Daddy's Entertainment

While surfing the net together, Daddy found videos of this children entertainment group called The Wiggles. 4 men singing and doing silly actions, with very good music. Nadine loves the videos! And Daddy now can't stop singing "Hot potatoes hot potatoes ..."

Daddy tapping his finger and foot to The Wiggles' music, and Nadine following suit with her legs!

Nadine & Ethan

Last Sunday, the family went out with the Gans to view a showflat ... a place that looked really nice, but was too expensive for either family. We went for lunch after that. While the adults chatted away, and Gor-Gors Gerald and Marcus played with their Daddy's iPhone while slowly eating their pasta, Nadine and Ethan had their own time of fellowship - sharing some biscuits and a book. So sweet!

Swimming II

The last time Nadine went swimming, she was only 6 months old, and didn't really enjoy the pool, even though she loved her showers.

Now, at 14 months, Nadine thoroughly enjoys swimming, or pretending to swim. She was not afraid at all, and even dared to walk around the pool on her own after Mummy put a float around her. It was so fun to play in the water with her. More swimming to come!

Float from Uncle Nelson & Aunty Rebecca (they also bought Nadine a bikini, which is still too big); and turtle from Aunty Kelly

Cute bathrobe from Aunty Sue Ern

More signs

Nadine is almost 14-month-old now, and she can sign

- banana

- bug

- cereal

- cold

- cracker

- eat

- frog

- grass

- happy

- hot

- hurt

- more

- music

- nice

- night

- peach

- pear

- socks

- sorry

- shoe

- sun

- thank you (yes, finally!)

- wash hands

and her own version of sleep - she drops her head onto the table/floor/bed and closes her eyes.

However, she doesn't always sign on demand. Need to be in the right mood to perform!

Stay-over at Gong-Gong's

Mummy went to Manila last week for work. Coincidentally, Daddy was arrowed to go for a conference in Melbourne at the same time. So Nadine was packed off to Gong-Gong and Por-Por's place.

Nadine enjoyed herself tremendously. According to Gong-Gong, Por-Por and Bibi, Nadine did not cry a bit, never fussed, ate well, slept well, smiled a lot, walked a lot, and never missed her parents a teeny-weeny bit.

She sent Por-Por to work every morning, and went to the market after that, where she touched fish, veggie and all things fresh and dirty. All day long, she'd walked around the house, climbed on the sofa and the beds, and never stopped moving until nap/bed time.

Gong-Gong and Por-Por enjoyed her so much that they asked to keep her for an extra day. Well, in any case, Nadine didn't seem very eager to go home. When Daddy went to see her on Thursday, Nadine cried and wouldn't let him carry her. Not sure if that was some kind of protest. Daddy was of course heart-broken.

When Mummy went to get her on Friday, she cried too. But she wanted Mummy to carry her. Maybe it was her way of showing how upset she was, of not having seen her parents for so many days. Daddy and Mummy spent the weekend befriending Nadine again.

Nadine & her friends

Nadine is now so much more interactive, and she also knows how to play "with" other children, rather than to play alongside them. But when it comes to taking photos of her with her friends, it's still a challenge. She still doesn't know how to pose, much less stand/sit still for photos to be taken. But here are some decent photos of her with her friends.

This was the most spontaneous photo - taken when Nadine was "sayang-ing" Ethan.

Nadine with Tara. She sat down for like 30 sec.

This was the most challenging photo to take - 4 toddlers who cannot sit still, and a baby who cannot sit by herself. Check out the looks of distress on all 3 girls' faces, and look of anxiety on Josh's face as he performs his big brotherly duty of holding on to Luanne. Isaac was probably the only person who enjoyed the photo shoot!

Please!

Nadine finally said her 1st "useful" word - PLEASE. She was in her high-chair and wanted to be carried by Daddy. Daddy looked at her and said, "if u want Daddy to carry u, u must say please". She whined for a bit. Daddy repeated the same thing, and then she put her palm to her chest 'PLEASE'!

So fun to be able to communicate meaningfully with her!

Nadine's also started to feed herself, not for her meals. That'll be too slow. Mummy only lets her do that with her snacks. She doesn't do very well with fork and spoon, and would much prefer to use her bare hands. Sometimes, she seems to enjoy squashing the food with her fingers more than eating the food. Ah well, gotta start somewhere.

And since yesterday, she started walking around unaided a lot more. She's also enjoying pushing her car around, and bumping it into the furniture and wall.

The Lee Family Photo

Not a very successful one though, with all the children being so restless, and the adults busy getting the children to look at the camera. But this is the 1st one the family's taken in 5 years. Candid and memorable. The children, and actually, the adults too, will never be this young again.

2nd Chinese New Year

Last CNY, Nadine was a tiny 2-week-old bb. In a flash, this year, she's 13-month-old and can already walk. But her preferred mode of movement is still crawling, 2nd to being carried. Guess it's because when she moves on her own, she can go wherever she likes, until Daddy, Mummy or Bibi catch hold of her and move her to safety (sometimes her safety, sometimes others' safety, including safety of Mummy's precious books and Daddy's precious Star Wars figurines).

Nadine can now sign star, car, bus, leaf, wind, where, hat, book, ball, bear, Dad (always Dad, never Mum) and dog. She signs dog most readily, whenever someone says 'dog', or when she sees the picture of a dog in any books. But instead of patting her thigh, she pats her chest, causing MaMa and Por Por to think that she's scared of dogs. She's not scared of dogs at all. In fact, she was more amused than scared after Uncle Dr Kevin's dog licked her this afternoon.

Anyway, all these words that Nadine can, or is willing to sign, are such "useless" signs. Mummy wants Nadine to sign please, thank you, sorry, more, sleep, water, eat, drink, hurt - words that can communicate something useful and constructive. But Nadine simply refuses, probably just to frustrate Mummy. Sigh!

"Bookworm"

Nadine loves her books, and she's a worm. She cannot stop moving and is constantly crawling, walking, wriggling about, except when she sits down to read. She can sit down and read for 15-20 min at a stretch. She blabbers as she flips the pages. No, she's not interested for anyone to read to her. She prefers to read to herself. So Daddy and Mummy have not been very successful in reading her books and bibles to her. But they're glad she likes books, and is always willing to sit still for a while with a book - providing a bit of rest for Daddy, Mummy and Bibi!

Nadine also likes her flash cards. These, she will happily allow Mummy to read to her. And she seems like she is taking in all that are flashed and read to her. Mummy just wonders when Nadine will repeat those words aloud.