Today I am so happy. First my son told me to put a new “Peter And Jane” book in his bag. I asked him why. He kept quiet. I ask him whether he read to his teacher. He said he did softly.

I took out the “Peter And Jane” book. He read it to me. Actually I had been doing the reading with him once or twice each week. He can recognize some words but not all of them. Today he can read the whole book. :clap: I am so proud of him.

His reward to encourage him: Two Ultraman Model. If you notice, he read to the teacher too. I guess he some how conquer his fear and anxiety. Thank God and the teachers for having so much patience with him.

Parents, do be careful when picking out a nursery or kindy for your child and I wouldn’t advice you to send your child too young (below 3) to nursery. Some timid children like my son may bury the fear inside if face with tough situation like fierce teachers.

People kept telling me that Emily looks like my hubby and Tim looks like me. There was a small percentage saying she looks like me. For those who seen me and my hubby, who do you think she looks like?

As I was blog hopping, I saw in HuiSia and Julian post the look alike meter in the blog. In my mind, I can put Tim and Emily to the test and see where their good looks come from. The software does a scan on each picture: mother, father and child. After that, the result will show whether the child has the father or mother looks in percentage.

By now you are all anxious about whom Tim and Emily look like right? I was too. Anyway it is just a face recognition technology and it may not be 100% accurate. Before I show you the result, leave a comment to tell me whether Tim and Emily look like.

Result: Tim & Emily.

I was rushing to finish up my work on Friday. Lately I had been overwhelmed with too many projects and I had a presentation at 11:30pm on Friday night. It seems work never ends. Anyway, back in the good old days, I was unhappy if I have to go to school on Saturday except if it is a sports day or non-study day. Malaysia has too many public holidays and teachers cannot finish the entire syllabus for the year which caused us to have additional classes on Saturday. It is a dragged.

Today was the first time after so many years I have to go to school on a Saturday. This time the role is different. It was an open day at Timothy’s school. Basically an open day is where the school invites parents to come visit the school. They will show all the crafts, school work and activities that the school children did. It is also a good time for me as a parent to get acquainted with the teachers.

Previously I wrote about Timothy refusing to talk in school because of anxiety. It is not that he does not want to speak but the word cannot get out of his mouth. I saw a documentary about selective mute that my BIL recorded for me. From the documentary I learn that there are ways to help Timothy overcome this problem.

I was glad that Timothy was reading out to me in school with a little help from Emily. Both were competing with one another to outsmart each other. It is a first step to help Timothy feel comfortable to speak in his school. I will do the sliding in method where by he will read with me in the presence of a teacher. Next week, the school principal that is also my church friend invited us for dinner. We will use that opportunity to help him feel comfortable with his school principal. I really praise God because he answers our prayer.

When my children wake up from sleep or nap, it is very fortunate that they are not grumpy or moody. First thing Tim wakes up, he will go downstairs to look for the daddy as he knows daddy wakes up early. As for Emily, she can snores in deep sleep and next moment her eyes will be wide open looking for me.

Today we wanted to go out for dinner and Emily hasn’t waked up from her nap. She was snoring. Daddy whispered some secret words into her ears. She tried to open her eyes, after a few tries, she succeeded and woke up straight. Guess what those words are?

By the way, our record time from waking our children up from nap to getting out of the house is 15 minutes. Cool isn’t it? 😎

Secret Words: Want to eat your blue ice-cream? Some of you had it correct. Bravo! :good:

Gbay: Stamps

Yesterday, Tim and Em went to the park with daddy while I can peacefully watch my favorite TV. My enjoyment didn’t last long when Tim came home crying. Daddy told me he fell down while running in the park. He has minor bleeding on his knee and elbow. He was frightened and crying.

Tim refused to let daddy touch the wound or let him wash the wound. I came to the rescue. I took out the first aid kit, a bowl of water and some cotton. Wet the cotton. Here is the trick. First distract Tim, he was busying looking at the things in the first aid kit and Emily was kepohing asking mummy what is this and what is that.

Second, do not touch the wound, wipe the area around the wound. If you wipe the wound straight and the child feel pain, he will never allow you to touch him. After wiping around the wound, you can slowly work you way into the wound.

After cleaning it with water, apply the yellow antiseptic lotion. The one I had was good because Tim didn’t feel any pain at all. I know some iodine lotion will cause a little pain. You can use some cartoon plaster to cheer your child up. I used the Superman plaster on his elbow which he was very pleased with.

