" It wasn't my fault! "

Nicole attended her friend, Yanni's birthday party on Sunday.

The host was very generous in providing a feast for the guests. There was so much food displayed on the table, an international selection is no exaggeration. We had otah, muslim halal food, pasta in various forms and cooking styles, fried beehoon, ham rolls, puffs and pastries, fruits and desserts, beer, wine and kids' friendly drinks of course.

We walked around the table, deciding what to have and Nicole spotted these baby ham rolls. She exclaimed " Mommy, why are there so many baby toilet rolls here? " She has never failed me with her witty observation! :) They did have some resemblance to toilet rolls, though an unappealing description!

Yanni's auntie organised many games which all the kids participated in. The kids had lots of fun playing together. The highlight of the day was none other than the cake cutting ceremony. All the kids surrounded the table, just wanting to get a glimpse of the lovely birthday cake :)

The party ended with a happy Nicole carrying with her a goodie bag and a half filled packet drink. Before she got into the car, I reminded her not to squeeze the packet as it would spill. Obviously, she was too excited checking out the goodie bag to remember anything I said. Given the state of her mind, I could not expect anything less than a spill:( Truely, the moment she got into the car, the sugary drink came oozing out onto her dress and car seat!

Nic " Mom, I spill the drink. I am sorry"

Me " What did I just tell you? Look, you are soaked in sugar water now. The car will be infested with ants. What am I to do with you?" ( in a very stern voice)

Nic " I said I am sorry ok!! Can you hold the drink for me? and can you clean me up?" (flaring up at me for reprimanding her as though it was my fault)

That was aggressive! "e ren xian gao zhuang!" (meaning, you accuse first though you are at fault!). I could see Lawrence laughing away quietly at his driver seat while driving out of the estate! I tried so hard to suppress my laughter too! Sigh! My little tough nut!

Another fruitful sunday!

The pace of our sunday lesson was just right.

We did some revision over last week's poems. Both were about 90% ready to recite the first poem but certainly not the second one. They needed more practice on it.

We also read an easy reader together - Town Mouse & Country Mouse. With some assistance, both could read reasonably well. They needed some help on the following words : Suddenly, Country, Town, Noise, Engine, Another. I was impressed that they could pronounce words like : Frightened, Funny House. To be fair, I guess the pictorial images gave them some clues in "guessing" the words too! That said, I would rate their reading ability as good benchmarking against their age. (One is 4, the other is 5).

As usual, we did some revision on Maths - listening and understanding. They have mastered it well and it was a breeze in completing a series of 8 questions. It took them less than 5 minutes to come up with the answers!

Then, the girls went on to their routine play - world trip! I got them to examine the globe with me. They have learnt to locate a few countries on the globe : Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and India. They had a good time spinning the colorful ball! Thank God, they didn't disjoint it, the way Nicole did!

" I didn't break it, it came off by itself ! "

I bought this globe for Nicole. She was all excited at the sight of a rotatable "ball". Below happened when I was in the bedroom. Lawrence related the incident to me.

Nicole was happily turning and twisting the globe and all of a sudden it went "clak clak", the globe detached from the holder! She was very nervous, thinking that it was broken. Quickly, she ran to Lawrence.

Nic " Papa, this thing came off. Can you fix it back? You are so strong. I am sure you can do it"

Lawr " Oh oh, what did you do, Nicole? Mommy is going to be upset with you"

Nic " I didnt do anything, it just came off by itself. See, you have muscles, I am sure you can fix it" (trying very hard to butter Lawrence up. We all know that papa doesn't have strong biceps, at least not distinctively visible....heehee:)

It was just so hilarious! Indeed, it was an easy fix for an adult but it was certainly beyond reach for a 4-year-old. Nicole has her own way of getting things done, it seems!

Color pencils in shape sorter!

Ethan was bored with all his toys, especially this shape sorter. Not only did he manage to get all the blocks into the intended spots, he also filled it up with Nicole's color pencils!! Nicole was screaming her head off, upon seeing all her color pencils buried in Ethan's sorter :( Thankfully, she did not put it out on Ethan. She just came to me, complaining about Ethan's action. This is indeed one commendable trait of Nicole despite being a tough nut :) )

"Tie my hair"

Nicole has this undesirable habit of asking everyone in the household to keep tying her hair for her. As soon as the hair band is loosened the slightest bit, she would ask me, Rose or Lawrence to tie for her again. It even happens right before she is asleep, while tossing and turning in her bed!

