Christmas Party

Charlotte's school was having a Christmas party this morning and we were told to prepare a small gift for kids' Christmas gift exchange. I took a brand new lunch box from my collection and wrapped it yesterday and put it in Charlotte's school bag.

I also prepared some snacks for Charlotte to contribute to the party. I bought a pandan chiffon cake and a loaf of bread last night. The chiffon cake was cut into Christmas tree shape using a Christmas tree cutter that I bought earlier on and small bite sandwiches using some of the cookie cutters that I have. I wanted to decorate the Christmas tree chiffon cake further with the hundreds and thousands but I didn't have enough time to do that, so it was just plain green color Christmas tree chiffon cake. The picture on the chiffon cake didn't turn out well, it was too close up and I didn't have the magnifying function on.

Charlotte was dressed in the Christmas crochet dress that her Auntie Brenda made for her and I could tell that she was very excited with the Christmas party.

This is a picture took with one of the teacher's son. I notice they always like to pair them up :) All other pictures took were quite blur and I can't find another good one to post here but there was one made me laugh when I saw it. It was Charlotte "showing off" her flare dress. She was turning and her dress spread outwards in that motion, with some classmates watching. My little vain pot, ha!

She came home with a gift and asking for permission to open it. I almost couldn't stop her but I'm glad that at last she agreed to put it under the Christmas tree until Christmas day. Good girl!!!

The Girls' Adventure

Call me daring, I actually took Charlotte and Brenda down to KL myself last weekend :p Pat was in KL the whole of last week and he will be staying over the weekend so he invited us to join him there for the weekend.

I wasn't really keen of going at first but since daddy keep on asking, I decided to take 2nd half of Friday off and start my journey while the sky is still bright. I let Charlotte put on diaper as I am not planning to stop at rest area to minimize any possible hijack risk...(ya, my usual paranoid thinking...). I bring all the food and snacks along to make sure that in case we got stuck in traffic Charlotte and Brenda will not go hungry. Also, intead of booster seat I told Charlotte that she has to go on the car seat for this journey. She was very cooperative and she loved her "baby car seat" in fact! The trip was rather smooth and we reached at the hotel around 5.30pm. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe. Also thanks to the new GPS we got :)

We did a lot of shopping, yes Christmas shopping and we were like mall hopping all the time. We went to The Curve, Ikano Power Center, IKEA and The Gardens in 1.5 days. We missed Pavilion this time and 1-U. I'm gonna cut long story short so that all can fit in 1 post (heehee!)

We also went to Zoo Negara and I think that's Charlotte's highlight of this trip (besides the super-dooper Christmas decor at the malls). We went around the zoo in the tramp and later on we walked around too. Charlotte gets to feed the elephants for the 1st time!

Another very interesting thing we saw was at the lions and tigers area. The lions and tigers were kept a distance from the visitors by a narrow canal. When we were at the tigers', we saw this particular tiger walking from the ground into the canal, and walk along the canal for a good time and then came up to the ground. It repeated this routine at least 5 times when we were there. I guess the weather must be so warm that the tiger also needed to keep itself cool and wet. Funny thing was Charlotte observed just like all of us but later on she asked "why the tiger never shake shake like simba when finish pom pom?". We thought that was such a nice observation she made and in fact we never realized that the tiger did not shake off the water when it came up to the ground. Interesting...

That was Charlotte's highlight, what about mommy's highlight? I always want to go this particular shop when I read about the news that it is coming!

Yes, Daiso Japan! How can I miss it? I know I made a promise for not getting anymore bento stuff, but Daiso isn't just about bento, it has almost everything under the sun that you are looking for :) Well, maybe it's just me la, but I came all the way from Penang mah...Everything in this store is RM5 and we spent our last 1 hour there before we called it a trip :)

Here are some of the interesting that I bought. I found this glass door/window decor jelly and I was so happy about it. I bought 4 packs when I was in Japan 2 years ago and I am using my last pack now at home. It's just the right time to add some new ones for future use. The 2nd picture is a set of pattern cutters, and it's only RM5! Must buy right?

I also bought some more bento stuff, but I remember my promise so those are not adding to my collection but they are presents. I am giving it to some of my bento making friends, I'm sure they will be so happy when they get it! I'm not posting the bento stuff pictures here, just in case you are one of them getting it, right?

