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