Haye Li's Memoirs: Mummy's entry - some updates after a long hiatus!

This post is going to be a long one with many pictures so bear with us! LOL!

I wanted to do a 20 months update but Haye Li had Hands Foot and Mouth disease (HFMD) and I was going to update about that except that I didn't manage to. Since she's already approaching 23 months in 2 weeks time, I might as well do as much updates as I can since the last update. There are many outstanding posts from last year till now but those will wait for now. :)

This girl has grown so much especially in her speech. Her words doesn't sound clear but you can roughly make up what she's trying to say. She loves telling on her sister now like:-

cher cher beat mei-mei ('s) leg
cher cher disturb/pinch/bully mei-mei
mummy, cher-cher hmmmph (whenever Rye Li disobeys me, she will do this and I will tell her off so this little fart takes the opportunity and tells on her whenever Rye Li does this behind my back).

Such sisterly love eh. She loves following what Rye Li does and whatever Rye Li wants, she also wants. Most of the time Rye Li will gives in to her but there are times these 2 will fight till no end and both will end up being punished.

Way months back she has always ask us what were we doing by going “What doing?” but lately, it has come more often in her aggressive tone “what doing ah?” and if we do not response to her, she will add on “hah? Haaaah?” until she gets a response. At times she really sounds like an old lady with her asking us questions.

There was one time she asked me for something and I replied No, and she went “Why?”. She picked this up from her sister definitely and I just had to explain why she can't have whatever she wanted.

She still cannot pronounce some letters well so some words will sound like :-
“deh” = there
“der” = the
“tum” = come
“tai-tai” = kai-kai
“toong-toong” = kong-kong
"por” = four/floor
“tar” = star/car
“poon” = spoon
“ady” = already
“eh too me” = excuse me

"pill" = spill

If you ask her how old she is, she will go "too ah oh" (two years old) and if you ask her what is her name, she will go "mei-mei" although she knows how to say "hay yi" and she will point to herself if you ask her where is Haye Li.

I am not worried about this girl being bullied because she really knows how to fight back. I'm guessing coz she's the 2nd child and also that she has to fend for herself at the daycare. In June, we attended their cousin's 1st birthday party at McD's and at the playground, there was this little boy (not from the party), probably several months older than her, started following her around and bullied her by hugging her tightly and didn't allow her to move. Although she complaint, she fought back by pushing him away but the boy didn't get the message and kept following her around. As he wasn't exactly causing harm to her, I let them be since she just pushed him away. But the boy got aggressive a little later by really holding her down and since he's bigger size than her, she wasn't able to release herself and she started screaming so I intervened. By this time, they were at the top of the slide where I told the boy to please let her go. Next thing I knew, he wanted to push her down from there and I myself screamed. Luckily, the father of the boy came and started screaming at him.

She's also one tough cookie – she had many falls especially involving her head ever since she became mobile till now . Of course she cried like mad and had bumps all over her head. Some bumps have been there for the longest time and I will be asking her doctor in the next visits whether I should be worried (It never came an issue coz she was very much herself after the falls). Anyhow, these were the major falls. With minor falls, depending on her mood and if she knew we witnessed them, she would complaint about them. If not, she would just get up and moved on as if nothing happened.

She loves singing now and can entertain herself with that, especially at nights when all of us are asleep and this girl just doesnt want to sleep yet. Some times she can have her own conversation till she falls asleep. It can be quite funny. Some of the songs she loves singing (although not complete), “ABC, The more we get together, Twinkle little star, Baa Baa black sheep, The wheels on the bus (she loves to go “all to duh town”). And her all time favourite album is Mammamia! No kidding, she can even sing most of the songs and she's not even 2 yet.

When she had HFMD early July, it was a major thing for us as this is the first time we're experiencing such a disease. Before that, we only heard of stories and thought that it is very serious. But from this experience, we found that it is very common for kids to have them as there are hundreds if not thousands of strains from this disease. It was a wonder that Rye Li never ever gotten it since she was put at the daycare since a baby. Anyhow, Haye Li was the first it seems to get it from the daycare this round and soon after, another 2 more at the daycare had it. I am not sure where she gotten it from.

The following pics were when she had all the white spots in her mouth and it was painful to eat but she still wanted to, on her own...

