4 years old

Dear Elle,

Happy Birthday, my 4-years-old. Weeks before your birthday, you had been anticipating turning into 4 years old and asking "Am I becoming 4 years old tomorrow?". When mama answered NO, you pouted and signed, "Oh... Not yet again!? I can't wait much longer.". Finally when your long awaited day was here, but you were sick. We missd our little sunshine.
Mama told you your birthday was the day you came out from mama's belly. Silly you burst into tears and hugged me saying you were sorry for making me bleed and were happy that the doctor fixed up my belly.
These four years flew by, yet mama sees you as the little baby came into our life four years ago today. You make us happy and make us sad. You make us laugh yet make us frustrated. Nonetheless, we love you with all our hearts!
Love,
Mama

47 month old

Dear Elle,

You love hearing spooky stories and making scray ghost sounds. One day, you came out with a silly story about papa having a picnic with the fish.

That day, the moment after you held up your feet in front of mama's face saying, "Oh yeah! Smell my feet!", you fell back and bang your head to the wall.

You sang the "Month song" and it goes like that "January, Februray, March and April, May, June, July and August, September, REMEMBER...". REMEMBER, really?

You crack me up when spelling words in silly way. You pronounced "Statue" as "Statuelah" and competed with papa who could hold still like a statue without moving a bit.


You love making a campout, having a picnic, and laying out stuffs on the floor pretending to be a seller or shopper go shopping. You love playing "Princess and the Prince", just like the Cinderella story that we danced in the ball, and when the clock struck midnight, you left a slipper and ran away. Later, the prince (mama) found the princess (you) and tried to fit the slipper on the princess's foot.


"Yikes!", a word you say out loud so often these day.

Love,
Mama

46 month old

Dear Elle,

You're my little ballerina, spinning and dancing around on your tippy toes with hands swaying in the air. In a moment, you leaped up high into the air, and then landed with a thump. Keep on twirling your heart out till you came to a halt. Put one hand on your back while the other across your chest, you crossed your legs and bent forward giving a bow.
Silly you love standing up-side-down against the wall, and walking up-side-down on your hand while mama holding on your legs.

You're a great company to shop with. "Oohh.. grandma will love that flower bag.", "How about blue for grandpa?", "I think grandma would love pink just like me..", that's how chit-chatty you are while we're shopping.

"A little piggy went whee whee whee all the way home...", you rhymed this phrase so often after watching the Geico commercial aired during super bowl.
Our jaw dropped while hearing you blurted out "May I be excused?" for the very first time when you're done with your meal.

"Excuse me Mom! I have a question to ask you.", and there you come climbing up to me and whispering closely to my ear.

One day, you blurted out, "Mom, you are a genius.". As I was still wondering where you picked up the word genius from, you continued, "Do you think i'm a genius too?!".

You love cutting and glueing, making party hats, flowers and even card for grandma. That day, you picked up a wishbone-like stick in the woods, held it up and made a wishe. You said, "I wish we'll be back to Malaysia to see grandma and grandpa soon.", "... so that grandma will cook yummy for me and grandpa will water the flower together with me.". At that very moment, Mama's tears welled in the eyes.

Love,
Mama

45 month olds

Dear Elle,

Pushing your every little buttons and watching your frustration is our sweet revenge.
Mama always love to tease you calling you "My Dear" just to watch your little face sank in with a "NOT AGAIN" look dissenting, "I am not an animal.. NOT DEER!!".

You had rash all over your body and face lasted for 3 long weeks. We tried all sorts of lotion and rash creams, including the diaper cream, but all in vain. You'd groan you're not beautiful anymore when seeing your face covered with layers of rash cream. We teased you calling you "BUTT FACE!". On the second week, we told you we'd bring you to see the doctor, you said happily, "Yippe! Doctor will fix my face and make me beautiful again! And doctor will give me a COOKIE!". It turned out that you were having "The fifth disease", which would go away on its own over time.

You met two brothers in the B&N and played the train together. Just before we're about to leave, the younger brother grabbed two dolls from the shelf and asked his mama, "Can I play dolls with my friend(you)?".

That day you complained to the cashier saying, "Papa didn't let me buy the shampoo with dora picture on it.".

We always encourage you trying new food. You'd say, "OK, I'll try it and I'll tell you whether I like it or not.". 99% of the time, you'd give it a thumb-up.

You always surprise us with the new songs you picked up from school. "Sunday through Saturday" song, how cool is that? "Animals in the zoo" phonic song, how adorable when you are making gestures go along with the animals!

