Happy CNY: Welcoming the fire rooster

I am eternally grateful that my two-days leave application was granted in no time after I clicked ‘submit’. Prior to it, I have been contemplating whether I should even submit my application at the first place or to come back for work 4th lunar day. On the first day of CNY (Sat), it was a customary to attend thanksgiving service at the church with the big family clan. But, this time we have Aunt Evelyn (UK) and Aunt Pauline (Aussie) to be with us. They were here for a month since cousin in-law’s wedding early of Jan 2017.

Donning on her first cheongsam on the first day of CNY

Unlike yesteryears, in-law’s place was not flooded with relatives in the afternoon as first lunar day fell on a Saturday (also a Sabbath day). Instead, they dropped by on the second day instead. We returned for church service at 2 pm for Sabbath service. We flew back to my hometown on the next morning when relatives started to flock to the in-law’s place. We missed the chance to catch up with each other but on the other hand, we were excited that Abby will be meeting up with her maternal grandparents, aunt and uncle. Despite we were back last month in December 2016, it felt so long that we had not been back. Odin and Abby misses each other tremendously too J

A rooster & chicken craft we did together last Dec 2016

Every girl has that one male friend in her life, with whom she can share everything without any fear. But I have three roosters who always had my (and Missy’s) back! Happy Rooster year to my dad (also gung-gung), the boss (also daddy), my brother (also q-q). These three are my favourite boyfriends and coincidentally they are all roosters!. :)

29 Months

Abby turned 29 months (2y5m) last 20th Jan 2017.  

Weight

Not measured (It was around 12.3 kg last month)

Height/Length

Not measured.

Teeth

Still 16 pearly whites.

Motor Skills

• She loves to ‘play-doctor’ and bringing her stethoscope across her ears, with her doctor’s “asses” (glasses) on all the time and give almost everyone a jab with her made-shift syringe.
• Loves peeling off flaking paints at the in-laws.
• Can paste sticker rather accurately on their intended column.
• Loves to help mommy to crack eggs. I can account her to crack up to 10 eggs at one time, by keeping one eye closed over the mess.
• At times, she would tip her toe to reach the eggs compartment in the fridge requesting to “help mommy crack eggs”.
• Loves to put on a kid’s apron when she is having her ice-cream.
• Loves spending time with daddy’s Lego house. The curious cat loves extending daddy’s Lego house with her Duplo blocks. 
• Loves donning on mommy’s top and pretend herself as mommy.

Communication and Social Skills

• When she was searching for the other part of the velcro carrot, she went “Where carrot cover? Ou where?” (211216)
• Rather cheeky and deliberately say the wrong name when she is in her playful mode (lion as dinosaur, hippo as baby shark) – 271216.
• Can recognize a few fruits/vegetables – capsicum, melon (for watermelon), eggplant (sometimes mistaken as tomato) – 281216.
• Able to form simple sentences which she made up from the words she knows (as of 301216).
• Eg. “Abby do drawing”,
• “Abby eats ice-cream, Mommy wipe tissue”,
• “Abby fall down, gugu help wipe hand, no cry”
• “Mommy wear this one” (she would replace words she couldn't express with ‘this one’ or ‘that one’
• “Baby catch chong-chong (i.e worm)” (pretending to floss her teeth and believed that she would be able to ‘de-worm’ by doing so.
• “Baby give present daddy”
• “Baby doing octopus” (craft)
• “Abby driving car, go shopping”
• “Milk-milk pill (spill). How? (along with the ‘i-dont-know’ look) and followed by “Wipe”
• When I was browsing Tupperware catalogue the other day, she came forward and pointed to the tumbler image and said “Anna jie-jie’s bottle”, and yes, she was right (040117).
• She has been requesting us to tie the gigantic balloon she got from her gugu’s wedding banquet on her wrist while watching YouTube on the bed. Occasionally, asked us to “tie some more” (tighten) the rope on her wrist (100117). 

