Little Chumsy’s Blog

What To Do On Weekends

We stayed at home the whole day yesterday because hubs was working.  Today is Saturday and we do not have any plans.  The weather is unbearably hot these few days and going to a place with air-conditioned sounds like a very good idea   Perhaps we should go out for dinner at a mall?  Ashley has been asking us why we are not going out since it’s the weekend.  I think she’s beginning to be  like me, a Shopping Queen

Digital Camcorders

My husband bought a Panasonic digital camcorder about 2 years ago after reading the digital camcorder reviews.  He bought it because he wanted to record Ashley’s milestones and also our vacations.  However, he hardly use it and the digital camcorder is now sitting in the cupboard.   Whenever I ask him why he hardly uses it, he said the camcorder is pretty bulky.  Guess what?  Well, he is now looking into getting a slimmer one like the Canon Flash HD Digital Camcorder.  Actually I like the Samsung Ultra Compact Flash Digital Camcorder.  It is pretty sleek and easy to carry.  So what are we going to do with our old camcorder?  My husband said he may try to sell it on Ebay.

Using Positive Language To Talk To Your Children

On Sunday I read an article by Zaid Mohamad titled “Power of Positive Language” at the Life & Times section of the News Straits Times.  Zaid Mohamed is a certified parental coach and I like to read his articles every week.  What he wrote on using positive language with children is very interesting.   When we use positive language to communicate with children, it helps to make them feel valued and respected.   Using positive language sometimes means that we ought to avoid using negative words such as “don’t, no, and can’t” as much as possible.

I am guilty of using the word “NO” a lot.  It’s not surprising that NO is one of the first words that Ashley learned to say.  According to Zaid Mohamed, the best way to teach your child the good behaviour is not to tell them what not to do.  Instead, tell them what you want them to do.  Examples are, rather than saying “Don’t jump on the couch“, we could say, “The couch is for sitting.  Please sit down” or instead of saying “Don’t give up“, use “Try again and try harder“.

Other examples – “Why are you eating so slowly?” versus “You have to eat faster than that”, or “Look at all the mess you’re making!” versus “Please be careful and keep the table clean”

Sometimes, when saying NO is unavoidable (for me especially when I want to stop Ashley from doing something dangerous), it would be better if we can try to include “thank you” after it.  This will turn the phrase into a more positive one and at the same time, teaches our child to have good manners.

Interesting?  I will try to remember to use more positive language with Ashley from now onwards   Zaid’s website is www.smartparents.com.my if you would like to read more.

Birthday Present For A 75 Year Old

My aunt who is back here for a holiday will be leaving for New York this Sunday.  It has been a month since she came back for a visit.  About two weeks ago, her daughters and other relatives celebrated her 75th birthday in Ipoh.   They organized a steamboat dinner for her and one of her daughters baked her cake.  It was a simple but fun celebration.  Her other daughter whom my aunt stays with in New York called to wish her mom Happy Birthday.  She even told her sisters that she had bought a gold American Eagle coin from USGoldBureau.com for her mom as a birthday present.  The gold coin is made of pure gold and is scratch-resistant. These gold coins are a very popular type of investment.  I am sure my aunt will be thrilled when she receives her present.

Ashley in the office

It has been 7 months since I started working and Ashley joins me at the office after school.   It is very different from last year when she came home after school every day.  At home she got to watch her favourite tv shows and played with her toys.  One good thing about being at the office is that she watches less tv now

Here’s a sneak peak of what it is like for Ashley at the office.  As soon as she comes back from school, she’ll take a shower.  Then she’ll have her lunch and nap.

Here is her table where she does her homework and have her meals.

A single bed where she naps.  The table/chairs and the bed are just right beside my table.

Ashley having her lunch.

Ashley takes about an hour and a half  nap every day and I would only allow her to disturb play with her aunt or grandpa after she has completed her homework.  She would do silly things all day, talk and sing nonstop, ask plenty of questions like what are the hair loss products for men for when she sees them in her gung gung’s room, play with his things on the desk or just being naughty like above *slaps forehead*

Avillion Day 2

A continuation from my previous post yesterday. After we had our breakfast (buffet breakfast is complimentary during our stay at Avillion), we went to the beach.

I love this photo of Ashley and daddy.

After the beach, we went to the swimming pool and Ashley had loads of fun on the water slide.  She even fell head first into the pool and gulped down some water. I thought she would be terrified but she still continue going up and down the slide.

One of the highlights of our stay at the Avillion is this pet farm.  Its residents consist of rabbits, tortoises, peacocks/peahens, chickens and birds.  Every time we go to the restaurants, the swimming pool and the lobby, we would have to pass by this farm.

