Children are always exposed to video games or TV and many youth don’t read anymore. Or they don’t read enough. I am not talking about games manual but story books or novels. I want my children to read more books. I do wish there are good libraries here but it is quite a distance from my place.

Anyway I always bring my kids to Borders or MPH to read books. I must say that some parents do not teach their children how to handle books. It is always sad to see a lot of good books are either torn or place all over the floor. Please teach your children to handle the books properly and teach them to put back the books.

Tim got another Wimpy Kid book called “Do It Yourself” where he can put his own cartoon and his own diary. There are comics that allowed him to fill in the conversation too. It is kind of fun for him to create his own pretend world. That’s creativity. Here are some pictures of the book….

Emily went for Geronimo Stilton book, I still have problem pronouncing it. My guess is she likes the different fonts to different expressions or actions.

Great to see them reading, while I enjoyed my cuppa of tea at Starbucks hogging over some of the magazines.

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I always date my kids for a shopping trip. However they will slow me down when they see playground, toys store and now computer store. Now they know how to operate a computer and go to their favorite games site.

There are lots of notebooks display and my kids eyes will light up. It is better than the toys store. I must say that the Sony VAIO gives the best sound and the image is very vibrant.

They also discovered something called the touch screen where they operate without a mouse. Tim played chess on one of those why Emily played the stackable mahjong. While I was behind them cheering, “Let’s get out of here!”

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Well, I don’t give my boy pocket money to school every day because he said he doesn’t need it. My hubby and I will pack him snacks to school. Anyway what the Health Minister said was right, the school canteen only sells fried food, cold nasi lemak, cold fried noodle and not very nutritious food.

I used to have hot soup noodles in my school or hot delicious chee cheong fun with meat balls. The canteen even served malay dishes and rice, it is always warm. What is your children school canteen serving?

The story is, I do give my boy occasionally 90 sen to buy milo from the vending machine. He doesn’t want to take more but exact change. Yesterday, I gave him two 50 sen to get a school badge. A school badge roughly cost 50 sen, I gave him two just in case.

There is this boy whom Tim is very close to, always play with him and I know his mother. He has been taking Tim’s money. Not just once but more than a few times. He takes it directly from his pocket. Tim told me that he couldn’t stop him. Yesterday he took the 50 sen from Tim.

I decided to call his mother and told him these incidents. Obviously the mother didn’t know he has been doing that. I wonder what she will do to the boy upon hearing this. Let’s hope he will stop taking my boy’s money.

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It is so cool that the computer can produced cad drawing of anything. It makes it so much easier for anyone to see the end product before the actual product is made.

When I was doing my thesis in the university, I used software to produce cool cad drawing. With it I can do comparison on how accurate the software is. A lot of it is mathematic calculation. In one of the course called Image Visualization, I even learned how Pixar does their cartoon animations. Everything is done with the computer, not just a normal computer but high performance silicon graphic workstations. It can churn out millions of data points within seconds.

I am glad I have some experience in playing with the high end workstation and the cool software to produce cool animations.

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This year must be babies making year. I heard so many of my friends getting pregnant and some have delivered. I got so many baby shower invitations. If this keeps up, I probably will go broke.

Anyhow I like to see newborn babies, they are cute and I love carrying them if the parents allow me to do so. Some of them are so chubby that I cannot resist but to pinch them with gentleness. Babies bring a lot of happiness to us, don’t you think so?

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Yesterday Emily results came back, the urine test is clear, no growth. She also stopped complaining about leaking after the course of antibiotic.

Now I am confused whether she had UTI or what? Anyway I hope her pipe is fixed permanently. I really hate it when I am shopping with her halfway, she wants to go to the toilet or complain about her leaks. Or she kept putting tissue in her pants to clean it. She will go, “Mummy stop walking so fast, my tissue is going to drop”

Yeah I even got her small sanitary pads but she complained uncomfortable.

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Source of the picture above is from pulmolab.com

Last week, my gal complained her pipe is leaking. Actually she complained weeks before and I told her not to hold her urine. She told me that she didn’t. I also advise her to drink more water and go to the toilet more often. I always have to remind her to drink water. She is nothing like her brother, Tim drinks a lot of water.

