The Tooth Fairy

Harvynna's first milk teeth has officially fallen. This is her 'lateral incisor' or her lower teeth. The tooth was already shaking the last couple of weeks. But I told her not to touch it or pull it out for my own selfish reasons - I was afraid the missing tooth would hinder her speech during her story telling contest and her concert. But the tooth could not wait for the concert and decided to fall off. The new teeth was already in place and has grown half way. I can see another new tooth sprouting out 2 teeth away. It's not noticable since it is the lower teeth. I read that a child's milk teeth starts falling from the age of 6.

I told Harvynna that when her upper teeth fall out, I will take a picture and enlarge it. Of course, she wasnt too pleased.

Harvynna's Big 5

-very belated post-

Harvynna turned 5 on April 9th. She looks like she is 8, has the height of an 8 year old and wears shoes for a 9 year old!! Academically, I am very happy with her progress as she is doing really well at school. She is also picking up languages really fast. I cant believe that she is 5 and getting all independant. She spends a lot of time in her room reading or doing her work. What is she into now? Princesses, of course.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PRINCESS! - She is truly our talented, precious princess

Some pictures of her birthday celebration.

Note: The girl next to Harvynna is her best friend, Imani (a really lovely girl) and the boy next to Imani is her boyfriend. Caught her holding his hand and walking many times!!

On her actual birthday, we went out for lunch, took them for a pedicure at Chic Spa, Bangsar Village, then went to Marmalade Cafe to cake. Her main celebration was in her school, where she cut her cake with her friends. I was quite dissapointed with the outcome of the cake, but I had no choice as I had ordered it at the last minute and not many people could do it, being Easter weekend as well. It tasted good, though. Luckily, I managed to order Rowena's cake from the usual person and as usual, it was great - taste and design!

The terrific 2s

Rowena is simply getting naughtier by the day. Blame it on the Terrible 2s or I call them the 'Terrific 2s', I guess. She gets up to her mischief in a sweet way that its quite hard to get angry with her. Some of the things that can drive me up the wall:

- loves to go into the bathroom and pull down the toilet paper till it all comes off the roll
-loves to follow anyone to the bathroom and offer 'tissue tissue' with her sweetest smile and then the disaster happens
- loves to wash her hands repeatedly, while getting her clothes wet
-refuses to get down from the car when we reach our destination. Instead, she will run to the front seat, go back again, then front again till she gets stuck somewhere
-refuses to come when you call her - will stand far away or run off somewhere else while giggling
- runs off when you least expect it
- goes into the rooms and locks herself in
- insists on changing her clothes when Harvynna is changing. If I say no, she will remove everything including her diaper and throw her clothes far away
-pull her sisters hair if she does not get what she wants
- switches off the tv if she is not getting any attention
- lies down on the floor in public just to get attention

If I show her that I am angry, she will smile and say in her cutest voice 'sorry mummy' and then do it all over again.

Updates on Rowena

Its just one of those days that I dont feel like working and its Friday anyway, so I thought will update on Rowena since I did not do her 18 month milestone. For starters, the cute little quiet girl is now one mischievous brat. I think she is observing her sister and trying to imitate her.

Her favourite word is 'NO' or 'EMMMMM, NO!' and her favourite sentence is 'tawa tawa... bak bak bak'. Dont ask me what it means, but it sounds cute.

What Rowena eats?

Anything and everything.

She refers to everything she eats as 'spicy'

Height:

She is 2 feet 7 inches

Likes:

Playing on her own

Biting people

dancing (bobbing up and down) to music or turning round and round

Jumping on the bed

Bringing a book to me and says'mummy, book'

Takes time to warm up to someone, but ones she does , she is your friend for life

Orders to sit on the dining room chair' mummy, chair or mummy sit'

Very determined with what she wants or the tantrum routine starts

Likes singing (her own songs)

Says 'eye' and pokes your eye really hard

Loves mothering her doll

Imitates everything Harvynna does and Harvynna encourages it by doing silly things

Eating by herself

Language development

Rowena is catching up really fast and can say lots of words. She learns most words from Harvynna. Her pronounciation is not so clear and we have to figure out what she means sometimes e.g.

ter ter for water

kout (for take out)

apen (for open)

tuputak (for ketupat)

peeease (for please)

kak (for cup)

pappers (for pampers)

weet (for sweet)

ko ker (for chocolate)

She now does this really sweet thing in the car by calling out 'mummy' and when i turn behind, she will say in the sweetest voice, 'Hellloooo mummy' and flash us her smile.

