Random Happenings

This school holiday is going to be the most boring one ever. Daddy and mummy did not plan any holiday outings at all. Nothing much is happening so far and mummy and I are practically rotting away at home. I keep complaining "I'm bored, mummy. I'm very bored..." but mummy can only nod in agreement "me too" haha.

Here are some random happenings over the past 2 weeks...

Wardrobe Malfunction

I was given a t-shirt and pants and told to change on my own before going out...

It was after entering the lift that mummy noticed I had my top put on "front-side-back". Silly me haha!

Squirrel

Gung-gung caught another squirrel in Ah Ma's mini fruit orchard again. We made yet another trip to the Lake Gardens to set it free.

Finally, a "grown-up" squirrel that looked like a squirrel, not a rat :)

The Way I Sit

Mummy noticed that I sit in the most awkward ways and hardly the proper way.

Dining in a restaurant...

A contortionist in the making...

LRT Ride

I had my second LRT ride two weekends ago. We went to KLCC and bought MPO (Malaysian Phiharmonic Orchestra) tickets for a show next month. This is going to be my very first orchestral concert.

I loved the LRT ride very much!

Cotton Candy

After watching a few cartoons on tv that featured cotton candies, I was very curious to try it. Finally, I spotted them at a candy stall in a mall and kept bugging mummy to get one for me. Mummy said no but I pleaded with her until I got it...

Yay! Can't wait to taste it! Outcome: I didn't like it :(

Video Games

I have been playing quite a lot of violent, warrior-fighting PS games with daddy *mummy shakes head*. This is a typical scene in the living room at night when daddy is around...

Sshhhh! Don't disturb. I'm busy "fighting" with daddy...

Comics

I have taken a liking to reading comics lately, thanks to mummy's new collection of Baby Blues comic books. Mummy used to go crazy over this comic strip years ago (she still does now!) and she nearly named me Zoe, can you believe it?

I love reading about the kids, esp Zoe and Hammie's bickering and mischiefs (something that I can relate to hehe). Mummy reads to me on most parts and I will giggle at the situations that I find amusing :D

A Little Something For Teacher (2)

We will be celebrating Teacher's Day in school tomorrow. Just like last year, we were told to prepare a small token to show our appreciation to our beloved teachers for their care, guidance, dedication, patience (the list is endless)...

Not wanting to make cards again (we've already done that last year), mummy and daddy came up with an idea using Pyssla beads. Mummy helped me with the letterings and I filled in the rest.

Helping mummy to select the black ones out for the letterings

OK, I'll "kautim" the rest, mummy

In deep concentration... using a tweezer to carry out the task, esp when placing the beads into narrow crevices

This project proved to be too tiring for me so mummy split it into 2 days. On Day 1, we only managed to make 3 pieces of this...

Colourful TEACHER plate (x3)

On Day 2, we continued with Part 2 of the project. We made the colourful I *heart* plate.

Mummy did the letter "I" and the outline of the heart and I did the rest...

Next, the two plates were secured together with strings to make a hanging deco piece. Of course, the ironing and the string-tying were all done by mummy.

Tada... our end product! Something very simple but unique, I think hehehe

This is for you, teacher. Hope you will like it :)

Mummy is very bad in buying gifts so she ended up getting... what else but chocolates AGAIN haha...

A small gift for my three wonderful teachers

While we are still on the topic of Pyssla beads, here's our collection so far...

Macam-macam ada...

Sweet treats

Miscellaneous, including cartoon characters like Hello Kitty and Patrick

After making so many things, our container of beads is still (slightly more than) half full!

Reading and Progress Report

Since the beginning of this year (at 4 years 3 months), mummy noticed that I could read independently. When given any children's books at random, I can read most of the words in it. I also have the ability to guess unfamiliar words by applying my knowledge in phonics.

Besides reading simple English-based story books, I can read Chinese too. Recently, I brought home all my school books together with my progress report. Among the books, mummy saw a small Chinese textbook and asked me to read to her. Mummy was quite surprised and impressed that I could read and recognize so many Chinese characters, page after page!

This is what I read (just in case my pronunciation isn't clear enough in the video)...

Just look at the number of repetitions (dates)... no wonder I could read haha!

Mummy has been doing a mini-spring cleaning at home too. She reorganized the bookshelf and threw out many of her own books to make way for mine. Over the years, daddy and mummy have bought hundreds of books for me! Here are some of them (not including those in the living room and my bedroom)...

Neatly sorted and arranged... all within my reach and easier for me to pick and read on my own :)

The young avid reader

Mummy also attended a Parents-Teachers Conference to discuss my progress in school. Although timid and quiet at most times, I have a bit of leadership quality too (esp in the absence of an adult/teacher). According to my class teacher Miss S, who made an observation and discovered that when she is not in sight (she observed from afar), she saw me instructing my peers to perform simple tasks like drink water, put things away, call for group forming etc.

Academically, I'm doing quite well. Miss S commented that I have very high retention power and can remember things very well after being taught just once. However, I tend to be careless when doing my workbooks. I sometimes have slight language confusion between English and BM too (phonics and sukukata).

