Naomi at 17 Months

My dear Meips, my spunky little girl,

You are 17 months old today. Though sometimes I feel like you are 17-months-going-on-17-years.

Today, as I write this, I am struck by just how different you and your brother are. He is straight as an arrow, and you, probably not so much. He accepts instructions, perhaps after testing me a couple of times. You refuse to accept instructions if it is not what you want to do and you'll keep testing me, not taking no for an answer. When he gets in trouble, your brother's first instinct is to get angry and cry. When you get in trouble, your first instinct is to try to smile your way out (then cry when that fails). Where your brother needs approval, you decide who gets your approval. Your brother is bright and probably has a high IQ, but your Dad and I have our money on you having a higher EQ. Of course I'm over-generalising, but you get the picture.

I already know that parenting you is going to be a challenge. Especially when you are mad with me and deliberately ignore me when I try to get your attention. Young lady, you're barely out of your infancy and you're already giving me the cold shoulder? This is going to be a problem. But at the same time, you are so loveable that I'm so glad it's me who gets to be your Mama, challenge or not.

It is impossible to document your development the same way I used to do when you were younger, but here is a snapshot what you are like at this age, before time slips us by:

 

♥ You have about 50-60 words, which I think is pretty decent for this age I guess. It hasn't been that easy teaching you because you don't really like repeating after us. In line with your character, you have only learnt the words that you want to learn. So there's bo (bowl) and pok (fork) and spoo (spoon) for food, and dor (door) and bag and shh (shoe) for going out. And Ba-ba (Bye-bye) and Hi to engage everyone you meet. And an extremely cute no. (Though not so cute to be at the receiving end of it.) You also know how to call all of us and wield that power to call us over and over. Your grandparents LOVE it and that has won you plenty of good favour. You can also say Mei-mei very clearly when we ask you your name. We'll get round to Naomi soon enough.

 

♥ While you don't like to repeat words, you love to repeat sounds. "Papa Crrrrr!" you would say, copying the sound of Papa's snoring. Or "Papa Ahch!" (the sound of Papa sneezing). We toot the horn in the car and we'd hear an echoing "Beep beep!" from the back seat. You'd say Brrrrrm and Grrrrr but refuse to say Bus or Lion. It's funny but entertaining.

 

♥ You love bags and shoes. Oh dearie me. "Bag!" you'd say to remind me every time we head for the door. And every time you spy my bag sitting in its corner during gym class, you'd always head straight for it and bring it to me. You do the same with your brother's school bag when you see it lying around, much to his exasperation. This obsession of yours with bags has led your grandmothers to each buy a little bag for you, which you love to tote around, proudly.

 

 In your world, a bag is absolutely necessary before we can go out. Pants are optional.

♥ And shoes, yes, you are really good with shoes. You have multiple pairs and yet I can always count on you to pick out the correct pair after class each time. But it's not just your own shoes that you recognize. You know which shoes belong to me, your Papa, your Gor-Gor and Aunty M, and not only that, but your Nai nai, Por-por, Kong-kong and Jiu-jiu as well. Basically anyone who visits us with any regularity. Just the other day Nai-nai came to visit us. I noticed your Nai-nai's slippers outside our home and realised that you must have too, because when you walked in and didn't see Nai-nai, you looked around quizzically and asked "Nai-nai?" I'm still amazed by how good you are at recognising footwear.

 

♥ You are a very agile little monkey. Seeing how strong you are, I decided to bring you for gym class. It was a good move as you really enjoy it. You didn't know what we wanted you to do on the monkey bars (I don't know what the proper name for this is!) but once you saw another little girl swinging from it, there's been no stopping you. The other kids step off, swing and drop down but you, you can really hang on for ages. You swing then reach backwards with your feet for the step and pull yourself back on it, then step off and swing again. Rinse and repeat. We might make a gymnast out of you yet.

 

Swing!

 

♥ I call you the class monitress because you just love telling people what to do. Once you've taken your seat for you meal, you will start ordering everyone to sit down too. "Tor-tor! (Gor-gor) Chair!" you'd say, gesturing to the chair to insist your brother sits down. I was told that once, when Kong-kong was saying grace, you looked around and saw that Jiu-jiu did not have his hands clasped. Immediately you sought to get his attention and deliberately brought your hands together to signal him to do so. I had a good laugh when I heard that. You really are a bossy little thing.

