Silly moments

I usually get to share some silly moments with my niece during my holidays or "break". Here is a pick of them from the last two "breaks":

i) Looking out of the room window with her, asking her what she sees. Because from where I stay, one can see lots of lights from the oil refineries and whatnots. She especially likes the blinking lights on top of those tall exhausts, presumably to warn off low flying planes. "慧慧看 blink blink blink," she'll say.

ii) Playing grab her pillow and run. "Gu gu 拿慧慧 pillow i," she'll say. Pillow i is her way of saying body pillow or boastor (spelling?).

iii) Sharing my Haagen Daz ice cream with her. "慧慧要不要 H for...?" "要! 要 Haagen Daz ice cream!" Nope, I'm not kidding, she knows the phrase "Haagen Daz ice cream". That'll be our chance to ask to keep her toys, drink her water...etc. She already knows the alphabet like the back of her hand, but for her, "H" is always for "Haagen Daz ice cream". No prizes for guessing what "I" is for.

iv) Drawing with her. More like doodling. But my drawing has improved everytime I've been home. And she's getting very good at guessing too. "Gu gu 畫" The way she says it, "Gu gu wua", it sounds like "Uncle lives" in hokkien. *Grin* And she has progressed in her drawing as well. During my December "break", drawing involves me drawing and she guessing only. During my just ended June "break", drawing involves me drawing, she guessing (faster at getting it correct now) and then she will want to participate, i.e. 畫蛇添足. One of her current favourite TV characters is Pingu the Penguin, so if I draw a hat, she will add Pingu below. "Pingu 戴帽子."

v) Whistling kiddie songs. There's an ongoing game between us where I whistle a short tune, e.g. Old MacDonald has a farm, and she has to guess what song it is. Again, both of us are getting really good at it. Sometimes, she will break into a song on her own with plenty of missing words being clumsily glossed or hummed over, e.g. the ABC song... "and TUV, upper upper U and X and Y and Z". My mum and I will just grin at each other whilst enjoying the free performance.

vi) Watching snatches of Sesame Street with her. She especially likes the segment called "Journey to Ernie" and likes to repeat "Pretty tricky huh" (from the same segment) without knowing what it actually means.

vii) Counting to one hundred with her. I usually take the even numbers or we'll end up with numbers like thirty-ten, eighty-ten...

viii) Playing tetris with her sitting on my lap. She enjoys seeing the shapes and colours.

ix) Waiting for her whilst she takes those 20 cent kiddie rides available downstairs. Found it a little embarrassing initially but quickly got over it. "慧慧坐鴨鴨." She's also a fan of anything remotely connected to ducks and there is one such kiddie ride downstairs.

x) Receiving a "Peanuts" ang pow from my sis and being told that it was upon the specific instruction of my niece to do so. After 慧 received a Snoopy ang pow from a relative, she gave it to my sis. "給 gu gu Snoopy 紅包." I brought it to Sydney with me.

And the pick of the lot...

xi) Stopping and running along a pavement leading to a set of traffic lights according to what lights are showing. "Red stop!" and my mum and I are forced to halt by her. "Green go!" and three of us will start running. "Sa eh xiao lang" (three crazy people) is what my mum has to say about this. Fortunately, that particular pavement is usually quite free of pedestrians...

Unfortunately, all holidays come to an end. Already been back for more than a week now. I have been told that my niece has already accepted my departure. "Gu gu 不在, 沒有畫畫.".

*Sigh*

Akan Datang: Just found something I wrote half a year ago on the casino debate. Will edit it a little later tonight and post it tomorrow.

240 days to go.