Dinosaurs Live 恐龙展

Sunday morning between a workout at the Clementi Stadium + swimming and a trip to Science Center. The kids chose Science Center, and we caught the Dinosaurs Live display for the last day!

I'd think it is a perfect trip for Han Jin: Dinosaurs + water play + McDonald. He was excited about the Dinosaurs but more so of the free coloring and stamping in the display area. He loved the water play the most and had a heartful of french fries and milo and burger and claimed that 'my tummy is going to burst'. How deprived my child is from junk food!

For mei mei, it is fine trip as she likes water play, and was not so scared of the dim-lighted display area with the huge creatures. In fact, she took some pictures, did some coloring and named a dino-family as papa dino, mama dino, gege dino and meimei dino.

For me, I picked up two words: Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops. I can't help to imagine what if all the jurassic animals become alive, and what should I do. I concluded that I should bear-hold onto the legs of a large one (not huge though), as I gauged that his mouth and tail could not reach the legs?? but what about my kids? am I able to hold one of them with one hand, and hold the animal's leg with another hand? umm, daddy takes care of another child. or four of us just run for life? day-dreamer..

史前恐龙展，不要活过来呀。。

兄妹 together

I had bad-mouthed about mei mei in the last entry. To be fair, generally, she is a sweet little girl who is loved by all of us. Not only we two parents find she is so adorable, Han Jin also loves mei mei to the bits.

He thinks that mei is the prettiest and cutest. Whenever I ask him about the school mates or any other friends who happens to be a girl and if ask whether the girl is pretty. Good-natured Han Jin always nods and says the girl is pretty, but he always ends his sentence with ' but mei mei prettier.' (in fact a lot of time he says ' mei mei is more prettier.' urr, I have to correct the grammar.)

Mei mei loved Han Jin too. She wakes up and will ask where is Han Jin. She sends Han Jin to his various classes and waits patiently. She follows/imitates Han Jin. Lately, the bedtime routine is that they have to be showered together, and have to be by me. Han Jin rubs mei mei's hair and models alien hair on mei mei. They play dinosaur vs turtle fight in the bathroom. They dash out for moisturiser. They race to finish milk while waiting the moisturiser drying. They race to be donned pyjamas and favor matched pyjamas. Then it is the 'five little monkeys' that I rhythm and they put in action...

I love this routine. A remote concern is when should I introduce the gender difference. While, they are aware they are different. It is apparent and innocent. When should I stop allowing them to shower together? Not a concern at the moment. I trust my mummy instinct to tell me when it is the time. See, I am not a mummy by book...

Other than showering together, they do most of the things together when both present. Play together, fight together and the favorite activity is painting/drawing together. A few of their art pieces attached. It should be clear who's the artist for each piece.

相亲相爱的兄妹俩。瀚今很喜欢妹妹，每当我问他的同学或朋友漂不漂亮（看妈妈问的问题），瀚今总是好脾气地点头，但是一定会加上一句: 妹妹更漂亮。我要是问谁可不可爱，乖不乖，好不好，聪明不聪明，答案也一定是一样的。

网上流行的话叫做：妹控。。。

妹妹也爱瀚今，小小跟屁虫，但是个有脾气的小跟屁虫。。。

Han Yue's update - 瀚月

Han Jin seems has grown a lot academically. Not Han Yue, who still cannot identify ABC (while, only identifies ABC among the 26 letters) and counts from 1 to 20, but not able to count any objects correctly as she will just continue counting until 20. This could be just a second child thing, that I don't have that much time to teach her, or it could be just a girl thing, that I want her just to enjoy life, at least when she's below 3, or 4..

Her interests lie in dressing up (she picks her clothing by herself, matches hair band to outfit, favors pink, favors tutu), dancing ballet (I signed her up for a kiddy ballet course but the school shifted last week and we withdrew as daddy thought it is not safe for me to drive her alone for so far??), and reading stories (finally something sounds more intelligent...).

She's in her full fledged terrible two stage. She snatches toys from Han Jin, hits him with whatever available and wails at the top of her lung if I scolded at her behaviour. I hope this is really temporary and she will revert back to a sweet little angel.

While, she is not THAT bad. She repeatedly asks "Are you angry with me?" "Do you still love me?" after each such incidents and promises that she will not do it again. So, not stubborn, ready to admit mistakes and having a good attitude to apologize and ascertain her being loved status.... but... she does it again... and again...

What should I do with it? I always find myself at the short end. What age is a good time to discipline? Some might say it is never too early, and I should probably be more stern and strict with her. I might should, but till she passes the terrible three period?

There were once at the playground, mei pushed a younger girl, and I ordered her to apologize which she refused. It took me a good five minutes to convince her that she was wrong. When I brought her to the victim to say sorry, the grandpa turned away as if we are the most disgusting people and sniffed 'not interested'. I stunned and said 'pardon?'. I received another sniff: 'bring your child up properly'.... urr.. yes, I need and will bring my child up properly. But how proper it is to respond to an apology in such a manner? After all, it's not unusual that kids push each other at playground.  Am I too sensitive that his diminishing look actually started when I switched to Mandarin when persuading Mei Mei to apologize?

Hold on, you strayed from the topic. Yes, this entry is about Mei's progress.

She grew taller and is often mistaken as a 3 year old.