Mama's heart melt when hearing you said, "Gong Xi Fa Chai, Xin Nien Kua Le, Hong Bao Na Lai!... I need to keep practicing saying these so I can become a CHINESE baby.".

One major milstone is you start to spell MILK, MOP, MOON, CAT, BEE, SUN, PIZZA, PIG and etcetera.

Love,
Mama

44 month olds

Dear Elle,

Chritmas had passed and yet the first thing you woke up in the morning was jumping out of the bed and checking if Santa left any MORE presents under the Christmas tree for you. Everytime you'd came back with a pity look on your face moaning, "Nothing under the tree AGAIN!".
You insisted mama wearing a red hooded jacket just like you. We put on our hoods pretending to be little red riding hoods carrying our baskets to pick apples (balls) in your playroom.

One day you told mama, "When i grow up, i want to go to college.". Mama asked, "Why?". You said, "..so that i can paint a picture.. just like Steve...". Mama asked, "Who's Steve?". "Steve in the Blue Dog's cartoon.".
客人来 was one of the Chinese song we had taught you a while back. All of a sudden, you changed the lyric and started singing like this: "妈妈不在家..mama wake up and go out of the door.. baby crying ask papa where's my mama.. baby want mama...baby miss mama.. baby miss mama..". When mama asked you how about the papa's version, you went like this: "爸爸不在家.. baby crying ask mama where's my papa.. baby says GOOD BYE..... and GOOD LUCK!!".
You love books about mysteries, especially the Scooby-Dobby series. Whenever we couldn't find something, take sunglasses for an example, you'd said, "It's a mystery. Let's go for a sunglasses hunt!".

That night we lied on the bed playing with the flashlight, giggling over all sort of animals and monsters shadows we made on the wall.

Playing hide-and-seek at nighttime with a flashlight is one of your favorite games. It is a no brainer searhing for you as silly you always hide under the blankie on the bed, or on the couch. When you found mama hiding behind the curtain, you'd point the flashlight towards my legs giggly and said, "Hmmm.. I can't see mama. Where's mama?".

Oh, even pooping and reading magazines/books go hand in hand for you. Hearing you reading aloud through the wall is hilarious. You yell "Stuff up your nose!" when we pop into the bathroom.
We're so proud of you knowing how to write your chinese name. You'd write a mixup of alphabets under the animal you colored and say that's the name of the animal which you have no idea how to pronounce.

Love,
Mama

43 month olds

Dear Elle,

Snow! Snow! Let it snow! You dig in the snow giggling happily as if you were a polar bear in your last life. Watching you laying in the snow shoveling white fluffies inside the bucket reminds mama of summertime you were on the beach.
You jump, stomp, messing the smooth blanket of snow in our front yard. Oh boy, it's hilarious to see you rolling on the cold icy driveway and inching on your tummy like an inchworm.
You and mama teamed up had a snow ball fight against papa. You barked, "Destroy!" as we chased after our target.
That day mama asked you what else you wanted for Christmas. You blurted out a whole slew of things, wishing for a pink heater, a pink kitchen, pink windows, pink mama, pink papa, and pink baby. All PINK!
When you need comfort, you say: "I need a huggie."

Love,
Mama

41 month olds

Dear Elle,

You praise everything as if it's the best ever with words like "The best, the greatest, the most wonderful in the world!". You got so excited getting to help us staining the deck. You painted the deck happily like a clam for hours and bragged about we're the most wonderful painter in the world and the deck would be the most beautiful in the world too. Your strength of persistence and concentration on the job at hand shines through.
You'd tell us, "It's only pretend. Just use your imagination." when we refused participating a silly pretend-playing game with you. Mischevious you would pretend calling falsely the "toaster" as "The TOFU machine". Sometimes, you messed up "french fries" with "fried rice", telling us you wanted to eat fried rice at McDonald's.

That day mama told you that one day mama will grow old and be dying. You said, "Mama will not grow older.. mama will grow NEWER when baby grows up.. mama will become a baby and stay at home and papa will take care of you and baby will go to work.. baby will buy my own car and drive to work....".

The other day, you sobbed saddly saying you want to grow up just like mama and learn to read chinese.

We have been reading the toothfairy book recently and be mermerized by the legend of toothfairy.

One evening, you caught a glimpse of the rainbow above the sky and shrilled "Rainbow! Rainbow!" so loud that our neighbor ran out to the backyard to watch the rainbow you discovered.
Love,
Mama

40 month olds

Dear Elle,

You had your first sleepover ever at 3 years old, two days before you turned 40 months old. What a milestone! We had mentally prepared to pick you up in the middle of the night expecting you'd cry for us, miss us and want us to bring you home. During the night, mama checked the clock almost every 20 minutes wondering how you were doing. Well, it turned out the sleepover went too smoothly. Not only you didn't mention about us at all, you even asked Aunty Lin if you could stay there forever.

