All By Yourself

Magdalena has recently started doing some new things "All By You-SEFF!" (as she likes to say).

Last Thursday, St. Patrick's Day (March 17), she walked down our large staircase by herself - facing forward, on her feet! I was right in front of her, and have held her hand doing this several times before, but this day I let go and she took to it like a pro. Though now I am a bit concerned, as she no longer will stand at the top of the stairs and say "Dow-staihs" to get someone to help her - she'll just go for it! (As an aside, she has been walking UP the same stairs facing forward on her feet for about a month now. She holds on to the wall going both ways to steady herself. There have been many times where we have said "Where's Magdalena?" only to discover her jumping on the bed in our room upstairs, climbing up there without anyone's noticing!)

Also, Magdalena has been jumping for about two months now - since late January. She'll jump on the trampoline, the couch, the bed, and more recently (maybe 4 weeks?) just on the floor - both feet off the ground and getting about 3 or more inches of air! It's pretty amazing. I don't remember how old Lucia was exactly when she learned to jump on the floor by herself, but I know for a fact that it was not before at least 18 months.

Magdalena has become a playground pro! She has been running down small slopes, like the sidewalk or driveway (or the steep hill in Australia) for over three months now, but recently she has started doing the slide thing all by herself. She'll climb up the stairs, go to the slide, sit down, say "ready, set, GO!" and slide down. She generally lands on her feet, and does it all over again. Even if she slips to her bottom at the end, she'll bounce right back up and still do it again. And she can ride the little teeter totter horse all by herself now - no need to hold her anymore!

Magdalena also loves to read books. She'll frequently sit down with a book and just start babbling to herself as she turns the pages. She has so many words, I have completely lost count - she can basically repeat anything that is said to her. She answers correctly when my parents ask her what color certain Thomas the Trains are over Skype (Yellow!). She strings together two or three words (light on, PEESE!), and can tell you what all the pictures are in her Bright Baby books. She can sing the alphabet, though she usually likes to pick up where you leave off - especially the "QRSTUV" part. As the ayi would say, she is "hen cong ming!"

Finally, Magdalena can now count to ten in Chinese! Our ayi taught her, and she'll say "yi, ar, san, su, wu, liu, chi, ba, jiu, shi" with the best of them now! I was floored when she started doing this to me on the changing table the other day - I knew she could count to three, but once I did the first three numbers, she just kept going! She seems to especially like saying liu, chi, ba, and jiu - much like her big sister.

At 17 months (and 10 days) Magdalena was 33.5 inches tall. She grew 3 and a half inches since she turned one. Amazing!


Here is a picture of Magdalena riding the Horse at the playground, while Lucia occupies the Duck:

From Blog All Four

Movie of Magdalena running dow
Another movie of Magdalena on the slide: