Brave Girl!

I want to write this down because this is one of those great milestones that makes me feel very proud of Charlotte.

Last night, we took Charlotte for her 2nd JE jab. Every time she visits to her PD she will be crying from the moment entering the PD's room until she came out from there, even just a routine check-up without any jab. I have been playing doctor-patient game at home with her since we got her the doctor toy set. Sometimes, she will be the doctor pretending to check on me, and sometimes she is the patient and I am the doctor. When I played the patient role, I pretended to cry (like she used to do) when she put the stethoscope on me. She will giggles and that's when I told her that it is really nothing to cry about. This time I prep her just to make sure that it will be a more pleasant visit for her.

Here was my conversation with her before we arrived at GMC:

Me: Charlotte, mommy is taking you to see doctor, ok?
Charlotte: Check check (pointed to her chest)

Me: Yes, doctor will check on you just like how we played at home.
Charlotte: (Nodded)

Me: Charlotte cannot cry ya?
Charlotte: No cry...

Me: Doctor will check on Charlotte's chest, and check on Charlotte's ears ok? Cannot cry one ya?
Charlotte: No cry...
I wonder if she really understood what I was trying to say.

Me: When you see the doctor, Charlotte say hi ok?
Charlotte: Hi

Me: And shake hand with the doctor ok?
Charlotte: (Nodded again)

We waited for awhile and finally it's Charlotte's turn. Both Dr. Rama and Dr. Jessica were not in last night and it was a new doctor on duty. So, we thought it should be fine since it is just taking a jab. Pat carried Charlotte to the doctor and she was really quiet, didn't cry. When Pat sat down with her in front of the doctor, the doctor showed her the stethoscope and asked if she wants to touch it. She was a little held back but then I told her that it's ok, and she used her fingers just lightly touched on the stethoscope. Then doctor started the checking, first with the stethoscope on her chest then on her back. Then the doctor took out the microscope to check on her ears. Charlotte was all the time kept very quiet, didn't struggle, didn't cry. Very unusual of her. I was at the side kept praising her for being such a clever girl! But I know she was very tensed and trying very hard to hold back her anxiety. I was just praying that it would be over soon...

After the ear check, it came the mouth part. As the doctor asked her to open up her mouth, one nurse came over and started to hold Charlotte's head trying to make her tilt her head up a little. Charlotte got a shock that she thought they were trying to hurt her. That's when she broke the silence of the room with her extremely loud scream and big drops of tears. If I knew that the nurse was coming to hold her head I would have stopped her from doing so and let Charlotte do it at her own pace. It could probably be easier for her to accept then someone coming from behind and touched her suddenly.

Then we had to go through the remaining routine with all the screaming again. But Charlotte calmed down in a shorter time then before as she left the room with Brenda. Pat and I continued to stay in the room to ask a few more questions with the PD and then we left the hospital around 9.00pm.

Charlotte fall asleep on our way back home. Pat and I left the house for a quick errand after settled down Brenda and Charlotte. But when I reached home again later, I heard Charlotte 's cry even before I entered the front gate. I rushed into the house and saw Brenda was changing her again. Brenda told me that Charlotte woke up not long after we left and crying hysterically and vomited. My heart broke hearing this as I could imagine what she been through that night.

She must be frighten by the entire doctor visit experience as I could see her trying to hold back really hard at the PD's room. We calmed her down a little bit and played her favorite movie show for her, Toy Story (yeah, old show!).

I am very proud of her self control and her understanding of instructions. All this while, I know she takes instructions really well but not to this extend. I am very very proud of my little girl!

Mid-Autumn Celebration

Last Saturday, we passed by Seri Tanjung Pinang and noticed that there was a lantern festival celebration at the E&O sales office. Pat then realized that E&O did send him an invitation but he totally forgot about it because of his busy work schedule. We joined the celebration there right after dinner and it was Charlotte's first Lantern Festival experience!

The E&O group actually gave out traditional paper lantern to all children and because we went late, there were no more lantern left for Charlotte. I was very disappointed as I really wanted to let Charlotte experience the celebration. I didn't give up but continued to look around if there was any left over. At last I found a big box filled with paper lanterns. I was so excited that finally we found a lantern for Charlotte but I only realized that those lanterns were broken as I took one out from the box (sigh!). However, after a long try Brenda managed to fix one and we lighted it up for Charlotte :)

I was a little worried if it is safe for Charlotte to carry it. To my surprise, she did it really well! There was a chinese orchestra playing at the stage, Charlotte was carrying her lantern and on and off she will dance (shake her body a little) with the music. It was really cute!

Did you notice the "flying balloon" behing this pitcure? This was what she kept looking at when I took the video clip above. She said "fly....!", and that's what she meant :D

The lantern play that I was trying to pull together for the playgroup didn't get to happen for the past couple of weeks. I decided to take my last chance to make it happen again on the actual mid-autumn day (Sept 25th), then again my invitation was out late and most of the playgroup members couldn't make it either. Luckily I have my Plan B as back up...

We went to Gurney for dinner and I brought along the lanterns that I bought for Charlotte hope to let her do a little lantern parade at gurney. At Gurney Walk, she found a new friend...

