Knowing What She Wants

Christmas is coming, and the weather has been wet lately. This has not dampened Kieona's Christmas spirit though. She's very much looking forward to Christmas and had somehow bothered Mommy enough to set up the Christmas tree mid of November. After a few weeks of setting up, Mommy finally understood why she wanted it up - not for the beauty of it, more for the treats that will come with it.

She started asking why there were no presents under the Christmas tree in late November. I explained that it's not even December yet, so it's a little early to put Christmas presents under the Christmas tree. As the days go by, she started to ask me if I should be buying presents already and finally started hinting that she likes presents for herself and Kierra. Little Kierra is too young to grasp the meaning, so just echoes the sister in asking for presents and spends most of the evenings playing with the Christmas deco.

December soon began and it hasn't even been a week to Christmas. My princess Kieona started showing the toys catalogues to all who will see and listen to her about the presents she likes. She started by innocently asking me to buy some Little People toys for her as presents because she likes them. I said they're not very useful, and I already have ideas what to get for her so I wouldn't want to buy any toys for her this Christmas. Well, that does not stop her from telling Gu Gu, Uncle Damien and Yee Yee what she wants. Although sometimes I must say that asking for things is not considered a virtue for us Asians (or Chinese for that matter), I do appreciate the fact that she asks unabashedly for the things she likes. Oh well, she has started asking presents on behalf of Kierra and Eugene from Mommy as well as we approach Christmas.

There's nothing wrong with knowing what one wants and asking for them. While some people may think that this is not a right way to teach a child, I feel that it is absolutely fine to stand up for what you really want. Mommy never told her if asking for something is right or wrong, and stops short of telling her it's rude because she is afterall only asking from people whom she knows will be getting her things anyway. There are always two sides to a coin and since there is never a perfect answer, I will prefer to stay out of the equation for now. I'm just proud that she's not shy about what she wants and I want it to stay that way.

Daddy and Mommy have finally found something useful that the kids will definitely love for their Christmas presents. Kieona, Kierra, keep your eyes peeled to what lies beneath your faithful tree. :)

My Empathetic Little Girl

Of late more so than ever, we have noticed Kieona to be one of the most sensitive girl with stronger reasoning powers than we have ever known of kids this age. At three, she is able to reason out consequential events and arrive at her own conclusion. While it has been very tough for Mommy to explain to her why certain things happen and to calm her down when she gets affected by situations beyond our control, Mommy is very proud that she is turning out this way.

For example, she is now very easily affected by how we feel. When Kierra cries, she comforts her, talks to her and wipes her tears. When watching something simple on television or even the "Tong Hua" MTV where the lady in the short video "dies", she will start crying quietly. Just yesterday while Mommy was busy working at the laptop late at night, Mommy saw her sobbing and asked her why. She just started to burst out crying but refused to tell me why. When I realised that she had been watching the "Tong Hua" MTV on the home pc, I asked if it's because of the story in the MTV where the lady died. She nodded her head and cried even louder and told me she is sad. Oh, my heart really went out to her.

The experts say that being empathatic is a good trait and I'm happy that she is sensitive to the needs of the people around her. However at this juncture, we will just have to brace ourselves to deal with this on a frequent basis and explain to her that sometimes there will be things in life that are beyond our control. While we cannot change these events, we can definitely change the way we react to them. Instead of moaning our losses or licking our wounds, we can find ways to improve those situations that we can, or leave those we can't behind and pick ourselves up again.

Concert: Little Tree and Little Dwarf

Proud is Daddy, Mommy, Ah Gong, Gu Gu, Uncle Damian and Bibik Maria when we waited with anticipation in the audience for our little darlings performance last Saturday. Mommy like last year, had to help out with the ushering of the guests so we all went early. The theme for this year's Skoolhouse in the Spring concert was Fairytale (or something like that) and Mommy was dressed up as a fairy in white flowy long dress complete with fairy wings together with another Mommy volunteer from the school. Mommy spotted Kieona an Kierra going to the holding area and tried to hide in case Kierra starts bawling when she sees me. Ahh, that was such a non-event as they seemed to absorbed by the surrounding to even notice me.

Everything went well, and Kierra was dressed in a red dwarf costume. She looked really cute and really lost. She's one of the dwarves in Snow White & The Seven Dwarves. Throughout the entire segment, she just stared blankly most of the time. We all wondered what was on her mind. But of course, this did not stop her from the audience commenting that that kid in red is so cute as she was just staring.....

