Singing in chinese

I have been learning Chinese at kindy since last year but that was like for half an hour a day. This year, I have been in full Chinese medium classes and I have improved a whole lot, although papa thinks I need more coaching as I speak Chinese with a funny accent.

Below is a video clip of me singing in Chinese. I only let mummy record this as she was busily recording my mei-mei before this and I wanted a video of myself too. So this is the first video of me singing in Chinese. Enjoy!

My 5th Birthday

We celebrated my 5th birthday a day earlier at Aunty Ng's as we were heading up Cameron Highlands for a short trip. As usual, we had my birthday cake there and this time I chose a Barbie doll chocolate birthday cake to share with my friends at the daycare. No party packs this round as I am told that from now onwards, there will only be party packs distributed if I have a birthday party.

my Barbie doll birthday cake

posing with my cake




my 5 year old candle on the cake!




another display of the cake before we gathered my friends to sing for me

this time round, i got a few presents (one from Aunty Ng, one from Aunty Alice and another from my Aunty Mei)

trying to get a picture of us 3 - my cousin Shane and my mei-mei but as you can tell, it's quite tough!

Shane is fascinated by the cake

another pose with the cake

my mei-mei's turn to be fascinated with the cake

as you can tell, she is one cranky pot (somehow she doesn't like bday cakes and songs being sung)

admiring my own cake - i wanna be a princess like her!

mei-mei still a cranky pot





everyone gathered to sing my bday song and you can see that my mei-mei got upset!





the birthday song sung and this round I'm not that shy anymore like my previous birthdays there






cake cutting time!

We left for Camerons after that and we got to celebrate New Year's eve there too. Will save that story for another day. As for now, I'm dreaming about my 6th birthday party as mummy has promised me one this round (she has been telling me that I will only have real parties when I'm 1, 6, 12 and 16 years old!).

In memory of kong-kong; his 70th birthday celebration - Part 1

We celebrated my late kong-kong's 70th birthday end of July last year (2010). On his actual birthday, 23rd July, all of us had dinner with him at a Chinese Restaurant at Plaza Damas before going to Perhentian Island for a family getaway the very next day.

We booked the whole room (with an attached toilet) to ourselves and we also had entertainment, the karaoke! My first time with the karaoke session except that I was too shy to sing (only mummy tried to entertain us but failed miserably!)

We totally had fun that night and I will let the pics do the talking and will end with the birthday song video of my kong-kong. Seeing this video makes me sad too but happy at the same as he looks so happy then. I still miss you kong-kong (and I always tell papa and mummy about this!)

A picture of por-por and kong-kong and my cousin, Shane



I was asked to join in and didn't want to smile (my mei-mei totally refused to)



Shane enjoying the lights above that changes colour!

my mei-mei was only interested in this (did I tell you that I love wine too! but mummy says that we kids only get to drink alcohol when we're 21 years old and above!)

we love the mirror in the room (so that i can admire myself! mummy thinks double trouble though!)

oh no, double mei-mei too!

we were obsessed about the tv that played karaoke songs but none of us (except mummy) dared to touch the microphone! {take note that my kong-kong was taking our pic at the background and mummy just found the following picture from his camera - he doesn't download his pictures often and these were the last few he took of us when he was alive}

my grandparents, happily being entertained by me (chatting away!)

i helped blew the candle for kong-kong (took me a few attempts!)

supposed to be a picture with the grandkids but the younger ones were not cooperating

a group pic of the real Lims! :D

Enjoy the video!

Mummy's entry - Dealing with Death

We had been busy over a month ago, work and personal. The girls' Ah Kong (paternal grandfather) was in the hospital in Penang for just over a month before his body gave way and we lost him on 23rd November 2010.

It was our first time (the girls and I) that we were in Penang 3 times within a month (and for hubby, many more times). The first 2 times were to visit him and shortly after our 2nd time, he passed away and we were back again for a week for his funeral.

It was a shocker to us all as we really thought he was recovering from his quadruple bypass operation he had 3 weeks before. Nonetheless, looking back now, he had lead a wonderful life of 70 years and we got to celebrate with him in July (when I have the time, I will post on the celebrations). We are glad that he got to see his 3 young grandchildren and that he got to travel a lot in the last 4 years (we knew of his heart problem then but he chose not to have the operation and to live his life to the fullest).

