My Little Heroes

Farewell 2010, Welcome 2011

2010-12-31T23:53:00.003+08:00

There are certainly lots of ups and downs for me throughout 2010 -- the past -- all the good, the bad and even the ugly ones -- shall be remembered...always. 2010 had definitely made me a stronger person.
Thanks for all the experiences and memories, 2010.

Looking forward to a better year ahead and hopefully 1.1.11 onwards will bring double does of excellent health and happiness, topped with loads of good fortune.

2010-11-11T09:15:00.002+08:00

Goodbye

(Adapted from Tammy Marie Denue)

I always took for granted,

what I thought I'd never lose;

Because I never thought it would happen,

until I heard the news.

Saying goodbye is never easy,

it's truly the hardest thing to do;

But what hurts me even more,

is the chance to say it to you.

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal,

love leaves a memory no one can steal.

(Daady left us on the 8th of November 2010 at 1.20pm after being admitted in the hospital less than 24 hours. He reached his final resting place yesterday evening. RIP, Daddy. You'll always remain in our hearts and mind.)

Dear Dad...

2010-06-20T00:30:00.003+08:00

Dear Dad...

I find myself wondering...
Did I give you your due
For all that you've done for me
Did I ever thank you?

For all of my childhood memories
For helping me deal with life's stresses
For helping me accept my defeats
And celebrate my successes?

Or for teaching me the value of hard work,
Good judgement, courage, and being true
The laughter, smiles, and quiet times we've shared
Did I ever thank you?

If I have forgotten, I'm thanking you now
You taught me right from wrong
I hope you know how much you're loved and appreciated
I hope you, instinctively, knew it all along.

(Author: Unknown)

Happy Fathers' Day to my Daddy & my DH who is a wonderful Daddy to my two little heroes.

p/s: Anyone can be a father, but I doubt if everyone can be a title 'daddy'. MUAH!!

YJ's Best Teacher

2010-06-02T19:34:00.005+08:00

This post is about something that happened about two weeks ago. Teacher's Day celebration was held in YJ's school on the 17th of May.

Well, since it's a day to show appreciation towards the teachers, I bought some little goodies and wrapped them up in some beautiful wrappers and put them in a paperbag. I had intended to give a lil' token of appreciation to all YJ's teachers. Unfortunately, just before bedtime, I realised that I had counted wrongly -- there are six teachers, but I had prepared only five gifts. Argh...

So, what I did the next morning was to tell YJ that he was supposed to give one gift to five of his favourite teachers in school.

When I picked him home from his daycare centre at 5.30pm, he proudly told me, "Mommy, I gave the gift to only ONE teacher this morning. I gave it to Miss Maha, my class teacher. None for the rest." Surprise...surprise...

I expected to see the other four remaining ones still in the paperbag...but there was NONE!! Instead there was a bunch of plastic roses!!

I asked him what happened to the rest of the gifts. YJ's explanation: "I gave the rest to my daycare centre teachers. They have done a wonderful job."

The best part isn't over:

"Mommy, the roses are for you. You are my best teacher!"

Whoa...thanks kiddo. You melted my heart. They might be just plastic roses that you've bought from the school bookshop, but it's the gesture and thought that matters. Yup, that's my boy -- grown up!

p/s: Point to ponder: Why did YJ reserve the gifts for his daycare centre teachers? Are they doing a better job than his teachers in school? Hmmm...

Happy Teacher's Day 2010

2010-05-16T17:29:00.004+08:00

Some interesting quotes to share on this special day:

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. ~Khalil Gibran~

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth". ~Dan Rather~

A friend of mine wrote this on her FB wall: Eventhough by profession you are not a teacher, by default you are. Whether the lesson is big or small, good or bad, it is a lesson nevertheless taught by you either directly or indirectly, and impacted at least somebody.

HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY to all!

Post-Mother's Day Post

2010-05-10T21:16:00.006+08:00

I was supposed to include this photo in the post that I published yesterday, but somehow...I feel that it deserves to stand alone in a separate post as it's indeed a very special one.

A Mother's Day flower done by WJ as his Mother's Day craft project in school.

There wasn't any gift from YJ, but what he did was indeed very special: He wrote a letter to me -- thanking me for all the lil' things that I've done for him as a mother. It was just a short letter, but it reflected lots of sincerity and love from an eight year old kid and it's definitely going into my "treasure chest".

p/s: The second Sunday of May is celebrated as Mother's Day around the world, but as for me the actual Mother's Day falls on the 17th of July -- that's when I became a MOTHER for the very first time:)

Before I was a Mom

2010-05-09T13:57:00.005+08:00

To my dearest Mommy, all mommies and soon-to-be mommies out there,

Before I was a Mom (Annonymous)

Before I was a Mom, I slept as late as I wanted and never worried about how late I got into bed. I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.

Before I was a Mom, I cleaned my house each day. I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom, I had never been puked on, pooped on, spit on, chewed on, or peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so that doctors could do tests...or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom, I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important.

Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom.

Happy Easter 2010

2010-04-04T15:57:00.002+08:00

More English classes for all schools, says DPM. Hmmm...

