The Little Man is at a stage where he quietly listens to what we are saying and then repeats it word for word! Recently his GrandDad praised him for eating his dinner by himself, exclaiming "Good, Man!" whilst giving him a thumbs up. Ever since then, he has been repeating those words, though he initially struggled with giving the Thumbs Up sign.
The Little Man's latest mischief is to label the Little Genius as "Naughty Boy!" everytime someone calls him a "Naughty Boy!". He will faithfully go "San Jie [i.e. 3rd sister], Naughty Boy! Ching Tom, Good Boy!". During Mother's Day celebration, Grand Dad asked "Is Jing Fong a naughty boy?". The Little Man promptly replied "No, Ching Tom is good boy. Mummy naughty boy...scold Ching Tom." whilst cosying up to his Grand Dad. Yes, the michevious little samseng.
When the Little Samseng is in action, instead of wishing "Good night Yeh-Yeh, Good night Nai-Nai" before going home, he will mischeviously go "Good night Pa, Good night Mummy" before dashing out of the TV room where his grandparents are with that little smirk on his samseng face.
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| The Little Samseng! |
- nuan
- a-cu-me
- choon
- pork
- choom
- pish
- con air
- chweet dreams
- goon boy
- bul-do-der
- kool
- o-pis
- sau-kau-po-chee
- se-nen
- i luv chu
- E-zy
- skua-ty-gad
- chuating
- skua-ty-gad
- chim rom
- ching tom
- E-zy
21. pipi-det
Whenever I have difficulty understanding what the Little Man is trying to say - especially new words that he has just picked up - his frustration will build up and he will continue repeating it whilst flapping his hands up and down until I somehow manage to work out what he is trying to say...or pretend to understand what he is saying.
It is not unusual for the Little Genius to be able to sometimes work out what the Little Man is trying to say. They are particularly close as apart from his loyal servant here, the Little Man spends the most time at home with the Little Genius during the weekdays when she is back from kindergarten. It is a well known fact that the Little Genius works part-time as the Little Man's translator for her daddy and her grandparents.
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| His Royal Highness posing with his loyal servant & faithful translator |
The Little Man got really worked up a few months back when I could not comprehend the following request from him at the dining table ... "Pork choom, Mummy!...pork choom!!". His hands kept flapping up and down and his eyes would go bigger and bigger everytime he had to repeat those words. I tried to keep cool and calm, whilst chiding him that there was nothing to get worked up over as his lunch was about to be served! It took me a while to work out what he was going on about. And when I finally did, there was such a huge sense of relief for us both! He was asking for his fork and spoon! The poor guy.
Another memorable incident happened when I was driving a couple of months ago. He started shouting "Nuan, nuan....Mummy nuan, nuan" and the volume just got louder and louder as he failed to get a satisfactory response from his Mummy. There I was, concentrating on the morning traffic after dropping the Little Genius at her kindergarten, whilst at the same time peering into my rear-view mirrow to study the Little Man's body gestures to try and scramble through my brain to work out what the Little Man was trying to tell me. Talk about multi-tasking! It turns out that the inquisitive Little Man had wanted to know what that odd building structure was along Jalan Duta, just after the Jalan Kuching roundabout. It was the Tennis Stadium!
So now every time we drive past that way, the Little Man would proudly announce : See Mummy, nuan stadium, right? and His loyal servant would reply "Yes, darling. Clever boy."
Just a couple of nights ago, Mr T was changing the Little Man into his full-length romper style pyjamas (which is a hand-me-down from his 12 year old sister!). He has 3 main sets of those hand-me-down pyjamas from his sisters; one with a hole large enough for his toe-thumb to stick half-way through, one with small holes and one that is still in a good condition. As his daddy was buttoning him up, he pointed to his toes and said "See Mummy, maw-hole". Whilst half-engrossed in her reading, His loyal servant (who was then on a treasured 10 minute breaktime) automatically went "Mmm..yes...no hole" without really looking at what he was pointing at. His loyal servant had just assumed that he was wearing the hand-me-down pjyamas that was still in good shape.
