Baobao 1.5 to 2 years

 3/26 19mo

Baobao has been so fun lately. He tries to say some of the things we say like "hai xing" (star fish), but not having all his teeth, it sounds like "hai hing." He said my friend Amy's name today, then gave her a big smile! 

He likes to go try on our shoes, and one time he put on some high heels and walked around. Way better than how I do in heels! He is very amused by our electric toothbrush, and tries to put toothpaste on it. He also tried combing his hair, but it just got more messy. 

He still has an obsession with water, but at least the baths are no longer 1 hour long (now more like 45min). And he cries when we stop the water after washing hands. He still loves buckles and will sit in the car for another 15 or more min to try buckling them himself. 

He is so curious, going up to strangers frequently, and strangers will give their snacks to him. But he has also gotten more separation anxiety recently. He cries when we leave for work or drop him off at the church nursery. When we take away something he's not supposed to have when he's sleepy/grouchy, he will throw himself on the ground. Awww...still cute. 

He can jump with 2 feet off the floor! 

4/5/23 19 months old

Baobao has forgotten how to say "mamma." 😭 I'm kind of sad. Hopefully it's just a phase. When I tell him to say mamma, he says "baba" (dad). He can say "mien mien" (noodles), but when I ask him to say "mamma", he says "baba." So strange...maybe I kept on talking about baba, but not enough about myself. Sighs. 

4/7/23

Baobao went from being obsessed with baths to being obsessed with playing in our car. He could stay hours in one of our cars and push buttons, turn on the hazard lights, opening different things. 

He can also open bottle caps now! 😬

I'm impressed when we talk about "milk," he would say "nainai."

Loves to pump soap out of the dispenser.

4/28/23 20 months

Baobao actually hit the tennis ball today! Granted, the ball was resting on a tennis ball can. But I was still impressed he actually took a racket and kind of hit it. 

5/18/23 almost 21 months. 

A week ago Baobao started refusing to sleep. Whether night time or naps. He would say "poopoo", and later say mamma mamma or Baobao (pick up) and cry a lot. It's very sad to see, but it is nice to know he cares for us and likes us around. I try to say I love you, it's night time, it's time to sleep, I'll be back...but to no avail..we just have to leave him crying. Fortunately the last few nights he only cries less than a minute. But the first night he cried half an hour and the night I went to NY he kept waking up every 5 min to cry (lasted an hour).

Baobao is also talking a lot recently. Maybe the sleep regression is due to increased words. Examples of new words: "but yao" don't want, "hai yao" want, "Augustine," "Wes", "Amy", "xie xie" thank you, "kai" open, "all done," "Google," "open."  He will repeat everything we say. He likes driving his box car everywhere. Before he did try saying "gong gong qi che" bus - first word more than 2 syllables. 

We love going to the school. He gets to run around, and I get to see something interesting. His favorite thing to do at the zoo is push his stroller.

During bath, he will get the soap and rub it on his cheeks.

Random strangers will come up and say heo cute he is. I'm totally biased, but Baobao is totally the cutest! He will give me a kiss and hug. He also really likes to say "Amy!" He will say Amy when he sees her picture too. So sad she's leaving soon 😞. 

5/21/23 almost 21 months

Baobao's sleep is getting better, but he still cries a few seconds when we leave. We've been trying to have him lie on the crib and pray with our hands on him..and he seems to like that. But it's so hard to leave him, because he is sooooo cute and his cry is so sad to listen to. But we know it's better for him in the long run to sleep. 

5/29/23 21 mo:

Two things that cause Baobao to be super angry and throw tantrums: 

*He got something he's not supposed to have, and we take it away. Or he sees something and he's not allowed to have it.

*It's time to move on to something else and he doesn't want to transition. 

We try to have him be distracted with something else, or allow him to do something else. 

Man...he gets soooo angry! This morning, he got angry when we didn't let him get more cereal out of the cereal box (he already had some in his bowl), and he got angry, swiped at his bottle to knock it over and it hit AB's bowl and caused it to fall to the ground into a thousand pieces of sharp shards. Later in the day he got so angry he ran away or lie on his back crying and shouting. 

5/30/23 21 mo:

Wes sang "happy to you, happy to you" for the first time! Funny how when we sang it 2 days ago for grandmother, you can see him kind of mouthing the words... And then all of a sudden today he started singing it unprompted while playing with some blocks. So funny and cute!! What a smart boy! 

5/31/23 Baobao said "niu, qi, ba" (6, 7, 8)! We were so surprised. We said 1, 2, 3...and then he said 6, 7,8. Didn't know he's been listening lol. Climbed up the playground ladder himself. 

