This journey....

Ok this is my third attempt to get my post done.Somehow or the other; technology is so wonderfully annoying.Go figure. Its a hate love relationship. You can't live without it.

So my poor neglected blog. I don't really have time. When I do, I surf the net to look for teaching materials for the little girl. Or I am on a research deal. Never free. Currently burning a bunch of Cds for a mother while I am typing this post. Oh yeah, multi tasking is fun. Gets things done quickly.. I think. When I am in my office -- and the little girl is asleep, its video editing the education or producing one for Sarah. Or guess what;  I am making some teaching materials for the girl. I am never free. I keep myself very occupied all the time. In fact I have a bunch of projects to do, I have not complete it yet. Yicks.

It doesn't help the fact that I have been sick for the last couple of months --- no not pregnant just really really sick. Paul sick, then Sarah and then me.We keep passing it back and forth. April is almost over, and now we are all OK.

Enough of me.
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Sarah

March & April... well , Sarah was sick off and on. We were nervous as her fever went up to 103 F during the night. Good thing we manage to suppress it. Its just one of those months, sickness keep reoccurring. This little girl is able to count to 20 now. She knows how to count by "tens" yup, 10, 20, 30, etc... then 100.We bought her an Ikea abacus. Waiting to buy her a drawing easel. Which we think, she would absolutely love. Just as her love for math - abacus.

We have sort of started the program with her -- its called " word of the day"
So far she has learn the word "protect" " safe" " good habits"...Yeah she is learning fast.
She has no problem telling us " patience" , " remember", " Come on", Let's go, or even mommy please

Able to say 4 to 5 word syllabus

Once in awhile she will throw in some foreign language, both Paul & I have no idea.... She does sings in French, German, Japanese, Korean.. etc.Seriously, she sings it.

Hand dexterity -- since we have been training her to use both hands ; her morning routine includes banging on the piano every morning; which she thoroughly enjoys, but to the dismay of her aunt's deprived sleep.
She is using both hands to draw ( Activating both sides of the brain neurons by doing this)


Her love to learn.. has no even wane at all. Which is how we love to keep it that way.

Books
Chapter Books: We just started reading to her .. Charlotte's Web -- chapter 4. One chapter per day.
Picture Books : We vet every single book before we read or let her look at it. Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth is by far our " longest" picture book.
                     She absolutely love it. Because of the illustration.

She can flip the books for at least 30 to 45 mins. Keeps us happy. But of course after that we have to read it to her.. yes for another 30 mins.

Audiobooks
Almost finish The Return of the King by JRR Tolkein... yeah the girl know who Frodo is.. or Sam.
We are indulging ourselves with " Animal Tales by Jim Weiss"... how I forgotten some of those stories and some stories I have never heard before. Very well done.


Our biggest fear -- she being bored. Yes, she does get bored very easily.. now this is when the mischief begins...

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Reading

Warth of the Mad God by Raymond E Feist ( Finish reading -- very good; its a 3 part series)

The Quest by Wilbur Smith ( Continuation from River God, The Warlock in a span of 15-20 years)

Troy -Fall of Kings by David Gemmell
(This author is dead!!!! This is his last book he has written, sad thing, this book is not the end of it.I love this author)

We have another bunch of books.. but I don't remember the titles.. or the author names.
Just read about 20 books last week.. including Sarah's education training books.

Conversations with Sarah

Sarah's progress is tremendously improved. She is now 21 months old. Things that she said just crack me up.
Definitely caught us off guard.

Mommy : "Wash your hands, Sarah"

Sarah : "wash hands"

Sarah : " Wash it clean"

Sarah : " Good habit!" " Wash hands" " rub hands g'ther"

Mommy : "What else is a good habit?"

Sarah : "Brush teeth", " Wash face" "clean up!"

Smart little girl huh?

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What we are working on?

We just finish reading 4 books on  " I wonder why " Series -- she was absolutely fascinated with the general knowledge. Just printed out another bunch of books, so she wouldn't be bored.

Pretend play.. finally mommy & daddy got around to buy some more pretend play toys. She absolutely had fun with the tea set.

