2YO Eunice's Speech Development

Eunice is growing up very fast. So fast that sometimes I cannot believe that she's a big girl already. There are so many things that I want to write about her but I cannot catch up with her development. :).. It's going too fast. :)

Her speech development has been improving tremendously, and her vocabulary expansion amazes me. She picks up from our normal speech very fast. :). I remember when she's approaching 2 years old, around her 22 mths, I was just telling EG that her vocabulary has improved from 2 letters to 3 letters, for eg: from eat rice to want eat rice. She can start to put words together better.

Now, she can even form sentences. We noticed that since she is 2 years old 2 months ago. Once EG asked her, "Where is the sticker?", and she answered, pointing at the rubbish bin, "Gerger throw away already.." We were kinda amazed. That's her first sentence that we remember. After this, she started to say more and more and her sentences get longer and longer.
Recently EG told me, once when she woke up in the morning (I was downstair preparing for the day start), she told EG, "Daddy, I want the milk on the table...". EG was again amazed. :)

We bought puzzles for her to play (will update that separately - hopefully :P). Once she was playing it with EG and one piece was missing. EG asked her, "Where is the other piece?".. She looked at EG, then started to look for it and found it and completed the puzzle. Next, everytime when she plays her puzzle and she couldn't find certain piece, she'll say, "Where is the other piece?"... Again, amazed! :)

Next she uses preposition. I read in books that using preposition is a milestone. Her first sentence with preposition was "Elmo sleeps with mummy". She puts her Elmo to sleep beside me everynight. Few weeks ago, while on the way to babysitter, she suddenly said, "Mickey mouse behind the trees".. It took us a while to understand what she's saying, then we realized, the mickey mouse on the billboard was blocked by the trees and hence she said it's behind the trees. EG was again amazed, asked me, who taught her the word behind, we didn't. :)... And I was playing puzzles with her again the other day and she was trying to be cheeky and hide one piece under her leg. I asked her, "So, where's the other piece?".. She told me, "Under gerger's leg". *Grin*... but her pronunciation probably wasn't so clear but I am still amazed. :). We encouraged her to say proper sentence by asking her a lot of questions, like when we turn on the TV, we asked her, "Where is the remote?" She'll tell us "On the sofa".. I'm quite proud of her learning ability. :)

Now, everyday I'll talk to her when she comes back from babysitter place. I want her to learn to tell me what's going on in her day so she knows how to express herself especially when she starts going to school. My worst nightmare is my timid daughter being bullied in the school and she doesn't know how to tell me. So far she's progressing well. She can tell me what did she eat (rice/porridge/carrot/soup), who fed her (kakak/feed herself), what did she do (play slide/dancing) and with who. By the rate that she's going, I believe she'll be ready to go school next year, or I'll be ready to send her to school next year. :)

She's also very good in scolding her father. :).. Well, the father taught her to scold himself actually. She'll tell him, "Don't disturb!" if she knows you're trying to disturb her. Or she'll also point her little finger at EG and tell him softly but sternly, "stop!"... It makes us laugh everytime. I think she learns from the babysitter. But she doesn't do it to me, only to EG. I used the same "warning" to her when she's not behaving well and normally she'll cry badly. So I guess she knows that means something serious.

But overall, everyday, she just never stop amazes us on her speech development. But with this, it also makes our lives so much easier because she could express herself very well now and we can satisfy her demand since we can understand her. And the fact that she knows what we're telling her also helps a lot esp. after we discipline/scold her.

Recently we went to youth park with a few friends and their children just to let the kids to have something to play. And a friend took Eunice's pic. EG asked her to open her eyes big big and this is what she did. :)... Will blog about the outing separately as well.

Toilet Training

Need to jot down this date as it was an achievement for Eunice. At least that's what I thought. :)

16 Apr 2012 - First time Eunice pooed in toilet bowl. :)

I have been trying to toilet train Eunice since she's 20 mths, but failed miserably. I asked babysitter for help but she said she had an experience that a boy refused to let go his poo during the toilet training process and actually didn't poo for 2 weeks, and got constipated. And they had to let him wear on his diaper again and slowly coaxed him to poo again. So she told me to take it easy.

