BuiBui’s ability to imitate sounds and words is getting greater every day. Today in the bath tub NungNung said “lemon” and BuiBui distinctly said “leh”. Eariler in the day she was playing with a paper bag, so I said “bag” and she said “ba” pretty deliberately.

Today at the playground BuiBui was very excited about going down the slides multiple times. We go down the slide together, and right before we’re about to go down she cracks an enormous smile because she’s so excited.

BuiBui has almost entirely transitioned to a one nap schedule.  It’s been quite a few days since she’s taken 2 naps in one day, but the good thing is that when she takes one nap, it’s about 2 hours long or more. Usually her one nap is from 10am-12pm or after lunch from 12:30-2:30pm. Right now it’s a little unpredictable, but I think I like the post-lunch nap better.  The post-lunch nap always seems to be longer and it’s a little easier to get through the day with her when the nap is in the middle of the day instead of early on.

L is on vacation this entire week, so BuiBui and I are on our own during the day now. We walked to our favorite local bakery early this morning and picked up donut muffins, a lemon sourcream muffin, and a naked cinnamon roll. On our way back we stopped by the playground for a little while before heading home for her 10am bottle. I was snacking on the cinnamon roll and BuiBui was very excited to eat some of it.  She would eat a little piece, go off and play a little bit, and then when she decided she wanted more, she would walk back to the stroller and point at the white bag the roll was in. Then later when she was eating a piece another 14 month old boy came over and took it out of her hand and started eating it!  That was the end of that piece of cinnamon roll.

BuiBui has been impressing us with her arm strength lately.  Last weekend when she was at my sister’s house she picked up a 3 lb. dumbell with one hand and held it up for a few seconds. Today she walked into the bathroom and picked up a big dishbin which has all of her bath stuff in it. NungNung likes to call one of her short sleeved shirts her “muscle shirt” because it shows off her arm muscles.

Today we got to hear BuiBui very clearly singing a song for the first time. My sister and her husband came over this afternoon, and I was playing duets with her husband for a little while. BuiBui was trying to participate with her recorder, and towards the end when she was holding a penny whistle she started singing “ba ba ba ba” in a very high pitched voice, and moving her knees up and down.

L was sick today, so BuiBui and I were on our own for the day. In the morning we went for a walk, and then mega grocery shopping. (we hit the local market, Trader Joe’s and Stop and Shop!) The weather was really rainy all day, so I took her to the library in the afternoon where she cannot sit still for one minute. It’s really hard to get her to stay in the childrens’ room now; all she wants to do is climb the steps in the library and wander into the other sections. Before heading home we stopped by a local store to buy a new diaper bag too, in the pouring rain.

The only part of the day that was hard was when BuiBui refused to take a nap in the afternoon, which is unusual for her. She slept for 1.5 hours this morning, but this afternoon kept crying when I tried to put her down. I was so tired at that point in the day that I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. I got my second wind after chilling out on the bed with her for a little, and then going to the playground before dinner.

Today BuiBui’s favorite activities included rolling around on the bed and on my back, standing on any stool she could find, and especially playing with a flashlight. We have a step stool in our kitchen, and she motioned to stand on it, so I plopped her up and held her there.  She stood on the stool and had a gigantic smile on her face, as if she was pleased with her new height. She’s also really obsessed about getting to bounce on NungNung’s exercise ball.  It’s pretty tiring to hold her on the ball and bounce her up, and she gets really upset when it’s over!

The flashlight was definitely the event of the day. She didn’t quite put together the exact connection between the light the flashlight made and the direction it was pointed it, but she was got super excited about looking at the light. Each time the light changed she would say “woo! woo! woo!” and tilt her head up. At one point she pointed the flashlight at the floor, and started to follow the light around the floor. This ended up being her turning herself around in circles for about 3 minutes trying to follow the light on the floor. It was totally hilarious, I wished I had a camcorder at that moment.

