陪孩子念童谣 Mandarin Nursery Rhymes

The only few Mandarin nursery rhymes that I remember from my childhood are 小白船 (Little White Boat) and 拔萝卜 (Pulling out Carrots). My husband, a native Chinese, has little memory of Mandarin nursery rhymes. They say speak to your child in the language you can carry a tune and even though I could probably sing bin2 some pop music, it didn’t feel like bin2 would find Chinese pop, (most of which tell tales of romantic heartbreak) relatable haha. I scoured Spotify but could not find a Mandarin Nursery Rhyme playlist that I enjoyed. When I found this book at a book store in China, I carted it out immediately. This book, (Everybody Sing With Me), has a compilation of over a hundred nursery rhymes. Most of which are native mandarin nursery rhymes. After flipping through the book with my husband, Bo finally remembered some songs. So credits to him, the songs now play repeatedly and endlessly at the back of my head. I’m sure it’s the case for him too. I’ve caught him singing them in the shower one too many times.

Two-rannosaurus Rex

Rawr

Robin turned two! We were in the midst of organizing an under the sea party when the entire family came down with the flu. My procrastination turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We had a little celebration at home with my parents who flew in all the way from Singapore to spend the day with their grandson.

I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF!

I was told early in my pregnancy that women tend to forget the pain of childbirth. So before I do and make the irrational behaviour to conceive again, here’s the story of how baby Robin C Wang came into the world.

I was suffering from pregnancy insomnia in the final days of having him. On usual days, I turned in at 3 am and woke up only at 1pm. On the 2nd of February, I woke up at an impossible 9am and decided against all logic that I had enough of sleep. Then, I stood up and felt an oddly familiar gush from down below; it’s the kind of feeling you get when you sneeze during your period, except, I wasn’t supposed to have my period.

I think my water bag broke. 

爱很简单

樂樂，华盛顿今天真冷啊，空气冰冰地贴在脸上。我走路下班，耳机挂着，陶喆在DC初上的华灯车灯里，跟我唱爱很简单。半个地球的另一边，你在呼呼的睡着觉，不知道勿洛的鸟儿们是不是已经在叽叽喳喳聊起天。勿洛这个名字不管想多少次，都觉得真美啊。

我在想你，想我们。陶喆说，虽然时间变个不停，也要用最真诚的心，让爱变得简单。我想着我们两个人在一起的各种小事，觉得我们真的是不错，爱得很简单，很简简单单。这些片段没有章法的跳进我的思绪，又跳出去，我会心笑着，觉得自己很肉麻，在一起这么久了，想起你还是会笑得这么肉麻。

你睡醒的时候很像一只鹅。头发乱蓬蓬，莫名其妙的在脑袋后面开出一朵向阳花。你总是摇摇晃晃的站起来，穿着那件比我还要大一号的T恤衫，还有从十五岁穿到现在的小裤裤，脚都抬不起来的走去尿尿。有时候睁开半只睡眼的我，看着这副模样的你，默默的感慨，灵魂还在沉睡的鹅也是可以走去尿尿的啊。

Our ROM

After 2 years of endless Skype calls, Bo and I got married. I would say we finally got married but 2 years only felt painfully long because of the distance. Realistically though, 2 years is not a long time at all.

On the 29th of July 2017, we registered our marriage in a small intimate ceremony in Singapore. While I thoroughly consider the ceremony a wedding, Bo insists that it isn’t because we didn’t have the traditional parts such as the Chinese tea ceremony. I would like to, at all cost, avoid the logistics of planning a large-scale event but I also think it’s important for us to go through the traditions. To be fair, Bo’s relatives were also unable to make the trip from China to Singapore so we will probably we having a small banquet in China to make up for it. If the groom wants a proper wedding, the groom gets a proper wedding 😂. On to our not so proper wedding now.