Everytime I saw Eunice poo poo-ing, I asked her, U poo poo is it? She'll surely say, NO, and then run to a corner to finish her work. Later she'll come and tell me poo poo already. Pee, neh... worse still, won't say a word.

I tried letting her running around with no diaper before, but ended up I was busy wiping the floor! :P.... We bought a small cushion toilet seat for her, but all her poo & pee will disappear when we put her there. Tried the small potty, not working either. So, I stopped for a while.

Until last night. After dinner, I was supposed to bathe her so I took off all her clothes. Then she started to pass gas, and looked at me and told me, "mummy, poo poo..." I said u want to poo poo is it? Then I quickly put her on the toilet seat, but she wanted to come down after a while. No poo no pee. So I bathed her, and changed her, and I decided to not to wear diaper for her but only the training pants, and I told her many many times, if u want to poo, tell mummy, OK?

Then I went to bathe. I came out and she was still occupied with her hair clips. Suddenly, her face changed and told me, "mummy... poo poo..." so again, I put her on the toilet seat. She wanted to come down again but I think this time she couldn't hold it anymore. I saw her shivered, but she looked scared. Ahh, my timid girl. I had to hold her hand and told her, yea, slowly. And yea she POOed in the toilet bowl!

I was so happy. :D... Then she told me, "OK, no more poo poo already..." I told her she's clever, and I told her to flush the toilet herself. :)

I am not sure if I'm just lucky last night. But I surely hope it'll continue. :D

Motherhood is just so funny. Such a small achievement makes me feel happy for the whole night. :)

Doctor visits

We have recently changed our pediatrician from Island Hospital to Adventist Hospital. Reason: Adventist has night clinic which is much more convenient for working parents like us.

When Eunice was probably at her 1.5 yrs old, I noticed she cried when 1) nurse asked her to go into the small box in Island hospital to take her height 2) when we entered doctor's clinic. She will start crying with no reason. But once we're out from the clinic, she's all fine.

Last year December, she got mild HFM. We brought her to Adventist hospital - it's opened during Christmas weekend, surprisingly. Again, when we were called into the room to take her height and weight, she started screaming and crying. When we came out to the play area with children slide, she's all fine, until we're called into doctor's clinic again and my little girl started screaming again. Worst, when she slept at night, she'll have nightmare and screaming "No... dun want...." Poor girl....!

*Sigh*....!

During CNY, she started coughing. We brought her to normal GP for some medication but it didn't improve so we decided to go back to Adventist. Few days before we went, I kept telling her, see doctor no pain pain one, so no cry cry ok? She just looked at me - I wonder if she really knows what I was telling her during then.

To my surprise, when we brought her there, she didn't cry. I was very happy. And when doctor asked her to open her mouth to check, she quietly obliged. *Grin*... And I kept praising her telling her that she's such a good girl. The doctor gave her an Angry Bird sticker and she was so happy. She waved good bye to the doctor while we left the clinic.

We had to go back quite often as her cough prolonged to almost two months. Everytime before we were going, I told her the same thing "see doctor no pain pain one, so no cry cry"... she will lift up her shirt and put her hand on her stomach, and tell me "doctor check check check.... (checking using stethoscope) then open mouth... ahhhh.... then no more..." *Grin again*. Once when we went back, we even let her sit on the chair herself to let the doctor check. She could do it by herself and oblige to whatever the doctor told her to do - open mouth, turn to let the doctor check her back, etc etc. No crying. :)

She also had to do one nebulizer treatment - no crying at all! I kept praising her.

Few weeks ago, she had mild fever at 38 degrees. It's always at 38 degrees, for 4 days continuously, and there're some rashes on her legs. We brought her to Adventist again and doctor confirmed it's not HFM, but need to do a blood test to confirm it's not dengue.

