In less than 2 weeks, we’ll welcome another new year and Areya will soon turn 3yo. The next time, I blink my eyes, she’ll be 13yo, how time flies! Thus, I believe it’s timely for me to sum up some of Areya’s progress before she turns 3yo as I noticed I haven’t been updating on her progress as frequent as I should.
: : Social & Emotional Development : :
1. She’s a very confident and independent kid and wants to do things by herself, e.g. feeding herself, putting shoe & clothes on, turn the TV and DVD player on, off or pause and etc.... She’s also independent enough to be on her own in her Toddler’s class at LWSC, and instead of breathing a sigh of relief, the feeling of despondent clouded my mind.... *sigh* our girl is not the lil’ helpless baby she once was.
2. High pain threshold. She rarely cries if she hurt herself. For instance, when I got my foot stuck under her little rocking sofa, I swore and cursed while rubbing my toes instantaneously but Areya only shed a few fat drops of tears and stopped crying after I soothed and kissed her toes.
3. A very loving and expressive kid. She’s very loving to both DH and me and would always hug and says ‘I love you’ as and when she feels like doing and saying it, which is like everyday
4. Courteous and well-mannered. Despite her very loud and hyper-self, Areya knows her p’s and q’s, but kids being kids, she still needs to be reminded regularly and it warms our heart each time she thanks us (without me having to prompt her) after we’ve had our meals outside or thank me for preparing her fav. carbonara or thank daddy for buying her toys & stuff, coz’ she’d string a lengthy sentences to express her gratitude complete with hugs and kisses.
5. Still one expressive kid and it’s fun watching her communicating her thoughts with all those facial expression, body language and her verbal language rhythm & tempo.
6. A social butterfly and one gregarious young missy. She loves mingling with the older kids at school and makes friends with a few of them. For instance, she managed to coerce Zachary, an extremely shy boy at school who’s 3 years her senior to finally talk and play with her while waiting for their respective class to start and it took half a year for them to be friend. There’s a few Areya’s-way-to-make-friends episode at school, which I think is very cheeky yet a smart move by her. For instance, there’s one occasion where she insisted on bringing her Ben-10 comics to school for only-GOD-knows reason and at the end, she cunningly used those comics to befriend another 2 boys at school. Boys, AGAIN!!!?? o-O
7. Take turns. Areya can be a bit possessive of her toys, books and stuffs sometimes but normally, she’d share her toys or books with her cousins and take turns in games. I strongly believe that as a parent, it’s vital for me to consistently educate and guide Areya on manners and the difference between right and wrong, for example.
2. High pain threshold. She rarely cries if she hurt herself. For instance, when I got my foot stuck under her little rocking sofa, I swore and cursed while rubbing my toes instantaneously but Areya only shed a few fat drops of tears and stopped crying after I soothed and kissed her toes.
3. A very loving and expressive kid. She’s very loving to both DH and me and would always hug and says ‘I love you’ as and when she feels like doing and saying it, which is like everyday
4. Courteous and well-mannered. Despite her very loud and hyper-self, Areya knows her p’s and q’s, but kids being kids, she still needs to be reminded regularly and it warms our heart each time she thanks us (without me having to prompt her) after we’ve had our meals outside or thank me for preparing her fav. carbonara or thank daddy for buying her toys & stuff, coz’ she’d string a lengthy sentences to express her gratitude complete with hugs and kisses.
5. Still one expressive kid and it’s fun watching her communicating her thoughts with all those facial expression, body language and her verbal language rhythm & tempo.
6. A social butterfly and one gregarious young missy. She loves mingling with the older kids at school and makes friends with a few of them. For instance, she managed to coerce Zachary, an extremely shy boy at school who’s 3 years her senior to finally talk and play with her while waiting for their respective class to start and it took half a year for them to be friend. There’s a few Areya’s-way-to-make-friends episode at school, which I think is very cheeky yet a smart move by her. For instance, there’s one occasion where she insisted on bringing her Ben-10 comics to school for only-GOD-knows reason and at the end, she cunningly used those comics to befriend another 2 boys at school. Boys, AGAIN!!!?? o-O
7. Take turns. Areya can be a bit possessive of her toys, books and stuffs sometimes but normally, she’d share her toys or books with her cousins and take turns in games. I strongly believe that as a parent, it’s vital for me to consistently educate and guide Areya on manners and the difference between right and wrong, for example.
