Absence makes the heart grow fonder

I guess the abovementioned saying is true for me. Papa travels quite frequently for work and whenever he is away, I drive Mummy crazy with my endless “papa” questions. It’s always papa this or papa that.

First thing I wake up in the mornings, I will go “papa?”. On the way out of the house, I will look at Mummy and go “papa?”. In the car, I will go “papa?”. When Mummy picks me up from Aunty Ng’s (my caretaker), I will ask Mummy “papa?” in the car on the way home, several times. And when we have reached home, at our door, I will ask Mummy “papa?”, thinking that Papa may be at home but he’s not. When it is time to sleep, I will ask Mummy “papa?”.

Even when Mummy’s phone rings, I will go “papa?”. I have talked to Papa on the phone before but I will only say “papa” or some other words Mummy asked me to say.

And when Papa finally comes home, I will glue on to him the whole time, even refusing Mummy. Mummy told Papa now he knows how she felt when I wanted her all the time. Papa used to complaint why I want Mummy all the time even after Mummy scolded or punished me. So now he feels equally important. However, I still want Mummy when it is time for bed at nights or when I’m not feeling well.

Lately, only just a few days ago, I started saying “mummy” a whole lot too but not as often as “papa” though.

Mummy's blog

Mummy's got a new blog for herself - she has decided not to use my site for her stuff anymore (not that she does most of the time anyway). She will strictly keep this site for me only.

So if you're interested to be bombarded with more words, you can click here to read her site.

I want...

Lately, I’ve been saying “I want”, well, it sounds more like “I wa”….

It’s no longer “bor” when I want a ball to play with, I will say first “bor” and if I’m not heard, I will go “I wa bor” and I will keep repeating this till the message get across to Mummy or Papa.

The same goes when I want my toys. I will say first “toy” and point to them and stressed further “I wa toys”.

This usually happens when I’m on my baby high chair. But for other times, it is mostly when I want to be carried. I will look up at Mummy or Papa, and hit them on their legs and go “I wa po-po”

Mummy is wondering who taught me to say that or when did I pick this up.

A lot like Linus

Picture taken from www.snoopy.com

Thanks to Mummy of 2 Angels, she highlighted to Mummy that I reminded her of Linus, a character from the comics, Snoopy when she saw my pictures of me sucking my thumb while holding on to my security blankie (sling). Mummy found this picture of Linus from the net and saw some resemblance of it to me.

Mummy hopes that I will give up this habit before I ever go to school unlike Linus. But don’t you think he looks really cute like that?! You can read more about his character here.

I'm not just attached to my sling. I'm also attached to anything that my fingers can hold on to, like Mummy's pillow or Papa's bolster, their quilt covers and at times, their clothes too (if I managed to hold on to some of its cloth).

Playing on the slide video

We hung out at the Curve till late, after my music class on Mother’s day. And I had the time of my life…well, when I was on the slide that is. When I’ve learnt how to master it, I refused to stop.

Poo updates

I’m glad to report that I’m poo-ing as normal now ever since Mummy’s updates of the first ordeal and then the little ordeal again during our holidays. I’m off totally on the lactose (unless I didn’t poo for that day) and I’ve been doing my business on the potty, both at home and at Aunty Ng’s nursery (my caretaker). Of course, there is the occasional too-late situations where I’ve already poo-ed in my diapers (this is rare as I always inform that I want to “nnggh-nnggh”, even if it’s just farting) or when we’re outside and I’ve no choice but to poo in my diapers.

Mummy stuffs me silly with fruits the whole day between my meals over the weekends or she will stuff me with fruits when we’re at home after Aunty Ng’s. She also makes sure I drink lots of water which can annoy me at times and I will fight back, refusing to drink. But Mummy is smart, when she knows I want something, she will make me drink for it and I’ve no choice but to drink.

And on my drinking milk updates, I still don’t drink as much as before but at times, depending on my mood, I will want some more milk. Mummy has mixed the milk with a vanilla flavoured one, I didn’t like it initially but now I’m used to it already.

Mummy wants to thank all of you who have given suggestions and advices on both of my situations. Both Mummy and Papa are happy that I’m alright now with the potty and also that I’m back to normal with my “business”. The next step is to get me off my diapers for good.

My Name

I got my name from Mummy. She actually had names for her children way before she was a Mummy, in fact, way before she met papa! As I’ve mentioned some time back, my Mummy is the type that had too much time to think of all these things then.

She had names for girls, (I guess it is easier to think of names for girls than boys) perhaps she knew subconsciously that she knew she will be getting a girl.

She had always like Caleigh, just like the brand Caely Girl. Then a family friend named her second daughter that name but Mummy still like that name very much. When she married Papa, she knew that if she were to get a boy, she will need to use the generation name of the Lim’s and my generation will use “shern” or “sern” (Sorry, Mummy is not Chinese educated so she doesn’t know the exact word in Chinese but she knows that the character has a “sun” on top and “rising” at the bottom).

