First Day of School and a Sweet Surprise

Yesterday (19/8/2013) marked another important milestone for me. It was my first day of school as a 2nd Grader. Yes, I am now in Primary 2 although I've just celebrated my 7th birthday barely a week ago! I am like a December child back in Malaysia... untung 1 year :) If I were to be born a month later (in Sept), I would only get to start Primary 1 now... rugi almost a year. Phew, lucky me!

Big girl already... all set to take on the challenges of being a 2nd Grader.

So how was my first day at school? It was GREAT of course because I have been looking forward to this day since weeks ago. I am glad to be in the same class with a few of my old classmates (the school did a student-reshuffling as two new classes were added) and I like my new class teacher because she is not fierce :p

When I got home from school, I was even happier because a little surprise was waiting for me...

A parcel all the way from Malaysia... for me!

It was a (belated) birthday present from Koo-koo (she actually sent it before my birthday but it took weeks to arrive)

Let me read Koo-koo's message in the little card first...

Wow!! A book! A book that I liked. A book that mummy and I fought over and tore took turns to read and finish in 2 days back in Malaysia (the first book). A book that I've always wanted (this second book).

That's not all... this book is specially autographed by Uncle Boey, the author! How cool is that :)

Thank you very much Koo-koo! I love the book very much and that autograph from Uncle Boey is priceless!! You surprised not only me but daddy and mummy as well. Thanks again... Muacks!

Note: Uncle Boey's books may contain some "adult vocab" so reader discretion is advised ;)

Nothing's Happening...

... which explains why mummy has been slow in updating my blog. Well, here are some random updates on what I have been up to lately...

Books
Mummy bought more books for me recently. Although she kept reminding herself not to buy too many books for me (and too frequently), she just couldn't resist the good bargains at a recent book sales. Here are some of the books she bought for me, just some...

My new collection of hard cover Enid Blyton story books (only RM7 each)

Because of daddy and mummy's crazy book-buying spree, we ran out of bookshelf space some time ago. Our home has been "littered" with hundreds of "homeless" books piled up at almost every corner until daddy could no longer tolerate the mess and decided to give those poor books a proper "home"...

Let me help you, daddy... I know how because I watch Handy Manny, you know ;) 

Our spanking new Billy bookshelf from Ikea... it was immediately filled up from top to bottom, leaving no space for future new books :(

My new-found love... Where's Wally?

Kindy Field Trip

I went for my kindergarten's first field trip of the year on 1st March. I joined the K1 group to Taman Tasik Permaisuri, Cheras, where we went for a nature walk followed by a lunch picnic at the playground. Mummy did not go with me on the trip but she managed to steal some photos from my kindy's Facebook :p

One for the album... with my teachers and some of my friends

Milo ice-cream for dessert at the picnic (we had chicken rice for lunch)

Loose tooth

Since late last year, mummy noticed that my teeth are very widely spaced out, leaving unsightly gaps in between, especially on my lower jaw. This "widened jaw" is a sign that I'm growing well and that I'm ready to "change to a new set of teeth". 

Big gaps between my teeth (they used to be close and neat before this)

As expected, one of my lower teeth started to feel shaky last month. It is so shaky and loose now that it can even move side to side, revealing a huge gap that many times fooled mummy into thinking that the tooth had dropped. 

See the "hole" on the bottom row of my teeth? The "hole" is actually a gap as all my teeth are still intact! 

Skinny

Many people have been commenting that I have lost weight, esp Ah Ma and Mah-mah (both my grandmas).  Even friends and other people close to me have been commenting that I look very skinny lately. Well, as long as I'm eating well (I actually eat quite a lot) and growing healthily, being skinny doesn't bother mummy that much. 

I'm skinny because I am tall... I am growing upwards, not side ways, that's why!

Music 

Playing the piano is my latest passion and look forward to attending music classes every week. I am still very self-motivated and I will practice without being told. I can play all the pieces in Book 1 (most of them self-learned) and mummy is considering letting me skip a grade or maybe send me for individual piano lesson sooner. The class that I am attending now is more suitable for 4yo and I find the lessons too simple and not challenging enough.

Here are 2 videos of me playing two of my favourite pieces - I Am King and Hot Cross Buns...

Cheapest Ever!

Last week, mummy went on another book buying spree. This time, she got me some Chinese books from the Popular clearance sale in IPC (Ikano Power Centre). Priced at only RM1 each, these books were filthy cheap! How not to buy? In just under 10 minutes, mummy had easily grabbed picked 20 books for me...

More books for the bookworm... mummy painstakingly wiped and re-wiped each and every one of these books squeaky clean for me (they were all covered in dust)

Mummy chose mostly story books for me. All the books are very beautifully illustrated and come with "han yu pin yin" so that mummy can teach me how to read

Only RM1 for a hardcover book!

At only RM1, some books even come with an audio CD!

Me and my new collection of Chinese books... RM20 for 20 books :)

I can't read most of these books yet so I have to depend on mummy to read (and explain) them to me at the moment.

The Bookworm

I read first thing in the morning (esp when daddy and mummy sleep in during the weekends and I wake up earlier than them, I will read quietly in the living room on my own)

I read in the bookstores with daddy (usually in a mall) when mummy goes shopping

I read while taking my meals (mummy often has to shout and remind me to EAT!

I read during our hotel stays

I read before bedtime everyday :)

How not to wear specs, like that??

