God Is so good...

Besides children’s songs and nursery rhymes, I also introduce Naomi to Sunday School church songs. She enjoys singing a lot and we always sing together every night before her bedtime. She knows all the words to this simple Sunday school song. "God Is So Good" (with actions).

Naomi: God (pointing up) is so good (she still uses her index finger to show the good sign), God is so good……God is so good…..he’s so good to me (using both hands pointing to her chest).

I hope one day she will understand who God is and will accept Jesus as her personal savior. I’ve even started telling her stories from the bible and she loves it! Parents out there, you can try to get those simple bible stories picture books from Evangel or Salvation bookstore in 1-stop or Baptist Bookstore (Pulau Tikus area - next to Maxim Cake house) :)

Potty Training (Updates)

I will say I’m one lazy mummy (very guilty) and Naomi’s progress has been inconsistent for the past few months. But, she shows a lot of improvements for the past 2 weeks. Now, I really save a lot of money on disposable diapers. Before I started potty training, Naomi will use about 4-5 disposable diapers per day. After that, the numbers went down to 3 pieces and sometimes 2 pieces only.
Last week, she used 1 piece of diaper only (during night time only) and this is a major accomplishment for Naomi. She is able to “shee shee”(urinate) in the potty with no problem at all but she still can’t do her “big business” in the potty yet. Normally she will do it in her pants then only say “Oh-oh” “poot-poot”.
During weekdays, when I pick Naomi up from babysitter’s she’s all dress up in her pajamas. Normally, before her bedtime she will “shee shee” in the potty. The next morning when she wakes up from her sleep, I will ask her to “shee shee” in the potty again. I will make sure this is the standard routine she needs to follow daily.
For weekends, after she passed urines, I will change her into her training pants (diaper free) until her bath at around 10plus. After her bath, she will still not be wearing any diapers as well and only the training pants. I still will ask her every hour to make sure no accidents happen during day time.
After her lunch and milk, she will “shee shee” and then it’s time for her afternoon nap. Previously, I will let her wear the disposable diaper and then I realize that now her disposable diaper stays dry when she wakes up after her 2- hours nap. So, now I gave her the cloth diaper instead (for just in case). I want to make sure and be confident enough to let her be diaper-free during nap as well. I will try this for at least 2-3weeks and see how it goes. I heard night time is the most difficult to train. She still wakes up with heavy diaper so I will take my time to train this. She still hasn’t graduate from potty training but its okay and force her as well until she’s 100% ready.

Hanging out with the birds…

Last Sunday, we took Naomi to Penang Bird Park www.penangbirdpark.com.my/ for a visit. If you ask Naomi “Can you make the sound of a bird?” She will replied “Kruku, kruku, kruku” That’s the exact sound that came out from the birds beak at my babysitter’s house. She has 4 birds at her house. So, when we reached the entrance of Penang Bird Park, there were 2 birds outside (1 owl and 1 hornbill) greeting us. Immediately, Naomi went near the birds and said “Kruku, kruku”
I need to control her as she move too near to the birds and scared that the birds might peck her as there’s no cage and only a long string on the bird’s leg.
We can see lots of birds’ species there and being Naomi she likes to explore and go near the birds all be herself. I need to hold hands and walk together with her. Sometimes, she will let go of my hand and walk on her own. Luckily, Siew Lean was there with us and she helped to take care of Naomi while I capture the birds in “action” with my video camera. As usual the guys will be snapping their cameras away and the birds was the model of the day.
The highlight of the day was feeding the bird session. There’s a few feeding machines install at the park and it costs us RM1 for 1 pack of worms (very few worms only, I think about 10-12worms) and Jason said it was not worth it for RM1!! Since, we were all there already, no harm buying a few. It was an experience for all of us as when we open the ball (the worms are all inside the tiny ball thing). The birds flew and stand on our hands ( It was quite painful as their claw was rather sharp). The worms are still alive and moving when we open the ball packaging and the birds will fly and then eat the worms and then fly away and soon many birds came and surround us. Camera need to be in high speed if not the pics will be blur….After the feeding session, we went to see the Bird show. Bird show was boring for me and they did showcase some birds that can perform tricks and listen to simple instructions and etc. We left the place at 12:30pm and adjourn to Chai Leng Park for lunch. This trip was not as tiring as the Taiping Zoo and it was quite an experience for all of us especially for my girl, Naomi.

Taking picture with eagle. Naomi was staring at the eagle and again I'm so scared the eagle will peck her on the face! haha....


2 Birds.....trying to eat the worms....


Owl Pic...


Naomi is up to 'something'.....look at her face and action....


yellow parrot....


Yay....Naomi feeding the birds....

Kiss From Tortoise.....

Alice's house has this small baby tortoise that they bought from pet shop and Naomi was very fascinated with the baby tortoise from day 1 and of course she's not afraid to touch and pat the tortoise. I always warn her that the tortoise will bite her as she always like to open the tank and touch the tortoise. If we don't let her she will cry and wail loudly.

Then yesterday afternoon she went to 'disturb' the baby tortoise again and she took the tortoise close to her face and then it happened! The tortoise bite her! Right next to her lips! There's a tiny "look-a-like" lip mark on her left lips. According to Alice, she didn't really cry that loud she just said "pain, pain, pain" Alice put some antibiotic cream on the wound and after a while she totally forgot about the incident and went to disturb the tortoise again.....I thought she will learn her lesson but still she's so stubborn to do so. This is the picture of her after the incident.

Learning Simple Opposites...

Naomi can identify simple opposites and know what they actually mean.

Big & Small
She was playing with coins that day (yeah…I know…dirty but we wash her hands after that :) )
She picked up the 50sen coin and said big and she picked up the 10sen coin and said small.