By the way, not just me, Brenda (our maid) also got into bento thingy (muahahaha!)! She also bought several lunch boxes for her daughters :) See the power of influence?!

Happy Birthday Auntie Brenda!

I always remember 17th Dec is Brenda's birthday (our maid) since her first day with us but I didn't celebrate her birthday during the first 2 years. I don't know why, I was trying to keep a distance, worried that she might climb over my head one day if I didn't manage the relationship well.

As time past by, Brenda shows her sincerity and I feel rather comfortable to be open with her these days. Since Pat is on business this entire week, I thought I would make a simple celebration on the 17th. So, I went to a nearby bakery after work and bought a birthday cake. When I arrived home, Brenda was already busy in the kitchen preparing dinner and only my girl greeted me at the front door. So I quietly keeping the birthday cake in the fridge and went on to wash up and had dinner as usual.

It was only after dinner and after Brenda had gotten every evening chores settled before I asked Charlotte to announce about the birthday cake. We lit the candle, sang the birthday song and took some pictures for her to send back to her family. She was very happy and thank me for being so thoughtful later that night :)

Little action makes big difference sometimes :)

Is It Here Yet?

Remember the eoe online photo print? I submitted my review write-up and uploaded 50 photos to be printed in 4R size last Thursday night and I started to count down, subconsciously measuring the efficiency of this new online service. What to do? It's a competitive edge, other than quality and cost, speed/efficiency is also one of the market winning strategies. Aye?

I received a reply on my review submission right the next day (Friday). Deep down, I discounted Saturday and Sunday from the virtual measurement chart since it is weekend but I should be expecting the package by Wednesday if the printing is done on Monday and sending out on Tuesday...I was really counting, well not so much of the service level but I was also very keen to receive those precious memories so that I can start using the new album that I bought from HK Disneyland.

The first thing I did when I stepped into my front porch last night was to check on the mail box, it was empty! "Maybe Brenda has taken it out" I thought and I was happy to see my cheerful little princess, jumping up and down at the front door. The next thing was, I was presented with this package and it's here!!!

I looked through all the printouts and I am giving it a 2 thumbs-up to eoe online! Here's what I like:

1. All printouts are properly filed in the albums (they are not coming in loose)

2. Print quality is as good as those I experienced from the printing house

3. Efficient! The package arrived just as expected!

4. Hassle free! I don't have to copy photos in a thumb drive, driving/walking to a print store, find parking, wait to collect printouts, pay for parking and etc.

5. Cheap! It is only RM0.30 for 4R!!!

My new wall...

Well, I am getting these 50 prints for free because of the blogger review program. Thank you eoe online! They are now offering phase II of the blogger review program (for 100 entries) and the grand prize has been upgraded to a Olympus E520 kit with 14-42mm lens (worth RM2499!). Quickly, submit your review today and get the free prints plus stands a chance to win this digital madness grand prize!

I only hope that eoe online will maintain the service quality even when they are getting more and more established. You know, some superb service quality only lasted a little while. For now, I am definitely going to be a return customer :)

Now, I need to quickly post this update and link back to the review program and wait for the RM50 cheque to be mailed to me! *rubbing hands greedily*

Rock A Bye Baby - Charlotte's Version

I hardly get a change to run my fingers on this piano these days although Charlotte always requests for songs but when I just started my first note and there she comes and says "come, come, let me show you" and pushes my hands away.

Of course I let her and I am very pleased to see the way she imitates and pretends like a pro...

This is her version of Rock A Bye Baby:

Rock a bye baby on the tree top,

When the wind blows the cradle will rock,

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Down "become" baby, "and" cradle and all...

Santa Is Here Early!

Yay! This is the package I have been waiting for and finally it's here! :)

I promised myself that this is the last bento stuff that I am going to buy. Charlotte is going for full day school next year and I won't be preparing bento for her anymore. Also, with the current economical stress situation I should only spend necessarily. I already have more than enough bento tools to create interesting bento for Charlotte, so that should be all for now.

Happy bento-ing!

You Will Love e-Photo Print with eoe online!

Since our last trip to Hong Kong till now I think I have several folders of digital pictures awaiting to be printed out. Many times before I was at the printing house but I forgot my thumb-drive which I uploaded all those pictures that I wanted to print. When I remembered my thumb-drive, I was either always on the rush or can’t find a good parking to just make that happen, and so I have been procrastinating it. Christmas is coming, and I will have even more pictures to add to my need-to-be-printed collection.

