Tao says ...

My second girl, Tao thinks very logically and she will apply whatever we tell her into different situations.
Below is one of her conversations with my mum when she discouraged Tao from sleeping on her bed when she was here to visit us.

Grandma: Tao, you have to sleep on your mattress on the floor. You cannot sleep on my bed.
Tao: Why?
Grandma: If you sleep on the bed and fall down, you will knock on your head and will not be clever anymore. Then you will not be able to get number 1 position in your class.
Tao: OK, that means next time if I get number 2 in my exams, I must have knocked on my head already.
Grandma: *rolls with laughter*

Double Expenses

My girls have reached a stage where I have to buy everything for them in pairs. Tian usually refuses to share her things with her younger sis and the younger sis will throw temper tantrum to get anything her sister is having.

Usually we will insist for the elder girl to share her toys with her sister but on some days, I just simply could not resist to buy something for both of them so that they are both happy (and I do not have to start persuading, lecturing......and punishing).

Another reason is that I will do anything to encourage them to drink more water and I do not mind to stock up on all those formula milk powder for this.

Free gifts from growing up milk for Tian.

Tian is such easy-going girl and I can alternate between this and another more premium brand depending on sales and free gifts available. She used to drink the 'dolphin' brand but I started to mix organic soy, millet, oat milk into the girls milk one year ago (which is more pricey) so I balanced out by buying less premium brand for her. I plan to switch Tao's milk from 'lion' brand to less premium brand when she is four like Tian. After all the recent hoo-haa about added sugar in formula milk, I am even more determined to cut down on formula and replace with organic soy, millet, oat milk which has less sugar.

Crafting Week

Sometimes I feel guilty being a work-at-home mum but seldom accompany my girls as much as I want to except during weekends when my parents-in-law are not with us and I have take care of them on my own. Even so, I will leave them to play on their own while surfing net or doing my admin work. However, since last two weekends I decided to accompany them on Saturdays without touching my laptop except when they are both sleeping. I actually feel better because I am able to concentrate with one task at a time and my girls are happy that I can play with them, read to them and do some crafts with them. One evening last week, I told my 4 yo I wanted to make a mask for her and she chose to be Belle, the character from Beauty and the Beast. My 2 yo would want anything that her sister had so I made her a simple mask. I was getting lazy so I just simply cut out a piece of paper with two holes on it. She was satisfied. A few days later, my 4 yo pestered me to let her draw pictures with water colour. Normally, I would only let her use water colour when the younger sister was napping. After she promised she would share with her sister and would not fight with her sister, I let them play at the garage. Reason due to I HATE CLEANING UP just in case they spilt the water and colours. To my surprise, they played peacefully for more than half an hour. Last Saturday, I cut out some shapes from a paper plate and let the girls pasted the legs, head and tail to make a stegosaurus (I got the idea from one of my ex-school mate's blog). Again, they spent about one hour doing all the pasting plus some colouring. My 4 yo even helped her sister draw the eyes and colour the body of her dinosaur.

Finished work of two stegosaurus

Secret Weapon

Tao has found a way to deal with her elder sister, Tian. Her new set of sharp teeth!

How can something so innocent looking be so harmful .....

If Tian snatches toys from her and she does not manage to retrieve it, Tao will just surrender temporarily. Then she will bite her sister's toes, thigh etc when Tian is unaware to retaliate and she finds that it is funny to see her sister cry in pain.

I personally feel it is very cute and funny way for a 1 year old to deal with circumstances but I have to be fair and have to reprimand her.

She will sometimes bite us playfully but we always stop her and reprimand or smack her before it becomes a habit.

Self Trained Potty User

Since last week, Tao has been bringing us her potty when she wants to pee or poo. Sometimes she will miss and only bring her potty to us after she has peed onto her cloth nappy.

She will look for her potty and becomes very anxious if we have forgotten to put it at the same spot where she remembers. Then she will show us her potty and says 'shi shi' (wet) to indicate either she wants to pee or she has wet her nappy.

She is also learning to talk in single syllable words like 'moon' to indicate everything in the sky from stars, moon and lights. 'Nana' for her indicates everything from fruits and vegetables. 'Poo' means fart or poo. And of course she is able to call us papa, mama, ah ma, but not ah kong yet (much to her grandpa's exasperation). She is able to call hubby's brother 'er buo', much to his delight as she actually seldom sees him.

She does not speak as well as Tian when Tian was her age but she understands what we are telling her very well. She is able to carry out our instruction for her like, 'We are going out, bring your shoes here to put on.' Or my MIL would tell me, 'I am going out to get the clothes. Don't let her stand near the door so that she can't go out' and she will quickly walk to the door and wait for her grandma to go out.

She is getting very curious and wants to have whatever that we are eating. I am not that strict with her diet anymore as she is already 16 months although i still cook 'bland' dishes for her (without salt and MSG) and using only liquid amino and vegetable seasoning bought from organics shop. However, I am glad she is still in love with her oats porridge with either fruits or raisins that I prepare for her every morning. At least, she starts the day with healthier choice of food.