Hot &. Cold
Naomi likes cold drinks a lot and she will always ask me to go to the fridge and pour cold drinks for her and she will say “Cold, Cold” Sometimes I will use my cold Tupperware and press it against her cheek and she will make her face first before my Tupperware reaches her cheek (like getting ready for the cold feeling).
Whenever I drink my soup, I will tell her “Hot, hot” and she won’t come near me as she know it’s hot and doesn’t like the “Hot” feeling. Even when I prepare her bath, she will test the water first and let me know whether it is hot or cold. If it’s too hot, she will tell me “Hot, Hot” then if it’s not that hot and just nice she will say “Cold, Cold and jump in the water.

Up & Down
Naomi will said up and use her index finger to point up especially when she wants to go to her room upstairs and down when she wants to go downstairs. Actually She can said upstairs and downstairs clearly now.

Open & Close
She will say “open” whenever she wants us to open something for her like cereal pack in the box for example and sometimes when she is done playing with her toys and wants to put in the box she will say “close” and put the lid on the box.

1-2-3....what's my name?

My little girl is learning extremely fast and I'm trying my best to catch up with her and make sure she's not bored and I'm always on the lookout for new things for her to explore and discover.

She is now learning numbers and can count from 1-6. I think it's too early for her to say words with 2 Syllabus? I'm not sure cause she stops at six and when I ask her to say seven, she will only said "ven" but it's okay I won't pressure her and let her pick up by herself.

We taught her on saying her own name as well. I will ask her What is your name?

Sometimes she will said "Neh.....Mi" with the missing O in the middle.

Then I will correct her and said look at mummy's mouth and follow what mummy said ok?

Mummy: Neh

Naomi: Neh (follow along)

Mummy: O

Naomi O! (very semangat and loud!)

Mummy: Mi

Naomi: Mi! (very semangat and loud!)

Then she clapped her hands together! hahahaha

Sing-a-long....

Naomi enjoys music a lot and she will dance and hum along whenever she hears music.
Actually this happened last month when she's 18months old:
I started singing Twinkle, Twinkle little star (she even knows all the actions esp "How I wonder what you are?" And act out the "diamond shape" using both her hands).
Mummy: Twinkle, twinkle little ....
Naomi: star!
Mummy: How I wonder what you ....
Naomi: are!
Mummy: Up above the sky so ....
Naomi: high!
Mummy: Like a diamond in the ...
Naomi: sky!
Mummy: Twinkle, twinkle little ....
Naomi: star!
Mummy: How I wonder what you ....
Naomi: are!

Being Choosy....

I know one day, this will happen but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. My little girl is being choosy on what we put on her now. This morning while I was getting ready for work, she asked me to put on her socks for her. She will say “Socks, Socks, Socks” I took out the purple colour socks with flowers and started to wear on her right foot. She said “No!”…..and pointed at the white colour socks with lace. She wanted that socks instead of the one I choose for her.
Normally she won’t wear socks to Alice’s house but today (I know) she’s just playing with me and I know she’s going to ask me to take off the socks before we go out from the house. I didn’t want her to wear the white socks as she will walk all over the room and being white (and freshly washed) will turn brown or black in no time. Since, she insists on wearing the white socks, I gave up and let her wear them for a while. Then she said “Shoes, Shoes?” I pretend not to hear and kept talking (to distract her) I was telling her about bears and cars and she totally forgot about the socks but she said she wants to watch “Cars” DVD http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/cars/ and then she said “Eyes” cause in the cartoon all the cars got eyes. Then she will say “Go, Go, Go” “Fast, Fast, Fast” (cause racing ma…..and she’s lighting McQueen supporter) I said no, since we are going out soon and then she went to play with her soft toys. Then I told her I’m going to take off her socks now….then she finally said “Take out, take out”
Another incident was we were getting ready to my friend’s son’s birthday party last week and I took out her pants and blouse for her and some dresses and put on the bed. At first I wanted her to wear pants (as it’s more convenient if she wants to run around and play). But she kept pointing at one the dresses (sleeveless dress with colourful flowers on them). She said “mei, mei” (pretty in mandarin).
This is the dress she wore to the party.

New Baby Blog....

Hi!
I created a new blog for my 2nd baby and this is the link to the blog. Still in 'WIP'
http://www.cheeky-baby.blogspot.com/
I will try my best to update these 2 blogs :)
Enjoy!

Old Wives' Tales...

I wanted to blog about this looooooong time ago just that i always forget to take pics of Naomi's head. I'm not sure what is it call in english but i know in hokkien it's called "Chuin" and If I'm not mistaken, English it's called crown of the head? Please correct me if I'm wrong :P

Well....Naomi was born with 2 "chuin" and according to old wives' tales, those who have 2 "chuin"are bad tempered but highly intelligent people. Just interesting thing to share although I don't believe in it.

Another friend asked me to check the patterns of those "chuin" and if both are opposite swirl, I might have a baby boy and if the patterns are exactly the same I'm expecting a baby girl (She told me before but I didn't keep track so I need to check with her again). Looks like the pattern are totally opposite swirls-eh? (This only applies if your only child has 2 "chuin"). I found this when I was surfing the net. Just for fun: http://www.childbirth.org/articles/boyorgirl.html

Anyway, the most accurate way to check whether you are expecting a baby boy or girl is by ultrasound or you won't know if your baby is playing peek-a-boo until you deliver!

A Visit to the Zoo...