Anyway, I took her to the doctor. After a few questioning, she suspected Urinary Tract Infection. Although there is no fever but it could happen. She asked me to do a urine culture test and she prescribed antibiotic for her. I have to wait 3 days for the result.

When I showed Emily the bottle to collect her urine, this was what she said.

Emily: The bottle is so small, how to urine in it?
Mummy: I will teach you and do for you.

Emily: Ai yeaaaaa.

Mummy: All done.

Emily: Why are you stealing my urine?

Mummy: Not stealing, the doctor wants to test to see if there is any germ.

It is definitely easier to collect urine at this age. I still remembered when I had to collect urine when she was 1 year old through to 2 years old. It was really a painful experience. She refused to pee when I want to collect. I had to wait for her to urine, which means every 10-15 minutes, I need to make her urine. It was frustrating when the diaper is wet and I missed it after many tries. Once I successfully collected and the nurse told me that the amount wasn’t sufficient or they accidentally spilled it.

Some tips for collecting urine at 1-2 years old if you have to:
1. Collecting very early in the morning or after she drank her milk.

4. After collection, place the bottle cover back and put it in the fridge before transporting to the clinic for testing. Make sure you label it, to prevent anyone from using it accidentally..hehehe.

Lets hope after she takes her antibiotic, the pipe will be fixed and no longer leaking.

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That’s my gal pretend buddy. She will use the name “Lim Leong” whenever she is playing pretend games with her kor kor Tim. I kind of like the name. I am not sure how she comes up with it. She also named her platypus that one of the blogger mum send to her, Shaido.

Lately I am glad that both of them are playing much more together and less fighting. Last Wednesday, when daddy was out, they played “school pretend” game with each other for more than 1 hour. They took out some homemade erasers, pretending them to be students, other soft toy and Lego. Both of them were creating stories after stories.

I interrupted them by asking them questions. They asked me not to interrupt them. They don’t allow me to join in the fun.

Hehehehehe…pretend games are not logical any way but silly me trying to put some logic into it.

I am happy that they can play without computer or TV.

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My home insurance renewal came and I have to applaud the service that my insurance company renders to me. I got the insurance quote immediately with 1 email message. It was hassle free. I could even pay online for renewal. It was all done within 5 minutes.

I hope the claim process will be as efficient as the renewal. Not that I want to claim for anything. Quality service does make me happy and I will certainly recommend them to anyone.

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I was surveying some properties to find out the current rental rates. I am renting out one of my properties and hope to get a best price for it. I must say that some of the properties I survey online were beautifully done on the interior. I believed the modern furniture they put brings out the cozy feeling.

I am learning from these people so that I can also furnish my place to get a good price for rent. I like going to show rooms to see how the interior designers decorate the homes. I get lots of ideas from them.

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Timothy loves to draw. He will draw everything and anything. Lately he had been drawing some comics stuff.

Sorry please don’t ask me to interpret it, only he would know. On top of that, he also makes some quizzes on his comic book. He copied the same format from my children ministry bulletin that I distribute to the Sunday School kids.

Maybe he will grow up to write comic strips? I wonder is there any comic school here in Malaysia. I believed he would want to sign up for one.

Here are his art….

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Last week, someone found me from my blog that I do sculpture balloon. Yeah, I do it for interest and also for my Sunday School children. I started learning when I bought a balloon kit from MPH. It was scary at first because I have phobia in balloon bursting. Any balloon bursting will give me a fright.

Anyway, I am glad I learnt a few tips from the internet.
1. Let out some air after you pump up the balloon so that it is soft and easy to twist.
2. Some models required some space at the end of the balloon. Don’t inflate it fully.
3. Buy good quality balloon.

YouTube has a lot of free tutorial on making nice balloon models. I got most of the ideas from there.

By the way, the person who ordered the balloons from me, we had some much in common. It is a very small world in this island. I am glad her party friends like my balloons.

