Just got back from Gerik, absolutely peaceful town, and 40 mins drive from there is Tasik Banding and Belum National Park. BEAUTIFUL!

Anyway...wanted to write this down before I forget, about an experience at the mall last week. Nel decided she wanted to have one on one time with daddy So off they went, leaving me and Jo to shop for my shoes.

Well, Jo was “great” help at deciding, coz she kept bringing me high heels in striking pink and red, and heels with glitter; instead of the boring conventional black I was looking for.

However, she was great help in other ways. She helped me talk with the sales people. in at least 4 instances at different stores, she went over to the sales person and requested for the size I wanted. Which is size 7, (yes my feet are huge). The reaction of the various sales people were interesting.

The first looked down at her and ignored her. When she repeated “size 7 please”, she frowned and ignored her again. After a third request from Jo, she looked down at my little girl and asked “where is your mother?” Jo pointed in my direction, I looked at the sales lady and mouthed the words “size 7 please!” She promptly went and brough the pair of shoes. Later on, impressed she had conversation with Jo. :)

The second sales person was a man who stared and smiled in Jo in disbelief. He thought it a joke and ignored her. But looking around he saw me staring at him, he pointed at me, and pointed at Jo. I nodded, and he brought me the shoe size I wanted.

The third was a sharp boy. Upon request from Jo, he looked around and saw me. He immediately brought the shoe.

The fourth were 2 men talking together. When they received the request from Jo “size 7 please?” One of them took the shoe, looked at the other and continued chatting and laughing. Perhaps they were laughing at my little girl. She stood there, not moving and repeated “size 7 please”. The looked at her, smiled, said some cute words but did not get the shoe. Finally after a 3rd request from Jo, they realized she wasn’t kidding, looked around and saw me. One of them raised an eyebrow indicating “you want this?” I replied with a nod.
Interesting…why was it so hard for them to bring a size 7 shoe when requested by a little girl? Haha….

Anyway...yeah, recently me and girls watched "The BLind Side". Jo asked a hundred questions, and I threatened to remove her and ground her. I cried buckets of tears and wondered why my Nel was silent as stone. I turned towards her and saw her crying silent tears. Awww...yeah, she's always been the feeling, people person.

Woke this morning, did some dishes left over from last night...and the whole sink got clogged up AGAIN! Got fed up, left dishes in sink and walked away.

Had to get ready for other things. Went up, took a quick shower.
While returning to the kitchen, I heard the sound "SlosH ! SlosH! Slosh!." Wondering what the heck it was, I rushed in to see my Nel, pumping the sink hard with a plunger. hahahaha...oh my, well, that tough little girl UNCLOGGED my sink! Amazing she is! :)

Anyways, in terms of learning...we're into studying continents of the world and body organs. Recently finished an intro to the solar system. not bad. :)

As for Jo.. the little fella woke up this morning and her first thoughts were "Mum, you know what's disgusting?"
I replied "no, what is?"
Jo said seriously "mum, brides are disgusting!"
Surprised, I asked "why???"
she replied "well, because they kiss their husband's mouth on the wedding day, and all the germs from the husband's mouth crawls into the bride's mouth. Disgusting." LoL..oh well...gonna ciao. has been a long day of work. Will rest now, and hope to catch some badminton.

..Sometimes, after the fit of anger has passed,
the wrongs made right,
the mess and chaos tidied up and made orderly again,...

I watch my children fast asleep and deeply regret the things I've said.

I kiss them and whisper "I love you's"
but they can't hear me or feel me..they're fast asleep.
Tomorrow I'll make things right.... I really hope to.

It's amazing, how my little one, after the barage of unkind words spoken by me last night, ran crying to her sister's room, was comforted, and in less than 5 minutes back in my room saying "I love you mummy,...I want mummy, i love you mummy." She said a cute prayer, then fell asleep in my arms. Children forgive so easily...trust so fully...love unconditionally.

Yup...tomorrow I must try to be a better mum...continuously try.

how Jo fell in love with the Cicada

Since my children and I love the outdoors, we decided to have a few days of science in the great outdoors. The focus of the trip would be finding insects and spiders. It was really exciting. Just within one night, and a day outdoors, we (my children and cousins) discovered at least 30-50 different types of insects, spiders, moths, butterflies and birds. Amazing.



