28 Months

Abby turned 28 months (2y4m) last 20th December 2016.  

Weight

12.3 kg

Height/Length

Around 89-90cm.

Teeth

Still 16 pearly whites.

Motor Skills

• Loves to put on mommy’s watch and necklace.
• Has the strength to carry her baby bath basin to which she called ‘bash-in’ and placed it under the water outlet.
• Can peel a banana (021216).
• A little problem solver. When the float she used for ‘Baby Shark’ dancing and singing kept sliding down her waistline, she decided to get a spring and wrapped it across her waistline before placing the float above it. Tadaa! The float simply stay in place throughout her dancing session :P (021216)
• Loves to request for a ‘piggy back’ session and happily ‘riding’ on her daddy’s back.
• Loves to pretend herself as Humpty Dumpty by sitting at the edge of the bed/sofa before falling herself to a soft ground.
• First introduced to scissor by her church jie-jie on 041216 and mommy finally approved to buy her a scissor of her own (091216). This girl was soo happy and non-stop exclaiming ‘Thank you mommy scissor, cute cute baby scissor’. :)
• She has been looking forward to cutting labels/taggings on new cloths since (191216).

Communication and Social Skills

• Words she can pronounce: watch, necklace, kitten (the way she called her kitty lately), “lee uf” (love), pocket, “bohh” (bowl), “bee-kert” (biscuit), chicken wing, church.
• Simple clauses she can come up with: wipe floor, read books, cut ‘feet’ (toe nails) LOL, ‘make farm’ (requesting me to set up a ‘farm’ for her to place her Usborne farm animal toobs inside.
• Other simple sentences she can form “sook-sook watch(es) TV”
• Whenever she sees a wall, she would say “Humpty sits on a wall”
• Can barely mention words with ‘s-es’ sound except for “books”.
• Recognizes cars and houses. She can tell whose car and point it to the respective vehicle accurately.
• She would request us to sing a song/rhythms by dropping hints like “mommy sing bus (The wheels on the bus) followed by ‘baby’, ‘mommy’ / (Five little Monkeys) – with jump/knock/bump indicating me to change the item in the lyrics as we came along, “sing yes papa (Johnny Johnny yes papa)”, “sing rain, rain, go away”.
• Among the areas/places, she can name: bedroom, toilet.
• Calls wallet/purse/angpaos as “ah pao”. Come to think about it, they do rhyme alike in Hakka :P.
• She is getting very good at pretend play. She loves pretending herself as ‘mommy’. One day, she called out “ah-mee, milk milk” and as usual I would reply “Wait!” without noticing that she was in the midst of her pretend-play. She stopped me from making her milk and patted on her chest by telling me that she was the “ah-mee” for that moment :P (051216).
• I have never deliberately taught her about numbers nor alphabets just yet, but she has a set of flash and wooden alphabets and numbers which she loved messing up with. This indirect learning has gained her to the recognition towards the number 4, 6 and 8 and some alphabets like O and some others (mistaken R as P) – 061216. On another occasion, the alphabet ‘O’ on her playmat was missing and she has been searching for it and said: “Where are u ‘O’?” :P
• Likes to call out “ah-meeeeee” loud while going up the stairs when daddy is walking her up the stairs, and vice versa when I goes up the stairs with her.  
• There was an incident when My other hand was holding the handphone while nursing her on the same side. She requested me to “lie down hand” (put down my hand cum handphone).
• We were in the midst of potty training her. She was doing all good during day time with constant reminders. But, there was once when she has gotten too engrossed with deh-deh’s Ipad, she refused to pee and eventually peed on the bed. When I summoned her to take off the sheet and mattress protector, she told me that the mattress is wet too. Hence, I questioned her how are we supposed to dry and carry the gigantic mattress. She replied by saying “use that one” (pointing at my hairdryer).
• She has been using ‘It’ so frequently on something she couldn't name accurately– “Fix it, close it, open it, knock it”.
• When she is asked about the whereabout of something, she would go for the all-time-answer “Over there” despite the item she intend to address is right on her palm :P
• When asked how-to, she would always go for answer “like this”.

