Dearest Sophie,

Precious little one, you are growing so fast that soon we don’t have to count your age by months but by years!

The past month you’ve started to make more sense in your scribbles and sketches and we are starting to realise that you are very creative and very good with your hands (just like Daddy!). It’s so exciting to see that development coz it’s really entertaining to hear your thoughts that go on in that little big head of yours.

You are not singing as much as you used to, maybe because I’m not home with you that much these days but still you will sing our conversations and make up tunes. I love it when you do that! It’s so cute and funny!

Your fav thing to do these few days is spending lots of time at the sand pit. You’ll hang around with the bigger boys as they dig trenches and build sandcastles. It’s so nice to see them being so sweet and gentle with you. Even when you get in their way, they just lift you up and put you somewhere else without being mean about it. It’s great that you are learning to play with different kids of different ages. Sometimes some are quite mean to you but it’s part of growing up and you’ve been pretty forgiving most times.

It’s cool to see how you are becoming more kiwi, ok, maybe not so cool to your grandparents BUT…. you are enjoying the outdoors so much! And you are happily walking around barefoot and have mastered most of the slopes and stairs around the compound. Hiak! Ok but at least no slang. Still talking like a Singaporean, like us. But you’ve picked up some Swedish.

This is a real precious time and I pray that it will have a significant impact on your life. Keep on growing!

Love lots
Mummy

Dearest Sophie,

You turned 29 mths today.

You’ve grown much over the past month since we’ve been in NZ.

You’ve settled well in daycare and have become familiar with the routine of going to daycare. Your teachers say that you love your books and are always getting them to read to you. You are totally enjoying the space and freedom to do different things everyday! Once you even got to play with spaghetti, just for the fun of it. 

Friends mean a lot to you and you care for them a lot. You enjoy their company and if we gave you the choice, you’d love to hang around your friends all the time! You are very sensitive to what your friends think of you even at a young age. You are a very perceptive little one. But that also means that you are very sensitive to them and I love how you are so gentle with Naomi and I can really see that you treasure her as your friend.

You are starting to express your feelings and tell us about your day. Today you said that you felt really bad about making your friend sad because you accidently cut up her toy. You didn’t say so many words but you did tell us the story and said you felt really bad.

You are finally learning your alphabets and Mummy has discovered that you are a very tactile learner! Looking at worksheets with letter N on it has no effect on you but give you a large cut up letter N to carry around all day long and it worked!

You are a really special girl and Mummy and Daddy love watching you grow. It’s so fun being with you.
 

Love
Mummy
 

Dearest Sophie,

We’ve just moved to New Zealand a week ago. You have adapted very well. It’s like as if you’ve been here all your life! You are such a village girl! The only two things that you are still adjusting to are going to daycare and the food.

You generally enjoy daycare because all your friends are there but you don’t like us to leave you there. It has been very heart wrenching to leave you but we know that you will adapt in time and you will start to understand that this is part of growing up and it is good for you.

You love all your friends. It makes us so happy to see you so happy playing. It’s always hard to pull you away from your friends. You love going to their houses and following them around. You have no problems at all making new friends, even if they don’t speak your language. You prefer older kids and little babies. You tend to be shy with adults and a little competitive with kids your age unless you knows them well.

You are very articulate and communicate very well. Sometimes I forget that you are only two. You speak to the older kids at their level, e.g. “Mateos, you like to play in the trampoline with me?” They are all very amused by you and always like to play with you because you entertain them with all the silly things you say and do.

More and more you are certain of what you want – what kind of food for breakfast, what you want to do, where you want to go etc. I stopped trying to figure what you want for breakfast coz you’ll just go to the fridge and take out whatever you want to eat. You’ll even look thru the promotions pages with me and tell me which toy you want!

However when you don’t get your way, you resort to whining and that has been something that we are working on getting rid off. Sometimes it just feels like you are saying no to us the whole day!

But for the first time ever, you and I held hands and walked for a while, willingly. Most days you would refuse to hold my hands and go for a stroll, preferring to run instead.

You are really enjoying all the activities e.g jumping on the trampoline, climbing etc. It’s great to see you having so much fun. I think NZ is really good for you and I’m glad we are here.
 

