I just woke up from a nap!
I haven't taken a nap since forever. Hehe feels good.

I had two good friends over for lunch and to spend time with Clarissa, though I think I spent half the time following Clarissa around the house and nearly breaking my back. 😅
So sorry, couldn't catch up properly.

Then my in-laws dropped by in full force, together with the little boy. FIL especially went in to Malaysia to buy fish for Clarissa. 😊

Before leaving, the little boy kissed Clarissa.

Prompted by my sis-in-law, he leaned over and kissed her forehead. Proper kiss with a pout.
I think my heart skipped a beat. It was so sweet and funny!

Then, we asked him to kiss her again, because the hubs missed it (he was talking to my fil).

And then, we had to ask them to show it to my fil, because he was already standing outside and missed the first two kisses.

So yeah, my daughter's first kiss from a boy. Three times in a row somemore. 😂

The hubs told the boy, "你要负责任哦." ("You must take responsibility.")

I don't think I'm an over-protective mom. I'm ok with people, adults and kids alike, playing with Clarissa or even touching or carrying her, but ONLY IF she is ok with it.

If she's not, I'd prefer people to please not carry her, or worse, kiss her by force just to trigger a reaction from her. I don't understand the need to make a baby uncomfortable and cry on purpose.

If she's sitting there playing nicely on her own, there is no need to grab her away to make her sit on your lap.
If her mom is carrying her comfortably, there is no need to snatch her away.

Ok, end of rant.

I think I'm already quite easy-going and open-minded but maybe I need to open more, I mean, be more open.🙈🙊

Look who just woke up from her nap!

I took my nap after she fell asleep.
I slept for an hour and she did 2.5 hours. 😉

Just in time for dinner.

Hahaha she loves the fish and keeps asking our helper to give her fish.

I love seeing her eat like this.

Meal times can get quite challenging these days. Tantrums, spoonfuls of food getting slapped away, food all over the place.

We are always happy when she eats well!

So delighted, she kept doing gymnastics with her leg. 😅

Very flexible.

And her face lit up when she saw Daddy walking out of the room. 😁

Our helper seems to be affected by the comparison between the boy and Clarissa.

I've tried my best to tune out, but I know my FIL mentioned it again this afternoon. Something along the lines of how Clarissa still can't walk and should learn from the boy.

Our helper said to me this evening that if we'd started to let Clarissa crawl more freely on the floor earlier, she'd have been walking by now.

To be honest, I agree but we didn't want to let her crawl on the floor because we were afraid she'd hurt herself. She wasn't a very steady crawler because she always looked so drunk in the playpen.

Of course we know now that it's because she sees her playpen as safe and ok to be reckless, and she's much more cautious on uncushioned ground.

Which is also the main reason why she's not taken more than a few steps unassisted.

She'd always look for support or start crawling if she wants to go somewhere further.

I'm not very bothered by her not walking yet. My mom said we only started walking at 17-18 months. Even the boy walked after he turned 14 months, which is average.

Children develop different skill sets at different stages. She's probably more keen on other stuff right now, like dismantling duplo sets and pretending to write.

When she feels ready to walk, I'm sure she would.

I'm more and more convinced that she has a mind of her own.
Just this evening she was playing with my phone and I deliberately turned off the screen.
She looked at me, took my finger and placed it on my phone.
A signal for me to turn it on.

So I did and then I tried to let her watch some peppa pig animation on YouTube.
She was excited at first, but kept fiddling with the phone and poking the screen with her finger.

She then turned to me, took my finger again and placed it on the screen.

"You don't want to watch this?" I asked her.

I thought about the videos I've shown her on my phone before and there was only one.
A very old song from 范晓萱called 《健康歌》. It's a very cute song about staying healthy which I have been singing to her since she was a baby. 😁

I was right! She watched the MTV quietly over and over again, until Daddy said it was enough for the day.

Maybe that cannot be counted as a significant achievement, since it's not tangible or visible, but expressing herself and getting understood at less than 14 months young is pretty amazing to me.

Maybe I'm just being #oldwongsellsmelon again, but I just don't believe in comparisons.

Anyway I told our helper that we are not bothered by it and in fact the Chinese think that starting to walk later means you'd have a good life.

She told me she didn't know what to say when my FIL asked her why Clarissa can't walk yet.
Bless her heart, I think she genuinely feels responsible for Clarissa's well being and development.

I hope she doesn't feel bad about it, because we believe our Clarissa would walk when she thinks she's ready to. 😊