My Eeyores’ collection

As you all know, I love my Eeyore. Eeyore is my best friend, I can’t live without Eeyore especially when I sleep. Since mummy realised that I am so clingy to my Eeyore she has been looking around for the same Eeyore I have. She even emailed the manufacturer that produced my original Eeyore in Singapore, but too  bad this was the seasonal Eeyore 2009, already out of production.

Last year alone I have received 6 Eeyores all together from Pak Pak, Auntie Audrey, Auntie Chiang Mei, Auntie Joni and uncle Gabby. However, none of them can replace my original Eeyore!!! I will give all these Eeyores a cuddle and left them alone after that.

Mummy put all the Eeyores on my bed hoping one day one of these Eeyores will find favour in me.

Group photos with my Eeyores

 

 

You know who is my favourite from here

 

You are still my “Yore Yore”!!!

My new game

Recently I created a new game by myself with the wooden shape blocks of mine.

I will stack up the blocks one after another until it becomes a tall towel. A lot of time I managed to stack up all the blocks without collapsing any while trying to count (in my own language).

Daddy mummy was very amazed with my skill. They thought I have very stable hands to be able to do that. Daddy said I don’t have a shaking hands like him (he ate too much chicken feet). I even taught daddy how to play the game!!

What you think of my new game?

Me and my puzzles

I love puzzles. I have my first set of puzzles from auntie Suzanne for my 1st birthday pressie. I was too young to play that time so mummy kept them away until I was about 15 months then daddy mummy started to teach me how to play these puzzles. It took me a while to learn but now I become an expert with these puzzles. If I really concentrate I can fix one puzzle within 1 min. Daddy mummy bought me some more puzzles after that and at times they will borrow some puzzles from toy library for me to play. Actually I received a few more puzzle sets from aunties and uncles for Christmas but that was for 5 years old and above which is a bit too hard for me to play.

 Me playing with my 3 basic puzzles

Me playing with slightly harder puzzle. I don't know how to count so I reckon them by matching colours. As you notice both "hands" puzzle have the same colours. So I will always confuse which one to put in, need daddy mummy's guidance.

Recently mummy bought me a 9 pieces puzzle which is under 50% discount. It is meant for 3 years old and above, however, mummy thought she could try to teach me, maybe I will be able to play with it. This puzzle does not have a picture or shape for me to follow, it is very different from my other puzzles.

Mummy taught me to start fixing the corner pieces of the puzzle first then only the rest of the pieces. It is very hard! 
Did I tell you I do not have patience? I will cry or throw tantrum when I could not fix the pieces together. Daddy or mummy has to keep reminding me to be patience, reassure me when I fix this puzzle. Now I can fix the whole puzzle by myself with a little guidance from mummy.

Me playing with the 9 pieces puzzle. See how I throw my tantrum when I can’t get it right!

Family Care (mommy’s sharing)

We have been talking about sending Esrene to family care or childcare for a while but nothing has been done. Daddy wants Esrene to be in care for few days so that she can expose to more children instead of always stay home facing mummy, and mummy can have some break and focus on nurturing baby as well.

As it is approaching to baby’s due date, I took up the task to visit childcare & family care. After some visits, I prefer family care over childcare. In the family care, only maximum 5 kids with a carer, less virus to pickup and they get more attention from the carer. Besides it runs by the council so it is cheaper compare with childcare. I managed to find a family carer who’s available to take care of Esrene from the council. Esrene and I are pretty comfortable with her during our 1st visit, so we started Esrene in the care since February.

Little girl carried her own bag filled with sleeping bag, Eeyore, food and water, getting ready to go family care. My baby has grown up!!!

With her independent and sociable character, it is very easy for Esrene to adopt in the care. There’s 3 kids in the care she is in – two 5 years old boy and one 8 months old baby boy. She enjoys playing with them. We send her to the care every Friday and she will spend her morning in the playground with other kids from other carers. She enjoyed her time a lot in the playground, a lot of activities set up for her there like colouring, craft, outdoor play etc. She will happily saying bye bye to me when I send her there. Sometimes when I pick her up she will refuse to go back!

The only con is that she skips her afternoon nap in the care, maybe because of the new environment. So she will look exhausted and sleepy by the end of the care. Hopefully after a while she will be able to get used to it and take her afternoon nap.

Every Friday is an “off day” for me now until the baby come. I get to do more housework, my financial or cake work and run errand. But of course I constantly miss Esrene when she is away. The house seems so so quiet without her around.

