23months! One more month before Zara celebrates her 2nd birthday. We are really happy with the way she’s growing. Every night after she goes to bed, we like to stare at her, and talk about her achievement in the last 23months. It’s just amazing, how much she’s grown.

~ Weight : 10.1kg (2 weeks ago)
~ Height : 86cm (3 cms in a month? But we do realise some of her pants just suddenly shortened)

Dexterity
~ Started feeding herself with a spoon
~ Able to press pieces of play dough in a mold to get the shape and print she wants.
~ Floating in a pool with her arm floats (actually she started this in Aug but she’s getting really good now)
~ Hold a pencil, marker the proper way (nobody actually taught her this), and able to draw circles or lines or curvey lines (she said she’s drawing snakes or worms) intentionally (though not perfect yet)
~ Able to do the thumbs up sign to indicate “Good” and thumbs down to indicate “Bad”
~ Walk up and down stairs without holding on to the railing (but we still insist she hold on to the railing for safety reasons)

Emotions and character
~ Becoming very homely, prefers to stay at home most of the time. And wanting to go home after spending some time out.
~ Started to have strong dislikes about some people. These people make her cry or fuss when they go near her. Like the case with Daddy’s friend and KC.
~ Sometimes she pretends to be a baby. When she doesn’t get her way, instead of telling us what she really wants, she whines. When we change her, she likes to making the ‘ooh-weh’ ‘ooh-weh’ sound, and says, “Zara’s a baby”
~ She’s very into manners now, so she’s using Excuse me, Thank You, Sorry, You’re Welcome, Please when appropriate.

Language
~ Since Phuket, she started pronouncing her name perfectly, stressing the Z and the R. She’s no longer calling herself ‘Wawa’
~ She’s using words like ‘accidentally’, ‘uncomfortable’ now
~ She’s picking different words to differentiate baby and adult animals; and some cases masculine and feminne of animals.
She goes like this, “Daddy horse is called stallion; Mummy horse is called Mare; Baby horse is called Foal.”
“Daddy chicken is called Cockerel; Mummy chicken is called Hen; Baby chicken is called a Chick.”
~ She likes to pretend to speak in different voices and tones to represent the baby, the daddy or the mummy talking (just like voices I used when I read her Goldilocks and The 3 Bears) when she’s at play.
~ She’s able to sing a few songs completely, e.g. Old Mc Donald, Do Re Me, London Bridge Is Falling Down, Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars etc.; and recite some nursery rhymes, e.g. Wee Willy Winky, Pussy Cat Pussy Cat, Hey Diddle Diddle etc.

Learning
~ I’m trying to teach her phonics, and so far, able to teach her the B sound and the C sound.
~ I’m teaching her Mandarin, so far, she knows how to say 嘴巴(mouth), 鼻子(nose), 眼睛(eyes), 耳朵(ear), 没有(don’t have, no more), 要(want), 不要(don’t want). We don’t speak Mandarin at home, so I think it’s quite an achievement. 😛

Zara turned 22 months today. I have been so busy with work and also planning for the next family holiday (before I get into 3rd Trimester), I haven’t been updating my blog that frequently. Anybody has any nice hotels to recommend for Phuket, with nice beach and especially away from the parading ‘ah kuas’?

Ok, ok, this is not about my prep for my holidays. This is about Zara.

~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~

~ Weight : 10.3kg (2 weeks ago)
~ Height : 83cm (is it possible that she keeps gaining weight but not height?)

Dexterity
~ She likes to drink from a cup instead of a sippy cup, and if she pays attention to what she’s doing, there won’t be any spillage.
~ She likes feeding herself with a fork and doing very well. Still need some assistance when she uses a spoon

Emotions and character

I start to see her displaying some ‘Terrible Two’ characters.
~ She never used to walk too far away from me when we’re out. Now, when she insists that she wants to leave or go somewhere else, and I tell her to wait for a while, she walks away mumbling, “Zara want go home (or wherever)”. And without looking back, she walks straight on.
~ She cries and shouts when she doesn’t get her way (but I totally ignore that)

She’s also doing lots of ‘pretend’ play nowadays
~ She has conversation to herself and her soft toys, something that goes like that,
“You want milk?”
“Don’t want.”
“You want cheese?”
“Want”
“Here, cheese. Take.”
~ She dresses up and pretends to be a queen, a cowboy, or even an animal

Pretending to be mummy carrying a baby

She sometimes have emotional tussles with herself, and have conversation like this with herself
*reaches her hands out to me* “Mummy hug hug Zara”
*put her hands down* “Don’t want.”
*reaches her hands out to Tuyam* “Kakak hug hug Zara”
*put her hands down* “I don’t want. I don’t want.”
*reaches her hands out to me again* “Mummy, mummy, carry you (me)”.
*put her hands down* “I don’t want. I don’t want anybody” *starts making crying sound*

