33 months

We spent 2 weeks in New Zealand with Jing's mom and sis. Meera had a willing audience the whole time and I think she had a really good time there. It was very tiring but she did great. There was a lot of walking and we didn't bring our stroller (only the child carrier). I was surprised at how much she was able to walk. But by the end of the trip could see she was really tired cos after 1o minutes of walking she wanted to be carried. We had long hours in the car almost daily but she was a real trooper. No fuss and when she got tired she just slept in the car. Every night bedtime was usually 11 or later and we usually woke up before 8 am. She was definitely not getting enough sleep but somehow she was not terribly cranky. It was a lot better than our Tasmania trip last year. Most nights she just slept through in her Kinderkot. There were a few nights where she had trouble sleeping but usually we just had to pat her a bit and she's sleep back. Nothing like the last time when there were nights none of us slept! It was only towards the end part of the trip that I could actually see her getting a bit cranky.

After we got home though she seemed to be sleeping earlier than usual and not taking as long as before to actually fall asleep. I would put her down for her nap like 2 pm and in 10 minutes she was asleep. Night time also she was asleep by 10pm. This lasted for like 4 days before it went back to normal (taking a long time to sleep!) It got so bad that we were going in to scold her a few times before she actually slept. She also started calling out to us for various reasons (but I think it was just stalling tactics).

One night she kept stalling to go to bed until it got really late and I guess she got over tired. So there was a huge tantrum with a lot of crying and screaming. The next morning we talked about it and I told her she needs to start behaving herself and going to sleep properly without all this fuss. Miraculously she started to comply. For the past week, when it's time to sleep I just sing one song and after that she doesn't talk (before we could here all sorts of things thru the monitor but now its quiet. I can still hear her rolling around but no more talking) It still takes her a while to fall asleep but hopefully that improves over time.) When she wakes up also she is quiet until I ring the bell. Not like last time where she'll be singing or calling out. So now in the morning it's not so clear what time she wakes up. Lately it's been quite late cos I think she's still a bit tired but we're slowly getting there.

Here schedule for right now:

8.30 am : Wake up. I'll usually go in about 15 minutes later (seems like she needs some time to laze around in her bed before getting up).

9.00 am: Change, drink milk and have breakfast (fruit and yogurt). After this we either go out, run errands or stay home and do tot school (we are up to letter F only)

12.30pm: Lunch. She's doing really well feeding herself. But usually takes around 45 minutes to finish

2.00 pm: Nap (but usually only falls asleep around 3pm)

5.00pm: Wake up (lately it's a bit later)

6.30pm: Dinner

7.30pm: Bath. We usually have some fruit after this.

9.00pm: Get ready for bed. Drink milk, story, brush teeth then bed

Right now I'm only giving her milk 2 times a day. Whenever she wakes up early from her nap I give her a snack.
Also not sure if I've mentioned this before but potty training is going quite well. I only use pull-ups when we go for really long drives or if I know it's going to be inconvenient to go to the toilet. She's also quite good at holding her pee if there's no toilet for quite a while. Pooping is also much better now (not so many false alarms) and it nowadays takes place during her waking hours. It's still not as regular or soft as I'd like but it's improving.

Christmas: she was much better with Santa this year. We went to the Myer in CBD and she actually sat on his lap for pictures. Initially she was a bit hesitant but after a bit of convincing she was ok. After that we had a Santa come to playgroup and she was fine with it. We also put presents under our Christmas tree and she patiently (somewhat) waited to open them on Christmas Day. On Christmas morning, the first thing she tells me when I open her door is "can open present now?!". Guess she got the concept ;)

She's started trying to write alphabets. Here she is writing M:

The end of our 'holiday'

Today Jing got news that we would be going home in March. As sad as I am about the news a part of me also feels excited to be going home. Ready to start a new chapter in our life...

32 months

Not sure when it happened but over the past month her two bottom molars have started to come out. We usually brush her teeth once a day (at night) so I noticed it then.

Sleeping is still quite good. She still wakes up occasionally but not as often as last time. Hopefully it improves over time.
She developed a slight cold during this month. Nothing too serious. I think it may actually be allergies so it looks like she's inherited Jing's sensitive nose. Luckily it didn't bother her too much.

I've started to change her routine a bit. Instead of giving her milk before her nap I've started to give it to her after the nap. I told her that if she drinks it after the nap she can have cold milk so she seems quite happy with that idea and will tell me she'll wait for the milk to get cold and sleep first. I plan to stop the afternoon feed and give her a snack instead. So far so good. She doesn't seem to associate the milk with nap time so no issues there. However, I also no longer read her a story either. So nowadays I just say it's nap time, put on her diaper and put her to bed. She still takes a long time to actually sleep though. Anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour. Sometimes she'll only fall asleep close to 4 pm! I've decided that what ever time she sleeps I will wake her up by 5.30pm cos otherwise her bedtime gets disrupted as well.

As for other developments, she can sing ABC almost perfect (everything except letter N). she also singing a lot of songs and can follow a tune quite well. She sang happy birthday to grandma. (I just sang it to her a few times before that and she was able to follow along quite easily). I've also stooped using a bib at home and she;s managing to eat quite neatly. Hardly ever spills food on her clothes. I think the bib was actually a hindrance cos it got in the way sometimes making it difficult to put her mouth closer to the bowl. I should have stopped using it earlier.

This month was quite a busy one for us. Preparing for our trip to New Zealand. Meera's Ah Ma and Xiau Ku came to Melbourne on the 21st. And we were quite busy taking them around. As usual Meera was quite the entertainer. No hesitation with meeting her Xiau Ku who also brought a mike as a gift for Meera. She was quite excited with her new toy and was always using it to sing to her 'audience'.

