Night Time Potty Training

Mia @ 34mths old

Last week, I started Mia's night time (sleep time) potty training. I didn't follow through on that much earlier as she was still heavily bottle-feeding during the night, even until today. She would have at least 120ml of formula before bed (if not more), and would normally wake up few hours later and ask for another bottle and again another bottle few hours later. There are times when her diapers pun tembus by the time she wakes up in the morning.

The first few nights, she peed on the bed and woke up crying. I decided to place a layer of  CD insert  inside her panties so that it'll soak most of the pee. As of 2 nights ago, I'm glad to report that she didn't wet the bed at all. Before she goes to bed, she would pee on the potty. Then, she would also wake up in the middle of the night (by herself), wakes me up and tells me that she needs to go potty... kesian oso.. looking at her stumbling around binggung-binggung when walking towards the potty which is just a few feet away from her bed. Will monitor her progress and hopefully, I'll be able to let her go to bed without the CD insert before baby#2 arrives :-)

Mia Transitioning From Signing To Talking (Part#2)

Mia @ 18.5mths.. To-date, Mia can now say (& use) abt 80 words.. She has also started labelling things using words now, rather than just signing & pointing..

She has started labelling body parts with words as well .. Ears, Eyes, Knees, Toes, Teeth, Mouth, Nose, Shoulders.. (it's so cute to see her pointing at her body whenever we sing the "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" song).

With the 80 words, she has started to make 'conversation' ... (while saying the words, sometimes she signs at the same time to emphasize the word)..

RED=USE WORDS/SOUND

Example:

Mia: Daddy?

Mum: He's at work

Mia: Car?

Mum: Yes, went to work by car.

****

Mia: Where + (signs for butterfly/blankie/dog etc)?

****

Mia: (Does the sign for hear) + (the sound & sign for aeroplane/dog/car)

****

Requesting for her Bathing time 'toys'

Mia: Bath-bath.. Duck... Duck.. Bottle.. open (the bottle's cap).. (signs for Tooth brush).. pee-pee

Mum: Are u done?

Mia: done../more...more.. more../No.. no.. no..

****

Requesting for Milk

Mia: Nenen...

Mum: what do u say when u want something?

Mia: Please... please....

Mum: Say thank you

Mia: signs thank u. After nenen. done. keep (keep the bottle)

****

Sleeping time

Mum: U sleepy?

Mia: Signs for sleep / sleep

Mum: Ok, say goodnite to Daddy

Mia: Bye + signs flying kiss + signs love

Mummy: ok, Goodnite.

Mia: Nenen please.. After nenen. Pet-pet (She's asking me to pat her to sleep).

****

Mum: U wan momom?

Mia: Momom. After momom, bib.. keep

Mum: U dun want anymore?

Mia: Done... wash

Dance, Dance, Dance!! (Part#2)

Finally managed to get Mia on video; requesting her 'dance' video to be switched on.

Enjoy! Mia @ 18mths (watch her hands as she signs for 'Thank You' and sign&say 'Please')

Dance, Dance, Dance!!

I've been doubling my work out sessions.. after gym during the day, sometimes I also work out at home at night... my favourite work out dvds are Tae-bo & Salsacise.. Mia has been observing me for a few nights and as of 2 nites ago, she's been enjoying 'working' out with Mummy... it's so cute when she tries to imitate the kicking and punching and the warm-up/cool-down sessions.. that tiny legs kicking... so cute oh...

Normally, after her nap, she'd normally request to watch "Blue's Clues"... but today, her special request was "dance, dance, dance"... I didn't get what she was trying to tell me at first... then she pointed at the workout DVD!! So, I switched it on for her... After few minutes, she came up to me and said "dance, dance, dance"!! She wanted me to do some work out!! I was extra tired today.. terkapus2 on the treadmill.. I guess I've used up the extra energy doing extra for the past few nites... I did some moves 'cincai2'.. tired ba... she was jumping around.. so cute!

Talking in sentences now??

Mia @ 18mths. "More nenen please?" It's really funny to hear her say those words.. especially when she desperately wants more nenen... I could just melt whenever she speak in sentences..

I've basically stopped recording new words that's coming out of her mouth coz there's just too many to remember (help, keep, down, open.... bla..bla..).. As of the past week, she could easily imitate the sounds of words that we're teaching her.. and the best thing abt it is, she doesn't just imitate for the sake of imitating, she actually knows what the word means and knows exactly when & where to use it...

