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. 

Along came Didi

3-day old En Jun

My first post after Didi En Jun arrived! Didi is now sleeping longer in the 2nd month, which allows me to sneak in some time to work on this blog which has been sitting in my draft box for the past few weeks.

Spot the difference

It feels very deja vu with the arrival of Didi. Everybody attest that he strikes a stark resemblence to Mei Mei when she was young. So it seems to bring me back to the time when Mei Mei was first born and reliving it once again. The difference is that now we are more savvy parents and less kang cheong since Mei Mei has put us through a stringent boot camp training then. 


With a fussy Didi who needs to be nursed almost waking hour in the evening, there is very little time I can spare for Mei Mei. I'm grateful that Edwin offered to take 6 weeks off from work to jagar Mei Mei during this trying month. He is now her undisputed BFF, so much so that he is always the first person she runs to for anything and everything. The house is always buzzing with, " Daddy..can I...", "Daddy, I want...,". I'm getting quite jealous to be honest. Their bond is so tight that even when it's just me and her, she will unconsciously address me Daddy. I just hope that Didi can get more settled down soon so I can reclaim my BFF top seat soon.


Before Didi came along, we were quite worried that Mei Mei might be hostile towards him. She surprised us by handling this new transistion very well, thou there are some emotional moments at school during the first weeks. In fact, she turns out to be a very caring Big Sister towards Didi. Some of the very endearing moments;

A smirky Big Jie Jie

• When Didi is up for night feedings, Mei Mei will wake up and ask "What happen to Didi??" and instantly crashed back to sleep
• There was once that Didi was wailing frantically during his bath, sweet Mei Mei actually put her water pistol into his bath tub, prompting us to use it to calm him down (something we used to do to coax her into bathing)
• No matter how loud or rough she usually is, she's instantly transformed into a gentle angel when talking to Didi.
• During one of our car rides, Mei Mei even requested that we stopped talking as Didi is sleeping (something that totally stumped me!). 
• She always ask me to feed Didi when he's crying, claiming that he's hungry thou he just finished his feed 5 seconds ago.

I'm glad that both of them has started on the right note. Fingers crossed that this continues for as long as it lasts!

Cooling Off

Around Us

Today is Cooling Off Day. The country is in the midst of a 10 day election campaign and all campaign activities will cease today for voters to recollect their thoughts before voting tomorrow. Ironically, today's weather is scorching hot and there is hardly any cooling off with all main stream news and the Internet media buzzing with accusations and politicking. Politicians are playing up our emotions and pulling our heartstrings by pressing on touchy issues such as, "Do you want a better future for your children? Don't be afraid! Vote for XXX! Majulah Singapura!" Sometimes, I wonder if they understand the meaning of Mahjulah. For the record, although I'm a civil servant, I'm not partisan and I like to believe that I got a pretty good idea of what is a better future for my children. Though my one single vote matters, it remains valid for 5 years before a new Parliament is formed. So, my answer to a better future, though it may seems irrelevant at this point, is my commitment towards fostering values and character building in my children.

Some light humour, see video below.

About You

You have made progress towards your potty training! Good job Champ! Albeit the occasionally accident, you have done well so far and is only dependant on the diapers during sleep. However, you remain to prefer using the diapers to settle your big business. Whenever, you feel the 'big' coming, you will steal your diapers without us noticing and change into it to finish off your big business. This normally happens in your room and when we enter the room, you will (see video below):-

You are 3 years and 3 months old

Its been 5 months since Daddy last blogged. Rest assured that I still care a lot about you, its just that human beings are habitual creatures. I have 'nwuah-ed' for some time now due to the relaxed pace of my work (my boss better not be reading this) and have also spend a fair amount of time on personal reading in the nights. Since you started full day child care this year, also meant going to bed and waking up earlier for Daddy and Mummy as well. Okay, I know, enough excuses, I'm just plain lazy.

About You

In preparation for your baby brother, we decided to send you to a full day child care center in 2011, so that Ah Ma can have time to take care of Di Di when he arrives in this world. You stopped your enrichment classes at YKidz in Nov 10, but your teacher, Janet was kind enough to invite you back for Xmas celebrations. For memories sake, here are some photos with your teachers and friends at the party.

Your cousins, Ri-Ann (L) & Ricole (R)

Your best pal, Audrey

Your Principal, Ms Ng Yu Kai

Your form teacher, Ms Janet

Your other teacher, Ms Jasmine

Your new school is in MindChamps Toa Payoh, no more school bus and Mummy can now (with Daddy occasionally) bring you to school daily. This is something we enjoy and cherish very much as your mood meter is in the 'happy' zone in the morning and we get your almost undivided attention in our conversations. Ye Ye fetches you from school (at times Daddy when I get an off day or 'twang' from work).

Getting really excited for your first day in MindChamps

Initial impression up til now (3 months) shows that you are happy with the new school and your form teacher, Ms Leah (your form teacher) has managed to encourage you to eat on you own confidently. Whenever Daddy and Mummy gets an opportunity to pick you up from school, we are always thrilled to hear you say, "I'm so happy today!" We never quite figure out what you are happy about as you never quite revealed when queried and is often in a hurry to showcase your classroom stuffs to us. Your potty training is still in the works, but at least you can now inform when you want to do your 'wee wee' & 'nrgh nrgh'. So that's a good start.

