.  It was startling to see that Map could now show her other emotion on her face besides smiling and crying.  This frowny face started to surface only around 16-months old.  

Daddy's girl

Yes, I'm Daddy's girl

I have best seat here

Today we went to Bukit Timah Nature Preserve, which was a national park.  There were tons of monkeys there.  They would jump from the tree onto our trail.  Mommy and Daddy were quite nervous when two monkeys were sandwiching us and Map on the trail, partly because we were afraid the monkeys would snatch the cookie from Map's hand.  Map was quiet every time she saw the monkeys there - guess Map was not sure what they were.  

Monkeys - the center one is being beautified as if she is in the salon

You look fabulous, darling!

Map and Daddy at the lookout point

Map and Mommy

Family photo

We walked around to the lookout point.  Map saw a lot of turtles there and said tur-tle many times.  Then we hiked up the trail which was quite steep.  While we walked up we saw a lot of people walked backward down the steep trail and wondering why they did that.  Later we realized ourselves that the steep trail on the way down was quite tough on the knees and it was much more comfortable to walk down backward.  Map was tired from waking up early, so she fell asleep on Daddy's shoulder during the hike. 

The Hike

I'm so tired from hiking

Daddy's shoulder is so comfy!

Map's Latest Vocabularies

My frog swimsuit

Swimming with Daddy on Saturday morning

What Map could say now at 15 months and 3 weeks

• Dadd-dii (for daddy)
• She would say dadd-dii every time she saw daddy's pictures on the coffee mugs at home.  
• Momm-mii (for mommy)
• She only said momm-my when she desperately needed something or when mommy was not around and she wanted mommy. 
• Ja+-Ja (for mommy)
• Ja (for our helper - Ja)
• Un-cuul (for uncle)
• She would say un-cuul when she went into taxi and saw the taxi driver or when she saw the security guard at our apartment.
• Aunt-ty (for auntie)
• She started saying aunt-ty to the cashier lady at Carrefour
• Ai-ja (for Aisha, her teacher at JG)
• Eye yov (for I love)
• Map couldn't say three-syllable word yet.  Only two for now. It was supposed to be for 'I love you.'
• Mor: (for more): For requesting more food, more songs, more games.
• Tur-tle (for turtle)
• She started to say tur-tle at Barracks Cafe where there were many turtles in the outside pool.  
• App-ple (for apple)
• She would say app-ple when she saw apple in the fridge
• Ju (for juice)
• She would say ju when she wanted her juice in a straw zippy cup. 
• Yo-gur (for yoghurt)
• Ba-by (for baby)
• Bal (for ball)
• Bar (for bear)
• She used bar to call her favorite plush bear - Risky.
• And she called Winnie the Pooh - 'bar.'
• Ri (for sorry)
• Ka (for cat)
• This is her favorite word.
• Ka (for snack)
• Snack in Thai is kanom - this must be how ka for snack coming from. 
• Dugg (for dog)
• Duck (for duck)
• goaat (for goat)
• Don-ki (for donkey)
• She learned saying don-ki from reading Winnie the Pooh's board book - Eeyore was the donkey.
• Sh (for fish)
• Oik (for pig's sound 'oink')
• Baa (for sheep's sound 'baa')
• Moeww (for cat's sound 'meow'
• Bo bo (for dog's sound 'bow wow')
• El (for Elmo)
• Bye (for bye)
• Bye (for bad)
• Bir (for bird)
• Eye (for eye)
• Eee (for ear)
• Nos (for nose)
• Nya Nya (for banana)
• Nyo (for no)
• Gog (for knock knock)
• Yummy (for yummy)
• Mumm-mumm (for I'm hungry for food/milk)
• Yippy yappy (for happy happy)
• Hi (for hi)
• Up (for up and down)
• Come (for come here)

Map 

What she liked doing at 15 months and 3 weeks

• Shake her head from side to side many times - when she didn't want some thing
• Raise her skirt or shirt to show her belly button - because she was obsessed with her bellybutton right now. 
• Go up and down steps or stairs - every time she saw one.  
• Run to the door - when she wanted to go out
• Wear mommy's shoes and walk around the house - this was the latest favorite activity
• Pat mommy's back - when mommy said "Map, mommy's so scared.
• Show her tongue.  And like to touch other people's tongue.
• Point her finger on to other people's eye and say 'eye.'
• Grab other people's both ears and say 'eee.'
• Dance along with the familiar nursery rhyme
• Dance when hear music
• Run to mommy when seeing mommy taking picture or video of Map. She wanted to check out her picture/video.  This made it very difficult to take her picture/video nowadays.
• Visit cats at Newton MRT

Daddy and I