mylène daily

Mylene is 3 ... a while already

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Yes, it has been a while again, since I wrote the last entry for this blog. The reason is that the period we are in at the moment with the construction of our new factory is so hectic that little time was left for updating the website.

So it comes, that only now the story of Mylene's 3rd birthday appears.

It was a very nice birthday. Opa & oma from Shanghai were there too. Even though, Mylene's birthday was on a weekday, we decided to celebrate it on the same day, as we were planning to go to USA the weekend afterwards. So, we kept it simple, and invited some friends with children to come in the afternoon and have dinner with us. Marco, Max, Adriaan and Toto were all there with their parents.

I think it was the first time Mylene realised it was her birthday; that was very special.
We bought a birthday cake for her, and she understood that she had to blow out the candles.
We sang 'happy birthday' for her, which she can also already sing all by herself.
The gift we had bought for her was a real hit: it was a plastic toy birthday cake, with lots of plastic candles, pieces of fruit, whipped cream, etc. to decorate the cake with. Mylene liked it a lot and was handing out pieces of it to her little friends. In fact, she is still playing with it almost every day.

For dinner we had, very special as well, Indonesion food, made by an Indonesian takeaway in Fuzhou which is so small that you have to order the amount of persons in advance and you have no choice in what it is you are going to be eating. You kind of eat what's on the table. It was delicious!

Of course, it was also a busy birthday with those kids running around in the house. It was even so busy, that Mylene got a fever that night. Luckily, it was not serious and she was fine quickly after.

As a last notable remark, Mylene's 3rd birthday was also the day from which onward she did not get her pacifyer any more. We had prepared her for this, by telling her that at the age of 3, she would be a big girl already, and big girls don't need pacifyers. Mylene understood this very well and without much protest, she accepted the situation ... to our surprise, I have to say.

Mylene is singing (again)

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:53:00 +0000

Mylene continues to like singing and dancing.
Here is a nice video we took a while ago.

Chao Hu

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:07:00 +0000

Most of you reading this blog will probably have no idea what the title means. "Chao Hu" is the name of a cartoon tiger around which a whole program of kids toys, DVDs, books, etc has been made. Shiqi knew it from her friends in Shangai, where it is supposedly quite big. The concept is as follows.
For a monthly subscription of around RMB100, every month, you get a box delivered at home. In the box there is a DVD, a work book and accompanying toys. Every month there is a special theme. On the DVD, Chao Hu is experiencing things that are related to the theme. Furthermore, there are songs and also, there are instructions for the parents about how to use the contents of the box to play with your child.
The contents of the box is dependent on the age of the child. So the child always receives things that fit to his or her age.

Of course, we took a subscription as well :-)
Mylene likes it a lot and she already knows that this box comes regularly. Last week, when somebody brought a package, she knew almost immediately that it was Chao Hu ... must quicker than I did.

We are quite happy with the program. First of all because Mylene likes it, but also because the games and toys are quite nice and educational. Even though the DVD might be a bit overdone in terms of educating good behaviour, the contents are nice and appealing.

Of course, also in this 'training program' Mylene is behind, in comparison to what she is supposed to know. But she seems to like it, and that's the most important at this stage. What she can do very well, is dancing to the songs on the DVD. She watches in great concentration how the kids on the DVD move to the song, and imitates each movement exactly ... so cute!!!

Shoes

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:58:00 +0000

Since Mylene can walk, the one after the other pair of shoes comes into our house and without doubt, all with a good reason.
After about 1.5 years, I thought that it was time to make a short inventory though. So, today, we took out all pairs Myelene wore, and put them on the grass. There were in total 22 pairs of shoes!!

Even though Mylene doesn't always look like a girl, the shoe collection she built up in such a short time definitely could make the one or the other lady envious ... or is that more the merit of her mother ;-) ?

Talking Dutch - UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Still, there isn't as much progress in Mylene's Dutch talking skills as in her Chinese talking skills by far.

But, one development is worth mentioning.
Earlier I noted that Mylene seems to understand the concept of different languages.
Recently, she makes that very clear by telling us that papa calls something like this, and mama calls it like that.