Love
Mummy
 

Dearest Sophie,

You are now 27 mths and you can still sit in your bumbo. That is amazing because most of your friends outgrew theirs long time ago.

This month you have been spending a lot of time with your Mama and Yeye and as a result picking up more Mandarin. You can now recite Tang poems like Chuang Qian Ming Ye Guang (Bed Front Got Moonlight… hahaha) and offered to teach me. I can’t believe it – you are two and you already are better than me in this area.

You stayed over at your grandparents’ for the first time this month. I’m glad to see you enjoying that. It’s hard to let you go but we know that it is a necessary part of growing up. And we know your grandparents on both sides are DEFINITELY ENJOYING IT! I love hearing their stories about how you are with them – sometimes it makes us laugh and sometimes it makes us proud.

Your current fav foods are Century Egg Porridge (Pei Tan Juok), donuts, yakult, Auntie Genie’s mushroom and minced meat pasta (You actually go over and ask Auntie Gin if we’re having lunch there), peanut butter sandwiches, pancakes, etc….. argh you have a sweet tooth just like me. WHICH MAKES ME SUPER GLAD THAT YOU FINALLY ENJOY BRUSHING YOUR TEETH! With toothpaste and you can spit! Woo hoo!

It really doesn’t matter that the only alphabets you recognize are M and O (which coincidentally spells Mommy’s hanyu pinyin surname Mo!?!), or you can’t tell 1 from 4 from 10, or wear your shoes by yourself. What matters is that you are growing well and healthy in body, mind and spirit. For that we are so thankful.

We love you dear one.

Love
Mommy

Dearest Sophie,

You are such a treasure at 2 years and 2 months old. Sometimes I’m lost for words to describe you because you are so many things at the same time.

This is what you’re like now
- You have a certain routine for sleeping – your pillow needs to be in the right direction, bolster in place and the blanket needs to cover your face slightly. Even your baby needs the correct blankie for her nap.
- You love pancakes. You love watching me cook and preparing food. You like to stir your own milk or whatever else I’m stirring.
- You love to run in circles and it always makes you laugh.
- You can be very insistent on your ways. Some days it can be very hard to make you do anything at all.
- You dislike holding hands when we are walking, preferring to run ahead or walk slowly behind us.
- You love stories in whatever media – books, audio, acting or TV. And you love it when mummy tells you Baby Sophie stories as you snuggle in my arms.
- You love to sing and make music and pick up songs very fast. You even make up your own songs.
- You love playing house and being a mummy to your baby. These days you can pick up your toys and play with them for a long while on your own making up stories and all.
- You are getting stronger physically and definitely a lot more confident at the playgrounds. You can even lift your entire box of duplo into the living room to play with!
- You are starting to draw circles and sometimes you can tell me what they are e.g. balloons, strawberries etc..

And of course you are extremely conversant and it’s super fun talking to you. It touches our hearts most to see you put your hands together and hear you pray – "Pls help mummy feel better. Amen"

Psalm 127: 3-5 says this:

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.

Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate."

How true it is. You are our treasure and our reward, little one. The Lord has really blessed us with a wonderful you.

Love
Mummy

Dearest Sophie darling,

So sorry I almost forgot that you turned 25 mths old two days ago! We’ve been so busy with our holidays that we forgot.

At 25 mths, this photo really shows who you are. Absolutely cheeky, fun loving, sometimes random, sometimes super emotional, sometimes extremely naughty and rebellious.

It’s been great getting to know you more over the holidays, spending every moment of the day with you. It’s real precious time. There were tough days where Daddy and I wondered if we would ever get thru it coz you kept saying no to everything we said. But there were good days where we wished it’ll not end. Today was one such day.

Sleep well dear one. We love you very much and may you know that deep in your heart.

Love
Mummy

Sophie at 2 is

- gregarious
She absolutely adores company and of course the attention that comes with it. She is shy at first but once familiar, she is totally entertaining – talking, repeating strange things that people ask her to say like kachiangputeh (!), singing etc… She is a spontaneous singer in the car, shower and when she is bored kind of person, like me when I was younger.

- precocious
I stole this word from Wanz – that’s how she described Sophie in her blog and I had to look up what it meant exactly. I’ve been looking for words to describe Sophie and this is pretty close!

