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Vee Turns 18 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:00:51 +0000

Vee's First Trip to the Play Gym

Every day holds a surprise as Vee is growing up at a blazing speed. Here are his little achievements over the month:

Learning & Communication

After learning his name for a few weeks, he suddenly started blurting out his first perfect 5-word phrase in Mandarin: “我是 _ _ _” (which means “I am _ _ _”). I was amazed!
He loves reading and has been pulling out books while saying part of their titles. I am wondering if he is starting to recognise words.
He “sings” parts of songs when relaxed. I am looking forward to singing with him soon!

Physical

Finally, we brushed aside fears of hand-foot-mouth-disease and brought Vee to the play gym. He had tonnes of fun climbing, sliding and being buried in hundreds of small, colourful balls.
After many sessions of water play, he has mastered pouring and scooping water from one container to another. (Read about water play tips.)
He has been diligently practising scooping and transferring small items with a spoon.
He can also put a thread through a large wooden bead.

Diet & Feeding

New favourite foods include soup (a large bowl during lunch) and sushi (gobbled down 5 cucumber makis after his dinner). His Daddy needs to work harder to feed our little glutton.
He has progressed from finger-feeding to fork-feeding. Still not very good at spoon-feeding though.
Night-weaning is almost successful! (Read section on Sleep below.)

Potty Training

On two occasions, his diaper was completely dry after nap. *Impressed Mummy*
In the morning, his diaper is less soaked than before and he can frequently hold the first pee (A LOT!) until sitting on the potty

Sleep

Naps are near-perfect as he falls asleep rather easily and through 1.5 to 2 hours. No more nursing during naps. Yay, freedom at last!
Mr. Fussy Sleeper FINALLY relaxes enough to doze off in the car-seat or stroller when he is tired and ready to nap. (Instead of screaming his lungs out.) He even continued sleeping when I carried him out at home. This has NEVER ever happened in the past.
His recent best performance at night: sleep for about 2 hours, fuss and let me soothe him back to sleep with light patting. Then suckle only once during early morning, and continue sleeping. I can finally declare that he is sleeping through the night, at 18 months old.

I am a happy and well-rested Mummy who is suddenly dreaming of organising play-dates and attending Pilates lessons. I seriously need to enjoy life before having baby #2! Time to practise my rusty driving skills again.

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Need Your Help: Mums-who-drive, how should I overcome fears of driving alone with a potentially-fussy toddler?

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View more developmental milestones (from 8 months old onwards).

Vee Turns 17 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 09:00:36 +0000

Laundry Basket + Marker Pens = ?

What would you do when you see a laundry basket and a set of marker pens? Vee thought of doing this:

…

Haha… I was amazed by his little art piece. Here is his progress over the month:

Learning & Communication

He is very intrigued with recognising and saying aloud “o” (alphabet) and “0″ (for zero) everywhere he goes. He is no longer interested in plain alphabet flashcards, which is a sign that he knows the alphabets. Phonics still keep him interested.
A few months ago, I started teaching him to say / sign “Please”, “Thank you” and “Sorry”. It is now paying off: he would say “谢谢” (xie4 xie4, for thank you) when someone serves him food.
Often, he would run enthusiastically to the world map, point to the teeny-weeny Singapore flag and say “pore-pore”! Sometimes, he would also point out Malaysia’s flag. (Hee… got to be fair here.)
We finally set up a mini library for him, which he can access easily. It is now his favourite spot and he would indulge in books anytime of the day. From my observation of him when we practice speed-reading, I have a strong feeling he would start reading by himself soon. This is soooo exciting.

Physical

The fit and burly boy charges around everywhere. When he spots me move towards him with a cloth wipe or diaper, he would run away cheekily.

Diet & Feeding

He loves bread so much that I need to make it the last item of his breakfast. At restaurants, we need to cover it until he finishes his meal. Otherwise, he would say “包包” (bao1 bao1, for bread) NON-STOP and refuse to eat anything else.
For lunch and dinner, he has progressed to eating rice or pasta, like me. Saves time on cooking porridge.
Night-weaning is still Mission Impossible, leading to menstrual cycle being Missing-In-Action. Bleh!

Potty Training

Poo-trained except for a few mini “accidents” at home.
And he started telling me before he pees!!! He would say “poo poo”, “wee wee” or “wet wet” when he wants to pee or just pee-ed. A marked progress. The only thing is I need to bring him to the potty many times a day. (7 diaper changes in 9 hours yesterday. Thankfully, we are using cloth diapers, so no additional cost involved.)
Our potty-training is so “successful” that sometimes he would say “poo poo” just to get attention!

