old T-shirt

29 Dec 2007. Family photo, taken on our 6th wedding anniversary.

Ba has some books on a table in the upstairs dining room. These are English books with serious deep topics. Shee Yun, for a few times since coming back to KK, took one of those books, and sat at the sofa trying to read. It was all text and no pictures, but she still opened it and tried to read it. She does recognise the alphabets, but she doesn't know most of the words. Maybe she is just fascinated by how many words there are on a page. She looked very serious when she was "reading" the book. It was very funny.

Shee Yun still speaks a lot of English. Sometimes it is a mix of English and gibberish. I think she just wants to say something although she has nothing to say and/or she doesn't know how to say it, so she just makes up her gibberish language along the way. One funny thing that she sometimes says is, "Can you tell Shee Yun (something something)?".

Today Michelle let Shee Yun wear the long red dress again, even though we had no plans to go anywhere. Shee Yun likes wearing that red dress. Today she danced in the red dress. She lifted the skirt a little and span a full circle. That was lovely, although she wasn't exactly graceful. At all.

Shee Yun is still very resistant to meet new people. Today Aunty Peggy visited us, and Shee Yun was unwilling to even go downstairs to say hello. She cried very very badly, and kept saying she wanted to watch Tom & Jerry. Michelle and I both tried many ways to persuade her, but she wouldn't listen to reason. She just cried and cried. Eventually we did manage to bring her downstairs to say a very quick bye-bye. She was very upset. By the time I brought her upstairs again she was just upset and didn't even want to watch Tom & Jerry anymore. She lay face-down on the floor of my bedroom and sulked by herself. I spoke gently to her but she did not respond. So I just let her lie there by herself to vent her temper. She is still young, but we must make sure she doesn't grow up like this.

Michelle was rather unhappy about Shee Yun's behaviour, blaming herself for it. I think it is alright. Shee Yun is still so young. We have time to teach her.

Shee Yun pronounces Cinderella as "Cinderella" in English, and 灰姑囊 - hui1 gu1 nang2 (instead of 灰姑娘 hui1 gu1 niang2) in Chinese. She likes the Cinderella story book (in Chinese) very much and always asks Michelle to read the story for her. Michelle taught her that the evil stepmother is called "bad mama", and Shee Yun says "bad mama".

One thing that Chen Rui likes to do with her hajimat (1) is to use it to cover her head, and then pull it off, as if to play peek-a-boo with us. She really enjoys playing this. She doesn't use a doll as her hajimat, like Shee Yun uses Tubby, although we did buy her a sheep doll, which is soft and comfortable to hug. She prefers Michelle's two old, faded and worn-thin T-shirts. They are both now smelly with the smell of Chen Rui's saliva now. Probably that's why she likes them even more now.

Chen Rui's 5th tooth is out now.

Today I let Chen Rui walk with support. She seemed to enjoy it. I held both her hands, while she walked from the dining room to the kitchen, and then from the kitchen back to the dining room. She seemed to be able to walk, taking one step after another, although she was not stable yet. Now that she has learnt to stand up, she likes to stand up. She likes to find something to support her, and then she will stand up, sometimes holding on to the supporting object to take a few steps to grab whatever interests her.

Today when Michelle scolded Shee Yun because of her unfriendly behaviour, she was carrying Chen Rui in her arms. Chen Rui pouted and frowned. I wonder whether she did so because she identified with Shee Yun, feeling that she was also being scolded, or she identified with Michelle, thinking Shee Yun was behaving poorly, or neither. Probably neither.

(1) I am not sure how the word "hajimat" came about. I wonder whether it's something that started from my family. It means something that a child treasures and always brings with him/her, something that he/she holds on to when he/she sleeps. It may be from the Malay word "jimat", which means a lucky charm.

meeting people

18 Dec 2007. Shee Yun playing at the slope at the back of the house in KK.

This morning we brought both children to see Mr & Mrs Tan, my piano teachers when I was young. They live very near our home in KK. They were very happy to see the two children. Shee Yun was shy and was not willing to go inside the house. She cried and said 回家 (go home). Michelle tried to comfort her and persuade her, but she could not be convinced. At one point she ran towards the door. She ran into the mosquito net because she didn't see it. She thought that was the door. It was a bit funny and comical, but I didn't laugh. Shee Yun is better than before when meeting strangers, but I guess still not as good as we would like yet. Last week during Chen Rui's birthday parties she didn't want to join the birthday song singing and cake cutting.

After being unable to convince Shee Yun to behave and come into the house, Michelle told her if she wanted to go home, she could go home by herself. Then Shee Yun put on her shoes by herself (and these were the dark blue cloth shoes and not her usual bright green rubber shoes), and then walked away! She didn't really walk out of the gates, but she walked to the car and stayed near the car. Finally we decided to go, and only when we asked her to wave goodbye to Mr & Mrs Tan that she said "Bye-bye" and waved and smiled. Mr & Mrs Tan laughed. Only when saying goodbye Shee Yun started to become friendly. Afterwards she even gave Mr Tan a flying kiss.