Charlotte was happily doing her lantern parade at Gurney Walk as Pat and I were having dinner at the Chili's. I first gave her the rabbit lantern but I noticed that the wind was too strong out there kept blowing off the candle. So, I took another lantern out to exchange with her. When I was outside, I noticed that was a family with a toddler boy sitting outside of Starbucks. Since I brought a lot of paper lanterns with me, I asked Charlotte to give her rabbit lantern to the boy. She did it right away, walked towards the boy and handed over her lantern to him!! The boy is only 19 months old, very quiet and well behaved. Charlotte is just the opposite.

(Did you see Charlotte's hand? She was trying to hug the boy as I took the picture, ha!)

(I guess she didn't really know where to land her hand, instead of putting it across the boy's shoulder...)

A brief mid-autumn celebration, a little lantern play for Charlotte and I am officially 1 year older now :(

New Stunt

I discovered this last week when I was at MIL's place to pick up Charlotte. Nobody taught her this or asked her to do this, I also have no idea what triggered her to do this. It is real funny but yet her concentration and determination in getting it done is very impressive.

She can do this with either her right or left foot and when she managed to pick up the object she will say "Nah!".

I didn't have my camera with me that day and so it was captured with my phone camera. The screen is real small and that's why I only get a picture of her feet. I will try to get a better video clip next time ;)

A Day With Butterflies

Our plan to visit to the Butterfly Farm has been postponing for weeks due to the recent wet weather. We woke up this morning disappointed again as it was still drizzling. I was almost desperate to put this visit down in memory and so I proceeded to get ready while waiting for Charlotte to wake up.

Charlotte woke up only at 9.00am. We first headed to town for DimSum breakfast and the plan was if it still rains after breakfast, we will have to cancel the visit again. God must have heard my prayer as it was all sunny when we walked out from the restaurant.

It was about 10.30am and we headed straight to Teluk Bahang. We have only about 1.5 hours in total as I want to make sure that we do not over stretched Charlotte's nap time. We arrived at the Butterfly Farm at 11.00am, marked the beginning of a wonderful experience of butterfly watching, up close and personal...

It was Charlotte's first encounter with real butterflies. She was very excited when I told her that we are bringing her to see real butterflies. Of course, I didn't think that she fully understood or realized the difference between the real butterflies and those that she sees on books and TV.

Her expression was what I called "out of control" when she first saw the butterflies flying freely around her. I guess it must be because of the mixed feeling of anxious and excitement that she felt with her little heart.

Throughout this entire album, you will probably notice this funny facial expression of Charlotte. This was what daddy thought her to smile for a photo. Instead of "cheers" or "cheese", Charlotte said "Eeeee..." and showed her beautiful teeth. Good try, baby! I still prefer her natural self.

I wanted to take a picture of Charlotte alone with the butterflies and make a good printout to display at home but Charlotte was a little nervous to be left alone. She wanted us to carry her all the time in the farm, or either held our hands very tightly.


We arrived at this very beautiful part of the farm and saw a very nice spot that it would be perfect if she could just stand there for a few shots. Daddy put her there and was distracting her with the beautiful butterflies just right beside her. I quickly took out my camera and keep snapping at her hoping to get a few nice shots.

Well, these are a few that I managed to get. She was first fascinated but yet very conscious of her safety, she didn't make a single movement while she was standing up there even though some butterflies were flying right in front of her. She posted and "smiled" for the a few photos and very soon, she said "scare, carry" and reached out her both hands to us.

Not only it was Charlotte's first experience with butterflies, it was her first with many reptiles, insects and fishes too. We saw this big beautiful Iguana and pointed it to Charlotte. Her response was "scared" and patted her chest :)

Look who is prettier? Charlotte, mommy, butterflies or flowers? *wink*

Here is what I call "kids learn fast!". We were trying to let Charlotte to open up and have fun like other kids, chase or catch the butterflies and have a good laugh (though we were not allowed to disturb the butterflies actually). She was still very conscious and very careful with everything she saw.

Before we exit, we tried it again and this time she got it! That was when I finally got a few good shots of her with the butterflies alone!

We spent about an hour there and it started to drizzle again when we were about to exit. Charlotte also started to get a little agitated then probably because it was time for her nap already. I was trying to get a good shot at the entrance of the farm just to keep a memory but I guess we didn't quite make it to perfection.

2nd Semester At Kindermusik

This is Charlotte's 2nd semester at Kindermusik. Some of her classmates had graduated from this class to another class for children >3years old. I think there are only 3 of us left in this class but we definitely have many new comers since the past few weeks.

