Separation Anxiety?

Is that the reason you have been crying every day when we drop you to school? This morning you howled! Daddy had to force me to get into the car and we drove off with a heavy heart. Before that, Mrs. Sebastian asked if there were any changes at home. I cannot think of anything which may have sparked your crying when we leave you at school. Hhmm...

We picked you up from school this afternoon, as I had a good mind to give you a piece of my mind from your crying, but when we looked at you and your cheerful face and since Mr. Tan had mentioned that he'd also spoken to you about crying. In the end, daddy gave you a mild "talking to" and that was it. We hoped that everything would be fine after that.

How we were mistaken! When it was time for us to go to work, you decided to turn on the taps to the max. Now howling was involved, but lots of tears. Sigh... What's going on? How is it that at the aged of 5 you decided to have separation anxiety?

Happy Birthday Nanna

We made a trip to BM to visit Nanna as it was her birthday on Thursday so it was a belated celebration of the XXth birthday. Nope we're not disclosing her age *grin*

It was the same menu for lunch and dinner. Grampy had cooked pohpiah for us. Nanna even invited, your two Ah Chors, and 2nd and 3rd Ee-Pohs. They came over for lunch. Well in your case as pohpiah is all vegetables, you had "bi tai mak" which Ee-ee had kindly packed for you and we (daddy and I) had curry mee to go with our lunch pohpiah.

After lunch, Ee-ee wanted to get you a toy car, so we headed to Tesco where we picked up more than just a car! Then it was soon almost dinner time. After Teo-teo came and everything was heated up, we sat down for another round of pohpiah for dinner. And you had macaroni and cheese in pohpiah! Fusion food :)

You certainly had a good time there, with you getting a present and bathing in the bath tub (squeezing into the tub) and eating your favourite food. I wonder if it's your birthday or Nanna's birthday. Hhmmm....

Happy Birthday Nanna!

Happy Mother's Day

Dear Mummy,

Today is Mother's Day. And I forgot to colour the card which was given to us at school for Mother's Day. Oops.. but to make it up for it, we went out for a yummy Mother's Day lunch. We have two visitors in our house: Aunty Pan and Uncle Sam. They suggested that we go out for a special lunch to celebrate Mother's Day. So after some last minute calling, we managed to get a table for the 7 of us in Parkroyal Hotel.

We got a seat inside the ballroom as many other families had planned ahead and booked tables. But it was a good thing for us. The ballroom was nice and cool with air-conditioning and nice music playing for us.

You even took a picture with Ah Ma to join in the "Mother & Daughter" contest. There was even a clown che-che who made me a balloon gun. Then she came to our table again and made you a balloon wristlet.

At 2p.m. you, Aunty Pam and Ah Ma (and I went along too) to participate in the cake cutting ceremony for mummies. Then they called out names for the lucky draw. Ah Ma got a lucky draw. Later daddy came into the ballroom and said that mummy also got a lucky draw. Wow!

I had a lovely time celebrating Mother's Day with you, Ah Ma and Aunty Pam and of course with daddy, Ah Kong and Uncle Sam too.

A Chocolatey Muakks to you mummy,

Love Evan

Speedy Story

There was one afternoon when we were back in Ipoh for Chinese New Year and I was trying to get you to take a nap. And of course since you do not take naps anymore, you had many many requests before falling asleep. One of it was for a story before going to sleeping. Oops.. I did not pack any story books to bring to Ipoh.

So I said that instead of reading a story, I'd tell you a story. Hence the "Speedy Story" was born. I had to come up with a story which would be of interest to you. So I created a character called Speedy which was a red car. I told you about his adventures and then I added a friend, Thunder (instead of "Lightning" as in Lightning McQueen *grin*).

Surprisingly the Speedy Story did not end that day in Ipoh. Till today you are still requesting for a Speedy Story. To date, your Speedy Story has 4 characters: Speedy, Thunder, Pussy and Lightning (you picked the names for the last 2 characters).

Some days you'd ask me to tell you a Speedy Story up to 3-4 times. And every Speedy Story the 4 cars would race. Problem is your cars always win. Yup, first place is always Lightning followed by Pussy. My Thunder and Speedy only get to vie for the 3rd and last spot. Poor things. As you can see, you are a sore loser!! Some days you would be generous and Pussy would have to give up his second spot.. but that rarely happens.

