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Milestones

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Snow: Work and Play

December 5, 2012 in Ethan, Exercise, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting, Vacation | No comments

When life gives you lemons, go make some lemonade, so the saying goes.  And when life gives you snow, you smile, and make work seem like play!

Last Saturday morning, we awoke to a blanket of snow covering the landscape.  The weather forecast had been true to the dot and it had snowed through the night.  In fact, it was still snowing in the morning, and inevitably, our car was also covered with snow.

It was a good thing though that Pete had switched our initial minivan to a medium-sized car, so there wasn’t so much snow to clear off the car, but Ethan and Hannah were only more than willing to help!  It was a brand new experience for them, and c’mon, which kid would pass on an opportunity to play with snow?

The snow has all melted since that day, and the weather is slightly warmer now (i.e. 10-12ºC), however we have been told by the locals that it typically does not snow till January.  Would we be looking at colder days and nights ahead?  Would the kids have enough snow for a snowman?  Will we be having a white Christmas this year?

Only time will tell… 🙂

My Little Boy’s Graduation Ceremony

November 16, 2012 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones, Parenting | 2 comments

Last Saturday, we attended Ethan’s Graduation Ceremony.  It marked the end of his pre-school journey and signifies the beginning of another exciting one.

In a simple ceremony held in his school, it was truly a joy to see so many happy faces, although it rained heavily sometime in the middle of it all.  Doesn’t my boy look handsome? 😀

Unfortunately though, little Hannah drifted off into dreamland right before the event proper started.  We tried to wake her up but our efforts were futile; she continued sleeping despite the fact that it was hot and a lot of mosquitoes were flying around.

After a short performance by the graduands, the graduating certificate was presented to each of them individually.

The whole ceremony was simple but meaningful at the same time, perhaps Ethan felt a little bit emotional too, just like I did. 😛

There was a mini garden party after that, and while saying our goodbyes, I had to fight back tears (because I’m emotional like that).

Happy Graduation, Ethan Boy!
We are all so very proud of you!

 

Bringing the “Piggy” to the Bank

November 13, 2012 in Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | 1 comment

Yesterday morning, we squeezed in an important lesson of saving money.  Ethan and Hannah both have cute little “piggy banks” given by Ipoh Ah Ma in the shape of an elephant (for Ethan) and a cow (for Hannah), and they have been diligently saving their coins and asking friends and relatives for extra coins to add to their collection.

I thought it was high time I took them to the bank to save their moolah there, since I had been telling them about it for a long while.

Thankfully we only had to wait like 1 minute for our turn, and the kids eagerly handed over their piggy banks to to bank teller for counting.  They were delighted to see the coins being poured into a box and then to hear the coins being fed into the coin-counting machine.

We were done in a jiffy and I then returned the empty coin boxes back to them for future savings. 🙂  Definitely a great practical experience for them both! 😀

Here’s their voluntary “silly-face” pose before we left the bank:

Goldilocks and The Three Bears

October 30, 2012 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | 3 comments

I absolutely love it when Mommy tells me a bedtime story before I go to sleep.  My current favorite is Goldilocks and The Three Bears.  Although we don’t have a copy of that storybook at home, Mommy can tell the story even without reading from a book!  Amazing, right?

Anyway, I have been asking for this story on most nights now. My second favorite story is the The Three Little Pigs.

I love all the parts in the Goldilocks story and sometimes I add in my own sound effects too!  I always go to bed with a smile on my face after listening to that story.

Then just a few nights ago, Mommy said she was very tired and she instead asked ME to tell her a story!  So I chose my favorite story to tell, of course! 🙂

I changed it a bit though…I mean, Papa Bear can’t be cooking porridge all the time, right?  It would be waaaay too boring for the bears. So I told the story of him cooking noodles!! 🙂

Mommy had a good rest while listening to my story, and I enjoyed myself telling it too!

Tales of the Arabian Nights

October 26, 2012 in Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 1 comment

Months of intense practising, which started at the end of January this year, and afternoon stayback sessions in school, which had me ferrying him to and from school, and countless times of Ethan telling us, “It’s gonna be a surprise!  I’m not gonna tell you what will happen!” when I asked him specific questions about his role, has culminated in an afternoon of sheer enjoyment when we witnessed our little man perform in his inaugural K2 concert at Dewan Budaya in USM last Sunday.

Unlike most school concerts which had sporadic skits and items performed by the kids, it was the tradition of Ethan’s school to hold a full-fledged concert akin to a school play.  It was a tri-lingual concert, and in the months leading up to the concert day, at times Ethan would be intently practising his lines, be it singing or speaking.  He had speaking lines in Chinese and Bahasa too, and they even had recording sessions for the kids prior to the concert, just like a professional recording studio.

Oh yes, it was a MAJOR affair.  And our Ethan was truly truly excited.

