Happy 100th!

Last Saturday, we brought Rosabelle out to attend a party! I decked her in a girly party get-up, complete with hairclip, haha!

(On the topic of hair, I finally had the time to go get my hair cut and coloured yesterday afternoon, complete with a mani/pedicure before that. Bliss... It's the usual blue-black base with red highlights, and my stylist has now moved to the Gongti branch - great as it's nearer for me. However, bad news is he's now promoted to Creative Director so he costs RMB280 per cut, RMB100 more than last time. Thank goodness I have a stored value discount...sheesh...). We car-pooled and were waiting for the birthday boy and his mummy and nanny downstairs to bring them along in our car, so Rosabelle ventured out in her new Collettee shoes I bought in Singapore (still big as I bought them a tad bigger for summer). I've been teaching her that the signs on the floor read '小心地滑' and she's very excited when she sees them, facing the correct way to look at them and reading '心' and '滑' to me. (That's me with my ultra-long black roots last Saturday - totally overdue haircut and colour as my last hair job was in December - gulp!.)
And when the VIPs arrived, we all went on our way to the restaurant at Xin Yuan Li, a Hong Kong hotpot restaurant, where the owner is a friend of the boy's parents, and we had the whole second level to ourselves (about three tables of guests).

There you have it - the about 7 kg 100-day old birthday boy Huang Jun qi (Mum's a Chinese, Dad's a Malaysian), who is so chubby that I seem to be cuddling a lump/ball of meat when carrying him, as his neck/back are all so fleshy. So cute! (I'm very proud that his mum donned him in a Carter's 'Handsome' romper I bought for him as a newborn present on this special occasion - it's for 6-month-olds and it fits him now - go figure! Thank goodness I got him a 9-month-old 'Mum's new man' romper as a present this time round...) He was a good boy and did not fuss nor cry alot in spite of the noisy environment and many strangers, even taking a nap when we were eating.
The place was done up with 'Happy Birthday' streamers and balloons, and the kids (as well as some adults) donned party hats - this was a quick pic of Rosabelle (and her favourite Dou Dou in the background) before she pulled the hat off...
There were not many other kids from the usual yard area - just two other kids (Dou Dou and Jing Jing) - maybe Junqi's mum didn't invite as many, and also maybe it was a Saturday and other families also had plans. But Wayne enjoyed the hot pot - the prawn/beef/fish balls were all very good, and the cut beef was very tender. Even Rosabelle also enjoyed the prawn balls and tofu - she probably ate the most amongst the other kids (in spite of being the youngest).

I am not actually keen on her having hot pot, though, because I find it quite dangerous for walking basins of hot soup around young kids, and the idea of raw and cooked foods being together, and ultimately, the different salivas of strangers at the table, some who do not use the ladle (but their chopsticks) for scooping food. But ultimately, she's already 18 months old, so I figured I should just loosen it up a little - she enjoyed it, I think, haha! But luckily I brought my own disposable plastic spoon (have a spare set in the bag when going to restaurants I've never been) - the restaurant only had huge porcelein soup spoons and the other mummies all wished they'd also brought one to feed their kids.

After we were done with dinner, the kids played outdoors a little with blowing bubbles, picking up stones/twigs, and doing Crayola colouring indoors. Poor Rosabelle tumbled over twice and fell down hard on her knees/hands when outside, with one time having her right knee graze against some pebbles. Other Mummies went 'Ooooh!' when she fell hard, but our sturdy girl picked herself up, dusted her hands, and continued playing. I pretended to not see her fall, but after that looked at her knee and saw that it was grazed, and quickly took a wet wipe to clean it. At night, when I asked her about the red patch on the knee, she said she 'Dooong' (and leaned sideways), to show that she fell. I kept praising her for being a brave girl and not crying, heh!

