Fun at the Adventure Zone in Penang

We came back to Penang on Thursday night. The kids slept so well in the car that they were still awake at midnight in Penang!

On Friday morning, we went to check out the Adventure Zone that Adeline told me about. She and Yvonne brought their kids the last time they were back and had a blast! Entrance fee is RM20+ per kid on weekdays and RM30+ on weekends. (There's a 5% govt tax) Adults get in for free.

Socks are required for everyone (you can purchase new ones at RM10 per pair if you forget to bring) and long sleeves are required for the huge slides.
Joseph was so excited. I had shown him photos on the website earlier and he was all eager to go!

Joy-Anne was kinda timid at first but soon warmed up and roamed freely by herself.

She even crossed this hanging bridge all by herself, very slowly, step by step.

Joe pretended he was Tarzan on this 'vine'...

...but mummy had to go with him.

Pretending he's going through a sugar-cane-juice machine...

It's really quite a cool place... huge and very safe because everything is nicely padded.

Joy liked this tunnel slide which was pretty mild, even though it was long.

And both kids loved the ball pool.

And Joe liked the ball blower...
But the highlight of the place was surely the giant terrifying slides!

Not this kiddy slide...

They call this the Astra Slide. You sit on a mat like a sleigh and zoom down.

Joe first went down with me. It certainly reminded me of the rides at DisneyWorld. I thought Joe would be afraid and cry. But as soon as we got down there, he jumped up and said, "Alright! Let's do it again!!!"

He must have gone on it like a dozen times! Towards the end, we let Joy try. She looked like she was gonna scream her lungs out...

But she actually said, "Again..." and so they went racing down again and again!

I absolutely like that eager excited look on Joe's face while Nana screamed at the top of her lungs!

We left even before the 2-hour playtime duration was up. Joe wanted to climb this watch tower that was just outside the Adventure Zone.

It was certainly a cool morning! The kids napped for almost 3 hours in the afternoon to recharge their batteries.

And here are the videos...

First mama went with Joseph ..............

Then papa went with Joseph ....

And then ..... Nana went !!!!!!!!!!!

Then papa went on the steeper one ......

And finally papa went on the super steep one !!! This is a 24ft near-vertical drop!

Papa is home!

Daalin came home early yesterday morning after spending 10 days in Melbourne working with a counterpart at Deakin University.

I'm happy my supply of muesli has been replenished. Daaling managed to lug back 11kg of it. Hopefully this should last me till after Chinese New Year.

He also had some goodies for the kids - Bob and Dora toys.

Later in the day, Joe taught his father how to use the iPhone to play games.

I'm sure he felt pretty clever and useful...

Then Papa tuned his brand new guitar and he tested it. It still needs a while for the strings to get seasoned.

Half-sized 30" guitar for RM119, from Euphony Music (Ikano). My friend's shop (Bentley Music) probably has a better-sounding one but it was a three-quarter-size which is 6inches longer.

We'll wait and see how he takes to it to decide if we should get a better, bigger one when he grows.

I'm so glad my floor-mopper is home!

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 :-)