Expressive Ivan

At 2yrs and 4 months old, Ivan is still not speaking in whole sentences. Others may think that he is slow in talking but to us, he is a very expressive boy. Hubby speaks to him in Swedish and I speaks to him in Mandarin. Here are some of the vocabularies/words which he uses very often throughout the day to express what he wants and what he thinks:

Swedish:
• pappa – (it sounds quite similar to Chinese too) = usually refers to daddy but when he gets lazy everybody is “pappa”…
• nej – (pronounced as “n-eh”) = no
• ”åh nej” and putting his small hands on the side of either his face or head = oh no, something “dramatic” has happened, usually heard after he dropped the lego which he has built and it fell into many pieces.
• tack - (pronounced as “ta-k”) = thanks
• titta / kolla – look / check this out
• chips – (pronounced as “ship”) = chips
• “mmmm…. mum mum (“Ivan-ese”), gott (Swedish, means good)”, follow by a rub or tap on his belly – food is good…
• så här! = like this!
• oppa meh – (should be “öppna åt mig”, pronounced as “erp-na” “ought” “may”, means open for me) can means anything which requires opening or take off of something, from opening any lids/ taking apart lego bits/ taking off his socks/ taking off his clothes…
• hej hej – (pronounced as hey hey) = hello hello or bye bye
• ta tu – (suppose to be Swedish “hej då”, pronounced as “hey dough”) = good bye
• mjölk mjölk (pronounced quite similarly as milk but with a soft “jue” after “m”) = milk milk, means anything that is drinkable.
• ah- good - (suppose to be “varsågod”, pronouced as “Va-shu-good”) = you’re welcome/ here you go
• en, två, fyra, åtta, tio (pronounced as “en” “t-voh” “fee-ra” “ottah (like the one we eat wih nasi lemak in Singapore – yum!) “tee-yo”) = 1,2 4,8,10… Ivan counting from 1 to 10 using short cut.
• kom (pronounced as “com”) = come
• så, så... = like this, like this…

Mandarin:
• 躺躺 (pronounced as “t-ang (as in Angola) t-ang ”) = lay down
• 抱抱 (pronounced as “baw” “baw”) = his smelly little pillow
• 没有 (pronounced as “may you”) = don’t have
• 举手(pronounced as “g - show”) = raise your hand and he usually expects to be tickled!
• 臭臭 (pronounced as “chi-oh chi-oh”) = smelly, refers usually to his diaper after he has pooped…
• 刷 (pronounced as “sh-wah”) = brush, refers usually to his teeth.
• 美美 (pronounced as “may may”) = pretty
• 下来 (pronounced as “see-ah” “la-I (as in the alphabet I)”) = come down

English:
• ma-mee/ah-bi (with pacifier in his mouth) = mummy
• sit (it’s pronounced the same both in Swedish and English and shares the same meaning)
• ha-oh = hello . Usually accompanied by a hand gesture that looks like he’s holding the phone to his ear followed by a blast of gibberish….”ah bu ku ba ka ba ka? pappa ba ka ba ka! hahahaha!” sounds like he’s gossiping with his friend about daddy…*shake head*
• hug = usually means he wants to hug or wants to be carried.

International Language:
• blaehhh yuck! = horrible!, can be used to describe food he doesn’t like, fish or mash potatoes, or anything dirty, socks, food stains on his clothes, “stuff” that he “found” from the inside of his nostrils…
• oh oh… = usually heard after he did something wrong (intentionally or unintentionally) and he knows I will be angry, like dropping a mug full of chocolate milk.
• ok (almost International language)

“Ivan-ese” (Ivan’s own language):
• Ang-ger = Angel
• ah-en = Jovan
• kisssssss = Chris
• ji ji = pacifier
• mum mum = food of any kind from fruits, bread, cookies, candies, etc…
• pang gu = Ping Gu the penguin
• wow wee = Rorri the racing car
• boom boom = means wheels or anything with wheels, cars, trains, bicycles…He always gets excited by boom boom!

