Recently, this has been Karis' favourite quote. She's been dictating us with her "doh-wan" (don't want) or "more" (when she likes something, she will tell you "more! more! more!")
I really hope that the terrible twos syndrome will not happen to Karis at all.
Been not having a functional camera for almost one month! The feelings of "loss" towards the camera is intensified when Karis is chatting to herself, having a simple conversation with me or her Daddy, grooving herself like a real pro as a dancing queen to groovy music, sashaying her body to slow music, or wearing sweetie dresses and hair accessories while we are out.
The beloved camera is currently in the repair shop, and I really hope that it will come back to me safe and sane in one week's time!
20 October 2008 - What a day to remember! Being the first day of Karis attending a childcare programme, it also signifies new adjustments and the beginning of an exciting phase in life - for Karis, myself and my hubby. Through this experience, I truly learnt that changes can be something worth pursuing in life. What we perceive as changing for the worse can really turn out to be changing for the better. Afterall, most of us are just complacent beings who like to live in our own tiny comfort zone. Except for the separation anxiety that I felt on the first day, being teary-eyed when I left the centre (parent's separation anxiety, not the child's, mind you:)), Karis has been adapting extremely well in the transition to childcare! Put simply, she does seem happier after attending the half-day childcare programme, compared to staying at home with po-po on weekdays. Most of my initial worries and concerns are banished, observing how well she has been adapting to the childcare.
Two weeks after attending childcare, Karis started to take her day nap in the childcare centre, from 12:30pm to 2:30pm. I had allowed her to take her nap there so that I could be on time to pick her up after work everyday. I have converted my employment status to part-time, so that I could spend more time with her during these early crucial years, and more so because I don't hope that she will spend 10 hours daily in a childcare setting at such a young age. Having explored few options of care-giving for Karis, part-time employment is the most ideal arrangement. I am indeed very grateful and blessed to have such an arrangement. Nevertheless, having the same extent of a full-time job scope to be completed within half the working time is another separate matter altogther - I just have to totally depend on God's wisdom in balancing the time well.
Reading the weekly update sent by the childcare centre supervisor about what Karis' class has been doing for the week has never failed to warm my heart. I am now looking forward to the monthly update by end this month, as this update will come along with cute, lovely, and heartwarming pictures of Karis and her little friends in her toddler class!
We went to the recently opened mega water playground in the zoo with Ting Ting Yi-Yi & Yi-zhang, Fang Fang Yi-Yi & Yi-zhang, Bernice jie-jie and Juven jie-jie. This is probably my 8th or 9th time to the zoo. (With compliments to Daddy's free corporate zoo pass, and Aunty Amy who recently registered Mummy and myself as co-members of the Friends of Zoo)
Mummy thinks that I have grown since my last visit to the zoo, as I will sometimes utter the name of the animals that I see. She thinks that I am quite a drama princess too, because I will make a sudden exclaimation or scream when I suddenly spot an animal out of the blue. (For instance, a monkey swinging mid-air to another tree)
Upon reaching the new playground, I enjoyed myself playing with the water at the water fountain at the side. I had enjoyed myself thoroughly, until a bucket of pail filled to the brim with water was flipped down deliberately from the top, causing a big gush of water to splash on my head and mummy's. We only knew about the elephant bucket and did not realise that there was another bucket placed at the area where you climb up to play the slide. Mummy said that I'm quite poor thing then, because the pressure from the gush of water is quite strong and sudden, and I would have been scared by the sudden gush. Indeed, after this incident, when mummy wanted to bring me to play in other play structures in the playground, I said repeatedly to her "Doh-wan" (don't want). Mummy still thinks that I am quite brave, because she herself was startled by the sudden gush of water, and yet I only "whined" a while and didn't cry.
(No photos were taken, because the very-missed camera is currently in the repair shop)
I was extremely astonished when Karis started to count "One, two, three, four, five, six, ..ven, eight, nine, ten!", while she is walking along the pavement to the childcare centre. Both my hubby and I witnessed the golden moments!
When she was counting, her hands were pointing at the leaves imprinted on the pavement, signalling that she was counting the leaves there. I was very astonished as both my hubby and I did not teach her to count from one to ten. The only time that we said one to ten is when we are in a lift going up, or when we are climbing up or down the stairs. We also thought that it may not be from the childcare teaching, as she just started to attend the childcare programme. Our guess is that it may come from watching the video on Barney - Counting 1,2,3.
(Afternote: Since then, what is overheard when Karis counts is, "One, two, three, four, five....... nine, ten!", skipping six, seven, eight. At least we managed to capture this precious moment!)