Kieona was all another story. This year she was not at all afraid. Being tasked to be a tree for Sleeping Beauty (yeah, she's part of the forest), she was cheeky right from the start. As Ms Sonia moved her postion (she was too near to Ravshaan, who was the other tree) by holding her up by her arms, she just lifted up both legs and giggled with the audience also smiling at that action. Although the tree didn't have to move very much except the "growing" action much like stretching, Kieona seemed to have lots of fun in her green costume. Well, of course most of the other times, she was just talking on stage with Ravshaan, which prompted Gu Gu from asking is that was her best friend. :) Honestly, we do not know.

Below are some pictures we've taken at the concert. Enjoy. :)

The sexy little tree....
Little blur dwarf

Fairy usher....

One for the album.....

Decisions: Right or Wrong

Stella Kor-po forwarded Mommy an email which touched Mommy a lot. It came in timely as it gives Mommy (borrowing words from the serenity prayer) the serenity to accept the things we cannot change and the courage the change the things we can. Kieona, Kierra, we're going through change everyday, sometimes we get support from people we love, sometimes we don't.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make................

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

Morale of the story? What's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right.

Mommy is sharing this story in the hope that someday you will read it and be enlightened, and have the courage to follow what you believe, even if it's not a popular choice and even if many people don't stand with you. Afterall, many successful people are not those who follow the conventional path. Whatever you do, please remember that Mommy will always stand beside you, to give you strength to carry on when your legs get tired, to lend you a listening ear when you need to talk, to lend you a shoulder to cry on when you feel sad, and to help you pick yourself up when you fall down.

Kieona's First Visit to the Dentist

We admit! We haven't been very proactive in bringing Kieona for her first dental visit. We've started talking about it slightly past Kieona's second birthday, and never got around to bringing her to one. A couple of months ago though, we did notice that her front teeth (men ya) were a little blackish from the inside. Mommy told Daddy we should really bring her for a dental check-up, but work and the everyday chores took precedence and we ended putting it off until heaven knows when.

This Tuesday, Daddy spotted a cavity (he called it a hole) in her front tooth and told Mommy about it. On the same morning in school, Ms Irene told us she just spotted that Kieona had a cavity. Ok, this time the scare prompted Mommy to call a dentist at Thomson Plaza to fix an appointment the minute she thought the clinic may be open.

So as it happened, Kieona went for her first dental check-up today after school. Daddy was kind enough to stay home and sent us there. Kierra came along too since we had picked them up from school and gone direct. And so it went - the dentist said that she has cavities! Not one, but four! Huh? Mommy thought there was only one huge one behind her front tooth? Or maybe at the most two - the other at the corner of the other front tooth.

Mommy must admit, I was pretty sunken with the thought of her having fillings done on her first visit. Will Kieona be afraid of the dentist from now or even cry when the cavities are being treated? Mommy just tried hard to keep the look of fear away. How can Kieona face what she needs to face if Mommy cringes at the thought of it?

The dentist explained to her that she needs to catch the worms in her teeth, and to fix it up and remove them all. All she needed to do was to put on sunglasses (the light is glaring), open her mouth and don't move. She obliged - didn't smile or didn't look frightened. Daddy, Mommy and Kierra were there watching her and giving her moral support. "She must need all the courage in the world now," Mommy thinks.

The dentist started "spraying water" in her mouth and drilling the cavities. We saw the large hole in the middle. It must hurt but Kieona was very brave. She just opened her mouth and seemed relaxed. Then Mommy saw blood. This must really hurt. But Kieona still looks like she is handling very well. Then while doing the filling halfway, Kieona fell asleep! :)) This is funny! In the dentist chair!!!

There were four cavities, but we only managed to get two filled. Not because Kieona wasn't able to manage it, but because she was tired and falling asleep. We're so proud of Kieona. Good job, Kieona!
Oh yes, Mommy forgot to mention - Kierra seem more fearful than Kieona was when Kieona was the one in the chair. While watching Jie jie, Kierra actually fell asleep. Ahh.... little Kierra, sweet baby.....

We entered a Best Caption contest!

My Pride and Joy

You got it! We joined a Best Caption contest organized by the non-profit organization, I Love Children the Saturday before Kierra's birthday at Tiong Bahru Plaza. We would have loved Daddy to be with us in the picture too, but it was taken when we got a little bored as we've walked the whole of Tiong Bahru Plaza two times and Daddy was still not done helping Auntie Patricia with her presentation. Don't ask this Mommy what the organization is about, as we joined since we fulfilled the criteria of spending at least $10 at Tiong Bahru Plaza and Mommy wanted the very full goodie bag.