During our hunt, I heard the unmistakable sound of the cicada. When we first saw it, it was flying like a mad insect without direction, vertically and horizontally. That frightened the children a little, especially when it went zooming over their heads.



Finally I caught it and asked the children “Who wants to hold the cicada?” Nobody volunteered. Then li'l Jo said “I will.” She held it and was a little taken aback when it buzzed strongly while croaking within her little palms. She let it go immediately but I told her that she was REALLY a VERY brave girl for holding it. Immediately she caught it herself and held it.



It was love at second hold. :)



Jo held that cicada lovingly, talked to it, petted it and we gave it a name, Chica. Then came time to let Chica go, and Jo was really sad. While trekking she kept asking “Mum, does Chica know I miss him? Is he thinking of me? Will he come back to meet me? I miss Chica..”



That evening while walking, we heard a faint sound of a cicada nearby. Jo ran excitedly towards the sound saying “It’s Chica! It’s Chica!” She caught it….but alas, this was a very weak cicada, one that was…dying. Jo noticed how it did not buzz as strongly and how it’s sound was so much weaker. She said “mum, is Chica dying? Mum….he’s sick, he’s dying,….he’s dying…” as the cicada kept calling in a very weak voice. Jo began crying streams of tears… I said “Jo, maybe this is not Chica. Chica has a strong voice, and strong wings…maybe this is a different cicada Jo, but we’ll let it go into the woods.” So I walked a crying Jo to the trees and let the cicada go. She kept crying… “Will it live mum? is it happy I let it go mum? Mum…it’s dying…why is it dying…? Mum..what if it’s Chica? And Chica is dying ?”



We headed home…and then guess what? A strong buzzing cicada flew over us and Jo waited till it landed, held it and shouted “MUM! this is CHICA! It’s CHICA!” …… It still touches me as I recall how gently she talked to that insect. The parting was difficult again with more tears… Then I had to tell her the truth that there were thousands of cicadas… thousands.



That night, heading back to our apartment, Jo ran ahead. We then heard her little voice shouting excitedly “Mum, I caught a firefly!” I didn’t believe her at first and thought she must’ve been mistaken. We caught up with her…and within her little palm, was really a firefly! We took it back to the apartment ..and while the children examined it, it flew up. So we switched off the lights, lay on the floor and watched the firefly showing off it’s beautiful glow. Then somewhere in that moment, the children dozed off one by one…probably with beautiful dreams of the lovely day they’ve had.


I took 100's of shots....too lazy to put all here, but here are just 3 shots.

MESS MESS!

Tippity tappity tippity tap…move the very quick, light and nimble feet of my daughter Jo. Very frequently when I’m teaching piano and Nel is away at language class, Jo would approach me while asking “what shall I do mum? what shall I do???” and I’d reply in a low, impatient voice “Go do whatever you want…now shoo, go, go.” She’d then usually ask “May I…..” as her voice becomes fuzzy in my mind as I return focus to my student…while simply replying “yes” to whatever she says.

Then…off she’d go, quick as lightning…tippity..tappity tap.

When the day is done, and I’m free…I’m often Surprised, HoRRified, Amused by her creations and MESS she’s created, either in all the rooms upstairs or in the kitchen or bathroom. Last week for instance, she cleared 20 over books off the study table, put a cloth over to build a tent underneath. Underneath the table she placed towels, blankets, and a whole lot of stuff. There were just books and clothes everywhere! Unbelievable mess!

On Fri, I discovered she’d taken out every single sock she could find in the house (my husband’s mine and Nel’s), laid a “jungle trek” from the living room, up the stairs, to the room. In between this “trek” of socks, were strewn all sorts of toys and stuff, bait it seems for Nel to follow the trek. It was MAJOR MESS!

Yesterday I discovered that she and Nel had ferried food stuff from the fridge to the living room, using the bike they brought in from outside. They were picnicking on 2 large towels, and needless to say, there were crumbs and dirt tracks everywhere in the living room.