Example: I showed Mylene a bird and said "Kijk Mylene, een vogel". Then Mylene answered "Papa shuo 'vogel', mama shuo 'xiao niao'"

She does that quite often now.

I have to say, I do need some help in getting Mylene's Dutch up to the next level, though.

So, opa and oma, be prepared. We are expecting a lot from you when you are here in April :-)

Chopsticks

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Here is one of the cutest pictures I took until now of our little girl.

Mylene likes to play with chopsticks very much, but usually we take them away, because we are afraid that she will accidentally hurt herself (or us) with them.

Last Saturday we were in a restaurant for lunch and Mylene was playing with chopsticks again. The food was already on the table, and Shiqi and I were talking.
As I wanted to take the chopsticks away, we suddenly noticed that Mylene was not just playing with the chopsticks, she was really using them to eat.

I made a quick snapshot with my mobile phone camera, and we let her finish her food, eating with chopsticks.

Talking Dutch

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:03:00 +0000

Mylene is talking Chinese already very well now. I must admit, she has overhauled me :-( On the positive side for me, I am learning a lot from her.
She is telling stories in Chinese, singing songs, and, most of, giving us orders about what it is that we need to do for her.
She can even count in Chinese:
"yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu, shi, shi-yi, shi-er, shi-wu"
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, ,12, 15)
We are not sure whether she has fully understood the concept of numbers, though. Because basically, what Mylene is doing, is repeating what she hears. And she is quite good at doing this.

This really adds a new dimension to the relationship. We are realizing again how important and valuable it is to be able to speak. It is much easier now, to understand what Mylene needs, or finding out what the problem is if she is feeling uncomfortable.

Of course, Shiqi is able to enjoy this even more than I do.
Therefore, I was very happy when a week or two ago Mylene took the first step in talking Dutch to me.
As every morning, we picked up Mylene from her room and brought her to ours, when she woke up and started to shout. The normal routine is that she comes into our bed, gets a 250ml package of milk with a straw, and 2 small "milk cookies".
That morning, Mylene sat in our bed, between Shiqi and me. And suddenly she turned to me and said in Dutch "Papa, melk drinken", then turned to Shiqi and said "Mama, wo yao he niunai" (I want to drink milk).
Even though the sentence was short, it made me very happy.

Since that morning, she is regularly saying some words in Dutch to me. She never does that to Shiqi. It seems she starts to find out how to distinguish Chinese from Dutch and also knows that papa talks Dutch and mama talks Chinese.

Prize winner

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:28:00 +0000

I wrote about the price Mylene won for her drawing, but never posted a picture. Here it is: Mylene proudly posing in front of the drawing (was it really made all by herself???).

Xie xie dajia

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:12:00 +0000

A few days ago, I recorded a few movie clips of Mylene singing for us with my mobile phone. Even though the image quality is not great, the video is well worth showing here, I think.
Especially the way Mylene thanks her audience, "xie xie dajia" (thank you everybody), is very cute!!

Mylene's belly dance

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 10:00:00 +0000

When we were in Hong Kong the last time, Mylene give a nice show in belly dancing, wearing Karin's belly dance skirt.
But as often, Mylene was quickly distracted; this time by an interesting magazine. Here's the video.

Examination in Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:00:00 +0000

Sadly, not everything that happens is nice.
A while ago we found that Mylene's right breast/nipple was larger than the left one.
We visited a couple of hospitals in Shanghai, in which the doctors told us that it was most likely caused by nutrition, causing a higher level of estrogen. Meat with higher levels of hormones, but also yogurt were mentioned as possible sources of estrogen. The situation was not such that we needed to worry, though.
Despite the previous visits, we decided to go to Hong Kong, and ask for another opinion from a recommended pediatrician.

A week ago we went to Hong Kong, to see the pediatrician. She was a very friendly Chinese lady, who spoke excellent English and was trained in USA.

In general, the doctor repeated that what was mentioned in Shanghai already. The big difference, however, was the time the doctor took to explain the situation the effort she took to try to find the cause. Also the surrounding was far more comfortable than we had seen anywhere in China. It was as we knew it from Europe: a well equipped clinic with lots of toys outside but also inside the treatment room, all intended to make the children feel as comfortable as possible. A world of difference with the packed hospitals in China, where you are not even alone with the doctor in the treatment room.

