Communications 101

Communications 101

These days Bella has mastered the art of babbling. Her little coos and giggles have transformed into high-decibel grunts and meaningless chatter. The grunts are usually phrased in the form of a question as in, “Duh?” and are accompanied by her pointing to things, as she gestures her commands out loud to us. Like when she wants to go outside, she says, "duh?" As in, "go outside?" She hasn't quite said any more distinct words, other than mammum (which I mistook to mean mamma, when in fact it meant food). But I can tell each day that she understands more and more what we say to her. For instance, when I say, "Bella, where are the flowers?” she replies by pointing at the flowers and saying, "duh?” Or when I count down the seconds out loud as the microwave warms up the milk, she predictably starts to giggle and squirm because she knows that Milkus (our nickname for milk) will soon be ready.

"Hooray for Milk!"

Her favorite expressions tend to be related to food (her all time favorite topic). When she eats, she demonstrates yet another newfound corollary of communication: sharing. Actually, it's not quite sharing she's expressing, rather she realizes now how important mom is in feeding her baby food, warming the milk, or opening the bag of crackers. Therefore, she willingly hands objects to me when she needs assistance. This form of play may be misconstrued as sharing, but trust me, the second the bag or jar is opened, the Little Robber, snatches it right back.

Still, Bella is quite an attentive gal. She sits quietly for extended periods of time, inquisitively rustling papers, leafing through books, and moving random objects about as she learns more about cause and effect. The world is an entirely new playground for her and she's taking full advantage of her exploration.

In this next video, Bella does what many of us do at work – working hard, at hardly working:

Here, she experiments with cause and effect by dunking the bath toy into the water:

I’ve mentioned before Bella’s unyielding preference for Daddy in previous blog entries. Although it’s a bit of an exaggeration, Bella still finds Daddy’s arms to be a safe haven at any time of the day. Notice the difference in facial expression below:

Green with Envy

The other day Bella and I bumped into Dr. Lam (Bella’s pediatrician) at the mall. Dr. Lam has a 15-month-old daughter named Olivia who is very social. Unlike Bella, Olivia has no problems approaching strangers. So when Olivia quickly warmed up to me and gave me a hug, Bella barked out loud and began making her I’m-getting-upset-with-you face. She was jealous as if to say, “Hey, you little punk!That’s my mommy!”

No need to fight over my love, Dear Bella.My heart belongs to you…