The link between Ms Pomelo and Princess Leia

Ms Pomelo and Princess Leia
Spot the similarity?
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Hairdo! The 2 hotcross buns on their head.

King Neptune & Princess Jellyfish

We are invited to King Neptune's Party! Yup, that's the theme for the class this term 'Under the Ocean'.

If there is a gadget for measuring excitement and pride, Simon would definitely tip the scale. A week before the party, he came out of class waving a piece of big blue invitation card and rattled on and on about the party. The food we are bring for the potluck party, what he is going to dress Chloe up as ... ... tah-lala, tra-lala. I think he's going to burst from the excitement, reliving his childhood through his daughter.

A few days before the party, he keeps reminding me to buy the shower cap which he needed for Chloe's dressed up party. And the night before, after completing all his drawings, he started on his most major project, transforming his little darling into 'Princess Jellyfish' and that is already almost 1 a.m..

'You must remember to buy the shower cap, buy those transparent or opaque kind, okay.'

'Okay.' (That's like the 101th time already and where to find opaque shower caps??)

'You have those transparent plastic that is for wrapping books?'

'Yeah. In the drawer.'

'Remember to order the muffins, okay.'

'Yeah.'

Presenting the super happy, excited and proud Dadad and his very cool and funky Princess Jellyfish....

Adjusting the jellyfish on Chloe. So proud that his daughter is wearing his creation. To be fair, the 'shower cap jellyfish' did received many nice comments the moment she enters school, which makes dadad's hair even more fluffed up.

And of course, Princess Jellyfish is also very happy to have something so BIG on her and almost as long as her.

Doing art work together. This is the usual stuff they do in school, art work, speech and drama, outdoor play etc.

The completed jellyfish by Chloe

Simon huffing and puffing, trying to blow up the balloon for Chloe's next art piece. He was going like 'I'm feeling breathless already, when was the last time I blow a balloon?'

Sticking tentacles for 'Ollie Octopus'

And the party begins... food attack

After all the children have settled down with their food, the parents were mingling around and having a little bite too. My radar sensed something is amiss... I turned around and found that Chloe is not at her seat. That's where I found her, at the 'buffet table', scooping whatever is left of the tortilla chips right from the paper plate.

Her next target, the popcorn bowl. She was going for jelly cups, fishballs, mini sausages, all the food that she don't get to eat at home. She does get the popcorns though.

Receiving her certificate from her teacher, Zita.

Simon bursting with pride and happiness.

The Mafia doing her rounds after school at the toy section.

Our girls

When the girls are out, they have fun, their kind of fun. Lunch was good at the newly open Canteen, I would say the service deserved 5 stars. And of cos what's an 'All Girls' day out without some shopping.

They did some real serious window shopping at the toy and nursery section while the 2 mummies tried to shop and look out for them at the same time. (Des, I think we should tie a helium balloon onto them the next time we go shopping.)

Chloe checking out the Mickey Mouse bedroom set at the Children's Section and trying to squeeze into the little writing desk with Sera. Notice the bracelets and necklace on them and the happy face stickers on Chloe's shirt. Yes, the new necklace is from Sera's grandma. Thank you! :)

Chloe got out and climbed onto the bed. Oops! I got her down before the sales person saw her, she was just too excited to see such a big Mickey Mouse print. Faint!

Chloe trying to unstrap her sandals.

Mistake, when I suggested that we go check out the shoe department. In the end, we did not even our eyes on a single pair of shoes but the 2 girls did. The moment they saw the first shelf, Sera went straight for it, unstrapped, kicked off her sandals, placed them on the shelf and went hunting for her 'new' pair.

Both of them going to the other side for more choices.

Girls will be girls

I'm not an accessory person, apart from the same ear-studs which were on my ears for the longest time and a watch, I hardly wear anything else to match my clothes. Chloe on the other hand loves her bracelets, necklaces, watches, caps and whatever she can hang and dangle on herself. It started with a Mickey Mouse watch which I bought for her for fun and then 2 very pretty bracelets she got from Sera's birthday invitation and that's the start of wearing something on her wrist on a regular basis.

How much she loves them? She wants to wear her bracelet to sleep despite Simon's strong protest that the hook might accidentally scratch her face, so I just had to remove it while she was asleep. She woke up shouting 'Mummy! Wear! Mummy, wear!' waving her hand. Okay, I put it back on her and tried to remove it again after making real sure that she is zonked out completely.

This is a very happy Chloe with a very big necklace dangling from her neck, a bag hanging from her hand, a set of bikinis under her arms walking towards me for the bracelet and the gaudy gold sandals I'm sitting next to.

Baby, Baby!

Chloe is very generous with her love, hugs and kisses for our baby. Whether she's in her tub, watching her favorite program or having her meals, she always have baby in her thoughts. She will pull my shirt up to share her bubbles, rubbing my whole tummy with soap or turn around and give my tummy a hug and plant an oily kiss on my tummy while having her meals.

'Hmm... Kiss baby. Kiss'
'Hugs...'
'Pat! Pat!' (which is more like a smack)

'Mummy, kiss!'

Not an easy task trying to get her to pose. All these are just impromptu shoot and we have a good photographer who understands the 'mechanics' of kids.

'Ahhhhh....! I'm so happy'

Chloe was laughing and smiling so happily before and after this shot. I think it's the sugar in red bean bun before the photo shoot that send her whirling in the studio.

A rare moment... keeping still and quiet, looking straight at the camera

'Hello... Yes, I can hear you. I love you too. See you real soon!'

Rolling pins and rabbits

Our little cookie making session! I got this cut out cookie recipe online and this one does not require the dough to be chilled overnight so Chloe gets to do everything from start to end in a day. So with her 2 assistants, Sri and I, Chloe mixed the ingredients, rolled out some cookie sheets and cut out her favorite rabbit shaped cookies.

