Sunday & Monday

Sunday
- church service at 830am.
I've gotten used to not bathing her on sunday mornings (except for washing her butt else she gets rashes from sitting in her wet diapers at night), cos we just don't have time, esp if i factor in us waking up late / i haven't packed bag / Ww is on duty. No zipping out of the house in record time like 15mins, cos there's always 101 things to do, and even when i leave the house i just wonder if i had forgotten something. I've got to also factor in Eliza's morning milk, changing and getting her ready, it's never a good idea to rush a toddler or stop one from her task in a swift manner, it's just a recipe for an unnecessary meltdown.

- For logistics and routine sake, we were always at the 1st service which is, on sunday terms, quite early. Since there's no sunday school for toddlers during the 830am service (i think there's only 2 or 3 toddlers in this service), i usually prefer that we stay through the worship part and move off to the 'cry room' during the sermon, lest she makes too much noise. But, if Amos is there, she doesn't want to go in, so i'm left to hang around outside with her. Now that she is more able to understand the meaning of being quiet, i'm able to stay in the service with her and listen to the sermon quite peacefully (that is on good days lah). I don't expect kids her age to understand much of what goes on in the service so it's finding ways to keep her occupied. Well...actually she usually has her morning snack during that time, and just this sunday, i realized i could bring crayons & paper! why didn't i think of that b4. *slap head* She was really quite busy colouring for almost 30mins! after which we had to go out for some stomping on the grass and plucking flowers/weeds.

- Mother's day lunch with mum & sis @ Paramount Tung Lok. yummmsss...and Eliza almost finished the peanut snack. gosh. she 'mmmm-ed' the delicious Ee-fu noodles, till she somewhat choked on it and didn't want it anymore. By the time we were finishing, she was quite tired out. Anyway, we had a good meal, walked about Parkway before making our way to Danny&Shuyi's housewarming to hear great news :)

Monday
...is our cycling day.
The plan was to cycle from Changi Beach to East Coast and finish off with play at Polliwogs. We started late cos we woke up late (8am...that's late on Eliza's terms..and usually if we can sleep in, she's always the first to wake up). I also had to wash clothes!! So by the time we set off it was 9am.

- Changi ride to ECP was a more leisurely one than the 1st cycling trip. The only discomfort is the sweltering hot sun...i could feel myself being tanned away! Eliza has it easiest of all and other than the very loud planes landing and taking off as we cycled past the airport runway, she nicely hid in daddy's shade, eating her cheerios away.
As usual, she was singing away, or putting her fingers in her ears, waving hi to me, ringing the bell, 'pushing' daddy's peddling thighs.
I wonder where we're going next!
(photos in the hp which i can't transfer out yet)

Friday and Saturday

We have had a great weekend!

Friday:
(ok this part wasn't so great, cos i had to go for my dentist appointment that cost me $400)
- Went to expo to check out the Borders sale / Metro sale / Baby fair. Kinda disappointing. I also bought finger paints there for Eliza that i later realized was cheaper at Toy R' Us :S
Realized that Eliza spots things i don't usually see, and sometimes it's a challenge to figure out what she says cos it's either not the most accurate pronunciation or she's at a different height from me.
Anyway she saw Clifford the dog mascot at the Borders sale walking around, and kept trying to point it out to me, but it took me like forever to realize that.
- Went for a date with Ww which didn't start out too well cos he was quite upset about the exorbitant price the dentist charged...he felt that it was way overpriced.

Saturday:
- Breakfast at Cartel. More for us than for her since she doesn't really eat bread and egg. So only the hashbrowns was a hit with her.
- Finger painting! It was a mess! Still it was super fun for her to have free reign of how she wants to mess the paper with the paints.

She's giving me her very sweet, i'm-all-ready smile :)


Kids are really more unreserved with mess...i would only use my 1 finger, (also cos i was taking photos). At one point she even used her foot! ahhh!! drove me nuts for a while cos after that it was on the floor!


I thought i only wanted to use two colours, and it got more fun as i added on the colours. Here's her finished product. You'll know which is done by her and which is done by me.


- Actually finger painting was really quite a short activity to do, even though there's still like cleaning up to do. Her cousins were over at our place but when she woke from her nap, they were going to take theirs so we had quite some time to spare.

Eliza started playing on the sofa, playing "where's eliza". Of course, having loads of fun.


