Plus 1

Interpretation: if two lines appear, Congratulations!

This is the reason why I've been home the past month. And why I've been feeling rather down. And why I've been excited. And why I've basically been on a roller coaster ride - emotionally, mentally and physically.

Truth is, the physical bit has been the worst to bear though I'm happy (& relieved - couldn't have tolerated the *ugh* any longer!) to be feeling better now that I've crossed the first trimester.

To the sister who already knew just from my one-liner, to the family who's been terribly supportive of how I've been whaling around and obliging my food cravings (especially the mother!), to the gf who already guessed from gut more than anything else, definitely to the husband who has been tolerant and by my side throughout the tough period - thank you for sharing my joy.

I must admit, I've been pretty grumps the past month largely because I've just been feeling so bloody awful, but I know that I'll feel better and it'd be a fun & exciting ride with "baby little" - what I've named the little one within me.

Dear baby little,

It's been tough for Mommy so far and I do feel guilty because with you, I seem to have rather unhealthy food cravings. Not have I indulged in such sweet stuff so much for ages!

Have you been hearing Kate cheche saying "hello" to you? She also says "good night" to you sometimes.

Be good and we'll enjoy the next few months of incubation together, and I'm already loving you - I cannot wait to meet you in 6 months' time.

Love you much, Mommy

Sleep is hard work

I'm not proud to say that Kate goes to bed pretty late. It's always been about 9ish, 10... and lately it's become as late as 11. And there are nights where she just refuses to go to sleep and she will go to sleep past 11, one time this week she was so hyperactive that I swear she only slept past 12. It is terribly late and I hate it! There's really much I can do to help her sleep earlier, but it's so much work getting her to go down that I'm tired even thinking about the task. The husband is very (very) busy these days and he cannot really help with this task, and even if he were home, he'd be either doing his work while allowing Kate to be on her own because (in his logical train of thinking) "she's not tired what", or Kate will still ask (demand) that I be the one to "sing"/ "pat" / "scratch her back".

I've also been having trouble falling asleep. My mind is constantly whirring, I'm sensitive to everything - light, sound, temperature - every little bit of thing will wake me up and I'll have to work very hard to go to sleep again. And even when I sleep, I'm always dreaming (weird dreams!), and I always startle awake because of an alarm (not mine!), or Kate's bumped into me, or some thing or other, and I always feel tired.

Unfun.

Oops

I wanted to head to the kitchen but Kate was in my way, dilly-dallying in her usual fashion. I gave her a little push to make her go faster.

She says to me, "Baby fall down! Don't push." - accompanied with a sullen face.

It took me a moment to register her words (not entirely coherent) but when I got it, I was immediately contrite (yet laughing!).

"O yes, Mommy cannot push you. You may fall down."

Oops. But also HAHA! My little girl makes me laugh!

An interesting lunch

The husband and I got to spend all morning together. Much like a date while on an errand. We got what needed to be done (two things!) and I was starving for lunch by the time we were done. Good thing we already had a place in mind and we charged there (ok, we didn't actually do that. I did so in my head).

We had kway chap at a hawker centre and the husband ordered food enough for three people, really! (Plenty of add-ons). I was very happy to see all that food because like I said, I was famished. We were tucking into lunch when two strangers approached us to share the table. We, of course, said to the Uncle and Auntie to proceed to take a seat. The Uncle had his own lunch of pig organ soup and a bowl of rice, the Auntie had a bowl of dessert. We were all eating our own food when the husband suddenly said, "Uncle, Auntie yi qi chi ok" (do eat together, i.e. share our food) and indicated to our (mountainous pile of) food. The Auntie said in Mandarin "don't you have to eat?" & I responded "oh there's plenty, do share." The Uncle didn't say anything but seemed to have nodded his head.

The Auntie finished eating her bowl of dessert first and left, leaving the husband, the Uncle and I at the table. The husband excused himself to the bathroom and that's when the Uncle struck up a conversation with me. It was pretty innocuous, commenting that we'd ordered so much food for two people and I responded saying that we were pretty hungry, and I urged him to share our food. It was rather cute as the Uncle reminded me a little of my Dad, rather plumpish and yet easy-going. He then proceeded to share some of our food! It wasn't as if he ate heaps, but he did pick up some food from our plate! Uncle finished his bowl of rice and he then proceeded to say goodbye and left.

