Enchanted

This was what got both my princesses enchanted last Sunday night. Hubby and I were singing merrily along, to songs that we had loved and sang since we were at Big Bee's age. And now, they are sharing the melodious vocals of Julie Andrews, our whole family immersed in a euphonic cocoon of make-believe, happily-ever-afters, endless sweet songs and zestful joy! The two girls, especially Big Bee, who knew some of the songs, were also humming and singing to those beloved tunes.

The two Bees were also captivated by the Disney feel-good musical fairy-tale, Enchanted, both their eyes large and besotted by the happy songs and vibrant dance moves. And whenever I played my favourite scene from Phantom Of The Opera, the scene where Emmy Rossum sang "Think Of Me" as Christine Daae, Big Bee and Little Bee will also sing along with me in their soprano voices! How amusing.

And we, Hubby and I, were utterly charmed by this! Mamma Mia, the movical - or musical turned movie. Those catchy ABBA tunes transported us to another world, another time. I can see people in the audience tapping their feet and hands. And everyone emerging from the cinema thereafter with an added spring in their jaunts and brighter smiles.

Ah! The delightful diversion of movies. Instilling in us the willing suspension of disbelief and cynicism.

The Tooth Fairy Hath Cometh

Right after Little Bee's PD visit, the girls and I had lunch in town and then adjourned to a dentist. Yes! It's Big Bee's first visit to a dentist. I had been fretting over this for days, remembering all the past nightmares of a little screaming Big Bee in front of doctors, worrying if she will cry, if she will act up at the dentist. She had to have her lower tooth extracted because the new tooth is growing out in a slanted fashion.

Really, all these fears were allayed the moment we stepped into the dentist's. Big Bee admitted to me she was very frightened and nervous, but she went about playing with her little sister, in the hopes of distracting herself. Very wise tactic.

Soon, it was her turn to be on the dentist's chair! Dr Elizabeth Tan is an excellent pedadontist. She started chatting with Big Bee who responded to each of her questions like a gallant little soldier. Upon discovering that it was Big Bee's first visit to the dentist, she took out a Barney story book and took her time explaining every single procedure and strange-looking dental equipment in the room. Big Bee cheered up right away.

As Dr Tan went about tinkering through her equipment, she explained each step in kiddy language, so Big Bee could understand her perfectly. As she was putting on the local anaesthetic cream onto Big Bee's lower gum, she told Big Bee that this was a cream that will make her tooth "go to sleep". She also counted all the teeth in Big Bee's mouth (she has 20 teeth in all!), and as she was injecting a HUGE needle into her mouth, she told Big Bee that she was just going to insert a needle and will be counting to ten. Clever way of distracting the kid, because Big Bee told me she only remembered the counting and claimed she did not even notice the gigantic needle!

Finally, after polishing her teeth, she told Big Bee that she was going to perform a "rock and roll" so her loose tooth can come out!

My heart was bursting with pride as I gazed at brave Big Bee, who was gamely nodding and chatting so cheerily with Dr Tan and the nurses. She had indeed come a long way from the hysterical toddler in front of doctors. Dr Tan told me that she was very impressed by Big Bee, especially since this was a first visit. And the nurses kept giving me the thumbs-up and praised Big Bee incessantly after the ordeal.

As for Big Bee, she told me she enjoyed the experience and was not frightened at all, although she did panick slightly when her lower lip became numb after the injection - a totally new sensation to her.

At night, we read a storybook titled "Tooth Fairy", filled with fabulous adventures of a boy and his sister in the land of the Tooth Fairy. Big Bee kept wondering if the Tooth Fairy is a myth or reality. I told her to test the theory by putting her extracted little milk tooth underneath her pillow when she slept.

Guess what? The next morning, she woke me up excitedly at 7am just to show me ecstatically a package under her pillow. A package with a little pearl bracelet, Pooh badge and 2 golden $1 coins. And her milk tooth? It was nowhere to be found... :)

Little Amazonian At The Doctor's

Yesterday, I brought Little Bee to the pediatrician for her long overdue jabs. She was scheduled to take the usual DPT booster, followed by the final pneumoccocal vaccinations. When it was Little Bee's turn to go in, Big Bee decided to stay outside the doctor's room because she was frightened of the injections!

