Lyrics to Butterfly Baby Song - Current fav song ;p

BUTTERFLY BABY

By Angelina Perete

sang by Angelina Perete and her daughter Estee

Fly,fly little butterfly,

got me curious

when you fly by

where you're from,

and where you're going

Did anyone ask Why?

Mommy loves me

That's Forever

Daddy's worry

When i get older

I'm just wonderin'

How far i'll see

How clever i could be...

Mommy. mommy

look what i can do

i can dance and sing real loud for you

how i move now...

you can see..

Oh I hope you'll be proud of me

oh baby, baby...

You're my pride and joy,

you make me feel..

Like I'm the Queen of troy

When you're happy...

sun will shine

Oh we're wrapped up in this moment of time

Here you are, my darling little girl,

There are joy and pain in this world

When you're ready, the truth you will be told,

i'll let you know

but for now, you and your brothers

Fill you lives with love for each other

One you've grown

you're flying together,

My love protects you dears

Mommy. mommy

look what i can do

i can dance and sing real loud for you

how i move now...

you can see..

oh i hope you'll be proud of me

oh baby, baby...

You're my pride and joy,

you make me feel..

Like I'm the Queen of troy

When you're happy...

sun will shine

Oh we're wrapped up in this moment of time

dooo, dooo, dooo, doo , doo

oh baby, baby,

oh baby, baby,

Mommy. mommy

look what i can do

i can dance and sing real loud for you

how i move now...

you can see..

oh i hope you'll be proud of me

oh baby, baby...

You're my pride and joy,

you make me feel..

Like I'm the Queen of troy

When you're happy...

sun will shine

Oh we're wrapped up in this moment of time

la, la, la, la, la, la

Oh we're wrapped up in this moment of time..

doo,doo,doo,doo,doo,doo

ph we're wrapped up in this moment of time...

Current favourite song

Absolutely love this song...sweet and meaningful lyrics by our very own Sabahans - Mother & daughter duet (Angelina Perete and her daughter Estee)

Their live performance...

More on the song and singers:

Angelina Perete sings this heartwarming song "BUTTERFLY BABY" she composed and wrote for her children in the school canteen - together with her own daughter Estee they deliver a duet that you are sure to enjoy. Enjoy it and share it. If you Enjoy and Love BUTTERFLY BABY Song, See More By Connecting with Angelina Perete on her fanpage at https://facebook.com/AngelinaPereteFanpage - Known for its catchy vibe this was produced and arranged by Roger Wang. Thank you for all of you who supported the song with votes on the Borneo English Top 10 charts! After the song was introduced on the Mothers Day weekend, it debuted at No 1 and remained there for a whole nine weeks. Thanks to you! Mothers and their daughters will love having shared this together. Thank you all for your support. Truly appreciate your encouragement and kind words. Catch it on Facebook too. There is a growing community so come on vote and then connect with others. She has a thank you msg for friends at http://angelina-tq1.angelinaperete.com

For the shopaholics ;p

Many faces of Ethan

 Ethan having fun with the camera ;p Pictures taken at CKS Millenium meant for the Johnson & Johnson Baby Contest but I managed to get Ethan's pictures taken just for the fun of it...not meant for the baby contest as it was meant for those 3 yrs and below only ;p

Ethan is 4 today!!

Oh my.. how time flies..

Look how you've changed. Look, how you've grown

You've filled our heart with so much joy

We're so very proud of our little boy

Both Mummy and Daddy...and your lil baby brother Eli too

Wishing Happy 4th Birthday especially to you our ever dearest Ethan

As every day passes and we watch you grow

Our love will be constant we want you to know.

Poem adapted from HappinessPages

Mother's Day Baby Photo Contest

Dear all,
I've entered Eli's in a Mother’s Day Baby Photo Contest. Please give your support by voting for Eli ;p

How to vote:

Step 1: Go to Mama Babies page here and click LIKE

Step 2: Go to Eli’s Photo page here and click LIKE on this page. TQVM!♥

Mom's the best

Happy Mother's Day to all mommies  and especially to my Mummy and MIL dearest..

Know the ABC..

This is another worth reading article for parents who would like to encourage their children in recognizing the alphabet. Read on :)

How to Encourage Kids to Recognise the Alphabet

4 May 2011

CHILDWISE
By RUTH LIEW in ParenThots

MY three-and-a-half-year-old daughter started kindergarten this year after having been in a nursery. In the previous setting, she did not do much academic learning. 

