Keira Eliza Turns 2!

The day has come!! Our little girl turned 2 years old at exactly 11.25pm today. 

At 24 months, she's already given us the happiness to last our lifetime by just being the super awesome little being that she is. She has grown twice as adorable and precious too, don't you think?

Happy 2nd Birthday to the queen of our hearts!

This birthday was not as lavish as her 1st birthday celebration, as we only had a cake and ordered tons of pizza, coupled with a multiple "happy birthday" singalongs - all done at home with just our immediate family. Even then, her 2nd birthday party was filled with just as much love from our entire household. Most importantly, she has a blast cos all the attention was zoomed in on her! :)

There are so many things she loves, Minnie Mouse, Hi-5, WWE, Care Bears, balls, anything pink... Since we have baby #2 coming on the way, and in August last year (when we were in Hong Kong to visit my paternal family) Kevin had made us personalized Liverpool jerseys (with our first names and the number 7 - our lucky number), so it was not hard to settle on a "soccer ball" cake for this birthday so that we can also wear our Liverpool jerseys. We did not know of baby #2 then, so the personalized jerseys are somewhat exclusive to the three of us. And what better timing to do it than this birthday. Next year's birthday, she will be celebrating it together with her adik.

Since my uncle bought her a red 'birthday gown' and gave it to her in the last minute to wear when blowing out her candles, we figured we'd start her off with the dress for a proper birthday for a young lady, then change her into her personalized football jersey for the cake cutting. That way, everyone wins!

Here are some shots of the three of us!

 

Here's Keira with the rest of the family! :)

 

 

She had tons of presents and loved them all. Not only from family; a few of our close friends dropped off some pressies for her too, remembering that it was her birthday! How sweet of all you guys... Thanks everyone :)

Then, it was time to open her presents!

  

 

The night would not be complete if we did not at least try to get a good shot of the three of us from the back so that our names and lucky number can be seen. The only way to get her to remain quiet is to put her amongst her new presents. It was definitely NOT an easy task, but we did it in the end. Check out the snapshots below!

Keira Understands, But Does Not Want To Talk

Two days away to turning 2 years old, and yet our little munchkin is still taking her own sweet time to talk. She babbles alot for sure, but she just does not want to engage with us in proper sentences.

Sure, she has her usual lingo like "akkkaiii" or "khaaaiiii" or "kherrnngggg" or "apppaapppaaapaaa" (when she holds the phone to her ear as if talking to someone" or "ouuuwww" (if she falls or feels pain) or "yayaya" (for when she wants her milk cos we have a habit of asking her every few hours if she "aiy nenen?"). 

She also spits out new words like "duck", "cat", "goal" (when she kicks the ball), "three" (from counting cats from the recent week - one, two, three) and a number of other words once in a blue moon and she can imitate animal sounds too.

But the moment she realizes that we heard her say a word and clap/prompt her to repeat it or to say for more words, she immediately shuts off (with that "oops, did I say that out loud!" expression) and pretends that it never happened/moves on to doing something else.

I know she understands everything we say. Her level of comprehension is impeccable as she hears our commands and responds by pulling our hand and pointing to whatever it is that she wants. She also gets emotionally involved when watching movies/shows and will close her eyes or runs to hide when she senses that something bad is coming up. She's very observant and musical too! She LOVES Hi-5 (the Aussie version) and she follows their gestures including putting her hand out when they say hi-five!

She sings (or rather hums to herself) everyday though. I have this strong feeling that she will end up singing before she officially talks! Just like how mommy learnt to speak Malay during her teenage years, through listening and learning KRU's songs.

I brought the point about her reserved behavior in embracing speech/talking with her pa-ed the other day during her recent check-up, and his advise was:

1. To push her to speak words by ignoring her gestures/sounds/cries etc. (basically, force her to talk if she wants something, instead of giving her the reaction that we know what she wants), then...

2. To get her hearing checked, then... 

2. To engage her with a speech therapist

But is speech evaluation therapy really necessary for a 23 month old? C'mon!

I feel that it's not like she can't talk, but she's just lazy to talk! Simply malas! 