Little Bee waved and said a soft, shy "hi" to Dr Ee in the room. She sat there nicely while he was doing all the checks on her. This was so different from Big Bee when she was a toddler last time - she would scream and cry the moment she set her eyes on any doctor! But shh, I shan't elaborate more lest Big Bee reads about this ;)

When it was time for the injections, Little Bee laid down happily (because I just stuffed 2 sweets into each hand). The first injection shot straight into her left thigh. A look of surprise filled her face, followed by curiosity at the feeling of the pain, I guess. Both Dr Ee and I were very shocked that not a single cry was uttered, nor were there any signs of tears!

The second injection on her right thigh followed immediately after. This time, she looked stunned, her eyes large and round, probably wondering why was she getting these painful stings one after the other, poor baby! Then, she delivered a loud and irritated "OWWWW", screwed up her little face and started crying - just a wee little bit - until I told her I was going to open the wrapper of her sweet. Immediately, her wide open mouth closed in a snap, her sprinkling of tears withdrew back into her eyes and she looked at the sweet eagerly. After chewing on a small piece of sweet, she grinned and waved at the doctor. Dr Ee was pretty amused at how easily pacified Little Bee could be - with any kind of food!

Yes, that's my Little Bee. A food lover through and through!

Little Bee at lunchtime

Squishy Squashy

This morning, the 3 Powerpuff Girls (starring Mummy as Blossom, Big Bee as Bubbles and Little Bee as Buttercup - all determined by casting director Big Bee) indulged once again in our favourite Playdoh.

We created meals of steaks and vegetables, pizzas and cakes. I made a little birthday cake for Little Bee and the moment she saw the completed 2-tiered creation, she started singing an incomprehensible birthday song, clapping her hands and blowing on the inextinguishable candles persistently! Big Bee and me were tickled.

Little Bee clapping her hands and singing a loud birthday song to herself

1-2-3, blow! Eh, I wonder why the flame does not go off from the candles!?

Little Bee's Playdoh birthday cake

On the other hand, after Big Bee perfected her masterpiece, she immediately turned to me and asked me if she can post a photo of her cake in our blog. Yes, our girl had been reading our (and others'!) blog regularly and today, she requested to post an entry by herself!

So, here it is, written entirely by Big Bee, with only minimal spelling help from Mummy :)

********************************

This morning, I played Playdoh with Mummy and mei-mei. I made this wonderful cake. Mummy helped to make the candles. The Playdoh was soft so it was hard to make the cake. There was a number 7 on the cake because I am going to be 7 years old next year.

Big Bee's confectionary masterpiece!

Proud chef ;)

Scribbling

Every night when I revised Big Bee's school work, Little Bee will be very eager to join us. So, all 3 of us will be huddled at Big Bee's cramped, kid-sized desk, and I will be very busy trying to teach Big Bee while entertaining Little Bee simultaneously.

Little Bee is starting to recognise some letters of the alphabet as well as numbers, though she still can't write anything other than "I" and "O". To my amazement, last night, in the midst of her usual doodling of circles and faces, she scribbled an "A" beside her favourite letter "O"! My mom and I were astounded and rather excited. But I do think it was a fluke case...because after that, no matter how much we cajoled her, she could not replicate another "A", ha!
She is starting to be more imaginative when drawing her favourite faces, adding in hair and eyebrows when we asked her to. Last night, she drew a sad face for the first time, hmph :(

Pursuit of the Powerpuff Girls

Big Bee is so fanatic over the Powerpuff Girls that she constantly requests for all things Powerpuff. Unfortunately, we find it extremely challenging to get our hands on Powerpuff merchandise, other than loads of Powerpuff story and activity books in Popular Bookstores.

Which is why Papa decided to be a hero and brought us to a behemoth flea market in China Square where droves of vendors form a myriad of stalls overflowing with all kinds of toys! Not just your everyday kids' toys, but many of the knick knacks are collectors' items like old Star Wars figurines and vintage Transformers! Needless to say, Hubby was super excited. I suspected he had his own private agenda when he brought us here.

