Cruel honesty

The light was off and I lay quietly in bed with my SKII mask on. The kids came in after changing into their Pjs. E hopped right onto my bed and he freezed instantly.

E" Mummy. I smell something. What are you wearing? It is so SMELLY! "

Me " What? Smelly? I am using my facial mask"

E " Yucks! I am NOT sleeping with you tonight. You smell like stinky Skunk! Jie-jie, can I sleep with you?"

I was like err.....ya, I know it is not known for its fragrance but.....

Day 4

We bid farewell to the beach and we headed home. On the way back, we detoured to Melaka for a taste of the chicken rice balls. I personally didn’t quite like it because I am not a “carb” person. The rice balls were too starchy for me but the dishes were fine.

We reached home at about 5pm and the kids went to soak in the pool immediately after being “deprived” of a swim in the sea. Thereafter, Wayne, Geksan and Lawrence went for a Javanese massage while I stayed behind to look after the kids and to get Nicole ready for her Taekwondo class. Well, it was my choice as I am not a fan for massage. I would much rather go for a facial treatment :)

Day 3

The following day, we headed for the beach. We checked into a water chalet and it was an experience for the kids to stay in a hotel above the water.

N was all excited at the mention of a beach as she has read much about the fun activities. She went all prepared – her buckets, shovels, spades, cups etc. When we got there, she retreated and exclaimed “ Uh…I don’t think I like the beach anymore. It is so dirty and I don’t want the sand to touch my feet. Can I go back to the hotel lobby and eat ice cream instead? ” I was like….urh..urh…..what? how to build a sand castle without touching the sand?? N and Rose went back to the hotel to enjoy the cool air with a scoop of ice cream.

The Chais were a more adventurous lot. They walked bare-footed into the sea in the hope of collecting some nice sea shells. I watched them from afar and it was a very sweet moment seeing the strong family bond between the parents and children.

Brave little E was captivated by the sand play. He literally squatted for almost 1 hour scooping the sand. Eventually, he realized that his legs were not with him anymore, he called for help “ Mummy, I can not stand up…I can not stand up…help!” His legs were numb and I found him a "stool" to sit on and he was pretty happy with the suggestion :). My little boy continued on for another 20 minutes before he called it a day. Needless to mention, I had to carry him back to the hotel as he refused to walk thereafter. :(

We wrapped the day up with a good meal of seafood. By 10pm, all the kids were worn out and we all had an early night.

Day 2

The next day, we were all ready to charge to the Theme Park. The weather was pleasant and though the Qs were long, the kids did not complain much. Being one who can not tolerate the slightest amount of cigarette smoke, I actually confronted a man who smoked in the enclosed air conditioned building. To my horror, he rebutted “ I only smoke here what. The no smoking sign is over there!” I had the kids with me, otherwise I would have charged at him and dragged him to the management office! You have no idea how aggressive I can be when it comes to cigarette smoke…… Overall, it was a good outing with the kids!

Day 1

The kids were all excited about the holidays. 2 families were heading north for a short break together. We departed from home at 8am and we arrived at our destination shortly after 12pm. We booked 2 sets of 2 connecting rooms for each family at Sheraton Imperial but to our disappointment, only 1 set was available. We had to make do with just 3 rooms. The kids, Auntie Rose and Auntie Donna took up 1 room and the remaining 2 rooms were shared by 4 adults.

On the first day, we didn’t do very much apart from eating and shopping. Wayne and I have the good habit of finishing our food, including the left over from the kids. So, our plates were perpetually full! We (Wayne, Geksan and I) didn’t forget to work off the extra calories at the gym while the other food lover gave himself an excuse to chill out in the hotel room – working on the laptop and blackberry (for real?)!

By 1030pm, the kids were tired out and were ready for bed. The 4 of us went out for a drink + footy at a nearby pub. After 1 drink, Geksan and I were feeling the works of the alcohol and we retired for the night while the 2 guys continued on.

Charlotte's web

Charlotte's web was what we watched! The play brought chuckles to all the kids. N was totally mesmerised by the characters especially Templeton the rat. The "ah-char-char" rat! :)

Information processing time

Ethan asked to have an ice cream and I told him he needed to be able to spell the word ice cream first. After some 10 attempts, he still could not get it right and he broke down “ I don’t want to eat ice cream anymore…uhh uhh….uhh….I don’t want to eat anymore”. I felt bad and I gave him a small scoop in the end. He was all happy again.

