Chase Update

So what's new with our littlest? Well, for starters, she's not so little anymore.

She's incredibly easy going. She is happy about 99.99999% of the time, laughing and clapping all day long. She loves adventure. Leaving the apartment makes her so happy, it's like she can't wait to see where we're going this time. She has a basic understanding of the word, "no," although she often chooses to forget what it means.

She loves to hide on the right side of our couch. Well, okay, not really hide. She lies on a cushion I set beside the couch, and is totally quiet, until I "find" her, at which point she giggles uncontrollably. It's the cutest thing in the world.

Her favorite toys are still musical instruments. She loves electrical devices. She pounds on laptops (if given the chance), sucks on mobile phones and bangs the remote controls on the table. She doesn't think much about stuffed animals and spends very little time with them. She is an absolute book worm. I have set up little "stations" around the house - and she'll just crawl over to the books, pull them down from where they sit, and page through them. I've caught her thumbing through my Chinese dictionary more than once. To my delight, she does not try to rip out pages anymore.

She also has a little cooking set with stainless steel pots and pans. When I'm cooking in the kitchen, she bangs the pots and pans together. I look forward to being able to cook with her when she gets older.

She is now wearing larger clothes (12-28 mo. depending on brand); her feet are almost 5" long. I can't believe she can fit into PJs that are size 2T. Seriously, she's going to be super tall. Shocker!

Her mandarin is coming along nicely. She loves her tutor. And speaking of languages, I heard about a French school that's located nearby, so I'm going to look into a French tutor for her. How great it would be for her to grow up with three languages - right from the start. It would open so many doors.

She still loves banana, papaya, mango and kiwi. She also likes pasta, grains, pumpkin and spinach. She enjoys yogurt, mixed with Tahini, brewers yeast, wheat germ and grains. She also likes toast with melted cheese (who doesn't?). Pretty soon she'll get to try strawberries, honey and peanut butter (not together, of course). Yummy!

It's pretty amazing watching her grow up. We are so blessed.