Art competition

Last Saturday while I was away in Beijing, the centre where Yiu Yiu attends her art class organized a colouring competition and she participated in the category for children between the ages of 4 – 6. The children had to bring their own colour pencils and since I was away, her papa didn't know where I kept her good quality colour pencils so instead, she used the two boxes of leftover poor quality colour pencils that she uses for her day-to-day doodling and colouring.

With her classmate and best friend in kindy, Chloe, who's also her classmate in art class. The two pathetic boxes of colour pencils she used are in the foreground.

The poor dear had a hard time colouring her piece since she had limited choice of colours and the colour pigments didn't dispense smoothly. Nevertheless, I thought she did a really neat job with her piece, except for the monotony of her rainbow :-)

There were also an exhibition of artworks done by students of the centre and Yiu Yiu had her "World of Insects" pieces exhibited.



When the winners were announced, hubby said she was really upset that she didn't win. Aiyo! This girl is really competitive – wants to win all the time. We've to work harder to teach her to accept defeat graciously.

Announcing the winners

See how sour her face was?

Gifts from papa and mummy

I returned from a trip to Beijing with this for Yiu Yiu.

When she opened the bag containing the sandals, she immediately kept quiet, acted as if she was immensely grateful to me (yeah, she's quite a drama queen) and gave me a tight hug. Her papa, who had also just bought her a set of Disney Princesses cutlery set, said, "How come you never hug me just now?"

With her eyes opened huge for effect, and holding the sandals high up to her papa's face, she replied, "You know how nice this shoe (sandal) is or not? See, at the back also got flowers ah."

Mummy – 1, papa – 0.

Rising cost of living

The Star today featured an analysis of the cost of living of the middle-income in Malaysia, with a table showing the monthly budget balance/deficit of various categories of people ranging from fresh graduate to professionals. Many of the individuals featured are just getting by, so it's not surprising that so few of them have extra money for life insurance.

Nevertheless, having insurance coverage is really crucial, and realizing this, my younger sister who recently gave birth to her third child, is sourcing for life insurance quotes for a policy for her baby.

Judging by the report in The Star, the middle income group is really facing a tough time coping with the rising cost of living, and the situation will only worsen if the government reduces subsidies to the rakyat. At this rate, it may even be necessary to set aside some money for funeral insurance, since funerals cost a bomb these and may be a burden to one's descendants.

Cuti-cuti Melaka

Some weeks ago, I had to attend an event in Melaka on a Friday evening. I asked hubby to come along so we could let Yiu Yiu enjoy the hotel facilities. So while I attended my event, hubby tended to the girls. And I took over the parental duty after that so he could catch up with his ex-colleague in Melaka.

From our hotel room, we could see boats cruising down the Melaka River and promised to take Yiu Yiu for a ride.

Unfortunately the next morning, we woke up to gloomy weather and we thought, "There goes our plans." After breakfast, it stopped raining and we quickly went for a quick dip in the pool.

Beauty queen material?

This is her signature pose these days, with the V sign

It was a cold day so we didn't let Yan Yan go into the water

It started raining again soon after so we left the pool and went back to the room and got ready to check-out. After lunch, the rain had again eased and we decided to have a go at the river cruise.

At the jetty waiting to board the boat

Examining the tickets

It was quite a pleasant 40-minute ride and I must say that the state government did a pretty good job in cleaning up the once filthy river. Along the cruise, we caught glimpses of historic buildings, old warehouses, churches and villages.

Colourful buildings depicting legends of the Malacca sultanate

We headed home after the cruise, and didn't visit attractions at Ayer Keroh as planned, as a thunderstorm was brewing behind us.

Missing out – the sequel

I knew I was going to miss Yiu Yiu's kindy party today but by a cruel twist of fate, Yiu Yiu also had to miss her kindy party.

I got a call from Yiu Yiu's class teacher on Wednesday night while I was in Singapore. She called to inform that one of her classmate was a confirmed H1N1 case, and as such, her whole class would have to be quarantined for a week. My first reaction was praying silently that Yiu Yiu would be spared from the nasty virus. My second reaction was imagining how she would react to the news that there'll be no party for her on Friday since she was so looking forward to it. Surprisingly, she took to the news really well, and her mind was focused only on the jelly that the babysitter was supposed to prepare for her to bring to kindy. Her reply was "Then the jelly that Aunty YL make we eat at home lor." :-)

Hubby quickly called the paediatrician who advised that if she didn't develop any fever 2-3 days after the exposure, then she'll be fine. Hubby took leave the next day to stay home with her (we leave Yan Yan at the babysitter overnight whenever I travel as hubby can’t manage both on his own) and I cut short my trip and returned home last night. I was occupied with thinking about how to manage the situation, since if I'm home, I'd like to be with Yan Yan so I could nurse her (she's still rejecting EBM, sigh!) and that would mean I couldn't return home. After considering several options, I eventually spent the night at my sister's house (which is just five doors away from mine) with Yan Yan. We dared not even let Yiu Yiu know that I was home!

Today is the 3rd full day since her exposure (her classmate last attended kindy on Tuesday for the outing to High 5 Bread Town) and since she's alright, we brought Yan Yan back home this evening. On hindsight, if Yiu Yiu really had been infected, she would have had contact with Yan Yan already on Wednesday, since it was a rest day following the outing and she spent the whole day at babysitter' place.

From her kindy's blog, it was mentioned that the girl had been sick over the weekend but her fever subsided on Monday only to resurface after Tuesday, after which she was confirmed to be suffering from H1N1. But I think her parents should have kept her away from the outing, knowing full well that the child had been unwell. And because they didn't, four classes had to be closed, and close to 80 children exposed to the risk of contracting the virus, and missing their kindy party!

Anyway, since I missed the outing, I had to rely on this mummy's blog to read about the outing. And thanks Jazz for the photos – so sweet of you to try to take some shots of Yiu Yiu while busy chasing after Faythe and Vyktore's classes.

Yiu Yiu's class at High 5 Bread Town, courtesy of Jazz

Missing out

…on Yiu Yiu's kindy outing to Hi-5 Bread Town
…on Yiu Yiu's kindy mid-term party
…on Yiu Yiu's Talent Time showcase in her music school

All because I have to travel for work :-(

Also, Yan Yan has been rejecting EBM since last week when she started feeling unwell. Babysitter had tried feeding her with spoon, syringe and cup but to no avail. Yesterday she only took about 4oz EBM in total, dropping to 2oz today. The last few days I tried to compensate by nursing her often through the night but when I'm away, she would not be getting her daily milk quota – and I'm worried sick coz I'll be travelling intermittently for almost half of June. Sigh!!!