2 days later, he gave me the biggest surprise he had ever given me in 3 years! (though I must confess that I have been raising the bar from time to time). He talked in “alphabets”!

E “ M-u-m-m-y, I want to drink m-i-l-k and I want to eat i-c-e c-r-e-a-m too”

For a couple of seconds, I was thinking hard what he was “chanting” about and of course, he had his wishes granted with a big kiss and a big hug from M-u-m-m-y!

I realise that he is able to spell over 50 words now and the the collection is growing. Some of such words are pretty complicated for his age .e.g. ice cream, coconut, mouse..etc etc

Market?

We brought N to Plaza Market Cafe for a buffet dinner. At the mention of "market", this little snowpie exploded! " Mummy! You said we are going to dine in the hotel. Why are you taking me to a market? It's so hot! I bet there is no aircond!"

Haha. she was all embarassed when we finally arrived at the hotel restaurant. She was all excited, eyeing at the assortment of desserts. She was so clumsy that she smashed her bowl of durian pudding - the highlight of Plaza Market Cafe! She also spilled her water all over the table! Goodness me!

Overall, it was still a fun dinner for N. :)

Bi-lingual?

My little boy was full of innovation and creativity when it comes to expressing his feelings in words. He fears no mistakes in attempting to express himself ,whether in Mandarin or English. Listen to this :

E " Mummy, ba ba "tong" wo"
Me " Huh? Ma ma ting bu qing chu. ni zai shuo yi bian?" (I didnt hear you well, could you repeat?)
E " Mummy, daddy hurt me"

Me " ah..ah....ni ying gai shuo - ba ba shang hai ni. " (you should say " ba ba shang hai ni" )
E " shi de"

E was processing the English word "hurt" in his little computer and the equivalent came up to be "tong". Pain = hurt? haha! Well, it was not wrong but simply not used in the right context, one being a verb and the other being a noun. I enjoy conversing with E in both English and Mandarin.

Part 2

Me " How did daddy hurt you?"
E " He punished me"
Me " Did you do something wrong?"
E " Yes, I hit him!"
Me " Well, then you should learn to behave yourself next time. Ok?"
E " ok"

Youth Olympic

Another master piece of N. Starting next week, N will have to attempt to draw everything from scratch instead of copying the outline from the board. Her teacher feels that N is ready to do so. We shall see the output :)

Story reading

We were reading this book together. It was about a king who had 50 wives. All but one gave him a son each. He was disappointed and sent the wife who was childless away. Little did he know that she was already pregnant when she was sent away. She gave birth to a baby boy not long after. 15 years went by and the boy grew up to be a strong young man. He went back to the palace and upon reading the above, N raised her eye brows " Mummy! how can the "youngest son" be bigger than the king's other sons?"

Me " Huh? ah ha,,,,what do you mean? I am glad you asked"

N " The king sent the wife away because she did not give him a son. The other 49 wives did. Their babies were born first. How can this last son be older?"

Indeed, there was disconnect in the storyline. N was analytical enough to pick it up! I gave her a tight squeeze and a big hug for paying attention to such fine details :)

Word twister

E is becoming more and more disobedient and has learnt to twist words around. He came running to knock at my bathroom door " Mummy, can I watch TV"

Me " No Ethan, you have to rest your eyes"

Didnt respond to what I said, he ran to Rose, " Auntie Rose, Mummy said I can watch TV "

Hearing what I said to E, Rose confronted him and he just kept whining and whining..... :( I am really having a hard time disciplining this little one.

Ladybug

Little E is a good story teller it seems. He looked after his sister's ladybug pretty well!

Chinese progress

I found one Primary 1 assessment book gathering dust in one of the chest drawers. I must have bought it some time back. I pulled it out and tried it on N. Not quite willingly, she completed the paper while I was at work. To my surprise, she scored 98%! The 2% deduction was on Q35. To me, the answer selected by N - "Large" was not entirely wrong but there was obviously a better choice - "Nine".

Good job sweetheart! Keep up the goodwork!

Nicole's first letter

N' s first letter to her "sister" from Myanmar - original and unedited. I was impressed by her ability to spell the words phonetically though there is certainly room for further improvement in this area. I was tickled to see how certain words can be spelt so differently from what we know to be the correct way of spelling :)

My view is, at this stage of her learning, being able to express her feeling in words is far more important than perfect spelling. :)