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

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!♥

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.

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.

Handy Eli

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

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

Red red wine

I believe most people will have their one particular favourite colour. But if you ask me what is my favourite colour, I won't be able to tell you what exactly it is as my favourite choice of colour varies depending on my mood. I love all sort of colours especially the bright colours e.g. orange, baby blue, apple green, lilac etc (joy, happiness, love, children etc), pastel colours offwhite in any tone e.g. blue, green, pink and cream,  (soothing, calm, peace, harmony..), earthly colours e.g. brown, beige, earthly green (natural, keep feet on the ground feeling), and bold colours e.g. red, black, silver, bronze (firm, all out, strong, bold, determine, elegance, maturity). And no, don't ask me I should be able to pick one from those many colors as my fave as I will not be able to do so...like I said, it all depends on the mood I am :)

So you may ask what is my fave colour now? Well, currently I'm into RED! Yes, red since end of last year from Xmas to NY to CNY till now red has been my choice of favourite colour... I'm not sure how long this will last but at the moment I'm loving RED :)

Hubby bought this handbag (I was really tempted to get this but luckily I felt in love with this one especially with the 50% discount and it is 10 times cheaper!!)  for me before 2010 ended but I only started using it on Saturday..was too busy to unload and clear my old handbag...show how much rubbish I have in my handbag hehehe... Well, I think most people will know especially my hubby, mom and MIL how heavy my handbag is ;p

and yes of coz I need a matching wallet ;p

and a red bag organizer too...

and thank goodness my lappy, mousy and hp are already of the same tone ;p

and I have a matching shoes as well ;p (oh please ignore the dry wrinkly feet and without colours on me nails...I used to be diligent in applying lotion on my feet before bedtime but am too lazy to splash some lotion on them after my first pregnancy ;p)

of course I don't  forget my 'ang pow' boys :)

and I've been wanting to use this pic but was too lazy to blog about it but thought it is perfect to use with my red red wine entry ;p This group photos was taken during our annual dinner committee member photo shoot last year...I love that the red colour brightens up the photo ;p

This is what friends are for ;p

Aren't life more interesting when you have colorful and beautiful 'background' in your life heeee ;p

BTW, nice pose Yato! Wakakakaka...

Ethan's first concert

He had his first concert at his Playschool last Saturday. Here's a video of his first performance. He was distracted initially with the balloons but managed to start clapping his hands and did his own version of the twist as the music starts... watch how he did the twist til to the floor mind you hehehe...but unfortunately it was short lived as the school's cd got jammed in the middle of the performance and Ethan being Ethan had to say it out loud to me who was bz taking the video shoot...he was ever ready to start dancing again but as the cd continued to get jammed he got bored and started to play with the balloons happily again! Tsk tsk tsk...must remind the playschool to keep backups in case it happens again in the future ;p

Ethan with his Principal

Ethan with his mommy :)

More photos during the concert can be viewed in my FB :)

Out in the park...

We used to bring Ethan to the park at Taman Rimba when he was around 2 years old. But due to the hype of H1N1 at that time, we stopped bringing him out especially to public places including the parks. Anyhow, recently we went back to the same park for a fun outing with the boys :)

When we first arrived he was still holding hands with the hubby...

But shortly after that he let go of hubby's hand and started to roam around especially seeing a couple of kids playing with a kite..

Eli can only watch the Koko running about...



Ethan can't wait to go up on the slide above again ;p

Wheeee.....

Eli did enjoyed looking around the park though...

Ethan fancies anything that comes with a steering wheel...Eli getting tired??...

But the Koko still wanted to play eventhough the sky was getting darker..

And here he is crying in protest when hubby had to carry him back to the car ;p

Out & about baby gear...

Now that Baby Eli is almost done with the reflux (yay!!!) , I'm quite keen to bring him out and about for some fun outings and these will surely come in handy :)

Big Eyes Pouch Sling

Fisher Price High Chair Cover

Maya wrap ring sling in rasberry

Deana's ring sling

Totseat

Except for the Totseat (coming soon.. hee...) , all the rest are already in my possession. If there is such a word as babygear freak, I think I might pretty much quality for it!! ;p Honestly speaking, baby gear is not cheap but it is so hard to resist cool baby gear that can simplify your life...Having said that, they can put a bigger hole in your pocket too!! Can somebody puhhhlease stop inventing hip, new, innovative, fun, sometimes wacky or highly functional and smartly designed products for little ones!!! NOT!! ;p

Kiss goodbye to the 30s...

I got a pleasant bday surprise on my bday and the title above was what exactly written on my bday cake thanks to my dearest and not forgetting cheeky friends at work... but as I said am not afraid to tell my age..that is why u can see the cake wt these wordings (ignore my name spelling error hehe..) and all the candles on it here ;p BTW the cake is super yummy and only 8 of us shared that whole big piece from SR! Very rich cheese cake and oh so yummmy...indeed we were very happy and satisfied lot!!! ;p

Note: All pictures from Sindut

To all the beautiful ladies above plus Con Con...thank you once again for the lovely surprise...tapi gimmick mau bawa sia p pantry tu ba...bikin suspens ja tapi it worked hahahaha....

Apart from this, our company had the usual bday month party at work where there are only 2 of us who shared the same birth month (if there was no change of management I would be the only one who's bday falls on August oh..huhuhu...)...bday wishes were also happily received via FB and SMS...As for hubby, he was away for work on my bday but he paid for my shopping last Saturday as my bday gift which I have no complain at all hehehe...so folks, that is my bday story for this year :)

Birthday celebration

We celebrated Uncle Tony's 66th birthday last Sunday at the Emperor Restaurant and while Ethan was having so much fun with the cousins ...Eli was 'socialising' with other extended family members especially from hubby's side...more pictures in my FB :)

Ethan having the time of his life ;p

Lil' Eli with Uncle Nicky

BTW, see how 'playful' Ethan is even to his teenage uncle...tsk tsk tsk...

and oh...talking about birthday...I turned 39 yesterday!! Looking foward to the big 40 next August and yes I am not afraid to tell my age nor do I feel ashame about it!! ;p what I wish more is to grow old gracefully and hopefully as I age I will be a much stronger and wiser person. So here cheers to myself!! :)