Back to Reality

We got back from vacation late Tuesday night (flight came in at 11:35pm after travelling for over 24 hours)and back to work on Wednesday. We’re jet lagging like crazy – 12 hour difference takes it’s toll, you know! I have tons of pics and vids to sort through and hopefully will do a “travel” blog recapping our adventures for 3 weeks in the Philippines…stay tuned.

But first things first, I’d like to announce that Little Miss Razz poopied in the pottie this morning! She peed once before we left for vacation and didn’t really attempt it again until this morning! She just gave 9/11 a happier meaning

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To those who perished, RIP. To those left behind, stay strong.
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PS – WHERE did the summer go? I know before we left, we were finally feeling the summer heat, but I’m hearing it lasted all of 2 weeks? Today, it’s 60s and raining???

Shapes, Letters and Sentences, oh my!

Razz is now 22 months old. I feel like such a slacker-mom for not updating her developments as of late, but believe me, girlfriend’s moving along just fine and is a smart little cookie.

• Letters. She’s almost got all her letters down. She’ll still confuse “X” with “Y” or “K” and “Z” with “N”, but that’s expected (and could be my handwriting too…lol).
• Colors. She knows her colors, for the most part. The first thing she says when she sees me change out of pajamas is the color of my shirt.
• Shapes. She comes up to me a gazillion times a day with her little Doodle Pro and asks me to write her letters and shapes. Why is it she has triangle, heart, star, moon, flower, butterfly, diamond, and tree down, but still gets confused with square, circle and rectangle? She knows what they are, but still gets them wrong every now and then. I’ll say, “no, try again” when she gets it wrong and 9 out of 10 times, she’ll get right.
• Active lil’ bugger! She loves to run around and play tag w/her sister. She loves to play hide and seek and hop scotch (she struggles w/her balance a bit, but it’s still too cute). She loves the playground never wants to leave. Her faves are the slide and swing. She loves to mimic her sister’s TKD moves (kicks and punches) and adds in a “hai-ya!” too.
• Girlile-Girl. She is a girlie-girl…much more than Beans was at this age/stage. Her favorite color is Pink. She knows all the Disney Princesses (well, we tried to avoid that w/Beans at an early age, but she got to know them b/c we finally started to introduce them to Beans lately). She loves to play dress up.
• Eater. Girl can eat! I mean REALLY eat! Everyone loves feeding her b/c she just has an awesome appettite and she will let you know when she is hungry. “Mommy, eat? Eat? Hungry!”
• Words/Sentences. This has to be what has surprised us the most. Her vocabulary seems to have developed 10-fold in just a few weeks plus, she’s saying sentences now! Granted, she’s not making speeches, but we still get caught of guard when she’ll just say something like “Beans turn” or “My turn” or “I dunno” or “we swimming? need diapie! bathingsuit!” or “I’m sorry Mommy/Daddy (whomever)” and follows that up w/a hug and kiss. The best – “I ub u Mommy/Daddy” and “I miss you Mommy/Daddy”. Sometimes, we can’t even believe she’s fully understanding us and vice-versa.

We bought her a potty, but am not too sure if she’s really ready for it yet. She doesn’t have full on solid poopies yet (TMI? sorry!) and she still can’t pull the Pull-Ups down yet on her own. She likes to just sit on the potty. We tried taking it off and having her sit, but nothing yet. She’d rather sit on it w/a diapie on, but we still can’t tell if she’s peeing in her diapie while sitting or just wants to sit on her throne. Beans was a little easier to train b/c I knew her routine. She drank a lot of milk before bed and even during the night so first thing in the morning, she would have to pee. Razz doesn’t really drink all that much before bed and nothing through the night so I’m not sure when it is she has to go. Sometimes, I’ll go to change her in the morning and she’s still dry!

The only thing buggin’ me is when it’s time to brush her teeth. She HATES it. Well, she likes it when pDaddy does it, but not me. But, I’m the one that still does it more and I can’t get it to the cleanliness I like and…unfortunately, it’s starting to show Her teeth look like she’s the one that drank too much milk overnight and not Beans when it’s really the opposite. Someone said it was all that breastmilk overnight. I did just wean her in April so maybe??? Any ideas on how to “fix” her teeth? I can’t find a dentist close by that has patients under the age of 6. I may have to take a trip to my parents’ town b/c I think they check kids as young as 1 or 2. Such a shame b/c she does make the cutest faces and has such a pretty smile…

Razz’ 18 month Update

It’s been awhile since I spoke of Razz’ developments…She turned 18 months as of the 15th…Let’s see now…

Some words in addition to the others:

• “Ano”  (means “What?” in Tagalog)
• “Bub”  (means “b00b” as in she wants to nurse)
• No
• Yeeetttt (for yes)
• PooPoo – though she doesn’t really tell us unless we say it first.
• uh-uh….I can’t sound it out, but it’s how she says “no” or doesn’t like something sometimes…complete with attitude!

