Tummy Times

 

Here’s a picture of both Huirou and Zhixin at about the same age. Both are 4 months+.

See the resemblance?

Zhixin @ 4 months old

I wonder if while sleeping, babies just add on inches without us knowing? That is how Zhixin seems to grow. Last week, he still seem to fit into all his clothing, this week (right after I bought 2 new packs) he seems to need a larger size diaper already.

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Zhixin has started to be quite efficient in nursing already. He’s normally done in 10 mins. At the babysitter’s house he consumes six 5oz bottles a day.
• Unlike Huirou who likes to chit chat while nursing, he’s more down-to-business. His style is nurse, nurse, nurse then plop! (Slept already)
• Previously, Hubs will rock him to sleep; but we found a more efficient routine. He nurses to sleep with me in the room while Huirou and Hubs spend quality time together in the living room.

Physical Development and Communications

• Zhixin loves his tummy time. Often joined by Huirou, he enjoys watching the world in this different perspective very much
• He’s also very chatty when I see him in the evening when he gets home from the sitter’s. He will coo and laugh while I play with him.
• He also like to suck on his hands, fist and fingers.

Character and Temperament

• Zhixin no longer hates people touching his head. In fact it is quite nice to rub his round spiky head now :)
• He is also getting used to Huirou’s sudden attacks. If she happened to smack him, he takes it all in stride.
• I will let you in on a little secret: He’s super ticklish. hee hee.

Another little bit about Zhixin. Whenever he is about to wake up, he will shake his head vigorously left and right, repeatedly. Perhaps do a sleepy cry, but often I will hold his head till he wakes up. I wonder why this is……

Our “Rounder” Children

Look at our rounder children. They’re really interacting with each other quite well now. Huirou’s jealousy is at a minimum and they are not fighting yet.

Every morning, I wake both Huirou and Zhixin up, let them have some milk, and they will happily play with each other while Hubs and I get dressed for work.

Huirou likes to have Zhixin share her pillow.

She won’t even complain if he happened to grab a handful of her hair. She will even gently remind him not to tug on “Che che’s” (ch: Big sis) hair.

Laughter and joy is what I always start my day with. :)

Huirou’s Rigid Routines

Huirou has got a lot of her own set of rules to follow. Since I am not that organized or ritualistic a person, I don’t know where she has learnt to be one.

Some examples:

1. She MUST dry her hands with the hand towel after she washes them.
2. She MUST keep her shoes in the same exact place on the shoe rack. And they MUST be arranged in a certain way.
3. She goes through the same sequence at bedtime. Naptime is a whole different sequence.
4. After brushing her teeth, she MUST arrange her toothbrush and cup a certain way.
5. During bath time, her towel HAS to be on a certain hook in the bathroom.

Come to think of it, maybe she’s just a neater person than I.

Zhixin @ 2 months old

(This is a seriously back back back dated post. I wrote this up and simply forgot to post!)

My return to work also means that Zhixin is now 2 months old. Although born small and underweight, he is now on the charts for both weight and height.

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Zhixin is still fed on demand at home.
• At Aunty Babysitter’s house, he gets 5 bottles of 2.5 oz expressed milk everyday.
• He is still sleeping alot especially at home where it’s often quiet and dark.
• He is technically sleeping through the night already, often going for more than 5 hours without waking.
• His night time routine is rather unique. I nurse him to milk-drunk. Then Hubs rock him to sleep, while watching tv or playing games. Hubs consider this “quality” time.

Physical Development and Communications

• Zhixin can turn his head from side to side and follow our movements with his eyes.
• Often, he cries for me if he hears my voice.

Character and Temperament

• Zhixin is very patient, and seems to understand when I ask him to wait a bit.
• He is already displaying his boyish streak in that he hates to be touched on his head. He will kick hard or even cry out if you do touch his head.
• He is also much more interested in his father’s boisterous play than my soothing lullabies.

Boys will be boys.

No Longer Scrawny

Zhixin has now managed to double his birth weight. When we went for his jab he was already 4.2 kg. and has increased 2 cm in length. In fact, we can now track his growth using the growth charts now. Yeah!

Even without the charts, we know that he is thriving and happy just by looking at him. He is now round.

Or, by listening to him. He is rather loud. He coos and gurgles and holds conversations with us especially if he’s had a “meal” and a nice long nap.

