First really awkward/disappointment situation with Ning

Last Saturday, something really awkward happened.

We were told weeks earlier, by our good friend, Kakak, her Mum was planning a birthday party and inviting us and the other neighbour with 3 kids.

Mummy was preparing Ning for the big day once we were told of the intent. Saying what a birthday party was, there'll be the birthday girl, lots of presents for the birthday girl, and cake, and lots of playing and laughing. We even went to pick out the birthday gift together, saying how she'll give it to the birthday girl. We'll put on a pretty dress and go over with the present and wish her "Happy Birthday!".

Up to the day itself, Kakak did not say anything afterwards, nor did her parents. So we assumed the party was still on. When the guests were arriving, lots of family members, we were surprised at the growing "small" party and thought we'd just stay half an hour at most for Ning to "party" with her Kakaks and Abang, then leave. We even asked Kakak, when she'll be expecting us over, we'll shower and come on cue.

When the last guests / family members arrived, Mummy was worried we were unfashionably late, so Mummy sent an SMS to Kakak. The reply came as a shocker for Mummy. Kakak says her Mum says there were too many guests already and Kakak cannot invite us over. The invitation was purely from Kakak. 

There was a gross miscommunication. Mummy should've checked with Kakak's Mum earlier. 

Now Mummy had the MOST DIFFICULT task of letting Ning down, that we weren't invited, she'd have to take off the party dress (Papa is really mean, we could've kept it on and went out to KFC in it), and we're not joining in the fun. Ning didn't cry, but she ignored Mummy, ignored the party hat and mask that Kakak brought over earlier. She ignored Kakak. I think, inside, she doesn't really know how to react. It is the first time she felt sour and ignored us. I suggested we went to KFC, which was one of her favourite places, for dinner to ease the pain. Put her on her overalls.

On the way out, she saw the party hat, reached for it. Mummy asked if she wanted Mummy to help put it on, she shook her head and swiped her hands at it, indicating she doesn't want it.

When we went out, she looked the other way, away from Kakak's house. I guessed she was still sad.

When we were almost at the lift lobby, Kakak called, to give us cake. Initially, I thought she wanted to ask us over, I didn't want Ning to be subjected to disappointment again, so I said, "It's ok, we're going out already!". Ning didn't want to walk back, even when Mummy had to go back to get the cake from Kakak.

At KFC, she ate and drank very little. Mummy's heart broken.

I felt like I shouldn't have let this kind of thing happen, especially when she's so young and understands what is going on.

We haven't had the chance to play with Kakak or Abang recently, since Popo and Gong Gong's visit, but I hope she'll still remember how happy she was playing with Kakak and Abang and not remember the incident for too long. Maybe I should throw the unpleasant reminders of a party hat and mask away, just in case.

She says goodbye to (good night) and kisses Popo & Gong Gong

The first few nights, Mummy carries her to kiss Popo & Gong Gong good night. Then Mummy sometimes forgets when Mummy's been trying to coax her into the bedroom.

Last night and just now, when she asked for milk and looked sleepy, Mummy said to turn off the TV and say "bye bye" to Popo and Gong Gong because we're going to bed for milk.

She walked to the TV, turned it off.

She walked to Popo, while Mummy went into the bedroom to close the window and turn on the fan, kisses Popo and says "bye bye". Then she did the same to Gong Gong, who was in the dining room. Mummy came out in time to view her saying and waving "bye bye" to Popo and the repeating with Gong Gong.

My heart just melted. Mummy planted many kisses on this sweet little girl afterwards :)

Ning's first independent somersault, in fit of anger

Ning was sleepy, we just returned from a long walk after breakfast.

To cut a long story short, she threw a fit today! For almost half an hour.

She was already sleep deficient and hungry. Mummy made it worse by bringing her to shower despite her protests. After that, she was inconsolable. She wouldn't latch on or lie down still. Even when carried, she was crying and all communications was down. So was sobbing. Mummy braved the teeth, and stuffed one nipple in, and she finally suckled to sleep.

But, before that, when I laid her down on bed, she pulled her butt up so high, hands and feet down, that she rolled over her head! She paused, surprised for a while, she'd probably laugh and try again under normal circumstances, but then, she didn't. Sigh.

