16-month old

Yiu Yiu turned 16 months yesterday. Here's a snapshot of her development:
Physical: The last we weighed her was in early January when we were at the paed to give her the necessary jabs before leaving for Hanoi. She was only 7.6kg then. I'm not sure if she has gained any weight since then but she's still very petite for her age. She still only has four teeth, two upper and two lower. Another two on the upper and lower gums are clearly visible now. She's a bit slow in the teething department as her cousin, five months younger, already has eight teeth. Despite her petite frame, Yiu Yiu is quite strong. She could lift up a can of longan in syrup with just one hand. Here's a shot of her holding the can with both hands.


Mobility: Since taking her first few steps two months ago, she can now walk quite well, albeit still a little unsteady. She doesn't like us to hold her hands while she walks, and that poses a big problem especially when we are out shopping. Just the other day at Giant, there was such a big crowd as people were doing last minute shopping for Chinese New Year and this little champion walker refused to be held, and pushed away our hands each time we tried.
Comprehension: She can comprehend a lot more now, even long sentences such as when we asked her to sit down before giving her her biscuits or fruits. She also understands when we asks her to wear shoes, come here, stand up and walk walk, give to mummy, put back, shake hand and chong liang (bathe in Mandarin). She's also able to indicate if food offered to her is good, not by doing the thumbs up sign, but by sticking out her index finger. She recognizes familiar faces now and can point out people correctly such as ma ma, yeh yeh, po po, yi yi, ko ko, di di.
Language: Her vocabulary has increased a wee bit and among her repertoire of new words are (in Cantonese) po po (maternal grandmother) kai kai (going out), oi oi (sleep), tou tou (which is supposed to be kor tou, there) and cho cho (sit). And when she's asked, "Yiu Yiu mei bu mei (Is Yiu Yiu pretty in Mandarin), she'd answer softly "Mei". She has recently learnt to use "Oh oh" for exclamation whenever she drops anything. She can now say papa, mummy and bye bye clearly. She's also at a stage of learning new words rapidly. She will try to repeat after us simple words such as cat, dog, moon.
Feeding: She has yet to master self-feeding though she'd always demand to have her own set of bowl and spoon whenever we eat. And she's never contented just having an empty bowl; she just has to have something inside. Most time, we'll just scoop a little bit of rice of noodles and she'll be happily making a mess while we try to feed her. And she has developed this habit of just picking up pieces of food from her bowl with her hand whenever she can't scoop any with her spoon. Lately, it has been increasingly difficult to feed her, at least when she's with me. She'd take just a few mouthfuls and then clamp her mouth shut. Babysitter said she's OK while at her place. Maybe this little princess knows who she can bully. I get so frustrated and have thought of refusing to nurse her until 2 – 3 hours after a meal to teach her that if she skips a meal, she'll have to go hungry until her next meal, as some parenting books suggest. But I'm not sure if it's too early to use this method.
Social: She is getting a little more sociable, to the extent of waving bye-bye to strangers we passed by on the road. She now allows relatives whom she doesn't see often to carry her, unlike a couple of months ago where even my parents or parents-in-law were not able to come close. She's also an extremely generous child and will always offer a bite of her food to those around her. She has recently learnt how to plant a proper kiss by placing her lips against mine. When she was first asked to kiss kiss, she would extend her tongue out but later, she'd just extend her cheeks to be kissed. So I'm happy that I'll be receiving more kisses from my little darling.