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Lapbooking

Lapbooking

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I’m trying to migrate my data from my old laptop to my new one and it’s taking unbelievably long. Now I remember why I hate changing laptops. So while I’m twiddling my thumbs, I may as well do some blogging.

I have been reading up on homeschooling. Not that I’m going to homeschool 宝贝, I simply don’t have the time, resources and patience to do it. But I thought I could take a page out of it and do it with her whenever I have the time. One interesting activity that homeschoolers usually do, is lap booking. It’s usually based on a certain topic, that’s of current interest to the child and she needs to create the book herself, based on research, under the guidance of the teacher (parent in this matter). I like the idea. Because I believe that children (for that matter, anyone, including adults) learn better when they find out the information themselves, through their own methods.

And I kind of like scrapbooking myself. Heheh. Although I never got around to doing it. But Lapbooking looks very similar to scrapbooking.

So I searched online on scrapbooking. I will post the links I have found at the end of the post. Most of the material are tailored for the older children. And when the children are older, it’s actually more open ended. For example, if the child is interested in the solar system, the parents bring him to the science center to gather information or he will be able to find the information from the internet. After information gathering, he needs to put them together in a logical manner on the lap book. And of course, if he’s particularly artistic, he can design the layout and presentation to his own satisfaction. At the end of the day, he will have a lap book that is wholly done by him (it reminds me of my final year thesis… which is of a much dryer topic), and he’s able to refer to it in future. But, if he has made it himself, he usually will be able to remember the facts and information.

But for toddlers, it’s much harder. She’s almost 3 and can hardly surf the net or gather information herself. There are fewer things that can be done with them. There are actually activities books in the market that are meant for her age and learning level. Although she’s doing them, but I’m not sure if she really remembers them at the end of the day. It’s more like a “ok, i’ve finished this book, next…” kind of thing. So one way would be to mutilate the activity books, form your own material and then guide her through the entire process.

I started her off with an “A” book. Everything to do with As. It took the whole afternoon although it looked pretty elementary… I bought construction paper from the book shop, a toddler scissors, prepared her coloring pencils, crayons, pens, glue, and printed everything to do with As on paper.

I told her that we were going to make a book. She was really enthusiastic about it. She loves artwork of all kinds… She set there, brandishing her new scissors, eagerly waiting for me to dish out activities for her to do. We started off by sorting the As in big and small caps. A piece of cake for her as she knew it long time ago, but she found it fun, because the As were printed in different fonts. (top left hand corner of the book). I just wanted to start her off with an easy activity. Then I cut out a huge apple for her and she used her A chops to beautify it. We also did an alligator poem, but she didn’t look too interested in it though… Alligators aren’t exactly the cutest A creature on Earth. And of course, words that start with the letter A. After that, I wrote the words on flash cards and stuck them on her magnetic wall board and she’s supposed to teach every adult in the house the words (she loves being the teacher…). Then the tracing of the letter As (she stuck them on the back of the book, so it’s not in the picture). She looked really comical when she was looking very serious while tracing the letters.

Finally she arranged her material nicely on the lap book in the order that she would like to stick them in. She applied the glue stick generously over the bits of paper and over my poor wooden table, and stuck them coherently (pretty good for her age) on the book. Her end product —

She wrote the word apple herself… quite illegible, but I’m confident that she will just get better. :)

The final touch –

She proudly printed her name (in her best handwriting) on the front of the book.

There! Voila! The finished product. She’s been pestering me to do a “B” book with her every since…. Sigh.. I need to prepare the material, set aside one afternoon and do it together with her. I’m also planning to increase her letter A vocabulary by printing out pictures and words that start with A… So much to do and so little time… When I get around with the B book, I will post some pictures on it…

There are many links out there. Just do a google…Interesting Lapbooking links :

www.handsofachild.com

www.homeschoolshare.com

www.lapbooking101.com

Breakfast Art

Breakfast Art

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宝贝 is a true blue carbo baby. She loves noodles, rice, bread, pasta ….. All the energy giving but non nutritious stuff. Much to the delight of the older folks. They think that I starve her by giving her little rice and loads of veggie, meat, fruits etc. *roll eyes* A starving toddler at 14.7kg at one month short of 3 years old?! You must be kidding me.

