"Nostalgia"

On the LAST Sunday of OCTOBER, our little princess made her stage DEBUT!

She has spent many weeks practising and rehearsing with her classmates and, like all proud parents, we were looking forward to this day to see the little princess dancing on stage with MUCH anticipation and enthusiasm. Even her grandparents got into the act too! Here's her mama helping her to put on make-up (YES! Make-up!!! My barely 3-year-old is wearing make-up for the FIRST TIME!)

Janine's class was one of the first to perform and they danced, wiggled and skipped to the song "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". KY and I were thoroughly impressed that even at such a young age of 3 (Janine's classmate are older than her by a year :P), they could REMEMBER the choreography so well. Everyone (including Janine) executed their steps like clockwork! NO help or prompting from their teachers!

Other classes also performed and with each performance, we were even more awed and impressed at not only the creativity that the teachers of the school have put in choreographing their class' performance (there was a class that had some of the children replicating a shower and telephone!), but also the seemingly complex moves the children made which we felt got even more complicated the older the children were. There was one class that made my jaw drop because part of the dance routine had the girls hula-hooping for a good minute. Non-stop. And the girls did not even drop the hoop. Not once!

The finale was very heart warming. All the classes came out to give a rendition of 3 songs, one of which was "Worthy is the Lamb" and ALL the children were taught to perform it with sign language! Seeing even Janine signing for "lamb", "crown" or "victorious" brought tears to my eyes. Surely the Lord is doing something in the lives of these children, afterall " Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'" (Matthew 19:14)

Janine signing "lamb"


She is SUPPOSE to be signing "victorious", but looks like she got caught up in an Edvard Munch moment (hmmm...the sibs seem to have something in common...lol)

It was truly a grand and impressive affair for KY and me. We are so proud of the accomplishments our little princess has made thus far and we are grateful for the love and care the teachers at Gracefield have lavished on her to help bring out the best in her.

Definitely looking forward to NEXT year's concert. ^^

Ode to Tomato

(Humour me. I'm in one of those eccentric moods! Hahaha)

juicy and sweet
tiny and red
oh what a nice treat
you'd have made instead
alas your fate
of ending on a plate
was dashed to pieces
when the little missus
squished u between covers
as a surprise to others
who'd open the case
and instead of a disc
find u in place
oh what a sight this!
But it's not all bad
so don't be so sad
cos u made it on a post
your memory no ghost

"Papa, can you tell me a story?"

Here's KY making up a story for the little girl using her small wooden blocks. From where I am sitting at the computer, I can make out something about a "lady bug" and some other "bug" working together to do something.

One thing's for sure, KY is the FUN parent, who will romp around with the girl (when he has the energy and NOT on the computer) and spin stories or make up a game out of thin air. He is always so ENGAGED with the girl.

Me? I am the grouchy, uptight parent who too often wields (or threatens to wield) the cane and, even if I have LOADS of energy, does utterly boring things with the girl like WATCH her play with her toys because try as I might, I take a SUPER long time to think of any CREATIVE play. So I end up just fiddling with her toys together with her for a while before giving up and leaving her to "explore" on her own. Sometimes, for lack of a better idea, I just suggest a cartoon from her growing DVD collection. Its a good thing she is a TV junkie like me so the two of us are very comfortable just chilling on the couch :P I am SO the engaging parent. Pfffft!

Ok, maybe the ONE creative thing I like to do and Janine likes to do as well is to draw together. Oh, I simply love drawing for her because even (to me) the most awful slipshod cartoon brings forth squeels of delight from the little girl. Even KY's STICK figures renders the same reaction from her! Lol! She finds great delight in watching her "tiger", "Nemo", "Thomas" or whatever character "come to life" under my pen. And she has no lack of creative juices either. She will add on her own "stories" or characters to the pictures that I have drawn under her requests. We love to see what she will come up with and we have had quite a lot of surprises (YES! I promise to post some of her creations *fingers crossesd*). Ok lah, maybe I am not THAT boring a parent lah *consoling myself*.

Hurricane Janine

Our living room in the aftermath *faint*

Hohoho...and the "Hurricane" is sitting all content on top of the "debris", seemingly basking in the glow of her achievenment!

A Family "Portriat"

Janine and I were having some fun with Playdoh this afternoon (courtesy of KY's mom ^^) and we came up with this:

Guess who's who. Lol!

Janine had specially asked for me to make one for "baby". So sweet ^^

Techno Babe!

FYI, that's my pda handphone that little girl has in her hands! She's obviously VERY comfortable scrawling something on the little screen with the tiny stylus.

Not much initiation on our part really. We simply, on occasions, shoved the stylus into her little hands and directed her to "draw" on the "paper" on the screen. And she caught on marvelously. To the extent she will ask to "draw" on my handphone when she sees me whip it out to check for messages or what not.

Her generation is most definitely the "high-tech" generation. Goodness!

Growing Expectations - 15 Weeks

Here's another "profile shot" of No. 2.

I can assure you that THAT is a face and with some more (ok...A LOT more!) imagination, you can (sort of) make out the hands/arms that are crossed in front.

I wanted this entry to be the entry to announce whether No. 2 is a boy or girl. At least it would be a whole lot easier to PROPERLY be able to refer to the growing human inside me as a he or she :P But, the little fella is obviously not the sort to subject himself (generic) to some "indecent exposure". The WHOLE time the ultrasound was trained at the bub, No. 2 just simply refused to uncrossed his legs and reveal what's between those little kicking limbs! Eventually, he got fed up and wriggled off somewhere out of the "prying" eyes of the ultrasound. Probably to sulk and (maybe) suck his thumbs or hand in some "corner" of the womb (YES! We SAW the little one happily chomping away at his fingers during the ultrasound!)! Displaying A LOT of personality already huh? Lol!

Anyway, all was not in vain, because Janine got a chance to glimpse at her little brother/sister. The kind doctor let her clamber up to sit astride my legs so she could see what was going on on the little screen. No. 2 seem to "know" his big sister was watching so he turned around and gave a "high 5" to Janine. You can imagine how elated the little girl was after that.

After that visit, Janine now refers to No. 2 as "my baby". "My baby is inside mommy's tummy". Lol. And for some strange reason, instead of "mei mei" (younger sister), she will tell you "di di" (younger brother). No matter how you suggest otherwise, she will insist "di di".

Oh well, ANOTHER 4 more weeks to the next visit and maybe ALL will be revealed!