Yao's 24th Month Turning Point

It was not long ago that I just did a milestone comparison for Yao with regards to her Jie Jies' at 22 months. Little did I know that once she touched the 24th month, she has continued to amaze me.

When she celebrated her 2nd birthday, I am very proud to announce that Yao could do the following: 

We had a celebration for her 2 days before the actual day

1. Recite A-Z on her own (with a little guidance from us). I must thank my babysitter for teaching her that :)

2. Potty trained during the day time. She can go diaperless even when we went outside for lunch/dinner, and stay dry after a 3 hours nap. However, there are accidents still. 

3. She has weaned off the pacifier! Hurray! Yes, she threw it away into the dustbin herself 7 days prior to her birthday :)

This was 3 days before her birthday, during the mooncake festival 

(As you can see, she's Frozen-crazy) 

Once entering the 24th month, her development was too fast until I couldn't keep track. From 24th month onwards to just before entering into her 26th month's timeframe, she could do the following now:

1. Recognise her ABC and able to tell the alphabets correctly

2. Can count 1-10 in 3 languages, English, Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia (again, thanks to my babysitter for introducing that to her).

3. What amazes me the most is that she is able to recognise the numbers correctly too (when I pointed to the numbers in the lift, she could say it out correctly in English).

4. She can recognise the colours and say them correctly as well.

5. Yao also started to show interest in the shape sorter and she can put the shapes correctly now. She can even tell the shapes in names (eg circle, oval, etc).

6. She started to show interest in reading and looking at picture books. She can place the stickers nicely on the sticker book albeit still not really within the confined perimeter of the picture yet.

7. She can sing alongside with her Jie Jie on some songs like xiao chao (小草), wo niu de jia (蜗牛的家), Lullaby, etc. Some of her favourite songs (which she still can't really sing in full yet) are the Humpty Dumpty, Mary Have A Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, etc.

8. I can now declare that Yao is fully potty trained, including the night time. Her diaper is dry even in the morning (oh but accidents do happen at times still). 

9. Yao speaks quite fluently and clearly in both English and Mandarin. However some words are still not clear yet and only I can understand her. She could relate and describe things in sentences quite well. I love some phrases which I don't know where she picked up from..."But I don't know how!", "What the hell!", "Where's Daddy?", "Or Daddy go where?", etc. 

10. Yao is very emotional, she can cry easily. She will cry when we sang songs which sounded sad to her, like "Lullaby or Dodoi Sayang", or the Xiao Bai Chuan (小白船) song. Sometimes I'm not sure if her tears are fake or not, because whenever her Jie Jies wanted to make her cry, they will start singing lullaby to her and she will start crying for them (she's such a good actress!). 

I am still breastfeeding her, but started to introduce Pediasure formula milk (in bottle) as well as warmed up FarmHouse/FarmFresh fresh milk (in cup) for her in her 21st month. By 23rd month, she was taking the Pediasure formula milk more frequently especially at night when she realised I don't have much milk left. But she was on full EBM at the babysitter's house still. When my last frozen EBM bottle was used up right before she turned 26th month, I gave my babysitter 2 bottles of EBM plus 1 serving of Pediasure every day starting on the 30th Nov, where Yao is officially 26th month.

My last frozen EBM (top) and last sets of complete EBM to my babysitter (on 27th Nov)

I normally gave her 5oz EBM per bottle, but since my supply was running low and it took so much time to pump out the required amount to make a bottle, I use shortcut and stopped at 4oz instead. It really takes a lot of effort to squeeze out 1oz at this stage. 

This photo was taken on 4th Oct. Yao basically can drink from the cup without spilling and able to feed herself without much mess by then. 

I started to let Yao take cold stuffs (including fresh milk, vitagen, yakult, ice-cream) when she's 23 months old but it's not that frequent. The first time she sampled a cold drink was when she was 20th month at the Balik Pulau Goat Farm, for the goat milk was chilled. 

17th Oct 2015 - Yao went for her 1st dental checkup. She only can sit for awhile on the dentist chair before insisting to get up, so the dentist checked her teeth with me carrying her. She has been diligently brushing her teeth everyday (yes by herself, and I checked after she's done) so there's no problem with her teeth (yet).  

My little baby is growing up real fast, and it's a joy to watch her everyday, even though she's too mobile for my preference. Anyway, both her Jie Jies adore her, and they have been great babysitters at home, especially when I'm busy with other chores.

And for that, I am grateful for my little blessings :)