Blood test!! *Dangggggg*.... My heart sunk... EG asked, how are u doing to draw her blood? Doc said, we have to wrap her up. My tears were almost coming out. It reminded me of her Roseola episode in her 8th month. Well, you can swaddle an 8th month old baby, but a 2-year-old? *Sigh*... My innocent girl was still looking at doctor and us wondering what's going on.

The nurses took us to the procedure room, and we told Eunice everything is going to be ok, we're going to be near her. When the nurses wrapped her up, she made some unhappy noise and EG held her hand and told her it's OK. The nurses gave her a sticker to distract her, and I showed her the video of her singing ABC that I just took few days ago. While doctor poke her to get the blood, she was still looking at the video. The nurses also talked to her to distract her. No, no crying. In <3 mins, all done. And we picked her up.

I was so proud of her. I kept telling her that she's such a brave girl and a good girl. The nurse gave her a bunny sticker to stick on her hand, and she was still all happy about it.

*Phew*.... EG said our daughter is more brave than her mother, me. :P

Anyway, I think my little girl has really grown up. I am really so proud of her. :)

Btw, the blood test shows no dengue and just some normal viral fever - my little angel was all ok after 1-2 days. :)

Eunice is TWO :)

I'm back. :).

A friend asked if the end of my breastfeeding journey also means the end of my blog. Hehe... Lots of things are going on so it's a challenge for me to find time to blog. Moreover, Eunice will want us to show her the youtubes whenever she sees us in front of the computer. So, both me and EG restricted ourselves to be in front of the PC when she's with us at home.

Anyway, my girl has turned 2 last month. I just couldn't believe that time flies so fast and she's now 2 years old. Very often EG and I looking at her sleeping in her bed, and telling each other, "She has grown so much... she used to be just a small baby that took up just 1/4 of her bed but now there's hardly 1/4 space for her in her bed now."... :)

I couldn't believe that I have been a mum for 2 years. Her arrival has turned my whole life up side down. Ya, now you can call me auntie. I admit it. My topics with friends are always about kids - cooking for kids, schools, training, disciplining, etc etc. But the joy of motherhood is just indescribable. I am just the happiest mum in the world everytime when Eunice eats her meals that I cook for her and tell me it's nice, or when she listens to my instructions, or when we witness the milestone that she's hitting at every stage. She's definitely a joy in our life.

Beginning of her 18 mths, I have noticed she can hum some rhythms at the right tune... slowly, she put words into it, and now at her 2 years old, she can sing many many songs. She sings ABC, If you're happy and you know it, Twinkle twinkle little star, Itsy Bitsy spider, Me and my teddy bear, and many many other nursery rhymes. The biggest advantage of us sending her to a Christian babysitter is that she's also listening to Christian songs, she sings Jesus loves me this I know (I got shocked when I heard it the first time!), Deep & Wide, Kumbaya my Lord, and etc. She can even do it with action and she never fails to make us feel so proud of her!

For her speech development, she is now talking A LOT. At her 18 mths onwards, she's saying more on words, and slowly, now she's already speaking in sentences. She can tell you "Ger ger throw away already" when we asked where's her sticker.. or "Elmo sleep WITH mummy..." So nowadays, it's much easier for us to communicate with her because we can now understand each other better. :).

To our amazement, a month before she became 2 yrs old, not only she can count 1 to 10, and read A to Z, but she can also recognize some of the letters. We noticed that when she suddenly pointed at one of the letters on the wall when we were out and told us that's an "M".. I tested it at home and found out she could recognize a few of the letters. :).. For numbers, she can almost recognize all of them.

For her motor development, she now can jump, run, throw ball over her head (EG said he read that it's also a milestone :P), and now she's trying to cycle on the tricycle that we got for her 2nd birthday.

As she grows, we also noticed a few things about her, she's very hygienic. If we want her to bath, we just need to tell her that she's dirty or smelly, and she'll go bathe. She doesn't like to be dirty, She will request us (erm, more like shout at us) to clean it for her. She is a good helper. :)... EG has let her go to car porch while he's doing the washing, and also let her tried wiping her own table after her meals, she happily does it and never mess up anything. Obviously EG is very happy. And she's quite tidy too. The TV & astro remote controls must be put at a certain position, the wardrobe or tv cabinet must be closed at all time, her soft toys arrangement on the bed must follow certain pattern. She's gentle too, so far she closes all the doors, drawers or cabinets slowly & gently, she doesn't spoil our stuff, and she keeps her toys.

