Wawa is TWO Years Old!!

Yummy home cooked feast prepared by PoPo :)

Savouring the drumstick ... finger linking good!

Not to forget the auspicious red egg!

Got recommendation to order from this cake shop .. i tell you it's superb!

Prices are a little steep though ... but it's for my darling so it's worth it!

That's what she does when you say "smile"

Trying to snuff out the candles ... hoooo hoooo hoooo

YAY! The family rejoicing! ~

Cutting the cake

Thank you PoPo! I got ang bao leh!

Daddy and mommy gave wawa this photobook as present

Collection of our memories for the past 2 years!

Admiring and wondering who that little babe is

Yes! Wawa is two years old! From a skinny baby in my arms wawa has blossomed into a chatty little princess! She has brought so much joy into the family and we cannot thank God enough for His protection, love and grace as we see her growth and development each day!

Some of the things she can do now:

repeat most things we say

speak chinese with an ang moh accent

identify and say most letters in the alphabets

ask for food when she's hungry

self-feed and drinking from the cup

say grace on her own

sleep on her own on the mattress

follow and sing songs

tell us when she needs to pee and poo (well some accidents still occur ^_^)

tell us when she is in pain or discomfort

We celebrated wawa's bday in a simple fashion with just a cake and dinner with the family. It was heartwarming to see that she kinda knows what's going on (compared to her disinterest in the first year haha). It's been such a joy to raise her and we continue to pray for strength and wisdom in the coming years! Wawa, daddy and mommy loves you! MUACKS! :)

Wear This One

Was getting ready for church this morning and wa walked into my wardrobe. She pulled out one of my tshirts and said "wear this one".

Surprised as i am, i told her "sorry wawa, mama cannot wear tshirt to church".

She looked a little disappointed and continued walking down the line, and pulled out another of her favorite top (a colorful blouose with many flower prints) and said "wear this one, flower".

Was really ready to burst out laughing. My daughter is now old enough to help me pick what i should wear?!

More Hairstyles

Colorful head! ~

Looks like negro? hehe ~

Really admire my maid's skill

Less fancy if going to school

Bronchitis (Again)

BLAH! I'm not sick i'm just pretending!

Heee when i get well i'm going to EAT EAT EAT!

小朋友, you all must take good care orh!

It's barely a month and the poor wawa is down with bronchitis again. It started with a few harmless sounding dry er-hems which degenerated into deep coughs with phlegm. The doctor pronounced the same diagnosis and even the medication was the same. We put wawa on the nebulizer for 4 days, and continued to administer the cough mixtures. We've been keeping her at home for a week now but she's still not totally well yet.

How to prevent a child from getting cough? The doctor told us "there is no way". Sob. The truth is the flu and cough bug is easily contagious. The only way is for the child to build up her own immunity. That explains it as she's been sick 3 times since we sent her to childcare 2 months ago. Friends told me the "adaptation period" could go up to 6 months!? Let me know if you have any proven remedies!

Hair Style

Looking all prim and proper for school

Getting all the hair up so neatly is really nice for school days

Big red bow to brighten up the face

I really admire my maid for being able to handle such fine hair so well

Another thing is how did she get wawa to sit nicely while she does her designs??

All the clips i bought come in handy

Ok the most complicated style i've ever seen on a child keke

Beats any celebrity anytime, won't you agree? :)

Recently i changed my maid, and here comes a wonderful lady with a really special skill - she can tie wawa's hair in various styles and boy, she's real NEAT!

I can't help but capture some of wawa's hairstyles, which sometimes can be so funky. Haha it's nice to be a kid, you can get away with any fashion booboos!

Swimming

Oooh i feel so insecure in the waters with my legs hanging somewhere!

Mommy i think i had enough .. hehe can i get out now?

The first time we brought wawa to swim was when she was 11 months old. Now the second time, she is already 22 months. Haha ... talk about being a diligent mom :P

Well, as we know, swimming can be quite "troublesome". You need to bring along many things, the child swims for less than 20 mins, it's so sunny you get dark and you waste your SK-II products that you so faithfully apply everyday, you bathe and clean up a can't-remain-still toddler, and end up with lots of laundry.... Ok, enough of excuses but i think you know what i mean ^_^

Anyway, as a continued effort to break wawa's fear of water, i decided i have to go through some trouble after all. Thank God for the wonderful weather, and also to April who lent me the oooh-so-cute Hello Kitty wave rider. I had already orientated wawa in advance by letting her play with the wave rider at home, hopefully she will get the feel of it in the pool too.

