Ashley's Update at 17 months

I know, I know, I have been lazy with keeping up the blog lately. It's about time for me to update the blog before I forgot all of those fun cute little moments.

In the last couple of months, Ashley went for her 15 months check up. She is still on the tiny side, but she's all happy and health.

Weight at 15 months: 20 lbs 13 ounces, 17 percentile
Height at 15 months: 29.5 inches, 18 percentile
Head Circumference: 46 cm, 51 percentile


Ashley is over 17 months old now. She is no longer a crawler, not only she walks everywhere, she also runs everywhere. Over the last couple of months, her language skill has developed amazingly. She's quite a chatterbox now. Here is a list of Ashley's vocabulary.

1. mama: She says this randomly, sometimes it seems she knows whom she is calling, sometimes it just seems like she says for fun.
2. yaya (Chinese for duckie)
3. hua hua (Chinese for flower): not only she recognizes all so kinds of real flowers, she also recognizes flowers on the books, on the plates, flower pots, on her cloths and even tiny little flowers on her pants.
4. mao mao (Chinese for cat)
5. ji ji (Chinese for chick): although sometimes she still confuses chicks with ducks.
6. xie zi (Chinese for shoes): she also can say shoes in English as well
7. shoes
8. mao zi (Chinese for hat): if you asks her, "Ashley, where is your mao zi?" She goes and fetches her hat and puts it on.
9. wa zi (Chinese for socks)
10. apple: she thinks all fruits are apples until you correct her.
11. ji zi (Chinese for oranges): well, she'll say apple first, and then when you say, no it's not apple, it's ii zi. She'll repeat, "jeee zi".
12. bao bao (pronounces with 3rd accent, Chinese for baby)
13. bao bao (pronounces with 4th accent, Chinese for hold me): lately she loves to follow Mommy around and when she can't get to the place she wants, she holds up her hands and orders Mommy, "bao bao!"
14. nai nai (Chinese for milk milk)
15. quan quan (Chinese for circles, in this case, it means Cheerios): Ashley loves cheerios and she's never tired of eating them even after her meals.
16. che che (Chinese for car): every time she sees a car or when we stops at the stop light, she always points out the car and says, "che che".
17. xie xie (Chinese for thank you): she doesn't say this often, I often have to say it first, and she might repeat after me.
18. ai ni (Chinese for love you): well, Mommy decided to teach her to say, "wo ai ni", which means "I love you" in Chinese. After 1 night of coaching, Ashley can't say 3 words, but she says, "ai ni" now every time I say "Wo ai ni" to her. It's so sweet and it just simplify melts my heart.
19. ma (Chinese for horse): she recognizes horses in the book and says"ma" when you ask what that is.
20. bye bye: she says this randomly depending on her mood.
21. shu shu (Chinese for trees): she sometimes thinks all trees are flowers, until you correct her, and she'll repeat it after you. Although lately she's able to says "shu shu" lately when she sees trees in the book.
22. aaaaasssshhhhhh: Ashley
23: yao (Chinese for the phase "yes, I want it"): she answers "yao" when I ask her if she wanted some cheerios/meat/veggies etc. She can't quite say "bu yao" which means, "no, I don't want it". When she doesn't want it, she just shakes her head.
24: ma ma de (Chinese for Mommy's): she points to Mommy's backpack, clothes, etc, and says "ma ma de".
25: bubble: She learned this from watching Baby Einstein.
26: mouse: She also learned this from watching Baby Einstein. Ashley pronounces as mooouussse and of course she thinks all of those fury little creatures are all mouse.
27: uh oh: Not only she can say it perfectly, she knows exactly when to use it such as her pants gets pulled up, the ipod video stops playing. When she runs and falls, she says, "uh oh" and then gets up and continues to run without crying. What a brave girl!
28: ai ya (Chinese, simlilar to uh oh): Similar to uh oh, she knows exactly when and where to use it. When she drops something on the floor, makes a big mess, or when mommy drops some of her food on the tray, she says "AI YA" loudly and points to the mess. It's so funny!
29: more: when she wants more certain type of food, she'll point and says "more, more?" She also says "more" when she wants you to play with her.
30: no more: she uses this when we try to get her to eat more, she shakes her head and says, no more.
31. peeeaasse: this is latest word Mommy is trying to teach her. Ashley almost got it, but she says as peeeaaassse.

Well, what else? There were so many cute moments during the last couple months. I'm trying to remember some of them.

Feeding Kangaroo
Ashley has a kangaroo that has a baby kangaroo in the front. One day Ashley was drinking the water from a straw, she sipped, and then pointed the straw to the big kangaroo's mouth and then she took another sip. Well, she didn't forget the baby kangaroo, this time she pointed the straw to the baby kangaroo's mouth. What a sweet girl!

Sharing Cheerios
Ashley loves her cheerios and always wants to eat cheerios in the morning, at lunch, in afternoon and after dinner. But she's such an unselfish girl, she also loves to share her cheerios. If I open my mouth while she's eating her cheerios, she'll put some cheerios in Mommy's mouth. Of course she gives me 1 cheerios at a time. She also trys to feed the animals in her book or in the ipod video some cheerios by putting the cheerios in the animals mouth. The other day, she ate 1 cheerios, then gave a cheerios to her teddy bear's month, then moved on to her kangaroo, and to her koala bear, and finally she picked up her 3-ducks-in-a-row toy, and fed each duck 1 by 1. It was so cute!

Mommy's Little Shadow
Daddy's been traveling again and Ashley has become more clingy to Mommy. She follows Mommy around everywhere and always wants Mommy to hold her all the time. If Mommy walks away from her, she runs to Mommy immediately and clings to Mommy's legs until I pick her up. Mommy enjoys it. It's nice to feel you are needed.

Books
Ashley loves books. Every morning after her breakfast, she runs over to the bookshelf and points to her books, and says "oooooooo" until you get her a book. After flipping through one book, she points and asks for another book. She also enjoys the story time before her bedtime with Mommy. Sometimes while she's reading her books, she starts babbling a bunch of sounds I don't understand as if she's telling the story.

Balls
Ashley loves to play with balls, She is often walking around with a ball in her hand. At the play ground, if she sees a ball, she automatically starting running towards the ball, picks it and plays with it. At the play dates, she loves any toy with balls. At Cerisa's house, there is a toy that shoots out 4 balls, Ashley tried to grab all the balls, but of course she only has 2 hands, so smart girl like her used her neck to hold on some balls so she freed her hand to get even more balls. It was very funny. Ashley also loves to share the balls, and often picks up a ball and gives it to you or her playmates. What a good girl!

Phone
Ashley has 2 phone toys and often she plays with them pushing the buttons playing the music. She eventually figured out they are the "phones" so she started using them as phones pretending making phone calls and having conversations. Ashley often sees Mommy and Daddy talking on the iphone. She has an ipod video in which she watches Baby Einstein. Well, ipod video and iphone look the same, so Ashley sometimes puts ipod video near to her ears and starts talking up a conversation. It was pretty funny.

I love you
I can't help but to brag that my little girl can say "love you" in Chinese. She probably doesn't know what it means yet, but regardless, Mommy is so happy to hear her saying "ai ni", and it means so much to Mommy.