Hold My Hand

It happened only once on that very special night in July, before I put a stop to it.
I confess that it broke my heart to do it, but I had to.
Mr T and I were sound asleep when all of a sudden, in the still of the night, the Little Man said, "HOLD HANDS, MUMMY!".
I kept very still, hoping that he was just talking in his sleep.
And then it happened again. Those three words sounded in the quiet of the night.

Not wanting to wake up Mr T and create a scene in that unearthly hour, I did as I was told! I pulled the Little Man's cot nearer to my side of the bed and held his adorable little hand in between the cot railings. The Little Man gave it a squeeze and said "Good night, Mummy. I love you.". My heart melted as I thought that was rather sweet of the Little Man ... showing his affection and appreciation for his Loyal Servant. That is, until he continued to insist that I hold his hand through the night! It was a rather ackward position as I had to hold his right hand with my left hand through the little gaps of the cot railing. So as soon as I thought that he had fallen back to sleep, I slowly released my grip only to be firmly told "HOLD HANDS, MUMMY!". 

This happened over and over and again until it became increasingly ridiculous to have to lose my much needed sleep over a 30 month old Little Man insisting to hold hands through the night.  Still, I did not have the heart to reprimand him in the still of the night, for fear of wounding his pride and of course, I did not want to evoke any feelings of jealousy with my loyal husband who was sleeping next to me. I compromised by holding just one little finger before we fell deep asleep again ... until now, I am still unsure who fell back to dreamland again that night.

The next evening, as I was chatting to my dear Mama and updating her on what her daughter and grandchildren were up to north of the Causeway, my dearest Mama cracked up laughing when told of the Little Man's antics the night before. When it came to the Little Man's turn to talk to his Po-Po, his Po-Po dispensed her grandmotherly advice to him about not disturbing Mummy and Daddy at night. The dutiful and obedient grandson took heed to the grandmotherly advice and that night and for a few more nights therafter, the Little Man slept through the night with no more hanky-panky.

Since that episode, Mr T and I have stuck to the same routine every night, whereby I leave the bedroom first after singing the Barney "I love you, you love me" song, and then exchanging our goodnight kisses and hugs, telling the Little Man that "Mummy has to wash all the dirty clothes, then Mummy will come back up to sleep. Jing Fong sleep first, okay.". Often the Little Man would reply to lament that he is sweating despite the air-conditioner being on as well as the fan! My standard reply, accompanied by a smile and a nod: "Jing Fong is a big boy. Jing Fong turn your pillow around yourself.". That usually does the trick before I run off for some ME time, albeit after sorting out the dirty laundry!

After a couple of minutes, Mr T then tells the Little Man that "Daddy has to go and wash your milk bottle, Jing Fong is a good boy...sleep first, then Daddy will come and sleep later". The big Little Man's standard reply to this Daddy is "Good night, Daddy. Off all the lights.". Occasionally, the Little Man will try and bargain with his Daddy for a few more minutes of 'together-time' by giving lame excuses ... need to shhh-shhh..., poo-poo, sweating...", but his Daddy is always able to immediately put a stop to it on those occasions.

So that is how Mr T and I managed to train the Little Man to go to sleep by himself at the ripe old age of 31 months! Not quite a text-book kind of way, but it worked out well without distressing the little kiddo.

Fast forward to a month later in August...
After finishing my nightly chores, I crept quietly into my bedroom for my nightly bathroom routine as my two favourite men lay fast asleep. As I was flossing my teeth, I suddenly heard a little voice going "Ehh..Mummy...where Mummy?". As I peeped out of the bathroom, I saw the Little Man half-standing, pointing to my side of the bed and asking himself the all important question "eh..why Mummy not there one?". When the Little Man spotted me peeping out of the bathroom, he then self-declared "Oh, Mummy finish doing clothes, read newspapers, d". I gave the irresistable Little Man a kiss and said Good Night to him. He returned to his sleeping position and off he went to dreamland again. Unbelievable. I did wonder to myself whether he had been pretending to be asleep for the last hour, or if he was sleep-talking before concluding that his senses were just too highly sensitive to the smells and movements of his Loyal Servant.