After all the guests had eaten, it was cake-cutting time as I managed to capture Junqi, Qi Qi (his sis), and their Mummy posing with the yummy cake from 21cake. (The cake had a 'typo' error and read '白天快乐' instead of '百天快乐' - aiyo!)
These are all the kids posing together, and Rosabelle was happily clapping away and enjoyed the cake with me thereafter - yummilicious!
By the time we reached home and settled Rosabelle in for her afternoon nap, it was way past 4 pm, and our girl was so worn out she slept soundly throughout till dinner time!

Speaking of naps, two afternoons ago, Rosabelle simply refused to sleep after I nursed her in the afternoon, and kept wanting to go to the living room and play, so after many frustrated attempts to get her to lie down on the bed with me, I let her into the living room alone and closed Nai nai's room door, leaving a slight gap in my room door in case she wanted to come back in to sleep.

After all of 5 minutes alone (I closed all doors and put all dangerous things away, in case you were wondering...), she realised nobody was playing with her and started hovering outside my room door, going 'No, no... Yue yue, Yue yue', and kept chanting until I asked her if she wanted to come in, haha! And then I made her lie down again with me, but she kept getting up and saying she wanted to go out again, so I was getting quite angry and let her out again after she refused to stop crying, but this time I also closed my room door. She went out, happy, and after only a few minutes, realised both room doors were closed and started crying at my door. I ignored her, wanting to teach her that she cannot just come and go as she likes, but my plans were thwarted by doting Nai nai, who probably was very heart-pained to see her crying and opened the door to her room. Aiya...

I quickly went out and brought Rosabelle into my room and made her lie on the bed, telling her off again and shouted at her when she wanted to go out again in minutes. 'There is a time to play, and there is a time to rest. In and out, in and out - you think it's a game, is it?!' - till even I felt it was way too loud. But our thick-skinned girl did not cry/squirm, looking away sheepishly and deciding she wanted 'milk, milk' again - and then she finally fell asleep, one hour after the first feed - sigh!

To this day, she can still mimic 'how angry Mummy was' by pursing her lips, going 'Hmph!' and putting her hands under her armpits, and when asked why, she will go '觉觉' as she remembers I was angry for her not taking her nap. -_-

These days, she's waking up in a nasty mood after her naps and in the mornings - giving grumpy cries and wanting 'Mama' or 'milk, milk' - I used to be so pleased that she will wake up as a smiley baby, and even play awhile and coo on her own bed and entertain herself when she woke up, but no... now, she just gives her crying noise when she wakes up. Haiya... I had to try and psyche her last night (like how I psyched her into keeping to her own bed for the fourth night straight), and made her promise not to cry when she woke up this morning. Hope she gets over this phase soon... as well as the phase of going 'I don't want' and squirming like an eel when she does not want to do things.

She's of course sweet and makes me go 'Awwww...' most times, giving me a kiss on her own accord when I made a grimace after she saw the medicine on the side of my mouth (growing cold sore). She will also run to me and ask me to 抱抱 her, then when I ask her what she wants, she will point excitedly at the window and say 'car', before looking out the window together in silence.

As Nai nai says, '总的来说，我们玥玥还是挺乖地!' (On a whole, our Rosabelle is relatively obedient!).

The third snip

Remember Rosabelle's first haircut in May last year? We paid RMB120 for professional salon snipping by Mr. Dustbin Breath.
And then came Daddy Shi wielding his shears for her second haircut in July last year...

And ta-dah! We have a third haircut to present, in preparation for the sweltering Beijing (and Singapore) heat!

I used her baby doll's doctor set fake scissors to do some fake trimming around her ears in the morning (purposely made the clickety-clack sound really loud as I read that kids are most intimidated by the sound). I also told her to not move when 叔叔 or 阿姨 is cutting her hair, and got her to close her eyes tightly shut when I 'trimmed' her fringe, before complimenting her for behaving so well and looking pretty.

After her afternoon nap yesterday, we brought her to the salon Wayne usually frequents in our compound, paid RMB35, plopped her onto a high chair, and did not count on her rejecting having the towel and drape put around her. Oh well, we did away with the towel, and quickly put the drape around and secured it with a hair clip - beats having hairs all over. And so Wayne and I were kept busy entertaining/distracting her, especially with the water spray used by the hairdresser. It was all over within 10 minutes, and being busy keeping her immobile, I did not take any photos even though I brought the camera with me.

