Mummy's entry - on the girl

It's been a while that the girl's development has been posted in terms of her character and speech. I'm assuming it is also part of the Terrible Twos that at times her attitude is way beyond what we can make out of it and when she throws her tantrums, we tend to ignore her. And most times, she surprises us with her maturity of understanding on a lot of things and can even tell us stuff that we don't know or correct us for that matter. We are often reminded by her (action-wise as well as verbally) that she is no longer a baby.

The following are incidents of the past several months. There are probably more but these are what I can remember (serves me right for not penning them down when it happened):-

On correcting our speech

The girl was lying down drinking her milk from her bottle and she started talking. Her papa told her that she is not supposed to talk while eating and she said "I'm not eating-la, I'm drinking milk"

Her papa has been calling her "baby" even before she was born and this term has remained ever since. At times she will question him "why you call me baby? i'm not a baby-la, i'm rye li" or "i'm not a baby, i'm a big girl ady (already)"

The endless questions of "why, where, what,who"

She loves asking questions now which can really be annoying especially when she repeats them. The things she likes asking:

"who buy this for me one?"

"why you buy this for me?"

"why the baby cry?"/"why the boy crying?"

"papa go xxx for what?"/ "why papa always go xxx one?" [when her papa travels for work]

"after this, we go where?" [she loves to go out all the time, when we're at home weekends, she tends to ask us after her bath/nap, where are we going]

And she has a habit of saying "oh" after we have answered her questions like an adult and at times I wonder to what extent that she understood us. But whatever it is, I do feel she does understand us as I reason a lot with her after she has throw her tantrums. I want her to understand why I was angry and that her being naughty doesn't help the situation. Most of the times I have to admit that I need to bribe her, for example, if she wants something, I will tell her that she has to be a good girl and to listen to me before she gets it or when there is a party/event to attend, she needs to be well behaved or she can't go. So this has lead her to saying "I (am) good girl, I listen (ed) to mummy"

The other day in the car on the way home from the daycare, she was really talking a lot and I just let her be while concentrating on driving and my own thoughts. This went for several minutes when she said out loud "mummy, i'm talking to you-la", she repeated this a few times till I realized it and I had to apologize to her.

Being attached

She knows I can't carry her a lot lately as my back is 'pain-pain' [an excuse that I've been using ever since I found out I was pregnant and she buys this which works fine for me] and so, she is becoming quite attached to her papa. She wants him to carry her most of the time and I can see she is really happy when he returns from his travels.

Just last week, for the first time, she actually cried talking to her papa on the phone when he was in Shanghai for the week. She kept saying "I want papa, I want (to) follow papa there". It became so bad that I had to end the call and comfort her for a while after that.

I only wish she is alright sleeping with her papa at nights but she still wants me. The weekend when I was having fever and didn't want to sleep in her room as I couldn't take the air-cond; the first night without me went alright although she made some fuss. The second night, she cried as if she's never ever going to see me again and so both of them ended up sleeping with me in my room without air-cond. And after this, she insisted that I sleep with her till now [I still have no clue how the sleeping arrangements will be when baby 2 comes].

She is also beginning to show more tantrums lately (perhaps due to Baby 2?) and I notice this is worst when her papa is around. The worst was last night when we had to attend my mom's birthday dinner which she was looking forward to. I'm guessing she was overwhelmed with the other guests there (we had 4 tables) that she refused to sit down with us and wanted to go home! This is coming from a girl who loves to go out and has been very well behaved with all our dinner events. We couldn't understand why she was like that; she insisted her papa to carry her out and when he walks back to our room at the restaurant, she starts crying like she is afraid of something. So in the end, we took turns to be with her throughout dinner outside. Luckily, my niece and nephew were there as well to play with her and towards the end, she was alright joining us back in the room. I guess she needed some time to warm up this time but this was definitely the first time we ever experienced such weird behaviour; she practically clung on to her papa!

Getting scared

Her fears have increased lately. All this while she is only scared of dogs and cats, even the cute small ones! She is now scared of thunder and has been using this as an excuse every night that she doesn't want to go to Aunty Ng's (there was a huge storm last week and I think the caretakers there couldn't exactly carry this girl and give her the attention she needs). When there's thunder at home, she wants her papa to carry her.

She is also scared of the vacum cleaner - she used to sleep through the noise when she was a baby. Whenever the vacum cleaner is on, she will stay away from it and stay put on the sofa. When we were in Penang recently at the hotel's pool's toilet, I accidentally stood too close to the hand-dryer and it turned on. That scared the jeepers out of her and ever since then, she refused to go into the toilet. I tried to show her that it is to dry our hands but it made things worst, she started jumping and screaming, wanting out of the toilet as if she saw a ghost!