31 months

Sleeping has been improving. Ever since we left a night light on (8.10.2011) we've had quite a few days where she has slept through. I have a feeling it has something to do with her waking at night and not being able to find Gigi in the dark so she cries. Now with the light, she can see and maybe that helps. Of course I'm just guessing. She still wakes up a few nights in a week but hopefully this improves with time. If the light really helps it's going to be a great relief. Can't believe it took us so many months to sort it out. Initially I jut thought it would go a way by itself and after that I was at a loss to solve it. After reading countless blogs and websites, I finally got this suggestion from my dad! Such a simple solution that I guess I never thought it would work! Just goes to show that sometimes I need to listen to my parents. Ha!

Recently she has taken an interest in writing. The other day she actually picked up a pencil and drew 10 and told me it's 10! I was quite surprised. So far she can draw lines and circles so I guess 10 is easy for her. She's also getting better at identifying numbers. One morning we were all lazing in bed and she saw the clock and said ' short hand pointing to eight and long hand pointing to 3!'

Early in the month, my uncle and aunt came with Syuen. It was nice to see Meera have a playmate for a few days. Although Syuen is almost 4 they had quite a good time with each other. I also noticed that after the visit, Meera was always trying to do things the way Syuen did it. And she will always say 'like Swen Syuen do...'. I used this to my advantage to get her to drink all her milk while standing near the kitchen counter. So nowadays, it's milk first then story after. And she will usually drink up within 5 minutes or so. So that's a marked improvement.

We also celebrated Deepavali during this time. This year decided to go to the temple. So after Jing got home from work we drove about 45 minutes to the temple. Meera was really excited with all the goings on and she was quite happy to clasp her hands and pray. She also enjoyed taking the blessings (ash, etc) from the priest.

2 1/2 years old!

Still having sleep issues. Her naps have improved somewhat. Realised that if she talks a lot I need to go in and remind her to sleep. Usually after 1 or 2 times she will sleep. I used to think it was better to just leave her alone but it got to a point where she was talking for 1-2 hours before sleeping. So now, if after 10 minutes I still hear a lot of talking I go in and then again after another 10 minutes so usually she will be asleep within half an hour of being put to bed. I also tell her that if she doesn't go to sleep quickly we won't have time to go to the playground ;)
Of course there are also the days where she still needs to 'kaka' after I put her down but typically it doesn't bother the nap too much.

She still wakes up in the middle of the night. Every night. I have yet to figure out why but so far the solution is just to go down and tuck her in and she will seep back. It's not bad but it's not ideal either. Looking back at my posts I realise this has been going on for almost 5 months! Not sure if it's become a habit or what?!

She can count to 12 now. Can recognize 1,2,4,7 (sometimes confused with 1),9,0. 8 gets confused with B, 3 and 5 gets mixed up.

I forgot to mention that last month we were at a playground and Meera almost fell of a slide. Ever since then she refuses to sit on a slide. I've been trying to get her on smaller ones to boost her confidence. Now that spring is here it gets darker a bit later so I've started taking her to the nearby playground. Initially she refused to sit on the slide but after a few days she was fine again. On that note, I should also mention that she doesn't really enjoy things that go fast. She doesn't like the swing, she hated tobogganing....Guess she's not a thrill seeker.

We had a lot of visitors this month. My in-laws and my brother came over for about a week. And Meera was quite good with all the disruptions to her schedule. We also stayed a night at Phillip Island. Prior to this she was quite excited about going to stay in a hotel (we kept telling her that she had to sleep in her Kinderkot). I was quite expecting her to have trouble settling in on that night but she did quite well. She only woke once (cos she had to go to 'kaka') and other than that slept quite well. I could see she was quite exhausted with all the stuff going on but she managed to stay awake for most of the stuff we did and sleep in the car.

I've also started giving her all her milk in a cup (goodbye bottles!). I usually sit with her on the couch in the afternoon and night ones and we read 2 stories (1 while she drinks and another after she's done). She usually finishes quite quickly without much dawdling. The only times she takes the bottle is if we're out the whole day and she needs to drink while we're in the car or stroller. Not quite sure how to sort that out...

29 months!

A lot of things to report. Maybe because I've started tot school, she has progressed faster or maybe I just observe more things because of it. Her vocabulary continues to amaze me. Sometimes she says things which I don't even know where/ when she picked it up. But it definitely drills in the fact that a child's mind is really like a sponge. Need to be more careful of what I say in front of her. A few things which she says:
- Don't open mine button.
- What's that something there?
- Meera go shopping too (still can't say her name properly though)
- This not yours, is mine


Lately she's also started throwing more tantrums. Nothing too serious, but every once in a while when things don't go her way, she loses it. I can practically see all her emotions on her face. For a fleeting moment I can see she's trying to express herself verbally but I think the emotions just get the better of her and she'll start crying (most times this turns into full blown screams. And boy can she scream!) Mostly she's very even -tempered and easy to reason with. But every once in a while she'll get so upset, I don't think she can even hear what we say to her. It usually last a few minutes and after that she's fine.

I taught her to take deep breaths when she's very upset (I always say 'Breathe...breathe' and now when she gets upset over something she'll sometimes tell me, 'Mommy...breathe' LOL! I really think it helps her to focus her energy on something instead of just screaming. I came across this idea from Dr. Harvey Karp's 'Happiest Toddler on the Block' and I think his book has really helped me deal with and more importantly understand Meera at this age.

