Louna and the Bébé, Atbp

When asked what's inside maman's tummy, she would answer bébé. Whether she understands what that means or not, I really can't tell. She would caress and give a kiss to the bébé every now and then. She calles her dolls bébé. She knows that little babies are bébés.

Will she be a jealous ate or will she be playing little mommy to her sister?

September. Transition time. The 2nd bébé will arrive. Ate Louna will start pre-school. She would probably change her nanny (but we're not sure yet). All complicated changes for a little toddler.

***

Louna's been waking us up at the wee hours of the evening lately. She's not wearing diapers anymore so she has to go to her potty or else, she would wet her bed. Even with diapers, she would wake us up anyway. So Maman and Papa thought of a wonderful solution.

They removed the protective bar from the bed and brought the potty trainer just near it. Result? Not working. She's waking us up anyway. She's actually half-sleeping when she's doing her potty at night.

The good thing about this solution is that she could go in and out of bed alone now. We're still hoping that she would do her potty alone one night, without asking Papa or Maman to accompany her, just like on daytime.

***

The fan.


Check out who's Louna's hero at the video below.

Ate Louna..

...soon!
.. and the little peanut starts to be active inside playing hide-and-seek at 12 weeks and 3 days old (6.7 cm crown to rump with heart rate at 160 bpm!).

Louna will officially be called ATE on September 25, 2008.

***

*Ate is a title used to address an older sister as a sign of respect. In Filipino families, elder brothers or sisters are to be respected always - the notion of hierarchy is observed even among siblings.

*Até est un titre pour s'adresser à une soeur ainée comme un signe de respect. Dans les familles philippines, des frères et les soeurs aînés doivent être toujours respectés par les cadets - la notion de hiérarchie est respectée même parmi les enfants.

Then and Now

The rules: If you still keep your baby’s first 3 days' photos, we would love to see them. Label them as 1st, 2nd or 3rd day. After that, please post the most recent one, one photo will do. You can post as much as you want though. I’m sure you will realize and tell yourself "seems like yesterday".

Thanks for tagging me Bochie, it was fun to re-discover the un-glamorous me at 1 day old..


.. then my Asian facette at 2 days old..

.. then the innocent me at 3 days old. Did you notice how my eyes grew bigger by the day?

And now, I know what fashion could do for me. A gumamela flower and voila!

8 Facts About Louna

Deye just tagged Louna to reveal 8 facts about her. I think these two girls know each other pretty well, not physically, but through their respective blogs. But we will nevertheless join the fun. Here we go:

1. She slept through the night at 3 weeks old. Mellow and easy. She would then wake up with an angel smile.

2. She was never a cry-baby. She would throw tantrums every now and then but not the typical toddler who would cry out loud, kicking and biting all people around him, throwing toys at his parents and all those full action drama. She's the kind who would sulk for minutes. If you try to approach her, she would suddenly turn limp voluntarily and we end up finding our daughter lying on the floor. Not a sound. Not a look. Her I-dont-exist attitude. Then, after several minutes and after saying us sorry to her, and her sorry to us, everything goes back to normal. She only cries when she's being scolded and she knows that she did something bad.

3. She started walking with her toy stroller and finally got rid of it at 14 months old.

4. She could manage to eat on her own at 16 old.

5. She was weaned from the bottle at 22 months old without the fuss. She wanted to be like adults around her too early in life.

6. She said goodbye to daytime diapers at 23 months old.

7. With the powerful spell of Nefertiti, the most beautiful queen of Egypt, we went and came back from vacation with the same number of diapers. Yes, she said goodbye to night-time diapers at 27 months. After all, to be beautiful, she has to be diaper-free.

8. Some people around me starts to think that she's a late talker and that starts to annoy me, and more so, stress me out. So allow me a minute of venting please.

I've always believe that each kid follows his own curve of developmental milestone. A kid could be slower in some things than his peers and faster in others. To each his own timeline, no fixed schedule. Louna met her pediatrician a month ago. He asked several questions and she correctly answered them. His pediatrician has not expressed any concerns about her speech development and even thought that she's in the normal range.