- As some of the stuffed toys fell on the floor she started to arrange them and getting them to sleep. It's the beginnings of a lot more imaginative play, we've seen it on and off the past few months but now she's like great friends with her toys. She gets them to sleep, wakes them up, asks them if they "want to pee?", cleans their butt (by pinching it using her fingers. the first time i saw it, it was just tooooo hilarious!), kisses them etc. Gosh, it's so much of a reflection of what we do day in day out at home, and she's reenacting it with her toys.


She sleeps with them too. :P


- We had a good dinner and she ate till her tummy was quite big! :O on many a days when i don't cook, (except for this week), i would go to the coffee shop to buy 菜饭. It's so much better than buying noodles and i can choose to have a good variety of veg to meat. Just last week, she declared to my mil that she doesn't want to eat porridge and would rather have ruce, so our slow cooker has retired to the storeroom.

- After that we sent my mil off to the airport as she was going to Hokkiado. Which means that i'm home all week!! Anyway, the airport is a fantastic running space...which Eliza made us 'exercise' by running and running and running. If we didn't budge, she'll come back and nudge us at our thighs (that's how tall she is). Gosh i had a mini workout, but i guess she had a bigger workout!

Our mini cycling excursion

One fine day on one of the library outings, we went across to Sunplaza park where Ww saw the PCN bicycle rental kiosk. He suggested we could do a cycling trip with him cycling with Eliza in the seat. It took us like weeks (maybe months) before we really got down to do it. Sometimes it was the weather, sometimes i didn't think i really want to do that. My hesitation is mainly on whether Eliza will cooperate and sit in the bike, with daddy. I didn't think i would be able to cycle another weight of Eliza + have that seat in front of me.

Anyway during the Good Friday weekend, we really did it! We got Eliza excited about sitting in a bicycle and so there we went.


The cycle to Pasir Ris was quite a breeze, especially as we followed the PCN route. On and off Eliza need to see me as there isn't always space to cycle side by side. We were really thankful that the bell at the front of the bicycle kept her quite busy in the initial part of the ride when she was still warming up to the actual experience.


Ww would point out the flowers / kites / canals etc to her and sing with her to keep her entertained. Great daddy-daughter bonding time :)


Most of the time i could only take photos at the traffic junctions when we stop so there! This is just after Downtown east, at the big field where a lot of people were flying kites. After this part, somewhere towards Loyang, there was at least 1-2km of gentle upslope that just we too much for me. After that i was just too bished out. It was still manageable as long as there isn't any upslope.


Eliza playing with the gears now. Anyway, Eliza kept herself busy singing 80% of the time. Ww also joined in with her till she turned around to put her palm at his mouth, signaling him to stop signing. Funny girl!


The initial plan was to cycle till East Coast Park but by the time we reached Changi Beach, i was quite spent by the 2 to 3 major slopes in the route. In all i think we cycled about 10km? They have the distance markers on the ground and i was getting happier and happier as the numbers decreased, meaning that we're getting closer to our destination. Anyway, I was so super duper relieved that there was a PCN bicycle rental at Changi beach to return the bicycles else we'll have to really cycle all the way to East Coast! :S phews!
Btw, the last place you would want to be on a weekend for some peace and solitude, not to mention parking space....is Changi Village. Really the cars are ready to park on top of each other we were thankful we were on bikes and taking public transport.


Anyway it was just about dinner time and i was also glad that we didn't have to delay Eliza's dinner time. She chose noodles for dinner that day (no the photo doesn't show it cos by the time the noodles came we were eating the fried rice halfway..delicious!).


Oh and we ended the evening with ice-cream at Blic our current favourite after dinner/ dessert
place, especially for Eliza. Wonderful part of it is that it's just a 5mins walk away from home. So far we've been eating toddler safe ice-cream (ie no mint / no liquor / no sourness ice-cream). Maybe I'll pop by with Ww someday for the non-toddler safe ice-creams that i love too.

Sharing

Oh the woes of toddler sharing. Somehow, this year, she wasn't too nice on playing with other kids her age, well..in particular Amos whom we usually have playdates with. I've been scratching my head on how to deal with the offensive reactions & emotional outbursts she has towards kids coming to take her toys she has in her hands.

We were at Pollywogs once when a toddler boy, probably younger than her, came towards her and pulled the big ball she had in her hands. She threw herself onto the ball pit and wailed bitterly. Gosh...i was a bit taken aback by her reaction but on hindsight and after some reading up, I'm thinking that it was because she hated the little kids coming to snatch things away from her. We don't like it either if it happens to us. Somehow she prefers older kids cos they don't do that to her...i think it's more like the other way around...she snatches things from them (like when she plays with her cousins who will lovingly give it to her) or is too afraid to go near them (if it's a older kid she doesn't know).

