2007 at a glance

My SIL's wedding

My SIL Vindi got married in November to Jim Mountstephens. Finally managed to upload some of the pictures.

Our Anniversary

Today 11 December 2007 is our 8th wedding anniversary. How time flies. Like every normal couple, we have our ups and downs but definitely more ups..... and of course, we have been blessed with our 2 beautiful angels.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

I am back

Just realised that my last post was exactly a month ago. Time certainly flies. Just finished a big event yesterday and finally breath now. So many things happenned during the last month

We went to Phuket for a holiday....

Attended my SIL's wedding in Sabah....

Came back to work with a million things waiting to be done....

Now, my girls are in Melaka for the whole month as my babysitter has gone to US for a holiday. Trying to sort so many things, while missing them terribly. The house is so quiet.

On a blog break.....

So many things to do and am on leave from tomorrow - Deepavali is coming up, going on a short holiday, then off to KK for my SIL's wedding.

Updates on Rowena

Its just one of those days that I dont feel like working and its Friday anyway, so I thought will update on Rowena since I did not do her 18 month milestone. For starters, the cute little quiet girl is now one mischievous brat. I think she is observing her sister and trying to imitate her.

Her favourite word is 'NO' or 'EMMMMM, NO!' and her favourite sentence is 'tawa tawa... bak bak bak'. Dont ask me what it means, but it sounds cute.

What Rowena eats?

Anything and everything.

She refers to everything she eats as 'spicy'

Height:

She is 2 feet 7 inches

Likes:

Playing on her own

Biting people

dancing (bobbing up and down) to music or turning round and round

Jumping on the bed

Bringing a book to me and says'mummy, book'

Takes time to warm up to someone, but ones she does , she is your friend for life

Orders to sit on the dining room chair' mummy, chair or mummy sit'

Very determined with what she wants or the tantrum routine starts

Likes singing (her own songs)

Says 'eye' and pokes your eye really hard

Loves mothering her doll

Imitates everything Harvynna does and Harvynna encourages it by doing silly things

Eating by herself

Language development

Rowena is catching up really fast and can say lots of words. She learns most words from Harvynna. Her pronounciation is not so clear and we have to figure out what she means sometimes e.g.

ter ter for water

kout (for take out)

apen (for open)

tuputak (for ketupat)

peeease (for please)

kak (for cup)

pappers (for pampers)

weet (for sweet)

ko ker (for chocolate)

She now does this really sweet thing in the car by calling out 'mummy' and when i turn behind, she will say in the sweetest voice, 'Hellloooo mummy' and flash us her smile.

Harvynna on the other hand, has been quite a good sister. She reads to her, plays with her. The other day, I did not fix Rowena's car seat properly and it tilted when I turned the car. Immediately, Harvynna told me that Rowena's car seat fell and she held her seat all the way home. But there are days, when she gets fed up of Rowena and tells us, that she does not want her.

Happy Halloween! (belated)

It has been one hectic week and to top it all, I have been down with viral fever. Harvynna got it first, passed it to me, I passed it to Rowena and I still have it. Despite all that, we managed to squeeze a Halloween party at Kizsports Bangsar, attended Anil's 4th birthday party, scout around for Harvynna's school.

I really wanted to take Harvynna for a Halloween party as my SIL bought her a lovely witch costume from UK which she only wore once. So this year, I looked for the nearest decent party, and she was really really excited to wear the costume. It was a little tight but I squeezed her into it. hehe. It was well worth it - they had games, treasure hunt, story telling, and trick-or-treat which she enjoyed most. She came back with lots and lots of candies (which Rowena finished!!!) And to seal the deal, Harvynna won the best dressed costume (there were 3 winners), so it was worth the effort as I was so out of it. It is quite tiring for the accompanying adult.

Anil's party was good, but for the first time, they attended an all boys party. It was cars, trains, tracks, dinasours compared to princesses, barbie, pink and such!! So being the only 2 girls, they were a hit. But Harvynna started to get really naughty (acting like a boy)

Am still on a search for Harvynna's school. Have shortlisted a few. Its high time she goes to school. I think the boredom is making her naughtier. She told me she is fed up of going to Amama's (the babysitter's) house. And plus, we found out that in order for her to enter a private school in Standard One, she needs to sit for a test where she needs to be able to read, write in English and Bahasa Malaysia and do simple arithmetic. Gosh, I never heard of an entrace exam into primary school.

check out minee witch

There's a tiger in my house....