Nic " Mom, can you tie my hair for me?"
Me " I just did"
Nic " Can you do it again?"
Me " No, your hair is still very neat"
Nic" Papa, can you tie for me?"
Lawr " No, it looks fine"
Nic " You guys dont love me anymore, I am going to XXX to look for Po-po"

Lawr " How are you going? Do you have money? Do you have your passport?"
Nic " I am taking a plane. I will take your wallet and get my passport from the drawer"
Me " What are you going to tell the immigration officer?"
Nic " I will just pay him"
Me " Why do you have to pay him?"
Nic " So that he will let me go through"

OMG! Isn't this day light bribery? Where on earth did Nicole get this idea from? We don't allow her adults' TV programs nor do we discuss such a topic at home.

Sweet little morning wake up call

As much as Ethan's weight has taken a toll on my back and knee caps, he is really the sweetest little angel to me.

Every morning, he would wake at 645am, without fail. He has this automatic alarm clock in him which would just go off at exactly 645am! Seeing that I am still asleep (I am awake the moment he is, but I just lie there waiting for him to wake me :) , he would just come and nudge me, kiss me on my lips and touch my face. Then he would roll about in his own bed, smelling his "a-bu" (ie. nappy) for another 5mins or so before he really tries to wake me. He would come very close and say " Mama, he nai" (meaning mama, drink milk) and then he would get his hands under my pillow and try to wake me. If I still do not respond to him, he would start screaming and that is when I would carry him out for his milk. That would kick start a hectic day for me!

"I can dance with my belly"

My auntie is here to visit. As she is quite a regular visitor to our place, Ethan is comfortable to be around her.

We went shopping at Orchard to pick up just about a few things which my auntie deemed as "essentials". 4 more pairs of forks and spoons on top of the 50 pairs sitting in her kitchen cabinet in Australia, 1 more thermal pot to join her collection of 3, 2 more pairs of dancing shoes so that my cousin could have a choice, 2 more water bottles to make her total purchase to 6, just in case she needed to keep 1 or 2 in each car. The list could just go on and on if not for the limited luggage space!

When she showed me her dancing shoes, with Ethan sitting right next to me, we got a pleasant treat from Ethan.

Aunt " This is what I bought, dancing shoes"
Ethan " yi-po" ("yi po" meaning grand aunt in English, while pointing to my aunt and shaking his fleshy and round body with rippling effect - trying to gesture to us that he was dancing)

It was a rather entertaining sight, seeing his round belly going in circle :)

I surrender!

It was another of my stressful day when it was time for Nicole to practise playing the piano. I literally raised my voice at her.

Me " Nicole, for the very last time, come over and play this song! I am losing so much weight because of you! Can't you see I am so skinny now? I am exhausted having to stress over you!"

Nic " No, you are not losing weight because of me. You are a woman and a woman is supposed to be skinny"

Me " What nonsense! Look at Auntie XXX then"
Nic " She is not fat "
Me " I didnt say she is fat. You did!"
Nic " She is just right then"

...*Fainted with 2 buckets of vomitted blood*.....

Role Play (3)

Then, she rang her bell signaling that her store was once again open, after "robbing" me. (You can see her writing the word " open" on her board :)

So, I popped over and I wanted to get a stroller and a teddy bear.

Me " Hi, I am here again!"

Nic " Hi, my shop is open now. What would you like to buy?"

Me "..hmmm..let's see, I would like to have this stroller and teddy bear"

Nic "..ah..ah...no no, you can't. They are not for sale. My teddy bear is sleeping" (her teddy and stroller were her favourites of the week )

Me " Oic, in this case, I will just get a teapot and a cup"

Nic " Ok, here you go. the teapot is $9 and the cup is $5 "

Me " So, how much do I pay you ?"

Nic " $14 " ( She thought for a while, and started doing the mental maths I taught her. She showed me 5 fingers and started counting from 10 till all the 5 fingers were accounted for. That gave her 14!)

Me " I have all these monies here. Can you just take$14 from me?"

Nic " No, you have to count and pay me yourself" (obviously not knowing which bills to pick...heehee)

Then I used the whiteboard to show her the breakdown. She supplied the answers 9 and 4 on the first and second equation respectively and I completed the sums for her. Of course, there could be other combinations to arrive at the same output! She was just happy to pick two $5 and one $4 from my box :)

I was very pleased that she was able to apply her textbook mathematical skills in her day to day play :)

Role play (2)

Then it was Nicole's turn to visit my store.

