At a party

We have been invited to several birthday parties, yeterday's being the last one (not like forever..but for the year, perhaps). I can conclude that i does not yike kiddo birthday parties.

Why eh?

Mainly because parents talk about the same old stuff - schools, lessons, tuitions. I can smile and nod for 10 minutes... 15 at max! But seriously.. 2 hrs??? C'mon! I want to hear about your inlaws! I want to know about your sex life!

Heh... not really.

Come to think of it.. I am pretty disinterested in many things these days. Even my neighbour's gardener in tight jeans doesn't seem appealing anymore. Blame it on the hormones, k?

And then..there are the noisy kids. Gah! And yesterday the boys were such bitches - uttering I-don't-want-to-fren-you at every opportunity.

The highlight of the event was of course the cake blowing ceremony. For me, very much because it signalled the end of a much dreaded evening.. and for Gooly, it was the cake itself. I think that was the time I saw his face was giddy with happiness. He stood so near to the cake, salivating. He ate a slice, smacking his lips and asked for another. Finished that and asked for yet another, "It's for my mom.."

Awwww... I tell you. I almost choked in tears eating Optimus Prime's hand. That's until he said, "Can you share some with me?"Gee.. I don't know now if he was being really sincere in fetching me the cake or he was embarassed to eat 3 slices himself?

Oh well, the night ended with my solitary thoughts of, "I will never have the courage to organise a kiddo party."

...and also, "What a recluse I have become! A hermit! Totally anti-social!"

Is this what being pregnant is all about?

Gooly's school

One of the things that I am really grateful for this year is sending Gooly to the right school. By that I mean I am really happy with what they are teaching there. (Disclaimer: My expectations and opinions on academia are some-what cacat, according to some people.)

First off, it would be his vast improvement in the Mandarin Language. I would not let the school take full credit of that because he has home tuition as well. Nonetheless the school has provided a conducive learning place.

I love love love the mandarin songs he sings. The current hit, which he will be belting out this coming Sunday's mini presentation is a happy tune about mothers' love.

"Green green grass, and the sky is blue
There are my beautiful moments
Whether I am big or small, you bring me everywhere
I am mama's baobei (precious)"

-Loosely translated by QTK (me -lah!)

The other day, as I walked into his classroom, he surprised me by popping out from a life-sized cardboard house. Yes, they have used a washing machine box to make a play-house. Gooly proudly showed me the part he painted.

And another day he brought home a recycled toy - something they made in the classroom using a cut up plastic bottle attached to a string with a balled up paper stuffed into a balloon at the end. You toss the balloon (with paper) up and then try to catch it into the halved bottle. It was really quite fun.

He has come to realise that he doesn't really need electronic toys. He has been asking for paper boxes which he made into airplanes which he played for hours. Sometimes I see him sitting on the cardbox, muttering and pressing on some imaginary buttons. I see his drawings which resemble some ancient runes, but they are engine parts of course. Boundless imagination when you play with self-made toys. Gotta love it!

Some parents worry that the school is not teaching enough. Hmmm.. I dunno. But these are what make childhood memories great.. Between learning how to multiply and learning how to be happy, I choose the latter.

So when you see Gooly, don't ask him what's 3 x 3 (heck, don't even attempt 3 +2!), but do ask him about recycling and taking care of Mother Earth. He is so good with the topic, he can be an ambassador, really. :)

Arithmetic can wait, saving our planet is more important for now, imho.

Kay.. you can sing CAPTAIN PLANET, HE'S THE HERO now to end this TGIF post.

A magic hat

The other day we were reading The Magic Rabbit in which the long-eared pulls out all sorts of things from a black tall hat.

It contains very colourful illustrations but very simple text. Something that would only take 2 minutes to read.

But it went on for more than that cos we were studying the images. I told him how the bunny's eyes glisten when it pulls out the best things he liked. And when he gets a little lonely, the eyes look kinda dull. I love how illustrators pay attention to details as such.

And I told Gooly just that - how the eyes are the windows to our souls. *corny*

At "the end", I asked what would he like to pull out if he had a magic hat.

"A magic hat with propeller which can fly me up," he giggled.

To where?

"Space, of course!"

Ohh.. ok. What else?

"A dinosaur...A t-rex! Hahahhaah."

And we spoke some more of what should magically appear in our lives. I love 'meaningful' conversations with gooly.

