Standard 1 comes early...

...for this particular school that we registered Joe in. He started Std1 orientation this morning. Kinda teary eyed because he was very apprehensive.

This boy like familiarity. So new environments make him uncomfortable. He threw up twice this morning before going to school.

He also asked me, "New school don't have toilet time ah?"

We had earlier told him that big boy school is unlike kindy where they all choo-choo train to the toilet together. Here he will have to take care of himself. His daddy stayed with him all morning and from the photos, I guess he was trying really hard to NOT cry.

When he came home, he was looking much better. He said he saw a few of his kindy friends in his new school. I know he will be fine once he settles in. For now, I just have to help him overcome his fears.

Graduating from Kindy

My firstborn graduated from kindergarten yesterday. It seems like not so long ago that I cradled him in my arms. Just like how I now cradle his baby sister in the same sarong sling that I used for Joseph.

The 6-year-olds made a grand procession down the helium-balloon lined aisle in the main auditorium. My Joseph as always, had on a very serious face. He says he has to focus!

After the welcome and speeches, the graduands went on stage to receive their awards. This year, every child got an award e.g. Most Caring, Best Helper etc. I thought it was a very nice thing for the kindy to do to acknowledge that every child is special.
Joseph got the Awesome Artist award for his class. He told me this last week and was really pleased.
After the awards, each class performed an item. I thoroughly enjoyed every item. Joe's class did a choral-speaking one about a bear hunt.

And then all the graduands came on stage to sing 2 very lovely songs. I was indeed very surprised to see and hear my 'English' son sing a chinese song!

Joseph took some photos with his good friend...

..and also with some teachers (who were all dressed very nicely!)

I'm so nostalgic, looking back at the last 3 years and reflecting on how he has grown at Tadika Juara Cerdik. He can read very well and even big words in the Bible like synagogue and Nazareth are no problems.

He's kinda sad that he has only a few days left at TJC and I can feel his apprehension about going to Std 1. But I guess that's life - where the only constant is change. He will have to adapt and we will too.

Canteen Day - caring for my sister

Joseph's kindy had a Canteen Day for 6-year-olds yesterday. It was like a practical lesson as part of the syllabus in learning about money.

So I packed the RM10 in various denominations as suggested by his teacher and advised him not to buy junk like sweets, lollipops and other junk food. I also reminded him that there was no need to spend the entire RM10 just for the sake of spending.

He came home from school pretty happy because for one thing, there was no chinese lesson because of Canteen Day.

As soon as he got into the car, he took out the bottle of Vitagen that he bought for his sister. I asked him whether he bought one for himself and he said he already drank it up during snack time along with the pack of snacks (fishball + nugget + sausage) he bought.

Joseph also bought a cute little pink dinosaur eraser for his sister.

And for himself, he bought a mechanical pencil. Altogether, he spent RM3.95 and brought home the balance of RM6.05. I told him I was very pleased that he thought of his sister and didn't just spend on himself.

Last Saturday, he also showed his caring side without being prompted. We were at Children's Church and just before it started, Daalin took both kids to the loo (actually Joe went by himself) while I went to return the library books and then went to the loo.

When I got back to Hall 1, Daalin was already on stage leading worship. I looked around for Joy and finally found her standing next to her Joseph who had his arm around her shoulder. Since she looked pretty fine, I just stood at a distance behind her without her knowledge.

A short while later, pastor's wife who was standing behind them came to tell me that Joy cried for me but Joseph quickly asked her to stay with him and took care of her. She said was so encouraged to see Joseph take care of his little sister.

I just know he's gonna be a wonderful kor kor to 2 little sisters. Especially when he has his "nobody bullies my sister except me!" policy....

'ow' spelling dilemma

Joe asked me this last week after his spelling test. He knew immediately that he had made a mistake even before teacher returned his book (today).

He said....if c-o-w is cow and n-o-w is now, why isn't m-o-w mow???

I guess English words are more difficult and complicated than the Malay language which is mainly writing exactly as you hear it.

Nevertheless, I encouraged my boy and told him he made good use of his ears and common sense in trying to figure out the words.

Exfoliating 51

Joe's top right central incisor (the baby tooth of course) had been wobbling for months. In fact, it was kind of protruded and overlapping the other central incisor for quite a while but I just left it as it was.

Monday being a school holiday because of the Sports Day the previous Saturday, we went to Ikea.....all day! When he came out of Smaland, he told me that he had a bump on his mouth and a wee bit of bleeding. He was cool about it and didn't seem to be in pain so I didn't do anything.

Later in the evening, he pointed out that the tooth was very wobbly. On closer inspection, I found that it was hanging by almost nothing. So I asked him if he wanted it out. Apprehensive at first, but he let me because he was more afraid of swallowing it or having it drop out in school the next day.
So holding the tooth with a gauze, I gave it a twist and out it came. It didn't hurt but he asked me, "Am I gonna die?" when he saw the blood.

Slight compression and a cup of cold Ribena later, he was smiling again when I told him putting the tooth under the pillow will result in an iPad2!

He wasn't fooled.... coz he promptly told me "There no such thing as a tooth fairy!!!"

I think he looks kinda cute. And he paid me with 10 kisses :-)

Joe's Sports Day

Saturday 23rd July 2011 was Joe's kindy Sports Day. I woke the kids up early and we left home by 7am.

