Tuesday, July 29

出乎意料的言辞

可能因为媛媛开始上幼儿园了,我们最近时不时都会从她口中听见一些让我们出乎意料的言辞。这些言辞并不是我们预料中从一个两岁两个月大的孩子冒出来的。听起来觉得很有趣,也使我们和孩子之间的谈话内容更加丰富了。

1 收音机: See me fly, I am proud to fly up high....
我:媛媛会不会飞啊?
媛:不会。媛媛没有翅膀。

2 我:吃一点红萝卜!
媛:不要。
我:为什么不要?
媛: 媛媛不是兔子!

3 我:媛媛,今天老师带你去东海岸的海边玩,你在巴士上有乖吗?
媛:有!
我:你在巴士上跟谁坐?老师吗?
媛:同学!

4 我:媛媛,刚才你为什么哭哭?
媛:哦!走路走快快,撞墙壁!
我:一点点痛痛不要哭,知道吗?要自己跌倒自己爬。
媛:为什么?

5 我:媛媛,那个小朋友叫什么名字?
媛:安凝!

6 媛:爸爸没有回家。
我:爸爸不是没有回家。爸爸还在做工,还没有回来。等一下爸爸就回家了。
媛:哦,爸爸很

7 我:媛媛喜欢吃葡萄还是喜欢吃橙?
媛:橙!
我:(故意刁难)橙是什么颜色的?
媛:……
我:(在等媛用英文回答时纠正她)
媛:是橙色的!

Bargain Books

Clement and I went to Beauty World after having dinner at my in law's place and we saw some stalls selling second hand books at the ground floor.

I was in search of cook books for cute children's bento but I ended up buying these 5 books for Jaimie.

Jaimie is a big fan of Maisy. She can asked her daddy to read to her the same book over and over again and she can recite some of the Maisy stories which we borrowed from the library! Every time we had to return the books to the library, Jaimie would be quite reluctant to part with the books.

Hence, I was really thrilled when I found "Maisy Likes Driving" among the second hand books and it only cost $3.90! I went through the mountains of books and found 4 more with the help of the stall owner. The total amount I paid for these 5 books: $22.50.

When I gave Jaimie the books, she was thrilled too! She pulled out one book after another from the plastic bag and requested Clement to read to her. On our way home, she even wanted to hug her plastic bag of Maisy books.

The conditions of the books are not fantastic-- about the same as those we borrow from the national libraries. I think for the price I paid, it is very worth the money and seeing the joy on Jaimie's face is priceless.

Cold Turkey

Now we know why the pacifier is called the pacifier. It really has a pacifying effect on toddlers!

Jaimie has not been sucking her pacifier for the past 2 nights. We had wanted to wean her off but we just didn't have the chance to do so. On Sunday when I was unpacking our overnight bags, I thought I forgot to bring back Jaimie's pacifier from the chalet! When I broke the news to Jaimie, she was all panciky and requested us to get a new one for her. I was panicky too because I wasn't sure if she would be able to sleep well without her pacifier. I was quite relieved when I found the pacifier which I dumped in another bag but Clement suggested we put it away.

As Jaimie was very tired after the chalet, she fell asleep quite soon and slept for 2 hours without her favourite "jeet-jeet". When she woke up, we praised her for being such a grown up girl. However, as the evening approached, she requested that we get her a new pacifier. I told her her pacifier was with Uncle YS and I pretended to make a phone call to YS to ask him to safe keep Jaimie's pacifier until we meet again.

Jaimie was somewhat pacified with my phonecall which I sounded as if I was really talking to YS.

For the 2 nights without the pacifier, Jaimie took a long time to fall asleep and she couldn't sleep well. She would wake up in the middle of the night and got angry with everything. I had to give her some milk so that she could go back to sleep again. So poor Clement and I now have even darker circles now due to serious lack of sleep for the past few days.

Jaimie still gets to suck her pacifier when she takes her afternoon nap at por-por's place. We had no "reason" to tell her she cannot take her pacifier there since she knew that it's available at por-por's house. We thought it was also a less drastic change for her. Her afternoon naps are usually easier to handle. If she can wean off the pacifier at night, we think it'll be easier to wean her off in the afternoon.

