William's style of eating fruits

This is one of William's traits of eating fruits. He will bite one small part of the apple or pear, and then leave it back in the bowl, and go for the next one. He does this to almost all the fruit slices in the bowl. If I offer him the slice that he's already bitten, chances are he will not eat it again.

This, my friends... I call boy trait! Like saying, "He's been there" or marking his territory? Haha!

Victoria's JMC concert

On Tuesday, 29th June, Vic had her 2nd Yamaha JMC concert. As the classroom was not very big, only the parents were invited, and Mama Yeh Yeh helped babysit William for us at home.

The kids, all 8 of them comprising of 5 boys and 3 girls (is it just Vic's class or are boys now more interested in music than girls?), were to:

1. sing to short melodies played by the teacher as a group (there's a proper term to this but Mummy was not paying attention and too shy to ask the teacher to repeat... ah well)

2. perform on piano/keyboard 2 pieces of song (HoneyBee March and Party In The Sky)

3. group singing 2 songs - Let's Go and Sky Games

4. group dance - Drumming Cat (very catchy song!)

5. solo performance 1 song - Vic chose Frenchfry Bandit

Something went wrong with my videos which I took, somehow during download from my camera to my laptop, the movie files got truncated to only 5 secs each and I am very much baffled and disappointed. Hopefully there's some way to salvage the movie files. Thus, I'm not able to put up any movie files here, except for some pictures.

In July, Vic and her friends begin their 3rd semester in JMC, and well, sometime next year she probably could start drum classes IF she's still interested.

Vic on the keyboard, playing HoneyBee March

From left: George, Shasveena, Soloman, Xanden, Brandon, Vic, Estelle and Darin
The kids with their triangles

A picture with her class teacher Joanne (a wonderful teacher indeed)
When she saw me coming at her with my faithful S90, she quickly went into her relaxed mode and turned away... Aissshhh!! Next time must be more discreet

Victoria's first cinema movie: Toy Story 3

Some of you may remember that I wrote about Vic being scared of Nemo (the first Nemo) because of the sharks and Nemo being caught by the diver. Well, that small little scene can affect this little girl so much that she bursted into tears and begged us to off the TV.

That was sometime last year. Since then, we never got her to watch other movies, as she would not be able to sit through the whole movie or be even afraid of some scenes.

But since the school holidays, I wanted to bring her to watch Toy Story 3, which so happens to be my favourite series as I loved the first and second part. And afterall, I thought, what can be so scary about toys right? She might even love it, and relate to it as she has her doll Heh Heh now whom she play with so much, just like Andy in the movie.

In the afternoon, I insisted that she took her nap, but she didn't want to, until 5pm I gave her the eye mask, which was the ultimate. That and 2 hours later, she woke and quickly dressed, then off we went. Our dinner was meehoon in the car; she ate whilst I maneuvered traffic.

So yesterday we went for her maiden cinema show together at GSC Midvalley. The show was at 9pm and we got there with just enough time to collect the pre-paid tickets and go to the ladies, despite the heavy after-office Friday jam.

We got far left, back row seats, and took out our snacks. Too many advertisements before the show, and Vic kept asking me when the show will start. I gave her a brief introduction of the show when we were in the car, and also reminding her that this is just a cartoon, and there will be a happy ending, so she shouldn't be afraid.

Unfortunately, Vic became scared when the toys wanted to escape the Sunnyside Daycare in the show, and she came over to hug me. I carried her, quite awkwardly as she is such a big girl now, and asked her the dreaded question, "Do you wanna go home?" Of course she said yes. And she added that she missed William.

Mummy bought some time coz the movie was at its peak with the toys making their great escape with Woody... but that was as far as it got. We left and I told hubby that we will just have to buy the DVD.

Oh well. One hour into a movie... that's definitely a big feat for Vic, and a great improvement from Nemo (less than 15 minutes).

Her first exam results

My 5 year old had her first exam just before the school holidays and this being her first academic examination, naturally the parents and all four grandparents were excited (and maybe anxious) for her.

We didn't do much revision, as you know, she's only in kindy. But Vic and I did went through more spelling as that was her weak area. We already have a private home tutor for her Chinese subject and she seems to be enjoying and doing well in this area, much to her banana-parents' joy and relief!

