Sibling Rivalry 2 and Father-Children's Weekend

Another Milestone, Milk Teeth are starting to fall off

Every time I come home from a working trip, En Xi seems to grow a little taller and display a new level of maturity. (Sorry, not you, En Jun, you continue to look too small for your age and exhibit traits of a big baby… :p) My recent trip to Hawaii was only 18 days and again you never fail to amaze me.

You are taking good care of your brother and often look out for him.  At times, even defending on his behalf when I’m lecturing him.  What’s even weirder, is that both of you have a real “love-hate” relationship.  Not in a BGR sense of course, but in a “sibling love-rivalry” kind of way.  En Jun delights in being a nuisance and takes great pleasure in irritating the hell out of you.  His groundless accusations and taunts agitate you.  You stand absolutely defenceless and all you can do is whine.  Whining on En Jun is akin to “fuel on fire”, the more you whine, the more En Jun gets a kick out of it.  Despite all this, I think you guys will be great pals when you grow up.

 

Happier Times Together

It seems that the same situations happen in pre-school as well.  At night, we shared about our day and hear similar stories about who was nasty and said not so kind words to you.  You rant about them and displayed the familiar behaviour at not being able to resolve your own conflicts without help.   We wonder how to help you?  But, I guess, this is part of growing up; you learn how to resolve your own conflicts and disagreements.  Sometimes, parenting is also about taking a step back.  Letting you fall and be there to support you when needed.  Not rushing to you at the very first sight of danger.

Father-Children Day @ S.E.A. Aquarium

Talking about trips, this weekend was a get away trip for Shichida Gang. Xuan Ying’s mummy, Auntie Angie and Azela’s mummy, Auntie Amy and Your Mummy, Rei Wang went to Bangkok, Thailand for a shopping spree.  So, for this weekend, it was just the both of you with me.  We visited the S.E.A. Aquarium at RWS Sentosa and this was our 2nd visit.  Given that both of you are older now from the last visit, I really believed that you guys would appreciate marine life better.

Everything at Sentosa is seriously overpriced

When queried about your best part of the day, the unanimous answer was remarkably the heena on your arms, which cost me $10 each.   You never know what goes on inside a child’s head.   I absolutely enjoyed the quality time we spend together.  Without your mom, meant new rules, lots of running around, exploring the unknowns and pushing boundaries beyond your comfort zones.  En Xi literally took matters to a new level and I had to be on a constant look out amidst a swamp of people.  En Jun held my hand throughout and was within 5 metres radius from me when he wandered off to explore.  Nonetheless, we still miss Mummy by Day 3.  We miss the healthy and sumptuous dinner you prepare for us and the routine that helps us stay balanced.  I have a bad feeling that both of you are going to be sick on Monday.

 

Daddy's futile attempt at Selfie

Another futile attempt. I think you guys are just trying to irritate me

My very first time....

When you have 2 kids and don't employ a domestic helper, you spend most of your time with logistics, cleaning, washing, bathing, packing and administration.  It is very different when you have only 1 kid where parents can take turns to care and play with the kid, while the other handles the rest of the stuff.

About En Jun

Just a couple of days back, En Jun was asking to do some painting, which very naturally (given the messy nature of painting) I brushed you off with my standard line, "Maybe, we can do this another time."  Then, it struck me when I couldn't recall when you actually did your last painting at home.  Wait.... Actually, you haven't tried painting before.  Felt so bad for neglecting you again.  Your sister has pretty much experimented things early in her toddler years.  Fortunately, you are independent, a very quick learner and not a fussy chap (You had to don En Xi's Dora themed apron and sleeves).

En Jun with "Dora" themed apron and sleeves

The 'SOP' finger on the cheek camera pose

About En Xi

You did great in School for this month!  Full marks (5/5) for your Chinese Spelling TWICE!  Kudos to your hard work and Mummy's creative efforts to help you.  English spelling is coming up soon and your teacher actually changed the spelling list from 5 to 10 words!  We were shocked by the daunting task at hand and Mummy subsequently send an irritated, but cordial email to your teacher demanding to know how we can actually achieve all these without killing your interest in learning.  Somehow, (we think) your teacher actually 'wayang' and had you learn the word "Ambulance" and had you spell it in front of your classmates in class.  Then, had you spell it to us at home.  Ok, sure, wayang or not, we don't really know, but you are looking very much happy and confident; and that is what it really matters to us.