Teacher's comment: Ruoyi is a very intelligent child and she is above the rest in class. She works fast but sometimes careless when doing her workbooks as a lot of mistakes shows. Although she has shown much improvement when socializing with her friends but sometimes is still reluctant to speak up when she has been called upon several times. All in all, she is a very helpful girl. Keep it up, Ruoyi!

Expressions

There's never a dull moment with me around. Mummy brought me out for lunch last Friday and while waiting for our orders to arrive, I entertained her with my multitude of expressions...

The good-girl look

Happy

Sad *cry*

Excited

What??? *Shocked*

ANGRY!

Tada!

Whatever...

Bored...

Engrossed

Hungry.....

Schoolbag

After attending pre-school for nearly 1.5 years, it suddenly dawned on mummy that she has never bought me a decent schoolbag!

All this while, I have been using these small and flimsy bags that came as free gifts...

From left to right: Stitch sling bag, SE frog bag and SE tiger bag

Last year, when I was still in nursery class, I never brought any books home so I used the small Stitch sling back just to put my water tumbler and cap. The bag was part of the kids' activity pack courtesy of Cathay Pacific when we flew to Hong Kong last year.

This year, it was "upgraded" to the animal backpacks (that came as free gifts from Scotts Emulsion). However, both the frog and tiger bags were quite poorly made, especially the zips so their duties were short-lived.

When I broke the green zip a few weeks ago, mummy chided "Why are you so cow?" Today, mummy broke the orange one... oops! And I quickly shot back at her "Why are you so cow?

Well, we are not "cows" actually. These poor quality zips are too thin and brittle!

Broken zips from the frog and tiger bag

Fortunately, we have a new bag at home. Perfect timing. This is a "controversial" bag that sparked a heated debate between mummy and I in Parkson last week. Holding a stack of cash vouchers, mummy was feeling a bit generous and wanted to get me a sweet pink Hello Kitty backpack. I kept refusing and adamantly INSISTED on getting this Minnie Mouse one just because it was a trolley bag. Nevermind if it's cheaper than the Hello Kitty one, just as long as it's pink, got Minnie Mouse, I can PULL it, I wanted it...

My very first proper schoolbag :)

The bag parade... (hopefully it's not a case of hangat-hangat tahi ayam and mummy finds herself carrying it for me later!)

Eating and Food-shopping Spree in Ipoh

Our annual day-trip to Ipoh was due again. Mah-mah needed to get something done over there while we just tagged along for a jalan-jalan sambil makan-makan trip. The following day was also Yeh-yeh's birthday and since Yeh-yeh loved food, this trip was just perfect for him. We woke up really early at 6am and started our journey at around 7am+. All 7 of us went in one car... Koo-koo's MPV.

We had hor-hee for brunch...

Hor hee... hor-fun soup with fishballs and fishcake slices.

Besides hor-hee, we also had all these side orders...

Chee-cheong fun

"Pillow" dumpling

Ipoh white coffee and cream caramel

After a very satisfying meal, I told mummy "I LOVE this (hor-hee) because don't have any veggies in it"

Later, after travelling around in the hot sun, we went to another coffeeshop for some cool and refreshing drinks...

Thirst-quenchers... watermelon and sa-lei (umpera) sour plum juice

We also saw a mobile-stall selling what they claimed as "The best cendol in Menglembu town". We were curious to try it but since it was too hot outside, we "tapau-ed" and ate it in the car...

Cendol with jagung... Quite good!

Later in the evening, we went to Pusing, daddy's birthplace. We went to Sook-gung and Sook por's house. I had my very first cold bath here. They used to have a well and both daddy and mummy loved bathing their cool, well water. The hot and humid weather made us very sweaty and sticky. We queued up and took turns to have the much-needed bath. After freshening up, we were told that the water was actually piped water (already pre-collected in a HUGE concrete water tank) hahaha. The well was no longer in use.

Oh yes, we also continued eating...

Pusing's yummy sweet and savoury kuih-muih for afternoon tea

Later, we went to a nearby shop for dinner. Most of the adults had curry lai-fun (a type of rice noodles)...

Curry lai-fun

My gon-lou lai-fun

We ate our noodles with these...

Two big bowls of assorted "yong liu"....

... and sotong kangkung

... and added more ROJAK to our already very rojak tummies hehe!

*BUUUUUURP* After our nearly 12-hour eating marathon, we finally left for home and reached home close to midnight. Koo-koo's MPV was also stuffed to the brim with all kinds of goodies. Here's our share...

Tambun pomelo, guavas, hap tou sou cookies and soy sauce

Our favourite Hong Kee egg tarts!

More pillow dumplings (the same one that we had earlier in the coffeeshop)

We also managed to find and buy the much talked about JJ Swissrolls. Mummy loves the fact that they are made with fresh fruits and vegetables, preservative-free and low in sugar.

Mummy bought the durian and cempedak combo... they were so soft, cottony, fragrant and good!

Vegetable cakes, anyone? Mummy also bought these unusual mini swissrolls in carrot, pumpkin, spinach and banana flavours. Very unique indeed!