Possible Occupations

Future soccer player?

Or future supermodel?

More Driving

To each his/her own
Gor Gor chose the blue car...

... while Mei Mei chose the red one.

Zoom, zoom! And off we go!

Creativity

Jayna's mental development never fails to catch me by surprise. At 13 months old, she's already very capable of listening to instructions and carrying them out well such as keep the toy, lie down to drink milk or come with Mummy. She can say quite a few words now e.g. papa, mama, milk, apple, duck, ball, book, bible, 'mum mum' for food, 'nana' for banana biscuits. She can also nod her head for 'yes' and shake her head for 'no'. She is even able to follow the direction of my pointing finger and identify plus pick up the object which I request for. All these were things Joash couldn't do for a long time at this age.

Recently, she has been very creative in the way she plays with the donut rings apart from the traditional method of stacking them up onto the pole....

Jayna: "Look at my new bangles. Aren't they pretty?"

She is doing something else with them too,
very likely under the influence of her brother.
Watch the video below to find out. :)

Here are pics of the drawer handles that I was talking about in the previous post:

This is the way it's suppose to be...

...but this is the way they like it to be!

Driving together

Yesterday, we went to IMM after church to spend some time together as a family. Now that Jayna is old enough to enjoy sitting in the kiddy rides, Joash has a wonderful driving partner when he boards the miniature vehicles. Here are some photos to remember by...

Let's drive together!!!

Joash stroking Jayna's head
Awww....

Joash: "Come, let me teach you how to drive."

Accomplishments

Even though Jayna is not progressing as fast as Joash in reaching physical milestones (He was already walking by this age), I still celebrate the little achievements that she has. For example, it took Joash a few days to master climbing down the bed whereas Jayna took a month to learn. Watch the video to see come of her latest feats. :)

As much as Jayna is very different from Joash, I still managed to find some similarities between them:

1) They both call balloons "ball ball" when they first learn to talk.
2) They are thrilled to be spun on the swivel chair.
3) They like to flip the handle of the bed drawers up when it's supposed to remain down.
4) They enjoy torturing books instead of reading them
5) They will snuggle on soft and fluffy bedding whenever possible.
6) They love doing stunts with their legs while drinking milk.

Doing gymnastics while drinking milk?
Talk about multi-tasking!

Other improvements include being able to be left alone for a few minutes, being less fussy when brought out of the house and learning to wait for a while when I need to get something done. Now it is far more enjoyable to bring her out visiting or buying stuff. Thank God for helping her to grow up emotionally. She's still very sticky to me but taking care of her has become easier. Praise be to God!!!

Fringe trimming

The best thing about having a girl is less fuss when it comes to haircutting. All I need to do is a little fringe trimming and voila! a nice hairstyle is created.

For a few days, I realised that Jayna's fringe was starting to poke her eyes again. So I put her in the sling, kangaroo pouch position, faced the mirror armed with the trusty old nose-hair trimmer and snipped away. Her hands were snugly tucked into the sling so she could not disrupt the process but I had to contend with her head turning. I made quick and easy work of cutting her hair and was done in 5 min. Here's the result:

Front View

Side view

Imitation

Yesterday was Teachers' Day and Joash didn't have school to attend. After I put his sister down for her morning nap, Joash did a very surprising thing. He took the miniature cups and eating utensils out from his play box and started to imitate EVERYTHING I did while I was making soft-boiled eggs for their breakfast previously!

He started out by cracking open an orange toy egg into a bowl, placed it on the stool and began to beat the egg. Then, he placed the bowl on the bookshelf, pretending that it was the microwave oven which I used and mimicked the motion of setting the timer, complete with the beeping sound effects. After he took it out of the 'oven', he even warned me that it was hot and asked me to blow at it and eat it slowly in the exact words I usually say to him!

So that's how our roles were completely reversed for that hour. To play along with him, I, too, was acting like the way he does everyday. He proceeded to pretend he was preparing dinner for me. The stool became the stove. He was truly a replica of me as he kept telling me to be patient and wait while he was 'cooking'. He 'made' carrots, jelly and juice for me and even offered to cut them up when I commented that the pieces of carrots were too big to chew.

What happened next was incredibly astounding. Joash asked me if I wanted more food. I told him "yes". He actually exclaimed that we ran out of carrots and he went to pick up his bag and announced that he was going out to buy groceries! I stared in utter amazement as he waved goodbye to me, skipped to the kitchen, pretended to speak to the store owner, thanked the 'aunty' and came back to the room! Just to tease him, I asked him if he had paid for the item. He went, "Oops!" and hurried back to make the purchase. It was doubly hilarious when he gave me some imaginary change and said, "Give the money back to Mummy."

I am so impressed with Joash's ingenuity and I thoroughly enjoyed myself being involved in his creative game. It makes me much more conscious that I have to be a good role model for him to follow. I must remember always that there are little eyes following my every move. May God empower me so. *grin*