We finally took Naomi to Taiping Zoo! She knows most of the animal names by now and she’s very excited when she sees them. Before the trip, I’ve already told her that mummy & daddy will be taking her to see animals in the zoo….not sure whether she understand or not….hehe.
We woke up at 6:30am on Saturday morning and quickly bath and change cause we’re meeting Sharon and Jason at Jason’s house. Naomi was still sleeping and since it’s too early for her bath, I just changed her clothes and this young lady can’t wake up even I’m being rough with her! She really can sleep all the way….finally we left the house at 7 and reached Jason’s house around 7:15am. We had breakfast (BTW: Naomi is still sleeping) and finally start our journey from Penang at 8am. I bought 3 pandan cakes from the market for Naomi’s breakfast and lunch. Naomi finally wakes up at 8am and she sat at her car seat until we reached Taiping Zoo. I gave her some milk and she ate 1 whole pandan cake.
After about 1 hour drive, we finally made it to Taping Zoo. We started walking slowly and introduce Naomi to all the animals one by one. We saw monkeys, otters, birds, owls, tigers, lions, zebras, giraffe, bear, elephants, parrots, ostriches and many others. As usual Naomi will repeat after me when I introduce the animals to her….but only the last word…haha….
Mummy: Monkey
Naomi: Key!
Mummy: Elephant
Naomi: Phant!
She’s very observant…sometimes better than me! Actually I was pointing the giraffe to her and she saw a turtle swimming in the lake and shouted “tease” (referring to Tortoise). She’s more interested to see the fishes swimming in the sea rather than the big animals walking around!
It was very hot and humid and all of us was sweating and was very tired halfway! I guess being 61/2 mths pregnant and walking around was quite tiring for me. I didn’t expect the zoo was quite big and had to walk so much. Sharon, Jason and Tjun Aun was busy taking photographs with their DSLR cameras and Sharon said she didn’t like taking animals pictures and ended up taking Naomi’s pictures. She told me that day she took more than 200shots of Naomi’s pictures! LOL
Before we headed home we took Naomi to the children’s playground and let her play with the slides and see-saw. She loves the slides so much and kept saying “Zoom!” “Zoom!”Daddy was playing see-saw with her, she was sitting at one end and daddy had to move up and down so she can play with the see-saw. Daddy wanted to take pictures of Naomi so he stood up and Naomi said to daddy “Sit!” I was laughing so hard cause she’s so demanding!
We call it a day and left the zoo at 12:30pm and everyone was so tired and hungry. I can see Naomi is about to Zzzz and she haven’t taken her milk or eat anything and I’m worried she might be hungry. I know she drink a lot of water when we were walking around. So I gave her another pandan cake inside the car while Tjun Aun was driving to the nearby coffee shop for lunch. I was feeding Naomi and talking to Sharon and I told Sharon I’m very hungry la….what about you? She said yeah…hungry la…..then Naomi suddenly took my hand with the cake and put inside my mouth!!! Instead of me feeding her she’s asking me to feed myself! I don’t know whether is it coincident or she just heard me talking to Sharon and she heard that I was telling her how hungry I was! Naomi was half asleep when we reach the nearby coffee shop and we took out the stroller so she can sleep in it while we all eat. Tjun Aun help to feed her 8oz of milk and she finished all of the milk (with her eyes closed) while I had my lunch. I guess she must be very tired and sleepy already! Here are some of the pictures taken during the trip. Enjoy!

The elephant

The cool looking tiger...










It was so hot and humid!

The one and only family pic

Mid Autumn Festival

This is the 1st time Naomi celebrated the mid autumn festival. Last year she was just 6months old and too young to understand and play with lanterns.
At first, we plan to take her to Gurney Drive and participate in the walk but it has been raining non-stop for the past couple of weeks and we decided to let her play around the shaded house porch.
To our pleasant surprised, Alice (Naomi’s babysitter) invited us to her house for a mini mid autumn celebration with her kids and neighbours. I dressed Naomi up in long sleeve blouse and pants (I know it’s a bit warm and if I don’t the mosquitoes will bite her again!)
We reached Alice’s house at 7:30pm and had fried noodles, lor bak, French fries, chicken balls, fish fingers, “ang tao ‘thng” (dessert made from red beans) and “lek tao thng”(dessert made from green beans)! I bought some ice creams for the kids.
Naomi was very excited to see so many beautiful paper lanterns all lighted up. She’s also very happy to have so many friends around and you know all that while she didn’t even come near me at all! She just walked pass me as if I’m a ‘nobody’ or ‘stranger’ to her. She can mix with all types of people and I can see she will turn out to be one social butterfly….hahahaha
We even saw her distributing ice creams to her friends. Can you believe it? Of course she’s the youngest one of the lot but the way she act and all you’ll be surprised she’s only 18mths old!
It started to rain outside and so the kids can’t walk with the lanterns so we just hang out inside the house and outside the shaded area. About an hour after that, the rain stops so we decided to go outside with the lanterns. We managed to capture a few shots of Naomi with the lanterns but she was not really fascinated about the lantern. It started to drizzle again after half and hour later but all of us were still playing outside. I was a bit worried that she might catch a cold or fall sick actually but since she’s enjoying herself so much I decided to let her play for a while. Check out this pic where she saw the rain coming down from the sky under the lamp post light.
After about 20minutes we decided to call it a day and I was quite sleepy already :)
Naomi was all sweaty and dirty with all the playing, food, ice-cream etc. and Alice decided to give her a warm bath and changed her clothes to her PJ before we headed back home to sleep. We reached home about 11pm and Naomi was quite sleepy that time and she sleeps till 9:30am (the next day!)

Observing 'kor-kor' lighting up the lantern....


holding hands with the pretty che che. She's half Siamese


Naomi with Alice. Look at her hand...so feminine..hehe


all by herself.....

no lantern spotted this time....


beautiful lanterns at the garden....and the bamboo trees..love it!


the stuff....


Eating snacks...


with the babysitter's neighbours...


eating on her own...

Perfect!

Perfect circles...check out her drawing....this was taken few weeks ago!

