Showered with Pressies and Love

Right before the big move, Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Tina, Uncle Ryan and cousin Emily packed tons of gifts and love for the girls. Here's Mia sitting on her stash of birthday pressies.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the purse and Minnie Mouse! Thank you Auntie Tina, Uncle Ryan and Emily for the lovely dresses!!! They were so cute Mia wore it the very next day for her birthday party! :)



Understandably, Kayla got rather upset when she realized Mia was the ONLY person getting presents on her birthday. She calmed down only after she got to keep Mia's Minnie Mouse plush doll. The day before, however, the sweet jie-jie in her drew a beautiful birthday card for Mia.

I think that's her impression of Mia learning her ABCs. The inside of the card features Mikayla, Mia and a drawing of a candle. Not sure what MAF means.

The back of the card is a picture of two happy bunnies. That's what the two sisters are like on a good day--two happy bouncing bunnies.

Mia's One!

We had a small party at the condo's function room, mostly for family and close friends. Since Darrius' (my nephew) birthday is just three weeks apart from Mia's, we chose to combine the celebrations!


Mia with Gong Gong and Po Po.

An impromptu magic show by Uncle Julius. The kids were trying to figure out where the tissue went!

More silly games: The kids pretending to be sleeping lions. In the other, the kids pretending to be elephants!

Little Lucas saying "Hi" to her favorite jie jie Kayla. Kayla pigging out on M&Ms.

The candle's the wrong way round; otherwise, the cake's picture perfect and rather yummy too.

Kayla saying "Hi" to Aunty Jasmine! And finally, the birthday babies!! Happy birthday, Mia and Darrius!

The Hundred Languages Of Children

The Hundred Languages Of Children
by Loris Malaguzzi

The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marvelling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.

The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.

They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.

Unpacked!

We survived our 131-box move, but I'm not sure I could survive another. Hence, we've resolved not to buy anything unless we absolutely, unquestionably and positively need to. We've settled in nicely at The Dew (lots of young families with little ones just like us) and have met some really friendly and helpful neighbors. In fact, the neighbor next door has a little boy a year older than Kayla and a little girl who's about two. Kayla loves her room because it's pink! (Yes! She finally gets a pink room after all these years) She's also thrilled to have all her toys back. It's taking a little longer for Mia to get used to new surroundings so she's even more clingy than ever. But I think she's starting to kick back and relax just a little.

Here's Mia obsessing with her pretend mail. She sneezes mid-way and when I say "Bless you," she responds with a pretend cough. Yes, when you say "Bless you," she coughs. I have no idea where she picked that up from; it's just one of the many cute little things she does.



Here's a video of the bored girls dancing to the radio at the service apartment. Mia lets out a loud screech at some point so be sure to turn down the volume on your computer.

Stranger Anxiety

The folks at the service apartment are really friendly. Everywhere we go, we're greeted with smiles and a cheery "Hello." So on our way down the elevator to wait for her schoolbus today, I had a conversation with Kayla about how we should say "Hi back" when someone says "Hi" to us. (A lady from the housecleaning crew said "Hi" as we were leaving and Kayla pretty much ignored it.)

Me: Kayla, when someone says "Hi" to you, you should say "Hi" back.
Kayla: But Mommy, I'm supposed not (sic) to talk to strangers. You said I'm not supposed to talk to strangers.
Me: But the lady was just being nice.
Kayla: But she's a stranger.

I guess at this age, they can't quite differentiate dangerous strangers from harmless ones. So perhaps it's better not to force the issue and let her be the indifferent, unfriendly preschooler on the block than turn her into a social butterfly and put her at risk. Agreed?

Oops. Time to pick up her!

A New Chapter

After a comfy 17-hour flight, many days of jet-lag and weeks of trying to adjust to living near the equator, we can safely say we're settling in nicely in Singapore. Kayla started school in our second week and she loves it. Mia is still pretty clueless but has gotten super attached to me (by that, I mean she's superglued to me). We're still living in the service apartment but plan to move out by August 7, just in time to celebrate Singapore's birthday. Here's Kayla with a rendition of one of Singapore's many national day songs "This is Home."






If you don't wish to listen to her mangled version, here's the real deal:

Opening Act

On the way to the recital, Kayla fell asleep. And I don't blame her. She woke up for her last day of preschool at 6.30am, came home at 11.30am, played with the kiddos from the neighborhood till noon before heading out for a make-up piano class at 2.30pm.

