Yan Yan – 17th & 18th month update

Today is the day my baby turns 18 months old, and she marked this momentous occasion by having a fight my mummy – by refusing her breakfast! Sigh! This girl sure has a fiery temper, and a rough demeanour to boot! She’s a real samseng compared to her che-che – climbing on sofas, chairs and table; messing up the display cabinet and kitchen drawers, which her che-che never did. Pray tell, is your second born more difficult to manage than your first? I seem to see this a lot among my friends.

Okie okie, enough of complaining – this is not a ranting post :-)

Physically, she's more steady on her feet but will on occasions, still trip and fall when she walks, or attempts to run. She obviously inherited mummy’s clumsy genes, just as her che-che did. She can walk up and down the stairs by herself by holding onto the railing, and on several occasions, gave me heart attacks when she suddenly appeared upstairs by herself when I hadn’t latched the safety gate properly.

She’s very slow in the teething department. At the ripe age of 18 months, she only has 4 upper and lower incisors to show, and still no signs of her molars erupting. We started her on brushing to get her used to the sensation of having a toothbrush in her mouth, though we haven’t been doing it regularly. She’s quite cooperative as she sees her che-che brushing every night, but tends to tighten her lips and sucks on the brush.

She’ll regard any little boy and girl as kor-kor and che-che, and a baby as well, baby. She babbles in her own language as if holding a conversation and her vocabulary now includes fan, book, read, (o)pen, shoe, ant, and body parts like eye, ear, nose, mouth, hair, hand, leg.

Video taken on 12.12.10 @ 16.5 months. She mistakenly pointed to her leg when I mentioned hand in this video.

She’s taking table food like the rest of the family, so eating out is much easier these days as she takes rice with dishes, or noodles.

Pretending to feed herself while waiting for food to arrive

And this is how messy meal times can get!

My only worry is that over the past 2-3 months, she wouldn’t drink her formula. She would only consume a grand total of 2-3 oz daily at babysitter and get her booby fix at home, so I’ve got to put my plan of weaning her on hold for the time being. But then again, this milk machine is also drying up so she probably doesn't get much anyway.

She still naps twice in the day most days, loves dancing to music and scribbling. She’s also developed a liking for books, and will shove a book into my face and insists that I read it, but her attention span would only last all but 2-3 pages.