Little Pigs Little Pigs Let me in...

Taken from a Batik Market in Bali

En Xi's favourite bedtime story for the moment is "Three Little Pigs". Sometimes, when she is in the mood, she will even read together with me, but of course, she can only say "Little Pig, Little Pig, Let me in" or "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin". I guess these two phrases are her favourite parts. In fact, we think that you are having one of those "talking outburst" many parents told me about. Its funny, how sometimes she speaks, but then again, every parent feels the same for their kid. Here's one of the those moments when my parents came back from Korea:

(Knocking at Grandparent's Room)

En Xi: Ah Ma! Ah Ma!

(Grandpa opens the door)

Grandpa: Yes, En Xi?

En Xi: Are you tired?

Grandpa: Ha ha, yes, very tired.

En Xi: Ah Ma Sleeping?

Grandpa: Yes, she is.

Her favourite impromptu phrase includes, "Mmmm, I think, Ah Pink!" when she see's her favourite colour pink. When she is playing and drops something that she associates with feelings, she will go, "Are you ok?" And let's not forget her favourite phrase, "Dun want dun want, Bu Yao Bu Yao".

Inverted shades for the flat nosed one

It has been 2 weeks since En Xi went school. Not because of illness, but rather, we went for yet another trip. This time to Bali, its been 8 years since Rei and myself stepped foot on Bali. In fact, back then, that was our first trip together. As always, it was a blasting time for En Xi, not so for Rei, but not too bad for me. We kind of think En Xi is a born swimmer, because she is never afraid of the water. Despite being submerged in water and gulping pool water for 2 sec or so, En Xi still gets her head up with a big smile on her face. After the trip, it was a week of school term break, while Rei and I get back to work. We knew that keeping En Xi entertained while she is at home all day will prove to be a challenge. Hence, we bought quite a number of books and toys for her. Not only that she was painting for almost every other day. There's also this fascination about bubbles and spraying water onto herself that she finds funny. These days, kids really have all the fun, at times I wonder if we spoilt En Xi too much, the Bali trip was to be the sixth trip for her and her fourth time on board a plane.

En Xi is still quite a bully, impatient and at times very irritating.

En Xi's tendency to bully kids younger than her is something we can't quite understand. Today she went onto her biting rage again when her cousin, Julian was trying to sit on a rocker that she was just done playing. So "Pai Seh" for both of us, but more worrying is this continual trend. Since she started holding onto a pencil/pen, she never like us to help her hold the pencil to write or draw.

En Xi's impatience can be best observed when she's trying to fit things into fillings that are obviously too small. Things such as trying to fit her Hello Kitty umbrella into her little Dora handbag or trying to fit the hardcover books into the same bag. Then, she starts going into those mini foot stomping, followed by flinging herself backwards onto the sofa while wailing at the same time.

2 recent episodes demonstrate En Xi's potential to be a very irritating person. Episode 1: En Xi didn't want to sit in her car seat and despite all attempts to get her own way, she was strapped up tight in the car seat. Unhappy with the treatment she received, she pout her lips and crossed her arms, while using her right leg to hit Rei's leg repeatedly. Episode 2: En Xi was lying down face up and watching Dora on my iPod Touch while I was cleaning her up after she pooped. Maybe she felt the strain on her arms and she proceeded to reach for my hands to hold the iPod for her.

Tackling the Problem

The above painting is your masterpiece, titled "Lady" and it cost Mummy $25 to bring it home from the School's event, "Art Feast". Apart from paying the exorbitant school fees, now we have the privilege of being 's**kers' to actually pay for what you drew in school in order to bring it home. Of course, it was our choice to buy it or not, but then again, no parents would want to miss this milestone for their child, wouldn't they? In case you are wondering, you drew on a much larger paper and had the teachers to guide you or the paper. Nonetheless, its still quite artsy.

Anyway, after Daddy's complaints in the earlier postings, something disturbing happening in school of late. Your teacher called and told Mummy that you actually bit 2 of your friends in school. Now, this truly came as a shock. Even though you are at times (mostly) a tough kid to handle, I had yet to witness you being a bully. After the traumatising experience that day, you came home and was particularly moody. You were being rude again and Mummy was putting you in place before you sat down and bit yourself in the arm. This aren't any good and there can only be 2 reasons why you did that, (1) you did not know how to express your unhappiness and resort to self harm or (2) your teacher asked you to bite yourself to see if its painful when the other 2 victim friends cried. Daddy thinks its the former reason. The teacher even went on and on and suggested (by the book) that you may suffer from mild autistic as she noticed you had troubles concentrating and taking simple instructions. This caused Mummy to suffer a mild depression for a day, but Daddy just think that the teacher was so full of sh*t. Fortunately, our worries were dispelled over the immediate weekend when we went for a couplehood seminar that had some talk on parenting. Your behavior is classified as the strong will-ed child and we have good reasons to think you are one. Although you have problems looking directly at us when we talk and can't seem to take simple instructions, we realised that you actually hear us when we talk and know when to look at us (when you want something). Coincidentally, Daddy is on a 2 weeks break from work and with your grandparents on a holiday to Seoul, Korea, Daddy is on a mission to set things right.

Alfresco Dinning

But before Daddy can start on improving your mannerism, I gotta start to learn how to cook for you. Daddy is proud to improve his cooking ability from 1 dish (maggi mee) to 6 dishes (fried rice, mashed potatoes, porridge, pancake, bee hoon soup and maggi mee). Taking care of you by myself in the day for a straight 5 days was a first for Daddy and I'm proud to say that I had managed to survive through unscathed. Now back to our problem, the biting problem seems to be gone away and I kind of tried to fix a routine for you, getting you to eat, sleep and play at the right time with the right rules. It was difficult in the beginning, but you did showed improvement and even took the initiative to get the books when its time for your afternoon nap. Bathing and changing your nappies are no longer a struggle and getting you up and ready for school is now a breeze. But the biggest take away is that you now know when we are upset with you and you know it when you are in the wrong. Although you still enjoy slapping me in the face, you are more sincere with your apology (don't ask me how, I just know).

I guess this leads to the morale of the story, no matter who takes care of the kid, be it the grandparent, the teacher at the childcare center or the maid. Nothing beats having the parent to spend quality time with your child. A marked improvement was achieved in a week, can you imagine the difference a SAHM (stay at home mom) would make to the kid? (hint hint to Mummy.. :P) Daddy always though he was a great dad who spends quality time with you on weekends, but I guess when you are young and is still finding your feet in this world, quantity still outweighs the quality we share together.

Here's some pictures Daddy took 2 weeks ago when we visited the National Museum of Singapore (free) on the International Museum Day 2010 and the Rainforest Kidzworld @ the Zoo.

You never quite replicate your artwork from school, made me wonder if the picture was a fake?

Baywatch moment

As always, knocked out after another crazy day.