Big Bee and Little Bee on a treasure hunt to seek out the Powerpuff Girls!

True enough, it was not easy finding any Powerpuff toy, much to Big Bee's disappointment. BUT, to my elation, I suddenly caught a glimpse of 2 big eyes on an auburn head with a bright red ribbon dangling from a stall. BLOSSOM! It was a Blossom back pack, and it looked wonderful, albeit rather dirty. Big Bee was utterly blissed out and ecstatic, and we bought this darling for a mere $8!

Big Bee's big acquisition...Blossom!

Next...Bubbles and Buttercup!

A Day Dedicated To Children

This Children's Day, the cousins and I brought our children and mothers to Sentosa for an outdoor revelry! The grannies set up a cosy picnic corner underneath a pavilion in Siloso Beach, whilst we cousins and hubbies stayed with our kids on the beach, playing with sand from morning till afternoon! We were all a bit suntanned after this outing, despite the overcast skies! The seabreeze was cooling and soothing, the sun was shy, hiding behind layers of stratus clouds and the beach was really crowded with construction and lots of people from all walks of life!

Big Bee, Little Bee and Val took to the sands immediately upon arrival. Chloe likes strolling around, checking out the beach and people first!


Typical happy grin on Little Bee's face once she saw her cousins! Photo courtesy of Irene :)

Active Big Bee loved the sand and was revelling in it, building hills, sandcastles and digging deep holes to bury her lanky legs inside. Gregarious Little Bee liked the company and the fact that she could go out with her cousins, though she tried her best not to sit on the sand, being still squirmish around sandy beaches! At one stage, we even caught her bending over to Val, whispering into Val's ears for the longest time, nodding and smiling away. I wonder what she was gossiping with Val. Chloe was very gentle, like a little princess, whereas Val was very garang, "swimming" about on the sand!

Val (back facing us), Irene, Chloe, Little Bee and Big Bee making a mountain out of wet messy sand!

We adjourned to the dark, chilly atmosphere of the Underwater World, where Big Bee insisted that we must take the conveyor belt around the aquarium at least 3 times! She loved identifying the fishes, stingrays and sharks. On the contrary, Little Bee was frightened of the dim, mysterious place! She fell asleep on my shoulders during the 2nd round on the revolving belt...out of fear, I am sure!
My girls in front of the gigantic fossil fishes exhibit. Little Bee was scared stiff that I would leave her on the exhibit ledge like a fossil! She was screaming away, hence this expression here, hmph.


Big Bee entranced by the underwater sea life, with a white-spotted eagle ray gliding above her

Both sets of cousins (the big ones and little ones!) had so much fun that we started planning outings for future holidays already :)

No Crying

Yesterday was Papa's first time bringing Little Bee to her weekend school, while I had a great time bringing Big Bee to ballet because I can rest and spend time by myself for a full 1.5 hour in the morning, yippee!

I was anxiously explaining to Papa that Little Bee will usually encounter some anxiety upon first entering into the class and seeing the teachers. To my amazement, when Hubby called at 10.30am (during her snack time), he reported that everything was fine with Little Bee and that she did not shed a single tear when she first stepped into class, unlike the majority of the occasions that I brought her there!

Looks like I should be letting Papa bring Little Bee to school more often then!

Papa Has A New Girlfriend...

...and she has long luscious black hair, slim, attractive and is only 6 years old! Oh, and she looks exactly like Big Bee!

I had been travelling a few days almost every week last month, and Hubby used full use of this opportunity to super bond with our 2 daughters, especially Big Bee. Every night that I was away, he would ask Big Bee to sleep with him in our room, in full air-conditioned glory (I don't really like my Bees to sleep in air condition usually), and Big Bee is so addicted to the cool air (and warm Papa!) that she will even request to sleep with him on days that I was back in town, much to my distress!

In turn, Papa would tell her rambling, made-up stories and played bedtime games. My mum often complained to me that she could hear them giggling and chatting till 11 plus pm! Hmph!

