Little memorizer

Juuiccee!!! Baby and mommy took a trip to Jamba Juice...

where Xinyi got her very first and very own smoothie!! Needless to say, she drank pretty much all of it, and was very very happy!

We had a play date with Nate and Nai Nai and Yeh Yeh in our backyard!

And on Friday, we had a zoo play date where we saw the hippos!

Cheeeeeeseee!!!!

And more cheese!

On Saturday, we took Xinyi to the park for park time with Daddy!

And then we went to Golden City for a belated Chinese New Year dinner!

And an early happy birthday for Tai Nai Nai!!

Mmm, yummy dessert bun!

On Sunday, we went to see Cousin Nate be dedicated at church!

Yay for a family selfie!

Look at that precious little dress!

This was on Sunday while watching the superbowl! Look at that cutie!

So in the past few weeks, but specifically this past week, we've realized that Xinyi is a little memorizer. She has several books that she has memorized parts of... For example, she has a "Please" book and she knows that with 3-4 of the pictures, they have their own phrases. She doesn't get all the words, but she gets a lot of them. One picture says, "Daddy make the splinter go away please." And she'll look at the page and say "Daddy splinter away please." Another has a picture of a baby in a swing that says, "Swing me please." She'll say "Swing me please." Another has a picture of a little boy asking for a hug, "Can I have a hug please?" Xinyi says, "Can hug please?"

She also has the classic Dear Zoo book. At the end of the book, the zoo sends the child a puppy and the words to that page says, "It was perfect. I kept him." And yes, she knows those words and says them exactly right when we get to that page.

Finally, we have a panda book, that also teaches manners. It's about donuts :). She looks at the pages and says, "have a donut? pink one! no have a donut, have changed my mind." The real words go, "Would you like to have a donut? I want the pink one. No you may not have a donut, I have changed my mind." Still... pretty amazing. There's even a page where the ostrich says "No, go away." And I don't like that phrase, but she still remembers it, even when I omit it during our daily story times. She looks at me and says, "no go away..." :T

We also have a book she loves to read at bed called "Pajama Time" - yes, she has also basically memorized this book too! She insists on reading it herself! She misses some words, but gets about 70-80% of them! Amazing!

Aunt Kimmy also gave Xinyi a Finding Dory matching game that's meant for ages 3+. And surprise, she can do it too! She can match all the pictures together, even with small differences. She'll look and find the ones that are the same!

Daddy was putting Xinyi to bed one night and he always asks her, "Would you like to go to bed or would you like a song?" Some days she lunges for bed, and other days she asks for a song. Friday night, Shane decided to ask, "What song would you like?" She said, "Edelweiss." :O Amazing! That's a common song that both of us sing to her, but she knew how to say it!!

Xinyi's language development is really taking off. The other day she looked at daddy and said, "Do it again please daddy!" and looked at mommy and said, "I need help!"

Also, her pretend play is getting much better too! One day, Xinyi picks up our kitty stuffed animal and daddy watched her disappear into the kitchen. He was concerned, so he peeked inside. She had the kitty's face in the real kitty's food bowl saying "kitty's eating!"

We've taught her that she is jie jie baby and that baby A is mei mei baby! She now excitedly points to herself when I ask where jie jie baby is, and sometimes points to mommy's belly when I ask where mei mei baby is!

She's so verbal and so vocal and really knows what she wants and doesn't want. Even so, she's relatively easy to direct, mostly obedient, and loves following instructions. She is such a sweet girl and we beyond amazed by her!

Sweet girl enjoying the park!!