Baby Safety!

I decided to write about safety in a separate entry on my blog because I think it’s something a lot of people take for granted, and by putting it separate it sticks out more than if I just added it in any other entry I did.

I must confess that my house isn’t completely child-proof and even though Kayla isn’t left alone for more than five minutes when she’s awake, anything can happen in 1 second, especially because she’s a very curious person. I keep intending to put child locks on the cupboards, protection on the doors so she doesn’t get her fingers caught, etc. I know it’s not something that I should intend to do, but take a move and just do it, because if something bad does happen I’ll regret it for the rest of my life!

But one thing that I never want to be careless about is car safety! When Kayla was born I didn’t know much about car safety, I used to hold her in my arms or feed her while we were driving and when she was in her car seat I wouldn’t attach it with the seat belt and I’d put the seat facing me, but then, with the help of friends, family and others, I learned that for one, by law that wasn’t allowed and two it wasn’t safe! Until a baby is a year old, also depending on how much he/she weighs, she must ALWAYS be in her chair facing backwards TIED IN WITH THE SEAT BELT! I heard a story once on Oprah about a mother who got a ride from a friend who didn’t have child seats in the car, the woman was putting the seatbelt on one of her two children when the friend had an accident and the two children flew out the window and died, I thought to myself that if that were me I wouldn’t know how to live with myself, a spur of the moment decision to get a lift with a friend, not even thinking something might happen and her life was changed forever! My mom only lives a few minutes from us and I ALWAYS tie Kayla in properly, there’s no room for carelessness. Now she’s got a seat that faces forwards and she likes it better than the other one because she can see more, but I’ve noticed that some people have these chairs, but don’t tie their kids in! Do they just care about whether they get fined for not having a child seat, don’t they think that the law is made for the safety of their children? Sometimes I want to go up to these people and ask them if they don’t know that their child’s life could be in danger. Do they think “that happens to other people, not to me” like so many people think, until it comes knocking on their door, or do they think “I know how to drive”? Ok, you might know what you’re doing, but you don’t know what other people are going to do, besides, who ever knows what our reaction will be when we’re confronted with a situation we’ve never gone through before and we only have a millisecond to react?

Please people, if you are being careless of your child’s safety in the car or if you know someone who’s being careless, do something about it! Just imagine your life if something had to happen to the little person who looks up to you, it only takes a few seconds to tie a child up properly and even if he/she struggles not to be tied, she doesn’t understand the concept of danger, but we do. So ALWAYS take the safety procedures needed for your children, whether it is for a drive that lasts hours or one that just lasts a few seconds. Ever heard the saying “Most accidents happen close to home”?

This goes for adults too! Always wear your seatbelts!

Imitatioin Expert

Here I am again to write about my little Peanut!

I think the best thing to do is write all she does down so I can remember what I need to write on my blog, because she's such a quick learner, she does and says something new everyday! She never stops amazing us!

This one time she saw one of hour bags and, like it was the most normal thing to do, swung it over her head and put it on her shoulder, then started walking around with it.

Something she used to do when we fought with her, that I haven't heard her do in a while, is click her tongue (ai ai ai little girl!). Tongue is a word she says something like "tum", hehe. I do admit I've given her a little smack now and then on her bum, when she doesn't listen, sometimes if we fight with her she says "tautau" and sometimes she smacks herself, shame. We aren't constantly fighting with her, but she is very stubborn!

She has a very wide vocabulary now, she says Portuguese and English words, they will appear a few times in this blog.

Lately she's been saying "não tá" or "não tá ki" and she will add a name, or like the other day while she was looking at a magazine, "não tá ki menina". The one night she woke up crying and I went to fetch her, usually when I'm too tired to sit or walk up and down with her I take her to my boyfriend and my bed, which doesn't really work the way I want because she always tries to get his attention - "Pappai, pappai!" - so this one night she didn't see him get up to go make her a bottle, and when she turned around and saw he wasn't there she said "Pappai! Não tá!". I actually think that's her favourite sentence at the moment.

She has been saying "luz" for a while (in such a cute way), now my mom's taught her something new, when she asks "O que é isso?" Kayla answers "a luz" and when she asks "What's that?" Kayla answers "a light". Ain't she so smart! *drewl*

She loves seeing animals, at home we have some budgies and she always wants to go see them, so she used to say bi (as the bi in bird), then she started passino (passarinho), nowadays she says to me bird (but without the "r") and then passino, so she says both, sometimes only one of the words... When the birds are singing, she will say "listen" (without the "l"), so that we know she wants to go see them. This week I was taking her to see the budgies and she started making these funny bird sounds that they make, it was so funny, I never heard her do that before! The other day we were eating and I was feeding her from her Tweety bowl, and she kept looking in the bowl and saying "bird, passino", I didn't understand why in the world she would look at the food and say that, it carried on for a while and then, when I looked carefully in the bowl I saw a bit of Tweety peeking out! DUH!

I think her favourite word at the moment is "no" or "não", if we ask her something it's always no, so if I know she's done something in her nappy and I ask her if she’s got caca she will usually say no. Sometimes she needs to make caca or has made and she will say to us "caca". She calls "caca" to food that has fallen on the floor or food that she has spit out and she will refuse to put it back in her mouth. She also says "caca" if her hands or if something else is dirty.