The Little Man IS growing up really fast.
Surrounded by his 3 sisters, his aunts, grandparents and all that activity that keeps our home buzZ, buzZ, buzZing everyday, he picks up words from all of us very quickly and is quite a genius at mimicking our actions. Recently, his sisters received a letter each from Po-Po. The envelope was addressed to Princess No. 3, who then delivered the respective letters to Sister No. 1 and Sister No. 2. As she was in the process of doing so, the Little Man clearly did not want to feel left out. He pleaded to his Sister No. 3 "Ching Tom also want letter from Po-Po, can? Can San Jie?". I am still unsure whether he knew exactly what this exchange of letters with Po-Po was about; he just did not want to feel left out. When I later related this to my dearest Mama, she quickly got to work and sent the Little Man a letter stuck with pictures of racing cars and a bull-dozer on it!

A little more than a month ago, I received word from one of the kindergarten teachers that the Little Genius has apparently not been completing her Maths homework. Tiger Mum here got all upset and reprimanded the Little Genius in the car on the way home from kindie. When we alighted from the car, the Little Genius appeared to stand frozen at the door-way. I pretended not to notice as I was not about to coax her after my reprimand session. Instead, I spotted the Little Man quietly telling his San Jie "Come, Ching Tom hold your hand, k?" and proceeded to lovingly hold her hand ever so lightly to lead her into the house.

Upon returning from dinner at GrandPa's house a couple of weeks ago, I was about to alight from the car when I asked the Little Man to help me carry the clean kitchen rags and hand-towels (that MIL's maid had helped me wash) down from the car. My instructions were very clear: "Please help Mummy take these cloths inside".  The Little Man happily took the cloths from me and entered the Zoo. As I entered the Zoo, I was distracted by the usual whines of the Whining Queen. As soon as I settled her, I walked straight into the kitchen to prepare their nightly ritual of Cod Liver Oil and their other vitamin supplements before packing them off to bed.  To my utter surprise, I found my Little Man quietly sitting by the kitchen drawer trying to stuff in the clean rags and hand-towels into the drawer. It just melted my heart to see my Little Man acting all grown-up ... he had walked that extra mile that none of his three sisters have ever done in that regard.The usual response I would get if I had passed the clean rags to any of the girls would either be "Mummy, where to put the hand-towels?", or "Mummy, I put the hand-towels on the stairs, ok?".

I was so plesantly taken aback by the Little Man's action that all I could manage out of my mouth was "Ooowwww...you're so sweet. Thank you so much" whilst patting his shoulders and kissing his forehead. This of course instantly attracted the attention of the other Zoo members who rushed to see what all that "Oohh....Ahhhh....Ooowwww......" was all about. I just could not resist the temptation and said "Wow! See what your little brother is doing all by himself without me asking him to do it!". Their eyes spoke what their mouths failed to say ... "Ai-ya! I also know how to do what, just that I don't do it unless I am asked to....what's the big deal...". 

The Little Man is really my BIG Little Man and I am so proud of his development.

Lately, the BIG Little Man likes to sit behind me, and then wrap his arms tightly around me from behind. At first, I thought that was such a sweet and affectionate gesture from my Little Man. How wrong I was! It appears that the Little Man was just visualising me as his motorcyle, with him as the pillion rider! The cheeky Little Man has even sneaked into my kitchen cabinet to grab a basket and put it on his head, proclaiming it to be his trusted helmet!!

My pride and joy

... who incidentally happen to also be the

igniting cause of my recent numerous volcanic eruptions!

~ Written by an emotionally and mentally challenged Mother of Four
who is trying to be as diligent as possible in jotting down all her blessings so that when the tough gets going, she can remind herself to dig into her memory pockets and take a moment to pause and chuckle to avoid turning into a Monster Mum!

Mind Your Language!

It's official. We have a little parrot at home!! And he is quite a talker! He goes on and on and on...sometimes even in his sleep!

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.

The Little Samseng!

I have been faithfully keeping a list of those vocabulary that the Little Man constantly fumbles with. Try and suss it out before scrolling below for the answers.

