Rowena's growing up

Rowena is starting to babble and ‘talk’ more now. She was always the quiet one (probably overshadowed by boisterous Harvynna), but now she is starting to make her presence felt.

Words she says:

A-ma : meaning mummy (Harvynna tries to correct her – It’s Mummyla, what ama, ama?)

De-de: meaning daddy

Bebe: meaning baby

Bava: meaning Barney

Wowo: not sure what she is referring to. Though she can look at daddy and say ‘wowo’!

There: as in there!! She loves playing peek-a-boo and says’there’ when she appears

And other phrases I am still trying to figure out e.g.

She does this cute, ‘gaje gaje gaje.

I think she understands quite a bit like if she sees me carrying any clothes, she will lift up her t-shirt and tug at her pants indicating she wants to be changed. And it I take off her clothes, she will walk straight to the bathroom.

Her favourite pastime is digging through the dustbins. Her dad is convinced that she is a future DBKL or Alam Flora employee! If you can’t find her, just go to the kitchen and you will find her going through the dustbin. She will be very excited if she finds something like a coffee satchet or empty milk carton.

She loves music and taps her hands on her legs when there are any familiar songs. Its kind of strange as she seems to know some of the rhythms and songs Harvynna learnt at the Musikgarten classes. Hmm, she probably absorbed some of that while in my tummy

I am glad Rowena is catching up fast as I feel kind of guilty that she was not given much attention and stimulation like Harvynna did at that age. Harvynna had all the flash cards, books read to her daily, and one to one attention, poor Rowena only had secondary attention.

I must say that Rowena has a very loving character and is always smiling.

Baby stars

Checked out this site and saw the characteristics of my gals. Looking at it, its really quite true. The difference in their character is quite obvious. Every single characteristic of Harvynna really matches except for the part of being generous!!

Characteristics of young Taureans:
(Rowena)

Strong & active
Determined & strong willed
Quiet & gentle
Clingy
Stubborn
Musical
Late developers

Characteristics of young Ariens:
(Harvynna)

Strong & active
Determined & strong willed
Early developers
Affectionate & generous
Curious
Imaginative in play
Competitive

The Birthday Bash!

The girls had their birthday bash last Saturday (28th April 07) at Rumahku Café and gallery in PJ. It was a lot of work, tiring, a lot of fun and well worth it. Harvynna really enjoyed herself and Rowena was just toddling around playing with all the balloons. It was a butterfly theme and I was pleasantly surprised that many kids actually followed the theme and came with butterfly wings. Even the presents were wrapped in butterfly wrapping paper.

We stuck pink and lavender butterflies all over the wall, and also stuck little butterflies to the helium balloons. Most of the kids pulled down the balloons from the ceiling and tied it to themselves. At the end of the party, the kids released the balloons in the air.

This time, we invited close friends and family so it was a nice gathering. My MIL and niece came down all the way from Kota Kinabalu to join the celebration. My parents came from Melaka too.

The kids were well taken care of as I got Cha Cha Magical Clown dressed as a King to entertain the kids with some magic show and games. I used him for Harvynna’s first party and he was such a hit, so I decided to use him again. He doubles up as the emcee and arranged the cake cutting etc.

We got a face painter to paint butterlies on the kids faces. I must say that she did a really great job with such intricate designs. The boys had batman painted on them. Defintely well worth the money.

This time, we assigned my cousins as the photographers. We made the mistake of taking the photos ourselves during Harvynna’s first birthday, and ended up not taking many pics as we were too busy talking to people or running around. My cousins, Shamila and Shamaine took really good pictures including some excellent close ups of the girls. My cousin, Shamaine, is one artistic, drama queen, so her photos also turned out like her. She even had a close up of Harvynna picking her nose!!

The cakes were fantastic. Rowena had a butterfly cake (which Harvynna referred to as the ugly cake with no taste) and Harvynna had the princess cake.
Have to thank my other cousins, Roshan and Yudi for collecting the cakes.

Harvynna threw a tantrum during the cake cutting that we did not manage to get a good family picture. She pulled out the candles from Rowena's cake and placed it on hers and started breaking the princess skirt. I saw her face change when everyone sang Rowena's birthday song.