Your rewards lucky dip box

Full marks! (5/5) for Chinese Spelling

Scary stuff awaits

2014 New Year's Resolution

Another year has passed and reviewing 2013 resolutions, I see that we had managed to achieve most of our targets except spending more time as a couple.  Taking breaks on the 4th of each month was tough to schedule and there is always guilt of leaving you guys with your grandparents and to a certain extent, guilty of loading Ah Ma all the time.  And you know how Ah Ma is, always so caring and compromising.  Anyway, this year's new year resolution remains the same for all of us, with the addition of me, getting fitter and practicing my magic often.

About En Xi.

You seem to have grown up suddenly.  You are such a tall girl now and is taking up more responsibilities as an elder sister to your brother.  Its funny how you can be so caring, nurturing and patient with En Jun.  Then, out of no where, start your whining about En Jun not sharing again.  I love the way you smile.  Always so dainty, shy and princess-y.  You continue to be very creative in your artwork and have an imagination that spans no boundary.  We hope you find where your interest lies in, and for now, we think you might like to attend SOTA in future.  K2 is such a demanding year and like most parents, I can't stand our education system.  There is so much spelling to do in K2 for both English and Chinese.  Pre-schoolers are expected to be able to form a sentence with 7 words.  How times has changed.  I used to read ABCs only in K2.  What really makes matters worst is that P1 teachers are not going to slow down and help kids who develop later.  Really can't understand why this mad rush to learn when its now time to play.  Not to worry at the moment.  We are both helping you with your spelling and getting external help for phonics.  Don't worry, we are not loading you with tons of enrichment classes.  Just an hour of phonics and your favorite arts and craft class on Sat mornings. We are still having fun most of the time as a family.  In fact, we just did a Sunday picnic and soccer at the Botanical Gardens.

About En Jun.

The naughtiness in you surfaced after the Taiwan trip and we guess it must be your cousins, Shou Rei and Shou Cong that have influenced you.  Mummy misses the adorable side of you, but you are still as cute and most of times, just plain silly and comical.  In fact, you and En Xi make a great pair!  School has been great for you.  You have acclimatised well to the environment.  The not so great part?  Your eating and constant harassment of girl classmates.  You are growing up so much like Shou Cong.  Your teacher in N1B, Elosia says that you are a strong will child.  I told her, she haven't met your sister yet.

En Jun @ 20 months

By now, you should realise that the blog is heavy on your darling sister.  Heck, even the blog link is your sister's name.  In case you are wondering, No, you are not an accident.  We always knew we will have a 2nd child.  Its just that we are not too IT-savvy when we first created the blog.  No, we love both of you as much.  The reason why there is significantly less post since your arrival and is due to the different nap times you both have and we are just too burnt out at night to turn on our laptop.

Anyway, this post is about you and you only.  You started pre-school in Jan 13 because we wanted Grandma to have an easier time, so that she can cook and serve us a hearty dinner.  You probably didn't know, we have been eating take-aways or catered food 'ting kart' since you were 4 months old.  That was when Mummy went back to work after we had you.  Unfortunately, you didn't settle well in the school (Nurture Stars @ Safra Toa Payoh) and Mummy wasn't comfortable with the child caring standards either.  To top it off, the place was also inconvenient for Grandma to pick you up after school.  So, now we have enrolled you in a 2hr playgroup that is just next to our block.  Hopefully things will turn out good.

Finally pointers from Mummy.

All set and ready to go!

This way ahead!

Oops, I think home is better.

Let me do some last minute reading first.

Another new year, 2012

Late last year, Daddy and Mummy took some time off to review year 2011 and pen down our new year’s resolutions for 2012. The following are the our 2012 resolutions to achieve as a family:

1. Do more outdoor activities, such as Zoo trips, walks in the parks, camping by the beach and etc.

2. More arts and crafts activities when we are holed up at home.

3. Sticking to a regular routine and stay at home on Sun evenings to prepare for the week ahead.

At the time of this writing, we’ve only managed to achieve s/n 3. We are working on the rest.

