Sports Fun at Little Lamb

Little Lamb had their inaugural Sports Day this morning. Unfortunately, it wasn't announced earlier so the kids weren't dressed to the theme, except for my 2 kids.
I thought Joy looked so cute in a size M sports attire for Joe's kindy, in age 5 colour.


All the kids got temporary tattoos on their arms, just for the fun of it.

Then after snacks, it was just a free-for-all carnival-like setting where the children went around to various stations to play whatever they fancied. I think next year we should have a more properly-organized Sports Day with proper groups and prizes.

Nevertheless, the kids had fun!

A new Graco stroller for us

Parenthood welcomes into homes a whole lot of stuff along with baby. We are blessed to 'inherit' lots of hand-me-downs including clothes, toys, books, playpen etc.

I believe we bought only 2 major items, one being the convertible babycot and the other, a reasonably good stroller. After doing a lot of research and homework, we settled on a Graco Citisport on sale at Safe 'n Sound 1Utama for RM469, in June 2005.

Over the next 5 years, this stroller went many places with us....

Bali 2006

Frasers Hill 2006

Joseph spent many hours in the stroller....drinking milk, sleeping etc...

When Joy-Anne arrived, he promptly vacated it for her. For the first 6 months, I carried Joy in the sarong sling while Joe still sat in the stroller when we went kai kai.

A'Famosa 2008

flying to Penang 2008

Though he sometimes complained that his legs got tired, Joe still graciously let his sister ride in the stroller.

In August 2008 we brought the stroller halfway around the globe to Hawaii!

In Hawaii, we bought a second stroller - the Combi Flare for USD82. After conversion, it amounted to about RM280 which is far cheaper than anything of that standard in Malaysia.

Waikiki 2008

Both strollers went to Melbourne with us - very useful.

Joy-Anne conveniently fell asleep in the stroller wherever we went. And pushing strollers is such a breeze in pedestrian-friendly Melbourne. It also doubled up as a comfy chair for their meals when we had picnics in parks.

Joy fell asleep while nibbling on a cheese stick, during one of our walks

The last foreign soil this Graco stroller touched was Singapore in June this year.

Joseph no longer sits in his stroller (the Combi Flare) when we go kai kai. But he still uses it as a 'cave' for sleeping when we go to church every week. Each kid sleeps in one stroller so we still need 2 strollers for 2 kids.

A few weeks ago, the 5-year-old Graco broke a cable just as we got home from church on a Saturday night. With the broken cable, the stroller can no longer be closed. It fits into the boot of the Wira when fully open but nothing else will go into the boot.

So I brought it back to GBS Marketing (the distributor for Graco in Malaysia) and they had the technicians look at it. The conclusion is that it can't be repaired.

I went stroller-shopping and bought the Graco Mosaic at the Parenthood Fair in Midvalley Exhibition Centre (that is currently happening 20-22 August 2010).I felt this was the best deal - best price for a stroller that best suits our needs and budget. RM499 from the original retail price of RM699. Large basket, reclines to 160degrees, removable front bar, 5-point harness and fairly affordable.

It's time to retire the Graco Citisport. After 5 years, 7 countries (including transit in Japan and Korea) over 3 continents on 6 airlines and lots and lots of mileage, I feel it's served us well and has been worth our money. I'm also thankful that the cable broke right at home and not when we were overseas.

The stroller is still functional. It just can't be closed flat. So if anyone has any idea how anyone can benefit from having it, I'll be glad to give it away.

Watch out... I bite!

I got home from work today to be surprised by my children - the princess took a bite at her brother's arm!!!

This photo was taken about 5 hours after the incident... According to eye-witness account.... "she pounced on me and bite my arm!"

The victim was very forgiving and did not take revenge, while the culprit confessed and thereafter apologized to the victim with a hug and a kiss.

I'm shocked by how ferocious she is..... someday I'll show this photo to any boy who comes within an arm's length of her.

