Precious Moments..

Modern Kids

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Shooi

Tomorrow, Friday is a public holiday in Penang. Unfortunately my company does not observe this public holiday. But that doesn’t mean I am working. Initially, I had wanted to take Monday off since Tues is a holiday (again), but since the kids are not going to school on Friday, hubb and I changed our leave plan to Friday instead.

This morning Bryan asked me what we are going to do on Friday since they are not going to school. I replied that I will take them to Youth Park, and guess his reply,

“Hah? Again?”

I had expected him to be happy that we are taking him to the park again. We just went there last weekend and the kids had a fun time there. But no, he wants to do something else.

I remembered that when i was a small child, my dad used to take me to the Esplanade’s playground every weekend. I looked forward eagerly to those occasion. I never get bored. I wished I could do it everyday.

But the new modern kids seems to get bored and tired easily especially when it comes to outdoor play. Between Bryan and Dylan, Dylan is more of the outdoor/ physical type. Bryan prefers to stay at home, watch TV, play the computer or the games on my HP.

Personally I do not like my kids to watch TV or play computer games. They don’t get much of that during the weekdays. And on weekends, I try to plan activities that take them OUTSIDE the house. Or find some fun activity to do at home. I have already started to have an art & craft sessions with Bryan when Dylan is napping. That allows us to have some quality time together and at the same time take him away from the TV.

And computer…he could play it with it forever if we give him the chance. When he started to play with computer, he only played with the games on disney channel. Now he knows how to use Google and Youtube to find the stuff he wants. Normally he will have his encyclopedia next to him. He needs that to help him spell the words so that he can search the net. Sounds educational, right? But I still don’t like it cause I do not want him to be addicted to computers. So I try to keep it to 30 mins or max 1 hour.

Btw, it really pisses me off to see children playing with their Gameboy during meals or when they are out as a family. Mealtimes and family outing times should be a time when the family connect with each other. Once I saw a family dining next to us. The older child is playing a Gameboy and the younger child is watching a cartoon on the portable DVD player. The maid is seated between the child and feeds them while their eyes are glued to the screen. What about the parents? Dad is watching something on the laptop and mom is….just enjoying her meal in peace. But is this family dinner???? Everyone is in their own world.

So, I am so not going to buy him a PSP or Gameboy. Definitely not a portable games machine. But he may get something like Nintendo WII when he is older, must let him have at least something la… But even iF he ever gets one, it is going to stay at grandma’s house AND he is only going to get to play with it during school holidays.

But I try to limit it to only 30 mins.

So back to tomorrow’s plan, fine if he doesn’t want to go to Youth Park. I have got another plan…

Posted in Family | 1 Comment

Unbelievable Dylan

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Shooi

The things Dylan say to us are unbelievable..And he is only 2.5 years old.

“I said I want to go Popo’s house, RIGHT?”
This morning when we sent him to school instead of popo’s house as per his demands. He said that when we are a few roads away from his school.

And on another school morning
Dylan: Mommy, I want to go to butterfly farm.
Mommy: Ok, ok.. *malas to layan him…*
Dylan: Then, why you turn here?

And when hubb is recording a video of him on my new HP,
Dylan: Daddy kei wo kei wo (daddy give me, give me)
Daddy: *Ignores him, continue recording*
Dylan: Kei wo, kei wo, Ni pu sayang wo si pu si?. (give me, you don’t love me is it?)

One time when he was fighting for toys with his brother,
“Gei wo, kuai tian kei wo. (Give me, faster give me)
Ni yau chuo wo ku si ma? (You want to make me cry, issit)
Kuai tian gei wo!” (Faster give me)

And yesterday, hubb hurt his hips. So his movements were a little restricted.