Sleep

This section is still graded F9. Several nights, he fussed, cried, and insisted to be nursed to sleep. Hubby observed that this happens when he is in the room. When he is not around, Vee could fall asleep rather easily on his pillow within 15-30 minutes.
During nap, he could fall asleep on his pillow within 15 minutes. But recemtly, he would cry after being asleep for 10-15 minutes and need to be nursed and carried. OMG… Regression again!

Vee Turns 16 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:42:54 +0000

Vee loves puzzles!

For the first time, it took me a little longer to remember Vee’s age by months. He is now somewhere between a big baby and a toddler with an independent mind.

Learning & Communication

Our first term at Shichida is coming to an end and we would be continuing as long as both of us enjoy it. It is amusing that he attempts to read aloud in his own baby language when he sees numbers and words on his cup.
He can recognise so many animals, their hand signs and sounds, and other objects that it is impossible to keep track.
When he hears us mention “Singapore” or “Malaysia” in the room, he would point to or bring us to the world map poster. I am planning to buy him a globe for learning geography.
He is super-sociable and greets EVERYONE in the family all day long, calling out their respective titles in Mandarin. His pronunciation is getting much clearer, for instance “baby” and 妹妹 (mei4 mei4, for younger sister/girl).

Physical

He attempts to climb onto and stand on chairs and mattresses, pulls open drawers, walks backwards, turns in circles (trying to wear his shoe), tip-toes and grabs whatever he can reach on our tables, etc. Every non-child-safe item has to be moved upwards or inwards. And not a day passes when he does not bang himself somewhere. I am on my toes all day long!

Diet & Feeding

He still enjoys eating and gobbles down whatever is offered with two exceptions: hard boiled egg yolk (must be hidden in other foods) and tomato (totally rejected). I love egg yolks and tomatoes, so he must have inherited this from his Daddy.
He is completely weaned off breastmilk in the day, except when he fusses during naps to be nursed back to sleep. After he is asleep at night, he still keeps waking up to nurse, perhaps due to teething. (I am so looking forward to my next menstrual cycle so that I can try cloth pads and mentrual cups!)

Potty Training

He is successfully potty-trained for poo, with no poopy diapers for the entire month! When we travel, he uses a portable potty seat placed on the adult toilet. There is no progress on telling me before he pees though.

Sleep

For the entire month, he has been falling asleep with his head on his pillow on his mattress. However, sometimes it takes as long as one hour before he falls asleep. He is willing to sleep only when I am very assertive. Every couple of minutes, he would try to sleep ON me. If I cringe, he would never learn to sleep on his pillow.
Four new teeth have finally erupted a little, which means the past two nights have been more peaceful. Otherwise, he tried to latch on THOUGH the night and pulled on my n*****. Ouch!!!

If you have tried cloth pads and mentrual cups, which is/are your favourite(s)?

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Some mothers have asked about our typical daily schedule for a 16 months old toddler. You may view our schedule here.

Vee Turns 15 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Thu, 20 May 2010 08:31:12 +0000

Vee achieved two major milestones in sleeping (our toughest challenge) and potty-training. Read on:

Learning & Communication

I bought a ‘truckload’ of materials from Shichida and other books and puzzles for our home practice sessions. He loves jigsaw puzzles (just like me) and has attempted to put each piece into place.
He surprised me by showing that he recognises alphabets! I was washing my hands and did not want him to follow behind, so asked him to bring the “Q” alphabet foam over. He dug it out and brought it to me. I tried again and he brought the next “Q” over again!
Instead of knocking down towers of blocks, he suddenly started stacking blocks up and looks very pleased when doing it.
He is starting to speak in short sentences such as “Ma-ma, poo poo”. My heart melts whenever he says “妈妈” (Ma-ma) in perfect Mandarin pronunciation.

Physical

He is toddling all over the place recklessly and the biggest danger: not going down steps carefully.

Vee insisted on climbing the stairs yesterday and suddenly fell backwards, hitting the back of his head. Though I was right behind, I could not break his fall in time. It happened too fast. He was shocked, did not cry and stared into space. I carried him, asked him to call me — no reaction. He remained silent for about a minute. I knocked on my mum-in-law’s door for help — he called out “mama” (Granny in Cantonese). Phew! Luckily until now, he has been his normal self. I have been super paranoid since his fall. Pray that all would be fine.

