Grubbs n Critters

August 9, 2012

A cat’s life

Look who decided to come out and play. And pose…

Donut has been quite obsessed with Squirt’s wedge. Each time I put it down for a little bit of a floor time for Squirt, he would come to this spot, sits first regally on the wedge before I even had the chance to put Squirt down and then grooms himself silly.

Quite a sight to watch. And, just the perfect moment for a candid shot.

#1 turned 2

Category: Spud: Stories and Updates

Spud was spoilt rotten yesterday. With her grandparents in town this week, the whole family made some considerable effort to put up some decorative and balloons in the living room the night before her birthday.

She woke up with a surprise and went, “ooooooh…” when she saw the decorations and balloons. The day was pretty much hers – along with her Oma, we took her to the playground in the morning, took her out for lunch and in the afternoon after her nap, we had a low-key birthday celebration for her consisting of only family.

It was nice. It was simple. She got to eat a really yummy chocolate cake, opened a dozen of presents and pretty much played and played and played till bedtime.

She ate well (so well that she went to bed with a really full tummy that she threw up!) and she behaved really well too. Above all, she was all cheery, supremely happy and loving all her presents!

It was a very good day, indeed and we all had a very nice time. Most important of all, we, especially her grandparents made sure that Spud was spoilt rotten on the day she turned two.

Isn’t it great to be a 2 year old?

24 months

Category: Spud: Stories and Updates

It seems that we have come a long, long, long way away to this stage where Spud turns two!

Her Terrible Two stage started quite a while back; and by now we are quite unfazed as to what she comes up with. It can still be annoying at times, but other times when I look back they seemed quite amusing.

Like the time when she decided that she was going to strip herself naked for no reason. And then got obsessed with trying to put on her own diaper using Squirt’s diaper size (!). That kept her busy for a good 20 minutes, and the whole time she refused to have any clothes on.

Like the the time when she thought she didn’t need to have to put her pants on wth her Calvin and Hobbes T-shirt. She fought for 15 minutes with the Nanny, screaming and kicking and running around the house before the Nanny managed to get the pants on her. And after that, just like that, it was as if nothing had happened.

Like the time when she thinks that she needs a wet wipe every 2 seconds and use it as a diaper for all of her stuff animals. And by the end of the day, we’ll find tissues in almost every corner of the house.

And oh yes! She is certainly pushing her boundaries a little bit more each day, but tends to calm down better when she realises that she cannot get away with wanting things her way all the time.

Spud is our little big girl now. She is this girl who seems to have an endless supply of Energizer batteries in her body. She is lithe, she is mobile, she is energetic, she is restless, she holds no fear and is a rather “spirited” kid. That being said, transitioning her to a toddler’s bed suddenly became an urgency…quicker than we thought it would be (that would be another story for another time!)

Her words and vocabulary are exploding by leaps and bounds. She parrots our every sentence and copies our every move. It still amazes me as to how much she remembers stuff, and she has a knack for remembering the last few words of every page in the books within days of reading a new book to her.

She picks up difficult words quite quick too – at least quicker than me! One word which always cracks me up when she says it is “Vruchtenhagel” (pronounced as vroooththunhahhel or something like that). It is a Dutch word for fruit sprinklers– which happens to be Spud’s flavor of the month bread spread for her breakfast in the last few weeks. I can’t even remember it the first or second time of hearing it, and it took me almost a week to remember that word (thanks to Spud repeating it over and over again), let alone pronounce it right., yet this little child managed to say it without putting in too much effort . Little child at this age can be so amazing!

Spud has been really nice to me these days – she no longer rejects me like she used to. Funnily enough, her attitude towards me started to turn around right about the time when I was able to start carrying her again. These days, it has been quite fun to hang out with her.

It’s also looking like her Asian genes is showing up stronger…with..(dare I say it?!)…her looking more like me when I was a toddler! For her sakes, though, I hope grows up to be taller than I am with a better personality than mine.