It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. There’s so much that have transpired since there were substantial words shared. I don’t want to get into heavier things at the moment, so I’ll write about a silly cute little girl that is still awake in front of me, playing with the last tangerine stuck in an orange net while singing Christmas songs the very last day of winter. Tonight, we read 3 books alone for “bedtime”.  She’s voracious when it comes to reading time.  So here’s a small convo we had. Me: Time for Tom to go to sleep. The end. OK, it’s also time for Elle to go to sleep. Elle: No, it’s time for Frozen. Me: No, no Frozen. Elle: OK, can I go on Ate’s iPhone? The thing is, I don’t have a iPad. This is why I prefer reading so many books instead…too many people are becoming YouTube millionaires with the help of my toddler.

I remember teaching her older sisters this memory verse when they were about 3 years.  I taught them the simplified version around 2.5 years, “God loves me.” But Elle, I taught a little before 2 years, and the full verse at 2.5 years.  It’s because Elle really learned how to speak much earlier than her sisters. After she started speaking in sentences, I knew I could challenge her with memorizing because before she turned 2, she learned the simplified version of the memory verse they learned in VBS last summer.  So the beginning of this year, I slowly broke down John 3:16 so she could learn and review a little every day.  It wasn’t always consistent but I would say the same thing when we’d review.  I’d say, “let’s say your memory verse. John 3:16” which prompted her to know what I was talking about.  So little by little, I’d do the same thing with her that I did with her sisters, learn a little, use different inflections, breaks, phrases, and facial expressions to trigger her memory. These are some techniques I learned to use from her sisters that would yield results in memorization.  Perze and I are really proud […]

Yesterday, we went to Red Lobster for Ninong Platypus’ birthday.  The waiters were so impressed with Elle’s talkative nature, even going as far as to inquire about her age.   At 19 months, she understands that she can participate in conversations, even answering the waitress on what she wanted to order.  When the waitress asked her sisters for their order, she quickly said “fries” and then said thank you when she was given her water to drink.  One waiter had to do a double take to see who the thank you came from.  The waitress then asked, towards the ending of our meal, how old Elle was because she would say things every time she passed by our table. Just the other day, Elle was near the stairs looking for me, screaming my name. Elle: mama!! mama! where you? Me: I’m upstairs Elle. Elle Okay! I coming. She also initiates questions like “what’s that?” or “what happened?” Even with two girls already, having seen their development, Perze and I are STILL bewildered with how quick Elle is learning to use language and understand it.  She also learned how to walk at 8 months, so sometimes we forget that she’s still […]

I was looking through houses online with Elle on my lap.  Every time I’d click on a house, she’d comment, “no, not that.”  I was so entertained that I kept clicking more on houses so it gets easier for her through practice. My little songbird has been putting words together in pairs since February, but now it’s becoming more consistent as she experiments with phrases. Last night, her older sister was pinching her cheeks, so she confidently responded with, “stop it, Zi Zi!”   Lastly, she loves to sing! Her vocabulary is so hard to keep up with now, but it continues to build because of songs- mainly songs from Barney, and right before bedtime when we’d sing for 30 mins.- songs she loves, repeatedly.  By the end, I’m all sung out, 10 rounds of Row Row Row Your Boat, or Read Your Bible, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Somewhere in Brooklyn, Do You Want to Build a Snowman, Wheels on the Bus, etc., but she’s learning how to sing, rhythm, and words.  Bedtime is really big for us because she’s focused and enjoying that time together just singing and talking.