Faith

It has been a really long while since I last sat down to blog. It has been a hectic one month ever since I returned from London and this weekend, I finally get to take a breather.

It is amazing how time just flies. In the one month, Faith has gone through a rapid transformation from being our "baby" to a girl who now not only understands every thing we say to her, but who has also continually surprised us with her little achievements.

Close to a month ago, Eve had bought a Bruin Bear Light and Sound activity cube shape sorter. It is essentially a toy which allows Faith to match the shape and colour of the blocks for insertion into the container.

Initially, Faith did not seem that keen on the toy and this thing about matching the shapes did not seem to really keep her interest. Instead, she was keener on using the toy phone that was attached to the toy. I had however, occasionally sat down with her just to show her how to insert the blocks - from the easy shapes to the more advanced cubes which were multi-faceted.

A week thereabouts transpired since I last sat down with her and the cubes as I had come late almost every day of last week. Yesterday thus, I was actually quite amazed when she was able to sort out the toys and inserted the all eight blocks into the matching holes with no prompting or direction.

Eve too was quite shocked as she had only thought that Faith was able to insert the circular block (the easiest block), but had no idea that Faith was now able to tackle the rest of the blocks - even the more complicated flowery and crescent shapes ones.

Both Eve and I have a lot of reasons to be proud of Faith. Faith has grown to be a caring and affectionate girl who never fails to smile when she picks our faces from the crowd, or who runs to the door with the key whenever she sees me at the doorstep. And with less and less prompting, she is now initiating her own hugs, byes-byes and goodbye kisses to for example, my mum and dad whenever she leaves their home over the weekend.

Where we used to have to nudge her to "hug and kiss nai nai and ye ye", she now runs to them to hug them, before she makes her way out of the door. Occasionally, she still needs a reminder to look at people when she waves good bye - especially when she is preoccupied with a toy, but all it takes is for us to chide her once before she does the right thing.

Just today, we had Cherry and Terence over for dinner. And both Eve and I were extremely proud of Faith. Not only did she really behave herself at the dinner table, she also listened when told for example, to eat with her spoon, or to return the watch to Aunty Cherry, or to pack up her toys.

Eve and I speak to her like an adult and amazingly, she understands our every sentence. We now do not even gesture like we used to have to - for example, we used to have to point to the toy basket to signal for her to keep her toys - now we just speak to her, as if she were a grown-up girl.

Indeed, sometimes, Eve and I are secretly sad of how fast our little baby is growing up. In the past, where she used to cry when we left her with my mum and dad, she now waves her goodbyes to us whenever we leave her there.

When I take her aside to discipline her, you can tell she feels hurt and is aware that she has crossed the line. When I ask for her help to set the IKEA table and to help me with the chairs, she now just pulls out all three chairs without any further prompting. And when I ask if she wants water, it is always either an emphatic no or yes. And at night, before her bedtime, her routine of brushing, wiping down, kissing us before she sleeps, and waving to me "goodbye" comes so natural to her now that it was as all this is now effortless.

In no time, our little baby has grown up to be someone we communicate with just as we would talking to an adult or teen. And Faith is all of 19 months.

What Eve and I are sure of, we will continue to give Faith all the love that we can so that she in turn grows up to be a confident and loving girl. I am sure we will miss the babyish side of Faith, but we are also proud that Faith has come so far in so little time.