Wiggly Piglet’s Playpen

We haven’t had a birthday recently, but Mckayla loves singing “Happy Birthday”. She takes the party favor cup cake with candle from Peyton’s birthday and sings to herself all the time and pretends to blow out the candle too. She announces that it’s KK’s birthday and KK sings happy birthday. Today, while we were driving home after lunch, I told Mckayla, let’s pretend today’s MaMa’s birthday and asked her to sing for me. She started singing, “Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday Dear Mommy. Happy Birthday to you!”. Then, I told her, let’s pretend today’s BaBa’s birthday. She started singing again and inserted “Dear Daddy” at the right place. After finishing the song, she said, “let’s pretend today’s Grandpa’s birthday”. So she started singing again. For the rest of the ride home, she sang Happy Birthday to Grandma, YiYi (auntie), JoJo (uncle), and Baby until we pulled into the driveway and said, “We’re home!”.

Mckayla loves playing hide and seek now. She’ll cover her eyes, tells one of us to go hide, then count from one to ten. She gets hysterical when she finds us hiding behind the couch, behind the door, in the hallway, and in a dark room. But when it’s her turn to hide, she’s not very good at it. She pretty much just stands behind us and gets giggly as we turned around and sees her standing there.

Mckayla has been speaking in full sentences for a while now in Chinese. She’s also been building her English vocabulary at an incredible rate. Last few days, she’s been speaking in full sentences in English. She was picking out her socks when we were heading out, she grabbed one and said, “I like this one”. She’s also been saying “here we go”, “where are you”, and “I’m okay”, plus a few others in the right context, too.

My Mom got a new iPhone. Last night, I was trying to show her how to use the e-mail and also the pictures/videos on the phone. While I was doing that Mckayla came over and peeked over my shoulder. She looked at the phone and said A-Ma (Grandma) and MaMa has the same phone. Then, she took the phone away from me while we were on the photo screen and started to show my mom how to scroll through the pictures with her finger. She’s also been playing with a few games on my phone, and she’s getting very good at “Matching Zoo”. At this rate, she’ll be playing “Words with Friends” soon. But of course, she’s got to learn her ABC’s first.

Yesterday afternoon, on our way back home, I told Mckayla that we’ll go to the airport to pick up Grandma after she wakes up from her nap. She asked me, “How about Grandpa?”. I told her, it’s only Grandma this time. On our way to the airport in the evening, she was very excited. She talked and sang all the way to the airport. We had to circle a few times while waiting for my to pick up her luggage. Every time edwe pass through the terminal, Mckayla asked, “where’s Grandma?”. Finally, we saw her walking out the door when we pulled up. She pointed at her and yelled, “A-Ma!” (Grandma in Taiwanese). After my Mom got in the car, Mckayla did the “shyness” ritual again for a bit, looking away and smiling. We stopped to eat by the airport to avoid sitting in traffic during the rush hour on Friday evening. Mckayla requested Grandma to help her with shoes, get her out of car seat, and sit next to her at the table. They even held hands during the drive home. We love it when family’s in town!

Ted came home yesterday with Biltong that Aubrey had made. He was very excited and already ate his share for the day at work. This morning, Ted offered Mckayla a tiny piece of Biltong to try and she loved it. She kept asking for more and didn’t want to share her pieces with me. She’s usually pretty good about sharing her food, except for strawberries (and now Biltong too). To limit her intake, we had to tell her that we ran out and Ted has to go buy more later. When Mckayla and I came home from Bouncy Land, she immediately ran to the room to look for Ted (he had already left for lunch). She came back to the kitchen and told me, “BaBa is not home. BaBa went to buy jerky”. Another food item added to Mckayla’s favorite list.

I took Mckayla to Bouncy Land earlier today to burn off some excess energy. She was creating too much noise and distracting Ted (who was working from home) too much. During the drive there, she was very excited. She yelled “tunnel” (in both Chinese and English) every time we pass through an overpass on the freeway. I told her we’ll need to stop by the gas station first. She told me the car is thirsty and needs to drink gas. Right before we pull into the parking lot, a fire truck was passing through with its siren on. Mckayla pointed at the fire truck and said “Fire truck (in English – she doesn’t know the word in Chinese as well for some reason)! Hurry and move out of the way!”. Once we got to Bouncy Land, Mckayla started taking off her shoes herself and was ready to go. I told her we have to wait in line first to check in before she can go in. She waited quietly while holding my hand. Once we got to the cashier, her patience had ran out. She ran and climbed on the inflatable before I finished paying. For the next half an hour, she was running and climbing up and down the inflatables on her own. Then, I noticed she was slowing down and offered her some water. We sat down at the table for a water break. She finished her cup of water and told me she was tired. And without any assistance, she got off the chair, climbed in her stroller, and grabbed her jacket from the top of the stroller. She looked at me and said, “KK is tired. KK going to sleep”. We paid and left the place. Once we got out, she looked up and told me she’s hungry and wants to eat bread. It was barely eleven in the morning, but I guess she’s burned off her fuel from all the jumping and running around. We stopped by the bakery to pick up some bread. Before we got home, she had already finished two slices of bread. Then, eating lunch with me again after we got home.

Mckayla has added Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to her list of favorite TV shows. She still requests Dora, Kailan, Chow Hoo (Chinese), and Taiwan Dora (in Chinese), but her current favorite is Mickey Mouse. And at night, Ted even uses the Mickey Mouse and Pluto stuffed animals as incentive to get her to stay in bed. But I have yet to catch Mckayla does the Hot Dog dance on video.

In preparation for the baby’s arrival, we’ve been practicing with Mckayla about sharing and taking turns. She has been pretty good and even did really well at the Children’s Discovery Museum. We went to visit Jocelyn and Owen’s new baby Kermit yesterday after lunch. On our way there, we kept telling Mckayla about being gentle with the baby and being nice. When we arrived at their house, Mckayla was distracted immediately with the big frog pillow on their couch. Then, she started playing with Jocelyn’s Mom (who was also Mckayla’s old Nanny). Ted held the baby first and brought the baby to Mckayla. When Ted asked Mckayla to say hi to the baby, she ignored them and continued to play. Then, it was my turn. I brought the baby to Mckayla again and asked her to say hi. She looked up and patted the baby while saying “gentle, gentle”. Then, she said, “can’t pat baby hard, baby will cry”. We hung out there for a bit longer and Mckayla came over a few times to pat the baby. She has made good progress since we visited Ada and Robert’s baby couple weeks ago. Hoping these “exercises” will prepare her better when her little baby brother comes home in a couple weeks.

Happy Chinese New Year!!