Little rascal, little angel

It has certainly been a while since I blog solely about my girl who is not so little anymore. She is now 3+. How time flies. Since boy was born life has been pretty hectic for us that I have to be selective on what to blog (cause no time ma) and my posts are usually pretty short. A long post will require a lot more effort and time which is something I cannot afford right now :(

Most blogger moms I know are usually very quiet on weekends, I guess so they can spend quality time with family. For me, it was just the opposite. Weekdays are more hectic and routine, hardly got spare time to do anything else unless I sacrifice sleep. The only time I have to blog nowadays would be on weekends when the kids are asleep and when housework are done.

This is a long overdue post of my girl. My 3 year 7 months old has indeed grown a lot since becoming a sister and since she attended school. She really enjoyed going to school. She can now sing some kid songs in Mandarin and Bahasa Melayu and even the national anthem (of course not the entire anthem, just bits and pieces here and there but you can make out the song). She is familiar with all the alphabets (capital and small letters) and numbers 1 to 10. She can count (below 10) pretty well and can do some simple additions using her fingers. Since I didn't spend time nurturing her at home, I am very proud of her achievements and didn't regret sending her to school (except when she picked up the germs and got sick).

My girl is also very sarcastic and witty, probably something she picked up from me (haha). At 3 years old she knew when to bombard back at you when you said the wrong things or did the wrong things. She knew the right words to use to get back at you and made you speechless. Just this morning she came back from her cycling routine with her popo and I told her to put her shoes back properly (she was wearing slippers) and she said this "it's not shoes, it's slippers". Just the other day her papa drove to a dead end and was trying to reverse and she said "papa, what are you doing? why you drive to the wrong place?". Yesterday I asked her if she wants a new papa. She said yes. Then I asked her why? She said "cause papa didn't wear shirt, shame shame, so I don't love him". Then I asked what if he's wearing a shirt? She said "then it's ok, I love him".

I was always told by my sisters and some friends that I have a tough cookie, very 'tai kar ceh' little girl. I always thought she would not get bullied or worst still bullying someone else and boy I was wrong. One day she came home from school and I found her spare clothes in a mess and her panty missing (I always check her bag). I asked her what happened and she said 2 black kor kor (her version of Indian boys) take out her things. At 3 years old some of the things she said are still inconsistent and confusing so I tried my best to make out what happened. I know the teachers will pay attention to the kids in school and the only place where bullying can happen to her will be in her transport home. The driver is a nice man but he's too soft and usually don't really care about the kids (sigh). So I asked her if it happened in the car and she said yes. I asked her if she told Uncle Suhaili (the driver) and she said "Uncle Suhaili ask them not to disturb me but they don't listen". Then I asked the babysitter (she is the only one who gets to meet the driver when he sends Hayley to her home everyday after school) and she then (yes she didn't tell me earlier) said Hayley sometimes will be crying when she picked her up and her school bag is always opened. I was furious and heart broken. How can 2 little kids bully another little kid and they chose MY KID! Then I found out the bullies were twins and they were quite big built. I then confronted the teachers and got them to help speak to the boys and also the driver. The teachers then told me that they also heard similar complaints about the boys from other sources. A few days after speaking to the teachers she came home and told me "mummy, the black kor kor didn't disturb me anymore" :)

Since we're still on the topic about the black kor kor, here is another incident. I always pack snacks for her to bring to school just in case she would be hungry while waiting for the transport home (the school provides snacks). Sometimes I provide biscuits, sometimes egg tarts, sometimes buns depending what I managed to buy the day before. One day I bought her a bun with a small piece of ham in the centre. When I saw her tupperware empty I asked if she had the bun. She said she ate the ham. She adds that it was very nice. I thought she finished the entire bun. The next day the babysitter told me the twins took her bun and she snatched back the ham and she only had the small piece of ham while the boys ate the entire bun. Since then I stopped providing snacks for her because I do not want them to target her because of the food in her bag. I think the boys are at most 5 years old, how scary kids can be nowadays when they are not being watched carefully by their parents.

