Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Neck trainings

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Recently Xuan likes blu-tac a lot and always asks for it (“我要blu-tac!") so much so that she bid it goodnight "Blu-tac 晚安!" -_-"

Last night I took her to the stadium to run around, then she got tired and lazy, and requested me to carry her. As we were strolling back home, I told her, “萱萱长大了,妈妈就不可以抱你了” Hearing this, she hugged me even tighter, while resting her head on my shoulder, and said, "可以!" Awwwww...

Looking at Colin growing fatter (yes, fatter!) and more alert everyday, I cannot believe Xuan was that "immobile" before. She's almost 2yrs old soon, how time flies! I'm glad I'm spending that much time with them everyday now because it'll feel like a minute before they're all grown up and wouldn't even want to hold my hand anymore, esp my little boy.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Babies' KL trip

The entire So "clan" went to KL for a 2 night stay at the Trader's Hotel. There's a huge playground area next to the hotel so Little Melody gets to try the swing and roam in and out of the maze.
Mummy and daughter and the Petronas Towers

Mama and Papa So didn't exactly get any shopping done with Xuan whining to be carried most of the time, didn't exactly sleep well with 2 babies in the same room, didn't exactly eat well with xuan refusing to eat most things. When we did shop we were looking for cereal, corn in a cup (for xuan to eat), diapers...Little Colin is either sleeping or drinking milk in Mama So's sarong. On the way back to Singapore Xuan even vomited all over grandma. Overall it was a very tiring trip, but a good experience for everyone. Xuan had fun running around with her cousin Keagan all the time :)

After KL we travelled to Seramban to hold Uncle E's wedding dinner. Throughout the whole dinner, Mama So and Aunt Z were busy nursing or comforting Baby Colin and Baby Kaelyn. Xuan displayed her musical talents (when she sings she's quite in tune) by making up her own song: "Dowan dowan dowan fish, dowan dowan dowan fish..." (sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star") Aunt YR learnt a valuable lesson and decided to enjoy her honeymoon year ahead instead of having babies early, haha :D
At the end of the day, the trip was worth it cos we got a nice family photo:


Chern will learn how to smile in time :)

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Wantoks Jersey


I played for touch rugby team Wantoks til I got pregnant with Melody. My teammates got her a set of jersey that she finally can fit into :)

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Fist eater

Babies suckle for comfort, it gives them a sense of security.

Colin (7weeks)



Melody (3 months)



Chern is starting to coo and smile at me when I smile at him. When I brought him out to go gown fitting with a friend yesterday, everyone said he's got a boy-boy/beach boy look cos he's so tanned! He looks absolutely adorable in this little doggie pose when he was sleeping and flipping about this morning :)


Saturday, December 13, 2008

Wedding!

Mama So bought a dress for Melody that matches my own for the wedding! :D:D

Poor Melody was playing hide and seek during the solemnization and her baby chair fell on her, leading her to screeeeeeaaamm and Papa Mama So quickly took her out to sayang her little head. Little boy stayed at home with grandma cos the dinner will end late. Little little girl had a good time and fell asleep at the second last dish :)

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Sentosa!


A friend held her wedding at Rasa Sentosa (Congrats LT! It's one of the most entertaining weddings I've been to ;) ) so we thought it was a good chance to bring her to the beach. Little Melody's first experience to the beach was a happy one. She scooped sand with this sea shell container and walked on the beach a little. I brought her to where the waves are lapping but she didn't dare to step there so I carried her and walked along the shore. Thats all we planned to do for this trip cos we really just want to show her the sea and try walking on sand.

During the wedding dinner she was in a good mood. Probably because she had a good nap before leaving the house and everything's new and exciting to her. She took my hand and walked around the big "maze" (the ballroom with all the tables) several times. Then as we ate she played with her utensils and with my friends, who successfully got our baby to respond to them after about 2hours? ;P We find that she's a little apprehensive about trying out unfamiliar things and interacting with people she doesn't recognise. Even with her own uncles and aunties, she doesn't really warm up to them. Which means she won't be running off anywhere with strangers! This dinner is a good warm up to her Uncle Eddie's wedding this coming sat. At least now we know what we can expect from her :)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Speaking in short sentences

It started with “妈妈坐”then “妈妈坐这里”; “跌倒”then“小熊跌倒了”;“吃葡萄干”then “萱萱吃葡萄干”or “我要我要葡萄干!”;and she said “弟弟 as-kiss me (excuse me)" when she wanted to sit in the baby chair which Colin was lying in this morning. Her sentences are getting longer and more sophisticated. Though sometimes she says "我不要妈妈"and it breaks my heart, but other times she can be quite sweet too :)

