A fine day @ Haw Par Villa with Popo Gong Gong

The day started with breakfast nearby and no taxis willing to take us there. It was quite cloudy here. All taxis were either changing shifts or refused to take us there. I saw one particular taxi circling Woodlands Ring Road, stopping to ask where passengers were going, then moving on again. I should take a photo and STOMP him.

Popo had to use the toilet, so we went home, and I continued trying to book a cab using the My Taxi Booking app. Finally! A cab, at our doorstep!

We were down in 5 minutes. During the ride, parts of Clementi were raining cats and dogs. I was having second thoughts, but had backup plan. If it rained there, we'd hang around the Westway building until the rain subsided. Thankfully, it didn't rain there, instead it was pleasantly cool and cloudy.

We walked around the whole Villa, without snaking through the middle portions. The only 'indirect' path we took was to take pictures with the Fu Lu Shou deities. Like we did when we were much younger. Mummy walked a lot today, she took lots of rests in between, but she didn't complain 'as much'. Tonight, Baba took her blood sugar to prove that walking reduces her blood sugar, and he's right. Tonight's quite near to normal range of 4-6. It was 9.2 (her usual is 18 or 19).

Popo, you must 'jia you'!!! Gong Gong, depend on you to spur Popo to keep walking!!

The beginning hike up the entrance slope.

Somebody's unhappy because Gong Gong isn't sitting beside her.

The brother's whose legacy we are visiting today.

Madam White Snake and her human love.

Well deserved break after a steep climb up the slope at the entrance.

These are the only statues, other than the black swans, that she dared to take pictures with.

Popo Gong Gong last took pictures here more than 10 years ago.

The 10 courts of hell. Ning bugged me the whole day to bring her to the cave. She asked loads of questions, I read every placard there to her. When she reached the 7th court, she wanted out already. I asked her if she'd like to go out now, she said, maybe we do the last few courts quickly and walk out. So that we did.

Korean BBQ as reward for the active participation in this morning's sightseeing!

Ning is happy because there's a ball pool and play area for kids, and she's the only kid around!

The many beautiful faces of Ning's Popo

I was trying to take a picture of her post perm. Popo refuses to smile and makes funny faces.

I think she's beautiful.

Colourful meds

Ning and I have been down with cough, running nose and phlegm.

If I didn't know better I'd think those were water colours. Gosh. They were sweet and foul at the same time.

Am still clogged and coughing but much less than before. Ning too. Hope to recover fully by the weekend so we can enjoy weekend outing with Popo Gong Gong.

Day 2 at Firefly Resort

We were pleasantly woken up by sun and singing birds. The kids woke first.

We went to Pasir Penambang to look for breakfast. Bought some snacks, fruits and drinks. Prayed at the 10 swords temple next to Giant. Hoped to picnic at Nature Park.

Paid RM 12 conservation fee to enter. Walked 200m over countless ant trails and swarms of mosquitoes. We chickened out when we saw whole patch of mosquitoes tucking in my calves. Gong Gong turned around the fastest and walked out. I carried a near hysterical Ning with Cerys walking beside me. So we were in and out of nature park in less than 30 minutes.

Sigh. We need a proper tour guide. BB, you and Teckwyn lead the way next time.

We decided hangout at Tesco and bought a bunch of hair accessories there. Then we had lunch at Secret Recipe. Popo had green apple celery juice, curry seafood laksa with 1 scoop of noodle, and caesar salad with it. She loved the spicy soup. She didn't have a hard time after this meal.

After that we went back to chill.

Had dinner at River View Seafood Restaurant with BB and Teckwyn, Cerys was so glad to be with her Mummy again. Thanks for dinner!

Grandparents Visit in Nov 2011

She was asking where were Gong Gong Popo the whole week after they returned home. When we replied they went home to Kuala Lumpur, she said "Ning wants to go Kuala Lumpur to go Gong Gong Popo's house too."

Sweet little Ning.

Ning @ 23 months

She has quite a number of songs in her repertoire, including:
Finger Family,
London Bridge is Falling Down
Pat-a-cake
Rock a bye baby
And some Chinese songs only Lougong knows, too complicated for me to remember, I only know the tune

Ning is also very expressive giving specific instructions to get what she wants. E.g. If she wants Mummy to go out while Mummy is lying on soda reading, she will say...
1. Mummy get up from sofa irst
2. Mummy stand up
3. Mummy come (holds Mummy's hand)
4. Ning put on shoe first
5. Mummy take key (sometimes with 'please')
6. Mummy open the door and Ning go out say hello to Kakak and come back ok?
This is the part Mummy have to come up with some excuse or oblige.

