My Son Of Singapore

One of Andrew's favourite phrases these days:

"Stop it.... LAH!!"

And he'll say it over and over again when he's particularly displeased, to the verge of tears if it happens to be a case of him not getting what he wants.

The songs he asks for at bedtime now are:

1. Bicycle Som (songngngng!) a.k.a." Bicycle Race" by Queen
2. Dye-soar Som a.k.a. "Walking In Your Footsteps" by The Police
3. Gott Low a.k.a. "I Want To Break Free" by Queen

I love my samsengkiah!

Put To Bed

Halfway putting Andrew to bed after his shower, Sean and I had to leave to pick Rachel up from her Chinese enrichment class at Beijing Language Centre at Punggol Plaza, as we were running late.

I had already put his diaper on him but he was still not dressed, and still drinking milk from his bottle. The three older ones were with him and we left them to say prayers together, dress him, get his bottle and towel out of the room after he's done, hang up his waterproof rubber mat, lay him down, switch off the light, slide the door shut and hook on the latch.

When we got back I asked Sarah how it went and she said he was pretty good. She said he said something about 'chicken.' After laying him down, he tried to get out of the room, but she put him back and quickly turned off the light, and he settled down. As she left the room she heard him say, "Thank youm, Jiejie.'

Awww!

Post Paci

We're trying to get Andrew off the pacifier now that he's nearly two and a half.

First try, I said to him, 'Does Daddy suck pacifier? No! Does Korkor suck pacifier? No! Does Jiejie suck pacifier? No! So, Andrew doesn't need pacifier, ok? You're a big boy now!' And I took the pacifier away and left the room. He didn't protest while I was still there, but in a little while I could hear him weeping in the room! Gosh. I went in and found him lying on his back in bed, tears streaming down his face to his ears. Couldn't bear it so I gave him his pacifier back and he promptly went to sleep.

Next try, it was a Saturday afternoon and Sean convinced Andrew to throw his pacifier away after his afternoon nap. That night, no tears, but there was an hour of singing and talking to himself that we could hear through his door! When he woke up the next morning, he rushed out of his room to look in the wastepaper basket where he had thrown the pacifier. Haha. We had kept it aside of course. Just in case.

Following night, singing again, but not as long. So, looks like he's done!

The Kindness Of A Stranger

At IKEA last night, a man noticed Rachel and asked about her. We talked about her condition for a while, and agreed to his offer to pray over her. After he had done so, he asked Rachel if she could feel anything. She nodded. "What did she feel?" "Kindness" was her answer. That, to me, is more inspired and powerful than any physical healing.

Zhoke

The kids were having porridge for dinner one night (while Sean and I went out to Alforno's at East Coast Road for grilled rack of lamb and crabmeat farfalle in tomato cream sauce with chilli padi - haha).

Before we left, I looked over to see how Rachel was doing. She told me that when she had porridge for lunch in school, her school aunty put bread in the porridge. 

I thought, 'Bread? In porridge?' Ah! Croutons! So I asked Rachel, 'Oh, you mean like little cubes of toast?'

She replied, 'No, it's like the skin of the bread. And it's round.'

Gosh, of course, yu zhar kway! 

She floats!

Today, Rachel finally was able to float in the swimming pool with her arm floats on without holding on to anyone! She has been physically capable of doing it for some time now, but was just never confident enough. After practising a bit by herself in the baby pool where she could easily put her feet down on the floor anytime she wanted to, just letting herself drift in prone position, she actually entered the big pool by herself and swam to me! Six years and nearly four months old. 

When I cheered for her, Sophie said, 'I could also do that what.' I reminded Sophie that she could do that when she was about four years old, but it has taken Rachel this long to do it. Did she want her never to?

Sophie has a great propensity to be jealous of Rachel. Similarly, Sarah has this thing about Sophie where she must always chime in with something derogatory about her whenever we are admonishing Sophie. 

I hope when we look back on this, we will one day laugh about it and see how well they have come to love each other and grown out of their childish jealousies.