Some days I’d find her in the shower…and judging by the way the water’s running out of the tub, she’s been in there for at least half hour, having imaginary conversations with her dolls. There would be damp towels on the bathroom floor, EMPTY bottles of soap and shampoo coz she’s bathed her dolls. [she’s done this many times…despite warnings…it’s time for the paddle?]

I won’t even begin to mention the mess in the kitchen and in the FRIDGE! Sometimes I laugh coz it’s so amusing, but most days I put on a stern voice and very firmly make her clear every single bit of mess she’s created. Still I have to do the mopping and vacuuming after she’s cleared up.

What am I gonna do with this child of mine? As I write this, my fridge is a mess coz she’s stuffed it with crackers and sandwiches she’s made for everyone, ice cubes she’s made in diff containers. And now she’s sleeping in an imaginary bed made by Nel underneath the curtains, surrounded by toys. This bed by the way is amazing. Built by Nel it even includes lighting (made by attaching a flashlight to a very long rope tied to the curtains).

Shall I send her to boarding school to reduce the mess in the house? I guess…not an option for now, probably never.... sigh

the wonderful part of working half day is that i get to spend time doin stuff with my children in the mornings. We've decided to pull Jo out from kindy for a while and see how it goes. So far, i think she's quite a self-directed learner.

Yesterday for instance, we started off the day by reading from the Bible (NIV) about Joseph. Having finished, we had some delicous omelette for breakfast. Then she decided to draw some pics. Here's what she drew.

It's a pic of our house, surrounded by fruit trees. See the alphabets on her picture? she decided to label them all, and that in a way is a lesson in writing and phonetics.

The second one is about a little banana who decides to explore the world of trees and fruits. Something she's been interested in lately. He's standing amongst some pineapples while the other trees are smiling at him. there are also squirrel holes on all the trees. THe third tree from the left is a banana tree with smiling bananas! haha..

Then of course, she had to draw her usual Ariel the mermaid, something she's been crazy about for more than a year now!!

Later she told me she wanted to open a shop. So she made this sign, and drew a computer for her shop.

this is the computer which she drew. And she kinda "typed" on it everytime i purchased an item. And it would produce imaginary receipts. haha..

I asked her "what shop would you like to have Jo?" and she told me, "a jewelery shop."

She asked if she could sell some of mine, (haha) and I said "Jo, if you want to earn some money, then you've got to work hard for it. I'm afraid you'll have to make your own."

So we got some beads out, and she made these, a bracelet and a pair of earrings. I helped her knot it at the end. She told me it was hard work. haha....

Finally ready, she placed them between some pillows, which she called her treasure box. She charged me $2 for each item, and when i paid her, she even gave me change! I asked her why, and she said "mum, I'm the seller, so I can lower the price when I want coz I'm a kind seller." :)

Then we read some from Peter and Jane, did a little math. and she went off to play.

Night time, she and Nel requested to be read from the book "The Little Princess" by F. H. Burnett. I highly recommend it. Makes lovely reading and good material for discussion.

and she ended the day by coloring this. Yeah, a good day for a 4 1/2 year old i think.

refusal to go to school

i thought Jodie would fit right in school and have a fun-filled days. She seemed to make friends easily and is a keen learner. Alas...my thoughts were wrong. It's been 3 weeks now, and everyday has been a struggle.

out of 100 5 year olds in that school, my daughter is the only one who wails and clings tightly to me, refusing to let me go, and making me promise to get her early. Why is she the only one? It can't be the system if the other 99 fit in perfectly. I'm beginning to think it's seperation anxiety.... I checked a few links and most said children should settle within 2 weeks.

This week her crying has somewhat worsen. The thing is, when I pick her from school, she's perfectly happy. We go for lunch and then back home. Around 3pm, she starts worrying and asking if she has to go to school the next day, saying "mum...you must promise to pick me up early.." by nightfall, her panic increases... and she will say in between sobs "mum...I will miss you, mum, promise me to pick me early.... mum, the teacher is fierce...but mum, i will miss you, i will miss you, i will miss you......"

yesterday when evening came, she asked "mum, is it night already? why does it turn dark so early mum? mum, when I get up I will miss you...." I told her she had no school on sat. Yet she went to the door, praying aloud... "God, please please, make the day longer so the night won't come so soon. God, please because if night comes too early, I'll have to sleep and in the morning I will miss my mummy...please God..please..." followed by more crying.