Sleeping issues have slightly sorted itself out. Realised it's been a while since I put up any schedule for her, so here's the latest:

8:00 am Wake up, usually sings to herself until I ring the bell. Nowadays she says 'Good Morning Mommy!' when I open the door. Then gives me a 'hug, kiss and buddy-buddy (started by Jing along time ago.) After that I change her and give her milk. Right now milk is always in a cup in the morning which sometimes she finishes in 15 minutes and sometimes can drag past half an hour. After which she 'll help me to clear out the cutlery (minus the knives) from the dishwasher basket.
9:30 am Breakfast. (she'll watch Playschool) Usually it's Weet-bix (fast and nutritious) with a bit of milk. Sometimes she takes yogurt with some muesli or toast
After breakfast it all depends on the day of the week. Generally Monday (grocery), Tuesday and Wednesday (playgroup), Thursday (Mini Maestro) and Friday (we usually stay at home and I do Tot School). Weekends are a bit more unpredictable.
1:00 pm: Lunch (another round of Playschool). then I have lunch and try to do a bit of Tot School .
2.30 pm Milk then nap (lately she's been taking quite a while to fall asleep but is usually up by 5.30pm)
6.30pm Dinner
7.30 pm Bath (for the past few months we have been watching Masterchef. So usually after her bath I cut some fruit and we have that while watching Masterchef. Sadly it has ended so now we just watch something on TV)
9.30 pm Milk then bed. Usually quiet by 10.30pm.

It's almost the end of winter so it's getting brighter a lot earlier now. So Meera sometimes wakes earlier too (as early as 7 am sometimes!) Also she seems to wake in the middle of the night crying quite often (like 4 days in a week). I usually just go in and comfort her and she goes back to sleep. I think she's having nightmares...but so often? I even used to tell her this and now when she's crying she'll tell me 'bad dream'. Hmm.....

28 months and we have sleep issues!

This month has a bit of a challenge in terms of her schedule. For a few weeks, I noticed that it takes her a really long time to fall asleep. She'll play in her bed for like an hour or more before she sleeps off. Most of the time I have to go in and remind her it's bedtime (I usually wait for 30 minutes or so before going in and sometimes this happens 2 or 3 times before she will finally go to sleep). This means that there have been days where she only sleeps close to 11 pm (we usually put her down around 9.30pm). Because she takes so long to sleep she'll wake up late the next day (as late as 9.30am) and then the whole day is affected. When I put her down for her nap around 2.30pm, she will take ages to sleep as well. Over a few days her schedule has been altered so that most days she wakes around 9 and naps close to 4.30pm. I usually wake her around 6pm so her bedtime doesn't get too disrupted. But overall, everything is all over the place. I'm trying to slowly bring it back to a more reasonable time but so far it's been hit and miss.

I read that over-tiredness may be the reason she takes so long to sleep so I tried putting her down for her nap earlier (like 2 pm) to see how it goes....didn't work. I' m wondering if maybe she's not tired enough. Now that it's winter, we don't really go out much (even playgroup takes place indoors so she doesn't get much physical activity). Sigh....so confusing. Also she's been having a lot of night wakings recently. Usually once (sometimes twice every night). It's usually around 4 a.m. (the second time is usually closer to 7am). I usually have to go down and tell her to lie down again. Which she does and usually she goes back to sleep pretty quickly. I can't figure out why she wakes up (dreams maybe?).

Other than that, things are going pretty well. I've been doing tot school with her for the past few weeks. Still not very consistent, but I try to do it at least a few minutes daily. I realise if I don't have too high expectations it's possible to do at least 1 activity a day. So far we've done some gluing (which she did very neatly), cutting with scissors and a lot of letter recognitions. I'll try to put up weekly post of what goes on during these sessions once they're a bit more organized. But for now I can really see it helps. Having this structure helps me to expose her to a lot more stuff than what is normally available in our day. Things like colours, shapes, vocabulary and fine-motor activities are much easier to expand on with this. There's a whole load of websites with moms putting up activities for toddlers so the ideas are endless.



I notice she knows most of her alphabets already, she mixes up a few of them: like b and d, p and q, k and x, v and y but overall she knows most of the uppercase and lowercase letters. She refers to them as big and little (thanks to Dr. Seuss' ABC book). She's also started singing Baa Baa Black sheep. Almost all the words except a few left out. And a part of the ABC song, it gets a bit muddled after 'L'.

On the eating front, her appetite seems to have decreased. I notice that most meals she only eats about 4 oz compared to her previous 6 oz. of food (I actually weigh her food out since I'm so bad at portioning.) She used to eat about 1 oz. meat, 2 oz. veg, and 3 oz rice. But nowadays she struggles to finish. I'm trying not to get stressed out over it and just let her eat what she wants but every once in a while I'll forget and try to cajole/ force her to eat more. I really need to relax on this. A lot of resources (what I mean is internet, of course) seem to suggest that a child's portion is roughly a tablespoon for each age. So in Meera's case it would be something like 2 tablespoons each of rice, veg and meat (give and take). Going by that, she is definitely eating enough. So I need to chill and not force her to finish her food. Sigh...easier said than done!

As for potty training, things are going great. We've even a few days where we go out and she uses the toilets the whole time. Of course I am not 100% confident so I wear pull-ups just in case. But she will tell me when she needs to go and so far has been able to hold it long enough for us to get to a toilet (peeing and pooping!).

27 months

This is going to be a short post. Mostly because I feel like there's nothing much to report. Not because Meera hasn't progressed but rather its just more of the same things. More talking especially. She's also able to eat quite neatly nowadays. So I no longer wear a bib for her when we eat out. At home though she still rather get fed. I think I stressed the neat factor too much and she thinks it's neater if I feed her ( she even told me once that 'Meera feed self messy'). I figure since she's okay to eat by herself when we're out I'll continue to feed her at home (especially since it's a lot faster).

Potty training is going well. She never poops in her diaper (unless it's an emergency). I tried to get her to poop when she wakes in the morning but so far that has not been happening. Most of the time she does it during her nap time (after milk I usually try to get her to poop before I wear her diapers but strangely she can't do it then.) After she lies down in bed she will suddenly feel the need and I will have to take her out again to the toilet. Sigh.... Not sure what to do about this. Is it her way of delaying nap time or maybe it's like a routine for her?

