What could it be?

The day before we traveled to Bali, meimei felt a bit sickly and not her normal bubbly self. Then she developed a slight fever, After 2 bouts of feverish symptoms which went away after popping in a tablet of panadol, no other symptoms occurred and she was back to her normal self.

However about a day or two later when we were in Bali, she had tiny red dots all over her body and some on her face. We were all worried and concerned what it was. It didn't seem like chicken pox as the red dots had no blisters. Measles? Or what? The surgeon in our group said it's chicken pox laa, but as the time went by, no new red dots appeared and it just didn't look like it.

Funnily enough, after the day we went out to sea and had a whole few hours soaking in the salty seawater, the red dots on the face was like almost disappeared. 

I was worried sick if it was chicken pox and it started to come out in full bloom, what do we do? what?? We can't fly and do we stay for the whole 2 weeks? and can't go out of the room, wherever we may be? 

Fortunately, God bless, I need not worry anymore as by the last day of our holiday, the dots still appeared to be the same as the first day when they were seen. We came home safe and sound and after a few more days passed, the symptoms slowly faded away. There were still some tiny scars on the top side of her lips and it went away too after putting some chinese meds for a night. Whew~ 

Now, what could those red dots are? I am guessing it could be bed bites from the first motel we stayed in. My MIL said it's the water in Bali. Meimei said it's just mosquito bites laaa....

Sewing meimei pinafores

Her pinafores had been used for 3 years now and were getting faded in color. But mainly because she had grown much taller and wider now, it looks a bit tight even though it could still be worn, maybe for about a year or so.

I had this idea to sew her the pinafores myself for a long time, since
1. it's so freaking expensive to pay for one.
2. the skirt is always not flair enough. I love flair skirts.
3. it ain't seem so difficult, I tell myself it's not something I couldn't do wuddd.....

I bought the cloth for about more than half a year now and my mom had cut the shape in newspaper for me for the longest time. The project had been shelved in the drawer for coming close to a year and finally, I took it out and started working on it.

What do you know, it's really very easy job. And I'm so mighty proud of my handiwork too. I think my mom would be impressed.

See the picture above, the skirt is so stylishly flair, it looked like a party frock!

Now that I get the sewing machine working, I'm thinking of sewing some cloth pads and some CNY new clothes too. See if that ever gets going or not....

Grade 1 in ribbons, clubs and ball.

Wow! It's amazing to watch how meimei and her friends handle these 3 apparatus after just learning them in less than a mere half a year. Although not so professional yet, I am really wowed by their ease and determination to learn how to control them with articulation. It's just so amazing.

I personally love the ribbon the most. I feel the movements or dance with the ribbon is just awesomely graceful and mesmerizing. It's by far the hardest to control as the ribbon they are learning at this age is 5m long and they need to keep moving the ribbon so it's continuously moving throughout the whole routine.

The grading/competition took a whole full day. Luckily I had one day to rest after my HK trip. I forced the boys to go with us, since I didn't feel comfortable at all to leave them alone by themselves. I refused to let them bring any electrical gadgets to play and they were told to think what to bring to entertain themselves or fill up their own time, presumably for 12 hours straight.

Eventually, they brought a remote controlled helicopter (which was abandoned after a short stint as the battery died on them), badminton to play and books to read. Fortunately, there were many others who needed to tug their sons along too, so there were other children, all boys, whose ages ranged from 6-14 all hanging out in the lobby area where the school the grading were held in.

Some of them brought basketball along, so didi and korkor had almost the whole day sweating out with them, just playing like normal boys do. I felt sooo proud of them that they overcame the day without complaining how bored they were.

A mom I knew asked me why I didn't let them bring the iPad and I replied her that it was one of the main reason I hauled them with me, away from the computer at home. I said these electronic games just killed their creative cells to think how to occupy their time and they also lacked the time of running, jumping, sweating and playing with other kids. The mom nodded and said.. that's true also. I guess most parents these days really are taking the easy way out and just passed these electrical gadgets too easily to their kids so they don't bother them, without thinking how much damage there is. See? My boys could just spend the whole day eventually, without the need to come and complain to me how bored they are! (also because I warned them beforehand  of that too! hehe!)

