Skype with the girls..

I cannot imagine that I'm able to do this with my daughters, with the spread use of internet. You see they have been playing guided and screened computer games online for half an hour daily since last week. They call up to ask for permission everytime they wanted to do so. I took the opportunity to check on them, below is our conversation:



What's next, we will be friends on Facebook :)

Michelle is 8! Time for her first cinema show!

Michelle's birthday falls on the 11th June 2002, last Friday marked her 8th year in our beloved family. To celebrate my "1st painful delivery experience" and "her joyous entrance into our family" I took a day off from work and we planned for something simple and fun for the girls, I could not possible left Emily out in the celebration as she is very much a part of this triangular love affair, daddy left us alone for some girls time.

I bought tickets for "Shrek Forever After" a couple of days back and it was their first cinema show. To ensure that all of us really get to enjoy the show, I logged into the internet, browsed the preview and sypnosis of the show, briefed the girls, gave them first hand information on what to expect, went through the list of dos and dont's in the cinema etc..... You see this mommy is really paranoid.


Below was an abstract of our conversation (after we were seated in our seats, we were the 2nd group to arrive).

Michelle: Wah... the TV is so big
Emily: Wah...very fun lor
Me: No need to whisper yet, the show haven't start, can talk as usual
Michelle & Emily: Oh OK
Emily: When is it going to start?
Michelle: Will there be a sudden loud noise when it starts?
Me: I'll tell you, don't worry (in mind I was like thinking - two "san pah poh" - katak di bawah tempurung leaving their village for the first time), blame it on mummy lar.
Me: Come take the popcorn...
Michelle & Emily: Mummy, later cannot talk ar? When I'm scared how?
Me: Hold on to mummy's hand
Emily: Wah later the characters jump out from the big TV.
Me: Don't be silly..
Michelle: Giggle... why so long haven't start?

After much FAQ (frequently asked questions), finally they are airing something on the "big TV", they commented that the next show to watch is Toy Story (because of the preview)... (there goes, they now know how to demand already), there were some "ooh ooh ah ah.." and finally the show began.

I would say all went well, of course mummy's arms were pulled on both side for certain scenes and the girls even shed tears at some point where there were touchy scenes, I was glad that all goes and end well. We all enjoyed the show and can't wait for the next one...

After the show we went for ice-cream, did some window shopping and headed home. We thank God for blessing Michelle for the past 8 years, we pray that Michelle will continue to grow into Christ likeness and in His words.

The right words at the right time..

It's the kindy practice that whenever there's a spelling, ejaan or "ting sieh" session, the child need to obtain the parents' signature of acknowledgement as an evidence that parents are aware of their child's progress in those tested area. Below was the conversation between Emily and I one evening concerning the subject matter.

Emily: Mommy need your signature... I did not get all right for my "ting sieh"
Me: Hmm....checking and putting my signature on the page (actually no big deal, I remembered she got 4 out of 5 correct).
Emily: (Quickly keep the book and took out another, the spelling book this time). Nah you can look at this as long as you want and you'll be happy, forget how I fare for my "ting sieh".
Me: (Puzzled, I wonder whose side of genes that she got this from)


One evening, when Emily and hubby were spending some time outside the house they bumped with our neighbor Mrs.XX.

Mrs.XX: Hi Emily!
Emily: Hi Mrs. XX
Mrs.XX: Nice staying at your new house?
Emily: Yes...
Mrs.XX: Which one is better? Your old or new place?
Emily: Certainly the new place.
Mrs.XX: Why?
Emily: Because over here I can get to see you.
Mrs.XX: (The heart must have been melted by her words)

You see, my girl really knows how to position herself and makes the most out of the situation. I shall not fear for her surviving skills, as the song goes "She will survive".

As for Michelle she's the straight forward type, no twist and turn, very predictable. Both of them make a good blend.

How to make....