Emotional Development

• She is a rather stubborn little girl. It doesn't work when I threaten to not give her the sticker books which she adores so much and initially kept asking me to buy when she misbehaved. In return, she replied “mm moi (meaning don’t want in Hakka) sticker books, throw away” (131216). Fingers crossed this is just another phase.
• She could get a little gabby when she sees new faces coming over to Ah Tai’s place. Yee-poh came for a visit and this was their first time meeting each other. She refused to go home. Instead, she asked “ah-mee and deh-deh” to “go away” (go home) - 131216.

Food and Feeding

• Likes Jacob oat biscuit (round type) just because it fits in perfectly into the condiment sauce plate (301116).
• She is still very fond of Kinder Joy’s Surprise Egg. She could trade in or forego almost anything for it.
• She loves almost everything dark/black from chocolate ice-cream, dark chocolate, dishes in soy sauce.

Records

• Watched Finding Dory (halfway through on 221116) during our Movie Night as was so excited seeing dory and she recognizes them whenever we chanced upon dory toys/advertisement. 
• Books she loves for bedtime story are The pink Pyjamas, Disney-How does a telephone work, Doctor for a day.
• She was mildly scalded by hot water when the boss was carrying a cup of tea with him and carrying her on another hand. She wiggled no stop with excitement before the incident took place. Nothing too bad except that her arm was reddish for a couple of days (111216).
• Recognizes Pikachu (known as “kachoo”) and Spiderman (“spyer-man”).
• Survived our second road trip (181216). Thank God!
• She received her second set of ‘cut fruits toy’ from Daiso (201216).

Her Firsts

• RE Excursion to their teacher’s residence who owns several types of animal like a mini zoo (201116).
• Took a sip of her daddy’s espresso at Kelly’s Espresso and ordered for her own ‘chickin wing’ but unfortunately, only until the last minute after she got a little impatient, we were informed that her chicken wings were sold out (301116).
• For the very first time, she allowed mommy to watch “Kubo and the two strings” till the end during our movie night (031216).
• I managed to get her to sit on the potty for a few times in a couple of hours. Also managed to get her pee in the toilet for about 6 times (041216).
• First learn about Tom the cat apps and she was very excited ‘talking’ to Tom (171216).

Sleeping Patterns

• Still love lying and fall asleep on mommy’s arm. She would go with sentences like ‘sleep ah mee’s hand, no lie down’ ~ insisted on lying on my arm instead on lying down on the flat bed (081216).
• Sometimes, she would request me to read her a book middle of the night when she had her milk fix. At times, I politely declined by telling her ‘it’s too dark’. When she is in her good mood, she would oblige and say “yes, dark” before going back to her slumber.

Paper & Pen

Whenever we are dining out or attending church services, I would usually pack Missy’s busy bag; from puzzles, wooden toys, fancy stationaries, books etc. In fact, she had no strong preference towards an item after another except for the tendency to look for her 'cut fruits toy' a couple of times when I didn't bring them out for church service. I just pack a variety and changes the item each time we go out. When she has friends about her age, she will be all fine and generously lending them and sharing theirs. But, when she being the only kid amongst adults, she would start getting restless pretty quick, and all the stuff I brought along for her to play with were usually short-lived. 

But, it was rather exceptional last Friday when we attended a wedding banquet, she was rather cooperative and well-behaved and not to mention, she managed to sit almost throughout the session. All that kept her occupied were merely 2 pieces of pink florescant A4 papers and my Faber-Castell True Gel Colour (purple) pen I found in my bag. We spent a good time scribbling and drawing ‘Umpty Umpty’ (the way she calls Humpty Dumpty), tracing hand palms and had manicures too (drawing objects she fancies on her finger nails with the gel pen)! I have never expected that simple pleasures can come from just paper and pen or have I complicated things all these while? :P So, these were my ‘babysitter’ for the whole night hence they certainly worth a mention here :) 

Froggy by daddy

Mostly Humpty Dumpt(ies)

'Baby Shark's' Family, Hand palms & more

Baby Shark

This is a long overdued post. It is not something new that this little girl likes to move to music and dance. To be honest, the ‘Baby Shark’ heat has receded by now. This song has been a hit for her a couple of months back. Just for the record, the float (which was passed down to her and this Hong Kong made float was reputed to be of premium quality) has ruptured and recently successfully mended by her oh-so-creative grandaunt. Can you relate how often this float had been used as her prop to dance Baby Shark? This girl has developed a fondness towards Humpty Dumpty instead. Here's her dancing Baby Shark accompanied by music without action. She emulated the action from another version of Baby Shark series with action. 

