Going back to hometown & happy vacation at Penang

Due to long holidays, I suggested to hubby to go back to his hometown to visit his dad, and at the same time bringing the twins to Penang.
This round we didn't bring along BB JY as the previous trip, he has been very cranky and refused to be on food & drink. So, due to hot weather, we decided not to bring him along with us for this trip.

We reached Serdang, Kedah (hubby's hometown) at about 7pm.
We tapao 2 salted chicken from Ipoh for my FIL. This salted chicken is very famous in Ipoh. Every time when we happened to drop by at Ipoh, we'll sure to buy 2 chickens back, either to Kedah or back to KL. My twins can finished half of the chicken by their own, so you can imagine how delicious was it ^_^

The very famous salted chicken can be bought at :-
24, Jalan Theatre,
30300, Ipoh, Perak.
Tel : 05-254 2998
Aun Kheng Lim Salted Chicken

The next day we went to Batu Ferriggi & Teluk Bahang.
This was my first time here.
The beaches were nice and very clean.

This was taken at Teluk Bahang, nice isn't it?
Twins were playing sands & water with papa ^_^

 



 

See how excited is my twins playing sands? Hubby digs a big hole and both of them start playing the sands and throwing the sands to each other!

 

We stay a night at Golden Sands Resort , there was a promotion for Executive Suit at RM460++ / night. We decided to stay a night as the scenery was very nice, and at pool facility was very good.

My twins were with sparkling eyes when they saw the swimming pool & the white beaches.
They kept on shouting when I was queueing to check in at the registration counter.

The room was clean, although it was pretty small, if your were comparing the "price" with the room.
However, I like the sea view from our room, just nice with the bath tub.
My twins whom are still not satisfying after playing half of the day in the pool, insisted for a second round of water splashing in the hotel's room bath tub!

Twins posing in the hotel's room with their swimming suit, they kept shouting & requesting us to bring them to the swimming pool, and insisted to have a nice photo with their new swimming suit.
(Bought this online at reasonable price, the old one is a bit tight for KH, and he claiming that the swimming trunk is very cold for him, he requested for a suit instead ^_^)

I didn't snap any photos in the swimming pool, as I didn't bring my camera along, as I need to watch over twins while they were in the pool.
Karen, Edwin & their son - Ian came and join us in the pool.
(Karen was my landlord while I was renting a room with her at JB. Although I've moved back to KL, we still kept a close relationship with each other through chatting.)
Ian was 4 months elder than our BB JY.

The next day we wake up early for a splendid breakfast at the cafe.
We met Karen again & took a photo with her & Ian.

We finished our breakfast early & take a move to the beaches again.
Lots tourist were swimming there.
I didn't let twins to go for swimming, as I knew that they will not be willing to go back early, as we need to check out by 12 noon later.
Twins requested for sands playing again :-)

Overall, we all enjoyed our trip this round, and we'll be back again to Penang, and this round we'll bring along BB JY for a family trip.

小小的图书馆 (亲子阅读)

I loved to read books, and most of all, I loved to buy books.
I'll normally buy books online, as I've limited time for myself to do window shopping at bookstore.

Hubby have been complaint about my books, as it was everywhere, from living room, dining hall to bedroom :-( I'll try to read books to my kids, if I've time & a bad habit nowadays is I need to read few pages before I sleep.

I saw from catalogue that Tesco is having promotion for a small book cabinet.
So, I bought 1 & I spend ~30minutes to assemble the book cabinet by myself.
Yes, all by myself. I wonder when was the last time I ever used this tools? Well, it was at least 8-9 years back, when I was still in university taking my "Workshop" for my credit.

A nice assembled book cabinet, placed in my living hall, where my kids can take the books whenever they like & a place for us to share our reading hobby.

书中自有黄金屋

This is a good poem :-
富家不用买良田，书中自有千钟粟。
安居不用架高楼，书中自有黄金屋。
娶妻莫恨无良媒，书中自有颜如玉。
出门莫恨无人随，书中车马多如簇。
男儿欲遂平生志，六经勤向窗前读。

I'm believing in this :-
Read everyday, Lead for a better life ^_^

大人现在应该看绘本座谈会

I've attended 绘本座谈会 during Hari Raya Haji.
This is the first time I myself went to this type of talk.
It was interesting.
The talk was conducted by 骆淑慧, she is normally addressed as "骆驼姐姐".
The initial part of the talk was exposed to the social problems faced by the kids / teenagers nowadays, like commit suicide & tension.
The later part was about Mandala Drawings, she shared some of the kid's drawing & explained to us the analysis of the kids towards themselves, and how can we as parents help them or counselling them.

