Beauty Queen

Yeah...this little girl of mine is really very good in getting herself pretty and beautiful!

This started soon after she hit the age of 2. She had slowly start to request to wear a certain dress or t-shirt and she sure knows which is nice and which is less and which is not! Oh....what will she become when she grows up?

Well, my mother-in-law just came back from her stay in Shanghai on Friday. And off course, she'd bought a few nice clothes for little Grace. So on Saturday afternoon, it was a fashion show by Grace for all of us. Phaik Sim, my sister-in-law get her changed into one dress after the other. Then this little girl will make one or two turns to model her dress.

I was busy making bread that afternoon, so Grace would run off to the kitchen calling after me, show me her dress, make a turn or two, then wave to me. Then off she went to try on another piece of garment.

It was such a fun (and it feels sweet too) to watch her modelling her dress. She's such a sweet little girl!

A to Z of Grace @ 2 years

Came out with this scrapbook layout yesterday night. Layout inspiration is from Little Sketches while the flower embellishment is from ScrapbooksEtc. The wordings, I thought of all words that best describe Grace @ 2 years.
Here it is, in alphabetical order :-)
A - Attention seeker
B - Beautiful
C - Curious
D - Demanding
E - Enthusiastic
F - Funny
G - Gleeful
H - Hi-5 fan
I - Imaginative
J - Jealous
K - Kiddo
L - Leech to mummy at times
M - Mischievous
N - "Nen nen" addict
O - Obsessed with ice-cream
P - Performer
Q - Quiet?!?.........No way!
R - Radiant
S - Smart
T - Tricky
U - Unique
V - Veggie lover
W - "What is this?" girl
X - Xtreme
Y - Yappy
Z - Zesty

And the layout:

Die..accident....does little Grace really understand the meaning?

I had always try to explain to Grace what does die means. You see, this little girl is much too active sometime, even when she's in the car. Now, sitting in car seat is not really compulsory in Malaysia. We only had one car seat which is on my car, so that I can fetch Grace along when I'm driving alone. Thus there's no car seat in daddy's car. Whenever we're in daddy's car or someone else car, I had a hard time making sure that Grace is safe. With her climbing up and down, it is really a hard and tedious.

As such, we will tell her why she had to sit still, be quiet and buckle up in the car. Explained to her what will happen if there's emergency break or if there's an accident. We told her the worst case will be she being thrown out of the cars and it will hurt very much and she might die. We will tell her, then she will not be able to see mummy already. She will node her head, and say that she don't want to die.

Then here's 4 situations on how she uses accident and die:

Situation 1
Grace: Mummy have to drive carefully. If not, there will be accident and will die. Then cannot see mummy already.
Hmmm......not bad.

Situation 2
We were at Cameron Highlands and was heading to the tea plantation. The roads there are steep and narrow. Daddy has to be extremely careful. So we told Grace to sit quietly so as not to disturb daddy driving, thus avoiding accident. Then along the way, this is what Grace said.
Grace: Mummy, 有 "a-si-dent" (accident) 吗? (有 pronounced as "you" and 吗 pronounced as "ma", meaning Is there accident?)
Oh my, oh my.

Situation 3
We were talking and all of sudden, Grace said this:
Grace: 我不会死的。 Mummy 才能死。 (pronounced "wo bu hui si de. Mummy cai neng si", meaning I won't or can't die, only mummy can die.)
Mummy: Speechless........?!?

Situation 4
We were cuddling up in our bed. Then I climb over her and pretend to press down on her.
Grace: Mummy 不要这样。这样我会死的。 (pronounced "Mummy bu yao zhe yang. zhe yang wo hui si de" means Mummy, don't do that. If you do that, I will die.)
Mummy: Speechless again...............

Should I or should I not?

I've been contemplating on whether to invest on a Photo Printer lately.

Why do I even think of buying one? Well, I'm really into scrapbooking after my first try in September 2008. And since then, I have printed many photos for the use in my many layouts. I've been printing them in a shop in Queensbay Mall. Why that particular shop? Well, it has this machine which allow us to print multiple photos in a single layout, 4R. One can choose from printing a full 4R photo, two different photos in a 4R, four different photos in a 4R or even 9 different photos in a 4R. However, the pricing is not cheap!

I've been thinking that it may cost lesser, in the long run, to have my own Photo Printer. Well, guess I have to think and calculate a little more before making the invest!

psst: hey, why not as a birthday present? ....."wink wink wink"

"You licked me"

You must be wondering, what a post name!

