Mid Autumn Festival!

Little one has her hands full this year!!!

Da Yi (Mum's elder sister) and Ah Ma decided to buy her a lantern each... So she has two that has lights and music. Da Yi's lantern is a lion dance theme while Ah Ma's is a cute dolphin doing stuns with the hula hoop. We came back home late and found many kids and their parents downstairs!!! All of them were armed with lanterns, sparkles and candles...

The whole area was so smoky but little girl was immensely attracted to the buzz. Papa rushed up to collect her two lanterns while she walked amongst the kids who were burning every candle they have in the box (and placing them on the floor of the MPH.

A nice father let Nic hold the traditional gold fish lantern. The little girl did something unexpected though, she placed the lantern on the floor, pointed to the inside of the lantern and made some noise. The nice father then asked her "U want a new candle?". Trust the little one to "complain" as the candle was burning out. So the sweet nieghbour changed the candle for her and after holding the lantern for less than 5 minutes, she did not want the lantern anymore!

Papa finally arrived with the lanterns and the little one stunned everyone with her funny antics by "walking" the lanterns.

Round 1: Happy to be with the rest of the kids in the neighbourhood

Round 2: Sparkles with my very own neighbour!!! This is my favourite photo and the only one Papa captured of the little one playing with the beautiful sparkles... :)

祝姨姨生日快乐!!!

Happy Birthday to my dearest sister (or my little girl's 姨姨)!

My little sister's birthday was celebrated last weekend at Marriot Cafe. The main dishes at the dinner spread were not exactly wonderful but the fresh section was pretty awesome! There was fresh oyster, Sashimi and drunken prawns! The little girl had already had her dinner before we reached, yet she enjoyed her feast of grilled salmon, sushi rice and bread. Which means mama and papa get to enjoy the buffet in peace. 

Here are some photos of her self feeding... She could actually handle her drinking from the open cup, without spilling a single drop!

Mama with the little girl (who is eating ice-cream waffles...)

Pretty Yiyi with little gal whose eyes are transfixed on the lighted candle!!!

All eyes on the candle!!! 

A wish is made and the cake is cut! 

Ah Gong is feeling on top of the world with the little one in his arms! :)

Yippee! Mac'donalds for Sunday breakfast!

I would describe myself as a strict parent when it comes to diet. The little one has had her share of adult table food but I have been careful to make sure she does not develop a sweet tooth or liking for junk food. Occasionally when hubby and I have Mac'Donalds for dinner, she gets a pinch of the burger or unsalted fries.

Sunday came and we decided that we will head for Mac'Donalds! And she gets to eat the Mac'Donalds pancake for the very first time! I use the word "eat" because she had about 1/2 of the pancake with maple syrup all to herself on her very own plate!

The word that describes her is "Filled with glee" or ecstatic!

All smiles after feeding herself with the yummy pancake! Will be back for more pancakes during the weekend! : )

 

Before I go to sleep...

The little one has a routine that is more or less the same everyday... In recent days, there are some funny things that she will do that will make me want to LOL (laugh out loud).

I decided to post because it happened once every few days but it's largely triggered by the fact that even hubby noticed it. Yesterday, an irritated hubby came to me and said "She's not sleeping and she's talking on the phone non stop!". 

Just tonight, she repeated her own routine:

Little gal: "Bi Si Si"  (very loud, I do not know what this means!)
(pause)
Little gal: "Uh!" (very loud)
(pause)
Little gal: "Uh!" (very loud)
(pause)
Little gal: "Hao!" (in Mandarin, which means "Alright")
(short pause)
Little gal: "Hao!" (in Mandarin, which means "Alright")
(short pause)
Little gal: "Hao!" (in Mandarin, which means "Alright")
(end)

And this little phone call will be made while she is lying on her bed facing the ceiling. Using her best friend - the pacifier as the cellular phone, which she holds to her ear. She needs to make this very important call before she can go to sleep and I'll be suppressing my giggles at the side.

Cute isn't it?

I can string words!!!

Oh dear, I haven't been blogging for so long and many people might have thought that I have given up on updating! ;p But seriously it's because I have been too busy...

