God & Jesus are everywhere... literally!

GET OUT, FISH BONE!

This happened some time in July but I forgot to note it till now. We were having cod fish for lunch and BP reminded Livi to be careful of bones, coz should it get into her system, the bone may travel to her heart and cause her to die. It was quite a duh story but our lil one was totally taken in. As she continued to munch, she suddenly said, 'But Jesus will push and push it out right?' We weren't sure what she was saying but on probing further, finally understood.

Mom must have been telling her that Jesus is in her heart. And coz of that, she thinks that should a foreign object like a fish bone get into her heart, surely Jesus who lives there will help to get rid of the object, right?

GOD, ARE YOU THERE?

Livi was doing her Shichida worksheets when she started singing some children hymns and asked me where God is. I told her God's everywhere. And that's when she asked if He's in the lamp, our laptops, on our heads, inside Daddy's ears, and also in her box of colour pencils. When I answered yes, she promptly called out to her colour pencils, 'Hi God, are you there??'

Kapow!

I was reading Livi a Chinese book and the picture showed a lion falling onto a rock and disloding the bad tooth that's been giving him a toothache. The picture showed the 'kapow!' kind of graphic where the lion hit the rock, to illustrate the impact of the fall and probably, the sound too.

After asking all the usual questions about like why does the lion's tooth hurt; why did he fall; did he not see the rock etc, she asked what the 'kapow' graphic was?

It's funny how we adults don't give much attention to things like this anymore. So I explained that this is to show that the lion must had fallen very hard and made a very loud sound.

"But mommy, where is it? How come we cannot see this when we fall?" It's interesting how they think right? So I went on to explain that in reality, we cannot actually 'see sound'. But this is cartoon so that's why they illustrate this for children.

After that, we experimented by saying different things, sometimes loudly and sometimes softly, to see whether we see any such graphics. Well, we didn't of coz but what a fun conversation that was with my lil darling!

Livi and her concept of God

COW SPEAK

This happened a week ago.

As usual, I was giving Livi a bath in the morning and getting her ready for school when she suddenly asked me, "Mommy, why do cows eat grass?"

I replied it was coz God made them do so, thinking that'll answer her question. That was when she surprised me by saying, "But cows say moo moo... how does God talk to them? Does he say 'moo moo' too?"

I thought that was really cute and although I kindda know how to answer that, I decided to ask her to pose the question to her Sunday School teacher instead.

Hmmm... on hindsight, maybe God and cows use Mooooose Code!

SURPRISE GOD!

We had just left Polliwogs where Ryan had his 7th birthday party. Livi was holding a balloon in the open air walkway and we were telling her to be careful not to lose grip over the balloon string.

That was when she said, in her usual child-like manner, "Then what will happen? Maybe God will say 'Oh, Olivia has a surprise for me!'"

Plant Talk

As part of last week's Shichida, Livi was given 2 green beans and a cotton pad and told to grow the plant at home over the course of the week.

Today, 3 days later, we finally spotted some little white shoots coming out of the beans.

To give it more sunshine, I decided to take the plant out of our house and leave it in the planter box along the common corridor instead.

As a parting cry to her first plant, Livi went, "Goodbye little plant! Enjoy your treat!" as if she really understood how sunshine is a real treat to plants!

That's my adorable little one!

Big Words Rule

It's been a looong time since I updated the Blog... about 10 mths in fact!

But I was really amazed (again) last week by what Livi said that I knew I had to pen this note.

Mom had made fresh orange juice for Kang and Livi. As she happily sipped her juice, she suddenly looked up from her glass, looked at mom and smilingly, said "Popo, thank you for your hospitality".

Mom was stumped!! Here we have a 3 yr old tod sprouting big words like this, and using them correctly - it was just amazing!

Background: BP and I had been speaking in the car a few days before that, saying how we should really return the hospitality our Malaysian cousins accord us when they visit us in SG. It was then that Livi asked what hospitality meant and I explained it's to do with people being nice and caring towards us, like taking care of our needs when we visit. And there she was, absorbing all this like a sponge and using the word Hospitality correctly a few days later.

My babe's just amazing!!

The Weekend That Was

We had a great break over the extended weekend, celebrating Children's Day (Oct 1), starting Livi at Pats Schoolhouse on Oct 2 and basically for me, just spending time with her and catching up on some much-needed rest.

The 5-day break (Oct 1-5) saw us hanging out at Esplanade where we caught several short children's plays - all part of their Children's Day Prog; having a riot of a time with a new caterpillar-shaped float in the pool; having Isaac & Keira over; visiting Liuxiang & her new boy Ian; checking out new restaurants (My Space @ Humble House and Lao Beijing) and even checking out condos (Concourse Skyline which Bro/Lisa bought a unit - happy for them!).

One of the most interesting discoveries this weekend was how Livi's doodles of people are starting to take form! Like eg. the people now actually have a discernible head, 2 huge eyes, a long line for body, shorter lines for arms & legs, and hair! We thot this is great coz afterall, she's all but only 2.5+ yrs.

