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!