Yeah! I finally did it! My first attempt to really sit on the potty without fear. Mama bought potties for me long long time ago since I was 18 months. She's been waiting for me to be potty trained since then. But I had been rejecting it. Just a fews weeks ago, she showed me some new Hello Kitty panties she bought for me. I was intrigued by them and insisted to wear one. So she told me, "Only big girls wear panties. Those wearing diapers can't wear them. Diapers are for babies."
Now with Mui Mui RaeAnn coming, I can sort of know better what are "babies" and "Ga Jie" meant. So Mama told me if I wanted to wear panties, I couldn't wear diapers, and it won't fit too anyway.
So at Nai Nai's house, Nai Nai also let me wear it. My potty training is still in the teething stage. I would sit on it, at least without fear and struggle. But I couldn't release anything. Still does the occasionally accidents on the floor or carpet. Or asked for diaper when I want to poo. Sorry.... But mama thinks it's a good attempt and a big leap already. Hurray for me! Now mama is more motivated to buy sweet and cute little panties for me!!!! Waiting....nothing...
I saw mama wearing a pair of sunglasses in the car and had been pestering her to let me wear it too. But mama was afraid that I would spoil it, and I sure did! One of the lens dropped out, ops! So Papa got me a kid size one. However, it suffered almost the same fate as mama's sunglasses. Just within a day, it sustained scratches on the lens! KEkekee...don't blame me, I'm just a kid. Save the LV and Gucci ones till I'm older, ya?! :P
Last Sunday was Fathers' Day. Before I slept on Saturday night, mama told me we would surprise papa with the cards I made from school and home. So when I woke up the next morning, mama passed me the cards and we hid behind the bedroom door--papa had gone out to make milk for me. When he came back, we shouted, "Surprise! Happy Fathers' Day!" Papa was all smiles as I passed him the cards.
My papa is the best papa in the whole wide world to me. He has been very hands on with all the caregiving. Since my birth, from waking up in the middle of the nights, changing diapers, bathing, feeding, cooking my meals, making milk, buying groceries, diapers and milk, disciplining and all the others a parent has to do, he's been there, done them ! He is also my best play mate because I love it when I can play tumble and rumble games with him! My papa is a load of fun! What can I (and mama) ask for more, right?!
This is also why I respect my papa alot, alot. More than anyone else in the house, I think. Sometimes that makes mama jealous. :p Whenever I'm up to mischief, he just needs to give a stare, I will back off within seconds. When he disciplines me, I will listen well. He is very strict with me when I misbehave. The puzzling thing is, I will want him to smile at me after that. Only towards papa, I will want his favour and approval after a hard session of disciplining. I will turn to him with my teary eyes and asked, "Papa, eeeee?" (Meaning, "show your smile.") To me, that will end my disciplining session with him. I will hug him again and he will say, "I forgive you."
Mama told papa that some kids, after being disciplined may not even wanna do anything with that person. Or would run to someone else for comfort, typically, the one who always pampers. (hmmm...sounds like mama when she was young, huh?! When poh poh disciplined her, she would run to Gong Gong and "complained.") But I will just want papa to love me again despite mama waiting (eagerly) to shower her comfort and love if I were to run to her after that. But more often than not, papa's smile and hug/kisses will suffice. And I'll be up and about, back to my usual cheerful self!
Guess papa is too important to me to lose his favour. And one of my parents' prayers is that they are able to exhibit a glimpse of God's characteristics to me too--that they love me just like God does to all of us, but will not hesitate to chasten me should I go off track. Most of all, forgiveness is readily there if I will just "repent"--change. I'm learning to be a good girl. They're learning to be good parents too.....No perfect parents. I will not trade my papa for any papa in the world! He's the best!
Papa, I love you very much!!! :*** and hugs for you!
"Happy Fathers' Day, papa!" Cards for you, Papa.
