Final Post For The Year

How time flies! 2009 is zooming past us and very soon it is the time of the year again to celebrate as we usher in the New Year. Have you already decided where to go for countdown celebration tomorrow night? No matter where you go or even if you had planned to spend the last evening at home, I hope you will have a wonderful time with your family.

Before I end this post, I leave you with some of the photos taken during our trip to China last month.

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!!

Moments before boarding the plane. The 2 girls had fun running back and forth the travelator. I've lost count the number of times they went on the travelator.


The girls were seated together and I was just next to Jasmine. Sharlene was rather excited after boarding the plane. She kept turning to the back and chat with daddy who was sitting behind her. They even brought their old maid and donkey cards along and insisted that I play with them. We played a few rounds and stopped just before their dinner sets arrive. Sharlene didn't like the food, she only took the snack.


It was pretty chill during the first 2 nights. I’d to constantly remind Sharlene to zip up her coat and put on her gloves. This gal liked to remove her coat and kept saying she's not feeling cold.


The different night scenes in Guilin.


Mountains and river in Yangshuo.


My first time seeing a real panda. The one and only panda there. Ohh, she was really huge. Hmm, I didn't know that panda likes to munch on carrots too...


The gals with their new friend, Ivy. She is a year older than Jasmine.
3 of them were seen together most of the time.

Once again, wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous 2010!!

"Come And Catch Me If You Can"

- This is a backdated post - It has been a while since the last time I brought Sharlene to the park. At one time, we used to go every evening, that’s the first thing both of us do when I reach home from work.

Lately or rather for the past few weeks, we have been avoiding the wet and soggy park. I notice the weather is slightly better these few days, at least no heavy rain in my area. So we may start frequenting the park again :) but provided I reach home before 7pm on working days.

*** On one of our usual visits to the park ***
Since it's weekend, Jasmine tagged along with us. Jasmine and Sharlene were going up and down the see-saw. And I was on the other end, trying my best to capture their sweetest moments. Too bad, Jasmine was almost blocked by Sharlene.



Sharlene met one of her classmates there, a Malay boy who stays nearby. Both of them were having so much fun chasing and running around the park. Kids just love playing and running around the playground, don’t they? The following pix will show how much enjoyment they had on that evening.

It’s such a joy to see my girl enjoying herself.

The little boy enjoyed chasing Sharlene whilst Sharlene enjoyed being chased by him. I tell you, these 2 kids really have abundance of energy.

"Come and catch me if you can"

The Things That Daddy Does

While I was busy changing bed sheet on one Sunday, hubby came in to offer his assistance. After a while, Sharlene also came in to the room to check out what both of us were doing. Unavoidably, my chore got abandoned halfway once the little girl stepped in.

And here's what happened next...hubby found a new way to ‘entertain’ his princess instead of helping me to change bed sheet.

Wrapping her up in a quilt cover...

Lifting her high up...and sway her like a baby.

Here’s another stunt by the ever-obliging daddy :D
Ok, ready and gooooooooo...

Yayy!! This's really fun! I like it....again, I want it again please....

My Girl Wants To Get Married?!!

One night just before bedtime, Sharlene was standing on our bed, she's admiring our wedding portrait hung on the wall and she told me that when she gets married next time, she wants to hang her wedding portrait next to ours (as she said that her finger was pointing to the empty space beside the portrait). Gosh, I burst into laughter straight away...muahahahah...

Who do you want to get married to? I asked
Sharlene: Piao ker loh…(referring to her cousin brother)

A few days after our conversation, I caught her playing dress-up and role playing with her piao cheh. She put on an oversized dress, which she took from her piao cheh’s wardrobe and guess what... she turned a towel into a bridal veil! :D

Here's her beautician helping her to doll up

And ta daaa.....

She's all ready for the role of a bride.

Fully dressed up with a white bouquet on her hands and a ring on her petite finger :D

Hahah...I like this pix of my little girl. So solemn looking.

Will you marry me, piao ker?

No, no, no yelled piao ker and he ran away.

Fun With Jenga Block Game

My brother got us a box of JENGA, a wooden block game. This game is really simple to learn and fun to play with. Even Sharlene enjoyed it tremendously! She is able to remove blocks from a tower and put them on top effortlessly. It’s pretty easy to play but the game gets tougher and more exciting when the tower goes higher.


