Dear Sweet Pea,
Suddenly, you looked so grown up! We saw you grow taller and bigger right before our eyes in the last one month, almost exponentially!
From a very young age, you were always mesmerised by trees and nature. Now, you developed a love for dry leaves. You were always hunting for them and would always make it a point to pick up as many as you could. You also discovered wind and would spread out your hands and run towards the direction of the wind, joy radiating from your face.
As we continued on our food discovery adventure, you continued to show interest in what we were eating. You would constantly look at us and tell us repeatedly "Elyse try, Elyse try, Elyse try...". You were also very vocal in expressing your distaste at certain food by saying "I don't like it".
You could now have a proper conversation with us in full sentences! What a victory! Although not the most useful of sentences, you could say "Daddy is in the toilet", "Daddy is sleeping", "Mummy go toilet" and "Mummy is sleeping". Yeah, we looked like the most chilled parents whose only responsibilities in life were to relax or go to the bathroom.
We finally set up our bar counter! You dictated that the new bar chair belonged to you and only you could sit on it. It was affectionately called "Elyse's chair". To indicate your interest in going down to the 1st storey, you would point your index fingers downwards and say "go downstairs". You loved to mimic what we say after we finished our conversation as though you really had a clue what we were talking about.
You loved to snuggle into our bed, roll about and take command of the remote controller. You held on to your own lantern during Mid Autumn's festival and ate your first mooncake in school. When the switch on the lantern was turned on, it played the dreadful song of Baby Shark on repeat, sending the entire neighbourhood closing their windows. You started viewing household chores as games. You would help to carry a bag of clean laundry across the room. You loved to pose for pictures with a million expressions.
We encountered sleep regression just when you were about to hit 2 years old. You were staying up way past your normal bed time and it was taking me a long time to pat you to bed. I truly enjoyed this phase of change even though the terrible 2 lurked around the corner. You would put your face between the crib slats to ask for goodnight kisses! It was especially endearing to see your small soft lips peeking through each slat, yearning to kiss mine.
It has been quite a struggle to wash your hair during bath time. You disliked washing your hair and would always squirm when water was poured over your head. Today on 1 October, you managed to express yourself in fluent mandarin that the reason you did not like to wash your hair was because you did not like it to be wet. Fair enough. Not only that, you mentioned that you wanted to be able to see Mummy and when I washed your hair, you had to close your eyes and you would not be able to see me! Honestly, I did not know what to say to that! Someone who literally could not take her eyes off me for a second!
We started planning for your birthday party at the beginning of your 24th month! Since we still had to adhere to 5 pax visitors limitation, we were only going to celebrate with a few family members. Since you loved animals, we decided on a Safari theme! We dressed you up in a brand new outfit featuring a yellow top and safari animal tights before sending you off to school. We blew balloons and picked up the animal cupcakes to deliver them to school for the afternoon celebration. The children sang you a happy birthday and the teacher sent us a picture of you enjoying your cupcake!
On the day before your actual birthday, Mummy and Daddy spent the night decorating the living room with safari-themed balloons, hanging up a happy birthday banner and wrapping up all the presents we have received! The next day, we started the day by heading out to Tanjong Beach Club for a swim. After having a whale of a time by the beach and indulging in pasta, pizza and mixed berry smoothie, we were ready to go home to kick start the birthday celebration. Back at home, your birthday cake featuring a lion, giraffe, elephant and zebra and lots of gold leaves finally arrived! Birthday songs were sung, cake was cut, red packets were given, kisses were blown and presents were unwrapped by the end of the night. Everyone was absolutely tired and completely drained at the end of the day but you looked the happiest you have ever been. It was all worth it!
With this post, we kissed goodbye to the Terrific Two and ushered in a big welcome to the Terrible Two!
XOXO,
Daddy and Mummy
