musings

Kids !!

It just struck me how many other stuff kids experienced away from our sides that we are not aware about.

Ashley found a comb and proceed to brush my hair through with it. As she was combing, she commands, “Say, Owieee…Momma ! Say Ow !”

She has her own hair washed at daycare by the school’s kakak and blown dry by the teachers everyday before naptime. I guess the brushing must have hurt.

However, I didn’t think that my kid would have “expected” brushing to hurt and accepted it as a daily routine of life.

I was also thinking about how quirky kids can get.

Just the other day, Kimberly was chatting to Ashley on our drive out to Renaissance Hotel for long buffet lunch. Ashley was hanging on to Kimberly’s Enopi blocks cos we left right after picking up Kimberly from her Enopi, and Ashley wouldn’t let go. She said she wanted to bring it to school (ie. kindergarten)

Kimberly then proceed to explain to her in her best chieh chieh tone that it isn’t done to bring toys to school.

“You get punished if you bring toys to school” Kimberly said.

Ashley looked at her chieh chieh without comprehension.

“You know what is punishment?” Kimberly asked her baby sister, leaning across from her car seat to Ashley’s car seat as close as she could.

Ashley shook her head.

“Punishment is where you go stand in a corner and be quiet” She announced in a know-it-all way.

“Ohhhh…” Her baby sister exclaimed with widening eyes and bopped her head up and down, showing understanding.

She then proceed to return Kimberly’s Enopi blocks to Kimberly’s receiving outstretched palms and smug grin.

Haha ! Aren’t kids just so refreshing? You get glimpses of these every now and then and it makes all things worthwhile.

And haven’t so much have changed since our time, subtle or otherwise?

These pictures were taken at One Utama sometime last month.

As I was clicking on the shutters, both Kimberly and Ashley yelled in unison,

“Ben 10 !!!”

These here were taken at The Gardens.

At the bird cages, upon taking pictures, I said,”Say cheese !”

Kimberly yelled, “Birdie !!!”

At Ikano, I told Ashley, “Say Cheese !”

Ashley yelled, “Christmas!!! ”

What happened to our old fashioned, “Cheese !!!” ??? Things have sure evolved from our times, hasn’t it? Ha ! Ha !

Just in case I haven’t got a chance later, to all readers who celebrate Christmas, may you have a wonderful wonderful Christmas !!!! Happy Holidays !!

Ashley and her daddy

Ashley had her daddy on a leash. Literally !!!

She is leading him along by his tie.

When her daddy got home today, she made her dad get down on all four.

Then she walked in front of him, beckoning him, she said, “Here, doggy ! Come on ! Come on,boy !”

Daddy obediently followed her lead, crawling on all four.

“Good boy, doggy!” She said, patting Daddy’s curly hair, so much like her own.

DH was amused to no end and played along.

Sneaking a glance at me, DH tilted his head towards the little one to tell me to see what Ashley is doing, shaking his head in disbelief and trying hard not to laugh.

He obediently followed her from the guest room to the bedroom. From the bedroom to Kimberly’s room, just to earn her little pats and approving glances.

“Good doggy !!” She said, patting the top of his head every now and then.

When daddy is tired and tried to finish off the game by standing up to stretch, she wouldn’t let him. She insists, “Sit, doggy !! Sit !!”

And daddy obediently flopped down on all four again.

I don’t think I have the energy for that kind of play anymore. Age is fast catching up!! Actually, age has caught up. Ha ha !

Moments like this reminds me not to nag my husband too much. At times, we forgot what our DH has done for us and tend to weight too much on what he has not or could not do for us.

Every now and then, I tend to side-track from the important things in life, and ponder too much on the trivial.

Light moments like this lifted us up and erase all the trivial arguments instantly.

Anyhow, thankfully, god created daddies for little girls !!

And luckily, god made little babies and little children so adorable that their daddies are willing to forget every tired bones in their limbs to oblige their little darlings.

Of colourpencils and little girls ….

I don’t know if any of you do this?

If I am the only one around, I must be more old-school than I thought.

When we were young, and the colours in our Luna colourpencils ran out (Luna was the ONLY brand around those days, or rather, the only affordable brand), my mom would just nicks my elder brother’s old colour pencils and fill mine up with it.

So I got stuck with , like, 2 green in the same shade, no orange, no yellow, no red, 2 blacks, 2 blue, no purple, 2 brown, no white etc, while my more privileged elder brother get a new set.

It’s no secret that my mom favors boys over girls. In my era, anyhow. But we didn’t hold our 4 brothers against it, because we love our sibling unconditionally.

Anyhow, those days, our colour pencils only come in 12 shades. Kids from better to do family could afford those with 24 shades, but these kids are like far and in between. Probably only one kid in the whole class could afford it. And we are talking about the seventies, okay? Not the eighties. And EARLY seventies at that !!

