Children day, food, bitch fight.

It's the day the kids look forward to go to school all year. Children's Day. That's the day they party and eat junks and most importantly, no lessons.

Kor requested me to make his friends my grilled chicken wings. Jeez! Such a demanding brat. But I like to think too that he wanna impress his friends with "See? I told you my mom's chicken wings are good, din I tell you so... kekeke..."

But I felt soooo lazy these days to cook. I think it's the hormones playing tricks. (It's nice to have something to put the blame on and everyone just nods and say "yeahhh" please)

I asked dd what he wants to bring for his classmates, and he left the choice to me. I asked him if he likes fishballs or sandwiches or KFCs or junk food or just drinks... he was nonchalant and said "up to you". So way different, these 2 brothers.

UP till yesterday, I was still undecided what to cook for them. In the end, I made grilled chicken fillets for Kor's and his gang (coz wings so pricey!). I had marinated them overnight and put them in the oven, got them cooked right before I served them dinner and got myself ready to dash out the door to meet some new friends nearby for dinner.

And jeez, I still had yet to figure what to let dd bring to school leh. I asked him and he said "fishballs mah". He said he already told his teacher he's bringing fishballs. How come I didn't know that??? And where am I supposed to get fishballs when I was soooo busy??

By the time I got home at 11+, I went to bed a couple of hours later still thinking what I should do. Well, no choice, I have to get my act together and get him some fishballs from the market, cook them at home and bring them over at 10.

Pretty rush, in the middle of that morning rush hour traffic. *sweat*

When I arrived, my heart dropped when his teacher came over and started very frustratingly that dd had been VERY violent these days until he made some bruises of marks on another boy's arm just yesterday. Oh boy oh boy oh boy...

Then another teacher who is responsible for malay lessons, came and talked to me... with the 3 boys with us (including dd)

Apparently, the boy's mother called up the school and went ALL the way to the principal to complain about this incident. I was so shocked but I can understand why. The teacher said she called up the parent to explain the incident (I think) saying that their son isn't very well behaved either and bla bla bla...

Anyway, I really have no idea what to do, except to stress to dd NOT to ever do that again. At the very least, must try to control himself. Then the BM teacher asked me if I'm ok that she takes the 3 kids to the discipline master to be caned. I said yeah, go ahead if he's really deserves it. She kept asking "you don't mind ah? you don't mind ah?" and I was already wondering "what is the disciplinarian gonna do? strip his pants down and whip his butts with a hardcore whip?"

I left reluctantly, and I do not know if I could have done anything. I would like to say sorry to the parent of the child, but yet I'm afraid if they gonna nag and yell at me and wanna take revenge and ask to beat dd up? Grrrr..... why oh Lord, why??

It's so tiring with this kiddo. Sometimes he's as sweet as a pea and sometimes as tyrant as a crook. (OK, I get all the comparisons wrong, but this is not the mood for proper English now)

Well, at least the teachers did say he has improvement compared to the starting. I guess if there's improvement and not getting worse as time goes, then I should be relieved. Keep on swimming, keep on swimming....

How is this title gonna be leh?

These days, I try to squeeze my time out to spend it with kids in a more quality way. And I surprised even myself that it gives me so much immeasurable pleasure that I have almost forgotten, from being a mother. I really need to make full use of their kiddo age before they reach teenage years and stop me in entering their lives and meddling in their affairs.

We went for a half jog half walk at TTDI park on Sunday. I am beginning to love that place. DD, MM and I ran in front while Kor just crawls slowly with papa at the back of us. I guess with a large open air space like that, the noise they made didn't have the echoes from the walls and gives me less headache. I can bear with that, surely. In fact, I was smiling all over just by watching them running around without any danger and the green leaves soothing the eyes, making it such a wholesome experience.

When we made the big circle around the park, the boys went to play badminton while mm went to the playground herself. Playing is an over rated word, they were more like, picking shuttlecocks, swinging the racquets hitting the air most times.

