Sherilyn’s Milestone – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

End Of Another Chapter

Today is the last day of school for Drama Queen and Cass. For Drama Queen, it is the final day for her in that school where she spent 6 years of primary education there and made many good friends. She has gone to the shopping mall with her gang of besties now to have a last get-together.

This year has been an extremely eventful and busy year for Drama Queen. Well, for me too. Yesterday the UPSR results were out. For someone who had only put in 30%~40% effort revising for all her exams, I would say that the results were not bad. I had actually expected worst off results. What is truly unbelievable to me is how she can score an ‘A’ for Chinese Writing!! When Drama Queen told me that one of the As is for Chinese Writing, I didn’t believe her as Chinese has always been her weakest subject. Nonetheless, I believe it was her creativity in writing that earned her an ‘A’. Kudos, Sherilyn!

Today marks the end of a 6-year chapter in Drama Queen’s life book. In 5 weeks, another even more exciting chapter awaits her and me. I pray that I will be able to manage this audacious and fearless girl who will turn teenager in less than 3 months. She has never failed to give me endless surprises, heart-stopping moments and plenty issues to overwork my grey matter, both at school and at home.

Drama Queen’s super hectic year has yet to come to an end. In fact, many exciting events are lined up until year end. She has a certificate and trophy presentation at Kidzania next week (thanks to Gleneagles), an ukulele camp end of November and an ukulele performance at a shopping mall in December. And the highlight of the year for her is not so much completing her UPSR exam but of her taking a flight with Alycia to Hong Kong sans her dad, grandma or me following. It will be Alycia and Drama Queen’s first time flying overseas on their own!! It’s a totally unplanned trip, courtesy of their ever generous aunt (hubs’ sister) in Hong Kong. A few years ago, Alycia and Drama Queen were gifted the same offer by their aunt but I wasn’t ready yet to let go of them traveling without adult supervision. I THINK I am quite ready now as they had traveled overseas several times and are quite familiar with the procedures. I think these 2 sisters will have a blast. After Hong Kong, we will be back in Ipoh for a week and the following week will be our road trip to Singapore to visit my new twin nephew and niece. I can’t wait to cuddle the two cuties.

But first things first. We MUST renew our passports PRONTO as they have expired!!

My healthy breakfast this morning: skinny sugar-free yoghurt with raw instant oats, raw pumpkin seeds, seasoned Korean seaweed, mum’s homemade fish floss and drizzle of palm syrup. A banana (high in prebiotics) and my dose of Izumio and Super Lutein. Pretty similar to what I had for breakkie yesterday. I need to pump in lots of good bacteria into my guts now.

No. of times viewed = 9

Fashion Designer Wannabe

In terms of ingenuity, I would give Sherilyn a 9/10 rating. She is one person who always thinks out of the box. Her forte lies in her passion for fashion and her creativity, not to mention her boldness and her ‘dare to fail’ stance. In school, she will be the audacious few who always raises her hands to answer questions, though her answers may be wrong. She will be the one who dares to take part in all the competitions opened to her, irregardless of whether she is adept or competent in that area. She had taken part in numerous drawing and talent-time competitions thus far. Her latest winning is a second placement in a drawing and coloring competition for Primary 2 students.

At 11ish pm when all her sisters were fast asleep with me struggling to open my eyes, this Melinda Looi hopeful was still at the dining table, trying to finish sewing a bridal gown. She hijacked my measurement tape, scissors and sewing kit. I gave her an old hanky to practise her sewing before she undertook this ‘project’.

She was poked umpteen times by needles but that did not stop her a wee bit to finish off her first bridal gown. Her perseverance paid off and she managed to design and sew an awesome wedding gown in bright red! Even her critical sister praised her!

The wedding gown, 80% completed. And I had forgotten to snap a picture of the finished gown, bummer!

No. of times viewed = 831

Sherilyn’s Grade 1 Ballet Exam – 2nd Trial

We dedicated half our Saturday yesterday to Sherilyn and accompanied her to the ballet studio for the 2nd trial of her Grade 1 ballet exam. The studio was pretty far from where we stay and the journey itself clocked up to almost an hour, both ways. My childhood friend SF and her daughter Mel car pooled with us. Mel and Sherilyn have been friends ever since they knew how to babble – they went to the same kindy, same tuition centre, same ballet school and learn swimming together at our condo now.

After watching how my rascal danced, I am pretty convinced that ballet/dancing is her forte! She just needs some reminders from me every now and then to practice her movements though.

