你和我

6 Dec 2009. Chen Rui having a type of mini mandarin orange. She likes to break apart all the slices. She doesn't want the skin so Michelle has to peel every slice for her, which is a challenging task because the peels are so small. Shee Yun doesn't mind the skin and eats by herself. The oranges are seedless. She can eat a lot in one sitting. The oranges are quite small.

Playing a form of peek-a-boo, a.k.a. "jiak!".

Chen Rui sometimes confuses 你 (you) and 我 (me). Sometimes when she wants Michelle to carry her, she says "妈妈我抱你". A few days ago when I was talking to her about some object (I think it was a doll or one of her hajimats), I told her "这个是你的". She objected, and said, "不是，是我的". Then I said, "是啊，是你的", but she frowned and insisted again, "不是，是我的". She probably was confused with 你 and 我, thinking that they are names, and that 你 is me and 我 is her. I'm not quite sure in which way she confused these two words. The misconceptions in these two incidents are contradicting.

Yesterday Chen Rui called me "Mama" by mistake a few times. She realised it quickly and smiled about it, saying, "讲错了 (liao3)". After a few more times of making the same mistake, I think she was starting to enjoy it and she intentionally said it wrong, and then corrected herself, as a form of joking with me. Chen Rui is a cheeky girl.

Michelle (and I guess me too) has a feeling that when Shee Yun and Chen Rui grow older, Shee Yun will do better in studies than Chen Rui. She predicts that next year when Chen Rui has to start taking exams at playschool, she won't do as well as Shee Yun did. Shee Yun is academically strong. We have seen that. She knows her alphabets. She knows many words. She teaches and corrects her classmates during exams. Chen Rui is more playful and seems to be less patient to sit down and learn. She wants to play. Then again, being playful doesn't necessarily mean being poor in studies. Maybe she will prove us wrong.

Yesterday evening Chen Rui asked for Ribena. Nowadays we don't make Ribena for her in a milk bottle. She rarely finishes it that way. We make Ribena for her using the milk bottle cap as a small cup. That way we don't waste Ribena. Yesterday after she drank a little, she asked me to hold the cup for a while. She wanted to move, and she accidentally kicked my arm, causing me to spill Ribena on the master bed. My immediate reaction was anger, and I scolded her. She quickly said sorry, and she said it twice. I realised I shouldn't have been angry. It was just an accident. I quickly calmed down. I was a little surprised that she understood it was her fault, and that she apologised. I realised she had grown up a little bit more. In the past she would get upset when scolded, and she would refuse to say sorry. She would just sulk quietly and not look at you.

stuck

5 Dec 2009. Chen Rui at Jaya Jusco.

When Chen Rui is constipated, this is how she describes it. Stuck. She sits on the potty and winces, and when Michelle asks her if everything is alright, she says "It's stuck!". She uses the same expression sometimes when she wants to pee and can't.

Christmas karaoke

5 Dec 2009. We arrived at Jusco at 10am sharp. The doors were not open yet.

Michelle recently went to Tesco to buy a Christmas songs CD, and by mistake she bought a Christmas songs VCD instead. It was like a karaoke (actually maybe it is a karaoke, I never checked), with lyrics that change colour as they get sung. Shee Yun and Chen Rui love it. They often request to watch it. Once when Chen Rui was downstairs and I played it for Shee Yun upstairs, Chen Rui complained aloud and almost cried because she wanted to come upstairs to watch it too. She recognised the music. Shee Yun enjoys reading the lyrics. She can read many of it. So this was a happy mistake.

Chen Rui has been eating cheese a lot. We buy good cheese for her. I think today she has already had 6 slices. She will probably have more later.

She still eats milk powder. I was surprised how much she eats. When she asks me for it, I give her probably half a scoop. Only recently I realised that when Michelle feeds her, she can eat more than 2 full scoops. That's a lot of milk powder. Michelle gets her to drink a lot of water when she eats milk powder, at least as much as it would have needed if we made milk with the same amount of milk powder. I wish Chen Rui would drink milk rather than eat milk powder. It would save us a lot of trouble and a lot of time.

omitofo sinzoisinzoi

16 Nov 2009. Michelle setting up the Christmas tree. This is the dress that we bought for Shee Yun at Port Dickson, which she likes a lot.

