Little R Is Fourteen Months Old

At the park

Wading in the Malaysian ocean

Beach at Pulau Tioman

At the park, again

Playing at school

Little R on one of her many restaurant visits

Try making some art!

Nope, still hates it

Currently little R is an unfailing source of joy for me. I definitely have my moments with her (the way she breaks everything of mine that's precious--latest victim: my smartphone; the way she will never leave me alone, even in the bathroom, her screaming fits of rage), but quite honestly at least once every day she fills my whole being with joy and delight, not because she does anything especially remarkable, but because she exists and at least for now is mine. I still love B most, but that's an adult relationship and thus full of complex emotions, compromise, negotiation, expectation and passion; things with little R are refreshingly simple.

Developments this month are both good and bad. They include:

--more talking (she says "OK" (mostly as a question, when she wants something) and "Oh wow" (when something is especially remarkable in some way). Hearing her little baby voice say "Oh wow!" is super duper cute. A couple nights ago she said this while pointing out the beautiful and really quite spectacular sunset, which pleased me because I thought it showed she is developing an aesthetic sense.
--more physical dexterity. She walks with great skill, and can run, climb, step over holes or objects, and arrange objects to create stepstools for herself. She has just learned how to climb onto the furniture, including her child-size Ikea chair. It's really cute when she sits in it reading her books.
--interest in putting things in containers. She is obsessed with this. Sometimes it's bad (when I find she has put her toys or other objects in the trash cans), but mostly it's very cute. Occasionally she will even tidy up her toys by putting them away (sadly, this has only happened a few times)!
--feeding herself with a spoon. She has finally succeeded at this, although since she's still not very adept, it makes a huge mess. Cute though.
--She can also drink from a cup unassisted. I found this out when she took B's coffee cup off the end table, drank some, and then put it back, while I was busy doing dishes. I only noticed because she spilled a small amount on the table; then I inspected her and realized her breath smelled like coffee. Sneaky!
--mostly only taking one nap/day. She still sometimes takes two though, which drives me crazy, as I prefer a consistent schedule (for myself, because then I can plan my day better).
--having fits of rage when her desires are thwarted. She will scream with anger, hit things with her little fists and stomp her feet. A few times she has thrown things; once she tried to bite me (it was a half-hearted attempt and she did not succeed, so I just ignored it). So far she has not had a full-on tantrum (the fit never lasts more than a couple minutes), so I suppose I have that to look forward to. I deal with them so far by sympathizing with her and discussing how much she wants to do the forbidden activity, and how angry/frustrated/sad she must be, while holding her (this doubles as a restraining technique=useful).

Discipline is still limited to removing her from the forbidden object/area, distracting her, saying "no", and telling her what she's supposed to do, as she still is very interested in pleasing us. Supposedly around 18 months is when I will have to get tougher, so I still have some time left to decide on my methods/approach (I am still struggling with this).

Nicknames: Fur, ZiZi, Furble
Temperament: Full of enthusiasm, well-balanced, cheerful, determined
Things I Could Do Without: You are into everything, all the time. Left to your own devices, you can turn a clean room into a disaster zone in just a few minutes. And you seem to have some sort of superpower, enabling you to find any remotely attainable sharp/poisonous/dangerous object immediately, even when it's not visible to the average (adult) human.
Item/Toy We Love the Most: Your books. I love buying you books, so I keep doing it even though they cost twice as much here and I should wait until we visit the US. I bought you another bookshelf to contain the ever-growing collection.
Item/Toy You Love the Most: Tie between the elephant feely and your books. Your favorites at the moment: Where Is Baby's Mommy?, Five Little Monkeys, I Am a Bunny and Sasek's This Is Hong Kong.
Things I'm Loving Most Right Now: Making you laugh; "discussing" what we see on walks (we take turns pointing things out to each other); watching you play
Things You're Loving Most Right Now: Climbing; when your parents do what you tell them to; putting things in containers; going out of the house, for pretty much any reason
Foods You Like: Mangoes (your favorite), tomatoes, veal sausages, Cheerios, rice. You love most fruit and mildly dislike most vegetables (you will eat them, but only if there's nothing better on offer). 
Sounds/Words: Dada, mama, no, okay, oh wow!, lookalook (when pointing things out)