: : Speech & Language Development : :
1. Hooboy!!!! She’s positively and irrefutably our lil’ parrot and without fail would always cleverly use our words and advises against us. Take this scene in a car park for example. “Mommy, we must hold hand okay, it’s danjeyes (dangerous), got so many cars coming, later the car hit you and you die, then how?... You cannot see me and daddy anymore, then I so sad and I cry....that’s why...” (Don’t ask me where the heck the words ‘that’s why’ came from). Ohhh....Yeah, she can really string sentences from made-up and real stories I told her into one ‘breathless’ advice against me.
2. She’s started to use simple & straight-forward adjectives in her sentences. Instead of saying kitty, when she sees a cat, she’d say, “See mommy, poor little kitty” or “Look mommy, that black cat is so fat” or “my pwetty (pretty) little dolly” (referring to her dolls) or “Mommy, where’s my big black & white ball”, among others.
3. ‘WHY?’ is her favourite word and activity and I think every mom know the little headache that comes with that simple word.
4. A story-teller. Just give her any books with lotsa tiny words and one big picture on each page and you’ll get an interesting story out of it. Talk about wild imagination, huh? But her first line will always be, “once upon a time....yada...yada...yada” and her last line is “finish...the end...enough okay, mommy!”.
: : Cognitive Development : :
1. She can spell her name – A-R-E-Y-A but can only write the letter ‘I’....heheee..... We haven’t really started on writing or tracing each letter yet. At home, I just let her play with the crayons and she’d scribble some unidentified letters and a few ‘recognisable’ shapes. Even in her recent Toddlers’ class doesn’t really emphasize on writing yet although during one of the sessions, the centre does provide crayons and papers. Anyway, her class teacher did prepare the kids (for their next level) by individually showed them the right way to hold a pencil and shared with the parents the right technique to pass a pencil to our kid/s in order for them to correctly hold one.
2. Understands the concept of past, present and future but anything that happened in the past is always ‘yesterday’ to Areya and ‘toomoyo’ (tomorrow) are for moments that she looks forward to, even if that ‘moment’ is a mere 2 hours away.
3. Imagination is more vivid but so far, she doesn’t seem to have any imaginary friends. Since it’s just the two of us most of the time, she’s learned to play by herself aka talking to herself or to her dollies and teddies when mommy got things to do. It’s so hilarious watching her pretending to be playing with another person but that another person is also her, so, she’d be doing the asking and answering complete with body language and all. Me think, it’s high time to get a sibling for her... Waddya think?
4. Enjoys jigsaw puzzles very much and she’s able to complete a 24-piece puzzles with a minimal help from me.
5. She can count up to 20 but most of the time will get the sequence of 13,14 & 15 mix up, recognises each number and understands what those number means.
6. Enjoys reading her Peter & Jane book 1a and other Little Miss books but reading is strictly done before her naptime and bedtime. Hence, most of her waking moments are filled with watching her favourite DVDs, e.g. Winx Club, Barbie & The 3 Musketeers, Ariel – The Beginning, Strawberry Shortcake, etc. or ‘play house’ with her cooking sets, stoves and all or making ice-cream from play dough, complete her puzzles or make our abode looked like a Toys r us-after- party (if you get what I mean).
7. Speaking of Peter & Jane books, we’re halfway through book 1a and since we’ll be away for 3 weeks, I doubt we’d do much reading. Heheee... Mommy needs a break too, okay!