Almost near to the end, korkor was exhausted and I told him to sit down and read a book which I had gone to buy for him the night before. He said ok la, and started reading it. A few pages into it, and I saw he was so engrossed with the book he didn't seem to care what was going on around him. I think it was a very good book indeed to had captured his attention so much. The book is called Matilda by Roald Dahl. He didn't put it down right until he got to the last page which was about bedtime that day.

As for meimei, though she hadn't been the star or even among the average of her peers, I feel very proud of her indeed. I only wished I could have learned this when I was young too, and I hope she knows how privilege she is to have this opportunity to learn RG. Now, she's progressing on learning another new apparatus, that is the hoop. And a whole new routine (dance) for rope and freehand respectively as well, to be graded end of this year, on her birthday! That is why the practices are still ongoing even during school holidays and I had been sending her to school every other day, except Thursday and also stayed there to watch them.

Meimei in her team competition this year

When I was away for 4d/3n, I missed meimei so much that I would be grinning when talking to her on Viber everyday. I felt guilty yet relieved that she didn't need to miss me that much as she still had korkor and papa with her. Furthermore, she was very occupied with the competition she was going in with her school team and that was really the one thing I missed the most.

This year, the preparation for the event by the coach was done unprofessionally and up to the very last minute. Many parents were involved in sourcing and getting the attire ready for their performance and I felt really really awful not helping out in any way. Though the girls didn't come out tops among 13 other teams, but all of us felt very proud of them to have done their best. I can tell from their every movement in the recorded clip from hubs. I reminded hubs to be there to record it for me, reminding over and over again, like for 100x!

Though I thought of every little details of their activities and what hubs need to do and remind meimei to bring, but there was one thing I totally forgot. It was how to take the heavy make up down for her! Haha! When I was talking to meimei on the phone, only I realized that part when she told me papa had used soap on her face several times to wash the make up away!!!! OMG! I hoped she was really cleaned for I know how heavy the make up would be.

Sweet granddad he truly is one.

These days has been terribly awful scorching hot! The hot spell can really make you darn tired and lazy not?

I feel tired, lazy (what's new?) and sweaty the whole day!

Today after done cooking dinner, I called the kids over to help get dinner out. It was after a slight drizzle and the sky was hazy without the sun glaring. My dad asked if dinner to be served out on the balcony or at the dining table, I decided balcony since it had been a long while since we last had it there. It ought to be cooling a bit after the drizzle, or so I thought.

But unbelievable crazy shit, it was still so hot! I was sweating profusely, the air was warm, humid and there wasn't any wind blowing. In addition, the soup was piping hot. Everything so hot!

Meimei was complaining but feeling lazy to move everything over back to the dining table, I told her to just suck it up, tie her hair up and eat her dinner. She went on and on throwing a little tantrum about not being able to tie her hair and I refused to help her and in the end, she started to cry. Which made me even more furious! And I shot her a lecture this shouldn't be the way to thank me for a dinner I had tirelessly made for them though I was sweating all over myself for the last 1.5 hours or so. She fought hard to hold back her tears then.

Later, my dad who had finished his dinner, consoled meimei and taught her to eat slowly spoon by spoon and even fan her with a piece of newspaper so she wouldn't be so hot. I felt so touched, my dad is really a great guy. He had shown his love and soft ways to me ever since I was young, and now, he's doing the same to my little brat. And I felt they are SO lucky to have their 4 grandparents doting on them so much.

I wanted to take a picture of him doing that as proof and show meimei how much her wai-koong pampers her but my phone ran out of juice. So, I just have to make do with telling this story in my own words, hoping she would, in future, realize how really wonderful her grandparents are.

