redcrayon

Dustbin

Pup threw a tantrum when the Daddy went to pick him up from school today. For some reason, he said Yu laoshi 'lied' about him. When the Daddy tried to correct him, he flew into a rage and hit the Daddy.

I only got the story when we were home at the dinner table.

Me: Lele, why did u say that Yu Laoshi was lying?
Pup: Because she said I wanted to play when I didn't!
Me: Why would she lie about that?
Pup: ... ...
Me: Is it because when she spoke to you, you didn't respond so she thought you wanted to continue playing?
Pup: ... ...
Me: And you hit Daddy?
Pup nodded silently.
Me (fuming at this point): How can you do that? And how can you say Yu laoshi lied? Yu laoshi had been your teacher for three years and she loves you so much. Do you know she'll be very disappointed if she knew you said that about her?
Pup: ... ...
Me: If you continue to behave this way, you will end up having no friends. You will be like Oscar the Grouch who nobody likes and stays in a dustbin alone.
Pup: ... ....
Me: If you don't agree with what Yu Laoshi said then you should ask her why she said that right? You should also ask yourself why she said that in the first place...
LQ: Mummy, why why why...?
Me: I'm upset because gor gor's behaving badly.
LQ (worried look on her face): Why why? Why gor gor stay in dustbin?
Me (suppressing a laugh): You don't want gor gor to stay in a dustbin?
LQ: Yes. Why gor gor stay in dustbin...alone?
Me: You don't want gor gor to be alone? So where should gor gor stay?
LQ (pauses to think): Erm...stay with mummy, daddy and me...
Me: (aawwww...)

Say Cheese

Pup and LQ had their  mugshots taken on the 6th day of CNY...

We had to do it for Pup because we'll need to renew his passport soon (yes, it's been 5 years!). LQ, who thinks that everything the brother does is cool, demanded to have her photo taken too.

We love the shots. I'm even thinking perhaps we should make this a family ritual for Chinese New Year... :p 

Lookee Us!

Took the kids to Chinatown for a pre-CNY tour today. We decided to ditch the car for public transport because we figured parking would be a nightmare there. Turned out the tour wasn't that great an idea either because the crowd and the heat were simply overwhelming to the point of being unbearable. In the end, we took refuge in the air conditioned confines of Central Mall.

Good thing is, while the kids didn't get to see Chinatown but they enjoyed the MRT rides (service was smooth! Phew!).

And instead of the new year deco at Chinatown, I snapped these at the stations.

Wasn't too long ago when Pup was taking MRT for free...

Family

Da yi and Uncle Jason were back in Singapore to spend the last few weeks of 2011 with the family.

They spoilt the kids silly with gifts, gifts and more gifts!

Gonna be a while before we see them again. Here's keeping fingers crossed that we will be able to make a trip to Wollongong to visit them before Pup starts P1 next year...

Hola Dora!

Da Yi bought a Dora Dress about half a year ago for LQ's 2nd birthday.

We took it out to try on her recently because she's gone into her 'dress' phase.

She would ask to wear dress to school almost every morning. She would also tell me which friend in school 'always wears dress'. She has even begun inspecting her dress 'collection' regularly, picking out the ones that she likes and begging us to let her wear it...and she's especially taken with those with big twirly skirts.

Ok, I reckon this is better than the 'pink' phase (I swear my heart dropped to my feet when she declared pink was her favourite colour...) and I hope she'll never enter a 'princess' phase. We shall see. In the meantime, I must say I quite enjoy watching the little monkey prancing around in her big full dresses... :)

Funny Girl

LQ is almost 2.5 years old...

Given our experience with Pup, I had been curious (and anxious) about how LQ will be when her Terrible 2 strikes.

Well, I think it finally struck, judging from the increased frequency in her 'No!' and screaming matches with her brother. She's also had a few incidents of meltdowns when she would be totally unconsolable. But, thank goodness, so far these have been pretty rare.

She is also asserting her independence and opinions more and gets really upset if we try to help her too much.

But, despite all these, I think I'm glad and relieved that her sunshiny nature and great sense of humor is helping all of us through this potentially tumultuous stage of growing up. It is not uncommon that she breaks into a laughter because of her brother's antics while in the midst of her tantrum. While she can be opinionated about what she wants (and like all kids, she wants it NOW) she is, sometimes, to see sense or bring herself out of a potential meltdown by coming up with an alternative option (mummy, can I eat snacks tomorrow? I can't do this because it's dangerous).

It's increasingly difficult to get her to nap or sleep at night because she really just wants to play. I suspect too that because she's so active and excitable, her mind and body take a much longer time to wind down. So, tucking her in takes 45mins to 1 hr. But once she falls into deep slumber, she sleeps with such wild abandon, it's almost funny to watch.

She's picking up her alphabet and numbers at a leisurely speed and can finally tell green from blue (phew!). She loves all accessories (hair clip, watch, bracelets, sunglasses etc) and, much to my horror, declared pink her favourite color a few weeks ago. She can finally peddle her tricycle on her own and absolutely digs going to the playground.

She fights with Pup but never forgets her gor gor when she gets a treat. She loves mimicking him, which both irks and entertains Pup.

LQ is growing up fast. I think I must stop calling her a baby since she's almost a full fledged girl now. Can't wait to see what our funny girl has in store for us as she rumbles and romps through her growing up years...

United Nations

Out of the blue today, Pup said he knew how to draw the UK flag and he wanted to show it to me.

So he drew the UK flag, and the Japanese flag, and the Indonesian flag and  the Australian flag (which we discovered later to be the New Zealand flag).

Apparently he had been staring at a flag chart in school that's placed near to where he sleeps...Haha. :)