Milestones at 23 mths

Realised that I've been really bad at updating toto's blog after zy nagged at me the other day - and was horrified to find that my last update was in Feb!! gosh.. but i've got a real gd excuse :P No 2's on the way and due on Aug 9 2009, and we found out abt 1.5 mths ago that it's a boy :) Am certainly not sexist, but it's good to have 1 of each gender isnt it? Only concern is that the 2 kids wont be too close cos 1's a boy and the other's a girl...

Since this blog is all abt capturing Toto's milestones ( yeap.. so that we can have something to compare 4D's development to.. and STRESS HIM MORE hyak hyak hyak... ), thought it's high time to note down the things toto can and cant do at the grand age of 23 mths..

She:
- cant feed herself very well still.. might be related to not liking to eat her main meals too much. The only meal she can feed well is Macdonald's hotcakes!! THAT she finishes quickly and without any mess!
- is not toilet trained (wrt peeing)... is pretty much toilet trained since abt 20 mths old for poo bzness (usually poos in toilet bowl on kiddy seat abt 95% of the time, unless she's got a bout of diarrhea). In fact she doesnt even wanna go in her diaper anymore, and wld rather hold it in until she gets home when we go out!

She can :
- speak in sentences of up to 8-9 words in Mandarin (thanks to my in laws)
- speak in 3-4 word sentences in English (hangs head in guilt.. mummy is the only one speaking English to her in the house, and hence responsible for her slower development in English)
- knows the names of most animals in English and chinese
- Can count from 1-20 in English, 1-30 in Mandarin, 1-20 in teochew, 1-10 in Jap
- knows the value of numbers and can count meaningfully up till abt 10... anymore than that and she cant keep track of the items she's already counted
- knows her A-Zs very well and can give me eg of words starting with each letter, eg A for apple, B for ball/balloon, C for cat, P for Peter/Pat *characters in her current fav series of Ladybird books Peter and Jane, etc...
- able to read a few words in her favorite books.. eg include Peter, jane, and, is, this, tree, toy, shop, book, ball, sweets, dog, Pat, water (recent achievement at abt 22.5mths)
- able to read MANY chinese words (dont even know how to list.... and one of the words she can read, I cld not even read myself.. of cos that's cos my chinese is LOUSY)
- has learnt to talk nonsense and disturb pp.. more egs later...
- asks questions - why, what is this, what are you doing (this qn usually targetted at her fav toy dog)
- mimics whatever we say
- gives nicknames to weird inanimate objects like pens/markers
- has average writing abilities - can trace dot to dot pictures, trace numbers on her own - only 1 and 2, draw circles and straight lines (recent achievement at 23 mths)
- runs and jumps on her own now.
- able to climb up stairs but needs to hold on to a railing
- knows her colours since abt 18 mths.. eg red,blue, yellow, green, purple, pink, orange, brown, black, white
-shows affection very easily - climbs on my lap for hugs and kisses me very frequently for no reason, and without being asked to (heart melt.. hehe.. wonder if boys will be like this too?)

She is also getting very very cheeky and mischievous recently.. has taken to targetting my FIL and says naughty things like "bu yao ye ye zuo zhe li", " bu yao yeye qian1 shou3", and when asked to kiss my FIl, she wld go ard and kiss everyone except him!! so odd, cos both my ILs love her lots and dote on her like crazy!

When asked questions or to do something, Toto has started to respond by making cheeky faces at me, or jabbering at me in baby talk while grinning away all the time (intentionally, as she is able to answer questions with short replies for quite a while now). when she mispronounces something and i correct her, she wld keep on repeating the word the original wrong way.. and its worse when I look exasperated/amused! argh... that's the terrible twos for you!

Toto has also started to show some signs of jealousy towards her little bro.. although she does kiss my tummy of her own accord now and then, she seems to know that this little one will take time and attn away from her!

Recent eg of conversations between zy and her :

ZY : yao4 bu4 yao4 ba3 toto mai4 diao4 ah1?
toto : bu2 yao4
ZY : yao4 bu4 yao4 ba3 Biao3 mei4 (my sil is expecting a little girl) mai4 diao4 ah1?
toto : bu2 yao4. Ba3 didi mai4 diao4 (sell didi) ...

Eg of conversation between myself and toto yesterday :

Toto : (hugging a care bear stuff toy) Mummy hug care bear (then offers the toy to me to hug)
Me : Mummy hug care bear, and hug toto too ok?
Toto : Mummy hug toto, mummy hug care bear, mummy dont hug didi (??? where did that come from???)

Really hope its just a phase... * keep fingers crossed*

A for apple, B for ball... V for....

Papa is always busy at work.. but on weekends, he has a no work policy so that he can spend time... sleeping at home, and playing with me occasionally. Mummy sometimes scolds Papa for teaching me nonsense, but I find him quite entertaining actually leh...

