[+video] Sarah writing... (at Month 18)

We noticed Sarah has been able to hold a pencil quite correctly the past few weeks. I'm so proud of her. Daddy & I showed her how to hold it and the next thing we knew, she started holding the pencil the corrrect way. Way to go, Sarah!

We started letting her get exposed to drawing when she was about 12-13 months. Read previous post here. We let her use a pencil at first, but later on got her to use some crayons. Practice makes perfect! Eventually, we gave her a pencil again and found her fine motor skills have improved tremendously.

Here's the video showing Sarah learning to write (draw). She seemed pretty enthusiastic about what she was writing/drawing...

Sarah, the little song leader...

"Yi Chieh Ge Song Zhan Mei...." - her lullaby song since baby! :)

"Jesus Loves Me This I Know..."

"Give Me Oil In My Lamp..."

"We Want To See Jesus Lifted High..."

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star..."

"If You're Happy & You Know It..."

These are some of the songs that we sing to her since she was a little baby. Today, she is able to sing some of these songs on her own (her very own version!) too, like "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" & "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

Let me share with you 2 other cute incidences:
1. Happy Birthday song... Sarah would sing this song every time she sees a candle! She would only sing the 3rd line of course, which is "Happy Birthday to Sa-raaaaahhhhhh!" :)

2. Ask her "What song you want to sing?" She would say, "Na na na na na..." Hehehe... Yes, that's the bridge for the song "Waves of Mercy"! She just loves that part... :)

More updates on Sarah's development.. (at 18+ months)

Sarah's growing very well I would say and praise the Lord for that! However, we do pray that she will tone down being quick-tempered (by nature I believe). Recently, she started yelling as well, if she doesnt get what she wants. Really pray that she will come out of it soon.

Also, she's definitely an attention grabber. As I am typing this in my room, she is giving me all kinds of things so that I would participate with her in some "tasks", often which she is able to do on her own as she explores. This time, because she knows I am on the laptop, she tries getting my attention by all means. Shrewd, eh?!

Her vocabulary has totally increased by the days. She even makes sentences now which are meaningful. One particular (almost) complete sentence that I heard her spoke about a week ago was: "I want put here"


Her "I wants"... and "dont wants" are used with meaning too, for eg:
"I want/don't want water"
"I want/don't want go upstairs"
"I want more"... or "some more"

Sarah not feeling well...

OK... one last post for the day, and maybe for the week!

After our short trip back to Melaka, Sarah is now down with fever, flu and cough. Second time this month... :(

She's not been having good night sleep, and that means we parents dont have enough sleep as well. Her nose is blocked and it keeps running both day and night. Her fever fluctuates between 37-38 degree for the past few days (really longer than usual). She's been having fever since Wednesday so we really pray that it will break soon. Just last night, I saw that she was also having ulcer in her mouth. It's sad to see her unwell. Do pray for her for speedy recovery and total healing.

On the other hand, I had fever and very bad sore throat on Thursday evening as well but I thank God that my fever broke by Friday morning and I went to work as usual that day. I'm recovering fast too... really needed that so that I can take care of our little one.

Last night and today, we feed her milk with spoon as she rejects her milk bottle. Thank God she did not reject the spoon. She accepts medicine quite well with spoon too so praise God for that. Do continue to pray for her.

"Lord, I uphold our dear Sarah into Your loving hands. Heal her of fever, flu and cough. Take away any discomfort from her body. Grant her peaceful sleep both day and night. Let her also have appetite for food & milk. Keep her healthy and safe. In Jesus' name I pray - Amen!"

[+video] Sarah, the lil businesswoman... (at Month 17+)

Businessman (or woman) is always being associated with handphones. Here's Sarah portraying one busy businesswoman with her toy handphone! :)



The video was taken about a month ago... mummy here out-dated oredi ler... :p

[+video] Sarah.... 123 with daddy! (at Month 17+)

The video was taken on 22nd August. Yes... this post is about more than a month over due oredi (haha!)

Updates on Sarah... (at 18 months)

Sarah has been an active little girl, ever since she cried her first cry. She's "fierce" like what my gynae said when he first held her. :)

Well, it's not the violent kind of fierce, but more like the strong-willed, competitive, determine and demanding kind.

At this age (and even way before), Sarah has shown much of this "fierce" character, like snatching things from her cheh-cheh and kor-kor, throwing tantrum when she doesnt get what she wants, "kiasu" in terms of getting attention, and she never gives up easily (well, this, a good trait I must say!). However, apart from being fierce, there is a part of her that is "tame" (for lack of better words).

