Happy 2nd birthday to our sweetie pie!

24 months old.  Two years old!:

• September 18:  As much as I said I don’t want to label her as “shy”, sometimes it just escapes out of my mouth.  For example, we were at a restaurant and the very nice server was telling us about her same-aged son.  I couldn’t help but say about our bb: “she is still working on her social skills and is shy.”  Bb is only “shy” because she is uncomfortable in new circumstances and around new people.  She isn’t really shy and I don’t want to label her as that but it just comes out as an easier “explanation”.  I also respect it when others understand that they are pandemic babies and almost all pandemic babies are quite “anti-social”.
• Related to this, at the third wedding that bb attended, I asked bb to say “hi” to someone we knew and I really respected it when the other person said, “She doesn’t have to say ‘hi'”.  I really respected that someone understood that concept.
• Bb finally received her passport that we applied for back in May!  It took 4.5 months for them to process it.  Finally.  We were just about getting fed up and DH was going to go about rushing them about it too.  So, so glad it is here now.  Unfortunately, bb has also turned two now so she can’t even go on any free flights lol.
• I accompanied grandma and bb to the park for the first time in a long time to see how they usually play.  It was a cool gloomy day and not sunny, which was also why I wanted to join them instead of having some me time at home (not a fan of the blazing sun).  I saw how bb would play with the sand by scooping some into her bucket.  She liked to have water added to it.  Grandma kept telling her to add more sand to the bucket since the water made the sand inside the bucket wet.  After a while, bb had some milk and watched the other kids play.  When the schoolkids returned back to the classroom, bb played on the swings, the slide, the bumblebee (she is so good at rocking it herself), and climbed up the chain ladder too.  She climbed up three times basically by herself.  So proud of her!  She has so much confidence when we applaud her on things like these.  We ended the park visit with snacking on blueberries while she watched the other kids have their lunch recess.
• Before we left, bb actually held my hand and said she wanted to play with the other kids.  This was the very first time that she showed an inkling towards playing with others.  It made me feel a bit sad that all this time she barely plays with any other kids on a regular basis.  Having watched all the kids play together on the school yards, bb wants to be part of it too.  It makes me sad that she is growing up and wants to be away from us too.  Well, not necessarily “away” from us but that she shows a desire to want to play apart from us parents.
• She likes the stuffed animal dinosaur and always brings him around to sit next to her at the dinner table.
• Bb was able to pull a banana off of the bunch from the table by herself too!  She yanked it off basically.  She couldn’t peel it herself and I helped her, but after that, she was able to eat the banana by herself.
• Due to the birthday party we hosted at home, we changed around the configuration of her play space.  It’s more ideal for us where the couch has been moved to the wall to allow for more walking space.  It’s more of an open concept now too.  However, it’s not as ideal for bb because the play kitchen and bookshelf (where all of her books and toys are) are separated across the room.  She didn’t seem to care when she saw us moving the furniture and items around and she seems to play the same, so we will leave it like this for now.  It’s a nicer space in general, but I would have preferred bb’s play stuff to be in a designated corner of the room.  Oh, well.  We will keep this configuration for now.
• Speaking of changes, we will soon move bb to the other room with the new flooring.  We have been advised to move her sooner rather than later for her to cope with the changes and even then bb will likely walk back often to the old room as she remembers it.  I’m kind of scared for the change because I’m afraid she will act out during bedtime, but we will see…  Fingers crossed.
• And so, this week marked her turning two years old.  It’s hard to believe she is now two!  She is officially a “toddler” in years and we’re in the so-called “terrible twos”.
• So nice that the staff at Markham Station provided her with a birthday candle and song when presenting her her ice cream dessert as part of her kids’ meal.  Bb doesn’t know how to blow the candle yet so DH helped her.  She knows and recognizes the birthday song.
• In the past two weeks, I’ve told her that she will be getting a blueberry cake for her birthday (since she loves blueberries so much).  Whenever I mentioned that it was her birthday soon, she said “nam mui dan go” (blueberry cake) as well.  She knew.
• Bb is so much more cooperative now.  She was able to wear a nice dress for her birthday dinner celebration at home!  We initially wanted to host a big birthday party for all of our family and friends but since contracting COVID-19 in July, we decided to play it safe still and only hosted for our immediate family members.  It was a small gathering with homemade decorations and bb wouldn’t know the difference either way.  I also don’t know if she understood it was her birthday when everyone was singing to her.   She got a second chance to blow out a candle.
• I really take the time to explain things to her how an actual adult would.  I don’t “baby talk” her.  She picks up on more language and understanding this way.  Like when she wanted me to show her how to play with the new jumping toy that her grandfather got her and I said I couldn’t because I couldn’t jump with my belly, bb seemed to understand more than if I just told her “no, mommy can’t do that”.
