Accomplishment From Attending Play School

We started playschool for Ern for 1 simple reason - get socialize and have fun.

It turned out that she benefited a lot from attending school:

- 100% Toilet trained
- Self Feeding
- Clearer and more accurate pronunciation in learning new word.
- Better coloring skill (although she still color outside of the line)
- Better tracing skills (although still outside of the line)
- Loves singing (She is able to sing in 3 languages now - English, Mandarin and Bahasa)
- Able to fold paper and make her own aeroplane (of coz it's not in the right shape)

All of the above can be taught at home and I believe they are simple task. All you need is time and patience. However being a working mother and live without a full time maid, it's a challenge to go through all these, especially during weekdays.

We are glad we made the right decision of sending Ern to playschool even we have to go through the 'no school' cycle with her right now. I am sure it's the phase every kids need to go through, which Ern is no exception as well!

Attention Seeking

[ she asked for a ruler and insist we need to sit down and listen to her. She claimed she is a teacher! ]

Since day 1 of sending Ern to play school (back in Nov 2008), she didn't shed any tears for 2 months. We received good compliments from her teachers that she liked school very much.

She still love school now but only when she is at the school. The "I don't want (to) go (to) school!" had started since 2 weeks ago almost every morning. She will start the 'no school' when we put on her school uniform and take her down to the doorstep. The moment we asked her to wear her shoes, she started to cry and insist only MIL to carry her.

Of cause we still send her to school but the moment teacher carry her over and we are out of her sight, she stopped crying. When we peeped her from our house, we can see she is happily playing at the playground with her friends.

According to her teacher, she enjoyed and actively participated in the class activities. We knew that because we can see GREAT improvement in her vocabulary, the songs that she sings and her motor skill in drawing & coloring.

We realized when MIL or me sent her to school, she cried longer. However, when Daddy brought her 2 days ago, she didn't burst into tears. Daddy said she almost wanted to burst into tears but her teacher was fast enough to take over and divert her attention!

Guess what her teacher said was right, Ern is seeking attention from us, knowing her sibling will be out soon.

Sibling Jeolousy

(Ern claimed the mitten is her boxing glove)

I am in my 33th weeks of pregnancy.

All along, we have brief Ching Ern that she will be a Che Che soon. We get her involved in most of the baby's activities like bring her along during the monthly gynae check up, helping to fold baby laundry and shopping for the baby. When we asked her where is her baby, she would point to my tummy. She would placed her head or kiss on my tummy when I asked her to sayang the baby.

All along, we know she didn't get the full idea of me expecting a baby but from our conversation and her reaction about the topic of sibling, we anticipated the sibling jealousy will only come in after baby is born!

We were all wrong!!!

For the past 2 months, Ern has been cranky/naughty and we relate that to the Terrible Twos. Never thought of sibling jealousy until she refused to go to school since last week.

Our girl started to 'sense' the sibling arrival NOW and behaved unusually:

- cry and whine for no reason
- When we stopped talking to her to let her cool off, she thought we are angry at her and she cried. Keep on saying we are angry at her.
- When teacher asked her to go back to her seat, she cried and said 'teacher angry'.
- Refused to go to school almost every morning
- Trying to get our attention by giving us wrong answer with lots of 'no'.
- Cross her hand and turn her head to the side way when we said things that doesn't pleased her needs.
- Want to have a company either within her sight or we need to answer her if we are somewhere as a 'security assurance' that she is not alone.
- Cried in school when the teacher punished other students!

She is very 'fragile' in her emotional world right now. You can tell she seeks attention from us! *sigh*

The teachers and I draw a conclusion that she is going through the phase of sibling jealousy and started to feel insecure. We were asked to be sensitive on the words we used, be more patience on her and continue to 'brain wash' and assured her that everyone love and care for her.

We know sibling jealousy can't be completely prevented. Just hope what we are doing is to minimize it and try to convert it into positive feelings. It's a phase for Ern to go through and accept the fact!

We expect the sibling jeolousy to be more drastic after the baby is born.

First Ferry Ride

It was Ern's first ferry ride, from Penang island to cross over to Penang Mainland.

Yes, she loves the ride but when the ferry moved, she wanted us to stand beside her as a 'assurance'.

We were lucky to get into a ferry that is meant for transporting vehicles only(another type is for passenger + vehicle) and we got into the upper deck, which give us a spectacular view during the ride.

Fully Toilet Trained!

Exactly at 2.5 years old, Ern is officially 100% toilet trained & diaper free for day and night!

Daddy and I didn't expect Ern to be diaper free at night to come in early since she is just 100% toilet trained during day time. For the past 1 month, we noticed her diaper was dry for some nights while also seeing soiled diaper!

So, Daddy and I agreed to continue to monitor until we see a consistent pattern. Last 2 weeks, Ern's diaper been dry every morning and we know she is ready!

Daddy wanted to get a protector to put underneath her bed sheet before we took off her diaper but I gave it a try for 1 night. She didn't wet the bed on the following morning.

So far, it has been 1 week we took her diaper off and every morning we see a dry bed. Infect, Ern was able to hold her bladder until she finished her milk.

Did we get the protector in the end? The answer is Nope :-)

Bravo Ching Ern! We are proud of you!

