Hello Brain!

We were folding clothes and I suddenly asked 哥哥 to spell a word, again ...

哥哥 : Huh? Why that word again?
妈妈 : Because you cannot remember. That's why I'm asking you again. Can you try?
哥哥 : Cannot.
妈妈 : Why cannot?
哥哥 : Because my brain is not working.
妈妈 : Hhhuh? Not working? Then how to to make it work? *giggling*
哥哥 : Got to knock on my head and say, "Hello brain! Are you working?" *and he went on to do it*
妈妈 : LOL So is your brain working now?
哥哥 : Yes, I think my brain wake up already. Working now.
妈妈 : ^_^"

AppleTree

A really simple craft for the kids. My son helped his sister cut out the tree top and I helped to paste the coloured paper for the tree trunk. I had intended for the kids to paint the trunk but that would mean that they have to wait for a few hours for the paint to dry before they can assemble the tree. If your kids are patient enough, let them paint. It will be a lot easier for little tots.


Materials needed:

• Empty kitchen paper roll
• Brown Coloured Paper
• Double Sided Tape
• Crepe Paper, cut into squares and squeezed into ball-like
• A3 paper or 2 pcs A4 paper
• Glue
• Colouring Medium

How to do it:

1. Fold A3 paper into half and draw the outline of a tree top.
2. Colour the tree top green. You can colour only 1 side if you want. 2 sides will look nicer though.
3. Cut out the tree top.
4. Glue crepe paper balls to the tree top.
5. Put aside to dry.
6. Paste brown colour paper on to the paper roll using either glue or double sided tape. Using tape will be easier but for younger kids glue will be easier and painting it the easiest.
7. Tape the inside of the tree top with double sided tape once the glue is dried.
8. Remove the tape backing and stick the base of the tree top to the top of the tree trunk. Remember to 'open' the tree top. The tree trunk should be inside the tree top.
9. Stick the sides of the tree top together and your apple tree is done.

Sharp Shooter

My sister's colleague called early this week to arrange a meeting with me at my place to do an 'interview' on their Plasmacluster Humidifying Air Purifier. This was sort of a user's review of the product. Yeah, it was on loan to me for 2 weeks. A brand new one. If I'm interested, I can buy it now at a 20% discount which is $799!! Anyone interested cos I'm not buying it. :P Anyway, she mentioned that they need to take some photos too. I thought it was just taking photos for the product in the room only. :P

My sister called later to requested I cook dinner for them. Like that also can ah? It's the first time I cook for 'strangers'. I difficult because I didn't know what their tastes were like. 爸爸 mentioned that my dishes are too 'ang moh'. Not many people can accept it. Free dinner leh. I don't think other product reviewers would be so nice to cook dinner for them also mah. LOL I think they were trying to be nice and tried to cleared the plates. :P Sorry if the dinner cause indigestion huh. LOL

*Checking out the shots*

Anyway, after the dinner, they started with the shooting and I thought they just wanted to take random pictures of the product at our place. ^_^" I asked my sister about all the equipments and realised that they wanted it for their product catalog! Hence, all those studio setup things. So, 哥哥 and 妹妹 unwittingly became their models but very unglam models lah because 妹妹's hair was messy and 哥哥 was in mismatched pajamas. All thanks to their blur 妈妈. :P

The kids didn't care all all (I didn't either. LOL). They just found the whole process fascinating with all the lightings, shades, wires, etc. I found it very hot! 妹妹 took a while to get used to the lighting but 哥哥 worked like a pro. LOL Even when they were testing out, he would still pose for them. ^_^"

I think it's a lot harder to work with kids as they may not necessary follow your instructions. They said this was the longest shoot they had done. :P Okay, okay, I compensated with a dinner; no stomach upset I hope. ;p

My sister asked the cameraman for a soft copy of the photographs taken. ;) And she will pass it to me. Hehehe .... Will share a couple of nice shoots then. Oh, she will also get me a copy of the catalog too.

By the way, we don't get paid okay. Just $80 NTUC vouchers. And I thought how come so good, can test on their latest product, brand new one some more and still get vouchers by just doing a review. :P

爸爸 always says (in Cantonese) where got so big pigeon jumping all over the street. No free lunch lah LOL But got free dinner. ;)

* the sporting team who let me take their pix and let me post on my blog ;) *

Bird Talk

I have been planning to bring the kids to the bird park and night safari during this school holidays. Because of the weather and other engagements, I kept postponing it. I finally decided last night, if the weather is the follow day, we'll go. Plus after that very upsetting event, I think the best way to get over it to go out and have some fun together.

