Hao @ 2 years old

At 2 years old, Hao is still not talking that much. However he can understand us very well, and able to communicate with us very well even just using single word: -

drink - he wants to drink
(wa)ter - want to drink water
juice - want to drink juice
(yo)gurt - asking for yogurt in the fridge
(vita)gen - asking for vitagen in the fridge
eat - tells us that he wants to eat
blood - one day, not sure how he got his finger cut and it was bleeding. he showed me his finger and said "blood"
pain - tell and show me which part is pain
ball
(bis)curt - one of his favorite food. :)
throw
want
don't want
drop - not sure why he likes to take off his shoe in the car. When we ask him why, he said "drop" and pointing at his shoe.
(thunder)storm - when it rains heavily, he will point to outside the house and said "storm"
scare - he is scare of lightning
bread
(car)ry - ask for carry
shoe
up
down
(mor)ning
night night - our sleep time ritual - good night kiss
gai gai - going out
more - asking for more food.
bag
car
bu(s)
(bols)ter - asking for his bolster before going to bed
book - want to read book
milk - refer to fresh milk that we give him
nen-nen - want me to nurse him
bye bye
pant - want me to wear the pant for him after potty time
(mu)sic - want us to turn on the radio while we are traveling inside the car
wet
(un)cle
(aun)ty
(ice) cream
"fan" - 饭 rice in Cantonese - he will call us to eat rice during meal time
"dan dan" - 蛋 egg ins Cantonese. All food to him is "dan dan". Hahaha.
"bao" - 抱 carry in Mandarin. But he seldom say this.
"chuan" - 穿 wear in Mandarin. He was asking me to wear his pant for him. I only heard him saying this once.

Those in bracket means he's not pronouncing it but he means that word. It's like a guessing game. But so far me and hb can guess what he's trying to say. Even Lynn also can understand him very well. Most of the words he speaks are in English. He also can call all family members, in Cantonese. Despite he's not speaking much Mandarin or Cantonese, he can understand us very well as we speak to him in both Mandarin and English. My parents speak to him in Cantonese. Child care is using English as the medium. When I read books to Lynn, he will follow me pronounce those words that I read out loud for them.

As for his diet, I would say he has big appetite. See him eating is a happy thing; you will feel that he really enjoys eating the food served to him. ^_^ He can eat more than Lynn, almost same serving as a young adult. So taking him to buffet is definitely worth it. LOL! He loves milk, cheese, rice, and noodle; basically he's taking almost all food that is being served. He eats vegetable and meat too, as long as it is soft and not difficult to chew. He does not like food that is too sweet. Despite eating a lot, he will stop eating if he's full. Dining out is very easy for me now as he will eat by himself. I just need to serve the food to his bowl.

I'm still nursing him, not so much as a meal but more for the minerals and the antibody from me. From 1 serving of fresh milk in the afternoon, I have increased to 3 servings a day for him - morning, afternoon and night. Basically whatever Lynn is eating, he wants a share too. At first I was worry if he will reject bm after taking fresh milk. So I serve the fresh milk in normal cup for him (I never give him milk bottle at home). But he's still asking bm from me in the morning and before going to sleep. Looking for comfort? Maybe; but the bm still tastes good. :)

Hao is an easy baby and I believe the extended breastfeeding does play a part of it (I breastfed Lynn up to 10 months only). I love looking at him when I am nursing him. Sometimes he will look me back with his eyes full of love. Then both of us will smile at each other. I did not get to do this much with Lynn because Lynn has this comfort sucking habit. She just sucks to fall off to her dreamland so most of the time she sucked with eyes closed. I also carry Hao more than Lynn. Last time due to pregnancy and Hao was still a baby; I did not carry Lynn as much. In fact, I almost stop carrying Lynn after Hao was born as I carry Hao most of the time. Hb will carry Lynn instead. I actually miss carrying Lynn when she was a baby. Soon one day he won't ask for carry anymore. Due to this, I seldom reject Hao whenever he asks for carry. Sometimes hb thinks I carry him too much. Hao is very much attached to me. In fact, both kids very much attached to me. Hb says Hao is a mommy boy. Everything - mommy. Hahaha! Well, if mommy boy = easy baby, those effort spent on bf is definitely worth it. :)