Well, Grace saw this scene in one of her many Hi-5 DVDs. I just so happened to mentioned it the other day and now I regret it. Why? Here's why:

My version of the story that I told Grace the other day (conversation is again in Chinese):

Mummy: There's this little "jie jie" (means elder sister), whom is not afraid of dogs (now, Grace is very scared of moving animals, including dogs). She gave the little doggie a bath. After the bath, the dog shakes his body to get rid of excess water on its body. Then, turn and licked the "jie jie". The "jie jie" then says "Oh, you licked me!"
Grace: (Laugh and giggled all the way) Mummy, 还要吗 ("hai yao ma" means want some more?)
Mummy: 不要了 ("bu yao le" means don't want)
Grace: (whimpering) 还要 ("hai yao" means want some more)
Mummy: Oh ok.......(then told a short version only from the part where the dog licked the little girl)
Grace: (whimpering...again) Mummy! 讲姐姐不怕狗。("jiang jie jie bu pa gou" means tell the story from the "jie jie" is now afraid of dogs, means from the beginning of the story). So, bla bla bla.....
Grace: (Laugh and giggled all the way) Mummy, 还要吗 ("hai yao ma" means want some more?)
Mummy: Oh ok...bla bla bla bla
Grace: (Laugh and giggled all the way) Mummy, 还要吗 ("hai yao ma" means want some more?)

.......and this goes on and on and on and on!

And I ended up telling the same old story for more than 30 times, just yesterday itself. I don't know how many more times it will be today!

"What is this?" Girl

Grace has been slow in her speach. She just started really talking when she was like 1 year 9 or 10 months. Now her speach has improved a lot but sometimes it is still unclear of what she's talking about. As I'm used to her talks, I always became the translator for her when she's communicating with anyone else.

Well, with her speach slowly picking up, she'd also become very curious of things happening around her. Now her favourite phrase is "这是什么?" (pronounced "zhe si shen me" meaning "What is this?"). Every single thing that she sees, if she's not familiar with it, she will start asking. And sometimes, it is for like "hundred" over times. It really brings you to your breaking point sometimes! Hahaha....guess as a mother, I have to take this in silently......

"Hey, Grace tricked me!" says daddy

There you go again.

Yesterday night, daddy was playing with little Grace in the bedroom. So, daddy took this opportunity to brain wash Grace to drink milk before bed rather than "nen nen" (breastfeed). Initially it did work. Grace ran out to me (whom is watching Astro On Demand) and told me to make milk for her. She told me she wants to drink milk. Oh...good. I immediately prepare for her.

She took the bottle and happily went into the bedroom and drank up all the milk. Then daddy told her stories, animal stories of how the baby animals drink milk and fall asleep on their own. Here's how Grace twist the story around.

Daddy: Bla bla bla on the stories.......ending with, so the baby bear drink milk and then go to bed, trying to fall asleep on their own.
Grace: Bear bear drink "nen nen".
Daddy: No, bear bear drink milk.
Grace: No bear bear drink "nen nen".

Then it was Grace's bed time. She came out and pull me into the room. Daddy told me that Grace wants to sleep without "nen nen", which was their agreement. When finally we're in the room, Grace says “我要一点点 nen nen” (I want a little bit nen nen). (slap forehead) Then when we asked again. This time she replied “我要多多 nen nen” (I want a plenty of nen nen). (slap forehead again)

Daddy: Huh!?! Grace, you tricked me!
Grace: giggle all the way..........

Tricked you!!!

Nope....it is not I tricked Grace...it was the other way round!

I really do not know how and where Grace learn all these tricks. She's indeed very mischievous. She will think of ways to get away what she dislikes and ended up with what she likes and hope for.

Situation 1:
As I mentioned earlier, we wanted to wean Grace from breast milk. Since we travelling to Cameron Highlands during the weekend and we don't want a grouchy baby, I allowed Grace to breastfeed during the 3 days there, but with some ground rules. But in the end, rules were not followed.

Conversations are all in Chinese, here's the translation:
During night time or nap time
Mummy: Ok, let's not drink "nen nen"
Grace: Mummy, a little "nen nen" is enough. I will sleep after that.
What happen next, she breastfeed until she dozed off. Or sometimes, when you breastfeed her, she will initially say a little, then later on she says she wants a lot.

Situation 2:
Every morning, I will bath Grace, let her have her vitamin C, then she will "help" prepare her milk (formula milk), after Grace finishes her milk, she will "help" spread butter and jam on the bread, then both mother and daughter sit down for breakfast. Now:
Mummy: Let's make milk.
Grace: No..........I want to eat bread first or I want to eat bread now.
Mummy: Then you drink milk after you eat bread
Grace: Ok or sometimes nod her head
Moments later (after she finishes her bread)
Mummy: Come, drink your milk!
Grace: I don't want.....I want bla bla bla.....
If you force her, she will scream and cry

There are many more situations! Really gives me a headache! How then can I wean her?