I've started to do a bit of 'tot school' with her again but still not very regular. I realise she knows most of the colors and also alphabets! She can even differentiate lower case and uppercase letters. I shall try to get this to be a regular part of our day at least for the most part of the week.

I don't know if I'm being biased but I think Meera is quite a well-behaved child. She seems to be quite in control of her emotions and hardly ever has tantrums. I think a lot of it has to do with our expectations and how we communicate with her. Lately she seems to have picked up on the idea that if she a 'good girl' she can get to do lots of things like 'go roadtrip', 'go swimming', etc... So nowadays all I need to say is 'Are you being a good girl?' and she will immediately comply. Sometimes when she knows she's done something wrong she will plead to us that she's been a good girl. I think she's worried all the fun times will end if she's not a good girl! I must say it's been quite effective in getting her to follow instructions and be a 'good girl'.

Her sleeping has been a bit disrupted lately. Not sure if it has anything to do with potty training. She wakes up in the middle of the night saying she needs to 'kaka'. Initially I thought she had really had to go so I would take her to the toilet. Most times she peed but that was it. I guess she's still trying to work it all out.

Potty training..again

Potty training Meera was something that I had been dreading for quite a while. I had no idea how to go about it or even when to start. After a bit of reading up I was quite prepared for it and the peeing part was accomplished quite easily (in retrospect) but at the time it seemed like it hell ;)

The pooping part was quite difficult though. For some reason she was never comfortable pooping in the potty. I tried to tell her to poop in the toilet but she just kept insisting she needed to stand and 'kaka'. Sigh...So much so that it became a habit for her to poop just before her nap (when I would put her in diapers). Which was ridiculous because after her milk I would put a clean diaper on and she would immediately poop in it and then I'd have to change her again and put her to bed! So whenever this happened (which was pretty much every time) I would feel so frustrated. It was either that or she'd poop after I left and then not sleep till I changed the diaper. Arghh!

I'd read a lot on this and apparently it's hard for the child to come to terms with the whole toilet thing especially since all they've ever known is the diaper. She had done it a few times in the toilet but it was never consistent. I was getting to the point of just not bothering about it.

But a few days ago (Thursday - 16 June), I think she had to poop a lot earlier than her nap time so she kept saying she wanted to poop and I'd take her to the toilet but somehow she just couldn't get it out. So every time I put her on the toilet she tried but nothing happened. On this day when it came to nap time I told her that she musn't poop in the diaper and to call me if she needed to. I was very firm and just kept repeating it to her over and over as I put her to bed. A few minutes after I left her I heard her say 'Mommy???...kaka'. I went in fully expecting her to have already done the deed in her diapers (as she quite often did) but there was nothing! So I asked her if she wanted to go to the toilet and she said yes! We went and she did it! I was so amazed. Of course after that I had to give her a chocolate (cos I was always trying to bribe her with that) so that day she only had her nap like at 4.30! I was so pleased but then after her nap I found she had pooped a bit in her diaper (so the toilet part was not 100% complete).

The next day (Friday), I tried the same thing but she took her nap without pooping. As usual we go to Chadstone on Fridays, so I just kept reminding her not to poop in her diapers and so when we came home that night she actually pooped in the toilet.

Saturday - I decided not to go out and try to get her to poop in the toilet again. She went down for her nap and during that time kept asking to 'kaka'. After 3 attempts she finally did it. Then at night, she went again. So twice in a day.
Sunday - So it's been 5 days now and she has continued to use the toilet. It's been a bit trying though cos sometimes I have to sit with her for ages in the toilet. But over time I can see she's getting more comfortable with the idea. Initially I could tell she was really troubled with actually letting go in the toilet. She was really trying to get used to the whole concept and over the past few days she is slowly starting to accept it. A couple of times she will tell me she wants to kaka but when we go to the toilet nothing happens. I just try to keep positive and not let my irritation show (really tough) but I just encourage her and keep telling her good girl etc..
Today she did it just before going to sleep and when she asked for chocolate I just said that since she already brushed her teeth she'd get it tomorrow and she accepted it. It never fails to surprise me whenever she accepts my reasoning. I am always preparing for her to get upset and it's a wonderful surprise when she doesn't.

26 months...together with 25 months ;)

I kept postponing this post and suddenly Meera is 26 months old! So this is going to represent the last 2 months. My parents were here from Meera's second birthday for almost a month so there was a lot of things going on (excuse, I know). We were really busy everyday...going out and stuff. It was good for Meera since she got to interact with her grandparents. She had no trouble warming up to them...from the minute we picked them up at the airport she was all chummy with them. I notice she is very friendly with anyone that is willing to give her the time of day. A real attention seeker. Her schedule was pretty off during that time but over all she did quite well.

Her swimming lessons have ended. Towards the end her sleeping wasn't disrupted anymore. I think it helped that we didn't let her get too exited in the pool. Of course I can't really say for sure if that was the solution but whatever it is I was relieved when Saturday nights were no longer a problem for us :)

After my parents went back to Malaysia we went to Sydney for 5 nights. Stayed in the city and explored thoroughly. Unlike Tasmania we stayed in the same hotel for the entire trip. The first night Meera had trouble sleeping and finally Jing slept with her on his chest. But after that she was fine. We had a lot of late nights (past 10.30 p.m) but she would still wake up at 8 (or earlier) I think she has a fantastic internal clock! I don't know why we settled on 8 o'clock but we always tell her (when we put her to bed) that it's time to sleep and she needs to sleep till 8 o'clock. So much so that she has no trouble telling us what time she wakes up everyday! (even if she woke up early she'll always say she woke up at 8!)

