I received an email from Baby Center this morning reminding me that Mika is officially 23 months and 1 week old. Which also reminded me that it'll be his second birthday soon and I haven't made any birthday plans yikes! Better get cracking soon!
So at 23 months and 1 week old what's Mika development like?
Language development
Can recite "A...B...C...D...E" stopped and continue with "ef...ie...ah...duh...deh..." while pretending to read the rest of the alphabets.
Read 1 2 3 as A B C D E. But he can say the number when being coached. On his own he reads all letters and numbers as "A...B...C...D...E"....
Invent his own words:
kika (Mika)
kik-up (wakeup)
kek-ki (carry)
dodok (duduk - malay word for sit)
wing (swim)
These are just some of his funny words. I'm not too concern because I know he will correct this on his own overtime and besides his way of saying it is too darn cute! Mika doesn't talk baby talk all the time, he can pronounce a lot of words clearly and sometimes certain words is uttered with a slang which sounded like American. I think he copied it mostly from Disney channel and baby TV.
Mika can also speak in simple sentences like "Mummy come here please....pleaseeee!!!". But most of the times he he prefers to keep it short and direct like "Come here!", "Go there!", "Come play!" or "Nenen (milk) please!!!" Even his 'please' is bossy ok. He picked up new vocab everyday thanks to his loud family/ Tot-school/ Disney channel/ Baby TV/ Brillkids/ Tweedlewink/ YBCR/ Brainy baby and not forgetting his books!
It's really difficult to say when Mika really did start talking. When he was a wee baby, he made all sort of sounds which to his overly excited parents, sounded like he was already talking even when it was mostly gibberish. But I think the very first clear word that he uttered all by himself without being asked to was "Abah" and that was when he was about 18 months. Actually Mika said Abah much earlier but that was after much coaxing and and not even in one word, we always had to break it down for him like A-bah, Mum-my so that don't count. Forming his sentence without being coached was when he was about 20 months. And he only CLEARLY started calling "Mummy" when he was 21 months old. Before that he refers me as "Hem-meh" or "Em-meh" (yes that hurt my feeling tsk tsk). He's a bit of a late bloomer in his language but it's fine because once they started talking it'll be nonstop and Mika's blurting new words every day now.
I really do enjoy this phase of him learning new words and forming sentences, to see how his level of understanding to words improves. And I also enjoy making him pick up his clothes, toys, sending his plate and glass to the kitchen; a big plus points when you toddler can understand simple instructions :D
Physical Development
According to some people, size wise my Mika is big, not fat big like his mummy but bigger built than most toddlers his age, he was always mistaken for a 3 or 4 year old. And this is not based on his mummy's biased perception thinking her child is taller/better/etc (come on, don't all parents think like that?), but this is based on comments from families, friends, strangers whose kids are same age or older, nurses and Mika's paediatrician. During his last check up, a nurse actually called him fat and told us we should be concerned! The nerve! But Mika's BMI is normal and even his Paed said Mika is bigger build but his growth is proportionate so I'm not worried. At 23 months he weighs 14kg and 88cm in height, pretty normal right. And when people say he is big I take it as a complement because I know Mika is not the fat kinda big (again unlike his mummy boohoo), he is healthy big and I take credit for it because he eats mostly healthy organic good food stuff, and I use the word 'mostly' loosely because Mika also loves his gopok (keropok which is malay words for chips) and ek-krim (icecream).