.....and her name is Rowena.

Rowena is such a vicious girl. She loves to bite, scratch, claw and pinch and it is really really painful. Yesterday, she bit the skin at my jaw and it is still sore till today. If she does not get what she wants, she bites and then looks very pleased with herself. I have no choice but to scream at her and she gives me her sweet angelic face, saying, 'Mummy, ay, ay'. She tends to bite Harvynna too and it is really painful for her.

What do I do with this tiger?

PPP: Organise your garage

After having kids, my house has turned into a little junkyard. I now keep most of their toys and books in the garage to minimize the clutter in the house. At the same time, I would like to ensure that the garage is organized as well, which will make it easier to search for stuff later. Now you can now make garage organization a piece of cake. Carguygarage.com has all the cabinets, shelving and toolboxes to make your garage look like a million dollars.

Harvynna can read!

I started Harvynna on the Ladybird Key words reading scheme with just Book 1A, and used it on and off. I tried to explain to her that we actually read the words when reading a book besides looking at the picture and bla bla bla. So if she learns to read, she can later read on her own. I must say she tried very hard and though she got fed up at times, she picked it up again and fell very proud when she could do it. I thought she had just memorized the book.

Last week, I got book 1B, (contains the words in different context and illustraiton)and to my surprise, she could actually read most of it. I bought up to level 4 and she picked up book 3B and she could read the words she had learnt in the earlier levels.

These books must really work and she is so proud of herself. Well done Harvynna.

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And we all fall down

The last couple of weeks have been all about falling. Anyway, they say things come in 3's, so I guess no more falling down. About 3 weeks ago, just before the Merdeka celebrations, I had a fall near my office and had quite a deep cut on my knee. Then last week, Rowena fell down and bumped her head and last weekend Harvynna fell.

This was scary as she fell down the escalator at Bangsar Village. We were rushing for their Gymboree class and I was holding their bag and carrying Rowena. Harvynna has this thing about looking everywhere else but infront when she walks and she missed a step and fell and almost hit her head back. Luckily there was a lady behind us that quickly pulled Harvynna up, but she was so scared and started crying. She was unhurt but a bit shaken.

I hope she has not developed a phobia for escalators as on the way back she told me to take the elevator. She stood infront of the escalator and said 'I dont want to go here'. Oh dear!

Honestly, I have never liked taking the girls on the escalator, more so if I am pushing their stroller, I will always opt to take the elevator. Escalators are like a moving disaster waiting to happen.

VisionBedding.com - personalized unique gifts

I have always enjoyed decorating my children’s room as there are so many creative ways to do it up. I normally go for a Princess theme as that seems to go down well with the girls. Recently, I came across Vision Bedding which offers personalized photo gifts. You can turn your pictures and digital images into wonderful works of art.

Using the latest production technology, your favourite picture is specially dyed into a photo blanket, photo bedding or photo pillow. Imagine having your bed linen with pictures of your children’s happy faces. I know these unique gifts will be truly appreciated as a Christmas present. It’s like going to sleep with your most favourite people every day.

You can even design what you want online. I am so excited about this new discovery and am going to start ordering my Christmas presents now. I could not find anything as unique and special as this.

updates on the girls

It has been awhile since i updated anything on the girls except for 'humpty dumpty had a great fall'! Lots of things have been happening and to top it all, I could not access blogspot in my office, so I could not blog hop as almost everyone has a blogspot account. Darn!

Rowena turns 17 months on Tuesday and she has been progressing real well. Her vocabulary has increased and I remember that at 16 months, Harvynna too started speaking more too. Her hair has grown (thank God) and is a real bundle of Joy. She has moved to Level 4 in Gymboree and loves the class. The thing is that she is very hyperactive now and climbs everywhere (hence the fall), runs everywhere and flashed her smile at you when you are angry.

I must go back to count how many teeth she has as they are not growing in order. I see one or 2 at the back, one or 2 in the middle somewhere.

Rowena understands us very well now and follows instruction to a T. When instructed, she will put her clothes in the laundry basket, pick up toys and put it in the toy box, go to her room at bedtime, feed her baby (doll). She can point to most parts of her body

She has got this 'nasal' voice when she talks and it sounds really cute. So I keep asking her to say all the words she can like:

cake (sounds more like kek)

box (sounds more like bok)

book

bus (sounds more like bah)

bun (also sounds like bah)

bread (sound like bed)

car

baby

kitika (refers to one of the girls at the babysitters)

susu

toe

bobo (refers to diaper)

poo poo

pee pee

fish

tota (refers to toyota)

bag (sounds more like back)

I keep asking her to say those words like a drill as I get a kick from listening to her nasal voice. Even Harvynna will ask her to do the drill.