She also doesn't want to play with other kids, which means, if she's playing a toy, she wouldn't let the other kid touch any part of the toy, else she'll throw the toy or snatch it away...and that can be quite aggressive....the throwing the toy (so far she hasn't hit anyone, thank God!) and the pushing the kid's hand away from the toy. But kids this age is always interested in the other kids toy.

I think she particularly dislikes playing toys with Amos cos he'll always be interested in what she's playing and they always end up in some mess with Eliza pushing Amos away or crying and Amos hitting her (ok that only happened once or twice). But if it's doing stuff together like running about, playing outdoors, they're quite fine. i guess there's no toy to fight over?

Anyway, i've told her countless times that if she wants something she "must say 'please' " & "cannot snatch" which she'll chant that phrase to me...but can't seem to do it. Seems like this isn't working out. I understand that this is a common phase that toddlers go through and i wonder when this will end.

Quote two mums' reply which i'll try to use:
"Something we have been told is not to share but to say turn. Lily had an older child to learn behaviour off (sometimes great - sometimes not so). So when she snatched a toy we don't say "share nicely" (well, not anymore), but we say something like "Lily, it's Jane's turn. Lily can have a turn after Jane".
And yes, we also tell Lily not to throw, if you do it again I will take it away - and we always follow thru. She is starting to get the message.
We are seeing the benefits of this now as Lily has just started saying "turn" when she wants something that we've got and she wants to play with. "

" It doesn't mean the toy has to actually belong to them, but when they are playing with it they perceive it as theirs. It is healthy and appropriate for children this age to take turns rather than share. If your child is the one with the toy, tell them "Jenny wants to play with that when you are done. Can you give it to her when you are done?" Then, when you see that they are done with the toy and put it down, remind them "Are you all done? If you are all done, you need to give it to Jenny" and help them hand it over at that time if they are still having trouble. If your child wants a toy that someone else has, teach them how to ask for it. Give them words if they are too young to have any. "You want to play with that? Ask Mike if you can have it when he is done"

Another from justthefacts.com
"When a playmate suddenly snatches your child’s toy, it’s important not to jump in and start scolding or comforting. Instead, act as a mediator and teach your toddler to speak up for herself, says Schafer. You can check in with your child and ask her, “do you like being treated that way?” And if she says no, tell her “then you need to speak up,” says Schafer.

Teach your child to communicate with her playmate by saying something like: “Can you tell your friend how you feel and say ‘I’m not done yet?’” Follow this by saying “your friend is asking for a turn when you’re done, can you find him and give him the toy when you’re finished?” This puts the control in the hands of your child instead of you simply saying “It’s his turn now,” and handing the toy over.

Toddler friendships can be a bit rocky at times and if things seem to be getting out of hand, it’s okay to step in as long as you do it without overreacting. “Hitting, biting and other aggressive behavior are often a sign that children are trying to connect,” says Schafer. “They’re just trying to figure out how to play and haven’t quite got it yet.” Your knee-jerk reaction may be to want to separate them, when sometimes you just need to redirect them toward cooperative play, she says. “You can say something like, ‘it looks like you really want to play with this boy, so how about we build a fort together?’”

Talking, Sleeping, Scratching

On Conversations and talk

"Last time, mummy"
I heard myself in her these days. She'll repeat to me what i've said to her, in relevant conversations, even if it's something i said a day ago. This evening she was arranging her Legos on the cover and after pouring it out on the floor she wanted to do it again. I was telling her that it's time to keep her Legos as it's bedtime. She nonchalantly told me "Last time, mummy". I was a little surprised by her request but let her play it one last time before keeping it away.

"What is this, mm?"
Really, until i hear her say some things i really don't know that I have said it to her....even on a daily basis. Sometimes when i catch myself saying it, i would feel a little embarrassed. Actually, some phrases are quite harmless...more silly and funny to hear her say it anyway.
The best one was on one of the weekends when her cousins were at our place and she took her flashcard, showed it to her youngest cousin (word facing him and picture facing her), and she asked him "What is this, hmm??" the "hmm?" is those high pitched tone which when Ww and I saw it played right in front of us we wanted to laugh ourselves silly. After that i realized she does that very often to her Elmos and stuffed toys too..she'll ask them if they want to sleep or whether they want to eat etc etc. Plus it will end with a "hmm?"
geez...i do that all the time with her...know you know why.

