routines - and the 18-month round-up

Leona has really got hooked on routines, and makes sure we strictly abide by them.

There's the bathroom routine described in the last ECing post, there's the bathtime routine, where for example the moment she is carried out of the bathroom and lain down on the bed, she points to her legs - which means we have to get the Bach cream as she gets it rubbed on legs and arms every evening.

There is then the done-eating routine (goes and gets the broom so we can sweep up her dropped food), the sweeping routine (sweep-sweep-sweep, open cupboard door to garbage, dump pan, close door), there's the rules regarding where things should be located, there's the ensuring all doors and drawers are closed properly, and oh-so much more.

She's aslo gotten really into pointing at related things. Like when we read books,

[reading one of her favorite books - Judge's Chinese/English dictionary]

like the book above, she will point at the equivalent things in the room that she sees in the book, or where the various pieces of clothings go on her body (socks and shoes -> feet, shirts and jackets -> body, pants and shorts -> legs, hats and underwear -> head...yes, that is where underwear is supposed to go, apparently, and she happily pulls down our dried lawndry and proceeds to proudly parade around the house with our underwear snug on her head).

She loves to dance, and will request that music be played so that she can do just that...and Enya doesn't do the trick apparently, break-beats are much better.

[Happily practicing handstands with her dad]

She will run excitedly to the door when any of us come home or mormor comes visiting.

She hears words' similarities rather than their differences: When a friend came to visit from Taiwan, I prepared her by saying 'Shu2-shu2' (uncle) is coming tomorrow to visit, and she signed 'book' (shu1 in Chinese), so I tried 'bo2-bo2' instead, and she signed 'bowl'. Then there is snow ('xue3' and water ('shui3') that seem to be quite similar, and little brother 'di2-di2' which she hears 'baby' and points to herself, and many more.

She really loves practicing to say her words. I think some of them are still just sounds, but fun sounds (like older sister in Chinese), while others have meaning (like 'baby' which she will also say when she sees other little kids out and about).

She loves singing/humming, as well as still loves just sitting by the window watching the world outside:

She has also started to become more cuddly - like in the picture above where she's reading with Judge, she likes to sit on our laps or lay in the nook of our arm when we read, and when she sleeps she will often roll over right up to me so that our heads and faces are touching, and sometimes take my hand and drape it over her.

And she still enjoys emphatically letting us know she is scared of something - especially the washing machine - whenever she hears the thing or sees it. And us acknowledging that it scares her is enough for her to move on to whatever it is we were on our way to doing or in the midst of doing.


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