Our baby is growing up

Ever since our trip to HK (which I haven't blogged about!), K has been waking up in the night several times and crying for me. We made the mistake of having King sized beds where all three of us slept during the trip. Have been trying to get her to sleep through the night. Finally, she has been doing so for the last week.

Our daily conversation before she sleeps.
Me: If you wake up in the middle of the night and it is still dark outside...
K: Sun sleeping
Me: Uh...yes, if My Sun is still sleeping, what must K do?
K: Sleep!
Me: Yes, you just close your eyes and go back to sleep, ok? Ok? Ok?
K nods. Well, she has to. Otherwise the questioning would continue until she does.

And just after she drifts off to sleep, I would repeat it to her again. To tell her to go back to sleep if she woke up in the middle of the night. I am told that this is the period where you can speak into their subconscious whatever you want them to pick up or do. Hmmm...

Well, it seems to be working. Fingers crossed. When she gets up each morning, I would ask her if she woke up in the middle of the night. She would nod her head shyly and smile. Then I would ask if she simply closed her eyes and went back to sleep. She would again smile and nod. Hmmm....I wonder if she understands. But I would tell her that she allowed me to sleep through the night and praise her for it.

The other development is that in school.

She has been fretting about going to school. When I try to get her to wear her shoes for school or when I am packing her school bag, she would look up at me sadly and say, "No wan school." After repeating it several times and with no reaction from me, she would troop off and look for her dad and tell him, "No wan school." Poor girl. P doesn't react either. Then she would get all clingy and whiny all the way to school. She always has to be carried or she would walk in the opposite direction of school, with the "reason" of buying food. Sneaky.

The teachers think it's because she has got FIVE new friends in her class who are always crying. And that triggers her off. Her old friends whom she is so fond of have been promoted to Playgroup. She is still in the Toddlers class. Maybe she feels a little lost in school. She is now the big sister of her class. Imagine a tiny little thing - the big sister! Well, apparently size doesn't quite matter here.

Since last week, she has stopped crying upon separation and just this week, as I'm getting her ready for school, she would say, "School....go school." At first, I would pretend I didn't hear her, in case the next line would be "No wan school". But it hasn't. So I would say, "Yes, we are going to school." As of yesterday, she walked to school on her own. I'm next to her of course. But she didn't make any excuses to walk in a different direction. I am so pleased!

During a teacher-parent conference last week (my first!!! As a parent I mean), I was told that she has been playing big sister. When her friends quarrel, she would usually be there (presumably to stop it) or she would ensure that a teacher is aware. Hmmm... I am thinking "Miss Kaypo"! Haha.

Every morning, there would be water parade just before going outdoor. Miss Kaypo would be looking around to ensure all her friends were drinking. If they weren't, she would pass them their bottles and tell them to drink. She is so busy doing this that she herself forgets to drink. Ahhh...maybe it's her way to get out of drinking. Tsk tsk. Anyway, her teacher tells me that she would make K stand in front of her and makes sure she finishes at least half the bottle before she can leave her sight. And K actually does it! Amazing. The things the teachers can make them do which we never can at home.

K apparently likes hands-on activities and according to her teacher, she is able to sit down for a whole five minutes to finish a task, like threading beads. A whole five minutes! I am impressed. Well, at least I know that watching TV hasn't affected her attention span.

In her file, there are several art pieces that she did which were rather nice. I shall have to scan them when I get the complete set and post them later.

I am told she enjoys singing and following the teacher's actions for the songs. She has been singing more frequently by herself at home of late. But her repertoire is getting wider and sometimes I have no idea what she is singing. There used to be a time when I would know exactly which song she was singing and sing along with her. She was so thrilled to be singing together. Nowadays, I can sense her frustration when she wants me to sing along but I just don't know the song. I have tried to get her to teach me the song but of course, I never know what she is saying, much less make out the tune.

She has been using "Kay?" very often these days. She would say things like, "Later. Read story book kay?" or "Watch Panda kay?" It's her way of getting us to agree to something she wants to do to ensure it does happen.

