Chitter Chatter

Beaming with joy over 3 french fries at Claire's birthday party last month

I realised very little had been written about Little Bee's progress, so here goes. Little Bee is now communicating with us effortlessly, though my Mum told me only Big Bee or me could understand her gabblings! She is still not very articulate, but her cheery, ubiquitous yaks filled the house incessantly. She mixes English with Mandarin, so it takes a sharp ear to decipher what she says!

This morning, as she was drinking milk on her bed, I went in to say bye before I went to work. She clambered up, stretched out her arms and uttered "hug hug!" My heart melted and I went to hug her with the fullest of hearts.

On Monday morning, after I came back from walking Big Bee to school, she woke up and told me "Little Bee (sic) wake up. School bell." I asked her "Oh, you mean the school bell woke you up?" She then did her signature grin and nodded while uttering her trademark "uhhh".

She likes to refer to small things as "Baby...", eg "Baby ball" for a small ball or "Baby am" for a small ant (yes, that's how she pronounce "ant" now!). A few months back, she used to refer to bigger things as "Papa...", eg "Papa ball" or "Papa am", thanks to Hubby's teaching. Now, she refers to them as "Big big ball". And she usually uses this term when bargaining for bigger morsels of food, eg "I want big bread!" or "I want big apple!"

Her favourite fruit is dragonfruit. She adores chewing thoughtfully on the seeds. At dinnertime just now, I asked her "Do you want to eat apple?". She shook her head forcefully. Then I asked "Do you want dragonfruit?" A flash of her wide toothy grin and she started chasing me through the whole house asking for "dragfruit! dragfruiiiiiitttt! Peaaasee!!"

This week, her favourite terms are "Go away!" and "Throw away!" Hmph, sounds pretty rude!

Sharing a private joke with her teacher in school!

And she never understands why we can leave food on the table without wanting to eat them. So, her favourite activity every mealtime is to usher us in urgent tones to quickly sit down and eat. Like she will urge her Papa impatiently "PAPA!!! EAAATTTT! COME!" Then she will run to him and fuss around him like a little mother, gesturing non-stop towards the dining table, saying "Sit! COME! EAAATTTT!"

She has a teasing sense of humour since young. When she was 18 months old, when we asked her where's Papa, she will point to the big elephant motif beside her bed, grinning cheekily at us, knowing we will exclaim that Papa is definitely not an elephant. And she will point at Papa after we exclaimed in mock exasperation.

Every night when I hand her the milk bottle, I will ask her "What must you say?" And once she accidentally uttered, in her eagerness to consume her milk, "(Th)Ank you, milk milk". I expressed mock horror at what she said, after which she grinned and said "(Th)Ank you, Mama". So these days, she will pretend to say "(Th)Ank you, milk milk" after she thanked me -just to gauge my shock.

And whenever she hurts Big Bee, I will angrily tell her "What must you say to Jie Jie?" She will utter "Hoary (Sorry), Jie Jie" in a real remorseful but adorable tone with an equally forlorn expression.

That's my chatty and bubbly Little Bee.