what do I do from a psychological point of view? some of the pages say that I must allow my child to face her fears and her fear will reduce eventually. Yet some say it must be treated with care, or it would have a life time impact on her. how do I treat it? if i let her stay home...will I be helping her? or making it worse coz she will never deal with it? ........... does she have seperation anxiety disorder or is this normal?

helping out in the kitchen

last week Jojo started kindy. I registered her last Feb and had paid the deposit. It is the kindy that Nel went to, and she had so much fun there so I thought I'd let Jo experience a year or 2 there. Thought of withdrawing this year, but hubby said to give it a shot. So far it's been crying spells every morning! she will turn 5 in August, but everymorning she wakes and tells me "mummy, i'm only 3 years old. mum, i'm too young to go to school, I want to stay with mummy."
ahh...it melts my heart to hear that, and I so feel like withdrawing her immediately. but I guess, I'm gonna try to be strong on this one and wait it through a month and see how she does.

As for the home, my children have taken a greater interest in helping me prepare meals recently. Almost everytime I am in the kitchen, i'd hear Jo or Nel asking "mum, may I help?" So far here's how they've helped out:-

-making the spread for egg sandwich. (danelle knows the ingredients and mixes the whole thing by herself, and Jo is fast learning.)

-buttering the bread

-helping to marinade the chicken/beef before cooking (even Jo knows the ingredients now. :))

-using a butter knife to cut mushrooms, luncheon meat, baked potatoes, papaya, fish cake etc.

-plucking spinach leaves from stalk

- helping to pound garlic

- shredding seaweed

-baking cookies

- scooping food out from the wok after it's cooled down

-making own milo and ribena

I'm sure the list will grow longer as they grow. :)

vacation

well, the 2 week hols just flew by too quickly. :( We spent 8 days in a quiet cool place with no TV, no Computer and no Radio. Cool huh? haha.... We awoke every morning to fresh misty air coming in through our balcony.

Enjoyed it so much the children were reluctant to even come home. We spent most of our time reading, doing puzzles, jungle trekking (this was when I got stung by a furry caterpillar..yukk and ouch!!!!!!), bird watching, insect hunting, butterfly watching. I must say, my children have turned out to be true nature lovers, or perhaps I've influenced them to be so.

Our longest walk (bird watching) was 3 hours, and I'm proud of my little Jo who walked every step with us. :)

There were days spent at a cool stream where they built sandcastles, and Nel had great fun throwing objects upstream to see the course it would take while flowing downstream. I had fun with that too, and so did her grandpa. hahaha....

I'm just looking forward to the next hols .....but alas they seem so far away.....

now....if I can only find the right remedy to heal the sting. It's 5 days now and it's still swollen, itchy and painful, although the level of pain has subsided.

compulsive liar? i hope not.

Just didn't feel like doing anything last night. Jo (now 3+ yrs old) however, wanted to play and kept asking "what do you want to do mum?" I kept replying "nothing."
Finally, thouroughly fed up with my answer, she took a deep breath and said very sternly

"Why don't you want to do anything? All you want to do is nothing....if all you want to do is nothing..then I am going to do something and you can do your nothing while I do something!"

And mind you, she said it all in one big breath. hahahaha.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
on a walk with Jo yesterday we came across some very big roots. I asked her "Jo, what do roots do?" without hesitation she replied "roots for for tripping people!" hahaha...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

now on a serious matter...Jo's been telling lies quiet a bit lately. I'm trying my best to deal with it..but she keeps at it. Yesterday for instance 3 big lies.