Harvynna on the other hand is getting more matured. She talks more like an adult.

I started her on the Keyword series and has completed the first book. I have to crack my head to keep her occupied as she keeps asking for 'activities' to do.

Its fun to see the 2 of them playing together. At least with 2 girls, they can have cooking sessions, dress up sessions together.

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Rowena fell down and bumped her crown

Poor Rowie. She is just so hyperactive these days. She climbs up the cot rails, she climbs up the sofa, she climbs onto any chair she sees, she climbs up the grill in our house - our little monkey girl.

On sunday night, while the 2 of them were monkeying around on their bed trying to grab some books, in a mere split second, as I turned to look at Harvynna, Rowena was on the floor, and her forehead hit the ground. She paused for a few seconds before she wailed and I noticed that there was a huge bump on her forehead. i was so terrified, she cried and cried and Harvynna cried too as I could not finish reading her book!!! That was till she saw the bump on Rowena's head and she too was concerned. Luckily, the bump subsided overnight (hubs put some ice on her head)

I think I need to fully pad up my house now. I have this phobia whenever Rowena is at the edge of the bed now.

Gac fruit for your skin

The rising cost of maintaining a youthful look is astonishing. Once you hit your 30’s everyone will be talking about wrinkles, saggy skin and the list goes on. Some of the products recommended to maintain the youthful look have many harmful chemicals in them and it can be quite disastrous to your skin in the long run. I am one who strongly believes in natural products, as it is gentle to the skin plus it protects the skin against damaging free radicals.

I was recently introduced to Gac fruit, a tropical superfruit with a rich history of medicinal use in Asian households. R.G. Skin Revitalizer is a fountain of antioxidants that supports skin health. Gac is a bright red fruit that grows as large as a cantaloupe. Beta-carotene, a natural carotenoid antioxidant found abundantly in gac fruit, helps boost the immune system and assists the skin’s cellular rejuvenation process. Carotenoids as plant pigments work as protection of the plant against excess sunlight, which is Asian women’s biggest enemy. As a result, their nutritional value is essential to healthy skin. The Gac oil is absorbed very easily by the body. The unique thing about Gac is it works from the ‘inside out’ and complements topical skin care regimen.

Tagged

I got tagged by Sharon.

I think she tagged me a few times, but lets start with this one first.

INSTRUCTIONS:Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, as below :


LemonJude
Sasha
Chanel
Babysmooches
Rina

Choose 5 people to tag:

The New Parent
Mom2Ashley
Jazzmint

I choose 3 only since I think many bloggers have completed this

What were you doing 10 years ago?


1997 - I was working in a new company together with sharon.
We followed our ex-boss in managing this new company. Many ups and downs but fun too. I also bought my first house then.

Five snacks you enjoy
Ice-Cream
Chocolate cake
Tau sar piah
Cookies
Junk Food

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to

Twinkle Twinkle Litte Star
Itsy Bitsy Spider
If you are happy
Sing A song of Sixpence
Row Row your boat

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire
1.Build my dream house
2.Travel
3.Pay of all my debts
4.Retire
5.Shop till I drop (not that I dont do it now - hence no 3 above

Five bad habits

Hard Being patient
love to sleep
Always rushing
Scolding the girls when my mood is bad
impulsive shopper

Five favourite toys

Handphone
My PC
My girls
My washing machine
My Blog

Five things you like doing

Sleeping
Travelling
Blogging
Surfing the net
Playing with my girls

Five things you would never wear again

Maternity clothes (although baby dolls dresses are in)
Stilleto heels
clothes with lots of sequins (Rowena loves pulling them off)
Shirt blouses (I find them so boring now)
Jet black hair (its multicoloured now due to many colouring sessions to hide the grey)

Blog for money

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Smorty is a service connecting advertisers with bloggers. The deal here is advertisers can pay bloggers to write opinion posts with links back to the advertisers site. Isn’t that just great? You get paid for blogging. Cash in on it as blog advertising is the big craze right now. Smorty makes it easier for you as they send opportunities to you directly to your mailbox.