At the changing room, getting ready…

Sherilyn doing a solo Poca dance…

The 3 ballerinas putting on their character skirt and shoes …

No. of times viewed = 437

Sherilyn And Her Math

So much for all the hair-pulling, stroke-inducing Math drilling sessions with Sherilyn, she came home from pre-school last week and happily told me that her Math teacher praised her for getting all correct for the Math sums. She proudly told me that her teacher informed the principal that she was the fastest in class to complete these Math sums with a 10/10 and said that Sherilyn is ‘very geng’! LOL!

I think anyone can be good in Math IF she/he keeps doing them. Math is all about practice. The more you do, the better you get.

Sherilyn at 6years 8 months

No. of times viewed = 246

Our Sunday – Sherilyn’s Inter-School Talent Time Competition

We spent our entire Sunday ‘camping’ at a school in Puchong today. Today is Sherilyn’s participation in her pre-school’s inter-school talent competition, held at State level. As expected, the waiting period was frigging looooooooooong. She followed her principal to the school at 8am sharp and we joined her at around 10ish am. We were told that her event will start at 10:45am but Malaysians being Malaysians, it was delayed to 2 hours later!! While Sherilyn had fun playing with her friends and with the booth games set up by Enfagrow, Alycia and Baby were very restless. Plus it was hot in the open air hall with only wall fans to keep about 1,000+ parents and kids cool. The loos, gosh…. entering into one brought me back to memory lane where I used to hate going to my school loos which were filthy, wet and stinky! Till today I still have nightmares about my school’s loos!

Just before Sherilyn’s turn to sing, she had nose bleeding. Gosh, I kept dabbing the blood away with tissue papers and thank God the bleeding stopped just before she went up the stage to sing with her 2 other team mates. It was the 1st time she had a nose bleed. I think it could have been caused by lack of water, heat and all the rush. Plus, she has a weird habit of smelling her fingers lately *faint* Before the singing event, she and her 2 other team mates (aged 4YO and 5YO) had to take part in an art and craft competition. She was the so-called group leader as she’s the oldest in the group.

We left the school even before the results were announced as we were all very tired after having ‘camped’ at the school for over 4 hours. There was not even a place for us to sit as all the seats had been occupied. We knew she did not win as there were many other kids before her who gave superb performances. These kids really have the qualities of a singer – they could sing with good vocal chord, dance and perform without an inch of stage fright. Well, Sherilyn was confident and did not show any nervousness. She has always been a bold dare-devil. I think if the teachers had chosen a more catchy song with more actions, complete with props and more practices, Sherilyn and her team would stand a better chance of emerging the top 10. There were over 20 schools and about 6 groups from each school. Some schools were very, very well prepared.

We had a late lunch at a Japanese restaurant at about 3pm and all of us were famished after a hard and hot day at the school. I’m proud of Sherilyn. At least she had the guts to go up the stage, sang her song and completed it without chickening out and crying at the 11th hour like some kids today.

No. of times viewed = 342

Sherilyn And Her Math

I normally go through the use of threats to get Sherilyn to do her homework or work that I’ve given her. With all the dilly-dallying and a bucket full of excuses from her, she sometimes takes days to complete 2 pages of Math questions from the Kumon workbooks that I bought for her. But sometimes, this fella would seem to be very motivated and can complete her work in a jiffy in under half an hour.

On 8 February, this was what I asked her to do. I told her that when I got out from the bathroom, she had better finish the 2 pages of Kumon Math equations, else there will be no dinner for her… and yes she did, she kwai kwai sat on the chair and without a word or sound from her, she told me that she had finished everything, in under half an hour! I know it’s still considered slow for a ‘Kumoner’ but looking at her past record, it’s considered good. She got all the answers correct with only one careless mistake. Not bad for a 6yo doing a Grade 2 Kumon Math workbook eh? I told her with delight, praised her sky high that she’s POWERFUL and boy was she proud LOL!!

No. of times viewed = 622

Math Is All About Practice

The more you do it, the better you are at it, that’s Math! Once you stop, your brain tends to get dense and you need lots of practise to start the momentum again. I get Alycia and Sherilyn to do Math equations everyday or at least every other day.

4+2 is ….. four is bigger than two, so put four in your head. Take out 2 fingers, after four is five, six. So four plus two is six.

Here, Sherilyn is solving some Kumon Math additions, which is all about repetition and lots of practising. I don’t send my gals to Kumon class (too expensive). I bought Alycia and Sherilyn some Kumon Math workbooks from MPH, which are not cheap either.

Do you send your kids to Math enrichment classes?