Anyway she’s more inclined to eat something that she’s made so here’s something simple n fun for breakfast.

Rainbow Crackers

2 pieces of wholemeal high fibre crackers
1 slab of cream cheese. (she loves the cow brand – whatever you call it)
Lots of dried fruits like cranberries (you can vary them because of their colours)
Lots of dried nuts and seeds (almond, macadamia, pumpkin seeds etc)

Spread a thick layer of cheese on the crackers. Let her decorate the crackers with the colourful fruits and nuts. Easy peasy. Simple to make and prepare. She gets to prepare it creatively and the best thing is… Because she prepared it, she usually eats it all up without much persuasion or coercion!

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Into the Toddler’s World of Art

Into the Toddler’s World of Art

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A toddler’s mind knows no bounds.  She never fails to surprise me with her creative antics.  She’s not very mainstream. I like to think that it’s because of the lack of influence from the goggle box.  Though some people tell me that I’m an extremist.  Yes…. almost 3 years old and she’s still on a tv ban.  She doesn’t miss it, neither does she ask for it.  I will probably write about this in another post.

She occupies herself with reading, playing play doh, chopping up vegetables into unsightly cubes, riding her strider, playing uno etc.

This was one of her Play-Doh efforts when she was 2.5 years of age.

To me, they just looked like lumps of… well, Play-Doh.  But it’s a whole new animal world for her.  They didn’t look too impressive, but she did spend quite a lot of them “sculpting” them.  To her, they were a fish, an elephant, a chicken, a giraffe and an ant.  At first thought, she was probably just dishing out the names on the spot.  So I asked her again,”Can you tell me what this is?” (Pointing to the chicken.) “Mommy, chicken!” Hmm.. ok… “What about this one?” (Pointing to the fish) “Fish…”  She was giving me the were-you-paying-attention-to-me-when-I-named-them-just-now kind of look. Hey! She’s pretty consistent!! They all looked the same to me, but she could tell the difference.  Well, it’s her artwork after all.  So she did sculpt according to images, although her fine motor skills probably weren’t advanced enough yet. I was pretty amused by it all.

I kept wanting to enrol her in an art class, so that she could do her messing around with better instructions.  I am not too artistically inclined, my art at school was mainly passable but never Van Gogh standard, ok ok that was too much to ask for… make that never “A” kind of standard.  I finally got around to putting her in a trial class with Little Artist’s at Mandarin Gardens.  She was terribly excited at the thought of it. On that day, she was the one fussing, reminding us to bring her for art class.  Her class was meant for ages 2.5-6 and unaccompanied.  She went through the door, said “hi” to the teacher, put on her apron and didn’t even look back. (unfilial girl!!!)  I was still busy hovering around at the glass door, trying to see if she could adapt to it.  She was already fully focused on drawing something with a pencil, with her tongue slightly sticking out at the corner of her lips.

When I came back to pick her up, this was what was presented to me… She was mighty proud of it.

Huh?! “Did the teacher help you draw this???”

“No! I did it myself!” (looking a little offended)

“She didn’t draw just a little bit???”

“Only a little bit here and here” (Pointing to the bottom part of the top 2 wings)

“That’s all??”

She nodded her head.

Wow! I was kind of blown away.  It’s not fantastic, but it kind of exceeded my expectation.

The teacher gave an account of what she could do and couldn’t do so that if she’s transferred to another class, a report would be sent to the permanent teacher so that she could progress from there.

“She can follow instructions really well. When I pointed in a clockwise direction and she actually drew the round circle according to the size indicated by my finger. Same goes for the wings.  She couldn’t draw the wings very well, but when I pointed 2 slanting lines and told her to join them with a letter C, she did it perfectly.  She wanted to colour everything green and blue though.”

“Oh, Green and blue are her favourite colours.”

“Ah, that explains it. When I asked her what colour she wanted for the sky, she said green. I didn’t want to limit her creativity by asking her to change the colour.  I asked her what colour for the grass, she thought for a while and decided to use blue for the sky and green for the grass.  She wanted to paint the body blue again, but I told her that it wouldn’t show against the blue sky so she changed it to pink.  She chose all the colours herself.  Her brush control is quite good for a 3.5 years old as most of the toddlers at this age can’t hold their brushes properly and are not able to draw at places indicated.”

