My Princess Rachel is One-Year-Old

My darling girl turns ONE today. How time flies!

It seems like just yesterday when I gave birth to her. I can still remember the first moment I saw her. So tiny and adorable. One year has gone already. That's fast! My hubby and I have decided that we stop at 3 children. But we are already missing the days when we get to cuddle and play with our babies. Rachel, our youngest, is already toddling, learning to be more stable on her small feet. Before long, we will be getting headaches trying to discipline and coach all 3 kiddos.

We didn't have a big party for her. We did for Ryan's 1 year old and realized that he was just too young to appreciate it. In fact, it was too tiring for him then. So with Raymund and Rachel, we just had dinner with close family to celebrate their First Birthdays.

We celebrated twice for Rachel, just like we did for Raymund. We had a dinner with my in laws in Melaka last weekend. Didn't go too well as Rachel was tired and was throwing a tantrum. My little girl sleeps pretty early. She gets tired before 9pm. Since it wasn't the actual day, we didn't have a cake then. Also, there is this 'pantang' thingy (ie taboo) against blowing the birthday cake twice. Being a banana myself, I don't quite believe but for the sake of my daughter, I just follow.

Today, we have another round of dinner. This time with my side of the family. Learning from mistake, we had the dinner earlier at 7pm so that we are in time for cake cutting later (at home). She's good today. Cute in her little blue dress. I made a hair clip with blue bows and ribbons to match her dress. I'm learning how to make more. She had on white stockings, cardigan and little powdery pink shoes. Cute and very girly :) I have yet to upload the photos. Will do so when I have the time to transfer the photos to my PC. Soon :)

For presents, Rachel gets new clothes, a soft toy (she likes toys with flappy ears/hands for her to flip back and forth) and K's Kids stacker buckets with shape sorter from her parents. She likes to stack little cups and put things into containers and out. Her grandparents gave angpau. She also gets new pretty clothes from her 'kau foo' (uncle). We sang her the B'day song. She is still too young to understand. Just curious why everyone is singing. So cute. Then, it was bedtime. Just in time!

Happy Birthday to my darling girl!

May you grow up to be a lovely, lucky, healthy and happy girl;

May all good things come your way;

Love from Daddy and Mummy.

Bedtime Stories to Build Knowledge

I have been using flashcards and some phonic books, like Clifford Phonics Fun Series and MyBig Book of Phonics to teach Ryan how to read. hilst it is good to assist him in his reading capability, I noticed that it does fulfill one other objective - GENERAL KNOWLEDGE! These books will only be teaching him how to read through phonics and some word recognition, with some simple stories to add some flavour to the lessons. What about knowledge? I just realised this not too long ago and I have decided to throw in some bedtime stories after our lessons. He is not required to read with me. Just listen and know.

I bought quite a few Scholastic books for him and Raymund. I had a recent order which I had just received. It was actually during the order of these books that I realized this 'knowledge' thingy. Sad but true :( So when it is not too tiring for him, I will put in some time to tell him some stories. I have already read and explained some stories about 'what he wants to be when he grows up' and about the human body. I have more children's books about manners, moral, chinese culture, animals, popular fairy tales, nursery rhymes, etc.

His kindy also encourages story reading with parents. Every week, he gets to choose a book from his school library and bring it home to read with his parents. I have to admit that I have been neglecting this last time. So many opportunities missed... especially when these are the books that he chose for himself...and he told me about it each time. Really feel bad! It's still not too late. He just brought back a book about 'Bats' last week. We had a good time. He enjoyed his stories and what he learnt about bats. I should be thankful that Ryan love books.

I tried with little Raymund some time ago. He is still too young to sit still and listen to stories. I'll start on him much later after he begins his kindy. At the moment, he is picking up a lot from Astro Playhouse Disney. Is it a good thing or not? I really don't know.