If it's time to say goodbye, she will send a kiss with her hand and make a "muah" sound. Sometimes she will say "xau" to someone or even when her father picks her up and she thinks he's taking her somewhere she will wave at me and say "xau". When we tell her to kiss someone goodbye she will lower her head for the person to kiss her on her forehead, when it's someone close to her (like me, hehe) she will give us a kiss on the mouth. Sometimes we're passing people in the street or in the supermarket and she's smile at them and say "hello", usually when it's someone we know and we tell her "say hello", she won't...

When it's bath time she already knows there will be bubbles involved, she says "bass" for "bath", I tell her it's bath time and I ask her if she wants bubbles, which she says something like "bubbews". I make extra foam in her hair with the shampoo and put it on her hands or in the bath and then I make bubbles with my hands from her bath gel. When I make the bubbles with her bath gel, I make them different sizes, she'll put her hands near the bubble, but not wanting to touch it, because she knows it'll pop it, sometimes she'll put her face near the bubble.

When we do something, give her something to eat or drink or play some music for her she likes and it finishes, she'll say she wants more. The other night she woke up during the night so I lay her on her stomach and started tapping her back, now and then I stop to see if she's fallen asleep, and this time she said in a very sleepy voice "more". When we play with her and stop, she will ask for more. If it's juice she will also ask for more, she even says it in Portuguese "mais". When something finishes she'll also say "inish" for finish". She's recently learnt "come on", "I'm coming" and "again". First she only used to imitate us saying it, but now she's starting to say it in it's context. She wanted me to go with her (most probably to see the birds, can't remember) and she said to me "come on!". The other day she was in her room and I was calling her from the sitting-room to put on her shoes, she started coming and said "I'm coming!", that was so funny! I didn't expect it. My boyfriend plays with her and when he stops she'll tell him "again", because it’s the word he always uses. He’s also trying to learn English, so he’ll speak with her in English most of the time.

She has a toothbrush she likes chewing on and she also tries to imitate us when we brush our teeth, she hasn't quite got that one down yet, but she'll get there... She will say "brush" when she sees it. The hairbrush she usually calls "a nice", because in the beginning we used to tell her we want to make nice, so she would keep still for us to brush her hair. She usually drops things in the bath (on purpose) and she did it to the hairbrush and said "a nice". She tries to help us dress her by putting her arm where it should go or stick out her foot to put her socks and shoes. We got her a new pair of shoes the other day, when we got to my mom's house the first thing she did was stick out her foot and say "shoe", little show-off. She also tries to help us undress her or even resists getting dressed, she might even get her jersey or jacket off by herself because it gets in the way of her playing. Another thing she loves doing, like I guess most children do, is run around in her birthday suit. This one time I was changing her nappy and she made a wee-wee, so I had to take off her clothes and I put her on the floor to run around with her blanket, I thought that she wouldn't do it again because she just did it, but I was wrong (sometimes we don’t learn, it wasn’t the first time this happened), when I went to dress her her legs were all wet, the blanket was wet and so was the floor! Oh well! She just loves her fluffy blanket which she calls "banket". She falls asleep quicker with it. She was sick this one time and I had put the blanket to wash, but she wanted it and cried for ages saying "banket, banket", we tried to give her other blankets, but she knows the difference! During the weekend I'm the one who goes to wake her up for the day, as soon as I get there she says "banket", she always wants to take it with, but I tell her that it has to stay, when I first did that she looked at it and said in a surprised voice "ooh!", but now I get there, she says to me "banket", puts it aside and says "xau". Sometimes she'll run around with it wrapped around her, she'll put it on the floor and lay down on it, she's a character!

She scribbles a bit now, but it seems she gets frustrated because she can't draw anything distinguishable. She always brings her crayons (what she calls "pens" whether it's only one or more, it’s always "pens") and asks me to draw a flower, which she says "fower". She likes drawing on anything she finds in front of her, any book, the walls, the bath, the chairs, the tables... The walls aren't too badly scribbled on though.

When she's in the bathroom she makes a "shshshshsh" sound imitating the toilet flushing.

When she meets someone new or someone she doesn't see very often she'll be shy at first, but after a few minutes she's jumping and dancing all over the place showing herself off. She doesn't go to just anyone now and she might even hide behind our legs and peek through. She loves children and always wants to run up to them, if we say to her to give a "querida" – “krida", she'll give the other child a hug. Also when she's sees a baby she'll say "shame"

We taught her to say thank you, although she also says it even when she gives us something. She used to say "kanku", but her pronunciation is getting better.

She sometimes adds on extra letters to words, like baby would be "babyoooooo", pappai would be "paupau", bear would be "béooooo", she does know how to say these words properly. She will also have a conversation in her own language and stick in Portuguese or English words, it's funny to hear.

When we go outside for a walk, she loves to run around, so for her not to fall we'll tell her "slowly" or "don't run" and she'll take quick small steps and she won't let a fall stop her from having fun, she'll get right up, say "eina" and look a bit surprised and start running again. Usually when she gets hurt, she'll come up to us and say "eina" and wants us to kiss it better.