Mr Tan said Chen Rui was dazzling, and also that her hair is just like mine. Chen Rui was fine meeting new people, but she wasn't willing to be carried by Mr or Mrs Tan. I guess she is still a little shy. Later, however, she was willing to be carried by Mr & Mrs Tan's maid. She didn't resist and didn't cry.

Shee Yun is addicted to Tom & Jerry. Lately she has been asking for it all the time everyday. She doesn't sit there quietly to watch it, and usually walks about playing with plasticine, or Lego, or other things. Sometimes she even walks away from the sitting room. But if we turn it off, and she comes back to find the TV off, she'll ask for Tom & Jerry again.

Another thing that Chen Rui did today that made Ma happy is she clapped her hands happily. Chen Rui knows how to make people happy. She is lovely when she claps her hands happily and enthusiastically.

Today Chen Rui fell down from the sofa. She was standing up, using both hands to hold on to the back of the sofa. At the time both Michelle and I were on both sides of her, right beside her. However Shee Yun was misbehaving and both our attention was on her. Chen Rui fell down from a standing position, with her back falling first. She fell straight to the floor, and the back of her head hit the ground. She cried badly. Thankfully she didn't seem to be injured. 很心疼. She was right next to both of us and we didn't catch her in time. Afterwards Michelle managed to console her, and she was fine.

6th anniversary / putting on shoes

16 Dec 2007. Chen Rui, her cousin Yong En, and Shee Yun, on Chen Rui's 2nd 1-year-old birthday party.

Chen Rui and Shee Yun in the computer room. Shee Yun likes wearing a dress.

Today is Michelle and my 6th wedding anniversary. And we have one 2 years 9 months old daughter Shee Yun, and one 1 year old daughter Chen Rui.

One very funny thing happened yesterday. When Chen Rui was playing with my handphone, she suddenly held it to her ear, and shouted "Woh!" at it gruffly. It was as if she was answering a phone call rudely. I laughed immediately, and she looked at me wondering why. After that she didn't repeat the same thing and didn't hold her phone to her ear anymore. I guess it was just a coincidence and she didn't really know that a phone is to be held against the ear yet.

Chen Rui is good at making people like her - 讨人欢心. Even more so than Shee Yun. One thing that she does often to Ma is to blink both her eyes. She does it to Ma because whenever she does it, Ma laughs. The other thing that she does which makes people laugh is how she puts her open hand on her face or head. There is a story behind this. After we came back to Sabah, Michelle told Ba about how Shee Yun still vomits quite often. Ba thinks that this is because of her weak stomach, and used a 长生学 technique (something like qigong 气功) to help give her energy and strength. This is done by putting an open palm above Shee Yun's stomach, very near but not touching, and keeping the mind blank. So one day when Ba was doing this for Shee Yun, Michelle imitated him and did the same for Chen Rui. After that incident, Chen Rui learnt to do 长生学 for herself. She puts her hand on her head, or on her face, or over her eyes. Everyone laughs when she does this, which encourages her even more. I think she also does this to play peek-a-boo.

Chen Rui still pouts often. She pouts so hard that her upper lip almost completely blocks her nostrils, and her breathing becomes loud.

Yesterday afternoon Shee Yun watched Lia sweep the garage while I fed her papaya cubes. She really likes Lia and even 主动 warmly holds her hand. While Shee Yun was playing barefooted on the pavement next to the garage, she casually stepped onto the garage space. I quickly told her not to do it, because it is dirty (at least compared to the pavement). After a while she did it again and I had to tell her to keep off the garage space again. Then she gave me a mischievious look and slowly started to nod her head. She was threatening to step into the garage again, and she wanted to see my big reaction to that. I shook my head quickly, and she responded by nodding her head quickly too. What a cheekly little girl.

Michelle and I accompanied Shee Yun and watched her play on the pavement. We were talking and didn't pay full attention to Shee Yun. Then Michelle noticed that Shee Yun was scratching the back of her foot. She thought that it must be a mosquito bite. Then suddenly Michelle realised that Shee Yun was wearing her green shoes. She had put them on by herself without us realising it. She wasn't scratching her foot. She was adjusting the strap of her shoe (the one at the back) to be in the right position. We were very happy and praised her and clapped. Shee Yun was happy but shy, and hid her face behind a potted plant (ferns).

Today we brought the children to the beach again. This time Shee Yun was quicker to use her hands to play with sand, unlike the previous trip a few days ago. When it was time to leave she didn't want to go home and still wanted to play. She even cried.

For lunch we went to a Japanese restaurant to celebrate, with Ba and Ma too. Their rotating sushi belt is quite special. It is a train track, and a model train delivers the plates of sushi. Shee Yun liked the train a lot and kept watching it as it came around. It was indeed a nice model train. Shee Yun shouted loudly "Be careful!" to Tubby when the train was approaching. She also said, "Watch out!". When it was time to leave she didn't want to leave and wanted to watch the train. She cried again. Eventually we calmed her down by saying that we will go home and make a train for her using Lego, and we did. I used rubber bands as links between the train carriages.

two little irons

25 Dec 2007. Dresses that Mei bought for Shee Yun and Chen Rui in Australia, and asked a friend to bring back to Sabah.

One of the episodes of Tom & Jerry which Shee Yun likes a lot (the one with "Tom botak!") is the "Two Little Indians" episode. However, she insists on calling it "Two Little Irons". I said "Indians", and she retorted "Irons". I repeated again, "Indians". She insisted, "Irons". "Indians". "Irons". "Indians". "Irons". I gave up. I suspect she still insists Tom is the mouse and Jerry is the cat.