I asked her to ……

Smile. and she surprised me with a wide wide grin on her face.

Over and over again.

Huirou @ 2 years old

Wow. Two years old already.

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Her food intake has reduced significantly. I hope this is in line with her reduced growth and not due to having too much milk or Baby Zhixin arriving.
• She still has 2-3 milk feeds of about 3.5 oz each everyday. Although I earlier contemplated to switch her from full fat to low fat milk, I think for now I’ll still let her drink full fat milk because of her reduced food intake.
• And of course, she’s having also as much breast milk as she can possibly get whenever she’s around me.  She is probably only going to be weaned when she starts college. o_O.

Physical Development and Communications

• She quickly learned that she can scream to get our attention when we ask her to keep quiet when the baby’s sleeping. Sigh.
• She can follow along when I try to count to ten. but regularly misses “five”. i.e. she will go one,two, three, four, six … etc.
• We recently discovered that she can hum along to quite a few songs, like Baa baa black sheep. Also she can actually recite the first verse of a Buddhist scripture that Hubs was listening to in his car (eh I dunno which one) Na Mo Guan Shi Yin Pu Sah …… Seriously.

Character and Temperament

• She has now become quite impatient. I’ve tried to stretch her patience by telling her to count to ten whenever I need  her to wait. Sometimes it works. other times not.
• She is also getting a little jealous of Zhixin always having my attention. She will demand to nurse whenever Zhixin nurses.
• And when she’s done, she will want Zhixin to finish up too.

On a day to day basis, we are only wary of her tantrums usually precipitated by hunger or tiredness. Otherwise she usually behaves like any toddler would, playful, cheeky, happy, curious and a little bit too energetic for us adults.

Happy Birthday Huirou

Huirou is 2 years old!

Everyday we are awed by her immense ability to grow and learn.

She doesn’t have any birthday wishes yet, I think, but I hope that she grows up healthy, happy and loved.

Huirou’s “New Seat”

 

We unpacked an old carseat because Zhixin is going to the babysitter’s next week. As soon as we took out the carseat, Huirou promptly claimed it. Haiya…

Now she rocks in it. eats in it. watches tv in it.

Zhixin Smile

Here’s a smile to melt my heart; and hopefully it will make today a better day for you too.

I have to admit that I spent a long time looking at this photo not knowing what to write……

Zhixin’s Fullmoon Part 2

Last Friday, we went to Granma’s house to offer prayers to the ancestors. She bought angkus (they were delicious) and made red eggs for the prayers. She was also very happy that he was growing quite well. However she was very worried about his severe shedding.

We spent the entire morning there. Huirou was so happy to be able to run around and jump on the wooden floors. They make a big BANG! especially the loose boards. She also enjoyed looking down at the swamps to find tiny little crabs crawling around. And best of all? Granma keep giving her food that she otherwise won’t have at home.  Aren’t granpas and granmas the best part of childhood?

And the two of us (Hubs and I) enjoyed the brief rest that we naturally get with Granma fussing over the kids. Just thinking about it makes me want to make the trip there again this weekend……

Zhixin’s Fullmoon

Last Friday was Zhixin’s fullmoon according to the lunar calendar. Though we are only offering prayers to the ancestors tomorrow, on the actual day, Hubs still offered prayers to the Gods. (I guess the ancestors were busy that day, eh?)

He(Hubs, not baby) had to go the market in the morning for angkus and some fruits. We also have to bring Zhixin for his first hair cut which is really a close shave. I was told that this is his womb hair and it must be removed. Traditionally, the shaved hair is wrapped in a red cloth and sewed onto his pillow to help calm him down or made into a calligraphy brush.

Here’s the “before” look:

And here’s the “after” look:

So how is his updated look?

Still Scrawny?

This post is for Aunty who nicknamed Zhixin Scrawny. Hubs thinks he has gained some weight. I like to believe the same. In any case, he appears healthy, alert and happy. He nurses a lot, poos a lot and sleep a lot. Luckily, she didn’t nicknamed him Timon.

Hakuna Matata!

 

Huirou @ 23months

It seems like only a few weeks ago Huirou was born. Then now Zhixin has arrived. It is hard to believe what she could not do as a newborn that she easily manage now.

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Eats a ton. But still about the same size.
• Generally happy, cheerful and loving.
• She is losing some of her baby features and starting to look like a little girl.
• She will behave like one too, wanting me to pin up her hair AND demands to look into the mirror at her prettier self.
• She loves to ask Hubs to bring her to the playground in the evenings.

