(2007/02) February

Saph,
yeah, the handy Sealer is a useful item - in the long run, it'll probably help me save money on expensive ziplocks
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gak,
So gald to hear that there is no more stains. Rest lots!
 


huskie, I've got the same headache as you... terok man.. my little boy is very anti-Chinese.. guess he gets the anti-chinese sentiments from yours truly :p Now panicking, husband wants to order Han Zi Gong.. or Wink To Learn chinese DVD, dunno whether good or not.

Saw the BP for malindis by laaalaa.. but end up quite disastrous. I still swear by Zita. Ordered three times from her already and she's a very nice mummy who works at TTSH.
 
huskie, Ashton only speaks mandarin after he attended classes. He can sing some mandarin nursery rhymes but honestly i cant tell what is it, can only catch something like "pa bu dong". Must ensure that they speak mandarin, or else next time when they are older, it will be even tougher to 'force' them

thanks for the link on handy sealer, looks great.

yah, ashley sleeps in aircon room set at 21degrees, so need a blanket.
 
cherryale
u let ashley sleeps air-con every nite??
my boy oso v scared of heat..he dun like to be covered with blanket even in air-con
so we switch off the air-con when the room's cooled enough
 
Gak..Good to know tat the spotting has stopped.

Huskie..Yes we played the parachute..will use it again tomorrow..hope Sop can join us.
Yael seems well already..no more runny nose..hardly coughing too..guess he had too much sweets and chocolate in church on sat..the members jus like to give to kids all these snacks la..n thing is more than 1 person gives, cos the kids usually walk around the place..so hard to control..next time I must put a tag on him.."Please direct candies to my parents, thank u"..something like tat..haha.
 
Catz,
Hey, so you cancelled your previous Crocs order with laaaaaaaa?
OK, hope Zita can start the next BP soon... before I pop
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Hey, I've got the Wink to Learn DVD - you wanna borrow Disc 1 & 2 from me to try out on your Timo & Beth first? Altho I think Timo may be bored with Disc 1 & 2 cos they're probably too simple for him.
And oh, I heard Berries is quite good for preschoolers - my friend's kid refused to speak Mandarin, and she panicked cos she was sending the kid to Kong Hwa Pri. Sch, so decided to invest in Berries class. Apparently the kid now loves Chinese and scored higher in Chinese than English for her P1 finals.

gak,
Hee, yep, my teas are with Catz... we keep missing each other during this kids' hol program!
Catz ordered for me thru her drugstore spree - I have tried the Pregnancy Tea before, but not the raspberry ones yet. I think smurfy says it's delicious.

I'm doing fine - tomorrow going for my 5th mth re-scan at NUH again!

cherry,
Yep, must try to inculcate the love of Chinese into the kids now... hee, what cute nursery rhyme is it that has "pa bu dong" in it? As in cannot crawl?
Now I am trying something - I speak only Mandarin to her before lunch, so she gets at least a few hours of Mandarin.
Never mind if she doesn't reply in Mandarin, but at least she understands and replies in English for now.
Her only reply in Mandarin is "you" as in "have" for anything that is "yes" and "bu yao" for anything that is "no"
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Charis,
Great that we doing the parachute again tomorrow!
Soph should be able to attend. I monitored her the whole of last night - no coughing at all!
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And no coughs today too
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huskie, i can tell your mandarin also cannot make it
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the 'pa bu dong' means 'cannot move'. Hb said its a song on pulling carrots/radish. Dun know, i never heard of this song before. The only chinese nusery rhyme that i know is 'san zhi lao hu' which apparently is called 'liang zhi lao hu' now.

gak, yes Ashley sleeps in aircon room cos she is sleeping in our room now. But even when I move her to her room in Sept (my plan), I will leave the aircon on. They perspire a lot so dun think fan can cool her down.

Mummies, will like to have an idea of how your toddlers are progressing, dun mind if u can respond to these questions.

1) Can your toddler count 1 to 10 or beyond?

2) Can your toddler colour within the picture/lines?

3) Does your toddler know the full alphabets from A to Z?

Thank you!
 
Huskie..That's good..Hope Y will be well enough to come too..he should be..it may not be viral after all, could b a very irritated throat cos of the candies..n he was swamped by cat fur on sunday..my dad left the car seat for weeks in the open at home, got really dusty and cat fur all over it..n although we vacuumed it, he already "exposed" to e seat..his temp was at 37degcel on mon..was tat a fever?

Catz..Would like to order some raspberry tea next BP frm u ok?..hehe..since all of them say its nice.

Cherry..1) Rote count can..but not 1-to-1 correspondence.

