Archive for October, 2009

Yippeee! Yahooo! Doing *Happy Dance. Happy Dance* Phweeeeet! *twirls around* Hip Hip Hurrah! Yeah!

No. I didn’t win the lottery, 4-D or contest.

Yes, after the end of this week, the kids would have finally ended their end of the year final exam. Wow! Its so amazing. It’s coming to the end of the year and soon both of them will move on to the next year in school!

The girl has ended her exams so its just the little one. Yes, even he has a test at 5 years old! I find that so ridiculous. He skipped school for two days because he was sick. When I called up to inform the teacher, she asked me whether I could go and collect his books for his evaluation. I suppose its for me to help him “revise”. Since he was sick and only 5, I didn’t bother to collect the books until the day he went back to school which is the day of his test. Besides, I was too busy helping his sister with her studies.

Poor boy. He sounded sad because he didn’t know how to do his chinese paper and required a lot of help from his teacher. I told him not to be so sad. As long as you try your best. (Even though mummy didn’t go and collect your books for you to study. )

Eventually, last night, I went through some of his books with him, just so he won’t feel left out. We did a little “revision” too just like the way mummy spends time with his big sister revising her work. Hopefully today he will know how to answer some questions.

I just received the photobook I ordered for dad and I love it. I am definitely a photobook fan now. I uploaded my photobook on Wednesday afternoon and received it on Monday morning. Its perfect.

The kids love looking at it. They enjoyed helping me to wrap it up too. We got some gold coloured paper from their craft cupboard. Then we used some leftover gold trimmed soft red ribbon from an old hamper and tied it around the gold packaged. Top it up with a little red card with a “Happy Birthday Kong Kong” written in Chinese by my girl and signed in Chinese by herself and her little brother (whom she signed on behalf off) and we are all set to present it to Kong Kong.

Though it would have been much faster to wrap the gift myself, it is good to include the kids in such activities. To teach them about the joy of giving. However, of course it took much longer to wrap it as they argued over who should stick more cellophane tape on the package.

Updated:

A few of you asked which photobook company I used. I used Photobook Malaysia. I must say that I am very pleased with the service, the quality, speed of shipping plus the ease of creating the photobook with the free photobook software.

Dad’s birthday is approaching and I have been cracking my head over what to get him. That has been the way for several years now…… ever since he has Dementia.

He doesn’t need money in the form of angpows since he doesn’t need to spend much and besides he has his monthly pension. Still, we usually give him … just for good luck. I guess old people maybe still likes to receive red packets.

He doesn’t need new shirts or shoes or mugs or towels. It is meaningless to him. Sometimes he has difficulty putting on his clothes and he doesn’t want to bathe so what good would these things do for him?

He has never enjoyed music very much and now he has lost interest in newspapers, tvs… most things. So how?

He has no use for the latest gadgets. Persons with Dementia have difficulty figuring out how to operate or use gadgets. Once, he thought the handphone charger was his handphone.

And then, finally I thought of it. Dad has never been the sentimental kind, but I noticed that after he retired, he started to like to look at photographs. We have adorned his room walls with photos and tables with framed photos. However, he does not have hard copies of photos we took over the recent years ever since we started having a digital camera and started storing photos in our pc or other digital storage devices.

So I designed and ordered a photobook for him…. with photos of all his birthdays, and of his children and grandchildren. I am so excited. I can’t wait to receive it and I hope that he really likes it. I think this will help him to remember places and events. I really hope that he will like it and I can’t wait to give it to him.

With all our frequent handwashing, regular use of hand sanitizers especially after touching common public surfaces like hand rails etc, not touching the face with the hands etc, we were not able to keep sickness at bay. We’ve been attacked by various viruses continuously. When will it end?

First it was the boy. He got it from kindy, presumably. He passed it on to his sister. They had cough and cold. They recovered.

Next it was the girl. Almost as soon as they recovered. She got it from school, presumably. She passed it on to her brother. They recovered from a second bout of cough and cold.

Then it was the man. He got it from work, presumably. Right after the kids just recovered. He passed it to me. He recovered. I am still having sore throat and some phelgm.

I have not yet recovered. I am trying my best not to pass it to the kids.

However, the girl started vomitting. I don’t know where she got this from because it was holidays and she was away from school. So it was probably in a public place, the supermarket or bookshop or whatever.

The doctor says its a stomach virus and she is not prescribing any medication. Not cough and cold like what I have, so I’ll still have to be careful about not passing it to the kids. She’ll just have to ride it out, says the doctor. She gave her a suppository to stop the vomitting and a warning to maintain utter care or the rest of the family will get it too especially the boy. Wash your hands frequently after touching each kid, she says.

Oh No. When will this sick unmerry go round ever end?

With the kids having concerts and exams, it is even more crucial that they don’t fall sick or in this case, that they recover quickly. One of the things I regularly face is how to keep the kids healthy just before their school trips, parties and concerts etc. Events that they look forward to for months, sometimes.

My only consolation is, when the boy wanted a hug and I said “Stay away from mummy ok? Tahan a bit. We’ll hug hug again when mummy is feeling better.” and he said “I cannot tahan, mummy. I love to hug hug mummy!” Well, now he has to stay away from his sister as well.

It would seem that the older I grow, the younger I feel in many areas. Take clothing for instance, I am beggining to want to dress younger and younger. (although the clothes and shoes don’t fit.) This is what most people call “Lau Hiau”. (Miang Old Hag). I don’t know how to translate it. Hahaha. It must be the syndrome of wanting to remain youthful.

The clothes don’t fit because you grow sideways naturally with age. If you try to look too slim you may end up looking haggard you know. So its good to have a little bit of fat …. around the face area that is. lol. The shoes don’t fit because after the first pregnancy, the foot grew a little bit bigger. After the second, it grew even bigger and unlike tummies, they don’t shrink back post delivery. The feet stays forever big.

At one time, even the watch strap did not fit the wrist and the rings did not fit the finger! Fortunately I managed to come off the peak weight with careful dieting  (translate that to eating like a bird). Gosh, it was hard work to come off the peak.

Anyway, the funny thing is, though most of the time I look like the housewife that I am, complete with baggy t-shirts and frumpy looking shorts and slippers that make me look worse than the more well dressed maid. Oh, and we must not forget the bare face and nails and the unruly hair that is quite often drawn up into an untidy bun and the bushy eyebrows.

Well, the funny thing is, I don’t feel that way most of the time. I only look that way but I don’t feel that way. I still feel young and good. Hahaha.

Maybe that is why, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to see the old woman in the picture. I only see the young one.

I guess looks really does not matter. Its whats inside that matters.