Me and My Sister

I am SIX!

2011-12-13T22:19:00.000+08:00

This year, I had a small celebration at home as it's the school holidays. Daddy was on business trip during my lunar birthday, so Amah cooked mee suah for me, and Mommy took us kai kai. We had my favourite froggy meal and kok kok beh ride on the eve, and then a shopping trip on the actual lunar birthday.

Posing with Amah and Juin Juin on the eve of my 6th lunar birthday

I had a little hair-do from Amah on my 6th lunar birthday

On my amoh birthday, Daddy and Mommy took half day leave to celebrate with us. Daddy gave me the privilege to decide on our lunch venue. I was toying between "Snoopy" and the Spaghetti place (coz Juin Juin wanted to eat spaghetti), but when we passed this steamboat place, I made my choice right away. This is also the same place that we went to celebrate after our graduation concert.

Before

After

Posing with a Christmas tree after lunch

After that, they took me to buy my school uniforms. In the evening, it's party time!

My princess birthday cake courtesy of 3rd Chik Chik

Food prepared by Amah

Singing of birthday songs

Make a wish...

Cake cutting

Pressie time! This is from 3rd Chik Chik

Start playing with the pressie :)

Can you believe it, I got another 2 Barbie dolls for my birthday presents this year, one from 2nd Chik Chik and another one from Aunty SL! On top of that, there's this nice Cinderella shoes from Aunty HP. Wow, this is certainly a princess birthday!

Party Time!

2011-11-16T22:06:00.001+08:00

Every year towards the year end, we'll be having a class party in school. This year, we helped Mommy prepared the Horlicks Doggies Cookies . We even had a trial run a week in advance because Mommy had never made this before.

Mei Mei helped Mommy with the mixing while I helped her with the doggies shaping. See what's our end results this time? It turned out quite well compared to the trial run :)

Ta-da!

Cute cute doggies

We also brought vitagens along to quench down these doggies. And we had a great time partying in school, enjoying all the food and goodies that our friends and teachers brought. Now 2 more days to school holidays!

Graduated!

2011-11-05T23:21:00.037+08:00

I couldn't believe that my girl has graduated! Wow, how time flies. It would be SY's first graduation, and we're so grateful that her kindy years have been so memorable and enriching for her.

Graduation photo taken in July 2011

Rehearsal Day (Oct 22nd) - behind the backdrop

The photos and videos that we took on rehearsal day while they were performing on stage were not very clear. And on the actual day, we were not allowed to take any photos or videos. Here are the professional photos which we bought from the school.

Photos taken on Rehearsal Day, the Indian Dance troop from K2 girls and their teachers

(can you spot SY at the front row, first from the left?)

Rehearsal Day - The team behind the poem recital 妈妈的眼睛

The Little Tea Pot Dance team from Year 3 students and their teachers

(Can you spot SJ at the front row, 4th from the right)

On the actual day itself, which was 29th Oct, we're in for a happy surprise to find SY's name under the most honourable award category.

SY receiving her trophy

The top achievers for this year, 2 were from K2, while the other boy was from K1

I kind of regretted that we didn't take any photos of her in her graduation robe, as these were the only ones that we have, besides those from the professional shots taken in July.

SJ got an award too!

SJ performing in The Little Teapot Dance, can you spot her at the front row?

SJ with her partner...

Facing the front now :)

There were so cute, the little dancers. I wish I can upload the video too, but I'll have to find time to crop the videos first. The teachers have indeed done a great job training them up.

The students performing the poem recital, 妈妈的眼睛.
They were specially selected by the principal and trained in her office

SY and her partner

And here are some photos of the Indian Dance. It was a superb performance, they girls could really undulate. The teacher did a very excellent job! We could hardly identify our girl at first, since all of them look like in their costumes!

SY at the 2nd row, from right

SY at the back row, standing from 3rd right

SY at the front row, first from the right

SY at the first right

Still at the same position

SY at the right

The finishing pose

After the concert ends, we took some photos

Our family photo

With Amah and 2nd Chik Chik

SJ with her class teacher

SY with her class teacher and also English teacher (who is also the one teaching them the Indian Dance)

The girls at the 6th floor. This was their waiting room, while waiting for their turn to perform

Their trophies that made us proud of them

The Highlight of the Trip

2011-10-31T22:31:00.101+08:00

Amazingly, the following day, we were all able to make it to the 9am Sunday Mass. After Mass, we had breakfast near my brother's house, and then we all proceeded to the highlight of our trip, Baby Clare's baptism ceremony at 12 noon.

Baby Clare with her doting parents

Baby Clare with her Godparent

She didn't cry at all during the Pouring of the Water over her head!

The Anointing with Chrism

Clothing with the White Garment

The Lighted Candle

A photo session with the priest, Godparent and Grandmother

Family photos

Just the Tan's

Our camera girls

After that, we had a celebration lunch with all family members, including Clare's Mommy's parents at Jurong Point. Then the girls went for a toy shopping trip, before we went back to my brother's house to see the new Daddy in action - bathing the baby :) We ended the day with a yummy seafood dinner at Melben Seafood with my ex-colleagues.

And the following day, we had a yummy Ramen breakfast at Orchard.

The girls with their new dolls

Daddy sent us to the airport after a light pizza lunch

And on the way home, I have two soundly sleeping girls in the plane....

If you noticed, I gave them a pacifier to alleviate the discomfort caused by the change in the cabin air pressure during the flight take-off and landing (just in case, even though Jie Jie is too big for this)

Goodbye Singapore!

