big and small - 20 months

Crystal is 20 months today

it's amazing if you observe how your children grow and how their intelligences develop!
and it's really amazing to find out how fast they learn something, either to sing, to count, to memorize poem, to mimic things the adult do, or anything else.
as a working mom, i always want to rush home after office hour, to be with my girl and see her grow up time to time.



Crystal begins to understand the concept of big and small.
lately she often says to herself, "Mama's big. Jing-jing's small."
if i ask about her rubber duckling, which one one is big which one is small, she can also point it out. same case with spoons or balls or anything else with different size.


Crystal sings several songs.
either 100% or only 70% of each song.


Crystal memorizes 4 poems.
Quiet Night
Stork watcher tower
Toiling Farmer
Goose


Crystal likes to counts 1-100.
with a little help on 50, 60, 70, 80, 90


Crystal says several names of vegetables / spices.
carrot, cabbage, brocolli/cauliflower, cucumber, potato, mushroom, eggplant, ginger, garlic, chilli, corn


Crystal says some fruit names
watermelon, apple, peach, grape, pear, lichee, cherry, orange, lu-gan orange, banana, strawberry, mango, melon.


Crystal mentions some vehicles names
sedan, taxi, bicyle, motorcycle, bus, boat


Crystal pees in toilet floor or in potty by herself
but, she often pees on her pants too.
and still wears diaper when sleeping.
we dont want out bed to get wet.


Crystal can eat with a spoon, can drink with a cup
but mommy will always remind her not to drip while drinking.
but she cannot have soup with a spoon.
but she often are so messed-up if eating by herself, so mommy prefers to feed her, let her use spoon sometimes.



Crystal takes shoes for others when coming home
Crystal asks daddy to have dinner after coming home
Crystal says goodmorning and goodnight



now Crystal likes candy or chocolate very much and will eat unstoppingly if you let her. blame to the spring festival. all the adults (of my husband's relatives) always gave her a lot of candies during our visit, which was very difficult to refuse. i only took it away some whenever nobody saw it. usually i always keep candy out of her sight and reach. she also likes dried melon seeds (kuaci, gua zi). she will eat it all with the peel. but often she spits out the peel after some time.

mama goes to work

Crystal and daddy were lying on the bed.

Crys: Daddy's computer (pointing at the PC)
Dad : Eiih... yes, daddy's computer.
Mom: (hiding behind daddy's back and
grabbing watch and glasses on the shelf)
Crys: Mama is here (saw mama already)
Mom: (couldn't help laughing) Mama will go to work
Crys: wuaaah.... wuaah.... (started to cry and crawled up)
G'pa: Mama will go to work.
Crys: Mama won't go to work. Grandpa goes to work (still crying)
Mom: (having breakfast, washing teeth)
Dad : Mama will go to work and earn some money
for buying milk and buying candy for Crystal.
G'pa: Grandpa goes to work. Mama doesn't go to work.
Crys: Eeeeh... mama goes to work. (stopped crying)
G'pa: Mama doesn't go to work.
Crys: Mama goes to work!
Dad : Why does mama go to work?
Crys: To earn money.
Dad : Money for buying what?
Crys: buying candy

if we want her do something, which she refuses and has her "no..no..NOOO..", we will say the contrary. for example she refuses to eat, we say, "we don't let Crystal eat". she will open her mouth. sometimes it doesn't work anyway !

empathy...ribut-ribut

kemarin malam, aku ribut-ribut dg lin. masalah sepele. gara2 sebuah senter.
dan urat air mataku terlalu tipis. menangis kesal dengan Crystal dalam gendongan.

fifth grandaunt-nya si Crystal bilang, "sini, grand-aunt gendong. mama lagi nangis."
sebenarnya gak nangis gimana, cuma mata basah aja saking kesel pada suami.
Crystal memandangku dan langsung menangis dengan kencang.
aduh, cintaku, mama tak sampai hati melihatmu menangis karna melihat mama menangis.
so, aku bilang, "mama gak nangis. mama gak nangis." dan aku pun menghentikan tangisku.
dia pun berhenti menangis juga.