She likes to look good and beautiful. She likes wearing hat on her head and look at the mirror after that. When I wear her a dress and told her she looks nice, she actually smiles! She's really a darling. During her personal play time at home, she would play on her own (with mummy or daddy beside her) and when she finds something amusing to explore, she would give her full attention to it.

Sarah's vocab has been increasing too. I totally lost count of it. She's been learning to combine words like:

"Don't want" - almost over-used in a day! Oh boy....

"Let's go" - she would say this when we're about to go out after wearing shoes, and sometimes when we're in the car and daddy stops the engine.

"Be careful" - she totally imitates me on this. Whenever daddy drives and brakes suddenly, I will say these words to him. Now, Sarah would say this even before I do! :)

Wo wo wo wo wo wo... KFC!

What does this logo look like? Well, just one look, we all know that it is a KFC logo, right?!

One discovery about Sarah is that she recognizes logo too. A few months ago, i think it was about 4-5 months ago, KFC had one advertisement shown on TV to advertise the new Hot & Spicy. It was about a father & son eating KFC while it was raining, and because it was super spicy (supposedly), the father went out to get some 'shower' from the natural rain (something like tht...). At the end of the ad, KFC had this tune on, "wo wo wo wo wo wo..."

Sarah remembered that tune until today. The interesting thing was whenever she sees KFC logo on the street, she will sing the "wo wo wo..." tune! That made me realised that Sarah remembered the ad on TV and the KFC logo too! I think it was rather interesting! Really smart of her to remember such stuff - something that was shown many months ago and she remembers it till today! :)

Sarah's vocabulary increased... & other development (at Month 17)

At 16-17 months old, we noticed our little Sarah's vocab has increased quite drastically. Even more so when she uses the right words at the right time. Some words spoken:

"mmm... nice..."
"close"
"open"
"wake up"
"i want"
"dont want"
"inside"
"outside"
"hot" & "cold"... but sometimes a lil confused between these 2. hehe...
"no more"
"come!!!"... and she will pull my finger/thumb to express that I follow her. Sometimes she says, "laiii..." (ie come in mandarin)
"jump"
"dink", ie drink!
"pain..."
"alright..."
"motorbike"... sometimes sounds like "butterfly" too... :p
"aeroplane"
"biscuit"
"water"
"wash"
and the latest one... "handphone"

Some other development...
When I receive an sms on my handphone, she would insist that I'll read it there and then. Else, she would try with all her might to reach the handphone on the table to pass to me.

She is now a "helper" at home. She would help to throw rubbish into the wastepaper basket for me when I ask her to.

She's been pretty "clean" too, and sometimes "too clean". She has seen me washing her toys in the bathroom. She would then at times take her toy to the bathroom every now and then (whenever I am in the bathroom) and hand me her toys and say, "wash!"

She knows what's "the good, the bad & the ugly"- from watching National Geographic documentary on TV. When she sees a snake or a closed-up shot of an ugly-looking bug, she would frown and say, "ee-yer!" and shake her head... and sometimes she would just look away.

Being a full time stay-at-home Mom...

Well, well, well.... what can I say about this?

First day was quite alright.... I gave her my full attention - played with her, watch TV with her, eat together, etc... It was only when she had her morning and afternoon nap that I had time on my own to do things, but I could only spend those short hours doing laundry, cooking, have a quick bite, clear house mess, check emails, etc... (Really not much time actually...)

Second day? I thought i'd do something a lil different... "Kill 2 birds with 1 stone!" I know that as long as mummy is near her, she will be able to play on her own (just knowing that I'm there... - well, that's what I thought). She was alright only for a short while. After that short while, she demanded 101% of my attention. As she played on her own, I decided to do laundry (2nd half), clear the dishes, manage my personal billing and filing, glue her torn books, surf the net (on how to discipline toddlers! :p), etc... unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as I thought... It was rather difficult as she kept wanting me to play with her. I managed to divert her attention to different toys many times but almost all the time, it lasted only for a short 5 minutes. I asked her, "You want mummy to play with you?", and she kept nodding her head.

Some incidences...
When she saw me with my pen and my organisor, she would place her hand onto my pen and thinking she was playing with me (as I write...). Then I decided to sit at the table. She demanded my attention at first by crying and holding on to me, but I kept telling her to play on her own... So, finally she got my message, but unfortunately, she was doing things like throwing toys all around the house, tear her books, etc... It seemed that all she wanted was my attention and nothing else!