In addition, he was playing a few roles too, as were his classmates; one of his roles was that of the Sultan, whom Princess Scheherazade would tell her stories to, for a thousand and one nights.

Yes, that was the title of their concert this year: Scheherazade – Tales of the Arabian Nights.

Unlike last year when Ethan only had one dance scene in his school annual concert, since he was in K1 at that time; this year, as he is in K2, he had speaking, singing and dancing roles.

Here are a few photos taken during the concert.  Photography and videography were prohibited during the concert proper, in order to ensure a smooth production without any disruption, so some of my photos were nicked from the official photographer’s stash 🙂

Pre-concert photo taking session, while waiting for the show to begin...

It’s Finally Showtime!!

Here’s Ethan playing the role as the Sultan…love the elaborate costumes and headgear!

Ethan resting at his “throne” 🙂

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Kids and Pregnancy

October 20, 2012 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | 5 comments

Hannah: Mommy, Daddy is not pregnant, right?

Me: No, he is not.

Hannah: Only you are pregnant, right?  Daddy, Ethan and Hannah are NOT pregnant.

Me: That’s right.

Ethan (in his usual big brother “I know more than you” style): Hannah, only girls can get pregnant, NOT boys.

Hannah: Oh.

Ethan: And do you know why?

Hannah: No, Ethan. Why?

Ethan: Because…you know, a baby will come out from the tummy from the private.  And only girls’ private is big enough for the baby to come out from.  In boys, the hole in the private is too small!

Hannah: Oh.

Ethan: Hannah, do you know why you cannot get pregnant now?

Hannah (thinking): No, Ethan.  Why?

Ethan: Because….you are still a small girl, and not an adult.  Your private is too small and the baby cannot come out from there yet.  A baby can only come out from an adult’s private!

Ethan has been constantly reading my favorite book in conception and pregnancy by Dr Miriam Stoppard, and has been learning a whole lot of stuff about babies and pregnancy. 🙂

(N.B: By the way, my kids know the correct term for male and female genitalia: i.e. penis and vagina, although they also use the term “private” to refer to them interchangeably)

Artist at Work

October 18, 2012 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | 1 comment

I simply love watching Hannah coloring.  She’d seem so engrossed and focused, and the results are no less impressive too!  Well, maybe she takes after her Mommy (since I’ve won a few coloring contests when I was a little girl too…ahem! :)).

This was one of her masterpieces today.  She even took the trouble to choose a skin tone color for the skin!

Simply Groovy: Hannah’s Playgroup Event

August 13, 2012 in Entertainment, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | 1 comment

Recently, Hannah’s class put on a concert event called the Playgroup Event.  It involved the kids from the three playgroup classes in her school, which meant the audience was treated to 2-3 year-olds on stage.

Hannah was very excited about the event, and although she woke up that morning announcing she was “too lazy” and didn’t want to wear sunglasses, she certainly did a 180º turn during the event.

Although it was a weekday morning, Hannah was definitely very happy to see her Daddy able to make it, albeit a little late.  Well, nothing beats watching your little gal sing and dance on stage like this, eh? 🙂

I, for one, definitely enjoyed it!  Great job Hannah!  Doesn’t she look absolutely adorable? 🙂

Mastering Chopsticks

July 18, 2012 in Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | 1 comment

Whenever I serve noodles or koay teow at home, Hannah will request to eat with a pair of chopsticks.  We only have one pair of training chopsticks though, so sometimes she needs to compromise with her brother; but thank goodness her brother is usually very accommodating, and she gets to train with the chopsticks.

I’ll have to say Hannah is doing pretty well for a three-year-old!  She can finish her bowl of koay teow by using that pair of chopsticks.

First, grab some koay teow with the chopsticks:

Then, place carefully onto spoon…careful there with the coordination ;P …

Lastly, the easiest part: place spoonful of koay teow into mouth!

The Writer in Her

June 20, 2012 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

writing1

I marvel at how fast my kids learn these days.  It’s true that I spend a lot of time with them, but I hardly ever formally TEACH them anything that is remotely academic.  We do a lot of free play, we talk a lot and discuss the things we see around us, we love having fun, sometimes we add some singing and dancing…but one thing I don’t force my kids to do is to write.  Even for Ethan, writing came naturally to him, and that is how I believe it should be.

Hannah writing

Hannah is showing a keen interest on writing, much to my amusement.  It started with scribbles and she would pretend to write notes and letters to me, and now she is beginning to form some words on her own.  Even her pencil grip is quite good, I would say.

Forming Letters

Her favorite word to spell right now, after her own name of course, is “COW”. 🙂

She would also form long imaginary words with a string of alphabets and ask me to read it.

She even surprised me when she would write something on paper and ask me what Chinese character it is.  Sometimes it doesn’t really mean anything, but she just learnt how to write the number ‘seven’ in Chinese:

Seven in Chinese!

Now THAT I can read!  Good job, Hannah!

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