Diet & Feeding

Four teeth are STILL in the process of erupting. Thankfully, no fussiness due to this.
His current favourite food is BREAD, to the extent that I need to hide bread during meals so that he eats his other food before getting bread.
Weaning him off breastmilk is progressing very slowly. I only managed to drop the feeds when he is awake in the morning and after his nap. After he is asleep, he still keeps waking up to nurse. One month away from my target…
Besides drinking fresh organic full cream milk, he also loves the fresh yoghurt that I make.

Potty Training

He finally tells me when he wants to poo! I was elated when he said it the first time. Next target: telling me before pee-ing (very tough because he pees about every hour)

Sleep

For most nights during the past week, he has been falling asleep with his head on his pillow on his mattress (not on me). This is possible with lots of massaging and singing to him. I totally feel like a human jukebox.
The longest is sleeping for 3 hours before cuddling up to me again. Still a distance away from sleeping through 5 hours.

Please help: How do you wean your toddlers off the breasts?

Vee Turns 14 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 07:55:25 +0000

It has been an eventful month, when Vee (and I) started Shichida classes and home practices, started walking very fast and experienced a record high fever. Oh… and I was ill for an entire week.

Learning & Communication

I felt sooooo “proud” on our first Shichida lesson. My boy’s first day at “school”… oh gosh!!! Anyway, he enjoys the lessons because there are four classmates of about the same age and lots of singing, which he adores. I am amazed by his (and his classmates’) performance — for both classes, he got 5/6 correct!
For a month, we have been doing home learning for an hour each morning (between breakfast and lunch). He recognises some colours and shapes. For instance, any rectangular toy becomes a remote control in his hand, so I deduce he knows the shape. (I observe instead of ‘test’ him as I learnt that children do not like to be tested.)
He is starting to say two-word phrases such as “deh-dao” for 跌倒 (fall down) and is trying to sing when he hears familiar nursery rhymes. It is such a joy watching him dance to music with his hands.

Physical

He is FINALLY walking quickly and rather steadily. This also means he goes all over the house opening drawers, cabinets and pulling things down. It is hectic clearing the mess after him and I started installing child-proof locks at every vulnerable corner. Refrigerator latch, wardrobe latch, bathroom latch, socket covers — you name it, I have it!!!

Diet & Feeding

Four teeth are in the process of erupting and that affects his appetite. Anyway, he loves juicy fruits (pears, apples, grapes, plums, peaches) and would eat more when fruits are offered.
After consulting with our home-visit nurse, I have finally decided to wean him off breastmilk in two months. Reason: Six months for my body to ‘recuperate’ before trying for baby #2. It is going to be a HUGE challenge for the night and early morning feeds. Wish us luck!
He has tried fresh organic full cream milk and enjoys it right out of the fridge, so he would be drinking that in replacement of breastmilk. To ensure that he gets sufficient nutrition, I would be supplementing his diet with a multivitamin, as advised by his nurse. (Apparently, there is only ONE brand of liquid multivitamin for children in KL; Singapore, here I come for vitamin-shopping time!)

Potty Training

He still uses the potty at every diaper change; I am still waiting for him to give me signals beforehand that he needs to let go. Patience is key here.
He has gotten his first pair of Imse Vimse organic cloth training pants, as I could not resist getting them when helping his cousin to buy a few. Can’t wait to try them on him and find out what’s all the rage about Imse Vimse!

Sleep

We shifted room (AGAIN!), this time from the playroom back to our master bedroom. (The playroom is now a dedicated play and learn area.) Since the change, Vee refused to let Daddy carry and bounce him to sleep. For a week, he decided to roll over me for up to 30 (read: THIRTY) minutes before plonking his entire 11kg body on me to sleep. *Gasp… I need air!*
We bought a Twin mattress for Vee and placed it beside our King mattress. Hopefully, he would soon feel attached to his sleeping corner.
For more than a week, I have been using the Five-Minute Suggestion Method learnt from Shichida’s Parent Education Course. He made improvements and is able to fall asleep without rolling around. Milk feed, story, songs, massage, lights out, lie down on mattress tummy down, turn his head side to side for a few minutes, zzzZZZ… *Impressed!* (He still fusses a few times at night. Again, we need patience…)

Please help: Is your toddler taking any multivitamin? Which would you recommend?

