Bryan – Standard 1

How time flies…My little boy has to register for Standard 1 already. And the registration opens on Monday. For me, choosing the school is very easy.

1. As close as possible to our house. I never had to sit Bas Sekolah when I was in school. My dad always fetch me to & from school. So I want to be able to fetch my kids at least one way, to or from school. Bryan will most probably be attending the before school care, so I will have to arrange transport from the day care to his primary school. But in the evening, we want to send him home ourselves so that he can get home as early as possible, have dinner, do homework and then rest, play, sleep….

2. Location compared to his day care. If the school is too far from the day care, I may not be able to find transport. Besides, Dylan will still be in day care when Bryan starts primary 1. So I have to consider the route for picking & sending both of them.

3. Ultimately, I registered for the school that is less than 10 mins away from our home and 2 mins drive from their day care.

We took a short tour of the school when we registered this morning.

What I like?
1. The school is not directly ON the main road. It is facing the main road, but there is another smaller road separating it from the main road. That small road is closed except during the pick up/ drop off time. So it is safer to drop & pick up the kids.

2. There was a nice security malay lady around when I was there. Coincidentally, the afternoon session kids were starting to arrive when we were there. She supervised the dropping off of the kids to make sure that they go into the school safely. One little girl was crying as she walked in as today is the first day of school after the long weekend. She consoled the little girl and wiped tears from her eyes. How sweet….. OK la.. I know the lady will not be around when my boy join but it is a nice, warm sight for me as a mother.

3. My husband’s colleague has a kid in this school. Upper primary. He said that this school has a lot of extra-curricular activities (martial arts, 24 drum troupe, etc). Good. I would like my kids to participate in extracurricular activities and being close to home means that it would be easier for us to ferry them to & from school for the activities.

4. The colleague also say that the teachers do not pressure the kids. In fact, he said that the teachers are too lenient. Well, I don’t want my kids to be pressured, so this is good to me.

5. There should not be a problem to find bas/ van sekolah back to my house IF we really need them. My neighbor’s sons go to this school and they take the school van. I personally prefer the van to the bus. Less passenger means less travelling time.

What I don’t like?
1. The school grounds is small compared to my primary school. My school used to be the British government’s headquarters during the old colonial days. So we had big rooms, courtyards, plenty of trees, greenfields..BIG everything. During primary school, my friends and I had to make plans on which field/ garden/ spot to meet during recess or it will be almost impossible to find each other during recess. Too bad that it is not possible for him to go to my primary school. Cause my primary school years are filled with lots of pleasant fun memories. I wish theirs will be the same.

2. There are many classes for each standard. I heard that for 2010’s std 1, there are 9 classes. Yeah, not exactly a small school, huh?

3. I heard that there are a lot of homework.
But then, don’t all Chinese school have a lot of homework. I talked to my neighbor’s son who used to study at this school. He is now in secondary school but his 2 younger brothers are still in this school. He thinks that the homework is manageable and both his brothers are coping fine.
*I oredi delegated half the job to my husb, since I am a banana*

Overall I felt good about this school choice. This is not the most preferred school in the district. There are 2 other more “famous” schools and I am staying away from those 2.

Though I do not want my kid to be in the top/ most competitive school, I also don’t want my kid to be in a too laid-back school as their UPSR results will determine the secondary school choices. This school used to be a just a small kampong school not long ago, but it has quickly grown into an established school in our area. I guess that in a way indicates the “competitiveness” of the school management also.

Anyway, it is still 2 years later. And anything can happen within this period….

Dylan’s 2nd Birthday Party

Honestly, it is very tiring to host birthday parties at home. There are lots of things to buy and prepare. Then there’s the cleaning before and after the event. Just thinking of it was enough to make me tired.

Though I will say, “Aiyo, no need to do party at home liao la..just celebrate in school and go out to eat,” I will always end up doing a birthday party at home for the boys. And it is all because…the boys LOVES it! They love having parties at home. They can have dinners with family all year round, but a birthday party at home only comes twice a year, one each for them.

So a party I have…again…Besides, it is CNY, so it would be a birthday cum CNY get-together for the family too.

This time, we wanted to do something different. BBQ! Inspired by my niece who had requested a BBQ party for her birthday last year. But she did not have a party in the end because her parents got her a netbook instead.