Both EG and I are really proud of our little girl. Though she's always shy with strangers or outsiders, which make her look a bit rude sometimes - because she refuses to let others to carry, and she avoids eye contacts with others, but I think this is just her personality that we should try to accept. I try to improve this by bringing her out more often but it doesn't really help. However, she's good with children. She can play with them nicely even if she has not met them before. :)

Babysitter told me at her place (with many other children), Eunice doesn't beat or bully others. Now she thinks she's tai ka che because she'll tell other younger babies or toddlers "No no!", "Sit here!", "Open mouth" or even tease at others when they cry - very often when I pick her up, she'll run out and tell me "Mami, jayden cry WA~~~~~".. Even babysitter laughs at her and now we call her the monitor (class monitor) because she now gives instructions to everyone. :)

All in all, I am really glad that my girl has grown up well. I thank God for His continuous blessing upon this family and even for first time parents like EG and I who don't have any help in this island (since our parents are all not here), we could still pull through and our girl has grown up well.

The end of my breastfeeding journey

Yes. Finally.

Since my first mastitis episode in Eunice's 14th month, I had it again on her 15th month, 17th month and 18th month. It's definitely not fun. I am not sure why it kept coming back but the only possible reasons that I can ruled out are: 1) stress 2) previous infection wasn't cleared well. So this time, I went back to my gynae (I went to Panel clinic the last 2 times :P) and make sure I followed the instruction correctly this round to clear off all infections.

And I took the opportunity to wean off Eunice at the same time.

I had stopped pumping in office for 3 weeks, and only let Eunice direct latch in the morning, and before she went to bed. And on one fine day, I have decided to stop letting Eunice latch on. I got EG to help me.

First night, she cried, hugged my legs, and asked for neh neh... My heart melted. I seriously thought of giving in but thank God EG was around to help me. I told EG to please carry her away with my really weak voice. When Eunice saw EG coming, she ran into my kitchen (with all lights off) and hid at the corner. My heart broken. EG then carried her with her milk bottle to the room. She looked at me, cried, extended her arms to me asked me to carry her, but all that I did was just telling her byebye, and good night. :(

After a while, I heard her laughing happily upstair and she drank her milk, and fell asleep.

Next morning when she woke up, first thing she asked for neh neh again... I showed her her bottle. Of course she cried again, shook her head and her hands. She must be thinking what she has done wrong and why isn't she getting anymore directly from me. :(.. EG asked me to go bathe and few minutes after I went into the bathroom, she drank her milk. When I'm out, she's all happy again.

But I think she can feel that she's not going to have the intimacy with her mummy anymore. When I went to prepare her milk, she asked me to carry her and I did, and she held me close and tight with her two arms. This is the first time she did this to me. I just felt SO.SAD.

The crying continued for the next 3-4 days. Sometimes in the morning, I had to go to the guest room to sleep in order for her to drink her milk in the bottle. When she climbed onto me to ask for milk, i lifted up my shirt and showed her my bras, and asked her, where is neh neh? no more neh neh dy....

On the 5th day, she didn't cry anymore when I gave her bottle for her morning feed. She drank it happily. I took back the duty to sleep her at night and she is drinking her bottle happily.

She FORGOT about my breasts already. In just 5 days!

In a way, I'm happy that the weaning process wasn't as tough as I would have imagined. But I felt a very strong loss inside me. The tinge of sadness never seems to go away even till now - 2 weeks since I didn't let her latch on. Sometimes, I actually forgot about it and still thought of feeding her. I feel like I "broke up" with someone that I really love.

No, I didn't cry. But everytime I think about this, I teared. But I keep telling myself that I have done my best to feed her up till 19.5 months, and I have hit my target of 18 months. And she has grown up and now it's a whole new chapter for both me and her.