Vee Turns 13 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:49:54 +0000

A faulty telephone line forced me to survive the entire week without Internet connection. Except for a few lucky emails sent out successfully, I had all the time in the world to admire my toddling son:

Communication

Ever since learning to shake his head, Vee has been doing that a zillion times a day. He seems to enjoy appearing uncooperative. Then, he recently coupled his head-shaking with “biao” (for 不要, which means “don’t want). What exactly do you want?!?
Just two days ago, he started to nod his head (*finally*), which involves an elaborate act of bending his entire body over.
He began to say “Po” for 婆 (grand-mother), “Gee” for 姨 (Aunt), “Jeh” for 姐 (elder sister), “ba-ba” for bye-bye, “bao” for 抱 (carry), “bo” for ball, “beh” for bear, “dug” for duck, “ta” for star / pasta / stop, and “ngao” for 咬 (bite / chew). During play-time, he would babble a lot and it seems like we are expecting a talkative boy.
He also took his first flight (to Singapore, where we visited the Takashimaya Baby Fair) and would be very excited to do the hand-sign for “aeroplane”.
He enjoys imitating adults using the telephone and remote control. When he feels like calling somebody, he would even use his shoe as a phone!

Physical

The adventurous boy is able to walk more than 10 steps at a stretch when he is calm. Once he gets excited, he forgets all about balancing and simply pounces forward like a tiger.
Mastered climbing up two flights of stairs on all fours
Would turn his body to get down the mattress, when reminded LOUDLY (absolutely zero sense of danger)

Diet & Feeding

Loves, loves, loves eating pasta (made of quinoa or brown rice, no wheat for him yet)
Enjoys organic brown rice cake, which makes a crunchy and healthy snack (Great for satisfying his love for self-feeding)
He is allergic to soy, so I am eliminating soy from my diet too, in the hope that his persistent eczema would subside.
During meal-times, he is able to sit through in his high-chair, gulping down his food or people-watch. This seems to be an envy among other Mummies, something which I just realised is a rarity among toddlers.

Potty Training

I still bring him to the potty chair during diaper changes, and keeps him seated by singing or giving him a small object to hold. He has been co-operative most of the time.
My husband and I have decided to say “wee-wee” for pee and “ng-ng” for poo. (Consistency is a must here.)
He is showing awareness by putting his hand on the front of his diaper when he pees.
When his face shows expression of straining to poo, I would strip off his diaper IMMEDIATELY and sit him on the potty chair. (This is an absolute test of skill and speed. Any miss would mean poo plopping on the floor or worst, on my feet!)

Sleep

The persistent nurser still suckles for comfort several times in the night. For the past week, Daddy is in charge of putting him to bed while I leave the room until he is asleep. Hopefully, he would be able to find comfort sleeping with Daddy too.

Our home-visit nurse gave Vee passes for all the milestones he achieved and witnessed for the first time how stubborn he could be:

After demonstrating his scribbling skills on his large doodle board, he insisted on sitting on the board with his fat thighs squashed like an “M”. To prevent his weight from damaging the board, I told him to sit outside it. He refused with a loud “Nggg!!!” and squashed his thighs tighter together. OMG, I am starting to feel fearful about our journey towards the “Terrible Two”.

I am preparing myself for this challenging journey. What are your tips for dealing with stubborn toddlers?

Vee Turns One!

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:00:06 +0000

Today marks Vee’s first birthday and the first anniversary of our breastfeeding journey. We have come a long way since last year when I spent THREE calendar days in pain (yes, about 38 hours of contractions!) before he was delivered naturally. His birth story shall be shared in another post.

Since it is a working day on the fifth day of Lunar New Year, we held a mini celebration at home. Everyone in the family came back for a sumptuous home-cooked lunch and we held the tradition of letting the birthday boy crawl towards an item of his choice.

This was the spread offered: a toy stethoscope, an abacus, a pen, a book, a doodle drawing board, two red eggs, a construction toy, a toy musical instrument, and a toy laptop. Within split seconds, Vee zoomed towards the stethoscope and held it. We gave him a second chance, and he went to grab the pen and the toy laptop.

All right, baby… You aspire to be a medical researcher who writes reports on the laptop all day long.

Then we sang his birthday song in English and Mandarin, and blew the tiny candle on his birthday cake. Hubby and I had baked the carrot cake last evening, as a present to Vee. We are proud to have worked together to bake the cake successfully, signifying our determination to work as a couple to bring Vee up and educate him well. (Find the fabulous recipe here. We halved the amount of confectioners’/icing sugar for the frosting and it still turned out rather sweet.)

