Fun cousin time

The Yong Peng Tribe are here for a week. Joy-Anne has a playmate!

I took the kids out to Ikea/Curve/Tesco today. While the boys spent an hour in Smaland, Joy-Anne had her breakfast and then explored some part of Ikea...

I brought matching shirts and hats for the boys to wear for photo-taking.

They look so cute together!

Joy-Anne didn't want to be left out...

Then I got a brother-sister shot.

I bought these santa claus hats for RM1.50 from Carrefour. The same thing can be found in Memory Lane for RM5.50 and Jusco for RM7.90!

The highlight of Ikea is the child-sized trolleys. I've no idea why they love it so much!

Then we went over to Ikano where I bought Joe's guitar and then to the Curve. Mabel had a diaper change, Joy-Anne had milk and the boys expelled their energy at the plastic playground area.

After that we stopped at McDonalds for lunch.

We then went back to Ikea to make some purchases and validate the parking ticket.

Next stop was Tesco to get some stuff and utilise the twenty-ringgit Tesco voucher which my mum won during DUMC's Leaders' Day treasure hunt. But then I forgot about it when I paid.

When we finally wanted to go home, Joy-Anne didn't want to get out of the trolley. Even when we packed all the stuff and kids into the car, she still didn't want to get out.

The kids really had a fun-filled day.

Joy-Anne lasted all day without a nap. She even had energy to go down to the playground in the evening.

And then she splashed the 2 kor kors when they played with water. Finally Nana took her away to shower, leaving the 2 boys to play.

Joy-Anne finally slept at 8pm and Joe at 9pm. Tomorrow will be another fun day when Papa comes home with lots of goodies....I can't wait!

Something Old, Something New.

I made this for Joy-Anne today. As soon as I got home, I put it on her head. She was so happy and said, "take photo". So I ran to grab the camera. The veil is almost as old as I am. I wore it (don't quite know why) as a little girl.
It's old, of sentimental value and a wee bit worn. I had to remove the old and broken flowers attached to it and then sew it to this new wreath. But Joy doesn't care.

I'm so glad she loves it and requested for her photo to be taken.

Joy-full Nonsense

I fear the terrible twos are starting too soon for Joy-Anne.

Last night, she played musical beds with my mum and I.

At bed time, she slept in Nana's bed.

3am plus - she woke up crying for Mama's bed. So Nana carried her to Mama's bed and she slept.

6.20am - she woke up crying for Nana's bed. Such a pitiful cry...."Nanaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....... Mama carry....find Nanaaaaaaa!!!!!!!"

At first I didn't want to give in to her. So I patted her, talked to her :

Mama : You want rotan?

Joy : No.

Mama : You want cane?

Joy : No.

Mama : You want elephant?

Joy : No.

Mama : Where is Papa?

Joy : Papaaaaa.....where are you? Papa...where are you? Nana....where are you?

Mama : You want to go shopping?

Joy : **cry again** Find Nana.....go shopping!!!

She calmed down for a while. Then started her nonsense again. Finally I carried her to Nana's bed. The moment she touched the bed, she said "I want Mama bed".

modelling the headwreath and fairy wand I made for Marissa

By comparison, Joseph is such an angel. He slept through the night at 4 months, and refused diapers by 23 months. Joy-Anne actually likes diapers!!!

This morning, she threw kor kor's water bottle cover on the floor and then kinda gave kor kor a slap. Not a very hard one but the action was still there.

Kor Kor has been very gracious to her. I think I should send her to Ah Koh's house for a week of training.

A mantis in the house

On Saturday night, my mum found a praying mantis in the kitchen. We have a pot of money plant there (free from Carrefour) so maybe it was attracted to the plant.

The kids were very intrigued by it. Joy was eager to touch it, showing no signs of fear whatsoever. Joseph was a bit more cautious and afraid but later warmed up and wanted to prove that he was not afraid.

Joy's puzzle

Recently, Joy-Anne discovered kor kor's box of puzzles. She particularly likes 2 of them - a picture of a dog and the other of 3 rabbits.

She surprised us by fixing it all by herself in about 1.5 minutes (distracted by the tv). She will say, "Papa...can we make puzzle?"

I can't seem to upload the rest of the puzzle in another video that's more than a minute long. Streamyx is just too slow and lousy.

When she's done, she says, "I'm so clever!"

Joe's 2nd Parent-Teacher Day

Juara Cerdik had their year-end meet-the-parent session today. We were there at our usual time, just before Children's Church.

The first thing Teacher Esther commented was that Joe daydreams a lot. When she feels that he is not paying attention (because he is busy daydreaming), she will ask him, "Joseph....what did I say?" And he can repeat exactly what she has just said. So she couldn't quite scold him for not paying attention.

It sounded almost as if she was talking about me as a student! My kindy teacher also commented that I daydreamed a lot. Well, at least Joe has yet to emulate my sleeping in class.

The other thing she commented was that he drooled on her hand, partly due to his daydreaming. Again, it sounded like she was talking about me. I couldn't help but laugh.

Seems Joe also loves to 'walk' on all fours in school! Now that must be how he picks up all the bugs and keeps coming down with fever, flu and etc. But teacher said that he moves so fast that by the time she reaches him to reprimand him, he's already back into upright position.

Joe's exam result was unexpected but not surprising.

Perfect score for Numbers...

...and Chinese!!!


He made a careless mistake for English. He was over-confident.
When I asked him about it he said, "I just looked at the 'u' ".

His writing has improved from a B- to a B. Teacher says he likes to write big, which is normal for a 4-year-old.

He certainly has learnt a lot this year. He can more or less read. Sometimes he doesn't quite know the word but he will guess by looking at the first letter. At other times, he isn't sure and he would rather say, "I don't know" than make a wrong guess. I feel he needs to learn that it's okay to make mistakes.