“Erm, she’s not 3 yet.”

“Not 3?! I thought she’s almost 4!”

“She eats a lot….” =.=”

“Oh, usually I let the ones who are 3 years and below do printing because they are not able to control the brushes well. I will make an indication that she’s able to control the brush so that the next teacher knows her level of competency.”

I think all those writing practices my Mom did with her at home kind of paid off… She’s now eagerly asking when’s her next lesson, she wants to draw a cat…

This is her latest “creation”.

She suddenly announced that she was hungry, and wrapped a little plastic stand in tissue paper.  She found her xylophone stick and asked my Dad to tie it to her messy wrapped stand with rubber band…

“Nom Nom Nom… ice cream!!”

Some people think it’s because I deprived her of eating ice creams that she had to resort to make believe ice creams with tissue paper… Sigh.. my fault again..  At least she’s able to create what she wants…

Though her creations aren’t prodigally fantastic, and she probably won’t turn out to be a professional artist, but I like to think that her unlimited imagination and ability to use material at hand to create her little world, will aid her well when she grows up.
I hope that we are teaching her how to fish and not doing all the  fishing for her.  She’s growing up beautifully… my 宝贝…

Weekend Lunch for 宝贝 – Pasta Carbonara (my own concoction)

Weekend Lunch for 宝贝 – Pasta Carbonara (my own concoction)

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The last 10 posts were all about 宝贝. For a I-can’t-stand-kids to become an obsessed mother, I just can’t help it! But then again, I’m not too keen to play with other children still.

She probably loves weekend meals – dining outside and a change from her regular Mon-Fri porridge. Dining outside = condiments!!! That’s why she loves it. She probably gets herself a 2nd helping during her school snack time. =.=” Although I don’t add condiments to her home cooked meals, she’s not a very picky eater.

Her weekend meal this round : Pasta Carbonara (mushroom and fish), grilled asparagus and tomatoes

Well Grilled asparagus and tomatoes was pretty straight forward… Just grill lar!!

As for pasta carbonara, I memorized the recipe from a cook book somewhere (hehe… yes you are right. I’m one of those cheapo people who browse cookbooks at the bookshops and memorize the recipes… *guilty look* But it’s not easy to memorize recipes ok!!) once upon a time. I just didn’t add the herbs etc. So it’s more like a simplified, watered down version.

I used home made pasta. Just boil them for 15 mins (these are rather hard… so I boiled them for 20 mins). Usually I add in a pinch of salt and oil, but not for her. Like what I mentioned, she’s not picky anyway!!

While the pasta is cooking, to save time, start cooking the sauce! I fried the fish a little, breaking it into little pieces in the pan. Next went the diced fresh mushrooms. When they were cooked, I added the fresh milk and simmered it a little. Not too long or it would start to curdle. Beat in an egg (I used a quail’s egg as the portion was pretty small). Just mix the whole stuff together. Let it cook for a little while. The pasta should be ready. Drain it and pour it into the mixture and let it cook a little. I used to just scoop out the pasta and put it in cold water to stop it from cooking itself further. Then put them on the plate and just ladle the sauce over them. But I have seen the professionals cooking the pasta a little with the sauce before presenting them on the plate. I tried it and found that it truly tasted different. The pasta was simply more yummy. So Monkey see, monkey do lor…

There you go! Pasta Carbonara with grilled asparagus and tomatoes!!

A Giraffe and a Camel?!

A Giraffe and a Camel?!

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Wanted to share this because I found it pretty hilarious…

宝贝 was holding the leash of her toy camel and dragging it around the living room.  She does that quite often all the time, pretending that she’s walking her dog.. =.=” But this time, seated on her camel was a …. giraffe?!

Me : What are you doing? Why is the giraffe sitting on the camel??

宝贝: We are taking a walk and the giraffe is tired…. so it’s riding the camel.

Me : (ah ok…) Where are you going to?

宝贝: We are going to Shop n Save (there’s a shop n save about 5 mins walk away.  My dad brings her there quite often for grocery shopping.) to buy pears.

