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Tummy Talk at Bedtime

Tummy Talk at Bedtime

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It’s that time of the day again. Trying to get her to sleep. She’s unusually chatty because she’s trying not to sleep although I could tell that she was really bushed.

宝贝：Mama you have *didi in your tummy.
Me : Yes. That’s right.
宝贝：You were in *popo’s tummy.
Me : Yes. You remembered!
宝贝：But I’ve nothing in my tummy!! (she looked quite upset and her mouth became a huge inverted U.)
Me : Erm.. Well.. You have food in your tummy!! Your dinner!! (I said brightly. To avoid it turning into a tantrum that would disrupt the sleep pattern.)
宝贝：I don’t want food!! I want somebody in my tummy! Like you!
Me : You are still young. Next time when you grow up and become a mommy, you will have someone in your tummy.
宝贝：I don’t want! I want somebody to be in my tummy NOW!
Me : O.o

It escalated into a wail with her chanting “I have nobody in my tummy. I want somebody in my tummy now.” So much for prevention. She eventually fell asleep in the midst of it. Phew.

I knew that I had to explain about the birds and bees one day. But never would I imagine that I have to do it when she’s 3?!

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I told the hub about it when he came home.

Hub : aiya you should have explained to her about the reproductive system and she does have eggs in her. It’s just that they haven’t turned into babies.
Me : At bedtime when she’s about to sleep?! Such a *chim topic!! You must be kidding!! Since your bio is so good, why don’t you go through with her over breakfast tomorrow?!

Duh! Men!!

*didi = little brother
*popo = grandmother
Chim = profound

More of 宝贝’s bedtime stories.

Bedtime Massage

Bedtime Massage

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The lights were out, everything was dark and quiet.

A little voice piped, “Mama! My foot is painful!” A little foot stuck out from the side of the bed.

“What’s wrong with your foot?”

“Pain.. I need a press press.”

“What’s a press press??”

“Like this!” She grabbed her left foot and pressed her sole with her little thumbs.

“Ah… You mean massage. Ok.”

I massaged her left foot very thoroughly. I could see her blissful smile in the moonlight. She sure was enjoying it. “Ok done! You can sleep now.”

“You didn’t scratch it.”

“Scratch?! You mean like this?!” I scratched her sole 2 times with my nails.

“Yes. Now my right foot. Pain!”

Hmmm… It sounded awfully suspicious to me. But I humoured her anyway, finishing it off with the little scratch.

“Why do I need to scratch it??”

“PoPo does it. PaPa also.”

“Hmpppff.. Ok” Weird I thought to myself.

“My hands.”

I did a quick one on both her palms.

“My face! Need forehead massage”

“Are you sure Papa and PoPo do this before bedtime?!?!”

She nodded.

Sigh.

Face massage.

“Mama. Now tummy!”

“Tummy?!” It’s never ending!! I rubbed her round tummy and ended it with a scratch.

“Nose, mama!”

“No one does nose massage!!! How do you do nose massage?!”

“Like this!” She squeezed her little button nose between her thumb and index finger.

“No I’m not going to do that! You are going to sleep now!!”

“Papa does it!!”

“Nonono! Sleep or you will miss your party tomorrow!!”

Later, in the evening I asked the hub incredulously,” Do you give her full body massage before bedtime, including her nose?!”

“Of course not. I only pat her on her tummy occasionally.”

DARN! Taken for a ride for a 3 year old!! Hmpf!! >.<

More of 宝贝’s bedtime stories.

宝贝 the Chinese Flasher

宝贝 the Chinese Flasher

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We have plenty of flashcards – Chinese, English and even the maths dotted ones. We used to flash them at 宝贝 when she was just a few months old.

Now that she’s quite old we have stopped the flashing. (quite a while back actually, more due to the lack of time.) Instead, we try to devise games that make use of them. Why waste them since we have them anyway??

She recognizes quite an impressive number of words for her age, more Chinese characters than English words. All through the sheer diligence of my Mom who has been spending 1 hour of “classroom” time with her every day. I have been slacker in that aspect with her English vocabulary.

She likes playing these word games. This is one of the simpler ones. I jumbled up the Chinese characters and made her arrange them in ascending order.

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宝贝 hard at work. Hehe

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Progressing well…

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Sitting back, admiring her own work, feeling very pleased with herself.

I made her arrange them in descending order. From 10 to 1. Then we did some simple maths sums. Like what’s 3+3? Sums that add up to 10. I asked in English and she picked the relevant Chinese characters up.

That’s how we spent a leisurely afternoon.

宝贝 – Floating Like A Starfish

宝贝 – Floating Like A Starfish

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It has never occurred to me that floating on the water can be so difficult. I’ve been totally at ease in the water for as long as my memory goes.

