The animal lover

I may have mentioned it before (not sure, now) that Ash is an animal lover. I mean, a lover of ALL types of animals?

Seriously..this girl is crazy! The other day, for some reason, I may have accidentally snapped a lizard's tail whilst doing the dishes in the kitchen. I don't know how I did it, but I did. The next thing I knew, something small and flickery was moving next to my feet. When I looked down, it was the tail having a seizure. Immediately I felt soo soo SOO geli-fied and screamed my head off. I felt as though I have 10-thousand of those all over my body..It was so disgusting.

Then you know what happened? Obviously the whole house heard me. Probably the neighbours down 10 blocks heard me. Heck, probably the pan meen at Sunway Damansara heard me too.

The girls came into the kitchen wondering what the commotion was and I screamed "lizard!! lizard!!". Ash went "Where..where?". I pointed to it on the floor still seizure-esq and all. To my horror she said "Aww...it's a cute lizard. It's nothing mommy, it's just his tail". And then, she went nearer to it almost picking the damn thing up with her fingers. Crazy or what?! Just then, hubby came and flicked that horrible thing away, out of my sight.

I tell you - this girl has no fear. Honestly. She fears some ermm..living thing, surely?

ANyway, she's still the animal lover of the family. Mini and I would just jump out of our skin if they ever come near us.

I did contemplate on getting Ash a puppy/dog for her birthday. Oh how she would have been ultra surprised. Then, I thought, I should get her a baby lamb instead. hehhehe..She's had a taste of them. She's fine.

This post is all over the place. All these things in my head, am spewing it out as I go along.

April is coming soon. We will be busy. I don't really like being busy..and generally we're not busy but just seeing the month of April makes me nervous. The honest biggy would be the coming home of Uncle G. Mini will have her tree back to climb on. I can't even...no...I can't..

A holiday in the pipeline perhaps? After all, we need to spend our big 4-0 in a urm...big way isn't it? No, please don't tell me that having a kid will be the ultimate birthday present. No, not going there. Every time I hear my neighbour's baby cry whenever I come home, chills run down my spine. I mean literally...no more baby. Speaking of which, I've got 2 friends who will have their bundle of joy arriving this year. One a little earlier than the other. What a friend I am right? I don't even know when their due dates are. I know one will be born in the dead of the New Zealand winter. If I want to visit them, I might as well scout also for some skiing stuff...sticks, skates, sleigh, ski jackets men...etc. Or, we could pack our bikini and head to Aruba? I don't know - both are equally tempting.

School Holiday mode

Yippe...it's the holidays! 

But..not exactly jumping up for joy because both Ash and I are down in the dumps. Yea, we got the flu bug. Hubby is nervous because he has to do everything in the house...hehehhe..:-P

Anyway, luckily the visit to the dumps was a short one. Still? Not very good if you have to visit the dumps at all, right?

Today, the girls have been entertaining each other all day. First, they patiently watched a heavily defective DVD. In the end, the DVD gave up and froze up..like refused to reel anymore images. Just froze. So much for tv.

Then, Ash played teacher to Mini. I know. It is my job but I figured it's actually good practise for Ash because after all, if you can guide and teach someone, you would have understood your work right? Of course, it wasn't as if Ash was teaching the deep theory of Physics or whatever...just simple colouring, sums, words...etc..the stuff that 6 year old should already master. So, you see, delegation isn't so bad after all. :-D.

OK, I am back to bed. I should use this time to fully recover before school starts up again..ekkk.

S I X

Ash is 6 today.

6...6??? How did that happen.

What can I tell you about the little Princess we have here?

She is a gem! I know..everyone says that about their kids, their firstborn but no, she really is a gem.

I have no words to describe what an incredible little human that she is. Astonishingly so when she's my daughter. No words...no words.

Plus, I am super super tired today. Running around collecting her cuppies, morning tea with a friend, being the messenger, delivering said cuppies to school so her can drool over them..hehehe. And then, driving home.

We did not celebrate her birthday this year because hubby was out of town last weekend so decided to just have a low key one with her friends at school and a quiet moment with the family. Which was enough. She's not big on lavish celebrations anyhow. As long as she's got her family close by (and her birthday cake), she'll be happy as a lark. In the end, that's all she got! hahahah...:-P 

However, she did have certain requests. Like what she wanted for her birthday and how her cake should look like. Luckily, it wasn't a 24K diamond ring nor a 6 tier wedding cake lined with diamond studs. No, none of that...Thank You God! All she wanted was "Angelina Ballerina cake and Strawberry Shortcake water-bottle"....her exact words. Easy peasy la. But, I must say, her Angelina Ballerina (cup)cake(s) made everyone green with envy.

ANd yes, we got her the Strawberry Shortcake water-bottle. 

