Wednesday 12 November 2014

18 month old Ethan-James, The new chapter of Toddlerhood

My baby boy Ethan-James aka EJ is already 18 months old.. Where did the time go? Can he be small for a little longer? I'm just not ready he's growing up too fast, especially in 6 months time, he's going to be 2! Will he enter the terrible 2 stage? I hope no, please!

From 16 months old to 18 months old of age, he has changed so much! That surprised me too!

Here are 30 facts about little EJ

Emotionally, he...

1) He knows exactly what he wants

Exactly!!! He knows what he wants to do & he can be very stubborn when he wants something. His temper can be really terrible. When I said "EJ, don't play with your shoes, it's dirty.." I took away his shoes and after that he would cry so loud, lie down on the floor & kicks his legs

He knows when he wants milk or biscuits, he will demand it by bringing his bottle or pointing at his biscuits jar

And he always love to mess my cosmetic bag. In this pic, he's holding my lip balm

2) He directs you to do things he wants

If he can't reach it, example: on top of high drawer, he will pull your hand and direct you to take things he's not able to take.

3) He understands fully what things can be done and there's no way you can lie to him

He knows biscuits inside plastic jar can be opened, there's always something inside a plastic bag/packaging and it can be opened and things that are sealed can be opened too. There's no way I can cheat him now! He will always force me to open things for him! 2 months ago at 16 months, he didn't know about this yet and I could still cheat him a little, but now? NO WAY!

4) He can feel guilty but will blame you for what he has done!

When he took my TV remote control and messed it up, he would give him back the remote control, so I could fix it and then I said "It's your fault, see we can't turn on the TV anymore.." He looked down and just stayed silent until I fixed the TV and then here comes the funny part after TV's being fixed, he would blame me "ah ha!!!" pointing his finger at me. It's like saying "ah ha, it's your fault, right?" After that, everything's back to normal! :D

Look at the pic (top right) EJ is blaming me "ah ha..!!" (pointing his finger at me)

5) He's seeking for attention and starts to have 'jealousy' feeling

When I'm with him, I'm 100% belong to him (body & soul). He has entered another stage of toddlerhood, attention seeking & jealousy! When we were together & he was playing his toys, I thought it's ok to check my phone for a while.. Apparently it wasn't ok for him, he got angry because I did something else when I was with him, he snatched my phone & threw it far then passed his toy to me and requested to play.. He has been like that for quite a while! I'm worried if he would react the same when his newborn sister is around in a few weeks time..

Same things goes to checking iPad, eating my breakfast, etc (He won't let me do that at all, his time is mine and my time is his..)


6) He's very demanding

Yes, he is!! He pulls my hand and directs me to places he wants to go. Playground, Play yard, his room, my room, kitchen, sofa, etc.. And there's no way I can reject him, nor I have the heart to reject this precious little one's demand!

He can even pull my hand and invite me to go to his play yard, so I can play with him.. Including what toys to play too!

"It's play time, mommy!!" EJ demands

And he...

7) He loves to read

He doesn't mind what books I bought him, he just loves to read & demands me to read for him many times a day. I'm happy of course! So, I bought him so many books and his baby board books collection is pretty wide now (and growing!)

 
Busy reading!
 
"Can I read you farm book, mommy?"
 
He also loves "hey diddle diddle" & "humpty dumpty" story books ~ he loves me to sing the story instead of reading it

8) He loves talking especially on the phone

When he's on the phone, he's like one adult baby "eeoo" (hello), "ah..", "mmm...", (pause) & continues talking again (baby language of course!)


9) He can remember things very well!

He remembers titles of his books (although he can't say it quite right yet!). Whenever I ask him to bring me certain book titles, he will bring me correctly! He remembers where things located in the house too! One day, I played him one new baby song (I sang with some actions), a week later, he still remembered that song, showed me some fingers/hands action with a few words from that song came out from his mouth correctly (his memory is better than mine, I didn't remember that!)

10) He's afraid of sticky stuff, dirt, black little things, insects, etc

He refers something he doesn't like (black little things, insects, sticky stuff) as "kah kah" (in his baby language means "scary" haha..) I'm quite worried actually because he's so afraid of getting dirty, oily and wet. He's also afraid of sticky stuff like spaghetti noodles (he won't touch it!), anything sticky & gooey, he will freak out! How if one day he goes to school? How to play dough? How to finger feed himself sticky or oily foods? He doesn't even want to touch wet/cold apple, but he's ok with biscuit because it's dry. Will his life be affected next time?

11) He can follow many instructions

Instructions like "sit down & wear shoes" (he will sit down & lift up one of his legs), "go to your room", "come here", "sit down here", "take this/that", "lie down", "change your diaper" (he will lie down & not move at all), "it's bath time" (he will grab his towel, request you to turn on heater & toilet light and go to toilet), "it's milk time" (he will go to his room, lay his head on his pillow & wait for his milk), "drink water", "don't go there", "close the door" (not only he closes it but he locks it as well, what a naughty boy!), "open the door", "hold hands", "eat porridge" (he will push his high chair in front of TV) and quite a few more instructions

12) He knows his own routine

He knows his timing very well. He knows 8.30AM, it's his morning milk time, 9AM, it's time to go playground (he will climb into his stroller), 1.30PM, napping time (he will request for milk), 4.30PM, playground time again (he will bring out his walking shoes, so I can wear for him) and he even knows his bath time correctly. At 12.30PM, he will take his towel and ready to go to bath! (Although he hates to take shower!) He can't read time yet, I wonder how he remembers that!

13) He loves playground and always look forward to go to!

No playground, here we are, ready to face one super cranky baby! He will force to go of course! Requesting to wear his walking shoes & waiting impatiently at the gate! Once I let him out, he will quickly press the apartment lift button!

