Wise words from someone so little

KM got a magnetic strip to put on the side of our car to protect the doors from dings. (Our 2 month old car has been getting lots of dings on the sides.) It is a yellow white board magnet, and like anything new, elicited questions from the girls.  This time it was little Caitlin's turn to surprise me.

Caitlin: What is that?
Me: A magnet.
Caitlin: What is that for?
Me: To protect our car.
Caitlin: Just like Jesus.

Smelly like a pig

I always marvel at how little children just acquire a language. To go from not speaking (anything) to speaking in full sentences in two years is nothing short of amazing. After Caitlin turned two she's just been rattling on and on. She's becoming quite a fiesty little sister. Ellie has certainly met her match.

Just two ago, the two sisters were at it again. I can't remember what it was about but then as Ellie walked past Caitlin, Caitlin belted out,

"I will poo poo on your head and then you will be smelly like a pig."

Ok what she said isn't great. A little two year old shouldn't be talking about poo poo. But hey, I thought that it was pretty complex with a analogy and all.

Ellie. Four years old.

 I'm doing some freelance work running an online shop. And part of the work involves photographing these handmade clothes to list them for sale. I usually wait for some time when the kids are otherwise occupied or asleep to get my work done but this time I decided to involve them with my work. Once I set up my stuff outside the outside, Ellie and Cait just started running around and darting in front of the camera. So I thought, the lighting is great the background undistracting. Why not take some pictures of my kids too. I got Ellie to stand still for just one moment, and snap I got this shot. The only one before she set off running again. I usually have to take a train of shots before getting a nice one. This is time my only shot turned out good. Or course Caitlin didn't stay still enough for long for me to get anything. So here is Ellie. Four years old.

Been ages since I posted a photo, hasn't it?

A New Year to Remember

Its Chinese New Year. We usually spend at least 2 days visiting. This year we spent the New Year in and out of the 24 hour clinic (the regular doctors close for this nationwide holiday), feeling sick and mopping up stuff, disinfecting. One crazy New Year with a really nasty stomach flu. In order of sickness- Caitlin, me, Ellie and Kee Meng (almost) and then my mom (because she looked after the girls so that I could at least get one day of rest). Don't really want to go into the details here but getting the stomach flu is a really messy tiring affair.

Life and times

This is the first blog of the year. And its almost Febuary. I have been absolutely tired and had morning sickness for most of the last few weeks. We are expecting our 3rd! That's good news, but its taken a toll on blogging. Its just no fun managing two little girls with the nausea. I try to sleep early too, because the my sleep is always interrupted, especially since we got the girls into their own room. The last time I tried staying up till one, I had the flu for the rest of the week. Been busy setting up an online store too for a social enterprise which helps disadvantaged mothers.  Will link it to this site soon.

Anyway this is something I had to record.

KM, tired after a long day of work, hands Ellie her milk for the night, wordlessly, and rather grumpily "Hmmm!"
Ellie in reply, " Jesus doesn't say Hmmm!. He says 'let the children come to me'"
KM," Well, I am not as patient as Jesus"
Ellie, "Well I didn't say you WERE Jesus"

Dates with papa

We make an effort to bring the girls out on solo "dates". They need the one-to-one time and time away from each other. Two weeks ago, Ellie was sick and had to stay home, so Papa brought Caitlin out to the symphony (Babies Proms) and then lunch and ice-cream afterward. Later that afternoon at home, KM and Ellie are chatting.  Somehow the conversation is about Caitlin's special date with Papa.

Ellie, (You didn't bring me out )"Is it because you didn't like me?"
and the next morning, "When are we going for ice-cream and cake?"

I didn't know a three year old could be so sensitive.

Caitlin. Two years old

Caitlin turned two on December 20th and I didn't even mark the day with a special post. Sigh. We had a little family party for her; something small which she thoroughly enjoyed. A real "strawberry shortcake" cake decorated with actual strawberry shortcake figurines from the toystore. Being able to keep the toys on the cake is better than cutting up strawberry shortcake (the character) and eating it, I thought.
So Caitlin is two. And boy, what a chatty, active two year old! So different from the quiet-easy-to-look-after baby we brought back two years ago, that hardly cried and fell asleep without so much as a whimper. At two she's acquired an amazing vocabulary (all this in the last month or so), suprising us with so many funny things.

"Meimei big girl, not Ah Mei" (when KM calls her Ah Mei from across the table"
"It's a scary monster!"
"Papa, bad guy" (Km threw away Caitlin's squished jelly today, and he thinks Caitlin was sore about it even at bedtime)