Here is a recent eg of what Papa added as "enrichment lessons" when Mummy was telling me the ABCs... do you think he should continue teaching me somemore?

Mummy speaks : Toto pls dont grow up so fast...

The past week, Toto has amazed me with her social and verbal developments. Verbally, she is officially a parrot now, and surprises me everyday with new phrases and songs that I never expected her to pick up. To date, she can sing (tunelessly though) a few songs - eg Ba ba black sheep, twinkle twinkle little star (first 2 lines), 2 little tigers (in chinese - liang2 zhi1 lao2 hu3), the barney i-love-u song, and some chinese children songs (wa2 wa2 guo3 and wo shi yi ge da ping guo). Unfortunately, she is super camera shy and zips up the mo i whip out the camcorder! argh...

Thanks to Zy's parents, her chinese is super polished now too, and she can rattle off the San1 Zi4 Jing1 pretty much effortlessly.. the amount she knows far surpasses what I know (though that's no surprise given that my chinese is SHITE). Thankfully, her english isnt too backward either, and she is now speaking in short 4-5 word sentences for both english and chinese.

Recently, she has also started to react emotionally to certain stories which she has known for ages. Eg, when Zy's mum read her Hansel and Gretel 2 days ago, she actually cried at the part where Hansel and Gretel's woodcutter dad left them behind in the woods, and then started wailing for papa and mummy.. face was flooded with tears apparently.

On a separate occasion, Zy's father was telling her the story of a fillial daughter who helped to cover her elderly mother with a blanket when she fell asleep in a chair. He pointed to the picture of the white haired lady, and said that mummy will become like this one day and that she has to take care of mummy when that day comes. To his shock, when he next looked at her, tears were streaming down her face and she just kept pointing at the elderly lady and going mummy... mummy... when i came home that day, she raced to the door and flung herself to me for the rest of the day until I reassured her that my hair was black, not white like the elderly mother in the picture book and that mummy is not going to be old any time soon. only then did she stop crying every time she looked at that picture. Not sure why she reacted so strongly to this picture book as we have not explained what the consequences of being old are (ie death, etc).

She is also growing up to be very affectionate, and will turn to me very often without prompting, plant a big wet kiss on my cheek or hug me and say I LOVE YOU MUMMY. aww... at night before she sleeps, she also makes it a point to kiss my tummy (yes, to those who do not know yet, #2 is along the way now and due in Aug) and say Goodnight baby, i love you..

My little girl is growing up way too fast...

**Afternote - I am so afraid I will forget all these little stories as more things happen.. and the blog is a wonderful way for me to jot down my thoughts and feelings at each point of her life. Wish there is a way to freeze each moment and video everything down.

CNY 2009

Not much pics for CNY 2009.. all the following pics are courtesy of Ma2 Ma4/Jiu4 Jiu4 and Third grandaunt :)

Posing with the cute little dog at Great Grand Aunt's place.. to mummy's horror, i showed no sign of fear and was dying to pat and hug the doggy! And yes, the pic above and below were taken when mummy was not around to guard me.

papa witnessed me patting this gentle old fellow's head.. unfortunately I wasnt exactly very gentle. Apparently, it was more like thumping that i did :P thankfully my hand still remains firmly attached to my arm now. Must learn to be as forgiving and patient as brown doggy here.

A very toot picture of me trying to pose on the stairs at gong gong's house..

family picture at Great grandpa's house!

Another family pic with my dearest Gonggong, mama and jiu jiu.. dont we look happy? now, if only i was looking at the camera...

Picture with grand aunt ''lao2 Ee1" (ma2 ma4's sis). I have decided to do a weird pose again..

Cheese!!! with lao ee and ma2 ma4 :)

At the end of the 2 days.. mummy realised to her horror that we actually forgot to take a nice picture of just me, mummy and papa! we dont even have one with ye ye and nai nai :( papa has promised that we will take a family pic, this time with 4D in it next year!! :)

Gareth's full month party

Today we attended Mummy's cousin's baby boy Gareth's full month party at Boon Lay. Prior to today, mummy and ma2 ma4 were both so worried I would freak and cry buckets again like I always did whenever I met mummy's extended family. So this time, I was psychoed for an entire week, that I was not to cry, and to say hello and smile to everybody. I was even showed pictures of the extended family.. that's how desperate mummy and ma2 ma4 were :)

Thankfully, with all the training, i didnt disgrace mummy after all! After the initial clinging onto mummy, I was soon too busy looking at adorable baby Gareth to be scared of Grandaunts/Granduncles. Towards the end of the lunch, I was virtually best friends with Biao Ee (Mummy's cousin Audrey) cos she was helping feed (bribe) me with raisins while mummy was eating her lunch.

After the full month, I also got to play at the playground! But for a mere 5 minutes only *pout* Gong gong is paranoid I will pick up weird germs.... shhh... he doesnt know I spend half an hour at the playground EVERY morning. hehe :)

Ang Pao pls??