I was surfing the internet yesterday for some games/craft ideas to be presented in an upcoming Sunday School meeting. I was actually looking for tips on how to prepare a cardboard maze and thought of googling it. At the mean time, Michelle was seated next to me, so while I was typing the keywords to google.. Michelle was distracted and was looking on what I was typing.... I typed in the following words "how to make..." and to my surprise (google actually displayed some of the most searched phrased that match my search) "how to make love... XXXXXXX results" appeared on the screen to which Michelle says aloud ... "ha ha mummy it says how to make love".... immediately I typed something else and terminate the scene automatically... Gosh don't want to be caught in the situation where she asked me the details.... just imagine your eight-year old asking you "mummy what is making love?" LOL

Poxy Club - Emily, Michelle and me

Good, the doctor extended another week of MC for me..... according to him I still have plenty of "active" pox with me and my case is consider not "that bad".. I don't know how bad is bad... I think altogether I have about 200-300 poxes with me, large and small.... on the bright side I have more time to tender to my new garden, do a lot of reading and spend time with my kids and also to watch my neighbour's DVDs! The only "reward" out of this whole episode is... hey I got life-long immunity against chicken pox.. I thank God for the poxes... as of now I'm applying heavily Vitamin-E extract on my face and hope the poxes dried up without leaving any deep scar.

For the past few days I saw myself turning from me into a witch and back to me again. I look like a teenager in her puberty with "pimples" popping out from her face, always blessed with good complexion, this whole episode really affect my self-esteem. As the poxes increases and turned into deep red swollen little volcanoes, I doubted if I ever regain my good complexion again.

Now in the 9th day, the poxes has started to dry up and I'm glad I'm beginning to look like me again. By the way the poxes has spread to Michelle and she's doing fine :)

More patience and love

For the past few weeks, I’m finding difficulty in handling Emily. Recently she has been super bossy, wanted to have just her own way, got angry over the slightest things, her words are always correct, she’s rude.... to summarize this.. SHE WANTS HER OWN WAY!! which is totally unacceptable and ridiculous. The fact that Michelle is basically easier to handle really magnified the contrast. I know I’m comparing both of them which is not good, each children is unique and special in their own ways. So what do you expect this mummy to do?

In my prayers I always ask God to give me patience and love to teach my children.. I guess I got the answer from Him, what better way to learn patience and love other than putting me in situations that I can really exercise patience and love.

But I must learn from hubby, whenever I’m out of patience, love and ideas, I passed the baton to him and he always has that final touch to deal with her.

I’m not sure about the other mothers, have you ever cried with your children? Just the other night I was so frustrated, I broke down and told them that I love them, I wanted to teach them, whenever they misbehave I’m very sad, sometimes I don’t know how to teach them but we will pray for God to help us… three of us ended up hugging and cried our heart out. But it was a good session.

After the whole episode, they slept and I went back to my room. Hubby asked what happened and he heard Emily was crying out loud, I told them the three of us cried altogether… Hubby commented “Ha she’s just five now, you are already crying teaching her, what will happen to you when she’s in her teens?” Ha… I really don’t know… guess I’ll ask a whole lot more patience and love from God then.

Get away with Michelle

I had a getaway with Emily last April, coming end of the month I'm bringing Michelle for a 3 days, 2 nights trip to Langkawi organized by my college. Below is our meeting this morning:

Me: Let's have a meeting
Girls: Meeting??? Looked puzzled
Me: End of the month mummy going to Langkawi
Girls: Ar... protesting faces..
Me: But mummy can bring only one of you because mummy cannot take care of both for out of town trip... since mummy brought Emily to KL last April, this time mummy plan to bring Michelle
Michelle: Eyes big big, looked all excited
Emily: Sobbing and wiping tears already (poor girl)
Me : Listen first, I have not finish...
Me : The date mummy is going is from XX to XX, the same date that Sophia jeh jeh is getting married (Sophia is Emily's kindy teacher) and we were actually looking forward for her wedding cum dinner.
Me : Emily can wear your new polka dot dress, wear your new ring that daddy bought and have a good time, take photo with teacher and see teacher in wonderful wedding and evening gowns...
Emily : Stop crying and realized it was not a bad idea after all
Me: Emily get to spend special time with daddy alone, daddy will bring you out.
Emily : I want to go to Popular, buy coloring book and coloring pencils..
Me: Just ask daddy and daddy will do it (ha ha)
Me: So now Michelle still wants to follow?
Michelle: Want!
Me: You don't want to wear your new dress, wear your new ring and see the bride?
Michelle: I want to follow you!
Me: OK then, settle, meeting over.. calling daddy... we've settled the negotiation, now you do your part eh...
All: Very happy....