Emotional Development

• She is very obsessed into doctor-play these days. When she sees someone complain about pain, she would run over and ask “Mommy/ daddy ok?” 
• She can keep her promises upon agreement most of the time. Before stepping into a supermarket, we would usually set a ‘do(s) and don't(s)’. There was once when she was so enticed by the surprise eggs on the shelf despite our promises, her eyes were gluing at the rack and negotiated hopefully by asking me “Mommy OK?”. I said no and reminded of our agreement earlier, but she just wouldn't budge. Eventually, we compromised and settled for ice-cream instead. Win-win situation :P

Food and Feeding

• A very rare occasion that she can sleep through the night without waking up for her milk fix for two-nights consecutively (9&100117).
• Doesn't take much solid food still. It was still a struggle to get her chew and swallow most of the time.

Records

• Fell in love with a blue lacey pretty H&M dress during our outing and insisted to put it on (slightly small and short for her) and refused to take them off after that. Eventually, we ended up buying cos her mommy loves it too :P (231216).
• Second fish feeding experience, but first time at the Sports Complex (020117).

Her Firsts

• Her first visit and stay-cation at Nephentes Lodge, National Park, Kundasang (251216).
• Got her first homemade hydrogen balloon which she called ‘flying balloon’ with daddy’s ‘recipe’ (291216).  
• Developed a mild fever and started off with cough a day before. For the very first time, she insisted and requested to “see doctor”. Unlike previous times, she cried and holding me tight. Instead, she couldn’t wait for her turn in front of the door. LOL (050117)
• Got her first flower-girl job during her gugu’s wedding (080117).
• Got her first ever gigantic balloon after her gugu’s wedding banquet at Sabah Hotel.
• Insisted her gupo to buy a ‘pao’ (bun) for Ah Tai during their trip to their market together. Back at Ah Tai’s place, she fed Ah Tai with a few teeny weeny crumbs.

Sleeping Patterns

• It is a ritual for her to request for “bob-bob read books” every night before she doze off without fail these days.
• Books of her preference: Emergency Room, Sharks, Whale & Dolphins.

Pretend Play: Mary had a little lamb

Missy and I were able to spend sometime at home if we weren't out to Ah tai’s place to keep her company over the holidays whilst AIL was out for work. In an average, Missy and I get to spend our quiet (literally) and just-the-two-of-us time once a week during the weekdays. She was able to have uninterrupted sleep and woke up around 9.30am-10.00am, unlike usual days when mommy and daddy are working, we had no choice to carry her out while she’s still asleep, and usually with much movements, she would usually get up sooner.

One morning, upon waking up bright and cheerful, this little girl requested me to sing ‘little lamb’ while pulling her pony with a rope halter and pretending herself as Mary. Not forgetting to mention that she made mommy to sing 'Mary had a little lamb' for umpteenth of times while happily walked her 'lamb' around. It is absolutely cute seeing how imaginative kids can be :)

Happy 'Mary' with her 'lamb'

Walking her 'lamb' around

Decided to 'ride' on her lamb :P

Time for a give back. 'Mary' carried her pet on her shoulder.

Looked very pleased but not until...

Mary found mommy paparazzi an annoyance :P

Fish Feeding

We had a fish feeding session at the Sports Complex on Jan 2nd (a replacement holiday in conjunction with New Year Day). Missy has promised her 'chong-gung' (granduncle) earlier on to meet up for fish feeding on the New Year Day but it has to be cancelled due to downpour. Missy had her first fish feeding experience during her previous RE Excursion sometime in Oct last year and but this experience is definitely going to be something new.

  

Gu-gu was probably assuring her that fish won't bite

Garnering courage to toss the bread slice

Ready to toss

Upon getting there, granduncle along with 2 of her aunts was waiting with a massive bag of bread loaves. Without much ado, we headed over to the platform beside the lake for fish feeding. As usual, Missy was rather apprehensive but managed to warm up after a while and enjoyed tossing bread into the pond.

Granduncle carrying her for better view

There were literally a region of fish of the same kind inside the pond emerged to have their ‘snack’. This may be contributed to the good weather that day where the water in the pond was said to be ‘less muddy’ (although still look very mucky). 