She had slight fever for several days before we found out that it was actually HFMD. I thought she was teething and didn't think anything about it (All her teeth are out already, way faster than her sister's time). It was only when she started complaining that it was painful when she drank milk that I thought we better bring her in to see the doc. The doc confirmed that it was HFMD (her throat was full of white spots) and there were no medication for it except to let the virus finish its own course on her. And just to ensure that she still takes a lot of liquid. She hardly ate and didn't drink much for 2 days (even after forcing and coaxing) that we wanted to bring her in to the hospital for drips the next morning (since we didn't want to risk having trainees to do the needle insertion on her vains on that Sunday). I think she sense our worry and that night itself, she got up in the middle of the night asking for water. She only drank from the cup since drinking from the bottle hurts and when she finished, she asked for milk in a cup. I happily made it and she finished them up and went back to sleep. In the morning, she had some sweets and chilled yoghurt and although she complaint that her mouth was painful and would cry, she was determined enough to still eat some. I was soooo happy then and just praised her. So she saved herself from the hospital and that whole week, both Haye Li and Rye Li put up at my mom's instead of the daycare and school. They both had so much fun at their grandparent's that Rye Li didn't want to go back to school the following week!

And I know I've mentioned before on how stubborn and anal this little gal can be but whatever she was before, it cannot be worst than now. She must have her way all the time, full stop! And if you do not let her, she would give you the cold shoulder! LOL, well, she knows she cannot avoid me but she will do this to others especially to her papa. Majority of the time, we do not give in to her and she will put on a tantrum. So we will just let her be to cry.

On how anal she can be? She needs routine and she remembers them, even if you have done it just once with her. Lately, she has been coughing quite often and so I will put the baby vicks on her. I will put on her soles first, then on her chest and then on her neck. And even though she is busy drinking her milk from the bottle while I do this, she can point at these places to remind me. One time, I purposely ignore a spot and she reminded me.

She loves swimming too. For quite some time now, in the last 3 months or so, we have been taking the girls swimming at our condo's pool weekly, something which we didn't do in the past with Rye Li. From the beginning, Haye Li has been pretty courageous and wants us to leave her alone, to let her move around on her own. Our baby pool has this slanted wall that joins the waddling pool to the baby pool and kids can slide down on it. It can be slippery and we were worried that she would slip and fall. After several attempts of holding on to her and reminding her to walk slowly, we now let her go on her own. Of course, with the floats on. When she discovered that she can float, whether frontwards or backwards with the float, she has gained her confidence in doing whatever she wants in the water. This week itself, she jumped right in to her baby pool without her floats on and true enough, she slipped and fell in. She drank some water while trying to get up and it was like 15-20 seconds before hubby could reach her. She cried like mad after that but not long after that, once she had her floats on, she went back to her usual self walking in and out of the pool. If this happened to Rye Li, we will know that it would take a while before we can coax her back into the pool!

Having mentioned how anal and stubborn this girl can be, I am glad that she also understands to reasoning at times. There were 3 instances she was not feeling well and hence could not go swimming over the weekends. So while her sister went swimming, I took her to play at the playground instead. When she saw her sister all geared up for swimming, she went and took her swimming suit as well and when I told her she could not, she did show a little fuss. But I reasoned with her that she was not well but I will take her to the playground and she agreed. And when she saw her sister having fun, she wanted to join in but when I reminded her, she would just stand at the side and laughed along with her sister.

the time when she could not go swimming and had to settle for the playground

papa gave her some fun although she could not swim!

And speaking of her sister and how this little one loves telling on her sister, most times, she will want the things or toys the sister is busy at and will end up fighting with her. Most of the time, Rye Li will give in to her but those instances when both do not want to give in, both will end up being punished, either at the naughty corner or both do not get the toys. There was one time, when Rye Li was being punished and was not allowed swimming while Haye Li went with her papa. Surprisingly, Haye Li didn't stay long in the pool and asked to come home just because her sister was not with her. We were both surprised as the weeks before that she could not go swimming and thought she would want to play as long as she could. Guess it was not fun coz she had no one to fight with. Lol! These two can at times be so loving to each other and at times can be so at each others nerves. I cannot imagine when they're both in their teens.

Below are more pictures of Haye Li taken some time back, some of it which is recently :-