• September 20:  I brought bb to Aaniin library for the first time!  My friend told me about how they have a toy library and you can sign box/packs of toys out for two weeks at a time just like for books.  I was so happy to see that they had a designated play zone for kids.  This was perfect for bb to play in a new environment and also get to meet some new friends too.  There were three other kids playing alongside her that day:  A 14-month-old, 25-month-old (just a month older than her ), and a 3.5 year-old.  They were all girls.  The oldest one was quite aggressive and took items out of bb’s hands.  Why are so many kids like this?!  I told the older girl to not snatch things out of other people’s hands like that but she obviously didn’t listen.  And unfortunately her guardian also wasn’t paying attention to know what was happened.  The older girl also made the 25-month-old cry because she wasn’t sharing the toys.  The 25-month-old’s dad wasn’t very happy to see her daughter cry but again who are we to scold another stranger’s kid on manners?  It’s a tough spot to be in.
• Bb played with the large foam lego blocks, toy cars, kitchen food toys, play kitchen (she liked to put the foods inside of the cabinet), plastic dinosaurs, and I read a book with her.  Bb does okay with other kids and plays alongside them.
• Unfortunately this week, grandma sprained her ankle when she missed the last step of the stairs and so DH had to take her to the ER for an x-ray.  I haven’t been alone with bb for more than 4 hours in a very long time (since we had the renos going on at the old house).  Bb was very well-behaved.  She climbed in the high chair herself (she sometimes likes to sit in it and can buckle herself in) and ate blueberries, roast pork, and Cheerios for most of the hour before wanting to get out.  She then played with her kitchen toys while I sat back in the chair and let her play.  Maybe she noticed the older 3.5-year-old playing by herself at the library and learned to play by herself more this week too.  I was also able to wash vegetables and cook something on the stovetop while bb busied herself with her toys.  Very glad that she can play independently when the need arises.
• Unfortunately since yesterday, bb came down with something.  She has a runny nose and yellow snot.  We tested her for COVID-19 and fever but she’s negative on both.  Poor girl has snot streaming out of her nose when she sneezes.  This is her first official cold with snot and a stuffed nose.  Tonight after we put her to bed, she threw up her entire dinner too.  She hasn’t done this in a while.  DH thinks that perhaps she can’t breathe very well through her nose.  Sigh.  I hope she gets better soon.  I also took her out on a nap in the stroller to let DH and grandma get some rest time.  We suspect she caught the cold from her cousins during her birthday party.  Both of them were sick (runny noses and coughs).  We’ve given bb the Stodal medicine.  She doesn’t like to drink a lot of water these days unfortunately.  She does like grapes though.  She keeps asking us to cut the red and green grapes for her.
• Sept 21: Last night was the worst night in terms of sleep for her.  It’s her very first cold and bb is so clogged up with yellow snot and mucus.  Poor girl. She had trouble breathing and had to use her mouth. We heard her laboured breathing at times.
• She threw up when DH was putting her to bed after she requested a second bottle of milk. She threw up her congee and bits of milk curds.  We did a second bath for her.  By now (and another time when she threw up), bb knows she’s thrown up and realizes it.  She fell asleep eventually but also woke up wailing at 1am and again at 4am.  She couldn’t sleep without being in DH’s arms.  Her cries were the wailing type and she was in pain.  It’s a distressing kind of crying that really breaks your heart.
• She was better in the morning and woke up at 9am bright-eyed but still with snot.  She continued to take 5ml of Stodal medicine to help with her cold symptoms.  Good thing none of us have caught her cold (so far and knock on wood).
• She knows when she has snot hanging out of her nose. She says “yau bei sui” (have runny nose) or “bei tai” (have snot). She then waits for us to wipe her nose with a napkin.
• Being a 2-year-old, she doesn’t know how to blow her nose yet.  We also don’t have one of those snot suckers so we just let her mucus come out to wipe or wipe when she sneezes (so much comes out too).
• Luckily even though she has a cold, she is still very energetic and lively.  She plays and eats normally.  We try to get her to drink more water but she isn’t too interested in it.
• Another thing is that she luckily willingly takes the cold medicine by herself.  We call it “teem teem” (sweet sweet).  Today, she took her own initiative to tell us that she wanted to take it.
• Also last night when bb was having trouble sleeping because of her clogged nose, DH put Vapor Rub on her chest, throat, and back.  It helped right away and bb wanted him to lather more on her.
• Bb knows grandma’s foot is injured and tells her to “siu sum dee” (be careful) when walking. So thoughtful and sweet.