The Talk 
"骆驼姐姐" shares some 绘本 with us.
Initially we were all very quiet, as when she shares to us some picture books / 绘本, there were lack of response/ feedback from us.
She says we are "lack of imaginations"!
Yeah, I'm totally agree with it!
We as parents, always in logical thinking, and think that we should decide for our kids.
Yet, in reality, we should give our kids freedom and let them to decide for themselves.
We should let our kids to enjoy during their childhood ^_^

Some nice picture books / 绘本 shared :-
ZOOM : by Istvan Banyai - this is a very creative picture books.
小羊和蝴蝶没关系
跳舞
永远爱你
点
Some, I can't recall the book's title :-( 

Photos taken for  "骆驼姐姐" :-

 

 

This is a very GOOD quote!

 

This are the books I bought from Loving Community Center, which a 20% discount for the participants. Among all this books, my favorite is 人生嘛! I send this book to hubby as his birthday present, he loves the meanings behind the every photos shown in the book. I'm glad he loves it so much ^_^
 
Remark
I felt touched when she was sharing her story on her brother & father's death.
I cried when she was reading 跳舞, I've the same feeling when she read this book.
I recall the things I did when I was a very small girl too, I thought my dad never love me, until I was really sick, and I realized how much my dad cares for me.
How great is our parents love to us, and how should we repay them?
Most of the time, we always think that our parents never care for us, until we ourselves have become parents and understand the pain and difficulty they've been through.
This is what they meant by : Growing Pain!
We should treasure & cherish every moment with our family, while we still can.




阅读绘本就是在每个人的心上 "种"下一颗"善"的种子. Hence, we should try to spend some quality time with our kids by reading story books / picture books to them. Let them know that you love & care for them, and at the same time, inspiring them reading & enhanced their imagination & build up their creative thinking ^_^

 
       

花花世界- Part 2

This week topic will be all about flowers.
Taught twins the other day about : Flower, stems & leaf. Cooked early the other day and promised to take twins to the park for a stroll, if they behaved.
To my surprise, they did behave nicely, maybe recently they didn't been to the park, so they dreaded to.

We pickup some small nice flowers & branches along the park.
This will be our materials for crafts later.

We sticked some flowers on the sketch book, one by one.
I just helped twins to apply glue on the book, they sticked the flowers by themselves.
Look, isn't it nice?

This is EQ's flowers, she sticked most of the flowers we've managed to pick.

This is KH's flowers. He did this by tearing one leaf by one & sticking them up on a stem (used with a tree's branch). Lovely, isn't it?

Folded Sketch Book
This is a very simple, not expensive acticity which you can do at home.
Just by folding a drawing paper to a few times. Mine were 2 times, for a rectangular book size.
You can teached your kids the topic which you want on the writing board, while your kids can draw / write the noted on the folded sketch book.
For details, please refer to Folded Book

 

This is my example for "Flower" sketch book.

 

 

 

 

When I asked twins what flowers they know?

Give a guess what is their answer?
SUNFLOWER 太阳花

KH then told me that he knew where he could find this wordings from the flash cards.
Busy searching the flash cards.
 

KH is writing the words on the board. He can't remember the spelling, so he brought along the folded sketch book, which I taught them to do with writings on it.

This morning, while I was reading some educational forum, I came across this : A nicely sunflower poster DIY. So I did mine as well.
I love the idea of sticking the words in the same column basis, which the kids can easily looked at & understand. This is very simple & easy to do, which you can also do yours as home, with your kids.

For details, you can refer to Exploring Flower

花花世界

As I was on way back from Kinrara to fetch twins back from kindie, I saw a new flower shop at the roadside. So, I dropped by and bought some nice flowers- 2 Gerbera & 4 Roses.
I wonder what will be twin's reflection when they saw this nice flowers?