Her language skills of course continue to amaze us - even her teachers at Pats. Eg. she said a few times "phew, that was close". And her comprehension and inferencing abilities are getting quite sharp too. In fact, about 1 month back, she surprised me by saying "Mommy, I tell you the sequence, first we go Shichida then we go church..." amazing isn't it?

Trembling Jelly!

Livi and I made jelly today. It was uneventful but fun as I got her involved in the entire process - from trying to cut the packet of jelly crystals to pouring the crystals out, adding water and stirring till everything's mixed in. I also showed her where the jelly's chilling in the fridge. When I later asked her what colour it was - she told me it's Red and said it's likely to be Strawberry coz "when it's red, it means strawberry". Hah!

Can't wait to taste our first joint "culinary creation" tomorrow!

Sleep Tight

After much delay, we finally did up Livi's room by putting in the finishing touches - a set of pretty Ikea bed linen and her darling Brownie & Lambchop. And without much fuss and fanfare (in fact, with much enthusiasm), Livi slept in her own room on the night of June 14.

It was mixed feelings for BP and I as we contemplate how that'll probably be the way we'll feel when she gets married - proud but with a tinge of reluctance as our baby moves on.

But things weren't as smooth sailing coz Livi cried in the middle of the first 2 nights. Anxious but patiently, we put her back in her bed each time and she carried out sleeping. We told her there's no need to cry if she awakes - coz if it looks bright, then she can just walk over to our room; but if it's still dark, all she has to do is turn over, close her eyes and sleep.

It's amazing what clear and simple explanations can do but sure enough, on the 3rd night, Livi only wimpled but didn't cry as she came over to our room.

The next morning, I asked her why she did so - was it coz she missed us or coz she was frightened. She looked really down and didn't answer at first. But after some probing, she said it was coz "I'm sad". I was shocked at her reply and amazed at what complex feelings a little girl like her was capable of. To allay her concerns, I explained the reason she's sleeping in her own room these days is coz she's growing into a lil girl and therefore need to be more indepedent, and not coz Daddy & Mommy don't love her anymore.

Till today - 2 weeks since she first moved to her own room, Livi still walks into our room in the middle everynight. But I hope she at least knows now, that she wasn't abandoned but merely taught greater independence.

Sleep tight my babe.

"Why this Man So Stubborn?"

Livi constantly amazes us with her grasp of the English language. Here are just a few examples:

- Flipping thru a storybook recently, Livi suddenly asked "Why this man so stubborn?"

- On CNY 15th day, she saw the big round moon and went "Wow! It's so big! Lets take a picture!"

- Her ability to carry on a proper conversation with us is really entertaining, eg. "Can you remember where you went last night?"... "I went..."

- "I brought this to... " - note she used "brought" to refer to a past event.

- On other occasions: "I didn't..."... "I don't know..."... "2 pieces... "... "This is Mommy's phone..."

We get so tickled at times that we'll repeat the question, or ask her to repeat. If anything at all, I'd like to think her language skills has got something to do with BP reading to her everynight before bed, our habit of speaking to her using proper words and sentences and my singing nursery rhymes to her since she was a baby. And of course, God's blessing has been amazing too. Oh how we love Livi!!

Sandcastles & Lil' Hands

The past weekend had been pretty eventful so that's why I'm trying to quickly post these before I forget what happened.

Sad to say but even though we live so near East Coast, last Sunday (18 Nov 2007) was the first time we brought Livi to the beach and boy, was it a new experience for her!

We prepared a simple breakfast picnic and found a spot where we could also build sandcastles after breakfast. But the first time we placed her on the sand, she simply froze and didn't quite know how to react to a "shifting floor/ground" - like sand! It was only when we assured her it's ok and brought her to walk around a little barefooted that she calmed down.

The next surprise came when we got her to play with the sand. Looking at her sandy hands and fingers, she insisted on washing her hands, saying "Dirty! Dirty!". Again, it was only after much assurance that she started to mutter to herself "It's ok, it's ok" and picked up with her little watering can (still with some apprehension).

Getting Livi to dip her feet into the water (with me carrying her under the arms) proved "the last straw" and we had to quickly bring her ashore to stop her from going hysterical.

Thinking back, I'm just wondering -- have I conditioned her to be such a clean/clinical kid that she'll not participate in such activities anymore in future? At this point, I don't think so coz she reacted the same way to crayons the first time she used them ("Dirty! I want to wash my hands!"). But since then, she's gotten over green/blue/red-stained fingers and seem to be enjoying herself. My take? I feel it's better to instil in them a value for hygiene and being neat and then permit some leeway, than not to have taught these basic values. The verdict's still out of course but well, that's what I hope for anyway.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Sis found this play staged specially for kids and we decided to bring Livi and Kang. I had been looking forward to it all week and was kindda psyching Livi up for it too (not sure how much she understood that though...).

The play was very entertaining and Sis and I were pleasantly surprised at how attentive the 2 kids were throughout the play! To say the least, they were dumbfounded and awestruck. To me, the song and dance segments were the most entertaining and hilarious, and the props pretty ingenious.

