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All about Hannah
Here’s something really odd that Hannah loves to do whenever she’s riding in the car. As soon as she is seated comfortably in her car seat, she’ll ask for us to position the handle of the baby bag in such a way so that both her feet go through it, and when the handle is snugly around her ankles, she’ll lift the whole bag up!
Great workout for the quadriceps, I’d say!
Scrap Credits
Nature Walk QP from Digital Freebies
Sweet Serenity Numbers and elements from Shabby Princess Designs
Weight
At a recent visit to the doc’s for her cough and cold, she was weighed in at 12 kilos.
Height
Slightly more than 82 cm
Teeth
She wouldn’t open up her mouth long enough for me to count accurately, but from what I could see/estimate, Hannah now has 16 teeth: 8 incisors (4 top and 4 bottom), with 4 pramolars appearing on the right side (top and bottom) and left side (top and bottom); bottom left pramolar is taking its time to grow!; also 2 canines starting to appear at the top jaw, and 2 canines on the bottom jaw.
Motor Skills
Communication and Social Skills
Food and Feeding
A new snack that she absolutely loves is the arrowroot chips that are so popular during Chinese New Year. I have to restrict her intake too, as this girl can eat this snack non-stop.
Hannah is still breastfed and she still asks for “milk” especially at night. Sometimes when she asks for “milk”, I’ll tell her Mommy does not have any more milk. Her response would be to say “A bit left” (meaning there’s only a bit of milk left) or she would say, “Other side”.
Potty Training
She can successfully poo poo in the potty 95% of the time now, which means less dirty diapers for me to deal with! Yay!!! She’ll tell me she wants to “poopoo” and when I take her there, she’ll sit for a while, sometimes fiddling with a paper wipe. At times, it will be a false alarm, but we’ve had success on most occassions.
As I did with Ethan, I’m putting Hannah straight on the adult toilet with a child toilet seat. It makes the transition to the adult toilet seamless and it’s also less of a hassle to clean up.
After she does her “business”, she always requests for me to “wash butt” for her.
If anyone wants advice or information on breastfeeding, I will be more than willing to share my experiences and good practices. I can tell you how to improve milk production, what to eat, how to start off on breastfeeding as soon as baby is born, and I can also offer tips on how to express milk if you are still working and want to feed your baby EBM. If you need recommendations on a good breast pump, I can also give you my two cents’ worth, including where to buy and how much to expect, be it a manual pump or an electric one. If you want my thoughts on which types of nursing pads to use, I’m your gal too.
But if you ask me how to wean baby from the breast, sorry…I’m stumped myself.
It was very hard for me to wean Ethan the last time, and now, I am facing an equally arduous task of weaning Hannah. With Ethan, I used Bonjela, but since then I have heard conflicting opinions on how Bonjela might not be the safest best for kids. If anyone has any insight on this, I’d be happy to find out more.
Anyway, I have been slowly telling Hannah that Mommy’s milk supply is running low. Sometimes when she asks for milk, I’d tell her, “You just had some milk Hannah. And anyway, Mommy has very little milk left. Only a bit milk left, baby.”
She’ll look at me pleadingly with those big brown eyes of hers and say, “A bit milk!” and position herself for a feed. Talk about persistence.
Sometimes after a feed, she’ll tell me “Milk finish!”
I’ll then ask her, “Do you want more milk in your cup?”
She’ll nod and say, “Yellow cup!”
So now when she wants to be breastfed, she’ll say, “A bit milk!” or “A bit left!”, or depending on the situation, she’ll sometimes say, “Other side!”
Yes, as you can see, I have no idea how to wean her yet. I’m praying she’ll wean herself off on her own…anyone experienced that before?
My little boy turned FIVE on January 31st recently. And I still can’t believe how much he has grown! I look at pictures of him from a year ago, and the difference is so vast! He has grown physically, mentally and spiritually, and I can’t even begin to express how proud I am of him.
I could tell he was really looking forward to turning five. Before, he refers to himself as a “medium boy” but he tells us that once he turns five, he is a “BIG boy” 🙂
So where did we take our big boy for his birthday? After we picked him up from school, we went to one of our favorite Japanese restaurants for lunch as a family. Then we headed to Golden Sands Hotel in Batu Ferringhi, where there was a kids activity center called AdventureZone. Admission was only RM20++ per child (since it was a weekday), and adults need not pay if accompanying the kids.