Mothering her BearBear

Joy-Anne has recently developed a strong attachment to this little brown bear. Yes, Yee Yee....that's Conrad that you got for free from Conrad Singapore. She carries it everywhere and says she is the bear's mother. When questioned why mother and not father, she can say that she is a girl and girls grow up to be mothers. (I'm so amazed at this understanding of hers!) She wants to carry her bear in a sarong, just like how I carry her in my sarong sling.

This is so unrelated.... looks like they are feeding a monkey in a tree.

Thanks to Aunty Cathy for the playhouse.

So I made a matching tutu for her bear this morning. She will sing to her bear...

...and dance with her bear...


...she uses the chui kong as bearbear's bath tub...

...and she gives bearbear a bath...

...makes sure bearbear is all clean and dry...

...gives bearbear a hug...

...imagine she dresses bearbear...

...and puts bearbear on the bed (the wooden xylophone)...

...then she breastfeeds bearbear!!!

I saw her on the bed, with the bear to her chest a few nights ago and she told me that she is feeding her baby milk from her nen nen. I was surprised speechless! She weaned herself off me at 13 months and more than a year later, she can remember.

I'm just glad she's got her basics right : girl grow up to be mother, boy grow up to be father and babies should be breastfed!!!

Another Ringgit for Joe...

...to go shopping!
He came back with another all-correct Ejaan test. But I sure wish his teachers would give something other than sweets.

an Argument with the Princess

I had an argument with the Princess last Friday.

We were in the car, waiting for Joseph's dismissal from school when I noticed that she was pouting.

So we had a chat...

mummy : Why is your face so sad? Who bully you?

Joy : YOU!

mummy : ????

Joy : You! Bully! Me!

mummy : What?!?!! I didn't.

Joy : Yes! You did! I will take out all your teeth then you cannot eat your food.

mummy : HAH??? Who teach you that?

Joy : My mother.

mummy : (already very baffled, surprised, shocked and dumbfounded) what???

Joy : Errmm.... my grandmother.

I wasn't sure if I should laugh or scold her. Anyway, we left it at that.

This morning, she woke me up at 4am to rub lotion on her feet. I foresee plenty more of such arguements in the coming days.

Practising Ejaan

Joe has ejaan tests every Wednesday. And each Wednesday, he gets a new set of words for the next Wednesday. So I was practising it with him yesterday and he wanted to draw a picture for each word. He asked me, "What is tahun?" to which I initially answered, "year", but knowing I would have to explain a bit more. So I told him that January to December is one year.

And what he wrote really made me laugh. He repeated it and paused to think before writing each syllable.

I refrained from correcting him halfway because I wanted to see what he could come up with. Maybe my pronounciation wasn't too accurate.

To encourage him to be consistent and also help him to have long term goals (while teaching delaying-gratification), we've told him that when he gets his ejaan all-correct 10 times, he can go shopping for a reward worth RM10. So far, he's got RM3 in his 'pocket'.

La Gomera Spanish Buffet

A friend gave Daalin a voucher for 50% discount at this new place - LaGomera Spanish Buffet Restaurant. I've never been to Neo Damansara so we had to look up a map to get there. (I don't like nor need a GPS!)

Regular price is RM59.90 and RM49.90 if you go from 9.30pm onwards. They open till midnight. There was a decent spread of tapas, salads, stews and also a selection of pizza, pasta and grilled stuff that are cooked to order when you drop clips labelled with your table number into bowls labelled with your selection.

I've never had lobster in my life and to tell you the truth, I still can't tell what it tastes like. Nana on the other hand has never seen scallops still stuck to their shells. She's ever only seen and cooked dried scallops up till now. So fascinated was she that she brought home the shells as a souvenir!

Oysters (fresh or cheese-baked), scallops, salmon, ribeye/sirloin steak, bratwurst etc are available at the cook-to-order counter.

They open at 5.30pm and when we got there at about 5.45pm, the place was still almost deserted. Nobody had started yet on the buffet and we gladly did the 'opening ceremony' for the evening.

However all the tables were fully booked and by the time we left at almost 8pm, the place was really very busy. You would probably have to wait a while for your cook-to-order items to arrive at your table.

I'd say it's worth the money at 50% discount but the thrifty person in me wouldn't pay full price for this.

**You can google other blogs for more info and better pictures.