Nutritional Supplements for My Girls

It has been a month since I started to feed Tian and Tao with Multivitamin mentioned here. The effect is quite good. Both of them seldom have runny nose anymore. Even if they sneeze and cough, they will get better after taking medication once or twice (leftover from their previous visit to family GP).

The result is more significant in Tao. My MIL says she looks healthier (not that pale anymore) and fleshier but I think she is still in the 'mini size category'.

I feed them only once a day and one bottle have to be consumed in a month. After the first bottle is finished, I will stop feeding them and see how it goes. Children have to build up their immune system and cannot depend too much on nutritional supplements, that's what I think.

A visit to orchid plantation

Last Monday, I went with my hubby to visit his customer who owns an orchid plantation. After having discussion with him, he brought us around his plantation and I had an enjoyable time admiring different species of orchids.

Enjoy the photos below:

Starts Walking and Says 'Mama'

Since 18 Sep, Tao is able to walk unaided and she does not crawl anymore. She likes to go outside to walk around.

This is the first time we brought her outside and let her walk on her own

She is able to squat from standing position to pick up things and stand up again

She also starts calling me 'Mama' and means it.

There is one bad habit though. She tends to hit us when she is annoyed and does not get what she wants. If I reprimand her or smack her arm, she will cry very pitifully and rolls about on the floor. Nobody teaches her to do that and Tian certainly does not behave in this way when she was Tao's age.

Decision on Pre-school

After discussion with hubby, I went to pay for RM1000 deposit for Tian's pre-school next year. We decided to let her go to a different pre-school, G as mentioned in my previous post.

When I went to the pre-school to make payment yesterday around 12:00pm, I saw all the cars driven to fetch the children were imported cars like Toyota Estima, Toyota Wish, Vios, Honda Accord etc. It made me think, 'Do these parents send their children to that pre-school because they can easily afford the school fees or they really understand the need to expose their children to better learning environment to prepare them better for Primary School?' But of course the rich had more choices than the rest of us.

However, the pricipal did tell me before that parents who plan to send their children to a popular private primary school starting with letter 'O' will send their children to this pre-school.

We are not well off but we are just willing to invest in children's education. Hubby says we can go to 'Tea Garden' less and go to coffee shop more for breakfast in future. I tell him the most realistic way is to earn money 'fast fast'.

Sleeping through the night, at last!

Tao has been sleeping through the night since last week. I have also stopped breastfeeding her before sleep for last two days.

The first day to wean her was not planned at all. We were having dinner at a small town near hubby's hometown and the journey took almost an hour. After feeding her formula milk, we left her at her car seat and she slept until we reached home and did not wake up until the next morning.

Yesterday I brought her to our room to sleep and she tried to ask for 'nen nen'. I told her 'no more' and gestured with my hand, which she understood and she lied down to sleep without creating fuss. I was glad!

I just hope that she will continue to sleep through the night and I can start planning for holidays (getaways). Ha! Ha! Ha!

Sweet Potato Muffins

A friend of my hubby's family who plants vegetables gave us a box of sweet potatoes two weeks ago. The quality of the sweet potatoes is good, sweet and without too much fibre.

I have been adding to Tao's dishes or soup. My MIL cooks porridge with sweet potatoes and sweet potato soup (dessert with ginger and dried longan) regularly and we are still left wth 1/4 box of sweet potatoes.

As I baked banana muffins before, I replaced bananas with sweet potatoes and modified the recipe a bit and voila.....

They were not as fragrant as banana muffins but surprisingly, Tian loved them and could finish the whole muffin each time she had one as snack.

Before and After Pre-school

Tian has shown some improvement in her writing and colouring after 2 months of pre-school. I tried to guide her in writing (tracing) and colouring before pre-school but she refused to let me guide her hand and would simply scribble and colour as she liked. I had since gave up guiding her and left it for her teachers to handle this stubborn little girl.

Colouring before pre-school

Colouring after 2 months of pre-school

At least she can colour one area by one area. She likes to colour only small area and refuses to cover larger area. If we 'force' her to colour larger area, she will complain that her arms are sore.

Writing before pre-school

Writing since pre-school

She can trace the dots but is still impatient to follow the dots properly. Impatience is in her genes (but I am sure not from me, haha).

