on hot dogs and nicknames

this morning, bean #1 decreed that bean #2's nickname is "mau mau". when asked what it means she said it's simply #2's nickname. yup, i don't get it either.

we then went on how different her own nicknames are, depending on who's calling her. e.g. her daddy likes to call her "princess" whereas i prefer "angel" or "pookie bear".

bean 1 then asked, "can you say something to me?"

me: "what?"

bean 1: "say something like 'can you go get changed please', and i will say 'yes, your majesty'."

me, grinning: "okay. can you get changed please?"

bean 1: "yes your majesty." and her hands go up, out and down in some sort of old fashioned flurry.

most amusing.

later at breakfast, as she paused from her cornflakes and said, "do you know that hot dogs are called that because the bread is like skin wrapped around the sausage like a bone, which is the tail of a dog. that's why it's called a hot dog."

that's her theory anyhow.

fairy doodles

bean1's artistic doodlings have for a couple of months now focused on the realm of the imagination.

below is one of her latest - a rendition of a fairy and 2 flying horses heading off from a fairy castle. (jan 2010)

this next one she did in december - it's the sugar plum fairy, as quaintly titled by bean1 (see pix top lefthand corner), after the creature from the nutcracker.

bean1 is very taken with ballet, especially the sleeping beauty and the nutcracker. she loves dancing to the entire nutcracker suite whilst i feed bean2 (btw, bean2 is on solids - ingesting but very little though as most end up on her bib, high chair, floor, head, me).

however, she constantly reminds me that her "star performance", as she terms it, is marred by the lack of appropriate footwear. she has a leotard and skirt already - christmas pressies from dh and i - so we have tried to convince her to wait till we get to china and when (if?) she starts ballet classes before buying them. dh has already seen a shop that sells ballet shoes, but i really insist that classes are found and enrolled in before we commit to shoes.

* to see enlarged images of the illustrations, just click on the pictures.

more utterances from bean1

on what santa speaks

with crimble really right around the corner, the beans's english grandfolks found a website to get bean1 in the spirit - http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/ - where santa himself can give a message to the young 'un (after a parent has gone through the form filling up with all the relevant details of the child).

so i did that and watched with satisfaction as bean1 sat entranced by a video of santa 'talking' to her. she nodded at all the right spots and responded with appropriate noises whenever santa 'spoke' to her or 'asked' her questions.

later on skype, she told her grandparents about santa talking to her but then added, "he called me lee-ah" (as it differed from the way her name is usually pronounced).

the grandparents said that that's because not being english, his english isn't very good.

bean1 then grinned and said, "maybe he speaks north polian!"


on her chicken diet

took the babies out crimble shopping the other day and our final stop was a sushi restaurant. now, one of bean1's favourite takeout meals is a teriyaki chicken roll, although i hasten to add that the roll's ingredients have to be quite specific - e.g. she prefers cucumber to avocado as the additional filling.

anyhoo, the waitress grabbed a plate of the teriyaki roll (which already looked different as this version was cut into two pieces and didn't have an outer wrapping of seaweed) from the conveyor belt.

when placed in front of bean1, sure enough, she commented on the lack of seaweed surrounding the roll. then she proceeded to pick at the pieces and found lettuce but no cucumber - quelle horreur!

but the last straw was when she found that mayonnaise had been smeared in the roll: "mummy, i don't like tartare sauce!" as she pointed a finger accusingly at the deconstructed rolls.

i told her that it wasn't tartare sauce but mayo adding that both nainai and yeye like mayo. ever her own person, she still insisted, "mummy, i don't like mayonnaise."

she swallowed bits of the rice and left most of the chicken before she turned to the cucumber rolls (i'd grabbed a dish seeing as the teriyaki chicken roll was quite small).

i had to tar pau the remainder as i was adamant she should finish her lunch at home. we had to cut short our lunch at the restaurant as bean2 had woken and needed feeding, and i figured it was better to just head home - afterall, we were only a 5 minute drive away. i informed bean1 of the necessity to finish her lunch at home though.

she must've dwelled on my pronouncement and when i was on the road homeward she piped up, "mummy, what day is today?"

"wednesday honey."

"ah! that's why i can't eat my teriyaki chicken. (pause) i can't eat chicken on wednesdays, mum."

so did she get away with this excuse? let's just say i hear a new one everyday, and i sure wasn't born yesterday either!


on naughty relatives

over a 3 day span, bean1 managed to blame her poor uncle william for quite different things. here's the first one:

bean1 was in my room one morning and we sang songs while bean2 fed. somehow i went onto yankee doodle and bean1 decided to ad lib and do a riff on it. she changed the words and made it even more nonsensical than it sounds (i believe it had chicken and ended up with spaghetti).

when i asked if she had only just made it up, she denied it, "noooo. one of my naughty uncles did it."

incredulous (and curious as to which uncle she could possibly mean), i asked who taught her.

smiling, bean1 said, "uncle william!"

incident #2: a day or two later, in the living room this time, bean1 was being silly with the "poo" word. she was going on and on about "poo pants", "poo bottom" and variations thereof.

i interjected finally to tell her to zip it. defiantly she said, "uncle william told me to say poo bottom."

so that's twice she's maligned poor will.


on colour semantics

i walked the girls to the post office one day last week and as we waited for the lights to change before crossing, a woman with long hair walked by. the bean noticed and stated (rather loudly, i cringed), "she has auburn hair!"

taken aback, i automatically agreed, then wondering if she really knew what it is, i asked, "what is auburn?"

immediately, she proclaimed, "brownish red."

update on bean2 - 4 months old

4th month report

bean2 is a really lovely baby...she doesn't get agitated often, just only when she needs a nappy change (she is quite a hygienic little girl and doesn't like lying in soiled drawers!) or if i have left her too long without company (she is very sociable and likes to be with the in-crowd).

she's holding her head much better now and can reach out and grasp for things. she likes kicking and when she's on the playmat, she thumps the floor so hard one fears her heels will be thoroughly bruised. when she isn't kicking she often latches onto her toes