It always astounds me when I read with you at night for bedtime. You're now reading quite advanced books and have been able to phonetically sound out words since you were 3 years old. You taught yourself to read and we're amazed at how effortlessly you do it.
Here are some videos of you reading at 3yo
3 years 2 months
3 years 6 months
At first we thought you memorised the words in the books but Daddy tested you by asking you to read backwards, which you did very well. You also make sure we read every single page, if we miss a page, you let us know right away!
You're also very good with your numbers. You were able to count to 100 at 3, you're now adding and substracting in your head. You learnt all the months and days of the week at 3 as well, so we couldn't trick you on your routine.
A funny video of you at 4y 5m counting when you were pumped full of sugar and needed to sleep. This was at Aunty Mandy's birthday I think.
These past 5 months have gone so fast with you. I know I've missed quite a few updates since you were born but the more I procrastinate to do a good job with photos and videos of you, the more likely that there won't be any updates. So I'm going to put my thoughts in here when I can so that these memories slowly build up.
My smiling chubby baby, you are such a joy to the whole family. You smile all the time, whether it's eating, playing, being held. Oh how you love to be held. We have to hold you ALL the time so I don't have any time to do anything. I spend your naps carrying you around, so right now you are sleeping while I carry you. I have to stand up and type on the laptop bc you don't like people to sit down while being carried. Such a little fuss pot! Though we all do this willingly because your giggles and smiles when you wake up are so precious. You are very sneaky though bc when you wake up, you stay so quiet in the carrier so that we carry you for longer. No tears at all when you wake up.
You are now 5 and a half months. Yesterday you rolled for the first time! I captured it on video and will post here.
You also started solids at 4.5 months old and you LOVE your purees, it's a dream to feed you. I took this video this morning because you kept smiling and laughing as I was feeding you. These are the foods you've tried:
- sweet potato, peas, carrots, apples, cauliflower, pumpkin
You seem to love the pumpkin and sweet potato best, so I try to mix it with the other veges.
You slept through the night 2 nights ago...and haven't done it since. You slept from 7.30pm to 5.30am and oh my boobs were so full. You might have slept longer but we had a huge storm in the morning and the thunder woke us both up. Thankfully at nights you are happy to sleep in your basinette after the feeds.
You must be around 8kg now, you were 7.4kg at 4ish months. You have the sweetest and gummiest smile. You look like you might be sitting up on your own soon, probably from all the practice sitting in your baby chair to eat your solids.
The first 6 weeks were the absolute hardest. Your cried A LOT. Probably because you couldn't feed very well on my boobs. It was a struggle for both of us and so painful for me. I persevered but was tempted to give up on each feed because your latch wasn't right and every time I fed you, it felt like needles being stuck into me. At 6 weeks, you suddenly didn't need to be held to sleep and I managed to sleep a bit more than 1.5-2hours at a time. I was so sleep-deprived the first 6 weeks! I don't know how I survived. But since then, it got easier and easier. You know feed well, sleep well and growing fatter every day.
We try to follow a bedtime routine for you but it's hard to juggle on some days. Lucas has been lovely and reads Good Night Moon to you sometimes. He doesn't even need to read the words, he's memorised it from us reading the same book to him when he was a baby.
I know this post is out of order, so I'll go back and write another post with your first few months with more videos. It's much easier to link to the youtube videos that I have been uploading rather than the photos. Oh, photos! You did the cutest professional photos at 4 months! I will definitely upload those on here!
You've grown so much and are so talkative now! Your vocabulary has improved a lot. Daddy and I are constantly surprised at the things you say. You're a little monkey with a strong and cheeky personality.
One day, you decided to make this little piggy face. The more we laughed, the more you made the face! You only did it for one day and then haven't done it since! Lucky I have photographic evidence.
You're still crazy about all things Cars. In fact, you insist on wearing a Cars t-shirt every day. I've bought so new Cars t-shirts in the last couple weeks as we can't keep up with the laundry. Your favourite train is still Gordon. In fact, we pack a "train bag" every time we go out and you always put a Gordon train in there.
Development:
- Counting to 100...and beyond! At night, we turn on a turtle light that beams the moon and stars on the ceiling. It's a routine that you want to count all the stars before you go to sleep. So each night, we count up to 100, though when you really don't want to sleep, you'll count 101, 102.... Suffice to say, it takes a long time before you fall asleep!
- A few months ago, you surprised us by counting backwards!
- You know how to spell your name. You know that Daddy is called David and Mummy is called Pauline. I'm trying to teach you to memorise our address and my phone number. You remember which bus numbers we catch to go to school.
- "Oh dear..." "Oh my goodness!" and the ever funny one that I'm sure you picked up from us, "Oh my gawd.....!"
- You love singing the Alphabet song and the Thomas song. Yesterday I got a cute video of you singing the Thomas song at breakfast.
- You know lots of colours in both English and Chinese
- When we ask you to speak Chinese, you'll start reciting the numbers. Grandma says you can count quite far in Chinese as well. Such a smart cookie.
Daycare:
You still cry when you drop you off for school. In fact, you sometimes start complaining before we even reach the door.