She now has shorter, albeit same-length hair (though the hairdresser said he did not dare to do much around the sides as it's too close to the ears). The hairdresser also said he could do a better job if she kept still, and I was quite irritated with that. He..ll..ooooo - your 'customer' is like only 18 months old, and from what I hear, many other kids bawl their lungs out when put onto the chair, and it's not like she was squirming or shaking her head or anything. If you have lousy skills, don't blame your little customer for it. I even had to carry her to him after to tell him he missed chopping a few strands off at two areas.

Wayne brought her home after the bath whilst I went to the photo shop to run some errands, and I came home to see our girl still suited in the 'hairy' outfit - aiyo, these men! So I quickly whisked her into the bath and got her changed - she looks fresh and chirpy here, doesn't she?

She likes to push her lower teeth forward these days...

And this is her happy smile... And I'm quite pleased, only that this morning, looking closely, I realised that her haircut isn't exactly straight - i.e. it's sloping upwards to the right at the back. Oh well... it'd all grow out, and if we ask the hairdresser to correct it, it'd be asking too much of the novice.

After Rosabelle got this cut, I am quite tickled by how she reminds me of me when I was younger (hairstylist - Mummy dearest). Haha!

So random I have no title

Since we are on the topic of backtracks and updates, I made notes of various things to include on this blog - so these are all so entirely random that I have no classification for them whatsoever, so be prepared to be confused, haha!

Rosabelle will at times do naughty things that make me angry, like biting my finger when I am cleaning her teeth at night, pressing the phone and then disengaging Po po, crossing the road without me holding her hand or carrying her, wanting to sleep on our bed after her feeds at night (been doing well the past three days after I psyched her, and she nodded obediently, agreeing to and keeping to her promise of sleeping in her own bed), pressing the DVD player randomly - I let her turn the power on, and she knows that she should/cannot touch any other buttons. I will raise my voice and scold her, and she will look away sheepishly, run to Wayne/Nai nai, or come to me and give me a hug/kiss. At least she knows she's in the wrong.

However, two nights ago, she started throwing some toys onto the floor, and looked at me almost defiantly as I told her to stop it and put her toys back. In the end, she put them all back, but I am making sure that no adults throw things around the house these days. Wayne has a habit of throwing Rosabelle's shoes onto the floor when he changes her - I guess it's a man's thing. When he accidentally threw her toy behind the sofa when tossing it into the air yesterday, Rosabelle immediately wanted to also throw her toy behind - it's a case of monkey see, monkey do, and unless we adults stop doing it, she is going to follow us. Like when Wayne used an inflatable stick to hit Rosabelle lightly on the head, I told him that Rosabelle is going to follow and start hitting people on the head, regardless of what she's holding in her hands. It'd be hard to then explain that 'Papa was holding something light, so it's ok...'. So for now, we have to be really conscious of our actions.

Rosabelle also has very good memory (think all kids do) - we saw an abandoned Santa Claus figurine at our lobby the other day, and she started looking for 'Ye ye' (Santa) the next day when it wasn't there. We went to our neighbour's house to play with their 6-month-old girl once, and Rosabelle played with their giraffe fridge magnet - the next day, when I asked her if she could remember going to Mei mei's house, she immediately said 'giraffe'. When a dog came towards her and licked her on her nose one day on our morning walk, she can still remember to this day and say/point to her nose when she sees dogs, even waking up the day after from her afternoon nap and going 'nose' whilst pointing to it - haha!

In the car, I have an issue of That's Beijing with an advert featuring a panda sitting on a rickshaw whilst pointing a finger towards the front, as it is pulled by another panda. I made up a 'run, run, run, run, run, then point!' complete with running and pointing action, and she could remember and repeat the action thereafter to this day. She even did/said the same when she saw a picture of another panda in a magazine. There is another nursery rhymes book with a picture of a rabbit and mouse gazing upwards at the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, their chins propped on their hands. Whenever she sees it, she will follow with her little hands under her chin as well, and when we purposely put our hands on our cheeks and ask 'Is it like this?', she will adjust our hands for us till we are also propping them under our chins. So kay-poh...