2)Color-yes, but not inside the lines..in general they cant do that until 3 over years old..they r still perfecting their pincer grasp..so give them time la..No rush.

3) No- Alphabets have not even mentioned to Y.
I started with reading, flashcards..Y can read some words n some his favourite books by memory, identify the basic shapes; square etc, 3-4 piece puzzles..but alphabets and numbers are too abstract..I wont b teaching him till he turns 3-4 yo..n i believe its even easier to start alphabets and numbers later cos their brains will b able to grasp that kind of info faster when they r older. Now its a lot of concrete learning.

Anyway Cherry, Im sure A is doing well..don't compare him with others' progress ok? If he's enjoying learning, growing well, that's really good.
 
cherryale,
1) Can your toddler count 1 to 10 or beyond?
yes

2) Can your toddler colour within the picture/lines?
so so. Didn't expose her much to colouring as hubby and I don't really want her to go into the same line as us :p Have to work long hours.

3) Does your toddler know the full alphabets from A to Z?
Yes, verbally and still learning to identify visualy
 
Huskie,
There's a Chinese song about pulling carrots that has 'ba bu dong'. Ben likes to sing it. These days, he's reciting Sarah's 儿歌 from her Chinese enrichment class CD.

smurfy,
I am thinking of getting the Scooba right about now. Just contacted the importer. They only have one model and it's $1399. So ex! Still thinking.... and dreaming.....

cherryale,
Hey, don't stress leh. Ben knows 1-20. I've hardly heard him sing the alphabet song, but I think he knows it from watching a particular Sesame Street VCD. Colouring within lines - NOPE! Sarah only did that at about 4 years of age.
 
cherry,
haha, my Chinese is really not that good
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but i thought your "pa bu dong" is "pa(2)" as in crawl... i think PVL's version is the most correct one... the hanyu pinyin should be "ba(1)" as in "pull/pluck"
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Charis,
Cats' fur is really dangerous if your kis has sensitive airways!

hey, what is the meaning of "rote count"?

Looking forward to the parachute tomorrow
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wow so many post suddenly...

huskie,
could see you and vicki are trying to speak more chinese to soph an isaac that day.

Ryan's chinese is also pathetic. Hubby takes malay as 2nd language cos he was a malaysian. Me chinese also cannot make it. I only know "ke ren lai" so that's the only chinese song Ryan knows, but he can sing it pretty well. Hope it improves after he goes kindy. His school is called Chinese Kindergarten
http://www.chinesekindergarten.org/

charis,
hope ryan will enjoy the parachute more tomorrow.

Cherry,
1) Yes he can "count" up to 20, but like charis says, the actually 1 to 1 counting, he can do up to 6.

2)Colour, tries to attempt to colout within lines but mostly still comes out. Area within lines not totally coloured.

3)Yes, he knows the full alphabet. Used to sing the song umpteen times a day and can recognise it. He learns it mostly from the "All-stars sesame street" vcd. Can use his pens to make the letters like T, X, A, etc
 
hey chocbabe,
Thanks for sharing the site for the kindie!
I didn't know there is such a kindie - the only Chinese kindie I know of is Nanyang Kindie, whose waitlist is as famous as that of St James, so I heard.
Too bad I no longer stay around Telok Blangah area, otherwise hubby would definitely want to consider it.

Heh, I was trying quite desperately to speak Mandarin to Soph, but for Vikki, she mostly speaks Mandarin to Isaac, so it's not a real problem for Isaac.
His Chinese is so good he can recite almost the full San Zi Jing, and can say things like "tou(2) po(4) xue(3) liu(2)" to indicate a bleeding head rather than just liu(2) xue(3)!

Eh, ke ren lai is good enough! That's all I know actually... till hubby bought the Wink To Learn Chinese Nursery Rhymes DVD
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And yes, like cherry mentioned, san zi lao hu is apparently now liang zi lao hu :p

Was just looking through FB and saw the baby pics of your Sarah... can't wait to see my little bundle of joy too
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hihi ladies!!!

i read thr the posts and i found that i have the opposite problem..cherish english lang is v limited where else she can communicate well in mandarin.. nowadays i try to speak to her in english..hopefully she can improve on it.

chocbabe,

Ryan kindy looks great..still got indoor playground and look very homely.

cherry,

cherish can count,but i guess she does it based on memory. even if you ask her to count 8 items, she will tell you 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 etc..so i guess she is not really counting.

colour within the lines - nope. I dun restrict her to color within the lines..cos at this age,i feel that they should be given the freedom to be creative.

ABC - she can sing the alpabet song and recognise 70% of the letters
 
Ladies..H1N1 situation getting worse..praying for all of us here. Do avoid travel to affected places and also crowded tourist spots.

