I've been getting really lazy to update this blog, partly because Multiply is so slow in uploading entries and photos! But since it's been more than a month since I last wrote anything, I thought I'd put up some of Janelle's pictures here. She's already 19 months old and growing up fast into a big girl!
We can now hold a mini-conversation with her responding in 2-3 word sentences. Perhaps it's only us parents who feel this way - but we find her extremely cute and endearing! I used to think that babies are only cute below 1 year old when they're helpless and can't walk, but I guess having a daughter of my own has changed my thinking. They seem to get cuter and more interesting as they grow older! But of course, very much naughtier too!
Janelle is extremely cheeky and mischevious - till now, we 
have no idea who she inherited this trait from. She loves to play peek-a-boo still, and says the funniest and most innocent statements at the strangest times. She also loves to have her armpit tickled, and would voluntarily raise her arm just so that you can tickle her armpit!
Her most recent development is that she can now respond over the phone. Previously she'd just be pressing the buttons or pushing the phone away. But now if I "phone" her when I'm outside (or rather, ask Royston to pass the phone to her), she can repeat after me stuff like "bye bye", "take care", "God bless", "love you". It's extremely endearing to hear your own daughter's voice over the telephone! Makes my heart melt 
and makes me want to get home earlier to see her!
Janelle is now 18 months old (ie. 1.5 years old). It's amusing to bring her out nowadays as she'll give a running commentatory on what's going on around her. When it's raining, she'll keep going on like a broken recorder "raining, raining", and she'll name everything she sees and can name. Recently I brought her on a bus journey to Bukit Panjang Plaza, just to break out of the monotony of staying at home. On the bus, she was busy pointing out to the different people and calling "che-che", "kor-kor", "auntie", or "uncle". And whenever someone alights the bus, she'll say a big "bye-bye!!" to the person. Really amusing and pretty embarrassing, I must say!
Her recent favourite word is "happy!!", which she will exclaim in a loud and happy tone and give a big bright smile. Her vocabulary is increasing on the average of 2 new words per day, and she can now respond on the telephone. (previously she would just listen and not speak, but now she's learning how to respond back). Here are some of the words she can say:
A - apple, ant, auntie
B - book, bear, ball, bubble, bible, barney, bread, beans, baby, bye-bye, bag, bird, ber-zek, banana ("nana"), bottle, blue, beat, black
C - car, cheese, cheek, come, close, che-che, chor-chor, chair
D - dog, daddy, door, duck, draw
E - elephant (she'll go "air..."), egg, eye, eat, Elmo, Eeyore
F - fish, flower, fly, four, five
G - girl, God bless, gugu, gong-gong ("tong-tong")
H - hi, hammer, happy, horse, hop, hair, hot, hug, hat
I -
J - Janelle ("nell-nell"), jump
K - kiss, kite, key, kor-kor, kway teow
L -
M - mummy, mama, mum-mum, more, me, mei-mei, march, mouth
N - no, nose, neck
O - oh-oh, open, owl, one, orh-orh
P - pear, potato ("ta-to"), papaya ("papa"), press, pee-pee, poo-poo, potty, Pooh bear, powder, pink, pen, pencil, push
Q
R - run, raining, red, rice
S - shoes ("yoos"), socks ("yocks"), sit, star, sit
T - toes, Tigger, two, truck, throw, tissue ("tish"), towel
U - uncle, up
V - van
W - wash, water, wet-wet, wire, where?, walk, wet wipes, white
X -
Y - yellow,
Z
The past few days have been a sad realisation of my artistic talent (or rather, the lack of). Now that Janelle is able to verbalise slightly better, she's been asking me to draw pictures for her. She'd take the magnetic drawing board and ask me to "draw". Thank God her favourite picture is "apple", which I can still manage! Then she asked me to draw "banana", and when I drew what looked like a bunch of bananas to me, she looked puzzledly at me as though saying "is this a banana??". Then she asked me to draw "duck". Oh my. That was the real test of my drawing abilities....I realized I could not draw a duck!! It somehow ended up looking like a chicken, or bird, or whatever. And when I handed the poorly-drawn picture of a duck to her, she scrutinized it right-side up and upside-down and looked imploringly at me, as though I was supposed to do more to make it look like a duck! I had a good laugh at myself and Janelle was really puzzled as to why I was laughing at my own drawing!
I wonder what I would do when she starts asking me to draw her favourite Winnie the Pooh series, like Pooh Bear or Eeyore. Hmm...
All I can say is that different people are gifted with different abilities Mine's definitely not drawing!
I never knew or thought that a barely 16 month-old child could be such a cleanliness freak. My impressions of toddlers that age are active, busy, dirty, and definitely not having a care whether his/her hand is dirty!
Janelle is like my vacuum-cleaner at home, spot-checking the house daily for specks of dust or dirt, and diligently picking them up with her tiny fingers and calling out "meh-may" (her version of "mummy") and showing the dirt to me. She'll also pick up strands of hair on the floor and pass them to me. That aside, whenever her hands are dirty, she would stretch out the dirty hand and insist that I clean it before she continues with whatever she is doing! And when I say "dirty", I mean like when there is some water on her hands, or just one grain of rice, or whatever. And when she steps onto something on the floor (water, dust, etc), she will call "meh-may" and stand on one leg, lifting up the foot which is dirty, and wait for me to 'rescue' her by cleaning the foot before she continues walking. Whenever we drop something on the floor, she will also keep pointing at it and insist that it's picked up before she is satisfied.
Well, I guess I'm glad that she has a low tolerance for dirt and tardiness! She takes after both Royston and my genes in that, for sure. It also does help a lot in keeping the house neat and tidy, since she does the spot-check all the time!
Janelle is really verbalizing more and more these days. Though she can't exactly talk yet, but she does try to pronounce more words!
New words to her vocab:
- doll
- no more
- pa (grandpa)
- meimei
- tigger
Janelle has been screaming just the same too. Really praying hard for God's wisdom and love to change her to be more patient and loving! May we be the godly parents who will bring Janelle up in the love & knowledge of Christ :) May Janelle (and her sibling-to-be) walk after Jesus as they walk after us!
9 or 10 months old - fell asleep in her highchair after lunch (my favourite picture!)
