Moving abroad - 22 months old

We are in the mid of moving abroad to Goa, India for a period of 2 -3 years. Life is so hectic and chaotic with many activities prior to this moving and also in the coming few weeks until we settled in our new home in Goa.

There are so many things to blog and update, but Mummy has no time to do so with this major event - moving abroad. Even though we are currently staying along the Orchard Road, Singapore for 3 nights already but Mummy has yet anytime to go shopping or leave the hotel to walk around this famous and busy shopping place of Singapore...

Therefore, no matter how busy and hectic life is to the family currently, Mummy and Daddy are trying our best to maintain and keep little Zo Ee 's lifestyle as normal as possible. We are trying not to neglect her needs due to this whole moving process. Although, balancing is not as easy but we will try our best not to put unnecessary stress resulting from us or this moving onto her. Nevertheless, we can sense the moving effect on her already as she is more in tantrum lately; especially whenever we are too busy or occupied with other activities. One good example is during the day when professional packers came over to our home to help us packed. The whole house was so crowded with helpers helping us to pack, and Mummy and Daddy were busy attending to these helpers all the time while little Zo Ee was left alone the whole day; watching VCD one after another just to keep her occupied.

Quick Update - 21month old

As we have been very busy in preparation - moving abroad to Goa, India this month end, I'll just summarize some of little Zo Ee's development or happening in the past weeks here.

Language
Little Zo Ee has started saying longer sentences lately, a few examples are:
" I can put my clothes on by myself."
" The fly is at the corner, on the table."
" Today, I took my diaper off."
" oh o...where is the lizard? The lizard is hiding behind the door."
" What is ... in Chinese? Mummy is not sure. Later, ask Daddy what ... is in Chinese."
And her Chinese has improved loads, everyday she is always asking, "what is this /that in Chinese?" Basically her Chinese/Mandarin is much better than Mummy already - knowing more Chinese Characters and has bigger Chinese vocabulary than Mummy.

Little Zo Ee is very alert and observant:
One afternoon, half way through bathing, suddenly she noticed that Mummy had forgotten to bring in her towel. Mummy only realized this when little Zo Ee commented, " Oh! oo...Where is the towel?"

Motor skill:
Active little Zo Ee can:
hop! hop! hop!
Gallop!
Jump on a spot.
Walk down the stairs unassisted (without the need to hold onto the rail)
Rolling on the floor.
Turning at moderate speed.
Climbs a ladder.
Pedal a tricycle momentarily.

Singing
Little Zo Ee is singing more songs; both partial and full version. In fact, her singing is getting clearer and better now, with some tune. Mummy can see that she is trying to sing slowly and repeatedly while she listens to her own singing. and she tries to correct her own pronunciation. She even started singing one or two Mandarin songs. She also likes to change the song lyrics accustomed to her own situation: Instead of singing, "Are you sleeping, are you sleeping..." she changed it into "are you tired, are you tired, brother John..." when she was feeling tired. Or she will be singing, "Old Mac Donald had a farm, EIEIO, and on that farm he had a TIGER, EIEIO, with a roar, roar here and a roar, roar there..."

Dancing
My mum said that little Zo Ee's dancing has improved load during this recent trip back to Ipoh comparing to 4 months ago. Also, whenever little Zo Ee starts dancing in the public, we always heard the same comment from strangers be it in Malay; "Wow! Pandainya dia joget." , Mandarin or English; all commenting that little Zo Ee is a good dancer. Little Zo Ee even requested Mummy, "Zo Ee wants to go ballet class."

Watching her own VCD
Lately, litle Zo Ee loves to watch her own VCDs, always asking us to switch on for her. She will be telling us, "want to watch baby Zo Ee." or "Please switch on baby Zo Ee' VCD." She enjoys seeing the funny baby (herself) in it, and will be laughing out loud at funny scenes of herself or she will be imitating baby Zo Ee; like sucking her toes.

Imagination
Little Zo Ee is very imaginative; she always pretend play. One good example is during her bath time; she is always pretending as different roles, eg. she will be pretending rowing a boat while in her bath or she is a hippopotamus herself or she is swimming or she is a fish or she is diving or etc...

Emotion
Expressing herself openly. Whenever she is happy, she will tell us so, "Zo Ee is happy." or sometimes whenever she is extremely happy, she will tell us, "Zo Ee is very happy." while clapping her hands. Whenever she is frustrated, she will scream on top of her voice. But after each screaming, she will always comment, "No screaming inside the house. Mummy doesn't like screaming." (True enough, Mummy always reminded her of this.) Sometimes, little Zo Ee will scream to get things her way, although screaming is strongly discourage at home. Whenever she sees stray cats, she even says "I love you, cat."

Making friends
Little Zo Ee has been trying very hard to make new friends, especially with kids older than her. Surprisingly, she doesn't like toddlers about her age. She will call them babies. She initiates friendship in her own ways; asking kids what are they doing or what is this/that on their clothes or she will be telling them that she wanted to share the seat or a thing/book with them. Sometimes, she will want to read a book to them (whenever we are in the library) or she will asking them to repeat words or sentences after her (especially those not as articulate as her.) or she will take turn naming animals / objects on the library books.

Thinking skill
Mummy bought her some pre-school workbooks to be taken with us for this relocation. So while browsing through the new books, Mummy tested little Zo Ee and Mummy was not expecting any answers from her but surprisingly, little Zo Ee could answer Mummy correctly most of the time.

i. When given various choices, little Zo Ee is able to choose the correct animals based on some simple description.
Question 1: It is very tall. Little Zo Ee was able to pick the correct answer, "Giraffe." from the options- deer, mouse, pig and giraffe.
Question 2: It roars. Little Zo Ee picked lion from these options - sheep, turtle, rabbit and lion.

ii. Little Zo Ee is able to match animals with their young's.

iii. Little Zo Ee is able to find the odd one out/ spot the difference.

iv. Little Zo Ee is able to match same pictures.

Dressing

Little Zo Ee is able to undress herself; jumper, t-shirt, and pants. She knows how to do and undo the zipper too. So whenever she feels hot, she will remove her clothes all by herself. She is even able to put on her velcro type sport shoes.