Perfect pose.....so cheeky!

Perfect smile....ever-so-ready to smile for the camera but not so perfect face (mosquito bites!)

Terrible 2 - on the way….?

Less than 6 months Naomi is going to be 2 years old and some days her attitude is too much for all of us. She’s normally an angel but sometimes she will be like “a little monster!” I think I need to prepare myself for the terrible 2! I don’t believe they exist but I think they do!
If we don’t give her whatever she wants….she will start with
“Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” (it’s definitely crocodile tears,ok… more like screaming and wailing loudly) and her voice is very loud and high pitch sometimes I can’t stand the sound of it. I try not to give in as much as possible cause sometimes her requests seems ridiculous. She likes to draw a lot and would like to use a pen instead of her crayon and magic ink. I don’t want her to use the pen cause of safety reasons but she cannot understand. She likes to play with many sharp objects which I always will put somewhere she’s out of reach. She will cry and wail like there’s no tomorrow. Sometimes we will distract her with other things but she will always remember back and then continue crying again. I have tried so many ways to discipline her. I’ve tried scolding her, talk to her nicely and explain to her but all didn’t seems to work. I’ve yet to try “caning” her. My friend asked me to buy several “rotan” and keep just in case….but I didn’t try this method yet.
Nowadays she likes to bring all her soft toys(big ones until there's no place for me to lie down) and put on our bed and play and normally I won’t let her do that as she even want to ride her “pony” on our bed. Then yesterday I decided to give in and let her play for a while. Then she turned to me and said “mu-mmy, Good!” (pointing at me) I was shocked cause she’s saying I’m good cause I let her play on the bed ma as normally I will scold her and say NO to her. How can I stay mad at her for long?
I did some research from the internet and it says that some terrible 2 can start as early as 18months….but I hope it will end early for her…..sigh
Now everything to her is “NO!”. Whenever I ask her do you want milk? Her answer is No (even though it’s time for milk time). I ask her do want to shee-shee (pee or go toilet). Answer is also No! Ask her anything her answer is No! Even I ask her want to go kai-kai(shopping mall)? Her answer is also No! Helllppp!!!

Naomi (The Big Sister)

Since we found out we were expecting a second baby, I’ve been trying to break the news to Naomi, however gently as possible. I’ve reached the 21weeks mark and 19more weeks to go before my due date (12th Jan 2009). But so far her response was okay and happy?
Every night before she goes to sleep she will kiss my belly and use her hand and said “sayas” “sayas” (Sayang-sayang) to my big belly. Sometimes she will look at my belly and call out “ba-bey” “ba-bey”
I feel she’s not the “jealous” type…which is good for us cause we’re very worried on how she will cope with another baby at home, attentions or siblings rivalry and etc. She has shown her caring and loving characters to all family members as for now. Even my babysitter said she so “pandai ambil hati” of her whole family which makes everyone love her lots!
I wanted to test her and confirm she’s not the’ jealous’ kind so I carry one of my friend’s 7months old baby boy that day during wedding. Tjun Aun was carrying Naomi that time and I was carrying the baby boy and just standing next to Tjun Aun. Naomi’s reaction?
She was smiling at me and the baby and her hand was caressing the baby’s arm. I thought she will wail and cry for me (which I’ve seen my friend’s daughter did that to her whenever she carries another baby). The baby boy was very active and I was wearing those big funky earrings that night and he kept pulling (playing) with one of my earrings. Naomi started to said “No-No-No” to the baby. I think she’s trying to protect me from getting hurt? Clever Girl.
I already imagine both of my kids getting along and playing together. Naomi will be a good big sister.

win, lose or draw....

If you guys are familiar with the game show Win, Lose or Draw, this is what we as a family are playing right now. Naomi will ask me or daddy to draw and then she will guess what we draw. Sometimes, I ran out of idea on what to draw and will pass to daddy to take over the drawing.

Most of the time we will repeat whatever we have drawn before. She can guess almost all of our drawings. I would say I'm a pretty good artist myself...haha...but something funny happened yesterday night. I was drawing baby. She said babey! I said yeah...correct! Next, I draw star, she said Star ! Correct! Then I was planning to draw a moon but if i draw just circle she might not know so i drew a Crescent Moon. Then she said 'na-na' (banana). Then I looked at my drawing again...oookkkkayyy...my drawing is not that bad and it did look like banana....hmmmm...then i said yeah! u r correct!! Take a look at all the pics and you tell me...

Baby


Star

Crescent (Moon) or Banana?

Art Time....

Naomi has shown interest in drawing and she can sit on her high chair and draw for hours.

Naomi's hand co-ordination has improve tremendously and I observe her drawing skill and just less than 2 weeks she is able to draw in circles. Before that, she just simply scribble lines.

Take a look at her before and after pictures!

This was taken 2 weeks ago...

This was taken today (27th Aug 2008)

Although not a perfect circle or round shape, she has indeed able to swirl her hand round and round to achieve that. :)

Practice makes perfect

Some tips....

Parents...

If you are planning to potty train your baby/toddler at an early age. I discover these few tips that might be helpful although I still haven't 100% successful in training Naomi but this is what I discover along my potty training journey:

You can start anytime and when you know your baby/toddler is ready esp she starts to communicate with you more.

1. Start with no diapers/cloth diapers during daytime

2. Be very proactive in bringing the potty (Esp. after her milk, meal, water)

3. Normally they won't tell you so I need to ask her "Do you want to 'shee shee'? (Up until today Naomi still can't tell me she wants to do business so I have to ask her often-normally abt 1 hour after her milk/water, she will do her business) cause by asking her often it's something like remind her and hopefully this will be register to her brain that she's doing the right thing by doing business in the potty instead of her pants.

P/S: If I forgot to ask her she will do her business in her pants !