AdventureZone had something like an obstacle course for the kids, and gigantic slides that were NOT for the faint-hearted. See how scary those slides looked? We only went on the colorful one and the blue one.
For Hannah, there was a little play area specially designed for kids aged 4 and below.
But of course, she wanted to do whatever her brother did…
Actually we were allowed a duration of 2 hours in AdventureZone, but the kids were very reluctant to leave…in the end, we left after spending about 2.5 hours there.
AdventureZone certainly tired us all out, for not only were the kids exhausted, we adults also had a good workout chasing after the kids. Errr…. well maybe it was just the adults who were exhausted…
One thing’s for sure though, we sure worked up a HUGE appetite and we headed for dinner at Chili’s in Gurney Plaza.
Birthday boy making like a “moose” when I asked him to pose for a picture…
And how old are you now, Ethan?
Because it was his birthday, Ethan was given a complimentary chocolate brownie sundae, complete with a candle, and the crew sang him a birthday song too!
And then later that night, he opened up his presents from us.
This one’s from Hannah…
…and this one’s from Daddy and Mommy. We gave him something he had been hinting he wanted for the past month. Ethan is very interested in all things planets, outer space, solar system, and the Earth. And his expression was simply priceless when he unwrapped the gift from us.
“Wow!!! It’s the PLANET thing!!!” 🙂
Chinese New Year is upon us again, and as we completed our usual round of shopping, we included a box of Mandarin oranges too. While Mommy doesn’t really care much about eating Mandarins (for fear of getting a sore throat), our little Hannah proved that she’s Daddy’s little girl when she shares her love for Mandarins with her Daddy.
She would ask for “orange” in such a sweet way, it really takes a LOT of willpower to say no. Sometimes she will even choose an orange on her own and ask to “share with Daddy”. Daddy will peel the orange and make sure it does not have any seeds before giving a small piece to Hannah to feed herself.
Such is the determination of our little almost-two-year-old girl.
I’ve had to limit her intake of Mandarins though, and thankfully she does obey us when we put our foot down. Unfortunately, she caught a cough today and will be off Mandarins till she’s better.
But don’t you think the sight of Daddy sharing an orange with little Hannah is adorable beyond words? 🙂
Candy Land was one of the board games Ethan played while we were in the States. At that time, he didn’t quite understand the whole works yet, but he certainly had fun with Venice and Aunty Van that time. I had wanted to buy that board game before we came back, but somehow procrastinated because I felt that the price was a little bit expensive.
However, when Pete came back from his recent trip and surprised the kids with the Candy Land board game, let’s just say I was just as ecstatic as the kids were. At only USD5, it was a great family game that we could all play together.
Ethan and Hannah loves Candy Land, and it’s a game where everyone is involved in it, as each player has a pawn to move. When asked what color pawn she wants, Hannah always replies, “Yellow!” Ethan will take the Blue pawn (because that’s his new favorite color, after previously being yellow and red), Mommy will take Red and Daddy Green.
It’s one of our afternoon activities together at home, and also sometimes we have a game of Candy Land before the kids say goodnight. Ethan says it’s his favorite game yet! 🙂
…well…better Candy Land than real candy, I’d say! 🙂
There’s no denying the joy that grandparents bring to a child’s life. It’s that wonderful, magical bond that will bring on that cheerful grin and adorable giggle. The beautiful thing about this bond is that it’s a reciprocal one. 🙂
Recently when their Daddy was away in the States on a business trip, Ethan and Hannah had the utmost privilege of having their maternal grandparents around. A few days before Ah Ma and Ah Kong were due to arrive from Ipoh, Ethan had already started his countdown and kept asking me every day how many more days to go before Ah Ma and Ah Kong were to arrive.
During that one week that Ah Ma and Ah Kong were here, Ethan and Hannah were showered with loads of gifts, attention and love. Now that Hannah is more vocal, she was also able to *demand* things, like what songs she wanted Ah Ma to sing to her and what pictures she wanted to be drawn.
Sometimes she would also “borrow” Ah Ma’s accessories to wear. Hannah’s becoming quite the little fashionista, isn’t she?