Harvynna on the other hand, has been quite a good sister. She reads to her, plays with her. The other day, I did not fix Rowena's car seat properly and it tilted when I turned the car. Immediately, Harvynna told me that Rowena's car seat fell and she held her seat all the way home. But there are days, when she gets fed up of Rowena and tells us, that she does not want her.

Harvynna can read!

I started Harvynna on the Ladybird Key words reading scheme with just Book 1A, and used it on and off. I tried to explain to her that we actually read the words when reading a book besides looking at the picture and bla bla bla. So if she learns to read, she can later read on her own. I must say she tried very hard and though she got fed up at times, she picked it up again and fell very proud when she could do it. I thought she had just memorized the book.

Last week, I got book 1B, (contains the words in different context and illustraiton)and to my surprise, she could actually read most of it. I bought up to level 4 and she picked up book 3B and she could read the words she had learnt in the earlier levels.

These books must really work and she is so proud of herself. Well done Harvynna.

updates on the girls

It has been awhile since i updated anything on the girls except for 'humpty dumpty had a great fall'! Lots of things have been happening and to top it all, I could not access blogspot in my office, so I could not blog hop as almost everyone has a blogspot account. Darn!

Rowena turns 17 months on Tuesday and she has been progressing real well. Her vocabulary has increased and I remember that at 16 months, Harvynna too started speaking more too. Her hair has grown (thank God) and is a real bundle of Joy. She has moved to Level 4 in Gymboree and loves the class. The thing is that she is very hyperactive now and climbs everywhere (hence the fall), runs everywhere and flashed her smile at you when you are angry.

I must go back to count how many teeth she has as they are not growing in order. I see one or 2 at the back, one or 2 in the middle somewhere.

Rowena understands us very well now and follows instruction to a T. When instructed, she will put her clothes in the laundry basket, pick up toys and put it in the toy box, go to her room at bedtime, feed her baby (doll). She can point to most parts of her body

She has got this 'nasal' voice when she talks and it sounds really cute. So I keep asking her to say all the words she can like:

cake (sounds more like kek)

box (sounds more like bok)

book

bus (sounds more like bah)

bun (also sounds like bah)

bread (sound like bed)

car

baby

kitika (refers to one of the girls at the babysitters)

susu

toe

bobo (refers to diaper)

poo poo

pee pee

fish

tota (refers to toyota)

bag (sounds more like back)

I keep asking her to say those words like a drill as I get a kick from listening to her nasal voice. Even Harvynna will ask her to do the drill.

Harvynna on the other hand is getting more matured. She talks more like an adult.

I started her on the Keyword series and has completed the first book. I have to crack my head to keep her occupied as she keeps asking for 'activities' to do.

Its fun to see the 2 of them playing together. At least with 2 girls, they can have cooking sessions, dress up sessions together.

Rowena's updates

Taken in Genting in June

Rowena turned 16 months last Saturday. Besides her short hair, she is growing fast and her baby days are going away.

She is now more assertive and is showing a stronger personality. She likes to bite, hit us with her toys and scream if she does not get her way. If she is annoyed with Harvynna, she will pull her hair and shout at her. Sometimes, even Harvynna is afriad of her. If we go out to eat, she shouts 'day -dee' non stop and 'requests' for things to be given to her. She has to hold the spoon and cup herself and of course, mess up the place. She knows how to get attention.

