我的宝贝. 子骞和彦安.

My cheerful hunk

2011-08-20T19:12:00.000-07:00

How i love his 100% voltage smiles... :) An An, please stay so cheerful forever..

你天真无邪的笑容溶化了妈妈的幸劳。。。妈妈好爱好爱你宝贝。。。

Zq's photo for Year 1 application

2011-08-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

It's another 2 weeks time for us to pay some hefty application fees for enrolment of Year 1. These are the few International Schools which follow International Baccalarate) that we are interested:

1) Renaissance College
2) ESF Shatin Junior School
3) Japanese International School
4) Hong Lok Yuen School

Tuition fees ranged from 76,000 hkd to 92,000 hkd per annum (aproximately S$12,700 to S$15,300), and not to forget a substantial amount of capital levy and debenture to pay annually. This is enough to kill us and we hope there will be some "good news" from Ben's company soon. *fingers & toes crossed*

Which is better? :)

Or do i need to retake?

Zq promoted to K2!

2011-08-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

Today marks Zq's 1st day of K2 in Zebedee! I would think it's another milestone of him as very soon, the same time next year, he will start his formal education of Year 1 in an International School (if all the arrangement goes on smoothly as planned).

It was a short class today as parents were encouraged to accompany them for the 1st day from 10am-12pm. It's an opportunity for the parents to get to know the curriculum better and to mingle around. From what i observed, Miss Diane is quite a stern yet humorous teacher. She is engaging and the kids seems to like her even though it's their 1st day with her.

To my surprise, Zq was rather clingy and uneasy. Not his usual self at all. This is what i least expected as those are his K1 classmates, so he should be very familiar with them. Anyway, he insisted to hold onto my hands even when they were having their circle time. I had to join in and sat beside the children for the good 20minutes. Luckily, he was back to his chirpy self again when it was freeplay time. He was "glued" to the kitchen/ home area for the longest, as he was the only one there initially and some other kids joined in later on. There are art & craft area, train area, and some jigsaw puzzle area but he only fancied the kitchen. Well, i am sure he inherits my good genes! :)

I hope he settles down in his new class soon. I see that all his classmates are very friendly and eloquent, and i certainly hope some good friendships will blossom between Zq and them. And next, the applications of Year 1 of International Schools start soon! Wish me good lucks!

Pants too tight

2011-08-15T23:19:00.001-07:00

Potty training my little darling is a headache.

Firstly, he does not mind at all when his pee pee or poo poo overflow and can still jolly playing around, jumping, climbing and even sitting on it without a word of complaint. Yes, that's how gross he is.

Secondly, he refuses to let me hold onto his penis when i teach him how to pee into toilet bowl, he gets very annoyed when i lay my hands on it. At such a young age, he displays strong sign of self protection. Maybe i should be happy over this?

And lastly, even XL training pants cant fit him! His thunder thighs are too huge to wear this comfortably.

I am running out of idea.. And meanwhile i will continue to dream of the day that he will just walk to me and tell me "mama, i want to pee / poo". All clean and without mess...

No space in between his thighs at all!

how crampy there!

Zq & his good memory power!

2011-08-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

Zq just surprised me with his super memory again. When he saw a tiny figurine in the box that i stored unwanted stuff, he told me he got this in a restaurant in Beijing, and he was with mama, porpor, gong gong and didi then.. He even told me what we had eaten there, and that restaurant had a staircase and we seated upstair, what's more he told me it was winter then as everyone wore thick jacket! And it all happened in CNY 2010!!!

We noticed he is an observant boy and someone with good memory. He able to relate and recall events that happened quite sometimes ago. For example, he remembered what colour/ design of toilet floor tiles at por por's house, which restaurant at Beijing that we bumped into his friend, where do i store some specific art supplies (which i forgot at times and need his "expertise" to locate for me!)

I can only say he got this good genes from me! Haa haa

X is for Xylophone

2011-08-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

I cut out the colourful strips in different lengths. The boys noticed the difference in lengths and pasted on accordingly. And they had great fun "banging" the xylophone!

And i wonder why it can lead to "And together, we are hi-5!" :p

Happy 46th birthday, Singapore!

2011-08-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

Again, we are celebrating Singapore birthday overseas. The boys, being truely Singaporean, have yet to celebrate her Birthday in their own land. To me, this is a good opportunity to let the boys know more about their nation, hence i planned some art & crafts and prepared to make a big blast with them. Hee.

I introduced Singapore Map to the boys and i know Zq would be fascinated over it as he has a strong liking towards map. He can recognise the 7 continents on the World Map and a handful of their countries. Firstly, we did an outline of Singapore Map by sponging, this is real fun! I love their finished work very much and i intented to laminate/ frame it up.

Singapore colour is PINK, red + white = pink. hee.

He pointed at Simei and told me that Nainai & Gugu stays here :)

Then we did some colouring of Singapore flag. As usual, An An hates colouring and he decided to keep a "clean" map and admire the rowing boat down the harbour. Zq did a great job colouring, he has improved lots!

And what's National Day without firework?! This is a super easy craftwork but with good effects. Their masterpieces.

Zq told me besides the firework that he painted on his paper, there's firework on the colouring plate as well, indeed! :)

Happy Birthday Singapore!

And whenever i heard this song of Kit Chan, it just warm my hearts... HOME...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTkVG6lWvwY&feature=share

甜言蜜语。。。

2011-08-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

我: 子骞，家里没有面包了，爸爸不在家，太晚了妈妈不可以出去买，明天早上我们叫麦当劳外卖好吗?

Zq: 不要，我要吃妈妈做的面包，我最喜欢吃妈妈做的面包。。

哎哟，再累都要做给他。。 ^-^

Wedding anniversary gifts that comes early...

2011-08-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

This 10.10. marks our 6th wedding anniversary (Zq's 4th birthday)! Time doesn't seem to fly especially for our marriage as i had a feeling that i had married my man for about 20 years.. Not sure what makes me feel this but i certainly hope it's a good sign.. Haa!

This year, we bought our anniversary gift rather early as we both in need of something urgently. His lappy bag has spoilt and i am looking for a wallet. And we got our gifts in a shopping trip to Citigate, merely 2.5 hours and we spotted what we wanted! Can i conclude that we are very easy and not fussy at all? :p

Coach wallet for me

Samsonite lappy bag for him

And coincidentally, both cost about the same :)

This is how we row a boat

2011-07-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

Are we creative? :)

Happy 31st Birthday to me!

2011-06-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

Birthdays after the big 30 milestone just seems so pale in comparison, nothing much to dread of and nothing to look forward to, just like another normal day to me. But i certainly feel so blessed as i have a doting supportive husband and 2 darlings.. Being able to spend most of my time with them is my greatest blessing, and i treasure it dearly.

I hope as i grow older, i will be able to understand the meaning of life better, to pursue my passion, to be more tolerant towards my loved ones and to love everyone who love me more.. :)

Dinner at Ajisen Ramen, Sunshine City Plaza

My birthday cake. It's actually a beer mug design as it is intended to sell as a Father's Day cake! Haa

With my baobeis

And the boys added some "flavourings" to the cake

Muacks!

And muacks again. Bliss!!!!

Zq's drawings

2011-06-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

His Mickey Mouse :)

Happy family!

P is for Pasta

2011-06-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

An An is getting better with glue now, he knows he need to apply it on paper and not on table! :p

Our multi shapes pasta!

He was a little bit confused while he glued the pasta, he must be thinking i should by eating it instead. As he kept chanting "ah ma ah ma, mum mum..." non-stop!

Our yummy "P'

Tong xiang in Town!

2011-04-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

We have our 1st visitors from Singapore ~ Shellin & family!
I always feel good over friends and relatives visiting us in foreign lands. It just feel so close and nice :)

We shopped around Harbour City and Tsim Sha Tsui and had dinner together. Snow and Shell were so sweet and well-behaved while my boys were monkeying around, especially An An who was extremely cranky must be due to the lack of noon nap.

A pity that we 2 talkative mummies just could not have enough time to chit chat longer. But it's okay, i am thankful for the skype phone, we can still continue to yak though we cant meet that often. Take care my dear tong xiang! Looking forward to see you all again! :)

no sparks between Snow & Zq.. haa

the lovey dovey :)

New chapter of our life journey - Hong Kong

2011-03-30T00:23:00.000-07:00

It had been more than a month since our arrival on 25 February 2011. We had the most hectic moments in the past month, from homeless to a fully furnished home, from school-less to a happy boy who enjoys his school everyday, from a non-cantonese homemaker to a homemaker who "survived" the "chicken & duck talk" in the markets (though there are vast improvement needed to be a fluent cantonese speaker).

Tiring is for sure but i am feeling very accomplished. We rented this apartment at a very good price and most importantly, i love my new home so much! It's just beside the Tolo Harbour, overlooking the horse-racing course and the Fotan area, a clubhouse with good amenities especially the indoor children playroom that my boys always go crazy there, the accessibilities to ben's office, dry & wet market, library etc.. And we built up our little nest with a minimal budget of less than S$5k, including all the furnitures, electrical appliances, curtains, lightings etc, and all these settled within our 1st 10 days in HK! :)

The boys sleep in their own room and we finally have our bedroom just for hubby and me. Though it so much smaller compared to our previous apartment at Beijing (half of the previous size), but i love the coziness of it, and housechores are more manageable as we don't have a helper now. But we may get a part-time cleaner that comes once or twice a week though, i still need to keep my sanity and spend my quality time with my boys, that's the priority!

It has been so long...

2011-03-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

since my last blog entry... feeling so sorry that i have been neglect this for the longest time. All the festives and relocation stuff has been keeping me busy and tired, always feeling 力不从心 to do all the updates. It had crossed my mind that should i just stop blogging, but i decided not! Though it always not up-to-date but i still enjoy reading all my previous entries. Hence, i will still pen down bits and parcel of my life as much as possible.. :)

Signs of potty readiness?

2011-03-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

An An seems to be ready for potty training as he will normally let me know if there's poo in his diaper. He likes to imitate gor gor to pee into toilet bowl as well. I guess it's about time to take off his diaper and starts my "shit" work again, cleaning up more than 10x a day! But weather is still abit chilly now so i shall put the training on hold till late-april maybe. Oops! another excuse for me.. :p

I told mama i want to poo poo. So she let me do biz in potty. Nothing happened after 10mins and i start to play wi my kkb... tsk tsk.

Theme of the week: Spring

2011-03-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

The lovely spring is approaching so we have SPRING theme for the week! Coincidentally, An An's playgroup is also having the same theme. I was brainstorming for art & crafts ideas and stories related to spring. We went to library to borrow some related books as well. I can see that Zq enjoys this alot while An An enjoys messing around instead.

I hope i can carry on this theme activities faithfully every week/ bi-weekly. I always love to browse through the art pieces that we did together!

Zq's drawing of papa & mama

2011-03-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

I always had difficulties figuring out Zq's drawings. I notice he is not keen in drawing as he seldom draws though i always encourage him to do so. Well, every kid has their own forte and i shall follow his pace :)

Today he told me he wanted to draw "mama", i was delighted of course! He came to me, observed my face hard, and said "妈妈，你的脸是黄色的，我就用黄色的笔画吧“. I was so amused by his remarks and laughed out loud, 我想我应该是个名副其实的黄脸婆吧！And he decided to draw papa as well.