"I want to go home! I want to see Mummy! I don't want to go to school"
I'm told you calm down after a few minutes and happily play the rest of the day. I love picking you up from daycare because you're always so excited to go home! You'll shout loudly: "Bye everyone!" and run to get your shoes.
Here's a video from last month when I picked you up (2y8m):
Daycare pickup (2y7m) - look at that big smile!
Daycare pickup (2y5m) - I love capturing your reaction when you see me.
Just for fun, this was your reaction to seeing us when we picked you up from your first day at daycare:
I was away on a work trip to America for 2 weeks and got back yesterday morning. It was the longest I'd been away from you and I missed you every day! Luckily we were able to do video chats while I was away. On one of the chats, I showed you a Gordon train that I had bought you. Imagine my surprise when I saw you in the morning and asked if you wanted to see your presents and your first excited words were: "Big Gordon?" You had remembered our conversation and obviously been thinking about Big Gordon!
So, in addition to Big Gordon, I also got you lots of Disney Car toys. You were so excited to show your new toys!
We had brunch with Daddy's friends yesterday and walked through a park to get to the cafe. I asked if you wanted to play on the playground after and you excitedly said yes. When we passed the park and didn't stop to play, you looked surprised and went, "Daddy! What happened?" It was so funny, I hadn't heard you ask that question before.
This is you after our brunch, walking back to the park. You look so cheery.
You're still a very cautious boy and you take your time to warm up to new adventures. I think it's because we coddle you so much and are a bit over-protective. Once you try something for the first time though, you get comfortable and can't wait to try it again!
Here is a video of you trying the new slide in this park for the first time. You can see how cautious you are and even said you were scared when you got to the top of the slide!
And here is a 2nd video of you feeling much more brave going up the big slippery dip. Check out the huge smile on your face as you are sliding down!
We drove for 2 hours to Hunter Valley to stay at an Alpaca farm for 3 days. Mummy is starting a new job so I thought it would be nice to take a few days for a family trip and to also celebrate Daddy's birthday. I booked a farm stay thinking you would enjoy seeing the farm animals. The accommodation also looked quite nice with a 2 bedroom cottage overlooking the water. In the morning, I tried to prepare you for our trip to the farm. This was your lackluster response:
Never mind, I thought once you got to the farm, you would be really excited about seeing the animals.
We arrived in the afternoon to a beautiful view of the water in front of our cottage.
Here's the cottage where we spent 3 nights.
Our cottage in the background
We went to feed the alpacas. You were quite scared at first and so was Daddy. The alpacas were quite aggressive when they heard the rattle of the bucket with the food.
Your vocabulary has improved so much these past couple months! You're at such a cute age right now. Here is an update of your likes, dislikes and funny stories:
Favourite toys:
- You've expanded your interests beyond Thomas and are now crazy about all things from the Disney Pixar Cars movie. You especially love the purple car, Holley Shiftwell.
Actually, you love anything purple!
Of course, you also like the main characters Lightning McQueen and Mater.
Gordon is still a favourite and because Gordon has the number 4 on his train, you also point out number 4 whenever you see it, especially when you see a car license plate with the number 4 on it!
Favourite activities:
You love to play with cars and trains. You love going to the park. Here's a video I took on Mother's Day this year.
Funny sayings:
- You have the cutest way of introducing yourself to people.
Lucas: "Hello friend! My is Lucas". Check out the video below when I caught this exchange!
- You also like to say bye to everything! Bye house! Bye car! Bye shopping centre! Bye bus!
- When you say "See you tomorrow" you also like to shake the other person's hand. Such a polite boy!
- You have an incredible sense of direction. You recognise the way to the 2 shopping malls and also the 2 routes back home. You're always directing us: "Shopping centre this way!"
Favourite foods:
- Tempura
- Teriyaki
- Miso soup
- Anything Japanese!
- Yakult
- Yoghurt, as long as it has Lightning McQueen on it. You call it "car yoghurt".
- Milk
- Ice cream! You're always opening the fridge and asking us to get you ice cream, even for breakfast!
Your dislikes:
- Bath time. As soon as you hear the water running, you run to close the living room door.
- Childcare - you're still crying in the mornings when we drop you off. Though we're told you stop after a couple of minutes and you have fun the rest of the day.
Favourite songs:
- Wheels on the bus
- Ten in the bed
- Baa baa black sheep
Here's a video I took of you on the baby monitor. You woke up from a nap and was amusing yourself by pulling all the books from the bookshelf and reading/singing for ages.
You can now count to 20. You know so many colours, you can even distinguish between the colour brown and tan!
You're such a cheeky monkey and so much fun to be around!
I recently got a new iPhone with plenty of storage, which explains why I have so many videos of you now! I've also been obsessed with making iMovies, which are so easy and so much fun.
This was the very first iMovie I made, a compilation of your dance moves whenever the Thomas theme song comes on.
This was a video I made of you playing at our local park. You make so many funny expressions!
A video taken during bed time of you counting 1 to 10. Aunty Mandy says you sound like Gollum! haha
Another wonderful Christmas spent with family. We put up the Christmas tree a week before Christmas and surprisingly, you did not try to open the presents under the tree! Here is a rare photo of you with the Santa hat on, you were not as cooperative as you were last year...