Huskie..Rote meaning..jus say it out by memory..1-to-1 correspondence differs.."real" counting when the child actually understands the concept of the number.
eg 1 car, 2 cars, 3 cars..points n counts accurately.
Been trying to teach Y..he can count up to 2 the most..haha..not very interested also..he prefers the flashcards, doin puzzles and building stuff with his lego.

Chocbabe..He did actually..except the part when we tried to get him on it n moving haha..well that can be quite scary for 1st-timers..remember Yael was quite scared of the parachute at one time.
 
Charis,
Oh, in that case, Soph can simply recite the numbers, but as in real conceptual counting, I think she can do up to maximum of 3 only
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She's also not very interested in concept of counting when I try to teach her - this Neanderthal simply wants to snatch everything (e.g. pegs/paper clips) from my hand!

Soph was also very afraid of the parachute the first time we tried it on her at The Little Gym when she was 10mo... afetr that she really enjoyed it. not sure if she still remembers how fun it is... we'll see tomorrow!

stella,
You're lucky Cherish is fluent in her Chinese! I find Chinese harder to "master" that's why I prefer to expose Soph more to Chinese now.
 
huskie, haha, see, this is what i meant, my chinese is so poor, hanyu pinyin also dun know
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yes, it should be ba bu dong
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last time when I was in sec school, i never bother to learn how to write the chinese characters, will leave the entire section of 5 questions where they gave u the hanyu pinyin and u got to fill in with chinese characters totally blank. Think that was worth 5marks out of total of 100 marks. I would focus on other areas..hehe, thank God still can get A1
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then for composition, I will memorize some typical paragraphs and repeat them over and over again...so I hope my kids can be better than me. Plus it said volumes about our education system - ability to score well really dun mean any understanding. And when i was in uni, i had a group of friends in the hostel who were into chinese pop songs and i tried to sing along, I never understand what the lyrics were about.

mummies, thanks for responding to my questions. Charis, no worries, I am not comparing, guess every kid learns at their own pace. Just wanted to have a sense of how other children are progressing. However, its really time for me to spend more time with Ashton. So we make it a point to read to him every night now before he sleeps.

Yael plays with lego, wow, that's very good. thot they only play with lego much later. Ashton is only interested in cars, balls etc. He has no patience to sit down to read. He will stand even while scribbling.
 
Cherry..Hehe..Stand while scribbling..so busy..cute fella..haha.
Good that u get to read to him b4 bedtime..bonding time too!
 
1. recite 1 to 10..think QY can recite 1-8 but without meaning.. cannot relate with actual objects in front of him.

2) color within the line? definitely no.. his idea of coloring is to color on a same spot over and over again..

3) recite A-Z.. he sings the alphabet song.. but misses some alphabet.. again, like the numbers.. no meaning at all

QY's oso pathetic in english.. he knows some english lar.. but he converse with us in mandarin... can recite "ke ren lai".."san luan che"... "pai pai zhuo".."tien orh orh..".. these few days he's into "chuan qian ming que guang"... tat san zi jing.. he likes but we ourselves cannot remember, must refer to books... he's very cute.. when he recites.. he will nod in head in excitement.. and when we clap hands after he completes, his ego went up and he claps his hands oso..
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he recognise chinese words using flashcards like "father, mother, brother, Qiyuan" as part of his brainwashing for the new baby's arrival.. onli regret that we dun have the energy to flash him more flashcards these days..
 
pvl..
i googled and read in hardwarezone webbie that most of them get the irobots from overseas... much cheaper but then again, without warranty.. there's a webbie called woot.com which gives good deal every day and scooba and roombas are one of them.. just that u have to monitor the webbie everyday.

cherry and charis talks abt lego right? oh i oso wanna ask.. whose kids can play with blocks, mega blocks, lego and stuffs like that??

i got some blocks at home... i always want to stack up something.. but QY's idea of playing with blocks is to throw everything on the floor and enjoys looking the mess? he wouldn't even allow me to stack up anything like 3 blocks tall... he would just push everything on the floor again
 
GOOD MORNING mommies!
how's everyone today?


smurfy
ur edd oso Oct??
hehe..Adriel likes to stack the blocks up & make all the blocks fall
think they find it fun like that
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wah all ur toddlers so clever!
1) recite 1 to 10..Adriel can only count to 4
2) color within line...sometimes he can sometimes not when he gets mischievious, he'll do it anyhow
3) recite A-Z..he still can't do this but he can name most animals/objects when we point to him
 
Smurfy,
If you want to get the iRobot from overseas, the voltage is different, so you have to do some kind of modification to the charger, or else get a step up transformer. No warranty also, and dunno if the local agents will agree to service for you. My hb says he'll buy the Scooba for me
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. My PT help now comes fortnightly, so it will be a great help. The other day, I was ironing clothes in the afternoon, and thinking about the floor that I still needed to mop, and wishing I had the Scooba to do it for me simultaneously.

