Holiday Mood!

I feel extraordinarily happy Every year around this time, you know why? Christmas! Yes, it's my favorite holiday! I get to buy presents, wrap presents, give presents, there will be Christmas tree in the house, there will be Christmas carols, there will be Santa Clause and remembering Jesus of course. Oh well, it's still too early for Christmas and Charlotte asked me "Mommy, I want Christmas tree!" the other day when we were watching Alvin and The Chipmunks (again), all that holiday mood started to fill my heart.

I'm not good at baking cookies but I wanna do some Christmas cookies this year. So here I am trying out my luck. It's also my first time making the icing. I didn't know the icing is drying up and harden so fast, I could really use an extra pair of hands to coat it on the cookies.

I bought a Christmas tree shaped cutter, that I'll be using for Christmas :)

Celebrating Children's Day!

Children's day, the last I celebrated this event was maybe 20 years ago and I almost forgot about it until this year. Charlotte's school celebrates this event today and how I wish I get to stay on and observe the celebration. Unfortunately, work still gets in the way and I had to drop off Charlotte at the school and say goodbye as usual and rushed back for a meeting. But I didn't forget my camera and this time I get to see more of what's going on when I'm at work...

Getting started...

Sing along...

Break time...(they were all getting Happy Meal from McD!)

Social time...

There was also games, but the pictures are so "cacat" (distorted) and I can't post them here. But I get a good laugh from one of the video clip because I see how the teachers were cheering and so excited during the games (competing among teams) but the children were so relaxed, didn't get the meaning of "competition" I guess.

I also love this video, I'm glad to know Charlotte is participating.

The principle also had a mini birthday celebration for Nov kids (I guess, because Charlotte was in the picture). The birthday cake looks like a homemade type, I believe Mdm Principle baked it herself.

Candle blowing, cake cutting time...

Presents time...

Charlotte brings home so many goodies and books that really filled up her backpack. Today is also the first day that she was all sweaty when I picked her up (she's always so prim and proper outside the house). That means, she had a real fun time!

GrandPa's Birthday!

We celebrated FIL's 84th birthday last Saturday at one of the famous restaurants in Georgetown. This is one of those family events (like Christmas, Chinese New Year, Weddings) which everybody comes home, and that means a big crowd! OK for those who don't have any idea, I tell you MIL has 11 children! Out of 11, 1 left the family (I don't know why and I never ask) and the youngest one still single. The married ones has 1 to 3 children each family. So, just imagine how crowded that is when everybody comes home!

OK, what I wanted to say about the birthday is this video...

FIL broke his denture a few weeks ago and MIL was trying to get a new one fixed for him but unfortunately, couldn't make it in time for the party. You see FIL was trying very hard to hold back his smile :p

Charlotte was so happy and excited throughout, partly because she gets to play with all the cousins and she always be the center of focus. She probably also thought that party was for her! She even grabbed the opportunity to blow the candle before Kong Kong did!

Btw, if you didn't see that crowd I mentioned earlier in this video that's because everybody was standing behind the cameras. Charlotte, being the youngest in the family she gets to go up all the way to the front :)

The only event we missed out was movie time! All Charlotte's aunties, uncles, cousins and even MIL went for movies on Sunday afternoon. They split into 2 groups, one was catching the High School Musical 3 and the other one watching Mamma Mia! We thought Charlotte is too young for big screen cinema with the loud surrounds and also that was Charlotte's nap time so we decided to skip that part.

Overall, it was a great family reunion and the next one will be Christmas!

At School

Since I need to be at work everyday after dropping off Charlotte at school, I always have a lot of question marks in my head wondering how she is doing at school. Although I get feedback from her teacher from time to time and the monthly report card, I am still very curious of her well being at school. Especially now that she is having lunch at the school occasionally, I want to know how much she eats, how she eats and etc.


I spoke to her school principle a few days ago and she said "why not we take some pictures to show you?" and I thought that's a wonderful idea! So I brought my camera to school this morning and told her teacher that I want to see how she is doing. I told her that I want to see during learning lessons, during meal time and praise & worship session (it's Friday!). I left the school full of hopes and expectations on those pictures that I am going to see in a few hours time.

When the teacher passed me the camera I quickly turn it on and run through the pictures but all I see are a bunch of badly shaken, blur images. What a disappointment! Here are a few acceptable ones to share...

Play Time...

Meal Time...

She was having her home packed bento...

Lesson...

Ready to go home...

Let's try again next time :)

Activity At Home

I'm glad to say that Charlotte isn't much of a TV addict. She was able to finish a whole movie (like Madagascar, The Happy Feet, Lion King, Finding Nemo and etc) at a very young age and I was worried when I heard some of my friends talking about kids being TV addict.