Books for Tian

I have stopped buying toys for Tian for a long time. Reason: She never asks for toys when we go shopping and even if I buy one for her, she will only play for a few hours and very seldom after that.

She is happy when I buy books for her and will pester for me to read and explain to her. This is a good habit but I have been guilty of not allocating a lot of time to read to her.

Books that I bought some weeks ago at discounted price

One thing I do not understand is that she likes reading but when I try to do revision on her flash cards from her pre-school, she is very reluctant to learn. I will need to bribe her by telling her that I will read the books that I have bought for her if she finishes revising her flash cards.

Did I do wrong in showing too many colourful pictures to her since young? The principal in her new pre-school told me that children will only love words and letters if we do not show them colourful pictures before 2 years old. This is to prevent them to be attracted to pictures instead of words. She showed me the materials that they use for teaching are plain and mostly without colours.

I do not know if this is true but since Tao does not like looking at books, I might be able to start showing her letters and words (not pictures) when she is older and see how it goes. I think my parents-in-law will think I am mad if I start flashing letters and words to Tao instead of pictures.

Tao's Favourite Past Time

Free Labour for Majlis Perbandaran Kulai

Picking up leaves, pebbles, soil from the ground and stuffing them into her mouth when we are unaware

Nutritional Supplements for My Girls

It has been a month since I started to feed Tian and Tao with Multivitamin mentioned here. The effect is quite good. Both of them seldom have runny nose anymore. Even if they sneeze and cough, they will get better after taking medication once or twice (leftover from their previous visit to family GP).

The result is more significant in Tao. My MIL says she looks healthier (not that pale anymore) and fleshier but I think she is still in the 'mini size category'.

I feed them only once a day and one bottle have to be consumed in a month. After the first bottle is finished, I will stop feeding them and see how it goes. Children have to build up their immune system and cannot depend too much on nutritional supplements, that's what I think.

Starts Walking and Says 'Mama'

Since 18 Sep, Tao is able to walk unaided and she does not crawl anymore. She likes to go outside to walk around.

This is the first time we brought her outside and let her walk on her own

She is able to squat from standing position to pick up things and stand up again

She also starts calling me 'Mama' and means it.

There is one bad habit though. She tends to hit us when she is annoyed and does not get what she wants. If I reprimand her or smack her arm, she will cry very pitifully and rolls about on the floor. Nobody teaches her to do that and Tian certainly does not behave in this way when she was Tao's age.

Sleeping through the night, at last!

Tao has been sleeping through the night since last week. I have also stopped breastfeeding her before sleep for last two days.

The first day to wean her was not planned at all. We were having dinner at a small town near hubby's hometown and the journey took almost an hour. After feeding her formula milk, we left her at her car seat and she slept until we reached home and did not wake up until the next morning.

Yesterday I brought her to our room to sleep and she tried to ask for 'nen nen'. I told her 'no more' and gestured with my hand, which she understood and she lied down to sleep without creating fuss. I was glad!

I just hope that she will continue to sleep through the night and I can start planning for holidays (getaways). Ha! Ha! Ha!

Teething Nightmare

I notice Tao has been gumming on her fingers these few days and suspect that she must be teething again. Her incisors started erupting in 8th months and all eight completed their appearance when she turned one.

She became very cranky and when I checked on her gum yesterday, I saw all 4 canine teeth areas were whitish. It must be very painful to have all 4 canines erupting at once. She woke up crying yesterday night and was inconsolable. She would put both her pointer fingers into her mouth and gummed at her fingers.

Every children is different. Everytime when Tian (elder daughter) was teething, we would not even know until we noticed new teeth in her mouth. She started sleeping through the night before she turned 6 months old. We could easily go travelling and bring Tian with us because she could sleep as we carry her.

She was such an easy baby that we decided to have a second baby so soon, thinking that the most difficult period to take care of a baby is only the first 4 months. Having Tao really changed my mind and I started telling people every baby is different (even siblings) in their temperaments.

We do love Tao, especially her grandparents. They give in to her demand (to the extend I think they are spoiling her) even though they grumble about her demanding attitute occasionally. I think it is because Tao resembles my hubby and his sister more and it makes them see their children in this granddaughter.

Note: Tao called her dad 'pa pa' when he came back from work and she made him so happy.

Self Feeding and Learning to Walk

I have been putting some cereals in a bowl for Tao to feed herself so that I can do my work. She spends more time trying to grab her food (pincers grip) and gathering scattered cereals on the floor than actually eating it.

Since Tao is one, we have been training her to hold her own bottle when drinking milk. This is way too late compared with Tian who could hold her own bottle since she was 6 months old. I think we spoil Tao more. Another reason is that due to breastfeeding, Tao has been rejecting formula so we always try our best to hold her and coax her to finish her milk. We will be very happy as long as she finishes her milk and do not mind holding her but it is time for her to be more independent.

Tao enjoying her bottle of phytomilk mixed with formula milk

Since last week, she has also tried to take a few steps unaided. We were thinking she would learn to walk later than her sis as she seemed more cautious and 'lazy' to learn. If she begins to walk in this one or two weeks, it would be in her 13th month like her sis.