Little Miracles · Parenting

Cool For School

April 29, 2014 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

Another chapter ends. A brand new one begins.

After enjoying homeschooling for eight odd months, Ethan started off in regular school just yesterday. He had always told me that he liked both homeschooling AND schooling, and that in an ideal world, he would have both. We just felt that he was ready and it is time he tried regular schooling. After all, it is only fair that he forms his own opinion of each after trying both out. It is ultimately his own happiness that’s important.

One thing for sure though (and one which we like about regular schooling) is that he will get a chance to be with friends his age almost every day. We had that in homeschooling on some days but not all days.

This also means ironing uniforms on a regular basis for me. No more slacking, Mom! 😛

Still early days but we’re going with the flow now. School runs will be tweaked somewhat, but I’m just extremely thankful for the proximity of his school to our home. I’m still pro-homeschooling though, please don’t get me wrong…but this is just something that we have to do, at least for now. I would definitely homeschool again in a heartbeat, if I have the opportunity to do so again.

Proud of you, dear Ethan! You rock! 😀

The Beginning of Creative Writing

April 23, 2014 in Funny Moments, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

It is an absolute JOY to witness a child embarking on a wonderful journey filled with imagination beyond boundaries. When a child starts putting thoughts and ideas into words and takes pen to paper, so to say, the possibilities are endless.

Where it happened pretty quickly with Ethan, so much so that I could not keep up, with Hannah, it has been a gradual process. She first learned her phonics and sounds and then blending those sounds together to form words. Her confidence in sounding out words as she attempts to read them has increased in leaps and bounds, and I cannot begin to say how proud I am of my little snowflake.

We read a story or two every night as a “nightcap” before we call it a day, and I am pleased that Hannah has been volunteering to read most of the words by herself!

Here’s a short descriptive sentence she wrote all by herself, complete with graphical illustration. She came up with the words on her own and even spelled the words on her own by blending the sounds of the letters.

Awesome job, my dear! Soon you’ll be writing pages and pages about big and fun ships! 🙂

Proof and Resemblance

April 7, 2014 in Emma, Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | No comments

We are often amazed (and still are) at how closely Emma resembles Ethan. It’s almost like having and holding Ethan all over again, except that Emma’s a girl.

This here is Ethan at about 7.5-8 months (photo taken from my archives):

…and over here is Emma at about 8 months. I’ve rotated the photo so we can get a better view of her face:

The same button nose to the same BULAT head 🙂

Another Case of Déjà vu

April 3, 2014 in Emma, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 1 comment

Would you just look at how Hannah lovingly takes care of her little baby sister, by offering her a drink?

This certainly brings back memories…see? This was what Ethan did to Hannah some years back when she was just starting to learn how to drink from a straw.

Simply, amazingly PRECIOUS!

Hannah Reads

February 25, 2014 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

My little girl Hannah is just about embarking on her next beautiful journey: learning to read. The fact that she cannot read as fluently as her brother Ethan did when he was her age last time does not bother me one bit.

Ethan was a fast reader and could already string words together before he was 3. Hannah on the other hand is doing a great job sounding the sounds alphabets make, but at one point, she was frustrated because she could not put these sounds together to form words.

I’m not concerned because as long as I know she is healthy and having fun learning stuff, I’m happy too. But lately I realized that Hannah could pick up reading more easily and readily when she reads a story repetitively, or when the story is read to her repeatedly.

Here, she is reading one of the books she borrowed from the library. With fun graphics and easy-to-read words, it’s an excellent start to boost her confidence and jumpstart her on the reading bandwagon.

I love her expressive words!

Birds and Bees Question #33

February 20, 2014 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Hannah: Ethan, did Mommy peepee Emma out when she gave birth to her?

(Note: My kids were actually there in the delivery room when I gave birth to Emma)

Ethan: Hahaha…no Hannah.

Mommy (putting on Mommy-the-educator hat): No Hannah, when we peepee, the peepee comes out from the urethra. But the baby comes out from the vagina. Those are two different openings.

Hannah: Huh? Peepee in the winter?

Mommy: Haha…no sweetie. Not in the winter. Peepee from the urethra, NOT winter. Baby from the vagina.

Ethan: What? Baby from China?

Mommy: From the vagina, Ethan. NOT China.

Laughter all around.