She's also eating much more nowadays. Almost one full adult rice bowl of rice with dishes.

She also just had first stomach flu from childcare (8 vomiting cases reported since Ning). She started throwing up after going to bed. We bathed her because her whole body was covered in vomit. Then she nursed again, and threw up again. And Lougong had to change the sheets and blow dry.

Mummy changed her and we moved into next room. She had more milk and tried to sleep, but she threw up all the milk again. Lougong complained I 'overfed' her. So he made Ribena for her. This time we wiped her and changed her. And she just vomited again after Ribena. So we gave up, pat her to sleep. After 45 minutes, she coughed and threw up again. This time on our last dry mattress. I didn't dare sleep lest she threw up in her sleep and choked on her vomit. The moment she started, I'd prop her up. At one point, she didnt want Mummy's milk and insisted on Ribena. This carried on til 3am after which she slept til 06:30am.

We went to the clinic twice. Once her Ning and myself. Second round for Mummy and Papa. Thankfully she stopped vomiting after the medicine. At least the food reaches her stomach, right? Right, then she started diarrhea. Still better than vomit. I've learnt to be very grateful. Sigh. She's still uncomplaining and not even a whine heard throughout the ordeal. I was petrified when she went limp and her head flopped from side to side at one point. I almost begged Lougong to bring us to the hospital, but he reasoned she has no fever, can wait til morning. I couldnt sleep, kept checking her breathing and heartbeat. Both her fast and strong. I'm just glad everything is fine now.

On retrospect, we should've taken turns to monitor her. Instead I watched her til I sleep while Lougong busied cleaning up and then slept.

Simple sentences & fave phrases @ 22 mths

Mummy play hide and seek with Papa.
Ning Ning's water bottle straw.
Mummy sit there.
Mummy eat fish ball.
Mickey Mouse fall down on the floor already.
Mickey Mouse see helicopter.
See mosquito bite on elbow.
Put milk in this water bottle (sigh, after I made it in her milk bottle, at least she'll drink it).
Take off panties/nappies first (before toilet).

Where is moon?

Mine!
Mummy! (and repetitions)
Papa!
Wake up!
Let's go!
Don't want doggy wow wow! (after fierce dog barked at her)
Open door. Take keys first.
Playground!
Go playground!
Put on blue shirt.

And she's VERY friendly and clear.
She's pointed and named people quite clearly:
Kakak
Abang
Gong gong
Jie jie
Go go
Uncle
And sometimes, most embarrassingly, AUNTY!
A well dressed 30s lady looked so embarrassed when called aunty that she pretended not to look at her.

So now it's Jie Jie unless Jie Jie turns out to be Mummy, then it's Aunty.

Photos from Nov 2010 - Jul 2011

Another photo by the lake

Ning & Gong Gong @ the Pier

Taken 21 Aug 2011.
This was after breakfast picnic by the lake :)

Singing songs all by herself!

She's been singing songs to herself a lot lately. It's just recently that we could actually make out most words and which songs! We even caught one or two on video today!

Here are the songs we heard that are almost complete:
Baa Baa Black Sheep
客人来
只要我长大
Chop Chilli Chop

And she runs really quickly when we sing 三只老虎 at the part 跑的快. As if to show us she knows what it means.

She does the right actions for
Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Wind the Bobbin Up
This is the Way
The Wheels on the Bus

Ning can say 1 to 12 most days, although Mummy's thinking why stop at 10? So, whenever we start counting Mummy goes on until 100 or until Ning says "don't want", which has been quite frequent recently.

She's still recovering from cough and running nose. The medicine seems to be taking some time to take effect. Hope she gets well soon!

Singing songs most of the time...

She's been singing songs as she wakes, though she does cry when Mummy doesn't come in after a while, and when she's just toddling around the house.

Her favourites at the moment include:
Chop chilli chop
San Zhi Lao Hu
Gege Baba Zhen Wei Da
She'll be coming round the mountain
And a Cha Cha Choo Choo song that Mummy has yet to learn.

