sonic

during dinner, gabie asked our helper how to spell sonic ...

gabie: ate, how do you spell sonic?

ate: z-o-n- ...

gabie: no, s!

ate: no, it's z-o ...

gabie: no, s! come on, spell sonic, ate.

ate: ok ... s-o-n-i-c

gabie: ok, thanks!

^_^

chuckie

lately, mikee's been asking for a chuckie chocolate drink ... i would have given it to her, if only it's available here in singapore ... unfortunately, it's not =(

what amuses me is how eager mikee is to have one ... i swear, she's never tried it before ... all i know is that it's advertised in nickelodeon ... so, i guess, she's been seeing too much nickelodeon lately ... and the advertisers are doing a great job in enticing the kids =)

mikee wants it so much that just now she came to me and said, "mama, my tummy really wants a chuckie!"

oh boy, what can i do?

^.^

the b word

one day, miggy and gabie, were playing with their toys ...
suddenly, they started fighting ...
then gabie, came to me and said, "mama, kuya called me the "b" word!!!" ...
of course, i was surprised ...
the only "b" word i can think of is "bitch" ...
and i have no idea where miggy heard it or why he would call gabie a bitch ...
so, i asked him, "kuya, what did you call gabie???" ...
and he replied, "mama, i just called him a baby, coz he's such a baby!" ...

oh ok, so that's the "b" word!

^_^

boys vs girls

mikee's reaction when she found the receipt from our grocery shopping last weekend:

oh wow!
we bought so much!
cool!
and it's so expensive!
wow!!!

gabie's reaction to mikee:

yeah, yeah ...

and that shows us the difference between a man and a woman's reaction towards shopping ... one is excited ... while the other is so uninterested ... and it does start at a very young age ... lol

^_^

correction, please!

hubby and i were watching a korean show when gabie came to us looking for something ...

gabie: papa, where's the "merote"?

hubby: the what?

gabie: the "merote"!!!

realizing what he was looking for, we laughed ...

mikee: no, gab-gab! it's a "wee-mote"!


^.^

baninit

baninit: noun; pronunciation: \ba-ni-nit\; a protective attachable dressing for cuts & scrapes; synonym: band-aid

example:

mikee: mama, my boo-boo hurts! can you put a baninit for me?

ooops! he did it again ...

this happened last year ...



and this happened yesterday ...

well, what can i say ... i'm speechless ...


T_T

c-a-t, cat!

in school, mikee's starting to learn how to read and spell some common 3-letter words ... yesterday, we were practicing her spelling skills ... we did the basic "c-a-t, cat!" and "d-o-g, dog!" ... and then, we moved to a simple 4-letter word ...

me: "what about 'mama'?"

mikee: "n-i-n-a, mama!"

aaawwww, sweet!!!

then she said, "mama, i know how to spell 'market'"

ok, now that's a 6-letter word which i don't really expect her to know but i still played along with her ...

me: "ok, spell market ... "

mikee: "a-m-k, market!"

lol ... see, amk stands for ang mo kio hub where the supermarket is :D she'd always read out the amk sign outside the mall whenever we do our shopping there ...


^.^

here in my heart

miggy's sick for 3 days now ... he didn't eat anything yesterday so i had to skip work today to make sure he rehydrate and recover ...

in the afternoon, the kids and i were in bed and we were just chatting ... i asked them if they know where jesus lives ... gabie said he's "far away" ... miggy said, in a very hoarse voice =( "no, he's in our hearts" ... impressive ... i said, "yes, kuya is right. jesus lives in our hearts" ...

then, mikee chimed in, "oh yes, he's behind our boots (boobs)!"

^.^

the missing alphabet

yesterday, while i was resting in my room, miggy came to me with a very serious and worried look ...

miggy: mama, there's a letter missing in the alphabet song!

me: what??? what missing letter? (i thought he was coming up with another corny joke)

miggy: it's Y.

i'm getting really confused here coz i thought i'm absolutely not getting this joke ...

me: "why"? (as in i thought he said why!)

did i say he was really worried during this conversation?

miggy: listen ... (he started singing the alphabet song) ... a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Y ... (confused and embarrassed) ... oh, it's there!

then he ran out of my room and left me there more confused than ever and thinking "what was that all about???" ...