Nic " Hi, I am here"

Me " Hello, good seeing you again. What would you like to buy today?"

Nic " hotdog and the pot"

Me " Oh great. That would be $18"

Nic " That is too expensive. I am not going to buy it. Can you lower your price?"

Me " Sure, since you are my regular, I shall just ask for $15"

Nic " No, I won't pay $15. I will only pay $3"

Me " Oh no no no, I can't do it for $3. It is below my cost. Why don't you take this piece of bread and the plate instead? It will just be $3"

Nic " NO NO NO. I am not going to visit your store anymore. I won't buy anything from you again! I will just stay in my shop!"

Shortly after she went back to her own store, she came and "robbed" me of all my merchandise and she was happy again!! It was fun role playing with her but I could never be the winner or else she would start crying like a cry baby! :(

Role Play (1)

I was playing "masak-masak" with Nicole. The theme was "buy and sell".

We each owned a store. Nicole would come and buy from me and vice versa. We had the authority to set the prices for the things we were selling. I wanted to buy a toy car from Nicole and here goes...........

Me " Hi, how much is this car? I would like to buy it"

Nic " Oh, this is a good buy, only $7"

Me " Great, here you are, $10"

Nic " Thanks" (keeping the $10 safely in her box with no intention of giving me back my change)

Me " I gave you two $5, so you have to give me back my change "

Nic " I don't know how much to give you back. Never mind, I can lower the price to $6. You give me two $3 will do"

Me " Wow, that is very nice of you, thanks!"

I was rather pleased with Nicole's "performance". She was able to think on her feet and seal the deal though at a lower margin!

Next up, role play (2) & (3)... Stay tuned!

Piano lesson again?

The most stressful day of the week for me would be Saturday! It is the day for Nicole's piano lesson. Based on past records, she would only practise playing the melodies "seriously" 15 minutes before her lesson! I was all stressed out by her "tidak apa" attitude. She would just lie on the stool, walk about but eventually she would sit and play for 1o minutes or so. Surprisingly, she has been able to do reasonably well in class, as commented by her teacher, though more practice would be required to "soften" her fingers!

Me " Nicole, hurry up. Come and practise!"
Nic " Do you really think I can do it?"
Me " Yes, absolutely"
Nic " What would Miss Yong say if I can play this song?"
Me " Well done, Nicole"
Nic " Are you sure? Will she be very pleased with me? "

........on and on and on........

Finally, when she played the tune, I was rather relieved! Phew!! Just as a Chinese saying goes... "The emperor is not anxious but the eunuch is"!!

Me" Good job Nicole, You melt my heart with this lovely melody!"
Nic " your heart is made of ice cream? haha"

....*Fainted *...

"My playhouse"

Ethan got bored of reading. So, I unfolded the playhouse to keep him entertained. He was absolutely thrilled at the sight of it! He could have it all to himself as Nicole was still in school :)In no time, the balls were all over the house. Gosh!! There were 70 of them all together...all at the expense of Auntie Rose :(...Some under the staircase, the sofa, the dining table etc etc :(

" I did it...but..."

There goes another of my lipstick! Nicole turned and twisted it without my knowledge. When I discovered the damage, I confronted her, guessing that she was the most probable culprit! She did not deny it but tried to defend herself as usual.

Me "Nicole, who did this? Was it you?"

Nic " Ya, but I was just checking it out for you"

Me....*fainted* I guess my only consolation was that she still displayed full honesty rather than trying to hide her wrong doing :)

Reading, Comprehension & Maths!

It was a rather free and easy sunday class.

The girls read an English reader together - The Donkey and the Cat. Both could do it quite well, especially Shanon. Shanon helped Nicole to pronounce a couple of words e.g. shed, chair. When it came to comprehension, both girls tried to answer the questions, a couple of which were quite tricky and I was rather pleased that they put in effort to analyse the story.

Then we did some revision on basic addition. It was nothing new to the girls but the challenge was to do it mentally, instead of transforming the equation to a vertical format. I told the girls to remember the smaller number and in this case, it was 2. Then, they had to count 2 counts from the other number, and in this case, it was 8 (starting from 9). They got the hang of it just after one example! They both recognised that it was a much more efficient way of adding!

Soon, it was tea break again. They had a fizzy multi vit each. I bought them during our trip back to Australia in March 2008. It went "zzzzz" in their mouth and they were laughing away at the "tingling" sensation! By then, their hearts were already somewhere else, up in their plane for their world trip! They recited the Chinese poem after me without even looking at the book! They were busy packing and getting ready for their plane ride! ....and that ended our fun sunday class :)

Little "Smartie"!