Dylan: Daddy, ni che pien pain pain ah? (Does it hurts here?)
Daddy: Yes.
Dylan: Wo na yau kei ni cha, ok? (I bring medicine for you to apply ok?)
*runs to his cabinet to fetch a bottle of calamine lotion*
Dylan: Take off your pants la! LOL

Right now it is the 7th month, and there is the “Ge Tai” (Street concert?) just outside my mom’s house. The boys are intrigued by the on going concert and usually we will let them watch for a while before going home. In between songs, sometimes the singer will chit chat and talk to the audience. And guess what this lil boy say on one of the occasion…
“Chang ker chiu chang ker la…Wei senmo chiang hua chiang hua?” (Why are you talking when you are supposed to be singing)

Posted in Dylan, Funny moments | Tagged chitchats, Dylan | 4 Comments

Little Strategists

Posted on August 9, 2010 by Shooi

Dylan: *holding up a jelly* Daddy open for me.
Hubb: *Ignores Dylan as he is busy with something*
Bryan: You must say “please”.
Dylan: Daddy. Open for me. Please.
Hubb: Still ignoring Dylan.
Bryan: You must scream loud loud.
Dylan: DADDY OPEN FOR ME….PLEASE!!!
Hubb: *Finally opens the jelly*

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Ride with Ee Ee

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Shooi

I like Thursdays. It is my evenings off to do anything I want. I get to hang out with my friends, go for hikes, dinners, facials …etc. Hubb will usually head to the gym and/ or go for dinner with his friends. It is our little time-off. Though it is just a short couple of hours, it is a good recharge time!

We are lucky that my parents can help to fetch the kids home from school, give them a dinner and bath and I will pick them home later.

Yesterday, sis offered to fetch the kids to my dad’s house. So I asked her this morning, if the kids were well behaved in the car.

Me: Did Dylan give you any trouble?
Sis: He’s OK coz Ms Stella said she brainwash him the whole day. That I’ll pick him up then later he still can see you. So he’s OK… once he’s in my car he take all Matthew (sis’s baby)’s toys and both of them start arguing who can play with what. So very noisy in the car…
Me: It is liddat one when both of them are together. The bigger the noisier. Now can fight liao. Last time the small gong gong let the older one take everything.
Sis: Now Dylan even instruct Bryan to reach for the toys for him coz he can’t move much in the bb car seat..
Me: LOL

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100%

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Shooi

We are pretty lazy parents when it comes to my children’s academics at the moment. We barely do any revisions with them. Well, they are in a good school and we trust the teachers. We always read together every day before bedtime. In fact it is the children’s favourite bedtime activity…picking out the books to read together. And Bryan is already showing healthy reading habits and is already reading independently. He is constantly surprising me with new things that he had picked up by reading his books. Even his principle had told me that she is very happy that Bryan has already learned the value of reading at such a young age. Many children can read because they are taught to do so, but not all can see the value.

I think Bryan is doing excellently.

His school does not have examinations. But they do have Spelling/ Ejaan every Monday and Ting sie (mandarin writing) on THursday. The children will bring the list home every weekend.

During weekend, usually hub and I are happy once Bryan finishes his homework and then let him play. Since he did not do revision, he rarely gets 100% in those tests. The highest he’ll get is 90% or maybe as low as 40%. He is not even 5 yet and neither hub and I see the need to pressure him for 100%, so we just let him be.

That is until one day, his class teacher asked if we ever do “Ting Sie” revision with him at home. We said, “No.” She then asked us to do it at home as his “Ting Sie” is quite weak,

OK..since teacher said so, I told hub to do it. (Mandarin is his charter). And while we are at it, he also did the revision for the English/ Malay.

And the following week, Bryan scored 100% for all the tests.

And each time he did, he would greet us happily when we pick him at school with “I got 100% for Ejaan/ Spelling/ Ting Sie. Teacher said I am a clever boy and teacher gave me a sweet/ jelly/ etc.”

So hub and I realized how much it meant for him to get 100% in those tests and how proud he is of himself when he does.

We always thought that he doesn’t care about his marks. Well, honestly, he doesn’t care when he got low scores but he sure is HAPPY when he did well. And I guess it is a good feeling to have. It is like an early experience of how sweet the taste of success can be.

Since that time, we always do revision with him, every weekend and the night before the tests. Usually it doesn’t take long. It just takes effort.

Sometimes even with revision, he doesn’t get 100%.

It is ok. We know we did our part and he did his best.

Posted in Bryan, Education | Leave a comment

Penang Bird Park

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Shooi

I had delayed posting of this because I want to dig up the old photos that hubb and I had taken at the park when we were dating. Those photos are taken probably 12 years ago! And who would have guessed that the next time we were to visit the park was with our 2 handsome boys!

The visit was actually suggested by Dylan’s teacher. She had asked my permission if she can take the boys out and suggested Penang Bird Park. It was a good idea since I have not taken the boys to the Bird Park.

