Holding a broom and learning to sweep

Weeks 74 and 75.  A huge dump of thoughts and observations from the past two weeks (warning you now; it’s a long post!) : 

• Feb. 28:  BB needed some kind of a sippy cup to drink water from (and not the ones with a nipple on it), so I looked on FBM for it.  At first, the only one I could find was too far to the east and the seller (obviously) wasn’t willing to deliver it.  Luckily, a week later, I looked again and saw another one just 5 mins-ish from my place and got it.  $5!  When I brought it home, bb found it in the bag and picked it up right away.  It took a while for us to figure out how the 360 lipped cup works whereas for bb she figured it out right away.  She was excited to use it, but I think it takes more effort for her to use it.  She still drinks her morning and evening milk using a bottle. 
• I love how the little cup fits into her small hands perfectly.  It’s so cute
• She likes to take the broom and copy us to sweep the floor.  
• She has been sleeping so well the past two nights!  The other night, she slept from 9 p.m.ish to 9:30 a.m.!  And just last night, she slept from 10 p.m.ish to 7:30 a.m.  Yay!  She is fully capable of sleeping through the night now.  We wonder if it’s because she eats more during the day, has been wearing a looser fit onesie at night (more comfortable), or in general it’s developmentally time for her to be able to sleep through the night.  
• As a former teacher, it’s hard not to want to incorporate “teachable moments” in her everyday life and to try to make everything a “teachable moment”.  However, it becomes exhausting for both her and me to try to do this.  
• I know some parents will make or set up specific activities or toys for their kids to play with for the sake of it being developmental, but I also have seen a comment where a mom said she will not spend more time on making the toy/activity than the time that the child plays with it.  I prefer having the child discover what she wants to play with instead of me leading all the time.  I only have a finite number of energy and mental energy as it is already.  
• She is so good at napping now.  She goes down for solid 2-hour naps these days!  Yay!  However, it doesn’t mean that I get a lot of things done because I zone out and tend to recharge my batteries by doing things that aren’t actually productive lol.  
• She has taken to using a pen and pencil to draw things on paper this week!  She has been interested in pens for a while but hasn’t figured out how to use them.  This week, she took the pen in her hand to paper and actually “drew” out some lines and squiggles.  She is mighty proud of herself too.  When she’s excited or proud about something, she lets out a “ahh”.  
• She is still so adorable when saying “jorn bok bok”.  She says it with a smile too because she knows I like her repeating the phrase.  
• We took her to a playground again and she went on the slide.  She enjoyed it a lot.  
• She continues to point out things in her surroundings and picks up words quickly.  We are often surprised at how well she enunciates and repeats words and phrases.  
• She has started to say three or four character words/phrases.  
• When hearing an airplane fly over the house, she can hear it and says “fei gay”.  Previously, she would sometimes mistaken the furnace turning on as an airplane, but I would have to remind her that it is not an airplane.  
• This week, she started getting afraid of the steamer.  The hose looks like a snake probably and when she sees it, she hides behind my knee lol.  
• When shy, she hides behind my knee and goes between my legs.  She was like that this past week when she saw a few relatives.  
• She still loves to say “ji gay” when doing certain things.  She likes being independent.  She liked to pick up some dropped items from the floor herself.  She says it when the radio is on and she doesn’t want us dancing.  She likes to dance (wiggle) in her seat by herself.  She likes to move and count the beads on the play abacus herself.  She basically likes to do most things herself these days.  OR after she says “ji gay” and she is unable to do the specific thing, she’ll let you do it.  This is part of those “big little feelings” that toddlers are experiencing.  A lot of flip-flopping around as they learn about their surroundings.  
• She can now do the farm puzzle all by herself!!!  When all the pieces are pulled out, she can actually put everything back together.  Some pieces are harder to “fit” into the puzzle, but she knows which one goes where.  Very impressive.  
• She can walk up and down the stairs now by holding on to the railings.  Obviously, we are never more than a step away from her, but she can actually do it herself.  
• When at the stair area where there is a loose rail, she knows.  Previous times, I said something like, “Yes, that rail is loose.  We’re going to call uncle Peter to come fix it.” And now when she encounters that loose rail, she says “Pete ta”.  Lol. 
• We returned to dine-in this week for the first time since last year.  While at the restaurant, bb called one of the servers “maa maa” (paternal grandmother).  We had to hide our laughter as it was funny that bb thought the server was her grandmother.  I think bb seemed disappointed that the server didn’t react back to her because she’s used to maa maa talking to her.  
