A Little Macau Fan

We took Matty to watch his first Disney on Ice show in Macau this week. After packing our bags in a rush, we hopped onto a taxi heading for Shun Tak Ferry terminal where we were to meet up with Matty's cousin. Just as we were checking the time, Matty looked at us and said: "can I give some milk to the cows in Ma-cow?' We just cracked up.

Matty has been to Macau before, but it was when he was 8-months-old so obviously he doesn't remember much, and he certainly doesn't remember Macau is the name of a place.

When we finally reached the venue of the show, we were a little worried that it would be too long for Matty's short attention span. But we were wrong. Matty loved it from the beginning to the end. Although I had to fill in the gaps for him when it was about Lion King and the Little Mermaid, because I haven't told him the stories yet. Matty said his favourite characters from the show were Mickey Mouse, Sally the car,  and the little mermaid.

During our short stay in Macau, we were given a surprise tour of the University of Macau by 爺爺 (grandpa) and his friend there. It was one of the "highlight" of our trip there, especially for my hubby, on his birthday. (ha ha ha) 
But being pretty prepared for most situations, I already helped Matty buy his Da Da a birthday cake. So in the end... I guess, Matty saved the day.

Haircuts Can Be Fun

There was a time when Matty used to cry when we took him for his haircut. But he doesn't anymore. He just squints. Maybe its because he's a big boy now. Or maybe cutting hair is a lot more fun than what it used to be.

We took him for a haircut the other day. And to make sure he didn't ruin his haircut I told him that his hair would not be pretty if he moved too much, and the hairdresser, Terri 姐姐, might cut his ear. Matty sat as still as a log.

Once his haircut was finished he turned around and asked Terri 姐姐 "can I play water now?". Yes, that's the real reason why he doesn't mind cutting his hair. Everytime after his haircut, Terri  姐姐 would let him take a water spray bottle out on the pavement to spray the cars that go by! And to no one's surprise, he loves it! But we have to be careful that he didn't shoot any innocent pedestrians that walks past, or cars that have their windows rolled down. Luckily most people in the cars don't mind. They just wave to Matty, or pretend to shoot him back with their finger gun.

Here Comes Santa!

We didn't make it to Santa's Grotto this year. We had thought about it, but just didn't have time right before Christmas. But in the end we didn't need to go... because Santa came to visit us!

After cooking a major feast for Christmas, Da Da transformed into Santa, with the costume carefully placed in the kitchen earlier. But things didn't go as smoothly as planned: Santa Da Da pressed the door bell and came in with his "Ho, Ho, Ho". But when it was time to hand Matty a present, Santa Da Da realised his sack was empty!! I had secretly placed the present in the kitchen earlier but never had time to put it in the sack, and I guess Santa Da Da was in such a hurry that he never had time to check either. But I guess that made Matty's first encounter with "Santa" even more memorable for everyone! I had to distract Matty to give us time to place the present back in the sack Heres a video of what actually happened:





From the look of excitement on Matty's face, it was all worth it. Matty sure did look convinced that Santa went to visit him. Thats what everyone thought too until Matty said "Da Da pretend to be Santa, so funny!" And this is what happened next:





So did we tell Matty the truth, that Da Da was Santa? Nope. We insisted that Da Da was not Santa. Some things are just better left untold.

Merry, Merry Little Christmas!

Matty met up with his little friends just before Christmas for a little fun after not seeing them for a while because of all these kindergarten interviews they've been having. Unlike the last time they met, they had a little more interaction. Although, it often involved snatching toys from each other or turning off a battery operated toy that someone else was playing with. And how much have they changed? Well, big Jonas is still significantly taller than the rest, small Jonas is still very gentle, and Jason is looking more, and more, like a replica of his dad. Whereas Matty, according to the aunties there haven't changed much.

At the boys dominated gathering, Matty also got to meet Jason's baby sister, Alyssa, for the first time. He sang for her, and tried to play with her, after we stopped him from rubbing his little grubby hands all over her face. He told me later he liked playing with Alyssa more than the boys. He said  "I want to touch baby next week". Don't read too much into that... My hubby also liked baby Alyssa too, who was 90 percent angel, and 10 percent scary, like most of the female species.

At their little party, Matty also gave them a few of our homemade shortbread cookies. He only agreed to give them away after much persuasion at home. Later, I asked him if he felt good after giving the cookies to his friends.


