First words

Chloe started to speak few days ago. "PAPA" (her daddy) is the word she speaks often. (U can tell how much she loves her daddy and how jealous I m) Strictly speaking, Chloe's first word is "MAK MAK" (her grandmother) She did that out of desperation actually. It was her lunch time and she was cranky that day. Hmm... she is always cranky during lunch time. Anyway, in the middle of the feeding by her nanny, she saw her saviour....her grandmother. "MAK MAK!" she screamed for her grandmother, adding a few tears and reddening her little nose. As usual her grandmother's heart soften and picked her up from her high chair. Immediately, Chloe breaks into the most perfect smile on her face. The next word Chloe speaks is "MAMA" (me, tadaa!) That again another word of desperation, it is. hint hint...lunch time. The day before, when we were changing Chloe's soiled diaper, her papa said "smelly" and she replied sweetly "OK". Finally, this morning, when her papa was preparing her morning milk, she saw and crawled towards him and said "MUM" (eat). *applause* Keep up the good work Chloe. Soon we will graduate from single syllable to two syllable.

My Dad - My Mentor - My Family

My dad's doctor must be shaking his head when he examined my dad last week. My dad has high blood pressure. When I say high, it is really HIGH. He is blaming it on his unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. I feel that most "credits" should go to his workload. At the age of 50s and a grandfather, he should move into a semi-retire mode. However, he is still very active in his work. He is a chinese teacher. Working 5 full days and sometimes on saturdays during school terms and practically reporting back to school every weekdays during school holidays. I would say my father is the employee of the year (every year). He will not take a MC, unless he is too sick to get out of bed. Otherwise, he will be working; rain or shine. I salute him for that. He makes it a point to check on his troubled student even if it means going to the student's house late at night. He is a mentor to younger teachers and he is all out to help them even if he has tones and tones of works to finish. I always see him bringing his work back and work till wee hours over the weekends. (Not to mention that he also makes time for his family and does household chores) And those workshops he had to attend. OMG. And those worksheets he had to fill in. Aiyo! Think of the headaches he has when he needs to fill up the worksheets. What make it worst is it has to be in english. My dad's english is...erh...I would say "alot of" room for improvement. It is a struggle to ask him to speak the language and u r talking about writing essays. I helped him to translate some and just to translate for him, I felt dragged already. Why are there soooooo many stuff to fill in? And those meetings! Every now and then, there are meetings for him and the meetings last a few hours. OMG! My meetings on constructing a building don't even take that long! A good and constructive meeting should not take more than 45mins. Don't they know that? (Someone has to tell them. In another workshop, I guess.) We are worried for his health and hope that he could take it easy (and his boss could take it easy on him too). Take care Dad! You still need to bring Mom for a holiday, get back to your painting, do gardening, take Chloe to the zoo, have nice afternoon tea with mom, nice dinner with family, go fishing...dont drain yourself with work before you can do any of these. Love, Ah Shan.

Look... Look... Look... *Blink* Look...

Yesterday, we brought Chloe to the airport to welcome her grand-uncle, grand-auntie and her cousins back from Taiwan. Although, it is not the first time Chloe visits the airport, she is still fascinated with the place. So much so, that she was wide awake just by looking around even though it had passed her bedtime. I could say Chloe's people/place-watching habit is rather extreme. She would stare and stare without blinking, just to register the person or the things into her "memory box". Ditto, I am a people-watcher. I just love the idea of having tea in a nice alfresco cafe and do people-watching. Seems like Chloe got this heredity from me. Heehee. Anyway, a curious child is a teacher's delight. The more she takes interest... the more she learns, in one way or another.

Happy Birthday to U!!!

Happy Birthday to u Happy Birthday to u Happy Birthday to Jiamin......... Happpppyyyyyy Birttthhhddaaaaayyyyy tooooo UUUUU!!!!!! One year older, One year wiser, One more pound to ur weight. Oops! Sorry, slip of the tongue... It's ok...it is still our little secret.