Monday, December 1, 2008

I'm a big girl and I can feed myself (and my mama)

Gaining independence :)

She's been whining a LOT lately, and sometimes it turns into a tantrum, when she loses control of herself, and makes all our patience index "level-up". Papa So claims that she stomps her feet like the way I do... -_-" I guess some things are just in the genes :P So days like this now when she's all delightful and happy, it makes us happy too :)

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Crew cut


Mama So is very amused by the hair cut cos it's been a long time since I "played" with a little boy's hair so much. Think he looks more and more like Papa So by the day.
Both little Sos are coughing now and it breaks our hearts to see them both with no appetite, cough their lungs out and looking listless all day long :(:( A neighbour just recommended 川贝粉 猴枣粉 (TCM) to me. The later is supposedly very expensive, about $70 for a small packet, but works wonders. No harm trying I guess.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

I am one month old!

The quote is by William Shakespear, and the card is made by Le Precious. Their cakes are really nice and cute!

Little Colin put on his new jumper suit and looked cute the whole day. Guests came and went, all was fun and merry.

"Thank you everyone for the gifts!" :):)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Piggies go to bed

I was playing with the hand puppets when I happened to re-create a familiar scenario to xuan--an "adult" carrying a baby. She stared for a loooonnggg time (the whole event took more than half an hour. I was surprised she stayed so focused on the piggies for long!) and then started calling piglet the hand puppet 小猪爸爸 and wanted to put piglet the doll to bed. She offered her 抱枕 to piglet and wanted me to take them to the bedroom to put piggies onto the pillows. "小猪睡觉,小猪sleeping/sleepy"

Then she started saying "chain, chain" (change), "chain shirt (change shirt)", "chain trousers (change trousers)", "chain bao1bao1 (change diapers)" and I realize she is serious about putting piglet to bed, complete with her whole usual routine of changing into her pajamas, so cute! I was very touched at how she tried to act as the care giver. She actually gave her seat to the piggies and she herself sit on the chair she usually make me sit on!

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She's starting to imitate us and play make believe, and some of her habits would have been established by now. I believe strongly in creating a condusive learning environment at home and 言教不如身教. Being a role model and living a healthy life style (walking your talk!) is actually the easist way to teach kids good habits without having to teach them.

Monday, November 17, 2008

一闪一闪亮晶晶

She can actually sing the whole Chinese version, in rather clear enunciation too! Not so much for the English version cos she just goes "Tinkle tinkle titer TAAARRR, ow mnrrulnder... AARRR, up bove mmllddwwrr... AAAIIII, dimond in llrrddmwe... KAAAIIII, tinkle tinkle titer TAAARRR, nbkjkjl.... AAARRRRR". With much emphasis on the last word. Still a little incomprehensible at the moment. But I just love her sweet voice! :)

It's harder to capture moments of her now cos (1)I am busier with baby no. 2, (2)she moves very fast, (3) she will stop whatever she's doing and try to grab the camera.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Pouring water

Pouring water is fun...but not without a little mishap~

Thursday, November 13, 2008

My little froggies

Melody (3months)

Colin (3 weeks)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

3 sneezes and a little exercise

Infants are a little boring cos they just sleep and wake up to feed, but they feed enough times to keep you far from bored. Little Colin is now awake for almost the entire morning, and in the afternoon he naps at most for 2 hours, which means that I'm almost back to the times where I can be home the whole day but accomplishes nothing except for changing his diapers, nursing him and cuddling him to sleep.

But since he's more alert now, I can start reading to him, and do stretching exercises for him (I wouldn't be doing like how I did in this clip cos I'd have both my hands). Stretching helps him develop his muscles cos he's bedriddren all the time, poor thing! Massaging or just stroking his arms and legs makes him feel secure cos the sense of touch is very important at this stage. It also keeps me at a visible range to him, since he can only see things up to abt 25cm away.

Kids websites

Got this list from Mother and Baby, will be doing reviews later :)

www.kidscomjr.com
www.getreadytoread.org
www.gamequarium.com
www.poissonrouge.com
www.starfall.com
www.abctooncenter.com

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Drinking from a cup

Xuan can drink from a cup now! :D I give credits to her child care for this new skill, but we have also been letting her drink from a cup long before she turned one. To make eating fun, I bought colouful plastic cups and bowls from Ikea, and colorful spoons that changes colour if heated up. My mom also bought her a kitchen set toy which she seem to enjoy so far. We also started toasting with her cos it makes drinking fun.

