[Qi 1y4m; Xiang 2y6m] Hair trim

Finally, I've brought my gal to the hair saloon to have her first hair trim. Don't be surprise, yup, her FIRST ever experience. Even on Qi's full moon, we just snipped off a few strays of her hair by my sister.

She was basically screaming and crying in the hair saloon, shouting "美美!!!" because she was thinking the lady were cutting her "beutiful" hair away! It was so so so hard to trim her hair, think the lady just manage to snap her scissors a few times and she declared that it's done After this, I will go get a pair of scissors and trim her front hair by myself. I think the result will be the same as she was struggling so hard in the saloon to get a proper cut.

We too brought Xiang there, this is the first time he's willing to put on the apron and little crying. But he heard Qi cried, he too started sobbing but still under control.

Something to ponder: Running in the rain

I found the following piece in my old emails. I like it very much. "I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision."

*********

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in K-Mart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence.

It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the K-Mart.

We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child come pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in "Mum, let's run through the rain," she said.

"What?" Mum asked.

"Let's run through the rain!" She repeated.

"No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mum replied.

This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mum, let's run through the rain,"

"We'll get soaked if we do," Mum said.

"No, we won't, Mum. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said as she tugged at her Mum's arm.

Mum said, "This morning? ... When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?"

"Don't you remember?" Little girl replied. "When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!"

The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes. Mum paused and thought for a moment about what she would say.

Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's' life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.

"Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mum said.

Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and &nb!sp;yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.

And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories. So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

On a positive note, I've learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I've learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life". I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

[Qi 1y4m] Wei Qi Progress at 1 year 4 months

While I still have the enthusiasm, I wanted to do another piece of progress on my girl. My daughter Wei Qi is now 1 year 4 months, height75cm (15%) and weight 9.5kg (41%). Frankly Qi came un-expected, and was neglected by me (shame on me) as compared to Xiang. Surprising, my “negligence” has somehow made her into a better and stronger character today.

Speech:
1. Started to learn to speak with us, mixture of Mandarine, English and even Kantonese.
2 words are the most, eg. “mami”, “daddy”, "bao-bao", “kakak”, “dog”, “cat”, “duck”, “姨”, “popo”, “gong-gong”, “bird”, "no-mo" (no more), “aplan” (airplane), “an~ti” (aunty – her nanny), “oh o” (when something goes wrong), “chuo chuo” (sit down), “要” (want), “na” (same word she said when she wanted to give us something or she wanted us to give her something), “oofih” (Office - this learnt from her brother as Xiang will ask us to “go office” if he thinks that we are “naughty”), “臭臭” (smelly – after she poo she’ll say it with hands waving in front of her nose), “ne neh” (milk - she said this so many times a day!), “mumm mumm”
2. She understands some of the words we spoke even though couldn’t say it out. For example when I asked her to squad, she will do so (when washing her bottom). Others like clock, fan, light etc …

Food

1. As contrast to her brother, she can almost swallow everything I prepared. Whenever I took out her bowl, she will start to mumble “mumm mumm” non-stop. I can say that she has no allergic towards whatever food, but I am still cautious just to be safe, so until now, still haven’t cook any prawns for her.
2. Loves yogurt and Ribena pastilles. But dislike plain water (after a few sips, she'll say "okay" and refused to drink anymore), loves all the other fruit juices, Chinese leong sui and barley drink. She can swallow medicine without fuss but don’t think she likes it as much as her brother. Learned to Loves French fries from her brother also.
3. Having her 6 oz milk at 3 hours interval, and has a trend of requesting milk at a shorter period (1~2 hours). Tonight, she drank milk at 7.30pm, 9.30pm and at 10.30pm. I was worried whether her little stomach could take so much liquid!

Hobby:
1. She also loves water play, can splash the water so well that makes all of us wet!
2. She loves to flip the book pages, but has no patient in waiting for me to finish a story with her.
3. She loves humbling to the songs in her own words, rocking her body and clapping hands when listening to songs.
4. She loves the slide and the swing, loves the musical kiddy rides, and loves to turn the wheel of the rides.

Toys:
1. Her favorite toy is anything with a cap, an empty syrup medicine plastic bottle with cap for example. She loves putting the cap back and opens it up again.
2. Loves to watched children songs, and sometimes even dance with the songs.
3. Loves “masak-masak”, plates, cups, spoons and loves to play pretend with us.
4. She loves to doodle, not on the board but on the floor!

Motor skill:
1. She can walk very steadily now, she couldn’t jump but trying to.
2. Pushed the kiddy car around the house with her legs very steadily.