And this is his drawings which i like it so much! As our eyes, nose, mouth & hair are all in the correct places, FINALLY! :)

我最爱你了。。。

2011-01-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

It's one of Zq's favourite quote nowadays. He loves to assure his love towards me on and off without any reason and never use it as a treat for something he wants. It just comes so naturally and heart-warming.

He melts my heart again tonight. I was out for a haircut after he went for his noon nap, and according to Dear and ayi, he was very upset that i was not at home when he woke up, and he kept asking them what time will mama be back. He was reluctant to let Dear shower him and insisted to wait for me, as i bath him everyday without fail. And the happy look on his face when i back from my 3 hours hair-cut & perm was priceless. His eyes were beaming and he just wanted to stay close to me then...

And when i put him to bed at night, he told me:
妈妈，你以后不要一个人去 gaigai 了。你知道我很想你吗？你的头发已经很美了，不用剪了。我要妈妈一直和我在一起 ” How sweet...

Sold!

2011-01-17T17:31:00.000-08:00

It's sad to say goodbye but the day has to come sooner or later...

We have a buyer for our house of 5 years plus and a deposit of 5k has been made. It's a mixed feeling for me, i feel very happy that we are able to get a very good price for that but at the same time, it's just so 舍不得。。。We bought the house on 22 February 2005, all thanks to my diligent and alert hubby, we got this dream house through a walk-in selection.We designed and worked on the concept and details from the very beginning, and all on our own. The contractor then put our dream plan into realization, and we are really excited to get our love nest within a limited budget.

Though many feel that CCK is out of way and rather isolated, but we love its perfect location due to its proximity to both Causeway and Second Link. And we love the balcony, the good layout and the wind... And due to our coming relocation from Beijing to Hong Kong, the HOT property market now, and boys' potential primary school, we believe this will be a good time for us to sell it off and buy our next dreamhouse when the time is right.. Farewell my house, #10-90.. I hope the buyer will take good care of you and they will love you as much as we do...

Mirena

2011-01-07T23:38:00.000-08:00

This is the best contraceptive measure for us and i am actually very relieved to have this inserted though there's a price to pay for, as it doesn't come cheap and it's definitely awkward.
Some information about Mirena:

Mirena (levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system) is an intrauterine contraceptive that delivers small amounts of hormone directly to the uterus. Made of soft, flexible plastic, it is put in place by your healthcare provider during an office visit. Mirena is birth control that lasts as long as you want, for up to 5 years, and is also approved to treat heavy periods in women who choose intrauterine contraception.

What Mirena does:

- Offers an over 99% effective form of contraception, among the most effective forms of birth control
- Prevents pregnancy for as long as you want, for up to 5 years
- Allows you to try to become pregnant as soon as it is removed by your healthcare provider.*
- Treats heavy periods: In a clinical trial of women with heavy periods, the majority treated with Mirena showed a reduction in bleeding of more than 90% at 6 months

A series of blood test and medical checkup for me to go through before the gynae evaluated whether am i suitable for this. I am not sure is this the normal practice over at Singapore as well, but it is sure very tedious here at Beijing. The gynae was 薛大夫 from Amcare Hospital, a female lady who is specialised in this.

The whole surgery (as what they described) took less than 10mins. It was done in a surgery room, and i was panicked when they told me husband was not allowed in the room! I requested but they insisted husband cannot be in as it's a sterilised room and didn't want to risk it. Well, it was not that painful as what i expected, but i felt very awkward when it was inserted. And the other nurse did an ultrasound scan on my tummy while the surgery is conducted, to show me how the thing was being inserted and placed. I was thinking "can you stop all your talking now?! just get it done FAST!"

But i am rather proud of myself as the gynae said my pain tolerance is high as she said there were some other mums opt for anaesthetic. Moreover i never had vaginal birth, so my cervic is tight and she presumed it would be much more painful for me. Well, i am just happy that i get it done! No more baby number 3 for me, at least for these few years. And i am not worried anymore if Dear don't want to use "raincoat"! Hee

香港，我来也!

2011-01-04T22:34:00.000-08:00

After much anticipation and negotiation among several job offers from Singapore, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, we finally decided.

I pray that this will be a wise decision for all of us. We are starting all over again, the house & school-hunting is cumbersome enough. And apparently, finding a good preschool in HK is a very challenging task, it's extremely competitive and good school is always full-house with no vacancy. And not to mentioned there are interviews with the kids to gadge their "level" and "readiness" and whether are they suitable to fit into their curriculum. Well, i am not sure how "serious" can it be but from what i read & heard, it's not a joking business at all.

Wish me GOOD LUCK!

Zq's 1st ice-skating

2011-01-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

He has been bugging me this for long. And some evidences shown he was trying hard to prove that he's big enough for this.

When i measured his height: “妈妈，你看我长很高了，可以去溜冰了”
When i bathed him and washed his feet: “妈妈，你看我的脚，我觉得很大了，可以穿溜冰鞋了”

Hence, we decided to bring him for a trial since he got strong urge for this. We paid 240 yuan for a 45mins trial class, including the rental of skating shoes and all the gears. Quite expensive i would say.

I was surprised by Zq as he was extremely cooperative when the Coach put on his skating shoes and gears, as he would usually whine and complained lots when we put something on his head.

And he is determined and looked very concentrated throughout the 45minutes of lesson. Never did he grumbled, complained and give up. Given that walking and balancing on an ice-skating shoes is such a difficult task, i was amazed he could hang on till the end. I thought he would have given up earlier as he is always impatient. I guess this proves that he really interested in this sport.

After the class, the Coach shared with me that he's still abit young for this sport though his balancing is good. We need to improve on the strength of his legs and maybe a roller blading is a more suitable sports to start with.

My cheeky boy

My 2010

2010-12-31T13:16:00.000-08:00

The year that I turned 30 year old! I am determined I shall appreciate my life more and make it a more meaningful one!

*Beware, it’s a super long-winded post ahead…
Jan 2010: We visited Lama Temple （雍和宫）in Beijing on 1st January, an eye-opener for us as the temple was super crowded with people praying for a good year ahead. A very cold winter and we had so much fun with snow! Shifting to our new house at Beijing, Oceanwide International Apartment 泛海国际。A bigger apartment of 200m2 for us, love it to bits! Bye bye Palm Springs!

Some unhappiness between me and my ayi, Xiao Chen. We decided to change another helper. Madness for me as we just shifted house and Chinese New Year was near. Did I mentioned An An loves to crawl on butt?! This funny boy! :p

Feb 2010: Craziness continued. What made it worse was that Zq was sick and need to hospitalized to be on drip, hubby was outstation and couldn’t rush back on time, I had no choice but to leave An An at home with a temporary ayi for a long 8 hours! And this poor boy decided to be on hunger-strike and ate/ drank nothing at all during this period. Luckily Zq’s teacher (Yuan Yuan laoshi) came and helped out at hospital, with her accompanied Zq, I was rest assured and back home to feed my lil boy. I was so helpess and torn-apart then. I weeped uncontrollably when I hugged my boys to sleep on that fateful night. Nothing matter more than their health. One-man show indeed wore me out, but something I looked forward had realized, my parent’s arrival to celebrate Chinese New Year with us. Hurray!!! We went to 庙会，Forbidden City and some other places. All the makan, shopping and bonding with grandsons, I certainly hope they enjoyed their coldest Chinese New Year here.

March 2010: We were very lucky to have our new ayi, Meng ayi. She was great and my boys adore her. We celebrated Dear’s 33 year old birthday, Zq and me baked some birthday cookies for him and Zq decided to give papa a big present that was his 1st poo in potty! Haa.

April 2010: 1st April is not April Fool for us, it’s Full of Presents day for us! Dear back from his 1 day Hong Kong business trip and got me a Prada wallet, a Vtech lappy for Zq and a walker for An An. We love papa so much! Muacks! Weather turned warmer means more outing for us. 天坛，香山，horse-riding, boating, etc. And Zq’s school celebrated Earth Day by inviting families to plant trees in a park, it was unforgettable experience. It’s a very happy month for me!

May 2010: Celebrated Mother’s Day at Zq’s class with all the little ones and their mummies. It was a lovely celebration; kids sang songs, presented flowers, cards and tea for their mothers. We back to Singapore to celebrate An An’s 1st birthday! Yeah! My little teddy bear turned one! We had a simple lunch & celebration at Grand Plaza Parkroyal, Haixiang restaurant. We had so much fun back home, Dear and me had a wonderful feasting time and the boys had a lovely bonding time with grandparents, relatives and their little friends. We stayed at Festive Hotel (Sentosa) for a night, enjoyed the beach, swimming and riding luge. We definitely want to visit again! And Zq was successfully off-diaper for daytime! Well done boy 

June 2010: I was officially 30 year old. And we made it to the Great Wall! With 2 young kids on tow, it was definitely challenging and tiring, plus the weather was hot and sun was super glaring. But it was all worthy, Zq could still remember he went to 爬长城 till date! Zq had his 1st bicycle and he could cycle well on his 1st attempt (with aided wheels of course :p)

July 2010: An An walked unassisted at 13.5 month old! Clap clap! Zq’s one month summer school holiday started. More places we visited, 前门，日坛，布拉格农场， Blue Zoo etc. It’s a month of Sun & Fun！

Aug 2010: Zq’s summer holiday started and it means more chaotic at home. Never seriously plan activities for him, just lots of art & crafts, jiao-zi making with ayi, picnic & boating at 玉渊潭, 四德公园. We made some Singapore flags on National Day and watched the NDP on CNAI! Count on me Singapore!

Sep 2010: Zq was promoted to Primary Class 1 wef 13th September. We had Mid-Autumn celebration at his school; he was reluctant to perform and was extremely stage-fright. I hope he will improve over time and willing to be under the limelight soon. More outings to parks for kite-flying, and I found my favourite park in Beijing, 地坛公园。

Oct 2010: My heroine’s arrival at Beijing! My mama traveled to Beijing all by herself, her 1st time taking flight alone and we are so proud of her. We spent the happiest 2 weeks here, shopping and sight-seeing. Thanks Dear for taking care the boys while I can shop with ease  We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and Zq’s 3rd birthday on 10th. I baked a fondant cake with theme of Toy Story 3. I was so proud of myself and Zq loved it so much!

Nov 2010: Our 1st family oversea vacation to Jeju (Korea). It was a lovely holiday for all of us. I would never forget the experience, just the 4 of us, exploring a totally different place with unfamiliar language, it was just so exciting. We enjoyed ourselves and the boys had been very cooperative throughout the trip, they sure deserved more holiday! And we want to make it a yearly event for us. Autumn was here, leaves turned yellow and leaving the trees bald. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Zq’s school, and An An had his virgin ride on pony!

Dec 2010: The winter is so cold, and it’s -11 degree when I am penning down my post. An An attended his 1st class at Music Together, he enjoyed it and we noticed he’s really musically inclined! Cooking of 汤圆 to celebrate 冬至。We did lots of art & craft relating Christmas. Zq and me baked some Christmas muffins for his teachers and classmates. It’s a month of celebration! And as the year ending very soon, our stay at Beijing is nearing end as well. Opportunities are coming in from Singapore, Hong Kong and Abu dhabi, but till date, we yet to make our decision for our next move. I hope we will make the best decision for the family. Whatever decision it is, 2011 will be a very challenging year for us because of the move again. I hope I can have all the strength to settle down the boys well in the new environment.