You need to be absolutely confident in the water (knowing that you won’t drown), get over the insecurity of not having someone’s hand supporting any part of your body. And of course, totally relax your body so that you can adjust your weight distribution to achieve the feeling of weightlessness in the water.

I’ve seen adults flounder in the water. Maybe it’s much easier for children who are still fearless and free of burdens at the back of their minds.

Here’s my little one, overcoming her fears, floating with ease in the pool.

My little starfish…

宝贝’s Cookie Wookie

宝贝’s Cookie Wookie

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“BOO!”

宝贝’s vanilla butter cookie from her cookery class. She said it’s modelled after her own face with her sticking out her tongue. :p

Haha. That’s so her! She sticks out her tongue when she’s concentrating on something.

宝贝’s Show and Tell

宝贝’s Show and Tell

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宝贝 has to do a show-and-tell twice each week; once in English and once in Mandarin, according to the theme of the week. Last week was purple week. So she needed to bring a purple object for each session.

I’m the English show and tell Oic. Initially we rehearsed the short little session over the weekend. She just needed to make a speech of 1-3 sentences. Yes, not those 5 mins session kind. Can’t expect too much from toddlers younger than 3!! As time goes by, I just look for something adhering to the theme and give it to her. Lazy…

The first purple object that I set my eyes on was her swimming goggles. “Would you like to bring your goggles to school for show and tell??” She agreed. Nowadays we have to get her approval so that she would willingly do it. Sigh. Kids nowadays…

Me : Can you demonstrate how you did your show and tell in school yesterday?
宝贝：ok. (she slipped the goggles over her head and over her eyes).
Me : hang on. You wore your goggles?!
宝贝：Ya. (I must start saying yes instead of ya. She’s picking it up from me. =.=”) Good morning friends! My name is Yihui. I have purple goggles. This is how I swim. (she “swam” around the room in breast stroke.) Thank you everyone!

Hmmm… Ok. Considering that I didn’t rehearse with her. Not too bad. I didn’t expect her to put on the goggles. She looked quite hilariously in them with her school uniform. Hahaha.

My mom is the Chinese oic. She’s much more hardworking than I am. She would rehearse with 宝贝 every single time. She brought a toy brinjal for it.

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婆婆 （grandma)：今天的看看说说怎么样？（how’s today’s show and tell?)
宝贝：婆婆，很好。(very good)
婆婆：你怎么说？(what did you say?)
宝贝：大家好！我的名字是梁懿慧。这是紫色的。很好吃。它可以开又关，开又关。谢谢大家！(hi everybody! My name is Liang Yi Hui. This is purple and yummy. It can open and close, open and close.)
婆婆：为什么你没有介绍茄子？为什么开又关？(why didn’t you introduce it as the brinjal? And what’s with the open and close?)
宝贝：哦！我忘了它的名字。开又关是这样咯！(oh I forgot its name. Open and close refers to this)(she demonstrated by pulling the brinjal apart at the Velcro joint and putting it back together again)
宝贝：老师说我很棒！(Teacher said I did well!!)(grinning from ear to ear)

Last minute improvisation to cover up her brinjal boo boo.

Maybe all that presentations, seminars that I did while I was pregnant really contributed to her pre natal education. She was hearing my voice like 75% of the whole day!! Yadda yadda!! I talked so much that I even got tired of talking… =.=”

So if you want a talkative child, talk a lot when you are pregnant!!!

Miss Unconventional

Miss Unconventional

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宝贝 finally completed one of her art pieces yesterday. She has 2 more uncompleted work – pictures of a fish and a ship. I must be guilty of passing these faulty genes to her. I’ve 101 projects that I’ve started but are still pending completion. *guilty look*

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Ta Da!! Her Children’s Day (which was last Friday) t-shirt. She can wear it next year as it’s really big on her. I’ve seen all the children carrying their T-shirts out of the room yesterday. She was holding hers gingerly at the top as the fabric paint hadn’t quite dried.

宝贝：I did it all on my own!! (she announced proudly) I’ll carry it home myself.

Me : Great. Just don’t dirty the car or I’ll make you clean it up. By the way, why’s your Dolly’s hair red?? All your friends’ dollies have black hair.

宝贝：I like red hair! (I can just picture her dying her hair red as soon as she comes of age. >.< )

Me : Errr ok. But aren't the buttons too big for the face? (the eyes I've seen on other tshirts were made of smaller buttons or sequins). And she looks like someone punched her in the eye.

宝贝：Big eyes can see better!!! That's the makeup. And she's wearing a dress.

Me : =.=" (I can just imagine her with red hair and gothic style make up in future. Maybe I can help her with that for the upcoming Halloween party…)

Having said that I could notice that she had painstakingly stuck the red wool strands in two directions. The dolly even had a centre parting. And the cloth bits were arranged in the same direction to resemble a skirt, complete with a sequined belt. Her zombie looking doll kind of grew on me after a while. :p

After all, she's right. Why conform to the norm? Why does the sky have to be always coloured in blue? Why does the grass have to be green? Why does the dolly have to look like a regular girl? She can be a zombie for all I care!