Well, joining the contest wasn't really an issue as the photo-taking was free and done on the spot. The hard part was thinking of the caption. Since Kierra was running around and Mommy was a little flustered calling after the kiddos, we just decided on the caption as it just popped into Mommy's head. We never expected it to be so well-taken since those we've seen on the wall wasn't very good. :) Daddy later said because we had the right combinations of looks.... haha, ok, maybe we will win the contest?

Kierra's 2nd Birthday

Kierra celebrated her birthday in school on Sep 28 as Oct 1 was a school holiday. Sep 28, a Friday, also happened to be when the school had planned for a Children's Day celebration so we did a fair bit of planning to ensure she can celebrate it on that same day in school.

It was rather eventful, as the day before Prima-Deli in Ang Mo Kio where we ordered the cake called to ask if we can have it collected later. Mommy said no, because we had already told them earlier we needed to collect it at 9am so that I can make it to the school and not have their schedules for the celebration disrupted. It was a lot of hoo-ha and Daddy was clearly not pleased with the way they handled it. On the fateful morning, Mommy had to collect the cake herself and asked Grandpa to send the cake since Mommy doesn't have transport and Daddy was out for his Friday morning meetings.

When I got there, they gave a 1kg cake and I nearly flipped. Then after that they told me the cake is not delivered yet. I was about to rail at them when a supposedly superior took the cake out from another fridge. Argh! So unprofessional!

Fortunately we got the cake there without a glitch. Since we were unable to join in the celebration, I got the school teachers who helped us take some photos of Kierra's birthday party. See pictures below.

On Oct 1, Kierra's actual birthday, Daddy was kind enough to bring us out to the Sentosa Underwater World. The kids sure had lots of fun watching the huge fishes, although Kierra did fall asleep somewhere in-between. We ended the day with a small chocolate birthday cake which we got from Dino which really tasted yummy.....

Kierra on Modelling

Our dear Kierra had just told Mommy a few days ago while I was watching television "Mommy, I want model." Huh? Did I hear wrongly? It's strange why out of a sudden she posed there and asked this question. We haven't been talking a lot about renewing Kieona's contract, although we did think if we should also let her do a portfolio. Afterall, it's nice to keep these photos as keepsakes. In fact, Mommy wished she had some from her younger years....

Kieona: What's the point?

Recently, Kieona has taken to reasoning in a way that Mommy couldn't believe her ears. Once just a couple of weeks ago, probably in August when I told her to take her nap, Kieona just blurted out "What's the point, Mommy? I have to sleep at night." So do I laugh or do I cry? Smart, smart Kieona at 3 yrs old. So logical and so comical.

Kieona's Third Portflio Shots

Look at Kieona - ain't this pretty? Auntie Evonne said that the top is cute, so she's wearing this top Grandma bought for her long time ago for this shoot. After this shoot, Mommy went to buy a set of hair styler to style her hair once in a while. Sweet.

Last Days of Little Skool House

Ms Irene had kindly emailed us some photographs of the girls taken in school. The school will have a new name and the girls are supposed to have their new uniforms soon. Savour the last bits of them in their "fishy" uniforms. :) Thank you Ms Irene!

Kieona having Auntie Ah Hua's porridge
Trust me, this is good :)
Kierra: I'm keeping the last drips for Mommy!
Don't I look like Picasso in the making?

Pretty shot - when can I go for my modelling, Mommy?

Potty Learning Second Time Over

Just when we thought we were all through with Kieona's potty learning, now is Kierra's turn. Although we have conditioned Kierra since birth to be able to regard the potty as somewhere she can put her pee and poop in other than her diapers, it has been rather tough getting her to sit on the potty at times when she wants to do something else.

The past few weeks were sometimes fun, but sometimes heart-wrenching. It seems that Kierra's refusal to sit at the potty were very much determined by who sits down beside her. Recently her appreciation for Mommy's time has become more pronounced with the fact that she is more aware of what she wants, and not. Often when Mommy is either busy with work or Kieona, Kierra refuses to sit on the potty when the maid asks her to. In fact, she screams a lot and insists that "Mommy help me!".

It's been tough especially when Mommy is exhausted with all the cooking and housekeeping as well as the auctions part of the business in the day and having to sacrifice sleep at night to start on the ecommerce business. Having to sit with her patiently at the potty when she asks for Mommy to is no joke, as she can take a while with it. Afterall, she's learning and Mommy cannot really ask for more.

Just a few moments ago, Mommy was trying to get Kierra to pee into the potty but she refused and actually kept away the potty each time. However a little while later, Kierra did the most amazing thing since we started her on panties - she actually brought the potty to Mommy and sat down to pee within seconds when Mommy asked. Oh my! She does understand and could control her pee to bring the potty and get her panties pulled down. What a pleasant surprise. A little later, she could not control and let go a little urine in the kitchen, and started crying. Mommy said it's ok, we'll continue to pee in the potty. Brought her there and she could continue with passing her urine.

