A baby’s development process is filled with them it seems
As with most toddlers, Sophia would randomly grab item A off the table, dash off to another place and spot item B which appears more exciting to her, drop item A and grab item B and continue the process with items C, D and E. Now this wouldn’t be much of a problem if items A to E are all her toys but often say item B would happen to be grandpa’s keys. So of course when Sophia runs off with keys and returns with rabbit, the natural question would be “Where did you put the keys?” Just barely 2 months ago she would stare at us with a blank look. Now she will be able to bring us to the spot where she left the keys. Yay!
The here comes the nay. This morning she was playing with the iPad and of course I don’t quite like her playing with the iPad so the first chance I got, I took it and hid it. The same 2 months ago, it would be a case of “out-of-sight, out of mind”. Now, she returns to the spot she left the iPad after she decided she has had enough of playing with her soft toys and, seeing it missing, totters around half crying and half saying “pad, pad, pad”. Sigh…
Speaking of speech, she can say a lot more words with a lot more clarity now. Like “mao” (cat), “woof”, yeye (paternal grandpa), nai nai (paternal grandma), baby, wo (roar), wok (walk), e…bid (rabbit) and papa. The good thing is, of course, I no longer have to work out some screams by trial and error. (Her mastering the nod also helped.) The bad thing is I cannot pretend I don’t know what she’s looking for and stand on the moral high ground saying “you cannot just cry, you need to let mummy know what you want!” anymore when she’s obviously saying “(i)pad”.
Mothering the S sisters 
Oh Sophia also speaks both Chinese and English!
Agree with you, they are growing to have clear memory. They have strong preferences and wants too. We can’t pretend they are still a baby. Parenting is going to be more challenging now!