Of Bird Park and Safari Night

2011-10-30T07:05:00.152+08:00

Mommy has been busy, so I was given the honour to continue for her J

Ok, right after that zoo trip, we went to queue up for the cab to take us straight to Jurong Bird Park. My, what a long queue! Daddy and Mommy kept calling for taxi, but the lines were either all engaged or no more cabs available. After a long long wait, Daddy managed to get a cab for us.

1 hour later, we reached our destination.

Me posing with my pink doggy and the flamingos

This photo was taken by me - can you see Daddy holding my pink doggy for me? J

With the penguins again

And the real flamingos this time...

We're just in time for the bird show, so we went there right away. This show was similar to what we've seen 4 years ago...although they gave it a different name now, King of the Skies.

The birds really flew just right on top of our heads, and they were so big from close up!

After the show, we decided to continue the tour using the Panorail monorail train. None of us felt like walking again, we're so tired from the zoo walk just now. Furthermore, we've all been there before 4 years ago, except for Mei Mei who's still inside mommy's tummy then J

This would be the first time we're taking the monorail train, hurray! And the best part of all was that we could still see the overview scenery, with an option to drop off at each station if we wanted to take a photo.

Our first stop, the Waterfall Station

This is the African Waterfall Aviary

Our sky train on the move again...

We boarded it at the next station....

What we see from inside the monorail train...

Another bird view from the monorail train...

And that's all for Bird Park. What a tiring day. But it's not over yet. We're on the move again to the Safari Night later that night. We had dinner with Daddy's friends first, who took us to Jack's Place for the well-known western food. Both Mei Mei and I dozed off in Uncle Kok Wei's car :P

When we reached Safari Night, we're fresh again.

One of the night shows have started when we reached, Mei Mei was afraid of the fire

Going for our tram ride... I could hardly open my eyes!

It's so pitch dark, can you spot the tiger over there?

After the tram ride, we went to watch Creatures of the Night Show, a show not to be missed!

Oh my, a real wolf!

And that completed our Safari Night tour. My, it's a really a tiring day, we spent the whole day with Nature!

Another Singapore Trip

2011-10-29T07:44:00.113+08:00

We made another trip to Singapore recently to visit my brother's baby girl, Clare and also to attend her baptism.

Isn't she a cute little baby?

I've bought the flight tickets for 4 of us there 2 months in advance, only to be informed by hubby 2 weeks before the trip that he would need to go there for work assignment. So I checked with the airlines if I could change the name to another person, or switch the dates for him instead. The charges just to make a change itself cost us half the price of the flight tickets for 4 people (not 1, mind you), so we discarded the idea altogether.

Since I'll be travelling alone with the 2 kids, I made sure I have enough supplies of 'goodies' to keep them entertained, without actually bringing too much, since I'll need to lug everything by myself. Lucky thing my brother in-law can fetch us to the Penang airport and back, so it's not as troublesome as taking a cab. And luckily hubby's going to meet us at the Singapore airport too, so I didn't need to worry how I'm going to drag the 20kg luggage along with 2 kids on either side of me. Also, luckily my brother can fetch us from the SG airport on that day, so save us the hassle to find a cab as well.

The girls playing their games from McD while waiting to board... there's a slight delay

Posing for Mommy in between games break

In the flight - Jie Jie too exhausted, while Mei Mei was still rummaging thru some magazines

By the time we landed, I had two soundly sleeping kids with me. I have finally enjoyed a few minutes of peace by myself, as both the girls were really noisy all the while. I have to keep reminding them to keep their volume low and minimize their non-stop chatters.

It took very little effort to wake them up without any fuss, as the thought of reaching their much-talked about trip was finally there. After that, we passed thru the immigration counter without any trouble, and went to get our luggage from the conveyor belt. The two girls actually ran out from the gates without waiting for me when they saw their Daddy, while I had to use a different exit which went thru the custom checks!

Not long later, my brother arrived. We spent that night having dinner with my family and playing with little Clare. The rest of my family members have arrived for the event. Too bad my father could not join us this round because he has just been discharged from the hospital from pneumonia. After that, my brother sent us to hubby's hotel, which was a good 30-45 minutes away.

We spent the next day covering the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park and Safari Night. It was a tiring trip, especially since Sze Juin didn't want to walk too much. Hubby and me took turns carrying her. The irony of that is that we still need to pay for her tickets, since she's already 3. Well, the initial plan was just to cover the zoo, but Sze Yi kept insisting that Mei Mei hadn't been to the bird park and safari night yet (she herself went there 4 years ago), so hubby ended up getting the tickets for the 3 parks since that package was much cheaper compared to buying one individually.

The zoo was a new experience even to ourselves because we got to see the animals up close.

Not really sure what is this....

Family photo with the parrots

The parrots up close

Crocodile

With the beavers...

Sitting on the beavers! Haha, they're fake ones

Tiger

Ouch, what beast is that?

We went for a boat ride as well...

A horse! None of the girls dared try the pony ride

Rabbits

Having finger-licking good lunch in KFC

After that, Jie Jie wanna have some splashing time

Jie Jie going for the water slide.. can you see her?

Mei Mei taking a picture with her camera (LOL!)

Jie Jie wanna go for the Merry Go Rounds

Mei Mei got a new teddy bear!

Mousedeer...

Mother Duck

Bats taking their nap

The blue bird that suddenly appeared in front of us and scared Jie Jie to tears

Raflesia - we still don't know if it's real or not...

Yeah, the largest flower in the world!