If any of you who have children who wants to go Sunday School in Penang island, drop me a comment and I will contact you. I am from the Christian Gospel Hall community. Children age 5 to 12.

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That was the book my son likes to read. He likes comics and this book has comics with some write ups. It is a diary of a kid named Greg, similar to Adrian Mole’s diary minus the comic. It is one of the international best sellers too.

I am trying to encourage him to read Enid Blyton books or Hardy Boys but I feel he is not ready yet. At least he is reading the Bible occasionally.

Another book he likes to read is Captain Underpants, also because of the pictures. He is more a visual boy. He understands more with pictures. He likes to draw and a good way to express himself. If you give him colors & papers, he can sit and draw the whole day.

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Rugs can really make my home look beautiful. My house flooring is made of tiles, it is often cooling in the morning or late at night. Chinese also believe that it is not good to sit on tiles because of the air flowing upwards that can cause body ache. The rugs will help to provide a warm space to sit.

When my children were young, I have a rug for them to play. It is useful because it prevents them from falling on the hard tile floor and they may get bruises. It also sets a boundary for them to play inside the rug. I don’t allow my children to run around the house either because they may injure themselves.

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I am not a regular trader but I do receive shares from my company. I relied on the trading software to provide the tracking and monitoring of the shares. It is very helpful as I don’t need to check on it daily. Some software do provide you will daily reporting.

If you are into Forex trading, you can get the Forex trading software to monitor the Forex performance.

It is useful especially if you have funds or investment in another country. I know a friend who has Fixed Deposit in Australia because Australian bank gives better interest rates. However she needs to monitor the currency up and down so that she knows when it is the right time to buy more Australian currency and when to sell.

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I was sleepy as it was a long day for me. However I promised my boy that I will get him a book. I tell you the book he got in the next post.

He got his book but of course, my gal wanted to get her share. I asked her to choose one quickly so that we can get out of Borders.

Finally both got their books and I went to the checkout counter queue and wait to pay. There was only 1 cashier. She was yakking away with the customer. In my mind, I was chanting, please be quick…please be quick. It took her 5 minutes to clear that customer with 1 book. *shake head*

Ooh, the cashier was nearer to the other end. I walked up to the cashier. A lady came up and put her big basket on the cashier. I tried to ignore her and gave the books to cashier. She made a remark to the cashier that she was there first. Yeah yeah yeah… I told her that the Q was on the other end and she came from the “no entry” end. She went and look. You know “ngok yan sin ko jonk”.

Sorry, I was feeling sleepy and I need to pray for self control. But sleepy also can read signs.

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I blog about this when Tim entered primary 1. He had a problem where he cannot speak in school. He didn’t speak to his friends or teachers when he was in kindy at all. His friends asked me “Can Timothy speak?” Similarly, first few months of primary 1, he was the same.

My hubby and I took steps to encourage him to speak in school. I took some flash card and accompany him to school. I would ask him to read to me in a quiet area. Every time he does that, he gets rewarded with a sticker, eventually get a gift after collecting a number of them. He could read the cards without problem in school.

Next step, we invited 2 to 3 friends which he talks about at home. First we can see he wanted to talk but his high anxiety holds him back. All he could do was whisper. His friends were amazed to hear him whisper because they never heard his voice before.

We were persistent to do this until he could read to his friends at normal voice. After a few weeks, we told a simple story book and he read his with his friends.

We told his class teacher and counselor teacher that he was having such problem. His counselor teacher always invites him to her office to talk to him. He could whisper to her. He was really happy when the teacher gave him a ruler.

That was standard 1. Now he is in standard 2, he can talk & play with his friends and sing in school. He still find it difficult talking to teacher. The teacher said he only whispers.

However in Sunday School, he could talk to the Sunday School teachers. I am seeing that he is overcoming his high anxiety.

If you are in the similar situation with me, don’t panic or scold your child. Take small steps to encourage your child. You can view lots of video in YouTube that talks about “Selective Mutism” Most of the time, they will overcoming their high anxiety with not talking. That is their coping mechanism. No one know what is the root cause of this problem. However I suspect it could be due to bad experiences they encounter in school, like fierce teachers scolding them or other children.