Gestures:
• “siiiiiiiii….” followed by putting 1 finger on his lips = quiet
• “tsk! arghhhh…!” followed by placing his small fists on both side of his waist = frustration. Usually heard after he has being trying to get daddy’s attention for sometime but is still ignored…
• “hm, em!” followed by placing one of his fist somewhere near his mouth = trying to get someone’s attention, usually daddy’s.
• “Argghhh!” = frustration, usually heard after he has been trying something for sometime and it just won’t go his way, like putting on a tricky lego bit, getting the mattress to lean against the table…
• “hmmm…” followed by holding 1 finger on his chin and frowning a little = he’s thinking…
• “hu-ee!” followed by sweeping the top or the side of his head with his hand in a one-direction movement = Phew! I finally did it. Usually heard after he managed to do something which is tricky for him, like successfully putting on the lego bit after trying for the past 5 mins.
• “ta-da!” following by 1 open palm facing upward in the direction of whatever that he’s presenting, like stacking his wooden blocks really really high…

Ivan usually will combine these words and gestures together to communicate his intention. Typical conversation with him will be like this:

If daddy is working late and still not home by the time he’s tired and ready to go to bed:
Ivan (with his sad puppy look): “Pappa, 没有.” (Daddy don’t have)
Mommy: “你先睡，爸爸做工。” (You can go to bed, daddy is working.)

If he wants us to put Chris down and go with him to the kitchen to fetch something:Ivan: “Kissss, sit sit.”
Mommy/Daddy: “Should I put Chris down to sit?”

Ivan: “Mm hmm.” (Nodding his head.)

(We put Chris down to sit in the car seat.)

Ivan: “Kom” (holding onto one of our fingers)

Mommy/Daddy: “Should I follow you?/ Should I come?”

Ivan: “Mm hmm.” (Nodding his head.)

When he’s in the mood to crack a joke with us:Ivan: “Mamma/pappa, ah ba ka ba ka, gilli ba ka ba ka! hahahahaha!” (he laughs loudly)

Mommy/Daddy: “Yeah, that’s so funny!/Is that so?” (We laugh with him)

We are not stress out that he isn't talking properly yet, the nurses here are concerned that he'll get confused when he's being exposed to two languages, however back home in Singapore, all kids started with 2 languages since young, so to me this is perfectly normal. We believe that when he's ready, he'll start talking and once he starts, there's no stopping him!

Hubby's Mandarin Lesson 老公学华语

Last night at the dining table, Jovan and Angel was inspired suddenly to teach hubby some new chinese words. I was at the sink with my back facing them, doing my dishes and I overheard this conversation...

Jovan: (I think he was showing daddy something) "Niu."

Daddy: "New?"

Jovan: "Not 'New', it's 'Niu'. It means 'Cow'."

Daddy: "New Cow??"

Then, Angel decided to jump in and confuse daddy even more...

Angel: "Ma. It means 'Horse'."

Daddy: "Ma..."

Angel: "'Ma Ma' means 'Grandma'" ("Ma Ma" is actually in our dialect, Teochew for grandma, Angel gets confused sometimes between dialect and Mandarin.)

Daddy: "Två häster blir en farmor?????" ("2 horses become 1 grandma?????")

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昨晚 Jovan 和 Angel 坐在饭桌旁，忽然心血来潮想教老爸几个新的华文字。 我站
在水槽旁，背向他们在洗碗碟。以下是我听到的对话。。。

Jovan: (他好像给老爸看什么东西) "Niu."

老爸: "New?" (“新?”)

Jovan: "Not 'New', it's 'Niu'. It means 'Cow'." ("不是‘New’，是‘Niu’，
意思是‘牛’“)

老爸: "New Cow??" ("新牛??")

在这时候， Angel 也加入，把老爸搞得更糊涂了。。。

Angel: "Ma. It means 'Horse'." (‘Ma’。意思是‘马’。)

老爸: "马。。。"

Angel: "'Ma Ma' means 'Grandma'" (“‘Ma Ma’意思是‘嬷嬷’。)(Angel 有时候分不清潮洲话和华语。)

老爸: "Två häster blir en farmor?????" ("两只马变一个嬷嬷?????")