Meanwhile, we’ve planned for 2 vacations thus far, a drive to Malacca with a 3D2N stay over the Good Friday weekend in April; and a 5D4N Bintan Club Med trip in June. The early vacation planning is not our style, but enforced due to the limited leave available to Daddy as an Officer-on-Course. We are so looking forward to our well-deserved breaks and quality time together.

About En Jun

You have reached another growing-up milestone. You are now able to stand on your own and straddle along the sides of the sofa or cot bed. Sleep wise, you are still struggling to sleep for longer periods and keeping Mummy up at night. However, I have taken over the night feed, this allows Mummy to have some rest before I get stoned and have to hand you back to Mummy.

There have been 2 accidents since the turn of the year and you were fortunate to escape from both incidents unscathed.

(1) I’m superman, I can fly.

You fell from the kitchen tabletop, head first, did a 180 degrees flip and landed butt first in a seated position on the floor.

You did not cry immediately. You were startled before your emotions overwhelmed you and you started wailing. I managed to witness this event ‘live’ before my eyes and I’ll be devastated if this will cause any life-long injuries to you. Nonetheless, we brought you to the doctor and you were assessed to be all well and fine.

At this moment, you must be wondering, how did this even happen in the first place. I’m entirely at fault because I placed you in the bumbo seat on the kitchen tabletop and went on to do my chores, albeit within touching distance. It was early morning; we were all getting ready for work and no one had the time to pacify you. Placing you on the bumbo seat with some toys was one of the many ways we thought of to keep you occupied.

Why didn’t I place the bumbo seat on the ground? Well, I’m still asking myself that.

(2) Its raining! Its raining Cappuccino!

We were having a family lunch at Nandos, Plaza Singapura. After our meal, Mummy suggested that we have coffee to round off an otherwise, excellent meal. The waitress was placing the cappuccino down and you reached for it, sensing danger with my spidey sense, I reached for your hand to stop you. Only for me, to knock into the cup instead and as a result, you had a freshly brewed cappuccino spilled onto the side of your face and body.

Fortunately, the cappuccino was lukewarm. Nonetheless, you screamed and had red patches on your body. Mummy was visibly upset, but still kept her cool. We bought you to KK Hospital and were greeted by an avalanche of people. Tough luck, so we moved on and bought some lotion for your body at the pharmacy. After some observation, you looked ok and all was well.

By dinnertime, Por Por, Mummy’s mum came by to check on you. How did she know about? Well, one kan cheong mummy was at a lost @ KK Hospital. She called her mummy for help. The kan cheong mummy’s mummy was equally kan cheong. (Pun intended) So the kan cheong mummy’s mummy spend her dinner with us over dinner.

About En Xi

I chanced upon an interesting Sat class for you. It was a ballet cum tap dance class by KinderDance. You always loved dancing and the class seems more about having fun than anything else. You thoroughly enjoyed the 1st class and that was it. Somehow, for unknown reasons up to now, you started to be uncomfortable with the class and didn’t want to change into your outfit or enter the studio. We suggested for you to stop the class, but you kept hinting that you like the class. We were like, “Huh?” This went on for weeks and you began wanting us to join you with the rest of the kids on the dance floor. At times, you would just change into your pretty outfit and sit in the studio watching.

We suspected that you were uncomfortable with the instructors, the environment or the fast paced routine. All suspicion proved to be wrong, you just wanted to wear the princessy outfit and stare at yourself in the mirror. Talking about being vain.

Always Suspend Judgment

Depending on your perception, you are either a persistent child (positive) or a stubborn child (negative). There was this night, where you came crying hysterically to me with a torn sticker, demanding that I fix it. I had a pre-conceived mindset and assumed that you are trying to be difficult again. You kept jumping and wailing; and I continued to threaten you with disincentives. It was clearly not working and the situation was getting worse.