In overall, 2010 is a happy and good year for me, as the boys are growing well and strong, learning things at an amazing rate. Zq is very interested in learning Chinese words now and An An able to speak in short phrases and shows great interest in music. My parents are generally in good health and my sisters are leading their blissful life. And I am a contented mother & wife of my doting hubby. What more can I ask for!

Adious Beijing & 2010!

When An An cried real hard...

2010-12-28T18:27:00.000-08:00

In fact, i should say he seldom cries since newborn. He is a boy with few tears. BUT, he loves to fake cries alot! When we scold him for his naughty acts, he likes to pout his mouth and make those fake crying sounds. Really cant stand him! And when he really very sad, his tears just pouring down uncontrollably like this. I simply love his crying expressions, isn't it cute? Hee..

Big and small letters

2010-12-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

The best way to stop the 2 crazy boys shouting and running around the house when they woke up from nap is to think of some spontaneous activity for them if there's no planned for the noon.

I wrote A to K in both big and small letters, and i asked Zq to circle the big letters using big circle of the stencil and small circles for the small letters. Then connect these pairs to complete his work! Simple instructions and almost costless material, 10minutes of quiet moments for me in return.. Happy! :)

Stickers

2010-12-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

I must mention this as i find it's extremely cute and caring of Zq for saying these.
Pasting sticker book in one of our routine for nights, i am glad that sticker books here are so so cheap and they comes with wide varieties of selections, such as Maths, Languages, EQ, IQ and some thematic books.
It triggered my heartiest smile when we came to this page.

Zq: 妈妈，我不要贴这个鳄鱼。。

Me: 为什么呢？

Zq: 因为它会把小朋友吃掉的 (and he had a very worried expression)

Me: 不会的，有这些木头会挡着它，鳄鱼不会吃掉小朋友的

Zq: 木头会被水冲走的，这样子鳄鱼就会游到他们的旁边了。我不要鳄鱼吃他们，他们很可怜

Though i found it's rather amusing for him having such thoughts as it's only a sticker book after all, but i was heart warming by having this caring boy. He's always the 1st one to rush to didi if he falls or need help. And he certainly helps me lots day in and out, he's good at doing some minor housechores and more than happy to help. And he starts showing this greatest virtue of him since young ~ compassionate.

All i want for Xmas is...

2010-12-24T14:21:00.000-08:00

a white xmas!

But am sad that there's no sign of snowing at all... Though it's freezing cold at -10 degree when i fetched Zq back from school just now. I dreamt of scenes that my boys making snowman in a whole white patch of ground, throwing snowballs at each other, how i wish my dreams can come true!

Please... let it snow let it snow let it snow.....................

冬至

2010-12-22T21:28:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favourite Chinese traditional festive. I would make some 汤圆 with my kids every year and the kids love it! I love the meanings of this festive, 团圆, definitely means so much to me. While i was preparing the ingredient, it brought back vivid memories when i was young, my sisters and me enjoyed helping out in the kitchen, preparing the 汤圆 and helped my mama to bring bowls of cooked 汤圆 to altar as offerings. I missed those days, especially in this cold winter of Beijing, i miss my parents and sisters even more...

~ 冬至的典故 ~

冬至是全家团聚庆丰年的节日，在农历里，冬至是一年中排在最后的一个传统节日。这天家家户户吃“汤圆”，象征家庭的和谐与团圆。

“冬至”的意思就是“冬季到了极点”，这个“极点”指的不是气温，而是地球与太阳的关系，这一天，太阳直射南回归线（冬至线〕，北半球白天最短，黑夜最长，这天之后，太阳又逐渐北移。“冬至”原是农民农忙之后庆丰收的节日。

“汤圆”是冬至必备的食品，这是一种用糯米粉制成的圆形甜品。“圆”意味着“团圆”“圆满”。冬至吃汤圆，象征家庭和谐、吉祥。

This year, i decided to make the glutinous cake myself. And i used pumpkin and pandan leave juice for the colourings of my 汤圆 (though the effect is not that obvious! haa)

Serious boy @ work

Funny boy @ work

Our 汤圆！

This is the 1st time Zq cooks! I decided to let him try out under my close supervision. And he enjoyed it so much! He's really keen and insist to boil all the 汤圆 by himself, 有始有终。It's a good chance to show him some before and after effect, how foods are being prepared and cooked. So he will appreciate what's serve on his plates more and most importantly, i sincerely hope that he will appreciate my effort of preparing his meals everyday! Hoping that he is able to finish his food by himself so not to waste my effort :)

Curtains can be so fun!

2010-12-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

I wonder why An An loves to play with curtain so much! Or is it every kids at this age has the same fascination?

A sickly week

2010-12-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

Both boys were down. Zq started to have really chesty cough and runny nose last Sunday and it got worse on Monday so we brought him to see vist Dr. Pauline, our regular PD here at Beijing. Glad to hear that it's just normal cold and cough and no wheezing detected though he was extremely phlegmy. Coupled with the cough is a series of vomit episodes which really drives me crazy as i got lots of cleaning up to do after which. He was absent from school from Tuesday to Thursday, he couldn't wait to back to school and diligently reminded me to give him medicine as he claimed that “老师和小朋友都很想子骞，他们在等我”. It's good that he loves school but i also starts to enjoy his days at home, doing some activities, art & craft with him, he's rather mature now and knows that mama's time & attention need to be split between didi and him, and he's been rather understanding on this. My big boy, he has grown up so much...

Then it was An An's turn to fall sick. He developed high fever suddenly at 39 degree celsius! No sign of unwell prior to this. He looked so lethargic, insisted to ride on his rocking horse and didn't allow anyone to touch him including me, this was weird. He was moaning on his rocking horse and not rocking it at all, looking so pitiful. I took him to Dr Pauline and we did a blood test, it was bacteria infection, so antibiotic "Augmentin" was prescribed. She told me he should recovered from fever by Saturday, as bacteria infection came and recovered fast. But his temperature has been yo-yo-ing for the past few days, just as we thought the fever was gone for good, it back again! And to make thing worse, he had diarrhoea, vomiting, coughing, runny nose and a very sore butt resulting from the frequent loose bowels, he was not spared from the "full package". It was tortorous to see his lil body fighting so many sick bugs! :( We brought him for another PD visit just to make sure it was not the side effect of antibiotic. He has been a strong healthy boy with little illness, this is his 3rd time falling sick in this 18 months, and it takes rather long to recover everytime. Please be well soon my lil teddy bear.. It's so painful to see that you have to take these medicines and your hoarse voice from all the chesty cough.. Love you both, be strong! Mama is fighting the ill bugs together with you!

We love to read

2010-12-18T18:09:00.000-08:00

We have a playroom (the boys called it "playroom") but it was set up as a "library" initially. But very soon, this room is filled up with lots and lots of their toys and the books have to make space for the toys. I am glad i have 2 shelvings for all the books, so they will not land everywhere. I had even categorised them according to languages and size of the books, though it's challenging getting everyone to follow and put back the books accordingly after reading, this applies to papa also (ahem!).

I have been reading to them since they were newborn and i am happy that my due diligence to incalcate this reading habit seems paying off. Everyday, i notice the boys will get some books and read themselve, and they will also approach me to read for them. I can now read with Zq instead of reading to him as he can recognise some words and also remember the contents of the book well. An An loves to read also, i was amazed at this young age he remembers most of the stuff i read to him and almost all the titles of the books when i asked him to fetch them to me. Beside Eric Carle series of books, i noticed some of Zq's favorites now are Cinderella, Toy Story etc.. I don't quite like the idea to introduce too much fiction stories to them, and less cartoon characters if possible, so i guess it's time for me to "hide" some books away from him..

They love to sit on my laps and listen to my story-telling. And they love to sit side by side and read like this...

Sweet brothers reading together...

Gor gor, are you trying to stranggle me?

Isn't it sweet....

2010-12-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

to have such a lovely boy...

Zq was back to school after his sick episode, something he looked forward so much. The morning was rather quiet as there was only An An at home, i actually start to miss the chaotic fighting & snatching scene of the past few days, am i crazy?! Haa.

Well, i was so happy to see a bubbly him dashed into the house when he back from school. And what made my eyes red and wet were the 2 gifts he brought home for me.

~ The Bracelet ~

As what teacher shared with Dear, Zq did this bracelet as 1 of his montessori work to master his fine motor skill. He thread the beads all by himself and he requested to take it home as he wanted to give this to mama. On the 1st moment when he reached home, he opened up his fist, showed me this and shouted with glee, “妈妈，这是我做的手链，我要送给你，你喜欢吗？”“妈妈，你要带手链去 gaigai 哦"... I am so touched, he is always so sweet and as what Dear said, Zq cares about me very much, he cares about my mood, my impressions of him, my likes and dislikes.. And i am always the 1st in his thought when he had something to give..

~ 感恩卡 ~

Every kid in the class wrote what they thankful for on the Thanksgiving Day. As Zq still couldn't write, teacher pen it down for him. And 妈妈 is the 1st on list! When i asked him again what he thankful for, he recited in the correct orders as what written. And he said ”我最喜欢妈妈了”“妈妈每天很辛苦照顾我和弟弟”。I am so proud and happy i am the 1st in his list.

Zq and me shared a very strong bond, sometimes i feel that we even have telepathy. Dear always said we are very mushy as we like to say lots of “你爱我吗？你是我的宝贝” etc.. I guess it's the effect of sour grapes :p Anyway, i love my mummy boy so much now, i am not sure whether will he still saying all these to me few years down the road, but i cherish every moment now... And i am so fortunate to have such a caring and affectionate boy.. 子骞，你永远都是妈妈的宝贝，我爱你。。。

Christmas Candy

2010-12-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas candy outlines that i cut out, Zq supposed to cut it out but he's monkeying around. And he told me my candy looks like 拐杖！:p

Colourings

And we punched a hole and tie a ribbon, our lovely book marks :)

Zq was fascinated with the hole-puncher then and spent a long time punching holes with it.

1st Encounter with Santa Claus!

2010-12-12T23:43:00.000-08:00

Zq has been fascinated over Santa Claus has i have been telling him he will get a present from Santa on Christmas if he is well-behaved. And i must admit this is a good trick, as when he starts to get unreasonable everytime, i would tell him Santa knows if he misbehave and there would be no present for you. He will then turn into his "obedience-mode" immediately, haa :p

I wish that he can see the "real" Santa so he knows it's for real, and Santa not just another story told by mama and from storybooks. So i brought him to a "Tea with Santa" afternoon tea organised by an expat mama. There was some song-singing, yummy snacks and mingle around with other kids. And we were surprised to bump into Zq's lead teacher, Laura and her daughter there! What a small Beijing :)

Zq's reaction of his 1st meet-up with Santa was expected. Rather taken-aback and reluctant to shake hands with him, not to mention sit on his lap. I shaked hand with Santa and even requested a photo taken with him, to show to Zq that it's really alright, Santa is just a nice old man with long white beard. He then started to open up and willing to stand closer to him. I remembered vividly my 1st encounter with Santa was when i was about 6 year old, in a shopping centre with my mama & jiejie, i was running frantically and crying out loud when the Santa approached me with a candy. Haa, what a silly girl right :p

When i asked Zq to offer Santa some biscuits, he told me he couldn't eat as he has no mouth. This is hilarious! And so cute to observe how a 3yo seeing his world.. :)

Zq enjoying himself with his lil friends...