Lately, she is scared of balloons! She loves them all this while but we had a birthday party to attend last weekend and the kids there burst some balloons. So since last weekend, we now can't blow any balloons for her and when we start to, she will start crying like she saw a ghost too! She even threw away the balloon she had at home. And we were at the mall just now and someone offered her a balloon and she refused saying she is scared!

Singing songs

This girl loves singing now and she tends to sing songs that I've not taught her and I take it that she has learnt it from the daycare. Just last week, she sang a Malay song to my surprise. I knew this song as it was a song we learn from school. It's the "Bangun Pagi" (malay: wake up in the mornings" and I only remember the first 3 lines. So this girl taught me the remaining ones except for the last one (?) as I can't tell what she is saying. Perhaps if you do remember, I would like to know. She taught me the following:-

Bangun pagi, Gosok gigi, Cuci muka, Pakai baju, Minum susu, Makan Roti, ....and then? and is she right?

Being stubborn

She is really stubborn and wants everything her way (also part of her independence). Before we can help her, she needs to do it herself first. This is fine but when we're rushing for time and can't give in to her, she will start with her tantrums. Very rarely, we will give in depending on the situation but most time we just let her cry it out.

How stubborn can she be? I remember some time last year she wanted something her way before bedtime and I didn't give in. Then she acted up and I wanted an apology from her but she refused. And so I threatened her that if she doesn't apologize, I'm not going to make her milk. She just sat there sulking with her thumb in her mouth and at times was staring at me. I ignored her and went to sleep. I knew she was tossing and turning after that and I asked her if she wants milk or not but she ignored me. And eventually she slept without her milk! I really didn't expect that as I thought she would want her milk.

When reverse psychology doesn't work on her

I tend to do this a lot as in play reverse psychology on her. Mostly, it works but recently, it has back-fired on me. This girl knows how to switch off the TV and I'm trying to ger to switch it on too since it's the same button but somehow, she doesn't want to switch it on herself. So I told her that if I were to switch it on for her, she will have to watch my shows first and not her cartoons and she went "Ok, for a while only ya!" and she will stress again "for a while only ya". And when I do watch my shows, she likes saying "Ok, mummy show finish ady (already), time to watch my cartoon now!" although my shows haven't ended.

On being so independent

Only recently, she doesn't want to wear her diaper when we go out. If we're going out for a long time, I will make her to as I don't feel comfortable bringing her to our public toilets just as yet. But this girl still wants her diaper when she poos. At home, she will bring a clean diaper to us and said she wants to poo. I have tried many times to tell her to poo in her potty or toilet bowl but she refuses. I even nag her that she is wasting my diaper and my money only for her to reply "it's my diaper-la, not mummy (s)". Oh, she also must have the last say to most things!

She also wants to wear her clothes or remove them on her own. We are not allowed to help her until she asks for it.

Being hygenic?!

Her papa scolds me at times for this as my little one can be clean-freak most of the times. When her hands are dirty, we need to wash or wipe them immediately. If her clothes get wet, even just a little, she wants a change of clothes and this one is not my doing, it is the daycare's!

But this is where it gets interesting. Only just recently, I notice when she do kiss other people other than me, she will wipe her mouth with her hands. Even when she kisses her papa. So I tested her today on this and true enough with me, she was alright, didn't do anything after she kissed me but immediately wiped her mouth when she kissed her papa. So her papa asked her why she wiped her mouth and she replied "Because got saliva" . Haha...at least I feel I'm still wanted! ;)

Mummy's entry - Kuantan

Our Kuantan trip was way much better than PD for sure! We stayed at Hyatt and actually tagged along since Hubby had to go there for work. We arrived on Sunday and since the next day was a public holiday, the place was really packed. Yes, hubby had to work that Sunday (just several hours with his big boss) and also the next day (his office at Kuantan don't recognize the public holiday and consider it as a working day).

The girl was very well behaved throughout our journey there which took us about 3 hours or so with stops in between. We left the house before 9am and the girl slept for 2 hours till we reached our destination.

the girl posing at the lobby while hubby was checking in - she was really excited seeing the pool and the beach

Since hubby had to meet one of his bosses for a couple of hours or so, I took the girl to the pool. I regretted not asking hubby to blow up her floats and ball as this was my first time blowing them up myself and being pregnant and all, it was a real huge task! A mental note to myself to get hubby to blow them up beforehand next time or to get a hand pump!