Treasure Hunt

Your school had organized some events until Easter weekend. But unfortunately we could not make it for one of the events which you wanted to go for: Treasure hunt. On Saturday we went to Cold Storage to look for chocolate eggs. Unfortunately we're too late. They've probably been all sold out. We did buy a packet before your birthday. So seeing that it's been selling for over a month, I guess there is no surprise that all the eggs have been sold out. *sigh* And we event went to try our luck in the Cold Storage in Island Plaza.

Good thing is we picked up a packet of "Daim" chocolates. Better than nothing. And you were still happy with that. So on Saturday night after we got back from dinner daddy kept you occupied while I hid 10 chocolates including 2 leftover eggs.

Picture source

I wasn't too sure if you'd have much patience to find very hidden "eggs". So I left some in very visible places. We loved to see the excitement on your face and when you laughed out loud every time you found one. After you finally found all 10 you ate 2 of them then asked for another round of hunt. And since you said this hunt was too easy, I made it a little more difficult for you.

Took you a while but you finally managed to find them all again. You sure were one happy "egg hunter".

Lost for words

There are times when you really make a person swallow their own words:

XXX: No la.. don't want to do that!!

Evan : XXX (Censored-not disclosing who it is..), don't use 'la' . Speak proper English

While we were drawing today:

Mummy: Wow! Now the helicopter driver is visiting you.

Evan: It's not driver.. it's helicopter pilot!!

As I was giving you a shower:

Mummy: Since Ah Ma is back, she will be picking you up from school tomorrow.

Evan: How come Ah Ma didn't come back on the 29th like Ah Kong? Then you will pick me up from school for more days..

A Phone Call from Evan

Here's an interesting conversation we had earlier in the week:

Mummy: Hello

Evan: Hi mummy... Um.. I want to go to KL to visit Ah Meng Kor-kor's iPad and buy my aeroplane.

Poor Ashley Kor-kor. Looks like the iPad is the thing that you'd like to visit instead of her. Well, we're not going to KL anytime soon since the iPad is in Bahau and not KL. Hehe.. and NO we're not going to Bahau just to visit your friend the iPad. Told Kor-kor about what you said, she was so sad. She wanted to call you as you were holding on to my phone, but she could not get through. You had accidentally turned off my phone.

This is our phone conversation today:

Evan: Um mummy... My 功课 left 10 and 10 and 10 and 8 and 1 more to go. How many is that?

Mummy: 39

Evan: Ok, bye

Less than 2 minutes later:

Evan: Um mummy... My 功课 left 10 and 10 and 10 and 8 more to go. How many is that?
Mummy: 38! And don't call me until you've finished all your homework!!!

And less than 20 minutes later you called to say that you've finished all your homework and also taken your "reward".. your Yakult.

Ringing Non-Stop

Since you were "alone" at home, I usually leave my mobile phone with you so that you can call me if you want to tell me anything. I have set my office number on speed dial and taught you how to use the function.

What a big mistake on my side!!! My office phone has been ringing very often everyday after lunch. You'll tell me these:

"Um, mummy.. Can I do my homework at 3 o'cwok (clock)?"

"Mummy, I have finished my homework"

"Mummy what time will you be back today?"

"Mummy I want you to come back today at 4 o'cwok or 5 o'cwok also can"

Record was yesterday afternoon. I think you called me 5-6 times within 30 minutes. I guess you are lonely at home. But I'm proud to say that you've kept your promise and you'd complete your mandarin homework as promised with acceptably decent writing.

Home Alone.. almost

Daddy's part-time job for this 2 weeks is "driver" or maybe I should give him a more glamorous name "chauffeur". Since Ah Kong and Ah Ma are on holiday, we've got to drop and pick you up from school. Then we'd drop you home, settle you down and go off to work.

On Monday when you were home alone.. with kakak, you cried when we wanted to go to work. It was terrible. I was wondering if I'd have to take the afternoon off for the 2 weeks to accompany you when you were home. But on Tuesday, you seemed OK and happily waved us off to work. Phew...