However, her memory isn't all that seamless. Having gone to Doudou Ge ge's house on the 12th floor, she now assumes that when she turns the same corner on our 10th floor, she can reach his house, going 'Dou dou!' all the time when she goes around the corner, heh! Another favourite kid, Wei wei, gave her a yogurt drink once (I did not let her drink but I kept the bottle), and now she uses it during her bath times - she will go 'Lao lao! Wei wei!' whenever she sees the bottle now, remembering who gave that to her.

At times when I observe her at play/work, I find it highly amusing how her little mind ticks. She will take our house phone, or her own toy phone and go 'Wei...Po Po...', she will also help to pull her own sleeves up when we are going to wash her hands, and now, she even knows to help carry her two pails of dirty clothes to the bathroom before her bath. Once, she was making two trips with one pail at a time and without us advising her to, she stacked the pails together and carried them all at once - so clever - *beam*. Our helpful little child even had the strength to help Wayne take the humidifier container to the sink for him to fill it with water, and knows to check and see the water levels to see if it needed topping up every night.

Below are some photos of us at Si'De Park on 13 April after I brought her for Music & Movement classes at 3e International.

New words of the moment include purple (she just blurted it out clearly when holding up a purple alphabet 'O' during bath time the day before), 掉 (indicating that things have dropped), 'thun' (as in 'thunder', as I was singing 'I hear thuder' to her when it rained heavily the other day), hug (as she gives us her tight bear hugs), 娃娃菜 (which she said very clearly after me when we were at the supermarket, and she could still remember the day after), right (as in right hand, as she was listening to the 'Wheels on the Bus' CD with the song 'One, two, three, four, five' and went 'right' towards the end of the verse, referring to the fish biting her little finger on her right).

Speaking of CDs, there was one day when I probably did my cleaning and accidentally adjusted the volume control of the speakers. When I turned on the CD, the volume was turned on very high and poor Rosabelle was just standing next to the speakers, so she quickly ran towards me and Nai nai in the kitchen. Aiyo, poor thing! Lucky she did not cry and had the mind to quickly run away from the imminent 'danger' first.

Last week, I took a photo of her 'Fruits for Today' for fun. Sometimes, the fruits are in the fridge, so I will take them out prior or they will be too cold for her. She has her morning, after-lunch, after-nap, and after-dinner fruits a day, and I thought they looked very colourful that day, heh!

I also got online a Nuk plate for her, which can hold more foods - at least it's easier for Nai nai to scoop the rice/porridge as it used to be buried under all the other foodstuff I piled on top. Rosabelle likes the plate as she can also see clearly the foods she likes and reach for them. Best thing is it's non-slip at the base and has grips at the side for little hands.

However, last week, she was suffering from about two days of loss of appetite. No other reason other than maybe the weather is getting hotter (?) and/or she was eating too much yellow beans and/or watermelon and/or portobello mushrooms the day prior. Luckily she's back to normal now and eating fine, heh!

- End of random rantings -

Celebrations

Following up on my previous post about my brother-in-law's birthday and Mother's Day, my dutiful brother-in-law saw my post and quickly shared pictures...
He said Mum is thrilled with the flowers from Beijing.

Makes it all worth it... :)

Working on a deadline!

Alritey... I have tons of Singapore (especially Sentosa) pix to sort out and blog about, and I have already confirmed mine and Rosabelle's next home-coming in June (to coincide with the kids' hols so we can have fun going around together)! And so, before I go MIA again for a month (back from 2 till 28 Jun - could have been longer but I booked my tickets late, and Rosabelle's Chinese visa expires on 29 Jun, so we can't stay till 2 Jul, the maximum entitlement of the air tickets), and before I accumulate more things to blog about and need to back-track horribly, I will endeavour to finish up all my catch-up posts over these two weeks!

