22 Months Old - Mom's Note

Nathan is 22 months old now. Time flies in a blink of an eye. From a small quiet baby to an active chatty toddler. Everytime we think about this, we remind ourselves that we have to cherish and treasure every moment together with him. Coz a few years from now, we may not see the same active chatty boy he used to be anymore.

Note on Nate's physical growth:

Nate can sing, I mean, in the right tunes! Well actually, he can imitate the melody, but not really the lyrics. Sometimes he would sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with the words "Bum Bum" hehehehe.

His vocabulary has improved, and he can now speak expressively. For example, if he wants us to close the door he would say "Tutup" (Indonesian for "Close"). Some other words are "Duduk" (Sit), "Buka" (Open), "Air" (Water), "Mandi" (Taking Shower), "Abis" (Finished), "Lampu" (to turn on/off lamp). Yes, we mostly speak to him in Indonesian. We believe that it is very important for him to know his mother-tongue very well. Language like English or Mandarin, he can easily pick up at school as he would need to converse with his schoolmates and teachers using both languages. If we don't get him to speak Indonesian from the start at home, it will be very easy for him to forget about it later on.

His ability to repeat words are also improving vastly. He can repeat almost everything that we say to him. He also started to learn how to count from 1 - 10 in English and Indonesian. He'd go "...two...three....four....five...nine....ten!!!" He ... he.... still using lots of 'shortcuts'.

If he is in a good mood (or should I say, appetite) he can eat quite alot. He can finish one bowl of rice (adult portion) with soups or other meals. His full-fat diet seemed working. He has since been gaining some weight, and he looks chubbier than before. I have now let him eats the same food that we eat (of course, except those that are too spicy). His favorite is still soup, noodles and fruit. When it comes to eating his rice, he'd take his time and mealtimes drag for an hour or so. But eating fruit is a speedy business. He'd open his mouth so wide and chew in a flash. He also likes raisin recently.

Nowadays, he always won't (not couldn't, but won't) finish his bottle in one go. I have to persuade him or sometimes to the extend of warn him so that he could finish the remaining 60-80ml of milk that's left. It doesn't matter whether you give him 180ml or 220ml, he'd still leave that amount behind.

He loves drinking water. A lot. His aunts call him "The Minister of Water". His water bottle can carry up to 330ml of water, and everytime we go out, he can always finish the whole thing and would want to drink more. I presume he drinks up to 500ml now when we go out. Which reminds me, I need to find him a bigger bottle. He doesn't really like to drink any other thing from his cup. I have tried juices, milos, milkshakes. He still like water best!

Recently he doesn't want to sleep on his own. Not sure why. When we carry him to his room, he'd try to make excuses to get us to stay with him or carry him so he doesn't need to sleep alone. I hope it is just another phase that he'll get through soon.

Note on his emotional growth:

We started to see the tip of the Terrible Two iceberg in Nate. He would cry and whine when he doesn't get what he wants, he can throw things or slap himself (or even others) when he is unhappy, he can refuse to obey us when we ask him to do something and there are just many more examples. Time-out is currently the most effective approach we used so far. After all the drama and discipline acts, we usually tell him why he is being disciplined and what he has done wrong. He will then say "Sorry".

On other days, he just loves to be the clown in our house. He'd do all sorts of things that he thinks are funny and indeed make us laugh.

I have been observing Nate and it seems that he is fond of animals. Basically whenever he sees an animal, he'd want to approach and touch it. We have many dog keepers in our neighbourhood so we often encounter dogs or puppies. Whenever Nate sees one, he would say "Guk Guk!" (or Woof Woof, sound of a dog), and he won't hesitate running towards it. He would also try to pat the dog, but if the dog becomes aggresive, Nate could be quite terrified and usually he'd run away instead he he he....

It is unbelievable that Nathan is 2 months away from his 2nd birthday. We can't thank God enough for His blessings. Our son has developed well and started to really show his unique personality. We pray that God grants us all the wisdom we need to be good parents to him to nurture and shape him in His way.