Little Chumsy's Blog

Preparation for Chinese New Year

This year I am so far behind.  I have yet to do some thorough cleaning around the house like scrubbing the tiles, cleaning the kitchen cabinets, washing the windows and etc. I also have not bought all the stuff I need to buy like cookies, mandarin oranges, haven’t got a haircut and worse….I haven’t even bought any new clothes for myself.  Went to the mall today with the intention of shopping for a nice top but couldn’t find any and I walked till I almost dropped   There is only one more weekend before the Year of the Tiger arrives.  Luckily I bought Ashley’s clothes a few months ago and recently her por por bought her a pair of new shoes and skirt.  Will blog about this later.   These are some of the things that I managed to do for my house.

My bamboo sticks decorated with some red velvet twine and 4 branches of red flowers.

I bought a funny looking fish to hang outside my house.  I should have bought the butterflies.

Got a red colour wooden bowl for decoration.  Just want to get something red for the tv stand   I’ll probably put some mandarin oranges in it.

absolutely crazy!

As Ashley was unwell since Sunday, she didn’t go to school for 3 days. She went today and came home with this pile of books.

I wrote in Facebook today that she came home with 7 books of homework.  I was wrong.  There are 8 books and each book has a minimum of 2 pages of work.

Writing for Mandarin, English and Bahasa Malaysia

*sigh*  This is just crazy.  Ashley’s teacher told me that she need not finish them immediately.  I can spread them over the weekend.  On usual days, Ashley has 3 pages of homework which she would bring home.  She has more on weekends. I guess they are preparing kids for Chinese based primary school.

I’ve been told that primary kids have a few books of homework everyday.  I am so not in favour of sending Ashley to a Chinese school when she’s 7 but hubs is adamant    I am worried about the work load. I want Ashley to enjoy her school days and not be bogged down with homework.  Hubs said he doesn’t need Ashley to be a top student but just want her to know basic Mandarin.  He thinks she should at least study in a Chinese school from Primary 1 (7 years old) to Primary 6 (12 years old).  God help us please.

better

Ashley is better today. Thanks everyone for your well-wishes.  Yesterday evening, we went to the paed again because her fever meds has finished.  The paed prescribed another fever meds – Brufen (ibuprofen) for her.  After feeding her meds at 5am this morning, her body didn’t feel warm until around 4pm.  I quickly gave her another dose.   Hope the stubborn fever will go away by tomorrow.   I heard that most fever would go away in a day or two but not Ashley.  Each time she has fever, it would take 4 to 5 days.  Once, it took her 10 days to recover from fever.  Really stressful for me.   Anyway, Ashley will be going to school tomorrow as she is 90% better.  Her teacher called me today and said that she has a lot of homework to be done *slap forehead*.    Also I cannot be off work so many days.  I better remember to look up the auto insurance quote for the boss tomorrow.

unwell again :(

Ashley has the fever again. It started on Saturday night. Her temperature shot up to 39.9 degree Celsius and of course I panicked.   Gave her a suppository and the first thing next morning we went to the paed.  She probably got the virus from school and the paed didn’t say much…just that her throat is a bit red   She is still feverish today and I’m keeping her home.  This means I’m also not at work today   I pray that the lil missy will get well very soon.

Fever meds and Antibiotic

Ashley and her playmate

Ashley loves to disturb her mah mah whenever my MIL is around.  She would ask her to play the dollhouse, the donkey card game, puzzles, cooking and many other things.  Recently, she kept pestering her mah mah to read the Peter and Jane books with her.  It was too funny that I had to take photos of them.   Ashley would take one book herself and get one for her mah mah.  Eventhough both books are different, she would read out loud and also asked her mah mah to do the same.