Juxtaposition

We went to Clarke Quay last Saturday night to soak in some riverside action amidst the F1 furor. It was after dinner and the crowds were bustling and merry. From this trip, I can see my two Bees' polarised personalities. Big Bee has always been a homely girl, preferring to stay in the comfort of our home, doing the things she likes (reading, TV, computer, drawing). Little Bee loves excitement and the outdoors. If she is grouchy, one mention of "Let's go out now. Go wear your shoes!" will bring a beaming smile to her face, transforming her from gloomy to joy.

So, that night, Big Bee was clutching my arm moodily, partly because she never liked going out after darkness had descended and partly it was the hot outdoors, without air conditioning. Little Bee, on the contrary, was "oohing" and "aahing" at every neon light, every signboard and every shop, as well as waving with a cheeky smile to bunches of people who walked past us. She insisted on walking the whole stretch of Clarke Quay on her little short legs - so different from Big Bee at her age, when she used to avoid being too close to crowds, preferring to be carried by Mummy and Papa instead.

However, when we stumbled into the bright lights and cool air conditioning of Central, Big Bee's active self re-emerged, and she was skipping about, laughing and chatting gaily again. Little Bee, the little Miss Shopping Queen, was ecstatic when we stepped into any shops, examining the wares in the shops like she was shopping on her own, and taking things she liked into her hands as if she had the financial independence to walk to the cashier and pay for all these goods!

I think it's time to plan for a holiday for these 2 Bees soon :)

Ad Infinitum Love?

Here's a photo of my 2 wonderful Bees a year ago. Big Bee was 5.5 years old then, and Little Bee was 3 months to reaching 1 year old.


And here's one of them taken 2 weeks ago, Big Bee at 6.5 years old and Little Bee reaching 2 years old in 3 months. See how much both of them had grown in a short span of just one year!


This evening, I was in somewhat of a bittersweet mood after reprimanding Big Bee for not proactively washing her hands. I told her sternly "You are a big girl now and will be in primary one next year. You cannot expect Mummy to always remind you to wash your hands after you dirtied them!" Big Bee nodded with a heartbreaking expression and uttered "Ok, ok" before breaking down in silent tears.

My heart was broken when I saw those tears. I hated myself then for being too harsh without knowing the limits. Though it is frustrating at times to always chase after the kids to do the "right" things, do we really want them to grow up so fast? Do we really want them to be fully independent and not rely on us to pamper them, wait on them? For once they reach an age of total independence and non-reliance, I am sure we will never cease to reminisce those times when they depended on us as the only trusted pillars of love and care, when we are the whole world to them.

Big Bee will always have a soft spot in my heart for being my first baby. Those long 4.5 years of bonding alone with her will always be indelible in my heart. Of course, I love Little Bee equally. They are both equivalent in my heart. But Big Bee remains the little girl whom Mummy and Papa love wholeheartedly and solitarily for 4 full years before Little Bee came along. I know she had adjusted to sharing our love with mei-mei now. But I know it is a difficult journey for her. Yet, sometimes, invariably, in the frantic assiduity of looking after a demanding toddler, we tend to forget that Big Bee still needs the kind of love so overflowing in her first 4 years.

A friend ever told me that she will stop at 2 children because her love is not enough for 3. She wants to shower all devotion to her 2 children. I know parental love is limitless. Yet, I cannot imagine sharing my love with more than my 2 darling Bees. Each of them deserves 200% of our love!

Diaperless

We are trying to toilet train stubborn Little Bee. She so obviously knows when she is going to pee and poo, and yet, she hates sitting on the toilet bowl despite any form of rewards we offer her. This is the real Little Bee underneath her smiley facade - one of steely, implacable obstinance (see the photo on the left for her typical irked expression!) I hope this is just the Terrible Twos transition.

So, we decided to not let Little Bee wear diapers at times. The first time we took out her diapers and let her wear her pants without diapers, she was totally not used to it. She kept pulling at the crotch area of her pants, and walked with a really funny, wide-legged gait. Then, she grouchily said in her typical chiding "EHHHHHH...!!!" whenever she was irritated, and pointed non-stop to her crotch area with a peeved expression. Haha, we were all super tickled. I told her "It's ok! No diapers, it's ok! If you want to pee pee, tell Mummy ok!". And she looked at me unconvincingly. However, after more of such diaperless occasions, she was used to it.

