Candra at 20.5 months

Over the past few days, my little girl has been humming the melody of the alphabet song... the whole song, to our surprise! And I must say that she sounds very much in tune :) The 2 other songs which she love are "Twinkle, twinkle" and "Ni2 wa1 wa1". :) For "Twinkle, twinkle", she will sing the last word of every line and for "Ni2 wa1 wa1" she will sing the words which she knows, like wa1 wa1, papa, mama etc. :) Picking up songs really quickly I must say. I am now waiting to hear her hum another familiar melody!

Wow.. she's asserting herself a lot more now and so obedience training's getting tougher I must say. Because she can now express her wants much more than before, we got to guide her a lot more. Now I understand why some tell me that it gets tougher... it really does cos she wants to make her own decisions and wants her own way at times. Just yesterday, she challenged my instruction to put her shoes on the shoe rack and took quite a while before she finally decided to obey. Challenging limits... as usual...

Recently, she's been starting to give me problems with her teeth-brushing at night. She was at that habit for quite a while until she decided to give us problems recently. She just refuses to brush.. but in the morning, she's quite fine. Weird! We are wondering how we should go about resolving that... "Oh Lord, PLEASE HELP US!".

I guess as they grow older, they start to learn how to whine as well. Whining is a no-no in our home. So yup, that's another thing we've been trying to teach her. No whining, as a form of communication.

Ah.. Potty training is another headache for me. This girl knows exactly what the potty is for, given that she's so intelligent and has always displayed such amazing understanding of what goes on around her.. but she simply REFUSES to go to the potty. If she does ever poop in the potty cos I bring her there by force, she will immediately stand up and direct me to use the newspapers to clear her waste away! ARGH!!!! That's all she does with respect to the potty, tell mummy to use the newspapers to clean up. Sigh.. when will she ever learn and when can we stop wasting diapers? "Oh Lord, PLEASE HELP US!"

Well, putting aside the difficulties we have been facing with her growing up.. she's been the same adorable and sweet girl. She can express that it is God whom we pray to, it is God who blesses us with everything, it is God whom we worship in church every week, it is God who instructs her to obey papa and mama etc. She's learning so much everyday.. :) N we trust that she's been growing spiritually, that's what matters the most to us.

This girl's really funny.. recently, she will take special note of how we address each other in the family. For eg, I call my elder sis, "jie jie", and she will do the same instead of calling her "ah ya"!! I call my dad, "papa" and she will do the same... cheekily though cos she knows she's not supposed to. :) She will purposely say things she's not supposed to just to get everyone laughing! SUPER CUTE!

On my end, it's been quite tiring and draining at times because I am about to deliver soon.. and it doesn't help that this little girl's becoming exceptionally clingy...(cos she knows didi's coming probably). Sometimes, I lose my patience towards her and I feel really bad about that. As a human being, it's so difficult to shower unconditional love all the time... we are just so weak. Guess I can only keep turning to God to ask for forgiveness and strength to love in the midst of all the difficulties... especially with No. 2 coming along. Now I really admire those parents with more than 1 kid.... God stretches our capacity to love so much when we have children.