27 Months

Abby turned 27 months (2y3m) last 20th November 2016.  

Weight

12 kg

Height/Length

Around 89cm.

Teeth

Still 16 pearly whites. No signs of teething yet.

Motor Skills

• She has the strength to swing with her legs by grasping on my car’s handle.
• Has the ability to go up 2 stair’s risers at a time (aided).
• Loves to make-shift her own “playground” by draping her mattress onto the couch and slides down thereafter.
• Monkey see monkey do. I wasn't sure if she has ever seen me or anyone tweezing arm hair before, she took my eyelash curler and put it near to her arm and pretend tweezing her armpit hair. LOL (171116).
• On another note, she has been very curious with scissors ever since i helped her to trim her fringe before this. She has been attempting to get hold of scissors and all of the time, i managed to stop her. She finally got her hands on scissor (181116) at Ah Tai’s place and gave her pant a good few snips. *sweat*
• Loves wearing mommy’s necklace and watch.
• Has a thing for all kinds of bags. Loves carrying a tote/backpack/shoulder bags.
• Loves laying her hands with her deh-deh’s Lego township in the living hall

• Insist on holding a hymn book on her own during church services
• Loves role playing and these days, ‘playing doctor’ has been a hit for her. 

Communication and Social Skills

• She can form simple sentences rather independently.
• Sometimes, she creates her own terminology just to get her message across. She calls  a vase “flower’s bottle” when she saw her aunt did some flower arrangement for church and “put eye” for my eye masks indicating the way i put them on my eye bags :P
• Loves to mention any action we did. For instance; when she saw me beating some dough, she would say “mummy makes bun-bun/cupcake”, “bb (calling herself) kewf-kewf (i.e. cough).
• Rather chirpy at home but was so timid when she meets stranger/outsiders.
• New songs/rhythms she can hum: Baa Baa black sheep, Rain rain go away,
• Recognises and can say octopus, sharks, love (referring to heart shape), spider (but sometimes mistaken crabs as spiders).
• Able to gauge space and distance. She would request for her shower tub to be “pushed” closer to the water tap which has yet to be switched on.
• Other words she can say: papaya, banana, good morning, wake up, go home, “kewf” (cough), “pano” (piano), “cunny” (candy), properly, naughty, “eck-lace” (necklace), “jamas” (pyjamas), battery, handphone, broken, inside, outside, fix, air cond, “spyer” (spider), “bleu” (balloon), “ah-ses” (glasses), tired, watch, wipe floor.
• Loves to say “deh-deh/ah-mee fixes” whenever she finds something malfunctioning well/spoilt.
• Loves to say “deh-deh/ ah-mee /bb naughty” whenever she finds us or herself doing something funny/guilty or just for fun.
• Woke up at 5am one morning (111116) and asked me for “battery” (it was actually a power bank) of her USB operated lamp.
• Relates sizes with daddy (biggest), mommy (medium) and the smallest as bb. Hence, that explains, “daddy shark”, “ah-mee flower” or “bb ball”.
• Able to convey/give simple commands: “Let’s go, Wake up, Faster..." etc
• Picks the book of her preference and request mommy to "read books". 

Emotional Development

• She is currently in the ‘NO’ phase. Many times, she refused yeh-yeh, po-po and easily get crossed. Fingers crossed that this phase will be over soon.
• Says “sorry ah-mee/deh-deh” very frequently. She uses conveniently i.e whenever she banged on me, spilled water on the floor or when I got angry with her.
• She recognizes houses/cars. She can tell the owner of the cars/house (among the family members).

Food and Feeding

• Loves finger food. She chomped down children-friendly curry puffs happily (071116).
• She is willing to take her Scott Emulsion (original version) these days

Records

• She has been frequenting the mini market nearby to MIL’s shop for their 50 cents capsule vending machine. She reiterated the procedures “put money, turn-turn-turn, take out ‘ball ball’” to grandaunt when they passed by the shop one day.