It's a different stress being a stay-at-home mum & a working mum... It was challenging - really really challenging! I was mad at her for tearing the book (because I just glued it back!). I felt at that moment my blood pressure went up! I scolded her and did some "time out" with her. No TV, no toys, no "pao-pao" (carrying), no this & that... Looks like it didn't work out too. It seemed that she understood my intention. She knew I was angry. She was even scared to look at my eye. But her rebelliousness seemed pretty dominant. I was praying that I would continue to keep my cool, because it was really difficult to discipline a child when a parent is as mad as I was yesterday! I tried a few methods on my own - scolding her, explaining to her, ignoring her, crying out loud (she looked at me and sayang me (funny!)), sighing out loud... etc. I'm not sure what method is best at the moment. Different child, different method... :-/ Looks like more homework for me to know what suits my girl.

I will be doing more research on this... I think Sarah will be my "guinea pig" in my research... I know that kids her age has no limits in exploring, but what's the limits of us parents? I've found some really good sites on disciplining toddlers, but have yet to put more time & attention on it.... once I've got some extra time that is.

Alright, till then...

More teeth for Sarah...

Last night, I discovered Sarah's upper teeth are growing more in numbers - 2 canine and another 2 first molars!

WOW! She's really growing fast. The total number of teeth she has now is 14!

Read previous post here.

Sarah & her body parts...

Last night before bedtime, Sarah chose the book "Me and My Amazing Body" for reading. She's already very familiar with most of the body parts, so this round, mummy decided that perhaps she would like to learn more about the parts of her body that cannot be seen.

New words for the day: brain, heart & lungs!

"Where's Sarah's brain?" and she then pointed to her head.

"Where's Sarah's heart?" and she pointed to her heart and says, "dub dab! dub dab! dub dab!" Hehehe... :)

This was really funny... I couldn't stop laughing hearing what she said.
She pointed at the picture of the lungs and said, "butterfly!" LOL! :)

Har???!

Last night, Sarah & daddy spent some minutes of reading before sleeping. One of Sarah's favourite book is the fun flip book.

Sarah tore some parts of the book and daddy asked her, "Why you tear the book??" Sarah replied, "Har???!" (pretending not to look at you and with a naughty smile!) and daddy repeated the question over and over again (almost more than 10x), and Sarah replied the same!!!

Oh boy... she was so playful that it was at times difficult to discipline her. Her response was kinda cute as it never came across our minds how she reacts to situations like these... It just seemed so spontaneous of her to react as such!

[+video] My weekend...

Well, i didn't really achieve as much as I hoped for (from my TO-DO list) last weekend... BUT... i didn't feel that something was missing. Praise God! I guess my heart was quite settled, compared to previous weekend. I was able to rest (physically, mentally & emotionally). Thanks to hubby for taking care of Sarah when I had to sleep during the afternoons. It was a relaxing weekend (kinda...), but i guess the main thing achieved was having to spend time with Sarah & daddy, and also manage to do some shopping at Ikea... :p

Sarah @ Ikea...


Sarah was happily playing on her own until...

Well, I guess from here, we can see that she's pretty adaptable to having new friends!

Sarah... busy as a bee @ home...

The cute pink jumper was a gift from Uncle Kenny & Aunt Rebecca for her 1st birthday!
She loves wearing it because she knows she looks pretty & cute in it! Hahaha... :)

When animals become food....

What's this?"Pork!"

LOL! She was more advance than us to see that this "pig" has turned into "pork"! :D

We couldn't help ourselves but laughed upon hearing her reply last night. So we went on with the other "meat" in the book...

That's "Beef!"... McDonald Beef Burger!

And that is "KFC"!

And the pix on top here is... "Mutton Curry"!

She just parroted all the way.... hahahaha! :D

Converse shoes from Gwamma...

This post is dedicated to gwamma Stephanie! Gwamma & uncle just came back from Hong Kong and look what she got for Sarah!

It's a really pretty Converse shoes... I haven't seen one like tht here... or maybe i just didn't do much shopping for this as children's shoes are really expensive these days... Sarah has got "big" feet, or rather broad feet i'd say... At 14th months, she's already wearing size 5 shoes! She could wear size 4 but now, it seemed just fitting without the socks. This pair of shoes is about size 5-6... we foresee she's only able to wear it for another 3-4 months or at most 5 months... So, we will let Sarah wear it as often as she could to make it worthwhile - such pretty shoes! Sarah rocks! :)

Gwamma, thank you for such lovely gift for our little princess...

