2nd Parent Teacher Meeting

The girls gave me the notice from the school that the Mid Year PTM was on. I felt like I had just attended the last one and here it is again. This year has just swooshed by - 7 more months and Harvynna starts Primary school and I havent even decided where to send her. We have done all the necessary registrations, but there are lots of things to consider. From Primary 1, 2011, all schools will have to revert to teaching Maths & Science in BM. Initially, I thought Harvynna would be safe as they were supposed to start it only in 2012, but alas, they now have decided for 2011.

Back to the PTM, it was a real long wait. I thought I will beat the queue by going there early, but there were many other earlier birds.Plus, i have to see 2 class teachers this time, so that would take even longer. I started with the BM teacher (who by the way, is an excellent BM teacher)

Well, as expected, she mentioned that Harvynna is a very good girl and catches up very fast. (yawn...)
She is advanced in her reading and writing and takes the iniative to do things and also speaks to her in BM. She has no issues with her and in fact she encouraged me to start giving her simple essays to write in BM. Looks like i will have to practice my BM too.

Then, the teacher says, 'Do you mind if we discuss Rowena no?' Then she starts off with 'Rowena is totally different from Harvynna. All the teachers here say the same thing.' Then I knew where she was heading!!
She says Rowena has a mind of her own but is very entertaining. She talks to everyone and is very friendly. Her attention span for her work is quite short so she gets bored fast. She does not seem to like BM much' - so she keeps volunteering to send things to the office so she can miss the class.
But I told her that its ok since Rowena is only 4. Then again, she says 'but when Harvynna was 4, dia sangat cepat dan verrrry interested in her work'.

Then when I went to see Harvynna's class teacher, it was the same story - Harvynna is doing very well and is a very helpful girl. I did ask her about 2 girls, that Harvynna really dislikes and the teacher said that those girls are very loud and quite rebellious - so harvynna finds them annoying. The girls are also quite intelligent so she probably feels the competition. So young - and so competitive.

Then I went to see Rowena's class teacher - she started with Rowena being very friendly and kind. She is loved by all the teachers and students and is everyone's friend.And she related a few stories about Rowena, which was quite funny yet sweet. And that was it. i looked at her and asked 'What about her work?' Then she paused for few seconds and said, that her work has improved a lot from when she first came and showed me her work - looked ok. How much can you expect from a 4 year old?. She mentioned that Rowena loves to sing and dance like she did at the last school assembly.And that was it???

These teachers must have been trained to focus only on the positive things!

It's hard to imagine how different these 2 girls are. But I would rather have them this way, then to have 2 exact characters - definitely spices up everyone's life!!

The 2 divas

Sometime in April, both Harvynna and Rowena were selected to appear in a TVC for the Middle East and India market. Although, the amount paid was quite small, i thought why not since they get to go together and with 2 of them, the amount does not seem so bad!

The shoot was at Putrajaya and they were shooting many scenes with the adults at vaious locations - we followed them everywhere, and by the time it was 7pm (we were there since 12.00pm), they told us that they cant shoot the girls and they had to come back the next day!!!!???P#@@@ Anyway, since, they would pay us for both days, and since we waited the WHOLE day, we said ok.

So, we were there bright and early the next day, and the girls were excited and looking forward to the shoot. Harvynna loves dressing up and getting her hair done, and Rowena was just happy to be there. Finally, their turn came, and they shoot was under the blazing hot sun in Putrajaya. HArvynna did not care - she happily went under the sun and did what she was told. As for Rowena.........

the moment it was her turn, she looked at everyone and said.....'NO - I dont want. Its too hot'. She just refused to go under the sun. The director and the rest of the crew told her to go and she said,'Too hot'. In the end, the director requested for umbrellas. So while she was under the sun, she had 2 guys holding umbrellas over her head. Once the camera was rolling, the guys ran off. In between each take, the guys came back with the umbrellas!!!

At the end of the day, I told them, see acting is such hard work, you spend so much time waiting and waiting, you have to go under the sun - do u want to do it again?
Rowena said 'NO' but Harvynna said 'YES. i love it'!!!!

Last week, my cousin asked Harvynna to go for a casting, but in the end they chose Rowena!! So of course, Harvynna was quite annoyed and disappointed and felt like the whole world was against her!!

The shoot was done last Thursday, and I (and everybody else) was ready to strangle Rowena.

First of all, she refused to have her make up and hair done. All she said, was 'DONT WANT' and kept hiding behind me. They bribed her with all kinds of things and threatened to tell her uncle (my cousin) but she was not bothered. In the end, they told her that they will replace her with Harvynna and that did it. She said 'NOOOOOOOO!!!!!' No Harvynna'.

She finally warmed up and did not stop singing the song she was supposed to sing. She was finally in the mood!

 When it was finally her turn, she bullied everyone around her, demanding for sweets, water, and having her face wiped. She made the others sing for her and God knows what. After many takes, she said' I am not doing any more, you keep asking me to do. No more ok'. We persuaded her to do one final round but it must be done perfectly,which she replied 'dont tell me what to do. I know what to do' and she did it.