Shee Yun likes Ma's new maid, Lia, who just came yesterday. Michelle asked our maid Sopiah to teach the newcomer, who is very young and also has not worked before. When the two maids were working, Shee Yun happily followed them around watching them work. Somehow she seemed to like Lia a lot, although she only met her for the first time. Michelle said maybe it was because Lia looked like Siti, our previous maid. Shee Yun also kept calling Lia "Kakak".

In the past few days Ma gave Shee Yun some paper, highlighter, marker pens and colour pencils to do some drawing. I played with her a little, and drew Rocket (from Little Einsteins) for her. I also drew shapes for her. She used the highlighter to fill in (colour) the shapes which I drew for her, without me teaching her to do so. She was not very good at it yet, and sometimes she coloured outside of the border, but I was surprised that she had the concept of filling in. I didn't teach her that. When I was drawing things for her, she happily exclaimed, "I LOVE painting!".

This morning Shee Yun threw Michelle's handphone. I don't know why. When I came out of the computer room, halfway through my work, I saw the phone on the floor. I wanted to pick it up, but she picked it up first, brought it to the computer room, and threw it onto the floor. I scolded her and spanked her hand. It is a bad habit that when she is upset she throws things. I don't know what made her upset. She actually didn't seem very upset. Just a little upset. After that I ignored her and continued to do my work. When I walked around the house she watched me timidly. She knew I was angry with her behaviour. After just a short while, she told me, "Sorry Baba". I was surprised by that. Usually we need to prompt her softly before she is willing to apologise. So I went to her and we gave each other a big hug. My little girl has grown up. 懂事了.

Today Chen Rui climbed half the flight of stairs, from the mid point / half-way point, all the way up to the upstairs sitting room, all by herself, without any support or help. Michelle was accompanying and on standby in case she falls. She took 2-3 minutes to do it, but she reached the sitting room all by herself.

Chen Rui likes fruits. Today when Michelle was feeding Shee Yun some papaya, Chen Rui also wanted some. She crawled to Michelle to ask for some. So Michelle gave her some. Once she finished the piece given to her, she went to Michelle again and started complaining and demanding for another piece.

Today I let Chen Rui sit on my shoulders, her legs straddling my neck. She found it fun and exciting and laughed as I carried her around and tickled her.

card design 2007

Every year near the end of the year, I draw greeting cards - birthday cards (usually 10 different designs), Chinese New Year card (1 design) and Christmas card (1 design) - for the following year. I send these cards of my own design to my friends.

I usually pick one theme, and one character. For 2007, the theme is great literary works, and the character is Yoda, the Jedi master from the Star Wars movie.

http://hiewcs.tripod.com/drawings/CardDesign2007/design2007.html

please谢谢

26 Dec 2007. Chen Rui and one of her birthday presents - the ball pool.

Chen Rui was happy to play with her cousin Yong En.

Yesterday evening Michelle and I had an outing to play boardgames at the Carcasean boardgame cafe, the first of its kind in KK. This was after both the children have fallen asleep. Shee Yun did not nap for the whole day. She slept at about 8:15pm. We asked Ma to help take care of the children, in case they wake up crying. Sometimes when Shee Yun is too tired, she wakes up in the middle of her sleep crying. Thankfully yesterday she didn't. But when Ma checked on her, she found that Shee Yun had waken up and had gotten off the bed to sleep on the mattress on the floor, the same one as Chen Rui. So Shee Yun slept on one end while Chen Rui slept on the other end.

When Shee Yun asks for something, I will take the opportunity to teach her to be polite. Yesterday when she asked for something (probably she was asking me to make her some shape out of plasticine), I asked her "要讲什么?" (what should you say?). She replied, "please谢谢" (pleasethankyou). She was probably just saying to satisfy me and she didn't really mean it sincerely. 只是应酬我.

Chen Rui loves playing on the computer keyboard. I open up Notepad for her, so that she can type whatever she wants to type. Sometimes I still need to be careful when she presses specials keys like the Window key, which brings up a menu and not just adds text to the document. Sometimes she even pushes away my hands from the vicinity of the keyboard because she finds them annoying / in the way.

She knows how to point at something she wants. She points with her index finger. This morning Michelle's mum gave her some chocolate, and the moment she finished the small piece in her mouth, she became impatient and asked for and pointed at the remaining piece of chocolate. She likes chocolate too. Maybe all children like chocolate.

blinking

24 Dec 2007. How sweet to see the two sisters sleeping peacefully side by side. And how funny to see how they change positions throughout the night.

Chen Rui now likes to blink her eyes strongly. I think she does it consciously to charm people, because she knows it makes her grandparents happy, and she will get attention. Quite amazing to see such behaviour in a little girl of 1 year old. Now Michelle and I try not to encourage her to do this, lest it becomes a bad habit. Well, we'll be in KK for just another week, so we can still let her blink to her heart's content for the moment.