Rose took Nicole to the library. I told Rose to get Nicole to complete her piano theory homework before coming home. When they got back, the homework was left undone. I was kind of upset and raised my voice at Nicole.

Me " Nicole, I told you to do your work, why didnt you do it?"
Nic " Auntie Rose forgot to bring my eraser"
Me " Fine, go and get it done now. No more excuses!"
Nic " You don't have to keep reminding me! I know how to do it and I can do it myself, without your help!"
Me " Very well then!"

Well, I didnt know what else to say. I just rolled my eyes! :( See what I mean? How can I ever dream of having a 3rd one?

What would you have done?

Nicole was again in her grouchy mood. At 11pm, she wanted to drink water and I refused to entertain her for fear that she might wet the bed during the night. Then, she started her string of threats. Here goes.....

Nic " Mom, I am very very thirsty. I want to drink water"
Me " No, Nicole, you had your milk at 930pm. It is time for bed now"
Nic " Mom, listen, I am super thirsty, if you dont give me water, I will die!"

I tried to keep very still in my bed when I heard her funny "threat" while laughing away in my heart :)

Nic " if you dont talk to me, I will die real soon"

She was so persistent. She tossed and turned for 1 full hour and I had to succumb to her request finally.

Nic " See mommy, why didnt you give it to me earlier?"

Nicole is simpy so witty. She has never failed to surprise me, so much so that it can be hard for me to swallow at times! This certainly adds spice to my home minister job!

So funny!

Nicole was playing with the magnets. She rearranged the words I picked for her. When she was done, she read it out aloud :

"The coat wears a fish"
"hahaha,,,how can the coat wear a fish? hahaha so funny"

She laughed at her own mistake and went scootering about just after rearranging one sentence and that was all she did for the entire afternoon apart from play and TV!

"What is my ambition?"

Sometimes I really wonder what Nicole would be when she grows up! Based on her current resume as follows, I can only think of one profession which would suit her :)

Name : Nicole
Age : 4
Education :Nursery 2
Language : English, Mandarin and a little Cantonese
Hobby :Play, drink milk, argue

Can you read? : Yes, but not much
Do you like to read ? : No
Do you like to be read to? : Yes
Can you argue? : Yes, very well
Can you rebut? : Yes, very well
What is your winning statistic? : 90%
What do you do when you lose? : Cry
Can you memorise? :Yes, very well
Can you analyse? Yes, reasonably well
Can you count? : Yes
What kind? : Additions, subtractions and multiplications

Perhaps, an assistant lawyer (tax?) who can't read much but can argue her way out! One who can argue with the tax authority that her income does not have a Singapore source and nor does she have a permanent establishment, whatsoever!

"I found my treasure!"

To any of us, these 2 pieces of nappies probably look identical but they mean the whole world of difference to Ethan and Nicole.

I caught Ethan picking them up one after another and subsequently dropping one. He brought them close to his nose to distinguish them and yes, he found his nappy! Obviously the abandoned piece belonged to Nicole.

Ethan " a-bu, a-bu" ({niao bu} meaning nappy in English , while beaming with pride that he found his treasure!)

Both Ethan and Nicole have this strange habit of lugging their nappies along, wherever they go and they need their nappies to fall asleep. Thankfully, they are willing to part with their used nappies and use a new piece everyday. Otherwise, they would be full of germs!

Do your kids have the same strange habit too?

Think, think, think

We were about to go to bed and Nicole wanted me to read this book to her - The wolf and the seven lambs, which all of us would have read during our younger days. Before I started reading, I told Nicole to stop me whenever she had any questions or could not understand the story.

When we got to this page, she stopped me.


Nic " Mom, I don't understand"
Me " What don't you understand, sweetie?"
Nic " How can the mommy lamb cut the wolf's stomach? The wolf would be dead. How can he still wake up for a drink later?"
Me " Ooh, I am so impressed, Nicole. You are absolutely right, this is just a story. It is not real. We know that this can't be done in real life right? I am glad that you are thinking for yourself"

I was really very impressed by Nicole's abililty to analyse :) That said, she only likes to be read to and dislikes reading on her own as it takes up too much brain power, I guess :()

Ethan's vehicle pasta

I bought some kiddie pasta for Ethan yesterday. It came in all sorts of shapes; cars, trucks, vans, planes, trains, you name it. He was just so mesmerised by the cute little vehicles floating in his bowls which were otherwise his toys, not meant to be eaten.