恭贺新春! 情人节快乐!

I have always had problem with major holidays like Chinese New Year and Christmas since we moved here. I'll get moody and depress a few days before and have to consciously make an effort to keep my spirits up for hubby and our kids. This year is our 3rd year spending Chinese New Year away from Singapore. I didn't put up a single decoration and only "clean" the apartment symbolically (think vacuuming and washing toilet bowls...) on New Year's Eve. It feels like it is just me who is celebrating and getting all psyche up for the New Year, it just felt meaningless. I didn't plan to make anything special for our reunion dinner either.

Hubby picked up my grumpiness early in the morning. Well, it is tricky to miss - when mommy is unhappy, nobody is happy! Complaining about the mess in the apartment, nagging at Jovan and Angel about the state of their room, dragging my feet and slouching around - bad behaviors! *tsk tsk tsk* He volunteered to go buy groceries with Jovan and Angel and suggested that we have Chinese take-out, which is our favorite but we only have it on special occasion coz it's quite expensive. My mood lifted a little since I didn't have to cook! After the groceries shopping, hubby had to go into the office to take out the car seats behind coz he would be helping his friend to move the next day. So by the time he was home with the Chinese take-out, it was 8pm. Just in time to watch Melodifestivalen, a song contest which is a yearly event taking place around February to March and the winning song will be sent to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest - an event which we threaten to boycott every year after watching... Our family really enjoys watching Melodifestivalen and to make it more interesting, hubby and I came up with scoring sheet so we can allocate points to all the songs. So we spent our reunion dinner in front of the tv, commenting on those songs, stage performance and of course costumes. And after the kids had all gone to bed, I prepared ang baos (red packets) for tomorrow morning and this year we have 4!

The next morning, since hubby has to be off at 9am to help with the move, I had to wake Jovan up, so he can wish us Happy New Year and get his ang bao. If we were back in Singapore, I can bet you that they would not be able to sleep the night before in anticipation of the first day of Chinese New Year... He even told me that he forgot that it's Chinese New Year, he could only remember that it was Valentine's Day! Anyway, Jovan and Angel wished hubby and I Gong Xi Fa Cai and happy new year and we handed them their first and only ang baos for the year.


Wishing our children good health and happiness and the 2 older ones to keep up the good performances in school! 身体安康! 天天快乐! 学业进步!

After breakfast, Jovan and Angel asked if they can go to the supermarket nearby to "get something". I told them to be careful and stay together and off they went while I stayed home to do the laundry and feed Chris. They came home shortly after and hid in their room and walking in and out to fetch wrapping paper "We're wrapping something for our friends.", tape and scissors... these guys...

Hubby came home around mid afternoon with flowers for me (he's always so sweet to me!)


and presents for everybody, well, everybody except Chris...

I had prepared my gift to hubby some time ago, so mine was wrapped and he bought me magazines and sudoko!

Gifts carefully wrapped by Jovan and Angel and a card...

Chocolate will never be wrong on Valentine's Day and the card said,"Have a good day today. Have a good Valentine's Day from Angel and Jovan. To mommy and daddy." We love you too babies!




My present for hubby is a box of chocolate with lottery tickets!


The kiddos got presents too! Car candies for Ivan, M&Ms for Jovan and Angel and...
rechargeble batteries for the XBox controllers! Daddy is so romantic!

