We have been Home for a week now. We are both very happy to be Home!
Except that Amanda misses her Daddy and it is very hot in Singapore.

It was just as hot during our short 2 day holiday in Hong kong and VERY HOT during our visit to the Disneyland on the first weekend of May.
(I must blog about it soon! :p)
Quite contrary, we were feeling very cold in the blasting AC during the two days we were staying in The Venetian Macau.

With a great variety of choices available, I could tell she was getting bored with the limited choices of toys and clothes in Yuncheng, that Amanda has developed a habit of shopping here.
If she knew we are going shopping, she comes up with a shopping list of specific item, eg. A blue dress like Cinderella’s (too bad we missed her at Disneyland), a pink canvas shoe like Dora’s.
And she lets out a plesantly surprised, Waaaah, when she walks into a kids wear shop, esp when they have a lot of pink stuff at the entrance.

She was just as excited when we were at H&M’s kids wear in Beijing last month, like she was on a minute shopping frenzy and sitting down on floor, takes her shoes off and ready to try all the pretty shoes available, she too grabbed a few tops and tried hair bands (something she hates and almost never wears.)
She is happier shopping for clothes than toys, at the moment.

Like she knew that I couldn’t resist girlie stuff, clothes and accessories. (Dp complains that Amanda has too many sunglasses.)
I can convince myself and her to only browse and walk out of the Toys”R”Us, empty-handed.
Besides, I too made her promise she would not buy any toys before stepping into the store.

As Amanda grows up, her persistence and ability to reason with us grow too.
She doesn’t kick a fuss at the aisle of toy shops or store, (Thank Goodness! & *touches wood*),
however If I do not agree with her choice of blue sunglasses, she would hold up and persist, (while I hold my breath and hopes she goes with my choice, coz I really wanted to buy it), till she is convinced that we will be walking with one in pink (or orange) or none at all.

I would also pretend to not get what she is saying or mis-hear her want for a 背包 (backpack) with 面包 (bread). Which also works, coz she would give up repeating and explaining eventually.
She used to settle with, 我们家里有了 (We have one at Home), but now claims that we should have one in our Yuncheng home and one in Singapore.
Which I also choose to ignore and change the subject.

Yes! It is increasingly difficult to talk her out of not buying, and fortunately things are under control. Still.

There are times when she wants to go home to Daddy, but when I told her that she can return without me as I am not ready to leave Singapore, the shopping and food, 可是我会没有妈妈, BUT I will be without Mummy. She says.

Sweet!

Dp and I are, still hoping she lose some of her strong Yuncheng accent (she picks up from people around us) and learns more english.
She also sings her english children songs with hint of chinese accent, like how London Bridge is-s falling down…
Ye-s! It’s really quite funny, for now.
And especially after watching Lucy on the Noose. :p

Cousins in HK, originally uploaded by judebabe.

The cousins met in Hong Kong.

They didn’t have a lot of time to play together, but they did give each other plenty of sisterly hugs and kisses when they met.

Amanda never plays / bothers with kids younger than her.
Kids prefer older kids, but she loves and plays with her cousin.
Blood is indeed thicker than water.

New summer activity., originally uploaded by judebabe.

Last weekend, we brought the kids in our estate to the new clubhouse / gym / pool.

They were all very excited. Running about in the new empty pool.

Other than the progressive slope, it was relatively stress-free.

Just put them in it and watch them run and play in the rather open space.

The boys especially.
They have high energy level and it can be tiring for Amanda and us to keep up.

They did so much running in the morning, that they were all exhausted after lunch.

Can’t wait for clubhouse to open in summer.
Managed by Dp’s team, finally, we have a clean pool, we can trust in Yuncheng.

Colors!, originally uploaded by judebabe.

Amanda is into colors and coloring activities these days.

She also take interest in identifying the colors of our clothes and the surrounding.

Her favorite page in her current favorite book would a page about colors and mixing colors.

While she can’t converse in English, she knows her colors in English.

And I have been popping up sentences in English every now and then, hoping that one day she will eventually and totally understands me.
Instead of just replying "yeah!", which she is her answer to almost all my questions.

