Just 5 days ago, Josiah turned 18 months. At 18 months, he took his last necessary vaccination at the government clinic. Though we still need to go back there every 3 months, for the normal checkups and de-worming medicine.
He is now 80cm, according to the clinic, and 12.4kg. So he is still gaining weight gradually and steadily. At this age, he really loves role playing and imitating us. Every word and sound we say, he will try to follow. This is a great age for learning words and language. He is able to name one thing in two languages as well, we have been speaking at least 5 different dialects with him. I’ll speak Hokkien to him, John will speak Foochow to him, my baby sitter will speak mandarin and cantonese to him, and we teach him words in English and Bahasa. No choice, we live in a multi lingual society, don’t we. Foochow is the utmost important dialect for all Foochows lest be be cast out of their clan, haha.
Josiah is still sleeping 2 naps a day, but his night sleep time has moved a little later to 9pm when I actually bring him to bed, but he normally won’t truly fall asleep till 10pm. That also means that nowadays we get to go out at nights more, for dinners and just window shopping. He still doesn’t sleep through the night! His night awakenings are somewhat unpredictable, sometimes once, sometimes twice, sometimes many times! But I guess I am quite used to it. He actually sleeps on his own bed now, we have moved our queen sofa bed to the master room and arranged it next to our bed. I move to his bed to nurse him and moves back to our own bed. He now knows which is his bed and will climb to his own bed whenever it is sleep or nap time.
He calls the playground Taman, and would request to go there everyday. We try to bring him to different playgrounds every weekend, it’s great to start him on physical activities from young and not just staying at home all the time. Thank God there are so many playgrounds in Kajang, plus there’s a huge one in Bandar Baru Bangi. Josiah loves a good thrill riding down those plastic slides. We don’t have much of these in Kuching, only big parks in designated areas.
My boy has grown so big, sigh, he doesn’t even want to be carried anymore.
We are trying to expose Josiah to various ‘interests’ even at this tender age, who knows this is one of his ambitions when he grows up one day…
I wanna be a chef
I wanna be an artist
Life with a toddler is super interesting, as we find new things for him to play everyday, and it doesn’t have to be pricey toys that come with a brand.
At 17 months, Josiah has really turned into a big boy and no more a baby. He is speaking a lot now, and some words he can verbalise:
Mama papa Ee Ee (Auntie) Uncle Ku Ku (Auntie , referring to John’s sis in Foochow) Ka Ka (Uncle, referring to John’s bro in Foochow) Di di (younger brother) Che Che (big sister) or or (sleep) Clock Orchid Moon Wo Wo (Dog) Cocoa (referring to cocoa our cat) Taman (referring to the playground) Chek Chek (referring to dirt in Foochow) Krung (Sound of Thunder) Po po (asking to be held) Duck Duck Tar Tar (actually referring to stars, but can’t pronounce the S) Eh Eh (Referring to shoes in Foochow/Hokkien) Wat wat (reffering to socks in Foochow) Walk Walk (when he wants to walk) Mam Mam (eating) Ball Ball (ball) Book Hand
Ok I’m trying to remember what else he can say, and I can’t quite remember. He does recognise a whole list of words, like bellybutton, eyes, ears etc. No way to list it down…He also likes to imitate all kinds of sounds when he hears it, like animal sounds, or just the car alarm.
I’m glad that at this stage, he is totally weaned from milk bottles. We insisted that our baby sitter just use a sippy cup even for milk, though she was hesitant at first, she followed our recommendation, and a few days later, she returned all his milk bottles. So yea, our big boy is now not even wanting sippy cups anymore, but want to drink like adults straight from the cup. When I gave him water in his sippy, he sometimes indicate to me to take off the cap.
I’m also trying to teach him some music by letting him play on the keys. He’s no longer banging on it, but knows that he needs to play with fingers on each key. Well, still a long way to go, but early exposure will help speed up the learning of keys later on.
He’s not just walking but running now. He falls all the time but not a terrible fall, so so far no major injuries. We usually bring him to big areas like the park or malls when he can run around.
We just took him to his regular checkup today, he’s now 12.2 kg and 77cm tall. Not a very tall boy I guess, like the parents.
You know they say when a baby starts walking, that’s when he becomes a toddler. After all, to toddle means to walk with slow, unsteady steps. So now is the time to stop calling Josiah a baby coz he took his first steps a couple of days ago. It cam as quite a surprise coz before that, when we let go of his hands, he will sit down straight away. Somehow, that night he found new confidence and decided to walk. It’s funny coz when he walks, he will keep saying “Wok wok”.
Well, 2 days later, he is now walking everywhere with the occasionally crawling. Today I wanted to hold his hands, and he won’t even let me, he’s already tasted joy in his new found independence. I found him walking from front of the living room to the kitchen. This is really dangerous coz now we have to make sure the house is really, really child proof, as he begins to explore more and check out new territories. Now, time to teach him how to dance! Any teachers out there?
Josiah turned 16 months, every month is like a new phase of life for him. This is the month I finally felt like he’s no longer my little baby, but my big boy now. Physically he has grown so much taller, that we find it hard to button his one suit rompers at the crotch, he hasn’t even worn them much since his first birthday. I also need to buy him new shoes coz his current shoes are tight and touching his toes. Since he’s not really walking yet, I’m going to get him a Bugaloo soft sole leather shoes. I love, love, love soft sole leather shoes. He’s currently wearing the cheap version, the Helloyaya, but like I said, it’s getting too fitting and the rubber band ankle part seems to be eating into his meat and causing red marks.