Leopards

Uh... whatever is this, we found it inside the cave-like place

Lions

We just learnt that giraffe eats carrots!

The giraffes are soooo tall!

Z for Zebras!

Cheetah - look at the round/oval spots, that's what differentiate a cheetah from a leopard

Hmm... so we don't need to go to Africa to see these animals

Can you tell what are these?

Yes, the rhino!

A funny sight, two rhinos showing us their backside while the middle one focussing for us

Uh... are rhino and deer friends?

The gorillas playing with each other using the blanket, thought they were playing hide and seek

Can you spot the gorilla waving bye bye to us?

The last before we leave - happy feets :)

Phew, I finally completed the zoo section. Now I think I'll have to split the Bird Park and Night Safari to later. Too much for me. Stay tuned!

Best Friend

2011-09-30T00:04:00.001+08:00

SJ's best friend, Ah Pin (or Susina Chilapon - not sure of the actual spelling, that's how SJ pronounced it)** is moving back to her hometown. During her last day, she cried and promised that she'll be thinking of SJ and also her teacher. How touching for a 3-year old.

Both hubby and I, as well as their teacher are sad for them. They are so close. I was told that they always hugged and kissed in school. If one didn't come, the other would be very down. Ah Pin even cried when she found out that SJ was absent for a few days when SJ got food poisoning recently.

I couldn't remember having a best friend at 3 myself. When I do have best friend, I am big enough to keep in touch with her. But they couldn't even communicate thru email or h/p yet, unless I get her parents' contact from the teacher. But again, I only knew about her last day on that very day itself, SJ informed me when I picked her up.

For now, luckily the teacher told me that SJ can still mix well with the others. Before that (or during the first half review), we're told that SJ's world only revolved around Ah Pin during school time. They did everything together, and it's so cute to watch them together. It has even been a well-known fact among the teachers, that these two are inseparable.

Deep down inside me, I hope one day, their path will cross again. What a waste for such true friendship to end...

p/s: ** I later found out the correct spelling is actually Suthina Silaporn

Eenie Meenie Minie Moe

2011-09-25T08:13:00.000+08:00

Sze Yi 1st Holiday Camp

2011-08-19T21:53:00.002+08:00

I had better post this before the next holiday is here.

Last holiday, Sze Yi attended a holiday camp at her school. The main objective was to let the children learnt to be independent, able to socialise and also had a good sense of gratitude. They would be having a field trip to Taiping Zoo, and then overnight 1 night at the school. Since she was familiar with the building as she had her afternoon naps there, we felt comfortable to let her participate in the camp.

She's very excited when Daddy dropped her at the school

When Sze Juin woke up and found that Jie Jie was gone, she made a fuss. You see, last night, Jie Jie had helped her pack her bag as well, telling her that she could come along too, if she's ok to sleep alone at night - cannot cry because Mommy and Daddy won't be there. She had agreed, but kept changing her mind :)

So we took SJ to Taiping Zoo later in the afternoon, with the hope of catching up with Jie Jie and also let her have a holiday trip too since the holiday was just starting.

See how happy SJ looks!

We went for the train ride and saw lots of animals.

Most of them were taken afar, so it's not clear

SJ was trying to imitate the elephant :)

Daddy and SJ on the lookout for Jie Jie

Aha! We found them! We noticed that each teacher has 3 students under their charge

Posing for the camera...

SJ was very excited when she saw her Jie Jie and all her teachers. So was Sze Yi when she saw us. It happened to be Amah's lunar birthday too, so she went to tell her teachers about it (her teacher came to wish Amah happy birthday :)). Later, we left when they were queueing up to go up the bus.

The following day, we went to join them for a family session. I felt so proud when I saw my girl - she's so at-ease and independent.

She's wearing a T-shirt designed by herself during the camp

When we arrived, they were practising this song

I felt so happy and glad that I let her participate in the camp when I saw how happy she was

Don't know what caused her to be so amused

Blending in with the group...

All the parents were welcomed with this song...

They were asked to present the flower to their parents.

A closer look at the flower

Then they were given a towel to wipe their parents face

And now for Amah...

We were shown a slideshow of what they went thru during the camp. It's reassuring to know that they were doing fine, and had a great time. They had a little picnic for lunch at Taiping Lake before they went to Taiping Zoo.

Some of the photos shared...

Sze Yi's group photos (Kangaroo Team)

Finally, queueing for the bus to take them home

Next, we saw them back from the trip in the bus, followed by the night activities that they did. They designed the T-shirt with their own creativity, and also did a mask.

Busy designing their T-shirts...

I can't really remember, but I think they had some practise of the songs too...

Practice makes perfect

They had a few action songs

After having supper, they called the night off. I think they had some chanting or prayers as well. The next morning, they prepared sandwiches for their parents. They also practised for a sketch.

Sze Yi's role was as a Mama Bird

Mama Bird with her little birdies

The sketch in action...

All the animals involved

Uh, looks like they had some fun games as well.

Then, there's the visit to the old folk's home.

Ok, back to reality. After all the slide shows, they then presented us with the sketch.

Everyone involved taking their places

Say cheese....:)

After the sketch, they had an activity involving the parents. All the children were required to wear a mask, and stand behind a big cloth covering their pants and legs, with their shoes removed.

Can you tell which is Sze Yi?

The parents were supposed to guess which was their child's leg and grabbed it.

After that, the mast of cloth will be removed... ta-da!

Daddy found his princess!