As soon as she is able to, will send her to English classes here.

Wow! I haven’t done a birthday post for a long time.
And now that you are 21! You definitely deserve one!

I still the remember the night, you whatsapp-ed me at 2 in the morning, about your scholarship (& bond), I started to get worried and miss you!

It was also because I had a dream, few nights before, about me returning to UK for studies alone, I was afraid and without Amanda.
The thing with age, is you crave more stability and certainties.
And without Amanda with me, it was enough to turn that dream into nightmare.

I know its silly but your message kept me up, a little longer than usual, that night, I thought about you living in London and my experience back then.
Until I did my math (seriously, other than simple counting with Amanda, I hardly add or subtract these days), I realized I was a year younger than you when I started my course in UK.
And your 2 year National Service certainly toughened you up and did you good!

And next, I thought about how you already have a future and the next 10 years (4 years of studies in London, and a 6 years bond, though I really don’t know if bond is a good thing) laid ahead of you.
And well, you probably have more to gain out of this situation.
Seriously, I never thought much of those ‘career-planning’ talks or exhibition while I was in school, and it hit me how you were already planning for your future when you talked to me about pilots, a few years ago.

Though Dp, first reaction was, Yeah! We can all go visit Andrew in London. (With you in UK, he now a very good reason to go apply for the visa to UK.)
We certainly talked with a lot of pride, when we were telling his dad, his uncle and relatives, What a good boy you are! And getting this scholarship!

I am sure you are looking forward to the new experience living in the UK.

And I thought here are some stuffs I like to share, so instead of sending you an email, I thought I write them down in this blog for you!
(A chance for me to refresh this blog and talk about something else.)

- 在家靠父母 在外靠朋友

You will soon learn that this is very true! In fact, I think Pa said the same to me before.

One way or another I sure you will meet and get to know a lot of Singaporeans in your university.
They offer good advice, help and support.
You too, will make friends from all over the world.
And have some very very good friends for life during your 4 years in Uni. Like I did.
I am not just referring Dp, the only help he offered and gave, was washing the dishes, every time after we cooked him dinner. :p

And the flatmates (assuming you live in school’s accommodation and can’t pick your roommates), if you are lucky, you get the considerate ones.
Otherwise, I have heard stories, about a sink full of dirty dishes, picking and washing only when they need it, in the shared kitchen.
Ha! I have friends who almost got evicted from their flat, for their really really dirty kitchen! Eeks!

- Dinner. And of course, food!

I am sure it’s going to be very different for you living in London than it is for me in Manchester.
Especially when we (Gwen and I) didn’t live in the city. It is very quiet around us at night.

You living in a much bigger city, London, going to a better University with huge campuses and lots of students.
Will probably more choices and readily available near you.
Enjoy a full English breakfast. Eating fish and chips with vinegar. And meat pies.

However, one of the most memorable thing about living away from Home, was to cook and all the potlucks we had with friends.
This way, you don’t get too homesick.

I suggest you to start learning how to make a few easy to make home-made chinese dishes from Ma now.
You will miss them.
Learn to marinate chicken. Stir-fry vegetables or something.

Thinking back, the best thing I brought over was a rice cooker.
Saved me a lot of trouble, and I heard you can do steamboats and noodles in it too. Just a thought.
I have friends, who bring brings back to rice cooker, pots or woks, to sell to their local Chinese community in UK, coz its really expensive there. I think.

With friends, we also made weekly trips to the Chinatown in Manchester. Getting lunch and buying what we need for the week.
Manchester has the 2nd largest Chinatown in UK, with the largest in London.

Then, there always pastas and sauces, that are relatively easy to buy from the supermarket and make.
Plus they have a really wide variety of frozen food.

- Laundry.

Ah! The other thing about living away from the comfort of home.
Clothes don’t magically get cleaned when dumped into the laundry basket.

I will always remember taking out a shrunk purple wool sweater from the washing machine. So just follow a few simple
- Wash dark colors and light colors desperately. Unless you like tie-dyes.
- Always wash at 30-40 degrees.
- Do not wash knits or wool with first putting them in a laundry mesh bag. To prevent from losing their shape.
- Lay knitwears flat to dry. Again, to prevent them from stretching and losing shape.