Our little one is smart - not in the sense that she knows her ABCs (everything is still J or A to her, gua gua) or is some kind of super power flash card baby BUT……….. you can tell when you interact with her. She’s definitely not blur and unresponsive, unless that is exactly what she wants to be at that time. Yes, our little is a great actress with her exaggerated facial expressions and all – surprised look, angry look, fold arms, roll eyes, yep yep… she’s all done it. She can be quite kua zhang (exaggerated) in her expressions.

And of course, her ability to speak and converse is great help for blur mommy me, God knows.

June teased that the reason why Sophie had to speak so early is because I can’t "hear" her! She’ll be like complaining about something and I’ll be about my own things until I finally realised what she’s trying to say – e.g she dropped her umbrella at the zoo and was trying to tell me but I didn’t realise it until a while later, a long long while later. The other time in Shanghai, she was crying and we thought she was just being fussy BUT actually she was falling off the Baby Bjorn. Er….. ya, that’s why our little one had to fast learn to SPEAK in PROPER SENTENCES or else she’s not going to get anything off us. So poor thing!

- gentle
Sophie loves dolls and babies. She likes to stroke babies, hold their hands, call their names and talk to them. I think given a chance, she’ll want to cuddle them.

When she’s at the toy shop, she loves to touch the face of every doll in there and say hello.

Being gentle, Sophie can be quite timid and sensitive too. She’s not fond of slides, quick moving toy cars/rides, etc. Need to go slow with her.

- at the "No" stage
Everything is "No no no" by reflex. I’m serious – by reflex. Sometimes she says no just for the sake of it. Drives me nuts and some days can be REAL bad. But talking and giving her time outs seem to work. She’s just trying to test her boundaries and exercise her rights. Can’t wait for her to get over this stage…….. Oh…. but according to experienced mothers, it just gets to another stage! Apparently the "terrible twos" never end! They are just trying to be humans. No different from our two fav Adam and Eve – "Don’t eat this!" says the Creator, "Er the snake says it’s ok leh, let’s eat lah." says the creation. Sigh…

Sophie’s pretty attuned so I avoid lying and making empty promises when giving alternatives. It doesn’t work – it’ll just bounce back at me! This girl has an elephant’s memory. Sometimes I wished she was a bit more blur.

She REALLY REALLY brings a lot of joy to our lives because of who she is. Some days she can really test my patience of which I have very little when it comes to poor attitude and whining. I have no problem wiping after her pee or self feeding episodes BUT when she starts whine or enter into her serious of "No"s, it can really drive me up the wall. All these esp since I’m a stay home mum BUT I can’t imagine life without her. She’s such a joy to hang out with and I love how she’s brought much joy to the people around us.

I pray that she will be a blessing wherever she goes.

Our little princess turned TWO today!!! Check out her lovely t-shirt from Auntie Steph – it says "I am 2!"

I think Sophie couldn’t sleep coz she was too excited! She woke up at 6.30am!!! She hasn’t done that in ages!!! Funny thing was, I too woke at 6 coz I was just as excited! We had a little snuggle time till 7 and spent the whole morning opening presents and playing with her new toys.

When James woke up, we went to Vivocity and spent the whole afternoon there.

Had lunch at Bakerzin where Sophie refused more than a few mouthful of her food BUT ate up her ENTIRE slice of birthday cheese cake, all by herself!!!! I didn’t even get a bite! Hahaha…

After that we spent time doing all of her fav things – play at the water play area, go to ToysRus where she picked up a baby doll (she loves baby dolls!!!!!), and walked around a bit.

Came home to rest and then had dinner with my in laws.

Left: Taken this morning at the Library cafe near Yeye’s house. We spent the night at their new home yesterday.

Right: Sophie in her new Old Navy top.

Dearest Sophie,

Wow! You’ll be two years old next month! Although when asked how old you are, you still say "18 months" in your cute little baby voice. Haha! I would think 2 is easier to say than 18. And much cooler than saying I’m one. 2 is a great number! Can’t wait to celebrate your birthday. Oh wait, we already did! With your 6 other aug/sept baby friends. More about that later when I can get my lazy butt to upload the pics.

It has been a significant month for you so far.

You are now somewhat potty trained. In the past month, we managed to get you to sit on the potty (that took a lot of cajoling and bribing!), pee in the potty on our demand, say you wanna pee in the potty, and finally poo in the potty. We still have accidents here and there tho.

