Toto and 4D

My little brother has been born on 23 July, way ahead of his actual due date of August 9. Since his arrival back home, Mummy and Papa have been relieved that I have not shown much signs of jealousy, but instead rush to pat/sayang him whenever he cries. I find him very cute, and also try to kiss him whenever he is being carried near me :) I also beg to carry him but so far have only been allowed to do so while sitting on the sofa.

But I do find it hard to cope with the less attention from Mummy since Mummy is always feeding 4D (yes that's his nickname.. Papa also calls him DF - short for Ding4 Fa1 - as for why, pls direct all questions to my Papa). On a few occasions, Mummy heard me muttering to myself "Nobody play/read with Yi3 Yi3" and saying in Chinese "Nainai/Mummy bu4 yao4 yi3 yi3 le4". Those sentences worked wonders cos for some reason, Mummy immediately flew over to my side and left didi to nai nai to take care :)

No pictures to show of me and didi now cos the web is down.. will ask mummy to put up pics shortly!

Mummy speaks..The things kids say!

Toto is getting more and more chatty by the day.. loads of never ending questions, some of which are really quite hard to answer! And it's now v fun to converse with her, cos I get more than just yes/no/two/three word answers!

One memorable conversation which took place abt 1 mth ago, while i was reading a chinese book which she has read many times with my in laws, but which I have never read -

Me : Is this dog ABC (name in chinese)?
Toto : Nooooo *wags index finger at me* Mummy, not correct! That is XYZ (another chinese name). Yi2 Yi2 laugh at Mummy.. HA HA HA *proceeds to laugh at me with her mouth wide open*

The other conversation happened just today -

Toto : Mummy, itchy. poke. poke. *points at her calf where there is a fresh mozzie bite*
Me : Oh dear, the mosquito bit you again?
Toto : Naughty mosquito! Mosquito dont bite yi2 yi2. Go away! Dont come back!

She has also progressed to the rather exasperating stage where she builds qns on top of answers I have given.. eg...

Toto : Where are we going?
Me : Going to gong gong ma ma's house
Toto : Where is Gong gong ma ma's house?
Me : That's at Lorong H** S**
Toto : Where is Lorong H** S**?
Me : *getting exasperated* Far away..
Toto : Where is far away?
Me : It's a place in Singapore.. far from where we stay.
Toto : Where is Singapore?
Me : *losing it slightly* In South East Asia
Toto : Where is South East Asia?
Me : Oh look look.. there's a green man/red man there!! *using distraction tactic in a desperate but successful attempt to end the nonstop questioning..*

I wonder what else will come... :)

I am 2 years old - celebrations part II

Today Mummy and papa brought me out to celebrate my actual birthday.

First we went to Macdonalds for my favorite hotcakes breakfast! Mummy was quite proud of me as I didnt throw any tantrums when told that I cant eat hashbrowns and iced milo.. and cld even reply that I was sick and having cough when asked why mummy didnt let me eat those.

Next stop, we went to Swensens at Tampines mall for the 1 for 1 lunch! I loved the chicken with mixed peppers and kept asking for more. was really dismayed when papa finished everything and I had no more!Mummy was also very gek, as she did not bring along my birth cert to prove that it was my birthday today! hence, I did not get to eat my free bday ice cream :(

After that, we went to Simei Eastpoint mall to shop shop.. Papa meant to bring me there as he remembered that there was a large pet shop there.. but too bad, think cos of poor economy, the shop has downsized! I still got to see many cute puppies, hamsters, and fishes so it was still a worthwhile trip!

Last stop of the day was the Botanic Gardens. It is one of my favorite places to go as I can feed fishes as well as pigeons there! Really had a whale of a time! Mummy was a lot more terrified of the pigeons than I was as they were not afraid of pp and kept coming very very close! I even got pecked a few times by the pigeons as I was very slow in putting down the fish food (yes, the pigeons love to eat the fish food!) heheheh :)

Got to cut cake a 2nd time! This time it was a Barney cake from Prima Deli!

See? I cld barely contain my glee at seeing the cake and kept trying to touch the Barney characters! Mummy had to fend me off while trying to put the candles on the cake.

