Tv

Benja is quite picky on the programmes he watch. Tried Baby Einstein and Zoo Moo, he gets scared when the puppet characters come out.

Right now, Benja's fave are:
- Mat Yoyo
- Barney
- 水果冰淇淋 feat. 美人鱼

He loves the theme song of the 美人鱼 segment and would ask for it to be replayed at least 5 times. To request for the programme, he would say, "奶奶。鱼。要。(Grandma. Fish. Want.)" and "Again." to request for song replay.

Mummy and Benja are enjoying this segment together in this photo. See the exact replica of body pose and facial expression ^^

Conveying message

Last Saturday evening, after Benja nursed, he suddenly sat up and said, "Grapes." Then he looked into my eye, nodded his head and said, "Grape 要."

I didn't want to accede to his request. In order to deter him from going out of the bedroom,  I said, "去跟爸爸讲你要 grape. (Tell daddy you want grape."

Benja wriggled forward, holding my hand, wanting me to go out with him. I followed. 

He entered the study and stood in front of my husband. He said loud and clear, "爸爸grape要。grape要。"

He got the grapes he wanted.

------------------------@-----------------------

Dear Benja,

Well done! Not only did you understand mummy's instructions, you relayed it clearly to Daddy!

This photo was taken in Nov 2013, when you just started walking.

You loved the shiny sparkly 'balls' on the supermarket Christmas and would point and say, "Ball!" excitedly on every ball you spot.

You've came a long way, Benja!

Toilet training

Benja, you successfully passed urine in the toilet at your own control once on Saturday and thrice on Sunday! Yay!

Somehow, you knew what to do. You tried to stand in front of the toilet bowl, but it was too tall.

So, mummy asked you to go to the bath area instead. You squatted down, put your hands to support yourself and concentrated for 5 seconds. Then, out came to urine!

When you are done, you said, "便" which was the second syllable of the word 小便 (urinate).

Mummy cheered and praised you for doing that in the toilet. You smiled back proudly.

Congratulations on the job well done, Benja!

Goldfish

Grandma bought $2 worth of goldfish for Benja. She said, "才两块钱而已，又不是很贵。" (it only costs $2, it wasn't expensive at all.)

Benja couldn't contain his excitement when mummy went to pick him up. He exclaimed, "鱼!" more than 10 times.

Kind Grandma and Grandpa split the goldfish into two plastic containers to be placed in the two houses (grandma's and ours) .

Benja is still interested in the fish after two weeks. He would climb from the dining chair onto the table to look at them. Awww... that's dangerous!

Bye bye

Benja mastered the goodbye wave many months back, around 12 months old. At first it was a simple fling of the arm. Then it was the flexing of the wrist. Now Benja can wave with palm opened and fingers stretched.

Benja verbalised "bye" shortly after he started calling papa and mama. He knew when to use it.

In the evening, at grandma's house, he would say bye once mummy picked him up. To Benja, mummy carrying him is the first step to leave grandma's house.

Sometimes mummy just wanted to pick him up to wash his hands. Sometimes it was just to see flowers in the garden. Benja made the grandparents laugh when he said, "bye." during these times.

Mummy improvised by saying, "走，妈妈带你回家 (come, mummy take you home)。" Benja quickly learnt that 走 means to leave and would say "bye" upon hearing the word even when he was not picked up.

Now, Benja is able to speak in two-word sentences. He would say, "Bye bye, 爷爷。Bye bye, 嫲嫲。"

Last week, grandma taught Benja to say goodbye to non-humans. These are what mummy heard:
- bye bye cat
- bye bye 鱼 (fish)
- bye bye rice
- bye bye soup
- bye bye plants