A friend once said she's impressed at how xuan goes "ahhhh" after drinking water and it makes water seem so tasty! I started doing that with her every time she drinks plain water so that she doesn't reject it. She seem to stop doing that recently though. Moving on to new stuff now :)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

我是小顽皮

"I miss wearing baby mittens!"

"I'm wearing Mama'a shoes! Oh, and I have most of my teeth!"




Thursday, October 30, 2008

He's my brother

Xuan suddenly found her little brother's gloves very interesting and wanted to wear them. She's been more or less ignoring him since he came home but today she did something sweet :) She wanted to see Chen chen sleeping on the cot and I let her sit on my lap, and she sayang-ed his head.

Right after this she turned and smiled at the camera saying "(弟弟是) 萱萱的" but Mama So stopped the camera too fast :(

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Corny

Xuan likes to eat corn and raisins recently, and she can concentrate on picking the little bits for ten minutes. Usually she doesn't want to share her tibits with other people but she can be generous once in a while when she's in the mood :) By the way we think her "偶必要(我不要)" has a bit of Taiwanese slang hahaha!

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I was nursing Colin yesterday and Xuan wanted to climb onto me, but I said no, and she got upset, and continued to cling onto my back though Papa and grandma kept coaxing her to get off. Finally Papa and Mama got angry and said her name very loudly, which scared her a bit, and she finally allowed grandma to carry her away while crying. After I was done I carried her onto my lap and told her that I still love her but she must wait beside me the next time. Later on that night she suddenly came to me and kissed me on the lips, then papa, then grandma. She's usually not this affectionate.

She's just so full of surprises now :):)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Sing and dance

Papa So has taught xuanxuan how to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"!

We have a nursery chart on the door and xuan points to which ever she wants to hear, and Mama So is supposed to sing it for her. She started to identify certain songs with certain words, so even when we are not at the chart, she would say "diddle diddle" and I have to sing "Hey diddle diddle" for her. "Titter star" is "Twinkle twinkle little star", "ding dong" is "Ding Dong Bell" and "Humpty" is "Humpty Dumpty". She has other charts like "Fruits and Vegetable", "Courtesy" and "Safety", which she enjoys pointing and identifying objects. Seeing that she responds better to chart than flip books, I bought some Chinese word charts, shape chart and more Nursery Rhyme charts to pin up around the house. Now she knows "mice" is "Three Blind Mice", "Rock" is "Rock-a-bye baby", "teapot" is "I'm a little Teapot", "Baba" is "Baa Baa Black Sheep", and these are her favourites :):)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Hello Little Colin!!

Little Colin So Yi Chern sees his first daylight on 24 Oct 2008! :D:D

He was supposed to arrive only on 10Nov but decided to pop by early when Mama So's water bag burst on 24 Oct morning. After a loooonnnggg wait (10hrs in the delivery suite! But contractions only started to become painful at around noon, which was 5hrs later, and I administered epidural another hour later :P), our little boy is born!

He looks like Melody to me :)

Colin (just born)
Melody (just born)

And this is a slide show done by Kelvin to commemorate the birth of our little prince: Kenneth Xinhuan Colin

Colin's first night at home was unsettling...and kept everyone awake the whole night. Xuan slept in her own room with Papa So. We're just concerned that she gets undisturbed sleep.

Seeing little boy reminds me greatly of xuan when she was still so tiny... :) I am more confident this time, more calm, more composed. Muakks to my two beautiful children :):)

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Photo shoot


A preview of the many many sweet photos we took with Kelvin J. Lim, photographer of Avenue 8. Mummy So wants to remember her big tummy, and thought that doing this shoot with my darling daughter would be memorable :):)

Monday, October 13, 2008

My amazing little girl

Xuan is starting to show some of her "terrible 2" symptoms. Being tempremental, insisting on small things like "mama sit", being cheeky about almost everything, like getting up from bed, and taking off her shoes.


Yesterday Papa So and I left her at my mom's after lunch and according to my mom, xuan continuously called out "mama, papa" as she looked at the closed door dejectedly. Ohhhhhhh :( When we came back, she clung onto me for half an hour and I felt very bad for leaving her.
Then during dinner xuan started distributing the toy golf sticks to me, my mom and herself. Xiangxiang looked on and wanted one too. I gave him mine and xuan stared. She started following xiang around saying "mama 的". (Yes! she can point to people's stuff and identify whose is that now) and I said, it's ok, I can lend it to him and u can lend your toys to others too.