We had breakfast in the concourse area, and then sent Joe into his class and found some seats right under the fan inside one of the tents.

The event started promptly at 8am with the kids' march past and then the National Anthem.

A few speeches followed and then the 6-year-olds did a dance. Joseph had been singing the song at home in the last couple of weeks but absolutely refused to dance for me at home. He kept telling me I had to be patient until the actual day.

While he remembered all his dance steps, he didn't smile. And it's not that he forgot...he said he had to focus on his dance. I guess he's just not the showman kind.

After his dance, I retreated to the back and parked myself under the fan again because Joe's class item was the last one.

Jolly Jelly - they had to run and pick up 2 water balloons and then walk on a bench then run to the end to drop the water balloons into a pail before running back.
I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to switch the camera to video mode. Nevertheless, his red team won the gold medal for his item.

God answered our prayers - the weather was perfect! It was nice and cloudy and the sun didn't come out until 10am.I think the teachers did a great job in organizing the event. Everything went smoothly and the whole event ended by 10.30am instead of the anticipated 12noon.

We had ample time to go home for a shower and some rest before going back for Children's Church and Little Lamb.

Joe came home and immediately put his medal in the glass display cabinet, next to his 2009 Sports Day medal. He said he thoroughly enjoyed himself. I guess this would be one of those things he will miss if he's homeschooled. So for now, the firm decision is to throw him in the 'deep end' and see how he fares in a chinese school. I'm sure he'll be fine.

Six today!

Joseph is 6 years old today! We had a mini joint-party with Nat in school.

Nat's mummy and I were schoolmates and though we didn't 'pakat', Nat is 2 days younger than Joe while Nat's sister is 11 days older than Joe's sister.

It takes very little to get children happy and excited. A simple chocolate cake with dinos on top was enough to make the boys happy.

Knowing the kids don't have a lot of time to eat due to the short recess time, we only had simple egg sandwiches and vitagen.

Joy-Anne was very happy to go to Kor Kor's school.

I hope this means she will adapt well next year, without much crying like her kor kor.

Blessed 6th Birthday Joseph!

I am pleased with the way you have grown....how you show so much love, care and concern for your family and in particular the way you care for and protect your sister.

I am glad you can tell right from wrong.

Most of all I am pleased you have Jesus in your heart. We pray that you will grow up to be a man after God's own heart - that you will love Him, obey Him, serve Him and walk with Jesus all the days of your life.

A Dino Party for Joseph

Now I know why I like my new home so much..... it's spacious for parties!!! And what a blast we had... Joseph actually turns 6 this Thursday on 14th April but we had an early celebration yesterday evening.

Truth be told.... I liked Azlin's food so much after our home-warming that I had to find another reason to cater from her again. So we had a party for Joe.

Shireen baked Joe's dino cake - Japanese cheese cake with dinos, trees and a volcanoe as well!

I handmade a photo frame for each child - personalized with their name on it. And I made Joe write a thank you note for each frame. He wrote it 16 times in all! He did complain a little but I told him he had to share a bit of the work with me.

Uncle Billy @ Ah Ku did a great job at entertaining the kids, parents and grandparents.

He also led them in some games to work up an appetite. We sang Happy Birthday and Daalin prayed for Joe before everyone attacked the food.

The evening ended with Joe opening his presents after all our guests had left.

Now the princess wants a pink butterfly party when she turns 4 years old...

First day of Joe's last kindy year

Joseph finally went back to kindy to start a new academic year. His kindy has a practice where returning students start a week later. Joseph sure wasn't complaining about the extra holidays and neither was I.

In fact, I think he was a little apprehensive to start school again. He's just by nature very cautious and rather timid about new surroundings. Kinda like his father.

So we really had to give him encouraging words and pray for him before we left him in his new class with his new teacher.

Back home, Joy wanted to wear her uniform as well.

She has been saying she wants to go to school but makes no whining about it. I'm not sure she's serious about it.

At the moment, she's just happy wearing the uniform which is a hand-me-down from a friend who's daughter graduated from the same kindy last year.

She wore the uniform when we went to pick Joe up and lucky for her, the teachers didn't think she was a runaway student.
When we got home, Joseph was back to his usual cheery self and seemed quite happy with his new class and new teacher.
I sure am not looking forward to when he starts primary school next year. I just know it's gonna be pretty traumatic for him and there's going to be lots of crying.

Milk tooth extraction at home

Joe lost his first milk tooth today. I had noticed it shaking a couple of weeks back and was hoping it would stay at least until after his concert. Well it did. But in the last few days, I found he could tilt it forward up to almost 90degrees. So I suggested removing it to avoid him swallowing it.

Here's how a dentist does it at home.

Get some dental floss. Be generous - make it long enough.

Tie one end around the shaky tooth. It's quite tricky with the smooth satin floss.


Here's the last picture of the tooth still in the mouth.

Tie the other end of the floss to a door knob. I let Joe pick which door he liked and he picked the bedroom door.

And this is how you do it...

He felt a pinch kind of pain at the split second when the tooth came out. But by the time he actually felt any pain, the tooth was already out.

I asked him if it was painful and he said "just a little bit" but he is game to do it again when the next tooth shakes.

This is indeed a milestone - my firstborn's losing his first milk tooth.

I'm so proud of him. But no, the tooth fairy does not live in this house.