妈妈的宝贝叫...

Last night I was trying to teach the girls the chinese rhythm I have invented. I started with the grandparent first but their concentration threshold were too low to allow me finish the four paragraph... * sign* I thought to wrap up our first session of language by reciting all the paragraph, be it they were listening or not. So I went a bit faster and stronger rhythmic. I think that captivated them. They looked stunned when mummy was talking so fast and musical. I continued and ended my tongue twister with 妈妈的宝贝叫琦璟，妈妈的甜心叫琦蔚!

They are so sweet! I couldnt resisted but gave them each a big smooch and squeezed on the cheek :*

Extended Family

I have think of a chinese rhythm for my children to remember their extended family...

爸爸的爸爸叫爷爷
爸爸的妈妈叫奶奶
爸爸的哥哥叫伯伯
爸爸的弟弟叫叔叔
爸爸的姐姐叫姑妈
爸爸的妹妹叫姑姑

妈妈的爸爸叫公公
妈妈的妈妈叫婆婆
妈妈的哥哥叫大舅
妈妈的弟弟叫小舅
妈妈的姐姐叫姨妈
妈妈的妹妹叫阿姨

伯伯的妻子叫伯母
叔叔的妻子叫婶婶
舅舅的妻子叫舅母

姑妈，姑姑的丈夫叫姑丈
姨妈，阿姨的丈夫叫姨丈

伯，叔，姑姑的子女是堂哥，堂姐，堂弟妹
舅舅，阿姨的子女是表哥，表姐，表弟妹

YEAH !

Another Challenge...

华文... Yes my another big challenge, how to teach the girls chinese, to be exact, chinese culture.

I am a oriental person, brought up in an mandarin speaking family. Spore has an unique culture, not only multi racial but the chinese also have an rich mixture of dialect groups. From the big Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, to small Hainanese, then sparse hokcha and fuchou... My dad is Pure Hainanese and mum is Pure Teochew and when they cross dialect and gotta married and had children, I became a Hainanese-Teochew and my hubby was Hokkien-Cantonese and then we gotta married and had children, Abella & Clarabelle become Hokkien-Cantonese-Hainanese-Teochew!

Wow!!! The best is, I cant converse in most dialect except bits & pieces of Hainanese and Teochew and only within family. Though my mum always speaks Teochew to me but I always reply in mandarin... After 30 over years of nuturing... very sad, I still dont acquired. Too bad, I am not a language person but I love mandarin, I love chinese character, every different strokes combination create a beautiful word. I can read but cant write, I can understand but cant express... Anyway I am determine to instil the rich & beautiful culture of chinese to the girls. However is not easy to find children friendly chinese book. There english book for children are more tone down to childish, children are attracted. But the chinese one are dull, bored, tough... I am really struck where to kick off : (

3 syllable Words

It's an excitment to see the childrens progress...

Part 1.
They used to say.... and Now
but-ti.... Mummy see but-ter-fly
car.... Mummy bi-cy-cle, mo-tor-cy-cle
nana.... Mummy Ba-na-na

Part 2.
Clarabelle was pointing at the floor mosiac, " Mummy square..." (Oh, yes... where is the triangle?) " Tri-an-gle where? " (looking for one) " There! Tri-an-gle! " (Mummy's mouth wide opened)

Part 3.
Children bringing the doodle board to me, " Mummy draw... " ( I drew a heart shape) " Heart... heart... " (abe & clara chanting, mummy astonished) " Yes, it's a heart shape ! " " heart shape... heart shape... " ( abe & clara chanting)

.... mummy is so happy (watery eyes)

OH ! SORRY

I am glad that the girls have acquire this word, SORRY. It is a good word, it can meditate, be it in a big or small stituation and esp deadlock.

And the girls' sorry items ...

Clarabelle say " oh! sorry sorry " when her ball hitted on her "pet", Terry and even extended her hand to "sayang" it.
Abella say " oh! sorry " when she accidentally bumped onto mommy when running.
Clarabelle say " oh! sorry sorry " when her push-car's wheel ran over mommy's foot.
Abella say " oh! sorry " when her cycling tricycle and hitted the coffee table...

Resume My Identity

Finally my Clara "willing" to call me mummy! My two girls can acknowledge most of us already when I play identify " who am I ? ".
1. Daddy
2. Mummy (not like last time clara always call me daddy)
3. mah mah (my mother)
4. gong gong (my father)
5. 阿姨 (my twin cousin)
6. 爺爺ye ye (my dad in-law surprising even when they see him only once a week)
7. 嬷嬷ma ma(my mum in-law portrait when we bring them to pay respect)
8. ka ka (the maid)
9. 妹妹 (female children younger than them & Abella refering to Clara)
10. 弟弟 (male children younger than them)
11. Kor kor (male children older thab them)
12. 姐姐 (female children older than them & Clara refering to Abella)
13. baby (newborn & sometime themself)
14. Abella (Abella will point herself and Clara will point to Abella)
15. Clarabelle (Clara will point herself and Abella will point to Clara)
16. 舅舅 (my 2nd brother) but when they see 舅舅 they will still have anxiety and glue very tightly to us esp Abella. Many more like people they will still have anxiety when meet are
1. 大伯 (daddy's brother)
2. 大伯母 (daddy's brother's wife)
3. 姑妈 (daddy's sister)
4. 姑丈 (daddy's sister's husband)
5. 姨 婆 ( all the aunties)
6. 姨 公 ( all the uncles)
and many many more... sign they still will show stranger anxiety at 18 mos!
Luckily they still willing to mix & play with all the 姐姐 (my nieces) at 大伯 house and let me have a short peace of mind...

