Princess Zoe & Little Prince Ethan

Ethan's 3rd Birthday Bash!

2011-05-04T17:55:00.002+08:00

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march / april updates...

2011-04-28T17:34:00.009+08:00

wow, jus a blink of the eye and april is about to pass us by! in early march, mum sent zoe off for another round of contest, the kids cover looks disney princess contest where she was dressed in a basic snow white constume, complete with tiara, wand and heels. her face was rather tense during the shoot and for the most part, she had this rather awful, forced smile on as the cameras clicked on. but thankfully, there were a pic or two that turned out fine, but it was highly 'photoshopped' as her hair were really messy back then. but nevertheless, the important part was that she enjoyed every bit of the shot as it has always been her dream to be a 'princess'! she's always drawing herself as one!

12 march was the day where zoethan had their very first bowling experience in kallang leisurepark together with the parents and aunty zhuying. we were all dressed in appropriate shoes except for ethan since he's really quite little, but it did not deter him one bit as he slipped his feet into aunty zhuying's pretty strappy sandals and was waddling everywhere like a duck! it didn't bother him that the sandals were way too big nor the ball much too heavy for him to handle - nothing could stop him! he managed to lift a size 7 ball into his arms (but of cos the parents quickly swooped down to take the ball to the aisle along with him), waddled slowly but carefully, placed the ball down before pushing it down the aisle (we had asked for bumpers aisle for the kids so that the ball would never roll into the 'lonkang'!). so, super sl...o.....w....ww.w...llll.....y... the ball rolled and all these while, his eyes never left the ball. the moment it hits the pins, he would jump in jubilation and shout 'yeah!' even if only one pin has fallen! it was definitely a funny sight to behold. zoe definitely had lotsa fun too as she kept asking for more even after we have played 2 games. looks like we'll definitely be back for more!!!

the kids have been showering together every nite when daddy was outstation and they totally enjoy it! there in the shower room, they be busy pouring and spitting water at each other and laughing at each other non-stop. zoethan really has this love-hate relationship with each other. oftentimes, they be playing together happily yet, they can be extreme enemies with each other too. many times, zoe likes to pretend that ethan as his pet dog. she will get him to crawl on all fours while she holds one end of the ribbon and he the other. that blur boy thinks its a whole load of fun and plays along with her too. else, they be playing the doctor- patient game with zoe the doctor attending to ethan the patient with her doctor's kit and putting plasters on the brother. their other favourite game would be rummaging through the drawers for hats and upon finding the ones they like, they would put them on and then put on zoe's old baby socks on their feet and hands (using them as gloves!) and do their weird and funny dance moves to the music playing on the cd player! else, zoe would play the role of a teacher and get the lil' brother to repeat after her when she recites the alphabets or reads out to him from a book.

despite that, they too fight a lot especially when it comes to toys. an old forgotten toy becomes a much sought after toy when either one of them takes it out to play and the other wants a piece of it too. that's when the screaming, shouting and tattling begins. sharing is definitely not in their vocabulary. but through all these, at least, mum is secretly pleased to know that ethan has learnt the 'art' of defending himself and he definitely makes known his displeasure whenever zoe tries to 'bully' him. if zoe were to push him, he'll go, 'zoe push brother!' well, at least, we now know, he's no pushover!!! hahahahha :)

ethan:

ethan is reading alphabets and spelling words everywhere we go. one day, he truly amazed us by spelling 'umbrella' and 'penguin'! in fact, he can now spell even more words than zoe! as such, one of his favourite activity would be to put letters together to form words. each time he successfully forms a word, he would jump and clap for joy and will proudly asks mum to look at it. occasionally, he even commends himself by saying, 'good/great job! 'or 'excellent'! hahahaha :) he's also talking so much more, he now asks questions like, 'what's happening?', and 'what is it?' and it really is good to be able to hold a proper conversation with him though he can't exactly speak in complete sentences yet. he can even say, 'bei bei (his nickname) 'di dao' (his version of saying 'die dao [fall down]' in chinese!).

just this month alone, he fell down twice. first, at the staircase outside our house as he was making his way down. somehow, he missed a step and fell face down though it wasn't exactly a hard knock. there was no visible injury but it was sufficient to send him crying nuts. then fast forward 1.5 weeks later, he fell and knocked the lower back of his head in the toilet. all because zoe sorta pushed him into the toilet as mum was showering and well, the floor was really wet and slippery! this time round, he cried buckets and though there was no blood, but a bump had formed instantly! mum was freaked out but thankfully, on both occasions, Jesus was watching him because there were just no after-effects and he was able to calm down after awhile. thank God!

zoe:

we celebrated zoe's birthday at saizeriya liang court (a japanese pasta restaurant) this time and the party theme was based on the cartoon series, 'superwhy'. the birthday girl was all dressed up as princess presto (mum specially had it ordered from the states! from the series while ethan was dressed up as whyatt, both complete with their 'magic wands'. there were superwhy party boxes and balloons and aunty chinee from pinkgingerbynee specially made a 2d princess presto cake for zoe, complete with lovely heart shaped cookies for the adults as party favours. definitely pretty and yummy!

she had her another birthday celebration in school on her actual birthday and this time, the theme was 'princess belle' from 'beauty and the beast'. needless to say, she went to school all dressed up as princess belle complete with a tiara and earrings! just check out the lovely princess cupcakes that aunty chinee baked here. (oh yes, speaking on princesses, zoe did not win the disney princess contest, but nevertheless, we all think she really does look lovely in the pics!!!)

zoe's now all of 5 and yet, she's still driving mum nuts with that attitude of hers that she so often displays when things do not go her way. she wants something, she wants it now. she doesn't get it and the attitude is out and so the disciplining begins. it is being repeated every so often that mum just detaches and totally ignores her at times when the talking, screaming and spatula-ing doesn't work. she gets all upset when she realises that and will then attempt to apologise or cries to no avail cos mum has decided that enough is enough. in these 2 months, she must have been spatula-ed big time at least twice and there was once when she defiantly displayed her unhappiness at being disciplined with her angry fists, stomping legs and angry voice that drove mum so up the wall that she got bound by tape on both her hands and mouth! yes, it may seem cruel, but mum feels that extreme behaviours calls for extreme punishment!!! period...

other 'milestones' in march / april 2011:

1. zoe's officially out of jmdc cos her tap teacher went MIA-ed (just her new tap shoes arrived from the states! its now sitting lonely in the storeroom!) and the school management just weren't too keen nor able to let her continue having a weekday class as the new teacher was charging much more than the previous teacher. though mum feels that its a waste of zoe's dancing talents but this has officially freed up a day for her to go for a new class with ethan! read on...

2. the kids have officially enrolled into berries! to learn mandarin!!! and they actually enjoyed the lessons very much!!! yipee!!!

3. we went for a 3-generation road trip on good friday. it was fun filled with zero shopping and just eating, swimming and lazing! and not forgetting the fireflies that we saw for the first time in our life! lovely!!!

(p/s: zoe saw ah ma washing her dentures once and asked innocently while staring at it, 'ah ma, why your teeth can take out???' we just couldn't stop laughing!!!)

plays we watched / are watching in 2011...

2011-04-17T02:15:00.019+08:00

12 February 2011: The Gruffalo & The Gruffalo's Child / 5 March 2011: The Gingerbread Man / 2 April 2011: The Ugly Duckling / 9 April 2011: Todd, The Big Green Frog

9 July 2011: The Very Hungry Caterpillar And Other Eric Carle Favourites / 23 July 2011: Rocky The Baby Panda / 22 October 2011: Oh, What A Noisy Zoo!

a mother's prayer...

2011-03-22T17:57:00.009+08:00

mum is at wits end when it comes to dealing with zoe. i simply feel that i suck at being a mum. to have screaming matches with a 4 going on 5 girl is simply unbelievable.

yes, mum is exasperated to no end. she can't seem to take instructions. not even simple ones like showering, brushing her teeth or even peeing. mum has to tell her to go do it again and again before she does it. by then, its no longer, 'zoe, can you please go pee', it would already have erupted ínto shouts of, 'go pee/shower/brush your teeth NOW!!!' to which it would be matched with stomping feet, scowling face and hands clenched up like a monster before THE deed is done. what follows next would be a lecture by mum followed by a total ignorance to the girl, regardless of whether she is sorry or not. most times, mum doubts her apologies for she does not say them until she wants something in return, like mum's hand to hug her to bed or worst, she wants a new toy or something. basically, she thinks we can be easily manipulated. maybe she will succeed when it comes to the daddy or ah ma, but to mummy who faces her most of the time, NO WAY. mum feels she's unrepentent, and even unappreciative of everything that she has or the things the parents have done for her.

yes, though it seems rather evil to ignore the girl, but that seems to be the best way for mum to retain her sanity. at the very least, she seems to be most repentent when she is being ignored. most times, mum will try her best to be nice and talk to her nicely and explain things to her, but then, it never seems to get into that head of hers! the above scenarios have repeated itself more than a dozen times and it is being played out, day in, day out. out comes that attitude. out comes the scowl. out comes the glare in her eyes. mum wishes those eyes can be gorged out. its true pek chek-ness and a constant test of mum's patience and limit everyday. nothing seems to work. not explaining, not sweet talking, nor scolding, nor caning. makes one wonder if there is another more horrible mother like me...

Abba Daddy, i really am at my wits end. i need a miracle. i need You to work wonders. i know not what to do or how to deal with her. thank you that in spite of everything, i am still Your Beloved and that you will never leave me nor forsake me ever. thank you that there is no more condemnation in me who is in Christ Jesus. show me your way Lord. i really cannot go about my human efforts anymore, its much too tough. but You can Lord God Almighty. You know the way. i now cast all my cares and worries about the children into your hands Lord, that You will lead them and show them and me the way. My children will be taught of you. i do not know how to teach them, but you can Lord. its easier to put my trust in you than in my own efforts because You never fail, and only You can bring about a true transformation in us. thank you that we are forever righteous in Christ Jesus and that my yolk is easy and my burden is light. in Jesus most wonderful name, AMEN and AMEN!!!

The Royal Invite...

2011-03-10T18:44:00.001+08:00

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Zoe's 5th Save The Date!!!

2011-03-07T19:46:00.001+08:00

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February's over.... almost!!!

2011-02-28T17:39:00.008+08:00

time flies.. flies... flies.... february has come and is almost going... going...gone... it seems that cny was only not too long ago where we were once again back at daddy's kampung for a short visit and dinner before we headed off to KL with 2 feverish kids...fever had struck ethan only the night before while zoe had hers the moment we reached the relatives' place. nonetheless, the fever did not dampened their mood for their favourite activity once we reached the hotel - the long awaited bubble bath time! and this was just about the only 'water' activity they did over the next 3 days since swimming was out as the fever persisted till we returned home several days after. this time round, it was only zoethan in the tub, sans daddy, and both had a good time blowing foam all over each other and practising their 'breaststrokes' while 'swimming' in the tub! it was definitely a delightful sight to behold...

ethan:

its been almost a month since ethan started home-schooling at teacher peggy's house. God has definitely turned things around for good, from her resignation from appletree, to the new horrible teacher and assistant who took over which led to ethan's withdrawal from the playgroup! though initially, ethan was reluctant to stay at peggy's place while mum sent zoe to school, he has since overcome whatever 'separation anxiety', or rather 'reluctance' in about a week or so! he now waves goodbye to mum and jie jie happily when we drop him off and goes about whatever routine he has to while at peggy's place.

he knows that he has to arrange his shoes neatly upon entering the house and that he has to greet the ah ma (peggy's mil) first thing after putting his bag down. in fact, its just amazing how he can listen and follow instructions when told and is able to sit at the the same spot daily for snacks (mostly cheerios!) without running everywhere! even if he does messes up, he knows discipline awaits him and that he has to clean up or risk sitting in the 'naughty corner' till he apologises and cleans up. in fact, he has even learnt to wipe the table after food, something that he has never done before, till now. peggy's home is definitely good training ground.

in just over a month, the boy has learnt his phonics well and can recite them in record speed almost as well as his ABCs though there are some letters that he can't pronounce accurately as yet. he knows that we are super proud of him for he often takes out his ABC book and recites the sound each letter makes and often looking at mummy with a cheeky grin when he's done. we are definitely so really proud of him. it's still another 3 months before his 3rd birthday but he is already able to spell like a hundred words, or, oh well, maybe at least 50 words and its all self taught - courtesy of the applications on the ipad and the iphone! he can spell the various colours, from, red to blue to green and even yellow, animals like, ant to cow to fish to lion, things from bed to car to jeep to shoe to to house and mouse and the list just goes on and on!!! the parents are just totally amazed by his ability to remember things! he's literally a sponge, soaking up everything he can right now! one nite, mum taught him to spell 'sleep' just as we were going to bed and the next morning, when asked for the spelling of it again, he could spell it out right even though his eyes were barely opened when awoken by mum! for the record, his jie jie can barely spell half as many words as he can.

right now, it seems that he's really just living in a world of alphabets, for spelling is the first thing he does out loud when he wakes every morning and he's almost always reading the abc book whether we are home or out. besides reciting the alphabet song or reading it phonetically, he can rattle off at an amazing speed that goes something like this:'a fo..r.rr.r apple, b fo.rr.r..r bed, c fo..r.r.. cow, d fo...rr.r.rr drum, e fo..rr.r.r. elephant all the way and he wouldn't stop till he reaches 'z'. its really funny hearing him and if anyone interrupts him before he finishes all 26 alphabets, he'll just be totally annoyed and then continue from wherever he left off till he finishes all 26 alphabets!!! hhahahaha :) what's more, it took him just under 3 days to learn to recite 1 to 10 in chinese!!! ethan is just mum's amazing superbaby!!!

also, now that's he is approaching 3, he's talking more, using more words, and starting to talk in complete sentences too. he has 'invented' some new words like 'mhug' which actually means 'mummy hug' and 'dhug' which of cos would mean 'daddy hug' (he would scream hysterically 'mhug, mhug, mhug!!!' whenever daddy hugs him). and so we introduced him to 'ahmug' which he now knows to mean 'ah ma hug''!!! LOL!!! once zoe kept butting her fingers in as he was playing with the ipad while seated on the high chair and he immediately cried out, 'zoe!!! sit down!!!' and on another occasion, he actually complained out loud, 'jie jie ... pushed... brother!!!' when zoe bullied him by pushing him! he sure knows how to defend himself right now (by complaining to the parents!!!) and he has also learnt the 'art of bullying' from being a 'victim' of his sister after too many a times! he occasionally 'pushes' her and smiles for he thinks it is funny. other times, he pinches, scratches or even hits his sister (for fun!) but mostly, its when his things are being snatched away by her that he does it. what to do, its now a case of 'monkey see, monkey do' at home. sigh...

one of his favourite 'activity' now would be to stick out his tongue, wet every single one of his fingers with it and them spread them all over his face! definitely yucky! but its even more yucky when daddy takes it a step further by encouraging him to spread his 'saliva infested' fingers all over zoe or mummy unawares!!! gross, definitely! but we do play along with him by squealing and screaming and running away as it tickles him pink and have him chuckling out loud everytime. hehehehehhe ;p

zoe:

its only about a month before zoe turns 5 and mum has been very busy thinking and preparing for her upcoming birthday party. this year, the theme would be 'princess presto' from the cartoon series 'superwhy' and already, mum has placed orders for her party supplies from the US. yeah, she will be dressed up as princess presto, complete with wand (while ethan will also be wearing a personalised superwhy 'whyatt' t-shirt) and she will also be getting a princess presto cake, all thanks to chinee from pinkgingercakes! not only that, she will also be giving out superwhy favour boxes complete with superwhy favours and even superwhy ballons! mum can't wait to see the delight on her face when the shipment finally arrives from the US, all thanks to por por, who is residing there.

she's almost 5 and diaperless for the most part except for naptimes, bedtime and poop time (she refuses to poop anywhere except in her diapers!!!). but this month, she's officially off the diaper during naptimes! hooray! as she often drinks quite a bit of milk before she goes to bed at night, thus for the time being, the diaper stays on as mum is also not quite ready to toilet train her at night, for now. that's still not too much of a concern for mum as compared to her finger sucking habit.

at 4 and 3/4 years, zoe is sucking her fingers more than ever! she sucks them on any and every occasion (except when she's in school or church!). she not only sucks them when she's tired or going to bed, she sucks them when on car rides, she sucks them when she's upset, she sucks them even when she's watching tv! painting her nails with the horrible nail polish doesn't work much anymore, for the sucking resumes almost after 4 hours. initially, mum paints only the nails of those 2 particular fingers on the right hand, but because she has resorted to sucking other unpainted nails when she caves in to the habit that mum now has to resort to painting all 10 of her fingers!!! mum's totally going nutz about this horrible habit of hers and is now at her wits end. Jesus, we need help here! only You can work a miracle in a situation like this!!! Amen!!!

now that zoe is in K1, mum is trying to sit her down and impose a few pages of homework on her everyday so that she'll be better prepared for primary school. she can barely sit still for 10 minutes except when she's drawing and even in those 10 minutes, she would barely do a page of exercise that requires no more than drawing a few circles! for the most part, she would be in her dreams, scratching (she is suddenly itchy everywhere), talking, bothering, 'discipling' or even tattling about ethan. the point is, she would be busy doing everything else except for what she is supposed to be working on. when asked to write her do re mi (by drawing the notes) on her yamaha workbook, even before she could finish with 2 notes, she sat up to complain that it was difficult and that she couldn't do it though there is an example already set out there for her and all she had to do was follow. what happened next was totally unbelievable. when reprimanded, she cried crazily and hysterically for the next 30 odd minutes!!! compare this with her doing the homework, she actually spent more effort crying then doing a simple exercise! the same thing happened the next day when told to continue with her homework. mum is pek chek ah!!! yes Jesus! mum needs your divine guidance and wisdom when dealing with zoe! Amen and Amen!!!

other february highlights:

1. zoethan's officially enrolled into gracefields kindergarten for 2012, where zoe will finish her kindergarten year and ethan will start off in his nursery class.

2. hongkong, here we come (again!)!!! the parents booked a 9 days, 8 nights trip to hongkong at a pre-natas fair since america was way too expensive to go to! sorry por por! you won't get to see the grandkids anytime now...

3. bye bye punggol field, hello cambridge road! we bought our new home and sold ours within 2 weeks. even though we will officially be much closer to town than we ever would (in view of the distance to the kids' future primary schools), but we have 'downgraded' to a 4-room flat instead. boo hoo hoo!!! is it REALLY time to say goodbye to our collection of toys??? mum's really reluctant and saddened by the mere thought of it...

the very sickening playgroup teacher and assistant...

2011-01-10T18:34:00.005+08:00

at the beginning of this year, ethan was to have started his playgroup classes at appletree but mum withdrew him after barely 1.5 days - all because of the very 'sickening' new playgroup teacher and assistant!

ethan attended his vey first playgroup session on a thursday (owing to his injury a week ago) while his other classmates had already started earlier that monday. right from the beginning, mum already didn't have too good an impression on the teacher as she was rather curt, blunt and in fact, untactful in the way she dealt with us parents just before classes began. in fact, she even told off a parent who was 'peeping' (by the window to check if his child is fine) and this was what she said, 'ay, who's that peeping ah? don't peep! you only make your child cry!!!' mum was s.h.o.c.k.e.d... what was this new teacher even thinking of??? couldn't she have just put it nicely???

and as the class proceeded and music was being played, one of the children, who had been seated, got up and started dancing and swaying to the music. however, she was ordered to sit down just because it wasn't jumping time and also because she (the teacher) wasn't jumping! not only that, she kept asking the very independent boy (whose parents weren't around) to keep quiet when he was trying to tell her something after the song finished playing. she didn't bother with letting him finish his sentence and instead, just shush him up, there and then. later on, when a girl burst out crying, she also didn't bother with pacifying her and in fact, merely continued with reading the book as if nothing had happened. other classics included her telling off the kid who hit another kid in a very rude manner right in front of the parents, and when she couldn't get the 'bully' to apologise, she quickly asked the parent to take him away! mum was totally flabbergasted by then and couldn't understand how the other parents had 'survived' their first 3 days in school with her! finally, she even chided ethan for sitting down with his legs outstretched and 'ordered' him to sit down 'with legs crossed'!!! the final straw came when the teacher asked mum and another parent to 'control our kids' when all they did was merely stand or lie down when everyone else was seated cos she couldn't control them. you are a teacher and yet, the parents have to control the kids??? what will happen in the weeks to come when the parents aren't allowed to sit in anymore? *eyes rolled*

As for the assistant at the centre, being new, she wasn't able to handle the kids well besides asking and taking the crying kids out of the classroom and 'shoving' the bowl into the kids' face to 'vomit' because they were crying really hard. mum was eventually freaked out when infomed by another mum at the centre that ethan was left alone in the toilet the day before because he was crying when mum left the centre briefly! that was the final straw - after 1.5 days at school, mum decided that she's had enough of the teacher and assistant, grabbed ethan and whatever belongings and left the centre. enough was enough...

a complaint was subsequently lodged with the centre's supervisors and eventually the director and since then, mum has asked for a full refund of the school fees and is now on a lookout for an alternative playgroup for ethan. this experience has led mum to feel that the teachers these days are really scary. it seems that monitoring is really essential, not the kids, but the teacher and his/her respective assistant. sigh...

an eventful december...

2010-12-31T23:56:00.009+08:00

the parents have missed church services four sundays in a row in decemember. on the first sunday, there was zoe's dance concert, second sunday, we were off to malaysia for a break, third sunday, zoe was nursing an eye infection while ethan was coughing and the fourth, the parents were turned away because all service venues were 'bursting at the seams'! sigh....

5 december marked zoe's fourth dance concert at jmdc. it was a concert that marked jmdc's first anniversary too and there, zoe performed a jazz number to the song, 'jailhouse rock' along with several other jazz girls. though it was a fun number, but mum didn't quite as much enjoyed it as her previous performances, perhaps because there was just too many of them on stage! but well, it was more important that she had a good time and it was also at the time when her dance exam results were announced - zoe had 'honours' for her exams!!! with the top results being 'honours distinction', zoe had definitely fared well, this being her very first exam with her scores being in the range of between 90-95. the parents were definitely proud of her! 3 cheers for zoe - hip hip hooray!!!

right after the concert, the parents ushered zoe to gap at wisma atria as they were holding a casting call then for kids to be the 'face of their spring 2011 collection' across asia. looking at how the other parents before us were making faces and cajoling their kids into looking, posing and smiling at the camera, we are just glad that zoe is such a natural! not that the parents are biased, but she definitely needed little or zero persuasion and the pictures turned out just perfect!!!

december was the month when we had our third family haircut, where zoe got a spanking new 16" bicycle, and where we went on our fifth or sixth KL road trip! we stayed at the gardens hotel in mid-valley for the fifth time in a row and there we indulged ourselves silly with kenko's fish spa therapy and the kids totally love it!!! they were totally unfearful of the fish 'biting' them but ethan just drove mum super nuts from dunking his feet from one pool to the next every 3 minutes or so! besides, it was restaurant indulgence at every meal, from japanese cuisine to taiwanese, from din tai fung to italiannies, with prices off at least 50% as compared to singapore... and we look forward to more this coming lunar new year... yes, we be 'balek-ing (daddy's!) kampung' during the cny period. how e.x.c.i.t.i.n.g.....

december marked GLEE month, where the parents were watching every episode of glee from season 1 and 2 almost every other day, with the kids quickly catching up and watching together with the parents at every waking moment. in fact, they have been 'glee-ed' and enjoy singing and dancing to the songs performed in the show right till today. daddy still plays the songs in the car as well as the mtv when at home almost everyday. its just plain hilarious seeing zoethan singing and dancing along to the music! mum is just amazed by how zoe can sing quite a few of the songs when the parents can barely catch the lyrics, plus the dance steps! really, its just all in her head and ethan's too!!!

finally, december was 'injury month' when zoe, once again, caught an eyelid infection which made her eyes looked really awful, and add that to the fact that she couldn't stop rubbing them and thus it took almost a good 3 weeks before she totally recovered. thank God! as for ethan, he gave the parents and grandparents the 'scare of their lives' when he slipped off the cushion of the grandparents' rosewood sofa while jumping which then resulted in him diving straight for the corner of the rosewood (glasstop) table. though it wasn't exactly a really sharp corner, but the impact was so strong that it literally cut a hole through the right side of his face (exactly next to the mouth!)! everyone was freaked out as fresh, red blood was just gushing out non-stop even after mum tried stopping it with tons of tissue. mum was hysterical and screaming while zoe was frightened and crying and ethan was well, in tears!!! he was rushed straight to the a&e at kkh where the doc took a look and decided that the gap had to be stitched up.

the boy was just crying non-stop, but thankfully he calmed down quite a bit after reaching the hospital. the next 3 hours went by in a blur as we had to wait for the dinner (that he was having at the point of the accident) to digest before he could be 'operated on'. in those 3 hours, he had the ipad for company and the freaky cartoons from cartoon network that the hospital was playing. strangely enough, all that was sufficient to make him forget his pain and he even started jumping and prancing around - in his super soaked blood-stained singlet and shorts. it was just painful to watch him. he was in and out of the operating theatre within 30 minutes where he was given a total of 5 stitches, 3 on the outside and 2 on the insides of his mouth. he came out groggy, in a dreamy state as the anesthetics that were administered on him only caused him to be sorta 'unfeeling', but 'not sleeping'.

it was a heart wrenching sight seeing him with the stitches and being in a semi-conscious state. his eyes were wide opened, yet they look blank. he was moving about slowly and trying to push himself up but the nurse said that he was actually in a dreamy state, not having awoken yet. he went on like this for at least 30 minutes or so before he finally fell asleep. an hour later, he was woken up by the parents for the nurse to access his condition to see if all is fine. naturally, that quick one hour nap was sufficient to get him out of the groggy state, but he was totally tired out by the turn of events and couldn't stop crying. thankfully, the doctor certified him fit to go home, which was just a relief for the parents, who were just thankful that he was up and jumping on the bed at 3.30am after his shower, as if nothing had happened!

fast forward to a week later, the stitches were removed and he didn't flinched one bit as the nurses cut the stitches away. in fact, the nurses were amazed and happy that he was just lying really still, and showing barely any emotion at all when it happened. perhaps, we should thank wall-e for it because his eyes were just glued to watching wall-e on mummy's iphone! hehe :) it was a truly amazing recovery for there was barely any scar and unless one looks really closely, no one would have been able to tell that he had had a horrible cut only a week ago. indeed, God is GOOD, and ALL THE TIME! Amen!!!

schools.... enrichment classes...what's next???

2010-12-27T17:58:00.001+08:00

school holidays have come and almost gone and all that talk about mum revising her driving and then driving the kids to school in january have come to naught. for starters, there was no one to go look after the kids if the daddy's out revising driving with the mummy, then, after daddy's new colleague (who stays a block away) told him that it takes him a good 50 mins to go to work via train (with morning human traffic at its peak), he freaked out and decided that he can't do without the car. and a small second car for mummy will not do cos we simply can't afford it. and so, its back to square one. the 3 of us (mum, zoe and ethan) will have to get to and fro school by feet, stroller, train, bus or taxi! and mum will just have to be doubly tired from all that rushing since both their schools starts at almost the same time. zoe at 11.20am in sengkang and ethan at 11.15am in punggol!!! Lord, give the mum some supersonic feet and energy!!!

having said that, mum is now also contemplating whether to pull ethan out of the appletree playgroup that he's been enrolled in since teacher peggy dropped a bomb 2 weeks ago saying that she will not be teaching there when school re-opens. mum froze, since she was the only reason why ethan was enrolled there in the first place! now that this wonderful teacher is gone, who will accomodate mum's request to drop off ethan earlier in school (even before the morning class ends) so that she can bring zoe to school on time? and that's when the mad, mad search for a playgroup for ethan begins... mum looked around and checked the web and found nothing suitable and good in punggol. it became so desperate that mum was even contemplating uprooting zoe and sending them both to a school in one of the churches in potong pasir! quite a fair bit of travelling to do, but well, at least they have classes for zoethan and at the same timing too. the only drawback was the amount that we had to spend on taxi fare every afternoon to get home. a fair bit - in the long run. then, mum thought she found a perfect school in the form of a montessori playgroup just a bus stop away from home and even though it will cost more than triple of what we pay appletree monthly, but with the fantastic curriculum that they have which mum thought would benefit the boy greatly, at least hey, we can save on the travelling time. alas, it was just not meant to be. at the very last minute, mum found tons of negative reviews from parents on the web about the teachers and centre which was just like shocking, so, bye bye montessori!!! though mum thank God for finding out the truth, but it just means that the search begins again... help!!!

towards the the end of november, zoethan started started on their art therapy classes which mum feels is really money well spent. what exactly it is, mum can't describe, but besides the usual art, drawing, painting and craft lessons, there's baking and whats not too. the teachers will try to incorporate a bit of science and maths during the lessons, plus also aim to build up the kids character on a whole too... or something like that. speaking with the founder gave mum a great assurance that the kids are definitely in good hands, plus the kids are never rushed through when having lessons despite it supposedly being a one hour session, but the lesson stretches on with the teacher patiently guiding on if the kids are not done with their work. plus, the school's priority is not in making money out of the parents, but in nuturing the little ones! the teacher student ratio is also kept really low, like 1 is to 5, but for now, there's only 3 students (zoe inclusive) for zoe's class and ethan's the only one in his class, which means 100% attention! mum's really pleased with the class and teachers and besides, zoethan's always looking forward to going for classes every week! that's just fantastic!!! :)

post october...