Personally, I have made quite a lot of money from Smorty and have bought so many things for my kids. It is like free shopping online. Right now, I am hooked on Smorty and just can’t get enough of it.

Bright future for kids

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Tag: Some interesting facts about me

Health Freak Mummy sent me a tag and I think she was referring to this one! (Am not so tag savvy!) Anyway, here it goes:

Where is your cell phone? Next to my keyboard

Relationship? Married for 7.5 years

Your hair? Long and wavy and needs a treatment badly.

Work? FTWM for a non profit organisation.

Your sisters? None

Your favorite thing? My handphone

Your dream last night? I cant remember but I think it was work related - how boring

Your favorite drink? Iced coffee (I am a coffee addict)

Your dream car? BMW

The room you’re in? My cubicle in the office

Your shoes? Now? - my gold slippers (I fell last week and hurt my knee, so I cant wear High heels)

Your fears? Losing my loved ones.

What do you want to be in 10 years? Doing my own business so I will have lots of time to do my own thing and move to my house in Bangsar so I will spend less time on the road .

Who did you hang out with this weekend? My girls and hubby with Brendan, Ameeta and Baby Asha

What are you not good at? Being Patient

Muffin? Chocolate

One of your wish list items? Abundance of money.

Where you grew up? Melaka.

Last thing you did? Writing a paid post

What are you wearing? Pants and a red halter top (yaya, not so appriate for work) - with a jacket of course

What aren’t you wearing? Right now - my jacket

Your pet? The stray rat that pops into my house at times.

Your computer? Desktop Compaq

Your life? Great.

Your mood? Relaxed

Missing? A good nights sleep.

What are you thinking about right now? My girls.

Your car? Japanese and red

Your kitchen? Too small

Your summer? What summer? It's summer 365 days here

Your favorite color? Blue

Last time you laughed? Just a minute ago as my colleague was talking nonsense as usual.

Last time you cried? Can't recall.

School? Malacca Girls High School, Malacca High School, University Malaya

Not tagging anyone since I think everyone I know has done this

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Secretive Harvynna

I am trying to dig from Harvynna what she learns at Gymboree. Since she attends a 2 hour drop off, I dont really get to see what she does. Whenever I ask her what she did, the conversation will end up this way:

Me: what did you do at Gymboree today?

Harvynna: Nothing

Me: Nothing? you were there for 2 hours doing nothing. Maybe we should stop going to gymboree

Harvynna: No, I dont want to stay home with daddy and do nothing

Mummy: so, what do you do at gymboree then?

Harvynna: Just singing and painting

Me: what song did you sing?

Harvynna: Hokey pokey (seems to be the same every week)

Me: what else?

Harvynna: Nothing

Me: Oh, next time, I will stay there and see ok

Harvynna: No, you sit outside - its a big childrens class. Mummies cannot come

The teacher told me that Harvyyna is quite opinionated. The other day, she complained that the room was warm and the teacher told her to tie up her hair. Harvynna told her that she did not have a rubber band in her bag and she added,' I am very sexy today you know (while pulling her blouse), so I will not tie my hair!!! And the other time, she told the teacher that ' I am not coming back here anymore!!)

I am still curious as after the first 10 minutes, the children are taken to another room. I understand there is story telling etc and they are also introduced to alphabets and phonics through songs. I actually got to hear one of the songs the other day, as I was talking to the trainers in front. It was something like this:

King get the kettle. ke ke ke

King get the kettle, ke ke ke

king get the kettle, ke ke ke

This is the sound of K

I guess they must be learning something.

Now I am exploring the option of sending her to Kindergarten next year (despite my earlier views). I think children these days are smarter and more advanced earlier, that by 4 years, they actually know quite a bit and are curious to learn more.

She told me the other day:

Harvynna: I like Amama (babysitter) but I dont like her house, it is boring.

Me:so u want to go to school?

Harvynna: yes, I want to study

Me: But you go to gymboree now

Harvynna: But I never study there!!!!

Need to scout around in Bangsar for a good, reasonable kindy that is not too academic driven.

Rowena's updates

Taken in Genting in June

Rowena turned 16 months last Saturday. Besides her short hair, she is growing fast and her baby days are going away.

She is now more assertive and is showing a stronger personality. She likes to bite, hit us with her toys and scream if she does not get her way. If she is annoyed with Harvynna, she will pull her hair and shout at her. Sometimes, even Harvynna is afriad of her. If we go out to eat, she shouts 'day -dee' non stop and 'requests' for things to be given to her. She has to hold the spoon and cup herself and of course, mess up the place. She knows how to get attention.

