This is a first

Was getting Kate out of the car outside the childcare centre when I heard “Evelyn, Evelyn”. I looked up and saw my friend in her car waving at me. She chatted briefly and she invited us to pop by her place after I picked Kate up from childcare later in the day. She lives one street (5 mins walk) away from the childcare centre. How near is that!

Picked Kate up at 545pm and swung by her place to say Hello. Kate took a little while to warm up and before long she was walking around the hall, chatting to us and conversing with 4 year old Chloe. When it was time to go, Kate lunged towards Alicia wanting her to carry her. Ok, that’s odd. When I said we were going and to wave goodbye, she said NO and hugged Alicia. We were surprised. Anyhow, managed to get her to leave when I said we were going home to see Daddy! Maybe this is a sign that she is ready for more playdates and eventually without having me around .. hehe

Very responsible

This blog is for you, Kate. I just wanted to let you know how proud I am of you.

A couple of days ago, after your bath, you carried the 2 little nappy sacks downstairs to be binned. You were walking towards the rubbish bag when you got distracted by biscuits on the table. So, you dropped the 2 sacks on the floor and came to me asking for biscuits.

Being the nice mom that I am, gave you some. With both hands full of biscuits, you looked back at the 2 nappy sacks you left on the floor and went “oh oh”. You wanted to carry them to the rubbish bag but you did not want to put down the biscuits.

I picked up the 2 nappy sacks and threw them into the rubbish bag and you thanked me by saying “Thank You” although it sounded more like “Ya you” I knew you were thanking me. Good on you. I am so proud of you because you displayed responsibility and follow through. Well done baby!!!!!

More teeth

Kate is definately teething again. She has not been sleeping through the last two nights. It is also a lot harder for her to fall asleep at her bedtime. Hmmz.

Anyhoos, she might have 11 or 12 teeth now … halfway there towards her Deciduous (Milk) teeth. And the timing at which they are popping out are exactly as per the textbook/website http://www.drchetan.com/deciduous-teeth.html

So, yes, I think the 4th first molar is finally breaking through. Hopefully the cuspids aren’t as painful.

18 month update

Hello everyone, 1st of all … big hugs and kisses to all of you. I just went for my 18-month check up with my maternal and child health nurse last week and here is my glowing report.

Weight = 10.20kg (no wonder mom kinda struggles when she is carrying me. Daddy is good but when I start wriggling, he struggles too .. hee)

Height = 79cm (grew 6cm in 6 months. Nurse said I did a lot of growing .. whee. Lao Gou Wanling, my dress is no longer at my ankle. It is now just below my knee. Chek Chek, the tennis dress has become a mini dress .. LOL)

Language development: excellent

My comprehension is superb. I totally understand what Daddy and Mommy are telling me, but sometimes I choose not to listen. Well, I’m just displaying normal behaviour for children my age – testing boundaries .. haha. I get away with it sometimes coz I’m too cute. How to get upset with me right? Of course there are the non negotiables where I will get told off, like hitting daddy or mommy, touching dangerous things, etc.

Whenever Mom tells me we are going upstairs to bed, and I’m not ready, I’ll pretend to sleep my lying on her arm and closing my eyes. Sometimes I’ll say “NO” when she says we are going upstairs to bed.

Yesterday, I did something really adorable. I sat on a pack of toilet tissue, dangled my legs in front of it, munched on a biscuit as I watched a TV program. Cuteness ah ….

I’m going to have a play outside and then head back in for my morning tea .. I love childcare .. eat, sleep, play .. what a life!!!!!!

Bye all and love ya heaps

Kate

No, No no no, No no no no no

Kate used to say No .. now she doesn’t just stop at that .. she goes on to say “no no no” and as though that is not enough, she occasionally says “no no no no no”. How dramatic is that? LOL

Our little girl was soooo engrossed in looking at her carer fix a toy today and she did not even notice me when I was standing behind her and tapping her on the shoulder. Mind you, she had on her backpack and was waiting to go but no, she would not be disturbed. She needs to see how Veronica puts the wheel back on the truck. Well done on attentiveness and curiosity Kate. That must be signs of a good problem-solver and all wonderful problem solvers say yeah!! She finally heard me calling her and was all excited to help me open the gate and get to the car. Once we got in, she took a sip of her water bottle and asked for her biscuit  : ) happy to just munch on her bikkie, sip on her water and enjoy the scenery on the ride home

I was sitting on the floor having part 2 of my dinner while watching a TV program (Kate has already had hers and her fruits). I must have been so engrossed in the program that I did not realise my little had snuck up to me and helped herself to a piece of duck from my bowl. I  turned my eyes away from the tv screen and lo and behold I was greeted by her stuffing her face with the piece of meat. She was using both hands and chomping down on the meat as if it was the most delicious thing she has even eaten. It was hilarious. Ken and I had a good laugh before we took it off her and cleaned her greasy mouth, chin and hands .. you just can’t take your eyes off these little toddlers can you?