At night the most amazing thing happened. She tugged at her shorts and then gave me an anxious look. She said something and started pulling my hand, so I brought her to the toilet and she peed! :D:D She is so ready to be toilet trained! :D:D

Monday, October 6, 2008

小老鼠

Anticipation of a line in a nursery rhyme. More importantly, irresistably cute "meowing"! :):):)

She is starting to string words together, like "奶奶家,爷爷家,爸爸家,妈妈家”,“Hi爷爷/bye爷爷”, "Bird, fly!",“爱萱萱”(Funny, cos I'm trying to teach her 爱妈妈, but maybe she loves herself more hahha)

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Few nights ago, Papa So, Mama So and Melody were sitting on the bed. Somehow our little one didn't like it that Mama and Papa are sitting so close together, so she nudged her way in between us, saying "I sit, I sit!" We shifted a couple of times to "verify" that she is actually trying to "separate" us and true enough, even when she is sitting in between us, she will try to "untangle" our legs if Mama and Papa's legs were touching! :D:D

Sticker got stuck on my hand!

Xuan got herself busy transferring stickers from the table to the toy car...

Friday, October 3, 2008

Xuan in uniform!


Xuan has "graduated" from Infant to Toddler! She is now officially an NTUC childcare student! :D:D
Why not the Montessori (MMI) right beside our house, some might ask. (I'll probably wait til Little Colin "graduate" from infant group, then transfer both of them together or something) I have a friend asking me about Pat's Schoolhouse, another pondering over Nanyang Kindergarten. While I myself am very very very tempted to try out the branded pre-schools, I think good teachers play more important role than the school itself. There is also the travelling distance and financial constrain to factor in. Why stress ourselves out? Home education can make a big difference too. Kampung kids (i.e. myself :P ) can end up in branded schools as well. I think the society has yet to see the true impact of elitism amongst pre-schoolers.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Xuan at the playground

It's Children's Day and Melody had fun with her cousin Keagan at the playground! :):)

I know this looks a little scary, but I think she was actually saying "Happy!" when she slid down? She did get into a little accident on the slide too. A boy kicked her in the head while coming down and she's still at the bottom of the slide. Poor thing!

And finally, her favourite...climbing up and down the stairs! And unassisted too! :):) It puts my mind at ease cos I know that she won't fall off the stairs. She will either look for the railing or our hand for support if she can't manage the step. I also noticed that her right leg is the stronger leg.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Strong Keagan

So sweet to have a doting brother!

(P.S. I don't know how to turn the video around cos I took it with my handphone)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Jump

Jump jump jump!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Throw rubbish

My little girl helps Mama So throw rubbish and pass things to Papa So when I'm lazy :P:P

Perserverance (for both toddler and mother)

Xuan is learning how to put on her slippers. She couldn't get it on so she gets frustrated and says 鞋!鞋!It's easy when she wants to take them off, she just go 踢踢踢 and they're out. With her sandles it's a bit more tricky. She first learnt to "tear off" the velcro strip, then 踢踢踢 the shoes out, but now I teach her to push off the shoe from the the back of her foot. She's learning to feel her way out of the sleeve hole when we put on her shirt, and to pull the shirt off when we bathe her too. Requires a lot of patience, think we've been doing this for about a month already! But great achievement, I'd say!

The only difficult part is getting her to put her shoes back on the rack after she kicked them off. She used to happily put them neatly on the rack. Now whenever I say 放回去 she would purposely run off. Well I have a lot of time to spare, so I leave the shoes where they are and ask nicely the next time she passes by the shoes. Usually after a few rounds of pressing she'd put them back. Hope this cultivates some good habits in her.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Cute Meoldy

Funny how she can have so many different expressions drinking water alone (at least to me) :):):)






She is learning how to drink from a cup now. I'm wondering if I should start weaning her off the bottle for milk drinking. The last time I tried putting her milk into the cup-sprout thingy, she didn't want to take the milk. Hmmm. But I will try again. By the way this Tollyjoy bottle is so air tight that no water spills from it even when u turn it upside down.

Melody's new room!

We are turning the spare room into a toddler's room! :D Mommy So is very excited but doesn't have enough creative juice... Luckily I saw these wall stickers at HomeFix and I fell in love with it immediately!

Xuan seems to like it too cos she goes in everyday and says "花" :):)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Taking off her shoe

Xuan knows how to step in and out of her shorts and stretch out her arms as I guide the sleeve hole towards her hands. Now she's learning how to take off her shoes :):)

Monday, September 8, 2008

Diaper changing

The following scene is a little R(A) but it happens everyday......