Next step is to get you to be comfy sitting on the bowl itself so that we can be diaper free out of the house too! And we’ll leave toilet training thru the night for later. Mommy has had enough of soiled sheets for a while.

Ooooooooooo and the other thing, you somehow managed to bite and tear your pacifier apart so we’re now left with ZERO pacifier! We were actually thinking of weaning you off it when you turn two. Looks like it’s happened on its own a little earlier! It’s been a tough time this week coz you’ve been finding it hard to adjust to sleeping without your beloved juju. But I think we’re getting there. Just a 5 min frantic crying before sleeping but you’re still ok sleeping thru the night.

You’ve started eating well again. Oh then again, maybe I’ve lowered my expectations of how much a toddler should eat. It’s nice to see you enjoying all sorts of food, your current favorite being sushi and all sorts of sweet pastries. You love your milkshakes, yogurt, cheese, fruits, veggies, meats etc. You’ll eat a bit of everything thru the day which is fine by me. Your last weigh at the PD shows that you are a rice bag full – 10kg and 82cm tall.

Oooo one more thing. You tend to be very particular about what shoes you wear. I’m not sure why but you are pretty easy with everything else e.g clothes etc but when it comes to shoes, you have to pick your own. We’re almost done with your Clarks, your toes are slowly peeking out of the open toe sandals (thank God they are open toes). We are eyeing a pair of cool black Nike and hopefully you’ll like it but you have to choose it or else it’ll be left there on the shelf like the white pair of sandals we got you from HK.

You are really fun to be with and I’m so thankful for that!

Love
Mommy

Dearest Sophie,

This is you at 22 months – funny, cheeky, super alert, always singing, always talking, trying hard to test our patience by refusing to eat and do various things. You are pretty easy going – not much problem getting you to share and you enjoy feeding other kids.

Recently you’ve started making up your own songs and laughing. You really have a sense of humour. I’ll ask you to go into the room and you’ll sing "Walk walk walk walk in the room (to the tune of Walk walk walk walk in the light)". Super funny. You also made your first joke when I asked you if you pooed and you said Winnie the pooh pooh and you laughed. ?!?! You can be such a clown! Mummy is always super entertained by the things you say and do.

Last night, I found they had Peppa Pig books at Times Bookstore and bought one for you. THis morning I gave it to you coz I was so excited and you were so thrilled! The funniest part was you said "Good job er find Peppa pig mummy" (clap clap)! So funny!!! Hearing that gave me such a fuzzy feeling. Sigh, gone are my ideals to stay away from mass produced, highly advertised toys and stuff.

Recently you’ve been into dolls and make believe. I’ve just set up your baby cot which we inherited from che che Shanae (the Dierdens). It’s so cool! Your dolly has her own cot! You’ll pat her and put her to bed and sing Jesus loves me, exactly like how we do it. So cute lah.

Thanks for being such a joy and sweetheart… We love you so much!

Love
Mummy

Dearest Sophie,

Mummy is a bit brain dead at this time of the night coz it’s almost the end of the day but you turned 21 months today so I must write something before I go to bed.

We spent the afternoon at Mama n Yeye’s house. Daddy brought you swimming. You really enjoy swimming. We’ve been doing that a lot these days coz it’s so HOT! You are getting confident in the water and will walk around and play in the wading pool. The swim lessons have been so worthwhile coz you no longer scream when we shower you and you enjoy swimming underwater.

We left you at home with Mama to go to buy some stuff and you were fine – no crying. That’s great! When we got back, it was so heartwarming to see you laugh and smile at us! When you are super happy and excited, you let out this cute laugh!

Had dinner with them and came home. These days, it is such a pleasure to say goodnight to you coz you finally say it back and are happy about it! You’ll say "Goodnight mummy, Goodnight daddy, see you tomorrow!" And off we go out of the room and you’ll just play around in bed and pull your musical mobile and then drift off to sleep. Good on you!

You’ve been talking and singing a lot more. In fact you talk all the time!! Non stop!! I also noticed that you’ve started playing with blocks and legos and making stuff with them. That’s so cool! You still sound funny when you speak Chinese but you can count and sing songs in Chinese. It just sounds weird. Ok but at least you can sing Jesus loves me in Chinese and I can’t. I really wonder how I’m going to teach you so mummy better buck up!