I can’t think of anything else to add now,
I am sure you will learn all about living in UK… somehow.

Most importantly, I am also hoping you learn to be street smart.

Its especially important to learn to protect yourself and keeping yourself safe from any potential dangerous situation, in London and anywhere, which I am sure you will be doing some traveling while you are there too.

I don’t want to stress you too much from being relaxed, but its good that you are always aware of situation and environment around you at all times.

OK! I don’t mean to nag… too much!
If I did, this is what Dp and motherhood turned me into.

Enjoy the rest of the day.
See you next month! :)

Love,
Sis.

Previous birthday posts.

2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

Never knew I was so consistent with posting about your birthdays! hee!

Loves the falling petals from the tree, we (violently) shook.

Because of their 12 months age difference, Yi-bo is my favorite friend to play with for Amanda.
It could be Yi-bo’s nature too, that they are always so friendly with one another, shares and not fight.

Unlike Amanda and her favorite cousin (2yrs and 3 months difference), when they miss other, they are very close but after a while they begin to fight and wouldn’t share their toys.
Some thing I noticed even when Amanda was just 8 months old, she gets really mad, pulls Zhuo’s ears and grabs his t-shirt to stop him when he plays with her baby toys! (Read old post and see the once-chubby Amanda here!)

And when Amanda and Yi-bo are playing outside, they scoot and run together.
Their distance are never too far from each other, unlike running with the older boys.

They were both very fast on their scooters, that we have to run and catch up.
In fact, when Yi-bo can’t catch up with Amanda, he got off his scooter and ran!

Btw, Micro scooter rocks!
The ride is so smooth and Amanda is so fast on it.
She probably need some improvement with the steering, which I am sure she will master it in no time.

Now, I really need to get Amanda to nag at Daddy to get her bicycle wheels fixed.

＊Just overheard Amanda asking her Daddy a question out of the blue，爸爸，你几岁了？我两岁半了！Hee！

Thumb up!, originally uploaded by judebabe.

Amanda had a cut on her thumb from a sharp edge of a table when we were out.

There was a lot of blood and she cried as she probably has never bled or seen so much blood before.

For the last two days, whether she was walking, playing with toys, with my iPhone, watching TV, eating or asleep.
Her thumb was always up.

She was also very protective and careful about keeping her left hand dry and keeping the bandage on.

This, however did not stop her from eating her favorite peanuts, I saw her crushing her a peanut with only her right hand.
It also puzzles me why she loves nuts and pumpkin seeds so much.

Seeing how much she can do with her right hand, she definitely not left-handed like me.

Spring!, originally uploaded by judebabe.

Last week, It felt like winter again.
Cold, dreary and very strong winds.

Hope spring is here to stay… For awhile. :)

Two days before we returned to China last November, we all attended Andrew’s Passing out parade.
I was quite sure that it meant a lot to Andrew and so we decided to stay a few days longer for the parade.
This passing out parade, marks the end of his 2 years of national service.

The evening wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t too hot with occasional breeze.
I was expecting to be sweaty, with an fidgety girl and buzzing mosquitoes. :p

And just when Amanda started to be impatient, she was greeted by the men marching into the parade square and giving commands for the rest to join in.

Of course, Amanda was a lot more impressed by the stars of the evening, the smart men in white Number One (wonder I got the many terms right?).
Because I told her, Kaofu is one of them.

We later joined kaofu on the parade square.
Took Amanda a while to warm up, as she was very careful around Kaofu’s rifle.

I think everyone is somewhat relieved that National Service is over, but I guess they will all be missing their life in the Army.

We too took a family portrait a few days before the parade.

I don’t know why my eyes looked half-opened in all the photos taken at the studio.

Picking strawberries., originally uploaded by judebabe.

Last Sunday, we brought Amanda to pick strawberries.

She was on a mission to pick red and pretty (decently shaped) strawberries.
And then quickly stuffed freshly picked 奶油草莓 into her mouth.

She certainly enjoyed picking and eating them.