Lockdown Life in Review
Spring is in the air! The days are getting longer. The sun is shining stronger. The daffodils are blooming beautifully. And spring forward is only a few days away.
It’s hard to believe that exactly 365 days have passed since the start of the first lockdown in March 2020. It goes without saying that 2020 was a tough and challenging year for many of us. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. There are brighter days ahead. We are hopeful that things will resume to a “new normal” soon.
The silver lining of this lockdown is spending everyday together as a family. Even if Kenz has a busy day with back-to-back Zoom calls, he would always make it a point to join us for either breakfast or lunch, and for a family walk in our neighborhood park. Over the past 365 days, we have enjoyed watching Lady Yeya blossom into a confident, curious, polite, and sweet little toddler. For that, we are immensely grateful.
Hitting Big Milestones in Toddlerhood
Lady Yeya hit some major milestones in toddlerhood during the lockdown. Lady Yeya started potty training in June after a horrible first attempt over Easter. With patience and perseverance, she nailed the whole potty training and was rewarded with a new set of Peppa Pig toys. She then overcame her fear of the “big potty” after (re)reading the book “Monkey Business,” a hilarious story about using the big potty on board Noah’s ark. We are very glad to be out of daytime nappies.
Lady Yeya then dropped her afternoon naps around August, just shy of 2.5 years old. We initially dreaded the idea of losing our glorious afternoon break, but it wasn’t worth the bedtime struggles of having her go to bed at 9:30pm. Like everything in toddlerhood, we adapted to the new normal and accept that it is all part of growing up. Ready or not, it’s coming for you. In many ways, dropping the mid-day naps has been more convenient especially for morning and lunch outings. We swapped naps for longer playground time or a quiet educational show such as SuperWhy or Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood after lunch.
Books, Books, and More Books
Admittedly, I don’t do a lot of arts and crafts with Lady Yeya at home. Instead, we spend a lot of time reading books. During the early days, Lady Yeya was obsessed about her collection of 30 Peppa Pig books. Between Kenz and I, we would read the entire collection of 30 books every day for two months straight. We would read and re-read the same books over and over until Lady Yeya memorized every single word. It’s a bit repetitive (okay, very repetitive for us parents) but that’s absolutely fine because toddlers learn by repetition.
Lady Yeya’s language skills, enunciation, and grammar are improving everyday. It’s amazing how she picks up new words and strings together complete sentences. I love it that we can have small conversations and debriefs about her day. It’s so rewarding to hear Lady Yeya recount her day from what she did, who she saw, what she ate, and if anything in particular bothered her that day. It’s all so cute.
Now I Know My ABCs
With help from the classic Leapfrog programme on Netflix, Lady Yeya learned her alphabet and phonics. When we started introducing TV, we only allowed Lady Yeya to watch Leapfrog during the day. She probably watched the Leapfrog’s Letter Factory and Phonics together over 100 times. The reward of repetition: Lady Yeya recognises all letters in both uppercase and lowercase letters as well as its sound(s). We’re working on retaining this information in hopes that she will learn to read sooner rather than later.
As for other TV shows, we use TV or as Lady Yeya calls it “the big Ipad” as a reward for good behavior. If she was a good girl and had her listening ears on, she would earn some TV time after dinner. It started off with Peppa Pig being her favourite show. Then she moved onto Dinosaur Train, a wonderful animated series produced by The Jim Henson Company. Dinosaur Train follows the story of Buddy, the T-Rex, and his adopted Pteranodon family who takes the Dinosaur Train through different time periods. Lady Yeya is absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs. She can name all the characters and the species in the Dinosaur Train from Derek Deinonychus, Elmer Elasmosaurus and King Cryolophosaurus. It’s amazing how much information their brains absorb at this age.
Growing like a Beanstalk
Physically, Lady Yeya went through two major growth spurts during lockdown. She grew 8cm, and is now about 96 cm which is over half my size! At this rate, she’ll outgrow me in no time. When she does have a growth spurt, Lady Yeya would sleep for up to 14 hours at night, eat like there is no tomorrow, and guzzle milk by the gallon. Seriously, being a toddler is tiring business.
Lady Yeya is also an adventurous eater. She’s happy to try every cuisine although her favourite is hands down pasta and pizza. To our delight, she loves raw sushi after trying it at Sticks-n-Sushi in Greenwich. Not surprisingly, she doesn’t like Indian food as much as her parents. Like her mama, Lady Yeya loves fruits, especially berries, apples and mangoes. With the exception of peas, she loves her vegetables, especially cucumber and red bell pepper.
Silver Lining of the Lockdown
Every day for the past twelve months, Kenz and I find little joys in everyday life with our sweet daughter and beloved Buddy. I’m sure we’ll look back fondly twenty years from now and be thankful for the silver lining of lockdown.
Here’s to brighter days ahead! Happy Spring to you all.