Vee has been experiencing an explosive development in the past month:

learnt to say many new words: ”Da” for Daddy, “Ma-ma” for Mummy and Granny (I’m trying to spot the difference in his intonation), “mum-mum” for eating, “dieh” for himself (as his nickname is 宝贝, pronounced as Bao-bei), “ger” for tiger, “ter” for water, “daw” for window, “ngao-ngao-ngao” for 摇摇摇 (which means swinging in Mandarin) and “ngai” for 来 (which means come in Mandarin)
picked up new hand-signs for words that he cannot pronounce yet: “fish”, “more”, “apple”, “no more”, ”pain”, “stop”, “don’t want”, “flower” (We are glad to have invested the time to teach him baby-signs because he can express his needs rather clearly and find little need for crying or whining. His speech has been developing well in parallel, and he learns words/signs much faster when they are sung and signed to him.)
recognises these items: book, ball, blanket, bear, fan, toy piano, potty
started refusing food fed to him in his spoon, then we realised he wanted to finger-feed himself while we finger-feed him (Using fingers to feed him porridge is very messy yet fun at times.)
able to take a few steps before falling
falling asleep by himself on two occasions (shared here)

I am overwhelmed by the surprises he gives me every day.

Here are my wishes for the adorable birthday boy: Stay happy, strong, healthy and kind all year round!

Vee Turns 11 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:55:52 +0000

Vee is only one month away from his first birthday and I am pretty excited about it. He has been a darling this month and such a joy to have around every day.

His mini achievements:

He has picked up quite a number of new hand signs:
- initially I thought he was doing the ‘milk’ sign with both hands; then it appeared that he was signing for the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”!

- finally learnt how to clap his hands! He does this when we sing “If you’re happy and you know…” and when he is excited

- managed the “Gong Xi Gong Xi” (恭喜恭喜）sign, just in time for Lunar New Year next month. It was hilarious the way he had to clap his hands, in order to grasp his own hands, then bob his fists up and down for the sign.
He woke up one morning while I pretended to be asleep. Then he crawled right up to my face and said “Ma-ma”, my eyes opened big with surprise STRAIGHTAWAY!
When he fusses at night, I pretend to be asleep for a while more. On several occasions, he changed positions, sometimes crawling across me, then fell asleep on my tummy / thighs / chest / pillow ON HIS OWN! Without nursing! Gosh, I am soooooo… glad whenever this happens.

How did you or how do you plan to celebrate your kid’s FIRST birthday? Any special traditions in your family?

Baby V Turns 10 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:28:36 +0000

Another month has flown by and Baby V has again managed little accomplishments:

from sitting to standing on his own without any support (I was amazed when he first did so and rushed out of the bathroom immediately in case he fell, which he didn’t!)
making the first hand signs to communicate with us:
~ milk (from ‘milking’ slowly with one hand to ‘milking’ quickly with both hands. Are you THAT hungry, boy?)
~ bye-bye (say ‘bye bye’ and he starts flapping both his hands. Hmm… maybe he can’t decide which hand to wave?)
peeing regularly in the potty chair/trainer (very adaptable baby)
pooing with ease in the potty chair/trainer every alternate days (He’s super adorable when mimicking my ‘straining’ sounds, then continues to do his big business. I’m still amazed by his control of bowel movements at such an early stage. Thank you for giving Mummy such clean diapers to wash, Baby!)
eating three meals a day on top of breastmilk
In case any Mummy is interested, these are usually what he eats:
~ Breakfast at 9.30a.m.: Brown rice cereal (4tblsp), some apple bits to chew
~ Lunch at 1p.m.: Brown rice porridge cooked with vegetable stock (5tblsp), vegetables, 1/2 apple/pear
~ Dinner at 6.30p.m.: Brown rice porridge as in lunch, vegetables
(Baby, thank you for gobbling down anything that is prepared for you. Muak!)
sleeping for longer stretches (2-3 hours) on several nights without nursing for comfort (Slow progress, which is better than none! He loves sleeping on his tummy nowadays and squeezes his head onto his Daddy’s or my pillow. Can’t you sleep on your own pillow, Baby?!?)

I have been showing flashcards to him for 5-10 minutes daily as he enjoys them. He plays rather freely the rest of the day.

We are considering enrolling him in The Shichida Method Programme for right brain education 1 hour per week, so that I can learn a more structured way to educate him.

Are any of your child(ren) on similar programmes in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur? Please share your experiences and feedback. Thank you very much!

Baby V Turns 9 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:38:53 +0000

It is amazing how much a baby learns in a month. From last month’s post until today, he has managed quite a feat:

‘letting go’ in the potty a few times a day (Granny is using his pee as liquid fertiliser for the plants in the garden. Great recycling idea!)
pulling himself to stand and letting go of his hands (He falls several times a day, yet the diligent boy keeps practising at every chance.)
learning to walk by pushing a stool round the room with my help (He is very smiley when doing this and seems to enjoy the new sense of freedom to move.)

It is time to get him a pair of soft shoes for outdoor use and I am clueless about this. Which brand would you recommend?