Monday, June 30, 2008

For every cloud has a silver lining

Today was the first day I sent Emir & Fatini to the new day care centre. I sent Emir in the morning while Fatini in the afternoon after school.
I am very proud to announce they were very good. Emir cried a little bit, feeling scared as expected but not so bad at all. He was asking for "tatak" which is actually "kakak".
I spent a little bit of time briefing the daycare owner on Emir medical conditions. She seems like a nice person and really have experienced with kids. I received a msg afterwards that my son was doing alright.

Later in the afternoon I picked up Fatini from her kindergarten. I told her that she's going to Emir's new school and she is to attend the Mandarin and music classes in the afternoon. She seems to be talking all the time nowadays and was talking non-stop all the way to the daycare. She was in a very good mood. She told me she likes the kindergarten now ( she used to tell me she didn't before) and told me she will take care of Emir at the new daycare. She told me she's a big girl already. It amazes me how she can speak and talk very well to me.
When we arrived there I just dropped her off after having brief words with the woman who was expecting her. When I told Fatini I was leaving she didn't cry at all. She showed me that she's very brave. She has really matured and i think she has learned to please me. And I am so proud of her. I was expecting her to give me a hard time but i was totally wrong.
I really hope I have made the right choice for them. I have surveyed a few places and have been evaluating the suitability of the environment as well as the activities available that are fit for them. I hope they will be happy there while I'm at work.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Durian

Last week my mother called. Just to inform me the durians are falling off the tree. Come home if you can, my mum said. It's the season.
Actually, there's only one durian tree behind my mum's house in Melaka. There used to be two, I don't know what happened but it was chopped off one day. So there's one left now. But it bears hundreds of fruits when the season comes. The tree has been there since at least 15-20 years already. The durians from the tree is also really tasty at least to us or whoever likes the durians. I loved it. i have developed the taste for durian some years ago.
So not wanting to miss this once a year durian feast at home town, we decided to drive home Saturday night. 2 hours drive for durian, not bad... we plan to come back to KL on Sunday the next day.
For my children, it's balik kampung and they were delighted to see Wan (my mum) and my mum to see the grandchildren. And the next day for breakfast mum makes delicacies with durian sweet sauce specially for the precious son-in-law (my husband). And we ate fresh durians afterwards and happily smell of durians all the way back to KL.
So i guess we have to wait another year for this occasion again, i.e. balik kampung for durians....

Sorry, kids...

This week has been a headache for me. I have been looking up for a new daycare for my children and also new kindies for them. I used the internet, called up and study some maps. The studying map part is the one giving me the most headache. I really have to adjust my map reading with my haphazard sense of direction.

The concern on Emir development had set me and my husband to rethink about the children schooling and daycare. We think its best to transfer Emir and transfer them out of KL. This will save them from the extra hour in the traffic even though Mum will still be stuck in the jam every single day.

Wow! the children schooling, day care, and logistic is more difficult that engineering. First I had to decide on the area which I consulted my dearest hubbie. It must be somewhere outside KL but close enough to KL. Very mind boggling, isn't it not? So we chose Bangsar area. I think that area is nice even though i am not that familiar but i am sure i can get familiar with it.

There are quite a few kindies in that area actually. Many of the establishment combines preschool with day care. Some of them receive children after 9 am. (Why do they do that? How are we working mother supposed to send them since we have to be at the office at 8am.)

Some of the day care also does not accept afternoon day care except if the children also attend morning classes with them. I don't want be limited with that criteria.
Especially Fatini is already attending the kindergarten at least until end of this year before we can decide to transfer her to another one.

So after a few phone calls yesterday and last week, finally i shortlisted to 2 places to visit today so that i don't become confused with too many choices. I think I have found one which I hope is going to be fun for the kids. At least I saw that they have quite a small children to teacher ratio. Full day for Emir and half day for Fatini.

Now I am left worrying about their reaction on their impending first at the new daycare which is to start next Tuesday. I embrace myself for that. Fatini will certainly cry. Emir will be scared I think. I feel terrible already.