First off, Happy Mummy's Day today to my dearest and most favourite Mummy and Po po! My Mum called me yesterday to say she received my beautiful flowers I ordered from Far East Flora. When the delivery man came to the house, clever Simon asked, 'Are those from Wendy Yiyi?' - heh!

But I do not have photos of those blooms yet. What I have is an overdue photo of the orchids I gave my mum on her birthday on 5 April, and Simon, being the Spiderman fanatic that he is, got a cartoon character cake for Po po...

Of course, when he celebrated his 6th birthday on 19 March, he also got his favourite figurine cake (not to mention another perennial favourite - Ben 10 T-shirt...).
Speaking of birthdays, my dear brother-in-law Matthias also celebrated his birthday yesterday on 8 May - what a blessing to have 3 lovelies to celebrate for him - as seen from the pretty Snow White get-up that Marianne had for some Centrepoint promotion where little girls lived out their fairytale dream of being a Disney Princess, haha!

I am so looking forward to going home, and to see the by-then 1.5 months old Gideon. Mum says he's turning into a feisty little one, bawling his lungs out when his feeds are delayed (and they decide to bathe him instead). Apparently, he cried himself purple, and then closed his eyes for 10 minutes as he was exhausted - Mum and Sis thought he had fainted, wahaha!

Here are pictures of him taken last week...

Naughty one, Yiyi Wendy is coming home to smack your little bottom!

Celebrating fun times

Although it's been hectic time for me these days, it's quite alot of fun with a growing and learning Rosabelle, and as we explore new games/toys together.

When we went to Ikea the other day to buy a small cabinet to put our microwave on (it used to be on the kitchen tabletop until Wayne's mum decided it was not giving her enough space for the chopping), we also bought some wall decals to decorate Rosabelle's bed space.

So ta-dah! She now has a bevy of hot air ballooners and racing car animals to wake up to. It kept her occupied and interested for only about a week or so as she pointed out, and made sounds of, the various animals on the wall. And then, when we were in Singapore, Rosabelle was very attached to/intrigued by the plastic toy baby Simon and Marianne had in the bath, and was always very keen to bathe and called out 'Bay..beeeee....' whenever she went into the toilet. Even at Pauline's house, she was also very happily playing with Raeanne's baby...

When we came back, the first few days I bathed her, she would look at her bath tub and ask 'Baby?', remembering that the baby accompanied her in the bath. So in the end, I decided to get Rosabelle her own baby doll, complete with potty (that Rosabelle uses as a chair at times), milk bottle, plate and spoon. She was very thrilled upon casting eye on the baby the first time she saw it, and will love/pat it, putting it onto its pillow. Other kids have come by our house, saw the baby, and got scared of it (as it does have rather lifelike eyes), but our girl still likes playing with it these days.

The seller on Taobao.com suggested I get a doctor's set to accompany the doll - the quality of the set isn't that good, but our girl likes using the stethoscope, and at times the thermometer and torch that comes with it, heh!

That's her fixing her big butt onto the baby's small potty... She even wants to put 如意油 on the baby - in Singapore, when she had a bad tummy, my mum applied it for her and when we came back to Beijing, upon seeing the bottle, she remembered and even said 如意油. When the baby came, she went to the cupboard with the oil, and indicated she wanted to apply the oil for the baby as well. Haha!

Another major item I got for her was a drawing board, as she seems to like to draw these days, and it was quite troublesome (and stifling of her creativity) to set up the paper on her small dining table. So I got a set from Taobao.com - the seller at first indicated the set would come with alot of freebies, and when I wrangled free shipping from her, she realised she might have lost out, and quickly updated the product description to remove quite a few of the items. When I specified that my set should have the full set of freebies, she reassured me but true enough, the set came without the lowercase magnetic alphabets, a green marker, and a chalkboard duster. Even the bookends I ordered from her had a screw loose... when I confronted her, she even wanted me to bear my own shipping charges if I were to get a refund, but in the end, after deciding that Wayne spent too much time ripping the packaging apart and setting it up, I decided to instead post a bad review online for the seller/product instead. Hmph! But I take consolation in the fact that the drawing board is a hit with Rosabelle, though we make sure she dons her artist's work clothes (i.e. a bib) before she starts on her masterpieces, as the first few times she drew, she had marker marks all over her top...