Little Gymnast grading

Last year, meimei went for her RG freehand LG grade routine only.

This year, she trained for 3 routines, that is ball, rope and freehand. I feel amazed enough that she could do a lot of things I wouldn't have thought of, though she wasn't in the top of the gang. She definitely isn't the last either, but I always believe, you need to sacrifice a lot of time and money (for the fees) to put in long regular daily hours of practice if you want to excel. Since I'm not too willing in both, well, I settle for the fun and exposure parts only la.

The trainer told me next year, she's going to learn 3 more apparatus, which are the ribbon, hoop and clubs. These 3 for the first half and back to ball, rope and freehand for the second half. Sounds like lot of things to do!!

And oh, see the leotard? Leotards cost a BOMB! If it is decorated with Swarovski crystals, the price could range from RM500-RM1000 for a brand new one! But as always, there are other options, which are not so dazzling and sparkling but costs like 4x cheaper! All the things I learned for this sport this year!

I bought a dunno-how-many-hands leotard for meimei for RM160, which is really, the cheapest among what the other girls were wearing. I know some of them costs 300-1000. It's jaw-dropping!

I then went over to Kenanga wholesale center to get a big pack of crystals and went home to hot glue on more blink blinks on her leotard. Does it make any difference? I think not, but we had fun doing that exercise.

It's quite tight on her, and I think next year I have to look for another one. In fact, I'm even thinking of learning how to make it myself, and maybe make it a small little business for me! It didn't seem so hard, did it?? How hard can it be, looking at the flimsy little dress. But I have yet to go and learn, can someone give me a push??

Stopping ballet lessons.

Ever since meimei started learning on RG, it had been crossing my mind to cut her ballet lessons off totally. That's because it's such a hassle ferrying them 3 all over to and fro from school several times a day on some days, and twice a week to her ballet lesson for an hour. 

After all, I had always tried to advocate that they learn 1 non academic extra curricular each. Korkor is learning piano from the Yamaha course since the beginning, didi had been jumping around from piano to drum back to piano (more to kill his time while the other two go for their lessons) and meimei ballet. 

What I hated most are one of those weekday evenings I had to rush from school back to home, rush to cook dinner, serve them on time and rush meimei to her ballet school which get us crawling together with the rush hour traffic workers on their way home. Though it's just an hour class, but 30 mins to and 30 mins back make the whole trip 2 hours altogether. 

And sometimes I need to manage the other two, either they follow us together, or stay at home while waiting for papa to come back. In any case, I really hate going out when the sky is dark. I don't like to be in the traffic madness and I hated wandering around in the streets at night where the safety these days is so frightening bad. 

What are the benefits of ballet anyway? Heck, I didn't know why I had started her on. I just thought she insists to go ballet class instead of learning piano, and I thought, why not. I then began to think it's good stretching exercise for her too so that she would be more flexible. Then there were the fees which we had been dumping in for her so far. It seemed such a waste that she stops here, especially when she was one of the few to score distinction in her ballet annual grading exam. 

But paying for both of these darn expensive sports/hobbies is really taking a big toll on us. It's not cheap at all with the monthly lessons' fees, apparel and attire, exam fees, year in year out. I just feel somehow this ought to be stopped at one point or another anyway.

It took some time for me to finally make up my mind. Now that I have that off my shoulders, I have to say, I am SO RELIEVED And happy. ! I feel so light knowing I don't need to hurry anymore during the weekdays and I get to be in control how to spend the time with them every weekday night. Though now it's just holidays and we only watch TV or eat dinner together only, it still feels great. I ought to have done this so much earlier! 

My daughter and I

On a camwhoring mission.

I love this daughter of mine. She is ever the sweet, obedient and lively little one to brighten up my day everyday.

A princess birthday party.

Just recently, after their final school exams ended right after, meimei went to a birthday party of a little girl who went to the same school. Asked how they met, she said they just know each other, not by the same class or activities in school. I was rather surprised that she could be so sociable! Then again, I also heard this birthday girl just give out invitation cards at her own whim and fancy!

