Hello Manila, Look how Raya's Grown

In a few days' time (I can count them with my fingers), Raya and I will be visiting Manila. I'm sad that my husband is unable to make the trip with us, but happy that Raya can visit with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and relatives on both sides of the family.

We will be gone for two months. This will be a dual purpose trip: we will be seeing family and friends, and we will be missing winter in Wellington! Hurray for that last bit :)

Raya is now nearly 22 months. She's walking like a pro and running quite well. Her vocabulary has improved tremendously, and she has just started stringing words into phrases the past two weeks. She only used to be able to say "My name is Raya" for the longest time. Lately, we have caught her saying "Here I am", "There you are", "Am okay Mom", and "Where are You". She has so many cute antics and sometimes she just amazes us with what she has picked up. The most effort I put in, is reciting the alphabet and counting numbers with her. And I sing a lot of the songs she likes. Other than that, she seems to have picked up most of her learning from my husband's nightly reading to her and from watching Playhouse Disney (the only channel she is allowed to watch, because it is slow paced and repetitive- thus, less danger of her getting a short attention span).

Here are some other funny things she's picked up.
1- She suddenly came up to me, sat on my lap, squeezed my nose and said HOOOONK loudly. It was only later that I saw that Jojo (a clown) frequently does this on the cartoon Jojo's circus. Raya also takes any big-gish ball or balloon and sits on it, or uses it to bounce around. Just like Jojo does.

2- She loves the Wiggles now. She didn't used to be able to appreciate them, but as she got older, her response to their music has been amazing. She wiggles her butt like Wags the dog, she says the animal sounds on their songs, and flaps her arms like a duck to the Quack Quack Quack song. Lately, she's taken to coming up to my husband and I when one of us is just about ready to fall asleep--- then shaking us awake, saying "Jeff, Jeff, Jeff!". Then she laughs. Jeff is one of the Wiggles, and he is always either sleeping too much, or trying to sleep. The other Wiggles are often trying to wake him up. I guess Raya gets a kick out of doing the same to us.

3- She dances the statue dance all by herself. When she hears fast music, she goes into this kind of jiggy- feet stamping wildly fast and arms jiggling while repeatedly saying "dance, dance, dance"---- then suddenly yelling FREEZE. Then she would still her whole body, her arms would be frozen in midair but she's be smiling. So funny.

She continually amazes us with her little milestones. Let's talk about this picture on my blog of Raya eating messily taken 5 months ago. Now she is much less messy when eating, and if the food is "easy to eat with a spoon", she doesn't make a mess at all. We have never forbidden her to make a mess; but we were very vocal about her throwing unwanted food on the floor though. Now, she personally hands us her plate with any unwanted food inside. The bit about trying to keep the mess down: I guess she learned it from observing us eat.

She also has some regular friends now. The most regular one being a boy who is 2 months older than her- Jack. They frequently play together in the park, or we are playing at their place, or they are visiting with us. Thus far, Raya still plays nicely. I hope she keeps it up and doesn't start hitting or throwing things when she gets older. She surprises me sometimes when she walks to a crying child and pats him on the arm, or gives him a hug. I also wonder when she picked up that behavior.

Yet she is no pushover either. I frequently watch her with Jack. Being a boy he is sometimes rough and misjudges his strength. He takes a toy that Raya was playing with, or he wants to go somewhere and he grabs her hand. Of course I am on guard just in case she gets dragged or pushed, as Jack is a little bigger and taller than she is. But I watch her stand her ground, push back, she doesn't let go of the toy when he grabs it, or she pulls hard when he tries to take her cookie (and sometimes she wins, too). When Jack pulls her to go somewhere, she pulls back if she wants to go another way and half the time, Jack goes where she wants. Jack's mom is amazed too, at how Raya is tough like a boy but is still a sweet girl. I like Raya having a regular friend- I learn so much from both of them and from Jack's mom too.

I'm sure Raya will miss Jack while we are gone. She already knows Jack's house and yells Jack when we pull up their driveway in our pram. Jack is the same: he's yelling Raya even as they are still on the street across from the park. Then they run to meet each other and take each other's hand.

Here are some things that Raya likes now:
1- Blocks, especially the giant ones
2- Trampolines and Jumping - because she can't jump yet, and has been trying for months now. The closes she's come to jumping is bouncing on the blowup tramps.
3- Junglerama, Chipmunk, Lollipop Land, and other indoor playcenters - she is an active child who likes to run around and go down slides, roll around in the ball pit and such
4- Crayons, coloring, and doodling. She just scribbling, really. But she loves it anyway.