Physical Development and Communications

• For some time now, she can go up the stairs by holding on to the hand rails. She still have to rely on us going down though.
• She can also do a true jump now.
• Often when she’s behaving cheekily, she will walk on tiptoes around the house.
• She can roll her ball with pretty good aim now; but can’t throw at any target yet.
• I have begun to teach her to count and so far she can manage one,two, three and yee, er, san (same thing in English and Chinese respectively). Something exciting usually happens on “three” :)
• She can string together simple sentences with words and phrases she already knew.
• She will claim her possessions by saying wo de (ch: mine)
• Able to sing  a (yes just one) song. actually just the chorus and not very well either. The chorus goes something like this:  yippee-ya-ya-yippee-yippee-ya-ya….

Character and Temperament

• Did I already mentioned that Huirou has a temper?
• and will throw tantrums when she don’t get her way?
• with tears and screaming too?
• Despite all that, she loves her brother very much, wanting to hold and cuddle and kiss him when she arrives home. If she don’t get to hold him in the evenings, she will ask again as soon as she wakes up in the morning.
• If Zhixin cries and we don’t attend to him fast enough she gets upset too. The slightest sound from him will prompt her to ask us to baobao didi.(ch: pick up younger brother)

Small Beginnings

Zhixin is always sleeping.

Hubs say that that’s because he is so small that he has to concentrate all his resources on growing.

He is indeed small:

• His head fits easily in Hub’s palm.
• His clothes overwhelms him most of the time. The sleeves are so wide apart that his arms slip through them easily while he is asleep. I often wake up to find him wearing his clothes monk-style, exposing one shoulder.
• He don’t get to wear mittens either, because no mittens fit him. They all slid out 2 minutes after I put them on.
• When he wears socks they reaches up to his shins, making it look like he is wearing loose boots.
• When I change him, the tabs on his diaper overlaps. The smallest diaper hangs until his knees. Luckily he doesn’t wriggle around too much yet because the leg holes don’t close up properly either.

Right now, Hubs and I hope that he will grow up quickly and healthily. Hubs can’t wait to teach him all the “guy things”, and is already telling him that he has to protect his sister when he grows up. Well, we shall see won’t we? Coz we all know that from small beginnings come great things.

Huirou’s mealtimes

Whenever I ask Huirou to smile for the camera, I get the following cheeky expression. Over and over again.

So now y’all know why I take so few pictures. I laugh too hard to be able to take any good shots. Anyhow, I like to remind myself that enjoying the moment is more important than having a picture to show for it.

After much persuasion, and a lot of bad shots later. I got a semi-good, semi-candid shot.

I realise that everything is green in this picture but it’s merely a coincidence ok? Also, she now likes to eat most of her meals in her chair now. She also insist not to be fed. Therefore, dinner now takes twice as long. Luckily, she has more success putting food into her mouth now. No more messy floors. Yeah.

Here’s one where we were at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. She loves the muffins at this place.

Our Family (updated)

By the way, you can make your own stick figure family by clicking on the image above.

Granma visits

Granma only came to visit about 1 week after Zhixin was born.

She was very happy that the baby was born safely but she was particularly concerned about the tiny baby and the almost non-existence of my “confinement month”.

Tiny baby, understood. He just have to drink more milk.

Me. A puzzle to her. Since she couldn’t make me feed formula to the baby she decided that she had to feed him through me. I ate 5 meals a day while she was here. Luckily she didn’t force me to wear sweatpants nor disallow the fan. Also as long as the baby was swaddled she couldn’t care less what he was wearing underneath.

Before she went home, she pre-fried a whole bunch of ginger in sesame oil , cleaned up the house and left a whole lot of chinese herbs behind.

We are going to visit her for prayers around Zhixin’s full moon celebration. Hopefully he would have fatten up by then.

Zhixin’s Health

 

This was how Zhixin was presented to me when I had rested and ask for him to be breastfed.

He was bathed and was alert. He latched on like a natural, though it was a little difficult because I was not used to seeing such a tiny mouth. He would smile after an especially full meal and then throw his head back and fall into deep sleep. He’s a  good sleeper too. I think he’s only awake for like 4 hours total in a day. But he wakes up to eat like clockwork every 3 hours or so. He’s also impatient, demanding that his meals (milk) be served the moment he goes waaah. Any delay will result in progressively louder wails and he will not quit till he gets to eat. Boys will be boys. This he definitely inherited from Hubs.

