So different

Just looking at the photos, one can tell that the girls are so different. Harvynna is so ladylike and loves to dress up and look pretty. Rowena, on the other hand wears mismatched clothes and finds it really hard to sit down in one place.

Harvynna has really grown up. She will be 5 in April and is now more into her own things. At home, she prefers to go to her room and read her books or do some writing/colouring (with the door locked), play her computer games, or play with make up. She is very independant and a good helper (though she still drives me up the wall!!). She bathes herself and helps bathe Rowena too. She helps to fold the clothes and put them back in the cupboard. She now knows that when she comes home at night, she has to put her school uniform in the laundry basket and prepare her clothes for the next day. After eating, she has to put everything back in the kitchen. I am the evil mother that slave drives the 4 year old!!

What does Rowena do while Harvynna is busy being a lady? She unfolds the clothes Harvynna has folded, she pours all the soap on the floor while Harvynna bathes her. there was once where she threw her bottle of Eubos in the toilet bowl. She jumps on the bed while Harvynna is reading and switches the computer game on and off and on and off while Harvynna is playing. She takes my makeup and makes up the wall, then comes out off the room complaining that Harvynna created all the ruckus.

I do enjoy Rowena's babyness although I cant understand how someone so small can be up to so much mischief. Harvynna has become a like a friend now. I hurt my back at the gym the other day, and she warned me 'You better not do the back kick or you will pull your muscle again' and she will rub my back if she sees I am in pain. All Rowena says is 'Very good for mummy, your back is pain'.

Rowena's first day of school

After an endless search for a school for Rowena, we finally found one that has classes on weekends at a reasonable price. Most of the weekly classes are so crazily priced ranging from RM350 - RM500 per month for just once a week. At that rate, i might as well enrol her into Harvynna's school with just a little more. So now, I bring her for her class every Saturday. It is a drop off programme for 2 hours.

She learns to read, works on her motor skills to start writing, sings and has some story telling. I guess that is enough for her age. The place is more of a literacy centre for children.I am not too particular about the programme - I just wanted to expose her to some sort of education. This is because, unlike Harvynna, there is absolutely no way I can teach Rowena. I try to teach her colours, and shapes and alphabets but she has no interest. She treats it as a game and is out of there after a few minutes. She loves books, but will not sit down to read or listen to a story. But I have caught her 'reading' a book on her own. She has been listening to me read to harvynna and she remembers the story and 'reads' it on her own.

I was quite surprised that just after a day, she could identify a few words already at the school.

Of course, she was so excited as she has been waiting for this day. She woke up early, packed her bag with books and a lunch box and made sure she had a complete set of books. She was annoyed to see that I had taken out all the books (dont want her bag to be so heavy). She kept screaming ' there's nothing inside'!

Once we reached the school, she immediately went in the classroom with her beloved bag. But she knew that I was outside at the reception area, so she kept coming out to see me and Harvynna kept going in the classroom and intimidating her. After about 20 minutes, Rowena came out with her bag and sat outside folding her arms. She said ' I want you'. I explained that this is a children's class, so mummy cannot be there, plus all the other children's mummy and daddy are not there. She looked at me and said 'then why are you here?'. So I left but she started to cry. The teacher told me to go, and after a few minutes she was ok.

The teacher mentioned that she kept taking her bag and carried it around. Seems to be so protective about that bag of hers.

Hopefully, she will do fine. Am glad to have sorted her school out.

Back to school

Happy New Year!

Everything starts again today! Harvynna is back to school and she has been looking forward to it. I brought the girls to trim their hair yesterday and we got her a new school bag and tumbler. How exciting for her!

Its back to me rushing around in the mornings. Waking up, bathing Harvynna, changing her to her uniform, preparing her breakfast and her lunch snack, then taking my bath, get dressed, hurry them to the car, strapping them in their car seats, sending Rowena to the babysitter, then sending Harvynna to school, then rushing to reach my office on time as well. Its rush, rush, rush all the way!