So, I have graduated! And hooray to my breasts, they have finally gotten their freedom. :)..

But I'll miss this experience dearly. I'll miss my little girl asking for neh neh, and came to me, and auto lie down in my arm, pointing at my breast and tell me "this is neh neh" before she latched on to drink. I'll miss this dearly.

All the breastfeeding moments will be remembered forever, only by the mothers though.

Pray Pray

Something so cute happened just now that I just couldn't wait to write this down to remember.

Eunice was playing at the door while EG parking his car. Suddenly, she looked up and stopped moving. I saw a lizard on the ceiling. Then, the lizard moved. Next, Eunice started to run to me, and told me "ba ba" (*bao bao).

As usual, I asked her, "why bao bao?"

She answered: "sted sted.." while patting her hand on her chest. (*scared scared). I carried her up.

EG came into the house and asked me what happened and I told him. As a lizard killer, he started his actions.

Suddenly, Eunice put her hands together, and told me: "pray pray.."

I couldn't get her at first - I thought she wanted to clap her hands to scare away the lizard. Then she told me again, "pray pray..." then I got her this time.

So I said a short prayer: "Dear Jesus, please remove the lizard from my house. In Jesus's name we pray...."

Eunice shouted "A-Meng!"

Then, she pointed at the floor, "walk walk...."

:)

I didn't know that my little one knows the power of prayer too! This is just so cute. :)

Eunice's First Miri Trip

It was Eunice's first trip back to her mummy's hometown at Sarawak when she's 18 mths old, to attend my brother's wedding. :).. I was excited for this trip since February and been counting down the days since then. Well, packing was a nightmare as I was so worried that I forgot to bring her important stuffs - and I brought incredibly lots of stuff including her snacks, cookies, pastas, etc. I managed to borrow a playpen from my friend but I need to bring my own mattress back too! So, we ended up with 1 huge bag, 2 small bags, a stroller, a backpack, and a diaper bag. OK I admitted that I over packed. I'll be more efficient in my next flight trip. Hehe :)

Overall it's quite a good trip, though very tiring for EG and me.
On PG-KL flight, the air stewardess gave Eunice a packet of Dutch Lady. She was happily sipping the packet drink throughout the flight. We had to transit for abt 2 hours in KLIA. While planning for the trip, EG already told me he'd prefer KLIA as it has more space and he feels safer for Eunice to run around. Well, it was a public holiday and hence there weren't much price differences on air asia ticket vs MAS ticket. But of course, I also prefer KLIA over LCCT.

From KL to Miri, the flight was 2 hours. She slept for the 1st hour, and woke up the next hour getting restless. I had to entertian her by carrying her up to watch over other passangers (as if she was playing hide & seek with them @.@), or carrying her up and down the aisle. But lastly, we fed her with a very sweet crackers that the air stewardess gave and she finally was occupied for a while before we landed. :)

The little girl just loves to explore the travelator

Wandering around herself - not feeling scared at all

In Miri, my sister and mum were helping out to entertain her, so my load was lessen. I just need to cook for her. Sometimes I just let her eat whatever that my mum cooks. :).. However, the trip was kinda hectic as we had dinners with relatives almost every night. Most of the time Eunice didn't sleep long enough for her nap (still adjusting i think), and hence she'll get cranky on most of the dinner time when the dinner ran late. That also explains why not much pictures on Eunice as we were just so busy entertaining her.

After my brother's wedding dinner, we had a small family gathering with my father's siblings to celebrate his birthday. And thank God she was all happy that day after her long nap! And finally we managed to get a nice picture of her with her grandparents! :)

Eunice and her grandparents

My sister brought out all our soft toys over the years and let Eunice play with it when she was home. Oh she loves them so much. And she also watched Chipmunk throughout the whole 8 days in Miri - watching 6-7 times a day! Yea, we all can memorise the show already. But she still loves it.