Of course, I'd receive MANY phone calls from you. Telling me if you'd finished your homework, asking if you could eat this, if you could drink that and the questions were never ending. Of course there is also the command "Mummy you come home at 4 o'clock today OK???"

I'm glad that you are doing OK at home and you've finished all your homework which were given. Good job little boy!

Movie Day

We'd seen the trailer of the movie when we went to watch Rango. And yes, I did not mention Rango. We brought you to watch the movie as it was the school holidays and you did not have any activities at all as you could not go swimming with your cough. Dr Khaw had advised no swimming for 3 months.

So we brought you to watch Rango. And would you believe it? By the time it was our turn to buy the tickets the only available seats were the front row for GSC in Gurney Plaza. So we did not want the seats and headed to 1st Avenue to try out luck in TGV. Well we were in luck and got to watch the movie in TGV and had a large choice of seats to pick from.

This round, we had the free ticket for a child in TGV, but daddy said that he preferred to watch in GSC, so we bought the tickets online yesterday (there were loads of seats available then..) and we watched Rio:

Picture credits

It was a good thing we decided to buy the tickets online. The cinema was full. I guess with it being a weekend, there were lots of families out to watch a movie with their children. I know for sure that you enjoyed the show, you were laughing loudly at the hilarious parts of the movie.. and so did daddy!!!

What's in the Party Pack?

It was a bit rushed for us, but we tried to prepare earlier. Daddy and I was trying to decide on the best thing to give to your classmates. I had already checked with Mr Tan how many boys and girls there were in your class in advance. That way we could buy items suitable for boys and girls.

In the end, we found ready packed colouring books which came with colouring pencils too. Then I bought some balloons and mask to add to the coloring items. On Sunday, I took out all my baking barang then began the slow process of baking cookies for your classmates. I made just over 90 Milo Doggies Cookies for your classmates. Ashley Kor-kor was around and suggested that since I had doggies with eyes with so many expressions, I might as well make some "angry" looking doggies. Thus, we had "angry dogs" too:

So with such big books, they could not fit into the bags I had. So I took out the plastic bags which I had bought last year for the party pack and put everything into the bag, and sealed the bag with some stickers I had in my collection. And end product were these:

Party Time in School

As usual we dropped you in school in the morning. Then as it was still rather early, we went off to have breakfast first before heading to the cake shop to pick up your birthday cake. And again, like on Saturday, it was raining again!!! We waited in the car for a while before mummy made a mad dash into the shop to pick up your cake.

After picking up your cake, we remembered that daddy's flash did not have batteries. So we made a quick stop to buy the batteries then headed back to school. We arrived at around 10am (Mr Tan had asked us to be there by 10.10am, in time for break time). I headed to Mrs Sebastian's office who brought us up to your classroom area. This was out first time going into the classroom area for the 5 and 6 year old. And when we reached your classroom, the first thing we saw was your excited face. Your smile was from ear to ear!!

You quickly gave us a hug and it seems that the children in your class already knew that we were coming with cake! They were also excited. You were all instructed to go wash hands which you all did and came back to class immediately. Mr Tan had even written "Happy Birthday, Evan Ban" on the white board.

When all the children were back at their seats, the cake was brought out and everyone was excited. For the school party you had asked for a Transformers design on the cake. When the candle was lighted, everyone started to sing you the birthday song.

After that Mrs Sebastian helped to cut up the cake into small pieces while Mr Tan distributed plates and spoons to the children who were allowed to eat cake (which was everyone except for one little girl). Everyone was so excited to see the cake, some of you even dig in before saying your prayers. Mrs Sebastian reminded you all and you all said the prayers (which was in a sing-song style).

Most of your friends had second and even third helping of the cake. We left after that. We did not distribute the party pack as Mr Tan said your friends would all get too excited to pay attention in class if they got the party pack. So we left the packs with him and headed home.

I hope you enjoyed the party. You even got a present from your classmate Jing Ee. By the time I reached home after work you had already opened the present and played it. It was a cute board game which Jing Ee's mummy had bought from US.

Evan Turns 5

Happy Birthday Sweetheart. We love you...

