somehow, baa baa black sheep has associated itself with a carefree big bad wolf, and doe, a deer, induces much emotion.
Archive for the “Aunispeak” Categoryauni dancing to vampire weekend’s giving up the gun. enjoy your long (vampire) weekend!!
Jul
29
2010
 
Auni The StorytellerPosted by hana in Antics, Aunispeak, Family, Home, Parenthood, tags: auni(a little note: about the part on the rattlesnake, coincidentally, an episode of The Pink Panther was shown after we’d read this a few times together, where the panther accidentally stole a basket containing a baby instead of food during a picnic scene and in an effort to pacify the said baby, now crying, he’d removed the end of the rattlesnake’s tail to give to the baby as a rattle, and i guess this left such an impression with the kids that they associate it with this particular rattlesnake every time.) (also, another note: they will inevitably ask the same question in every story with illustrations – “where’s the daddy/mummy/baby?” not sure why but there’s always a concern for the whereabouts of a missing family member in the story.) was discussing insurance for the girl the other day (her brother’s was done when he was two too), and our financial advisor estimated we’d need a cool $85k in 16 years time if she were to go for a local tertiary education – i mean, IF we’re fortunate enough for her to want to pursue it, that is. (well, a mom’s gotta hope.) made me wonder how much my parent forked out for mine, coz i have NO idea. they’d split costs – mom paid for my brother’s overseas education, dad paid for my local one. and i was fortunate enough to not have to repay any student loans whatsoever either. (dear dad, thank you for giving me my education. and while i’m at it, thank you too for paying for my driving lessons. and basically, for everything you spent on me. as my brother would constantly remind me, i was a spoilt princess – still am, yeah i know. :S) so anyway, we’d settled on a whole life and term policy thing, same as her brother’s. i don’t know, i’m generally not very good with money (seeing how i’ve not been made to handle much of it in my life growing up), and just hope that things will work out for them in the future… meanwhile, in the present, was updated of the girl’s progress in child care (she’s in a half-day programme for now). all good things so far. she especially likes the home corner and dress up corner (oh the gurly gurl she is turning out to be), storytelling and art, conversing with friends and teachers, discovering things, always the one to help distribute others’ water bottles… and i’ll spare you of the superlative adjectives her enthusiastic teachers had for her. :p
one thing the teacher DID ask me to work on with her was fine motor skill, in particular threading work, which she, for some reason, did not like doing. i’m guessing she doesn’t have the patience yet for it, but since it seemed like another activity we could do together at home, what the heck…
and the last thing we talked about was toilet training, which we all agreed she was pretty ready for. the past few weeks, she’d cooperated on the potty before bedtime, and the previous weekend she’d woken up, walked straight to our bed and asked to pee in the toilet, so i think all that reading of Princess Polly’s Potty came to fruition after all. well, that and the fact she has her older brother to model upon, and me, whom she follows to the toilet all the time to observe. (yes, that open-door policy still stands here at izadnhana’s abode, sigh.) and so, am happy to report that this was her third day in preschool undiapered, and doing pretty okay (minor mishaps, ie. half-accidents, notwithstanding). so yey to less diaper wastage! (and to mother earth, sorry we didn’t get started sooner). no! i most certainly did NOT teach her how to apply cosmetics! i swear! it is all mimicry! in any case, she seems to have a knack at lipglossing sans mirror, just like me. won’t be long before she too can do it WHILE driving. it’s, err, genetic. *no alien figurines were harmed during the filming of this video. aniq at 2.5 years… auni at 2 years… whether they’ll eventually inherit their mommy’s dyscalculia is yet to be seen. Once upon a time, not so long ago (two years, to be exact), a bald-ish baby girl was born. She lived in a forest of (tam)pines, along with her father, mother and brother. She began to grow into a fiesty, fearless and, quite frankly, funny-looking little girl. One day, she was told to send a basket of food to her Grandmother living on the other side of the forest. “Remember, keep to the path and do not – i repeat – DO NOT talk to any strangers along the way!” the mother reminded her little girl. “Yes, mother,” promised the little girl as she donned her favourite red hoodie. Along the way, she inevitably meandered away from the path, lured by shrieks of excitement from the playground nearby her intended destination, promptly forgetting her mother’s reminder. “Why, hello there, delicious little girl. And what are you up to on this fine day?” a hairy creature slurred suddenly from behind the slippery see-saw. “Oh, just, ya know, chillaxing…” the girl in red replied, more interested in the swings and slides than the hairy creature who, unfortunately, looked nothing like Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga: New Moon… *press pause*
i know everyone says auni looks like her daddy but seriously, look at that little girl on her daddy’s lap. (yes, that was me, maybe less than a year old.) SURELY THE RESEMBLANCE IS BLINDING.