At 2 years old, Hao no longer just plays by himself. I can see both Lynn and Hao enjoys playing with each other. From not-so-like the sister, I can see now Hao is getting closer and have better relationship with Lynn. In the past, whenever Lynn rests her hand on the arm rest of the booster seat, sure Hao will complain about it. But he's not complaining now. He also more willing to let Lynn holds his hand. Why the change? Lynn always gets food for Hao. She serves him milk, she will ask me for yogurt and vitagen and always get one for Hao too. Whatever she's eating, she will surely get a share for Hao. As for toys, sometimes they will still fight about it. It depends what toy it is. Both of them love playing on my bed. Jumping around, playing somersault. But usually I don't let them playing somersault on my bed, worrying they will fall down. They can play on Lynn's mattress which is on the floor.

I have a tough time dealing with Lynn when she was at the Terrible 2 stage. As for Hao now, I wish it will be a Terrific 2 not Terrible 2! Hehe greedy me. ^_^

Hao's height at 2 years old - About 86cm

Hao's weight at 2 years old - About 12kg

2 + 2

Today is Hao’s 2nd birthday. Time flies, he’s 2 years old now. I still remember 2 years ago, when I started blogging using BlogSpot. Before that, I was sort of like writing on My Multiply. It was also about that time, I started blog hopping. During confinement month, I decided to start my own blog in the blogosphere using BlogSpot, simply because it is free. :)

Before me giving birth to Hao, I always wonder how to juggle between two children. People around me told me, you will just know what to do when the time come. And they are right. The first 6 months was tough actually. Lynn was not even 3 years old during that time. I think asking her to give way to the brother must be tough for her. But we don't have much choice as Hao was still a baby. When Hao reached 1 year old, I thought well, should be easier now. Not entirely though. Hao was getting jealous over the sister. He was also being bullied by my niece at that time, fighting over the toys most of the time. Lynn did not bully Hao directly, but she did not take much care about Hao too. She won't protect Hao when he was being bullied. So there was not much siblings love at that time. The bully stopped when Hao started to walk few months after that. And now, three of them will be playing together happily. Well, kids are still kids; I won't say no fight at all. But I can see Hao is getting so much closer with Lynn now. :)

Having 2 kids also made me think - am I dotting one of them more than another? I don't know, maybe, but I don't think so. Maybe to Lynn I may appear to love the brother more. Unlike Lynn, Hao is not a rebellious child. And he will listen to me most of the time, like 80%. While when Lynn was at his age, she was very rebellious and 80% of the time she's not listening to me. So I tend to scold her more, talk louder to her more, as compared to Hao. It's not that I don't want to scold Hao; it's just that there is no reason for me to do so. I said no to him much less and much later too. Hao does not suck the thumb. He seldom put toys inside his mouth. It was an easy task to feed him. Hao is an easy baby! Hb also thinks that I'm dotting Hao but how can I not to? :)

Due to so many celebrations in this month, we decided not to call for a special family dinner just for his birthday. We will just follow the normal schedule, where Tuesday the kids will be picked up by my parents. I will just buy a cake over so we can blow the candle after the dinner. 

Happy Birthday my dear Hao.  

May you happy always.

School holidays

These 2 weeks are school holidays. So there is no class. But since Lynn is on the full day program (class + child care), so we are still sending her to the kindy as usual. Since no class, so no need to wear uniform. She gets to play with her other friends who are also attending the child care whole day long.

During this school holiday, the kindy organizes in total 4 field trips for the children: -

1. Pusat Sains
2. KLCC Park
3. Planetarium and Butterfly Park
4. Tun Razak Park

I can't recall when I was attending kindy, did the kindy arrange any field trip or not. I can't remember if I ever been to any places with the friends and teachers from kindy. When I was young, my father was quite protective. He even did not like us to attend any friend's birthday party. He thinks it is wasting time. Another problem was the transport as my mom only got her driving license when I was 10 years old. SO before that, even school activities on Saturday we had to rely on the school bus. At one time my mom enrolled us to the Art class at school but by the time the class was over school bus would have left already. There was this mother of another student (we get to know her from the Art class) was so kind to agree to fetch us back after the class every Saturday. I only remember attended birthday party for 2 of my classmate during primary school. Can't remember how old was I. Most probably when I was in Standard 3. Can't remember how my father agreed to let me go. But I guess must be due to my mom. :D

As I always did not get to go have fun with my friends, I always felt like being left out from them. But can't blame them, isn't it? Imagine I was the only few (less than 5 probably) that did not get to join the school trips, while others was happily talking about it but I could just sit there and listen. Even for the final year trip at Standard 6 to Singapore, as expected I did not get to go too.