• DH usually has video chats with his parents and bb talks to her grandparents this way.  She looked at DH’s phone and said “maa maa” in association with the usual video chats they have.  
• BB eats so well these days and we can basically eat anything and she’ll have some too.  She can pick up the items with her fingers well.  During breakfast, she is able to use the spoon to scoop Cheerios into her mouth.  It’s a great improvement!  
• Yesterday, I cooked up some congee for her to eat after she woke up from her nap.  Funnily enough, she didn’t want any of it and requested for bread “meen bao” instead.  Of all things, this child wanted plain bread and water from her sippy cup instead of the warm pork and egg congee that I had prepared.  🙄
• She loves egg tarts.  Our friends were so thoughtful and bought her egg tarts.  This was the first time she had the cookie crust egg tarts (I didn’t even realize that the previous times she had had the flakey crust types).  Bb demolished the entire thing.  She frequently asks for egg tarts “dan tat” but we don’t always have them for her to eat.  She also associates “dan tat” with “maa maa” because her grandmother is who usually buys them for her to eat.  
• BB prefers sleeping on the floor as opposed to her actual mattress.  We have a playmat with a large soft blanket that she sleeps on.  
• Can’t believe she will soon be 1.5 years old!  
• When changing her diapers, she likes holding on to the diaper.  And then she also likes to say “lam” and then put the diaper near her crotch.  We say “lam peen” when changing her diaper, so she likes to try to do it herself too.  
• Now that we have moved, bathing her is not as convenient or comfortable as before.  Previously in the old house, we would put her small blue bath tub inside of the built-in jacuzzi inside of the primary bathroom.  One of us would sit inside the jacuzzi where there was a raised seat which which was perfect for sitting and bathing her.  But now, we only have a standing soak tub.  So we use a regular bath tub and put her tub inside of it.  This means we have to crouch outside of the tub in order to bathe her.  
• BB likes to take hold of the nail clippers from grandma and play with them as if she knows how to clip her nails herself.  
• Speaking of which, we continue to think that this little girl likes to play dress-up and accessorize.  She likes to prune in front of the mirror and look at herself and smile.  She likes dressing up her stuffed animals in her jackets.  
• After every wake-up, I playfully put her stuffed doll into her sleep sack.  She then followed suit and likes to do it now too.  Put the “gong jai”  (stuffed doll) into the “doy” (bag/sleep sack).  
• I pulled out some of her old books again this week.  She was very excited to see the “ling shui” book (age zero book).  She remembered how some of it went and was able to identify the animals who hid certain items.  
• She likes to walk really fast and almost “run”.  
• She learned how to say “here” and “there” (“nay doe” and “gor doe”) this week.
• We returned to the old house to show it to family who haven’t seen it yet and brought bb along.  She was shy and hid behind my knee and she also didn’t seem to remember the old house.  However, when she stood around the hallway area, she said “di lo” (basement), so she did remember that the door to the basement was there.  However, when we took her to the basement, she looked kind of confused because all of the items were cleared and it was not what she remembered.  It is so bittersweet to leave the house that she was brought home in and other great assorted memories.  
• I think I mentioned this before, but she can identify which cell phone belongs to who.  So when she sees one laying around, she’ll pick it up and innocently bring it to who it belongs to (me, her dad, her grandma).  
• When we went to browse for new glasses for grandma this week, bb sat in a stroller with DH next to her in the shop and she surprisingly didn’t show any fear or shyness or uncomfortableness at all.  We must have been inside the shop for at least 15 minutes and bb behaved SO incredibly well. 
• When taking photos of her, I ask her to smile and she actually does.  Most of the time at least.  
• We were gifted some frozen dim sum this week.  Bb ate an entire steamed bbq pork bun basically.  This week, she also ate an entire banana during one sitting.  She can also eat one entire egg in one sitting.  
• Sometimes when she is fussy and cries, she actually squeezes her eyes shut for a few seconds (longer than is actually necessary) and big fat drops of tears roll out.  It’s so dramatic.  
• DH and I enjoyed a postponed V-day dinner by ourselves (and a long awaited dinner by ourselves) finally.  It was nice to not have to feed a little person too.  We didn’t even talk about her until closer to the end of the meal. 😀
• I pulled out the wooden activity cube for her to play with again and she expertly tackled the beads game.  I was so surprised.  She didn’t take an interest or knew how to play with it before.  Now, she can easily roll the beads.  She also guides the hand of her stuffed animals to play with it too (she saw me doing it once).   
• She likes to use the small towel to wipe her face by herself in the mornings.  I try to do it but she holds so tightly on to the towel.  She has a very strong grip. 