Now even when she drops something, I ask her to pick it up, she responds with "跑跑跑" and runs away! Cheeky little fellow!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Vocab2

Recently she has been picking up words at an amazing speed. I'm trying to record down all the words she can say/recognise at the moment. Try my best to recall everything.

Family: 爷爷,爸爸,妈妈,奶奶,婆婆(credits to Papa So),zeh zeh, 妹妹,zorzor (gorgor), 弟弟,阿姨,姨丈 (or pronounced as yi-dan at the moment), and "Eddie" without the "uncle" (picked up roughly in that order)
She understands and can point out who is: Xiangxiang, Uncle Joe, Aunty Zoey, Aunty Yirong

Animals: bird, 猫/cat, dog/wohwoh/狗, 鸭/duck, 鸡, 猪, 马, moooo (cow), 鱼,蜘蛛,bear/小熊, lizard, giraffe, frog, rooaarr (lion), ooooooooo (wolf)

Action: fly, 跑步(or "babu"), 跑跑跑 (said while running),抱抱 (or "yee-yah!"), 走走(if she wants to come down to walk by herself),游泳(or "yaya"), 丢/throw, 踢/kick,跌倒, up (when she goes up the stairs, or pick herself up from a fall, or when I go up a flight of stairs while carrying her), down (or "pom!" when jumping down from a chair), 跳/jump, 开, siang (sayang), shya (刷牙),洗,kiss/mmm-muck!, bye,peekaboo!(with action),睡觉(with rather hard patting action, and the doll must be sleeping face down),shhhh, ah-choo, 拜拜 (with the praying action, when she sees temples or 神台) , sitsit/坐
She understands: 给,躺下来,穿鞋,穿尿布/穿裤子(to which she would run away with a cheeky smile and expect me to run after her and say "抓到了!羞羞,没有穿裤子!"),吃(which she would say "mum mum" to my GREAT displeasure), 冲凉 (or pompom, again, to my GREAT displeasure), 哭 (with eye rubbing action) and her most recent word is “喝”(drink plain water from her straw bottle)

Food: Nana (banana), apple, 奶/milk, 鱼, rice, pear(she understands 梨 too),菜, papa (papaya)

Objects: Umba (which is umbrella), 杯, star, sun, moon, ball, clock, shoe/鞋,书/book, bus, 车/car, bike, van, 树,flower/花, 灯, 暗, baby, boyboy, gerger, 衣 (she would tug at her top) , chair
she understands: 天空,云(she will point outside the window. I asked her tonight, 现在有没有太阳?she said "没有"), 风 (she would stand in front of the fan to find it),裤子 (she would tug at her bottom), 下雨了 (she would cover her head or say "umba") , 佛(the big belly and bald ones)


Body parts: 脚,eye
she understands: 鼻子,耳朵,眼睛,嘴巴,手,头发,屁股


Words to show her needs: 必要必要必要必要 (usually said at least 4-6 times stringed together, means 不要actually), 没有,there (with finger pointing somewhere, means carry her there!), painpain, 怕怕

Words that she can read at the moment: 大,人,不 (thanks to my mum and the 治家格言on her walls), 8,1,2,5

She can count 1,2,3,4,5,(6),7,8,9,10 in chinese and english, sort of, and ABCDE (she will repeat after us from A-Z)

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Some speech patterns that I found in her:
1. She started saying "b" words first (bye, baba, ball, bird, 8, bus) and can say more "b" words.
2.She can't pronounce "g" yet. "l" too.
3. She is speaking mono-syllable words, at most 2 syllabus but not 3 (she can pronounce "ba" but she only says "nana". She can pronounce "ya" but she only says "papa")
4. I speak to her in both languages. Usually I repeat myself. She chooses the easier word of the 2 languages to vocalize
5. When I pronounce 第三声properly (down then up again, as opposed to the Singaporean way of just saying a low sound), she imitates me, which is the correct way
6. She recognise a lot of nouns, but verbs come a close second. Which means vocalizing every action and object aids in her learning.
7. With the exception of "mum mum" and "pom pom" which are the most commonly used words at the infant care and among most grandparents, she doesn't say any other baby words, and can speak the correct word (instead of "gai gai", infant care teachers say "outdoor" so she says "outdoor", or just take her shoes and linger around the door and wait for us to leave). Which really goes to show garbage in, garbage out.
8. We don't use a lot of repeated sounds (only 抱抱,拜拜,"sitsit" is said by caregivers at infant care i think, bear bear, which she prefers just "bear" or 小熊 now), and she learns all the words just as fine.
9. Strangely, she hasn't picked up colours and shapes yet. We teach her colour quite often. But it doesn't bother me.
10. My sign languages didn't work. Other than "bye" and "下雨了" she doesn't "act" out her words. But then again if she can say it, why bother signing it. I'll try signing words again with my baby boy. Boys supposedly talk later.