She gets very gleeful with her scribblings as she clamours for us to look at them, and always wants me to draw things like cat, 叔叔, fish, ball, baby etc... She especially likes using the chalk, and knows to use the duster to wipe away her drawings after. The other day, when a neighbour's kid came over and poured the chalk onto the floor, breaking them, I told her off. Wayne thinks I should not discipline other people's kids but my rule is if the parents can't teach them in my house, then I have to do it, especially since I should not be setting double standards by allowing other children to destroy the chalk, and then scolding my own daughter for doing exactly the same thing. Nowadays, Rosabelle will point at the chalk and say 妹妹, indicating she knows that I was angry with the kid for being naughty.

I also got other things online like a Hello Kitty toy camera (though Rosabelle still has not learnt to face it the right way times...) and Pustelisk bubble blower (for bath times - a good brand that I saw used very often at play groups). I was at first thinking of buying a chair/table set for her for crafts time (not that I have alot of that now...) but think we're going to have space constraints so that can wait. In the mean time, she's happy sitting on her shapes sorter and using it as a chair (when she's not sitting on baby's potty)...

Other non-expense-incurring (i.e. making do with what we have) fun activities we've been doing include following the kids' pictures in the books (or Wayne's GQ mags...) and learning to hop/jump/fly/dance/fold arms/close eyes/make faces. She also likes search and spot books, and can identify objects by looking at their shadows (an activity in one of the books). Strangely enough, she calls Barney in the books 'Yeye' - maybe it's the wide-mouthed-grin, because I'm very sure it's not the purple pallor...

We have also found another use for her Fisher Price walker - as a wheelbarrow for us to push her around, or for her to push baby around, haha! She's wearing over-sized clothes here as we piled on the layers at home before the weather became warmer, but I detract. Rosabelle also knows/likes to throw balls, having me empty the Ikea basket of different-sized balls onto the sofa, then running over to pick them one by one to put back into the basket placed a distance away (good workout!). I'm glad that she has a good habit of keeping her toys away, and putting them exactly where they belong (in spite of the increasing numbers of toy containers around), especially when we're going out/meal-times. This comes in handy as she is getting quite good at jigsaw puzzles - the kinds with single objects with knobs on them, as she can remember where each piece goes. She has a cute habit of going 'No more' as she hides the jigsaw pieces behind her back, then revealing them with a grin when we pretend to look for them.

I also took everyday household items like a dish sponge (clean one, of course) and letting her dip into a basin of water and squeezing it. Only thing is we did this in the living room and she decided to empty the water onto the floor... so the next day, Wayne bought her a bath sponge and she now has fun playing with it, heh! Still on water, she also likes ice, taking one in her hands and licking it, as she learns about how heat melts the ice, and how cold it can be. Whenever we put out the sheets to dry on her clothes rack, I will hide, or let her hide under it, to let her be exposed to large expanses of things. One thing that I picked up at the playgroups we went to (another post coming!) is that she is quite terrified of the large parachute that they all used, so one of the teachers said I could let her get used to such big items. Like when we were looking at a man flying a kite today, she was quite afraid of the kite as it was rather big, and looked at me, waiting for me to touch it before she dared to touch it.

Songs-wise, she knows the 'Incy Wincy' spider song (first or last words of the verses, complete with action), a 'Naughty pussy cat' song where she will indicate the whiskers on her face, and the angry action with fists to her armpits, and even the 'It's raining, it's pouring' song as she knows the 'bump' and goes 'no more' when it should be 'morning', heh! New words picked up include heavy (as she lifts up her heavy activity station), durian (we offered her some last night - haha!), one-two (as I sing her 'One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive' song), and beak (as she can remember and indicate the beak of the duck that I mentioned only once to her).
Sometimes we also visit other kids' homes, especially when the weather wasn't as good prior. She likes Dou dou Ge Ge, and Wei wei Jie Jie, and when we visited the former's home the day before, we even refused to go home with me, closing the main door on me when I said bye bye, then walking into the house with Dou dou!　When I asked her what she did at his house when bathing her that night, she pinched her cheeks and made a crying sound, as if indicating that Dou dou had squeezed either hers or Wei wei's cheeks and made them squirm. Haha!