Right now her typical schedule is:

8 a.m (or thereabouts). Wake up, change, have milk (105 ml water with 3 scoops milk)
9.30. a.m. Breakfast (used to be Weetbix everyday but my mom pointed out it's quite boring so now I alternate with toast and yogurt)
12.30 : lunch
2.30 pm: Milk (140 ml with 4 scoops) then nap
5 pm: wake up
6.30pm: dinner
9pm milk then bed

There's been a few changes recently. For the past 2 weeks I've started to give her milk in the morning with a cup. It's been a really slow progress but she's getting used to it. Only thing is it takes her like half an hour to finish (as opposed to her previously finishing it within 5 minutes with the bottle) so now breakfast tends to be a lot later (sometimes it's only done by 11am!).

Also for the past few days she is finally pooping in the toilet! This has been quite tough for her to master and I'll go into detail in another post. But suffice to say I no longer worry that she's gonna be the only kid wearing diapers to school. Haha!

Her communication skills have really improved. Jing taught her how to ask for things in a polite way that is to say 'Can I have *insert noun* please?' and she caught on quite quickly. She even starting improvising on that so sometimes we get requests like 'Can I have read book please?' or some such thing.

She's also asserting her independence in a lot of things now. She will climb up into her car seat by herself, sit on her stroller, and a whole host of other things. Strangely though she no longer wants to feed herself. On the one hand I much rather feed her since it's faster (and a lot neater) but I also think it's important she does it herself. I don't make a big deal of it though cos she still eats by herself when we go out. And she's a lot better at wielding her fork and spoons now.

Her memory is also quite good now (as far as getting what's owed to her anyways). So we can no longer try to bribe her with something and hope she'll forget about it.

Meera has truly embraced the Aussie coffee culture. I don't think you can get babycinos anywhere else! Nowadays whenever we have coffee we most likely need to order a cup for her too.

Turning 2!

Another year has gone by. I can hardly find the words to describe the feelings I have. Part of me feels relieved I have an older child to deal with. In some ways I worry less but at the same time different worries crop up. Used to be I was worried about things like whether she was eating enough or whether she was hitting all her milestones on time. Now I worry about whether she's going to grow into the person I want her to be. Some one who is liked and respected but still true to herself. I guess it's a natural part of parenting. Now that all the basics are ironed out we need to move on to other things.

I read a book the other day by Tracy Hogg. She says that all babies can be categorised into a few types. After doing her quiz I realised that Meera is an 'angel' baby. *beam* And sometimes I really feel she is one. Overall she has been such an easy going baby.

Having said that I can also see the 'terrible twos' ahead of us. Lately she wants to do everything herself. I get a lot of "MeeNee!!!" (she still can't say her name properly but has no problem saying 'Loges' and Jing) and "self!!!" And God help us if I do it before she gets a chance to! Every day is like a constant battle. Some days I am just about ready to lose my temper. It's a good thing she still takes her afternoon nap so I can calm down a bit before the second part of the day.

But I think I rather enjoy this age compared to when she was younger. It's a lot more interesting (at least she can talk) and far more amusing. She loves attention and knows how to get it.

Schedule wise nothing much has changed. Potty training has not really progressed. Although she did manage to poop once in the toilet. But that was it. She went back to pooping in her diaper after that. :(

Lately I realised she can recite a number of nursery rhymes. Not the whole thing but if I start it of she can usually fill in the last word of each line. Like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Little Miss Muffet, Jack and Jill (her favorite), Humpty Dumpty just to name a few. Must remember to video this soon. She's also quite quite good with her colours and shapes. And she can count to 3 now (she can say all the 10 numbers but not in the right order).

My KitchenAid

After much extensive deliberation I am the proud owner of a KitchenAid mixer. *beam* I've been wanting one for ages (back in Malaysia it was so expensive...more than RM2000) But now that I'm in Australia, $619 doesn't sound so bad. Of course it's still ridiculously expensive if you consider that it only costs like $250 in the US! But better 619 than 2000. Psychologically it feels a lot cheaper if I don't convert to Malaysian ringgit...so I won't. ;)

I almost went with a Breville mixer as it was like $200 cheaper but if I were to buy that one, then every time I looked at it in my kitchen I would be thinking of the KitchenAid. And besides practically every cooking blog I follow (and not to mention Nigella) has a KitchenAid. So they all can't be wrong, right?

Plus the fact that David Jones was willing to let me have it for $619 (they price match their items and the sales guy seemed to think Peters of Kensington was selling it for $619. Although when I checked it was actually $632)... and he even threw in a box of KitchenAid Kitchen Utensils! Who can resist a deal like that!

Since purchasing it on Saturday, I have made a Madeira cake (from Nigella's recipe) which turned out perfectly but didn't taste all that great (not my kind of cake) and I also made a focaccia. I have great plans for this machine and hopefully they all pan out.

23 months!

Not much has changed and yet I can see so many differences. Sometimes because I spend so much time with Meera I miss out on how much she has changed with each passing day but then when I look back at photos or videos I realise just how much she has grown.

Meera understands so much more now. She started saying 3 word sentences (mommy long hair). Mostly observations. Very rarely though, so whenever it happens I take note :)

She can recognize a lot of the alphabet. Mostly she can say the sound (phonetic) of the letter (thanks to the Leapfrog DVD). I also use this education web site to show her letters which really gets her attention. She can definitely recognize a,b,c,d,e (which she sometimes confuses with f), h, k, l,m,o,p,q,t and z.

Her color recognition is also getting better. Yellow, red, orange, blue, purple, green and pink. I'm trying to work on white, black and brown. She can also recognize shapes. The other day we were playing with one of her puzzles and she identified 'oval'! She's also getting more interested in puzzles. And lately I let her play with her big container of dolls - she'll take them out, talk to them and stuff and after she's done put them back in. Mostly she just likes to identify each one by name. I don't see much role playing other than the occasional kissing each other bit.