According to my best friend Happypig, she shared with me that her daughter took about a week to get use to it. I am hoping Jaimie will take not longer than 1 week too! I need my beauty sleep!

The Colour Song

Since last week, Jae has been singing this song about various colours. We knew she must have learnt at the CCC, since it isn't one that we had taught her ourselves. Her articulation was clear enough for us to decipher most of the words, save a few.

The internet is truly a wonderful place, where you can find just about anything under the sun. You just type a few words, hit the "Search" key and voila, you get what you were looking for. So, here is the colour song in its complete form. The coloured words are the ones we weren't sure about after hearing Jae's rendition of the song.


The Colour Song
(To the tune of "This Old Man")

Red, red, red, touch your head.
Blue, blue, blue, tie your shoe. (I think Jae sang it as "touch your shoe" since she doesn't know the word "tie" yet)
Brown, brown, brown, touch the ground.
White, white, white, take a bite. (Now I why Jae exclaimed "Umm!" after this line)

Black, black, black, touch your back.
Purple, purple, purple, draw a circle.
Pink, pink, pink, give a wink. (I'd earlier thought the word was "blink" 'cos she pointed at her eye when she sang this line)
Grey, grey, grey, shout hurray!

Sunday, July 27

Playground Paradize

It was a very cool and breezy day. We asked Jaimie if she wanted to go to the swimming pool in her new swimsuit or go for a cycle around Jurong Lake. Jaimie chose to go cycling and off we went to the Jurong Lake opposite our house. Jaimie has learnt to cycle a little but she's not too good with the pedals yet.

After cycling for 20m or so, Jaimie hopped off her tricycle and declared that she had enough of the 3-wheeled vehicle. She did a little hip hop dancing and she thought it was cool.
Jaimie couldn't get enough of the stage so she decided to perform another song which she learnt in her childcare centre. It was something like "Red, red, touch your head, blue blue, touch your shoe, brown, brown, touch the ground!" and something else I couldn't remember. Apparently Clement could understand what Jaimie was singing because they were both singing together happily.
Just when I was rolling my eyes at Jaimie for not cycling and lamenting that we should have gone swimming instead, Clement saw a playground behind the pavilion. Wow! It was a big playground! As we walked further in, Jaimie exclaimed "Another playground!" many times because the playground had about 5-6 stations. Each station was one playground on its own and they were all different. So you can image, this place was huge and it was certainly a playground paradize for children!
There was a playground for younger children, a tall rope structure to climb for bigger kids, a maze for the young and adventurous ones, a pirate ship structure with slides, a trampoline structure etc etc. Wow!! Everything under one ...er... roof?
Jaimie was super excited when she saw the coulourful maze. She loved the little playhouse and the gigantic beads.

We had never seen this anywhere else and it took us a while to figure out the handle there was for us to pull so that the thing rotates. Boy, this thing needed some grease!
We realised that Jaimie was a control freak. She would instruct us (her daddy, especially, because currently she is daddy's girl) to sit down, stand up, hold this, turn here, take that, go up, squat down etc. If we defy her majesty's wish, she would kick a fuss and be very crossed with us. This was an example of her insisting her papa to sit down while she tried to rotate the little vessel.
And this was another example of her insisting her papa to sit down THAT side of the see-saw while she sat on THIS side. Then she would demand papa to rock the see-saw "FAST" and all of a sudden, without a warning, shout "STOP!".
This is the third evidence. Poor papa was instructed to place his hands on the knob and turn his back at Jaimie while Jaimie scooped sand and pour on the bench.
In case you are still not convinced that Jaimie was a control freak, here's one more evidence of her highness getting upset with papa for not following her instructions. If you need more evidence of Jaimie being a control freak, please do not hesistate to email me or contact me.
Jaimie always does this monkey trick before she goes down the slide.
Ahhhh~~~she realised that it was more fun scooping the sand and threw them on the slide.