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自从我们搬来这儿后，我总是觉得很难面对重要的节日，比如华人新年和圣诞节。在
过节的前几天，我就开始感到郁闷和沮丧。不过为了老公和孩子， 我还是会尽量打
起精神面对。今年是我们第三年没在新加坡过年了。我连一样新年饰品也没挂上，屋
子也只在初夕时象征行的打扫 (吸尘、洗马桶。。。)。感觉上只有我自己一个庆祝，
真没意思。就连团圆饭我也没打算煮什么特别的。

老公一大早就注意到我心情不好。其实要不注意到真难 - 老妈不开心时，大家都没
好日子过! 一早就唠叨着屋子乱、碎碎念着Jovan和Angel没收拾房间、托着脚步、
动作散慢 ，一堆的坏行为!* 老公自愿带着Jovan和Angel去买下个星期的菜，还提议
今晚打包中餐。中餐是我们的最爱，不过我们只在特别的日子才吃，因为太贵了。
我的心情好了一点，因为这表示我不用煮! 买了菜后，老公必须到公司把车子的后
座都拆出，以便隔天帮朋友搬家。当他买了晚餐到家时已经八点了，正好赶得及看
一年一度的歌唱比赛。我们每年看了都说明年不看了，可是。。。...我们全家都爱看
这一系列的比赛。为了让比赛更有趣，我和老公准备了分数表，好让我们为每首歌
打分。所以我们的团圆饭就在电视机前，批头论足的度过。过后当孩子们都睡着时，
我准备明早要发的红包。今年我们要准备四个!

隔天早上，因为老公必须在九点时离家到朋友家帮忙，所以我把Jovan叫醒，好让他
能向我们拜年拿红包。要是我们在新加坡，他们一定是晚上兴奋得睡不着觉，等着
新年的到来。...他还说他都忘了是新年，只记得是情人节! !之后Jovan和Angel向我们
拜年，祝我们恭喜发财、新年快乐。我们也发了他们今年第一也是唯一的红包。
祝孩子们身体安康! 天天快乐! 两个大的学业进步!

吃了早餐后，Jovan和Angel问我他们能不能到附近的超市买点东西。我要他们小心，
不能分开。我留在家洗衣和喂Chris。过了一下，他们回到家，神神秘秘的躲在房间
里，走进走出，又拿包装纸 “我们要包东西给朋友。”、胶带和剪刀的。。。这两
个家伙。。。...

老公差不多在中午的时候到家，买了花给我 (他对我一直都是这么体贴!) 和礼物给大家，除了Chris。。。

我之前已准备好给老公的礼物，也包好了。他买了杂志和sudoko给我!

Jovan和Angel用心包好的礼物，还有卡片。。。

情人节送巧克力是永远不会错的，卡片上写着 “祝你有个美好的一天。Jovan和Angel祝情人节快乐。给妈咪和爹地。” 我们也爱你们宝贝!


我给老公的礼物是一盒巧克力和彩票!!





孩子们也有礼物! Ivan的是车形软糖，Jovan和Angel的是M&M巧克力和。。。
用在XBox控制器可充电的电池! 老爸真浪漫!

Ivan's First Hair Cut! Ivan第一次理发!

Ivan has never had a real hair cut since he was born. Well, yeah we have trimmed a little of his fringe and the sides but that's about it. It was almost impossible to get him to stay still for 5 seconds and not to mention that mommy is no hair dresser... just trimming alone has been a challenge and race against time. We have talked about bringing him to a real hair dresser but concluded that there is no way he'll allow a stranger to cut his hair!

Imagine the call to book an appointment... "Hello, we'd like to book an appointment for my son, who is 2. By the way, how many people are working in your salon? We think we probably need about 6 people - 4 to hold him down and 2 to cut. And everything has to be done within 1 min." Also, hair cut in Sweden is really expensive compared to Singapore. Of course it varies city to city. We found a good one who is not so expensive, and she charges 140kr(S$27)to cut kids' hair, compared to S$6-S$10 back home. So his hair on top was just growing and growing and growing...

Yesterday, he was walking around wearing Angel's pink hat. His long, silky hair was sticking out from behind and covering the back of his neck. My goodness, he looked like a girl! I told hubby about it earlier and he decided,"We have to cut his hair." After googling around on ways to cut a 2-year old's hair. We started...

This was his hair before...

With the help of raisins, Bob The Builder, daddy who was busy keeping him distracted and still and mommy's speedy-faster-than-lightning hands... Now his hair looks like this!

After the haircut, daddy was busy vacuuming the floor and Ivan, before giving him a shower.


