Toddling and Bearbbling

Penny started taking her first more confident steps--walking almost 2 metres, juice in hand--in the nursery of Hamilton Square Baptist Church, SF, on the last Sunday we were there. But she was still very much the crawler... until a few days after she arrived in Singapore. She's been toddling about three weeks now, and her steps have become rather steady over the past week. We're especially proud of her careful and successful negotiation of the 2" kitchen entrance step, and always happy to see her squealing with delight when pushing her Pooh walker. Walking is certainly her preferred mode of transport now. How quickly is Penny growing and acquiring new skills--AND WORDS--each week. She's now able to say many "b" words, from "bear" to "book"; points to pictures of stars ("dar") and moons ("moo"), barks excitedly when she sees a dog, goes "Oh", calls us "Mama" and "Dada", asks for "more" (yes, food, mostly), and her favourite word by far is "bor". Soccer season perhaps? But then I forget: her favourite word has to be "No," a rather gentle but meaningfully articulated one, complete with a vigorous shaking of her head and a little frown. She says it most emphatically again whenever we reply with "yes". This little exchange has become a favourite game, not just with us, but with her church aunties and uncles as well who fully indulged her during our recent church camp at Desaru, Malaysia.

Oh, and the other night a friend and I distinctly heard her say "strawberry"--all three syllables of it.