the influence of the evil goggle box? aka the arrival of a new superhero

this morning, as i sat down groggily to my crosswords, the bean rummaged in her swim bag and produced a pair of goggles.

"my goggles!", she said triumphantly, holding them to let me see, as if she doesn't know that they'd be in the bag.

i turned back to the paper, only to hear shortly, "look mummy! super kitten!"

the bean had put on her goggles and stood in front of me, grinning, "i am super kitten! i am going to save you mummy!"

i told her that super kitten needed a cape too, and tucked two corners of her favourite chiffon green scarf into the back of her t-shirt collar.

she then made me get in between some large cushions, pretending that they were boulders or some such, "mummy, hold onto my cape. i will rescue you. i will pull you out."

she gave me a small corner of her cape to hang onto and together we pretended that she hauled my ass out of my tight spot.

when i said, "thank you super kitten for saving me," she was so pleased, she made me repeat the exercise.

later when i related this incident to dh, he laughed and then reprimanded me, "i can't believe you didn't take a picture!" dh wondered where she got the idea for the superhero.

then dh told me that before bathtime, when the bean was watching telly, he had tried to get her to finish only to be told ever so politely, "no thank you. i am watching cbeebies," intoned while her eyes were glued to the goggle box.

paranoid bean?

the bean's phrase du jour is "are you talking about me?"

when dh and i are conversing, if she thinks we're discussing somebody, she'd inevitably pop out that question. most of the time, she is correct in assuming that we were indeed talking about her. but once in a while, we confound her by saying "no".

bean's stubborn streak & her dream - our bedtime blues

i was just telling her paternal grandparents (ye ye & nai nai) that dh has not been impressed by the bean's behaviour the past few days, during which she maintained mexican stand-offs with her dad.

the most recent one occurred on wednesday evening. but let me give some background first.

the bean was given an advent calendar that had pockets for each date which i filled with chocs (foil wrapped choc santas, choc balls) and trinkets (colourful hair-ties/clips). the bean loves this calendar as soon as she found that she could dip her fingers inside each pocket and retrieve a foil-wrapped "tweat".

and because she's got chicken pox, we've been bribing her not to scratch her poxes with chocolate too. so she's become a huge chocolate fiend.

well, dh came home early wednesday and helped the bean get to the no. 3 pocket where she found a choc ball. after that dh told her that it was bath time and she should get ready for it. this is when she 'bit the hand that fed her' - she became petulant, "no! it's not bath time. no, i don't want to have a bath." she continued by saying that she wanted another chocolate ball.

dh then lectured her, telling her that chocolate is only for the late afternoons and she can't have more than one as it turns her into a little monster...or words to that effect.

anyhow, the bean didn't like that lecture one bit and started a one-note protest, "no!"

when dh tried to coax/reason/drag her into the bathroom, she stood outside and just kept uttering, "no!"

she wouldn't let me undress her and when we, finally, somehow, managed to get her to do it by herself, she just stood in the bathtub in her shin-deep specially-medicated bathwater and wailed, "no! no! no!"

i passed her her toothbrush and she just clutched it tightly, not letting go, but not brushing her teeth either, "no!"

when we took her out of the bathtub, which was accompanied by even louder protests, and brought her into her room, she still clutched her toothbrush.

she wouldn't let me put her into her jammies, and just faced dh, yelling, "no!", waving a hand in his face as if to ward him off or to wave him away.

dh turned to me and said, "i won't be defeated by a 3 year old."

eventually i had her bundled in bed and she fell asleep sobbing.

if her 2-3 year old tantrums are any indication, her teenage tantrums will be quite spectacular!

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she woke up late thursday night wailing and dh had to eventually put her into our bed while he slept in hers.

when dh asked her in the morning what upset her, she said, "a dream. the little kittens lost their mittens."

dancing bean

our little dancing queen's favourite move is a twirl/spin.

she just likes to spin round and round in one direction till she stumbles. then sometimes she'd spin in the other direction but most often than not she'd just carry on.

at the end of her performance, when the song ends, she'd bow deeply, with one arm across her abdomen, the other behind her back.

at our mandarin playgroup, while the other children dances along with the jie jie and does the right moves, the bean does her own thing and ignores everybody else.

lack of self-consciousness

unlike maybe 6 months ago, the bean has now become something of an attention-addict.

near the end of the singing session at the under 3s programme last week, the directress announced that we would be singing happy birthday to 3 kids.

before she could continue, the bean cut in by crying out, "me! me! sing for me! my birthday too?!", as she bounded up to the teacher.

the directress had to tell her that it's not her birthday yet, so we couldn't sing about it, to which the bean announced, "my birthday in januwary!"

i had to take the bean aside and quietly persuade her that singing happy birthday to the birthday kids would be fun too. thankfully she didn't make a fuss and actually sang along.

the bean's certainly no longer shy about going up in front of a group.

at our mandarin playgroup, one of the programme segments involves the children taking turns going behind a puppet stage, peering out and waving at the others as everyone shouts, "ni hao!"

the bean absolutely LOVES this part and would run back to do it over and over if i didn't prevent her. i discourage the extra times as it deprives other children from their turns.

in fact, at our most recent attendance, one parent actually commented to me, "another star performance," after the bean had gone twice, waved enthusiastically and said, "ni hao!" back to the group.