Highland retreat

This was rather a last minute arrangement. Hubby and I kinda talk about it 2 weeks ago but we did not make any reservation as hubby is busy with work and his work schedule may not permit a short breakaway! Only till last Tuesday hubby could confirm that a short trip is possible.

So, there I was busy getting the hotel reservation confirmed. We managed to get a cheaper rate from cuti.com.my as compared to the hotel walk-in-rate. It was not until Thursday evening that everything was confirmed. But when I was ready to print the vouchers at night, I noticed that they got my check-in date wrong!?! Oh dear! Luckily I was able to get things amended the next morning and the person arranged for me to check-in with the hotel without the voucher. Phew!

We wanted something different than the normal hotel settings, so this time we got ourselves a room at The SmokeHouse, Cameron Highlands. It was an English Tudor style hotel which was build was back in 1939. The experience was a good one.

I always like heritage, and this was perfectly my style. Our room name is Croft and it is in a building annex to the main house. It is a room for 3, with a queen sized bed and a single bed. Initially we thought that we could join the 2 beds and make a super size bed for the 3 of us, but later we found out that the single bed was located at a small corner of the room.

So there we were, spending time with our small sweet family, enjoying the colonial ambiance, pamper ourselves to lots of vegetables, tea and scones. Ahh....talking about scones. There's this cafe, named T Cafe at Tanah Rata which serves really nice home-made scones. I loved it so much that I purchased the scones mixture to bake it myself.

There's this one little thing that I want to blog on this trip. It's the long bath in our room (I mean in the bathroom). When we first arrived, hubby was busy bringing in the luggage and putting it in the right place, while I was busy taking photos of the "un-touched" condition of our room, what then is Grace doing? She too join in the fun by walking around the room, spotting things that interest her. What did she found? The long-bath! When she spotted it, no one was with her in the bathroom. She quickly ran out, calling for her daddy, took her daddy's hand, led him into the bathroom, pointing to the long bath and asked "这个什么来的" (pronounced "zhe ge shen me lai de" meaning, what is this?). Now, she'd seen and used this when she was about 11 months old, and seen it in her uncle's house in Shanghai. Maybe she just want to confirmed her interpretation on the long bath.

Hubby explained the used of the long bath. What did we do in the end? Grace in the long bath (off course with water in it)! What happen subsequently when she sees the long bath? She will pretend that she doesn't know the use of long bath and ask "这个拿来做什么的" ("zhe ge na lai zuo shen me de" means what is this for). Her purpose? To asked for permission to take a "swim" in the long bath! Ah.....how cheeky! And this is not one or two times, it was all day long!

Here's some photos of the Smokehouse and the room where we stay. The rest of the photos are in my facebook album, Cameron Highlands Mar'09. Enjoy!

There's daddy and Grace at the garden with Smokehouse as background!

Here's a view of the Smokehouse.

Exterior view of our room, or our "house".

That's our room. It's a rectangle-shaped room.

Here's the other end of the room. The bath and the single bed is just a little further down. If you look closely, you could see Grace checking out the bathroom.

Weaning off.......

As reluctant as I am, we (hubby and I) have decided to wean Grace. Yeap.....I'm still breastfeeding Grace till now. Off course her main food is solid food, but she still depends very much on breastfeeding when she's taking her nap in the afternoon and sleep at night. Guess the bonding and the security is there for her.

Well, all good thing has to come to an end. Though I know I will miss the time when she tuck close to my chest, sticking fingers into my belly button and all sort of funny actions she made while breastfeeding, it's time to put a full stop on this. Time to get her ready to be a little more independent.

It is not easy! It needs to go through lots of tears and fuss.

Last week, I already started the less breastfeeding program. At night, I let her feed for a while, then withdraw to let her settle down and doze off herself. It took some 30 minutes or more for her to calm down and try to sleep.

On Monday night, I told her 101 reasons why she needs to wean off. Like, she'd grown up now, can help mummy do lots of things, so no need to "nen nen"; grown ups like daddy and mummy never "nen nen"; mummy no more "nen nen" cause mummy's daughter already grow up, like poh poh no more "nen nen"; everyone needs to learn to fall asleep on their own; bla bla bla bla bla. Well, it worked! She seems to stop asking for "nen nen". We snuggled up with her in the bed, telling stories, singing lullaby, encouraging her to cuddle up in her blanket. She did follow, but this active little girl make lots and lots and lots of sounds, noises, songs and talk non-stop, until finally (which is like 30 to 45 minutes later) she fall asleep.

This has worked for two nights and as I was typing this (4pm), she had fallen asleep without "nen nen". Great! Keep it up!

Nevertheless, I'm a little heart broken when she asked for breastfeeding, and I had to turn her down. She will keep on asking with different and creative ways. Sometime, with cries and screams! Guess, for the long run, I have to bear with this for now. Help me God!