Baabooos

Kim used to fret when her previous Chinese teacher blew bubbles in class. I found this very odd since I thought all kids loved bubbles?

So, to "cure" her of this (mom's way to "normalise" to kid. oops. controlling.....), I wanted to get hold of a bottle of bubble solution and blow them with her so that she would be less frightened of them. I wanted to buy a bottle but Peen was very insistent that he would be able to make the solution and didn't want to pay money for a bottle.

Well, he did make a solution and it did work. Yes, it did......for a while (one session actually) before it became this thick solution that just made the floors slippery with no bubbles to chase after. So that wasn't very fun.

Peen wanted to make another solution and we did research on the internet and found out we had to use glycerin. But we checked out so many places (ok, maybe just 3-4) and could not find it. In the end, I got tired of waiting and searching so I just bought a bottle. Only $0.70! Should have done so earlier.

Somehow, she now likes them and would endlessly be telling us about baabbooo when she sees anything that resembles them! She has been cured!

Here is Kim holding onto her own bottle. Very gleeful too.



Oooohh. Happily, she chases them. Occasionally, she would walk into them and try to head butt them instead.



Look how much concentration goes into bubbles chasing!



Oh, and then the little heartland girl would do her bit to keep Sengkang clean. She would weed the playground and pick up dried leaves and pass them to papa.



Mommy would become the merry go round. Kim would hold onto my hand and run circles around me, squealing away. :)

Peekaboo! Her favourite game.

A wonderful family day

We haven't had much family time lately. Well, compared to the previous year I mean. On the work front, Peen has been getting busier so he's had less opportunity to hang out with Kim and myself. He took the day off today. He will only be getting busier from now on.

We took Kim to her music and movement class.

One of her favourite songs at the moment:

"Who's that peeping at the window?
Who's that knocking on the drum?"



Today, the drum was replaced by the bell and here she is knocking on the bell.....gingerly. And she passes the drum stick on to Joel.



And waves at papa.



Then we met Earl for brunch. He had just returned from a mission trip with Pastor to India. He was telling us all about his trip. Kimmy just ate fries. Healthy food, not!

On the way home, Kim dropped off to sleep in the car and we detoured to the Robinsons sale at the Expo. And here is what we bought the sleeping girl. I've been eyeing one of these for her for a long while. Finally, we got it.



Can you believe that she didn't want to sit in it in the beginning? I wanted to put her in just to check out how the different models manouvered but she refused to be put into one! After we finally got her in, she refused to get out of it! Haha.

This evening, we took a walk to the nearby Community Centre (also known as sports hub) where there was a new diner. It's a nice casual western food place. I had really nice lamb chops while Peen had a pesto pasta for dinner. Kim had eaten hers at home but she had a second dinner eating two of the three chicken wings and some of Peen's pasta.

Then we took a nice walk home. I think the jogger has now been replaced with this new toy. Oh...did I mention that there are some buttons for Kim to push but instead of a horn or bell, it plays music? And get this, it plays Christmas carols! I guess Christmas has come early. I suspect the batteries are going to go missing mysteriously soon.

A stroll in the park

We decided to skip church today to spend some time with my parents, doing stuff that my mum would like to do.

First, we took my mum to Punggol park. It had rained hard in the early morning and that made it really nice and cool, and most importantly, it was not humid.

Kim didn't take her breakfast this morning. She spat out everything that went into her mouth. Sigh. Feeding has been rather difficult of late. So I gave her a cheese stick during the walk. She almost finished the entire stick which is good I suppose. A mynah benefitted from the remaining bits. Grandma also chatted with her while we waited by the pond for her. When she was done with her "breakfast", we allowed her down from her stroller to run around.



There was a bunch of kids learning kungfu. They were all boys except one. It was interesting to watch them attempt the steps while their "master" demonstrated them. Kim was also watching closely. I think it's cos it was kids doing it.



She chased after the birds, walked tirelessly up and down the flights of steps and ran down the slope again and again. I wonder how the little body manages to store up all the energy. Thankfully, there were three of us to take turns. Haha.







Here is a video of Kim running down the slope with her dad.



Kim has also "graduated" from walking up and down stairs with us holding both her hands to now with just one hand.



After the walk, we went to meet my dad and brother (and family) for brunch. We had dim sum. Thankfully (and strangely), we didn't overorder nor overeat this time round. As usual, Kim didn't eat much. BUT she did try to eat a macaroni off the plate like Chyna.



Then she just played with her food and subsequently fed it all to the floor. But she did get a few pressies from cousin Jon - a sticker, a bookmark and an orange balloon.

Joel and Kim

Hmmm...I'm not sure if this would be a good idea for a post. But it's so cute so I had to share it.

