16 months

she is 10 kg

Food: We are still on Nan HA 2 .. so lame right still don't want to upgrade her to stage 3, despite the fact that stage 2 is meant for babies from 6 to 10 months. Think that stage 2 has more nutrients and so am sticking on to it, most people I have asked said it was alright though its more expensive. But what the heck... V has started to hold her own bottle and drinks 7 scoops/210ml = 240 ml each time. (Still am a little clueless how this formula milk calculation works.)

We have been practising on her self-feeding, realized that children's utensil sucks big time (not deep enough) and so we give her metal spoon and fork. She has to eat at least 1/2 of her food before she gets to self feed as if I do give her in the beginning... nothing goes in to the stomach. You get what I mean... She eats the same things as us and have stopped cooking specially for her, though will tune our dishes so that its palatable for all. V hates the usual singaporean way of soup n rice together... her rice has to be dry and dishes separated. If there is soup, it has to be just soup. Sometimes when we eat out, there are like 3-4 bowls in front of her.. no plates for it slips away. She loves dipping like all children, so some bread and a bowl of mushroom or pumpkin soup works wonder while we enjoy our dinner.

Only in recent weeks, I had notice that V eats real well in a quiet restaurant... We eat out very often except the days we run back to the grands to eat with them. All these while it has been quite a rush at times to feed her while we eat and she does get real messy while self feeding. So sometimes DD T always ask me why he always get hungry after a $80 meal? LOL we do miss hawker foods, can't bring her and food court foods sucks big time. But in recent times we have been going for nice ambience quiet restaurant and she eats real well! Though more ex, but we get to enjoy our food. she can sit there for 1.5 hours while we chill and chat. I'm planning to go Garibaldi for lunch one day and see how she behaves. (When I muster my guts to do so... )

Sleep: As we all know their routines changes every time and can't keep to the same one. So this 2 months, its 8/9am- 8/9pm.. though the phase 2 buggered up lots! She used to sleep through 12 hours but during the 2 weeks phase, she has been waking 5/6am asking for milk. I am waiting for it to pass, but not an issue as she drinks and falls back to sleep. Day time has been quite rough as she sleeps 1- 1.5 hr only. If she happens to eat anything sweet, siao! no sleep totally 12 hours straight.. So no sugars for this child, totally banned.

Toys: I did mention about her love for stuffies. She will now sit all of them on her mat and feed them her food. Have not bought a single toy for her since the longest time as I think there is no point to get them. Though DD T finds it hard to not buy her her stuffies.

She hardly plays with her toys like sit down and play... most of the time she will go ransack things around the house. I do allow her as I'm a believer of "learn through play" philosophy. Her favourite area is the kitchen and will help me pull out clothes from the washing machine when I'm to hang them out. When she was crawling, I cleared out the fourth drawer to play with as I read that is good to let them have their own drawers. Now she attacked the 3rd drawers, clearing it out everyday... she is pulling out the 2nd drawer, peering into it and checking what's in it. I never child proof the house and she have had her fingers "kiap" many times. Interestingly, she remembers and gets more carefully the next time round.

They do get more accident prone with the running around amok in the house and it doesn't help that she trips sometimes. My friend told me his son started to cry pain when ever he fall and they found a way of stopping him cry - that is to put a plaster on the area. I tried it on V and it works! she was so intrigued but and stopped crying, its really a good way of pacifying them as they know "its there to stop the pain" wakkaka

I can't stand the fact that a 1 year old child has so much things and its over crowding my house. Can't help that she has things in 3 houses and Grands are grumbling at them too. Just today I packed the store and her room and was damn lost at what I should do with them. Its that stage that we can't throw away or pass down, the clothes are now all over in bags, boxes, the cupboard has absolutely no space. If I pass down and I get pregnant then how? How many cupboards can we buy to accommodate all the stuffs? Clueless...

Toilet: V is starting to invade the toilets, bringing her toys inside the toilets, checking out the toilet bowls (close at all times now), playing with the toilet rolls *rolls eyes*, walking to shower area and asking to have a bath, choosing her own toilet as one has her bath tub with toys and the other we bathe her with the shower. When we bath her she will pump her own soap and rub it on her body. (action only)

She has been looking at us when we use the toilet and will do her dump when I do mine.. wahaha. Her poo timing has been very consistent in recent months and I know in few months she will ask to use the toilet bowl. I refused to potty train her as DD T and his sis were potty train very young and the grands had to bring their potty on every holiday, refused outside toilet even in Singapore. *frowns* I don't want lar... I know coz I have 3 nieces and my sister told me to drag it as long as I can as if you do start to early, they tend to bed wet. My last niece started potty training at 2+ years old and she performs the best. No bed wetting,... I guess older equals maturity. I know some books say other wise, but I'm not eager. Its not any competition... I will start her straight on the baby toilet seats just for dumps.

Sick: The week I was sick, V had a low grade fever and we monitored for 2 days, thinking it was caused by the teething. (She was still screaming and on the go) But on the 3rd day, it suddenly went up to 38.3 and I woke DD T up at 6 am and drove to Mt A's A& E. (Didn't bother waiting for the PD to open) Doctor checked and told us it could be sore throat and so we thought it was the aftermath from the cold she got 1 week before KL. 3 days later and fever persisted... drove back there and the Dr thought it might be UTI. He was really through in his checkup and doesn't help that I'm a very detailed mummy that will feed him with ALL info about my child. We were in the room for about 30 mins before he diagnosed her with tonsillitis. I was totally impressed by his diagnosis as it takes alot from a Dr to go to that extend without doing tests. Especially he managed to glance her throat for less than 2 seconds. I believe it took a gamble and my input did help him much with the diagnosis. Signs of tonsillitis: weird breath smell and whitish tongue. Its a virus and not due to the intake of food. I guess my BF prevented most stuffs except my childhood illness, I suffer from tonsillitis.. my BM didn't immune her as I didn't have that antibodies!

I spoke to 2 doctors, 1 PD and Grands about the use of chinese medicine for children and most frown at the idea. Too young to be introducing all these in their virgin healthy systems they said. I too do not trust chinese medicine as I do not trust unscrupulous people in china and they affirmed my doubts. Flew there so often to know what they are capable of. Only barley they said. So only barley lar for the little one... Though barley not very chinese? but what the heck. V was given 5 days course of antibiotics... I gave her yogurt everyday as antibiotics kills all good and bad bacteria. So I needed to introduce back the good ones.

Vain: Like all girls, she knows how accessories makes one look even better. With a mummy like me, of course she inherited my genes.

Family: We are very family oriented people and will instead of going out, stay in with our parents. I am a believer that Grands teach different sets of values (though similar to ours) to her and want all my children to enjoy this privilege. If the weekends are packed, I will drop by for lunch on weekdays. I like the idea of a whole family sitting in the hall and watching her play. Teaching her things, we as parents are drain to do so after a rough day. Like how Grandma Tay will take time to blow 10 balloons for her to play, record TV shows and burn into DVDs for her to watch, Grandpa Tay will sing and teach her to be calm like him, Grandma Ng to teach her cleaning and read books, Grandpa Ng will take time to play different types of music instruments, taking her to his studio when he practices. All of them will talk to her and take time to explain things, all these I love to watch. These are blessings from God and so we must embrace it.