She ran very fast on the sandy ground and fell down on the hole where an asteroid fell. Erm, no, perhaps it was where a spaceship had landed. Hmmm... maybe it was just a pit somebody dug for fun.
As Jaimie was brushing off the sand on herself, she realised that it was even more fun counting the grains of sand. She even offered to give me "a little bit of sand".
Bouncing on the sofa and the bed was not allowed at al times. Hence, the only place Jaimie could jump would be the trampoline.
There she was jumping and bouncing to her heart's contend.
Jaimie told us that she would like to invite her friends to play together in this playground. When we asked who were her friends, she rattered names like "ZiNi mei-mei, Cherrlyn mei-mei, Ezra gor-gor, Seraphine jie-jie, Izzy mei-mei..."
This structure was supposed to be for older kids (like Clement) to swing left and right while holding on the the handles and stepping on the board. Jaimie insisted she wanted to try too (another evidence of the bossy queen) so Clement had to improvise and swung her up and down seated instead.
This playground paradize must have rekindled the child in Clement. He took off his shoes and climbed up the structure suddenly, leaving me jaws-dropped.
He clumsily attempted the flying fox. We had a very enjoyable afternoon in this playground. We hope to have some friends over to join us here too!

Crocs or not?

I think crocs shoes look very nice on children's feet especially the Disney series but the ridiculous price of $50++ a pair really puts me off. I would think it is reasonable if the price is halved (still it is expensive even if it is halved price for a pair of rubber shoes!). It is not that I cannot afford the crocs shoes but I feel that it is not justified for a child to have a pair of RUBBER SLIPPERS more expensive than her daddy's leather shoes (yes, daddy buys his leather shoes during super sales) and mommy's heels (yes, mommy has a lot of shoes but they are all budget shoes). Furthermore, Jaimie might outgrow her crocs pretty fast!

Recently, we saw many of my friends' children wearing crocs shoes and they look so cool in it, I am a little tempted to give in and bend my principles.

Shall I buy it???

There are other reasons which stopped me from buying crocs shoes: (1) safety reasons. We have read enough of crocs got stuck in escalators. Our blogging friend, Astee's son, almost had an accident at the escalator earlier this year. (2) children cannot run in crocs. Jaimie is an active girl and I'm afraid she'll trip herself in crocs if she runs in them.

Urrrrggghhh~~~~

Maybe I should not buy crocs afterall. Or I should? Or not? Maybe? Perhaps not?

Ohhhhh~~!!! Come on, Angie!! It's just a pair of shoes!!!???!!

Saturday, July 26

MGS4


I know precisely why I bought the PS3.

I know that the Nintendo Wii is certainly enough to occupy whatever gaming opportunities I can squeeze out each night, betwee the little one's sleeping time and my own.

I know that the reason why I had still gone ahead with the acquisition of a second gaming platform is not so much for gaming purposes as it is for me to finally be able to play High Def videos on my Full HD Panny. With its ability to play Blu Ray discs, the PS3 is as capable, if not more so, than many dedicated Blu Ray DVD players that are retailing at a couple of hundred bucks more than it. Its very powerful internal processor designed and built to render increasingly sophisticated games has put some of these costlier players to shame when comparing movie loading speeds. That the PS3 has in-built HDD (which I intend to use to store/playback/backup my growing photo and video collection) and has gaming capabilities are just sweet bonuses.

I know these, because it just doesn't make sense to spend more to do less. Right?

But Angie, she insists that the real reason I had bought the PS3 is because of this game here.



Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots. The final chapter in Solid Snake's heroic tale. Having completed the earlier 3 installments, I must admit I am a big fan of Hideo Kojima's work.

As I watched the superb introduction cut scene, the wireless sixaxis controller gripped expectantly in my clamy hands, I now know another thing...

I know that Angie is right.

Wednesday, July 23

Spelling Bee

Jaimie was able to recognise the letters of the alphabet when she was around 17mths old, but it was only recently that she developed an interest in reciting aloud the letters of words she come across e.g. on the walls and glass panels in shopping malls, on signboards at the MRT stations, on our T-shirts... and even on the road!

Yesterday as we were leaving my in law's place after having dinner there, we were walking up the towards our car when we heard Jaimie utter "Dee, Aye, Ee, Age, Aye!". We quickly realised that she was reading out the letters of the word "AHEAD" that was painted on the road. What surprised us was that she could recognise the letters upside down, as from the direction that we were walking, the word was inverted! However, when we proceeded erm....ahead and reached the upside down "HUMP", she gazed at the letters intently but appeared to be stumped. We guessed she was trying to figure out if these letters were to be read while inverted like the ones before, or were the first two letters "d" and "W"?

