The perils of POTTY TRAINING.

I decided to potty train Julian when he turned 18 months old mainly for 2 reasons.
1. So when he starts pre-school in Kinderland (still deciding) when he turns 30 months, he'll be sufficiently PT'ed.
2. I can save on a tonne of money, as Jessica has pointed out in her blog.
3. I can boast to everyone that my 1 and a half year old is DIAPER-FREE!!! hehe...

I had prematurely bought 2 potty's and strewn them around the house thinking he would use it on his own when he turned 1... Hah! Yeah right, on his own? No way! With Julian and his pee-pee and poo-poo... it was ALWAYS in the diaper or on the floor, he never used to go in his potty, no matter how much i coaxed or bribed him. So his potty was left unused until I came across some articles regarding Potty Training.

Articles which are good to read:
1. http://www.babycenter.com/0_potty-training-in-three-days-or-less_10310078.bc

2. http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2008/05/29/quick-and-easy-potty-training/#ixzz1WD1f1Jw1
(this is the one I followed) 

3. http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/A-How-to-Potty-Train-One-Day.html

Books which are good to get/read from a library:






Although the concept is somewhat similar, I would still stick to the above link(the one I have highlighted in red), only because it worked for me. This book has worked wonders for many mommies too.

I had tonnes of rest the day before "THE DAY" as I knew I had to be on my toes, watching Julian like a hawk, and running around with a cloth and mop (not that I did this on my own, I had a maid to help.. God bless her!). I had placed 1 potty in the kitchen (at the back of the house), 1 potty in the hall (in the front of the house) and 1 potty upstairs. I managed to keep Julian in the same room most of the day, so I wouldn't need to run around washing too many potties (smart move on my side, if I say so myself).

I started PT'ing at 7:30am on a Monday, and he was successfully potty trained by 5pm the same day. Not a miracle if I can do it. And he has been diaper free from then onwards, except when he naps in the afternoon, and when he sleeps at night. Crazy, but true!!!

(Sometimes, due to my paranoid nature, I still have his diapers on when I bring him out/ when we have guests over... he can get over-excited!)

A Little Birthday Party.

Genevieve turned 1 on the 19th of Oct, and Julian turned 2 on the 27th of Oct. Yes, the 2 little one's are less than a year apart in age and they play nice. Most of the time anyway.

So, since we had a Great Big Party (120 man event) last year for Julian's 1st birthday, which happened to coincide with Genevieve's 30-day naming ceremony, this year I decided to have something smaller, also because I'm 31 weeks pregnant and absolutely can't run around looking for paper napkins and extra spoons. Much to Maran's dismay, I put my foot down and only called 20 of our closest and dearest family and friends. We had the BBQ on the 6th of November (slightly later than intended due to my dad being out of the country on work) at 6pm in my mom's place, since I've decided to park myself here until I deliver Little Pumpkin...hehe! Thank god for moms!

Prep for the Party:
1.Blew up about 50 balloons... I did not participate and was only supervising in case the adults get naughty and decide to burst them. We hung them up after.
2.Made little personalized picture cards for guests to leave messages on. So, in 10 years Julian and Genevieve can read them and laugh...
3.Got the BBQ stuff ready.
4.Made sure the cake was done and ready to serve when the guests arrived.
5.Dressed Julian and Genevieve up for the party... (best part!).
6.Had Maran put up the Birthday wall Poster.
7.Wrapped up the gifts for the "little" guests.

Party started at 6pm... and we had loads and loads of fun!!!

Genevieve trying to run to the cake

What's happening?

Julian : The Bullet

Sis and Me

Father in law writing a message for the little ones

Mom and Me

Anand (BIL) and Maran BBQ'ing

Nephew Jay and Me

Genevieve and Me

Sis and Genevieve

Julian... Does he look like he's just put something in his mouth???

Julian trying to chew on the rafia string

 I love having parties!!!

When the Waddle isn't cute anymore...

I promised myself that I wouldn't have the "pregnancy waddle", whilst being pregnant the third time over. Yes, yes, I admit... I waddled a whole lot when I was pregnant the first and second time... albeit trying really hard NOT to. It's not easy, especially looking at ladies literally skipping and cat walking all around me while I tried hard just "trying" not to waddle!!!