More words...

Just finished conversation with my mum and the content:

" ...did u see how she (my maid) divide the fish? Sunday just bought, very big piece leh now she say finish already! "
" ...maybe she divide bigger portion loh, for 3 days, 6 meals, ok lah... "
" ...ka ka lou jia liao...(in teochew meaning no matter how much also very fast can finish) "

My mum is actually suspecting my maid stealing our girls' fish for own consumption. Treadfin leh, very expensive one, for the size of my palm can easily cost $20! My mum has ground to suspect her because when she asked her " finish already hah? Nice or not? " without much thought, she say " nice... (Oops! ) " .... No solution...

" ...your girls are playing with those goodies you left on the tv console... "
" ...yah i give them the little box to play with, their Ye Ye buy for them masak... "
" ...they are shattering the cookies...keep asking me to open open say yummy yummy... "
" What? You mean my girl girl know how to say OPEN & YUMMY ? ? ! "
" Yah loh, both also, you dono meh? "

Who has stolen Clarabelle's " mummy" ?

Whenever Clara pester me to carry her, I'll always take this opportunity to make her call mummy. What puzzle me is instead of calling me mummy which she already can, she always call me " daddy ". I thought she might need some recap " Im not daddy, Im your mummy, call ma-mi " but still " daddy " spill out from her mouth. I try to inspire her with her favourite hand-kiss action and mm..ma sound but still she refuse to say mummy and start her "Ah bi, Ah bi" (whenever she is angry she always say " Ah bi ").
This morning I got another good chance when offering this hungry little girl milk. I make her call "mummy" first before giving her the milk. Still the same, she called me "daddy". I tried very hard refreshing her "ma-mi" with emphasized lip but she seem very impatient and hungry and finally she said " barney "! ! ! As I wouldnt wish to starve her further, she has her reward and leaving me with a perplexing question ? ? ?

Ah Bi

Though Clara's vocab bank is suffice for her daily interactive activities but this word "AH Bi" is always coming out of her mouth. Especially when she is angry, she will Ah Bi ! Ah Bi ! I just cannot relate where this Ah Bi derive from.

I know the origination of ba-ball is balloon. Initially they associate all round things as ball. When they first saw a balloon, they kept calling it ball ball. After I corrected them " Yes, my dear it is as round as a ball but this is a balloon." and made them repeated with me ba-lloon. However they had came out with their own formulae... ba-ball for balloon.

Vocab Bank & Cognitive Development

Abella & Clarabelle will be 18mths old tomorrow. Their vocab bank have exceeded 20!
1.bear bear
2.ball
3.ba-ball (balloon)
4.hua (flower in mandarin)
5.bird bird
6.dog dog
7.mi (cat meow)
8.fish
9.apple
10.bus-c
11.bu bu (car)
12.milk
13.Barney
14.daddy
15.mummy
16.ma (my mother. As for gong gong not yet but they can acknowledge)
17.ah yi
18.ka ka (my maid)
19.bye bye
20.Yi (one in mandarin)
21.good good
22.star star
23.Eee! dirty dirty new
24.Pss (please) new
25.wait new
26.pear new

other cognitive development which are notable like:
scenario 1
One day they were enjoying the scenery outside the window. Clara's head accidentally knock against the glass. She started to weep. When Abella saw this, she extended her hand and sayang Clara's head...

scenario 2
When they see somebody still asleep, they will place their petite little finger on the lip making ss- ss- sound signal to keep quite.

scenario 3
Abella & Clarabelle will hug and kiss each other when prompt. Last night we went out for a stroll, we prompt them to hold hand and Clara extended her palm to Abella and happily they walk around the neighbourhood with their hand firmly griped.

scenario 4
Abella & Clarabelle will play pretend to sleep game and cover themself with the blanket.

scenario 5
When any of them cough, they will pat for each other.

scenario 6
This morning the daddy was mixing their milk. I show them a stop hand asking them to lie down and repeating the word "wait". However Abella refuse to stop her activity and wanted to sit up. The word "wait" then spilled out of Clarabelle's mouth signal Abella to lie down and wait!

My sweetest "mummi"

This morning I was waken up by the world sweetest "alarm clock", a crystal clear ~mummi came out of my sweetie daughter, Abella's mouth! This time is for real, she is referring to me and not any other thing! Her daddy had carried her out of the pan and prompted her : "abella, wake mummy up!" then the sound "mummi" spill out of her mouth. She finally can acknowledge her mummy... *tears*

Abella and Clarabelle started to babble "ma ma mah" at their 11th months. I was overwhelmed then but later realised that beside my wedding collage hanged in the dinning room and my mother, "ma ma mah" also equate to any woman in the magazines, photos and even Barney!

Abella is too sweet... hmm... dont know when clarabelle will open her golden mouth?