19 month old toddler

What is a 19 month old toddler like? How do I talk? How do I behave? Mummy did some homework to find out.

(1) "When you're out and about, your toddler's favorite pastime may be running away from you as fast as she can, squealing in delight as you rush to catch up"

Mummy nodded her head in total agreement. Recently, I have been doing this a lot. On one occasion, Mummy and I were out shopping. Yes, just the 2 of us. She was at a shop looking at shoes and she bought me a cold drink and sat me down on the sofa in the shop, hoping the drink could keep me occupied. But a few minutes later, I ran out of the shop. Mummy dropped everything and went chasing after me. This happened several times and she got so mad, she pinched me as a way of disciplining me.

(2) "Toddlers love to feel like they're making an important contribution to any activity, and chores around the house are no exception."

This is definitely true! Some examples
- When the table's wet or even though the table's clean, I will take a piece of tissue anyway to wipe the table.
- Mummy applies cream on me after shower and I will insist on doing it myself, saying "Ariel hold, Ariel put cream" and I will show Mummy the areas where I want the cream to be applied.

(3) "Your child now understands as many as 200 words, though he'll probably use only 50 to 75 of them regularly. Many of these words will be nouns that designate objects in his daily life, such as "spoon" and "car." Between 18 and 20 months, his pace will pick up as he acquires ten or more new words each day. If he's especially focused on learning to talk, he can add a new word to his vocabulary every 90 minutes — so watch your language! During this phase your child may begin stringing two words together, making basic sentences such as "Carry me." Since his grammar skills are still undeveloped, you'll often hear odd constructions such as "Me go."

Indeed I am fast becoming quite a chatty girl, especially at home. Mummy did make a list of all the words I have acquired so far and wow, it is quite an impressive bank of vocabulary. Since I am picking up language so fast now, the adults are now very cautious to say the right things whenever I am around. No Singlish! No 'colourful' words! How sweet of them!

Anyway, I now like to associate myself or people with the things they do. These are things I often yak about "Ariel carry", "Ariel eat", Ariel bag" or "Papa park car", "Papa drive car", "Mama work", "Call Papa".

I also like to count from 1 to 10 and to say "A, B, C, D..." and I could go up to letter "O". Not bad huh!

Ouchies! What bit me?

Guess what made me say the "Ouchies"...

Mummy was on leave today and decided to take me to pierce my ears! Grandma was with us too.

The aunties at the shop coaxed me and said the nicest things to me like how pretty I was etc. Then Mummy asked the aunties to draw pictures on my hand to distract me. It worked and I was totally clueless why these adults were so excited and what they were up to.

Next, the aunties applied some numbing lotion (which had a very cooling effect) on both ears. And seconds later, the 2 ear-studs went in at one go and I wailed and wailed and wailed. Heavy streams of tears rushed down my rosy cheeks. No matter how Mummy and Grandma tried to pacify me, I couldn't stop crying. This continued for about 10 minutes before I finally stopped.

After I have calmed down, I observed the people in the shop and said "Ariel ring", "Auntie ring"... Uncle, no ring". But throughout the day, I was still conscious of the ear-studs now firmly stuck into my ears. Whenever I touched my ears, I felt the studs and would tell Mummy "Take out, take out!".

Mummy and Grandma were the happiest because their mission is now accomplished and I am now ready and looking good for CNY 2010! Gong xi, Gong xi!