21 Dec 2008. Shee Yun at the ball pool of the Jusco children's playground.
She wanted to build a tall mountain of balls, and asked me to help.
Chen Rui likes this dancing machine a lot and keeps returning to it and stepping on the pads. However when I offered to put a coin in to let her play for real she refused. In this photo she looks like she knows how to play, doesn't it?
飞车党来了！
Yesterday when Shee Yun played at the Jaya Jusco children's playground, we encountered a rather unpleasant experience. When Shee Yun was playing in the ball pool by herself peacefully, a little boy, probably around the same age, sat down beside her rudely, and threw a ball at her face! And he did it twice! Shee Yun wasn't bothering him at all. I don't know why the boy did this. What a badly behaved child. I was taking a video of Shee Yun using the digital camera, and recorded down the whole thing. Unfortunately it happened too fast and too suddenly and I could not stop the boy. I stopped the camera and went to sit between him and Shee Yun. His mother (or guardian) was not around. Otherwise I would have told her to take better care of her son. The mother had I think 4 children with her, and this boy seemed to be the second youngest among them. I wonder how his parents taught him. Is he so hostile to his siblings? Do his parents not teach him not to be so?
Thankfully the plastic balls were light and hollow and made of soft plastic, the type used in ball pools. So it probably shocked Shee Yun more than hurting her. The ball hit her left eyebrow. She immediately covered her face protectively with her hands. When she put down her hands, she averted her eyes from her attacker. I sat down between her and the boy. I asked her whether it hurt. She nodded quietly. I gently caressed her eyebrow to comfort her. She didn't cry. She just stayed quiet. I turned to the boy and looked at him sternly. I couldn't see his mother around, so I told him that he should not hit people like that. I told him twice. He just looked at me with a serious expression. I was very angry. In hindsight, maybe I should have located his mother and told her about what happened. This boy needs to be taught to behave better.
Michelle was very angry when she saw the video. She felt hurt and she pitied Shee Yun. Michelle worries whether Shee Yun is too timid and cannot fend for herself or stand up to bullying. Indeed when she is outside she is shy when there are strangers around. We will need to teach her to tell us when she is being bullied, and we will need to teach her to be smart and not to allow herself to be bullied.
Thankfully she wasn't really hurt in this incident. She soon forgot about it and continued to play. She kept trying to build a big heap of balls, by patiently picking one ball after another and putting them on top of a pile. There were a few times when other children saw the big tempting pile and dived into it or crashed into it. Shee Yun did not shout or scream. She just wagged a finger at the offender and protested softly "No". I think she doesn't like confrontation. Only when the offender was Chen Rui, then Shee Yun's "No" was louder and more stern.
On to happier subjects, something funny happened when Shee Yun and Chen Rui played with the bowling arcade game. There were two of those side by side, so I let Shee Yun play with the one on the right, and Chen Rui the left. Shee Yun started first. Chen Rui watched Shee Yun throw the ball, then picked up her own ball from her machine, and went to Shee Yun's machine to cast the ball! It took me completely by surprise and I couldn't have stopped her even if I had thought to do so. Trying to be smart, when Shee Yun's ball come back out, I asked Shee Yun to take it to Chen Rui's machine, and continue to play there, i.e. to have them swap machines. It worked fine at machine on the left, where Shee Yun was now playing. However the machine on the right jammed. It couldn't handle having two balls at the same time. The second ball, i.e. Chen Rui's, was stuck inside. A big blinking light went off, and a loud signal starting sounding. Soon an employee came over. I pretended to be innocent, and just told him, "Bola tak keluar lah" (the ball didn't come out). Shee Yun happily continued to play on the machine on the left. The employee had to fiddle with the machine for a while before being able to reset it. Thankfully he didn't ask me any questions, and just fixed it quickly. I still find it very funny now that I think about it.
Chen Rui sometimes tickles us. She makes a scratching motion with her hand on our stomach, or chest, or leg, and says "guji guji guji". I think I say "tickle tickle" when I tickle her, and it is Michelle who says "guji guji guji" when tickling her.
Chen Rui associates monkeys with the Bobos, and says "Bobo" after saying "markee" (monkey) or after seeing monkeys. The Bobos are two monkeys in the Dora the Explorer show.
Yesterday I played the Starfall website with Chen Rui. She now knows how to play some of the simpler games. There is one type of game where you are asked to sort the capital letters and the small letters of the same alphabet into two piles (A, B and E all have this activity). She knows how to play this and whenever a letter appears, she points at the correct pile and says, "这个" (this one). She can pretend to roar quite well, I discovered. When we did B and D, and the bear and the dinosaur roared, I imitated the roaring sound they made, and she followed suit. She did quite well!
