Kaelyn turns 2

We celebrated Kaelyn's second birthday a few weeks back. It was a simple affair just within our immediate families. Just to sum where she is at 2 years old:
- she is talkative and a busybody at home, always asking people what they are doing, why are they doing what they are doing, passing comments on what she observes like 'Papa hui lai le' (papa's home), 'Mama bu jian le' (mama's missing), 'Gonggong qu mai mian bao' (gongong's gone to buy bread) etc.
- outside, she is shy and afraid of crowds. She takes some time to warm up to people she seldom meets.
- she knows and can identify all 26 of the alphabets (capital letters), and that P is for papa, M is for mama, G is for gonggong, K is for Kaelyn etc.
- she is conversant in both Mandarin and English
- sometimes she talks like an adult. When asked if she is full after her dinner one day, instead of replying a simple yes or no, she said 'hai ke yi' (just about right).
- she likes music, and likes to dance to certain songs especially the songs from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
- she tends to use her left hand more often, so she could be a left hander.
- she likes to draw and will describe to us what her artistic piece is about, sometimes it's an apple, or a butterfly, or a letter. At other times, we dont quite understand what she is saying.
- she is generally a cheerful girl, happy and smiling most of the time. But she has a short temper and gets angry easily if she is unhappy.

Here are some photos of her birthday celebration

Practising for her 2nd birthday

Since a few months before Kaelyn's second birthday, we started teaching her to flash the victory sign so she could do it on her second birthday. So at every photo taking opportunity, we'll ask her to show us the number 2.

Did I get it right?

Posing with Mama
Practising even while drinking juice
Am I getting better?
And yet on the BIG day, her 2nd birthday - this was the best she could manage.....

The defiant gal

Wow, has it been 2 months since I blogged already? It certainly doesnt seem that long, especially when you have to pander to the every need of a rebellious gal in her terrible twos. Well, Kaelyn is 1 month short of her 2-year birthday but she's already showing signs of the defiant age, since a few months back.

We are all so exhausted by her - from Gong gong to Popo to Nai nai to Papa to Mama all the way to our helper. When mild, she'll just say 'I dont want' or run away from you if you try to make her sleep, eat or change her diapers. At times, she will be screaming, crying and kicking and grabbing everything in her way to hurl them as far as she can. 'I dont want pacifier! I dont want Ernie! (her fav toy) I dont want this! I dont want that!...... And the house is like a war zone after her display.

We've tried both the 'hard' and 'soft' approach with her. The 'hard' approach doesnt seem to work as well. e.g. scolding her or hitting her hand. Distracting her with something else usually seems to do the trick, but not before lots of struggling, coaxing, carrying etc before that.

Happy Mother's Day

To all mums, my own mum too, Happy Mother's Day!

Kaelyn wished me a Happy Mother's Day this morning and gave me a hand made card, with lots and lots of help from her Dad of course. I think it's more like Dad drew the card and she helped to put some colouring. And Dad's drawing is like a kid's! Will post a pic up the next time. Nevertheless, it's really cute and sweet.

The girl also knows how to sing the Chinese nursery rhyme 'Ke Ren Lai' (When the guests come).

Original version:
Ke ren lai, kan Papa (The guest came to visit papa)
Papa bu zai jia (But Papa is not at home)
Wo qing ke ren xian zuo xia (I invited the guest to have a seat)
Zai jing yi bei cha (And served him tea)

Kaelyn's version:
Ke ren lai, kan Papa bu zai jia
Wo qing ke'en xian zuo xia
Airplane cha!

It's 80% accurate! I am impressed! Although i dont think she really knows the meaning. Note how the Yi bei cha became Airplane cha. We've filmed her on viewcam, will post it up next time.

My wish for Kaelyn is to be able to bite her food and vomit less! More of this in another post, it's a big issue for us now.

Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of Mother's Day with your mums/ kids.

NB: No photos these few blogs as David's hard disk got wiped out with all the photos too. So we are now in the 'desperately salvaging data' stage. Hence no photos / videos etc for now..

By the way, I used David's account thinking it's mine. So, no daddy is not wishing himself a Happy Mother's Day although he's quite sore about Mother's Day being more celebrated than Father's Day...

Mama mama mama........

Just a year ago, I was very earnestly teaching Kaelyn how to say 'Mama', repeating 'Mama' to her like 30 times a day to drum it into her head. Hoping that one day she would finally be able to call out to me. And when she did utter the first 'Mama', I was over the moon.

Today, one year later, she calls out to me like a broken recorder. Within a span of 5 mins, I think she can say 'Mama' like 20 times! And it is not as if I was ignoring her.