guess what?!
setelah itu, siang ini lin bilang semalam dia menatap lin dengan pandangan mata yang galak. seolah berkata, "jangan bikin mamaku nangis." dan dia gak mau digendong lin.

mungkin karena capek. malam ini pun aku jadi marah2 dan ribut lagi karena kesal oleh hal lain.
gimana gak capek, selama 2 hari menjelang imlek, di mana2 terdengar bunyi mercon. Crystal ketakutan sekali. jadi setiap saat merayapi badanku, minta gendong, gak mau oleh orang lain. jadi selama 5 hari ini sejak libur ngantor, otomatis pagi sampai malam, hampir selalu minta gendong atau gandeng. kadang masih bisa digendong sambil duduk, kadang setelah digendong pun dia bilang, "mama berdiri."

udah gitu, di rumah sodara di kampung, ranjang kecil 1.4m, buat tidur berempat. iparku, aku dan kedua anak kecil. mana si kecil tidurnya gak kalem lagi. sering bolak balik badan. kadang udah muter2. sering mendesak aku ke pinggiran. otomatis 2 malam aku gak terlalu tidur nyenyak.

udah gitu, mak mertuaku lagi di kamar main game di komputer. sehabis aku marah2 pada suami, dia bilang ke suami, "anakku kasian yah. dimarahi dua orang." kali ini, bokap mertua mendukungku saat aku marah2 karena kesal. mungkin aku terlalu sensi, tapi kupikir, kok nadanya menyindir yah? kesal pun jadi bertambah.

aku gak bisa menahan air mata saat menemani si kecil yang sudah mengantuk. si kecil sepertinya ngerti. gak banyak ngomong saat akan tidur. matanya terus2an menatap mataku. tangannya mengelus2 wajahku dan mataku yang berair. lalu dia pun tertidur.

mama sayang sekali padamu .. malaikat kecilku!

play around and sleep (update photo)

Playing around (taken on 20-Jan-07)



Sleeping (taken on 24-Jan-07)

poetry reading (2) Stork-Watchtower 登鹳雀楼 and Toiling Farmers 悯农诗

here are other 2 poems Crystal could memorize these 2 days.

登鹳雀楼 王之涣(688-742)
白日依山尽
黄河入海流
欲穷千里目
更上一层楼

Stork-Watchtower
by Wang Zhihuan (688-742)
sunlight fading away over the mountain
yellow river flowing to the sea
to look thousand miles away
let's climb up higher steps


悯农诗 李绅（772-846）
锄禾日当午
汗滴河下土
谁知盘中餐
粒粒皆辛苦

Toiling Farmers
by Li Shen （772-846）
farmers weeding during sunny day,
their sweat drips down on the ground
who knows food on a tray
due to their toiling day?

every chinese students know this poem. it's to let the children value their meals as every grain of it comes from the farmers' hard toil.

Crystal's pronunciation is not perfect of course. She still can't pronounce "ke/ge" (similar to k for "key" or k for "kunci").

for example:
guan = close (she will say 'puan')
gege = big brother (she will say 'dede')
gugu = auntie (she will say 'dudu')
let's go = she will say "let's joe"

poetry reading (1) IN THE QUIET NIGHT 静夜思

Crystal is 1 year 7 month 1 week today

Smarty could memorize around 4~5 poems from the Tang Dinasty. i only knew (memorize) 1 poem. so i read this poem several times to Crystal on Tuesday nite, before bed time. and explain the meaning to her in kid language. this is the only one chinese poem i could remember by heart.

静夜思 (李白)
床前明月光
疑是地上霜
举头望明月
低头思故乡


There are 7 translations for this poem. among them, below translation is what i like the most. though i still think it's a little bit awkward anyway. such kind of poem if translated, cannot represent the original version in Chinese. though i'm not very fluent in Chinese language, i still could feel the beauty in the above poem when reading in original Chinese version.

