Sairah’s Fine Motor Skills and Speech Development @ 16 Months

Sairah’s a chatty baby when not shy. She remains shy in front of certain strangers and new faces but eventually warms up depending on her mood.

When at home, in front of those she knows, she yaks away like a little grandmother.

At 16 months she has already developed an extensive vocabulary that could rival her dad’s, haha.

Some of her words include gie (for doggie), mam mam (food), mom, dad, baby, grandma, car, home, MONEY, toe, hair, NO, doll, keys, poh-poh (while referring to this old grannie opposite my mom’s kitchen), ball, tek-tek (started from her obsession with her mother’s boobs),  toll (don’t ask me why I taught her this, we were driving past a toll and she picked it up!), lai lai lai (my mom taught her, it’s cantonese for come come come!), she can say that in english to – COME and come here, teddy, clock, blue, girl, mall, cold amongst a few other words that she says from time to time. Ok there’s more but me brains are kinda frozen at the moment.

We don’t do baby talk at home because from day 1 my dad (the self appointed all-of-a-sudden baby specialist, lol) kept nagging us to talk like adults in front of her. She can also sign when she’s afraid or wants to do her big business.

My mom and I have been instrumental in teaching her these words.  Everyday we repeat and knock these words into her tiny head until she says it out LOUD. We also use books to show objects and read them out loud. Though some objects she doesn’t say it, nevertheless she can point to her eyes, nose, tongue, toes, fingers, belly button, stomach, hair, fan, light,  aunt, grandpa  amongst others now when asked.

I’m very proud with her ability to absorb things in like a sponge. But it’s true, kids thesedays do learn very fast when there’s proper guidance.

Sairah also has a knack for books. She likes to flip through each page and ask us to tell her what the object are by pointing at it.

We’ve also started reading short stories to her. So now she’ll bring that yellow book to me whenever she wants me to read her a story….too cute!!

She loves it when her mom reads to her but doesn’t seem to pay attention when her old man reads, perhaps coz he’s got the most boring voice and tone in the whole wide world

One story before mom takes over.

Check out my baby’s mad skills – eating, coloring and hanging on to her remote control at the SAME time

She can also pick up crayons and scribble around. I introduced her to crayons about a month and a half back to fine tune her fine motor skills. So far so good, it’s not like she can draw a piccaso (we’re learning!), but merely scribble and can hold crayons/pen.

I also bought this little coloring book and crayon which I find beneficial when we go out for dinner. Because sometimes she gets bored and wants to get off the baby chair. So the coloring book keeps her entertained while we eat. Try it!

And then about 2 months back I got her this scribble pad, you know the ones where you can scribble and then erase it with a swipe? Best investment ever! Though the downside is she keeps shoving it to our face to draw her whatever she wants us to draw. So far, she likes us to draw a dog, car and ball! It’s so cute to see her work the eraser tab like a pro too once she’s done scribbling!!

Again, mad skills – standing while scribbling!

The other day I conducted a little mean experiment of mine, just to test her. As usual she pointed to the butterfly and was waiting for me to tell her what it is, but I just went CAR.

 Okayyyyy…….

Then she flipped the page again and pointed out to the mug waiting for my response. I went CAR.

She cocked stared at me before proceeding to flip to another page. She pointed out a bag.

And her crazy mommie went CAR!

And to show that she’s no way stupid, she got SO PISSED that she pushed the book away and start  crying at me coz she was frustrated I was teaching her these wrong things.

We all had a good laugh. And of course, now all of you are convinced I’m such an idiot of a mom

But that honestly shows that my girl is alert and has the thirst to study and learn! So proud of her. I”m very impressed with her progress and do hope she continues to have the thirst to learn new things!

Okay no point I say these nice things about my girl without proof right? So nah, here’s a video saying her favorite words and pointing out to what I asked her to.  Beauty and brains, that’s my girl right there