Meimei was pretty excited, and kept pestering me to let her attend. Being the good mom I always am *ahem*, how could I have the heart to reject her. So on that Sunday afternoon, I drove her over to the address given on the card and saw this...

WOW! I was wide-eyed! Such extravaganza for an 8yo birthday girl! Fortunately, I have already set precedence this year no big affairs or parties for the boys, just the family going for a dinner the birthday boy is allowed to choose and a cake (of my choice!). Not even birthday pressie! So mean, huh?

So, meimei was there to admire and be envious of all these big celebration themes!

 It's a princessy theme and there was a make up/tattoo artist for the little ones too.

 A galore of sweet treats with chocolate fondue. I can't wait to eat those strawberries in hot chocolate! *slurp*

 And a whole array of food for the guests. I just had to take picture and whatapps my hubs as they were left at home starving!

 The food was so-so to my liking, but no complaints. I was, after all, not an invited guest. :P

 Meimei hadn't asked for permission to get her face made up, I was so proud of her but she did ask if she could have a tattoo. I gave her my nod of permission and here she was, showing me the little flower tattoo on her arm. Some went for really loud and bright pictures but I liked the simple and subtle pattern meimei chose.

 There was also a fresh popcorn stall right in the living room and the smell of it permeates the whole room that we adults can't fend it off as well. It was just soo yummy!

The children ate, ran amok around the whole house and played some 2 simple games of musical chair and passing the balloon whilst the adults chatted and lingered around. Lucky for me, there was another mom whose kid was in the same gymrama as meimei and she made a rather nice companion for me throughout. I was actually enjoying my time there too!

But both of us agreed that the hired party planners weren't doing a perfect job for the fees they charged (the hostess told us how much it was) as they were there setting the place up very late. In fact, the welcome arch was only seen at the doorway right almost when the party was near the ending time! Not to mention the different banners and posters around the whole living room. Anyways...

Look at the cake above! It looked sooo pretty, how could we have the heart to break that apart?? But we did!!!

Ahh.. meimei's birthday coming soon, and what shall I do? She's so eager and looking forward to it, and sometimes I feel it's so mean of me to deny her of a birthday celebration with friends and lots of presents! How? *tap fingers*

Pesta Gimnastik Gym for Life.

Meimei's first competition, representing her school in a team category.

It was all fun for them, and parents were beaming with pride and glory at their little tumbletots for this honour.

The arena, as seen above, has a few sections, and only participants, coaches, judges were allowed to linger around this area. The bottom right was where all the action take place.

We, the supporters, were left to fend for ourselves at the upper floor. I first thought it would be something like an indoor stadium with proper seats for best viewing experience, but how disappointed I was. There wasn't any seats, it was humid and warm and some corners had views with banners which blocked the targeted view. It was not comfortable for us at all.

There seemed to be some regulars for these sort of competitions who came fully prepared with lunch boxes, picnic mats, bottles of water and there was even a mother who bought some books to read with the younger children! It was such an eye opener for me.

Some had been around since the morning, while didi and I hopped over roughly around 1+pm with our packs of McD burgers and fries.

It didn't take long for meimei's team to perform and it was such a good one! At least to us, the hardcore supporters for that team.

While many other teams had cheers and clapping when their team name was called, ours was rather quiet. Showed how far the school gave their moral support. I made a mental note to talk to the principal about this if we would have another competition of this nature again.

After the girls finished their stunts, we hurried down to the arena and take pictures with them and the coach. Yeah, we weren't allowed to linger around there, I had said, but we sneaked in anyway.

Thereafter, it was just all wait and wait and wait... until all the 16 teams had performed. By around 5, we started to wait for the prize giving ceremony. Meanwhile some gymnasts gave a superb entertainment from the National Team, with freehand, ball, rope and hoop individually. Watching these gymnasts always been amazing to me, what with the live performance, it was all the more mind blowing. I wonder if meimei can even come close to these level.