*Another edition of Morning Funnies on our school run*

Welcoming The Year of The Horse – Snippets

February 10, 2014 in Celebrations, Emma, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Now that we have all welcomed in the year of the horse with all the neighs and brays, and the cookies in the jars are dwindling fast, here are some shots taken during our recent Chinese New Year “balik kampung” extravaganza. From Penang to Taiping to Ipoh and then back to Penang, all in the sweltering heat that is reminiscent of Chinese New Year.

Some photos were taken by photographers on the scene, at times when both my hands were full; usually one holding a 10-month old and the other a cookie or two. 😛 Heaps of gratitude goes out to these kind photographers…you know who you are 🙂

We had a simple tea ceremony when we were back in my hometown in Ipoh. We served tea to my parents and the kids served tea to their grandparents, whilst getting ang pows at the same time.

Some pictures of Emma…she’s only recently become more camera-friendly.

One of the many Hannah pictures. She wore this bright yellow summer dress on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. It’s hard not to smile when I look at her.

I wanted to make some cookies this year but could not find the time before Chinese New Year. So I figured it would still count if I did so during the 15 days, yes? My kids helped me bake these easy-peasy German cookies…so crumbly, so melt-in-the-mouth, so more-ish….well, actually I HAD to bake these because I almost finished eating the German cookies my Mom gave!

And lastly, as a tradition and also just for laughs, here are our several attempts at obtaining a good family picture. 🙂

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all! How was your Chinese New Year this year?

A Lego-Inspired Party

January 30, 2014 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 2 comments

About a month ago, Ethan had asked if he could invite some friends over for his birthday party. We were hesitant, but since he rarely asks for anything, we obliged. Well, Pete was a little concerned about pulling off the party and all so soon after we had moved, but I decided to go ahead with it because Ethan was really looking forward to it. So last Saturday, we had a small do for Ethan with a few of his friends. We decided to have it about a week earlier than his actual birthdate because the actual birthday falls on the 1st day of Chinese New Year this year.

In deciding a theme for his party and after taking like 5 minutes to decide between a Diary of a Wimpy Kid party or a Lego party, Ethan decided on the latter. He left most of the party planning to me, but he was very specific about the cake.

He asked for a cake shaped like a Lego 4×2 brick, where he could put a candle in each of the studs,given that it is his 8th birthday and all. When asked for the color of the cake, he wanted red.

It was a good thing baby Emma decided to nap a couple of hours the day before the party, allowing me some time to bake and decorate the cake.

I prepared birthday invites in a Lego theme and tried to make everything as Lego-like as possible. If I could, I would have created a Lego minifigure costume for Ethan..haha.

On the day of the party, Daddy hung up the birthday banner I made. Had to tweak the Lego font a little but it was well worth it. Printed out the letters on white paper, cut them out carefully and glued them onto red colored paper, which was glued onto black paper to achieve the black-outlined effect.

When the guests arrived, they were treated to some Lego Star Wars movies on the telly. This was Ethan’s idea. Took me a while to get the little guests away from the TV and to start on the games.

Oh, and we also asked the guests to participate in the “Guess the Number of Lego Bricks” game. Some adults wanted to participate in this one too.

We had some “Lego” food, made with love of course, such as Lego sandwiches, Lego pizza and errr…fruits cut up to spell the word Lego 🙂 (Sorry, I had no idea how to shape fruits like Lego without making a mess of them all!)

I also made Lego chocolates and Lego ice cubes with a Lego mould I borrowed from a dear friend.

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Gratefulness

January 13, 2014 in Christianity, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Lately I started to teach Hannah how to pray. I figured it’s about the right time now since Ethan learnt to pray roughly around the same age too.

She asked a lot of questions.

“Where is God?”
“Is God in our hearts all the time?”
“Why don’t we see God?”
“Do bad guys go to heaven?”

I told her that we can talk to God any time we want and wherever we are. For a start, I suggested a good time would be at bedtime. She could say a simple sentence every night to thank God for something..anything..she could think of. I told her to think of it as a “conversation with God”.

Initially she didn’t know what to say or how to do it but after some prompting, she started producing ideas of her own….every night, without fail.

“Dear God,” she would start,
“Thank you for my clothes.”
“Thank you for my teachers.”
“Thank you for my meals today.”

She ends each prayer with, “In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

Tonight she said: “Dear God, thank you for the best mommy in the world!”

My heart melted.

And then she said, “I love you, Mommy!”

“I love you too, sweetie!”

I must have done something really good to deserve such a loving and sweet miracle. 🙂