My children love to go supper or maybe they just want to “sau kai” meaning “don’t want to stay at home”. Anyway, they always want me to bring them to mamak stall. Here in Penang, we have lots of indoor mamak place because famous for nasi kandar stall. Most of them are 24 hours and some are air condition like Kayu.

My children love the Roti Tisu from Kayu. It is huge and is required to be served on 3 plates. It is crispy and sweet, that is why they love it. Look here if you do not know what Roti Tisu is:

Once it a while, it is good to have supper.

I think it is my year and I received a letter from Golden Screen Cinema that I won a consolation prize. I entered this when my family and I went to watch Madagascar 2 last year. I just wrote the slogan on the spot. Now I cannot remember what I wrote too.

Emily and I participated in a Tinkerbell coloring contest. Results will be out in March. I am keeping my finger crossed. Emily told me that she wants to open the prize. I don’t think it will come in wrapping paper. She enjoys tearing the wrapping paper.

On another topic, this happens yesterday at the Penang Bridge. A crane fell over and cause a long hours of jam! It looks like a crane wants to be a transformer but failed to do so. Timothy was fascinating with the front page of TheStar today. He asked me how the crane transformed. :giggles:

Yeap she almost there, she can switch on the lights with tip toeing. She is going to be 5 and she can reach the lights. One less chore for me, to help her on the lights. Now she can open the doors by herself.

One thing that she constantly makes me or herself frustrated is when she asked me something which is very ambiguous and make me tell her. If I cannot, she will make a fuss or cry. A few times, I tried to divert her attention but failed.

Here is one classic example:

Emily: Mummy says what is kepala.

Mummy: Head.

Emily: No Mummy says what is kepala. *a little frus*

Mummy: Kepala is Head. *blur*

Emily: No Mummyyyyy say what is kepala.

Mummy: Huh??!! *better not say head, later she will explode*

Emily: Say What is kepala. Like teacher.

Mummy with imaginary light bulb on: Emily, What is Kepala?

Emily: Head *smiling*

Mummy: :rolleyes:

Today lunch time, my gal told me she had stomach ache. I applied some “minyak angin” and thought she was hungry. I gave her some honey dew, my subsidy from my workplace. She ate and she was ok.

Later after I sent my son to school, my hubby got a call from my nanny. She said that Emily is having fever and has no appetite to eat. I suspect is food poisoning. However she didn’t vomit nor has any diarrhea. I gave her fever medicine and asked nanny to let her sleep. The clinic was already close for lunch time. I thought to let her rest and take her to the doctor after work.

She had fever again at 5:30pm and my nanny gave her the fever medicine. She looks very tired. I gave her Gain Bac, good bacteria. Later, she passed motion and she was active with no fever and no stomach ache. Her motion was normal. However she insisted that she wants to see the doctor. More like she wanted to go to the clinic playground.

I took her to the clinic because I was afraid that she may have fever again at night. Better let the doctor check her. However when she was at the clinic playground, she has no sign of being sick.

She saw the doctor and he could not find anything wrong with her. The doc said she just has some wind in her tummy. Since I already have fever medicine and Gain Bac (good bacteria), he didn’t give her any medicine. There goes my money too! RM25 for the playground. :rolleyes:

By the way, if your child has stomach flu, good bacteria helps a lot. The doc told me that he has a case of a child admitted because of rotavirus. The doc gave the child good bacteria and he recovered after 4 days. However the child’s aunts also had the same rotavirus and were admitted for 10 days.

P/S: I got the above bottle from my pediatric. I am sure you can also get from the pharmacy. I suggest you talk to your doctor before using it.

I was looking at Tim’s exercise book and I saw some interesting pictures he drew. I believed most of them are Bible Stories. I do not know what it is but I will ask him tomorrow. See whether you can guess the bible story tie to the drawing.

Time to test your Bible Knowledge…

Story #1 – Jesus Crucifixion (Giveaway)

Story #2

Story #3

Story #4

Story #5

Story #6

Story #7

Story #8

Story #9

Answers:
Story #1 – Jesus Crucifixion (Giveaway)
Story #2 – Jesus Ascension
Story #3 – Angel Appeared At Jesus Tomb
Story #4 – Moses & Burning Bush
Story #5 – Moses
Story #6 – Moses & 10 Commandments
Story #7 – The Red Sea Destroyed The Egyptians
Story #8 – Daniel’s Friends In The Fiery Furnace With An Angel

Remember that I won US30 on the first day of Chinese New Year. It was my company department photo contest. My director asked us to take picture during our December break. I submitted my Teluk Kumbar beach pictures I took during Christmas. The criteria is not how good the picture is but how relax we were.

I was one of the winners. The one sitting on my left and back also won. I guess we know how to relax ourselves. I was asked not to share this until the department meeting. Oh well, my director didn’t want me to steal the thunder. That’s how I won US30. I am still thinking how to spend it. Any great ideas….By the way, the prize money is taxable 🙁

Again, I will show the winning pictures.

It happens in Kuala Lumpur Mid Valley. My children love to ask me to treat them ice-cream. By the way they don’t regard ice-cream as junk food. Just to see them grin from ear to ear, I treat them Gelato Fruity.

I kind of like their customer service. When you approached the counter, the moment you point to the ice-cream, they will scoop a little with their tiny spoon and let you taste it. It is done without asking. My children have fun with it because they can taste it before ordering.

Both of them got a big huge scoop on the little cone. Yes the ice-cream is huge, like a double scoop. They also like to sit on those high chairs where they can swing around.