Due to his low birth weight, the doctor ordered his blood glucose to be monitored while we were at the hospital. So every 3 hours, one of the nurses would have to draw some blood from his heel……

It resulted in him being a little jittery the first day that we were home. Poor guy. The needle holes were visible on his heel even at his 1 week check-up with the paediatrician.

Speaking of the paediatrician, he’s a cool guy. When he saw the tiny baby, he just asked to make sure that I didn’t have any high blood pressure. Then he proceeded to check the baby’s organs, reflexes and of course the level of his “yellowness”. He felt the baby, despite his size, is doing great. Hubs and I like his style.

Birth of Baby Zhixin

You are looking at Baby Zhixin (智信) only moments after being born.

The final month of my pregnancy was weeks of agony for us. My placenta had started to calcify and the doctor found that the baby was not growing. Very little nutrients was passing from me to the baby. We decided that an early birth was unavoidable but the doctor wanted to wait until the pregnancy is at least 38 weeks old to perform any induced birth since he had not detected any abnormality of the baby. Other than the very low weight gain, that is.

At 37 weeks, I displayed no symptoms.

July 6th, the doctor did a cervical sweep. At the same time we found out that I was already 2cm dilated-Good news. but my cervix was very unripe-Not so good news. Doctor decided to perform an induced birth on Wednesday (8th), Thursday the latest.

July 7th, I lose my mucous plug. But no contractions whatsoever. I packed my bags.

July 8th, I went for a ctg scan. Baby was doing great, but I had no contractions. The doctor decided to go ahead with the induction. I repacked my bags again. We had a nervous day. I checked into the hospital at 10 pm. A midwife started with medications to soften my cervix. At this point we were hoping to get the contractions to start on its own so that no additional medications would be necessary.

July 9th, The doctor had another delivery in another ward at about 3 am. He came to check on me and performed an ARM(artificial rupture of membrane) He felt at that point that everything was progressing smoothly. Strong contractions started at about 5am. 7-ish, I was feeling the urge to push but the doctor has not arrived yet. Midwife ask to “hold it”, which is rather ridiculous. Doctor arrived. He didn’t even get to change into scrubs this time. He was just wearing his regular tee-shirt :) He proceeded to give me an episiotomy while I told him that I was glad to see him there. (In any other circumstances THIS would be funny, okay?)

7.30am Baby ZhiXin arrived with just two pushes and a loud wail! He weighs in at 2.30kg, perfectly healthy. All our prayers were answered in that instant.

Joy. Miracle. Blessing. Words that felt so inadequate at describing my baby.

Huirou @ 22 months

There are so many things to get ready for the impending arrival of little one #2 and hence the short post here….

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• This month we went back to her old baby sitter; she has handled the situation rather maturely. She practically didn’t cry at all.
• Luckily for me, the sitter will now see to all her daytime meal intakes and has indicated to me that she eats well for her age.

Physical Development and Communications

• Hubs noticed that she now has a louder voice and that she can now pronounce words much more accurately than before.
• She can quite accurately name vehicles on the road such as bis (eng:bus), loyi (eng:lorry), che-che or Chi-che(ch:car)
• and also body parts such as juiba (ch:mouth), jing (ch:eye), erduo (ch:ear), pigu (ch:butt), shou (ch:hand), jiao (ch:leg), ya (ch:teeth)
• She can indicate when she’s hurt by saying tong-tong (ch: pain) 

Character and Temperament

• Her new thing this month? Fear.
• She indicates that she’s scared by patting her chest repeatedly and saying pah-pah…
• She’s now afraid of little bugs, weird noises, strangers and new situations and a myriad of other things.
• She runs to either one of us for “protection”. It’s quite lovely really(coz she will lay her head on our shoulders) but it gets a bit old after a while….
• And now she knows how to fight for toys. She snatches from other people and will proceed to cry (her weapon) if she doesn’t get her way. When she doesn’t want to share, she will hide her things.

A short (incomplete) guide to toddler-ese

A short (incomplete) guide to toddler-ese - aka HUH? what's she saying?

