Of being adventurous

Finally, I met her teachers during the Parent-Teacher-Meeting, my first one ever.
I'm glad to hear that Miss K is doing well and is rather advanced in her speech and motor skills.
I am now updated with all of Miss K's mischiefs, her social skills and the not-so-glamourous side of her when it comes to certain aspect of personal hygiene.

Miss K did not get a stellar report when it comes to being adventurous.

Here's what she did when they went to the fish pond. Note the distance between Miss K and the edge of the pond!

Refuse to play at the sandpit; would rather sit in her wagon and get friend to push!

Happy 22 months, Miss K!

This post has been sitting in my draft folder for 3 weeks!! Miss K will be 23 months in 12 days' time...I have no idea how I missed publishing this post!

My Potty Pooper's Potty Training

I am here to proudly announce that Miss K has now officially passed the potty poop test with an A+.
Hooray!

I have to say that when I started her off on potty training, I was not looking at a hardcore regime which includes potty "drills" recommended by several potty training expert sites.

Let me share my potty training experience...

Week 1
Introduced her to the potty (free potty which came with the baby cot, I didn't bother buying any fancy ones with handles, music, elevation etc) before her bathtime at 8pm. I spent about 5 minutes per day showing her the potty (minus weekends), sat on it to show her how it should be used & encourage her to sit on it. She refused for the first few days, but after a while, she could sit on the potty for about....10 seconds.

Week 2
If you have read my previous entry on potty training, you'll know about the potty books which I find incredibly helpful when it comes to potty training.
This is Miss K's favourite potty book, she loves this book so much I had to renew/borrow it 3 times!

Week 2's potty time is more like a "story time" before her bath time. The little one will always beam with joy when I declare "Its Potty Time" as she knows its story time. I encouraged her by asking her whether she will pee and poo like Lily does? She will always nod and said "YES" most of the time - but no poo, no pee....yet.

Week 3
Miraculously, she pooped!
The next day, as she sat on her potty, I did not pin my hopes on her being able to "deliver" what she did the day before...but she did!
And since her first ever potty poop, like clockwork, she delivers her "stuff" once a day, everynight, right before bath time.

It has been about a month now, and she still poops on schedule, well done, Miss K!

My 21 month old singing 'parrot'

i.e my little Princess.

30th of May marked Miss K's 21st Monthsary.

She is at the 'parroting' stage now and seems to be parroting everything we say, including words which (i think) she does not even know what they actually mean, e.g. promise, gather, problem.

I am starting to enjoy her singing :) Yes, she can sing bits and pieces of the kiddy songs I play in the car when we drive to work/childcare every morning. As of late, she has been listening to her favourite VegeTales CD which her 小 姨 gave her as her Christmas present last year.

Songs and chatter aside, she is now mummy's awesome helper; passing me hangers while I hang up the laundry, takes her clothes to the laundry basket after evey change, throws away her diaper in the bin and brings her milk bottle and place them on the kitchen top when asked to do so.

Alright, time for me to sit, relax and enjoy the music...

Favourite photo of the month!

First step to potty training...

...is to be a member of the National Library!
Finally, we brought Miss K to the library, and she now has a library card.

I had a slow start to potty training and the only thing I have achieved so far,was to successfully made her sit on her potty....for 10 seconds.

A colleague advised me to go get potty books, so that was what I did.

I was at Toa Payoh Library and was impressed at the amount of Baby Books available! Those who go to the library often to borrow books for your kids must be thinking that I'm really a suaku but seriously, I was impressed!

Alright, Miss K will have mummy reading her Potty Books when she does Potty Time this coming week!

My 20 month old Toddler

THEN.....and NOW.

Much has happened these past 20 months. Miss K has grown so much, not only physically (she is at the 95th percentile of height and weight) but also in other aspects such as speech and gross motor skills.

When I look back at her baby photos, I sometimes wish that she will not grow up so fast....but on the contrary, she is at this age where she has just discovered her independence, so much so that mummy is no longer needed when it comes to:

Putting on (and taking off) shoes
- mummy just need to say "go put your shoes on" and she does it to perfection. Recently am impressed that she could buckle her own shoe!

Feeding herself
- mummy can enjoy her meals while she feeds herself

Washing hands
- well trained from childcare, she washes her hands, (with mummy's and "the stool's" help) before meals

Sitting on sofa watching her favourite show
- mummy does not need to worry about her climbing up and down the sofa as she has mastered the skills of climbing

Rationalising
- Miss K can now understand and is able to reciprocate, thus, reducing mummy's frustration :)

For the past week, she has been obsessed with writing and drawing, and would always have a pen and a piece of paper in her hand.

Drawing lines -check!
Drawing circles -check!


I do not always follow the milestones at babycentre.com, but I just so happen to visit the site and the correlation is uncanny! If you have a 20 month old toddler, take a look at this site.