NungNung is out of town until Saturday, so BuiBui and I are on our own this entire week. This will be the longest NungNung has ever been away from BuiBui so far. BuiBui and I went to my sister’s house for the afternoon.  Usually we aren’t able to spend much time at their house because they have 2 cats and NungNung is horribly allergic to cats. BuiBui had a blast at their house; the first 5 minutes that she arrived she just stood in the middle of the kitchen checking out her surroundings, but once she settled in she couldn’t get enough of all of the new objects there were to explore. BuiBui was very excited about Auntie’s stamp collection, she was completely mesmerized by the stamps and played quietly with them for a long time. At one point Uncle K gave her a yogurt container with a lid on it and showed her how to tap it with a spoon like a drum. She walked around for the next 5 minutes tapping the container. Their dog wasn’t there today, but BuiBui was super excited about meeting the cats.  The cats were shy so BuiBui didn’t get too much time with them, but she was thrilled by their presence. BuiBui couldn’t get enough of their basement stairs. I think she must have walked up and down at least 4-5 times while we were there. There was torrential rain all afternoon, and BuiBui had tons of fun standing on a step stool and staring out the window too.

BuiBui has become very interested in feeding herself with utensils. She’s a little obsessed with forks and gets very excited to eat anything from a fork. She’s even trying to take a piece of food and put it on the fork, although she doesn’t quite have the coordination yet. BuiBui loves eating our food, she’ll still eat hers but she’s totally fascinated by anything that we’re eating, so she’s been having Calabrian lasagna and corn bread pudding this week. One funny habit she’s developed is blowing on her food; this came about because NungNung would blow on our food before he gave it to her to cool it down, so now she’s imitating us doing this all of the time. Her spoon feeding is also greatly improved, she’s pretty calm about anything as long as it has apple or pear sauce in it, so I’ve been mixing vegetables in to get her to eat it.

BuiBui is cutting some serious molars right now. NungNung found one on her upper left and one on her lower right today as we were about to put her to bed.

One of BuiBui’s favorite things to do when we take her for a walk is to sit in her stroller and look at the ducks that live in the brook near our house. She says “duh! duh!” whenever we’re near the brook and watches them very carefully when we find them. It’s very cute to watch her reactions when she looks at the ducks.

BuiBui has been showing a lot more interest in walking on her own when we got out on a walk. Before, she was totally content to sit in the stroller, but now during our walks she’ll either start bending forward in the stroller or pointing to the ground to tell us she want to get out. A week ago she walked around the block with NungNung one morning and ever since then, she’s been eager to walk on her own.

BuiBui’s climbing skills are getting more impressive everyday. There’s a part of the playground made out of cut tires and she’s totally mastered climbing up them by herself. She’s also really interested in stairs, any time there’s a step or staircase nearby she has to climb them.

BuiBui has been fascinated by the magnets on our refrigerator. Yesterday NungNung watched as she figured out exactly how the magnets worked: for a little while she tried to get the magnet to stick to the refrigerator on the non-magnet side. Once she figured out which side of the magnet stuck to the refrigerator she started to repeatedly take the magnet off and putting it back on the refrigerator. It’s amazing these moments where you can literally see the wheels in motion in their heads.

We’ve also been having fun putting BuiBui’s hair up in various configurations. Her hair is significantly longer now too which gives us more options. I think she’s up to 4 different hairdos now!  I tried to trim her bangs a little the other day, but she was too interested in trying to grab the scissors, so it might have to be something I do when she’s sleeping in the car seat or something.

BuiBui has been exclaiming “Ba Ba!” around NungNung all the time, and for the past two days she’s been saying it more deliberately every day. We’re still working on “Mama”, but she’s not quite there yet.

BuiBui also has a new game that she loves to play with me after she has her last bottle right before going to bed. I’ll hold her in my lap while I’m waiting for her to burp, and she’ll face me and bonk her forehead against mine repeatedly. After every time that she bonks my head she giggles and laughs.  It’s pretty hilarious to watch.