But ALAS. Wawa screamed and cried the moment we hit the waters. She was frantically wrapping her legs around the maid and practically clinging onto her like a koala bear. Thankfully there was some other kids in the pool whom we could use as visual examples. "See wawa, jeh jeh splash the water, come it's very fun!"

Unfortunately this was the exact same behaviour displayed at 11 months, and frankly we are kinda baffled by this unexpected response. I don't know what had triggered wawa's intense fear of water, but hopefully we can help her overcome it. So i guess we'll have to just bring her to the pool more often. Not at 33 months, i promise :)

Jacob Ballas Garden @ Botanics

Heeeeeeelp!! I'm scared of this water monster that spits!

Ok i think i can handle this pretty well now ... (looks very cautious^_^)

WOW! Look at those children! They are all wet! HAHAHA

Dancing in the "rain"

WOW! Free backside washing service! GREAT!

Brought wawa to the botanical gardens for the first time. It took quite a bit of determination to make it happen that saturday morn as it's kinda far from home. But have heard from my friends about the JC gardens and how children seem to enjoy themselves mad with the water play so i had hoped the trip is worth every cent of my petrol ... haha ~~

If you've heard pple say "every child loves to play with water?", then mine must be quite "abnormal". Wawa has always loved bathing but she was so terrified of the mini water fountains and sprouts! We took a long time to get her see how the other children are having so much splashing fun. After quite some efforts she finally loosened up and tried to touch the water with her bare hands. Still she was very apprehensive and broke into cries every now and then.

Wawa managed to have some enjoyment not long before the darkened skies opened the water gates. It started to rain so we had to take refuge at the nearby cafe. Overall i think the 20 mins of "exposure" was a good enough start. Will have to bring her more often and get her used to being close to mother nature!

Educational Toys III

We bought wa a box of building blocks some months ago, but at that time baby had no interest in them. In the 21st month now, she suddenly likes to play with them. She would sit down (this is unheard of before) and patiently try to stack the blocks into a tall tower where she'll burst into a sense of elation.

We are happy that finally we found something that could stick her butt to the floor, though just for a few minutes!!

Down with Bronchitis

Happily enjoying a biscuit the day before she got sick

YAY! Thank the Lord i'm fianally well and out of the house after TWO weeks!

See i can walk and run around as before!

Ah?! Catch me if you can! ^_^

Dear Lord, please protect me, i don't want to be so sick again!!

Wa has never coughed in her life, and when she did it was much more serious than we ever expected.

On sat she was just the usual active self running around and eating snacks and playing pretend with us. In the evening we even brought her to the adult fellowship gathering where she sang and clapped along with us. At night on the way home, she was extremely quiet in the car and to our unpleasant surprise she had a temp of 38.8 when we got home.

That was the beginning of a traumatic two long weeks where a stubborn fever refused to leave her for a whole full week; where she started coughing with lots of phelgm which she didn't know how to spit out and just swallowed them back; running nose with mucus over the face which she refused to let us clean them off; sleepless nights due to blocked airways, discomfort, unease; poor appetitie where the skinny girl just had milk most of the time ...

The doctor says this is an early case of bronchitis, if left untreated will cause much more harm to the lungs. She had various medication, as well as the nebulizer (a tool that disperse a kind of vapour that helps to clear the airways) which we faithfully administer round the clock. We also found VICKS being extremely helpful during this time. Imagine a team of pandas working tirelessly and prayerfully ...

Thankfully, the dark days are over, and today, wa is pretty well. We haven't heard her cough in two days, no more running nose, and she's also starting to eat a little more like normal. We think she might have caught the bug from school, and indeed this is a "must-go-through" experience for every child (and parent too!!) going to the childcare.

We have heard from other mommies how persistent coughs can be, and some lasting up to 3 weeks or so or even a month! Even the doc told me, there is no miracle pill and it certainly takes time to heal. For now, we try to boost up her immunity by feeding her with fruits and a balanced diet. She'll be going back to school next Monday and may our kind and merciful Lord continue to watch over her! AMEN!

I am going to SCHOOL! ~

I love going to school! ~

Hi! Guess who i am? :)

Wa is 21 months now, and we feel she could be feeling quite bored at home facing just the maid all day long. She has always liked to play with the children at church, and so we thought it might be good to send her to child care so she has some interaction with other kids, and also pick up some skills (hopefully ^_^).