Taken at the spacious balcony of the hotel we stayed...(Riviera Hotel, formerly called Ritz Hotel)
Karis' enjoying her shower in the bath-tub
Karis' typical cheeky smile :)
Karis with her cheeky smile. As mummy & daddy do not smile in this way at all, wondering where did she learn this smile from??
Playing with FP laptop...
At Senado Square
In front of St Paul church facade ruins
Karis' at the HK train station to Disneyland.
Karis in the disney train :)
Standing on the pavement waiting for the Disneyland parade to start...
The travelling journey from our hotel in Macau to HK Disneyland took us a total of more than three hours. Almost half an hour spent in hotel shuttle bus travelling from Macau hotel to the ferry terminal, an hour of ferry ride to Hong Kong (we took the ferry leading to Kowloon instead of Hong Kong so we ended with more time spent in the train ride), and another hour of train ride to Disneyland. 
Karis' instinctive camera pose is squatting down :) In the Macau ferry terminal back to our Macau hotel. As the travelling time to and fro took us more than five hours, we spent twelve hours of our time outside. Karis' been very well-behaved and resilient despite her mouth ulcer which may have just developed then, due to the HFMD which we found out only when we were back to Singapore then. 
At the Budget Terminal before departing to Macau. Lurves the thrill of sliding down!
Sesame Street stickers, colouring book, Barney videos and Fisher-Price laptop - keeping Karis entertained and occupied throughout the three-and-a-half hour journey.
Barney-packed videos in iPod - Probably the best tool in the world to keep toddlers occupied for hours!
Karis' blabbering with her baby-language through the phone...
and laughing hysterically in the midst of her teleconversation!
Karis' taking video-shoot of herself ...Mimicking us saying the usual "one, two, (three)" before the camera-click :-
I broke my own record this time round for not updating Karis' blog for more than three months. Probably that's because the toddlerhood phase seems to be physically more demanding, and Karis has reduced her day-time nap to only once, so that accounts for my time spent in updating her blog to be reduced by at least half :) Nevertheless, all the fun, with the very sweet and heart-warming gestures from Karis outweighs the energy and time required!
The three of us set off to Macau for a five-day trip on 2 Oct. Lo and behold, our barang-barang amounts much (of course, our sweetheart is the princess so she's the most barang of all) - one gigantic luggage bag, one luggage bag, two big carrier bags carried by hubby and I, and lastly one Dora bag that is carried by Karis, who demonstrates great accountability towards this responsibility :)
Some of the barang-barang:-
- Clothings, blanket, towel, jacket
- Half a big box of diaper
- One tin of milk powder
- Doll-doll (it's a MUST!)
- Bolster
- FP laptop
- Barney videos downloaded in Ipod
- Books for bedtime story
- Small bottle of olive oil
- Panadol, pamaforte and nurofen and other essential medicine
- Thermometer
- Dora bag containing numerous stickers, colour pencils, pencil and an Elmo colouring book!
- Canned tuna, instant cereals, bread, yogurt bars, rice bars (ha! seems soo much food that we've brought, since it's not as easy to find food in Macau, and we are just typically kiasu to play safe than sorry)
- many more!
Thank God that Karis has been such a strong and brave girl throughout the whole trip and coming back. She had fever and had high fever for a while during the third day. Her milk appetite dropped by at least half for two days while we were overseas, and does not have appetite for food except porridge.
Once we are back to Sing, we were glad that we sought advice from a pediatrician who said that Karis had been infected with HFMD. We had visited our family doc downstairs before that, who confirmed that Karis did not have HFMD. It really seems that the outward signs of HFMD may not be that obvious for Karis' case, or probably for most cases? We are really proud of Karis as the ulcer must be really painful, and throughout the ordeal, our sweetheart had not fret much, and has been very bubbly, happy and active. We were also thankful that the fever lasted less than a day.
Time each day passes by so quickly. This is so true, especially with the little precious one around. Being a full-time working mum, I need to grapple whatever available time I have to prioritise in spending moments with my sweetheart. Plus, she don't sleep as much during day-time naps, and she sleeps later at night, so that accounts for the time lapse of not being able to update this blog for the past over one month.
Over the past two months, here some of the words that have been overheard : -
- bread (loud and clear, including the 'r' sound)
- egg (loud and clear!)
- milk (overheard as 'mik mik', instant realisation that she's growing up exponentially when overheard in the middle of the night. Compared to just few months back, response for milk in the middle of the night is crying or fidgetting)
- please (overheard as 'peas', including the 's' sound)
- press (overheard probably as 'pes')
- big (accompanied with both arms opening wide)
- pig (upon seeing a pig on story book)
- daddy (most frequently overheard two syllabus word)
- baby (overheard as bay-bee, gentle and soft tone)
- apple
- rabbit (overheard as bit)