There are times when you become really insistent on what you want and Daddy and I just don’t know what to do. But recently we’ve been teaching you to calm down esp when you get over excited or hyper. We will ask you to fold your arms and start counting. That normally works. Once, you were so mang zhang coz it was past your bed time and you were screaming in the car and we tried this method. You fell asleep when we reached 100. So amazing. You will normally calm down when we start counting coz you will follow me to count. TIme out is also another thing that we’ve been using. That’s still to be tried and tested. So far, we’ve only used it once or twice on you.

It’s been such a joy being with you. Sometimes when you are asleep, Daddy and I miss you and will talk about you.

We love you lil one,
Mummy

Dearest Sophie,

Wow my little one, you’re not quite little anymore. In four months you are going to be 2 yrs old. What a big milestone! You are growing dearer and dearer to your daddy and I each day.

You are starting to eat, talk, sing, run etc like a little kid, not quite a baby anymore.

This is how you eat –
Breakfast >> You’ll ask for milk first thing in the morning. You’ll have your milk in your sippy cup, about 180 mls. After that you’ll have either bread or yogurt plus some fruit
Snack >> Before your nap, you normally have about 120mls of milk plus a cookie/some raisins.
Lunch >> You’ll either have rice, porridge, pasta or noodles, depending on what mummy feels like cooking that day. When we are out, you eat whatever we eat.
Snack >> You’ll prob ask for some bread/cookies at some point.
Dinner >> Most days when I’m tired out, Mummy cook a quick meal of pasta.
Before sleeping >> You’ll have another cup of milk, about 180mls.

You’re still a pretty good eater but you prefer to eat a variety of things at one meal and thru the day, rather than a lot of one thing at one meal. You are getting very good at self feeding – most days I don’t have to sweep the floor after you eat anymore, just need to wipe your table. However, when we are outside, I have reverted to feeding you more, it’s just easier since you enjoy picking at our food. You are also drink pretty well with a normal cup, sometimes even a glass cup.

You are a super talker. You talk non stop. In full sentences. And you say the darnest things. Like this morning, you said "Well Done Mummy!" when I removed your breakfast for washing. Thanks for that affirmation lil one! You are a polite little one that doesn’t withhold your please and thank yous.

Since you’ve started talking, it’s been so much easier controlling your tantrums and getting you to do things. For example, I managed to convince you to allow me to clean your teeth and also sit in your potty. All I had to tell you was "Gentle, I’ll be gentle. If you don’t clean your mouth, it’ll be painful later (refering to tooth decay). You must brush your teeth." and you actually opened her mouth to let me clean! Seriously I was just trying to see if it works and it did! Which means, you understand consequences! After some convincing, you are also willing to sit on the potty. You used to say no each time I asked but we’re reading and playing while you sit there so I guess that makes it easier.

You are starting to converse with kids that are older. You’ll go up to them and just make small talk. It’s all very cute to watch. Funny to see how you imitate everything that they say. When we’re out shopping, if there’s a kid around, it’s GREAT coz you’ll be entertained and we can browse.

AND YES! You SING!!! Phew! I was starting to wonder when you are going to start singing. Your fav songs that you sing on your own are I love you (Barney), Jesus Loves me, Happy Birthday (?!?! I seriously donno how you started singing this, maybe you are preparing to sing it at your 2nd birthday!), Jesus Beautiful Saviour (only coz we’ve been singing this A LOT), ABC, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star etc…

However, on the dancing front, you kinda swing but nay you’re not really a dancer.

You like to fix things and put things in order. But somehow that doesn’t apply to packing up your toys and keeping the house in order. Hmmmp. You love buckles, nails, keys. You’re not really into stacking blocks or puzzles either tho.

You are however starting to read less often through the day… Maybe it’s my fault. Too much TV and toys. But on the other hand, you are more willing to sit thru long story books.

Some highlights of the past month – our trip to HK, a new table for you, staying up at wedding dinners, singing etc.

I love the way you are – gentle yet full of joy, fun loving and super enthusiastic about life. We’re enjoying watching your character blossom lil one.

Love you lots
Mummy and Daddy