Madam Tan (her school's Ex-Principal) helped us take a family photo

The camp ended with everyone (including the parents) participating in the activity song. Indeed, this was a very great camp. We were very impressed and grateful to all the teachers. It seemed they had all the teachers from every branch to help out with this camp. I would say this is a great success and we have enjoyed the camp as much as our kid. In fact, SJ had a great time too!

A big Thank You to all the teachers of Than Hsiang Kindergarten!

Mission Accomplished....Finally!

2011-07-18T16:04:00.144+08:00

Phew! It took me 2 more months to fully weaned Sze Juin off.

Well, she was doing very nicely for a few days from here, and I thought that's it! Life will be so much easier soon. How wrong I was! There's once when I suddenly remembered that I forgot to apply lemon, and I absent-mindedly said to Daddy, "Oh dear, I forgot to apply lemon today!". Guess who paid the most attention to this off-handed statement? Yeah, SJ happily asked me, "Mommy, you didn't apply lemon today?" Smiling sweetly at me, she continued on, "Oh so I can drink today?" Haha, I was speechless. I didn't know that she knew I applied lemon, I only told her it's spicy. How she associated it with that, I have no idea. I guess she must be paying more attention than I thought.

Yeah, I learnt my lesson the 2nd time when I told Daddy that I ran out of lemon, have to buy soon. Again, that little rascal was only too happy to know that and took full advantage of it!

A few days went by, we still haven't got time to do our groceries yet, and so there's no lemon. Every time SJ would ask me, "Mommy, today your nen nen got spicy or not?" I don't have lemons to apply, so I just told her to try herself. And after a few taste, she would smile up and said, "It's not spicy".

Then suddenly Hubby came out with a brilliant idea. The next time she asked this question, hubby told SJ that the milk was spicy even before she tried it. So she started to cry and throw tantrums. I tried to sooth her by prompting her to try. And what baffled me was, after taking a taste, she told me it was! Hubby just proved to me how powerful our words could be to our children, we could influence them so easily. So he started his lecture on me - always say the positive thing to them, always use our words carefully especially when in front of then, our words can make or break them, blah blah, blah...

So, it had been quite smooth sailing from them... until I blew it up. One day, she was not feeling very well, so I quickly gave in and offered to nurse her. How comforting that was to her. Furthermore, I felt that it's the right thing to do, since she needed some antibodies to fight those viruses away. Well, that's when she got addicted again, and my dilemma continued... Blast me!

On and off, I tried to distract her. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. It never really bothered me, until I started to feel painful when she nursed. Still, I didn't really do anything. Then, out of the blue, the opportunity came when I got very sick and had to be admitted. I spent 5 days in the hospital, and that just solved my problem. At that time, I thought maybe this was a blessing in disguise (little did I know then, 1.5 month from there, disaster would struck!)

Well, hubby told me that she wanted him to pat her to sleep at night. She slept after drinking a bottle of milk, and didn't once fret. The only thing was, she insisted to sleep with Daddy, and never with Amah. She seemed very understanding and did not even manja with me whenever she came visiting. Not like her Jie Jie who hugged me like a koala bear throughout the visiting hour, SJ kept her distance away from me and showed me how matured she'd grown.

After I was discharged, I thought she had forgotten about it. Nay, she remembered. She started asking again, and so I tried my luck with lemon again. Surprisingly, it still worked! Though not all the time. She started making deals with me, and when I told her that I don't have milk anymore, she told me she don't mind waiting till when I have it next time. She even booked 1 side all for herself!

Well, luckily I can now safely declare that she's been completely weaned off at 3 years and 2 months!

This was taken a day before she turned 3 years 2 months - after she was given a nice hairdo by her Jie Jie :)

Me and Amah on Papers!

2011-06-15T22:07:00.085+08:00

Our school was hosting the Cleaner, Greener, and Safer Penang 'gotong-royong' activities for the Bukit Gedong area when the school holiday was nearing the end, and I took part in a dance performance.

I woke up by myself that Sunday and got ready in no time before letting Mommy applied some make-up on me. In fact, I've been very excited about the whole thing and kept on reminding her that teacher said need to make-up weeks earlier. I even added that teacher also said have to apply purple nail polish on my fingernails, but since Mommy didn't have, she clarified with the teacher if other colour would be ok, and later found out that there's no such requirement. Oops... the teacher said I'm too ai sui...(want to be pretty)

After all Mommy's hard work, I accidentally smeared one side of my make-up when I rubbed my eyes, and since Mommy never thought of bringing the make-up set with her along, she couldn't touch up for me...

I took part in the colouring contest before the dance performance

So many people from other schools were taking part too...

We're given a T-shirt and asked to put it on before they took a photo of us. I'm the first to pass up my work and didn't want to do further touch up, since I'm more excited for my dance later.

Getting ready for the dance...

I'm so excited!

This was taken during the rehearsal before the actual performance

I was asked to represent my school to receive a gift from YB Abdul Malik

I won 3rd prize for the colouring contest!

A few days later I found out that I was on the papers!

From the Star, dated 15th June

From China Press, dated 14th June.

Doodle on sticky?

2011-06-13T06:59:00.001+08:00

I just discovered that SY loves to doodle. No matter where we are, in the car, in the restaurant or even at home, she would sure to draw something as to past time. Is this her new found hobby? Here are a few of them which I managed to take a snap. The rest were quickly rubbed off before I could take a good look at it.

Macho boy?

Clown girl?

Boy giving flower to girl

And guess whose work was this?

SJ's version of Casper?

