Change for the good.. new year

2010 is genuinely a new year for ya tou as two new changes took place.

First, we transferred her to Shichida school and class started last Sunday. It wasn't our first time to the centre but it looks daunting that day. Hmm.. not sure if it's the 'kiasu parent' syndrome playing tricks, but when you see the swarm of parents filling every space in the centre and babies as young as 3 months old waiting to enter the classrooms, you can't help but feel overwhelmed, or should I admit it.. scared!! I shall not deny this fear may be the manifestation of the kiasu mentality within me. haha.. so much of a unique parent who wants to bring up her child in unique ways.. :( But still, I'm always reminding myself not to let this 'kiasuism' morphed into ugly forms of 'selfishness' or 'competitiveness'.

So much so of my internal struggles.. back to ya tou's first day at Shichida.

Our teacher is Joanna. She is a cheerful and energetic young lady. Contrary to her first day at LNT, ya tou spent much of her time exploring the room at Shichida. During the lesson, she kept picking up the boxes on the floor and bringing them to me (the boxes are for the phonics game). haha.. instead of scolding her, I thanked her. Ya tou did well for the ESP section. She was able to guess correctly the caterpillar hiding inside the watermelon and the rubbish can with sound. What's more, she didn't took long to answer. Good job Zhirui! It was a pleasant surprise! The phonics game was fun too and ya tou did excellent. 

Second, Zhirui has got a new nanny. Zheng tz and family loves Zhirui alot and takes care of her well. SB and I are just worried ya tou may get spoiled becos of the new-showered love and ardor. So we communicated with tz on our discipline standards so that ya tou does not receive conflicting treatments. :)

For the first few days, we notice she's more irritable when she got home. Sort of deduce that it's due to the change in environment. We are still making observations and she settle down and get back to her usual self.

Together with this switch, we are blessed with the joy of having home-cooked dinner after work. Tz has agreed to cater our dinner. Now I'm always looking forward home for the homely dinner spread. :)

First family trip

A place that is not too far (to save journey time) and packed with educational sightseeings to awe Ya tou.. Where on earth can I find such a place??

The first criteria helpfully sieve out faraway lands. I'm much left with Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. The latter two seems a little chaotic, so they were struck off. I finally decided on Desaru of Johor because of its farms and beach.

There was some mad rush.. Initially, i thought Ya tou doesn't need a passport to travel. (In the past it was so, just tag the child's name to the parent's passport.) Just the 1.5 week before departure did I realize it no longer works this way. Thanks to ICA's efficiency, her passport was produced within 5 days.

We took a ferry there instead of driving, hoping to enhance the travelling experience for Ya tou. There she is posing a shot at the jetty with the little (pathetic-looking) ferry at the back.

She wasn't as excited as we'd imagined. But she did enjoy running around the ferry exploring the open deck and enclosed cabin. That's Mummy and Ya tou inside the ferry cabin.

After settling down at the resort, we head off to Desaru Fruit Farm. It has claimed to grow over 100 fruits but the guide only showed us about a tenth-- dragon fruit, breadfruit, jackfruit, passionfruit, banana, custard apple, pineapple, soursop, figs, mangosteen, pumpkin and some herbs. Here are pics of Ya tou with dragonfruit plant and in a herb garden.

Another highlight of this farm is the animal sanctuary. They keep a galore of animals! Ostrich, turkeys, peacocks, eagle, owls, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, monkeys, tortoises, snake and lambs! Ya tou was exhilarated to see static pictures seen on books go live right before her eyes.

Back to our hotel, we took Ya tou swimming. It was a mind-blowing experience for her cos she didn't like water (like Mummy)! It took Daddy a long time coaxing and assuring before she entered the water. Below, Daddy teaching Ya tou how to blow bubbles in the water.