If only we had a magic hat..then I could...heh, like I am telling you :P

Text-o-graphy

We have had bed-time stories every night ever since Galileo said the earth is round.

Sometimes he picks his own books. Other times he wants me to pick and READ! That's a lot of work, ok? It has almost been what..6x365 days that I have been reading to him. He doesn't care what I pick. It can be a dictionary, and he is fine as long as he gets to listen to my *ahem* sweet Macy Gray voice.

Sometimes I don't get it. He reads really well, but still likes me to do it.

Anyways..

Just now he picked Living Sunlight by Molly Bang. It's quite a new book. I have probably read to him 2 or 3 times.

Halfway through photosynthesis, chlorophyll, oxygen, hydrogen dll, I was yawning myself silly and wondered, "Duuk mudd kwai laaa...!" (What the shit am I reading this for?) Does he even understand the hippie love thy earth theme? I, thus of course, contemplated to skip some pages.

Now imagine this.. He was already on his upper bunk bed. I was down. He was facing the ceiling. No way he could see the book.

I was reading and yawning and then ... I realised that he has memorised the text cos I stopped mid way of a sentence and he finished it off.

Mind you, the text is neither repetitive nor rhymed, making it difficult (for amnesiac like me) to remember.

Conthoh:
Plants breathe out the (oxygen) they broke off from the (water) and breathe in (carbon dioxide) from the air. Now plants use the (packets of energy) from the air to build... (CHUNKA CHUNKA CHUNKA)..

[words in parenthesis were his contribution]

And I have only read this with him a few times!

What do you call this? Hmmm..not photographic memory. Text-o-graphic memory perhaps? :D

Sometimes I think he is awfully smart. But then again, if you give him RM10 to buy a RM9 toy, he'd come back with a 50 sen ice cream with no change.

Hmmm....

And oh, he doesn't even know how to spell 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' . Tsk!

(The book is very educational with colourful illustrations. Definitely for older kids cos it's packed with info which will put any Std. 6 Sains Rumahtangga teacher to shame. I was just being lazy when I yawned. Then again, a tad too heavy for younger kids (but not for my weird son).

If you haven't noticed, I do have a passion for kids books (for my own consumption.)

Gooly was hired!

It all started one day, while he was taking a dump..


With his two hands resting on his chin and his shorts and spiderman underwear hanging at the ankles, he asked in a very serious tone, "Mom, how do I get a job?"


Eh??? I also need help in that department lor!!

Nonetheless I thought hard and long about it. I suppose, first, you get an education, then you rub shoulders with those atas atas people, and voila, you get a million dollar job as a zookeeper.

Something like that...

But he didn't get it.

So I said, "You have to apply for a job. Write down what you can do. And I will see who needs hired help."

"What's hire?'

Tsk! Another long round of explanations.

"Oooh.. I see. Do you have mechanic friends? I want to work in a mechanic shop."

Hoi!!! Not offence to Ah Yap (my mechanic), but being a greasy monkey is not exactly what you are destined to be!

Anyways, he came up with a not so impressive resume.



I posted that on FB, and supportive friends started offering jobs. Most of them wanted their cars washed. I guess you don't get RM1 car wash any where else!

And so Gooly washed and cut and did some other odd jobs.

When asked if he owes any loan sharks money (sick humour which he couldn't even comprehend), he just replied that he wanted to work to save some money. (Fishy, I say!)

He didn't work for many Saturdays (don't need to call Talian Dera) cos I got really tired, and wanted to sleep all the time instead of chauffeuring him to work.

And so he has RM10 in his piggy. Don't rob him, plise. ;)

A bump!

Yesterday I wore a dress and looked hard at the mirror. I don't think I have done that for ages. But because I was gonna have my passport picture taken, I figured I better put on some fake eye lashes, add a mole on my chin and wear the Deep Blue Sea Big Eye contacts.

And so I stared hard at the my reflection.. and zoomed at my abdomen.

Oh! A bump has appeared!

I was so mightily pleased!

Before that, I was just fat. Now I am pregnant, excuse me! Teehee!

Thank goodness for my hormones, I am a happy mom-again.

Well, of course I have crazy friends who make me laugh and sing to me.

And a mom* who steals my sneakers (but that's another story.)

Yay! A toast to bums bumps.

*Oklah, she packs me grapes to eat at the shop too. I love her mucho.