She refers to presents as "Happy birthday to you". She seen the pressies under the tree and has been telling us she wants to "Open happy birthday to you". :) Later tonight perhaps.

K is 2!

For K's birthday this year, we decided to have a really simple one. We had two celebrations. One in school and one with family.

For the one in school, I bought a larger cake. I realise that I'm really bad at estimating the size of cakes. It has all turned out way too big. Anyway, I decided we would go with Pooh bear this year. Of course, there had to be Lumpy (the elephant) in it.

Kim was really shy and was even crying when she suddenly realised that all the attention was on her.

Her little friends gather to look at the cake.

Busy enjoying the cake.

This is her table of even littler ones. She is the big sister of this table.

We found a piece of work done by K being displayed.

Her second celebration with family. This time it was a smaller cake with just Lumpy.

She was less uncomfortable but still didn't like the attention when we sand "Happy birthday" to her. She much preferred hanging out with Grand Aunt Sin Jee from Toronto to look (and take) Christmas decorations. Incidentally, I did relent and make her a dress for her birthday. I had decided I was too lazy to make one but upon realising that she had no new dress to wear on her birthday, I decided to make one instead of purchasing. So yes, that simple dress she is wearing below was made.

This is her favourite present (and only one at that point in time actually) from Grandparents. She loves the microphone and would press the buttons to have demo songs being played. Then she would hold the mic and dance around. When she is done with her "performance", she would speak into the mic and say, "Thank you much!" Haha.

This is a video of her.

She had a fishy treat that night in bed. Yums.

And on her actual birthday, she got two giant (compared to her puny self) balloons.

Feeding the rabbit

What I've been up to lately

Well, nothing much. :) Resting mostly.

Realised that my last blog was a whole month ago! No wonder I've been constantly nagged at to blog something by P.

The latest news is that our almost-two-year-old has FINALLY reached 10kg! Finally. Her peers are way ahead of course. But as long as she's growing healthily, I've no complaints. At least we are saving our arms and backs!

The whole family and my parents took a 6-day trip to HK. It was rather cold but we were ok when we were warmly clothed. Peen was unwell on a few days of the trip. It was so bad that he had to sit out a night tour that we had booked.

I'm not going to talk about the trip since the pics are up on fb. But just wanted to journal about K since the trip. She really got used to sleeping on the same bed as us in HK, so much so that whenever she woke up these days and didn't find me next to her, she would cry and start calling for me. Oh sigh. There were nights when it happened 3 to 4 times. Double sigh.

K has also gotten alot more talkative since the trip. She was especially fascinated with the different modes of transport that we took. Even this morning, she recalled her experiences on the plane, boat and bus.

"Sit there airplane," she said. "Boat - woah.....bus - woah woah," she continued.

Last week, she initiated a phone conversation with Ah Foh (P's mum). She said, "Phone...Ah Foh." We asked her if she wanted to speak with Ah Foh and she nodded. Needless to say, the grandma was thrilled and thought her granddaughter was a genius. She listened intensely and nodded in response and sometimes replied, "uh." We were amused cos it really looked like she was having a conversation with mum. Then mum asked her what she did in HK. To which she replied, "Boat - woah, bus - woah woah." So she actually did respond to the question!

It's Friday and we are leading up to the celebrations of K's 2nd birthday. But we decided this year to really tone it down. So we will just have a celebration in school for her and a small family gathering.

I've been lazy (and tired) so we are not doing anything major this year. Will blog about her birthday celebrations next week perhaps.

K's language development

When you ask K what her name is, she would reply, "Berley."

She has also started calling me Mom. It was mama, then mummy and now sometimes mom.

She told me this morning after looking at Chyna, "Tyna's ears funny." I think it's cos the fur on Chyna's ears has grown longer and it has become rather floppy when she walks.

Last night as P tried to switch off the panda video for her to go to bed, very sadly she said, "Nooooo! Watch manda please."