2010-03-20T13:36:00.003+08:00

"More English classes for all schools", says DPM. Yup. This was what was published in the newspaper today. Check out this link: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/20/nation/20100320122229&sec=nation

Hmmm...it sure sounds interesting after all the hooha about reverting the teaching of Science and Mathematic in English to other languages, and now we are witnessing the birth of another brilliant move. Well, perhaps the suggestion is based on the notion that it's better to make sure that the students have a better grasp of English before applying the usage of English in Science and Mathematic. Hmmm...we shall wait and see.

Oh...he also added that, "The increased hours of language lessons would not involve an extension to existing school hours." I just wonder how will that be possible to happen...oops, does that mean that the current teaching-learning hours for certain subjects need to be sacrificed? I wonder...

Gong Xi Fa Cai - 2010

2010-02-14T11:41:00.006+08:00

May this Year of the Tiger bring roaring good health

and

abundance prosperity to everyone!

GONG XI FA CAI!

p/s:Happy Valentine's Day, too :)

A Brand New Beginning: 2010

2009-12-31T23:59:00.007+08:00

Yesterday is always here to stay,

Tomorrow will always be a better day,

Memories of 2009 will not be forgotten,

Let's say Hello to 2010.

A brand new year,

A brand new beginning.

Cheers!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2009-12-25T11:37:00.006+08:00

Wishing Everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

p/s: There are many posts that are still sitting as my drafts (for November and December). Will find time to publish them soon (I hope :P).

When Carelessness Hurts...

2009-11-09T20:18:00.003+08:00

YJ came back with his last paper that we had been anxiously waiting since last week. The minute he saw me, he said sadly, "I'm so careless that I wasted 10 marks!"

Err, what? 10 marks?!? Oh boy...that's a lot. Those were the words that went through my mind. My heart sank when I saw how disappointed he was.

I looked through his paper: he made 3 mistakes throughout the whole paper and he lost another 10 marks in one section that required him to label the pictures and then group them accordingly. He grouped the all words correctly without labelling them. Sigh... :(

Well, there's no use to cry over split milk. At least, he learnt his lesson: now, he knows the importance of READING the instructions before attempting any given task.

Anyway, we are still proud of his achievement despite the major hiccup.

Errr, about his bicycle as his incentive...we are facing a dilemma right now. Well, that is supposed to be his incentive if he is among the top three students in his class. But after losing 13 marks in that paper, I seriously think that his chance is rather slim (based on the mid-year exam result, the competition among his classmates is very stiff). Now, DH and I are thinking: should we reward him for his effort or should we do that for his achievement?

YJ's First Year-End Exam

2009-11-07T21:14:00.007+08:00

[I haven't been updating my blog as often as previously...sigh! I'm currently at the end of my Decision Analysis module, and since this module involves n-u-m-b-e-r-s...I consider it as one hell of a killer paper (well, at least for me). My greatest weakness is dealing with numbers -- I can be as blur as sotong and even the simplest concept will seem to be the hardest one for me. So, with that problem in hand, I've decided to temporarily sacrifice my blogging time.]

This whole entire week had been very busy for me. Yup, it's the year-end school exam season.

Yeah...in fact, it's the time when parents become more "kancheong" than their kids! I encouraged YJ to do some self-practices and did some quick revision with him every night. Based on his monthly report card, YJ has been progressing tremendously well.

DH and I promised to get him a new bicycle if he comes up top three in list. I guess that was indeed a great motivation as we could see that he worked very hard every night.

Till yesterday, YJ brought home four of his five main exam papers and each paper came with a fantastic result. One more paper to go...and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will be as fantastic as the other four. We are proud of you, kiddo!!

Trick or Treat!!

2009-10-29T21:31:00.007+08:00

It's Halloween again. Last year, I did a post on Halloween cupcake designs. I was thinking of a Halloween post a few days back. I had lots of fanciful ideas, but due to time constraint, those ideas remained as ideas in my mind.

WJ was browsing through some Disney cartoons with me when we stumbled upon several real classic Disney Halloween cartoons. This was (and still is) my favourite. Enjoy...

Happy Deepavali 2009

2009-10-17T23:03:00.004+08:00

I'm taking this opportunity to wish all my Hindu friends a Happy and Prosperous Deepavali.

My favourite Deepavali ad by late Yasmin Ahmad:

When Pancakes should be Flipped and not Turned...

2009-10-11T11:31:00.009+08:00

My lil' heroes were craving for pancakes as breakfast this morning. My lil' heroes always enjoy them drizzled with some maple syrup. They will definitely be yummier if they are topped with some sliced bananas or strawberries.

As I was making the pancakes, WJ went into the kitchen observing how they are done.

Then, he made a comment: Mommy...that's a wrong way of making a pancake.

I asked him why and his answer was: You see, you just turned the pancake to the other side. That's wrong. You have to flip it into the air and catch it with your pan!

Yeah, I guess he got that idea from watching Mama Pingu making pancakes.

DUH...I told WJ that I'm not able to flip and catch the pancake because I'm not a chef nor am I Mama Pingu. He seemed to be happy with that answer for now.