Recently I discovered a new psychology problem called selective mute. It means that an individual will not speak during certain environment or situation. Selective mute is usually misdiagnoses with the child being shy. It is not really. It is an anxiety disorder. You can do a search in Google for this disorder, it has lots of useful information on it.

Timothy has this problem in school. He didn’t speak in is previous school for 2 years, not a single word to his teachers or friends. Every time I picked him up, he would wait for the teacher to go in and he will speak to me. Once while he was speaking to me, the teacher appeared in his back and he saw, he kept silent. *rolled eyes*. My diagnosis of him having this problem is the teachers were too fierce, not all but some. The turn over was high too. He always didn’t like to go to school and always asking me tomorrow got school or not.

However, he can speak freely in church, with Emily’s babysitter, with my brother or my parents, which he doesn’t always meet. In church, during nursery time, he has no problem speaking to the volunteers taking care of the children.

A month ago, we changed him to another school. He meets the principal who was my church friend. He did speak to her occasionally with 1 or 2 words. It is some progress there. He is still reluctant to speak to his class teacher. However, I hope time will allow him to build his confident and open up to his teacher. If he doesn’t do that, maybe we need to seek professional help. One thing to note is that we cannot pressure him to speak, it can cause more harm than good.

It is very important to check out the school for your children. Some school can give a negative development impact to a child.

Yesterday morning while I was getting into the car to send Timothy to school, there was a stench smell in the car. First thought was it is certainly a dead rat somewhere. My hubby drove out and I look to see whether there was a dead rat on my porch. None.

Later, the smell followed us in the car. Second thought I was afraid that the cat must have brought the dead rat into the car. But how? I kept winding down the window to get fresh air. After a while, I sniff and it came from my son’s bag. I open each compartment and one of it threw out that stinky aroma. Yeak. I passed the bag to my hubby.

My hubby took out a bag of rotten stuff. I am not sure what it was as it was moldy and green. Timothy shouted “That’s the egg I prepared in school” He didn’t tell us that before. Funny thing is when my husband clear the bag everyday, he didn’t notice the smell. Hrmm…. :think: One in a while you get suprises from your children, be it good or bad.

Gbay: Another China Product In Question.

Finally after much procrastination, my hubby and I have moved Tim to a new kindy run by my church. The reason we procrastinated was because we need to plan for transportations and babysitter arrangement for Tim. The new kindy only run half day and the other half he will go to the babysitter. We were very glad after a long negotiation that Emily’s babysitter decided to take care of him.

Why did we change his school? We saw no progression or development in Tim. He didn’t speak to any of the teachers and he is not reading. To top it all, the school gave him plenty of homework and there is no interest in him to do any of it. Worst is the syllabus is so advanced and Tim having a hard time to catch up. The teacher just let him be and did nothing to solve the problem. When my hubby had 1-1 with the teacher, the teacher didn’t give him a solution or plan to improve the situation.

I must say that Tim’s learning curve is slow and he needs more attention to learn. Now I have to tutor him in reading and spelling after work. Tell me at what age does boys learn to spell?

Tim has a new buddy and his name is called Ultraman. I am not sure when he knew Ultraman existed. For those who do not know who Ultraman is, it is a Japanese hero who fights huge ugly monsters. Ultraman was around when I was young and still alive today.

Timothy got my mom to get him a 2 episodes of Ultraman VCD. He has been watching it over and over again. I lost count. Almost every day he requested me to switch it on for him. He changed his milk powder to Sustagen because of Ultraman. Last month, Sustagen gave free Ultraman notebook and color pencil. He persuaded me to get the milk for him.

Yesterday his school bag spoilt and he got his papa to get another new ultraman bag for him. Oh, I still owe him an Ultraman T-shirt. I guess this is the power of children marketing.

Durian is in season and my hubby bought a few back. Tim loves durian and he can wallops a lot. Emily, it depends on her mood. If she likes it, she will take 1 biji. To sums it all up, all of us have the durian gens.

When I was young, I try to avoid taking because I couldn’t stand the smell of my hands after eating. However I love eating it especially when it is from the fridge. There was a point in time when I use plastic gloves to eat. My parents are a great fan of durian and they are sure to get a bunch when it is in season. We will have a durian party. My hubby side his mom and brother dislike durian.

As you know Penang is a place to get good durians and even expensive ones too. Imagine now durian have different grade and types. I prefer the sweet ones than the bitter ones. There are a couple of places here where they have “eat all you can durian buffet”. I am serious. It cost between $15-$20 per person. When my children grow up, we will sure go for the durian buffet. Yum Yum…