All the bullying aside, my 3 year old have also started turning into a little lady. I used to struggle with her nail biting habit and guess what solved my problem? A nail polish. My little lady asked for nail polish and showed me her nails. She said this "mummy, see my nails. I didn't bite my nails. They are long and nice and you can put colour for me". How can I say no to that? So the next day I went and bought her a pink nail polish and coloured her nails for her. She was truly happy and have since stopped biting her nails and proudly showing off her shiny nails to everyone :)

My little vainpot also asked for a crown and princess dress and hair clips. I think very soon we are going to go shopping together and she will be choosing my outfits for me :-). Yesterday I wore a spaghetti strap top and she said "mummy, your shirt is so sexy"... hahahaha.

Apart from being vain, my little lady is also very caring. When I had my 2nd gastric attack (the very terrible one where I literally had to curl up like a ball and threw up numerous times for a couple of hours) she walked over to me and asked me if I was OK a couple of times. She handed me tissues to wipe my mouth after I threw up, she pat my back when I threw up and the best of all she used her napkin to cover me and asked if I was cold and she looked worried.

Sometimes we have little siu keongs at home (cockroaches) and when she was younger she used to ask her papa to catch it and kill it. Lately she asked her papa not to kill it, they are my friends, she said.

She is also very helpful when it comes to the little brother. We usually have dinner together (the 3 of us) while we let the little one watch TV to keep him occupied. Sometimes he gets bored and will make noise or cry seeking attention. The sister will go to his rescue and bring him toys to play (and pick up for him when he dropped it) and she will even make silly faces or silly noises to make him laugh. She can be an angel to the little brother when she's not snatching away his toys or pushing him away when his walker ran over her toes :)

Every night before going to bed she will say "mom, I forgot to hug and kiss you la".

Whenever she turned off her angelic mode, she still constantly drives us up the wall ie doing things we specifically ask her not to. One very recent scene is where she poked her papa's new TV with her lantern stick and even when the papa asked her to stop, she will still want to poke it one last time. She also likes to draw on the sofa despite me telling her many times not to. Once she was talking so much in the car I asked if she can stop for 5 mins and I will reward her with a chocolate when we get home. She immediately stopped talking but then tried to communicate with me with her mouth closed but humming sounds and showing hands gestures. She is still very energetic and rough. She likes to run to you and hug you but she will actually run and bang into you to hug you. If you're not standing firmly, you might fall *yes that rough! She also likes to interrupt conversations or get involved in whatever we are doing. She is very nosey and wants to be apart of everything.

At 3 year 2 months old she stopped using diapers at night on her own. Apart from constantly reminding her that she's a big girl now and she needs to go to the toilet on her own at night, we didn't really make any effort to train her or to wake her up at night to go to the toilet. We're all talk but no actions here. She stopped wetting her diapers on her own and was diaperless at night for 3+ months. After those months, she started wetting the bed again out of the blue :(. Now we put her back on diapers again.

Sometimes when I look at my sister's 3 year old who is the apple of everyone's eye at her home because she was the youngest and then I look at my 3 year old who is now a big sister who stopped enjoying the privileges of being the only child or the youngest child gives me mixed feelings. One part of me felt happy that she is more mature, helpful and independent but the other part of me felt pitiful for her. She has to give up her car seat and use a booster seat (less comfortable), she must share her toys with her brother else she gets spanked or scolded, she sometimes gets neglected when we are concentrating on the little boy and the list goes on. Whenever I am in my guilty mode, I sometimes end up buying things for her (it should not be encouraged, I know).

Now that boy is much older and easier for us to bring him out, we also try to get more involved with her school activities as and when possible. On Friday we attended her school's Lantern festival cum Hari Raya cum National Day celebration at the field near the school. Kids were asked to dress up in traditional attire and to bring along their lanterns made in school. For once we managed to attend the party (all 4 of us) and I also bumped into Alice Law and her family. Juan Juan was in baju kurung and she looked so sweet and mature. Both Juan Juan and Ah Xuan were holding really nice and expensive looking lanterns :)

Here is my little lady in her baju kurung and her lanterns:

She experienced her first ferry ride when we went to Penang during the Hari Raya and National Day holiday. She was happy being in the ferry. Penang Island itself was jam packed and the journey back to KL took us 12 long hours. Seen her with her popo:

At the beach with her papa. They both have the same smile :)

Here is another photo of her taken on Saturday (10 Sep) before attending Caitlin's birthday (my neighbour's 10 year old daughter). She wanted to wear her 'party' dress :)

And another snapshot of her when she was engrossed in some cartoons.