Happy Teachers' Day!

We wanted to prepare a small gift of appreciation for this meaningful day, as we are really grateful for Ms Yu Kai and her team for their great guidance to Mei Mei. Having seen the painting works that Mei Mei has done at school, I was inspired to use that as the theme of the greeting card.

Marking the 1^st try with Mei Mei in painting, I was determined to document the whole process of this inaugural experience. I was visualizing how endearing it will be painting with Mei Mei and capturing the steps of preparation in Daddy’s picture perfect DSLR cam.

Here’s what Mummy was envisioning for the pixs: Mei Mei sharing a laugh with Mummy while painting happily away on the card. Mei Mei will patiently try out the different palettes of color and looking amazed with the output of her artistry talents. Finally the blissful scene will be complete with a grin to grin pose with the finished masterpiece.

In reality, that didn’t really happen :(

Mei Mei refused to sit still, and more interested in painting her whole hands than the canvass. We spent most of the time trying to stop her from planting her colored hands on the table and sofa. From what I thought was just a simple art and craft session turns out to almost a vandalizing disaster. I’m bewildered by how her teachers manage to do that (as I was told that she totally loved it whenever there are painting lessons!!). Instead of the original plan to design 3 cards, we decided to throw the white flag at the end of the 1^st card.

Focusing hard when she first started..

And started to paint the table than the card.

Somehow figure out that her fat little fingers will be more fun than using the brush

Finally added the finishing touch with her Hello Kitty stickers

We will definitely try painting again, but probably the next time, it might be more suitable to move it to the corridor I guess?

The Shichida "Secret Training"

As part of the Shichida classes that Mei Mei is attending, we are also required to conduct home practices everyday to stimulate her development. I like the idea of this, as it enforces a bonding regime (to stop me, the TV addict, from being distracted by ever-interesting drama serials).

Flashcards and a mathematical exercise called “Dots Programme” is what we will typically do. It’s actually not very interesting, but somehow Mei Mei loves it so much. Whenever she gets cranky, this is like a secret weapon we have. The moment we say “Dots Programme”, she will stop whatever she is doing, turning from cries to smiles, and race into the room to point to where the flashcards is kept. It’s so funny, cos it works just like a spell on her.

Oh oh..it's "Dots Programme" time again...I LIKEEEEEE..

Flashcards are her favorite, so much so that we realized that she attempted to mimick us doing flashcards. It’s quite an amusing sight when she starts reciting in her baby lingo while flashing the cards.

SHAPES!

CIRCLE!

OVAL!

En Xi is back for more action

It’s been a while since we have updated the developments of Mei Mei. Tracing back from the last posting, it’s close to 4 months since our last update!

Sorry for the silence, En Xi has been growing up too fast that we are so swarmed with running after her, and spending most of our time serving the whims and fancy of this sassy princess. Okay, bad excuses but we will try our best to re-collect the highlights of her growing up milestones.

At 18+ months, this little girl has taken on another level in her milestones. We have also started her on playgroup lessons at Ykidz Montessori and she is enjoying herself tremendously with her new found friends. For us, the biggest reward is her ability to get into a fixed routine and sleep pattern, after her brain cells is drained out in the day. Comparing to before, when our Mei Mei can only sleep after playing “treasure hunt” (ie she will ransack all the things she can find before she is finally happy to settle down for sleep) till it’s past 11pm, it’s definitely a godsend change for us.

Singing is definitely her biggest fanatic now. She is simply crazy about it, that we have to play Wiggles music in the car and put on her favorite nursery rhymes at mealtimes so that she can sing along with it. The amazing thing is that she probably has heard the same song for at least 500 times but never get tired of it. What is interesting is that she can remember when to come in at the key chorus point on rhythm. And when she hears the song “Are you sleeping?”, this is what she will do…

As she is picking up more words, “NO” is definitely her most articulated word, you can hear it for at least 20 times a day. She can say it with different accentuation to express her emotions, like “No” with her head shaking vigorous like she is on ecstasy means she doesn’t want her food anymore. And the weirdest thing is, she will only say “Mami” (that’s how she pronounce it, which I suspected she copy it from Dora) when she needs something.

huh..boring porridge again?

Now that her looks are more defined, we are still debating who she takes after.

Is is Daddy's girl?

Or Mummy's mini?

Mei Mei seems to have a distinct look herself, but somehow, she seems to look very close to Ponyo, a Japanese anime character in one of the recent movies. Judge for yourself..

One of the key highlights would also have to be Mummy getting a new job. Wondering how does this got to do with Mei Mei (since this is her blog)? You see, I used to work grossly long hours, managing to touch down on home pad only when Mei Mei is close to asleep. Although Mei Mei has never compromised her love for me because of this, but I know that it’s not fair to her since both Daddy and Mummy work equally long hours. I have started my new job for almost a month, and glad that I’m finally able to come home to her when the sun is still high and up. Now, the quality bonding time with her has been something that I look forward to every day, especially her big hugs to welcome me back home.

