Potty training part II

HY was curios about why EY were doing at the potty. She would come to the bathroom to watch EY but she would not do it herself. Once a while she would sit for 10 seconds then she got back up and wanted her diaper back on. I was not ready to do cold turkey with her. We were going to wait till she showed interst like EY then we would go alone. But GongGong said one learned and the other one must be ready. GongGong insisted not to wait and just start training HY. He initiated the process but taking off HY's diaper and let her run around without diaper. He told her that if she wanted to go to school, she needed to know how to potty. If she would not do so, she would not be able to go to school and EY will go to school by herself, and she would have to stay home. The idea of not going to school and not going with EY was frightening and it did motivate her to attempt sitting on the potty. But, she would not tell me when she needed to go. I had to constantly remind her and take her to the potty. She had so much accidents that I was tired and exhausted at the end of the day. Every night I would prayed that God would help HY to click and got the idea. I was able to quit after the first week. But, she started to show a little progress. Instead of 5 to 6 accidents, it came down to 2 or 3 times. Then, at the end of second week, only #2 accidents. By the third week, she was ready to tell us as long as she was not distracted. It was the longest 3 weeks! We were glad that they didn't need diapers no more. I was so thankful for god's support during that week. All the hard work were worthy at the end.

Potty training

I could not get myself to write about potty training for the longest time. But now, i would give it a try. Why was it so hard to talk about? Because it was an exhausting experience and even thinking about it sometimes it would stressed me out, haha.

Before the girls turned two, about 20 months, we tried cold turkey and spent three days no diapers at home but WY and I were not able to catch the girls' clues right before they needed to go. So many accidents that we concluded the girls were not ready net. We would try again when they turned 2. When they turned 24 months, WY and I were the ones who were not ready to do the big tasks again. We had a trip planned for Seattle in August 2011, so, we decided to do training after we came back. However, EY were ready and a few times that she told me that she needed to go pee and she would go to potty. After the trip, I told EY that she was a big girl and she didn't need to wear diaper if she were willing to go potty. She agreed and we started to do it that way. No stress at all. She was trained in 3 days! We were shocked and how easy it was. Ever since EY's potty training, I paid more attention to EY. I changed my strategy to get one down first then the second one. EY liked that I gave her attention and understood her verbal communication which was in a fast track developing. She grew attached to mommy. On the other hand, HY used to be mommy's little girl, became daddy's little girl. She went to daddy for attention and only wanted daddy at night. That was a new dynamic in the family from the potty training.

Approaching preschool

I could not believe that it was one year ago when I last blogged. It has gone by too fast to capture and record their milestones. Before they turned two, I thought to myself that the girls didn't get their mommy's talkative personality at all. Why? Other people always commented that our girls were quiet and didn't like to speak. I were asked why our girls were so serious that no smile or words came out of them. After they turned 2 years old, things began to change. Our girls were chatty box at home with me, still quiet with strangers. But, once they warmed up, they would try to get you to play with them. They started to recognized familiar faces and remembered names of our friends. Certainly, they enjoyed playing with their cousins and friends now. EY liked to followed Tyler and Catherine while HY liked to just watch but played on her own. They loved chasing after the older cousins. They laughed so hard while they were running that they often ran out of breath.

They spoke in chinglish a lot. Such as I want "nai nai"(milk). It turned out that I caught myself speaking chinglish as well. Oh well, sometimes i forgot and could not find the Chinese words for everything so I mixed my languages as well.

I gotta say that our girls hair grew longer now that I could braid them. They were so so cute with two small braids in the back. I felt that my girls did grew when they were willing to sit down and let mommy braid their hair. It was a strange feeling. A good one. A moment for a mother To cherish. Just like their hair, they grew taller and heavier. They are no longer infants. They are toddlers who are approaching preschool! Time flies.

real words

Yes, finally, our girls are speaking some understandable words. Their favorite ones are: "po-po" which means "hold hold me", and "noo!"

"po-po" is Chinese. They mixed different words in Chinese and English. Since I always said "mama po-po EY or HY", they picked that up quick. They liked to be held so they learned to demand the action of po-po.

"nooo!" was from the book"where is spot?" They wanted to say Spot but they could not pronounce the letter "s", so, they just said "bot". In each page of the book of the little doggie Spot, mommie was looking for Spot throughout the house. She looked inside the closet, under the stairs and in the piano, all over the covered area. In each place, there was a lift up cover for children to see what was under. There would be a different animal hiding under and screamed "no" as dog mommie opened the cover. So, the girls would get ready to say "no" when they opened the cover. They loved saying "no" so much that even though we have changed to a different book of Spot, in which he was going to the beach, they would say "no" for each page despite what was written on. Do I confused you?

