30 months - HAB

was teasing h about her typing out random letters this evening on the home computer. she usually churns out random letter combinations that i read out in the most incredulous tone and we all have a laugh over how the pronunciation goes.

this evening, i had been trying to get her to type out her name initially, but she insisted on typing "HAB" instead.

what's HAB? that's not a word!

yes it is! it's the naughty giant's one! in his house! then jack take and run run run!

oh, harp. (and this was after some processing on my end)

sometimes our adult minds are so fixated on linking everything we see or experience to what we know that we lose flexibility to "see". thank goodness for the eyes and mind of a child that reminds us to see beyond that.

30 months - random

oh i have been tardy with the updates again! :( 

this is h at 30 months. 

there are so many things that she can do quite independently already that i have somewhat forgotten what it is like to have  a baby that needs me to do everything for her. she puts on her own shoes, takes off her own clothes and colour sorts them into the right laundry basket, is toilet trained in the day and can use the potty on her own, follows instructions, and can understand seemingly everything we tell her and more.

she is quick to observe departures from the norm, has an elephant memory and is a big mouth in that she will relate everything she sees/does to you if only you take time to ask and listen.

- she told all about me banging the side view mirror while driving up her school driveway 

- she gives me a detailed breakdown of what led to her crying while i was away 

- she reports the stuff she does when she's away at her grandparents'

- she also tells us about various kids at school and who cried each day in school and why 

- she explains that the reason why she sometimes poops in her pants is because she is so busy cooking 

- she can spell BAD and GOOD. easy enough opposites to get her to learn, plus we have been reading the mr good story in the mr men series

she also makes me tell her at least 5 stories (but usually it's around 10!) every night before she's falls asleep at 9.30pm. we are in a jack and the beanstalk, timmy & tammy, hungry giraffe/polar bear/goat/ monkey/elephant phase for now, the latter series of stories being entirely made up by me to teach her about problem solving, sharing and also the different foods different animals eat. i think she enjoys it also because she can relate these to the real animals she sees at the zoo. she knows every twist and turn of the stories that are familiar to her and she will call me out with a "why you didn't tell this part? why you didn't start from the beginning? why you are talking nonsense?" if i do a short cut or say something different (because i am about to fall asleep myself!). it's quite hilarious.

30 weeks - check-up

first thing the doc said yesterday at our regular check-up was that he had just seen a patient that morning who came in for her prenatal check up on a wheelchair. "and she didn't even have a slipped disc!" i guess he was trying to make me feel better by highlighting that even pregnancy itself can cause screwy back problems. 

weighed in at 68.6kg today (+0.6kg from last appointment) which is a much lower weight gain than even i expected. but the doc didn't nag since baby was growing well and was still a "good sized baby" - 1.75kg by his measure using the baby's tummy and i think 1.9kg using baby's head measurement which is ahead of what babycenter reflects for this week (1.5kg) and prob bigger than h when she was at the same gestation age (she weighed about 1.8kg at the end of 31 weeks). 

amniotic fluid levels are also good. 

doc was saying "give me 6 more weeks!" when i told him my back was starting to act up again. hoping to go beyond 36 weeks though, since c-sections usually happen at week 38.5 or later. but 6 weeks does sound more manageable than 10 weeks when i am in pain ;)

doc was suggesting going to mount alvernia to deliver and it so happened that we were considering it too since the spine doc has his new practice there. great coincidence and probably the best arrangement.

we are into 3-week frequency check-ups from now on! i recall this same phase back when we had h ... we are really getting close to the end!

29 months - smile

when h smiles her eyes crinkle up and because they are so small to begin with, they land up even smaller in many of the pictures we have of her.

so, we've been trying to get her to open her eyes bigger when she smiles, but the problem is that she'll open her mouth as a result too, like this:

so we tell her, "close your mouth when you smile!" and we get this instead:

haha!