I turned around and Timothy was upset. His scoop of ice-cream felt on to the ground. I am not sure how he did it but in his hand was just an empty cone. Poor him! I took his cone and when back to the counter. I am not sure whether I can ask for a replacement or not. I was ready to pay for it. Guess what, they replaced it for free and with the same amount of ice-cream. I was amazed! I will certainly go back because of their customer service and their ice-cream is delicious too.

“Sweets and chocolate are junk food, I don’t like junk food” Emily & Tim said.

Today I was at popular bookstore paying for the items I am buying. As you know the counter is filled with sweets, chocolate and junk food. I asked Emily whether she wanted Ribena jelly. She said out loud that “Sweets are junk food, I don’t want junk food”. The cashier gal laughed and told me that this is the first time she hear a child say that. It makes me very proud of them.

How did Emily and Timothy get there? It is influenced by my nephew whose parents were very strict on junk food. They don’t allow him to eat any and brain washed told him junk food is not good. There goes the fun! In turn, he influenced my children. You see having their cousin tells them that junk food is no good is better than their parents saying it hundredth times.

You know how grandma or grandpa pampered them with things they like. At one time my mom secretly gave my children chocolate. The funny thing is that when my children were at my parents place during CNY, my parents offered my children soft drink. Emily and Timothy told grandma, “This is junk drink and I don’t like”. All my relatives laughed.

Anyway, they are not perfect as there are times when I eat junk food, they too want a little bit. They tell me a little bit is ok.

I must say bravo to Timothy’s teachers. Yesterday I received the first “jumpa cikgu” letter from the school. I told myself “oh oh”. I already predicted what will happened.

As some of you know that Timothy had a problem with Selective Mutism meaning doesn’t want to speak in certain environment namely school. He overcame it when he was in kindy last year as the teacher reported his progress in reading. Today he is in a different school, which means he has to do it all over again.

I blog about the KIA2M assessment and Timothy didn’t do any of it. The counselor teacher met with my hubby and I to discuss his problem. As many of Timothy’s class teachers’ feedback to her telling her that Timothy doesn’t want to talk or read. They have a concern. She called Timothy to her office and did a psychology test (whatever that is) with him. He could do it all. Timothy has no problem understanding instructions, learning new BM vocabulary and doing his homework correctly.

I told her about “Selective Mutism”, printed some info for her and explain to her about Timothy’s problem. I should have done this earlier. She was very surprised that this even existed. I am glad that the teachers brought up the issue and they were willing to help him.

She sat with us and Timothy to do the KIA2M test. Timothy did most of the questions right and trying very hard to read to her in his small voice, almost whispering. It is a small step for him to learn to talk in school.

I must thank the teachers for asking us to meet them and giving Timothy a second chance. It is great to know that even in Kebangsaan school there are caring, dedicated and helpful teachers. Bravo to them in highlighting their concerns to us upfront. Now they are in the light of Timothy’s problem and willing to help us. We parents need to work a good relationship with the teachers to understand the progress of our children.

A step for me is to encourage and motivate Timothy to talk in school. One thing I may do is to spend 15-30 minutes in school ground, asking Tim to read to me. With selective mutism, we must consistently take small step to help the child to progress. Please pray for Timothy to overcome this problem.

P/S: He talks like a normal boy outside of school compound. I have a hard time keeping him quiet at times.

Last week, I met with an incident and learned something from it, probably some tips for you, parents. I was at the gift wrapping counter in Jaya Jusco at Mid Valley. Mid Valley is always crowded and we have to be careful with our children.

At the gift counter which was also a service counter, I saw a gal in tears. She was very frightened. She is about 10-11 years of age. Yeap, you guess it, she lost her parents. She was smart to approach a Jusco staff saying that she lost her parents. The staff bought her up to the service counter, hoping for more staffs to help her out. They called the security guard who was communicating to other security guards to look for any parents who lost their kid. Probably her parents were still shopping and didn’t notice they lost their child. Hey it happen to me when I was 11-12 years old in Japan, read the later part for my story.

Being a mother, I kepoh with the service counter staff to ask them to make a public paging. The staff told me she was afraid of public paging and waiting for her supervisor to page. She can only do it in BM as she is not well versed with English. If they allowed me, I can do it for her. It is all scripted anyway.

She asked me and the guard whether she can do it in BM. Hrmm…I told her if the parents is a foreigner which I suspect because the gal look a little mix, the parents would not understand BM. By the way, the gal gave the staff a phone number but it has 10 digits. We suspect it is an overseas number. It starts with 04xxxxxxxx. Not Penang number ok! Penang only has 7 digits after area code. Hers have 8 digits.

Anyway after a long time, finally I heard them paged for the parents twice. I could not stay any longer to see the happy ending.

Note to all parents and myself, next time you go shopping, make sure your child carries your handphone numbers in paper. Teach the child to pass the phone number to security guards or staff with tags. Otherwise hold on to your child like precious diamonds!

For my story in Japan when I was 11+, yes I wondered away with other tourists on my own. My parents, bro, sis, uncle, aunt and cousins didn’t realize that I was on my own. I was walking on my own but not afraid. I think I knew my way back to the hotel. This is in the street of Toyko which I never set foot before. Imagine if I didn’t know my way back, I will be a lost child in Japan. Now thinking back, I felt I was protected.

Guess what, I met my family on the street and they were lost. I had to bring them back to the hotel. They claim it is very far to walk back and wanted to take a cab. I remember telling them that it is just across the street. 😛