Leng Zhua

In the new year of the DOG.. I introduce to you... Mr Ace Chua LENG ZHUA...

Loosely translated, "leng zhua" means 'DRAGON SNAKE' in hokkien.

And how did that come about?

It seems that Ace is starting to be more and more curious about his surroundings. At the same time, he is not contented to just stay in your arms anymore. He would like to wriggle here and there when you carry him and he will wriggle himself left, right, centre when he is on the mattress too... just like a worm...

But I think it could also be because Daddy is born in the year of the Dragon and Mummy in the year of the Snake... so he may have morphed into a Dragon Snake lately.. that is why he is wriggling around so much.. so whenever he starts to wriggle, I will call him LENG ZHUA.. hahahaha....

Other than that.. he has also started to PERFORM a a variety of stunts...

His latest stunt is to use his hands to push himself backwards so that half is body is on the floor and the other half is on the mattress... and somehow, he has a special penchant for 'drains'... he will push his two mattresses apart and try to wriggle into the hole in between..

He has also learnt to move from a sitting position (he can sit very steadily for a very long time now...) into a semi kneeling position.. I

have been encouraging that aspect by putting his toys out of reach so that he can barely reach them...

He can now put his body in various strange positions (see below pics)

Daddy is also training him for crawling by giving him a little support... we put a toy out of his reach and encourage him to go get it.. and then we put our legs behind his so tat he can leverage on it and push himself forward...

After reunion dinner that day, we tried to do tat a few times.. by the 3rd time.. he was so tired... and just 1cm away from his goal.. he just lay his head down and rested :) So we encouraged him on... he used his GU NI LAT and finally got it ;) We were so proud of him...

We realized that when he is concentrating on doing things, smiling... and just sitting there, he has very different expressions and looks very different...

Instead of putting things into his mouth ALL THE TIME.. he has proceeded to put things into his mouth half the time.. the other half of the time, he uses his hands to wave it and hit it on the table.. or chair.. or on himself... and it is a HUGE wonder to me and Daddy that he feels no pain at all when he does tat :) hahahah...

Verbal wise... he has also proceeded quite a fair bit... from making random sounds.. Ace is already starting to make repeated sounds...

Eg, last week.. he was doing "Mamamama..." when he wants milk.. and "Papapapa.. babababa.." when he wants to play... but as of yesterday.. he has been doing "tatatata... dadadada...." for no rhyme or reason...

He cant also *hug* people when you ask him to "Hug hug Yeye... " or "hug hug mummy..."

Shall keep you updated about more stunts from Mr Leng Zhua Chua.. hahaha ;)