I want to keep doing these “baby milestone posts,” not just to keep family in the loop, but also to keep track of these details. I know that all parents get fuzzy on these things relatively quickly, so I’ll try to keep chronicling the details as they come, semi-regularly.

I’ll roughly follow the Growing Child categories again, like “at 1 year”, but without focusing so much on their specific milestones (most of which she’s hitting, pretty much dead on target).

Social/Emotional The biggest change here is how enthusiastically she greets us with “Daddy!” and “Mommy!” every morning, and every time we see her. I guess this is one of the highs of being a first parent, getting used to your kid being so happy to see you all the time, and starting to call you “Daddy” or “Mommy” regularly.

Alana is also getting very proactive about giving kisses. She kisses me, Song Shen, and Song Shen’s mom without being asked to sometimes. She also kisses Newton, stuffed animals, and videos or pictures of people on iPhones or iPads. Once she kissed the glass of a shop because it had a cute mannequin on the other side, and she kissed a garbage can because she liked the pattern in the faux-marble on the side. This kid has love to spare! She also blows kisses more and more.

Alana is still not great about interacting with other people most of the time; she often gets shy. Most people never see her even remotely hyper or boisterous.

She’s starting to get a little more tantrum-y… Lately she’s started to cry to get us to let her use the iPad or one of our iPhones (she really likes Endless Alphabet). I normally refuse to give her anything she tries to get by crying, so hopefully this behavior won’t continue indefinitely. We also don’t let her have too much exposure in one day to either TV or iOS devices (usually around 30 minutes).

Communication OK, word update… She still doesn’t know a lot of words, but the list is slowly growing. Also, the ones she knows well she’s using a lot now. It’s like she’s finally grokking the power of words.

So, her vocabulary, in rough frequency order:

1. Daddy: she uses it to greet me, when she spots me, when she sees pictures of me, and at other random times
2. Doggie: she never fails to announce doggy sightings (but not Newton as much)
3. Mommy: she’s finally giving SS a little verbal love!
4. No: often said to Newton, to stuff she doesn’t want, or just randomly
5. Meow: what she says when she sees a cat (pronounced as one syllable, like the Chinese word miao)
6. Buyao: the Chinese version of “no,” said without proper tones
7. Hi: still uses it only occasionally
8. Xiexie: the Chinese word for “thank you” (also without proper tones)
9. Wawa: for “water”; I’ve only heard this once or twice

Motor Skills Alana walks fine on her own now, although she still struggles a little with steps (partly because she’s still so short). She can handle steps when she has a railing at the right height or something else to hang onto, though. She’s getting close to running, although I’d call what she does now more like “hurried walking” because she doesn’t quite have the full control necessary for real running. Although there was an incident 1-2 weeks ago where Alana fell down some stairs because she lost her balance, she’s still growing in confidence, and we don’t feel like we need to watch her too carefully when she’s climbing stairs and stuff. She can throw balls with some accuracy. She’s not super athletic, but not un-athletic either.

She doesn’t jump yet, but she loves rough-housing on the bed. That means throwing herself down on the bed, rolling around, being tickled, etc. We have to be careful with this, though… Over the past week, she’s given me a bloody lip (head butt) and gave SS quite a painful crack on the nose (reverse head butt).

Health Alana is a little taller than average for her age, but lighter than average for her age. So she’s actually pretty thin! This worries SS a bit, but Alana’s not starving. She eats as much as she’s hungry for, and she’s got a little baby belly going on (although you can’t really see that in the picture below). Alana is also not being as great about eating veggies these days. She likes her carbs, though! She loves bananas and strawberries, and can still eat lemon slices and other really sour things without flinching. We don’t give her sweets, except for the occasional bites of banana bread or sips of fruit smoothies. So I guess that’s all I’ve got. Our baby is a year and a half already. We’re really enjoying watching her grow, and excited by the prospect of more meaningful communication. She’ll also soon be to the point where she can really start drawing, or learning to play music. We’re looking forward to those too!