The cute pet farm

She would never fail to stop and say hi (about 20x a day) to the animals.

another trip to see the animals

Ashley having a conversation with the cockerel

At 10am daily, there is a Feed-The-Animal session. It was Sunday and can you imagine the crowd?  *faint*

Ashley was queuing up somewhere in there….

Looking for some rabbits to feed.

While in the farm, Ashley bumped into her classmate, Ethan and they went around hunting feeding the rabbits and chickens.  Then they went up the Bullock Cart

After that, she went back to the chalet to blow some bubbles.

Later, she wanted to go to the play room again and this time, there were a few activities like batik painting, bag painting and computer games.  Ashley wanted to paint a bag and she chose a baby dinasour design.  We spent about 30 minutes there and rm15 for the bag painting.

During this holiday, we didn’t go out to look for food.  We ate at the resort because we didn’t want to waste any time driving out. Just want to spend as much time as we can here   The food was pretty good and would be better if they have more variety.  Dinner is ala-carte or buffet style.  Needless to say, I am a few pounds heavier now.  Wish I have a fitness equipment at home so I can start exercising   That’s about it on the second day.  Will blog about Day 3 tomorrow.  Sorry to bore all of you with our holiday adventure

we’re back

after spending a few days at the Avillion in Port Dickson It took us about an hour to reach PD….I forgot how near PD is.  We arrived at around 11.30am.  Bad mistake because we couldn’t check in earlier than 3pm as Avillion was packed to the brim. There were many people checking out before 12pm.  So, we drove around to look at other resorts and then looked some place for lunch.  We went back to Avillion at around 2 pm and had to queue quite a while to check in.  When our turn came, the chalet was still not ready

We were offered complimentary cocktails at the bar while waiting for the chalet to be ready.

View of the resort from the 3rd floor

Our room.  Ashley slept on the bed next to the window because she loves the view of the sea.

the water chalet

the beach on the right side of the resort

On the first day, Ashley couldn’t wait to go to the beach.

Then, she was bored and wanted to go to the play room.  Played Jengga with her for a while.  After that, she was still bored….

and she spotted 2 girls playing with Tumbling Monkeys and she asked if she could join them   When the game was over, she was STILL bored….

and went to play at the slides.

You know, holidays are supposed to be relaxing and rejuvenating, right? Well, not for us because we have a 5-year old energizer bunny.  I think I need more anti wrinkle cream after this holiday. The next morning, at approx 6.45am, I heard a voice saying, “Cock-a-doodle doo, mommy wake up. Let’s go to the beach“.  I didn’t dare to move and was hoping that ‘the voice’ would go back to sleep.  Nope, that didn’t happen.  After 5 minutes of non-stop grumbling and nagging for us to wake, my head began to spin.  Dragged myself out of bed, got ourselves ready and head out to restaurant for an early breakfast before going to the beach.

More on what we did on Day 2 & 3 tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back

all set

for a short break …..

we are heading out to the beach for a relaxathon

have a great weekend everyone.

see you all soon …………..

image source: apartment therapy

she needs a bigger closet

because my cousin who resides in NY just came back and bought these for Ashley………

a pretty set of 2 tops & short

a sleeveless top and 3/4 denim pants

another 3/4 denim pants with lots of  bling blings

last but not least,  a pair of blue sneakers from Children’s Place

Just recently my cousin asked her mom to bring back 2 pairs of shoes for Ashley and now she bought her more stuff.  Ashley is such a lucky girl.  I didn’t have a lot of clothes and shoes when I was a kid   My mom was saying that too bad Ashley didn’t have a lil sister whom she can pass these clothes to when she outgrows them

her birthday celebration

We celebrated Lady Gaga Ashley (that’s what she wants to be called now) on Saturday at the Swez Brasserie, Eastin Hotel.  We had hi-tea that day

My sister requested the cafe staff to put a balloon on Ashley’s chair but they were so nice to put balloons on all our chairs.

Lady Gaga Ashley enjoying her food

I ordered a triple chocolate cheese cake for her, complete with a Disney Princess sugar paper.  Nice?  Will blog about where I ordered it in my next post

She closed her ears when we sang the birthday song

Birthday present from Mommy

Yes, that is Mr. Bean, birthday gift from daddy.  Just because Lady Gaga Ashley loves to watch Mr. Bean, daddy bought her a Mr. Bean doll *slaps forehead*

A lovely doll house present from both her ‘yee yees’.  She absolutely adores the dollhouse and plays with it everyday. We have to find some contemporary furniture for this house soon

On Sunday, I brought Lady Gaga Ashley to the bakery to get another cake for her celebration in school.  As soon as she saw this cake, she wanted it….just because it has Ultraman on it  *faint*  I showed her the Hello Kitty one or those with lots of fruits but she said no.  I don’t know why she loves Ultraman so much.

Last but not least, Thank You Very Much for all your kind birthday wishes for Ashley in my blog and in Facebook