Michelle Vs Emily

A friend told me that you can actually get your kids' finger prints scanned and intepreted e.g. their character, learning style, potential future vocation bla bla bla. Ah.. to me that's equivalent to fortune/future telling which sort of against my principles and beliefs. To me I don't need to go to so called "experts" to do the intepretation about my kids.. this is my observation about my princesses so far and the differences are quite obvious, of course for they are uniquely fashioned by God eventhough both are being produced almost the same way (I think! ha ha) and obviously from the same "factory" and resources (ha ha).

Michelle vs Emily

1) Followed by the rules vs Rules? What are they, I play by my rules! (pengsan)
2) Systematic, organized vs Free flowing of ideas and creativity and most of the time the destroyer
3) Her love language is words, spending time with her vs Lots of kisses, hugs and play time together
4) Love to read and write vs Draw, draw and draw
5) Dress conventionally vs Fashionable
6) Could not be bother much about her appearance vs Won't leave home without looking at the mirror twice or more
7) Stick to her ambition (teacher) vs An English teacher, nurse, art teacher, now a doctor wor..
8) Learn faster through reading and writing vs Learn through action
9) Future vocation: Teacher vs Artist

What about your kids, are they totally different?

Updates on my princesses

I realized I've not been blogging about my 2 princesses lately... here's an update of them.

Lil Emily:
5 years, 7 months and 27 days old as of today.
Lost 2 of her bottom incisors last week, blame on me lar, she asked for an apple, normally I cut for her, this time I was too lazy, washed it and asked her to bite it, the green apple proofed to be too hard for her tiny teeth, both incisors were badly shaken and permanently removed last week, one by MIL and the other one in my hands...
Completed her 2nd assessment on 4 subjects, as of now she said she got two 100%, happy go lucky and now enjoying her holidays already, everyday drawing, dressing up, building blocks, cutting the barbie's doll hair and anything that she could lay her hands onto...
Growing well and certainly is catching up real fast, about inches shorter than Jeh Jeh, her palms and fingers are basically longer than the Jeh Jeh already, face also slightly bigger than Michelle already. I believe in a year or so Emily will be on par or bigger size than Jeh Jeh...

Michelle Jeh Jeh:
7 years 3 months and 8 days old as of today.
So far lost all her 8 front incisors (top and bottom, 3 grew up from the bottom row and 2 coming up soon from the top row, can see little tiny white spot protruding from her gums.
Completed her 4th assessment and performance so far is quite inconsistent with position 20th, 11th, 3rd and this time maybe 15th or so in the class... Primary 1 is so competitive, the average marks is by 2 decimal points.
Growing well, eating more nowadays with good appetite, when I bathed her I realized she's expanding side ways with her round figure, still petite for her age. I asked her to jump and stretch her hands and legs so that she can grew taller and maintain as a Jeh Jeh physically.
She dislike it when people asked if they were twins and vowed that she will eat more to grow up quickly.
Plays well with lil Emily nowadays but still act like the big sister with her demanding tone and bossy attitude (what to do, in fact she is the big sister mah).

I thank God for my angels...

Think Big!

I’m currently reading a book entitled “Think Big” by Dr.Ben Carson, not into book reading lately except academically based but one sweet church sister (our church librarian) shared that I must read the book, got it delivered to me personally, I was touched and in order to show my appreciation to her I got to read the book which is due on 20th Sept.

This is an autobiography of the author blended with elements of parenting, keys to success, trusting God, miracles, real-life struggles and triumph. Two-third into it, am going to finish it by end of the week.

One of the section that caught my attention is how his mother (a single parent, black and uneducated woman) encouraged Ben from the last among his class to an outstanding student through faith in God. This is what her mom told him and his brother every time they need a booster from life’s trial..