Every saturday, I have about an hour to kill while waiting for Rowena's gymboree class and basically , its running after her all over Bangsar Village, up and down the escalator, that I am so tired by the time we start her class.

Some of the NEW words, she says is:

day-dee

A-ma

Si si - for susu (milk)

ball

ba - for bus

ka - for cup

give

carry (she puts up her hands and say carry, and we if dont carry her, its CAAARRRRYYYYY)

Baby

She can be quite jealous, if I show attention to Harvynna, she will scream and kick Harvynna or pull her hair. If I hug Harvynna, Rowena will immediately come and place her head on my lap too.

Before we go out, she will go to the shoe rack and take out her shoes and mine too

She is still the baby in the house but I cant believe how much she has grown.

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Before and After

BEFORE
AFTER

Finally managed to post Rowena's new hair do. It's been 2 weeks now and either it has grown or I am getting used to it. Anyway, the babysitter said that Rowena's hair was too long and decided to give it a snip!!!!! But, why did she have to cut the whole hair. She sounded like she was doing us a favour.Sigh!

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Their magnetic car signs are a good, attractive way to display a message on your car without destroying your paint job. You can also find lots of creative signs in their website. My favourite is the New Baby Announcement.

I am really really pissed off!

Picking up the girls after work is really a joy for me, I really look forward to seeing their happy faces, running to the gate when I arrive. But yesterday, when I arrived, I was so shocked and upset. I saw Rowena coming from behind but she looked different and I actually had to look again to make sure it was her and not some new boy. Yes, the babysitter had Rowena's hair cut and I am so so so so angry that I could kill someone.

She actually had her hair cut without consulting me and it was hideously cut by an amateur lousy person. I never cut the girls hair. Harvynna has never had her hair cut since birth (except for the fringe) and now it has grown to such lovely locks as it is her original hair. My husband's culture does not allow shaving of babies head and and I fully agree with that as Asian babies are normally born with a lot of hair and I feel its such a waste to shave it off.

Even when Rowena had her cradle cap problem, I refused to shave her head, what more now when she is 15 months old and finally looking like a sweet little girl. Finally, no one asks us if she is a boy or a girl. Finally, her skin has cleared up and no more spots on her face, finally her hair has grown and starting to curl and THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS.

How can anyone do that to my baby. I am very particular that both my girls have long hair. Right up till primary school, I always had short hair and I hated it and used to envy girls with long hair. I promised myself that if I have a daughter, I will let them grow it, even if it means extra work in maintaining it.

Now, Rowena looks exactly like a boy and I JUST HATE IT. I am so angry. Every time I look at Rowena, I get more angry. I know its only hair and it will grow but its my baby, I am the mother and only I have the right to cut, trim, colour or do whatever the hell I want to and no one else.

This morning when I dropped off the girls, I told the maid that my hubby is very very angry and I was trying to find all the Malay words to describe the ugly hair cut and words like hodoh, buruk and even bodoh!!! came out. The babysitter is going to get a good telling off this evening when I pick them up - How dare she cut my baby's hair. Its like she was trying to make Rowena look ugly. If she had even cut a cm off Harvynna's hair, that would have been a total war.

Reading and such

I found this picture of Harvynna messing with the cards when she was 9 months
She was one chubby baby!

As I am into the 'Teach Harvynna to read' mood, I have been reading up on some activities related to it. I purchase the Glenn doman Reading Flash cards when Harvynna was born. I used it with her, but stopped when I was pregnant with Rowena (too lazy). I was also not very consistent. I cant say that it helped her to read, but it did make her more alert and responsive. I really admire those mothers that have used the cards consistently.

She does not really like those cards now (neither do I as it is to bulky). Only If I attempt to show Rowena the cards, then she will pretend to be interested so that she wont be left out!!

Anyway, I found various other ways to use the cards, which is more fun. MPH also carries a good selection of flashcards and are quite cute and attractive. Actually, there’s a lot that can be done with flash cards besides just flashing them to learn through repetition.

Some of the activities that can be done with flash cards:

Memory games

Place flash cards in a circle on the floor
Let Harvynna view it for a minute or 2 (to memorise it)
Get her to recall as many pictures she has seen

I have done various other memory games with Harvynna by using simple things around the house, or toys that she has. Her toy box is full of odds and ends like colourful blocks and her cooking sets and she loves it especially when she gets it right.