Nontheless, we were actually quite impressed with our little girl!! :)

Thinking back, it was about a month or two ago when she started to display her keeness in letters identification. I remembered Clement passed her an advertisement postcard that he wanted to discard together with the other mail trash. The card had the word "SALE" printed on it, in bold red letters. The little one surprised us then when she read out the letters correctly and clearly as she held the card in her tiny hands. She has been doing this since, and appears to be now more familar with her 26 ang-mo friends.

We are unsure though as to what contributed to her learning. It might be the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD, or perhaps that "Maisy's ABC" VCD, both of which she'd enjoyed viewing. Maybe the stimulation from her childcare centre activities helped? Whatever it is, we find it very exciting and amazing. Mama's next big ambition for the girl could be....learning to spell!?!?!?! Errrrr.....? Let's try!

Monday, July 21

又来了!

昨天早上,媛媛大约7:30am便从睡梦中醒来。睡在我和老婆中间的小瓜缓缓地睁开了双眼,见到身旁的我正望着她,立刻微笑着说:

“爸爸早安!”

“媛媛早安。好乖!” 虽然只是简单的几个字,但一早听到孩子真诚的问安,我还是觉得好开心,好幸福。我想为人父母的都会有这种体验吧。

“哦。妈妈在睡觉。Shhhhhhh。” 媛媛发现了睡在她左侧的娘亲,压低了声音说道。同时还转了过来,把手指放在嘴前向我示意。

我心想:啊,这孩子今天还蛮贴心的嘛。想赞她两句,但话都还没说出口,就听见媛媛大声地唱着:

一群可爱的小黄鸭,摆摆头来摇摇尾巴。要!要看小鸭鸭!爸爸,PLEASE!”

媛媛啊...你又来了!真的是不可以 ‘噢漏’(称赞)得太早.....

Sunday, July 20

An "Expensive" Day

This afternoon we went to Cityhall because Clement made an arrangement to meet a seller. He was getting himself a SONY PLAYSTATION 3. Cost: $500.

"It was an extremely good deal. The price was compellingly cheap!" said the buyer.

I do not understand a thing so I will let Clement write about his perfect deal, if he has the time to move his backside away from the sofa which is placed across our TV.

This evening we went to Thai Village Sharks' Fin Restaurant at Yung Ho Road to celebrate my dad's 61st birthday. We had sharks fin soup(This dish cost $150!) (sorry, I love to eat shark's fin soup! Not a very environmental friendly person I am), abalone and sea cucumber with spinach, crispy tofu, black peppered rice vermicelli with crab, seafood noodles, prawn balls, thai-styles cod fish, salt-baked chicken drumsticks (that's all I can remember at this point of time...). Yummy yummy yummy!!! The bill: $391 after 10% discount with UOB credit card. It wasn't as expensive as I thought and in fact, it's quite reasonable for 5 adults. Plus, the serving is quite generous and the food is really good!

We spent quite a bit of money today but it's worth it.

(Jaimie and Clement walking round the fountain of wealth to gather more $$$$$.)

(Ok... let's pose in front of the fountain like all the other tourists....)

(My brother and Clement playing the playstation 3 game after dinner. Clement passed his PS2 to my brother so that my brother can continue his journey as a Dynasty Warrior.)

Friday, July 18

好大的“口气”

我的好姐妹happypig前天跟我聊天的时候,聊到自己烘蒜蓉面包。我一向喜欢吃蒜蓉面包,于是就虚心向她讨教。

她说买橄榄油(olive spread)因为这个比牛油健康和捣好的蒜蓉,涂在面包上,拿去烘就可以了。她还一脸陶醉的说:“涂上厚厚的蒜蓉,真香!”

当天晚上,我就立刻到超市去买了做蒜蓉面包的材料。第二天早上,按照happypig说的,烘给老公吃,孝敬他老人家。

早上十点多的时候,我收到他老人家的简讯,申诉他嘴巴里的蒜蓉味一直清除不了,连他自己都受不了那个味道。刚好他的薄荷口味的糖也吃完了。他问我怎么办。

我只好说:“你暂时先‘装聋作哑’咯。”

我转身问告诉坐在我旁边的happypig这个笑话。我们哈哈大笑了一轮之后,她突然问我:“你到底放多少蒜蓉?”“你不是说‘厚厚’的一层吗?”

