Little Miracles · February 2014

Hannah Reads

February 25, 2014 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

My little girl Hannah is just about embarking on her next beautiful journey: learning to read. The fact that she cannot read as fluently as her brother Ethan did when he was her age last time does not bother me one bit.

Ethan was a fast reader and could already string words together before he was 3. Hannah on the other hand is doing a great job sounding the sounds alphabets make, but at one point, she was frustrated because she could not put these sounds together to form words.

I’m not concerned because as long as I know she is healthy and having fun learning stuff, I’m happy too. But lately I realized that Hannah could pick up reading more easily and readily when she reads a story repetitively, or when the story is read to her repeatedly.

Here, she is reading one of the books she borrowed from the library. With fun graphics and easy-to-read words, it’s an excellent start to boost her confidence and jumpstart her on the reading bandwagon.

I love her expressive words!

Emma at 11 Months

February 24, 2014 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Scrap Credits
Spring Is In QP freebie from Delicious Scraps
Blue Valentine element from Lisete Scrap

Weight

Probably around 9 kilos

Height/Length

Not measured.

Teeth

4 teeth: 2 bottom incisors and 2 upper incisors.

Motor Skills

Emma loves to stand with support, especially with her hands on the couch or chair. She loves banging her hands on the surface of the couch.
Cruising a little.
Can stand unsupported for like 3 seconds.
Emma can clap her hands upon request, for example when we say, “Clap your hands”
Sometimes she will open and close her hands when we say “Bye bye”
Can manipulate objects better now with her hands and fingers (but everything still goes into the mouth)
Very quick in grabbing stuff we are holding, especially drinks and food items.

Communication and Social Skills

Calls me “Mama..” or “Mameh” quite often now. We’ve also heard he saying “Baba” and blowing raspberries too.
Loves the remote control.

Others

Not sleeping through yet. SIGH. Wakes up like once a night but stays up for 2-3 hours!! :O
Working hard to cure her eczema once and for all.

Food and Feeding

Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, and she eats mostly fruits at other times. Her favorites are papaya and banana. We’ve introduced the following to her thus far, not a lot but she does seem to be curious with new foods, which is a good sign:

Beef – she’s not too keen on this though
Pumpkin

I intend to introduce wheat grains to her sometime this week, so that if she’s ok with it, I can give her teething rusks.

Emma’s getting more and more adventurous with her eating. She loves to grab the spoon and attempts to feed herself with it. She also loves to grab my cup and drink from it. Of course I only allow water 🙂

Birds and Bees Question #33

February 20, 2014 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Hannah: Ethan, did Mommy peepee Emma out when she gave birth to her?

(Note: My kids were actually there in the delivery room when I gave birth to Emma)

Ethan: Hahaha…no Hannah.

Mommy (putting on Mommy-the-educator hat): No Hannah, when we peepee, the peepee comes out from the urethra. But the baby comes out from the vagina. Those are two different openings.

Hannah: Huh? Peepee in the winter?

Mommy: Haha…no sweetie. Not in the winter. Peepee from the urethra, NOT winter. Baby from the vagina.

Ethan: What? Baby from China?

Mommy: From the vagina, Ethan. NOT China.

Laughter all around.

*Another edition of Morning Funnies on our school run*

Welcoming The Year of The Horse – Snippets

February 10, 2014 in Celebrations, Emma, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Now that we have all welcomed in the year of the horse with all the neighs and brays, and the cookies in the jars are dwindling fast, here are some shots taken during our recent Chinese New Year “balik kampung” extravaganza. From Penang to Taiping to Ipoh and then back to Penang, all in the sweltering heat that is reminiscent of Chinese New Year.

Some photos were taken by photographers on the scene, at times when both my hands were full; usually one holding a 10-month old and the other a cookie or two. 😛 Heaps of gratitude goes out to these kind photographers…you know who you are 🙂

We had a simple tea ceremony when we were back in my hometown in Ipoh. We served tea to my parents and the kids served tea to their grandparents, whilst getting ang pows at the same time.

Some pictures of Emma…she’s only recently become more camera-friendly.

One of the many Hannah pictures. She wore this bright yellow summer dress on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. It’s hard not to smile when I look at her.

I wanted to make some cookies this year but could not find the time before Chinese New Year. So I figured it would still count if I did so during the 15 days, yes? My kids helped me bake these easy-peasy German cookies…so crumbly, so melt-in-the-mouth, so more-ish….well, actually I HAD to bake these because I almost finished eating the German cookies my Mom gave!