Hmm, now Mommy is convinced that she can quickly get over the diapers phase - at least at home. That made Mommy's day! :)

Kieona's Second Portfolio Shots

These were taken in March and it took Daddy and Mommy some time to put up. This time round, as Kieona was tired, the photographer took a lot of effort before we got her to smile for the camera. Shrinking violet? Looking at the photos, we can't tell.....

Kieona Draws Faces

In the past few weeks, Kieona has started to get better with her drawing. What used to be simple scribbles, dots, lines and circles has started to take shape as funny faces, sun, etc. It's a wonder when Mommy suddenly saw that there were longish faces on the drawing board which we got for the girls last year. It was sudden, and when I found out that no one else drew them, I knew it had to be her. Boy, am I proud of my girl.

Given a few days of practising after that, she became better and better. Sometimes she still scribbles as she tries to write the number 1 (or so I think), but generally her favourite drawings center around funny faces - be it long, round, squarish or leaning towards triangle. Overall, her style is mainly a round face with 2 dots for eyes, with the corner of the lips moving upwards. She must be a happy girl. :)

Day Out at Sentosa

It was Vesak Day and the next day will be a school holiday. It's been a long time since we had gone to the beach, so the family had planned to go to Sentosa for an early morning picnic. We invited Wai Gong, Wai Po, Yee Yee's family and Clara Yee Yee's family for the picnic. We reached there early, about 9am, thinking we will beat the crowd in getting a good spot. Boy! Were we surprised to see that there were already hordes of people there at Palawan Beach, but we still managed to get a shady spot under the trees and very near to the foodcourt. The rest arrived later.

Eugene Di Di slept through the morning we were there. Both Belle and Jingle were probably scared stiff when their parents made them go into the sea. Hmm, Mommy thought it was pretty scary for them.....

Both Kieona and Kierra had lots of fun playing at the beach, building sandcastles with the new beach toys and jumping the waves at sea. Although Kierra was a little hesitant when we just got there, she gradually got used to it and started playing. It was a good hour when we packed up and had lunch at the foodcourt and missed the storm that came while we were having lunch.

Overall, everyone seem to have had their fair share of fun at the beach. It was just a little unfortunate that our car got into it's first accident being sandwiched while we were on the way home, and Mommy suffered a whiplash injury.

The girls waiting at the gate...
Building sandcastles...
Kierra having fun by herself
The whole gang....

Mommy, Kieona, Kierra - parting shot

Eugene Dee Dee sleeping through...

Giant Strawberries

We bought some giant US strawberries from Cold Storage. It was Daddy's treat for the girls. They simply love strawberies! Look at them! :)

The girls enjoying the first bites of the large strawberries

This is so YUMMY!!!!

Mommy joins in

So did Daddy....

Kieona's Big Nose Bleed

Kieona fell down on May 5th while playing wildly with the maid. The maid definitely got a good scolding, as Kierra had a huge bump just the day before while playing with her. The two girls were both extremely traumatized by their individual experiences. While Kierra only had a big bump on her head from hitting her head on the potty, Kieona had a bleeding nose. Mommy was so worried her nose was broken that I told the maid never to play so roughly with them. Poor kids. Mama's heart was broken.....

Kieona nursing her bleeding nose

Mommy's 31st Birthday

Mommy went out the night before - it was the first dinner date with a friend, without the kids and supposedly my off-day to enjoy a few hours off as Daddy stayed home with the kids. Look at what they were up to while I was out...

Birthday Card for Mommy

The XL size cardLooking greedily at the cake

Kierra's First Baking Day

It was only the first week at school for Kierra and she had already had a chance to bake some cookies together with Kieona. Incidentally, we believe due to a shortage of teachers in the school, Kierra and Kieona somehow ended up in the same class. As a result, the two sisters had become a lot closer over the few days at school.

Mommy remembered it was Kierra's first Thursday in school when the two girls each brought back a cookie. As Mommy was busy in the kitchen, Mommy didn't know that the sizes of the cookies were different (Ms Sonia was teaching them big and small and they both baked different sized cookies). When I came out to be with the girls, I noticed that the cookie sizes were different and Kieona had a real big cookie while Kierra had a normal sized one. Kieona told Mommy she has a big one. I didn't think much of it after but at night when I read their communication books, I realised that Kieona had chosen to bake a small cookie and Kierra chose to make a large one. Apparently, Kieona got her cookie exchanged with Kierra when they got back. Ah well......