Our first Jenga game was at my mum’s house. It was nerve-racking and we almost tear the house down with our laughter and screams :D

Sharlene's turn. Being a first timer, she’s taking out the block carefully...


...and placing it on top of the tower.


Not sure of what she’s doing here when it's my turn to stack the block. I guess she’s attempting to shield the tower from falling...haha.


Naughty girl in action :D She’s definitely giving her Ah Yee a tough time.


Looking out for a block to pull. Check out her 'style'...

We truly enjoy this game! Thanks again bro for this wonderful gift!

The Things They Play With

Kids love to have fun playing and they always know how to and what to do for fun. Being active and playful most of the time, Sharlene never fails to amuse me with the things she does. But it often upset me when she gets too extreme playing with her piao cheh and refuses to stop when I told her to.

Guess what the 2 girls play with when they get bored with their toys, books, TV, etc or when they simply have nothing to do at home?

...

...

...


Not able to guess??
Well, it’s Sharlene’s bulky Anakku pram...


Even though we have kept this pram away, Sharlene still request to play with it every now and then in the HOUSE! She will sit on it and request her piao cheh to push her around. Sometimes her toys will join in the fun too...hehe. It’s a pleasant sight to look at when both of them have so much fun giggling and chuckling away while playing with the pram. On some occasion she even behaves like a baby and requests to drink her milk in the pram.


Besides pushing the pram at home, the girls like to mess up my kitchen too especially my girl who is very fond of playing with things that are not meant for playing!

Have a look at the pic below (taken a few months ago) and you will know how playful they were...



Yeah, for sure they were having great fun with the ladle, plates, bowls and wooden spatula. Thank god, they only did that a few times and they have ceased playing with it now. Otherwise the clatter they create with those kitchen utensils will surely drive me bonkers.

Karaoke Kids

While we were enjoying our steamboat dinner on one of the weekends, the 2 girls were busy singing away. They were so into the mood and sang most of the Chinese children songs quite well especially Jasmine.

Here’s one of the songs they sang...

I’ve no clue as to the title of this song, anyone knows?

Anyway, it was really entertaining to have them singing while we, the adults enjoying our food on the dining table. Both of them were thrilled when they saw hubby took out 2 sets of microphone and fixed it up for them, (as if they were not loud enough!). They can’t wait to show off their talents with the mic and oh boy, their voices were thunderous and I tell you, it certainly can be heard a few houses away :D

Our 2 young 'entertainers' singing their favorite chinese songs.

Playing With Playdough

Sharlene has a playdough set which was given to her by my sis. Last weekend she was playing with it together with her piao cheh.

I sat there for a moment to watch them play. It was rather funny to look at how the kids handle the dough. Instead of using the various molds to shape the dough and be creative with it, the 2 girls prefer to just play their own ways. Sharlene was basically rolling, squeezing and cutting up the dough into bits and pieces with a plastic knife. Her piao cheh did almost the same thing too.


There are 3 tubs of playdough in the set – green, yellow and blue colors. After playing with it numerous times, the colors got mixed together and everything now looked green.




They spent more than half an hour meddling with the green dough. It was a huge mess at the end of the play with tiny crumbs of dough dropped all over the floor, on the carpet and with some of it sticking on their legs and hands. They happily left the scene whilst I had to clear up the big mess! The next time when they play with this, I better place some papers on the floor to catch the bits and pieces.

Walking On The Foot Reflexology Path

There is a foot reflexology path situated in the playground nearby my house. Besides this facility, there is also a jogging track that hubby and I go for our morning jog every weekend. One fine evening, we brought Sharlene and her cousin sister to this playground. As usual they enjoyed so much of running around, chasing after each other and playing with the facilities in the park while hubby and I watched over them. Occasionally, I play along with them too. Hubby will usually be the photographer.

Before we left the playground, I took off my sandals and went on the foot reflexology path. This path consists of stones of varying shapes and sizes. Some of them are rather thick, flat and rounded and others are thin and sharp to give a stronger stimulation to the feet. I quite like the massaging sensation on the sole of my feet but at times it can be painful as well.