Whilst we encountered some parents (1 pair) who behaved rather ungraciously, the overall experience was enjoyable and it was a pleasant outing with just Sis and Kang.

I can't really tell if Livi enjoyed herself but I tried to ask her questions about it after that and I think she understood a little of it. Guess it's not so much about how much she comprehends at this stage, but really to expose her to different experiences. Would certainly love to bring her to more of such activities in future!

Snip Snip Snip

For 21 months, this mommy had never given her babe a haircut till yesterday when I finally played hairdresser to Livi.

I wasn't planning to do anything too sophisticated. Sorry but no. It was just gonna be a straight-across fringe which I can pass off as the latest lil' girl style, inspired by the Japanese bob do.

I thought I was pretty ingenious to get a big IKEA plastic bag and snipped 3 holes on it for her head and 2 arms. But she protested and refused to be "bubble wrapped". Ok, guess I'll just make do...

Then when I finally got down to cutting her fringe, she started to squirm and refused to let me continue -- after I've snipped off half the fringe. So just imagine a staggered fringe now with the right side shorter than the left. Thank God I managed to convince her to also comb and cut Winnie the Pooh's hair before I quickly snipped the rest of the fringe for a (rather) even cut.

So did I do well? Hmmm, I think I did ok for a first-timer. Livi's still got a few compliments on being cute and sweet after the haircut so if anything, I think I've maintained if not improved her sweet quotient : )

Penang (8-11 Nov 2007)

We had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, especially since it was going to be Livi's first plane ride. It was also a dry-run (sort of) before the gruelling 10-hr flight to NZ. We were in Penang to attend cousin Ze Yen's wedding.

Livi survived the plane rides very well, either drinking from her bottle (en route to Penang) or sleeping (return) so I'd say she fared well in the dry-run.

Although we didn't quite explore beyond our hotel (Vistana), 5th Aunty's house and a few kopitiams, we had an enjoyable time, catching up with cousins, aunties and uncles, and of coures, keeping ourselves up-to-date on the new additions (little nephews & nieces).

Dad was really fascinated with the food there, especially the Penang Laksa and Cha Kway Teow. Guess I'm not surprise coz afterall, Penang is renowned for its street food. Gurney Drive fare was so-so -- probaby good enough for tourists or the uninitiated (maybe the Westerner's taste palette?) but not us Singaporeans. In the end, it was a nondescript kopitiam near 7th Aunty's house that got Dad. After that, we went there 2 days straight and probably ate more laksa and cha kway teow than we should for 3 months. The wedding dinner itself was quite entertaining with singers belting out Mandarin pop tunes.

Livi was quite the darling there with everyone singing praises of how pretty she looked, and trying to coax her into calling them, waving hi-five, saying goodbye etc. She was most well-behaved whenever we were out (quiet like a mouse) but once we return to the hotel, she turned into a monkey. Still most disturbingly, I notice the first signs of TT - how she simply laid down on her tummy and refused to get up if she doesn't get her way. I'm bracing myself for more tantrums to come...

Unfortunately, we don't have any photos to show for all of these coz we most carelessly lost the camera. Till now, we can't be sure where we left/lost it. But whilst the images are gone, the memories will prevail (hopefully). But just in case my memory fails too, here's the blog as backup. Think I'll also ask Ze Yen if his photographer's got any pixs of us...

Amazing Livi

Livi continues to amaze us with her grasp of language, which often manifests in her saying words we never expected of her, or her singing little tunes in their entirety.

Early this week, on Wed I think, I was trying to put her to sleep and as usual, started singing to her her favourites. But as I started the first couple of words to the hymn Amazing Grace, Livi surprised me by continuing and singing the whole stanza! At 20 mths old, I'd say that's quite a feat! And Mommy's of course so very proud of her sweetheart!

Something Orange & Yummy

This happened about 2-3 weeks ago (before I started this blog).

Livi watched as Grandma prepared her lunch. She saw a piece of raw salmon that Grandma was going to cook for her, and with her fat little chubby finger, pointed at it and asked... "Is this carrot fish?"

Twinkle Twinkle

We were out at the mall yesterday when Livi looked up and saw a shop signage that was decorated with sparkling stars. All of a sudden, she burst into a spontaneous 'rendition' of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star that got us all so tickled! The excitement and joy that were written all over her face as she sang and sang simply melt our hearts.

No Battery!

Most of us have probably heard or received emails about the cute or darnest things kids say. I've my own to share.

Today, as usual, at the end of her bath, Livi returned the 2 rubber duckies back where they'll usually sit, at a ledge facing the pool. As I helped her, I accidentally squeezed Mommy Duck and it made a sound. Livi was very quick and immediately tried to do the same with the Baby Duck (or what she calls Vava Duck).

But Baby Duck was not the type that'll make a sound when squeezed (it was one of those Duck Race ducklings from eons ago). When I asked her why Baby Duck didn't make any sound, her immediate answer -- No Battery! What a cute answer! I couldn't have said it better myself!