I held her in my arms for full half an hour before moving her onto the bed and she suckled some more. We only slept 1 hour before she woke up and asked "ball?" Tried to nurse her to sleep again, but she was rolling about and asking for Popo and Gong Gong already.

She finally slept at 6:00pm, I'm so thankful. Hopefully she'd recover from sleep deprivation. We couldn't sleep at the chalet on Sunday because all around, people were barbecuing till midnight, and after that, our neighbors were playing mahjong till dawn! We checked out yesterday, skipping one night of paid accommodation for our sanity!

Wild Wild Wet on Monday

Wild Wild Wet only begins operation at 1:00pm on weekdays.

We arrived there at 10:30am. Early, and lots of time to kill.

Bought Popo a 2-piece swim suit, or tankini, and Gong Gong, a beach shorts, all for $38.80 there.

We went on the River a couple of times. Then stuck around the children's water playground for a while, going on the reduced scale rides. Once with Ning on the straight slide.

Mummy was wearing the cotton nursing top, it got Mummy stuck on the slides where the person has to lie down. Mummy had to use Mummy's legs to "walk-slide" down lying down. Such a damper.

All in all, I think Ning had most fun on the river. Mummy sat her on Mummy's tummy, holding my thumbs, floating on my back, so she sits facing forward, Mummy floated backwards, feet occasionally kicking off the bottom. She enjoyed the rapids, which sounded like "rabbits", so she was looking around for "rabbits" at first. Then when I explained, rapids, means rapid water, when we were going thru the rapids, she got it. And she says "rapids" whenever we approached choppy waters.

We were very tired, when we got home, we were so tired,  Popo slept before 9pm, no aches, no complaints, except for a little hunger. Gong Gong slept after a Guinness.

Lougong, thanks for everything! *muAcks*

She eats more with company

Today, she had 2 more playmates than normal. Popo and Gong Gong.

She drank 60ml of fresh milk, had loads of teaspoonfuls of soup with bee hoon (short strands, no piling), some tomato and a shred of chicken.

Popo asked her if the soup or bee hoon was nice, and she said, "ya!". Popo kept going at it, and she kept smiling, nodding and saying "yep".

Mummy's pleased.

Today, we went down as usual, but Ning quickly wanted to come up again. I'm guessing the thunder and dark skies are frightening, or she wants to go home to Popo and Gong Gong.

So, here we are. Mummy will try to feed her more tomorrow!

Yesterday, was almost perfect!

We watched just under 45 minutes (in 3 sessions) of BabyTV. Morning, when Mummy was preparing breakfast and Papa needs to get ready for work. Another session to feed her, after that we watched a yoga DVD, she joined in when the guy in Yoga Journal did the Downward Dog pose. After that, Mummy did another 15 minutes of Paula Abdul's "Get up and dance" workout DVD. She also danced, her own style :)

After that, we played together, her toys, played hide and seek with her toys, pretend to feed, toilet and wash the hair for her Baby Pooh and Mickey Mouse. Oh, she's funny at Guardian. Mummy pointed out shampoo for her, and she tapped under the spout, then put her hands on top of her hand, and swipes downwards a few times. She's indicating, shampoo is for washing hair. Mummy's delighted!

At night, she finished almost another bowl of vegetable soup. Earlier in the afternoon, a whole bowl with egg yolk. And in between, nibbled some strawberries, apples and mango, and then some yoghurt.

Today, I can't say the same. I smacked her buttocks 4 times because she poured out all the peas from the cup after I told her not to the first time. Then I asked her, do you want me to hit your buttocks? She nodded. I smacked her faster than I could regret it immediately after. She cried a little bit, more shocked than in pain. Mummy's very concern, I need more sleep, I'm losing my temper and finding her more challenging than I'd normally would. She's a real darling, and I shouldn't lose my temper and shout or hit her. After all, she's just 16 months old, what does she know right?

Bad Mummy. BAD Mummy.

Sad Mummy. Miserable Mummy.

Great morning!

Mummy didn't need to cook, except for some macaroni to go with the leftover cabbage with chicken soup from yesterday. Though she did not eat much, just nibbled a bit of strawberry and a sip or two of soup with yolk, we watched 15 minutes of BabyTV and off we go. We walked Papa to the MRT station, and sat on the koala bear ride on the way out. Papa let go twice, and I think it was just nice because she wanted out by the time the second ride ended.