It was the first time Ethan was introduced to pasta and he simply couldn't have enough of it :). He even gulped down half of Nicole's portion after he was done with his own!

Are we good parents to our kids?

I was at the supermarket picking up some fish for the kids. As I was walking down the travellator, the supermarket attendant pushed up a fleet of trolleys only to be met by a small little boy, probably aged 5 or so. The trolleys almost hit him on his face as the attendant couldn't see him given his small frame. The next thing i heard were some unkind words from the father.

Father " Ooi, Nelson, open your eyes!!"
Father " you can not see meh? do you want to be knocked down?" (while throwing his grocery into the boot of his brand new 5series BMW)
Boy " no " (stood trembling as he spoke)

I wanted to give that father a piece of my mind but on second thought, I held back. Firstly, he shouldnt be lecturing the poor boy in such a harsh tone and in such badly spoken English. It was painful to my ears even. Secondly, it was due to no fault of the little boy. As it was, the boy already got a shock when the fleet of trolleys came dashing towards him.

Why can't we as parents be more sensitive towards our little ones? They need encouragement, love and care but certainly not unreasonable scoldings, though I must not rule out the possibility of work stress and many other forms of pressure which cause some of us to behave in that undesirable fashion. I hope the father would reflect upon his action and make it up to his son. Poor boy!

Getting bored in school

The principal informed me that Nicole seemed rather "tired" in school. I was very concerned about her remark and I had a serious talk with Nicole.

Me" Nicole, are you very tired in school? Did you not have enough sleep?"
Nic " Ya, I am sleepy in school"
Me " Why? Are you bored in class or are you really tired due to a lack of rest?"
Nic " I think I am bored"
Me " Why? Is it because you could finish your work way ahead of your friends?"
Nic " Ya, the work is so easy. My teacher asked me to map the numbers to the words. I got it all correct"
Me " Do you want me to speak to your teacher about it?"
Nic " Mom, let's talk about it later"

I was dumb founded! I didn't expect Nicole to end our conversation in this manner :(

Bi-lingual books

Lawrence was in Guangzhou last month and he bought some books for the kids. I was appalled when I received the books from him. I guess he simply picked up a few as he was told to, and didn't even bother reading the contents.

When I showed the books to him, he just laughed without putting up a defence, for once :()

I had to cross out all the English lines, one by one! I bet you would faint too if you flip through the book :( The author simply did a word for word translation of the story from Chinese to English!

We have to be extra careful when buying bi lingual books for our kids. We may end up teaching them bad English otherwise!

Mid Autumn Festival Gathering

Our neighbour invited us for a mid-autumn festival gathering.

Together with Aiqin's family, we had a good time catching up. Zhou Hui whipped up a really sumptuous dinner for us. The big boys ate first as we ladies had to entertain the kids. We also had a good home koraoke session , full of laughter and funny singing postures. I have not been to a karaoke for such a long time, ever since I left my previous employment and of course, that was before the kids came along. :().

The evening ended with a full selection of mooncakes as dessert. There was so much to eat and I guess we wouldn't want to eat anymore mooncakes till the next mid autumn festival :)

The most precious gifts I have ever received :)

Nicole was extremely sweet and loving :)

She won a set of beads, 2 bags and some colour pencils from the colouring competition. Though already 10pm, she insisted on making a necklace and a bracelet for me. She spent a good 2 hours threading the beads and I could see that she was struggling to keep her eyes open. It was indeed the best gifts I have ever received:). I put them on when we went out for lunch on Sunday. Her happiness was all so clearly displayed on her face, seeing that I appreciated her effort in putting the beads together.

Nicole didn't forget about Auntie Rose. She made one bracelet for her too. Rose too wore it on her off day yesterday! Nicole insisted to have a picture taken, showing the bracelet on Rose's wrist :)

Nicole came in first!

There was a mid autumn festival celebration at our residence. Lots of activities were organised; lantern parade, colouring competition, lucky draws, goodie bag distribution and mooncake appreciation. The kids enjoyed it the most, as in most festive celebration :)

What came as the biggest surprise to us was the nomination of Nicole's colouring to be the best in category A which was open to kids 6 and below. The judges were having a tough time deciding the winner and they picked Nicole's masterpiece in the end. I guess it was because the other participant was 2 years older and so in relative terms, Nicole's work outshone the other girl's, though I personally thought the other girl had put in much more effort.