When we get in the car she already tries to get in her car seat. We have her old car seat in her room and she likes climbing in it and sitting there, she will also take her blanket, get in the chair and try to pull the blanket on her. She also likes climbing onto the sofa and luckily when the sofa is open it's very low, because she's fallen a few times and knocked her head! She'll try and climb everything worth climbing, chairs, cupboards....

I have two stuffed Garfields, one is bigger than her and she loves them (like me)! She used to call them "Field" and now she calls them "Afield". She grabs them and squeezes them tight! It's so cute! But she doesn't only do it with Garfield, she also likes squeezing her other stuffed toys and even if they’re bigger than her, she’ll try to carry them around or drag them if they’re too heavy.

She says "menino", "menina", "boy" and "girl"... Sometimes she'll mix boy and girl and say "goy". She usually gets the gender right when referring to a person.

She says a lot of animal names already, she has some animal books she loves looking through. She’ll get the book and come sit on my lap for me to make the animal sounds, she'll also take my hand so I can point for her. She says monkey (for some reason she calls a lion a monkey too), ducky, horsy, cow, bird, dog, cat and she used to say "kinken" for chicken, but now she makes the sound instead - "paaapaaapaaa". She also makes other animal sounds, sometimes rather than saying the animal name, like "moo" and sometimes she says "moo cow", "oooo-oooo-oooo" for the rooster, "miau" for the cat, "auf" for the dog, etc.

She likes sticking her finger up her nose and up ours! Seeing as we always say no, she puts her finger, then takes it away and says "no nose". She says eyes, bum, foot, she knows what ears are, she called her toes "tummy" the other day, she also called a tongue "tummy".

My boyfriend and I went in a computer shop the other day and I was watching TV with Kayla to distract her, she was a bit grumpy, so I would point out everything that showed on the TV, the news was on and I was pointing out the lady that was speaking and she caught on very quickly, she started saying "lady", I was surprised she started saying it so quickly.

She loves looking at herself in the mirror, always has, she makes funny sounds and funny faces, I think it's good for her to see what she looks like when she does all those goofy things. We were told by someone when she was smaller that we shouldn't let her look herself in the mirror because it would delay her speech, which I think is a load of nonsense and Kayla proved them wrong! She's already saying sentences and she's not even a year and a half yet! The Portuguese are very superstitious!

She's already got her favourite songs, she always loved dancing to music and now she sometimes sings along too. When the song is finished she'll say "inish" for finish and "more".

She does have her good days and bad days, good moments and bad moments and when it's the bad moments I don't know whether to laugh or cry! She does get on my last nerve sometimes, but at the same time it's so funny! It's very difficult to stay mad at her for even a second!

She loves it when we take photos, maybe it's the flash she likes, because she laughs every time it goes off. We gave her my old camera which didn't work anymore, but she isn’t very interested in it because it doesn't do anything special. She also loves looking at photos and will name the people she sees.

She was surprised at the rain, when she saw rain she looked very surprised and said "wata" all the time, unfortunately I wasn't there to see her. My boyfriend and I went for a ride one time it was raining and during the whole ride she would say "wata" and even try to touch it on the window on her side.

She had a chip in her hand one time when we wanted to give her her bottle and she wanted to put the chip back and said "back". Usually when we tell her to put something back she understands and will do it (most of the time).

One morning when I was putting her in her car seat, she was still sleeping, she started saying "miau, miau", seems like she was dreaming of cats... I also think she dreamed of her baby powder one time, because she woke up saying "powda" and then when I picked her up she wanted me to give it to her.

She just loves travelling in the bus! Sometimes I get her from my mom and walk home or catch the bus, seeing as we don't live very far from each other. Well, this one day Kayla and I were waiting for the bus and a school bus stopped to pick up the children, she saw all the kids get in and was pulling me saying "bus" all the time and when the bus went she started crying "bus", shame. Finally our bus came and when we got off I put her down to walk, immediately she turned around and wanted to get back on, but it went and she started crying "bus" again, I couldn't help laughing at her reaction!

The one night I was making her bottle for the night and she was always opening drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, every time I told her no she would move to the next thing to mess with, I got a bit upset so I grabbed her arm and put her out the kitchen, she went crying to her father and he asked what was wrong, so she said "mamãe tatau", I did feel a bit bad but it was a bit funny.

She imitates everything we do, even sweeping the floor! She grabbed the broom the other day and started sweeping!

Things aren't all good and nice, she is difficult sometimes especially when it's to sleep, she doesn't want to miss anything. I guess it's our fault that she doesn't have good sleeping habits, we only take her to go to bed when she really seems tired and then I sit with her in my arms while she’s drinking her milk and if she doesn't fall asleep with her bottle I will sing to her and rock her to sleep. This is something that has to fixed soon! She’s also very stubborn!

I'm so sure there are a lot of things I've left out, but even though I wrote down the things I remembered, I couldn't remember everything. But this will be all for now, it took me a while to get to finish this post, I don't have much time for myself and when I'm on the computer with Kayla around she's always pulling on me for attention, so she gets priority.