28 Nov 2009. At Sushi King KLCC.

Both Shee Yun and Chen Rui think "omitofo sinzoisinzoi" (阿弥陀佛善哉善哉 in Cantonese) is very funny. This all started because of Michelle's gardening. One day she found a lot of worms eating her plants. So she cut them using gardening scissors (whatever you call it). Since this was killing, and was a sin for Buddhist monks (at least according to Hong Kong TV series), she chanted this while cutting the worms. Later when she described what she did, she kept nodding her head, like a praying monk, in rhythm with the worm-cutting. Both the children found it very funny, and since them this phrase has become a joke at home. Yesterday when I was bathing Chen Rui she suddenly started chanting this phrase and she looked at me expectantly, expecting me to start laughing.

Chen Rui is very sensitive to the smell of food. She still doesn't eat meat. When she smells meat, she frowns and covers her nose and says it stinks. However, she started eating 干捞面 now, which Shee Yun has been eating. She only eats the noodles. She doesn't eat the 叉烧 that come with it, but she doesn't mind the noodles. Shee Yun eats both the 叉烧 and the green vegetables. Today the two of them shared one portion. They couldn't finish it, but they probably ate 70% of it. I finished the rest.

Chen Rui also doesn't like the garlic smell of Indomee - an instant noodle, mi goreng style. Shee Yun likes that, and so do it. Michelle also doesn't like it because of the strong garlic smell.

Shee Yun had a little fever yesterday and today. We suspect she caught a little cold at Jusco yesterday. The dress she wore was rather thin, and she complained about feeling cold. Michelle gave her medication. Hopefully she recovers quickly. She doesn't look sick at all, but we measured her temperature and she does have a slight fever.

surprise!

20 Nov 2009. One fine day after coming home from school, Chen Rui wanted to change into a dress. We weren't going anywhere. It was just a regular Friday afternoon. But we let her put on this dress. I guess she just felt like being pretty that day.

Chen Rui likes to say "Surprise!". She is often playful, and she likes to surprise us. I'm happy to see how she is back to her cheerful self now. Thinking back to how she was last week, it was as if she was possessed by some evil spirit - 鬼上身. It was that bad.

Before she sleeps, she likes to play a form of peek-a-boo with Michelle. She turns around to that Michelle can't see her eyes, and then she turns back to steal a glimpse. If she finds Michelle looking at her, she will find it very funny and giggle. Sometimes she uses her forearm to cover her eyes, and after a short while she removes her forearm to peek. Once when I played this game with her, while she was not looking, I stealthily moved much closer to her. When she saw me she was a little surprised and laughed very hard.

pink

8 Nov 2009. Michelle bought one very big water container. To be used for Shee Yun when she wants a bubble bath (the red pail is getting a bit small for her), and also for catching rain water when it rains heavily enough.

10 Nov 2009. Bubble bath time.

It is big enough to fit both of them.

Shee Yun likes pink a lot. We assign her colour to be yellow, and she accepts that and says that she likes yellow, but really she likes pink. She uses pink in all her drawings - a pink flower, a pink house, a pink dress that she is wearing in the drawing. In her boxes of colour pencils, the pink ones are the shortest. I wish there were pink colour pencils being sold separately.

Chen Rui is recovering well - her mood is good. No more unreasonable tantrums. She has been cheerful and playful yesterday and today. That is such a relief. She was truly a monster when she was sick. I'm not sure what was so different this time. She has been sick before, but her mood was not this bad in past illnesses. Anyway, I'm just glad that it is over. I think Michelle even more so.

Michelle noticed that as Chen Rui recovered, her speech gained more and more Sabahan slang words. E.g. "我要玩 Baa wo", "我不要吃了 (liao3) wo3", "不见了 (liao3) lo4". It is as if the Sabahan slang language ability can be temporarily lost due to sickness. Now it's coming back.

Chen Rui had 6 pieces of cheese today. She is almost three and she still doesn't like rice, or meat.