2010-11-15T17:13:00.005+08:00

the kids are the only reason why the mum has been sleeping more and waking up later than before. why? cos mum feels that its like paradise when the kids are sleeping on either side of you and you have the priviledge of cozying up to the both of them on each arm! they are the reason why mum goes to bed together with them and refuses to wake up every morning!!! mum just wanna do nothing but hug them both super tight... any parent will tell you that the feeling's really wonderful!!! but... sigh... back to reality.... mum's got endless chores to do before the kids awake!!! wake up mummy!!! hehe :)

zoe:

last month, zoe defended her lil' bro against a group of boys who were playing some spinning toys when it accidentally hit ethan.

zoe: who hit my brother??? don't hit my brother!!!
boys: no, we didn't hit him!
zoe: he's a little boy you know!!!
boys: ?!?!?!?!?!

actions speak a thousand words. now we know, despite their fights, zoe still loves her bro very much!!! the parents are really proud of her! and now it seems, they are playing together a whole load more these times. and their favourite game would be the holding hands and running together and then falling down together (on purpose) game. they are playing this game all the time and there's no stopping them, whether they are at home or outside in the malls or airport, this is their no. 1 'it' game. they simply love chasing each other too and it sometimes amuses the parents to see ethan 'gong gong' (hokkien!) holding the sister's hand and being led around by her.

october's been a really crazy month of dancing for zoe with us being at the dance studio/suntec for like 4 or 5 times each week!!! first, there's the regular jazz classes, then, there's the tta exam practices, finally there's the rehearsals for one moment of glory! hey, we were suffering from suntec fatigue!!! not that zoe really minds cos she enjoys every session thoroughly and it seems that dancing's really in her blood. on top of that, there were also dancing sessions in skmcc plus the jazz exams that she signed up for... whoa!!! she's dancing non-stop and it really amazes the parents as to how zoe remembers her numerous dance routines plus those other dance routines that she did several months back!!!

dancing's definitely her passion. mum's got news that aunty jody marshalls (who was down personally in singapore to oversee the exams) likes zoe and sees potential in her. and at 4 years, zoe's already gotten for herself a 'best dance progress' award from the school of dance in collaboration with skmcc. the award's given out to only the best progress-er of every class, respectively 3 nursery classes and a total of 4 k1 and k2 classes. aren't the parents really proud of her! mum's just glad that things have slowed down a lil'and that those crazy dancing sessions are over. however, zoe has since started rehearsing for jody marshall's first anniversary concert, to be held on the first week of december. yeah, more dancing to come! and mum's just really glad that her good ole' teacher nicole is back at the school to teach!!! yipee yeah!!!

ethan:

mum's lil' darling is talking a whole load more these times. his favourite 2 words are 'wait' and 'help'! he goes 'mummy wait' when mummy walks ahead of him or away from him. most times, if we are at home, he will want mum or dad to wait up for him and not away from him cos his idea is that either parent could then hold on to his hands, be led by him to the fridge for him to raid, and get his 'kok kok', or cheerios, and what nots ('kok kok'actually refers to the gummy bears that we have in the fridge. one day as ah ma opened the fridge, the boy was pointing and asking for it but the ah ma was dissuading him from eating it and told him that it was 'teng kok kok' {very hard} and since then, ethan has mistaken the gummy to be known as 'kok kok'. haha!!!). so everyday, or rather several times a day, without fail, he would go 'kok kok, kok kok' and if he is not given his daily dose, would go into a fit! his tear ducts would be turned on immediately and he would be inconsolable till he gets his fix! that boy! he now plays the 'manipulation' game! nevertheless, the parents are seeing to it that he does not get his way all the time.

when the daddy scoops him away from whatever mischief that he's up to, the boy will then scream 'help' for dear life until mummy 'comes to his rescue'! that cutie pie! mum cannot resist cuddling and kissing him a zillion times a day!!!

august, september and a wee bit of october updates...

2010-09-29T17:42:00.019+08:00

zoe:

zoe's now gearing up for her dance exam in early november. her exam classes started in early august and she now dances 3 times a week, out of which, 2 are exam classes. mum's extremely pleased with teacher sarah (from australia) for she is extremely strict, and she even draws the curtains during practices so as to minimise distractions. the school's seems pretty confident that zoe will do well in the exams and the parents certainly too hope that she will pass with 'dancing' colours!

even though she's already 4 and a half, but she has yet to quit that 2 fingers sucking habit of hers. in fact, early last month, mum thought she was almost through with sucking her fingers, but alas, it was not to be. in fact, it seems that she is now sucking them more intensely than ever and more often than that lil' bro of hers! at every opportunity, so long as her hands are not busy, there you'll find those 2 fingers up in her mouth. as she is now being disciplined more often than before, mum is now left wondering if sucking her fingers does provide some form of consolation to her when she's super upset at being disciplined for she's constantly 'challenges' the parents with her rude replies and glares and it seems that she has problems controlling that temper of hers. the parents are at a loss besides trying their best to reason out with her (before 'escalating' into shouts and threats and canes) and mum is now leaving it to Jesus's hands when it comes to discipline. meantime, mum's only solution to curbing her habit is to apply the bitter nail polish on her fingers diligently, 3 times a day, just like medicine! gosh!!! as of now, this arrangement seems to have somewhat deterred her from sucking them quite a bit...

in late august, zoe attended one of her classmate's birthday party. boy, an extravagant party it was, for not only was there a magic show which thrilled the kids to bits, but a ballon sculpturist and a thomas the train pinanta too! the birthday boy, killian, was however rather shy and it was zoe, who gamely posed for pictures with all her classmates instead. yah, she took pics with everyone EXCEPT the birthday boy... hehehehe :)

besides going onboard a double decker bus (bus no. 7!) which made her super happy and watching avatar in 3d with the parents at lido, one could call september an 'ínjury month'. it was the month zoe visited the dentist for the very first time as her gums had been bleeding quite a bit. mummy, ethan and deborah were all in the room with her to 'give her courage'. there she was, looking cool in the sunglasses provided by the dentist and mum is glad that she survived through the visit. the pretty dentist commented that it was due to a built up of plaque on her teeth that had caused the bleeding. oops, guess that's what happens when she insists on brushing her teeth on her own, sans help. at least, her gums are bleeding no more for now. and her dentist visit was made all the happier when the doc blew up some latex glove balloons using her dental eqiupment! then for almost 2 weeks, zoe had an infected eyelid which left her with a swollen eye look and it was just horrid. as the right eyelid was recovering, the other eyelid got infected and not only that, her lips were peeling and bleeding and her fingers almost bruised from the constant sucking.

october also marked a month of several 'firsts' for zoe. this was the month she laid hands on her kiddy ezlink card. yes, she was made to pay for her bus fare as the driver had refused to drive on until the fare was paid... it was the month where she was disciplined and made to write, 'í will behave myself' a good twenty times as punishment. it was her 'moment of glory' on tv, her debut tv appearance as she was chosen by her dance school, along with rachel, march and caitlynn to dance on the LIVE tv program, one moment of glory (OMG) with the semi-finalists, the singapore char siew baos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUR_J3dLNYI / http://video.xin.msn.com/watch/video/one-moment-of-glory-episode-11/1gqeptz7e. and boy, did she totally enjoy herself!!!

ethan:

for the past 2 or 3 months, ethan has been going everywhere in his pair of mismatched crocs. everyone who has seen it thinks that we are setting a new fashion trend but that was not meant to be. somehow, we must have dropped one side of his favourite crocs while getting into the car, but that has not deterred him from putting the other side on - still. you see, that beloved pair of crocs had his thomas and friends jibbitz on it, and now, percy is gone, leaving behind only thomas. regardless, he still only insists on wearing that other side, and so the parents had no choice but to pair it up with his other mickey crocs. give him his other shoes and he shakes his head vehemently, refusing even to step out of the house/car. even the lightning mcqueen crocs wouldn't do. there was once when we stepped into a crocs store and he got all excited cos he had spotted a brand new pair of his crocs (the missing one!) which he promptly proceeded to put them on. he wasn't intending to take them off had we not shoved a pair of toy story crocs in his face!!! yes, woody and buzz lightyear did a good job distracting him and so we eventually bought it for him too, and at a good deal! but until he outgrows THAT pair of mismatched shoes, there is no way he would put on another pair... he's 'just 'hopelessly devoted to them!!!

for now, the boy at 29 months already knows his 1-10s and A to Zs very well. he can even tell you that a is for apple, b is for ball, f is for fish and so on. he recites the alphabets everywhere he goes, so long as he spots some alphabets or a word or two. we could be at the mall or in the car and out of the blue, he will start singing his ABC song loudly and clearly. not only that, he continues to surprise the mummy by being able to spell out words like, car, bus and jet! despite the parents not having sat him down formally to teach him, he continues to amaze us everyday with his knowledge and that the parents has only one thing to thank for: educational apps on the iphone and the vtech and leapfrog toys! yes, gadgets are his favourite and he can play with them for a really long time. he's always demanding for the iphone whenever he's buckled up, be it in the car seat or high chair or even the stroller. but the thing is, at least, he now knows how to ask politely by saying, 'phone please!' hehehe :)

these days, the boy seems to have developed a love for reading. previously, he couldn't sit still whenever mum tries to read to him, but now, he will bring a book and ask that it be read to him! his books of the moment is 'goldilocks and the three bears', 'the spider and the hive' and 'stone soup' from our mini scholastic book set. its just amazing how he can now sit and pour over the books on his own!

ethan has now learnt to pee on cue. he's really ready to be potty trained, just that the mum is a lil' too lazy to formally start doing it. for now, he aims and pees accurately into 'the hole' before his shower when asked to do it. he's a really smart boy who looks at things from many angles. for instance, hand him a neck pillow and he'll tell you that its a letter 'u'. having said that, he will then turn the pillow around and tells u that its now a letter 'c' or 'n' depending on which way you turn it. a wheel is not only a wheel, but a letter 'o' and a twig he found on the ground is a number '1'. he's just so amazing and now instead of just saying 'amen' whenever we say grace, he is able to complete the prayer on his own! all that mum needs to say is, 'thank you Jesus for the milk, (and he will then finish off the prayer, though not accurately), by saying 'bei bei is xxx and hearty (he's still learning to pronounce the word 'healthy'). Amen!!!' absolutely cute!

the cutie has watched toy story 3 so many times on the tv and iphone that he is now able to reenact the scene in it. his favourite part has gotta be when buzz, woody and friends have fallen into the pit and was about to be incinerated when 'the claw' (operated by the 3 aliens) rescued them. at that scene, he would be sure to ask for your hands to hold onto and would then close his eyes (at the exact scene), lean on your shoulder (as mr and mrs potato head lean towards each other) and then squirm like the show. its kinda difficult to describe it, but watching him do it is in fact, plain hilarious!!! we just love him to bits!!!

grievances...

2010-09-24T17:14:00.006+08:00

its been exasperating times recently, especially when it comes to zoe. at 4 years old, mum thinks she's a terror. zoe's a real tough nut to crack and its been getting increasingly difficult to discipline her. nothing seems to work, or so mum thinks. everything's been tried. from reasoning, to scolding, to caning, rewarding (toys that she loves!), confiscating (her must have and favourite tempur pillow!) and ignoring. yes, even ignoring. for a good 24 hours one day this week, she's been ignored by the mum cos she drove mum absolutely up the wall with her insolence. her attitude sucks, she's plain rude, she poured away the no-bite nail polish that was used on her and dumped the empty bottle in the bin for all to see. yet, she thinks she has done no wrong and continues her insolent behaviour. that was the final straw. as a result, her cot bed was pushed far away from the family bed and she was made to sleep in a corner on her own minus hugs and her favourite pillow.

she cried buckets, said sorry and tried snuggling up next to mum but alas, mum chose to ignore. she couldn't sleep but mum couldn't care less. enough is enough. its already close to 2am and she has school the next day, but so what? mum contemplated not bringing her to school if she can't wake up but decided against it cos it meant facing her for an additional 3 hours at home and who knows what other nonsense she may be up to should she stay at home. nevertheless, she awoke on her own the next day and the ignoring continued. mum didn't say a word to her nor held her hands (except to cross the roads) even though her hand was in mum's and she pleaded with mum to hold hers (which is not usually the case). every question she asked was met with short, curt answers. that was how mad mum was with her.

mum's now at wits end when it comes to disciplining zoe and even though the ignoring has stopped, but it remains a burden on mum's heart. daddy and mummy has had many arguments concerning THE father figure. a common ground has since been reached that both parents must be firm and not contradict each other's disciplinary action with regards to the kids. mum is reminded that 'all our children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of our children.' indeed, mum has since decided to 'let go' (so that Jesus can take over) and cast everything into His hands. its true that 'He works only when we stop working' and so, Jesus, i commit zoethan into your mighty hands. You know the path ahead of them and you know what's good for them. lead them, Lord, and i pray for wisdom to teach the children and show them your ways. thank you for your exceeding abundant grace and favour over the children and us. You are our wisdom, patience, and guide. in Jesus's most wonderful name, Amen and AMEN!

simply july...

2010-08-03T16:40:00.010+08:00

july 2010 has been the month where the mummy survived many husband-less days with the 2 kids. the daddy was away half the time, flying off to germany, korea and taiwan, no less... and our 'reward' from his trips came in the form of clothings, a noah's ark playmobil, a hello kitty brio kitchen set, a thomas & friends table, chocolate and not forgetting kimchi!!! am just so glad that the 'ordeal' is over, at least for now.

ethan:

july is also the month where ethan officially addressed the mummy as 'mummy' instead of 'his usual 'meh meh' (july 16 was the day!!!), the month where ethan surprised us with his knowledge of alphabets and numbers. it started with a 'B' and an 'Ó' and now its just so much more!!! he can now recognise almost all 26 letters of the alphabet although he still does get confused with letter 'd' and 'w' and thinking that its 'b' and 'm'. we are secretly really proud of him and my oh my, he can even recognise his 0s to 10s! and all this while, mum hasn't even sat him down and taught them to him at all! we think that he's just a little genius who learnt them all from playing with his vtech thomas & friends notebook all these while. he claps, dances and jumps for joy each time he answers the questions posed by the notebook correctly. he's just such a delight to watch! that cutie...ee.e..e.e.e..e.!!!!

each time ethan recognises and object or item that he spots in a book or elsewhere, he will call it to mum's attention and make sure that mum hears it loud and clear before he moves on. and then if he sees an item that he could associate with a song, mum would have to sing out the song for him. how does mum know? well, that clever boy would proceed to do the actions for the song and move on only when the song is finish. for instance:

a spider = an itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout...
a boat/ship = row, row, row your boat gently down the stream...
an apple = an apple a day keeps the doctor away...
wheels = the wheels on the bus goes round and round...
a fish = all the fishes are swimming in the water...
star = twinkle, twinkle little star...

and the list goes on. point taken, ethan!!!

these days, the boy has found a new way to amuse himself. one day at home, he started the 'blind running' game whereby he would stretch out both hands and with both eyes closed (partially!), he would start running round and round the furniture and then suddenly pretend to fall before picking himself up and going for more rounds. all these while, that cheeky grin would be kept on his face and the sister thinks that its a funny enough game and so she follows suit and now, both are at it! and besides dancing together to the hit music of 'i want nobody but you' by the korean wonder girls, the other thing that both of them enjoying doing together is in imitating peppa pig as she introduces her family at the beginning of every episode (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMk3h0AgEds). they would both talk, snort and laugh just like peppa and if there are 9 episodes in a dvd, they would do it 9 times without fail. its really quite hilarious watching them at it.

being all of 2, ethan's favourite word is now 'no!'. many a times when we asked if he wanna eat something or watch a specific program, he would go 'no', followed by the shaking of his head. he know makes his choices known and if he doesn't get it, he would display his 'únhappiness' by whining or even kicking up a fuss and crying. the other day, just because he didn't get to put on his favourite crocs with the thomas and percy jibbitz, he threw a huge tantrum and cried like nobody's business. on other days, if its this pair that you want him to put on but its the lightning mcqueen shoes that he fancies, he would not move an inch from the car till he gets his way. he's growing up and boy, he does make sure he is heard - loud and clear.

very often, ethan has been mistaken to be a girl even when he's dressed every inch like a boy from head to toe. and so, we took him for his first official haircut at the hair salon last month and that marked the very first of our family haircut at the same salon by the same hairdresser! yes, daddy, mummy and zoethan all together! initially, we were afraid that ah boy might not sit through the haircut, being every bit that active boy that he was, but he 'survived' his maiden haircut by sitting really quite still for a good 10 minutes! all the while, his eyes were just kept glued to the iphone, which was really just playing 'chicken little'. we are so...ooo...oo proud of him! who says kids should get their haircut at a kiddies only salon??? =p

at 2 years and 2 months, mummy is still nursing ah boy. as he hasn't been eating very much these weeks, so one day, out of the blue last month, mum offered him a bottle of pediasure formula milk to drink. being super curious, he took a sip and then guess what, he shoved the entire bottle back to mum! this is a stark contrast from his usual reactions! previously, he will attempt to finish up whatever unfinished milk from zoe's bottle once he spots the milk bottle lying around... but now, whenever mummy makes milk for zoe but pretends to hand the milk bottle to him instead, he will grin, then start shaking his head violently, exclaim, 'no!' and then run far away! goodness!!! mum is now super worried about when he can be weaned off the breast, afterall, he'll be starting playgroup next year already (mum's already enrolled him in the same apple tree playgroup that jie jie went to last year!)... Jesus, please help!!!

though there are photo collages of zoe at home, but till now, there's none of ethan. ah boy has been looking at the pictures and very often, mistaking some of them to be that of himself, especially pics of zoe in rompers! kekekekekke ;p

zoe:

in end june, zoe graduated from her yamaha music wonderland class and since the begining of july, she has started on the yamaha junior course, whick marks the beginning of a 4 year music foundation and developmental course for her. in addition, she's now on her second term of her jazz class and she has even been shortlisted by jody marshall (the founder of her dance school back in australia) herself while she was here for a short trip well over a week ago to sit for a dance exam this coming november! yes, a dance certificate awaits! the parents are super proud of her as not everyone recommended by the teachers were shortlisted, plus only 10% of the students were shortlisted with zoe being the youngest! whoa! she now has to take an additional dance class each week starting september and just for the exams, an angmoh dance teacher will be specially flown in from her dance school in australia to teach and cheorograph a dance for her for the upcoming exam. we can't wait to see how she will fare! with flying colours, no doubt!!!

back at home, zoe also dances each time there's music. the only difference - she cheorographs her own dances! look at her dance and one be amazed, there's rhythm and beat in her steps and she spins, twirls, and shakes her hips away! she's really a lil' 'wu-niang' in the making. her imagination takes her to places and very often, she's making up names for everyone in the family. for a period of time, daddy was 'mickey mouse', mummy was 'clearly', she herself was 'chlor-wer-ges' (think CHLORophyll + WERE + lozenGES) and ethan was 'herbie'. but in a matter of days, she added a 'smelly' in front of ethan's 'name' (smelly herbie) simply cos she was standing next to him and had smelt his poop! hahahahha :) then another time, she found a long white scarf that mummy had used to cover the new keyboard that the parents had bought for her, took it and attached it to the back of her panty and said it was her 'wedding dress'! all these while she was in her singlet and panty outfit at home but she was actually pretending that the scarf was part of her train on her ímaginary dress, just like the princesses that she reads about in her books! speaking of which, she has been alternating between her favourite 3 dresses and wearing it over her singlet and going to bed in it... yes, she's mum's lil' crazy nut...

these days, she has very much improved on her drawings and paintings and mum is just thinking of sending her to art classes in spite of her busy schedule. now, there's speech and drama on tuesdays, classes at yamaha on wednesdays, and dance classes on thursdays and saturdays and phonics and reading class on fridays. yes, a really busy bee she is!!!

ethan's dictionary....

2010-06-29T18:10:00.003+08:00

ice cream = i-tream
unbuckle (seatbelt) = kak! kak! kak!
mummy = meh meh
monkey = argh argh argh! (think high pitched shriek)
milk = mek mek!
water = gakker
yes = yeah
no = nor....
butterfly and/or barney = bar bar
fish = hish
star = tar
moon = moo...
flower = fower
uncle = ah ker
aunty = ar tee
thank you = ten chio
please = plea
hello = arro
rabbit = babbit
school - shoo

and here's how he pronounces his favourite tank engines from thomas and friends:

thomas = wei
james = jay
percy = pur pur

more words will be added to the list as ethan picks up more words... :)

zoeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee................

2010-06-24T17:46:00.004+08:00

wat's zoe been up to, mum's trying hard to recall. in a week's time, she will be 'graduating' from her yamaha music wonderland class and moving on to the yamaha junior class. this time round, her classes will be at plaza singapura instead of classes at sengkang cc as the timing is a much better fit than now. come next wed, 30 june, her graduating pieces would include singing both 'twinkle twinkle little star' and 'where is thumbkin (pointer, tallman, ringman and baby)' with her coursemates as well as 'please shake hands with me', while using the bells too. oh yes, the first two songs will be sung in sofege as well i.e. the doremi version. its:

do do so so la la so
fa fa mi mi re re do

so so fa fa mi mi re (2x)
do do so so la la so

fa fa mi mi re re do

for twinkle twinkle little star and;

do re mi do (2x)
mi fa so (2x)
so la so fa mi do (2x)
do so do (2x)

for where is.... thumbkin, pointer, tallman, ringman and pointer.

in addition, she will perform a simple solo piece on the keyboard to the music of '3 blind mice'. even though she will only be pressing 3 of the black keys on the keyboard, but still, mummy is proud that she has managed to catch the rhythm and she knows when its time to play, stop and start again. in fact, mum is still amazed by how these kids remember the sofege version of the above 2 songs simply by listening while mummy here has much difficulty remembering even when she is able to read the notes on the board... hehehehe :)

apart from the music class, zoe has performed a jazzy dance together with 2 other little girls, amy (7yrs) and phoebe (6yrs) for her dance school's concert earlier this month at suntec. she may be the littlest, but she danced really well, having mastered the steps after 5 odd lessons. its really just known as the 'honey honey' dance, named after the name of the song from 'mama mia'. watch her shake her butt and sway her hips and you be surprised at how good she's at it. in fact, its now already almost 3 weeks after the concert and she's still doing the honey honey dance everyday, be it at home, while we are outside, in the car, when shopping and even when waiting for mummy to be done in the small confines of the toilet cubicle! call it a honey honey overdose, but we are going nutz from watching her do it again and again... repeatedly... repeatedly....repeatedly (you get the point)...

besides honey honey, she shakes her hips and dances non-stop anywhere and especially when we're home too. just give her some music and she'll be at it. she comes up with funny dances with every kinds of music/songs and you'll just be amazed by her. she does have good rhythm sense too, mum must admit. she'll sway accordingly to the rhythm. dance seems to be in her, think she should be dancing more and more and that little bro of hers is catching up too. that funny boy also loves dancing and is especially excited when's he's dancing together with the jie jie. he now dances when he watches the wiggles on tv and he's even dancing to okto's little okto woogie dance on tv. its just a delight watching the both of them dance (especially when both parents can't dance for nutz!!! - hehehehehe :p)!!!

to-date, zoe still refuses to poop in the potty. its amazing how she manages to control her bowel and poops only when she has her diapers on, just before nap or bedtime. most times, there will be zero urge to poop, but once the diapers are on - hey voila! its poop time! mum has tried getting her to poop on the potty with lolipops, candies, chocolates and even potato chips, but nothing has worked. its a lousy bait. we are still wondering how to get her to poop in the potty. for now, when she's pooping, she'll go hide inside our walk-in wardrode, close the door and start doing the deed. open the door and she'll either be standing or squatting and giving you a super pained and constipated look while muttering, 'dun see me... i 'da-bian'.... and then hasten you to close the door. you know she's done when she out of the wardrobe and prancing around and of cos... the smell would linger.... y.u.c.k.s.....

THE birthday and other ethan updates...

2010-06-07T17:18:00.021+08:00

lazy mummy hasn't been blogging... oops! and the kids are growing up so..oo...ooo fast and up to new tricks everyday!!! help... ok, here goes, as best as mummy can remember...

ethan grows up:

this lil' boy is now 2! we had a simple birthday celebration with immediate family and close friends at casa verde at the botanic gardens about 2 weekends ago, complete with a thomas the train and toy story themed cake - 2 of his very favourite characters for now, and yes, not forgetting the lightning mcqueen jelly too! check it out!

it was a hot, hot day, but the party was held outdoors as the airconditioned part of the cafe was packed. most times, the kids kept themselves entertained by running amok around the gardens and watering every plant they could find while the adults were just well, busy chatting. the adults got to take home a dozen thomas cookies (mum forgot to take pics!) specially baked by aunty lynnette and the kids received a thomas party bag containing items like a cute portable fan, balloons and pencils! here are some 'hot', happy faces!

it was difficult trying to get the lil' big boy to take pictures as you can see,

but he was most cooperative when its picture time with deborah jie jie! here's proof of it!

anyways, towards the end, everyone was already feeling the heat and all sticky with perspiration, but nevertheless, mummy is sure everyone had a great time despite it being a casual lunch, and not forgetting the yummy pastas and pizzas too!!! :)

ethan's other bits of life:

just like his sister, the boy now takes off his shoes the moment he is seated in his car seat or on a high chair. speaking of which, he is now more demanding than ever and quick to throw a tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants. not that we will give in to his demands anyways... but still, he shows his displeasure by whining, squatting or even sitting on the floor! highly irritating!!! he now wriggles at almost every attempt when he's put in the car seat and even after he is buckled up after a long struggle, he will attempt to 'ún-sit' his carseat on the pretext of wanting to drink milk! he'll just go, 'meak! meak'! (that's how he pronounces the word, 'milk') and demands that mummy nurse him right there and then because he knows that there is no way he can escape the car seat unless its nursing time... argh! that manipulative boy! sometimes, he does gets his way, and when he doesn't, the tear ducts get turned on and the screaming begins.... yes, the beginning of our nightmarish ride. is there any other way to get him seated quietly? YES - the wretched iphone... sigh...

ethan's starting to sing... the very first song that we sorta caught him singing to was the 'thomas the train' theme song. he will sing out the last word of every line and though his pronunciation may be completely off, but still, its hilarious and totally cute! he can recognise all his different trains from thomas and friends, all you need to do is say the name, and he will promptly show you the correct train from his train collection. he is now very good at saying 'mei-you' (in chinese) as well as no'. each time a show finishes and the credits starts rolling, he will go, 'mei you', when his bowl is emptied out, he goes 'mei you' too... mum has since compiled a list of ethan's vocabulary which would be shown in another post. hehehhe :)

he's a real cutie who says bye bye to everything when he has to walk away from it. for instance, if he has to put down his beloved penguin to go for a shower, he will say bye bye to it first. even when we are moving away from the toy department and if he is holding on to a particular toy, he will say bye bye to it too... its just so sweet! he's also a gung-ho little boy in the sense that he simply loves jumping into the swimming pool with just his float around him! he's totally unafraid at all! in fact, he enjoys it so much that he'll be at it over and over again. contrast this to zoe who had to be coaxed into jumping into the water but not before being convinced that 'daddy be there to catch her' with outstretched arms when she jumps. it was only recently that the jie jie has made the 'leap of faith' to jump into the waters on her own. she is all of 4 and ethan only 2!

even before he turned 2, ethan already knows that its his responsibility to turn off the 2 fans in the room before he ventures out when he awakes. and now, whenever we get him changed into outdoor clothes, he promptly goes to put on his shoes on his own after that. then, when its time to shower, he will remove his own diaper and then throw it down the bin. he's so 'índependent' that he even fights to put the dvd into the player each time we wanna play a show for him. that's just him, but nevertheless, mum loves him to bits!!!

Ethan's 2nd invitation!

2010-05-13T13:41:00.002+08:00

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hospitalised...

2010-05-08T09:57:00.012+08:00

just over a week ago, zoe was down with cough and flu and had missed school for a good 1 week. and just as she was recovering, the little bro of hers came down with a fever on a saturday night, followed shortly after by a cough and flu too. from then on, his appetite became zero and nothing could tempt him into eating, not even when he was given the permission to 'raid' the fridge or the biscuits cupboard. every item placed in front of him was only met by the shaking of his head. at times, he would request for cheerios, but when it was placed in front of him, he would eat like only 10 of it and then play with the remaining in his bowl. since then, his staple diet was just mummy's good ole' breastmilk.

his fever had been alternating between high and low, but monday came, and his fever hit a high, he was all hot and feverish and so we brought him to the pd whch didn't help by any bit as he was rejecting ALL forms of oral medication, watsoever. every attempt to force feed him medication (with a syringe) was a struggle and daddy had to hold him tight and grab both his hands, but it was of no use as any bit of medication that went in would only be spat out. it was simply torturous (to him!) and exasperating (to us!). the only medication he took was for fever which we could conveniently insert up his butt (with minimal struggle!).

by wednesday nite we decided that he had to go for a thorough check up at the kkh as we were still sponging him to cool him and it was already day 5. by the time we were there., his fever was 39.3 and the initial diagnosis was lung infection. over there, he was given a series of checks, neubalised, x-rayed and blood was shed for the test... poor thing! after a good 3 hrs odd, it was decided that he be admitted as the only thing that could 'cure' him was antibiotics - oral medication that he rejected and thus it could only be given via needles... which was when, the ordeal began...

day ONe:

ethan was warded in class b2 (a 6 bedded room without the aircon - the best of what's remaining! to think that the hospital was running on almost full occupancy for every ward...), ward 56, bed 19. by the time we reached the ward, it was already 1 plus in the morning. daddy brought a tired zoe home to bed while he and ah ma went back to pack 'mummy's and ethan's overnight(s!)bag'. meantime, nurse marve, doc kelly low and doc zhang came by on separate occasions to check on ethan and mummy had to repeat ethan's condition to each of them (which was just the beginning! - it seems that repetition is the norm, wonder if this is the b2 class treatment, throughout the stay, ethan was seen by numerous docs and nurses and there are just many fresh faces eveyday!). just when the boy finally fell asleep, he was quickly whisked away to the treatment room for THE treatment i.e. it was 'needle time'. mum couldn't be in the room with him, but he had his darling penguin for company. within minutes, ethan was already crying out loud for dear life, it must have lasted at least 30 minutes for ethan was returned to mum just as mum finished freshening up. that poor boy, he was just shacked out from all that crying and pure tiredness...

after the treatment, mum quickly changed him into fresh clothes and nursed him and he was sound asleep within minutes, but that didn't last too long as he kept coughing while sleeping and before you knew it, he had puked everywhere. that was when they decided that he had to be put on a drip to keep him hydrated in addition to the oxygen mask that he was already given to keep his oxygen intake above the norm of 95% as his was slightly below (any lower and it might lead to a disruption in brain activities). even after that, he kept being roused from his sleep to be checked by the nurse and docs a few more times and by the time he got to sleep soundly without disturbance, it was already 5.40am. and that poor boy now couldn't suck his favourite thumb as the needlepoint was on the top of his left hand, which was in turn 'supported' by a long rectangular pad on his palm to prevent him from pulling the needle out. that night, he was so 'desperate', he resorted to sucking his other thumb instead.

throughout the nite, despite the drawn curtains, you can still hear the nurses making their rounds, children crying, handphones beeping, people snoring and people playing games on their mobile and the norm for kkh is that the day begins bright and early at 7.30am. regardless of whether the patient or caregiver is sleeping, the curtains are drawn and your sleepy state and sleep position are open for all to see... not that anyone really cares, but still, its an 'eye-opener' for 'first-timers' like us whose eyes can barely open and medicine dispensed and breakfast ready by 8am. by 8.30am, the senior consultant, dr liew arrives and asks about ah boy and starts explaining his condition to a sleepy mummy. it is then mummy realised that ah boy's condition was actually broncholitis and not lung infection, which actually means that his right lungs and a little bit of his left, are somehow blocked and that there's a lot of phlegm in there which is causing blockage to the widpipe and hence narrowing his breathing space and reducing his oxygen intake. thus, the need for oxygen and the drip so that ah boy is kept hydrated as he is not taking in enough fluids to loosen the phlegm. having said that, he was also neubalised once again but thank goodness it did not disrupt the still sleeping boy.

by the time ethan awoke, the fever was gone but his oxygen intake remained below the norm. he totally hated the oxygen mask, and any attempt to put it near him was met with much resistance. then shan shan yee came with her 'miracle saviour' - this mucous sucker thing that she got from a friend in france, and 'did the deed' on him. she demonstrated and thankfully proceeded to suck out his phlegm from the nose, which was really quite a bit! of cos, the boy struggled and cried but at least it did managed to relieve him of the blockage in the nose and cleared some phlegm which made it easier for him to nurse better thereafter. throughout the day, ethan was kept entertained by the iphone and his thomas and friends trains, but he was just grouchy and clingy when uncle bernard, yee po alice and aunty michelle dropped by for a visit. you can hardly blame the boy! in addition to being confined to his cotbed, his movements were restricted cos of the drip and the oxygen monitor that was placed on his big toe, it was just 'suffocating'! even though the fever was gone, he still wasn't eating much, partly attributed to the 'horrible' food that was served. nevertheless, he managed to cheer up by the time aunty zhuying came and we could bring him around the ward and with the drip, of cos! that sort of sums up day one of his stay.

day TWo:

everyone else in the ward was sound asleep and just as mummy thot she could tuck ethan into bed at 11 plus, his frustration grew and he started growing agitated and went about tugging at the drip and the needle on his hand. to distract him, we started playing with the cake cutting toy that his jie jie had brought to the hospital earlier on but that distraction was merely temporary because as soon as we put away the toy after a good 15 minutes or so, the agitation grew... eventually, mummy had to call for the nurses to help after struggles to hold him tight and all attempts to calm him down had failed. one nurse came, followed by another, but no one could restraint him. in the midst of all that struggling and crying and frustration, he managed to 'displaced' the needle which meant that the docs had to come and insert a new needle in him! many attempts were made by the nurses to contact the docs, but none came, the nurses were frustrated by the docs nonchalence and so was mummy. to cut the story short, a female doc finally made her appearance after 30 minutes or so (mum thinks that this is really a case of 'c' class treatment!). by then, a tired ethan (minus the needle!) had calmed down and was already sound asleep in mummy's arms.

it was only almost an hour and a half or two later since the needle was taken off that ethan was once again brought into the treatment room for re-insertion of a new needle. once again, the ordeal began. it was a male doc this time who came, who tried locating and finally ínserting a needle into a screaming ethan's hand but failed. he then asked íf 'we wanted his senior to come try a second time' as he wasn't confident that he was able to correctly locate ethan's veins. and so the female doc made a reappearance and tried, now on his other hand, but it failed too. throughout, ethan was asleep as he was already 'shacked out', but each time the needle went in, he would scream and cry and there were 3 of us trying to pin him down to minimise his struggling! it was a terrible ordeal indeed for a boy who wasn't even 2 yet. and it was only on the third try did the doc managed to successfully insert the needle and this time, it was on his feet. well, at least, the only consolation was that ethan now had his hand free and he could suck his favourite thumb freely... it was almost 4am before he finally got to sleep soundly.

in the morning, ethan woke up feeling happier and the senior consultant had by then taken out ethan's oxygen mask and replaced it with a óxygen tube upon mummy's request. however, he decided that ethan still couldn't be discharged as his oxygen intake was still below the norm and his fluid intake was still insufficient - while waiting for the results of his blood test, those were the 2 other deciding factors determining his discharge from hospital. but God is good! his appetite slowly improved that day and by evening time, a doc came by with good news that he could be taken off the drip soon which was definitely good news indeed! that night, both of us slept soundly together in his cot bed (who cares! hehehe :)) and that was day two.

day ThRee:

its now saturday (exactly a week before his 2nd birthday) and ethan was still sound asleep when the nurse came and removed the drip, just before 9am. Amen! at least, he was a little bit more mobile now and we could bring him around the hospital instead of just being 'çonfined' in ward 56. we were a little more hopeful that he would be discharged today as his oxygen intake, even without the oxygen that they were giving him was now more normal. then a new doc came and told mummy that ethan was still a 'lil' feverish' and that he may not be discharged, but she returned minutes later only to apologise for saying that it was actually the patient in the next bed that was feverish and not ah boy! goodness! such a blur doctor! finally, the blood results came back and proved negative, followed by more good news. its official, ethan was to be discharged at 5pm! Praise the Lord! he would however, have to continue taking his antibiotics orally while at home. the parents vowed to give it to him even if it meant forcing it down his throat as it was definitely better than having to remain at the hospital! we were all happy, especially ethan. his happiness was evident as he could now put on his shoes and walk around freely after 3 days of confinement. Praise the Lord!

note:

it was funny how at the hospital, the docs and nurses kept mistaking ethan for a boy despite his name being ethan and him looking every bit of a boy! anyways, back at home, over the next 2 days, ethan continued to spit out whatever medication that was given but he finally gave in on day 3 and is now willing to take his medication, sans struggling! he is currently still on his course of antibiotics but the parents are pretty sure that God has restored his health and that it is now better than before. Amen and Amen :)

we are grateful to all visitors who came, ah ma and yee-yees, yee-po, aunty michelle & abigail, and uncle bernard & eugene and everyone else's encouragements on facebook...