His gross motor development is normal, he's actively running, jumping, climbing just like any boy his age. He's now more balance and coordinated in his movement too. Did I mention Mika loves roughhousing? Unfortunately for me this boy plays rough and it's all his Abah's fault. No we don't let him watch those WWF wresling show, it's banned. This typical father-son playtime would normally start as an innocent tickling game which then progressed into a rough play of hustling and tussling on the floor/bed. They would playfully wrestle (playful is more on Abah's part, whereas Mika takes his action more seriously) and the game typically ended with Mika sitting on Abah and showing victory smile and while Abah pretended to be in pain (sometimes it really is PAINFUL) and try to fight back but loses because Mika is supposedly a super strong kid! And all the while I watched in horror fearing Mika could get hurt (couldn't really care less about the dad haha). I kept telling my husband to stop the wrestling game because I feel it encourages violence but he kept saying it's fun and a good exercise for both him and Mika. He then showed me an online article which I can't remember from which site but contains similar info as this link. And I'm quoting:
“Play—especially active physical play, like roughhousing—makes kids smart, emotionally intelligent, lovable and likable, ethical, physically fit, and joyful.”
Read the article further or better read the book. So while I get the explanation behind this positive aspects of roughhousing, it's still difficult for me to watch them while they are at it, I guess it really is a 'guy-thing'. So I stop nagging my husband on this because I really do can see that both father and son bonding through this rough play. Mika especially love playing wrestling with Abah, he would always give out the biggest scream and laugh whenever they play rough. Boys will be boys so I will leave it at that.
His fine motor development is showing good improvements too, he can carry on the activities like stacking, stringing, pinching, without much problem, all the tot-school practice helped tremendously. I can see improvements in such a short time since we started with tot-school.
Social and emotional development
My most favourite thing in the world right now is getting hugs and kisses from Mika. And he is so generous with them *love*
My second favourite thing in the world now is that Mika have switched his parent obsession to ME! Now I get the most attention, the most hugs and kisses, the most love as compared to my husband and I love every minute of it! Me and my husband have always been competitive (in a good way of course) in getting Mika's attention and he has been the center of Mika's world from baby to about 20 months old while mummy sulk at corners and feeling abandoned. But from 21 months onwards Mummy suddenly was promoted to become the Queen of Mika's heart! Finally I'm not just the baby oven cum servant now! And it all started when we went to Taiwan in last February. My husband was attending a conference and so most of the time it was just mummy and mika spending time together. That's when he started obsessing about ME and ME only! I'll never forget the Taiwan trip where Mika finally can spend time with mummy without bothering to look for other people like "Where Abah?", "Where Ina (grandma)?" or "Where Kakak (babysitter)?". Even now when Mika sees Abah hugging mummy or giving mummy kisses, he would ran to his dad and start hitting him hard because he's so jealous haha.
With peers, Mika loves playing with other kids but have the tendency to play rough. He would push and pull when he gets too excited and start hitting when he doesn't get what he wants. He also loves giving hugs to other kids although most of the time it's not well received from the other ends resulting in the other kid screaming or crying. Currently he's also obsessed with his 5 year old cousin Jayden whom he calls Abang (means brother). Always looking for his abang, imitating abang's behaviour, hugging abang, calling abang to 'dodok' and read his book together. Luckily abang Jayden are more than willing to entertain Mika's constant attention (more like harassment) to a certain extend that is, until the there's a toy involved and then the battle for tug and war begins haha.
Mika also developed fear for adult strangers (especially male) around the age of 18 months. If he sees male strangers staring at him, he would start crying, even though the male strangers were his own uncles.
Writing all these updates are making me realise how far Mika has come since he was a tiny tot. I really need to start recording more of Mika milestones. It will be nice to be able to share all these growing up stories with him when my baby is all grown up.
Till the next post, here are some photos I took last night while he was playing blanket fortress - his current favourite activity.
That bumb is Mika's head, standing inside his blanket fortress. He would drag mummy inside and would get upset if my feet can't fit inside his tiny fortress "Feet! Inside!"
After done playing he'll turn it into a reading nook.
"Now where is my favourite book?"
Pointing at photos "E-phent, Snake...eee yucky snake, ippoh (hippo), kokodai (crocodile) arrr rarr rarr" then he would hit crocodile with his red ammer (hammer)
He accidently torned his favourite book because he's so rough always hitting at the crocodile photo, but mummy patched up the book today :)
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