After that, we went to KFC for chilled milo and had a bit of A.M. Twister there. An old man, really old and wrinkled and bent, sat beside us, greeting Ning with hand. Ning slowly got up and climbed onto Mummy. The old man exclaimed in Hokkien, what little courage she had. In my heart, I thought, that Ning was a smart girl, she knows when to be careful i.e. a stranger that's too friendly.

After that, we went into Guardian to window shop. She picked a few items, and Mummy put back a few items. All in all, it was pretty smooth.

Then we went up to the food court because she wanted to go up the escalator. That's when another stranger said heatedly that I would break her arms if I did not hold her from the underarms (instead of her hands). I thought that that was amusing, a bit on the rude side, but amusing none-the-less.

We went around looking at the foods on display, she wasn't that interested because she couldn't touch them.

And then, we reached a little ramp. We walked down the ramp and suddenly it was like a light bulb lit up in her head. She pulled me up, then she walked down again, walked up, then down, and walk backwards up the ramp and then backwards down the ramp. Well, Mummy was as delighted as she was that she found something so simple so amusing and fun. However, the passersby were not as delighted. Mostly concerned I'd let her walk into someone holding something hot I guess. So, Mummy told Ning we could go to another ramp.

When we reached the other ramp, she ran up and down a few times, then got distracted. She climbed 16 steps all by herself, holding the handrail. We walked home. Half way home, she wanted "up", so Mummy carried her. Then she said, "head" and tapped on Mummy's head. So Mummy praised her, "very good, head". She kept at it and nodded a few times before Mummy realized, she wants to "sit on Mummy's head", she was waving arms and feet when Mummy guessed right and put her up on Mummy's shoulder. She waved at a couple of ladies passing by smiling happily away, and those ladies were also laughing and waving back.

We got home, had a bit of red bean soup, showered together, and she slept after suckling for 10 minutes.

What a great morning!

Imaginative play?

She's been 'feeding' her soft toys, mostly teddy bears and other animals, whatever she eats since we returned from Chinese New Year in Malaysia. I think that's when she was about 14 or 15 months. It'd be really cute, she'd be gulping down her Yakult from the straw, when suddenly, she'd try to feed the ballerina on her shirt through the straw.

This week, when we were thumbing through the Dora the Explorer books, and saw a cake with candles on it, I said "cake", then she "scratched" the cake, brought her hand to her mouth, and make "um yam um" noises! She's pretending to eat the cake! She would also bring the Baby Pooh, sit her up, then tilt her so she falls down, and say "uh oh". Then see what Mummy does, which was to pick it up, kiss her head with a loud "muacks".

After that, I'd see her put her head to the floor carefully, buttocks high in the air, then lie down and say "uh oh". Then she'd stand up and tap her head, and say "uh oh", bringing Mummy on to kiss her head. Funny girl.

On a sadder note, yesterday, I was very tired, body aching all over and didn't have enough sleep. I just wanted to sleep, but she kept coming for me. She cried loudly when I try to sleep in the bedroom and closed the door so she couldn't get out. Then I tried to let her watch BabyTV by herself while I slept on the couch, but she kept coming to me for milk. Serves Mummy right for sleeping past mid night the day before. The worse, is yet to come, I shouted at her when she pushed the bowl of soup and it spilt on my leg and floor. Mummy is so regretful. Slept at 10pm last night to make sure Mummy gets enough sleep.

Hope today will be better.

Cat! Bat! Apple! While lifting flaps from Dora's Halloween book!

I used to say them to her, whenever she lifted the flaps.

Now, she says them as she opens the flaps!

Mummy's elated!

Just not my day...

Ning wouldn't eat most of the foods I cooked from morning.

The only thing she'd eat was the broccoli, after which, she spew the florets all over the chair and floor.

While I was picking up the broccoli from under her high chair, she passed urine, which leaked through the holes for the seat belt and got my hair and face wet.

I was too tired to be angry or cry.

The broccoli was oily, because I cooked it after the soup was ready, so the floor was oily too.

Strapped her in her high chair, turned on BabyTV and mopped the whole house.

Later, she wouldn't pee during her 1.5 hr toilet break, ended up peeing on the alphabet mat.

Wipe again.