The Chengs and us, we have talked about this before and several times between Peen and myself. It almost never happens that childhood friends end up together. The Chengs and us were saying that maybe we should "cease" all contact with each other and then arrange to hook up "accidentally" again in 20 years' time. Hilarious.

But for now, they will still continue with their weekly playgroups I guess.

Here are some recent photos from our last dinner date at Carls Junior.

Joel was trying very hard to get Kim's attention. He motioned for her to sit next to him but to no avail.



Then it was hugs...



and kisses.



Awwww...

Kimberley is 15 months

Before Kim, I used to wonder why parents would reveal their kids' age in terms of months. Why can't they just say, "1 yr 3 mths" instead of "15 mths"? But no, leave us to do the Math. Well, I am almost ashamed to say that I now leave the Math to others where Kim is concerned. Hmmm. I wonder why that is the case? Is it cos parents just speak in such terms? Like, oh, my 17 mth kid can now jump around? Or that my 6 mth old can now sing Baa baa Black Sheep? Is it just easier for making comparisons?

Well, Kimberley has turned 1 year and 3 mths old (15 mths).

Now that she is older (well....slightly), we can actually have short conversations....almost. Because of her sign language skills and her attempts at speech proper, we now understand some of what she says.

Like she only just signed "rain" yesterday and she was really thrilled that she did it and we understood her. Also cos it's been pouring everyday so she has had the opportunity to see and feel rain for herself. When we associate the sign with the actual thing, it's like something clicks in her and a huge smile breaks forth.

She can now sign quite a fair bit, tho' not always accurate:

Dog, cat, flower, water, book, read, eat, open, baby, fish, bird, milk, hat, boy, girl, ball, shoes, star, cry, bike, hurt, please, thank you, play, apple, banana, hot, cold, tree, dirty, grass, cheese, car, where?, sleep, cookie.

As for speech, she is able to say:

Papa,
mama (grandma and mum),
O ho (ah foh - grandma in Hainanese),
baby (real baby, but could be toddler or infant, with no distinction to gender),
baby (blueberry),
baby (belly button),
baby (for Dopey, our other dog),
nyna (for Chyna our dog),
babbit (for her Rabbit toy),
bah (for bear),
oose (for shoes),
booooo (for book),
eeese (for please),
chis (for cheese),
is (for finish),
ere (for where?),
seep (for sleep),
tone (for stone),
wow-wer (for flower),
ar ar (for anything that resembles a four legged animal, dogs mainly),
bir (for bird)
irdi (for dirty)
aaahhhh (for wow)
ikit (for biscuit)
kee (for cookie)
nana (for banana)
per (apple)

The list above is really for our own reference. Peen would ask me from time to time when she was able to sign or say something. And being really bad with dates, I never remember.

Since she got more mobile, she has been experimenting with her motor skills. She would stomp her feet, turn around really quickly and pose strangely. She loves leaning forward with her arms behind her - just like a swimmer ready to take the plunge. And she would smile most cheekily afterwards, very pleased with herself.




Peen would sometimes take her on short walks just along our corridor after dinner before her bath. She would not venture far from our home most of the time. But she loves her shoes and when we are getting ready to go out, she would remind us not to forget her shoes. It's also amusing that when we are about the leave my parents' place, she would pick up her shoes and want to get into position (seated on me) to put them on.



We have been pleasantly surprised lately that she seems to enjoy the company of and interacting with other kids - especially those who are slightly older. Just like today, she really enjoyed hanging out with the bigger girls in the sanctuary after church. She would hold their hands and walk with them. She also amuses them to no end with her funny gestures and noises that she makes.



Kim has recently started (been allowed) to feed herself with a spoon....well, whole items only. I would feed her the main meal and she gets to feed herself cut fruit or cereal after. She has had loads of practise with feeding herself as she plays with her masak masak set. And she copies us and pretends to eat her food while making the noise "yum yum". She really makes us laugh.

A pinafore inspired by a Japanese (also reads "really expensive") design

Sometime back (Dec 2008) when we had a chance to go window shopping, I saw this new piece of clothing and knew I had to make something similar. So I quickly snapped a photo of it as reference when the salesgirl wasn't looking.



Then I went to Spotlight and bought some matching fabric. After slightly more than three hours of sewing, redoing the top section and frantic attempts to unpick (due to dreadful thread) and redo the hem, here is the product.



In my mind, I had intended this piece to be a dress but as you can see, the straps are too long and would not be adequate in ensuring my daughter's modesty so it has become a pinafore dress instead. On hindsight, the piece that I saw in the shop was probably also a pinafore dress.

I am thinking of a matching hat but oh, these fabrics are really difficult to work with! But I have bought new thread so hopefully it would be better.