May 2008 Gabby Update

One word this month- PERSONALITY. Gabby is 11 months old now and is definitely becoming her own little person. She’ll discover new noises that she can make with her tongue or mouth and then she’ll start laughing hysterically. Of course, this makes us laugh and reinforces the behavior. I think she’s getting a kick out of being a little comedian. She’s starting to understand Chinese, especially when we say “Zijian” (goodbye) because then she’ll start waving bye-bye. Although pointing at things seems to be the preferred way of communicating, she does the sign for “more and “cheese” now. Another thing she’s been doing… She’ll point at something, like an ant on the ground, and go “Ooooh,” which cracks me up. Of course we think she’s perfect in every way, but I still think we have our work cut out for us as parents. Travis and I have seen a bit of a temper in our little girl. She actually stamped her feet when we wouldn’t let her play with something she wasn’t supposed to. I have no idea where she learned that. Is that an innate thing in toddlers? So far redirecting her works well, but I know the day will come when she says, “no!” Gabby continues to grow and amaze us… She loves to climb on everything and has long arms that grab things off of the kitchen counter, so we’re constantly on the lookout for safety hazards. Our ayi always says that Gabby is very busy, which is so true. She’s that kid that runs around and tries to get into everything and explore. As most babies are, she’s curious. She also went to her first concert, called “Rynostock,” where all the local Beijing bands get to play. She had a good time bouncing up and down and we had a blast with her too. Our ayi also says that, “everybody likes Gabby,” in our compound- which makes me feel good. It’s nice to know people like your kid. All in all, May has been a busy month with lots of play dates and things going on. Now that the weather is nicer, we’ve been going outside a lot. We have a fountain and an area with fish in our compound. She LOVES watching the fountain and gets so excited when we walk up to it. She also likes to stare at the fish and point at them, so walks now have been more and more fun as she is so interested in the world around her. Oh! And one last thing… she squeezes you back when she gives a hug.