Toilet-trained
Not yet toilet-trained, but we do let her sit in potty and did not wear her the diaper at home and at nanny’s home. She will say a nose sound “eemhh” when she wants to poo and sometimes will walk to her potty. After pee in potty, she'll look at the potty and praises herself by smiling & clapping hands (coz we did this every time and she follows us).

Character:
1. She loves to snatch the toys from her brother. Disregard that she’s younger, she can certainly win over her brother. She can do a tug war and grasp the toy firmly with her two strong little hands. She’s very persistent and patients and do not give up easily.
2. She’s starting to develop a bad habit of crying. Once we did not fulfill her wishes, she will sit down or lay backwards with her arms supported at her side and cry! (Our fault actually in developing this bad habit)
3. She tends to hit her brother with her hand whenever her brother did something which makes her angry. She knew it’s not right but it’s becoming a habit of her. (I actually was wondering, where did she learnt it from? From us? But we never hit Xiang now and of course, we never hit her.)
4. She loves to wash hand (er, actually playing with water), whenever she heard any of us is washing our hands, she will came with her hands rubbing together while saying “xi … xi …”
5. From baby, she sleeps on her own in her crib, no need to pat or cuddle and after we switch off the lights, she will lay down and sleep on her own.
6. She will get jealous easily if saw her brother sitting / lying on me and will demand to have her share of "mummy" immediately.
7. She loves to be pretty. She'll say "美美" if she's dressed up prettily, then will smile and look for others to praise her. She'll cry if we remove her "pretty stuff".

Health status:
Not much major problems, had her chicken pox at 1 year 3 months.

Kiddy Acts:
1. She will stomp her feet with joy when seeing us in the evening at nanny’s house, then will laugh out very loudly with her little index finger pointing at her nose or pointing up, also will shout “mi …. mi …. “ non-stop (but there are times she mixed up the words and shout “an~ti”). Once I took her in my arms, she will kiss my cheek while making sound “mmmmm” (always make my heart melts when she did this).
2. Whenever we finished singing our songs, she will be the first to applause us by clapping her hands. If we sung birthday songs, she will held up her 2 arms high up and says “yeah”!
3. When I told her to hold her voice down or when her brother is sleeping, she will put her index finger to her mouth & blow air ^_^ She doesn’t know how to say “shhh …” yet.
4. She loves to be tickles by her daddy and will request for many many times by saying “yah …” “yah …” (I think she wants to say 要)
5. She loves to put the coins in the piggy bank.
6. Loves to wear shoes even inside the house. She usually requests us to wear and take off her shoes for uncountable times.
7. She’s good in messing up the house. She loves to take out every single toys she can accessed to. Took out all the puzzles and the vehicles from their boxes and cabinet.
8. When she heard that we are ready to go up the bedroom, she'll get up and walk to the staircase and start climbing.

[Xiang 2y6m] Goodbye diaper

He had been day-diaper free at 2 years 4 months, and now at 2 years 6 months officially night-diaper free too. I was hesitate to work on his night time sonner as I can’t imagine all the necessary clean-up if he did wet the bed. It was actually Xiang who initiate it.

1st July 2009 - Xiang was throwing tantrum at night and refusd to put on his night diaper. We put plastic mats on our bed and cover it with 2 layers of bed-sheets. At 3am, when my alarm rang, I checked on him. Good, not wetting. I tried to wake up Xiang by asking him whether he needs to go to toilet, but he still sleep like a pig. At around 4am, he woke me up by requesting to go to toilet. He felt that his sleep was interupted and requested for his night diaper. I did not put it on, instead, telling him what a good boy he had been and there’s no need for him to wear it anymore. He was so sleepy that he let in easily (not the usual stubborn him!). In the morning, his father woke him up for kindergarten and he went to toilet after that.

After the first day, the nights afterwards were pretty easy. As a routine, he woke up around 4am to request to go to toilet. Of course, we were praising him all the while, before he goes to sleep, when he woke us up to go to toilet, after he went to toilet, and in the morning after he woke up.

To my surprise, yesterday night (6th July) – he slept through the night without waking up until 7am. It seems like yesterday that whenever I took him out, I have to bring so many stuff along, his diapers, wet tissues, changed of cloths, small towel etc just in case he poo during our outings. I felt really proud of him, but at the same time, and I was feeling a little bit sad at the same time too that he has grown so much.

[Xiang 2y6m; Qi 1y4m] FunFare in Balakong

I saw the tall ferris wheel from the highway on my way back to home few days ago, even though I could not see the park. Fun-fare was something I longed for during my childhood time, it was something not easily found in my hometown and was certainly not trusted by my parents. It is like making up for what I’ve yearned during young, that I brought my kids whenever I saw the beautifully neon-lighted park.