The girls dresses were gorgeous and it was easy to spot them from a far!! Have to thank their grand Aunty Selvy for that!

There were so many presents as everyone came with 2 presents. We had to bring them back in 2 cars.

All in all, it was a great party. Thanks to everyone who came and brought such nice presents.

Luckily, we had the long holiday break to recover!!

Happy 1st Birthday our precious princess

Happy Birthday Rowena!!!

You are 1 today - time just flew by before our eyes, now you are walking all over, trying to talk and still as lovable and huggable as the day you were born. You are such an easy going baby and we love u very very much!!

My baby is almost a toddler

My baby is almost a year old.

I met Baby Asha yesterday and while carrying her, I realized that Rowena has really grown and in 5 days time – wont be a baby anymore. Asha is so tiny and I can carry her with one hand. She just lies there and kicks around and Rowena was once like that. Now, Rowena is happily toddling around, emptying the contents of the dustbin, walking around and taking whatever she wants.(which reminds me, I need to change her carseat to the toddler one as she is pretty squashed up in the old one!!

As Rowena turns one, she can now

‘talk’ on the phone – she puts the telephone to the ear and says ‘uh, uh.uh’ and smiles .

She loves music and is into ‘Fun Song Factory’ (Harvynna’s influence). When she hears the songs, she will bounce up and down and wave her hands. Not sure if this was coincidence but at the part ‘stand up sit down, keep moving’ she will bend down for a few seconds and come up again.

She opens and closes her hands to Twinkle Twinkle Little star

Can clap her hands

Gets upset if you take away something from her

Can understand very simple instructions like ‘bring the ball to mummy’ and she will give it to me and take it back again!

Hates to be confined to her high chair – she will stand up, and climb onto the tray

Loves to disturb the tv and remote control

Put toys into a container

LOVES to BITE!! Her 4 teeth are very sharp and her bites are very painful. She enjoys doing that and gives a big grin if you yell in pain. Need to buy some sandpaper to smoothen her teeth

She takes my hairbrush and combs her hair.

She enjoys banging toys together and picks up things quite fast by watching others.

Its’ getting extremely hard to change or dress her as she will stand and try to climb everywhere. Normally, it’s a real battle and she will end up crying.

Rowena is very independent when I am not around, but if I am around, she wants her’ma-ma’ all the time. Well, I should enjoy it before she goes though her oedipal phase!!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Today is my dad's birthday!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Hugs & kisses from your 2 lil angels

Harvynna & Rowena

Harvynna's Oedipal phase

It's very normal for a young child to express preference for one parent or primary caretaker. There is a normal developmental stage called the oedipal phase, which usually occurs between the ages of three and five, when children exhibit a dramatic preference and attachment to the opposite sex parent and show considerable hostility to the same sex parent.

That's whats happenning to Harvynna now. She clearly shows a preference to her daddy and is constantly fighting with me and can drive me up the wall at times. She is very smart and knows how to get a way and when to be nice to me, as I am normally the one to buy her stuff and take her places. That's when she will give me that million dollar smile and say, 'Mummy - I like you'

However, the moment daddy comes home, she starts this war against me. She blames me if anything goes wrong and gives all credit to daddy.

Me: who bought you your Dora's dollhouse?

harvynna: Daddy! (ya, right)

Me: Who buys you all your nice clothes?

Harvynna: daddy

Me: What does mummy buy you?

Harvynna: Nothing!

Harvynna: daddy - you bought me my dora dollhouse, right (with that grin on her face)

At night, when I bring her to her room - after reading her her books, she will start whining: I want to go to daddy. I want daddy.

Me: Why ?

Harvynna: I love daddy

Me: What about mummy?

Harvyyna: mm

Me: Mummy?

Harvyyna: mm

Then she runs out of the room to join daddy.

The other day, I hit her because she threw this toy plastic elephant and it hit my head, missing Rowena by inches. She wailed and ran to complain to daddy - 'mummy beat me! Accidently hit only'

Sometimes, if she is in the mood, she will ask me to leave the room. 'Only daddy, Rowena and Harvynna can sleep here - mummy you go to the other room! 'Then she starts kicking me.

Gosh - sometimes, I just scream at her like there's no tomorrow!