She will tell us that she is going to pee by saying "Peeee", and she would keep pressing her little hand on her lower abdomen. But whenever I try to bring her to the toilet, she would shake her head vigorously and utter her very gentle-sounding "Nooooo...". So, most of the time, she would just pee in her pants! Sigh...

One day last week, my Mum let her drink a whole big cup of barley water, and that morning happened to be a diaperless morning. Can you imagine how many times she peed in her pants? SIX times in one hour!!!!! And after she peed out, she would then say "pee", grinned at us, and even played with her own urine on the floor *faint*

Doodling Nights

These nights, I usually spent a whole hour before the Bees' bedtime to let them indulge in some doodling. This acts as some quiet time to lull the 2 active spirited girls into a state of serenity so they can sleep easier at 10 plus pm. Otherwise, they can be fooling around on bed till really late!

To save the trees, I decided not to use paper for their artistic efforts, although I would dearly love to keep some memoirs of their evening "works". Instead, I let them sketch to their hearts' desires on magnetic doodle boards. My father gave a nice big pink doodle board for Big Bee's 6th birthday, but I realised that the 2 feisty sisters had been fighting rather unceremoniously over this precious commodity. Hence, last month, we bought another doodle board from Fisher-Price so that each can have her own magnetic canvas.

Big Bee is now a category 5 (in hurricane scale) fan of the Powerpuff Girls. She so adores them that she will live and breathe (and draw!) Powerpuff Girls daily. She will sit - starstruck, and insisting that Little Bee should be quiet as a mouse - every weekday at 12pm for their cartoon show and will comb the bookstores for all books Powerpuff; ask me during every business trip to bring back any memorabilia of Powerpuff Girls (which, incidentally, is rarer than expensive black truffles!!) and will doodle them in any spare blank space on her books! *Faint* We sometimes watch the Powerpuff shows with her, and I do find Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup really cute and adorable as well. She will always ask me who are stronger superheroes - Powerpuff Girls or Superman (whom she knows is Mummy's old-fashioned superhero). Erm, of course, I must concede it's the 3 super girls ;)

Oh, by the way, in school, she is Bubbles, while her best friends Elizabeth and Rachel are Blossom and Buttercup respectively. And YES, Powerpuff Girls are the key talking point of these girls. Fan idolation starts at an early age these days.

Every night, Big Bee will practise earnestly how to draw her favourite Blossom and Bubbles! Here are 2 of her masterpieces which she insists I must post here (yes, she reads this blog sometimes!). They do look pretty much like the real things, huh?

Blossom, as depicted by Big Bee - every little girl's superhero

Bubbles as drawn by Big Bee

I am also very proud of Little Bee recently because she learned to draw a face all by herself! Whenever she doodled a face, Big Bee and me will cheer loudly and festively, and Little Bee will flash her characteristic toothy grin, beaming her pride and joy. Then she would point to her nose and the dot she drew on the face, and said happily "Nose!". And she would start doodling smiley or serious faces all over. Last week, she even drew a perfect circle for the face! Her faces are usually smiling or straight-faced....no sad faces yet! Here's one of her masterpieces :)

Little Bee's depiction of Mr Sun with a serious expression. Sunrays courtesy of Mummy.

Travel Memoirs: The Ice City

Last week, I went to Harbin, China on a work trip for the very first time and enjoyed a bit of sightseeing in this city touted as "Oriental Moscow". And you can probably see why, from the many Orthodox churches speckled around the city, the ubiquitous Russian-inspired architecture and cobblestoned pavements. The juxtaposition of the romanesque Russian buildings and Confucius Chinese culture was charming.

Being so far up north, the weather was way cooler than the rest of the Northern Hemisphere at this juncture of time. One night, I was shivering in my hotel room with the weather outside at 6 degrees! One thing that struck me about Harbin is the cerulean, clear blue skies with not a single cloud in sight!