Logical Thinking
She’s able to think logically,
~ when we asked her if she can fly, she will reply, “Cannot, because Zara don’t have wings”.
~ she knows, “Zara’s family got Daddy, mummy and Zara.”
~ she knows she’s still small and can only do certain things, e.g. “Zara now small jiejie, cannot play with scissors. When Zara big jiejie, Zara can cut cut with scissors”

Language
~ She’s talking non-stop, and picking up new words all the time. Some of her pronunciation is still off (e.g. In-doh-nee-sah for Indonesia; Taffik yike for Traffic Light), and we sometimes have a tough time trying to figure out what she’s saying, but when we do, we can always see the smile on her face, that she finally made us understand.
~ She loves books and picks up lots of new words from books. She can spend a lot of time flipping through books, and sometimes reading to herself (retelling the story in her own words).

Her book moment before bed time

Note : I’m absolutely trying to catch up on my blog reading, so don’t mind if I’d not been visiting.

Here’s Zara getting ready for her birthday..

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Gukdc8B80]

Zara is 21mths today, 3 more months till she’s 2yrs old (oh boy, have to start planning for her birthday party).

~ Weight should be more than 9.7kg (didn’t weigh her this month)
~ Height : 83cm
~ No new teeth sprouting. She has a total of 16 teeth.

Dexterity :
~ Climbing up stairs without holding on to anything, however, we asked her to at least use the wall to support her, just in case.
~ Able to rinse her mouth and spit out, even moving her cheek to do a through rinse.
~ Able to draw circles (although not perfect).
~ Climbing up ladders in the park unassisted.
~ Able to put on her pants with some help.

Language :
~ She can sing and recite some nursery rhymes from beginning till the end.
~ Her reasoning skill is getting very good.
~ She’s learning new words very quickly, and the correct usage of them.
~ She’s able to sing along with most of the songs she has on CD, VCD and DVD, for words she’s not sure, she’ll just mumble something to the tune.

(and lots more which I’d captured in some of the posts)

Feeding and Food:
3 meals and 3 milk feeds a day. Eats a lot of snacks in between,

Her current favourite junk food is chocolate ice cream (she only fancies chocolate flavour and nothing else), which I have to keep a tub in the freezer all the time.

She only wants to have egg and cheese these days for breakfast and lunch.
And for dinner, as long there’s a fish or an egg dish, she’s fine.

She refuses most leafy vege (just suddenly), preferring only beans (long beans, peas). Luckily she takes lots of fruits or she won’t have enough fiber intake.

Emotions :
~ Officially weaned off thumb sucking.
~ Extremely clingy nowadays, probably feels threatened by my growing stomach and the coming baby.
~ Showing preference to which kid she likes to play with in the park, she only likes to ‘hang around’ this particular girl, who’s 8mths older than her.
~ Very affectionate, giving everybody lots of hugs and kisses, and saying “I love you” to Daddy and me.
~ Very emotional, especially when she sees animals in distressed (mummy not in the same league as the animals).

She started showing interest in stacking blocks, and looks like she’s doing quite ok. She was occupied with this for quite a while, leaving Tuyam enough time to wash the dishes and her milk bottles. She was so patient, every time the ‘tower’ toppled, she just restack them, and she refused to let me help her.

In the evening, while Tuyam folded the day’s laundry. She picked up her favourite pants, and started trying to put on. She’s doing quite well here, but still don’t know how to handle the back, exposing her diaper. She repeated this a few times, taking it off, putting it back on.

When it’s time to go to the park and I told her no long pants should be worn. She quickly changed to her shorts.

If she gets better.. she may be able to help change the baby in future. Hee hee.

I’m not sure if we will successfully wean Zara from thumb sucking entirely, but we’re making good progress since 2 weeks ago.

I didn’t want to force her to quit that habit initially, because :
~ I find her very cute sucking her thumb (esp when holding on to Mr Blue)
~ It’s a good way for her to comfort herself esp when she wakes up middle of the night from a bad dream

Then, she was hurting her thumb more and more with all the vigorous sucking, until 2 weeks ago there was actually a 0.5cm cut, which was bleeding a bit. She occasionally complained, “thumb pain pain”. So we thought, maybe it’s time she should stop.

We didn’t plaster her thumb, nor put bitter ointment on her thumb. We just ‘psycho’ her. We told her
~ she’s jie-jie now, it’s not nice to be sucking her thumb
~ to compare her left (which she doesn’t suck) with her right thumb, left one is so smooth and ‘nice’, and the right one is not nice and so rough
~ she’s hurting her thumb because she’s feeling the pain now, and if she continue sucking, her thumb may get broken and I’ll have to shelve her thumb in the cupboard like I did with one of the broken figurine we have in our house (to this, she wailed and cried. Bad mummy!).