Every saturday, I have about an hour to kill while waiting for Rowena's gymboree class and basically , its running after her all over Bangsar Village, up and down the escalator, that I am so tired by the time we start her class.

Some of the NEW words, she says is:

day-dee

A-ma

Si si - for susu (milk)

ball

ba - for bus

ka - for cup

give

carry (she puts up her hands and say carry, and we if dont carry her, its CAAARRRRYYYYY)

Baby

She can be quite jealous, if I show attention to Harvynna, she will scream and kick Harvynna or pull her hair. If I hug Harvynna, Rowena will immediately come and place her head on my lap too.

Before we go out, she will go to the shoe rack and take out her shoes and mine too

She is still the baby in the house but I cant believe how much she has grown.

My girls - 14 months and 38 months

Yay! Rowena is 14 months. She is really developing a personality which is very different from her sister.

Physical Development

Weight – about 12 kg (she looks thinner, though)
(not sure about her height!!)

Hair : has grown quite a bit

Her legs are kind of bow legged. Is quite obvious – some people commented that it was because she started walking early. Some people commented that it is just a phase and will be ok. I recall Harvynna having the same problem at the age and its ok now.

Teeth – still has only 4 teeth (with the gap in between)

Eating Habits – eats anything and everything under the sun. Has tasted curry and does not seem to mind it. She must eat everything that we eat. If she had enough, she will stick her tongue out, with the food on it and let it fall out!

Language

Rowena does not babble much, only when she is trying to say something. The things that she can say is:

Mama – for me, of course – but lately she has been calling daddy that too

Dada – occasionally now for daddy

Kar – for car

There – for there

Baba – for baby & Barney

Wowo – dog and all other animals!!

Cup – for cup


Yeah, she is not as vocal as Harvynna was at that age – so it’s really irritating when people say, ‘Rowena is so quiet. Harvynna could say much more when she was that age’.

Ya, so??

Things she does:

· Every morning, when I tell the girls ’ Lets go’ (going to the babysitter), she will shout ‘Car’.

· When its time to go out, she will go to the shoe cabinet, and start fussing to put on her shoes. Normally I will just carry her, but now she insists her shoes are on and will walk out

· Once we leave the house, she will lift up one hand and say ‘eh eh’ indicating for me to hold her hand

· Uses the remote and points at the tv. Then she hits the remote a few times (we have a lousy remote) and points it at the tv again

· She still loves to dance – everytime there is music, she will bounce up and down and clap her hands and sing ‘ah ah ah’

· She can march to music as she learnt ‘the ants go marching’ the other day

· When I tell her come, go bathe, she will start lifting up her clothes and walk to the bathroom

· If you tell her to kiss, she will come to you, place her face on your cheek and say ‘emm ahh’

· She takes my hairbrush and brushes her hair

· She hides and then appears saying ‘there’

· She likes wearing my shoes and parade around the house with it

· She can point to’bellybutton’, ‘nose’ and ‘eyes’

· She protest if you take something away from her

· She is a busy body, she stops whatever she is doing to see what is happening – noise, if somebody goes out etc

· She drink from a straw well

Some of her naughty traits (grrr)

· Does not sit on any high chair. When we go out to eat, she will start to stand on the chair and sit on the side bar or just stand - she ends up on my lap

· When she does not want to sleep, she will disturb Harvynna by pinching her, or pulling her hair, then laughing , then they both end up playing and laughing and not sleeping.
· She empties the dustbins, the laundry basket

· If she does not want to be carried, she will Wriggle, arch her back and do all kinds of things

· She picks up the house phone, starts dialing and places the phone to her ear but does not say a word. After she is done, she will throw the phone on the floor


Harvynna, on the other hand is getting naughtier and a real smart alec. She answers back at every opportunity. Examples:

Me: Harvynna, pick up your toys or the black dog will come and bite you
Harvynna: Where? I don’t see him. Don’t bluff. Liar liar, pants on fire

Me: If you are naughty, I wont buy you a present. I will buy for Rowena
Harvynna: then, I will pull it from her

Harvynna: Send Rowena to the playground and let the black dog eat her

Harvynna: I am not going to buy YOU anything. You are the naughtiest girl in the world (referring to me)

Harvynna: Can you please take Rowena away, she is disturbing my work

Harvynna: Remember, we went to xxxxx. Rowena was not there, she was not born yet

She is also quite observant:

She will ask me:

What are you smiling about or What are you thinking about?