When I fetch twins from kindie, they saw the flowers & immediately pulled out the Gerbera from the wrapping papers instead. Oh, my! Luckily they didn't start pulling out the petals from the flower, thank God ^_^

Twins were very happy when they saw the flowers - as I this is the first time I bought flowers back home. Told them that I'll put them in a vase on the dining table as decoration. They offered help to put them in the vase ( I used the empty glass from the used Leggo's chunky pasta sauce instead as reusable material.)

The flowers in the nice vase :-

And our topic for today will be "FLOWERS", hehe.
We ended lunch early & started to draw flowers in our sketch book for afternoon's activity.

While twins were having their nap, I quickly did some crafts on their sketch book.
Will teach them about : Flower, Stem, Leaf & Petal ^_^

I used all recycled materials- the stems & leaves from the dropped branch in front of our car porch, the rose petal & leaves as well.

 

Nice isn't it?
Hope my twins will going to like it later ^_^

Blue blue Monday :-(

I wasn't in really good shape this few days.
Started with last Saturday evening, when we were on our way from Puchong to Setia Alam to fetch JY back, it was raining very heavily, and yes it was heavy traffic jam too from LDP. Hubby took a short cut from Sunway to Glenmarie and off to Kesas highway. Well, to me it was a long journey, and my dizziness started from that day onward.
Last night, on our way back to Setia Alam, again I was feeling dizzy.
Once reached mom's place, I faster hit to toilet - muak muak vomited :-(

This morning, I'm still not feeling well.
My head kept spinning, and I find myself shifted to a side till now.
Told hubby not going to office today.

So, what did I did the whole morning.
Laundry...and the whole morning, the weather is groomy & no sunshine at all.
Reflecting my own feeling as well.
Still no improvement on my dizziness.

When I felt a little bit better, I drove to Carrefour to buy some sausages, corns, fish fillets & etc.
Yeah, although not in good shape, I decided to cook lunch for twins.
Tired of eating outside food.
I fried sausages, some chicken ham, baked beans & cook pasta.
Was a bit rush as I've only 30 minutes to cook, before I need to go to kindie to fetch twins.

The outcome :-

Not bad, right?

Well, during our lunch, we had a chat.
EQ was asking me : Why the pasta is not "Spaghetti" - the long type?
I told her that isn't it "Spirals" is much more nicer & juicier?
The twins shake their head & told me : NOPE, "Spaghetti" is still nicer than "Spirals"!
Well, never under estimate your kids, as they've their own opinion & thoughts too ^_^

Oh mine, my head is still spinning non-stop, I need a rest :-(

01-09-2012 森林妈妈故事坊(1) ~ 亲情主题绘本分享之第二场（妈妈买绿豆，逃家小兔，妈妈的礼物）

This is a backdated posting, since I've been very busy with work & life.
(I should be typing this in Chinese, however I discovered that the blogs which I try to type with NJ Star in Word when pasted in here, all the settings were in a mess, and cannot be re-arrrange at all. I just gave up  - Sigh!)

Jungle Mama a very good activity which parents can join together with their kids for all sort of activities. This is organized by a few mothers which initially they want their kids to socialize with others as well and at the same time to educate their kids & exposed them to mother nature. 

I've been trying to "register" in their activity a few times.
Most of the time, when I saw the posting in their FB, the "registration" session was full, and there was a long queue for the waiting list as well.

We were very lucky to register in one of their activity. We were late that day, as I need to drive from Puchong all the way to FRIM. We were told by the organizer that there will be a shooting program on that day by TV2 crew and the activity will be broadcasting on air by end of September.

Twins were very excited when I told them earlier that we'll be going for an outdoor activity in jungle. Yeah - jungle. Twins never been to jungle before. They were very excited when they reached there. To them the small water fall, a hanging bridge & forest is very new, as they never seen before. 

Warming Up Session  
Early morning, the teachers started with some basic exercises for warming up session. 
Teacher was singing : 什么飞啊?什么飞?
Students replying :  飞机飞啊， 飞机飞。 蝴蝶飞啊， 蝴蝶飞。 
                              小鸟飞啊，小鸟飞。直升机飞啊，直升机飞。
                              老鹰飞啊，老鹰飞。
Following with some "flying" actions. 
(Twins were not really involving themselves in it initially as they never exposed to this before. But, later when I asked them they love the exercise.)



