I'm a full-time mummy

Was reading this article from Parents.com on how to get your toddler talking and this paragraph caught my attention:

"Up until now, having a conversation with your child has been a pretty one-sided affair. But look out! Here comes a speech tsunami. Between the ages of 2 and 3, kids start picking up words faster than you can say "chatterbox." Just check out the stats: at age 2, most children know 20 to 200 words; by age 3, that number soars to about 1,000."

Here comes a speech tsunami... What a fitting title for my post today!

Just the other day I was telling my brother in law that I read from an article somewhere that toddler around 19 months old should be speaking at least 50 words already and I'm not sure whether Ben's up to that count. On the same day later on, hubby and I counted and yeap,... it's more than 50 words hahahah (guilty! we are paranoid!)

Below are the list of things that Ben can say on daily basis (will update this whenever possible):

And he also understands what we said to him just that he's still learning to speak as of now. And those words he can't speak yet, he made up by giving us hand signals or even pointing to us until we get what he's trying to tell us! On top of the above spoken words, Ben is pretty good with showing us things such as:

* Ben pointing to alphabet items...

* Ben during his book reading time

* Ben dancing & humming to The Rattles song (part 1 & part 2)

* Ben's Hand Signals for us to replay the song!

* Ben showing how he prays and clap hands... (btw, Ben prays before his meals :D)

* Ben giving Elmo water to drink..

* Ben With His Awesome Money Sense......

* Ben will wash and dry his hands before and after his meals or whenever he sees us washing hands.

* Throwing whatever rubbish/scraps he found on the floor into the dustbin

* Ben holding his hands out with fingers wiggling downwards when asked how to do 'rain'. Just taught him once and he remembers!

* And the usual waving "Hi", goodbye, giving flying kisses, patting on the cheek, giving us his 'smelly' feet to smell, index finger to mouth with 'Shhh' for quiet, pointing to most of the facial parts when asked...
* Before Ben's meal times, I'll tell him to get ready his chair and he'll slowly pull/push his high chair over to the dining table where I usually feed him, sometimes he will also carry and place a piece of large paper on the floor we used to put on the floor for any food spills

* As for potty progress (we aren't into potty training officially yet), whenever we asked Ben whether he wants to use the potty, he will tell us 'no-no' or nod.

* Saying 'uh-oh' when something fell or when he saws on books things that fall down.

* Putting up his 2 hands on the side of his head to represent rabbit's long and droppy ears.

* Holding palms together (facing upwards) to represent reading bible.

* Immediately stop his tracks and walked slowly when asked to (I only do this when I caught him walking or sprinting too fast).

* Immediately looks for coinbox to put whatever coins he found around the house.

* On and off the water taps and put things back to its proper place when asked to.

* Can correctly identified and point up to 9 relatives in a family photo taken 6 years ago

Just a couple of months ago Ben was chatting up to a girl and now he's our speech tsunami! You should really check out my post about the conversations I had with Ben recently...

Such a nice phase to journey into now that we're beginning to really communicate and understand what Ben's been trying to tell us! And I suspect because of the easier communication between us, Ben's habits of banging his head (when he's frustrated or throwing tantrums) are getting lesser by the day! Hooray!

Came across this article from Baby Center on how scribbling builds important skills in toddler. Excerpts from the article:

Sometime between the ages of 12 and 18 months, your toddler will probably attempt to "write" by making marks on paper, and sometime between 18 and 24 months she may surprise you by drawing vertical and horizontal lines and perhaps a circle. Applaud these early doodles, which encourage a whole raft of new abilities: Drawing with a crayon involves fine motor skills such as grasping and holding, for instance, as well as boosting your child's visual acumen and tapping her imagination.

Hmmm... I think a few weeks before Ben turns 18 months old, hubby and I have started buying coloring pens & pencils for Ben. And then we bought oil pastels as well after seeing that Ben doesn't eat/chew/stuff the oil pastels into his mouth is OK with using crayons during one of the Sunday schools he attended.

I actually reserved a book (which people used for accounting ledger) for Ben's drawing. Everytime we're off to a drawing and painting activity, I'll bring Ben to the balcony (fresh air and different scenery) and took along the drawing book and the coloring utensils for the day. Sometimes Ben will tell me (after scribbling/drawing) that it's a 'shhhss' (fish) or 'neow neow' (cat) or ball.

This is some of the pages Ben drew and scribbled on. I made it a point to scribble down the date when he did that, just for memories... Enjoy!

Btw, I tried this yesterday during drawing activities with Ben, I drew 3 lines straight (look out for those at the bottom which I circled at the end) and Ben followed suit.

Noticed his scribbles look more straight than previous? Hmmm...

Someday when Ben is rich and famous in the future, all these scribblings and drawings might be worth a fortune!

After all, I need to recoup my losses for the 'damages' incurred during his drawing and scribbling activities like below...

We've been having a pretty hot and humid weather for the past 2 weeks... trying not to rely on our air-cond so much, so what to do?

Flood the balcony again!

Ben getting ready...

And started by soaking himself wet...

He can't wait to share the coolness of the water with mummy...

(who immediately retreated further to avoid being sprayed)

How can I resist taking picture of those chubby legs?

So how about you? What do you do when you're in a hot weather like us?