Few days ago daddy tidy up his stuffs and leave Esrene with a big cardboard box. Esrene loves playhouse. Every time when we are in Bunnings or toy shops she will run to the playhouse. Playhouse is the first place she will run to when she play in our friends’ backyard as well. However, a good outdoor playhouse will cost at least $300 above, which is too costly for us to get her now. So I decided to make a playhouse from the cardboard box.

She was quite excited with the playhouse for the first day but after that it becomes the playhouse for her Eeyore instead after realising it is not big enough for her. She still goes into the house once in a while but after comes out the “house” will collapse! Anyway a reasonable toy with no cost, not too bad

Learning to be a good “jie jie”

To make sure I am a good “jie jie” (sister) to “mei mei” when “mei mei” is born, daddy mummy every morning and night will train me to say “hi” or “nite nite” to “mei mei” and give bubba “mei mei” morning and night kiss.

Mummy will let me feel the movement of bubba “mei mei” in her tummy and I will giggle in laughter when I feel the movement.

Mei Mei : “Jie jie, stop pressing your face too hard towards me, I don’t have place to move!” (“Mei mei kicked towards jie jie’s face").

It is so hard for daddy to take photos of me hugging mummy’s tummy or kissing bubba “mei mei” as I will run away straight after hugging or kissing “mei mei”. These are a few rare photos that daddy managed to capture for us as a memory.

 

Daddy mummy, I will try to be a loving and good “jie jie” to “mei mei” and share my toys with her.

Chinese New Year 2011

This is my 2nd year celebrating Chinese New Year. A week before CNY daddy mummy got some beautiful “fish fish” hanging decoration to decorate the house. I was so excited when I see some fishes at the living room!!

On CNY eve, we had steamboat for reunion with auntie Ling who is staying alone in Melbourne. Mummy said this is the easiest one to do consider it is just a few of us. For the first time I get to eat steamboat and I love my fish balls!!!

CNY fall on Thursday, there is no public holiday in Melbourne, so I stayed home with mummy as usual. This year we didn’t go any china town to see the celebration because the weather is pretty hot. In the evening after bath, daddy mummy changed me to a pretty CNY cheong sam that they bought for me from Penang. I get to collect angpow from them. I was very excited to receive the angpow, mummy said more like I am more excited to tear off the red packet than anything.

On CNY weekend, daddy mummy invited some of the close Chinese friends to have lunch as CNY celebration. Mummy cooked some of her family dishes for CNY eg. lobak, ji hu char which daddy loves a lot. I love ji hu char after the first try. I kept asking for more and eat 2 bowls of it for my lunch!

Daddy mummy let me wear my pretty cheong sam to church for the two CNY weekend. All my Sunday school teachers, aunties and uncles said I look gorgeous with the dress.

You reckon?

 

 

Honk honk! Lets go and collect some angpow daddy!

 

CNY passed by so fast. We managed to celebrate the last day of CNY with a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Hope you had a great CNY too!

 

Play-doh (Mummy’s Sharing)

Play-doh has been a popular modelling craft for all the children since my generation. I remember when I was young, my parents always get me some play-doh from supermarket to play with to make different shape of animals. Nowadays more and more interesting play-doh toy sets have been created for the kids, some even have the “machine” to make play-doh burger or hot dog!!

When I started to serve in children ministry in Australia, I was shocked to know from one of the teachers that they actually made their own play-doh!! After that I realised a lot of moms that we know here actually made their own play-doh for their children as well! According to them home made play-doh is 100% safe even the kids accidently eat it, it is economical and super easy to made. I was told that I can get the recipe to make play-doh from Cream of Tartar bottle.

Recently I see Esrene getting bored with all her toys around so I decided to try making some play-doh for her to play. She actually has some simple play-doh toys we got for her last year which she used it as her cooking toys. It surprised me that actually it is super easy to make and only took me less than 30 min to finish the whole play-doh with two colours! And I think the whole ingredients cost me less than $1!!!

Here’s the result

 

The texture of play-doh is something new to little Esrene, so she doesn’t really know how to play with it. Evenafter I show her she is a bit reluctant to “mess” the dough with her hands, just using her play-doh cutter to poke on the dough. I hope soon she will learn how to enjoy playing this fun toy.

If you are interested to try out your home made play-doh, here’s the recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

4 tbs Cream of tartar

2 tbs cooking oil

1 cup salt

2 cups water

food colouring

Method:

Mix the ingredients in a saucepan, stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until the mixture congeals.

 

I actually separate the colouring from the ingredients, after the mixture congeals, I separate until 2 portion, and knee the colour I want into each mixture.

“Hua” (flower) I made for her using play-doh which she loves it so much, keep holding on it.