After seeing me walking on the path and out of curiosity, the 2 girls also tried to step their feet on the stones. They walked so slowly and carefully with their eyes fixated on the stones to avoid those sharp-edged pebbles. They whined, laughed and giggled along the way. I just can’t help but laughed at their funny expression and the way Sharlene said, Ouch, ouch, my leg...ouch, so pain! Despite the pain she still continues walking with her cousin sister.


Kids being kids, they just love to have fun and follow what the adults do. :D

Rolling Good Time

After we had our lunch on Dongzhi day I made some ‘tang yuen’ (glutinous rice balls) for everyone. I followed this recipe which I saw it in The Star newspaper a few days earlier. The picture of ‘tang yuen’ looked so colourful and appetizing, so that prompted me to try out the recipe which requires orange and purple coloured sweet potatoes. Further, instead of using the usual sugar syrup, this recipe calls for coconut milk and sago. Although it’s very unhealthy to use coconut milk but the taste of the syrup with coconut milk is just so sweet and creamy. Everyone seemed to like the syrup better than the ‘tang yuen’….haha, so at the end of the day, lots of leftover rice balls with no more syrup.

Well, before I cook the ‘tang yuen’ I let Sharlene and her piao cheh have some fun rolling the dough into balls. It was pretty tough to roll the dough with sweet potatoes as it was really wet and sticky. So I just let the girls roll the one without sweet potatoes.


It was easy and look how they enjoyed rolling, pressing and shaping the pink dough into balls.


My little helper was really good at shaping the dough and Jasmine was busy counting her rice balls. Both of them were competing as to who can roll more 'tang yuen'. lol! Like most children, they don't fancy the taste of the rice balls at all.


Mummy, you see my 'tang yuen' is so round.


And here’s the bowl of colourful ‘tang yuen’ but the appearance of it was nothing close to the one in the picture.

Who's Hiding In The Box?

Sharlene is 100% diaper free since the beginning of this year. I use a box to store up her unused diapers.

She likes to remove the contents of the box and I presume you know the next thing she’s going to do...

While I was busy cleaning my room last Sunday, she entertained herself with this...and got me involved too.

Mummy, can you come and find Sharlene??


I knew she’s hiding inside the box but pretended I don’t know.

I acted as if I couldn’t find her.

After awhile, she tried to steal a look at me.

Where is mummy? Why I cannot see her?

Before she gets bored with the game, I quickly walked towards the box, pretended I’ve found her.

When I was about to open up the box, she happily declared that...

Mummy, I'm here.

Ahhhh… so nice to come out from the box and show my face….hee hee!

Photos Of My Swimmer Wannabe

A few days ago I found these photos in my camera, which were snapped by Jasmine (Sharlene’s cousin sister). Last Wednesday, hubby was at home with the 2 girls. He had left the girls upstairs while he takes a rest. As there weren't any adults keeping an eye on them, they were enjoying themselves tremendously with Sharlene putting on her swimsuit, dancing and rolling on the floor with her cousin brother’s swimming floater; and Jasmine busy snapping photos of her with the camera.

This was quite a nice pic of Sharlene 'swimming' on the floor. Oops, something was missing there....she should have put on her goggles lah, haha!

OMG, she rolled on every spots of the parquet.

She even took out her favourite bunny from the room.

Finally, she was exhausted and realized it was time to take a rest. Hence, she stretched out motionless on the floor and relax.

Fun With Puzzles

Sharlene loves playing with puzzles. When she was younger I used to buy all sorts of puzzles for her. And those days, she played with them everyday and most of the time she can work on the puzzles herself. Since most of the puzzles are too simple for her age now, I have kept it in the cupboard and will only take it out when she requests for it occasionally.



Last week, she asked for her foam puzzles. This foam puzzles was a gift from my aunty. There are altogether 10 pieces of colourful fishes puzzles. She called it 'fish puzzles'.


First of all, she will fix the 10 pieces of puzzles and then join them in a straight line. Next, she will hop and jump on it. When she gets tired of jumping alone, she will ask me to jump and run with her. At times, she will even lie down on the puzzles with her pillow and bolster while drinking her milk. Maybe, she feels more comfortable lying down on her puzzles than her bed.


How nice to see her playing on her own without disturbing me. At least, I can have some rest time during the weekends.