Sometimes, I really don't know how much time I can put in for my kids' studies. It is only Ryan and Raymund is soon to start. I can't imagine when Rachel is old enough. I feel lazy at times. When I work, I get very tired when I come back. How do I balance my time? I hope my new job is flexible enough so that I don't neglect my children.

Little Raymund's 1st class lesson - Art!

Ryan, my eldest has been attending a weekly art lesson at GlobalArt since 4 years old. Ever since, I found that his colouring has improved alot and his choice of colours when he does colouring is pretty good for a young kid. In fact, some of his art pieces were displayed in his kindy... proud :)

Little Raymund is turning 3 next month. Being a year end child, I'm kinda worried when he starts school next year. He will be only just 3 years old and still very much a toddler. A very active one too. Will he be able to cope? I know this worrying is needless as children will sooner or later adept to schools and lessons. I'm just thinking that my little Raymund is too active and used to having his way - what will happen in school. He is very close to his 'kakak' - everywhere he goes, his kakak will 'take care' of him.

So to give Raymund a feel of what it is to be in a class, I've let him joined his brother in GlobalArt. He has always said he wants to go to school...but didn't know what it is like. His kor kor goes and so he wants to follow. Expected! He was very excited when he was getting ready for his art class. His first lesson! But once there, he got nervous and refused to enter the classroom. He was afraid to talk to the teacher. My maid (his kakak) and I had to sit together with him and then only he would sit down. At 3 years, the lesson is just a fun lesson. He chose water colour. So the teacher let him play with water colours to do some Halloween 'artwork'. After a while, he warmed up to the teacher and soon, after every stroke of the brush, he was running to the teacher to show her his 'work'. My maid and I were slowly doing the disappearing act - just going out of the classroom only - can't go far... in case..sigh! This is what the chinese says 'pui tai jee tuk shue' (cantonese) , translate means 'accompanying the prince in studies'. Anyway, he was already warmed up and didn't seem to be upset that we were not with him. After the painting, he did some cuttings and was having fun with it. Well, he didn't get to do too much dirty and messy fun at home, so this seems great.

At the end of the lessons, he said he wanted to come to art class again. Looking good! I'm hoping that these classes will also teach him some discipline and orderliness too :) Fingers crossed!

COSMOTOTS iqd

Anyone has any advice for me regarding COSMOTOTS iqd? I'm thinking of sending my son (aged 5+)

Last week, I checked out COSMOTOTS iqd for my son Ryan. I'm looking for a place to help him with his English esp reading and Phonics. His phonics sound blending has improved somewhat but I have this nagging feeling that I may not be using the right method. Anyway, COSMOTOTS is one place that I think, and hope, can help Ryan. Much earlier, I have even checked out Vital Years and called up Cambridge but COSMOTOTS seem to be more appealing to me. It could probably be because of their sales pitch which they claim that they place importance on the intellectual development, IQ. English literary works are just a means to an end. Hmm.

I met the Chapter Director of the Bukit Jalil branch. He stressed that the importance of reading habit. And rather than just teaching children how to read, they have to analyse the story, or rather literature - guess what, their 1st story is Don Quixote!! - and speak out in class to discuss it. Student are encouraged to talk and speak up, he told me. At my son's level though, he has to start with the foundation, ie phonics first. Word recognition is not part of the program. Well, I'm quite confused about which is a better methods, Sigh!

3 times a week and each lesson is 2 hours. I'm kinda worried about stressing my son what with kindy and Enopi Math. But I think I'll try him out. After all, it's a fun class with games, audio stories and such .. and no homework... AND I like the idea that it is not strictly English but more on the part that they equip him with the ability to have thoughts and views about anything and everything. After next year, he will be in Standard One. I'm worried. I don't want him to feel stressed and left behind then. I have seen what this does to his self confidence.

