Jia Yi lost his second and third tooth

Jia Yi lost his second tooth about a month ago. After the first experience, he now knows how to handle the tooth when it drops. Unfortunately, the tooth refused to fall on its own. So, daddy decided to help him.

They went into the toilet and daddy tried to shake the tooth off for him. It did not come out easily. Jia Yi was screaming in the toilet. Finally, the tooth came loose. He was so happy! He took his tooth, washed it and showed it to me. He was so proud of it that he decided to keep it on his own, under his favourite Power Ranger CD. Once in a while, he will take it out to look at it.

Jia Yi's third tooth started shaking about a few days ago. This time, with more experience, he decided that he did not want anyone to know about it. So, he kept it a secret. Until... I saw him eating an ice cream and was wondering why that tooth looks so out of place. I asked him to come forward and he refused. After questioning him, I realised that he kept it a secret because he was afraid of the pain. (His daddy will help him pulled it out if he knows about it.) True enough, his daddy found out!

He was sent to the toilet to have his tooth plucked out. Daddy asked him to open his mouth. "Pain" was his answer. They spent more than thirty minutes in the toilet, fighting.

"Come here!"
"No. It's very painful."
"Okay. I will not help you pull it out."
"I want."
"Then come. I will do it gently."
"Very PAIN!!! PAIN! PAIN! PAIN!"

And this conversation can be overheard many times while I was outside waiting for them to get out.

In the end, daddy gave up. He came out of the toilet all wet, but with no tooth in his hand.

Jia Yi has won the battle.

Getting Jia Yi and Jia Ya to sleep

The 2 of them like to quarrel when I asked them to sleep. Jia Yi will start to complain that Jia Ya had disturbed his bed and Jia Ya will tell me that Jia Yi has taken her things.


When I turned off the lights, they are not able to see clearly, so they will not complain about the above. Instead, they will start touching each other and then start laughing. Slowly, it turns into tickling and then.... they will start running in the room, chasing after each other because someone had started it first.


This is how my mother make them sleep peacefully.





See, how alike they are... even their sleeping pose is silimiliar. And my mother has ease getting them to sleep.

Jia Yi and Jia Ya's Photos 1

These photographs were taken 2 weeks ago.
They look so loving.
You will not expect them to fight, right?

Jia Yi lost his first tooth

The first time when Jia Yi realised that his tooth was shaking, he was almost frightened to death. I told him that that was because he had eaten too much sweets and his tooth was going to drop. For that two days, he refused to eat any sweets, even when I offered to him.
He was so frightened that his tooth would drop off. To pacified him, I told him to keep the tooth if it dropped off while he was in school.
Two days later, I received a call from the childcare centre. The teacher had a fright because Jia Yi was crying non-stop in school, in the toilet and there was blood flowing from his mouth. The teacher thought that he had injured himself while he was in the toilet. They later found out that his tooth had fallen and he could not find his tooth. It had dropped into the basin!
He was so upset that day. When I went to pick him up after school, he refused to go home with me because he did not have his tooth with him. After spending a long time to explain to him that it was alright, he finally went home with me.
What a silly boy!

A Name for the Newborn

I was at my mother-in-law's place last weekend and she asked me if I had chosen a name for the baby. Before I could even answer her, she started her nagging...
"Don't choose names that are similiar to the elders in the family. That's rude! That xxx used the same character for the newborn and it just sounds like one of the auntie's name. Never think one! So rude, no respect!..." she was going on and on.
How to chose a Chinese character that is totally different from all those uncles and aunties? Mind you! My husband has 11 siblings and another 12 cousins. And they each has many sons and daughters. How would I be able to find a character that none of them have use? Unless I go for all those 'oh biang' names.
In fact, I have chosen the names for all my children right from the time I was pregnant with Jia Yi in 2002.
The first consideration was that it must be easy to spell. (My husband is very bad with English. It took him 6 months to spell my name right.)
The second consideration was that it must have values that my child must have.
That's how Jia Yi got his name. 'Jia' as in 'good' and 'Yi' as in 'perserverance'. And it is so easy to spell. Many thought that it means 'plus 1', because 'Jia' can also means 'plus' and 'Yi' means '1'.
When I was pregnant with Jia Ya. Many of my relatives were making fun of me. They were thinking that I will name her as 'Jia Er' as in 'plus 2'. 'Jia' means 'good' and 'Ya' means 'gracious'.
See how I have just changed the last letter of their names. In this way, my husband can remember faster.
Can you guess the name of the one in my womb now? I am going to name him/her... Jia Y?

Reading While Walking

How many of you like to read while walking?

Yesterday, I went to the childcare centre to pick Jia Yi up from school. He was so excited to show me the new magazine that his teacher had given him. I asked him to show it to me after we got home, but he refused. He took out the magazine as we were walking home and started reading it.

