Mid-autumn Festival 2010

We celebrated midautumn festival, aka mooncake festival on 22 September.

Last year, we bought battery operated lanterns for safety reasons. The noise generated was extremely annoying.

This year we bought candles and lanterns and the atmosphere was much better. Zhixin was extremely fascinated by the flickering candlelight; He keeps trying to blow them out though. Huirou keeps humming the Birthday Song. We had to explain to her over and over that there is no cake and it is nobody’s birthday :) We joined a group outside and we had fun until all the candles were gone.

Zhixin @ 14 months old

Zhixin is always following his sister around and learning from her. In this picture you can actually see how he shadows her around, him on his ride-on, and her on her bike.

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Weighs 8.30 kg. Amazing, huh?
• Got his first set of molars.
• Eats well with lots of snacks and milk; but do not like to drink plain water.  
• Had his 1st dose of PCV

Physical Development and Communications

• Stands without support.
• Walks 2-steps… but has yet to find the balance to go further.
• Able to toss balls and drops things.
• He expresses himself mainly through gestures and eye contact.
• He’s fortunate as I happened to understand basic toddler sign language and can read minds … (The same can be applied for Huirou when she’s being fussy)
• He learnt that whenever he doesn’t want/like something, he shakes his head and pushes it away with his hand.
• He love little games of peekaboos and catch. He giggles loudly if I pretend to be afraid of him.

Character and Temperament

• He’s a playful kid and attracts attention in every place he goes.
• He has droopy lids that make him looks sleepy all the time.
• He doesn’t mind most strangers holding him, though there are a few occasions that he protested.
• When he does cry, whether stranger anxiety related or otherwise, he lets out this heart wrenching wail accompanied by the saddest frown that I’ve ever seen.
• He is also able to “fight” with Huirou now. He protest loudly and will snatch back if she snatches his toys. A few times he tried to hit her when she went too near his “stuff”.

If you are wondering about the scratch on his forehead, it’s from a fight with the sis-ta ……

Huirou @ 2 years 11 months old

Last week, Hubs commented: Wow, we’ve spent the last 4 years with Huirou already.

He of course was counting the year that she was inside my tummy too.

Last month on the paediatrician's scale, she weighed 12kg. Everyday she eats 5 kg of food. She eats a lot. So I don’t know why she’s small. Wait, I know: It’s genetic :)

I really like to chit chat with her now. She is quite good at telling me about her day too. Without fail, our conversation carries over to what Zhixin does at the sitters’. So I get to find out her version of what she ate or if Zhixin was naughty. I hardly verify her story, though, because it is this simple routine of winding down that I like at the end of the day.

And she remembers. I can ask her where she’d put away something, or where her uncle went. If we brought her somewhere unfamiliar she will ask about where we are going. We went to Ipoh last month and she remembers.

She grasps concepts like big/small, near/far, whether it’s a workday or a restday for us. 

She loves to read. I haven’t really taught her to read, but I enjoy reading or looking through books with her.  She enjoys looking at the pictures and weaving her own story. If she grabs a magazine, she starts going through the pictures and ask us what each picture is. She especially enjoys the  sales leaflets that were delivered aka junk mail to our mail box, because we can then have fun at identifying our household things.

Next year, we want to put her into a pre-school. At first, I thought I want to put her in a Montessori-based school; but then any true Montessori centre may not prepare her adequately for primary school a few years down the road.

So I’ve identified one near our house where there are “taught” lessons, but also monthly themes/modules where she will get to discover other things, like nature, cooking, science, history and sports and hopefully many others more that I couldn't think of right now.

And this will be her birthday present this year.

Zhixin @ 13 months old

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Before I forget again, Zhixin is 8kg now.  Our paediatrician says he is on the small side. Oh, well.
• After his babysitter cooks for him, he consumes 5 x 80 ml bottles of ebm. Yeah reduction, but he eats good
• After discovering that he likes drinking from the straw cup or the sippy cup his fluids intake increased significantly too. yeah!
• On top of everything else, his 8th tooth finally showed. I wonder why it took its own sweet time?

Physical Development and Communications

• He cruises on furniture now.
• Sometimes, the daredevil in him will even let go. Headache for this mom, having a toddler who cannot stand yet but ready wants to toddle.
• He is still extremely playful, liking his peekaboo games even in the middle of the night. Sometimes I try to pretend to sleep but then he starts kissing or cradling my face to make me wake up.
• He seems to understand us much more too. He will be upset if I scold him (uh-uh) or I warn him to get down from the bed/stairs/chair carefully, feet first or when I ask him to come with me.

Character and Temperament

• As mentioned before. playful.playful. playful.
• Whenever he wants something and don’t get it, he arches his back and start making his old man face.
• Worse, he will roll around on the ground too.
• But luckily he’s easily distracted now, so that when we offer him an alternative he quickly forgets.

We often bring Huirou and him to parks or the malls if it’s super hot. Often there are treats, sometimes it’s a snack of muffin, or a sundae cone. Zhixin gets a taste of all of these. Luckily he does not seemed to be allergic to any of the foodstuff, especially in relation to his eczema.

So at home whenever we sit at the dining table, or he sees me at the chopping board, he often crawls over and want in on the action, or more specifically the food :)

Happy Birthday Zhixin

I’ve been wanting and wanting to post this since forever :)

July 9th was Zhixin’s 1st birthday and we had a low key celebration at home.

As soon as he saw the cake, he was reaching for it. This is the first and the BEST picture I got. He really wanted to eat his cake.

OK. After a while I got another picture, see how he really wanted to eat his cake?

If the picture wasn’t hard enough, we have Huirou being jealous : How come I don’t get to take a picture with the cake? So, we obliged.

So I am really sorry if the cake seems to be melting a little already. By the way, it was chocolate mousse, next time I am so going to get carrot cake, no icing; but that won’t make for very pretty pictures, would it?