Making Soup

Chinese New Year holiday week is here and I have to tell you being around all day with Blake is a lot of fun!

For months his main focus has been taking stuff out of other stuff. His absolute favorite was to pull all the tissues out of the box, but he also enjoyed taking nappies out of the basket, pulling books off the bookshelf, grabbing toys out of the basket, pulling pots and pans off the shelf, getting cans out of the pantry, taking socks out of the drawer, etc, etc, you get the picture.

In the last few weeks, Blake has begun to put things into other things. This is exciting because it might mean our house looks less like a small bomb has gone off in the toy area by Sunday night. Today I watched him take a photo of me from when I was a kid off the ledge, have a look at it and then put it back. Well, he tried to put it back, but his efforts actually knocked everything else of the ledge too. His heart's in the right place.

Today he carried a pot around the lounge all afternoon and from time to time put stuff like toys into it. Here he is making golf ball and Chinese Lantern Soup. We had it for dinner and it was delicious.

Toys

I had a bath with Blake tonight which is becoming more and more fun every week.
We went through a time where the bath was quite a dangerous place. He was fascinated by the hot water taps, kept banging his head on the overhanging spout and just didn't have the motor control to do all the things he wanted. Plus the wriggliest boy on Earth kept falling under the water.
Now, it's all about the splashing. And Blake must love the acoustics in the bathroom because he 'talks' loudly and continuously.
These days he sits up or stands safely, splashes, talks and enjoys himself a great deal.
And just recently he became interested in bath toys - to play with not to eat. Hands down, his favorite is a little red watering can we bought in Sanya.

This little beauty can do many wonderful things - if you slap it against the water, it makes great splashes, it's small enough to hold in your hand and chuck it across the bath tub and then chase it and you can fill it up with water and pour it out again and again and again.
This got me thinking about Blake's other favorite toys and I decided to keep track of his favorites. These are some of the things he is loving right now.

My almost one year old baby loves all balls including golf balls and squishy balls, but this one must be just the right size and weight, because he will play with it and chase after it for ages! Our lovely ayi, Ling Ling, gave it to him.

Blake still loves books - the baby faces book has been a favourite for months, calming him down and entertaining him in some pretty desperate times. The Who Loves Baby books have pictures of himself in them, which he adores and the little alphabet set were handed down from two girls downstairs and they seem to fit perfectly in his little hands.

The trolley was another hand me down from our friends the Toas and he is always happy pushing that trolley and those cans around the apartment. Without the trolley he can take a few steps from hand to hand, or cruise around the furniture, but with the trolley he is free to go wherever he likes and he loves it!