Adults like us have too many rules and conventions that we live by and we have forgotten how it's like to think out of the box and to be different from others.

I hope creativity continues to thrive in my quirky little one. Maybe she will paint the grass pink next time!!

I Feel so Touched… T.T

I Feel so Touched… T.T

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The hub is in India for a few days on business. In the middle of the first night, I heard someone tip toe into my room. I turned around and saw 宝贝 climbing stealthily up my bed, clutching her little bolster. She hasn’t come to my room in the middle of the night for months.

She said “mama” in a soft voice and snuggled against me.

The next day, she told grandma about it.

宝贝 ：爸爸在印度。妈妈自己睡。(Daddy is in India. Mama was sleeping alone.)
婆婆：哦！ 是吗？(ohh, really?)
宝贝：嗯。所以我陪妈妈睡。(yes. So I went to her room to accompany her) *she beams*

Awwww…. I am so touched!! I must be the luckiest mom on Earth. Where can I find a sweeter and more sensitive little girl than her??

My darling with her orange carrot juice mustache.

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宝贝 – The *Ge Tai Singer

宝贝 – The *Ge Tai Singer

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宝贝 has been in a singing mood lately.  She hums to herself or launches into a gusto tune, whichever suits her at that point of time.

She was playing with her puzzle when she suddenly decided that the room was too quiet and she needed to jazz up the mood a little.

十八的姑娘一朵花呀 (English Translation: A lady at eighteen years blooms like a flower)

一朵花 (like a flower)

每个男人都想他呀 (Every man thinks of her)

都想他 (thinks of her)

姑娘长大不得了呀 (When she grows up, she will be incredible)

不得了 (incredible)

粉色的笑脸 (Pink smiling face)

粉色笑脸赛晚霞 (Pink smiling face like the colour of dusk)

啊 姑娘十八一朵花 (A lady at eighteen blooms like a flower)

一朵花 (like a flower)

Whaaat???!! Her “Every man thinks of her” stunned me…. This song is one of the oldies (aka my parent’s era).  Although I don’t really know the lyrics of the entire song, but it certainly didn’t sound very right to me… In fact it sounded a little “r-rated” to me, considering that it’s from a 3 yr old.

Me : Who taught you this song??

宝贝： 婆婆. (Grandma)

Me: Are you sure you are singing it correctly?!

宝贝： Of course! (rolled her eyes at me. She ROLLED her eyes at moi?!!) Following which, she did another heart wrenching rendition of the song… with her head swaying from side to side.

Unconvinced, I googled the song… this is the correct version of the song.  It certainly is very very different from the version she’s singing.

十八的姑娘一朵花 (A lady at eighteen blooms like a flower)

一朵花 (like a flower)

眉毛弯弯眼睛大 (arched eyebrows with large eyes)

眼睛大 (large eyes)

红红的嘴唇雪白牙 (with lips bright red and teeth snow white)

雪白牙 (teeth snow white)

粉色的笑脸 (Pink smiling face)

粉色笑脸赛晚霞 (Pink smiling face like the colour of dusk)

啊 姑娘十八一朵花 (A lady at eighteen blooms like a flower)

一朵花 (like a flower)

See! I knew it! My mom has been teaching 宝贝 “r-rated” songs!! What happened to nursery rhymes and children’s songs??? Sigh… Meanwhile 宝贝 is still singing in the foreground like a *”ge tai” singer.  I hope the neighbours have their earplugs on.

*ge tai = 歌台.  Typically during the 7th month, many ge tais performances are staged all over Singapore.  “to entertain the spirits” The ge tai singers typically sing oldies, hokkien songs etc.

For the original version of the song, please click on this youtube…

 

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After running through the entire song, I realised that the lyrics were indeed correct!! It’s just that they belong to the next stanza. So she’s mixed and matched the lyrics from all 3 stanzas… =.=”

宝贝-The Discipline Mistress

宝贝-The Discipline Mistress

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Early in the morning…

宝贝: Has *Didi been kicking you?
Me: Erm no. I think he’s still sleeping.
宝贝 (nodding her head, patting The Tummy gently) : GOOD job!
Hmmm… The Tummy felt very pleased from her praise…

While I was reading to her,

Me: Owww!
宝贝: what happened??
Me: He kicked me.
宝贝 (with a very stern look at The Tummy, hands on her waist): YOU are NOT listening. BAD job!
The Tummy felt thoroughly chastised.

I felt like I was the 3rd party intruding in her conversation with The Tummy. =.=”

*Didi = Little Brother