She's back!!!

Wayne, the Ayi and I were all pretty worried that poor Rosabelle wasn't back to her normal self yet since her bout of fever/cough/runny nose (we continued with Day 4 of her medicine until she was much better), but these few days, she's been on an upward run - atta girl!

Maybe it was the effect of the medicine that made her drowsy and lethargic, but yesterday was the first day she wasn't on medication, and we saw an obvious surge in energy, with her crawling and screaming (well, trying to, as her voice was still hoarse). This is her still looking quite drawn, but playing with Wayne's Phiten neck strand.
But today, WOAAAH! We had to rein her in - today was the birthday celebration of two of the kids in the yard - Bao Bao (Aug 28) and Fei Fei (Sep 3), and I was at first hesitant about bringing her to a closed area (in Fei Fei's home) in the company of so many kids (virus alert!!!) when her immune system was still recovering, but thank goodness we still went ahead. Rosabelle had a whale of a time!

After her breakfast, we headed to the block opposite and saw only one birthday boy, Fei Fei. Apparently, Bao Bao had K.O.ed after awhile, and he remained fast asleep throughout, haha! This is Fei Fei with his devillish Halloween horns which could light up.

And that's the mothers with our kids, where adults and children alike feasted on a Swedish cake - Fei Fei's mum did it herself, having stayed in Sweden for 6 years, and making a 'cake' out of sandwiches with prawns and smoked meats; fruits; gummies; and mashed potato.

Rosabelle was deemed to be the most dressed-up kid at the party, with many mothers raving over her oh-so-cute bunny outfit. At it's most crowded, there were about 6-7 kids, and that's Rosabelle in the background, gingerly creeping towards the bookcases...

She was busy exploring each and every single new toy, crawling and cruising around happily. As they lived on the 28th floor, and with the Beijing autumn dawning upon us, they only had to open the living room window for us to get an 'air-conditioned' breeze, so I had Rosabelle wear her bunny hood at all times for fear of her catching a cold.

She even sat on Fei Fei's toy car. It must have been the increased activity levels, or the fact that so many kids were eating stuff, but her appetite improved with her eating bits of banana, honeydew, dragon fruit, bread, and mashed potato (so much that she did not finish her lunch at home later, and was so tired out and fell asleep shortly after reaching home, shouting in her sleep at times from the over-excitement!). I notice that when we bring foods out of the home, she is more likely to eat them, like just now, after eating half an apple before heading out for her evening walk, she managed to polish off 20 grapes, one small Del Monte banana, and a teething biscuit at one go - wowee!

As I didn't wear non-slip socks for her, there were many times when she almost did a leg split whilst standing, or lost her balance trying to stand up, haha!

So Wayne and I had to take turns to keep a close eye on her, and ensure that the toddlers did not trample on her crawling all over, heh!

She of course enjoyed the company of the other kids, playing with the birthday boy, or rather, snatching the toy from his mouth when he was happily chewing on it...

Fei Fei even lent Rosabelle his shades, which she surprisingly kept on for awhile until Wayne decided it was hampering her vision whilst she was crawling...

Near the end of the party, they had Fei Fei sit in a circle of various objects to see which one he would end up with. Chinese custom has it that at a child's one year of age, the elders will prepare a set of items for him/her to grab, and it is important to see what the kid finally goes away contented with, not the first thing he/she takes. They prepared abacus, stethoscope, car key, microphone, whipping spoon, dictionary, pen, goggles, lipstick, and money.

Fei Fei's parents wished he would take the pen or dictionary, but no luck. The boy was first attracted to the microphone - a career in the entertainment field, perhaps?

He then went for the money, making his parents despair further that he was going to be a roadside singer begging for spare change. After being distracted by the car key, he ended up holding on tightly to the hundred-renminbi note, and even putting it into his mouth.

Fei Fei's parents were satisfied enough - their son was going to be making loads of money, haha!

As for Rosabelle, she was very attracted by the lipstick (so girly, I know!), but ended up gumming the stethoscope...hmmm...looks like we can only tell at her first birthday in two months' time!

Since she got better, she has been spouting long rambles of speech at times. The other day, we were just talking about the humidifier (加湿器) in the room when she suddenly also muttered '加湿器' under her breath! When she saw me eating grapes, she pointed at it and went 'pu' (as in '葡萄'). She even called Wayne 'Daddy' when I asked her to (normally calls him 'Papa'), and knows how to call out to him in a louder voice when I tell her 'Papa cannot hear you, call louder'. She also called 'Bao Bao', and pointed at his dad, going 'Bao Bao Pa Pa', then went 'Fei' (as in 'Fei Fei', the birthday boy). Nowadays, whenever anybody asks me if she knows how to call 'Papa' or 'Mama', our little show-off will quickly go 'Papa', as if to tell everybody that she knows how to do so so.

A grandmother in the yard said if a child speaks early, he/she will walk late. Well, I'm not in a hurry for her to start walking anytime soon, as I'd rather she crawl well first...so...I'm content with a yabbering little one on my hands for awhile to come, and more importantly, a healthy little one at that!