It was a pity Nicole was not there to recieve the prize personally as she had to go for her piano lesson. I would have imagined she would be absolutely over the moon if she was there to receive it herself. We also forfeited our lucky draw prize :(

The lobster and Nicole

Our neighbour left for their vacation today and Natalie requested Nicole to babysit her pet lobster. Nicole was all excited upon knowing that she would have a pet lobster to play with for the next couple of days. Natalie brought the lobster over last night while Nicole was out. When Nicole came back from her piano lesson, she insisted on feeding the lobster.

Nic " Mom, I think the lobster is hungry. I want to feed her"

Me" No sweetheart, Auntie Terry said to feed the lobster, once a day in the morning only"

Nic " The lobster is hungry. She can have supper"

Me " Sweetie, we have to take instruction from Auntie Terry. I don't want to overfeed the lobster. She will have diarhea and I am not going to clean her buttock for her. Are you?"

Nic " yuks...no way. haha....ok I will feed her tomorrow morning. Can I bring her to my room? I want to sleep with the lobster."

Me " ok"

That was the first episode, a pleasant episode.

The loving and passionate side of Nicole flipped over 180 degrees this morning! She woke up early in the morning and wanted to feed the lobster while I was still trying to catch some sleep. She wanted me to bring her lobster down from her bedroom and I was trying to put her off for as long as I could.

Nic" Mom, wake up. I want to feed the lobster. Can you bring her down?"

Me " dont worry about it. The lobster is still sleeping. It's too early"

Nic " No, it is awake and it is hungry"

Me " Leave her alone for a while. If the lobster is hungry, she will come down on her own"

Nic " NO NO, she won't"

Me " Yes, she will. She has so many legs"

Nic " But she is in the tank!! How can she come down?" (She really flared up!!)

Me " Just go and drink your milk first"

Nic " Fine, I am not going to feed the lobster anymore. I will cook it for lunch today. I will put it in the pot, add some pepper and cook it over the stove! Natalie will be angry with you"

Me " Natalie will be angry with you for cooking her lobster.... ok ok, let's go and get the lobster now" ( I was already wide awake at that point in time...:) ) and I decided to stop playing with her before she broke into tears...She is one real petty goat!:)

"My first swimming lesson"

After much persuasion, Nicole was finally ready for her first swimming lesson.

We managed to form a group of 4 kids, (2 boys and 2 girls) to start the lesson, with Nicole being the youngest. She seemed to enjoy the lesson after overcoming the fear of water getting into her eyes and nose as the instructor was very careful in handling the kids.

The kids learnt to dip their heads half way into the water, just before the water could get into their nose. They spent a good 45minutes in the pool. All the kids enjoyed their first lesson very much. I guess Nicole would be meeting her new friends at the pool more often from now on as all the kids are residents of the same condo :)

Self defence??

Ethan is no loser!

Two of them were crowding around my laptop again. Both wanted to have a hand on my keyboard. If my keyboard could speak, it would probably be yelling for help before anymore alphabets are being flicked away :(

Nic " Mom, look, Ethan is trying to spoil your keyboard again"
Me " Ethan, hands off the table please"
Nic " See, he is still not listening. Mom, you have to punish him" (while using her hands to show the gesture of punishment to Ethan)

Guess Ethan's reaction upon hearing Nicole's remark. He grabbed and pulled Nicole's hair...OMG! I have to pay extra attention to Ethan to correct his behaviour before it becomes a habit!

You can get pregnant again....

I dont know why but Nicole has been pestering me for a baby sister for the past couple of weeks.
Nic " mom, I want a baby sister"
Me " No, you won't have one. I am too old to have another baby"
Nic " No, you still can. You can get pregnant again. Look, here, in your tummy"
Me " No, no, I am very tired looking after both of you, as it is" (trying to end the dialog before she could tell me how to get pregnant,,,OMG!...I wasn't aware that she knew the word pregnant!)

Was it really so funny?

Nicole has been sleeping upstairs with Lawrence for the past 3 nights while I slept downstairs with Ethan, making sure that he was alright. Knowing men, when they sleep, they really mean business and so I couldn't just leave Ethan with Lawrence. I woke every so often to check on Ethan. Thank god, he is on his way to recovery :)

Me " Nicole, was it ok that you slept upstairs with papa?"
Nic " Sure. Papa was very funny"
Me " What do you mean?"
Nic " He cracked funny jokes...and he made me laugh"
Me " huh? What jokes did he crack?"
Nic " He said my name was Laurene Nicole Hong..haha..but it should be Nicole Laurene Hong"

I was like...err? Was it really so funny? but I was rather impressed that she knew how to use the slang, "cracked funny jokes". I would have expected a 4-year-old to simply say "papa told funny jokes" instead :)

Strong little man!

