Out & Around

With the weather getting colder with each passing day (temperatures starting from today are beginning to dip), we have less time to spend outdoors, as it gets too dark and cold by around 6 in the evening. It of course doesn't help that Rosabelle has again been keeping late nights (sleeps only at 11-nish), and waking up late, thus not able to enjoy much unharmful sun before we have to head back for lunch.

Maybe also it's the cold that's keeping her up, as she wakes up more frequently than before these days, and last night, I felt that even her neck and back were cold, poor thing. But when we bundled her up in a sleep bag (courtesy of my friend Pauline), it got too warm for her by morning, and we had to remove it. So, tonight, we will take out a thicker blanket for her, and hopefully it'll give her a good night's rest.

The times that we get to spend outside, due to the October eight-day break, we seldom get to meet the entourage of friends these days - many of them could have gone for holidays, or even be staying indoors due to the cold weather. So, we bring Rosabelle to the basketball/tennis courts alot, especially when Wayne's playing. She likes to look at and try to touch the 'ball' (she can enunciate the word pretty well now), and hopefully it'd inculcate more ball sense in her than her clueless mummy, haha!
Yesterday, we grabbed the early morning sun and nice weather, coupled with Rosabelle waking early enough, to take a visit to Tuanjiehu Park. All parks in Beijing are nicely decked/adorned with alot of flowers to mark National Day, and it was a nice walk to enjoy a change of scenery and the outdoors.

Rosabelle picks up alot of what we are saying these days, like when I described how the wind is blowing the leaves/grasses, waving my hand with a 'woo, woo' sound, she imitated me, and can now repeat the action/sound when I ask her 'how does the wind blow the grass?'.

One thing for sure she definitely understands is the 'want milk?' question, where she will look at me with a twinkle in her eye, with an expression that tells me 'that's a good idea, Mummy', and then crawl to me and lie into position, haha!

On her own accord, she also mimicks people coughing/sneezing - we laugh at it, but most times tell her not to repeat a fake cough. The other day, when I was using the rolling pin to smash her iron tablet (to be ground into powder form for her), she was sitting on her high chair and went 'Png! Png! Mama! Png! Png!', mimicking the sound of the rolling pin thudding on the kitchen table. The nanny and I all had a good laugh!