(Little Leia) Happy 15 months!

Leia is 15 months now! Every month brings new milestones because she's just learning so fast!

1. Leia doesn't just walk on her own now, she runs! A lot of times, we're trying to catch her befor she runs in something lol.

2. Some new words that she can say are 'hi', 'mamam', 'turtle' (the newest addition).

3. She recognizes sooooo many things now and can point them out when we mention them. The frog, bird, giraffe, turtle on her playmat. Leia can even point out the ladybird in one of the library books (Colette the cow). She really knows her stuffed animals like the owl and usual dog, popiz, elephant. 

4. Leia makes her little owl fly whenever we say 'how does owl fly?'. It's super adorable. She basically just brings it over her head and swings it around hehe. 

5. She knows her body parts now! She touches her head when we say head. Shows us her foot when we ask 'where's your feet?'. And her hand and finger when we ask her about them. Leia also pats her tummy when we ask her 'where's your belly!'. Oh! And she knows where our noses are but not her own yet hehe.

How does she pick up all this?! Maybe repetition, really is key.

6.  Leia just learned how to do the flying kiss! It's so funny. She it the right way with her right hand. But with her left, she only kisses her finger lol. My cheeky girl has such a character. 

7. I believe Leia now has a sense of self. When we look at her pictures and ask her 'where is Leia', she points at her photo.

8. We started disciplining her and saying 'no' fiercely when she screams. It worked! *crosses fingers that this continues* she has been screaming less now. 

(Little Leia) Toddler activities to try!

Leia's going to turn 15 months soon. She's been doing soooooo many new things and learning soooo fast for the past 2 weeks. I think some part of her brain just really lit up lol. 

I've been thinking of doing more engaging activities with her. They say toddlers pick things up really fast from 1 year on. And a part of me just really want to spend more quality time with her. There's some uncertainty going on in my life and I'm not sure whether I can spend as much time with her in the near future. I want to make each moment count.

So two days ago, I started to research online for toddler activities and what to teach Leia. I found this cute daily, bucket list on my Facebook:

There's a few things that I already want to try! Like blowing bubbles, playing with stickers, colouring, finger painting. 

I found this website called 'I can teach my child' and it has many fun and free activities too! I tried one yesterday and I'll call it 'Oatmeal sensory fun'. 

Basically, I filled a tin with uncooked oats and let Leia feel and play with the oats. She had so much fun just touching and transferring the oats! She sat there for like 40 mins lol. It was a dirty mess (I need to get some plastic table cloth) but it was worth it. 

There are quite a few activities that I wanna try:

- Making homemade, non toxic playdough

- Printing out real animal pictures (laminated or ziplocked) for her to match to her stuffed toys 

- Make a 'My family' picture book, using scrap paper and ziplock bags. 

(Healthy project) Trying quinoa.

One of my health resolutions, other than exercising, is to eat more whole grains or healthy foods.

The easiest way is for me to switch to brown rice. But it's hard to get that at my regular lunch places. And no one wants to have that for dinner, except me lol.

A few months back, I actually bought a a pack of red quinoa for leia. I saw some mummies feeding their toddlers this super healthy grain (or seed) so I thought why not. But till today, we haven't tried cooking it for her yet! Lol.  So yesterday, I decided to try cooking it for myself for a start. I wanted to experiment on the cooking method and make sure the taste and texture are fine for her.

Quinoa (keen-wah) is a type of seed that is super high in protein, iron, magnesium and fibre. It's commonly known as a superfood! You can prepare or eat it like rice so it's very versatile. 

I cooked and ate it yesterday and it's pretty alright! I had red quinoa which supposedly tastes more earthy than the white type. It's not smooth like rice probably due to the fibre content but I still find it acceptable. I can definitely see it becoming my dinner carbohydrate replacement. 

I'm going to try more of it and see how it goes!