Potty training has been successful. I still put her in diapers when we go out and during sleep time. And she still poops in her diapers.

Sleeping is going well. Other than the Saturday nights which I have yet to figure out. Maybe she's too tired? or maybe it really is the swimming? Naps are good. Sometimes as long as 3 hours. Usually takes her about 15-30 minutes to sleep off. There were a few days where she seemed to take a long time to nap (she even got down from her bed on one of those days) but over all no issues.

Current schedule

8.00 am Wake up
8.30 am milk (3 scoops,105ml water
9.00 am breakfast (1 scoop with water added to Weetbix and strawberry)
12.00pm lunch
2.00 pm milk (4 scoops), nap (usually for 2-3 hours)
5.00 pm wake up
6.00 pm dinner
7.30 pm bath (Jing usually bathes her)
9.00 pm milk (4 scoops) then to bed. Usually asleep by 9.30pm

I'm not sure if this is an objective observation (maybe I'm just getting bored) but lately she seems to take a really long time to eat...around 30 minutes or longer and she seems to eat less than before (or maybe I'm giving her more now?). I remember a few months ago she would even have a tub of yogurt for snack time but even that doesn't happen anymore. I try not to let this worry me since she seems to be growing well (in fact she's quite tall for her age.)

I guess I shouldn't really complain. I've heard some kids are a lot worse but I'm so used to her eating a lot...

Is it the swimming???

I just wanted to note down somewhere that Meera seems to have trouble sleeping after swimming class. Every Saturday (for the past 4 weeks) Jing takes her swimming at Clayton and it seems like every Saturday night her sleep (and ours) is disturbed. Just want to jot down the day as a note to myself

8 am wake up, milk then breakfast (done by 9.20 am)
10 am swim class (30 minutes)
come home bathe and we go out
spend the day in Southland Shopping Mall (she didn't nap in the stroller)
5.30 pm drive home (she sleeps for 15 minutes in the car)
6.30 pm dinner (BBQ - sausages, toast and corn)
9 pm put to bed (sleeps off by 9.15pm)
1.30 wake up crying only goes back to sleep around 3 am (after a lot of rocking, singing and patting from both me and Jing)
4.30 am cry but slept back herself
8.45 wake up

Needless to say it was an exhausting night for all 3 of us! I can only guess that it's the swimming...

Fast asleep...

Just to prove me wrong...today Meera was asleep within 5 minutes of lying down for her nap. Hmm....maybe my timing needs tweaking. Today she woke up about 7 am and I put her down at 2.15 pm. By 2.20 pm...silence!

Still awake!

It's 3 p.m. Meera was put to bed at 2 and I can still hear her singing and playing in her crib! Arghhhh...don't tell me she's ready to give up her nap!

Yum!

The tiramisu is great! We had it last night for dinner and I'm having another slice for tea...tastes even better after 24 hours. :)

Valentine's Day

Today...I made my first Tiramisu. It's chilling in the fridge but boy does it look good :)

'Bak Kwa' tradition

Went to Glen Waverley today and had Bak Kwa...another Chinese New Year tradition. Except this year we had 1 slice each (at $3 a slice what do you expect?!)

1 sentence = 2 words

Meera said a 2 word sentence today....Daddy carry.

A very short week

Can't believe it's Friday. Jing was off till Wednesday so this week has gone by in a flash!

Another oops!

Just like that I missed another day. This daily blogging thing is starting to show mejust how fast time flies. Need to do better. Jing's parents left yesterday. And so marks the end of all Chinese New Year feeling. We had our own 'Loh Sang' at night (thanks to Ling for bringing it over).

Today, Meera started her first Mini Maestro Class. I think she had a really good time.

Oops....

Well looks like the daily journal didn't quite make it. Missed 2 days..just shows how busy it was. Went to Chinatown (to experience the 'Chinese New Year' feeling there and yesterday...Mornington Peninsula. Today Ling and Derek are down so we have a bigger family reunion in Melbourne. :)

Chinese New Year feeling...

Jing's parents are here. It's starting to feel like Chinese New Year...we had yee sang today ;)

It's Raining, it's pouring....zzz

Nothing special today. It's been raining since morning so stuck at home. :( Second day of CNY. Meera recognized the letter 'z'!

Gong Xi, Gong Xi

Today is Chinese New Year. Doesn't feel like it though. Jing's at work and I'm at home. Going to have pasta for dinner. Just called everyone back home.

Meera said Gong Xi, Gong Xi (we trained her yesterday). Only said it to her 'siau ku' though.

Daily Journal...the beginning

I came across a blog today that wrote about starting a one sentence daily journal and I thought...hmmmm...that's a great idea! So starting today I will be doing just that. Maybe more than 1 sentence though. ;)

22 months

This past month has brought about quite a few major changes. More than I had initially planned. We switched Meera to a toddler bed (no more crib), along with that we changed her bedtime ritual and...we started potty training! Major changes!!!

But Meera has done exceptionally well with all of this.

So far we have had no issues with her sleeping on the bed. She has yet to test the boundaries (as I type this I hope I'm not tempting fate...) She still waits for me to come inside the room before getting down (off course I no longer wait a very long time after hearing her wake up). After the first few times of falling off the bed (which I don't think she even realised) she is now managing to stay on the bed throughout the night) Occasionally Gigi is on the floor though (Jing usually peeks in on her before he goes to work and puts it back in bed) but other than that no issues.