When I discovered this new found interest, I bought some drawing blocks for them. At least it'll still be there when I have time to actually take a photo of it. But soon, it became too big and inconvenient to bring around, especially when SY prefers to draw on the go. And SJ kept on cutting them to small pieces with her little scissors, so I figured it had better be something small and light.

Then, my answer came when I caught the girls doodling or even scribbling on sticky notes and their notepads. Look like they found new usage for these small handy papers, instead of serving as reminder, they put them to other use. I remembered I even discovered some sticky notes in SY's bag's side pocket with several telephone numbers, which I later found out to be her friends'. This little girl has gone to make appointment with her friends' parents to go visiting! Now it's up to Mommy to make that phone call and transport her over, sigh... didn't she know that Mommy's not that sociable?

Now, as I find more and more sticky pads gone, I guess I had better place some order on these gopromos promotion notepads soon, before I ran out of papers to jot down our daily reminders. What with the ongoing promotion now, and with such cheap deals too. I love the idea that it came in different sizes to cater for our household's diverse needs, and there's even a magnetic version. Now, I spotted something that would be nice to use as my kids' party pack gift, these swanky pens and notebook set - too bad SJ's one just over but then there's another one coming in Dec.

Addendum: If you're curious whom they took after, look at this sketch by Daddy....

2011 Wesak Celebration Float Procession

2011-05-22T22:01:00.096+08:00

Like the previous year, the girls joined their school again this year in the Wesak Celebration Procession. Of course, Daddy went with them too.

The day was still bright when it's about to start, and that was at 7.35pm!

With the candles and flower in hand, they were ready to go!

Met a few friends there as well.

Mommy and Amah waited halfway down the route, ready to fetch them back in case they're tired from the walk. First wait at the D-Piazza....

It's getting dark so fast! And it's only 8.30pm by then...

Some of the parade floats - they were nicely decorated and lit

Rabbits - in conjunction with the rabbit year this year

Brightly lit...

Ah, finally I saw their troop

Both my girls didn't want to stop yet!

SJ even volunteered to walk, as long as we let her continue on with the procession!

And so... I drove the car further down, hopefully they would stop at the next stop. You see, we haven't had our dinner yet.

More floats...

All were brightly lit

Finally, I saw them. Luckily my colleague helped to keep an eye on SY by asking his son to walk with her since SJ couldn't keep up to her Jie Jie's pace.

SJ kept to her promise - walk on her own.

We managed to persuade them to stop there (even though SY made a face, and SJ threw a tantrum)

After that, we took them to town for a nice dinner, and they were soothed. Considering that they have not taken their afternoon naps and dinner before the procession, they did rather well, don't they? :)

In the Process of Weaning off SJ

2011-05-20T13:18:00.001+08:00

I'll wait a few more days before I update SJ's Lilypie breastfeeding ticker on top of the blog. I've stopped breastfeeding her for 2 days now, when she turned exactly 3 years old. Well, if I didn't change my mind, that's it.

It's not been easy on her weaning journey, as you can read from here. I've tried many things, and the progress was crawling very slowly. Maybe both of us prefer to stay in that comfort zone, and if it's not because of the dateline that I gave her, I don't think I would ever be ready myself. I've told her that when she turned 3, my nen nen will turn spicy. She cringed when she heard that, because she didn't like spicy food. Well, I don't like to lie to her, but I don't see a way out. Unless I want to breastfeed her till she's in primary.. gosh, I couldn't imagine that! Will she ever grow out of that if I didn't make any effort on my part? I was very tempted to try, but felt that it's rather unwise, really. Maybe another 6 more months? And continue dragging like this?

Well, I decided to let nature take its course, and see how SJ adapt to it. It turned out rather well. On her lunar birthday, which was actually 2 days earlier than her English one, her Jie Jie decided to remind her that she's a big girl now and could no longer drink Mommy's nen nen. She was ok at first, but later when she was sleepy, she reasoned that it's just a lunar one, and not the actual one. So she told her Jie Jie that she'll just drink a little, and will stop when her Jie Jie said so. I always marvelled at her negotiation skills. Her Jie Jie agreed, and even drilled down a few other rules - have to walk on her own as well, and let Jie Jie hold her hand (she used to ask us to carry her). Well, it's a good thing to see that she took it to Jie Jie's command of authority, which actually save Mommy some work :)

Yesterday being the first day after she turned 3, I dabbed some lemon juice on myself before I woke her up. After getting her ready and managed to persuade her to drink a bottle of milk, we went to school. As usual, she would request me to breastfeed her in the car (when I'm car-pooling with Daddy). I warned her that she's already 3 now, so she couldn't. She started to throw a tantrum, so I told her it'll be spicy by now. She was apprehensive but willing to give it a try. I saw her expression changed, and she pulled my blouse down quickly. She then said, "Tomorrow when it's not so spicy, I'll drink ok?"

Later, when I went to fetch her back from school (or she fetched me from work actually, because Daddy fetched them first before picking me up), she asked me, "Mommy, is your nen nen still spicy?". I told her I have no idea, why don't she try it and see? Well, she made a face after tasting it, and refused to latch on. However, she was crying pitifully, which made me all the more guilty.

That night, she kept asking me the same question. But she refused to even try it, and even finished a full bottle of milk (she hardly finished the whole bottle normally). I have no problem sleeping that night, because she never came near to me once. Instead, she opted to play with Daddy, and was especially hyper-active. Until Daddy pleaded Mommy to breastfeed her, as there's no sign of her feeling sleepy even late into the night. In the end, I patted her to sleep.

