Today is Louna's 20th month. As usual, I need to come up with a monthly update but this time, I'll try to talk less but show you more evidence. You might think that I brag about my daughter non-stop without even knowing if 50% of what I write is true or not. So here's Louna at 20 months old.
She's a Green Thumb. Well, she's watering the plants and loves to smell the flowers.
She eats on her own. Look at how coordinated her movements are, and how clean she eats at her age.
She loves chocolate. In all forms.
She could remove the seed of a cherry fruit. Oh yeah, direct from her mouth. That's my 20-months-old.
She's a Dora the Explorer fan. She's afraid of Swiper the Fox tho. She was watching Dora yesterday when I suddenly heard her cry. I rushed to see what's wrong with her, but in fact, she was just afraid that Swiper might swipe the ribbons of the three little pigs (To the Rescue edition). So I told her to raise her hand each time she sees Swiper and say, 'Swiper no swiping' three times. Well, she's raising her hands now. Not a bad start.
She's a webcam princess. - Here is one of our webcam conversations while I was on business travel.
What more can a Mom ask for? This budding little princess is a concentrate of pure happiness. Happy 20th month, ma coquine.
She’s a Frenchy. I have been trying to instill Filipino values by dressing her up Divisoria-style but aside from the Zambal song Popo Talobo she’s requesting each time I change her diapers and her morena color, no other traces of her being half-Filipino have blatantly marked her developments. She’s growing frenchier by the second. It’s inevitable. She’s growing on a French ground.
Language and comprehension skills are the important milestones this month. Aside from the words and phrases already listed two entries ago, she’s got new additions to her vocabulary. All French, of course.
Aïe Aïe Aïe (Ay Ay Ay) – Could be translated to Ouch, to Oh boy! to Oh dear! depending on which situation she employs the word. But hmm, she’s quite abusing this word.
Là – There. Ask her to search for something and she’ll answer you with là.
Coucou – Another way to say Hello.
Coin (pronounced as kwang)– Corner. Remember the Time-Out Corner when she does something bad? She knows it by heart now. She even goes there without being punished to practice her crying prowess. She pronounces it as khang.
This girl is a promising talkie-walkie. She talks a lot and she expresses herself so LOUDLY. And I mean loudly. She probably noticed she could get more attention by shouting all the time. How could I explain to a toddler that she could get what she wants even without yelling?
She’s now into Role Playing too. She plays Mom to her favourite doll. She feeds her doll, installs her on the high chair and attaches her with the security belt, puts on her shoes, dances with her, talks to her and cuddles her. Her doll has her own dose of khang too. Nasty doll!
Other toddler wonders she’s mastered right now are:
- Sending flying kisses and giving out real kisses with sounds.
- Playing with building blocks. She starts to pile up goods inside a grocery when left unguarded.
- Putting on her own shoes.
But this girl has two faces. She’s also a Bad Girl in the Making. She’s in the process of pushing our patience to the limits. She would refuse to arrange her toys. She wouldn’t oblige if we ask her to point on her different body parts. She wouldn’t concentrate when we want to teach her something. She would play when it’s bedtime.
Bref, she’s a growing toddler, with her highs and lows.
We were at my parents-inlaw’s place the week before I left, and as usual, we had lunch with the whole family, SIL’s family included. Family gatherings like that happen probably 3-4 times in a year. So like you, they also follow Louna’s development through blog – and phone calls, of course.
Proud parents as we are, we were ecstatic to announce that Louna understands quite a lot now, both in English and in French. You could ask her to throw something in the garbage, to go to the bathroom because it's bathtime, to wipe her mouth, to arrange her toys (understanding and actually doing the task is not synch yet), to get inside the house. Well, the list is actually endless.
SIL, a mom herself, knows that parents love to brag about their kids so she started to test Louna’s comprehension skills.
Louna, does Papa cook well? (Remember, I told you, we we're having lunch. And French culture says, we should talk about anything related to food while eating.)
Louna, sitting proudly on her highchair, aware that everybody was watching her, started to nod. Everybody applauded and said ‘Bravo’.
SIL, still not completely convinced, started to ask another question.
Louna, does Mama cook well?
Louna after seconds of hesitation, looked at me, and started to shake her head. Everybody laughed except me. I suddenly turned red.
PS: You should know by now what the title means.
PS1: But well, at least, they knew that she, indeed understands well.
Picture: Louna with her Mamie (grandmom) and cousins Louise and Martin. Look at how delighted she was in seeing the cake. Takaw!
She starts to dream big...a lot. I mean she's got a lof of dreams. I was just wondering what suits her most. What do you think?
She dreams to be a Dancing Queen. So, supportive parents as we are, I taught her the first step (wriggly pampery arse), Frenchguy the second one (incredible hulk style). Hehe.
My new found discovery. I could spend my whole day doing just that - removing and putting my shoes on.
Maman left me with apple slices but they were not enough. I wanted to move out of my high chair to find more apples but it was too complicated. Now I'm blocked.
