Christmas Tree?

Ever since the children went to IMM they have been asking me to put up a Christmas Tree at home. They never knew that there is one sitting in the storeroom unmoved for years.

Ever since my dad pass away, I have not touched that box.

So I told the boys that if they could draw me a Christmas Tree, I will grant them their wish. And so they drew this!



The green marker did not leave its tracks on the paper alone, but on their faces....Binbin wasn't in the mood for photo shoot today, so its just Keatkeat and his Green Tears..... See Photo

Happy 1st Month, Bernice

My neighbour's daughter, Bernice, is turning 1 month old today. Bernice's daddy and mommy are Chinese. As the tradition goes, they will give a 'Full Month' celebration cake with red eggs and ang-ku kueh.

Find out what does each item symbolise here...

My Child's creative mind

During Christmas Day, we often see people wearing christmas hats and illumine sticks, which are then bent to form bracelets. My kids are always crazy over these. I hardly buy for them except for party-time.

It was their lucky day today when Allan's friend gave a tube of 50 sticks to them. They were so 'high', they bent ALL THE 50 STICKS to 'activate' the lights.

Usually they would just bend 1 stick to form a bracelet or at most, join 3 or 4 of the sticks together to form a necklace.

But not for tonight, Keatkeat's creativity cells were at work. He made this for me.....See Picture

A Father who lives for his Children

Half Man Half Tree



Details below are taken from Discovery Channel

32 year old Dede lives in a remote village in Indonesia with his two children, trying to care for them. Dede, a former fisherman, has an extraordinary skin condition: he has root like structures growing out of his body - branches that can grow up to 5cm a year and which protrude from his hands and feet, and welts covering his whole body.

He is known locally as ‘Tree Man’ and his condition has baffled local doctors for 20 years. In an attempt to earn a living to support his family, he is part of a circus troupe, displaying his Tree Man limbs along with others afflicted with skin deformities in ‘freak’ shows.

According to my friend Aldian, Dede's wife left him and got sacked from his job.

You can view his special interview. The roots are growing fast and getting heavier. Now his only wish is to be able to live long enough to see his grandchildren.

It takes alot of courage to carry on living in such a state...on this joyous season, let's take time to be thankful for what we have and teach your child to always be grateful for who he or she is, never take anything for granted.

Have you or your child been complaining? What do you think goes through the mind of this man when he hears the type of things you complain about?

A Charlie Brown Christmas!

I always love A Charlie Brown Christmas!

Hope you enjoy too....

Children having fun shopping in IMM

Finally, its not raining! Just want to get out of the house to get some fresh air after 4 days of cold and rainy weather. Got the kids to bathe, get dress....when kids know that they are going shopping, they just become sooooo obedient and do exactly what you say in fast speed....*wink*

So in less than an hour, we got out of the house. Yeah! Waited for about half an hour for the free shuttle service to IMM from the bus interchange and in less than 10mins, we are there.

IMM was so full of Christmas decorations. So we took the chance and take photos...

Didn't look too excited. So I gave each of them a Santa Hat to get them in higher spirit.

That's Better!

Then we shop....



then they saw the kiddy ride...$2 for 10mins...because they were younger than 7 years old. The assistant said I had to be on it too, so what a bargain! All 3 of us in the kiddy ride together for $2! So 3 of us drove around the 100+sq foot of empty space on the furry elephant.



and we played and played....



and they spotted the water playground!



Sorry boys...not today...



it dark clouds start covering the sky again...have a drink before we go...



on the way home, Keatkeat spotted these on the floor....



the kids only managed to observe for a few seconds and the rain started...what a waste!



Its great fun to shop with the kids when you know how to handle them. Children normally become extra active when they are outdoors, parents must understand that its the way children express their excitement.

Its so often that you hear parents shouting, "stay still", "don't run", "keep quiet" when they are shopping with their kids. Kids are not robots, they have feelings, let them have the freedom to express it.

Do you enjoy shopping with your kids?

Kids decorated the toliet

Stickers were contributed by Keatkeat's school teacher. He was so excited about the stickers and kept telling me all the good habits that we must have when we go to the toliet. He wanted to make sure that 'everyone' remembers so he asked if he could stick them in our toliet.

My reply, "Why Not?" He told me that he is afraid he may not stick them well, so he requested me to do it and that I must do a good job....

Well, he was the instructor, I just do the sticking...so we stick here...

and here...



AND HERE!



"Thank you, mummy." Keatkeat said with a smile full of pride as he looks at the stickers.

Every now and then, he would point to the pictures and say, "remember ah....do not....."

This is really good when it comes to building good habits in children. Get them stickers, get them to participate in the sticking process, it does get into their heads.

Mmmm...maybe I should start finding stickers on "SIT 3 meters away from the TV"!

Snake and Ladders for your Child?

Finally my 4-year-old Keatkeat is old enough to play a decent game of Snake and Ladders, without throwing the dice so far, you could hardly locate it...and refuses to slide down when bitten by the snake...sigh...yes, all those days are gone now.....

Its "Good Etiquettes" Snake and Ladders. It teaches you what you should do (gives you a ladder to climb up) and what you should never do (get ready for the slide down the snake).



The longest ladder goes to gardening, *scratch head*, maybe because you need to put in lots of love and care, from 28 to 84, up up and away!

Riding a bicycle without holding onto the handle will cause you to slide down from 87 to 24. I guess children that perform bicycle stunts wouldn't agree then...*wink*

At last, Keatkeat can tell me the number of dots on the dice in less than 1 second. Of 'cos, I still need to do-the-walking for him most of the time, ....with the pictures its really hard to see the tiny numbers on a board that is smaller than the size of my 2 palms put together.

Ever played snakes and ladders with your kid? The next game on the list...Tic-Tac-Toe...he still doesn't know when to 'block' my move....