So you see....what's there not to be happy about? The simple things in life....comes pretty reasonable in price...:-D. 

"Happy 6th Birthday my Princess. You are REALLY 6 hon, really! And, you will find your Prince one day, just maybe not today but - when you're 30?"

Update : This is a back-dated post. 

She turned 6 a couple of days ago and I just couldn't get the post published on time for some reason. Photos     will come later (when I get my phone back from the lil one).

Kids fighting

*Sigh*

It was a case of one wants neat, the other wants mess. For some reason this evening, Mini became an impossible creature. Not that that something new -- just that, she was just being nasty today towards her sister. And, bless her sis, Ash just continued picking up after Mini to a point where Ash herself got really frustrated and screamed at Mini to stop leaving her building blocks all over the place. Actually, Mini threw them on the floor and Ash screamed in anger "if you do that, the toys will break!" She was obviously very frustrated and she didn't like Mini man-handling...urm...anything. The more frustrated Ash got, the more MIni did just to spite her sis. 

So the question beckons : WHere is Mama? Well, the Mama as usual, no eye see...went hiding in the kitchen. :-P.

Was positive to know that Ash treasures her toys. Just can't say the same about Mini though. That girl needs...oh, I don't know? A field trip to Guantanamo Bay? :-). 

p.s : I am on a yesterday's-movie roll at the moment. Just watched my all-time favourite - A Few Good Men. How can you not love the movie? A star-studded cast, brilliant script, men in uniform...They don't make movies like they used to...  

Sillies

Now that the girls are a wee bit older, they love playing pretend together. One minute they are mommy and baby; the next minute, they are chef and waitress. Or, yesterday evening after dinner, they were teacher and student. Since there wasn't 'enough' students, they made Mickey, Cinderella, eraser (??) and some other stationaries their student. Rather, it was Emily because she was the teacher and she was taking attendance. "Eraser? - Present!". "Mickey? - Present!" It was so funny I just burst out laughing in the kitchen.

Also, a couple of times, hubby and I got roped in on their pretend play as well. Once Hubby had to be chef and Ash was the waitress. But her restaurant ah, you cannot order anything you like because everything also she don't have. O_O. WHat about the time where they played hairdresser? They were both busy styling hubby's hair. That was also another funny.

I am telling you - too funny!

What next lil ones? A bookshop selling books? 

Can't wait for that episode to air.

Hair and more hair

Since time immemorial, Ash has been bugging me about growing her hair. I've been able to maintain her short japanese style locks for the past 6 years. OK...so maybe not 6 because she didn't have much when she was born...but, you know, the past couple of years when she went on this self hiao realisation (whatever that means). Each time, I'd said "no" and she'll go "oh man!!". I also explained that if she had long hair, she'd have to tie it up, clip it and zip it. To which she gave me that over-my-dead-body look. So, snip goes her hair! 

Then, lately - more accurately - early this year, she was determined to keep her hair long and agreed to tie her hair up. Since she was willing to do something out of her comfort zone (oh, trust me...it IS out of her comfort zone..she doesn't like anything on her head..really..really), I agreed to let her grow her hair out. 

It is been a couple of months now since the start of school. She'll be 6 soon. And, she's been growing out her hair. And, I've dreading each morning having to wake earlier than usual, tie her hair yadda...yadda...Furthermore, I have to go spend money buying her clips, bands, etc..Haih! So mar fan

So, far, no complaints from her. Except maybe there's still the suitable length we have yet to agree upon. Other than that, she's pretty happy going to school with her hair up. Plus, she has not removed any of her clips, hairbands and what-nots. At least, she's keeping up with her end of the bargain :-). I guess I have to keep mine then! *groan*. *GROAN*. 

Cartoons

Guess what? I introduced some of my all-time favourite cartoons to the girls. Found them on Youtube and they have been watching on Apple TV. Mini is into Spiderman now so she gets her fair share of Spiderman. As for Ash, she prefers Strawberry Shortcake, My Lil Pony, She-Ra...hahaha...

They watch a lot less tv these days. I don't consciously limit them but just that, we don't have much time from after school coming home till dinner and bedtime. I try to stick to the 830pm for the girls. I usually succeed but they will always try their sleep delay tactics. Bedtime works sometimes, and don't sometimes. That leaves very little room for tv. Which is good actually. Then again, not so good because they have discovered the world of video and computer games. Yeah, I know! I still can't get over the addiction bit. Ah well..they can only play on their Wii on weekends. So....It is a good thing too that we don't have an Ipad. Yeh Yeh has one so the girls get their fix whenever we are at their place.

