A Slice of Heaven . . .: Letters to Julianne #19

Dearest Julianne,

Happy New Year little pumpkin! Welcome to 2013! I’m sure you thoroughly enjoyed your 2012 and Mama just wants you to know how proud I am of all that you’ve achieved in the year just past. Mama thinks you deserve a medal! But we didn’t have any medal so what did we do? We wrapped up your 2012 but giving you a blast of a time in Melbourne and lots of fun celebrating your 2^nd Christmas!

I could try you really enjoyed your December. The highlight of the month has got to be your very first overseas holiday to Melbourne! You loved every minute of it didn’t you – going out twice every day, enjoying the nice cool weather, running around the apartment like it was a playground, eating all the yummy breads, meeting people on the streets and flying random kisses and waving like they were celebrities, getting up close with Mocha the dog and attempting to feed him his chew ball. The best part of it – you got Papa, Mama, Gong Gong , Por Por and Yiyi Sam by your side 24/7! You were loving all the attention! You did well so Papa and Mama are already planning our next holiday (with you of course)!

Child on the lose in Melbourne

It was like our holiday never ended for you when we came home to more family outings, presents and parties. Like I say every month, you have again grown so much and are developing so fast, I'm losing track of your new tricks.

At 14 months, you can almost perfectly understand the things we tell you - from giving you simple instructions to sit down and take off your shoes, to telling you to go get change or remove your diaper, to asking you where things are and having you point them out to us (like when I ask you where the blueberries are and you start pointing to the fridge). You also understand when we say 'smile' or 'cheese' and you return that with a megawatt cheeky smile, your face all cringed up. You can imagine your photography-crazy Papa is the happiest knowing that you can understand that command. It's completely adorable to see you interpret our instructions and everyone at home gets very tickled when you carry out your task perfectly! I love it that we now finally have some semblance of a 2 way communication! You definitely understand more than you can say although in the past month, you have made some headway with your words. There's 'ter' for water, 'bot' for bottle, 'dam' for sam ( referring to yiyi sam), 'ta' for da-yi (this one is a hit and miss, sometimes, everyone is 'ta'). You clearly have a mind of your own and know exactly what you want. You can accurately nod for 'yes' while saying 'uhm' at the same time telling us that what we said or pointed out is correct and is what you want (like yes to ribena or orange juice).

Cheese!

On the physical front, you have almost perfected your walking. You can walk the entire park connector without tripping. When we were in Melbourne, I had many people ask how old you were when they saw you walking. They couldn't believe you were all but 13 months and walking so steadily. This month, you have started climbing around the house and scarily climbing up to the bay window with the help of the pillows on the bed. We have had to secure all the windows in the rooms to make sure no accidents happen. You have also found enough strength within you to move your playpen around Por Por's room. Now we all know why you remain a kampung chicken - because you burn up all that energy being a monkey around the house. It's no reason you can't put on weight. For the 10kg chicken that you are, you really have a lot of strength! Por Por thinks its got to do with the fact that you're still exclusively breastfed today - something I hope to continue doing for a few more months.

You are at a very playful and cheeky age and starting to enjoy playing with other little kids. You adore Sophie and love forward to her giving you hugs and kisses. Over Christmas, you danced with her, sat by the staircase and did you scribbling together - it was very sweet to watch. In Melbourne when we were at the bookshop, you just went up to a little Aussie girl and started playing 'catching' with her around the sofa. You even held her hand and gave her little gentle pats. Very sweet. I love that you know how to give cuddles and pats pats sometimes without us asking for them. I love it even more that you know who family is. When you see Gong Gong in the evening, you will hug him tied, lay your head on his shoulder and top it all with a pat pat. It's no wonder Gong Gong finds you such a sweetheart. You do the same to Da-yi and Uncle Jude. It makes Da-yi very happy to be home to watch you grow up. I hope you never lose this beautiful trait of yours - loving family.

Dancing with Sophie

Meet my little Aussie friend

Its a brand new year Juju! In the year ahead, there may be some tumbles and falls, but I promise I'll be there to catch you and make the boo-boo go away. There'll also be lots of dancing and happy days and Mama and Papa will be there to laugh with you, make silly faces with you and grow with you. We will be sending you off to playschool in a few months for you to do some growing up on your own and that I think will be one of the highlights of your 2013.

Keep growing Julianne and continue to be that sweet sweet girl God has made you to be. Happy happy 14th month!