The girl was alright being with me alone although she wasn't happy when her papa had to go off. I told her that he will join us later, she kept wanting to play sand and I said when her papa comes. It was really hot - it was about 2pm by this time. I joined her initially in the baby pool but as it got hotter, I stayed under the shade while watching her and I was glad that she was alright by this.

I took a close up picture of her in her float as I wanted to compare to that of her when she was 5 months at the same place! But this was as close as I got:-

the girl at 5 months old at the same place

Her papa joined us later when he could and the girl was so excited to see him (she knows that she will have more fun with him than with me at the pool) and wanted to go to the beach immediately but we said later as it was really hot. So he hung out with her in the pool while I just watched. This pregnancy is making me really tired and non-participative in alot of things... I do feel sorry for the girl but I'm so glad that she was alright playing on her own that day and for the rest of the time we were there!

with Nicholas, the boy who started a conversation with hubby and he was really chatty - he has two elder sisters with a wide age gap and I guess he was just bored! nice boy he is

Later, we went to the beach to let the girl play in the sand. Didn't manage to take pictures at all here so no pics to show. The girl was not that enthusiastic about the sand like before. That night we had dinner at the hotel since I was too lazy to go out.

the girl all dressed up ready for dinner

That night, the girl slept well, in between us again but this time we had a king size bed and also I made sure she wasn't wearing the pajamas with the booties. She slept too well, waking up nearly at 10am! Usually, she's awake by 8am - guess she had too much fun the previous day. Since hubby had to work, it was just me and her and I had to wake her up since breakfast at the hotel would end at 10-30am. So off we went for our breakfast and I was glad that she sat still on the baby chair alone while I got up in between to take food from the buffet spread. I was feeling kind of queasy that morning and was worried that I need to vomit - my backup plan was to get the restaurant manager to look after the girl while I rushed off to the toilet but luckily, I didn't have to puke.

There were still alot of people and kids at the pool that morning (making full use till the check out at noon) and it was really hot as well. I wasn't in the mood to hang out by the pool in the hot sun so I managed to trick the girl into walking around the hotel. We stopped by the playground but it was too hot to play for long so we hung around the hotel's premises until I got tired and I told the girl that she can play in the room's bathtub and she agreed. I just wanted her to have her bath and then her nap so that she can have enough rest to play at the pool later in the evening. We didn't nap till like 2pm or so and got up nearly 4pm. Before this, she did ask for the pool and said it is not hot anymore (I've been giving her excuses that it is too hot to swim in the sun).

the girl at the playground

So off to the pool we went and I was so glad that the crowd has left. Again the girl was alright with swimming on her own in her float. By this time she has gained confidence with only using the ring float and hence, I didn't bother bringing along the arm floats. So this lazy mummy just watched her from the deck by the pool.

see how nice and empty the place is

Shortly after we were at the pool, hubby came back and he joined the girl. She was again so happy to see her papa. They only managed to play for a while as it started raining heavily! So poor girl had to wait by the side till the rain go away and luckily it did after half an hour or so.

the girl waiting for the rain to stop

And when the rain finally stopped, these two started to have their fun again...

let's water papa

payback time

We couldn't stay for long though as we had dinner at 7pm with hubby's colleagues at a local Chinese restaurant. We had seafood, it was nice but I couldn't really enjoy them as the fish and crab was just to fishy taste for me although I did eat some. At least the girl liked the crab - she started liking them since PD.

The next morning, the girl got up earlier than I did. We will be going home but had to wait for hubby to come back from work after noon so the girl and I made full use of the hotel while we can. Again, she behaved well at breakfast while I ate. She's got this habit of singing to entertain herself and I managed to get this video of her singing...




After breakfast, I took the girl to the playground again and this time we were lucky that the sun wasn't out, it was a cloudy morning. After like less than 5 minutes, the girl asked to swim and off we went to the pool. Again, we had the whole pool to ourselves.

This time round, the girl is more daring and didn't really rely on her float to go about the baby pool.

She also found a way to entertain herself with her toys.

What exactly is she doing? Well, I managed to get a video of this too and I was telling her what is the difference of taking the water from this side and pouring it out at the other side.






I managed to persuade the girl to go back to the room by 11 plus am, telling her that she can play in the bathtub for a while. By this time too the sun came out so it was good timing. We checked out at 1pm when hubby got back. We had lunch at KFC nearby before we headed back to KL.

the girl all tired by the time we left Kuantan - she only slept less like half an hour though as we stopped for petrol and she didn't want to sleep after that

I wanted to take pictures of the girl and us like the ones we got at Kuantan when she was 5 months old below to have a comparison. But we only hung out at the beach on the first day there. Oh well, will do that next time I guess and probably by that time with Baby 2 as well.

