mui mui update

I've been a mom for 2.5 years...wow wee!

I want to recount all the new changes with my little girl, where shall I begin?

Talking: love all her expressions and favorite phrases. She is stringing together longer sentences now but she saids it so fast and it's slurred together, that even mom is left perplexed at times. She has realized that if she wants something, all she needs to do is ask it MANY, MANY times. She is also so tricky and asks dad to turn on a video instead of mom. Nowadays, I hear, "baby Nolan crawling" as she watches in horror that her little brother is headed for her stuff. haha I love asking about her day and hearing her try to recount (with some assistance) all the fun things she did.

Her fav phrases these days: 'What's that mommy?' 'There it is'

Independence: With her starting preschool in Sept., I wondered how she would adjust. During Sunday service, we have been dropping her off at sunday school to help with this transition and it has been awesome. The first time, I was so nervous. She cried when Rob dropped her off (this was strategic that it wouldn't be me) but when we picked her up afterwards, I saw that she wasn't crying. Her teacher said that she is doing better and this past Sunday, while I was in line to get her, I saw that she was sitting with another teacher and trying to say something to her (I don't think she was listening though) but it is so good to see our little girl be a big girl! It helps that there is lots of toys to play with and snacks afterwards =)

Focus: I thought she was ADD, the way she would lose interest 2 mins into something but this has changed a lot. She is enjoying more activities that require a level of focus such as stringing beads together, playing with her mega bloks and completing 15 pc puzzle sets. She really enjoys it and can spent whatever time is needed to finish it.

Pottying: I guess you can say we have began potty training. It actually happened naturally. We aren't completely there yet but good progress so far. The problem with Sofia is she doesn't tell us when she needs to go. Poops end up in the potty 90% of the time. She is beginning to tell us more often but by the time we hear it, she's already peed or some of it has come out. It started when she didn't want to wear a diaper and just go commando. I would have to ask her if she needed to go (answer was no most of the time) but she can hold the pee, I just have to try to persuade her to go before it's too late. We've had many accidents but today, we had only two so not too bad. I've tried naptime without one but she was totally soaked when she woke =p I don't think she's ready for pottying during sleeptimes even though she insists on not wearing one. I'm not quite ready to deal with soaked bed sheets yet so maybe we'll wait until summer to potty train during sleep times.

Skills: She loves to twirl around like a ballerina, jump, go up and down stairs by herself, put on her pants and boots all by herself =)

In a blink

and my little guy is eight months old! These past four months have been a blur (won't go into it here but 2011 has been crazy so far!)

Nolan is a hefty one with mega thighs (after dad haha) and an infectious personality. He is quite the talker and has some volume in his cries and screams which ain't so pleasant to hear in the wee early mornings. He loves to blow raseberries, pretend cough and play peekaboo. I guess the only complaint I have is I wished he slept in a hour or so more in the morning so I wouldn't have to be up at 6ish each day. I can only dream of the day when I can wake up on my own accord. It will come...I believe =) We were spoiled from Sofia being such a good sleeper.

We began solids with him back in Feb and he is now already onto the chunks of cooked carrots, peas, potatoes, avocado and egg yoke plus congee and bread. In fact, he doesn't seem to like any of the pureed or liquid type stuff like yogurt and apple sauce. It is fun to feed him cuz he likes to eat.

He has changed so much in the past two weeks. From a little boy who hated tummy time to now being able to roll, go to/from tummy to a sitting position and army crawling/regular crawling. He is trying to pull himself up so I can't imagine what he will do in a few more weeks. Most of his crying now is from banging his head and other tumbles as he explores the world in his own stride. His interest lies solely for his big sister's toys and he wants to taste it all! Sofia is having to learn to share her toys (which incl. Nolan's baby toys). It is the cause of the many pulling matches and rough behavior towards N. I can't help buy smile at the look of disgust on her face when she touches a mega blok that is wet with drool.

I may have already mentioned in previous posts but it still amazes me how different he is from his sister. N loves to use his hands to spin and move things and exploring how his toys work. He also gets into everything and is so strong (changing him is a wrestling match always so beware when he arches his back!)