She is also the fashion diva in the house

Don’t tie up your hair - its not nice
Why are you wearing that – its not matching
Why you not wearing your jacket to the office
I don’t want to wear that - its not even matching

You look fat in that dress!!! - (you can get the truth from a 3 year old)
Look at me ! I look so fashion


Gosh! I wonder if Rowena will be like that in a years time. Then I will really have my hands full.

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.

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!!

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!

April is here and rowena is walking!

It’s April and it rains and rains. April is always a really hectic month for me as everyone around me is celebrating their birthday - first there is my hubby on April 9th, Harvynna on April 12th, my dad on April 20th, and Rowena on April 25th. Wow, 4 birthdays, so I will just be broke this month and next month and the month after that!!

Plus, my organization has revamped the review year and our reviews are now in April – so just had an appraisal and a slight increment, Yeah!

So its present hunting time – went to the Mattel Warehouse sale last week and it was really, really great. I think I spent the least among everyone there. People were buying like boxes and boxes of things, some bought a few of each. Everything was so cheap. You can tell how much profit Mattel must be making with the mark –up of prices on normal days. Luckily I went on the first day (during working hours) as there was still a lot of stuff. I bought the Dora talking dollhouse for Harvynna, the Little People Zoo for Rowena and a few Barbie items to give as gifts. I did not buy much as I went alone and could not carry everything, as the dollhouse was so big and heavy. The place was so congested that there was no parking, had to go a few rounds and finally found a spot. Then it started to rain!! Gosh, had to rush with all the things back to my car. There was actually this sweet guy, who appeared from nowhere and said,’Hujan dek’, and actually held the umbrella over my head while I loaded my car. I think I must have this ‘damsel in distress’ look as I experienced things like this many times before.

I took 2 days off last week to run some errands and prepare for the girls upcoming party. Managed to sort out the venue and run through the menu, bought the gifts for the games, booked and confirmed details with the entertainer and ordered the balloons. The only outstanding thing is the cakes. Have 2 options and have not decided.

Since we have to celebrate birthdays after the actual date, we have chosen the 28th of April to celebrate the party. Harvynna is really excited about the party. This year, she can really appreciate it and enjoy the programme and participate in the activities. She tells everyone that ‘her birthday is on April 12 and she will be 3’ and ‘Rowena’s birthday is on April 25’ and will be one’. I asked her if she was willing to share a cake with Rowena and of course, she said ‘NO!’

Anyway, lil Rowena is walking now and she walks and walks and walks. Hubby says she looks like a chimpanzee when she walks – like BJ and the Bear!

So my wish of her walking on her 1st birthday has come true.

I am almost 1 - 11 months to be exact!

• P/s – this post was written by Rowena
  
  Woo hoo – I turn 11 months old on Monday. Just 1 more month and I will be a toddler. I wonder if that will be better or worse. I can see mummy and daddy scolding Harvynna if she does not do something right, while I can get away doing the same thing when I give them the Puss n’ Boots (Schrek 2) look.
  
