Bible Verse of the Day

March 2012

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Well…look what we have here….Ethan has been playing with this new electronic toy/tablet for about a week now.

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When I was first introduced to this PlayChinese tablet, I was a little apprehensive about getting it for him.  It’s basically an Android-based tablet-like device which encourages users to learn Chinese by merely Playing it!  There are Chinese characters which allow you to practise the strokes and verbal pronunciations to help the user pronounce it.  What’s attractive is that points are allocated each time you write a character.

Well, I said I was apprehensive at first because I figured I could perhaps find a similar app in iTunes for him.  So I searched.

I did find a few apps and when Ethan tried them, he was initially excited, but then he told me, “Mommy, I WISH I had a pen to write the characters with!”

You see, the apps which I found for the iPad and iPhone only allowed him to write using his fingertips.

So I decided to try this PlayChinese tablet out.

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Well, so far so good.  It comes with 4 colorful stylus pens, which allows you to *write* on the tablet, just like the days of the Palm Pilot.  And Ethan is very happy to write the characters with them too.

Our intention is for Ethan to learn the verbal aspect of Chinese first, but if he shows a keen interest on writing it, then let it be.  After all, he will not be going to a Chinese-medium school, and we won’t be forcing him to do anything he does not like.

This 7-inch tablet appears to fit the bill quite well.  Ethan is currently practising his writing as well as the Chinese spelling exercises I prepared for him.  Oh yeah, they have pinyin capabilities too, which makes it easier for me to *locate* characters…

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Next step is probably to get a nice casing and screen protector for this tablet!

hannah_3yearsScrap Credits
Fresh Attitude Kit from Mel Designs

Weight

Should be about 14.3 kilos, at least.

Height

About 92 cm

Teeth

19 teeth, or almost there… Right now, she has 4 incisors on the upper jaw, 3 incisors bottom jaw;  2 canines upper jaw, 2 canines bottom jaw;  4 pramolars and 4 more back pramolars are making their appearance slowly but surely.

She can more or less brush her own teeth now, including squeezing the toothpaste onto her toothbrush, gargling and spitting, however, I still brush for her after that.  Because of the good example shown by her brother, Hannah brushes her teeth twice daily: morning and night 🙂

Developmental Milestones

  • Can walk up regular stairs using alternate feet.
  • Likes to show us how she can “balance on one foot”
  • Hannah is showing an improved pencil grip, and can draw somewhat clear alphabets now, all these without us prodding or teaching her how to hold a pencil or write!  She still loves to color and will make beautiful pictures for me.
  • She’s learning how to fasten and unfasten her buttons.  She loves to undress and dress herself up, and will insist on doing so, unless if she really can’t do it, then I will step in to help.
  • Language-wise, she is showing that she knows how to use the plural form of words when necessary, although sometimes the word itself might not be right.  For example, “Wow…look Mommy!  So many car-ses!”  She meant to say “cars” of course, but it is a very good sign that she used the plural form of “car” instead of the singular.
  • She’s also picking up some Mandarin from school, and can count very simply 1 – 10 in Mandarin (though not clear), and she can also sing easy Mandarin songs.
  • Loves to narrate what happened in school and can carry on an intelligent conversation with an adult with ease.

Toilet Training

During the recent one-week school holidays, Hannah asked to put on her panties in the daytime instead of her pull-ups.  I agreed, and to my absolute amazement, she was able to keep dry the whole day long, letting me know when she had the peepee feeling and going to the toilet on time.

So when school reopened, I discussed with her teachers and told them that she was ok out of pullups during the day.

And she has been really really good thus far 🙂  Her diaper rash has also subsided since she started wearing only pullups through the night 🙂  Good progress indeed!

Food and Feeding

Appetite is good, but the only thing she needs to work on is to eat more greens!


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…make sure you don’t rely on him to tell you when the next rest area stop is…

…well, it’s not that he won’t “tell” you…

He’ll say something like, “Okay guys…if anyone wants to go to the toilet, you’re too late now!” ….as we drive past rest area after rest area. 😛

Some time back, when my kids kept asking us “Why?” for every single thing, we taught them this silly rhyme:

“Why, why, tell me why?
Because the sky is so high”

What we had not expected was that Ethan and Hannah, who are very keen on rhyming words now, would create their own take on the rhyme and made it their own.  Check it out…amazing how they could form a perfect rhyme all on their own!

Their version goes:

Why, why, tell me why?
Because the sky is so high
In the month of July
I want to eat pie
But I don’t got (have) enough money to buy
So I cry!

The kids went to their (somewhat) first Sunday School a couple of weeks back.  Well, I say “somewhat”, because Ethan had been once when he was a little younger, but hadn’t gone since.  For Hannah, it was her first time, of course made so much easier with the presence of her brother.

That Sunday, the kids had a praise and singing session at the start, followed by classroom activities according to age group.  Ethan and Hannah happened to fall into the same class (age group 3-6).

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I expected them both to be a little shy and reserved, it being their first time, but I was surprised that Ethan was very vocal, and Hannah was not intimidated too.  They spoke freely to the Sunday School teacher and did their coloring and even volunteered some answers!

A definitely fruitful Sunday, which the kids enjoyed immensely.

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She’s been practising this for weeks now, and finally she proves that she can do it, just like her brother!  So everyone in our family can do it now! 😀

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Meet Hannah, our very own Star Kid of the Week! …well, actually not just for last week, but for a few weeks running 🙂

She wears the medal when she is in school and keeps it in her bag, until it’s time to return the “loaned medal”.

Hannah’s school gives out medals to kids whom the teachers feel perform exceptionally well, and these Star Kid medals serve as a means of encouragement to the kids to keep up the good work.

Ethan has gotten it a few times after his first time some years back, and he was truly excited when he reported that he saw Hannah getting the medal during assembly that day.

Awesome job, Hannah!  You’re truly a star!

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Several weeks ago, Ethan’s school planned a class field trip to visit two heritage buildings/sites in Penang.  And since I myself have not visited those places before, I asked for permission from his teacher for me to tag along, with the primary reason of snapping some pictures 🙂

The two places that the class visited was the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion on Leith Street, and Chew Jetty at Weld Quay.

The kids were ferried around in a bus while I drove to the sites on my own.  Apparently, a few other mothers were tagging along that day too, some for reasons unknown to me.

Photography was not allowed in the mansion itself, so I could only take a few outside before we went in…well actually, I did snap some pictures inside, but with my iPhone (read: quiet and small) 🙂

The image of the stately blue mansion against the beautiful blue sky that day was breathtaking.  It was my first time there, even though I had been staying in Penang for more than 10 years now.

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…and no…I am not obsessed with taking pictures of trishaws 😛

A peek into the living room where all the kids were being given an introductory explanation by the tour guide, Aunty Pauline, before the start of the tour of the mansion:

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More amazing architecture from within the mansion’s walls:

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After the mansion tour: a handful of the kids posing for a group photo…they actually look very hungry, don’t they?

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Well, I suppose the kids had their snacks on the bus on the way to the next stop, Chew Jetty, because when they arrived, they were all full of energy!

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While driving back home one day, Hannah suddenly squealed with delight.

“Mommy, Mommy, LOOK!!!  It’s the new LION KING!!”

And when I turned to looked this is what I saw…

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The kids wanted to create their own videos to show Daddy while he was away on business trip, so I took these two videos of them each singing a song of their choice and sent them over to Pete.

Do you think they succeeded in putting a BIG smile on Daddy’s face?

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