I realise that once you are a mother, time just zooms fast. And the funny thing is you don't remember much of it.

Like I don't remember how Lauren turned from a tiny newborn to a eighteen month old toddler, weighing about 10kg and looking more like a little girl and nothing like a baby. Has one and a half year passed by already? My brain cells must have been burning out at a superfast rate due to the nightly lack of sleep, because I totally don't remember many of her developmental stages, even though I was present for ALL of them!

It was the same with Shannon. Looking back at this blog, I'm forever amazed by what Shannon did at what age. Lucky I blogged it down! And this forgetful mommy must do the same for Lauren.

At one and a half, Lauren is amazingly astute. She can understand up to 80% of what I say to her, and makes her opinions known clearly to me. She watches baby TV programmes, and you know its getting into her brain cos she laughs at all the funny things the characters does.

She is signing the set of baby signing time, and using words together with her signs.

Mal says her speech development seems slower than Shannon, but looking at what Shannon was saying at one and a half, I guess Lauren is just saying totally different words from her sister.

WHat she can do now:
Dadi
Mami
Gong gong
PoPo
Jiejie
Fissssh (signing fish a the same time)
Dog (signing Dog)
Cattt-Catt (signing Cat)
Bird
There (pointing a whatever)
This
Bearbear
Pantsss
Hat
Ball (signing ball)
Noooooo.... (shaking her head)
Milk
Bread
Juice
Nana (Banana, signing banana)
Sleep
Go Go
Shoee...
Prammm (pointing at strollers)
Ba bee (All kids, even ones bigger than her, especially crying ones, including her sister)
Car..
Ba (Bus
Goff (Golf)
Ma-e (Mine)
Hug
kissss (with a lips smacking sound)
Ooo-ben (open)
Airrr-pan (Airplane)
I-stein (Little Ernsteins)
I-olo (I Also)
Sweeeeet (Sweets)
Cha-co (Chocolate)
Pain
Tight! (When putting Diapers on for her, even when I strap it loosely, or even BEFORE I put it on for her)
Dance! (She will take both your hands, and pull you to the middle of the floor, then order you to dance! Daddy's her favourite dancer, cos he stamps and shuffles his feet like a prancing buffalo)

Animals seems to be a favourite with her, she gets all excited when she sees dogs, cats, birds. She will laugh joyously and say, 'more more, dog' with her hands signing 'More' for emphasis and wait for you to conjure up more of whatever she wants. She loves to touch them when their backs are to her, and giggles when she feels their fur. But once they turn their heads towards her, She will back away nervously, go 'no-no-no' and shakes a stubby finger at them.

She knows how to be quiet, like when Jie Jie is sleeping, and will put a finger to her lips, saying 'shhhh...' like wise when she sees pigeons on the ground besides her, and doesn't want to scare them away.

Ask her where her Jie Jie is, and she will scrunch up her face, and say 'sckool......'

She enjoys playing 'masak masak' with us and will take her cups, plates with plastic food and get us to drink and eat.

So are the two very different? Definitely... from the words they pick up, to their personalities(Shannon's a mild sweet girl who can be really timid sometimes, whileas Lauren is more boisterous and daring) to even the food they like.

Shannon is a big lover of eggs, cheese, diary. Lauren won't touch anything eggy, and doesn't like cheese. Shannon won't tolerate a speck of green vegetables on her plate, and Lauren? She's obsessed about Spinach, Cai xin, Cabbage, tomatoes, corn and fried Onions! She forsake porridge or rice just to eat her beloved greens on its own, lamenting the usual 'More more..'

Seeing the two girls grow up and watching them tickle each other silly when they were taking a bubble bath together just warms me heart, this is what motherhood is about, watching them grow up a little everyday... so while I really grumble at wanting badly to go back to work, for now, it's enough.

Update on Lauren's Condition

Since Lauren' operation in March and her traumatic stay in the hospital, her wound has been steadily healing. She will have a scar very much like a C-section wound, but I guess time will fade the scar, hopefully.

Now the main thing is to determine whether the operation was a success and whether she is cured. Her Operation had a 95% success rate, but I have heard of failures before.

Basically as her surgeon mentioned, she must undergo firstly a ultrasound to see the general condition of both her kidneys, and 4 months later, a MCU test, which takes a 'X-ray' picture of her kidneys to determine further scarring and damage if any.

We just went for her ultrasound, and I'm happy to report it all looks good. Now we have to wait for about 4 months for the second test beofre the surgeon can totally clear her. For now, she still has to be on nightly antibotics until the test shows that her kidneys have not sustained any firther damage other than the initial scarring. Like I mentioned before, the inital 10% scarred tissue will not repair itself over time, so hopefully that is all she will ever suffer.

Her surgeon has finally cleared her for travel, so I am now replanning our trip to Penang which was supposed to happen in Jan this year, but we had to postpone it for very obvious reasons. We are staying at Parkroyal Penang and the GM at the hotel had very graciously allowed us to postpone our trip, so we are very much looking forward to staying there in July. :)

More updates soon!