CNY is less than a month away. If you still have not bought any clothes yet, do check out my online store. I’ve uploaded pix of some new arrivals – both free size and larger size trendy clothes that you’ll love!

No. of times viewed = 846

My Independent Little Rascal

Alycia and Sherilyn are both pretty independent. They prefer to do things like taking their shower on their own, choosing their clothes themselves, choosing their own plate, bowl, cup and cutlery, washing up after pee and poo on their own, than having kakak or me helping them. As for Sherilyn, she even cuts her finger nails and toe nails on her own lately. I feel bad whenever I see her cutting her nails on her own with my huge nail-clipper. It all started when she kept asking me to trim her finger nails about a month back. She kept complaining that her finger nails were very long and sharp and asked me to help her trim them. I told her ok, ok, ok but as always, I was too caught up with other chores and had soon forgotten to attend to her finger nails. Then one day, I saw her doing this :

I went closer to check how she was doing and was really impressed that she could trim her finger nails really well. She could trim them neatly without cutting her skin. She even knew how to lay a piece of toilet paper on the table to collect the trimmed nail, with a back scratcher on top of the toilet paper to prevent the paper from flying away! But the guilt I felt was pretty corrosive… that I had neglected this rascal #2. But I looked at it on the bright side. She has grown into a very independent girl. She could even administer the Ventolin through the Aero Chamber on her own with me standing next to her when she had a bad bout of cough with lots of phlegm recently.

I think this Princess Wannabe is going to grow up to be someone who is really independent, pig-headed, bossy and pernickety one day. She’s another cili padi!

No. of times viewed = 4591

Sherilyn Learns Ballet Today

Sherilyn my little vain pot and princess wannabe finally got her wish come true today. She followed her cheh cheh to the ballet school today and joined her in her class. When Sherilyn attended the trial ballet class last year (she was 3 yo then), she was awestruck and just watched the students in their cute tutu and ballet costume dance with her mouth wide open. She was so awestruck that she couldn’t follow what the teacher told her to do. Consequently, the ballet teacher ordered her out of the room and she was really dejected. Ballet schools are pretty strict on discipline. If I sent my gals to Jean Gan Ballet Academy, I don’t think they will even be accepted as my friends who send their kids there told me that the teachers are really really strict. Now, a year later and much matured after having attended pre-school for half a year, Sher’s learning curve has become sharper and she is more ready to take instructions. At the ballet class today, she was very enthusiastic and followed the teacher attentively.

When the girls got home, Sherilyn was very eager to show me what she learnt in the ballet school. Alycia who has never wanted to practise her steps or show me what she learnt in ballet school felt left out that daddy and my attention was all on Sherilyn and felt the competition. For once, she was also eager to show me the steps and ‘corrected’ Sherilyn’s steps. I think it’s really a good idea to send Sherilyn for ballet lessons together with Alycia. This way, a healthy competition is created and Alycia will have more enthusiasm in learning. My 2 daughters are just so different in characters. Alycia is really shy, timid and reserved while Sherilyn is really outgoing, bold and wants to learn everything.

No. of times viewed = 654

Diaper-Weaning Sherilyn

In the midst of my very busy schedule with Baby C, I tried to tackle another task 3 days ago, and that is to wean Sherilyn off diapers during her afternoon nap. The first day, it was accident-free. I woke her up an hour into her nap and brought the potty to the living room where she naps. Sherilyn is a little more difficult to tackle than Alycia. With Alycia, I did not have to exert much pressure or coaxing to bring her to the potty. With Sherilyn, I had to pull her up from the mattress and practically carry her to the potty, which was reaaaaally strenuous on my already battered back.

The second day, I also woke Sher up to pee 1 hour after she had gone into her nap. However, she still peed in her pants later. When she woke up, she was too embarrassed or scared to let me know that she had peed in her pants. She got up from the mattress, walked round the house and 15 minutes later, announced coyly and nonchalantly “mummy, my shirt is wet“. Haiyah…. I really wanted to scream coz I was busy with Baby C and my maid was busy in the kitchen. But I kept my cool and did not scold her. The bedsheet and bolster were soaked with pee. Thankfully the pee did not permeate the mattress as I had placed a large piece of plastic sheet underneath.

The third day, Sherilyn demanded to sleep in mah mah’s bedroom upstairs. I had to be downstairs to watch over Baby, so I put a diaper on Sher, so my training went off-course.

On the fourth day, which is today, Sher requested to sleep on my gym mat, which is all the more better coz even if she had a pee accident, it would be easier to clean up the mess. I woke her up to pee an hour after she had gone into her nap and she peed big time in the potty. I thought she had emptied her bladder with such a huge volume of pee but nope, half an hour later, she peed in her pants, aargghh!