Sponges=Children vs Children=Sponges

Weeks ago, I had a conversation with an expecting relative who also has a 5 year old son. I was checking on her to see if I could be any help during her pregnancy. Some how, our conversation side-tracked from her baby girl to her son. She was telling me about her boy's study progress. From the conversation, I could not help but to notice that she seems to put alot of effort on the boy's english language. So I commented..."Why don't you let your boy learn the chinese three character primer (三字经)?" "What is that?" "Oh...it is like a chinese poetry but written in a phase of 3 words..." Well, few days later, I went to pay her a visit. WAH! Guess what I saw? I saw not only the VCD of the chinese three character primer but also books on them! My gosh! She even bought the series of Hundred Surname (百家姓), chinese poetry, etc! I remembered that she once mentioned that children are like sponges which can absorb easily. But...but ah...this...arh.....I m speechless. What I have to do now is to call my mother and tell her, "Hey mom! I m not so "kiasu" afterall. I bought Chloe the chinese three character primer only. Someone has outrun me!"

Blah... Blah... Blah...

When u have a baby, concern relatives and friends will normally contribute useful information to make your parenting easlier. However, as new parents, you may have to filter some of the information or tips given. Let me give u an example. Chloe is reaching her 9th month and she is going easy on her speech. She would occassionally express herself with the "Ba, Ah, Ha..." and her latest accomplishment - "Car" (which we secretly hope that she is not asking for an advance 18th birthday present) Then, comments start flying all over..."Oh u should let her listen to more music and talk to her more. My baby starts talking at the age of 6 months." (6 months! Chloe just learn how to crawl forward at that age) "My boy starts to speak not only the main languages but also the dialects at the age of 10 months." (Oh my gosh! Another month to go.) "Let her listen to the radio and news" (That is what she is doing everyday...) AHHHHHHH....ENOUGH!!! I look at Chloe and she stares back at me. Suddenly, she crawls towards me and gives me a hug and a wet kiss. Awww....What the heck! Chloe, take your time. Anyway, you are just 9 months old. You will talk when you are ready.

The joy of having a new family member

There is a new additional family member on 26th November 2005 in the Lam Family. She is the cutie niece of mine, Kennice Lam. When I held her in my arms, an overwhelming emotion came gushing to me. Suddenly, I found myself travelling back to the day when I first hold my baby girl, Chloe. She was so tiny and fragile mainly because she was born 2 weeks earlier. (Too eager to see her parents... :-p) As a pair of new parents, we were tired, confused, worried, and all the above... JOY. This joy is so genuine that we almost feel like the world is perfect, our lifes are perfect and everything is perfect for us. I can image the joy from Kennice's parents when she was born. Afterall, nothing is more joyous than bringing a life to the world. Awww...I miss my girl already!!!What am I doing here in the office???I should be with Chloe now!!!

*Muack* that follows on with an *Ouch*

Chloe is such a sweetie pie and everyone loves her. The affection is so obvious that every evening when I bring her home from her great-grandmother's house, her cheeks are always damp. Besides the drooling from herself, the other contribution would be the kisses from the family. However, when it comes to her daddy's turn to kiss her, Chloe only let her daddy kiss her in the morning. Why? Because that is the only time her daddy has a clean shave. Stubble free. Hey...she is not born yesterday. She knows what is pain.

Coming up are the Fourth & Fifth...

Yesterday, due to the itchness and swelling of Chloe's teething (the newcomers - Another upper central incisor & lower lateral incisor), she started to bite her lower lip to ease her discomfort. She bit so hard that the lower lip began to bleed. Her Daddy was completely freak out and rushed to the nearest shopping complex to buy more teethers. We have 3nos of different designed teethers at home already and yet he bought another 5nos more! The salesgirl commented:"WOW! This is the first time I see one baby using so many teethers." My husband replied in a matter of fact:"Well, one for our house, one for her great-grandmother's house, two for her both sides of grandparents' houses and one to bring along when we are having a family outing..." "Wow! your baby travels alot har" Hmm...when she was just 1 week old in her mommy's tummy, she had already travelled to Japan, so these travelling are really no big deal.