More time for Harvynna

Am really looking forward to the Chinese New Year Holidays next week. My company is closed for the whole week so that gives me some time to spend with Harvynna. Wish to spend as much time with her as possible before the little one arrives in April.

Have been really trying to talk to her about the new baby – telling her that the baby is her’s so she will feel important. But whenever, I ask her ‘Where’s Harvynna’s baby? she will tap her own stomach. Sometimes, she wakes up in the night, cyring, ‘ Don’t want baby! And just wants to be cuddled. How to put her in her own room like this?

Been reading and reading to her as that’s all she wants. It’s always, ‘Mummy, read a book’ or ‘Daddy, read a book’. I started reading to her from the time she was 3 months old and now she just loves books. I used to feel silly sometimes reading to such a young baby, but now I realize, she is really showing the output she ‘inputted’ when she was young. She can name animals like’ anteater, armadillo, gecko, hornbill, impala’ and some other weird animals!

She’s still trying to grasp the concept of counting. She can count from 1 – 20, but when you ask her to count certain things, she will count 1,2,3,4,5,….regardless how many things there are. Like when I ask her, ‘how many eyes does Harvynna have’, she will count, 1,2,3,4 - 4 eyes!! Same thing goes for colours – if I ask her what colour is something, she will name all the colours she knows, otherwise everything else is RED to her!! I guess they have a lot of concepts in their head but may not know how to apply them at this stage.

She loves playing the “mummy, whats this?’ game and can ask ‘what’s this?’ for the same thing 10 times!!! Then I realize, I thought her that, as I will point to all the pictures in her books and ask her ‘Whats this?’. Ooops!!

Have not been blogging lately as I have found a new hobby – surfing the web for toddler activities that can be printed out and am having a blast with it. It’s amazing what you can find on the web these days, the resources are unlimited. I have printed out books, flash cards, memory cards, domino cards, colouring pages for her and she enjoys it. The best part is even if she destroys the materials; it would not break my heart as it was free in the first place. The westerners are really creative in the things they come out with. Almost everyone there makes his or her own things – no wonder homeschooling is so popular there.

Music Time

Little diva Harvynna has been attending Musikgarten classes for a whole semester now! So small, already been introduced to the semester systems! I decided to send her as she showed a keen interest in music and could catch up with tunes very fast. She loves to sing and when we leave her on her own, she will be singing with her own words.

Among her creations are:

Rain Rain Come again
Little Aina wants to play

(from Rain Rain Go Away)

Baa Baa Back sheep
Have we we we wooool
Yes sir yes sir
3 bags full
One for the ma ter
One for the day
One for the naughty girl
Who lives down the lane

Anyway, back to the Musikgarten story, I felt that I prefer to send her to a music appreciation class rather than enrol her into a kindergarten. Lots of people have told us to start sending her to kindergarden as she gets to learn more things and socialize. I think the socializing part is taken care of as there are other kids at her babysitters house and she enjoys playing with them. The learning part….. well, I don’t really want to rush her and bore her as we teach her at home and the babysitter also plays lots of games with her and reads to her. She enjoys playing ‘big girl’ activities with the older 2 girls at the babysitter’s. I know of a few kids that started going to school from 1 plus and once they reached 4-5 years old, they started getting really bored and did not want to go to school.

Anyway, Musikgarten is a good place to learn to appreciate music. She goes to Words Kindergarten and Daycare for her classes once a week. The great part is that this is located in Jalan Maarof, Bangsar which is just 2 streets away from the babysitters place – so it is really convenient.

A group of us attended a Trial Class for Baby Musikgarten when Harvynna was 5 months old and I was not too keen on it, as the child does not do anything since they are too small although it is supposed to stimulate them. Personally, I found the class rather boring. I decided to wait till she was older as she will be able to participate in the activities. I can see her really enjoying her classes now. She loves the other kids and knows how to ‘suck up’ to the teacher! She is always sitting on the teachers lap and wanting to partner the teacher. The moment the teacher requests for the kids to get something, she will be the first to run and get it, pushing the other kids away (a bit of a bully)

The other day, they had to partner the other kids to dance and she just loved this cute little girl, Ling Lee and refused to let her go. She insisted on holding her hand for the rest of the class!

Harvynna loves the bouncing song, which is extremely difficult for me now with my big stomach. Luckily, she will happily sit on teachers lap for this. At home, she will use her doll and play the bouncing game with her! During the dance sequence, she will urge me, ‘Mummy gid up, dancing, come mummy!’ Poor thing, I will have to tell her, ‘Harvynna do, mummy watch!’ Lazy mummy.