  At 11 months, I can take 4-5 steps on my own, though I prefer to walk on my knees.
  I am 11 kg – yup that’s overweight but everyone seems to think that chubby babies are cute
  I babble a lot but mummy seems to understand what I want. I also love talking to myself.
  I can point to mummy’s nose if prompted.
  I am an eating machine – I eat anything and everything and demand that everyone shares their food with me or I will SCREAM and bring the house down.
  My hair has grown so I am starting to look like a girl.
  I adore my sister to bits – everything she does seems funny and smart
  I can say bye bye
  I have a skin problem - but what the heck – I still look cute anyway. Mummy keeps trying all sorts of soaps and creams like Eubos, Oilatheum, Acqueous bla bla bla. Some smell good and some smell really bad.
  I have a bad case of seperation anxiety but that’s my way of telling mummy, I love her.
  I love to dance and have grown a liking to that big fat ugly purple dinasour on tv. And hurray - mummy is signing me up for Musikgarten with Aunty Pearly.
  I would rather chew books than sit down and read them
  I am slowly able to play with shape sorters but have to be guided
  All in all, I think I am doing well and am really looking forward to my birthday party and receiving more presents. I am tired of getting Harvynna’s second hand stuff.

Bye bye

10 months already????????

Rowena will be 10 months this coming Monday. She is really changing from an infant to a toddler and is just 2 months away from her 1st birthday. Time has really, really gone by and I will definitely miss her ‘babyness’. When I look at Harvynna, I can’t believe that she is once a baby too. Just looking at Harvynna now – how she talks, acts, answers backs, fights with us and I know, Rowena will be there soon!

At 10 months, Rowena

Has 2 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth. ( I noticed that there is a gap between her 2 top teeth – it looks cute anyway!)

Can stand-alone without holding anything for a while

Is cruising along well (keeping fingers crossed she will walk on her 1st birthday so she will look pretty in the dress her Aunty Selvy (or rather Grandma Selvy!!! bought her)

Is NOT sleeping through the night – hopefully that will be achieved once she is fully weaned after her 1st birthday. I have done the ignoring bit for a while now and she actually goes back to sleep on her own.

Still says, Wawa, baba, dada, awa etc (something like that). I have not heard any actual words so far – but she seems to understand quite a lot. If I tell her ‘NO’, she will look at me and shake her head profusely, if I ask her ‘where’s the elephant?’, she will look for the elephant picture on the wall. And she knows, what is forbidden as she will go towards the wire for the aircon and will turn to smile at me before touching it!

Since introducing other normal food to her, she is slowly losing interest in her baby food.

Loves to scream for no reason just to attract attention

Likes to dance when listening to music by rocking her body to and fro. Her current favourite is the Chinese New year song!

Likes to look at books, then start chewing at them – hmm, she has destroyed quite a number of Harvynna’s books.

She adores her sister and is always happy to see her or join her play despite getting whacked all the time by her.

The best part is the way she reacts when I go pick her up at the babysitters – she will flap her arms and shout so happily and then crawl as fast as she can to the door lifting her arms up!

And of course, I must proudly say, her favourite person is still Me! Me! Me!

Happy 10 months Rowena – mummy needs to get cracking on your birthday party!

Ma.....ma.....ma....ma

That’s what my lil heart stealer, Rowena does now. Whenever, she needs my attention, she will say, ‘ma…ma..ma…ma’ and reach out her arms. Haiyo, how to resist her like that. I think she knows that I love it when she does that as whenever I carry her, she will start her, ‘ma…ma..ma.mma.. again. Yey, so Rowena started calling me first instead of Daddy. Rowena’s actually quite independent as she can play and entertain herself AS LONG as I am still in sight! Then, when Harvynna whacks her, she will cry and crawl to me. That’s basically what happens everyday.

Harvynna is becoming a lil gangster and can defend herself quite well. We took her to the Bukit Jalil playground a couple of weeks back and as she was climbing up the slide, this boy (probably about 5 years old) pushed her. She got angry and shouted at him, ‘I have a big rotan at home. I am going to ask my mother to beat you very hard’. The boy ran to the other side and she followed him, ‘you watch out forever’. Hehe. – I think the boy was intimidated by her.

On Monday, I had an accident. This stupid guy knocked my car from behind. I was so pissed off and I got down to see what happened. The noise was so loud that I thought the back of my car was a gone case. Luckily, it was just the bumper, but it still cost about RM1000 plus to fix. Anyway, I told Harvynna to stay in the car and look after Rowena as Rowena started to cry when she heard the loud noise. I told her that the stupid man knocked mummy’s car. After it was settled, she asked me, ‘the stupid man knocked your car. I must beat him or he will knock your car again’ Up till today, she will ask me, if she needs to beat the man.

