mylène daily

After four weeks of being with us, Shiqi's parents have now returned safely to Shanghai again. What a shame! Beacause those four weeks together have been very nice. Not in the least because of the delicious food that was served every day. Most importantly, though it was so good to be able to spend some time together. And for Mylène it must have been a wonderful introduction to her grandparents. She has had so much attention! And she obviously enjoyed this a lot; since opa & oma have left, we have a hard time keeping Mylène happy .... from now on, she will have to get used to a lower level of attention again.

So, on behalf of Mylène I say "Bye bye opa & oma!! We liked having you with us, and we are looking forward to seeing you again soon!"

Mylène has her first passport!
Two weeks ago, we went to Düsseldorf, together with opa & oma Zhang, to visit friends. As the Dutch consulate is located in Düsseldorf as well, we used the opportunity to apply for a passport for Mylène. The procedure was surprisingly simple. We only had to bring some pass photos, some documents, and Mylène. We filled out a form, and left again. The passport would be sent home to us in Warburg. The whole thing only took us 10 minutes!

And indeed, a week or so later, the postman brought us Mylène's first passport. It looked like any other Dutch passport ... with some differences in the inside. "Unable to sign" is printed on the position where a signature should be. Also, there is very cute picture of Mylène (included in this post ... will she still look like that in 2011 (date of expiry)?). And with respect to her height, 0,75 m was written :-)

Ten months already! As usual I started writing this post by copying the text of one month ago. Reading through it, I realise that it is about time to change the contents a bit, because in the course of time, some issues have lost their relevance and others have come up.

What's new?
Mylène learned quite a lot during the past month, especially regarding movement and coordination. She can now sit up all by herself. Consequently, she does not like lying on her belly anymore, but is sitting almost all the time when she is awake. Interestingsly, since she can sit up by herself, she can keep herself busy much longer than before.
Also, she can pull herself up and stand on her feet for a while. It is not very balanced yet: the legs are still very shaky, mostly due to the fact that she is usually tip-toeing.
Regarding crawling she did improve a bit, with better left-right coordination. She still refuses to crawl on hands and knees, though. Will she ever do this, or will she skip this phase and move on to walking immediately?
Mylène's imitating skills are improving a lot as well. In a previous post all her new imitation tricks can be seen.
And last but not least, Mylène seems to have developed her feelings for affection. When held by Shiqi, she moves away her head and holds on to Shiqi's neck strongly, if another person wants to take her. Also, she often comes up to us shortly to hold us or push her head against us, when she is crawling on the floor.

Favourite food: Hard to say because she still isn't a passionate eater, although I must say it is getting better. She does seem to have a preference for the "Hipp" bottles with rice, carrot and chicken for lunch. Regarding fruit porridge, she prefers the "Hipp" bottle with aplle, peach and rice. Furthermore, she still likes her HA-Milk based evening porridge.
Weight: She is gaining weight a bit. I think she weighs around 9,5kg now.
Length: We think she is getting taller, which is confirmed by people who haven't seen her for a while. She still wears clothes sized 74-80.
Language: Mylène can reproduce more sounds than before (like "Ooo" and "Iii") but does not speak in words yet. She even has forgotten the word "Daaag" ... papa is very disappointed ... mama isn't ....
Other: We think Mylène is sort of singing. At least, she is doing "la la la" in different tones when we sing for her. Wishful thinking??

Making sounds with fingers and lips is one thing, but there is more!
Mylène can also clap hands, now. And she really likes doing that.
Of course, blowing air between her lips is standard repertoire by now.
But what's more, she can even sit up all by herself. The following video shows these great achievements all together :-)
Have fun!!

Learning Chinese from an early age is good and important. Having the right teacher is not unimportant either, though :-)

Here's something Mylène picked up a few weeks ago: making sounds with fingers and lips. She does this quite often, and imitates it when we do it.

I haven't had time to put some of the material we recorded during the past few weeks online yet. It has already been a while since the latest pictures, movie clips and audio samples.

I am at it now, though. So, in a few hours, you can enjoy some new stuff!
Enjoy :-)

Finally another post on this blog! I am sorry, but I have been a bit busy with other things lately, so there was very little time left to keep you posted about the latest developments. But, here we go again.

Time flies, and Mylène is already nine months old. One week ago, the daughter of friends of ours, Lisa, celebrated her first birthday! That was a bit shocking to me ... soon Mylène will be there as well. As time goes by so quickly, we'd better not forget enjoying every single day, as it happens!

Anyway, let's get to what you have been waiting for: the pictures and a wrap up of the developments in the previous month.


Talking: Great progress! Mylène has said her first word, as you have read before: "Dag", or "Daaahaa" as Mylène pronounces it. Besides that, she succeeds to imitate more and more. The first attempts of "hoera" have been heard as well. Also funny is that she can move her fingers over her lips while making sounds; this sounds very funny. More about that later.
Crying: Mylène really does not cry so much anymore (she DOES shout a lot, though). She cries when she is tired, when she is woken up by something suddenly, when she has pain, and when we continue to do something she really does not want. Shouting she does all day, especially in case of an accute lack of attention (in her eyes).
Laughing: she giggles and laughs ... what a happy girl she is :-)
Moving: she is moving around very quickly, already. Still on her belly, but she is getting quite successful in getting on her arms and knees already. She is very good at climbing, over arms and legs, up over our shoulders to check out what is behind the sofa, and up and down pillows. While doing that, she moans loudly: "uuuuuhhmm, hhhmmuu" :-) Also in sitting, she is getting better and better. Furthermore, we noticed that Mylène can coordinate her fingers better and better. This is visible, when she is picking up and playing with very small objects, like hairs, small pieces of paper, dirt on the floor :-( .... etc.
Sleeping: As it is summer now, Mylène's bedroom is quite light. Consequently, Mylène woke up very early (around 5AM). After blinding the window with a blanket, she wakes up at normal times again (between 6 and 7).
Eating: we did not change the schedule. We are finding out what Mylène likes to eat, gradually. She still likes her H.A. milk bottle a lot. Banana, she also fond of. Regarding her warm lunch, she prefers chicken with rice and carrot or corn. She does not like sour fruit, and warm lunch prepared by Shiqi :-(
Observing: Everything around her is observed carefully, with a curious and sometimes critical facial expression.
Hair: Still growing, but not getting lighter anymore. Mylène's hairs have approximately the same colour as mine.
Weight: STILL around 9 kg ... a bit more, actually: 9,3 when we last weighed her. We'd better not think about it too much; she is obviously a healthy girl.
Size of clothes: No change (74), even though she is definitely getting taller.
Other: Mylène is happily imitating the noises we make when we put her on the toilet, but usually nothing comes out. She pees sometimes, but singing a song is done in her diaper only!