Phew, it’s really tiring for me. Hopefully in no time, Sherilyn will be totally off diapers just like Alycia.

Still in a dreaming state and eyes half opened.

Sherilyn was really tickled pink with the car-shaped hard-boiled egg and fish-shaped hard-boiled egg that I made them for breakfast today.

No. of times viewed = 425

Sherilyn’s Colorful Personality

Sherilyn has a very ‘colorful’ personality. She’s a drama queen, very imaginative, can be very good in immitating people, loves singing and inventing her own lyrics all the time and is a ‘cili padi’ or ‘fighter-cock’. She never ever wants to loose out to her cheh cheh and always wants to be in the forefront, never in the backseat. When she’s good, she can be very angelic and when she’s bad, she horrid.

Her colorful personality is even shown in her coloring. All her colorings are multi-colored, hardly a single color, though black seemed to be her favorite color early this year but now, she loves a multitude of colors in her coloring.

Sherilyn’s homework.

Check out Baby C’s development here.

No. of times viewed = 301

Sherilyn’s Drawing Of Ice-Cream

Do these look like ice-creams on cone? Sherilyn must have missed eating ice-cream on cone so much that she’s drawing them, lots of them!

No. of times viewed = 374

Alycia’s Drawing vs. Sher’s Drawing

This is Sherilyn’s drawing, which is a copycat of Alycia’s. Sher loves drawing and writing using pens.

And this is Alycia’s drawing. The picture in orange color is her version of an elf. Alycia loves drawing with color pencils and all her drawings are multi colored. Luckily both the gals love drawing, coloring and writing and I don’t really need to coerce Alycia to do her homework. She’s even more ‘kan cheong’ than me sometimes when it comes to completing her homework. One time I had even forgotten to remind her to complete her Mandarin homework, shame on me mummy!

No. of times viewed = 310

Sher Is Listening And Absorbing Like A Sponge

My mum was teaching Alycia what ascending and descending order are in her Math exercise several days ago. She was explaining to Alycia that ascending means going up, like going up the stairs and descending means going down, like going down the stairs.

As my mum was teaching Alycia, Sherilyn sat quietly next to my mum, doing letter tracing. All of a sudden, Sherilyn began to draw this :

Do you have any inkling what these are? These are Sherilyn’s version of the staircase.

“Are you trying to write the letter E or F Sherilyn?” said my mum.

“This is stairs, going up stairs means a-scen-ding” said Sherilyn out loud. She even managed to pronounce the word ascending clearly.

My mum was amazed that Sherilyn was actually absorbing what she has been explaining to Alycia all the time. Though she had kept quiet and doing letter tracing, she was actually listening and soaking up many things that my mum was explaining to Alycia, just like a sponge. Isn’t that amazing?

No. of times viewed = 257

This Is Daddy

That’s Sherilyn’s drawing of daddy’s head, with no hair, no ears and a tiny neck LOL! She loves drawing and coloring and her writing skill has also improved. She can trace letters and numbers quite well and can even write a few letters of the alphabet without having me to dot them for her. Whenever Alycia does her homework, Sher will also sit next to me and do drawing, coloring or writing. However, she can be rather irritating when she keeps asking me questions and seeking my attention when I am busy coaching Alycia in her homework. Sher has been showing keen interest in going to pre-school. I may send her to Aly’s pre-school in June this year.

No. of times viewed = 213

Sherilyn’s 3rd Birthday Dinner

We had wanted a very simple birthday dinner for Sherilyn’s 3rd birthday as I didn’t have the energy and mood to throw her a party and to entertain friends. Already in my 3rd trimester, I’ve been feeling really tired and sleepy these days, so a dinner in a restaurant would be the easiest. Initially, we wanted to have dinner at a Korean restaurant, just our family with no other relatives and friends but in the end, daddy ended up inviting all his aunties and uncles and we had 2 tables in a Chinese restaurant.

Sherilyn with daddy, mummy, granny and Alycia.

Sherilyn and Alycia blowing the flame off the candles with all their might and the cake was covered with their saliva!

Poor Sherilyn still had a bandage on her forehead resulting from the bloody fall on Valentine’s Day.

Party whistles and party toys for the kids.

Sherilyn, Alycia and their little aunty who is 9 months older than Alycia.

Since we did not make it to the Korean restaurant and all of us were still looking forward to have Korean food, daddy brought us to the Korean restaurant the following day where we had a real fantastic lunch. Stay tuned for more updates…..

No. of times viewed = 358