Ethan's turning TWO!

2010-04-27T18:12:00.001+08:00

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all things ethan....

2010-04-05T15:41:00.006+08:00

ethan is now 22 months young. in another 2 months, he'll be 2! he's a real cutie who sometimes talks non-stop, though most times, we cannot understand him except for times when he says, 'mum mum' (he's not calling mum! he just wants to eat!)... and its usually junk or some other food that is out of bounds. everything except what he's really supposed to eat. he's always trying to open the fridge for he thinks there's always goodies to be found, which is not usually the case. just last week, we heard him say 'ókgo' while watching the okto advertisment on the okto channel. and for a long while, he has been using sign language to say 'thank you' but one day, out of the blue, he said 'xie xie' instead! mum is pretty sure that he must have learnt to say it from kai-lan of the cartoon series 'ni hao, kai-lan'. well at least, watching cartoons is really not such a bad thing afterall... hehehe :)

his favourite plaything now besides the iphone are his thomas and friends trains. its weird how those few wooden trains of his can keep him entertained for a long, long time. at times, he would request for the wooden tracks, but other times, he's perfectly fine pushing the trains on the floor, the bench or table and sometimes even on the ledge of his little bed and then he'll go, choo choo......'' he loves his trains so much that he often attempts to bring them into the shower with him but of course, being wooden trains and not 'bath toys', thomas can only stay behind and 'watch him shower' from afar, which would sometimes see the little boy throwing a fit. occasionally (especially when he's tired), ethan would have an emotional outburst which can last up to a good 45 minutes. during that time, he would be crying and screaming uncontrollably with his hands flying and legs kicking everywhere. nothing can pacify him when it happens. not even his favourite penguin. neither thus hugs as he will only attempt to wrestle his way out from your arms. and so, we let him be. and he'll only stop when he can shout and scream no more. it is scary when that happens and we pray that its only a passing phase.

now that he's turning 2, he has since learnt to spit instead of drinking the water when rinsing his mouth after a brush. his feet has also grown and he has just upgraded to a size 6/7 crocs. last month, he even embarked on a 'solo flight' up the escalator at marina square while daddy wasn't looking! just as daddy was panicking and looking out everywhere for him, he heard a little boy cry out, 'look! there's a baby on the escalator!'' and so daddy looked, and there ethan was, looking back at daddy and even smiling at him! perhaps he really thinks he's superboy, for that day, he happened to be wearing a superman romper, complete with cape! thank goodness the daddy managed to reach him on time before the boy could even get off the escalator. it totally freaked the parents out and we shudder to think what would have happened had that other little boy not sounded the álarm! he is probably an angel in disguise and we thank God for his blood protection on the kids and us ALL the time... Amen!

it is a well known fact that everywhere ethan goes, his darling 'bah' (i.e. that penguin of his) must follow. without it, he'll cry and whine non-stop especially when he's tired or upset. so most times, he would hold that penguin of his with one hand while sucking his thumb on the other. each time he needs to free up his hand, he would conveniently stuff that bah of his into his romper or t-shirt while he lays his hands on whatever has caught his interest at that point in time. ain't that really smart? its still a case of 'bah' being with him wherever he goes. haha! ;p as for that thumb sucking habit of his, ah ma is always reminding him not to suck by telling him, 'bu ke yi' and so, for about a week or two, each time, we say 'bu ke yi' as he sticks his thumb into the mouth, he would pull out his thumb and smile bashfully at us. it could have been a fun game to him then, but fast forward 2 weeks later, he has decided to stop playing altogether for now when you say 'bu ke yi', all he does is hide his face, with thumb still in the mouth, and smile... that little cheeky thingy! we are praying that he'll quit the habit soon.

it is funny how each time ethan manages to lay his hand on the cane, he goes straight to his sister and starts waving it at her. just like how the parents threaten to cane the girl with it! it is hilarious seeing him do that for this little boy must have learnt it from seeing the parents threaten or use the cane on his sister too many a times! or perhaps, he really just wants to 'get back' at his sister for bullying and hitting him on numerous occasions! last week, he was playing with his sister at a shop while mum was in the fitting room and dad was just 'standing áround' when somehow, he fell and cut his right brow. it happened so fast that no one saw how it happened except that the 2 of them must have been playing pretty 'violently'. it was quite deep a cut for blood was just oozing out and even dripped onto the floor. even a plaster didn't manage to stop the bleeding too well. it was only after we applied some medication did the bleeding stop. thankfully, the brave lil' one immediately stopped crying when handed his darling penguin. mum is thankful to 'bah' and we are just praying that there will be no scar left behind, whatsoever. Amen and Amen!

pics from zoe's OTHER birthday bash!

2010-04-01T05:26:00.006+08:00

*23 march 2010 - birthday bash 2 @ sengkang methodist childrens' centre*

here is zoe's second birthday cake, designed by chinee of pink ginger cakes... just look at her! she can't wait to eat the cake!

look at her posing happily beside the goodie bags for her classmates and giant pooh cookies for the principal, teachers and aunties in school.

a closeR look of the lil' mermaid cake before the actual celebration...

let the party and singing begin!

singing 'grace' before eating the yummilicious cake...

finally, she gets to cut the cake!

here's ms hoe, her form teacher;

ke lao shi, her chinese teacher';

and not forgetting the principal, mrs tan;

and of cos, her beloved friends...

and lastly, here's her most favourite friend of all, rebecca!

can you tell that i am one very happy girl???

zoe's double birthday bash!

2010-04-01T02:51:00.019+08:00

this year, zoe had not one, but two 2 birthday parties... one with family and the parents' closest friends plus another in school! isn't she a blessed babe!

*20 march 2010 - birthday bash 1 @ pasta de waraku, changi airport terminal 2*

zoe made her appearance as ariel, the character from the little mermaid. there she was, in her bikini shell top, along with a fin like bottom, and a pretty headband that mum had gotten for her only a few days before the party, at spotlight. the parents think that she's looking really pretty indeed!

what's a birthday without a special cake as requested by the special girl? just check out the customised numberjacks cake from cupcake divinity and mrs chan's mermaid jelly!

plenty of smiles indeed!

here's not forgetting the proud parents and that real lil' cheeky bro of hers who was just amusing himself with the iphone for the most part of the party...

while all guests left with a goodie bag consisting of a sweet and savoury popcorn from cornery, a tired, but beaming zoe went home with angpows, playdoh sets, barbie doll and a very pretty hello kitty haversack!

here's the 'remains' of the cake...

and yes, more happy faces!!!

zoe's turning 4!

2010-03-18T17:36:00.011+08:00

in 5 days time, zoe will officially be 4! wow! she's a big girl now and she claims so herself. last nite, while holding on to a cup of frolick yoghurt, she scooped a big spoonful and gave it to dad because 'daddy is an adult' and later on scooped a teeny weeny spoonful for her little bro only because 'he is still a little baby'. as for herself, a big spoonful of it went into her mouth and when asked why, she replied nonchantly, 'because i am a BIG girl!'

time flies, she'll be 4 and come this saturday, we'll be celebrating her birthday only with immediate and almost immediate family members plus 3 of mummy and daddy's friends at waraku de pasta at changi airport. not only does that place offer toys to any kids who dine there, but more toys are given out when orders are placed for every kids meal, not to mention the yummilicious food at 'will not burst your budget' prices. her surprise would be the numberjacks cake that she has requested for. mum has given the baker the pic and hopefully, the cake would turn out to be much better than the given design:

this year, besides the numberjacks cake, mum also ordered a lil' mermaid jelly and that lil' girl will be making her appearance in a lil' mermaid outfit too! mum's praying that everything will turn out well. oh, there's cake number 2 too. this time, its a lil' mermaid theme cake that mum has ordered so that she can celebrate her birthday in school with her friends. yah, zoe does love the lil' mermaid too... that blessed lil' girl!!!

earlier on this month, afher having woke up from her nap at ah ma's place and finding mummy nowhere, she picked up the phone and dialled mummy's number for the very first time! in between her sobs and screams, everyone else present was impressed by her despite the annoying din that she was making. actually, mum was too... hehe :) and 2 days ago, she turned out to be the youngest participant in a one time creative baking class that mum had enrolled her in. boy, she thoroughly enjoyed herself and even ranked baking class above her dance and music classes! that day, they made egg tarts and french cheesy sausage quiche. it was pretty yummy actually, and we are just so proud of her!

not that zoe can do no wrong... despite having been off diapers (except for bed and naptimes) for about a year, zoe pee-ed in her pants, not once, not twice, but thrice! she has a tendency to hold her bladder till she can tahan no longer before she'll announce, 'mum, i want to go toilet.' before mummy can even reach out and put on that diaper for her (that we bring out in case toilets are nowhere to be found), she did the deed. *faintz* the first time, she pee-ed while playing midway in a toy shop at malaysia, the second while mummy was doing her pedicure, also in malaysia and the third? right in daddy's car! that third time was the final straw. she got disciplined by daddy right there and then and since then, there has been no repeats (we pray!)... Amen!

that girl brought home 3 books from school that day. 2 were in chinese and 1 in english. she read all gamely though she did need some promptings for the chinese ones. we were really impressed, given that her chinese is 'ban tong shui' and she sounded really like a 'gan-tang' when reading (mostly by memory, we speculate), but we were proud of her nontheless. earlier this week, she whipped out one of her favourite books and started reading out loud to mummy! its a pictorial book with one or two sentences on every page and she could read out almost every page correctly, complete with emotions!

looks like she really does listen well each time mummy reads to her. this book, together with the other elephant and piggie titles by the same author are really our all time favourite books. mum is glad that reading to her has not been in vain and that our investments in books are really not a waste of money too. perhaps, this is the reason why our house is really like a mini library of sorts.

given her ability, this also explains why mum has enrolled her in a new class. for now, her schedule goes like this:

tuesdays: speech & drama
wednesdays: music appreciation
thursdays: baby ballet
fridays: phonics

seems like a case of too much for a little girl who's just turning 4 but nevertheless, mum is pretty confident that she'll not be 'burnt out'! hehehehehe :)

Zoe's 4th Birthday Invitation!

2010-03-17T07:10:00.002+08:00

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Zoe's Upcoming Birthday Bash!

2010-03-03T02:26:00.001+08:00

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all about zoe and a wee bit ethan...

2010-02-24T17:31:00.010+08:00

zoe is now learning to read. she came home one day from school with a book - 'dirty dog' - that contained all of 19 words and read the entire book to me. mum is not too sure if she really does reccognize the words or if she had already memorised it by heart (for she has a superb memory) but when asked to spell certain words in the book, she was able to point out the correct word and spell them out! here's how the book goes:

dirty dog sees a bone.
dirty dog sees a bird.
dirty dog sees a cat.
dirty dog sees me.

the repetition of words are done on purpose to aid word recognition in little kids. regardless of the very few words, mum is still proud that she can now read out loud! very soon, she should be able to recognize more words as mum be sending her for weekly phonics lesson with her ex apple tree teacher, teacher peggy, who lives just in the opposite block.

every friday, her school would send them home with a new book for the parents to read to them over the weekend. one particular friday, she came home with a chinese book, 'qiu qiu zhao ma ma' that had quite a bit of words in it. in fact, mum thought it to be a book a lil' too difficult for her age (in any case, that was the first chinese book that mum had ever read to her in mandarin, and with simulataneous translation in english!) and so gently reminded her to bring home an 'easier' book instead. however, that girl misinterpreted mum's reminder and thought that mum was telling her not to bring home any chinese books to which she quickly retorted - 'why don't read chinese books? but I AM A CHINESE GIRL!!!!' - which had mum up in stitches! that funny silly billy girl... ok, at least she was just staying true to her roots. hehe ;p

just 2 days ago, she has also finally learnt to write out her name in CAPS. previously, she would write the 'E' in her 'ZOE' with as many as 5 or 6 strokes instead of just 3, but she has now come to realise that there are just 3 short horizontal stripes on the 'E'. wonderful indeed that she's just growing and learning new things everyday!

unlke her bro whose obsession lies in the iphone and sometimes, thomas the tank engine, zoe's madly in love with this uk childrens' series, the numberjacks. the numberjacks are ten small superhero numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 and is all about excitement, fun and learning, thinking skills, problem solving and maths.

how zoe became 'obsessed' over the series is unknown as mum still cannot fathom the 'appeal' of this programme besides it being super educational even after watching it. in any case, we have bought her the dvd series and she now watches it everyday, without fail, after school while eating her lunch. her 'obsession' has resulted in us obliging to a numberjacks birthday cake for her upcoming 4th birthday bash. we are just praying that the blogshop baker will do a super good job of it. :)

recently, mum had a chance to speak with her form teacher, ms ho who commented that she is a 'very smart girl' because each time she poses a question to zoe, she would be able to answer. plus she's also getting along fine with her friends and that she speaks in a naturally loud voice. mum is sure assured to hear that as zoe is ever so often throwing a tantrum when at home over the most minute thing these days. phew! she's reciting more names these days and is proud to tell mummy that her partner is 'no. 7, wong jiahao', the boy that she holds hands with everyday. also, seeing her fellow classmate, rebecca, drinking from a bottle without straw, she is asking that we change her bottle too! wah. at such a tender age, peer influence is already settling in...

this little girl really has a natural flair for dancing. over the past weeks, instead of ballet that she's learning when at the dance school, she's been busy rehearsing for a cny dance. mum was pretty surprised that she could already remember the steps even during the first practice! and so, this coming sunday (28 feb), she be dancing on stage with 7 other fellow baby ballet girls, at suntec. she seems to be the 'oldest of the lot' as the rest have either just turned 3 or are barely even 3! while most of them were pretty distracted during the rehearsals and wanted their mums, maids and biscuits while dancing midway, zoe was almost the only one who could finish off the entire dance! mum is secretly wishing that it would be even better if she could do a solo performance but nevertheless, the 'blunders' by the others would at least make zoe stand out from among them! haha ;p

she's really dancing pretty much everywhere she goes. take our recent cny trip up north to kl for cny visiting, for instance. after every bubble bath session (she would pretend to swim when in the bathtub!) with daddy, she would be dancing wildly under the huge rain shower to her own beat and at times, singing to her own songs. it was really funny watching her and as she catches you staring at her dance routine with wide disbelief, she would jump, shake, wiggle with hands everywhere even more! yes, that's zoe, the same zoe who likes to dance to those irritating music (read: techno and what nots) that mummy totally hates! not that she bothers...

zoe has this long tempur pillow that she must go to bed with every night when at home. and she must have totally missed her pillow while we were on vacation for when we were making our way back to singapore from kl, she actually said out loud, 'pillow! i'm coming! do you miss me? i am coming home to singapore to find you!' we think she's nutz, but that's really how much she adores that pillow of hers.

here's a lil' bit more on ethan...

14 feb 10 (valentine's day and first day of cny) was a HISTORIC day in the life of ethan. besides getting his first ever haircut at ah zhor's place, courtesy of shan shan yee yee, while watching toy story on the iphone, he had a super nasty fall which left him with a cut on his lower lip that totally freaked the parents out as they witnessed the dripping bloody red blood. thank God the bleeding stopped after ice was used to soothe the injury. thankfully, the crying stopped very soon after too. Amen!

all about ethan...

2010-02-23T18:00:00.005+08:00

these days, ethan would ever so often give a silly grin and show all his teeth each time he spots a mirror. we could just have been anywhere, the mall or even mirrors in the lift and he'll be at it again. out comes the funny grin and in fact daddy loves it so much that he makes the boy do it for him over and over again whenever ethan wants something done for him. we have coined it to be ethan's 'trademark funny grin cum cheeky face'. it's just totally adorable! he's walking everywhere now and doesn't like to be carried anymore. he'll squirm and make a fuss especially when daddy picks him up and he 'll then ask for mummy to carry him instead. it is actually all part of the boy's 'ploy' for he knows that he'll never get his way with daddy while mummy will put him down the moment he squirms in her arms, once she takes him over from daddy. yes, he's one clever boy. sometimes, he'll even walk around with his hands behind his back, sorta like a lil' supervisor. this happens even when he's just standing and watching tv.

mum thinks that the boy is a little drummer in the making. one day, he just climbed up onto the chair by the dining table, found a pair of chopsticks, and then started 'drumming' away by overturning the abalone cans and some other containers that he found lying on the table. it was such a 'spectacular' performance that we couldn't help by took a lil' video of it on the iphone. then, he was just in his own world and was drumming away, looking like a professional and oblivious to the prespiration that had formed on his head. we were sure darn proud of him! he seems to have taken an interest in playing the drums, perhaps under the influence of his drummer boy cousin, davy gor gor. now, whenever he spots a pair of chopsticks or straws lying around, he would start drumming away. regardless, mum is already contemplating whether if she should buy the toy drumming set for him or even perhaps, send him for some real lessons soon... hehehe :)

even though its been already 3 months since he started walking, he's still looking rather wobbly when he walks but that has not stopped him from slipping his tiny feet into jie jie's cinderalla shoes. yes, he loves wearing them and before you even know it, he'll be click clacking in them everywhere in the house and sometimes one would even be amazed at the speed he's walking in them! and for some strange reason, he likes to drink from his jie jie's water bottle but not his. no matter how many times we try to get him to drink, he will push the bottle away but the moment he sees that its zoe's bottle that we are giving him, he drinks and drinks. and at every opportunity he gets, he sticks zoe's toothbrush into his mouth and starts 'brushing' away. strange fellow, but perhaps he really just adore that sis of his.

he's still learning to talk and now knows the difference between 'yes' and 'no'. for now, he shakes his head vehemently whenever he doesn't want something and if he puts a finger at each ear, it means a 'yes'. real cute! perhaps he thinks that 'yes' sounds a whole lot like 'ears'. point taken.

ethan's latest obsession remains the iphone. he'll try to get hold of the phone at every available opportunity and will cry out loud the moment the phone is taken away from him. watch him navigate the iphone and you'll be amazed by how technologically savvy the kids of this generation have become. every bedtime has been turned into 'taekwando' time with mummy for he will attempt to take mummy's iphone from the remote control holder that's just next to his bed and mummy will then have to wrestle him down, back into bed again. this can happen like at least a good 5 to 7 times. he never gives up. sometimes he tries and tries and finally succeeds only because mummy has fallen asleep out of sheer tiredness! but still, the gadget will never stay in his hands for too long because the music from the games or movies that he has tuned in to would have woken mum up and that is when the 'wrestling' begins again...

p/s: as of last week, ethan no longer resists going to children's church. there was just no crying nor pulling of mummy's clothes when the teacher took him away from mummy's arms. we are just super glad that he's finally enjoying himself! Praise the Lord!

the beach, the farm, the cane marks and rotiboy!

2010-01-21T17:34:00.007+08:00

zoethan had their first beach experience on 9 jan (a day to remember!). having heard from her school principal that many kids her age hasn't yet been to the beach based on her experience from previous excursion trips with her students, mum decided that zoe's first beach experience should be that with us, THE parents, and not the school. and so even though the beach is really not THE parents' kind of destination (its last on our list of places to go!), but for the sake of the children, we decided to go.

that day, after concluding that the 'cleanest beach' in singapore had to be at sentosa, so off we went, to the tanjong beach. unfortunately, the timing was quite wrong as we arrived there at around 2pm. it was quite very hot indeed. thankfully, we found a big, unoccupied umbrella shelther and quickly decided that to be the place to begin even though the sand condition there weren't exactly the best for sandcastle building. previously, zoe would always squirm and complain whenever that little bit of sand got into her shoes, but mum is glad that she has finally overcome her initial fears about getting all dirty in the sand as she soon settled down quickly with her spades and little containers and started digging. as for ethan, he was just all dirty, grainy and wet in a matter of minutes! he was grabbing fistfuls of sand everywhere and wasn't the least afraid when daddy took him for a walk in the water along beach. he wasn't even the least bit irritated when zoe scooped some grainy seawater and poured them all over his head! that boy! perhaps he's just too little to know what getting dirty is and as for zoe, daddy made her 'drink some seawater' just so she know that it is salty.... overall, the kids had fun even though we were there for just under 45 mins, but it took us a good 25 mins to clean everyone up in the car! a second beach excursion in the pipeline? erm, well, maybe....maybe only.... hehehehhe :)

its now zoe's third week at the new school and to date, she is only able to remember 2 of her girlfriends' names. one being rebecca (mum and dad concluded that perhaps she remember her name cos her fave peppa pig cartoon has a friend called rebecca rabbit!), the one whom she always holds hands with and hashini, a lil' indian girl. as they do have mandarin lessons in school, she's also starting to speak a wee bit of funny mandarin. whenever she starts saying, 'ke lao shi zai jian' or 'ke lao shi qing zuo', daddy will be tickled pink with laughter as they always sound very 'gan-dang' with her funny pronounciation. mum is pretty pleased with her new school and especially likes that fact that the principal remembers her name and receives all her students personally at the school gate. for now, mum has turned into an avid supporter of the local public transport system for zoe goes to school via the lrt, mrt, and the bus and returns home in a taxi. this looks likely to continue until mum hones her driving skills again.

just a few days ago, mum was 'questioned' by the principal for the cane marks on zoe (and a year ago, mum was also 'questioned' by teacher peggy about her cane marks! please let this not become a 'yearly' event!). the principal soon discovered that it was due to zoe's incessant tantrums plus her rude-ness to ah gong (she told ah gong to SHUT UP!!! and ah gong was just telling and reminding her nicely not to bully the little brother of hers)! that's when mummy's volcano erupted and that was how she gained several marks on her legs, thighs and God knows where. had it not been for ah ma shielding her, the cane marks would have been much more. it was just too much. a little girl, all of 3+ and asking someone to 'shut up'??? goodness gracious and we don't even say this at home. mummy later discovered that she must have learnt to say shut up from woody of toy story who is always asking buzz lightyear to shut up. yes, they were watching toy story almost on a daily basis, during every dinnertime on daddy's iphone and never got tired of watching it. for now, toy story is BANNED till she learns to discern what is right and wrong. parents, do note that disney is not that wholesome afterall....

ethan has now been crowned 'rotiboy'. he is a rotiboy alright, he eats almost nothing much but bread and cakes everyday. oh yes, pretzels too. give him noodles or rice, sometimes he eats and sometimes he doesn't and on occasions when he does eat, it is usually about 5 mouthfuls max? but show him the bread or cake, and he will happily chomp on them and even ask for more. that is his staple food for now, besides his daily dosage of yoghurt and cheese.

this boy is really cute. every inch and ounce of him is darn cute. he now turns off the fans in the room when he awakes before proceeding to knock on the door to announce his 'awakening'. he has also learnt to somehow take out his diaper and throw them into the dustbin. he now almost picks up every strand of hair and what nots that he thinks 'shouldn't be lying on the floor' into the bin too. as he hasn't yet learnt to use the potty, he sometimes mistakes the potty as another form of 'dustbin' too cos he has been throwing zoe's rubber bands in it. he even threw a pack of brand new hairclips into the dustbin. that boy! there is just no stopping him. he has been sneaking into the toilet at ah ma's house and dipping his hands into the toilet bowl - mum thinks that he has mistaken it as yet another fountain like the ones we often see at the malls, and which he is fascinated with and loves. its just plain disgusting. he even rushed into the toilet as that sister of his was peeing and dipped his hands inside the bowl which got zoe screaming for help! so now, all toilets and room doors have to securely closed as long as ethan the terror is around.

the little big boy has also started on getting his teeth brushed. its something he enjoys and each time you tell him its time to brush his teeth, he would stop whatever he is doing immediately and gets in position by sitting very still till you finish with brushing them. he would then head enthusiastically into the toilet thereafter so that he can rinse his mouth even though he doesn't know how to spit out the water. mum has been brushing his teeth with a fingerbrush and so each time he spots zoe's toothbrush, out of curiousity, he would stick them into his mouth and starts to 'brush' them himself. and so, to satisfy his curiousity, mum has since upgraded him to a regular baby toothbrush yesterday.

at 20 months, ethan is still rather wobbly and not walking too steadily and yet, he always insists on walking and squirms super BIG time when we scoop him up in our arms, especially at crowded places. but that sister of his does the complete opposite. at 3 years and reaching 4 soon, she insists and delights in being carried at almost every available opportunity. but of course, we would refuse to indulge in her requests which would result in another tantrum from her. but its just too bad as the parents do not 'indulge' in her tantrums too. make a fuss all you want, when you have to walk, you walk! hehehehe :)

ethan has fallen twice - and that's twice in a short span of 5 days! on saturday, we headed to the kids kampong in pasir ris for some lonkang fishing. while zoe managed to catch some fish all on her own, but as it was ethan's first ever attempt at fishing, of cos he didn't manage to catch any fishes in the lonkang unless you count those fishes that he 'fished' with his net inside the bucket of fishes that mummy and zoe caught. and when he was told to feed the fishes, that boy quickly ate up the fish food by popping them in his mouth before daddy could stop him. yucks. anyways, we were finished with eating all that ice cream after the fishing when the deed happened. maybe he was tired but he suddenly fell backwards, off the backless stool that he was sitting on, and landed with a thud on the cold, hard concrete. it was pretty scary but thankfully, he didn't knock his head and for some reason, except for some slight abrasions on his leg, there weren't any obvious injury nor bruises at his back either. mum is very convinced Jesus must have cushioned his fall cos he didn't cry very much too, except for the initial shock of falling down, but he quickly calmed down once his favourite penguin was handed to him.

fast forward to 4 days later - in the wee hours of wednesday morning, ethan rolled off our bed and instead of rolling onto his toddler bed which was parked right next to ours, he landed on the floor with a thud and hit his head on the bed frame! that bed of his had somehow shifted some distance away from ours and that's how he landed on the floor! that thud and loud cries was sufficient to jolt the parents out of bed and upon checking, mum discovered a bump and a red line caused by the knock on the bed frame, on the back of his head. this time it looked really serious and so we quickly applied the annointing oil and prayed over him. by then, his crying had stopped and he was already back in lala land. it was just miraculous how he only cried for a little bit and all the while, he seemed to be more interested in going back to sleep while the parents were fussing over his head. by the next morning when he awoke, the bump was gone and the redness had subsided into just a very faint red line. God is indeed good ALL the time. mum is glad that no matter what, Jesus is always there, protecting and cushioning our every fall. Amen!

other updates for january 2010:

zoe has started her music appreciation class at yamaha and ballet classes at jody marshalls. she didn't seemed to be too interested in the music class at first, but now, it seems she is enjoying herself after listening to the songs, and playing on the castanet, handbells and electone. as for ballet, needless to say, she is having fun big time. the class is just her and another girl, bella, and both of them are enjoying having each other for company quite a bit. she is already mastering her gallops and dancing to the music of the wiggles and hi-5. even that little bro of his has mastered the actions by just looking at his sister during each dance session. its plain hilarious when you see him doing the actions.

zoethan visited the animal farm off jalan kayu just 2 saturdays ago. while zoe was busy with feeding the not too interested rabbits and guinea pigs carrots, ethan was more interested in chasing the geese and birds than anything else! he wasn't the least bit afraid of them and even waved and said hello to the animals. that funny boy! on the other hand, mum was more worried that the geese would 'retaliate' and peck at him instead. haha :)

we were listening to zoe's yamaha music cd in the car when daddy suddenly switched to listening to the radio instead. zoe was rather offended and was even more so when daddy said that the car is his and so he has a right to switch when he want to. she retorted daddy with this, 'this is not your car, this is the family car. you are so selfish!' hahaha... the things she says... daddy was just trying hard to stifle his laughter... ;p

lost and (new)found!