Jia Ya saw him with the magazine and tried to snatch it away from him. She wanted to take a look at the magazine too. But, Jia Yi refused to pass it to her and told her that she will only get to read it when we got home. Jia Ya started crying aloud. I then told her that it is not good to read while walking, because she will not be able to see where she is going. She insisted. I had no choice but to walk faster so that she stayed away from Jia Yi.

Jia Ya was arguing with me for the book. Just then... "Bong'. We heard a loud sound coming from our back. Jia Ya stopped talking when she heard Jia Yi crying out. Jia Yi had knocked his head against the pole. Jia Ya was too shocked to ask for the magazine again, instead....

"Haha! Ask you not to read, knock on your head already lah!" laughed Jia Ya at Jia Yi.

Jia Ya and Jia Yi dared not ask for the magazine to read anymore. We finally went home in peace.

Bringing Animals for Dinner

I often get angry during dinner time. That's because Jia Yi only likes to eat whatever is not on his plate.

"What do you want to eat?" my husband will ask every day during dinner.

We will all tell him our preferences and he will do the ordering.

When all the food arrived on the table, Jia Yi will argue that he did not ask for the one that he had ordered. Instead, he will want to eat whatever, my husband or I had ordered for ourselves. And we ended up eating what he had ordered for himself.

Jia Ya is too young to order for herself, so she usually shares with Jia Yi (since Jia Yi cannot finish all the food himself). The problem with her is that she does not like to eat. I do not know why.

The other day, I had to trick her into eating the food on her plate.

"How big is the mouth of the crocodile?" I asked her. She will open her mouth to show and that's when I can put the food into her mouth.

"Wow! The crocodile is so smart. It can eat up Jia Ya's food."

"Do you want to eat your food now?" Jia Ya will refuse.

"Come here rabbit, open your mouth and eat up Jia Ya's food." And Jia Ya will open her mouth to eat.

I have to continue to name all the different types of animals in order to get Jia Ya to eat her food.

So tiring! My husband said that I had taken the whole zoo of animals for dinner.

Getting Jia Ya to Walk

Jia Ya does not like to walk and I do not like to carry her. Can you guess how I get her to walk?

I play a game with her. I will hold Jia Yi's hand on my right and Jia Ya's hand on my left. We will all walk together. When anyone of us says 'Stop!', all of us will have to stop walking. Then, we will see if we have all stopped with the same legs in front. The odd one out will have to switch legs so that he/she will have the same leg in front.

Of course, I will not stop too long for them to switch their legs. So, in order for them to follow my legs, they will both walk faster.

Do you have other ways to get them to walk without having to scold them? Tell me know and I shall try it out with them.

Daring Jia Ya

Jia Ya is more daring than Jia Yi.



This photo was taken during the June holiday when I took Jia Yi and Jia Ya to the Turf Club. (It was Family Day in Turf Club.) There were many games stalls set up for the public and there were many people, especially children.

I encouraged Jia Yi and Jia Ya to go and try out the games but Jia Yi dare not. Jia Ya was very keen but she is too small for most of the games. Finally, we went for this train ride. Jia Ya queued for her turn, but Jia Yi refused. He dared not take the ride that's why, you can only see Jia Ya in the picture.

Will you believe me if I tell you that Jia Ya is the bully and Jia Yi gets bullied?

Jia Yi Learning Spelling

I hate Monday because Jia Yi has his English Spelling on Tuesday and he hates learning his Spelling.
He has to learn 5 words for his Spelling each week and he refuses to learn them early. I can promise him Power Ranger stickers, colouring books and other things. He promised he will learn but he always breaks his promises.

I used to write the words on a piece of paper and got him to copy the words. (That's how I learn when I was young. And it works all the time.) He doesn't like it. He would tell me that he knew all the words already and when I asked him to spell them for me. He knew nothing. I have to place a cane in front of me whenever he does that. The surprising thing was that, once the cane landed on his head, he remembered. It was a chore to teach him Spelling.

I decided to change to a new method. I remembered that 'yam' was one of the words in the spelling list. I brought him to the supermarket and showed him a yam and got him to trace the 'y', the 'a' and the 'm' on whatever he sees. In the end, he managed to spell 'yam' and nothing else. It's not possible to do that for all the words all the time. (Time is limited and precious.)

I changed to a new method. I copied the words onto a piece of paper and cut them into strips and let him try to remember how the words look like. He was very excited. He took the paper, turned it over and started tracing the words. Can you imagine what happened? The words were all mirror image. But he got all the words correct - the mirror image form. Guess what I did? I wrote the words again using mirror image on a piece of paper and when he traced them, he got them all in the right direction. Perhaps this is how I shall continue to teach my son his spelling.

Maybe...Monday is not that dreadful after all.