#18 Little Twinkle - "I don't want everybody"

Last night before sleep, I was trying to teach Little Twinkle to be appreciative for little things that people did for her...

Me: "God - ah ma made this blanket for you because she loves you. Next time when you see her, you should say thank you."
Little Twinkle: ...
Me: "姑姑 buys this aeroplane for you because she loves you and dotes on you."
Little Twinkle: (appears to have made some conclusion in her small mind and appeared upset) "I don't want everybody. I want mummy loves me daddy loves me. I want two only. I don't want everybody." ( she replied in a whining and troubled tone)
Me: ... (startled and not knowing how to respond)
Me: "Hmmm it's normal for family members to love you and dotes on you..."
Little Twinkle: (sounds more troubled) "noooo, I don't want everybody. I want mummy I want daddy. Two."

Heart melts. Mummy and Daddy loves you too. :)

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#17 Little Twinkle - First tinge of science knowledge

Just this morning....

Twinkle: Mummy,  my heart here (she points to her left chest where the heart is)
Mummy:... (I was surprised and didn't know how to respond for a while)
Twinkle: Mummy heart here (she continues to point to my left chest where the heart is)
Mummy: wow it's amazing that you know. Who taught you?
Twinkle: my heart beat beat beat (and she makes the heart thumping sound)

I was speechless. Not sure was that from cartoon or school, but I definitely didn't expect that.

(Little Twinkle at 29 months old)


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#16 Little Twinkle - 1st Day of Playgroup and The Perfect Bag

It's Little Twinkle's first day of (unaccompanied) playgroup - 25 Aug 2014 (Mon)!

 

First day of playgroup - "Little Twinkle" seems to be coping well and was oblivious to our departure, despite us trying our best to get her attention to say goodbye (wow!). However, after they cleared the toys, "Little Twinkle" started to look out of the door as though searching for us (i think...).

First day of playgroup - the real situation behind the scene...

Being first-time parents, we didn't know what are the essential things to bring. So we packed quite a fair bit into our adult backpack, and bring it to her preschool.  My thumb of rule: it's better to over-pack rather than realised that we miss out something and ended up she kick a big fuss.

 

At the preschool, we then realised all her classmates have their own kid bag. It's kind of a discipline for them to put their own bag into their own shelf. (some of the little boys even went to take their own bags and bring it to me to help them unzip, which they then take out their "treasure" aka cuddly toy to show me. Haha...)

 

So immediately after "Little Twinkle's" class (half day on 1st day to try out), we brought her to find her perfect bag at Takashimaya. :))))))

 

She fell asleep when we reached Takashimaya,  so we decided to look around for her bags first while she sleep. We found 4 bags based on her likes (animals and kitty), durability (i.e. it can last till K2), size (able to put in towel, clothes and water bottle - the necessities as advised by the preschool teacher).

The 4 bags that we have found for "Little Twinkle"...

When she woke up, we excitedly show her the 4 bags that we have found, thinking she would like them.... Haha...

 

Mummy: look, there's your favourite - owl! Do you like this owl bag? (excitedly pointing to skip hop bags)

"Little Twinkle":  ... ( hesitate in silence)

Daddy: how about the bee? It looks sooo cute! (Pointing to the bee bag, excitedly as well)

"Little Twinkle": hmm...

Daddy thought that "Little Twinkle" agrees, and proceeds to let her carry it on...

"Little Twinkle": (after wearing for 2 seconds)  不要.... (and she proceeds to take off the bag)

Mummy: how about the owl bag?

"Little Twinkle": no...

Mummy: hmm then how about elephant? ( leading "Little Twinkle" to see the 2nd bag that we found)

"Little Twinkle": (ponders for a while and...) no...

After a few rounds, Little Twinkle kept saying no despite the countless of time we tried to "hardsell" the bags.. and suddenly...

"Little Twinkle": this... (and she pulled out a bag that was totally not in our selection... it's a mini pink trolley bag...)

 

*our eyes roll...*

 

Mummy: You sure you don't want owl bag or kitty bag?

 

"Little Twinkle": this... (still pointing to her mini pink trolley bag)

 

We didn't really expect to buy her a trolley bag, because we thought it's cuter for little kid to have a mini backpack. Haha... so it's a bit "out of our acceptable range" or "out of the box" for us... we tried to introduce her to other backpack and she still insists on having her mini pink trolley bag. (she called it the duck bag even though we are not sure why it looks like duck to her. haha...)