My girl is now facing difficulty recognising and remembering the entire alphabet. The teacher has given us cards with the alphabets she still doesn’t know and we are to help her learn them. 

My husband and I try our best to go through the letters/words with our girl and have used many “props” like cards, books, etc in the process. 

We are beginning to get worried about her lagging. We are also concerned about pushing our child before she’s really ready to learn all that’s required of her. I hope you can give us some insight and tips. – Worried mother, Sarawak

There is more to reading than just being able to recognise the alphabet or doing spelling. Children need reading readiness skills such as being able to speak the language, listening, experiential background, visual and auditory discrimination, perceptual motor skills and interest.

Parents can do more than just getting children to recognise the alphabet and rote-learn words. Children will learn the meaning in print through hands-on and fun-filled activities.

Reading aloud to your child is one of the best ways of getting your child interested in the printed word. When you read to your child, she will learn that every word is made of the blending of sounds and they stand for the names of things and people. She will also gain pleasure from interacting with you during story time. By reading, she understands how words fit into a phrase or sentence, and the beginning of that stage happens when the child understands the concept of nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs and other forms of speech.

As they mature emotionally and cognitively, children with an expansive range of vocabulary will develop a love for reading. 

Learning a list of words will not make your daughter a better reader. She may memorise the list of words in their shapes and sounds. Sadly, this does not mean she is progressing in her reading skills.

Many children get turned off by the idea of reading and writing because the process of learning is just too frustrating when they are not ready. They get labelled a failure at a young age.

Read to your young child at home at all times. Start with simple storybooks with beautiful pictures. Engage her in conversations about the characters and the plots. Dramatise the tales you read in the books.

Write down her stories when she shares them with you. Have her dictate her story for you to write word for word. Later, she can illustrate her story. You may end up with several self-authored books that both parent and child can be proud of.

Research shows that a child’s sense of self is critical to his achieving success at work. Children who are confident and skilful are better at handling stress.

You can involve your daughter in all kinds of household activities that require reading and writing, like making a shopping list, doing up a menu for dinner, writing reminders and even making up greeting cards for relatives and friends.

To motivate your child to learn to read, she needs your encouragement and support. The kindergarten teacher may only require her to learn letters and words, but you can do more for your daughter. You will help her develop literacy competence through her love for books.

About books again

Yup still under the same topic here is what Times has to offer for the KK folks ;p

Inculcating reading habits in children

I wanted to keep and share these great tips from a mom taken from Paren Thots. I hope both Ethan and Eli will grow up loving books :) And talking about books, do you know you can order books from Book Depository without having to pay for shipping fees? Yes, thy offer free delivery world wide and I've already ordered and received a few books from there ;p

Anyway read these 6 useful tips if you too want to instill good reading habit on your children :)

1- Bring our children to the nearest library every week.
We used to live in Hamilton, New Zealand, for 3 1/2 years. There are some local libraries available there for everybody. So, every week without fail, we would bring our children to Hillcrest Library to borrow some books, CDs and puzzles. They really love to spend their time there. Right now, we make sure that we will buy some books every month so we can have our own mini library soon!

 2- Spend about 30 minutes per day to teach them phonemes.
The best way to teach is to make sure that it's going to be an interesting approach like using starfall.com as a tool or any kind of teaching tools. I used flashcards with my eldest daughter but with my second daughter, I have to let her choose what she likes to do as she has a shorter attention span compared to her sister.


3- Play “I spy with my little eyes" whenever we go out.
It's a must for us to play this game because it can also help me to redirect their attention while waiting in the car before we reach our destination. As both of them have recognised letters and even phonemes, I always ask them to spot some words or letters around them.


4- Prepare a nice corner or even a conducive room for our kids to learn.
Kids love to see something colourful and exciting. So, we have dedicated a special corner with a special bookcase, table and chairs for them to sit and read their favaourite books. They can use the place any time they like and they have regarded it as their special place to have fun!


5- Story time every night.
This is a must even when we are so tired and busy. At least we will spend about 10 minutes to tell a simple story or choose a page from their favourite story book. Sometimes we even create our own story when we want our imagination to run wild!


6- Make a book as MUST for their birthday present.
Every time other people ask what to buy for our kids' birthdays, we prefer that they buy more books rather than toys. Our kids love them too and they never get tired or bored with books compared to toys. They will only get excited about new toys for few weeks and then they will completely forget about the toys.