6/16/23 almost 22mo

First time leaving Baobao with someone else (grandparents) for the weekend as we go to Vancouver a wedding. Kind of a reprieve to be able to go and do whatever we want at whatever time without his nap or hunger as a restriction. But also missed him and thought about how much fun he would have had at certain places. 

6/27/23 22 months

Baobao is sooooo cute! Nothing makes me smile more than when he smiles. Today we were practicing different expressions like happy, sad, angry surprised. It's amazing. How such a little person with such tiny features can wrinkle his face and be like ours or have little gasps of surprise. ☺️

7/1/23 

Now Baobao is stacking 8 blocks into a tower. It's amazing how much he's progressed even though he hadn't played with blocks for a month. He also can play with box cars that drive if you pull them back. 

7/20/23 almost 23mo

When we ask if he wants to poopoo, he will sometimes run to his potty. But now he things poo is pee and pee is poop. 

He will also say "Yi, er, liu"! Sometimes he counts correctly to 10. 

He is a very clean toddler: he loves to wash his hands. When ever he sees hand sanitizer station, he will ask to get his hands sanitized. He loves baths. He wants his hands cleaned if dirtied during dinner. 

He likes banging his head back and forth against the lazyboy when sitting on it. And he loves running back and forth between the beanbag and the lazyboy and collapsing on both. 🤣

7/28/23 23 months 

Baobao can count to 10 correctly now! He's putting words together like hot, turn on AC! (In Chinese). He is getting better at saying please and thankyou. Alex came to visit and it's fun seeing him playing with Baobao. Baobao is getting better at throwing. He doesn't have the ball go behind him now lol. He's putting soap on himself during bath time. 

He's been getting a cough frequently, so he hasn't had good appetite. 

8/19/23 

Had Baobao 's 2 yr bday party combined with a friend. It was a lot of worry on my part if I had enough food, and sure enough, there was more than plenty. Too much! I was so nervous I woke up at 4a and couldn't sleep for another hour or 2 or more. 

Party itself was kind of hectic. Went to nearby splash pad and thankfully AB has the sense to claim the heavily shaded spot farther away from the splash pad area. It remained cool and had a nice breeze. The splash pad was so crowded. Chaos. Kids everywhere playing with everyone's toys and some kids even drank the water. EW. 

The party itself was fun. Nice to see everyone, but because I was watching Baobao, I didn't really talk to anyone. Baobao was happy playing in the water...minimally interacting with others and prob overwhelmed by everything. Lol. Buckets everywhere.

8/20/23

Lately having some issues with Baobao eating. It's always a struggle to get him to sit at the table, and often times he doesn't want to sit in his high chair. Also wants to be held or just wants to continue playing. Trying to implement some of these suggestions: 

https://mylittleeater.com/how-to-help-your-toddler-sit-and-stay-at-the-table/

*Give 5min warning

*Stick with routine to wash hands, pray, eat.

*If he doesn't want to eat, don't force him. But also no feeding if not seated at dining table. 

*If gets out of chair, no more food. Kitchen is closed. 

*Keep calm, happy, firm

*Make meal time enjoyable. Sing to him. It's about the meal time together, not the food. 

*He's growing well!

8/26/23

We made it to 2 years! Went to visit grandparents in Woodlands.

Fun moments

*Baobao hair standing up straight sure to static on the trampoline or going down the slide. 

*Baobao giggling when playing chase while piggy back riding and I'm chasing him.

*Baobao use crib as a trampoline.

*When he wants to play in the car, he will point to the car, say "beep beep" and nod his head seriously.

*Friends and random people: "Is that his natural hair color? "Where did he get his hair?" 🧑‍🦰

*Friend regarding Baobao: "I don't think I've ever seen him wearing pants."

*wes says "ai ni" love you! 

*So funny that his favorite page in "Goodnight Gorilla" is the page when the wife opens her eyes so there are only 2 open eyes and the rest of the page is all black. He also loves the Goliath story, and the all fall down part of the hickory dickory dock book.

*Likes to do "touching noses" with me or AB

*Tried to close a door, but Baobao is wearing AB's shoes so it's big and blocking the door from closing. 😂

*AB: "You need to be a good boy!"

*Baobao: "booger!"

*AB: 🤦

*Baobao will say "shhhh", but his finger is slightly misplaced sideways near his nose.

*Ab will copy Baobao stuffing too much food in his mouth and then gagging and spitting things out. Baobao laughed so hard. 

Weird things that Baobao does:

*First thing he does when we get him in the morning is go to the far corner of his crib and throw out his Peter rabbit..and then says "tu tu?" Like he is confused and wants it back. 

*Put Peter Rabbit between his legs and walk around with it that way. 

*Loves to brush his teeth and wash his hands. He will continuously have a tooth rush in his mouth while he walks around. He will also wash his hands for an hour.