People:
Papa(loudly)- Her father
Mama or MAHM - Me lar
AH Ma - Granma
Shh-shh – Her uncle (relative) OR She needs to pee.
AHN-tee - Aunty, her sitter or any aunty-ish looking individual
A-ker - Uncle, older gentlemen
JeJay - Sister, Pretty looking or young girls. Also when she sees a picture of herself. (Martha Stewart with makeup in a magazine is also Jejay, okay?)
Baby - babies
KOkor – Boys
Didi – Younger brother, specifically the one in my tummy.

Objects/places:
AK-ko - Jusco,
Jia - Our house.
Biiing - Cookies, Biscuits
Bao bao - depending on context, Bread or wants to be held.
Nananana - said in a sing-song manner, Banana.
Nennen - usually followed by pointing at me. Breastmilk
Yummyyummyyummy - Food she likes, eg. Yakult, ice cream, prunes.
Nennen, followed by yummy yummy yummy - Bottled cow’s milk
Mummum - Meals and food in general.
Beyibing, Or something like that- Bellybutton, the funniest anatomy in her mind.
Bis – Bus
Loyi – Lorry
Cheche - Cars
Dog dog, Wowwow - Dogs and the sound they make

Other expressions:
Oh-No - Oh no. She says this with no particular clue to what it means. but it's cute.
Oh-ya - Oh Ya. she has no particular idea what it means either.
Ahh-MUMP - When we pass over road bumps. or when she bumps her head.
Ahh- Bump – Slightly different from AhhMump, falls down.
eeeee, tututututu, ewwww, yeooww etc - sounds that objects make.
Babai - Bye bye.
Dao Diao - Pour away (her bathwater or her potty's contents)
zhou –go away, or go.
boo boo - She needs to use the potty, sometimes it's just to pee though.

Our Family

33 week checkup

Today I went to the doctor's office for an appointment. Baby is now 2.2 kg. We tried for some time but couldn't get a picture because he was sleeping, hugging his umbilical cord.

Huirou @ 21 months old

That’s 1 year 9 months old for people like me who are not very good at counting in months.

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Huirou is growing taller but I don’t know by how much.
• We weighed her on the adult scale and she’s now 11 kg. She refused to be weighed at the paediatrician’s office
• Bedtime is now “officially” 10 pm.
• We let her have sushi for the first time. I thought she would not like the taste of sushi vinegar but she enjoyed picking up the rice balls and the taste.

Physical Development and Communications

• The major achievement this month for her is stepping. Now she gets onto raised floor surfaces and our bed (which has a ledge around it) easily. No hands.
• She has also begun to jump. Just slightly. When we help her “take flight” she squeals in delight.
• She’s also into the habit of walking up the stairs herself, adult-style. She will only allow Daddy to carry her upstairs or when she wants to go up fast she will let me too. All other times I have to inch slowly behind while she pulls herself up with the help of the railings.
• Since I don’t know when (2 months ago maybe?) she can screw and unscrew bottle caps. Her shu shu (ch: uncle) taught her that.
• She now likes to dictate what we do around the house. At dinner she arranges each of us into the seats that she likes. At bedtime she wants Daddy on her right and I on her left.
• There was once she felt cramped and wanted Daddy off the bed by saying repeatedly buyao buyao (ch: no) and zhou (ch: go).
• I tried to introduce her to a few potential loveys but I think she has since picked her pillow for when it’s near bedtime she will hunt for her zhentou (ch: pillow)
• And yes, you read corrrectly, she now communicates in short phrases. They are mostly 2 word short phrases such as mama lai (ch: mama come) or repeated words such as yummy yummy (meaning: cow’s milk)

Character and Temperament

• She’ not afraid of a lot of things. not bugs. not thunder. and never papa or mama. but she’s afraid of noises like the vacuum cleaner.
• She seems to be more aware of her surroundings and can sense a lot more danger than previously. If the doorbell rings, she runs to one of us before wanting to look out to take a look at the visitor.
• When she’s mad at me, no amount of persuasion will make her give me a kiss; but when she’s in a good mood she can literally shower me with kisses.

Update on my pregnancy
Check-ups are now every 2 weeks and that means I am not too far away from my due date. Baby weighs 1.8kg at the last check-up, so he must be at least 2 kg by now (2 weeks later). Huirou loves to hunt for my belly button now and poke at it and kiss it. She seems delighted to know that there’s a Baby in my belly. I hope the goodwill feelings will be there once he arrives.