^_^

GJUGTHJG UJHGJYTYHGYHHGU8 5Y5R5THRTHERTHI7FV42

GJUGTHJG UJHGJYTYHGYHHGU8 5Y5R5THRTHERTHI7FV42

i have no idea what that means but that is pinkay kee's (mikee's pet in pet society) status right now ...

^_^

table manners 101

earlier, at the dinner table, gabie was eating using only his right hand ... he's not using the fork, as usual ...

since he is making a lot of mess, i reminded him, "gabie, use your 2 hands when eating."

and he did ... he used his two hands to hold the spoon!

i was hoping he'd use his left hand for the fork ... lol ...

lesson learned: when dealing with kids, be specific ... be very specific ...

^_^

e-learning

mikee was holding a ministry of health booklet for kids ... the booklet is covered with a cartoon of a group of people ...

mikee said, "wow, many people here!" ...

then she started counting ... "one, two, three ... nine, ten, e-leven, e-twelve, e-thirteen, e-fourteen, e-fifteen, e-sixteen, ... "

and that's what i call e-learning ... lol ...


^_^

pet society

i was playing with yoville in facebook earlier when mikee came to me and told me she also wants to play with the bunny ... it didn't take much for me to understand what she meant ... i knew right away that she meant pet society ... miggy's been playing with it a lot this past weekend ...

and since i don't have a pet society account, i asked miggy to lend mikee his pet for a while until i've created my own account that mikee can play with ... (and yes, miggy has his own facebook account, now stop raising that eyebrow) ... since mikee already started crying, miggy (unwillingly) opened pet society for her and left her playing with it for a while ...

and then ... the next thing we know, miggy's blue pet is already a pink "bunny" hahaha


^_^

a fringe

this afternoon, i gave mikee another haircut ... i don't know what's wrong with her hair but she always have split-ends in her crown area ... i just gave her a haircut last week for exactly the same reason ... and when i checked yesterday, the split-ends are back again!

so, i gave her another haircut today ... since the split-ends are in her crown, i gave her a fringe ... and she didn't like it hahaha ... from the time i finished cutting her hair, she just kept repeating that she doesn't like her hair ... she thinks it makes her look like a boy ... (i think it makes her look more like a little chinese girl) ...

i guess it's because she's not used to having a fringe ... from the time she was born, this is only the second time that i gave her fringes ... the first time was when she was only one and she's too young to care ... and now ... well, i thought she's still too young to care what i do with her hair ... well, apparently, i'm wrong heehee ...

before ...



after ...



~.~

jerry cho

last friday, i had a good bargain when i bought 3 books for the kids for only $10. i got miggy a special 50th year edition of the guinness book of world records, i got gabie a pokemon template book, and mikee a classic children's bible. and it was a really good bargain coz the kids simply love the books.

yesterday, miggy was reading the children's bible when suddenly, he asked me ... "mama, who is jerry cho?"

okay, now, i came from a catholic school where religion is a major major subject. and in the 12 years that i stayed there studying all the bible stories i'm quite sure i never heard of a chinese name from the bible.

and since we live in singapore and the book is a second hand book, the first thing that came to mind is that somebody might have written his name in the book. just as i was to tell miggy that jerry cho might be the previous owner of the book, he showed me where he read it ...

then i found out that he was actually asking about jericho ... you know, that great-walled city ... lol ...

~.~

a rainbow

a digital art by mikee created using ms paint ...



i was cutting gabie's hair when mikee called me and said, "look, mama, i made a rainbow!" ...

reminds me of a song from grade school that goes something like this ...

a rainbow makes a promise
that life is here to stay ...
promise means there's more to life
than what we do today ...

i love it!

p.s.
as i was finishing this post, i had a strong feeling of deja vu ... i clearly remember dreaming about this post about a week ago ... i know i dreamt of posting about mikee's work of art and associating it with a rainbow and singing that rainbow song ...


^_^

happy mother's day

yesterday, the kids and i woke up really late ... when they woke up, of course, i was waiting for everyone to greet me a happy mother's day ... they knew it was mother's day coz gabie gave me the card he made in school last friday ...

when i didn't get the greeting i was expecting, i asked the kids if there's something that they would like to tell me on that day ... mikee just looked at me ... gabie just smiled ... and miggy seemed like he was thinking real hard of what to say ...

i followed with a "so?"

and he answered "can we go eat at subway today?"

lol i can always count on miggy to drop the punchline ...

anyway, to all the mommies there, a belated happy mother's day!