Cranky at 4pm, nursed her in the bed room. Rough housed her in bed and she finally had a nap from 5pm to 5:45pm.

Mummy's so sleepy. Mummy's going to sleep latest by 10pm tonight.

Good night, Lougong.

2 more (total 16 or 20) teeth @ 16 months!

The lower left pre-molars and canine's sprouted!

It was a painful discovery as she started gnawing at my nipple when she slept the night before. I dug my fingers in between her jaws and found the buds at the lower left corner.

Sigh, hope she doesn't do this too often.

Very VERY painful.

Oh, and she says (pain)ful. Repeats the last syllable. Sigh, still in the mood to learn when Mummy was wincing away. Hmm, Mummy still in the mood to teach while in pain :P

Four more molars to go, one in each corner and we're done teething until year 5!!!

Baby, (mon)key, (rab)bit, (brocco)li, belt, jeans...

...bus, head, hair, tounge, soup, dog, cat, (cotton) buds, eyes, ice, (ee)ear, hat, jaw, toes, shoes, socks, boots, owl, (s)tick... The brackets are the syllables or sounds she'd leave out.

Can't remember all of them, but she's adopting the last syllable of multi-syllable words. It was so cute, she kept pointing at rabbit and say 'bit'!!! Some she's been saying for quite some time already, Mummy just haven't remembered it when Mummy blogged.

And she likes "uh oh", whenever bear topples over. Then she'd pick him up and kiss him on the nose.

She blew when she saw bubbles on television, and says "ball".

She'd follow Mummy's tunes more accurately now when Mummy sings, sometimes chiming in a word or two. Love the gal :)

Favourite game, hide and show!

She's got a favourite game for some time now, since I cannot remember when.

She'd use her hand to hide a picture or object, then she'd sign "where", both hands with palms facing up, and make the "where", "eh?" sounds, sometimes with the name of the thing she 'hid'. Then she'd bring it out, or remove her hand from the picture and say, "there"!

Hee hee, Mummy did that with the little mouse in "Goodnight moon" by Margaret Wise Brown. Think she picked it up from there.

Very easy game to replicate everywhere!!!

Jaw!!! E!

Ning's saying lots of words super fast, til Mummy has trouble catching up. Sometimes it frustrates her that Mummy can't figure out what she's pointing at and saying. In the meantime, I'm just pointing to other things and saying their names, hoping one of them matched what she was trying to say.

Just now, she traced my chin to my jaw, I said "chin", then she unlatched and corrected me, "jaw"! So confident she's right!

And something else surprised me, she pointed at the letter "e" on her shirt and said "e"! Her shirt's got "Girls love Summer FUN!" on it! And she pointed on the "e" on "love". I almost couldn't believe it was on purpose! She smiled knowingly. 

I haven't been teaching her alphabets for sometime already since she no longer tears the alphabet mat to chew.

Gotta catch up with her pace before she gets bored!

Bye bye, tissue!

We went again in the afternoon, first for tea time buffet at Hei Sushi, then to Daiso and finally to the Splash Park!

This time, we ordered almost the whole range of $2.18 sushi from the menu. Sigh, we should've looked closely when we went with Kakak and Abang the day before. We ended up eating more than 20 plates, between the two of us. Ning tried the Salmon Kakiage and fried lotus root all by herself. She asked for the edamame when Mummy said "peas", but spit it out immediately. I think it's because it's cold, unlike the frozen peas that I used for the fried rice the last week.

Ning did this funny thing. She kept touching the top covers of the sushi plates passing by on the conveyor belt. If I say what they were, she'd not touch them, just watch. Then suddenly, she said "bye bye" and waved at the belt. Mummy thought she was waving at some one passing by outside. Then I saw the wet wipes was missing. It was on the conveyor belt! She put it there and said "bye bye"!

Mummy quickly grabbed it before it went to the next seated table :P

It was so funny! We had fun repeating this, returning the wet wipes to her, then let her put it on the belt and say "bye bye"!

The waiter was so worried she'd mishandle the plates of food passing by on the belt too. One watched us like a hawk, very stern. Thank goodness Ning was only interested in the wet wipes / tissue. 