Her bedtime ritual has also changed a bit. Jing used to take her into the room, give her the milk and then put her to bed. He also had this whole spiel that he would run though with her. Asking her what time she gets up (eight), after hearing the..(bell), the bell would...(ring), who opens the door? (mommy), etc. It got to a point where Meera wanted to repeat the whole thing a few times before going to bed so I guess he decided enough was enough. So now we started giving her the milk outside on the sofa and then both of us bring her in to her room, hug, kiss, 'buddy' (which is alot like a hug - to me anyway) and then she climbs up herself, we say goodnight and shut the door. Amazingly quick and easy! Part of me is just waiting for the day when she realises that she can just get off the bed and follow us out. Until then I shall enjoy the simplicity of our bedtime ritual. No rocking, no singing, no fuss. Sigh....(of contentment)

Potty training has gone quite well. When I initiated it on Monday it seemed as if I would have to give it up. I honestly felt that maybe it was too soon and that she was never going to get it. I was constantly referencing the internet every time a single doubt crossed my mind but I eventually realised that like what everyone said...at some point she would get it. There has yet to be anyone that starts school in diapers. I think once I relaxed a little things started improving, Coincidence? Maybe not. By the end of the week she was quite proficient at telling me when she had to go. I was still a bit paranoid so I kept asking her every once in a while if she needed to pee, which she would just say no. I was convinced she might forget and just pee. But no...that has yet to happen. During the weekend we went out a lot so most of the time she was peeing in her diaper but she would say 'pee' so I took that as a good sign (a least she was still conscious about it). I also got a potty seat to put on top of the toilet. On Monday I started using it and today (Wednesday) we no longer use the potty (which is great since it's quite a pain to empty it into the toilet). Now it's one less step. As for pooping, she seems to do it during her nap time when I put her in diapers. I've decided to hold off on this part of the training (not like I have a choice really). I'm not sure how to go about training her for this but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

She's started to identify colors now. Initially everything was 'orange' but now she can tell me when something is red, pink, green and yellow. Not to sure about blue and purple. She usually gets it wrong the first time but with a bit of prompting she can identify the colour correctly.

She's also getting quite familiar with the alphabet. Initially every letter was 'a' (she was actually able to identify letter as opposed to symbols etc..). Now she can differentiate a, b, c, m and o. I notice that for some letters she says the phonetic sound instead of the actual letter like b is 'buh' and m is 'mmmm'. I guess the Leapfrog DVD is sinking in.

She can manage a 'peace' sign but still can't do a 'thumbs up'. Tying her hair is such a chore. Most times I can barely manage to get it tied up before she scampers of. And whenever we're in the car she will usually take off the rubber band before we reach our destination.


Her vocabulary continues to expand She call herself 'meenie'. She calls us Mommy and Daddy now. And she can say Grandma(no longer Ah Mah), Ku Mah and Ku Cheong (not so clearly) She can even identify them in pictures. Also Ah Kung and Ah Mah (which I have been prepping her for since they're coming for Chinese New Year)

She is really starting to show her independent streak. She'll say 'Meenie' and push our hand away whenever she wants to wear her own clothes (not very successful yet), buckle herself in her highchair (quite good already), wear her own shoes (she can;t differentiate right from left though) and of course feeding is a constant battle (she never lets me feed her although sometimes she'll ask Jing to feed).

She'll also started scribbling a lot so we got her the IKEA easel. Plan to start more art activities with her.

Potty Training...at Day 5

Ideally I would be blogging about this on a day to day basis. But as the title suggests I am already on the 5th day so we'll just proceed .

I was actually not sure whether to start potty training or not. I thought of starting once she turned 2 (for no other reason than procrastinating) but by March the weather would start getting cold and this would not be really practical. Since my plan was to let her just run around naked till she got the potty thing down, it would be better to start now (since it's summer). Needless to say I was using the weather as my deciding factor and not so much whether Meera was ready or not. I read a lot of articles along the lines of 'is your child ready to potty train' but I figure before disposable diapers were available everyone got potty trained a lot earlier so no time like the present. Accordingly I set out to start on Monday.

I had no idea what to expect. Since we recently let her sleep in the toddler bed I would normally wait a while to go get her in the morning. So on Monday I waited a bit and when I went to get her, her diaper was full (as it normally is). I took off her diaper and told her that we were going to start using the potty to pee in for the day. Not sure if she really got what I was trying to tell her. I had already been preparing her for this the week before by letting her see me pee in the toilet and telling her on numerous occasions that she was also suppose to pee in the toilet. She seemed quite ok with it, not really insisting on a diaper(or maybe cos she didn't really get what was going on). So we started the day fine; I would keep asking her if she needed to use the potty to pee and she kept saying no. OK. I figured since her diaper was full it may be a while before she had to pee again so no big deal. I kept plying her with water and diluted juice whole morning and at one point after breakfast she wandered off. Next thing I know she had pooped on the floor! (guess I wasn't asking the right question!) She was quite upset about it (and so was I!) but I tried to act like it was no big deal and cleaned it up. After a while she wanted to pee and she did...right on the floor. Before that though she was quite agitated and cranky but at that point I didn't realise what it meant. So after telling her that she was suppose to pee in the potty I wiped up the mess. There were a few more incidents of her wetting the floor and I was starting to get discouraged. I had no idea how to get her to sit on the potty to pee. A couple of times she sat down and the minute a bit of pee came out she would quickly stand up and stop. I could tell she was trying to hold it in. I could also tell that she knew what was suppose to happen but for some reason was terrified of letting her pee go into the potty. By the end of the day I had used up so many towels to wipe up the spills and not once did she go in the potty. A few dribbles (which I made a big deal of) but she still didn't get it. I even tried to show her it was ok by peeing in the potty myself! Talk about desperate measures. When Jing came home we spent like 30 minutes sitting with her on the potty and finally she peed. So after day 1 I was exhausted...but determined to keep trying.


Day 2 was a bit better. She peed a couple of times. She was still trying to stand up but I kept telling her to sit down and I guess her bladder was so full that she couldn't manage to hold it in. I could tell she was holding in her pee cos I put her in diapers for her nap and it was really full. Even when I got her up in the morning it was so full it leaked. I even tried to take pictures of her pee in the potty to convince her it was a good thing, looking at her face though she doesn't look convinced.