Chen Rui seems to be able to say some simple words now. At least I think she knows what she is saying and she means what she is saying. She already says "Baba" (or "Babababa...") and "Mama" (or "Mamamama..."). Recently she started saying "Bye-bye" and "Nen nen". When we say "Bye-bye" to her, she responds by saying "bye-bye" and also waves her hand. Her "bye-bye" sounds more like "Ba ba", but we can hear a little trace of "ba bai" in there. Her "nen nen" (milk) sometimes sounds like "Na na" or "Nananana...".

Now one thing that Shee Yun likes to imaging doing is playing with the automatic gate remote control. She says, "Press the button!". Whenever we go out together or come home, Michelle lets Shee Yun press the remote control to open or close the automatic gate. She likes it. So sometimes she pretends to be holding the remote control in her left hand, and then she pretends pressing the button with her index finger of her right hand.

I noticed that back in KK Shee Yun always wakes up in a good mood. She is playful and energetic when she wakes up. This is unusual. She usually wakes up moody and grumpy when in KL. I hope she keeps up the happy mood after we go back to KL.

I try to teach Shee Yun more Chinese now. When I ask her about colours, I take the opportunity to teach her the corresponding word in Chinese, e.g. when she tells me something is red, I ask her what that is in Chinese (华语是什么?). So far I have taught her 红色 (red) and 黄色 (yellow). At first she confuses them, but I think she is starting to learn.

Today when playing with a Lego car that I made for her, Shee Yun exclaimed, "Oh dear! The steering is missing!". I couldn't find a steering wheel to put in the car. Now she knows how to say "Please make a (something)", instead of "You making a (something)" which was how she used to say it.

In the afternoon Shee Yun didn't want to sleep. We didn't allow her to watch any more television and told her she will only be allowed to watch TV after she has taken her nap. She requested for Tom & Jerry but I said no. We let her play by herself. Then after a while I heard her laughing by herself. I quietly approached her without letting her know I was approaching. She wasn't playing with anything in particular. She was at the ball pool (Chen Rui's birthday present) and had a lump of brown plasticine in her hand. She was saying "Botak!" (bald) to herself and laughing happily by herself. This is referring to a scene in one of the Tom & Jerry episodes where Tom's scalp was chopped clean with a battle axe (tomahawk?) by a little mouse pretending to be a Red Indian. When we watched that together, I told her "Tom botak!", and she found it very funny and kept laughing and laughing every time I said it. Now that she couldn't watch Tom & Jerry, she entertained herself by saying "Botak!" and laughing by herself.

bee hive on the roof

15 Dec 2007. Shee Yun playing with the cooking set at Michelle's parents' house.

This morning Shee Yun saw a bee hive (maybe a wasp hive) hanging just under the roof of the house next door, and told Michelle, "There is a bee hive on the roof!". Michelle was very surprised. I was in the computer room and heard part of their conversation. At first I thought Shee Yun was talking about a bee hive that she saw on TV. Only when I came out I found out that she was referring to a real bee hive.

Now Shee Yun is imagining seeing Santa Claus and his reindeers. She pointed at the sky and said, "reindeer!". I guess the Christmas atmosphere has got into her too.

Today when Shee Yun was watching a new episode of Little Einsteins, she almost cried. In the story today, some wish boxes magically appeared for the children, but one was missing, the one meant for Annie. So Annie was sad. When Shee Yun saw that, she frowned and her eyes turned red. 感情丰富. She is so compassionate. So, the mission of this episode was to look for the wish box for Annie.

Shee Yun speaks some Chinese words like a foreigner (鬼佬). Today she asked me to make a 漏体 (lou4 ti3) using the Lego pieces - "Baba, you making a 漏体". It took me some time to realise she meant 楼梯 (lou2 ti1 - stairs).

Today we brought Shee Yun and Chen Rui to Tun Fuad Park. She misbehaved when we were there. We are guessing she was probably hungry. She asked for chocolate, but we didn't have any more. We originally intended to bring the children to walk one full round of the 2.2km jogging track. Shee Yun refused to walk by herself and wanted me to carry her. When I was tired and put her down to rest a little, she threw a tantrum. She walked towards where we came from by herself. We let her walk by herself, just keeping watch from a distance. After she had walked about 50 metres (still in view), she stopped and squatted down by the roadside. She stayed like that for a long time. She was quietly sulking and holding back her tears. But at the same time she was very stubborn and insistent and didn't want to admit defeat. She didn't want to walk back towards us. Eventually I went to her. I knelt down at about 10 metres from her and called out to her. When she saw me she happily ran towards me, and I carried her.

She seemed to be not in a mood for anything. Probably she was hungry. She hadn't eaten anything, except for the bottle of milk in the morning. Later, when we were on the way back to the entrance, she again didn't want to move. She squatted on the grass beside the jogging track and lowered her head. When we all continued to walk, she stayed there without budging. Eventually I walked back to her, and knelt down a few metres away from her. I called out to her gently, asking her whether she wanted me to carry her. She kept her head down and didn't reply. I tried a few other things, like asking her to come to me, but she didn't move. Then I asked whether she wanted me to buy her some chocolate when we are on the way home. Immediately she raised her head and smiled at me happily. Her eyes were all red and teary. Poor girl. She had been trying hard to hold back her tears and refrain from crying. She does that nowadays. She tries not to cry.

