13 month old

Zara is 13 month old today. Just like the updates in previous months, this is just to sum up her development:

- New weight and height unknown (but we'll be seeing the Paed next week, by then we should know how much taller and heavier she is).
- This month, she sprouted another tooth, so she has 3 upper teeth, and 4 lower teeth now.

Dexterity :
- She walks independently and confidently; and her mode of transporting herself from one point to another is fully through walking now
- She can stoop down and stand back up again
- She dances according to tempo, by shaking her head, waving her arm, stamping her feet, and turning her body
- She likes to use a pen to make dots and lines on her magna doodle, a white board or a piece of paper; when she is 'writing', she always exclaims Za-Ah, asthough she's writing her own name.
- She's able to unscrew bottle tops (those which are not tightly screwed)

Language :
This month, she seems to have pick up quite a lot of words, besides knowing how to call or address the people she meets regularly, additional words she'd learnt this month :
- an (ants)
- mo-to-pike (motorbike)
- no moh (no more)
- poo bah (Pooh Bear)
- beh beh (Bell, thanks to Christmas)
- bird (extremely accurate pronunciation for this)
- mow (Mole, since I have one just below my wind pipe)
- poo-meh-eng (Boomerang, she can say this but not mummy, can you beat it??)
- kang-eh-oo (Kangaroo)
- sky
- stah (Star)
- bed (Bread)
- ah buk (mabuk/drunk)

Her understanding of English is very good I have to say. She can follow simple instruction now like "Bring the phone here, Daddy will call Mama (paternal grandma)".

This month, I'd also started speaking to her in Mandarin just like someone has taught me. I say some thing in Mandarin first, follow by English. Not sure when she'll actually start to understand Mandarin though.

Feeding / Food :
She prefers lumpier food, able to chew on chicken, cucumber slices, and prefer rice with soup more than porridge. She no longer fancy baby cereals or bottled food.

She's still on breastmilk, but I'm introducing 1 to 2oz of formula to her on days that I go to work.
She has very discerning taste, not an easy toddler to please, food wise.

Emotions :
Although she still refuses to call me, but I think I'm still her favourite slave person based on the below :
- Only I can tuck her in at night
- Only I can calm her when she cries
- She gives me the most hugs and kisses
- She likes to sleep close to me in the night

She's also a drama queen, very good in pretending to cry and pouting her lips. Knows who she can manja (Malay: get pampering from) (Daddy) and who she can bully (Kakak Tuyam). She knows mummy loves her but won't give in to her if she's being naughty, so she doesn't play her tricks on mummy.