Everything we suspected of Wei when she was just a newborn is all coming true. Even at such a young age, she already has a strong presence and distinct personality. Like her birth sign, this little girl is fierce, dominant, determined, and strong in all aspects. She's a go-getter, and she likes to be in control of her own life.
Wei came into this world knowing what to do. She took on breastfeeding as soon as they took her out of the womb and put her on my chest. I thought, given this is my second time, I'd be the experienced one who knew what to do. But no! She was so confident and comfortable that it was as if she'd done it before. During the first few hours after her birth, with different people touching and probing her for different tests, she didn't make a peep and just "went with the flow". Maybe she had watched a What-To-Expect-After-You-Are-Born video in the womb?! Even the nurse who gave Wei her first shower was surprised and impressed by how calm she was. "This is a wise one," the nurse said. "She knows what's going on."
Along with her general calmness, one of the first things we noticed about Wei is that she doesn't really cry. She simply does not use crying to convey her needs and wants. Instead, she vocalizes. In the first few months, it was just strings of "ah"s that sounded like a whine. By 3 months, she started expressing her unhappiness by opening and closing her vocal folds to make puffs of air burst out of her lungs, making these short yet powerful "Nja Nja Nja" sounds. She started blowing raspberry around 4 months of age and started babbling with "ta"s and "da"s around 5 months. Now she's working on different consonant-vowel combos. She cracks up when she successfully makes a combination of different vowels (I.e., ba-bu, da-di), and she imitates the sounds we make. What's really exciting now also is that she talks TO us, as opposed to talking AT us. Aside from different consonant-vowel combos, she's also been toying with intonation. If you listen to her, you'll know she's speaking English, except she's not saying any actual words.
As she gains more control over her body, Wei also wants to take control over her environment. When I walk with her in my arms, she turns her upper body forward (same direction as where we're walking) and one arm is always out ready to grab things. She can never just sit when we're on the couch. She wiggles toward the coffee table (where Kai's toys are) or, if there's a toy on the couch, she pushes off on her legs and leaps forward to get it. She wants to do everything herself. Since the first time we tried feeding her rice cereal, she's always wanted to grab the spoon to feed herself at meal time, and she now knows the spoon I gladly put in her hand to keep her from grabbing the one in my hand is not the feeding spoon. She watches us eat and knows her food is different. She's not interested in being fed pureed banana with breast milk. she wants to squeeze a piece of banana in her hand and lick it off her fingers. Last night when Kai and I were having some fruit after dinner, Wei snatches a few wedges of a mandarin orange out of my hands and started licking them and sucking on them, all the while making this chuckling sound. This is a baby who can't wait to grow up. She doesn't know how to drink from her sippy cup, yet she's gets excited drinking (well, more like licking) water out of a glass. She worms her way out of our arms because she wants to sit by herself and play like her big brother. However, if Kai's playing by the coffee table, she wants to be supported upright so she can stand by the table, just like he does. She has the attention span of a fruit fly with her own age-appropriate joys. She may smack them a few times, or she may chew on them for a couple of seconds. Inevitably they all get swept away, shoved aside, abandoned. On the other hand, when she gets a hold of one of her big brother's toys, she squeals with delight and takes her time manipulating and examining it carefully and closely. She gets this "Oooo.... So this is what big kids' toys are all about" look on her face, and she won't let go unless it's taken away (which doesn't take long in most cases, especially when Kai's home).
Similar to her peers, Wei is like a mad scientist (hard not to see her as one with her Einstein hair-do) conducting endless experiments all day long. She pays close attention to the object she has in her hands, be it a tag, a toy car, a book, or the telephone. She watches intently as she crumbles, squeezes, stretches, folds, tastes, pats, pushes, smacks, turns, or throws the object and waits to see what happens next. When she's not playing with a toy, her favorite past time is to study her own hands. She turns her wrist to the left and to the right, she watches as she opens and closes her hands, she slowly moves different fingers in different ways, or she puts both hands together in different ways. I love observing her play (and take pictures, of course). Sometimes she stops to look at me when she's played with a toy for a while, and she has this "I see how it works now" look on her face that makes her look at least 6 times her actual age.
It's a good thing that Wei has an older sibling to learn things from. I honestly believe it will save her a lot of frustration (and possibly injuries) given how hands-on and fearless she is. She really enjoys playing alongside her big brother, and she wants the same (kind of) toys she has. If he's playing with cars, she wants cars. If it's blocks he's playing with, she wants to have a couple in front of her as well. As soon as she's mobile, she'll be following him everywhere!! She's even tried to jump out of my arms now to catch him when she sees him running away from us. Maybe, just like her big brother, Wei won't crawl much at all. She'll go from sitting straight to standing and cruising to walking. After all, the faster she learns it, the earlier she gets to have more fun with Kai. And I don't doubt for a minute that Wei knows it too.
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