Middle of the night, she woke up. But she refused to let me nurse her. She asked me to craddle her and hug her instead, and asked me to bring her to the hall. So I sang lullaby to her and patted her back to sleep, but she couldn't. Then, she asked me to lead her back into the room, asked for some water and then finally dozed off (she refused the bottle as well). I was a little bit taken aback at how well this turn out - I didn't expect her to be so adamant in refusing even to taste.

Early in the morning, when I was preparing dinner, I heard her crying. She wanted me to make a bottle of milk. Phew! I was only too happy to comply. After finishing 4 oz (I made 6oz), she went back to sleep.

And when we're on the way to school, she never once asked me to breastfeed her. I was beginning to wonder, if I have the heart to continue on with this... Am I cruel in denying a child her right? Well, is 3 really too big for this? I don't know if I really want to stop breastfeeding her.. even though I hoped that it would be successful this time. Well, considering other factors in hand, I guess it's time she learn to be more independent and grow out of this habit. We'll see....

SJ Turned 3!

2011-05-18T23:51:00.035+08:00

Scene 1: At home - in the morning

The birthday card - Jie Jie was especially passionate in signing Mei Mei's birthday card

Jie Jie reading out the card to Mei Mei...

She also insisted to give Mei Mei an ang pow too!

Scene 2: At the school - in the morning

The birthday cake which she chose herself

From top view

Birthday party at her class

Jie Jie got special permission from her class teacher to sneak out and joined the party

Everyone was so happy!

Still haven't finished singing - in Mandarin this round

Blowing off the candles...

Oops.... her classmate blew for her instead!

Cutting of birthday cake

Group photos with the teachers and classmates

Birthday girl distributing party packs

Everyone wanna post for the camera

The 3 musketeers!

Doing funny poses

Scene 3: At home - in the afternoon

We took her back right after that. Yes, we took the day off for her

(poor Jie Jie can't join us because she had art lesson in the afternoon)

Birthday girl with the present from her class teacher

Scene 4: Outside - in the afternoon

Birthday girl enjoying her lunch...

Scene 5: Outside - in the evening

Dinner time at Bella Italia

Birthday girl requested for spaghetti with potatoes, so we took her here

(Actually she wanna eat mommy's version, but mommy was too lazy to cook :P)

Too bad she didn't take much because she couldn't tolerate the spices,

even though we ordered something mild for her.

Amah wanna treat her ice-cream for deserts @ Hagan Daaz

We let her blow the candle again, because she always missed that in prior celebrations

Jie Jie giving birthday girl a hug

Scene 6: At home again - at night

Present opening time - from Mommy's friends'

That basically summed up how we celebrated her day!

Happy Teacher's Day 2011!

2011-05-16T21:44:00.018+08:00

First sample prepared by Mommy & Daddy

We let the kids (mostly Sze Yi) did the coloring

And doing the writing & signing - following the sample above with Daddy's guidance

Sze Juin did the colouring and pasting of stickers (Mommy had to give her some spoilt version to colour instead because her colouring went out of the borders, but she still insisted to take part)

We made a total of 13 cards in all, and the girls were very happy when they presented to their teachers.

p/s: It was also Sze Juin's lunar birthday, and she insisted not to take bath in school that day. Too bad we couldn't accommodate her request because we couldn't take leave that day. Luckily she had forgotten all about it when Mommy called to check during lunch time (she was happily taking her bath with her good friend, according to her teacher). Mommy cooked mee suah for dinner that night.

SJ's 3rd Birthday Party at McD

2011-05-08T23:08:00.149+08:00

Since SJ and her cousin Samantha's birthday are just 6 days apart, we decided to hold a small birthday party at Mc Donald's for them. We had it on the Sunday prior to Samantha's birthday (hers come first), which also happened to be Mother's Day. What a good time to have a family gathering as well. Sarah even did a Mother's Day card for all mothers on that day, how sweet of her.

The theme of the party - Rock It

Uh.. Father and daughter encountering age denial? Why 2 and not 3?

The goodies prepared by the staffs at Mc D

Some family time...Eating and mingling for the adults and sticker time for the kids

After we're done eating (not really done actually, I haven't finished my sundae yet), the staff ushered us into the next room for some games.

Musical chair - we lack of 2 members to make it 10

Wanna know who's the winner? Watch the video :)

The next game - passing the balloon.

Again, the winner is one of the birthday girls! Consecutive champion

SJ with her big mouth - she's such a sport

Each of us got a goodie bag each before we went back for cake cutting session.

The birthday cake with a butterfly theme (Samantha loves butterfly)

Then, it's followed by singing of birthday song... I love the expression on their faces, that's why I put up several of them here.

Birthday girls smiling at each other

See how they hold their hands while waiting for the song to finish

One, two, three - blow!

It happened too fast for Daddy to capture it, nor for Mommy to notice who blew the candles off.

Cutting of cake - all by themselves, at 3!

Taking photos with their Jie Jies

(whose birthdays are less than 3 weeks apart from each other)

And then with Mommies & Daddies

and followed by Amahs

They then went off to the playground to sweat it out

The inseparable Jie Jies

Birthday girl wanted to have some fun too!

She looked so happy and contented that day, which made Daddy felt so touched. It's really a good thing that we had a small party for her, we can see that it really made her day. Indeed, it's a fun time for everyone as well.

