January 4, 2010

Almost 2

Nat is just one month shy of turning 2, and has decided she wants an Elmo cake for her birthday next month.



Ask her how old she is now and she'll answer '22 months', although we need to update her to 23. She's getting better at articulating her needs and wants, forming sentences like, "I cannot reach", "Daddy put no more monkey jump on bed CD", "I don't want Great-mama house", "I'm going home now", "I go back Spottiswoode Park", "I see doctor now", "I want some more bread/biscuit" and can sing '1, 2 buckle my shoe' and count to 10. Actually she can count to 14 already, and prefers to put on and remove her shoes herself.


She's constantly reminding Nick to put on the child lock in the car by saying 'Daddy, child lock, child lock', however she hates getting into her car seat these days. If I'm not bribing her with unopened lollipops and my lipsticks, she'll squirm out before the seat belts can be fastened. She'll try to climb over to the driver's seat and fiddle with the car's gadgets. Most times we don't start driving till she is safely buckled in, but occasionally I've had to threaten with sending her to the naughty corner if she still hasn't sat in the car seat by the time we hit the main road.

She doesn't like sitting in her stroller much either, preferring to be carried. My Lulu Guinness Maclaren stroller has become an expensive diaper bag caddy instead. Have only succeeded getting her strapped in once or twice, again by letting her play with my lipstick.

Her molars have been causing her grief these past few weeks, she's always putting her fingers in her mouth to dig and the saliva gives her a rash on her chin. She loves looking at her boogers when they're removed, she calls it 'kulangut', which is the Tagalog word Arlyn uses. When I use blunt tweezers to clean her nose, she'll volunteer for more with 'I want some more'.

For some reason she likes to wear half a shape sorter toy as a helmet, and she carries around her box set of nursery rhymes like a doctor's bag.




She can remember people we've met months or weeks ago, recalling Uncle Alvin whenever you ask her who bought her kookaburra. Last night she suddenly said she wanted to see Baby Ethan and recited the names of Ananya, Riley and Uncle Siva whom she last saw on Christmas day.

She likes to irritate Gigi but at the same time, she's really sweet with her. When Gigi climbs a chair, she'll go, 'Careful Gigi'. Other times she'll beat Gigi's bum and say, "I beat your bum bum". When she used to give Gigi a peck on the cheeks, we always gushed and said 'Aw, so sweet' and now she says it herself. Each time she kisses Gigi, after each kiss she will say 'Sooo schweet'.

She'll help Gigi to put on her shoes or place her feet on Gigi's tricycle footrest but can be sneaky too in the sense of making Gigi go first when trying something new. Like yesterday, Nick was trying to feed her a new medicine through a syringe and she pushed it away and said, "Gigi's turn'.


In the end, Nick caved and opened the lollipop I had given her to hold and she looked all pleased with her new sweet. I flipped and tried all sorts of ways to take the lollipop back, she protested of course and I 'accidentally' dropped it on the floor to stop her from having any more.

The reason she was taking medication was because she currently has a phlegmy cough and Nick insisted on seeing a doctor even though I felt it wasn't necessary, since it will go away on its own in a few days. Plus we had some Prospan cough syrup at home and she had only been taking it for a day, not long enough to see any results but he didn't want to wait.

Doctor said her lungs were clear and the cough syrup we had was fine and that it would need a few days for the cough to get better. Essentially all the stuff I told Nick but he wouldn't listen! We waited almost 2 hours to see the doctor only for him agree with whatever I had been doing but Nick HAD to hear it from a 'professional'! The doctor sensed the kancheong daddy wanted more effective medication so he prescribed a mucus dissolvant, but it wasn't really necessary.

On the bright side, she seems to have overcome her fear of doctors, I prepared her on what to expect i.e. checking of temperature, heartbeat and throat and demonstrated at home, and when she went inside the consultation room, there were no tears...although she still refused to open her mouth.

It would appear she has shoplifting tendencies as well, ha ha. Was at Watson's yesterday and she grabbed some packs of Winnie the Pooh towels displayed outside the store. When told we had to pay for them first, she went, "Nevermind, nevermind!". She doesn't know what context to use 'nevermind' but she seems to love the phrase.


With Christmas and all, she's discovered reindeers and will ask for Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer to be sung to her almost every night.

At 16 months, Gigi finally has some teeth! And in time for Christmas too! She can say, "thank you", "Elmo", 'Daddy", "Mummy", "Papa", "Mama", "Ann", "sit down", "Gigi", "Arlyn", "Nat", "Nick", "Mao", "garlic", "onion", "rabbit" and "ribbit" - for frog. She'll go 'try, try' whenever you're eating something, but she hates to eat fruits and drink water.


She's trying so hard to talk more but ends up babbling very loudly in restaurants just spouting gibberish. The pacifier is never far from her, I hear from Swana she even reaches out for it blindly in the middle of the night if it's removed from her mouth.

She does the cutest blinks, especially with those gorgeous lashes of hers. She likes to bop too and adores Elmo. Swana uses Elmo DVDs to distract her during mealtimes, Kevin and her are complete opposites to me and Nick in terms of parenting style. I would say they are more relaxed in the sense that she watches TV, she has no fixed routine, they let her try all sorts of rubbish food, they don't enforce the car seat, she's very attached to Mummy, Swana and Kevin and suffers seperation anxiety on occasion.

Swana thinks she's gonna suffer from middle child syndrome once I pop, I sure hope not! We have to pay extra attention to her and Nat once the baby comes along. Just 3 months to go...

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