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!

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.