It's so fun growing up!

Acutally, it's more like mama and papa are having fun seeing the little girl grow! Her vocabulary has grown, she can say words like "Touch", "Sit", "Bird", "Cat", "papa", "mama", "hug", and more... It's impressive that she speaks and understands these words. She would also understand simple actions and instructions with words like "throw", "keep", "give", "pass", "put back", "take". Time passes so fast and she is beginning to be an independent human being. With independence comes defiance, so she walks off in another direction, refuses to hold your hands, etc...

At Pearl River Restaurant @ Suntec, my parents, sisters and I had dinner! Took a few shots of her trying to feed herself...

Here are some photos of her having fruit after dinner...

Little girl wanted to feed herself using the spoon and most of the food landed anywhere but her mouth. Hubby was busy cleaning her up each time and I told him to just let the mess be... :p~

In the picture, you can see her trying with the fork. When she fails, she would pick up bits of her fruit to put on the spoon to feed herself (not in picture but my sister saw her do it). When lazy, she'll just pop the fruit into he mouth directly... Lolz!

Curiosity got the better of her after dinner and she got up to peer at the lazy susan to see if there's anything nice that she can have...

My Favourite Picture of the Day:

Not many pictures were taken but I do like this one the most... She was suppose to smile... but landed up with a photo of her cheeky self. My little sister asked her to smile but she scrunched up her face till her eyes were only 2 slits (not that her eyes are big n round to begin with)... *faints*

Surely one cheeky look! ;p

A day filled with activities!

Little gal woke up early today... Once at 6am and another time at 8am. Hubby woke me up and we headed off to East Coast Park! Our nice neighbour lent us some "beach" equipment and this did make the sand play more fun!

Reached there at about 9am and the weather was really good.

Papa and Mama got car, I got my own ride too!!!

It was blue skys and we were lucky to find a shady spot on the beach! :) This is little girl's third exposure to the beach and the sand. Her exposure was 4 months ago and her reaction was like she was feeling sand for the 1st time!

Did not want to scare her off... So put her on the mat to play first...

So when I lifted her off the beach mat and wanted her to stand on the sand, she held her legs in seating position! -__-" (sadly, did not get this really funny posture of hers) Resistance is futile, evil papa and mama took off her shoes and plonked her on the sand. She finally stood up and daddy covered her feet with sand.

It was quite funny to see her "escaped" feet on the sand in tiptoe position. After a while, she decided to get my support and pull out the other leg.

  

Without much progress in her playing... I took her for a walk down to the water. Yeah, she love the way the tides came in on her feet (mama got her pants wet... Gee...).

Maybe she thought water signify "washing feet" = end of play... So tiptoe-ing her way from the sand to the beach mat, she grab her socks + shoes, stuck them in our direction and went "NAH". She wanted us to put on the socks for her. 

 After our refusal to wear her socks, she finally got down to playing with sand.

 After a good 2 hours, we cleaned up and left for yummy prawn noodles along Tanjong Katong Road! *slurps!* The same evening, little gal had some play time with my neighbour's two boys. It's really great catching up with my neighbour and her sister while the little girl play with the boys cars...

Psst... this was after lunch, we were waiting for the A/C to cool the car interior while little one pace up and down this walkway...

MY FAVOURITE PHOTO OF THE DAY!

Check out the clear blue sky... :)

16 months already!

Like I always like to say time flies when you are not noticing. She is already 16 months old and in another 2 months she will be 18months! For some reason, I think that 18 months is another major milstone for a child. Maybe it is because 18 months is the time where she will not be considered an infant in a childcare centre enviornment.

Most probably I will send her for weekend classes until she enrolls in a childcare centre. :)

So what has the little girl been up to recently? Well nothing really much I would say but she can walk really well. Meaning she can walk very fast as if she is running. But that also means she will trip over herself.

Behavioral wise, she acts like a "spoilt brat" sometimes. Maybe it comes with toodlers this age where they have realise the meaning of possession... Usually she will listen and follow instructions when I say "Give". But if she is unwilling and u forcefully take it, she will give a "bo kam wan" screech and "splat" on the floor. It is an all too familar scene in a toys store! My strategy is to just ignore her and walk off, leaving her "splattered" on the floor... Usually I will not snatch unless they are items she should not have in the first place (e.g. rubbish form the bin - yes, tell me why she is rummaging through the rubbish bin or dangerous items like glass cups). After about 2 weeks, she does not dare try it on us now...

I decided to train her into having "tu-tu" (pacifer) free days. According to child expert books, infants get addicted between 9 to 12 months (opps, she is beyond tat age!). Whatever the case, I decided to let her go cold turkey without "tu-tu". Her journey started on the night before April Fool's day. It was no joke really... Having to put up with her struggle. The intial two weeks were great and she settled pretty well without the "tu-tu" both day and night. Then something seem go wrong after a night stay at my caretaker's place. She started waking up every few hours, crying madly and refusing to go to sleep unless someone keeps her company in the room. I am guessing a few possibilities:
1) she is insecure because we took away her tutu and about 2 wks later, she slept overnight in an enviornment where she seldom spend nights at; or
2) she is sleeping lesser in the day, making her more cranky at night and possibly not sleeping too well; or
3) she is afraid of the dark; or
4) she was feeling hot (she has some rashes on her back which is believe to be heat rash).

Today I caved in and gave her the tu-tu after close to about 3 weeks of cold turkey. BUT it was only for the noon nap. I wanted her to zzz well for another 1 hr and see if she will sleep better tonight... Keeping fingers crossed...