How we celebrated Easter 2011

2011-04-24T17:57:00.142+08:00

We went to Straits Quay on Easter Eve

Jie Jie with Mei Mei surrounded with lots of ferris wheel

Posing with Snoopy and Charlie Brown

Another pose... can you see what was Mei Mei holding? It's the Easter Egg hunt brochure, the girls were hooked onto that and wanted to find an egg soon

It took much pestering to get the kids to have their lunch first before we continued on with our Easter egg hunt. The lunch at Kaffa was certainly very satisfying, and the food was too good to tempt them anyway.

After lunch, we took a long, long time scouring the plants, grass, flower pots, park-like areas, etc but still couldn't find any eggs. The kids (SY especially) refused to go home without one. In the end, Amah talked to the receptionist, but she told her she couldn't help. She hinted us where to look though - outdoor. We went outdoor (we've been searching outdoor all the while actually), but still couldn't find anything. Not long later, we saw her coming out and headed towards the side, discreetly passing me an egg wrapped in tissue! Thanking her, I passed that to SY, and we thought we could go home then.

We found an Easter egg!

But SJ said that was Jie Jie's one, and she still haven't found one! So off we went looking again, but of course we couldn't find any. Besides us, we saw other people had been looking for ages, and didn't seem to have much luck either. One of the receptionists asked Amah why we still haven't gone to redeem our prize yet, and Amah told her the small one didn't want to go home without finding an egg. Apparently they thought the egg was the prize.

But luckily, Daddy came out with a smart idea and managed to convince Mei Mei that it's our family egg. We found it as a family, not Jie Jie's only. SJ seemed to buy in that idea, thankfully! When we went to redeem the prize, the receptionist told us, since we have two kids, they will give us two prizes! Phew, she's such an angel!

So, now you can see what their prizes were - and how happy they were....

That night, we went to celebrate Easter Vigil in church. It's the kids' first time as well. When they saw everything was in dark, they kept asking me, why was it so dark? I didn't know how to answer them, so I told them Jesus has died. Everyone was very sad. Later, when Jesus rises again, there'll be light. I'm not even sure if my answer is correct.

The blessing of the candle, and we renewed our baptism vow...

Everyone with their candles...

Sze Yi with hers

It was too crowded and we can't all sit in the same row. Sze Yi had gone to join some other parishioners, and she could even mingled with them.

Posing for Daddy

Mei Mei wanna posed for Daddy too

This photo was taken before Mass started, Mei Mei didn't want to wear her bonnet

And this one after Mass...

Daddy trying to get a shot with everybody in

After Mass, we went for supper at Mc Donalds with Ah Mah. It was indeed a very different experience and we were all very happy. I felt renewed and blessed that I got to celebrate this important occasion as a family.

Out Came the Second One too!

2011-04-17T21:30:00.040+08:00

Exactly 1 week after the first tooth came off, the 2nd one followed suit. Actually it has loosened and got wobbly not long after the first one started to 'goyang-goyang', but it was not as wobbly. Too bad I was not there to see it drop as well, as she was in Amah's house while we took SJ back for an afternoon nap.

Didn't look much different from the first

How she looks like now

Surprisingly, the new teeth were growing fast. Can you see that they'll be out soon?

Yay, my girl is growing up fast!

Movie Mania

2011-04-16T23:20:00.042+08:00

We watched these 3 movies in just 2 weeks plus! But the highlight of that is that SJ enjoyed all 3 of them thoroughly, where she broke into hilarious laughter at the funny part and did a twist of her own version whenever the music were being played.

It's just so-so to me, but the girls enjoyed it. We settled for this when we couldn't get any tickets for the Mars Need Mum (which the girls have been requesting for weeks)

I wanted to save this for Easter, but the timeslot for this was just too perfect to give it a miss when we were there with the kids

Finally, save the best for the last (although I still prefer HOP's storyline to this)

It's a good thing that I have the privilege to a Buy-1-Free-1 promo, or else we'll end up with big holes in our pockets :) We even collected a set of each colour of the Rio Lunch Box Promo for the girls.

The Tooth Fairy Returns

2011-04-14T13:09:00.037+08:00

I must be dreaming when I woke up. I couldn't find my tooth, nor Mei Mei's pacifier. Instead, I saw two nicely wrapped presents and the messages from the Tooth Fairy.

Tooth Fairy's message to me

Tooth Fairy's message to Mei Mei

I was very excited! Even Mei Mei woke up instantly without a fret when she heard me exclaimed, "It's real! Tooth Fairy really exists!".

We quickly checked-out our pressies...

I got a Tooth Fairy Kit!

Mommy read out to me what it's all about...

Which contains a book that explains how the Tooth Fairy Came to Be..

And also a Tooth Fairy Guiding Light and a Tooth Pouch to keep my baby teeth!

What about Mei Mei? She wished for an orange colour book, and her wish came true as well!

The front cover...

What's the book about

See how thrilled Mei Mei looked, playing with her push-pull-turn & lift book

Mei Mei was very happy playing with it, until she discovered that I have a candle from the fairy. This candle will glow when the switch is turned on, so as to guide the Tooth Fairy to the baby tooth. After seeing that, Mei Mei started to throw tantrum and asked for a candle like mine. Daddy and Mommy asked me to lend it to her to play with first, I agreed and she was ok for awhile. Still she's been insisting that she wanted one of her own from the Tooth Fairy, and kept saying that her tooth was going to come out soon!

Well, I still couldn't got over my surprise that Tooth Fairy really exists. I went to school that morning, and shared with all my friends. Guess what was their reactions? They insisted that it must be a dream. One even said I watched too many movies until I dreamt about it in my sleep....!

