Milestones

At around 1130pm before the New Year, I was just done with the washing up in the kitchen and went to the bathroom to wash myself up.

I told the husband I’d finished washing the dishes and whatnots in the kitchen, and that he is welcome. 😂

He sat me down and gave me an obligatory shoulder massage.

“So are we going to count down?” He asked causally. “And wish each other happy new year?”

I turned to look at him and said, “Count down? Erm no I’m just going to lie down.”

😂😂😂

So I was in Allie’s room, mindlessly looking at some shopping site and reading Dayre posts while she slept in the cot.

And then I heard the unmistakable “pop pop pop” sound of fireworks, followed by a text from the hubs.

“Want to see fireworks? Kitchen,” said his message.

Not the best view but this would suffice.

It’s 2019.

The girls celebrated the new year with milk in the morning.

Allie, true to her usual self, partied a little in the middle of the night.

I managed to pick her up for just a minute, put her back into her cot and make her sleep again.

She slept in her cot until 5am, which hasn’t happened for a while now.

New year with bffs! 😍😍

I made tangyuan for desserts lol.

We headed over to my mum’s place for dinner and beer.

It’s back to regular programming today.

Super sweaty after her walk with Ah-gong.

She took a long time to eat her lunch today.

When I finally allowed her to go off the high chair, she looked so happy.

I sat her down to put on her shoes for her while Ah-gong stood beside her.

She looked up at her Ah-gong with an up-to-no-good, cheeky and excited face.. and broke into a very sweet smile.

I wish I had a camera at that precise moment to capture her expression.

Her Ah-gong melted and picked her up.

She waved me goodbye and blew me a flying kiss gleefully as they stepped out of the door.

I gave her a quick shower and while I was putting her towels away, she reached for her toothbrush and started walking around while brushing her teeth?

Yes, at 1pm in the afternoon.

Learning shapes (like real).

I’ve probably reached a new level of exhaustion in the past 1.5 weeks but I’m glad to be able to spend time with the little ones and take care of them in my own way.

Meal times are getting quite stressful and unpredictable in the past few days with Allie almost always rejecting the first bite? Once she starts she’d usually be ok to continue eating but there have been times when she refuses to finish even half of the bowl of food. It makes me wonder if it is because she’s distracted or if the food tastes bad (when it tastes fine according to my taste buds).

So I’m kinda glad that the better cook (ie the helper) would be back soon, fingers crossed.

That said, I’m also glad I’d have less opportunities to find yet another messy/dirty spot in the house to pack/clean up.

I’m almost going to start cleaning all the kitchen shelves.

I’m going to miss spending 24/7 with this one.

I realise I haven’t been as diligent in writing about her developmental milestones.

Besides, erm, taking note of the start and end dates of her leaps. 🤣

2 days to turning 14 months young!

Words:

• Deh deh (Jie jie)
• Ah goom (Ah gong)
• Up! (She says this very accurately, when she sits up, stands up or when we sing twinkle twinkle little star, the part on “Up! Above the star so high”)
• Yas (Yes)
• Babababa (Not sure if she’s calling Daddy)
• Mamamama (Definitely not calling me)

Tricks (ok, abilities):

• When you tell her to “put your hand or xxx” on your head!” she’d gleefully put both her hands / the toy she’s holding onto her head
• Same with “saranghaeyo!”. Though her hands are too short to form a heart shape, so it looks like Trick #1
• She used to cry when she’s carried out of her bath tub, but these days I count to 10 and ask her to stand up. She’d happily say “Up!” and stand up in the bathtub to let me carry her out of it. No tears!
• Cringes or blows her nose when you ask her where her nose is
• Knows that “going out” = “shoes” = knowing where her shoes are kept. We were heading out yesterday and the hubs asked Clarissa to get her shoes. Allie rushed to walk in front of her sister to get to the shoe cabinet. And when Clarissa opened the shoe cabinet, Allie squeezed in front of her to take out her own shoes. 😆
• Sayangs her sister. Whenever she makes Clarissa cry / hurts her sister accidentally, I’ll ask her to say sorry and sayang her sister. She would walk over to her sister, say “Deh!” and give her sister a gentle pat on her head.
• Takes my hands into her hands and claps them. It’s also a cue for me to sing her the “if you are happy and you know it” song.
• Pretends to stir / cook food in a cup and eats it. Also tries to force imaginary food on a plastic toy fork into my mouth with a loud “Arrhhm!”
• Shakes her head and smiles cheekily when she thinks you’re asking her a trick question. “Do you like soccer?”, “Are you naughty?”, “Do you want to sleep?”.. are the questions she’d definitely shake her head in response.
• Says “Yas” to things she wants:

Lol she turned to look at the shoe cabinet when I asked her if she wanted to put on her shoes.

• Understands the word “Throw”:

• Pretends to rub her chest / tummy. She loves it when I rub the balm on her chest before bed time. 😊

Ok that’s all I can remember for now.

Now that I’ve written about it, it seems that she is able to do quite a lot.

I always worry about her being a little behind her sister, who can already call out body parts at 11 months young and recognise flash cards at the same age.

But all kids develop differently.

Allie certainly is more developed in her motor skills at the same age. She can pinch stickers off the wall with her thumb and index finger, climb up and down stairs.. and is in general more adept at climbing and walking.

She is also more unpredictable lol. We can’t read her as well as we read her sister. We try to set a routine for her, but she doesn’t always want to follow it. 😂

Sleep is definitely bad lah.

I got quite stressed feeding her this evening.

She wouldn’t take the first bite even though steamed egg with porridge is usually her favourite.

When she finally did (because I squeezed it through her mouth), she ate a few more mouthfuls and I accidentally gave her egg that was too hot. She cried in anger and refused to eat again.

I was literally sweating and developing a phobia of meal times (perhaps the same for her too fhl).

Luckily Jiejie ate well and finished her dinner quickly.

I got up to fix the internet so that they could watch Paw Patrol on Netflix. 😂

And while I was at it, Clarissa simply took the spoon and started feeding Allie. And Allie ate easily while watching me turn the switch on and off and on and off.

Eventually she even pulled her chair to sit in front of her to feed her as it took quite while for the Wi-Fi to start running properly.

“Allie, open your mouth. Ahhh.. See? Very nice right?” She’d say to her little sister. “Chew chew chew and swallow ok? Swallow already?”

I eventually took over the remaining few mouthfuls of egg porridge so Clarissa could watch her Paw Patrol.

So thankful for this little big sister.

She’s the thoughtful and sensitive one.

“Mummy, why are you not smiling?” She’d sometimes ask me, usually towards the end of the day.

“Because I’m very tired,” I’d tell her.

“Tired also can smile what!” She’d say and show me how to smile by lifting her lips into an exaggerated smile.

But when Allie does naughty things like standing on the sofa even after repeated nagging, she’d gently tell her sister to listen “because mummy is tired.”

Or she’d remind me not to say “go go shower” or “brush your teeth” in a dull voice but to say it in a happy voice, again with a demonstration by her which involves saying the same words but two pitches higher than usual and again with an exaggerated smile.

😊😊😊

Aye, all the exhaustion is worth it.