Parents out there, if you are talking steps to help your child, although progress is slow, you child will eventually overcome his high anxiety.

By the way, Timothy does not have any problem with his academic. He still learns and does well in school. However he is not doing well with Lisan and Oral which requires him to read to the teacher.

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My children are slowly growing up and nothing much to blog about them. I guess I have to change topics soon. I am running out of things to blog or losing the motivation. I believed many bloggers are feeling the same as I am seeing fewer and fewer post. Ha! Some of us still need to keep it alive to earn some side cash.

Anyway, I will blog about what I played when I was in primary school. The other day, I started a sewing project. My gal came to me and said that she was bored. Well Tim was having exams, so we had to stay at home for him to do some revision.

Since I was doing some sewing, I sewed 5 stones for Emily. I am sure you played this before. There are 8 levels to this game.

Level 1: Throw all five stones on the ground. Pick one up. Throw the picked stone up the air, collect one on the floor and catch the one up the air. Do this until all the stones on the ground are picked up.

Level 2: Pick 1, throw up 1, pick 2 stones and catch.

Level 3: Pick 1, throw up 1, pick 1 and catch. Throw 1, pick 2 and catch.

Level 4: Pick 1, throw up 1, pick 4 and catch.

Level 5: Hold the five stones in your hand, throw 1 stone up while placing the four stones on the ground. Catch the 1 stone up in the air. Throw the 1 stone up again and pick up the 4 on the ground and catch them all.

Level 6: Pick 2, throw up 2, pick 3 and catch all.

Level 7: Hold the five stones in your hand, throw 1 stone up while four is still in your hand, use your 2nd finger touched the ground and then catch the 1 up in the air.

Level 8: Throw all 5 on the ground. Ask your opponent to point to one. Pick it up, throw it up, collect all found on the ground and the one up the air.

Rules of the game are that when you picking any of the stones, you cannot move any other. When you are catching the stones, none of the stones can fall out from your hand. . If you do, you will lose your turn.

If you will complete all levels, you will gain 1 point. The one who collect as many points wins. The game can be played by partnering with others to form team. Each person will continue from the level the team member failed to complete.

There are advanced levels for this game for experts.

Advanced level 1: Pick 1, throw up, pick 1, catch the 1 up the air. Now you can 2 on your hand. Throw 1, exchange the one in your hand with the one on the ground and catch the one up the air. Repeat the step until all the stones on the ground has been exchanged. Now the difficult part, how you are not lost. Throw 2 up, Left hand catch 1 and at the same time the right hand pick 1 up and catch 1 from the air. Do this until all stone is picked up. Final step you should have 3 on your left hand and 2 on the right. Right hand throw 2, left hand catch 1 and right hand catch 1. Right hand throws 1 for the left hand to catch.

Advanced 2: Pick 1, throw 1, pick up 2, and catch 1. Throw 1, exchange 2, catch 1. Throw 1, pick 2, catch 1. Throw 3, Left hand catch 2, Right hand pick 2 and catch 1. Throw 3, Left hand catch 2 and Right hand catch 1. Right hand throw 1 and Left hand catch the last 1.

And etc….

Now Emily is only learning how to throw and catch.

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Every time I go to Singapore or KL, I will have to walk a lot. I will walk from one shopping mall to another. Well, I believed most Singaporean got used to walking because getting a vehicle is expensive. You must get a good and comfortable footwear such as Privo to minimize the pressure.

Of course after walking for a long time, I take rest and it helps to recharge. I wished I can say that for my pocket, hoping it will top up by itself. That would be so cool.

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Well you do not have to spend on expensive toys. I found a website which provides paper folding popular cartoons like Ben 10, Transformer, Power Puff Gals, Simpsons and lots more. All you have to do is print to a printer and let your children cut, fold and glue. For children younger than 5, you need to help them.

Source: http://toy-a-day.blogspot.com

Here are my toy friends…save me lots of $$

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