Keeping it positive

We have enrolled Christopher for Mandarin classes this year. His is not a mandarin kindy and that is fine since I (more I than hubby) do not intend to enroll him into chinese school.

So anyway.....he has been doing quite well in his mandarin classes. In fact the teacher has praised him. After a few weeks, he even saw that behind his English ABC books, there are some mandarin stroke books. He pestered me to no end to buy those for him. When we got some for him, he then pestered me to go home RIGHT NOW so that he can start pracitising his writing.

He now recites his 1,2,3....10 in mandarin very well. But ask him what he is saying, he will tell you "mandarin lah mummy". He doens't know yi = 1 and er = 2 etc. He just loves the ryhme of it.

And what's more....he is singing mandarin songs. Started with 'liang ke lau hu' and now his latest song is 'ke ren lai'. Surprisingly he says all the words correctly though not always in the right sound. But ask him the meaning and he will look at me blurly.

Yesterday while in the shower, I did explain the song to him. Thank God for my few early years of mandarin tuition. And he continued to ask me each and every word's meaning.

So, I deduce. He loves music. Not so much he loves mandarin. But he just loves rhyming. Put a rhyme into his Peter and Jane and I bet he would learn that much faster too. So, I am looking for some music classes for him and intedn to introduce him to poetry with more vigour.

As for nearly one Caylee.

Well...she is a real gem when it comes to waking up from bed. She still wakes up in the middle of the night. To reach for my hand or climb onto my bed and lay next to me. But most times when I put her back onto her mattress and ask her to go back to sleep, she will look at me and 'nod' with her understanding eyes. Most of the time she will roll around or find stuff to play with and leave me alone.

She is an early riser. But if she wakes up at 6+ am, she will check if I am still sleeping. And if I am, she will not disturb me until she sees me rise. Then she will make a bee line for me and climb into my lap.

As I am writing this, I remember my boy being the same. Hopefully unlike Christopher, Caylee will not outgrow this. And let mummy sleep on for another 1 hour max before she tends it too long.

My quietest weekend, as seen from public eyes

Last weekend I was literally MIA from the world. Anyone short of ringing my door bell could not get me.

Why? I was alone with my mum at home taking care of the kids. My dad was in Malacca and hubby was in KK. Actually it wasn't that long a time but after the first 24 hours, my mum and I had aches here and there and took longer than normal to respond to a cry.

Well, I had big ambitions too to put up the 2 new bookshelves for Christopher and rearrange some furniture in the living room. I bet that contributed to spasms in my lower back throughout Saturday night. Leaving me feeling not rested at all when I woke up on Sunday.

Added to that, Christopher demanded for rice, chicken, brocolli and cauliflower for Sunday lunch. And I realised no fool will open 'chap fan' (mixed rice) business on a SUNDAY!

My indifference was more apparant due to the chaos happening outside. 2 of my closer friends delivered their little girls and amidst panic.....I kept mute. In fact I didn't even know there was a crisis calling for prayer until well.....hubby came home and asked me if I replied any of the sms-s. Huh? What sms?

Well....mum has declared my daughter the most tomboyish girl she has ever come across. She will greet you with a closed fist and box you if you aint careful.

Pics? yeah yeah....have to get to downloading them after her upcoming 1st birthday. We have found a special place to go and she will be having a specially ordered cake in its normal round form. But we gave the baker freedom to decorate it however she wants.

And reason why I am not blogging as often? CITYVILLE has taken over my few free hours when I am not working. My friend has just told me how to strategise in this game. And all along I was just making my city beautiful instead of making money! Hai....

In a time like this

Of late, I have been wanting to break free. The mundane chores of daily living has been taking a toll.

Added to this is Christopher's recent acting up. For the first time I can say my little boy is breaking my heart EVERY day. And a hug doesn't mend it as quickly. He is at the stage of defiance to the core. Shouting back, talking back, purposely not doing what he has been asked to do, hitting me, demanding things, throwing tantrums (which usually end up with him on the floor). It really saddens my heart. And I have questioned if his behaviour is my doing.

But it doesn't do me or him or anyone any good if I were to brood on this question. I have done my best with him in the pass 3+ years. Of coruse I have made mistakes. But I need to learn from them and better my parenting ways. The road of parenting will not get any easier. So, I hold back my tears, harden my heart and get down to business. Christopher will be going through a tough lesson of R-E-S-P-E-C-T until he GETS IT!

Pray for me. I cannot do this alone.

As for Caylee, sigh......nanny has been complaining about her alot these days. A sick baby with teeth sprouting is not easy to face daily. Although she is getting MUCH better now, she is still super clingy to the nanny. And worse of all she doesn't allow anyone to carry her. Only 2 other females in the house so far can replace my nanny for a few minutes. I can understand her frustration coz there are chores to be done in the house that she cannot do due to Caylee. But it does affect me when she makes claims that she has never had to take care of so difficult a child before. Sigh.....

My 2 kids sure have strong characters!

