Charis Is Now 10 Months Old!!

Oh I've been away so long! And so many additional milestones to Charis's little life, so I shall do a little catching up...

Charis has been biting on her fists to ease her itchy gums for quite a while, but one fine day on 9/6/2009 ~ 8 months 15 days, the much anticipated teeth sprouted out of her gums! It was the 2 lower front teeth that came out first, and now she has a grand total of 5 visible teeth - 3 lower and 2 upper front teeth :) I read and heard that babies may commonly experience diarrhoea or fever during teething, but for Charis, a few days before her first teeth emerged, she screamed in her sleep!! As soon as she screamed, I immediately ran to her rescue only to find her still asleep??!! Amazing, isn't it? :)

Her first crawl or slither, I should say, happened on 28/6/2009 ~ 9 months 4 days. She suddenly started doing "breaststroke" on daddy and mummy's bed when she woke up in the morning. We laughed as she made those raw attempts to push herself forward using her knees and belly. Gradually with much practice, she is now able to move faster and she is now gaining enough strength to pull herself up to a standing position while holding on to a stationary object. With these new accomplishments, she is even more curious and active these days and refuses to sit still like before. Gone were the days where she will lie quietly in my arms except when she's sleepy.. I kind of missed those days, but honestly I will be very worried if she stays that way still :) Nowadays, she will throw herself downwards when I am carrying her as if she wants to walk, and then she will go through daily obstacle course of climbing over stuff like pillows and bolsters, practically anything and everything in her way! Even in the car, she will climb over my thighs to reach for the car latch and up my belly to reach for her toy at the back of the car! Changing diapers is also increasingly challenging as she always fights to roll over on her belly. Now she is also able to roll herself in the sarong while rocking her. Whew, its WWF - World Wrestling Federation, Baby Episode.

We also have been trying to train Charis to wave bye-bye, and finally on 5/7/2009 ~ 9 months 11 days, she did her golden wave to Ah Gong and Ah Ma! But till now, she still prefers her favourite clapping and only "flaunts" her bye-bye on rare occasions. Oh just 2 nights ago, she suddenly shouted, "Bye bye" while tucking her to sleep and I was shocked! Isn't she supposed to learn to wave but not the speech yet? Hee.. hee.. But nonetheless a pleasant surprise :)

Another favourite activity for Charis recently is singing and screaming!! Her favourite advertisement on television is the Ribena drink advertisement "A Perfect Match" where Ms Lemon meets Mr Blackcurrant, following scene of them running towards each other across the pond, and finishing off with a classic swirl on a Hindi tune. Whenever this ad appears, her body will freeze and her eyes will be glued to the TV. Then seconds later, she will start clapping happily and make sounds as if she is trying to sing to the tune :) She also seems to be mesmerized by how loud and sharp her voice can be and she would scream a few times then stop and repeat them till she is satisfied. Her Ah Ma would put her index finger to her lips and say, "Shhh...shhh" but Charis took it like a game and screamed even more enthusiastically in response to her.

Ah Gong, Ah Ma, daddy and mummy had a good time laughing!! :)