Playing in the sandbox for the first time!

Week 176 of motherhood with 3 year old and 13.5 month old: 

January 25 to 31, 2024:

• Jan 27:  We attended Zumbini and the 13 month old took her first steps independently there on the mat!!  Ahh, I didn’t have my phone in hand to capture it.  She’s been taking small steps at home already but this time she actually was up and walked 3 to 4 steps by herself with nothing around her!  She will be walking by Lunar New Year February 10 no doubt 😊.  She was on the floor and even got up by herself independently and took 2 steps before falling back on to the mat to crawl.
• She is social and unshy.  She crawled right up to others and was fine being in the centre of the circle while everyone was sitting down.  In contrast, her older sister had to be in my lap the entire time.  She didn’t want to do the movements or have the ball on her head or have her hands led in dancing.  She likes to observe instead.  She’s quiet there but when we get in the car and home, she pipes up with so many things to say.
• The 13 month old also took a ball by herself when the facilitators offered the box of balls to the kids.  She did it herself!  The 3 year old had to wait for the box to be brought over to her.
• I’ve started tracking the 3 year old’s bowel movements again in my baby tracker app as she hasn’t been having regular movements.  But since we got a boatload of oranges recently from our Flashfood order, the daily citrus fruits will help.  Surprisingly, she loved the grapefruit.  She also opened and ate 2 Halos mandarins by herself the evening we got them.
• Jan. 30:  “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”  This has been my lesson this week.  No matter how amazing and helpful I think something is, even if I show it to the neediest person, they will not take or accept it until and unless THEY want to.  It’s so frustrating because I know it could literally change their life but they are too narrow-minded and stubborn to even try to work it out.  Whereas some others will take and apply it to their life immediately, these certain people stay ignorant and blind.  I can’t help those who don’t want to be helped. 😦  (And I’m not talking about MLM schemes.  I’m literally referring to money-saving tips like using Flashfood to buy groceries.)
• Jan. 31:  Now that DH and grandma were back to being COVID-19 negative again, we embraced our freedom and headed out for meals and outings again on the weekend.  Yay!
• The 13 month old doesn’t mind wearing the holiday deer hat on her head.  She loves holding our hands to walk with us.
• On the other hand, she doesn’t like the dog hat.  She looked so adorable with it on and I didn’t have my phone with me.  By the time I got my phone and I got it on her head again, she didn’t want to wear it anymore and kept yanking it off. 😂
• The 13 month old crawled on to the green kid’s chair by herself (after seeing her sister do it and DH let her to it one time) and then the older one got jealous because she saw me taking photos of her that she went and sat right in front of her on the chair.  The younger one doesn’t mind it and always knows her sister is always in her way.  She likes to provoke her with pokes and jabs too.  The older one will say, “Mm bay lei mon oi” (I won’t let you look at me) or alternative not “letting her” play with her toys or touch her, etc.
• The toddler had her first IKEA kid’s meal.  She hogged the applesauce to herself.  She liked the fries too.
• We had a playdate with our friends at the Thornhill EarlyON in celebration of literacy day.  It was really nice to chitchat while our kids were in our laps.  We were actually able to catch up and not get too interrupted.  Her son is so well-behaved for a 16-month-old!
• The toddler occupied her time with cutting a piece of yarn and sticking it to the cardboard box with tape.  She wasn’t physically able to pull apart the tape so I helped her.  She also stuck some foam alphabet letters together with tape and asked to bring them home for her dad.
• There was a puppet show too.  The toddler actually got scared of the main character pink monster puppet.  She tilted her head from view and only looked a few times when there was a rabbit puppet and then later towards the end.  She also tried to push her sister away because she was in her space… The 13 month old was tired near the end.  She watched the puppet show intently but was slouching in grandma’s arms.
• I like how EarlyON gifts the children books after these special events (we got the acorn book after the Wonders of nature event last year).  This time after the literacy event, we got the “Read to me” book.  The toddler has asked me to read it to her daily since.  We actually read this book before at the EarlyON centre but now we have a copy to ourselves.  She enjoys hearing me read the last chunk of text too.  She recognized the “sing songs” part and asked me what that meant.  She is recognizing more and more English words than ever before!  With more days at EarlyON again, her English has once again skyrocked.