This is Rye Li's 3rd time dealing with death. The first was her maternal great grandfather (my grandpa) when she was 1 and a half years old. That was when she knew of heaven and all but the impact was minimal. After a year later, when she was nearly 3 years old, her maternal great grandmother (my grandma) passed away and this is where she has learnt the most about death and heaven. To her, heaven is where people go to when they die. Since then till now, she had asked many questions on death and to one point, she got scared and cried that she doesn't want to die. I'm guessing that she is afraid of losing us and when she does bring this up, I will reassure her that it's a very long time more that any of us will leave this world. She knows that the olders one will leave us first and at times, the sickly young ones will leave.

She knew that her Ah Kong was sick and is in the hospital and she did ask whether he was going to heaven and I told her not yet as we are trying to get his heart fixed. The night when we knew he had left us, I wasn't sure how to tell her the news. I was contemplating whether to tell her that night itself or the next day when we had to leave for Penang. But in the end, I did tell her that night and for the first 5 minutes, her reaction was to ask many questions :-

"How did kong-kong go to heaven?"

"Who took him to heaven?"

"He die already ah?"

After all the questionings and when it finally hit her, she went "I miss kong-kong" and cried. The very next morning, the moment she got up, she told me "Mummy, I dream (t) of kong-kong last night". And when I asked further, she said that he was at the hospital and he was sitting up, smiling at her while she was sitting on his lap (ever since he had his bypass, he had been lying down and his body was still at the hospital that night, they only removed his body to the funeral parlour the next morning). I don't know whether you believe of such things but I did "thank" FIL when we reached the funeral parlour to let her "see" him happily as Rye Li refused to see his body inside the coffin and we did not force her at all.

When she was at my grandma's funeral over 2 years ago, she kept asking to see my grandma in her coffin. I'm assuming it has got to do with age too (since her mei-mei and younger cousin always ask to see him throughout the wake).

Rye Li did not cry at the wake or on the actual funeral day but when we were not at the funeral parlour, she would go "I miss kong-kong" and would show a very sad face. At the wake, she participated mostly during the chants and we were proud of her. She did show fear when we asked her to pray with the joss sticks and only when we told her that she will not see her Ah Kong's body, she would do it. Hubby and I decided not to force her to see as we wanted her to remember her Ah Kong when he was alive.

On the day when we collected his bones after the cremation, we were surprise that she willingly took a piece of his bones (each family member had to take a piece from the container into a small clothed bag before they assisted to put all of them into the bag). FIL had always wanted his remains to be thrown into the sea and we gave him that wish.

Rest in peace Ah Kong!....we will always love you and thank you for care and love especially when you were staying with us.

The following are some pics of his final days with the girls as well as during his wake :-

the girls with Ah Kong at the hospital late October 2010, before his bypass. rye li not so lady-like!

the girls busy playing games while waiting at the hospital, their 2nd trip and also they could not hang out on Ah Kong's bed since it's after his bypass

rye li during the chantings at nights

Rye Li got to mix around with her second cousins (who came from KL and Ipoh)

Rye Li and her mei-mei

The below were taken after the funeral at the crematorium :-

Ah Kong's only 3 young grandchildren

Rye Li and her second cousins from Ah Kong's side

Mummy's update - HFMD

3 weeks back, Rye Li had Hands, Foot, Mouth disease (HFMD). There was a girl at Aunty Ng's (daycare), who is also her classmate at kindy had it first over the weekend and we were warned by Aunty to watch out signs on Rye Li.

On Wednesday itself, we noticed one red dot on her left thumb (the one that she sucks on) and didn't think anything of it. The next day, that night itself, she complaint of pain in her mouth and when we looked inside her mouth, we noticed some white spots already and knew that she also had it. So the next day, both her and her mei-mei, stayed at home with their paternal grandparents who were both down from Penang.