Then again, when I was back home googling about the works of rhythmic gymnastics, it really involves too much sacrifices. These girls go on a very strict diet to keep their weight light and go for long hours of training everyday. Undoubtedly, I would prefer my girl to live a healthy life and take in the nutrients she so needed in her growing up years. So, no-no, being able to learn a few tricks in this field is good enough, it's ok not to be a shining star.

When the performance ended, the time we all awaited was finally here and the teams were called in one by one to take to the main carpeted area. Then the awards were given out one by one and oh boy! it took like 1 full long hour to get to the end part! It was so excruciating to watch and dragged along in it till we could take our girls and just go home.

The last announcement for the team category was finally here. Meimei's team took home a bronze trophy, but what do you know, all 16 teams either took a gold or silver or bronze home anyway. *snigger*

But the girls indeed made us all the mamas proud for being chosen into the mother competition of all competitions coming in 3 months' time. They would be having another round of fun time again!

The story of little mimi.

Do you remember about little mimi's story that I had wanted to tell?

Little mimi was the name given by meimei to her little doll which was rather special. That doll was specially chosen for her from my HK trip a couple of years back to keep my promise that I would bring something special home for her. It came with a little wardrobe and some cute little outfit for playing. It has some other little stuffs which were of very good quality. I loved it myself and seeing the joy when she saw that was priceless.

So, it had been one of her favorite among her sea of toys, something like Woody. I forbid her to take any toys out when we go gaigai because.. well, I do not want to make that a habit. But that time when we were planning to go for the whole body health medical check up, I prepped and warned them about it the night before and that they ought not to complain or make any noise. I suggested they could bring some books to read or something to play with. Surely they only think about ipad, but meimei thought of taking her little mimi out.

Well, since I felt sorry that it would be taking a long day for her, perhaps it could be alright. I had reminded her to take care of her belongings and make sure that all comes home in their rightful home.

It was all well and dandy. Until after we left, and we decided to drop by at some furniture shops along the way home. After a few stopovers, she softly asked me in the car if I kept her little mimi away. I said no and immediately, I guessed she must have left it in the medical center. She confidently said no, she had taken it home from there. So, it could only be at one of those shops we were hopping by.

I told her to check carefully and she timidly said it wasn't anywhere in the car. I said she had lost it for good then. To which she replied, it's ok since she still has her Barbie dolls and other soft toys at home. And that made me fumed!

It's not about losing but her nonchalant attitude on her beloved possessions?? Shouldn't it be more compassionate? I was mad and I scolded her for being heartless, that I has wasted money on her for things she doesn't appreciate and so on..

I don't remember now what her reaction to that, but what I DO know is that later on, she tried to persuade us to turn back and look for it at those shops. She was pretty sure it must have been one or the other there.

As it was out of the way then, hubs didn't want to detour just for a little doll. Then she BAWLED like her favorite pet died! My gawd! I was so heartbroken then! You know, those kind of miserable inconsolable sadness cries? I felt so so sorry for her then. And I felt sorry for little mimi too, as I imagined the doll, if she has a mind, that she was stranded, left by her owner and would picked up by a cruel kid (like Toy Story 1).

I tried comforting her. She asked me if I could get another one of those little mimi again for her, and I thought, well, that would be too easy for her then, huh? Lose it and get another one? Shouldn't she be learning to take better care of her possessions now then? It's a life lesson that people she loves would die and be separated from her one day too. Or is that too much life's lesson for an 8yo girl?

It took a long long time for her to stop her tears from flowing and eventually, she moved on and got over it. But she still remembers her dear little mimi.

In loving memory of little mimi, the one in the center sitting on Barbie 2's lap.

Share some of your angpow money, man!

There are times I often wonder what will become of me when I grow old?

Que sera sera, whatever will be will be...