No.1) she was building blocks and showed me her creation. I told her it was lovely and left the room. Several minutes later, I heard a loud moan and she said "it broke, mum, it broke!!" I entered the room and the blocks were broken apart. I asked her "how did it break?"
she replied "it fell off the bed."
"How did it fall off the bed Jo?"
Jo said, "well, the bed was wiggling and so the blocks fell off."
"hmm...so were you jumping on the bed to make it wiggle?"
"No mum, I didn't jump on the bed, it wiggled by itself. "
"bed can't wiggle by itself, tell teh truth!"
"ok,ok" said Jo. "The blanket was wobbling coz the wind blew it, and it made the bed wiggle and.."
"Jo, I think your nose is growing longer...."
Jo touched her nose and asked "Like Pinocchio's?"
I nodded.
"ok mum, the truth is I took the blocks apart"

She she took it apart and pretended to moan! I can't believe it!
XXXXXXXX

No.2.
me: "Jo, go to the toilet, we have to go out soon, and I won't use the dirty public toilets."
Jo: "ok mum" and she went off to the toilet. She was in there about 30 seconds and came out.
Me: "so quickly jo? did you flush?"
Jo: "oh, I forgot."
Me:" let's go flush."

we went to the toilet and I noticed that we water in the toilet bowl was crystal clear, not a drop of pee. so I said sternly "Jo, did you shee-shee (pee) ?? tell me the truth."
Jo looked at me sheepishly and replied "errm...actually I didn't." So I made her pee there and then. *sigh*
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

no.3. Jo: "mum, I need tissue.
Me: why?
Jo: nothing
me: tell the truth
jo: ok,ok, I spilled some water
Me: where did you get the water? where is the cup?
Jo: umm....missing
Me: ok, now tell me what you spilled??? (I already knew it was glue, but wanted her to say it for herself.)
Jo: ummmm...ok,ok, I spilled glue

There's a whole lot more ... I'm trying to praise her when she tells the truth. I've told her the story of the boy who cried wolf, and tried several other methods. but it's not working yet. Any tips???

my little messenger

we mothers/fathers sometimes use our children as messengers, and i did just that yesterday. hubby works late and I wondered if he'd be willing to go for a run at the field.

So I told Jo to call her dad and told her to say "dad, please come back by 7 so you can go run wit mummy. It is not safe for women to run alone. If you don't come, mummy will be running alone among the strange men."

I then dialled the phone and asked Jo to talk. Here's what she said to her daddy "Dad....dad, you must come home by 7 to run with mummy. There are many robbers you know, bad robbers. Dad, you Better come home, or mummy will RUN AWAY with the men!!"

I thought that was so hilarious. hahaha..

______________________________
Nel....she's been so busy with school work and homework she hardly gets to do anything else. She's lost weight too. Here's what she misses now she's at school..
she misses....evening walks,
.......cycling to the park,
....... visits to the library
... playing in the stream
......splashing in puddles after the rain
.... walking the dog..... She is missing out on so much, coz the school keeps giving MORE AND MORE AND MORE homework!!!

These 2 weeks it's exam time. You'd think teachers would give homework a break so the child can do revision, but NO. Last night she had so much homework she only slept at midnight! I get so frustrated. *sigh*

This is a long overdue update on the development of my children.

Well my little Jo is now 3 years and a few months old. She’s becoming quite the entertainer, acting all the time. Sometimes the character she puts on is so funny that me and Nel really have no choice but to burst into fits of laughter. We did that today, and Jo trying hard not to laugh herself, found her mouth twitching from trying to keep a serious face, and wanting to burst into laughter. She talks to everyone now, from children to adults, talking in long sentences with breaks in between to take in deep breaths of air (which sound like gasping for air.)
She knows her alphabets and has been telling stories and pretending to read from books. A particular book she likes is one about nursery rhyme characters. It’s a short book consisting of 2 lines a page. A few weeks ago, I thought that she was reading the book word for word accurately. However, I now realize that she wasn’t reading, but was reciting, coz she’d actually memorized the book! Hahaha….

Oh yeah, last Sunday we were at the old Folks Home, and she just suddenly decided to lie down smack in the middle. I told her to get up, and she replied “ I can’t mum, I’m a mermaid!” Which brings up the topic of obsession. She seems to be “obsessed” right now, about mermaids, pink dolphins and white horses.

As for Nel, she’s really into arranging stuff. She arranges her colors in certain ways, she stacks up toys or cards in certain ways…and they’re mostly in a certain pattern. Most of the time, she rearranges furniture, toys and stuff in the house to create an imaginary playground. Jo absolutely loves that, coz it creates scenes for her imagination. :)

Ask Nel what she likes most and she’ll tell you stories, play, snacks and long walks.
At the playground last week, while I was talking with her friend’s mum, she was secretly climbing the slide tunnel. When I turned around, she was up there about 10 feet above ground, not inside the tunnel but outside. For some it’s no big deal, but I’m afraid of heights, and so I tried to stay calm. She tells me she wants to go rock climbing, I suppose I will have to take her.