Now. Here are my thoughts - when the husband first offered our food, I was startled for a split second - honestly, I was! I mean, I'd never EVER shared food with complete strangers before! But I didn't see the harm of him doing so which was the reason why I was able to "continue the conversation" with the Auntie. I did find it terribly amusing and cute that the Uncle did share our food - amazing!

"Wow. Why'd you offer to share our food?" I asked the husband.
"They are elders what, if it's youngsters I wouldn't." was his response.

Is my husband an amazing man, or what?!

23 months old

17 August 2011, and Kate is 23 months old today.

It's been a ride the entire time with plenty of ups and downs. Not so much "downs", per se, but plenty of learning experiences. The husband and I have definitely learnt to work as a team and it's so invaluable for us to have been on this amazing journey together.

Have been spending plenty of time with Kate lately and I'm so proud of her. She has developed so much in the past year, and it's truly an amazing transformation. I know it's all normal and part of growth but still, it truly feels my heart with immense love and amazement to see how Kate continues to grow.

Cannot believe that I'm a Mom sometimes, still, and I'm thankful for this amazing experience. Wouldn't change anything for the world.

Kate says...

A lot of things, these days. I've always been impressed by her level of comprehension and I figure I really ought to capture her tremendous growth in this area since it'll soon zoom by and I'd have forgotten plenty of it.

What's impressive is her level of absorbance of words and things all around. Say it once or twice and Kate will remember. She also manages to piece words together and form simple sentences that mean everything, making it absolutely possible to have a conversation with her (when she's not whiney and cranky). Kate is bilingual. Besides a smattering of Hokkien (tham tham - wet wet/ giam giam - salty) & baby talk (orh orh - sleep/ bom bom - bathe), Kate speaks in both English and Mandarin. She can work on improving pronunciation of many words, that's for sure, but hey! Kate's 6wks short of turning TWO so I say 100% effort baby!

Here's a list of things that she says and I'm sure I'll have missed out plenty:

Good morning xxx (she does this in the form of a song sometimes, sung to the tune of "happy birthday")

Baby want to eat xxx (her vocabulary of food is endless, as it is the love of her life. Durian! Biscuit! Rice! Rou rou (meat)! Strawberry! Pizza (newly learned word of tonight)! Milk! Bread! Bao bao (bread/bun)! This one! while pointing to whatever she wants to eat.)

I want to drink water (she refers to herself as "I", or "baby" or "Kate")

Don't want bom bom

Person: Kate drink water/wash yr hands/ fill-in-action. Kate: no need.

I'm tired. Sleep for 2minutes (proceeds to plonk herself on bed for 2 secs)

Mama/Papa/whoever, pls help me. (when desperate or impatient, she'll says many "pleases") Please please please. (when SUPER impatient and cranky - she just cries)

Mama (fill in blank for whoever she's talking to, but for ease I'll just use "Mama") where's Barney/Hi5/Pocoyo? (proceeds to pretend hunt for either the laptop or the iPhone - this is her sneaky way of saying I want to watch xxx on Youtube)

Oh! Barney is there?!? (This is said when she spots the iPhone, and said with excitement as she'll then proceed to lunge for the phone and proceed to navigate to Youtube. O yes, it's also usually accompanied by a hearty giggle)

Baby want to see Barney/Hi5/Pocoyo (again, her never-ending love affair with these creatures)

Mama come, eat rice (we teach her to call everyone to the dining table when it's meal time)

Mama wake up! Open the door pls, baby want to go outside

Yiyi is naughty. Nai nai beat!

Papa is working (sounds like walking)

Papa is jeeping (sleeping)

Conversation with Care Bear in car: Bear bear, you go nai nai hse, yes? Yes! Go nai nai hse.

Baby WANT MILK!

Where's playground? Mama play with me (she refers to wooden blocks as 'playground' cos she prefers I build a make-shift slide for her to play than stacking them up high)

Read book? (She'll then proceed to pull open her drawer of books and pull out which she prefers to read for that moment)

Chi da da bao bao (Eat big piece of bread. Being greedy, she's now insistent that she eats everything in a large portion. No longer can we get away with tearing a tiny piece of food for her. So everything to her is "da da")

Wo bu yao zhe ge, wo yao zhe ge (I don't want this, I want that)

Hen chou, hai shi hen chou (smelly, still very smelly)

BU YAO BU YAO BU YAO (no! no! no!)