The next morning, Aunty Lin couldn't hold it longer to prompt you if you missed your parent. Your response was "Uh huh..". Just like that, and you walked away to play again. What a heartless baby you are! Not to mention when I came over to pick you up, you acted so surprise seeing mama showed up. It's hilarious to hear you calling me "Aunty leling" the way Mia does. When mama asked you why you did not miss me or call me, you said, "Because I'm too busy playing with Mia and I got too tired.". As we bid farewell, you said politely to Aunty Lin, "Thank you for being nice to me.".
It's funny to hear you calling yourself "Strong muscle". When you get tired, you sign "Strong muscle is tired. Strong muscle needs power.". When I complained about you always get on my nerve, you said, "Sometimes you get on my bubble nerve too!". One day mama asked you to go get your clothes for the bath, you ran out and then came back saying "CHANGE MY MIND!" and then undressed yourself first before going to get your clothes.

That day on the car ride home, you yelled at the sky, "You storm! You rain! Go away! Go back to your home, lay down and be quiet! Don't come to my school!" because the rain ruined your water day at school. Nowadays, your always complain "Boys are mean!". Even though if it's a girl who accidentally hit you and gave you a boo boo, you'd say it's a boy did it because boys are mean. When I asked you why you think boys are mean, you replied, "Because when the girls say yes, the boys say no and the boys chase after us and scare us."
Some of your new/favorite sayings are: "OK! OK!.. you can be on my team.", "Not Yet! I have one more question to ask mama!", "BUT MOM...! I have something to talk to you.", "Hmm, Hmm, Hmm.. Yummy, I'm loving it!", "Yippy! Yippy!", "Papa says, you need to do like this.", "What should I do next?".

One day you asked dada if you could do something and was astonished that dada gave you the green light of go ahead. You asked in disbelief, "You NOT say NO? You say YES??".

You yell "HOP ON ABOARD!" when we get on our bicycles to cruise around the neighbourhood. You love cycling on the bumpy sidewalk, rhyming "chuka chuka chu chu" along with the bumpy loud noises.

That day I saw you sitting on the toilet bowl and putting down the cover to your back. You smiled at me saying, "I'm a potty chair." The next time you did the same thing, you told me you're a clam.

One of your favorite game is to pretend flying on mama's legs like the wonder pets rescuing their animal friends. You'd sing along the wonder pet's song as you're flying around.

"Wonder pet wonder pet, we're on our way
to save our friends and save the world
we're not too big, we're not too tough
when we're together, we got the right stuff"

Love,
Mama

39 month olds

Dear Elle,

"How about we can make fruit salad?", that's how you always answer back when mama asks you what should we eat.

It's really cute hear you screaming, "The paper truck is coming! Hurry! Let's go!" when the mailman's truck stops at our mailbox. It becomes a routine for you riding on your trike to check what's the lady (postwoman) put in our mailbox.
One day at the shower, you stood on one foot with the other pressing into your upper thigh (like a yoga's tree pose) and shrilled cheerfully, "This is number 4!".
You love playing board games even though you don't know how to play them.

You express your anger by making the "Grrrr.." sounds, crossing your arms, turning your head and walking away.

When we ask you what do you want for pet? You said, "A purple puppy.".

You make a sad puppy face saying, "Sometimes you don't love me. Sometimes you make me sad.".
That day mama asked you to throw something into the garbage can, I heard you murmuring to the thingy, "You lost your job now!" and then throwing it into the garbage can.

love,
mama

38 month old

Dear Elle,

When you're hungry, you rub your tummy saying "I'm so hungry".

When you get angry, you stomp off saying "I'm not talking to you anymore. You're not being nice to me!".

At playtime, you say cheerfully "Comeon! It's going to be fun! You want to play together with me?".

You look so adorable holding both your arms up saying, "I'm strong!".
We love to take turn listening and talking to the animals inside our belly.

The feeling of being massaged by a 3-years-old is so wonderful. You stand on our back, walking from our toes to head and then jumping off. What a great way to practice your balance act!

You cracked mama up coming down the slides in your own creative animal style: ant, octopus, snake.

You were curious about dada's Adam's apple on his throat and applied pain relief cream on it trying to make dada felt all better.
You love to ask, "What I do now?".

Love,
Mama