I am able to read books that are of quite advanced level, like this Enid Blyton's Mr Pink-Whistle series, which mummy started reading (and loved) at around age 10

*Reading updates at 5 year 3 months

Books for the Bookworms

Both daddy and I are bookworms. I simply LOVE reading! Reading is the first thing I do in the morning and reading is also the last thing I do every night just before going to bed.

Last Saturday, on our way back to Seremban, daddy and mummy decided to make a quick stop at the MAEPS in Serdang to grab a few books at the Big Bad Wolf Sales. With 1.5 million books on offer, the BBW Sales is said to be the biggest book sales in the world!

*Gasp* Looooooooong queue just to get in... we were halfway to the entrance from here

Once in, we saw only two things there... books and people!

Mummy and I spent most of the time browsing at the children's section where I picked most of my own books 

While queuing at the check out counter, I saw this bank mascot and got excited... I wanted to have a photo taken with it

Well, 3 hours+ later and RM298 poorer, we were seen lugging 47 books in 4 bags... so much for a quick stop just to grab a few books hehehe! Our trip back to Seremban was further delayed by a massive jam on the KL-S'ban highway so guess what? We only had our lunch at 5pm!

Our stash... the left pile is daddy's while the right pile is mine (a few more not in this picture as they have already been given away as gifts)

RM5, RM8 and RM10 books

Some of the babyish books (Kipper and Noddy camera book) that I insisted on having

Only RM3 each!

Besides books, mummy also bought me this Hello Kitty bracelet kit (RM8)

The inside... an instruction booklet and some cute HK beads. Love those cute beads! <3 

Do I like my books? Well, let's just put it this way... I read half of them on the very first day itself and the following day, I finished reading all of them from cover to cover :)

Misc Holiday Activities

Here are some miscellaneous activities that kept me happily occupied during the recent school holidays...

Learning Fractions: Daddy bought me this very educational set of puzzles (only RM8.97 from Jusco), which teaches the concept of fractions in a fun and easy-to-understand way. I completed all the puzzle cards in one sitting and commented "It's so easy!" Haha! * so action*

The Fraction Puzzle Game

Lego: I played Lego almost every other day. It's my favourite! We created so many things such as robots, playgrounds, towers, houses, furniture, vehicles, pyramids, animals etc..

Left: Me and my "futuristic city" Right: Giraffe, tiger, zebra and elephant (made by mummy)

Arts and Crafts: I made a simple Father's Day card for daddy. Mummy taught me how to fold a paper shirt. I wrote the wordings inside (spelled out by mummy) and coloured the front cover with oil pastels.

Daddy, I Love You!

Books: Of course, daddy and mummy read a lot to me too. During the day, I would "bug" mummy with a big stack of books. At night, daddy would read me bedtime stories. One of my current favourites is this...

The 7 Habits of Happy Kids... my very first self-help book :)

This book was written by Sean Covey. Sean Covey is the son of the famous author Stephen Covey who wrote the bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Daddy is crazy over self-help books such as this, so he bought this kids' version for me. I absolutely LOVE the stories in this book and can understand them very well.

Retelling a story with some hand gestures

A Book Frenzy And A Book Blunder

After reading so much about this BookXcess from Smallkucing, we finally went there today. Boy! We nearly drowned in the sea of cheap books! If you have read about my "Bribery" earlier, you would have noticed how much daddy and mummy loved buying books for me.

Well, this time, since we had a very limited time to spare (we only went there at 7pm, after spending nearly 10 hours in MidValley earlier), the stash that we managed to grab were rather limited too...

Books for everyone in the family (the most expensive was only RM19.90!)

Mummy nearly went berserk when she saw two big shelves filled with the Little Miss books! Being a great fan of these books, she tried hard to control her compulsive shopping, and grabbed only 6 of the 12 available titles...

Little Miss books and a Care Bears activity book for me

When she browsed the books at home, uh oh... she found the stories too familiar. Big mistake! She should have browsed the books at the bookstore and not at home!!! Luckily they were only RM2.90 each. She realized that the stories from the 6 books were actually "extracted" from this book...

The Little Miss Story Treasury bought by Kau-foo

This much-treasured book actually has a compilation of 15 stories (so mummy can forget about the rest of the titles on the shelves of BookXcess haha). Well, what shall we do with the redundant books now? We will be giving them away. Let's see who the lucky kid(s) is ;-)

The free Playboy bunny book thong

For our RM122 purchase today, we were rewarded with a free 3-year BookXcess membership (we can foresee more frequent trips there hehe) and a book thong. Of the many cute designs that they had, I just had to choose this "Playboy" rabbit haha!

Oh what a day! We've been out shopping the whole day, for nearly 12 hours (9.45am to 9:15pm). Finally, I went to bed with a new bedtime story...

Daddy reading the penguin story to me... Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter

Bedtime Stories

Very often, it is daddy who reads me bedtime stories and accompanies me during bedtime. However, daddy is not the type who enjoys reading kiddie stories, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, making cute and funny sound effects and all (he leaves those to mummy). He'd rather read his books and share them with me...

Reading the very popular bestseller called Who Moved My Cheese?

Sometimes daddy reads to me half-heartedly in the hope of boring me to sleep sooner. Sometimes he thinks I'm not listening but surprisingly, I will even ask him questions! And most of the time, I can even answer random questions that he asks!

Most of the books that daddy reads to me are self-improvement and motivational books, while some are business and management-related materials. Here are some of the books (the lighter ones with easy-to-understand stories) that I enjoy listening to...

Have you read these before?

(Mummy finds this very amusing, everytime she takes a peek and discovers the books that I'm "reading" haha.)