I have been waiting for a promotion from my personal favorite print store as I know they are going to have RM0.35 next week for 4R! Then again, usually the queue is rather long and photo collection has to be in a separate trip instead of instant due to the high demand during the promotion period. But…thanks to eoe online! I can now make those digital prints at my own convenience and it is cheap!

Crazy as it may sound, this is the 1st online print store that I think it is almost competitive with what I experienced with shutterfly when I was in the US. I said “almost” because I just ordered my 1st print and will see how the result is going to be (he! he!). They are now offering 4R at RM0.30 and 5R at RM0.50! Free shipping to destinations in Malaysia if you purchase over RM35! Yes, believe it!

Registration is easy, the website is superb and by that I mean I am usually not very good doing the navigation with new sites but with eoe online I have no problem finding what I need to know and doing what I need to do. What I like the most is I can do the photo uploading at my own convenience, I don’t have to remember my thumb drive, I save my time running around on the road and finding parking, and most of all I save good money!

In fact, there are more than just digital printing service, this site also offers unlimited storage for you to store (you may take it as back-ups) and share those great memories with your friends and loved ones, create and send photo greetings, and some cool photography products and accessories are available for sale too!

Blogger friends, you are going to love this – you get free prints and reasonable cash reward by writing them a review! That’s what I am doing now actually (guilty as charged).

Go check it out, eoe online! Happy shopping/blogging!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Who do you think Charlotte resembles more, Pat or I? We have not have a consistent feedback like "oh, she looks just like mommy!" or "oh, she looks just like daddy!". Of course, some of the folks we met said she looks like me and other said she looks like daddy but at the end of the day, the votes we get counted just equally for me and Pat.

For certain look or expression, she has my shadow and other angle she looks exactly like her daddy. I was looking through the picture archives that I have and found these 2 pictures which was rather candidly took one evening.

She has my eyes, similar facial expression, and I think she looks just like me (well, a younger version of me of course)!

Where Are You Christmas?

Charlotte: mommy, mommy, why Christmas so long?

Me: Very soon, in 2 weeks time (although I doubt she knows how long is 2 weeks)

Charlotte: haiya...

This was what Charlotte asked me last night when she was watching me fixing the Christmas tree lights. We first told her that Christmas will come after her birthday. Now her birthday is over, and there are already presents under the Christmas tree, she wonders why Christmas is not here yet? Why can't she open the presents yet?

Hurry Christmas! Hurry Fast!

Christmas, Christmas time is near
Time for joy and time for cheer
We've been good but we can't wait
Hurry Christmas, hurry fast...

This is the song Charlotte picked up from watching "Alvin and The Chipmunks" and it seems very appropriate now as Christmas is just a few weeks away. The Christmas tree at home has been set up last week and so as those Christmas decorations at the malls and streets.

We love Christmas very much and I probably love Christmas more than Chinese New Year (oops!). I think we are going to have a lot more fun this year simple because Charlotte is older now and she feels the Christmas spirit a little stronger then the year before. It is also time for me to explain to her what Christmas is really about.

This year, we probably going to save a little on Charlotte's Christmas dress as Brenda has made her one! Remember the crochet that Brenda brought from home when she went back in Sept? It was too big for Charlotte and Brenda decided to make another one for her. She wants to custom make it to Charlotte's preference, can "fly" one! She finally completed her work after about 3-4 weeks of late nights (I saw her room light was on till almost midnight every night) and also while Charlotte was taking her nap in the afternoon.

I think it is very sweet and the color is just right for Christmas (what more can you ask from your maid, right?)! Charlotte absolutely loves it because it flies!!! She just can't stop dancing and turning around when she tried it on.

Oh and the Christmas tree is up too! I really need to start Christmas shopping soon!

Merry Christmas to all!

Fun Time!

Last weekend was one of those extraordinary busy weekend for us, not because of any special occasion but just with extra activities. We usually try to have a slow and easy weekend simply because our weekdays are always so hectic and tiring. We did more last week but was spontaneous.

One of those were daddy's idea of bring Charlotte to the park. Usually it turned out to be a disappointment when we announced it earlier. It's either rained, or one of us fell sick or some other unexpected agenda happened. So we decided to keep it to ourselves until the day comes.