Papa asking me what I did on the card. I made a heart shaped card with red thread woven around the edges from school. The other one was done with mama--I drew pictures (scribbles) on it. I kept saying, "I draw papa..." Then mama pasted a picture of papa and me on it. A kiss for my papa!Words on the card, "I love my Daddy!" My best papa! Then mama brought this new toy out for me to play. It's a toy cake decoration. Very good for learning mathematical concepts like sorting, patterning, fractions and etc. Aunty Viv bought me this toy quite some time ago, and mama thinks I'm ready to play with it now. Mama just let me explored with it. I love decorating the cake and cutting it into slices. Mama told me to make a Fathers' Day cake for Papa. And so I did! Cutting the "cake." I would say, "This cake (slice) for mama, this for papa, this for yeye, this for nai nai....." I would also ask papa and mama if they like chocolate, kiwi or orange on their cake.
Oh and did I mention, mama got papa on my behalf a Fathers' Day gift too? Hmmm...mama is thinking maybe she should deduct from my savings since he's technically, MY PAPA lor!!! kekekekekee....
Last Saturday, we celebrated Fathers' Day with Gong Gong at Zhou's Kitchen. But mama forgot to bring the camera, so no pictures to show--sorry. We had buffet Tim Sum, or rather, they had their lunch and I was sleeping. Good for my parents! Could eat in peace. Kow Fu and Kow Mo were there too. I woke up shortly after they had their fill, and was very touchy, especially teary whenever Kow Fu wanted to play with me. Guess, I hadn't seen him for some time or was it because he once "scolded" with me for eating slowly and I cried? Anyway, Kow Fu, don't mind me, I'm just a mood swing kid! I'll play with you again, soon! How about a game of soccer!? I can kick very well now, you know?!
Then on Sunday, we celebrated with Ye Ye at Novetel with dinner buffet. Gu Gu and Gu Zhang were there too. And the theme colour that day was coincidentally--orange! Ye Ye, Nai Nai, papa and me were dressed in orange attire! ahhahahaaa....And I got to make a new friend at the lobby. Her name is Lara Jie Jie. She was so friendly and gentle. I followed her every action and wherever she went. Good thing she was such a gentle girl, so my actions were also, well, less active....
Mama and me.
Eating mango pudding. Too busy to take photo. I wanted to sit with Gugu and Gu Zhang.
My papa devouring his favourite--fresh salmon!
Happy Papa!
The orange gang.
Were we singing or saying something?
At the lobby, playing with Lara Jie Jie.
Following her every action--crossed legs.
Imitating Lara Jie Jie again. Same Same.... 2 sweet girls. (1 really sweet, 1 trying to be sweet)...mama thinks Lara Ji Jie is really a great influence for me to learn graceful etiquettes! She is so lady-like. Well, when mama met her mum, she could tell why. Aunty is also very graceful. Ops, does that mean my mama is very cho loh!? wahahahahahhaha...... I kept looking away, so mama tricked me by saying, "Hey, see what happened to Gugu?!" This angle is not bad already, I was back facing the camera before this. Finally, I decided to co-operate and looked at the camera, but no smile. Still playing with Lara Jie Jie, at her parents' table behind mine. Jie Jie was trying to help mama to take pics of me! So nice of her. But see my eyes? Purposely looked down to avoid the camera.
The Touchy Baby. For an ultrasensitive baby such as yours, the world is an endless array of sensory challenges. She flinches at the sound of a motorcycle revving outside her window, the TV blaring or a dog barking in the house next door. She blinks or turns her head away from bright light. She sometimes cries, even at her mother, for no apparent reason. At these moments, she's shouting (in her baby language), "I've had enough -- I need some peace and quiet." She often gets fussy after a number of people have held her or after outings. She will play on her own for a few minutes, but she needs the reassurance that someone she knows well -- Mom, Dad, a nanny -- is close by. Because this type of baby likes to suck a lot, mom may misread her cues and think she's hungry when she'd do just as well being calmed in another way. She also nurses erratically, sometimes acting as if she has forgotten how. At naptime and at night, your baby often has difficulty falling asleep. Touchy babies like her easily get off schedule, because their systems are so fragile. An extra-long nap, a skipped meal, an unexpected visitor, a trip, a change in formula -- any of these things can throw your baby for a loop. To calm the touchy baby, you have to recreate the womb. Swaddle her tightly, snuggle her into your shoulder and whisper a rhythmic sh ... sh ... sh ... (like the splashing of fluid in the womb) close to her ear, and pat her back gently, mimicking a heartbeat. (This, by the way, will calm most babies, but it works especially well with a touchy baby.) When you have a touchy baby, the quicker you learn her cues and her cries, the simpler life is. Your baby loves structure and predictability -- no hidden surprises, thank you.