She and Camel (our poodle) are best friends when outdoors. You’ll see Nel hair flying in the wind, holding Camel’s leash and running. My mad/hyperactive dog doesn’t mind it at all. haha... Sometimes you see them sitting together on a bench, Nel red in the cheeks from all that running.
Ok…so much more to update..but it’s late.

I lost it….I lost my temper last night, and poor Jo and Nel were the ones who had to face the brunt of my anger.

I’d just been tired, coz I’ve been down with a cold and headaches. So last night, after dinner, I escaped to my room, picked up a book to read. That’s how I unstress myself, by reading or blogging.

Jo came in, picked up a book about animals and nests and said “mum, read to me, read to me!”

I said “no, I’m not going to read that book to you. We just read it in the evening, and Nel read it to you twice today already.”

She kept bugging and bugging me. Jo’s like that, persistent in what she wants, knows what she wants.

Finally I replied angrily “if you won’t stop bugging me, I’ll leave this room, so stop it now!”

She kept at it, bugging me to read the book.

Finally I stood up and said “That’s it! I’ve had enough!”

I stomped out of the room and headed towards the guest room. Little Jo followed behind, screaming and crying “wait mum, wait for me, please mum….”

I shut the door, locked it and heard Jo screaming outside.

Her dad came up and asked “what’s going on??”

Finally, feeling a little regret, I unlocked the door and came out. Took Jo to the room with me. Jo started venting her feelings, my little 3 year old.

“Mum, I only wanted you to read the book. You walked away! Mum, you don’t like me, you don’t like me.” She said sadly while sobbing.

Jo continued “You read your book, but you didn’t want to read mine. Daddy is a good daddy, he read my book.”

I asked “does that make me a bad mummy?”

She replied “Yes, you are a bad mummy, coz you walked away, and you don’t like me.”

Realising that she genuinely felt hurt, I replied “Jo, I do love you, just that sometimes I Need time to do my own things, read my own books.”

“but you walked away. That means you don’t like me.” Said Jo with a sad face..

I looked at her and said “Jo, …….”

“Jo, I’m sorry I hurt your feelings…I didn’t mean to, I’m just really tired today. Forgive me Jo?”

She nodded quietly.
I suppose with my little girl, walking away is not a good solution. I will have to find a different way to cope when I’m tired the next time.

update on Jo

As I was cleaning up my blog, I came across this recording I made of Jo's singing when she was exactly 2 years old.
http://www.soundupload.com/audio/s6tab3dwmp

I listen and I'm pretty amazed. :) She's still singing a lot...loves to sing. Also very sensitive to sounds. When a recording is on, she asks about the sounds in the background, if they're flute/strings/drums/guitar... She insists that she likes the guitar and trumpet.

Also found this recording of her reciting verses when she was 2 years and 2 months old.
http://www.soundupload.com/audio/05bo52vk06

She remains as strong will as ever although her tantrums have decreased tremendously! (phew!) They went away because I chose to ignore most of her tantrums and did not give in.

Currently she is crazy about princesses. She insists on wearing only certain dresses and it is quite hard to make her wear something she doesn't like.
She's also fascinated with this book about hibernation, particularly about how the dormouse hibernates. And thus, this mummy (me) has now read that particular book, several times a day for several weeks now!

Yesterday Jo was extremely quiet....and finally I found her under the blanket lying down very quietly. I asked her what she was doing and she replied "I'm a dormouse mum, I'm hibernating. Don't disturb me."

More on Jo my little gal

Jo continues to be the one with wild imagination and dramatic acting skills. She is less sticky nowadays and makes friends rather quickly. However, she still refuses to go to Sunday School.

Well, last week while waiting for Nel to finish her ballet class, a few little girls stepped in. I told Jo to go make friends, and she promptly went. She walked, a little hesitant at first, then flashed her impish grin and whispered to the girls "The monsters are coming, quick, run and hide in the bushes!!!"