Earlier in the morning she played with the Bepanthen cream, like it was water colour. She squeezed out a lot and there was cream all over the green sofa upstairs. I was very angry when I saw it and I scolded her, "你做什么这样？" (why are you like that?!). She knew she was being scolded. I didn't say anything more. I didn't spank her. I went to take toilet paper to clean the mess. Shee Yun knew she was scolded. She went into my bedroom and slammed the door shut. I think she knew she was wrong, but her stubbornness made her not willing to admit it and to apologise. Michelle talked to her and asked her to say sorry to me, and she seemed ready to do so, but when she came to me and saw my angry face, she turned and walked away. She is very stubborn. She is also 受软不受硬 (willing to accept a soft approach but not a hard one). Later she quietly came near me when I was using the computer and quietly closed the grill door of the computer room. I talked to her gently and asked her to come to me. She came to me, and I asked her softly to say sorry. And she said "sorry" in a tiny voice. Then I asked her to give me a big hug, and she gave me a big hug. And we were OK after that.

We definitely need to teach Shee Yun to behave better.

Later during the day when Ma, Michelle and I were chatting, Ma said actually I was also a very stubborn and naughty child when I was little. Michelle said no wonder, because although all the while she thought Shee Yun inherited her bad temper, she thought she was not as naughty as Shee Yun is. Now she says it must be because of genes from my side.

Chen Rui likes to point and touch things with her index finger now. Today she pointed at and touched a buddhist embroidery on the wall of the computer room.

zoo

24 Dec 2007. At the Lokkawi Wildlife Park. Chen Rui sometimes likes to point now.

Shee Yun liked holding hands with Yong En.

Grandfather and two grandchildren.

Chen Rui found it funny when we put this hankerchief on her head.

Last night Chen Rui had a lot of mosquito bite-like rashes on her body, her arms and legs. Michelle noticed it in the evening around 7:30pm - 8pm. At first when there weren't a lot she though those were mosquito or other insect bites. Later when there were more she realised something was not right. Chen Rui might be allergic to something. We suspected it was the wheat cereal, which was the only new thing introduced into her diet yesterday. At about 9pm we decided to look for a doctor. We went to Damai but there was a blackout, and the clinic there didn't seem to be open anyway. It was a Sunday night. We tried two clinics at Hilltop, but neither was open. By then Chen Rui had fallen asleep in the car. She seemed to be normal and wasn't scratching the rashes, and wasn't crying and didn't seem uncomfortable or sick. In the end we just returned home and let her sleep. Some of the rashes had started to subside.

Thankfully by this morning the rashes had all subsided.

Today we went to the zoo. Offically it is called a wildlife park. It was only recently opened and is located at Lokkawi. It was a hot day, and we were all quite tired and dehydrated after spending 1.5 hours there. The zoo is not very big, not as big as the national zoo. The animals are mostly local wildlife. No giraffes. No lions. But they do have a tiger, elephants, monkeys, wild cats. Yong En was quite keen to see the animals. In contrast, Shee Yun wasn't very interested. She was more keen to keep walking and keep moving. At one point she and Yong En held hands and walked together. Shee Yun was very happy. She seemed to enjoy holding hands and walking together with Yong En more than the animals. She probably thought of it as a game they were playing. Yong En is only about 9 months older than Shee Yun, but she is much taller than Shee Yun.

Chen Rui sweated a lot at the zoo. She sweats easily. Sometimes she can even sweat in an aircon room. Chen Rui seemed to be somewhat interested in the animals, unlike Shee Yun who didn't seem very interested in most of them.

Michelle let Shee Yun wear the red dress to the zoo. Shee Yun likes this dress a lot. It is quite long and reaches her ankles, so once when she was running up some steps she stepped on the dress and fell down. It wasn't a bad fall so she just got up and continued running, holding hands with Yong En. I taught her that she should hold her dress up a little when she runs, and she did that. Michelle thinks Shee Yun likes the dress because it is like what Cinderella wears in the story book. We usually let Shee Yun wear pants and not skirts, so there is probably a novelty factor for her in wearing a dress.

On our way home, both girls fell asleep in the car. It was almost a one hour drive, because we had to send Yong En and Michelle's parents home first. By the time we reached home, both girls woke up from their almost one hour long nap.

oh dear

22 Dec 2007. Chen Rui at the beach feeling happy.

The hairdo of the year, further enhanced by the sea breeze.

Shee Yun using her imagination to play. She turned her right hand, like she was fishing and reeling in the fish, but I'm not sure that's what she was imagining.

Chen Rui likes to stand. She holds on to something stable and stands up. She enjoys it. I guess standing up means she can see further.

Chen Rui is taller now. We know because she knocked her head on the small coffee table upstairs with the Sabah map when she sat next to it. And she cried a little. It wasn't a severe knock.