A few blood samples were taken from Mylene, and also an ultra sound check was done. Luckily, after the results of the blood examination came in last Thursday, it turned out that Mylene did not have an elevated level of estrogen in her blood.

We were very happy with the way we were treated in Hong Kong and are glad that we now got a result, based on more than a quick visual check.

The cure will be not too easy to find, however, as it is most likely in the food. We started by cutting out on yogurt. We'll see how it goes. In any case, at the moment there is nothing to be worried about.

Mylene won her first prize

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 13:10:00 +0000

For the Chinese kids, competition in school is a normal part of life, already from a very early age. Unlike Europe, the school children in China are ranked according to their performance in class. So it is always very transparant who is the best of the class, but also who is the worst. Only the best will be able to acquire a position at one of the countries elite universities. To get an admission to a good university, you need to go to a good high school, to go to a good high school you need to go to a good middle school, to go to a good middle school, you need to go to a good primary school, and even if you want to go to a good primary school, you need to go to a good kindergarten!

What I did not know yet, was that the element of competition is used from an even earlier age. Mylene, just over 2 years old now, won her first prize last week at school. In a drawing competition with the theme "Love your nation, celebrate the National Day" (great theme by the way, for a class of 2 year olds ;-)) Mylene got the 2nd place, for which she was even given an "official" certificate.

I felt it was quite cute on the one hand. On the other hand, though, it gave me a little bit of an uneasy feeling. I don't mind a bit of competition, but I also don't like the idea that focussing on being the best will already start at the age of 2. Let's wait and see what else the school is coming up with....

The pianist

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:01:00 +0000

Mylene is very picky when it comes to toys. Most of the things she has at home, she only touches to throw it out of the toy box in order to get the one thing she does like.
As we were in Shanghai during the past October week, we made it as one of our targets to find some new toys for her as the choice in Fuzhou is rather limited.
So, we visited and browsed through many of the toy sections of the Shanghai department stores. I think we know almost all there is to find in mainland China by now. Sadly though, there isn't that much to choose from for a 2 year old. There is plenty of stuff for babies and for kids of 3 years and above, but for children of Mylene's age, there seems to exist a gap in the variety.

We did have one thing in our mind: a piano. Not a big one, but a small one, I think you have all played on one in your childhood days.
As often when you know exactly what you want, we couldn't find it. The only thing that is sold here now are electronic keyboards. Actually, we found one, but that one wasn't for sale (see picture). So, in the end we decided to buy a simple electronic keyboard until we have found the real thing (suggestions, anyone??).

We knew Mylene would like a piano, as she always wants to play the keyboards in Sam's Club, a supermarket where we often go for our groceries.
Also in Shanghai there were a couple of occasions (see pictures) at which it was difficult to pull Mylene away.

Luckily, Mylene also likes the electronic keyboard we bought for her a lot. I am curious, though, what holds longer, the keyboard itself, or Mylene's interest to play with it.

Mylène 2!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:19:00 +0000

Another year has passed.
Mylène is now 2 years old. And how quickly the past year went by! Mylène's first birthday party (and our farewell party before going to China) was still fresh in our memories; it was a beautiful Saturday in Warburg. Many friends and family members were there.

This year the location was very different and also the crowd was different ... and even Mylène was different, or bigger, anyway :-)

So many differences, but luckily also this time, it was a very nice day. Only the weather was not that comfortable as one year ago. The temperature was OK (around 28C), but the humidity was very high, and with clouds and some rain drops every now and then, it was not very comfortable to sit outside.

Therefore, we decorated the house nicely with balloons and garlands and celebrated inside. Most of our Fuzhou friends were there. Even the Koenigs family came by shortly to congratulate Mylène and to say goodbye (yes, Jacob is going back to Germany, what a shame!).

It was a real kids birthday party, with presents, lots of noise, a birthday hat, and a real birthday cake with 2 candles! Perhaps only the "pannekoeken" were missing.
The atmosphere was nice and for the adults it was a nice party for sure. Whether Mylène enjoyed it just as much ... she is still too young to tell, but perhaps the crowd was a bit too much for her to really enjoy it. What she did like, were her presents, the chips, and the boiled corn.

