Excuses

Children nowadays are sharp tongue and full of excuses when it comes to work. They are disrespectful, inconsiderate and rebellious. Will mine turn out to be like them(or they are already so) when I get responses like these:

Mummy: Who did this? [someone did something naughty]
Jerilyn: It's Mei2.

Mummy: Jerilyn, (do something).
Jerilyn: You (do it). I am (excuse).

Mummy: Jerilyn, dont (do something).
Jerilyn: Yah, I know, but then, (excuse).

[Jesslyn was playing with water by pouring water from her bottle and swing her arms on it. Jerilyn saw the fun and joined her.]
Mummy: Jerilyn, stop Jesslyn from pouring the water.
Jerilyn: Ok. [But, she herself poured the water. I scolded her. After a while,]
Jerilyn: Mei2, you pour. I dont know how. [I am surprised she knows to save her butt by putting others in hot soup.]

Toys

I didnt have many toys when I was young. One of the most expensive toys I had is Lego which cost RM100++ 20 years back. Sis. and I took care of it and made sure we didnt lose any pcs (a few are missing) or break them. Just for the record, we love our other toys too.

My parents had kept Lego in their store until recently when my dad thought it is time to pass it on to Jerilyn. He passed the box to me last Saturday and Jerilyn has been having fun building bicycle, see-saw, swing and robot. 3 days later, the most dreaded thing happened. She broke 1 of the pcs. I was fuming inside. But to my own surprise, my reaction was much milder than I thought. I only gave her a piece of my mind and that's it. [Since the maid left, my temper does not go flaring so easily]. She tried to defend herself with accusing tone; saying that she doesnt know how to remove the pcs and that it's difficult to pull them away. Hmm.... so, it has become my fault?

More about Js'

# POTTY TRAINING(Part 3)
We should be happy that Jesslyn is toilet trained.[Yes, we are]. However, this doesnt come without inconveniences.Can you guess what is the inconvenience?
Imagine your, less than 2yo child, pestering incessantly for toilet - "Mummy, shee shee. Daddy, shee shee" in a quiet, almost romantic dining place. What would you do? At first, we tried to ignore her but she was getting louder and louder and also stood up in her high chair. I asked hubby to take her to the car as we had a potty in case of emergency. They went and returned but there was no shee shee. Most probably by the time we took her pleas seriously, she had relieved herself in the diapers. :-p

# SONGS

In addtion to the list of songs I posted a few weeks back, Jesslyn is also confident with these songs.

1. London Bridge
2. Row, Row, Row the Boat
3. Three Blind Mice (She can only sing 3 Blind Mice, See how they run)
4. Polly Put the Kettle on (She misses the word 'Kettle' tho)

# PRONUNCIATION & LANGUAGE
My dad always complain that Jerilyn cannot pronunce the 'l' and 'r' properly. Her 'play' sounds more like 'pay'. 'Jesslyn' becomes 'Jessyn' and what is worse is her name which consists of both 'l' and 'r' - instead of 'Jerilyn Goh Kai Lin', it's 'Jerrlyn Goh Kai Yin'. I feel that it's a temporary problem and most children will grow out of it. Dont they? But, sis thinks that she may bring this to adulthood. Will she?
I give her the benefit of doubt because she is learning a few languages and dialect. Her 1st language is English and she masters Malay language quite well. Other than that, she learns Teo Chew from her granny and also tries to communicate with her cousins in Mandarin. My aunts advise my dad to teach her Hakka dialect but my dad is not keen. He thinks that she is already learning too many languages for her age.

Life after Maid

1 week after the maid has gone, life has been good if not great. Good because there is nothing for me to get upset about and most importantly, I dont have to see her face. Yes, I hate her.
Anyway, on Monday and Tuesday, my dad was in charge of Jesslyn and MIL took care of Jerilyn. I was on leave on Wednesday & today(Friday). Hubby was on leave yesterday.
On Wednesday, I started my day at 830am and throughout the day, I was on my feet except the times when I had to burn dvd for my dad and facebooking. I changed my kids to day clothes, fed them, did the laundry, washed the dishes and did all sorts of cleaning. I swept 4 times and mopped twice. This excludes the numerous wipings I had to do cuz of the sticky, oily, dusty, dirty surfaces. I really wonder how others manage their house chores or am I suffering from obsession with cleanliness?
P/S I had to empty the potty about 20times too in a day!