2010-01-07T16:39:00.003+08:00

mum and dad started off the year by heading off to catch a second midnight show (within a week!) together with aunty zhuying but as for zoethan, its really a lost and found beginning...

1 jan 2010:

ethan lost one of his beloved penguins while we were out shopping on new year's day. it must have dropped somewhere in either og orchard point or at centrepoint. calls and personal trips down to the lost and found counters of the respective shops and malls proved futile. boo hoo.... the triplets are now one down, just twin penguins left. mum seemed more upset than ah boy who was oblivious to the loss. sigh...

2 jan 2010:

birth of zoethan's new 'pet dog', ander. zoe had built ander from scratch by personally choosing him at the build-a-bear workshop @ united square. there, she stuffed him with filling, inserted a lil' (cloth) heart in him and 'showered' him when all was done. she even chose ander's shoes and put him on skates. she now has ander on a leash, complete with helmet and knee guards too. daddy says that this is the 'least we can do for her' since mum's against having any pets at home! ander (a name personally given by zoe) comes complete with a birth certificate (and a lifetime worldwide warranty against defects and repairs!) which reads like this:

date of birth: 02/01/2010
full name: ander

height: 39 centimetres
weight: 340 grams
fur colour: white

eye colour: black

belongs to: zoethan and stuffed with hugs by zoethan sheh

how's that for a stuffed pet dog? maintainence free, poo and pee free, food free, bugs free and saliva free. not too bad except that ander doesn't come cheap considering that he's not a real dog. the damage? a cool $110.30 (which explains why ander is still not 'wearing any clothes' for now). ;p

btw, ander barks too. anytime you wanna hear him, just press his neck and he'll bark, gently and nicely, unlike real dogs who bark incessantly at times...

zoe's started her nursery classes!

2010-01-06T16:52:00.005+08:00

time flies... zoe's now in nursery and its her third day at school today. as of today, parents are no longer allowed in the school compound. unlike the first 2 days, when parents were allowed in to accompany (more like pacify!) their (crying and screaming) kids and get a glimpse of what goes on daily in school. mum's definitely not worried about zoe as she adjusts easily anywhere she goes. mum is happy that she's just of those few kids who doesn't cry even though its their first day at school. not one bit. not even when she started attended playgroup last year at appletree. in fact, her teacher then commented that she's the only one who didn't cry one bit. bringing zoe to children's church every sunday since she was only 15 months old must have help her get over whatever separation anxiety there may be. she's only too happy to make new friends and start playing with them!

their day at school starts sharp at 11.30am where they begin the day by having devotion in the music room. there are a total of 6 nursery classes (namely love, joy and peace class) split over 2 sessions and there are a max of 16 students in each class - my ah girl's in joy 2. for starters, the teachers would gather in the room and request that all children stand and cup their hands together (in praying position) and sing, 'oh, how i love jesus' in both english and chinese. afterwhich, they would proceed to pray to 'bless their friends who are still crying', and the mummies and daddies whom they love. then, there would be more singing and fellowshipping (they sing songs like, 'hallelu hallelu hallelu hallelujah, praise ye the Lord', 'if you are happy and you know it', and even 'london bridge is falling down'). after all that singing, they would then wish and greet their principal and teachers 'good morning' in both english and mandarin - yes, they emphasise on bilingual education! the devotion comes to an end when the students are once again told to close their eyes and cup their hands together and sing 'thank you thank you Jesus' in both english and chinese and then ending off with an 'amen'. thereafter, they will return to their respective classes for either story telling time, music class or even food time and what nots.

the principal has assured that all food served are always 'home cooked' with chee cheong fun being the only exception. on the first day, they had waffles. yesterday, it was fish porridge and today, it was noodles. each time before food, besides heading to the toilets to wash their hands, the children would have to sing the grace song that goes like this:

thank you for the world so sweet - dum di dum,

thank you for the food we eat - yum yum,

thank you for the birds that sing ring-a-ling-a-ling,

thank you God for everything.

amen.

so cute! mum really hopes that she will enjoy her nursery classes as much as she did in appletree.

p/s: school bags aren't allowed, so their only 'luggage' would be the waterbottle and washcloth (to be kept in the pocket so that they can dry their hands after washing their hands) and perhaps, tissue paper.

the year's coming to a close...

2009-12-31T16:31:00.009+08:00

december's been the month where:

1. zoe sorta overcame her fear of the toilet flushing midway as she pees in the public toilets;

2. ethan learns and starts to throw anything and everything (be it rubbish or not!) into the bin (he threw ah gong's cordless phone down the rubbish chute on christmas day and just yesterday, his pack of anpanman snack!) and then starts feeling proud of himself for having achieved the feat;

3. zoe went for a 2 day hip hop dance holiday program, grooving along to michael jackson's songs and enrolled in baby ballet lessons beginning january 2010 at jody marshalls dance company;

4. ethan likes to take his sister's milk bottle and finishes up watever bit of milk that's left inside on the sly;

5. zoe woke up one morning with hives! she was covered in red, yucky patches everywhere from her face, her body to the arms and down to the thighs. mum was freaked out and the medicine from raffles medical didn't help much. only after visiting the dermatologist did her condition improve. the suspected cuplrit? yam cake... she now has to abstain from that and strawberries, cheese, yoghurt and seafood to play it safe.;

6. ethan's newfound 'playground' is the toilet bowl. he keeps sneeking into the toilet whenever he has the chance and throws anything he has laid his hands on into it and perhaps playing with that 'water' inside it (YUCKS!) - all toilet doors are now closed at all time for his safety's sake!;

7. ethan starts to say 'amen' when mummy says grace over his food and/or milk (he finishes the prayer by saying 'men men');

8. ethan must have his rubber duckie when showering and gets his teeth brushed for the first time on 27 dec with a fingerbrush. he kept biting mummy's finger on the first day but by the second day, he has come to realise that all he needs to do is just to sit still and open his mouth wide and not bite mummy.

9. zoethan caught many christmas shows, beginning with sesame street @ compass point, care bears @ plaza singapura, barney and friends @ united square, hi-5 @ takashimaya and spongebob @ suntec city. we missed the chance to have a photo taken with barney as mummy was no. 52 in queue for a photo pass (only 50 were being given out at any one time!), but all disappointment was made up for when the kids got to take a pic with the hi-5 gang instead.

10. zoethan attended the sso babies prom at victoria concert hall (which was quite a 'waste of money' as zoe just couldn't sit still to watch the musicians at play and choosing instead to monkey around. her scupltured ballon captured her attention more than the orchestra did. thankfully, ethan seems a lil' more appreciative, but could only sit still while munching on cheerios. so much for trying to be 'cultured'. tink we'll give this all time sell-out babies prom a miss next year!) and the farmer, fox, bird and the cookie plus other stories with tick, tack and tock by act 3 theatrics at the esplanade recital studio. it was a play about caring and sharing ONE delicious cookie, plus learning about how a whole can be split into halves and quarters and how a little thirsty sparrow learnt to raise the water level in a jug by throwing in some stones so that he can drink from it. at least, this play caught the kids' attention more and was fairly entertaining enough.

11. zoethan went crazy over the iphone. ethan's wake up activity now is to stretch his hands into the remote control pouch (where mummy keeps the iphone at night) over our bedframe and next to his lil' bed to look for the iphone. he does the same thing before bedtime. even when its time for milk, the moment he spots the phone 'sprawling on the bed', its iphone over milk at all times. goodness. mum is amazed by how he has learnt to unlock the phone (no one showed him!) and navigate the pages to play the games in it. goodness gracious! anytime the 2 of them is throwing a tantrum, only the iphone can calm them down. kids these days.... we are at a loss for words...

time flies... the holidays are almost over and school's starting next year. for 2010, here's praying that zoe will be blessed with a good teacher and enjoy her nursery classes at sengkang methodist church as much as she did at apple tree, mummy will master her driving soon so that she can send zoe to school, daddy will continue to enjoy and excel at his new workplace, zoethan will be strong and healthy at all times, and we will get the new place at dawson! AMEN! Praise The Lord! :)

Hallelujah!

2009-12-06T09:02:00.004+08:00

while travelling on the kpe on thursday nite, daddy remarked that our car was a much better car than that ferrari that was travelling right in front of us 'because we have Jesus in the car', zoe immediately 'corrected' daddy and said,

'no..o.oo.ooooo...! Jesus is not in your car! Jesus is in your heart!'

WOW! rock kidz has really done a great job! Amen!

some updates from long, long and not too long ago...

2009-12-03T01:59:00.009+08:00

these days, zoe has been the person in charge of pressing all the lift buttons, wherever we go, so long as she can reach the buttons. sometime in october, as usual, she had pressed the button and when the doors opened, she gamely went in and pressed the '4th' storey, thinking that mummy and ah ma would follow her in soon after. but alas, it ended up a trip that she would never forget! that very day, we were slower than before in going into the lift and very soon, the lift door closed with zoe alone inside while mummy and ah ma were still attempting to bring all our things to the lift lobby! apparently, she was tall enough to press for the 4th storey, but not that tall enough to reach the 'doors open' button! we could only hear her loud screams for mummy as the lift went up to the 4th storey. though it was only a short 10 to 20 seconds lift ride, it was enough to traumatise that poor girl who just couldn't stop screaming and crying thereafter. ever since then, she seems to have developed a phobia of entering into any lifts by herself first.

3 weeks prior to her graduation, zoe fell from the little chair in school (cos she just can't sit still!) and as she landed (face down), she attempted to cushion her fall and in the process, sorta twisted a lil' bone in her elbows. according to her teacher, she was crying super loudly and bitterly (the worst kind of crying she ever did in school) in pain and was going round asking all her friends to sayang her. thankfully, her friends rallied around her, tried comforting her and with one even suggesting, 'go see the doctor!' that entire day, she refused for anyone to touch or go near that arm or even bend it a little cos the slightest movement would have her screaming in pain and the tears would start flowing again. it was her right arm that she injured and that pain was 'severe' enough to stop her from sucking her beloved fingers that day. throughout that day, mum and ah ma was secretly bending her arms a little to sorta check when she got distracted by the tv and to our surprise, it garnered little or almost no reaction from her at all! meaning, perhaps she was just a lil' too 'traumatised' by her fall and had so 'imagined' the 'severe pain'. we put off seeing the doctor till after dinner and dessert when we brought her to the childrens' a&e dept at kkh. the doctor felt for her elbow and in no time, sorta twisted back a joint which had indeed been disclocated. a quick xray revealed that everything was now back in place but still, her tears continued to flow and she was still claiming to be very much in pain. she only stopped crying when the doc distracted her with sweets and we all came to the conclusion that perhaps, she really was just traumatised by the incident. that very night, upon reaching home, those fingers were once again back in the mouth. yeah, that is a SURE sign that everything was back to normal again. thank God! :)

many things have happened over the past month. for starters, we have been bringing the kids to the playgym, one located at the delta sports complex, and the other at dempsey hill. while one is affordable and the other slightly pricier, but nevertheless, regardless of the location, both of them enjoyed themselves thoroughly, especially at the ball pit! zoe simply loves throwing herself into the pit and at times, hiding underneath all those balls and playing peek-a-boo while ethan would just watch, attempt to throw a few balls and laugh in glee! our other favourite destination would be the rainforest kidzworld at the singapore zoo. yes, we head there not to see the animals, but to simply play and have fun at the water play area which is really well, simply put, good, clean fun.

the past month was a month where zoe:

resumed her finger sucking (BIG TIME!) much to the irritance of mummy;

started her dance classes (dancepointe creative movements) at sengkang cc for kids 3 to 5 (her teacher seems to be teaching the kids how to do 'animal dances'; for she came home demonstrating her moves, which included zoo animals, and then, dancing like a crab side to side with her fingers moving like pincers, putting together imaginary seashells and threading them into a necklace and as of last week, she came back with a shark and whale dance. mum wonders what other animals are up next! ;p);

was enrolled into a yamaha music wonderland course (which would only begin in january 2010) that will help 'curious minds expand their imagination and creativity by putting together what they have learned through music. mum prays that it will help stir her interest in some musical instruments and already, she's looking very forward to it;

watched a play 'swimmy, frederick, and inch by inch' at the victoria theatre. the 3 stories were based on picture books by leo lionni, presented by act 3 and performed by thespians from the mermaid theatre of nova scotia, canada. its really a play where the author's intelligent little fish, poetic mouse and loveable inchworm characters come alive on stage. totally interesting, just like the 'very hungry caterpillar' play which we caught a year ago by the same people;

completed a 40 pcs large sunny town puzzle on her own (almost!) - a feat, considering that previously, she wouldn't even have the patience to complete a 12 pc puzzle, let alone a 40 pcs puzzle!;

irritated the s**t out of mummy by counting the number of words with her fingers when mummy screamed at her, 'you are driving me mad!' out her fingers would come one by one and then she would repeat slowly, 'you are driving me mad - 5 words' and then give me a wide grin! mum really dunno whether to get madder or just laugh! that girl!;

posed like a princess non-stop each time when asked to take a pic. she had been super inspired by the 3 princesses (cinderalla, snow white and sleeping beauty) that she had taken pics with earlier on at hkg disneyland who kept doing the put your hands together, put it right next to the face and with a slight tilt of the body pose. she is now into the disney princess phase, ever prancing around the house with her new cinderalla glass slippers, princess wand and tiara. with a wave of her wand, she said, 'mummy, i am going to turn you into a queen', and to ethan, she told him, 'i am going to turn you into a man.' hahahahahhaa ;p

said many more things which you sometimes won't believe would come from a lil' 3 year old.

example one: 2 weeks ago, while at the woodlands checkpoint, we discovered that a blur ah ma had taken along ah gong's passport instead of her own and so, we were 'detained' at the customs quite a while, with only zoe, ethan, mummy and yee yee waiting in the car. when she discovered why we were waiting in the car for the longest time, and upon ah ma's return from the customs' office, she chided ah ma, 'silly ah ma, why you bring ah gong's passport and never bring your own passport.' and that ah ma just couldn't stop laughing...

example two: mummy, ah ma and zoe was in the lift and the door was about to close when a guy pressed the button and rushed into the lift. almost immediately, zoe said, 'sickening, why he press the lift door open?' mum almost fainted on the spot cos that guy could hear her, loud and clear, only, he pretended not to notice. after regaining composure, mum quickly chided her for saying that and that its wrong of her to say that but deep down, mum knows, yes, she learnt that word from mummy, but honestly, the word is only used on her when she drives mum really mad! oops!

example three: when mum is upset at something (it could well be her!) or in pain, she would console and say in a really empathetic tone, 'its okay, mummy, its okay, dun be scared / upset, while stroking her hands gently on mum's body (and sometimes kissing mum gently too!). just now, on seeing that mum was in severe pain after she had ridden her scooter right over mum's toes, she once again sayang-ed mum and said, 'sorry mum. are you okay? is it painful? its okay, dun be scared, i ask Jesus to take the pain away' afterwhich she proceeded to pray, 'Jesus, please take the pain away. thank you Jesus. Amen.' well, at least mum is happy that zoe has learnt to put her trust in Jesus. Hallelujah!

example four: the other day, zoe suddenly blurted out, 'i'm fed up!' out of the blue when she got upset over something. or she would just scream, 'that's not fair!' and earlier on, she made daddy apologise to her for not replying her when she asked him something. when daddy replied nonchalant-ly while looking straight, she said, 'look at me when you say sorry!!!' ;p

example five: zoe says 'whow come' instead of 'how come' and copies peppa pig's trademark sentences by saying, 'this is the best day ever!' or 'this is the best cake ever!'

november was also the month when zoethan:

became proud members of the national library board (or maybe late october?);

became obsessed with the iphone. zoe's first words to daddy upon waking up would be, 'daddy, can i have your iphone?' and all other times, when in the car, before she goes to bed, whenever and wherever. within a week, she has figured her way out on the games and playing the games even better than daddy or mummy. while ethan just loves playing on the touchscreen and watches movies which daddy has downloaded and what nots. both would cry out loud when the phone is taken away. mum is plain irritated with the phone and has now set limits on the use of the phone by the kids.

has to eat with the portable dvd player in front of them during mealtimes when we are out. mummy and daddy has resorted to the use of every available media in exchange for a peaceful meal. besides the dvd player, it could be video recordings on mummy's good old nokia, jim jam from starhub cable on daddy's mobile phone, video recordings from the camera, and now, movies from the wretched iphone. without them, mealtimes would be a struggle with ethan attempting to wriggle out of the high chair ever so often, climbing onto the table and fiddling with all available utensils, and zoe attempting to follow him or just circling round the table. yes, we agree, its a bad habit that we have instilled in the children but seriously, we are at our wits end! both kids need to be fed and we too need to eat without having to gobble down our food!

watched sesame street and care bears 'live' at compass point and plaza singapura as part of the christmas promo by the respective malls. it was ethan's first time seeing the characters from sesame street come alive and he was just watching in awe throughout the 20 mins showtime while the care bears show was really a first for the both of them. the care bears show left zoe crying and screaming when she realised that she didn't have a chance to take pictures with the inproportionate looking care bears (their oh too slim bodies definitely didn't look too good on the 3 big headed funshine, love-a-lot and share bear).

some other updates on ethan:

these days, the cute little boy would wake up crying the moment he discovers that mummy is not right next to him in bed. previously, whenever he awakes, he would simply 'chill out' on the bed while sucking his fingers till he decides that its time to make some noise or call out to mama by banging his tiny fists on the door (cos its closed most of the time). perhaps its really daddy and mummy's fault for sneaking out for short trips to buy breakfast after sending zoe to school and leaving him sleeping alone at home. most of the times, he wouldn't wake up till 12pm and so we would make sure that we be back by then if we sneaked out. but on 2 occasions, he was well awake (and had discovered that he was home alone) by the time we got home and since then, he seems to have developed a phobia. now, he wakes up earlier than before, maybe at 10am, starts crying for mama if mummy is not next to him, goes back to sleep after being pacified and wakes up again every half hour or so in tears again. ok, lesson learnt, he will never be left home alone again, until, well, he's a much bigger boy.

his new nickname is now 'mr bei leh go' (hokkien) aka mr sticky or mr glutinous rice cos he sticks to mummy like one and mummy cannot walk away without him, even if it is just a short trip to the toilet when we are outside. each time he sees mum walking away, he would cry and the crying would only stop when mum carries him back into her arms again. that boy... much as mum loves the attention that she's getting but at the same time, mum wishes that it would be a phase that he will get over soon. he has to grow up, right?

think ethan is obsessed with penguins. apart from his beloved, cannot leave home without and go to bed without favourite penguin, each time he spots one, be it a toy or penguins on a book, he would get all excited and start to point and call out, 'bah! bah! bah!' its as though he has met his really close friend! while at the pd for an injection last week, mum had brought along his penguin just in case he needed 'comfort from the needle' but apparently, it was in vain as that brave boy didn't even screamed nor cried one bit when the needle went in. his only reaction was to move his thighs to just 'get out of the situation'. mum is happy that he is really strong, just like his name.

p/s: he is now walking much more steadily, its his 2nd official walking week, though at times, he still walks like a drunkard, wobbling from side to side...

Ethan's all GROWN UP!

2009-11-25T17:11:00.004+08:00

mummy's lil' ethan has embarked on his next stage in life - the lil' big boy is now walking! he's now taking many many big, albeit wobbly, steps on his own! over the past 2 weeks or so, he could walk only about 5 steps before he would fall, but yesterday, while we were at the library, he started taking many more steps, often falling, but he was able to pick himself up pretty quickly before continuing on his 'journey'! he himself seemed to be pretty pleased with this new feat for as he was walking, he was just shrieking non-stop, while everyone else at the library was just staring at him and wondering why the mummy cannot 'quietened' the boy down. he was plain excited at this new achievement and the moment he was scooped up into mummy's arms, he protested non-stop while squirming his way down. nothing can stop him! anyways, mummy is really happy, perhaps the days of putting him in the baby carrier are coming to an end - finally! :)

and now that he is growing up, he has somewhat morphed into a fussy eater. he seems to have stepped into his sister's old shoes. these days, zoe is less fussy and her appetite has grown, downing anything from hamburgers to spaghetti (items which she wouldn't go near previously) while the boy is just well, plain annoying. give him anything and he will shrug his shoulders, shoo you away with his hands or simply turn his head away each time the food is anywhere near his mouth. even if he does eat, he will take only a maximum of maybe, 5 mouthfuls, before he starts to spit out whatever is in his mouth. that's his way of indicating, 'i've had enough!' any further attempts to put food in his mouth will only be met with more resistance and rejection. even if you do successfully manage to 'force-feed' him, he will simply spit it out. these days however, if he is interested in the food that's placed in front of him, he will attempt to self-feed. mealtimes now are a really messy affair, but at least he eats. and just watch his eyes light up each time that bottle of yakult is dangled in front of him. that boy! God help mummy...

he has now built up a mini repertoire of words, his favourite still being 'bah!' (for everything and anything), ball, dog, duck. he can moo when he sees pictures of cow, meows when he spots a cat and goes, 'cheet cheet cheet' when he sees a bird. and oh, he can say 'papa' really well, even when asked to say 'mama', he just goes 'papa'. you wouldn't hear him call 'mama' unless he's feeling really tired and wants to drink milk or wants mummy to give hug him. sigh... its just papa, papa all the time and of cos that daddy of his just darn proud of it. sometimes when he spots ah ma from afar, he will point excitedly and call out, ma! ma! and when he spots yvonne yee yee, he will just go 'pak!', for yvonne yee yee always plays a 'pak' game with him and so he associates yee yee with pak! and if he wants to drink milk, he will tug at mummy's top and goes 'bah! till he gets what he wants.

ethan is now a really cheeky boy who loves to 'slap' you awake if he discovers you lying down with eyes closed. daddy himself has already been a 'victim' of his for too many a times. he just loves imitating the boy in the supor rice cooker commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogKeX1RI4E) and each time the ad comes on, he would grin and cover his mouth with both hands in anticipation. tiger beer's 'last tiger' commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw2EvrGgmp8) is another ad that would get him and zoe all excited. both of them will grin and throw their hands up in the air as the characters slowly morphed from human to muscle man and ape to tarzan and robot and back to a women. it really is a funny thing just watching the both of them and their crazy antics. ;p

he's now all of 18 months and has started to experience the 'magic' of 'mr spatula'. he seems to have developed a 'fondness' for throwing things and so now, mummy has started to discipline him with mr spatula, zoe's 'ex-best friend'. he now gets 'piaked' on his hands each time he throws something on purpose. previously, he wasn't afraid but now, when he sees mummy lifting mr spatty high up, he will clench up his fists so that mummy can't piak him. each time he does something naughty, mummy will warn him by saying, 'da da' ('beat beat' in english) and so now, he seems to like to recite 'da da' too when mummy wants to discipline him. that silly billy boy really thinks that this is just a fun game that we are playing with him. the boy now has a bedtime routine too. the moment the lights are turned off, he will go 'emmmmm' till he finally plants a kiss on your lips. then, he will attempt to do some somersaults before lying down on his lil' bed (which is right next to daddy and mummy's bed). and as he lies on his bed, he will attempt to throw his darling penguin off the bed and then call out for 'bah!' till you pick it up for him. shortly after, he will try out his somersaults again before crawling back from his bed back to mummy's chest and then back again in his bed before he finally decides its time to 'call it a night' and lie quietly down to sleep. it sure is tiring putting him to bed!

the other funny 'habit' practised by ethan now is that he frequently 'pinches food' off posters he sees and then feeds you before he puts up both fingers (while bobbing up and down) and declares it 'yummy!' on your behalf. he's at it the moment we step into mcdonalds and even as we go past food posters while on the travellators. its just really funny. these days, he loves lying down on the floor and just rolling about and just lying flat on his tummy while watching tv. his favorite item at the playground is really the slide. he's getting good at sliding down and most of the time, he does it face down, just sliding down on his tummy! he is really daddy and mummy's lil cutie and we really love him to bits!

zoe's now a graduate...

2009-11-20T16:53:00.003+08:00

yes, the little girl is now all grown up. she's now a graduate from apple tree playgroup. today's graduation day and together with her classmates, they performed a total of 3 songs and a lil' dance to twist and shake. though we could hardly make out what they were singing, but mummy thinks that all the parents most certainly enjoyed watching their lil' ones sing, dance and simply have fun with their friends. their graduation certs were handed out and there was plenty of food, fun and photo taking indeed. in between giving hugs to teacher peggy and singing the birthday song to 3 of their friends, the children just went amok chasing each other round and round the classroom. mummy wonders if they know that this could be the last time that they be seeing their friends from this playgroup.

when asked earlier in the morning if she would miss her friends from apple tree, zoe blurted out 'no'. and when asked if she's upset that she might not see them again, she merely replied no cos there be new friends and teachers (at her new school). hahahaha :) perhaps she's too little to understand what that means but mum thinks that's because she's raring to go her new school at sengkang methodist church next year. she has been going on and on about putting on her new orange uniform and white shoes and has been asking when she be heading there. think she just can't wait to make new friends too. these days, she has friends from everywhere. even kids she meets at the playground for a mere 5 or 10 minutes are friends too (despite not knowing their names). even if the kids at the playground do not reciprocate, she makes sure she says bye to every kid that leaves the playground before her and that she says her goodbyes to whatever kids that are remaining when its time to go too. that's mummy's lil' zoe :)

post-hong kong (again!)

2009-11-12T17:29:00.007+08:00

just got back from hong kong on sunday, our 2nd trip to shopping land this year. it was a rush rush trip, coupled with last minute bookings and packing and what not, all because daddy was starting his new job this week (on a last minute notice!). hotel and airline bookings were made last saturday and barely 3 days later, we were off, to mummy's favourite asia destination. :)

kids were woken up, bright and early in the wee hours of 3rd november so that we could catch the 6.40am flight. just as we went past the departure gate, zoe remarked, 'why nobody to say bye bye to us?, which was really funny as most of the time, it was always us sending someone else into the departure gate and waving bye bye to them. that girl sure can remember the most minute details of every moment! the flight to hong kong was packed and thank goodness, we were given the priority to board first. the flight wasn't exactly a breeze as ethan was definitely more squirmy than his last plane trip. legroom was cramped and all 4 of us were cramped into 3 seats. the kids only sat still when we finally played 'peppa pig' on that all too important portable dvd player that we had brought along. thank God all of us fell asleep shortly till we landed in hong kong.

day one (tues): we stayed at the cityview hotel in yaumatei this time round and unlike the boutique hotel that we stayed in the last round, this was heaven, in terms of space. this was a regular hotel room size with room to move around and even to place a baby cot (where we could 'locked' ethan in!). the mtr is only 2 minutes away and we are just a 5 minutes walk away from mongkok, one of our favourite toy haven. spent the remaining day shopping in the new town centre in shatin as the kids zonked off to lala land, one in the stroller and the other, well, on mummy's chest in the baby carrier.

day two (wed): we were off to the kids' favourite destination, the hongkong disneyland. saved on tickets for the kids as we pretended that zoe was not yet 3 (so that she could gain free entry!). disneyland was totally uncrowded as the waiting times for most rides were were well under 10 minutes. even photo shoots with the characters were a breeze, the characters were just there, with a queue of under 10 paxs. in fact, mickey was waiting for us to take a picture with him and not the other way round, which was usually the case. we had photos taken with most of the characters, mickey, minnie, goofy, pooh, pluto, snow white, cinderella, sleeping beauty, and buzz lightyear. donald was nowhere in sight. we spent most of our time in fantasyland, bringing the kids to all available kiddish rides like dumbo, the flying elephant, cinderella carousel, mad hatter tea cups, the many adventures of winnie the pooh and its a small world. the kids even had a sculptured mickey and minnie ballon fashioned by the disneyland balloonist. this time, we managed to catch disney on parade, the hsm LIVE show and festival of the lion king as well. while we initially thought we could leave disneyland by mid afternoon like our last trip, we ended up leaving only when the fireworks display was over. it was spectacular but by then, zoe was fast asleep in the stroller and missing out on the fireworks while ethan had only just woken up from one of his many naps of that day. yes, the kids were super tired and zonked out. ended the day at sogo in causeway bay where we had dinner.

day three (thurs): yet another sightseeing day. headed straight to lantau island for the ngong ping cable car. had an entire crystal cabin (with glass bottom) to ourselves as most of the other tourists sat in on the regular cabins which was fairly cheaper. it was a pretty fun experience to see everything else at the bottom. ethan was just crawling around and at times sprawled out on the floor with his mouth plastered (spells y.u.c.k.y!) to the glass floor while zoe was just goofying around. it was there that the kids had their first hand experience in getting their diapers changed mid-air with the trees and shrubs staring up at them. hahaha :) after the trip, we had some shopping done at the citygate outlets in tung chung before we headed off to our next shopping destination at tsimshatsui. here, mummy went crazy shopping at h&m where it was bargains aplenty. with prices likes these, mum wonders why anyone would even want to shop at giordano or bossini. yes, the items were fairly cheap, fun and fashionable as compared to shopping back home. after dinner at food republic, we were off to harbour city for more shopping and it was almost 10pm before we took the star ferry to central as we headed up to the peak to soak in the sights. it was the kids' first experience in taking the tram ride up the peak and they most certainly enjoyed it. by the time we reached the hotel, it was close to midnight. yes, it was most certainly another tiring day.

day four (fri): finally had some good ole' hong kong style dim sum in a restaurant at tsimshatsui. the waitresses were all fascinated by the portable dvd player that we had brought along to keep the kids rooted to their seats so that we could eat in peace. unfortunately, dora the explorer didn't quite capture their attention and it was exasperating just to eat, while preventing the boy from messing around the table and zoe, who was likewise. tip no. 1 - when bringing along a dvd player, bring along only the kids' tried and tested favourite dvds (at ALL times!). any attempts to diversify will only result in a torturous mealtime for both parents. sigh! not too long after dim sum, zoe once again asked to nap in her stroller as we headed off to wanchai for some toy hunting. it was a pretty fruitful trip as mummy managed to fish out quite a bit of anpanman merchandise at reasonable prices. happy is the word. we left wanchai with zoe still sleeping soundly in lala land. as mummy was still drooling over h&m, we then headed off to festival walk mall in kowloon tong and central for more shopping at h&m. dinner was at a teeny roasted delights stall in central recommended by 8days which was quite ok though not exactly fantastic. continued with more shopping at ladies' market in mongkok before we finally called it a nite... (mummy bought tons of cute cookie cutters!) and as usual, zoe slept like a log throughout...

day five (sat): the final shopping day. headed off to jusco at the wonderful worlds of whampoa for more shopping. was looking for cute jap clothings for the kids but alas, due to the season, everything else was either in long sleeves or of super thick material. after lunch at the yummy cafe de coral, we then adjourned to grand century place to satisfy daddy's cravings for egg tarts from the famous tai cheong bakery. pure satisfaction it was indeed. just like mummy's fave lao po bing from the famous hang heung bakery which was something else not to be missed. grabbed 2 boxes from its mongkok outlet before hitting the malls there for more anpanman collectibles. ended up empty handed as the items were really way too pricey plus the shops were too packed and cramped for us and the kids. left mongkok shortly for our final touristy sight - the avenue of stars. thot the kids would be interested in seeing the lighting show but they were non too excited when it started. ethan showed more interest in watching the planes zooming by while zoe was just well, fooling around and prancing to the music. the show certainly didn't seem as interesting as 2 years ago, which was when we first caught it. we finally ended our shopping trip with a visit to the city super supermarket in harbour city and h&m (again!).

day six (sun): non-stop packing from the moment the kids hit the bed till the wee hours of the morning. once again, the kids have proven to be the greatest beneficiaries of this trip (clothes? checked. toys? checked. more toys? checked. shoes? 6 pairs in between the 2 of them. checked. accessories? checked.) poor daddy, besides his chelsea jersey, the only other 'gift' he got was a huge blood blister clot (and not forgetting his super clumsy backward fall from the chair at food republic which had us laughing non-stop!) from our non stop walking over the past days. he claims that his feet and his shoes have since become one, fast stuck on each other while mummy's gift was a pair of flip flops and a bleeding cracked toe. regardless!!! hong kong, we'll be back for more!!! :)

jus a lil' bit more updates...