SY's Art Collection

2011-04-13T12:52:00.005+08:00

Sze Yi loves to draw. I think she's very artistic, especially when it comes to drawing people. However, we're not so keen to send her for extra arts lesson, especially when I learnt that most of the art teachers are guys (maybe guys are more artistic?). No, I'm not having any prejudice towards the opposite gender (my art teachers were guys too), but I just felt that it's not wise to send her to one yet at this age. You see, her music teacher has to escort her to the toilet at times, so I just felt that she's not ready yet to have a male teacher, especially if the teacher's role need to be extended to such an extent.

Well, so it happened that her school did provide for extra art classes in the afternoon. So Hubby and I agreed to sign her on (yes, the teacher is a female), even though it means she might need to skip her afternoon nap once a week. It doesn't matter, all the better because that would mean she'll get to retire early to bed that night (chuckled!). Yes, more time for Mommy :)

We signed her up last year, I couldn't remember when, I think it was sometime in October. And now, here's her works so far - some still hanging on the wall in school. I finally took a photo of them because we're told to hand them to the teacher for an art exhibition at her school during Wesak Day.

Nearly the whole collection - still missing a few craft works and paintings...

A closer view

Some of her best works

The last of my first tooth

2011-04-12T23:15:00.018+08:00

Or is that my first? Well, I can't really tell, Mommy can't remember either. She didn't blog about this! But after referring to her notes on Mei Mei's first tooth, this should be my first too (central-left lower incisor).

It first showed sign of 'goyang-goyang' sometime in early March

Amah wanted to pull it off for me, but I wouldn't let her. The center tooth beside it was also showing wobbly signs but it's not as wobbly as this one. Since neither Mommy nor Daddy dared to pull it off (not that I'd let them, though), Daddy took me to the dentist instead. Luckily, he shared my view - I can leave it there for now :) Still too early, he said. Phew!

So I've been playing with it either with my hand or my tongue for about ~1 month

Daddy tried several times to make it more shaky, but it's still quite in-tact

Until yesterday when they came to fetch me from school, I told them it's gone!

Now, how do I look without my tooth?

I told them it just fell off when I was having my afternoon nap. Daddy was startled and kept saying luckily I didn't swallow it accidentally. Then I told Mommy, "Actually I pulled it off myself" before I slept. They asked me if it bled, I told them no. But my friend said there was a little blood. Maybe that's why it's a little reddish, can you see it?

Actually Mommy noticed some discolouration even before it actually fell off

Hmmm... it has such a big hole!

Guess you must be wondering where it is now. I wrapped it nicely in my hanky and took it back. Then Mommy gave me a container to store it. I placed it beside the bed and Daddy helped me write a letter to the Tooth Fairy. I didn't really believe they existed, you see, since my last experience with them, but there's no harm trying. So I told Mommy my wish (initially I wanted a Barbie doll in return for my tooth, but Mommy managed to persuade me to get some fairy tale princess storybook instead). Mei Mei also joined in the fun by placing her pacifier in a separate container besides mine (not that she's hooked to paci really, maybe I'll let her tell the story to you later).

And then we both fell asleep after listening to our bedtime stories, while waiting for the tooth fairy to come and make our wishes come true...

Qingming Festival

2011-03-27T23:47:00.016+08:00

It's their first experience of this kind - even though I've a vague memory that SY had attended one before, but somehow I'm the only one who thought so. Well, anyway, I'd better record this one down before my memory fails me again.

This year, Qingming Festival falls on the 5th of April (or is it the same every year?). Anyway, we could start celebrating as early as yesterday (Mar 26th). MIL wanted to go as early as possible to avoid the crowd (which was yesterday), but everyone could only make it today.

Initially, we did not plan for them to go this year, as it clashed with their music classes. Furthermore, SJ is still considered 'small', where Chinese has a pantang that small kids and pregnant ladies should not attend such event. So, it's been nearly 5-6 years that I had been excused from this, because I had to stay at home to take care of the kids while the others went to do their duties. This year, however, SY insisted that she wanted to pay respect to Ah Kong. After giving it a thought, we decided to depart earlier so that we could still make it for their lessons later. Too bad we didn't make it, due to the heavy traffic. Everyone thought of avoiding the crowd by celebrating much earlier, but too bad 'everyone' has the same thought so we ended up on the queue for longer hours instead. Furthermore, we went on a Sunday where most people were off, so the crowd was not really unexpected.

I got permission from hubby to take some photos.

FIL was there...

Presents for FIL... and the other ancestors

The kids have a teary-eye adventure, poor girls.

SJ couldn't even open her eyes properly

Yeah, it's better to keep them close :)

SY with 3rd Chik Chik & Jie Jie

Ice-cream treat to cool-off the smoke

Both girls enjoying their cool treat - can't be bothered to pose anymore

MIL said Ah Cho was really happy that day because their grand-grandchildren came to visit them for the 1st time....

Puzzle Solved!

2011-03-18T23:22:00.001+08:00

SJ finally managed to solve the whole puzzle book that I bought for SY last time - the Pinocchio Storybook with puzzles on every page.

Geppetto made Pinocchio on the first page

Fox lured Pinocchio to Toyland

SJ fixing the last piece of the puzzle

In Toyland with candies and toys

The Fairy came to Pinocchio and his friend, Jiminy Cricket's rescue

Finally, all done!

Now, time to get some new puzzles for her... she could also fix Jie Jie's Snow White princess puzzles already. Of course, she still gets confused with corners - but who cares? She can fix all them by herself :)