We even told her if she shook hands with people, people will say, “oh, such a nice girl, how come your thumb not nice one?”. To which she replied, “Zara shake hand with this hand then (reaching her left hand out)”.

During nap time, and bed time, when she asked for her linen cloth, the breast pad or Mr Blue (all are her comfort objects which are her ‘companions’ during thumb sucking sessions), we reminded her, “Don’t suck thumb yeah. Thumb thumb after broken and pain pain yeah.” She would then said, “Zara hug hug only. No suck suck thumb.”

The first 2 days were tougher, esp during nap time, she would cry, knowing she cannot suck her thumb (but we didn’t refrain her physically, just told her she shouldn’t suck), she even asked me to ‘go upstairs’ (she naps downstairs) and didn’t want me to be next to her. The first time ever she rejected me, because I was the culprit who wanted her to quit.

The next 2 days, she still cried, but she would ask me to sing to her and pat pat her. She would sob, and then eventually drift off to sleep.

Then the following days, she got a bit cunning. She would ‘negotiate’ with us. “Zara eat sweet first.” or “Kakak give Zara choklat”, “and then Zara no suck suck thumb.” And she did keep to her promise, after the sweet and chocolate, she would not fuss and go to sleep without the thumb.

In the night, it’s easier, because she’s with me during bed time. I’ll just remind her she shouldn’t suck her thumb, and that she’s promised us. I would hug her while she smells and twists the piece of linen, until she falls asleep.

We gave her lots of praises and encouragement. Praising her that she’s such a big girl, and a good girl, that she listens to us and not suck her thumb. Telling her her thumb is getting nicer and smoother (which is the truth) and no more painful. She would then ask all of us to kiss her thumb and then smile gleefully.

I notice she still sucks her thumb in the middle of the night, unconsciously. However, she used to suck on it for long period of time, but now it was just a few sucks here, and there, and she would pull out her thumb after that. Or when I pull it out, she would not place it back in her mouth like she used to (previously it was like a tug-of-war between the 2 of us).

We told her we would get her a present if she totally stop sucking her thumb. We asked her if she wanted a bicycle as she’s always admiring the bigger kids around our neighborhood riding one. She said, “Zara don’t want bicycle. Zara want paint paint only.” So that’s the deal, when she’s totally weaned off, we’ll bring out the new finger painting set I got Daddy to buy her from Changi Airport recently.

And here she is, finally able to fall asleep without sucking the thumb.

Zara is 20mths, 4 more months till she’s 2yrs old.

~ Weight 9.7kg (0.5Kg in a month, yikes!)
~ Height : 81cm
~ No new teeth sprouting. Her 4 Cuspids (canines) are still not fully sprouted.

Dexterity :
Climbing up and down stairs while holding on to the side of the stairs.
Able to feed herself while using a fork.

Language :
~ She can count 1 to 10 now.
~ She’s started reciting the alphabets A to Z, but skipping quite a few letters in between (e.g. a, b, c, d, e, f, g then skip, and go straight to q, r, s.. etc).
~ She’s able to identify and name shapes, e.g. circle, square and triangle
~ She sings and recite the nusery rhymes to herself a lot, and is getting pretty good at it.
~ She even sings part of some Chinese children songs even when she doesn’t speak the languge (through memorising the sounds).
(and lots more which I’d captured in some of the posts)

Feeding and Food:
3 meals and 3 milk feeds a day. Eats a lot of snacks in between, like fruits, biscuit, chocolate, home made ice lollies, nuts, raisins, cheese etc.

Her current favourite junk food is chocolate (she especially loves the dark chocolate with marzipan that Daddy got from Germany), and fruit gummies.

She ‘orders’ her food nowadays, asking for “bread and cheese”, “egg sandwich”, “yogurt”, “pancake” for breakfast.
“noodle”, “porridge”, “fish ball” or just “egg” for lunch
And dinner she knows she always have what we have and she only ask to eat what we’re eating.

Emotions :
A loving girl, not afraid of strangers, but will check for our approval before being ‘friendly’ to one.

She knows being nice is not to be rude, not to say words like stupid, or push people away. She knows being nice is to say thank you, please, sorry when needed.

She loves watching Barney, Richard Scarry, Wheels in The Bus; and watches at least 2 shows a day (her max).

She’s in the midst of being weaned off thumbsucking (oh I’m so going to miss seeing her cute little thumb in her mouth).

I thought I’d give Zara a change, instead of going to the park in the evening like we always do, on Thursday, we did some painting, and after that, I let her hava a dip in her wading pool.

I painted her stomach for her, and then let her paint the rest of her body. It’s washable paint, and we did that outdoor. So.. no sweat!
I washed the paint off before I let her dip in the pool.. It was a hot day. She absolutely loved it!