Me:                "Were you happy your friends opened your bag
                      of  cookies straight away?"




Matty:            "No."





Me:                "Were you happy when they ate your cookie and said it
                      was yummy?"





Matty:            "No,"


Like what happened at his school's Christmas party last week, Matty said he wanted to eat them all! I guess practice makes perfect. I will just have to make him share his things more.

The Joy of Christmas Reading

Matty loves books, and I hope he'll never get tired of it. The only problem is he's reached this developmental stage where he likes us to read the same book over and over again to him. He would ask me to read the  book before nap time, immediately after nap time, maybe once during playtime, after dinner, and then before bedtime. I'd consider myself lucky if my hubby was back before Matty's bedtime so I can take a break. It was just after dinner the other night when my hubby and I sat together to read Matty's latest favourite book. We looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh when we realised we could recite almost all of  it.

This book I'm talking about is Mary Engelbreit's A Merry Little Christmas: Celebrate from A to Z. One of two books I recently got Matty to help him learn about Christmas. He loves this book so much that he now uses these big plastic ABC's to spell each word out on the floor!

The other book I got him is a Nativity sticker activity book. He took it to Church with him recently when we went to watch a nativity play. I don't know how much of the story he can really understand. I just know that when they were singing "Star of Wonder", Matty turned to me to tell me thats not the star song. He said it should be "Twinkle, Twinkle". When we got home, Matty even told me he wanted to be baby Jesus.

Sweeter than Nectar

Many, many, many, years ago, when I was a kid, my mum told me about her friend's son who always used to leave his dad a half eaten cookie on the coffee table. I thought it was gross. But she said the little toddler was so sweet, and loved his dad so much. I guess I never really understood that sweetness until now.

Usually Matty and I would eat fruits together after dinner. This one night, after eating all his grapes, and leaving a few strawberries behind, Matty looked at me and said he wanted more grapes. I told Matty that he could have mine and I can have his strawberrries. But he said "no". I repeated myself again, then just poured my grapes into his Elmo bowl. That, was when Matty started crying.

Me:             "But I thought you want more grapes? You can have mine."

Matty:         "No!!!! I don't want!"




Me:            "My grapes are the same as yours. You can have mine."




Matty:        "No!!!!!!! I don't want."


His crying continued, but I just ignored him and told him I was going to eat the grapes. Later when he calmed down. I asked him what happened:



Me:              "Why did you cry when I gave you my grapes?"




Matty:           [Silence]




Me:             "Did you want Pa Pa (Suparmi my domestic helper)
                   to get more grapes from the fridge?"




Matty:         "Yes."




Me:             "No need to cry then. Matty big boy can talk. Just tell me."




Matty:         "I'm worried Ma Ma no grapes."




Me:            "You didn't want my grapes because you didn't want Ma Ma
                 to have no grapes?"




Matty:         "Yes."


Well, he didn't exactly leave my a cookie on the coffee table. But still, he wanted me to have something that he liked very, very much. So sweet!

Christmas Baking

Christmas is a time for sharing and giving, and what better way to teach Matty that than baking cookies with him for his School's end of term Christmas party. I wanted to make gingerbread men with him, but after looking at the recipe I gave up. We made shortbread cookies instead, and it turned out better than I expected!

If you know what making shortbread cookies involve, you'd know that quite a bit of flour is needed to stop the shortbread dough from sticking onto the rolling pin, and the cookie cutters. Anyway, Matty got a little too caught up in keeping the dough from sticking onto things. He started to spoon flour onto the dough and somehow managed to get it all over his face. I think, in the end, he enjoyed playing with the flour more than cutting the dough into cookie shapes.

After the cookies were ready, Matty couldn't wait to take his first bite. He looked at me and said "very good!" Although this came from a two-year-old, but it felt like I was just awarded a Michelin star.

And did he want to share his cookies?  Well, I was wrapping some of the cookies for his teachers as Christmas presents when he said this:


Matty:            "I want to eat all!"





Me:              "But you should give your teachers a Christmas present."





Matty:          "No! I want to eat all."


He still insisted on not giving his teachers the cookies when we were driving to school. But once we got there he asked me for the presents and gave it to the teachers himself. Phew! I was a little worried he'd start crying if I gave the cookies to the teachers for him.