So when Mummy found out that she was pregnant, her thinking juice got working and she found several names for girls and just two names for boys.

She came across the name Jaelyn on a blog she read years ago and she became creative and decided either Jae Lyn or Kae Lyn or Kaye Li. Then Aiyee (Mummy’s sister) said that Lim Jae Lyn or Lim Kae Lyn don’t sound so nice since the surname Lim kind off sound in tune with Lyn. So the name Kaye Li stuck for awhile.

When she found out that she was getting a girl at 6 & half months of her pregnancy with me, she was cracking her brains to think of other names but Kaye Li always remained.

Then about less than 2 months or so before I came out, Mummy was reading the papers and she came across this article that was talking about Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, a model (her full name is Danielle Riley Keough but she goes by her middle name). Mummy searched what Riley means and found out that it means courageous, valiant or brave. She liked it a lot and alter the name to fit a “Chinese” name and hence Rye Li.

The difficult task after that was to find an actual Chinese name for me – to find Chinese characters to suit the name Rye Li. This task was handed to Papa but he was warned by Mummy that she is not interested in any characters that starts with “L”, if not people will be calling me “Lai Li” if they were to call me by those characters. It didn’t really help either that there are not many Chinese characters that starts with “R”.

Just after I was born, my Kai Ma (Godmother) suggested to Papa to use the character that sounds like “Ray” and this character means stamen or pistil from a flower. The character has 3 hearts in it and Papa thought that it is very appropriate since Mummy’s name, Syn, in Chinese means heart.

Then Papa also had to find a Chinese character for “Li”, this was not easy too as there are so many characters to choose from. After much consideration and all, he has decided on the character that derives from “Mo Li”, Jasmine and “Li Hua” means Jasmine flower – since my “Ray” is part of a flower. So, this means I have a very flowery name in Chinese – “Ray Li” and a very brave one in English – “Riley”.

As for the Chinese characters of my name, I wish I can show you here but I don’t know how to get those words. Perhaps Belle’s Mummy or Zara’s Mama can help here? Mummy did ask papa to get them so we can put it in this blog sometime back but he himself don’t know how to get it and I cannot wait any longer to post this.

* update: Thanks to Aunty Pei See, this is my name in Chinese :蕊莉. (i hope this is it coz Papa has yet to see it...haha). Also special thanks to Belle's mummy for the links! ;)

Happy Mother's Day!

Mummy got a surprised yesterday night when she was clearing out my bag from Aunty Ng’s (my caretaker). She found this…

No, I didn’t make it, the other elder kids at the nursery did it and signed it off as me. Nonetheless, Mummy is still proud and happy that she received it….here’s wishing Happy Mother’s Day to all!

*update: Mummy found out that I actually made this, well, assisted in the making of this card. Aunty Ng told her that it was my hands that made the hearts on this card. She said that if I'm not able to assist, Mummy will not be getting a card which explains why she didn't received one last year. ;) Mummy is even happier when she heard that it was actually me that made the card.

Our balcony

This post is dedicated to Lucas’ mummy for complimenting on our balcony. Our balcony is Papa’s pride and joy (other than me of course). He has put in a lot of sweat into it and now this is the outcome – it is a place where we go to just to hang out in the mornings when papa takes me to help him feed the fishes there.

We used to have a hammock there, by the railings of the balcony. Actually we still do but it’s hanging on to one side now as it has collected a lot of dust along the way. The last time Mummy was in it was when I was still in her tummy. She used to lie there and read her books. It’s a pity that it is not functioning like before as I’m sure I will love to be in it. Anyway, it’s also taken away to make way for Papa’s plants that are blooming.

Papa and Mummy wanted to install a fan at the balcony but then Mummy got pregnant with me so this idea was stalled (our Chinese culture believes that when a lady gets pregnant, no construction work should be done in her house, even light ones like nailing on a wall as they believe this will have adverse effect on the baby). Now that I’m here, they did not bother to put it up either as they rarely hang out there after I was born till lately. But with the bothering hot weather these days, I feel that they should install one there as Papa and I always sweat like crazy when we hang out there in the mornings.

Mummy’s entry – Let’s celebrate!

Finally, the little girl has poo-ed in her potty for the first time without struggle on Sunday morning. I was trying to use the same tactic as the nursery, that is, to entice her with a bucket of water while sitting on her potty. In fact, I took one step more and added her favourite, “bubba” as she called it for bubbles. I was too late in trying it on Saturday morning as she had her little ordeal again while having breakfast – by the time I took her to her potty, there was a little poo in her diaper. I tried anyway but nothing else came out.

Later in the night before getting her ready for bed, I tried it one more time but to no avail. At least she had fun playing with the bubbles.