The little girls ask "where's the bushes?"
Jo replies, "behind, behind! runnnnnnn"
So a bunch of little girls and my little Jo run to the back and they hid in the changing rooms. I thought that was kinda funny! hahaha...

Today, Jo decided she loves veges, since we've been reading about how giraffes love their leaves.
Well, she ate one spinach leaf after another. At one point, I stopped her for a moment to put a spoon of rice into her little mouth.

She dramatically spit it all out on the plate and said in a panicky voice "I have to talk to you mum, I have to talk to you!"

I replied "ok, what's the matter Jo?"
Jo said "I'm a giraffe mum, giraffes DON'T eat rice! "

Meet the TEachers

it's been just so busy since semester started, so busy I now long for a break. Handling kids and work is tiring... but we're coping.

Anyway, I had a few "meet the teachers" meeting recently. Some reports on Nel...

Kindergarten teacher: Nel is a very loving girl. However, she is very very strong willed. If she likes something, she does it with her whole heart, if she doesn't like it, she refuses with her whole heart too. She's also very sensitive, and a very intelligent girl. She has occasionally lost her temper.

(Yeah...I know my Nel, strong headed. On several occasions when in a crowd/class, she has refused to do certain things. WHen I question her privately, her reasons are mainly because she's afraid she won't do it well enough, or that other kids are watching her or would laugh at her... These are usually the main reasons when she refuses to do something. How do I help her get over these feelings?)

Sunday School Teacher: Nel is sometimes strong willed. Today, she refused to come to the front and refused to put her hands up when asked to do so. Is there something wrong at home? has something gone terribly wrong? Perhaps something has entered her!

(my gosh!!!! that last statement got me fuming for a while. A teacher shouldn't be "suspertitious" but find out first why the child acted that way! When I asked Nel at home,
she replied "I didn't want to go to the front, coz I was afraid the teacher would ask me to do something embrassing and all the kids would be looking at me." "I didn't put up my hands because look, all my buttons are popping and coming off, if I put my hands up, my whole dress would be undone."
I looked at her dress, and yup, the whole upper half had come undone. Simple reason...and the teacher read it so dramatically! hrrrmph!)

Ballet teacher: Nel is a very creative and intelligent child. Only sometimes moody. When moody she doesn't respond to commands as other children do. She chooses to create her own dance and moves. However, that shows me she is intelligent with a mind of her own. She just needs to cooperate more. When in a good mood, her dance work is really beautiful. :)

(well, I've been talking to her about this, and yesterday's class the teacher commented that she had improved so much. Yipee. )

So you see my Nel....strong willed, moody, loving, intelligent..at times stubborn, sensitive. I find myself constantly talking to her, reasoning with her.... but most of all, I've come to realise that she needs A LOT of reassurance...

She often says to me "mum, the most important thing to me in the whole world is being with you and dad."

As for my Jo, she's imaginative as ever and strong willed. today in a conversation with and older girl ... E (7 yrs old) : Jo let's keep the toys, I Never loose my toys."
Jo (just turned 3): Oh really E? I loose my toys everyday.. *makes a sad face* what do I do?"

hehehehe.... anyway...gotta go. Working in the noon.....

tday I had the afternoon off. That was nice, as I hardly get Saturdays off. Since it was a cool afternoon, me and the girls went out to sit on the swing. Naturally the girls took off their shoes and went barefooted. Later, while gettin off the swing, Nel picked Jo's shoes for her. Little Jo put on her shoes with a smile and said in the sweetest voice, "Thanks Nel, thanks for giving me my shoes, that's so awesome. "

I told that to my hubby later and we had to giggle about it. hahaha...it's a word we hardly use around here, but she must have picked it up from the tv. :)

Anyway, that was followed by some gardening and catching worms for an upcoming fishing trip.

As for me, I've been busy working, and the kids have been up to mischief as I work. Today I came up to find oily finger prints over my computer screen. The things you find in a house with kids! let's see what I've found in the past...

mouldy rotting cheese under sofa
poop in the bathtub
rotting banana in the kitchen playset
toothbrush in the toilet bowl
empty shampoo bottles all emptied down the toilet bowl again
pepper and salt in my drink
and the list goes on............................