I've also started teaching her to say & sign the alphabet (I should've done this much sooner... oh well, better late than never right??). She's picking up very fast.. Hope to post a video of her 'trying' to say & sign the alphabet real soon... So, stay tuned!!

Bahasa Kebangsaan?

Last Sat, i conducted my Parent Workshop at home and as usual, SIL would come and babysit Mia for about 2 hours. Babysitting Mia during her napping hour is actually pretty easy as most of the time she sleeps during the entire workshop duration. But, I wanted to be on the safe side.. Takut2 she terbangun in d middle of the workshop..

But that day, SIL had to babysit a bit longer as I had a wedding to attend and DH will be back quite late from outstation. So as I was chatting with SIL, we suddenly came across the topic of language. I was sharing with SIL, that i would really love it if Mia could speak English with a British accent.. (hahahaha.. i just think that it's much 'cooler' than the normal Malaysian English accent). Suddenly we were like... "can Mia speak in Malay or not ar??". Our main language at home is English, I do try slipping in some Kadazan words and some Malay but 99% of the time, we speak in English. So we experimented by asking her a few questions in Malay "Ko mau makan? Mana ko punya bapa? Ko mau minum susu? Ko mau baca buku? bla..bla..bla..". Mia was starring at us blankly!!! hahahaha!! It's just so funny.. oh well, I guess she'll pick up Malay as she gets older.. heheheh..

I'm also trying to introduce other languages to her i.e. Mandarin, Spanish, French.. I don't expect her to speak in these languages now, just wanted to stimulate 'that' part of her brain that controls language acquisition.. Hopefully, when the time comes for her to learn these languages in school/Uni, early exposure would make it easier.. My DH studied and worked in Switzerland many years ago and he used to speak in fluent French when I first met him (maybe that's one of the reason I fell in love with him??? hahaha)..

Our trip to Toys 'r' Us

Yesterday, after church at St Simon's, we decided to grab some dinner at 1Borneo. I told DH that I wan to blaja him makan cuz he help me take care of Mia on Sat-full day n Sun-full day while I conducted the ECE training at Taska Ria YS.. So, we had dinner at Penang Village. Food was ok, fast service :-)

After dinner, a quick trip to Toys 'r' Us to look for some training materials (good excuse to buy more toys for Mia). Managed to grab 2 wooden puzzles.. DH took Mia to the play area.. Here's a really cute video of Mia riding the display horse... If i see it online, I mite consider buying it for her... it's so cute..

More words at 17.5mths
No, Mouse, Bird, Car, Sticker (sounds more like 'ker'), Bell, Go, Up, Down

"Squeaky!!" & Moth

As i was cooking dinner today, suddenly Mia came running to me yelling "key! key! key!", while doing squeezing action with her hands.. (it looked like she was signing for 'stars'). I followed her to the living room, and she pointed at the TV.. She was watching Dora & Boots and apparently, Boots's "Squeaky" teddy bear fell into the river and Boots's was crying.. Mia was trying to tell me of how sad she was and she was also doing the sign for 'sad' (plus some crying sound)... so cute..

And as i was writing this post, she tugged my shirt and signed 'butterfly' while looking up at the ceiling. Then i remembered, 2 nites ago, a moth flew into the living room and she was quite fascinated with it. Tonite, she was signing for 'where' and was looking around for the moth... wow!! She remembered... (Mia's 17.5mths old).

New addition to her verbal vocabulary: Key, play (sounds like 'pay'), bubbles ('bobou'), pop, bird, duck, bug, go.

"Bug!"

While cooking dinner tonite, a Cicada aka "tongil" flew into d kitchen and langgar d fan.. The wing putus, so i figured since it's gonna die anyway I decided to introduce the little creature to Mia. I used d mop to pick it up - I'm not scared of it, just disgusted with the idea of touching it with my fingers. So d tongil hung on to the mop, while I slowly transferred it to the living room. I recorded a video of Mia playing with it (If u're a 'bug' lover, you may be offended with this clip). Sorry.

Also, tonite is the first time I heard Mia said the word "bug". And just to add up to the list, she also said the word "Bird" and "Duck" during her bathtime today. She was referring to the small bird that landed on our bedroom balcony and her rubber ducky.

Enjoy the video.

More words?

At 17mths, here's a list of words that Mia can say (not forgetting, by 14mths she can already sign abt 80signs).

