First time sitting in the car without a car seat

This was William in the car the other day, without his faithful carseat, and first time buckled up with the car seatbelt. He's either obediently sitted on his carseat or jumping up and down and standing if without his carseat. But the other day, when we didn't have his carseat, he pointed to the seat and asked to be buckled up. He sat there for the whole duration of the journey ie 15minutes

Junior Music Course in YAMAHA

Vic started her JMC music class in Yamaha in July. Her first day in class as I remember, went very well as the Vic thoroughly enjoyed herself. I was abit apprehensive as I thought Vic may not want to sing aloud or participate in the group singing. Let me justify my apprehensiveness as during the trial class, Vic was very cautious and didn't seem to enjoy herself.

Her excitement continued in the following classes. It seemed like a special time for her and Mummy, without anyone else (I think most importantly she didn't want her brother to be with us). We learnt new songs in almost every class, and there were group singing and practicing notes after listening, simple actions as we sang to songs, playing notes, theory lessons on her "laptop" and of course homework!

Every lesson is such a joy and my heart is just blessed to see this little girl enjoy herself. We pray she doesn't lose the momentum and interest.

Learning the notes on the "laptop"
Doing a class presentation. Look, there are 60% boys and 40% girls

Her favourite, after her music lessons... Playing the real drumset in the showroom with her toy drumstick
Playing the guitar
See the leg "stylo"

William rejects the maid

After 16 months of being cared for by the maid (she being the 2nd caregiver after me), William is rejecting the maid BIG TIME. All these times, the maid is the one who gives him his morning baths (under my supervision), feeds him, puts him to sleep in the mornings and afternoons and sometimes watches/plays with him while I have my meal or do my work.

I don't know what has transpired between the two of them, or is it natural for a toddler to suddenly reject a person who stays under the same roof and does things for him? For comparison, Daddy who spends the least time with him amongst the four of us (Vic, myself, maid and him) but is still "wanted" by the boy.

So do I get paranoid based on what we experienced with our first maid during Victoria's time? Do I suspect anything? Or do I shrug this away and assume it's a natural affair? Maybe William has grown so attached to me that he is finally, (I say finally, because he is seldom like this) experiencing the separation anxiety.

Yesterday was quite bad. William didn't even want to go to the garden (his favourite) with the maid. He refused the maid to carry him to his bathtub (also his favourite) and cried when the maid took him away to give him milk and his morning nap. In the afternoon, he protested and cried even more when the maid tried to put him to sleep and give him milk. I explained to Vic and she was understanding enough to allow me to put William to sleep. At other times, William runs to me instead of playing with the maid.

This morning the same thing happened during milk/nap time.

Hubby and I are not taking this lightly as if it's just a passing phrase. The maid's contract is due to end in 6 months' time and her work has not been consistent, apart from her increasing daringness to talk back and talk behind.

But with the current rocky situation between Malaysia-Indonesia, it's even harder to find a good maid and there's no guarantee that the replacement will be even half as good.

SIGH.

Victoria singing Colorful Cats

Alena's birthday party

Two Saturdays ago on the Eve of Merdeka Day, we attended Victoria's classmate's birthday party. Alena turned 4 a week before but was a little under the weather, so the party at A&W was postponed a week.

Alena is the daughter of Karen and Allen, who also have a little baby boy around 10months old. Alena attends the same kindy as Victoria and they play a lot together, especially after school whilst waiting for the mothers to pick them.

We didn't stay till the end of the party, as we were on the way to Kuantan that weekend. But the kids had a great time there, even William whom I think should be hungry and sleepy (that was his nap time) enjoyed himself with the balloons and seeing other kor kor jie jies.

One with the bday girl, Alena
From left: Joseph in his fav character tee-shirt, Vic, Katelyn (she's really blossomed), Alena and Joseph's brother.
I love this pic. It's one that happens everyday, but I never get to capture the moment. This is my darling boy boy "saying", "Carry me, Mummy"
With this party, who needs a nap anyway?
I sometimes wonder what happened to my kindergarten friends. I can remember this boy whom I thought was quite cute and this indian girl who puked on me in class. But I cannot remember their faces or their names. How sad. Hopefully when Victoria reads this when she's older, she'll still be in contact with her wonderful friends from kindy.

Having her nails done

Here's my little growing-to-be vain pot having one of her nails done... in her favourite color, BLUE (with shiny sparks)!!!