Her Firsts

• First went up a swing (231016).
• Had her first daddy-daughter week when I was outstation for a course in Alor Setar, Kedah. This round, she was ‘big’ enough to make her decision to not staying over with SIL & popo at Ah Tai like what she used to during my frequent outstation trips back then (24-281016).
• Had her hourly basis potty train for two days over the weekend. She seemed to hold her nature calls and no pants wetting but was refused  to pee in the potty/toilet.
• Had her first on-stage performance during RE Year End Gathering. Never in my wildest dream to have imagined my clingy girl to stand in front of hundreds of audiences. 
• Got her first doctor set from grand uncle and paired it with her “Doctor for a day” book.
• First visited the Sun Bear Conservation Centre and Sepilok (first for mommy as well!) - 111116
• Had her first RE excursion to a brethren’s residence who owns several types of animal like a mini zoo (201116). 

Sleeping Patterns

• She sure knows how to melt her daddy’s heart especially when she wanted her video time. It had been a while since I white lied to her that my hand phone has broken (couldn’t be used for video watching). Despite she has been seeing me using my phone, she knew very well that mommy’s phone is at no use for video watching. She would usually go (sometimes prompted, sometimes on her own initiative) “Deh-deh, bb brush teeth, wear ‘jamas’ (pyjamas), on light (switching on our bed header’s reading light), read books, #watch video, off video, cover ‘eh-ket’ (blanket), bob-bob and oi-oi (zzz).

First Sewing Project: Sewing Machine Cover

Lately, I have fallen in love with sewing. My mom had gotten me a new Singer electric sewing machine sometime early 2013 but the machine had been serving as a white elephant all these years. I have once lent it to my aunt and sis-in-law. But, back it went to the shelf and remained as a display item.  The sudden urge to pick up sewing came about when the boss suddenly required me to thread the machine for him to alter the length of his new trousers a night before going outstation for a conference the next morning. With a surprised and skeptical look whether my boss can actually  sew, I was guilt-ridden and ashamed of myself too :P In fact, we have been asking for AIL’s help all these while and since she is currently working on her daughter’s wedding gown, we didn't want to bother her this round. I was feeling so culpable  for not knowing how to thread a machine despite owning it for almost a good 4 years! So, i ended up offering the boss to hand sew instead.

Over a casual conversation with AIL (mentioned above) whom inspired me to bake before this about my intention to learn sewing from her, she dropped by our place the following afternoon and taught me how to thread upper and lower thread. The following day, I went through my Pinterest album again and went through all the sewing projects i have once admired and pinned with my wishful thinking of producing them myself.  When mojo kicked it, I rummaged into my stash of sewing materials (I have been hoarding these stuff all these while despite I did not sew) and made my maiden attempt to produce a sewing machine cover simply because it appeared to be among the simpler one, and partly because I don't have an easy-to-access cover for my machine (except the waterproof cover and a travelling bag that came along with the machine, which are perfect for machine storage).

This is my first sewing project with my machine :)  It may not be my first time sewing lines with a machine, but definitely my first time handling a bias tape and sponge and not to mention threading a machine (like a pro now? LOL). The output was a far from perfect one. The seams and bias tape are messy, lines are crooked, and may be countless to be mentioned one by one. But, guess what? My all-time-fan, my girl decided to trade her favorite traveling blanket with this ‘mini comforter’ and refused to return it to me when I was half way through the project :D.  

Humpty Dumpty

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Missy is musically inclined. She loves to dance and sing. And, I have been exposing her to certain nursery rhymes like winkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black sheep, Incy Wincy Spider and recently to Humpty Dumpty by chance and didn't expect her to love them as much as I do. Most of the time, she is only able to hum along and complete the end syllable rather accurately. Coincidentally, I managed to grab her a classical Ladybird series on Humpty Dumpty and Incy Wincy Spider books online that comes along with various other rhymes in each book!  