~.~

boy-ly?

miggy once asked me ...

"mama, if there's a 'girly', then why is there no 'boy-ly'?"

hmmm good point there ...

earth hour 2009 - we voted!

we started about 30 minutes late but just the same, we voted! and not just lights, we turned off all the electricity at home for an hour. as i said, we didn't start at 8:30, but we made sure it lasted for an hour.

so how do you make 3 kids (aged 8, 5, and 3) vote for mother earth?

after turning off the lights, i brought the kids into the bedroom and i started telling them about earth hour. i began by telling them the age of mother earth (which i found out now is wrong hahaha that's what happens when you don't do your homework). anyway, i tried to make them understand the age by making them count the number of zeros in it. then, i began explaining to them that mother earth is already too old and that she is already showing some signs of aging.

i also told them about mother earth's shield (ozone). since the boys love ultraman and super mario smash brawl, they understand very well the purpose of a shield. they know that though a shield can protect, it can still be broken if it gets too much blows. so, i told them that the shield protects us from the sun's heat and told them what happens if the shield gets "broken". i asked them how they feel during a very sunny day, and told them that it will be much much worst once the shield is broken. i told the kids why we are voting by turning off the electricity. i told them that mother earth is already very old and people are not making things easier for her. the burning of too much energy is a hard blow to the shield.

from the shield, we moved on to the melting glaciers. we talked of what the kids knew about the north pole, everything from the ice, to the cold, and santa claus! (though the melting glaciers may not be limited to the north pole, it's easier to explain the northpole to the kids because of santa). then, i told them that when the ice melts, it becomes water. lots and lots of water. to make them understand the impact of the melting ice, i made a circle with my two hands. first, i showed them how a regular circle looks, and pointed where the north pole would be. then i tilted my circle to the side. then explained to them where the water from the melted ice would go. with this, we talked about the story of noah and the ark which the kids have already learned from preschool. i told them that noah's flood can and will happen again if we are not careful and too bad 'coz noah is already dead. guess what gabie said we should do? call bob the builder! oh yes, we can hahaha

then, i explained to them that since all the water goes to one side, the other part of the earth runs out of water and dries up. that's where the soil dries up, then the trees dies, and then people run out of food to eat, and then, die of starvation.

after talking about everything that's happening to mother earth, i asked them what they think we should do in our own little way to help save her. and here's the list of what the kids came up with:

1. reduce aircon usage. instead of using the aircon every night, we'll try to use it only every other day for 1 month. it's a big sacrifice to the kids because they are so used to sleeping with the aircon on.

2. save water by turning off the tap when brushing their teeth.

3. don't play with water when taking a bath.

4. save paper! to me and hubby's delight, this is a suggestion from gabie. see, gabie loves papers too much. he likes to draw and write and cut. if uncontrolled, he can really waste a lot of paper. we've already hidden our paper supply in a place that he cannot reach and gives him only one paper a day.

5. instead of paper use a whiteboard or blackboard.

i think it was a fun, entertaining, and educational earth hour for us. for more details about earth hour 2009, visit http://www.earthhour.org/home/.

mother earth, you got five votes from my family in singapore!


^_^

a day at the zoo

it was the school holidays last week, so as a treat to the kids, hubby and i took them to the zoo.

a few days before our trip, the kids were so excited, as always.

miggy wanted to visit the new kids station where they can play in the amazing wading pool. and eat kfc hahaha need i say more?

mikee kept saying that she wants to see the monkeys. she doesn't care about all the other animals. only the monkeys. when i asked her why, she said all the other animals will eat her. not bite. eat.

gabie is the most interesting one. when i asked him which animal he wants to see in the zoo, he said the tiger. then, he said, "mama, i want to touch the tiger!" ok, he's definitely not doing that!

on the day of our trip to the zoo, it started out as a very sunny day. it was too hot! lucky i brought an evian water spray to at least relieve us from the heat. but since it was too hot, we had to spray, i think, every 10 minutes ^_^

so, after watching an animal show and the polar bear feeding, we headed to the kids station and had lunch at kfc. all this time, the kids just can't wait to get over with lunch so they can go to the wading pool.

