My Third Day in School

Friday is "water play" day in school and I dressed Sofia up for the occasion. She was also anticipating the water session in school cos I have been telling her about it since the night before. This morning, she happily got into the pool and she was all alone cos many of the kids have either fallen sick or just recovered so the pool was out of bounds for them. They could only play outside the pool. I kept my fingers crossed that she will not fall sick too.

After the pool session, it was indoor play and she immediately went for her favourite - the stacking wheels.

It was Oliver's birthday today and his parents brought a pretty chocolate cake to school during lunch time, to celebrate his birthday with all the kids. We had all the kids crowded around the table, eyes glued to the cake, including Sofia. The next thing I knew, she stretched out her hand and grabbed the cake. I tried to save the cake but it was too late. Part of the cake was bald with the chocolate cream scrapped off. I was super embarassed and apologized to the parents. Arrrghhh ... that little troublemaker ...

We went on to light the candles and sang "Happy Birthday" Song to Oliver. I took my camera and left Sofia alone to take some photos. It was a rare chance to have this bunch of kids standing together with minimal fidgeting for two minutes.

Halfway through the song, the birthday boy blew out two candles.

Then disaster no. 2 struck - little troublemaker stretched out her hand and grabbed one of the candles on the cake.

I was too far away to do anything.

A teacher nearby quickly took the candle from her hand and put it back in the cake before the song ended.

I don't know what the birthday boy's wish was but I wished there was a hole somewhere for me to hide.

My Day in Kuching

I went to Kuching for work again today, had to make it a day trip cos my big baby is out of town and the small baby is alone with the maid. It was tiring, no doubt. But today they MAS stewardess served me something HOT. It was nice and warm, as if it was cooked 5 mins ago, not refrigerated overnite. Finally. These two pieces of bread was called "crispy bread", though neither crispy nor crunchy, it is okay. The bread was warm and the sauce was a little hot and spicy but it really tasted good! It has been a while since I last enjoyed MAS inflight food.

It was a hot and humid day in Kuching when I arrived. The first drink that came to my mind is the three-layered teh-ci-peng in a coffeeshop in Greenheights. The bottom layer is the gula melaka, middle portion is evaporated milk and top it off with tea. Somehow I like this coffeeshop's combination best among those that I have tried in Kuching. Even my mum is a big fan of this drink! I hope to find a coffeshop in KL that serves this drink with the same standard some day then I can have it whenever the craving strucks!

My Second Day in School

Today is Tuesday and it is "Sand Pit" day in school, meaning the kids will spend about half an hour in the morning, playing in the sand pit. While I was driving to school in the morning, I wondered if Sofia would like sand? We have not brought her to any beaches so far because we fear the sand flies would attack her. Also, she likes to put her hands in her mouth, what if she swallow a mouthful of sand? How to ask her to spit them out?

I soon found out, this girl do not like sand AT ALL. As soon as I put her into the sand pit, she did all she could to get out and stared hard at her sandy feet. After that, she refused to walk/run/play and clung onto me like a koala. So I washed her feet clean to make her feel better and she came down to walk. I guess the sandy feeling needs some time to get used to, afterall, this is her first encounter with sand.

Sofia spent the rest of the time OUTSIDE the sand pit, refused to let me put her in again. It was really funny cos as I lower her further into the sand pit, she pulled up her feet against her tummy. You would have thought I was lowering her into a pot of soup brewing on the fire.

I am quite sure, after a few more sessions of sand play, she will have fun building sandcastles and burying herself into the sand.

Drinking using Straw

Sofia can finally drink using the straw today! Finally.
It all started when we were at Charlotte's 1yo birthday party just this afternoon. Daddy and I were sharing a packet of Yeo's winter melon tea and Sofia was curious about it too. So I offered her the packet drink and as usual, she will just chew and bite the straw. She still could not figure out how to close her mouth around the straw and suck. I have also given up trying to teach her and am just waiting till she is older, perhaps she will then know how to.

"Squeeze the packet." Daddy prompted.

So I squeeze the packet drink and the Sofia had a taste of sweet drink and her eyes SPARKLED. She started gnawing at the straw again, trying to get more of the drink. Then suddenly, she closed her lips around the straw and suck, just like that. Happily she drank and drank. Daddy and I hastily finished up the packet drink as we do not want her to have too much of the sweet drink.

And from that day onwards, Sofia started drinking from straw and was so happy with her newfound skills that she finished two MagMag cups in the afternoon!

My First Day at School

Today was Sofia's first day at school. Well, to be exact, it is more like a childcare place than a school. The school's name is Pat's Schoolhouse, located in TTDI where our future house would be. This was the most important factor to consider while we were school hunting. With all the horrible traffic jams during peak hours, we certainly don't want to be caught in anyone of them with Sofia struggling to get out from the car seat. Also, the fuel price is set to rise in Malaysia so it does not make sense to spend more time on the road rite? Pat's Schoolhouse is only a stone's throw away from our new house and we can actually choose to walk her to school if needed.

Many friends have asked why are we sending her to school so early? Well, the first big reason is, our domestic helper, Nur, is going home for good in Oct. She has done a fantastic job in taking care of Sofia since birth and they are really close.

We hope to achieve the following by sending Sofia to school:
1. Make Sofia less close to Nur by introducing more people into her life.
2. Make Sofia more independent by taking away her "personal maid".
3. Improve Sofia's social skills (right now she would cry whenever we bring her to somewhere new and cling onto us like a koala).

So you can imagine during the drive to school this morning, my mind almost exploded with so many worries, all the "what ifs' was just zooming across my mind one after the other. Of course I did the preconditioning thing by telling Sofia the night before that we were going to school the next day and she SHOULD NOT CRY in school. I went through this with her again in the morning.

Off we went. They had water play on Friday mornings, using a plastic pool filled with about 5 inches of water in the garden and all the kids were just enjoying it and basking in the morning sun. It was a PERFECT start. Sofia loves water and seeing so many kids playing together happily simply knock down all her defences. She was a bit skeptical during the first 5 minutes but no crying, brawling, clinging onto my leg or trying to "disappear" into me. I was so so happy, almost tempted to join her in the pool and splash around with her!

We had story time after that but she was more keen to explore the reading room and spent time checking out the toys, books, etc. After that, they had a small tea break where each kid was given a slice of bread and a bit of jam to eat. Sofia happily fooled around with the plastic knife and jam, something we would not allow at home. So school is fun eh? Music class followed after the break and they joined the older kids to sing English and Mandarin songs with many funny actions. At this point, Sofia was already so comfortable with the place that she started exploring the ground floor - the admin office, the room at the back ... I just stood there observing her, smiling from ear to ear.

We called it a day for her at about 1130am, though the half-day session we enrolled her for ends at 1230pm. Sofia was tired and it was close to her naptime so I packed her into the car with me with her milk bottle. Guess what? She fell asleep within 3 mins! It must have been an exciting and tiring day for her.

As for me, I felt pretty good with the school cos her class is small, only four toddlers with two teachers and the other three kids do not look like potential bullies or hooligans. I will be able to sit in with her for another week, after that, she will be on her own, well, wish us luck!