* substitute *

~ October 14th 2011 ~

Besides Big E and Little B, I am also looking after a little boy since mid december last year. I shall call him YX boy. He recently turned one in September. :)


The first time he came to my place with his grandparents and his mother, we placed him on the sofa bed that occupied my living room. Suddenly Little B burst in between us with her little pillow in her hand. Climbing up onto the sofa, she looks at me...  "Mimi, pillow for baby!". Watching me place her pillow under YX boy's little head, she sat beside him cooing, singing and smiling at us.
That was a very memorable moment. So innocent and sincere.... melted my heart. YX boy's family were assured a little as well. 


Over the months, Little B became more and more attached to YX boy. She's also very protective of him, screening visitors and friends to my place when they play with him.
The other day she called for me several times and when I got there, she insisted I take him off my friend because my friend asked her if she could take him home! Everytime someone says they want to take him home to their place, she would firmly say, "cannot" and sternly argue (if it got that far) that his mother was coming to fetch him later and recently she added his mother would cry! ;)


Which brings us to today's afternoon conversation before her nap... laying in the cot beside sleeping YX boy.


Little B : YX boy so cute lah...I like him so much!
Me : Mmm.....
Little B : Mimi, can I take her home?
Me : Her? Who?
Little B : YX lah....
Me : Oh... him dear.
Little B : Who?
Me : YX boy. He is a boy so you say HIM not Her.
Little B : Him...can or not?
Me :  Can what?
Little B : Can I....
Me : May I....
Little B : May I take her ...
Me : Him.....
Little B : May I take YX boy home or not? 
Me : him?
Little B : (Big sigh) Mimi......may I take him home? 
Me : oh....cannot.
Little B : Why lei...?
Me : Because his mummy will cry.
Little B : No lah...
Me : Yeah....and who is going to take care of him at your place?
Litte B : Me lah.
Me : Are you sure? What if you are watching tv, who will take care of him then? 
Little B : Mummy lah.
Me : Cannot lah...
Little B : Then I go sleep in his house can?
Me : Cannot.... then your mummy will cry!
Little B : Mmm..... ok, YX boy come to my house and M boy (her cousin ~ about 18months old) can stay in YX boy's house.
Me : Huh? Aiyoh... M boy will cry lah.
Little B :  Then kakak will stay with M boy lah. Then mummy, cheah cheah, YX boy, me, kakak go for dinner. :)
Me :Huh? How can kakak go for dinner if she is staying with M boy??
Little B : No lah...kakak S (M boy's maid).

Me : (Stunned) Waaah...... you've got it all planned out huh? 

Little B smiled and we both giggled! ;)

* compilation *

~ 08th Sept 2011 ~

Once again, I've been swamped with laziness to remember, think and type hence the long silence since July. So much has happened and whenever I wanted to blog, the timing was wrong and when it was right, I was not in the mood. Anyway, I'm compiling a few short ones I can still remember in here so that I too will some day return here for a pick me up or to simply laugh. :)

** A few days back whilst in the car, the girls seemed to be high on sugar and this conversation came about....

Big E : " B, you know what is Malaysia or not? "

Little B : " I know....Satu Malaysia! "

Big E : " No lah....it's.... Kita, satu Malaysia..... "  she sang.

Me : rolled my eyes!!!

** Yesterday, the telly was playing a patriotic song and I heard Little B singing along whilst I was chatting to a neighbour. Suddenly she calls for my attention to the telly.

Turning around towards the telly I saw typical Malaysian scenes of people and their cultures and our country's flag waving.

Little B : " Look Mimi! That is Malaysia flag! " beaming proudly.

** Today is their daddy's birthday and so I got them to draw their own cards for him. 

Big E did hers independantly with black Happy birthday my dad on its front with her and flowers. Inside she drew herself with her dad and the top was filled with lots of hearts! Stars were later added at the bottom and she coloured them all by herself. :)

Little B decided on Happy birthday papa with flowers on the front with the sun and birds.

Inside amongst lots of flowers and hearts, I wrote...with lots of love from B (ngek-ngek) An expression she makes when she turns into baby mode and dad calls her that sometimes. ;)

As I wrote, her fingers held the markers. I then told her to colour the flowers and hearts and she was halfway when mummy came. Grabbing a yellow colour pencil, she said she wanted to take it back to continue colouring. 

Me :  " OK but bring it back here tomorrow ya as I don't have anymore yellows. "

Little B : " Got lah...."

Me : " No lah....that's the last one "

Little B : " Got lah Mimi. "

Me : " B, that is the last one ok. Just bring it back tomorrow ok? "

Little B : " No more can buy some more lah...." as she scooted off to the car!

Sigh....

** Last week, when I gave each girl a pack of sea weed ready to eat, Little B turned around and looked at me with such a happy smile....