She is now in the big girls class. All the 5 and 6 year old students have their classes upstairs. She seemed a little lost in her new class, as it was made up of mostly new students and only a few from her class last year. You can see all the parents standing outside the classroom trying to settle their kids in. I missed this first day last year as Harvynna joined the school mid-way. I did not stay as Harvynna said 'bye - this is the big girls class! Hope she got through it ok.

Poor Rowena really feels left out. She insisted that I buy her a bag too. Feeling sorry for her, i bought her one, which she really likes. She sleeps with it and its the first thing she asks for when she wakes up. "Where my school bag?' She has taken over Harvynna's old water bottle as well. I asked her why she wants a bag and she replied ' to bring to my bokenhouse'. My new class is upstairs and my teacher is Ms Risha. My bokenhouse got swimming pool. They give me fried rice to eat. Last night, she was busy packing her bag with books and her comb!

Today, she hopped out of bed, demanded for her water tumbler, slung her bag over her shoulder and was ready to go. She really looked like she was going to school too. When I dropped her off at her babysitters place, she brought the bag with her. Poor girl, most children this age have imaginary friends - Rowena has an imaginary school.

MERRY XMAS & HAPPY 2009

Seasons Greetings!!

This will probably be the last post of the year as I will be on long leave after this. The girls are back after being away in Melaka - I have lined up a list of things to be done.

Dont really know what we will be up to for Christmas, but we are looking out for that great turkey dinner. We may have some friends over for the weekend, if plans work out. Other than that we need to get all these done before the stroke of midnight 2008:

• Confirm Harvynna's seat in the chosen govt school of our choice. Well, there's always private school, but we need to secure this seat fast as it is a popular school. Plus, who knows what will happen to the economy in 2011



• Confirm Rowena's place in her enrichment classes for next year. As we are confirmed a 5 day week employment now, I can happily take her for saturday classes. Have identifed 2. We wont be sending her to school next year.



• Pay up Harvynna's school fees for next year. - she will remain in the same school. Fees are steep but we dont have a choice.



• Settle my house repayment with EPF



• Return all outstanding books to the library



• Settle all credit card bills (which have piled up like crazy. Think i can get a Bangsar Village VIP card now, looking at the amount i spent at all their outlets). After that, cut up the credit cards. hehe



• Buy Harvynna's school bag and school shoes



• Trim both the girls hair

Am happy to have the girls back. So I can start squeezing them again, talking to them and screaming at them.

Merry christmas everyone!!!

Updates

What has been happenning? Plenty. Cant believe the year has gone by. Let's see what we have done or been up to......

A-Tishoo - brought the girls to see the show at Actors Studio 2 weekends ago. Was really debating if I should bring Rowena as well but I ended up bringing her. Well, she had to live up to her reputation of being Dennis the Menace. We were there early to get the tickets, so just before the show started (about 5 minutes), we went to the toilet and Rowena followed me inside the cubicle while Harvyna entered another one on her own. As usual, Rowena started fiddle with everything and she turned on the tap at the side. The water splashed at her and she was wet from head to toe. I was really speechless as the expression on her face was just just priceless. It was a cross between 'Oh, what just happenned?' and 'Oh Oh, mummy is going to kill me!!' So although I was really annoyed with her, it was quite funny. Luckily I brought some extra clothes. She was still in a state of shock througout the show that she remained quiet and sat on my lap the whole time.

What did I think of the show? - It was ok. No props and dialogue or music, a lot of imagination. I think Aesops Fables would be better.

Harvynna's Parent Teacher meet - Met with her teachers and everyone mentioned that she is a very fast learner and picks up things very fast. She reads well and grasps the BM 'sukukata' very well. She can count 1-100 and does addition and subtraction up to number 20. She is good at Mandarin as well. She prefers to do her work on her own and is quite independant. The teacher has t0 give her additional work to do as she finishes her work very fast. I feel this could also be because, the school encourages learning through play, so most of the activities are quite easy for her. Academically, she is very good but needs improvement in her behaviour!! She does not share with her friends.

