Olivia climbing at playground

Mm finally conquers climbing up the playground structure-milestone unlocked!

From learning to stand to walk and being afraid of heights to climbing up the playground, mm has definitely come a long way. Also attributed to following her big sis of course. It’s so nice to have big sisters to follow!

Zoo again

First time to zoo when sophie is not screaming!

Maybe she finally understands that there's a distance between the animals and her so they aren't that close anymore. Big milestone for the Soph!

She wants to see more!

I think Meimei hasn't learnt to appreciate yet...

Daddy's little girl

Today we were off to Ikea. Finally a chance to do some fun family shopping. 

We saw the Ikea play room for parents to drop off their tots and daddy suggested to drop Soph off. Wah. 

It looked cool and there were only a few kids since it was still early.

The lady asked if Soph was potty trained. Checked! Did she meet the height requirement? Double-check!

I asked Soph if she wanted to go in to play but we won't be able to be there with her. If she needs to pee, she needs to tell the attendant. Although a little apprehensive, Sophie quietly nodded. 

She took her little bin with her shoes inside and walked in herself. Yay, I thought, some peaceful shopping.

Daddy had a fearful look though. He said "quick lets grab the stuff we need and come get her."

I thought he was the one who wanted to get rid of her and now he's super protective. Duh.

Anyway we zipped through the store as quickly as we could and came back. Sophie was at the table drawing.

She came out and looked normal. I asked her if she made friends with anyone and she said Ya she said hi to a little girl with a ponytail.

Daddy took her hand and with his bag of loot, he looked super proud of her new-found independence. Haha. Good job Soph!

Big girl now

I requested Sophie to take a picture under our cherry blossom tree that only happens once a year. She readily obliged and said Mommy u take my bag. She dumped her bag near me and runs under the tree.

Take 1.

"Sophie say cheese!"

Take 2.

"Say cheese!!"

Take 3.

Sophie: "Cheessseee..."

I think this girl needs to work on her smile! 

Other than that, she has been pretty cooperative in the mornings. 

She drinks her milk, cleans up her toys, wears her socks and shoes when told, and poops in the potty.

Nothing more I can ask for.

Best Mother's Day gift

Sophie poops in potty on Mother's Day this year. Daddy says that must be my best Mother's Day gift this year and I guess he's right!

Olivia flips!

Sophie's potty training

Finally we started Sophie on potty training two weeks ago. We bought her a set of panties and told her these were replacing the diapers over the weekend. She was kinda agreeable because her good friend Isabella at daycare is going to the potty already. Peer pressure!

Sophie started off pretty good although she was sick that weekend too. However, she peed twice outside at the Korean food court in her stroller while we were having dinner. Lucky I brought plenty of clothes to change!

Potty training continued at daycare after. A few accidents here and there but by the weekend, she was able to tell us that she wanted to go pee while we were outside. No more false alarms! 

Pooping is still a problem though. She has some sort of phobia or maybe doesn't know how to poop. She tries but it doesn't come out. So she continues to poop in her panties. Arghz! It's gross washing them out so I've resorted to tossing a few panties. I hope she remembers to wash mine when I get old, haha! 

Sophie's birthday ice cream treat

Can you believe she used to be the girl who didn't like ice-cream? We used to be able to eat desserts blatantly without having to share with her.

It's cold but now she loves it!!

I am going to rrrrrroll soon!

Olivia chuckles

The magic of daddy strikes again!

Sophie's first swimming lesson

Sophie attended her first swimming lesson on Sunday. We signed her up for some groupon swimming lessons although I was skeptical about it, thinking that she would probably sit by the side of the pool and cry all the way. Before the lesson I asked her if she wanted to go swimming and her answer is always NO.

It turned out that these were real swimming lessons and not baby type dunk head get comfy with water lessons.

And Sophie SURPRISINGLY took well to the lesson! I wished I was there to witness it but yehyeh documented it on pictures to show me.

Warming up before the lesson.

Learning to doggie paddle. It was two kids session and Vera horse backs on the teacher while Sophie practised.

Learning to float on back.

Learning to kick off from the side.

