Walking here and there

Kait wasted no time in toddling away once we moved here. That was a month ago, at 10 months 1 week old then, that makes her a really early walker. The Hokkien phrase "gia lai gia ke" describes well all the walking here and walking there she's been doing since...


She loves to play ball, too -- she can throw, pass, kick, and does a pretty good job at stealing the ball from her two Gor Gors... if they'll let her!


In these pictures below...
Walking on air, Kait looks like she's holding her own -- oblivious to the brothers tackling each other, for the baby football, that's more her size!


I'd thought oh-so-innocently, what harm could come out of this little rubber ball? But there's no such thing as playing ball "gently" inside the house, as it turns out. One boy was playing rough, and the other got a bruised cheek worse than the usual scraped knee, and of course, the friendly game became a brawl and ended with lots of bawling instead. It's banned now, I'm constantly asked to lift it, and I only half-wish that every disagreement can be as easily solved by removing the object of the quarrel. That won't teach sharing though, and every day, I tear my hair out and rack my brains over how to referee fights and what consequences to give... more than what I'm going to cook for our lunch and dinner, *sigh*!

Meanwhile, as soon as Kait became steadier on her feet, she would saunter into a room and comfortably proceed to the next. The boys were excited and would count out loud how quickly she went from taking 10 to 20-something steps, and Ben (exaggerating) thinks it's 99 at last count. The latest is -- after these pictures from weeks ago -- she is walking on concrete floor, where the boys, not yet her, started swim lessons this week.(pictures, maybe later). At 11 months old now, she knows to use her palms to block her fall, if not, lands on her rear to escape getting her knees scraped.

But because she's still so little, I insisted on baby gates for the home, and it took us a few trips to the stores before we found the right ones for Vern to install. I'd slipped on the floor -- after cleaning it, and fallen down a short flight of stairs onto unevenly tiled floor; boy, it hurt, and thankfully, I didn't break my back. But if I could trip, how much more we have to watch out for Kait, who jumps at climbing the stairs every time the swing door of the gate is not latched properly. She's fine if she doesn't stop to play midway, but the coming down backwards on her tummy is something she needs to be reminded to do, to scoot downwards one step at a time.

And if you ask me, I think the most challenging of all the growing going on, is the testing of boundaries, more and more -- from Kait, and from Jon and Ben. Talking of "more", let me end with how Kait came to understand this simple concept:

Inspired by our friend Kathy to teach the "more" sign to Kait from very early on, here's how Kait would ask for more of things she likes, over these last few months. First, it was a clap, that was her modified version. Then, she'd use one set of fingertips to kiss the palm of the other hand. Eventually, she could sign "more" the way it is (both sets of fingertips kissing). Pointing works, too, as does going "mum-mum'' (our colloquial for "eat") and that's usually when she's desperate! And recently, she can say a cross between "mare" and "more".

So, it's really one step at a time! Amazing as how fast some things go, guess with almost anything there's just no shortcut about grasping it. Now will someone help me explain to the dear daddy why his little girl still likes to be carried a lot.