Working for food and milk

Miss Chloe is really helpful or rather a very busybody. She wants sweep the floor, help me shell the peas, cook and clean. She fights for the clothe, the mop and the spatula. I hope she will be shooing me away, fighting to do all these some 15 years later. 16 years old, can cook a decent meal and scrub the toilets, yah?

At the toy shop the other day, she was 'ironing' a romper like a pro with the plastic iron on the board. All of us had a good laugh as she took her work so seriously, smoothing out the lines on the romper first before 'ironing' it and placing the iron back on the holder nicely. Simon thought part of her daily routine includes sitting by the side of the ironing board watching me do the ironing. No way, I'm very anal about lines on my clothes, so no one is to distract me while I do the job. Anyway, she would never sit quietly and watch.

So to keep her busy or entertained, I let her throw her soiled diaper every morning, put her pyjamas into the laundry basket and throw bits and pieces of paper into the dustbin.

Wiping the floor while watching Mickey Mouse, multi-tasking. The mop is adjusted to her height and she loves doing this, actually she kind of re-distribute the dust around.

'Find me some leaves to sweep. '

'Ah-ha! I spot something under the chair.'
(See busybody #2 sniffing on the right.)

Wiping her toys.

Making sure that every piece is thoroughly clean.

Mum's Birthday Celebration

We had a nice family dinner to celebrate mama's birthday, buffet style. Food is good and as usual a little greedy pig in the family over-indulged himself.

Chloe enjoying her own mini buffet platter. Like mama, she loves her sweets too.

Clap, clap... send in the biggest lobster.

Happy Birthday Mama!

The birthday girl. Ahem, woman. :)

Mama and Papa

The chopped head... they called it 'magazine style'. While the adults dined, Chloe entertained herself by taking pictures. She made everyone squat down to her height for pictures, actually everyone did it without protest. With that smile, she gets everything.

Acting cute, posing for Chloe. Yes, she held the camera and pressed the button all by herself.

Dadad's turn to pose for his princess.

Where is the bubble lift?

And one with mama.

Little Artist

We spent some time drawing everyday, scribbling with crayons, pencils, ink (washable). Most of the time, the scribbles ended up on the mat, floor, furniture, our body and clothes, everywhere except the paper. I thank the person who came up with non toxic, washable color pens. Chloe painted her lips once! Blue!

90% of the drawings on the paper is done by mama. 100% of the scribbles on the mat is done by Chloe. 100% of the cleaning is done by mama. But who cares... we have fun getting colorful.

With her very red fingers, she painted her face with red polka dots. This one freaks Simon out, cos he saw her doing her very excited war cries, while shaking the baby gate. No worries, just the little girl doing some face painting. I showed her the mirror and she laughed.

She painted her face with yogurt. Real good stuff to smear on your face, keeps the lines away. The future to baby skin.

She painted without her top, this is for convenience, with a little truck. She pushed the truck around making tire marks and stamped it everywhere. Somehow, she loves getting dirty now, touching the sticky paint and even rub some on her body.

By Myself

Trying to get Chloe to pose for pictures is out of the question. She wants to fiddle with the camera and be the photographer, she wants to look at the pictures, well she just want to be behind the scene. So I have to take photos sneakily or hand her something more tempting and attractive than the camera.

Sitting alone while mama grabs a drink. So cool looking, yeah.

Sipping the ice cold strawberry blend. A reward for being sweet, sitting quietly for 2 mins.

Trying to clip her nails after watching me do mine.

This BIG apple...

She insist on holding it for me while I eat, kind of feeding me. We take turns but guess who had a bigger share?

'No... you are not going to have it back. I'm having it for my lunch, dinner and supper!'

Shopping

We need to pick some stuff for our new helper, so where do we go? Ikea! This is the first time we went to the Tampines outlet and gosh, it is huge. The restaurant is so spacious that you even get to load your food trays on a trolley and push it around. How nice, a change from trying to balance plates of food on a single tray.

The happiest person who ended up with the most stuff is Chloe. We were supposed to shop for the helper's room but Chloe ended up spending an hour in the children's furniture section and mama her got a little carried away with the toys. This is a trap... see they let the kids play and mama watched and exclaimed 'Oh, this looks fun. Chloe you like this one?' Into the bag! Before I knew it, the yellow bag weighs a ton. And we only picked up 6 storage trays for the room.Oop!

'Look! Such a big hand!'

On the way out from the toilet, Chloe got very excited over the large posters along the corridor. She goes 'ooo' over the babies and the elephant.

'Elephant on the chair?!'

Bulldozing her way through the place, trying out different furniture and toys. She wasn't being cruel, stomping on the bear, just so focus to get to what she wants.

'See, the lights are so colorful.'

The light changed color... pink.

All Action, No Talk

Here I am again to rant about Her Majesty, Miss Chloe not calling me mama, mum or mummy, whatever. See, she walks early, action-packed but talks late. I think once the words are out, I would be flooded every second by 'Whys and where' since her favorite game with me now is hide and seek. Yes, she hides almost everything. I found a CD stashed behind the between the sofa, had a good time hunting for her baby cream, gave up and opened a new tub to find it hidden between the bed bumper at night.

So a typical conversation coaxing her to say 'mama' will normally ended with me wanting to strangled myself.

Me: Chloe, can you say mama?

Chloe: (Looks around and rolls her eyes)

Me: Chloe, 'mama' or say 'mummy', pleasseee (looking like a puppy asking for treat)

Chloe: (Shook her head and look away) Dad-dad...

Me: NO! MAMA...

Chloe: PAPA

Me: I'm mama, not PAPA

Chloe: PAPA

Anyway, she said a word today, apart from dad-dad, how magically it sounds.

She was trying to open the packet of Loacker Quatratini wafers when she paused and looked at the picture and utter, 'A-phe... a-phe.' Her first word - apple. I was so thrilled that I almost fell off the sofa.

Monday fright not blues

I got up this morning having this tight sensation on my face so I thought I must have slept on one side for too long. When I got into the bathroom, in a drowsy state, I could see lines and bumps on my cheeks. Linen lines, yes, but the bumps are not imaginary one. I can feel them. Panic! Panic! My face! On closer examination, it seems like a layer of uneven bumps just pops up overnight. My face looks like a piece of deep fried pig skin from the yong tau foo stall and it's itchy too.

From what I got this from? Allergy? Food? Cosmetic? The culprit must be the new face mask that I used on Saturday night. That's the only new thing I tried, nothing adventurous these days.

Doctor prescribed a cream and some pills for the allergy and it's going to take a few days to heal. So now I'm a walking around with a paper bag over my head.