Lia gets it

Have I mentioned that she really gets it now? I think it was about a week or so ago that I was putting Lia to bed and we had finished reading books and I turned out the light. She was not happy and wanted to read the books again, so she started screaming and throwing herself off of me, arching her back, kicking. Finally, I said (in Chinese), "Lia! Do you want to go to bed right now? I will put you in your bed right now unless you stop crying!" She froze in mid-scream and just stopped fighting me. I said, "Mommy bao4 bao4" and she turned and put her head on my shoulder and calmed down. About a minute later, she started squirming and whining again and I said (in Chinese), "Mei Mei! Do you want me to put you in your bed right now?" She stopped the squirming and whining and I could feel her shaking her head vehemently. And that's the moment I knew that she understands EVERYTHING that we say in whatever language we say it in.

When I read to her, one of her favorite books is "Ten Little Ladybugs" (or the smaller version, "Five Little Ladybugs"). She particularly likes it when I hold her hand and we point to each ladybug and I count. She will put her hand on mine and then tug on my hand so I hold her hand and count. She points her little finger and lets me touch each ladybug with it. Now she likes the school bus book because there's a page with six yellow school buses and she will point to them and say, "Da, ah, da" and then she pulls her hand away, flips her palm up and says, "Ah!" like she's saying "All done!" We also have a book called "Mama, Mama/Papa, Papa" and she now will grab it and say "Ma ma ma ma."

She was putting up a bit of fight tonight because I discovered that some of her milk had leaked from the bottle onto her pajama top and put her on the glider ottoman while I got a clean shirt. She let me change her without a fight, but she figured out that the ottoman rocks back and forth and she started shaking herself to rock the ottoman. She thought it was hilarious and was giggling like crazy, especially when I gasped because I thought she was going to fall off and caught her. She thought that was really funny! But then I took her off the ottoman to finish reading her books and she got mad. I had to threaten her with going in the crib again. Vehement head-shaking, but she did let me take her off the ottoman and continue reading.