EY and HY both recognized a lot of animals from the books. They could say name some also, such as duck duck (in English), Owel (in English), zhuzhu (pig in Chinese). They both love pointing out the apple (in English).

Ohh, once more thing is funny. When you asked EY, what's your name? She would answer "Emm-Mee". If you asked what's sister's name, she would reply "Emm-Mee". When you asked HY what her name was, she would say "Emm-Mee" because she heard sister said it and she received a lot of praises! HY's name was harder to say so they just loved saying "Emm-Mee" for now.

Did I tell you about "hand-stand"? that's HY"s favorite trick to show off to visitors.

They could say grandpa in Chinese today. That was a good one. WY's dad was happy to hear that.

That's it for now.

Ohh trouble!

It has been a lot time since I blogged about the updates on our girls. As I typed, they were destroying a paper back story book. One of them torn a page accidentally and both found very fun to tear each page off and then tear each page up. I found it was awfully quiet over there at the corner of the coach. But the time I discovered the destruction of the book, it was too late. What did I do? Well, might as well let them go on. If I were to stop them now and there would be two screaming and crying babies. I chose to let them continue the event while I got a few minutes to blog.

The girls loved to climb after they mastered walking. They were climbing onto their highchairs despite we put them not to and put them into the penalty box. You could tell them were so proud of their new discovered skill and they were fearless. Both of them managed to climb up the highchairs and turned around to sit on it then climb back down. They also liked to climb onto their trains and cars and stood right on it like the acrobat doing balance act. They certainly experienced the accomplishment when they successfully stood up high. You could see them looking for audience for their performance. I tried to keep a straight face when I saw them and told them to get down to avoid falling. Inside of me, I could not help cracking up and being excited for their new development.

What else they did to get themselves in trouble? Tip-toeing to reach to the dinning room table to get the stuff at the edge of the table. Trust me, they almost pull the plates matt off with plates, bowls and folks. They successfully retrieved newspaper, mail, wallets off the table. Now, they were challenging the sole table which was even taller than the dinning room table.

They had this little chair from their cousin a month ago. They at first would only ignored it then sat on it. Now, they have been using it as a stepping stool to get up to the sofa. They were thinking and planning. First they put the chair right up the sofa then one leg stepped onto it to elevate their body, arms grabbed onto the sofa cushion, the other leg reached the top of the sofa, arms pulled and their little body hopped onto the sofa. They did it quick!

That is it for now!

good girls

When Gong Gong left today, I asked the girls "say bye bye" with a hand wave. Normally, they would only waved their hands but today, "bye bye" with the hand wave, said EY and HY. Wow, good girls. I gave them two big kisses.

"Please give mama the orange" requested by me after we read a book together, more like reading two pages then EY closed the book and put it on the side. They first looked at me and I pointed across the room, repeated the request " give mama the orange, please, girls."

Both girls got up and walked across the room towards the orange toy. The orange toy was hiding next to a chair. HY was ahead but she walked right past it and wondered where it went. EY came up behind HY and saw the orange toy. She picked it up, walked back and handed me the orange toy proudly! I was so thrilled. HY walked back with a big smile as well. She was proud for sister as well. Of course I rewarded my good girls big fat kisses on the cheeks. Loooooooove it!

Gong Gong is here! Play time outside!

Gong Gong is how our girls would call my dad. It means grandfather in Cantonese. Three days out of the week, Gong Gong comes over to help me take care of the girls so that I could do some house tour. They have a routine with Gong Gong. After eating yogurt in the morning, Gong Gong takes the gilrs to the neighborhood park to play. Swing, then slide then playing on the grass. They always have the whole park to themselves. The other kids don't come out until the afternoon.

After all the activities, they get tired and Gong Gong strolls them back and they usually falls in asleep in the stroller. After lunch, Gong Gong takes out one more time. This time they only run around the park and watched other kids to play. It is too hard for Gong Gong to keep track of the girls while there are other kids there. Then, after they got tired, nap time again.

Gong Gong leaves around 4pm every time to avoid traffic. HY always cries and walks towards the door when Gong Gong leaves. EY clings onto my legs instead. They are so used to the routine and when Gong Gong says let's put shoes on and go to the park, the girls get very excited and cooperate to get shoes on and strap into the strollers.

Weekends we don't have the same routine, they usually gets fuzzier and we call that "melt down", haha!