She loved them to bits and on the very same night when I showed it to her, i caught her attempting to recite Humpty Dumpty several times while pointing on the book on the right page (pretending as if she can read) and had been pestering daddy and mommy to “draw Humpty” as our bedtime activity for the rest of the night! :P

  

Pretend Play: Cutting Fruits & Vegetables

She has been requesting to watch these videos for quite sometime on Youtube prior to this. Last Sunday (061116) in Harbour Mall, after collecting her cutlery set which i have left at Four Point’s dining hall the night before, we headed over to the mall next door for a stroll. Since she has been requesting for Vitagen, hence we went into the grocery store in the mall. While going through the aisle, she spotted this velcro  fruits and vegetables cutting playset and quickly shoved the Vitagen to me, requesting me to “put back” (return) it to the shelf. I am glad that she is still adhering to our “one-at-a-time policy”. She can only pick one item at a time :) But, when I tried to coax her to get a larger set with more parts (slightly more expensive but ‘economic’ in mommy’s opinion), she refused and persisted with the one  she first laid her eyes on. Did i mention that I have a very determined and persistant little girl? LOL

Never did I know that this playset can turn out to be the best investment (and cheapest) we have ever made. She loved her toys to bits and it had been a good babysitter for few days in a stretch, She had been so engrossed with them and I have never seen my girl to be so stingy and protective towards her stuff with the church kids before this :O

RE Year End Gathering (Rehearsal)

Missy has been looking forward going to “see jie-jie and gor-gor” (the way she puts it) every Sunday and she has been asking for it almost every day and night whenever we are dressing up or going to Ah Tai’s for dinner.  But, being the youngest toddler in the RE Kindy Year 1 class, we never had a quiet and calm time sitting down when the teacher is sharing Bible stories in front. This little girl just couldn’t help but wiggling around, sometimes helping herself at the book shelf next door to her class (with connecting entrance). Yet, this girl has a whale of time during second session which typically covers crafts, music classes and dancing session. But, she wasn't that cooperative most of the time. The moment she anticipated most was the “chop-chop time” where she got to go to the front to stamp her attendance all by herself as well as “present time”, where all kids were given some goodies/junk foods to be brought home as attendance gift.

In conjunction of the coming Honouring the Elderly cum RE Year End Gathering event, the kids were required to gather at the church hall for rehearsal. The kids had two rounds of rehearsal for each class. During the first round, I diverted Missy’s attention as I foresee that she would be clinging on me just like what she did during my choir rehearsal back then and this time, I wanted to saved up some  dramatic scene despite the fact that she loves dancing and prancing around at home. She had her milk fix when her class peers were rehearsing in front. Upon hearing the music they have been practicing being played, she started to get uneasy and started to wiggle around. The presentation was still ongoing the moment she finished off her milk and wanted me to bring her to the front.

Before the second round started, I decided to let her to go up with her friends. Besides, it was a rehearsal after all. As expected, she insisted holding on my hands so I walked her up to the front pew and passed her to the fellow jie-jie (class assistant). Being the youngest (and probably the smallest too), she was carried up to the performing stairs. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised on how natural and courageous she was on stage. It had never crossed my mind that she would be standing in front at the age of 2y2mo. 

First Song: The Lord's Prayer (Mandarin)


Second song: 'Tian Fu De Hua Yuan'

26 Months

Abby turned 26 months (2y2m) last 2010(2006). 

Weight

11.9kg (measured on 231016).

Height/Length

Not measured

Teeth

Still 16 pearly whites (I think).

Motor Skills

• She can take off and put on her clothes including socks and shoes independently.
• Loves choosing her own clothes to wear. Recently, she loved wearing “nice nice sam-sam (clothes)” to sleep.
• Insisted to change whatever clothes she was currently wearing into her all time favourite Uniqlo ‘uniform’ (singlet / spaghetti) whenever the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star video was played simply because the character in the video was wearing a spaghetti too.
• She loves her pretty underwear very much. They must be kept out of her sight and she even rummaged into her stash of clothes at Ah Tai just to look for her panties which were meant to be worn with her dresses. Sometimes, she even wore them on top of her pants.   
• Able to caliper coins with stapler (141016).

First time on a swing (231016)

