Trick Me?

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Making animal sound was one of the ways that we used to teach Ern to speak out. It started after she turned 1 year old.

Even now at 2.4yo, we still play this game with her occasionally. Daddy played this the most as he can make really good animal sound compare to mummy. :-) What we did was, we would name an animal and Ern will say the sound.

One day out of sudden, Ern asked me to play this game again with her. So, I thought I want to trick her at the end of the session. To my surprise, she didn't fall into the trick. She refused to say her crying sound when I asked her.

Toilet Train

It has been a week since we started toilet train on Ern, both at school and home.

Well, we have started toilet train at home for many months but we were not successful. She still pee on her clothe diaper and refused to tell us even she knows how to say the word "shee shee" or "wee wee". She only told us after she wee as she wants us to change her clothe diaper.

So, I thought getting the school to co-help on toilet train would be a great help because I have heard many great milestones achieved on children for 2 main reasons:

1) teachers have creative ways of teaching
2) peer pressure

Oh ya, Ern has no problem in telling us when she wants to past motion long time ago. So, the toilet train is primary on past urine.

First 2 days, Ern wet her pant once. Day 3 onwards, she didn't wet her pant. Her class teacher was able to gauge her interval and consistently bring her to toilet.

I know toilet train is going to take a while. So I only checked with her class teacher on Day 3. The feedback that I received - Ern approached and informed the teacher on Day 2 by herself that she has the needs. The rest of the time, it was the teacher who remind or bring her to the toilet.

While at home, we have diligently removed her clothe & disposable diapers at home so that we can bring consistent message to Ern. Well, we still put on disposable diaper on her at night since it's a long night and we know Ern can't get up middle of the night.

After 1 week, we see some improvements on Ern because she started to:

- tell us she needs to wee (once at school and few times at home)
- nod her head when we asked her if she wants to wee. (she used to tell us "no" but 1 minute later, she wee)

Let's hope THE DAY will come when we can say bye bye to diaper during day time for Ern.

Patience..patience..patience.. :-)


Scrap credit:
Everything by Sharon Kenealy

Singing

My little princess finally opened her 'golden mouth' to sing. LOL

She was able to tell us the correct cartoon show name when we sing the theme song to her since many months back. However, she doesn't sing when the song is played but just danced along.

Few weeks back, she started to sing 1 sentence of the song. Well,she started off singing without the right music tone, so she was like reading ! haha

Eventually, we get to hear some pitch out of it although it wasn't 100% accurate.

Songs that she knows how to 'sing' now:
- Bob The Buil*der (she sings "yes we can")
- Thomas and His Fri*end (this is the 4 words that she sings)
- Little Ein*stein

Of all, she loves singing Little Ein*stein like the video clip above. She started off by saying 12345 instead of the reverse. After a while, I think she can memorized the right wording..now, she gets it right.

This little girl would request me to sing Little Ein*stein to her because she wanted to sing the 54321 part. So, I need to start off the song for her in order for her to complete her part.

Oh ya, when she sings the song, she needs to point and move her finger up and down, as if she is counting! Dunno why....

"Yes" and "No" Battle

Since 2 months back, Ern started to drive us to the wall almost every day, sometimes few times within a day. She would whine, cry, scream when her needs are not met or when she is cranky, especially when she didn't get enough sleep from her afternoon nap.

We were need to go through the battling of "yes" and "no" with her. She gave us inconsistent answers during the battle. For example, after she said yes over what we offered her (after we 're-negotiate' with her) , she can changed her mind immediately and said no. Then, we left her alone to cool off (after she said no), she cried even louder and beg us by telling us the yes answer again. Same thing, when we gave her, the 'no' answer came in.

So, this whole "yes" and "no" can last for a while. When luck is with us, we can easily distract her within 5-10 mins. At times when she didn't buy the idea, the battle could last for like 1 hour!

The first few times, we gave in. After a while, we sort of know she was trying to get our attention and we also lose our patience, we just ignore her. Of coz she cried even louder! Until we warned her to stop crying by giving her the stern look, she would stopped. At times, it worked but sometimes it doesn't, the 'yes' and 'no' drama started all over again.