Aftermath of Car Accident

I went to the workshop last Saturday to pass some documents before the workshop can proceed to repair my car. I passed to them 'Perakuan Pendaftaran Kenderaan', Private Car Schedule (Insurance Policy) and my IC and driving license as well as my husband's IC and driving license (as car owner).

My Police Report. Private information covered with Tian's colour pencil

The clerk was kind enough to e-mail to me photos taken at the accident so that I can update in this blog and I have also got a photostated copy of my police report. Who knows I might need it to make complaint about absence of traffic light at that junction in newspaper if I have time and nothing better to do. Heh! Heh!

The damage on my poor car

The van swung 180 degree after knocked by me, bumped onto the divider and knocked the right front of the Waja on the left. Imagine how 'light' this van is and I doubt on the safety factor of this type of van and it is used to fetch children to and fro pre-schools!!

The damage on the Waja

My daughter now view me as a mum who will simply knock into cars. Whenever I drive her out and there is a car in front of us, she will quickly grab her booster seat and says, 'Mama, be careful of the car in front. Don't knock into the car, OK?' Hmmmph.

Need to decide on pre-school again

Before I enrolled Tian into her current pre-school, I have also 'book' a place in another pre-school. This pre-school, G has only classes for 4-6 year olds and it does not provide day-care. So the teachers are only committed to teaching instead of taking care of them after class. I had seen the syllabus and was quite impressed with what they have committed to teach the students. I enrolled Tian to her current pre-school because they had 3 year old syllabus and I wanted to expose her earlier so that she would be more prepared to go to Pre-School G.

Early this week, the principal from G called me to confirm if I would let Tian to start schooling there next year. Since they have a lot of students on waiting list, I will need to book a place for Tian with RM1000. The monthly school fees will be RM100 more expensive than her current pre-school and it is situated a few kilometres further away from my home. My only concern is that Tian has just got used to her current pre-school and I am worried she will need time to settle down again in a different pre-school.

Her current pre-school standard is also fine but I think they do not expose the students to different languages evenly. In Tian's case is Bahasa Melayu and she is not able to read the words in her book yet. She has shown improvement in tracing lines, colouring and reading (by heart and not actually recognizing words) though. I do not know if I am expecting too much by judging a pre-school from a 3 year old kid's performance and she has only been there for 2 months.

However, the principal at G told me that we need to ensure our children master their languages so that they will not suffer in Primary School especially if we intend to send her to Chinese Primary School. They will have 7 subjects to cope and a lot of homework. If they are slower, they might be put in separate classes with weaker students. I will need to confirm on this with my friend who has sons in Chinese Primary School. The principal told me that if parents and pre-school work together, the students will be able to cope well in early primary school years without resorting to tuition.

I went to see the principal at Pre-school G just now to understand more on the syllabus. As I walked out, I saw a mother bringing her son and told the principal she wanted to enrol her son for 4 year old classes next year. The principal directly told her their classes was full already. So I believe what she says about they have many students on waiting list and needs us to confirm a place with them eventhough there are still several months until end of the year.

I am in dilemma. My initial intention to send Tian to her current pre-school is to give her a better headstart at pre-school G but now I really need to consider properly. Since Tian's pre-school is having Parents Day tomorrow, I will go to meet the teachers and see how it goes....

Craft-ing Session!

Tian always wants to seek for my attention when I am doing my work at my laptop. She will try tracing dots or colouring but will end up asking me to do it with her.

Last Saturday, I thought of making lantern with her. I prepared the materials for her and she spent quite some time (without me) trying to glue pieces of papers onto the toilet roll.

Prepare materials as below.

1 toilet roll

1 piece of blank paper cut to the size to wrap around the toilet roll

Some coloured paper cut into different shapes (Use old magazines to be more environment friendly)

Scissors

Glue

Straw (Those bigger in diameter type used for drinking tea/ beverages with starchy pearls)

Any string for tying onto the straw

Step 1.

Apply glue and wrap blank paper onto toilet roll.

Step 2.

Depending on your kids' age, you might need to cut out different shapes from coloured papers for your kid. Kids who are able to handle scissors can be encouraged to do the cutting.

Step 3.

Let your kids glue the pieces of papers onto the toilet roll.

Step 4.

Make two holes opposite each other at top of the roll. Make a small cut at the straw for tying the toilet roll.