then, by the time we finished eating, it started to rain. and it never stopped. until we just decided to go home T_T poor kids, i guess i'll just have to bring them back next month.

we just arrived at the zoo ...


see mikee with her binoculars? she was so arte all the time, using it whenever we point at an animal ...


notice most of the pictures here are dark? well, we spent most of the time in the boat dock, waiting for the rain to stop ...


and here's mikee singing while we were waiting for the rain to stop in the boat dock ...


notice her song lyrics is mostly "we cannot go ... we cannot go" hahaha


oh! the kids did get to spend some time in the wading pool. that's when the rain let up a bit. a whopping ten minutes in the pool :)

and yes, gabie changed his mind as soon as we arrived at the tigers' den ...


^_^

parent-teacher-meeting

yesterday, i went for a parent-teacher-meeting in miggy's school to know how he's been doing so far in primary 2. generally, the feedback is quite good. academically, he's doing well. i even learned from his form teacher (philippine counterpart: class adviser) that he had the best marks in class for his english exams. i'd say, wow! considering that around this time last year, i learned that he had to go to a learning support program because his reading skills were way below average. and now, he's got the best marks ^_^

his marks in maths is also okay. he got 40 out of 50 in the exams. and his mistakes were mostly due to him rushing to finish the test (again) and not because he doesn't know how to do the mental sums.

now, for his mandarin class ... well ... as expected, he did poorly again. but still, i'd have to say that he is definitely doing much better this year than last year. this year, according to the teacher, at least he's already able to understand her when she speaks in mandarin. and he's even able to answer in mandarin as well. so, there's still a whole lot of room for improvement, but he's definitely crawling his way into that room.

the only negative feedback i got (yes, aside from mandarin) was again on his behavior. he still doesn't pay much attention in class. and in his classic miggy way, he'd often ask questions that are always way way out of topic. hayyy, i can just imagine the desperation of his teacher when he does that. you see, miggy never run out of questions. he's always curious about everything. and everything that he doesn't know or understand, he'd definitely voice it out. another hayyyy. anyway, at least, i know he's already improved compared to how he was when he first joined kindergarten. hahaha i remember the feedback that i get from the teachers then. they just didn't know how to calm him down. he was always hyper-active. at least, now, not too much hehe

on our way back home, we were talking about some stuff about his school, his teachers feedback, his friends. we even talked about one of his friends who, according to him, got only 2 points (out of 50) in their maths exams. i told him that maybe they just have to help her because she might be having some learning difficulties. maybe she needs a lot of help. i wanted to teach him that the girl may be having low marks not because she is "slow" but maybe because she's just not getting all the help that she needs at home.

miggy: when i grow up, mama, i will teach my kids just like you!
me: ok. that's good.
miggy: yes. but i'm going to take them back to the philippines. so they wouldn't have to study mandarin!

alright ... i guess that's some sort of a hint ... don't you think?


^_^

a new daddy

i'm always gaga about korean dramas :) earlier, i was watching one k-drama (boys over flowers) with mikee.

i was telling her that one of the boys, kim hyun-joong, is just so pogi!!! (so handsome) when she asked me, "mama, you want a new daddy???"

hahahaha

anyway, i think kim hyun-joong looks like a younger bae yong joon :)


^_^

LITRATONG PINOY: bag

when mikee started in pre-school, i bought her this really cute hello kitty bag. she liked it so much coz she's at a stage where she's starting to appreciate everything pink and hello kitty.

after a month in pre-school, her teacher talked to me and told me to replace mikee's bag. i was like, what the?!?!?! of course, i didn't say that out loud to the teacher, but i surely asked her, "what's wrong with her bag?"

well, the teacher told me that mikee is going to school, so she should be using a more appropriate school bag like a backpack (ok, fine). and that her bag is inappropriate because she's not going shopping or something (what the!!! 3-year-old mikee's bag ... for shopping?)

