“Oh, I forgot to draw the on/off button!”

Brain? Heart? Plastic?

This was from Caitlin’s doctor’s set

This was no April Fool’s joke!

This morning in the car ride she’s reminded me that a couple of her teeth now feel wobbly..

I am happy that she is growing, but at the same time I don’t want her to!

You can’t tell in this pic- I should’ve done a before and after shot.

Caitlin complained she can no longer see herself in the mirror when she brushes her teeth.

I have moved it higher now.

They grow so fast….

Yes, I know this is overdue, so overdue that the fortnight of Chinese New Year celebrations are already over.

Just thought I’d share this lovely photo of my two lovely kids.

Grandma bought these outfits for them- trust her (and her taste) to find these treasures. The kids wore these on the first day of the new year. Never mind that Hot Mummee took forever to get them ready and was therefore late coming downstairs to greet and wish everyone- they looked fantastic and everyone ooh and ahh-ed.

Taking these shots of them wasn’t easy. As you can tell it’s not that easy telling a 2 year old boy to stand still, look this way, and smile, while at the same time telling his jie-jie to hold that pose and smile too, waiting for that opportune time of him.

During the few days we were at my parents’ house, one of the nearby neighbours had a lion dance come bless their new house. As this was already Day something-or-other, we weren’t dressed in our best (anymore); in fact it was still rather early in the morning and, well, my hair was still in a mess. Not to let the chance pass, I grabbed the kids and got into the car to search for the origin of the drumbeats.

It was just around the bend. There were scores of other neighbours already, keen to get a good angle of the performance. It was also rather sunny, but I insisted the kids get exposed to this once-a-year cultural performance. I grabbed a brollie and the kids, and started finding a good spot on the road, in the sun. The host auntie owner-of-the-house saw us, “Come! Come inside and watch! It’s okay!” And so we did. It was good timing too cos the crew was just about to start (I don’t know what I heard earlier then- must have been a rehearsal…?)

I found a corner of their living room to stand, a spot where we shouldn’t be blocking the dancing. I was holding Caleb, while Caitlin was beside my left thigh. Caleb hasn’t seen one of these before, being only 2 years old; while Caitlin should be alright.

The dancing started. The opposite of what I was expecting happened. Caleb was staring wide-eyed at the whole thing, poker-faced reactionless, taking in the whole noise of the drums and cymbals and the strange looking creature. Caitlin however was cowering, left thigh, right thigh, face buried in thigh.

Then the big event came. The 10-foot long firecracker was lit. Since it was rather crowded and we were boxed-in where we stood, I used my opposite hand to close Caleb’s far-side ear and pushed his near-side ear against my cheek, covering them from the loud popping of the firecrackers; we were after all only about 20 feet from it. They didn’t flinch, and in fact I think they enjoyed the suspense of it, hearing it and seeing it pop, red paper sprayed into the air by bright flashes.

When it was over, the owner-auntie came and gave all the children ang pau’s, mine included

I have said before that I envy Caleb’s head-shape: Cos this Daddee can never pull off getting a crew cut like this and still look “normal”, instead, likely to even get a chuckle from people at first sight.

This shot was taken under 30min of him having it cut. As you can guess, it was in a major shopping centre. Here we are taking some snaps of the Chinese New Year decor.

Despite minor protests from Hot Mummee, I stand by my decision for this crew cut… And no, this is not a sign of things to come, insofar as fathers imposing their wishes onto their kids! IT’S ONLY A HAIRCUT!

Yup. I made her one…

Well actually she made it; I only drew the lines for her to copy the letters from a real one

If it weren’t for the plastic teapot that gives it away, you’d think (I hope) that he was going through and making notes of some of the white papers I had printed to read.

As one of the *good examples of Caitlin as the jie-jie is setting, Caleb has also taken an interest in doodling too. No that anything he’s “drawn” makes sense, but at least he’s getting the hang of holding a pencil.

Gotta watch him though, I have once caught him putting and chewing a red color pencil in his mouth. I had to warn the others in the house in case they Caleb has a bloody mouth! But I was pretty crossed with him.