Next morning, we took a walk at the beach. Ya tou timidly retreated when Daddy invited her to play near to the water. She was also quite apprehensive in the beginning when we led her to walk on the beach barefooted. But soon she got used to it and started making more adventurous moves. :)

It was a short 2 days 1 night trip, but it did fulfill our purpose-- to relax and let Ya tou have some fun. Some more pics to say a few more thousands words..

 

    Ya tou 'warming-up' before her swimming class.

   This is inside the wardrobe. Ya tou loves sitting on the short table.

   A children's play room in the resort. Ya tou enjoying herself.

  

Daddy shed blood for Ya tou

Not to complain about how poorly shoes are made nowadays, but it is quite the fact. :P I remember my grandparents telling me how long their pair of shoes usually last-- it is Decades! The second pair of Bubblegummers footwear we bought for Ya tou broke apart within just few weeks' of occasional wear. (erm, it's the 'Pooh bear' picture label that came off..)

Daddy suggested sewing the label back though I rather take the easy way out-- to super-glue it. When it comes to making such domestic decisions, the 'greener' option always win. Sewing is definitely more earth-friendly than buying a super glue which is almost always left to dry up after its first application.

So one fine Sunday afternoon, Daddy spared time out to repair the sandals. His sewing skill is quite remarkable. He can actually use the antiquated 'Singer' sewing machine to mend his clothes, while I confessed that all my Home Economics class sewing work was done by my best friend Lao mong. haha..

The shoe material is quite thick and Daddy had a painful (literally) time piercing the needle through it. He pricked his thunb as a result..

Daddy is also a quick-witted man and thought of using a piece of wooden puzzle to push the needle.

Taa Daa... Done!! Like brand new!!

Picture story "A day at work"-- by Mimi

Hi, my name is Ya tou and I ain't no simple baby. With gloom economic forecast ahead, I'm already helping my Mummy to bring food to the table.

Red bull give you wiings but Milk give me good brains. It's critical for my optimal functioning each day. Support orginality, stamp pirates, go for Mummy's brand.

Behind every successful baby is a great woman. That's my Mummy. She makes sure my power suit is in order while I groom my hair.

 

Always think BIG! This is one great philosophy which I integrate religiously into my life, even in the choice of footwear.

This is my personal vehicle which I take to work. Aunties drool & scream when they see me in my mobile elefant. Cute guys pls stand aside~!

Hey, stop giggling!! I'll show you my 厉害soon! :)

  

Upon reaching office, I'll check my mobile phone for incoming business deals.

I'll get up my chair to get things started. Making calls to clients to foster relationships is crucial to my business.

 

I listen attentively to the needs of my clients and offer my best advice and a competitive quote. Upholding honesty and quality, it's not difficult to close multi-million dollars deals.

Sometimes when clients get unreasonable, it upsets me and I'll shut the phone. The negative energy from them is too much to take.

When the going gets too tough, I seek for a warm hug from Mummy. It always energizes me and keeps me going. "What's a million dollars without you.. Mummy."

 "Me too."

-The End-

Give me real food!

Talking about copy cats, my little ya tou is one true goood species. haha.. I believe it's not just her, but all the little people who are just beginning to learn about this world!

Children just can't help modelling their parents! Therefore, family upbringing is so crucial in building a child's character and values. This is something I always remind myself of, so that I do also 'behave' myself well in front of Zhirui. hehe..

Ya tou has always been curious about (and tempted by) adult food. Erm, the fact is that she just wanna copy us. But with the pathetic teeth population she has (her first pearly white only emerged when she's 13 months), we had to stick her to porridge, porridge and then... porridge. :D

Weeks ago before turning 16 months, she raised a protest against her porridge! Oh well, I would have predicted this day.. So the decision was made to overthrow porridge and institute a new food that's more 'muncheable' and 'adult-ly'.

For Chinese, steamed rice was the obvious choice. We accompanied it with soup. Since Mummy is a Cantonese and a fan of soups, she's quite happy to introduce this delicious liquid to Zhirui. :P

Her diet was to stay as 'virgin' and healthy as possible, so no seasonings were used. The soup contains only the natural flavourings from the ingredients, such as corn, carrots, tomatoes, red dates, beans, beancurds.