Teacher Laura with her daughter, Maia.

Last but not least, with the Santa! Papa came and fetched us after An An woke up from his long nap :)

Blessed with Boys

2010-12-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

My life is complete with you, my boys. Mama enjoys you both calling "mama" from dawn till dusk everyday. Hug and sit on my lap whenever you feel like to. It's just so endearing when Zq told me “我最爱妈妈了” “妈妈，你喜不喜欢我？"... And An An plants a super wet muacks on my lips every now and then. Thanks Dear, for making it possible for me to spend all my time with our BaoBeis.. :)

Music Together

2010-12-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

On 4 December (Sat), An An started his 1st music class at Music Together, we decided to enrol him after a trial class as i love the atmosphere and how the class is conducted, teachers are engaging as well, great songs and nice mix of classmates. I noticed he's quite musically inclined, he loves to move with beats, "sing" songs and he's good at remembering lyrics. Music can always calm him down and brighten up his mood :)

He was abit shy at the beginning, sat on my lap and observing others intensely. On and off he would turned and looked at me, i would return with a smile and hug to ensure that i am always here with him and we are in a very safe environment. It didn't take too long for him to warm up and he started to move around, dance with the song and even tap his feet with the rhythm!

The fee is 1100 renminbi for 10 classes, and this including some home materials for us to practice at home. He loves the songs so much and would request me to play it everyday for him. Especially the "Hello Everybody, it's nice to see you..." "Sleep sleep sleep in the car..." He will "sing" with actions. Totally enjoying it! :)

More about Music Together: http://www.musictogether.com/

Paper Gingerbread Men

2010-12-10T22:20:00.000-08:00

My 5 minutes arty-crafty time again!

I love reading Beijing Kids, a magazine with comprehensive information and recommendations of new play areas in Beijing, recipe and DIY arts for parents to try on (especially in this cold cold winter when most of us are home-bound), interesting articles written by expat mums/ dads to share their raising kids experience in Beijing. And most important of all, it's FREE! and readily available in supermarkets and schools. I will always grab a copy at the beginning of month and reading it with great anticipation for all the new insights. And i always happy to find some new "discoveries" of each issues.

There is an article showing illustrating how to make gingerbread men. So i get ready my scissors and paper and start cutting (a prelude to the baking of my gingerbread cookies!) hee..

Ta-da!

Cutting gingerbread men nicely is a challenging work for my 3yo, it involves fine motor skill that he has yet to master well. He cuts through the gingerbread men's head & limbs and making it a handicapped one instead. Haa! And i definitely love to involve him in this artwork, he is happy when i ask for his help to draw some face features of this gingerbread man. Look at his creation!

The 1st man was drawn by me, 2nd one was Zq's creation. I love his "cheeky" gingergerbread man! :)

12 tins of milk powder

2010-12-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

All the way from Singapore to Beijing. Thanks to Dear and his SQ business class return air-ticket (allowance of 30kg).

An An decided to have a percussion drum performance while Zq helped to take the milk powder to cupboard for storage.

2 tins of Enfakids and 10 tins of Enfagrow. Zq has been drinking organic fresh milk well hence he does not have to drink much formula milk. A big hole burnt in my pocket S$685!

Christmas Wreath

2010-12-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

5 minutes is all you need for an artpiece done!

A quicky one as the boys napped way too long, we have about half an hour before their dinner time and this craftwork is good.

Cut a big hole in the middle of the paper plate, then paste the green paper on the rim of it. Zq used a pen to "push" the paper to create a "gathered" effect and it looks much more lively and real. Then lastly, touched up the green wreath with a few red paper for a complete look of the wreath.

When we were doing up our wreath, i was wondering what the meaning of a Christmas wreath is, and so i did a google on it.

The essence of what a Christmas wreah signifies:
- eternity,
- everlasting life,
- growth
- Jesus's blood,
- and the circle of life that is forever

Since the circle has no beginning and no end, many believe it represents God's love for us, no beginning and no end. In other words, God loves us thick and thin, regardless of what daily challenges we happen to struggle through.
Evergreens are used in Christmas wreath as it stays green all year round and represents hope that we all need to live as joyously as possible.
Though i am not a Christian, but the meaning of the Christmas wreath touches me lots. And isn't it symbolize the love to our little one as well? I will always love my boys no matter what happened, regardless what changes & challenges occured along the way, my love is going round and round and will never end. And HOPE is what i want to teach and share with them, we need to live with hope for a positive and meaningful life..

Zq said it looked like a CLOCK! :p

We hung it on our main door for decoration and to welcome Santa Claus's arrival (he will visit us and give him a big present as he did a very beautiful wreath - claimed by Zq) :p

And our ingenious papa asked us "Is it a doughnut on the door?" when he back from work. Duh!

Thermos water bottles

2010-12-08T13:13:00.000-08:00

Boys' new water bottles! Toy story for Zq and Little Einstein for An An.

Actually i was quite reluctant to buy this as it's rather pricey for 2 water bottles. Cost me 270 renmimbi (app. S$54) for both. Zq has been using a Mickey thermos water bottle for long and it has been disfigured, and An An had successfully bite off the straw of his Combi cup. So, here comes the water bottles that surely make the boys thrilled!

Satisfied user!

Bye bye 奶嘴

2010-12-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

An An had successfully weaned off pacifier on his 18th month! (same timing as Gor Gor). YEAH!

To me, this is one of his big milestones as he does not need to rely on dummy for his noon nap and night time sleep. I am so proud of him. We did try to wean him off last month but to no avail as he was teething and drooling badly then, and the biting sensation on his pacifier must have offer great degree of comfort and satisfaction for him, hence we postpone the plan till now.

It was rather a smooth and easy process, though there were quite some tossing and turning on bed, grumbling and mumbling for a long 15minutes before he finally dozed off, and not forgetting some midnight waking-ups cranky moments. But it seems that he had overcome all these, and he self-sooth to sleep pretty fast now and without much fussiness.

Actually the biggest motivation for me to wean him off now is because he has been biting and destroying his pacifiers! Look at what he had done:

I have been replacing his pacifier WEEKLY. And it add up to quite a sum monthly. Okay baby, time to say bye bye to your 奶嘴, you are indeed a big boy now. Look at your size! What's next then? Potty-training? Yes, i certainly cant wait for this as it will be a hefty saving for me!

Multiple straws cup

2010-12-07T07:13:00.001-08:00

A good way to train An An's fine motor skill. I love recycle and reuse things and make them into useful stuff and fun toy for the boys!

Materials: a used plastic container and some straws. Poke many holes on the container, cut the straws into handy size for his little hands. What a good way to keep him self-entertain for 10 minutes :)

All by my little chubby hands!

Snowflake

2010-12-05T22:49:00.000-08:00

In the midst of brainstorming and researching on winter-related theme of activities/ art & craft for the boys, i chanced upon a blog of a mama demonstrating how she did up beautiful snowflake with her daughters, and it was very simple yet lovely! So the not so arty-crafty me decided to give it a try!

The materials needed:

- white canvas sheet

- masking tape

- blue & purple paint

Masking tape is used to form the shape of a snowflake. And recently i have been reading some Baby Einstein winter flash card to the boys, how appropriate it is to be used here again!

Snowflake facts:

all snow is made of hundreds of thousands of tiny snowflakes. they are so tiny that one can sit on your pinky!
snow flakes are really just little drops of water that have frozen into crystals
each snowflake is different. no 2 are alike!

The boys painted the whole canvas sheet with blur & purple paint. Zq was engrossed and painted his picture carefully, while An An was more interested in my cammie. This activity tooks a longer time and i think it's more age-appropriate for a 3yo rather than a 18 month :)

We peeled off the masking tape after the paints dried. And we outlined the snowflake with a black marker to enhance the effect of the picture.

Isn't it lovely?

Charity Christmas Brunch

2010-12-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

We had a very special lunch today that we never had before. It's a charity brunch organised by Roundabout, a charity organisation in Beijing operated by a group of expatriates/ foreigners. The cost was 100 renminbi per adult and free for kids under 6 year old. All the money raised will be used to purchase thermal clothings and quilts for elderly people, living in extreme poverty in Hebei province.

There are pictures/ profile like this put on each dining table. Zq kept asking me to read the profile of all these poor old people for him. He emphatised asking me lots of question about them, why he sits on steps, why his shoes are torn, why his house so dirty etc... And he told me he wanted to help them. I was touched. He has always been a caring boy and someone who very sensitive to others people's feeling. I will continue to nurture this good character of him, it's his unique gems.

The event was held in Michael's Place, a restaurant in Europlaza in Shunyi. It's our 1st time there and the food is great, ambience is good as well.

Beside lunching, the organiser also arranged some activities for the kids, that's sweet and thoughtful of them.

A bouncy castle. Just what i need to entertain my extra energetic Zq.

Some singing and dancing of Christmas carols

A Christmas-craft making station for the kids. My 1st time "playing" with soft plasticine and making it into a Christmas ornament, i am rather proud of myself though it was not that "presentable", but it's my effort that count! One each for my boys :)

Winter Solana

2010-12-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas festive mood in Beijing is definitely not as great as Singapore where you can hear Christmas carols everywhere you go, bump into a Christmas tree in every shopping mall...

We are thrilled to see this tall Christmas tree in our beloved shopping centre ~ Solana. And mummy is camwhoring again!

And what's more! many Christmas decorations spotted in BHG supermarket. The boys were hugging the teddy bears and reluctant to let go! An An has a super strong liking towards soft toys, he loves it ALL despite the size, shapes and designs. Once he laid his hands on one of them, it often ended with a tug-of-war and a crying baby. Hence we always try to avoid letting him get hold of one :p

The boys had a great time running in the open area though it was shivering cold...Brr...

I love to see my men holding hands together, and i love it more when Zq always said "我们团结在一起”. Lastly, shopping centre is indeed a good place for them to bump into pretty jie-jies.. :)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2010-12-03T21:59:00.000-08:00

Our 1st snow! (at home.. :p)

Christmas is nearing and we are anxiously waiting for our 1st snow in the winter! And here comes our "man-made snow", Zq enjoyed this art & craft very much and requested to have it again soon. It is a very simple art and suitable for 3yo kids as they can complete this independently. I love art that can be completed with the use of recycled materials, since i have accumulated alot of bubble wraps from my online purchases. Besides the bubbled wrap, paper and white colour paints are the other materials.

Zq was admiring my drawing and "our family" that i drew..

Painting the bubble wrap with white paint

Pressing

Ta-da! My beautiful artpiece :)

Cowboy

2010-12-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

Born in the Year of Cow. I definitely live up to it!

Whole wheat bread

2010-12-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

I have been pondering to bake some bread all by myself (without equipment intervention). Though i have a bread-maker, i don't really like to use it. But i was wondering is it possible to bake yummy & fluffy bread without a electrical mixer? And the answer is yes! I hand-kneaded the dough and ta-da! Presented to you my proud creation:

The bread is so fluffy and soft, the texture is just right and Dear loves it to bits, he gobbled down 3 of it when they are freshly out from oven. The boys are okay with it, i didn't expect much as they are not bread-lover to start with. How discouraging right, my boys don't seem to enjoy my "creations" though i love to bake lots.. It's okay, i will continue to try on new recipe to find their ideal snack!