****

noong mag-umpisa si mikee sa pre-school, binilhan ko siya ng cute na hello kitty bag. gustong-gusto niya ito dahil nasa stage siya na nag-uumpisang ma-appreciate nya ang kahit anong kulay pink o hello kitty na bagay.

matapos ang isang buwan sa pre-school, kinausap ako ng teacher niya at sabi ay palitan ko daw ang bag nya. nagulat talaga ako. ang bag ni mikee? palitan ko daw? bakit???

ang sabi ng teacher, dahil sa school naman ang punta ni mikee, dapat lang na pang-eskwelahan ang bag niya gaya ng mga backpack. hindi daw kasi pang-school ang bag nya, pang- shopping daw hahahaha

^_^

what is a puffle?

last week, miggy asked me to sign his school work. it was an english composition that he wrote. the title was my pet migz, the puffle.

i would say that miggy is definitely improving with his writing. i think for an eight-year-old, he's doing really good in writing. even his teacher agrees that with just a little more effort, his writing would be perfect. you can read about his composition in his own blog.

and his imagination. well, it simply amazes me. he's a good storyteller. i mean, what is a puffle, anyway??? but there he was describing it in full details, including the food it eats and where he found it.

anyway, i hope he keeps up the good work if he really wants to be a comics writer in the future. according to him, he will be the stan lee of the future :D

^_^

little linguist

mikee's been having some chinese lessons in her nursery class. i can tell that she's really interested in the language. at home, she would often recite the phrases that she learned in school. sometimes, she would even attempt to teach me some of the phrases and would even correct me when my pronunciations are wrong. oh and do i have to mention that i have absolutely no idea whether the phrases that she recites are correct? hahaha how would i know anyway?

one morning, mikee woke up early so i had breakfast with her before i went to work. and as always, she is doing her monologue. i'm so used to her monologues that i have to admit that sometimes, i no longer pay attention to what she's saying. she would tell or ask me some things and i would just absent-mindedly answer her.

so, when she said, "anone hato?", i answered with an "uh huh."

i guess she wasn't satisfied with my reply because again she said, "anone hato?". this time louder. and she was indeed successful cause she definitely got me saying "what?!?!?!"

i thought that she can't be speaking chinese because it certainly didn't sound chinese. and i kept thinking about miggy who's been trying to learn some japanese phrases via his favorite japanese show. the way mikee said the phrase, it really sounded like japanese. and i thought maybe she's been catching some of the things that miggy's been learning.

then, i looked at our food ... lightbulb moment!

we were having hotdogs for breakfast. so, hato must be hotdog! hahaha all along she's been speaking english and there i was racking my brains for japanese and chinese phrases :D

okay, now, don't ask me what is anone. because up to now, i still haven't figured out that part :D


^_^

SILLY MONKEY STORIES: a scary story

this isn't really silly. but it's about a silly monkey ...

last night, i was cleaning up miggy's computer when i found a document entitled scary story book one. i was intrigued by the title. i wondered what's it all about so i opened it.

after reading it, i had a faint idea of who could have written it. but i had my doubts. and i have reasons for it.

see, miggy likes to write short stories. as in short stories. mostly 2-3 liners. most of the things he has written were about his favorite action heroes, cartoon characters, or video game characters. he'd always save his stories as word documents. i don't think you can imagine how many small word documents he has in his computer.

so, when i first saw the file and before reading it, i knew right away that it's his. but after reading it, that's when i started doubting it.

the story do look like it could have been done by miggy. one, it's quite short. two, it's saved in a word document. three, there are some grammatical and spelling errors.

but the story itself? it's very different from what he's written so far. i thought it was too creepy for a 8-year-old to write. as if it was copied from a book or something. but when i asked him, he said that he did write it. last year. when he was only 7 years old.

anyway, i think i have a good storyteller in the making. and here's his short story. do let me know what you think!

It was a dusty night. The wind blew the dust right into my window.
But something was wrong white stuff was stuffed together and many were flying through the air. I could fill my self-shaking through the air but I was not at home.
I was at a blank world but my mother was still there but staring at me.
She did not say any –thing. I was sc-scared. Was this a nightmare?

But it was not a nightmare. And then my mother vanishes shed.
I was alone. Nothing happened. Then the lights turned off.
I thought I was alone but ghost were with me.

you know why it's so creepy? i think he has just described exactly how it feels when you are having a nightmare. not just a bad dream, but a real nightmare.


