Cheeks to Cheeks

Selamat Hari Merdeka, Malaysia!

The girl fell asleep while watching “Barney & Friends” this (late) morning. I guess “Barney & Friends” just isn’t her cuppa tea.

My girls are spoilt! Spoilt rotten by Aunty Jan!

Thank you, Jan!

mama
baba
jie jie

You know you’re important to her when she kept repeating these 3 names (like a mantra) before she gave in to slumberland.

Creativity bug hit me. Now presenting my cute model, Isabelle…

In her plain ballet attire:

The transformation….Taa dah!

I love the shot below. Simple, clean and definitely shows the sassy-ness from my little model.

Well, the model will not be keeping this tutu. I made it specially for a little girl who is turning 3 next Saturday. The model will get her own tutus very soon.

p/s: The title has nothing to do with a person named Violet. It’s just a name I gave to the tutu.

Credits to Michelle who taught me the basics.

A glimpse into our Friday today…

The girls have been spoilt by Aunty Michelle. She bought these two sets of baju kurung (traditional Malay dress) for the girls. Talking about being spoilt, Aunty Chanel got them some new pretty hair clips. If you are wondering about the hair clips in these pics, they are from Aunty Vickie. She bought them from her previous trip to Hong Kong. I’m telling ya, these girls are spoilt rotten!

A demure girl………so NOT!

To all my Muslim friends and relatives, Happy Ramadan!

This morning daddy asked if I had taught the word “Thumbellina” to Belle. I told him she has been watching the DVD we had borrowed from the library. He related this event to me…

Belle: Daddy, Thumbellina.
Daddy: Huh? What?
Belle: Thumbellina.
Daddy: ??? *he still didn’t get it* (I swear, my husband is sometimes deaf)
Belle: Dadd-dy…Thumb-a-lina. *showing her thumb to her dad*
Daddy: Oooooooooh!

Cass is now a full fledged toddler and she is one demanding tot too. For an 18 month old girl, her social skills are developing wonderfully. Whenever she sees someone she will try to wave “hi”. Her speech is still on the slower side if compared to her sister. We aren’t too worried about it and I’m sure she will catch up pretty soon.

New words:

Ga-ga = Gai Gai (Cantonese: walk or go out)
Hi
Mo = More
No mo = No more
Jie jie = Older sister
Dawg = Dog (A great improvement from aak. She refers to Junior as aak)
Ney Ney = Nai Nai (Paternal grandma)
Nen nen = Boobs
Mumm Mumm = Food
Popo = Maternal grandma (My mom will be happy to hear this)
Koko = I think she meant big brother ‘cos we were at a friend’s house few weeks back and had told Belle to call TJ as gor gor.

Her personality has emerges from the shell. She has a quiet personality but is also one stubborn girl. When she wants something her way, she will make sure she gets it. Disciplining this girl will be quite a challenge. She can be an introvert but we’re fortunate to have an extrovert as our first born. Cass would observe her older sister and she builds her confidence by looking at everything Belle does. This meaning Cass climbs onto sofa, chairs, and standing on them. We definitely have a Monkey #2 in the making. People who see her would comment how quiet she is but once they see Old Cass at home, they know she can be quite a mischievous girl.

At 18 months old she has developed likes and dislikes. She likes music and dancing. She can listen to one particular VCD over and over again. That VCD is: ??????. My cousin, Stef, bought it from KL ‘cos we had requested to get some songs like ????, ???, etc. Anyway, Cass totally loves that VCD and whenever I sing one of the songs from that VCD she would point to the TV and insists to watch it. If I ignore her, she will point to the TV, goes, “ngh ngh ngh” and pulls me toward the DVD player.

Despite her stubborness she is quite meek. For example, I would tell her “No”, as in not to touch something, she would try to touch it. If I catch her trying to do that, I just need to grunt and she would come running to me.

Sense of Independence:

When comes to feeding she is a hands-on gal. Hands-on = Using her hands to feed herself. She is a great eater when comes to Breakfast and Lunch, but once come Dinner, we can hardly pry her mouth open.

Her weight has increased steadily (thank God!) and she was at 21 lbs during her last check-up at Dr. Martino’s office. We’ve been told she will always be on the petite side and I guess that is good for a girl. Anyway, we’re not too worried about it. My sister was always on the shorter end when she was a kid. Now she’s taller than me!

Okay, enough update for now. Here are more pics of the little missy:

Trying to look coy here…

Miss I-Don’t-Take-No-as-Answer…

We love you, Cass dearie!

Today I’ve decided to do something brave–I put Cass into undies.