After the heavy "tea break", we went to the Splash Park and got wet, not really wet. No Kakak, no shower! She wasn't so adventurous, Mummy too. However, she did point to the shower excitedly and said a lot of words excitedly with "kakak"s in between. So, Kakak, Ning was thinking about you and the shower ;)

Round and round, spinning Ning

Mummy noticed Ning doing back ups and turning around lately. She really likes spinning around a spot.

When Mummy sang the "Tum tum chuin" song, she'd get up and do it some more. She said, "Spin! Spin!", laughs and spins!

Lovely! Maybe we'll watch a yoga or dance DVD together and see what she does *grin*.

A great day @ SSC!

Today is a great day!

We went out to Sembawang Shopping Centre with Kakak Nana and Abang Fariz. First we had Hei Sushi, the lunch buffet. The waiter ordered the Youth Buffets for both of them. I said, both were not even 13 yet, that's a compliment to Nana, Fariz and their parents :P

I think it was the first time Nana and Fariz had buffet. The uninitiated "buffetnistas".

So, we took the salmon gunkan, laid the salmon on the soy sauce with wasabe mixture, laid it back on the rice, and ate them. Sweet! Then we had the soft shell crab roll, and crab gunkan, crab stick (Fariz's favourite), complimentary udon, the chawanmushi, cola, mango juice, California temaki, and a lot more. Ning had some udon with soup, a bit of rice from all the stuff I put on her plate, and almost a whole gunkan with cucumber!

After that, we went to toilet before going shopping! Daiso, Comics Connection, Popular and then to TimeZone for Fariz's Animal Kaiser game! Then, it was time for the Splash Park!!!

Only Nana came prepared with spare clothes, besides Ning and myself of course. We were shy of the water features at first, Ning was even apprehensive, until Kakak's excitement and enthusiasm finally rubbed off her! Nana brought her through the "shower curtains" twice, and then she was hooked. She kept sweeping water off her face, but when I asked her if she liked going thru the "shower" with Kakak, she nodded! So off we went again :) From then onwards, she was on adrenaline! Like Kakak. She was saying a lot of things, mostly interspersed with Kakak, loudly, excitedly and VERY quickly!

After an adrenaline rush of half an hour, we changed out of the wet clothes after a quick shower (open). Then off we went to Giant, Kakak for some buns, Mummy bought a nice broccoli, and then back to Daiso. When we went out, it was almost 5pm, and there were shuttle buses waiting, so we took the shuttle back to Sembawang MRT, and the bus from Admiralty back home. Ning fell asleep the moment we were seated in the bus, all the way until we got back into the lift at our block. She was just exhausted. We all were, but I think, at least Ning and I were on a high from the day's happy events.

How about Kakak and Abang?

Ning's daily food intake...

Today, we've made "big" progress on the eating front.

She's still relying largely Mummy's breast milk for nutrition, but after a weekend of planning and 3 consecutive days of a persistently cooking and feeding Mummy, she's managed to eat:

5 whole pieces of fusilli (self fed with spoon, 2 assisted)
A few bites off a broccoli floret (previously pureed)
About100 ml of Milo
About100 ml of Ribena
About 3/4 cube of Laughing Cow's plain cheese cube
2 sides (the brown parts) of a piece of bread
A few cashew nuts and raisins
A few spoonfuls of yoghurt (mostly self fed, Mummy scooping, she puts spoon in mouth)
Half a bowl of soup with egg yolk
1 tiny bite of avocado
Few bites of half an apple

Hmm, I think that's about it.

She's managed to poo without diffculty that Mummy didn't even know when she was done, until she got up and I saw the big pile. Apparently, the dragon fruit consumed the previous afternoon helped. It's travelled out already :)

Papa's a BIG help too, coming home by 7:30pm to have dinner together! Thanks, Lougong!

Will persevere!

Teeth ("teef"), Hair ("heh"), Eye ("ah!"), Toe, Cheese ("cheez")

She's pointing to more body parts and asking for names. She said teeth after popping off the breast! She was sucking midway and pointing at Mummy's face and other body parts.

Mummy names them for her, and she's getting more specific. She'd point to the jaw, then to the temple.  Sometimes she'd point to a few spots of the same part, just to check if the name changes.

Clever girl!

She drew a ball

And said ball!

After Note: She drew the other lines after the ball, defined as a circular/rounded line that connects to itself. It's not perfect, but hey, she's just 1!!!