Three Syllabus

Jae's grown a lot this week. Throughout the whole week of spending time with her at home and relatives' places, I noticed she's picking up things at an amazing pace. First she started calling me "Daddy". Then she amused us with "no more" along with the gesture whenever something finished or someone's gone. She's also starting to pick up the difference in meaning when different nouns are placed at the start of the sentence. For example, she knows "Daddy give...wait," is different from "Jae...give Daddy".

Today she was refining her "flower" when we were at Sentosa's flower exhibition. She even attempted to pronounce "fly away" I told her the birds were flying away. That's three syllabus! 

I'm so proud of my little girl!

Bits & Pieces

Teaching the kid to burp like a man...woman also can!

The Most Accurate Thermometer In The Whole Universe

It's my turn to take care of the kid while mummy's away for two full days of company retreat. I was actually looking forward to some quality time with the kid. I was even thinking of going shopping with her. Maybe she can give me some advice of some new year clothes to buy.

The first night was rather pleasant. I brought her back from the center and gave her some cookies. She was visibly tired. God knows why but she was cuddling up my lap and quietly watching the TV. No tantrums. No unnecessary crying. That was a bliss. Dinnertime came and I cooked the "instant" rice Mummy bought for her. I thought it was quite interesting because it came out of the bag powdery but after 3 minutes of boiling it became porridge! Like magic! Sadly the taste was nowhere near magical. No choice. There was nothing else in the house I can feed her. Thank god she ate everything without much complaint. 

Today morning Jae woke up feeling feverish all over. It was then I realize why she looked so tired yesterday. The cough bug she caught from the center few days ago must have caught up with her. I didn't think much about the fever because my digital thermometer was showing a slight 0.1 increase. She felt more than 0.1 to me but I thought I could be wrong. So I went about the usual routine of packing her school bag, change her and then bring her to the center. I thought I could go to work after that. But surprise surprise my digital thermometer clamped under Jae's armpit didn't work as good as the Braun Thermoscan ear infra-red thermometer. 38 degrees was the verdict. The result: I have to bring her home. 

I thought the fever will go away by itself. So I gave her some milk and pack her back to sleep. She woke up in the afternoon feeling even more feverish. My not-very-accurate thermometer said she's only 37.5. Grrr. So after I gave her some paracetamol I decided to pack the bags and bring her back to my in-law's place. At least grandma can cook something decent for her. 

The first thing I did after Jae settled down at grandma's place was to go to the mall and buy a Braun thermoscan. I told mummy to get one months ago. It never happened. Now I've got the most expensive thermometer I ever lay my hands on.

Perhaps also the most expensive one in the whole universe

Dad Mee Shoo Dah

Since the last time I talked about Jae's vocab, she has improved by a lot. Now she's much more capable of expressing herself. Words like dad, mee (mummy), dat (cat), there, woah, dah (car), shoo (shoes) and bee (baby doll) are part of her daily speech. She even attempts to mimic our speech and try to pronounce two syllabus words like diaper and apple.

Maybe, just maybe, the zoo-phonics from GUG is working. But I'm still skeptical about it.

Hopefully the little girl will grow up to be more linguistically talented than her parents. 

New Uniform

Unfortunately it's a case of one-size-fits-all and only god will know which baby gorrilla's size they used as the standard.

But the real problem I have is the red and blue combination. Tak match lah!

CHOMPS

We are progressively allowing Jae to self feed. To a point where she now demands for her own spoon and bowl with some food in it whenever we try to feed her.

Most of the time she would make a mess. Especially when she starts flinging food she don't like onto the floor. 

At the same time we are also extra careful about the type and size of food she's feeding herself. Anything that doesn't breakup easily has to be in nibble size. 

Last night was the first night she pretty much fed herself the whole dinner portion. Mummy prepared some diced potatoes, baby carrots and a drum stick which eventually we took out the bones and cut into little bits. 

I think she enjoyed it a lot. 

T3 = Toddlers Under 3

My daughter. Sitting in the huge T3 lobby, watching lives goes by in a seemingly philosophical way...

Not.

But looking at how she was so at home at T3 and how she pulled our lunch bag like a pro, I reckon she might be a potential air stewardess...

...or airport auntie/cleaner :P

*Notice that critical 40 degree angle

I can imagine T3 being at the top of the list of favorite playground among the children. Boy such huge empty spaces for these kids to run and roll. Jae was absolutely out of control when we were there for dinner. In the end she was so tired she refused to stand up after we took a photo of her infront of the Disney lanterns. The group of men who was waiting for their turn, sat down and took photos with her instead. That was before she realized what was happening, stood up and ran for daddy and mummy. That was so funny.

Judo Master

Marina Barrage

We were dead bored not sure where to go for the new year's eve. Mummy suggested Marina Barrage so off we went.

Firstly, I think the name blows. Barrage? Seriously. 

Secondly, I think the architect did something naughty. The design of the building said to base on the number "9" which sounds like longevity. So the structure plays with the shape of a "9" and an invert "9", which is "6".

Surely they know what "69" means????

Anyway the carnival was okay. We walked with a guided tour group in the visitor gallery. Spent an hour there before we head off to the supermarket then home for some home-cooked New Year's Eve dinner

more photos here

Ipoh and KL

When the agenda of the trip is eat, what you have to do is quite simple; digest as fast as possible. 

It's like we were trying to get a taste of as much food as possible during our one week vacation to Ipoh and KL. Mealtime is pretty much out of the window. The opening time of the coffeeshops and stores dictates when and what we eat.

But I have to admit the food in Malaysia is gorgeous. The TV is always saying about the great tasting and variety of Singapore food. That's because they haven't gone to Malaysia yet. Maybe more specifically they didn't have a local to bring them around where all the good food are.

I still can't forget the rojak, the "po piah", the bean sprout chicken and prawn noodles. Taste me, nothing in Singapore even come close to those I had in Ipoh.

The only thing I don't miss are the mosqitoes. They were giant size and everywhere. I don't mind getting bitten but the little one has allergy to mosqitoe bites. So I have to smoke out the rooms every night with insecticide before going to bed. I didn't do that the first night and Jae woke up with 9 bites on her face! (She was wearing long sleeves so not much skin exposed) Her whole face was swollen by the second day.

Back to the food, I think I'm suffering from MFWS now. (Malaysia food withdrawal syndrome)

More photos here