Papa for Fun, Mama for Sleep

Joanne's real first words were Mummum, no, not for me, for food... Then she progressed to Mama to call me... Recently she FINALLY called Mike Papa, making him so so so happy. She wants a response from Papa, she will call Mike in varying tones and pitches "Papa", "Ah Pa", "Pa".... BUT horrendously, everything became Papa, even me became Papa!!??!! She wants something from me, she calls me Papa, not Mama.

Papa is the one who plays with her and gives her sweets. Mama is her "food" source and her sleeping partner. So if she wants milk, she'll look for me. If she wants to sleep, she'll put her little hand in my hand and tug me to her bedroom. If she wants to play or go for a walk to see her doggie friend Yacky or she wants to open the fridge for a sweet, she'll look for Papa. Such is reality.



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Joanne has been watching Leapfrog's Letter Factory and she loves it. The first thing she does in the morning walking out of her bedroom is to climb up the sofa and point at the TV. As guilty as I may be, but to get some time for myself to get ready for work, I don't have a "choice" but to let Letter Factory babysit her for a while and that keeps her quiet for 30min.

It wasn't such a bad thing after all. She learns her alphabet and recognises quite a few of the letters like A, B, C, L, M, O. She's not like Matthew; she can't sit still for 30min for me to teach her something. She has also picked up some phonics through Letter Factory. Sometimes in the car, she would suddenly go "AAAHHH" when she sees A on the roadsign or on the bus' advertisement.

She has also been "reading" more books, especially in the car. I guess she must be bored, so books keep her occupied. She loves the flip-the-flap chunky animal book which Matthew also loved at one point. She loves animal books and would scream if she sees something she recognises, like Tiger, Butterfly.

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In other aspects, she has been eating well and loves food tremendously. She has eaten a lot of food, food which I wouldn't have given Matthew at the same age. Since she's keen, I let her eat. She loves fish, fishballs, eggs, like all kids. I have stopped bringing out her milk bottle on weekends for her afternoon feed because I'm plain lazy. These days, she'll just drink UHT milk from a small tetra pack and she loves it. Sometimes she wants to share Milo with Matthew...

She started walking before she turned 11months, so now she has progressed to RUNNING and she can change directions super fast. She's quite good going up and down the slope. She has also started to try walking up the stairs like an adult, without holding the wall!

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To round off this post, here's a video to share.