At the babysitter

At the babysitter, funny things happen…
The other night when I went to fetch Yiu Yiu from the babysitter, she was just settling into an episode of Barney. As she saw me walked into the house, she said, “Mummy, I finish watching Barney first. You sit down first la” making herself completely at home.

At the babysitter, unpleasant things can also happen…
Yiu Yiu is totally pampered at the babysitter since she’s the youngest and everyone in the babysitter’s family and the two elder boys give in to her. After I persuaded her to switch off the Barney VCD to go home, she put the CD back into the casing and wanted to put it back on the TV cabinet. However, as the babysitter was standing in her way, she shouted at the babysitter to move away. I reprimanded her straight away and since she knows she’s wrong (and therefore felt that she’s lost face), she started throwing tantrums. Sigh! Such bad behaviours.

At the babysitter, she also picks up bad behaviours…
Incident 1
The two boys’ mum (let’s call her Mrs C) always has some sweets in her purse which she sometimes offers to Yiu Yiu as a treat. Yesterday evening when Mrs C went to pick up her boys, Yiu Yiu as usual asked for her treats but when Mrs C said she had none, Yiu Yiu stuck her tongue out at Mrs C, followed by showing Mrs C her butt.

Incident 2
While the babysitter’s daughter (let’s call her PY) was doing her homework, Yiu Yiu went to disturb. When PY reprimanded her, Yiu Yiu taunted PY by calling her “Fatty Bom Bom” repeatedly. I don’t think Yiu Yiu actually understood what it meant as PY is rather skinny but she probably just said it for fun.

I felt bad when the babysitter related these two incidents to me. I know she definitely didn’t pick them up at home, since neither hubby nor I do or say these things. And since the only other place she’s at is at the babysitter, I suspect the two boys picked these up from school and she simply imitates them. Sigh! This is the kind of guilt I have to deal with for not being able to devote my time to bring her up on my own terms.

Toilet training – almost there

Mummy is pleased to report that Yiu Yiu is almost completely toilet trained. When we are at home, she's diaperless and it's been quite successful. Now, whenever she wants to pee, she'll make her way to the potty on her own, pull down her shorts and after completing her business, put them back again. Or sometimes, she'll just shout for us to bring her to the toilet when she feels like behaving like an adult. She's also able to control her bladder well and can hold her urine when mummy sometimes struggles to unbutton her pants.

We still put her on diapers when we go out, just in case we can't find a toilet in time or there’s no clean toilet in sight. It's for "insurance" more than anything else. She's also still on diapers at night but I'm contemplating letting her go diaperless as well. Some people said I'll just need to wake her up to pee in the middle of the night, but what if she refused to go back to sleep after that - I'll end up like a big panda. How do mummies train their children not to wet the bed at night?

Outing at the park

I had to work today and as hubby is in KK attending his Lions Club Convention, I sent Yiu Yiu to the babysitter for the most part of the day. We got home at about 5pm and I was thinking of a park to bring Yiu Yiu out for the evening, as the playground in our housing area would be crowded by kids from the low cost flat nearby (that’s another story altogether). I quickly made her dinner, which she promptly finished as I had told her we would go to the park after she finished her rice. As I strap her into the car seat, I decided to head to the Taman Tun Dr Ismail park. The park is popular with family with children, as well as joggers.

Adults and children alike enjoying the park

We’ve only been there once with Yiu Yiu when she was younger so she probably didn’t quite enjoy the park then. Today, she was so excited seeing the fishes and tortoises in the pond gobbling up the bread thrown into the pond. Then there were monkeys, and we saw few mother monkeys with their baby hanging onto the mummy’s stomach.

She was equally intrigued watching other kids catching those little fishes and prawns in the stream with nets, and promptly took off her slippers and walked into the clear stream too. She was enjoying herself thoroughly playing with water and sand, and promptly got herself wet.

Clockwise from top left: running away from mummy, looking longingly at the children by the stream, taking her first steps in the water, little lamb lost

Clockwise from top left: grabbing some sand from the stream; getting ready to throw; here you go; Ah! Mission accomplished

Blowing bubbles

A contented little girl

We left at about 7.15pm as it was getting dark, and her royal highness gave instructions that she wanted to come to the park again.