I am 2 years old - celebration part I

I got to cut cake twice to celebrate my birthday! :) Once at my Ma2 Ma4's house, another at our own home. Loved my presents too! Got a Little Tikes slide from Ma2 Ma4, a stuffed Barney toy from jiu jiu, red packets from Gong gong, Ma Ma and Jiu Jiu, a kitchen set and playfood from Papa and Mummy, a set of walking ducks from Nai nai and ye ye as well as a barking toy dog from Gugu and gu zhang, who couldnt come for the bday celebrations as Gugu has just delivered my little cousin Kai Qi on 12 June!! TOo bad I cant visit her yet, as I am still recovering from a bad cough :(

At Gonggong Mama's house :

Mummy wants to upload pics from tonight's celebration but Papa has not transferred in the pics from the video cam! hurry up Papa!!

Learning to read

My recent craze is reading the Peter and Jane books that were passed down from Papa and Mummy's time.

Here I am struggling to read the book on my own :

Milestones at 23 mths

Realised that I've been really bad at updating toto's blog after zy nagged at me the other day - and was horrified to find that my last update was in Feb!! gosh.. but i've got a real gd excuse :P No 2's on the way and due on Aug 9 2009, and we found out abt 1.5 mths ago that it's a boy :) Am certainly not sexist, but it's good to have 1 of each gender isnt it? Only concern is that the 2 kids wont be too close cos 1's a boy and the other's a girl...

Since this blog is all abt capturing Toto's milestones ( yeap.. so that we can have something to compare 4D's development to.. and STRESS HIM MORE hyak hyak hyak... ), thought it's high time to note down the things toto can and cant do at the grand age of 23 mths..

She:
- cant feed herself very well still.. might be related to not liking to eat her main meals too much. The only meal she can feed well is Macdonald's hotcakes!! THAT she finishes quickly and without any mess!
- is not toilet trained (wrt peeing)... is pretty much toilet trained since abt 20 mths old for poo bzness (usually poos in toilet bowl on kiddy seat abt 95% of the time, unless she's got a bout of diarrhea). In fact she doesnt even wanna go in her diaper anymore, and wld rather hold it in until she gets home when we go out!

She can :
- speak in sentences of up to 8-9 words in Mandarin (thanks to my in laws)
- speak in 3-4 word sentences in English (hangs head in guilt.. mummy is the only one speaking English to her in the house, and hence responsible for her slower development in English)
- knows the names of most animals in English and chinese
- Can count from 1-20 in English, 1-30 in Mandarin, 1-20 in teochew, 1-10 in Jap
- knows the value of numbers and can count meaningfully up till abt 10... anymore than that and she cant keep track of the items she's already counted
- knows her A-Zs very well and can give me eg of words starting with each letter, eg A for apple, B for ball/balloon, C for cat, P for Peter/Pat *characters in her current fav series of Ladybird books Peter and Jane, etc...
- able to read a few words in her favorite books.. eg include Peter, jane, and, is, this, tree, toy, shop, book, ball, sweets, dog, Pat, water (recent achievement at abt 22.5mths)
- able to read MANY chinese words (dont even know how to list.... and one of the words she can read, I cld not even read myself.. of cos that's cos my chinese is LOUSY)
- has learnt to talk nonsense and disturb pp.. more egs later...
- asks questions - why, what is this, what are you doing (this qn usually targetted at her fav toy dog)
- mimics whatever we say
- gives nicknames to weird inanimate objects like pens/markers
- has average writing abilities - can trace dot to dot pictures, trace numbers on her own - only 1 and 2, draw circles and straight lines (recent achievement at 23 mths)
- runs and jumps on her own now.
- able to climb up stairs but needs to hold on to a railing
- knows her colours since abt 18 mths.. eg red,blue, yellow, green, purple, pink, orange, brown, black, white
-shows affection very easily - climbs on my lap for hugs and kisses me very frequently for no reason, and without being asked to (heart melt.. hehe.. wonder if boys will be like this too?)

