The frame at the top corner is what another child did (what the facilitators “wanted” the frames to look like) and the green artwork is what my child made.

Week 203 motherhood with 3 year 10 month old and 19 month old. 

August 1 to 7, 2024:

• The 19 month old can sleep by herself pretty much through the night now.  Woohoo!  When she does wake and I had managed to escape the bed by then, DH gives her cow’s milk and she can fall asleep by herself again.  There were a few times though when the cow’s milk didn’t work and she just needed mom so I had to go back to bed with her.
• She barely nurses now.  I don’t think I have much milk to give anymore too.  Yay!  When she does nurse, she only latches for less than a minute.  The weaning is happening faster than I expected but it’s a really good thing because we’ll be on track for next February for sure.
• Also when I nurse her to bed at night, she unlatches and then can fall asleep without being on the breast.  She likes to “talk” a bit before she sleeps by calling out “ba ba, ma ma, jei jei”.  She still can’t say “por por” yet.  Her chatter is the cutest.
• I had been reading the Lovevery pee and poo books inadvertently to the older one (because it’s the younger one who wants to read the books instead) and maybe it’s the catalyst that’s helped her (or the few potty training books we read at EarlyON too) but the start of this week suddenly, the 3 year old wanted to pee in a yogurt container.  It could be talking to from grandma too.  We had been telling her almost daily that she needed to be out of her diapers and to pee in a potty for school in September and finally she wanted to do it herself.  She didn’t want to use a potty though or the toilet and instead wanted a yogurt container (the bigger 2kg ones).  We then transitioned to a steel bowl because it was easier for her to squat and pee.  She has done it for four days so far and I’m afraid to announce success because she might revert or change her decision but for now her diaper has been dry the past three days.
• I tell her that she has to pee in the potty when we go out (like to school or EarlyON) but she says she still doesn’t want to.  I’m not sure what to do still but this is major progress still.  We are a month away from starting kindergarten!
• She doesn’t want to wear pull-ups or underwear still but still wears her diaper but takes it off to pee.  I hope next week we’ll see more progress.  The timing is so clutch.
• Anyway, back to last week.  On Thursday on the last day of the Little Artists summer camp, the kids received the tie dye shirts they did the previous day.  Unfortunately, the facilitator messed up with the washing of the shirts because they came out all purple along with the stained colours.  It was pretty-looking but it definitely shouldn’t have been purple.  It was my first time experience doing tie dye so it was still a cool experience (of course for the child too).
•  One of the activities that day was to make a frame using popsicles sticks.  There were no rules but I noticed other kids gluing the popsicle sticks on to a piece of construction paper first.  So that’s what we did.  I asked the child how many popsicle sticks she wanted; she said 5.  Of course they were all green ones.  The construction paper she chose was green too.  She used white glue to stick the 5 sticks on to the paper in the shape of a house.  I thought it was creative and different than the other kids who did a typical frame of 2 by 2s.  There were butterfly stickers and small wooden animal cut-outs and buttons they should stick to their frame.  The child stuck these items on to the paper so that it looked like everything was in the middle of the house.
• One of the facilitators who was running the class showed off the frame she made which was an actual frame of 4 popsicle sticks with the 4 sticks decorated.  She put her face through the frame like a photo.
• When it was time to clean up, she noticed my child’s artwork and said, “Oh that’s cool but maybe you can finish it up at home.”  Um, excuse me?!?  What’s “wrong” with what the child made that she has to “finish it up at home”?  She needs to understand that not all kids have to make art the same way.  Just because the activity was to make frames, it doesn’t mean that what she made wasn’t complete or needed finishing.  The child was very content with her artwork.  I honestly didn’t know what to say at the time so I didn’t, but I should have said, “What’s wrong with what she has now?  It’s beautiful and already finished.”  Ugh.  These EarlyON facilitators and their lack of early childhood education annoy me a lot during these moments.
