On A Prayer

The highlight of my day!

This afternoon, I told J that I couldn't play racing cars with him because I was having a headache. So he tried sayang-ing my head a couple of times, each time then asking me if I felt any better. A little bit, but the headache was still there.

Then completely without any prompting, he said, "I'll pray for you, Mom. Please, Lord, take away the hurt in Mommy's head. Amen."

I was just about in tears by then.

Growing Up

E's first day at school! (J has a picture similar to this on his first day of school too.)

E's classroom - the first table she went to had a bucket of blocks for her to sort.

How'd she do???

We stayed for a couple of minutes when we brought her to her classroom, then I told her I was going to leave, told her to say bye to me ("Buh-bye, Mama"), gave her a kiss and scooted towards the door!

She saw us heading for the door and got antsy, but I closed the door anyway. And from outside, I could hear her starting to cry. Her teacher swooped in though, and a brief five seconds later, all was quiet.

When I picked her up, Miss Siri said that she did great! (Even J's teacher told me she heard that E did really well on her first day. A mom of J's classmate overheard and congratulated me! She was looking forward to her second child starting school too!) E tried out all the stations (sorting blocks, painting, and digging outside). The only time when she got upset and cried again was when both her and J's class were having outdoor play-time and she caught sight of her Kor-kor. (Their classes have separate outside play-areas, but are next to each other.) She wanted to go to him, but Miss Siri brought her indoors and gave her another activity and she was fine.

I am incredibly proud of her.

Postscript: Will have to see how she is towards school on Wednesday. And on Friday, I'm due for parent participation in J's class, so I'll probably have to do some quick ducking to make sure she doesn't see me.

Oh So Quiet

As I type this, the house is strangely quiet. No Diego singing in the background about rescuing animals. No J complaining about how boring Diego is, and asking to watch his show instead. No E, insisting on "Eh-go. Eh-go. EH-GO!" to J.

Both kids are in school.

K and I came back just a few minutes ago, after a shopping trip: to Kohl's to get bedsheets, to Vons for groceries, and to Target to get J's birthday presents. Can you imagine, we actually did ALL that in about two hours. When there are no kids around who have their own ideas of what they want to be looking at, and who have their own ideas of which direction they want to be walking, it is amazing how quickly you can get things done.

Truth be told, I have been looking forward to today, so much so that I do feel a little guilty about it! But those strings that tie E to me have to be snipped at some point - and today, we made another small snip.

French Flies

Since we had all these helium balloons in the house yesterday, it was the perfect opportunity to try out an experiment that J had seen on one of his favourite TV shows, Peep and the Big Wide World.

Q: What would float when tied to the balloons?

A: E's plastic toy french fries.

There go the french flies! Haha!

When I Don't Know What To Do

This song reminds me of something that E (and probably every other toddler) does. Even though she's perfectly capable of walking and getting around by herself, all too often, she'll come running to me, arms outstretched, calling out "Mama!" to get me to carry her. And so I pick her up.

This is a picture of me too, I realise. Arms outstretched, I look up to God my Father for Him to carry me. And how reassuring that He always picks me up.

When I Don’t Know What To Do
Tommy Walker WeMobile Music ©2005 CCLI #4556332

Lord I surrender all to
Your strong and faithful hand
In everything I will give thanks to You
I’ll just trust Your perfect plan

Chorus:
When I don’t know what to do
I’ll lift my hands
When I don’t know what to say
I’ll speak Your praise
When I don’t know where to go
I’ll run to Your throne
When I don’t know what to think
I’ll stand on Your truth
When I don’t know what to do

Lord I surrender all
Though I’ll never understand
All the mysteries around me
I’ll just trust your perfect plan

Bridge:
As I bow my knee
Send Your perfect peace
Send Your perfect peace, Lord
As I lift my hands
Let Your healing come
Let Your healing come to me

Our Inspiration for Scripture Memory

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

E's Birthday Celebration

Main Ingredients:

Birthday Cupcakes:
Trader Joe's Vanilla Cake Mix (our favourite!) and milk chocolate frosting

Our loud rendition of "Happy Birthday",

sung really fast because the birthday girl couldn't wait to stick her fingers into the frosting

Talking to Kong-kong and Ah-Ma in Singapore, who had a birthday cake and candles all lit up, and who sung the birthday song for E. Birthday wishes from Grandma and Grandpa also came over Skype. The wonders of technology.

Birthday Presents:
Little Doctor's Kit,
purchased from Granville Island
(We continue to reap the rewards of our visit to Vancouver.)

E finally has her own lap-top, Diego-themed, no less. In this picture, J has commandeered it, claiming to "like Diego very much", when usually he protests my turning it on for E to watch, complaining that "Diego is so boring". This is how a new toy can change the tune you sing.