*_*

happy birthday, gabie!

today is my baby gabie's birthday. to make this day special for him, i took some time off from work and made some cupcakes for him to share in school.

i had to finish the cupcakes this morning so by the time gabie's school started, i've just finished all the cuppies. and i literally have to rush off the door to get the cuppies in time for his recess. and because of all the rush, i forgot to take a picture of the cuppies :-( that's my first mistake of the day.

after passing the cupcakes to gabie's teacher, i decided to stay around the school and wait for gabie and mikee. the kids always like it whenever i come and fetch them from school because they know too well that it rarely happens.

while waiting, i had a chat with a granny (or auntie, as they are called here in singapore) who was also waiting for the class to finish. she never seemed to ran out of things to talk about. since i was raised to be courteous and didn't want to offend her by being curt, i had to talk to her for about two hours! the only break i had was when i bought a canned milo from the vending machine. that's when i did my second mistake.

when the school finished, just when mikee was about to come out, the aunty asked me to write down my handphone number. that's my third mistake. it was quite chaotic that time with all the kids coming out of the school. i was also looking out for gabie to make sure that the school bus would not take him.

so, what are my second and third mistake?

my second mistake is that after getting coins from my wallet, i didn't put the wallet back into my bag. i decided to just carry it on my hand.

third mistake. i should have just given the aunty a name card! what was i thinking writing down my number? darn! if i'd just tried to get a name card from my wallet, i would have realized earlier that my wallet was missing!!!

i only realized that my wallet was missing when we were already in the bus stop waiting for our bus. and by the time i went back to the school, it was already empty.

and that's how i lost my wallet. i'm not concerned about money because all i had in there was a ten dollar and 2 two dollar bills. i'm more worried about my id's and cards in the wallet. both mine and my husbands nric card (identification card) are there. do i have to mention credit cards and atm cards? anyway, hubby has already cancelled the credit card as soon as i told him i lost my wallet. i don't have money on my atm account, coz i don't keep money there, so that's fine. but the nric cards! aargh! because of this i'd have to take off from work again tomorrow to try and ask around gabie's school if anyone has seen my wallet. and if i don't get it back, i'd have to file a police report for the nric cards.

*_*

chocolate

yesterday morning, when miggy woke up, he had a fever. i'm not sure what happened to him. i don't think it could be viral 'coz if it was, then he would have passed it to one of us by now. and no one else was sick at home. and he never went out the house during the weekend.

anyway, he was sick in bed all day. i spent most of last night awake to monitor his condition. luckily, it's a public holiday yesterday and today so i could take care of him.

when he woke up this morning, he's still sick. he was nauseous and had to vomit a few times. it wasn't easy because he hadn't eaten anything yet so his stomach was empty.

i asked him what he wanted to eat for breakfast. but he didn't want anything because of the nausea. and he just want to go back to sleep.

so, i left him for a while and went to get a chocolate sandwich (a.k.a nutella-filled sandwich) for myself. when miggy saw me with the sandwich, i guess, he was tempted and asked for my sandwich. after finishing the sandwich, he asked for another one.

and lo! after his second sandwich, he suddenly got better. the fever was gone. the nausea was gone. he even left the bed to play with mikee and gabie. and he never got sick again throughout the day.

that's why now, i am wondering ... chocolates???


*_*

SILLY MONKEY STORIES: difference between girls and boys

yesterday morning, gabie was playing with two ultraman action figures. i heard him doing the following monologue in his best ultraman tiga and ultraman dyna voice ...

ultraman tiga: tiga! i'll beat you!
ultraman dyna: you can't beat me!
tsug! tsag! tsug! (punching sounds here)

later in the afternoon, i saw mikee playing with the same two action figures. and here's her own monologue ...

ultraman tiga: let's be friends.
ultraman dyna: you're my best friend.
(then she put their hands together and made them walk while holding hands)
see mama? ultraman tiga and dyna are best friends forever!

and that, my dear, is the difference between girls and boys ...



^_^

LITRATONG PINOY: kahel (orange)

last friday, mikee and gabie's school celebrated chinese new year. they had to go to school wearing chinese costumes. and when they got back from school, they each have two oranges.

it's customary for the chinese to give away 2 oranges during their new year festivities. i'm not exactly sure what it really means. but i remember a friend saying that it's lucky because the shape of the two oranges makes an 8 which is a lucky number for the chinese. and that should you receive a pair of oranges for good luck, you should never ever eat any one of them. because if you eat one, the "8" becames a "0". yeah yeah i know, it's corny. not mine though. i just borrowed hahaha