• It’s wrong to say there is anything wrong with a child’s artwork, period.  She should have just said, “That’s so beautiful and cool!”  No facilitator should ever say that a child’s artwork is incomplete or critique it.  They have no right.
• It also seems the staff don’t have any concept about open-ended art as opposed to closed-ended activities.  What the child did was very creative because she made a different-looking frame than the other kids and decorated it how she wanted to.  Kids should be celebrated in their creativity and uniqueness.  Not everything should be cookie-cutter.
• The 19 month old is so cute and she’s a full-fledged toddler now, running around the house, wanting to stand up on the chair, sitting on the adult chair by herself to eat, pointing at things, requesting items.
• She was at the fridge and holding a golf ball and hitting it on the magnet on the fridge.  I told her not to do that (because the fridge will get scratched) and she furrowed her eyebrows and dropped the golf ball in defiance and had a “flat mouth” like she wanted to cry.  Grandma who was in front of her tried to talk to her but she turned her face the other way and didn’t answer.  Lol, what nerve.  This child has some temper!  Haha.
• The 19 month old also likes to call out “jei jei” to her sister, to which the 3 year old will say, “oi mm hai jei jei” (“I’m not an older sister” — she doesn’t like being the older one).  It’s constant and the reply is the same every time.  It’s just kind of funny.  Or should I say amusing.
• When they’re fighting and in close proximity and we know the 3 year old will get upset at any moment, we have to pull the 19 month old away.  Because as soon as the 3 year old is irritated and we tell the 19 month old to stop, sometimes she will purposely reach out to touch the 3 year old’s hair which is the final straw.  Lol.  So even when we tell the 19 month old not to touch her sister, she will do it on purpose to irk her.  It’s so amusing.
• I had a date with mom out where we went for a dinner buffet.  She needs to eat more and bulk up because she lost 4 to 5 lbs last week when she was ill.  Quiet time to eat without disruption is gold when you have young kids.
• Our plans were actually to go swimming on the Sunday but the older child started to have a runny nose so we stayed home.  Good thing we did because this was the day that she wanted to start peeing in the container.  Our nephew of the same age (older than 5 month though) is also staying home this week to potty train successfully.
• This week, we spent time watching the Olympics again.  This is definitely the Olympics in recent memory that I have watched the most of.  It’s been nice to catch all the main events and see our Canadian athletes reach new goals in real time.
• The 3 year old continues to say that she’s a Canadian when we mention the Canada flag.  Then the 19 month old will immediately point to her chest and prompt me to say that she’s Canadian too.  Then the 3 year old will say she’s not a Canadian and that only she is lol.
• When we see or hear an airplane go by, the 19 month old also likes to point it out and then prompt me to say that she’s been on an airline too.
• When a Canadian won gold, we listened to the Canadian anthem together.  This reminds me that we should start listening to the Canadian anthem in the mornings as part of our routine so that the child can get used to it when school starts.  One less thing that’s new for her.
• The 19 month old grunts or vocalizes herself a lot to “say” things or prompt me to say things on her behalf.
• She is so good at saying “hai” (係) when we ask her things.  It’s the cutest.  I don’t remember the 3 year old saying “hai” this often when she was at this age.
• We had a Civic Day potluck lunch at the in-law siblings’ house where we presented the surprise box with the kids’ artwork to the grandparents.  The 19 month old was so happy to play at the play area with all the toys and loose parts.  She didn’t need us at all.  DH and I could literally have stepped out of the house and she would have been fine playing for a few hours until she realized mommy and daddy were gone.  This child should be fine at school when separating when the time comes.
• On the other hand, the 3 year old still likes to sit in our lap to eat.  She continues to use her scissors to cut food herself to eat.
• Not many daily outings this week (compared to weeks prior) because we are nursing a cold and the child is potty training at home.  But DH and I did start our first longevitology session!  Nice date/outing/excuse to just be the two of us.