Mama deemed Streams of Praise a Chinese Version of Hosanna Integrity, or sometimes, Hillsongs. Being Taiwanese and all, the composers never fail to mesmerize Mama with their beautiful language of expression. In plain and simple English, for instance, "Jesus loves you." They could word it as "Ye Shu Teng (dote) Ni, (instead of the usual, "Ai (love)." And sometimes, the same meaning of a phrase in Chinese sounds more touching than in English to her.
Some songs papa and her love very much and have been very ministering to them. Never fail to lift their spirits up....
It was an usual night out for dinner at United Square one weekday. My mama was busy chasing after me as I was roaming around the mall after dinner and Papa was running some errands elsewhere.
As my heavily pregnant mama was chasing me, she accidentally kicked on something. It gave a "ling ling" sound, and so she looked down to see what it was. A gold ring.
To be more specific, it's a yellow gold ring, with a big diamond on top of it, surrounded with little diamond stubs. She surveyed it briefly and thought, "It looked like glass." Not diamond, was her first analysis because, the yellow gold was a little tarnished, one little diamond stub was missing and the "diamond" didn't have that sparkle and shine.
And at split second, she had to recollect her senses because I was running away to nowhere! So she quickly held her "loot" higher and thought to herself, "Better lift this ring higher so the owner cannot claim that I'm a thief or something. I'm ready to return it." And so she did for about a few seconds, eyes darting at my direction. But no one came towards her.
Without another moment to waste, she threw the ring back into her handbag and continue her FBI chase. She showed Papa the ring when we got back to the car. Papa gave that looks-worse-than-my-proposal-ring-for-you-though-this-is-much-bigger look. And claimed that the diamond and all must be fake. No shine, no clarity, no nothing.
Then on mother's day lunch with my poh poh and gong gong, she took it out from her pouch and showed it to poh poh. Why poh poh?! Because poh poh seems to have "luck" at picking up jewelleries on the street too! Ring and bracelet, mainly yellow gold. And so mama thought she must be an expert at verifying jewelleries. Does this kinda "luck" runs in the family?!?!? HAhhahaaa....hopefully, why not! I should be the 3rd generation to inherit such "asset" if so!
Anyways, after surveying the ring, gong gong, poh poh, kow fu and kow mo's verdict was---it seemed fake. Too fake to be real. Then mama concluded in her heart that she had picked up a fake ring. But was nonchalant about it. No lost, no gain, waste of her time. So that ring was thrown from bag to bag, table to table and pouch to pouch for about 1 month plus. Forgotten for awhile. A part of her felt she shouldn't just THROW it away, at least give that ring a true "identity."
So on one of her leave days to run some errands with papa, she brought that ring along. She was at Lee Hwa, doing cleaning of her jewelleries. She hesitated to bring that ring out to be verified. "What if the sales promoter think I stole it?" "She must be thinking if the ring is mine, why do I need her to verify?" And it was kinda Ah Soh lor! So she was trying hard rehearsing how to play down the Ah Sohness. She even wanted papa to do it, who blatantly rejected even after tempting him with sharing part of the "price" if the ring was real didn't work!
Alas, she mustered up enough courage to ask the sales promoter to verify the ring's status. She politely took out a diamond tester kit and pointed on the diamond and a loud "Deee" sound was heard. Mama almost wanted to hide her face and Papa looked away as if he didn't know mama (so much for "for better or for worse", right?!). The sound sounded so negative that both thought it meant, "It's fake!" And the promoter had a frown on her face. She repeatedly tested the diamond like 3 to 4 times. Mama already had her hands on her face; she was imagining herself climbing over the counter, grabbing the tester kit from the promoter and begged her to stop!!!