 

"Little Twinkle" with the mini pink trolley bag that she has chosen - in which she called it the "duck" bag.

 

Thinking that perhaps she just prefer a trolley bag, we tried to introduce other trolley bags to her. She tested them out and still prefer her "duck" trolley bag. Really determined!!!

 

"Little Twinkle" testing out other trolley bag, and was still prefer her "duck" bag aka mini pink trolley bag.
Very determined to get her "duck" bag.

 

It's really interesting to us actually, we thought that she may not really know how to choose, but in the end she chose something totally on her own and stand by her own decision. So we decided to respect her opinion and wanted to buy the bag, but it happened to be the last piece at that moment and was covered with some wear-and-tear scratches. So the salesperson told us that the new stock will be coming in 2 weeks time and she will call us when it's here. So "Little Twinkle" shall continue to use our big bag before her "duck" bag arrives.

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Little Twinkle #16 - Playgroup confirmed

We have finally confirmed Little Twinkle's playgroup! Just made the deposit payment yesterday... Wow, suddenly feels that she's really growing fast.

The decision to put Little Twinkle at the playgroup is a last minute one. This resulted because the contract of our helper is expiring soon (beginning of Oct), thus we need someone to help to take care of Little Twinkle from the time our helper leaves until Little Twinkle starts pre-nursery at the church kindergarten.

We've been to this childcare 3 times. On the 3rd visit, we decided to place Little Twinkle in the playgroup but there was no vacancy then. And just happened they have 1 slot currently, which is very lucky for us. :)))

Things we like about this childcare:

• Big outdoor playground - as usual we think it's important for toddlers to run around and have fun, instead of sitting around indoors. 
• Bilingual - they have 1 English teacher and 1 chinese teacher for every class. Both will always be around to speak to the kids in respective language. Thought this is better for toddlers to learn the language through their daily interaction, instead of just 1 hour chinese lesson everyday. 
• Cozy setup: teachers and principal seems to know the kids well
• Variety in kid's lunch menu: I'm rather impressed with their lunch menu which sounds sooo yummy, even for me. Each meal includes protein, carb, fibre. Another childcare that we visited last week offered 3-in-1 milo for all breakfast/lunch with nuggets/ butter cake/ soon kuey / steamed bun etc.
• Near our house: 8 mins car ride

Things that made us reconsider for this childcare:

• Close by 6.30pm latest: not very ideal for dual working parents as most workplace end at 6-6.30pm. This also assumes that one can leave on the dot everyday, which seems unrealistic in our society. And I was told that the kids in Little Twinkle's class mostly leave by 3pm, so most likely Little Twinkle will be without friends from 3pm onwards. I still feel that childcares should operate until 7 or 7.30pm so that working parents have sufficient time to pick up the child after work.
• Inconvenient location: the childcare is about 600+ meters from thr MRT station based on street directory. So it means I have to walk 1.2km (600 m back and fro) to fetch Little Twinkle. So I will walk 2.4km everyday. And I have to walk fast enough to be able to catch her before 6.30pm which means I need to leave my workplace early by 5.30pm assuming I need 30 mins to travel via mrt and 30 mins to walk. Sigh.... 

We have considered putting Little Twinkle at the childcare opposite my workplace, which will be super convenient for me. But the quality is really substandard and the price is more expensive.... 

• Cramped place: like a small office setup
• No outdoor playground
• High teacher-to-student ratio: 1 young teacher to 9 students 
• Unconducive language learning environment: they have only 1 teacher currently and who speaks only singlish to the kids (we do speak singlish as well, but I don't expect a teacher to do that since she's supposed to educate the young kids.) 
• Not ideal lunch menu: the lunch menu is the one I have described earlier with the 3-in-1 milo and nuggets etc.

So my colleagues were saying it's better that the parents suffer (walked 2.4km daily), rather than kids suffer (un-conducive environment). I guess they are right. Hopefully Little Twinkle will be happy in this childcare that we have painstakingly decided. Haha...

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Little Twinkle #15 - She actually wants to be a BOY!!

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Initially I thought perhaps she may not really understand that there's a difference between boy and girl (although she does know how to differentiate "didi", "korkor" aka brother vs "meimei", "jiejie" aka sister ).

 

So I told her that mummy (me) is a girl, but Little Twinkle insisted being a BOY! Haha what can I say when she's so persistent...

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