In the end, we decided just to totally ignore her, trying to make her understand the trick she used doesn't use, while also trying to educate her not to give us 'yes' and "no' answer. We started to see the 'span of crying' is shortening now!

The old wive tales said this is sibling jealousy, an unexplained situation happened when the mother is expecting. Somehow, the toddler is able to 'sense' he/she will be getting less attention from their family members soon. Well, some said this is one of the phases of Terrible Two.

Well, I don't know which is which, I just hope this phase will go and not come back again when her sibling is born.

Keep our fingers cross :)

Driving The Car!

Ern loves this "car kiddy cart" (right term?). She never missed 'driving the car' (that's what she said) whenever she sees one.

So far we don't have to pay for her to ride because the past few experiences, no one was there to collect money as it had passed their business hour. Of cause the cart was latch and can't move.

My girl just went inside and 'drive' her way without the cart moving! LOL

Maybe one day, we should pay and let her experience 'driving' with the cart moving.

Scrap Credit:
Papers: Wenchd Grafix
Rickrack: Sarah Möller
Button & embelishment small flower: Miss Mint
Flower: ANDRÉIA MENEGASSI

School Update - Day 2 till Day 5

School update continue from here:

Day 2:

I walked her into the classroom door and one of the teachers took over from me. No goodbye from either one of us as I wasn't sure if she really cope well.

No phone calls.

When I was peeping through the school from our house balcony, I can see flash light inside the classroom. It was a photo session for the elder kids on their graduation. I saw them wearing the rope and waiting outside for their turn.

I picked up a happy girl at 12noon.

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Day 3:

I walked her to the front gate and passed her to the teacher. We waved good bye to each other and I didn't see 'unwilling' facial expression from Ern.

No phone calls.

When I picked her up from school, I spoke to her class teacher. The comment that I received from teacher : She is hyper active!

Don't know to laugh or what.*grin*

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Day 4:

Same thing, just walked her to the gate and teacher was showing her how to take off her shoes and place at the shoe rack. I reckoned she hasn't got her 'designated' place to place her shoes. However, Ern knew the only empty place left for her is on the most upper rack, which she needs to tip-toe a bit to reach that.

Introduced Poh Poh to the teachers as Poh Poh will be picking her up Day 5 onwards.

Oh ya, she came back home with an empty bottle tumbler. Means she finished almost 10oz of water within 4 hours at school! I know Ern can't finish that by herself without any 'reminders' from the teachers. I was quite pleased to see that.

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Day 5:

I went back to office in the morning right after I dropped Ern to school.

Everything normal. No tears and no phone call.

I gave a call to the school late in the afternoon, trying to speak to her class teacher to see if Ern is ready to start her toilet training next week. Only found out from the principal that her class teacher works 1/2 day with the school only.

Yup, Ern is not fully toilet trained. She is able to tell us when she wants to poo but not wee.

The principal agreed we can start the toilet training with Ern Monday onwards. From the conversation, I found out 2 things:

1) Ern sneaked into the office and climbed on the Principal's chair and sit. So, the door at the office is now closed at all times.

2) The school has the same house structure like our house. So, there is a 2 small platforms that link the living room to the dining room. Ern likes to climb up and down at home, and she did the same thing at school! So now, we (both school and I) will try to correct and stop her from doing that.

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That's the brief update on Ern's school progress from Day 2 to Day 5.

Just hope this will continue on...

School Update - Day 1

Finally, we were able to start Ern on her playschool this Monday. Yay!

Sunday Night:

We have prepared Ern by constantly reminding her through the conversation below:

Mummy: Ern, you will go to school when the sun comes out!"
Ern: No..no school
Mummy: Ok, no school. You stay home with Mah Mah/grandma (I was using reverse psychology due to her recent 'Yes & No" behaviour)
Ern: No..no..Ern Ern go school
Mummy: Ok we go school

We tucked her to bed slightly earlier than usual, at 9.30pm instead of her usual 10-10.30pm since she needs to get up early (like 7.45am the latest)

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Day 1 (Monday, 10th Nov)

Ern woke up by herself at ~7.30am. Somehow she woke up with a fuss because she refused to let me go to make her milk. Only after like a good 10 mins coax from MIL, she took her milk finally and settled down eventually for shower.