Race to the flashcards

Stick flashcards at various places in the house
Get Harvynna to go to the word e.g. find the word ‘red’
To make it more fun, give fun instructions like ‘hop to the ‘car’

Bring me

Arrange 4-5 cards on the floor (can be more for an older child) Call out to bring certain cards e.g. bring mummy the ‘tiger’

I hope Rowena gets some 'secondary' benefit from this, if she is not too busy chewing the cards!

Gymboree for the girls

I finally found something for both my girls to do – Gymboree! After months of searching, hunting, asking, I decided to enroll them to Gymboree at Bangsar Village. I could not find anything suitable on weekday evenings, most activities were either during the day or over the weekend.

There are many options for Harvynna, after all she is 3 years old and there are so many things she can go for e.g. drama classes, music, tae-kwan-do etc. But what I liked about the Gymboree was that they have sibling programmes, so while Harvynna attends the 2 hour drop off sessions, Rowena gets to do the Level 3 programme with me. So I get to kill 2 birds with one stone.

The family package is quite expensive – there’s a big hole in my pocket now and I would say that their rates are higher than other programmes out there, but I like the convenience of it. Plus, when I took the girls for their trial sessions on Saturday, they absolutely enjoyed it. Rowena was walking around clapping her hands and participated really well. I was quite surprised as she is normally the quiet one who observes things from far.

Harvynna was also very excited as I told her waaayyy in advanced that she will be going to a big girl class, so mummy will not be there. And to my delight, she was very happy to be dropped off and did not cry at all when I left her. This looks like a good prep for her to attend kindergarten later. Well-done Harvynna. Harvynna attended the Level 7 (for 3-5 years) and the art class after that.

Since, I do not send Harvynna to a pre-school, I think this is a good alternative. Some sort of stimulation is important for a child. I think 4 years of attending pre-school Monday to Friday is a bit too much. By the time, she attends actual school, she will be fed up of the routine. (That’s my personal opinion, anyway) She’s also lucky as there are other kids at the babysitter’s so she gets to play and socialize there. I am very afraid of those pre-schools that are very academic oriented and even have tests for the kids.

PPP - Effective Advertising

Having worked in the media industry for more than 5 years has made me rethink on the effectiveness of advertising in mainstream media. With more and more advertising alternatives available including postcards, cinema and of course internet advertising, advertisers will really need to rethink the channel they need to choose in placing their ads. They will need to compete with other advertisers in that small amount of space.

The new craze of blog advertising has proven to be very rewarding. In a recent study by Payperpost, it showed that that not only do people click on sponsored posts, on average they click through at a higher rate than any other media with a 10.545% average ctr to be exact.This result is amazing as it is known that some advertisers were initially quite skeptical in blog advertising. This goes to show that blog readers actually click through on sponsored posts. I personally have clicked on this, as articles written on blogs are very well written and interesting that it actually attracts me to click through the posts.

Payperpost should definitely be on every advertisers’ media plan as its results are just amazing. You are able to reach people from all over the world with just a click of the button and your product gets to be advertised in various creative ways.

How do children learn to read?

I recently bought the Ladybird Key words reading scheme books for Harvynna. As I was looking at it, I was wandering how children really learn to read. I know most kindergartens use Phonics nowadays and it is quite effective as they will also learn the right pronounciation.

I have been reading to Harvynna since she was very young and I realise that she memorizes the lines from the books. After reading a book a couple of times, she can actually 'read' the story. Somehow, I think either, she has memorised the story or linked the words to the pictures in the book.

The ladybird key words may actually get children to learn by sight the words as they emphasise on the frequently used words in the English Language. So, the more they are exposed to the words, the more they will know it. This is similar to using flahscards. But with flashcards, there are no distractions from pictures

I actually learnt to read using this method.

I will try to slowly introduce Harvynna to this method and see how she takes to it.

My baby is back

We fetched Harvynna from my parents place during the weekend. She was so excited to see us, flashing her pretty smile to us. Rowena, on the other hand did not seem to pleased. She actually looked upset when she saw Harvynna. She probably thought, 'there goes my attention and freedom'. It was quite funny actually as Harvynna was very happy to see her sister and kept carrying her and holding her hand.