My "girl"

2010-11-30T13:07:00.000-08:00

Many China people thought i'm having 2 girls, not sure is it because of their hairstyles or complexions. But i definitely dress them up like BOYS when we are out.

So here presenting to you my pretty "girl" :

"She" is such a cutie pie... I think it's all because i wanted a girl so badly when i was pregnant, hence my boys have the "girlish" looks in them.

By the way, Dear was not very happy when i dolled up the boys like this. To think that he kept long shoulder-length hair and wore ear-studs during his Poly days. Come on! this is only chicken-feet la! :p

Funny conversations with Zq

2010-11-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

Episode 1 ~~~

When he was browsing the magazine that we brought back from Mothercare, he spotted some toys that he want:

Zq: 妈妈，这边有很多玩具，你可以买这个，这个还有这个给我吗？ (busy pointing out the toys)
Me: 家里有很多玩具了，不可以一直买玩具
Zq: 可是家里没有这样的玩具 (emphasize on "这样")
Me: 妈妈不知道哪里有卖这个玩具，改天看到了才买好吗？ (trying to act blur and switch to next topic)
Zq: 我知道哪里有卖，你拿这本书的店里有，叫爸爸载我们去买
Me: - - - - - - - - -

Episode 2 ~~~

When he saw Dear kissed me, he was upset and fierce in his tone：

Zq: 爸爸，你不可以 kiss 妈妈的！
Dear: 为什么呢?
Zq: 只有我和安安可以kiss 妈妈
Dear: 哪爸爸 kiss 谁？
Zq: 你去 kiss 你的女儿
Dear & me: ??????

Episode 3 ~~~

When i washed hands together with Zq after he back from school. He helped to squeeze some handwash on my palms.

Zq: 妈妈，我挤洗手液给你，你没有讲什么？
Me: 哦，谢谢子骞
Zq: 这样就对了，要做有礼貌的孩子，我就疼你了
Me: -------

Happy 18th month old my lil teddy bear! :)

2010-11-23T09:25:00.000-08:00

I always heard people said that they wish their kids grow up faster but i am to the contrary. With a little toddler blabberings with such a sweet & babyish voice, always hugs and kisses me so readily, a pair of chubby rosy cheeks that i couldn't help but kiss & bite every hour, i really enjoy this stage of my lil bear.. he's so adorable and i never feel so blissful ever... (before the T2 kicks in) haa.

To me, An An is quite an independent baby. Though he's not expert in self-feeding yet, no toilet-training started yet, but he ables to self-entertain and explore on his own for the longest time. I love to observe him from aside, he loves to get some crayon and start scribble on papers, then move on to markers to draw on easel, and he has a strong liking to cars & trains that he usually carries around the house. He loves to read as well though i am still trying hard to understand his story-telling. He loves to sing and dance, it's amazing to me that he able to sing sentences in the "Wheels on the Bus" and many other songs. He loves to count, though the numbers always get jumble up and his favourite number is 19! Coz this is always his ending number whenever he counts though there are only 5 trucks in the line. He loves World Map as well, he loves "studying" the map and point to me where's "Sing sing sing-a-poh"! And i notice he seems to be a left-hander as he likes to point, holds spoon & pencils with his left hand. Maybe it's still too early to make the verdict so we shall see :)

And the brothers are getting more interactions than ever, apart fromthe routine snatching of toys, they seems to have found a new way to "play" together. They loves to hold hands whenever we are out, they loves to read together though the books sometimes get torn apart before the story ends. And sometimes i notice the boys are having "boys-talk", sit at a corner and "chit-chat", and gor gor loves to show didi how to play the toys.. It's just so heartwarming to see them loving each other.. I am glad i have given them a great companion of life.. :)

With a whooping weight of 14.9kg and 88cm at 18months old, he looks just like a lil teddy bear. Perhaps it's my good quality of breastmilk that make him so strong & macho. And i am so glad i am able to provide him my breastmilk for the past 18months. It's hard for me to wean off and say goodbye to my Medela, but i think it's time for me to move on.. An An, you are my lil angel who always able to bring hope and happiness to my life.. Thanks for coming to my life, you complete our lovely family.. Mama, papa & gor gor love you much, you are always our precious :)

T = Thanksgiving & Turkey!

2010-11-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

Zq's school is going to celebrate Thanksgiving this Friday. This American holiday is a time where we gather together as families and communities, and reflect on the many blessings we are grateful for. It's a meaningful celebration and a good opportunity to teach the boys how to be thanksful, appreciate and treasure people that care for us and things we have.

There will be 3 campaigns to the event - a raffle, a silent auction, and a painting auction. All the fund raised is for Kiki's Kindergarten (http://kikikids.org/), the 1st blind school for children between 2-6 years old in Shigatse Tibet. And each class will have its own class painting for the parents of that classroom to bid on. The children will be blindfolded while painting so they can experience what it feels like to be without sight. How meaningful this is.

I have been sharing with Zq this upcoming event and in order for him to show the virtue of gratitude and thankfulness, we are doing Thanksgiving cards for all the 6 teachers in his class.

Our creative way to say Thank You to the teachers! :)

Happy family!

2010-11-22T17:53:00.000-08:00

It's always a headache when we want to take a proper family photo.

As the boys hardly cooperated and they do not like to smile at the strangers who holding the camera. And i also worried to entrust my camera to someone else i do not know to take photo for us.

So we resolve to self-take family portrait!

Look at the boys funny expressions! I enjoyed looking back all these photos so much though i looked so unglam and ah soh.. yucks :p

Artwork wi An An

2010-11-22T12:40:00.000-08:00

My lil teddy bear is least interested in artwork, he loves to play toys and run around the house. Look at his bo-chap expression when i let him do some pasting.

I still prefer riding my pony

My cunning mama, make my face bigger than hers!

YEAH! My fav pose! :)

I can throw my own diaper!

2010-11-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

Mama decides to let me take charge of some "task", so she starts an easy one first, which is to throw my own diaper! Hee..

Look at my happy face when my mission completed. I even gave myself a good round of applause! :)

Sorry for the blur images coz my blur mummy forgot to switch the camera to the right mode...

New toys

2010-11-16T17:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, it has been quite a while since the last time i bought a toy for them. (Was it in September?) So my fingers itched again and these are my online purchases. Hee..

I am the cowboy Woody!

An An is doing some grocery shopping, and he wants to put his bear bear inside the trolley just like how we put him in :p

My heroine arrival to Beijing!

2010-10-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

Cant wait for my heroine arrival!

My dear sweet and brave mama is on her way to Beijing now! I am so proud of her as this is the 1st time she travelled alone via airplane, all the way from Singapore to Beijing, not a short journey somemore - 6 hours! I had never travelled myself before, though i know it seems perfectly normal to travel alone but definitely not to her. Mama is rather timid in nature and she is always reliant on papa and us when it comes to airflight, her command of English is very limited and she is always shy to ask around.. So i am really proud of her! And 感动 as well, i know she managed to do this all because of us, her lovely daughter, grandsons and son-in-law in Beijing...

I love you so much mama... Zq is all excited over this and we made a banner to welcome you at airport! See you soon! CANT WAIT!!!

Zq's 1st day in P1

2010-09-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

Zq is promoted from Toddler Class 2 to Primary Class 1 today. I brought him to school this morning as i wanted to prepare him better and be reassure him that this new class will be a fun one with lots of new stuff to learn and play with. (Coz i don't trust Ben will do a good job on this, he will just drop & go as usual). The P1 class has 5 teachers and 23 students (1 montessori directress, 1 virtue teacher, 1 chinese teacher, 1 english teacher, 1 assistant teacher). All the kids age range from 3-5 year old. A well mix of nationalities and genders.

He was rather nervous and shy when we 1st entered the classroom, with his hand holding tight to mine, and was quite reluctant to answer teacher's questions though i tried to crack a joke and keep him in happy mood. After the teacher showed us where to put his bag and shoes, i think it's time for me to go and let him explore this new venture himself. He was so reluctant that he hugged my legs tight and kept crying & wailing loud "妈妈不要走，妈妈和我在一起”. Oh dear, his reaction was worse than what i expected.. I thought the transition will be a smooth one as he is usually friendly and sociable. And i thought with his Toddler class experience, the separation anxiety shouldn't be this intense now.

I waited at the school lobby for 10mins and his lead teacher, Teacher Laura came and assured me that he is doing fine now, the crying ceased almost immediately and he has been introduced to the mini kitchen in the classroom to prepare some snacks for his classmates. That's relieving! And i hope i would have the same relieving news when i come and pick him up later. Pray hard!

I reached school around 1230pm and when i peeped inside the classroom, he was having lunch with other kids, he looked quite calm, happily enjoying his food but also observing the surrounding.. Teacher Laura greeted me again and shared about his 1st day in new class. Generally he was fine, active but stay vigilant at all times, observing what's happened around, and trying to stay focus during the longer circle time of 30mins (compared to the previous 15mins in Toddler class).

And she shared an interesting incident with me. During the outdoor playtime, Zq "escaped" to his Toddler class, looked for his ex-teacher and hugged her so tight that it's hard to separate them. Teacher Laura had to go to the class to "persuade" him and explain to him that he has a new class that he belong to now, and quite reluctantly he back to the new classroom, and Laura told me that he walked real stiff when he walked back.. Aww, this poor boy must be missing his ex-teacher very much! Okay, the reason for this "easy escape" is because all the classrooms has a door that access to the outdoor playfield. So when he was playing outside, he could easily access to his ex-class if he knows which "door" lead him there. Smart boy ya!

He was in happy mood when we were on our way home. I asked him "did you enjoy your day?" "do you like your new teachers & classmate?" "do you want to back to the new classroom tomorrow again?". He gave me a big YES! As for now, things seem pretty optimistic. Laura told me that usually the worst is on the 2nd & 3rd day as they realised it's a permanent arrangement and not just once off event. Okay, i can only pray for the best now and i have confident in Zq that he will adapt to the new environment well. Jiayou baobei! You have grown up so much and a big boy now! A new exciting journey is waiting for you to explore and mama is certain that you will have a great time! :)

Go fly kite!

2010-09-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

Weather is good and windy, so off we go to fly kite! I love where we staying as our place is just 5mins drive to the ever famous ChaoYang Park. A fantastic place for rowing boat, flying kite, cycling, roller bladding and picnic.

Posing with a reluctant An An. He just didnt want to stay still, wanted to walk around...

Papa teaching Zq how to fly a kite. Zq loves flying kite very much. Whenever we drove pass the park and he saw there were kite flying on sky, he would be very happy and shouted “妈妈，你看风筝在天上”“我也要放风筝”。

He was trying hard to control the string, turning clockwise and anti-clockwise directions to lengthen and shorten. And in the end, he entangled the string! Haa.

Our 大头照 again

Bought a kids kite for him as the big one is too confusing for him to handle. And i think this is pretty dangerous as well, as he kept running forward while looking backward. Kept knocking into ppl and risk of falling down.

Papa's kite flying high.. Love this pic of father & son..

An An squated down and took a rest after his prolong walking

It was a pity that we could only stay for a short duration as dinner time was near. But we will back again!

童言无忌

2010-09-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

Zq has been very vocal since he attended school and recently he made some really amusing remarks.