Huirou @ 20 months old (and some from 19 months)

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• There are teeth aplenty this month. All of her four incisors came in at once, making her total teeth count to be 16. I think it's just 4 more to go before she gets all her primary teeth, right?
• Food intake remain consistent.
• Sleep, however is a different story. For the past 2 weeks or so, she has been trying to push her bedtime later and later. So now she sleeps at 10-ish, if I am lucky.

Physical Development and Communications

• Huirou has discovered the power of nodding and shaking her head.
• She started to address her sitter as ahhn-tee
• Her speech is improving. there's just too many to blog about here so perhaps I'll do that in a separate post.
• She can understand when asked to wait.
• She can identify most of her body parts and can differentiate between her own and other peoples'.
• She can also identify the correct key to open our front door.
• When playing with a ball, she can throw it forwards, upwards and roll it around. When she wants to she can kick it quite far too.
• During mealtimes, more of her self-fed food is on-target (ie her mouth) than off-target (eg. tray, floor, herself, me etc)
• Potty training has only just begun at home. The sitter don't seem too keen to start so I am just letting her go before bath and when she asks. However, she really enjoyed the pouring away (dao diao) and flushing of the toilet (la sui)
• 
  

Character and Temperament

• Stranger anxiety for her has begun to wane. On our recent trip to Granma's, she even asked Granma to hold her. Wonderful, isn't it?
• She has been really good the past few weeks. only making a fuss when she's too tired or when we instill some disipline eg, when Hubs won't let her play with the TV remote because she might damage it.
• otherwise she's very loving. Most nights when Hubs come back from work, she will run to him demanding to be held. as soon as he does that, she will then rest her head on his shoulders. This delights Hubs to no end. As for me? She never does that to me ...... sigh. Well maybe it's because I'm not the one to give her fruits, prunes, Yakult, bring her to Jusco or let her ride on my back etc etc etc....
• But then she also likes to pick Hubs to help her put on her diaper and clothing, it seems like mama is only good for nennen only ....

She may seem aggressive and extroverted at times, but at heart she's really cautious. If she sees something or hear something familiar, she will point it out to us. Otherwise she usually runs to either Hubs or I for safety. When meeting unfamiliar people she tend to just want to look from the sidelines. Hence, it usually takes more than half a day for her to warm up to people (not 15- 30 minutes).

When playing with other children her age, she is usually friendly and is willing to share toys. When a tussle for toys starts among her peers, she will very quickly give up what is in her hands and look for other alternative.

Update on my pregnancy
Baby's growing fine and we are still doing the monthly check-ups. I now have a prominent belly and people have started to notice. The baby moves quite a bit and seem to recognize the voices of me, Hubs and Huirou. esp. Huirou. either because she's loud or her voice is the nicest among all of ours :)

Huirou @ 18 months

Huirou is in the "NO" stage now. She will refuse anything that we ask of her.

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• She went through a rather long teething stage and now have 4 molars. That's 12 teeth in all that she has now.
• Now that the teething is done with (temporarily) she sleeps better now at nights. not that she doesn't wake up hunting for me ... ...
• Teeth brushing is now a regular part of our routine now. She knows to spit out the water and seems to like her brushing time.
• Also, the teething made her chew through some nipples (artificial ones lah...not mine!) and I am seriously thinking of gradually weaning her from the bottle because she's now an expert using the straw and we are working on her drinking out of the cup without spilling.

Physical Development and Communications

She decides that she will work on her language skills this month.

• First of all she's learning to take control by refusing our requests by shaking her head.
  
• She seems to enjoy that a lot and me? I've been getting al ot less hugs and kisses from her :(
• Then she surprised me one day when Hubs told her that we are going shopping and she said aak-co. That means Jusco if you're not smart like me, and cannot understand baby-talk.
• After that I caught her saying ang-POW!
• Yesterday she wanted to sleep and decided to ask her father (aka Hubs) to turn off the den den (chinese :lights)

Character and Temperament

• How should I describe her temperament this month? Maybe I can only use bi-polar here. One moment she's a sweet little baby, then the next moment she spits out her food and throws a big tantrum.
• The new baby sitter's place is not that good for her. and we are thinking of placing her back to the old sitter.

Since last month I've put her on half mother's milk and half cow's milk. My milk supply is getting low and sometimes she's frustrated that there's not more coming out. That has made her cling to me even more. But lucky for me, she still enjoys comfort nursing with me and after the teething was over she never bit me. She may or may not wean in time for our next baby to arrive but we will cross that bridge once we come to that.