She goes to the same kindergarten as Han Jin for 2 hours a day. I peeped at her through the window on the first day and she was happily fishing at the small tank (pictured below). Quite lacking on studies at the moment. I intended to send her to a full day childcare nearby which is a new private center which I hoped to receive better care, but it didn't turn out to be any better, and I had her into the same school as Han Jin.

She is close to me, and 'protects' me when I fake cry if I got into something with Han Jin or Daddy. She is mummy's girl, for now, and I hope, forever.

(is this a fair entry after I had a full day of a sleeping-deprived her?)

瀚月近况：
- 越来越爱美，挑衣服，只爱粉红色，近期最爱的是蓬蓬纱裙和一件Dora的裙子（好像是睡裙，可是妹妹的审美观认为穿出街也是可以的）；
- 26个字母只认得ABC，数字数得到20， 但是没有数数的概念；
- 在不讲理的两岁，会欺负哥哥，被训会大声哭，会认错，会一再问我还爱她吗？ 我还生气吗？会跟哥哥道歉。。。 但是，屡教不改。怎么办呢？真的只能等到三岁吗？
- 喜欢去上芭蕾课，但是老爸嫌太远，担心我的驾驶技术？
- 和瀚今在一间学校，每天只上两个小时。是不是应该送全天的，去学学规矩？

只是这么可爱，我怎么舍得？不要太宠呀！

Han Jin's update - 瀚今

Ever since last Sep, I had not actively recording the progress of the kids, and looking back the entries, I found another benefit of keeping a blog: it helps to recall the happenings and refresh how they looked like and what they did at that time. That is probably the original intent of this blog.

Okay, about Han Jin:

He continues to be a good big brother to Mei Mei, who looks after her, feels good about being able to take responsibility of another person (eg. I asked him to look after Mei and the seats while I order food, fetch water etc).

Han Jin grows quite a fair bit lately, stronger and better built. A lot heavier to carry. I have not carried him for a long time other than sitting down and carrying him on my lap.

A pre-requisite of the growing, is his appetite has improved a lot. We ever took him to traditional Chinese physician and put him on cordyceps. It stopped after he retreat from liking the flavor and I obviously welcomed the monetary savings.

After shifting, we enrolled him into a Government-aided Kindergarten for half-day program with only 40 weeks a year. I have to scratch my head when the term break starts. A handsome saving from the previous private full day child care program. I can't comment too much on the quality, but it is definitely convenient as it is just downstairs. I don't have to worry about safety when the helper needs to fetch both of them. Dear boy, mommy is not cutting corners on investing in your education. You know how busy you are.. :)

Parent-Teacher communication here is lesser, and I made appointment one day to see the teachers, who commented that HJ did well and adapted well and is a very amicable boy. Yes, he is.

Han Jin started on table tennis class which runs 3 times a week and 2.5 hours each time, and his latest progress is being able to bounce the ball continously for 41 times. I also enrolled him in a Chinese enrichment center for PinYin. The only class at the moment that I am contemplating is an art class...

Overall, my dear Han Jin is a sweet boy and I love the way he is. :)

关于瀚今的一些近况：
-长壮了，耶！胃口好些；
- 好哥哥，爱护妹妹的；
- 搬家转学，据老师说，适应的不错，只是要早起，挑战呀！
- 开始打乒乓球了，可以颠40多个球，还没开始打；
- 开始学汉语拼音了；
- 有路人夸瀚今帅。 呵呵。。

CNY 龙年大吉

Chinese New Year - came and gone. There were no much celebration this year. Last year, I had mei mei wore 4 different Chinese costumes, but this year, none of them fits her in. Han Jin's outfit which last through the past 3 CNY celebration has proved to be too small. So both of them got one new outfit, just one for each.

This is my year of Dragon, and I will take precaution in everything I do, as the year of the person's animal sign is generally believed to be more eventful. I wear a lucky cat bracelet from a friend :)

一点点新春的照片，今年更是冷清，大概是万颖家的老本营不在。：）瀚今和妹妹都穿了新的唐装，比起去年妹妹4套不同的造型，今年是简单了。参加了一些社区的活动，吃吃睡睡，妈妈都长胖了。。。

本命年呀，大吉大利，诸事顺利！

Usual spots

Some photos at west coast park with Yin's family. It is very near to our new place and naturally one of the usual spot that we play and meet friends. Yin's parents are in town, reminding me of the time when my mom were around.

We sat back watching kids play, for which they can do pretty well without much supervision. Yin recounts the fond memories back in Xi'an and declares that Arben is the true love. Yes, it is good to express your feelings. Love that. :)

In between, we took pictures, and Han Jin took charge of camera & had a few nice shots of me :)

We went to Max's for dinner and Mei was fascinated by the swing sparsely distributed at ACSI, where Max's Dad works.

One of the recent days, we went to Yin's for steamboat dinner. I got to know where to buy the ingredient. Perhaps I can chalk something similar up. for someone who has no gifts in cooking, it looks simple enough and delicious enough to give a try. :)

Yamaha 2nd book

Another term finished at Yamaha Music School. Attached a group performance which took me more than 2 hours to upload.. my broadband connection might need to be upgraded??

Look at the class, and an under-aged little tot among them. :)

瀚今音乐课期中表演，妹妹自己走上台去加入哥哥姐姐们的行列。

Happy Valentine's Day 情人节快乐