“If others can do it, you can to do it too except that you will learn to do it better”

Well, hubby is suggesting that it’s high time Michelle learn how to cycle (just with 2 wheels on). However we have one little problem, you see, Michelle has always been more intellectual (good memory with above average academic performance) rather than the sporty type (clumsy like the mummy with below average motor skills), also she’s the “kiasi” type.

First session was… well… second session was…. hmm…some improvement (at least she knows how to prevent herself from falling by using her leg), third session still unable to place the other foot on the pedal… you see she got a little bit discourage… then I remembered what Ben’s mother said and I said the same thing “you see, others can do it, you can do it too and mummy believe you can cycle one day”. I’m not sure if it was those words, the next day, she is eager to cycle and this time she managed to get her the both feet on the pedal but still unable to balance herself. I would consider a major improvement.

Thinking that our condo corridor might not be a good place to practice, I brought her down to the common area/”outdoor hall” near the pool area so that with the ample space she’s free to cycle and the probability of hitting the wall or columns would be lower.

I took a brisk walk along the perimeter of the space, Emily strolled (or stormed) with her scooter and Michelle was free to roam. To my surprise just after 10 minutes or so Michelle managed to balance herself and not long beginning to cycle from one end to the other end of the open hall! Wow what an accomplishment and I can see the joy in her face and Emily’s too. She fell from the bicycle but got up and cycled again.

Last Saturday we went to the hall again, this time she could balance and even make a U turn. I’m astonished by how she progressed, my clumsy girl has finally learned to cycle (in less than a week). That’s the power of positive reinforcement

Bargaining Power

Yesterday, while I was in the bathroom, Michelle stood at the door and asked if she could watch just 2 songs from the bonus edition of High School Musical 2. House rule is no TV after 7pm from Mon – Thur, by the way I lost count of how XXX times they have watched the CD. While shampooing my body, I answered “yes” and continued with my business, a few seconds later came Emily by the door and asked if they could watch 3 songs instead of 2, below was our conversation:

Emily: Mummy, can we watch 3 songs?
Me : No, just two
Emily: Ha, three ah? (I think she act stupid and pretend hearing “three”)
Me: No… jeh jeh asked for two, I gave permission for just two
Emily: Hmm… three lar…
Me: Two means two, you either watched two or not at all
Emily: Aiyah..two lar two lar.. (walked away)

Recently they employed a new tactic and that is to nag and repeatedly plead in their poor thing look and voice. Sometimes this mummy falls into their trick and at times managed to come out of their spell and insisted on my decision.

Happy 52nd Birthday Malaysia!

In 3 days time we will be celebrating our 52nd Independence Day! So here wishing Malaysia Happy 52nd Birthday. My college is organizing an exhibition and invite staff and students to express themselves on what Independence/Merdeka means to them. So here I am squeezing creative juice in me and think of below poster. The colouring are contributed by the girls and I, designed my mommy and printed by daddy, so it's kind of a family affair here.

This is my prayer for my homeland:

Malaysians
Emerging as one, not differented by our
Race, colour of our skin, beliefs and social status,
Dedicated to our beloved land,
Encapsulated with love and respect for one another,
Knowing no barriers,
Achieving true 1Malaysia

To all Malaysian out there, Happy Merdeka and Happy Holidays!

Artist, busy at work...


Children playing together, knowing no barrier..

Children are colour blind, what about us? (picture courtesy of Petronas advertisement)

Last but not least, my precious "Siti and Aminah"

Ah... our final masterpiece

I'm the dentist, so is MIL!

Yeap, I played dentist last Sunday. Michelle was complaining that her front tooth is giving her trouble, it swayed left and right and interrupt her daily schedule, she's in pain during her meals and can't seems to stop playing it with her tongue. MIL was the one who manually extracted the other front tooth previously and she complained that MIL was rough and it was painful, blood came oozing out from her gums.. blah blah blah.. I asked if she wanted me to do the job this time, though reluctant at first, she agreed to the proposal.