2009-10-12T12:21:00.005+08:00

we spent mid-autumn festival one week ago at the park in sengkang at (9plus pm!), while munching our mega mcspicy burger and french fries with the kids. the kids were happily chomping on fries while the battery-operated buttercup (character from powerpuff girls) lantern was lighted up and playing to the tune of 'its a small world' while the barney lantern was playing some cheena obiang music. there were many other families there too and to mummy's surprise, most of the kids were holding on to those traditional candle-lited lanterns. some were playing with fire sparklers while many others were just 'decorating' (more like littering!) the ground with candles which fascinated zoe quite a bit. however, what captivated us most (and everyone else around!) was this uncle who had specially brought back those big 'float up to the sky' lanterns from china and there he was, just lighting them one after the other and sending them up to the sky... the day before mid autumn festival, zoe brought home a mini green snowskin mooncake that she had made in school. instead of lotus paste filling, it was raisins. though the mooncake was a tad too hard, but mummy still loves it cos its handmade with love...

brought the kids to the zoo on children's day where they had yet another splashin' good time at the kidz rainforest world. while mummy was guarding the bags under the hot sun. this is indeed the highlight of the zoo trip (and not any of the animals!) unless you count in the elephant ride which was a bargain at $8 for mummy, zoe and ethan! the ride itself was a little scary as the elephant was just so huge and it feels as though we were just wobbling from side to side. nevertheless, the kids did enjoy the ride and so did mummy.

nowadays, zoe is back at sucking at fingers, just that she does it more discreetly than ever. she'll either be hiding under the blanky, or her pillow and when she's caught red-handed, she tells you that she's really just checking her teeth and not sucking her fingers. gosh, when will she ever quit those fingers! apart from sucking, she sometimes bites her nails too, so mum has now resorted to painting all 10 of her fingers with that horrible nail polish but it seems that she's now less resistant to the nail polish as she's been caught with fingers in her mouth not too many hours later. sigh....

just like his jie jie, ethan now attends children's church on sundays while daddy and mummy goes for the main service elsewhere in suntec. he had his first experience on 4 october and he didn't even bat an eyelid when mum walked away after dropping him off. as he is still not walking, he is thus being placed together with other crawling kids that are slightly younger than him. by the end of the session, the teacher was convinced that he had enjoyed himself quite a bit while in there and mum is happy too. he's now coming to 17 months and mum is just praying that the boy will take his first few steps very soon. at least, since mid september, he has been taking standing showers (without support!) and mum hopes that he will make the leap of faith in due time. just can't wait to see him run!

p/s: lately, zoe's been intrigued with all the red signs that she spots on the roads or at the malls, she's been asking what they mean and each time she spots one, she will stop and then start to read: 'no smoking', 'no dogs' and not 'food and drinks'. hahahahahaha :)

all things zoe...

2009-10-08T16:58:00.005+08:00

these days, zoe is doodling quite a bit. i dunno who taught her, but now she has started to draw stick figures, complete with hair, eyes, mouth, body, hands and legs and they are really cute! mum has laminated some of the drawings and for the very first time, she did a simple birthday card for aunty zhuying - a simple pic of the sun, herself, aunty zhuying, a black patch that she says is her home and another black patch that she said was the shopping centre. along with the card was a birthday cake that she had personally decorated (plus a wee bit of help from mummy) from barney.com and aunty zhuying just love it to bits, even declaring that it was her best birthday present ever! now, she likes to sit at her favourite spot at the dining table and armed with her crayons, she'll start drawing on the drawing block whatever comes to her mind even though sometimes you really dunno what she is drawing. but just ask her and she'll start naming all the 'patches' and 'shapes' and 'lines' that are drawn on the paper and she'll rattle on, this is the sea, the shopping centre, the fountain, the grass, the trees, the lollipop flower and the list goes on... 2 days ago, while drawing a rainbow, she was just singing aloud, 'red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue, i can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too', as if to remind herself of the colours of the rainbow as she was drawing it. cute! her teacher peggy has said that she is just one of the 3 students in the class (out of 14) to be able to draw. yes, mum is sure proud of her... oh, her drawings are very 'healthy' too, for there's always daddy, mummy, ethan and herself in it. these days, it seems ah ma is also always in her pictures!

in just a week and a half, zoe has mastered singing the chorus of a chinese christian song that she first heard at the mid-autumn festival concert in church. we have been playing the cd in the car and she always asks for that song to be repeated over and over again so that she can sing it non-stop. though her pronunciation isn't accurate sometimes and her mandarin is very 'gan-dang (i.e. mandarin with angmo slang)', but she has managed to grasp the so-called lyrics merely by listening to it over and over again. she asks that you not sing along to the song and then she'll start to sing it out, clear and loud. its definitely a job well done! last week, she suddenly belted out a hokkien number while in school that made both teacher peggy and aunty christina laughed. she had learnt to sing the chorus of that soapy taiwan drama 'ai' on tv after having watched it numerous times together with ah ma. that girl is really singing quite a bit. now she's sorta trying to sing along to the theme song of the hkg drama, 'moonlight resonance', yes, in cantonese! this is what you call music without boundaries... hhahahaha :)

last week, zoe was once again treating the bed like a trampoline when she fell and hit her upper gums on the headboard of her little bed. it was scary as she started holding her mouth in pain and when mummy checked, it was just bleeding profusely. we made her rinse her mouth and every mouthful of water that was spat out was just fresh red. the blood just kept flowing till we finally managed to stop it by pressing the wet tissue on her gums. she got scared and then decided that she wasn't gonna jump on the bed again but alas, in just a few short days, the jumping has resumed. mum is pek chek.

now, her pet phrase is, 'i don't want, i don't want', whenever things dun go her way. she makes a big ruckus and starts showing her tantrums and throws whatever thats within sight. sometimes, the fuss could be over the slightest thing such as not being able to eat her m&ms chocolates now or not being able to pick up something that she has dropped on the car floor as she is being belted up or even sleeping with the fan instead of the aircon. that girl, when she wants something, she wants it now. waiting is not in her vocabulary, not even for 3 minutes. but this is not something that mummy bothers with as mummy firmly believes in the 'principle' handed down by shan shan yee, 'no audience, no performance'. so after having explained the reason why she has to wait and if she still refuses to listen, mummy will just let her be and then totally ignore her till she 'comes to her senses'. her teacher peggy has been reminding her not to throw a tantrum and lie down or sit on the floor when she is outside and she has also promised not to do so. so yesterday, when her teacher was reminding her of it yet again and telling her that daddy and mummy will call and tell her (teacher peggy) if she does so, she actually retorted, 'you dun have to ask my daddy and mummy because i will not do it again.' wah, is teacher sure impressed by what she said. mum is too and i hope that she keeps her promise on this.

updates on zoethan...

2009-09-11T17:01:00.004+08:00

just got back from yet another road trip to kl yesterday since its' ah girl's one week break from school. we have been eating and shopping (what else?!) and we went swimming 3 straight days in a row (zoe used her new circular float for the very first time which left her with legs dangling in the water. she was initially scared out of her wits and was just screaming and crying to be hugged while demanding that we put her back in her tweety float so that she could just sit snugly in it. however, she quickly overcame all of that and was soon enjoying the freedom of being able to just kick and splash everywhere. as for ethan, he was just happily swimming around on his own and splashing about when all he had on was his neck float). we also managed to catch the movie 'UP' too. 3 tickets at a darn cheap price of s$10 at cathay cineleisure. and another s$2 for popcorn. it was a real good bargain. however, ah girl cried each time the sound system proved too powerful for her ears while the boy was just happily climbing around the seats in the near empty cinema. but well, overall, it was still a good trip.

ethan is now almost 16 months but he's still not walking. each time we try to get him to walk, he will just sink to the ground after maybe, 3 steps? he's already well capable of standing on his own quite a bit but he just refuses to walk. instead he chooses to crawl, and at record speed indeed, especially when he knows that we are chasing after him. sigh... having said that, his legs are just like one of the 'ufo toy catcher' machines at the game arcades. he can 'kiap' his beloved penguin or anything he wants with almost perfect accuracy and this is even when he's still groggy from having being just woken up to nurse. just 3 weeks ago, we took him for yet another jab at the pd and the boy didn't cry nor bat his eyelids one bit even when the needle went in. the pd herself was surprised at ah boy's 'no reaction' as this particular jab was supposed to be one that hurts the most compared to the other jabs. he's just one brave boy! due to his bout of fever that caused him to reject almost all his foods for a few days well over a month ago, his weight hasn't increased since his last visit to the pd. he's currently still under 10kg and quite a few folks have already commented that he's lost weight and that his tummy is no more as big. thank God that now, he's back to his greedy self, always wanting to eat whatever you eat. as long as he sees food in front of him and even while shopping in the supermarkets, so long as we are at the food dept, he will once again put his hands together to sign for 'more more'. yes, that's his way of telling you that he wants food!

his favourite word now seems to be 'baa' or 'beh' for each time he spots barney, dora the explorer, peppa pig or thomas the train, he will get all excited and then starts pointing while exclaiming 'beh!' and for now, his favourite song seems to be 'twinkle twinkle little star'. each time mummy sings to him, he will interrupt the singing and instead gesture for mummy to sing twinkle star by opening and closing his palms (to signal 'star') or by making a diamond using his fingers. this really is something that he does each time without fail. he can be one darn cheeky boy too. sometimes, as he is nursing, he will bite mummy's breast (gently!) to 'test water' and if mummy has no reaction, he will bite a little harder and then looks at mummy immediately while giving that super cheeky grin of his, followed by a chuckle when mummy pretends to be mad at him. the little cheeky really thinks its fun and he just enjoys doing it!

coming back to that jie jie of his, its been a while since she sucked her fingers 'full-time'. she sometimes sucks fingers on the sly by asking for the blankey when in bed, but instead, proceeds to hide under the covers and then does the deed. its now more like a part-time thingy that she does now. it happens sometimes when she's sleeping mid-way and unintentionally, the fingers goes into auto-pilot mode and there you have it, its there in the mouth. otherwise, when she's throwing a tantrum or upset especially when mummy has confiscated her beloved pillow for being naughty, in goes those 2 fingers into her mouth again. as a result of these incidents, mummy has thus resorted to painting her nails with that awful tasting nail polish every nite before bedtime. she now thinks its funny cos after mummy has applied them, she will immediately stick those fingers into daddy's mouth in an attempt to get him to 'try them'. c.h.e.e.k.y... and p.o.o.r. d.a.d.d.y...

she's now almost 3 and a half and she's still good at driving mummy super mad and up the wall. now, each time before we go shopping and especially before we hit the toy department, she has to recite this, 'when's its time to go, we go. no tantrums, no whining, no screaming, no yelling and no shouting.' she's now well versed in this 'motto' that mummy has coined for her and although it sounds like a broken record at times, but hey, this seems to work, well, at least 75% of the time. she wil leave the toy dept happy and will then exclaim proudly, 'see, i never throw a tantrum.' we sure hope that it stays that way. talking about shopping, we were shopping in kl that day when she insisted on trying 2 of those kiddo heels (read: UGLY) that she spotted at the childrens' shoe dept. the little vain girl than happily pranced around in them and said, 'see? i want to kok kok kok (referring to the sound that the shoes make when she walks around in them)'. vain... or maybe, she's just growing up. oh yes, sometimes, she proceeds to use her toy make-up kit and applies it 'professionally' on herself (especially the eyeshadow!) before we leave the house...

zoe can now sing one of the adult worship songs that she learnt in church, complete with actions. a really funny sight. she has now said that she wants to learn dancing. yes, we should really enroll her in one next year.

straight from the horse's mouth...

2009-09-11T16:29:00.004+08:00

once again, zoe has been saying things that have tickled us pink. here's some bits of it:

on donning a mid-riff tankini for the very first time - 'mummy, why like this? why they cut?' - while tugging at the tank top which exposed her tummy and navel as she asked innocently. she had half expected that it would cover everything just like her previous one piece swimsuits! she then asked the same question again when mummy made her wear a bikini the next day.

on spoting a 'black mark' on ethan's buttocks while he was having his diapers changed - 'why ah than has a chop (on his pi-gu)?' - which actually was really just didi's birthmark.

on seeing a classmate who kept standing and playing around while in class, she asked her teacher, 'why aaron never sit down and behave himself? why you never punish him?' teacher peggy was lost for words.

on visiting ah gong at the hospital and seeing a bandage on his arm, she asked, 'why ah gong has a bandage?', to which mummy replied that it was meant 'to stop the blood from flowing'. and she innocently asked again, 'who hit him?' hahahahaha :)

the things that zoe says....

2009-08-17T08:14:00.003+08:00

here are some things that zoe has commented to teacher peggy when in school - on seeing that mummy has a plaster on the arm and learning that mummy has gone for a blood test, she said: 'mummy go blood test. she never cry, she is very brave.' / i go toys 'r' us, at plaza singapura (wrong venue!), mummy says the toys are expensive, so i cannot buy. we turn, turn, turn to find a lot.'

the other day, she was talking to mummy when she suddenly turned demure, started smiling and said softly, 'i am going to marry'. mummy almost freaked out! does she even know what that means and when asked to whom, she simply replied, 'jedidiah' (her best boy friend in class). mummy faintz... that girl simply adores that boy. each time when asked from where she learnt a certain song or dance or whatever new things that she is showing us, she only has one answer and that is JEDIDIAH... she is like obsessed with the boy. each time the teacher splits them up in class to partner other classmates, she will get real angry, throws a tantrum and asks, 'why you split us?' yes, she LIKES that boy, B.I.G. T.I.M.E....

whenever mummy takes her favourite pooh pillow for a wash in the machine, mummy will always tell her that 'pooh is going for a shower'. and so one day 2 weeks ago, she was asking where is mr pooh, i said, 'mummy is drying mr pooh', to which she immediately retorted, 'no, mr sun is drying pooh pooh!' oops! you need to be 'politically correct' when you are talking to the girl. she will correct you almost everytime. she will remind me that i cannot say 'one' if mummy so much as says something like, 'why you like that one? and that i cannot say 'man' cos i am a girl. she will go, 'mummy, don't say man. only daddy and ah than can say man' when i speak and end with a 'man' at the end of my sentence. for instance: 'don't do this man'...

one day, she couldn't find me and when she finally found me in the bathroom, she said, 'mummy, you are safe. Thank God...' mummy is totally amused and amazed by her sometimes...

for old times sake...

2009-07-23T17:42:00.009+08:00

here, witness the last few pics of zoe sucking her fingers...

its a h.a.b.i.t. no more...

2009-07-23T16:17:00.004+08:00

finally... at 3 years and close to 4 months young, the princess has stopped sucking those 2 fingers of hers altogether... no more sucking, yes, yes , yes!!! all these while, we've been nagging and nagging at her to quit sucking, but those 2 fingers of hers are always in her mouth, perpetually, all the time. no amount of nagging nor carrots dangled before her could get her to quit, but this time, a rabbit did it. funny, but true.

we were at the kids kampong in pasir ris last saturday (18 july) and the girl was just happily feeding the rabbits in the kampong when suddenly, one of them bit her on one of those 'precious cigar' fingers of hers. she let out an 'ouch' and immediately we checked, there was blood, but it wasn't flowing out, but rather, it was an internal blood clot, but it was enough pain for her to request that we do not press nor touch it. till now, the blood clot is still there except that its now more black than red and looks more like a mole on her finger. hopefully, it should go away soon, but ever since that incident, she has stopped sucking her fingers altogether. perhaps out of fear that sucking would increase the pain. nevertheless, we are just happy that she has finally gotten rid of THE habit which we thought would never go away.

she used to have to suck those fingers whenever its bedtime, but now, she willingly lets mummy hold her hands while in bed. even when she spots a lil' girl sucking fingers on hi-5 just now, she only said, 'the mei mei is sucking finger, just like (e)than', when previously, she always said, 'the mei mei is sucking finger, just like me, hahahahha.' now we are having the last laugh instead. we are really pleased but have never outwardly praised her for it for fear of reminding her. it doesn't matter, its just a bad h.a.b.i.t. no more!

post malacca...

2009-07-18T04:37:00.019+08:00

got back from our malacca trip almost 2 weeks ago. spent most of our trip eating and what else but shopping. we tried the yummy chicken rice balls, super overly sweet chendol, super-licious satay celup and delicious black wanton noodles and hokkien mee. walked the pasar malam at the famous jonker street and took the super colourful and overly decorated with lights and flowers rickshaw back to the hotel, something that zoe enjoys the most (she kept asking for more!). the rickshaw was plain loud, both in decor and the music that the driver was playing, but frankly, it was a fun experience overall. to think that mummy initially thought that the rickshaw wouldn't able to budge given the combined family weight of 160 odd kgs that the poor lean built driver had to pedal. hehehehhe :) besides eating and shopping, there really wasn't much else that we did (it was just too hot and too short a time to go soak in the sights with the kids!). mummy's most pleased with the shopping at one particular tiny shop in makhota parade. check out the stash that mummy got:

aren't they just such pretty lil' things? mum just love it to bits... in between all that eating and shopping, we still managed to bring the kids swimming at the hotel pool twice. zoe gave us all a fright when she fell out of the float that she was sitting in (sans vest) and was totally submerged inside the waters for a good 1 or 2 seconds. thankfully, daddy pulled her up almost immediately. even though she was frightened, she snapped out of it after having given a good hug by daddy and was then back happily swimming again... thank God Jesus is always watching over us.

we've been heading to the pool quite a bit these days as the kids simply love playing in the water. just last sat, we headed to the zoo, not exactly for the animals, but to play at the kidz rainforest world where there is a huge splash pool. they sure had lotsa fun splashing around even though it was really quite sunny and crowded. then 2 days ago, we went to the public pool in sengkang and once again, they had yet another splashing good time but this time round, we were equipped with a new waterproof camera to capture the kids in action. p.u.r.e. f.u.n.

some updates on zoe now... she was into a fairy phase a little while ago where she likes to pretend to be a fairy and so we got her a pair of wings, tutu skirt and wand from toys 'r' us. she's been prancing around in that outfit and going, 'i'm a fairy' quite a bit. and now it seems she's moving into the 'princess' phase for she's always stuck at the play pretend section of any toys dept and looking at the tiaras, princess-cy bags and gloves. mummy's really quite afraid of bringing her out these days for she will almost always throw a tantrum when its time to leave her favourite toys department each time we are out shopping. yes, daddy almost have to wrestle with her and scoop her tight to leave each time in between her screams and cries. it really gets tiring at times as this scene is played out almost everytime. someone help us...

these days, zoe's toilet habits have improved. for now, she doesn't go 'i don't want automatic (referring to the automatic flush)' anymore (her classic one-liner when in public toilets). she's assured enough to know that the flush wouldn't go while she's peeing (at least most of the time!) and so, she doesn't jump off the seat in super quick time now. however, till now, she still refuses to poop except when she's in her diapers. her other classic one-liner when she spots you looking at her while she's doing her business in her diapers as she squats somewhere in a corner or behind the wardrobe door would be 'you don't see me, no.....' while giving us that constipated look. it gets really funny sometimes. mummy remembers an incident that happened almost 2 weeks ago. one day, as she discovered mummy doing it in the toilet, she suddenly said, 'mummy, you can have a new toy', to which mummy just couldn't stop laughing as previously, mummy has always tried encouraginging her to poop by offering to bring out a new toy for her if she does the deed on the potty. even though that has never worked on her but she really DOES remember every single thing mummy has said even though she may not practice it.

the girl really does say the funniest thing. one day last week, she came up and put her arms around mummy and shouted, 'best friends forever (aka bff)!' ask her where she learnt that from and she would say its 'jedidiah' (her boy classmate, someone who she seems to like a lot as she's always mentioning his name. no matter what it is, when you ask her where she learnt to say or do certain things, she would always reply you that its jedidiah though mummy highly doubt its him as he's absent from class pretty frequently). anyways, it really doesn't matter as we have been putting our arms around each other and shouting out 'bff!' to each other a few times a day eversince (and according to zoe, we need to be loud when we say it. a whisper just wouldn't do). mummy thinks that having your girl call and take you as a best friend is something that every mummy should strive to be. :) yes, mummy will always want to be her and ethan's BEST FRIEND.

sometimes, zoe talks like an adult. just before bedtime, mum and dad were out in the living room when she came out from the room and asked, 'guys, what are you doing?' then the other day, one of her classmates was crying when she went up to him and said 'why you cry? don't cry. why must cry?' her teacher peggy was totally amused by her. during dinner one day, mummy was chiding her for not chewing her food when she just replied cool-ly, 'mummy, don't talk when you are eating', then as she was being chided again for being naughty in the morning before she went to school one morning, she went, 'mummy, be quiet okay? than than is sleeping'. that girl! she had the audacity to 'steal' mummy's lines! maybe its time we call her a lil' kid-dult (kid + adult). hehehehehehe :)

this week, zoe seems to be injury prone. on monday, as mummy was opening the sliding passenger door of our car while at a mall, she suddenly appeared from behind and 'wham', the door hit her hard on the right side of her forehead and gave her strip of blue black that showed up almost instantaneously! mum was just frightened out cold as she screamed and cried in pain. the bruise was almost just too scary for any mum to take. thankfully, she managed to calm down after a while and was all smiles even as she went with me to the pharmacy. Thank God again and again. the bruise has since disappeared. the following day, the chair that she was sitting on toppled and her face went right smack onto the marble table which once again left her with another bruise on her cheek. then yesterday, she slammed the wardrobe door on one of her fingers while today, she had a cut on her ankle, probably from the pages of a book that she was looking through which left her bleeding quite a bit. goodness... maybe she needs to be bundled up like a mummy to prevent more injuries from being inflicted on her but surely, Jesus's protection is all she'll ever need.

the lil' big boy

2009-07-18T03:37:00.008+08:00

ethan's now all of 14 months. yes, 14 months young exactly on 17 july o9 (on daddy and mummy's 5th wedding anniversary)! he is still one darn cute boy who lets go of whatever he is holding on to (even his favourite penguin!) and shoots both hands up in the air (to signify 'GOAL!') each time daddy switches to football channnel. then as the tv channel is switched to animal planet or any other channels starring animals of any sort, almost immediately he starts to make some 'argh argh argh (think high pitched!)' sound non-stop. then switch to football channel again, the hands go up, switch animal planet again, the hands go down and the 'argh argh argh' (he's beginning to sound like a bird!) once again begins. its just darn cute. mummy has just captured a lil' video of him doing that which hopefully will be uploaded very soon. ;p

just 2 days short of 14 months, the boy has already had his first taste of fries. yes, french fries from mcdonalds. sigh (mum rolls eyes!). actually, mum didn't intend for him to try fast food at least until 18 months which was around the time that big sis of his had her first taste of fries. he was just in pain after mummy had accidentally fed him some porridge which scalded his lil' tongue and then in the midst of his cries, he started grabbing just about anything from the table, and the nearest item within his reach happened to be that piece of teeny weeny fries which he quickly popped into his mouth before mummy could even stop him. the miraculous thing was - the crying STOPPED. he truly enjoyed it cos he quickly reached out again for more fries but any further attempts were quickly thwarted by mummy. this was met with more resistance which got him very upset and he quickly refused anymore porridge till he had fries in his mouth. yah, he won the battle. he only managed to finish the rest of his dinner because he had teeny bits of fries in his mouth for every spoonful of porridge. he sure is getting increasingly difficult to feed (unless he's super distracted which is where barney or hi-5 comes in) but having said that, he really is a foodie boy who'll crawl to you in double quick time to ask for food when he spots you eating. in fact, if he doesn't get what you are eating, he'll get all upset and then he'll throw a mini fit. he is one boy who surely loves to eat anything (especially durians! he kept coming back for more!) and everything except, oh well, maybe his own food. at least, mummy definitely doesn't spot the same enthusiasm when he's seated down and eating his own proper food. :(

nowadays, the boy just loves seeing his own reflection, be it in the mirror or even the car windows. each time he sees his reflection, he'll give his cheeriest ever smile and then start waving non-stop. even when he spots a mirror above him as we're going up or down the escalators, he would start to smile and wave. besides seeing his own reflection, the other thing that gets him all excited is when he's spotted you seated down in front of the notebook. he'll somehow crawl his way into our arms and then starts pressing all the buttons on the keyboard repeatedly and excitedly in between his grins! its as though as he really knows what he's pressing! any attempts to remove him would only be met with protests and cries. mummy has just discovered that a calculator would bring about the same reaction from him too. he's also one boy who loves to 'read' too even though he's just staring at the pictures or lifting the flaps in the books. just leave him alone at the 'book corners' at home and he'll happily 'entertain himself' with the books. remove him and the protests begins again. well, at least, reading is good. :)

its back to school!

2009-07-01T18:02:00.000+08:00

yeah! its day 3 at school. mummy's glad as that school has reopened and the girl is at least actively engaged and happy at school! well at least, she has friends to play with and meaningful activities to do when in school. its only the first week but come this weekend, we be heading off for some fun when we go on our third road trip and this time, we are off to malacca, together with shan shan yee yee, uncle winston, davy and deborah. just can't wait. daddy wouldn't have agreed to go if its not for the upcoming wedding anniversary excuse that mummy has used to coax him into going. hehehe :)

ethan's a big boy now. at least he's taking firmer steps when we hold his hands and guiding his steps. he now likes to lay his hands on whatever he finds and then starts pushing them under his palm as he crawls. its as though they are skates on his hands that helps increases his speed. it could just be anything, a lid from his toy box, his beloved penguin, or even a book and he's on his way, zooming around. mummy's tempted to put a cloth on his palms instead so that he can 'mop' parts of the floor as he goes, at least he can be mummy 's lil' good helper that way. might as well not waste his 'efforts', right? ;p

zoethan seems to have inherited mummy's powernap genes. just a quick 10 minutes nap in the car and they can totally forgo their afternoon nap altogether. yes, those precious 10 minutes can stretch them for several hours each time. the past few evenings, we have been playing wii just before dinnertime. we caved in to temptation, convinced ourselves thats its a 'family machine and all can have fun' and so bought a wii while in kl. for starters, we've been stuck with playing sports, mainly tennis and bowling. zoe enjoys playing bowling even though its actually daddy who's playing it. most of the time, she's just holding on to the controller and daddy's the one who's controlling her arms and swinging them. even if she is not playing, she is contented to just watch daddy & mummy play and then she'll take her small football and swing them everywhere around the house as though its the real thing. silly girl....

yesterday nite, daddy was playing with zoe on the bed and 'roughing' it out when he sorta twisted her arm by accident. yes, all 80kg (or more?!) of him on that lil' 13kg girl. there you have it, the poor girl was sobbing and simply lying still on the bed in pain. when mummy tried to soothe her by hugging her and pressing her arm gently, she sobbed even louder and asked to be hugged tight. any slight attempt to stretch that arm was met with protests and more tears. the sight of her in pain was enough to make mummy's hands go weak. nothing we said could soothe her. she was just in pain, no stretching of the arm allowed. so mummy decided that she should tell Jesus to take the pain away. so she followed mummy in saying a simple prayer that went something like this: thank you Jesus for taking away all the pain on the cross. thank you that i am healed. in Jesus name, Amen. shortly after that, we decided that the best way to cheer her up was to let her watch hsm (again!), something that she hasn't watched in days. so we played the dvd with the portion that was playing her favourite song and almost instantaneously, her eyes lit up, the smile came back and she was dancing again with her arms up in the air and everywhere else! the pain was gone! she waved her arms like crazy and was just happily dancing away! we have chosen to believe that it was Jesus who took away the pain and that it was not a pain that she's been exaggerating all the while. Amen! God is indeed good. He is always there watching and protecting us. even when we were in kl, zoe fell off the diaper station which was almost 1 metre in height and landed with a thud, but when we checked, there wasn't any bruise on her at all. yes, He is surely good, and ALL the time.

these days, its funny hearing all the things that zoe says. one afternoon, as mummy was screaming and shouting at her for not chewing and swallowing her food, in between her cries, she could still say, 'mummy, talk to me nicely.' and then when mummy says 'what is this, man?' she would go, 'dun say man. only boys can say 'man'.' hahahhaaha :p even as mummy poked her playfully on the arm using the side of the scissors, she went, 'don't play with the scissors!' that girl! on her first day back at school, she could even tell her teacher that 'i am a good girl at home. i always behave myself and i never 'ayy ayy ayy (aka 'whine')' at home.' that had her teacher in stitches. sometimes, its really difficult to stay angry with her when you get such replies. :)

four's a crowd...

