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| My naughty-but-nice little Maia :) |
My Maia is now 1 year and 9 months old. And since my last post ("My Baby's New Tricks"), she has improved in leaps and bounds! Though she does not seem to be as talkative as other toddlers her age, she surprises us by blurting out words all of a sudden.
Random words like "hi", "carpet", "milk", "daddy", "circle", "scarf", "bubbles", "hat", "barney" of course, and so many others...
She can also identify colors like blue, red, yellow, green, orange, purple, black, pink, white and brown.
She says the phrase: "Bye! See you soon!"...and occasionally lets out a "Uh-Oh!" and "Oops!"
She also knows and recites the entire alphabet:
A - apple or acorn
B - baby or ball
C - cat or cow
D - dog or duck
E - egg
F - fish
G - goat
H - hat
I - ice cream or igloo
J - jump
K - kite
L - lion (though not really clear)
M - mommy or mouse
N - no, nose or nest
O - owl (her favorite word and the one she recites the loudest!)
P - purple (but sometimes, she says something entirely different that I cannot seem to comprehend)
Q - (same goes for this letter...hehehe)
R - rabbit (though, she isn't able to really pronounce the "rrr" and says "abbit" instead)
S - sun
T - turtle
U - up
V - vase
W - (she can be saying something in german here, for all i know..haha)
X - (maybe french this time)
Y - (italian?)
Z - zebra (actually..."eebra" is more like it)
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| Maia doing one of her favorite pastimes...stacking blocks! This is her first set bought from the Discovery Channel Store in San Francisco by her Auntie Ann |
She can count from 1 to 13, then 16 & 18.
Whenever she goes for her regular afternoon stroll just outside our house, she tries to "show-off" by reading the license plates of cars parked in the vicinity.
Lately, she has also been "attempting" to read her books ALONE. Whenever I try to read her books for her, she just looks away and shields the book from me. Sometimes I hear her "pretending" to read out loud and say incomprehensible things. But, more often than not, I hear actual words because she would be identifying the pictures that she sees.
Already, she is able to identify different parts of the body from her book, "Toes, Ears and Nose" by Karen Katz...words like "eyes", "nose", "elbow", "ears", "knees", "back", "toes", etc.
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| Mommy & Maia enjoy bonding over the latter's ever-growing book collection |
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| Even the catalogue from TOY KINGDOM isn't spared! |
But it doesn't stop there! What I LOVE the most is Maia's ability to spell out "MOMMY", "DADDY", "FROG", "DOG", "CAT", "PIG", the brandname of her toy chest, "IBOX", as well as the metropolitan city of "CEBU". She spells these words out first, very carefully and deliberately saying each letter, and then afterwards stressing and pronouncing the words as if she were in a spelling bee. This, she does, without any TV, book or whatever around. Perhaps, she already memorized how those words were spelled? I don't see how that matters actually. The fact remains, she SPELLED them.
Our neighbors have been telling us to have Maia checked or her IQ measured. They're also speculating that she may be gifted or a genius since, they said, they have not seen any child under 2 years of age do the things that Maia is now starting to do. These "well-meaning" people have even suggested that we already enroll Maia in a class for gifted toddlers. That we should act fast for, if not, Maia's "sharpness" will eventually "dull itself out".
I just graciously smiled and listened...but in my mind, it was more like "Huh? But my Maia is not even 2 years old! I still want to play with her! And for her to enjoy playing and savor her youth!"
I'm actually flattered by all the attention on Maia by our "friendly neighbors". But I personally think it's best to just leave things as is. At least, for now. I mean, I don't want to stress Maia this early on. Besides, she has yet to learn to really talk to us and communicate and express her feelings. And, I did read somewhere that it is between the age of 1 and 3 where the capacity to learn and really absorb new experiences really takes place and at such a fast rate. So, I'm not really worried.
I mean, when the proper time comes, I'LL KNOW when it's time to have Maia's level of intelligence "measured". I do not need to be "bullied" into things especially when it comes to my daughter's well-being. For now, my plan is to continue playing with my baby, reading to her, watching child-friendly and educational shows and videos with her. Just loving her and being there for her every step of the way.
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| Maia drawing/writing using her MagicSketcher...a gift from Grandpa Ver & Grandma May |
