Dearest Julianne,
No I didn't forget to write you on 1 Mar. But because today was quite a special day, I decided to delay my letter to you by a few days. I love writing to you. On your 21st birthday, I shall print out all these letters and gift them to you. I also hope that when you’re 21, I will still find it within me to write you letters just because you are so special.
Today is a very special day and it’s not just because you turn 16 months (and a few days). Today, you and I together with Papa, we held your hand and walked through the gates of your very first school where I left you for the next 3 hours and thereafter felt like a proud Mama when your teacher told me what a delightful child you are playing with your new friends and enjoying your new found independence away from Mama and family. That’s you, Little Miss Independent, just the way you have been and like to be. I’ve nothing to be sad about you being so ready to be on your own and not needing us around – it’s a personality we’re glad to see you carry because one day, when Mama is old and frail – that’s just what you need to do, be on your own. While I’m sure you’ll enjoy playschool, I should also let you know that you’ll only be at Montessori school for the rest of this year. We have secured you a place where you’ll start your Nursery and Kindergarten journey come next year.
We had soooo much fun in February – I say a little too much fun actually! You partied your way through the Lunar New Year. You tossed yu-sheng, collected ang pows, charmed the hearts of your uncles and yiyis, wore pretty cheongsams, monkeyed around with your cousins and received lots of hugs and kisses all around.
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| She adores Sophie. Like A.D.O.R.E.S |
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| Playing by herself at 16 months |
You are like a little sponge. You absorb every sight and sound around you. You like to think you’re a big adult – like us. Your favourite past-time at 16 months – mopping the floor (cos that’s what you always see Gong Gong do after you mess up the floor at meal times). Your other favourite past-time, wearing Mama’s shoes around the house. If you could, you would also climb onto the bar counter, place the cuppa under the nespresso machine and fix yourself a shot of espresso – since you can effectively do all of the above just that you don’t know where the button to start the nespresso machine is (and I ain’t showing it to you anytime soon). You’re slowly starting to know how to play by yourself. You will sit down and draw, or play with your toy fruits and pretend to cut them up to feed us. You like serving us tea along with those fruits – I will educate you one day that tea is served with scones and not fruits.
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| Tight with Slouchy |
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| Playing around with my shoes |
You do little funny things that cracks everyone up at home. Like dropping your toys and running to take Por Por’s t-shirt when you heard the toilet door open after Por Por was done with her shower. Or running to grab you very own towel hanging on the railings when Por Por said it was time for your mid-day bath. Many of these stories, I only hear from the daily updates Yiyi Sam sends me or Por Por tells me when I get home. I really wish I was around more often in the day to see them for myself. I was telling Papa how ridiculous it is that we spend more time at work then seeing you grow up – I hate it that you’re short-changed in this manner but we make it up with lots of cuddles and kisses at night.
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| Dancing to Hi-5! |
This month, you have majorly regressed in the sleeping department – I’m a little disturbed. Just as we were doing long stretches of sleep, you’re back to waking up every 3 hours. I’m trying not to nurse you at night anymore in an attempt to start the weaning process but you will point to the bed. And when I bring you to the bed and pat you back to sleep, you start pulling my jammies searching for the boobs #weaningattemptfailing. I’m hoping it’s a teething phase since your molars are sprouting out one after another. You also seem to sleep longer stretches when I put you on the bed with us instead of in your own cot so to give everyone a longer stretch of sleep, we have gone on to get a bed-rail so that you don’t fall of the bed like what happened last month when you rolled off the bed onto the floor together with the bloster that we used to surround you (you fell so silently – your sleepyhead Papa didn’t even know you fell until I went into the room and saw you on the floor, sleeping soundly still on top of the bloster – this means you’re just as sleepyhead as your Papa)
This month may see some changes to your usual routine as we adjust to your schooling schedules. I hope you’ll adapt well – you can be quite a creature of habit. We’ll see how things goes.
At 16 months, you’re on 3 solid meals, 3 breastmilk feeds and grazing on raisins and biscuits in between. You also usually get some fruits after dinner and sips of ribena treats. Your favourite meals – macaroni soup, udon with miso soup and pasta! You also love your teriyaki salmon with rice. Veggies wise – cauliflower wins hands-down although these days, corn seems to be coming in pretty close. We just give you a quarter cob and you’ll happily devour the entire piece – every.single.kernel. You love peaches and blueberries, sometimes apples – you have your moods. You’re a carbo over protein person. You don’t fancy artificially sweet stuff. You like your pau without the tau-sar, you make me pick out the vegan choc chips on your banana cupcake and you will not have anything to do with maple syrup on your pancakes. Nap wise you're officially down to just one long 2-3 hour afternoon nap. It took me 2 maybe 3 months to completely transit you to one nap in preparation for school. I think this routine works better for everyone. On the word count, "umbrella", "strawberry" and "flower" are about the few newest additions. You also show a preference for longer syllabus words over shorter one. Maybe it is because of your long name.
It is going to be such an exciting month for you I promise with making new friends and learning new things at school! With your extremely social personality and inquisitive mind, I think you're all ready to take on March!
Happy sweet 16 month my Jujubee!! Love you to the moon and back!
Always,
Mama
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