"Hmm.. that's more like it!!"

About vaccinations.. Am I the odd parent?

The last time we visited Dr Beardy (affectionately called 'Da Hu Zi Yi Sheng' in mandarin- our family GP) for Ya tou's vaccination, he asked if I wanted to give Zhirui the Chicken pox jab.

I pondered for quite a while. The fact is that I have already got an answer, which is 'No', but wondered if I should reconsider..

He helped to break the silence by informing me that most parents would do so.

"But during my generation, we have been living along with Chicken pox. I mean, it is a common childhood disease and not a threat to life." I provided my point.

GP explained that it saves parents alot of trouble and the child from suffering.

This set me thinking on why this difference in mentality...
SB and I are pro-natural and we try to adopt a natural way of life as much as possible. When Zhirui was still a bean in my womb, we had decided to deliver her naturally, avoid epidural and practise total breast-feeding. (We were quite disturbed when our gynae used a vacuum to assist her birth without seeking our opinion.)

Back to the point on vaccines, perhaps parents nowadays are more eager to protect their children from sickness, germs, suffering. While we try to shield our children from all perceived harms, are we also making them more vulnerable? While we try to alleviate their suffering, would they grow up to be less emphathetic of the less fortunate?

I watched a documentary on acute eczema on children recently. A study was conducted to examine the outcome of a group of eczema-inflicted children after daily play sessions in the garden. Children were exposed to soil and dirt during play. There was considerable improvement in conditions of these children. It concluded that 'squeaky clean' and aseptic environment could have made our bodies less resistant and leading higher occurences of allergies.

Just sharing another school of thought. :) For a path less travelled, it takes a strong belief.

Home alone (in car)

Since Zhirui's last fall from the high chair on a Daddy-less evening, I haven't had feelings of "ants on a hot pan" for some while.. until yesterday..

I was fetching Zhirui home from nanny's place as usual after work. The weather was wet and I had to carry Zhirui on one hand and hold the umbrella on the other. After managing her down onto the passenger seat, I didn't know why I did the following stupid thing: I gave Zhirui my car keys (to play).

Seconds odd after closing the passenger door, I heard a familiar 'BEEP' sound and the deadly 'shutting' sounds of the car locks.

OMG!.. Ya tou has locked the car!! I quickly pull the door handles and true enough and it was the worst I've imagined! How could I be so foolish? I could have known better that Ya tou loves pressing on my car remote key all this while..

I tapped frantically on the windows and signed her to press the unlock buttons on the keys. Think Zhirui got my idea and kept pressing on the button happily. "No Zhirui.. not the big button, press the smaller one.. the one beside." I pleaded her. But she just love the 'locking' button. I prayed hard that she won't drop the keys into some odd corners. There will still be hope if so.

My next resort is to get the spare key. Luckily my house is not far from nanny's. "Ok, will ask nanny to look after Zhirui as I go home to get the spare key." I thought. As these tots reeled thru my mind, Zhirui had dropped the keys onto the seat and moved to the driver's seat to play on the steering wheel.

"Wait a minute, but my home keys are in my bag, which is in the car!!" Oh nooo... So need to wait for SB to get home.. Will Zhirui suffocate in the car by then?!  (Negative breeds negative..).

I borrowed a handphone (hp was in my bag too) from a passer-by and tried calling SB. What can be worse? No reception, he's in the tunnel! Urghh....

Just at this darkest moment, I heard "shutting" sounds of the car lock again, but without a "Beep". As swift as my hands could, I reached for the car handles and pulled. "YES! Thank God! It's opened!"

Zhirui was standing on the passenger seat and stepping on the car keys. Believe her feet had pressed on the 'unlock' button. :)

Lesson learnt: I shall never to leave the car keys with Zhirui alone in the car. Phew...