Toddler Chit Chatting

There's been lots of it these days. She is bursting with excitement in trying to express herself and using sentences, mainly the nouns and verbs to get her point. Oh what a sweet image of her, pausing sometimes as if there are a million thoughts inside her that she wants to share with me but with a limited vocabulary to formulate her thoughts with. I know i'm supposed to be the mommy translator but sometimes, I get the big fat question mark over top of my head with her toddler chinglish. I have so much fun telling her about our upcoming activities and especially love the bedtime reminiscing of the fun day we had. I hear her singing in her room during nap and bedtimes her own versions of certain songs. TTs have lessened for the most part but we still have issues with 'going home' - Her response, 'no home!'

Fav song that both kids enjoy together:
-Sleeping Bunnies (Sofia will ask me to sing it again and again)

Other Developments:

I took the kids to a toddler story time session at the library and boy was I proud of how captivated and responsive Sofia was during the stories and singing time. She didn't sing out loud but did the actions for the songs she was familiar with and was able to follow the facilitator's actions for others.

Pretend play - She is finally playing on her own! She enjoys putting all the little people onto the train, the animals in the zoo and checking Nolan's heart beat! She makes us act out the actions from some books, points to the characters which one is 'mui mui' and who is 'baby nolan'. I thought it was amusing that she pointed out in the book that the little boy jumping in the sand wasn't wearing any shoes (typical Asian family who would never be caught barefooted on the street!)

Happy 7th month to dear Nolan...his update to come =)

6 months!

Our happy go lucky son has been more fussy of late. He's still a charmer with his toothless grins and moving hands/feet when he's excited or happy but there's been more tears and wakeful nights with him starting to roll and move while on his front. He hasn't quite figured out how to roll onto his back (I think he uses his lower body to thrust himself over). He has really strong leg and lower body muscles that allows him to stick his butt in the air but the head and arms aren't strong enough so he moves forward with his upper body being pushed forward (ouch!) It is much harder to work in solids for the second child. I haven't gotten into a schedule yet but hope to try different foods very soon. I can't survive having to feed both kids before I eat (I'm starving by then!) so Nolan gets fed once everyone else is done their meals.

Yummy carrots!

Enjoying the sights in San Francisco with baba

Talking and Singing

Sofia is 27 months (almost 28 since it took me ages to post this)! The past month have been about working on her vocabulary and mimicking what we say. I think many kids her age are already on full on sentences but she's getting there with 2-3 word sentences. She is much better at communicating to us, tantrums still exist but at least we can bargain/reason with her.

'mo mish' - For the longest time, we had no clue what this was and then realized she was saying, 'finished'
dizzy - she loves to twirl around until she falls and one day she said, "oh dizzy" (with a smile)
mui mui - she calls herself mui mui (our nickname for her) but I have been trying to introduce her real name which she can say, 'fia'
new words: ok, oopsy, bless you, kitty mel (hello kitty), trying to teach her to say, 'my turn pls' instead of crying when she wants something
blubee muffin/pancake - blueberry (sometimes sounds like boobie)

She is finally getting into the singing! She tries to follow with certain songs and can say most of the last words in each phrase and can sing most of the ABCs (today she stopped me from singing with her cuz she wanted to sing it herself!). She's pretty good with counting from 1-10 on her own and can say from 11-19 with us but still ways away from her recognizing any numbers or letters.

Fav songs that she can sing along:
-Barney: I love you, you love me theme song...yes Barney...=P
-ring around the rosie
-twinkle twinkle little star
-ABCs
-If you are happy and you know it
-1-2 buckle my shoe...

Motor skills:

jumping with both feet off the ground and better at going up and down stairs
putting on her pull-ups (doesn't quite get the diaper pass her bum but it's a start)
coloring with more purpose than just scribbling across the page

Tantrums are still a part of our lives especially when she is a mega crier when it comes to wanting something, not wanting to do something or being frustrated/upset. Sometimes when she is in midst of a TT (and crying), we ask her to go to her room and to let us know when she is done crying. It seems to work and other times, we just let the tantrum takes its course and she is usually ok once it's out of her system. And then there are times when she is around kids who are in her face or she is fighting over toys, then the mega crying never seems to stop. It's quite annoying so I need to find some tips on how to deal with this or perhaps she just has to learn crying gets nowhere and she's gotta stick up for herself.

I've realized that she's regressed a bit in potty training (refusing to go and pees in diaper most of the time) but think that maybe it is due to the low importance of that now since she is working on her verbal skills. At least she still does no. 2 in the potty so we're not too bad.

Enjoying a beautiful winter day by the new YVR Convention Centre

Posing during Chinese New Year