He then repeated himself "Maw-hole, Mummy"...and my robotic reply went "Mmm..yes...good...no hole". His raised his tone a little and repeated himself again "MAW-HOLE, Mummy". Feeling a little annoyed at being distracted from her 'ME' time, the robotic loyal servant also raised her tone a little and said "Yes, Jing Fong, Mummy heard you...your pyjamas has no hole!" whilst turning to glare at him. Only then did the guilt-ridden Mummy realise that he was pointing at the small little holes at the foot-end of his pjyamas. Durr..Mummy! The Little Man is saying SMALL holes, not no holes! You should have seen the Little Man's relief when he was finally understood and he gave a soft "hmmm..." when his Mummy apologised profusely for misunderstanding him. (Editor's note: I will try to take a clear photo of the maw-hole pjyamas...so far, my attempts for a clear shot have been unsuccessful)
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| The hand-me-down pyjamas with breathing space for the Little Man's toe-thumb |
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| Look Mummy, Ching Tom can tickle toe here! |
The morning after proved to be another mini-challenge. As His loyal servant was preparing to cook lunch, she asked the Little Man if he wanted to watch TV whilst waiting. Here is a snippet of the conversation that took place:
His loyal servant: "Mummy is going to cook now. Do you want to watch TV?"
The Little Man: "Mmm (nodding his head) ... watch E-ZY"
His loyal servant: "Ok, what CD do you want to watch?"
The Little Man: "E-ZY".His loyal servant: "Yes, I know. Which CD do you want to watch?"
A very frustrated Little Man: ""E-ZY!!".
His blur loyal servant: "Sorry. Mummy doesn't know what you want. You go and show Mummy ok?"
The Little Man then went straight to pick out Sesame Street's Learning your A-B-Cs CD!!
Mr T too has had his fair share of troubles understanding the Little Man.
On one occasion, we had just left the house and were in the midst of conversation when the Little Man interrupted his daddy with the words "Daddy, Pipi-det! Pipi-det!". He just wouldn't give up till daddy did as he was told. As Mr T and I were deep in conversation, Mr T just nodded and said "Ok, Jing Fong...ok". The frustration he felt at not being understood mush have pushed his perseverance even further as the Little Man continued to scream "Daddy, Pipi-det! Pipi-det!". Only when His loyal servant abruptly ended the conversation and uttered the magic words "Dear, he is asking you to wear your safety belt!" were my 2 favourite men friends again.
In case you have not managed to suss out the Little Man's lingo, here's what he is trying to say:-
- nuan ~ this one
- a-cu-me ~ excuse me
- choon ~ phone
- pork ~ fork
- choom ~ spoon
- pish ~ fish
- con air ~ air-con
- chweet dreams ~ sweet dreams
- goon boy ~ good boy
- bul-do-der ~ bull dozer
- kool ~ school
- opis ~ office
- sau-kau-po-chee ~ lorry
- se-nen ~ seven
- i luv chu ~ i love you
- E-zy ~ ABC
- skua-ty-gad ~ security guard
- chuating ~ sweating
- chim rom ~ Swee Rong (aka The Little Genius)
- ching tom ~ Jing Fong; he refers to himself as Ching Tom, rather than 'I'
21. pipi-det ~ safety belt!!
For some inexplicable reason, he has difficulty saying words starting with F, S, PH!
And he is still trying to master the numbers one to ten. Much to his Mummy's frustration, he has been stuck with one, two, three and straight to senen, eight, nine, ten for the last 5 months! He does not seem to have the patience to repeat the alphabets, but he likes reading books...or rather, to be read to.
As for the Little Man's sisters, recalling the following incidents just cracks me up.
When The Whining Queen had just started Primary Two and was busy labelling her exercise books all by herself. I broke out in hysterics as I checked on her labelling efforts. She had transformed her teachers' names from Ms Pritini to Ms PRETTYNE and Ms Brenda became Ms Banda.
The Whining Queen has had her fair share of difficulties whilst getting to grips with Chinese word recognition. In a moral test question she recently did with her Daddy, the following question was posed to her in written Mandarin:
You only have RM1 with you for your break time. What should you spend your RM1 on in the canteen?
i) buy stickers
ii) buy fizzy drinks
iii) buy sandwich
The Whining Queen very confidently chose (i) as her answer!
As for our First Princess, I can recall a question in a Std 2. English test-paper a few years ago.
John is an orphan. He lives at the _____________.
a) orchard
b) orphanage
c) cemetery
d) factory
I almost fainted when our Princess circled (c) as her answer.
In a Std 2 Moral test (in Mandarin), the following question was posed:
Grandmother is having a headache. What should you do?
a) Play loud music.
b) Bring grandmother's medicine for her.
c) Disturb grandmother from her sleep.
Our Princess wisely chose (a) as her answer!
Bless my little wise angels & samseng who continue to bring much joy, havoc and chaos into our lives!
~ Written from the Heart
by a blessed Mother-of-Four who is living with a little regret in that she did not start a detailed written account of her princesses' early talking days and is now conscientiously encapsulating these precious memories so as to be able to roar with laughter when her zoo members eventually leave The Zoo one day and start a zoo of their own.