As I mentioned in my earlier update of Charlotte's progress at Kindermusik, she continue to show good progress week after week. Her teacher called me last week (Pat took Charlotte to class last week) and told me that she sang in the class! It was not a surprise to me because she always sing with me but it is a nice news to hear from her teacher. Last Monday, Pat was away for business trip again and I took Charlotte to class this time. We were kind of late because Charlotte insisted to wear her own dress when I was changing her to get ready to class. I spent a good 10min with her struggling with her dress, sigh! Well, we were in time for "Our Time Hello". Charlotte took a drum from her teacher and sat down with me like an expert. She was happily playing along when the song started. Then I heard a soft "hello hello" from her! Heh heh, my heart raised a little :)

There was this activity where all of us formed a big circle and the teacher put a drum in the middle. The game was to sing a song and at the end of it each kid gets to beat the drum 3 times. So the game started and Charlotte was at the left of her teacher. I thought ok, Charlotte gets to beat first. However, the teacher decided to give the 1st chance to the boy on her right. That means, Charlotte will be the last one to get to do that. I was very worried that she would make noise and throw her tantrum because she has to wait for her turn. So, I was explaining to her that "Charlotte must be patient, the game is to take turn and so you must wait for your turn". She listened and nodded at me.

The game started, I was crossing my fingers because we had almost 10 kids that night! Charlotte participated, sang happily each time the game started again without a single sign of frustration. Finally, it was her turn. We sang, ran around in the circle and it was her turn to beat the drum. She listened to the teacher telling her that she has to beat it 3 times. She then took the drum stick over from her teacher and did it every beat as skilled as she is! That night I came home with a big smile on my face :D

Of course, I told Pat the very next day. I told him the whole story over the IM and I asked "such a good girl hor?", he just replied "Yes", period. Well, that's his usual self but I know he is very happy to see the ROI (heh! heh!)

So, what did we get this semester? It's a new theme: Wiggles & Giggles and the new activity set looks like this: (2 activity books, 2 CDs, 1 pair of sandblock and a cute transparent bag)

We have now graduated from Away We Go, the theme for the 1st semester.

(2 activity books, 2 CDs, 1 pair of harmonica and a paper toy bus)

Shoes, Glorious Shoes...

How many pairs of shoes does a girl/lady/woman need?

I remember my mom and I used to have so many shoes in the house. There was this big and tall rack where my dad used to store his business inventory but it was converted to a shoe rack just to cater the space my mom and I needed to store our shoes. Once, my mom hired a new maid from Indonesia and her first question to my mom when she entered the house was: "ini rumah jual kasut? " (are we into shoes business?) I think you can imagine just how many pairs of shoes we had at home for a Queen and a Princess :D

Now that I have a princess of my own, I just can't help but keep getting shoes to match her outfits. She has walking shoes, dress shoes, sandals, sneakers more than what I have/had at her age. I was gathering all her shoes the other day, trying to keep away those she has already over grown and while doing so I thought I should just blog about shoes that she has before the age of 2.

First Steps...

Growing, Growing and Growing...

Coming Soon...

Pat and I were talking about his brother's wedding coming in Mar next year. Everyone in the family is hoping that Charlotte can be the flower girl by then (not that she is the only girl in the family but she is the youngest!). Thinking, thinking, thinking...suddenly it struck me that she doesn't have a white color dress shoes! We need to get her that to match her flower girl dress, and hubby said "yes". Yippee!!!

Well, I will definitely post an update when we finally bought that white color dress shoes. Stay tuned :)

Nice Matters Blog Award

Blog Award? Wow, this is something new to me and I am really happy to receive my very first award from Siew Hooi and Cheah Wei: Nice Matters Award!

Want to know what this is about?

"This award will be awarded to those that are just nice people , good blog friends and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others that are there to lend support or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world!"

Find out more here

I'd like to send this back on to Siew Hooi, and pass it on to Joyce, Jin Miin, Wooi Sin, Pei Sze

little note to you: Thanks for inviting me to the blogging world. I found my new circle of friends here!

My Heritage Look Alike Meter

We always wanted to find out who Charlotte resembles more. Sometimes, people on the street said she looks exactly like daddy. Other time just the exact opposite. Though this is not a big deal but it will be interesting to find out.

Just yesterday, a friend of mine forwarded this interesting website and I was finally able to do the test based on some kind of intelligent facial scanning technique. I was very excited about it and quickly picked a few photos and uploaded them. However, it was also disappointing when I ran the first test. The result said "Charlotte looks equally like mom and dad"! It's like not telling me anything else differently from what I have been hearing from others.

Then I tried again using clearer and bigger pictures. The result?



Finally, one straight clear answer we have been searching for!!!

Try it out yourself: http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/look-alike-meter.php

Little Shopping Queen

These pictures were taken when we went shopping at Gap Kids at Q-Mall over the Merdeka weekend. I was shocked to see the way Charlotte browsing through those dresses hang on the rack and especially impressed to see her act like a pro!

Also, she has learned that mommy is definitely going to measure a dress/shorts/t-shirt on her when I picked up one. She will automatically lean forward and raise her head slightly for me to measure it on her... LOL!

Of course we didn't go back empty handed...

Practice Make Perfect!

Charlotte started to show interest in putting on shoes herself since we got her this new pair of dress shoes. It is easier to put on compared to her Adidas sport shoes. She has been practicing, wearing it and taking it off over and over again. She did that at home whenever we are getting ready to go out, and she did that in the car. She actually did that the entire journey from Bayan Lepas to Gurney once!

She did that again last Saturday and I managed to capture the process of her putting on her own shoes...






Tada!!!