Lately, I even found out that Charlotte has been willingly turning off the TV when she doesn't feel like watching it or when it's time for bed (around 9.30pm). I have been filling her with activity like writing, coloring and fixing puzzles every night instead of TV programs.

I posted her coloring work on the wall and she is very proud to show people when someone is visiting. Her coloring skill has moved on from coloring 1 object 1 color to bigger object more colors, to multiple objects and multiple colors. She has completed several coloring books now and this is a new one I bought her this week, Mickey & Friends. See how careful and serious she is when doing her work...

Splishy Splashy!

It has been a wet wet weather and we have put our Equinox membership card in the bag for the longest time. We usually will take Charlotte for a swim during weekends but the past couple of months was either very occupied or it was raining cats and dogs.

Last Saturday Charlotte found her home pool in the room and was asking for a swim. I looked out the window and it was a bright and warm afternoon, and I agreed.

I can't help but agree how fast time flies. I used to worry that she would slipped and fell in the pool when she played in it last time. Look at her now, her size has out grown the pool and she can entertain herself now...

After awhile, Charlotte asked if Simba (our golden retriever) can come out and play. Of course I said no! I know my Simba, he is still very playful and I don't want to see Charlotte and Simba in the same pool! The cheeky daddy then tried to splash water at me since I was sitting so close to Charlotte, he thought that was funny but that lead to a water fight. We were all so wet after that water fight (but it was a lot of fun!) then Charlotte decided that it wasn't so fun just her alone in the pool...hahahaaaa!

Sorry dear, getting you a sibling is not the answer but we'll get a bigger pool for you ok? Then all of us can go inside the pool next time :)

Little Treat For The Little Ones

It’s Friday and I know Charlotte’s school usually has the praise & worship session on Fridays. That means the school schedule is a little bit more relax compared to the rest of the days (I assumed). I decided to make a little something for the kids.

I have a big packet of dried cranberries that my brother bought from the States recently. Eating it alone tastes great but since it’s a whole big packet, I thought I could use it for something else…

Here, cranberries cupcakes! I put slightly more cranberries than the recipe called for and bake in smaller cups too. Just nice and handy for the little ones I hope. There is a total of 15 cupcakes, keep 3 for ourselves and packed the rest for Charlotte to bring to school this morning (I know, the school has more than 12 children + teachers..next time I'll bake more ok).

I packed some in the cute Hello Kitty bento box and the rest in a ordinary container. Charlotte hand carried the Hello Kitty bento box to school this morning and proudly announced to her teacher "Tis one I share with me fren one!". I gave the remaining in the ordinary contianer to her teacher and told her that I also packed something else for her in the mermaid bento box if she didn't like the cupcake...back-up ma!

Better Drawing

This is a back dated post. I searched through my picture folders and found these pictures that I took in Sept and I forgot to blog about it.

I remembered it was in the evening when I just finished my shower. I came down to the living room and Charlotte was busy drawing on the easel. I didn't pay much attention to it as I was rushing for my work for the late night meeting that night. She then pulled to me looked at what she drew and I found these...

I was shocked to see it because we've been putting so much attention in her writting and coloring since she started school I totally forgot about her drawing skill! My last post on her drawing was in April and her skill has improved further, with a little more imagination :)

More Bento Boxes

I love these bento boxes and I was eyeing on them for quite sometime but the shipping/handling cost from US to Malaysia didn't make me too keen in getting them until my brother told me that he was going to US again! I quickly placed the order and had it shipped to my brother's temporary address in the US. And there are finally here!

This Day Is Finally Here!

I had a 3-week full time off from work a month ago because Brenda (our maid) was leaving for her home leave. Charlotte had me 24x7 those days and we even went for a short holiday in Hong Kong. I was very worried if getting Charlotte back to school would be tough as we broke the routine, more so when I need to go back to work.

It’s been almost 2 weeks since Brenda came back and I’m glad to say that Charlotte has grown up so much that making her understands that she goes to school, mommy and daddy go to work is something we have to do everyday wasn’t as challenging as what I anticipated. In fact, she goes to school everyday with a happy heart now and this week she even tried to have lunch at school for the first time.

This morning she imitated her daddy, bringing her shoes out and sitting at the porch to wear it as she gets ready for school. I felt it was a rather warm scene to take a picture where both daughter and daddy are doing the same thing, at the same time.

