At 28 months...

Terelle is already 28months old and soon will no longer fit the description of a toddler, but rather a child. Some updates on her development, mainly for myself to reminisce about when she is older!

At 28 months...

* She is 89cm tall and weighs 12kg

* Has been fully toilet trained since she was 2 years old. Only has to wear a diaper to bed at night and when she naps in the afternoon (cos she takes marathon naps of 3-3.5hrs!)

* Loves all kinds of fruits, i never have to force her to eat them. It is much more tricky with foods though. She dislikes vegetables (courtesy of her Daddy) and will spit them out if they are not finely chopped up and camouflaged with the rest of her meal. Loves chicken wings, noodles, cheese and steamed fish (thankfully!) Everything else has to be finely cut up before she can be conned into swallowing them!

* She can recognize all the alphabets but has yet learnt how to read. I have realised that she thrives on experiential learning and that making her sit down to learn her phonics is an almost impossible task. She has a short attention span and gets bored easily. She requires constant stimulation by varied sights and sounds and rote learning simply bores her to death. Sigh, i need some inspiration to come up with new and exciting word games to make her learn how to read!

* She can count from 1-10 in 3 languages: English, Mandarin and French. In the process of teaching her to continue up to 20. She gets it sometimes in English and Mandarin but French is still abit wonky.

* Finally able to recognize colors proficiently in English. Was starting to worry that perhaps she was color blind when all objects were pronounced to be "Red!"
However, now all objects are "Hong se!" (mandarin for red) But this time i wont worry that she wont get it in the end!

* Loves to sing in all 3 languages, and can even make up silly songs on her own, complete with her very own made up lyrics. Very hilarious when she starts singing the words "Mummy mummy go away!" to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, when I try to get her to eat just that few more mouthfuls of rice.
Favourite songs: All english songs basically, for mandarin she loves "Xiao Ya - Duckling song" and "Yi shan yi shan liang jing jing - Twinkle twinkle", French "Joyeux Anniversaire - Happy Birthday" and "Tete epaule genoux et pieds - Head shoulders Knees and Toes"

* Adept at answering "Who, What, Why, When, How?" questions. Her carefully thought out hilarious answers sometimes leaves us in stitches. My favourite past time is "chatting" with her about anything in particular. Sample conversation:

Me: Terelle who is at the door?
T: Scary uncle
Me: What is the scary uncle doing there?
T: Waiting to catch me
Me: Why does he want to catch you?
T: Because...because im naughty
Me: How did he get there?
T: By aeroplane
Me: When is he going to go home?
T: When he wants to sleep

* Tries her utmost to get out of having her hair washed every night. Every single night without fail, she will look at you with expectant, shining eyes and ask imploringly "No wash hair?" To which i will reply cheerfully "Must wash hair!" Now she kinda accepts her nightly fate with a resigned "Ok my hair is stinko..."

* Behavior wise, I am happy to say that she responds well to negotiating. I do not have to resort to hitting or caning her as i believe that that should always be the last resort. She will usually abide by my requests and listen to my commands. For example, when i tell her that it is not nice to snatch toys and that she must share them or else no one will play with her in the future, she will usually give up the toy obligingly. That having been said, all negotiations will cease when she is in a foul mood, especially when she is sleepy, and amidst much screaming and crying, the desired toy will still not be relinquished.

* She is well and truly Daddy's girl - she can get away with just about anything with her Daddy! Cos as soon as she turns on the waterworks and adopts the damsel in distress persona, Daddy melts and will accede to all (well 90% of) her requests. And she knows how to play her cards very well! Switching from a cool, well behaved child who is eating all her vegetables in my presence to a whiny "manja" queen as soon as im say, off to the toilet and she is left alone with her Daddy, who just cannot bear to shovel another spoonful of the offending greens into his snivelling, theatrical daughter's mouth!!

Well, well...With her around, our life just gets more and more interesting everyday!