But her next words stunned my parents, "Yup, it's real. And it's about 0.8 to 1.1karat." My mama's jaw dropped, but managed to hold it back to avoid any detection of thrill. After the promoter left the counter to check on the cleaning of her jewelleries, papa whispered to mama, "You can now wipe that smug smile off your face!"
They left the place and went to search around for pawn shops to determine the worthiness of the ring. One quoted $5k, the other $4.5k, and another who wanted to buy it, offered only $1k. Needless to say, Mama decided to go with the $5k because she didn't want to go through the hassle of walking on anymore just to get a better deal than that. She felt it was God's blessing that she picked this ring and she shouldn't be too greedy about it by spending too much time and effort.
So papa was sent to process the pawning of the ring as by then, mama was zapped out of her energy to walk. So mama waited in the car, in the carpark just opposite the shop. Poor Papa, he got mistaken by the boss that he had to pawn his girlfriend's ring to finance his unborn child and girlfriend!! wahahahaha...a compliment to mama I think! But mama just couldn't help laughing after he got back into the car complaining how poor thing he was being mistaken as a bastard! hahahaha...Guess this was how he got mama to give him a token from that sum as a compensation!??!?!?kekekeke...
Back to seriousness, after the whole woo hah, Mama gave thanks to God. She felt God had heard her heart's desires and provided. She had wanted to get a confinement nanny, get a new infant carrier (for safety when travelling in a car), do her post natal massage, go for short family getaway and replace her mobile phone that hung up on her every now and then.
But Papa said, "I think it's God's way of telling us"--"I know you'll be out of a job for a longer time, so give you extra $5k as a baffle." Mama upon hearing that felt her thanksgiving-ness melted away slowly. He might be right.
But mama quickly corrected him as her past experiences told her that God is not a cruel God. God is not out to make fools out of His children too. He loves and it hurts Him as much as He sees how much His children are in need. Even some of our own earthly fathers will not give a stone to his own children when they are hungry, why would our heavenly Father be so wicked to give empty blessings?
It was not a matter of what the extra money was for, mama felt it was how they should react as children of God that would matter. So mama chose to give thanks. Mama chose to believe God cares and He is still faithful to provide. She knew deep down God was trying to say, "Look here, you two guys panicking over money. If I can drop a $5k right under your smelly feet over all your 'wants". Shall I not also provide all your needs?!"
Papa has learnt a lesson too--in everything, give thanks! Have faith to know God is good all the time even if our situation seems otherwise or He doesn't answer our prayer needs like the way we wanted it.
Mama has her faith in God's providence rebuilt. She has grown to understand that, like parents, all God wants to do was to help us know Him better--what kinda God is He. It'll be sad if they as parents are misunderstood by muimui and me, isn't it?!
My parents are still unsure when God will provide papa with a job. But they know God will not abandon us, He WILL provide, in His time, in His ways......
So, was the ring God's blessing or baffle? It's only a matter of how much you know your God. :)
Mama used to get dislike Don Moen's vocal cos she thinks he sounds very "Uncle-ish." But she knows he's an anointed composer. Another ageless song, listen to his words in the middle of the song. Be ministered! (Papa, this is for you too!)
Day 1.... We packed our bags and headed off to Siloso Beach Resort, Sentosa for a 3 days 2 nights stay. Mama had a lil blessing from God (nope, she didn't win any lottery. She didn't buy any to start with) and could splurge on this mini family getaway. Thank God for His providence and granting Mama her wish. The resort was also having this promotion and for quite a cheap deal we could get a decent room and resort. Though she wished she could travel further, by the time "God's blessing" came, she was in her 3rd trimester and airlines would have barred her from travelling already. So my desperate Mama thought Sentosa was good enough, just a family getaway before G2 (girl number 2) comes out and things would definitely be different.