***

nung nakaraang biyernes, nag-celebrate ng chinese new year sa school ni miggy at gabie. lahat sila ay pumasok na nakasuot ng damit na pang-chinese. at nang umuwi sila galing school, meron silang tig-dalawang piraso ng orange.

nakaugalian na ng mga chinese na mamigay ng 2 orange tuwing new year nila. indi ko sigurado kung ano talaga ang ibig sabihin nito. pero naaalala ko na me isang kaibigan ang nagsabi na magdadala daw ito ng swerte dahil ang korte ng dalawang orange ay "8", at ito ay isang suwerteng numero para sa mga chinese. at hindi raw dapat kinakain ang kahit isa sa mga ito dahil pag kinain mo na ang isa ang "8" ay magiging "0". ang corny no? hehe ok lng. indi akin na idea to hehe kinopya ko lang.

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SILLY MONKEY STORIES: girls!

over the weekend, gabie was telling me what he wanted for his birthday (next week). all the while miggy was busy with something else. but at the mention of the word birthday, he suddenly perked up and asked me about his birthday.

having had too much of miggy's birthday last week, gabie exclaimed, "kuya, you're birthday is soooooo over!"

and to this miggy replied, "gabie, stop talking like a girl!"

oh well, boys are boys ... they'd take every opportunity to tease each other about being girlish ...


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studying mandarin

one of the reasons we prefer singapore to be our home away from home is the quality of education here. i always say that in singapore, my kids can have world class education for just a few dollars every month. and to us, that means a lot.

however, one of the challenges that the kids face in studying here is mandarin. kids here are required to study a mother tongue language. and the only languages offered are mandarin, tamil, and malay. since neither of the three options are our mother tongue, hubby and i selected mandarin for our kids.

it's really very challenging not only to my kids, but to me as well, because none of us speak, write, read, and understand a word of chinese. so, to survive this subject, i need to get a chinese tutor for miggy. last year, i spent about an average of US$130 a month just for the chinese tutor. and that's really a lot considering i spend only a few dollars every month for his school tuition fees.

actually, we do have an option to bail out of this subject. i can apply for an exemption from the mother tongue subject. but, i believe that it would be beneficial in the future for my kids to study mandarin.

for this year, i have decided not to get a chinese tutor for miggy. both to save on the monthly expenses and to make miggy more responsible in studying chinese. last year, miggy was too dependent on the chinese tutor that, i found out, he would excuse himself from his chinese homeworks on days when the tutor is not coming to our house!



anyway, i am more confident this year because i already know which resources he can use to aide him in studying chinese. aside from the available activity/revision books in a popular bookstore here, i've also invested in a stylus and tablet for the computer. with this, i can easily write the characters from miggy's homework and books to capture it in ms word. then, easily translate it to english. last year, without this tablet, i will have to go through each page of miggy's books to find the hanyu pinyin (alphabet) equivalent of the chinese characters from his assignments, then translate the hanyu pinyin to english. i swear, you wouldn't want to try this hahaha i used to spend 3-4 hours a day just to translate a 1-page homework!


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jonas brothers band - burning up

lately, i noticed the kids are so fond of this new music video in nickelodeon that they would all sing and dance once it's on tv. i found out that the song is by the jonas brothers band titled burning up. i've also read in somebody else's blog that this bond is the "in" song for kids and tweens. hmmm.

so, i searched for a video in youtube and made a video of mikee singing and dancing to it. of course, with gabie on the side as the guitarist.





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spongebob squarepants

last night, my kids were all in the living room and each of them were drawing with their crayons. i saw gabie drawing this ...



being the supportive mom, i exclaimed, "wow, gabie! that's a really good drawing of spongebob and ultraman!"

now the moment i blurted this out, i knew right away that i said something wrong because everyone just stared at me, open-mouthed. and i can hear my hubby stiffling his laughter. but i had no idea what was wrong.

then, gabie said, "mama, that's not ultraman! that's patrick!"

oh, yeah, right! patrick. spongebob's best friend. patrick. what in the world was i thinking anyway? why would spongebob be with ultraman in the first place?


*_*

LITRATONG PINOY: asul (blue)

it was miggy's birthday last monday. he requested for a super mario cake and here's the one that i made for him :)

so, why blue?

notice anything about mario?

if you're a mario fan, you would have noticed it by now.

see mario's jumper? i made a mistake with this one! the jumper's color is wrong hahaha instead of red, it was supposed to be blue. and his shirt should have been the red one.

