RIP Gracie

Yesterday, a beautiful angel left us.  Her name was Gracie.  She lived in the London area, and she was almost 18 months old.

My heart breaks for this sweet and beautiful girl.  She just lit up my screen whenever I looked at her photos.  She had a great appetite for life and delicious food, including chocolate.  This little tiny girl…  left us too soon.

Rolling over… for real

Niko can finally roll over.  She did this five times yesterday.  It's not easy.  It's definitely a bit of a struggle.  She can roll onto her back from her stomach now.  The look on her face goes from super pissed to super proud.

In the middle of cheering and jumping up and down, I managed to get this on video.

 

My mom, the baby whisperer

My mother has her special ways with Niko.  For some reason, she is able to help Niko learn skills.  I have tried, in all the ways I know, to teach Niko some basic communication skills for two years.  I can't even get Niko to reach out to me when I extend my hands to her.

But my mother comes to visit twice a week and performs magic with her.  Niko learned to blow kisses from her.  She learned Peek-a-boo from my mom.  She learned to rock her body side to side to ask for singing from my mom.  She learned to shake hands as part of a song, exactly on cue, which my mother also taught her.  And now she has learned to clap her hands on demand.

Maybe Niko doesn't like English or Cantonese.  My mother speaks to her in Mandarin.  Since I am only fluent in Cantonese, here is a video of my asking Niko to clap, in my pathetic Mandarin.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Today is Niko's 2nd birthday.

We had a small picnic for her at a park yesterday with about 10 people.  I forgot to take photos but I think that's a good sign.  I was too busy having fun.  She is definitely more alert and aware now.  She seemed to know that we were all there for her.  And when we sang Happy Birthday, she grinned from ear to ear.

She really does seem different to me.  She's made some noticeable changes lately.

Starting with the physical, her hair has become more brown.  Her eyes have turned brown instead of the slate gray-ish blue that they once were.
She now gets stranger anxiety and doesn't like when strangers (or even friends we've known for a while) get close to her face.  She used to absolutely LOVE interacting with people, strangers included.  I hope this is a phase.
She can join in clapping when there is applause around her.  This is so very cute.

And now for my favourite!  She can give kisses.  I just melt when she does this.



When I stopped to take a photo of her today to mark her 2nd birthday, a leaf fell on her head.  It was so perfect.

I love this girl!

I'm so attached to this girl, it's beyond normal.  Sometimes I want to lift her out of bed while she's sound asleep at night, just to hold her.  

I'm so crazy about her I can taste it in the back of my throat.  Many times, I squeeze her so tight hoping that her scent would envelop my body and hopefully linger on me for the rest of my life.  

She loves throwing her head back.  She's so trusting.  If I don't catch her…. yikes!