Patriotic Kateism

Under the category 'Famous Sayings', Kate suggested this as a possible phrase for charades for an upcoming birthday party:

"The Indeclarance of Dependence". 

In a strangely reverse-psychology-ish way, it's kind of the same thing.

Etiquette Kateism

ignore: [noun] a non-reaction.

Kate, after holding the door open for us at a restaurant:

"I held the door open for three people and I got two ignores and one hi. And nobody said thanks."

Kateism

Two new Kateisms that I want to record here before I forget them:

1 Row up [verb]: to arrange in a neat line
e.g. "I rowed up my bunnies at the foot of my bed."

2 Bellyflopness [noun]: the condition associated with landing on one's belly on the water in a dive
e.g. "My stomach hurts. I think it's a bit because of the bellyflopness at swimming today."

Kateism

Readative: [adj] of having a great interest in reading.

e.g. "Whenever I bring books to school, the kids in my class who are readative always take them to read."

Bunnyisms

Found one morning after Kate left for school: 

Bunny with her bunny.

Related conversation that occurred recently:

Kate: Mom, stop hugging Bunny.

Me: What do you mean? 

K: You're hugging Bunny too much. 

M: Only once in a while, Kate!

K: Well, that's too much. Bunny smells like you. She doesn't smell like me anymore.

Cards For All Occasions

Kate has been learning her Must Know words in kindergarten and can now read and write foundational words like words like "a", "the", "to", "I" and "like". Together with the words she already knows, including the names and titles of family members and favorite friends, she's been able to construct all kinds of messages and stories.

Yesterday, Jenna finally lost the tooth that had been been making her miserable and uncomfortable for the past few days. Everyone cheered to see that Jenna was now back to her happy self. Kate was so glad that she made Jenna a card.

with the following inscription within:

To JENNA FROM Kate I like that YOUR thoo thooth CAme out.

When I complimented her on her thoughtfulness and penmanship, Kate explained that Jenna herself helped her with the words that she couldn't spell. Then, after a moment, she added, And "there were a lot of 'th's, but no 'the's."

Hallmark writers had better take note, because I bet they don't have a card like this yet. 

Soldierisms

Monday was Memorial Day here in the US. Kate drew a card for "the soldiers" and had me write a message of thanks in it. This conversation followed:

Me: How are the soldiers going to get this card, Kate?

K: We can go to the graveyard and give it to them. (A pause while she considered an important hitherto-overlooked detail) - But the wind might blow it away so I need to use a bit of tape to stick it down.

Jenna: But the soldiers are dead!

Kate: Mum, are the soldiers in heaven?

Me: Some of them probably are. 

Kate: Then we can give it to God and He can give it to them.

Edited later to add: I found the card! Here it is:

Tea-ism

Kate, pulling up my teabag to peer at it:

"It looks like a stingray with food in it."

Random Updates and a Kateism

The weather has been foul of late - snow... melt... snow... rain... melt... snow... rain... melt and shoveling in between. I haven't been in the mood to blog about our family happenings because there haven't really been any (unless everyone would like to read about laundry?). The snow and slush and general lateness of spring have put a damper on our spirits somewhat and acutely limited our accessibility to Places of Fun, like parks and suchlike.

We've tried to cope, though. One way is by playing board games. The other day, I went out and bought a vintage (but sold in modern stores like Target) Clue and introduced it to the girls. Jenna, in particular, is hooked, but they all love the idea of solving a mystery with weapons and clues. Kate has to be helped because she can't read yet, so we let her be on someone's (who can read) team and she's happy. Some of us have problems pronouncing some of the names, so we casually and familiarly refer to the suspects as "the mustard guy" and "the baking lady". And sometimes we make up our own out-of-the-box deductions, like, "I suspect that the baking lady killed whatsisname in the kitchen with the rolling pin."

The other new game we've introduced to the kids is Pictionary. They're all avid drawists, but in that game, there is the added challenge of drawing in such a way that a picture can communicate an accurate idea. 

So, when it came to my turn to draw for Kate to guess, I decided it would be a piece of cake. After all, I'd been drawing for years, right? 

Kate looked at my masterpiece and said, confidently, "Oh, I know that. It's Steve and Adam."

Stunned silence as the rest of us stared at each other, mouthing, "Who?"

And I, in particular, thought, "Hey! My drawing isn't that bad. Especially with that skirt!"

Finally, Kate elaborated, correctly explaining about the snake and who was not supposed to eat what and what happened in the end.

Then one of us - tentatively - asked, "And who did you say those people are?"

"Adam and Eve!" returned Kate.

All sighed in relief, trying hard not to giggle. Maybe we'd all misheard initially. Or maybe the neverending winter's gotten to us in ways we imagined not.

Kate has had a birthday, incidentally. She's now five and has one and a half loose teeth. We haven't thrown her fancy birthday party for her friends yet - we've decided to wait for nice weather and do it outdoors rather than be all rigid and precise and hold it on her actual birthday in midwinter in the claustrophobic and dim interior of our house.

The girls are also enjoying swimming lessons at the swim school. The water is bathwater-warm, the teachers are wonderful, the classes are cosy and it's a nice break from the cold and school and general feeling of being shut in. Also, we've bought our season passes for the outdoor water park, sewed ourselves swimsuits, robes and wraps and stocked up on spaghetti strap dresses and new flipflops. We feel ready for real outdoor summer swimming! Now if only summer would come!

Kidisms: Growing Old

Today while on the road, we stopped at the pedestrian crossing for an elderly man in a motorized wheelchair. While watching him move across the road, the girls started this commentary.

