At 26.5

Huda is now 26.5 months and I have not written much about her lately. So here's her progress report (which I planned to do since last year) .

Hmm. Where shall I start? I think I shall write whatever comes to mind but do note that I cannot gush about my own child in public. I have that asian parent mentality - whatever that is. (I created that term myself so congratulations if you can accurately figure out what my big problem is.)

Huda is a happy child. She does not tell me that but I assume so from her actions. 

She's comfortable being with familiar people. In such situations, she will touch everything, run about, climb, blabber, make a mess and all other normal toddler-like actions. She's still the same in unfamiliar surroundings as long as familiar people are with her. But when someone new appears, she will grab my legs and hide behind them. She normally needs about one hour to get used to new people. That, I don't mind. Because it means she's a lot more manageable when we visit someone's place. Imagine the headache I'll face if all she wants to do when we reach someone's house is run run ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!

Huda cries when she doesn't get what she wants and when she's tired but still refuses her nap. I think that's the same for almost all kids. Sometimes, however, she'll throw tantrums when scolded. Her caregivers (her grandparents and all members of her grandparents' household) and her parents have absolutely no qualms scolding her when she has done something wrong. When she's scolded, she'll do any one of these three things.

a.       Try to change the subject by asking for 1) milk; 2) water; 3) any random family member who’s not at the scene of the crime

b.       Throw her toys onto the floor which will get her an even bigger scolding

c.       Run to me and hug me or hang on to my leg if I’m standing and ignoring her (this happens a lot if I’m the one doing the scolding)

 

She's saying a lot more words now. She surprised me a few weeks ago when she pointed to a man jogging and said, "Joo-ging." Ah. It's good to know that pointing out to what people are doing and telling her the names of the actions repeatedly work. She's also (finally!) forming 3-word sentences and sometimes 4-word sentences. We have not heard any 5-word sentences so far. She's mostly a Malay-speaking child because we are trying very hard to speak Malay to her. We believe that living here in Singapore, it is easier to pick up English than our own mother tongue. But that doesn't mean we don't speak English to her. It's just that we speak Malay to her a lot more. We are trying to develop good language habits in her. When we speak to her, we try not to codeswitch between languages.

We hope that growing up, she will be effectively bilingual.

 

She is now more interested in people in her age group. When we reach her grandparents' place on Sundays, she will immediately join all the little people and run around with them. She also has an (unhealthy - according to her father who now has to revise his earlier decision not to allow Huda to talk to boys til she's 40) interest in a boy called James. James is a 4-year-old boy who lives in the next block. Almost every evening, he will be playing at the open space in front of his block with his younger brother and father. Every day, as we walk home and are about to reach our block, Huda will start asking me, 'Mana Chem?' (Where's Chem? - her best pronunciation of James' name) But when she sees James, she will just stare at him while James asks me many questions about Huda. Once we are some distance away from James, she will wave and shout out, 'Bye Chem!' Sheesh. I don't understand. She also likes Jie Jie and Mei Mei from next door. She often rushes to the door when she hears them coming home and will sometimes blabber with 3-year-old Jie Jie.

 

She's now drinking Pediasure and Friso. I'm not comfortable giving her Pediasure alone because Pediasure is not milk. The first item in the ingredients list is corn starch. I will have to rethink giving her Friso because Friso uses skimmed milk - which is not what I want her to have if I'm trying to fatten her up. I'm looking for milk which uses milk in its entirety, not throwing out the fatty bits. Any suggestions?

 

Eating is still a challenge. It's difficult trying to figure out her pattern. One Saturday, I made french toast topping it with cheese and she ate one entire slice of bread. The next Saturday, I made her the same thing and she only ate the cheese. Sometimes, she only has half a tablespoon of rice for dinner. I've even tried force-feeding. It works sometimes but doesn't work most of the times. She doesn't even like transfats-laden fries which out of desperation, I plied her with. I suppose, I should take that as good news.

 

She enjoys playing Lego and doing puzzle board games. She has no interest in dolls. Ocassionally, she likes her teddy bear. Her kitchen set is real cos she is allowed to raid two drawers in the kitchen. Once, one Lego block was thrown just outside our front gate. She ran to the kitchen, took a ladle and tried to scoop the Lego back into the house.

 

She loves balloons. We are in for an eardrum-piercing time if she sees another child with a balloon and she has none. I love going to shopping centres on weekends because there's always a balloon giveaway. We are now smarter. We have at least one balloon (defllated, of course) in our bags just in case some random kid happens to be carrying a balloon and we can't detect the source of the balloon.

 

Okay. So that's Huda for now. Of course, there's a lot more about her that I've not written about. I hope I'll write them down as soon as I remember them so that I'll have a snapshot of Huda at this stage in her life. And in years to come, she'll be able to read this and find out what she was like when she was a wee little girl.