Just then, Grandpa came by with the torn sticker. It was patched up with a simple clear tape. In that instance, you radiated with a smile. I couldn’t help myself and I hugged you giggling. You cracked up as well and we had a good laugh. In my mind, I was thinking how silly we were and was stupefied by Grandpa’s simple act.

After the incident and some reflection, I felt embarrassed. All you wanted was to fix the torn sticker. A simple sticky tape would have solved the problem. My presumptions clouded my judgment. I’ll keep them in mind in future. Always suspend judgment.

Dora, but only in Pink pls

A Happy En Xi in her new Pink Dora Nightie (Daddy bought this from Big W 'Mega store akin to Carrefour' in Rockhampton 'Beef Capital of Down Under', Australia)

Its funny how time seems to be an eternity when you are away from your kids. For the umpteen time (I lost count), Daddy is away for overseas work yet again. Its even more weird when you get home and never fail to notice even the most subtle differences in your kid. While it may seem trivial, every parent will always feel the need to exclaim and share with the whole world. So, here I go.

All Dressed Up and Ready for School

As always, you are taller and heavier, 96cm and 13.6kg to be exact. Your linguistic skills are picking up and you are able to express stuff such as, "Its ok Daddy, I'm ok, we can do it again." Unfortunately, your ability to follow instructions is still very much left to be desired. Your obsession with 'Pink' and 'Dora' has done to a whole new level. You are refusing to wear your uniform for school and this has been going on for a month plus now. The only outfit for school is the Pink 'Dora' T-shirt that Ah Ma has bought for you, matched with an orange leggings with a touch of pink, coupled with Pink 'Dora' back pack and Pink 'Hello Kitty' Crocs. We think you are getting over our heads as you always come home from school with the uniform on. Gotta catch up with your teacher for some tricks these days.

Personalised 'Dora' Themed Booster Seat

During my time away from home, Ah Ma finally managed to cajole you into sitting at our dinner table for meals, but at the expense of giving up the baby chair. The adult chair was too low for you, but you insisted on nothing else and we had to give in. So, off I went to look for a booster seat for you and I was exasperated when you refused to even try to sit on it. The problem? It was blue, not Pink! I should had guessed and made the colour of my choice as my primary criterion for selection. There was no exchange policy and Ah Ma came to the rescue again and suggested that you personalise the booster seat by pasting Dora stickers on it.

So much for 'Pink' and 'Dora', your favourite book from the library now is titled 'My Best Best Friend' of Charlie and Lola series. Daddy ponders if he'll ever be your best best friend in future.

Communicating, the En Xi way

En Xi: Daddy! I want milk.

Daddy: Here you go.

En Xi: (knocks on ah ma's room door) Ah Ma! I blow milk.

Ah Ma: Blow milk? What blow milk?

En Xi: (pointing to the sofa, smiling) There! I blow milk!

Ah Ma: Oh oh... That's vomit... Are you okay, En Xi?

That was 3 weeks ago. The only positive out of the incident was her smile, proudly pointing at her puke as though it was cool. En Xi was down with stomach flu and among many other virus that hops along the sick wagon were a bout of flu, fever and phlegm. This prompted a drop in appetite and feeding became somewhat laborious. To make matters worse, En Xi started to thin down and felt like a bag of bones when we bathed her. Naturally, Mummy felt really bad and began her 'its all our fault' theories of feeding too much this and that or sleeping too late, etc, etc.

Getting ready for beach and insisting on wearing her swimwear while we pack our bags

Fortunately, En Xi recovered in time for our 2nd Bintan trip this year and what great fun we had. We had more company and my parents together with my brother's family were able to join us. So it was great thrill for En Xi as her BFF (Best friend Forever), Charlene Jer Jer (that's how En Xi calls Charlene) was there. We managed to visit the beach and pool on each of the 4 days we were there. Every morning, we are greeted with her saying "I want to go ah beach!" Speaking of which, we came to realise that En Xi talks in a very Singlish way. In fact, most of her speech contains the adjective "ah". Examples such as:

I go ah beach.

I want ah biscuit.

I want ah chee choo. (which means pacifier and I have no idea how she came up with that)

That's ah spider.