We reached around 7.30pm, and I wonder why there’s so few visitors. Lucky for us, whichever rides we were on, we were given extra round, err… 3 times extra rounds! My kids and my hubby (being forced by me as I wanted to take photos) sat until they showed boring faces and my hubby jokingly tell me to instruct the operator to stop. Oh, Qi is FOC on all rides

Train ride ...

Helicopter ride ... this was the one which made daddy dizzy

Sort of "Mary-Go-Round" ...

The crowd started to gather after 8.30pm. There were quite a lot of stalls – fishing for duckling, dart-throw, ring-throw, ball-throw, gun shoot and to my surprise, a few betting-concept stalls where they bet on colors or numbers and the reward is 4 times the amount bet.

After spending an hour there, with RM40 well spent, we bought home 2 happy, content, tired and hungry kids.

[Xiang 2y6m] Xiang's Progress at 2 years 6 months

I just would like to jot down how do my kids look like when they are young. I hope that I could do this more frequently (lazy mom). I did scribble down something 3 months ago. Looking back, it amazed me how fast they have changed and so much they have achieved. I worried that I might forgot one day how they looked like, how they laughed with the most innocent voice, how they cried just the moment I said no, how they munched their food happily (and messing all the floor under), how they cuddled quietly in my arms while watching video and most of all and the sweet scent of their baby smell.

My son Wei Xiang is now 2 years 6 months, height 95cm (85%) and weight 12.5kg (31%).

Speech:

1. Speak to us in Mandarin but recently, he’ll say “I want ….” Instead of “我要.…”. His speech is getting better than before, able to say a complete sentence more than 5 words. He’s able to communicate well with us, able to say something with logic thinking.
2. Sometimes still stutters when starting a sentence, but it has improved.
3. Saliva drooling, sigh … still there.
4. “Oh-oh Ki-ta-yo”(when something goes wrong), “翔自己…” “我拿!!!”(he wants to do EVERYTHING on his own) are his favorite saying.
5. He can read ABC, 1~10; knows how to count from 1~30 (when taking inhaler, he always counts with us); phonic sounds from A~K.

Food:
It’s difficult to prepare meals for him. He loves fish porridge at one day and the next time I cooked him the same dish, he rejected it totally. His favorite is white bread, spread with butter and sugar, and could finished 3 pieces at one time. Loves Yee Hup round biscuits, yogurt, Ribena pastilles. Drinks lots of plain water and loves carrot juice (rejected every other drink eg Ribena, Chinese leong sui, barley drink etc…). Loves Chinese medicine especially Hou Zhou San. Loves fishballs. Loves French fries with tomato ketchup.

Hobby:
1. Doing puzzle is his favorite. When he was a baby time, nothing could keep him sit still until we discovered puzzle. Currently, he is able to do a 25 pieces puzzles.
2. Reading bed time story, current very engrossed in the “Goodnight My Duckling” book and requested me to read it to him every night. He loves to look for the turtle, the evening sun and the raising moon.
3. Water play, well all kids love this! He loves his bath-time, as he gets to bath the ducks, transferring water from one bucket to another or to the pail.
4. Loves all kind of kiddy rides, with condition that the ride has a wheel.
5. Loves to go to the park to feed the fish & tortoise and of course, loves the playground. He called the playground as “wo-wo-wo” (dun ask me why) even though he knew the actual name is playground.

Toys:
1. He loves cars. Heavy vehicle such as digger, fire engine, dump truck and vehicle with sound such as police car, ambulance are his favorite. Loves to place the matching cars on top of his vehicle book.
2. Loves to watched Video – Brainy baby ABC series, Barney and children songs

Motor skill:
1. Not able to use a scissor yet. Pasting skill is good, able to paste stickers within given areas.
2. He still paddle his tricycle with 1 foot. *not tired meh???*
3. He is not the type of physically strong boy. He can run, jump, kick, throw, catch, but can’t do with excellent.