She's picking up words like a sponge everyday. I'm extra sensitive about the singlish/bad grammar spoken around her now. I wish people would just speak to her in Mandarin. As much as I can, I repeat the correct version/grammar so that she won't pick up too many wrong vocab. My English is not perfect but at least I got a B3 lah, hahaha :P:P

Monday, August 18, 2008

For Papa

Papa So is away in Russia at the moment (19/8) so this video is for my dear hubby to hear his little little ger calling him "papa" :):)

In the video xuan was initially banging on the toilet door (if it was me in the toilet she'd be crying til I came out) then she heard papa sneeze so she said "ah-choo", then after playing with the arm chair she toddled off to find papa again who wasn't out yet :):):)

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Xuan cuts her hair


When she was younger, she just need to be distracted, and generally she can sit through the

whole session, but now once the 'towel' (she hates to be wrapped around by blankets and towels) is around her neck she will start to pull and cry. We went on cutting her hair without all the towels eventually, and she cried throughout the whole torture. Poor thing! :(:(

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Gorilla

Melody imitates the gorilla! Buts she's so cute, looks more like a baby monkey! :):)

Friday, July 11, 2008

Reading



Reading has become such a big part of our everyday routine. Though she doesn't concentrate on the words, she would try to identify names of pictures that she knows. We have a stack of Chinese and English books that we keep underneath the table, and she knows it. Evernight, we spend about half an hour I think on flipping through all the books. She started with saying "nah nah" and reaching out towards the table to signal that she wants a book, but now I would ask her "你要什么?”(What do you want?) and she would answer“书”(book). Sometimes, I say “你自己拿”(take out a book yourself) and she would crawl over to take a book out.


I think we have about 15 books under the table but recently she chooses only the book she wants to read. If she sees a book that she doesn't want she would ask for another one. The teachers at the infant care also commented that she can concentrate quite well on books :):)

Monday, July 7, 2008

At the playground

The 3 poles are for step up exercises, I think? but my girl would want to sit on it and swing her legs. When I carry her up I always make a "yee-yah!" sound so she imitates me whenever she exerts :):)

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Sitting down

We don't have any push carts for our toddler so she pushes the little chair instead. By the way, the yellow chair was Mama So's baby chair as a child :):)

Notice how she climbs up onto the chair first before turning around to sit down. I'm not too sure why, maybe because she can't really judge the distance if she backfaces the chair?

I like the way she swings her legs after she sits down :):) So relaxed, so contented, like the“怡”in her name-怡然自得。

Falling asleep

A video hard to get by, cos usually she's sleeping at the infant care, or if we're at home we make sure the room is completely dark, with Piano Spa music playing lightly in the background. Can't take pictures or film her sleeping time cos there's no light.

Quality sleep is very important. During my pregnancy I slept with (the same) piano spa every night. Too lazy to change the cds. So Papa So has been listening to the same tracks for about 2 years now :P Mama So usually fall asleep by the 4th track so I don't really know the later tracks heehee. Now little boy (baby no. 2) also get to hear Piano Spa in my tummy cos I'll be lying down with Xuan and I usually fall asleep before she does :P:P:P Her sleeping time is around 9+ 10 at the moment.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

So You Think You Can Dance

"I'm going to Hollywood!!!!!"

Monday, June 30, 2008

Merry Go Round



Xuan and Papa So chase each other round the baby cot for at least 5 full minutes :) When you are that tiny I guess the house is like a big maze and obstace course with all the furniture lying around.


I am constantly amazed at how little actions can amuse her for so long. To hear her laugh again and again, I am also amazed at how patient I have grown to be, playing peekaboo for, like, 20 times at a go without feeling stupid :)

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Cute Melody


She looks absolutely adorable in this blue dress :):)










Sunday, June 15, 2008

Light Switch

Xuan has learnt how to switch on the light!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Self feeding

Xuan shows interest in feeding herself! :) So one fine day, after psyching myself up, I gave her the spoon. The first feeding session wasn't so bad, she just kept dipping the spoon into her bowl and feeding it to me. I have to pretend to eat off the spoon though she didn't scoop anything up. Watching her feed herself makes me very nervous. Most books just say "if you cannot bear to watch the mess, just turn around". Yah I have to do that cos otherwise I just freak out.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Peek-a-boo