Feeding done

It was a good exposure for Missy to learn how to show kindness to living creatures as well as the beauty of sharing (food with the fishes and sharing some bread slices with children around who were watching so they could experience the feeding too). 

Happy New Year 2017

We had a laid back New Year Day albeit the long weekend (since New Year Day falls on a Sunday) in the comfort of our home by doing some spring cleaning before Chinese New Year comes along in a few weeks time. I had a long to-do list as a result of too much dilly-dallying all these while :P Among the list are to set up a corner/room for Missy. I have been indecisive whether to utilise the corner in our living room or to make space out of our current guest room for her since we didn’t expect for guests stay with us that frequent. All these years, we have only hosted 3 visits thus far.

We were so glad that the stash of books I ordered a few weeks back has finally arrived. It was the first thing Abby did in the morning by checking out the books in the parcel. Most of them were story books and I have included some sticker activity books for Missy too. We are looking forward to more activities to be done together soon :).

Besides, I have decided to rummage into the wardrobe to make sure all Missy’s new clothing are sorted out for this coming CNY before she grown out of size like what happened to some her clothing, which happened to be among my favourites :(. Looking at the stash she has got, I think she is all ready for CNY! :P I think I really have to stop shopping for her attire for some time. Easier said than done, shopping for the little girl has never been enough. Not to mention, it was therapeutic and addicting at the same time!. Some of them were presented to her by her grandaunts and aunts.

On the next day (2nd Jan – replacement holiday), we had a fish feeding session with grand uncle and cousins at the Sports Complex.  That was how we ushered in the brand new year. 

2016 in a review

Twenty-sixteen had been a great one for all of us in the family. Albeit there was no spectacular nor outstanding achievements as far as I could remember, but I intend to jot what we have come along thus far. Over the second half of the year, my girl has developed a reading habit, attended RE Sunday Classes as an underaged and had her first on-stage performance in October and another one last night during Thanksgiving Night Service, and is semi-successfully potty trained (Dec 2016), having her monthly progress fully updated throughout the year (17th-28th months) these were probably the main highlight of 2016.

After Thanksgiving Night dinner at church 

For the family, we have survived two road trips back to my hometown (Sept & Dec 2016). Back then, I would be the first to go against long hours of road trip. I used to be very apprehensive and intimidated just by the idea of being a passenger for a 5-6 hours of journey. But, the experience we gained had proved me wrong.

On a personal front, I have failed to complete my dissertation on time and had been requesting for an extension, did not complete my racing car and is dubious of myself if I can complete them before CNY 2017 (because we acquired the set during our previous CNY 2016) and let alone my long-overdue wedding photobooks which I intend to complete. Somehow, the bible verse that goes ‘You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail (Proverbs 19:21)’ is certainly right. In contrary to the ‘failures’ or delays above, I have graduated for one more time in last Sept 2016. Holidays throughout 2014 and 2015 spent for attending courses as early as Missy was barely 3 months old has officially ended. I am utterly grateful for the support and constant prayers from my beloved husband and family members. Not to mention, the in-laws who sacrificed their sleep to look after Missy overnight when she was younger.

Not having my racing car completed may be a convenient excuse to giving way to the boss to display his numerous addition of ‘cars’ (the way Missy puts them) and many other Lego buildings including a ferris wheel, carousel and a Disneyland! Talking about display, we certainly need a new platform for our mini township. Besides, I managed to develop part of our Hong Kong trip in 2013 into 4R pieces via Pixajoy (Dec 2016). I am very pleased with the end result and foreseeing myself coming back for their services soon. Such a convenience at our fingertips. On top of that, I have embarked into sewing. Loving this new hobby of mine and I am hopeful if I can come up with more projects soon rather than just altering/repairing :P

Looking forward to a better year in twenty-seventeen and Abby will be registering for Kindy in March 2017 (almost one year ahead) as she will be entering a new chapter in her life in 2 years down the road. I am wishful that I can allow her to enjoy her toddlerhood with more fun activities before writing and spelling come into the picture. Time to get a bandana with ‘Getting Organised’ mantra printed on it. Hehe. How time flies! Today is the first blank page of a brand new 365 pages book. Let's write a good one.