Watching Chipmunk with her soft toys

I always love my home trips. This round, though I went back for 8 days, but I still feel I didn't get to spend too much time with my parents as they were too busy preparing for my brother's wedding and entertaining the guests from outstations. I hope I will go back again soon. :)

As for Eunice, I think she loves it too. She was calling "Yi Yi ar.." all the time when she sees my sister's pic in my phone after she's back to Penang. Sometimes she'll make me call her and she'll just listen to my sister's voice for a while then she'll feel all happy. :). How sweet. And recently, she also pointed at my mum's pic in my phone and told me "ah ma ar..." :)... but I din have to chance to let my mum hear her beloved granddaughter calling her yet. :)

While coming back, it was slightly easier. Eunice slept through the 2 hours flight from Miri to KL. And she played around in KLIA again during our 3 hours transit. And eating throughout the 45 mins flight from KL to PG. On that night, Eunice slept at 8.30pm all the way till 7am the next morning. I think she was as tired as us. :D

I wonder why my timid girl was not scared at all in KLIA with all strangers around

But I think, Eunice is a bit too big size to share a seat with us. :P... Though her parents are not big size. I never complain for MAS seats before until this trip - because I'm sharing it with an active toddler. As for EG, he told me, no more trips with flights until she's bigger. If we have to, then pls get a seat for her. We were both exhausted when coming back - carrying all the luggages, strollers, bags, and an active toddler who keeps wanting to walk!

So, our oversea plan will now have to be on hold! :)

Nursery & Kindy Scouting

Yeap, you read it right. We're scouting for Eunice's nursery / kindy at her 18 months. Kiasu? Hmm... I called up a nursery and she told me the earliest she can put Eunice in is in July 2013! Waa... I don't mean to be kiasu but I don't like the hanging feeling (typical me) and hence I started to ask around and look around last month.

After much scouting & "interviewing" (friends, colleagues, some short listed nurseries :P), then only I realise it's not an easy decision - it's something that will make a difference in my child's first going-to-school experience. However, the fee is another factor to consider. There are some nurseries which are very affordable, but some can charge up to double of the normal ones.

EG and I had some discussions among us, and we decided on a few:
1. Study Environment - We prefer the kindy not to be too academic. I have heard some kindys gave spelling test / ejaan / 听写 (chinese spelling test) every week for the children as young as 4 years old! I think this will not only give the stress to the child, but also the parents. However, I don't expect the kindy to be too relaxing too as it'll be a problem when the child goes primary school - when nowadays primary school's homework can be as stressful as my job! :P. So, there should be a balance.

2. Languages - I'd want Eunice to learn all 3 languages. I admit that I'm quite a failure in teaching her chinese while I myself is chinese educated. She doesn't know any chinese word, except "bao bao" maybe. :P. So far, we found that most kindys will teach all 3 languages.

3. Teachers - I have heard too many scary stories of the teachers suddenly lost their mind and started to whack the child. I know taking care of one active toddler is hard, what more a bunch of them in school. But still I cannot accept any teacher who will lost their sane while teaching. A friend told me once her niece came home with a blue black buttock from school and showed me the picture. I was really really shocked. Imagine the terror on the child! So, I'll ask about the teachers too.

4. Discipline - Though we don't want the teachers to "whack" our child, but there should also be discipline - to teach them what's the right things to do. One of the nurseries that we checked out uses very good disciplinary actions to the child. The principal told me sometimes they will even have "court cases" when she'll be the judge. They treat the children like adults.

5. Teaching methods - Of course most of us went through the conventional way where 1 person talks and the rest listen. But we found there're some kindys that allow the bigger children to cook, or do planting and etc and they believe the children learn through these activities too.

6. Class size - For us, we prefer the class size to not to be too big so that all the children will have the equal attention from the teachers. Having said this, if the class size is big, then we'll want to know how do the teachers make sure that all children can progress at the same speed.

7. Teaching materials - A kindy that we went to showed us the teaching materials that they used for the students - and we were truly impressed.

In the end, we have sort of decided to send Eunice to a kindy that we both like, though the fees is more expensive than the others. We both hope that it'll be giving Eunice a good first learning experience in her life.

:)