Same = Shame ??!

Naomi is confused with these 2 words but she's not aware of them. I caught her few times making these mistakes but not sure how to correct her or explain to her.

First incident:

1) There's a picture of a frog inside her book and she said 'frog' and i have a tupperware which has a 'frog' cartoon on it and she pointed that tupperware and said 'frog' same, same (but while saying the word 'same', 'same' she's doing the action of 'shame', 'shame' (using her index finger and caressing her cheek). Then I told her same means similar, shame means 'liu','liu' (tak malu) but she didn't get me. I totally forgot about it until yesterday and it happen again.

Yesterday:

2) She saw a 'balloon' picture in her book and there's another picture on the box itself and she told me 'same','same' (and doing the 'shame', 'shame' action at the same time). This time I told her SAME is not the SAME as SHAME. I think this sentence will make her more confused! hahaha...i think i will let her discover this when she grows older while i try to think of a way to explain to her the diff.

wish me luck!

Words...a major development in her milestones

At 17 months, Naomi can say more than 50words already and she's learning new words everyday! So we need to be careful on the words we use at home as she's a fast learner and tend to pick on stuff faster than we expected. If I'm not mistaken her 1st word was 'ma' which of course refers to me - her mummy!

These are the words she use to communicate to us:

Family Members/People
Ah Ma (Grandma) - she calls MIL Ah Ma & my mom Ah Ma too, not sure she knows the diff...haha
Ah Kong (Grandpa) - same thing, calls my dad & FIL Ah Kong
Khor Khor (Sis in law)
Ah Chek (bro in law)
Ah Gu (my bro)
Ta Che (big sis) - Babysitter's eldest daughter
Er Che (2nd sis) - Babysitter's 2nd daughter
Kor Kor (big brother) - Babysitter's son
Baby (anyone smaller than her she will call baby)
Auntie -Babysitter or stranger
Unker - Babysitter's hubby
Da-day (Daddy)
ma-ma (Mummy)
mi (Mummy)
mu-mmy (which is very rare)

Che Che (big sister)

Pets
Chet-er (Chester) - our golden retriever at home
Mi-mi - Babysitter's pincher (dog)
Fi-Fi - Babysitter's pincher (dog)

Animals
Dog
Cat or Mau (in mandarin)
Cak (Cicak in Malay) - Lizard
Bird
phant (Elephant)
Tease (Tortoise)
Snake
bugs (pick up from watching Bugs Life)
frog
shark (pick up from watching Finding Nemo & Shark Tales)
da (Panda) - Pick up from watching Kung Fun Panda
horse
bear
fis (Fish)

Body Parts
Head
Der (Shoulder)
Nose
Mou (Mouth)
Ear
Eyes
Hand
Leg
hair

Objects
kar (Car)
phone
lights
book
pen
milk
ball
bag
shoes
comb
star
cuit (ket) - Biscuit
cake
watch
cup
spoon
apple
chair

Actions
Daw (Draw)
Sma (Smile)
walk
run
lai (Come in Hokkien)
po (Carry in Hokkien)
sit
wait
hai (Hi, usually in dragging tone)
bye
hlo (Hello)
do-doi (I can't think of english word for this!)
hot
cold
come
in
out

kiss

hug

Random pics I took last week..

So far this is the latest pics...see the new haircut? LOL

She wants to pose with her bear but when I ask her to look at the camera, she look elsewhere...

I showed her this pic and said Next time you must look at the camera and pose like this ok? She ignore me and kept saying "Bear, Bear, Bear" while pointing at her Bear in the picture...*pengsan*

Hanging out with Charlotte che che...

Saturday evening we went to visit my friend Hooi Ling and her daughter Charlotte who is turning 3 this Nov. She gave me 3 bags full of Charlotte’s old clothes (I don’t consider them old and they are all very nice and still new looking just that they are too small for Charlotte already, even all the PJs and house clothes are all nice looking! Her mummy has great taste!) Most of Naomi’s clothes are pass down from Charlotte.

They have a golden retriever at their house too. His name is Simba and he’s a very good dog. Simba was staying in the cage and Naomi was so excited when she saw Simba and kept saying “Woo-woo” “Woo-woo” (imitating dog barking sound). Then daddy asked Naomi to give Simba a pet. She put her hand inside the cage and petted Simba on the nose and head. Hooi Ling commented that Naomi is very brave cause Charlotte dare not touch Simba at all! Simba is really cute and nice dog and not aggressive like Chester (our golden retriever at home). When Naomi pet Simba, his reaction was like so cool and ‘manja’ but for Chester, it’s totally the opposite. Chester is a jealous dog and somehow will react in more aggressive way.

Naomi and Charlotte clicked immediately and Charlotte has a lot of toys at home and she shared them with Naomi. Naomi was especially attracted to the slide and she can climb up the stairs and then slide down. I did not expect her to be able to climb up the stairs so I kept asking Tjun Aun to put her at the edge and push her down the slides but she surprised me by climbing up the stairs and then slide down and when she slide down she said “Swooosh”.

After the warm up, we went to Queensbay mall for dinner and window shopping. When we reached there we asked Naomi to hold Charlotte’s hand and walked.
The girls look so cute holding hands and walking together. We had dinner and then went our separate ways for a while as I need to get some groceries and we met up with them again after 15minutes and when Naomi saw Charlotte she shouted so loud “Che, che, che” (Big sister in Hokkien) and Charlotte also shouted back “mei-mei, mei-mei” (younger sister in mandarin). They were like so happy to see each other even just 15mins of not seeing each other…..then they hugged each other….hahaha (Hug as in really use their arms and wrap around each other!).