It was about a month ago, when I was about 26 weeks pregnant (belly wasn't showing yet) when I caught myself waddling in MidValley Shopping Center, and not waddling slowly, but a quick waddle, mind you. I was almost running-waddling to get myself a shopping trolley outside  before it gets taken (yes, it was a Saturday and  most of KL was there). I hadn't really noticed, but a lady walking towards me asked if I was pregnant. I, of course, beaming with pride said yes. She said "I can tell, you're waddling". How annoying!

These days, I try to not waddle so much because it does look horrendous from the back and I hate it when random people come up to me and ask if I'm pregnant just because of the waddle. But it takes so much effort! So I decided to do a little research as to why pregnant ladies waddle. (Nope, they don't teach this in med school).

1. The baby belly :
Assuming the baby belly creates the waddle does make sense, but there is more to it than that. The  additional weight that sits on most women while pregnant is primarily in the front, causing the shift in the centre of gravity higher up as the pregnancy progresses... therefore the waddle.

2. Backaches :
With so much weight in the front of the abdomen, it can cause back aches, especially if we already have back issues. With the baby leaning on the bladder, we always have to use the bathroom. What does the baby making us have to pee all the time have to do with our back? Altering our gait helps with bladder control a bit.The waddle helps with this ache, and as silly as it looks, who cares, if it helps with mobility.

3. Relaxin :
Relaxin, a hormone that's released during pregnancy causes loosening of the pelvic ligaments which can cause laxity. When there is too much laxity there can be instability and pain, so gait alteration is another cause for the waddle.

So, there goes... Quack!! Quack!!

2 word sentence!

Little Genevieve (age 1 year 2 plus weeks) just said her first 2 word sentence today!!! And it was "Doggy there" haha... she was pointing at Bailey, our pup at the time. She has said "Doggie" and "There" before, but never together! And she said it twice, so it was definitely NOT a fluke!

Her current vocabulary consists of:
1.Amma  (that's me)
2.Mum mum (when she hungry or when she sees food)
3.Doggy (whenever Lexi or Bailey are around)
4.There (when I ask her to point to the fan / light / her nose etc)
5.Wowow (when I ask her what sound a doggy makes... this is cute)
6.Hello (whenever she sees a telephone or handphone, and sometimes the remote- hehe!)

and now...
7.Doggy there!

So proud of my 2-word saying little girl... I really hope this continues...

Pointing, when I asked her to point at the camera.

Shapes galore...

I can't remember if I mentioned it on blog, but sometime ago (roughly 3 months back, when he was about 21 months old, when I still had a maid and life was muccccccccch easier!), Julian started pointing at random objects like the moon, traffic lights, garden lights etc and yelling the word "circle". Of course, it sounded like "kerkel" but I'm his mom, and I usually can make out most things he says.

So I took it upon myself to teach him shapes, but for the first few days of trying to teach him shapes like square and triangle, he called everything "kerkel" and absolutely refused to cooperate. He'd look at me with a silly smile, point to a square and gleefully cry out "kerkel!!!". So, I gave up. Yes, I know terrible thing to do, but hey at the time I was 5 months pregnant with 2 kids under the age of 2, a husband who's away on work most of the time and with a maid who was driving me up the wall. So, yes... I gave up thinking that he'll "get it" in his own time.

Then, a week down, I can't remember when exactly, he came up to me as I was  getting ready to go shopping, he pointed to my earring and said "oval". Hmmm... so I pulled his Shapes Book out and pointed at the various shapes, he named them all correctly! Ahhh... my son!

So these are the shapes he currently knows: (or shows me he knows)
1. circle
2. square
3. triangle
4. right triangle
5. rectangle
6. oval
7. crescent (although he calls is "moon")
8. star
9. heart
10.hexagon
11.pentagon
12.diamond

He loves this particular video on youtube, which I can play over and over again and he never gets bored... so easy to please! Below is a video of Julian, he's a little soft as it was time to sleep...

I shall be working on Polygons next...