I miss my papa

I've been telling my papa and mummy that "I miss my papa" whenever he goes for his business travels. I don't like papa going for his work when he doesn't come home at nights. He's my playing buddy at home and I sure miss the fun when he's not around. Mummy is not as fun as papa - at least he really spends the time with me and make me laugh.

Just last week, he was in Penang and when he called back at nights, I will immediately say "I miss you!". When mummy came and picked me up from Aunty Ng's, I asked her "Where is papa?" and she told me that he was in Penang. And I replied "I don't want, I want my papa (to) come home now!". So when papa called that night, I told him "I miss you papa, papa come home now" but it didn't work at all as he didn't come home immediately. I was given the lecture by mummy if papa don't work, how to have money and hence, how to buy me things, etc. But I will still say "I miss my papa" and will be sulking most of the times. When I'm really sad, I will also cry.

Mummy wonders where did I learn this from as she didn't mention this to me before. She is now worried if she ever goes away, I will do this to her too which I did several weeks back when she had to go away for a night for work. I said the same thing "I miss you" and really cried over the phone. Papa had to end the phone conversation and comfort me after that.

I'm also aware that papa gets to stay in nice hotels when he travels for work as mummy commented this last week when he was in Penang. She was telling him that we also want to stay at the hotel. So a few nights ago, when mummy made the comment that papa is going to Singapore these few days for work, I told papa "Mummy and Rye Li also want to stay in hotel" and I added "NICE hotel room". Papa thinks mummy influenced me too much - well, she told him what does he expect from me since I spent more time with her when he is away and the fact that I ask alot of questions these days, mummy have no choice but to answer me. And this is where I learn most things from these days.

I miss my papa - papa, when are you coming home? I want to go to the airport to pick you up but mummy said cannot because you're coming home by taxi. Next time ok?!

June Holidays - Camerons & Penang

This is a backdated post - won't go into so much details here but a summary of what we did during the first week of June when Aunty Ng was closed for the week.

We first went up to Camerons and stayed at Granpa's place for 3 nights before heading of to Penang. Too bad that our Astro card didn't work so I didn't get to watch my cartoons there. Our only entertainment at home was some music played by my Ipod and papa's laptop and of course, me.

On the way up, the traffic was so bad (no thanks to the school holidays too) that it took us awhile to reach Grandpa's place. Also, I vomitted towards the end from the winding road. Papa had to stop one side to clean me up and also to feed me my dinner as I was hungry by then. By the time we reached Grandpa's place, it was like 8-30pm already and we left KL at about 1pm!

The following are some pictures that we took:

with all my hair clips and hair bands - preparing to go out

at the playground - my cousin sister had the same pic at the same spot when she was very young too

We managed to go to the Boh Tea plantation, something Mummy has always wanted to do but never got the chance the last 2 times we were in Camerons.

Our tea - doesn't tastes as nice as it looks though and it was pricey!

a family pic, something so rare these days. luckily a guy happened to walk by and we grabbed the opportunity

a funny pose with papa

We wanted to go strawberry picking after that but the places to pick strawberries were closed so we bought some at the market and went back to enjoy them at the balcony of Grandpa's apartment.

The next day we managed to visit a nursery with a strawberry farm. And thanks to our family friend, we got to pick some and also bought alot at a very good price too. I was really happy picking them, well, Mummy did the most picking, I just did the collecting and eating after that.






Some other poses below at the nursery....

We left Camerons for Penang and stayed at the hotel on Gurney Road as papa had to work. While he was working, I was having fun at the hotel's pool and play area for kids. We were there for 3 nights. The first time at the pool, my Ah Kong and Ah Por (paternal grandparents) joined mummy and I. I tried making Ah Kong joined me at the pool but he only stood around like my bodyguard. Mummy forgot to bring her swimming gear so she couldn't join me and I was alright with this since I get to play with my toys.

this was the closest I could get Ah Kong to be with me in the pool

see what i meant with my personal bodyguard?!

The next day, I got my friend, Kai Ru and his mummy to accompany us at the pool. We had some fun playing and fighting (he was grabbing all my toys!)

After swimming, we played in the hotel's room till dinner time.

I loved my holidays so much that I kept asking mummy and papa "I want to go for holiday" when we got back home. I was even singing "Hooray, hooray, it's a holi-holiday!" throughout our time in Camerons. I hear mummy is planning to go back to Camerons for another holiday before my mei-mei (Chinese: little sister) comes out. Hooray!

Loving Christmas Songs

Ever since last Christmas has been over, I still insist at times for the Christmas songs to be played, over and over again. Mummy is thinking that our neighbours must be wondering why are we playing the songs when it is not Christmas.