So here I am, using a piece of slightly wet hanky, I hold her tooth with my thumb and forefinger, secured it and make sure I have a good tight grip of the tooth, shook it a little bit and pull downwards. I got to make sure it is done quick and painless....... A little "grr..ak" sound was heard and soon the job was done.. I found myself holding her front tooth but thank God it's not that bloody... managed to stop the outpour of blood in a minute by pressing the location with the hanky.

And it was such a relieve for her, not for long though and soon she complained that she got a huge big gap in between her teeth.... haiz.... can't wait for the new teeth to appear.. at the mean time she avoids pronoucing anything that starts with a "f".. LOL

Our little "bride"

Emily was given the honor of becoming the flower girl in one of our church couple's wedding last Saturday and she accepted the role with excitement and joy. Compared to her younger sister, Michelle decided to chicken out one week being offered the role. She told us to give her a week to think about it and finally she declined the offer being the reason she's new to it and knowing her, she's scared of not being able to perform on the actual day, in short she's sort of "kiasi and kiasu".

Well seeing her sister in a beautiful dress (which actually belongs to her), with make-up, a beautiful hair band and a pair of "high" heels, I can see she felt a little regret not taking up the offer in the first place (both of them were given the offer), anyhow I'm glad she doesn't feel that bad after all.

And so, lil Emily did performed quite well and enjoyed herself very much, in fact while we were taking a peep at the wonderful bride, she was kind of jealous that the bride looks more beautiful than her.. LOL. She also asked if she could get married right away when she "grew" up, when I told her that she needs to wait for the appearance of a find young man to do so, she sounded impatience and asked me why she needed to wait. She thought that she could married alone, I think her main objective is to get to dress like Cinderella. Ha ha ha...

Our family with the lovely couple


The flower girls - Verlene and Emily

The girls with the bridesmaid and best man

Emily and Verlene

The beautiful bride and the little "bride"

A little discovery

I discovered something this morning.................... and that is I've turned into a long winded, naggy mommy. This is what triggered me.. Michelle recently has this habit of "forgetting", when asked about her homework, she'll said, today got how many homework only, she's done with it and start occupying herself with her own activities. Last Saturday when we were preparing to go out, suddenly she remembered that she has this "Jau Chue - making sentences in Chinese language" yet to be completed. I was like... ha... "I asked you already and now that we are going out for fun and you tell me that you still have unfinished homework, arrgh...". This morning while on my way to work, suddenly she claimed that she forgot to practice her Bahasa synonim and antonim.... ha... I was like "arg....this girl, keep on giving lame excuses ha, I nagged, nagged and nagged...."

To top it up (by now she has left the house with MIL to send Emily to school), I drafted a new time table for her (the one that we currently have seems not so practical), it looked something like this:
9.00 - 9.30 am - Revise antonim, synonim and ejaan (spelling in Bahasa)
9.30 - 10.00 am - Do activity books (English, Bahasa & Mathematics, 2 pages each)
10.00 - 10.30 am - Watch High-Five (TV program)
10.30 - 11.00 am - Pack her school bag, bathe
11.00 - 11.30 am - Revise antonim and synonim again
11.30 - 12.30 pm - Lunch and prepare for school

While on the road this morning, suddenly I felt so guilty. I prayed on the spot that God will grant me wisdom to teach my girl how to be a responsible person, use constructive and positive words to motivate and inspire her to self-learn rather than nag, nag and nag. Haiz....

Michelle is 1+1+1+1+1+1+1

Michelle turned seven last Thursday (11.06.09), she has been counting the days to her birthday since Emily's birthday in February.. ha ha. Since I'm not working I brought her out for breakfast then we did some shopping. On the way back we dropped by the bakery and she chose a Snow White cake. We do not plan to have any fancy celebration as we sort of celebrated during our hotel stay earlier. I should have downloaded the photos earlier, enjoy the video....(one of their friends dropped by, I only have 2 girls). We waited for daddy to come back from his badminton games for the small celebration, that's why they are in their pyjamas he he he. Michelle has indeed grown into a bubbly and happy girl, we thank God for her growth. Here is her picture at one, compare and contrast....

