Beautiful fall colours

25 months old: 

• October 18: The week of this 2 year, one month old child started off with a funny incident in the bedtime routine where once we peeled off her diapers, a coin fell out of her diaper lol.  Then when she was lifting her butt in the bathtub, there was another coin that appeared.  This little girl has been playing with coins and so a couple must have fell down her diaper and wedged there lol…
•  Bb is definitely improving when it comes to guests who visit our home.  She can actually sit at the table with them for meals instead of inching away and not even being in the same room as them.  However, she does tend to look away when someone looks at her.  Sometimes she does this because she’s actually shy but sometimes she does it for fun.  It’s up to the person who she looks away from to take it as a fun “game” or to ignore it.  When you play with her this way, she actually enjoys it.
• We had a small playdate too where a one-year-old boy came to our house.  That little boy is so rambunctious and energy-filled.  Bb had no problem standing/sitting next to him and watching everyone he was doing.  When he was drooling, bb said “hui lau bei sui”, “yui mat” (his nose is running, it needs to be wiped).  Bb doesn’t know that he was drooling instead of having his nose run.  She only recognizes a runny nose because that’s mostly what she sees.  Bb actually let him play and throw most of her toys around.  It wasn’t until the end of the visit that she was much more territorial about her toys and held the cube toy closely and didn’t want him to take it away from her.  Seeing the little boy run around also shows what a big difference boys and girls tend to be.  Bb is definitely a calm and quiet pandemic baby.
• Bb liked to jump on our bed and sit on my pregnancy pillow this week and pretend she was riding a horse “kei bok ma” (riding a horsey). She also does it when sitting on the leg of the couch in the living room.
• I feel like there’s less to comment on this week…
• Bb’s love of reading is in full force and she asks us to read to her every day and bringing books of her choice to us to read to her.  A friend who visited bought her two board books and bb has been asking us to read those two books to her.  She asks me what the title of the book is and she can actually repeat and pronounce the title fairly accurately.  She can “read” some pages because she’s seen them so many times that she can say them from memory.  “The turtles don’t mind.”
• One thing I was really impressed with was when she said “ladybugs fei”.  “Fei” means “fly” in Cantonese.  The book reads “Ladybugs fly”, so she was able to replace the word in English with the Cantonese word and still have the entire sentence make sense.  That’s really smart!
• She’ll randomly say “tip and pour some more,” which is what her teapot toy says.  Speaking of which, she is over that teapot toy now.  That phase is over lol.
• When we adults are talking about things in a serious tone, bb knows to venture off to her play space and play independently by herself.  She likes to combine items together in a pile and put them in paper bags (we’ve been receiving lots of gift bags lately so she’s been having fun using items into those).
• Ever since bb could open the fridge by herself, she sometimes runs to the fridge and opens it and takes out a whole pitcher of milk by herself.  We have to be eagle-eyed when this happens because it’s too heavy for her to heavy.  One time she wanted milk and there was already a bottle of milk in the fridge.  She took it out herself lol.  But she still needed help to open it to drink.
• She likes asking us “nei yum mei ah?” (what are you drinking?) when she sees us holding and drinking out of a cup.
• She likes to drink my lactose-free milk (2% nowadays because of GD) and tips my mug to her mouth to drink.  She says “nei jong yi yum ma ma lai” (you like to drink mom’s milk).  She still can’t decipher between “you” and “me” so usually uses the incorrect pronoun for it.
• She also likes to ask “nei sik mei ah?” (what are you eating?) and followed up with “nei yui mm yui ah?” (do you want some?) which is what we would ask HER.  Instead, she always likes to ask what we would ask first and then answer it herself.
• Bb doesn’t like being told what to do (who does?) and will get agitated if grandma tells her to do something.  Me and DH like to let bb take the lead and see what she wants to do first instead of “telling” her.
•  The top part of the high chair with the table was on the floor for a few days (before we had company over and removed it), and bb enjoyed climbing into it and sitting with the table there.  It was so cute and funny.
• Another thing that happened last night was that bb climb into the cube toy and got stuck.  She actually got stuck for real.  DH had to take a screw and unscrew the top part of the toy in order to get bb out.  Now she knows better than to climb in that again (I hope).