We left early on a nice sunny Saturday morning. Bryan had his encyclopedia in the car and was already flipping to the pages on birds, preparing himself on what he will see at the park later. We picked Stella up and head straight for the park.

Dylan was cool when we entered the park, but panicked when his dad tried to bring him nearer to the birds’ cages.

Meanwhile Bryan is happy to be there and start pointing and naming the birds he recognizes. For those that he don’t, he’ll attempt to read out their names at the sign.

It was great to have Stella along because both the kids adore her. The kids were so excited to have her in the car and both wanted her to read their books to them in the car. At the park, she took time to explain the things we see to them.

Stella found some peacock feathers on the ground and gave one to each kid. They loved playing with it.

And the best thing about having Stella around is, there is someone to help us take our family photos.

Hubb and I have a photo taken together at the same red bridge 12 years ago. That was the photo that I was trying to find.

We hang around until it was time for the bird show. Meanwhile, we bought some fish food for the kids to feed to the fishes at the pond.

The bird show was actually better than my expectation. It was quite interactive. The trainers actually got the birds, (owl and eagle) to fly across the audience, swooping very low until it was just above our heads. One of the birds wings actually touched Bryan’s hair and he was so excited over it.

After the bird show, we got the opportunity to take photos with some of the birds. Unfortunately, the kids did not dare to let the birds stand on their hand.

One of the hornbill was actually very manja. And we managed to persuade the boys to stroke it’s feathers.

There were also some smaller birds on display near the cage. These birds are very tame and you can actually stroke their feather gently. Stella tried to get Dylan to touch but I think he did not dare.

Bryan is even worse. The moment I tried to bring him closer to the birds, he got frightened.

We left for Assam Fish Soup + Chicken Rice for lunch after that. Just because Stella was around, Dylan ate so much rice. I have never seen him so cooperative. Wish he can eat like that for every meals.

Posted in Bryan, Dylan, Family, Funtime | Leave a comment

Balanced diet

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Shooi

Dylan had some constipation lately. Yesterday, he sat for a looong time in the bathroom before his poopoo come out. And boy is he happy after the poo came out. He was smiling, chatting happily exclaiming,..”My poo poo come out already.

After that I serve him a big bowl of Taiwan mango (expensive but not as sweet as I expected). Both he and Bryan loved the mango though it wasn’t very sweet and asked for second rounds. Bryan told me,

Bryan: Mommy, you must let us eat balanced diet. A lot of fruits and vegetables. Then only we got a lot of poo poo and the poo poo can come out easily. Just now I poo*, a little bit only. So you must give me more fruits and vegetables.
(he said that because he wants more mango, he was walloping the mangoes so fast so that he can eat more than Dylan).

*p/s: both my kids have this bad habit. one kid poo, the other kid also want to poo. My father said it is like their butt is stuck together..hahahaha.

Later the mangoes , I told him to brush his teeth again. He already brushed them earlier during his shower.

Bryan: But i already brushed my teeth just now.
Mommy: Brush again. Cause you just ate mangoes and mangoes are sweet right. If you don’t brush later the chong chong come eat your teeth.
Bryan: The the teeth becomes black like TTE issit? (a girl at his class)
Mommy: Yes, like TTE.
Bryan: No lah mommy. TTE’s teeth is black because she didn’t drink a lot of milk la. Not enough protein.
Mommy: O.o No, it is not protein, it is not enough calcium.
Bryan: Ah..Calcium but protein also. YOu need a lot of protein then only can be healthy.

I can’t believe I am having conversation about diet and nutritional values with a boy that is not even 5 yet. Kids are so knowledgeable nowadays.

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Big house

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Shooi

While hubb was driving the kids home from school last Monday, the kids were chatting at the back by themselves. When they passed some new houses, he heard

Bryan: Wah..look at this house. It is so big.
Dylan: Wah, the house so big…
Bryan: I like the house, so nice.
Dylan: Yes lo, so nice. I like big house.
Bryan: Yes, I like big house, I don’t like old house (I think he was referring to our old apartment, he always refer to it as old house.)

Haizzz…mummy also like big house. But too bad, we don’t print money and mummy don’t have the energy to clean up a bigger house. So too bad, you guys are stuck in our current house! If you like big house, then you gotta buy your own.

Posted in Brotherhood, Funny moments | Tagged big house | Leave a comment