The Lightbulb

Trevor beat me to the punch! I was just about to write a post about Renee. It's about 2.5 weeks to her first birthday, making her about 11.5 months old. Just this week, I've seen signs that confirm she understands the things we say and what is going on around her. This will provide additional detail to what Trevor has already blogged.

Clapping Hands

As Trevor mentioned, Renee can clap her hands. But the cool thing is that she can clap her hands when you say, "clap your hands!" She will even do it if you say it in Chinese! I can't take credit for that one. I think Renee caught on to the Chinese words thanks to my mom. You should know that Renee is *very* consistent producing the behavior when given the prompt.

Saying "hi" and "bye"

Renee has been doing the wave for a few weeks already. But now she does it at the appropriate times: on Mondays and Wednesday nights, after a day of helping out, my mom gathers her things and puts on her coat. When Renee sees this, she waves at my mom! And, when Trevor leaves for work every morning, Renee waves! Last night after dinner, I say to Renee, "say bye to Gung Gung" and she turns her head directly at my dad, looks at him, and waves!! This behavior is also consistently produced given the prompt.

Using a Straw

This one took at least 3-4 tries. She finally put her lips around a straw and managed to drink a few sips. The first few tries were unsuccessful because she would open her mouth wide, but wouldn't close again around the straw. It was so funny to see her big wide open mouth. This is a new thing and I can't say it's consistent yet.

Saying "no"

She shakes her head to indicate "no" and every now and then she will make a "no" sound too. She usually does this when I'm feeding her and she doesn't want anymore. She does it with the bottle and the spoon.

There are still some other "lightbulb" things that I'm looking forward to:

- drawing

- sitting and listening when read to

Random update: Renee is teething again. Her gums are swollen, she bites her tongue, and sometimes she wakes up with really red cheeks (slight fever maybe?). Maybe they will emerge by her birthday.