Now Chen Rui seems to be having longer afternoon naps. She usually have short naps throughout the day, ranging from half and hour to one hour. Lately she has been taking 1.5 hour naps. This is good. Longer naps means Michelle also gets to have a longer rest.

Today Chen Rui played with the glass door of a cupboard in the downstairs living room, the one on which the phone is placed. When closed, the door is held in place by a magnet, so when trying to open it, there is some resistance, and when closing it, you can feel the magnet pulling the moment right before it is fully closed. Chen Rui seemed to be amused by that and kept opening and closing the door. Later in the day she played with the bedroom door.

When Shee Yun tries to open the bedroom door, she doesn't use the door knob. She is tall enough to reach the door knob but she doesn't know how to use it properly, or maybe she finds it not easy to use because of her height. She squats down to pull at the stopper, which is attached to the door, about two inches from the ground. The stopper is a short and thick protruding stick with a large magnetic sphere on its end. When the door is fully open the stopper will touch a metal piece on the wall, and will be held in place. Shee Yun uses this stopper to open the door. It works when the door is slightly ajar, but of course it wouldn't work when the door is closed. But I'm still impressed that she found her own way of making things work for her.

For the past few days Shee Yun has been saying "Oh dear!" a lot. I don't know where she learnt this. Today when I was changing her diapers she said, "Oh dear. No car. No (something). No cake. ". Sometimes she says the weirdest things.

Shee Yun seems to be confused about who is Tom and who is Jerry. I think she thinks Tom is the mouse and Jerry the cat.

Tanjung Aru beach

14 Dec 2007. Chen Rui learning to stand up.

Chen Rui very excited.

Chen Rui calms down a little.

Chen Rui even more excited!

Today we brought the children to Tanjung Aru beach. As usual, we went to second beach. The tide was low, so the beach was wide. It was quite cloudy and also windy, but thankfully it didn't rain. There were very few people. Michelle's parents also brought Yong En there.

Shee Yun was reluctant to play with sand at first. It was the same as last time. She was reluctant to make her hands dirty by playing with sand. For a long time she just wanted us to play and she didn't want to touch the toys or the sand herself. It took some time before she took the toy spade herself, and took even longer before she used her hands to directly grab sand. But she did so eventually. She is a picky child about cleanliness.

After playing with sand for some time, Michelle let her have some Yoco yogurt drink. She took one sip, and then handed it to Sopiah. I wondered why, because she usually likes Yoco. Then she washed her hands in the little bucket of sea water which I had fetched, before she took the Yoco drink back from Sopiah and continued to drink. She is indeed quite particular about cleanliness. She has a bad habit of wiping her dirty fingers on any surface she can find. E.g. after eating chocolate and her fingers are dirty, she can wipe her fingers on the sofa, or on our clothes.

Well, at least the cleanliness part is a good habit.

When it was time to go home, we brought her to the sea to wash the sand away from her hands and feet. After playing with the waves, she was so happy she didn't want to leave. I taught her how to jump over the incoming waves. She didn't know how to jump yet, since I carried her to "jump" whenever the waves came. She liked that. Her pants got all wet too after all that playing. Eventually Michelle came to lure her away by using the ultimate weapon - chocolate.

In the afternoon Shee Yun asked me to make a Lego house. So I made one. I made a nice small red house with two white doors and a window. It has a flat yellow roof. There is a chair, a table, and a white cup inside. I asked her about each of these components, and she said "a door", "a window", "another door", "a chair", she didn't know how to say "a table" so I taught her, and finally when I asked her about the white cup, she answered "a glass of milk!". Ba, who was also with us, was very amused.

After that I turned around to use the computer and let her continue to play by herself with the Lego house, and in less than five minutes I turned back to find that she had taken apart the house.

Today she suddenly told me "Ae-o friend". At first I thought she meant "aeroplane", but she shook her head. She mumbled something about "Pocoyo" too. Finally she pointed at the floor, and I realised she was talking about an imaginary friend (whatever creature it was), which was at that place where she was pointing. I confirmed my suspiscion by asking her to sayang her imaginary friend, and to give it a hug. She gently stroke it, and also gave it a warm hug. I played along with her, pretending there was an imaginary friend where she said there was. But I still need to figure out what "Ae-o friend" is.

Today at the beach after being in the wind for some time, Chen Rui's hair looked even more explosive and straight-standing, as if the wind had blown / permed her hair.

Yesterday Chen Rui did the eye wincing and made Ma laugh a lot. She narrowed her eyes until they were almost closed. She repeated it many times. It was a funny expression. We have seen this before, but she doesn't do it very often.

Chen Rui is fascinated by computers. When she sees me or Michelle, or even Shee Yun, using the computer, she will want to type on the keyboard or play with the mouse too. She tries hard to lean forward so that she can reach the keyboard. She will start crying if we put her on the ground where she cannot see the monitor.

you making a ball

15 Dec 2007. Shee Yun laughing when watching the Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Today Chen Rui is one year old. And we still haven't bought a birthday present for her, although we have (well, our parents have) organised two birthday parties for her. Maybe we will just be lazy and give her an angpow.