Seeing their happiness, I did something today for the first time for them. I allowed them to go down to our own little playground to play badminton while I finish off putting the rice in the cooker to cook, reminding kor to REALLY MUST MAKE SURE he takes care of his little brother and sister. I was so worried but I knew I have to let go bit by bit and let them handle some stress and responsibility like this.

3.5 seconds later, I was hurrying down after them and saw them still in 1 piece. Then I played badminton along with them, like a coach serving the shuttles for them to hit on non stop. It was good fun, I enjoyed myself too, but those bloody hungry moskits are spoiling our fun. When dd announced that he's thirsty, we went home, after about 15 mins of practice.

Apart from that, I read to them more now, even though it was like a story a day. Still good as a start, eh? I made a vow I gonna take them more often to the library, now as it is, it's once every 2-3 weeks, I wanna make it to once a week for the rest of the holidays. We lost so much time on cultivating this reading habit and I am so guilty that kor is suffering from its consequences, faring badly in his compositions, whether in chinese, english or malay. Gotta love the process of reading myself!

Another project I wanna embark with them is the journey to save money and managing money. I certainly don't want them to be like ME! Gosh! The activities are just endless and it's eating into my time!

Time to relaks and unwind.

OK, so the final year exams for the boys are over and done with. *whew* wipe sweat

Now that it's over, suddenly I have this feeling of emptiness like I do not know what to do to kill the time. Well, I can login back to my computer again and spend some me time reading up useless blogs. Or I could take out the sewing machine and start to refashion some old junks stuffed somewhere. Or I could continue tutoring them, preparing them for next year's final exams! (Hell, of course NO!)

To be frank, I didn't quite spend a lot of revision time with them or they themselves. But I refrained from taking them out as much as possible other than going out for meals. Stop them from playing games, and pretty much drag the day with the revisions. We had break times with home videos, watching Mulan and KickAss together. Way to go!

I start to think of making this coming holiday time a fruitful one instead of going moesorsisi and then "eh? back to school already?" Other than the forthcoming trip down south, I had been chatting with my good friend, CK, about few trips together like Awana, cruise and Ipoh's Lost world then Penang marathon. When I asked my hub about it, he looked at me like I just have herpes and said "no need to work ah?". *pout* I wanted to ask him if he's ok I take the kids for trips instead. I think we shall just make use of the time at home doing some work together like drawing, coloring, singing, dancing, yoga, wateva. Who wants to join me?

With the last weekend to ourselves only as hub was in Beijing, I have to admit that life's been quite boring without him around. Even though when he's here with us, the day is just the same as usual. So, this weekend, I would like to do something different, as plans to go back hometown was dashed with my mil going somewhere else. Like flying kite, or hiking or picnicking, some outdoor activities, to celebrate the hardwork they put in for the exams. But seeing the hub pretty exhausted from his overseas trips and hectic work, I do feel sorry for him.

Shall see. hmm..

Do we have any medications for memory lapse?

Little meimei had been known to have "memory lapse" when she was a toddler. She would be shy and quiet around unfamilliar faces, even to those close relatives like my inlaws or my own family members. It takes sometime for her to warm up to them and this also need filtering system, depends on her own preference who to warm up to. Then after a nap or a night's sleep away, she acted like she totally forgotten who the heck that same person she warmed up to the day before. Reminds me of that movie "50 First Dates". It was very cute and funny in a way, though I would think the other person would beg to differ.

Of course, I didn't fret too much about that, since she was still very young, I believe. A little bit rude, perhaps, but I had stopped forcing them to do what they don't like to do unless if they were older and more sensible.

Fortunately, she grew up normally and her social skills improved in leaps and bounds over the years. No more memory lapse. Until.

...it's time to do maths. It's sooooo frustrating to be teaching her addition and subtractions. One day, I would be patiently teaching her addition and carrying over the sum, and she gets it after more exercises. Few days later, she forgets about it! Same goes with subtractions. Borrow. Countdown from bigger number.

Or when she gets the hang of it for addition, (shit! I typed addiction just now) she forgets about the other. And same goes the other way round. Over and over. Non stop repeats. I'M SO BOILING!