She is also getting very very cheeky and mischievous recently.. has taken to targetting my FIL and says naughty things like "bu yao ye ye zuo zhe li", " bu yao yeye qian1 shou3", and when asked to kiss my FIl, she wld go ard and kiss everyone except him!! so odd, cos both my ILs love her lots and dote on her like crazy!

When asked questions or to do something, Toto has started to respond by making cheeky faces at me, or jabbering at me in baby talk while grinning away all the time (intentionally, as she is able to answer questions with short replies for quite a while now). when she mispronounces something and i correct her, she wld keep on repeating the word the original wrong way.. and its worse when I look exasperated/amused! argh... that's the terrible twos for you!

Toto has also started to show some signs of jealousy towards her little bro.. although she does kiss my tummy of her own accord now and then, she seems to know that this little one will take time and attn away from her!

Recent eg of conversations between zy and her :

ZY : yao4 bu4 yao4 ba3 toto mai4 diao4 ah1?
toto : bu2 yao4
ZY : yao4 bu4 yao4 ba3 Biao3 mei4 (my sil is expecting a little girl) mai4 diao4 ah1?
toto : bu2 yao4. Ba3 didi mai4 diao4 (sell didi) ...

Eg of conversation between myself and toto yesterday :

Toto : (hugging a care bear stuff toy) Mummy hug care bear (then offers the toy to me to hug)
Me : Mummy hug care bear, and hug toto too ok?
Toto : Mummy hug toto, mummy hug care bear, mummy dont hug didi (??? where did that come from???)

Really hope its just a phase... * keep fingers crossed*

A for apple, B for ball... V for....

Papa is always busy at work.. but on weekends, he has a no work policy so that he can spend time... sleeping at home, and playing with me occasionally. Mummy sometimes scolds Papa for teaching me nonsense, but I find him quite entertaining actually leh...

Here is a recent eg of what Papa added as "enrichment lessons" when Mummy was telling me the ABCs... do you think he should continue teaching me somemore?

Mummy speaks : Toto pls dont grow up so fast...

The past week, Toto has amazed me with her social and verbal developments. Verbally, she is officially a parrot now, and surprises me everyday with new phrases and songs that I never expected her to pick up. To date, she can sing (tunelessly though) a few songs - eg Ba ba black sheep, twinkle twinkle little star (first 2 lines), 2 little tigers (in chinese - liang2 zhi1 lao2 hu3), the barney i-love-u song, and some chinese children songs (wa2 wa2 guo3 and wo shi yi ge da ping guo). Unfortunately, she is super camera shy and zips up the mo i whip out the camcorder! argh...

Thanks to Zy's parents, her chinese is super polished now too, and she can rattle off the San1 Zi4 Jing1 pretty much effortlessly.. the amount she knows far surpasses what I know (though that's no surprise given that my chinese is SHITE). Thankfully, her english isnt too backward either, and she is now speaking in short 4-5 word sentences for both english and chinese.

Recently, she has also started to react emotionally to certain stories which she has known for ages. Eg, when Zy's mum read her Hansel and Gretel 2 days ago, she actually cried at the part where Hansel and Gretel's woodcutter dad left them behind in the woods, and then started wailing for papa and mummy.. face was flooded with tears apparently.

On a separate occasion, Zy's father was telling her the story of a fillial daughter who helped to cover her elderly mother with a blanket when she fell asleep in a chair. He pointed to the picture of the white haired lady, and said that mummy will become like this one day and that she has to take care of mummy when that day comes. To his shock, when he next looked at her, tears were streaming down her face and she just kept pointing at the elderly lady and going mummy... mummy... when i came home that day, she raced to the door and flung herself to me for the rest of the day until I reassured her that my hair was black, not white like the elderly mother in the picture book and that mummy is not going to be old any time soon. only then did she stop crying every time she looked at that picture. Not sure why she reacted so strongly to this picture book as we have not explained what the consequences of being old are (ie death, etc).

She is also growing up to be very affectionate, and will turn to me very often without prompting, plant a big wet kiss on my cheek or hug me and say I LOVE YOU MUMMY. aww... at night before she sleeps, she also makes it a point to kiss my tummy (yes, to those who do not know yet, #2 is along the way now and due in Aug) and say Goodnight baby, i love you..