There is one mattress in KK which has a hump in the middle. When you sleep on this mattress, you are supposed to rest your lower back on this small hump, so that your back gets good support. We let Chen Rui sleep on this mattress, because just half the mattress is long enough for her. One thing that she likes to do with this mattress is she likes to climb over that hump. She climbs over to the other side, then sits feeling pleased with herself, and then climbs back over to this side, and sits happily, and keeps repeating this.

Chen Rui's crawling skills improved very quickly. Just a few days ago she wasn't confident to climb up a single 1.5 inch step. Today she climbed up three normal steps, between the downstairs sitting room and the foyer of the side door. Ma probably helped her a little, but she was able to do it.

Chen Rui likes to say "Ah Daaaa!". She also says "Ooh!" and "Wooh!", and "A-Waaa! Waa!". She says a lot of different things, and she can be quite loud sometimes.

Yesterday when Ma and Michelle brought Shee Yun to a supermarket, Shee Yun saw the chocolate at the cashier and was very keen to have some. At first she saw the smaller ones which are on the lower shelf. Then she saw the bigger ones on the higher shelf, and took one. Michelle didn't bring any money, so she told Shee Yun that she (Shee Yun) would have to ask Ah Ma's permission to buy one. Shee Yun was timid and shy to ask Ma, and asked in a soft voice, which Ma didn't hear. She then seemed to not know what to do, and just held on to the chocolate longingly. Eventually Ma did buy the chocolate for her, and she enjoyed it a lot. Michelle only let her have one piece in the car, and she accepted obediently. She likes chocolate a lot. Just like me.

Today we went to Michelle's parents' home in the morning. We let Shee Yun watch the Tom & Jerry cartoon again, and she laughed a lot. We are going to make copies for her.

When Shee Yun wants me to make a ball out of a lump or irregular plasticine (toy clay) that she hands to me, she says, "Baba, you making a ball". Today I taught her that she should say, "Baba, please make a ball", and she repeated that after me. I hope she remembers that. Yesterday when Michelle was eating grapes with her, when she saw the many seeds on the plate, she told Michelle, "Look Mama! There are so many 种子's!". She mixes English and Chinese words and grammar. Today when she was playing with some orange beads and a mini basket and other decorative containers, she told us, "Can you say this is a 珠子's?". It made both of us laugh.

Shee Yun doesn't really speak proper full sentences yet. At least not most of the time. She still mainly uses phrases, or single words. Michelle's friends' children who are about her age can speak full sentences (and in Chinese) now. Michelle's friends were surprised that Shee Yun spoke English to them. Shee Yun seemed to be slower than other children of the same age in speaking full sentences. But then I realised she was slower than others to start speaking in the first place, so it is no surprise that she is also slower to speak full sentences. So I do not need to worry. Each child has his/her own pace.

The blanket that Shee Yun likes to use now is a light one with panda pictures. I think it's Mei Mei's blanket. We bought a blanket for her in KL, but she doesn't seem to like it much, and still prefers not to use a blanket. I wonder whether we need to buy another one like this panda blanket.

book reading

Here are our passport photos taken on Tue 18 Dec 2007.

Michelle looks the most normal.

I look pale and I have eyebags, like a vampire or a drug addict.

Chen Rui looks like she's angry at you. Note the droplet of saliva at the corner of her lips

Getting Shee Yun to take the photo was a real challenge. She cried and said she wanted to go home. Eventually what calmed her down was the chocolate which I went to buy.

1. My hand and the piece of chocolate.

2. You can see her eyes and nose are still a little red from the crying. She's chewing the chocolate now. Open mouth means this cannot be used.

3. Not looking at the camera.

4. Eating chocolate and scratching her head.

5. Totally not looking at the camera.

6. This one looks like she was about to cry again.

7. Chewing chocolate. And not looking at the camera.

8. Mouth open wide.

So, which of the above was used as her passport photo? Answer at the bottom of this post.

Shee Yun almost had a fight with Yong En, her cousin sister about one year older than her. When they were playing with the box of balls (the type meant for a ball pool), Shee Yun kept wanting to overturn the box and pour all the balls onto the floor, while Yong En didn't want that to happen. Yong En was very angry about Shee Yun creating a mess. Shee Yun didn't seem to care and just kept trying to do it. I don't know what happened after that. I had to get back to work.

I found that this week I have been spending little time with the children, although I am supposed to be on holidays back in Sabah. I still work almost as much as a normal working week, except I am working from home. In fact, I think I am more stressed and more tired. Sometimes I have errands to run, so I end up spending time on those, and then I have to work late. I hope I can really forget about work next week and truely enjoy my holiday.

Shee Yun now likes to repeat what Michelle says. Maybe she finds it fun.

Lately Chen Rui has a habit of reading books before she sleeps at night. She cannot read yet, but she likes it when Michelle flips through a book with her, and reads to her, or tell her stories. She probably doesn't understand, but somehow she likes books. I guess she likes the pictures.

Chen Rui cries more than Shee Yun at the same age. Both Michelle and I agreed. It is not just these few days back in Sabah that she has been crying more than usual. Overall, compared to Shee Yun at the same age, we think Chen Rui cries more. And of course these few days she has been so manja and she cried a lot, always demanding attention.