Again...not so easy to curb this addiction of theirs. I am just wondering - what could be next? Booze? Boys? or worse, perdomo?! Ah well, I guess we'll come to it when we..urm...come to it. In the meantime, I am just going to hunt that gamer down!

Mermaids (1998)

I have been watching lots of re-runs lately. The most recent being Speed. Sandra Bullock looked like a teenager in that movie. And, Keanu Reeves? Well, what can say about Mr Reeves. He used to be up on my bedroom wall together with the late River Phoenix. What hunks! Don't die on me now, Keanu!

Do you remember seeing the movie, Mermaids? I do. It is absolutely one of the most hilarious and strange movie of all time. If you must, the movie's about the lives of this-less-than-perfect and less-than-ordinary family. The mom..I mean, the mom is a real ku-ku head. She's the troubled child of the family. Totally irresponsible, and seriously eccentric. On the other hand, the elder daughter is the exact opposite. She's pious, innocent (until she lost her virginity that is), a nun in the making. The youngest sister is..well, played by Christina Ricci and this movie was actually her debut as a film actress. Bet cha didn't know that! Oh, and the younger sister (in the movie) loves the ocean and swimming. Then the whole family goes on this self-discovery phase, break apart and coming back together. Hmm...sounds like nothing much, isn't it? But, no, watch it - the movie's actually fun.  

The movie's not the point really. It was just what happened a while ago that, reminded me of the movie's nutcase mom and her 2 adorable daughters. 

You see, I was lying on the couch. Not exactly in dreamland, although the desire to be in dreamland was...very desirable. The girls had gone upstairs to ransack whatever's left of their room. I took the opportunity to get some shut eye. Eventually, they came downstairs with things that belonged upstairs (and that never went upstairs ever again). I heard them and pretended to sleep. Ash came over and inspected the situation. After which, she promptly hushed Mini saying "Shhh...mommy's asleep. Don't make noise". Then, Ash proceeded to cover me with the blankie. And, so they went to play. 

If you have seen the movie, there was a scene where Charlotte found her mom on the couch, half drunk and covered her with a blankie. And I believe she mumbled something about having to always take care of her mom. Honestly, I can't remember the scene exactly but just that part. And, as I laid there, pretending to be asleep, I think that perhaps, eventually as Ash grows up, she'll actually be a lot more sensible than her mom. And that I may very well end up being a ku-ku head and I will need my daughter to take of me. Am I getting anywhere? Nah...

It was just a sweet gesture from Ash and I wanted to remember it She is very collected, very sensitive, very sensible. I don't think I had half her attributes when I was her age. I hope she doesn't change. Even if she does, I am glad she's my kid. I am glad both are my kids and I wouldn't change that for anything in the world. 

Lao Shir

So, yesterday, I was helping Ash with her homework, she called me Lao Shir (teacher in Mandarin). No, she's not in the Chinese stream but she learns some in school. I replied "huh?". Then she said "Lao Shir is teacher...you are teacher lo thats why I call you Lao Shir". I was like 'OK'.

Then, I grabbed something for her and she said "xie xie". I was "huh?". She explained "xie xie" is thank you". I was like "OK"..again. In my head, what was that all about? Anyway, I hope it will stop there because that's about ALL the Mandarin that I know.

She finished her homework quickly. And said "can I play games...please please...pretty please?". I am telling you, whoever got my kids addicted to video and computer games, you had better watch out! I might just start her with more ASA. Like...guitar lessons with the wonderful Taylor Guitars? How about that? instead of those computer games. 

Early morning scent

This morning, Mini had a tough time getting up for school. Why? She had a long nap yesterday afternoon and so, naturally, she was wide awake at night. Like WIDE awake. 

Anyway, we brought her downstairs and she continued sleeping on the couch..refusing to budge. So, I did what any stressed out parent would do - whack her nicely with the cane! But, of course, it would've been the easier way out and I'd probably be even more stressed because I'd have to spend that extra 20 minutes getting her to stop crying. Plus, both of us will be in the most horrible mood, she'd hate school, I'd hate myself for having whacked her in the first place. So you see...won't get any of us anywhere.

Instead of whacking her (we don't have a cane anyway....shocker! but it's true), I just tickled her a couple of times...kissed her a couple of times...rubbed her belly a couple of times...tickled her some more times. She got so annoyed with me that she stuck her toe up my nose! I made that yucky face and needless to say, we both laughed, giggled, and she got tickled some more. 

The result of it was : Mini did eventually wake. She wasn't cranky despite having insufficient sleep. She was glad to go off to school. I, on the other hand, did not end up doing what I intended to do because I was beat having to play pretend, getting the girls ready, playing driver. But, at the end of it all, we were glad for the day. It was (and still is) a beautiful day after all. My laundry will dry. I guess that's "accomplishment" for a SAHM, huh?