Though unwell, Ethan is still full of energy.

See what he did to my keyboard?....I don't know how to convince the dealer that the keyboard is faulty!! With just one poke, the alphabet plate went flying in the air!! Thankfully, I still can activate the F key. I guess I will be disconnected from the world when the the laptop goes back to the dealer...hopefully under warranty still :(

When I spoke sternly to Ethan about his action, he seemed to understand me and tried to wriggle his way out (just like the che-che) by trying to hug and kiss me. :() Did he really think that his sweet little kiss and hug could buy him an amnesty, I wonder? :)

Come and see my new panty..

I intentionally bought a few of these panties for Nicole. (What do you call it? boyleg? boy cut panty?). The purpose is protect her modesty as kids tend to sit in all sorts of positions and at times, the positions may be compromised.

Nicole was delighted to see her new panties and wanted to wear it to school.

Me " Nicole, do you like your new panties?"
Nic" Ya, I showed it to my friends"
Me" What? Who did you show it to?"
Nic" Kyra"
Me" and Kyra is a girl right?..who else?"
Nic" ya...Kyra is a girl. I didnt show it to anyone else"
Me " ok..good...you don't show your panties to your friends ok?...it is something very personal. Remember?"
Nic "ok.....but it is so pretty. I saw Kyra's panty too"
Me " ok..don't do it again "

Why can't kids just keep things to themselves?? They simply love to share, don't they ? :()

Ethan is down with throat infection

It pains me the most to see the kids unwell.

Ethan got the bugs from Nicole but thank God, Nicole is strong enough to fight it off. She is still as active as ever. The only thing which will wear her down is READING :( but I found a way to tackle this - my DIY book :)

Poor Ethan is coughing badly especially during the night. The phlegm in his throat irritates him the most. The Pd prescribed him with some medicine to ease the throat irritation. As a result of the throat infection, Ethan is not eating nor drinking much. He has lost much weight. Thankfully, he is still taking bread, avocado, plain crackers and pancakes, on top of his occasional request for milk. I just pray that his own immunity will take charge of the infection soon than later.

A DIY book

After my dental appointment, I popped over to the bookstore before heading back home. I picked up this (interesting, from my perspective) magnetic book for Nicole. It helps kids who are able to read but refuse to, to practise forming sentences.

Nicole was all excited when I showed her the book but not after knowing the purpose of it:(. She just turned her head away :(). To get her interested, I formed a couple of funny sentences for her (The goat drinks tea in the boat). She was laughing away when I read it to her. Thereafter, she was hooked and wanted to play along. I put the respective pieces together and had Nicole rearrange them in the right order to form a correct sentence. She rearranged quite a few sentences on her own. Just to name a few :

*The cat wears a hat *The pig likes to dig
*I can jump

Her interest only lasted for 15minutes before she went on a milk drinking competition against little Ethan :( ). I guess milk drinking is her only expertise, and hobby too!

What are friends for?

We missed our class the previous Sunday as I had many visitors at home. We resumed our class yesterday. We continued with the listening and understanding math exercises. The girls learnt to attach the notion of "substraction" to certain key words like "fewer", "give away", "broken".

Then, we proceeded to their favourite tea break. The girls had fresh soya bean milk, banana, and 1 multi-vit gummy bear each.

Right after, it was time for reading a new poem. The girls enjoyed the friendly competition when it came to reciting poem. They were rather "co-operative". When they were not able to recite certain section of the poem, they would cover up for each other by requesting me to read the poem to them first! Smart heh?

Before I had the chance to get the girls to read a chinese reader, they were already scootering about and planning for their next vacation!

Sunday family outing

It was Rose's off day again. She is off every other Sunday. So, we took the kids out on our own. We wanted to go to Raffles City initially but decided against it after taking into account the heavy traffic in the car park at 1pm. We went to Milenia Walk instead.

Nicole wanted to have sushi on a sushi train but there wasn't any and she started throwing her tantrum again. Thankfully she was easily appeased. The promise of a serving of ice cream as dessert was good enough to get her to eat her Korean udon :)

Then we walked past this beautiful scent boutique. I absolutely love the ambiance. It has recently been relocated to its current unit within Milenia Walk. I could smell the scent way before I arrived at the boutique. The scent was simply so aromatic and unique. For those of you who are perfume lovers, check the store out, you may be able to find something interesting for yourself!

