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 :)