Now, we are back to our routine and I no longer have a quiet drive everyday as she will be there asking her usual 101 questions. She seems more matured now (probably because I have not seen her for 3 weeks)

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Just me and my gal

Since hubs was working on saturday, I took decided to take Rowena out. I havent really done that as Harvynna was around and was less adventurous since. I used to take Harvynna out alone and still do.

It was not too bad - we left the house a little after 10 and decided to go to Mid Valley since Mothercare was having a sale. It was quite good with discounts up to 50%. I bought the girls a few dresses since I just love Mothercare and their quality is good. But thanks to Rowena, I could not really shop much as she kept running outside the store - so I had one eye on her and one eye on the clothes. That's one of the reasons I dont like going to Mid Valley - fear of psychopaths lurking around as they place is just too huge. Luckily, the salesgirls there took some toys off the shelve and let Rowena play with them.

After that we just walked around and I realise that Rowena has become a real toddler. She will not sit in the stroller for long, after a while she will start fidgeting and arching her back (all the tantrum signs) and I have to let her out where she will RUN, and I mean really RUN. So that was the end of the shopping episode.

Later, we went to the play area at Jusco and she played on some of the rides including the carousal (mini one). She really had fun there.

Finally, I got tired and we had a bite at Dunkin Donuts where the grand finale was Rowena squashing the chocolate donut in her hand and all over her face. That was the sign that said, its time to go!!

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Finger painting no more

As mentioned in my earlier post, I was planning to do some finger painting with Rowena. So I prepared the stuff using pink food colouring and got all the newpapers laid out on the balcony (to avoid staining the furniture), stripped her to her diapers and we started our arts and crafts activity.

First of all, she looked at everything hesitantly and sat on in the hall (refused to sit in the balcony). So I dipped my hands in the tub of paint, she copied me but rubbed the paint all over her legs,then she decided to taste it.

Haha, she started the gagging thing where she goes buaaak, buaaak non stop. Everytime, I ask her to dip her hands into the tub,she will say buaaak. OK, I get the message.

Then I ask her to come sit with me, and she comes, and SITS on my lap with all the paint on her and she just stares at the paint.

I think it will be a long, long time before I try painting with her again. I did not take any pictures as i did not want to end up dipping my camera in paint!

Rowena with Uncle Jovan

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Finger painting

Since Harvynna is not around, I was looking around for ideas to entertain Rowena. Currently, she is happily walking around, dipping her hands into everything, pulling out all the toys and exploring them and 'reading' her books without having them grabbed by Harvynna.

Was thinking of doing some finger painting with her this weekend. I had a bad experience the last time I used Finger paint with Harvynna as it stained really badly and I had to get rid of the clothes she was wearing. I got the set of finger paints from Toys r us and was so disappointed. Later, I did not allow her to wear any clothes while painting! (just diapers)

I found some easy recipes to make finger paints which may be less lethal!

Easy Fingerpaint
Ingredients

2 cups white flour
2 cups cold water
food coloring

Directions

Put water into a large bowl. Slowly add the flour, while the children are stirring. Once it's all mixed together, divide into smaller bowls and add food coloring.

Be sure to have lots of heavy paper on hand for painting. These paint tend to be too wet for newsprint or regular paper.

Plus its safe if she sticks her fingers into her mouth too!

Musikgarten for toddlers

In my earlier post, I mentioned about sending Rowena for Musikgarten. PErsonally, I had a good experience with Musikgarten with Harvynna. Harvynna started Musikgarten at about 14-15 months. Initially, she used to just run around and do her own things, she would cry sometimes, or she will look at everyone. She put everything into her mouth including the bells, sticks and other props.
The first 2-3 sessions were quite bewildering to me, as I saw the other children participating actively while Harvynna was in her own world.

Slowly, she started to join in as she got used to the people and environment. Slowly, she started to enjoy the activities and picked up songs very fast. She learnt a lot of words and used to recall and recap what she learnt at home. We were lucky that her teacher was very good and did not really follow a structure but rather went with the flow. The children seemed to love her as she was very animated.

I think Musikgarten is effective provided the teacher is good. They have dances, songs, actions, musical instruments e.g. drums, jingles, bells and use simple props like scarves, balls, parachutes.Harvynna defintely benefited from the classes.

I brought Harvynna for a Yamaha Music trial class (for 3 year olds) in Bangsar but I found it very boring and structured. The teacher was so liveless and passive. Basically, everyone had to sit on the organ stool and was confined to a small room. I made up my mind immediately not to enrol her there.

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