While having breakfast / lunch / dinner..
Kaelyn: Mama
Me: Yes, darling?
Kaelyn: Mama, come
Me: Mama's eating. I'll come and play with you after I finish ok?
Kaelyn: Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama..................!

While just walking around the house / reading newspapers etc
Kaelyn: Mama
Me: Yes, what do you want?
Kaelyn: Mama, mama
Me: Yes, mama is listening, why?
Kaelyn: Mama, mama, mama, mama..................................!
Me: ??!!!?!?!

Even when I am at work, this doesnt stop
Kaelyn: Mama, where?
Nai nai: Mama's at work
Kaelyn: Mama, where?! (even louder).
And she will go searching round the house for her Mama, and repeating Mama, mama, mama............!

Sometimes it gets really annoying, but other times it's music to my ears..

Kaelyn loves to draw, write and read books

Kaelyn enjoys reading when she was very young.

As early as 1-2 months old, Hann Sze and me has already started reading out to her flash cards on numbers, "ABC"s and objects/things.

She is very keen whenever we read to her, and will sit quietly listening when we are reading to her.

She will also point and ask for "book", and will flip through the book (some mama's books with mainly words) as if she is reading..

Kaelyn at my sis place.. reading Koko Gaven's book!


She would expect us to read to her in car, whenever we are around. When we come home after work/or during weekend, she will take a book, hold our hand and say "come", then she will sit on the floor and expect us to read to her.

See Ma ma reading to her..



She also likes to draw. we taught her to the outline of our hands only once. Then she always like to draw outline of her hands and even legs!

Kaelyn drawing outline of mama's hand!





Kaelyn drawing in deep concentration at nai nai/ye ye's house



I wish that she will continue to be interested to read and write for the rest of her lives!!

In fact, we just bought her a new set of table and chair from IKEA for her to read and write yesterday!

English or Mandarin

English or Mandarin? This has been something which David and I had been struggling with since Kaelyn was born.

I grew up speaking Mandarin at home and David mainly Hokkien and some Mandarin. English, although I wouldnt say was a huge struggle, is something I wished I could master better. After all, all subjects through my entire school life was thought in English (except for Chinese of course). You have to do well in PSLE English, GCE 'O' level English and GCE 'A' level General Paper before you can progress to a good school. And as I am working in a British Bank working with many 'ang mohs', it is all the more important for me to express myself well in English. Whereas for Chinese, the subject never really counted as a core subject in school. You are still able to get into a good school even if you do badly in this area. And I thought Mandarin was only useful with the 'uncles' and 'aunties' in the market / supermarket / coffeeshop / hawker centre etc.

With all the odds stacked against Mandarin and so much pros going for English, of course English was the way to go! We decided that we wanted our dear gal to have a headstart so we began to only converse with her in English since the day she was born. The idea is for her grandparents to speak to her in Mandarin and everything will just fall in place.

So 19 months on from that day this decision was made, how have we fared?

Kaelyn's language report card 1 month back:

English - A

• Responds very well to her English name, Kaelyn.
  
• She understands English instructions very well.
  
• She is able to express herself with simple English terms. e.g. Mama hand walk walk (means asking me to hold her hand to walk); Papa leg pain pain; Aunty eat; Mama hand draw; Come, sit etc etc.
  

Mandarin - C

• Takes a while to register her Chinese name, Yixuan.
  
• She understands instructions in Mandarin sometimes, but still not very well.
  
• Usually doesnt use Mandarin to express herself other than 'Bu yao, bu yao'.I think she understands quite a number of words as her grandparents have been speaking to her, but she doesnt naturally use them. A ball will always be 'ball' instead of 'qiu'; and bird is never 'niao' to her although we have been repeating these words to her. It is only when we ask her where is 'qiu' then she will point to the ball.

I made a U-turn a few weeks back after looking at this not too great report card. And also it was timely that MM Lee also spoke about speaking to our children in Mandarin at home. To some extent, I do agree with him that it is easier to pick up English than Mandarin. Kaelyn doesnt have much problems repeating English words after me, but I cant say the same for Mandarin. She sounded like a non-Chinese trying to pick up Mandarin for the first time! Also, I realise in my job, I was required to pick up some Business Chinese to speak to some Taiwanese clients. I had to put in quite a bit of time to prepare for that 20 min call. I also want Yixuan to be able to converse with her paternal grandparents and great grandma in Mandarin, as they dont speak English.

The tide has turned...

I just hope the poor gal doesnt get confused with Ye ye and Nai nai speaking to her in Mandarin, Aunty (our helper) speaking to her in English, and Papa, Mama, Gong gong, Popo speaking to her in a mix of both....