Little B : " I like Mimi because she gives me sea weed! "

Big E : " Me too! Me too! "

Me : gasping in between laughter!

Next day, I got them lollipops and this is what I got...

Little B : " I like Mimi because she gives me lollipop and sea weed! " Hee hee...

Big E : " Me too! I like Mimi because she gives me lollipop and sea weed! "

Me :  Laughing so hard and trying not to run over shoppers as we left the car park!

**Last week, we were creating our own bedtime story and each of us took turns. Mind you I was quite sleepy and a bit impatient to finish and I picked up whatever came out from their mouths. This is what we got....

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Lola. (yep, from Big E!)

She was very naughty. She had a boy friend named Nan-nan. ( Little B couldn't think of a name and at the same time asked for milk & sleepy me settled on it. Girls wouldn't stop giggling since.)

One day, Lola wanted to kiss Nan-nan but Nan-nan cried out, " NO! NO! " pushing Lola away and soon ran off.

Poor Lola was unhappy and cried.

Later Nan-nan came back and kissed Lola and they lived happily ever after! 

The end. ( yeah, could not finish the story vividly as they were so hysterical with the Nan-nan name and kissing bit and with the sleepy nanny trying to finish off....funny bedtime story right? ;P )

They are adorable and conversations are getting more and more interesting as they banter and share wits. Never a dull moment :)

* be careful of what you do... *

~ 20th July 2011 ~

           It's been some months since my last posting and I have a lot to blog about but not enough time. 

         Little B and her sister are growing up fast. Her birthday is coming up next week and I have to start thinking faster on how exactly I am going to accomplish her 'doggie' birthday cake she's asked for! * biting nails *

        This afternoon I was trying to get her to take a nap but it was one of those days (actually, it's been happening a lot lately...); where she seemed high on sugar and refused to lay down long enough to doze off!

         So role play came to mind and I pretended to be the 'mei-mei' i.e. younger sister and she was mummy. I dropped onto her side of the bed and whined for sleep. Holding her precious toy puppy whilst imitating her loving rubbings across its nose just before she sleeps off... I closed my eyes. She was playing with the cooking toy utensils on my side and not long she was trying to wake me up with 'milk'. 


Little B : " Come, drink milk. "

Me : " Don't want. I want to sleep. "

Little B : " Drink your milk lah..."

Me : " urrrgh.... I want to sleep! " and turned away.

Next I heard from behind me,  " You don't want I drink ah...."

Still not getting the response she expected, " Mmm....very nice! "


That cracked me cos I do it to her all the time when I try to coax her to eat or drink something. We've been role playing a lot lately and she's a mirror image of all of us and it's really cute and hilarious when she does it without batting an eyelash and so innocently.

This is when I tell myself to be careful of what I do in front of the kids because they are terribly good at imitating whilst adding their own flavours. ;)

* Little B the make up artist *

The girls' mum related this story to me this evening and I just cannot help but share it because there is a moral to it...

* she listened! *

This evening as I was working with Big E with her homework, Little B insisted on doing some drawing and colouring as well. 

I grabbed a book and the colour pencils and sat her on my other side. Giving her a pencil she started drawing 'circles'. When I realised she was beginning to colour with the pencil, I stuffed a pink colour pencil in her hand and told her to colour in her 'circles'.

While Big E was writing, I turned to look at Little B's work and my jaw almost dropped! She had coloured inside the 'circles' 88% right! Not too long ago, she was doing big strokes and her colouring was all over the place or not filled up completely.

Me : ' Wow B! You are doing very well! Good job! ' 
She beamed with pride. :)

I watched her colour and noticed the method she was going about.... which was suspiciously like my M.O. Mmm....

Me : ' B, why are you colouring in little circles?  Who taught you to do that? '
Little B : ' Nanny-lah. ' she coolly replied.

Now it was my turn to beam with pride. I did tell her a few times to colour in small circles in small spaces to get it even and not go out of the lines as she was heavily mad on big strokes at one time. Her reaction was to pull away or grunt or just ignored me as she continued. Well you can imagine my surprise to know she had after all realised it was a rather useful tip and used it.  :)

Just to be sure, I drew a flower and she did an even better job at it! Mummy came and she too drew two flowers for her and Little B happily coloured them. Of course I asked her to colour the centers with a different colour which I hope she will do more often in future in changing and fusing colours. 

Mummy and I just couldn't stop looking over her head and nodding in excitement and pride.  I showed mummy another picture she did this afternoon.


Little B : ' Mimi ( that's me too. ), I draw a fish for you ya? You wait here ok? ' and dashed off to the sofa with my pen and tiny square papers.


She comes back with what looks like a fish and upon asking which ends were the tail and head, it made perfect simple sense. Mmm....she can draw shapes. Not bad. Now she blows me away with her latest improvement.... :)







Come to think of it.... two days ago, Little B was busy doodling in one of the many old exercise books left for that purpose. I noticed she did little short strokes of colours here and there.