She is more in tune for the rhythm sticks and bells. When she first joined, she will refuse to pass the resonator bars to the next person, but now she has learnt to share. Besides, the music education, the classes also instill other learning points for the kids.

She loves it so much that whenever its time to go back, she will refuse to leave and kick up a fuss. Quite embarrassing for me, though. The others will probably think I am abusing her at home as she refuses to go home L The teacher will have to switch off the lights for her to leave!

Come April, we will have to stop for 2 months for my maternity leave. I wonder if she will miss her classes.

Harvynna the fashion expert!

As Harvynna approaches the Terrible 2's , she has become more headstrong and stubborn. What can you expect from an Aries baby!

She has reached the stage where she want to choose her own clothes and does not allow me to pick her clothes for her. Sigh! What do I do with all the pretty dresses she has? After her bath, she will open her cupboard and pick out her outfit even though I had already chosen one for her. The problem is she picks out clothes for the wrong occasion.

For e.g. she insists on wearing her mamamas (pyjamas) in the morning and shorts at night! She will take out one by one and go, 'this one?' and when I say its not appropriate, she will take out another one and go, 'this one?'. She will look at my choice and say 'No want dress, No! No!' and throw the dress on the floor. Sometimes, she will choose the old faded t-shirt to be worn when going out.

She always insist on wearing her 'back shoes' (black shoes) as it looks dressy. She will try on a few shoes before selecting the final one.

The other day, we went to Parkson and she started trying on clothes on her own. She pulled down clothes on display and put them against herself and said, ' Mummy, see, nice' till I had to tell her to stop as she had 'tried' more than enough clothes! - Looks like I already have a shopping buddy in the making!

I guess I should slow down in buying her clothes on my own as she might just refuse to wear them. Perhaps, I will get her to pick out her clothes when I buy them.

Mind your language!

Harvynna has become extra sensitive and clingy now - she probably realises there's another baby coming to share her love and attention. Even at the babysitters, she is sensitive and cries and at slightest raising of our voices. She has always been a tough girl and hardly cries even when she falls down. But for now, the moment she falls, she will cry 'Pain! Pain' till we kiss the hurting part.

She picks up things very fast and we have to be careful what we say as she repeats it immediately and uses it when we least expect it!

The other day, I was driving and this stupid car came and cut in front of me causing me to emergency break.
Mummy: Stupid dog
Harvynna: Tupid god

Later that day, I was annoyed with DH and she called him, 'Tupid Daddy'! Hehe, at least she's on my side.'

Blog time
DH and I were talking about blogs and Harvynna suddenly said, There Block' - pointing at her toy blocks!

No daddy
Besides asking daddy to go away, her favourite line is now, Daddy, doon diter (disturb) me!

Fatty
Someone has told her that she is fat. She keeps saying' Fatty boom boom' and when I ask her who is fatty boom boom, she replies , Aina (she calls herself aina)

Treasure hunt
Whenever I ask her to look for things, she will go searching and when she finds it, she will shout ' There - I found it!'

Sibling rivalry
I really have to work at the sibling rivalry. She tends to bite my stomach and say.Dont like baby'.

The hardest part is now trying to wean her off as the dr told me that if I keep feeding her, the body will not produce colustrum for the new baby as it has to produce milk for Harvynna. I tried to explain to her :

Mummy: that milk for baby, baby needs to grow
Harvynna: dont want. Baby milk finish
Mummy: baby is hungry, how to feed baby
Harvynna: mummy make milk baby (pointing to the kitchen)

Have to really work on this now. Going to be a very difficult task as she rejects formula whenever I am there.

Happy 2006!

Happy New Year Everyone!

This year will be an exciting year for us as we are awaiting our new arrival in April. And of course, our little princess will turn 2 this April as well.

2005 went by so fast without us realizing it. I remember in December 2004, I was busy planning for Harvynna's 1st birthday party. In April 2005, we celebrated Harvynna's 1st birthday. Time flew by so fast and we watched Harvynna growing up from a litlle baby to a little toddler (not so little anymore) and achieving all her milestones. In 2005, she started walking, talking, running, pinching :( and we can now have an actual conversation with her. DH and I have started to spell out things as we dont want her to know what we are talking about!

It's amazing how time flies with a little one around. Previously, BH (before Harvynna) time went by and we did not really take notice of it - the new year starts, the usual things happens, birthdays come and go, then its Christmas and the another new year comes. With a baby, we really take notice of time, as every day, week and month measures a new development in the little baby. Looking back at Harvynna's photos from birth till now, we cant help notice how much she has grown.

One day old

One Year old

Now