Cleanliness Freak

I never knew or thought that a barely 16 month-old child could be such a cleanliness freak. My impressions of toddlers that age are active, busy, dirty, and definitely not having a care whether his/her hand is dirty!

Janelle is like my vacuum-cleaner at home, spot-checking the house daily for specks of dust or dirt, and diligently picking them up with her tiny fingers and calling out "meh-may" (her version of "mummy") and showing the dirt to me. She'll also pick up strands of hair on the floor and pass them to me. That aside, whenever her hands are dirty, she would stretch out the dirty hand and insist that I clean it before she continues with whatever she is doing! And when I say "dirty", I mean like when there is some water on her hands, or just one grain of rice, or whatever. And when she steps onto something on the floor (water, dust, etc), she will call "meh-may" and stand on one leg, lifting up the foot which is dirty, and wait for me to 'rescue' her by cleaning the foot before she continues walking. Whenever we drop something on the floor, she will also keep pointing at it and insist that it's picked up before she is satisfied.

Well, I guess I'm glad that she has a low tolerance for dirt and tardiness! She takes after both Royston and my genes in that, for sure. It also does help a lot in keeping the house neat and tidy, since she does the spot-check all the time!

More Words

Janelle is really verbalizing more and more these days. Though she can't exactly talk yet, but she does try to pronounce more words!

New words to her vocab:
- doll
- no more
- pa (grandpa)
- meimei
- tigger

Janelle has been screaming just the same too. Really praying hard for God's wisdom and love to change her to be more patient and loving! May we be the godly parents who will bring Janelle up in the love & knowledge of Christ :) May Janelle (and her sibling-to-be) walk after Jesus as they walk after us!

Eeyore, Baa Baa and more

Yesterday, Janelle learnt how to say "Eeyore" (the cute donkey from Winne the Pooh) when she saw her eeyore soft toy. And she says it not as a word, but more like a high-whisper sound that goes "eeyore". She sounds so cute when she says it! And she's been repeating "eeyore" over and over again, as though to perfect the pronunciation!

Her favourite song now is "Baa Baa Black Sheep". She will go "baa baa" and expect me to finish singing the song for her, where she will happily nod her head when we reach the part that says "Yes Sir, Yes Sir...". And her nodding of head looks almost like she's dancing! Because she'll shake her whole body to and fro (including her head). She has yet to learn how to nod only her head, and not her shoulders and back as well. Haha   And the amazing thing is that she never gets tired of that song! After I finish singing it, she will go "baa baa" again to request for me to sing it over again - it is almost as though her singing of "baa baa" is like a coin slotted into a jukebox (me being the jukebox)!

Some other new words she's picked up:
- bag (she'll say "beh")
- fish (she'll say "hish" without the "f" sound)
- bubble
- more (she'll say "more" and do the "no more" hand sign, ie. she actually means to say "no more" but can only say 1 word at a time)

This picture is of her fake smile. She'll smile whenever we ask her to, but her smile turns out looking fake!

 

Crown of Glory

Recently, I've been reflecting on Janelle's crown of glory - or rather, the lack of it.

It's simply amazing how the lack of hair on the top of her head can trigger so many responses from different ones! Almost everyone Janelle meets (especially strangers) will ask about her lack of hair and give suggestions on how to improve it. I've got people telling me I should rub olive oil, wine, brandy, Malay oil, aloe vera, etc etc, to people who highly recommend shaving her several times more before the hair grows out thick and nice. Someone even recommended bringing her to the National Skin Centre to have her head checked by a specialist to see if there was anything wrong!

I have no doubt that all these suggestions come with well-meaning intentions, but it just makes me puzzled how come others are more concerned and worried about it than we (Royston and myself) are! We believe that God made her the way she is and she is beautiful in His eyes. And anyway, I'm sure the hair will grow out - it's just a matter of time, be it months or years. After all, no one has ever seen a primary school kid who is still without hair right? Means that the hair will definitely grow - it's just a matter of time.

It's just interesting that the outward appearance of a person can bring on so many comments and suggestions. Indeed, man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart! God is not going to count the number of hairs we have on our head before deciding if we qualify for His book of life! All we know is this - hair or no hair, we will still love Janelle just the same.

In the meantime, I shall just have to continue reassuring well-meaning strangers (who give recommendations on Janelle's hair) that it is alright to not have hair. Strange that I am the one reassuring others about my own daughter's lack of hair!

NO Dear!

Now, everything is "no, no, no" for Janelle. She will shake her head and keep repeating "no, no, no" whenever we try to offer her something to appease her. Rarely will she accept something without protesting with "no, no, no" first! No idea what goes through her mind!?!

Her next favourite word is "dear!". She now calls everyone "dear" - myself, Royston, her grandparents, etc. All of us are now "dear" to her. Perhaps it's easier for her that way since it's easier to call us! And she calls "dear!" literally with an exclamation mark at the end - in a loud tone that tries to command some attention. Really hope that she'll stop calling us "dear" soon and revert to addressing us by the proper term of "daddy", "mummy", etc!

Last week I brought her along with me for my staff retreat in Malacca. She had a fun time running around as usual. And she got the biggest balaku of her life when she tripped while running and whacked her head hard onto the marble flooring of the hotel. There was a loud thud as she fell to the ground. *ouch*

She also managed to pose for a few pictures, which is really very rare for Janelle to do so. Most of the time she will try to 'siam4' the camera! Or stare blankly at it. Check out the poser...

 

A few weeks back, she also learnt how to smile whenever we ask her to. She'll crinkle up her eyes instead of pulling off a wide smile. And her smile looks really fake. Haha  Must take a picture of her fake smile soon for remembrance!

Janelle - 15-18 months old

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Taken when Janelle was 13 months old during CNY period.