Instead of us playing peek-a-boo with her all the time, she has learnt how to play it with us! :):)

Friday, June 6, 2008

Wearing socks

Xuan has suddenly taken a liking to wearing shoes and socks. Maybe she knows it means we are going out, or maybe she just like wearing something over her feet. The cute thing is how she lifts her foot up as high as possible so that we can put on the shoe/sock for her :) Think all the “这只手……那只手”“这只脚……那只脚”that I say when we put on clothing for her helps to learn.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Climbing down

I was happy to see her climbing down the sofa cos I know she'll be careful and more importantly, safe, and I don't have to scream everytime she tries to get down from somewhere high. Actually she has already fallen from our bed twice when she was younger. Ever since then she'd stop at the edge and cry for us if she wants to get down. Good that she learns from "setbacks"!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Walking2

My little girl likes walking :) and wierdly, with her hands behind her back. Makes her look as though she's inspecting something! :):) This video is taken outside her infant care.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Walking!


My baby has officially started walking today! :D:D All of a sudden, she took an interest in walking around the room and would not stop :):) She's walking slowly and carefully so when she falls, she always lands on her Huggies-protected-butt and she pushes herself up, saying "Up!" at the same time :):) So motivating!

Sharing2

My little girl seem to show signs of playing with another toddler rather than just playing beside him :):)

She has been progressing rather fast lately and it's amazing to see how much she understands. She was standing up on her feeding chair that day when I said sternly, 坐下. She squarted down with her head bowed slightly lower but observing me all the time, and then I said, 脚放好来. She sat down immediately and out came her tiny legs hanging down the chair :):) Maybe it's my body language, tone and words all added up together, but she definitely understands my Mandarin (Mother Tongue, literally!) now. When I ask her 要不要__ sometimes she shakes her head! :):)

Friday, May 30, 2008

Night routine

Every night xuan rolls about our bed with the bottle in her hand/mouth, and she will roll til I switch off all the lights, lie down beside her and watch her roll...then I'll be asleep and I dunno what happens.

Kissy

Papa So has taught xuan how to kiss! :D:D So sweet~ some times she kisses by pressing her cheek against my cheek and make the "mm-muck!" sound. Thats so American, haha. There was one weekend morning when she is wide awake in between us and I'm awake but still lying down, and papa So is still sleeping, I requested for a "kiss mama". She bent over and gave me a "mm-muck!" then she turned to papa and kissed him "mm-muck!" So sweet! :):)

Sipping



Xiangxiang managed to do this much earlier (think abt 8months?) but xuanxuan mastered it now, since last month, which is 13mths :):) and we find it so much neater than the bottle, less air to suck in, and drinking water is a good habit too! Sometimes she spits out some water :( and sometimes she imitates me doing "ahhhhhh" after gulping down a refreshing mouthful of water.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Vocabulary

Kids tend to say "baba" first before "mama", I realize, cos so far all the kids I heard of did that. My kid can say "byyee", "bus" or "bai-s", "no more" or "nm ma" while flipping her hands, "八" and "一" (cos we live on the 8th floor and I say out the floors every time we go on the elevator). Now when we say "下雨了" she will put her hands on her head, and papa So just taught her how to kiss our cheeks too (though most of the time she'll end up banging our heads like how she bury her head in her puppets). In the video I think she was actually looking in the direction where her papa left when we said "papa". We're trying to teach her "婆婆" before "外婆" cos "wai" is a little beyond her at the moment.

The Mikasa volleyball in her hands is a mini one, by the way, it's a tiny real volleyball and it's so cute that I couldn't resist buying it (not that I want her to play volleyball when she grows up lah, but the other option is a mini soccer ball and it's too hard plus it doesn't bounce)

Friday, May 23, 2008

Sharing

My sweet little ger sees her mama eating an apple, and wants to do the same, so she took my apple and started "munching", but she is sweet enough to share it with her papa :):) and the cute thing is how she relaxed with the apple in her hand like someone who truely knows how to enjoy herself :):)

Monday, May 19, 2008

Possessive little ger


Our baby has become soooooo sticky that once we put her down, she'll screeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaam so loudly and cry so sadly that you can't help but pick her up again. When she sees me carry my sis' boy up, she protests loudly, likewise when my mother does the same. I think it's cute that she likes soft toys, though they don't seem to serve as "security blankets", rather, "I like bear-bear so it's mine". Xiang xiang came to snatch her soft soccer ball last sunday and she screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaamed and held tightly to her toy. I think she's starting to be ego-centric which means she is growing up to be an independent little girl :):):)

Monday, May 12, 2008

Climbing down the stairs

Learning how to get down from somewhere higher up is more important than getting up, I think. Climbing is an instinct so I don't even have to teach xuanxuan, but somehow when it comes to climbing down she prefers to walk.