Communication and Social Skills

• She can tell simple story line. While watching on the Youtube video one day, she reiterated to me that the “baby eats bun bun”, then she needs to “go mmm-mmm (i.e poo)”, then “go gai-gai (i.e off for an outing)”, she “cry, mommy bao-bao” (i.e the baby cries and her mom cuddled her thereafter), “put in (i.e place the baby back into her cot) – drink milk milk – fish (i.e finish) milk milk” (200916).
• Had little confusion on the usage of “off vs close” and “on vs open”. Sometimes, she would go, “off the door” indicating door closing, “off the light” when she intended to switch on the reading lamp. 
• Initially faced confusion with the word “knock”. All she knew was head knocking. Hence, when I asked her to knock at the door, she would bang her head lightly to the door. LOL
• She can name quite a number of animals after our previous visit to the zoo. Besides, I have gotten her quite a number of animal related books and toobs to make learning fun. She enjoyed them tremendously. Among the animals she can name are “eh-fant” (elephant), monkey, “popo-tamus” (hippo), bunny, hen, chicken, chicks, bird, bear, tiger, lion, froggy etc.
• Thanks to the bunny song. She learnt about the youngs of a kangaroo is known as joey, rabbit’s babies are known as bunny. On top of that, she learnt that a kangroo “jumps” whilst a bunny “hops” and frog “leaps”.
• When we said something has finished, she would say “buy gain”.
• Other words she can say “explode” (indicating her diapers are soiled) and requested us to “change” it for her.
• Able to relate rain with umbrella. Whenever it pours, she would  say “bring/buy ‘za’ (i.e umbrella in Hakka)” and followed by humming a few words in the Incy Wincy nursery rhythms.
• Having confusion with opposite words. Sometimes mistken ‘off’ as ‘on’, ‘downstairs’ with ‘upstairs’, ‘inside vs outside’, ‘go vs come’, that’  and ‘this’. She would answer “that one” at the same time pointing towards the respective item including those situated right in front of her to all “Where is..?” questions.
• Sometimes deliberated repetition in her words, i.e “aaah-ah-ah-mi” (calling ah-mee and followed by cunning chuckles)
• Other words/short sentences she can say: “Happy buc-day” (Happy birthday), “NO doctor” (when she resisted from seeing the doctor – 031016), “wake up”, “help me (to) blow”, “eh-ket” (blanket), “blow hair”, “lie down”, “on light” and “shopping”

Emotional Development

• She is facing another phase of seperation anxiety with mommy again and when mommy is around, she refuses almost anyone.
• Shows concern and knows what to do to be helpful. When she saw Ah Tai coughing, she quickly requested for “ti-choo” (tissue) and gave Ah Tai’s chest/back a pat.
• Can negotiate. We bought her a second Kinder Joy (031016) and she was spoilt with choices and had been requesting for her “egg” to be changed whenever we pass by the shelf by saying “change eh one” (change another one). When her daddy joked by asking if she has the money to pay, she nodded and put her hands into her pocket. When we asked for her money, she eventually said “deh-deh pay first”. LOL
• She can be ultra-protective with her belonging these days.
• She is courageous enough to stand in front of the crowd for her on-stage performance (rehearsal and on-the-day). At home, she requested me to “take off” the ribbon on her teddy for her to use as flower props. I eventually substituted the flowers with my flower hair ties.

Food and Feeding

• Still breastfed (mixed feeding) and having a habit of wanting ‘bob-bob’ right after her milk ration whenever I am home. 
• Usually on Sundays, she would spend sometime in her tent (in our room) before getting ready and dress up for Sunday Class. On 250916, she had her milk in her tent while i was busy downstairs, she refused to hand the empty glass bottle to the boss and insisted to wait for me to collect them from her but she fell asleep while grasping on the empty bottle. The moment I returned to the room, she called up on me and requesting for 'bob-bob' in a frail voice :).  
• Insisted that only mommy to make her "milk-milk" middle of the night. Although her daddy gets up to prepare the milk for her, she would still persist "ah-mee make" *sweat*.

Records

• Had a very good appetite and requested for third helping of porridge (self feed) of her usual small portion which was rare while I was feeding Ah Tai. When Ah Tai let out a little cough, she quickly run over and gave her chest a pat (250916).
• Had her fringe trimmed by mommy for the second time (250916).
• First attended mommy’s office Family Day at RDC (011016).

