Thursday, August 01, 2013

Letter to my girls: Khayla (31 months) & Khadeeja (7 months)

To my little angels on earth,

Last couple of weeks you both turned a month older, Alhamdulillah. It's almost hard to believe that a lifetime away I was just obsessed about work, but now I'm obsessed about your milestones and oh boy, what many milestones you girls have achieved so far!

To the sweetest baby in the world named Khadeeja,

The day that I feared has finally arrived - all of a sudden you started to talk back to us and giving your own opinion! Not funny that you love repeating us telling you 'No' - 'No Khadeeja, don't climb the TV cabinet!' 'No Khadeeja, don't eat that thing from the floor!' 'No Khadeeja, don't pull your sister's hair!' And you cheerfully replied, 'Na, na, na, na...' Occasionally you said, 'Ta, ta, ta...' too. Sometimes when you get all excited you punctuated your babbles with loud shrieks and flapping of arms to stress your point. All in all, you are the most expressive baby I've come by and that worries me a little because it means the day we argue on every single thing from boys to clothes to how to fry an egg are fast approaching!

'Naaaaa.....'

Last month also had been a challenging month as it was the fasting month and we were super busy supplying food at the campus. What made it challenging was not the cooking or the food packing, no. It was because you simply hate to be left on your own even though I was just a few meters away in the kitchen. When I put you on the floor or in your walker, you started to wail and cry big fat tears that will turn to a full-blast tantrum till you were blue in the face. You can really cry hard till no voice came out - you were that determined to force me to stop my work and carry you.

I could ignore your cries if you just stay put in one place but no. Since you could crawl and stand up against my legs, you made it difficult for me to ignore you! So in the end I had no choice but to schedule my tasks in short bursts and scuttle around doing a lot of things while you took short naps, but oh boy, it was exhausting!

Climbing has become your latest skill!

My sweetheart,

On the bright side, you have become less fussy and could sit quietly in your car seat as we made our daily trips to the city campus in the evening. The reason is because you have shown strong interest in this awesome thing called baby CD which I put on in the car before we started our journey. You love watching this CD of nursery rhymes called 'The Wheels on the Bus' series and could get so preoccupied with it throughout the journey! :D The moment I put you in the car seat you would automatically looked at the TV screen expecting to see the cartoon played!

Cartoon fan

And you also gained so many admirers on campus who think you are the best stress-buster. You are probably the most popular person on campus as we got so many requests from fellow students wanting to carry you during break time. There's this lady from China who adores you so much that she would stop by every day just to say hello and kiss you :) awww... 

Helping to sell the food by being oh-so-cute!

My precious gem,

Another happy progress is your enthusiasm at trying out new food - the flavour of the month happened to be puréed avocado which you love with a gusto. You also love trying out various other food from jelly to noodle, and I hope your healthy appetite will continue on, Amin.

Uncle Sodep helping to feed you

Now to my darling firstborn, Khayla,

My singing bug. My talkative parrot and hilarious copycat. You are my sweetheart, the one sunshine that brought so much joy, especially at this age. Sometimes you can try my patience too when you become so stubborn and have discovered that you have control over your own life! 

Must watch BabyTV first before going to school

Khayla sweetie,

Let's talk about this stubbornness that suddenly popped out of nowhere. You have become pretty much independent lately and have your own opinions on what you like and dislike. For instance, the other week you wanted to put on your shoes by yourself but because we were in a hurry, I helped you with the task. You flew into a rage because you wanted to do it yourself! So you insisted to take the shoe off and then put it on again unassisted.

The same thing happened when you demanded to sing your favourite tune. If I dared to sing other songs, you would shriek, 'Noooooo!' and become so upset. Your favorite song now is 'Please don't cry', which you never got tired to ask me to sing it for you, 'The Wheels on the Bus', complete with cute actions (and you would correct me each time I sing 'round and round' instead of 'up and down' like you want me to), and recently you also love 'Xiao Lau Shu', a Chinese nursery song you learnt at school about a little mouse.

Khayla at her first school trip

After fetching you from school, you normally refuse to leave the car and walk by yourself to our apartment. This is where my parenting skill have evolved - at first I used force and we would have a screaming fit and huge tantrums as I attempted to drag you upstairs while balancing Khadeeja on my hip. On days I don't have the energy to fight with a feisty 2-year-old, I would simply carry both of you upstairs but it became terribly exhausting during fasting month.

So, I changed tactics to bribing you to a short trip to the playground. You love the playground! Mention the word 'playground' and your stubborn demeanour resolve, and you would skip your way to the playground :)

'See-saw, mak...'

My super adorable tot,

In terms of food, you are a typical two-year-old true and true. You and food don't get along well unless the food is coated in sugar, chocolate or cheese - otherwise known as 'junk food' or 'snack'. The best healthy food you could stomach are raisins (your all-time favourite snack which you could finish the whole box in one sitting), and certain fruits (apple, banana, corn). Other than that, you are happy to go without food. Whenever it's mealtime, I have to chase you to get you to eat a spoonful of rice, and if I am lucky, I could get you to eat chicken or fish with rice. So far, any attempts at getting you to eat vegetable have been futile. Seriously, secretly I think your teacher was just trying to cover your back when she mentioned that you could finish your greens at school, where else at home you would rather vomit than eat anything green! (except the green M&Ms!)


Another thing my dear, is your relationship with your sister. Somehow, this month you are back to treating your sister like an annoying bug. Why, Khayla? I simply could not understand why you could not get along with Khadeeja where else Khadeeja simply adores you. Whenever Khadeeja was happily playing (or poking around with stuffs at the tv cabinet like any curious 7-month-olds), you get upset easily and would pull her with a loud command, 'No, Khadeeja!' Then Khadeeja would tumble down, sometimes knocking her head on the floor with a surprised look on her face, before wailing in hurt!

I get very upset too. I would pull you back, and demand why you treat Khadeeja like that. You have that 'uh-oh, I've done something bad and I just realise it' look on your face. As a punishment, you would have to sit in a corner. After a while, I would call you and you would kiss my hand and caress Khadeeja's head to say you are sorry, but half an hour later, you would do the same thing again!

The rare moment when you could be sweet to Khadeeja

The other day, Bapak caught you in the act of pulling your sister and making her bump her head on the floor. I think it was just a thoughtless reflect - he pulled you back and smacked you hard on your hand. You looked dazed as Bapak shouted at you for hurting your sister, but you didn't cry. You stared defiantly at him as if saying that you did nothing wrong teaching your sister not to touch with Mommy's stuff, that I felt sorry for you. Still, I intervened and you knew immediately what you have to do, even asking me, 'Sit there?' and voluntarily went to the corner to sit and punish yourself!

Both sisters enjoying apple slices

My cheeky Khayla,

Despite your stubbornness, your less-than-sisterly act towards Khadeeja as well as love for junk food and playground, you have improved your vocabulary by leaps and bounds. You can name a lot of things now that I cannot list them all here, complete with adjectives to describe them. And, you have very good memory too. You especially love the puzzles games in my iPad and can memorise which piece goes where after just a game or two. Bravo my darling!

Baby girl,

I just hope that in your heart, you would find the mean to accept Khadeeja as your little sister. I know you still want us by yourself, it shows my sweetie. The way you nuzzle your head against mine, the way you hold my hand so possessively, how you love it so much when I choose to hug and cuddle you over your sister. But remember I told you last time that I love you both equally, not an ounce more or less?

Smiling with each other

Well, sweethearts, I love you both dearly.


With all my heart,
Mak