Her first 3-syllables word is fatterfly. Can u guess what it is? Butterfly of course.

She is a little drama queen. When we first enter our car that has been parked in the sun, she would wave her hand in her face and say, "So hot!" Or when she carries something, she would say, "So heavy".

A few nights ago, she picked up a book and saw that there were butterflies in it, fluttering in the air. She then started to pretend to be one and flapped her wings around. I thot that was rather cute. So I took out the pair of wings that I had bought a while ago and let her wear it. She loved it. I ended up having to flap my wings around the living room with her. Chyna thought it was fun and joined in too. So there were we. Three of us, fluttering round and round the living room like butterflies.

After some time, Chyna decided that all the fur she had on was too hot for her to be going round and round. So she decided to take a rest but the little girl wasn't happy with that. She started telling Chyna, "Tyna, tet (get) up, fwy fwy (fly), round round" while attempting to lift the poor dog up onto her feet. When that didn't work, she looked at me and said, "mummy, tyna! tet up, fwy fwy." She was complaining about her furry friend.

The tradition carries on

One night after dinner, K asked for naya bread. I thought she wanted kaya bread but I realised it was Nutella bread she wanted. Actually, I should say it was the nutella she wanted. Not quite the bread. That was just the holder.

A sweet father-daughter moment

Last night, K asked P to tie her hair. Much to P's horror, tho' also do think that he was rather pleased. He had never tied anyone's hair before so hadn't the faintest idea how to. I was a little slow in capturing the moment. She was so super patient and sat there for a good 5 minutes while he fumbled with getting her hair into a little ponytail. He finally managed to tie it but he commented that she looked rather Ah Soh. With practice, am sure he'd get better.

Sewing again

I realise that I sew in spurts. I would go crazy and sew, sew, sew and then take a long break. I haven't been posting much on my sewing cos it's either not worth blogging about or I just haven't been sewing.

We are going to HK next month. Didn't want to buy any warm clothes for Kim, only for her to wear it once. Afterall, we do live in Singapore. Tried to borrow some but none were suitable so decided to sew a pullover. I had already bought a nice fleece fabric. Just needed to take out the pattern, cut the fabric and sew away. I decided to add a kangaroo pocket to it since she loves playing with pockets these days.

The official toddler's head tretcher

I was putting K to bed last night. She wanted to put her head on my tummy. That is how she goes to sleep these days. So I wait for her to fall asleep and then move her onto her pillow.

As she lay on me, she scratched her head and said, "itchy". Then she said, "Mama, tretch." She wanted me to help her scratch her head. Hilarious. So I did. And when I stopped, she said, "thumb more." Refused to let me stop. I scratched her little round head several times, front, back and sides. Only then did she allow me to stop. Haha. Funny girl.

For papa Peen

What your daughter was up to after her lunch.

Waiting for the mattress to be laid out, she carries Dumbo and sits at her fave spot. Everyone else seems to be helping in some way to keep the toys. Our baby helps by staying out of their way I guess.



She lies on her mattress and finishes ALL her milk. Without any coaxing or persuasion! A 5-days-a-week miracle. Notice that she is holding one of Dumbo's foot? :)



She falls asleep hugging Dumbo in like 30s after being patted by the teacher. Haiz. Why isn't it that simple at home? Grrrrr.....

For the love of sauce, even if it's Chilli

Today marks a special day for our little one. I decided that I wanted to have some KFC for dinner so the husband also had to have that. But he also bought chicken rice so that he could have the rice with the KFC chicken. Was going to buy some fish and chips for the little one but decided against it. Thot we'd "train" her to eat what we eat.

Gave her a tiny piece of the chicken and watching her reaction realised that it was not just crispy but also spicy. Duh, mummy! She ate it but then stuck her tongue out and tried to wipe it while saying, "Hot hot."