Charlotte woke up pretty late Sunday morning and we got the very important task (feed milk) done before announcing the plan to Charlotte. She was very excited when we told her that we are taking her to the park but I guess she didn't know where or what exactly a park is (it's been a very long time since we last took her there). Half way through the journey, she asked "mommy, where we go?" and I told her we are going to the park for her to ride her bicycle and play at the playground. She then replied "oh! far far away?". Yup, the park is quite far from where we stay.

It was her first time riding on her new bicycle since she got it. I mean she was previously riding it IN the house or at the front porch but was never on the road. She struggled with the initial paddling coordination but soon she was on the move!

She spent maybe a good 30-45min on her new bike, cycling round after round on that track. Both Pat and I were walking beside her and after a few rounds she actually asked us to go sit down and she wanted to adventure on her own. I went outside of the track and took the opportunity to snap a few more pictures while her daddy was watching her from far.

Can you spot this little girl among the crowd?

When she finally had enough of her bicycle, she wanted the slides, swings, seesaws and etc. Very soon, her daddy ran out of patience coping with her ever changing demand, but Charlotte had the biggest smile that morning.

After all the fun at the park, we grabbed a quick brunch nearby while Charlotte's having the Hello Kitty bread that I prepared with the newly edible writing pen that I bought (no picture, I told you it was a spontaneous decision, didn't I?). She finished all 6 pieces of it (which is equivalent to 2 slices of bread)! I'm not sure if she was really interested in the colorful kitty face drawing or because she was hungry after all that exercise. What matters to me most is, she ate!

Charlotte's First Movie

We've been waiting to bring Charlotte to Cinema for her 1st movie for a long long time. We were not sure when Horton was played and a few other later on but when we saw Madagascar 2 we kind of decided that this is it!

Charlotte has been watching Madagascar at home and she is familiar with those characters like Alex (the lion), Marty (the zebra), Melman (the giraffe) and Gloria (the hippo). Bringing her to watch part 2 at the cinema would have lower risk compared to introducing something totally new (movie + environment) to her for the 1st time.

It's been a few weeks now since the movie released and we finally made it there last Saturday. I made ticket reservation for 7.40pm show, it was the best time for us because I will have enough time to feed Charlotte dinner before we leave for the movie and it won't be too late when the show finished.

We bought pop corn and soda just before we enter the theater. Pat warned me not to let Charlotte have too much pop corn because it's near Christmas now and we don't want Charlotte to fall sick because of that. But I know I don't have to worry much because Charlotte would willingly it give up, just like ice-cream when she had enough. True enough, Charlotte wasn't very keen with the pop corn, she only took 1 and that's it!

Charlotte and I shared a seat as we decided that she is too tiny won't have a good view from her own seat. We chose 2 center corner seats for easy movement in case Charlotte needs to move about. She was behaved very well and was engrossed into the movie for maybe the first 45min. Then she started to wonder around. Good thing that we were seating at the isle, I offered her to sit by the staircase instead and she could still have a good view from there. She sat there and not too long after another boy also came from the next row and sat beside her :)

The movie was rather short, it ended around 9.00pm. Honestly, I think the story line was not as interesting as part 1. No wonder Charlotte was not interested in it after awhile. When we asked her how's watching movie at the cinema, she was all smiling! Obviously, she was very happy with that experience.

This was how she told her auntie Brenda the next morning:

Charlotte: Auntie, I go watch Alex the lion!
Aunite: Wah! Nice or not?

Charlotte: Nice! The cinema got big big television one, and so loud!
Auntie: So loud ah? You scared or not?

Charlotte: No! Cinema dark dark one
Aunite: You not scared ah? So clever hor

Charlotte: Hmm, I clever. I didn't cry. Cinema no monster one, no snake one!
(LOL!)

Another Birthday Cake

Yup, the second one, just for the family. It was again very nicely done and Charlotte was again thrilled to see her favorite Pooh Bear on it. I asked her if she likes the Mermaid cake or Pooh cake, she said "ah....2!" (both). Isn't she an angel?

Bicycle

A few weeks before Charlotte's birthday, my parents showed up one Sunday evening and asked Charlotte what she wanted for her birthday. This girl, kept no secret and shouted out loud "I want bicycle!".