1. nuan
2. a-cu-me
3. choon
4. pork
5. choom
6. pish
7. con air
8. chweet dreams
9. goon boy
10. bul-do-der
11. kool
12. o-pis
13. sau-kau-po-chee
14. se-nen
15. i luv chu
16. E-zy
17. skua-ty-gad
18. chuating
19. skua-ty-gad
20. chim rom
21. ching tom
22. E-zy

And my all time favourite:
  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.


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)

The hand-me-down pyjamas
with breathing space for
the Little Man's toe-thumb



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:-

1. nuan  ~  this one
2. a-cu-me  ~  excuse me
3. choon  ~  phone
4. pork  ~  fork
5. choom  ~  spoon
6. pish ~ fish
7. con air  ~  air-con
8. chweet dreams  ~  sweet dreams
9. goon boy  ~  good boy
10. bul-do-der  ~  bull dozer
11. kool ~ school
12. opis  ~  office
13. sau-kau-po-chee  ~  lorry
14. se-nen  ~  seven
15. i luv chu  ~  i love you
16. E-zy ~ ABC
17. skua-ty-gad ~ security guard
18. chuating  ~  sweating
19. chim rom  ~  Swee Rong (aka The Little Genius)
20. ching tom  ~  Jing Fong; he refers to himself as Ching Tom, rather than 'I' 

And my all time favourite:
  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.

You got anything to talk??

October 2010

It has apparently become quite a nightly ritual for the following exchange of dialogue to take place amongst the 3 sisters as they huddle together everynight in their Best Buddies room to indulge in some girl gossip time before getting their beauty sleep.

San Jie: "Jie-jie...you got anything to talk?"
Ta Jie: "No. What about you?"
San Jie: "Orrr...okay."
San Jie then eagerly asks her Er Jie: "Er-jie...you got anything to talk?"
Er Jie: "No. What about you?"
San Jie: "No. Orrr...okay. Then can i sleep now?"

On the occasions that San Jie does have something to say, she would then reply:
"I have something to talk, orrr.". Miss Chatterbox would then continue on with her chosen topic of conversation.

Every now and then, blessed Mum here would join in their girl gossip time. It is rather interesting the stuff that you hear during this girl gossip time as well as the little secrets that these little treasures share with you.
As i have been sworn to secrecy by my 1st Princess, i shall honour that trust.

I must make the conscious effort to ensure that i maintain that girl gossip time with my girls every weekend night. I can just foresee that in a couple of years, there will be a girl gossip corner on one end of the corridor, and a boy zone on the other end.

Looking forward to it.

~ Jottings from the heart
by a blessed Mum who continues to place the little treasured memories into her fast-growing Treasure Box.

My Kids are Smarter than I am!

It's amazing how a child of 4 to 5 years can out-wit a Mother of Four!

Ying Chun was diligently doing her Bahasa homework and showing me the answers to her Penjodoh Bilangan [i.e. compound nouns in bahasa]. I was well-impressed with how much she has improved and absorbed in the last four months since joining the new kindie. Without any guidance from me, she managed to answer all the questions correctly. Praising her efforts, i said "Wow, so clever, ah?!"
Her immediate response: "Of course, lah! All go inside my brain oledi wat!"

I was left speechless....


Even Swee Rong's Mandarin has improved tremendously, both the oral and the written. She can recognise between 30-50 characters without any difficulty.
Being the well-known "banana" that i am, i am too embarrassed to say much more...other than i will never go short of interpreters!

~ Jottings from the Heart
by a contented, albeit exhausted mother-of-four, who is placing all her little blessings in her growing Treasure Box.

UPDATED: "M-U-M-M-Y! Y-I-N-G C-H-U-N is calling you!"

Ever since Ying Chun started at her new kindergarten, she seems to have progressed very rapidly. Her word recognition and her spelling has improved tremendously, be it in English, Bahasa and Mandarin. In showing off her spelling ability, she has now taken great pleasure in calling her mummy,
"M-U-M-M-Y"!
And if M-U-M-M-Y does not promptly answer to the Empress, the next phrase one will hear is:
"M - U - M - M - Y.
Y-I-N-G C-H-U-N is calling you!"