Story Telling Session
The first story was "煮绿豆汤"- cooking green bean soup. 
This was very fun & interesting. 
I love the way the teacher involving all the kids by separating them into few groups, where the younger toddlers (3yrs old) send for washing the green bean. The 4yrs old group were send for picking up the small branches to setup fire. 
All the bigger kids were then send for doing the "火种".
Later,  all the students were gathered together again, where teacher set up for the pot.

See how exciting the kids using the fan to "煽火". EQ was squatting with Pink Dress ^_^

While we waited the green bean soup to be boil, the teachers began with the next story telling session : 逃家小兔.

 

Very nice and attractive story telling with dolls & moving scene.
Bravo to all the teachers.
The moral of the story is : No matter where you went, you'll still be your mom's child, and she'll be with you no matter what happened to you ^_^
We then did a small experiment too : Momentum theory hehe, with the moving balloon.

The last session was doing craft with the small branches picked up from the forest.
I didn't snap any photos for this, as twins began sweating & cranky.

Overall, we all enjoyed a lot the whole session, and looking forward to take part in the next activity in near future.

We met Siew Lan- twins' mother too.
Siew Lan with her kids. She didn't bring her twins that day for the activity.




 

October 2012 Happenings

October was a busy month for me & twins.
Early October, EQ has been admitted to CAH due to tonsillitis. It all happened all of sudden, without any symptom at all. Papa send twins to school just as normal.
Suddenly, the principal called up informing us that EQ was down with high fever & cried non-stop.
Papa immediately went back to kindie to fetch her & rush her to paed.

Doctor told she was infected with tonsillitis and need us to send her to nearest hospital for thorough checkup for other tests as well. She was fine & very cooperate on the first day when admitted to hospital. She requested for food & drinks. Yet, everything changes for the next few days.
I guess she began to felt lonely and boring, being left at hospital, while her brothers can play & ran.

I'm more worried for KH & JY at the other hand, as mom told me they were with mild fever too.
Oh my, I've began feeling exhausted taking care of EQ alone at hospital. Luckily after 5D 4N stays at CAH, EQ has recovered and can be discharge. Papa was then flew off to Shanghai for business trip for a week. Off he go, with me & mom alone with the kids - Sigh!

3Q MRC Concert
It was held on 7th Oct (Sunday) at Summit USJ's convection hall.
We weren't excited at all, as EQ was still at CAH. We requested doctor for time off to allow EQ to participate in the concert. Yet, I still find that this is hurting EQ as well.
She was a bit cranky in the concert, as she can't performed at all, with bandage on her left wrist.
She cried when she saw her friends dancing on stage.
She cried non-stop duing the last song (Rasa Sayang) for closing ceremony.

On the other hand, JY was so enjoyed seeing all the big brothers & sisters dancing and singing on stage. When he saw KH performed, he was pointing here & there to inform us that "gor gor" is performing.

Overall, we didn't enjoyed at all for the concert, as EQ was crying during the show.
I hope next year will be better.

Crafts
Twins love drawing a lot, espeically KH. Both them requested me to send them for art class.
I did some survey, find out that Global Art was located quite near to our house.
Send twins for a trial class some weeks ago. Teacher told KH was very talented in colouring, EQ on the othet hand was lack of focusing. Have discussed with papa & will consider to send them for art class in near future.

This is some art/ craft twins did while I was taking shower. Bought this nice paper from education forum, very nice indeed. All you need to do is just use a "stick" to draw on the "black paper" or color it. The colours was very sharp & twins enjoyed a lot.
(EQ was colouring "Teddy Bear", while KH was coloring " Candy")

最近的我+小孩都很忙。

我

我忙着穿梭在工作

& 照顾双宝，努力在找着这两者之间的平衡。

原来，是很难的。

忘了在哪里看到

- 女人一单结了婚有小孩后， 会奉献给整个家庭， 没有了私人空间。

报章上看到的

: 许多女性一辈子都为家人付出， 却忽略了自己的需要。

她们有很多委屈，

默默为别人付出的结果， 很可能是在临终的那一刻， 与婆婆、娘家与孩子的关系是渐行渐远的.