Here's Sophie having a whale of a time on the teacher's back!

Tap tapping water on the teacher's back.

What a success! I asked Sophie when she came home whether she wanted to go back for lesson and she said yes! Good job Soph!😄

Fashionista

She wants to pick her own outfit now.

Space-age fashion sense.

And now she appreciates dresses and pretty skirts. I offered her this tulle skirt to wear to school today and she said yes! She won't wear it for her 2nd birthday party 9 months ago.

Also getting better at making cheese signs and looking at the camera.

Weight up

Olivia who was born with 6lb 13ounces had a downward weight trend at her three day checkup.

Boo.

The pediatrician told me to do two hourly feeds. I have forgotten how exhausting they are. But thanks to grandma who helped me to keep an eye on the clock and prodding Olivia to wake up, we managed to keep up with the feeds. 

We had to return the next day to see if her weight went up. It did! Three ounces! 

Ok I cheated a little by giving her 40ml of formula. The doc said the average weight gain is 1/2 to 2 ounces so she overshot which meant she didn't really need the formula. Who cares, she looked like she was starving and I didn't want a de javu starving Sophie episode. 

 

The day when 5 became 6

Cutting Skills

<Snip-Snip> goes Sophie's wavy art and craft scissors that are a little wonky. But she can still follow the line and cut in a straight line!
Also not forgetting to shout "School bus lai le!" when she heard the orange vehicle roll past our home.

Toddler Independence Tales 1

The three steps of getting into a car and buckling up herself. Sophie the mighty toddler can do it all!

Step 1: Climbs into car. It sure ain't easy with daddy's new car. Time to use some bicep and abs!

Step 2: Gets into seat and buckles first set of buckles <click!> (tucks Sofia stickers safely by her side first)

Step 3: Buckles second of buckles. <click> <click> This is more challenging and she just mastered it. She hasn't squished her fingers or thighs from buckling this but I think it will happen one day.

Choking me with love

<cough!>

Don't shoot me with your straw wrapper!

Pooof----!!

Champion!

We are the monkeys!

Sophie had a blast at Vera's 3rd birthday party in a park. How time flies...can't believe they were once small munchkins that were just crawling around...

Which tot doesn't love watermelons...

and bubbles?!

The longest time we have ever spent in a park - 5 hours! I love the playground, but not the farmer's tan on Soph's arms or the tan stripes on her feet....

Toddler Sophie in bed

Nursery has been upgraded - added in a new toddler bed and did some shifting.

The poor nursery was sadly abandoned for the past year as we tried to move the crib to our bedroom and converted the crib into a toddler bed to sleep train Sophie. It didn't work out and she has been sleeping with us for the past year.

Now that baby mei mei is coming, we decided that Sophie should learn to sleep by herself so she can sleep with mei mei in future too. So off we went to ikea and bought her a new toddler bed. We bought the bigger sized one and Sophie and one of us can squeeze inside.

Sophie was excited about her new bed, particularly because she also has a bedside lamp that she can turn off and on herself. She liked the idea of climbing on the bed. At least she didn't detest the bed, I thought. Funny how the new bed and the crib-converted toddler bed are both beds but perceived so differently in her eyes. 

For the first few nights, we brought in books and lied down beside her and read together. But right when she was about to fall asleep, she would wake up in shock and demanded to go back to our bed. 

But for the last few nights, we read books and chatted and sang songs together until she was really tired. And now we have this! 

Off to la-la land...

The girls' new room...

Relating A Story

Sophie is now able to relate a story, although abeit, in scrips and scraps.  I was at home working over the weekend so dd brought her to the mall to sit on her favourite horsey carousel ride. I packed her Mickey Mouse handbag (given by Yee-Ma!) with coins and off she went.

dd told me the horsey was not working (boo, again). And when Sophie came home, she ran to me and excitedly related that "horsey 坏掉了!", with some gibberish in between. 

"Horsey, 我来了！" (runs, skips!)

"Horsey 坏掉了..."

And yesterday,  she pooped while she was cycling so that the poop rode up her pants onto her tshirt. She also related to dd when he came home "poop poop 上来...(gibberish)...bicycle..."