Happy National Day!

Yesterday was China's 60th National Day, and the weather was wonderfully perfect - blue skies, white clouds, sunny with breezy winds. Best of all, when we walked around the yard downstairs, there were so little people and cars around! However, it also meant that there were very little other kids for Rosabelle to play with... but luckily we still went downstairs - there was a plane/helicopter fly-past fron the morning celebratory procession, and we saw the whole thing in its full glory, with Rosabelle pointing excitedly at the sky.

So come afternoon, not wanting to wander around a deserted yard area again, we brought Rosabelle out after her short afternoon nap, to hang around the outdoor area of Solana, which was nice with alot of kids running around, and the musical fountain.

That's her looking not-so-interestedly at the musical fountain...

But being more interested in her balloon. She kept pointing at and wanting the helium balloons the refreshment kiosk was selling (and other kids were holding), but cheapo Mummy me decided it was just a passing fancy and very thick-skinnedly asked two girls holding onto cheap balloons if they were handing it out for free. Turns out they were (some kids' photo studio or something), so there you have it, a very happy Rosabelle with her cheapo, pink balloon on a stick, showing off with poses in front of the fountain with Daddy.

Later on, it was the same fountain that gulped up her free balloon when she accidentally loosened her hold on it. Surprisingly, she gave quite a few hysterical cries - first time I've seen her grieving over something lost/snatched away from her. Maybe she liked the balloon so much, especially after we bumped into our ex-colleague with his very sweet three-year-old niece who was holding onto a helium balloon, and Rosabelle very warmly hugged the girl, but sneakily tugged at her blouse/hand to get at the balloon she was holding onto, haha!

Rosabelle can pretty much acknowledge any passing 'Jie Jie', and of late, is able to differentiate a 'Jie Jie' from a 'Ge Ge' (I use empty tissue boxes with pictures of boys and girls to teach her the gender differences). Nowadays, she will look out for and call a 'Ge Ge' if she sees one as well. Yesterday, when we told her that we would be visiting Wayne's ex-colleague in her house to see her twin boys 'Di Di', she repeated after us, 'Di Di' - so cute!

There you have it - the 8-month-old boys who look so much alike... Our nanny used to work for them for two months (thus recommended to us by her previous owner), and thinks they now look even more alike than ever!

Rosabelle had fun playing with the younger boys as well, and maybe that's why she forgot a new 'trick' she very quickly picked up only yesterday. For the past few days, I've been using her hands to pat her own chest when I ask 'Where is Rosabelle/Yue Yue?', and only yesterday did she respond very quickly, thumping her chest/tummy whenever I asked the question. Today, she did not really react to the question and sometimes points her finger to indicate 'one' (year old)... hmmm... must take it slow and not confuse the poor girl!

These days as well, she likes to crawl around on the sofa to reach at and play with the heating plate, and of course grab the remote controls we place on the tray. The amusing thing is, maybe because she is used to seeing us use the cordless phone in the home, but she has also mistaken the remote controls for the phone, putting it to her ear and pressing her cheek against it to listen - haha!

The new foods she tried over these few days include pomelo - high in Vitamin C to aid in iron absorption - we thought she wouldn't like it as it can be quite bitter at times but she actually liked to eat it. She also tried broad beans (beans are high in iron too), and the other day, when I was at the fruit stall, they extolled the benefits of snow lotus (boiled in pork rib soup) - it made for nice, crunchy finger food for her!

Ah well...with all the iron and Vitamin C pumping, I really hope she'll get cleared for her anemia next week. Go, go girl!