前天

, 读了这篇文章时, 心情其实是很低落的, 久久不能平复起来.

双宝

4岁的他们最近很忙, 很忙.

幼儿园将举办一年一度的

concert.的, 什么是concert?

说真要和

4岁的双宝解释 - 还是有点难度.

小孩的排练从上星期开始了

.

某天

, 在等着接小孩放学的时候, 看到老师在为小孩排舞-歌曲是Lonely Goatherd.

有看过

The Sound of Music 的, 都会特别喜欢这首歌, 喜欢歌的旋律还有在戏中小孩忙碌的做着木偶戏.

老师很忙的在执导一群

"小不点" -真的不简单!

还要确保每位小孩都记得舞步

&位置, 对我来说难度加难.

回家的路上

, 问小孩学校的事物 - EQ说老师教她们跳舞, 转圈圈.

KH了说老师教他们如何 bow, 舞蹈 &其他.

问小孩喜欢吗

?很喜欢, 可是很累 - 腿有点酸!

有时

, 搞不懂这些所谓的concert, 是为我们这些大人联办的, 还是这些"小不点"?

还是学校为了证明给家长看

- 每个月花的学费是物有所值的, 哈哈!!

小宝

小儿子被妈妈照顾

,周末才带回来.

对他

, 我很内疚, 觉得这样的安排亏欠他.

可是

, 却爱莫能助, 因为我必须认同在这个阶段, 我1人时无法同时`兼顾'工作&照顾他们3人.

想到这

, 我的眼泪还是忍不住的留了下来.

每天和妈妈的通话

, 让我能知道他的一切.

通常都是无关痛痒的事情

.

只是

, 心里边, 还是会觉得酸酸的, 因为他不在我这里.

说不出的感觉

.

希望此刻的你

, 还是在玩着你的玩具, 看这你 BB TV.

后记

回想起以前我

4岁时, 我在做些什么?

我没有办法想起来

.我是个城市小孩, 没有爬过树, 抓过鱼,到河里游泳,玩弹珠 &其它.

回想起我的童年

, 好像都是"被"锁在家里, 因为妈妈得1人照顾我&弟弟, 所以为了安全理由, 我们都是在家里的.

到现在

, 我还是很羡慕乡村小孩, 一出家门就是玩个不停, 可以接触大自然.

如今

, 我为人母亲, 我才深深体会孩子的教养这方面是门很深的课, 还是一辈子的"苦差". 我能够了解妈妈当时的用心良苦, 只是如果还可以的话, 我希望她能"放手"让我们成长. 让我们试试看.

路程虽然不简单

, 可是经一事, 长一智.

跌倒了, 就再爬起来, 继续走下去, 这才是人生啊!

 

 

Happy Gardening

I've been always fonds flowers & plants. But....too bad, with limited land in front of my house, I can only plant some flowers & a few pots of plants.(The empty land behind at our house is under the management, so it is not recommended to plants anything on the land, unless you are planting them in pots.) Yet, this is good enough for me as gardening need lots of efforts & also time to maintain the plants.

The organic farm trip the other day inspired me again & my twins to plant vegetables instead, hehe. In fact I bought a few packs of organic seeds - Okra & Mukkhiya, this is my "green projects" with my twins! I planted Okra on 04/08/12 -the day we went for the field trip. Waited & waited, it's been a week plus, nothing "seems" appearing on my planting pot -Sigh! Or should I say, I've "wasted" the seeds instead? Well, lets cross our fingers & hope my "Okra" plant did success!

On the other hand, me & twins planted some "onions" at the organic farm.
This was the 1st activity when we reached there. It's good to exposed the kids to mother nature.
My twins learned to used a spade to mix the soil & to plant the onion.
It's fun & educating ^_^
We brought back 3 "tiny" pots of onions back to our house & placed them under shade in front of my car porch. Watered the plants daily & observed the growth of the plants.

Lets see..how our plants have grow :-





And, on the other hand, my mulberry tree at my back yard is "fruiting" now.
Its has been months since the last fruiting season.
See how nice the red small fruits on the tree.

My flowers were growing too :-