Lately, it has been a routine to play the songs when I’m getting ready for bed. I used to love “Jingle Bells” but now it is mostly “Santa Clause is coming to town”. And I love singing this phrase “You better watch out” over and over again.

The thing with my favourite stuff is that if I’m being naughty or misbehave, Mummy will always threaten me that I will not get to listen to my music or to watch TV. She wins most of the time.

Mummy’s entry – My little chilli padi!

Few days back, I was told by Aunty Ng that the girl slapped one of her daycare mates that day. What happened was that there’s this girl who’s about a year older than Rye Li started screaming and Rye Li was just standing next to her. I think it must have startled Rye Li and she immediately slapped the girl in the face and said “why you scream so loud?”.

Aunty Ng upon seeing this reprimanded Rye Li and asked her to apologize to the girl but she refused. After several attempts of warning to Rye Li and by counting to 3 (sounds so familiar as I go through this with her all the time!), the girl still refused.

So Aunty Ng took her out of the house and left her there and asked her one more time to apologize or she will have to stay out and the girl still refused. Only when Aunty Ng was about to close the door on her, she apologized. And she went back in to apologize to the girl.

This girl is really stubborn and I’ve no idea where she learnt to slap like that as I’ve never slapped her face before. I have used my hands to smack her bum or thighs but never her face. I asked her why did she slap that girl later and she replied “Because I naughty” and smiled at me. I had to lecture her several times after that on this but I’m not sure if she has learnt her lesson.

She sure has a character and at times she doesn’t know how to be shy at all. This girl also has the habit of going to our front door (grilled door) when she hears our neighbour (a couple) going or coming home. She has been doing this for as long as I can remember and eventually, she started calling them aunty and uncle. She has spoken to them more than hubby and I ever had staying here for 4 and a half years!

Lately, she got bolder. She will ask the lady “Aunty, where you go?” or when the lady is alone, she will ask “Aunty, where uncle?”. I usually will let her be all this while when she goes to the door to look but when she starts asking this kind of keh poh (Cantonese: busybody) questions, I will butt in and tell her not to be such a keh poh chi and ask her to come into the house.

Also, the time when we were at Kuantan, while at the swimming pool, this girl saw a kind-of plump man and said so loud to me “Mummy, I can see the uncle’s nen-nen!”. I didn’t know where to put my face at that time and only told her not to be so rude! I cannot imagine the kind of words that will come out from her mouth in future in public. Children! They’re still so innocent eh?!

Mummy's entry - bad habits

Rye Li has been picking at her nose for a while now. It started some time after she turned 18 months. We would always say ‘Why are you digging gold?” but she would continue and she will even do this in public. I remember some time last year at night while sleeping in the dark, she went “Papa nah!” and hubby took it thinking she wants to pass something to him. And he asked her ‘what is it?’ and she went “gold!”. We were laughing after that.

These days, she calls them “booger” and she will usually tell me “Mummy got booger”. If she could take it out herself, she would. If she couldn’t she would ask me to take it out for her.

So last night she was at it again, picking booger. She asked me for help and I did. But she kept on picking at her nose and I asked her why and she replied “I like to play with my booger”

I am thinking how am I going to stop this habit of hers especially now when she’s so curious about her body parts. She also tends to scratch at her bum or hoo-haa and then smell her hands.

Interesting enough, today, I found this article online by chance on bad habits. However, they did not mention anything about scratching and smelling. One thing for sure, I’m not going to respond negatively to her now and will have to remind myself on this.

Mummy’s entry – What a night, what a day!

The girl has been having fever since Monday. And Tuesday night was one of the worst nights I ever had with her in terms of her tantrums. Looking back, I guess it was also my fault as I should have known better that she being cranky and sick, she would want me more than she wants her papa. Whenever her papa is around, I will usually let him handle her before her bedtime. This is part of us preparing her for Baby 2’s arrival.

So that night, I told her that her papa will be giving her shower while I have mine and she refused. I didn’t really bother with her and went ahead for my shower and that was when she started acting up. By the time I was done with my shower, she still hasn’t had hers and I gave in to her to give her a shower. But by this time, she was already in her foul mood and didn’t cooperate at all. After persuading and all for what seem like a long time and that didn’t work, we forced her to have her shower (hubby held her while I did the rest) and this was the beginning of her screaming and crying for 1 and a half hour!