At 16 months, Josiah is such a joy to play with. That’s because he now understands nearly everything we say, and he will attempt to repeat words after us. He recognises words (although he may not be able to speak it) quite immediately now, and recognises people, say if we tell him someone’s name and ask him to point to that person, he can point to the correct person. It’s really fun and cute when he tries to repeat a word after me in the right intonation but in the wrong pronunciation. It’s also really fun and not boring anymore coz he likes to play tricks, dance, play peekaboo with me, and move to action songs. I used to have to do the actions to songs I sing, but now he’s the one doing it. There’s so many tricks he’s known, I guess we just enjoy showing it off whenever he meets an uncle or auntie. Some things he love to do are such as blowing kisses, waving, winking, kissing, shaking hands, giving high fives and playing peekaboo on your back.
His all time favourite activity is swinging at the park nearby our house. They happen to have a baby swing, so it’s just nice for him. I never this kind of swing anywhere else. So thank God is just next to our house.
Nowadays, instead of just bringing him on strollers out to malls, I’m always thinking of some outdoor activities I can bring him to, especially those playgrounds and indoor gyms. Too bad there aren’t many in Malaysia, that’s why I’m always cracking my head on weekends of a new cool place to bring him where he can waste his energy. Sitting in a stroller going around malls just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
On our trip to Langkawi
Josiah has also started to nap only once a day, sometimes twice only if he’s really tired. However, he now knows how to show his will power, so nap time can become quite a struggle at times, with me trying to put him to bed, and him being distracted by every little thing and climbing out of bed to play to his last drop of energy. Normally, I just let him be, once or twice, I actually have to scold him until he has no choice but to lie down in bed. Of course, he will pull a long pout and watery eyes.
People still say he looks like a girl
Josiah is still eating porridge I cook daily, sometimes on weekends, he eats what we eat, like fried rice and mee hoon, of course, it is not as healthy and wholesome, as it’s all carbs without the vegetable. He loves his daily kefir drink, so that is great.
It’s been 1 year and 3 months. At this age, Josiah is picking up very fast on his learning. It’s become quite easy to teach him, we just need to show him one time and he knows how to do something immediately. He also began to take instructions very well, such as asking him to take his cup and drink and he will proceed to do it. Teaching him words are quite a breeze, he will follow in action what we show him, like point to your ears etc, things like that. It’s only a matter of whether he really wants to do it or not.
Socially, up to now, Josiah knows how to shake hands, high five, blow kisses, give wet kisses, wave good bye, flash his grin etc. He also likes to repeat sounds, such as the sound of the thunder, the dog barking etc. He has a particular liking to furry animals, like Cocoa and neighbour’s dogs.
There’s nothing he enjoys more than going to the playground with Daddy, swinging on the .. swing, sliding down the .. slide. He will laugh aloud when doing these things.
Recently he also started walking, but we still have to hold him by one hand. He walk really fast when he’s really excited, like when he wants to go towards something. It’s nearly like running. Well, I think he’s afraid of falling, since he still won’t let go of our hands.
Eating wise has been a challenge. There are times he just won’t eat. He will take a few spoonfuls and spit out the rest, pushing the spoon away and things like that. At least he has learned to eat on the high chair rather than insisting to be let down. I want to start feeding him rice and more solid food, rather than porridge, but it’s hard to start on that .Since cooking porridge in the slow cooker is rather easy and the only way I can keep the food hot from night to morning to night. Plus, with the way he keep spitting out food now I think I’ll have to wait a little.
I think he has grown heavier in weight again, but we’ll have to wait to find out later when we bring him for his Chicken Pox Vaccine. It’s just getting really hard to hold him properly in my arms. I hope he starts walking on his own soon.
Josiah at 7 months
Josiah at 14 months
How 7 months can change someone’s looks totally. Staying with Josiah, seeing him everyday, we can hardly tell that he has changed, but looking a the pics, he has changed and grown indeed.
We took Josiah for checkup at 14 months, supposed to be at 12 months, but we had a problem with the clinic that turned us away. That’s another story. So he took his MMR at the private clinic and now returned to govt clinic just to check up and update.
At 14 months he is 78 cm tall and weigh 11.2kg. Physically there isn’t much changes anymore, I wonder when he will grow again.
At 14 months, he has begun to talk more and communicate more. He likes to watch his nursery rhymes on my iPhone, and whenever the video finishes, he would pass me my phone and ask me to play another one.
I had also been showing him Your Baby Can Read videos since January, and he used to not really pay attention. But now he will actually sit and watch and react to the words and video shown, especially if he has experienced it before. For eg, the word Bubbles, he will laugh everytime he sees the video with the word, coz recently John bought a bubble gun and played with him. It seems like Josiah has a memory of what he has done and is able to reconnect his experience with his learning of words.
Music and dancing is his fav. He would sway or shake his legs up and down to music.
I also started supplementing his milk with Fresh Milk, the only milk he would drink so far. He hates all kinds of formula and growing up powder milk. I am going to try Fresh Goat’s milk tonight and see what his reaction is.
This is Josiah after drinking Fresh Milk from this cup and wanting more. I only gave a little to try it out…
At 1 year plus, it became very fun to play with Josiah. Especially since he knows how to tell things and express delight, and it’s really fast for toddlers to imitate us. Like this game I was playing with him using a bouncy ball, I just put the ball into his shirt once, and he started doing it over and over again.
It is such a delight to watch him play, someone said children find everything in nothing, while we adults find nothing in everything. It is so true. Simple things just make them feel so happy, as long as we as his parents are there for him and love him. I am so falling in love with him more and more each day.
Since some time last week, Josiah had started calling me Mama, and not just a meaningless babble, but actually looking at me and calling me.
I guess this is the first word that totally melts the heart of mamas like me! The father is totally jealous and trying so hard to teach him how to call papa for now.