The same every year, she gets her 1st birthday present not from us, but from her grandparents :)

When Mommy Was Asleep

I had a very mad migraine last Saturday and I had to take a pill and closed my eyes for a couple of hours. I asked Pat to look after Charlotte and told Brenda to prepare lunch accordingly.

I woke up and remembered Charlotte was telling me that daddy let Simba out. I didn't have a second thought of that statement until today when I clean up my camera's memory stick.

There are sooooooo many pictures taken of Charlotte and Simba, being so closed together! I know our Simba is children friendly but I still haven't let Charlotte been to this close to him before. See what daddy has done...

End of Academic Year

Last Friday marked the last day of school for most of the school going kids and at Charlotte's school they celebrated this day with special events. The school sent out notice a couple of days before and asking parents to prepare swim suits and towels for the kids as they are going to have a small pool play.

Charlotte, of course gotten very excited when I told her about swimming on Friday morning. I let her changed into her swim suit directly since hers is a swim shirt and pantie. I just put on a shorts for her and she was all ready for school!

I forgot to bring along my camera and I have no picture to share this time. I have to admit that I was worried that Charlotte would catch a cold if left unattended, even for a short while. Call me paranoid, but I rather want to be sure than having to manage a sick kid later on. I wanted to go to pick her up earlier that day, just to see how the teachers manage all those children, getting them off the pool, wet and cold. Too bad, I was very busy at work and she was all showered and ready to go home when I reached the school a few hours later. But I saw several kids were still playing while 2 other teachers were bathing and changing other kids. I was told that Charlotte was one of those in the 1st batch to leave the pool and get changed. I guess they managed it well and I am crossing my fingers...

I was also presented by her class teacher several test sheets that they had conducted in Oct together with the monthly progress report. I was surprised to see that Charlotte actually did very well in those tests (I didn't even know that they had tests for these young kids). I was also told that her writing skill is also considered advance at her age.

In the monthly progress report, they keep track of both academy and social emotional progress. I am glad to see that Charlotte is developing very good social emotional skill considering she's only joined the school 2 months after the second half of the year. Her strength now shows in Art and Music/Movement, she got all As (Always) in these categories (other markings are N for Not Yet and S for Sometimes). Her academy knowledge also has improved. One very obvious learning I observed is that I only taught her upper case alphabets at home, that includes writing it but she is able to recognize all lower case alphabets and writing some of it too. That is from school! :)

I need to make conscious note to myself that I have to spend more time with development activities instead of offering her movies (oops, but movie can keep her occupied for at least an hour!)

Train From Young?

We had dinner with some friends last Wednesday night and it was the 2nd time Charlotte met with these folks in a week. She had gotten herself very comfortable with them around and that also means that her true color shows when she gets comfortable.

As usual, daddy is a big fan of beer and they ordered several rounds of Tiger beer and slowly it had gotten Charlotte very curious about that drink. She started by just asking "what's that?" and we told her that the drink is hot and it's not for children. Her reply was "oh!". Slowly, from politely asked what that is she reached out her hand to "check out" those empty cans. She said "see only!" like this...

The next thing we knew...

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Luckily it's only an empty can.

This Is THE Day!!!

Exactly 3 years ago, I woke up at 4.30am and with my pregnant tummy I stepped into the washroom and sat on the toilet seat half dreaming. The strangest thing happened, I wondered why my bladder could kept so much urine and it felt like out of control! I then gotten a little bit more awake and thought could it be my water bag has broke? As I was trying to call my husband I felt another warm water gushed out. I was just 1 day before the estimated due date!

Yes, it's Charlotte's birthday and she woke up this morning feeling extremely happy when I greeted her with a big birthday kiss. She knew she is going to celebrate her 3rd birthday today at school. I brought home a cake last night and told her that she will be bringing it to school tomorrow morning. She took a look at it and her only expression was "Wah! It's mermaid!" with a big grin!

I am very pleased to see the cake myself as the cake house has been very flexible to design just the way I wanted. Isn't it nice? It's orange and vanilla sponge and it tastes great too!

We celebrated her birthday at school this morning. She is a happy girl I tell ya! The pictures say a thousand words of what happened in school :)

She is 12kg in weight and 91cm in height (I measured this morning, ha!). Little chili padi!

We are going to have a small family celebration for her this Sunday and hopefully another nice birthday cake :)

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!