We left Queensbay mall at around 9pm and in the car Charlotte started to whine “I want to go Queensbay mall” over and over again. She didn’t want to go home yet. Hooi Ling tried to distract her and after 5 minutes she started all over again and she started crying (I feel more like a crocodiles tear) Then Naomi try to console her (as if asking her not to cry) She use her hand and touch Charlotte’s arm and brushing her hands up and down on her arms. When we reached home, Charlotte again complain to the maid “I want to go Queensbay mall” the maid laughed and said “Ok, Ok” “We will go” Then Naomi again rushed to “sayang” Charlotte again and the maid was saying “Wow, this little girl some more can console big sister” Then Hooi Ling said “Ya, shame, shame, mei-mei some more need to 'sayang' big sister” .

Naomi is going to be 1 ½ years next month and 2years in another 6 months time. Naomi is really growing up fast and I can see she’s ready for a sibling as I can see she likes companion to play with.

Careful vs Careless....

This incident happened on Sunday morning when everyone was preparing to go to church. My in laws (mom, dad & sis) was all at the hall having breakfast and watching the Olympics and I went downstairs to prepare Naomi’s lunch as well as breakfast for myself and Tjun Aun. When I went down, I saw Naomi was sleeping soundly. I moved her to sleep with Daddy on our bed before I went downstairs. Daddy of course was still sleeping. I did not wake him up to inform him I was going downstairs (I normally will but I see both of them sleeping so nice so i decided not to wake him up as it was still quite early).

I was in the kitchen for about 10minutes and about 5minutes after that, my father in law wanted to go upstairs and change and then he shouted “Hey, Naomi what are you doing here on the stairs – ALONE?!!” I got a shocked of my life and quickly went to the stairs and I saw her standing on the stairs (looked a bit scared..) and holding on the side of the stairs so father in law quickly carried her down and you know what Naomi did? She was scared and kept saying “Pah, pah, pah” (mandarin of saying scared, scared, scared) and beating her chest gently. Everyone was laughing and also WORRIED cause how on earth did she came out from the room and then walked down to the dangerous staircase??! I was careless cause I did not close the gate upstairs as I thought I’ll be in the kitchen for like 5-10mins and Naomi is still sleeping ma. That’s why she can walk down the stairs! But, what about our bedroom door? I did close the door before I went downstairs as we had the air-conditioned on in the room so I will close the door…this is still a big '??' to all of us. Did she open the door by tip toe-ing? Our door is quite easy to open (just by turning the door knob) but then again by a 17mths old?

Thank God she didn’t slip or roll down the stairs and I guess she must be very careful when she walk down the stairs (esp need to go through the gate and then taking one step at a time) But then again IF I had close the gate, I think she will climb over the gate (like what she did inside the cot) and that will be worst!! So I guess leaving the gate open that day was actually a good thing? I don’t know….I just know that I have to be extra careful in the future and wake daddy up the next time when I need to leave the room (even for 1 minute!) as daddy also woke up only when he heard father in law shouted! God is watching over her and she’s a very careful girl, I know!

Take a look at the pic. She climbed till the 5th steps when father in law saw her!

Potty Training – Updates

Updates > Last Saturday, Naomi was very well behaved and she did all her business into the potty!
She didn’t wet or ‘shee shee’ in her panties at all and I let her wear her diaper during her afternoon nap. She even ‘shee shee’ without my help! I was busy preparing stuff for her bath so she’s half naked already then she went to her potty and sat down by herself ( I wasn’t aware!) cause when I wanted to ask her to go to the bathroom with me then I saw there’s urine inside her potty!! I’m very proud of her!! She’s so independent! When I praise her she will respond happily and clapped her hands and said ‘yeahhh’…so cute right?

But Sunday she wet 2 of her panties and all happened within 1 hour…hahaha
She was standing and drawing at our hall then suddenly she ‘shee shee’! I scolded her and she did feel guilty. So I changed her pants and then remind her again and again. After about 45mins after her lunch and her milk, I brought out the potty again and let her sit on it (She was watching Kung Fu Panda- again!) she did ‘shee shee’ inside the potty but I think she missed the potty at first and her urines was all over the floor then I saw her taking her hanky and wipe the floor! *pengsan* and I told her no need, go and sit over there and I quickly took out the mop and wipe the floor….I know she’s trying to help but….using her clean hanky?! *double pengsan*

Potty train (Part II)

Since Monday, Naomi is not wearing cloth diapers during daytime. I asked my babysitter to let her wear panty with her normal shorts, skirts, dresses and be very proactive in bringing the potty for her (especially 1hour after her milk or water, during her bath time and before & after her afternoon nap etc.) Alice told me it worked! She might not able to tell us yet that she's going to do her 'business' but at least she knows that she need to 'shee shee' in the potty.

Last night, I went to brush my teeth and I demonstrate to her how mummy brush teeth and she took her tooth brush too and started brushing her teeth (without the toothpaste) and I wanted to showed her how to rinse my mouth so I put water into my mouth and said "Pui" (then the water came out from my mouth) she was laughing so hard I tell you as if something funny cause i guess this is the way to get her to rinse her mouth and I let her try. I put a bit of water into her mouth but she swallow them immediately then i told her "No, you don't swallow, if you swallow no water will come out when you "pui" then she tried again...again she swallow the water...then again and again until finally she "pui" out a bit of water....including her saliva....hahaha (she's trying so hard) then in the end i said tomorrow night only we brush teeth again. Then I asked her do you want to 'shee shee'? Then she nod her head so I quickly took off her pants and diaper and I saw her urine trickling down and I asked her to squat down quickly...then she squat down and 'shee shee' !! Way to go girl! I'm very proud of her accomplishment ! Hopefully tomorrow she's not going to wet any panty cause as I heard from Alice she only wet 2 panties so far and other times she manage to 'shee shee' in her potty.

