bean's favourite books - as of 2 ys old

sheepishly, i have to admit that my biggest extravagance is books for the bean. she has a lot of books, some presents from friends and relatives, but the bulk from mommy (not even daddy).

while there is a big shelf of books the bean does tend to make beelines for a select few, although some days she can go through nearly every single book on a shelf.

here are her current favourites:
- the p.b. bear series (written by lee davis and now out of print)
- dr. seuss's abc
- dr. seuss's 10 apples up on top
- eric carle's the very hungry caterpillar
- the spot series
- ginger (by charlotte voake)

hot on the heels of the above:
- karen katz's lift-the-flap books
- dear zoo
- where the wild things are
- the snail and the whale
- we're going on a bear hunt
- bouncing ben and other rhymes
- mog the forgetful cat
...most lift-the-flap and pop-up types are pretty irresistible to the bean.

turning 2 yrs old

we had a very small celebration for the bean's 2nd birthday. no big party, just a cupcake with 2 candles and the opening of her presents, which wasn't a big pile by most middle-class kids' standards. we just commemorated it by filming the event on a proper videocam.

from her daddy she received mainly clothes: a uv rash vest, a short-sleeved uv suit from ripcurl, cotton pjs (jonasjodie), a dress from chateau de sable (the bean gave an excited cry when she opened it up and took out the dress), and 2 long-sleeved tees with a pair of pj bottoms (from a new malaysian brand). the only non-clothing pressie was a very soft sheep toy from kiwistan that he bought whilst on a business trip.

from me: 2 new wooden puzzles (slightly more advanced than the ones she'd had) and 2 books.

but her favourite present has to be the dog soft toy (from friends of dh's family). it has a collar and a short leash, a simple detail that makes a world of difference between any run of the mill soft toy and one that can "come alive". the bean was immediately smitten with it and took it for a walk around the living room as well as tried to sit on it. (she does have a weird tendency to want to sit on her toys, as if they could be mounts like her rocking horse.)

i think at this age she would be impressed with most anything she receives - every present merited a "wow" or an "ooh". the major part of the fun is actually tearing off the wrapping paper. we had to keep asking her to come back to look at the present after she'd torn up the packaging; to the bean, the paper tearing part was probably the objective and she would get up and start wandering off once that's done.

she does seem to understand that birthdays are pretty significant events, unique from a routine day anyways. when she received a new birthday card the next day (i didn't tell her it was a birthday card, i just told her that it was for her and that she could open it) and saw the birthday cake with its candles on the cover, she immediately sang the happy birthday song. she couldn't read what the card said of course but she made a show of looking at the text inside as if she could. very funny.

flying with a toddler

i would like to imagine that i could provide some expert advice about how to have a successful (i.e. relatively tantrum-free) flight with a toddler. but the truth of the matter is that the only way to really ensure an easier time of it is to fork out the cash (or air miles) and wrangle seats in business class.

our flights to and from singapore were hell and heaven, respectively. we were in cattle class from sydney sitting in the middle row bassinet seats, sharing the row with a couple from spain (or germany or south america, i couldn't quite make out) who were politely tolerant, but only just. i was trying to get us the bassinet seats on the sides (i.e. window seats) but they had been booked up already. (why is it that we can NEVER get our favourite seats even when we log onto the internet seat booking service at the very minute it is open?)

the bean was fidgety and antsy every half hour, except when she was asleep*. thankfully she snoozed twice. she even screamed several times and frequently pleaded with her daddy or me to bring her "out! out! out!"

and when she wasn't being a fidget-ma-gidget she would be staring at the chap seated next to me, pointing at his reading materials, at him, at his shoes, and even trying to touch him. it was inevitable that he was prodded a little at times because we didn't have much elbow room...even in the wider seats of the a380 plane!

during one particularly irksome episode, she slid down my lap onto the floor and i let her sit there for a bit as she was temporarily distracted by shoes and books and toys. anyhow, suffice to say that my cheeks were inflamed at each of the bean's outbursts.

so i was not looking forward to the return trip, which i would be doing alone with the bean. (dh had to fly back earlier for work.) what compounded matters were that it wouldn't be a direct flight - we had to transit in kl - and that the flights were at night. hmmm...no rest for me! (i never sleep well on planes anyway.)

luckily dh managed to get us onto day flights, and used his points to try to get us upgraded. the upgrade came through the day before we flew and i was literally hooting for joy, dancing a jig, when i received the call with the good news.

it was a pain lugging the bean through 2 airports (changi and klia), in a borrowed cotton ringsling which is not good for long periods with a heavy toddler**, but it was so amazing to be able to relax in an airline lounge and enjoy a semi-civilised breakfast. the mas lounge (in klia) scores points over sia for its kids play area. that kept the bean pretty happy for half an hour.

then when we finally got on the final leg of the journey home, i found that the crucial differences between business and cattle class are service and space. because there were fewer passengers to look after, the stewardess in the business class cabin could keep coming over to make sure that the bean and i were well catered for. i had ordered a child meal beforehand, having learnt my lesson from our flight from sydney***, and besides the meal itself (mostly sugary confections - a lot of empty calories, and there wasn't a single french fry i requested in sight), the bean was given a hershey bar and a small tub of apple jelly. she was also provided with her own set of headphones (which weren't used).