Mothers + Kids

Many years back, their mothers:

- used to work in the same department
- went out almost every Friday nights to chill out
- Can shopped in KL from 10am-11pm until their legs were so tired. One of them suggested to soak their legs in the bath tub with hot water since they want to save the foot massage $ for more shopping!
- participated in treasure hunt competition but in actual, it was a makan lesson throughout the journey. People stopped finding clues but they looked for food stall.

Look at the photo above, these mothers had gave birth to beautiful children and the group has grown bigger. From 10+ people to 20+ members now, including their child.

Yup, the mothers (and their spouse) met few days after new year for a so called reunion. It was fun to catch up like those old days but this time, we had our child to join us.

We had our own function room, which enabled to kid to run around without us (the parents) worried they gone missing while still enjoying our food!

Among all, Ern and Jie Yan clicked well. Maybe their age gap is the closest, with Yan just 7 mo older than Ern. They became friends like after 30mins warm up and the next thing you see, the hold hands and run!




Not only they hold hands and run around, they even danced along during karaoke session!



Fun..fun..fun..for everybody

A Day At Butterfly Farm

After long procrastinate, we finally made it a point to bring Ern to "the world's 1st tropical live butterfly sanctuary" - The Penang Butterfly Farm last Sunday.

On the night before, we told Ern about Butterfly Farm and she was so excited it. Kept on mentioned "Butterfly" or "Butterfly Farm' the whole evening! A note to self, never mention any plan on 'kai kai'! Else, the 'walking reminder' keeps on 'reminding' :-(



She is all ready on the next morning for the farm visit! Obviously, she is not a born model, she doesn't pose well for photo (daddy will be very happy to read this)

It was like a 45 mins drive from home as Butterfly Farm is at the other end of Penang Island. Not much crowd as there were only 3-4 cars when we reached the farm.

RM10 entrance fee for Malaysian (by showing our MyKad for 50% discount) while Ern got free admission. Hubby and I were prepared to walk out immediately if Ern freaks out from the freely flying butterfly right after we get in.

To our surprise, our girl didn't and infect, she liked it so much! She was jumping high and low chasing after the butterfly and keep on pointing to the direction she wanted to go. It was a relief for us to see that.


The only thing that hold her back a bit is the BIG turtle. It was really huge, i think almost the same height as Ern. She leaned back a bit on daddy but still watch the turtle.


Daddy and I were lucky enough to have butterfly rest on our hands. So, our girl also "ng chap xu" by reaching her hand out, hoping the butterfly to do the same thing. After 3-4 times of attempt, it wasn't successful.


The farm wasn't really a BIG farm as what we think. Within 30mins, we covered all the areas by seeing all reptiles, fish and butterfly. Infect, we made 2 rounds because Ern didn't want to go home, keeping on saying " I want to see butterfly! This way!"

In the end, we have to coax her by telling her we are going eat "chocolate sundae" (from McD) before this little fella followed us home. We wanted to keep our promise to take her to McD but before we reached, she fell asleep although it wasn't close to her nap time.

流鼻 - Running Nose

A very funny yet creative conversation between Ern and I last night during dinner:

Mummy: Ern, tell me what is this? (giving her 1/2 of the lady finger)
Ern: It's Lady Finger (answered with a grin)
Ern: * took the first bite. Discovered and touched on the creamy seeds*
Ern: Mummy, lady finger 流鼻 (running nose)
Mummy: *Speechless but laugh non stop*

It reminds me life should be simple and straight forward like our kiddo world :-) They really speak their mind out.

Photo source: RasaMalaysia

Daddy's Girl

Ever since I am expecting, Daddy tried to relieve me from taking care of Ern whenever possible to enable me to have a smooth pregnancy. Because of that, I can really see the bonding between Ern and Daddy are getting closer and stronger.

I used to be the 'first person Ern will reach out" but now, Daddy is the one:

- Even I tucked Ern to bed almost every night, she would ask me 'where is Daddy?" without fail. So, I have to give all sorts of reasons (shower, work, etc) to distract her. She settled with my answer but only for a little while. After then, she would asked the same question until I 'beh tahan", told her "Mummy is sleepy and tired" and didn't answer her subsequently. Then, baru she fall asleep.

- When she wake up middle of the night from her nightmare, she would call for Daddy! Even if I attend to her, she would still call "Daddy!Daddy!" until I assured and pat on her that I am with her.

- She would ask me to 'go back Daddy's house" when the sky is dark and Daddy is not within her sight. She knows the routine of 'going home' right after dinner at Poh Poh's house.

- She knows Daddy can build lots of creative objects from her blocks. She hardly asked me to build anything for her.

I am blessed and thankful to see this so that Daddy can handle Ern when the baby is born, especially during the first few weeks.

Do I feel jealous? Not at all!! :-)

Almost There on Toilet Trained!

Yes, Ern is almost hitting this big growth milestone, ie to be 100% toilet trained!

She did it very well at home(almost hitting 100%) in telling us her needs and just missed 1-2 times for the past 3 weeks. She was too engrossed over one of her favourite cartoon show that she missed it!

We have put her diaper-less when we went out too. At the beginning, we needed to constantly remind her if she wants to pee. Eventually, she can tell us so but at times, put Daddy and I into "rush and panic" situation to find a decent toilet for her!

I am so glad Ern is almost there to be 100% toilet trained although she took longer time achieve this big milestone.

ALMOST THERE - the words that Ern likes to use nowadays!! :-)