After Eleni was born on June 22nd of 1998, she was very curious, looking around constantly as if she were searching for something.
After six days, mother was able to produce milk, or to put it in other words, she was able to suck the milk out of mother.
She could turn herself over at three months old, pronounce "Dada", "Mama" sound at four months old. Only until eight months old she really could understand what Dada and Mama mean.
She could sit up at five months old. She picked up the easiest one among Chinese, English and Greek to say, but she could understand all three of them for one thing at five months old, i.e. she could say "ball" when you said "Qiou(2) Qiou(2)" in Chinese and "Mpalla" (Barla) in Greek. And she could say "Gyalia" when you said "Yian(2) Jing(4)" in Chinese and "Glasses" in English.
She could make a great laughter as if she understood what was funny about, at six months old. And she also started to "sing" when adults played the keyboard. Her favorite song was "row the boat". When she wanted you to sing this song, she would say, "row row" and grab your hands at the same time to row.
She could crawl at about seven months old and started to pull herself up at eight months old. And she also started to grow her first two teeth.
She started eating finger food at nine months old.
At ten months old, she could push the cart walking around, although she still needed the support to walk. She also could climb into a tricycle by herself.
Her first airplane ride was at eleven months old. And also she started to swim (with safety ring) in the sea (Greek Sea) at that age.
Her first steps were in grandma's house in Greece at age one.
She started to refuse being fed by adult. She insisted on feeding herself at the age of thirteen months. She could put the rings into the ring pole, but not understand the order by size.
She started to say "no", had this as a standard answer to all the questions at fourteen months old.
At age fifteen months old, she could identify eyes, nose, mouth, ears in Chinese, English and Greek, and she could count 1,2,3,5,7,8 in Chinese and count two, three, five and nine in English.
She could also say shoe, foot, shock, doll, dog, cat, bird, nose, aunt, big, ...in Chinese and bear, star, moon, pick up, Elmo, eye, mine, me, go away, car, bye, ... in English at the age of sixteen months old. She understood the concept of big vs. small. She could dance when she heard the music with strong tone at that age, she could also turn herself in circles at that age.
She started liking to read at seventeen months old. She loves to go to the Border's bookstore. She could put the stacking ring into the ring pole in the correct order by size.
She recognized the letter A,B,C,D,E,I,M,O,U,V,W,Y at eighteen months old and could say "peek a boo, mommy go, daddy go, put it down, snow, white" and could count "one, two, three, four, five" continuously in English. She also started to answer, "yes" to some questions. She understood what "no" and "yes" mean. She also began feeling attached to her stuffed animals such as bears and rabbits.
At nineteen-month old, she could put all the shapes correctly to the shape box, if you find the correct face of the shape box facing up (each face of the box contains three kind of shapes). She could put single puzzle correctly.
At twenty-month old, she could say more of two-word sentences such as "mine mommy, mommy up, thank you, Eli go, me up, no me, good" in English. She also could say "Gai(4)(cover), Bu(4) Yiao(4)(not want), Fei(1) Ji(1)(airplane), Wo(3)(me/I)" in Chinese. She became sociable; she began to greet "Hi" when she sees stranger who looks friendly. She began to understand the meaning of the number and its quantity. She also could call her own name "Eli". She could sing Barney's song: "I love you. You love me ..." She loves to watch Barney and like to watch it over and over again. She could identify the color. She could match the same color objects. She recognized more letters F, G, K, L, N, P, Q, R, S, T, Z. She also started to like drawing.
At twenty-one-month old, she could count 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 continuously in Chinese, English and Greek. She also knows all the letters from A to Z. She could say, "I love you" and more of two-word sentences such as "Two lights, Eli Puzzle, Me do, No me ..." She could imitate all kind of sounds you were making. She could recognize some of the colors such as yellow, blue, red, green ... She could recognize big letter signs on the street.
At twenty-two-month old, she could jump with two legs leaving the floor at the same time. She could sing "Twinkle, twinkle little star..." and "Row, row, row the boat..." She could identify few shapes such as square, circle and triangle.
At twenty-three-month old, she started to ask questions such as "what's that?" and "where dada?". She liked to ask a lot "Mommy, what's that?" and was eagerly waiting for an answer. If mommy said, "I don't know." she started to cry. She could recognize all the capital letters and most of the little letters. She could identify some simple words such as "No" and "TOY". She started to say in simple sentences such as, "High-chair fall down, mom hurt Pi Pi (Bottom in Chinese)". She enjoyed to play Puzzle a lot. She could put 8-piece puzzle by this age. She could recite the sentences in the book, such as "Goodnight moon" book. She could identify the color purple, orange, and white. She started to walk up stairs without hand held. She could sing a lot of songs such as "Ba Ba Black sheep...", "Clap your hands when you are happy...", "The door on the bus go open and shut...", "Itchy bitchy spider went up the water sprout...", "Ring around the roses...", "Old McDonald had a farm...", "Twinkle, twinkle little star...", "I love you, you love me..." and some Chinese songs as well. Right before her two years' birthday, she surprised us once more by being able to put 25 pieces of an American map puzzle all by herself. Mom and Dad were very surprised indeed. Mom didn't teach her how to put the puzzle, only put it herself in front of Eleni a couple of times.