That's her at play with her cheeky grin!

At times, I find that the best times are when we do not set out to actively do anything with anything, like today when I brought her for her morning walk - we saw a millipede that made her chuckle at the way it moved, picked up stones to draw on the sidewalk, saw dogs and cats, saw the kite-flying uncle, taught her that the green rectangular signs on the ground read '小心地滑' (she can go 'xin', 'hua'), and she even very quickly pointed out to me when the sole of my shoe came apart ('open!' as she indicated to Wayne when he opened the door). Priceless moments, again...

Bringing Nai nai home

This was a last photo of Rosabelle being fed by the nanny on the night we came back from Singapore (without the poor woman in the picture), before we had to let her go because of her injured leg.

After that, for a week or so, Wayne and I brought Rosabelle out and ate out alot - that's father and daughter at Olio sharing a moment, heh!

We didn't take alot of photos in Zhengzhou nor on the trip as I was trying to keep Rosabelle entertained during her waking hours with books, toys, CDs, nursery rhymes, finger foods (avocado, fruits, biscuits, seaweed etc - I stocked up enough to feed us three well through the 8-hour ride). We stopped for toilet breaks (adults, that is, as Rosabelle's still in her diapers), and for Rosabelle to stretch her muscles abit walking around in minimarts (as the outdoor area was congested with cars, smokers, and toilet stench...).

That's her sound asleep in the car sandwiched between neck pillows, haha! By the time we reached Wayne's parents' home, it was already after 7pm when she took her dinner. Sofitel, the usual place we stay in, was fully booked, so we checked into another local hotel - quite dingy-looking, but supposedly a hit with local travellers, so the executive room was good enough, but of course nothing international like Sofitel. When we got to the room, Wayne went with the bellboy to get our luggage from the car, and Rosabelle indicated she needed to poop. Aiyo! So just me, a poopey baby, and no wet wipes/diapers with me, and she had to go put one foot into the toilet bowl after she got up - yucky...

We took all our meals at Wayne's parents' place, and Rosabelle enjoyed the jiaozi that Nai nai made. Another purpose of this trip was to get the last bit of her denounciation of Chinese citizenship in place, so we headed there the next morning to submit some missing documentation and from here, we needed to wait another 3 months for them to process everything before she is officially non-Chinese. Well, at least we did not have to make another trip back. (On a side note, since my work visa was expiring, I had it renewed as a visitor's visa - a 探亲证 - valid for a year, multiple-entry, and best of all, cheaper than a work visa, heh! So once Rosabelle gets her non-Chinese status in place, we need to also apply this visa for her - paperwork, paperwork!)

And so, Nai nai came back with us and took the 8-hour trip back to Beijing with us. This time back, we reached Beijing earlier at around 6-plus and headed directly to Malacca Legend for dinner (since there was no food in the fridge/freezer).

When my mother-in-law first came, my sister warned me "Better be less harsh with your high standards. She's your MIL, not your maid ah!", and my mum told me "After all, Rosabelle is already more than a year old, so if things/food are slightly not to your standards, it's ok lah". Heh... all I can say is my MIL is really very nice and accommodating, and she helps with cooking our meals (I will let her know what to cook, whilst Wayne does the groceries), as well as cleaning the house in the mornings since she wakes up early. I will set aside 3 to 4 days in the week where I spend the afternoons when Rosabelle is sleeping to do more thorough cleaning - cannot expect my poor MIL to wash the toilet, or patiently wipe all of Rosabelle's burgeoning toy collection, or get on her knees to wipe/mop hard-reaching areas, or climb on stools to clean the windows/doors, right? These extra housework are what keeps me busy, when I used to leave this to the nanny and spend my afternoons updating my blog or run errands, sigh... Well, something has gotta give.