2009-06-18T16:19:00.006+08:00

yes, four's a crowd, especially when there's 4 of you all squashed up in a tiny queen sized bed. the girl now refuses to sleep in her own bed even though her bed's just parked right next to our bed. so now, there we have it, all four of us cramped up in that lil' cosy bed. very BIG daddy, little BIG ethan, mummy and growing zoe. daddy's been complaining that all 3 of us have been leaving him with almost no space to sleep at night. even after zoe's asleep and daddy's carried her back to her bed, somehow, she'll still crawl her own way back into our bed in the middle of the night. and then there's ethan. that boy simply cries and screams whenever he has no space to move and toss and turn while in lala land. and then a sleepy mummy and daddy will then have to make way so that he can turn to whatever position he likes and we can all get back our sleep... sigh... advice to all who are thinking of getting a new bed: queen-sized is so out. we need a super king bed!

these days, zoe's behaving like the little prefect when we are in the car. she now sits in the front passenger seat on her dora booster right next to daddy. if daddy so much as has only one hand on the steering wheel, she'll go, 'no daddy, drive with two hands!' then if daddy leans forward instead of leaning back when driving, she'll go, 'no daddy, you cannot drive like ah gong (yes, ah gong's driving style is to lean very forward), you cannot do that.' having said that, she often morphs into a monster whenever its time to get off the car. as its our practice that she takes off her shoes whenever she's seated in the car (lest she starts kicking the pigeon hole and everywhere else and leaving footprints behind), she often locks the door when its time to alight so that she can put on her shoes on her own. daddy can't open the door to help her else she'll start screaming and yelling. while its good that she wants to be independent, but the thing is, she takes a good 5 minutes to do so, often doing it in slow motion. it completely drives us mad. even when there are 2 or 3 different pairs of shoes in the car and its often easier for her to put on that crocs of hers, she would refuse and instead choose a pair that's her favourite of the moment. and often that favourite pair would take her a super long time to put on if we do not assist her. then, after she has put on her shoes, she must open the car door herself and no one else can do it, else the screaming starts again. that's zoe. she wants to do things herself, she must do it. she wants something done her way, she must get it, irregardless. completely irritating at times.

now she refuses to walk whenever we are at a mall. she demands to be carried. if not, the screaming and crying starts. mummy often chooses to ignore her but most times, daddy would just carry her. yesterday, both of us completely ignored her (good job daddy!) and she just cried and screamed non-stop while following behind us. the same thing happens when we are leaving the toys department. who cares. immunity has set in. the parents win.

just got back from our road trip to KL 2 days ago. throughout the trip, the girl has her diapers on all day as its hardly ever easy to find a clean toilet anywhere in malaysia. the only clean toilet we found was in a new wing of a mall. its called the premier toilet and costs a good rm5 to enter. but thankfully, 'entrance fees' were wiaved for robinsons card holders as there was a robinsons situated in the mall. anyways, the point is, zoe is especially particular about toilet cleanliness. if the toilet bowl looks a little brownish, she would almost refuse to pee. same goes if there's a slight stain or even slight smell, she would refuse to pee. just when you have finally managed to coax her into peeing, she would hurriedly jump off the seat because of the automatic flush. she's just darn scared of the flush. bringing zoe out is a chore cos you have to battle to take her away from the toys department. bringing her to the toilet is an even bigger chore. she makes mummy mad. just when mummy decides to shirk responsibilty and demands that daddy bring her to pee, she exclaims, 'no, i cannot go to the boy's toilet. i want to go to the girl's toilet!' f.a.i.n.t.z....

yes, she now talks a lot. she's very intelligent for her age. when we wanna leave one shop for another, she says, 'no, 5 minutes'. then as we walk past a poster that has caught her interest, she goes, 'mummy, wait a minute!' then when mummy replied her with a 'i fire you too' after daddy jokingly told her to tell mummy, 'i 'fire you', her reply was, 'no! don't burn me!!!' we really couldn't stop laughing after that. last week we were at a supermarket when she found a plastic beer mug. ever the girl with the vivid imagination, she proceeded to 'drink' from the cup and when it was empty, she gamely walked to one of the shelves that had a big sale tag hanging, pretended that it was the drinks dispenser thingy and started to 'dispense' more water into her mug. she went on and on her little game until it was time to leave.

yeah, she's cute whenever she's behaving and a monster whenever she's not. she's capable of bringing out the worst im mummy especially during mealtimes when she refuses to chew her food. mealtimes for her are always almost an hour. yes, she does takes a long time to finish little bowl of rice or noodle. unless its a bowl of black wanton noodles or other black noodles to which she finishes in zoe's record time. no reminders on chewing needed. she just seems to have a thing for black noodles. just when we think zoe really takes a long time to finish her food, mummy and daddy has heard other daddies and mummies complaining of their kids finishing a meal in 2 or 2.5 hours! now that's real horrible... kids these days...

okay, its ethan time. the little sweetie turned 13 months yesterday. he is now getting increasingly difficult to feed as his tastebuds expands. previously, he could finish his cereal or porridge in under 10 minutes with or without any distraction, but now, he turns away even before you start feeding him. the only thing now that gets him eating is when we turn on the tv and when he's distracted, you can just stuff just about anything into his mouth. but this seems to only happen when he has to eat HIS food. other times, as long as we are eating, he will crawl to you at record speed, looks at you intently and starts licking his lips or opens his mouth! that boy really wants to eat everything, except his food. and yes, his water. (he doesn't drink, he doesn't like to drink even when we force him while zoe's the complete opposite. she doesn't eat but drinks like a hippo). he gets a little upset when you don't give him what you are eating and these days, he's really good at signing 'more more' (sign language). he's tried famous amos, ice cream and a teensy weensy bit of instant noodles. he's just game for anything. he's now well over 9kg, just 1 kg lighter that gor gor zachary who's 10 months his senior. no wonder aunty wailing calls him a little big boy.

we've just upgraded him from drinking from a spout to drinking from a straw cup bottle on 13 june. the night before, we caught him secretly drinking from jie jie's bottle on his own! the next day, when given a straw cup bottle, he drank like a hippo, maybe out of curiousity. after that, we are back to status quo. he drinks extremely little and most times, he just spits out whatever water that goes into his mouth and leaving his clothes all wet. the only other time he drinks is when we he sees us drinking water from a cup or bottle, he'll want it too. he'll take a little sip and then smile at you. mummy bets that curiousity will kill the cat soon. he'll soon realise that its no big deal to drink from a cup or bottle.

the boy enjoys watching high school musical just like his jie jie. whenever he hears his favourite song playing in the car, he will throw whatever he has in his hands (even his favourite toy!) and starts clapping. even when he's midway nursing in the car, he'll still use his one remaining hand and clap against mummy's chest. that funny boy! daddy now thinks that the boy is starting to look like mummy and he's a little upset as he thinks all his kids must look like him! but who cares, mummy just loves ethan to bits! he sucks his thumb intensely before bedtime and sleeps with his butt high up in the air! exactly just like mummy when she was little...

ethan's not walking yet at this point and his favourite gadget is still the aircon remote. and now, maybe the tv remote too. back at the hotel in KL, he got upset when we turned off the tv. he then proceeded to press all the buttons on the remote to turn on the tv again. when we take back the the remote control to turn off the tv again and then put it into the cot, he will crawl to the cot and then lift up both hands to indicate that he wants to be carried into the cot. then back at the cot, he will start pressing all the buttons again to turn on the tv once again. we then take the remote away, turns off the tv and places it on the bed. he then whined and protested and asked to be taken out of the cot so that he can lay hands on the remote that is now lying on the bed. and the cycle goes on.... that boy. pure c.u.t.e. whenever he has something in his hands, he will call to your attention by just going, 'uuh, uuh, uuh!'

ethan's officially ONE!

2009-05-27T12:04:00.019+08:00

'strong and steadfast like his name, we've been doubly BLESSED because he came. now ethan's ONE and more to come, he sure is God's precious son!' - wordings on ethan's postcard

yes, mummy's lil' darling boy is now ONE! celebrated his birthday over a week ago at california pizza kitchen (again!). it was fun, fun, fun and dinosaurs galore. the dinosaur and green theme was apparent everywhere right from the birthday banner, to the party bags, cake and party favours that included a customised dino cookie and a personalised postcard. just check them out:

mummy's personal favourite has definitely got to be the customised dino cake, an almost exact replica of the actual cartoon (in exactly the way mummy wanted it!) - yeah, yeah, yeah!!!

yes, mummy's super proud of the cake which not only looks good, but is yummy, yummy too! oh yes, and not forgetting the customised cookie cookie:

overall, yes, mummy is well pleased with the party not forgetting the presents and especially the ang pows too!!!! hehehehhe :) hopefully the kids are too!!!

the boy is a real cutie and sweetie. he has now learnt to kiss! and of cos his first auto kiss was reserved for mummy! that was on 19 may. tell him to give mama a kiss and his mouth goes into 'o' shaped mode and then he touches your lips, complete with sound effect, 'mak'! whee, mummy just loves him to bits and yes, mummy demands a kiss from him thousands of times a day (but don't always gets it!)! this lil' boy is now quite good at protesting, he screams when he can't get what he wants or when you take something away from him. case in point: yesterday, mummy was about to feed him his first spoonful of food when she realised that it was jie jie's much bigger spoon that she was using. as mummy proceeded to walk away to replace the spoon, the boy screamed and squealed loudly in sheer frustration! he just can't wait! even when you walk away from a toy that he's been playing with in the shops, he flaps his arms and squeals in frustration too!

even then, the boy is still a real darlin'. he gives his super megawatt smile whenever you put glasses on him. and when he's surrounded by a group of people who are laughing, he goes, 'hahahhahahahha' too, even though he may not know what's going on. the point is, when everyone else is laughing, he must join in too. pure cute. and oh yes, his favourite gadget is the aircon remote which never fails to light up his face whenever he sees it. even when he's in crying mode in the middle of the night, he stops and smiles immediately when handed the remote. he is delighted each time you ask him to turn on the aircon but he's also highly capable of switching back to crying mode once you take the remote away from him. whatever it is, he never fails to put a smile on mummy's face.

now on that jie jie of his, she's been driving us mad with her tantrums. once again. and again. and again. this time, her tantrums have spilled over to school and its getting more frequent. her teacher says that she's been snatching toys from her friends and when she fails in her attempt, she would want to hit her friend. 2 days ago, she scratched her teacher with her nails and told her, 'i don't like you, teacher peggy.' her teacher been's grounding her by making her sit in a 'special corner' and then talking to her. today, as she was made to sit in a corner with nothing to do, she gamely took her hairclip from her hair and then started 'vandalising' the table and maybe chairs, thereby leaving them all with 'scars'. her teacher was totally shocked too. she talked to her and the girl cried bitterly. goodness, what are we to do with her?

she comes home happy but then throws crazy tantrums when its time to shower. even when we offer to 'pause' whatever program that was airing then so that she can continue watching it after her bath, she refuses to move. it drives mummy mad. her teacher has concluded that its time we change strategy in dealing with her. no more screaming, shouting, beating or caning. it just does not work on her. teacher peggy has suggested that we ground her and talk to her (but that daddy must work hand in hand with mummy too!). and even when she is screaming or shouting to not shout back as her teacher thinks that she's even happier when you do cos it just means she has gotten your attention. other than that, to just plain ignore her for half a day or a whole day cos she's just one girl who can't live without friends and not talking too. great. mum will try these strategies out and see if it works. watch this space... meantime, there's a slient scream for help cos the holidays are slowly approaching. mummy can't imagine how it'll be without the girl going to school! nannies, anyone???

minus the tantrums, the girl can be pretty funny too. once again, she told daddy to 'stop your nonsense' when daddy changes the lyrics to her favourite hi-5 song. yes, she does mirror what we say so we've really gotta be careful in everything we say. at times, she even goes, 'hey, what is this, man?' :p she now addresses mummy in many ways, many of which are courtesy from what she has heard that daddy of hers call mummy. and some of these are, ah gay, pauline, mum. at the shopping mall last week, she just started screaming, 'gay mummy, gay mummy'! mummy almost fainted (to the blur ones who are plain blur, 'gay' is mummy's surname, ok?).

the girl has funny potty habits. she refuses to poop when she's without a diaper. the potty is a no no for her when its 'big business' she has to do. now, if she's diaper-less and about to poop, she'll scream for a diaper. then when we are outside, she'll look out to see if the flushes at the toilet are automatic. she's just totally afraid that midway thru peeing, the thing will just flush her away which was what happened yesterday. mummy had brought her to the toilet when she cried out 'urgent'. after we had wiped and lined the seat with paper, just as mummy lifted her up to sit, the sensors got to work and started flushing away. she jumped from the seat immediately and so mummy lifted her up again, the thing started flushing and she jumped again. we repeated this for a good 5 times when mummy finally got fed-up (you see, this was a new mall and so the sensors are highly sensitive!). she then screamed for a diaper so that she could pee. help! mum gives up...

p/s: we be heading for yet another road trip to KL in june... just can't wait...

an apology...

2009-05-10T23:45:00.004+08:00

i just had a conversation with my ah girl which went something like this. on seeing that i had bumped into her milk bottle that was sitting on the table while going about doing my chores, she remarked, 'you bumped into my milk bottle', to which mummy replied, 'yah'. 3 seconds later, she said, 'say sorry to my milk bottle' and insisted that mummy do it. well, of cos mummy reluctantly did it and said, 'sorry bottle'. right after the apology, the girl said again, 'say you won't do it again'. goodness.... she had just made her mummy apologised to a non-living thing that doesn't feel any pain at all! she was just downright insistent and so mummy went, 'i won't do it again.' almost immediately after, she proceeded to take the bottle into her hands as if it was her pet and told the bottle, 'its okay bottle, don't cry.' at this point in time, mummy doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. yes, that's zoe sheh ern see for you.

post-hong kong...

2009-05-10T17:01:00.003+08:00

time flies, as usual. its been almost 3 weeks since we came back from hong kong and mummy is already thinking and wishing for another holiday, perhaps to the states - if the $$$ allows... anyways, zoe was absent from school on friday as she developed a fever of 38.4 degrees that morning. what's more with her runny nose and cough, mum thot it would be better that she rest at home. in school, her teacher has likened her to humpty dumpty for she's always nowhere to be found whenever she's asked to help with some things cos by the time her teacher turns back, that girl would have tripped and fallen flat on the floor already. seems that this happens one time too many in school and even at home and while she's out. she seems to be always tripping and falling even when there are no obstacles in front of her. check out those cuts and bruises on her legs and you'll know what i mean. these days, she behaves as though as she's a little baby. she keeps putting non-food items into her mouth even though she knows that they are inedible. like the keychain or some other toys of hers. then once, she spotted mummy putting her little bro in the bathtub for a shower (ethan now showers standing up with the help of ah ma or daddy and hasn't used the bathtub for the longest time) as there wasn't anyone around to help hold him, and she has been insisting on using the bathtub too when she showers. she then proceeds to lie on the bathtub as though as she is having some spa treatment. goodness. here's a 3 year old who simply knows how to 'relax' and chill while showering...

the past few nites, we've been watching high school musical (hsm) on dvd non-stop. zoe's simply hooked on the show, she likes the singing and the dancing and even smiles to herself when watching zac efron and vanessa hudgens spending time together in the pool (like her, the little bro of hers sits really still and has his eyes glued to the tv and watches very intently too). yes, its high school musical fever. she gets all excited even when she spots a hsm poster outside a video store. the other day, as we brought her to the hospital to visit aunty wailing's new baby, she suddenly got up and did a robot dance which was simply hilarious for we had never seen her do it before. it was really good impersonation from God knows where. we have been making her do it again and again ever since.

she's now all of 3 and a BIG girl now (though her terrible tantrums are still ongoing). we have sold out first maxi cosi infant car seat to daddy's friend and zoe has since upgraded to sitting in a dora booster seat while ethan has also upgraded and taken over his sis's toddler car seat. next year, she'll be 4 and so just a few days ago, we registered her into the nursery at sengkang methodist church. that's where she'll be heading to in 2010. these days, her pet phrase seems to be never mind. tell her to go and pee else she might forget and wet herself and she goes, 'never mind'. tell her to do something else and she goes never mind too. sai hey, it simply drives mummy mad. the other day, she was watching hi-5 on tv and while singing and dancing to her favourite song 'the best things in life are free' when daddy suddenly started singing and changing the lyrics to the song. the girl promptly turned around, looked at daddy and said, 'dun be silly, daddy'. that was just enough to get us laughing. then when daddy asks her, 'zo, do you want to eat curry pok?', to which she replied, 'no, i want to eat lollipop.' hahahhahahahaha :)

she's been listening to her cd from school non-stop and knows which is mummy's, ethan's and ah ma's favourite song. her favourite song in the cd is the abc song and as i sing it along with her as its playing in the background, she'll ask me to stop singing cos 'that's not my favourite song, but hers'. but when mummy's favourite song, 'jack in the box' is playing, she'll insist that i sing it cos its 'my favorite song'. if i dun and ignore her, she'll make the request repeatedly and even more loudly till i sing it. that girl.... she's just pure insistent in getting her way.

as for ethan, he'll be exactly ONE in a week's time! yeah! that cute little boy is pure cute and lovable (except when he screams and cries super loudly once in a golden while when he's dog tired or got woken up by night terrors) and we'll be celebrating his birthday at california pizza kitchen (again!). we call him dinosaur than cos whenever we look at him him and say 'dinosaur', he will stretch out his hands and start to growl. just darn cute. that's why mummy has decided that his birthday theme this year will be guess what? dinosaurs! G.R.O.W.L.....

ah than tried outside food for the first time when in hong kong disneyland. it was some steamed meat patty and he quickly ate it all up. he's a boy who seems to like music too cos very often, he would move and groove and start clapping excitedly to music, be it on tv or the songs from jie jie's appletree cd. he also likes to 'puuuhhhh' mummy's tummy (i.e he puts his mouth on my tummy and starts blowing on my tummy to make that 'puuuuhhhh' sound) and does it repeatedly in glee whenever mummy squeals in delight. he is now a master with his 'pincer grip' and can feed himself his little biscuit or bits of bread. now whenever you stop feeding him his biscuits or some other snack, he would get all upset and start to protest loudly. you get the same reaction even when you walk away from a toy that mummy or daddy had been showing him while at the mall. so babies do know how to protest afterall...

the first 2 weeks or so after we came back from hong kong, that boy had totally forgotten how to make his way down from the bed or sofa on his own though he had mastered it really well before we left for the trip. this must be cos he had been 'confined' to the bed in the teeny weeny hotel room in hong kong for too long (though its only been 7 days) a time. but the room that we stayed at was really tiny (you are barely 2 steps away from the bed as you open the door to you room and just 3 steps away to the bathroom). we thus had not choice but to keep him on the bed for most of the time. 2 days ago, he finally mastered the technique again and since then, he's been getting off the bed and sofa and crawling everywhere. whenever daddy proceeds to 'catch him' as he's crawling, he would 'go-stun' (aka 'u-turn) and crawl the other way. its really quite a funny sight to see him make his u-turns again and agai as we 'chase' to catch him. we just LOVE the boy.

p/s: zoe has dropped her second anklet while in hong kong and so has mummy. sigh.....

Ethan's 1st Birthday Invite!

2009-05-05T17:19:00.000+08:00

Make a Smilebox invite

Ethan's Save The Date!

2009-04-23T16:57:00.000+08:00

Make a Smilebox invite

we are still surviving in hong kong...

2009-04-20T07:46:00.003+08:00

today is the second last or perhaps the last day of our holiday in hong kong (for we be flying off early tomorrow morning). this place is really not a family friendly place for parents with young kids or strollers. the baby changing rooms are really no good. there are no nursing rooms (except for disneyland). steps are aplenty, from the shopping malls right down to the mtr stations. its almost inaccessible, compared to home in singapore where majority of the places are easily accessible by lifts (that do not take forever to arrive!) or the escalators. mummy wonders if we are too pampered back home, but there are really not that many parents in hong kong with strollers on the streets or malls. daddy's arms must have been fully trained by now cos he has had to carry the stroller, with the girl in it plus the numerous shopping bags down the many steps of the mtr stations. its really not that easy to survive if you are a handicapped or is car-less with young kids here, but miraculously, somehow, we did...

after disneyland, the past few days were marked by nothing by shopping. shopping for toys and more toys. hello kitty. my melody. little twin stars. thomas the train. and what nots. there's really not much else to get, but ah boy did get some bargain japanese t-shirts, while the girl, a dress, a minnie mouse trolley bag, and mummy can't really remember what else. mummy got crocs from the outlet and uniqlo sandals, while daddy has his usual star wars mighty muggs and a black label samsonite briefcase (outlet again!) that looks really yummy, retro and good. oh yes, and lots of party decors too. they are dirt cheap here.

we were supposed to take the cable car ride up the mountain yesterday, but somehow, due to weather conditions, got suspended. but at least, we went on a ride to the star ferry. it was a cheap thrill ride from hong kong island back to tsim sha tsui. at disneyland, we managed to take a picture perfect pic (with everyone looking perfect for the cameras which is really RARE) with mickey while visiting his house but its costs a good hkg120. we took several rides with the kids like the flying dumbo, mad hatter tea cups, buzz lightyear astro blasters, the many adventures of winnie the pooh and its a small world. the kids liked it and it was at disneyland that zoe fell in love with stitch. yah, for once, stitch really appeals, it was a really interactive stitch encounter that got everyone laughing even though it was in cantonese. since then, she gets all excited whenever she spots him in the shops. went for mickey's philharMagic 3D show too. though interesting, it got the girl crying out loud when it got too 'real' and loud while the little boy simply sat through but jumped twice. amazing boy. he was all still (almost) and just watching intently throughout thru those 3D glasses. the only other thing that got zoe all excited was chasing after bubbles produced by those bubble making machines that were displayed prominently everywhere. in total, she must have chased them for a good half hour. gosh. it was sheer torture trying to move her away from the spot.

yes, the kids must have felt tortured by the lack of naps while the parents are equally tortured as well. by the temper and tantrum throwing zoe who whines non-stop when she doesn't get things done her way or gets what she wants. and yes, also by her refusal to eat (for most of the time). as for ethan, he eats simply everything and anything that mummy feeds. mummy's been cooking porridge and rice for him in the hotel room. even when he can't eat what we eat, he will stare at you and start licking his lips. that boy is just pure darn cute. he smiles at you sweetly when he wakes. he smiles when he sees himself in the mirror. but, he is well capable of being super fidgety and throwing a huge tantrum too when he's just dog tired and unable to nap. as of now, mummy's favourite is him cos zoe's nonsense are just too much to bear. she doesn't listen to us, but listens when a stranger tells her things. even the waitress in the restaurant commands more authority than her parents. she ignores us and continues playing with the packets of sugar even though we tell her not to. but when the waitress tells her not to play with it, she stops immediately, but then starts her trademark whining (i don't want, don't want), pushes everything away that's in front of her and starts drooping to the ground. yes, that's zoe these days. plain annoying and irritating.

Hong Kong, here we are!

2009-04-16T07:33:00.004+08:00

yes, its now day 2 in hong kong. arrived last evening at 7.30pm via jetstar. we survived the no frills plane trip with a tired grouchy toddler and fidgety baby by bringing along snacks and the all important portable dvd player. yes, they watched peppa pig again. for the 20,000th time. that 3 year old toddler was all tired out as she had school earlier in the day, but refused to nap. she only managed to nap as we were about 30 minutes away from our destination after throwing a tantrum, slouching onto the floor of the pathetic legroom and some screaming and loud crying (when her request for biscuits got rejected and she was asked to drink her milk instead). that's her style now. she thinks she'll get her way by crying on the top of her lungs or just squatting on the floor while whining to 'i don't want, don't want, don't want!' its simply pure annoyance and irritance to mummy. when at home, she'll simply lie on the floor and start crawling or turn jellyfish and refuse to stand while crying loudly. mummy totally detests it and told her that she'll be treated like a dog if she continues with this behaviour. when she's being sane and happy, she'll say, 'no, dun want (i.e. to be treated like a dog). zoe good girl.' otherwise, whatever you say simply falls on deaf ears. the girl does not listen. if she wants something, she wants it now. no waiting, no later. mummy's going crazy with this incessant nonsense of hers. she'll just be totally ignored by mummy who'll simply walk on when outside and she'll simply run behind while screaming and in tears while everyone else looks on. who cares. let them look. mum is no bothered anymore.

she continued her tantrum throwing for 2 days this week while at school. her teacher got exasperated and punished for being too playful and not listening to instructions. she was made to sit in a naughty corner on her own. even that didn't deter her from continuing her nonsense as she attempt to put her hands on the sliding door frame, while not being too concerned that she might injure herself even after her teacher has warned her not to do that. she even told her teacher, "i am going to tell my mummy (that i was punished!)!" to which her teacher simply retorted, " i am going to tell your mummy TOO! and i will tell your daddy AS WELL!' goodness, kids these days. we are often left wondering if she had learnt such behaviour in school or if its inborn. the only consolation to her nonsense by shan shan yee yee was that 'this is only a passing phase'. we pray that the 'terrible 2s' has not spilt over to the 'terrible 3s'. Lord, my children shall be taught by you and great shall be the peace of my children (and us!). AMEN & AMEN!

brought the kids swimming again. ethan simply loves it. he's not afraid of the cold waters anymore. in fact, the moment he's in the pool, he starts splish splashing the water and kicks as though he's a trained swimmer. unlike his sister who started using a tweety bird sit on float meant for little children, we simply put him on a neck float and he's just all ready and unafraid. he merrily splashes around and it seems he just loves playing with water puddles, even while he's showering. these days, he likes to go 'pak!' and his favourite toy at home now is the little coupe that we have at home. he just loves being behind the wheels and also on kiddy rides. tomorrow, he'll be exactly 11 months and come next month, my darling boy be officially ONE! time flies! we'll be celebrating his first birthday very soon. venue has yet to be confirmed but the cake's been ordered already. its a special customised cake that mum has ordered from room for dessert, the same shop where we ordered zoe's first birthday cake too. just hope that it'll turn out good!

p/s: be heading to hong kong disneyland today. praying that it'll not be too crowded, the kids will be fine and the the parents will not go mad. :)

zoe's 3 and ethan's 10 months young!

2009-03-28T16:09:00.004+08:00

Time flies, yes, zoe is now 3! just celebrated her birthday last saturday at california pizza kitchen with immediate family members and several close friends. boy, think everyone has had a great time! there were peking duck and thai pizzas, kung pao and shanghai garlic noodles, miso salad (a crowd favourite!) and of cos, the much awaited 2 tiered cake that we ordered from pine garden. was slightly disappointed by the look of the cake though as it was somewhat made ugly by the several pirated looking hello kitty figurines along with the sylvannian family rabbit sitting on a tricycle that mummy had provided as part of the decoration. anyways, looks aside, everyone enjoyed the yummy lychee mousse and orange truffle cake indeed! the clebration continued as zoe celebrated her birthday when school re-opened, which was on her actual birthday. her classmates sang her a song and she cut her pretend cake which was actually the ikea birthday hat in disguise, gave out goodie bags and her teacher took many many photos. boy, she actually told teacher peggy that, 'i'm so happy today!' her teacher remarked that no many kids of her age are able to make a comment like that. hehehe... that's why she's my smart little girl... :)

yes, yes, yes, she's really a BIG girl now. in church, she has upgraded from being in class JK1 to JK2. she's now drinking milk for pre-schoolers instead of milk for under 3s. she's also almost all potty trained already. she now goes to school without diapers and when she's home, the diapers' off too unless its nap or bedtime. we haven't yet tried going out without diapers as sometimes, accidents still do happen cos most of the time, she would wait till she's really urgent before she rushes off to the potty on her own. midway thru lifting that little butt on the potty, if its too urgent, half the pee would have landed on the floor already while she continues the remaining on the potty. just yesterday night, as she rushed to pee in the toilet, mummy asked, 'wah, you so brave ah? not scared of the dark (as the toilet lights weren't turned on)?' she looked at me innocently and then asked, 'mummy, where's the 'duck' (instead of 'dark')? where is it?' mummy couldn't help but just burst out laughing.... hehehehehehe ;p

as she turned 3, she experienced the most vicious caning ever by mummy just a day after her birthday. she threw many unreasonable tantrums, refused to answer when mummy asked her what went wrong and along the way, threw toys on the floor and bullied the little bro of hers. that night, mummy could tolerate no longer and just caned her like 5 times, piak! piak! piak! piak! piak! yes, the cane marks were super evident on her arms and thighs, this was caning like never before, she cried and cried but was completely ignored as daddy was outstation. even her ah gong and ah ma thought she's really naughty. anyways, later that night after all the drama, she gamely posed and let mummy take pictures of those cane marks. the next day, when her teacher saw the cane marks, her comment to zoe was; 'you deserved it. you must have done something to make mummy really angry with you.' how right! you won't believe the girl, her teacher even said she was 'showing off' the cane marks to her friends...

okay, enought about the girl. its now ethan time. each time his darling sister kisses him, he would smile. but when daddy or mummy kisses him, it would draw no reaction from him. just see how much he adores that sister of his even though he's being bullied by her sometimes. now he just loves sticking his fingers into mummy's mouth too especially when he's nursing. he would giggle when mummy pulls out his finger with a loud 'pop'. the boy is really quite a smelly baby as he really perspires BIG TIME. he perspires even in an aircon room or when in the car. in just a short while, you will see perspiration beads all over that little head and its just so yucky and wet.

he's now a little well over 10 months and he has learnt how to slide himself off the bed and sofa without falling down. his first successful attempt was on 18 march and since then he has been sliding down everywhere easily and with ease. his favourite program is still hi-5 which he watches everyday without fail. once he was nursing in the car when we played the hi-5 cd. almost immediately, he got up and started looking around everywhere. we figured he must have been looking for a tv to 'see' where the music was coming from. hehe :) but now, he gets all excited too when he watches peppa pig. each time the pigs starts snorting, he would go make a funny noise as well. he's now well-trained in watching football too. whenever football is being played, he would raise either one or both hands up automatically into the air as if to signify 'goal'! even when the comperes on football channel are just commenting on the game, he would raise up his hands too! it's really funny cos its just pure automatic reaction. daddy must really have punched his hands in the air and shouted goal too many a times while the boy's with him.

this little boy is also quite potty trained already. he pees on cue each time we strip him naked and stand him on the bathroom floor. all we need to do is go, 'time for than than to pee pee' and he will just do it. right there and then. mummy & daddy's really quite proud of him. that aside, he does get super annoying once he starts crying. especially when he's dog tired. he would cry and cry uncontrollably and would be totally inconsolable. that's not just it. he would scream and squirm when in mummy's arms and when you lie him down on the bed out of sheer exasperation, he would scream, cry, kick even louder! this is when even hi-5 can't distract him. the crying would go on and on and it can last for a good 50 minutes before the crying finally dwindles as his tiredness sets in and he just stops to sleep from sheer tiredness. horrible! sometimes, mummy and daddy would just scream at him to keep quiet out of sheer 'pek-chek-ness'.

p/s: brought zoe to watch 'bear & chicken go camping' on 14 march and on 17 march, zoe has had her fringe cut for a second time while at the salon with daddy and mummy. we're just glad that we needn't pay those silly kiddy salons for a haircut for her.

Zoe's 3rd Birthday Bash again!

2009-03-19T17:49:00.001+08:00

Make a Smilebox invite

Zoe's 3rd Birthday Bash!

2009-03-19T17:35:00.000+08:00

Make a Smilebox invite

impossible zoe...

