At month 21, DD’s desire to be more independent was not only displayed by her physical abilities to do things, but by being comfortable to be left alone.

As to her language development, she began to say few words, some in English and some in Chinese, depending on whichever was simpler to pronounce.

Baby Growth | April 3, 2010 6:22 pm | Comments (0)

At month 20, DD fell in love with everything I had. She attempted to put on my coat, hat and glasses. In particular, she loved to try on my shoes. I also noticed her pretend playing with toy animals and her dolly.

Baby Growth | March 2, 2010 4:39 pm | Comments (0)

At month 19, DD continued to test her locomotion skills. She loved book-reading. She also desired to help, by imitating what we were doing. She started to show feelings and emotions as an individual human being. She showed more affection towards her toys, especially her teddy bear and dolly.

Baby Growth | February 2, 2010 3:01 pm | Comments (0)

At month 18, DD was on the move every minute except sleeping time. She still kept one habit that soothed her—sucking her thumb. Growing with her height was her tamper tantrums.

Baby Growth | January 4, 2010 1:46 pm | Comments (0)

In the beginning of 2009, M and I planned to take pictures of DD all year around and choose her best pictures to make calendars for 2010.

Baby calendar | December 21, 2009 2:21 pm | Comments (0)

At month 17, DD continued to constantly test her physical abilities. As to language development, she seemed to understand every word out of our mouth, no matter it was English or Chinese. Her growing independence is asserting itself in numerous ways.

Baby Growth | December 1, 2009 1:28 pm | Comments (0)

At month 16, DD further challenged her physical limits and learned to use tools. She became a creative climber.

Her language development reached a milestone. She understood much more than she could speak. It was amazing to watch her do (or not do) exactly as we said, English from M and Chinese from me. She also began to show the urge to build social connections, especially with children.

Baby's Growth | November 1, 2009 1:37 pm | Comments (0)

The 15th month is what pediatricians consider a “milestone” period—a time that most babies walk right out of babyhood. This is absolutely true to DD. Since she was quite confident on her feet, she was very keen to experiment with different ways of moving: trotting, running and dancing.

Baby's Growth | October 2, 2009 9:20 am | Comments (0)

On DD’s one-year birthday, grandmas told me soon I would notice some signs that my baby—small and cute though she is—wouldn’t be a baby any longer. I understood, since I already glimpsed her growing sense of independence, emerging negativity, primitive temper tantrums and sprouting my-way-or-highway-mind-set.

However, I never expected these behaviors would constitute the theme of her second year.

Baby's Growth | September 3, 2009 12:05 pm | Comments (0)

Once the baby has a taste of freedom, it will be hard to hold her back. That is absolutely true. Once DD, a risk-taker, tasted the freedom of walking, it was difficult to prevent her from toddling. During month 13, she continued to make progress, physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively.

Baby's Growth | August 6, 2009 11:13 am | Comments (0)