His hair cut is not perfect but I'm proud of it. He still looks as cute as before and not to mention boyish too!

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Ivan从出世至今，除了简单的修剪刘海和旁边之外，从没真正的剪过头发。要他坐着五秒不动简直是不可能的任务，更何况他老妈我又不是专业理发师单单修饰就已经是一项与时间赛跑的挑战。我和老公曾经商量过带他给专业理发师剪发，不过最后还是打退堂鼓，他是决不肯让陌生人替他理发的!

可想像打电话预约时的对话。。。“喂，我想预定时间为我的两岁儿子理发。对了，你们有多少人在店里工作? 我想我们大概需要六个人，四个抓着他，两个剪。 还有，全部要在一分钟之内完成。” 再说，在瑞典理发比新加坡贵得多。城市和城市之间价格也不同。 我们好不容易找到一间手艺不错，又不太贵的。她的儿童理发收费也
要一百四十瑞典克郎(大概是二十七块坡币)，而新加坡只需大概六至十块坡币。因此他的头发是越长越长。。。


昨天，他带着Angel的粉红色帽子走来走去。帽子压着他丝绸般的长发，遮住了他的颈后。天啊，从后面望过去他真像个小女孩! 早前跟老公提起，他说，“我们一定要替他剪头发。” 上网找看替两岁娃娃剪发的方法之后，我们开始了。。。

剪发前。。。...

在葡萄干，儿童节目，忙着分散注意力的老爸的合作和老妈快如闪电的双手下。。。
他的发型成形了!

剪完发后，老爸忙着用吸尘机吸起地上和Ivan身上的头发，再替他冲个凉。


虽然他的头发剪得不是很完美，不过我觉得蛮自豪的。他看起来还是像之前一样可爱，、而且还多了一份帅气!

Chinese Name for Chris

Chris is 1 month plus now and it is time for me to finalise on a Chinese name for him. I used to be one of those annoying classmates who teased my friends if they have names which sound similar to something else or have double meaning(I was notorious for giving others nicknames.... those were the days...), so it is very important for me to give my children names which they won't be teased about.

Sometimes I come across names which makes me think what their parents were thinking of when they name their children. I used to have a classmate when I was in primary school (primary 1 I think) and her name was Cha Bo, which literally means "woman" in teochew or hokkien (dialects)! Luckily her surname is not "Xiao", otherwise she'd be one crazy woman! I hope she has changed her name now. I've also came across someone whose name is Monica Cheng. I think she was one of the applicants for a job vacancy. My colleague and I had a good laugh over it 'coz it sounded like "Feel your backside" in teochew or hokkien! I also had a classmate named Daniel Tan and I always called him 大鸟蛋 because it sounded like "big bird egg" in Chinese! I think that was why he always avoided me in school... I even gave my best friend, whom I knew since we were 13yrs old, a nickname which stuck with her till now!

Naming children is a very difficult task. Not only must the name suit the baby (which you'll know once you've seen the baby, if you know what I mean...), it has to be meaningful, sounds nice and most important of all, it must not have double meaning in any languages. Hubby told me before once he had a meeting with some Taiwanese guys and one of them introduced himself as F**k you (I think it must be his Chinese name which is probably "Fang You" or something) and hubby was stunned for a few minutes before realising that that was his name and he wasn't being offensive! He also met a "Dick" once and agreed that that wasn't a nice name.

All our kids names are carefully thought through and decided. Jovan is my first baby and I was thankful, so his name means "God is gracious", thank God for this wonderful gift. My second pregnancy turns out to be a girl. I was thrilled that God sends me one of his little angels, so she is named Angelina, which means little angel. Many years later, I married a wonderful man, who loves kids (he told me again just last night!). After the medical issue I had, we were doubtful if we would have any. We tried in vain for many months and just when I had given up hope, miracle happened! So Ivan's name also means "God is gracious" (can't thank God enough for all the wonderful gifts!) and this time round, we had to make sure that this name works in Swedish as well and Ivan works great. And with Chris, we had 2 names in mind, Michael and Christopher. The minute he was out, hubby knew that he'll be Christopher, which means "He who has Christ in his heart", keep the faith my friends and He will answer!