It has also become the Empress' perpetual habit to call for M-U-M-M-Y when Mummy is engaged in deep conversation with Daddy.



This "infection" has now reached Swee Rong who also thinks it is cool to call her mummy:
"M - U - M - M - Y.
S-W-E-E R-O-N-G is calling you."
And if heaven forbid, i should not hear those letters after numerous repeats [and it is possible for me not to register the various sounds due to the commotion in our little zoo], within the blink of an eye, Swee Rong would be off brooding in a quiet corner.



~ Jottings from the heart
by a contented, albeit flustered, mother-of-four, who is placing all her little blessings in her growing Treasure Box.


UPDATES as at 21 April 2010:

Ying Chun is well known to be able to stay awake through her tiredness! Added to the fact that she is a light sleeper, she takes the longest to sleep. Many a time when Mr T or myself gave in to her masterful demands to accompany her in bed for "just 5 minutes, Mummy/Daddy", the situation would end up with Ying Chun quietly watching her Mummy or Daddy fall asleep faster than one could count to ten! She would be dare waiting to swat any insect that should dare to fly into her parents' wide-opened mouths!!

Last Sunday night, Ying Chun decided to test my patience...and my sense of humour!

My dumb question: "So darling, how many times do you want Mummy to scold you before you sleep? Just tell me now so that i can scold you that many times now for you to sleep NOW!!"

Flashing her cheeky smile, Ying Chun's smart answer was:
"I want Mummy to scold me Z-E-R-O times!
Okay? Z-E-R-O!!"

Result: A Speechless Mum!

She redeemed herself by melting my heart the next day when she blurted out:
"I want all my family to be H-A-P-P-Y. I don't anyone to be S-A-D.
I love all my family except for bad people."

To which Swee Rong added:
"Er Jie (2nd sister), you love monsters, ah?....
Mummy...I love all my family except for bad people and monsters!!"


There was yet another SPELLING game this eveninng with the Little Wizard.
After a long day at work, Swee Rong decided it was timely to challenge my tired-brain-and-exhausted-body into playing the Spelling Game.
Whilst at GrandDad's house, in the company of GrandDad, baby and myself, Swee Rong started rambling away...

"M-U-M, T-I-O S-W-E-E R-O-N-G loves M-U-M, D-A-D, JIE, Y-I-N-G C-H-U-N and baby."

My response: "What about Y-E-H Y-E-H? You don't love Y-E-H?"
This left the Little Wizard speechless (a rarity - as she always had an answer to everything).
All she could manage was "Huh?"

When I told her that Y-E-H Y-E-H was referring to the person that was cuddling her at that time [i.e. GrandDad], the Little Wizard's immediate response was
"Of course, I love Yeh-Yeh".
The Little Wizard has learnt to spell a new word.

My blessings just get better each time.....

Thank you, WHO?

These days, the Little Chatterbox is on the roll.
She is always on the look out for opportunities to pose the following question:
Thank you, WHO?
Thank you, Monster, ah?

She has include "Sorry-WHO?"..."Sorry, Monster, ah?".

She is eqully wonderful at remembering nick-names that we bestow on her older sisters.
She loves winding up the Whining Queen. Ever since their favourite Uncle Yong Wah labelled the Whining Queen a Fire Engine in his house during one of her whining bouts, that moniker has since remained.
So now, if there is a fight between the Chatterbox and the Whining Queen, it'll be "you-leh, Fire Engine....eee-orr, eee-orr..".

TOTAL MAYHEM.

And should her Ta Jie dare to call her Crying Queen (which she is, though it is more to seek attention), without any further hesitation, she would be retaliating with a "you-leh-Sour-Queen"!

When i innocently posed the question to her one day "What about me?", she immediately responded with a "you-are-Scolding Queen, lah!".

I surrender to the quick and witty responses of a four year old.



~ Jottings from the heart
by a contented, albeit flustered, mother-of-four, who is placing all her little blessings in her growing Treasure Box.