Sometime ago, my hubby started teaching house rules to the children. He started with 4 simple rules. They are

It is a good way to teach the children to obey rules and what they are there for. Every time they break the rules, we will remind them. So far they have been listening and both of them can reside the rules.

Timothy has his own set of rules, not sure whether it is for us, if only we can read it. The saying goes “children are meant to be seen and not heard”, so if we cannot read it, we can just ignore. :giggles:

Emily, on the other hand, will shout aloud the rule if kor kor breaks it. She will point and say “rule number 1, 1 drawing paper per day, see, see.”

It just makes me laugh how they are having fun with rules. Of coz, the one who breaks it will not end up with fun.

A good place to find all your souvenirs and nice cheap Singaporean flavored bags are in Singapore Chinatown. To get there, you can take the MRT directly to Chinatown station. It is also a place to eat different types of food, of coz at a tourist price. I love the pork tripes, egg omelette with seafood and dim sum there.

It has lots of things to see and shop, like bags, dresses, skirts, deco stuff, cushion covers, watches and shoes. It is almost similar to Petaling Street but Petaling Street has more people and stores. There is one shop you should go, they sell all the nice samfu and cheong sam. It is mostly from China. There are some India clothing too.

I was quite pissed with one stall. It is the stall that makes bookmarks, table deco and stuff with bending steel. My son was just touching one of the display, children being children, they love to touch. The stall owner shouted, “Boy don’t bend the display”. He didn’t even bend it, just merely touch it. I said out loud “Lets go if that’s they way they treat customer, so rude”. If my boy did any damage to their display, I will pay for it. He doesn’t have to shout at my boy.

Don’t mess with my children, look here to see why….do they look like they are little FBI agents?

I got those glasses for them from Tangs with UV protections. Do not get those cheapo toys black glasses as it will spoil their eyes.

It was raining cats and dogs yesterday night. I was putting Emily to sleep and she asked me to stay with her. Usually, she sleeps by herself. I stayed with her till she slept.

Every time the lightning comes, Emily will shout lightning, same goes for thunder. I like looking out from the window when it is raining. She kepoh and looked with me. We spotted our neighbor’s car coming back. His house doesn’t have an electric gate. Emily was asking me whether uncle got umbrella. I think she was very worried that uncle has no umbrella.

The car stopped there for quite a while. Both of us were wondering what the uncle will do. After a minute or two, someone came out of the house with an umbrella and open the gate. Emily jumped up with excitement saying “Yeah uncle got umbrella”. Then we went back to chatting and sleep.

I am not sure whether you have little correctors at home. Children of this generation are very observant. My 2 little ones often correct my hubby and I. Be it language or things we do, they observe our mistake and correct it. Here are some:

Tim: Mummy, this is slippers, not shoe

Em: Emily is honey, not darling.

Tim: Mummy, you didn’t say Thank you Papa.

Em: Emily is E, not I (*trying to correct her on I and You*)

Tim: This is piggy bank, not piggy.

Em: No ah, Emily cough cough cannot eat rice.

Tim: Off the light, not close the light.

These are the few I can remember.

Today I went back home to collect my cheques to pay tax. Emily saw me coming home and yell so loud. I went over to say Hi to her. She was so excited because she thought I was going to bring her out. The happiness was short lived when I told her I had to go. I stayed a little while to chat with her.

She was holding my hands and not wanting to let go. Her legs were stuck out the grill door pointing to her slippers. Her face was all saddened. No matter how many times I told her when I finished work, I will take her out, she didn’t want to let go my hands. My heart breaks when I saw her like that. As I was leaving she cried. It was heart broken to see her in such manner. It is so sad to see her miss me. 😥

After a good meal and a full day of activities, what do my children do? Relax on grandpa comfy chair. Emily started to act comfy and asking the kor kor to do the same. She asked me to take a picture with her big smile and tummy too. She said, “Mummy must take my big tummy yeah”. :giggles: Now shouldn’t I be on that chair? Hrmmphhh…

I was looking for 2 piggy banks for Tim & Emily. I want them to learn to start saving money. Every time we go shopping, my children will request me to buy this and that. Of coz, with my bags of tricks, usually they ended up getting nothing. Now I just tell them to fill up their piggy banks and use their money to buy.

At this age, they don’t know what the value of money is. They think RM1 can get everything. When I say the item is expensive, they just accept it. Lately Tim starts to question.

Anyway, I wanted to get a piggy bank that is unbreakable. I finally found a plastic one. It is fairly cheap too. Emily was so excited, now every time asked me for coins so that she can slot it in. She will go find loose change that is around the house or in the car.

Do you know why it is call piggy banks and not any other animals? I heard that it was from the idea of the farmer feeding the pigs and only getting the returns after he slaughtered the pig. Similarly when you break the piggy bank (the clay type) you will get the money. Today, piggy banks come with an opening at the bottom.

It reminds me of my sister’s funny story. When she was young, she had difficulty saving money. On her birthday, I bought her a steal coin box and presented to her. She was excited and put some money in it. After a short while, she realized there is no opening at all to get the money out and since it is made of steal, need a can opener to open.

I was sorting out my digital pictures, I can tell you I have a few Gigs of my children pictures on my hard drive. Going digital is a good thing, imagine how much money I have to spend on buying film and developing it.

I selected some of the Tim and Emily’s pictures and put them together. At this age, no matter how bad they fight, they always get back and play together. There are no hard feelings in children. One moment, they can fight by screaming at one another. Next minute, you see them playing together.

Not in the adult world, when we are offended or make an argument, we can store hard feelings for life. There is something we ought to learn from our children. Forgive and Forget.

Sometimes Emily has moody behavior. Some days, she can wake up on the wrong side of the bed and do not want to leave her bed, although she is awake. If you force her, she will cry. She is having this type of bad moods swing very often. I hope it is a passing phase, probably adjusting to some hormone changes?

Today, she wanted to follow my husband to prayer meet in church. Tim and I wanted to go home. I allowed her to follow. She was very happy.

However later, I heard my hubby’s car coming back. He told me when he reached the church, Emily cried. She wanted to go home. Poor hubby had to drive her back. Fortunately it is nearby. She was happy when she reached home.

When it reached bed time, she refuses to go upstairs. I switched up all lights and tug Timothy in while she was crying downstairs. It went on for 10-20 minutes. She was getting tired, later she called out to me. Only then she cooperated with me to change to her pajamas and go to sleep.

I have 2 TV hoggers at home. They always want to watch their favorite cartoons. Demanding for Mr Bean, Barney, Monster Eye and etc… Sometimes they just want to leave it on and not watch it. However when I switch channel, they will make noise.

Usually at the evening, I would want to catch the TVB series. Most of the time, when I say I want to watch Chinese Show, they will let me have my hour of TVB series. However, not in peace, they will make background noises or ask me questions.

Today, with my 20inch IMAC, they can watch their cartoon and a big screen, just like in the movie theatre. Daddy had taken out the funny looking speaker and the sound quality is fantastic. While the watch their cartoon in the study room, I can watch my TVB series in peace.

Look at the funny IMAC speaker called “Harman Kardon SoundSticks II”