We popped by Doncaster Shoppingtown yesterday afternoon, had lunch and did some grocery shopping. Kate loved the Pad Thai and was happy to sit in her pram giving doing Hi 5s to strangers walking by. They didn’t know she was Hi5-ing them but we knew she was saying Hi to them … quite good at entertaining herself while she was being pushed. Then, she got bored and started squirming so I got her out of the pram and she went a walking with her daddy. She has grown taller – he no longer needs to bend down to hold her hand as she walks. Whee! Anyways, they walked some and he carried her some. We walked and we walked and we walked into Coles  .. ok, they walked and I pushed the pram. We got into COOLES and the moment Ken put her down, she held out her hand for him to hold her and said “jwok” (walk). We were impressed. Guess we were kinda expecting her to sprint off or just stand there or something. Very proactive, very well done Kate. Daddy and Mommy were very proud of you!

That’s all for today …

Ciao for now

good and bad

How does a 17-month-old know how to take a piece of paper off the computer table and put it under the paten glass of the photocopier/printer/scanner? Must have seen it done before, even though we did not teach her to do that intentionally. Children model us indeed .. better be careful what we do and say .. haha

Motherhood seems to be tougher lately – note I said motherhood instead of parenthood coz I seem to be the one having problems looking after Kate. She is a darling with her daddy but tries stuff with me .. gosh .. no wonder i feel defeated on some days. Meal times are no longer neat and tidy. She eats, and then she messes, as though she is bored of her food. After cleaning the floor, table, Kate, dishes, feeding chair twice I decided to feed her dinner myself. And that almost ended up a disaster. She loves to flick things and almost flicked her bowl right out of my hand. Grr!!!! When I tell her off, she smiles at me. Argh!!!!! I told her its not funny and that I am very upset with her (with a stern look), she plays peek-a-boo with me. How to be angry for long .. aiyoh

When she is good, she is really sweet. Calling Daddy and Mummy so sweetly, just melts our hearts! Love it when she climbs onto us, gives us a cuddle and kisses us on our cheeks.

Ken dropped her off and picked her up from childcare a couple of days last week. He loved it and so did Kate. Ever since then, its daddy here daddy there. Daddy where? (with hands in the “where” stance). She usually looks at the front door when I ask her where Daddy is coz that’s where he comes in from in the evenings. The last couple of days, we left for work around the same time, she insisted on her daddy carrying her to the car leh .. ooh .. Daddy’s girl!!!!

My little girl is snoring next to me on my bed. Hmmz .. will she wake up if I carry her back to her room? Hope not. As much as I love having her next to me, I know that she sleeps best when she is in her cot. She wants our warmth but she needs her space more. Ken is great at putting her to bed and she does not fuss for very long. With me, its a different story. Either she plays me or I just can’t handle her whingeing and give in and carry her instead. bleah

Oh, her 10th tooth is finally out … 6 top and 4 bottom ..

okies … i am going to carry her to her room now … bye for now

Starting to babble in sentences

Almost there … although they are not words they are babbling in sentences with all the right intonations and actions that accompany it .. my baby is going to start speaking real soon .. haha

the moment she saw me walk through the door at childcare, she ran towards the door and instead of running to me and asking me to carry her, she stopped short at the door and started babbling and pointing into the room. Literally, “ta ta ta da da bag bag ta ta” complete with all the animated pointing. As though there was something urgent she wanted me to attend to. I tried telling her to wait until I had signed off on the register, but no, Kate could not wait, continued babbling and she started dragging me into the room. Walked across the room and stopped in front of her cubby hole. She wanted to say “Mom, don’t forget to take my bag” not that I have ever fogotten, but being the conscientious darling she is, she wanted to make sure I remembered .. haha

talking about conscientious, she never fails to amaze me. I would have thought that kids her age would see something lying on the floor (i.e., clothes peg), look at it and walk away. Not Kate, she saw it, walked over to pick it up and handed it to me. Well done, sweetie!