Before we headed home, we went to take a look at our new place, due for completion by the end 2008. The only thing which was of interest to Nicole was the pool! A children's slide was built right in the middle of the kiddie pool :)).

Who likes cheese?

Ethan enjoys reading this book. He is able to pronounce some of the names of the animals featured here, one of which is "mouse" without the "s" though. So, here it goes.

Me " Who likes cheese?"

Ethan " Mou(se)" (while flipping the page)

He gave me another surprise yesterday.

Me "Who likes cheese?"

Ethan " (E)than, bao wo" (without pronouncing the "e" as he was asking me to lift him to the kitchen to get his cheese) ("bao wo" means carry me in mandarin)

Afterall, Ethan was born in the year of the PIG and that probably explains his love for food:)

Junior Reporter

I was in the bathroom, getting ready to go out with the kids while Lawrence was playing with Ethan. Out of the blue, I heard Ethan crying and Nicole came dashing into my room.

Nic " Mom, Papa beat Ethan.
Me " Why?"
Nic " Ethan tried to climb the stairs and Papa brought him down and he beat his stomach, and Ethan started to cry very very loudly"
Lawrence " Nicole, I didnt beat Ethan's stomach ok? I beat his buttock. Stop being a reporter to your mom!"

Nicole is a good private eye for me heh? She reports on everything and anything, with no guarantee on accuracy though :)

My babies have grown up!

I was rather emotional when Nicole told me that she wanted to go back with her grandma. She was even going to pack her bag. It just dawned on me how much she has grown, from a helpless infant to a chatty, witty 4 year old who is rather opinionated too! It won't be long before she is ready for P1 and thereafter, she would be needing less and less of me. Sigh!

Ethan too has grown alot. He is now very demanding in action and in words. He is able to demand for his food. Whenever he is hungry, he would say " he nai, e" (meaning drink milk, hungry) or "(bing) gan, e" (meaning biscuits, hungry). When he is thirsty, he would just say "ter" (meaning water). He is no longer that chubby little baby who could only cry for food!

Well, will I then be made redundant by my 2 little employers and thus, the need to look for an alternate employment ? :()

E for Dan?

Obviously the notion of phonetic reading is beyond comprehension for Ethan. We were just casually reading a book.

Me " Ethan, A for?"

Ethan " A-ple"

Me " Well done. B for?"

Ethan " Ball"

Me" Very good. C for?"

Ethan "Cat"

Me"Good job! E for?"

Ethan " Dan" (in mandarin, meaning Egg)

Me " oh..well done but try to say E-g-g" (I just looked at him and gave him a kiss on his cheek, wasnt he simply so creative?)

Ethan giggled mischieviously while trying to wriggle away to play with che-che :)

"500 miles"

Since last Friday, I have been keeping busy with visitors and they are non other than my parents, my aunt and my grandma. They came just to attend Nicole's birthday party. Wasn't Nicole a small big shot?

Nicole is very sticky to her grandma and she wants to sleep with grandma, so closely that she was almost suffocating grandma. Grandma can sing many songs and she taught Nicole this oldie "500 miles", something to the sound of "......a hundred miles, a hundred miles.....when you hear the whistle blow,..a hundred miles".

I believe it was sung in the context of a love relationship by the original singer before many of us were born but hearing it from Nicole defintely brings a new flavour! She sings it in the bathroom, she sings it while riding her scooter and she even amplifies her voice using a microphone as though she is really missing someone so dearly! I wonder who! :)

"I am on leave"

Nicole was playing with her scooter again (and again). She zoomed into my bedroom.

Nic " Mom, I am taking a day off"
Me" Where are you going?"
Nic " I am going to Australia. I will be back next week"
Me " Next week? that won't be a day. It would be a week. Who approved your leave?"
Nic " Jessica"
Me " Who is Jessica?"
Nic " My friend"
Me " Your friend doesnt approve your leave. I do"
Nic " It is ok. It is the same. Bye"

Off she went, lugging with her, 2 big bags containing all her "masak-masak" and soft toys, so much so that she almost lost her balance :)

"Today is my birthday, you know?"

Kids are kids. Nicole was probably still very excited about her birthday. She told almost everyone about her birthday, including her piano teacher. I believe Ms Yong already knew about her birthday in advance and she came prepared. She gave Nicole a stalk of rose and wished her a happy birthday too. Nicole was pleasantly surprised :)