Gosh, I was so embarassed. I can clearly see that Rowena just does not like being told what to do. She has her own mind, and if something is not to her convenience, she just wont do it!!!

Rowena's 4th birthday party

We celebrated Rowena's birthday in Melaka at my parent's place. Again, she did not mind any cake and was willing to settle for the same cake she had last year or the previous year!! So we chose the Strawberry Shortcake Cake to match her school bag. It was a delicious sugee cake, which is quite hard to find nowadays.

Harvynna, being my dad's pet, had a cake for her as well - so all in all Harvynna got to cut 3 cakes this year. My cousin organised the games with the kids - who were quite unsporting!! I guess the older kids are already at the age where they dont want to perform in front of everyone.


It was a small, but meaningful party as Rowena was surrounded by family and close friends.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY CUTIE ROWENA (belated entry)

My little princess turned 4 on April 25th. She was really excited about celebrating her birthday at school since it would be the first time, plus Harvynna had celebrated her bday in school 2 weeks earlier. Since my school was closed for a week due to the H1N1, I grabbed the opportunity to celebrate her birthday on the Friday before (23rd) - did not have to take any leave.

I ordered an identical cake (like Harvynna's). it was lilac to match her dress. Rowena is not very fussy, she really did not mind any cake, as long as there was a cake. She is very easy to please when it comes to things like this - unlike Harvynna, who wants everything to be perfect.

Her class party was a sweet affair - all the 4 year olds were so cute. They each, gave her a hug when she gave them their party pack. They even performed a dance for me!!

Despite Rowena's extreme naughtiness, she is a very loving lil girl. Despite the fact that Harvynna did not allow her anywhere near her class during her birthday party, Rowena went upstairs to specially give Harvynna a piece of cake. I could see that Rowena was really happy for me to be there, as it is a rare occasion that I visit her during school hours.

It was a weekend of birthday celebrations for her as we had a small party in Melaka the next day with close family and friends.(next post)

Harvynna's 6th birthday Spa-rty

Ever since, I started working in this job in 2008, April is a crazy month ......with 3 birthdays and 1 Open Day to manage, you can imagine the stress.

So this year, Harvynna wanted to have a small party with her close friends besides the cake cutting at school. So I told her, since she is 6, she can invite 6 friends - but they must be independant to stay without their parents, as the place mentioned that they cannot really accomodate parents and kids due the the limited space.

So she made the list, I approved and added one or 2 of my good friends children of the same age. Everything was done really at the last minute!

We had the party at Feffy's Kids Spa in Mont Kiara. They had a 2 hour package, where the girls get a spa pedicure, make up and hair done, while they run around and go crazy with the array for costumes and wigs.

Harvynna prepared the sandwiches, helped me fry the nuggets and do the party packs which was a set of fairy wings and a wand. Basically, I made her do everything as I was too zonked out from the Open Day.

A fun day out for the girls, overall!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARVYNNA - 12 April 2010

Harvynna turned 6 on April 12th. Cant believe she has grown and is so matured now. Next year, she will be in Primary One and she is really excited to start a new Chapter in her life. She keeps telling Rowena that she wont be there to look after her as she will be going to a Big school.

She celebrated her birthday in school on the 12th with all her friends. It was an extremely exhausting day for her as she had a TVC shoot over the weekend in the hot sun - which made her quite moody. (will blog about that later)

Poor gal. Anyway, we are having a party for her this weekend at the SPA with only her closest friends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS - YOU HAVE ALWAYS MADE US PROUD!!!!

Parent teacher meet

Last Thursday, was the girl's parent teacher meet at their kindergarten. Since it was the first meeting, it was more to discuss the child's adjustment to the new level and what to discuss if the expectations of parents are met.

I was very confident of Harvynna's report as she usually gets loads of praises, but I was quite interested to see what the teachers would say about Rowena.

So for Harvynna - it was all good. The same report about her excelling academically and being the top of her class. She now shares the position with another boy who joined the school this year.She was quite upset to hear that!! But, the teacher mentioned that she is quite reserved. She has her own group of friends and does not really mix with the rest. She focuses on her work most of the time.

Harvynna has grown to be exactly like ME! She is really my mini.The teacher would like her to be more vocal. Dont know if that is a good thing but I supposed in today's world, it is. The funny thing was Harvynna's teacher immediately made the comparison to Rowena, saying she is very friendly and vocal and is friends with everyone and went on and on about Rowena's colourfulness!! I was like' eh, i thought we were discussing Harvynna here'!

Apparently, Rowena has made a name for herself at school - not academically but by just being herself. She is friends with the kids in all the other classes and loves entertaining the teachers. Her class teacher was actually describing incidents of Rowena and other teachers as the other teachers had told her about them!! Funny ones!

Work wise, she just does it for the sake of doing it, then she does other things like clean the tables after meal time, send the register to the office. Well, Rowena did say that she wants to be a 'kakak' when she grows up.

The teacher did say that she is very brave and participates in all the activities e.g. singing, dancing, speaking. Although, her motor skills are good, she still needs a lot of practice writing. Again, Rowena's class teacher said that Rowena is the total opposite of Harvynna, who has always put her academic work as priority. For Rowena, its all about having fun.