It's been over a week now since little Bella received her first round of immunization shots. Since she hasn't had any ill reactions, we are officially in the clear! One minor set-back in her development has occurred. She wakes up consistently in the middle of the night again. Hopefully, if we can tank her up with milk before bed, we can lengthen her six hour nighttime stretches again...
Bella has been more alert and playful these past few days. I recently purchased the 8-disk boxset of Baby Einstein DVDs. Each DVD showcases different visual and musical delights for baby's educational pleasure. Even at 2 months of age, Bella is able to hold her attention long enough to watch a full DVD! The one she enjoys the most is the World Animals disc. Actually, I stand next to the TV screen and playfully act out the motions and noises of each animal as they appear on the screen so Bella probably has no choice but to watch intently as mommy makes an ass out of herself. For instance, when the Tropical Bird segment plays, I repeat the narrator's voice in an animated tone. "Tropical Bird! bird! Gawk! Gawk!", I say, while flapping my arms like a crazed bird. By the way, bird will probably be the first word she says because we repeat it constantly throughout the day. I wonder if she thinks my name is "Bird". Then there's the Monkey segment where wild monkeys swing across tree branches and sit atop of each other picking at each others' head dander. As you probably can guess, it's a little more difficult (and silly) to immitate this, but Jin can attest, I do a great chimpanzee impersonation. This time I hop up and down, swinging my arms erratically while scratching my armpits (this is the universal sign/dance for 'monkey'). How do you spell out the noise that monkeys make?
Child development experts say that a child is able to understand language and communicate with sign language long before they develop the ability to speak. These experts believe that a child that can communicate his or her needs through sign language is less demanding and happier because he/she can express his/her needs. Apparently, babies as young as 9 months old are able to effectively sign specific needs like, "milk", "more" or emotions like, "scared" or "happy". Parents can teach babies by saying the word while motioning the sign for the word. This process, of course, requires patience; repetition is the key.
As I mentioned before, I have been teaching Bella the word 'bird'. I do this by repeating the word and showing her a picture of a bird while motioning with outstretched arms as if I were flying. Perhaps this is coincidental, but one day I swore she imitated me with outstretched arms when i showed her the picture of the bird! My daughter is a genius! Ok, I know she's too young to be able to truly comprehend. I just can't wait until she can really sign to us. I'm so curious to know what goes on inside her little head!
I promised my faithful blog-readers I would post more Bella pics but I haven't gotten around to taking more photos. Her cheeks have been plumping up the past few days. Jin noticed that they rest on her shoulders they're so big.
My brother, Uncle Henry, recently mentioned in his blog that Bella sent him a typed Thank You card for the baby gifts he sent. In his entry, he rejects the idea that Bella actually typed the Thank You card herself. His logic is that babies don't type. Dear Brother, Bella did type the card and she would have signed the card personally, as well, if she could hold a pen.
Now I will shift gears and make a shameless plug for my brother's blog. For all of you loyal bloggers, check out Henry's site, Happy Fun Blog. His passionate prose about food (ironically, he is quite thin) and his humorous and quirky anecdotes about my mother, his friends and his law school experiences make reading his blog one of the highlights of my day. He is quite the prolific writer. Check it out:
http://www.xanga.com/chenryhou
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