Today is the first day of World Cup, Germany 2006. At my company SCB there is a company-wide game. Each SCB country is assigned to a World Cup team. If your World Cup team wins the World Cup, then some of the staff of that SCB country will get prizes. So, naturally every SCB staff will hope that their country will be assigned to one of the favourite World Cup teams like Brazil, Argentina, Italy, England, Germany etc. Today we found out the assignments (which were randomly drawn). Malaysia was assigned Cote d'Ivoire... *sigh*... 绝望 (no hope). I hereby apologise to the Cote d'Ivoire team.

Yesterday afternoon Michelle and her mum had a great time watching Shee Yun play ball. She played with the small red-and-yellow striped rubber ball which is about the size of a large apple. She threw the ball and then raised her arms above her head to clap. Then she picked up the ball and repeated. Usually she just claps with her arms in front of her. She rarely claps with arms above her head. She must be quite excited.

We went to KFC for dinner last night. There is a new KFC branch near our home. We let Shee Yun eat some fries. We put tomato sauce on the overturned lid of the coleslaw container, so that she could dip some sauce while she ate. She did that. Later she used her whole hand to grab and play with the tomato sauce. Her whole hand was full of tomato sauce. What a mess.

This morning she woke up at 6am. She made some noise and wanted to come out to play, but Michelle asked her to go back to sleep. She didn't sleep, but just lay back down in her cot, and played with her dolls etc, until 7am when I woke up.

We always try to make her nap twice in a day, around 10am and around 2pm. Recently she sometimes doesn't want to sleep, so some days she only naps once. We still try to make her nap twice, because sleeping time is growing time for children.

Last night when Michelle tried to give her milk, she refused and cried. Michelle said sternly, "喝!" (drink!) and she cried even more. Naughty girl. She cried for a long time. Eventually she didn't drink a drop of milk. I drank the whole bottle. Same thing this morning. She completely refused to drink milk and cried. I wonder whether it's because the milk reminded her of how Michelle scolded her last night. So we gave the milk to the abandoned kitten which Michelle brought home yesterday.

Sometimes when Michelle sits on the floor, Shee Yun likes to hug her from behind. Her arms are only long enough to grab both of Michelle's shoulders. She rests her head on Michelle's back. That is so sweet. Sometimes she plays with Michelle's pony tail and laughs.

Today I let Shee Yun play with my "History of the World" boardgame. The box has 8 compartments, each holding plastic bags containing the various game components - plastic toy soldiers, cards, and cardboard chips. She kept picking up and putting down the bags into different compartments, sometimes stacking the bags on one another. She quite enjoyed it and played for a long time.

My cousin's wife gave birth to their first baby yesterday evening. We visited them today. It was also at Hospital UKM, where Shee Yun was born. Being there reminded me a lot of the day when Shee Yun was born. Shee Yun was very excited to see the baby and kept wanting to touch the baby. We let her stroke the baby gently, and she kept asking for more. We were worried she might be too rough, but she wasn't at all. That's a good 姐姐(elder sister).

Sometimes Shee Yun likes to laze around on the floor. She'd put Tubby (or a pillow) on the floor, and bury her face in Tubby (or the pillow), lying on the floor. Sometimes she lies on the floor on her back. She only started doing this recently.

Last night we went to Michelle's ex-colleague Janet's wedding dinner which was at Cyberjaya. Shee Yun was very active. While waiting for the dinner to start, we let her walk around the lobby area. She kept walking here and there and I followed her. She really enjoyed exploring the lobby. I had to follow her and guard her to make sure people don't walk into her, or open a door and hit her.

At the dinner she smiled a lot at other people. When people smile at her or play with her, she smiles back. So everyone said she's a good girl. We stayed until about 9:30pm, which is almost to the last dish. I guess Shee Yun is older now and doesn't get sleepy as quickly as before. But soon after we got on the car she fell asleep.

I find that after starting this blog I tend to write more. I feel an urge to make an update every day. It gives me satisfaction to see my updated blog.

Yesterday Michelle took some photos of Shee Yun eating small shreds of chicken and tomato sauce. Shee Yun made a real mess of herself. There was tomato sauce on her forehead, a bit in her hair, on her cheeks, all over her mouth, on her hands. It was quite disgusting. Michelle and her mum found it very funny. I also find it a bit scary. Michelle thinks Shee Yun enjoys the tomato sauce more than the chicken.