About twenty-six months old, she became much more confident. She began to have imaginary play. She could tell little about what she was doing during the day. She still loved to read books. She liked to spend a lot of quite time reading books and playing kitchen in the corner of her classroom. But she would push other children away if they invaded her space. She liked to shout, " Mine!" Teacher and parents wanted to encourage her to communicate verbally. She always has her own choice of things. Her personality started to emerge. Parents were told that other children will follow her way of playing sometimes, but she never follows others!
Around two and a half years old, Eleni started to ask question "why?" continuously. The Director in Day Care Center told the parents that Eleni could take care of herself very well (she is not taken by any bully). It showed that she became very confident about herself. At this age she could identify all the colors except being confused between blue and green occasionally. She could understand three languages: English, Chinese and Greek, but mainly spoke in English. If you requested her to speak in Chinese, she would try. She could speak Chinese in sentences (although her pronunciation wasn't perfect). She could count up to 50 in English. Now parents much more emphasize on communicating their own native languages to her.
Eleni started to ask questions around 31 months old. One afternoon on the way back from my job, we were inside my van driving toward west. The sun set scenery is so beautiful that I could not help ask Eleni to look at those pink clouds. She started, "Can people go into the clouds?" I answered in disbelief that she could ask this kind of question, "Yes, if people climb mountains as high as the clouds or fly with an airplane into the clouds." "Can people fly?" asked again by Eleni. I replied with much happiness that she is really thinking, "No, people can not fly." "Why?" she continued. "Because people have no wings." I answered. "I have wings!" she replied and raised her two arms in wave motion. I asked, "Can you fly with your wings?" She answered: "No." I explained: "Only if you have wings which are so big that could hold your own weight, then you would fly!" thinking if this answer would satisfy her. She asked again, "Who started flying?" I didn't quite understand her question: "Who? You mean people or animal?" She said: "Animal." I asked again, "Start fly? Do you mean who started to fly first?" She answered, "Yes." I continued: "Birds and some of the insects flied first." Finally she stopped asking questions. That day I was overwhelmed by her questions. I really couldn't believe my baby's brain started thinking!
Eleni was 33-months old. One evening I was accompanying her to sleep. After I turned off the light, I was just started to drift off. She asked me quietly: "Mommy, what are you thinking?" I was surprised and also felt funny about the question. I answered: "Mommy is thinking to sleep." I was really so tired that I didn't want to say anything more. But on the other thought: why is she asking such a question? Does she really understand what is the thought? So I asked her in return: "What are you thinking?" She said: "Thinking of a fish!" "What kind of fish?" I asked. She said: "A blue fish." I asked: "In where?" She said: "I don't know." I continued: "Is it in a tank or in a lake?" She said: "In a lake." I couldn't believe that she just realized that besides the material world, which we are living, there is an abstract world of thinking!
Thirty-four months of age, Eleni was able to draw a complete circle, big or small. She was able to draw a face with eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair. She also could recite the children's poems in Chinese. Her Chinese improves a lot. Mom started to teach her "Tang (2) Shi (1)", the famous Tang-dynasty Chinese poems. She is not only learning the poems, but also she is asking her mom the meaning of each sentence. She could communicate daily in Chinese. She could put all the chess pieces correctly and move the pawns correctly for about two moves. She continued to ask a lot of questions such as: Who blows the wind? Where does rain come from? Who poured the rain? She could do simple additions and subtractions under ten.
Thirty-seven months old, Eleni became very talkative. She liked to use all kinds of words, which she had heard once. Her vocabulary improved tremendously. She also started to reason things and argue with you. Her creativity started to emerge and she often create her own songs. Some of them were her words, but familiar tones. Others were both her words and her tones.
At three years and two months old, Eleni was able to follow instructions given by the adult outside the locked car, remove herself from the car seat and open the locked doors.
At 3 and a half, Eleni's fine motor skills turned much finer. She could paint an object without going out of the lines. She could handle the computer mouse with much finer movements. She started to write simple numbers on a piece of paper. Her Chinese improved tremendously after our trip to China in October 2001. She speaks Chinese in her dreams now. She could recite 10 Chinese poems. She could recognize 20 Chinese characters. She performed for the first time on the stage for Christmas show as an angel in the Greek Church. She could sing "Jingle Bell" in Greek. She started Greek School in 2001. She was brought to a movie theater to watch a movie (Monster's Inc.) for the first time of her life.