Ok, alright. It's true that she's not really making a lot of effort to form sentences. She has her own way of communicating and most of it is physical. If she wants something, she would normally do it on her own (like taking her own yoghurt from the fridge and taking a spoon from the drawer, or even doing her potty alone). If she can't do it alone, she would try to explain it, and in case I don't understand her, she'll take my hand to show me exactly what she wants. So why bother? She could make herself understood anyway.

My assessment of her situation is that we never baby-talked to her and she's raised in a bilingual environment. She probably needs more time to be able to form conversational speech. I think that she's just much more laid back in this aspect than others and as a result will do it on her own time.

Louna talks. We just don't understand everything she says. I think that both parties need to add a little effort to make conversations more comprehensible. Albert Einstein started talking at 4 years old. Who knows, we might be raising a super-bright mathematician or a scientist.

And here's for the sweetest smile tag.

To Cane or Not to Cane

This is a Tag from Mitch and I think it's good timing as Louna's on the Terrible Twos stage and bad habits are growing by leaps and bounds. Time out corners had been a hit but she's outgrown that now. She still knows the signification but would refuse to stay there or else, she would deliberately lie on the floor. Hitting the back of her hand is somewhat effective now, she would even hit her own hand when she knows she's done something bad. It doesn't necessarily need hard hitting, she knows when we're angry and hitting her hand is just a symbol.

The biggest challenge right now is for her to systematically arrange her toys after play time (though she does that voluntarily at the Nanny's place :(. Or she would even intentionally scatter her toys just to challenge us. Is that some kind of a power play between parents and kids? Who wins?

Pushing her to arrange her toys (or any other activity) has never worked. I just end up exasperated, at the verge of losing my temper. So I return the challenge followed by encouragements - Papa, do you think Louna could arrange her toys? Oh, does this belong here? I think it belongs to Dora. - Look at what Louna's doing Papa. She's a real good girl! - And yes, when she executes the challenge, there's a tinge of pride in her geste.

Well, the strategy doesn't work 100% of the time but is already encouraging. It depends on her mood.

Oppps, what was the question again? To cane or not to cane? Oh no. I'm not giving my last word yet but I don't really think so. I was never hit by my parents and I think I'm a good girl (lol). I believe in the power of communication and I believe I would use that without moderation.

Did I hear it right? My daughter is correcting me!

One problem of being a working mom is that I only see my daughter in the morning where everything should be done at a lightning speed - and in the evening, where a good portion of that precious time is spent in the kitchen. She knows what's inside the fridge, where to find chocolates, how to arrange our groceries (she knows what to put in the fridge and what not to), how to set the table.. her vocabulary skills are somewhat focused on what's inside the kitchen too.

So you could imagine that most of the conversations evolve in that part of the house too. The conversation this morning came out like this:

Maman: Louna, fini ton verre, s'il te plait. (Louna, please finish your glass).
Louna: Non, non, non (while shaking her head). Ca, c'est lait. (No, no, no. This is milk.)

Well, okay. How in the world could I ask her to finish her glass?

And another conversation:

Maman explaining to Louna that what she's eating was cheese and it's like yoghurt but in a different form. (We try to limit her food intake as she has the tendency to exaggerate - did I say that she's a glutton?)

Louna opening the fridge then pointing to a yoghurt: Non, ça c'est wut (No, this is yoghurt. - that's how she pronounce yaourt for now).

Maman ended up scratching her head. How could I explain that both are made of milk and she could take either of the two but not both?

***

Ever wonder what your kid's doing with the Nanny while you're out? I know.

Louna and Camille with Nanou Guénaëlle watching a show at the nursery.

Little Bakers.

The Pirate, the Indian and the Little Kitten ready for Mardi Gras.

Independence

What she could do alone:

- Wear and remove her shoes.
- Do her potty.
- Remove her winter coat.
- Wear her gloves and bonnet.
- Go up and down the stairs.
- Eat and drink alone.
- Help me bake a yoghurt cake.
- Choose her own dessert.
- Choose what DVD to watch.
- Choose the song she wants to hear inside the car.
- Peel off a clementine.
- Ride her trotinette (scooter).

What she could do at the Nanny's place but refuse to do at home:

- Arrange her toys.

What she couldn't resist:

- Any kind of food.

What she hates:

- Water.

She's becoming more and more independent. She's almost ready to go to pre-school. Where did time go?