8. Very observant. She noticed each time daddy had a haircut or any of us wearing new shirt/dresses/clothes. Observant enough to know that I got myself a new lipstick from another brand. She recognises roads leading to my mom’s house, to her school and she knows how to get to One Utama from her school, among others.
: : Eating Habits : :
2. Understands the concept of past, present and future but anything that happened in the past is always ‘yesterday’ to Areya and ‘toomoyo’ (tomorrow) are for moments that she looks forward to, even if that ‘moment’ is a mere 2 hours away.
3. Imagination is more vivid but so far, she doesn’t seem to have any imaginary friends. Since it’s just the two of us most of the time, she’s learned to play by herself aka talking to herself or to her dollies and teddies when mommy got things to do. It’s so hilarious watching her pretending to be playing with another person but that another person is also her, so, she’d be doing the asking and answering complete with body language and all. Me think, it’s high time to get a sibling for her... Waddya think?
4. Enjoys jigsaw puzzles very much and she’s able to complete a 24-piece puzzles with a minimal help from me.
5. She can count up to 20 but most of the time will get the sequence of 13,14 & 15 mix up, recognises each number and understands what those number means.
6. Enjoys reading her Peter & Jane book 1a and other Little Miss books but reading is strictly done before her naptime and bedtime. Hence, most of her waking moments are filled with watching her favourite DVDs, e.g. Winx Club, Barbie & The 3 Musketeers, Ariel – The Beginning, Strawberry Shortcake, etc. or ‘play house’ with her cooking sets, stoves and all or making ice-cream from play dough, complete her puzzles or make our abode looked like a Toys r us-after- party (if you get what I mean).
7. Speaking of Peter & Jane books, we’re halfway through book 1a and since we’ll be away for 3 weeks, I doubt we’d do much reading. Heheee... Mommy needs a break too, okay!
8. Very observant. She noticed each time daddy had a haircut or any of us wearing new shirt/dresses/clothes. Observant enough to know that I got myself a new lipstick from another brand. She recognises roads leading to my mom’s house, to her school and she knows how to get to One Utama from her school, among others.
: : Eating Habits : :
1. Phewww...... She’s not as picky as before but still wants her lunch and dinner of different menu.
2. Still need to hide her veges most of the times aka blend or finely minced it. Loves her carbonara or mommy-secret-bolognas-recipe with finely minced Portobello mushroom and she can have pastas everyday if I allows her, which obviously I did not!
3. Still a small eater. Example : Both of us can only finished half a portion of Carbonara at Delicious.
4. Mango is still her favourite fruit.
5. Loves orange juice, strawberry smoothies, strawberry milk shakes, strawberry yogurt drinks, strawberry flavoured ice cream, in short, anything pink coloured drinks. Note to myself : To remind DH to get that Philips smoothie blender.
6. She can survive with 2 ‘sugar ice’ donuts from JCo or 2 pieces of hash brown as her lunch or dinner. See? Actually, come to think about it, Areya is not a picky eater at all, eh?
7. Rice is still not her main staple. Pastas and Noodles are. I think maybe this has got to do with what I ate when I was carrying her and yes, it’s all the way Italian and Chinese or Nyonya food for me, then.
8. Still drinks about 36 – 48oz of milk a day aka 6 -7 cans of 900gm of Isomil Plus EyeQ a month.
: : Others : :
1. 100% Daddy’s Girl. She got daddy nicely wrap around her little chubby finger and whatever she says and wants, goes. Whenever we’re at a toy shop, Areya can easily persuade daddy to get for her more than one toy but with mommy, she knows the rule, only one toy at a time.
2. I am glad to note that how independent and confident Areya is, she still need her mommy to be with her at night and would be restless or waking up in the middle of the night looking for mommy if mommy is not with her. In other words, I can leave her with my mom only during day time.
3. Loves her bedtime massage, an evening ritual for both of us since she’s a baby.
4. Enjoys physical activities such as riding her 4-wheeler bicycle, roller-skating, tumbling, climbing, swinging (anywhere she can hang on to), running (and falling down, hence, the answer to those ugly bruises on both her shins) and the list goes on.
