M Words

 Funny things M says, in her toddler babble at age 2 years and 4 months:

1) Chum - means 'some', usually refers to seltzer

2) Mote - means 'remote', i.e.: the TV

3) Marshall - means 'paw patrol', which she loves to watch - all of the paw patrol members are called Marshall

4) Yok - means 'look', which she usually says when she wants us to see something

5) Oh-kay - she says this in a very resigned tone of voice, usually when we are telling her to stop doing something

6) Juju - means 'pacifier', which she is STILL addicted to, gosh

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For the longest time, M referred to colours as "Mommy", "Daddy", "Baby", etc. I thought she was being slow/daft, but it took us a while before I figured out that she was saying that because she associated colours with the Baby Shark song. Mommy Shark is pink, Daddy shark is blue, and Baby shark is yellow. Now after a momth+ after we figured that out and constant teaching, she is able to say colors mostly accurately. The one that trips her up is blue and green. Generally I think compared to E, she doesn't speak as much, mainly because she doesn't care to. 

Her favourite word for the last few months is, "No". When she is particularly agitated, like after I deliberately annoy her (which is very easy to do), she gets upset and yells, "No no no no!!!" and shakes her head violently. I don't remember when she started doing this, but she was already doing it when we visited Singapore in Dec 2023, so it's been a while.

Things

My Mum will leave tomorrow to join my Dad in Greece, for a well earned holiday. She came to the US with me in mid-Feb, to help bring the kids over from Singapore and accustom me to NJ life. And she has been a great help with house things and the kids. For example every day, she empties out the dishwasher, and gives the kids breakfast (I am the worst morning person ever). Then almost every night, she makes dinner. For quite a while, she also slept with M at night. But of course like all things, she has her own idiosyncrasies that can drive me nuts. For example she loves seafood, so almost every time we went to 99 Ranch or H Mart for groceries, she would buy so much fish and we would be eating fish for days on end (I am not a huge fish fan). Then there is her ability to go shopping for hours on end - she once spent 2h in a Burlington store, and M and I went nuts from boredom. It will be nice to be on my own for a bit, but I will miss her company.

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A current general list of things I'd rather do than housework and chores:

1) Read manhwa

2) Play Witcher 3 - I have the Blood and Wine expansion left

3) Crochet the rainbow granny square blanket

4) Crochet sling bags for Shome and Meghna (just finished one for my niece, K, and made 2 for my own girls)

5) Watch Marvelous Women, the current Chinese drama that has stolen my attention (usually done with number 3/4)

There is also:

6) Read the two library books I've borrowed

7) Finish the animal cross stich pattern that I started 2 years ago