We spent Christmas Day with Grandma & Grandpa Tran. Aunty Yvonne cooked a yummy roast and after lunch you got a huge surprise!
Here's a video of you in action with your new wheels!
Exhausted from all the excitement of Christmas Day.
Your favourite past-time: collecting all your trains and lining them up.
We spent Boxing day at home with a BBQ. There were lots more presents for you (all Thomas-related of course!) We even had Aunty Katrina and Uncle Dan joining us via Skype on our TV - love technology!
Giving Grandma a kiss
All the presents waiting to be opened!
Here's another video capturing the day:
I took lots of videos this year to make these iMovies, so don't have as many photos compared to last year.
Here are some more non-iMovie videos of you opening presents - love your squeal of delight when you see it's more Thomas!
I took these photos with Daddy this afternoon (a week later than your usual sticker photos). You were laughing and having fun playing with Daddy outside so I ran into the house to get the big camera. Love these photos that I captured. You have such a cheeky personality!
Love your big smiles
Your "I'm dobbing on Daddy" face
You're only 2 months away from turning 2! This year you have developed so much. Your verbal skills in particular have improved this past month. Just today at lunch, you wanted water and said, "more please". Daddy and I were so surprised! You like doing things at your own pace though. When Daddy and I asked you to say "please" again, you refused. You have quite a stubborn streak! You are still ga-ga crazy over Thomas the Tank Engine. You are collecting quite the stash thanks to your generous Aunties, Uncles and Grandparents. You could listen to the Thomas theme song day and night and love singing the song.
Aunty Katrina was saying how you seem to have 2 Thomas t-shirts in rotation, that's because you refuse to wear anything that doesn't have Thomas on it! If your Thomas t-shirts are in the wash, you'll deign to wear one of the other characters but even then you have a pecking order. First you'll wear James and if that isn't available, you'll agree to wear Percy. The carers at daycare say you have quite a quirky personality and grow very attached to things. Last week, I went to collect you from daycare and the carers said they had to specially wash and dry the t-shirt you were wearing because you spilled milk on it and they wanted to change you but you refused to change into the other non-Thomas t-shirt that we packed in your bag. I now pack one of your little toys to take to daycare because you like the comfort of having something familiar with you during the day. I always find you still holding your toy at the end of the day.
You've really regressed in your sleep this past month. It seems to have coincided with me weaning you earlier in the month. I've been trying to replace the bonding experience with extra cuddles at night but you are now demanding I hold your hand until you fall asleep. This also means when you wake up in the middle of the night, you want me to hold your hand til you fall asleep again. These days I just end up sleeping on the floor next to your crib because I'm so tired. We need to sleep train you again but now that you're older, you seem to be more scared of being alone in the room so I'm hesitant to do the cry it out method with you. We'll just have to take it slowly.
This is what happens when we ask you were your belly is
New words that you've been saying this month:
- Lots of Thomas characters, in particular 'Gordon'. It looks like Thomas has a new rival now. You are loving any pictures or books with Gordon in it.
- paper, please, car, train, home, up, down, ants, straw, sticker, juice, rice, bowl, blue, shoes, hello, flower, oval, bye bye (or dai dai as you pronounce it), water
You're very vocal these days and communicating so well. Here you are doing your little Thomas wiggle:
You don't like interrupting your play time to have a bath and then going to sleep. In fact, you would rather clean up your books than have a bath!
We can't stop laughing when we hear your cute "No's":
This is how you say your good-byes. You've picked up the "pound it" motion:
Some photos from daycare. You got dressed up as a dinosaur and played with the blocks:
Playing with your lego:
At the local library. You're wearing a Thomas t-shirt, Thomas jacket, holding a Thomas train and somehow found the one and only Thomas DVD on the shelf. Talk about obsessed!
You have picked up on so many new words this month! It's amazing how
quickly you can repeat back new words to us. You're also very good at
memorising the Thomas & Friends characters and able to associate
them with their numbers. Here's a video of you pointing to the different
characters underneath the numbers as part of your bedtime routine:
You're also learning to count:
You absolutely love singing the Thomas theme song:
You have really random vocabulary and have picked up the words: oval and flower
This is a funny video of you being upset because Daddy took your iPad and wouldn't let you play with it anymore:
We had a our first overseas family holiday last week to Vanuatu, a 3 hour flight from Sydney. I picked Aquana resort because it was voted the best family resort, with nannies and lots of kids activities, though we weren't able to take advantage of the nanny service because you refused to stay with any of the nice nannies there. We did lots of fun activities though, like kayaking around the bay. You were happy to walk around in the life vest and then almost fell asleep on the water while Daddy paddled around. Photos below are from the SLR, I've got more photos and videos on our small camera, will upload in another post.
Here is a video showing the resort and the bungalow we were staying in.
The lovely view at the resort.
The resort had the biggest cat I've ever seen!
You loved wearing the Thomas swimsuit and playing in the pool in the inflatable police car.
You weren't so keen splashing in the lagoon though!