Anyhow, we all would be hanging around the “rich kid” checking out her colours while she basked in our admiration. Haha.

I had vowed never to be like my mom, favouring one kid over the other . In my mom’s case, she favors boys over girls. We have 4 boys and 4 girls in the family.

And as a kid of age 10, I had, tainted with embarrassment (okay, it was only a slight embarassment, I exagerated) over those mismatch colourpencils, in childish reverence, feverously vowed that I would never deny my kids colourpencils if they wanted a new one. Ha ha.

Also never to dress my girls in boys’ garb, when the boys outgrew their clothes. I have like 12 pairs of jeans and no skirts. And my tee were all boys’ colours. Till I was 14 anyhow, when my mom then started buying me skirts and clothes in fashion.

I mean, I admire my mom for her silent strength, her wisdom and her perseverance in the absence of my dad, but that is besides those marks left from childhood. Ha-ha.

Unfortunately, I find myself now in my mother’s shoes.

Kimberly have around 6 boxes of half filled pencil colours lying around the house. And more stray ones lying around the paint boxes adorning the bottom of her paint easel.
I really didn’t want those colour pencils to go to waste.

Now, I have this discarded used set from a box of 24 shades

And I have this discarded used set from a box of 40 shades.

I took out some colours from the box of 40 shades and slot in the vacant burrows in the box of 24 shades, filling up the gaps.

Then I quietly snuck it back into Kimberly’s schoolbag.

She is none the wiser for it, although she knew I change the box.

Has this ever happened to you before? Falling back into your mom when you are determined not to?

Protected: Weekend at FIL’s

not the norm… teenagers

I like to think that teenagers today are somewhat responsible young adults, and reading those newspaper articles about how youngsters painted orang asli’s long house, do work for charity, do sounds really encouraging.

I rather think that teenagers of our days are responsible adults, since most of my friends, including myself had needed to help out at home or at our parent’s small businesses after school and during holidays.

When we were young, I had like to sleep in during the holidays, but we were never given the luxury. During school holidays, my dad would wake us up by phone if we are not up by 9am. He would then set tasks for us to do. Mind the store, send delivery, attend to customers,  sweep the dusty floor, do stock check, etc. All of us had to go about sweeping, doing stock checks, while the coolies sat out front, smoked and chatted.  My dad says we had to because its our own business and this is what clothed and fed us. While I do not understand when i was 12, as I grew older, I know where he is coming from.

Yesterday, we brought the kids to Sunway Pyramid, to the new wings. There is a small play area in Jaya Jusco with the cursory swing, slide, table with leftover blocks, and two plastic see saw.

3 female teenagers about 17 years old or so, came giggling into the play area amidst loud laughters and gigles. Then they set about to conquer it. As soon as a little boy got up, they sat on the see saw, its a wonder it didnt collapse under their weight. Although they then collapsed upon each other, giggling and laughing and knocking a toddling little boy in the process of their “antics”. The little boy’s mother quickly run over to rescue her little boy, while one of the teenagers shook her head and rolled her eyes heavenward.  Then her friend lost her balance and knock over another little girl, and her friend too, roll her eyes heavenward. Almost sounds like she is thinking, “fools, why can’t they keep their balance?”

While I was watching these, I had wondered why other parents are not saying a word.  I think a lot of Malaysian are just not confrontational. Even when faced with a queue jumper, most of us will just let it go. I am probably the only person that I ever know of who would speak up and ask the queue jumper to go to the back of the line. And then, of course, all the stares from the queue would be transfered from the queue jumper to me.   And I almost understand why most people let queue jumper get away with it.  They dont like the stares to be transfered to them.

Just then, the father of the toddling baby came forth and ask the girls, “Do you mind, these are for kids”. 

The girls threw him a annoyed glance, laughed with each other, and left.

Most certainly, we, the old school, as young girls, were never allowed that much time with our friends by our parents, save for the old fashioned Girl Guides activities and basketballs etc.  Most of our parents (as I am aware, looking at my cicle of friends around me) made sure our time are fully utilised.

Bringing up a kid takes a lot of understanding, patience and hard work.  Sometimes I wondered if I should have taken more effort in raising my kids, whether I should be taking all those approaches that those books lining the bookshelves of The Border and Kinokuniya taught us.

In reality, most of us would like to be good parents. But in the midst of everything else that prevail over these, like working full time or part time to cloth and feed the kids, setting stern rules to caretakers/MIL/maids so as to oversee the safety and hygene of the kids, we cannot go the way the expert thinks.  Certain things will have to be compromised.  I simply cannot be a perfect person in my quest to oversee other things that are more important my kids, like hygene and safety.

Parenthood is a long journey.  And we all know that being a parent is never an easy job.

Anyhow, Just my musings. Thanks for bearing with me.