Well COSMOTOTS is not exactly cheap. Hope we'll get fast and good results... most importantly also, that my son enjoys it :)

I applied for TM's RM10 package + Free Cordless Phone

I have lots to blog about. It's just that the last few weeks I was too busy with other things and a bit too tired to blog. So rather than having a verbal diarrhea and spill everything out at the same time, I'm going to 'cerita' (ie 'tell my story' ) post by post :)

Here's something that you may be interested in.

I got to know about this TMpoint package deal first from my mother in law and then my mother. Yep! Mums know best! Anyway, it offers Streamyx subscribers a RM10 package where we can call "unlimited talktime nationwide, anytime Local & National'. The catch here is that these calls only applies to land lines - ie. not mobile phones. For calls to mobile phones, there is a flat charge of 30 sen/min. Quite a good deal, considering that I don't intend to use this house line for mobile, and mostly it is to receive incoming calls. I'll leave it to my mobile which has better packages for mobile to mobile.

The 'hook' is really this free cordless phone. The brochure says it's DECT branded (whatever it is - sorry I'm not too familiar) but my mum's is an Aztech and mine is MAL. I guess it's really which stock you happen to get. I get to collect my free phone immediately upon application. BTW - if you are not a current streamyx subscriber, you have to wait.

I had a faulty phone line issue too. I was directed to pick up those phones available in the TMpoint branch that connects immediately to their call centre. Within the hour, their technician called me for appointment and my line was fixed within the same day. I'm quite pleased with their service :)

More Flashcards

I have been slacking for a while now. Not very diligent in my quest to better my son's English. And not very proud of it. Just started to pick up on it again as I realized that Ryan has been getting away with excuses like 'Mummy, I'm tired' and escaped studies.

The homemade flashcards that I mentioned in the earlier post worked very well on him. He is very proud when he recognized some words that he had learnt from those cards during his story reading session. A while ago, I bought a set of double sided word cards by 'Your Baby Can Read!' series.

Now I'm using this in combination of my homemade flashcards. The only problem around here is that the usual phonics that I was teaching Ryan didn't work here - at least at his basic phonics level. So, I have just left it for 'word recognition' instead. With these cards, I'm teaching him how to combine more than 1 syllables to make a word eg. 'twin-kle' or 'um-bre-lla'. Slow but steady, with lotsa encouragement and praises. With the old homemade cards, I'm 'challenging' Ryan - trying to make it fun for him - to read me the words as fast as he can. I don't know about other kids but my sons love to race. So, that did excite him a bit :)

Should I get Dan Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol?

My friend, Farah told me that the latest Dan Brown's book - The Lost Symbol is really good. To the extend that she has to dump the book on the floor to stop reading so that she can get to work on time. Haha! Farah, thanks for recommending :) I've yet to get the book though.

I saw the launch of this book on Bloomberg while I was in Paris - well Bloomberg is one of the very few TV channels in English :( Quite a big thing. Interestingly enough, there was quite a mixed review on Amazon.com. I guess some people set their expectation too high.

Checked Kinokuniya online - cost RM99.90 - same with most bookstores. But Kinokuniya at KLCC has a good deal - buy a book first and then you can get this book for 30% off! Not bad, ya!

Blue Layout??

Hmmm ...I'm itching to design a blue header and background for my blog. Also to update my kids photos. Downloaded a bit of scrap stuff already but not altogether too happy about it. Why blue? No blue mood at all. Just felt like having it blue for a while :) See what I can come out with. Also noticed some new features/widgets for bloggers. May try out some. Lets..see.....

My MIL's Ponteh Recipe

My husband is a Malaccan Baba (Peranakan). And that means I have privileged access to Nyonya recipes :) :)

My mother in law (MIL, for short) though not nyonya at birth is married to my father in law (obviously) who is a Baba. She is a fantastic cook especially on nyonya food which she picked up from her MIL and before. Much as I like to, I can't seem to cook half as nice as my MIL even though I follow the recipe to the dot. Must be the fire thing .. or the Chinese says 'wok hei'. At least the Ponteh is something which I'm almost there :)

I decided to cook this dish on Monday and left it overnight for Tuesday's dinner. Ponteh tastes best overnight when the 'tau chu' sauce absorbs into the meat. Sorry I forgot to take a picture. But you can always google it up to see how it looks like. Non-spicy, chicken and pork dish in brown bean sauce with beancurd (fu chuk), chinese mushroom, etc. A good dish for children too. My sons love it.