Boy does she know what she wants. You can’t leave food at the edge of the table anymore. She sees it, she tells you she wants it. Better not to show her the source, just give it to her in a little bowl and tell her no more when she is done with that portion. If she knows where the source is, she will demand for it. Can’t let her see the milk in the warmer either. If she sees it, she wants it. The other day, she opened up the cupboard (I did not put the child lock on because I was getting something out of it). She opened up the other door and pointed to her tin of formula. Sign languaged me to make milk for her. I had to explain that I was already warming up her cows milk and that she was not having formula that night. haha

Kate’s Vocabulary

Kate is learning a lot of new words and these are just some that she uses more frequently .. what a joy to hear her speak .. hee

Mummy
Daddy
Baby
No
Peek-A-Boo (pronounced as Pak-A-Boo accompanied with all the right facial expressions .. hee)
More
No More (pronounced as mo more)
Bubble (she has rice bubbles for brekkie at times you see)
Apple (pronounced as Ah-ple)
Dog
Duck
Bear
Ball

and loads more ..

she is able to point out pictures from books when we say the words … able to pick out the right soft toys from her toy bag : )

ok … gotta go .. little gal is up to mischief again .. blog another time

ciao for now

Kate’s antics

Friday:
Kate wanted to eat the bikkie her Daddy was having. She went to where he was sitting at the computer desk and asked for one. After that, she asked for more, but Daddy wasn’t at the table anymore so Mommy walked over to the table and took one out of the packet for her. Then, when she finished and asked for a 3rd one, both of us said “no more” and continued sitting on the couch. Our little gal walked to the table and in no time came back all smiles with a bikkie on her hand. LOL

Saturday:
Finished bathing Kate and was waiting for her to get out of the tub. She kicks up a fuss if she is carried out when she still wants to linger in there. I’ve drained all the water and she is just sitting in there playing with the face washer. Then all of a sudden, there was silence and she did not move. I thought ” oh dear, is she going to poo” and seconds later, our little fren said “poo poo” and yes when I looked into the tub, there it was was. My response: “Dear, I need your help!” Was I glad Ken was at home .. haha. He cleaned the tub while I washed her bum again .. haha

Sunday:
Kate was sitting at the breakfast table having a muffin while watching a DVD – Miffy’s Dream. When one episode ended, she told me “mo more” and pointed to the bench asking me to change disc. I told her, wait, the next episode is coming up, and when it did, she burst out in gleeful laughter – so exaggerated but so funny. Hee. When she finished her banana muffin, she asked for more by giving me her bowl, asking me to put more in there. Hehe

God cares and He knows what you need

Indeed, God cares.

Thankl you dear family and friends who prayed for my speedy recovery from the dreaded flu. I somehow caught a flu virus last weekend and it finally wrecked me on Wednesday. Came back from work and just crashed. Thank God for a speedy recovery and thank Ken and Kate for being sooo good on wednesday night so that I could get the rest I needed. Ken looked after Kate, Kate fed herself dinner, Ken helped me bath Kate and Ken tucked Kate into bed while I snoozed in our own bed at 9pm … a wonderful luxury! Kate slept in on Thursday giving me the much needed rest and was pretty good the rest of the day. God knows what I can handle and he blessed me with a wonderful child yesterday. Not that she is not wonderful, she was kinda played on her own most of the time so I could rest.

I am feeling much much better today and God made the day even better by bringing the sunshine to Melbourne. Seeing the sun just somehow makes it all ok : ) Kate is a little more challenging today – as though she knows that Mommy is getting better so I can be cheeky. Hmmz.

I’m just waiting for my taste buds to start working again so I can enjoy my food. Everything tastes bland at the moment .. bleah ..

Kate has been saying “nice” and “thanks” – how cool is that? I didn’t think she would be able to pronounce anything with an “s”, but she’s doing pretty well I’d have to say. And this gal’s got rhythm, she moves to catchy tunes .. hehe. She’s sitting on her little sofa in the hall eating her raisins and watching a cooking program .. like a little adult .. haha

We have a little mop in the house and Kate would take that out occasionally from the laundry room and start mopping the floor. Manages the mop quite well she does. She’s not really mopping lah .. just play play only … as if we would make her do housework at this age. She sees what we do around the house and just follows lor .. takes her towel and wipes the table, chair, floor, etc ..

take care all