I gave up earning my own keep to bring up the kids full time. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it after all. What happens when I don't have any income? What happens when my hubs leave me for someone else? *gasp*

I am becoming more and more dependent indeed. Scary!

Can I rely on the kids when they become independent? The other day, I tried coaxing them to share 3 bucks from their angpow money also damn tough. Didi had a whopping 753 bucks while meimei had 604! They are so lucky! And I can't even get 3 bucks each from them??!! What the... "sang jei la, sang jei la...??"

In the end, didi agreed to give away 3 bucks, for me and hubs to share. After I objected, he finally gave me 2 while he took another RM1 from his piggybank to give to his papa making it RM2 as well. Ain't he fair? And I had thought I would have higher privilege than hubs?!

Meimei cried as she didn't want to split with her angpow money and in the end, rather fork out RM10 from her piggybank to give me! I ask her why RM10 when I wanted only RM3, she said she had no 1 dollar notes in the piggy. Then after probing deeper, yun-loi, she doesn't want to part with the new crisp dollar angpow notes. wtf!

After that, hubs complained to didi that meimei gave me 10 bucks, and what did he do? He went to the piggy to take another 10 dollar note to give his dad. *BIG QUESTION MARK* what is this???

He said I have 10 bucks from meimei so it's only fair that papa has 10 too.

So, from this exercise, do you think these 2 brats are reliable when they are working adults while we, the frail, lazy, poor old parents are hungry and need money to go eat wanton mee?

Toy story

Feeling proud with her expanded "family members" now, she gathered them up to take a family picture together. *roll eyes*

I think it's still cute to see her playing with her little toys, (7yo? you think I'm weird?) but seeing all her toys everywhere around on the floor ALL THE TIME is driving me nuts!!!!

I just gave her the ultimatum! I'm gonna throw them all out to "fan kai" if she still doesn't keep them when we go out or at night before bedtime!

Her first Rhythmic gymnastics classifications

After going for practices once a week for this one whole year, she was finally graded for all she had learnt. It was held by the teacher's (which was roped in by the school) club, to find their best gymnast to compete in the next level of rhythmic gymnastics between clubs.

For all my concerns, I just wanted to expose her to it and probably know where she stands after what she had learnt so far. After all, we have assessments all our lives, haven't we?

Never had I thought, it was so much more than that! There were rehearsals for the grading, it was a full day, I had to send her over early in the morning, I had to put make up for her, her hair should be all tied up in a bun, and we had to be there at the end of the program to receive the cert on stage. Oh wow! It was all so overwhelming.

What surprised me more was the enthusiasm shown by the girls' mothers at the event, all came fully prepared in full force to support their child, with the whole range of make up boxes, make up remover and ornaments, leotards, what have you!

I felt so out of place! I just hurriedly put on some simple make up for her and off we went to the event, without lugging anything along! And I think meimei also felt under-dressed! She looked so forward to own one of those beautiful leotards too, but what the shiats! It costs a bomb! A new one fetches a price for RM500+ but there were second hand ones which could probably be half the price. I had to avoid lingering around the table that lays the stuffs for sale in exorbitant prices, but in the end, gave in to a hairband for the bun at RM20!!! darn!

Seriously, it seems to me, it was getting a little bit out of hand. Initially when she was asked to join the team, I had thought, why not, since it's free and she could learn to cartwheel and somersault. But now, she told me she wants to do really well, she wants to shine, she wants to take part in competitions. (so she could don on the leotard) I think it's scary!

But am I crazy? Shouldn't we be aiming for the stars? Isn't it an honor to excel in something so beautiful? I think all the gymnasts really did so beautifully well on the carpet. They put on their best foot forward, but how much the parents are pushing them to go beyond their limits, I have no idea.

Anyway, I only hope my little girl does not pressure herself too much. She did a great job in achieving a merit score of 6.85/10, to me it indeed is. I was beaming with pride though the rest scored way better than she did.

Mommy kept taking pikcha of me!

While I doing my art! Annoying doe sei....