 

She loves to try to color and write.  She’s getting familiar w/letters and once you tell her, she’ll be able to point them out to you.  For example, I was wearing a sweatshirt that had the word “Lifeguard” on it.  I’ll tell her the letters and ask her to point them out and she can and even says them too.  Well, almost all letters except I think G…?  She also recognizes the following letters – A, N, Y, P, R, S, T, E, D, I, C, O, M, N.  If I start saying the “A, B, C’s”, I will stop after every letter and ask her to repeat.  She does very well…she has  a bit of a hard time with H, W and a couple of others.  She mixes up a few – like, B, D and V, but that’s ok.  When we get to “K”, she’ll say “L, M, M”…hehehe…too cute!

She also now loves to hum and sing and makes up her own words or finishes the last word or syllable in (almost) the right tune.  Beans has started singing “I Can’t Smile without You” by Barry Manilow and “Can’t Fight this Feeling Anymore” by REO Speedwagon.  Razz will finish off the verses   too cute to see them singing together.

She loves to play and run around with her sister and enjoys the slide.  She also makes our living room into her own playground – climbing the couches and sliding off.  She also climbs from one couch to the next…makes our hearts skip a beat so we try not to let her do it, but she’ll do it anyway…lol…

She is still nursing and we’re working on weaning her more.  We just can’t get her to take a bottle / sippy cup for milk…She still wakes up in the middle of the night / early morning and wants to be nursed   So, no, I haven’t slept straight.  Can’t remember the last time I did. 

 

And PS – she has about 12 teeth…yes, 12…and nursing.

Ramblin Rose…I mean Razz…

Razz has been babbling / talking a heck of a lot more these days.  She loves to babble and roll her tongue…She also can now say the following words:

• Daddy
• Nana
• Mama (what she calls me and Mama Brend b/c she can’t say “Mommy” for some reason)
• Papa
• Lolo
• Mum
• Duh (for dogers)
• Boo
• Poo-Poo
• Me
• Laway
• Tatay
• Nanay
• Elmo (what she calls Elmo and Wall-E)
• Ye-Ye – courtesy of “Ni Hao Kailan” (Ye-Yemeans grandpa in Chinese)
• Abba – I would love to say this is because of the musical group Abba, but alas this is courtesty of “Yo Gabba Gabba”.
• and of course – DORA

So, she can say “mum” and she can say “me”, but she can’t say “mommy”.

What is it about my daughters that they can’t say “Mommy”?  They start out saying it and then forget?  Kiana was the same way.  She would be able to call me at times of distress (and by distress I mean she wants to get out of her playpen/exersaucer or wants a toy out of her reach), but that was the only time she would call me until later on.  Weird huh or is it a common thing? hhmmmmm

 

Oh and the best part?  She loves to sing herself some pop tunes…For example, if we sing “Mamma Mia” by Abba, she’ll say “why, why” during that part of the chorus and sing the instrumental beat too.  She also says “Ella, Ella, Ella…eh-eh-eh” for Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and “Low, Low, Low” for Flo-ri-da’s “Low”.  Of course, she also loves her nursery rhymes like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” where she’ll add the last word to each line and that’s the same to ABCs and “Itsy-Bitsy Spider”, etc…She also LOVES “Pat-a-Cake”…

Words for Razz

Lately, Razz has been saying little things here and there and expressing her self more and more.  Just this morning, Beans asked Razz: “What’s my name Razz?”  Razz answered, “Na-Na”  (which is what we sometimes call Beans).

Proud and stunned, Beans asked her again:  “Razz, what’s my name?”  Razz’ response this time?  “Ate*” (pronounced “ahhh-teh”).   Is that awesome or what?  She doesn’t know her own name, but at least she knows her sister’s…hehehe…I just asked her now what her name was, she said, “Dowa”…lol…This girls loves her “Dora, The Explorer”.

 What else has Razz been saying?

• Dada, Dida, Daddeh – all forms of Daddy
• Mama & Papa – my in-laws
• Wowo (Lolo = grandfather in Tagalog) & Mum – my parents
• Mumum (how she asks for a drink / water)

 

*”Ate” is how you address older girls  - sisters, cousins, family friends – in Tagalog.  You would put “Ate” before their first name, for example:  Ate Mary, Ate Jane).

“Kuya” (almost sounds like kumbaya minus the “umba”…lol) is how you address older boys – brothers, cousins, family friends…”Kuya” Jay, “Kuya” John.