On Saturday, we brought her to my sis’ apartment for a dip in the real pool.

Putting on her arm float for her (Her neck float was getting a too small for her already).Being in the big pool is different for her, she can’t touch the ground, so she was clinging on to me.

I managed to let her lie on the water to float for a few seconds without holding on to me. What an achievement for her! Or course, we gave her lots of cheers as well!

I then got Daddy to look after her. Zara was ‘demanding’ Daddy to bring her to the small pool, and then big pool and then small pool …, not being able to make up her mind. “This one not nice, that one nicer, Daddy go there *point to the other pool she wasn’t in*”

I just ignore Daddy’s complaints about Zara making him run around and had a good swim.

I used to swim a lot when I was pregnant with Zara, going to the gym (with pool) at least twice a week to swim for 20mins (non stop). Since we moved and it’s too far for me to go to the gym (and anyway I discontinued my membership), this is the first time I went for a swim after I knew I was pregnant.

I told Daddy we have to go to my sis’ place more often to swim. For the benefit of Zara and myself.

Zara has been calling herself Wawa instead of Zara lately. It must have been the influence of the Chinese song ??? (Nu Wawa – Doll of clay). I tried to correct her yesterday.
Me : Zara, what is your name?
Zara : Wawa.
Me : No, not wawa. Your name is ZARA.
Zara : *pointed to her chest* Wawa
Me : You can call yourself Wawa if you want, but your name is ZA-RA!
Zara : *quiet*
Me : Tell mummy again. What is your name?
Zara : Wawa’s name Cookie!
Me : *giggled* Your name is cookie? A biscuit?
Zara : *laughed* Hahaha. Wawa’s name cookie!
Me : Your name is not cookie la. Your name is ZA-RA!
Zara : Hahaha. *repeated after me* Not cookie la. ZA-AH!
Me : Yes. Your name is Zara.
Zara : Not cookie! *giggled*
Nowadays, I could really have a ‘conversation’ with her, and I can see, she has some sense of humour.

She has also started singing quite a fair bit. With all the miss pronunciation, most of the time, we could still make out what song she’s singing. Here’s Zara’s attempt to sing the song Baa Baa Black Sheep.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wJN84GyBwA]

The days when I was away for my work trip, Daddy got MIL to come and stay in our house so that she can keep an eye on our maid while he’s at work.

MIL’s style of caring for a child vs mine is very different, especially in these 3 areas :
1) She didn’t believe in breastfeeding, and thought I breast fed Zara for too long, making Zara too attached to me. She was so glad I finally weaned her off from the breast, even after I told her many times the benefit of breast feeding, including the DHA I’m giving Zara, and the boost of immunity she’s getting from all the breast milk.
2) She thinks that a baby should be and can be toilet trained by the 1st few months of life. She’s appalled that Zara is still not toilet trained by 1 1/2yrs. She said all her kids were toilet trained within the first few months. I don’t believe a child can hold their bowel movement or bladder at such a tender age. It’s more of her being ‘trained’ to bring them to the potty at specific intervals.
3) She over protect the child. Even now, she still has her arms stretched out around Zara when Zara walks about, she’s getting ready to catch Zara if Zara fell.

I’m actually quite glad that I get to bring up Zara my way, which is through reading lots of books written by child care experts. Tuyam, my maid, is not married and has not cared for a child before, so I thought her my desired method, and she followed them.

So when MIL came over to the house to stay, both Zara and her were in for some surprises.

MIL was shocked we allowed Zara to play in her bath for so long.
MIL was always following Zara with arms outstretched, Zara found it very annoying.
MIL tried to stop Zara from sucking her thumb, and or course Zara was very upset.

When I wasn’t around, Daddy told me that Zara has been asking MIL to be away from her. When Zara is upstairs, she would tell her Mama, “Mama, go down stairs!”
When Zara is downstairs, she would tell her Mama, “Mama, go up stairs!”
And sometimes MIL close her arms around Zara (ready to catch her if she falls), Zara would point to a corner and tell her Mama, “Mama, go there!”

When I was around, I saw Zara pushing MIL away when MIL tried to help her climb a chair or on to the sofa (which Zara is already an expert doing it). I had to chip in and tell Zara, “Cannot be rude to Mama. Mama is just helping ok?” or “Cannot push Mama away, you know Mama is Daddy’s Mummy and she sayang (Malay: Love) you very much?”. Zara would then turn towards MIL and give her a hug, as though to apologise.

I know MIL loves Zara and cares for her. However, her method is not one that Zara is used to, so Zara is not accepting her. I’m glad and thankful she was wiling to help out when we needed her help. However, I’m also glad that she’s not Zara’s main care giver, as I think Zara would be a very different person under her care.