2009-03-06T17:18:00.002+08:00

yes, zoe is impossible. she's getting impossible. more and more impossible with those tantrums of her. mum's going mad. when she's at it, mummy turns into a screaming, shouting and caning freak monster. she throws tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants (like playing with stuff from the kitchen that aren't toys, milk bottles and finger toothbrushes that mummy wants to sell, paper clips and what not). she throws a tantrum when you ask if she wants cheese and attempts to get one for her from the fridge. mummy's action of just opening the fridge door is enough to get her into a tantrum cos she wants to 'open the fridge and lay her little hands on the cheese on her own'. she will then get cross and slump on the floor and refuse to move one step from where she is standing. even when you tell her that mummy is just opening the fridge and not getting her cheese, she will not move from her spot. then when you chide her for behaving that way, she gets madder (and so does mummy!), starts screaming and her feet and body will turn jelly and she'll just lie or slump on the floor or sofa or something like that. then the screaming, shouting and caning campaign would begin. this happens also when she gets back from school and when mummy tells her that its time to shower and play with the toy later and she refuses to. yes, the campaign begins A.G.A.I.N. the grabbing of her by force and the screaming. mummy totally detests this. she doesn't listen when you tell her nicely, she wants things her way. that's it. and to me that's just plain impossible... zoe is IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE to handle. God, help me.

according to her teacher in school, she's been behaving really well except for the first week or so when playgroup was new to her. she even tells the teacher that she is a good girl at home and that she doesn't throw tantrums. God, let that be true in Jesus name. Amen. talking about school, zoe is talking very much now. 2 weeks ago, her little friend at playgroup hit her on the back and she told her teacher that she will tell mummy that her friend hit her and she did. she tells her teacher things like, 'mummy will cook porridge for me later' and that 'daddy will pick me up later'. then lately, she's been singing a whole load too. she came back singing, 'all the fishes are swimming in the water, swimming in the water, swimming in the water. all the fishes are swimming in the water, bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, splash!' and '2 little eyes that open and close, 2 little ears, 1 little nose. 2 little cheeks and 1 little chin, 2 little lips and teeth closed in'. then as you sing along and along the way, sings wrongly, she will correct you till you get the words right. her song is now officially a personal ringtone for daddy's mobile on mummy's phone...

be bringing the girl for a new play called 'bear & chicken go camping' this coming march holidays. time flies, holidays are coming and her birthday will be on the first day when school reopens. even though she's turning 3, she's still sucking those fingers more than ever. even her didi doesn't suck his fingers as often. these days, her favourite toy is this 3 wheeler scooter that we got her. she now has 2 of them in fact! we bought a cute little display pice for her from one of the shops but somehow it didn't seem very stable. we finally bought another super expensive one that daddy and mummy have been eyeing on for the longest time. at least that is an investment well made cos it's definitely safer and doesn't make her fall off as often as that display piece. in fact she's enjoying it so much she goes, 'aiyah, i am so tired' after playing on it for a little while. she's also catching up on her singlish. when mummy remarked that i forgot to bring her helmet, her reply was, 'never mind lah. no need lah.' hehehehhehehehe :)

many have commented that ethan has lost weight. but that boy really eats a lot. he finishes all the porridge and cereal no matter what the amount. and whenever he sees us eating, his mouth would start moving and he would give you that, 'i want to eat too' look. case in point: he was about to cry just now as zoe snatched something away from him. but that quick thinking ah ma of his immediately put a little apple into his mouth and he stopped and totally forgot that he really was going to cry. instead, he just sat quietly and enjoyed that bit of apple in his mouth. think mummy must have spoilt him too much by always carrying him in the baby carrier cos he refuses to sit in the stroller! as soon as you strap him up, that super loud wailing begins. in fact its so loud, you would think that someone was bullying him. then the crying would stop the moment you llift him up in your arms. mummy's praying that he will somehow get used to being in a stroller soon else we'll be done for come next month when we go for our holiday in hong kong. we are all so looking forward to it and we've just made a booking for this boutique hotel in tshimshatsu. we'll pray that things will turn out right!

ethan has been going 'papapapapapapapa' and 'mamamamamamama'. he is really one loud boy when he wants to. mummy hates it especially when he wakes up crying super loudly in the middle of the night and when he refuses to stop till some 20 minutes later. by then, you would have been fuming mad from being woken up and gone deaf from all his crying. :( his 1st upper teeth has also sprouted. with more teeth, he has now taken to grinding them against each other which is really not too good. looks like its time to hand him those teething biscuits already. that poor boy had a nasty fall that day when he landed on the edge of the bedside table. poor thingy... that God the bruise disappered rather quickly too.

more zoe updates: she's pretty funny. shared a bowl of chin chow with her one night after dinner. when i told her that the black black jelly is called chin chow chow, she immediately pointed to her 'chin' and said 'chin' chow? that was really pretty cute! then 3 days back, she suddenly told daddy, 'i love you so much'. one night, on seeing that the lights in one of the room wan't turned off, she turned and told mummy who was then busy putting on moisturiser in the toilet. mummy later heard the sound of her potty being dragged around and started shouting at her to quit dragging it. only after i had gone out to check did i realise what was going on, she was actually trying to use the potty as a chair so that she could stand on it, reach the switch and turn off the lights for mummy. poor thing, of cos mummy immediately apologised to her and commented that she is a good helper. :)

p/s: she ran into the bathroom on 3 march as mummy was showering midway, pulled down her panties and said she wants to 'da-bian' which she eventually did. wow! that was her first own attempt at poop-ing in the big potty. we were so proud of her. only just a few days ago, she actually pee-ed onto the floor of one of the retail shops at the airport when we went out, sans diaper. but she had just gone to pee only like 30 minutes ago. that girl sure has a lot of pee! :p

more more updates...

2009-02-21T17:52:00.006+08:00

its been well over a month since zoe started attending playgroup at appletree and as far as mummy knows, she does enjoy herself there. she can even name her friends when you ask her to, but its always the same few names that she comes up with. like, devine, etuan, qistina and ray. ask her who she loves playing with, its always devine (a boy with long hair!) followed by qistina (a little malay girl). mummy has confirmed with the teacher that those are her 'best friends' though she does get into fights with qistina at times. ha! she now comes home singing songs that she has learnt in school, some chinese ones too and can even relate what happened in school. the other day she said, 'etuan fall down from the chair. i drink water'. what she meant was that she was drinking water when the incident happened. mummy really loves hearing her talk. once, she came back and started doing what seems like a mixture between ballet and gymnastics. she started off by attempting a(n) (imperfect!) split on the floor, then she stood up, spinned around with hands in the air and started twirling an imaginary ribbon. it was really quite funny. ask her who taught her that and she says, 'devine'. so cute!

now that zoe's bigger and taking in more than what you can imagine, mummy really needs to be mindful of what she says. just the other day, she dropped daddy's phone onto the floor and almost immediately, she went, 'dammit!' OOPS! guess she must have learnt that from mummy but honestly, i really don't say THAT word that often. :) then at other times, she would put the phone to her ears and play pretend and then she'll go, 'bye! dun want to talk to you anymore!' yes, that's from mummy too... oh oh.... time to curb my tongue. God help mummy... that girl sure does learn fast. in fact, she can now even change font colours and type, 'zoe, zoo and zone' on microsoft word using mummy's notebook.

the past week, zoe's been behaving well during mealtimes. she chews and finishes her food without much protest. mummy wonders if its because of all that caning she got a week ago. then, mummy put her on the high chair and caned her legs (repeatedly) whenever she stopped chewing. faced with no escape, she could only protest and cry while moving her jaws. now, when mummy praises her for finishing her food, she would go, 'mummy no cane and scold you (me).' hehe :) i sincerely pray that this good behaviour will go on and on...

it seems that while bringing zoe to school is a good thing, however, she is really more exposed to germs as she once again skipped school on 7 feb due to a slight fever. what's worse is that the germ bugs then spreads to ethan who came down with a high fever of 39.2 degree 2 days later. the feverish boy was once again rushed to the a&e at kkh. thank God the fever subsided after he took the medication. over the past 2 weeks since then, he's been down with a bad bout of cough (phlegm included!). blessedly, his condition has now improved after all that puffing that we have been giving him. his second cute teeth started making its appearance on 10 feb and with that 2 teeth of his, he's been biting mummy every now and then whenever he's nursing. in retaliation, he would get a hard smack on his hands which would deter him from going further (like pulling mummy's nipple!) almost immediately. hehe :)

he's now 9 months and loves pulling himself into a standing position. both his and jie jie's favourite program is now hi-5 for he starts dancing and swaying his hands whenever hi-5 is being played. he could be cotally inconsolable and crying out loud one minute but the moment that program is turned on, he would turned his head towards the tv and the crying stops IMMEDIATELY. that's the power of hi-5. this explains why now we watch hi-5 like 3 times a day! gosh.... he is really one funny cheery boy. whenever its nursing time, mum would tease him by saying grace ('thank you Jesus for the milk, ethan is strong and healthy)' and then proceed to put him to my breast without lifting up my top. he would then give a toothy grin and go 'haha'. it happens everytime without fail. yes, seeing your baby responding and laughing is really just something that will make any parent's day.

p/s: mummy has just started a blog lelong-ing some stuffs... please support www.psiwant2buy.blogspot.com

:)

a long overdue post...

2009-02-04T16:13:00.006+08:00

its been well over a month since mummy last blogged cos its just been busy, busy busy and more busy.... so many things have happened since the last entry and mummy just dunno where to begin blogging. now, zoe's back to sucking that 2 fingers of hers. the horrible and disgusting nail polish doesn't work on her anymore. what's worse is that she now seems to be biting all her nails on those 10 fingers as well. really dunno what to do anymore. anyone has any recommendations?

last december, we discovered zoethan's favourite 3 ads on tv, they are the goldheart (or lee hwa?) celestial ad (background playing some french song and where 2 fountains meeting each other midway), the ici dulux ad (www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFtw_dc5i3c) and ponyo ponyo ad (trailer for the japanese movie cartoon: ponyo on the cliff by the sea). while zoe would jump and start dancing, ethan will stop whatever he's doing immediately and turn to the tv and watch intensely. especially with the ponyo ponyo ad, he will get all excited and start making some funny noise while smiling. once the ads are over, he will look away and then return to doing with whatever he was doing/playing prior to the ad. and yes, their latest favourite would have to be the little nonya's theme song. whenever the song is being played on tv or the radio, zoe would look at us, smile and start singing, while ah than would simply turn to locate the source. its a pretty funny sight indeed.

there's just too many things to be blogged, so well, here's a brief summary of what happened over the past month:

31 dec 08: brought the kids to the zoo. explored the new children's playground with zoe. paid for a horse carousel ride. had a ny's eve dinner at kusihin-bo in great world with ah ma, ah gong, yvonne and nana yee yee and uncle benny. zoe was just monkeying and playing with a boy from the next table.
1 jan 09: it was going to rain as we were bringing zoe for a swim. she prayed, "thank you Jesus for stopping the rain" and indeed Jesus held back the rain for her for it started raining only minutes after she was finished with swimming.
2 jan 09: ethan has swiftly progressed from kneeling / squatting and holding onto the railing to standing in a matter of days! today, we finally got down to choosing 12 pictures out of the 160 odd pictures that we took at the studio loft last september!
4 jan 09: zoe saw a doc at raffles medical for her eye as the skin under her right eye has been a little red for several days.
5 jan 09: took zoe to see the dermatologist as her rashes seems to have returned. there are rashes on her buttocks too.
6 jan 09: ethan tumbled down our bed 3 times this week. once he was just found under the chair and happily playing with the fan wires. the final time, he cried cos it finally hit him hard. poor thing...
7 jan 09: took zoe for a brief orientation of the apple tree playgroup in punggol. finally settled on the playgroup recommended by aunty abigail and registered her for it. had her first official haircut (only a little bit of the fringe!) at the salon today cos daddy and mummy's hairdresser thought that her fringe was just too messy! zoe agreed almost immediately when the uncle asked if he could cut her hair. ethan had his first taste of porridge and daddy lowered the cot for him today as it was just getting too dangerous for the adventurous, standing ethan.
8 jan 09: zoe's 1st day at playgroup while it was everyone else's 5th day. some kids were still in tears but zoe just didn't bother with daddy and mummy.
10 jan 09: ethan starts waving his hands as if to say 'bye bye'. he can now sit up by himself.
18 jan 09: ethan sits on a high chair! yes, finally, daddy and mummy can eat in peace without having to manage a wriggling ethan in one hand while scooping rice with a spoon on the other hand.
19 jan 09: converted the cot into a little toddler bed for zoe as our queen sized bed was simply getting way too cramped! zoe finally slept on her own bed that night and she was just happy about it while daddy and mummy were secretly overjoyed about the slightly bigger space that we are back with (when we woke yp the next morning, there ethan was just sleeping with both hands and legs spread wide open! hehehehehehe).
22 jan 09: zoe skips apple tree today due to her runny nose.
between 18 - 24 jan 09: zoe was down with gastric flu. she hardly ate nor drank much. but thank God she was still her usual, bubbly self.
28 jan 09: zoe pukes and pukes. after shower, when shown the milk bottle as she was sitting in her little bed with her favourite pillow, she puked her entire dinner out. yes, onto the bed and on the floor, and onto daddy as daddy hurriedly rushes to carry her to the bathroom. meanwhile, ethan eases his way out of the bumbo and landed on his forehead and onto the floor as mummy was busy cleaning up the puke. after zoe's 2nd shower, she pukes again onto daddy, the side of our bed and floor after drinking milo kosong as mummy was showering. sigh... its just been a night of puke and more puke... gross...
29 jan 09: zoe skips school again to rest. while we were having dinner at the foodcourt, zoe was monkeying around and playing at one of the benches. suddenly, there was a loud thud. there you have it, she landed on the floor and bumped a good part of her forehead and head. yes, crying was all around. Jesus's protection must have beeno on her her again for despite the loud thud, there were no redness nor swelling anywhere.
31 jan 09: mummy discovered ethan's first bottom teeth! that cute little teeth was just making its way out!

these days, zoe has lots of funny things to say. when daddy has a flu every now and then, he would go sleep outside on the sofa. once, zoe got so used to the idea, she actually said to daddy one night, 'mummy go bed bed with zoe and than than. daddy sleep outside.' then as mummy was nursing ethan, mummy pointed to the other breast and ask if zoe wants to drink milk, she said, 'no. i don't want to drink than than's food.' hahhahahahaha :) somehow, when she's reading numbers, she read the ancient chinese way, from right to left instead of left to right. so when she sees the number 45, she say its '5' and '4' and not '4' and '5'. she's just plain cheeky too. though she knows her numbers but, ask her what's 1 & 3 and she says its 'three-teen', while 15 is 'five-teen'. she then proceeds shake her head and says 'fighting cannot' (cos 'five-teen' sounds like 'fighting!!!)! her teacher at playgroup has commented that she's one kid who doesn't bear grudges unlike other kids who would remember grudges for days. mummy agrees for even after each caning session, she would still run to mummy and play and hug as per normal.... sigh...

p/s: ethan's favourite action while lying on his tummy is to start flapping his right leg non-stop!

zoe vomits, poop-ed and pee...

2008-12-29T17:33:00.006+08:00

about 2 saturdays ago, we went on a road trip to kl with ah ma, yvonne yee, shan shan yee and family. this is the first time that we had a slightly more enjoyable time in kl cos we weren't staying at the bukit bintang area anymore. rather, we stayed at the royal bintang in damasara next to the ikano power centre. wow, malaysia has never looked this good. there are plenty of eateries and shopping that we can do without having to drive around. the mega one utama shopping mall was also just a 5 minutes (if there is no jam) drive away. anyways, we were dining at sakae sushi on the very first day when zoe puked big time. this was right after when she had finished her entire bottle of water and chawan mushi. just when shan shan yee thought she was done with puking after having filled the entire chawan mushi cup with her vomit, the puke continued and this time all that puke landed on the booster seat and floor area (secretly, i think the waitresses must be cursing and swearing). it was just plain gross. in spite of everyone speculating that she must have puked cos she drank too much water, mummy's now wondering if it was cos i gave her the sake chawan mushi instead of the regular chawan mushi (by mistake!) that trigerred the puke. hehe :) zoe wasn't too disturbed by the puke though. instead, thruout the trip, whenever we passed by sakae sushi, she would show me a pukey face and say 'vomit'! yes, sakae sushi now equals to vomit, even back in singapore, when she spots an outlet, she gives the exact same reaction!

just before the kl trip, somewhere on the 9 or 10 of december, the girl finally poop-ed on the potty for the second time. this time, she was dragged to the potty (rather unwillingly) but somehow she managed to sit on the potty and finished her 'business' cos mummy gave her a brand new peppa pig book to read. so there she was, happily reading and doing it. just when mummy thought that was a good way of getting her to poo-ed on the potty (cos we have many new peppa pig books), she hasn't been willing to do it again, up till now.... sigh...

zoe's now being potty trained, sans diaper for the very first time on 19 december. goodness gracious, that girl pee-ed 3 times in under 3 hours! yes, the pee was everywhere on the floor. just when mummy thought that's the ultimate (how could anyone have so much pee???), today was even more 'tok gong'. just check this out:

12pm - pee-ed on potty.

1.15pm - peed-ed on potty again.

1.50pm - pee-ed halfway on the floor and called for mummy (she continued peeing when being brought to the potty).

2.15pm - realised that she pee-ed a little on the panty and called for mummy. she continued her pee at the potty again.
2.35pm - pee-ed a little on the floor and called for mummy again. peeing at potty continues...

how's that for potty training? she actually pee-ed 5 times in under 3 hours!!! daddy said i asked for it since i keep asking her to drink water. she really pees quite a bit each time she continues at the potty. yes, now i know, my girl REALLY drinks a lot! in spite of having to keep cleaning up her pee, mummy's consoled by the fact that at least she is now able to control her pee a little and asks to continue at the potty. let's hope that she'll be able to fully control that bladder of hers very soon!

p/s: a few days ago, zoe woke up from her nap to find mummy, daddy and ethan 'missing' while at ah ma's place. later on, she told us, 'i cry and cry just now. i lost daddy, mummy and than than.' cute huh? :)

Jesus's blood protection is definitely on ethan!

2008-12-27T16:10:00.005+08:00

23 december 2008: at exactly 2 years and 9 months, zoe had her very first haircut. to be exact, she had a teeny weeny bit of her fringe snipped off as it was just irritating her eyes every now and then, be it whether she's playing or when she's having her food. mummy has kept that precious lock of hair sealed up in a mini ziplock bag to be kept as a 'souvenir'. even though it was just a wee bit of hair, but somehow, its really very obvious that she's had a haircut. mummy has some 'before' and 'after' photos to prove that. and to all those friends who's been prompting me to trim my ah girl's hair, the answer is 'no', that's just about all the hair that i would trim from my little darling's head! hehe :)

23 december 2008: Jesus's hands are on darling ethan all the time. zoe and ethan were both napping together on our bed. at that time, they were seperated from each other by the pillows that we have piled in between them. about an hour into their nap, we suddenly heard some noise in the room. as daddy hurridly rushed to open the door to the room, there, zoe was already awake, but that little boy was nowhere to be found! he wasn't on the bed. we later found him sprawled on all fours under the chair next to the bed and side table and was happily playing with both the rattle that he had found and mummy's phone charger! goodness gracious! we were truly astonished as he looks as if he really didn't tumble off the bed and onto the floor! he was just being happy and there were no apparent scratch nor bruise found. that God for the blood protection on him. Amen! He truly is a good God. :) till now, we reaally have no idea how he landed on the floor.

ethan is now learning how to sit up and he's already halfway thru mastering this skill. mummy has since re-set up the playpen where he can crawl and play within safe grounds (yes, he is now crawling quite a bit too).the only drawback is that the house now really resembles a playground with the car, playpen, exersaucer, toys and whatnot strewn everywhere... sigh... cleaning up is definitely getting tougher.

now the boy really does not want to sleep in the cot. if he wakes up in the middle of the night to discover that he is sleeping in the cot, he would cry out and not stop till mummy carries him and put him down next to her. then he would go back to sleep immediately without any protest despite the much smaller bed space that he is 'confined' to. yes, he's really getting good at the manipulation game. now, he is ever more attached to mummy for when mummy walks away (especially when he's dog tired), he would start to whine and threaten to cry. this has already happened many times. his eyes would follow wherever mummy goes and then the wailing would start, together with that 'i'm very poor thing, please carry me now look'...

whoa, its getting crowded!

2008-12-10T17:47:00.008+08:00

aiyoh, these days, ah than is very good at playing the manipulation game, with his tears and cries! at bedtime, he refuses to fall asleep in his cot unlike previously! now, when we put him down in his cot at night, he would simply give us a 'i'm very poor thing' look and then cry out and will not stop wailing till he's being lifted off the cot! then as i place him down next to me on the bed, he would simply lie down and start sucking his thumb quietly. gosh! the bed's really cramped this time. a queen size bed with 4 persons (including a XL daddy, a L mummy and an S zoe!)! we can now hardly move, poor zoe and mummy's just being cramped and squashed in the middle. a note of advice, queen sized beds are out! any sponsors for a king???

ethan's now a good 8.6kg. he survived yet another 2 injections last friday. the first needle went into his left thigh. no reaction. he didn't even blink his eyes! those thighs of him must really be very meaty to have garnered zero reaction. the second needle went into his right thigh. this time, he screamed on the top of his lungs and started crying - all of 1.5 minutes, max. then he stopped. mummy must say, that's pretty brave for a little 6 months boy. he can now prop himself up when on the bed and shake his butt very well (terrible daddy jokes that he's now ready for adulthood... ). either that, or he sometimes now like to open his mouth wide and do a 'argh.....hhhh.h.h.h.h.h.h.h.h.h....'. its just really cute. and feeding him solids is a zillion times easier than getting that sister of his to chew and swallow her food. yes, mealtimes are still wartimes for mummy and zoe.

its during mealtimes that zoe gets screamed and shouted at most often. its during mealtimes that she gets spatula-ed at most often. its during mealtimes that her favourite program gets paused a hundred times (cos she would only start chewing when i paused the program and her mouth just stops moving when the program is being played). its also during mealtimes that she gets to have chilli smeared all over her mouth. yes. she drove mummy very very mad. to feed her, one would need nothing but patience. feeding her a simple bowl of porridge can take up to one and a half hours. the same goes for rice and noodles. the only things that she will chew and chew without being asked are either chicken from kfc or chocolates. now, she's even challenging mummy during naptimes too. instead of napping, she would sing, walk around the room, jump on the bed, ask to pee, and what not. poor ethan would be awaken by her by then and then he would witness mummy's screams at the girl. by the time she finally knocks out of sheer tiredness, its a good one and a half hour later, like today. and during that one and a half hour, mummy would not only have to coerce the girl into sleeping, but would also have to soothe a crying baby back to bed. when she wakes, it would be another screaming session during dinner time. sigh..... the cycle repeats almost daily, brunch. scream. naptime. scream. dinnertime. scream. i need help.

zoe seems to have stopped sucking those 2 fingers of hers. for a few days last week, mummy's been faithfully painting her nails (to stop her from sucking) and meeting with little resistance. mummy wonders if its because she's been motivated by the stars that mummy's been giving her each time she gets her nails painted. she now has a star chart which must be filled with 20 star stickers before she gets a new toy. think she's a little inspired by it for she enthusiastically pastes the star each time.

lately, we've been acting a little 'cultured'. took zoe to watch a glow in the dark puppet play by act 3 in victoria theatre about 2 weeks ago. its puppetry for 3 of eric carle's books that mummy has read to her before (check it out at http://www.act3international.com.sg/theatre.htm). its truly amazing because the puppets were exactly as seen in the storybooks (little cloud, the mixed up chameleon & the very hungry caterpillar) and she could really relate to it. then last friday, all 4 of us (including ah than) went to watch the sso babies prom in victoria concert hall. its really just classical music for little tots, quite entertaining. but i think she enjoyed the sculptured balloons that were given out as part of pre-concert activity even more. anyways, we ended up buying the sso cds too.

over the past week, we must have spent about $200 at bossini. the stash include 2 mr men t-shirts for daddy (mr cool and mr messy), 3 little miss t-shirts for mummy (lil' miss naughty, lil' miss giggle and lil' miss chatterbox), 4 little miss t-shirts for zoe (lil' miss chatterbox - same as mummy's!, lil' miss naughty, lil' ms sunshine, and one with a few lil' miss pics) and 5 mr men shirts for ethan (mr bump, mr happy, mr tall, mr impossible and mr messy). yes, we went nutz over them and we, together with the rest of singapore, must have wiped bossini clean of mr men and lil' miss shirts. zoe's favourite is now mr bump. she put mr bump lying aginst the wall and on the headboard of our bed and started singing, 'humpty dumpty sat on the wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall'... great imagination she has for mr bump really does resemble humpty dumpty!

p/s: we have a video clip of zoe trying to 'da-bian' and she really hates seeing it. in it she even screams, 'no, no, dun take my picture!' when she realised that daddy was filming her. haha!!! :) oh yes, zoe can now recite daddy's mobile number.

our weekend escapade...

2008-11-29T16:04:00.003+08:00

just last weekend, we had our first little escapade at sentosa. to be exact, it was a 3 days 2 nights stay at the amara spa sanctuary in sentosa itself. it was a pretty fun and nuah trip. maybe it was cos mummy hasn't stayed in a hotel for a long, long while but we had fun messing up the room which overlooked a glass pavilion that had people solemnising their marriages during the entire time that we were there. basically, we did nothing much but lazing around and hanging around vivocity and bringing the kids for a swim. it was ethan's very first experience at the pool. an experience that left him crying! first of all, the water in the pool was a little cold, much colder than all the temperature that he was used to having while at the bath. secondly, with daddy and zoe going up and down the water slide, he was splashed with water everywhere. think he was a little traumatised after that. that sister of his simply thinks that it is funny to splash water onto that traumatised and crying little bro of his. mummy finally ended his ordeal by getting him out of the pool and simply cuddling him. we'll try bringing him to the pool again in 2 weeks time when we head upwards to KL with ah ma, yvonne / shan shan yee and family.

the little cutie is now 6 months plus. he is talking a whole load now. unlike his sister whose first words were 'nigh nigh nigh nigh nigh', he goes 'wah wah wah' and 'nah nah nah' when he's just lying in his cot or just about anywhere, he starts blabbering. and really loudly too. its really cute hearing him babble and seeing him play with his toes. last week, he had his first experience with cereals but it didn't turn out too well as he wasn't used to solids. day 1 - every mouthful of cereal that went into his mouth simply drooled out. day 2 - he hasn't quite warmed up to the idea of having a spoon shoved into his mouth. however, he simply likes the idea of drinking water cos his mouth would just open whenever he sees the bottle. day 3 - he's taking more mouthfuls of cereal now. it is now well over a week since he started solids and his little tastebuds have tried both carrots and sweet potatoes already. mummy's finally making an effort to puree his food (read: organic vegetables!) instead of just giving him jars of gerber food which was what zoe had back then... :p

shy as she may be at times, but these days, zoe has morphed into a friendly little girl! for some unknown reason, she says hi to practically everyone she meets. she automatically says hi to the neighbours' kids, she says hi to bemused strangers when the lift door opens, she says hi to just about everyone, even at the food court! its really a pretty amusing sight to see her do that. her 'IT' phrase nowadays is, 'i don't like this' or 'i like this'. these phrases keep popping up whether she's eating, watching tv or even when mummy's choosing clothes for her. she now sorta understands that we need money to pay for something. so when she sees a toy that she likes on tv, she'll go, 'i like this' and when mummy asks her, 'where's her money', she'll go 'money inside daddy's pocket!' hehehe :)

mummy simply adores her when she's behaving and just being a good girl. but she is simply mummy's nightmare when it comes to mealtimes as she would refuse to chew her food and just store it there for the longest time until she's threatened with chilli sauce or mr spatty. someone help me... it can take her well over an hour to simply finish her bowl of porridge!

p/s: mummy has managed to sell off some nappy liners, milk powder and the nursing pillow last week!

we're going on a holiday!

2008-11-16T01:39:00.009+08:00

yes, finally, we are gonna go on a trip, our first together as a family of 4 come april 09. yes, its another 5 months to go, but at least mummy now has something to look forward to. the place? hong kong (yes, to shop, shop, shop and of cos take the kids to disneyland). the tickets? budget budget jetstar (it costs a total of $800 for a return trip for us all). the accomodation? dunno yet cos its simply darn too expensive right now. booked the tixs slightly over 2 weeks ago during jetstar's anniversary promo and we'll be there for a good 6 days or so. mummy's now praying for cheap but good accomodation. we had a 'sneak preview' of how the trip would turned out today while dining in tony romas, without any extra help (i.e. no ah ma or aunties to entertain the kids!) both zoe and ah than was desperately in need of a nap while daddy and mummy was desperately in need of food. in the end, neither of us really enjoyed the lunch very much (the food sucked too) cos throughout, ethan was making noise in the stroller and wanting to be carried, while a tired and grouchy zoe was just whining and whining (non-stop!) for us to take her to feed the fishes in the pond just outside the restaurant. God! lets pray that things would turn out better as they turn 5 months older in april and that they will not be as grouchy even when deprived of naps!

for the past 3 weeks or so, mummy's been busy. busy with ordering tons of items from US for the 2 of them as their dear good aunty zhuying would be lugging all of those clothings, shoes, books, CDs, toys, cereals and toiletries back to singapore for mummy. yes, aunty zhuying is almost gonna faint from mummy's never ending shopping list. hehe :)

we now have a new toy at home. daddy bought mummy a u-robic as a birthday present and zoe simply loves sitting on it! her sense of balance is really quite good and she has managed to amaze (or maybe amuse) several passerbys when we were trying it out at the osim store. people were just walking by and smiling. yes, mummy and daddy didn't have to hold her hands and she is just shaking there, by herself, in that machine. cool!

zoe:

just a little over 2 weeks ago, ah girl was the flower girl at aunty coco and uncle ryan's wedding held at the bird park. there was a rehearsal 2 days before the wedding and it was somewhat disastrous when she just couldn't walk straight and slowly enough on the red carpet nor throw the petals on the ground. thank God that things were better during the actual event where she managed to walk a little slower, throw the petals and even managed to complete the walk while the page boy just ran off midway! hehe :)

to deal with the girl's somewhat intolerable tantrum, mummy has now started on a new 'discipline' program i.e. the chilli treatment. now when she misbehaves or refuse to chew her food, mummy will smear chilli on her lips and in her mouth! even though it hurts when the she's being piaked by the spatula, but at least for now, it seems that she's a little more afraid of chilli than mr spatty. mummy has decided that if she overcomes the packet chilli stage and continues to be defiant, mr little chilli padi will step in, so do keep a lookout for this space! :p

these days, for some puzzling reason, she's been most reluctant to go to church. on saturday nights, she will be a little moody and protest against going to church when being reminded that that next day is sunday. this time round, she even starts crying and tearing when being ushered in by the teachers unlike previously when she won't even be bothered to turn back and wave goodbye to mummy. yet, each time when we pick her up after servce, she is one happy kid. even the teacher says that she is totally fine while in church and that she seems to be enjoying herself and having loads of fun. mummy's praying that she'll soon get over this phase.

for the past 2 weeks, zoe's been addressing me as 'momo' or something instead of mummy. dunno where she picked that up from, but it sounds totally cute when it came out of her mouth. she's now also better at pronouncing her words. now its 'open' instead of 'or-poon', 'music' instead of 'nu-sic', 'balloon' instead of 'bull-loon' and 'finish' instead of 'simish'. hehe :) she's also finally able to recognise almost all the numbers from 1 to 10, only sometimes she's a little confused between '6', '8' and '9'.

zoe's seems to be able to better control her bladder now as her diapers have remained dry for several nights over the past 10 days or so. this is a very good sign though she now still doesn't inform mummy when she wants to pee or poo. its now really up to mummy to remember to bring her to the potty every 1.5 hours or so. however, till now, she is still against the idea of pooping in the potty since the first time she did it about 2 months back. think she must still be traumatised from seeing her poop in the potty. she would rather have all that poop stuck on her bottom then do it at the potty. sigh.....

ethan:

ah than's very fleshy thigh has managed to amaze everyone we meet. in fact, it seems to be the starter for every conversation about him. though he's really smiley but once he's in a foul mood due to a lack of sleep, his cries are loud enough to burst your ear drums. he is now a little protester too. he now protests really loudly whenever his sister snatches away whatever he's grabbing. he's just grabbing everything, even that bowl of soup on the table when we were out for dinner once. however, he seems to have a preference for plastic bags of any kind and size. his hands would 'attack' really fast and before you know it, a part of the bag would already be in his mouth. touching his toes now seems to be his favourite hobby too.

the boy lights up each time he sees mummy brushing teeth with the electric toothbrush. he gets all excited and jumpy and would just stare and smile. yes, sometimes he even reaches out and tries to touch it too. he is just so darn cute. mummy just can't stop gushing about it.

he'll be 6 months in 3 days time and that's when he'll be having his first taste of cereals and plenty of water. mummy really hopes that he'll not reject his food and that he will not be a fussy little eater like that sister of his.

p/s: mummy and ah ma took the kids to catch madagascar in taka the other day. both ah girl and ah boy took home a free plush (a lion and a monkey) that was given away to the first 30 kids. ah girl totally digs madagascar right now. she would go, 'mar-dar-gar-kar'! and then stand in front the mirror with the lion plush and start dancing and singing 'i like to move it move it, i like to move it move it' non-stop while shaking her butt! its really a very funny sight to behold!

updates, updates and more updates...

