The "Swimming" Breakthrough

No, she still can't swim on her own yet, but she could swim with the floats, and without her feet touching the ground! Yes, this is really a breakthrough for her, thanks to Daddy's hard work. Before that, it's so hard to even get her into the water, as she's so afraid of people splashing her.

We just got them both a pair of arm floats each, and SY got an additional ring float. I dared not buy two sets for that, as it looked so small and I'm not sure if it would fit. Maybe it works because it's small enough, it fits at her waist without it slipping down. So she could swim in the adult pool now with all these floats, even asking Daddy to go away to swim, she could handle it on her own :)

What about SJ? She's still afraid and was clinging to me like a koala bear, kept saying "I'm scared". Then Daddy took over, and she could enjoy lying her head on the waters, enjoying the sky. Hmm... so the credit should go to Daddy yeah? :)

22 Months Comparison

When I look thru Sze Yi’s accomplishment report at 22 months, I couldn’t help comparing them to Sze Juin’s. Well, there are things that SY could do better, and vice- versa. For instance, SJ is much better in speech and vocab, but SY’s better in reading and recognizing alphabets.

They are about the same in weight and height at 22 months (although SY’s statistics showed that she’s slightly taller: 84cm vs 79cm, but SJ's height was taken during her 20 month's check up).

Other similarities:
- Number of teeth (about the same)
- Able to count up to 10
- Able to climb the stairs on their own
- Delighted in drawing (just that SJ scribbled in SY”s books instead of tables, chairs, etc)
- Able to feed themselves
- Able to take out their shoes and pants
- Could master the more advanced shape shorter (this happens to be still the same shape shorter from SY’s time), where there are more shapes and colors compared to the new tortoise one.
- Could identify different types of fruits
- Could take ice water and tolerate spicy food
- Potty trained
- Loved action songs and could learn the actions by heart
- Friendly towards strangers, greeted and waved to them as if long-time friends.
- Could memorize the sequence of songs that’s going to be played from a CD
- Displayed the sign of vanity and insisted to choose their own clothing. There’s once when SJ was so crazy about ‘mouse’ t-shirts that I had to make sure there was at least 1 set of mousey clothes on hand before I dared to change her. After that, her taste changed to her sister’s clothes, especially her sister’s school uniform!
- Could help with the housework such as passing the wet clothes to me, wiping the table, etc. I dared not venture further by letting her try the broom.
- Also a very determined person, even Mommy couldn’t get her to do the things that she didn’t want to do.
- Loved brushing and would brush on her own most of the time (but she bit on the bristles too of course)

Things that SJ still yet to master:
- Recognizing the alphabets. We somehow hardly went thru this with her
- Identifying colors
- Interest in reading. Blame it on Mommy who never bothered to read to her. The few times that we did, she pushed the book away so we just gave up.
- Doing the sign of cross. She refused when I tried to teach her last weekend!
- Haven’t tried singing the DO-RE-MI with her. She just knew DO, RE and MI, that’s all. While her Jie Jie knew the whole octave last time.
- Didn’t show any interest in learning how to operate the DVD player, even though she loves the remote controller. She only requested for certain songs or movies, but hardly attempted to put it on herself, unlike her Jie Jie last time
- We had never really showed her the photo albums, but she could tell who’s who when she looked at the photos displayed here and there.
- Didn’t want to drink milk from the bottle which is my greatest headache now

Things that SJ fares better than her Jie Jie at 22 months:
- Her great command of vocabulary and ability to speak in longer sentences with much accurate pronunciation.
- Able to sing some songs already
- Fully diaperless
- When posing for camera, she could smile more naturally than her Jie Jie then
- Could play on her own much much better than her Jie Jie
- Easier to handle, more understanding and able to take instructions better
- Could watch movie in the cinema already! Just last weekend, we took them to watch Alice in Wonderland. She’s been to at least 4 movies by now, while her Jie Jie’s first was when she’s ~3.5 year old.
- She breastfeed longer than her Jie Jie and have better immune system

Ya, no 2 child is the same, they grow up according to their own pace. The most important is that they grow up to be healthy and happy persons.

Milk Strike!

It's been more than 2 weeks now that SJ went on milk strike while I left her at MIL's house during work hours. Starting this month, she went to Amah's house because our contract with the babysitter has ended. The babysitter wanted to travel and do something else.

Everything went rather smoothly with this change, except that SJ didn't want to drink milk at all, and her poo poo was not that regular anymore. Initially I was rather upset, and tried all means to make her drink milk. I've tried using cup, syringe, straw, mixed EBM with milo or cornflakes, or try different brands of milk formula, etc. but all to no avail. During the first week, she would nurse non-stop after I came back from work, and during the weekend, she skipped her usual porridge but feasted on me 24 by 7.

Came the 2nd week, I managed to slowly switch her to Pediasure (chocolate flavour) when I discovered that she could accept Milo. So I passed that (Pediasure & Milo) to MIL during the weekdays, but to my dismay, she rejected it too! And I also noticed that she hardly asked me to nurse her in MIL's house unless I asked her if she wanted milk. She only asked for milk when we're in the car going home, or when at home.

Now, I ask MIL to feed her yoghurt and I'm glad that she still takes it. At least that's the only source of milk that she takes when I'm not around. I'm not sure if I could wean her off my breast completely... as my target dateline is approaching soon. She's turning two in 2 months time, and I couldn't accept the fact that a 2-year old child doesn't drink milk. If any of you know of any other alternatives to make her drink milk, please kindly let me know, ya. I'm also considering to reduce my pumping frequency soon, since now I only rely on SY to help me finish them, or else I'll donate them away too.

For now, this would be her famous phrase, "I don't like nen nen. Nen Nen no good la. I want Mommy's nen nen." Sigh...

A Passport Finally!

Everyone in the family has got a passport except me. So when we went to have our photo shoot last month, Daddy and Mommy took this opportunity to let me have my passport photo. Much easier and don't need to queue up at the Immigration Department later.

So, how do I fare?  Compared to Jie Jie's one :)

Growing Up

Mommy considered me a big girl now, coz I can bathe on my own already. But I love to play with the shower gel and shampoo, so I took soooo much longer in there, which made Mommy cross at times. Still, it's a great milestone, don't you think so? When I'm done, Mommy would come in to check if there's still soap on my hair and body, and then off I'll go to find what I like to wear and dress myself. Uh...I still didn't like to comb hair on my own yet.

I also told Mommy that after Aunty bathed me in school, I would towel dry myself, blow my hair (Mommy don't believe that I can blow my hair on my own!) wear my own clothes and put the dirty clothes into the bag that Mommy prepared. Guess going to school has trained me to be independant, yeah!

Finally Graduated!

Yay, this would be the final episode, hopefully. I'm finally diaperless, including at night too. Oh, but on and off, there were accidents (Oops!). Still, Mommy gave me my scroll because those only happened when I was super tired. So at 21 months, Mommy declared me fully potty-trained. Hurray! (jump high and throw hats...)

What we Did on the 7th Day of CNY

This free digital photo album personalized with Smilebox