A weekend in April 2014

Finally, I had a weekend free from work/appointments/ wedding dinner!!! Woohoo!!!

We had a very productive weekend and being busy actually left me feel much better than having a lazy weekend. Sounds weird, no?

On Saturday, I had my favourite roti canai breakfast with hubby. Just the two of us, kira dating lar.

After I dropped hubby off at his office, I picked up the kids and headed off to Children's Library in Puchong. Found it by luck without Waze...woohoo! Finally, putting my photographic memory to good use since I saw the map once.  All those right brain training finally came in handy!
The kids ran around the place like they owned it. SO malu. I quickly chose 5 books and left hastily. A couple of wrong turns later, we got home safely.

At about 2pm, I wanted to go for my pedi but sadly, the place was fully booked. So, I did what any OCD would, I decluttered my closet. It feels great to finally organize my stuff instead of cleaning the children's things ALL THE TIME. I made a little man cave for hubby by moving the massage chair to my side of the bed and laid out his golf putting mat. Poor dude deserves some TLC too for working so hard.

Then, after the kids woke up from their naps, we went outdoors and played ice cream shop followed by some messy play. Mdm Poh Yew said must play with boxes, so we did.

Fighting to be the server

Lost the fight :(

Making slime

Alphabet slime!

At night, it rained cats and dogs, so we stayed in and Dragon girl served papa her signature play-doh ice cream...it was, according to her, "Mmm, mmm, del-cioux"




Sunday morning, hubs woke me up to go to MINES Shopping Center. Yay! Shopping, books!

We lost our way despite using Waze and found Leong Ya restaurant after about 1 hour of driving. Food was decent but not amazing. Then we adjourned to Mines for the boat cruise. Tiger was so, so amazed to be on the boat even though he has seen swans and fishes so many times.

See that balloon? RM6

See that windmill thingy? rm 8...grrrrrr

Boat ride in South Lake

Oh, Tiger's latest ambition now is to drive a boat. Inspired by the boat ride :)

Then, I dumped the kids at Kidz Paradise with Grandma and kakak watching them and headed towards the convention center. Books, oh, books! I was practically dancing my way there. Sadly, the books were rubbish-y and I had a really hard time filling my box. There were so many Miley and HSM books, I felt like vomiting. Will never go on the last day again.

Oh, I erm, also bought a kit of Lepao (like Lasy) blocks otw to the fair =.="
So much for money saving laaaa.
When I turned up 3 hours later, hubby saw the box of Lepao.
I panicked and said, "rm400" then "Oh, fuck. I forgot the rule of marital bliss. Slash everything by 50-70% when reporting to partner"
He shouted said, "So expensive!!!! He won't play one la. Got so many toys...bla...bla...bla"
I was suddenly inflicted with selective deafness and couldn't understand a word he was saying.

The kids slept on the way home and hubs complained about the toll. I must admit it is a lot but WTF, why is he more whiny than me?
No sex for 3 weeks.

That evening, I took out the huge inflatable pool. After 'swimming', we (means maid and I la) bathe the kids, water the plants, washed the cars, floors and wiped all the outdoor furniture. The remainder, we saved into our huge outdoor container. FYI la,  before you start cursing me for wastage.

At night, I was waiting for the two finale episodes of TVB drama, so I made hubby tapao Pizza and we all ate in front of the TV. Then, I reorganized the living room, read to Tiger and before submitting myself for wifely duties...muahahaha.

A great weekend of food, books, play, family and hihi, you know laaaa.
Makes me feel bad that I haven't called my dear parents. Must have lunch with them later.
I love my simple little life.

Messy Play: Sand

I am not sure if it is very obvious but if you have been following my homeschooling from when Tiger was a wee tiny tot, you would notice that our pace has slowed down considerably.

I am no longer the stressed out mama preparing materials at a break neck speed, asking my child to read, count; or shouting, what is this, what is that....

I know Tiger is capable of doing a lot more but I don't see the necessity now. I'd rather spend my time disturbing my kids when they are at work, arguing with Tiger, laughing at him together when he pronounces 'yellow' as 'lellow' or upstairs as up-pairs. He is able to read quite fluently now and I am still questioning myself if early reading was a wise move. Sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and say whateves laaaa.....although, I must say that he seems to enjoy the fact that I cannot cheat him by saying stuff like the shop is closed when it clearly states OPEN.