And my colleague is planning a holiday to Maldives. And showing me pics of the Conrad/Hilton hotel she will be staying. Makes me feel like I want to be a piece of her luggage!

In a time like this, I feel so much like escaping for a while. But I can't.

And so my escape is through a big black book and a smaller purple one. The Bible and my journal. May the Lord so enlighten and equip me to face my greater purpose in life.

It's a Girl thing!

Caylee is such a girl! (ah-but-then.)

If she looses her balance just a wee teenie bit, she cries pitiful sounds that sound like 'why didn't you hold me, mummy!'

If she is playing in one corner and sees you sit down, she will leave what she is doing, crawl to you and climb into your lap.

If you pass her by without acknowledging her, she cries for you to turn back, say Hi and then pick her up.

If her kor kor hits her, she hits him back. And then she cries in case kor kor decides to report it to us.

She is just sprouting her 2 bottom teeth now. Started seeing white end of Feb. Which caused her one week plus of 'flowery' (as they call it in cantonese) diarrhoea.

Walked her first step end of February and now manages (sparingly) a step or two between 2 steady objects. If I hold her by the hand, she still tries to come in front of me so that I can carry her. Cruises along, no problem!

Started climbing up to the sofa (aarrrggghhhhh!!!) to disturb kor kor. And has no problem climbing up and down the queen bed from the single bed beside it.

Can climb up and down stairs. So, we have put up the gate again. For which she will try to squeeze herself through the railings! (and then cry) Sigh....

Runs away and hides after her bath when I try to put on her clothes.

Will cover her eyes with her hands and call for us to play pee-ka-boo with her.

Has outgrown her car seat. And taken over kor kor's! (Have to get a new one for kor kor now)

Still has quite little hair in the front. But reaching her neck at the back.

Calling 'da-da' and only ONCE called me 'ma-meeee' when she was crying so hard for me to pick her up. Speaks gibberish otherwise apart from mumm-mumm and ta-ta (hit in cantonese).

LOVES twinkle twinkle little star and will do the approriate hand movements.

Used to say Bye Bye but now no longer wants to do it.

LOVES to lean back and look at things upside down!

Kisses herself when she sees her image in the mirror.

Very aware of her surroundings - where you have gone, where things are being hidden etc. And loves to look out of the window/door to look at things. Also loves to look at people and see what they are doing.

Scared of a tickle under arm. And will move away when you try to tickle her.

Still has a great chuckle and a sweet smile.

Going to be ONE in a month's time. Time sure passes by really fast. Time for mummy to do some planning.

Japan's Earthquake

I was at home with my sister when someone called her to tell her to turn on the TV to CNN. We watched LIVE what was happening to Japan.

My heart really goes out to the people of Japan. Imagine the government itself needs to rebuild the country. How much can they help their people. If this were to happen to Malaysia, how do we rebuild our lives?

We worry about which school, where to buy house etc. But if a diasaster such as this strikes us.....where to buy house? Where there is a house. What education? There is not even enough food.

If we have relatives in neighbouring areas, at least we can look to someone for temporary shelter. But what if our nearest help is an airplane away?

I talked to my colleague about this and she mentioned about the sins of the Japanese in the past and that they have what is coming.

I think generational sin and try to recall what the Bible teaches us about this. But I can't.....

What a life our kids will have. A life in the end times.

And I remember.....that our eternity is in Heaven. Philippians 4:6 comes to mind.

We have that little time on earth to do good in what ever way we can. To show God's love to others in whatever way we can. To bring up our kids, since we already have choosen to have kids, so that they can continue showing God's love to whoever they can.

For at the end, what good is a big house or a high flying job at the cost of eternity. Everything can crumble down in a second.......

I am not sure if this affects you. But I can say AT LAST I understand God's great commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Termites

Did I ever mention that we have termites in our 2 year old house?

Well, we discovered it last year November when we saw some mud-like sendiments at the edge of our kitchen cupboards. Googled some termite control companies. Got 2 to come look see and give us a quotation.

In the end settled for NLC. Not so much due to the price but the professionalism of the consultant and the frankness of price and package.

Put us back some RM2,300 for termite control, pest control and an insurance for 1 year. The insurance works such that after the treatment, if the termites come back, they will continue treatment for free. Of course like all insurance, we have to pay annually.

It's March now. Lask week of Feb they came to check on the termites and there is no more activity. Seemingly the termites had wanted to build a nest in the kitchen cupboards but DIED.

So, the Sentricon baits are all gone now. A whole lot of cleaning to do since there is alot of mud where the baits and termites were. But at least I don't have to worry if the cupoards will fall apart on me! :)

Continuing with the pest control and they will continue to monitor for termites in the next few months.

My opinion of NLC? Very good service. One main person will be assigned to a house so you deal with the same person all the time. They are very punctual if not early. And they are always the ones who call to make the appointments. Not conviniently forget to follow up.

We may continue with the insurance until the entire area around our place has been built up. Currently many small areas are being developed around the area so colonies may be moving around a bit.

In all our years, hubby and I have never had to deal with termites. Trust our first experience will be our last.