Language development

Yiu Yiu is really quick in catching new words and phrases by the day. She can spew out three to four syllable words, phrases and even full sentences like a pro. We just need to say the word/phrase/sentence to her once, and she can repeat them. She has also grasp the concept of opposites, such as big vs small, tall/long vs short, hot vs cold, many vs few.

As her comprehension and verbalisation skills grow by the day, it can get really funny with her around these days. Here are some tickling conversations:

Incident 1
Yiu Yiu: Papa, see, ball ball
Papa: Where got ball ball?
Yiu Yiu (pointing to papa's tummy): Neh…papa tummy ball ball ah
Papa: Opppsss! (Note to papa from mummy – time to reduce that spare tyre of yours)

Incident 2
Her current favourite word is naughty. She probably learned this word from hubby and I who kept asking her not to do this and that, and not to be naughty. Now whenever she asks anything from us and we don’t oblige, she'll reprimand us, "Naughty"!
Yiu Yiu (sitting on the dining chair): Mummy, carry
Mummy: Doing something else and ignored her
Yiu Yiu: Mummy carry Yiu Yiu ah. Afterwards Yiu Yiu fall down ah…NAUGHTY!

Mummy was working on mummy's laptop when Yiu Yiu came over.
Yiu Yiu: I wanna play mummy's computer
Mummy: Mummy working ah…cannot play
Yiu Yiu: I wanna play mummy's computer ah…NAUGHTY!
Mummy: Duh!

Incident 3
Yiu Yiu knows that in order to buy something, we need to give money to the merchants. She's now into the habit of asking "Mummy buy this, mummy buy that". Here's a snippet of our conversation:
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, I wanna buy Barney. Mummy, I wanna buy Thomas and Friends.
Mummy: Yiu Yiu wanna buy? Yiu Yiu got money meh?
Yiu Yiu: No, mummy money buy!

Incident 4
Mummy was angry with Yiu Yiu coz she refused to eat her dinner yet again.
Papa: Why is mummy angry?
Yiu Yiu: Yiu Yiu don't want to eat lor.
Yiu Yiu (decided to watch Barney): Mummy, I wanna watch Barney
Without even waiting for my response, she then said:
Yiu Yiu: Mummy angry, papa switch on Barney for Yiu Yiu.

Ask me or answer me?

Mummy was angry with Yiu Yiu coz she refused to eat her dinner but kept playing with her food instead. So mummy ignored Yiu Yiu despite her attempts to "pujuk" mummy.
Yiu Yiu (trying to make peace with mummy, snuggled close and in a manja voice): Mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy,
Mummy (continued to ignore her to show mummy's anger)
Yiu Yiu (in a stern voice): Mummy, ask me
Mummy (saying in my heart): Huh! Ask me?!!
Yiu Yiu (repeating in a stern voice): Mummy, ask me
Mummy couldn't contain her laughter anymore and chuckled out loud. Actually she was trying to ask mummy to answer her, but I guess she couldn't find the right word and simply substituted it with something she knows.

Back from New Zealand

Greetings everyone. I'm back from New Zealand after 16 days. We arrived on Saturday night and immediately upon reaching home, we drove to the babysitter to fetch our darling home. And boy, every time I'm away from her for such a long stretch, at first glance, I never fail to feel that she somehow looked different from when I left. And she seemed to have developed by leaps and bounds in the language department, something we had noticed while speaking to her on the phone in New Zealand. She was understandably excited at seeing us and can’t wait to get home, whilst busy chattering away telling us this and that.

New Zealand is a truly amazing country. The landscape and natural beauty will blow your mind away. Astounding, awesome, magnificent – these superlatives won't even do justice to the beauty of this country. To top it off, New Zealanders are a really friendly breed. There's so much I'd like to share about this trip to New Zealand, but I know it'll take some time before I can sort out the photos and write some decent posts. But first, if you'll excuse me, I'll need to plough through over 400 emails in my Inbox, and catch up on reading tens, if not hundreds of posts of blogs I frequent.