5. My ‘truth’ machine. Just this evening before we went out for dinner, I asked her whether I looked fat in my err....quite fitting shirt and guess what her reply was? With a little cheeky giggle, she looked straight at me and said, “You eat too much chocolates mommy, that’s why your tummy so big” while patting on my belly. Owh! btw, she said I look prettier with my glasses on instead of wearing contact lenses.
6. Much to my dismay, she’s still not fully toilet-trained. She started to do her big business in the toilet before she turned 20mo and the only recent ‘accident’ she had was when she’s having mild diarrhoea about 3 months back. Tried to potty trained her a few times but to no success as when I thought she’s ready to be diaperless, she’d start to pee right in her training pants and wet the floor, and since I don’t have any helper, take a lucky guess on who’d to clean the mess? At the end, I gave up. Haiyaa! I think I should have more perseverance lar rather than succumb to my ‘malas’ness.
2. Still need to hide her veges most of the times aka blend or finely minced it. Loves her carbonara or mommy-secret-bolognas-recipe with finely minced Portobello mushroom and she can have pastas everyday if I allows her, which obviously I did not!
3. Still a small eater. Example : Both of us can only finished half a portion of Carbonara at Delicious.
4. Mango is still her favourite fruit.
5. Loves orange juice, strawberry smoothies, strawberry milk shakes, strawberry yogurt drinks, strawberry flavoured ice cream, in short, anything pink coloured drinks. Note to myself : To remind DH to get that Philips smoothie blender.
6. She can survive with 2 ‘sugar ice’ donuts from JCo or 2 pieces of hash brown as her lunch or dinner. See? Actually, come to think about it, Areya is not a picky eater at all, eh?
7. Rice is still not her main staple. Pastas and Noodles are. I think maybe this has got to do with what I ate when I was carrying her and yes, it’s all the way Italian and Chinese or Nyonya food for me, then.
8. Still drinks about 36 – 48oz of milk a day aka 6 -7 cans of 900gm of Isomil Plus EyeQ a month.
: : Others : :
1. 100% Daddy’s Girl. She got daddy nicely wrap around her little chubby finger and whatever she says and wants, goes. Whenever we’re at a toy shop, Areya can easily persuade daddy to get for her more than one toy but with mommy, she knows the rule, only one toy at a time.
2. I am glad to note that how independent and confident Areya is, she still need her mommy to be with her at night and would be restless or waking up in the middle of the night looking for mommy if mommy is not with her. In other words, I can leave her with my mom only during day time.
3. Loves her bedtime massage, an evening ritual for both of us since she’s a baby.
4. Enjoys physical activities such as riding her 4-wheeler bicycle, roller-skating, tumbling, climbing, swinging (anywhere she can hang on to), running (and falling down, hence, the answer to those ugly bruises on both her shins) and the list goes on.
5. My ‘truth’ machine. Just this evening before we went out for dinner, I asked her whether I looked fat in my err....quite fitting shirt and guess what her reply was? With a little cheeky giggle, she looked straight at me and said, “You eat too much chocolates mommy, that’s why your tummy so big” while patting on my belly. Owh! btw, she said I look prettier with my glasses on instead of wearing contact lenses.
6. Much to my dismay, she’s still not fully toilet-trained. She started to do her big business in the toilet before she turned 20mo and the only recent ‘accident’ she had was when she’s having mild diarrhoea about 3 months back. Tried to potty trained her a few times but to no success as when I thought she’s ready to be diaperless, she’d start to pee right in her training pants and wet the floor, and since I don’t have any helper, take a lucky guess on who’d to clean the mess? At the end, I gave up. Haiyaa! I think I should have more perseverance lar rather than succumb to my ‘malas’ness.
I think that’s all I could remember of and it’s nearly 2am....I’m sleepy and I got another long day again tomorrow..... Till my next post and if I didn’t find the time to blog again before the new year, I would to wish everyone, A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