instead, i amused her on the flight with a new storybook (a previous day's purchase i had to make knowing that she, i.e. we needed new entertainment), which we read twice, and with some new toys. (mas gave her a funny-looking police car soft toy that vibrated when you pull on the attached string.) we also sang songs - action songs were big hits. e.g. one potato; dingle-dangle scarecrow; incey wincey; hickory dickory; row row row your boat...

we were placed in the centre row bassinet seats in business, but because there was only one other passenger at the other end of the row, i cheerfully used the middle seat for our barang barang. when the bean finally fell asleep in my seat, i just happily transferred myself to the middle seat and got comfy with vanity fair magazine. ahhh...a sleeping child and a trashy mag - luxury.

i said it before and i will say it again: business class - the only way to survive the toddler years.

* the first time, she fell asleep whilst bfg in a toilet cubicle. i had to pop her off and carefully cradle her back to the seat, making sure that her head or feet didn't hit anyone along the way. i had a mental picture of the bean's feet hitting the heads of seated passengers like they were xylophone keys.

** i really regretted forgetting to pack one of the becos or a meitai. a 2-shoulder carry was what i desperately needed. and i was only too happy and relieved to offload the bean to her daddy when he came to pick us up at the airport.

*** we suffered on the sq flight partly because the bean didn't have a proper meal of her own. sia didn't even give us a baby meal!

everybody "pai hsi"

as mentioned in the previous post, the bean has acquired some (really, just a few) teochew slang. one such is the phrase "pai hsi" which means "very bad". she likes to accompany it with an apt finger waggle towards the person she says it. all picked up from her po po naturally.

but it is highly likely that the bean doesn't understand what "pai hsi" means. (by the way, she says "pai hee".) during a short quiz by her daddy, when he asked if so-and-so is "pai hsi", she said, "pai hee" to every name he brought up.

her daddy was quite amused by this and has marvelled at how much her speech has improved during this week away.

***************

not sure if i have documented this, but it seems that the bean has her own special noun for cats - "minh" - the name of a neighbour's cat, whom she saw one day a couple of months ago.

for ince, she has 2 schleich cat figurines, both of which she calls "minh" (in a dreamy sort of way). btw, she also likes to cuddle them, uttering, "aw, cute" at the same time.

Oi!

took the bean up to singers on a week-long trip to see her po po and gong gong and instead of picking up some useful mandarin words or phrases, she's ended up with teochew colloquialisms!

to be precise, when she calls out to her po po, she expects her grandma to say, "oi!" instead of "yes!"; in turn, she will reply with an "oi!" if one of her grandparents calls out her name.

she's also, sometimes, taken to putting 'suffixes' at the end of noun or verb words. e.g. "put-na", "there-na", "on-na", "phone-na", which is a very teochew way of speaking.

...unfortunately, she hasn't really learnt any proper teochew words.

this & that

a newish development is the bean becoming more precise in communicating what she wants/needs - particularly in the "wants" department.

an example today, when the bean woke from her midday snoozette.
bean: "book" pointing to a stack.
me: "ok, here it is."
bean: "no. that one" pointing again.
me: "alright, here you go."
bean: "no no no. that one" and jabs a fat finger in the same direction yet again.

it's now "that one" and a couple of times of "this one".

fireworks!

the bean had an uncharacteristically late night on new year's eve. she had a shower with me and then her dinner, but after that daddy took her out on a walk - or rather he walked and she sat on her trike.

but instead of heading home and thence to a bath/bed, i came to join them and we went to a lookout point that had a view of the harbour bridge and sydney cbd. there were already many families there - some sitting on camping chairs with their coolers, videocams on tripods, all ready for the action. we arrived at 8.30pm and had another half hour to while away before the fireworks.

it is wonderfully thoughtful of the aussies to organise 2 fireworks displays: one at 9pm for "families" and the other for the big midnight do.

it was difficult keeping the bean from becoming too antsy. had to sing, distract ("oh let's look for a cat", "can you see the stars?", "ooh, that was a bat" etc etc) and pass her back and forth between daddy and mommy. when the fireworks FINALLY started it was none too soon for me as the bean had begun pleading "mirk mirk peeese" and plucking at my collar, just milliseconds away from an all-out paddy for bed and milk.

she was duly diverted by the fireworks - the different sparkling, trailing, noisy, booming colours, like shimmering stars. there were also patterned ones like outlines of cubes and heart shapes. they were entertaining and there was much oohing and ahhing from the crowd around us.

well, all too soon the show ended. as we walked home in the deep twilight, the bean chatted to her daddy about it. she concluded by saying, "thang you farh-wer" (thank you, fireworks).

back at home, as soon as her head touched the bed she was asleep. the sleep of the innocent.

footnote: her first word(s) when she woke up in the new year was "farh-wer!", followed by "dair-ee, ma-ee, you, farh-wer!"