Looking at the girls, I think that HArvynna will be the book smart, straight A student while Rowena will be the streetsmart, not interested in studies type of child. Her attention span is really short. She focuses on trying to do the naughtiest things or finding what she can break!!

We still have not confirmed her school as yet due to transportation issues. I better call the school now!

Shopping Woes

Everytime I take the girls to the mall myself, I end up kicking myself and wonder why I put myself through this kind of torture. Harvynna is quite easy to handle as she loves the mall. The only thing is she MUST have a drink in some café with cake. It cant be the mamak opposite as it has no air conditioning – it has to be a café. Even if she has a hearty meal before that, she will always say, ‘I did not eat much, I am still hungry’ or she will ask me’ Mummy, you haven’t eaten right? Better eat something’

Rowena on the other hand drives me up the wall everything we go out. She refuses to walk properly or hold our hand. She will hop everywhere or just run out of sight, touch and pull everything. Then she gets tired and insists on being carried. If she does not get what she wants, she will sit on the floor and scream ‘Mummy, come here now and carry me!’ I am already fuming mad and dead tired.

Yesterday, we had to go to the Megamall as Harvynna’s school needed a white t-shirt for t-shirt painting. Its really difficult to get a plain white t-shirt nowadays. Even all the cheap ones have cartoons on them. We went to Carrefour, but could not find one, then we went to Kamdar and they only had a long sleeved one. Rowena ran really fast out of my sight and I ran after her and dragged her by her hands, while she yelled and cried and everyone was staring at us. I don’t care what people think but I was so irritated. Harvynna kept saying ‘Rowena is really irritating. Next time don’t bring her’.

Then we went to MNG. She sat on the table where they displayed some blouses. She lifted each one, shouted ‘Stupid, ugly shirt’, threw it aside, picked up another and another and did the same thing. Then we went to the changing room – she opens the curtains of another cubicle.

After that, we went to Seed Café for my dinner while the girls had ice-cream. Rowena did not like the waiter and started fighting with him. ‘I don’t like you. I pinch you and push you’ ‘ I push you in the freezer’ (the cake display). Then she talks at the top of her voice. Luckily, the waiter did not mind so much. Not sure about the other customers though.

As we were walking out, there were some perfume promoters promoting their packages. There was one errr he / she approaching us. Immediately, Rowena said loudly ‘ Mummy, is that a man?’ I said yes. ‘Why he looks like that? Why so ugly? I quickly grabbed her and Harvynna and walked really fast out of that direction. I think she is going to get me beaten up some day!

Vicious Rowena

I blogged earlier about Rowena a.k.a Dennis the Menace. She really has so much pent up energy that she releases it in weird ways. Now she whines non-stop for something she wants, and just yesterday, she was sitting on the sofa asking for cake or something, and when I refused to give it to her, she started pulling her hair out - literally.

And she bites and pinches and scratches and leaves nasty marks. Harvynna now has a nasty scratch on her face - courtesy of her sister. When I question Rowena, she will just fold her arms and say, 'Always angry with me, never sayang me'. 'I dont like mummy anymore. Yucky mummy' and then i get a nasty pinch.

We went to Asha's place over the weekend. The girls love going there as they think Asha and baby Rekha are their cousins and love spending time with them. Plus, they get to feast on Coke, Chips, nuggets to glory. Somehow, Rowena finds competition with Asha who is only 1 plus and has pushed her many time. Yesterday, she left a really bad scratch on her face and it is so obvious. I scolded her and asked her why she scratched Asha? All she said was' I did not scratch her. I just pinch her only'. I told her she wont be welcomed at their house anymore and she says' 'Never mind, I can go my own self'. Aagh!

Am hunting for some martial arts or gymnastics class for her for her to burn all those energy and channel it towards something useful!!