Oh, I'm so off-tracked! Suppose to be talking about Chris's Chinese name but ended up babbling about English names! I had a post on the Chinese names for Jovan, Angel and Ivan, so I won't repeat myself again. This time I already had a name in mind before Chris arrived. I have decided to name him "劭齐". 劭 remains the same as what Jovan and Ivan has and 齐 means together. God's little angels all arrive and gather together in our house!

陈劭齐,妈妈希望你健康快乐的成长! 你，你姐姐和你哥哥们都是妈妈永远的宝贝!

Chris is 1 month old!

Yes, our youngest member of the family is 1 month old today! We went for his checkup yesterday and he has gained 1kg within 2 weeks, he now weighs 4960g and is 56cm in length! Well, it must be the holidays!

In Singapore, Chinese usually will celebrate when the baby is 1 month old. I'm not so sure about how the tradition came about. Typically, Chinese women has to go through the "confinement" month after child birth. They are not allowed to shower (oooohhhh...imagine the smell after 1 month! ), not allowed to have the air-condition or the fan on (it's like living in Sahara desert when you live in Singapore without air-condition or fan! ), not allowed to go out and if you really need to, you have to come home before 7pm to avoid the "dew" in the air... I'd say it's more like the month of torture! Most friends or relatives will not visit the mother and the baby during the confinement month, since the family needs time to adjust to the new member and they also need to catch up with the lack of sleep. So after the confinement month, they usually will invite friends and relatives to come visit and have a small party to introduce everybody to the new baby.

Since there is no such custom here, we try to arrange to have our own small celebration. We had pizzas and bought a cake to celebrate Ivan's first month. We also bought a cake for Chris's first month.

The "0" candle is a "hand-me-down" from Ivan's first month! Th cute milk bottle candle is from my brother (he bought me some cute candles since I started baking cakes).

Sharing some recent pictures of Chris. He is growing to be a charmer like Ivan (all parents think that their baby is a charmer!).

His favorite pose now - Superman!

Such a cutie!
Cool guy in the making!

We all blew the candles and enjoyed the cake, except for Chris who just wants milk!

Looking forward to celebrating Chris's first year!

31 Dec 2009

5 years ago this day, hubby and I were in Singapore, walking along the waterfront beside Esplanade after dinner in Marina Square. We found a place to sit and enjoy the breeze. In the middle of our chat, hubby got down on his feet, looked at me seriously and asked, "Will you marry me?" I thought he was crazy. Why would he marry me, divorced with 2 kids, in the middle of a custody fight and in debt? But I was selfish, he is a good man and I wasn't planning to let him go, so I said yes.

5 years later this day, we're happily married with 4 wonderful kids and living in Sweden.

Hubby bought me flowers today to celebrate this day.

As we were having our New Year's Eve dinner,

I commented that we have 2 things to celebrate today, that the new year is beginning soon and that we have our first customer who bought WebTrust. Hubby added that it is also our engagement anniversary date. Jovan asked, "So what will happen if mommy said no?" Hubby replied,"Then we won't be here today. Ivan and Chris will not exist. You will not be in Sweden." Jovan continued,"What if mommy said yes then?" .....

And while we were having our silly conversation, Ivan was focusing to poke the corn kernel with his fork...


After dinner, hubby, Jovan and Angel went to set off the remaining firecrackers which was left over from last year. (We only managed to set of 2 or 3 last year coz Angel and Ivan ended up crying...) This year, Angel is really brave, she didn't freak out from the loud bang, instead she wanted to light the crackers too!

After that, they came home and we watched tv. This is usually the most difficult time for the kids, especially Angel, since she usually sleeps quite early. She has not been able to stay awake till the countdown for the past years and she was determined to make it this year. And they both did!


Year 2009 has ended and we all looked forward to 2010, hopefully it will be a year filled with good news, pleasant surprises and opportunities to learn, so we can all be better person!