Writing & Drawing ... she love it. Of course, mommy had to be with her, so she wouldn't chew the crayons off.

Scissors,chopstick & clothes peg ..finger play/training

Physical ... biking & tumble play.

However, all these activities are done under 1 hr - 2 hrs. So pretty much Sarah is bored the rest of the day. So more pretend play for her, and she always love being the explorer -mischief.

Words that she can say without any difficulty -- hippopotamus , bellybutton or any 4 to 5 syllabus words.

Well, the new house is almost ready. We are definitely excited to move in ASAP...
Here is why we are dragging our feet on getting quotes to get the house renovations done....

Reason/s: -

1. Calling & seeing contractors
   this is no fun at all. I mean really, you show them the house, how you want do to it, what you need, what they suggested.
   Plus the only time available to them it seems, when it is on a HOT DAY!!!
  

2. Ok... moving & packing!!!
   Ann has move about 20 times throughout her whole life. Paul move probably about 5 times in his life.
   Now when you start packing are discovering things like ..." hey I lost that, now I found it..hmmm now I don't need now. How come when I  
   needed it, it wasn't around? Yeah... the troll is around!!!" -- or more like Paul said " The American " sock troll" move with us" or " yeah, the
   cousin to the American Sock troll move into the house"


3. Unpacking!!!
    yucks...messy. Backbreaking ...


4. Money..
    yes there is always a budget. Got  to go figure it out soon.

Interior Designers? Yes we have friends who does it...but not planning to take advantage of them.

But nonetheless, we are excited to move in because it has bigger space, more room for all our cars to be in the garage.
Heck we have to climb 3 flights of stairs to our room.. -- great exercise. The stairway is wide. Yup, we can decorate the whole way up to our room with tons of photos, we mean to put it up.

Ann's mom is wanting all her kids & son in law/s to place their graduation photos & their certification up in her HALL OF FAME wall.
which she has designated a place for it. Yeah no kidding. She call it the diamonds in her heart -- or row of diamonds on her wall..

Ann's dad is calling his place -- meditation place/space for his tea buddies.

Paul is calling it his den place right next door to his room. ( which Sarah is going to occupy most of place as her play room too)

Kitchen would be a heaven for Paul for his baking skills.

.......
That is all for now.
Just thought to share our feelings on our new home
P/s: very near the forest, it has a wonderful view of the whole city of Shah Alam /town.


   


  

  yup Sarah came down with some nasty cold & cough. We went to her pediatric doctor. Every single kid came in to see him, is having the same thing. It must be something in the air. She cries every time we give her -- the meds. It is more like a fight. Wailing on top of her lungs like someone had spank her sooooooo hard on her bottom. No kidding. Ice cream , soda, etc.. tried to coax her to have her medicine, doesn't work. In the end it was "clamp" her arms & legs so we can give her medicine. No easy task as there are 5 types of some nasty liquid looking. After taking it, she is sleepy all the time. For someone who is suppose to be sleepy, she is running around the house. Eventually, she tired herself out and ask us to take her to her crib. Nice. Only problem, she goes to bed at 8pm on the dot, and rise and ready to go by 5am!!!!

5am routine is .." "daddy! daddy!daddy! daddy!daddy! daddy! up! up! daddy! daddy! daddy! daddy!! water! water! arms up! go! go! mummy!"
The household is not awake yet, but with her persistence , the whole household is up with her relentless demands of getting out of bed.
yeah you can hear her voice loud and clear. Our personal alarm clock.. no kidding. ... so what did we as parents do??

" Go back to sleep, Sarah...mummy & daddy needs sleep"  -- does it work? of course not.

She however, does give us some what of a little time to sleep, like 10 seconds!!!..So here we are, the parents, took the little girl out from her crib, gave her the water, put her on her potty. Clean her up..we pulled her " tumble" mattress into the hall and fell right back to sleep -- with the lights on. While she is happy that she gets to plays with all her toys in the living room. Once in awhile, we pried our eyes open to check on her.  pathetic huh??? We finally went full swing, by 6am.

We are now heading off to bed like almost 9pm. No more late nights...