Hugs and Kisses from Mummy & Daddy

Evan's 5th Birthday Party

Saturday began early for all of us (except for you). Daddy went to the market with Ah Ma to help carry (and pay) for the party food, while I had to wake up to make the olive focaccia. I estimated that it would take around 4 hours for the bread to be made and since I had 1 hour to wait for the bread to proof, I thought I could go back and continue with my sleep.. instead you decided to wake up before I was done. So there goes my plans!!

Later in the morning as you were doing your homework, 6th Chim Poh came for a quick visit. She brought you some presents and soon 5th Chim Poh, Chek Kong and Kor Poh arrived. After everything was settled and ready, we went off to have lunch. Char Kuey Tiau for all of us at Lorong Selamat (we only go there when we've got visitors). After that we headed to the bakery to pick up your cake. It was raining heavily and I had to make a mad dash into the shop to pick up the cake. You were so happy to see the cake, you kept kissing the cake box!!

We bought rojak for everyone then headed home. It was raining and the traffic was terrible. The afternoon flew by quickly and soon it was time to get ready for the party. The BBQ chef had the grill all ready and he started to cook the chicken earlier so that our guests did not have to wait too long for dinner.

Here you are enjoying the barbecue chicken

Abby giving a big smile to the camera

Chim Poh, Chek Kong, Kor Poh, Kor-kor and Uncle Dennis sat here to accompany the chef (or was it to be nearer to the food???)

There was no theme this year. But we did buy these "Happy Birthday" buntings:

Very soon all the kiddies were getting bored entertaining themselves. Annabelle and Abby came and asked me when we'd be having the cake. As the food was not all eaten yet, they had to wait a while and finally after everything was cleared away and the table cleaned, we got out the cake:

This year you picked Generator Rex for the cake design.

Your happy face makes all the work we have to put in to prepare this birthday really worth it. We had a tough time trying to get the 4 of you to pose for a picture:

Of course, our guests did not go home empty handed. This year they had a calendar with pictures of you from March 2011 till Feb 2012. And of course a party pack for the kiddies.

And after our guests went home, it was time for the presents. You were so impatient when opening the wrappers:

Happy 5th birthday to our dearest little boy.

Time to make a choice

It has been a topic for discussion for a while and on 2nd March this year, we finally made the call and registered you in the school which we hoped would be suitable for you. We dropped you at school that day and headed to the primary school to register.

I had heard that lots of parents had already registered the day before. And it was only the first day of registrations!! Anyway one of the mummies at work had the form, so I made a copy and filled up the necessary details then got all the documents ready. So when we arrived at the school, we didn't need to fill up the form, only had to hand in the form for checking and for them to stamp on your birth certificate.

We will know if you get a place in the school next year. I hope that you'll be able to get into this school and that you'll like this school.

Party to Celebrate the 5th Birthday

Our lil' monster turns 5. Wow! How time flies. And like last year, we planned to have barbecue. No not because daddy likes to stand in front of the BBQ cooking for everyone, but because our little birthday boy is all grown up and can make his own decision.

Yup, you insisted that you wanted to have barbecue for your birthday. We tried and tried to convince you to celebrate your birthday in a restaurant, but you would not budge from your decision. That's why the invitation cards went out a little later this year.

Getting Re-acquainted

With old friends..

As it was still rather early on Sunday morning, so we decided to play in your room. And you found the big train holding all the little die cast Thomas and Friends trains. So we pulled out the tracks and build our own tracks complete with buildings.

It was great fun, building our own tracks and playing with old friends. And at the end of they day, we kept all the tracks and buildings back nice and safe and ready for another round.. hopefully soon.

Playing in the Car

Do you know what I like to do when daddy is driving? Play games with mummy. Since mummy and I will be seating at the backseat of the car, we will play our own games. Sometimes daddy joins in too *whispering: I think he CHEAT*

These are the games we play:

1. Ant and lift: Here, I'm the lift which will bring the ants (mummy) to whatever floor the ant lives on in the hotel. Mummy cannot be the lift. She doesn't do it very well...

2. Ants playing football: This is where mummy and I will be the ants and our team score the goals. Something like my favourite cartoon, Super Strikers. Mummy always loses as my teams scores so many goals!

3. Counter: This is where I work in the counter at the hotel and mummy will be the ant asking questions. She has so many ants which come to my counter. When her ant comes I will say "May I help you?". Her ants are so silly, they don't even know where to take a bus!