And the list goes on.

"Diao Deng" eyes with baywatch pose

En Xi has also started communicate herself a little better and is able to take simple instructions such as "Keep your toys", which comes in very handy, albeit with a little persuasion and reward at times. She is also able to state her needs and is quite comical at times (at least to mummy and daddy). There were times when daddy and mummy are engrossed in our own conversation and En Xi will stand up, raise both her hands in the air, shouting, "STOP! STOP!" She then bows her head, frown and look at us with her "diao deng" eyes, demanding for attention. What can I say? The kid never gets enough attention!

Another screaming episode

Of course, there are times, when En Xi is just sweet. Sometimes, but rarely, she tries the soft approach to get her way by grasping her hands together, tucked under her chin and with her sweetest possible voice, "Daddy.... How aboooout... biscuit?" This normally does the trick and we give in to her demands. Most of the time, she just spreads herself on the floor and starts wailing. I must say En Xi has great stamina, she can keep going with her face turned red and tears streaming down like a tap. At times, taking a break, with a deep breath and yawn before she starts the next salvo. And what do we do, we give up and accede to her demands again.

The little one never keeps still

(This photo doesn't quite relate to what I'm writing here, but I just like this photo, so what the heck?)

Once in awhile, we pretend to be angry before she starts her nonsense. What does En Xi do? She stands in front of us and says," Angry?" Starts shaking her hips, dancing and sings," Wiggles, wiggles! Dibo Dibo Dee?" That's her way of cheering us up.

Last, but not least, my favourite phrase from her when I tickle her neck with my rough stubble on my chin. "Daddy, why you do that?"

The hair on my chinny chin chin never fails to make En Xi laugh

iPhone moments

We are feeling quite guilty for not actively updating our blog.  And it's really frustrating that we are losing track of the milestones of En Xi whenever we try to start a new posting.  For me, the invention of iPhone is definitely a godsend to me! I'm quite disturbed by the tecnicalities of DSLR (I still have problems grapsing how aperture works!!) and the fact that I couldn't shoot as well as Edwin. All Apple inventions, starting from the simplicities I have experienced with Mac to my iPhone, it's what every working parent need to make the simple pleasures of documenting their little tikes so much more convenient.

Here's what our little girl has been up to recently:

1-2-3, Cheee-Cha!

She is more "camera-sensitive" now, are more open to posing for us.  Thou it's still extremely challenging to take a still shot of her, but she does have her posey moments when she is a good mood.

This is what she likes to do on her way to school - singing, dancing...and 

hidding behind the pillar pretending to play peek-a-boo.

 

The Spring/Summer Kids Collection 2010 - Just wear pink

Will the real green Shady please stand up?

Her new-found accessories is this green shades that she got from her Xmas pressies. The problem is ; En Xi has an extremely flat nose bridge, which makes it difficult to support anything on it.  But seems like she has found a solution to address this problem - simply turning the shades upside down!

Mirror Mirror on the wall

She's into self obsession or is it talking to the infamous "secret friend" in the mirror? Clearly, she is beginning to develop Mummy's traits of being magnetized by any form of reflection she sees,  and it amuses her to see herself making different expressions in the mirror.

Hey you in there, what's with the obiang color shades?  

Guitar Heroine  

Ah Ma just got a new toy for her recently - the pink electrico toy guitar.  She has included that in her entourage of favorite things, carrying this with her wherever she is...even when she is watching the TV, she makes sure that it doesn't leave her side.

 Personalizing her guitar with her Dora stickies

I love to behave..only in school

Surprisingly, En Xi turns out to be pretty well-behaved kid in school. I was appalled by how obedient she can be to her teacher's instructions, but a total opposite when she's at home.  Recently she hasn't been co-operating well with me in Shichida classes, but as soon as the teacher came along, she instantly transforms into the angel who does exactly what the teacher need her to...what a chameleon!

Teacher Risa rewarding En Xi with a "Well-behaved Sticker" at the end of the class.

Meanwhile, Daddy is away again on an jungle expedition to Thailand,  stay tune for more "exciting" adventures with me, myself and En Xi!