A Lot of Everything

1. Sometime last year, I received the very pleasant news that one of my friends is pregnant. And now, she has just given birth! Yayyy!! Her pregnancy was fraught with complications and so was the birth but both mom and babe are doing well now. Welcome to the world, Shin Ee!

2. I'm growing old. It's confirmed. In this hot, hot weather, I need cold drinks. (Who doesn't?) I don't normally drink cold drinks. My drink of choice is plain water, at room temperature.

Yesterday, I had a glass of cold water and there was a piercing pain (what's the english equivalent of ngilu/nyilu - heck - i dont even know how it's spelt in malay) around my front teeth. I've got sensitive teeth!! Gaaaah!! How did that come about? I last saw a dentist end of last month and she *ahem* praised me for my good dental hygiene.

A quick search on the net shows that applying too much pressure while brushing is the main cause; it cause the gums to recede. The solution is to use a softer toothbrush and toothpaste for sensitive teeth. A change in toothpaste, I can handle. But a softer toothbrush?? I've always liked my toothbrush hard (don't you perverts dare try read too much into this) and the pressure I apply is about the same amount I use to scrub the toilet bowl. I might as well use a piece of cloth to gently wipe my teeth. Oh heck. I should also put up a poster in my mouth to welcome all forms of bacteria and plaque.

3. The head will come and look at me do my work this Thursday. Gulp. I very scared.

4. My grandmother is coming to Singapore this June. Yayy!! These past few years, she shuttles back and forth between her kampong in Melaka, her sons' homes in KL and us in Singapore. She's a very old lady now; age has caught up with her. She walks with a hunch, which Huda likes to imitate. Huda enjoys her company and I hope she enjoys Huda's company too. I must say that Huda makes her work up quite a sweat. There was once when Huda climbed up the dining table, which normally does not raise even an eyebrow among those who see her often. But my poor grandmother, who takes a long time to get from the bedroom to the living room, just zoomed from the sitting area to the dining table in a flash. I kid you not. In a flash. I just saw a blurred baju kurung zooming past me.

5. I had an amazing time catching up and chatting with my gal pals some Fridays ago (minus husbands and kids). It has been so long since I last caught up with them. It was fun fun fun!!! Considering that most of us are now reined by kids and can no longer go out without a single care in the world, the fact that we stayed out til amost midnight was almost a miracle.

6. We have a new camera and it's a Canon!! Yippeeee!

7. All right. I think that's all for now. I'm going to brush wipe my teeth and decide what to do this Thursday.

Oh Lizzie Dear!

When we first moved in some five years ago, we noticed a lizard problem. So, we had a fly swatter (or three) in every room, located conveniently so that we would only need to stretch to arm ourselves with that weapon of ultimate destruction.

Somehow, after some time, our interest in lizards waned and the fly swatter, once battered beyond redemption, got disposed off and not replaced.

Until a week ago. I noticed three huge lizard shit in the kitchen, just millimetres away from each other. I am very sure that the shit-owner had considered that space his toilet. So, I placed two sticky pads on the wall above the shit hoping that the rude lizard would get stuck and I imagined myself laughing at it as I throw the sticky pad and the stuck starving lizard down the rubbish chute. A week later, still no lizard on sticky pad.

Yesterday, The Husband was changing Huda in the room and I closed the door. Huda pointed at the door and said, "Ti-tak. Ti-tak." Cicak. Malay for lizards.

I looked at the direction she was pointing at and saw a huge mother-of-all-house-lizards staring at me. I shouted at my brother, who just so happened to be in the living room, to get a fly swatter for me. He took quite a while to find one and eventually emerged with a fly swatter that had definitely seen better days.

I whacked it, but the fly swatter failed me. (Or really, honestly, I just couldn't aim despite having that offending creature exactly in front of me, at eye level.) The lizard jumped off and both my brother and sister were shrieking too much to notice which way the lizard went.

Twenty minutes ago, I was about to iron some clothes when I saw a lizard. Not the same one I attempted to kill yesterday. This one was smaller. A teenage lizard. Thankfully, the fly swatter was within reach and I managed to whack it. It played dead for a few minutes. I went out to get something and when I came back, it had moved. Stupid. I whacked it mercilessly and threw it out of the window so that its remains could at least be of some use to the grass and trees outside.

Tomorrow, I'm getting more fly swatters.

And, I have tonnes to write about my life and that great weekend I had last week but I don't know why those entries are still not created yet. ;P

(Pssst. Aili, I was thinking of you each time I think of/see lizards. Hmmm.. not such a great connection, huh?)