Day 3- she's much more willing to pee in the potty but no poop. She pooped in the early morning and it leaked. So another laundry load. She's starting to get it but not too thrilled about it though. She gets a bit frazzled when she gets the urge to pee so I have to bring her to the potty and keep telling her that it's okay to pee. After a while she will pee but we did have a few accidents (my fault for not really keeping an eye on her).

Day4- I had to go out for groceries today. I also decided I would buy chocolates as a reward. Initially I didn't want to use any reward but she seems so traumatised about peeing on the potty that I wanted to show her it was a good thing. And nothing works like chocolate. :) So I waited till she peed and then we went out to get the stuff. Initially she was so worked up about the chocolate (I got her Smarties) that she just kept crying. I was starting to regret the chocolate idea. But I persevered. That day she peed twice in the potty and both times she got a Smarty. but I don't think she quite gets the connection. No accidents today but I wonder if she's holding in her pee cos her diapers seem unusually full. Still pooping in her diaper though. Guess I'll have to work on that later.

Day 5 - going much better today. She's starting to embrace the reward system. She peed and after that said 'chocolate!'.. no accidents so far.

I think she's getting the whole concept. I'm going to get a toilet seat for the toilet and slowly get her to sit on that. I'm quite amazed that she's getting it so quickly. When I first started on Monday I thought it was going to be impossible and now....she's actually peeing in the potty! (amazing!)

Crib to Toddler Bed

I knew the day would eventually arrive that Meera would have to stop sleeping in a crib . Of course if I had a choice she'd sleep in it forever. But as she gets bigger it's only a matter of time before she doesn't fit in it. Luckily she was never one to climb out of the crib (I've read of some babies doing this but Meera was never that adventurous). To we decided to do it after our Tassie trip.

Once we got back though we weren't sure how she'd take to sleeping in a crib after 2 weeks of the kinder cot. sSo we let her sleep in the crib the first night we got back. We were both pleasantly surprised when she slept the whole night without any wakings. Guess the crib is a lot more comfortable than the Kinderkot (not surprising since it's basically a tent). So the following day we decided it was time to switch the crib into a toddler bed which basically involved turning it around and allowing one side of the bed to be exposed with just a small railing. I was very worried she would fall out during the night. Or worse still refuse to stay in bed and simply climb down.

Surprisingly she did not try to climb out of the bed when Jing put her down. He said it was probably too dark for her to see. Which left me worried that she might try climbing out during nap time. But since we were still on holiday mode (Jing was off for a few more days) and we were out most of the time, she didn't get to nap in her bed. So for the next 3 days she slept in the bed at night. The first night was fine; she didn't fall down (although I put pillows on the floor just in case). In the morning I heard her wake up and I quickly went downstairs to get her (before she got any ideas to climb down herself) I praised her for staying in bed and it seemed like she understood. The second night, we checked on her before going to sleep and she was on the floor! Fast asleep! Jing carried her and put her back in bed. The next morning I heard her wake up, went downstairs, opened the door, and she was right behind it! I was so shocked I didn't know what to do. I just scolded her for coming down the bed. She looked a bit upset, like she was going to cry but that was it. After thinking it over maybe she actually fell off the bed sometime during the night and when she woke up just walked over to the door. 3rd night we found her on the floor again. 4th and 5th passed without incident. Which brings me to today.

So far looks like she's transitioning well. She treats the pillows on the floor like a boundary; calling it a 'line'. So we keep telling her that she can't cross the line and this seems to work. When I get her in the morning she'll be sitting up and pointing to it and saying 'line'. I keep telling her 'good girl' and giving her lots of praise for waiting for me to come get her.

Not sure if I've mentioned this in a previous post but for the past few months I've been using an alarm clock to 'signal' her that it was time to wake up. I would normally wait until I heard her stiring and after a while I would ring the alarm clock and then go in and get her. I hope that she learns that the bell means it's time to wake up and until then she's suppose to be in bed. Seems like it's working well.

21 months

Suddenly it occurs to me that Meera is going to turn 2! I honestly feel as if time is slipping away so fast. She's changed more and more with each day.

We spent 2 weeks in Tasmania for Christmas vacation and during this time she got a lot of exposure to things which never would have been possible if we had stayed at home. Granted she was tired a lot (what with us traveling all around) and her sleep was seriously deprived but she dealt with it really well. There were a few moments of grumpiness especially nearing dinner (evening) time but over all she was great. Luckily the trip involved a lot of driving so she managed to take naps in the car. Its a good thing she sleeps well in the car. The whole 2 weeks had her taking her afternoon naps in the car (never once in a bed)

Her vocabulary has increased by so many new words. We saw a lot of wildlife (so she now says koala, wallaby, wombat, and echidna! Not so clear but we understand) and there were so many other things that she saw and experienced! She's even started saying 2-3 words in a sentence.

Eating-wise she's doing a lot better with chewing. The 2 weeks in Tassie also exposed her to a lot of different stuff (oysters for one.) Unfortunately she also got her first bout of diarrhea during the trip. Luckily it was only for a few days and the only inconvenience was the leaky diapers. I did resort to jarred food for a few days when it seemed like she wasn't eating enough but overall she managed quite well.

Apart from the time we went to Tassie her schedule has pretty much settled to:

8.00 am: wake up
8.30 am: milk
9.30 am: breakfast (usually oats with fruit)
12.30pm: lunch
2.00 pm: milk then nap (usually about 2 hours)
6.00 pm: dinner
9.30 pm: bed

I've been slowly reducing her milk intake so her first 2 feeds are 140 ml (before adding 4 scoops formula) and last feed is 175ml (5 scoops).