Anyway, hubb loves BBQ and it has been a long time since we’ve been to one. So this one is also for the man of the house

As usual, both my MIL and my mom helped. MIL fried instant noodles so that the guests can have something to eat while waiting for the rest of the food to cook. My mom made birthday “jelly eggs” and santan jelly. I’ve asked my mom to stop making red eggs for the party since no one eats them. So we replaced them with red jelly eggs instead, and the kids loves them!

I marinated and prepared the rest of the stuff.

Lamb, spicy & non spicy chicken, chilli squid with vege wrapped in banana leaf & foil, sausages, fishballs and satay

Since it was such a hot season, I boiled a big pot of chrysanthemum tea for the guests instead of just cordial, beer and other canned drinks.

And now..here comes the cake. Since the weather is so hot, I decided to make a oreo ice-cream cake with a chocolate sponge base instead.

Hubb thinks that I should have just buy a cake instead of spending so much time to make one. Well, until the kids start demanding for cakes with fancy deco that I cannot oblige, I think I will continue to make their birthday cakes. It doesn’t matter if the kids may not know how to appreciate it now. It just gives me a sense of satisfaction that their birthday cake was made with LOVE by mummy….(syiok sendiri , cannot meh!).

Anyway, I asked Bryan, you want mommy to buy cake or make. And my boy proudly replied, “I want mommy to make.” *grins*

But don’t ask me to make cakes for 50-60 kids for school’s birthday party. That one I will continue to buy… kakakakakakaka

The best part of having a birthday party during CNY is ……..

FIREWORKS!!! Of course!!!!!

Needless to say, my boys had a blast playing with the fireworks. I had bought mostly the pop-pop crackers + the stick fireworks, since my boys are still small. But the seller gave me some of the more “fun” fireworks. Those that spins to the sky and explodes into colorful fires! Bryan loved those, but I got scolded by my cousins and aunts for buying those “dangerous” fireworks for my son to play.

Here’s some other photos from the night…

Another party celebration at school for Dylan on Thursday and then I don’t have to plan for another party for the next 8 months…*phew*

Early New Year Celebrations

I love lion dances! So when hubb and I found out that New World Park will have lion dances last Saturday, we made plans to go. We fed the kids dinner as soon as they woke up from their nap and leave for the NWP. Hubb and I planned to have our dinner there.

But as we were leaving our house, we saw a lion dance troupe going up the hill to the new showrooms at the neighborhood opposite our house. Looks like the developer is having a celebration there too! I checked the streaming banners that is hung everywhere, and realized that Saturday was the day of the celebration.

Silly me! I had received the invitation brochure in our mailbox and saw the banners everywhere. But I kept thinking that the celebration was on the 6th day of CNY. No it is Feb 6. *silly silly me*

Ah..better still. This is just opposite our house. So we changed our plans and decided to go for this one instead. Afterall this one have not only lion dances but dragon dances and firecrackers, and fireworks as well!

It was still early, 6pm + only, so hubb and I decided to go somewhere near for dinner first. The CNY celebration actually includes free buffet dinners. This developer is quite generous and normally serves free buffet dinners for all their celebrations. But neither hubb and I enjoy the thought of “fighting” for food and a table to eat. Ok la..there are usually no fights, but there is always a queue. We have 2 small children to take care off. It is no fun to find/ jom (book) a table, queue for food, watch over the kids and gobble down our dinner. We prefer to just relax and enjoy knowing that everyone is well fed.

The events start at 730pm with loud and very long firecrackers. I enjoyed it…kekekeke..It reminds me of the good old CNY days when we could burn firecrackers freely. But both my kids do not like it. Dylan was a bit scared. Bryan was not, but he said it hurts his ears and is so smelly!

Then there was the lion & dragon dances.

There are actually a lot of activities that night. Free calligraphy, free CNY cookies, free fortune telling, free tong yuen soup, dragon beard candy making demo and distribution, concert, acrobatic shows, china face changing shows… Lots of things to photograph but no mood cause I did not bring my DSLR. It was no fun to take photos on my compact camera .

We watched some of the performance and let the kids play at the playground till about 930pm. Then we go home, everyone showered, freshen up, kids changed into their PJ, and wait for 10:30pm..for the fireworks!

Yay! I have access to my DSLR back home. Since there is time, I setup my tripod for the shoots. It will be my first time to play with bulb photography. Unfortunately, I did not get any good photos. The first few shots, I was still experimenting with the timing of bulb. Just as I was getting the hang of it, the fireworks show have ended.

Sadly, I unclipped my camera from the tripod and put away the tripod. Just as I was about to finish keeping it away, the fireworks start again! This time even more brilliant, but I was too lazy to set up the camera again.