Michelle's aunt (father's side), Aunty Molly, passed away very suddenly yesterday morning. We just had lunch with her last month. We were very shocked. Michelle's father came to KL last night.

Shee Yun has her regular medical check-up and vaccine injection today. Her height and weight are 75.6cm and 8.14kg. She's petite, but doctor said it's fine as long as she's growing. Michelle chatted very long with the doctor, seeking advice on how to encourage Shee Yun to drink more milk, eat more rice etc. Shee Yun was happily exploring the doctor's office and playing with various toys.

Shee Yun sometimes like to bend backwards, especially when she's in her high chair. She likes to stand up and then bend her neck and head backwards. It's dangerous and I always tell her to sit down. Sometimes we're forced to buckle her up using the safety belt of the high chair.

At dinner time last night she laughed at my slicing mango. She found it very funny whenever I slice a piece of mango skin off the mango. She chuckled when she saw that.

Michelle invented a new game to play with Shee Yun last night. She'd say 蚂蚁蚂蚁爬到树上去 (ants, ants, climbing up the tree), and approach Shee Yun with both hands like claws, threatening to tickle her. She'd tickle her body or her head. Shee Yun laughed and tried to shrink away even before Michelle touched her.

Shee Yun recently has a bad habit of pushing food out of her mouth. Sometimes if we give something to her that she doesn't feel like eating, she pushes the food out of her mouth. That's bad habit and it's impolite. We need to teach her to stop doing it. When Michelle described Shee Yun's behaviour to the doctor, even the doctor noted down in her report that Shee Yun is a "fussy eater".

It can be tricky to ask Shee Yun whether she wants milk ("要不要喝nen nen?"). Sometimes she can nod, and even nod multiple times when being asked multiple times, but when Michelle makes the milk, she doesn't drink it, or only drinks very little of it. And I have to finish the rest of it.

Today near Shee Yun's bed time Michelle asked her whether she wants milk. She nodded. Then I asked her again. She nodded again, and smiled. I asked her a few more times. She nodded and smiled and then even giggled. It seemed to us it was a wicked and cunning smile, as if she was laying a trap for me. Michelle had a good laugh, while I worried whether Shee Yun was just tricking us into making milk, but would not drink it after it was made. Thankfully she did want to drink milk and she finished it.

This morning we brought Shee Yun to the park. We didn't bring the stroller since nowadays she doesn't like sitting in it anymore. So I carried her most of the way. (she also often doesn't want to walk by herself - I think she's impatient)

At the park we met an Indonesian maid taking care of a baby boy. She spoke Mandarin very fluently and we were very surprised. She actually preferred to speak Mandarin with us, although at first Michelle spoke Malay. She has been working in Malaysia for 2 years.

There were some middle-aged ladies dancing to music at the children's playground. When we brought Shee Yun towards them, she froze in a strange pose. It's like a 钟馗 (Zhong Kui - a Chinese god who specialises in catching ghosts and demons) pose. Her left hand was raised to shoulder level and holding a fist. Her right hand was raised slightly lower and her finger was pointing. She froze with that pose while watching the dancing ladies. Even when we talked to her only her eyes moved to look at us. Her face didn't turn at all.

After a while, Michelle squatted down and called her, and she walked quickly to Michelle and hugged her.

Since yesterday Shee Yun walked like a headmaster. She walked with both her hands behind her back, like a headmaster inspecting classes. We found it very funny. I called Shee Yun 校长 (headmaster) and Michelle called her 老板 (boss).

Today Han, Chee Seng and Ricky came to play boardgames. We played A Game of Thrones, a game which I bought in early 2004 and only had the chance to play now. Shee Yun kept giving things to Chee Seng. I find that when there are friends around, Shee Yun behaves better. She doesn't throw a tantrum easily.

At night Michelle played a lot with Shee Yun. Shee Yun laughed a lot, screamed, squealed, talked a lot. It's a real joy to watch them play, and to hear their laughter.