While i had difficulty trying to open a container just now..
Zq: 妈妈，你不要开了，叫爸爸开
Me: 为什么呢?
Zq: 妈妈很用力开，等下你的手会痛痛的
Me: *Smile and feel so heartwarming the same time*... Oh my, I have a very filial boy... :)

While i changed him into his pyjamas and he spotted there's was a button on my blouse not button-up...
Zq: 妈妈，我帮你扣上 (helping me to button-up)
Me: 没有扣上不要紧
Zq: 扣上了就更美了
Me: 妈妈不需要那么美的（偷笑。。）
Zq: 妈妈很美，每个人都喜欢妈妈了
Me: *LOL* :p

It's so fun to chit chat with him nowadays. Not only to improve his communication skill, but i can also understand his inner thoughts better through all these lil talks. It's amazing to witness how our kids grow everyday, from all the helpless cries when they were newborn, to cooing, then 1st word, many words, short phrases, sentences to now a whole load of bargains, negotiations, descriptions and expressions of their emotions & thoughts.. I love this 2 ways conversations very much and looking forward to his new surprising & interesting talks everyday :)

Blabbering An An

2010-09-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

My lil teddy bear is getting very talkative recently. He can speak quite a few words with clear pronunctiation, besides mama, papa, gor gor, ayi, these are few of his favourites too: yes, no, bye bye, car car, fork, shoes, uh-oh, cup, no more, 谢谢, 花，开，拿，汤...

He is good at expressing his wants as well, always said "yes" when i asked him want to go gai gai or not, and always said "no" when i asked him want to eat fruits or not (he's not a fruit baby!). He's very expressive as he likes to imitate sad, angry, happy, fake cry and fake smile. And there was a few occasion that he even clapped and laughed when i scolded Zq! Gosh!

This tiny lil buds is growing fast and surprised me lots. When i sang the song "1,2,3,4.." he continued "hi-five!" loud and clear. And he loves to hum along with my singings and songs, and also sing out a few lyrics though not very clear. I notice he is more musically-inclined, for eg: i have been teaching him body parts by illustrating to him and letting him touch his own body parts but he was not that keen. But when i teach him these with songs (sometimes i have to be creative and double-up as a song composer), he would normally show great interest and learn fast through this. He also loves to bang piano and his toy keyboard.

Besides his improvement in his verbal skill, he's getting better with his fine motor skill as well. He can stack blocks, do simple puzzles, play shape-sorters and dig his nose shit with his fingers! haa :p

Just now when he saw Zq sneezed, he copycat and imitated the "ah chew" sound & action, super hilarious!!! He is so adorable and huggable that i couldnt help but bite his chubby legs, arms, butt and face everyday!

Haircut for both - Only RMB 27!

2010-09-04T19:43:00.000-07:00

I had my 1st haircut in Beijing. Actually should be simple trimming and hairwashing, i would not dare to risk to have a major overhaul of my hairstyle with a hair stylist that i am not familiar with. Zq had his trimming done too. And it only cost me rmb 27 (app. S$5.50) for both haircut! Super cheap!

Happy mother & son posing with their new hairstyles

(though very minimal difference from the original.. hee)

Snow-skin mooncake

2010-09-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

My 1st trial! Not bad right :p

I think it looks better than it tastes as the skin is not really that well-done. I had a challenge here as i couldn't get the fried glutinuous rice here at Beijing. So i have to "cook" this myself but i read that it definitely would not be as nice as those available OTR & ready-make. I believe so, as the skin of the mooncake not that smooth and rather cakey.

But overall, i am still quite satisfy with my 1st trial on this. Gonna make the 2nd round of mooncake with lotus paste, Dear's favourite! Hope i can improve and make a "yummier" batch! :)

DPT 1st booster vaccine

2010-08-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

Always received call from YA's PD on 23rd promptly to remind his vaccine of the month. And most of the time i just brought him there not sure which vaccines to be taken :p

PD said it's DPT 1st booster vaccine today and he had the jab. Not much crying, just a loud wail when the jab was administered. Lucky me! Coz i forgot to bring his pacifier and apparently he didn't need it. Maybe it's time to wean him off :)

Had his routine assessment, took his weight & height, checked his ear, nose, mouth, limbs and hips. A short discussion about his verbal/ communication development. All is well. He weighed 12.5kg and 85cm tall at 15months and 1 week old. And she mentioned that this little boy is "overweight" and "overheight", what a term! But well, she said "look at his daddy, he sure got his BIG genes". (I am glad she didn't mention "look at you mummy, he got your genes")

Zq's 3rd dentist visit

2010-08-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

It's his 3rd dentist visit and it's FREE. He had his 1st in SG when he was 19th month old (06.06.2009), i would never forget this day as it was the day that he lost one of his upper front tooth. 2nd visit was in Beijing, Vista Clinic 6 months ago, a routine checkup.

Today, the IDC dental clinic hosting a "kids day", they chose 30 kids to have dental visit and teeth cleaning for free. And we were lucky to get selected through a Beijing expat forum.

This clinic is truely kids-friendly with lots of toys, drawing easels, story books of tooth fairy, and a TV that showed Barney! Zq was fascinated by the "purple-animal" and he told me “妈妈，你看，紫色的恐龙在跳舞" :p

We just had a short wait for our turn. As expected, Zq was reluctant to open his mouth for dentist to check his teeth. We coaxed, sang, laugh, made funny faces and told intriguing stories and he finally opened up his golden mouth. Dentist said he had no teeth problem, no sign of decay, no discoloration, but she told me a term that i had never heard before - Underbite.

She said Zq had a mild case of this and most likely he would need a braces when his adult teeth newly formed. I was confused at that moment, not knowing what was it exactly but i couldn't help but worried, it must be something quite terrible that need him to be on braces at such a young age. She explained further that Zq's lower jaw is more developed than his upper jaw, and his lower teeth is positioned in front of his upper teeth. This seemed to answer my doubt! As i always find Zq's smiles are abit different but i couldn't point-out what's wrong with that.. And she told me this is most likely genetic and he's born with the skeletal structure like this, nothing much we can do at the moment, we just have to wait till his adult teeth are out then the rectification and adjustment can be done.

I was sad, very very sad, i gave him an imperfect jaw skeletal structure, no one in the family has underbite, not that i aware of... And the thought that he has to undergo such braces treatment is killing me.. I want him to have a happy childhood and not being "tortured" by all these stupid braces! I know i need to stay optimistic and pray hard that this problem can be self-rectified once his adult teeth are out, though dentist told me chances are slim but i still sincerely hope that there's a miracle...

His previous dentists never mentioned about this, this make me wanted to seek another opinion and to get a clearer idea of what i should do. I certainly hope that i able to give him whatever treatment in time so this issue can be corrected perfectly. Though he had a missing tooth and an underbite, i still love his smile very much... It is the most genuine and sincere sparkle that never fail to bring a smile on my face as well...

Some write-up about Underbite:

http://www.american-dental-clinic.com/orthodontic.asp

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/underbite-correction.html

我长大个儿了！

2010-08-25T14:13:00.000-07:00

Zq's favourite phrase nowadays. He would say he 长大个儿了 after every meals, every milk, every fruit snacks and every yoghurt. Strong urge to grow up to be a big kid! He likes to say:
我长大个儿了，可以去表演了。
我长大个儿了，可以去溜冰了。
我长大个儿了，可以去大班了。

Just now after he had his lunch, he amused me again. He told me he “我长大个儿了，可以开那个高高的橱了，可以拿里面爸爸的车钥匙，开车去 gaigai 了！” *-*

Fierce Boy

2010-08-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

When he was angry. A fierce boy in the making.

He is very stubborn insisting to get whatever he wants. Nothing can distract him, bribing is useless and scolding is futile. Zq has a milder temper as compared with him (though i thought i have quite a bad tempered one already). He definitely "outshine" his gor gor in this aspect!

Leave

2010-08-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

Autumn is here and the leave are going to turn their colours and fall off soon. We have a lovely garden downstair and i love to bring the boys to explore the nature. So we are collecting some leave today for our leave-printing activities later on!

Zq enjoyed himself by collecting different colours, shapes and sizes of leafs. And when he saw the maple tree, he told me that he gonna bring po-po to see her favourite tree when she comes to visit us this October. This boy has super good memory, i told him once that that was a maple tree and it was po-po's favourite and he never forget!

Admiring at the leave he collected.

Happy with his collection.

"Gor gor, are you done?"

Boys in action!

Our beautiful artpiece!

It was a simple activity that we all loved.. Zq learns to appreciate nature more and he was telling me we can only pick-up the leave on the ground, not plucking them from the tree, the leaves are very pretty, some are big and some are small.. And he kept bugging me to collect more leave with him.. :)

Body Parts

2010-08-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Read an article on a cute way to teach baby their body parts!

As my lil one is not interested in flash card and all my story-tellings, so i hope this is a good and fun way to teach him his body parts. And at least can keep him stay still for a few seconds, he is simply too active now since he master his walking skill! :p

First, his ears...

Then, his nose...

An: Maybe can help to remove my blackheads? :p

Cheeks..

Fingers... This is a tricky one, great one to train my fine motor skill

An: Now i start thinking my mama is murdering me...

An: Mama, are you done?!

Peekaboo Rabbit!

2010-08-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

Handprints and footprints are excellent arts & craft ideas! Especially for Zq, he loves to paint his hand, draw outlines of his hands and feet. A very creative activity for kids as they can "transform" their hands & foot prints to a peekaboo rabbit! Great one for 30mins hands-on crafty time :)

Zq is outlining the UHU glue cap for the rabbit's eyes

That's my feet!

Showcasing his big foot :p

Cutting the outlines

Hands

An An's turn, but he is not so fascinated over this and rather annoyed that we accidentally drew on his hands.. haa

Didi's big feet and tiny hands.

Ta-da! Isn't this lovely? The bros hands & feet make such a fun and meaningful artpiece.. I love this lots :) Look at An An's feet, it's just a little bit smaller than Zq's! Their feet turn into rabbit's ears, their hands turn into grass that hide the rabbit's face that was made by a paper plate.. Lovely!!!

Eventful Sunday!

2010-08-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

Lunch at Element Fresh

1st dining experience here was great! We always head to Sanlitun, Swenson and other restaurants at CBD and Shunyi for meals but never in Lido. So we decide to go somewhere nearer from our place, Element Fresh in Lido. It serves American cuisine and was voted the "Best Brunch 2010" and "Best Family Dining 2010" restaurant by the expat magazine - The Beijinger. Indeed, the foods are yummy and healthier choice. The baby highchair is so comfy that Zq requested to sit in it when he saw An An enjoying himself in it! He has rejected baby chair for so long when we dine out :p

Thumbs up for the food, the service and the ambience! Will definitely back again!