Eli's wobbly but soon to be steady walk ;p

Eli is getting better in walking...he is beginning to walk more than crawling now...by the time the daddy comes home he might be walking steadily :)

Handy Eli

I hope Eli will not smash his toy to pieces too soon ;p

YES or NO as simple as that

I was reading about the fantastic move that the Health Ministry is doing in trying to curb obesity issue in Malaysia. Various measures are being proposed to keep our children healthy including to list the BMI result in their report cards, banning some unhealthy food, recommending healthy food etc. I totally 101% support the move as both Ethan and Eli will eventually be going to school and I do worry about the kind of food they will eat in school as we will not be there to monitor them.

But what irk me most is when I hear things like this morning over the radio. We now know that the Government plans to ban Nasi Lemak from the school canteen and as I would  expect there are of coz protest especially from the Nasi Lemak sellers. Understand they will grumble especially if that is their main source of income. Anyway, upon hearing the complains and how it will affect a group of people's livelihood, I heard over the radio that there is a proposal to still allow the school canteen to sell Nasi Lemak twice a week. At that point in time I was like, what the heck are they doing??!! Ok, let's say that is allowed, for those who just can't resist Nasi Lemak (btw I do love Nasi Lemak!) after being deprive from it for a day or two he/she may want to not only take 1 pack but perhaps 2 or even 3 packs (breakfast, lunch and tea time) of Nasi Lemak in a day!! So tell me how does tht help to prevent obesity in our community??! It is the same concept as when you are very hungry u tend to eat more to ease your hunger...Why can't thy set a rule that sticks to the MAIN objective which in this case is to prevent obesity. IF they really are serious about it why can't they propose instead of allowing Nasi Lemak to be sold in the school canteen twice a week, please give the sellers a new list of healthy food that thy can prepare and sell instead. HELLOO.... please think out of the box and be creative, smart, forward looking and positive okay...when there is challenge why can't we sit down, discuss and think of a better way to solve the problem before we open our mouths instead of acting 'gabra' and talk nonsense and embarrass ourselves! Come on we're are better than that right?! Double BIG sigh...

Photo of the day

Ethan at 6 months old

Eli at 12 months old.

The boys 1st trip to the cinema

Hubby and myself have been talking about bringing the boys to the cinema for quite a while...and after some thoughts we finally brought them to GSC Suria Sabah last saturday. Earlier on I was reluctant to bring Ethan to the cinema as Ethan being Ethan will not be able to sit still thus will be a bit hard to handle...I was afraid he will be running up and down the cinema aisle or worst still making so much noise that we have to leave the place in minutes upon entering! But now that he is bigger and has improved in terms of staying put and listening to instructions we thought why not to give it a try...as for Eli, we thought we just gamble tagging him along..if he cries I will bring him out and go for window shopping hee..I had my SCC ready with me in case that happens hehehe..

Anyway, am glad to say that Ethan was okay considering it was his first movie at the cinema. We watched Hop since that was the only children movie available on that day. Ethan managed to finished the whole movie except a trip to the toilet which ended up hubby buying popcorn to perhaps lure Ethan back to the cinema theatre ;p Eli on the other hand was a bit uneasy in the beginning especially with the loud sound effect and the huge screen! hehe...but he settled down after a while though he was a bit apprehensive in between which I gave him his milk to calm him down...but towards the last 15 mins he couldn't take it anymore so I brought him out...and guess what I ended up doing with him?? I had to go up the escalator and down the staircase a few rounds to keep him quiet from his crocodile tears!! Yeah just like his big bro, he loves going on the escalator too. He even refused me carrying him when we went down using the escalator to the parking floor...he only wants hubby to carry him..perhaps he thought I will not bring him on it again after I stopped to entertain his 'request' earlier on ;p Oh well, at least the boys had an enjoyable time and we managed to strike of one of the many things that we wanted to do with Ethan (and Eli for that matter). So yeah a trip (the first one that is) to the cinema is off the list now. And since the boys were rather well behaved we can consider bringing them out for a movie again next time ;p

Tame your inner chocoholic...NOT!!