Shee Yun has a tendency to want to watch TV from a close distance. She tends to stand up, walk closer to the TV, and just stand there to continue watching. Sometimes she points at the TV. However, what she does most often (we think) is she stands up and walk to something else which is nearer to the TV from where she was originally sitting. She plays with the object, or points at it, and then after that remain at that place to continue watching TV. We think she is just pretending to play with the other object or to be distracted by the other object, but she actually just wants to find an excuse to go closer to the TV. So we often have to go to her and carry her back to where she originally sat.

I find that Shee Yun is a bit thin. Actually since her last last medical check-up, we have known that her height is about average, just that her weight is below average (according to a standard baby growth chart). However I've always felt she is chubby (although not as chubby as when she was 3-6 months old). Only when I recently took a photo of her wearing only her diapers I found that she's a bit thin. Probably it's because she doesn't have much patience to eat. She just likes to try what other people are eating. Thankfully she is active and playful, and she seldom falls sick. So I think she is healthy and strong.

Michelle switches off the power outlet in the sitting room (which is for the TV) using her toe, if she is carrying Shee Yun in her arms. Yesterday Shee Yun imitated her and tried using her foot to switch off the power outlet. Michelle had a good laugh. Shee Yun sometimes switches off the power outlet to my computer. She has done that twice when the computer was on. Thankfully I didn't lose much data. We scolded her and spanked her hand to tell her not to play with the power outlet.

Shee Yun was very naughty yesterday and gave Michelle a hard time. She cried and threw a tantrum when she was not allowed to play with something she wanted, e.g. the electric mosquito-killing racket. Michelle just let her cry a while and did not give in. Shee Yun needs to learn there are things she should not play with.

At night Michelle played with Shee Yun on the master bed. Michelle lay down and Shee Yun sat next to her. Shee Yun had the pacifier in her mouth, and approached Michelle as if she wanted to kiss Michelle on the cheek. She was dripping saliva (even with the pacifier). Michelle told her not to kiss her with all that saliva. Shee Yun responded by taking out the pacifier and approaching Michelle even more, with threatening saliva all over her mouth. Michelle screamed and laughed, and Shee Yun also laughed.

I let Shee Yun see some of her older photos and videos (when she was around 3 to 6 months old). She smiled and laughed. I don't know whether she knew she was looking at herself. She likes looking at babies. She laughs when she sees the sun with a baby's face in the Teletubbies Oooh! VCD. She makes noise and points at pictures of babies, e.g. a torn page from a magazine at my bedside table.

We have bought a tooth brush for Shee Yun quite some time ago, but never had much success in persuading her to brush her teeth. Now we are more determined to teach her to brush her teeth. She likes to eat all sorts of food, but doesn't like to drink water. So we are worried she might get cavities. Now we have bought tooth paste for her. When she is having her evening bath, Michelle bathes her and I will brush my teeth in front of her. At the same time we give her her tooth brush (with tooth paste). Sometimes Michelle brushes her teeth. Sometimes we just let her try to brush her own teeth. Hopefully we can cultivate this habit in her.

Yesterday we dismissed our maid Sum and sent her to the maid agency. So today Michelle has do many more chores. This morning Shee Yun woke up very early at around 5:30am. In the morning when Michelle washed the clothes, Shee Yun accompanied her. Shee Yun played with the clothes, transferring them from one bucket to another. By the time Michelle finished the laundry Shee Yun was all wet and had to be dried and changed into dry clothes. But she has enjoyed "helping" mama.

Today at the hospital Shee Yun broke her biscuit into two pieces and shyly offered one to a stranger. She was shy so she didn't approach the gentleman, but just reached out her hand holding the biscuit.

Shee Yun can walk up and down the stairs by herself. She holds on to the railing with both hands and walks slowly but quite surely. If I hold one or both of her hands she will be bolder and takes quick and large steps, because she knows I will be holding her.

Shee Yun doesn't talk our language. She doesn't say "baba" or "mama" (although she had done so a few times in the past, but those were very rare). Sometimes she talks her own language, but mostly she just makes sounds or gestures to express herself. She can understand us well enough. When we ask her where is moon she look up into the sky. When we ask her where is bird, she looks up and points at the birds. When we ask her where is nose, she points at her ear. Michelle says that Shee Yun sometimes says 不要 (bu4 yao4) this way - "biao-o-o", but I can't tell whether she's really saying it or just making noise.