Mummy has been trying to teach me to say Happy new yr complete with hand actions since last Sunday but I have refused to cooperate and just ignores her everytime she tries to teach me. Last evening however, when she came back from work, I decided to surprise mummy by saying Happy New Year and did the gong xi gong xi action. Mummy was so delighted!

I gave her a bigger surprise later when I chimed Happy New Year at her again, and followed up with "ang pau??" soon after I said Happy new Year! Ye ye, nai nai and mummy were hysterical.. and thot I must have picked up the ang pau phrase cos mummy has been telling me that I have to wish pp happy new year before I can get the ang pau!

I have also been pretty much a parrot recently, mimicking whatever I hear pp saying around me. 2 days ago, mummy was chatting with gu1 gu1 when she let slip an Oh my god.. before she knew it, I was chiming ohmigodohmigod.. mummy immediately had a knee jerk reaction where she said Oh S**T... luckily i was too busy chanting ohmigod and didnt catch on to the other phrase.. phew for mummy hehe.. Mummy vows to watch her language even more closely in front of me now. :P

I also went for my first LNT class (proper one, not trial) yesterday. Yeye and nai nai brought me and reported that I enjoyed the class and paid attention about 90% of the time and didnt run around! I also surprised sinseh at the end of the class when i chimed sayonara in response to her own goodbyes! However, I stubbornly refused to repeat performance more than once at home to Mummy's chagrin!

Firefly tour!

Mummy has not been blogging for ages cos she's been busy with many things at work, and she has also not been well recently. Poor mummy.. luckily she has me to always sayang her tummy, and kiss her better heh :)

Today though, papa and mummy found energy to bring me for a 1D Firefly tour to nearby Malaysia! To make things more fun, mummy also chioed her forum mummies, Aunty Rina and her hb Uncle Deyan and Zevon didi, as well as Aunty Eileen and Roxanne meimei. We are all June/July babies, and the last time we played together was when we were abt 13 mths old! So our parents decided it would be fun for yet another get-together!

The day started at an ungodly hour of 645am. Mummy had to carry me up in my sleep but the moment I felt her lifting me, I woke up, sensing that the day was not gonna be just another boring saturday where mummy went to work! Luckily I was pretty well behaved for the day, and slept and ate when I should.

Zev didi with the most precious expression.. looks like 16 June babies are NOT early birds!

Sleeping in MIM sling shortly after we crossed the causeway

Rox meimei : Mummy mummy let me help you touch up your makeup ok?

Aunty Eileen : That's a pen, not an eye pencil darling!!

First stop : Chocolate factory - Me with mummy.. (btw, that's the face I produce when asked to SMILE! can tell I have a real constipation problem right...)

If I smile sweetly will you buy this box of chocs for me??

Holding hands with Zev didi - sweet eh?? mummy says I must stop kissing and hugging and holding hands with boys anyhow though..

Rox meimei decides she wants a piece of the action too!

Another hug yes??

Oops... caught in the act again!

Next stop was at some herb farm, which unfortunately none of us showed any interest in, including the mummies and papas! Instead, the 3 of us bubs were more than happy to just hang out at a shady porch, playing until it was time to reboard the bus!

Shrieking in joy... not sure at what though...

I learnt how to bai bai properly (including bowing and all) today. See how qian3 cheng2 I am!

One of mummy's fav pics... dont we look kinda alike??

Next stop, Desaru beach! I was sleeping on the bus, but papa bochup and just carried me down. Luckily I woke up really quickly, so didnt miss this picturesque and windy spot!

We then visited the Desaru Fruit Farm and petting zoo next. A pity Zevon didi and Roxanne meimei were KOed on the coach. At the fruit farm, we saw durian trees, dragon fruit plants, papaya trees and banana trees! But the place that excited me the most was the petting zoo..papa felt it was more fun than the zoo cos there were monkeys, snakes, ostriches, goats (lots of them, and greedy ones too!), rabbits, crocodiles, chickens, ducklings, turkeys and a lot more! I even got to pet a rabbit (to mummy's dismay.. she went at me with dettol antiseptic handrub the moment i was done).




Last stop was of cos the highlight of the day.. the firefly cruise! To mummy's dismay, the boat used was sampan like.. and to quote papa, it was like we were gonna tou1 du4 (= illegally enter another country). We were also given life jackets that of cos were spoilt. Not a very reassuring experience for mummy. But all in all, the experience was magical, and even the babes could see the dozens and hundreds of stars glittering in the sky above! Guess the fireflies were a bit harder for the little ones to appreciate cos it looked just like christmas lights. The mummies and papas seemed mystified enough tho, and at one point, I think I heard mummy commenting to papa - this would really be romantic, if not for her (gestured to me). HUMPH.

Here's one last family pic taken of us on the sampan...


The day ended at abt 1130pm, and I was fast asleep by the time we got home. Nevertheless, it was a really fun day, and papa is busily trying to think of where else we can go!