Where we will be next year, time will tell. But first, we will try to fill Mylène's third year with some wonderful memories!

First week in kindergarten

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:44:00 +0000

In China, the new semester has started, not only in university, also in kindergarten. In China, everything is synchronised.
So with the beginning of the new semester we were standing before the choice whether to send Mylène to kindergarten or not. We decided to try!

Now, after one week, I can make a first report.
The kindergarten we chose, is a private one, very close to where we live. It's called Hongbo. Michel and Marco also go there.
Originally, Hongbo was set up like a boarding school principle, meaning that you can send your kid there to stay during the whole week. The children can eat and sleep there. It is also possible to send your child there for a portion of the time only (which will not reduce the costs, though).
We decided to send Mylène there 3 days per week. Yuhuan would bring her there in the morning,and in the evening pick her up again.
The main reason for sending Mylène to kindergarten already, was to let her get in touch with other children and through that, to help her in developing her social skills.

As all parents, we were very worried whether it would all work out. And after one week, I cannot say that we are past our worries.
The first day was a bad one. Mylène cried so loudly that she had to vomit. Mylène often does that when she has to cry a lot and we even have the suspicion that she does that on purpose. But anyway, vomiting is not a good sign. There were also a few days during which Mylène was quite fine. But all in all, she vomited on 3 days, the last one being today. So what to do?
Right now, we still want to try it a while. It is no exception that it can take a month or so, before kids get used to the kindergarten. Yuhuan told us that practically all those new kids are crying continuously.
Shiqi brought Mylène away one morning as well. Afterwards she called me and said that it was heart breaking to see Mylène cry so loudly. I managed to keep myself out if it until now. After all, it's the mother's task to go through those first bad days with the child, right? The fathers are there to pick the happy kid up, at the end of the day :-)

Shiqi did not have a chance to talk with the teacher about how Mylène is really doing in class. She will try to do that to find out when Mylène vomits and if she is fine during at least part of the day.
So, the first week passed, with mixed feelings from our side, and for sure from Mylène as well.

Looking at the teacher's report, though, the situation doesn't look too bad at all, on the other hand. Mylène gets a good evaluation on almost all subjects: eating, participating, listening to the teacher, her temper, and activity. Stunning!! If we would have given an estimation for those issues ourselves, we would have put them on insufficient for sure.
The one issue that leaves room for improvement according to the teacher is Mylène's mood for going to kindergarten ... at least one point on which we tend to agree with the teacher.

To be continued ...

Mylène's first boy friend

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:38:00 +0000

Recently, Jacob celebrated his second birthday. Jacob is one month older than Mylène and is her first boyfriend :-)
They two used to visit each other on daily basis, because Yuhuan (Mylène's ai) and Yushan (Jacob's ai) are sisters. This obviously brought the two closer together. They call each other's names even when they are not together. And when we come close to the house where Jacob lives Mylène already starts yelling 'Aaakooo'.
The funny thing is, though, that when the ARE together, they hardly pay attention to each other.

At Jacob's party all kids were there; a happy but noisy crowd. And the fathers were very busy making pictures of the kids. In the end, I even managed to make a very sweet picture of Mylène and Jacob ... together.

I also uploaded some new pictures to 'Flickr' which you can access from the box at the side.

Language: UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:16:00 +0000

Today Mylène showed such great progress in her talking skills that I just had to write this short update. A whole sentence, with correct grammar!!!

...I am not sure whether we should be so proud of what she can say, though:

"Wo bu yao chi fan le!!!"

"I don't want to eat!!!"

Language

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:56:00 +0000

I am afraid that it will not take much longer and Mylène will be able to talk Chinese better than I do. Every day she is learning new words and it already happens often that I come home to find out that Mylène is using words that I don't know. Every day, we are amazed by how quickly she learns.