This morning my fruit juice contains grapefruit juice, so it is quite sour and also a little bitter. Shee Yun saw it and wanted some. I gave her a little sip. After that Michelle asked her whether she wanted more. She shook her head without hesitation.

We have not started potty training Shee Yun. But sometimes she manages to tell us that she has poo'ed in her diaper. Sometimes she does it by pointing at the side or back of her diaper. Sometimes she points at her stomach. Since a long time ago Michelle can tell when Shee Yun wants to or has poo'ed. I still cannot do it now. Michelle can tell from Shee Yun's facial expression that she is peeing or pooing, or wants to do so. We'll probably only start potty training Shee Yun when she starts to talk. We did buy a potty for her quite some time ago, but it was too small. Eventually it was used to store washing powder for baby's clothes (don't worry, it's clean and was never used).

In the evening Michelle let Shee Yun wear a red hat and a Qatar Airways toiletries bag (the one we got in our Egypt tour). Shee Yun looked like a Japanese tourist. She liked how she looked and kept looking in the mirror at herself. She even kissed herself in the mirror. When she was younger she disliked hats because they were uncomfortable. Now she likes them because they look pretty.

I was away at Pulau Redang over the weekend for a company trip. We travelled by coach, leaving on Friday night, and coming back late on Sunday evening. I have thought about bringing Michelle and Shee Yun, but thankfully I decided against it, because the bus ride was very tough. Some parts were bumpy, the seat was not suitable for sleeping, it was very cold etc. So today I took a one-day leave to rest, also to spend some time with Michelle and Shee Yun, because I really miss spending time with them on the weekend.

When Shee Yun was younger, she had a fear of one of my boardgames Ingenious, which has a black bag and black plastic pieces with 2 coloured symbols on each piece. We don't know why she was afraid of it. At first we thought it was because of the black bag, but turned out it wasn't, because she played with it. It didn't seem to be the individual pieces either. Our guess was the sound made by the pieces when shuffling them in the bag. Today we tried to let her play with it. She has forgotten her fear and happily played with it.

Michelle thought up a new trick to make Shee Yun drink water. Shee Yun sometimes uses her toy spade to scoop up water from her bath tub to drink when we bathe her. We keep telling her to stop doing it but she keeps doing it. Learning from that, Michelle puts water into a bowl and gives Shee Yun a Chinese style soup spoon (汤匙). Shee Yun happily scoops the water and drinks it. It's fun to her.

Nowadays I usually bathe Shee Yun for her evening bath. I still don't quite know how to wash her hair for her. When I wash her hair, I pour water onto her head. The water will flow into her eyes and she dislikes it. She gets impatient and wants to stop bathing. I don't know how to ask her to close her eyes, or lower her head, or any other method to make it less annoying for her.

One thing I'm happy that Shee Yun has learnt is that she knows when she's sleepy and she wants to sleep. Sometimes when Michelle asks her whether she wants to sleep (要不要 oi3 oi2?) she nods and lets Michelle carry her to her bed.

Nowadays Shee Yun can be quite independent. Generally, we can leave her to play by herself and can trust her not to do anything dangerous. We don't need to sit next to her all the time to guard her or accompany her. She can walk now and can explore the house by herself, looking for things to play with. She is careful when climbing stairs or steps, so we don't need to worry about her falling down. We don't need to buy a baby safety gate for our staircase.

Now usually Michelle doesn't need to make Shee Yun sleep by carrying her and rocking her. She can put Shee Yun in her cot and let her go to sleep by herself. Yesterday afternoon Shee Yun played with my alarm clock in her cot until she fell asleep by herself.

Yesterday Shee Yun played with colour pens. Michelle gave her a piece of paper to draw on. She knew how to take the cap off the colour pen, draw, and then put the cap back on. Sometimes she drew on the floor. Thankfully it could be easily wiped clean using the baby wipes. But the colour on Shee Yun's hands will take a few days to be fully washed away. We need to watch her when she's playing with colour pens, because she has put a colour pen into her mouth before. Thankfully she didn't do it this time.