Little Dragon.... One day, I caught her trying to count as she was playing quietly in a corner. When I tried to 'teach' her, she got mad and left me dumbfounded. Okay, okay, I got the message *sulks*

They are both sensitive to dirt and stuff stuck to their feet. Wished for similarities to prove that they are siblings and I got this. Haha, one of life's cruel little jokes  =.="

After weeks of being stuck indoors, I was literally begging for outdoor play.

Yes, me. Not The kids. Me.

Being confined indoors drove them bonkers.

They were shouty, fighty, nutty.

Both needed a good dose of messy play.

Since we are stuck in the water rationing zone, my neighbours would

most likely curse or spit if I blew up the huge inflatable pool.

So, sand it was.

All I said was, "Who wants to play sand?"

And zoooooom

.

.

.

.

.

The lil girl with heightened response to keys and handbags

Always the first one at the door.

Dragon girl was asking kakak to clean the sand from her feet.

'Err-ty, yiiiii....."

Her princess, haha, not mine.

 Any bratty behavior from this girl

is a result of kakak's devotion and love for her.

I take no credit.

Got Tiger some alphabet moulds from ELC.

His uncomfortable position in the sand pit betrayed him.

Playing in a pool of sand is still overwhelming for him

but I know he is trying to model a good sport for Lil Dragon.

He kept saying "See, mei-mei, I can make this."

We spelled his name and some sight words.

 Must revise a bit laaa. More productive use of our time ma. 

Yalar, yalar, very kiasu, I know :)

Dragon was more interested in throwing sand at everyone.

It was so blardy hot that day that I ran indoors after 20 minutes.

I hid behind the slightly ajar door, exposing only the tip of my nose, 

you know, just to show that I care.

Science: Colour Changing Chrysanthemum

As you guys already know, we are doing garden/nature/flowers this week.

Mama needs a break from the haze, hence the whole bringing nature indoors thing.

 Isn't it gorgeous?

I can do this theme for one whole year.

That's a replica of Water Lilies by Monet in the background

 

 Tiger decided on the experiment after we read this book together.

What Makes A Flower Grow? by Usborne

I make him read out the things needed for the experiment as I wrote/drew a plan.

He listed out sun, worm and ice as well, haha, cause they were illustrated in the page.

 All that is missing is a lab coat!

Pouring water from beaker into test tubes carefully.

He spilled quite a bit intially (use tray!)

but by test tube number 4, he was a pro!

 I coloured the tubes with liberal amount of food coloring.

We had yellow, purple, red, blue, green and a control.

Our pretty flowers in a row!

And test tubes put to good use :)

While we waited, Dragon entertained us...

I bought an extra stalk just for her.

 Only RM 1.30 per stalk from a lady by the roadside. 

The overly excited boy

We labelled our test subjects as any good scientist would.

He waited....

....and waited

She danced...

He went back to the book to check how long he had to wait :)

In 30 minutes, we got this!

Conclusion: plants drink water.

Success!

Did you notice our new 'curtain'?

It's Vitaminer from IKEA...such a cheery addition, don't you think

 

Tiger's 3.5 years old, so I didn't want to bore him with details

like capillary reaction and such. 

For older kids, you may want to provide a better explanation.

I love Steve Spangler Science for reference.

Who said science is boring?  

Kidz Paradise @Klang Parade

Hubs woke me up at 6.30AM on a Sunday for staff meeting

=.=""

Literally rolled and crawled out of bed.

Midway, I got a very important phone call from Tiger

Mama, where are you?

When you coming back?

Blah, blah, blah....

I want to play sand.

Since we had no water (Grrrr....); messy play was out of the question.

So, hubs and I  took the kids to Kidz Paradise at the

 newly renovated Klang Parade.

Pros:

• The place was still new and clean.

• Very, very friendly staff. Some of the best I have encountered. When I mentioned it was getting warm, they immediately reset the temperature.

• Lots of seats for parents and cupboards to place bags.

• Large area for the seeds. Can easily accommodate fifty kids in the seed pool.

Cons:

• Overall, small area. Stuffy when overcrowded
• There were some broken toys in the seed pool.
• The rotary swing set is too close to the edge of a cupboard. I've informed the staff, hopefully they will pad it or something.

But the kids LOVE the place, mainly for the seeds.

It speaks volume because they have been to one too many indoor playgrounds

because this mama likes padded, clean places.

This is what the seeds look like.

It seems like they are used for weight loss, I should have ingested

a handful.

Here is an article on its medical benefits

Wouldn't recommend it for babies who are still mouthing.