*There are quite many which are bad examples set by the older sister, by the way.

At least I also think that’s what it’s called.

But just like Daddee being innocently ignorant about its proper description, Caitlin was referring to her new pair of shoes as the “up down shoes”.

Now you gotta really sit down and think about how she could possibly come up with a name like that. I did, yet still couldn’t work it out; where for a while we were both frustrated that we didn’t know what she was referring to.

Until I sat her down and asked her what up-down shoes.

And she went and got it to show me.

“Why did you call it the ‘up-down shoes’?”

She pointed to the heel. “See Daddee; up?” and pointed to the toe “Down”.

I was showing Caleb some of the videos I have taken; he does seem to like watching them too, and I kinda condone it ‘cos I remind him of who everyone is especially the relatives.

Showed him the tongue action of his jie-jie

He immediately copied what he saw!

And by the way, having the radio going all the time while I drive, Caitlin has taken a liking to this currently popular song.

From a personal perspective, a great deal of how I learned English was also from songs, and “breaking down” the lyrics so that I could sing along (I suppose one also has to like music and singing to learn English this way, even if it’s only in the shower!) So, I found this YouTube clip while I was looking online for the lyrics for Caitlin to sing along too, as well.

My little girl is bobbing like she’s in a moshpit now; well, gentle bobs anyway. Maybe I should have left it for her to work out the lyrics herself too?

I was just going through the photo library on my laptop… and this just occurred to me.

Does this look like a hand of a 4 year old?

Maybe it does to you. To me it looks more like- maybe a 10 year old’s hand.

This was when Auntie Susan and Uncle Jonathan had lunch with us at Dragon-i. These pigs were desert dishes, I think there was lotus paste in them. Quite yummy too.

Woken by the kids, got them some morning snacks, and since it wasn’t too sunny and hot….

Luckily for everyone, Caleb actually likes to push from behind. But it won’t be long though, before he’d be wanting to ride.

Yes, they were still in their jammies. It’s Sunday okay- give us parents a break!

Evening came and it was time to get ready for bed.

Caleb can express his hunger quite audibly / comprehensibly now, by telling us “nan-nan”.

As you can see he’s quite comfortable on the beanbag. Quite a relief for all of us, since we don’t always have to be watching him when he feeds now.

Caitlin, on the other hand, was being rather cheeky about bedtime. Calls to her to go clean her teeth went unanswered.

We found her like this.

Now that’s one way of getting out of doing something. I gotta try that with Hot Mummee one day….

With a lack of toys and an abundance of imagination, Caitlin has had to improvise and make pretend toys to spend (some of) her days. Yes I am a pathetic parent letting my kid endure this.

Her “skills” in improvising seems to have extended into her homework.

See, they are teaching her “long” vowels, like school, food, or, feel, reel, and using a different coloured pencil for these vowels.

You guessed it. In her homework she had decided to first write the letters of the same pencil, and then literally fill in the blanks with the coloured pencil for the vowels.

I guess it gets the job done, I just hope that she will still end up learning the actual word and not finding more efficient ways to complete her writing!

No, I didn’t tell Hot Mummee about this… She may well get Caitlin to redo the whole thing!

Grandma helps with our shopping sometimes, since she has the opportunity as well as one who keeps an eye out for bargains and specials from the big retailers.

Last night there were 3 packs of diapers recently purchased (with one for us to bring home the remaining stays at grandma’s). The kids, getting bored waiting for the adults to get ready for dinner, thought to amuse themselves.

As the bags are plastic, the kids were stacking and riding them. I had to watch them to ensure they don’t slide off backwards, as it so easily would since its so slippery.

This is what Caitlin did, in between being told to be careful.

Gotta hand it to her!

At one stage I did want to try sporting a crew cut.

Call it chicken, call it because-my-hair-is-thinning. It’s because the shape of my head will only make me look (more) silly.

But my son sports it well- the second time proves it wasn’t a fluke

Sigh… Yes- That is drool on his chin…