The little one has started full day childcare from 10 August 2010. On the first day, she explored the school on her own and only cried a little after she realised I have walked off. On the second day, she began to be a little clingy but the teacher took over and she was fine. On the third day, she did cry a little when I left, but the teachers all said she did not cry after lessons started. All in, it seems like the little one is adapting well. Of course, she tends to be clingy when we walk into the centre, but after I tell her "Mama will be back to pick you up later ok?", she will just sit there and let the teacher take her temperature. Then off she goes into the centre! : ) 

The only feedback I got is that she clings on to some of her playgroup teacher and refuse to let them out of sight. Other than that, her chewing skills are pretty bad and she takes a long time to eat rice... More than a year of eating porridge must have created the lazy eating habits. But better late than never, I have been feeding her rice for dinner... And I do see some improvements! :)

In the recent 2 weeks, we have noticed that she will sing to herself and after she finishes, she will clap her hands. The songs include an array of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Alphabet Song", "Baba Black Sheep" and some chinese nursery rhymes. Though her singing may skip certain phrases, but hey it is still a song! Other than that, we have been teaching her to string words together... E.g. Wo yao yi ge ( "I want one"). So recently, she could say "Nai Nai yao tu tu". Over the last weekend, she spouted a "Papa say Qi Lai" ("Papa say wake up).

Her vocabulary has also grown tremendously. At least now she can identify things like "car", "flowers", "dog", "cat" and the different parts of her face (e.g. eyes, noses, mouth, ears, hair, etc). When you ask her where is her nose, she will point to hers and point to yours too... To me this is a tremendous improvement from 1-2 months back.

Ending off, every child progress differently... For my little one, I am just glad that she is learning well... And as most parents will agree that it is a miracle before your eyes when they start spouting words and stringing them into sentences...

Toothy Grins!

This is just a little entry for memory sake. Since two weeks back, the little one has been battling with sore gums! Despite the emergence of the pre-molars and molars, she is not salivating as much as she did when she was younger. However, when the sore-ness gets to her, she becomes grumpy or whiny...

And for some reason, she does look different when she smiles with all the pearly whites... : ) * 

Here are the items I use to brush the little girl's teeth every night...

First Teeth Toothpaste
It is important that the toothpaste used on babies must be fluoride-free. Because babies do not know how to spit out the toothpaste, you have to check to ensure there is no fluoride.  When she was slightly younger and did not have so much tooth, I used the finger toothbrush that was sold with this toothpaste. But with all her teeth, she bites so i changed to toothbrush! : )

Pigeon Infant Toothbrush 
We bought the set when she was younger but we did not really use all of them. The one on the extreme right is the one that I am using now...

King of Fruits, Durians!!!

Mama and Papa went to Malaysia for a Durian feast! Jeff (or Uncle Jeff as my girl will call him) bought some Durians to bring back to Singapore and we decided to share it with the little one... :)

She did not eat much but at least she tried. According to my mother in law, my hubby did not like durians when he was young. In my memory, I did not eat durians until I was in Primary School. So maybe it's in her genes that she will not be eating much durians until when she is older. : )

Happy Birthday, Papa!

My (mama's) parents threw a little birthday celebration for hubby (papa) at a Japanese restaurant. As my little sister booked early, we manage to get the VIP room. We manage to reach early so gave the little one her dinner first...
 

 PS: I forgot her bib so improvised one using the restaurant's paper napkins... ;p

Lucky for us, the little one sat in her little chair between me and my sister throughout the dinner. She enjoyed our dinner too since there was nice chawanmushi (Jap steamed eggs) and shabu shabu pork and beef. She also stuffed herself full with the sweet US cherries that I bought from the market in the morning. :)

 The little girl with papa and the cake...

The little one was ALL SMILES when everyone in the room started to sing the birthday song. Her expression made everyone laugh because she might be thinking that it's her birthday and not papa's! 

Happy Birthday, papa! 

Thanks to my younger sis. I totally love this picture. Eventually papa blew out the candle because the little one will most probably contaminate the cake with her saliva when she blows. =P