Answer for Shee Yun's passport photo: Photo Number 3.

粘身

9 Dec 2007. Chen Rui at Sushi King, KLCC.

Chen Rui has been very 粘身 these past few days - she keeps demanding attention from either Michelle or me, mostly Michelle. When she sees Michelle, she wants to be carried by Michelle. She is impatient, and if Michelle doesn't go to her, she will start complaining and start threatening to cry. Sometimes she does end up crying. Terribly manja. However, when Michelle was not around yesterday afternoon, she was not like this. She didn't complain and didn't make noise and didn't threaten to cry.

Even Sopiah commented that Chen Rui was extra manja and 粘身 after we were back in Sabah.

Yesterday Shee Yun wanted to sleep on the floor with Michelle. When back in KK, our sleeping arrangement is that Chen Rui will sleep on the floor (so that she doesn't fall off the bed), and Michelle will also sleep on the floor so that she can attend to Chen Rui quickly if Chen Rui cries. So Shee Yun and I sleep on the queen size bed, Shee Yun on the side next to where Chen Rui sleeps, so that in case she falls off the bed, she will land on the mattress on the floor, and with me on her other side, she won't fall off this side of the bed (although she can kick me when she sleeps sideways). Yesterday, and also today, Shee Yun suddenly fancied sleeping on the floor. Yesterday she slept with Michelle, and they even shared a blanket. Shee Yun usually doesn't like being covered by a blanket. I guess she thinks sleeping on the floor is fun, because she usually doesn't do this.

Melford Cow

9 Dec 2007. Shee Yun wanted me to wear a hat, which is actually a cover for the sushi dishes.

I have no idea what "Melford cow" is. I am sure I got the spelling wrong. This was something Shee Yun said many times yesterday, and I could not figure out what it was. She said it when I was bathing her. She pointed at the big blue plastic mug (the type used for brushing teeth), which she was playing with, and said "Melford cow". But when I asked her "Melford cow?" and pointed at it, she told me "No. It's water." Sometimes we cannot figure out what she is saying. It sounds like English, but no idea what it is.

Today we went to take passport photos for the whole family. It has been a quite a while since Michelle and I took passport photos. My current passport photo looks like an angry bull, because someone told me that I wasn't supposed to smile. We also need to take passport photos for the children, because we plan to bring them traveling next year. Before we went we were a bit worried whether they would be willing to take photos. Chen Rui was the first to go. Thankfully she didn't resist. Well, we tried to do it very quickly. She did pull a long face. She was frowning at the camera, and looked like she was staring at someone who owes her money and doesn't pay up. But at least it was over and done with quickly. Shee Yun was the big challenge. She cried and pointed outside the photo shop and said "睡觉" (sleep). We tried many things but nothing worked. We brought her away to calm her down, and went back in after she had calmed down, but she immediately started crying again. Eventually what worked (sort of) was chocolate. I went to buy some chocolate for her, and she stayed calm enough on the chair in front of the blue screen for long enough for the photographer to take a few hurried shots. She really liked the chocolate and kept asking for more, until she finished the whole roll (it was a Cadbury tube / roll, packaging is like Mentos). She pronounces "chocolate" with two syllables - "cho klet", or "cho kert".

In the afternoon Michelle went for beauty treatment, and I stayed home with the children. It is rare that Michelle has such opportunities, because she is usually the one at home taking care of the girls. By the time we got home, at around 2:30pm, Chen Rui had already fallen asleep in the car, and Shee Yun soon went to sleep too. So it was an easy afternoon for me. I just had to accompany them in the room. Just that I couldn't work. I'm supposed to be on holiday, but unfortunately this week will be just like any other work week, except I am working from home in Sabah. In fact, Michelle said I am more stressed this week than usual, because I am supposed to be having a break, but I still have to work a lot. So, having to take care of the girls is a good "excuse" for me not to work for a few hours. I needed to stay in the bedroom so that when they stir in their sleep (especially Chen Rui), I can quickly comfort them / pat them and make them continue sleeping peacefully. It did indeed happen to Chen Rui twice. Chen Rui finally woke up after having slept for 1.5 hours, which is good. Usually she sleeps for about an hour. Shee Yun slept uninterrupted for 2 hours. It was peaceful and relaxing to accompany them while they slept. I just sat on the ground reading my old comics.

Today when Michelle played dancing with Shee Yun, after they finished dancing, Shee Yun made a very graceful and deep bow. She extended her arms slightly to the sides, making roughly a 45 degree angle, and bowed 90 degrees. Later when Michelle wanted to demonstrate it to me, Shee Yun was shy and didn't want to repeat it. She just lay on the floor face-down holding her Tubby.

Today Shee Yun said "Ray, set, GO!" (Ready, get set, go). I think this was something she learnt from the Pocoyo TV show.

For the past few days Shee Yun has been waking up smiling and playful, both for naps and sleep, not grumpy like usual. I wonder whether it's Ba's Chang2 Sheng1 Xue2 treatment working well, or she's just happy to be here in Sabah.