Her Firsts

• She surprised me with her courage to go on the ‘stage’ for RE Year End presentation rehearsal.
• Since she has neglected her stash of Duplo at home and wanting a share of all her deh-deh’s adult Lego set all this while, deh-deh presented her first ‘big girl’s’ (6-12) mini Lego Friends set and has been bugging me to ‘read’ the manual (250916).
• We have first introduced her to a toilet seater and she is ok with it. But, that doesnt mean  toilet training has debuted. I have no opportunity to stay long enough at home to get her diaperless, yet. Excuses and more excuses :(
• Had her first taste of Scott Emulsion. She dislikes it but finally succumbed to the trick when I offered her favourite gummy bear multivitamin (021016)
• Had her first on-stage performance rehearsal for the coming RE Year End Gathering. It was certainly something hard to imagine and and the courage she had was certainly not inherited from mommy :P 

Visit to the zoo

During our last trip back to KK In September 2016, we managed to squeeze a family trip to the Lok Kawi Wildlife Zoo which I have listed beforehand. My family was as excited as this is their first trip to the zoo with Missy. The last trip was to a cows’ farm was dated back in Chinese New Year 2016. It was indeed an eye opener for Missy who adores animals. Despite I have been to the zoo quite a number of times before this, I’ve never bothered about their feeding time. This time around, I was determined to catch up with their feeding time.

It was rather crowded that day due to public holiday. Apparently, half the district population decided to do the same and the entrance was teeming with people. We were there around 1.30pm and feeding time was expected to begin at 2.00pm. It was a nice day for visit where the sun decided to go into hiding, yet the rain didn’t make any appearance. Missy was deep asleep the moment we got to the zoo. Whilst searching for the sun bear as the first feeding destination, we managed to see parrots, peacock, hornbills and elephants.

Missy was asleep when we were on our way to the zoo and still deep asleep the moment we reached the zoo. She was waken up by chance when we were at the sun bear stop waiting for the feeding time. She got up quickly and asked to be carried, and was so elated when she was given a chance to toss the banana over to the sun bears.

Next, we walked over to the tiger’s den. The tiger was hibernating behind the greens and none of us was able to spot it until its’ feeding time. When it was feeding time, the big cat came so close and made its grand appearance with much pride. We were  able to have very close look at it as we were standing right behind the glass. 

Thereafter, we headed over to feed the orangutans. This time, Missy was given another piece of banana and she has been requesting me to “tosh” (i.e toss) them over to the “monkeys ah-ah-ah” (the way she calls Orangutans). Unfortunately, the one I thought I have tossed with all my might fell into the water, a man-made ‘river’ which was said to serve as a barrier as Orangutans typically afraid of water.

After that, we headed to witness otters being fed. Missy was extremely excited seeing how the otters eat their fishes and she wanted me to trail this guy bringing banana for the lone cheeky orang utan and raw fishes for the otters. LOL

Not long after that, it started blowing a gale and we hurriedly walk with a faster pace. We passed by cows, lone sheltered pony and some other animals I couldn’t remember. The animals show that afternoon was called off due to the weather as well. What a miss! That was actually the highlight I wanted Missy to experience. Thinking on the bright side, this is going to be another solid excuse to revisit the zoo in December :)

With the visit to the zoo this round, Missy has shown better interest towards ‘The Zoo’ (a book by Ladybird) and accompanying jungle animal toobs, “Look Inside Food” flip books that featured a lot of farm animals with farm animal toobs (by Usborne), interest towards farm animals (rooster, hen, dogs, cats) found during our trip to Bukit Garam’s prayer house (when the boss is on duty), asked to be read on her “Wombat” board book and claps  excitedly upon seeing certain scene in the “Jungle Book” movie at home. I am so glad that a short visit to the zoo can make such vast difference for a toddler. We are currently awaiting for our parcel containing “Look Inside The Zoo” (by Usborne) to arrive. Yay!

25 Months

Abby turned 25 months (2y1m) few days ago.  

Weight

11.2kg.

Height/Length

Around 86cm

Teeth

Still 16 pearly whites. Showing some refusal when I brushes her teeth on the lower gum.

Motor Skills

• Loves going up the tricycle and cruise away in the room but has yet to master the cycling skill.
• Rather imaginative. During one of her swimming time, she placed a ball on her float and she told that it was an “eh-cream” (i.e ice cream) and gesturing ice cream-licking.
• Can gargle n spit.
• Actively running and jumping almost all the time.
• Has strong finger grasp. Can be accounted to take/carry certain stuff.
• Still loving dancing to bits.
• Loves to curl up in her rocker while watching videos like a boss.