He also needs to work on his EQ. At times, he gets upset very easily at the slightest thing and doesn't want to forgive. But he has certainly improved on sharing and caring for his sister.

I am proud of my baby.

But he's no more a baby :-)

Party Day at Juara Cerdik

Today being the last day of this academic year, the kids at Joe's kindy had party with the theme - Garden. Joe later told me, "I thought we were going to have a garden party in a garden??!?!!"


This lazy mummy was much too lazy to come up with an elaborate costume so Joe went dressed as a gardener.

Evan was a garden and Nat was a banana. Nat's papa stayed up till 4am fixing his costume! What a dedicated dad!

They kids ran around (even though teacher kept saying, "Children...sit down!") until about 9am when they started eating.

I managed to get a picture of Joe with his teacher before eating.

There was so much food. Some parents went to a great deal of effort. But kids don't eat a lot. And the pantry is full of leftovers to reward the teachers for their hardwork.

Jasmine Class 2009

I hung around the place looking at the artwork....

These are all the kids who won the Best Dressed Awards. One from each class. There was a carrot, a pumpkin, an apple tree, Bob the tomato and Larry the Cucumber. Joe enjoyed himself. It's been a good year. Now we look forward to a good holiday!

Student of the Year 2009

Joseph called me in clinic yesterday as soon as he got home from school. He was so excited!

Yup....he did it! He received the Student of the Year 2009 award for Jasmine Class.

I was very pleasantly surprised. I didn't know there was such a thing because the awards day was last Sunday and it only involved the 6-year-olds who were graduating.

Over the phone, I told him I was very proud of him and asked him to wait till I got home to take photos before he opened his present.


I am indeed proud of him. From crying and vomitting on teachers at the beginning of the year, to Student of the Year....he has certainly grown a lot this year.

At the mid-year parent-teacher day in June, Teacher Esther did tell us that Joseph is usually the first to obey her instructions. I was surprised because I have to call him 10 000 times before he does anything at home.

Today is his last day for this year, and it's Party Day! Will post photos later. And tomorrow is the year-end Parent-Teacher Day. We will find out what teacher has to say, and also his 'exam' results!

Happy Belated Birthday Yee Teow (9Nov) and Tua Um (15Nov)

dance like Pocoyo

ee-ya-ee-ya-oh

Did the kids miss me?

If I had thought that the kids would miss me and be miserable during my 3D2N-absence, I was sorely mistaken.

My mum reported that Joy-Anne did not ask for me even once. And Joseph said, "How about mama and papa go for honeymoon everyday?"

On Sunday, they did not nap till 3.30pm! (They normally sleep by 2pm and wake up at about 4pm.) Joseph woke up at 6.30pm and Joy-Anne slept till 7pm.

They went out at 10pm (all recharged and energized) to Ah Ku's new house and came home at almost midnight.

On Tuesday, Joseph decided he would skip school and Nana let him.

They had a party at home! Maybe we should have another baby. Or go away more often.

Legend International Water Homes - Day 3 : the good and the not so good

It's a rare thing for me to wake up to sunlight streaming into the room. Lovely.

Breakfast was better today. I started with the same wattery chicken porridge followed by a plate of nasi tomato with chicken rendang (pretty good), crunchy ikan bilis (for YeeTeow's benefit, ikan bilis = anchovies) and hash brown. I liked the hash brown - crunchy on the outside, crispy on the inside.

The other stuff was basically the same. But I did like the chocolate croissant which I only discovered at the end. I had 3 pieces of this.

After breakfast, we took a walk around the hotel grounds, and also across to Legend Water Chalets.

This is the view of one branch of the water chalets, taken from the opposite branch. It's not very far apart and if you zoom in....


...you can see the guy cleaning the pool on the top unit.
I only have a 3x optical zoom. Imagine what you can see if you have more zoom power.


This is the view of the Tower Block of Legend Water Chalets, taken from the water chalets.




The Legend Water Chalets pool - it's pretty small. There's a outdoor playground and also a kids' playroom in that building next to the playground. The tall building at the back is Glory Beach Resort.

This is the layout of Legend Water Chalets. The distance between 2 branches is only about 40m. So people on opposite branches look directly into each other's balconies. A wee bit too close for comfort for me.

Back at Legend International Water homes, we walked to the end of the water chalet branch and this is the view looking back at the main hotel building. Behind the wall on the right is the private pool of a pool vila.

So people can't look into your pool area, but neither can you look out to the sea which to me, defeats the purpose of being over water. All you can see of the sea is through that glass panel on the floor. And all you see is murky water.


Even if you get the end unit which looks out on to the open sea....

...the pool area is still walled up.

This whole resort is still very new - you can see morning glory climbing the support posts and other plants waiting to grow and green the place.

the view of the corridor for the water pool villas

Some things they could improve on...

1. The Gym - they could put a clock on the wall for starters. Then add free weights, daily newspapers, some magazines and a tv (with astro).

2. Breakfast - add yoghurt and muesli.

Note to people planning to come here - the air con can be very cold. Bring a cardigan. Even at 24C, it felt very cold when it rained.

Overall, we had a pretty good relaxing time which is the purpose of our getaway. And we got the private pool we paid for. The staff are all very smiley and polite. They greet you, hold doors open and see to your every request.

It's a kid-friendly place. Contrary to what I thought, it's quite safe to have kids in the pool villa. There's a sliding door that you can close and lock to prevent kids from straying into the private pool should you need leave them jumping on the beds while you take a shower or make a drink.

Now if only they had a feedback form in this hotel room so I could tell them what I think...