There are many child care centers around my place, i think is because Seng Kang is a new town with LOTS OF LOTS OF children. However when i went around to ask, all the centers were all filled up and i have to be on waiting list! Oh my, i didn't expect this?!

In the end, we found Cambridge Children Development Center, a franchise CC around the island. The SK branch is newly opened and only about 5 mins' walk from our block, and still have one place in the toddler class. So thankful for this wonderful opportunity, and we quickly enrolled her. We thought, well in future she can tell other pple, "i studied in Cambridge when i was 2 yrs old. How about you?" hahaha ~~~

We prayed for her adaptation to the new environment many days leading up to the actual day. We were wondering if she would cry, refuse to let us go, and how we should react and manage all these drama. Anyway we committed to God and ask that His angels will guide and protect wawa.

The big day finally arrived. While walking to school, i keep preping her about what to expect in school, she would meet teachers and friends, learn to sing songs, play games etc. We dropped her at the door, the teacher picked her up and voila, she went in without a tear! WOW it was a milestone for US!

It's been about 3 weeks now, and each day she's quite happy to be in school. When we ask her what she learnt, if she sang any songs, she'll break out in her own tune which nobody understands haha. Also, she became a little more "bossy" at home, like telling us to keep the toys (points to the toy box and say "put"), telling us to sit down, stand at a certain place etc. We think she's trying to act like her teacher! LOL!

We're very thankful and happy that she's enjoying the new routine. We put her there for half a day now. Probably some time down the road we'll let her stay there for the whole day :)

To the ZOO!

WAhhhh! What did we see??

Oh it should be rrroarrr! ~~

Only two out of three are real ^_^

We fed wawa some ice-cream on the sunny day hehe

Wawa was excited to see the actual size giraffe!

National day holiday! and it was our first trip to the zoo with wawa! I had wanted to bring wawa to the zoo for a long time now and finally we set out early in the morning on national day!

When wawa was much younger, we started to show her pictures of animals, and i also pasted wall decor animal stickers right above her cot. She could point to each one as you name them, and well you could say she was "familiar" with her animal friends. However, i think she lacks the real perspective of how big/small these animals are. Hence i was really keen to bring her to the zoo and let her see for herself the "real friends"!

Initally wawa felt some fear when she saw the animals. When she came up close and personal with a tank of swimming fishes, she was quite frightful and refused to go near! She was clinging to us most of the time like a koala... it was actually quite hilarious ^_^ However, she loved the monkeys, the giraffes, and also the horses in the children's play area. She was very amused and enjoyed imitating them by making strange sounds!

We went home slightly after lunch as she was already pretty tired in just a few hours. Overall, it was a great experience, and we are very thankful to God for the great weather. Mommy friends, do plan a trip to the zoo but be prepared to spend just at most 3-4 hours for the $18 ticket haha. Don't worry, your child's smiles will make your money worth :)

A day out with Baby

YAY mommy this is my first time on a swing!

So safe we just let wawa enjoy herself while the camera snaps away

Heh heh mommy can we come again pls?

This is what i call HOLIDAY! YAY!

WOW my first porsche! Look how well i'm driving!

My little cottage - would you like to come in?

Hahlow! Anybody out there?

Yes pls come in! But did you bring your own chair?

Ok! We're going to close shop for the day. Byeee! ~

It sure is hard work to keep the active toddler entertained through the day - it's better exercise than running on the tread mill and more effective slimming treatment than the beauty salons!

We brought wawa to the youth park in the morning. Somehow i liked this penang park, it still has all the playground facilities that i enjoyed as a child. The "traditional" see-saws and swings, which i can hardly find in my neighbourhood playground anymore! The only downside was that there were a lot of mosquitoes ^_^

Later in the afternoon we went indoors to the Queensbay Mall. I think this is the largest mall in Penang, and i simply love how spacious it is and the endless no. of shops and the flagship Jusco. Most importanly, it is NOT crowded! You will never have this kind of shopping experience in Singapore haha ~~

There are also child friendly facilities to keep the kids entertained while parents get busy with great buys. I am so thankful for the playground area which made wawa really happy just moving around that tiny little house. Isn't it really easy to please a child?? It brings me great joy to see her laughter!

Oh what a day! Baby went to bed early that evening (which is great for me!) I need to start thinking what we should do for her tmrw ... hahaha ...