Seriously, I can't help but to compare her with the other 2 boys. I have no problems like this with them before at all. Why is she finding so hard to remember? I used 3 simple steps (learning from the cartoon channel) and she can do the sums after I explained to her. But it's so difficult for her to REMEMBER it.

And she's very teary-eyed. Before I even raise my voice, she would start to cry and whine, like I'm abusing her. What's wrong with her??? OR ME??? (while we are at it, mm-jang-joi, what's wrong with YOU too??)

Aargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coloring competitions

It was a pleasant surprise picking meimei home from school the other day.

Her picture was picked by the Art teacher to be the winner in the recent coloring competition held during the recent Open Day. She beamed with delight holding her gift and the picture was up on the notice board.

She likes art more than her bros somewhat and kept pestering me before to let her join the extra art classes after school on thursdays. I didn't relent because I thought it was peer pressure and she only wanted to play longer with her friends. Even more, I hated the idea that we would be succumbing to the $$ making ploy from children's innocence! (of course, that was just a bit dramatic)

Then again, I did admit to the teachers I did help her out a bit that day (as I was rushing her to finish it up so we could go gaigai). When I saw the picture again, I do think it was quite a neat job. I told her since she had proven herself to be good in coloring, I'm gonna give her a box of good quality crayons to play with later. What a pleasant surprise when it was exactly those crayons I was thinking about that was inside the wrapping paper.

Paul: I predicted you would win!

Soon, dd and kor were gonna have their art test in school. Dd's tajuk for Art paper was "My favorite toy". I googled image the internet to source for a simple drawing for him to practice on. It was love at first sight when I showed him the robot idea.

I tried to change his mind to be more challenging by pictures of Buzz Lightyear or Transformers, but he insisted on drawing the simple robot so I drew it out for him to follow. Advised him to color as colorful as can be and finally to outline it. I didn't think much about it later when about a week later, he came home to tell me he won the art competition! I wondered if it was a competition or a test, then kor told me they name it as a competition instead of test, but it's just the same thing. He got an A for it while he says the girl next to him got a C-. I asked him what she drew and he shrugged his shoulders adding "I dunno!".

Meimei took my drawing out and color it herself. After which, dd told me it's even nicer than his! hehe... he's so frank.

Actually it's a transformer. Meimei added the background to make it more "interesting".

A date with the home and me myself.

Sometimes, the time can be spent really productively. Like that day, I had done up my long delayed facial. Then I dyed my hair. Then I refashioned a bag. Then I sewed a bag for my yoga mat. Then I refashioned another tote. My kor was asking me why I need so many bags. Yeah, I start to wonder why I want to have so many bags too. But I guess that's what bag-whores do. Just to have the kick of owning it, having it, carrying it. Don't care I sometimes can't figure out which item is placed in which bag. Blek!

But the best thing is, its so much FUN! And having a quiet home in the fresh air morning breeze to myself is like a having a date in a way. I think sometimes I need to make some days to spend the morning like this, without working out, without marketing, without morning jamming with silais and have a date with just myself, and my home. With a cup of 3-in-1 coffee. Sometimes surfing the net. Sometimes clearing the mess in my cluttered home. Sometimes watching WLT. Sometimes listening to radio. Sometimes cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Sometimes getting all the chores done and just to wait for the family back home again. It's nothing noble and nothing great, but it feels so goood.

This is the current phase of life I'm having it good. Then again, life had been good ever since I past that hurdle in life when I was 15-17, right after the SPM exam. One day, I would just tell you that life experience which had shaped me to what I am today. Well, nothing like life threatening, but it was a meaningful time for me and a past that I'm ever so proud of to be in.

Some things could be avoided, but...

On that one fine beautiful morning, dd was still at the breakfast table fatt-ngau-dau with his cups of cereal+milk, water, fresh fruits blended and roti sekeping in front of him. Seeing his wrist with his bro's newly acquired watch, I can only imagine the scenario that might be going to happen in the coming 15 mins time. I thought for a second if I should do something to avoid that to happen or see if my motherly sense is that accurate.

Having done with my business in the kitchen, I went to the bathroom to washed up leaving the kids to savor their hearty breakfast, as usual. It didn't take too long to hear some commotion, I don't even need to lift my ears up to listen to what it was. Kor was trying to MAKE his brother to return back the watch but of course, this little fella won't be so easy with him.