Shee Yun was depressed yesterday afternoon. Michelle said she seemed to be bored at home. I wondered why. Although it is school holidays now, this week Shee Yun is attending a holiday camp, so she is still spending the mornings at school. She seems to be losing interest in the internet games that she has been playing a lot of. Sometimes when she plays with the computer, she only plays for a short while. And sometimes she doesn't play the internet games. She plays Bejeweled instead. So yesterday to cheer her up, Michelle asked her whether she wanted to go to Tesco to buy colour pencils. Shee Yun immediately lit up, and they all went to Tesco to play and to do shopping.

recovery

21 Nov 2009. This was a book we borrowed from the national library.

Chen Rui is less bad-tempered today. Finally she is recovering from her foul mood in the past week. I guess that means she is also almost fully recovered from her illness. Today she laughed more and threw tantrums less. When I reached home from work, she even came to give me a big hug.

holiday camp

16 Nov 2009. Bedtime.

Shee Yun started attending a one-week holiday camp today, at school. This is an optional camp, and it is mainly for arts and crafts. It's 9am to 12noon every day. Michelle asked Shee Yun whether she wanted to go, and she said yes. So Michelle let her participate. Not many children attended. Only one other boy from Shee Yun's class. It total about 12 children only. I think Shee Yun enjoyed it. They made popiah today (which Michelle and I ate), and also did painting.

Shee Yun likes arts and crafts. She even likes reading books about them. She likes the TV show Art Attack. Once we managed to find a book about the show at the library, and she really enjoyed reading it, seeing the step-by-step instructions on how to make various art projects.

Chen Rui is still very bad tempered. She cries all the time. It's like she is a baby again. We ask her whether she is hurting somewhere and she says no. We ask her whether she is hungry (she has not been eating much) and whether she wants to eat something, and she says no. Very small things can upset her. Yesterday when she was eating a piece of cheese (which she asked for), she accidentally tore a bit of it. There was a 2cm horizontal crack. That upset her, and she didn't want to eat anymore. Today she asked for Milo, and after Michelle made it for her, there was something she didn't like about it, and she refused to drink it.

She can be quite a tyrant too. 很霸道. When she sees Shee Yun laughing about some TV show, she told Shee Yun not to laugh, "不要笑!". When Shee Yun imitates some character on TV, or says something, Chen Rui tells her, "不要讲!".

I wonder when Chen Rui will return to normal. She doesn't have a fever anymore. She coughs a little and still has a running nose, but neither are serious.

sit straight

2 Nov 2009. Chen Rui was in a bad mood. She had a very very minor scratch on her thumb, which had already healed. She had been wearing a handiplast on her thumb for two days, refusing to take it off. Michelle took it off abruptly. Then Chen Rui ended up like this. She stood sulking in a corner, and holding out her thumb like this, as if it was severely injured.

Now Shee Yun and I make a game out of keeping score of catching each other not sitting straight. She watches me often, and I her too, and keep trying to catch each other not sitting straight. I tend to catch her more often, but she does catch me too sometime. This is a good habit that both of us can cultivate together.

Chen Rui is still very temperamental. Because she has not been feeling well. Sometimes she gets upset over small things. Sometimes she keeps wanting to be carried. If Michelle leaves her for just a short while she starts crying. Sometimes she doesn't want anything. Sometimes it drives Michelle crazy. And yet sometimes she is happy and playful and her eyes twinkle. Crazy kid.

photos - school party

Fri 20 Nov 2009 was the last day of the school term, and also school party day. The children wore their dance costumes to school, and also had to perform again at school.

Chee Yin and Shee Yun, not fully prepared for the camera. Shee Yun always calls her Ji Yin. Michelle says the teacher calls her Chee Yin.

Hmm... they look like evil stepsisters. Cinderella is Shee Yun's favourite fairy tale.

Chen Rui not in a very good mood because she didn't want to put on her dance costume.

Chee Yun looks much sweeter in this photo.

Shee Yun among her classmates.

Chen Rui among her classmates during the performance I guess. And of course she didn't want to dance.

Shee Yun's performance (while wearing her jacket). She was very absorbed in the dance, and she danced confidently, because she knew how to count beats and she knew when to change her moves.

Shee Yun smiled cheekily when she spotted Michelle taking this photo from afar.

"Tadaaa!"

Nicole (centre). Probably the most petite child in Shee Yun's class.

Chen Rui still unhappy about having to wear her dance costume.

Shee Yun and Chee Yin look much sweeter here.

It was also birthday celebration day. Some children's parents brought cakes, and only these children get to stand in front of their cakes to blow out the candles. Chen Rui was actually very keen to blow out candles, but she knew those weren't hers so she just looked longingly from one side.

全军覆没

13 Nov 2009. I like this photo very much. They are in their dance costumes, and they look so lively. And I do mean lively, not lovely, which they are too.