So I asked her if I could draw a picture for her to colour and she happily passed me the book. I drew a face and she was saying it was her mummy. :)

A few minutes later she calls my attention and asked if it was nice or not. I was surprised the lips were not a garish streak as I had anticipated! She had coloured inside. Next she did the eyes and nose, etc and left it. Some scribbles in some places which I thought to be normal for her age. I found it cute the way she coloured the eyes and nose too.




Well all I can say is... from now on I shall be even more cautious and wiser in how I teach her because.... just when I thought she was not interested, today she showed me she did listen! 

Bravo Little B. Mimi is going to start you on many writing and colouring adventures soon. :)

* a piercing tale *

Over the weekend Little B's mum told me she was taking her to the jeweller to get her ears pierced on wednesday. It was the Goddess of Mercy's birthday and mummy  was planning to go to the temple that morning to ask for Little B to have a good and painless (or less painful) experience. :)

* slumber party *

~ 29th January 2011 ~

Yesterday was my birthday and I had planned a night in with Little B and Big E. Nothing fussy nor aloud, just some fun time with them :)

Night before a close friend decided to stay over too as she was not working today. Hence hatched the plan for a joy ride to get her after work in the evening. 

But...another friend sms saying she was going in the same area for awhile and so we jumped in her car to the mall and former friend met us there whilst we were having dinner at the Chicken Rice Shop. 

For some reason, both girls wanted doughnut and I insisted something solid first before doughnuts and Little B relented. At the table Little B declared firmly, " I don't want to eat vegetable. " 
We looked at her taken aback and I said, " OK ".

Big E tucked into her honey bbq chicken whilst Little B had her rice and soup. Noted, she ate the spring onions in her soup. When she had enough of rice, she started to scoop the vegetable stems in the soup. Offering me, I declined and suddenly she started to chew on it. So much for her earlier declaration! Hahah

My friend then whips out a cupcake, green based with a cute little flower in the center and lit a candle on it. Curious, the rest learnt of my birthday and the kids got all excited. Singing the birthday song... Little B on my side and Big E across the table tried to blow out the candle at the end of the song. I pretended to do the same, watching them in amusement. Suddenly Big E jumped up in her seat, thinking she would get to her mission better. Hahaha. Finally I blew it out. ;P


Cutting the cupcake into 6 parts, the center part slightly bigger... the conversation came upon who would get the ' hard to slit in two ' sugar flower. With two little hands pointing at themselves as I waved it between them... I popped it into my mouth! Hehehe. Awww...... ;) They had the bigger slices of course, wolfed down in minutes. :)

 We got home; cleaned up; changed into our jammies; brought down the sofa bed; dragged out the spare mattress; set them side by side; pillows, blankets & bolsters out; AC on; fan turned on low and most of all....lights on the cherry tree twinkling. ;)

Giggles and laughter, kiddies' night caps * wink *, small time dramas, chit chats to eventual zzz......s.


Perfect! :)
 

* cooking with Little B *

This morning Little B was playing at cooking for kakak and I. She asked us what we wanted to eat and promptly went off to 'cook' with the pots and pans I have for them, some from Ikea. Out of the set, we have a pot with a strainer unit and cover. She served kakak using the strainer and brought the pot to me.
So both of us were exclaiming over the 'quantity' served and she just smiled. 
Five minutes later kakak said,  " B, I cannot finish this. It's too much! "


She turned to her and replied, " Ha?! Cannot finish? Why? Why? " in a loud grim tone.
I was standing a few feet away and I  burst out laughing because she sounded exactly like us when we would tell her off at meal times.

Kakak : " I cannot. You gave so much, how to finish? "

Little B : " Why cannot? " shaking her head and I swear I could hear the faint 'tsk! tsk!' in her voice. ;)


A few weeks back, she was doing her usual serious cooking and informed me she was cooking for me. I said thank you and waited patiently beside her, watching.


Soon she scooped some knick knacks onto a plate and served me. I made a big show of enjoying every morsel and passed it back to her saying, " Mmm...that was so delicious. What was it? "


Little B : " chicken rice."

Me :  " Well I must say that was the best chicken rice I've ever tasted. Thank you very much B. "

Little B : " you're welcome " with a smile as she continued cooking again.


Kakak was just setting the lunch table when Little B shouts at her, " Kakak I cook for you ok? "

Kakak :  " Ok "

Little B :  " I cook for kakak ok. " looking at me.

Me : "Ok "

Little B : " This I cook for kakak ok... nanny, you enough already ah... "


I was flabbergasted! All I did was stay put, watching her the whole time.... " what?!" I spurted.

She coolly looked at me, furrowed her eyebrows, " Nanny, you ate so much, enough already ok. I cook for kakak now. "


Oh dear.... she's a little old lady! LOL!!!