In fact, just last week, while reading, I noticed that there seemed to be an endless stream of ants going in and out of my handbag. I emptied it but nothing unusual came out. Then I checked the tiny side pocket, and lo and behold, I found Jo's half eaten lollipop from a week ago. It was covered with dead black ants, and needless to say, that pocket was filled with ants!! ewwww.....
i killed them all! and showed the lolli to my children. I said "See, lollis attract ants! That's what you get in your mouth when you eat lollis." I thought that would deter them from liking sweets for the rest of their lives. Alas, I was wrong. The very next day I walked into a shop and guess what Jo asked for? a Purple lollipop. Purple remains her favourite color.

ok, the night is here.... time to head to bed, but not before preparing a little for next week's lecture. taaa all.

Of late, things have been busy. Blogging seems to be last on my mine, but I just had to do an update of the children..for record's sake. haha...


Nel has been asking more questions of late... Some questions she threw at me just yesterday..


- Mum, how did you know Dad was the right/good person, good enough so you married him? and how did dad know you were the right person?


- Mum, if the devil disappeared today, would everyone suddenly change and become good?

- Mum.....I want to hear God's voice, how does one hear God's voice?

- Mum, who made God? who made the angels? Who was before God?

- Is God real? does He really listen ?

- Mum....why is dad's legs thinner than yours? (ok this one is obvious, my hubby's always underweight, while I'm always trying to loose weight...*sigh* )



As for Jo, she's really becoming the Drama queen. She changes emotions very quickly, through ACTING! Like, when we're on the stairs, she very often stretches out her hands, acts like she's in trouble and cry out "help me mum....help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" She does other stuff like, take a spatula, and it becomes her oar when she rows her boat (her tiny car), or if she's on a stool, the floor suddenly becomes an ocean of sharks...etc etc.

Overall, we're ok. Some days are good, some days tiring...ok will run. I know, this is such an unspired entry....well, next time will write something better.

Day 4 HFMD

Isn't this getting boring? HFMD again? haha....

oh well....it's day four. The fever has subsided, and that makes things much better. THey are able to play as normal and are back to the love/fight relationship.

As for eating...Nel has taken the opportunity to ask for her favourite ice creams and jelly. (junk food.) Other than that, still no real solid food...coz her mouth is still filled with ulcers. She finds watery porridge ok, and her other favourite at this time is warm mushroom soup with some macaroni. She finds that manageable.

As for Jo.... she's still pretty much on milk and ice cream with about 5 mouths of porridge yesterday which I had to "force" her to eat.

I don't know why they call it Hand Foot and Mouth...coz by yesterday the spots started showin up on Nel's body. They look like blisters on her body. they are mainly on her fingers, toes, thighs, and butt. So they should call it Hand Legs/Butt and Mouth disease.

gotta go...

Day 2 HFMD

as predicted it pretty much a sleepless night. Jo woke constantly, whining each time. As it is, I'm a light sleeper ... and with last night's whining, I was a non sleeper. Awoke with slight headaches, but did not nap at all today. That just doesn't happen. Hubby on the other hand had a wonderful 2 hour nap during the day! (public holiday today..Labour day.)

Jo was cranky most of today....while Nel was feverish in the morning complaining of throat pain. I asked them both to open their mouths, and .....errrghhhhh.....tonnes of red and white spots on the upper palate, and even more in the throat area behind the tongue. In fact, the whole throat looked so swollen. No wonder the crying and whining.

Thank God, the doc had given me Cataflam Oral Drops in case the children experienced severe pain. So I gave Jo the cataflam, and wonders and wonders, she became her usual self for about 3 hours before the cranky side of her reappeared. Nel was quite ok after some fever/pain med, perhaps because she's older. Eating is hard for both of them, and they have just been surviving on milk, cold liquids and ice cream.

Jo is already skinny, and I suppose, this will take more pounds off her.

Anyway....yeah, about to put these babies to bed, and as of now, spots are beginning to appear near their lips, palms and feet. arrghhhh......

Nel is crying a little...she's asking "mum, will the blisters get more painful? it's pain mum...." I'm praying they won't get more painful.

gotta go.....