Sleep
Things were very good for a while…you were sleeping through the night without waking even once for milk, but that spell lasted all of maybe 2 weeks. Now, it’s de rigeur for you to wake up once and cry “Daddy, make milk..Daddy make milk”, upon which your Daddy will spring out of bed (he sometimes requires a nudge or two, or a bolster thrown at him before action is taken). I went out to make milk instead of him a few nights ago, just cos I was awake before him when you cried. You were Livid to find him next to you, and me out of the room, instead of the other way round, and wailed “DADDDY!” (I had thought, given the way you cling on to your Daddy in the day, that you were past the stage of clinging on to mama at night. But no.)
You love to pretend to want-to-sleep on “Mama’s pillow”, and will give me an evil laugh as I act surprised. When I pretend to be angry and approach you menacingly, you are so thrilled and shriek in delight.
Food
This is related to your sleep..you’ve gotten pickier and thus eats less..causing you to wake for milk, me suspect.
You do love yogurt so much though..you’ve gotten into a habit of requesting that every evening. Tonight, i thought it was too late for cold yogurt and asked if you wanted milk and bed instead. You threw yourself onto the floor, waved your hands and said NOOooooo… (Daddy who was preoccupied and not looking over, interpreted it as ‘now’ until i told him of your hand action.) Every night when I come home from work, you’ll surround me at the dinner table and go “o-gurt o-gurt o-gurt o-gurt” and give me the brightest grin as you follow me around while i dish it out.
Such a puppy. A determined puppy. There was once when you didn’t eat much of dinner, and demanded yogurt just before sleeping (after we had changed and you had your night milk feed). I refused, distracted you, relented and let you go out to have a little bit of bread (since that was less messy) and thought you were contented when you eventually slept. Imagine my shock when the first thing you said the next morning was “O-gurt, mama, o-gurt” –__—"
You love noodles and bread, are not so keen on rice / potatoes, and totally refuse porridge and gooey cereal. Haha. We have a difficult time feeding you, but you have started learning how to feed yourself so we leave you to it most of the time. You do a pretty good job of getting 80% to your mouth, before picking at the food with your fingers since it is more efficient that way for you. So fiercely independent, you reject any help offered, beating our hand away if we even try and help you hold the bowl nearer your mouth. =7
Play and actions
You have started ‘pretend play’. “meimei meow meow”, “meimei cat”, you’d go, before proceeding to give a long MEEEooow… and chuckling heartily when I woof back.
You like writing and holding pens, always clamouring to ‘Drawdraw, drawdraw” every time I pull the stationery box out for Christian. Popo has taught you the proper pencil grip and you sometimes remember to hold the pen correctly by yourself.
You still run like an “ah soh”, as my MIL calls it. Seeing you run never fails to make me laugh, no matter how tired I am. You swing/fling your arms by your side as you toddle and propel yourself forward. It’s almost as if your body is slower than your mind. Sometimes you thrust your chest forward as you run, in the hope that you’ll reach your target sooner =7
Generous with your kisses, you kiss pictures of cats, my cheek, my arm, the air around daddy, gonggong.. etc etc. It’s so lovely to be kissed by a little girl, a feeling of pure joy runs through me each time.
You looove hide and seek. We watched as Christian and you played hide and seek around the pillars at the ground floor yesterday. You saw your brother face the wall and count and when it was your turn, you covered your eyes too and went “one-two-three” before running as fast as your little legs could carry you.
Song and words
Dear Rae, you’ve taken to singing along to nursery rhymes too. You can fill in the blanks and love to sing and dance -
Raindrops keeps falling on my HEAD
Twinkle twinkle little star, how i wonder where you are.
Head, and shoulder knees and toes (you love this and will say “Song, song” when you want me to repeat").
Row row row your boat, gently down the stream…Merrily merrily merrily row, life is but a dream.
One of your favourite activities is to request that I turn on the children praise music and dance along to it, swaying your hands and hips and collapsing onto the bed with laughter.
Your vocabulary has also expanded rapidly..we are so proud that you are able to communicate rather well, and make your wants/needs understood. Even if you are unable to verbalise the exact thing it is you want, a few Q&As will normally draw out what it is you are trying to say.
You call your doll Emily in such a cute manner “Eh-mer-y”, you say.
“Elp me” and “look, mama look!” are common refrains these days too.
Growth
You’ve finally hit the 10kg mark and Popo can scarcely carry you now. My arms ached after a weekend of carrying you about, and i just noticed that almost all your canines are out. You have an almost full set of teeth, barring one missing lower canine on your right. ^_^ You love to brush your teeth..i give you a toothbrush for you to muck around, while using a finger brush to brush simultaneously. You will remind me at night, before sleeping, and when you wake up in the morning (making special effort to enunciate carefully so i understand you) - “Br-ush tee-eth, mama.”
There’s lots more about you, baby, but it’s impossible to capture everything about you in words. You have filled our lives with joy and much as it is tiring to always focus our attention on you, the rewards of your love is immeasurable.
We shall treasure this baby version of you, daughter, before you grow up, too quickly.
Such precious, magical moments we have.
Lots and lots of love from a most naggy and long-winded mama…