IN THE QUIET NIGHT
by Li Bai
Beside my bed a pool of light---
Is it hoarfrost on the ground?
I lift my eyes and see the moon,
I bend my head and think of home.
(Tr. Xianyi and Gladys Yang, 1984, from "Poetry and Prose of the Tang and Song")


to my surprise is .. tonite Crystal can memorize the whole poem. though i believe she doesnt really understand the meaning. but it's amazing !


hahaha... and it encourages me to learn more chinese poem and also improve my chinese learning. otherwise, how could i teach my daughter in the future if she has questions for her school homeworks? well, her dad will be in charge actually ... =)

all this time, i am too busy and have no time to learn 'kanji' (chinese characters).
actually the true reason is, i am lazy! 'coz i still have time for blogging.. ;P

2 hal baik hari ini

naik gaji
naik gaji lagi euy.. kali ini 10.5%.
lagi2 gak nyangka, aku kira gak secepat ini yah. soalnya bulan juni kemaren baru naik. seneng sih, siapa yang gak seneng coba ? tapi juga gak senang2 banget. cenderung biasa.

why?

2 minggu lalu sempat ngobrol2 sama orang finance soal naik gaji dan apa yang dicari di dunia kerja.

kayaknya setelah punya anak, kita-kita merasa gak terlalu pengen ngejar karir. bahkan gaji naiknya sedikit atau gak dikasih naik gaji juga gak terlalu masalah, si orang keuangan di tempatku ini juga punya pikiran yang sama. dia juga puas-puas aja dengan penghasilannya sendiri. toh suaminya berpenghasilan cukup tinggi dan bekerja untuk "bumn" di china sini.

intinya biasa2 aja, penghasilan (yang mungkin) tetap. kalo perusahaan gak terkena ancaman tutup. dan dapat menikmati hidup secara sederhana dan bahagia. cukup kayaknya.

aku sendiri cukup puas dengan penghasilanku saat ini. soalnya mengingat betapa susahnya awal2 nyari kerja di sini. gaji di perush pertama, lebih kecil dibanding fresh graduate di jakarta. gaji perush kedua, malah lebih kecil lagi. baru sekarang ini .. aku cukup puas (soalnya udah ngalami pahitnya..huehehe..! jadi mesti disyukuri!)

yah gitu deh. senang sekaligus juga biasa-biasa aja.
padahal gak lama ini masih kepikiran pengen karir meningkat, pengen gaji meningkat. mungkin juga sekarang berasa biasa-biasa aja, siapa tau beberapa bulan kemudian, eeeh, tabiat ambisius nongol lagi.. huehehe!


promosi
hari ini Lin dapat promosi ke divisi yang lebih baik. kalo dengan posisi sekarang, nyaris gak ada peluang peningkatan karir. di tempat mereka, kalo dah kepala tiga, sudah mulai tanda-tanda kemandegan di karir.

bedanya, sebelumnya dia mengepalai 20 orang (dari 4 shift). sekarang dia jadi gak punya bawahan, tapi bekerja dalam team. nah lho!

bedanya lagi, orang-orang di team ini punya kesempatan promosi yang besar. sebelumnya, kemungkinan dia akan tetap di posisinya sampai 10-15 tahun. lalu digantikan orang lain, balik lagi jadi maintenance engineer biasa, tinggal nunggu pensiun.

biarpun promosi, dari segi gaji, gak ada peningkatan. aku senang, tapi malah dia yang biasa-biasa aja. padahal sebelumnya dia juga ikut proses seleksi untuk masuk team ini. tapi yang kepilih orang lain. dan dia ditempatkan pada posisi yang sekarang. dia kecewa sekali waktu itu. sekarang, tanpa proses seleksi, eh dia malah biasa aja.

lagi2 soal berubah pikiran. dia cukup enjoy dengan posisi sekarang, karena cukup bebas. dengan posisi baru, akan lebih repot dan akan sering dinas atau kadang sering tugas tengah malam kalo ada maintenance project.


kadang memang gitu. ketika kita menginginkan sesuatu, gak mendapatkan dan jadi kecewa. saat sudah mendapatkan malah jadi biasa-biasa aja. padahal mestinya disyukuri yah?!

jadi yah, aku tentunya sangat dan tetap bersyukur atas semua kebaikan Tuhan yang tiada henti!