duuuu

Chen Rui often says "duuuu" when she wants to point us to something. It's from the Malay word "itu" or "situ". She pronounces it like "毒" (du2). Sometimes when we ask her where she has placed something, she points at it and says to us in an impatient tone "duuuu", as if we are blind to have not seen it ourselves.

Yesterday when Chen Rui saw Michelle flush toilet paper down the toilet, she waved at the toilet bowl and said a friendly, "Bye-bye tissue" to it. I didn't realise she still does this.

Michelle bought some big plastic clips (RM3.50 for four) and used them to make toy tents at Shee Yun and Chen Rui's beds. She clipped blankets over the beds. The beds are like cots, so the sides are high. The girls enjoyed playing with this.

Shee Yun recently re-discovered a Powerpuff Girls pipe game. She has seen it before, but it was too complex for her. She asked me to play it so that she could watch. Now she has learned to play it herself. Sometimes she gets a bit stuck and asks me to help, but mostly she can play it by herself.

15 Dec 2009. Chen Rui collecting little pine seeds (or whatever it's supposed to be called) in the bucket in front of her bicycle.

Shee Yun feeding fish.

All sweaty from playing at the park.

taking off clothes

Shee Yun only recently learned to take off her clothes by herself. We haven't consciously remembered to teach her. We normally help her take off her clothes when we need to change her into new clothes or when we need to bathe her. We just ask her to raise her arms. But she knows how to put on her clothes. She sometimes does that by herself after her bath. She also knows how to take off and put on pants. That's important because that means she doesn't need to bother us at all when she needs to go to the potty to pee. Chen Rui can also manage pants.

Only recently I started to teach Shee Yun how to take off her clothes. It actually takes some effort to think about how to teach it, because it is something so ingrained that I never think about it consciously when I do it every day. I have to slowly do it myself to see each step of the process. I lift up the front of my T-shirt first, then stick one elbow and then the other into it, pushing it upwards. Then I have to use my hands to pull the T-shirt up and away from my body. Yesterday I watched Shee Yun manage this all by herself. It's an achievement.

20 Dec 2009. Michelle put on these bath robes for them because they wanted to play in the bathroom after bathing. This is so that they won't catch a cold. Shee Yun nowadays rarely wants to stay back to play. Chen Rui still does it often though.

This reminds me of Star Wars posters, of jedi knights in jedi robes, of the hero holding a light sabre and the heroine leaning gently against him.

Are you OK?

13 Dec 2009. Chen Rui playing with a ducky CD holder.

Shee Yun at Sushi King.

Chen Rui and Hello Kitty.

14 Dec 2009. I don't remember whether this was supposed to be a bed, or a picnic setup. Or maybe a ship, or a castle, or a house. That blanket is Michelle's, not Shee Yun's.

Messy.

One trick that I use to prevent Chen Rui from crying is asking her "Are you OK?". I do that when water gets in her eyes, or she knocked herself against something accidentally, or other minor forms of her getting hurt. When I ask her "Are you OK?", by reflex she will answer, "I'm OK", and that often works in making her think she feels OK. It works most of the time, and she returns to a good mood, and returns to playing with whatever she has been playing with.

I realise that Shee Yun and Chen Rui are going back to using their pacifiers more. This backward step started several weeks ago when they were ill. We decided to let them use the pacifiers so that they could sleep better. After they have fully recovered, we did not recover from the pacifier habit. I think we need to start brainwashing them again that using pacifiers will make them not pretty.

Lately Chen Rui have been playing with DVONN a lot. Shee Yun used to do that too. There's something attractive about the solid black and white (and red) pieces. Chen Rui calls it "dee-FON".

Shee Yun's double eyelid on her left eye has gone away today. It only lasted 2 days.

Today is our 8th anniversary. I don't think I'll meet the target of 10 children in 10 years that I drew outside the front door when fetching the bride, but I'm pretty happy.

三岁

2009年12月13日： 晨睿在 Sushi　Ｋｉｎｇ　用牙签吃乌冬面。

在　Ｇｉａｎｔ　Ｓｕｐｅｒｍａｒｋｅｔ　她坚持要自己拿篮子。

今天我跟晨睿冲凉的时候我问她：
“晨睿，你几岁啊？”
“三岁。不是五岁。” （我完全没有提五岁，也不明白她为什么会这样说）
“酱（这样）爸爸几岁？”
她想了一下，好像也想不出什么，就说道：
“五岁。”

单边双眼皮

Yesterday and today Shee Yun's left eye had double eyelid - 双眼皮. Her eye looks much bigger, big and black and beautiful. We had thought that by this morning it would be gone, but we were surprised it was still there this morning. I wonder how long it will last. Or would it "spread" to her right eye too?

27 Dec 2009. Chen Rui playing with her mini umbrella. Shee Yun has a yellow one.

We have not taken down the Christmas tree.

If you look closely you can see Shee Yun's left eye has double eyelid. She was playing with a badminton racket and a soft plastic ball.

shopping

Chen Rui likes to say "Surprise!" when she sees us walk into the bedroom from outside, or walk out of the bathroom. In the evening, when she sees us go into the bathroom, she'll be on standby to surprise us. Sometimes she even goes to stand right next to the TV (near the bathroom door) to wait.

We bought a shopping trolley toy for Chen Rui as her (late) birthday gift. Chen Rui first saw one at Michelle's cousin Belle's home and liked it. So we decided to get her one. We bought it only on Christmas Day, when we had an outing to Mid Valley Megamall. To buy things, and to see the Christmas decorations too. We also bought a pink Lego box set for Shee Yun. We decided to give her one as a Christmas present. She has seen it before and liked it, because she likes pink. It was quite expensive though. There are two sizes I think and the one that we've seen before was the smaller one. However the one at Toys R Us that day was the larger one, thus more expensive. But it's Christmas, so we thought what the heck. We should spoil our children once in a while. Shee Yun loved it and played with it a lot.

Chen Rui broke her shopping trolley only a few days later. Michelle was playing with her, and intentionally put something in it to annoy her, just to pull her leg. Chen Rui was pissed off, took the thing out, and pulled the trolley away violently. The trolley hit the side of the bed, and one stick connecting two wheels was broken. I super-glued it back. Chen Rui can be quite short tempered at times.

25 Dec 2009. Christmas Day. We went to Mid Valley Megamall. The children enjoyed seeing so many Christmas trees and other Christmas decorations.

Mid Valley's decorations are quite classy.

I think they are using a Harry Potter-like theme - candles hanging in the air, old castle, and flags that look like sports houses flags.

The children liked this big golden acorn.

We passed by a dancing fountain and stopped to watch for a long time. It was good to be relaxing - stopping to smell the roses.

Eventually we sat down to watch.

Shee Yun is sweet.

The fountain.

Chen Rui having cheese. We were even having a picnic now.

My Christmas present for myself. Crocs.

The whole family is wearing Crocs, pirated and otherwise.

When the wind blew some water drops fell on us.

Chen Rui being cheeky again, I think.