myJournal

Long leave

April 5, 2006

I will be going back to work next Monday. Have been on long leave for three weeks now. The third maid has been sacked. We are waiting for the fourth to come. Maids are big headache. It is hard to find a good one. After the first one went back after her two years contract, we have been changing maids one after another. The second one was too slow and could not communicate with my mother-in-law. The third one was weird - smiled and talked to herself, wanted us to call her ibu (meaning mother – kind of respect for her), and kept calling xuan xuan nani... do not know what that means tho. Anyway, I had a kind of funny feeling with her around and do not feel safe with her. Moreover she has an evil look - the photo given by the agent was deceiving. So instead of waiting for a new maid to come and then sending her back to the agent, I decided that we sent her off and I take leave to look after xuan myself.

Time with xuan at home has been busy but fun! She’s quite independent now. I can leave her at the computer and she will play and navigate the Sesame Street website by herself. I was amazed! She actually saw me clicking a few times in the beginning and later after calling me to help her but to no avail, she did it herself. I would always be in the kitchen cooking her porridge, and she would always keep shouting for mummy to help her navigate to the next game on Sesame Street. I would shout back from the kitchen asking her to wait. After a while, she didn’t bother to shout for me anymore. She did it herself! She is only 3 years and 2 months. She knew the explorer icon is to surf the net. She knows how to operate the VCD, put in and eject disc, play and stop movies. It saves me lots of trouble having to move to and fro changing discs for her – especially with a big tummy!

Last Saturday (1 April), we went to the SAF Yacht Club. Stayed one night there and I must say she enjoyed playing the big swing and the slide.

Now she dares to walk into the lift, get up and down the car without anyone helping her. She has been forced to do this under such circumstances when her mummy cannot carry her anymore. She is such as darling. I have also been giving her lots of porridge, Now she eats more then what she used to. I’m very happy!

Her daddy has also gone for a three-weeks in-camp reservist. Now it is home alone for me and xuan. Some days, I would bring her to AMK so that ma-ma could help out a bit. Overall, the three-weeks leave has been worth it. But there is no news of the maid yet and I have to go back to work on Monday. All my leave has almost been taken up! I hope ma-ma is able to handle her alone.

Interesting encountance

April 5, 2006

One day, xuan went to her toy box to retrieve her book but the book was too heavy for her. She called out “Help me… help me…”

I was busy and could not attend to her. So she continued, “nobody help me. WHY? Why nobody help me?”

She is so cute.

On another occasion when the maid was still around. Maid wanted to carry her to her rocker but may have accidentally pulled her clothes, so xuan said, “Don’t pull my clothes! You must carry me, not pull my clothes, wait my clothes spoilt…”

There’s another day when I called her “Darling, come here”, she replied saying “Darling busy ah…”

She is so adorable. Sometimes she is just so mischievous. She would repeat every single words that I used to warn her and tried to be funny. She is very chatty and fun. Sometimes she would simply ask her questions repeatedly or pass some innocent remarks and construct sentences that amaze you! She is a good companion!