Last Friday, Teacher Soundhri says she cried at the playground and immediately, 2 boys came to her aid, each holding one of her hands and escorting her to the teacher. How sweet :)

Missed spying her in school. The load at work is getting heavier as 1 valuable team member transfers out tomorrow. Sigh. I'll only be able to spy at lunch or tea time then!

Mummy, *muAck*... Painful... "Papa sleep there..." "Papa sit there..."

Yesterday, we were watching the new Shanghai Bund, starring Andy Lau and Leslie Cheung.
 
Mummy cried at the shooting of Andy, Ding Lik, by Leslie's partner, who thought Andy had killed Leslie.
 
When Ning Ning saw Mummy's eyes full of tears, she smiled came over, smack right into my face, one big kiss, *muAck*.
 
Mummy laughed and smiled immediately. Lovely.
 
She can now say "painful" quite clearly and point to where it is painful and ask Mummy to kiss and make it better.
 
Yesterday, she kept pointing to her right big toe, and saying, "painful". It was a little red and the skin was peeling. I'm wondering if the shoes are too tight.
 
There... a very communicative Ning.
 
She also woke up in the middle of the night, said, "Papa sleep there", around 04:30hrs and passed motion. She wouldn't go back to sleep until "Papa sleep there." So Mummy went out to ask Papa to sleep on his single mattress and Mummy with Ning on the double mattress. Mummy snores. That's why Papa's sleeping in the guest room.
 
She's also been pointing to empty MRT seats and saying, "Papa sit there".
 
I love to play with Ning.
 
I think of her even when I'm at work.

Thank You! Mummy sit here! Mummy carry you!

These are the most common phrases I'm hearing nowadays.

Though, Mummy sounds more like "yee yee".

Thank you sounds more like "ang kyu".

And carry you, actually, sounds like it should :P

Although, she should've been saying, "Mummy, carry me."

No complaints there.

She's also been heard to say "scissors" when Papa used one to snip the vegetables at dinner time.

She's also parroting Mummy a lot when Mummy thanks the teachers in both Mandarin and English.

Best received ones are...

"Thank you, Aunty (or Jie Jie)" for the kind souls who gave up their seat in the MRT.

"Xie xie lao shi" and "Thank you Teacher" for the teachers in "school".

"Thank you, Mummy" for when Mummy gives her something or helps her do something.

Mummy's been sick, very sick. I've taken all the medicine prescribed by the doctors, and they almost took all the congestion away. Almost. Now I have no medicine left, except for the cough syrup and panadol. Let's hope the last sniffles will magically disappear by tomorrow morning.

Then Mummy can continue to care for Ning as usual again without worrying about transmitting germs to her by sharing food, or kissing! I feel so bad for keeping an arms length for so long...

Ning (and Mummy) missed Popo & Gong Gong

We were just starting to eat with Mah Mah and Papa. And she asked "Popo, Gong Gong?" My heart just melted.

Then last night, or was it the night before, it was time to turn off the TV and say good night. She switched it off, then went to Papa first, first kiss, the "bye bye" for good night. Papa pushed her away, saying he's dirty, didn't want to kiss her and make her oily. Mah Mah did the same when Ning went to say good night. Then, she followed Mummy into the bedroom and asked, "Popo, Gong Gong?". She remembers the good night kisses and hugs Popo and Gong Gong gave her and craves for them.

How do I explain to Mah Mah and Papa, which actually matters more? Passing some oil over to Ning, or giving her love?

She says goodbye to (good night) and kisses Popo & Gong Gong

The first few nights, Mummy carries her to kiss Popo & Gong Gong good night. Then Mummy sometimes forgets when Mummy's been trying to coax her into the bedroom.

Last night and just now, when she asked for milk and looked sleepy, Mummy said to turn off the TV and say "bye bye" to Popo and Gong Gong because we're going to bed for milk.

She walked to the TV, turned it off.

She walked to Popo, while Mummy went into the bedroom to close the window and turn on the fan, kisses Popo and says "bye bye". Then she did the same to Gong Gong, who was in the dining room. Mummy came out in time to view her saying and waving "bye bye" to Popo and the repeating with Gong Gong.

My heart just melted. Mummy planted many kisses on this sweet little girl afterwards :)