After I started attending secondary school, my father became less protective and let us to be more independent. We get to join the school trips organized by the societies and clubs, e.g. to Penang, Cameron Highland etc. I was very happy and excited. Me and my brother also started learn to take public bus to school and back home. As my house is in KL and we were attending PJ schools, it was rather inconvenient to take public bus to and back from school. We got our driving license as soon as we hit our 17th birthday. And after that, my father refused to send us instead he asked us to drive ourselves if we want to go out. So we learn to drive in those busy roads within KL and PJ. Since then, everything is "by myself".

Back to Lynn's school holiday programs, we enrolled her to all 4 field trips. She did not tell me much after coming back from Pusat Sains. Wonder how much she can understand from the visit. The teachers brought the children to play water in the KLCC Park. This was out of my expectation at all. To me it's a big responsibility to take children to the pool. Due to the hot weather, Lynn came home with a much tanned body - the mark of the swimming suit is so obvious. She kept on telling me about the rocket after the trip to Planetarium. She was saying  something like the rocket got fire, shoot up in the sky, then the rocket was broken and fall down, and she was scared. Hehehe. I asked her about the Butterfly Park but she was not talking much about it. This morning is the last field trip to Tun Razak Park. It was not hot this morning. Hopefully she wont become more tanned. :)

Soon school holiday is coming to and end. Next week will be back to normal. Oh yes this Sunday is a special day.  

 Happy Father's Day to all daddies!

What happen last week

Last Tuesday, when my dad picked up Hao, he was told that the child care would be closed down for disinfections due to Hand Foot Mouth disease (HFMD). I further called up the person in charge, Stacy and was told that 2 HFMD cases had been reported in the child care. So for preventing more cases, she decided to close the child care for the rest of the week and also for disinfection work to be carried out.

So for Wednesday, we sent Hao to my MIL house. And for Thursday, as my MIL was not available, we sent Hao to my niece's babysitter who is just behind my parent's house. Then on Thursday afternoon, Stacy called me and told me that I could bring back Hao to the child care on Friday. So we sent Hao back to the child care on Friday.

Friday after work, I and hb went to pick up the kids. It was drizzling so I just quickly carried Hao into the car. On the way back home, due to the heavy traffic we had to wait quite long at the traffic light. Hb noticed Hao's limbs were warm when interacting with the kids inside the car. When we reached the dinner place, I carried Hao from the car and confirmed that he was having mild fever. Hao did not eat a lot during dinner.

Back home while changing Hao getting him ready for bed, I noticed there were some rashes on Hao's butt. Immediately I suspected HFMD. Sigh looks like he is not that lucky after all. I gave him the fever syrup before getting him to sleep.

Saturday morning, we served bread for breakfast. Hao finished the whole cheese slice but leaving the slice of bread behind...... He was complaining pain and pointed at his mouth. I took a look - saw about 3 ulcers behind his lips. No wonder refused to let me brush his teeth. Hb cut the bread into small piece, added with some fresh milk, finally Hao finished off all the bread. He was very cranky almost the whole day. I couild see more rashes/red spots on his arms and lower part of his legs. He always asked for carry, was crying on and off. Fever came back in the afternoon. Gave him another dose of fever syrup and it went off in the evening. Did not take his lunch, he dozed off right before lunch was served. But he did not want to eat any food; instead he took 2 big cups of fresh milk. He had some rice for dinner. After that, he took yogurt and a scoop of ice cream too. And more milk before he went to bed. I usually nurse him twice a day - morning right after wake up and night before going to sleep. But sadly he rejected me that night! Because sucking make his mouth pain too! Sigh. :(

The whole weekend we were staying at home, did not go back to the parents house as there are other children will be around. As my MIL is away for holiday, and there is newborn in my parent's house (my SIL just gave birth 2 weeks ago) so I couldn't send Hao there. I took 2 days off from work on Monday and Tuesday to look after Hao at home. This is his 2nd attack of the HFMD. His first attack is when he was about 9 months old, got it from Lynn (that was first time Lynn had the HFMD and we were not aware about it until much later). Hao is recovered now and I sent him back to child care this morning. Our house is full of noise as before. :)