Yesterday at Sushi King Shee Yun kept looking at the waitresses and smiling at them. She likes to watch them do their work. The manager gave her a Yakult yogurt drink, which she finished it very quickly.

When Shee Yun plays with toys or reads books, sometimes she talks to herself. She makes a "haaaa-o" sound, which is like a sigh. It starts with a high pitch and goes something this in hanyu pinyin: "ha4 a3 o2". She has learnt a new way of flipping pages. She pinches the page near the lower corner, which allows her to grab the page, and then she flips the page. In the past she liked to hold the side of a page and try to split it. This is because her earlier books are chunky books where each page is thick cardboard. So she could flip or open pages this way. Sometimes she even tore a page because she was trying to open up two pages when there was only one page.

At bath time Shee Yun laughed a lot when playing with the water bomb balls I bought at Pulau Redang. I smashed the ball against the wall and the water splashed out. She laughed heartily every time I did that. After that she even played with the ball herself, smashing it against the wall.

In the evening Shee Yun stood at my boardgame shelf and tugged at the Blokus boardgame. She was not strong enough to take it off the shelf or carry it by herself, so I helped her bring it into the bedroom and let her play with it. After letting her play by herself for a while, we tried using it to teach her colours. We put all the pieces into their respective compartments, but put one piece into a wrong compartment. Then we asked her to move it to the right compartment. And she knew how to do it! We clapped when she did it correctly, and encouraged her to try again if she got it wrong. She enjoyed playing it.

We looked at some of the videos of Shee Yun stored in my PC. She is so different when she was 7 months old. I'm glad I took so many videos of her. These are all precious memories. Michelle thinks I tend to film for too long in each video clip. But I always say memories are priceless, so no harm capturing more.

When I want to ask Shee Yun where her nose / ear is, I usually give her a warning by say "Baba is going to ask you something" (爸爸问你啊...), and then only proceed to ask her "Where is nose?" (鼻子在哪里?). Today before I even finished the first sentence she had already quickly put her hand on her right ear and grinned at me. She still keeps pointing at her ear every time I ask her where her nose is.

Michelle keeps the fish bones left over from dinner, so that she can feed them to cats, and then let Shee Yun watch the cats. Shee Yun loves watching cats. Today she watched a cat eat from the kitchen door (the grill is closed). When the cat had finished with the fish bones, it came to the door and rubbed itself against the grill. Shee Yun went to take two packs of Maggi noodles and offered them to the cat.

I played "guess which one" with Shee Yun today. I took a Megablok, put it behind my back with both my hands, put the Megablok in one of my hands, then held out both hands to let Shee Yun guess which hand was hiding the Megablok. If she guessed right I praised her. If she guessed wrong I waited until she opened the other hand before praising her. She enjoyed playing and asked to play again and again.

Shee Yun likes playing with a mini jigsaw puzzle set, featuring various animals. Well, she usually takes it apart and Michelle or I have to put the puzzle back together for her, and then she takes it apart again. Today Michelle took one of the horse pieces and made it gallop like a horse, making the "kutuk kutuk" sound. Shee Yun imitated by taking another piece and banging it up and down.

Sometimes I like to ask Shee Yun to hold something for me while I carry her. Sometimes it's the door keys or car keys, sometimes a letter to be sent. It keeps her occupied and she doesn't give any trouble. I'd say to her "帮爸爸拿这个" and give the object to her. She holds on to it well and rarely drops it.

This morning when we brought her to the park, we let her play with the slide. I let her slide down, but I have one hand behind her head in case she knocks herself against the slide. She enjoyed playing.

At Carrefour hypermarket when we let her out of the shopping cart she went to play with the instant noodles. She refused when I wanted to carry her away. She took the noodles out and then put them back. She also stacked up some bowl noodles. She played for a long time there, until even Michelle had finished the rest of the grocery shopping.

Michelle has taught Shee Yun how to play with her wooden blocks (积木). I only found out today, when I saw her put one block standing upright on the floor, and then one by one put other blocks onto one another.