………我忘了我们说话的方式一贯是以夸张为主……

晚餐时,我问老公这么大的“口气”,到底给他造成了什么困扰。他心碎地说:“早上我跟两个同事说话,我一面讲他们一面后退。退到蛮远的一个距离……”

哇哈哈哈哈…………!!!!!!!

Oopps!!!

Wednesday, July 16

不美丽的误会

刚才一开门进入家门,就看见那只壁虎骨碌骨碌地从客厅的墙壁爬进冲凉房。

我说“那只”壁虎,是因为我认得此壁虎就是那天从客厅的地板爬过,躲到沙发底下的彼壁虎。

我顿时心起杀机,冲到厨房拿出杀虫剂就往冲凉房乱喷。壁虎从墙壁掉在地上,奄奄一息地爬过冲凉房的地板,躲在洗手盆底下。

当这一切都在发生的时候,媛媛一直都站在我的旁边,疑惑地看着她目露凶光的娘亲。

我虽然不怕壁虎,但是我也不愿意跟它们近距离接触,或让它们有机会跳到我身上暗算我。于是,当我看见壁虎爬过冲凉房的地板的时候,我紧张地对媛媛说:“走开!”意思是让她躲避壁虎。

没想到,媛媛一边跑到大门口,一边号啕大哭。而且哭得“哇”着嘴巴没有声音的那种。

我忙着杀生,没有空安抚她。老公就去把她抱起来,安慰了一番。

我终于烫完了一篮的衣服,熏死了壁虎,收拾了其尸体,还要洗刷“案发现场”。等到我筋疲力尽地坐在书桌前要写博文的时候,才随口问一下老公:“刚才媛媛被壁虎吓到啊?”

老公说:“不是,是被你吓到。她以为你叫她滚开,她委屈得不得了。”

吓!哎哟!对不起,媛媛!妈妈太专心与壁虎决斗,完全没有注意到语气,没想到让你误会了!对不起哦!

High EQ?

妈咪在烫衣服,于是今晚由我陪小公主睡觉。

媛:爸爸,唱“花花”歌,please.
我:好啊。准备了...春花秋月何时了...*用心地唱*
媛:*拍手* 花花歌好听!
我(得意地):谢谢!爸爸唱的好听,还是妈妈唱的好听?
媛(想了一下):爸爸的好听,妈妈的好听!
我:哈哈。一样好听啊?你的EQ还真高哦!那我再问你 - 爸爸,妈妈唱的好听,还是媛媛唱的好听?
媛(毫不犹豫地):媛媛的好听!
我:哎...才刚说你EQ高咧...(心想:你跟你老妈一样不要脸!)

Monday, July 14

Hot Park

Yesterday was Jae's first visit to Hort Park.

Weather was fine at the time we reached at around 8.30am. Sunny and slightly breezy. Place's not too crowded either. Everything's just perfect for us to take a leisurely stroll and snap some photos.

Actually, most of our one hour in the park was spend at the children's playground. Jae loves the slides (the one pictured below, and the aluminium one) and went on them countless times.

By the time we decided to head home, Hort Park had become Hot Park. The sun was baking us mercilessly, and the number of people that continuously streamed in over the past hour was truly incredible. Macam hot tourist spot. When this group of 6 kids appeared at the playground and started lining themselves up along the aluminium slide, then putting up V signs with their fingers and getting into other assorted poses, choreographed by the couple of accompanying adults each armed with a camera in hand, we knew that was the cue for us to leave.

Despite perspiring profusely, little Jae didn't think she has had enough of the place and protested when we told her it was time to go home. She only agreed when we promised to bring her back soon.

Oh, this place is FULL of catepillars (kaka to Jaimie). Lost count of how many of them I (accidentally) squashed to death (or half death).


Jae has always fancied pandas. Her fav Maisy has a stuffed one. Her affection for the black and white creature grew after watching Kungfu Panda in her first cinema experience.


Jae attemped to slide down on this same panel that she climbed up from, and obviously got a bumpy descent that ended with a painful landing on her butt. No wonder she favoured the other slide afterwards.


Jae recognised these fungi from the wall paintings at her CCC. "Mars Room!", she exclaimed.


On the see-saw (L) and practising her ballet moves (R).


