We ran out of salt.
The Husband went to buy salt.
The salt was so white, so clean, not clumpy and each grain was of the exact same size. Too perfect?
Then, I read the fine print. Produce of China.
Errrr...
So, yesterday, The Husband bought another pack of salt. This time, the fine print is checked carefully. Made in Australia. Ok, pass.
Huda is 30 months old today.. She's a big girl now and here's a progress report on her for all those who are interested..
1. Does she throw tantrums? Oh yes. When she's scolded, she'll start to spit (euw!!), throw things on the floor or say 'Ep!' to the person scolding her. How, how, how do we stop this? We have tried reasoning with her, scolded her, smacked her.. But this behaviour still continues. Sigh. We can't possibly wait til she's older to reason with her. We need her to know NOW that her behaviour is unacceptable. How? How do you discipline your children? Does Supernanny's naughty corner work for 2-year-olds?
2. She's still shy around strangers. This is good. It makes her a lot more manageable when we are in a public place. Something about her really tickled me recently. We were at the hospital recently (visiting, not staying). A visitor dropped by. Huda took the 'Urban' section of the Straits Times, placed it on the floor, plonked herself in front of the papers and started to read the papers. Slowly she flipped to the next page and the next page. Then, when the visitor started to take notice of her, she bent even lower, pointed to the words on the papers (and her fingers actually moved from left to right, following the text), as if she was concentrating really hard on what she was reading. We laughed so hard at the sight but Huda was way too engrossed.
3. She is getting chubbier. Hooray! Everyone around her has been commenting on how there are more of her cheeks now. Yipppeeeee!!! She's drinking milk very often (Pediasure and Enfagrow - thanks for the recommendation Nani, Norza & Liza!) although when it comes to her main meals, it's still a bit of a struggle to feed her.
4. We still have not toilet-trained her. We'll wait til she turns three or during the end-of-year school holidays. We are simply l-a-z-y.
5. Her speech - This was one of our areas of concern for her. But, she has improved tremendously since I last wrote about her. She's now talking a lot. She is mostly a Malay-speaking child and we intend to keep it that way for as long as possible. At the same time, she is also aware that there are different words for the same thing but I am not too sure if she is aware that the different labels come from two different language systems.
Once, she asked for 'chox'. I had no idea what that was and I told her so. Soon, she was exasperated and asked for 'tetotin'. Ah! Enlightenment. She wanted socks and when I failed to understand her, she used the Malay word which is 'stokin'.
She's forming proper sentences too. She can join a few concepts together to form a coherent and grammatically sound sentence. At times, she has this strange quirk which surfaces when she's about to sleep. She will start off with one sentence, for example, "Umar (her cousin) baca Quran" (Umar reads the Quran). Then, she'll just change the subject of the sentence and she'll go, "Nabilah baca Quran; Sofia baca Quran; Cik Jiji baca Quran.." (The list goes on until she has covered every single member of her extended family.) It is strangely endearing yet annoying all at once because all I want to do is sleep yet she's going on and on and on and on like a broken record.
Her favourite phrase for now, unfortunately, is "Tak tahu" (Don't know). That, and "Tak nak" (Don't want). I have myself to blame because sometimes when she asks me a question, I'll just tell her that I don't know. So, now, I am always reminding myself to banish the phrase from my vocab and give her a proper answer each time she asks me a question.
As for "Tak nak", it's such a convenient thing for her to say. "Huda, help me pick up your toys." Answer: Tak nak. "Huda, do you want to eat?" Answer: Tak nak. "Huda, can you help me put this in the room?" Answer: Tak nak.
She can also sustain a conversation for a few turns. She is in love with cranes and excavators and one day, when she looked out of the window, she saw a crane.
Huda: Mak, apa tu? (Mak, what's that? - Sometimes, she asks me the obvious.)
Me: Crane (because I have no idea what a crane is called in Malay)
Huda: Ooooooohh.. Crane.
(pause)
Huda: Mak nak crane? (Do you want the crane?)
Me: Nak. (Yes)
Huda: Nanti Ayah belikan, okay? (Later, Ayah will buy for you, okay?)
6. And, of course, she's as active as ever. She climbs and jumps and falls and climbs and jumps again.
So, this is Huda at the ripe old age of 30 months.
Week 16 I should not have had that orange juice for sahur just now. I should have stuck to my glass of Anmum. The orange juice is now dancing in my stomach and threatening to escape.
Week 17 Anmum! Only when I'm writing this did I realise I should have taken Anmum instead of plain water after sahur. Aiyaaahhh.. Somehow I've forgotten about Anmum. Plain water makes me feel queasy and somehow it will instigate the rest of the food in my tummy to escape.
The vomiting still continues. There are vomity days and there are okay days - these are days when I only feel like vomiting but didn't. It doesn't help that I've caught a cold. The coughing is quite bad. And a few times, I vomited all thanks to the incessant coughing.
Check-up this week shows that baby is growing well. Yayy! I'm actually a bit apprehensive before each scan because I've heard enough horror stories to have some unpleasant thoughts stored at the back of my head. So, each time I see the little kiddo jumping about in his/her little sac, I'll be so thankful, The gynae could not determine the gender just yet because the baby refuses to open his/her leg. So, could it be a girl? But, really, really, really.. I am not fussy.. Boy or girl, it doesn't matter. It should not matter.
My blood pressure was very low. 77/56. But the gynae said that low blood pressure is better than high bp. With a low bp, all I need to do is have more rest. I suppose eating more red meat will help too? Yes?
Week 18 What a busy, busy week this week was. The Big Exam is just tomorrow and the kids are oh-so-relaxed. Hari Raya was okay.
Today, the day after Hari Raya, my stomach is not used to eating in the day. I felt like throwing up after having a slice of papaya. I skipped lunch after the papaya episode. I don't wish to throw up at work. The toilet stinks. It induces more vomitting.
I think I felt movements made by the little kid. But, I'm not sure. I'm incredibly insensitive most times so I don't know if those movements I thought I felt were the little kid's or just my stomach doing its regular somersaults.
Week 19 I can't believe that it's already week 19. The vomitting, predictably, is still ongoing, around 2-3 times a week. Stomach discomfort also, as per normal. Still don't like the taste of plain water. But, the good thing is, I'm almost halfway through the pregnancy! Yippeee!!!!
I'm beginning to feel more movements coming from the baby. It's really nice to know that the baby is moving about actively.
As for me, I'm beginning to feel a lot more energetic than before. In the past few days, I have been walking to my parents' place instead of cabbing it (which is what I've been doing since I got pregnant - for that super-short distance, I paid up to $4.60 during peak hours).
Next week, I'll know the gender. Whatever it is, I hope we'll be able to raise the child well and that s/he will be a good Muslim, humble, smart, hardworking, has a high EQ...among other positive qualities. Amin.
