Her second playdate!

Week 58: 

• Nov. 2:  The time has come! Finally starting the weaning process by stretching the pumping sessions to anywhere between 8 to 10 to 12 hours, so like twice a day even. My supply is about 170ml/day now. A bag of homo milk is only about $5 or 6 at Costco? I know breastmilk cannot be compared to homo milk, but I think it’s time. I should rest my body and hands from pumping all the time.. I’ll have more time for doing transcripts, being in the zone with bb, using the time to food blog even perhaps, and also… the return of full body tuina massages!!!!!
• This week has seen bb cruising along expertly along furniture and ledges and walls. She bounces between each touch zone excitedly (panting) because she’s excited to walk but afraid to fall down. She’s so cautious. By next week, she SHOULD be walking. She’s been taking mini steps when she is in the middle of the room towards items or us. 
• She crawls super duper fast these days.
• She has tried to say “jo san” in the mornings when I greet her. She repeated it near perfect once, at least the “san” part. And then she somehow started to pronounce it as “sa saa”. It’s hard to record her in the moment but it’s so cute.
• I wanted to record her playing peekaboo with me but once she knew the camera was on, she stopped and instead wanted to peer into the selfie mode instead lol.
• This past week, we visited her newborn girl cousin!! She’s 3 weeks old. Bb didn’t really react towards the tiny 7-lb baby; didn’t show much interest or care or noticed she was even there in the room lol.
• She cried furiously when we entered the house though. Perhaps there were too many adults standing around and she felt overwhelmed. It took her nearly half an hour to calm and warm up before she was moving around and exploring objects again but she is still not the energetic individual like at home; shy, timid when out of the house.
• She lovesss to read/us reading to her. Even in the cousins’ house, she pointed out books from the bookcase to read.
• At home, she likes me to open the closet (by pointing to it) and then waving to the Minnie Mouse coat that is hanging in there. She likes to wave to stuffed animals. She waved to the Mickey Mouse stuffed animal that was at her cousins’ place too.
• The following day, Oct. 30, we brought her to our friends’ place who has a 2 yr old. They had a playdate! I loved, loved, loved that the mom is a Montessori advocate and so her daughter’s playroom and living areas were entirely Montessori centered: wooden food items, wooden IKEA minimal play kitchen, low wooden activity table, low wooden breakfast table and chair, low hanging hooks for coats, learning tower, pikler triangle, lovery wooden toys, wooden puzzles, so much more. I got so much inspiration from their space!!! It was amazing to see and visit a Montessori style play area in real life!
• Their daughter is incredibly smart for her age. I haven’t met or interacted with many 2-year-olds, but I can tell their daughter is way advanced in terms of vocabulary, speaking skills, intelligence, and social awareness. She called bb “mui mui” (little sister) throughout the entire visit. She was pretend cooking in the play kitchen and stirring beans and opened a tomato can to pour in the sauce. She “cracked” the plastic egg open on the table. She asks about supermarkets and what supermarket someone went to (No Frills or Loblaws or “Victor’s”). She asks what her parents’ Chinese names are! She “served” DH coffee in a pretend cup. She asked what type of water we were drinking. She knew the difference between milk (farmers milk = cow’s milk). She ate so independently in her high chair and drank milk from a cup and water from a sippy cup. She knew to say “sorry, uncle”. She was so well-behaved. It was clear that her parents put in incredible patience and care to teach her so many things. I wonder if our BB will be as sophisticated when she is the same age?
• Bb stood in the play kitchen and watched as the older child played. She was curious and because the play kitchen was the perfect height, she also partook in the bean stirring action too. She also pried open the sink from the counter and knocked the faucet out lol….the other girl kind of stared as if to say “what are you doing…”
• When bb saw the older child walk, she walked a bit during the end of the visit too. She was watching intently and copying.
• Bb didn’t take as long to warm up with them than it did for her cousins. The space here was calm and slow-paced, I guess, so she felt more comfortable than at her cousins’ place.
• When it came time to put on their costumes for a photoshoot, bb let us put her into the homemade squid costume for only 2 mins. Good thing I caught a few pictures because she then wanted out of it. She’s so vocal now that she shakes her head no or says no and refuses to do something. She also doesn’t sit in her high chair anymore… she doesn’t like it.
• On another note, been decluttering and putting items up for sale or for free like mad. It’s been SO liberating to see items get removed from the house on a daily basis. LOVE fb marketplace!!!
• When at home and we wanted to take pics for our Halloween together, bb refused to put on the squid costume again lol. Oh well.
• She’s not been eating well today.. spitting out rice and noodles. This girl needs to eat more.
• I am going to miss pumping so much. It’s so bittersweet to pump twice a day now. It’s a clear sign to my body that the breastmilk production can start ceasing. I’m so sad to end it soon as I know BM is the best nutrition for her, but I know I eventually have to wean and stop…
• She loves reading so much. She has me read to her multiple times a day and the same book several times.
• She lovesss sitting in my lap. It’s like she’s designated my lap as her chair. She loves sitting there to drink milk from a bottle or to read or sometimes just because.
• She continues to play the “open/close” game with my knees 😂
• Today, I started a “new” game with her. She stuck her hand into the gate area where there’s a hole. I grabbed onto her hand and didn’t let go. She loved it and kept sticking her hand through for me to grab.
• She continues to sign for milk and say “lai” or newly “lai yee” for milk.
• Love the fact that our robot vacuum can search and find all those missing small pieces.. balls, the Eric Carle puzzle cards slipped away from view..
• She knows to give us pieces of garbage that she finds on the floor. It’s great (started ever since she found and put a staple in her mouth — still no clue how that got there on the floor without us knowing 😦 good thing she spit it out and knew it wasn’t edible).
• Yogurt every day. Easiest thing to feed her still.
• Previously, I mentioned that she would always demand for my hair claw clips to be taken from my hair and play with them. This week, I denied her requests and slowly she didn’t ask for them anymore. She also broke one of them when it landed on the floor lol.. so no more hair clip playing for her. I don’t want to lose all my hair clips/waste them this way.