Geez...I wonder what will his next comments be when he observes me cooking in the kitchen later...

Salam Aidil Fitri 2009

2009-09-20T10:11:00.002+08:00

Wishing all my Muslims friends

"Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri.

Maaf zahir & batin".

My Lil' Heroes and Bakugan Craze

2009-09-19T16:26:00.009+08:00

Oh, no!!! DH has decided to be on my lil' heroes side and he seemed to approve Bakugan.

If you can remember, I wrote a post about Bakugan about a month ago. From one miserable Bakugan, it somehow grew into a collection of them (yeah..thanks to DH). Up till today, my lil' heroes have collected about a dozen of them. Their topic of conversation now revolves around nothing else but BAKUGAN! Oh...I almost forgot, they have been getting their doses of Bakugan series via Youtube since yesterday.

I still have THAT "thing" AGAINST Bakugan, but somehow I'm slowly losing my guard against Dragonoid, Gorem, Skyress, Stinglash and the whole gang of them...HELP!!!

(Gorem...you look very mean here.)

09.09.09

2009-09-09T17:58:00.002+08:00

Today is indeed a special day: 9th September 2009 --> 09.09.09.

I've found this interesting article in LiveScience.com and I've decided to add it here in my blog so that it can be an interesting piece of reading in future for my lil' heroes:

Modern numerologists - who operate outside the realm of real science - believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists.

Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times.

"Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers," wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties. Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2).

Loving 9:
Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number eight during last year's Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eight sounds like wealth).

Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky - second only to four, which sounds like death.

Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven't already eliminated them altogether.

Interesting facts about this special number, uh?

Suds and Bubbles = FUN?

2009-09-08T19:15:00.006+08:00

Suds and bubbles are fun. However, they are certainly not something to laugh at especially when you just came home from work - tired and stressed with loads of stuff.

Imagine this...you are on the phone for barely two minutes. You go into the kitchen and you noticed your 5 y-o had squeezed an inch of a bottle load of dish washing liquid into the kitchen sink and you see nothing there except for lots and lots and lots of suds and bubbles. Splish, splash...he thinks it's FUN!!

I asked him why he did that because I remembered that I did squeeze a lil' amount of hand soap for him before I answered the phone call.

He couldn't give me a good answer, but later defended himself by saying, "I didn't use the hand soap, I only used the dish soap." Duh...now why does he think that it's okay for him to do that?

Seriously, there are times when I simply cannot imagine what goes on in my lil' kids' mind. They are adorable, yet there are times when I simply feel like screaming at what they have done. As for now: ARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

I BECOME TERRIBLY ANNOYED WHEN...

2009-09-05T17:29:00.006+08:00

This is just a random nonsensical post...just to blow off my steam...yeah, I'm cranky at this very moment:

I BECOME TERRIBLY ANNOYED WHEN PEOPLE ASSUME THAT I HAVE A CRYSTAL BALL AND I KNOW ALL (Hello...I'm not God, I'm not even an angel, okay)

I BECOME TERRIBLY ANNOYED WHEN PEOPLE DON'T MEAN WHAT THEY SAY (This is really lame, if you don't mean what you say, then learn to shut up.)

I BECOME TERRIBLY ANNOYED WHEN PEOPLE CANNOT GO STRAIGHT TO THE POINT WHEN THEY TALK (Don't try to beat around the bush. Oh...and I hate snakes.)

I BECOME TERRIBLY ANNOYED WHEN PEOPLE MISUNDERSTAND MY GOOD GESTURE (Take it or leave it. It's not forced upon you.)

Baking Itch!

2009-08-27T19:36:00.006+08:00

I have the itch for baking something yummy tomorrow. I had the chance to savour Macaroni Bechamel two days ago (my friend baked it). It was simply fantastic!! I got the recipe from her and it's definitely on my tomorrow's To-Do list.

At the meantime, feast your eyes on the Macaroni Bechamel that my friend baked:

My Lil' Heroes & Vitamins

2009-08-19T20:28:00.005+08:00

This was the conversation that took place between my two little heroes during dinner:

YJ: I don't like chicken.

WJ: You have to eat chicken. You can get vitamin.

YJ: Oh yes...just like what we saw on tv the other day. Oranges give us Vitamin C.

WJ: We get Vitamin D from the sun. Hmmm, water leh?

YJ: Nothing. No vitamin in water.

WJ: Wrong. I know the answer...it's VITAMIN Z!

Gosh...it's amazing and hillarious hearing their conversation at times. I noticed how much their general knowledge has expanded. I don't remember my siblings and I talking about the vitamins in food when we were at that young age. :D

Yeah! It's My 100th Post

2009-08-14T21:21:00.006+08:00

Yeah! This is my 100th post. I never really thought that this blog will ever reach its 100th post. On the day I started this blog, I was afraid that this blog would die a tragic death due to my sheer laziness (ooops, there are 4 drafts which I had not completed and published yet for the whole entire month of July) ;)

While we were having dinner about an hour ago, something struck my mind...

I suddenly remembered what I had for dinner five years ago. It was...

McDonald's Chicken Porridge

Now, if you are wondering what is so special about that dinner...stay tuned ;)