Growing and Learning

By God's goodness, Polly continues to arrive at her baby milestones surprisingly fast (to us at least :), lifting her head for a minute at a time and being able to track moving objects from her second week, sucking at her hands, smiling and cooing by two months, and drooling and sleeping 'through the night' at three. Just last week at three and a half months she suddenly was able to roll over from back to tummy with some difficulty one day, and with ease the next. Now she rolls over almost immediately most of the time when we place her on her back, and starts to fuss occasionally when she is prevented from so during diaper changes. The last few days she started to chuckle at Papa's antics. Mama's had significantly less success in this area--I suppose Papa's got the funnier face.



Pepe's milestones these days? We'll definitely count an increased sense of responsibility and nurturing behaviour amongst them! She's really acting more the big sister nowadays, hugging meimei, 'carrying' meimei, and, to our heartwarming amusement, sometimes successfully comforting a crying meimei by 'shushing' and gently rocking her rocker chair. Pepe's also getting noticeably better in tidying up and organising her things. We know from having observed her that she is able to categorise different objects (shapes magnets, different kinds of toy kitchen objects, etc.), and even pay attention to detail such as picking up every last scattered piece of her miniature Hello Kitty playground set. So when she says "I don't know," to our command to tidy up, we know it's a matter of the heart and not actual ability. Linguistically, it's cute how she likes to say "I think so," or "I don't think so," and also "maybe," and "but maybe not" (in response to "maybe it will X"). It can get trying, however, when she attempts to challenge our authority by going "but first..." when asked to do something. Tedd Tripp's advice in Shepherding a Child's Heart has been invaluable in helping us make wiser and more godly decisions concerning how to respond and discipline in times like these. By God's grace, Mama and Papa are also growing and learning each day.