Sounds like
More "m-o"
Book u can only hear d "B-k"
Juice "shihh"
Blankie "kiee"
Please "peas"
Cheese "shih"
Poop "poo-poo"
Daddy "Daaa-dy"
Shoes "shohh"
Pee "pee-pee"
Mummy "Meeee"
Bath "Ba-ba" - our version of bath is ba-bath
Boots/Dora "Boo"
Bye "Bye-bye"
Ghost "Wowouwouwowu"
Mickey "Key"
Thank You "Q"
Milk "Nenen"

Baby "Baby"

Bear "Bear"

Terrible Twos.. My little dare devil..

Before i had a baby, i used to cringe everytime i see toddlers/babies crying or throwing a tantrum... i hated the noise and pitied the kid's parents... I've never been the 'maternal' type of gal.. never babysit anybody's kids.. the nearest I've been to a baby is to 'hayun' d baby in d 'hayunan' during CNY, when all the aunties & uncles sibuk main gimrami... to tell you the truth, the 1st baby I've ever held was my very own Mia!! At 1st, I was sooooo scared that i mite break her...

Today, as a mother to a 17mth old toddler... the nightmare begins.. I never understood the label "Terrible Twos" before.. now, I'm beginning to get the taste of it... and it doesn't taste so good!!

Today, as usual, when Mia poops, I'd go to the bathroom entrance and would ask her to come to me so that i could clean her up and change her diaper. It's quite normal for her to run away, expecting me to chase after her and drag her to the bathroom. Most of the time, I'd just sit at the bathroom entrance and wait. Eventually, she would come over to me. But today, her 'tanduk' came out... As i was waiting, she walked and stood abt 2 feet away from me, smirked and started waving and saying "bye2" in a bikin gerigitan kinda way... As soon as she saw my reaction, she ran... I was stunned!! Punya la dis kid... testing the water kunun... I guess I should be expecting this.. she's quite cunning and i must say - she's got very high self-esteem.. not scared of anything or anybody.. I'm glad I've taught her the sign for 'Angry', so that when I do get irritated with her behaviour, I can tell her and she'd understand.. I'm also glad that (for the time being), she hasn't been showing her irritation by hitting, shoving, biting and pushing other kids at the nursery... (I guess being able to communicate by signing helps - rather than showing physical aggression, she's sign 'Angry' to the other kid.. - which is funny to me).

So, me & DH decided to start disciplining her. MIL suggested, we should start during meal time and during church service. I'm not sure if it's possible to get a 17mth old to 'obey' table manners and to sit still and listen at church... (I doubt it) But, i guess it's worth trying. Wish us luck!! We need it!

Is it time to say goodbye to signing?

According to research, this is the last stage of progress that i should be expecting from a signing baby, just before they transition fully to talking. Is it almost time to say good bye to signing? I'm definitely gonna miss those cute fingers... uhuhuhuhh. Babies grow so fast don't they :-( ? (p/s: pls dun ask me 'THE' question kay... hehehe)

I will miss this..

Before Mia transition from signing to talking completely.. i really think i should record some of her accomplishments, timelines etc;


8mths old - Started teaching her basic signs like eat, milk, bath, more, fan, dog, fish etc

10mths old - She started to understand the signs

11mths old - Her first sign was hat

11.5mths old - Immediately after mastering walking she started doing more signs - fish, dog etc

14mths old onwards - *She can express herself using more than 80 signs (which includes signs for animals, feelings - Sad, angry, pain, hot, cold, love, Objects etc).

*She picks up new signs very easily and her vocabulary & language comprehension is really amazing to me. Words that we hardly use like 'knock' - when i said "go knock the door" for the 1st time, she immediately knew what it meant n knocked the door...

*Mia loves to read and sometimes she 'reads' to herself.. (using signs - sometimes with words). While watching TV/DVD(cartoons, animal planet etc) she will participate by signing when she sees something familiar. Her favourite nursery rhyme is "Old Macdonald had a Farm" - i guess it's bcoz she can do lots of animal signs..

*Just before bedtime, she'd come up to me or DH and sign for sleep. As I/DH carry her to d bedroom, she would sign Bye2, Flying Kiss and I love u.... ohhhhh... so sweet :-)

Stunts ..... Grrrrrr... Geramnya

Her favourite stunts... belum campur lagi standing on d table, climbing sofas, walking-kneeling, doing the ballerina turn until pening then fall..