Blue skies unto infinity at St Sofia's Church. Looks like Moscow, huh?


The baroque interiors of St Sofia's Church


The Holy Bible in ancient Russian language


Another Orthodox church near Guogeli Dajie, the Russian quarters of Harbin


A Chinese man writing calligraphy using water on the pavement just outside the above Orthodox church

Ethereal Grace

Big Bee's ballet school conducted an open house on Saturday morning, which means that parents were invited into the ballet class to watch an exclusive performance by the little ballerinas. Having learned ballet since she was 4, Big Bee can now perform a dance with a little storyline on her own. Today's solo performance consisted of a 3-minute segment where all the girls had to perform an umbrella dance on their own, with the ballerina pirouetting in the rain, shivering gracefully with cold (yes, that is possible in the dance!) and then with facial features and body expression lighting up considerably when she saw the umbrella. Facial and body expressions are now an integral part of their progress. I am so proud to see Big Bee smiling sweetly and performing confidently in front of the audience, remembering all her actions, although I know that the perfectionist her was probably overly anxious to ensure everything from her smile, expression and dance steps were flawless.


Turning on her ballerina stage smile


The ballerinas in the "pink" group. There are 4 colour groups of girls: blue, pink, white and purple


Foundation of en pointe, or "tippy toes", in kiddy ballet terminology

Little Bee had to skip her Saturday school to be part of jie-jie's cheerleading team. And true enough, after Big Bee's solo performance, she clapped heartily with us and kept calling "Jie jie! Jie jie!". When Big Bee skipped back to the group of ballerinas sitting on the floor after her performance, Little Bee was so proud of her sister that she kept calling her, despite us hushing her, and then slowly inched towards her to pat her jie-jie's tulle skirt, stroking her jie-jie's leotard, quietly uttering "Jie-jie, jie-jie" repeatedly with her signature giant beaming grin, her big eyes glowing with utmost adoration for her sister! Eventually, she laid her head on Jie-jie's lap, then shoulder, and Big Bee finally gave in to her little sister's idolation with a soft proud grin and a few tight hugs for Little Bee. How heartwarming to see both sisters hugging on the wooden dance floor!

Jie-jie's enthusiastic cheerleader!


Big Bee with her ballet buddies, Phoebe and Jessica

Sporty Sunday

Weekend breakfasts are highly anticipated and enjoyed by Hubby and I. However, ever since Big Bee and Little Bee took up classes on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, weekend breakfasts are things of the past :'( Hubby and I are still trying to find ways to drop one class permanently so that we can still enjoy at least one weekend breakfast together.

Last Sunday, we cancelled one session of Big Bee's horse-riding class for a tennis gathering at PF's house. The husbands are playing tennis doubles, so it was a good sporty start on a cheery Sunday morning!

The 3 musketeers again - Big Bee, Claire and Eugene

The kids were elated that they can assemble together once again for some crazy fun, right after their wild Saturday night ;) It was rare that Big Bee would sacrifice her beloved riding lessons for anything! We packed MacDonald's breakfast for the kids, and had great fun eating together, chilling out and played sweatily under the blazing sun in the playground, while the husbands were trying to be Andre Agassi out in the tennis court.

Little Bee chomping on yummy hotcakes with her new friend Enya

Moonlit Magic

Happy lantern-holding kids: Eugene, Big Bee, Gabby, Claire and Little Bee (who abandoned her cellophane Goldfish lantern just seconds before this shot!)

There is something ever so enchanting about colourful, glowing lanterns swaying in the dark. And that's what make Mid-Autumn Festival so charming - swinging luminous lanterns under the brilliant round moon, eating sweet mooncakes, burning plenteous candles, making the world awash with incandescent radiance.

This Mid-Autumn Festival, our estate organised a party for all the neighbourhood's rowdy kids. Dinner was included, with plenty of kids' games, goodie bags, mooncake tasting - with so many over-excited kids, it was a scene of wild pandemonium!

Big Bee had her good friends with her - Gabby, our neighbour who is also Big Bee's boisterous playmate in the estate, as well as her weekend buddies, Eugene and Claire. She was ecstatic, whereas Little Bee was highly rapturous, having so many jie-jies and one kor-kor to play with. She loves Eugene, always calling him "kor-kor, kor-kor" in her cute, throaty voice.