The room was ok, except the toilet being very crampy. Mama being bigger than usual now almost hit the sink or door whenever she was inside. But then again, no complains. God is still good!
As for me, I had a great time there. Swimming everyday, going to the beach, taking cable car, tram and coach bus, watching Songs of the Sea were great experience for me. Just that the sun was out to boil people I think! Super hot!
Talking about Songs of the Sea. Sigh, my parents said they used to watch the similar musical fountain (and nicer) for free many years ago! Now we had to pay and I was crying at one point because the story had a rock monster with hot fire balls exploding from the scene. Got me frantic coupled with the loud and scary music.
But other than that, I had loads of fun!
Day 2.... We had our complimentary breakfast at the resort. The outdoor cafe was visited by some fat squirrels that would jump from fence to fence, and some patrons fed them fruits. I was observing their movement and soon caught on the "squirrel's spirit" and began moving around like a squirrel!
After breakfast, we went to Palawan Beach to check out. Then back Siloso Beach. I disliked walking on the sandy beach and insisted Papa or Mama to carry me. Mama thought I should be the last person to be picky about being yeeky and dirty! And I was afraid when the tide came nearer to me too. But when I was younger, all these didn't affect me at all. Papa and Mama used to bring me to the beach for sand play. Probably, I'm much older now and became conscious of many things around me.
Then after awhile, we got back to the resort pool instead because the weather was super duper hot! At night, I took my first ride in a cable car! I was very excited and kept telling Papa, "I want sit cable car...." We took the ride to Vivo city for dinner and came back on it too. It was fun!
If not for the killer weather, Mama and Papa wouldn't be so tired. The sun really could zap up all your energy even though we didn't do much activities. It's tiring for Mama to wait and sit from tram to bus, and bus to tram whenever we had to hang out of resort. Imagine carrying a 2kg watermelon wherever you go, you would get what I mean. hehehehee....
A video of me running around pretending to be a squirrel.
A video of me pretending to be a teacher, reading names written on a paper. That's what Ms Seng would do when we had to do activities. I had to try to identify my name. So I took some papers from the room and pretended that Papa was my student!
Day 3.... It was the last day at Sentosa and my parents brought me Palawan Beach for some water play since they saw I was keen when we passed by yesterday. But guess I was the only one there that morning, I was very afraid to get into the shallow pool. It was more like a water play area. Not really a pool per say.
I was apprehensive to step into the water firstly because I disliked the rocky ground. Kept pointing to the ground, complaining. But after a while, I was able to "accept" it and played water.
We went back to the resort's pool after half an hour because the sun was cooking us literally even though it was only 1030am!!!
A video of me trying to "sink" Papa at the water play area.
Our Names: G1--Evangelia Lum Kay Xun G2--Rae-Ann Lum Kay Yan Our Birthdays: G1--13 November 2006 G2--2 August 2009
Our Place of Birth: Mt Alvernia Hospital
Our Time of Birth: G1--7.52pm G2--9.57pm
Our Weight at Birth: G1--3.32kg G2--2.88kg Mama laboured for: G1--13 hours (natural) G2--Less than 1 hour (C-section)
Name of gynea: Dr. Henry Cheng First person who saw me (other than God & Dr): G1--Papa! And he teared with joy! :) G2--Papa, of course! And he was told I had umbilical cord around my neck twice. (Thank God for His grace)
Yeah! I finally did it! My first attempt to really sit on the potty without fear. Mama bought potties for me long long time ago since I was 18 months. She's been waiting for me to be potty trained since then. But I had been rejecting it. Just a fews weeks ago, she showed me some new Hello Kitty panties she bought for me. I was intrigued by them and insisted to wear one. So she told me, "Only big girls wear panties. Those wearing diapers can't wear them. Diapers are for babies."
Waiting....nothing...
Waiting....nothing...
Papa waited too....nothing....
Imitating Lara Jie Jie again.
I kept looking away, so mama tricked me by saying, "Hey, see what happened to Gugu?!" This angle is not bad already, I was back facing the camera before this. 