The busy bookworms

Cheeky Ashley even asked her mah mah to go into the room, lied down on the bed and read together.  So full of concentration, as if they were checking out the Atlanta job search *shake head*  Do you know that Ashley would ask her mah mah to read a few times a day? …….hahahahahhahaha.

herbal drinks for children

Since Ashley turned 1, I have been boiling herbal drinks for her….twice a week.   One is “chat sing cha” (7 star drink) and the other is Barley without sugar.   I buy them from the Chinese medicine hall near my house.  The 7 star drink is not pre-packed but the barley is.  When I boil the 7 star drink, I would add 2 mut cho (dried date) into the pot as well.   As for the barley, just put in water and boil for about 2 hours in low heat. These herbal drinks are good for reducing body heat.  I believe milk powder is pretty heaty and so are cookies which Ashley consume a lot in school *shake head*    Do you boil any herbal drinks for your children?

A packet of chat sing cha (rm2).  I would also add 2 pieces of mut cho (dried date) in the pot

after boiling

Ashley’s cup of herbal drink

A packet of Barley

Organizing My Home For The New Year

Chinese New Year is less than a month away.  It is time to make way for good luck and fortune in the coming year. The Chinese always believe that it is very important to give the house a thorough cleaning to clear away rubbish and sweep away all the misfortune.   It is also equally important to de-clutter the home and get organized.  I plan to do so very soon and one of the biggest problem areas in my house is my living room.  When you have a kid, there is bound to be toys everywhere.  There are also a number of cellphones and bunches of  keys sitting on the top of our console table.  Besides those things, sometimes there are paper clips, hair clips and what-have-yous on the table.  One word – Messy.   I want to get this area organized with great discounts from Organized.com.   I just saw some fabulous basket containers from Organized.com.  These stunning square baskets are made from hand woven pandan and are just perfect for me to put all the cellphones, keys and knick-knacks in.   I can even use the large one to keep the toys.  I love the colour red on these storage baskets as red is an auspicious colour for the Chinese New Year.  I cannot wait to get my home organized in time to welcome the new year.

what she does in the office

When Ashley is in the office, she would create havoc. She would disturb her kung kung and her aunt when she’s not at the computer playing Fishville.  Sometimes she’ll sing out loud and dance when everyone is busy working *slaps forehead*  This missy sure cannot stand still for 15 minutes unless she’s asleep.   If I’m like her, I think I’ll lose weight real fast, just like when I take those weight loss pills.  One of her favourite things to do in the office is this…..

Push the sofa down and turn it into a slide

Weeeeeeeeeee……..this is fun!

School Shoes For Children

After the first week of school, I noticed that most children in Ashley’s kindy wear white shoes and white socks to school….you know, the type worn by the primary and secondary students.  Upon checking with another parent, I found out that one of the rules of this school is that all children must wear white shoes and white socks.  My bad.  I didn’t read the leaflet properly.  Ashley has been wearing her princess-like shoes and pink/white socks to school Last Friday, we decided to head down to Carrefour and look for a pair of school shoes for her.  I found this -

a pair of cute mary-jane style shoes.

Ashley likes this a lot and so do I.  How come they didn’t have this design when I was a kid?  I think I have to get her another pair as spare because she came back with her shoes all dirty today. And today is only Monday

cry if i want to

This is a backdated post. Hubs was away last weekend to attend his friend’s wedding.  The lil missy was ok when her daddy went out.  However, she didn’t know that he won’t be back until the following day (Sunday)   She did ask about him when she went to bed and I told her that daddy will be back the next day.  Come Sunday morning, she was still ok.  Then at around 5pm when I was reading the wrinkle creams review, she started to sob.  When I asked her what’s wrong, she said she missed her daddy.  The funny part was she held on to his photo and started to bawl. Muahahahahahahahahaah…… it was really a funny sight.

Then I consoled and hugged her, and quickly called hubs to ask when he’s planning to come home.  Men…when they are with their friends, they can just get carried away.  He finally came home at 7pm and the lil missy was all smiles again.

I want my daddy!

Where is daddy???