Kung Fu Panda wannabe...

Tjun Aun bought Kung Fu panda DVD yesterday so we played the DVD for Naomi. She did pay attention to some parts of the movie and most of the time she will just wander around the room and play with her other toys. Surprisingly, she watched the whole movie. I was about to send her downstairs to play with her grandaprents then this happened!! She went to the back of the bedroom door and imitate the Kung Fu panda “kick”.
Look at the pictures and see how cheeky she looked!
She really made me laugh so hard and Daddy quickly took out the camera and snapped her in ‘action’!

Potential karate kid? go figure...


The funny thing is she finds it funny too and cute i guess....

"Smaa"...... = SMILE....

These 2 pictures are taken by my friend, Sharon and I especially love these 2 shots cause I’m surprised to see Naomi actually pose(getting ready) and smile (oh so sweet) at the camera. I was just sitting beside her while she looked directly at my friend’s camera….and she hold her smile for quite some time like we adults do when we want to get ready to take pictures….hahaha

Naomi can say smile as in “Smaaaa” without the “L” when Daddy bring out the camera!
Nowadays she will use her 2 index fingers and point her cheek when she poses for the camera….trying to be extra “cute” I think….hahaha

Not ready yet!


Posing and holding Mcdy's french fries on the other hand!

Naomi loves to "DAW" (DRAW!)

Naomi likes drawing a lot and i bought her some colour pencils, magic inks and non-toxic crayons for her to experiments...She will said "Daw", "Daw" (Draw) without the 'R'! I'm thinking of getting her a proper set of table and chair for her drawing, writing, reading and colouring sessions.

She's actually holding her crayon on her left hand...getting ready for colouring...





serious at work.....

Potty training for my girl...

This is tough….potty train…mom & dad out there? Any advises and tips?

Naomi knows what is the potty used for cause every time she will sit on it and said “Ngggggg…..ngggggg” as if doing big business. She’s too playful and I’m scared that she will not able to learn and cope when she goes to school. Ok..back to her potty training. She is good at “acting” so when she takes her potty and sat on it and make the “sound”..it’s actually nothing…..sometimes she will hold her stomach…and make her face one kind….also nothing…so it’s very difficult for me to know when it’s the right timing to train her.

Even Alice (my babysitter said she’s having tough time training her!) One of my friends also a mummy asked me not to let her wear diapers during morning so I tried last Saturday. Then she wet her jumper. She did feel uncomfortable and “guilty” then she said to me “wet,wet” and point her jumper. Then I talked to her nicely and remind her to tell mommy, when you want to wee wee ok? She nod her head as if saying yes and understand.

Then in the evening, I took out her potty again and ask her to “wee, wee” (pass urine) she sat on her potty for a while and finally got up and walk few steps and then she did it on the carpet upstairs! *alamak* *headache* then she use her fingers and do “hor, hor” as if blaming me for the mess but actually was herself! Then I scolded her but she didn’t feel anything at all.
I’m going to try again this coming weekend and wish me luck!

MIA

Hello….I’m back…I’ve been ‘Missing in Action’ for quite some time and now I’m back in Action…I got an announcement to make….Naomi is going to be a big sister :)
Yep…I’m 18 weeks pregnant now and 2 more weeks to go I’m half way through my pregnancy cycle…..yippee…I really can’t wait the day I deliver!
Naomi is 17months old now and she is doing very well. Her vocabulary has improved a lot and she can communicate with me and the family more now.

updates...more updates about my little ones....

Yes.....Naomi can now point correctly at all her major body parts as I always sing for her the song

"Head & Shoulder, Knees & Toes, Knees & Toes,

Head & Shoulder, Knees & Toes, Knees & Toes,

Eyes, Ears, Mouth & Nose"

She will follow me as I do the action and when I test her again by asking her where's your nose? She will point at her nose and sometimes she will point my nose!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is one of her favourite songs too.

When I sing the song for her, she will said 'star'. She even can use both her hands to do Diamond shape when I sang "Like a Diamond in the sky" She even can recognize 'Star' in pictures from books, magazines and T.V!

Every night, I need to read a book for her before her bed time. Sometimes I'm very tired so I will turn on the TV for her instead but she will demand for her bedtime story! She will said 'book', 'book', 'book' and kept pointing at her books! Very demanding indeed!

Naomi @15months

She’s definitely more aware of her surroundings now.
Last week we took Naomi for her chicken pox jab.
At first she was okay, when the nurse tried to weigh her in the weighing machine, she started crying hysterically. When she saw the doctor she cried louder and louder ( I think she knows what she’s getting into) cause normally when she visit Dr.Chua she will be meeting her good friend ‘the needle’ already. 2 people need to hold her during the jab, I need to hold both her hands tightly and the nurse was holding her legs and Dr Chua quickly took the needle and injects her buttock. It was very fast but little girl still crying even after the injection. She only stops crying when we were out from the room!

Besides her awareness towards the surroundings, she’s now expert in imitating people and ‘acting’. When I asked her to do any actions she will perform it to me.
These are some of my recent conversations with her.
#1:
Me: Naomi, can you please show mummy how you sleep? Can you do the ‘sleeping’ action?
Naomi: (Act out the action: 2 hands flat together and put at one side of her ear with snoring sound) Yes, got sound effect some more!

#2:
Me: Naomi, show Mummy how you cry?
Naomi: (Act out the action: hands covering her face and said Oooo…Oooo…Ooooo)
One funny incident was I was watching Jerry Mcguire on TV that day and there’s one part in the movie where Cuba Gooding Jr (as Rod in the movie) was interviewed in the famous talk show after his ‘success’ in the sports world he was telling the host “No, I’m not going to CRY” cause normally all celebrities in the talk show will cry.
So when Naomi heard the word CRY from TV she acted out the action! It makes me realize that her listening skill is actually quite good…hmmm

#3
She was playing with one of her toys….
Me: Naomi, put the toy on mummy’s head
Naomi: Quickly took the toy and put on my head!