Communication and Social Skills

• Expanding leaps and bounds with her vocabulary esp on verbs.
• Can distinguish alphabets and numeral characters. Calls numbers ‘3.4 and “A,B,C”
• Calls MIL’s domestic helper and young children in Bukit Garam during our previous visit as “Kak-kak”.
• On our walk back to the car one day, we passed by a stationary shop selling various wrapping papers. She quickly dragged me over and pointed at the one with Angry Birds print and exclaimed “e-bird” excitedly (310816).

• She picked up 5 cents in the living room one day (080916) and quickly shoved it to me  and say “deh-deh buy momom”. LOL.
• Can basically understand numbers but not able to distinguish them yet. For i.e, when pointed at car plate number, or reading her clock book; she would go ‘3,4,5,6,8,9,10’ eloquently with her index finger pointing at the numeral characters randomly.
• Loves to dance on the ‘Baby Shark’ song.
• Can say simple words. Loves pretend play calling over the phone after reading Phone Friends by Fisher Price. She imitated phone ringing sound to call her deh-deh and able to converse a couple of simple words.

• After the incident of broken glass bottle, she has been saying “bao” (break in Hakka) expressively (by frowning and two palms facing up). When she saw me offering her a new Tommy Tippie glass bottle one night (and continued for every other night-few days on a stretch), she went “Ah-mee buy” and sometimes “Deh-deh buy”.
• Nightly routine by hugging Ah-Tai, yeh-yeh, po-po (grandma & grandma) & da-guh before heading home. Being a sweet talker, she greets everyone “ping-an” (i.e God be with you), “love you”, “good-night (with her palms facing each other and put under her right ear while bending her head), “see you” / “see you ye-ye-row” (i.e see you tomorrow). Haha!
• Other words she can say: cup cake,
• Can finally say ‘york-york’ (i.e medicine in Hakka) accurately
• It is true that toddlers brain absorbs like a spongue. She has once seen her gu-po given Ah-Tai with Brands bird nest/chicken essence. When she saw my stash of Brands empty bottles, she exclaimed “Ah Tai(’s)” while gesturing drinking with her tiny hands.
• Loves to dip her biscuit in the chocolate condiments and exclaimed “dip”.

Emotional Development

• She was able to behave herself with a not-so stranger (her favourite jie-jie’s mom). She surprised me by sitting with the auntie despite Stacey jie-jie wasnt around while we were having choir presentation (250816)

Food and Feeding

• I supplement her with multivitamins in gummy bears to which she called “gummy beer”
• Besides, she has tried a couple pieces of fried anchovies and she loves them.

Records

• Her latest favourite songs/rhytms are ‘Baby Shark’ (with actions) and ‘Did you ever see my tail?’ and ‘Humpty Dumpty’ to which she called as ‘Humpty wall’ by Pinkfong.
• Broke my 3^rd Avent glass bottle (in 2 years span). She decided to test on her flying kick at the church one night without me being alert that we were not seated on our previous seat, which was almost fall proof (250816).
• Vaccinated for DTap (290816).
• Went for another book shopping trip and picked her own book. A handy classical children story, published way before I was born. It is interesting to see what book she chooses for her own and she wanted me to read them for her almost every single night :)
• Shifted to a new 'house'. We have upgraded her cardboard house to a playing tent.

Her Firsts

• I was so fuming bad when I saw a China boy kissing her on the mouth at the church! The moment I got hold of her, I quickly tell her sternly not to allow any male stranger to kiss her except her deh-deh, yeh-yeh and gong-gong. I didnt expect such lesson to kick in that early. Or, am I being over exaggerated? :(
• Had our first road trip back to KK and thank God, we survived and came back in one piece. Not forget to note that, it was a pleasant one too (100916).
• First visited a zoo
• Received her first Kinder Joy "egg". She has been watching YouTube videos featuring KJ for quite sometime now and was ecstatic when I finally got one for her.

Sleeping Patterns

• Before sleeping, she wants me to read her a book or two. When she had got enough, she would grab on my hands and close the book before requesting for ‘bob-bob’ and doze off thereafter. Thank goodness that she has been showing signs of weaning off tablet/Ipad before sleep.
• Still waking up twice, sometimes once at night for her milk fix. 
• Her nap duration is still rather predictable. She usually naps for two hours unless interrupted. Exactly after an hour, she would automatically turn to the other side for the next hour. This hasn't changed since she was a baby.