So when the kids woke up (they are early birds) in the morning, I asked them to changed and we just went. Yap! Only me, 哥哥 and 妹妹. 爸爸 got to work mah. I didn't know if I could manage alone going out with the kids for so long but if we were to wait for 爸爸, I'm not sure if we could ever go. He even need to see his work schedule to take MC, ie, sick also must go to work. *faint* Maybe, unless he really cannot get out of bed lah. :P Nevermind, we still have the Night safari to visit. I bought the tickets too. :) 爸爸 said we will go tomorrow night. :)

We were not able to visit many place because the kids were very tired and hungry after noon time. At least, they get to see what they wanted to see and we manged to catch some shows and even fed birds. Oh, make that me and 妹妹 only on feeding the birds. 哥哥 was so scare that the birds will attack him that he gave 妹妹 his bowl of bird food and ran away. ^_^"

I wished I was able to take more pictures but each time I let go 妹妹's hand, she would start to wander off and the kids only wanted to look at the birds not the camera. Anyway, my camera is lousy for taking pictures in dark place. 哥哥 was so disappointed that I could not take any pictures on owls. I have decided that I will get a new camera with my ad earnings. I'm beginning to worry about our night safari trip. I think I won't get much pictures too.

Here's some clear ones for you, 爸爸. Wished you were able to go too.

Getting all ready to tour the bird park!

妹妹 finally got to see her flamingo and couldn't stop looking at them.

哥哥 is incharge of reading the map. He is so much better than me.
He will read the map and look out for direction signs at the same time.
I'm lousy with it. :p We got lost twice. hahaha ...

The kids waiting for the show to start and my break time too!
哥哥 was looking at the fan with the mist. ;)

The kids were excited to see so many birds.
妹妹 couldn't wait and wanted to bluff the birds to feed on her empty palm! :P
I think the birds there are too smart for that already. ;)

妹妹 was very excited when a bird flew to her food bowl.

* 妈妈 see! Bird hungry *

妹妹 enjoying seeing birdie up close.

* 妈妈 faster! The birds are coming! *
哥哥 is so scare of all the bird flying around, he went sitting in the wagon which was parked at the side, eating his potato chips. *laughs*

Fail

Watching last evening episode of Le Femme made me cried. In one of the scenes, Zoe Tay's character mentioned that when a child did something wrong, it's the fault of the mother. She felt so useless as she stayed home to care for her kids and still she did not do a good job in teaching her children well and she felt that she has failed as a mother. It wasn't a touching scene that I creied but because that's exactly how I feel now.

I just came to realise that it's almost a year since I last wrote a "letter" to my son. Sad to say his behaviour hasn't really improved much. Yes, he still tell lies (though lesser now), among other things. And yesterday he did something really bad. Something I totally didn't expect him to do. I was disappointed. Not with him but myself.

There's a Chinese saying, "养不教，父之过； 教不严，师之惰。" So being a SAHM, the responsibility of teaching the child lies more on the mother rather than the father? I didn't teach him well enough; my fault.

What have I taught him all these years? What have I been doing all these years? Am I really fit to be a mother?

I failed. Nothing anyone want to say can changed that.

失败了。我彻底的失败了。

Build pyramids

哥哥 current past time is building pyramids. It's one of the tasks he has to achieve in his enrichment class. This is suppose to help him build his endurance and patience. I'm not sure if it really helps or not but I certainly think it's not helping in his torrent level.

No matter how much I encourage him and explained that it's okay for the pyramid to fall, he keeps getting angry. The worst thing was, he is not angry at himself for not doing it right but at the cards! At times, he will crash the cards. I had to make him stop, calm him down before I let him start again, if he wants too.

Through this, I know that he doesn't have much patience and yet he cannot accept failure. He expects to succeed with just a few tries. He has always been like this.

Son, things doesn't work this way. This is why everyone is learning hard to achieve what they want.

I foresee that I need to put in a lot of hard work in guiding him. A lot more.

WokkingMum is featured!

Woohoo! WokkingMum is featured!

Yeah! I'm so honoured that blog2u choosen to be one of their featured bloggers! This is least expected because I think my blogs are boring. :P

If you are not my friends or relatives, you wouldn't want to visit them. They are just mostly stuff about me, my kids and things we do. Nothing special or exciting. I must be blessed with really good luck for them to like me enough to feature me. :D

I must thank Shirley and the team of blog2u for this opportunity. Thank you so much.

Now, if you have not sign up with blog2u, you should really do it now. Have you ever heard of any company that will make payment to you once the advertisement or review is put up in your blog? I haven't except maybe for blog2u. Yeah, you heard me right! Immediate upfront payment! I really applause them for the trust they have in their members. So do check them out!