Birthday Balloons,
which we got from a shop selling party supplies. Possibly our best buy, seeing as how both kids were playing with, and fighting over, them (even though we had gotten four!) practically the whole day.
What is it with children and balloons?

A Two-Year-Old

Another milestone is reached - my baby girl turns two today!

How do I love her? Let me count the ways.

1. I love her for being a sleeper! After our struggle with J's poor sleeping habits, this was such a huge blessing. Even now, when I tell her it's time for her afternoon nap, she'll actually go toddling off on her short little legs into her bedroom. (J, meanwhile, continues to fight sleep!) Unfortunately, E has started waking at super early, just a bit past 6am! Ugh.

2. I love her for being a girl, and thus allowing me the opportunity to dress her in pretty dresses and cute hair-clips. It's been a while since she's been in a dress though, because of the cold weather, but we expect to pick this up again soon, as the weather warms up in the next couple of months. Hair-clips... well, she (finally!) has enough hair to clip, but the hair-clips never stay in her hair for long; she pulls them out in about five seconds, maybe less.

3. I love how she now knows her P-s and Q-s. She can do her thank yous unprompted (although she does need some reminding at times): "Kyu, Dada" or "Kyu, Mama". We're working on please; she says, "Pea, Dada", but this requires more prompting.

4. I love that she's starting to demonstrate a generous heart. She loves to feed me or K, and just yesterday evening, brought her cup of water to J for a last sip before bed-time. When she's Skype-ing with her grandparents, she'll willingly hold up whatever snack she has in her hands, and feed their images on the computer screen. She's still more possessive when it comes to non-family members, but we're working on it.

5. I love her strong mind. This girl, she got spunk. She's become increasingly independent - pretty much feeding herself nowadays, and the mess she makes is a little - just a little - more contained. (She still has a Princess moments though, when Mama is required to do everything from feeding her to holding her water cup while she sips delicately. Thankfully, these moments are the exception rather than the norm.) E also loves brushing her own teeth. I don't trust her to do a good job, but I'll let her have a go after I'm done, so she'll stick her toothbrush in her mouth and wiggle it around. She's got a strong will, which can be a struggle on some days, but at least we know she won't be bullied in school!

6. I love her dancing. She does this butt wiggle when she hears music, and will on occasion do a little hop-skip as she moves around the room. A few months back, her butt wiggle was enhanced by her left hand being placed on the actual wiggling butt, but she has since edited this action of the hand. To my disappointment.

7. I love that she's great at hide-and-seek. She's got the hiding part down, and will manage to stay really quiet. Often though if we take too long to find her, she'll come popping out from her hiding spot, yelling, "Ta-dah!"

8. I love how enthusiastic she is about greeting us after not seeing us for a spell. She'll go careening at top speed to the door when she hears K returning from school. She'll run to J, shouting "Kor-kor! Kor-kor", to hug him when he comes back from preschool. And she'll yell, "Mama! Mama!" and toddle to the door when I pick her up from the toddler room at church. I love it.

9. Most of all, I love her for reminding me of God's grace in blessing us with such a precious gift.

***

Emma, one day old

Emma, one year old

Emma, two years old, today

Test Of Wills

At dinner time today, E decided that it would be fun to sprinkle some Fruit Loops that she had in front of her on the floor. Now, this is behaviour that we've been trying to correct. So we instructed her to pick up the cereal. This led to a huge crying/screaming fit.

Each time we instructed her to pick it up, she'd adamantly shake her head, and cry even louder. The battle was on. I was determined not to back down. And so was she apparently, for she stood in one spot crying and screaming for a good ten to fifteen minutes. Not only did she not want to pick up the cereal, she was very clear that I was supposed to do it: "Mama, up!", and then pulling my hand close to the cereal on the floor. Anyway, she finally did back down, after what seemed like a really long time, and picked up the cereal, crying all the while.

Then it was soothing cuddle time with Mom - lots of hugs, kisses, praises for finally obeying, and general sayang-ing.

We won this battle. But as I watched her obey us, with tears streaming down her cheeks, and her cries ringing in my ear, my heart broke, just a little.

Making herself comfortable on a massage pad we have.

Chawanmushi

For reasons unknown, the Japanese restaurants here just do not have chawanmushi on their menus. So it has been a long time since we last tasted it; back home in Singapore, it was one of J's most favourite dishes.

Voila! After a trip to the Asian supermarket today, where I managed to procure dashi stock (in a granulated form) and mirin, and after some research on the Internet to find a recipe, this is the result.

It was DIVINE. (If I do say so myself. And on my first try too.)
Definitely a do-again!