Don’t know what was going on up there. After the second round of fireworks ended, about 15 mins later there was another round. My neighbors’ kids was scolding… “Haiyo, I already switched off the lights and was ready to sleep, start again…Why cannot continue straight one.”

Hahaha..but cannot complain la..since nobody asked us to watch

To everyone who is reading this…GONG XI FA CAI. Have a Tiggerific New Year!

First Dry Night

Bryan was fully potty trained including nights not long after he turned 2. I did not expect him to be so “independent” as we only started potty training after he turned 2. So our potty training period was actually very short.

I thought Bryan was an exception and he was considered very advance. So I do not expect the same from Dylan.

Dylan started to sleep without diapers last week at school. And through the recent long weekend, his afternoon naps were dry too. *great job Dylan*

And this morning, he woke up with a dry diaper too! Hubb was very surprised when he changed him this morning as his diaper was so light! He thought that I had just changed his diaper.

Is this an indication that he will also be “fast” like his gege? I don’t know but we are not going to pressure him. He is not even 2 yet! I am already very proud of the fact that he can stay dry through afternoon naps and that we can take him kai-kai diaperless, so anything more is a BIG BONUS!

Sleepy heads….

When it’s time to sleep at night, they will be tumbling every where, taking out never ending books to read, wrestle, climb behind and under the mattress.. everything but go to sleep.

When it is time to wake up in the morning, they will….

Sometimes it is so hard to wake them up. Not even with the curtains drawn away and hubb and I chatting away..LOUDLY.

Kids oh kids….

New Hairstyle

Gong gong complained that Bryan and Dylan’s hair is too long already, so we took the boys to the hair saloon on the way home.

I watched over Dylan while hubb watched over Bryan when he had his hair cut. I know that hubb just told the hair dresser to trim the sides, nothing major.

But as she worked on Bryan’s hair, she suggested cut here, cut there because, this place is too thick, that area is too tall. Hubb just went with her suggestions and allowed her to work on Bryan’s hair as she please.

Bryan is now very cooperative at the hair saloon, and the lady really could have her way in experimenting with the cut that fits Bryan’s face. Furthermore, Bryan’s hair was quite long already, so she could basically cut anyway that she wanted to cut.

Finally, she settled in a look that “she” is satisfied. Of course, she also keep asking us if we are ok and happy with the new look, that is very different from Bryan’s old haircut.

BEFORE

AFTER

Hubb likes the new hairstyle more..says Bryan looks more “yeng” (stylish). Besides, he have been complaining that Bryan’s old hairstyle is soooo “soh chai.”

I think the new hairstyle is definitely more stylish..but I also miss his innocent mushroom looking hairstyle….Awww..my boy is growing up….

p/s: Dylan also had his hair cut. But his hair is so thin, there’s nothing much the hairdresser could do. Just trim the ends nia… Besides, he is still not as cooperative as his gege yet.

Songkran Party

When I find out that I am pregnant with Dylan, I was a bit worried as their age gap was only slight above 2. I was worried that I will not be able to handle 2 boys.

Now I am glad that their age gap is so close, as they really play very well with each other. Last weekend, we let them out of the house to play on the porch, while I prepared lunch.

It started with bubbles play, then some cooking play with water…and then it turned out to a full fledge water play!

And all these while, what is mommy & daddy doing?

Mommy = Cooking in the kitchen
Daddy = Watching tv at the living room while keeping an eye on them (of course)

I think that they are so lucky to have each other. No matter how much we love them as parents, we can’t play with them as “crazy” as a sibling can. And no cousins or friends can spend as much time with them as a sibling can too! And me and hubby are glad to have some extra time to ourselves since the boys have each other.

Can’t wait for them to grow up and watch how their bond continues to grow deeper. I think they are going to be a great brother and friend to each other!

Where’s my brother?

Yesterday, in the middle of the night, Bryan woke me up
Bryan: MOMMY! Didi is GONE! *I can see panic in his face*

Dylan is a very “mobile” sleeper lately, and he has wedged himself so close to me that I had to sleep sideways to give him more room. And Bryan could not see Dylan because Dylan was too close to me.

Me: Nah…Didi is here la…

Bryan: Oh * Goes back to sleep*

That’s how close both the brothers are. They will look for each other before they sleep and first thing when they wake up. Correction :- First thing when they wake up is MOMMY. Second thing is their gege or didi.