• When it is meal time (dinner time especially), she can climb into her high chair by herself.  Not only can she climb up but she can turn around on the step part and then sit down by herself.  The only part she doesn’t know how to do herself is how to buckle herself in.  It’s so funny that she scampers into her chair when it is meal time though lol.  She also had a phase last week where she liked to sit backwards on the step part and then face the seat.  She would let me to spoon feed her as she sat there and played with the buckle.  
• One time when she had her mouth open, I think I saw a tooth sticking out on the top back part (an upper canine or molar).  I actually need to stick my finger in there one day and see if I feel a tooth.  (She doesn’t let us look)
• She played with a netted laundry bag last week by pulling it on top of her head.  It has holes all throughout so it wasn’t unsafe.  Nevertheless, she was able to pull it on and off easily too.
• Without looking at the time, we know when it is time for her to sleep when she rubs her eyes or says “da gu na”.  The other day, she knew it was time for a nap when she said it herself — on time too!  
• When it is time for a snack and I say “yogurt”, she walks excitedly to the fridge and says “hoi” (open).  I open it for her and then she grabs a yogurt container herself.  I’ll open it for her and either spoon feed her or she feeds herself.  One time, she insisted on feeding herself and surprisingly she didn’t get too messy either. 
• March 2:  This past week, when I have washed my hands and they’re not completely dry and she just so happens to want to “clac clac” (hold hands — to be honest, I’m not sure where she got this from.  Holding hands is not called “clac clac” — it’s “tol sau zai” 😂), she knows when my hands are wet and pulls her hand back and says “supp” lol.  It’s so funny when she does it consistently.  Also, one time I had lotion on and my hands were freshly moisturized and she said they were “supp”, but I said, no, it’s just lotion lol.  
• This week, her newest big thing has been nodding up and down and shaking her head back and forth.  She LOVES to practise it.  She’ll say it too — she nods and says “up tow” and then shakes her head and says “nig tow”.  And then when I pair it with “yes” and “no” respectively, she watches in awe but is unable to do it just yet lol.  
• I was able to do a full 60 min cardio workout for the first time since giving birth!!!  That’s huge to me!  So it’s been basically 75 weeks since I did a cardio aerobics workout.  I was doing daily cardio workouts or taking 30-minute or hourly walks right now until she was born, but then after giving birth and going through the postpartum and pumping journey, I just didn’t have the motivation or energy to do any workouts.  I became a slob 😂 and gained so much weight postpartum.  Doing this first workout was exhilarating and my body actually remembers the Zumba moves — great muscle memory.  It’s like now that we have finished moving and starting to settle in, I finally have the mental capacity to want to work out again.  Hope I can keep the workouts consistent again. 😀  (Oh, wait, I took her on regular hourly walks last year too when she would nap in her stroller, but Zumba workouts hit differently)
• We took her on a walk for the first time in the new neighbourhood.  Yay!  She is getting very big for her stroller now.  Her feet stick out against the ledge of the feet part.  It was very cold outside so we only lasted about 15 minutes before we went back in.
• She knows so many words now.  She spins in a circle and says “wun tor tor”.  She tries to say “sui” for water.  She says “yum lok” all the time when she wants us to turn on the radio.  She can say “biggest fish” but from her throat when she wants to read that Biggest Fish book.  She thinks the fox character is “gau ju” when he has his eyes closed in the book and we have to explain to her that he is just squinting his eyes.  She says “tomato” in her own toddler speak.   She can say “television” — “din see gay”.  Three syllable words now! 
• It’s like 70/30 chance that I can understand her/make out what she is trying to say. 
• She dances and wiggles her butt all the time.  She says “lau pet pet”.  
• When we eat noodles, she points and says “meen meen”.  
• She always likes to eat what we’re eating, so we have to hide it away from her or give her bits and pieces (like chunks from an apple for a snack or bits of a granola bar).
• When we read the feelings book, when we get to the last page, she knows that it is “disgust” and can say it “di gust!”
• She tries to say colours too but mostly the “sik” (colour) word is heard clearly instead of the preposition because we Cantonese we say “hong sik” for “red” or “luk sik” for “green”.
• She can play the xylophone so well now.  She lightly uses the wooden screw to hit the keys in order.  
• I had her watch a bit of YouTube yesterday for the first time.  It was 10 minutes of videos of different farm animals.  She recognized and said “rabbit” without me telling her.  
• She still loves saying “mm bay” and not letting a stuffed animal do something or not letting us do something.  She continues to push us away when she wants to do something herself. 
• She is growing taller now!  Some of her clothes don’t fit her anymore…