Drawing on the chalkboard

Week 84:

• May 4:  Bb has been less interested in playing with the toys that she has at home this week (barely playing with any of the blocks, magnetic tiles, puzzles).  She’s been reading a lot though.  The new lot of books that I got for her (that were only about $4 each from Bookoutlet.ca) have really captivated her interest and she’s been immersed in the new books and spending so much time on each page.  Now in addition to reading the words in English and translating in Cantonese, I also point out all the details in the books and she’s been so interested in looking at everything and repeating and identifying various things.
• We also have been going to the playground with her every day or every other day when the weather is nice.  She loves the swings, going down the slide, riding the plastic animals.  She is more vocal now at the park especially when there is nobody else there.  The more she frequents the area, the more comfortable she is and the more she is willing to talk.
• She continues to repeat after us, anything we say from objects to phrases to the last two or three characters of what we say.  She repeats it with such incredible accuracy too.  I haven’t been able to get much of her utterances on video though.  It’s been hard to capture things in the moment and also sometimes when we do try, bb tends to be camera shy and stops demonstrating what she was doing before the camera was turned on.  She knows she’s being recorded.
• In terms of the “carousel” nursery rhyme that I shared last week, she actually can complete the last couple of words when we say the lines.  It’s really impressive and it was DH to taught and discovered this.
• She can say “mama, come here” (to the playmat) or “mama, sit down”.  In the morning when I go downstairs and she’s at the high chair eating, she recognizes my footsteps coming down the stairs and she says “mama is coming” (ma ma, lok lei la).
• Last week, she was so interested in sitting in the new booster chair during meals and this week, she completely reverted back to sitting in her old high chair lol.  It’s a good thing though because she can independently get into the original high chair herself and also we prefer not to use the portable booster chair while at home since the plastic edges for the tray can get worn down quickly when inserting and extracting.
• This past weekend, we took her to one of our favourite Mediterranean buffets (Jerusalem Restaurant).  This was bb’s second time there and she had such an enjoyable time eating and people watching.  The portable booster seat is the best for her to use her tray for eating and she actually sat in there for two hours straight without complaint!  We were able to enjoy our meal so nicely. 😀  One of the servers would come by and smile and wave to her.  Bb would just stare at him with a stone cold face (lol) but then when he walked away, she would beam and smile lol….
• Bb likes to draw straight lines using the chalk on the chalkboard.  She can’t draw much else with her limited dexterity skills at the moment, but this is a good start to her expressing herself.  With pencil and paper, she can scribble really well.
• After one or two nights of sleeping through the night, she again woke up two or three times during the night to feed… One of the nights, she even woke up six times!!  What is going on?  Apparently at 19 months old, they can sleep regress because they’re scared of the dark… Hopefully she goes back to sleeping through the night soon.  Poor DH having to get up at night and tending to her…
• We took out the trike we bought last weekend for the first time for her and she rode it.  She was happy and excited to be riding it, but since we don’t have a helmet for her yet, we only rode it on the driveway.  We’ll have to get a helmet for her soon.
• In addition to reading and playing outside, this week she also likes to play with the kids sized chairs that we have.  She likes to push them together and have her stuffed animals sit on them.
• When waking up these days, she actually sits up and doesn’t lie there motionless waiting for someone to get her like before lol…
• She really likes to have two adults holding her hands when walking.  She’ll prefer this too when we are walking up the shares.  She’s say “yuk chai clac clac” (“together, hold hands”).
• She loves going out on a walk in the stroller.  She will ask and say “han lo lo, chor chay chay?”  (take a walk, ride a car) a few times a day.
• She’s not a big fan of having the sunscreen put on her face but eventually she concedes.
• She didn’t like the new coats we got her.  The new black one with fur on the hood — she grimaced and made a face because the fur got in her mouth lol.  The other grey one is okay and it took a bit of coaxing to get her into it.  She doesn’t fit her pink winter coat anymore anyway.
• It also in general takes a lot of coaxing to get her into her coat sometimes before we take her out to play…
• When she is tired these days, she actually tells us “gow ju la” or today she headed to the bottom of the stairs herself and said “bye bye mama” because she was tired and wanted to go to bed lol.
• We changed yogurt brands and ever since then, she doesn’t always eat a yogurt a day like she used to.  I was theorizing that perhaps this was a reason why she doesn’t sleep through the night?  Maybe she isn’t getting enough sugar/calories during the day?  But the previous yogurt brand we bought seemed too sugary… will try to get her used to another brands and see if it makes a difference in her sleeping habits…
• Oh, and how could I forget!  I decided to ask my reporting agency to do live reporting jobs again just because.  I guess I feel like bb is easier to look after now and more predictable that I can probably steal away one or two hours during the day to cover a few live jobs.  I’ve been doing transcription only since I came back to work postpartum but finally wanted to get my feet wet again with a live job (and cash in on the new negotiated rates finally).  I had one job that was at night (perfect, actually) that was only for an hour.  I was so, so nervous!  I felt like a brand new reporter again.  Luckily, the examining lawyer was very nice and friendly and made it a straight forward job.  Also, there was an interpreter!  It made things so slow and easy.  Stenoing live is also like riding a bicycle.  You just never forget some things.  So glad for the experience again!