As mentioned in the previous post, I had in mind a daily plan but as I implemented it, I decided to improvise and added daily chores into our early morning routine.

Now that we do not have to rush out of the house for classes/meetings in the morning, it gave us some time to do some chores like washing the dishes, cleaning the house etc. At first I was doing it by myself but then I thought "Sophie can wash dishes!" so I got her to help and she’s amazing! Over those couple of days, she helped to wash up our breakfast and lunch dishes, with some supervision from me. Of course she uses too much detergent, figures out that putting a spoon under the tap makes a fountain and that squeezing lotsa soap makes it all the more fun and she leaves the water running BUT BUT overall, she gets the job done! While she does that, I can wipe the dishes and put them away! So so cool! Best part is she enjoys it! It’s a bit stressful for me I must admit at times when she handles the glass plates but I’m thankful she’s rather careful.

When we are done, we try to do one chore a day e.g. vacuuming/cleaning the windows. I try to assign her something that she can do like spraying soap and water and cleaning tables or silly things like wipe the doors. While I do the real work. Of course she doesn’t really know she’s not doing much but she loves it!

I hope we can keep this going because I doubt we’ll ever have a maid in our lifetime and I’m hoping if we start young, she’ll see that doing chores is what a family does together and not something that only mum does or a kid must be given a reward/paid to do it. Also I’m really hoping that she’ll be a good help when baby comes along. Hopefully the novelty doesn’t wear out! Will let you know

Dearest Sophie,

Here’s you in Christchurch, NZ enjoying a fluffy (babycino – a cup of hot milk that is fluffed up and looks all grown up n fancy) at Robert Harris, living the life!

We really enjoy travelling and exploring with you little one. During this trip, we’ve really stretched your ability to just go with the flow – breakfast at 10, lunch at 3, nap at 6pm, dinner at 9pm…….. and to top it, bedtime at 12midnite after a movie in bed. Arghs!

Thank you for entertaining us with all your funny ideas and being the life of the family. We love you so much and we pray that joy will always bubble in you.

Love
Mummy

P/s: Sophie’s dropped her day nap a few weeks ago and is now sleeping 7.30pm – 7.30am. Instead of a nap, she has some quiet time on the bed. She finds that super exciting coz it’s something different. I take that opportunity to take a nap and she’s not allowed to disturb me! Ha! She tries lah, maybe for like 30 mins. However, we find that once a week or so, she still needs a day nap to get thru the day.

I got used to waking up late when we were in HK. Sophie would sleep at the same time as us e.g. 10, 11pm or 12am and wake up at the same time as us, at 10am, 11am or 12pm. Yes, she still mastered the 12 hrs even when travelling! Super! Anyways, I got so used to it, I couldn’t go back to waking up at 7am so we shifted her bedtime to 7.30/8pm. Now she wakes up at about 8am or later everyday. NICE!

Her schedule goes like this:

8am Wakey Wakey, drink 180ml of milk frm a cup, eat breakfast with Mummy, brush teeth

9am Park

10am Play

11am Watch TV

1130/12pm Lunch with Mummy & Daddy

12.30pm Bathe

1pm Nap

2.30pm Play/Meet Friends/Run Errands

5.30pm Watch TV

6pm Dinner

6.30pm Bathe, turn down lights, prepare for bed

7.30pm Sleep

Since coming back frm HK, she’s more accustomed to sleeping late so if we have functions e.g she’ll pretty much party with us till late esp if there are other kids around without much fuss. She only starts fussing once we get into the car /cab and if we do not have the pacifier with us, that’s it! She’ll be wailing on and off and I’ll have to count her to sleep OR sing the entire journey.

For her meals, Sophie’s eating adult food at least once, if not twice a day. I’ve stopped cooking separately for her as much as I can. She eats what we eat and all the more if we are out. Although I do keep up the fruits and vegs and minimise the salt and sugar intake for all of us at home, I’m not so uptight about it when we’re out. It really makes things a lot easier since we are out and travel so much. Sophie’s pretty open to eating anything, although not a lot and she has her moods. Her fav sure win meal anytime is MAC & CHEESE. No brainer. She can be sick and still eat a whole meal of it.

Sophie’s pretty much off diapers at home now (SAVING ME LOTS OF $$!!!). She hardly tells me if she needs to go so we just go every hour or so and it works. I haven’t got the guts to try doing it outside yet. Only once so far.

My little one is growing up so fast!!!

7.30am

Rise & Shine, Breakfast together

8am

Brush Teeth

This is something that I started recently with her. We brush our teeth together to get Sophie used to the idea of brushing her teeth. She’s so familiar with this routine that she’ll say brush teeth once she’s done with her breakfast. She doesn’t really brush her teeth. She just gets a kick out of standing on a stool and playing with her tooth brush. She’ll ask for tooth paste but she doesn’t like it. Strange. Once I’m done, I’ll take a towel glove and give her teeth a swipe and rub. She hates that btw. But I still do it anyway.

After that she’ll just go around doing her own stuff while I wait for her to poo. She always poos after breakfast. At some point when I’m brave enough, i’m going to toilet train her. Lazy me. Now once she poos, I’ll change her diaper and her pjs.

8.30am

Chinese and English Reading

I’m trying to incorporate this into her schedule for 10-15mins a day. So far we’ve been doing her Chinese Flash Cards. Knowing me, if I don’t schedule it in, we’ll just not do it and more and more I feel that giving her that 5-10 mins of Chinese will help. But she’s not always cooperative so if she’s not up to it, we’ll just read other books.

9am

Playground/Outing/Marketing

This varies from day to day.

10.30/11am

Snack + 120ml Milk

Instead of giving her lunch before her nap, I now give her lunch after her nap. Works out much better for us because she used to get cranky by lunch and ate very little.

11.30/12pm

Nap

She now naps for 1 – 2hrs. This gives me time to have a shower/meetings/do some work/cook etc.

1.30pm

Lunch

This way, we can all have lunch together and she’s more awake to eat properly.

2pm

Bathe

I use the shower to bath her now coz she doesn’t want to even sit in the tub to play with water anymore. But she’ll cling onto my legs like a little koala bear coz she hates shampooing and washing hair.

2.30pm

Play/Outing

3 hrs is a long long time to be with a toddler. For a period of time, she just wants to hang out with me but nowadays she’ll play on her own and even pretend to read. Very cute. Time seem to past quite fast. Sometimes we have visitors so that keeps her occupied and she loves visitors.

5.30pm

Dinner and Bathe

Before dinner, she gets about 10-15 mins of TV time while I get dinner ready. After dinner and a quick bathe, we norm turn down the lights and start to get her ready for bed. Daddy normally comes home at about 6 and he’ll play and read to her. It’s their special time together while I wash the dishes, get our dinner ready and tidy up the house.

7pm

Milk, Clean Teeth, Reading, Prayer and Off to Bed

Now with only 1 nap, she’s always very ready to sleep by 7ish. She’s been really good at bedtime. We do a lot of reading at bedtime, going through a few books at a time on her request. She knows most of her books by name so if she’s trying to delay bedtime, she’ll just keep calling out the book names. Super funny. We always end with reading the bible and then prayer. If she’s in a hurry to sleep, she’ll quickly say Amen before we finish praying. She’s funny like that.