Toddler at the local farm

24 months, 2 weeks old:

•  September 29:  First day I actually took bb to the park by myself!  I guess it’s not that I couldn’t do it but I preferred it if grandma came with me too so it’s “less work”.  Bb headed straight for the playground and didn’t even think about playing with sand even though it’s usually their go-to task when they go to the park.  It was such a beautiful sunny, breezy, and warmth-from-the-sun-on-your-face kind of day.
• Bb was able to climb up the ladder herself as well as the rock climbing part twice and also the other half-ring ladder too!  So proud of her.  We’ve gone a ways from the days when she was hesitant to even cross the bridge part of the playground and now she just scampers over it like no big deal.  Really glad for her.
• We snacked on the cheese crisps and then we wandered over to the Montessori school area where there was a play house that she liked to go in.  It made me a little sad that this little girl is not going to preschool yet while others are.
• Bb was a little shy when she saw a little baby boy on the swings and watched.  It was only when they left the playground that bb felt comfortable enough to ride on the swings.
• Bb sat at the table and ate an entire packet of roasted seaweed by herself for lunch.  The first time I ate it, I fed it to her.  But then I told her she could eat it by herself.  She finished the entire packet by herself!  Shocking.
• October 1:  We switched bb over to the new room (what used to be my office) in preparation for the new arrival later this year.  Surprisingly, bb did well and didn’t experience any night terrors or refusals.  She went to bed as usual with DH giving her a bottle and accompanying her to sleep.  She woke up once for some milk (normal) during the night and woke up ultimately around 9 a.m.  She didn’t get up to open the door or play much with her stuffed animals but waited for us to get her.  And then tonight, she went to bed in the same fashion.  She did announce “hai sun fong fun gow” (have new room to sleep in!) so she knows and recognizes that that is her new room.
• What was really funny to DH and I was that I just happened to turn on the Nanit camera to see what was happening during the bedtime routine and bb had finished her bottle and wanted to open the side door for more.  However, now there is no more side door in that room!  Instead, bb opened the closet door.  But when I viewed it on my phone, I thought that she was trying to open the wall instead lol.  I burst out laughing.  DH later told me that she was trying to open the closet door instead lol.
• Today, we took bb to Carma Farms!  It’s a really nice family-friendly farm.  It’s $2 for admission per person (babies under 1 are free) and $5 for a bucket of vegetables and corn to feed the animals.  (I read that admission used to be free, but 2 bucks a person is still really affordable and respectable.)
• It was such a beautiful breezy and warm autumn day.  We all had so much fun feeding the animals.  I loved how the bucket contained so many carrots and cabbage leaves enough for all of us to take a turn and more.  Bb’s first time feeding animals like this!  She really enjoyed it.  Feeding the lambs was her favourite.
• There were so many animals to feed all along the path.  What a great farm and so well-designed.  The dried corn was best for the piglets.  Bb had fun sprinkling those on the ground too.  We had to help her hold the carrots though because we were afraid she might get too close and the animals would mistake her tiny fingers as carrots.
• Bb saw that one of the pumpkins had fallen off from the wagon on which they were sitting for display and tried to hold it.  It was too big and heavy for her.  DH helped to put that one back.  Then bb saw another pumpkin on the ground and directed DH to put it back on the wagon too. 😆 Good helper!
• Bb had fun riding the stationary tractors too and wouldn’t leave.  She was so tired but still kept trying to find more things to play with, like the rocks on the ground, the wood chips, and when we went to the store to pick up some homegrown vegetables and pie, she kept throwing all of the small pumpkins and apples into her basket.  I had to make sure every single one of those went back into the original bin.
• After we had lunch, bb passed out immediately in the car.  She was so pooped from all of the fun and excitement.  I highly, highly recommend Carma Farms for families with kids!  (Or even a day date.)  It was really wholesome fun.  Had we known how much bb would have liked it, we could have even packed a lunch there to eat on the plenty picnic tables and let her play around for longer.  There were so many pumpkins around too.  After all, it is pumpkin season!
• Bb is so introverted and shy with her paternal grandparents.  It definitely takes her more than an hour to warm up to them.  Everyone thinks she’s so shy and polite and quiet, but her true self is talkative and silly at home.