Last weekend - Sarah & Mama...

Mama & Ah Ee stayed a couple of nights with us over the weekend. First reason of visit was to attend my uncle's daughter's wedding on Saturday. Second, is of course to spend time with us as family. Seemed like a short weekend together as we had so much fun. It was lovely to see Sarah, Mama & Ah Ee bond together eventhough they don't see each other so often.

I was working late when Mama & Ah Ee arrived from Melaka on Friday night. I heard when Sarah first saw them, she was a lil quiet. But after a short while, she was of course back to herself - playful & noisy! She sings & talks a lot... but of course, some words could only be understood by her and the angels. Hehe...

There were a few moments when I saw Mama & Sarah playing toys together. It was cute. I didn't take any pictures of them playing then, but I did manage to take some pictures of them together. I think they make a perfect couple together. :)

Sarah's china-doll look...

On Monday, Sarah had her hair cut as her fringe was getting a lil too long, touching her eyes already. This is her after-cut look. She looked so adorable :)

She's a real china-doll ya?! :)
p/s - MIL was her hair dresser. hehehe...

Check out previous post on Sarah's 1st hair cut.

Update: Sarah - after the fall on Wednesday

Upon reaching home from music practice at church late last night, Sarah was in the room with daddy, playing with her books (yes, playing and not reading...). I was so happy to see her, and she was as happy to see me too. Hugging each other, I was really thankful to God for the fast recovery of her sprained wrist. At evening, hubby did sms me and told me that our little girl was playing normally once again. She was using her right hand normally as compared to earlier in the morning. Really thank God for the fast recovery.

However, it's gonna be a really tiring day for me today (waking up this morning was hard to do!). I couldn't get my beauty sleep as early as I hoped for last night because Sarah being Sarah was just so active last night. I think it was past 12 mn that she was still wide awake and kept disturbing me. She climbed on my head, pull my hair, slap my face, etc... she would just do anything and everything to get my attention. I scolded her, beat her hands, slap her buttocks.... and at one time, I even walked out of the room to make my point, telling her that if she doesnt stop, mummy will walk out of the room. Well, all she did was cry, calling out for me. I was just standing outside the door - getting a bit annoyed. I went into the room again, and she wanted me to carry her. Sigh... sometimes, i'm a bit torn between being angry and so sayang her at the same time. Many things came to mind... did she miss me because I came back late? And is that why she behaved like this? Or was she just plain naughty?

Well, that's Sarah... and a little bit about last night... anyway, most importantly, she's healed from previous days incident. Thank You, Lord!

Last night Sarah had a fall...

Last night, upon receiving an sms from hubby saying that Sarah had a fall and hurt her wrist and in pain, I quickly called him and asked how was she. I was so sad to hear the news. I quickly headed off home with Daniel, leaving what we planned to do at church that night, as it was important for me to be with Sarah at this time.

Hubby said he and my father-in-law are getting ready to send her to the hospital for a check up. Later on, I found out they went to a Chinese doctor instead to get her wrist checked if there was any bones twisted or fractured, as there might not be any doctor in the hospital or clinic at that time who can do the proper diagnose.

Now, what actually happen? No one, but cousin Ivan saw what happened. Hubby was still at work and Mum was busy cooking at the kitchen. Dad was busy scooping porridge for the kids at the kitchen too. Sarah fell at that time, didnt shed a tear, but later on when Dad was about to feed her some porridge, she started "complaining" about the pain on her wrist. Only then that we found out from Ivan that Sarah fell from the chair and probably had hurt her wrist. Hubby said she seemed to be in pain and cried every now and then.

Thank God the doctor who checked Sarah said that it was just a sprain., and would need a few days for it to recover. We need to be watchful that she doesnt cause any further tension on the hurting arm. We pray for God's healing to come upon her arm, especially her wrist and elbow. We pray that angels will surround her and guard her from any harm. We know she's been rather playful and active. From this incident, we pray that she will learn to protect herself and know the boundaries that are there as she explores and plays.

I would also like to wish a big "Thank You" to Daniel for graciously sending me home and bear this trouble together. THANK YOU BELLY BELLY MUCH, DANIEL!