Jae made a trip to Oz and made friends with a jie-jie, a lion, a tin man and a scarecrow. [When I took the photos, I actually told Jae these are characters from "Alice in Wonderland"! Blur sotong!]


Jae finally succumbed to the heat wave at the very hot park.

Sunday, July 13

Singing, Dancing, Eating

*to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down*
Gathering at Liana's house, Liana's house, Liana's house.
Gathering at Liana's house, we sing, dance, be merry.


*to the tune of Are You Sleeping*
Uncle Jeff and Uncle Chai San, play guitar! Play the flute!
Uncle Jeff is rocking, Uncle CS is charming!
They are good. They are good.



*to the tune of Old McDonald Had a Farm*
All the kids are having fun, bing bing bang bang bong!
and they clap clap here, and they jump jump there, here clap there jump everywhere they have fun.
All the kids are having fun, bing bing bang bang bong!







*to the tune of pauline put the kettle on*
Liana treats us to a tea, chocolate fondue and pastries. Ice cream, youhurt and fruities. It's yummy yummy yummy!



See the complete story in Meekfreek's blog.

Saturday, July 12

被骂

被骂了。

Excuse me, 是我和老公被骂。

今天回家的路上,我唱《虞美人》给媛媛听,并随口告诉她这是“花花歌”(因为有“春秋月何时了”),媛媛很喜欢,要求我一直重唱“花花歌”,还说“花花歌很好听呢!”。这个小不点,坐在车后的婴孩座位,指示她的爸爸一起合唱。过后,她意犹未尽,要来个大合唱:“爸爸唱!妈妈唱!媛媛唱!一起唱!”

“好~~!”坐在前座的我们异口同声地回答。就在我们吸一口气准备要开口唱歌的时候,冷不防听到女儿喊个口号:“准备了!”我们两个“噗嗤”一声,就笑了出来。这应该是托儿所老师教孩子们唱歌时喊得口号吧!媛媛竟然把这个口号带回家!我们都还没笑两声,车后座便传来一个严肃并带有威严的声音:“好好唱!!!”

哇哈哈哈哈哈~~~~~!!!!!

我们不认真,被老师骂了!!!!~~~~!!!!

老师,对不起~~ *鞠躬*

哎,我的女儿真是--------好--为--人--师--。

道歉宝贝

嗯,该怎么说呢?

最近,媛媛一直在道歉。只要我们稍微一提高声量,或者她感觉到我们的声音里有一点点的不悦,她就会说:“Mama/ Papa, sorry!” 如果我们再稍微凶一点或大声一点,她的道歉就带着哭腔了。我们观察了好一阵子,发现她的哭腔不是装出来的,而是她真的快哭了。而且,她也不是用“sorry”来逃避责任。因为有一次她顽皮弄掉了一些东西,我一时生气,就喊道:“你看!妈妈刚才不是叫你不要碰它了吗?”她马上又快掉泪了,说:“Mama, sorry!” 后来老公故意问媛媛怎么了,媛媛说:“媛媛不听话,妈妈生气了。”

对于这件事,我不知道该喜还是该忧。

喜的是,媛媛勇于道歉。她知道自己做错了事,于是就说对不起。忧的是,她怎么那么敏感,那么谦卑地一直在道歉?她是对自己没有自信吗?还是她很脆弱?这到底是好事还是坏事?

有时,甚至不需要道歉的时候,她也说:“Sorry!” 就像昨晚,她一直在床上辗转。我只是稍微严肃一点说:“媛媛!睡觉!”这是我一贯的语气和说辞。以前,每次搞她睡觉搞到我火大了,我都会这样说,甚至更凶一点,但是她都没怎样。昨晚,媛媛竟然说:“Mama, sorry! ”我真的不知道该怎样反应,只好摸摸她的头,柔声说:“好了好了,快点睡觉了。”

尽管很心疼她哭着说对不起,但是在必要的时候,我还是得硬着心肠继续斥责她,或者打她的手心一下以示警戒。这时,她的泪水就会决堤而出,哭得肝肠寸断似的,直到我们跟她拥抱和好。

因为她的敏感,我已经很久没有拿出藤条来吓唬她了,也没有动用到naughty corner。

是我太凶了吗?还是她来到了有 social awareness的阶段?

嗯,希望是后者。