En Xi @ 16 months

As my mum used to be a babysitter, I always thought that I will be quite prepared for parenthood due to my early exposure to child rearing. Somehow En Xi is a far cry from what I could fathom. She can be quite a character when she - is hungry for milk/you take her toys away/can’t go out/just feel like it.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s because of what I ate during my pregnancy that made her somehow a different material from the conventional babies. But it’s also all these little mischief that made her exceptionally adorable at the same time.

Here’s a quick glimpse of our little drama queen’s life @ 16mths

She responses very well to music with heavy rhythm, such as rock or hip hop. She will start nodding her head profusely and tapping her feet away to the music. Check out one of her performance!

This is En Xi’s favorite pair of shoes, her mini red Crocs. Crocs is probably one of the biggest bona-fide phenomenon in the world and Singapore, and hope that En Xi can remember that she use to owe one of this vogue thing when she was young.

At approximately 5pm, En Xi will guide Ah Ma to her little red Crocs and request for a walk. In fact, she likes to walk so much that she can literally walk for the whole day in the house, and only stop when she is having her nap, meals or watching her favorite TV programme.

The moment this little girl wakes up, she likes to ransack whatever she can find. One fine morning, this is what Mummy found…
Mummy...i really didn't do it.

The all-time favorite game is still “Peek-a-boo” for her. Just throw her a blanket, and she can entertain herself for the whole day.

Meet Pinkie, En Xi's best friend. She will kiss Pinkie the moment she wakes up, and anytime when she is in sight. Sometimes, Mummy gets so jealous as she always reserves her biggest kiss only for Pinkie.

En Xi has also started to articulate her emotions and intentions with her unique baby talk.

Mum mum = food

Na na = “no no”

O-par = hug

Ah-pa = apple

Hit her head with both her hands – means “pain pain”, especially Mummy start screeching at her top of her voice when she is approaching some nasty corners.

Ah-chee = parrots back when someone is sneezing, sometimes says it while covering her mouth too.

Whhyyyyyyyyyyyy - it LITERALLY means why when you take her pacifier away, or take something away from her. It's probably the 1st real word she picked up, and she says it with such precision that it's quite amusing.

Ah ta ta ti ta yaaaaaaaaaaaa……….. - basically, it’s when she is upset that you are not giving her what she wants, like too slow in preparing her milk, wants more ice-cream, refuse to let her get on the dinner chair, blah blah blah...

The Handyman & Wiggles

This is En Xi's favourite book, Daddy didn't know this until he saw Grandpa painstakingly patch it up with tape. Daddy is not proud cos he told Grandpa to toss it away. There's so much money can buy, time is definitely not one of them. Gotta read more to En Xi in future. Wait a min, isn't that one of Daddy's new year resolution? Quality vs Quantity. Sometimes its not about the Quality of time spend, but also the Quantity of time spend.

Handyman Grandpa repairing yet another En Xi's toy.

En Xi has taken learning a step further by following her Mommy's work.

Lets take a closer look

Oh No! Yet another Wiggles MTV.

I must say En Xi's obession with Wiggles has taken to a new level. She just can't keep her hands off our laptops whenever we are working on it.

Photo of the Day

I'm a Wiggles Fanatic!

SAF Seaview Chalet

The Wise One

(Grandpa's Mummy aka 'Ah Joh')

After a decade in service, Daddy finally took time to book an SAF chalet. Family and relatives gathered for a BBQ session. As always, it was good catch up for the elders and plenty of Wii action for the young ones. En Xi had lots of fun as well, this was the first time you touched sand and hear the splashing of the waves from the sea.

En Xi going estatic

Making sandcastles with cousin Charlene

Charlene obviously very delighted as well

En Xi picked up some new tricks during her stay at the chalet.

Honing her skills to be a croupier for the new IR.

Training for Vertical Marathon 2020.

A very exhausted En Xi.

The Shichida Method

Like all 'kiasu' parents, Daddy & Mommy wanted to give En Xi a headstart in life. After scouting around and heard fantastic reviews of The Shichida Method. We decided to enroll you for a term to try it out.

Classes are on every Sat morning with either parent. As Daddy was going to be away for overseas training soon. Daddy had the priviledge to be your companion for your first class.

Mommy getting En Xi ready for class.

All set & ready to learn.

So what's The Shichida Method all about? Its really all about training your right brain. According to scientific research, the right brain stops developing at the age of 3. Thereafter, you use mainly the left brain and to fully maximise your brain's potential, you gotta unlock the power of your right brain. Your right brain has mysterious abilities, telepathy is one of them. You can guess where Daddy was sitting when he posted this entry.

Sounds crazy? I think so likewise, but this was what Daddy felt after your first class. There was this activity that proved my point.

Teacher holds up a doll and says: Children guess how many roses is Daisy holding on to?

Teacher subsequently took 2 pictures out and says: Is it 2 or 3 roses?

Teacher gets every child to make a choice by tapping on either of the 2 pictures.

Teacher then takes out the doll again, turns it around and pulls out the answer.

Daddy goes "@#%$ WTF???"

Daddy stumbled upon the above and wondered? Why did they use a different child for each ability? Can't a kid have all the mentioned abilities? What if En Xi had all these amazing abilities? Let'd find out...

Daddy thinks En Xi has the potential.

Don't play play ok? I got telepathy power you know...