Me : O.o

I felt so tickled by the sight of the giraffe on the camel and her most unusual story…. My girl is growing up, she brings her pets shopping for pears!!

Home Alone with 宝贝

Home Alone with 宝贝

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It has been a while since I last spent time alone in the house, by myself (it has become a myth since her Highness’ grand arrival). And also some time alone with her, just the 2 of us. I took the day off from work as my Mom, who is her primary caregiver, has gone on a short 3 day holiday – Fri to Sun. A very well deserved one, as she has already retired from the working world and should spend her golden years enjoying herself.

The whole house to myself! WOW! After sending 宝贝off to her 1/2 day school, it was spent eating a leisurely breakfast, catching up on my backlog of newspapers, a few chapters of a book that I have taken almost forever to finish, surfing the net a little and then.. it’s gone!! She’s going to be home in 1 hour!

Time to prepare her lunch. Ah.. something different from her usual boring fare of porridge. Hmm.. I don’t really have that many exciting ingredients in my refrigerator. :( I remembered reading my friend’s post on pop corn chicken for kiddos. Argh! I can’t find that post on the recipe! Nevermind, I just had to improvise from memory and rummaged for ingredients in the fridge.

I’m still putting her on a no seasoning home cooked diet. We bent the rules when we eat out. The great thing about 宝贝 is that she eats food with or without seasoning. That accounts for her hefty weight. Hehe. I came up with chicken thigh, some cornflakes, egg, milk, shredded mozzarella cheese… Ok.. good enough..

Zhiwei’s very own corn flake, cheese chicken strips!

Cut the chicken thigh into small strips, just big enough for her to hold with her fingers and eat in 2 bites.

Crush the cornflakes into powder form (Not exactly powder but small enough to be used as a coating)

Mix the cornflakes with the shredded mozzarella cheese.

Beat the egg with some milk.

Dip the chicken strips into the egg and coat it liberally with the cornflake cheese mix.

Lay them evenly on a baking tray.

Bake them in the oven at 220 degrees C, for 15 mins.

And Voila!!

Zhiwei’s Cornflakes Cheese Chicken Strips! I tried one myself, it’s nice and crispy even without any seasoning. Because the cornflakes and the cheese are good enough.

Together with baked cherry tomatoes, heated up some spinach, I used the rest of the cornflakes cum cheese cum egg to make scrambled egg, the chicken strips, all in a plate. It looked quite a lot to me, in fact, more than what I usually eat… But she cleaned it up… And declared that she loved the chicken strips and patted her round tummy.

It’s so nice to have a glutton for a daughter. :)

Angry Birds have Invaded My House! Help!!

Angry Birds have Invaded My House! Help!!

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A picture speaks a thousand words, not to mention TWO pictures…

For someone who doesn’t watch the television, she sure knows all the famous characters like Angry Birds, Mickey Mouse and friends, Winnie the Pooh, Pororo, Doraemon etc

I came home to find all her angry birds stickers all over her chest of drawers… One consolation – at least they were not on the wall.  Where did she get the stickers from?? Mystery solved – the doctor gave them to her when she visited him for a visit yesterday for a running nose, because she greeted him “Doctor, 早安！”

If only everyone one I say good morning to, will buy stuff from me, I’d be blogging all day and not once a day!  Maybe I should bring her along when I meet the clients.. Hmm.. idea…

She’s been coming home with freebies and all, it’s time to teach her not to accept gifts from strangers… She came home with a cow coin bank, given to her by the NTUC cashier because she greeted her and smiled at her… Many angry bird stickers and erasers from the dentist and doctor she visited. I brought her to Marina Barrage to exercise her legs, she came back with balloons and sweets from the picnickers… and some other little incidents

I should bring her to condo launches, maybe she will come back with a free house?! *V*

Strider – Cool Invention!

Strider – Cool Invention!

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“Hey! I’m getting the Strider, it’s a new balance bike!”
“Strider??? What the heck is that?? She’s only 2 years old leh… can ride bike meh??”

That was when I first heard about the Strider. Ok.. 1st thing 1st.. Google it… Hmm… Looks interesting.