The girl loved Kuantan so much she asked us a few times when we got back "I want to go for holiday to Kuantan!". Anyhow, we will be off for another break soon as her daycare is closed for its annual shutdown 1st week of June. So we will be off to Camerons and then to Penang and I'm sure she will have her fun again. I just hope to get more sleep and no calls from office or clients! Yea, wishful thinking!

Mummy's entry - PD

Our PD trip was an utmost disappointment. First, we arrived late as hubby had to attend to some work so by the time we arrived, it was around 5pm. The place wasn't up to expectations at all. The place we stayed at, a "condotel" was very rundown and we had to pass by several abandoned blocks to get our unit and it was kind of scary. Luckily, there were some people staying at our block.

They do not have a beach there but there was a man-made one with a swimming pool concept and that we have to drive to this spot from our condotel. So we decided to go and check it out after we have settled in our room.

It was also a disappointment as it looked as it needs some maintenance work. At first I thought the pool looked really dirty and told the girl she can't swim in it at first glance. But hubby said it has sand in it like a beach concept (but then again, so did Hard Rock Hotel Bali and it looked really crystal clear!). Anyway, we let her play on the sand and she did play in the water with hubby. We were only there less than an hour and I told hubby that I wouldn't mind going home already. Haha. We just let the girl had her fun.

Our room was really basic and what I didn't like was that there's no phone line at all to the reception which was situated very far. I mean what if there was an emergency?! The furnitures were also stained and it looked so bad like it was second hand furnitures. At least the queen size bed was comfortable.

That night we all couldn't sleep well due to the girl getting up after midnight and making such a fuss - she was crying and kicking us all over. I'm guessing it has got to do with her squeezing in between us on the queen size bed (at home, it's just me and her on her queen size mattress so she has a lot of space to move about) and also the fact that I had her pajamas with the booties on (she has not been using this for months and probably not used to her feet covered up but I had it on her as I was worried she will be cold - she hates blankets). In the end, hubby and I didn't sleep well and I made up my mind that we're going home the next day! We were suppose to spend 2 nights there. Luckily PD is not that far from KL.

The next morning I asked the girl why she behaved like that the night before and she denied it. I told her if she behaves like this at Kuantan which we will be there tomorrow, there will be no more holidays for her anymore. This is by far the worst behaviour from her in terms of our holidays and frankly speaking, if she behaved like this previously, I wouldn't want to bring her any where. My friend thought that it could be there were other "stuff" in the room that bothered her but I doubt it as she can talk to us now and also that she was fine just before she fell asleep, playing with us on the bed.

I told hubby that Thank Goodness there is Kuantan and that we will be at a better hotel there or else, I feel so cheated of my holidays! I waited till my second trimester to have a holiday as I'm feeling much better now than I was a month back. Let's pray we will have a good one at Kuantan, I will be mostly alone with the girl day time as hubby got to work.

Below are some of the very few pics I got of the girl there, I wasn't even bothered to take pics of the place. Yes, it was that bad! ;)

the girl making a mess - she insisted to have all her beach toys in the water

the girl on the water slide - she will only go if her papa is with her

Pangkor Island

This is a very backdated post. It has been sitting in draft for so long and only now we're getting it posted as I'll be going for a beach holiday soon again .;)

We went to Pangkor Island sometime mid December last year with family and family friends from London. We took a bus there and it was my first time sitting in a bus.

note: I only slept towards the end of the journey as I was really excited sitting on the bus!

I was also asleep on the ferry that took us into the island and only got up when we were nearly arrived at the island.

I sure miss this sling, Mummy don't carry me anymore lately so no more slings too. I believe it's hiding somewhere in the house!

So what did we do there for the 3 nights we were there? At the pool and beach of course! And I had so much fun as we pratically hung out there the whole day!

this is what I mean when I said we hung out by the pool the whole day - i even had my nap like this!

And when it was nights, I get to play with my cousins and my Grandma.

When it was time to go home, most of us especially the kids were really pretty sad as no more hanging out by the pool or beach!

Below are some pics with me and my London friend, Emre (please forgive Mummy for adding the funny comments!)

"Hello Emre, it took me days to grew fond of you and today we have to leave!"