 Dragon is a little OCD too.

Here she was telling her other mother to remove the seeds from her socks.

She stood stationary at this spot for 15 minutes before attempting to move >.<

The highly sensitive boy who is no longer a pain in the ass.

They had some play structures in the seed pool.

Tiger found a classmate from Bao Bei!

He ended up trailing her like a stalker/puppy dog.

So cute!

It was also extremely embarassing when his friend asked him to play this see saw.

He sat in the middle and tried to rock it.

=.=""  <=====  his friends expression. Speechless!

Grandma and I laughed so hard
Kesian betul, this kampung boy.

My creative lil girl

She fell and landed on her butt, head, face, etc so many times, I lost count.

This is one tough princess. No need to teach resilience.

Confirm survivor.

We were there from 1 pm till 4 pm.

On the way home, both of them fell asleep in the car.

Tiger was holding on to his lollipop and smiling as he fell asleep.

When he woke up after his nap, he told me,

Mama, I want play sand. This sand.

Ohhhh.

.

.

.

.

he wanted his SAND ART.

Silly me

By the way, making sand art at home is the stupidest idea EVER.

We bought this from ToyRus member sale.

This time I brought Tiger along and he basically wanted anything

related to Disney Cars, or Planes in this case.

He was so very proud of his work, he went to bed with it.

Kidz Paradise Sdn Bhd

First outlet

No.L4-07F/G(p), Level 4,The Mines,
Jalan Dulang, Mines Resort City,
43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor.

Contact Number : 03-89598968
Email : info@kidzparadise.com.my

2nd Outlet

S05, S06, S07 second floor, Klang Parade, 

No 2112, KM2, Jalan Meru, 41050 Klang, Selangor

Contact Number : 03-33621968
Email : info@kidzparadise.com.my 

Tiger at 3 years 9 months

School

Besides homeschool, he is still attending Bao Bei for chinese lessons.

He is STILL reading cards from set B.

His slow-mo pace is killing me but I didn't tell him that.

I'll ask casually,"How many cards this week?"

He broke all records last week with one card.

If only you guys could have seen my expression when I found out...

Sigh...paying rm100 per week, okay?

Whenever I insist on reading chinese books, he always pick this set 

of books by Monique Felix. He adores them.

It is a set of 8 wordless books but he insist it is Chinese.

His stories will always be like this,

Once upon a time, a 'lau shu'.....

"lau shu" will be the only Chinese word he uses.

Right now, he is in Disney's Cars mode.

So, I googled and printed out a ton of stuff for him.

Things like tracing and patterning became a breeze.

Always, always follow the child's lead.

Right Brain 

Ever since I yelled at him once for not focusing, he isn't very interested anymore.

Actually his exact words were,"You say Ready Go one more time, I go out"

So, I had to trick him into playing memory games and matching.

Then slowly reintroduce linking memory and mandalas.
Must try harder to not be a shouty parent

Science

I bought a microscope from ELC sales (50 + 10% discount, how to not buy leh?)

He isn't ready to appreciate the beauty of its function but it was

just as useful to watch him explore the apparatus, trying to figure out the parts

I was trying to install the battery, when he told me,

"Come, give me. I fix for you"

Checked with magnifying glass

Use tweezers to pry out the battery

When all else failed, use teeth.

He did this ala telescope

Laugh die me

After a demo by mama, he looked pretty professional....

 

But he still preferred this method in the end...haha!

I told him about collecting nature specimen and such 

after the blardy haze issue has resolved.

So, this is our "manly" adventure bag.

Being a teacher

He sounds like one actually. Rather bossy, like me :)

Dragon is always copying him anyways.

I love this pic cause Dragon was scratching her head in a 

Watcha-talking-about manner

 

 Being a brother

They still fight on a regular basis but ocassionally

they melt my heart, like this moment.

They were just staring at the oil blob thingy quietly, 

in mirroring positions.

Playing doctor.

Took so many videos of him giving injections, taking temperature, etc.

We spent a lot of time playing whatever they wanted. 

Mostly indoors since the haze is killing us but the authorities are too busy

putting on a monkey show for the international press to be bothered.

After MH370, he is not allowed to be pilot.

Work from home la...be a tech whiz/nerd, okay?

Pray for #MH370

I cannot offer anything more than my thoughts and prayers.

I hope they are safe, somewhere.

In the meantime...

Hug your loved ones

Be grateful

Call your parents and tell them you love them, like right now.