Mylène does understand most of what I am saying to her in Dutch, but until now she refuses to reply in Dutch. There are only a few words she talks in Dutch:
kaas - cheese
dag - bye
thuis - home
auto - car
mama - mum
papa - dad

And many more in Chinese. Here is a collection of her favourite words (the Chinese written in pin ying):
bu yao - I don't want to
gou gou - dog
yu - vis
kan - look
wan - play
tiao wu - dance (but Mylène says 'a-wu')
shui - water (but Mylène says 'shuishui')
hao ma - OK?
rou - meat (but Mylène says 'rourou')
xia - shrimp
chu qu - go out
xiezi - shoes (but Mylène says 'xie')
shui jiao - sleep
qi lai - get up
yi kou - a bite (of food)
wo de - that's mine!
bei zi - blanket (but Mylène says 'bei ji')

And then, there are some words in Mylène's language:
atsjing - TV
sjuue - pacifier (derived from the German 'schnuller')

And even, some words in German and English:
haya - sleep (German)
bye bye

Mylène is now also combining words into sentences, even though they are still very short sentences, about 3 words long.

Even though it is almost a mission impossible, I will be persistent in teaching her Dutch as well. I hope to be able to post a longer list than the miserably short one in this post.
So for all you Dutch who read this: please come visit us soon! I need your help. I am outnumbered in China.

Swimming pool

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:20:00 +0000

The weather in Fuzhou is hot. Being outside for a while is only comfortable if you can cool down every few minutes. Excellent conditions to pump up the baby swimming pool and to fill it up with water.
Mylène has not been in a swimming pool yet, so this was the biggest pool she has ever sat in. When I was filling the pool, Mylène first observed it with a critical look on her face (she was even a bit afraid of this big plastic thing). After a while, she started to see the fun of playing with water while filling the pool, and she helped me with it.
I had thought that it would take a while before the water was warm enough to step into the pool, but the outside temperature was so high, that it only took a few minutes.

And with her new 'bikini' Mylène went into the pool, first with mama alone, and after the pictures were taken, papa also joined.
Mylène loved it in the water, and so did we. What better way to spend a Sunday morning!

Zebra

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 15:03:00 +0000

I think you remember the monthly pictures of Mylène with the Zebra (Mylène calls it "ma" or "paadje", which means horse in Chinese and Dutch respectively). Even though we stopped taking these pictures after 12 months, we kind of missed the moments of trying to let Mylène sit still and pose for at least 1/60 sec. So today we brought out the Zebra again. And Mylène loved the Zebra, as this picture proves.

It's rainy in Fuzhou

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Sun, 27 May 2007 15:10:00 +0000

Summer has really started in Fuzhou it seems. The temperature is high, and the humidity as well. During the past few days, this went along with quite a bit of rain. Luckily, Mylène is well protected :-)

Mylène sings herself to sleep

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:26:00 +0000

Usually, Mylène is quiet immediately after we put her in the bed. Yesterday, however, I noticed some noise upstairs, a few minutes after I brought her to bed. At first I thought she was complaining, but it sounded differently somehow. So I went upstairs and soon realised that she was not complaining, but singing. After about 15 minutes of singing, she fell asleep.

Today, the same thing happened. So, I went upstairs, stood in front of the door with my mobile phone and recorded Mylène singing herself to sleep.

You can listen yourself. Do turn up the volume.

Some new pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:21:00 +0000

I uploaded some more pictures to Flickr.
You can access them through the Flickr panel on the left hand side of the screen.

Easter egg

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:15:00 +0000

We organised an Easter party at our place on 7 April and invited the kids to come and look for Easter eggs and rabits which we hid in the garden.

On the day before, the kids were all at the house of the Aguinaco's to paint the Easter eggs. Mylène also joined and painted her first Easter egg.

Isn't it beautiful?!

Seeing the kids enthousiastically looking for the eggs in our garden brought back good memories. Looking for eggs that my mother hid in the house was such an enjoyable event that I still remember it very clearly. I can even recall the places where she would hide the eggs.

Will Mylène remember her first Easter egg party?

Mylène walks - the video

noreply@blogger.com (Arnoud) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:30:00 +0000

This is a video, I know many of you have been waiting for! Since a few weeks now, Mylène can walk all by herself. A bit later than average (especially here in China), but who cares?!
It took a while before we finally managed to make a few shots of it with the video camera, but I hope that the result is at least satisfying and will make up for the long waiting. Enjoy!!

... P.S. Don't forget to turn up the volume if you want to hear Mylène talking!