Then, Kor came running to me and complained that his watch had been watch-napped. I would have told him to stay calm, and I would come to its rescue soon, but yet, I didn't. Somehow, I wanna watch how he's gonna play his next move.

Next thing I heard... *clang* the sound of spoon dropping on the floor and I knew it! I walked over and saw dd's standing there with his cereal+milk on his uniform, shirt and pants all. Big SIGH!!!

AND IT WAS TIME TO GO TO SCHOOL!!

AND THE OTHER PANTS WAS STILL SOAKED IN THE WASHING MACHINE!!!

I panicked a little while grumbling and complaining and yelling my head off at Kor and rushed about cleaning up his soiled cereal pants, ironing it up, ironing his other white shirt too and barked at Kor to clean up the mess on the floor and table for me.

We ran late a little bit, but still on time, *whew*.

A little post-mortem, I asked myself if it's all worth it. I mean, what I wanted to do before it had happened, I wanted to test if Kor is mature and sensible enough to know upfront what will happen if he played it rough. I was kinda hoping he would make me proud, and quite honestly, I was very disappointed. I wondered if kids his age should have been smart enough to know NOT to try and shake the watch off from someone else's hand while seeing there are CUPS of drinks everywhere around.

And yet, I was also glad too that this could be a lesson for him, a very much practical lesson than theory, that THIS would be the result of a very wrong move. Sometimes I feel I had protected them too much, too pampering for them. Before any "accidents" like this sort happens, I would be quick enough to prevent it from happening and most of them, my intuitions won't go wrong. Including this time. And they won't learn from their mistakes. Hence, well, it might be a good thing after all, ain't it?

Well, anyway.

Later, I found out that the car my hub was driving had its back number plate missing. SIGH!! What a day! Anyway, there was the other car which I would be using normally.

And then, I went all the way to lightning thundering that far to deposit a check for my hub. Since he had given the order to bank it in ASAP the night before, I forego my morning yumcha sessi just for that matter alone. When I came back to where I was, he called. I was expecting a thankyoudahlingIloveyousomuchforyourfastaction call, but what the fart, he told me NOT TO BANK IN THAT CHECK AS ITS POST DATED!!! Damn! (OK, so I should have check it out myself, but do I need to care??)

By the rate things were going that beautiful morning, I was starting to freak out a little. Not to say I'm supertititious, but is Someone trying to tell me Something? *fingers and toes crossed*

Anyway, that was all that had been that day. Everything later went on as per usual ...*fingers and toes still crossed*

The father of my children.

I was having BM lesson with didi one evening and when he heard the commotion near the aquarium, his head turned swiftly and straight hopped over to join them.

I was about to yell my head off for the umpteenth time to haul his ass back to the chair and his book, but when I saw the 4 of them hurdled together like that, I yau have no heart to do that.

It was such a heartwarming moment, to see the children, MY children, to have such a close bond with their father. This man I married, though has a LOT of flaws in him, (OK! so I'm not that perfect either and yes, I made the choice to marry him) he comes home every night after work without fail to be with his family, at least 99% of the time, not counting the days he was overseas.

Never mind he doesn't do housework, he works hard to fill our tummies and spend (though not very lavishly) on us. I am very grateful that he doesn't like side night activities to "bersosial" with "friends" to build a better network and seal more deals. I'm fine with the comfortable life I'm having, though he begs to differ. He is always striving for more $$. Go ahead, make more money, I'm not stopping you, but you still need to come back home after work!

I think whether a child is close to his dad or not shows a lot of the amount of love between them. (Or maybe my 3 kids are just TOO fed up with me the whole day and very happy to see their dad's face for a change in the evening!)

(Now, just in case you are wondering, I dedicate this post to talk fondly of him NOT because he had, over the weekend, FINALLY bought the watch he had been yearning for FOR YEARS!! and not only that, koko got his watch he yearned for AS WELL and of course, I had MINE TOO!!! I love it, and yes, I love you, my dear hubby) *wink*