Pray Pray

Something so cute happened just now that I just couldn't wait to write this down to remember.

Eunice was playing at the door while EG parking his car. Suddenly, she looked up and stopped moving. I saw a lizard on the ceiling. Then, the lizard moved. Next, Eunice started to run to me, and told me "ba ba" (*bao bao).

As usual, I asked her, "why bao bao?"

She answered: "sted sted.." while patting her hand on her chest. (*scared scared). I carried her up.

EG came into the house and asked me what happened and I told him. As a lizard killer, he started his actions.

Suddenly, Eunice put her hands together, and told me: "pray pray.."

I couldn't get her at first - I thought she wanted to clap her hands to scare away the lizard. Then she told me again, "pray pray..." then I got her this time.

So I said a short prayer: "Dear Jesus, please remove the lizard from my house. In Jesus's name we pray...."

Eunice shouted "A-Meng!"

Then, she pointed at the floor, "walk walk...."

:)

I didn't know that my little one knows the power of prayer too! This is just so cute. :)

Eunice's First Miri Trip

It was Eunice's first trip back to her mummy's hometown at Sarawak when she's 18 mths old, to attend my brother's wedding. :).. I was excited for this trip since February and been counting down the days since then. Well, packing was a nightmare as I was so worried that I forgot to bring her important stuffs - and I brought incredibly lots of stuff including her snacks, cookies, pastas, etc. I managed to borrow a playpen from my friend but I need to bring my own mattress back too! So, we ended up with 1 huge bag, 2 small bags, a stroller, a backpack, and a diaper bag. OK I admitted that I over packed. I'll be more efficient in my next flight trip. Hehe :)

Overall it's quite a good trip, though very tiring for EG and me.
On PG-KL flight, the air stewardess gave Eunice a packet of Dutch Lady. She was happily sipping the packet drink throughout the flight. We had to transit for abt 2 hours in KLIA. While planning for the trip, EG already told me he'd prefer KLIA as it has more space and he feels safer for Eunice to run around. Well, it was a public holiday and hence there weren't much price differences on air asia ticket vs MAS ticket. But of course, I also prefer KLIA over LCCT.

From KL to Miri, the flight was 2 hours. She slept for the 1st hour, and woke up the next hour getting restless. I had to entertian her by carrying her up to watch over other passangers (as if she was playing hide & seek with them @.@), or carrying her up and down the aisle. But lastly, we fed her with a very sweet crackers that the air stewardess gave and she finally was occupied for a while before we landed. :)

The little girl just loves to explore the travelator

Wandering around herself - not feeling scared at all

In Miri, my sister and mum were helping out to entertain her, so my load was lessen. I just need to cook for her. Sometimes I just let her eat whatever that my mum cooks. :).. However, the trip was kinda hectic as we had dinners with relatives almost every night. Most of the time Eunice didn't sleep long enough for her nap (still adjusting i think), and hence she'll get cranky on most of the dinner time when the dinner ran late. That also explains why not much pictures on Eunice as we were just so busy entertaining her.

After my brother's wedding dinner, we had a small family gathering with my father's siblings to celebrate his birthday. And thank God she was all happy that day after her long nap! And finally we managed to get a nice picture of her with her grandparents! :)

Eunice and her grandparents

My sister brought out all our soft toys over the years and let Eunice play with it when she was home. Oh she loves them so much. And she also watched Chipmunk throughout the whole 8 days in Miri - watching 6-7 times a day! Yea, we all can memorise the show already. But she still loves it.

Watching Chipmunk with her soft toys

I always love my home trips. This round, though I went back for 8 days, but I still feel I didn't get to spend too much time with my parents as they were too busy preparing for my brother's wedding and entertaining the guests from outstations. I hope I will go back again soon. :)

As for Eunice, I think she loves it too. She was calling "Yi Yi ar.." all the time when she sees my sister's pic in my phone after she's back to Penang. Sometimes she'll make me call her and she'll just listen to my sister's voice for a while then she'll feel all happy. :). How sweet. And recently, she also pointed at my mum's pic in my phone and told me "ah ma ar..." :)... but I din have to chance to let my mum hear her beloved granddaughter calling her yet. :)

While coming back, it was slightly easier. Eunice slept through the 2 hours flight from Miri to KL. And she played around in KLIA again during our 3 hours transit. And eating throughout the 45 mins flight from KL to PG. On that night, Eunice slept at 8.30pm all the way till 7am the next morning. I think she was as tired as us. :D

I wonder why my timid girl was not scared at all in KLIA with all strangers around

But I think, Eunice is a bit too big size to share a seat with us. :P... Though her parents are not big size. I never complain for MAS seats before until this trip - because I'm sharing it with an active toddler. As for EG, he told me, no more trips with flights until she's bigger. If we have to, then pls get a seat for her. We were both exhausted when coming back - carrying all the luggages, strollers, bags, and an active toddler who keeps wanting to walk!

So, our oversea plan will now have to be on hold! :)

Nursery & Kindy Scouting

Yeap, you read it right. We're scouting for Eunice's nursery / kindy at her 18 months. Kiasu? Hmm... I called up a nursery and she told me the earliest she can put Eunice in is in July 2013! Waa... I don't mean to be kiasu but I don't like the hanging feeling (typical me) and hence I started to ask around and look around last month.

After much scouting & "interviewing" (friends, colleagues, some short listed nurseries :P), then only I realise it's not an easy decision - it's something that will make a difference in my child's first going-to-school experience. However, the fee is another factor to consider. There are some nurseries which are very affordable, but some can charge up to double of the normal ones.

EG and I had some discussions among us, and we decided on a few:
1. Study Environment - We prefer the kindy not to be too academic. I have heard some kindys gave spelling test / ejaan / 听写 (chinese spelling test) every week for the children as young as 4 years old! I think this will not only give the stress to the child, but also the parents. However, I don't expect the kindy to be too relaxing too as it'll be a problem when the child goes primary school - when nowadays primary school's homework can be as stressful as my job! :P. So, there should be a balance.

2. Languages - I'd want Eunice to learn all 3 languages. I admit that I'm quite a failure in teaching her chinese while I myself is chinese educated. She doesn't know any chinese word, except "bao bao" maybe. :P. So far, we found that most kindys will teach all 3 languages.

3. Teachers - I have heard too many scary stories of the teachers suddenly lost their mind and started to whack the child. I know taking care of one active toddler is hard, what more a bunch of them in school. But still I cannot accept any teacher who will lost their sane while teaching. A friend told me once her niece came home with a blue black buttock from school and showed me the picture. I was really really shocked. Imagine the terror on the child! So, I'll ask about the teachers too.

4. Discipline - Though we don't want the teachers to "whack" our child, but there should also be discipline - to teach them what's the right things to do. One of the nurseries that we checked out uses very good disciplinary actions to the child. The principal told me sometimes they will even have "court cases" when she'll be the judge. They treat the children like adults.

5. Teaching methods - Of course most of us went through the conventional way where 1 person talks and the rest listen. But we found there're some kindys that allow the bigger children to cook, or do planting and etc and they believe the children learn through these activities too.

6. Class size - For us, we prefer the class size to not to be too big so that all the children will have the equal attention from the teachers. Having said this, if the class size is big, then we'll want to know how do the teachers make sure that all children can progress at the same speed.

7. Teaching materials - A kindy that we went to showed us the teaching materials that they used for the students - and we were truly impressed.

In the end, we have sort of decided to send Eunice to a kindy that we both like, though the fees is more expensive than the others. We both hope that it'll be giving Eunice a good first learning experience in her life.

:)