My Ben likes to fix things together, whether blocks or other objects (he has a toy with straws and connectors, and other shapes). He likes to put jigsaw puzzles together too, though not always correctly.

cherryale, huskie,
拔萝卜, 拔萝卜,
哎呀呀, 哎呀呀
哎呀,哎呀拔不动。

小花猫, 块点来
块来帮 我拔萝卜

Then you can add other animals.

Another nice one that Ben likes...
小猪 小猪 胖呼呼
睡起觉来呼噜噜
大家叫它块起床
它闭着眼睛说:不不不!
 
pvl
kekeke last week i was maidless..every morning use magic clean wet wipes to clean the whole house..and while doing so.. tot of these gadgets.. very cool hor...to vaccuum and mop the floor for u..i think those ppl in HWZ go to a shop in Sim Lim tower to modify.. and yah.. the local distributors charges for servicing.. but it's like soo much cheaper... for my case i dun need scooba yet unless really dun plan to have maids in future :p.. i just wanna a roomba to vacuum the floor every morning before we all set off to my mum's place :p sengkang n punggol very dusty area... u noticed? arrgghh these few wks i got sensitive airway... choke and cough in the middle of my sleep.. it onli goes off when i onz the ioniser
 
smurfy, PVL, the scooba and roomba sound really cool. Hmm,good thing to have if I dun have a maid..anyway, i am sure it will be cleaner than the current maid who dun even lift up the bumper mat when cleaning the floor and has clumps of dust plus hair in corners which are not visible like behind curtains.

Pvl, yes, Ashton also like to recognize animals, he can point out and say giraffe, elephant, lion, fox, dolphin, etc.
 
gak,
No problem. have not answer your previous questions...I am delivering in KL
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Talk about games and activities:

-just bought the fishing game for her lately. Have been having fun with it.

-She's okay with stacking and legos.

-Still loves to read. Even at night she will keep on insisting that we read to her before she sleeps. Sometimes can drag up to 1/2 hour before she is willing to let us put away the books.

-She doesn't like to draw or write or colour. maybe because we didn't expose it to her earlier. Now, slowly trying to get her interest.

-Watching tv. Tried playing Winnie the Pooh. Doesn't seems to be interested at all. After a while, she will ask us to stop it. Any recommendations on good and fun educational CDs?

-Likes to prepare dinner for me when I reached home from work -masak-masak. Some more can aske me don't eat or drink. Just pretend.

-Also likes to play puzzles and put things together.

-Enjoy listening to songs and sing. She will play the cd herself if she wanted to listen.
 
goodness, so many posts to catch up with!

Charis, sure,if you want the teas, surf drugstore.com and let me know. I'm placing orders come first week of July anyway.

PVL, yah like smurfy says, a lot of people get the Scooba and Roomba from US sites and get them modded... cos it's like half the price... for a 50% discount, I think I would risk no warranty. My sis bought a Kaarcher robot vac though, think it's less than $1k but not as good as the Roomba. But in terms of mopping, only the Scooba does that.

Charis, so sad to come to an end of the lessons!! My kids really enjoyed it!

huskie, Soph is really so pretty... delicate little flower. Can see why your husband is so adoring. You really think Wink to Learn is not age appropriate ah? Dunno how, should I get the Han Zi Gong or not? :p
 
charis, catz, huskie,
it was nice having the sessions. I know Ryan wasn't very cooperative but he really enjoys the lessons cos everytime when we leave, he will tell me in the car to bring him again. He also sings the songs to me at home which really surprises me cos he is hardly in the circle. He is an observer i guess.

Think the problem with him is he is very shy in unfamiliar environment. Hope he will get better when he starts kindy.
 
chocbabe, Ryan is a highly intelligent boy.. think your hubby felt super pai say at points but he didn't need to be lah! He was definitely more cooperative today and actually, he's not all that shy lah
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Saph,
yes yes, I am still preggy! *touchwood*
My EDD is 02 Oct 2009
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PVL,
Woah, I am amazed you can type in Chinese!
No wonder you are confident enough to homeschool your kids!
Thanks for the lyrics.... I'll try and find this pulling carrot CD/VCD... seems like quite a cute and popular song!