Oops. She didn't want anymore so ended up giving her fries instead. She then spotted the mixture of ketchup and chilli sauce and wanted it. I told her that it was hot but still she wanted it. So I dipped my finger into it and let her lick it. She said it was hot and still wanted more. So I dipped her fries into the sauce and she happily ate it. I dipped the chicken into the sauce and she ate that too! Heh heh. So she finished the little bit of chicken pieces I gave her and most of the fries. All because there was the sauce. The magical sauce. A trump card.

Hi5 Trio

We are semi-recovering from our bout of stomach flu. Not fun at all. It all started with K and this time, I wasn't spared either. :( She was very subdued for two whole days, eating even less than usual (is that even possible?!). So when I had to drive alone, I had to make sure she was entertained and happy so she doesn't cry about wanting to be carried the whole time.

End result? She got to watch Hi5 with her two furry friends.

Ribbon dance

She found a piece of ribbon the other day and had some fun with it.

Mommy and baby dress alike

I finally summoned enough courage to attempt such a project. The primary motivation was that I was in desperate need of a dress that I could FIT INTO for two formal occasions. So rather apprehensively, I took a trip down to Spotlight where I poured over several pattern books to decide on a pattern that would 1) have a miraculous slimming effect (it didn't work) and 2)be simple enough for a beginner like me to make. That means no pleats, no pockets, nothing fancy.

It was the first time attempting any form of clothing adult size which meant alot more fabric to deal with, cut and sew. Of course, I also chose the stretchy sort of velvet to work with. Clever me... I felt like it was a little beyond me. But the massive lot of fabric did slowly take shape though I had to make some final alterations cos the size I picked was a little too loose. But on the whole, semi covered with a shawl, and perpetually carrying the child, all was concealed fine.

As for the little girl's dress, I had a pattern for a dress but it was sleeveless, so I copied the sleeve pattern from another dress and with fingers crossed that they would match, sewed the dress. The sleeves turned out a little long so I added elastic to it.

Here we are at my cousin's wedding dinner. The most frequent comment was "Ooh, did you get these made from the same fabric?" To which I smiled and repied yes. I guess that is a compliment if people thought we got it tailor made? Haha. Only closer friends who knew I was into sewing asked if I made K's dress and when they realised it was the same fabric, they ventured to ask if I sewed my own too.



I was quite overwhelmed with the amount of fabric that I stayed off sewing for a while. P was wondering why I hadn't done much sewing. Well, I have restarted sewing. Kids clothes of course. But now I have to think of another dress to wear to yet another wedding! Argh.

Own slide in the living room

After the dollhouse came along, we moved the furniture in the living room around to make more space for K and her toys. Being more spacious, we took out the slide that we were given quite a while ago which my niece used to have in her bedroom. That was how she got out of bed everyday! Sliding out of bed.

But since K's bed is really a mattress on the floor, it's too low for the slide. So we attached it to our 3 seater sofa.

A snapshot of school

Managed to get some photos off K's teacher. It's a glimpse into K's school world, activities and interaction with her friends. Something we would never see otherwise.

Honing motor skills - spoon, bowls and pebbles. With friends Wayne and Zhong Cheng.

Her outdoor partner, Wayne, the other guy's hand she holds regularly!

Deer in headlights shot.

Down the slide with Grace, the first friend whose name she could say, tho' not accurately.

Funny smile.

Walking on a line?

Her usual hand gestures of "where?" I'm guessing she was asking where she was to go.

Are they playing follow the leader? Or is it that K is moving so slowly and the queue is piling up?

Hard at work. They are decorating the goody bag for a school event.

Picking up flowers....I'm guessing for the goody bag deco?

She's really good at this. Picking up stuff and putting them into a bag.

:) She's a funny one. She would exclaim loudly "wanning" as she runs. She likes to describe what she is doing or what she sees.

Her classmates. Not easy to try to get a shot of them all looking at the camera.

I'm an Anchorvale Void Deck kid!

Ice-cream!!! Look how pleased she looks.

A row of happy toddlers. Don't ask me why her hair is such. Bah. Who ties a little girl's hair like that?