Charlotte is also finally graduated from front seat to back seat. This was rather an unplanned milestone as we would never thought we could drive her by having her sitting at the backseat alone. It started during Brenda’s home vacation. We had a temporary maid, Virginia. Charlotte only allowed Virginia to accompany her on certain things, for example playing with her with the toys, puzzles, when she did coloring and writing. Other than that, she wanted mommy to do the feeding, bathing, changing, toilet-ing, teeth brushing, and everything else. Even when we were traveling in the car, she didn’t want to sit next to Virginia. So I took the opportunity to put back car seat back and made her sit with the seatbelt buckled. More than we know, she accepted the fact that sitting on the car seat is a better choice than having to have someone to hold on to you.

I then requested Pat to also get a car seat for his car so that Charlotte will not choose which car she wants to go with (because it doesn’t have a car seat there). So we went to shop for one 2 weeks ago and we decided to get a booster seat with flat bottom instead because daddy was worried that it will scratches or leaves marks on the leather seat of his car. We found just what we were looking for and because it is just a booster seat it is so much more portable than the Fisher-Price car seat that we had. Charlotte also is able to use the car seatbelt as the booster seat comes with a seatbelt clip that allows the seatbelt to be placed on her properly.

Now that she is in proper seatbelt, she makes sure everybody in the car must buckle their seatbelts too. Well, good to get ready for the rear-seatbelt rule implementation next year :)

Normally I don't spend a lot if it is something just for me, to eat, I mean (of course clothes, bags, shoes are exceptional la). I am a very easy person when comes to food but not my man and my daughter. Yesterday, I bought something more than what I normally would pay for food or supplement I should say.

I was first attracted to the ad poster displayed at the store. The red cherries on the ad poster was very effectively promote the product. Me, especially loves cherries of course was attracted to the product even before I come to know about it's benefits. It's a 100% pure and natural red tart cherry concentrate with high content of antioxidant, vitamin C and vitamin E.

Back On Routine

3 weeks passed by very fast and it was a real relieve to see Brenda (our maid) at the arrival hall last Sunday morning. Charlotte adores her very much and was instantly cling on to her. Brenda also brought back a very sweet handmade dress for Charlotte

Looking back, it was a rather smooth 3 weeks than what I anticipated. I had prepared myself for the worse, especially in feeding Charlotte (which needs a lot of patient and creativity) but it didn't take much difficulty in each meal, no sweat! I have to say that God must have heard my prayer and Charlotte had been a very good girl too. This temporary Full Time Stay At Home Mom experience wasn't that bad after all.

I am back to FTWM this week and everything else starting to get back to routine, back to those never ending emails, projects and on-going activities in the office but good thing is I get to spend precious lunch my friends and colleagues and have a little space/time of my own now.

First Visit To The Dentist

Charlotte's been complaining about pain in her mouth (or toothache) and I do noticed a decay looks alike black spot on one of the molars. We've been trying to hoax Charlotte about visiting to the dentist since a few months back but her response wasn't very positive. So, I tried my best to keep up with the everyday brushing as much as possible.

Yesterday, she complained again and I told her it's time to visit to the dentist. Surprisingly, this time she even asked me to call and make appointment. We went to the one recommended by Wei Xuan's mommy, I read the post about the "children friendly dentist" and Wei Xuan's dental visits were very successful so far. So I called up for appointment and we went this morning, right after her school.

I could see that she was all well prepared. She was not scared, nor even concerned when I told her she has to lye down on the chair and keep her mouth open and let the dentist do the checking just like when I do the usual brushing and flossing with her. We were lucky that we didn't have to wait, when we arrived 1 patient just left and the next one has yet to come. I filled up the particulars for Charlotte and we were called!

The dentist is a very kind and gentle lady. Her clinic is very clean and tidy. She even has a flat screen monitor that plays Tom & Jerry when Charlotte was at the examination chair. The cartoon didn't really keep Charlotte's attention but I am glad that Charlotte was all good throughout the entire process.

The dentist first checked and she said she saw a decay on the back molar and a sign of initial decay starting on her front teeth. We agreed to get her molar fixed first since she was cooperating very well. The process took about 10-15min. I had my camera in my bag, I was so tempting to take it out and snap a few pictures/video clips. Then again, Pat stopped me as he thought it was not a good idea since Charlotte was already cooperating and didn't want to introduce a new factor that could probably make her leave the chair. We will be visiting there again next week to get her front teeth fixed.

I tell you, I can't express enough how proud I am for Charlotte. She was so cooperative and brave. We did not have any difficulty at all! This is my girl, she may seemed soft and a spoilt girl on the outside but deep down she has strong determination. She did very well once she has her mind set. We have seen in many previous examples. This also reminds me that we need to have a good guidance and education for her making sure that she applies her strength in the good & correct way.