She was very excited when I dressed her up in her uniform. It's the same uniform for everyone in school except the boys will wear the pants while skirts is for girl!

Before we left the house, I brought her to the balcony that looked across the school. I asked her the same question again like the night before:

Mummy: Ern, we go to school ok!
Ern: Yes.
Mummy: Good! When you are in the school, you get to meet teacher, Kor Kor, Che Che and play hammer*, ok?
Ern: Ok

* I brought Ern along when I signed up the school 2 weeks back. She was given a wooden toy to play - a hammer to hammer down the color pillars.

Before we left the house, I took a picture of Ern, with her school bag on it. I have signed up the 1/2 day class with shower + lunch for Ern. So, we were asked to bring extra clothing to change, together with towel after lunch.

See her face, you can tell she was happy!

We walked across the road and get to the school like 8.10am. I thought it's good to get in a bit early so that Ern get to "warm up a bit' before it starts at 8.30am. We were led to the principal office to meet the principal. Before we entered into the office, Ern pointed to the shelves where the hammer toy was kept and asked for it. She remembered where the toy was kept even she just been to the school once.

After a quick chit chat, we were introduced to her class teacher. I sat down for like 10mins to accompany Ern, while she was busy playing the hammer toy.

She didn't mingle around but very focus playing with the hammer. After another 10mins, I asked her teacher if I can leave, she said yes.

I didn't sneak out quietly, nor say bye to Ern. She saw me leaving the classroom and didn't say bye to me either. She just continued to play her hammer toy!

I told the teacher, call me if they really can't settle her. I will bring her home even just 1-2 hours. However, teacher asked if I am ok if she cried a bit but still within their control in handling Ern. Of course i nodded my head and say yes!

I went home like 8.30am, just right before the school starts. Took my breakfast and do my work. I took my mobile phone every corner I went, so that I can answer the phone fast.

No phone call the whole morning until the door bell rang at 11.45am. It was Ern with her clothes changed already! Her class teacher brought Ern home for me, as Ern showed sign of sleepiness and the teacher thought it was close to her nap time.

The comment I received from her teacher: No tears and she is active.

I was very happy and pleased to hear that, especially on the 'no tears' part. The "she is active' is just like a bonus for me!

She dozed off half way through the journey to Poh Poh's house. Guess she was overly excited and exhausted! :-)

Next Post: More updates on her school from Day 2-5

When She Ain't An Angel...

This is how she drives us to the wall lately..

Ern started to 'master' the art of Persistent Crying (long winded if you may call) in order to demand what she wants or doesn't want to do.

She would cry with tears(of coz we all knew the cry is fake one), confused us with her frequent change of 'yes' and 'no' answer, hard to distract her, etc. Most of the time, we just leave her alone crying until she is exhausted and realized this method doesn't work! Only few occasions, we were able to distract her.

When we confront her, she knew she was wrong and apologized to us by saying 'sorry' and hugged us for forgiveness. However, she is unable to get the message into her mind that it is not suppose to be repeated. So, almost everyday, we need to deal with this Persistent Crying.

Hopefully, it's a short phase we need to go through.

Delay In School

We were suppose to start Ern to her playschool on Monday but we decided to postpone it for another week.

Ern was admitted to hospital last Friday at 2am. She had fever (~ 38+ degrees) but she was shivering non stop. I know shivering during fever is a symptom of bacteria infection, in which not a good sign of sickness. So without much hesitation, we sent her in immediately.

Thank goodness, the next day the 'package deal' of flu + cough kicked in. It was such a relief to see that as we know Ern just had the normal viral infection.

During the 2 days stay at hospital, Ern has been very demanding, cranky and whined to get our attention. The mucus and phlegm on her nose and throat caused her discomfort in breathing, especially at night. For the last few nights, she didn't sleep well, so as us.

She is getting better now. Flu is gone but still need to deal with the phlegm & cough, which is more challenging because she tends to vomit middle of the night (after her muscle relax which narrowed the airway).

Well, it's normal to see most people fall sick lately due to our crazy weather. I am prepared to see more of this after she starts school!

It's a phase we all need to go through..:-)