And what did he pick to eat during snack time when he was offered a table full of yummy food brought in by other parents? He picked a little cake and jelly... and my cookies!!! Can you believe it, out of all the yummy food on the table, Matty still picked my cookies! Wow! Whoever it reading this must think my cookies were really, really good. They were just okay. I got the recipe from this Joy of Baking website.


Me:               "Did you pick Ma Ma cookies at the party because you liked playing with the flour?"




Matty:           "No."




Me:               "Is it because you made it with Ma Ma?"



Matty:           "Yes."



MATTY'S FIRST CHRISTMAS PRESENT


Matty was really happy with the present the school gave him too-- a door knob hanger with his picture, and a CD of all the songs he learned so far this year. I really like the CD too at the beginning because I wanted to know what Cantonese songs he knew. But if you ask me now I'd probably give you a different answer, after singing the songs with him over and over again. I could even hear the songs in my head when I was trying to sleep last night!!

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Chrstmas Tree!

Our Christmas tree has finally arrived! Well, actually it arrived last week, but because it looked too much like the one in Charlie Brown's Christmas, I asked Ikea to replace it. And yes,  I know, real fir trees are not eco-friendly. But what other choices are there? Plastic Christmas trees? Well, they're not exactly the best choice either, since they're not biodegradable, and they create a lot of pollution during the production process too. Think about it-- most of these factories are probably right next door to us in China!

But of course those were not our main considerations. We just like the smell of live fir trees, and because we simply don't have room to store a plastic tree once we're done with it. Not sure if the trees from Ikea are from a sustainable source though. Next year I'll probably order from Market Place instead, since they claim their trees are from a sustainable tree farm in the United States.

Anyway, Matty enjoyed decorating the tree, I think. I'm not too sure because he was afraid to touch the tree so it was hard to tell how much he enjoyed it. I guess it must be related to his fear of cacti, after reading this Dr Seuss book called "Hop on Pop" -- something I'll write about when I have more time.

Usually when Christmas comes I'd buy a new tree ornament for Matty. This year I decided to make one with him. Not that pretty, but we had fun.

Merry Christmas Mr Crocodile!

Its homework time again! This time the challenge is to turn a yellow paper bag into a "Christmas animal hand puppet"!! I was hoping to make something simple, like a lion or a duck with a Santa hat. But somehow my two-year-old knew just how to make my life difficult: Matty said he wanted to make a Christmas crocodile!!

After confirming, and reconfirming, that was what he wanted, I went straight to work, not knowing how long the process would take. I called my hubby for help, but he said he'd rather stay at work, than make a crocodile out of a paper bag!

Being the uncontested leader of this project, I quickly did all the cutting, and assigned my little helper to do the colouring and painting. But the short attention span of toddlers meant I ended up doing most of the work. Matty gave up a third of the way through!

Despite my effort, Matty insisted that it didn't look anything like a crocodile. He actually said it looked "ugly" just before I stuck the eyes on. Talk about being taken for granted!

And how can you make a crocodile "Christmas" like? I just ran out of ideas, and ended up sticking a Christmas tree in his mouth! Never thought I'd make use of my A-level's graphic skills like this.

A Taste Of Nature

This will probably sound funny to people who don't live here: grass is precious! Children in Hong Kong  rarely get to roll around on grass, unless you have a garden. Even if you're lucky enough to find some in a park, theres usually a sign that tells you to keep off! The only places where I've found grass to walk on are in Kowloon Tsai Park, and Inspiration Lake. So how can you let your children get a taste of nature? Its a real challenge for parents here!

Matty was lucky enough to visit his school's farm recently. It was a pretty long drive there, but it was worth it, since we got to see grass, and much, much, more. At the farm, Matty got to pull up his first carrot! But after taking one bite out of the freshest carrot he's ever had...Matty decided to give it to his Da Da. He grabbed an apple instead.   

Encouraged by the staff there not to waste any part of the carrot, Matty fed the carrot leaves to the animals on the farm. He had a great time feeding the goats, and rabbits there, but when we reached the one and only pig on the farm... Matty held back. He said the pig was scary!  I agree. The pig  had very yellow teeth and  had lots of flies flying around it.

But that doesn't mean the pig was not useful to me. When Matty refuses to brush his teeth now, I just show him a photo of the pigs teeth. I tell him his teeth would look like that if he doesn't clean it. Most of the time it works, but sometimes he just looks at me and says "I want to be pig!" Sigh. What can you say to that?