Side Park 四德公园

Beijing has so many parks that we love to explore one by one.. This park is at Lido, a very quiet but beautiful park. There's a huge fishing pond and the landscape is so nice with vast patches of grass and flat contour. We have discovered another perfect spot for picnic! And it's a good place for the boys to kick ball and run about. And there is another "treasure" within the park, the weekend book stall! The selection of the English books is great and at affordable pricing. I bought the whole lot (more than 10 books i think) at 120 yuan (S$24). Even Dear said it's a steal! I am happy to grab some board books, Baby Einstein, Toy story etc.. And of course, we will definitely back again! :)

IKEA

Just a 10mins drive from the park, we reached the ever crowded IKEA. The boys had fall asleep so i am more than happy to do the shopping myself! With such a super crowd, i guess it's better for me to "chiong" and buy whatever i want myself to be more effective. Bought some stuff for the boys and the house as i am "revamping" some corners of the house to make them more "purposeful". I want to set up a mini library/ reading corner, a play area (where all the toys placed), an activity corner (where they do art & craft and studying). Hence, i need to get some furnitures to make these corners serve their objectives! Time to spend money again! Boohoo :p

Solana

To our favourite shopping centre! It's a kids-friendly mall with a wide varieties of merchandises for everyone in the family. And i love to bring the boys to see people ice-skating, Zq always bugged me that he wanted to skate as well but i am not sure whether he's too young for that.. Maybe when he turn 5 year old? The boys had their milk there and i continued my shopping at 北京同仁堂 and BHG Supermarket.

He looks like me more and more.. My Ang Ku Kueh! Sweet! :)

What a happy and tiring Sunday!

Our Playhouse!

2010-08-14T19:08:00.000-07:00

It's actually my dream house.. Always wish to have a toy house like this since young.. :) And the boys will definitely get very excited over this! This is also their birthday presents of 2010. Hee...

I bought it at 1700 renminbi (about S$340). Quite a good deal i think. And when i told Zq that i got a playhouse for him, he was so excited and kept asking me "妈妈，我的小屋来了吗？” “妈妈，我的小屋呢？叔叔几时送来？” The delivery takes about 3 days, so i asked him to count his day patiently everyday. And he told me he is so looking forward to SATURDAY! The D-DAY!

And the house was here. But it needs lots of clean-up and we need to assemble it ourself. Gosh, we spent hours of cleaning and getting everything together! Tiring!!! And i couldn't help to feel that we are 24 孝父母!

The boys love it! They have so much fun pretend-play with it especially Zq. I am so glad i bought this for them, this is definitely a good toy for their imagination & creativity to run wild! :)

Zq is manning his 豆浆 stall and An An is his 1st customer. Each cup of soyabean milk is selling at 两块。And when i bought 3 cups from him and asked him how much in total? The answer is still 两块！Haa :p

This is how An An gets in and out of the house. Like a lil doggie!

Gor gor, drink this!

When there's no customer, this lil boss likes to do his jigsaw puzzle in it :p

Manual Boat

2010-08-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

I have been collecting lots of boxes recently to recycle into some art & craft materials. Zq spotted one and think it would be a great idea to make it into a personal boat for him and his bro.

Zq enjoyed his ride!

But An An... don't fancy this boat ride and start to get annoyed...

An An get really agitated... :p

And poor me, have to push this "boat" all around the house just to make it a moveable one! Back ache and panting for breathe! What a great work out for me early in the morning!!

Surprise again!

2010-08-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

Flowers from Dear again! It's lovely 16 stalks of white roses this time round... I love you dear, thanks for being so sweeeeeeet :)

An An at 14.5 month old!

2010-08-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

My most huggable and cute An An baby. Mama is so in love with you..........

You starts to waddle when you turned 1 year old and you can walk very steadily recently. Consider your good weight of 12kg, im not abit worried that you will be too heavy to walk well or walk like a humpty-dumpty. You able to walk around the house, from room to room without any problem. You are a very easy baby and someone who loves alot of freedom to play yourself, but you sure very stubborn and hot tempered that you usually scream on top of your lungs if anyone get in your way.

You starts to blabber lots as well and can make some clear pronunciations like "flower, mama, gor gor, 阿姨，花，狗狗，拿，开"... You are very good with your fine motor skill, twisting and turning small parts of toys, on and off a DVD player, learning to use spoon to self feed etc..

Many commented that you look like a girl because of your fair complexion and mama takes these as compliements as you are indeed very sweet looking and lovely. Mama loves you so much An An, you are such an independent baby that sometimes mama wish that you will slow down your growing up process abit coz i just can't get enough the babyish you..

Count on me SINGAPORE!

2010-08-09T19:13:00.000-07:00

Happy 45th Birthday Singapore!

Though we are far away from home, no public holiday and no fireworks, but we still celebrate your birthday!

We made 2 flags and watched the NDP on CNAI and it makes me miss home so much...

Zq is happy with the flag we made and he is able to tell me that the flag is made of red & white colour, with 1 moon and 5 stars :) And he kept saying "新加坡，生日快乐！" I want to let the boys know that they are Singaporean and where they belong to though they have spent too little time at their country, i am not sure whether An An made a record by being the youngest recipient of passport at 3 days old and have only spent 3 days in Singapore since born! :p

My favourite NDP song ~ Home:

This is Home Truly
Where i know i must be
Where my dreams wait for me
Where that river always flows

纠缠不清

2010-08-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

The boys love to get all intimated on bed. And they are all head over heels of each other.

Evidence:

Donating and sharing

2010-08-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

An An has many clothings that he has outgrown and i think it would be good if i can sort them out and donate to an orphanage. Hence, i tidied up An's wardrobe and Zq helped me to fold & organise the clothings so we can pack them nicely for the orphans.

When i shared with him the meaning of orphan and reminded him that we must share our love to them, he showed great compassionate and told me he wanted to give them his toys as well.. It is heart-warming to see he is so eager to help out and share his love, and it's good to show him what's sharing all about.. I wanted to bring him to the orphanage so he could play with the babies, but Serena (the lady in charge of the "Little China Flower" orphanage) told me many babies are down with chicken pox. So we shall make the trip down next time, another lady from there will pick up the stuff from us.

Beijing has too many orphanage and this one houses little babies who are abandoned since young, even newborns. Most of them are girls (stupid 重男轻女 thinking) and some are born with health problems. My eyes always turn teary when i think of these babies, it is pitiful to lose parents love at such tender age, and especially when they are sick and so fragile, what they need most is papa mama's love & hugs, isn't it? I have been donating my frozen breastmilk to them when An An was about 3-6 months old, when i had abundant supply of milk. I hope my milk able to make them abit more stronger and healthier! I really wish to have an opportunity to visit them real soon...

The boys were playing on the playmat that gonna be donated while waiting for the Auntie from the orphanage to collect... And creative Zq thinking that this is a boat and he and didi are floating on the sea!

It hurts...

2010-08-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Feeling super lousy now... My fingers and heart pain and i believe Zq's butt and heart pain very much as well.. He got his 1st beating from me today. Using a cloth hanger and my fingers are sprained as i was using all my strength to beat his butt.

He is getting on my nerves nowadays. He is so eloquent that he not only communicate well but he also use harsh and rude words on me. Whenever he's on playdate with his friends, be it at our house or other's place, he usually get very excited and forgot all about his manners! He would say things like 我不喜欢你妈妈，我要打妈妈，这是我的还给我，我生气了，he screamed and shouted these words with nasty actions also. I tried many methods to teach him and correct him but it just doesn't work at all. I tried soft approach like reason out with him by telling him that i feel very hurt by his remark, it's not right to say these, we shouldn't say such things as it makes us a bad boy. I tried to threaten him, like we will go back home immediately if he said such word again, no more playdate for him, no more reading of his favourite story book. No use at all.

I was so furious today that once his little friends left our place. I brought him into his room, closed the door and whacked him up with a cloth hanger. I asked him tell me what did you do wrong? He replied crying and said he shouldn't say such words. I said i had given you many many chances already but why you never listen at all?! I pulled down his pants and beat on his buttock real hard, i beat him up continuously till i sprained my fingers so pain that i couldn't continue. He was crying all the while and was rather shocked by my actions as i gave him verbal lectures all the while and never beat his butt with anything before. I couldn't contain and control my anger and i continued to give him a few slaps on face. I might have gone crazy but i really couldn't tolerate an impolite and no manners kid! Am i expecting too much from a nearly 3 year old boy? I am not sure... It just hurt me lots to hear these from him and no matter how many warnings i gave, he still repeat this! I am a total failure, i am a lousy mother, i couldn't find a way to reason these out with him till i resort to physical punishment. My heart bleed when i think of such a rude kid i have and when i saw the marks on his butt, it's all red and some parts are swollen... I am worse than a beast..

I never talked to him after the beating. I was using my laptop and he was entertaining himself around me silently, often steal a few glances at me and asked me some questions that i didn't want to reply. Then he took my home slipper from bedroom and put it down nicely beside me, i was touched at that moment but i was still very angry then and reluctant to look at him. Put him to bed without a hug, a kiss and a bedtime story, i can see that he feel hurt, but i seriously hope he learnt his lesson. I am not sure am i disciplining him appropriately, but i know that the last thing i want is him turning into a rude and arrogant kid.

Surprise!

2010-07-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

Ziqian received this flower from the deliveryman and claimed that it's for him!

Dear did the flower arrangement after he back from work, not bad ya :)

Sunflower that is as big as An An's face.

Flowers from Dear! :)

I was shocked to receive this out of no occasion. I asked him for the reason he bought me this and he said he had this idea once he woke up in the morning, wanted to buy me a bouquet of flower to surprise and thanks me for all the hardwork taking care of the boys. Well, it's sweet to hear this from him and i sure very glad to receive pleasant surprise like this though the flowers not that beautiful :p

Thanks Dear! MUACKS! *O*

Necklaces

2010-07-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

Zq had done with his 1st term of summer camp at school. His summer holiday officially started yesterday and which means he gonna be SAHS (stay-at-home-son) till 1st Sep when school reopen. It will be a very challenging month for me to keep this active boy entertained. I need to research, source and plan for many activities to keep him busy (and of course keep me busy as well). But to-date i have yet to seriously work on something! Waste time no more! BUCK UP MAN!!!

Ok, Playdoh is his forever favourite and he normally spent half an hour (his longest limit) playing with it. So this creative boy came up with this:

His 1st 金项链！

He is really a very vain boy who always demand which pair of shoes to wear, request me to wash his shoes when it's dirtied, put on sunglasses whenever he's out, put on his specified cap etc.. And he is very interested in my bags too! So his vain game continue today, we make necklace from veggie macaroni!

He was so patient to thread the "beads" and put it on proudly. He even reluctant to take out when it's nap time. After much persuasion he agreed to take it off but insisted to put it next to his pillow! And as expected, he requested to put it on once he woke up from nap! Cant stand him :p

Kids's imaginations are amazing. He re-arranged his necklace and told me this is a Snake.

And this is a Turtle!

My super vain boy!!!

Books!

2010-07-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

Bought all these whole lots at S$38! I LOVE buying Chinese books at Beijing!!! (one of the few things i love about here :p)

We have our little couple session again today, with my darling Zq. I brought him to a wholesale book market near our place and he was very happy browsing and reading the books. I glad he loves to read! And when he spotted the Toy Story 3, he brought it to me excitedly and told me "妈妈，不要选了，我买一本就好，我不要多多本。妈妈，去还钱。" I found it was really amusing for him to say such things. He seldoms request me to buy things and so i am sure this book means alot to him, must be the after-effect of our movie date few weeks back. Though this book was not what i really looking for but i bought it for him as i know it will definitely make him happier!

Will back for more! But i must remember to bring a bigger bag next time, people here do not give free plastic bag or carrier. And carried these book on one hand plus hold Zq with another hand is no joke!

Peeling eggs

2010-07-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

He is so enthusiastic to help out chores now. And he will request me to cook more eggs nowadays so he can help to peel it off.