Parents usually put their children on the training wheels before progressing to the normal bicycle. However, the training wheels actually impede the learning process. Because, being able to ride the bicycle is all about balancing and children only learn how to pedal (which is not too difficult to pick up) and not how to balance. So in comes the Strider – the balance bicycle.

Notice anything special about it? Haha. I get asked this question all the time whenever I bring her out. Where are the pedals!? Yes. No pedals. It makes use of pure kinetic energy (pushing the bike with feet, hehe). The seat is adjusted to the height at which 宝贝 can comfortably put both feet down to balance herself if she thinks she’s falling over. And the center of gravity is low enough to make sure that she doesn’t hurt herself. And of course the stylo-milo helmet helps. Doesn’t she look professional. *grin*

Well that’s her present for her 2nd Birthday in September 2011. We seldom buy toys for her. All her toys are hand-me-downs and she’s perfectly happy playing with them. So this is her first real big toy and quite an extravagant one. But I figured, if she can balance, she will be able to cycle, ski, skate and do all forms of balancing sports. *wu Hua ah!! (I’m secretly planning for a ski trip and leave papa behind! ho ho ho!)

She started off in September 2011 like this ….

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbzK-LzKYAE]

Hehe… crawling like a snail.. But I like to think that she’s building up her muscles…

The shop (The Little Bike Shop) that brought in the Strider even created a Strider community where we frequent the various parks in Singapore. Children put in more effort when they see others doing better than them in the same thing. You will still see the huge bunch of us at these places – East Coast Park, Pasir Ris Park, Botanical Gardens etc. It gave her lots of practice!!

One of the photos taken at East Coast Park, during one of the outings. Notice the little boy behind on the Orange Strider?

3 months down the road… She has improved tremendously. She can now glide a short distance!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxkU2jgAk7o]

6 months from the day she received the strider…

She can now balance very very well on the strider and that’s down a gentle slope!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1pdl-gNh_o]

She’s now at total ease on her strider.  Stride, glide and even maneuver a turn! Almost ready for a full fledge bicycle.. Except that I don’t think I’m ready to chase her when she’s on a real bicycle.  I will need to train up more to run after her! Pant.. pant…  Ah.. I can see us doing all kinds of balance sports together… skiing, rollerblading etc…

So it’s possible to ride a bicycle by the age of 2 and a half! Way to go, 宝贝! Skiing next!! I just have to figure out where and when…. :p

*Wu Hua ah! = worth it!

宝贝has money!

宝贝has money!

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宝贝：I’ve a hat. Mama has a hat but Papa has no hat.
Me : ohhh poor Papa!
宝贝：宝贝 will buy a hat for papa!
(Papa visibly melting with gratitude)
Me : Do you have money?
宝贝：yes!
Me : where??? (expecting her to say that it’s in her piggy bank at home)
宝贝：(giving me her innocent look) in Papa’s pocket. My money is there!!

Looks like she’s turning out to be quite a good money manager. (everyone’s money belongs to her!) I don’t have to worry about her future. Phew!!

宝贝’s 1st Dental Visit

宝贝’s 1st Dental Visit

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She brushes her teeth 3x a day.  I had wanted to bring her on her first dental visit on her 2nd birthday after hearing all the horror stories from my friends about their toddlers having tooth decays before the age of 3.  Ya.. *Kiasu Mom over here. But the images of my niece’s 2 pearly white front teeth reduced to 2 black thin stumps remain vivid in my mind.  But everyone was advising me against it as she may develop dental phobia if she’s put on the operating, I mean, dental chair too early.

I’m a victim of dental phobia.  Even now, I still get gripped by occasional bouts of fear when I’m on the dental chair.  The incident that caused it is “life-changing”.  I remember being taken to a polyclinic, because my molars were killing me (literally!!) Thank goodness they were my first teeth.  I was put on the dental chair and a dentist (later I found out that he’s an understudy) came up to me with this fat needle and syringe! (It was the fattest needle I had ever seen in all 7 years of my life, at that time). He poked it into my gums and ouchhhhh!!!!! to inject the anesthesia.  There were like 2 people over me, holding me down. Sounds like some child abuse horror movie?! The next thing I know, he took out a huge pair of pincers, gripped my decayed molar and tried to rip it out!!! For some reason, he couldn’t extract it, so he was turning and twisting it in my mouth!!!! With me screaming and struggling to get out!! Finally it broke into pieces and he extracted it with 2 other people holding me down this time.  I swear I had nightmares that night and my mouth swelled up like a puffer fish for 2 whole weeks. He ought to be jailed and shot!!! HMPF!!!