Both hubby and I expected her to whine and moan about her condition since this girl cannot stand pain (compared to her mei-mei who had this in July). But surprisingly, as much as she complaint it was painful to eat and drink, she would eat and that's mainly due to us threatening her that if she doesn't eat, she will have to go to the hospital and that she will need drips. This worked since she is so terrified of needles. I guess it's easier when they're older enough to understand to reasoning.

So she skipped school for several days and I wanted to send her back to both school and daycare the following Wednesday or Thursday (since she has recovered by then) when on Monday night itself, Haye Li also had it (poor Haye Li, had it the second time within 3 months!). So the remaining days of that week, they were put up at their maternal grandparents' since Ah Kong and Ah Por had to go back to Penang. Rye Li had so much fun there and she was really happy especially since she gets to eat ice cream everyday!

The other highlight of her being sick is that finally, she can now miss school officially because she is sick. Usually her friends, skipped school when they were sick and she would compare herself to them especially her classmates who also go to the daycare as they would hang out at the daycare. She had tried numerous times with me when she was coughing or had the flu as to why she cannot just stay at Aunty Ng's like her friends when they were sick. I've always managed to reason with her till now. So, she's really happy that she got to miss school! LOL!

As for her thumb-sucking, the little dot on her thumb became a big blister as she was sucking on it in the first few days she had HFMD. So I told her not to as it would hurt. I didn't really expect her to listen to me as she can be one stubborn girl and also old habits are tough to get rid off. But she has not sucked her thumb since then till now! The first few nights I knew it was tough on her as she could not fall asleep without her thumb so I told her to think of happy things to dream off, etc. She was still touching the fabric of her little bolster's cover, another habit of hers while sucking thumb and she used both hands this time round.

I was praising her after over a week of not sucking her thumb and told her that if she manages not to suck her thumb at all till her birthday year end, on top of what I will get her for her birthday present, she will also get to chose another BIG present. So we shall just see if she manages this or not! :D

Kota Bahru & Perhentian Island - Raya 2009*

*another very backdated post!

Remember this post where mummy missed me when I went for a holiday with papa last September during Raya time? You see, papa had a wedding to attend at Kota Bahru and since there were some friends of his that came from overseas, he thought of extending that trip as well into a holiday at Perhentian island. So he brought me along while mummy and my mei-mei stayed back in KL.

We left very early that morning while it was like very dark outside. I was well prepared ahead about my holidays that I had no problems waking up and also for the very long journey ahead. We were not alone, we had Uncle Tony from China and Kasmin cher-cher to accompany us in the car ride. I slept again in the car ride till we stopped for our breakfast.

very excited about my holidays!

had first class seat, next to papa!

also had first class treatment, got to be entertained throughout the car ride to Kota Bahru

When we reached Kota Bahru, we had some time to chill out at the apartment before the wedding dinner. We spent only a night there.

since mummy's not with us, papa is tasked to tie my hair, something he hardly does as this is mummy's job.


At the wedding dinner, as you can tell, i was very clingy to papa. I wasn't feeling too well halfway and we left early while the rest stayed behind. Papa thought I was sick since I complaint of a tummy ache, but when we got back to the apartment, I was my usual self and didn't even want to sleep.

The next morning, we left Kota Bahru to Kuala Besut for the speedboat ride to Perhentian island at our regular spot, Bubbles resort.

a picture with uncle tony, still getting warm up to him. he tries to take pics with me or of me throughout the trip.

on the speedboat, clinging on to papa

We spent 3 nights at the island and those 3 days were really a chilling out session for me as I was at the beach the whole day, I got to eat my junkfood and ice cream! The following are pictures of me that were mostly taken my uncle Tony's camera. Papa was busy relaxing to take pictures of me.

this little boy, who was also a guest at the resort, was my playmate most of the time



Was being looked after by the bride (yes, the bride and groom came along with us right after their wedding dinner, how cool is that!) when the rest went for diving.

My holidays went by so fast that I was sad to see it end so soon. We were accompanied in the car ride back to Ipoh and then we went our separate ways as the rest went to Gentings after that while papa and I went back home. I was really well behaved this trip and papa was very proud of me and told me that he doesn't mind taking me alone on trips now. When we got back, mummy was very happy to see me but disappointed that I lost some weight - must be all that play and junkfood which I like!!!