"Eliza so happy"
This says it all. She'll announce to us that she's happy...when we're going out, after we had a good time out, while we're playing tickle and making the bed, while daddy's carrying her to fly and she laughs her heart out, while she's singing heartily (i think she sings like half of her awake time) etc.
It's really nice to her that from her. Makes mummy happy too :)


Her fav play - helping me make the bed...or more like mess the bed. She'll tell me "Lingling go to sleep. Lingling wake up le". Sometimes we'll play rolling around and hiding under the covers. Nowadays she's really good at helping me smoothing the ends and making the quilt cover neat.

On Sleeping
I always feel Eliza can sleep herself longer but somehow on average she gets 10hr nights and less (esp during those late nights + early mornings), and 1-2hr naps. It varies quite a bit. But somehow, the bedtime has felt easier these days. For now, after brushing teeth, bedtime diapers, and prayers, it's goodnight and off to sleep. I've skipped the reading before bed somehow cos she's very good at extending the reading time and it ends up becomes a tool for her not to sleep + a crying spat if it doesn't end off well. I try reading at other times of the day then, or if i have time, before her bedtime milk / brushing teeth.
Anyway, nowadays i've told her that she doesn't need me to pat her but i'll sing or hum a song while i read some stuff. If she starts standing up or scratching the bed netting or whatever, i'll stop singing and ignore her. Normally she'll realize i'm not singing and start ranting that she wants me to sing, which will only happen when she's lying down trying to sleep. So i'll hum & read, while she tangtang and tries to sleep. It's less a struggle and she settles to sleep faster.
Though i realized she always have to keep her eyes open until they're so tired she has to close it, and sometimes takes forever (exaggerated obviously..but it feels like it). I have to remind her to close her eyes so that she can sleep...gee..once she closes her eyes voluntarily, she's off to dreamland in seconds.

On night scratching
I wonder if after months of pondering over, rationalizing, ignoring the issue, resigning myself to the sad fate of waking up to Eliza's night frustrated scratching; I might have realized something that could ease or eliminate her itching. I'm not sure if it's the way she's going off to sleep (I tell her "mummy's not gonna scratch for you. you know how to scratch on your own" + "mummy don't need to patpat you to sleep. Eliza's a big girl now."), or if it's the bathing. Eliza's has, since 1yr plus, been afraid of the shower because somehow she always opens her eyes when water goes over her face or she breathes in water, she has always bathed in her bathtub. The problem with the bathtub is that after all that soaping, i'm still rinsing her with the same soap and prob the same dirt (not that she's that dirty anyway, but still). Recently, i've used another batch of clean water to rinse her hair and her body before she gets dried. I wonder if that eased the night scratching.
I didn't tell my mil that but today's bedtime she was scratching and scratching, just now she woke up and whined cos she was itchy (though, i just waited and listened, and eventually she rolled back to sleep). Maybe it was the bathwater.

Picnics, Cutting hair, Flashcards

On outdoor concerts
I think sometimes we run out of places to go but on weekends when there are concerts in the park, we just love it. I think it's part enjoying the music and part letting Eliza run loose to check out other kids. (i don't quite enjoy the feeding Eliza part...cos picnicking dinner means we're on the groundsheet and nothing to hold her in). At this this time round it was quite ok since she was quite hungry.


tickling her and she happily let Ww do so

We listened to swing jazz, ate dinner under the cloudy sky, Eliza ran off to play bubbles with another kid and his helper, then she later dragged me off to see two boys playing baseball. it was quite a wet day and there wasn't a lot of people, not the best since you get all the wet grass stuck to you. Still, we love picnics like that...bliss!

On cutting hair
Before

After

My mil commented on how did i let the hairdresser cut her hair so short which wasn't the nicest, though we all agreed it made her look cheek-ier. I loved her previous hairstyle (or whatever there was in a mess), and my mil enjoyed clipping her hair in all cute manners. Still at least a shorter fringe will allow me to not have to cut her hair so often, after all it's the fringe that's a bother.
Thank God she was super duper cooperative during the hair snipping, to the extent that i think she enjoyed it! I'm always afraid she'll be afraid and will bring my ipodtouch as a backup plan. This time she sat on a 板 so that she's elevated (instead of on my lap previously), and we tell her that she's going to be 美美 after that.
I guess it must have been fun for her cos this evening during bedtime she was covering me with her blanket, just like when we go to the hairdressers, and telling me that she's cutting my hair, while using her fingers to pretend that she's cutting my hair. She even had to ensure that my shoulders are covered, like the real thing. She had such a kick at doing so that i had eventually tell her that it's night time and the shop needs to close. my cute girl. i just had to tell Ww what she did after that.