Shee Yun likes playing with her toothbrush now. It has only been a short while that I started brushing my teeth at the same time as her. This morning when I bathed her, she complained and pointed at the place where we put our toothbrushes. She wanted to brush her teeth, although I didn't intend to make her brush her teeth for the morning bath. So I gave her the toothbrush to play with. She was not satisfied. She kept pointing at the same place. Then I realised she wanted the toothpaste too. The toothpaste is a children's toothpaste and tastes sweet. So I gave her some toothpaste on her toothbrush.

She seemed to understand 脱鞋子 (taking off shoes) now. In the late afternoon Michelle went outside to hang the laundry. Shee Yun heard it and wanted to go outside too, so we let her wear her shoes and go outside. After coming back in, Michelle said 脱鞋子 and she immediately responded by opening the velcro strap of her shoes.

Shee Yun drips saliva often now. This didn't happen when she was younger. I think it only started in the recent few months. Sometimes if we don't watch her closely enough, her neck and chest will be all wet with saliva.

Sometimes Shee Yun cannot stay still. Yesterday when she poo'ed and Michelle was cleaning her and changing her diaper, she couldn't stay still. Her hand reached for her groin area. And later she even pulled the dirty diaper from under her. Michelle spanked her arm. She wanted to cry but didn't cry out, because she knew she did something wrong. She just looked at Michelle with a frown (扁嘴).

Yesterday I saw for myself how Shee Yun offered Maggi mee to the stray cat. It's funny to see her walking from the door to the Maggi tray and bringing the packets of Maggi back and forth. She even put the Maggi packets neatly on the grill of the door. The grill is just simple vertical and horizontal bars making a grid of squares, so Shee Yun put some Maggi packets in the squares.

Sometimes Shee Yun climbs the grill of the back door. Michelle has seen her climb up to the 4th step, which is quite high. Thankfully she is very careful and climbs back down very slowly.

At home, Michelle says Shee Yun often talks to herself loudly or shouts. It's good that she's so active.

One thing that I'm teaching Shee Yun is to put things back to where they belong. I want to cultivate this habit in her. Nowadays we usually have to tidy up for her, putting her toys and books back to their places. But sometimes I'll ask her to put something back to where it came from, and she'd understand and she'd do it. E.g. the Maggi packs back to the Maggi tray, the toy train back to the shelf. Yesterday I asked her to carry a small rotan tray of toys back to the shelf, and she did it.

Lately she seems to dislike taking a bath. I worry it's because of me, because it is only recently that I started bathing her regularly. I always make water go into her eyes and nose when washing her hair, so she doesn't like it. I need to find a different way. Yesterday during bath time, she played with the two dippers. She patted the water in the dippers. She also picked up a dipper and poured out the water.

I often tend to forget little things when helping to take care of Shee Yun. I always forget to comb her hair after shower. I often forget to have her wear socks and shoes when we go out. Even during bath time sometimes I forget to prepare the rubber mat or towels or pyjamas or Drapolene or diaper beforehand. I need more practice.

Shee Yun likes playing with our blanket. She'd hide under it, and we'd find her. Sometimes we uncover the top, sometimes we flip open the blanket from the bottom. She enjoys playing it. It's another form of hide-and-seek that we play with her. Last night before her bed time she kept making herself fall down in her bed, turning and pouncing, and then stacking her pillows, blankets etc all around her, and then she looked at us and grinned.

Today my colleague Jen Jen gave me a baby car seat. So I have to drive to work today instead of taking the LRT. Now that we don't have a maid any more, Michelle cannot drive out when I'm at work because there's no one to take care of Shee Yun in the car. With a car seat it will be more flexible for Michelle. Hopefully Shee Yun can be contented sitting in the car seat and not make a fuss. In the morning Shee Yun seemed a bit puzzled that I'm driving to work instead of us taking a walk together to the LRT station. She looked like she wanted to get into the car too.

Today at dinner time when I was cutting watermelon Shee Yun found it extremely funny and laughed every time I cut it. I ended up cutting it into many many small pieces. I don't know why she finds cutting fruits so funny. It was the same last time when I cut a mango.

Now she often likes to watch her Teletubbies VCD when in the bedroom. She points at the TV and asks Michelle to play the VCD for her.

In the past few days I noticed that sometimes Shee Yun picks up her hankerchief and wipes her mouth or her face. She did it voluntarily without us asking her to do so. I wonder whether she's just playing.

