Verbal Abilities

I read a magazine recently and it stated that by 18 months, the babies should have at least a vocabulary of 15 words. Did a count of some of the words that Ashley said meaningfully and its more than 15! She has started to use two words like "I want". Her linguistic ability far exceeds her brother at the same age. Hehe, partly because her brother was kinda late in the speech department. Well, this is scientifically proven too as gals tend to develop faster than boys in this area. At the same time, her gross motor and fine motor skills are much stronger too compared to her brother. We think its partly because Ashley is a daredevil. She started to walk down the stairs with her hand on the side of the wall at about 15 months and finally master it at 16 months. Boy, she is really like a boy at times! In terms of fine motor skills, her fingers are extremely adept at opening all kinds of bags, containers etc. And the trait that we witnessed many times - she refused to give up! While Ashton will whine and tell you he cannot do something and wants you to help, Meimei will try and try and try. When she is convinced that she cant do it with this method, she will start to think of an alternative method. An example, she saw something on the dining table but she can't reach it. She would pushed the chair to a certain angle that its easy for her to climb onto the chair and from the chair, she would be able to get hold of the item. That's how determined she is, never mind the roundabout way.

So, is it good or bad? I do not know. On one hand, we are very glad that she seems independent, on the other, we will like her to be more demure, less fierce, less combat-mode. No one is perfect, of course no baby is perfect too! WE love her the way she is, despite some complains from our parents (haha, they all agree meimei is very fierce!)