Toilet-trained
Day time toilet trained now, able to go to toilet to pee in the bowl, and flushed the water by his own. But he likes to hold until his tank is full, then with one hand holding his pen*s, another hand trying hard to pull down his pants and then RUN to the toilet. [Now both he and I are working on night time, 2 days night diaper free as of 3rd July ^_^]

Character:
1. He is stubborn! Everyone would say so including his teachers & nanny. When he’s determined to do one thing, no matter how you persuade him, he wanted to give it a try first.
2. He likes to do things on his own, open the auto-gate, the door, take toys, take plates, washing hands, brushing teeth, and even put milk powder and shake his milk.
3. He is particular. For example, he’ll take his small kiddy bowl (not his sister) on his own when we gave him biscuits or snacks. If we wrong take the big kiddy bowl, he’ll reject it and declared the big one is used only when mummy / daddy fed him. He wants his slipper to put nicely on the floor with heels facing outside.
4. He likes to keep himself clean. He’s very scared of being dirty. He dislike sand-play and kept his arms on his back with his fingers crossed. His limit is just to touch the sand with the tip of his fingers.
When he’s eating something messy, he’ll requested for bib to put on.
Before & after he ate something, he’ll go to wash his hands on his own and wipe clean with towel. Sometimes, he’ll be naughty, turned on the pipe to the maximum and splash water on me!
5. He understands when we scolded him, and he reckons his mistakes now. When one scolded him, he’ll stay stone-like-unmoving posture. If any other person asked him to come over (to sayang him), he’ll shake his head and say:”Daddy/Mummy 骂” (Daddy/Mummy scold). Only the person who scolded him can make him move again.
6. He’s scared of hair-cut. All the fallen hair makes him felt so dirty!
7. He can’t sleep without his favorite pillow which he does not allow us to put on the pillowcase and his pacifier.
8. It is easy to fed him medicine, all swallow with no fuss.

Health status:
He has minor asthma (pity boy, he does not know how an ice-cream or a cold drink taste like). His skin is allergic type, and he tends to scratch until bleed. Otherwise, it is OK. Had his chicken pox recently. Missles – not yet!

Kiddy Acts:
1. He loves birthday. Loves to sing birthday songs, loves to blow out the candles, loves to cut the cake but eating is just so-so.
2. He loves to use his legs to pushed little tricycle (the type without paddles) and could go swarming around the house, but able to avoid obstacles including his little sister.
3. He likes to shout “1, 2, 3!!!!!” when the car went through a bump, and will make a sad look or even cried if he miss to shout a bump.
4. Sometimes, he'll still cry going to kindergarten, especially after long holiday.

Full time mom

After seeing Sam blogging about her future plans, I’ve decided to write out what’s in my mind over the past few months, or should I say over the past year!

I have the thought of becoming a much better & committed mom to my 2 kids ever since September 2008. I have often asked myself how would my childhood be if my mother was a working mom – no one to make sure I took breakfast in the morning, no nicely made lunch box with my favorite fried rice & luncheon meat (my fav!), no one to greet me after school, no hot-mom-cooking lunch & dinner waiting on the table once I finished bathing, no one there to spoil me (撒娇 – I can’t recall the word in English). Of course all of these can be done by babysitter, but I can’t imagine myself being taken care by babysitter either! For sure, I’ll be scared of babysitter in someway won’t be the same as with my mom.

I still remember clearly where I played by myself or with sisters when kids time. It is just enough for me to stay beside my mom and knowing she’s there under the same roof even though all the while she’s doing the household chores. (My mom is extremely particular about cleanliness and woke up at 5am every day until now!)

I have been working for 9 years now in this company, my first job and maybe my last??? My attitude and commitment towards my job have drastically changed ever since last year. I just don’t have the “heart” anymore and were often thinking of how much I could do for my kids if I were at home with them during office hour (and of course, blogging!)

Of course, I am worried and even little bit scared of life being stay-at-home-mom. I need to prepare 3 meals each day and make sure my kids are eating right. This I have to put a lot of hard work in it as my cooking skill is bad. My son is a very picky eater and I need double patience to coax him whenever he is with me during the weekends.

Being SAHM will also put some burden and stress onto my husband as we will be financially dependent on him, which I don’t like neither! I may sound over-worried or thinking too much, but who knows about the future? Furthermore, I have 2 kids to look after and what if there’s problem with our financial status? My husband and I have been through a very down time before married whereby his car was almost pulled away by bank, a terribly hard period for both of us. Of course, I need to cut down my budget, which is a big challenge for me on not to shop too often.

Next I’m worried about my EQ. Can I handle both my kids without going crazy? Can I control my temper? I do have a very bad temper. Can I be a good example to my kids? "Everytime I told someone about my plans, usually I got negative feedbacks and questions "huh, you throw away your degree and become a full time mom???" "why you let go a secured job with good pay just to become wong min po?" "you financially dependent on husband - aren't you worried ...?" "Are you sure it's worth it???"

But I guess that I will be happy if my kids are happy to have me around them for 24 hours a day & 7 days a week. Although there’s so many uncertainly in my head and un-confidence in me, BUT I’ve determined to quite my job on this coming November 2009 and starting from December 2009, a brand new life for me & for my kids.

P/S: in case some of you asked, why Nov? Oct end got bonus mah … hahahaha …