Kieona enjoying her BIG cookie

Kierra enjoying the first cookie she baked

Kierra's First Day At School

Time really passes. Kierra had just turned 18 months and because she is born on the first day of the month, she starts going to the Little Skool House In-The-Spring on the day she turned 18 months.

Kierra looked real small in Kieona's uniform - we were told not to purchase any new uniforms as they were changing the uniforms very soon. It was only recently that we found out their school will not be a Little Skool House Franchisee for long. Look at the picture below. Doesn't Kierra look like she can swim within the uniform?

Kierra looking on as Kieona had her hair done

The first day was pretty fuss-free. Kierra looked a little shocked when she realised she had to be in school and away from Mommy for a little while. Separation anxiety was expected and we dealt with it as it came. Although Kierra was really happy with putting on the uniform like her big jie-jie, she screamed a litte when she was torn from Mommy. We can't expect otherwise, since this is the first time she is somewhere unfamiliar and the first time away from Mommy. Although the first day in school was only for an hour or two, everything went well and we were told she stopped crying once we left. Brave girl, Kierra!

Kierra peeping at Daddy before she went in to school

More than Two Months!

Gosh! It has been more than two months since Mommy had the chance to update this blog. It's a pity... so much had happened during this period and Mommy probably have to post based on her lousy memory. Alright, Mommy will organise them by topics. Friends who are waiting patiently for the new posts.... be prepared to be bombarded. :)

It was a heartbreaking day

Mommy is really disappointed with Kieona. For the past 2 days, she has been really insistent on getting her way, not listening, whining and throwing tantrums.

Just this evening, Daddy was home early and after dinner we decided to bring her and Kierra down to let her practise cycling with her new bicycle. She somehow rode down a gentle slope and because she only uses her right foot to paddle forward, Daddy told her to that she has to learn how to paddle properly so that she doesn't roll backward when she tries to rider back uphill. She screamed and told Daddy she doesn't want him and don't want to paddle that way. So she ended up rolling backwards her way of riding just wasn't going to work. After several failed attempts and rejecting Daddy's help for a few times, she wanted to give up and said that she doesn't want the bicycle anymore.

Daddy was furious, so took away the bicycle and said he'll give to someone else. She said ok. After that she told Mommy that she wanted the bicycle back, so I taught her to say sorry to Daddy and asked for it back. She did, but when we were on our way back home, she got on the bicycle and rode using her old technique again, so both Daddy and Mommy tried to teach her by guding her. She gave up and refused to co-operate, so we were both very disappointed and told her that she will sleep on her own tonight. She said ok and after a while started screaming and throwing tantrums after we went in with Mei Mei into our bedroom.

We decided to let her cry it out and taste for herself what it felt like to be rejected like that, so Mommy told Daddy to let her be until at least Mei Mei slept. Daddy fell asleep, so in the end Mommy had a talk with her in the maid's room, and later again in the hall. (She had gone to the maid's room, but in the end told the maid she wanted to sleep outside after I left the maid's room.) There she waited for me at the door to the study, and Mommy tried to ignore her until she made the first move. After a long talk with her did I let her back into the room.

Mommy sure hope that it has been a lesson to Kieona to respect and be grateful for other people's help. What at the end of the day we parents hope to achieve is that Kieona can change her attitude and try out (or learn) about things she does not know, instead of saying don't know and throwing in the towel without even trying. And worse still, tell us that she doesn't want us.

Kieona is 3 years old!

It has been a hectic few weeks, with the usual shopping spree with Chinese New Year just close to two weeks past and the preparation for Kieona's thrid birthday. Yes! Can you imagine that Kieona is now three years old? Just not too lond ago, we remember celebrating her birth and getting all confused on how to change, feed and bathe her.

Apart from having to get busy with business and shopping for the Chinese New Year, visiting relatives and so on, Mommy really was also rather stressed out with answering Kieona's constant questions about preparation of her goodies bags for her birthday. Now that she is bigger and having been through so many of her friends' parties in school, she definitely knows what she wants for her birthday - from the kind of cake (she wants chocolate with "Friends of the Zoo" cake) to the bags we use to put the goodies for her friends in school. The list is just endless and Mommy ran around town, the market and also searched the web before getting ready all her goodies.

All the hard work was worth it, as we could see how happy she was yesterday when she woke up to see her birthday present from daddy and mommy (a bright pink bicycle), and the mini celebration in school she had with her friends where our family attended as well. Below are some pictures of Kieona's third birthday (mostly taken courtesy of daddy).