29 weeks - how long more??

the back is acting up again and i think it may be because it's not used to the additional weight (i am assuming i put on weight!) that has been going largely to the tummy area. already the hubby is saying "you're big!" and it's been more difficult squeezing into my non-pregnancy swimming costume. 

i am trying to remain optimistic that the back will re-adjust to the new normal soon but a part of me is despairing that i may have to live with the pain (and pain meds - suniton - that don't help much!) and a bent-over posture for the next 10 weeks. how?!!!

am still visiting the pool but it's been harder to fit in as many laps as before because swimming with a heavy belly just does weird things to one's balance even in the water. plus the pain was a bit too much to bear when i tried swimming today so i landed up just standing around in the pool and enjoying the weightlessness that allows me to stand up straight. BLISS!

am relying on physio, my exercise ball and swimming to get me through the next 10 weeks!

29 months - good habits

h has developed some good habits in the past few months which has made life a lot easier for us and bodes well for the future. it's probably in part due to our "you can go to nursery class only if you [insert positive behaviour]" rhetoric, but also because she really likes to be praised as a good helper.

she's been tidying up her toys every night before going to bed having bought the explanation that it will prevent toys from going missing. she's especially diligent with her pengoloo game set - "have to tidy up otherwise we cannot find the dice tomorrow"

she helps with loading the washing machine and with some of the clothes hanging on weekends.

she automatically keeps her shoes in the shoe cabinet after she takes them off at the door.

she dismantles her train tracks when she's done with playing at night and does the same for the duplo blocks that she builds at the northpoint brickworld play area.

she dumps her wet diaper in the bin every morning. if she's in stick-on diapers, she's out of her diaper even before i go into her bedroom in the mornings (self-service!).

she'll help to get the milk carton from the fridge and pour out her milk in the morning before returning the carton back to the fridge and closing the fridge door properly.

she says "thank you mummy/papa" after we do stuff for her, like fix her toy or in the hubby's case, vacuums the floor. :D always good to be grateful.

my girl's really growing up!

29 months - in conversation

after telling her that we got a new shoe cabinet "is it green and blue?" and upon telling her it was brown "is it all brown?"

"papa ask me to use the toilet bowl. i cannot use the toilet bowl it is too big i will fall inside and die" complaining to me about her dad's unreasonable request.

"h will be alone!" when we tell her we are dropping her off at the grandparents'.

"s (her usual class and bus buddy) papa and mummy picked her up from school today ... i'm so lonely in the schoolbus ... but [some name] sit next to me. he is my friend from n2!"

in response to our queries on what exciting things happened in school that day "g kicked me. then i tell teacher sammy. then teacher sammy scold g." 

when i am in my naggy mood - "why you look so fierce ah?"

to be continued ...

looking back at 2014

what a year 2014 has been. many things have fallen into a comfortable rhythm, especially with h and work, while new, unexpected events also forced us out of our comfort zone. i am glad and thankful that there has been some constancy through it all, which helped make the "downs" much easier to handle.

1. the hubby moved on to a new exciting job, as all jobs in start-ups tend to be.

2. i settled in at work and the team camaraderie and quality got much stronger. we are on a roll and the coming year holds many interesting projects that i am quite excited about.

3. h is growing up to be a fine, spunky kid. we had a brief encounter with the terrible twos but that blew over quite quickly. she also had a bout of fits arising from a sudden spiking high fever, which means i am super paranoid everytime she runs a temperature nowadays. but beyond that scary incident, she thrives in her school environment, enjoys soups, and loves her daily storytime / wind-down time just before going to bed. i am thankful i get to spend that last hour or so in her day with her alone. it's kind of special. 

4. realised how important good health is this year after i got a slipped disc some time in july/august. it's been a major downer for me as moving around became difficult and painful. i thought we were out of the woods earlier this month when i felt almost normal and could stand straight and go about my day with no pain, but the pain is back, so we'll have to ride it out again. physio and swimming have helped though. in fact, my back forced me to take swimming more seriously and i think i have swam more laps this half year than i have in the past 20 years combined. 

5. there's #2 on the way! planned yet unplanned, we were pleasantly surprised when we found out and very grateful that it has been smooth sailing so far. one cannot get enough of baby kicks - it's one of the great perks of being pregnant. am also trying to figure out how we will be able to handle 2 kids! we were getting kind of comfortable but soon it will be back to breastfeeding, multiple nappy changes and all the clutter that comes with bringing up a baby. i do hope the back gets better by the time #2 comes so that i can be on top of my game. looking back at how we got through h's first few months, i think i qualify for some kind of hero status. :p

looking forward to 2015 and all the new experiences it will bring!