Updates of Juan Or's Development

Shortly after Chinese New Year 2010 (i.e., Juan Or at 1 year 9-10 months old), Mommy noticed Juan Or was already able to 'sing' in his own way. Whenever Mommy sang up to the last word of a line or phrase of a nursery rhyme, Juan Or is able to anticipate the word and 'sing' it together with Mommy. However, Juan Or is only able to do this for 3 nursery rhymes (Twinkle, twinkle little star, Baa baa black sheep, and ABC Song) because Mommy sang these 3 songs the most when rocking him in the spring cot or when settling him down to sleep in the car.

Before Mommy took out the handphone camera, Juan Or was 'singing' happily with Mommy, but after taking it out, Juan Or became conscious and stopped 'singing'. That's why the first two songs that Mommy sang, Juan Or did not sing, but by the time Mommy sang the third one (with coaxing), then he started 'singing' along.

Other developments of Juan Or that Mommy noticed and remembered (not all appeared at the same time, some appeared long before this time of writing):

• count from 1 to 10, but can't pronounce 'seven', instead when he counts up to six, he will skip seven and go straight to eight and then continue counting.
• able to recognize and pronounce about 80% of the full sets of alphabets regardless of whether they are in capital or small letters. His most popular alphabet is 'A'.
• able to mimick people's actions (e.g. mimick his Papa kicking the leg high up in the air, mimick his Great-Grandmother's way of walking).
• able to understand and follow instructions such as asking him to throw a rubbish into the waste paper basket, or take a roll of tissue paper for Mommy.
• Juan Or's tongue is getting more versatile already as in being able to repeat words after Mommy when asked to. He has no problems with pronouncing one-syllable words, but when it comes to 2-syllable words, the pronunciation may or may not be accurate. But if it's 3-syllable words, then he's likely to pronounce just the last syllable or merely say something gibberish!
• able to point out body parts of his own body, other people's body, animal plush toys' body and also animal or human illustration in books.
• able to show a remorseful face when scolded by Papa or Mommy, but when 'scolded' by grandparents or the Second Uncle, no facial reaction! ^ ^
• willingly (and gladly) show how an action is done if Mommy asks him how to 'walk', 'run', 'hop/jump', 'wash hands', 'smell', 'fall', 'eat', 'sleep', etc.
• calls out a name of a particular object, but also used the same name to call other related objects, e.g., he tends to call all insects that crawl as 'ant' although he knows the word 'cockroach'.
• able to point out most objects correctly in book illustrations when asked to.
• able to look for 'protection' from other parties when scolded or reprimanded by one party.
• love to 'read' books by flipping the pages and also initiates reading by sitting himself in between your legs.
• indicate his material desire by showing a picture of the thing that he wants (e.g. Thomas and Friends toy, wanting to go to the waterfall again), pointing at it and then nodding his head repeatedly as he says "Ai, ai, ai" (Want, want, want).
• hold a pencil or pen properly in both hands, but Mommy noticed he seems to hold it more properly with his left hand, so he may turn out to be a left-hander like Mommy.
• able to combine two words to express himself but tends to use multiple languages e.g., ai toys (want toys), ai kai-kai (want to go for outing), ai close (want to close), ai sit (want to sit), ho chiak (tastes good), ai bung (want to be carried).
• has lesser tendency to put things into the mouth, but once a while, he still puts them into his mouth!
• able to use spoon to scoop food into his mouth
• able to drink from cups (with or without handles) and bowls
• able to pour small objects accurately from one container to another, but sometimes didn't aim accurately
• more or less knows which wire should go into which hole when Mommy sets up the laptop.
• has desire to look into your handphone or videocam or digital camera screen after you have taken his video or photo.
• able to blow raspberries, but loves to bite people for fun!
• starting to show progress in being able to fall asleep on his own without any rocking or singing.
• move other objects in position so that he can step on it and climb to higher level.