Considering how tired she was, the recital went really well. From piano and guitar to the clarinet, there were close to 20 kids performing in front of a large roomful of parents. Her teacher cleverly put her down for the opening act (sleepy preschoolers might turn cranky if they wait too long!) and Kayla went right up and did her thing. Enjoy!

The Flu Fog

The girls and I are finally coming out of the flu fog. It's been a horrible week filled with sneezing, coughing and Kleenex. In the same time, Mia has gone from crawling on her tummy to crawling on her fours. She's figured out how to wave "Hi," savor toast with mashed bananas and scream "No" to food she doesn't like (she doesn't scream the word "no," just loud, make that very loud, random noises). Oh, and she's also fallen in love with Gerber star puffs.

Kayla graduates from preschool in next 24 hours and she's excited about being a real big girl now. She also has a piano recital tomorrow!! :) Her piano teacher's putting together a beginner's class recital and Kayla chose to play "Two Black Cats" and "Mary Had A Little Lamp." It's at 7pm so I hope her cranky bedtime nerves will stay away at least until after her performance!

Some snapshots and videos of the girls:

Can you tell that they're sick? This was them at their sickest. Stuck at home and bored!

Kayla dug into my drawer and whipped out two flower headbands she used to wear. Mia not liking it one bit.

Mia has graduated from her jumperoo to her walker. Yes, yes. I know all that controvery about putting them in walkers. But well, she sits in it only for about 15 minutes and likes it.

Kayla having a blast playing pretend. She's cowgirl!

Amazing what joy a simple spray bottle can bring? Did I mention she broke it over the weekend?

Mia says "Hi."

A song Kayla learned in school.

"You can tell it's spring when you hear the bluebirds sing.
When the flowers bloom, you can smell their sweet perfume.
When you see drops of rain on a sunny window pane, you can tell it's Spring!"

The same song, but how a princess would sing it, according to Princess Kayla.

The Magic of Disney

Yes, we survived. But I'm not sure we'd do it again--not at least until everyone's out of diapers and can stay awake until 8 pm. The best part was watching Kayla meet the Disney princesses. It wasn't until then that I realized how much she adored them!


Kayla with Cinderella at the Princess Fantasy Faire

Kayla and Tigger

Kayla meeting Snow White at the Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto

Kayla with Aurora or Sleeping Beauty at Princess Fantasy Faire. She's her favorite princess by the way.

Kayla with a different Sleeping Beauty at the Princess Lunch, not that she could tell the difference.

Princess Kayla and her Belle dress.

Showing the Pooh some love.

Pals with Pluto

Minnie. Nuff said.

Safari Mickey

Poor Mia cluelessly munching on her celery stick at Princess Lunch.

I'm surprised we even made it to the parade. Kayla even joined the show and did a little dance.

Princess Jasmine!!

Cinderella.

My belle and Belle.

Princess Ariel.

March of Madness

Here's a pictorial roundup of March 2010.


Kayla on her favorite carousel at Gilroy Gardens on a day out with Daddy. Since Mia can't go on any of the rides, I figured she'd have more fun at home than if we tagged along.

The annual Hunting Hollow Ranch Open House is loads of fun. The kids got to pet, brush and learn all kinds of fun facts about farm animals. Even the adults learned something new. Do you know that eggs come in all different shades? The color of the egg will correspond to the color of the ears of the hen that laid it.

Kayla and Sienna asking a lady questions about a chicken!

Not forgetting Mia.... She turned 6 months and took her first bite of solid food. We started with rice cereal as usual. As you can see in the picture, she was rather nonchalant about it. Wasn't half as excited as Kayla was. But she loves her food now.

Catching Up

Now that the weather's much warmer, we spend a lot of time in the yard, especially in the late afternoon when it gets shadier. I usually keep Mia happy by putting her on a picnic blanket and surrounding her with tons of toys. And Kayla is literally at "home" in her lovely log cabin. See the cleaning cloth and her spray bottle? That's Kayla cleaning house.


Blooming beauties. My roses!!!

If only I could pack them in a box and ship them off - kidding! The sisters playing together.

Kayla with her favorite cartoon characters, courtesy of the PBS iPhone app.