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It's the 4th day of Chinese New Year, everyone's eaten their fill, exchanged ang pows and oranges and gambled quite a fair bit. Hope you've made some money or not lost too much in the process.


This year, Renee's much more active (due to her mobility and natural inquisitiveness) so it has been a rather tiring holiday. We tend to relax on the rules when there are holidays. For example, people don't serve porridge for meals during New Year, so we have to let her eat whatever is available, some times only spicy food is available, so if she can't take spicy, then we let her eat the cookies, and my dear daughter loves those. What to do? Also, sitting at the table and listening to conversation can be a bit boring for a two year old (duh), so we can't blame her for wanting to "walk walk walk" around the house. Daddy and Mummy have to take turns to follow her around and keep her out of trouble.


At Auntie Kai Chee's house, there were more kids than I prepared ang pows for, so I went to the toilet to prepare more. I decided to bring Renee with me to the toilet so she could be "contained" in the room with me. Bad idea! While I was packing the ang pows, I heard some swishing sounds, I turned my head and saw Renee washing her hands in the toilet bowl. Ai ya! She had that fascination previously and I thought she had outgrown that, but apparently not!


Mahjong and card games are also out of the question for me. When we start playing either, Renee will want to sit on my lap, not her father's lap. It is next to impossible to prevent her from touching the tiles or cards or chips. There was once a couple of months ago when I got really mad at her for interrupting my mahjong game, I yelled at her (cos I lost in the end) and blamed her for my loss. She cried on realising she was being scolded. After that, I felt like the worst mother on earth! It is a situation I put her in, putting her in front of a table with "toys". Now, who can then blame her for wanting to dive her hands into the tiles? For wanting to wash the tiles?? So instead of being frustrated at her, I just don't play anymore. It will be a good number of years before I can pick up the game again, it is just one of the many sacrifices that I have made. God knows when is the last time I watched a TV program in its entirety, read the newspapers from start to finish. Nowadays, watching one episode of a repeat of CSI on Sunday is a luxury!



The Terrible Twos have started in advance, and I have another Rascal on the way. Happy Year of the Rat guys!