Small Talk: Never underestimate the power of observation

After a weekend long of vegetative state due to a stubborn flu bug, Daddy finally regain his conscious and pick up his usual "how's your day" conversation with Mei Mei.

Daddy: So, En Xi goes to school huh? What does Ye Ye do?
En Xi: Ye Ye fix things.


Daddy: What does Ah Ma do?
En Xi: Ah Ma cook.


Daddy: What does Mummy do?
En Xi: Mummy feed Didi..errr...milk


Daddy: So what does Daddy do? 
(at this point, I'm sure Daddy was probably expecting something like "Daddy love me, or Daddy read story to me, or worst case scenario, Daddy play with the phone."

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

[scroll down for anwer]

En Xi: Daddy sleep. 

Probably that explains this pix, En Xi was angry with Daddy for sleeping too much, and not playing with her. So, she decided to play hard to get and ignored Daddy's request to hold his hands.


I love my Mei Mei, so full of attitude :)

25 more days

Just as I was getting comfortable with my stint as a stay-at-home mum, my colleague facebook-ed me a countdown of the exact number of days I’m due for work, awakening me from my hallucinations that my maternity leave is still 4 months left. When I realized that it's barely a month left to my just-another-day mornings, I felt intense palpitations, and the world was spinning like I had rounds of Flaming Lamborghini.

Barely a month ago, I was yearning to go back to work and missing the undivided 8 hours I would have to myself. I take back my words!!!!

I'm so enjoying the simplicity at home. 

For the only KPIs I need to run for are the percentage of dinner that Mei Mei has finished, evaluating the frequency/consistency of Didi’s has everyday (trust me, when you are a young parent, there is an un-explained obsession about our kids' poop!) and crunching numbers over the cheapest diapers with my sophisticated vlookup formula.

Daily Market Research

Looking at my to-do list for this maternity leave; 0% in the belly department and still looking like I’m in my 2nd trimester. And I just realised that I still can't fit in half of my work wear, did I just feel a cardiac arrest?

Can't imagine what's life going to be come the fateful day, I think I need another Magnum to calm my nerves.

Our blog has a facelift!

We got a new name for our blog!

We figure out that with the arrival of DiDi, we need a name that is more generic to be used for two.

(p/s mei mei, if you are reading this, don't worry, you are still the special one because this url is named after you!) 

I wanted a more sexy name, something more fun to reflect our joy (and tortures) in our parenting journey. 

So one fine day while Mei Mei is singing to the tune of 'Barbie Girl', I thought it would be very apt to have it as part of the name, since Mei Mei is quite a prima donna like Barbie ! But wait, the name got to be more unisex to cater for didi, since barbies and boys don't gel. Initially I wanted to name it "Raising Barbie and Ken..", since they always come together! How smart I thought I was, but it got trashed by Daddy, with his usual "hard truths" remarks, "You know Didi is going to hate you for this when he grows up right????". 

OKKKKKK, too un-macho right, GOT it! 

So, back to the drawing board. As I was going down my list of manly epic characters, "Transformers" seems like the perfect fit! Aren't kids pretty similar to them when they do their more-than-meets-the-eye thingie? At one moment, they can be as cute as Care Bears. And VOILA - they can transform into a screeching machine, armed with highly destructive tear-guns in the next milli-second! 

Got to run to attend to my wailing Barbie and pooping machine now, stay tune for more adventures in our next update ! 

My iPhone randomness

The Monster

Boooo!

We have a resident Monster in the family since a few months ago. If you are thinking that this is the nick we gave Mei Mei or a new pet we got for ourselves, nope you are mistaken. 

Let me tell you a bit more about this monster. He stays in our storeroom and sometimes hides in the storage boxes in the bedroom, or even under the drains overlooking our window. The birth of this character came when Mei Mei was protesting about everything, staging mealtime battles and putting up bathing struggles. Daddy decides to prey on Mei Mei's weakest link; the scaredy cat in her. He started talking about this monster who kidnaps disobedient kids. Kids who don't eat their meals, refuse to bath, or even shout rudely, the monster will catch them and locked them in a dark and scary cave! 

To convince Mei Mei further, Daddy have staged a few 'fights' with the monster in the storeroom, to pretend that he is trying to prevent the monster from escaping so that Mei Mei can finish her dinner quickly before the monster finds out. It's amazing how realistic Daddy's acting skills is, what a pity that he didn't fulfill his Star Search dream. 

The monster trick worked so well that Mei Mei is rather convinced about it's existence! I spotted her telling her classmate that the monster will come and take him away if he doesn't listen to their teacher (which her classmate gave a boring, disbelief look).  

Not sure how long she will find out that this is a coax. But one thing for sure, it is far more effective than a cane, less the pain and tears!

Appreciating our little Picasso

Since Mei Mei started preschool this year, her interest in art is becoming more pronounced.

Her teachers has been sharing with us about her flair in art, in particular a great sense with colors (and a penchant for pink). I find that quite surprising as she rarely draws at home, preferring to strip her Barbies, creating a rackus with her garang guni barang or staging the "Goldilocks and Three Bears" show for the 501th time. One thing for sure, she did not inherit those artistic genes from me, as my drawing nerves have stopped developing after kindergarten.  


She likes to draw human faces. I like the drawings she does as we are always part of her composition. It might not look proper to some but that's what I like about it! Her style is rather quirky, somewhat looking like aliens most of the times (since they always have big heads). Just a small problem we noticed; she tends to draw with very firm grip, causing her drawing materials to suffer from total and permanent disability after the first use.


Here's some of my favorites:

Her first few drawings  - usually characterised by 2 big dots as the eyes completed with 4 dangling limbs.  And she started to add some hair on the head, cos Daddy said it will look nicer.

My personal favorite - when I asked what is the big patch of color at the bottom of the face, she said it was chinny chin chin (her lingo for Daddy's goatie). The lollipops-lookalikes are floating balloons. 

The big blue face in the middle is Daddy, because he wears glasses. Awwwww... 

This is a portrayal of our family and her classmates. Mummy is the saugsage-looking thingie on the left. 

Guess what this is?
Answer: It's a spider (we thought she was drawing Lion King initially)

Posing with her pink masterpiece and her classmate, Nathaniel.