"ooh, nice of you to come and join me here while we wait for our 'train' to take us to the ferry"

"here, come let me sayang you while I still can"

"better still let me give you a smooch"

"hmmm, no reaction"

"fine, let me go back to sucking my thumb and lean on someone who appreciates me more!"

"You look like a monkey"

Just before my 2 year old birthday last December, Mummy will sing to me the birthday song now and then telling me that my birthday is coming. At times she will add on to the birthday song after she sang it with :-

"Happy Birthday to you,

You are born in the zoo,

You look like a monkey,

And smell like one too!"

Although my birthday has well passed, she will sing this song now and then. Little that she realise, I've also grown accustom to the song. Over the weekend, I was singing to myself this song and Mummy started laughing at me when I did. I just smiled at her and she sang along with me. She also mentioned that I should not be singing this song to anyone but her.

Mummy's entry - what I like about the daycare

I have no regrets sending Rye Li to the daycare ever since she was one and a half month old. People did warn me then that I will constantly have a sick baby, being exposed to so many kids at the daycare. I was prepared for this and told myself if this is really the case where I will have a sick baby monthly, I will then look for a babysitter.

Luckily, I never had to come to this. Of course, she did become sick now and then in the first year, the most 4 times and it was manageable. Aunty Ng, the owner said she's quite good already compared to the other babies and she thinks it has got to do with the breastmilk Rye Li was having then. Her poor baby cot buddy then, Shon, was constantly sick and sometime last year, his parents decided to pull him out of the daycare although his 2 elder sisters were there as he wasn't growing healthily as he should. I remember the first day I sent the girl there, Shon, who's 3 weeks older then Rye Li was much bigger and taller in size than Rye Li. And he has always been until towards a year old when I notice although he's taller than Rye Li, he was getting thinner and thinner. Rye Li is already petite for her age till today and for Shon to be thinner and lighter than Rye Li then, it was not a good sign. I've not seen him for a while although I see his mom and 2 sisters regularly but the last time I saw him, he was much healthier already.

I guess there are the pros and cons of a daycare but looking at how the girl has progressed with the daycare, I really have no regrets at all.

There are so many things the daycare has taught the girl that shamefully, I admit, I will not have the patience to teach the girl the same things at home.

She is 28 months old today which makes her 2 years and 4 months old and she can:-

1) count up to 20. of course her 11-20 is not as perfect as her 1-10 but that was how she learnt her 1-10 anyway.

2) she knows all her shapes from heart to oval and can tell the difference of a square to rectangular. several months back, I was drawing out shapes for her to recognise and she can tell me all of them. I continued to draw half a moon expecting her to say moon and she knows this and this girl answered "cresent". At first, I thought she meant "present" and wanted to correct her but then it hit me that she meant cresent and she is right. I was really impressed with this and told hubby and hubby asked me back "What is cresent?!" haha.

3) she knows how to colour within the lines but with mistakes now and then. I remember when I was teaching her to colour, she was colouring all over the place and I just gave up, letting her do what she wants but of course on the book and not elsewhere.

4) just last week, I got to know that she also knows how to read about 7 words from the flash cards they use at the daycare. I was impressed with this and tempted to do my own flash card for her. All this while, she only knows her name as we have been spelling out her name since she was a baby and now she can spell her name as well.

5) she learnt how to eat on her own mostly from the daycare. i don't have the patience to see her make a mess at home. now, when I'm in the mood, I let her eat on her own. she doesn't make such a mess like before.

6) she's also potty trained at the daycare. we use more diapers at home than she does at the daycare and only along the way i found out she pees on her own at the daycare. this of course lead me to have her pee on her own at home but she is still not being cooperative to poo in her potty at home unlike at the daycare.

7) although she goes for her music class (kindermusik) once a week, she also learns other songs from the daycare. i'm guessing from the combination of this and what i sing to her at home, i notice she tends to also make up songs on her own at times.

8) and of course her ABCs too but I have always sang to her now and then this song ever since she was a baby.

I guess with the daycare strengths, it also goes to show my weaknesses as a mom. Yes, I'm relying on them to teach my girl things as well and I've never admitted that I'm a perfect mom. ;)

Back to the girl, I was contemplating whether I should send the girl to school when she turns 3 end of the year. Aunty Ng did advise that I don't need to since she is already learning stuff at the daycare and that she goes to her music class once a week. I will still try and source for one around the daycare which provides transport and if I feel if the girl is ready then, I may just send her to one. If not, I will wait till she turns 4 then.

I cannot believe how fast she has grown, as much as I am proud to see her grow, I'm also sad that she's not exactly my baby anymore.