I'm happy to see you grow up with a great sense of humour. Albeit at times you are shy with people you don't know, we know that there's always a cheeky side of you awaiting to throw us off our chairs.

Our Continuing Struggles

Convincing you to bath seems to take an eternity and has proved to be a challenge. We are not sure how this came about. Could it be due to a/several bad experience or just plain playfulness? Seriously, we don't know and its growing to be a little concern for us as its time and energy sapping for us all in the family. It takes a good 15 min to persuade or trick you into walking into the bathroom, another 15 min to play in the bathroom and lastly 15 min again for the right choice of clothes, which naturally has to be pink in nature. We are mostly late for appointments and what follows is a frantic march to the car and frenzied drive to our place of destination. I've officially demoted Mummy to '2nd grade princess' in the family as there can be only 1 princess in the family and that's you, our spirited child. So, again, good luck to the guy who marries you, not only does he got to contend with your feisty temperament, but also your never ending time wasting antics with 'mor' here 'mor' there.

Our Travels

Before your baby brother is born and looking forward with the next vacation seems so far away, we did a short road trip to Desaru up north in 'Boleh-land'. We had a little fun with the water park and managed to visit the fire flies river trip and ostrich farm. As always, you had the most fun and was indulged with your favourite biscuits. You are still talking about the trip til today.

Getting ready for the water park

The farm worker communicating the ostriches

The ostriches eggs were huge and almost impossible to crack

Weird looking cross bred chicken that had a bad hair day

This one had a hard day at work and was soundly asleep, its not dead if you are wondering

Was this imported from Pandora in the movie Avatar?

Some Fatherly Advice

Recently, Daddy went for a church wedding and the pastor gave the newly weds 3 words, Commitment, Contentment and Consecration. While, I can relate the need for the former 2 qualities in a relationship, no offence to you if you are ever going to be a Christian, I think the last C should be Conscience instead. Why? Consecration is to be holy through a relationship with God, with a good relationship with God brings you a good relationship with your spouse. If you are not a Church go-er, this might sound 'bulls**t' to you, but think carefully, search deeper and you realise by having the same conscience (values, principles or ethics) with your spouse towards life will quite frankly provide a meaningful relationship. So, to crudely put it, to me, God in this case is but a tool for 2 person to share common values (I chose the word conscience cos it started with the letter C, but you know what I meant) in their lifes together. Whether, you are reading this when you are 15 or 25 years of age, I hope I make sense to you. With my infamous short term memory, I hope I can share with you more in future.

Love, Daddy

Raising My Spirited En Xi

For those who have been followed through our blog, or had a chance to meet my Mei Mei in person, you will probably realize by now that she is nowhere near a compliant child.

Don't be fool by my angelic smile, I can be your worst nightmare..hwahahahahah

For the longest time, we have been hoping that she might outgrow her challenging nature once she gone past her babylicious stage. When she blew her 3 candles last month, I have decided to resigned to fate that her package is here to stay. Edwin is also increasingly concerned with this feisty tike, and why every simple task seems like a Mount Everest calling for her. Nothing gets completed without a dose of tantrums. And on good days when she decided to give us a break, it feels almost like striking TOTO!

You can't make me...neh neh ni boo boo

As more and more of our peers join us in the Parents Society, we can’t help feeling concerned when we see how their kids are just so easy to handle. This is also where I will get to meet 2 typical mummies, who are capable of pulling my emotions either ways.

Meet The Competitive Mum, who will rave about how their precious has accomplished the Toddler 101 milestones, and casting a discerning look at Mei Mei, complete with the unspoken judgment that it must have been something that we haven’t done right. We do wonder sometimes, if we have indirectly fed her willfulness because we chose not to use the rod. It might have been easier to keep her in check if we have decided to go with the negative reinforcement from the start.  But I was the more determined one not to, as using the rod would have been an easy way out, and I believe I know what’s best for her. At this point, the Tiger Mums out there might snare at me, as this might be a totally unacceptable parenting theory in their world. I have been brought up in a traditional Chinese family, where defiance is not an option for girls. I may be the compliant child that my mum is always proud of. However, it is also obvious that I lack the adventurous spontaneity like my brothers and always drawn to the politically-correct way of life.

Now for my favorite friend; The Empathetic Mum who will assure us that we are not alone. Instantly, our conversations will always progress to be somewhat like a support group discussion, exchanging our fair share of nerve-wrecking experiences.

Some people advocate kids of Mei Mei’s nature as the “strong-willed” child - a term that I was first introduced to when we attended a parenting workshop. It was then that we seemed to have found the perfect explanation to Mei Mei’s behaviour.

As I actively seek more enlightening answers to manage Mei Mei’s strong-willed traits, I chanced upon a book recently by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka - “Raising Your Spirited Child”. 

Here’s a peek of the traits that characterises a “spirited” child:

Intensify - "..They never whimper; they wail. They can skip into a room, smiling and laughing only to depart 30 secs later inflamed."