At three years and 10 months old, Eleni speaks fluently English and Chinese. Understands Greek and speaks some. She started Seiskaya Ballet School two weeks ago. Now she is starting ice-skating with mom. She still asked all kinds of questions. She asked who created the people. She asked which is the richest family in the world. The questions often astonish the parents. She also said she wants to become a doctor when she grows up. When she was asked why, she said that she wanted to make the sick people feel better. She began to understand the form of speech that contains humor and enjoyed the laughter. She often requests her parents to tell jokes.
One month before Eleni's fourth birthday, she started asking more questions. She asked why she was moving toward back when mom started the car. And why she was moving forward when mom stopped the car. She also asked, "Is there a big wind outside the car?" while she noticed the rain lines on the windows of the car are inclined toward back when the car was moving forward. She asked why people could not walk on the ceiling up side down. Why the breath is hotter than her hands? Why humans have body temperature? Who sets this temperature? Why not higher or lower? Where the fruits' seeds come from in the beginning? Her mind just cannot stop thinking!
4 years of age, Eleni started to recognize up to three-letter words. Her first book is the number 1 book called "Tim, the Tin Can" in the reading series. She asked another significant question: "Why can't people eat people?" by observing that people are eating all kinds of animals. She found a game site in the Internet completely by herself for the first time and started to play it. The site became her parents' favorite game site later. Her fourth birthday was celebrated (outside home for the first time) in Boomer's (former Bull Winkle). Most of her classmates and their parents came. Eleni also started to tell stories she made by her own.
4 years and three months old, Eleni's attitude toward learning is more positive and eager. She often asks questions on her own. During the vacation time in Greece, she asked mom how to build a vase, how to make a curtain, how the robot works and how eggs get fertilized. She also asked why the fingers do not have the same length. She showed great interest of knowing how things work. Her understanding of Chinese poems also reached a new level. Although she always asks mom the meaning of each sentence, mom never really tested her for the understanding. After we came back from Greece, on one occasion that we had a dinner with a friend's family, Eleni was asked to recite the new poem she just learned. After everybody applauded for her, she was asked to explain the poem. She did translate them into English sentence by sentence correctly. The name of the poem is "Zan (4) Hua (4)" (Highly appraisal a painting). During the trip to Greece, mom realized that Eleni's Greek wasn't good enough to understand others. Because all her relatives in Greece can speak English, so it didn't help Eleni to learn Greek. Mom decided to start learning Greek seriously in order to help Eleni learning Greek. Mom felt that language is better to learn in the youth, especially daddy can teach it at home, why wait until later?
One day mom asked Eleni, "What would you like to learn, piano or violin?" "I would like to learn to sing!" Eleni said. So mom brought her to a voice teacher who had an office next to ballet school. This voice teacher is also teaching piano lessons. She felt Eleni is too young for voice training, Instead it is better to start Eleni with piano now, learn voice later. Eleni agreed. So she started her piano lessons at age of 4 years and 3 months. Since Eleni has no piano at home, mom took her out of preschool everyday at nap time to play piano which she could find at her laboratory. She started to understand the concept of multiplications and divisions. She started to understand the concept of squares and cubes. She learned a lot of new "letter songs" from preschool. She was lucky to have nice preschool teachers.
Eleni started to attend shows with her parents at 4 years and 5 month old. She has seen Shanghai Ballet and Georgian's State Dance in the Staller Center of the Stony Brook University. Up to this point, her parents always bring her to see children's shows. Mom often brings Eleni to the concerts at her laboratory in lunchtime during weekdays. Her piano lessons went very well. So mom finally bought Eleni a piano at home. Parents also put Eleni on the homework schedule. They wanted her to get to the habit of doing the homework. Preschool teacher just had an annual meeting with Eleni's mother. The teacher appraised Eleni very much. Only two categories the teacher gave Eleni "P" as for "Progress". One is for "ability to follow and lead"; the other is for "ability to write last name". The rest of categories are all given "G" stand for "Good" (it is the highest mark). Eleni still asks a lot of good questions such as "How do bees make honey?", "How can people speak?" and "Why do men have nipples although men cannot give milk? What are nipples useful for men?" Mom bought her an encyclopedia. She started to recognize the words on the streets.
March 2003, Eleni was 4 years and 9 month old. Eleni's conclusive thinking reached another level. She concluded that girl should marry a man who treats her very well not on other criteria, such as appearance. She could tell lengthy stories. Her understanding of chess games also reached a new level. Occasionally she can "eat" few pieces from daddy. She becomes more involved in playmates. Mom started to arrange play dates for her. She started recognizing more words in the books. She could read on her own with very little help in simple-book reading.
July 2003, Eleni was 5 years old. She enjoyed her fifth birthday party very much at Wooden Kingdom. Her questions extended to the new level, such as: why a person's sound is different when one is taking a bath? Why one sees the rays when one looks through the finger space at a light bulb? Does time have a limit? Very fundamental questions! She graduated from Child Development Center of Brookhaven National Lab.
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