That night I asked her to close the bedroom door and she’s a good girl, went to the door and close the door shut. Sometimes after I change her diaper I will ask her to throw inside the dustbin. She will happily take the diaper and throw it inside the bin.

Weaning From Breast....

I have stop breastfeeding period…I was having a tough time when trying to wean Naomi from the breast as she was so attached to them!
She is actually sucking for comfort most of the time so I decided to wean her before she grows older.
First attempt = ‘50% success’
As usual, we will pick Naomi up from Alice’s house after work around 6pm and then went back home. Usually I will feed her and she will doze off for like 1 hour. Around 9pm before her bedtime, I will feed her again. She will doze off until 1am. So, I will feed her again at 1am and she will sleep until 7am. Sometimes I will fee her and sometimes I don’t, depending on my time. Normally I will quickly send her off to Alice’s house cause I need to get ready for work. This is basically my weekday routine when I was still bf.

So, I decided to change her pattern one day. I still feed her at 6pm and then before her bedtime around 9pm I feed her formula milk. She pushed the bottle away….so I had to be strong, I tried again but she still doesn’t want the bottle. She’s very determined a.k.a ‘stubborn’. We were both playing ‘tug of war’ until 11pm!! I nearly gave up and decided to bf her but I need to be stronger than her…..so in the end she pointed at her milk bottle and said ‘nen nen’…..i took the bottle and fed her…she finished the 7oz milk at one go….after about 5 minutes, she’s too tired she fell asleep on her own. She woke up at 4am and I have no choice but bf her as I was so tired to be playing ‘tug-of-war’ with her again.

Second attempt = ‘100% success’
I did not feed her at 6pm and let her play with her toys, read her books, watch TV until she’s tired and finally feed her formula milk at 9pm. She finished the milk alright but she still wants to suck. She kept crying and asking for the real ‘nen nen’ I said no, no more finish already. She kept using her hands and beat my chest but I told her no. She keeps on going and going until 11pm until she finally gave up and Zzzzzz
She woke up at 3am and I again did not bf her. I just carry her for a while and she went back to sleep.

Third and finally attempt = ‘Mission Accomplished’
I follow exactly what I did the day before and it worked. She did not cry or ask to bf anymore. She’s like totally forgotten about them…I thought she will get use to it only after 1 week but it only took her 2 days to really get over it.

One thing good is she can sleep through the night now and I can sleep longer…..
I still miss bf her though cause the feeling is undescribable…most nursing mothers will understand this tingling ‘feeling’ =)

Anyway, it has now been a week that Naomi has been completely off the breast. What started out as my labor of love became a loving wondrous journey that lasted approximately 1 year and 2 months. I thought I would feel a sense of relief because the weaning was now over and done with. But what I felt was a tinge of emptiness…as if something I had grown to love dearly is now missing from my life. It is a sign that my Naomi, my darling girl, has grown up somewhat, and I am just grateful that I was able to give him the best nourishment a mother can offer.
She now sleeps lesser during daytime esp on weekends compare to bf time….but I’m okay with it as long as she can sleep through the night ; )

Water Baby....

Last Sunday, Patrick & Hooi Ling asked us to join them for a swim at Equatorial Hotel. They brought along their little girl Charlotte too.
This is actually Naomi’s 1st experience to swim in the swimming pool. I was quite worried as this is her 1st time and not sure how she will react to it. I was right; she was very scared of the water. I should have introduce her to swimming pool when she’s younger so that she can get used to it but I didn’t. As she’s now 14 months old and more aware of her surroundings…she gets chicken out easily I tell you……..She didn’t want to go in to the pool at first. I had to carry her and went in to the water with her. She was screaming so loud when her legs touch the water…the water was quite cold actually….she held on to me tightly…..and didn’t want to let go. We brought along a baby's float for her so that she can sit on it in the swimming pool. She didn’t want to ok? She was struggling so much and didn’t enjoy at all. She will scream hysterically every now and then. After about 10-15mins, I forced her to sit on her float….hahaha….ya, ‘force’ and she screamed again…..but I kept pushing her further and further until we reached the middle of the pool…and she finally keep her cool….she was smiling and enjoying herself ….She was kicking the water and use her hand to splash the water. She was so excited so I kept pushing her float further until we reached to the other end of the pool. She was waving at her daddy at the other end and smiling all the way.
We’re quite surprised to see how quickly she gets used to it. Patrick pointed out that we should bring her more often, maybe after 1-2 times she will get used to it…but after 15mins she’s enjoying herself so much. We were swimming around for quite a while until her fingers all wrinkled but I still continue and let her swim as I, myself was enjoying the water too! I haven’t been swimming for years so I did a bit of swimming too that day. After for about 45mins I wanted to carry Naomi up. She didn’t want to!! Can you believe it? Earlier, she didn’t want to go in to the pool and now she didn’t want to get out of the pool?!
She was crying when I told her it’s time to go…so Daddy took her 1 more round without the float…and she’s so natural…daddy was carrying her in freestyle position and she was floating by herself…..and she kicked the water a bit….meaning she’s relaxing herself that’s why she can float….she’s a water baby….but the bad thing was she swallow too much chlorine water when she’s in that position. I carried her out of the water after another 3mins and took her to shower. It was a very nice and enjoyable experience for all of us. We’re thinking of going swimming again this week.

Yeah......i'm cool!!



Too scared to sit on her float....




I'm asking her to sit on her float...so i can push her around in the swimming pool....


Still can pose for the camera?

Clapping her hand...