My mom swore not to bring me to a polyclinic anymore, but the damage was done.  The next time I needed a dental check up, she brought me to a private clinic.  I was put on the dental chair (darn! I hate that chair!) while the dentist prepared the tools of torture (Oops! I mean of his trade).  With the spotlight glaring at me, the shiny tools twinkling, all the nightmarish images came back to me.  I jumped out of the chair, flung the door open and took off in record high speed!! (I was never good at short distance running but that was for self-preservation!!) Everyone was taken aback by surprise and they caught up with me about 500m away and dragged me back to the clinic. Awww.. So much for the great escape.  No amount of coercion and cajoling could get me back in without struggling. So they gave up.  Finally I had to go back because of the pain from the toothache. So now, it’s a matter of which had a higher degree of pain. Sigh…  I got through it but with a lot of cold sweat and shivering.

My current dentist is really good. He gives me tissue boxes to grip and tear to relieve the fear and talks non-stop to me.  But still… the fear lingers

I’d never put 宝贝through that. My dentist advised me to prep her up for it before the visit and to bring her favorite soft toy for comfort.  So I did my prepping and motivational gag on her.

Me: 宝贝！Mama is going to bring you for a dental visit.

宝贝：Dental Visit? (She’s parroting everything I say nowadays)

Me: Yes.  I’m going to bring you to Dr Tan, who is a dentist and he’s going to give you beautiful white teeth.  You are going to sit on a fun chair, wear huge goggles and he’s going to use an electric toothbrush on you.  You are going to be so pretty after that! (Appealing to her vanity sometimes works.) Would you like that?? It’s going to be so fun!!

She nodded agreeably.

We had to wait for a while for our turn.  More prepping outside the door until she got so excited about it that she kept asking when’s her turn.  (fingers crossed… good sign). It’s our turn!!

She was put on the dental chair.

Dentist : Where’s her soft toy??

Me: Erm… oops.. forgot to bring it! (Bad Mama!! But in reality, she’s hardly a soft toy person.) Dentist gave me a “tsk tsk” look.

Dentist : Check out this chair! It’s a space chair! It can go up and down, forward and back! (He made the chair go up and down.  She looked quite amused by it. Seemed like things were going really well at the point.)

(He gave her a model of the mouth and teeth and explained all the terms like canine, pre molar, molar etc… and what he was going to do.  She listened silently, as usually)  Look at this light? It’s really fun! (Switched the light on and off) (Gave her a mirror). The light enables you to see your teeth clearly!! If you turn the mirror over, your teeth become twice the size!! (She fiddled with the mirror) (Showed her the little dental mirror) I will be using this little mirror to look at your teeth! You can see me doing that with your mirror!

There she is! Looking at herself in her little mirror.  Looking totally “unglam” with the tissue box sandwiched between her legs.  But at least she didn’t look traumatized.

Dentist : Let’s put on some cool goggles, shall we??

Haha! In her oversized yellow goggles!

Dentist : (held her hand over the spray) Press this! See! Water comes out from here to clean your teeth! And you can even blow air! Now I’m going to clean your teeth with an electric toothbrush!!

She was silent throughout the entire thing.  (What’s new… she’s always very quiet around people she’s new to.)  It all went without a hitch.

There she is! Relaxing after the cleaning.  With a *cigar* in her mouth.  Sigh.. Looks like an *Ah Lian.

When we got home, she was gushing over the “space chair”, the spray, the Dentist, the everything to Grandma!! I’m relieved that it’s turned out to be an awesome experience for her, instead of a traumatic one like mine.  She was flashing her white pearlies to everyone with pride and looking forward to the next dental visit. :)

*Kiasu = Afraid of losing out to others

Ah Lian = female gangster