I Can really notice the differences between my 2 girls – Rowena is gentle and fragile. She will cry even at the slightest fall or knock. Harvynna, on the other hand is a real tough one and will stand up for her own right. Way to go, Girl!

Happy 10 months Rowena!

Rowena will be 10 months tomorrow. My little baby has grown, grown and grown. When I look at her now, I cant believe how big she has become. She now is able to play independantly by crawling to her toys and taking them out and putting them in her mouth! (as long as I am in sight), otherwise, she will start wailing wuaaaaagh and crawling to look for me!

Rowena is cruising now and can stand momentarily on her own without holding anything. So I guess, she should start walking soon. Gosh, once they start walking - they are no longer little babies and start to be more independant.

The hair on top of her head has grown very well (the hair that fell off due the cradle cap), but the hair at the back of her head is still like that (not much hair and sticks out everywhere). Everyone still thinks she is a boy that I really have to dress her in real girlie clothes. Dont wnat her becoming a tomboy later. She looks a lot like her dad (sigh!) but has the kind, pleasant personality like her mummy. Ceh!

I still have not ventured far where her feeding is concerned due to her allergy problem but she has tasted chocolates, ice cream, chocolate cake (all my favourite food) and seems to LOVE it.

Looking at her development now, I can safely say that Rowena enjoys shopping and going out. The moment we head towards the door, she starts flapping her arms and grinning away and whenever we take her out shopping, she seems so excited - laughing. Now, she does not like to sit still in her pram as she will try to stand up, climb out of the pram which is quite dangerous.

She indulges in baby talk now with wawa, adada, baba, aagh etc. I could have sworn she said mama, but then again.... you never know.

She recognizes her favourite songs, like Twinkle Twinkle little star, where she tries to imitate my hand movement but ends up clasping her hands together, moving it up and down and then FINALLY, it goes in her mouth!

Her other favourite songs are Itsy Bitsy spider and Baa Baa Black Sheep. I now play Harvynna's Musikgarten CD in the car and Rowena tries to follow the tune - just aa aa aa!

Oh yes, the spots she had was actually a bad case of exzema - still trying to figure out what was the cause, but she is really scratching especially behind her ear till it bleeds. Her face looks like she has an acne problem.

Now that Rowena is 10 months, and bigger I have actually taken the 2 girls out shopping on my own a few times but only as far as Bangsar village! Since its small and safe (i Hope) and the parking lot is small and well lit. Besides, I must say that the staff at Bangsar Village are really helpful. They always unlock the disabled toilet for me when I go with the girls as its much bigger and easier and the cleaner actually comes and asks if I need any help and even brings extra toilet paper for me.

Even the staff at the parking lots are really helpful. The other day, I was pushing the pram, Harvynna in one hand and Rowena in the other, the guy actually helped by pushing the pram and told me to hang on to the girsl properly as sometimes cars tend to speed. I felt quite bad, as Harvynna was running around wildly earlier and I told her, to be careful or the 'naughty man will catch her. Just to make my story real, I pointed to the car park staff (from a far la) and told her that was the 'naughty man'. She was actually quite scared when he came to help us. Later, in the car, Harvynna asked me 'Why the naughtly man helped us? I thought you said he was naughty???'

Errr? Never lie to your children!

p/s" Thanks Aunty Selvy for the photos

Rowena waves bye bye

That’s right – Rowena can now wave bye bye. If you say ‘Bye’ to her automatically, she will start waving her hand and smiles.

Seperately, Rowena has been having some spots - first on her arms, then some on her right cheek and one or 2 on her legs and it spread a little. At first I thought it was her allergy but now I am not too sure.