that’s me again, probably just a little over a year old, with an aunt. c’mon, admit it.
and this is totally embarrassing but for the sake of proving a point… (i wasn’t kidding when i said i wasn’t a pretty baby.)
so, there. next time you see her, tell me she looks more like ME (fine, so maaaybe she’s a little bit cuter), ok? we’re not sure where she picks up her seemingly sudden jump in vocabulary each day – we suspect it could be from her brother, whom she interacts with (and mimics) everyday, or from her teachers in school. i’d bet more on the former. last night our conversations went something like this: M: auni, which colour do you like? (playing with stacking rings) M: sayang mummy tak? M: is it nice? sedap? she is turning into – *gasp* – her brother.
but i do think the second child tends to develop speech at a generally faster rate, thanks to the elder sibling as model. as for the other behaviours, i’m still, errm, crossing my fingers.
Feb
03
2010
once upon an upin & ipinPosted by hana in Aniqspeak, Antics, Aunispeak, Family, Parenthood, Places
M: auni, tadi makan apa? (what did you eat today?) and when asked the various body parts in malay, she will obligingly twitch or point accordingly. yesterday, she saw her oma half-undressed and went, “eh, tak alu!” (no shame!). ah. there is hope yet for you, my young padawan. ========= M: aniq, ‘fish’ dalam melayu apa? (what is ‘fish’ in malay?) ========= in any case, they're both smitten by upin & ipin, you know, identical twin pre-schoolers who are the cutest cartoon characters, like EVUH, hailing from a fictional kampung in malaysia. (well, there was Lat the Kampung Boy back in the days - remember him? - but upin & ipin are so... arrrgh, DEM CUTE, and there are two of 'em!) the husband and i totally approve of the series, more so since the dialogue's so chuckle-worthy and in malay, and, i mean, WHO NEEDS TO LEARN SPANISH LAH, RIGHT? so smitten by the characters and their antics, that even the little one has taken to mimicking the dialogue. a particular one that stuck to her was where the token effeminate youth in the kampung insists that his name's not Salleh but Sally, and attempts to spell it out: "S-I-L-L-Y", dismissing his misspelling with a flick of his limp wrist, "apa jer lah, tak kuasa aku." ("whatever!" - another thing about the beauty of localised humour - the english version simply does not translate sufficiently. right? betul betul betul?) maybe i should send them to a kampung in malaysia, if anything, to brush up on their malay. speaking of kampungs, the other night, in one of my meandering discussions with the little boy after an episode of upin & ipin, i described to him how in kampungs, they have no toilets with a flushing system, and potty business had to be done in an outhouse or behind bushes in the forest. (AS IF i know anything about rural life, hah! but mothers being mothers, must sound convincing and knowledgeable lah, right? betul betul betul?) M: ingat tak, citer upin ipin, kawan cucu tok dalang sakit perut, nak pegi toilet tapi dia takut pasal dah malam abih tempat dia jauh? ahhh. you can imagine how this conversation went on – endlessly. like this bridge we trekked last weekend, in our attempt to bring the children close to nature.
well, as close as we could get to the semak-semak, anyway. no potty business going on here, though. it’s as sterile as everything typically singaporean is.
and mummy – again, ever-convincing and knowledgeable – explained away the many whys. sometimes with more than a “ye laah”.
yes. trees and branches may fall. take care. berhati-hati di semak-samun, kenak-kanak.
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