Bed Jumping

We have a 20 year warranty on our mattress.

We don’t think it’s going to last THAT long for the children like to jump on the bed reaching for imaginary stars on the wall.

Happy Birthday Huirou

 

This year, we decided to buy a real birthday cake for Huirou’s birthday. When I ask her about it she told me: I want strawberries on my cake.

So we bought a chocolate mousse cake with strawberries on top.

At three years old, Huirou is: We sang and she blew her own candles.

• 12 kg. Jumps, skips, run and play throughout the day.
• only wearing diapers at night; one night we forgot and she manage to stay dry; so I let her choose every night. So far, she still find comfort in being able to put on her diaper at night though.
• eating her own meals; occasionally we are impatient and will feed her. Otherwise she very much prefer to feed herself.
• putting on and taking off her own clothes. Other than shirts, she can reliably wear her pants and shoes the right way. Speaking of which, she insists on choosing her clothes in the mornings too.
• speaks in complete sentences. She can carry a conversation with me with surprising accuracy about her day.
• able to recognize familiar roads.
• able to name many many objects. You only have to tell her once.
• “reads” by looking at picture books. I tried a reader program with her but she does not have the patience yet. (Okaaay, maybe it’s me)
• is still rigid with regards to the way we do things. (must fold clothes a certain way, pray a certain way, go to certain restaurants on weekends etc..)

Some days, she exhausts me with her un-ending demands and her boundless energy. Some days, she plays on her own, happily having conversations with her imaginary friend. At the beginning of the weekends, I often feel like I must go into “battle-mode” but at the end of the weekends, I feel like I already miss her.

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.