Just like she's malas to hold her own milk bottle. When mommy or nani is around, she will get mommy or nani to hold her bottle for her. She will take our hand and place it on her bottle, then with both her hand free, she will clap as if applauding us for a job well done in holding it for her. But when daddy feeds her, she shows off to him that she can hold her own bottle, single-handed too, from start to finish. What a little chickadee, this one!

Both Kevin and I feel that we should not jump into panic mode and we should let her blossom and develop in her own time and when she's ready. But I do wonder if other parents in similar situations feel the same? 

At this point, I still think we have no reason to be overly worried and just let her grow in her own time and when she's ready - just like when she wanted to crawl, she mastered it within a day. Same for when she wanted to walk. The moment she was confident to take that first step, she started running... forget walking, just jump straight to running!

I know of friends who have children who started speaking at 4 years old and there's nothing wrong with them. I also know of friends with kids of Keira's age who are already talking sentences.

I guess it's only part of human nature to wonder whether there is a need to be concerned at this point (if early intervention is necessary) or to just let it be...

We're Having Another Baby!

It's hard for me to wrap my head around this wonderful news! Kevin and I found out during the new year that we are going to be parents again! At the time we came to know of the good news, I was already about 11 weeks pregnant and almost into my 2nd trimester.

This pregnancy has flown by so quickly, and it's definitely different from my first, and to some extent, tougher.

• I feel the nausea more this time round, while Kevin seems quite fine. But thankfully, no crazy morning sickness during this second pregnancy either *phew!*
• I get tired much faster now... could be the age catching up too.
• My baby bump was already obvious at 14 weeks. You can see the bulge sticking out as I walked )stomach first), whereas during my first pregnancy, it was not noticeable until after 6 months.
• I already started feeling the baby kicks, punches and vibrations as early as the start of the 2nd trimester.

At 28 weeks pregnant now (and on the day of our 6th year wedding anniversary), we're ready to officially announce our second pregnancy as we're safely entering into the 3rd trimester.

While there are many precious moments to this pregnancy, knowing and confirming that we're going to have a baby boy this time round definitely takes the biggest piece of the cake!!! Don't you agree? Yay team blue! :)

Means, mommy has an excuse to do more shopping since almost everything of Keira's is in pink :)

My Kinda Rush

I've been eyeing it the past two years. 

I did all the primary and secondary research on it, to the extent of personally speaking to people who have had prior experience with the compact SUV that I have my eye on. 

I'm convinced I found my next perfect road companion (no offence to my 5-year-old Perodua Alza), so in December 2014 (yes, last year), I pursued it.

Unfortunately, and also fortunately, for me that before the deal was sealed, there was news that a newer edition would be coming out in mid 2015, so even after my bank loan was approved, I waited anxiously for the release of the new Toyota Rush. After all, what's the "rush" right? Geddit? :)

Earlier this month, the latest Toyota Rush arrived and I was the first to check it out.

I love that it has:
- such a great view from the driver's seat as it's much higher than the other cars I've owned.
- a much curvier/sexy outlook than the previous version
- bigger/bulkier tires
- power retractable side mirrors (beats having to wind down the window and do it manually)
- additional row of seat at the back that I can easily "add on" if we have additional passengers (especially thinking ahead that in a few months, one row will be occupied with two car seats - where's my mom or any other passengers going to sit?)
- ample space on the inside, but is still not so wide or long in terms of size (easy for me to maneuver)
- dual blower air conditioning system (means Keira will not get hot when seated in her car seat)

All the points above seem more of emotional attachments, I know! That's because they are my own personal reasons. The most important thing is that I've been wanting it for some time, I had my heart set on it, I finally saved up enough to buy it (and paid the down payment with my own hard-earned money saved over some years, not any one else's money) and am happy with the commitment to motivate me to work even harder to pay the monthly installments). Last, but definitely not the least, is because I LOVE IT! I love everything about it! :)

I chose the black color of course. Although the champagne color was very enticing, I think the color would fade in due time. Too bad they do not have it in red, otherwise, I would have gone with red. 

And... sold!!! 

So, we bid farewell to my old Perodua Alza...

Then went to drive home my new Toyota Rush today.

The rest, as they say, is history (although my old Alza will forever remain in my heart)!