Week 144 motherhood – 2 year 9 months old and 6 months old: 

• June 16:  We had another dim sum lunch with grandma and uncle.  The toddler is reserved around her uncle because he tends to speak animatedly and loudly which scares her.  She ate half a siu mai this time plus a quarter of a large BBQ pork bun and an entire steamed cake slice.  She really enjoyed the sweet steamed cake.  The baby slept during the entire lunch and through most of the grocery shopping trip afterwards too.  Yay!  She opened her eyes during the supermarket but lasted until home for a feed.  Woohoo!
• The toddler loves sitting in the shopping cart and being wheeled around to all the different aisles and looking at products and other people.  She is super observant and points out the animals or colours or types of food products that we see.
• June 17:  The baby has started to sleep on her belly.  Interesting… Gotta make sure when she’s on our bed that her nose isn’t wedged into the mattress/sheets.  But the fact that she turned over and did it of her own accord means she can breathe fine and is very comfortable.
• This is a very late thing to write about but so glad her head is so strong and sturdy now that we can hold her up by the armpits and maneuver her easily.
• We attended the Lucky Lion food festival in the parking lot of Markville Mall.  I love that it was held during the daytime so we could attend (and not just at night like most night markets are).  The toddler surprisingly stayed in the stroller during the entire time (there were so many people) and the baby slept the whole time too (until we ate eating and sought refuge in the shopping mall).  We were able to try a good assortment of street food and the toddler basically ate everything we gave her (sausage, saucy noodles, frozen yogurt bricks, bread, and her first sweet potato drink).  So glad she didn’t fuss or have a meltdown because it was too hot and crowded for that.
• Afterwards, when we were inside the mall, we used the huge family washroom to change the kids’ diapers and I checked out what the nursing room inside the ladies’ washroom looked like.  There were 4 large armchairs and a changing table/counter for babies.  There was already a woman inside bottle feeding her child.  It was nice to check it out as I had never seen what it looked like inside.  I ended up going to Toys R Us to the baby section to feed the baby so that the toddler could be occupied with toys there too.  I discreetly sat behind a poster and nursed the baby there.  It was 10 minutes to closing time and the toddler maximized the time there by riding on their plastic cars.  She loved it.
• We celebrated Father’s Day with my in-laws at a breakfast restaurant.  The toddler ate so much of the pancakes (about a quarter of a large one; no syrup), a bite of my smoked salmon eggs benedict, and scrambled eggs.  She sat on my lap the whole time.   These days at restaurants, she doesn’t like sitting in her own chair anymore (whether it be a booster or high chair); she is glued onto my lap (or DH’s lap).
• June 21:  The baby turned 6 months old this week.  I can’t believe it.  She had her 6 month checkup and her shot too.  She didn’t even flinch for the shot (only cried for a second afterwards).  Such a brave soul.  She’s officially 15.2 lbs now and 65cm tall.  The pediatrician asked if she is vocal.  Yes.  Asked if she acknowledges her name being called.  Yes, for the most part unless she’s distracted.  Asked if she etransfers objects from one hand to another.. we said we haven’t noticed it but when we got home from the appointment, I saw her do it!
• He reminded us that she’s on the move and will crawl soon so we have to childproof our home with gates and locks and no sharp corners and no small toys from the toddler.  He said sunscreen and bug repellent is fine at this age and to go outdoors to play often.  He said the immunity from the breastmilk won’t protect as much now so she might get sick more often and not to panic if she does.  For colds and coughing, just let her be.  Have a bottle of tylenol at home for fevers (especially when they pop up during the middle of the night).
• He said she can eat anything now that she’s 6 months except two things: honey and dairy products (no cheese, milk, yogurt until 9 or 10 months).
• Next appointment is when she will be 9 months old (no shots and just a checkup).
• Her height is at around 50 percentile while her weight is a bit below the 50 percentile average.  She had been gaining a pound a month since the last checkup.  Honestly had she not caught RSV and the cold recently, she likely would be growing even more and at a faster rate.  The RSV slowed down her weight gain.
• The toddler sometimes pulls on the baby’s limbs for attention and unbuttons her onesies too.  We tell her not to do that but she continues and ignores our words. 😑
• At the same time, she is very mothering towards her stuffed animals.  A friend responded to that observation by saying she doesn’t feel jealous or threatened by her toys but she is jealous of her little sister.  Makes so much sense!
• The baby is so used to sleeping on our bed these days that after nursing her on the armchair or massage chair, she fights and slides around and can’t sleep.  I know she is tired but she wants the flat surface to sleep on instead.  She can sleep fine when we’re out though with no problem in the car seat luckily.
• We got a box of yummy raspberries this week from Flashfood ($5 only 😃).  The toddler had fun putting the raspberries on one finger each like a little hat.  She asked me to sing the duck song while we counted off the raspberries on her hand backwards from 5 to 1.  Now this real life practical math skills!
• For the baby’s first solids, we steamed up a piece of carrot to give to her.  (The day prior, we practised using a spoon by spoon feeding her breastmilk from my haakaa.  She was soooo confused at first and didn’t even swallow it, but then she gradually got the hang of it and seemed to want more by the end.  The confused look on her face was so funny and cute.)
• The baby sucked on the carrot and held it for a few seconds while we assisted her on the side.  The carrot was so naturally sweet and tasty (for me).  A day later, we found out she did ingest it because we found the carrot bits in her diaper.  Good job, baby!!  This one is a eater for sure.  She can gnaw pieces of the carrot off.  So good.
• One new food at a time.  The next day, we spoondfed the baby some rice water (the water skimmed from the surface of the rice just before it’s done cooking in the rice cooker), which is very nutritious.  She finished the spoonfuls.
• The baby often laughs and giggles at her older sister as amusement.  It is super cute to watch.