Jumping Jack Flash

Mama was flabbergasted last Tuesday.

The scene:
Ellie was going home after a playdate at our place. She found these cute light-up sandals that Poh Poh had bought for Katy. Ellie has borrowed them before. She put them on and wanted to borrow them again. Katy protested vigorously and said she didn't want Ellie to take her "Poh Poh shoes". Just because she was feeling tired and grumpy. Mama said "But Katy you borrow things from Ellie all the time. You never wear these at the moment. Of course Ellie can borrow them".

What happened:
Katy said "I'm gonna gas on Ellie's face!"

...

The background:
Where do you think Katy got this idea from??? Well, Katy has been fortunate enough to inherit Dada's long, lithe frame and long legs. But, unfortunately for our little Princess, she has also inherited Dada's gassiness. Big Time. Right now, it's all funny. Dada plays it up with Katy a lot. If you ask Katy why she is so gassy, she'll say "'cos I'm like my Daddy". And, while I was in Darwin, they somehow developed a running joke of gassing on each other (!!!)...BUT
...I am using my Mother's Prerogative to say that there will be no more gas jokes or references to gassing after Katy turns seven. The End. No Further Discussion.

On the Tambourine Again

We have not made it to 8am Mass for a while, and Katy enjoyed resuming her place in the 8am choir by Rose's side, both of them shaking their tambourines. Katy had lots of appreciative admirers.

Happy 4th Birthday Naomi

Katy was invited to her first classmate birthday party yesterday. A little Japanese girl called Naomi, who also lives in DB. We've run into her family a few times before. It was interesting going to the party after our first parent-teacher meeting. Dada and I have made it our mission to really give Katy a proper opportunity to get into the Cantonese thing. There are now too many English speakers in Katy's class and she hangs out with them and is not developing sufficient Cantonese to progress properly in her schooling. Mama is also a little worried that Katy has not developed any strong bonds with any other kids in her class. Katy needs one on one playdates to really develop a proper friendship.

When Katy first arrived at the party, the older girls from her school yelled out "Katy" and leapt to hug her. This freaked Katy out at first.

But she enjoyed the first game, which was having a balloon tied to your leg and trying to burst the other kids' balloons. It was a funny version though because for this 3-5 age group, they just started crying if any kid caught them and tried to burst their balloon. So they all kept giving each other mercy pardons and moving on.
So it was really a game of running around giggling. A lovely little six year old girl called Savannah came and rescued Katy from one of the boys who wanted to burst her balloon. It was really sweet. So Katy made friends with Savannah and her friend Amelia. I really believe that at this age, Katy still needs help to make friends.
The kids' favourite game was Tug-O-War. They played it a couple of times. Katy really really enjoys it and gets quite competitive! Here she is with her two friends who she sits between in class - Sophia, who has a Mandarin-speaking mother and an Italian-speaking father, but who [you guessed it] speaks English with Katy [and her own brother!], and Hazel, who is American. So they just speak English all the time.

Katy was jubilant when her side won!
They got little flying things as a prize, and the kids loved this too.


Sophia really loves playing with Katy. I've told them they can only have playdates if they do them in Mandarin. I know this sounds ruthless (and Tiger Mom-ish) but Katy really has more than enough English playdates (Jonah, Callum, Ellie), and just needs so much encouragement to speak her other languages. She understands everything and she can speak, but only if prompted. This is what the teacher also says. So we need to work on giving her an environment that will inspire her to use her other languages and make them cool.
Here are Katy and Sophia flanking the birthday girl.


Katy and all the girls really lusted after the castle centrepiece of the Princess cake. Pure sugar. Katy kept sneaking over to take a bite.
Katy is very adamant about what she wants to wear. She insisted on this little outfit. Very pretty, apart from the big tear in the front.

Dave, Gabriel, Gold & Rainbow

Katy really loves her new fish and insists on having them in her room. We hope they survive the wait for their new tank home.
She's named them Dave, Gabriel, Gold & Rainbow.

Jie Kung Kung

Katy was pretty tired, and we were pretty full, so instead of having lunch with Poh Poh, we thought we would go home and let Poh Poh go to the airport to pick Kung Kung up after his flight in from Taiwan. But when we took Poh Poh to the bus stop, Katy insisted that we go along to as she wanted to see Kung Kung.

Diao Yu

Katy's classroom New Year couplet was Nian Nian you yu, which means fish (homonym for prosperity) every year.

They let the kids use nets to catch little goldfish to take home. All the kids were of course thrilled to do so. Poor little fish.

But the smile on Katy's face was really genuine. And she really loves her new little fish friends.
So we're on a mission to get a fish tank now...

Katy's Teachers

Miss Leung is the Assistant Principal at Katy's school.
Miss Choong is Katy's head teacher.
Miss Qiu is Katy's other teacher in K1A morning class.

Katy & Co

What a beautiful sight it was with the little girls in K1 all dressed up in their Chinese New Year outfits.

And the little boys too.
Katy sat next to Didi watching the performances.

Then Katy showed Poh Poh her classroom and her cubby.
It was actually quite crowded and noisy at the party, so it took Katy a little while to get into it. The K2 and K3 kids really put on a great show. And it was fun seeing the kids interact a little bit. But with the parents around, most of the kids seemed to stick with their family groups. Katy stuck close by Mama, as she really doesn't like crowds and noise too much.

The Princess and the Poh Poh

Katy invited Poh Poh and Mama along to her school Chinese New Year party on Friday morning. They made a beautiful looking pair in their Chinese jackets.



We took Poh Poh to have Chinese breakfast at Cafe de Coral on the way to school.
Katy sure turned a lot of heads with her gorgeous outfit.

Pedicure with Poh Poh

Kung Kung took some Fishermen Friends from Australia to Shenzhen and Taiwan this last week. So Poh Poh came over to DB on Thursday for some girl time, starting with a pedicure at Sense of Touch.

Who wears the pants in this family?

Katy is so playful. She decided she wanted to wear Dada's pants the other day. Just cos they're Dada's and she loves her Dada soo much and wants to be like him.
Surprisingly, she looked totally awesome in Dada's pants.
Actually, not surprising. Katy is so darn cute, she looks pretty awesome in everything and anything she wears.

Three in the Bed

Katy has loved playing with Jonah and Matilda in their gorgeous new home. She especially loves playing in Matilda's crib, so they all pile in and play happily together.

Return to Phillipinas

Regular dedicated followers of Katy's blog will recall that after Olivia Hill's 3rd birthday party last year, Katy and Mama met Uncle Bert and Auntie Pinky in Stanley for lunch. She overheard us talking about whether or not we would go visit the Phillips Family, who are very old family friends of the Lais. Katy then asked later whether we would go to Phillipinas or not.

Last weekend, Dada, Mama and Katy made the trek from our home in Discovery Bay, which is on the North side of Lantau Island, all the way to the south side of Hong Kong island. We stopped enroute to visit Baby Gabe in Happy Valley.

Rachel Phillips is now 16. And Katy thought she was the bees knees. After an initial scare with Captain Hook, Katy and Rachel settled to watch some TV, Rachel close at hand in case another scary bit came on.

Katy loved having dinner with Uncle Steve, Auntie Alice, Rachel and Uncle Peter again. Although she had to evacuate the dinner table when the stinky cheese was served.
She also grew quite fascinated with Jessie the golden retriever, and really enjoyed taking her for a walk around the estate with Jessie's two helpers. It was a tagalog and doggie wonderland.

We ended up having a really late night and Katy fell asleep immediately when we got in the car. It was amazing. One minute awake and energetic, the next completely zonked.

Chillin' with Gabe