First time playing with magnetic tiles!

Week 80: 

• March 31:  Even if I “gave back everything I learned to the teacher,” we have this lasting item from the online workshops that was shared with us.  The magnetic tiles we purchased from Amazon arrived and I had never been more excited for a purchase/toy!  I was refreshing the “track package” page all afternoon to see when it would arrive.  So glad that it arrived before bedtime and we actually spent some time playing with it!
• Both DH and I have never played with magnetic tiles before (is this a new thing?  Did this exist in the 90s?).  It’s straight-out-of-the-box play and straight forward.  It’s flat plastic tiles with magnets embedded into each side so that when you stack or stick them together any which way, they’ll stay together. It’s transparent so you can see the magnets on each side and also comes in different colours and shapes. You can create SO many types of structures with it.  It’s like Lego — the possibilities are endless!
• Bb was curious about it too and immediately started stacking the square shaped tiles together and figuring out how to unstick them too.  We all spent about an hour playing with this.  An hour!  Bb was actually focused on this activity for one full hour.  That’s so amazing.
• As much as I’m excited about this new toy, I shouldn’t get my hopes too high up yet because it will take time for bb to learn how to play with it as well as develop the muscles to open and stick the tiles together and also creativity skills over time for her to learn how to build different structures.  Tonight, we built a tower, house with different rooms, and she learned how to “open” the door and place animal cards in it like a house.  She learned that a card can be stuck between two tiles but because the tiles are transparent, she was able to see the card still and wave to it and say “hi”.
• Apr 6: Mom’s been taking bb to the park in the morning almost every day if the weather is good. This is so great for all of us. Mom gets some fresh air instead of being indoors all the time, bb of course the same too but particularly so because she gets to experience the outdoors and see other children at the playground and play on the swings and other playground toys, and I also get some precious ‘me time’ whether it’s to sleep in a little longer or enjoy some peaceful moments in the house without a small voice constantly talking.
• Bb does talk a lot these days. In the morning, she’ll say “ba ba?” or “ma ma?” until someone gets her. Until then, she’ll stay motionless on the floor lol… It’s like she doesn’t know how to get up without seeing us/giving her permission.
• DH went back to in-office work this week for a day.. “normal” life to resume? But I’m so so used to having him around to take care of bb in the mornings, for that nice lunch time hour where he also takes and plays with her, and how he can promptly finish work at 4:30pm. Ah well
• Bb started progressing to putting the magnetic tiles side by side on the floor. At first, she only played with them by gathering all the square tiles and stacking them. She doesn’t know how to create things with them yet, but she is starting to manipulate them in a different way than when we first brought them home.
• She continues to be whiny this week.. most interesting is when she whines in a way similar to her cousin who she has been seeing once a week. It’s like she’s imitating him…
• She’s been waking up earlier this week.. as early as 7:30am so we moved her nap up to 1pm. She sleeps anywhere from 2 to 2.5 to 3hrs for her naps now. It’s so great but somehow still feels like there isn’t enough time for the adults to rest or do other things in the meantime 😅.
• Since we put up the bookshelf for her toys and books, we also try to teach her to put them away. She sometimes does it. She’ll put her books back on the shelf after reading sometimes. And sometimes, she’ll also put her stuffed animals back up on the shelf too ^_^
• Very glad we have limited the number of toys and stuffed animals she has. She can focus more attention on one toy instead of having everything clutter her space (and mind).
• She continues to awe us with the things she can repeat after us and say. She repeated “new messai” for “new message” and “an mi mo” for “eyebrow”.
• Been working on transcripts all weekend and a few days.. haven’t been motivated to post anything new on fbm either. I think I’m burnt out from dealing with people and transactions pre-move. I was so, so motivated to sell and move things out of our space but now that we have moved into a new house, I just feel tired and don’t want to deal with people.. especially flaky ones.
• She can eat a cup of yogurt by herself and finished 90% of it! She has a few big drops here and there but it’s still amazing to have her scoop it herself and eat. I’ll scoop the remaining leftovers from the cup into her mouth since I don’t like food waste. Proud of her utensil using skills!
• Grandma always has nail clippers in her housecoat and bb always like to say “gep gep” and take them. But then once she has them, she doesn’t always let us use it to clip her fingernails. I did have a victory when I was able to clip her nails yesterday though. She finally let me do it. Her pinky fingernail was so long! Good thing I did it before she got a hangnail 😟.
• At dinner time, I accidentally “cut” her finger… but there was no blood or skin breakage, but it was enough that bb cried immediately and kept crying with the biggest teardrops rolling down her face for 10 mins. Poor bb. I was using the scissors as usual to cut down her food and her hand was too close and I didn’t realize it and the edge of the scissors nicked her 😦 There was a big imprint on her left middle finger but was gone the next day.
• When cutting foods for her, she also now knows and recognizes when a piece is too big. She’ll say “tai da” and have me cut it down smaller 😅.
• She’s also been gnawing on random objects lately. It makes me think she’s teething again. She’s still missing her canines.
• She says “hello” in the cutest way, kinda like “hel no” with a nasal-y accent.
• I actually take less photos of her these days.. and even less videos. I know I should take more to preserve these memories but it’s hard to get out my phone at the right time. And it also ruins the moment.