My little girl is growing up way too fast...

**Afternote - I am so afraid I will forget all these little stories as more things happen.. and the blog is a wonderful way for me to jot down my thoughts and feelings at each point of her life. Wish there is a way to freeze each moment and video everything down.

CNY 2009

Not much pics for CNY 2009.. all the following pics are courtesy of Ma2 Ma4/Jiu4 Jiu4 and Third grandaunt :)

Posing with the cute little dog at Great Grand Aunt's place.. to mummy's horror, i showed no sign of fear and was dying to pat and hug the doggy! And yes, the pic above and below were taken when mummy was not around to guard me.

papa witnessed me patting this gentle old fellow's head.. unfortunately I wasnt exactly very gentle. Apparently, it was more like thumping that i did :P thankfully my hand still remains firmly attached to my arm now. Must learn to be as forgiving and patient as brown doggy here.

A very toot picture of me trying to pose on the stairs at gong gong's house..

family picture at Great grandpa's house!

Another family pic with my dearest Gonggong, mama and jiu jiu.. dont we look happy? now, if only i was looking at the camera...

Picture with grand aunt ''lao2 Ee1" (ma2 ma4's sis). I have decided to do a weird pose again..

Cheese!!! with lao ee and ma2 ma4 :)

At the end of the 2 days.. mummy realised to her horror that we actually forgot to take a nice picture of just me, mummy and papa! we dont even have one with ye ye and nai nai :( papa has promised that we will take a family pic, this time with 4D in it next year!! :)

Gareth's full month party

Today we attended Mummy's cousin's baby boy Gareth's full month party at Boon Lay. Prior to today, mummy and ma2 ma4 were both so worried I would freak and cry buckets again like I always did whenever I met mummy's extended family. So this time, I was psychoed for an entire week, that I was not to cry, and to say hello and smile to everybody. I was even showed pictures of the extended family.. that's how desperate mummy and ma2 ma4 were :)

Thankfully, with all the training, i didnt disgrace mummy after all! After the initial clinging onto mummy, I was soon too busy looking at adorable baby Gareth to be scared of Grandaunts/Granduncles. Towards the end of the lunch, I was virtually best friends with Biao Ee (Mummy's cousin Audrey) cos she was helping feed (bribe) me with raisins while mummy was eating her lunch.

After the full month, I also got to play at the playground! But for a mere 5 minutes only *pout* Gong gong is paranoid I will pick up weird germs.... shhh... he doesnt know I spend half an hour at the playground EVERY morning. hehe :)

Ang Pao pls??

Mummy has been trying to teach me to say Happy new yr complete with hand actions since last Sunday but I have refused to cooperate and just ignores her everytime she tries to teach me. Last evening however, when she came back from work, I decided to surprise mummy by saying Happy New Year and did the gong xi gong xi action. Mummy was so delighted!

I gave her a bigger surprise later when I chimed Happy New Year at her again, and followed up with "ang pau??" soon after I said Happy new Year! Ye ye, nai nai and mummy were hysterical.. and thot I must have picked up the ang pau phrase cos mummy has been telling me that I have to wish pp happy new year before I can get the ang pau!

I have also been pretty much a parrot recently, mimicking whatever I hear pp saying around me. 2 days ago, mummy was chatting with gu1 gu1 when she let slip an Oh my god.. before she knew it, I was chiming ohmigodohmigod.. mummy immediately had a knee jerk reaction where she said Oh S**T... luckily i was too busy chanting ohmigod and didnt catch on to the other phrase.. phew for mummy hehe.. Mummy vows to watch her language even more closely in front of me now. :P

I also went for my first LNT class (proper one, not trial) yesterday. Yeye and nai nai brought me and reported that I enjoyed the class and paid attention about 90% of the time and didnt run around! I also surprised sinseh at the end of the class when i chimed sayonara in response to her own goodbyes! However, I stubbornly refused to repeat performance more than once at home to Mummy's chagrin!