On the first day she arrived, my MIL made lunch for Rosabelle, but expectedly, since it was a new kitchen, and new ways of preparing foods, lunch was considerably late (around 1:20pm), and Rosabelle was quite hungry, and grouchy by the time food was served and kept clamouring for me even after I had fed her a bit (Wayne took over after he ate so I could eat). At that point when I was eating, and Rosabelle was throwing a tantrum in her high chair and kept going 'Mama, mama!', I just lost it, banged my hands on the table and screamed 'What else do you want from me?!' as I cried. Think I almost lost it at that point - the culmination of more than a week coping on our own, the tedious roadtrip, and the crying all came together and made me snap. Luckily I held back and did not cry/scream further - it would not have been fair to poor Rosabelle as it's not by her choice that we were going through such a situation.

Another time that I lost my temper even when Nai nai was around to help was during the night when she woke up shortly after her last feed to keep wanting me to nurse her still, and refused to sleep in her own bed, wanting to lie on me instead. Wayne and I insisted she stay in her own bed, and I just turned over and ignored her as she cried for close to an hour, going 'Please! Mama! Milk, milk!要!' as she nodded her head vehemently. I decided that she had to learn to sleep on her own rather than have comfort suckling, and she refused to let Wayne carry her, falling asleep as she nodded exhaustedly at the corner of her bed. Nai nai came over in between to ask her if she wanted to sleep with her, and with Wayne and I being harsh on her, she of course said '要!' but no way were we going to let her have an alternative to her own bed, so that made her cry even harder. It was heartbreaking (and still is, whenever I think about it) to have her cry so hard and for such a long time, but that episode has made her learn not to expect anything that she wants all the time. I cried as well, but of course hid my face as it'd be ridiculous to ask her to cry when I was doing the same, heh! Nowaday, she's at times bashful when she wants milk, letting me suggest instead, or she will give hints like looking at the pillow/my chest, and biting at a corner of the pillow, haha!

Other than taking care of our meals, Nai nai also feeds Rosabelle and dresses her in the mornings and after her baths, so Rosabelle has learnt to want Nai nai to feed her, indicating the chair for Nai nai to sit on, and for a period when she just came, wanting to sleep on Nai nai's bed every night before she went to sleep. She has also learnt to imitate Nai nai cooking with a 'Kua kua kua!' waving of her hands holding a ladle, and when she accidentally pinched Nai nai, she quickly kissed her on both sides of her face (she will do that to Wayne and I now as she wants us to turn the other side for her to kiss us).

Rosabelle also knows that Nai nai has a soft spot (which grandparent does not?), and when she woke up in a less than cheery mood today, she started rolling on the floor when Nai nai offered to carry her up to see Wayne cutting the watermelon for her. So unreasonable, huh?! So Wayne and I ignored her, and asked Nai nai to also leave her alone instead of hovering above her and asking/helping her to get up. After a few minutes, with each adult doing their own thing, Rosabelle realised she was on her own and got up on her own accord, turned a circle to see us all ignoring her, until she caught sight of Nai nai peeping at her, and she quickly laid down splat on the floor again to continue her acting - haha, so naughty!

With Nai nai, she is fast picking up more Mandarin, saying '光光' to indicate the baby doll's bald head, '托' to remove her socks/shoes, and '鞋鞋'. She has also learnt to say 'soft', 'sky', 'stool' (requesting for the stool to stand on to wash her hands), 'coon' (when I pointed out a raccoon picture to her in the minimart), and very cutely '白白兔'. She has been saying this last one for many days now, but I've been having a hard time trying to figure out what it was. Today, when the older kids did the '小白兔' nursery rhyme, she said '白白兔', and now wants me tp perform for her with my fingers on my head for ears, complete with hopping. Haha!

All I can say is - it's good to have a 老人家 in the house!