Huirou@17 months

Huirou likes to observe what we do around the house and imitate us. She will stand by me when I cook, fill the water bottles and when Hubs clean the car porch or wash his car.


Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• We've finally gotten her "official weight" at 9.3 kg.
• She now have 10 teeth, including 2 molars.
• Her day-to-day eating and naps seems to be consistent now. so she eat most meals with us plus snacks. Naps once (athome) or twice (at daycare) and consistently sleeps through thte night
• On certain nights (twice so far) she keeps waking up in the middle of the night that I find no reason for, so I am attributing it to teething.

Physical Development and Communications

• Even though she's not that stable in her walking yet, she is already trying to run!
• She loves to play catch-me-if-you-can around the house with us.
• Her other favorite activities seems to be slamming doors and cabinets shut.
• She will also help me in the kitchen by closing the fridge door and bringing dirty dishes to the sink.
• She helps daddy sweep the driveway by pushing around a broom.
• She understands me when I ask her to squat, wait or to hand me things.
• She is also able to comprehend me when I tell her something/someone is behind, beside or in front of her
• She can be asked to go to sleep, where she will happily close her eyes for 3 seconds.
• She loves to wear her BigGirlPants, which are actually pull-ups.
• Whenever I go to the toilet she wil say shh shh,
• but when I put her on her own potty she will stand up immediately, look into it, and mentioned ohh? while signing the no more sign signaling that there's nothing in the potty. So I guess she's not yet ready for potty training.
  

Character and Temperament

• This month seems to be defiance month for her.
• There is no way now that we can substitute an object that she wants;
• However she remains as loving as before when she's in a good mood.
• Recently I taught her to say goodnight to Hubs by giving him a kiss on both cheeks and waving bye and finally to blow him a kiss.
• After which she will gladly point to the stairs to be taken to the room for her bath and to bed.

We are thinking that for Huirou, The Terrible Twos will definitely come early :)

Huirou @ 16months

The most amazing thing happened this past month. Huirou -from a mumbling, crying baby- turned into a real little person overnight.

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• This month we don’t have to visit the doctor. Yea! In fact, I would like to stay away from that place until March. That’s when our next appointment will be.
• She now eats most of what we are eating now.
• She has always been once of those magical babies who sleeps quite well at night. Now she can sleep even longer, often for 12 hours at night. She may wake but seldom so awake that I feel sleepy during the day.
• She can consistently take 2-hour daytime naps too.

Physical Development and Communications

• She has been working on her 2 lower 1^st molars, and one has erupted just yesterday. I hope after they have both erupted she would start to sleep even better.
• She can now walk really well and can catch herself if she’s about to fall.
  
• When a fall is unavoidable she tries to break her fall using her hands; I know this is not the safest way to break a fall but that is her natural response.
• When walking around the house, she try to move our furniture around too (yes, that makes for an even messier house)
• However, she’s willing to help me pick up her toys when it is bedtime already.
• She understands a lot more of what we are saying now. Some new words that she understands now are orange, sit down, I figure she could easily understand about 30 words or so?
• She now helps to dress and undress herself. She will look up when I powder her neck and put her hands through the sleeves. She will even request that I do her hair when we go out.
• When I am lazy and want to just set aside her diaper, she won’t allow me and will keep pointing to put it in the trash can…
• Whenever Hubs is outside hanging out the laundry, she likes to ride on her toy car outside and keep him company.
• She can play pretend now. Her favourite? Pretend to eat !
• She is also getting very good at her shape sorter.
  
• And she can tell tales now. Whenever something goes wrong (no matter whose fault) she goes uh-uh holding her index finger up right next to her nose.
• She can identify her hair, eyes, nose, ears and belly button.
• An ambulance to her is woooooo; and a dog is hoho.
  
• She also make choices by shaking her head whenever she wants to refuse something that we offered.
• She is able to use the correct “tool” for the job eg, comb to hair, spoon to eat etc.

Character and Temperament

• I’ve always though that she is aggressive and impatient; maybe she’s just frustrated that we don’t understand her.
• Because as soon as she is able to make us understand her by pointing, grunting and shaking her head, she becomes generally happier.
• Whenever she does throw a tantrum, we can still easily distract her.