*****

birthday ni miggy nung lunes. at humiling sya ng super mario na cake kaya eto ang ginawa ko para sa kanya ...

bakit kamo asul?

wala ka bang napapansin kay mario?

kung fan ka talaga ni mario, malamang napansin mo na agad.

kita mo yung jumper ni mario? nagkamali ako dito. mali ang kulay ng jumper nya hahaha dapat, asul ang kulay ng jumper ni mario. ang shirt nya dapat ang pula.


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twilight

my kind of twilight ...


miggy's kind of twilight ...


hahaha and for a minute there i thought we were on the same page (no pun intended)

when miggy first saw my twilight book, he was very interested. of course, i was a bit surprised. i didn't think the twilight mania would have already reached kids his age, aside from the fact that he's a boy. i wouldn't be too surprised if he's a girl. you know, i do understand edward cullen's magnet to girls (yeah, yeah, i admit, i'm an edward fan teehee). but, boys?

miggy even asked me if he can read my book once i'm done with it ... hmmm interesting, right? i was like, "are you sure???"

but when he saw me watching the twilight movie, then it dawned on him hahaha not only did he lose interest in the book, by the time he saw me watching the movie for the third time, here's what he has to say ...

i can't believe you like "that" twilight ...

what's so good about it?

i don't get it. it's too boring.

and can you believe, he's even urging me to switch to his twilight? hahaha fat chance!


~.~

iCarly

this is my desktop wallpaper at the moment ... wonder why?

let's just say that my dear miggy has finally began noticing girls hahaha and, oh boy, does he have good taste?

my hubby is the one who first noticed it during his (long) vacation last month while the kids where also having their summer vacation. after staying at home for about a week, i noticed that my hubby kept singing a song that i thought i've heard either from nickelodeon or disney channel. when i asked him about it, he told me that he just can't help it if he keeps hearing that song for more than 5 times a day. and he also complained that he's already getting too much of iCarly because miggy was always watching the show.

and that's when the teasing began hahaha

once i asked miggy if he thinks iCarly (that's what we call her, anyway) is pretty. his answer? of course it's a yes!

and to test how pretty he thinks she is, i once asked him who is prettier, mikee or iCarly. well, he can't answer me at all hahaha in the past, at least before iCarly, he'd quickly say that mikee is the prettiest girl in the world :) sweet, eh?


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SILLY MONKEY STORY: first day of school 2009

the new school year officially began last friday here in singapore. so, miggy went back to school and as always, didn't have any issues with his first day in school. if he did, maybe it lasted only 5 minutes. that's how comfy he is about going to school. even way back in nursery when he first started schooling. he needed only one day to adjust then. the following days, he was on his own.

and that was the complete opposite of gabie and mikee's first day in school.

last year, when gabie started in nursery, he cried as expected. no. he didn't simply cry. no. actually, he made a scene. a very big scene. it took him about 4 days to adjust to school. but at least on the 4th day, he rode the school bus and went to school by himself.

this year, it was mikee's turn. and oh, am i glad this is the last hahaha

gabie and mikee's kindergarten began only yesterday. if gabie made a scene last year, mikee has her own drama this year. she wouldn't let me leave her in school. but the teachers requested all of us parents to leave the kids to them and they'll handle them. all 15 of them. crying. kids. all at the same time.

if you ask me, i don't think that is the most effective way to help the kids adjust to kindergarten. i mean, they weren't really given the time to adjust. i think it would have been better if the parents were allowed to stay with the kids for at least one day. at least for one day, the kids wouldn't have to worry about their mommies or daddies leaving them in school. instead, they can focus on their new surrounding and get used to their teachers and new friends. oh well, that's the school policy. not mine.

(see that worried look on her face?)

before i left mikee yesterday, i told her that if she is feeling sad, just sing to herself. sing her favorite song, tomorrow. so, from outside the school, i heard her lamenting to her teacher ...

where's my mama?

but ... but ... i miss my mama ...

the sun will come out, tomorrow! (this she sings while crying!)

i want to go home ...

i miss my boys ... (i really find this sweet!)

and of course, it was the same today ... and tomorrow. will. be. another. day.

so, how was your kids' first day in school?



^_^