A lesson worth RM1.20

Michelle asked permission to buy a flexible type ruler. She checked the price from one of her friend and came back to inform me that it costs RM1.20. Since she’s quite keen I gave her the green light and provided her the required amount.

Yesterday while she got into the car (when I picked her up), she confessed that since the stall is not open during recess time she had used the money to buy a drink and a packet of sweets.

Back home, I bathed her and told her that I want to have a one on one session with her. She got the feeling that I’m going to punish her for her action. I let her settled down, closed the room door and begin the “disciplining” session with her.

I asked her to tell me her side of story, why she had used the money to buy something else, something I prohibited and in which she clearly understood. Yeah to many it’s just a small matter but I wanted her to learn that firstly she needs to seek permission if she wanted to use the money for something else, secondly not to be easily influenced by her peers and thirdly to be able to make a wise decision on her own in our absence.

I did not cane her but I stressed that I will not be hesitate to do so if she was to repeat her mistake. I gave her some time to think about her action, (by now she’s already crying), and if she has fully understood why I need to discipline her and later to wash her face and prepare for dinner.

I went in for a shower and saw this note on my dressing table (bear with her broken English and wrong spelling):


This is what she wrote:
"I take my friend twenty sen
can I take twenty sen back to her tomorrow
sorry mummy
plese fogive me
plese don't rod me
I love you mummy
I am sad"

Still crying she confessed that she has done something very wrong, she asked RM0.20 from a friend to buy a packet of sweets as she has lost the 20 cents I gave her earlier. She asked for forgiveness and whether she can have 20 cents tomorrow to return to her friend. Suddenly I found my eyes were in tears, not because of her disobedience but I was touched by her openness to admit her wrong doing. From her note I can see how sorry she was and how bad she must have felt for doing what she had done. She can choose not to tell be about it, quietly took 20 cents from her coin box and pretend nothing has happened, but I’m glad she choose to be honest and brave enough to bear the consequences of her action.

Michelle, mummy is proud of you and mummy will love you just the same….

This morning, she called me repeatedly while I was in the kitchen, I went into the room in which she said “mummy let’s hug hug”…ah what I wonderful moment, I won’t want to miss this for anything….. Oh God grant me wisdom to be a good mom.

Our emotion..

This morning MIL told me that Emily refused to go into the classroom, when being asked she said in tears "Mommy did not hug me today"... so poor thing... when she left for school I was in the bathroom... when she got back today, I asked her if it's the main reason to which she answered "I want ah mah (my MIL)".. hmm...I guess she also unsure of her emotions..

Last Saturday morning Michelle woke up and told me that she did not want to go to art class... I asked her for a good reason in which she can't give and cited that she don't like it... I lost my cool but hubby came to the rescue, with Pooh bear in his hand he managed to cheer up Michelle and her mood recovered...

Tsk tsk... girls are so emotional...like mother like daughters....

"Sissy" & "Ki Ki"

We bought two little "puppies" back last week and the girls name them "Sissy" and "Ki Ki", Sissy is a male whereas Ki Ki a female, to support our church raising fund activity, we bought them for RM20.00 each. It is made of more than 200 colourful beads and consumed 5 labour hours. I tied them with a string to keep them visible as I don't want to get busy searching for a 1.5x1.5 inch puppy around the house. The girls are to take good care of them and as for now they are sleeping with them, eating with them, doing homework with them and sometimes crossing overboard to mummy and daddy's room...

"Sissy" belongs to Emily


"Ki Ki" belongs to Michelle


Note: I made a mistake... Emily's dog is "Sissy" not "Chi Chi"...blur blur mummy

"Paint" art

Michelle drew these using the "Paint" program this morning... I must say it's a very good piece of work of hers and decided to post it.




Poor Michelle is down with a fever early in the morning and got to skip school today, she has poor appetite, ulcers in her mouth and vomited just now. She's resting now and hope that she will recover soon... arghh.... a new neighbor is renovating his unit exactly 2 floors above ours and it's driving all of us crazy since 9.00am... please please go for a long lunch, tea time and stop work early......