Map and Swimming Buddies

This week, Map's love for blueberries disappeared - just when mommy had bought 3 more packs of blueberries specially for Map. Now she did not want to have anything to do with blueberries anymore.  The love for blueberries was now replaced by that of strawberries.  Map would run to the fridge and tried to reach for strawberries.  She would have strawberries for breakfast and for mid-afternoon snack.  Bye bye blueberries!  Let see how long the love for strawberries would last. 


Map's breakfast every morning was like a buffet.  When she no longer wanted any item, she would shake her head and said 'no'.  She would have fresh fruits cut into small pieces (this week was strawberries), yoghurt, apple sauce, dry cereal, cereal with milk, scramble eggs and waffle.  Map did not like bread, bread with peanut butter, toast by itself, toast with jam, toast with peanut butter, pancake or french toast.  If Map and mommy went for a walk before breakfast, then Map would have blueberries-strawberries cereal bar along the way.  Map was very fond of the walk in the morning.  Everyday when she woke up, she would say 'milk' and  'walk'. 


Last week Map had playdate with swimming buddies - Zac and Misha.  Zac was 3 years old. Misha was 2.5 years old.  Misha also brought an 8-month old brother - Matthew.  It was fun to see the kids running and crawling around.

Map and Zac at playdate

Sitting in bumbo seats - both were too old for the seats

Map eating Zac's Milo cereal

Zac about to watch his iPad

Misha and Matthew

Map

Map and Zac

Map and Tabletop

Map was now 17 months old.  In the last two week (but more prominent in the last one week), Map wanted to climb all things.  Her favorite was dining table.  But she also climbed chairs, cabinet with glass top, coffee table, ladder, stairs, baby gate, etc.  All day long she would climb something.  When she climbed to the top of the dining table, she would start running lengthwise from one end to the other -  back and forth.  This gave Mommy close to heart attack every time.  Saying 'no' to her was not helping.  And when mommy tried to take her down, the moment her feet touched the floor, she would immediately climbed the dining chairs to reach the top of the dining table again.  In the last 2 days, she started dancing on the top of dining table too, even twirling.  It was very funny.  According to the child-rearing books, climbing to the high place was the milestone of 17-month baby.  

Map on top of the dining table while Daddy feeding her blueberries

Daddy - look, it's bird!

Wow!

Yummy yummy!

Ha ha ha!

Map was such a toddler now! Two weeks ago, her favorite snack was applesauce.  She would call it 'appleja' because Ja - our helper - made applesauce for her.  For the whole 2 weeks, she would eat and eat and eat applesauce.  Ja would put 5 apples to make applesauce and Map would finish that within one and a half day.  However after 30 apples, it seemed Map had now move on to something else.  She rarely ate applesauce in the last few days.  Today it seemed she had found new favorite.  We went to Carrefour and bought four boxes of blueberries for Daddy yesterday. Blueberries this time were quite sweet and Map finished half a box of blueberries in the morning after her breakfast.  In the evening after her dinner, she ran to the fridge, gestured to Mommy to open the fridge, then tried to reach the boxes of blueberries on the top shelf.  Lo and behold, she finished the whole box of blueberries by herself after dinner. Mommy was quite sure Daddy would rarely get to eat blueberries this time and we would soon had to go buy more blueberries for Map.  But it remained to be seen how long this love of blueberries would last.

Blueberries yum!

Daddy - more more!

One box of blueberries and still going strong!

Hey you!

Right now when Map wanted anybody to pick her up, she would say 'come come' and extended both her arms toward that person.  She imitated this from Mommy who did it when Mommy wanted Map to come to her.  It was very funny to see Map did it with such passion.  

Daddy daddy!

Daddy, come come!

More come come, daddy!

Let's check nutrition facts on this cereal

Mommy, can I stay here whole day long?

Mommy, come come!

Map and the Flu

Map had just recovered from a flu. She got it from a friend at swim class. The first day she started to eat less.  By the second day, she had high fever with temperature of 40c.  Mommy and Daddy were very worried, so we took her to emergency room at Mount Elizabeth hospital - which was very close to home.  The doctor gave suppository to lower the fever - within 15 minutes the fever came down.  The medicine must be very strong.  We had to give baby paracetamol to Map when the fever was below 39c and suppository when fever was above 39c.  The next 2 days after that Map's high fever happened only at night.  But by 5th day, the high fever happened during the day too.  Mommy was very worried because three days after we went to the hospital, Map was not getting better and starting to cough as well.  So we took Map to see Map's pediatrician - Dr. Siva at Kinder Clinic.  Dr. Siva gave more medicine for Map.  By this time, Map had to take around 6 medicines each time.  It was so heart wrenching to hear Map cry so much because she didn't want to take medicine.  Fortunately, our helper - Ja - was very good at giving medicine to baby.  Ja had an iron grip that Map could not wriggle free.  Mommy swore she would lift Map and run away from anyone who cough nearby from now on, because it was so horrible to see Map really sick.  By day 10th, Map started to get better.  Map lost a lot of weight from not eating much during the time she was sick.  She would not drink milk and only ate applesauce.

Map during the evening walk - after recovering from the flu

Map posting for camera

Map, Daddy and cats

Hello, I'm Map

I'm waiting to pick Daddy up from the MRT station

Posting for picture

I'm so happy, Daddy is back from work

Walking back home after visiting cats

Daddy - wait for me!

Map and Swimming

Map walking to see cats

Map's latest vocabularies since last blog 

• Jirt (for shirt)
• Cold (for cold)
• Hug (for hug)
• Huggie (for hug)
• Wajer (for water)
• No (for no)
• Yeah (for yes)
• Watch (for watch)
• What (for what)
• Why (for why)
• No-ty (for naughty)
• No-sy (for noisy)
• Door (for door)
• TV (for TV)
• Ju (for juice)
• Tee (for tree)
• Book (for book)
• Walk (for walk)
• Work (for work)
• Hippo (for hippo)
• Eat (for eat)
• Milk (for milk)
• Cook-ki (for cookie)
• Birch (for bird)
• Read a book (for read a book) - yes, this was the first 3-word sentence she spoke
• Nam (for 'water' in Thai)
• Oau (for 'want' in Thai)
• Mai-oau (for 'don't want' in Thai)
• Ook (for 'out' in Thai)

Map had been swimming since she was 8-months old with AquaDuck.  At the end of Feb, AquaDuck held the Swimming Awards Week to monitor the progress the children were making.  

Map and the Duckling Level 3 Award 

Map got "Duckling Award Level 3" as she demonstrated the following:

1. Unassisted jumps to instructor/parent from edge of pool union cues (with/without) submersion)

2. Demonstrate breath holding response

3. Kick and retrieve toy with submersion

4. Complete submersion (stage 3)

The teachers took underwater pictures of all the babies in the class during the Swimming Award Week.  Here are Map pictures under the water.

Map opening eyes underwater

Map breathing underwater

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