Kate: Oh, poor old man!
Me: Why 'poor', Kate?
K: Whenever I see old people who don't have cars, I feel very sad.
M: Why?
K: Because they're old and then they'll die and go to heaven and they'll miss their parents.
M: But maybe their parents are already in heaven since they're even older and already dead. So when the old people get to heaven they'll get to see their parents again! Isn't that good?
Jenna: But they're still dead.

Ah well, I guess you can't win it all.

Kateism: Communicating

Kate crawls into bed with me this morning.

Kate: Can I go to the bus stop with Jenna?
Me:   Mmmf if you get dressed, have breakfast and brush your hair and teeth.
K:      Is today a school day?
M:     Mm-unh.
K:      Can you wake up now?
M:     Mmhmm.
K:      Stop saying the hums and hums! You have to use real words like I do!

Kateism: Seeing Through Mother

Yesterday marked the end of two months of non-stop projects, which included costume sewing and birthday parties. Suddenly freed from the shackles of deadlines and to-do lists, I was motivated to do things I normally wouldn't think of doing, like yardwork. So offered to help Dave rake leaves. Kate said, "You only want to do that so you don't have to work in the kitchen."

Well, she got me there.

Familyisms

Two new Kateisms -

1 Crunkle [verb, with wriggly finger action accompanying]: crumple. 

2 Slopping [verb, cont.]: smashing and stirring. E.g. "Can I continue slopping the berries for the jam?"

and one Daveism -

L: What's wrong with me? For the first time in months, I don't feel like running today.
D: Don-ch know.

Although it isn't really an original Daveism - it's actually classic Singlish. People in Singapore say "don-ch know" in place of "I don't know." Have I contaminated my own husband or does he do this occasionally just to tease me? Don-ch know.

P.S. He has never said "lah", though. Thank heavens. 

P.P.S. Of course I'm going running, silly people. 

Jennaism: How To Tell If People Are Dead

Deadism, by Jenna:


"This is how to tell if people are really dead or not. You tickle them. If they laugh, then they're not dead. But if they don't laugh, that means they're really dead."


"Or living but sensorily defunct", I resisted adding. It is true, though - dead people aren't usually the laughing sort.

How People Make Chicken Cordon Bleu

.... as described by Kate:


"First, you kill a chicken. Then you put it in a bag and take it home. Then you cut it up and put chicken glue that's good for chickens. Then you add meat flavor and wrap it up."

Kateism - discovering an application of optics

Kate, crawling frantically around the kitchen island, "Mum! These spots keep following me!"
"What spots, Kate?"
"These!"


All looked.


"Those are your shadow(s), Kate. They're supposed to follow you around."


Reminded me of the times when Jenna discovered veins and knuckles :)

How Kate is Like Her Mother

In school, Kate is referred to as Katie-Kate. Her preschool teachers gave her the nickname and all her classmates call her that, as a result. On the last day of school, as they said goodbye to her, I mused that we wouldn't be hearing that name till fall, when she returns to preschool.

So I asked if we could call her Katie-Kate at home.

"No." she said.

This surprised me, because she'd always looked happy when that named was used. 

"Do you like being called Katie-Kate?" 

"No."

Oh. Imagine being called a name for a whole year, and actually not liking it. And still smiling about it.

"Do you like being called Kate?"

"Yes."

"What about Katydid?"

"Yes."

And we went down the list of family-originated nicknames, all of which she approved.

That got me thinking - if she hated her preschool nickname, how would we tell the teachers next year? 

Several days later, I asked her why she didn't like being called Katie-Kate.

She replied, "Because it's hard to write. You have to write K-A-T-E and then K-A-T-E again!"

When I was in my late teens, I began to disprefer writing my first name and started using LiEr (my Chinese name) for written communication. It remains the name by which I am known in my sewing and business world. Given what I feel (or not) about the Chinese aspect of my culture, this was certainly not because I thought its Chineseness was particularly cool, or that I disliked Lorraine in any way. Rather, it was because it was half the length of my first name, and I cleverly realized that, in any given time, I could write "LiEr" twice as many times than "Lorraine". I am Singaporean, remember, and Singaporeans are nothing if not efficient.

And now Kate has caught on, too, about 15 years before her mother did. Smart kid. And obviously Singaporean.

Before Cellphones

Continuing with the kids' What If series, here's yesterday's. We were driving to a family get-together and communicated briefly on the cell-phone to get directions. When we hung up, Kate asked, "Before we had phones, did we shout out the window?"

Kateisms & Jennaisms

Kate and Jenna are now in a very enjoyable phase in which they ask about What If scenarios. The most recent one involves a world without furniture. Their questions go like this:
"Mum, if there were no chairs, would people sit on the floor?" and 
"Before there were beds, did people sleep on the floor?"


It's always the floor, though. They've probably deduced that furniture is that phenomenally life-changing invention that lifted people off the ground and into higher states (literally). 


Other What If scenarios include the absence of plates and clothes. I always find it hard to keep a straight face when answering, because the girls are sooooooooo earnest (and sometimes slightly troubled at their realizations) when they bring their questions to me.

Cooking Show by Jenna

Years before she becomes famous onstage, I thought it would be fun to mention that Jenna has a particular talent in acting and impersonation, and that we, her family, were the first benefactors of it. I love that, among our children, she is our resident introvert (or so she appears to be) and also quite the performer. She can imitate any accent and has successfully and effortlessly replicated the speech of numerous characters she's seen on TV. The rest of us try but we can barely remember some of the words, let alone the way those words are spoken to make them distinctive to those characters. 

Completely unself-conscious, she is also a natural in front of the camera. We love her sense of humour!

This is a recording of her regular cooking show, as she and her sisters call it. We did it in one take. Enjoy.