Then on Sunday morning, I thought that I’d give it a go again except that she was the one that prompted that she wanted to poo, knowing that her papa needed to poo (also due to the fact that I mentioned bubbles for her to play with earlier on). So, I put her on her potty and got the bucket of water and made some bubbles for her to play. And of course, the usual “nnggm-nnggm” sounds along the way. This went on for like 5-10 minutes; she played with the bubbles and towards the later part I can see that she is trying to poo but nothing came out yet. So I thought she was holding it in. Then she wanted to stand up and showed her concerned look and I told her that it is okay and played with her bubbles to take her attention away. Another 5 minutes went by and I was about to give up when I heard “poop” and then another one after that….I was so happy that I actually cheered her on….and she also peed (also her first time in the potty). I continued cheering, praising and gave her a big kiss…screamed for her papa and asked to bring the camera too (yes, I was going to post the picture here of her sitting on her potty but decided not to since she was fully naked then. And no, I didn’t take picture of the poo!).

I know this post sound ridiculous but ever since that horrible ordeal, we have been monitoring her poo situation with anxiety. That morning just made us so happy for her. Now we hope that she will poo in her potty when she’s at home. We will see how the next weekend goes.

And instead of the pic of her sitting down on her potty, I’ll let you enjoy this video clip of her dancing to her music. Let’s celebrate!

Cherating

We went for a holiday at Cherating over the long weekend and this is the first time I got to play at the beach (Perhentian at 5 months old doesn’t count since I was too young then to play). I slept throughout most of the way there to Mummy’s delight. We arrived at our hotel just before 3pm and I had my first taste (literary too as I accidentally put my toy spade in my mouth) of the sand that evening itself.

Initially, when I was walking through the sand with my slippers, I didn’t like the feeling of sand that came on to my slippers and I complaint a little. Mummy just pointed out to me and said “it’s okay girl, mummy’s and papa’s slippers also got sand”. I was alright with the feeling of sand sticking on to my feet after that and was even happy to walk around throughout our holiday with just my bare feet!

first day at the beach

Then we got on to the shores of the beach and Papa held on to my hand. I was a little scared of the waves that kept coming my way and when Papa carried me to bring me in further and touched the stronger waves, I voiced out my worries. So I was brought back to my level of comfort at the beach and played with sand with my beach toys.

first day at the beach

After like half hour or so, we went swimming at the hotel’s pool. I had so much fun in the water that I didn’t want to go back and made a huge fuss. It’s like this every time for the next four days too and Mummy had to lure me each time with food (or with bubble baths that is to follow after my swims) when she’s patient or it’s just brutal force when she’s not so patient (lucky Papa is around to buffer this).

Our daily routine for the next 4 days – once waken up, we all will go for breakfast and then to the beach and then to the pool and then to the room where we will nap for 2-3 hours. After my meal, we’re off to the beach or the pool again or the playground till evening and then we will have our dinner and then it’s bedtime.

having fun playing sand

my concerned look as I was afraid of the sandman (the little figure on the right) that papa made

since papa made a better looking sandman the next day, i'm not that scared anymore

my beach bathtub that papa digged for me

all my toys joined me in my "bathtub"

at the playground

papa's new girlfriend

posing in the sun

this picture was taken just before that big wave came and washed me over!

one of the games I played with papa in the pool

this is one of the times i refused to get out of the pool and mummy used her brutal force on me, noticed how dark it is already

papa teaching me to fly a kite

Luckily I had my fair share of the beach and pool the first few days as the last 2 days, it was raining. I still did manage to play in the sand in the drizzle and also swim but not as long though.

after my bath

after my bath, playing with my toys

in deep sleep, i'm very tired at nights after all that play

at the balcony of our room, getting my routine rub of sun block lotion

my "chun li" (streetfighter) look

All in all, I really had a lot of fun and became bolder not just in the pool (I dare to jump into the pool on my own whether it’s at the shallow end or deep end – when Mummy and Papa are there to catch me of course) but also at the shores of the beach (I dare to walk on my own along the waves even after that incident on our second day there where a strong wave came while I was crawling along the shore and covered me entirely – I gulped in some water!).

hanging out at the balcony

happy with the box of the new toy i got for the trip

since i don't drink water much, i get the privilege of testing out mummy's and papa's drink (a habit which mummy initially didn't want to start) whenever we eat out but i will only take sips

The only bad side of the trip was that every night for sure during dinner, I will have a half an hour ordeal of trying to poo. The same scene where I will break out in cold sweat and will cry till my poo comes out. Mummy initially thought that it is because she’s around that I do this as Aunty Ng tells her I behave normal when I poo at the nursery and I’m even alright with poo-ing on the potty there. But on our third night, she noticed some blood in my poo and I was on the lactose again after that. I still don’t drink as much as I should and it is always a battle for Mummy to make me drink – she has bought some nice cups for me to drink from but it is only sips that she will get out of me. And I don’t like juices at all. I do eat dried prunes and I love cherry tomatoes (which were part of my breakfasts every morning there) but I still have these ordeals so it is definitely from the lack of water I’m getting. I will be on the lactose for a while till I drink enough water again.

Anyway, since I love the beach so much, Mummy has been telling Papa maybe we will do some short trips to PD (Port Dickson) now and then. I hope that she will stick to her words!