• Whenever music comes on (from the music toy teapot or musical mat or anywhere else), the 13 month old will start moving her arms and wiggling back and forth.  It is the cutest thing.  She is so into music!
• We attended the final Tuesday Creative Chefs class for January at the Richmond Hill EarlyON location.  It was a disappointment as usual.  The facilitators haven’t been putting in any extra work or thought into these classes at this location.  This week, they made a labneh and vegetable toast.  It wasn’t until we got all the ingredients and sat down that they said we could have taken two pieces of bread to make a sandwich.  Well, no one told me what we were making.  I thought it was just plain toppings on a toast.  The only “cooking” involved was the cutting of the cherry tomatoes and cucumbers on a cutting board.  They had the chefs hat and apron for them to wear again (not that the toddler wanted to wear it anyway).  I wish the class was more thoughtful and had more direction behind it.  Oh, well.  I guess it’s free and that’s why it wasn’t a pre-registered class.
• The toddler knew what to do with the knife but unfortunately the skin of the tomato was so tough and hard to cut through that she needed my hand to help pierce it.  And even when I tried, it was a struggle for me too.  After cutting the two tomatoes and spreading the labneh (a type of Middle Eastern cheese — her first time trying it), she finished it and sat at the snack table ready to eat.  Unfortunately, she said she was full and so we took it home.  (Like the previous visit, she also didn’t choose to take any cucumbers.)
• We spent the rest of the time reading (we read about 3 books) before she said she wanted to join her sister in the other unit.
• The 13 month old was really fascinated with the sandbox.  It was her first time playing with sand!
• The toddler has been accompanying me to the Flashfood pickups.  Lately, she hasn’t wanted to wear her shoes in the car so there were a few times where me or DH would take her to sit in the shopping cart without her shoes.  She wasn’t going to walk anyway so it was fine.
• The 13 month old has been enjoying “high fives” while nursing.  She’ll bring up her little hand to me to high five.
• Also this week, she liked poking my nose and laughing when I made a little “beep” sound.  Her little giggles are so precious.  I really enjoy the nursing and snuggle times with her.
• She crawled to the room with the buddha worship table and started putting her hands together like she was praying — just like how I do in the mornings.  I wonder why she wanted to do that out of the blue?
• When I was holding her in the armchair, she saw the nail clipper on the table and pointed to it.  I asked her if she wanted her nails clipped and she nodded!  I was able to get her longest nails clipped before she didn’t want to stay still anymore.  It was a nice opportunity to finally cut her nails without struggling.
• The toddler has been displaying epic tantrums again this week.  She could be fine and then suddenly snub her toe or bang her head against the counter and then start crying profusely.  Then she’ll want DH to hold her and that’s when it starts that she doesn’t want to let go and doesn’t want him to do anything else but hold her (and he can’t do this when it’s during work hours).  It’s been so tough during these moments this week.  She gets set off easily and then once that happens, it takes hours for her to calm down again.  The hysteria is real…
• I was reading an Instagram mom’s post and she said how the terrible 3s right now are killing her (she has 2 twin boys and another younger boy).  It’s worse than the “terrible 2s”.  So far, I would agree.  The “big emotions” are not easy to ride through.
• We weigh the 13 month old every so often and she still seems to be 18 pounds with no weight gain.  Hmm…
• Caught it on video tonight!!  She was waving her hand and standing and then started walking towards me from across the room.  She took like up to 10 steps all by herself!!!  That’s it.  Next week we will have a full-fledged walking toddler!
• The 13 month old goes “ahhh” whenever we open the blinds or she sees the table full of food or some other “ahh” worthy moments.  It’s so cute.
• This week, she’s said things like “nai nai” for milk when hungry and calling her sister “jei”.  One time she apparently called her “ga jei” as well (older sister).  It’s also so cute when she is pronouncing “dad” in Cantonese.  She is very clear when enunciating the “baa”.  “Baa baa”.