Our little social butterfly
Cherise's aversion to strangers has been a source of stress to me for quite some time. We first realised our little girl was different when a stranger came up to her when she was just two months old, and her little mouth turned upside down. We thought, "Babies of this age aren't supposed to feel stranger anxiety," but that's our little girl for you. Doesn't take well to new places and new people. She does terribly in large family gatherings - well, in not-so-large family gatherings too. I recognise that every baby is different, but I couldn't help but wish that she weren't so extreme and intense in her dislike of strangers who aren't quite strangers - aka extended family members.
But it's been getting better. Just yesterday at church, she surprised us by hugging people that she's never interacted with much before. And today when we went to visit Adrian's grandmother and aunt, she did her usual crying thing for ten minutes, and then warmed up considerably, so that by the end of the visit, she was hugging and kissing everyone and didn't want to leave.
I'm so thankful she's becoming more sociable. I know she's loved lots by our extended family, and it must have been hard for them when she wouldn't even tolerate them looking at her. And I feel thankful too, that they didn't stop loving her, even going to extreme measures like using a mirror to catch her antics since she wouldn't let them look at her directly.
Our water baby
Cherise loves swimming! We all had to attend Adrian's command family day at the Civil Service Club at Bukit Batok, which I wasn't keen on going to actually (having better things to do like sleep in on a Saturday morning!), but we decided to make the best of it. We brought her swimming gear (and Adrian's too) so she could play a while in the pool.
Here are some pictures of her frolicking in the water. The pictures aren't too good since silly me forgot to bring the camera. She's wearing her new swimsuit for the first time!
I was really regretting not bringing my swim gear along. She was having so much fun and I could only stand by the edge and take photos. Vain lah - didn't want people to see me in a swimsuit. Anyway, we'll be visiting the club more often as Adrian managed to get one year's membership free of charge. It's so near our place and we really like the pools - there are many different small pools there, even a water slide!
Baby likes nursery!
She's really taken to the nursery programme at church. Of course she still has to be accompanied by Larlar so she doesn't cry, but she likes the environment and enjoys the activities. She came back this week with this:
It's supposed to be a boat. With pictures of animals stuck on it (teacher did it, of course). Noah's ark. Cute eh? Cherise likes her boat, and will point to the different animals, naming them and making their sounds. I think we should start enrolling her in some playgroup soon. Maybe when Babyloh No. 2 arrives, so at least it ensures I block out some alone time with Cherise.
Well, that's all we have at the moment. Here's a lovely pic of Cherise to end off - she's at the playground in our HDB cluster. I've finally relaxed my dirt-and-germs rule. I figure she's old enough now and well, like my mother says, a little bit of dirt won't kill!
2 comments:
Cherise is really growing up huh! Can just imagine her as a big sister already! Isn't it wonderful how God is preparing her step by step even as He is preparing you and Adrian for baby no.2 to arrive? :)
yes! i was really worried at the start, but it seems that God is preparing the way. Cherise is sleeping through the night now - something that we tried so hard to get her to do but couldn't and eventually she did on her own! God's blessing.
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