I feel that my responsibility is to provide a place where they can have fun, learn and socialize with friends. I don't ant to overburden them with activities, most importantly while I am not around at least they can have some fun hours.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Mothering worries


Today I have been like half mad, half mad about the complaints made against my 2 1/2 year old son. They said he hit another child ( this particular one is 5 1/2 year old) in front of his minder. First of all, I notice they never told me anymore when my children get hit or bitten at school. I only know a couple of days later if it happens that I change my children's clothes instead of my helper. Secondly, do they expect my son to be smart enough to hit when he's not seen. He's only two year old !!! Thridly they kept on telling me about incidences involving my son's " naughtiness", what do they expect me to do???? I presume they want me to take some action, so fine, I will teke some action sicne they cannot handle him.
Firstly I feel that I have to protect my kids from this kind of behaviour by removing him from the surrounding that may be the cause that incites this behaviour. This I found logical.
Secondly i don't like the label they put on my son. "NAUGHTY". Please no labelling. I hate that.
Actually I feel sad. I left Emir at 1 month + old with them when I returned to work and now he's two and half year old. he's raised by them basically since i work 360 days a year, i know that's terrible but i need the money.
So I really don't like to remove him from a surrounding that he's familiar with. I am really concerned about this issue. And most of all I cannot see this kind of behaviour coming from him at home. To me basically he's a darling, jovial, playful and is always laughing ever since he was a baby. He likes to hug me and joking around, and likes to have body contact with me. He gets on well with my 4 year old daughter except for occasional siblings fights.

It's difficult for me and i can sense that it is difficult for him. If I could feel 100% of what he feels.

I don't want to overlook any of his negative behaviour and at the same time I don't want my child to be a victim of other people's perception.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

A new shirt for me

On Monday evening my husband decided to pick up the kids from the nursery. Then we decided all of us go to the Pavillion. I love Pavillion which is located on Jalan Bukit Bintang especially when we bring the kids. The place is huge and not that cramped with crowd so as my kids like to run around, I stil can manage to keep an eye on them and keep them from straying away. Therefore I am not that worried to lose sight of them. It also have lots of boutiques which I like to visit. We had a small dinner at the Japanese restaurant and my kids not really keen for dinner had a scoop of icecream each. That kept them quiet for a while. Then we went upstairs to take a look and after trying out some clothes decided on a few shirts for husband and myself. I am happy i got something at a good discount from one of the boutiques there. Not bad. Shopping has always been a pleasure for me especially when I got a good buy.

Finally done MyKad

I have not changed my IC to MyKad and decided to do it first thing Monday morning. Anyway i only managed to leave and arrived at Maju Junction at 10.30. I took a taxi since i really didn't know how to get there. Anyway I managed to find the JPN located on the 6th floor. When I arrived there were already a lot of people there and I took a number which showed there were about 50+ people ahead of me who hadn't been served yet. Surpirisingly I didn't have to wait as long as I expected, after 20 minutes my number was called and it was an easy process. I had to pay $10 for the fee.
Then I had to wait for my turn for the ID photograph which was about 25 minutes waiting time and as soon as my picture was taken, a temporary ID was issued to me.
All in all the time spent about 1 hour which was not that bad.
I think I have to wait 10 days or so to know when is myKad will be ready. I am proud of myself for getting this chore done since i have been procrastinated it so long.

Boat ride

Last Saturday we went to Melaka my home town. My husband and I decided to bring the children on a boat ride along the Sungai melaka in the evening. The kids never took a boat ride before and when told were pretty excited about it.
Yes they did actually. Very much. Kept on screaming " Mommy look !!!" Mommy look !!" All mommy look at this, look at that!
I t was quite a journey which took about 40 minutes ride i think to and fro and was quite cheap, adult for $10 and kid $5. The journeys end at the end of the river which opens to the Selat melaka and then turned back to its jetty. This week also happens to be the Pesta Sungai Melaka week and there seemed to be lots of things happening around the river area. It was supposed to start that night but we did not have time to wait until night.
After the boat ride Fatini insisted for the "eye on melaka" ride which was located on the river bank, but i told them next time, and offered them the ice cream sold by the river side which they happily accepted.
Enough for the evening and we went back to my parents house.