A good way to perfect his fine motor skill and he proves that he's very good at it!

Look at the egg he peeled. Smooth :)

妈妈，我要你笑

2010-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

I have been so tiring recently. Both mentally and physically. I wonder is my menses gonna revisit me again eversince her last visit in Sep-08, i am having the symptoms of PMS and super annoying mood swing. What's worse is hubby is outstation to Kunming and im gonna take care of the boys myself early in the morning and nights when it's usually the most chaotic moments of the days coz of breakfast time, rushing to school and settling for beds at night. ARGH.

And my short-temper is getting worse. I have lost control of it many times towards Zq. As long as his mischievous acts start to act up again i would scream and scold him with those harsh words. He would give me those hurtful looks and makes me feel so guilty..

I was so tired when i settled him for bed last night, brushed his teeth and changed his pyjamas silently as i was in no mood to joke and sing to him like all other nights.. He kept looking at me, trying to crack a joke that i was so tired and couldnt be bothered to flash a fake smile on my face, i could feel that he was hurt, and at last he said this to me “妈妈，我要你笑” and followed by a gentle stroke on my face..

My eyes turned teary immediately.. I am a bad mummy, how can i do all these things to hurt my little darling, i shouldnt vent my anger on him even if im exhausted and in losy mood. He is just a playful little boy and this is every kid nature.. I am so remorseful hurting him with those harsh words and annoying glares.. And all he care about is my feeling, he just want to make me smile..

Toy Story 3

2010-07-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Zq's 1st movie! It's also OUR 1st movie.

I had "prepared" him for the cinema & movie few days in advance and he was all excited over this. Keep asking me "妈妈，我们几时去蓝色港湾看电影?" And i had briefly shared with him the storyline of Toy Story to keep him enticed.

We chose the 10.30am timeslot at Sanlitun Village cinema. The timing was perfect as we would have lunch over there straight after the show, Papa & An An will be coming over to meet up with us. But we were late for the movie, arrived at 10.40am and the cinema was in pitch-dark when we entered. I quickly located our seats and settled Zq. He was very curious about the surrounding and he insisted to sit in his own seat (lucky me! but not for long... sigh). About 30mins after the show, he started to fidget and told me he wanted to go watch other show, i was rather disappointed to see that he didn't really enjoy himself, didn't want to share my popcorn and drinks also. I assured him that it's a really interesting movie and we would see more funny toys later on. He was abit reluctant but didn't fuss bigger. So i offered him to sit on my lap and watch the show together with me. I started to narrate the story to him and he was happier and started to load me with lots of "WHY" which it's good, at least he gave a thought about it rather than whining to leave. Hee. But the computer-animated 3D movie made Zq's head giddy as most of the time he reluctant to put on his "glasses".

The 90mins show breezed through. I couldn't get enough of it as i really love the story line, it was so touching and i teared at the end of it. When the lights of the cinema were on, Zq saw my teary eyes and asked me ”妈妈，您怎么了?" in a very concerned voice.. After sharing with him my feeling i also made use of the opportunity to tell him to cherish & treasure his toys, do not dump them aside and remember to keep them in place after playing. Not sure will there be any effect but i hope he registered something i delivered. Now the lights on and he finally get to see the "look" of the cinema and he was so interesting to see so many chairs and people around, and contrary to his earlier request, he now begged me to stay in the cinema for another show.. haa!

Always enjoy my little dates with him, be it a stroll to supermarket, a baking session in kitchen and now our movie dates. Not long from now he will held hand with his girlfriend for a movie in cinema, so i shall treasure my time with him now though it was actually quite challenging to handle an active toddler in cinema alone. :p

Zq is 2 years & 9 months old

2010-07-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

Weight: 15.3kg
Height: 98cm (hope he can reach 1metre on his 3 year old birthday!)

He is such a darling boy, he is always a thoughtful and sensitive boy who cares about our feelings. He will fetch didi water when he notice a slightest cough of didi, he will automatically get a hanky and wipe didi's mouth and face when he notice didi's face is dirty. He will help out in housework when he saw Ayi or me doing chores. And most of the time, he is a polite boy who always seek permission when requesting for something and said Thank You all the time.

He can communicate very well in Mandarin but very little bit in English. We really have to seriously improve his command of English. And i am also slowly working on his literacy for both languages. I notice he loves to describe what happened in throughout his day, even those little details and observations he likes to share with me, and he usually narrate all these with lots of cute expressions. I love to chit chat with him so much nowadays, it's very interesting to discover every bit of his inner feelings and character, and i hope he will continue to share with me his thoughts as he grows up. I love you ZiQian...

Chocolate fudge cake

2010-07-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

My 1st trial on this and i am so proud of it! As it really taste HEAVEN! :)

Got this recipe from da jie and she got it from PY. It's an easy to follow and frills free recipe. It supposed to taste like our favourite Lana Cake at Bt Timah and i think my cake taste just as great! (thick-skin me.. hee)

Anyway, Ben and me love it so much that we whipped out the 8-inch cake within 2 days. One problem i need to improve is that the chocolate fudge is not that smooth, i hope i can have a prettier cake next time!

Didi, let me wipe off your "pi-sai"

2010-07-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

World Cup Craze

2010-07-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

Pa Pa: wakes up at wee hours to catch soccer match.

Ah Ma: gambles on soccer match and win big money. Haa.

Zq and mama: has their 15mins daily workout of soccer time. Hey, according to papa, Zq has the potential as he kicks and controls his soccer ball well, kick with spinning curls, using the right strength and aims well. Well, im glad my boy has some "ball-sense" unlike me! :p

An An: fancies with his soft soccer ball too and preparing for his 1st appearance in WC in 20 years time. Haa!

Big BOSS in the making

2010-07-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

He has what it takes to be a boss. He is polishing up this important skill ~ finger-pointing.

He will "demand" everyone to fetch him something by pointing his finger with a very persistent "eh eh eh" voice tone and a serious look of his eyes. And if we got what he requested wrongly (sometimes i did it purposely to see his reaction.. haa), he will throw it away hard immediately and continue his finger-pointing again. This stubborn boy.

Big boss in action:

Copycat

2010-07-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

He mimic my funny expressions and boy, he can control his face muscles well! Another cheeky boy in the making :p

Zq's 1st sportive bicycle

2010-07-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

He is definately good with his gross motor skill, in playing his mini bicycle, doraemon tricycle, motor-car, thomas wooden train. Though he has a varieties of "transportations and vehicles" at home, lining up at our window bay. But i feel that he deserve a better bicycle, one that he can manouver like an adult bicycle with proper bicycle parts. So we got him a 14-inch bicycle, a 4-wheelers for the beginning. It looks so sportive and in my favourite white colour!

We hid it in the drying yard and only "presented" to him after his had his breakfast. He was so excited and immediately hop on it. However, he was practicing to get the hang of it to get the bicycle moving forward as he kept pedalling backward.

The money is well-spent. It has been one week plus since the arrival of his new toy and he loves it very much, he will hop onto it every now and then, and he's getting so much better and comfortable with his bicycle. He can cycle in faster speed, turning left and right, ring bell when cycling to alert An An who block his way.. haa. He is so confident and even adventorous as he attempted to mount a kerb today while he is on the bike. He takes care of it well also, he would park it back to the "designated parking lots" and forbid An An touching it as he claimed that didi will spoil it. BOY!

I bet he will learn to ride a motorbike when he grow up just like his papa. I start to visualize Zq rides a Harley Davidson or those racer bike, cool! Crazy mama :p

It's such a long long time ago...

2010-07-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

that i update my blog... feeling so guilty after reading some mummies blogs. After a schedule-packed of day taking care of my boys, i usually left with very little of energy to keep my brain functioning, hence always end up surfing net, shopping online and neglect my blog totally.. :(

I NEED TO BUCK UP!

Gadget boy

2010-06-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

Whose hands on my lappy?!

AN AN !

An An is always get his hands on my gadgets, be it lappy, mobile phone, home telephone, remote controls. He loves to dial and be connected with my frens using my handphone. He just dialled a call to papa few days ago and "ee ee ah ah" on the phone while papa was listening amusingly on the other end. And i only realised this when Ben back home from work and told me about this!

And he only loves to play the REAL stuffs. I bought his a toy phone and he not interested at all. Zq's VTech lappy can only keep him entertained for less than 3 minutes. But once he got hold of my lappy and phones, he can press and scrutinize every parts of it for long. Aiyo!

Summer = Short

2010-06-27T19:18:00.000-07:00

Zq's new hairstyle!!!

Is he more handsome? Hee

Okay, summer is here. With an oven-like temperature hovering around 38 degree celsius, i decided to let Zq have a new hairstyle, a really short one. So bye bye to his mushroom-head!

We didn't have time to research on the kid's saloon and since there's only one we knew of so we brought him there. It's like a playground rather than a saloon, with many toys around and kids can choose the motorcar that they want to be seated to have their hair cut. There's a TV showing cartoons for every customer also, some thing very similar to Junior League in Singapore. But the cost is pricey! 120 yuan for a kid's haircut, i wanted to walk out when i was told about the cost but Ben stopped me, he said it may worth the money since Zq seems to be fascinated with the motorcars there, and according to Zq's past hair-cutting experience, there were always screaming, crying, struggling, and we shuddered at thoughts of that. So, despite my reluctancy to part with that 120 yuan, we still proceed to let Zq to choose his favourite motorcar for his hair-cut.

An An enjoyed himself while Zq having his haircut done

Not bad huh, it includes a hairwash cum mini massage.. haa

Gathering with Zq's classmates & families

2010-06-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

The school term ends officially and summer camp is awaiting! Most of his classmates will be promoted to Primary Level in coming Sep. Zq has a few good buddies in class and we invite them to our place for a gathering.

Zq and ayi preparing Jiao Zi for our guests. I give 2 thumbs-up for the Jiao Zi my ayi made, it's simply delicious! Slurps!

We invited 3 classmates of Zq - Amity, Jewel & Kevin. There were 6 adults and 6 kids in total. And it's really multinational.. Let me count, we have:

Singapore - Zq, Yan An & Ben

Malaysia - Myself

British - Amity, Halo & their papa

Chinese - Erika & Gan Bo

Taiwanese - Jade

American - Jewel

German - Kevin

12 ppl and 7 nationalities! :)

I prepared some foods for our guests, including pineapple fried rice, ondeh ondeh, curry chicken, banana cake etc.. Such a pity i forgot to take down pictures of the food i prepared, and pictures of my guests! But well, i took some pictures of the young ones.

Ayi and Zq prepared some jiaozi for the guests

Ayi's lovely jiaozi

Zq's "masterpiece"

Kids enjoying the yummy food! :)

What's for lunch?

2010-06-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

Wonder what mama cooking for lunch today?

Hmm.. i hope not...

Wah! PORRIDGE AGAIN!!!

园园老师，东东老师，Jaclyn 老师谢谢您!

2010-06-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Today marks the last day of school for Zq and the summer holiday is coming! He will be promoted to Primary Level when a new term starts this September.

Zq gonna shows his appreciation and gratitude towards his beloved teachers with sunny sunflower, thanks for their tender loving care over the past year, it has been a great year for all of us and i love his teachers so much as well... They are very attentive and observant, always sharing with me their observations of Zq and his virtues behaviours in class. Zq is lucky to have them. All the best to you teachers! :)