14) He's obsessed with Itsy-Bitsy Spider!

He can watch Itsy-Bitsy Spider song over & over again & won't get bored of it! He will request this song by doing some Itsy-Bitsy Spider fingers action!

15) He can say approximately 10 words and combine 2 words together and about 10 animal sounds

He can combine words like "bubble catch", "car where", "ball there", "ball catch", "car there", "bye-bye" and a few more 2 word combinations. He can say quite many animal sounds like "roar" (for lion), "neigh he he" (for horse), "kwak kwak" (for duck), "ba" (for sheep) and a few more (about 10 sounds)

Unfortunately he doesn't want to call "mommy" yet =.='

16) He loves his milk so much

I don't know if it's too much for a 18 month old toddler or not. He drinks milk 4-5 times a day (midnight feeding too), each feeding is about 260-300 ml of formula milk. He grows so tall too (not sure if it's too much milk or genetics), at 18 months old, he's already 14 kg & 90 cm ^^ As big as a 24 month old toddler (or even older)


17) He hates taking shower

Always cry taking one! He hates his hair getting wet!

18) He hates hair cutting

He will cry like hell, so no hair stylist can ever cut his hair, he will struggle & cry his lungs out. So, I had to buy my own hair cutting scissor & style-cut my self his hair!

19) He has so many pairs of shoes

He's only 1 year old plus & his shoes are more than mine =.=' Most bought by his daddy when he's overseas!

 
And his shoes size is almost as big as my one adult palm
 
20) He's a typical boy who loves playing soccer (He loves ball) and car

Yes, a very very typical man! Soccer, ball, car, etc. He's quite obsessed with cars in fact, every day he will stand outside our glass window watching the cars passing by and chant "car car.." (keeps repeating it!)

21) He loves playing bubbles

He gets really excited with bubbles! and  he can say the word "bubble" and actually refers balloon as "bubble" too ;)
22) He loves junk food (but we will only give him once in while!)

He likes fries & fried chicken but can't seem to eat a lot of it. Maybe a few fries & one or two bites of chicken? That's his 18th month old birthday treat at Popeye's!

23) He loves to lock his own room door (which we are so afraid of!)

Since the day he figured out how to open & close doors, whenever he wants his little privacy, he will lock his own room door. How clever but how dangerous if we've forgotten about the key?

24) But unfortunately, he can't sleep through the night yet!

I don't understand this yet, but he wakes up midnight (at 2 am or 4 am) for milk once or twice. Most of the times, he's not able to sleep back, wakes up at 4 am, has his milk and sleeps back again at 6 am to 8 am. Pretty much like a little baby, right?

How I wish he can sleep through the night at 18 months old!

25) He loves watching birds!

He's just being too fascinated by birds, many birds!

26) When he holds my hands, nothing else matters!

As a mom, I feel warm & happy (kind of touching feeling in my heart too) whenever my little son holds my hand, doesn't let it go at all and we just walk far, far away.. I feel like I have to cherish the times he holds my hand because he's not going to hold my hand forever (hey, he will have a girlfriend and get married one day, he's going to hold his wife's hand) and I can't be with him forever too, so I think simple thing like holding hands means a world to me! :)


27) There is always a way to entertain him

This explains, right? At this age, sometimes toys can't fulfill his curiosity towards many things surrounding him & he prefers to explore at other things like playing vegetables & learning how to pluck & peel. I don't mind the messiness, as long as he learns something and of course, he's happy too!

28) Finally he starts eating soft rice with soup

Not much, he only takes a few spoons of rice with soup and it takes 45 minutes to feed him proper solid food like rice, but hey that's a good start, right? He still prefers soft porridge which we normally give him in the morning & night. Afternoon is rice & soup time (we try!)

29) He loves to play (rough) with daddy

Talking about boys, this is what boys do, wrestling around & playing dog&cat (pretending to hide, crawl, chase one another & finally smacking his body hardly on his bed). And he only plays rough with his daddy, not with the women in the house :D (he knows we women hate violence, hehee..)


30) And he's still one happy baby

Yes, he is... His smile & laugh is too precious :)
 


Happy & Laughing Baby video :) 



Busy talking (with his baby language) on the phone while hiccupping



A little update at 18 months old:

EJ is currently recovering from walking pneumonia (mycoplasma bacterial) infection. I can tell you this mycoplasma bacterial is horrible. It pains me so much to see him having high fever for so many days. Luckily he's recovering now with prescribed anti-biotic

Day 1, 2, 3 ~> Fever (from 37.5-39.9), vomiting, cough, blocked nose & no appetite to eat/drink milk. Went to his PD and fever medicine (both high & low) prescribed! Viral Infection suspected!

Day 4 ~> I got really worried as he was still having fever and paracetamol didn't work. Went to his PD again for blood test, found out this horrible bacterial diagnosis (luckily it's only small amount of bacterial and thus there's no need for hospitalization), anti biotic prescribed and so one whole bunch of other medications for cough, flu, phlegm and fever. It hurt me to see him taking so much medications and he left me no choice but to force feed with syringe as he rejected his medications using soft ways I could think of! As he also felt nausea, he kept vomiting after having his medication, so I had to arrange a perfect timing ~ making sure his tummy was empty before taking medication

Day 5 ~> Getting better, no fever for 12 hours and suddenly fever came back again

Day 6 ~> Today! He's better, so far no more fever for more than 18 hours and I hope he remains that way. Appetite is back! Day 8 is his another review appointment with his PD, hopefully we receive good news!

Get Well Soon dearest son! This sickness is really horrible! I have been getting so many sleepless nights, not mentioning the stress level I'm facing during this period! 

Take care!!

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