Today when Michelle was playing with some flash cards with Shee Yun, she pointed at one of the pictures on the flash card and said "fan" (风扇). Then Shee Yun pointed at our ceiling fan. We were pleasantly surprised.

When Michelle goes outside to the back of the house to hang laundry, Shee Yun wants to follow too. Sometimes she plays by herself, sometimes she tries to help. Sometimes Michelle asks her to pass hangers to her. Before Michelle hangs up a piece of clothing, she flaps it to straighten it. Shee Yun tries to imitate that. She picks up a piece of clothing and shakes it before giving it to Michelle.

Lately Shee Yun is often naughty at home, e.g. not willing to sleep even when she is tired, or pouring her Vitagen yogurt drink onto the floor. Michelle said when she spanks Shee Yun, Shee Yun initially doesn't dare to cry because she understands she has done something wrong. But after a while she'll cry because she's being punished. In the mornings when they send me to the LRT station, I'd tell Shee Yun to be a good girl at home.

Michelle is having cold sores. She started feeling pain in her gums since a few days ago. Yesterday morning when her lips started showing some swelling we went to see the doctor. Hopefully it will go away quickly.

This morning when I brought Shee Yun out for a walk, I asked her where is nose and she pointed correctly at her nose! (maybe it helped that I also pointed at my nose at the time) Then I asked her where is ear and she pointed at her ear correctly too! I was thrilled. Unfortunately later at home when Michelle asked her where is nose she pointed at her ear (as usual). So it seems this morning's event is a one-time thing. We will still need to continue trying...

During the morning walk around the block I taught Shee Yun to "sayang" the plants. This is to prevent her from pulling and tearing the leaves. She followed my example and gently stroked the plants. We met two cats, one black and one light orange & white. They were not afraid of Shee Yun and came close to us. Shee Yun went close to them. She looked like she wanted to touch them, but she didn't. She just went very close to them and bended her waist to look at them.

Michelle often calls Shee Yun "Ah1 Long1" (a Hakka slang), because she is bold and reckless and goes anywhere she wants without being afraid of falling down or knocking into anything. Sometimes Michelle also calls her "Ah1 Ngiu3" (阿牛 - the bull).

Today when bathing Shee Yun I found there were many bruises and scratches on her legs. I suspect she got those when I brought her out today, in the morning and in the late afternoon. I let her walk and explore by herself while I follow her. Sometimes she fell down and got up by herself. I think she must have got the bruises when she fell down.

In the afternoon walk she patted a white & orange cat. The cat didn't run away. She patted the cat's belly lightly. She liked it and laughed. Once we got home the first thing I did was to wash her hands.

The splash balls I bought from Pulau Redang turned out to be very useful when bathing Shee Yun. I used the ball to absorb water, and then squeezed the water to wash Shee Yun's hair. This way there isn't too much water (compared to pouring from a dipper), and Shee Yun doesn't so uncomfortable.

Shee Yun was very naughty today. I took emergency leave today to bring Michelle to see a doctor at Hospital UKM, and to help with some housework and with taking care of Shee Yun, so that she can rest properly. Michelle's cold sore became quite severe after seeing the doctor at our nearby clinic on Saturday. Much of her right-side face and lips were swollen and ached and she also had headaches and felt dizzy.

At HUKM, Shee Yun threw a tantrum and struggled fiercely when I try to carry her. She scratched my face and the scratch bled a little. Michelle said maybe she was hungry, so I went to a vending machine to buy some cake for her. She ate quietly as I fed her. But afterwards she started throwing a tantrum again. Maybe she was bored. The wait at HUKM was quite long.

At home in the evening Michelle also almost lost her temper with Shee Yun, because she wouldn't sit still to eat her dinner. She is very very active. If she is forced to sit still she'll cry and make a big fuss.

Shee Yun is very active today, more so than usual. Or maybe it's just that I spent more time with her today. Maybe she's hyper active like this every day.

She likes playing on our master bed, or the double bed in the medium room, because the bed is wide and she can roll and crawl and fall and pounce all over it. She also likes to play with the blankets on our master bed.

