What is Jagah?

Luke asked me, "What is zirafah in Malay, Mummy?" (he means in English la). So say, "giraffe". Ok. Good, he continues.

"Now what is jagah," to which I answer, "Oh, that means a guard". "Hah? What?", he exclaims. "No..I ask what is jagah?" I answer again, "A guard. You know...that's a person who takes care of something". Luke then answers, frustrated, "Then what do you call an elephant.....?"

Got it?

He was not happy when I burst out laughing. I think he felt I was rude!

Blood and Bones?

While in Singapore for Raya hols, Lauren tasted some delicious raspberry jams from Margaret's River, Perth. But before she bit into her bread with (that) jam, she looked whispered to me..."Mom...there's blood in my bread...!".

And when Ah Kim cooked the most delicious waffles, Lauren's little brother Luke (almost 4yrs) bit into a crust and exclaimed that "there's bones mom!"...

Oh, we had a great time in SG.

I'm a shrew????

A week ago, Lauren was riding home with me in the car. She was reading her new book, called The Unwilling With Sleeps Over. She came to a page and asked me, "Mummy, what's a terrified shrew?" I only knew The Taming of the Shrew, so I was not sure exactly what that meant. "Let's google and find out", I told her.

As soon as we got home, we googled and out came the 1st meaning for shrew. The ONE we all know...a fiery, illl tempered woman. Lauren asked what fiery was and I explained that meant a very, very fierce lady. She looked up at me, touched my hand and said innocently..."Mummy...you're a shrew..." If only a camera could capture the horror on my face!.

Finding solutions

It was 8.30pm and Lauren was playing disney computer games. Still school hols, so Lauren gets to go to bed a little later (9pm).

I reminded her that it was time to stop computer games. She says yes. Grabs her new Club Med book, clips it under her armpit...and continues playing. 8.45pm, and I tell her bedtime - NOW.

She gets it. And starts whining that she needs to read her book. I tell her "tomorrow". She starts tearing and says..."Nooooo...".

Since it is school hols, I decide to push her limits and stick to my earlier instruction - nope. bedtime now. Read the book tomorrow, since you chose to play PC games instead of read.

More tears.

Finally, she looks at me and says, "I know. I can read this book at daycare tomorrow, ok Mom?".

Now, aren't I just so proud of Lauren!

Great job girlie!

School holidays, year 2, term 1

Yippee! School holidays are here. 2 weeks of fun for Lauren and no school stress for Kevin and I. So far, we've managed to get our chores like washing school shoes done. A bit of swimming. We managed to get Lauren to wet her face (!) and hold her breath in the water. Of course she does not like wetting her face. I think it's quite an ordeal for her. But she's managing well. As a treat, we let her go to the playground after swimming.

She's been having trouble doing the monkey climb. Strangely enough, it is after swimming that she seems to be able to automatically monkey climb, on her own. My theory? The cycling in the water helps her left, right, left, right movements. So far, there is no other theory against this.

We're off to Club Med in two days. Let you guys know how things go then....

Mid Years, Year 2: who's anxious, you or me?

Lauren started day 1 of her mid term exam. Year 2! Wow.

She gave us a mixture of thumbs up and thumbs down for the her Malay papers. And was quite frustrated with all of us asking her the same question today (her tutor, dad and I!). Who's the anxious ones...? :-)

TGIF...

Thank God it's Friday. Long week and tomorrow another school day for Lauren. It's a replacement school day for the one week holiday she will get for Chinese New Year.

We did a new thing yesterday. I dropped her off at the school gate instead of walking her there (as I've been doing for the past one year!). She was great. But I did prep her in the car about the change, and the fact that one of her school security guards might open the car door for her (and close it for her as well!).

Today, we finished our Math homework in the car. Bad jam to Ah Ma's place.

Meltdown #1, 2010

Finally, I'm back. 3 months of silence. I've been totally undisciplined.

Lauren is in Year 2 in Primary School now. She is settling in well. Academically she is following class work. Socially, we have lots of work to do.

Last Sunday, 31 Jan, she had a major meltdown. All because she did not get to the last tennis ball in the basket before one of the students. She cried, rolled on the floor. Kicked her legs up in the air. Screamed. Then, still angry, she went and pushed the basket (already filled up with tennis balls again by the other students) down. Sigh, sigh, sigh.

It was heart wrenching for Kevin and I to watch this. We decided not to intervene because we wanted to watch exactly how bad she would get and also see the reactions of her friends, on-lookers and her coach. He handled her well (as well as he could in the situation). And Kevin managed to get some of it on video.

At night, after washing up and all calmed down, Kevin shared the video with her. I think she didn't realise half the things she did on court.