How can I not concur with this when most days with En Xi is like watching “Dr Hyde and Jekyll” Live in Action, and it totally resonates with Edwin's exasperation that she can never take “No”  for an answer.

Persistence – “…They are committed to their task, goal-oriented, and unwilling to give up. Getting them to change their minds is a major undertaking.” 

I remembered those days during Shichida when cold sweat will shivered down my forehead whenever we have writing activities. She simply refused to let me hold her hand to guide her, and insist to color all the characters when we were instructed to trace them instead. And the bedtime lights-out ordeal, when she always wants to read the last, last, last storybook till we have exhausted all the books she can possibly find.

Sensitivity -  “…Keenly aware, spirited kids quickly respond to the slightest noise, smells, lights, textures, or changes in mood. “

This is how most of our photo-taking sessions will end up

The every morning saga of getting her to change into her uniform is never something we look forward to, as she will end up cladding something of her choice after some dramatic struggles. And not forgetting her recent strike during 1^st day of CNY, when she refuses to change into the cute cheongsum outfit I’ve painstakingly select for her, as she keeps insisting that it’s not a dress but a shirt.

The poor CNY dress that never make it to daylight

Perceptiveness - ”…It takes them 10 minutes to get them from the house to the car.

They notice everything.”

I feel a sense of relief to know that we are not some crazy parents who have to always carefully strategized every outing, starting from something as simple as a short walk from the MRT, as thou it’s one of Edwin’s ATEC misson, to avoid any potential eye contact with tear-inducing suspects such as playgrounds. Even the same walk to the bus-stop (that takes less than 3 mins) seems like eternity as she always manage to discover something new to amaze at.

Adaptability – “…Spirited children are uncomfortable with change. They hate surprises and do not shift easily from one activity or idea to another..” 

This probably accounts for the taxing emotional strikes she put up when she first started full-day preschool a month ago.

By Page 10 of this book, I can’t help thinking that they should re-name the title to “Raising Your Spirited En Xi” instead.

As the book has rightfully pointed out, life with my Spirited En Xi are equally rewarded with prized moments of joy and laughter. She will ambush us with disciplinary words such as “Don’t shout”, “Cannot push”, “Say sorry” when we haven’t been observing the same ground rules that we have laid down for her. And of cause how everyday is her birthday, and we have to conduct the cake-cutting ceremony and sing her the “Happy Birthday” song for the 10,001th time…her daily supplement of warm snuggles (usually complete with a Olympic dive into our arms) the moment we step through the door…and how she likes to orchestrate a music performance at home, and getting everyone to be part of her rock ensemble, creatively using make-shift instruments such as cup covers as cymbals. 

I'm so happy to be the free-spirited child!!

I’m looking forward to uncover more insightful tips in this book and hope to share some successes in the near future.  For a start, it has definitely help to reinforce my unwavering belief that Fate must have its own plans for her, and setting her up for something out of the usual run of things.   Stay tune for more updates on my Spirited En Xi!

En Xi’s 3rd Birthday Bash – The Pink Party

The planning for En Xi’s birthday bash was rather an impromptu thought.  From the original intent of just having a small get-together with just our immediate family members, the guest list became longer, and the scale of the setup became bigger each time we speak.

The theme of this party was unsurprising.  Since the day she knew how to distinguish colors, she only has eyes for pink. Anything that she could lay her eyes on has to be pink; from her pink shoes, pink PJs, pink bag, and…. even her kite has to be pink! And somehow when she knew that her birthday was approaching, she has been raving about having a pink birthday cake (complete with pink candles) every day. So, Mummy decided to worship her obsession with pink, as a hallmark of her growing-up fetish.

Her much-awaited birthday pressie

Her Pinkie Pink frock

For a change, we decided to take the party outdoors so that we can relieve ourselves from the post-party cleaning up. It was probably the best decision that Daddy had made, as the abundance of space allow the little guests to roam freely, while parents gets to relax in the comfort of the cool breeze. I believe the highlight for the kids was the bouncy castle we rented, something we always wanted to do but constrained by the space at home.

Thou the weather weren’t too kind to us that day, Heroes of the Ong Family save the day with their perfect co-ordination of BBQ culinary skills amidst the heavy drizzle. 

The Chef SWAT - Ah Peh, Ye Ye, Daddy 

As for me, the classic moment has always been the cake-cutting ceremony, seeing how the kids awed over the cake and basking in the joy of singing the “Happy Birthday” song. 

A precious cameo moment - finally En Xi managed to look straight and smiling into the camera

Till…Shou Cong Gor Gor intercepted the anticipated moment of the candle-blowing ritual, En Xi’s angelic face suddenly transformed into a state of distress! We were quick to lit up the candles again and avoid the joyous event from turning into a “bloodshed”. This time, En Xi was determined not to let anyone spoil her day, cautioned Shou Rui Gor Gor with a stern look saying “Shou Rui Gor Gor cannot blow!” (for the record, they immediately became BFF again once they are back at play).

Pink Cake + Pink Ice-cream = Ultimate happiness for En Xi

En Xi, we hope that you’ve enjoyed your pink party!

Love you always, Mummy n Daddy :)