My little pastry chef hard at work. I found this packet of plastic cookie cutters at the supermarket and all are her favorites. There are 2 rabbits, a carrot, a chick, a flower and an egg, all for $1.80. The pink bowl contains her rabbits eyes, Hershey's chocolate chips which she pops a few before pressing them onto the cookies.

Waiting patiently by the oven for her rabbits to hop out.

The result after 30 mins of work

Tah-dah! Finally out from the oven.

Mmm... sinking her teeth into her home made cookie. Yummy!

Child Labor

Chloe is not washing the dishes at some back alley of a coffee shop. She's cleaning up her paint brushes and containers. She is getting wetter and wetter but the containers are still stuck with blobs of hardened paint. And so she knows cos the next moment she prompted me to remove her wet t-shirt.

Chloe: 'Mummy, wet.' (Pointing to her soaked through shirt)
Me: 'Ok, we take it off.'

Sumo wrestler?

So here she is, very happy and trying to lift the pail of water to pour over her head.

Gotcha! Hopper!

My patch of garden outside the house was looking so torn and tattered. The leaves were all razored edged and they look so pathetic. So I went on a caterpillars hunt on Monday, waiting to jet them off with the water hose.

Bah! It's not the caterpillars! It's this guy here doing all the damage (must be a male, since it has such a voracious appetite). I exchange my hose for a take-away plastic container, I'm going to capture him alive for Chloe to have a close-up look. She saw one the other day on the window sill, close enough, but I thought this is even better, 360 degree view.

Chloe: Mummy, hopper, hop, hop!
Me: Yes, we'll catch hopper, ok. Look for it, please.

For like 10 minutes, under the hot morning sun, we were flipping and looking for him. Chloe clapping away, trying to catch him and hopping happily imitating a grasshopper. How comical. Failed! He's fast, I'm slow.

Today, yes! See my captive, we caught him on the way to school. Sri flicked him off and I got him before he can recover from his shock. Chloe was thrilled to bits. 'Hopper! Hopper!' The plan was to bring him to school, show it to her teachers and friends and released it at the grass patch. But between the 3 of them, they forgot to bring the grasshopper to class. We did released it at a park later to chomp on a bigger variety.

The fun things we do at home

Chalks. Reminds me of my primary school days.

Chloe sitting along the road scribbling with chalk with our neighbors' kids. We were heading out for a swim when we heard the laughters outside and Chloe couldn't resist this. She loves this since the last round she joined them, so much fun. They covered the pathways of 2 houses and made the place so colorful and cheery.

Time spent: 30 mins but 10 mins this round (cos we are going for a swim)

I know, we talk about this before. Painting. Since the last round, we got more different colors of paint by the bottles (not tubes anymore), the biggest ones I can find in the shop, so that they last very long and I don't have to stinge to make every drip last. We got more materials, cut out sponge, funky brushes like mini mops, brushes and even the brown toilet brush, the one that looks like coconut husk.

Sometimes, we picked leaves, paint them in different colors and stamp them to make patterns. Well, most of the time Chloe has her own agenda like say giving the dull and boring white shoe rack a dash of color or highlighting a patch of her hair green or doing some creative make-up on her face. No worries, non-toxic and the paint comes off with some soap and water, even those on her clothes. How I love Crayola!

Time spent: 30-40 mins (depending on my endurance level for the heat)

We have indoor drawing for rainy days. Just stick paper on the balcony windows and we have an instant easel. Paper? Just tear whatever size you want from the Ikea paper roll.

Time spent: Whatever (since I'm cool and comfy in the a/c)

This is her Do-Do pool. She calls Dora 'Do-Do'. After procrastinating for the longest time, I finally lugged this back from the toy shop, pumped it up with Chloe (saying 'up, down' with the pump like probably 100 times) and dragged it up to the roof terrace. She was so happy and excited that she didn't even noticed that her mummy is dripping in sweat, enough to fill an ounce of the pool.

Time spent: 45 mins (excluding negotiation time to get her out)

Next item on the list is a sand box. I'm going to look for the biggest tub in the provision shops and carry some clean white sand back from the nursery. Tah-Dah! My very own sandbox, free from cat litter. (There is an exercise area filled with sand near the playground and the kids built their castles there but I also see cats loitering around and *gulp* I think those guys also do their business in the same territory. I'm not taking any chances)

And we are going to bake some cookies the next coming weekend! Chloe's very own cookies. :)

Me and my big plans.... ;p

Pray. Amen.

The 2 of us lazed in bed, looking at each other. Chloe was twirling my hair around her fingers singing away while waiting for Simon to finish his washing up in the bathroom.

'Chloe... why are you awake so early?'

'Dadad!!!' She slide down from the bed as Simon walked to the corner of the room to say his morning prayer. Very slowly, she walked towards the little altar too and stood next to him. She put her palms together, just like Simon, and looked at the altar. For that minute, she was just so absorbed and focused at what she was doing. After that, she walked away slowly and climbed into bed again, with a smile.

We were surprised, we looked at each other and was like 'wow'.

'Chloe, you prayed with dadad just now. See, Jesus.' I put her palms together again to explain what was she doing earlier on. I'm not sure if she understood what she was doing but she liked it obviously.

As I tucked her in bed earlier on, she decided that she wants to pray again. 'Pray.' She said, as she puts her palms together. And so we said 'Goodnight Jesus, good night Mary, good night angels. Amen'

'A-may... A-may.' Yes, that was her 'Amen'. The first one.

Friendship

Friendship is holding hands and posing for a picture for keepsake...

Friendship is giving a sweet little kiss ...

Friendship is sharing a sweet ...

Friendship is the only cement that will hold the world together