Perfect-fitting embraces with dad

Week 89 / 20 months, 2 weeks old:

• June 8:  The week started with bb having a bit of a runny nose again so we took precautions and gave her some Stodal, homeopathic relief for coughs, runny noses.  She was better in a few days.
• This week has marked a string of ridiculously poor sleeping habits… bb has been getting up at night 2 to 4 times at night (like last week) except now she cries and asks for a specific adult.  When DH is holding her after some milk, bb still cries and asks for grandma.  And despite soothing and coaxing her, she doesn’t stop and keeps yelling for grandma.  Naturally with all of the noise, grandma is then woken up too.  And then despite grandma now being in the room, bb cried for her dad.  So then the two adults had to stay in the room with her… 😑
• I looked it up and there could be a thing such as a 20-month-old separation anxiety phase going on, but it seems like she hasn’t been sleeping through the night all that much and there’s always phases to overcome.
• It’s been at least three nights this week where she calls at night for the specific adults.  She doesn’t call for me because I almost never attend to her at night.  Half the time, I don’t even hear her.  This past week, I did hear her but I didn’t want to make it a further habit for her to have THREE adults in the room at night with her… I hope she grows out of this stage soon.
• Bb is now speaking in phrases!  She can string together a couple of words to make a short sentence or phrase.  Things like “chai wu hai been?” (Where is the teapot?)  and “fan do ot kay” (Arrived home).
• Bb now knows how to say all of her relatives’ 3-character Chinese names:  Me, her dad, maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents, uncle, uncle and aunt, her two cousins, and herself!
• Bb continues to play favourism too with adults by “not letting” a certain adult do something while another adult gets a free pass for it.
• The other day, I asked for a hug and she didn’t want to give me one.  I hugged all of her stuffed animals to show her and she took them from me one by one lol.  And then when grandma asked for a hug, bb went over to give her a hug but wouldn’t give one to me.  -_-
• She is so good at using her spoon now to eat but isn’t consistent with it.  I realize that 80% of the time, I use a chopstick to eat at the table.  We give forks and spoons to bb.  She doesn’t have any juvenile chopsticks yet nor does she have the muscle power to be able to use them, so it must not be a good demonstration of utensil skills when she doesn’t even see us use spoons or forks that often at the table and whereas she is expected to use hers.
• We have been changing her consistently on the floor or on her floor mattress these days.  She doesn’t like to be changed on the bathroom countertop anymore (probably because she doesn’t fit anyway!)  She is really obedient and cooperative by laying on her back while she change her.
• She continues to go play at the parks and playgrounds daily or every other day depending on the weather.  I still have been avoiding the outdoors because my pollen allergies are still kicking my butt this year…
• She was able to line up the magnetic tiles together tile by tile by herself.
• She was able to fit together the larger-sized lego blocks in a different way this week — diagonally like I showed her one time.  It’s pretty advanced for her to be able to do this! 😀
• Last week, grandma taught bb how to go down the stairs on her butt (safer alternative to walking down the stairs because it requires an adult supervision).  Bb now either goes down the stairs holding our hands or she slides down.  Good to know both methods.
• She is such a fan of her dad holding her and asking him to walk around.  She’ll say “ba ba, po po han lo” (Dad, hold me and walk around).
•  She really likes drinking almond milk and always requests it.  She likes to drink it out of an open bowl or a small cup
• Bb was able to sit quietly by herself eating crackers and drinking almond milk.  I put her high chair facing the bay windows and she watched the window and quietly sat there for half an hour without wanting to get out.
• We had dim sum with her grandparents over the weekend.  Bb was so good-natured sitting in her booster seat all meal long.  It was only near the end that she wanted to get out and walk around.  It’s too bad that she isn’t able to demonstrate all the things she can say to others when she is out in public.  She is her most comfortable 100% self at home with us.
• Whenever I even raise my voice a little with her to tell her about something this week, she starts to scrunch up her face and ugly cry lol…  And then if I follow up with anything further, she continues to cry and whine.  Like today, she was near one of the electrical outlets and stuck her finger in the hole, I obviously very loudly told her to not do that.  She right away started crying and bawling. DH came upstairs from his workspace to see what was happening and had to console her. She would still whine for a while. She has big fat drops of tears down her face and the area between her eyebrows and eyes get so red.
• One way we’ve been encouraging her to eat more when she wants to leave the high chair is we bring her turtle stuffed animal to the table. We ask her to “show” the turtle how she eats with a spoon and compliment her for doing so. This works and she eats more and also smiles so brightly when she thinks she is doing a good job.
• She’s been singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” very well and has all the words except for the last line. It’s so cute. She’s learning the alphabet song too.
• She can identify colours well now. She identified orange today on her dad’s shirt.
• At the playground today (and the other day), she went down one of the slides all by herself! What a big girl. (I wasn’t there to see it though.)
• She always wants a bite of whatever we’re eating despite her own table and plate being full.
• She has the funniest expressions sometimes.
• She has a solid habit this week of adding “no” or the negative part to whatever we say. When we say, “You’re a good girl”, she goes, “*Not* good”. “Smart” turns into “*not* smart”. I think she likes seeing the reaction on our faces when she goes into the “not” part. “Lei ho gwai wor” (You are well behaved). Then she responds “mm gwai” = not well-behaved.
• We can give her toilet paper rolls or plastic and she knows to throw it into the recycling bin that’s inside the laundry room.