Here is the recipe.

15 shallots (bawang merah kecil) -- to be pounded (tumbuk)

1 1/2 to 2 garlic (the whole garlic) -- to be pounded separately

'Tau Chu' or 'Tau Cheong' in cantonese

Half a kilo of pork -- the ones with layers of fat is good ('sam chang yoke' in cantonese)

Half a kilo of chicken

3 to 4 potatoes -- cut into big cubes

1 pack of 'fu chuk' (the hard ones) -- to be soaked

4-5 Chinese mushrooms

light soya sauce

dark soya sauce

1. Heat about 5 tablespoon of oil and fry the pounded shallots in low fire until it turns light yellow. Then add in the pounded garlic and continue to fry until it turns brown. Add in 'Tau Cheong'. Continue to fry in low fire until all the ingredients 'stick together' and oil separated from the paste. Add in about 3 tablespoon of water and fry in low fire.
2. Add in the meat next and fry till it cooks.
3. Then add more water (enough to cover the meat) and simmer in medium fire.
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients - potatoes, 'fu chuk' and chinese mushrooms. Continue to simmer.
5. Add sugar, light soya sauce and thick/dark soya sauce to taste.

You can serve immediately. But I would suggest that you keep some overnight to taste the difference. Careful not to break the meat and all when you reheat the next day.

Enjoy!!

Which Part of a Baby Do You Like Best

Hmmm.. couldn't get the right sounding title for this posting. Hope this is ok. What I'd like to discuss is actually which part of the anatomy or behavior or whatever it is that you like best of your baby or anyone's for that matter :) Can't very well put this as my title :(

I have so many comments when my friends and relative were in company of babies.
I have heard:
"I love the cute little toes - size of red beans"
"I love babies smell - so nice"
"I love a baby's backside - smoother than my face!"
..the list goes on..

In order of my favourites...

When Ryan, my eldest, was born, I was so fascinated with his little tiny chubby hands. So small with tiny little fingers. All stretched out or gripping. This ain't a one time thing - the same with Raymund's and Rachel's. Even now, their little hands fascinate me. So soft and small - unlike ours. Don't know but I find them really cute and adorable. And when they reach for me, I just can't resist them.

Then there is this thing about a baby's smell. Really money can't buy! My husband would always pick up my babies' used clothes or face towels (of course clean ones la) and just smell and smell and smell. Their natural mixed with baby powder, milk and baby lotion --- oooh sooo nice!

Baby's head and hair. Silky soft. Silky smooth. Adorable expressions. Nice smell too.

Baby's bum. Who can resist it! Chubby and nicely rounded. So smooth and soft. Gerammmm!

And just about anything to do with a baby :P :)

Then asking myself. With all these talks about babies and oogling other people's babies (esp in pediatrician's clinic), am I considering a 4th child?? A new baby to go goo goo gaa gaa with? My husband and I actually talked about it ... but ...Nah! Thinking about the 1st 5+++ months of terrible morning sickness .. the constant worry throughout the pregnancy in case something bad happens .. and most importantly, providing good education and comfortable support for 4 children .. it just stop me right there. And then there is this thing about having children after xx age :) ... better not. I can always admire other people's babies. My cousin and sis in law are expecting their babies by next CNY. Can't wait. If you are reading this, enjoy your pregnancy and let me know when the little one arrives :) Oh yea ... later, I'll probably blog something about preparing the arrival of babies. Hope it'll help you :)

Lastly, I found this little picture with some meaningful words by a designer who is probably a mum - sharing with you :)

My Desert Rose Seeds Didn't Make It

Darn! I made a boo boo out of the precious seeds that I got from my Desert Rose (fu gui fah) - see post: http://joanne-momsays.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-desert-rose.html. Should have asked the experts first on how to plant the seeds before I went about doing it. Planted 36 seeds but none of them made it! So sad! The up side is that I learnt something new. This is where I have gone wrong. May sound like common sense to the experts but to amateur home gardeners like me ... sigh!

