The shot was not staged.

Like mother like daughter. Apparently Mia has already taken after her Mom with a slight shoe addiction. Guess I should just be thankful she didn't go straight for the Prada. Daddy better keep his day job.

After her previous conquests in typing, Mia has been focused on her reading skills. She subscribes to that old "a picture's worth a thousand words" theorem. Besides, the text gets rather dull after Mommy and Daddy have read it ten thousand times. So just a brief flip through the illustrations ought to do it.

A bright sunny holiday morning meant one thing... time to play.

Jumpingjack Mia turns 9 months old today. She has clocked in at 8kg and 69.5cm. Here is a look back at the last 29 action-packed days. For the grandmas with their tally sheets out, the firsts for this month include:

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climbing the obstacle course at the local play area



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first Italian cuisine: mom's homemade lasagna mash



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first Indian cuisine: curried lentils



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first word: ma-ma... and Dad's still smarting from this one



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holding her bottle by herself... and even getting 90% in her mouth!



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putting herself to sleep... well sort of, usually after an extended period of hysterics and jumping in the crib



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skillfully turns pages of her books... faster than mom or dad can read



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seeking out hidden toys



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cruising... especially around any area we've deemed off limits



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standing alone momentarily



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understands the meaning of "NO"... and chooses to ignore it with a big grin

Fortunately Mia loves to eat just about anything (maybe her Chinese heritage showing a bit?). One of her favorites is just good old plain unsweetened yogurt- the kind that really makes your lips pucker up and smack. Here's our little sour tart munching on her suan nai (that's yogurt in Mandarin).

Alright, it's definitely debatable as to when the literal first word actually came out: I guess "Ma" was probably late last month, and "Mama" originated some time within the lat week or so. What's not up for debate is that mama was definitely the first word. Given that it's basically the same pronunciation in all four languages, we're still not sure if she's decided to start with English, Spanish, Mandarin, or Cantonese. :)

There's been a lot of construction going on outside our flat. Mom's getting tired of the constant jackhammers (audible even up on the 56th floor). So Mia figured she'd lend a helping hand and bring them some of her new blocks on her trolley to help speed things up a bit. It took several days and several outfit changes, but she finally got them there. Probably more on time and under budget than their public works project ever will be.

Footage from last night's main event.

Another friend of ours has recently opened his photography business. Raf is based in Hong Kong, and did a photo shoot earlier this month with Mia. We had a great day with him, starting at home and then moving to some outside shots in and around Repulse Bay. Mia was particularly engaged with all his gadgets. And she loved tasting all the various lens caps. The shots turned out wonderful - Thanks Raf!
Raf Sanchez Photography

Mia received a cute one-piece bathing suit from a friend and just had to go try it out. Weather is finally warming up here, so she had her first day out at the beach today. She said she could handle this anyday, but please forward all calls to her secretary.

First, a word on the title above.

We stumbled across another Hong Kong blog named Siu Ying the Small. It follows the childhood happenings of a cute girl, and the blog posts range from factual to hilarious, but very Hong Kong through and through. The parenting methods don't always mesh with a Western mentality but we thoroughly enjoy keeping up with the latest adventures of Siu Ying. (She now apparently has her own Facebook application so I guess Mia has already fallen behind the times!) So in homage to Siu Ying the Small, we figured we'd better rebrand baby Yanyan as Mia the Mini.

Mia the Mini had her passport photos taken the other day for her HK passport. And while she normally is thrilled at posing for the camera, I think she found it difficult to strike a pose with such a boring white background. So she has a cute, but very serious attitude! She's all business here. ;)

Mia loves new. Anything new catches her attention, and stuff becomes old news quite fast. She is especially fascinated by new textures- so we thought we'd introduce her to a childhood favorite.