Baby Celeste Keira Ng

Mummy’s posting this in bed with her iPhone coz she can’t get to sleep…Talking about iPhone, Celeste indeed learns very fast. It took her just a few times to understand that she could play the toddler apps I’ve downloaded for her. It didn’t take her long to know how to play them and pester mummy to let her play them when she saw mummy’s iPhone. It was to my utmost surprise that she knew how to press the button and slide her finger in order to unlock my phone. To prevent unauthorised use, mummy had to put a number lock to it. Mummy made sure that Celeste did not see herkeying the numbers. Otherwise, number locking the phone would be in vain.Being such a smart kiddo, Celeste is now speaking almost sntences .Mummy: what did you do today?Celeste: I go playground.Mummy: where did you go just now?Celeste: I go bank.Mummy: what did you do at the bank?Celeste: kring!Haha apparently.. Celeste associates the sound kring with banks coz that’s what grandma taught her.

Besides speaking, Celeste sings a bit too. I suspect she’s not a very good singer with good memory coz she usually sings just a few phrases here and there, without much of a tune. Her current in twinkle twinle little star in Chinese! Interestingly, she’s able to sing more Chinese songs than English!

Mummy’s selling off some things that Celeste doesn’t use anymore…

Acutally Mummy’s feeling quite sad coz it means that Celeste has grown up. No more baby days.

Mummy’s attempting to selling off Celeste’s M sized swim diapers… Celeste wears swimming costume now!

Selling away Celeste’s hardly used Graco Playard that both Mummy and Daddy likes a lot. One of our major buys before Celeste was born.

Ohhh… time flies!

When we first bought this Shapes Puzzle sorter, Celeste didn’t know how to play with it. She found it silly that we had to individually put in the objects according to their shapes. She had a faster way of putting of all them in. Open the cover and put them in. :p Gradually, she learned shapes and the first shape she managed to insert in successfully was the Circle. However, her progress was stagnant. Everytime she played, she only knew how to put in the circle. This game was eventually shelved somewhere else until one day about a month ago, we took it out again. To our surprise, Celeste didnt need any coaching to put in some of the shapes. She managed to insert the circle in beautifully and surprised us by inserting the square and oval herself! With some teaching and practice, Celeste soon learned to insert all the shapes herself!

Watch the video of Celeste completing her task: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf7cP_KWcWg

Mummy: Celeste, do you want to read story books?
Celeste: Yes…
Mummy: Ok, go and take a story book for me. I read to you.
Celeste: Mummy go. Mummy take storybook.
Mummy: *roll eyes*

After a few minutes of trying hard to get Celeste to take a storybook and she refuses, Mummy has to take for Celeste instead.

Mummy: *points to title* The Sun and The Moon. *starts to read while pointing to the words*
Celeste: *points to pictures* Monkey jump. Rabbit swim swim. Fish jump. *flips to next page very quickly and the next and the next until she reaches the page she wants* Mama rabbit hang clothes. *blahblahblahblah…*

Mummy rarely gets the chance to read to Celeste nowadays because Celeste wants to do the interpretating for me instead! But she doesn’t go in order. She just likes to turn to a page and start describing the picture for me.

Gone were the good old days of story book reading!

At 22m, Celeste is not toilet trained yet. She doesn’t seem quite ready yet because she still stands to pee. Haha.. just like a boy! So I was never insistent that she be toilet trained yet. Diapers are always more convenient, despite being more expensive.

But one day, Grandma took off Celeste’s diaper and told her to pee at the potty. Instead of crying when she sees the potty, Celeste obediently sat on the potty and peed a bit. Good progress! For half of the day, Celeste went diaperless. A great feat and the start to toilet training.

 Today, diaperless Celeste remembered to tell us that she wanted to pee and managed to pee into the potty for a few times. However, she forgot that she was diaperless when she was watching TV and peed on the sofa. ;p Well, I think it’s still a good start and C is on the way to diaperless days soon!

These days, Celeste sleeps with Mummy on some nights. Celeste sleeps on her toddler bed in Mummy’s room. She can climb in and out easily without any help.

One night, we sleep without closing the door to our room. Celeste had just had her midnight milk and was or should be already asleep. I went to sleep back facing her. Suddenly, I heard a little roll and some noise. I turned over and to my astonishment, Celeste was already OUT of her toddler bed and at the doorway! I leapt from the bed and noticed that she was looking around. She looked into Grandma’s room then at the altar. Afraid that she’ll run elsewhere, i quickly dashed towards her and carried her. She went limp immediately after I carried her and slept sounding after that.

 Hmm… sleepwalking? From then on, Mummy don’t dare to not close the door anymore! No more leaping and running in the middle of the night!

Celeste is reaching 2 years old in 2 months time! Time really flies. Wondering whether to have a Thomas Train birthday cake, or Carebear birthday cake? I think Celeste still prefers Thomas!

Her progress in speech is remarkable. Even though we hardly speak to her in Mandarin, Celeste still manages to pick up SOME of the language.

Yesterday, we were playing with the ball and Mummy was taking turns to count with her in English. Usually I’ll start with “One” first, then she’ll proceed with “Two” and I’ll continue with “Three” and it goes on as we take turns to count before I end with “Ten!”. I’ll throw the ball up upon the number “10″. Note: Celeste will skip “seven” because she can’t say it.

Then I tried it in Mandarin, thinking that she doesn’t know any Mandarin. To my surprise, she continued with “2″ in Mandarin when I said “Yi”(1). Wow, I’m amazed. And she could count all the way to 10 as well, but this time, she’ll skip 4. She sounds really ang mo-ish speaking Mandarin, with a twang. keke.

Anyway, she can draw circles now too. A little lopsided but it’s still a circle. Learning to draw a square/rectangle. She also can say triangle very clearly. Can’t quite pronounce circle and square though. She seems to know the concept of big and small too coz she’ll point to me to a place to draw “big circle, small square” and I’ll have to draw it for her.

Btw, we’re going Genting for Celeste’s sake this december coz we think Celeste would enjoy the cool environment there. Bought some sweaters for her and Mummy is kinda excited on bringing Celeste out for her 3rd overseas trip!

It’s been a long time since we brought Celeste out for swimming.

Mummy: Celeste, do you want to go swimming?
Celeste: Yes.

When we reached the carpark and Celeste saw the water from the play pool,
Celeste: WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

She was so loud and I was still at a lost. Why was she so excited? It was until I saw the water than I realised that she was much more alert than me. :p

Anyway, she can waddle in the pool without much difficulty now. The level of the baby pool  is at her waist now so she is very confident of walking around. But that means that we have to chase after her!

Celeste is extremely happy to splash around in the water and loves the water slide, much to our amazement. She used to tremble whenever we slid down slides with her. :p

 This is how Celeste looks at the end of the day. She didn’t want to get out of the water to bathe and struggled with us. I think she really enjoyed her trip to the pool.