Mistake #1: The critical one. I planted the seeds to deep! It should be about 3 inch soil beneath, then spread the seeds on top and then cover by a thin layer of soil. I did abtout 2-3 inch of soil on top. Difficult for the seeds to 'break'.

Mistake #2: Another critical mistake. I left it out in the open and under the rain. Too wet. Seeds got bad! 'Reput'. Moreover, these are desert rose - don't need too much water!

Mistake #3: Leave it indoor and shaded. Out of the sun and rain. Once sprouted (mine never did :( ), it wouldn't survive the hot sun until it has grown about 4 inch high, I was told.

Wonder when my desert rose is gonna sprout another pair of seed again.. I'll make sure I'll get it right this time.

Dividing Our Love & Attention for Our Kids

If you are parents of more than 1 child, have you ever thought about how to divide your love and attention amongst your kids? Will one get more than the other? I worried over it when I was having my 2nd son. I worried about when I was carrying my little girl. And I'm still worrying and very conscious about how I treat my kids. Would my 2nd son Raymund be a victim of middle child syndrome (I discussed this earlier). I do not want any of my kids growing up feeling 'left out' or worst still, 'loved less' by their parents.

It's not surprising really. Not liken to Gods, humans are not all wise all fair - favoritism happens all the time. The question is how bad and how obvious and are we consciously trying to avoid it. After all, my kids are my life my dream - imagine parents-inflicted misery on them. Can't stomach that!

I have asked some of my friends who are neither the eldest nor youngest. Some actually said that the middle child syndrome is very real. They felt it and to this day (adults now), they are still carrying it close to heart. Most of them just accepted it. Were their parents showing obvious favoritism or was it simply a focus of attention for the eldest to set example for his/her siblings and the youngest simply because he/she needs more care. The middles are just left to 'follow' and ride along the waves. Can love and attention then ride along waves? Personally I don't think so. I had never experienced this. There is only my brother and I - no middles. So when I have 3 kids, I began to think about it.

My husband and I actually fell into the earlier mentioned situation - eldest for setting example and studies and youngest because she is the baby and only girl in the family. As a result, my little Raymund became very close with our maid who has been taking care of him since 1 month old. The fact that he is hyper and always in mischief didn't help. As he grew older, we began noticing that he fought to get our love and attention - just at a tender age of 2 and half years. How sad! Luckily we realized it before it is too late. We began paying more attention to him and have more body contacts - kids love to be hugged and held. Then we noticed that the eldest was quiet and watching. And then the youngest baby demanded attention. It goes on. So, how as parents do we divide our love and attention?

To us, Just one thing.

When we praise one, we praise all. When we scold one, we scold all. And we hug one, we hug all. We try to be conscious of their feelings and expressions. As for the youngest, we try to explain to the 2 older brothers that she is still a baby. Very soon, this wouldn't work :( Part and parcel of being a parent. It's no easy task. Anyhow, as parents, I feel that we must always tell our kids how much we love them and that we are proud of them. Hugs and kisses are good. After all, they are our precious kids :) I'm not a great parent but I want to be good enough for them :)

Still in Awe with My Darling Girl

My little princess is growing up fast. By the end of this month, she will be 1 year old. Not going to celebrate big time. Just a nice family get together. My darling girl, as I sometimes call her, is not too fond of crowd. Simply because we don't take her out often, what with H1N1 brewing. Heard from my regular doc's nurse that strain #2 is out and about. And since our so called H1N1 vaccine is supposedly available this month, they couldn't really answer me if this vaccine is effective on this mutated strain. Sigh! Anyway, as I was saying, my little girl doesn't take to kindly to strangers - good and bad in a way. So, a small gathering with family people will be nice.

