A day at Hort Park and Henderson Bridge

The World's Greatest by R Kelly

This song is so upliftting and addictive! Love it and glad the children did too! Incidentally, doesn't the name 宇乐 mean the world's greatest too! =)
Hope Yule will grow up to love this meaningful song. Every child is the greatest in their very own way!

3 birthdays in October!

Tele-conversation

I guess Yule's advanced language development and how she is such a smart and active little girl makes papa and mummy so proud of her. She is speaking in phrases now and sometimes can switch from english to mandarin depending who she is speaking to! Perhaps it is how she is able to relate to us through language that makes our heart goes with her. Love her every minute! She could now even have a pretty decent telephone conversation with us adults, cutely, at 18 month. It can go like this:

Mummy: Yu-le!
Yule: Mummy!
Mummy: 吃饱了吗?
Yule: 饱
Mummy: 有没有乖?
Yule: 有
Mummy: 你要去哪里?
Yule: gaigai
Mummy: Mummy loves you!
Yule: you!
Mummy: Kiss kiss
Yule: hmm-mack!
Mummy: Mummy coming back soon ok?
Yule: ok
Mummy: bye bye
Yule: bye bye

Time-out vs Gorilla?

The struggle for independence and autonomy goes on, even more so when little Yule's language developement is prety advanced. While she can be obliging at times, she can be testing our limits other times too. She continues to love to say '不要', and adding on to her vocabulary is 'Don't want'. Well well, mummy and papa have our ways to tackle this:

The pro-positive-parenting me will try the 'time-out' method when little Yule's behaviour gets out of the limit. Like pulling our spectacles or hitting our face when she knows she is not supposed to, she will have to 'stand in a corner', or '罚站'. She understands both the english and chinese command very well and knows exactly what she is supposed to do. When she is in a cooperative mood, she will go stand against the wall on her own (in a very cute way, she does it!). When she doesn't want to cooperate, I will be pulling her to stand against the wall. She will stand for maybe just 3 secs and come running back to me for a hug (or ask her ah ma or por por to 'save' her if they are around). I will insist that she say 'sorry', which she will gesture by placing her hand on her head. This works well so far in stopping whatever naughty acts we want her to stop.

Papa has his own unconventional way of discipline. I guess his greatest strength is to change the situations to like a big prank or joke. When little Yule gets naughty or does not want to obey our instructions, the unconventional papa will say 'Gorilla 来了!' or 'Big bad wolf 来了', and little Yule will then quickly do what we asked her to, or at least before the next 'creature' comes along! In a very strange way, Papa just always have his way of getting to our little girl! =)

Its so funny to see how she reacts to our ways of disciplining. I couldn't agree with what papa does sometimes, but then again, I can't help but give it to him that his method can be more effective than mine at times!

Happy Birthday to Mummy!

Chiam Yu Le or Dumb Yu Le?

Little Yule could say her FULL name and pronouncing her surname 'Chiam' pretty well too. It's really cute to hear her say 'Chiam Yu Le' when we ask her for her name. Ocassionally, 'Chiam Yu Le' can sound like 'Dumb Yu Le', and we'll really have a good laugh.

Happy Children's Day

Today is Children's Day, and I've got 2 new 'piggy' banks - 1 Happy Bear and 1 Happy Cat - to start to save money!

I am 17th Month Old

Star by Bryan Adams

During a motivational workshop I conducted for the primary 6 pupils, I played the song 'Star' by Bryan Adams for them. I simply love this song, and I'm glad the kids love it too. This song brings tears to my eyes and helps to heal.... We all need a shining star when things get hard to take, so tonight we're gonna wish upon a star we never wished upon before

Here's the lyrics...

What cha wanna be - when you grow up
What cha gonna do - when your time is up
What cha gonna say - when things go wrong
What cha wanna do - when youre on your own

Theres a road - long and winding
The lights are blindin - but it gets there
Dont give up - dont look back
Theres a silver linin - its out there somewhere
Everybody wants an answer - everybody needs a friend
We all need a shinin star on which we can depend
N so tonight were gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before - (to find what youre
Looking for)
Therell be times - in your life
Ya when you be dancin n shit - but you aint gettin it
But dont get disillusioned - no, dont expect too much
Cuz if what you have is all you can get - just keep on
Tryin - it just aint happened yet
Everybody wants ta be winner - everybody has a dream
We all need a shinin star when things aint what they seem
So tonight were gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before - (gotta get where youre
Headed for)

Everybody wants some kindness - everybody needs a break
We all need a shinin star when things get hard to take
So tonight were gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before