• Bb actually saw the cube toy in the storage in the basement and requested to bring it out…  It’s hard for her to take “no” for an answer these days because she is so vocal about it and we know exactly what she wants.
• We tried to put her in the new 18mth to 3T sleep sacks I got from marketplace for her (only $30 for two), but she refused and didn’t want to wear them.  Lately she’s been wearing the 24mth one at night that our friend got for her and they’re super comfy and loose.
• Oct 19:  Bb, when asking me to read to her today, actually not just asked what the animal is called but she prompted me to tell her what it is again.  I first told her it’s a “lo fu” (tiger) and then the actual English for it, “tiger”.  She was so cute when repeating it.  We went through the animals in her new “Near and Far” book like the tiger, turtle, dog, giraffe, caterpillar, octopus, bird, fish, panda, etc.  She shows an understanding that there are two names, one in Cantonese and one in English!
• She liked to see the monster doll wear her clothes and giggled so much when I helped her put him in them.
• Bb was trying to button her coat and she was able to button one after trying!  Good dexterity skills!
• Bb was so good today despite me working from 11 am to 5pm (an usually long work day that came up unexpectedly).  She played well at home with grandma (since it was only 5 degrees outside), but we’ll take her out tomorrow.
• DH got a box of size 3 overnight diapers for her today.  Yay!  Hopefully we won’t have leaks anymore in the mornings…
• I’m at week 30 now, crazy to think that we only have 10 weeks to go before we meet this new little person.  My fasting numbers haven’t been great the past week.  It’s either because I’ve been eating more after my dinner because I am feeling gluttonous or my placenta is not doing great.  I have about a week of fasting numbers to improve before my next chat with the dietitian.  My fear is that I’ll have to go on insulin if I don’t keep my fasting numbers in range…
• This pregnancy with GD, I’ve been eating much more and feeling more satiated than I did with the first one.  I know how to control the numbers more and aren’t “starving” myself as much as I did the first time around.  However, it also means I’m letting go too much and enjoying foods that maybe I shouldn’t.  My lunch and dinner numbers are great.  I can almost basically eat anything for those meals and get good numbers.  I just need to make sure that my fasting numbers are good too… fingers crossed.
• I’m as big physically now as I was with bb full-term, so how am I going to make it another two and a half months with this little babe still continuing to grow?  I have slight pelvic pain/lower pressure when I wake up.  Thankfully it disappears once I start walking and within a few minutes of waking up.
• This little person also moves way more than bb did.  The kicks are sometimes so strong that my entire belly shakes very visibly.  I have yet to try to capture any movement on video though.
• Speaking of which, we did a maternity photoshoot this weekend with DH’s brother.  We have the photos but haven’t had time to offload them from the DSLR yet.  I hope we got some nice ones with the autumn leaves.  Bb was reluctant to come out of her stroller to take photos with us so we only had a few with the three of us.  It was a rather chilly autumn day but I wasn’t cold sometimes so I was able to take photos with my coat off.  Glad that we can have these photos for memories.
• Also, there’s been no weekly belly photos with this pregnancy.  I just haven’t had the desire or motivation to do it.  Sorry, second bb.  I tune into my Pregnancy app daily to read about the daily changes and the Flo app weekly for the weekly changes too.  I also watch the weekly videos on YouTube, but not as promptly as I did before and not as many.  It really is different being pregnant the second time around.  You know what’s going to happen so things don’t feel as “new” anymore.  We also started to dig out the newborn clothes in preparation for washing.  They’re so small and cute!  It’s incredible to pair them up to bb’s body and see how much she’s grown.  We also need to figure out how to wash stains out as most of those clothes have stains… Need to finalize everything soon just in case.
• Whenever I place my hand on my belly, it’s likely that I’ll feel the little one moving.  This definitely wasn’t the case with bb.  She wouldn’t move at all once I put my hand on my belly.  I feel like this one likes attention and comfort/hugs/cuddles.
• Whenever I’m hungry, the big kicks come too.  It’s really obvious.  “Some are more active when the mom’s hungry and blood sugar drops,” Dr. Ribaudo says.”
• We also just did the third prenatal online class.  We did the first two (labour and delivery) two weeks ago.  This week is the postpartum one and two class.  Bb wasn’t too interested in the online class but pointed out and asked who the person speaking was.  I said it was a “lo si” (teacher).