Yes, am also a chocoholic (well...a rather tamed one as compared to previously hee..). In the past, just the mention of chocolate will instantly open my eyes, put a smile on my face and eliminate the feeling of bored, mad, sad etc. As I get older and probably after eating tones of choc coupled with the need to reduce my faithful FATS, I have better control or rather forced to control myself from indulging too much on those super yummylicious and sinful food. However, once in a while I do crave for it and that's when you see me picking small bars from the shops after lunch at work ;p (and I wonder why my fats stay ever so faithful to me!!? ;p) BUT, I have been good you know...hubby was away in Labuan for some offshore work a few weeks ago and brought home mind you not 1 or 2 but  7 big bars of chocs just for me!! I still have about 4 bars in the fridge...so bravo to me hehehe...15 or more years ago those bars would have been gone in just maximum 3 days!! I can finish a whole big bar within an hour then!!

Anyway, am sure most of you especially those choc craze lot knows about Loacker wafer - see picture below..this and other flavour of the same range are easily available in the local shops...

Photo 'borrowed' from here.

Well, I am a faithful fan of those delicious wafer choc too BUT never did I know about Creme Noisette also by Loacker from the Gran Pasticceria range until Dawny has generously bought for me and Neneth from her Labuan trip. It looks so tempting that I opened up the package though we just had our heavy breakfast yesterday. So we ate and we savoured the rich, creamy and fine milk choc with the crispy wafer and crunchy nuts to our hearts content... And yes we finished the whole box!! IF you wonder what I'm talking about...this is it

Image from Loacker

YESSS...I'm in lurve with Loacker's Creme Noisette...so the next time hubby goes to Labuan and maybe even to Brunei...this will definitely be in my shopping list for hubby and maybe the only item but with a BIG number to indicate how many boxes I want!! ;p So if you haven't tasted this, you should and if you have don't you just love it!!! I know I do :)

Cheap homemade beauty tip

Neneth shared with me her homemade beauty tip to clear blackheads and whiteheads...after seeing the pictures she took yesterday I was instantly convinced!! So without much delay I tried it just a few minutes ago and...

walaaa...kapish you stubborn white/blackheads! ;p

So folks this is one super cheap beauty tip...will only cost you around RM0.40! And greater news is that it is so easy to do!

What you need:

1. Just an egg
2. A few facial cotton.

How to do it:

• Take out only the egg white onto a small bowl/ container
• Peel the facial cotton into thin layers
• Put the facial cotton on your face especially areas with white/blackheads i.e. nose, around nose area, between eyebrow area etc
• Dap the egg white on the cotton til it is wet
• Let it dry where you can feel your skin tighten
• Remove it and along with the dry and hardened facial cotton are those unwanted white/blackheads! :)

Happy me will make this as a once in a fortnight beauty regime from now on! Thanks Neneth!! :)

My precious...

My world...brotherly love..

My two boys...thy grow oh so fast....Ethan is going to be 4 in June while Eli just turned 1 early this month. Like most boys at his age, Ethan is into super heroes. His favs are Batman, Ultraman, Spiderman, Superman and Ironman. Eli on the other hand is hooked with the Disney Chanel cartoon characters...among his favs are Mickey Mouse where he will dance to the Mickey Mouse songs without fail! ;p He loves Timmy Time and and Pororo too. And as long as theres' music on he will pause from whatever he was doing and glued his eyes to the telly and start his groovy moves heee...I will have to record his dancing moves one of these days as remembrance..he just look so awfully cute! ;p Can't wait to see them in bit! :)

Children see...children do..

Celine shared this video on FB  - scary but good as a wake up call or reminder not only for parents but those who look after children too...

Socks for Japan

Hi folks, I saw this humble charitable effort called "SOCKS FOR JAPAN" at CathJ's blog and thought although it seems small but means a lot to the victims in Japan. Jason Kelly is the founder of this cause but locally it seems Kristie is generous enough to help coordinate the donation from Malaysia. You can read both Jason's and Kristie's blogs to read more details on the charitable cause and why 'socks'?

So if you're keen to help out you may contact Kristie directly. As I have no time to purchase the socks, I am gonna bank in my donation to her to do the necessary ;p

FYI, deadline is this Friday, 25th March 2011. All donations will be recorded for full accountability and transparency towards this cause.

As Kristie put it in her blog, "Tell your friends, family, school or workplace about Socks for Japan, and please spread the awareness of this cause! Whether you donate 1 pair or 50 pairs, each is equally important."

You can visit SOCKS FOR JAPAN on Facebook for more info too.