Throughout all that screaming and crying, nothing could calm her down. One second she wants this, and then I gave in to her, and then she changed her mind and want that. And when I gave her that, she wants this back. Hubby was around but she didn’t want him at all! In the end, I was already tired and had enough and went to sleep ignoring her. This made it worst and she started screaming more. I covered my head with the pillow and she came to me screaming for my attention and I continued ignoring her. She pulled the pillow, pulled my hair, tried to bite me, grabbed my pajamas, shook me, scratched me and I ignored her. The last straw was when she dug deep into the corner of my forehead with her nails and I yelled, got up and smacked her bum. I went out of the room and got the rotan (malay: cane).

This rotan was bought some time last year in preparation for her terrible twos then but I have never introduced it to her till now.

When I brought the rotan in the room, I used it several times on the wall (never on her as I also don’t have the heart to even though I was so pissed mad then) as I wanted the impact of the sound to scare her. I could see that she was scared of it after she realized what it was and when I told her that if she is not going to stop crying, I will cane her. In the end, she agreed to be quiet and I put the cane back to where it belongs. She calmed down after that and finally slept after I soothed her. And this was like 11-30pm already.

An hour later, she got up again and started another round just when I was finally falling asleep. With all that noise, Baby 2 was also pretty active inside and probably from me getting mad as well that I could not sleep well. Again, this time round nothing could calm her down. This went on for a while till I got so fed up, I ignored her again. Hubby intervened this time and I told him I don’t know what to do and I cried! I was pretty emotional coz I was tired and it was a horrible start to my birthday too. So hubby tried to calm her down but it made it worst coz she wanted me only. So hubby was like calming us both, his arm was around me while he was reaching to the girl, reasoning with her. She kept on saying “I want mummy, I want mummy” and I think when she realized I’m not bothered anymore, she went “I want say sorry (to) mommy” and repeated this several times before saying “Mummy, wake up” several times. This did the trick as I got up and opened my arms to her, she put 2 of her hands up on her head and said “sorry mummy”. I told her it is okay and that she didn’t have to cry like that, and to tell me what she wanted. Then she said “I want mummy sleep with me” and I told her alright and lay down with her while I soothed her to sleep.

It took me awhile to sleep after that and it was like nearly 2am already. We got up at 8am and I knew I will be late for work. The girl still had a slight fever and slight cough and so I decided to take her to her doctor and then to go see mine as well. I dropped off hubby and the girl first at SJMC while I parked the car. When I arrived outside the clinics area, I realized that the place was pretty empty – if you ever been to SJMC, they are usually packed throughout the week and worst on Saturdays. When I found hubby and the girl, they were talking to the nurse of Rye Li’s previous doctor and I noticed everyone was pretty solemn. Only then I found out that Rye Li’s doctor, Dr. Foo passed away on Sunday and that day was his wake at 11am. The place was empty as the rest of the doctors and some staff were attending it. I was totally shocked and the girl even told me “Dr Foo passed away already” (don’t think she understood what it meant but picked it that phrase up from the conversations).

There was a doctor on call but there were like 7 patients waiting and so we just got her some medicines and left. It seems that Dr. Foo wasn’t feeling well the last 2 months due to tummy problems and his health deteriorated in the last few months. The last the girl saw him was early May and hubby said he looked alright then.

We were all very sad. The girl likes him a whole lot and he was the only pediatrician (Rye Li has seen 6 pediatricians in her life time) I’ve met that actually bonded with his clients, he took the time to bond with Rye Li and he was even affectionate with her (will bring his forehead to hers to gain her trust). And he is the only doctor I know that walks his patients to the door! And we only knew him for less than 9 months and by chance too. Dr. Foo, you will be greatly missed and I know for a long time to come, Rye Li will be asking for you still.

Since then, the girl did ask “why dr. foo no more ady (already)?” and I explained to her that he is in heaven and she went “where (is) heaven?” I replied heaven is up there in the sky and now she will tell me “dr. foo is in heaven, up there in the sky”. She also did ask me why he went there and I said that it is because it is his time. I did add that we all will one day be in heaven too but that is a long, long time to go.

I was comparing to the time my Grandpa passed away and when she attended the funeral. She didn’t ask questions then as I’m guessing she doesn’t know how to. Now, 10 months later, the questions she has to ask, I’m also at a lost on how to answer her. The above was the best that I could as we have not taught her about God yet. She only knows when she sees Buddha, we will have to “pai-pai” (Chinese: pray by putting our hands together).

Back to how the girl behaved the rest of the following nights after that horrible night, she was much better as I prepared her before her bedtime, reminding her of that night. This girl can be reasoned with but that night she was just too sick and cranky to be reasoned. But her cough has worsened and her fever (luckily mild) lasted till today (Sunday). If her fever doesn’t go away tomorrow, I will need to bring her in to see the doctor, and this time, will be back to her original doctor.