Baby chuan xue, yao qu (Baby wear shoes, I wanna go)

Mama don't sad/cry (The first time I said this was to the bestie's baby and I encouraged Kate to coax the crying baby to stop crying. Since then, she's learnt to apply these words to other right situations. One time, she'd been naughty and hit my arm. I put on a sad face and said "Mama pain". She said those words in response to me!)

Sing song (and proceeds to sing the song of the moment. I love hearing her sing)

....

OK I'm tired of recounting everything that Kate can say, but I guess this is a good enough demonstration of how chatty my baby is. Though, she's no longer that much a baby anymore! How fast they grow!

The obsession

At below 2 years old, Kate knows what she likes and dislikes. Her preferred foods include durian, biscuits, Milo, milk - though I must say she's (thankfully) quite a good eater. She loves to play masak - "took" (cook) and "tart" (cut), her dolls (wa wa & bears included), bubbles, babies, playground, doctor... She does not like water down her face, changing clothes, lying still (except while drinking milk)... But her favourite thing in the world has got to be Barney.

Yup, the husband and I do not stand a chance against the purple dinosaur. Her love for Barney started innocently enough with my mom buying her a Barney waterbottle, and the FIL getting her the soft toy. But the relationship built extremely quickly and Kate quickly learnt to ask to wear her Barney tees and watch Barney on YouTube. The love was sealed when we brought her to catch the Barney show, where truly my heart burst with love as I watched her immerse herself into Barney-land, thoroughly enjoying herself.

Today, she pretty much identifies the iPhone and Barney as one. When she sights the iPhone, she'll giggle with delight and say "haha see Barney?!" in an obviously rhetoric fashion. And yes, this lady of the i(Phone) generation is capable of operating the phone, getting into YouTube and clicking on her favorite Barney episode. Right now, it's this particular one named "Good day good night." I notice that she'll always route back to watching this particular episode no matter what and I honestly don't know wherein lies the allure. But I've watched the episode with Kate so often that I couldn't help myself but know the entire plot and some songs.

Now I'm proud to say that this connection with Kate's favorite Barney episode has it's benefits. I have, on several occasions, managed to distract her from watching Barney by saying to her that I'll tell her the story of Barney instead. And I've also successfully put her to sleep by telling her the story at bedtime. This has been going on for more than a week now and though I'm bored to death of repeating the same story over and over and over, I do it because it makes Kate happy.

This obsession with Barney is like a pure relationship in Kate's eyes. When we ask her "do you love Papa/Mama (or anyone else) or Barney?" The swift response from Kate is usually Barney. Shocking, I know! But it's also an innocent reflection of the child and what they hold dear in their heart.

Funny, odd but still rather cute. Till I go bonkers reciting the Barney story again...

When it's raining

The sky was dark and overcast this morning and by 930am, it was drizzling. This is about the time that Kate normally heads downstairs to the coffeeshop with the in-laws. Seeing that the weather was bad, the MIL tried to discourage Kate from going down.

MIL: xia yu le, wo men bu yao xia qu (it's raining, let's not go downstairs)

Kate: na yu san (take umbrella)

!!!

"Mama, pat"

The husband has been a gem, putting Kate to sleep for weeks now. Last night, however, was one of those nights that Kate outplayed (literally) her parents and tired us out. During such times, Kate will pull out all her antics and do everything she can to not sleep. She will roll around the bed, sing songs, switch from her side of the bed to Papa's, talk to herself and gibber non-stop... The list is endless.

During such moments, the husband and I will play dead. We will pretend sleep and when we are lucky, she will suddenly tire herself out and fall asleep. Or she may call out "Papa /Mama, pat" and she'll eventually doze off.

Last night, Kate did something rather funny.

She was rolling around while I laid still and she came up to my face and stroked my cheek. She then climbed onto the bed and put her head on my pillow. She then stroked my other cheek and whispered, "Mama pat". I was pretend-sleeping so I ignored her. She then did it again.

"Mama, pat" she whispered. Before I could react, she called out loudly the third time "Mama pat!"

I was so amused by the silly girl! It's not often that she openly displays affection and to have her touch my face made my heart sing. To have her whispering, thinking that I'm asleep is just a haha topping that really made me laugh when I recounted the story to the husband.

Ah, the joys of a kiddo.