You can tell from this pic what flavour the ice-cream was. Half vanilla, half chocolate!

Haha. Lolling about! Cool shot. How the teacher managed to coordinate 6 of them in this shot is a wonder.

Language progress

K has been surprising us with her vocab lately.

One night after her shower while she was sitting on our bed, she said, "Read tory." She usually says, "Read book".

Just last Friday while she was brushing her teeth, she had saliva coming down her chin. She pointed at it and said, "Dipping."

At lunch yesterday, Peen asked her where the television was (mounted to the top of the wall just below the ceiling). She pointed (and we were both expecting her to say, "there" while pointing.) but she thought for a while and said, "Top."

She has recently been hooked on a panda documentary and would keep asking to watch it. She has now got a string of words that she uses to persuade us to let her watch it. "TB, manda, watch, peas, now, wan, on." (TV, panda, watch, please, now, want, on) If we don't react, the repetition would get more persistent and louder, with greater urgency. Funny girl.

For the longest time now, many things are known as "Baby". Well, at least that is the way it comes out for Kim when she means: baby, carry, TV, Dopey, baked beans. Her latest progress is calling the dog. So instead of saying baby for Dopey, she says Dappy. Haha. At least it's evolving though one could argue whether it's getting closer or further from the right pronounciation.

We can't take the suspense.

Kim has started showing interest in playing pretend. She was given a doll for her first birthday and never showed much interest until we had the doll pram. Then she's been pushing it around all day and wanting to get it to sit on the potty, putting on and taking off her shoes and getting me to change her.

We, or at least I, have been toying with the idea of getting Kim a dollhouse (to further encourage imaginery play) so I trawled the net for what's available in the market. It made me want to be a kid again. There are so many toys out there. So many different brands and most of them are way cool.

P was quite set on Playmobil. I wasn't very keen cos while they are nice, I thought that a dollhouse needs to have cuter dolls and more homely furniture. I was gunning for a wooden dollhouse. But boy are they expensive. So we decided to just wait and buy it for Kim for her second birthday.

I found a local store, which is the sole distributor of one brand I like here in sg. After doing research (checking out online stores and a few other shopping centres), I thot we'd go down and take a look. At the back of my mind, I just wanted to show P the other possibilities aside from PM.

We completely fell in love and came home with the whole lot. It wasn't intentional. Really. So we had the works. The house, the dolls, the grandparent dolls, the entire furniture set, the car, the pets. Oh dear. It felt like we almost bought the entire shop. Nah, far from it.

We discussed it and sort of decided that we might keep it till her birthday before giving it to Kim. But then I thought I'd give her the family dolls and the car for her to play with first.



Then P wanted to fix up the house. Here he is hard at work.

And with such a small flat, where can we possibly hide it without the little girl chancing upon it? So we unveiled it, thinking she'd just have the house, the family and the car to play with and that would be enough.

We made her sit on the sofa opposite the house (covered with a bedsheet) and this was her reaction when we unveiled it.

She takes a peek.

Really pleased.



Then I couldn't resist so in went the master bedroom.



And the dining table.



And her other doll Gracie, dropped by to say hi and just had to test the comfy level of the bed.



AND we added the kid's bedroom set.



The parent dolls took a rest after Gracie left. Afterall, supervising the incoming furniture can be quite tiring.



So did the kids, tired from all the excitement of a new place. Just the doggie keeping watch.



Oh, and of course one would need the bathroom. You can't live in a place without one!

Doggie checking out the dining area for scraps.



The dollhouse comes with two levels. But right now, Kim finds it hard to play with furniture in the lower level so it has become a temporary garage.

The rest will probably have to wait till her birthday IF we can resist taking them out just to see her reaction each time. :)

Our funny little girl. She would climb into the dollhouse if she could. She has already tried to walk up the staircase of the dollhouse.

P is on the rampage at the moment thinking about painting the dollhouse and how to install lights and all. He's even gotten my dad into it. Well, we'll see what happens and will post when he completes his project.