The 3 year 8 month old’s creation

Week 192 motherhood with 3 year old 8 months and 17 month old. 

May 16 to 22, 2024:

• May 16:  Grandma and I were able to take both kids to an EarlyON program again!  DH was at work so he wasn’t around to help us load the kids into the car and the 3 year old didn’t fight back or refuse either.  Yay!!!!  It took from mid-March to now mid-May to get her fearless and ready to come with us again.  Yes, time does heal all wounds!!!
• We attended the Stories, Rhymes, and Songs in Mandarin session that we had been to before.  The 3 year old stayed with grandma while I played with the 16 month old.  She loves playing with water and sat at the small pool for a while.  She liked squeezing the water out from the sponge.  One of the facilitators came over to observe her play and initiate with her, but she stared back and wasn’t very interested to engage.  I feel like ever since we took a semi-break from EarlyON (because of the older one), now that we’re back into it, the younger one is more timid and socially distant than before.
• She loved playing with the cashier and the toy money yet again.  She held the plastic bill up to the cashier as if to “tap” it a la contactless pay lol.
• She explored the toy kitchen too and tried to unhook and hook the silverware from the hanging rack.
• The 3 year old stayed with grandma and read Chinese books.
• May 22:  This week, I’ve felt mentally and physically exhausted from the kids.  All I want to do is sit there and scroll on my phone to look at updates from Flashfood (and TGTG).  I’m obsessed with the food app and it’s where we’ve been getting 90% of our groceries these days.

Credit to: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=834242142064239&set=a.395166245971833

• There were several nights this week where the 17 month old had to keep nursing and keep flipping from side to side to suck.  I don’t even think she is hungry but she is using me as a pacifier to fall asleep.  Thankfully, after maybe 4 to 6 rounds of changing from side to side, she does fall asleep (and so do I).  It’s only if I’m wired from thinking about DD or had had a nap that I end up getting up out of the bed to use the phone/blog for a little bit of me time.  How do we get her to sleep by herself and stay sleeping through the night?
• Attached meme is basically what we look like (but we have a safety rail on the side of the bed).
• The 3 year old keeps saying she’ll start sleeping with her sister in the same bed when she turns 4.  She will say these things but we all know that she doesn’t always follow through with it.
• I realize I have to stop going DDing because the hot weather is upon us and it’s not fair to the kids for them to sit in the car to wait for us (even if it’s short from anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes).  The 3 year old asked me, “I thought you said this was the last one” and she was correct (after I did a string of 4 to 5 but I saw an opportunity for one more).  I don’t want her to have a feeling of unease/grow resentful every time we go on these adventures.  So I’ll have to only go on shorter trips or when I’m not with the kids.
• It’s the start of the summer (already) and at the first sign of hot 24 degree weather, we went to the splash pad to play.  It was the 17 month old’s first time going to one where she can walk now.  I joked that she was once again a “wet water chicken”.  She was into it though.  The 3 year old stopped playing and rested on the benches after a while and liked to observe instead.
• The 17 month old loves standing at the learning tower to play with the kitchen faucet and the water.
• We visited DH’s mom again at the hospital, this time for Victoria Day holiday, and had dim sum takeout lunch with the family.  The 3 year old was timid and didn’t want to eat (maybe because she finished a bunch of cheese and crackers in the car on the way there).  The 17 month old actually went with her uncle to walk a bit in the cafeteria and hallway.  Yay, DH and I got a very brief break.
• We were going down the stairs, 4 of us sans DH, and the 17 month old was sitting down step by step to go down.  She was super fast though and like in a hurry.  I actually was filming this and on the second last step, she ended up falling.  I was holding her hand and luckily she landed softly and I had her hand and didn’t twist it.  Upon watching the video, it almost seems as though the 3 year old behind her had kicked or touched her back with her feet.  The 17 month old is super fast on the stairs and doesn’t pause.  Same thing with eating.  She can eat and swallow super fast now.  On the other hand, the 3 year old will chew and swallow with care and slowly.
• I was watching them play with the Grimm’s blocks and watched how the 3 year old once again used the blocks to stack on top of the chair.  She did it perfectly by choosing the correct blocks in order to make it all fit.  This is math — just like number blocks.  I didn’t have to teach or show her how to do it.
• The 17 month old saw her putting the blocks on the stair and she did it her own way too.  Super cute.  She follows her sister these days to do whatever she does.  The 3 year old is more okay with her playing next to her these days.  I can see their relationship growing positively bit by slow bit.
• (We were at Winners and one grabbed a stuffed animal and the other one did the same thing.  They have to have one each.)
• I did some “scaffolding” by asking the 3 year old if she could stack another level on the blocks on the chair and she did so.  Again, she did it without any teaching from my end.
• DH has been bringing them to the park after work to alleviate me and to let the 3 year old play outdoors.  She loves going to the playground and on the swings and slides.  Now, she can actually slide down and climb everything by herself.  I was quite shocked yet impressed because she used to be so clingy and helpless.  Our little girl is growing up. :3
• I also feel like she throws a little less tantrums these days.  And when so, the tantrums can easily dissipate with some distraction or humour.  On the other hand, the 17 month old’s tantrums are just beginning.
• The 3 year old liked to trace numbers with grandma this week in her tracing book.  She can recognize numbers up to 5 now.
• I forgot to mention this but ever since last week, she’s enjoyed listening to the Peppa pig five minute stories book.  That hard cover book is a hundred pages!  She wants us to read the entire book from beginning to end to her.  We attempted to but still didn’t get to the very end page to page.  She has such a patience for reading.  I can’t wait to see what she will be like when she gets to reading by herself.  She will be just like me, a bookworm lol (maybe).
• The 17 month old likes to feed herself.  She will shake her head “no” or say some sort of no to indicate so.  She is super clear when she wants or doesn’t want something.
• She also finally was willing to sit in her high chair to eat this week.
• The 3 year old helped her sister close her seat belt for the high chair and stroller too.
• The 3 year old’s bowel movements are improving now to every 2 days (ever since she upped her intake of fruits).
• I had my annual body checkup and it was disappointing to hear that my family doctor was surprised that I was still breastfeeding.  She wondered why I was still breastfeeding at 17 months…  It’s such an old-fashioned way of thinking to think that the mother should stop nursing by 1 year old or so.  The pediatrician actually encouraged my breastfeeding and said that I could continue for as long as me and the baby wanted to — even up to 7 years old.  I can’t believe the family doctor had to make it sound like it’s not normal to keep breastfeeding.  She said the baby already can get her nutritional needs from food and implying that I don’t need to continue breastfeeding her.  I told her the baby hasn’t weaned yet and that I haven’t started any initiative to wean her either.  Good thing I have other resources and supports that tell me otherwise.