Kaitlyn's Vocabulary and Other development, at almost 14 months

Kaitlyn says the following words and knows the meaning (pointing to the right person/thing)

	English	Mandarin	Cantonese
Mum	√	√	√
Dad	√	√	√
Grandma	√	√	√
Grandpa	√
Cat	√	√	√
Dog	√
This		√
That		√
Full		√
Flower	√	√
Melon		√	√
Car		√
Hat		√
Horse		√	√
Here		√
There		√
Milk		√	√
Food			√
Bath Time	√
Bed	√
Book	√
Picture	√
Rabbit	√
Button	√
Tummy		√
Ball	√
Doll		√
Sock	√	√
Duck	√
Bear	√
Pat	√
Light		√	√
Bear	√
Quack	√
Woof	√
Meow	√

Here are the extra words she understands and responds correctly consistently in English:

In, Out, Up, Down, Open, Close, Sit, Come, block, Give, hug, kiss, Bye bye, Hi, Where is…, Are you…? Do you want or ?

She can correctly point out:

Nose, Mouth, Eyes, Ears, Hair, Foot, Hands, Fingers, Tummy, tongue, mouse, block

She also:

Blows kisses, does the “metal Horn”, points at objects that we ask her about, opens and closes her hands when I sing “twinkle twinkle little star”, dances, climbs on everything. At meal time, she drops what she’s doing and comes to the high chair, and climbs on it. At bed time or bath time, she drops whatever she’s doing and comes to the person taking her to bath/bed, and waves good bye to everyone in the room.

She just started to actually using the remote controls. She turns on the cd player, and can fast forward songs that she doesn’t like. She also turns on the dvd player and opens the dvd tray. She turned on the computer today too. My kid is a geek…

I know I probably think of some other things soon as I finish this blog. Ah well, will update next month if I miss anything. Oh, her current weight is 8.6kg (not much improvement still) and she is cutting a molar VERY slowly.

Stay at Home Mummy for a week

So I've been home for 4 days straight now and I feel like I could get used to this whole "Stay at home mum" routine. It is however, still more exhausting, being home taking care of Kaitlyn than being at work. Kaitlyn has pretty predictable schedules which is a good thing. The whole changing from Day Light Saving messed her schedule up a little. She gets so cranky and tired an hour before she should go nap or bed. I feel so mean keep her up but I am not used to having her going to sleep by 7pm and fully up by 7am either... so hopefully she will adjust in a few days.

I haven't had a chance to do the 13 months update. Kaitlyn hasn't put on any weight, again. As the doc didn't seem worried, I am going to TRY to not be too worried either. I did get a specialist referral for her eyes as I still think they are crossed at times. She's gotten taller, but it's been impossible to get her to lie or stand still to take measurements. Her pants are all looking shorter on her. She's walking on her own a lot more now and today she even walked on her own with socks on!! This is the first time she didn't try to pull the socks off. She still only has 5 teeth although she's been chewing and biting things a lot. She's saying more words and expresses herself quite well. We pretty much know what she wants most of the time.

We took some photos... but as usual, they are not sorted. :( I have hundreds to sort... but I just never seem to have time for some strange reason...

Kaitlyn, the little performer

"Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk
She says I began to sing long before I could talk"
-- Thank you for the music, ABBA

Well, that pretty much describes my little girl. She has been dancing whenever she hears music by swaying her bottom from side to side and waveing her arms around. It's very darn cute. She also started to make up "songs", sings them and dances to them. If she's sitting down when she hears music, she taps her feet to the beats and sometimes waves her arms around as if she was conducting.

She loves music, songs, as well as any rhymes and poetry.

Kisses, many many kisses

Kaitlyn is such an affectionate little girl. Lately her favourite things to do are hugs, pats and kisses. Whenever I get home from work, she breaks out BIG smiles, waves her arms around excitedly. When I picked her up, she gives big bear hugs and pats my back. Then, she will hold my face with both of her hands, and plants big kisses all over my face making loud mmmm... maa... sounds while she does it :)

She also blows kisses with her hands. At night before bed, or in the morning, before I go to work, she likes to cuddle up to me, just looking at me... melts my heart really.

I must say, all of these make my day, every time :)

cwrawlking

Kaitlyn started doing this weird crawl/walk thing today. One of her leg is crawling and the other leg is trying to walk. It looks hilarious. :)

Kaitlyn update, 12 months

I have been busy and then slack the last few weeks and didn't write any update about Kaitlyn.

Our baby turned ONE on the 21st February. She walks, says words in Cantonese, Mandarin and Cantonese. She sings, wiggles around and screams. She is getting better in telling us what she wants and is definitely very skilled in telling us what she does not want. She throws occasional tantrums. Most of the time though, she's a happy girl and quite easy to care for. She now has 5 teeth and is teething right now, I think it's her molars trying to come through because she holds her cheek and whimpers in pain at times. She had her 12 month vaccinations and she only cried for a couple of minutes and didn't get sick at all this time.

Oh, she's starting to show memory and comprehension. This morning, she tripped over and got her first ever bruise/bump. It was a big bump on her forehead. Anyway, she cried and cried for a while and refuse to go to Brett after that (because Brett was watching her when she fell). Even after a few hours, she still cried when passed to Brett. So I had to sit down with her and tell her daddy didn't mean to let her fall, it was an accident, daddy still loves her etc. After talking to her for a few minutes, she turned around and reached for Brett with a big smile on her face. /sighs... my baby's growing up so fast...

She eats a lot but still doesn't put on much weight. Her stats at 12 month were:

Height: 75cm (30 inches)
Weight: 8.4kg

Oh, she is quite a climber, she climb on and over everything. She's such a cautious girl most of the time, but when she climbs, she has absolutely no fear. She gets herself on and off the sofa and sofa bed with precision and speed. :)

And she loves books. Now that we no longer breastfeed before bed, she demands 3 to 5 books to be read to her, before she will eat her last bottle and be put to bed. We are still breastfeeding once each day, early in the morning before I go to work. She's way too distracted to breastfeed any other time in the day. I am very proud to have breastfed for this long, considering the very rough start. I have a feeling she may wean herself completely soon though.

That's all I can think of right now. I will try to sort out the photos this week and post some.

Lite N Easy, week 4 - Day 1, Weigh in time...

Weight: 48.8kg (-0.8kg, -3.2kg Total)

Another 0.8kg and I am all done, at my ideal weight. I think the 0.8kg is not bad for this week, considering I had an average of 3 hours sleep each night, and had done my own breakfasts and had lunches and dinners with the family quite a few days. I have been trying to phase out the Lite N Easy and I think I am doing ok. :)

I've learned:

* to understand hunger. When feeling "hungry", try to drink a glass of water first. If still hungry, then eat.
* Eat slowly and chew and taste and really enjoy the food, whatever it may be and however amount it may be.
* Eat till comfortably full, not over full.
* measure the serving sizes. A metric measuring cup is your best friend.
* read the nutritional information label for everything. Enter everything you eat (including dressings) into CalorieKing.com