Shee Yun understands "hug" now (抱抱). This is probably the first thing that I learnt about Shee Yun before Michelle did. Today when I asked her to give me a hug (抱抱爸爸), she came to me, rested her head on my shoulder. I think she also put her arms around me. I put my arms around her and gave her a gentle hug. That's so sweet. I immediately forgot about how she had been a monster almost the whole day.

Michelle is recovering but still felt weak. I left work on time to go home as early as possible. After dinner Michelle asked me to bring Shee Yun out for a walk. She said Shee Yun has been home the whole day because she was not well and couldn't bring Shee Yun out. When outside, I let Shee Yun walk and explore by herself and I just follow her. Sometimes when she needs to walk up or down bigger steps I'll offer a helping hand.

Today when walking along the deep (covered) drain nearby our home, Shee Yun stepped into one of the holes between the drain covers. Her leg went in up to her knee. I carefully pulled her leg out, but unfortunately her shoe fell into the drain. It floated downstream some distance before it got too soaked and heavy and stopped. It took me quite some effort to get it back. I couldn't lift any of the drain covers along the drain, and had to use a long pole to poke and push the shoe further downstream to an opening where I could climb down to retrieve it. I guess finally it's time to wash her shoes.

Afterwards I let Shee Yun wear another pair of shoes and brought her out to continue our walk. We went to find cats. We did see quite a number. There are many cats in the neighbourhood. We met one which let Shee Yun pat it. It was a dark grey / black striped tabby which had a red collar. Shee Yun giggled when she gently stroked the cat. She seemed especially amused by the cat's lively tail.

Now bathing Shee Yun in the evening is part of my daily routine. Before the bath I'd get her to brush her teeth (well, actually, I should call it playing with tooth brush and tooth paste). Getting her to get into the habit of brushing her teeth was easier than we thought. I guess the doctor's recommendation was very helpful. Buying the children's toothpaste (which tastes sweet) definitely helped a lot. I've also figured out how to wash her hair without annoying her too much - using the splash balls to squeeze water onto her hair rather than pouring from a dipper. Now she doesn't resist washing her hair.

She still likes to use her toy spade to scoop water from the bath tub and drink it. Today she kept doing it and I kept stopping her by pouring out the water, and she kept doing it and I kept stopping her. I wasn't successful every time. I think she took a few sips.

She dances when she hears music - music of TV advertisements, music of TV serials, music I play on my PC. Today she did a strange stretching dance which was quite funny.

In the past few days she liked to pull up her shirt and play with her belly button, even when she's outside. She did it today when Ah Yi (my aunt) visited Michelle.

I forgot to write about this. A few days ago when Michelle was wearing Shee Yun's shoes for her, she said "鞋子" (shoe), imitating Michelle. Today when I brought her out for an evening walk (it was after dinner, but still light), I asked her where is sky (天空) and she pointed at the sky. This surprised me because I didn't know she understood 天空. I only knew she understood 月亮 (moon). I really look forward to when she starts talking. For now whatever she says seem to be just one-time events.

Today Shee Yun fell down a flight of stairs which lead from the back of our house to a back alley. She was playing with a cat and when the cat left abruptly she got too excited and tried to chase after it. The flight of stairs was only 4 or 5 steps and thankfully she wasn't badly hurt. She did cry and she had a small bump on her forehead. But when Michelle brought her inside the house she sat down to watch TV and stopped crying.

When Michelle sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars to Shee Yun, she does some actions at every verse. Today when she sang, Shee Yun did those actions! Michelle was pleasantly surprised. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars (hands open and close like blinking stars), How I Wonder What You Are, (hands on chest, indicating "I"), High Above The Sky So High (one hand pointing into the sky)... "

When I bathed Shee Yun today I saw another new cut / bruise on her right leg. Must be when she fell down today during our evening walk. She falls down and gets up by herself. Today she also enjoyed playing with the cats. She laughed when a black cat rubbed itself against her.

During her bath today I played a new game with her. I put a splash ball in the dipper, then lifted the dipper up and slowly tilted it until the ball falls down into the bath tub in front of her. She got very excited by the anticipation of the ball falling. A few times she even tried to avoid it. She laughed when the ball fell into the water, splashing water around. Another thing I played was I hold a soaked splash ball in front of her and then suddenly squeeze it very hard, splashing water all around. She also laughed at that.