It has been so long since I last wrote anything here. Well, at least it felt so long. I have been sick. I have been tired. And I have not had much energy to write, to record down the funny tit bits of the children. The whole family has been sick, 全军覆没. I had fever and a bad throat infection. I even worried enough whether it was AH1N1 to ask the doctor. Michelle had more or less the same thing. Shee Yun has been coughing on and off for a long time. Doctor said 气管发炎. Chen Rui also had a fever and a cough, and a running nose. Probably caught them from me. It has been a tough two weeks since coming back from Port Dickson. Hopefully by this weekend everyone will fully recover. Michelle and I still have running noses and coughs now. I have not felt so sick for a long time.

Shee Yun is now becoming like Ba when I was young. She keeps reminding me to sit straight! Actually it was me who started telling her that she should sit straight when she plays with the computer. Now she checks me and tells me to sit straight when I'm not doing so. Good that I have a good auditor now. She sometimes forgets too and I will audit her in turn.

Only recently Shee Yun started being willing to put on underwears again. It seems she doesn't like the older ones because they were too tight. But I think the newer ones are too loose. Michelle was able to convince her to wear underwears because of her school dance. The dance costume was a skirt, so it wouldn't look nice if she wore short pants. One fine day when Michelle asked Shee Yun to speak to Ma on the phone, the first thing she proudly told Ma was "我有穿底裤!" (I wear underwears now).

The other day Shee Yun suddenly became a little sentimental and hugged me and said to me, "I miss my Ah Ma". That was so sweet.

Chen Rui now wants to wear Shee Yun's clothes instead of her own clothes. When I bring her to choose pyjamas to wear after her bath, she wants to select them from Shee Yun's drawer instead of her own. Well, at least now she is bigger and some of Shee Yun's pyjamas are not too oversized for her. Maybe it's time to buy some new pyjamas for Shee Yun, so that her current pyjamas can be passed on to Chen Rui. But I have a feeling Chen Rui will want to put on whatever new pyjamas that we buy for Shee Yun.

Shee Yun is always a cheerful child. She is always in a good mood. Chen Rui can be playful and mischievous, but sometimes she can be easily upset. Well, she's almost three now, so I hope that means she will get over her Terrible Twos soon.

When Shee Yun brushes her teeth, she brushes her tongue too. She is very patient in brushing it over and over, until it turns from white to pink. You can't rush her. She will take her time. Actually I don't brush my tongue myself. I need to learn from Shee Yun!

I taught Shee Yun to play AEIOU, a game from my childhood. I don't quite remember all the rules, or the names of the roles in the game, or whether there are names for those roles in the first place. I played with Michelle to demonstrate to Shee Yun, who was reluctant to play at first. It was funny to be playing such games again. We had much fun. And it's good to play something physical. And silly. And childish.

photos - Yung En in KL

3 Nov 2009. At the park, feeding fish.

Shee Yun feeding fish, using bread edges. She patiently and meticulously broke the bread into very small pieces. However Michelle's mum and Yung En fed the fish much quicker and used the bread at a much faster rate. So she took the bread away some distance from them to try to keep some for herself.

Shee Yun and Yung En walked ahead, while Chen Rui stopped to look at something she discovered on the pavement.

That's a toy tattoo on Shee Yun's right forearm, of a princess.

Sometimes Chen Rui intentionally tries to avoid you if she knows you are trying to take a photo of her.

16 Nov 2009. Yung En asked for soft shell crab at Sushi King, and enjoyed it a lot. Michelle gave her a haircut when she was here. Her hair was long and kept getting tangled up.

photos - with Yung En

5 Nov 2009. Playing before bedtime.

photos - more from Port Dickson

14 Nov 2009. Shee Yun's swim suit is actually too large for her. We decided to get a larger one so that it would last longer.

I thought the water was a little cold. And it felt dirty too, because it was murky. I didn't change into swimming trunks to play in the sea. I waded in, and the water reached my shorts anyway. Shee Yun was very enthusiastic and loved playing in the sea, dirty Straits of Malacca or not.

Chen Rui at the hotel pool.

Sometimes Chen Rui makes a victory sign when taking photos. I have no idea who taught her that.

Yung En and Chen Rui.

15 Nov 2009. The three cousins standing in front of the pool longingly. They still wanted to play, but it was time to go, because we needed to be back in KL for Shee Yun and Chen Rui's school concert.

Shee Yun playing in front of a temporary stage used by some company for a company function.

Chen Rui strolling around the hotel pool in the morning before leaving Port Dickson.

Chen Rui after the school concert, still in her Chihuahua dance costume, and still with make-up.