Compared with her 2 brothers, 'Mei Mei' (little sister) is more delicate and smaller boned even though she has long legs - thank God! I'm still in awe with her, and considered ourselves very blessed to finally have a daughter after 2 precious boys. It's really amazing how little baby girls turn out feminine and more 'manja'. Same with some of my friends'. The docs would tell us that it's due to the chromosomes and the female hormones blah blah. But really... :)

We can see more of her pearlies on both the upper and lower gums now. Soon after, I will expect her to give some sharp bites as did her brothers. She knows quite a bit too. The Chinese would say that girls learn to talk faster. Not sure about that but I think that being the youngest help to speed things up a bit. If she wants someone or to go somewhere, she knows to point in that direction with her cutie finger. We didn't consciously teach her but I guess she picked it up when we speak to her, pointing out things to her.

Some of her words - 'Daddy' is very clear though she calls both her Mummy and Daddy 'Daddy', 'Nen nen' for milk, 'fiss' for fish, 'bao bao bao' to get someone to carry her, 'go' as in really go. She tries to imitate but still yet to say 'Mummy' :p. And Her Daddy melts every time she calls him. Definitely had him wrapped around her little finger :)

My little girl loves music. When she hears music, she will start to rock her body and bouncing her bum. Just hope that she wouldn't be a 'disco kaki' when she grows up, haha!

And to think we wanted to stop at just 2 boys. My darling girl was an 'accident'. We didn't plan for a 3rd child and in fact considering not to take it through. I can't thank God enough that we made the right decision to keep her. Truly the baby of the family and our only darling girl, I hope we wouldn't spoil her.

My Parisian Trip

Before I launch into my story about Paris, let me apologize for not writing in a while. Have some personal things to settle - like changing jobs, finally!! - and my trip to Paris - yea! My hubby was sent by company to Paris and what with accommodation, half of food and air fares being taken care of, I've decided to follow him :) :)

One word to describe - expensive! Try multiply everything by 5, then there is not a thing you can buy. A simple breakfast like 2 small cups of coffee, 1 quiche and 1 club sandwich costed RM150!! Imagine! It was our first day and we were wondering why in tarnation that we didn't think of bringing instant noodles, haha!

The city is actually really beautiful - lovely old houses, cobble stoned roads, autumn leaves - also not exactly clean, as expected by big cities :). The sights are really nice - Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, cathedrals, etc. Entry to Louve museum was Euro 9 per person. Lots of people! The palace was huge and beautiful.

Shopping? LV was good. Good savings from the tax refund of 12% plus a bit more off. That is if you are preparaed to get a LV. So are some of the branded goods. But local goods? Nah! There so call 'pasar malam' standard lady's top is about Euro 30 - equivalent to more than RM150! Our Ringgit Malaysia is too small. I was also looking for kids clothes and toys - surprise surprise, amazingly hard to find unless I went to the wrong places. Their local departmental store Monoprix only offered a very small selection. My kids were disappointed :(

Some of the must tries though! Fantastic hot chocolate!!! There was one cafe along Champ Elysees (a happening area) offered hot chocolate that tasted like melted chocolate bars - heavenly! Coffee was excellent and so are the wines! Really tasty snacks and pastries ... must try.. their escargots and fresh oysters - yum yum!! But try not to convert to Ringgit equivalent la! Else, you wouldn't try anything :)

I went along their Parisian markets. Interesting really. Here are some photos.

Guess what cars are their taxis?

Yes... Merc and VW!! And they are just everywhere!

And finally, home sweet home! We missed our chicken rice, hokkien me, cantonese hor fun, plus plus plus. No rice and noodles for 5 days was too much on us! :)