We adults brought them on a dim, dark lantern walk around the estate, them carrying the cheery paper lanterns and us carrying the challenging old-fashioned type of cellophane paper lanterns (the one that Claire is holding in the photo above) where the candle kept getting extinguished by the overly-eager wind. It really tested our patience, which should be a virtue kids this age should learn! Those wild kids of ours were charging all around the place!

Mid-Autumn Festival is now a lot more joyful with the kids celebrating together with us!

Mooncakes Scuffle!

Big Bee and Little Bee love to eat mooncakes. So much so that they had been getting into mini brawls just to grab that bigger bite of the mooncakes! Tsk tsk. These wrestling girls are like tomboys!

Big Bee's favourite type of mooncake is snow-skinned and ideally pink. Often, she will take the whole mooncake and hog it, eating slice after slice in alarming rapidity. Little Bee will then be invariably drawn to Big Bee, climbing up to her jie-jie with dogged determination, thrusting her little face right into jie-jie's bowl of delicious mooncake, biting off a large chunk boldly. This often led to a brief struggle of wills (and yells from both sisters), but when it comes to food, you will be amazed at how indomitable Little Bee can be. Kind Big Bee - although pouting and grumbling away - will always give in to Little Bee's greedy demands, sharing with her. Amazingly, Big Bee can finish ONE WHOLE mooncake by herself in one fell swoop!

Yikes! It must be the utter sweetness that is luring my two Bees to these sinful delights.

Socially Responsible

Every day I look at Big Bee, she is blossoming into such a big girl right before my eyes. Whenever Little Bee wears jie-jie's hand-me-downs, I would groan in my heart and remembered the times that Big Bee was wearing the exact same clothes when she was Little Bee's age. Time passes swiftly and mercilessly. We are seriously unable to catch up with it, so we must truly live in the present, appreciating every moment. Just this evening, PF and I were watching our trip to Bintan in 2006, and we were simply amazed at how young and cherubic our 3 kids looked way back then! Now, they are all lanky big kids, playing "grown-up" games.

As Big Bee grows up, she has transformed into a real socially responsible girl. Just the other day, after she ate a grape jelly, she told me "Mummy Mummy, I need to recycle this container! Don't waste it!" So, she went to wash it painstakingly herself and placed it gently on her study desk in her room to air it dry.

And whenever I wash my hands and use too much water or soap, she will grumble at me "Mummy!! You're wasting water (or soap)!" Then she would forcefully turn off the tap for me, making me guilty (and pleased!) that I did not try to be more cautious with my usage.

I am happy to see this responsible side of her. For that's my Big Bee. Responsible, sensible, accountable, amongst her other traits of being diplomatic, pleasant, sensitive, a little stubborn, a little pampered (only with Mummy and Papa around), bold, does not enjoy competition yet she really is quite competitive, gregarious in that she has so many friends who claim that she is their best friend.

Little girls grow up amazingly fast to be little women. I wish I can etch all the growing phases of my little girls in my mind indelibly, forever...

Do Not Disturb!

Little Bee is now a wonderful toddler fully aware of her surroundings and sensitive to the feelings of others. When I pretended to sleep in front of her and if Hubby or Big Bee is around, she would put her finger to her lips, pursed them up into a loud and smiley "Shhhh!" and would flash her trademark grin at Hubby and Big Bee, making a snoring sound to indicate that Mummy's sleeping, do not disturb her!

However, if no one is around, and if I sometimes just close my eyes to get a mini break when Little Bee is alone with me, her signature Terrible Twos temper would flare up, and she would gabble "Ek up, ek up!". She would then tap her small hand firmly on my shoulder, shake me a little, and gabble louder right into my ears. And if I still pretend to have my eyes closed, she would use her little finger to pry open my eyelids (ouch!), and I can see her literally twisting her little head to look right into my forced-open eye...her mouth forming the words "Ek up, ek up" (which incidentally means "Wake up, wake up").

How hilarious!