I’ve changed her into one of Belle’s old undies after she woke up from her nap. I had brought her to the toilet before we head downstairs but she didn’t want to pee. I had even prepared 2 extra undies in case she has an accident. When we were downstairs I distracted her with songs and we pretty much spent a good 10 minutes in the kitchen. Why so? It is one of the few places that isn’t carpeted.

The entire time we were downstairs she kept pulling her undies and kept going “unh unh unh”, as though she was trying to tell me “this isn’t diaper!” I then brought her to the toilet but no pee. Then we adjourn to a different activity and that was, Ice Cream time!

After we had our ice-cream fix, I gave her a few sip of water. She started to tap on her head, then her knees. That could only mean one song, “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” I sang and she started tapping onto her head and pointed on her nose. In the middle of the song, she started to touch her crotch and tugged her undies. I asked, “Do you wanna go shee-shee (pee)?” She nodded.

We walked to the toilet and I plopped her onto the throne. She insisted to have her undies off entirely. She hated to have undies hanging around her ankles. I leaned at the doorway lazily and thought to myself, “There she goes again…probably no pee.” Suddenly…

tinkle…tinkle…tinkle…

Cass expression was priceless. She actually looked shock!  Both of us were shock ‘cos we didn’t expect pee to come out. Then she gave me the BIGGEST grin. I went, “Yaaaay, Cassie! Good job, girl!” Needeless to say, I praised her endlessly.

Okay, that was 15 minutes ago.

Guess what little missy did (like literally 2 seconds ago)? She closed the doors (the doors connecting kitchen to formal living room) and…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Peed.  Oh well, the elation of her peeing in the throne lasted only 15 minutes. Now, I’ll have to wait and see if she will try to let me know when she has the urge to pee.

Lately the little girl has been asking for a baby brother. I have no idea what spawn that thought in her. Conversations would go like this:

Belle: Mommy?
Mom: Yes, baby?
Belle: Mommy, I have a baby brother.
Mom: Oh. Why?
Belle: I just want a baby brother.
Mom: It isn’t easy to get a baby brother. What if you have another baby sister?
Belle: I don’t want baby sister. I want baby brother!
Mom: Um, go ask your daddy to work on it.
Belle: OK!

Belle: Daddy?
Dad: Yes, Belle.
Belle: Daddy, I want a baby brother.
Dad: OK!

Besides wanting a baby brother badly, the girl has been amusing us with her conversations. For the past few months she developed the tendency to add the word Be into her sentences. Here are some of her favorites:

Mommy, you Be-marry Daddy.

Be-tention, everyone! (She meant Attention)

Mommy, you no bring me to be-nastic anymore! (That would be gymnastic)

Lately, she has begun to use our “reasoning” tactics on us. Just this evening during dinner time, both Daddy and I were yelling at asking her to eat her dinner.

Belle: Mommy! Daddy! Don’t yell at me! I’m telling Ya-Ya a secret.

On another occassion…

Belle: Mommy, you have to ask nicely. We have to be nice then people give you. Say pleeeaaase now.

This little one is quite a chatter. She can yak yak yak and we would have to shush her all the time. She would ask a lot of questions and she loves to do that when we are in the car. At times with her asking me so many questions that made it difficult to concentrate on driving. One day, when Aunty Michelle was here, she managed to get the girl to stop talking by playing the “Let’s see who talks first” game. Belle did pretty well. She didn’t talk until we got home.

Belle is also at the age where we can leave her alone in the room and she can entertain herself. If she is given the TV (aka cartoons) she can sit there the entire time. Sometimes if we’re gone a little longer in another room, she will look for us.  So, when I need to put Cassie down for her nap, I will have to let her know what I’m doing and instruct her to not go upstairs. Most of the time she is pretty good at it but there are days when she refused to listen and wants to join Cass for a nap. When that happens it will only mean both girls will not be napping that day, or at least Belle will not be napping.

She loves to be independent and it can be quite frustrating on us, the parents. She will keep telling us, “I can do it by myself!” When the time comes that she can’t do it by herself, she will throw the biggest tantrum. I have been working on getting her to tell us in words and not throw a fit. She listens well when comes to reasoning. Hence, yelling at her would only make things worse. I’ve been trying to get Daddy to stop doing that too.

Despite all these learning curves, she is still the lovable Belle. She is silly and still has the goofiest dance moves. Oh, I have almost forgotten to add, she is in Dance class now. It’s a class offered in her preschool and her dance lessons are every Wednesday. I’ve bought her a pink ballet outfit and she looks uber cute in it!

I’m sure we have more to look forward to. Right now we are just soaking in every minute of it.