2008-10-28T17:39:00.013+08:00

mummy's ethan boy has finally gotten his passport! we can now travel.... to jb... (mummy wishes that it really is someplace else). just check out his cute passport pic! he's a really cutie, not that mummy really wanna boast about it. everywhere we go, strangers can't resist playing with him. people touch him and wave at him. and most importantly, my ah boy always has that all important megawatt smile on for everyone. yes, everyone says that he is a really smiley baby. in fact, he's even more smiley that when that jie jie of his was a little baby. :) that boy had been coughing quite badly for almost a week, but thank God he's healed now. he had a cough so bad that his face would turn all red and he would look really breathless after all that coughing. coupled with that runny nose of his, he was really quite a sight cos of daddy's frequent sucking of his mucous and mummy often trying to put that mask on him to inhale and cure his coughing. well, all that's over now. he's now so good at rolling that 2 days ago, he rolled off the bed, once again. this time, he hit the back of his head and he was crying like crazy due to the pain and his tiredness. thankfully, Abba Daddy's hands was on him and he's just totally fine now, even after that knock to his head.

these days, zoe keeps having intolerable tantrums. she throws a tantrum when she's tired (which is understandable), she throws a tantrum when she can't fix her toy or place the lego properly, she throws a tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants and she throws a tantrum when she wakes up in the morning for no reason. in fact, her tantrums are driving mummy so mad that i wish i could just throw her down. she throws a tantrums also at the malls and at just about anything! no wonder they call it the terrible twos. aunty wailing says that this is just a phase and that they would mellow down by the time they are three. mummy wishes that this is true and if so, God, please make zoe 3 now!!! mummy now realises that the girl hates commotion. when she witnesses people talking to each other in raised voices, her face would screw up and then she will ask, 'mummy, what's that?' there was once when we were at the coffeeshop and the coffee uncle was just shouting out the orders ever so loudly. mummy then commented to her that the uncle was shouting. later on, when that uncle passed by our table, she turned and look at him and said, 'so noisy'. well, mummy's really not too sure if the uncle heard it! hehe :)

over the weekend, mummy bought almost all the peppa pig's books that she could find in borders. peppa pig is mummy's and zoe's favourite character for now. unfortunately, the peppa pig cartoon has just ended its run on kids central. zoe just loves it and always starts oinking whenever she watches the cartoon. peppa is now her favourite next to that purple dinosaur.

these are a few of my favourite things...

2008-10-14T17:21:00.003+08:00

these days, zoe really loves to play pretend. the past nights, she has been pretending to make coffee for daddy as we laze lazily on the bed at night. as she is stirring the 'coffee', she casually asks daddy, 'sugar and milk?', and proceeds to pour them into the cup (occasionally, she adds other condiments in, which we imagine to be pepper). then she walks over to our cushioned corner protector and presses on it, imagining it to be the hot water dispenser, before giving daddy the cup of delicious coffee! she even 'warns' daddy that the coffee is 'hot' and that he must 'blow' it first before drinking it! cute huh? thereafter, she'll proceed to wash that imaginary spoon (that was used to stir the coffee) in mid air and then she'll repeat that whole coffee making cycle all over again. her imagination sure is good!

as for ah than (pronounced 'turn' - short form from [e(than)]), he sure is one boy who loves blowing bubbles. he could just be in our arms or lying on his tummy somewhere when he'll suddenly just go, 'puhhhh'... repeatedly and forming saliva all over his mouth. he'll do that even as he is drinking milk midway! and also, while he's drinking milk from mummy's breast, occasionally he'll attempt to stick his fingers into his mouth too! hmmm.... seems like he really wants the best of both worlds, i.e. to drink milk and suck his darling fingers at the same time!

on saturday, we were going to bring them both for a walk somewhere near changi sailing club when we realised that the jetty was actually just nearby. we then had a change in plan and decided on an impromptu visit to pulau ubin instead. wow, how things have changed since daddy and mummy last pak tor at this place a zillion years ago. the jetty has been transformed into a beautiful building complete with lift access and the one way fare to ubin now cost $2.50 per pax instead of $1. even ah girl has to pay for the fare! there are also no fixed departure time as the operator will only start the boat when there's 12 paxs. while it was really hot, but it was a fun first time ride for zoe while ethan just slept through. it was really quite bo-liao as we ended up spending just a mere 10 minutes at pulau ubin as the weather somehow really didn't look too good. yes, we had to pay for yet another one way fare back to mainland. but, we'll be back! pulau ubin, here we come again... soon.....

yesterday, ah girl was really funny. she suddenly blurted out, 'are you crazy? are you crazy daddy' when she heard mummy asking daddy if he was mad. both of us looked at her and had a good laugh cos it was the first time she said that and we are quite sure she doesn't really know the meaning of that. guess she must have learnt that from mummy cos i sometimes ask if she is crazy when she does something silly.... hehehehe :) even as ah than was fidgeting about in his car seat and whining last night, she suddenly said, 'than, why are you upset?' whoa.... she is really talking a whole load now.

more zoethan's updates...

2008-10-07T18:27:00.005+08:00

mummy has checked through all the pics taken lately and realised that while photos of didi have been increasing, the no. of photos taken by zoe have been decreasing... steadily. that girl, its just getting increasingly difficult to take her pics! she looks everywhere except at the camera... sigh... on the other hand, ethan is just growing cuter everyday. he's quite cheery, often showing off his megawatt smile... even when jie jie is just doing nothing and looking at him, he breaks into a smile too. awwwwww....

zoe...
oh yes, on 30 sept, we brought zoe to her very first movie! brought her to catch wall-e at gv vivocity. she was initially frightened when we brought her into the cinema cos she has never seen a screen as big as that with such loud sounds... she soon settled in quickly and while daddy and mummy were initially afraid that she'll be talking and asking many questions in the cinema, she did none of that! in fact, the other kids were talking even louder than her. she had fun watching the movie and chomping on sausages and popcorn and very soon, she was in love with both wall-e and eve, the 2 robots from the show. ask her now if she likes wall-e or eve and she'll be quick to reply that she likes both 'wall-e and eve'. daddy has since bought her a wall-e soft toy too.

its been 3 weeks since we attended church as ah girl had been having cough and flu on & off. finally got to attend service the past sunday and children's church was actually having a childrens' day celebration party. not bad, as all the little kids went home with either a strawberry shortcake or thomas the train water bottle. zoe now has a new little tikes table that we bought specially for her use from the robinson expo sale. its a great little table that can actually double up as an easel as well. she loves sitting at the table and doing just about anything on it. she's just one intelligent girl too, though sometimes her intelligence can drive mummy nuts cos whenever she decides that she has had enough milk or food, she will clutch her tummy and go, 'tummy pain pain', else she will proceed with a pretend puke sound which really drives me crazy. anyways, we know she's really just faking it so that's when her best friend, spatty (aka spatula) takes over. once she sees the spatula, her tummy pain would 'immediately disappear' cos she will then proceed to drink up every bit of milk or finish up every morsel of food in her bowl. mummy and daddy's really wondering where she learnt that 'trick' from. btw, she can recite our home address now.

over the past 2 weeks, zoe had woken up twice in the middle of the night crying and screaming. nothing we do or say could calm her down. out of sheer frustration and tiredness, daddy then proceeded to cover her mouth to stop her screaming (which didn't work!) while mummy just screamed even louder to ask her to 'keep quiet!!!' all these while, darling ethan just sleeps through, hardly stirring one bit! pretty mean parents we are, hor?

ethan:
1 october: ah boy officially upgrades to a size M diaper! his thighs are just so cute and chubby that even the sales aunty at robinsons couldn't resist squeezing them! he's now almost 8kg and flipping over is chicken feet for him. he had his second series of injections just last week, this time, he cried a little after the second needle poked him... poor thing, there's still 2 more injections to go come december. ah boy really seems to love the water too. he's now moving quite a bit whenever its bath time, he's either kicking his legs in the water or arching his back. even when water gets into his eyes, he neither panicks nor cry too. its just a perfect calm for him. looks like its really time to bring him for a swim...

pictures & more pictures!

2008-09-26T16:00:00.007+08:00

last week, on daddy's birthday, we took ah girl and ah boy down to the studio for a photo shoot at the studio loft. it was zoe's third shoot and ah than's first. boy, getting the girl to take pictures has never been so difficult! we had to call out to her many times before she would look at the camera, but even then, she'll be having all that weird expressions. gosh. even taking natural shots were difficult too cos she was always running away from the camera or away from the lightings and then she'll just be busy with playing around with the props in the studio, like the rocking horse. sigh... as for ah boy, he's now a real pro, ever smiling so happily for the camera. he's really such a cutie with that big gorgeous eyes of his and that pretty smile! its just a pity that we went to the studio a little too late cos he was tired out after a little while and was beginning to show signs of ittitation and tiredness and finally decided that enough was enough! we managed to have our final shot as a family though... we were all dressed in the blues i.e. chelsea jersey. we got a little kid's jersey for the boy, while zoe was wearing mummy's and mummy was wearing daddy's. pretty fun except that it was quite tiring getting the 2 kids to look into the camera at the same time. well, we'll just see how the pictures turn out!

p/s: below are some pics that we took at the studio when little ethan was still swimming inside mummy's tummy! enjoy! :)

every mummy's nightmare...

2008-09-14T19:32:00.003+08:00

just 2 days after ah boy learns to flip himself over, he rolled off the sofa on friday morning! mummy had placed him at the innermost portion of the sofa and was gone for barely 2 minutes when i heard a 'thud' on the floor and that was it, my little darling was on the floor, face down! mummy let out a scream and proceeded to hug and soothe the little thingy who was by then covered in tears and more tears! the crying lasted less than 30 seconds though, but that was enough to freak mummy out! there wasn't any significant bruise, save for a little redness by the side of his forehead. thank God! in any case, we took him down to the pd for a check who reassured us that ah boy should be fine and to just look out for any vomiting, drowsiness or swelling of the forehead. its been a day since the fall and an boy is looking super good! no signs of any after effects from that fall! mummy is super sure that it was Jesus had protected our little boy and had angels in place to cushion ah boy from his fall. yes, its a GOOD GOD that we served! Amen!

just now, the poor boy suffered yet another knock on his head when jie jie threw her water bottle which landed on his head as mummy was nursing him! though it was an unintentional act by the jie jie, but that was enough to startle him and get him crying out loud. this time, we could detect redness on his head and a little bump had appeared by the time we reached home. we tried soothing the bump with a hard boiled egg. ah boy seems fine, nevertheless, we do believe that Jesus has already healed him and that he is always there protecting us at all times. thank you Abba Daddy!

i'm a big boy now!

2008-09-11T16:05:00.002+08:00

guess what? last nite, ah boy has successfully managed to turn himself over from being face up to tummy's down! this means that he can now flip himself over very successfully! yeah yeah yeah!

as for zoe, she as usual, being very naughty, got spatula-ed by daddy BIG time last nite for not listening and for lying under the cot and refusing to come out. we're both at our wits end with regards to handling her tantrums and temper though she really can be quite funny at times. when she wanted to brush her own teeth 2 nites ago, daddy was like, 'brush your head ah!' in response, she replied, 'no brush head! brush teeth!!!!' heehehehhehe :)

my sister, my idol...

2008-09-08T16:18:00.008+08:00

mummy hasn't been blogging lately cos the notebook supposedly 'crashed' (when it didn't!) and cos mummy's been too lazy and tired to blog! there's just tons of things to be done, like picking up after all the toys and books that zoe has strewn all over the house, changing diapers (for the record, daddy has only changed zoe's poop diapers twice in these two half years or so and zero for ethan - is he lucky or what?! he claims that the poop is disgusting and he won't do a good job cleaning up their buttocks!), the tons of laundry! oh well, well, well, okay, excuses excuses, now that i am back, ah boy's turning 4 months soon, time flies and then it'll be his first photo shoot at the studio loft next week, together with jie jie who'll be doing her third shoot! yes, its gonna be pictures and more pictures and it'll be daddy's 32nd birthday too.

didi's really a big boy whose arms resembles lotus roots and who legs are like mini pig trotters! he's so chubby that you can even see cellulite on his buttocks! hehe :) he's a baby who simply loves blowing bubbles with his saliva! didi's idol is really jie jie zoe for he is always looking at her adoringly every time he sees her and you can always find a smile on his face whenever he looks at her. his eyes always follows jie jie wherever she goes and even when daddy is playing with jie jie, he just looks on lovingly! well, at least zoe really loves didi too. whenever didi cries, she'll run over to the cot and start patting him, while saying, 'didi dun cry' or she'll go, 'its alright didi, alright'. just last week, as didi was lying in the cot getting ready for a nap, she took out her favourite bible storybook and attempted to read to didi (just like what mummy does before her naptime). i think she even went, 'once upon a time.....' hahahaha :p it was quite a funny sight but mummy's just really glad that there's no rivarly between them! whenever mummy changes didi into his pyjamas, zoe would go, 'didi put on pyjajamas!'

zoe's talking a whole lot more these days and she sometimes surprises us by the things she says. 2 days ago, she said, 'didi cannot (say) bye bye ah ma BECAUSE didi cry!' whoa! that was her using the word 'because' for the first time and she's using it correctly! the other day, mummy was telling her that 'pig' in chinese is 'zhu' and she immediately went 'zhu-raff' (giraffe)! that's how cheeky she is. then once she got mummy so mad that mummy was like, i am so angry with you!!!, to which she immediately blurted out, 'HAPPY!' mummy was quite surprised by her response that i didn't know whether to laugh or stay angry with her. when daddy was applying some cream for her the other day, she actually asked daddy for some too, to which daddy replied, 'take your head.' her immediate response then was, 'no take head! no take head!' even as daddy was attempting to play with her on the bed after a shower, she actually went, 'dun disturb me!'

ah girl is now very into playing the 'where's zoe' game. for instance, she hide under the blanky or behind / under the cot and then she'll ask, 'mummy, where's zoe?' othertimes, she'll hide her feet behind some toys and she'll be like, 'mummy, where's zoe's feet?' she'll be asking the same question even after her shower when she can't see herself clearly behind the foggy mirror. she's also good at playing pretend nowadays. one moment, she's pretending that she's washing her hands and drying them under a dryer or towel, the next moment, she'll be cooking or dispensing water from an imaginary dispenser under the tabletop. yesterday, she hid her tigger behind the cot and then she asked, 'mummy, where's tigger?' when i told her that i don't know where tigger was and that tigger's missing, while suggesting that maybe she should call the police for help, she actually then put her imaginary phone to her ears and this was what she said, 'hello, police? tigger. bye bye!'

these days, she's just like a victim of 'child abuse' for you'll be able to spot many blue blacks on her legs cos she's just so rough when she plays. 3 weeks ago, she developed a bump on her head after falling off yee yee's bed. thank God that it was just a mattress lying on a platform and not a raised bed. even when she falls down when we are outside, she's more concerned that her elbows and hands are now dirty rather than complain about the knock that she has just received on the knees. daddy says that she's just like a boy. we are now trying to get her to kick that sucking fingers habit by applying some 'stop it!' nail polish (for adults who bite their fingers) on those 2 precious fingers of her. initially, it worked, her face screwed up when she tried sucking them cos that nail polish really tasted horrible and that taste lingers on your tongue even after you have rinsed it repeatedly or drank tons of water. yes, it worked, but it lasted for less than a day before she started again when the nail polish wore off. since then, mummy has tried applying the nail polish again, but this time, she resume her finger sucking within half a day and sometimes, sucking her other fingers for comfort before the effect wore off. mummy has since painted all 10 nails of hers to deter her from sucking. let's keep our fingers crossed that it'll work this time!

p/s: oh yes, she's been promised a new toy if she (a) poops in the potty and if she (b) stops sucking her fingers for 7 consecutive days! :p

didi and jiejie...

2008-08-20T16:16:00.003+08:00

ah boy's sleeping habits have changed greatly over the past 2 weeks or so! just 2 or 3 weeks ago, he was still a loud wailing baby who is often quite awake during the night and goes to bed only at 2 or 3am in the morning. his cries then can keep everyone awake except for daddy who can snore within 2 minutes of hitting the bed. during that period of time, ah girl also stays awake and refuses to sleep (in spite of her tired-ness) and sleeps only when mummy is finally in bed with her, without didi... thank God all that has changed now. ah boy now sleeps well through the nite, and he is often asleep by 1am. even if he does stir in his sleep or cries briefly, mummy now refuses to nurse him and just pats him to sleep, which works! hehe :) also, ah boy has now found his best sleeping pal, his chubby tubby fingers! which he sucks ever so loudly even in the midst of his sleep! mummy's not too sure which are his favourite fingers though cos everyone of them seems to be as 'delicious' to him! thanks to them, instead of just sleeping on his tummy, he can now soothe himself to sleep when face up too...

he's one boy who quietens down when he looks at himself on a mirror and watches tv and he sometimes responds to us by oohing... and aahing... and even by playing with his saliva! he smiles and then you'll see a goblet of drool coming from his mouth. he's also one smiley baby and he simply loves his jie jie so cos everytime he looks at her or when jie jie looks at him, he will just start smiling. just last nite, we heard his very first chuckle! it was really loud and funny and he chuckled for quite a long while. mummy was in the midst of dressing up jie jie (after a shower) when he started chuckling non-stop after jie-jie laughed in response to his chuckles. it was definitely a kodak moment that mummy managed to capture on video.

zoe's really funny these days. she loves playing the imitation game (even imitating the olympians on tv when they dive and does the gymnastics routine or when they collect their medals and flowers and holds it up in glory) and loves it when we imitates her. else, she'll be in her play pretend mode all of a sudden. last week, she found an empty kitchen towel roll and she excitedly ran up to mummy and said, 'see mummy! a telescope!' mummy was surprised cos i had never taught her what a telescope was, guess she must have picked that up from watching barney again. just now, she suddenly stood on the dining room table with a few cards in her hands and exclaimed, 'children, time for.... cards!' that really caught mummy by surprise cos she must have learnt that from church! another day, ah girl spotted the abnn(s) that once washed daddy's car at the car park and she pointed to then and said, 'daddy, abnn. abnn wash daddy's car', to which daddy replied, 'no more abnn, daddy has already fire them cos they wash car lousy'. what came out of her mouth next truly had us both in stitches for she suddenly asked, 'mummy, where's the fire???' hehehehhe :p

ah girl's memory is really good too. last week we were dinner-ing at kfc when she suddenly cried out excitedly, 'mummy! aeroplane!' mummy was like 'what aeroplanes' for i couldn't spot anyone playing with planes or anywhere with an SIA logo (cos she associates that with plane). it was only a while later that i realise that there, sitting in front of us, was a guy wearing a black t-shirt with the words and logo, 'changi terminal 3'! whoa, was mummy impressed with that girl. she must have seen that many times due to our frequent trips to T3 for meals! she now knows how to spell her name too...

on sunday, we were at giant when this promoter started promoting the all new drypers drypantz to us. mummy then asked for samples but she said we had to call to get them and she actually commented, your girl can ask for 'XL' (zoe's only a 'L') and your boy 'L' (didi's only wearing an 'S'!). goodness, my 3 months young baby in a 'L'??? he must have looked pretty big to her! mummy's now only gonna upgrade him to 'M' diapers. but i really must admit that ah boy is really a big baby as compared to his jie jie previously. just check out that thigh of his, just like pig trotters as ah ma and shan shan yee yee has commented! hehe :)

p/s: zoe poo-ed in the potty for the first time yesterday, but she was so 'stressed', the poop came up in 3 parts, meaning she continued with her poop again after mummy has put back the diaper on her... let's pray she'll learn to poop in the potty soon...

my little prince & princess...

2008-07-31T17:24:00.005+08:00

yet another 2 weeks have passed since mummy's last blog. as of 2 weeks ago, didi weighs 6.1kg and is considered a BIG baby! given his 'tremendous growth', the pd has advised mummy to nurse didi every 4 hours instead of 3 hourly. due to his sheer size, didi has once again been mistaken for a 4 or 5 months baby (when he's only 2 months young!) while in church! hehe... thanks be to Abba Daddy for mummy's very 'powderful' milk! wow, this last trip to the pd set mummy & daddy back by a good $450! then, didi was given 2 injections (one on each thigh, can you imagine that poor boy screaming his guts out?), some 6-in-one immunity booster and another for pnuemoccocal. then, he was given oral medication for rotavirus, all of these, including consultation costs a good $450! and there'll be a part 2 come september and it would be another hefty sum then. having kids nowadays are sure an expensive affair!

in these 2 months, didi has since learnt to suck his fingers and whenever he sucks them, he sucks them so loudly that you would have thought that he was sucking on some delicious lollies! also, he has since indicated his preference and will only be pacified when mummy's carrying him while standing up! else, he will wail non-stop so much and so loudly that one would be most tempted to throw him down! and just when you think that he is pacified enough and when mummy attempts to sit down with that 6.1kg baby, the crying begins!!! it really baffles mummy as to why he knows whether mummy's carrying him and standing up or sitting down! these days, mummy's arms really ache from all that carrying, that baby is definitely much more effective in helping mummy develop muscles than carrying weights! Abba daddy, please help me........ please help me to help that baby sleep at night without extended periods of carrying and wailing!!! argh!!! ;p

talking about that mischevious jie jie of his, she is definitely one very 'gu(3) ling (2) jing (1) guai (4)' girl! she's not even 2 and a half years, but she is definitely cheeky! whenever mummy asks didi, 'didi, want to drink milk milk?', (and of cos mummy doesn't expect any replies from didi) that girl will butt in and exclaim, 'NO!' this happens every single time without fail. and when mummy asks her for a goodnite kiss, she'll go kiss that favourite pillow of hers instead of mummy! yes, even when mummy says, 'give me 3 kisses!', she will go kiss that pillow 3 times and then give mummy a cheeky grin!!! one night, that girl got us both angry when she refused to go to bed even though it was already very late at night. she later blurted, 'daddy angry, mummy angry, everybody angry'. mummy really didn't know whether to laugh or to continue being angry with her after hearing it! it was quite funny really...

one day last week, on discovering that mummy was 'nowhere to be found', she asked, 'where's pauline?' and when she couldn't find mummy still after a little bit of searching, she said, 'no more pauline'. then when she heard some noises in the toilet, she pushed open that door and upon finding mummy, she said, 'hello pauline!' yes, that girl calls mummy by her name! previously, when we were first getting her to learn how to pee on the potty and every successful attempt would be followed by a clap and a 'good job zoe' comment by either daddy or mummy. that day, she opened the door and found mummy peeing. when mummy was finished, she actually gave mummy a clap and said, 'good job mummy!' hehehehehehe :)

zoe's now learning more and more things, so we brought her to both the goat farm and the zoo over the past 2 weeks. at the goat farm, she tried her hands at feeding hay to the goats and at the zoo, she even went on a pony ride! most kids her age would be frightened at doing these things, but not our zoe. in fact, a dog double her size (and barking!) doesn't faze her at all! she's just one brave gal... she's also learning some bit of chinese every now and then. the other day, mummy asked her what's the chinese word for 'ball' and she says, 'qiu (2) ren' (as in CHILDren!)! while the chinese word for 'cow' is 'niu (2) paper' (as in NEWSpaper)! mummy almost fainted... hehehe :op

some updates... finally!!!

2008-07-18T17:44:00.013+08:00

yes, mum's back to blog. its been a crazy day too, with zoe getting spatula-ed by mummy for at least 20 times since 4.30am this morning. yes, at that ungodly hour when didi's cries woke everyone else up. soon ah girl was awoken by his cries and cried for mummy too when she realised that mummy wasn't in the room, next to her. in fact, mummy and didi had been sleeping on the sofa for a good one half hour before he awoke... its been crazy, didi has been depriving mummy of her sleep the past few days as he refused to sleep when placed on the cot and only wanted to be carried to sleep throughout! mummy's arms has been aching from all that carrying and it drove mummy so mad that mummy told daddy to rename him 'xie(4) guo(4) fen(4)' instead of 'xie junxi'. strange, he's a good boy during the day and can fall asleep on his own or after some little bit of carrying, but during the night, he just wails on the top of his lungs so much that mummy is tempted to just throw him on the ground.

this morning, after having awoken everyone else up, he totally refused to go back to sleeping on the cot or sofa. each time mummy tried placing him down to sleep, he would cry. his cries kept his jie jie more and more awake as she too refused to go back to bed and it wasn't until 4 and a half hours later, many spatula marks on the back of her legs, and watching a barney program before she finally settled back in bed at 9am. in between those hours, she was running around in the room, singing non-stop, trying to read in the dark and driving mummy mad. in fact, she continued with her nonsense even after she awoke during noon time as she threw her tantrums when mummy refused to let her 'explore' the fridge or touch the hot steamer, yes, she was spatula-ed again, mummy was tempted to give her a slap and throw her out of the door. argh!!! the total hours of sleep mummy got today was one and a half hours... i give up... shall not blog anymore about what happened today, rather, let's update a little on what's been happening with the 2 kids since the last time mummy blogged. here it goes:

zoe jie jie...
as the barney song goes, 'growing, i'm growing everyday!, zoe and ethan are both morphing into lil' ms and mr hercules! that girl is one tough cookie and she actually has the strength to carry a box full of books and a bag full of water from the bedroom into the living room. even when being spatula-ed, she doesn't scream in pain but in fact just screams, 'aiyah!' these days, when she sees mummy applying ru-yi oil on didi, she will lift up her singlet too while asking for the same to be applied on her tummy. yesterday night was totally funny. usually, she would imitate mummy by feeding her doll with the milk bottle and bringing the doll for a walk in the doll stroller (oh yes, she even shares daddy's ps3's controller with the doll by using the doll's fingers to press the controller). but last night, besides positioning herself nicely on the chair, she actually lifted up her singlet and put barney to her chest when she saw mummy nursing didi. yes! she wanted to do the same, she was pretending to nurse barney too! shortly after, she proceeded to burp barney the way mummy burped didi. daddy and mummy couldn't stop laughing after that.

my ah girl takes pretty good pictures using mummy's camera phone. wait till mummy is free to upload them, they are pretty artistic as well! mummy's considering getting her the fisher-price kids digital camera from the US if the money permits! she's growing and learning new things everyday. she now knows her colours and sometime 2 weeks ago, she also managed to undress herself from the top, to the bottom and her diapers! she also one brave girl who doesn't cry for hep whenever she falls, be it at home, outside or in the mall. she would just go 'oh, (zoe) fall down' and then quickly picks herself up and go. she's one gung-ho girl and that explains the many bruises she has on her legs. that last time mummy counted, she had at least 6 blue blacks on them! also, she now showers in pretty cold water be it during the noon or night and she seems to enjoy them quite a bit! her favourite question now is, 'what is this/it, mummy?', and she keeps saying 'yee want, yee want' when what she meant was 'i want, i want'.

oh yes, besides being a shopping addict (she asks to go shopping almost everyday) she's also a coffee addict too! no, we dun actually let her drink coffee, but she would love to stir the coffee each time she see daddy or ah ma drinking it. she would then proceed to pick up whatever little coffee she can from the stirrer and start giving herself those little mouthfuls of coffee! we have since given up trying to get her to stop doing that as she will go into tantrum mode again when rejected... for most of the time, mummy and daddy would just leave the toilet door unlock when we're in there, so the girl is quite used to being able to push the door open to look for us. the other day, daddy actually locked the door and because she couldn't get the door to open, guess what she did? she re-enacted a scence of the wolf in the 3 little pigs by trying to 'blow' down the toilet door to look for daddy! it was quite a funny sight indeed... yes, all that barney watching has gotten into her. in fact, she can sing most of barney's songs now too! last week, as daddy was playing with her on the bed by 'kiap-ing' her, she actually yelled, 'help me! mummy pay $$$!' hehehehehehe :)

p/s: we took ah girl to participate in the young parents 'cover kid of the year' photo contest 3 weeks ago. let's pray that she gets selected as a finalist!

ethan didi:
didi's a big boy now. he just turned 2 months yesterday and he is just one big and chubby baby! he outgrew his NB diapers 2 or 3 weeks ago and is now wearing a size 's' diaper. someone we met at a birthday party 2 weeks ago was shocked to learn that ah boy was only '7 weeks' when he initially thought that he was a 4 or 5 months baby, just like his own boy! wah, mummy's milk must be very 'powderful'. as of 3 days ago, he was 6.1kg! his ah gong has since given him a nickname called 'zai-ong' (in hokkien), meaning 'fortune king' cos he is just so chubby and fleshly!

like his jie jie, at 6 weeks, he was sleeping for 5 straight hours during the night, and then now, its at least 7 hours if he's sleeping well, save for the last few days when he drove mummy nutz by refusing to sleep unless carried. the past 2 weeks, he has also merlion-ed quite a bit (i.e. throwing up all his milk), think its mostly due to mummy not burping him enough or him taking in too many mouthfuls of air while crying before milktime... oops... :( he's one smiley baby too, he smiles when you tickle his cheeks or chin and just the other day, he actually chuckled in his sleep! he really resembles a little mr michelin now!

p/s: ah boy was blessed by ps henry almost 3 sundays ago on 29 june 08.