I brought her brought her to see the doctor and he said it might be chicken pox. She had a mild fever as well but was not confirmed. So there was I, with a hyperactive toddler in one hand, a possible chicken pox infected infant in another.

So that was that. I myself have not got chicken pox before and am not really sure how it looks like or what it entails. Anyway, Harvynna and I have got the vaccination.

Anyway, the dr says, that if Rowena does have it, it will be very mild as she is still small, plus she receives some of the immunity from the breast milk.

Rowena Stands

Now that she stands, she refuses to sit!

8 months on Christmas day

Rowena turned 8 months on Christmas day. She has really, really grown. Just packed up half of her clothes as she has outgrown them

A quick note of what she does now:

Stands while holding on to something (at 7.5 months)
Now that she stands, she tries to stand ALL the time – in the stroller, in the bath, in the cot, on the bed. Have to be really really careful

Slowly starting to cruise

Grabs everything esp off her sister. Harvynna and Rowena are starting to fight now as they grab each others things. Rowena is showing signs of a temper as she clenches her fist and shouts when she does not get her way.

Speaking of shouting, she shouts all the time and has a pretty loud voice. Can be quite embarrassing while in public places expecially when we get annoying glances from passer bys who dont understand babies.

Dances to music. If both Harvyna and me sing to her she will bounce up and down happily.

Waves bye bye – hehe. I think it is more of a fluke shot. She seemed to wave back when someone says bye to her. Tried to get her to do it again later, but did not work. So must be a fluke shot.

Soon, she will turn one and if she beats Harvynna’s record, she might walk at 10 months!

We are back!

Am finally back after a loong break. It wasnt a break - just too much work. Listening to all the Xmas music everywhere, I feel like everyone is on holiday or in holiday mood except for me!! Had some big events back to back since November and finally its all over as of yesterday! What a relief!!! Now I can enjoy the rest of the year in peace!

Didnt manage to update Rowena's 7 month update and she will be turning 8 months on Christmas day!

Better put it down or I may forget :(

• Rolled over at 6 1/4 months
• Attempted to crawl at 6 1/2 months
• Now she is a cockroach crawling all over the place
• Says dada, baba and screams like trying to get her point accross since 6 1/4 months
• can sit on her own but not for long, however, we put her in a high chair and she seems ok with that
• Has a bad case of stranger anxiety - its ok if no one gives her attention, but when all the new faces come and talk to her, she starts to wail
• Recognizes faces very well and of course her faviourite face is, Mummy dearest
• Rolled off the bed more than once (thanks to daddy!!)
• Is a wonderful smiley baby
• Fussy with food. We have to sing to her during mealtimes or she wont open her mouth.

So many things have happenned since my last post. HEre are some fo them:

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on 11 Dec. Since I was busy with work, we had a dinner on 10 December at Outback steak house in Bangsar Village. Rowena was so well behaved and stayed quietly in her pram. Harvynna was very excited about the big Xmas tree withb the train going round and roound. She is into trains right now. Everytime, she sees the LRT passing, she will scream, 'Look mummy, at the train. Its going to KLCC. I want to go in the train!' So thats our next activity - to bring her on a train ride.

Harvynna's almost fully potty trained. She only wears a diaper to sleep at night. She's quite fussy though about public toilets. If the toilet is err not so clean, she will refuse to use it and say'my pee pee not coming out!" and if the toilet was not flushed by the previous person, she will say loudly,'why that aunty did not flush the toilet? so dirty!!!' haha, that should educate these uncivic minded public toilet users.

Harvynna has become my good buddy now as I can take her everywhere. The other day , a friend of minen had a dinner at her house in some god forsaken Putra heights, so I took Harvynna to accompany me, while Rowena stayed at home with daddy! She was really excited as it was a Mummy and Harvynna outing. I promised her more of that as she does not get much of my time at home as Rowena needs a lot of attention, plus I have been coming home pretty late the last few weeks.

Anyway, we are all off to Avillion, PD for my company trip / family day/ annual dinner today. Hope to win the grand prize for the lucky draw!!