Three days back, I met up with her class teacher after school for our postponed parent-teacher meeting (as we were away over the weekend in Penang). In the half hour discussion, we went through all her markings academic and non academic eg gross and fine motor skills, inter-relationship skills, etc and I noted a few points for clarification, namely:

1. Art & Craft - the craftwork returned to us were hardly "craft" work. They were just pieces of pictures for the kid to color, and I am disappointed as in her previous kindy, they did many creative work which the child really enjoyed. Besides that, we parents also pay additional fees (on top of the monthly school fees) for Art & Craft to the school every semester. The reason given by the teacher was that the 20minutes allocation per week was insufficient for the kids to do any major art & craft work. So what is the additional fees for? Apparently, nearing year end, the kids will be making some interesting craftwork to decorate the school walls... (does this sound ridiculous enough?)

2. Markings of "Satisfactory" - If Vic has done well in her Chinese and Numbers paper exam, and does well in her class work, except for the occassional delay in handing up her homework, how is it that she gets "satisfactory" grading from her teacher? I mean, you can't go better than 100%, right? Apparently, since this is for the 1st semester, all kids, eventhough they are excellent, will only get "satisfactory" markings from the teacher so they will continue to strive for excellence in the coming semesters. And of course, on paper it will look "nice" to see satisfactory to good to excellent, instead of excellent to excellent to excellent. (Errmm... are you following me here? Agree or disagree?)

3. Vic's reading - yes, I know some 5 year olds still do not know how to read at this age, and can only manage simple words. Vic is one of them. We hope by year end she will be able to grasp the phonic blends and sound the word herself. That's called reading, even if it doesn't sound quite right, but getting there is a good thing.


Well, this is about all. Overall, we are truly overjoyed at her exam results. Such a good start, and hopefully she keeps it up. She was not guided by her teacher, and Vic, we are all proud of you! Always remember, there is always room for improvement. Eventhough we are hard on you, that's only coz we want the best for you.

I'm only a child

Just a while ago, hubby asked Vic what was teacher teaching the kids this morning when he dropped her off at school. The teacher was reading a book. Vic said, "I don't remember."

So hubs went into explaining that she must know what teacher was teaching, and then she interrupted, "But daddy, I'm children mah. Children cannot remember."

I was surprised at her reply. Hubs, not to be outspoken, rebutted, "But children should have better memory than adults!"

Special diet for a special girl

Up till now, Vic is still abstaining from food containing eggs and yeast. Last December, if some of you recall, I wrote about her being healed, and that was because we brought her to see a skin prick allergist doctor at a reputable private hospital, personally recommended by the CEO of the hospital. I am saying this, because his results turned out to be true, and that reinforced what Dr Wong from Tangkak has already informed us, that our little girl has NO MORE allergies to eggs or yeast, or wheat or dairy. We tested for seafood and mushrooms and chicken and that was all negative.

We found out later, however, that a skin prick test is the worse methodology for testing food allergies. This doctor at the private hospital even miss the point that one should have a grace period to abstain from allergen food, so to let the body build sufficient immunity before eating the allergen food again.

So, slowly on a weekly new introduction, she was given food which she has so patiently and obediently abstained for more than a year. Lotsa food that many kids out there her age take for granted. But after two months, sometime in January I start to notice her ezcema returning.

In Feb, before CNY and our trip to UK, we brought her back to Dr Wong, with tail in between our legs, and rather ashamed that we have not listened and followed his advice to wait for the 1 year grace period to be up!

She was back on her allergy drops, and at that time, her allergies are confirmed to be eggs, yeast and candida. As you all know, we had a superb holiday and thank God no issues on getting food for her or William. She ate the normal cereals and also had cow's milk. No allergies.

In May when we visited Dr Wong for a follow up, he confirmed that her allergies has ZERORISED, and thus began our 1 year countdown.

Back in April and May, she enjoyed her dairy products. Sometimes she ate more than 2 pieces of cheese slices a day. Some biscuits contained dairy ie butter but no eggs, and that was given to her as well.

In June during her school holidays, her ezcema became worse. So we stopped her from taking cheese and her ezcema healed. Right until now, we have not brought her back to Dr Wong yet, but once her current drops is finished, we will have to see him again. Hopefully her scores are still zero.

These are SOME of the special biscuits, flour and food stuff that were bought for her by Mama Yeh Yeh, their church friends, Daddy and Mummy from New Zealand, Australia and the local stores. Aunty Pang ( a good friend of Mama Yeh Yeh ) even baked muffin breads for Vic with the all-free flour we bought from UK.



Truly Vic is blessed with so many people who cares, and even at 5yo she's considered tall for her age and has a good appetite especially for carbohydrate food. We hope and pray next year she will really be healed.

Missing UK or plain vanity?

This was William this morning when we went out for errands and to pick jie jie from school. Such a super hot day but the little boy insisted to wear this winter hat.