Love rekindled... in Kuantan

I did mention that Victoria was bored in the beginning of her holidays. One night when hubby put her to sleep, he asked her what she wanted to do this holiday and she listed her favourites... 1 Utama, Ikano jump jump (kidzone), ... and Kuantan! So Daddy did the near-impossible. He booked a room for all of us just 3 days before our trip in the all-packed full house Hyatt Kuantan on a Merdeka weekend.

The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday was not good. All the sites stated scattered thunderstorms, rainy and cloudy. We were worried that our trip to the east would be wasted and spent in the hotel room watching DVDs instead of swimming, building sandcastles and the beach. I've never been so obsessed with the weather even when I was in the UK, until this time. So we prayed.

The weather on the way to Kuantan. We prayed that God will hold the clouds or betterstill, blow them away

We had McD take-away in the car for lunch while Vic took only a bit of her fried rice cooked by Kakak in the morning. William ate a portion of his porridge. I think the kids were either tired, or giddy from the windy roads. But they immediately got back into "action" when we arrived. 5 minutes before reaching the hotel, Vic was already giving us a deafening shout of "KUANTAN KUANTAN" in the car.

The weather when we arrived and the view from our balcony

From our balcony: Checking out the hunks at the pool

Checking out the babes... (William was totally glued)

Daddy and Vic went to the beach first to build some sandcastles before it starts to rain. Never know, rite. So despite the hot scorching sun, the two went ahead, of course after lathered the two kids with sunblock. William stayed back to finish his milk.

Then we went down and all of us headed to the pool side, where it's shaddier at what we call "William's corner."

Walking to the swimming pool in a hurry, ARMED with the two water guns


Vic practiced her kicking and floating in the water. We're proud to see her overcome her fear of the water, but I dare not say that she's become like a fish in the water yet, because she still relies on her float and some "warming" up. William is a natural with water. He loves being wet, even on the face and head but still hasn't taken any swimming lessons of any sort yet.

Initially Vic didn't want to get her upper body wet at all

Playing at "William's corner"

Both kids wanted the toy at the same time

Hugging after a fight

Daddy teaching Vic to float with a float

After the swimming, we took the kids up to bath them. By the time we finished, it was cocktail time at the club downstairs so we took some snack there and I took only ONE glass of redwine to make the stay worth it (haha).

Then we headed down to the beach to enjoy the view, and ended up catching crabs. Kakak was very good at it, and all Vic and I had to do was to look for crab holes and inform Kakak our digger, and she will get down to it. Her father used to catch crabs so that's where she got her training from. We caught two and placed them in the blue bucket used for making sandcastles. The crabs were kept in our hotel bathroom for the night and let go ALIVE the next morning at the beach.

Victoria's collection

Someone's just too lazy to walk down the beach herself

Kakak looking for crabs

Our catch of the day

Left him standing on the beach just for a picture and William got scared

That morning, we took a walk at the beach. The previous day weather had been good however that morning's weather was gloomy and looked like it was going to pour. We quickly took a walk along the beach, had a simple "ceremony" for the two crabs that was our pet for less than a day (just for the fun of it) and then let them go.

Playing with sand with Daddy

William can occupy himself with the sand

Playing together albeit just for a short time because Vic was moody

William was very chummy that morning. He hugged me so tight.

Laying hands on the crabs before letting them go.

After that, we went for our breakfast at The Kampong. My first time there, and rather disappointed with the variety of food, but liked the simple resort decor. Thankfully, Vic had some food which she could eat, and she loved the crispy beef bacon.

Digging into her breakfast... dhal, steamed rice, beef bacon, fruits, baked beans

After breakfast, the maid and I took William back to the room to put him to sleep whilst Daddy and Vic adjourned to the swimming pool for Round 2!! No pictures this time but when William woke 1.5hours later, we all went down to convince Vic to come out of the pool. She was enjoying herself so much and Daddy reported that she's learned how to float around the water in her float, even by herself. Of course, daddy stayed close by.

We had a late check out after feeding William in the hotel room and cleaning the kids up. Since I ate so much the previous day, I decided to skip lunch. Moreover, I was very disturbed by a casual comment by a young salesgirl the night before, asking me if I was pregnant! OMG!!! I couldn't believe this. I am so sure I am not, and I AM NOT, but maybe after a meal, my belly was a little showing. Sigh. Looks like it's time to drastic measures.

All in all, another wonderful holiday. Vic kept asking us why can't we stay two nights there.