 

♥ You LOVE to go out. Can't blame you there. It is more interesting than staying at home, certainly. You know I'm going to head out when I pick up my bag, and you'll immediately head for the door too and ask to be let out. And my, do you howl when I leave you behind! It's the one thing that gets me the cold shoulder treatment the most often.

 

All dressed up with nowhere to go...

 

♥ You are now down to one nap a day. Your daily sleep schedule now has you waking up around 7.30am, napping for about 2 hours between 1.15pm till past 3pm, and being in bed by 9pm. This is the ideal schedule, which I hope you'll stick to for as long as possible! It gives you enough rest and gets you to bed at an appropriate time.

 

♥ Oh yes, you're officially out of your cot. We took you out early last month when we discovered that you could climb out of it. One fateful night, I heard you start to fuss in the middle of the night, and as per my usual practice, I left you for a bit to see if you'd settle, before I headed over to check. I then got the fright of my life when, on route to your room, I saw you walk out the door on your own. I still thought that maybe Aunty M got up and got you out of your cot, but nope, you definitely got out on your own. We lowered the cot to its lowest level the next day but two nights later, you showed up in my room in the middle of the night. After that, we took the mattress out, and you, Ms Naomi Houdini Ong, have been sleeping on the floor ever since. Till you walk over to our room and plonk yourself on the bed in the middle of the night, that is.

♥ You have 8 teeth. You've been drooling quite a bit for the past month or two, and we can feel the teeth under your gums, but they really are taking their time to come out. I'm in no hurry, especially when your lack of teeth has not stopped you from trying to eat all manner of food. You still take a bottle of milk to sleep too, so I feel it's better that your teeth stay in for now!

♥ You are a very good eater. I call you my little foodie. I love the fact that you will at least try everything before choosing to reject anything. You've definitely got adventurous tastebuds though. I made a spiced cauliflower soup, the other night, with cumin, coriander and turmeric. Your brother took one lick and refused to eat any of it. You made a funny face after tasting the first mouthful, but kept on eating! Well done sweetie. Maybe it was also the fact that you love soup, much to your soup loving Mama's delight. 

I'll have this please!

♥ The fact that you love food has also translated into you being able to feed yourself rather well. You deftly scoop up porridge and direct the spoon into your own mouth without much mess. Given your independent nature, I dare say you'll be fully self-feeding before your brother is. Hur hur.

Sometimes a girl's just got to feed herself to get to the food around here!

♥ You are friendly - very friendly. You would greet folks with a cheery "Hi!" and you love to say bye to anyone we meet. Like the waiters at restaurants when we are done with our meals, or sales assistants in shops when we step out. They are usually very happy to wave back. You also like other children and I'm glad I mostly don't have to worry about you hurting them. Except that because your brother has this unfortunate habit of greeting you by tickling your cheeks, you seem to think it is acceptable behaviour for greeting other children. I'm still in the process of trying to train you out of it.

♥ You still prefer Uncles to Aunties. Somehow they have more luck carrying you. Granduncle George succeeded where all the other grandaunts failed. And when Uncle Jon came to visit, you merrily plonked yourself in his lap with nary a care. 

Making yourself comfy on Uncle Jon's lap.

♥ You really love music, much more than I remember your brother doing. You'd jiggle merrily to tunes and you have this super cute way of swaying your head from side to side while pretending to sing. It's really the cutest thing ever. You also really enjoy action songs and will follow along after me. "More! More!", you'd say, complete with nodding, to indicate that you want me to sing.

Moving along to your own version of the itsy bitsy spider. 

♥ You are LOUD. Both of you kids are. I wonder where you get it from.

♥ You are starting to copy everything your Gor-gor does. You want to be where he is, have what he's holding. The good thing is that the two of you are also starting to play together more, and I'm always very happy when I hear squealing laughter as the two of you run around together.

And I'll take this, thank you!

♥ You are independent. I drop you off at your class for BSF every week now and you go with nary a tear. The lovely ladies at BSF are always telling me how good you are in class and how much they enjoy having you around. I can't tell you how proud I am of you when they tell me this.

Feisty though you are, you generally have a good temperament. You know how to wait your turn, you are gentle with little babies and you're so adorable. Your Papa and I both love the 1-2 year old stage and we're really enjoying you now. We love you so much, Meips. We just want to keep you little forever. Happy 17 months!

Love,

Your Mama