Of course, now that Hannah can call “Ah Ma” and “Ah Kong” very very clearly, it makes things that much easier…surprisingly, the kids tend to behave a little bit *better* with Ah Ma and Ah Kong around too. (perhaps they bully me too much…SIGH)
Ethan will be chatting non-stop to both Ah Ma and Ah Kong from daylight to daybreak. He would wake up very early every morning, so early in fact, that he sometimes reached school before his teachers did! He would tell Ah Ma and Ah Kong all about his activities, all about his friends, and wow his grandparents about facts he learnt from Wikipedia (which I looked up for him)…like when he proudly told Ah Ma and Ah Kong that Jupiter has at least 63 moons and that Saturn has 62 moons.
Me? I’m just extremely thankful my parents were here with me to keep me company during Pete’s absence. It really meant a lot to me ! 🙂 … plus my Dad helped out a lot on the spring cleaning and Mum cooked some delicious meals too… hehehe… Thanks Papa and Mama! 🙂
And after a week of quality time spent with gramps, Ethan and Hannah bade a fond farewell to Ah Ma and Ah Kong, but not before promising to see them again real soon during Chinese New Year! 🙂
Sometimes it IS rather easy to make kids happy. Mealtimes are great examples, and one of the easiest, fail-proof recipe I use for my kids is PASTA. My kids love pasta in any shape and size. The colorful varieties just add to the excitement of it all.
The beauty of this traditional favorite meal is, of course, its simplicity in preparation. I only need to stir-fry some onions, add some minced meat (if I’m more hardworking, I’ll make meatballs instead), then pour in a can of tomato purée, and then add enough pasta sauce. Then I’d ask the kids which kind of pasta they want. Giving them that choice makes it that much more fun 🙂
And although it can sometimes get a tad messy, we all enjoy the great taste and balanced meal (carbs, vegetables and protein all in one) and the fun that comes with it!
For the past few weeks, Mommy has been diligently plonking herself in front of the television at certain times during the day, holding her camera in front of it, in the hope of recording a video with Ethan Koko’s face in it. Mommy said that Ethan Koko’s face appears on the Playhouse Disney Birthday Book for January, and what’s more it’s his 2nd time so far! Apparently he appeared on the birthday book last year too!
The thing is…even though we know he has been chosen, we do not know exactly when his picture will show up. So Mommy has to get ready the camera every time the Birthday Book comes on. And we have been told to try to keep as quiet as possible when that happens…
But you know me…I couldn’t help myself when I saw my brother’s face on TV. I mean, who wouldn’t be excited, right? Yes, that’s my voice you hear when Ethan Koko’s face appeared…and errr….I *thought* the other girl looked like me…heh heh…well, a girl can dream, can’t she?
And yeah, Mommy FINALLY managed to record the video…I think it had something to do with me sitting on her lap while she was recording it. 🙂
Awww….how I wish I could be on TV too!!!! 🙂
Scrap Credits
January kit from Digiscrap’mania Shop
Stitching from Plentiful kit from Shabby Princess Designs
Brackets from Basic Chipboard Alphas from Dani Mogstad
Sweet Serenity Alphas from Shabby Princess Designs
Weight
Have not weighed her since the last weigh-in in December, but she might have put on a little bit more weight now, so maybe 11.4 or 11.5 kilos.
Height
Slightly more than 82 cm
Teeth
15 teeth: 8 incisors (4 top and 4 bottom), with 4 pramolars appearing on the right side (top and bottom) and left side (top and bottom), also 2 canines starting to appear at the top jaw, and 1 canine on the bottom right.
Motor Skills
Communication and Social Skills
Food and Feeding
Hannah continues to show that she loves food. And whenever she sees us eating something she has not seen before, she’ll say, “Try!”, meaning she would like to try it. At home, I allow her to experiment and feed herself with a spoon and bowl whenever I can.
Hannah is still breastfed and she still asks for “milk” especially at night. Sometimes when she asks for “milk”, I’ll tell her Mommy does not have any more milk. She’ll ignore me of course and insist there is “some more”.
To ease her bowel movement, Hannah is also on an occasional diet of prunes. She loves them, so I ain’t complaining! I’m also supplementing her diet with chewable chocolate-flavored Calcium & Magnesium, besides the regular Vitamin C.