bonnie & jason

Alissa on a walkabout

Untitled from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Alissa speaks!

Alissa has been babbling with pseudo-words like mama, dada for a while now. Sometimes, we think she uses them in the correct context. But oftentimes, she just says them for no apparent reason. Otherwise, she’s had an easy time communicating the basics (like more, milk, up, and no) with sign language and pointing. But just yesterday, we think she actually spoke her first distinct word. We were just sitting on the couch and she came up and did her sign for “up” but followed it directly with a very well enunciated “up.” It was kinda strange to hear it come out of her mouth actually. We tried to get her to say it again, and she did, but not with the clarity that it came out the first time. Anyway, I took some video today to demonstrate. She’s getting more consistent with it but still is hit or miss with the “p” part of the word. See for yourself.

2008 03 13 Alissa saying up from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Alissa winking

Alissa has been imitating us more and more. The latest thing is winking. Pretty funny.

2008 03 12 Alissa winking from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Run Alissa, Run!

Alissa is now pretty much walking everywhere. She still falls down a lot but for the most part, she has said bye bye to crawling. It looks kinda funny to me since she’s still pretty short and small. And it takes her a hundred steps to go from one side of the room to the other. But she is definitely enjoying her new found speed.

In other developments, she’s starting to exert her personality and will more and more. It’s especially evident during meal times. Whereas, she used to eat most anything we fed her, now she is picky about not only what she eats but how she eats it. For example, baby food is definitely not at the top of her food choices. Also, when eating our food, she would prefer to feed herself instead of have us feed her. Furthermore, sometimes she won’t eat anything unless there’s accompanying entertainment. Either I have to sing her the ABC’s. Or we have to put sesame street videos on the laptop. To top it off, when we went to Fresh Choice today, she wanted to eat peas, but would sometimes only eat them if I fed them to her. And other times would insist on feeding herself, using one hand to peel the skin off the pea and the other hand to shove said peeled pea into her mouth. She’s actually surprisingly dexterous. I’m not sure what normal is, but it seems like she has a pretty good grasp (no pun intended) on the finer motor skills.

Alissa walking around from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Elmo invades our house too

One of the toys that Alissa seems to like is the singing Elmo. It’s the kind that you can program with your computer via USB cable. So at the moment, it has her favorite foods, her favorite people, and is set to say certain things at certain times (meal time, nap time, bedtime). Also, you can have it sing from a selection of songs. This is only real feature that Alissa likes (or understands for that matter).

Alissa dances to Elmo from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Alissa’s first swim class

We took Alissa to the Janet Pomeroy Center and signed her up for the Cuttlefish swim program. It’s not so much swimming as it is playing and getting comfortable in the water. They have a nice program though and the facilities are great. (Both the water and the air are heated and there’s a ramp to get in.) Plus, it’s less than a 2 minute drive for us. She did pretty well considering it was her first time and she doesn’t particularly like water in her face. Hopefully, by the end of the 6 week program, she’ll be doing the backstroke and working on the IM.

2008 01 18 Alissa’s first swim class from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Barney invades our household

It was bound to happen I guess. Part of Alissa’s morning ritual is sitting on the floor eating some pieces of bread out of a bowl while watching Barney on the computer waiting for Bonnie to prepare her proper breakfast. So my professional photo/video processing workstation with 2.5TB of hard drive space, 5GB of RAM, dual processors, and 24″ HD monitor has been reduced to a Barney player. For some reason, she doesn’t want to watch it on the laptop. Anyway, here’s some video of her contently swaying to the music while enjoying her appetizer.

Alissa watching Barney and eating breakfast from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Alissa is getting better at walking

After taking her first real steps weeks ago, Alissa kinda took a vacation from walking. She would do it if we really coaxed her, but for the most part, she preferred just crawling. For the last couple days, however, she’s realized that she actually is pretty good at walking and takes the initiative to take a stroll every so often. Here’s some video of her not only walking, but walking with a “purse.” At the end, she looks around the corner at me as if to check to make sure I don’t know she’s about to go to the mall and spend a bunch of money with her mom.

Alissa walking with her purse from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Boring video

Alissa seems to be at an age where her development is accelerating in a number of different areas. She’s starting to understand more of what we say along with using gestures of her own to communicate what she wants. She’s starting to walk on her own more consistently without prodding from us. And she definitely is starting to have preferences when it comes to food and play toys. Speaking of toys, Bonnie captured some footage of Alissa diligently pulling out the alphabet in her basket of toys and arranging them on the shelf just as diligently. It’s kind of boring video but I think it’s neat to see the little developmental steps that seem to happen a lot these days.

Alissa plays with her letters from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

LOL 2

With every passing day, Alissa becomes more and more interactive. She imitates actions and sounds and her personality continues to evolve. Overall, she seems to be a happy baby and only occasionally forces her will upon us. And we’ve been extremely lucky that she eats and sleeps well and has been healthy with the exception of a short cold when we were back east in May. All in all, life is very good. But if you’re having a bit of a down day yourself, see take two of the Alissa LOL video and the bath picture below. They’re guaranteed to put a smile on your face! If not, see take one.

bonnie tickling alissa 3 from Jason Wang on Vimeo.