On creating her own sentences
It's really interesting to see and listen to how their conversations with you and others play out. A lot of it is learnt from what we say to her and she develops from there. It's amazing how God made toddlers to be language experts (well almost...after all they pick up language at such an amazing rate).

mosquitoes & brushing & others

It's the end of the work week for me and somehow i'm so looking forward to this weekend to spend with Eliza. The past two weeks has been busy with outings and visitations etc so I'm looking forward to some peaceful home time and simple outing, downstairs at the playground + park and to the library with Eliza.

Meanwhile....
- Daddy's away in Perth on a work trip and i wonder what Eliza's reaction will be when we go pick him up at the airport tomorrow. So far we've told her that daddy has taken an airplane to Perth for work stuff.

- Eliza's bitten by the mosquitoes 5 times 2 nights ago. 3 on her cheek nearer her ear, 1 on her forehead and 1 near her elbow. Everytime she gets bitten it swells into a large hard lump and sometimes there's like pus inside. Gee...poor gal... The last time she got bitten it was on her heel and she was so uncomfortable that she refused to bathe, cos she was afraid it would hurt and she walked weird for a half-a-day. Sigh...seems like i have a resident mosquito and so far the mosquito repellent didn't seem to kill it, even though it may have warded it away when it's turned on.

- Toothbrushing
It has taken me about 2months+ to get her aquainted with her toothbrush and about 1 month with her brushing her teeth (or more like tongue) on her own and for a few weeks, me helping her brush her teeth. This was not a i-force-you thing to do cos i sensed it would backfire, moreover i didn't want to be brushing the teeth of a struggling and adamant toddler. So far it has been quite good until recently, somehow she would stand beside me while i brush my teeth but wouldn't let me brush hers after i'm done. the first time it happened, i talked for 10mins (trying out all kinds of tactics) before one worked. And it worked like a gem. The crying toothbrush which was sad that it didn't get to clean Eliza's teeth of all the plague. She opened her mouth immediately. And it worked so well, i'm using that everyday. :) I hope we do this so often that toothbrushing becomes a habit....minus the frills which are for now quite fun. Now i'm worried when that tactic will backfire...oops!
Still, our toddlers are such unpredictable beings...you never know what silly stuff tickles them silly or makes them more agreeable with you.

- Insisting nicely, consistently
I have been conscious to be consistent and to insist on some things which i didn't want her to develop a bad habit in. Eliza is very cooperative when it comes to keeping her toys and she can do it well, except for times when she's flying from one thing to another and can't seem to concentrate on the task at hand. She'll do it and flit off to another thing. This is one thing I'm trying to insist on, to finish what one starts. That when it's time to keep toys, we get the task done.
Sometimes, she won't agree on doing it. ie today halfway through her brushing the room door opened (cos of the wind and cos i didn't close it yet) and she suddenly wanted to go say 'night night' to ah-ma again. It took some wailing (ya bad enough for my mil to come and ask what happened), and protests before she could calm down and finish brushing her teeth (or at least come to the mummy-brush-your-teeth part). It would have been easier to let her go but i knew it would be harder for her to come back to continue brushing, and it was a good opportunity to teach her the value of finishing one's task (or more like not to be so distracted).
It was a bit of a struggle whether to insist as i didn't know if she would eventually cooperate and brush her teeth or breakdown into a pile of messier tears and worse, vomit due to crying too hard. Hope this little lesson/activity will help her in the long run. :)

- Schooling
Eliza has been expressing interest in going to school and i haven't really moved to really find out more about the playschools. Party because of all the things i've been reading regarding sending toddlers to school at such a young age. But i'm hoping to try out Charis Montessori's parent toddler class which is on saturday. Too bad it's not the nearest from home, else i would even consider their 2 or 3 day preschool. So far from what i've gleaned from the website, i like the small class size and the Christian focus it has. Still gotta go check it out to find out more. I have told Eliza beforehand that when she goes to school, mummy/daddy/ahma/ahgong will not be there, just teachers and her friends. Is she ok with that? So far she repeats after me. Still we'll try out the parent-toddler class first. My only problem is that it's not near my place that's all. More updates soon.

Playing Legos today