I think looking at babies learning how to walk is such an inspiration :):):)

Saturday, May 10, 2008

A small step for Melody, a big step for Papa and Mama So!

After seeing all kinds of movies, videos, etc, I never thought it'll be coincidental enough for me to be able to catch Xuan's first step on film. It was such a perfect moment- both papa and mama were there to witness and encourage our little baby. The step she took may be only half a step (she walked a few more steps after this clip, but then stopped trying again the day after) but it was so huge I actually felt a tear in my eye. I didn't even feel that emotional when I gave birth to her!

Friday, May 9, 2008

依赖

This is Xuan at 1+months

This is her now, 1yr and 1month+


I will truly miss these days when she grow out of lying on me. (And of course, when she becomes too big and heavy to do that :):):) )

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Manga

I think she looks just like this girl in the manga I was hoping to get them side by side but my model refuse to cooperate. Anyway until I find the exact look here's a sub.

Trip to Ikea

Ikea is truly a family-friendly place. Not only is the whole display area a huge playground to both the adults and the kids, this spin-the-rollers game at the waiting area near the food stall is also rather entertaining to my little ger and many other older kids.

Hand puppets

Papa So bought his little little ger 2 hand puppets. She's always liked the dolls she already has but these 2 moving ones seem even more interesting!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Crawling on daddy and mama's bed

One of xuan's favourite activity is when we put her in between our pillows on our bed, and she's free to roam about our bed, rolling on the comforter, hugging the super big bolster and pillow, or just plain lazy lying on the mattress. The mattress is a huge investment. Even hotel beds don't seem as comfortable now!





Taking things in and out

There are kids who love to pack things instead of throwing things out, so whenever I have a chance, I make her put things back in and make a bigger deal when she does it than when she takes things out-- her sock box, my sweet container, her toy bag, and my favourite "training toy", the magnetic alphabet and numbers box.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Xuan in Spects

Naughty Mama So loves to bully her little defenceless ger.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Soccer time!


My little sports girl.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Magnetic letters

Not only can she take magnets off the fridge, she can put them back now! :D:D And she knows which is the correct side :):) My baby's a genius :):)

怕怕

Xuan has learnt how to do the 怕怕sign, but when she does it I'm always not too sure what exactly she's afraid of. Sometimes it's a car going past, not very loudly, and she's sort of following the car, and sometimes she's just being cute :):)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Huggy Hug

Signs of my little ger being a little ger.....Hugging a bear like the way we sayang her! So sweet it made my heart melt when I saw it for the first time :):)


Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Handband

Doesn't she look sweet?

:):)Funny enough, Xuan can fit into my hairband. So that means that I have a tiny head?

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Trip to the stadium


Guess what's behind my back?

Just some of my favourite Baby Bites biscuits!

Monday, April 7, 2008

Little car

Xuan has a little car that we were hoping she would start pushing herself around someday, but so far she is still trying to get a free ride from daddy and mama......

Until that day she starting using her little feet to push her car......backwards!



Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Melody and her toys

Xuan loves to play with her sock box, though she hardly wear socks anymore. (One year old! Can wear shoes liao!)

And I realize she is starting to recognize shapes after we demonstrated to her how the shape sorting box game works for a few times!

Hello?

Though I made a point not to give her the phone as a toy (when she starts throwing things around we will really regret it), the blinking lights and the sounds that come out of it is just too new and fun to the baby, so perhaps through imitation of the adults......ta-da!!


Sunday, March 23, 2008

Saturday Night Fever

Xuan used to just "wriggle on the spot" whenever she hears music. This time not only did she manage to press the buttons (she used to try but it's always not hard enough), she danced to the music!

Days of Our Lives

Evidence of Xuan driving daddy So to the edge of the bed




















Watching Keagan gorgor drawing a picture
















I like to bathe!


Friday, March 21, 2008

Happy First Birthday!

Whenever the weather changes, xuanxuan will start to cough with phlem and get a runny nose. Supposedly it's because she has sensitive skin and nose (she has eczema behind her ears and at the inner fold of her elbow). Doctor says it's hereditary but so far none of her paternal and maternal relatives recall having sensitive nose and skin :S:S

So poor Melody spent her first birthday sleeping most of the day away. At night we went to Chevrons (where her mama and daddy got married!) for a good dinner and to sing happy birthday! :D:D