4. Racing game: We will use our fingers to race from one end of the car to the other.. As far as my arms can reach. As you know, I'm only 4 years old and I have to sit in my carseat so I cannot reach too far. Another way of playing this game is to pretend we're playing a racing game on iPhone like on Yvonne Kor-kor's phone.

5. Myvi game: This is the game which daddy likes to join in. And I think he's cheating. Daddy always get to spot all the Myvi's first. We usually have to spot 15 Myvi's. Mummy is always the last. I think she is not paying attention when we play this game.

One last game which I will sometimes play alone in the car is on mummy's phone. I love to play the game with the music really loud. But after a while, daddy usually asks me to stop playing. I wonder why he doesn't want to allow me to play on the phone...

Taking Antibiotics

We had gone to see Dr Khaw last week and he had put you on Seretide and Ventolin as you have been coughing for too long. This week on Wednesday we had to see him again for a follow up. When he saw you, he was quite pleased to see that your lungs seemed to be better, but you still had a runny nose. So he showed me how to clean your nose with a saline solution and also suggested that he put you on antibiotics for 3 days. As we waited for your medicine, you kept telling me "I love antibio-wics". I just smiled as I know very well every time you are given antibiotics you'd scream and shout and refuse to take it.

Well that evening you fell asleep on the way home, so you didn't take your antibiotics. On Thursday, before going to sleep, I asked you to come take your antibiotics and again you said "I love antibio-wics". But the moment I filled the syringe with the Zithromax, you took one look and asked to take a sniff of the medicine. Immediately you knew what it was and started to make excuses: "I want to drink water first" "I think I want to play first"

When I insisted that you had to take your medicine, you finally told me "I think i don't like antobio-wics". "Well you have no choice, you have to finish it for three days". In the end I had to bribe you with ONE M&M's and you agreed. But surprise, surprise, after gulping the medicine you said "Hey.. I like the antibio-wics".

Phew.. thank goodness this round of medicine eating went well.

School Excursion - Penang Museum

Way before today, you brought back the school message book. Before I even read it, you already told me that the school was going to bring you kids to the "musi-leum". Ok, so I asked if you wanted to go. Of course the answer was a very loud "YES". As there are lots of kids in this kindergarten, the excursion was split into two groups. One went on Wednesday and another on Thursday.

For the past week, your homework pouch contained the message book. I guess it serves as a reminder to parents on what to dress the kids in and also when would the the trip for their class. Actually I wouldn't need the message book to remind me about anything. You had additional messaged, probably from your teacher, for me the night before: have to wear long pants, need to bring a water bottle with strap, have to wear shoes with socks.

It was easy getting you up the next day. Just a reminder: "Are you going to the museum today?" and you were up in an instant. As you were having a shower.. it started to rain. Oh no... Anyway we had breakfast, then got into the car to head to school. It was drizzling all the way to school. And just as we arrived, we thought it would stop raining. But no, it rained again. I left you to go into school and I left for work.

On Thursday evening, I asked you about your school trip:

Mummy: What did you see in the museum today?

Evan (as expected): I forget.. *grin*

Mummy: How can you forget???

Evan: I forget. *wider grin*

Mummy: Ok, let's start again. How did you go to the museum?

Evan: We went by bus.

Mummy: What bus was it?

Evan: School bus.

Mummy: How did you get into the bus? It was still raining, right?

Evan: Yes. Mr Tan brought 2 by 2 into the bus with an umbrella.

Mummy: Who did you sit in the bus with?

Evan: Serene and Lucas

And I had to ask many, many questions before I got almost all the information I wanted to know. Of course the most important fact was missing:

Mummy: What did you see in the museum?

Evan: I forgot

Mummy: Were there pictures? (I honestly have no idea what there is in the museum.. having not been there before!)

Evan: I forget. (then after thinking a while). There is CCTV!

Mummy: Huh? CCTV? What is that for?

Evan: For them to watch us lo.

The only information that you willingly volunteered was "They gave us a special treat when we got back to school... it was YAKULT". And that seems to be the highlight of you trip! The YAKULT! Oh well.. at least you enjoyed your trip to the musi-leum"