Chopsticks

Shi-Shi mastered using chopsticks! Shi-Shi's grandmother gave her children's chopsticks, which are used for little kids to learn how to use regular chopsticks. There is "Winne the Phoo" character on the top of the chopsticks, and Shi-Shi calls it "Phoo san" which means Mr. Phoo. She grew up with seeing her parents using chopsticks, so using them for her is not really special, though, it is still difficult for little kids to make two sticks under control with one hand. So Japanese inovators created this children's chopsticks for a training tool. She ate macaroni salada with chopsticks at breakfast in this morning. It was really amazing to see how fast she learned so much complicated tool! Mama is really proud of her!!

I am on my own now!

Shi-Shi mastered putting a diaper on and gargle all by herself recently! Yesterday mama was busy cooking dinner, so she asked Shi-Shi to put a diaper on by herself. She didn't really listen to mama for the first few muinets and played without a diaper for a while. Though, after mama asked her to put a diaper for the second time, Shi-Shi started to find a diaper and put it on!! She uses easy-up type diaper, so she can wear it easily. Only probrem is that she doesn't know which side is front. She will know after a few more trainings for sure! She's practiced gargling with papa for a while, though since she is still too short to reach to a washbowl, and papa needs to lift her all the time. Papa is always happy to help her, though, once she starts gargling, she never stops doing, so papa is a little tired of it. Yesterday she came to a kitchen with her yellow chair while mama cooking and asked to give her a cup. And she started to gargle and spited water to the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink is also a bit high, though, she streched and nearly reached. Shi-Shi has surprised me how much she could be done alone recently.

Drawings

Mama found an interesting book, called "Understanding Children's Drawings". Shi-Shi's enjoyed drawing ever since she was about 10-month-old. First, she started to play with a felt pen, then a ball point pen, and now she uses crayons. Mama didn't really care about what Shi-Shi drawed until last Monday when she found that interesting book. According to the book, children at 18 months to 3 years think kinestherically, and their scribbling is an outcome that they practice and develope atriculation of gross and evenatually fine motor control. Mama thinks it is true in the way that Shi-Shi more likely controls her arm/hand thesedays. A picture of Shi-Shi's drawing will be up soon!!

Birthday party at Bol Park

Shi-Shi's family had been invited Luna's mama's birthday party and went to Bol park, where two donkys lives close by. Shi-Shi's papa and mama made Sushi to the party because Sushi is Luna's mama's favorite Japanese food! Since Shi-Shi hadn't seen Luna for a couple days, Shi-Shi was really happy with playing Luna for a whole morning at the park. The park is one of her favorites. There are two donky ridings in the park. Luna's papa hadn't seen Shi-Shi for a while, so he was quite supprised to hear that Shi-Shi talks more words than before. " Apple juice", " Open", " Sticks", " Sky" etc are recent words that she learned, and she even can say his name! Shi-Shi gave a big hug to Luna's mama as a birthday present(?!). Since it was a bit chilly outside, not so many kids were not in the park. So we could occupy most of the park for most of the time. It was really nice birthday party with many good frieds and families!

2010 Easter Egg-Hunt

Shi-Shi's family was invited Easter brunch in the morning of Easter sunday. They don't celebrate Easter in Japan, so it was really great opportunity for them to lean a cultural thing. Parents hid eggs and chocolates baskets in grass, and kids found them. There was a rule that one egg and one basket for each kid. Shi-Shi found an egg, though couldn't find a basket. A friend of her helped her finding a basket for her and gave it to her. It was really nice of him!! There was a snail on her basket as an extra gift:) As soon as she got a basket, she quickly started to eat chocolates. Mama and papa stoped her eating so many of chocolates at once, and told her that she would eat one chocolate each day. She seemed to understand, though, unless papa encouraged her to play at playground, she would eat up all the chocolate!!

Shi-Shi's 2nd Birthday Pary

Shi-Shi's birthday is March 11th, though, Shi-Shi's family had been busy with visitors for the past few weeks, and didn't get chance to have a birthday party for Shi-Shi. So on April 3rd, Shi-Shi's thrown a birthday party at her favorite playground, Peers Park. Many of her favorite friends came over and celebrated her birthday. It was quite chilly outside, so it was hard to light up a candle on her birthday cake. Mama baked her birthday cake, though, mama forgot to take a picture of it... :( Since her birthday was about a month ago, she seemed not to be sure what was going on. She played at the playground as usual, playing with sands and play structures, etc.

Language development

It is amazing how little ones pick up words so quickly. Shi-Shi saw McQueen on TV yesterday, and she said "McQueen!". She has a McQueen baby car, and it has all options, such as telling its name, counting numbers, alphabets, etc. Mama has never told her the name of the red car. Shi-Shi just picked up "McQueen" when listenning to what it says.