Catz,
Soph has changed quite a lot from her boy-looking baby days I guess *whew*
Yeah, hubby really adores girls
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As for Wink To Learn, it has 6 dics... I find Disc 1-4 quite basic and easy so I think Timo may find it boring since he goes to school and would have learnt all that. I think only Disc 5 and 6 would be appropriate for him. Unfortunately I cannot spare these 2 discs now cos hubby is using them on Soph now.

What is Han Zi Gong? Sounds cheem leh!

btw, i tt money for teas tomorrow ok? Hubby wants lappie to install new printer now!

Charis,
Yeah, it's a shame lessons have come to an end! Soph also enjoys the lessons very much, although this mommy here finds it a bit tough to sit down and get up from the floor constantly... after the first lesson, I was so tired... good thing my MIL helped take over some parts of that 1st lesson!

chocbabe,
I think Ryan did well... I wouldn't consider him uncooperative cos he didn't really disrupt the class. Think it's normal for tods to want to wander around a new environment
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Today I spoke with him in Mandarin - he was so cute... I could see he understood me, but didn't reply cos he's just shy with an unfamiliar auntie!
Soph was shy as well, before she started her playgroup school... after about 2 mths, she's better now, but still shy cos she sometimes do not look you in the eye when she speaks to you.
 
Eh Catz,
Forgot to tell you - your Beth is so gorgeous... haha, aren't you afraid if you send her to a co-ed Pri Sch?

Eh, I just checked out Han Zi Gong online... it costs $680?!
 
huskie, she gorgeous? No la but she's v cute. Apple of my husband's eye. Sigh. Yes han zi gong is horrendously pricey. Not sure if getting it or not.

Brought the kids to watch Transformers. Haha. They sat thru for 2.5 hours. Not bad for first time. Of course need to bribe with popcorn n I put professional ear defenders on them.
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Catz,
Yeah, thought of getting it overseas. But I'm afraid that after I've gotten it, I have no time to go get it modified. And then if there are probs, I hate having to find somebody to fix it etc etc. I'm just not very confident with these techie things, dealing with techie people. My hb is worse than me, so we'll probably just stick to the safe, tried and tested
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. My hb is going to get me a Scooba for our anniversary gift! First gift in 6 years. Hahaha
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Catz,
Transferred!

Yeah, her double eyelids are gorgeous leh! Even my mum thinks so after seeing her pic!

Hmm... I saw some e.g of Han Zi Gong videos on youtube. It's pretty good, but I don't like the hanyu pinyin part. I personally feel kids should not be exposed to hanyu pinyin before the age of 6 i.e. before they understand the difference between English Phonics and hanyu pinyin. Just my opinion anyway
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Eh, what are ear defenders?
 
ho ho... me back again... no time to read finish posts... scare they wake up lar...

haha

sap, regaridng mil giving biscuits... she already give so how to tell her to give fruits instead of tat? then zz whine n she give in.

but yesterday she came n b4 she step into house, I warn her not to show him any BISCUITS cos I m feeding him halfway.

anyway, zz still do not wan to sit in potty but everyday I encourage him n tell him when he is in the toilet washing up... he just wan me to wash his backside after he did business... hiaz

but he rather quick to learn language lo... but yes his chinese is also v "english lo"

he now knows what is our names esp mine... so if ple ask him wat mummy name... he knows lo my mil teach him 1...

) recite 1 to 10..yes he do it but when I ask him to count the real items he still count to 10 lo... then now he trying to count over 10... he can rem up to 13...
2) color within line... he can't lo... he v messy 1... he just scribble n then tell me it is a star or watever...

3) recite A-Z.. yes he can recite the whole ABC song rgt up to nxt time G mei mei sing w me... hehe but sometimes he sing v fast n he will skip tuv

he also like to imitate her sister when she cry for attention... *faint...
 
btw, zz is using normal children toothbrush... the finger brush i v long never use cos he bite ple 1...

but he still using first toothpaste lo... i tell me to gargle mouth by giving water... but he really gargle but swallow the water lo.... lol
 


Ear defenders/ear muffs - only Peltor brand makes the cut IMHO.. 'cos I used to wear ear defenders whenever I went to wait for aircraft to taxi into the bay.

http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/ejuearmu.html

PVL, if your hubby is sponsoring, then all systems go!
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huskie, if no hanyu pinyin, I sure mati 'cos I really tak tau :p Actually hor, Beth had not much double eyelid from month 3 till about 15 months.. think 'cos of her milk allergies.. haha. But a lot of ppl say her eyes machiam those precious moments figurines, which I have to agree with. Just that her personality is definitely not of the saccharin type.
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garfield, well done! Good lah, you 'handle' your MIL!
 

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