'Two thumbs up'

Gong Gong, I can finally do the two thumbs up sign! Hooray!
(was gong gong who first taught her this)

When one asks Miss K "how old are you?" she will stick out her index finger doing the 'one' sign (she could do this since 12 months, ok, ok, yes, it was me who insisted that she learns it, not a Tiger Mother in making, just thought it would be cute, ...well, she picked it up real fast then!)
Oh well, in 8 months' time, you would need to learn the "two" sign!

At least the 'thumbs up' sign which she mastered a week ago will not expire...haha!

This is Miss K's favourite toy for now...she loves the purple microphone as it actually works like a real mic! (middle picture)
Thanks to JieJie Andrea and Anya for this lovely toy! :)
Yup, two thumbs up ratings!

Left and Right: Miss K with her 'thumbs up' signs.
Middle: Her cheeky smile-until-can't-see eyes pose (taught by PaPa) tsk!!

16 months and a picky eater.

Definitely another milestone achieved.

She knows the names of ALL her classmates and Teachers (cannot pronounce but can point to face when I mention names, spot on 100% all the time!) . She knows every single lyrics to all the songs sung in class (also cannot read but will go to the right lyrics pasted on the wall). Her teacher is very impressed with her progress. Mummy too :)

Lately, am most impressed by her saying "please" (more like peeesh) when she wants something from me....and last evening when I picked her up from infant care, her teacher said she can now say 'excuse me'! That is new! I haven't heard that for myself yet!


On another note, mealtime war has officially begun! She has been refusing dinner for the past 2 nights, actually since out trip to Kuching last week. Consequences of not having dinner? Waking up at 3am for milk. *sigh*

Am telling myself its a passing phase, it will end....hopefully soon!

This is a collage I made while in Kuching; Flo if you are reading this, your niece loves your Pikachu!

Miss K and Pikachu!

15 months & MMR

Decided to give Miss K just the MMR vaccine on its own without the chicken pox vaccine.

Miss K has all her jabs at the polyclinic and I'm very happy with their service so far - very prompt, needn't wait for ages (which we normally have to when we go and see her PD for 'difficult cases') and the nurses are all very friendly and professional.

This morning we waited only 10 minutes and it was our turn! The MMR was given on her left arm. All along she has had jabs on her thighs(?)...but she took the jab pretty well, only cried for say, 30 seconds? :)

Miss K's stats as of 15 months, 4 days:

Height: 79.5cm (>75%, just slightly shy of 90%)
Weight: 10.75kg ( >90%)
Head circ: 46cm (slightly >50%)
She has a small head *sigh*

She is still in her 'cleaning lady' mode...and I thought she has grown out of it after she stopped cleaning tables while we dine out....Here's Miss K happily cleaning "seats" at the polyclinic while waiting for the nurse to check on her injection site.

This is the way I brush my teeth, I brush my teeth, I brush my teeth...

This is the way Miss Kbrushes her teeth every night.
I started Miss K on a tooth brushing regime since she sprouted her second tooth at 9 months old.
(Started with the finger brush from Earth's Best)

At 1 yr old, when Miss K's 8th tooth appeared, I upgraded her to using the intermediate tooth brush from tommy tippee (not the one with bristles yet), with a dab of the banana and strawberry toothpaste from earth's best.

This is our night routine:

Me:  shall we go bathe and brush teeth?

Miss K: *immediately stops whatever she is doing, do the 'brushing teeth' action and walks directly to our bathroom*

Me: Alright, shall we take off your clothes first?

Miss K: *shakes head and points to her toothbrush*

Me: *yanks her top off and put her on her stool, and immediately pass her her toothbrush*

Miss K: *BIG grin*

She 'brushes' her teeth while i bathe her....keeps her occupied:

14 months; and the remaining holiday snaps.

Miss K is 14 months and she can walk very steadily now. Only started her first few independent steps while we were in Germany beginning of October.

When we tell her "go put on your shoes, we are going out".
She will happily go and select her shoes from her shoe rack, ask me to put them on, then stand up, go to the baby gate that blocks the kitchen and waves bye-bye to our westie.....then proceeds to the door!

A few interesting snaps from our October 2010 trip to Germany and UK. I love this wooden rocking horse at 'dm' (dm is something like watsons; a drugstore) in Munich. Am assuming it was stocking time, hence the large cart full of stuff in the background...

Rocking horse at 'dm'

while in the UK, I discovered Plum Organics...they have a wide range of snacks and baby food. Kate loves the blueberry, banana and vanilla smoothie, anyone coming back from the UK, mind helping me get some of those? :)

oh, this is her corn ring snack.

Those black cabs (has never been on one in Spore) are huge! I remembered my whole room could go into one black cab during Uni days...Whenever we get a cab in UK, the whole stroller+Miss K goes in, apparently its safer this way:

Will be short posts from now on until November ends....busy, busy, busy.