happy 3rd birthday emma!

My dearest Emma

I hope you enjoyed the little 'party' we organised for you on Sunday. Your papa and I were slaving in the kitchen for what felt like eternity, preparing the food for all your guests - nasi lemak, curry puff, satay, prawn crackers, pappadums, bubur hitam... and i forgot to take a photo of all that after we were done!

So anyway I think you had fun running around with the other kids and I hope you liked your birthday gifts.

At 3 yrs old, you certainly test our patience at times! You somehow have learned to cry at the littlest thing, even if kor kor accidentally brushes against you, you'll come to me complaining and crying about how he's hit you. Your incessant whinging about anything and everything is also something that I hope to see less of as you grow older...

You seem to like 'girlier' things now and I'm heaving a sigh of relief, cos for a while you were so into trains and cars like your brother! So i'm rather happy to be indulging you in princesses and fairies and dora toys now :)

You speak fluently in Mandarin, but I still have a little trouble understanding you when you speak English. Obviously, it's just a matter of time before you speak English as fluently as kor kor so nothing that i'm worried about here.

You still drive me nuts at nite when you refuse to go to bed quietly. It takes at least an hour before you will stay in your bed and really go to sleep!!! I am patiently waiting for the day that you will be able to sleep right after i give you a cuddle and goodnite kiss. Of course, i shouldnt be complaining at all because i still remember the days that you woke up every hour when u were a baby!!

There's so much to share that I can't possibly jot it all down in one post. All I wanna say is that I love you so much baby girl, even though you sometimes drive me up the wall with your ridiculous tantrums :P

Happy 3rd Birthday, Emma!

Love always,

mommy

merry christmas!

wishing everyone a very merry christmas and may the season bring you lots and lots of love and happiness!

how many times?!?

each nite after i read bedtime stories to them, i'll tuck them into bed, give them some cuddles. say our I-love-you's, and then lights out.

do they go to sleep immediately?

hell no. that's even more impossible than striking the 10-million lottery!

so emma will get down from her bed and wander over to my room - at least 10 times- before she finally settles and goes to sleep. each time there'll be a different excuse - scared of something, reminding me to buy her present, or forgetting to take something to bed, etc....

ethan recently has been more cooperative. he doesnt normally get out of bed once i cuddle and tuck him in. that might be because he's dropped all his afternoon naps since a couple of months back. when he was still taking naps, it was almost impossible to get him to bed before 10pm!

he still does occasionally not stay in bed though - like tonite. i had to trudge back and forth 5 times. in a way i'm glad santa exists to them cos then i keep telling them if you're not sleeping then you're not being good and that means no presents from santa! maybe santa will exist all year round for us now that i've found this secret weapon hehe

it was worse when emma was having a 2-hr nap in school a few months back too. after we dropped it to an hr, she's at least getting to bed around 9pm now.

of course. those are just the mon - fri routines. on weekends, they both DONT nap anymore. boo hoo hoo.. i miss my naps too!!!

my very own fairy!

i just love the girls in the penguins room so much. they do such an excellent job taking care of the kids and at the end of the year, they'll even put in extra time to make little xmas gifts for the kids to take home.

this year, they made us a 2011 calendar. they dressed emma up in a fairy costume! i was told emma was so eager to put the costume on and was just hopping up and down constantly while waiting for her turn. as soon as she put it on, and was asked to smile, she gave her widest grin!

i LOVE this photo :)

just monkeying around the christmas tree

new discovery...

we took our first trip with the kids to the great ocean road last weekend. stayed over a night at apollo bay. the kids were pretty fascinated by the little motor inn i'd booked us into as they'd never actually slept anywhere else but in their beds heh

anyway the 12 apostles was simply breathtaking.

but that wasnt the only thing that took our breath away.

we found out, through this journey of long winding roads, that emma's prone to motion sickness!

yep. the poor lil gal puked as soon as we arrived at the reception. she'd starting complaining of a tummyache about 1/2 hr before we arrived at the motor inn. we thought she just needed to do her 'business' and that was that. then while we were at the reception filling out some forms, she just threw up all over! thankfully the owners were understanding and didnt look too upset about cleaning up the mess ( and stench!) that emma left behind on their carpets...

so anyway, we were prepared on the trip back. emma didnt disappoint - she threw up in the car but i didnt manage to catch all of it in the plastic bag that i had on standby, so we had to do major cleaning of the car's interior and her car seat when we got back :(

i'm just glad we found out about emma's motion sickness now cos this means we'll be prepared on our flight back to sg next year!

hoping she outgrows this over time - is that even possible?!

like brother, like sister

in true brother-sister fashion, ethan too refused to perform at his concert last week. he just stood there sulking (as you can tell from this photo!).

stage fright? or just didnt feel like doing what the others were doing?

no idea. but his teacher said he does it all so well during rehearsals.

maybe the fact that we were there to watch him made him just a little anxious?

i dont know. i just hope next year he will participate more enthusiastically!

so did she?

no... she did not :(

dance at her christmas concert that is.

i kinda had a feeling she wouldnt cos she usually shrinks into oblivion when there's a big group. she's little miss chatterbox at home for sure, but once she realises she has an audience, she just clams up! she used to go the whole day at the childcare centre not uttering a SINGLE word, and had us really worried there for a bit. thank goodness she's come out of her shell now and chats quite happily with her carers and little friends. she just takes a long time to warm up to new people and places!

so we didnt get to hear her sing or dance last week.

maybe next year sweetie? we're definitely looking forward!

ps: tomorrow is ethan's concert. i sure hope we get to hear him sing and dance! stay tuned for updates ;)