Day 17

After much coughing last night, yes, Estella has finally seen a doctor this morning. She also has her wish fulfilled - poster colour painting! Yes, she is kept very busy now.

What she told me this morning again made me roll over with laughter. As she was having some yellow discharge on her eyes last night, the doctor had also given us some eyedrop for her. Just when I told her I was going to put the eyedrop in her eyes, she told me 'No, mama, I don't want... I don't want my eye to drop...'

Day 15

The girls had fun at Zachy-Boy's 1st birthday bash! Estella can finally wear the pretty Little Bambi dress (at the right length). Another doting gift from Auntie Lilian. :)

Day 14

1 more week to go. This week's highlight included some new milestones the girls have in school, and my surprise* birthday bouquet.

(*It's been consistently like that for the past years... Hard to keep it under-wraps!)

Girls with their Godbro

Day 10

Day 1o also coincided with my birthday. The morning started easy - late breakfast, Bolt, and then headed to library. Eliana has a good concept of sitting down with a book, and flipping it page through page. The journey of word-recognition aka literacy for Estella is also kicking off, albeit slow. We reckon the process has to be fun, and something she looks forward to. Labelling items at home helps as a start. :)

Next place was TP Swensons with Ah Paw. The lovely video of Estella singing me the birthday song simply melts my heart. I could watch it over, and over, and over, and over again, and still smile each time. Eliana has missed all the highlights which included the birthday firehouse, super fudge malt as she slept through the entire lunch! Well, Estella has to 'taunt' her later on to say all the ice-cream has been finished!

When we got home, it's a time to play again! Rolling, tumbling fun... Since Eliana has had her full dose of nap, only Estella went down. And because Eliana was up, she managed to catch the flower delivery guy and posed a very nice pic with it. How precious, I've also learnt, it is for the girls to nap together at the SAME time.

I am gaining greater confidence now. So much to learn, and still learning. Praise God. Somehow, I also feel very recharged and refreshed by the Holy Spirit in last week's conference. Being able to make it was a great blessing in itself.

Thanks Dearie for the lovely flowers! Psst... you have to come up with a more fool-proof 'reason' next time ;) Love and Hugs.

Day 4

Thank God the 2 girls can play on their own now. That was how I managed to get dinner cooked cum all the washing up done. Latest captivation - Candy House Tent.

After much persuasion, I've relented and surrendered 1 corridor wall for Estella to decorate. So far, we have a caterpillar family, a boat-like paper-cutting, and life-size outline of them both on a huge piece of mahjong paper... There is also this mobile that Estella wanted so much to hang on her ceiling fan (which I relented too).

I am getting to know them more... :)

Day 2

I was pleasantly woken up with my 2 little darlings today. Today is another day of handicraft and movies (Cars). Planning the lunch and dinner menu is a little bit more challenging now as I am trying out the variety. Lunch today was the mild Japanese curry sauce on brown rice, which Starrie still managed to finish up all. Nap time is a good break for me, as well as more clearing up, chores and food preparation.

Handicraft - Starrie had a new dose of inspiration lately as her childcare centre teachers took great pains to decorate the whole place (for the Open House). Over the last 2 weeks, the childcare centre had been totally transformed. She now wants to decorate our house like her school!

Thank God they really play well together. Praying for them to be wonderful sisters, friends all the days ahead. :)

Estella: Waking up meimei this morning

If I have a choice, I would always like Estella to wake up earlier in the morning so that she can be ready first, i.e, wake up, get changed into school uniform, wash up and finish her breakfast.

This morning, the ideal happened...

After Estella finished her breakfast, she asked if she could go wake meimei up. 'Sure, of course!' was my reply, and I carried on with the dishwashing in the kitchen.

Just curious how Estella is going to do that, I put aside everything and trailed her to the room. Eliana was already awake by then. So I asked Estella how she woke meimei up.

Her answer:

Estella: Oh, I said to meimei... 'Good morning meimei, it's time to wake up...'

Meanwhile, she showed me how she bent over very closely to the sleepy meimei as she said that in a gentle, coaxing manner.

I thought to myself - how sweet is that!

Eliana is completely opposite if she were the one waking up Estella.

Will save the details for another blog.

Estella: Did she really say this??!!!??

After she was done with poopoo this morning, Estella commented, 'Mama, look! My poopoo looks like a 撇...'

Ok, in case you forget, this is a 撇 (pie3)- 丿

Alright, this really made me 啼笑皆非... don't know to laugh or cry!