• October 3:  Bb sometimes poops after she has her first milk of the night (before bath time).  Tonight, she did so and because we were waiting for DH to wake up from his quick nap on the couch first, I asked bb if she wanted to play with the abacus since she brought it out.  I invited her to play on the playmat and she said “or jor see, moi hai doe, mm chor” (I pooped, so I’m going to squat and not sit).  That was one of the most intelligent things I’ve heard to date from her!!  She knew that she pooped and her diaper was soiled and thus was waiting for us to go up to bathe her and until then she didn’t want to sit down on the playmat because she knew it wouldn’t feel comfortable with the poop in her diaper.  And so she said she was going to squat instead.  So smart!!
• Bb continues to do well with the new room change.  So, so glad there weren’t any episodes dealing with the change.  Perhaps this means that with all the prep we’ve been doing with her for the new sibling, she might receive him/her well too?  We shall see…
• Oct 5:  Bb hasn’t been napping in the afternoons because she either doesn’t want to go to her room to sleep or she just doesn’t nap when she is in the room.  The only person who can successfully help her to nap these days is her dad.  It means two less hours of rest that we can get.  I again get frustrated when I think about how it got to this point.  It all started in July when our routine went haywire because I got COVID and grandma messed up the napping routine.  Since then, she doesn’t nap independently like she used to.  We had it so good!  Sigh.
• Thus, these days, she goes the full day without taking a nap.  It’s tiring for both her and us.  If we take her out on a car ride though, she naps.  But this isn’t feasible and especially not so when the colder months roll in.  We can’t have her sleeping in the old car.  Same thing for stroller walks.  She falls asleep in them too, but when it’s cold outside, that’s not feasible either.
• For the first time when we were bathing her tonight, bb actually pooped in the bathtub!  We didn’t even know until we saw her holding something brown and mushy in her hands.  DH took it away from her and it turned out to be poop!  There were lots of it in the tub.  We had to hose her down with the shower nozzle.  First time this has happened!
• She can recognize and “read” the titles of some books.  She can recognize and say “Families belong”, “Feast for 10” (although it sounds like “feast fa ton”), and a few others.  She knows when the books are in Chinese too.  She says “zon mun shu” (Chinese book).
• Bb continues to like playing with the walnuts and coins.  Sometimes if we are busy doing something or she’s off on her own time playing independently, she can be seen “busying” about bringing items from one container to another or stuffing things inside another.  For example, she put a lot of coins and walnuts and some of the magnetic alphabet letters into the strawberry plushie and some into her small backpack.  She was able to wear her own backpack yesterday too!  Usually, she asks us for help to put it on for her.
• She also loves taking items out of the pantry and taking it to her own kitchen.  Right now, all of the sardine cans are in her kitchen shelf instead of our actual pantry in the kitchen.  She likes taking real kitchen items for use/play in her own kitchen.
• While we were in Leslieville yesterday, DH took her to Monarch Park where she was able to play on some new swings, slides, sandbox, and toys!  So cool how people had left random toys, cars, dinosaur figures in the sandbox for other kids to play with.  (When we drove back uptown, bb passed out in the car.  She was so tired.  Her snores were so loud!)
• We were at a restaurant tonight bb stayed in her high chair for a while and then she wanted out.  She sat in DH’s lap for a bit to continue eating.  (She finished half of bowl of the crab and fish maw soup!)  Then she (understandably) got restless and started walking around and fitting from parent to parent.  We fed her whenever she was near us and she ate a lot this way.  Some of the servers wanted to chat and play with her but bb retreated a little bit.  She’s not as shy as she used to be.
• Bb actually does pretty well at restaurants these days.  We took her to a bar seating only restaurant and she sat in the Ikea high chair without much complaint.  These ones are good because her legs hang and so she can’t push on anything to climb out.
• And then we went to Descendants Pizza yesterday where the pizzas take a minimum of 30 minutes to bake.  Considering the time it took for us to browse the menu, order, and wait for the pizza to arrive, bb was very patient and didn’t get too fussy.  The funniest part was when she was walking around when she was done eating and she was near the doorway of the restaurant.  We told her to walk back to us and right then, someone started coming through the door.  Bb got spooked out and scared and ran so quickly back to us.  I wish I had that on film.  She was so spooked out and reacted so quickly.  😆