Potty Training (Part 2)

Exactly 1 week after Jesslyn said No to diapers, I can proudly say that she 90% trained for daytime. Over the past 3 days, there has been NO accidents at all and I dont even have to ask her if she needs a wee. She herself will go to the potty whenever she has the need. As if knowing that it is 'not right' to wee in her pants, the moment she has the urge, she quickly throttles to the potty. Sometimes, there is no wee at all.
She didnt need the diapers during nap times too for the past 2 afternoons.
I believe it wont be long before she can go without diapers at night.
Jesslyn is 20m11d old.

Falling in Love

At 1 time, the mention of 'doctor' gave Jerilyn the shivers and taking medicine was more like taking poison to her. We could not persuade, bribe or threaten her. However, now, she has fallen in love with doctors and medicine.
She asks for medicine with just a cough. She even asks for medicine although she is perfectly fine. If she thinks she is unwell, she wants to see the doctor. How peculiar!

Some of you may be wondering what happens after the miracles on the 4th(Wednesday). She has been diaper free for 3 consecutive days (whenever I am home). I had to work in the morning so I couldnt tell what happened. But, I made sure she didnt wear her napkins since I reached home at 1pm on Thursday and Friday. On those 2 days, about 20%-30% of the number of peeing times ended up on the floor. Other than asking her frequently(about 1-2hours after the last pee), she herself is quite conscious with her urge to pee. She herself will go to the potty and sit on it every once in a while. Probably she has the urge but she could not tell her bladder to release. So, she ends up sitting, getting up, walking around it and sitting on it again repeatedly. Though Jerilyn was potty trained around the same age, but I'm still stunned at Jesslyn's readiness for potty training. It happened overnight from nothing to volunteering continuously to use the potty. She could hold her bladder too from announcing her urge to taking her shorts and walking to the potty which may take 10secs.

Potty Training @ 20months

Just a few days back, I was lamenting how much longer Jeslyn has to depend on pampers.
But, yesterday 'miracles' happened. It started with this:
1. I was getting her ready for bath time and as usual, she wanted to sit on the toilet bowl. I put her on it and to my surprise, she wee in it. It was the 2nd time she wee in the toilet bowl.
2. After bathing, we put in her napkin and about half an hour, she said "Shee2", pulling down her shorts. Very quickly I put her in the potty and to my surprise, she did it again on the potty. I was surprised she could control her bladder until she sat on it. Moreover, normally, she said "Shee2" AFTER she has wee-ed.
3. Only then, the maid told me that in the morning, Jesslyn said "Boo2" to her and the maid had enough time to put her in the toilet bowl(in grandma's house) before she did her thing.
4. Before bedtime, Jesslyn said the magic word again and did her thing at the right place!!!
Wasnt that a miracle?!

Short Conversation wt Jesslyn

Daddy has a habit of miss-calling me after work(so that I can estimate his return). Sometimes, Jesslyn would take the call but it is always cancelled before she could answer it. Few nights back, she answered the call again but this time, she accidentally called the house phone. Excitedly, she put down my handphone to pick up the other call. She said "Hello?" and waited a few seconds. Realising there was nobody on the other line, she replaced the receiver and quipped "I dont know?" Probably she was telling us that there was no 1 on the other line. She has an interesting slang which you can hear in the video above. Pay attention from the beginning.

Jesslyn shows her proficiency in the English language by using new words and 3word sentences everyday. She can also answer some questions in BM. The questions she understands include "Makan apa?" & "Anak siapa?" She herself can use about 20BM words which include habis, minum, apa?, makan, tidur, masak, tutup, duduk etc... However, very soon, the 2 have to start learning Cambodian as this maid is returning to Indonesia in 2 weeks time. I am really worried how they can communicate with a Cambodian who I heard are mostly English illiterate although their resume say otherwise. Mostly importantly, she must love kids and have patience. I am keeping my fingers crossed!