My positive thinking tells me, not bad, her Chinese is improving!

A Date with Estella

Instead of heading to school as usual, Estella and I went on a date yesterday. After checking Meimei into school, we proceeded to Estella's old school for her to meet up with her old friends and teachers. This was something we had wanted to do for a while ever since Estella was transferred out of this ccc 4 months back. Though it was just a 30-minute catchup/play with her friends, it put a closure to her sudden withdrawal from the previous childcare centre. She was so happy to be able to play with her best friend YX. On the car ride there, she was calling from her memory things she used to do with her best friend. I think the value of friendship should start young, and I didn't want her memory of YX start fading from here. The only question that was hard for her to answer was when her other friend P commented 'Why did you change school? We like you to be here.' My heart felt a tug when I overheard that...

Anyway, the 2nd stop was the library. It was a wonderful time exploring the children section and she simply loved the books! When I asked her if she wanted to read ALL the books in the library, she excitedly exclaimed 'YES!!' When we finally got home with the 6 books that took us a while to choose, she happily laid them out on the dining table, wanting to show her Daddy when he returned. That night, she happily sat on my lap and read her favourite title (Corduroy's Sleepover) twice. Library is such a fun place to visit! Yes, that's should be a regular schedule from now onwards.

Next, she joined me to meet up with 2 dear friends for lunch. Guess what she ate with us? Coriander Cafe Curry Fish Head! She actually tried and finish the portion I gave to her. My little brave girl! :)

I am looking forward to more 1:1 dates with my girls. Hmm... where can I bring Eliana to? Any suggestion?

Recent Fun Outings!

Eliana: Starting to talk

It was raining yesterday morning and there were occasional rumbles of thunder. Awakened by the rumbles, Eliana sat up on her bed, and said, 'thunder, I scared...'

One of Eliana's fav activity is to empty her school bag, either right before we leave for school (when everything is nicely packed), or after school when we rightfully need to unpack. She likes to unzip the front pocket to check out her mosquito repellent. 'Help me... open... please [occasionally]'

Being the earlier one to wake up one morning, Eliana pounded on Estella and shouted, 'JIE JIE! WAKE UP! Nah... uniform...'

She is also capable of telling us, 'Meimei cough (and show us her cough), medicine... red...'

Yes, we told her before the red medicine is for cough, brown for running nose, etc...

Whenever she cannot find her daddy, she will break out in this song 'Oh where, oh where did daddy go... oh where, oh where can he bbeeeee!!!'

Her recent phone conversations. 'Harlow, Daddy, Byeeeee!' or 'Harlow, Zengqi, Byeee!!!' or 'Harlow, Jie Jie, Byee!!!'

Yes, very standard lines. It's a conversation. There is a greeting, identification of the person she wants to speak to, and an ending note.

Leaving Grandma's house, Eliana said, 'I want to hug Popo...', and insisted we open the metal gate again so she can hug popo before heading into the lift.

Many more interesting excerpts. I am trying to remember and blog them along the way... :)

Perfect 7!

Just a couple of weeks back, we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. It was a time to pause and count our blessings, and give thanks...

Estella: New Passport

With Estella's development from a baby to a girly look, it's time for a new passport!

Today, I pulled Estella out from school right after her nap to rush down to ICA for our e-appointment! It was a nice chatty ride with her (despite the rain) since she got the much-coveted, privileged front passenger seat (in her car seat of course), her tabao-ed Yakult and pancakes from school, and a mini pack of Hello Panda all to herself.

As we were driving out of the carpark. I thought of using this chance to teach her personal responsibility in taking good care of her new passport. She had been holding it so proudly the moment we got into the car. So... here's our little conversation:

Mama: Estella, it's important to take good care of your passport. If you drop it, we'll need to call the police...

Estella: [Probably shocked by the mention of 'police', the passport actually slipped from her hands and fell on the floor, in the car of course] Oh... Mama...

Mama: [Focusing on traffic, trying to join up to main road]

Estella: [Long pause]

Just as I was wondering why she had the long pause, I noticed she was looking a little troubled. I saw the passport 'dropped'. Instead of picking it up straightaway, she was looking at me.

Estella: Mama, we don't need to call the police, right??

Then it all clicked! She thought we had to call the police because she dropped the passport!

Ok, we have to use another word to complete the whole lesson now.

Instead of 'drop', 'missing', 'stolen', 'cannot be found' are better choice of words in this instance.