Photo Tag - Cheeky Girl

It's been so long I've not done tags. This time, I was tagged by a new friend, Alice Law. New coz I only got to know her (via her blog about her 2 lovely kids) this year. ;-)

The game is to look in my first photo folder from either Picasa or hard drive for the 10th photo, tell a story about it, mention the blog that tagged me, and tag five other blogs.

The story
It was December 2006. We've just bought our very first DSLR camera and I was taking pictures of little CE (7 months old then). XY, the kepoh girl (3½ years old then), requested for her pictures to be taken too. She posed, I snapped. *chik chak chik chak* And that's one of her cheeky pose.

I won't be tagging anyone but if you're interested, feel free to share with us your stories about the 10th photo in your first photo folder. :-)

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I Am Sad

XY's having an assessment on 4 subjects today and tomorrow, AGAIN. She just had one last month, before the school holidays. But these assessments are not calculated in the overall results. So I'm trying very hard not to stress her up. :D

She's rather weak in Bahasa Malaysia (BM). She can spell and read, but she doesn't know the meaning of the words. I guess that's normal due to lack of exposure and usage. I heard that reading more BM books will increase her understanding of the language but I've yet to shop for them.

What I've done is to get her to check the words (from the textbook or activity book) in the dictionary, then write down the meaning in English. She's using a cute Pooh notebook for this purpose. I believe she'll remember better when she looks for the words herself and writing it down reinforces the memory. Anyway, I haven't really tested her on the words she's written but so far, I think it's quite helpful.

~ the contents of her notebook ~

The other day I was doing BM revision with her. PIL were at my place then. After testing her on Ejaan (spelling), Ye Ye asked her to use those words to construct sentences. With the word pilu (sad), she constructed this :
Saya pilu kerana ibu sudah mati.
[ meaning : I am sad because my mother is dead. ]

All of us were speechless, then burst out laughing. I guess I should be happy she really understands the meaning of pilu and that she'll be sad when her mother's gone for good. hahaha Then we taught her to substitute ibu with pets like dog, cat or rabbit. Well, in case you're wondering, I'm NOT sad. The title of this post simply refers to XY's 'fantastic' sentence. hehehe

Playing Rough

SIL gave birth to a pretty baby girl on the 13th of April. PIL were here to help take care of CH. They've gone back this afternoon, after spending a week here. The kids (XY, CE and CH) have been playing together frequently the past week. So naturally there are lots of noise, laughter, crying and scolding (not just from the adults, among themselves too). These days, didi's favourite phrases are "I don't want to friend you", "I don't want to play with you", "I'm angry at you" and "I don't like kor kor/jie jie". But kids being kids, after he said such things, he'll be playing happily with them again the next moment. Then there'll be some peace till someone (or 2, or all of them) decided to throw tantrums again. Kids...

This morning, XY got scratched on her face when she was playing the iPhone games with CH. I wasn't there when it happened. I was told they were snatching the phone when she got scratched by CH's fingernails. Well, it was partly her fault as she was snatching the phone which belongs to CH's mother. Moreover, she's the jie jie (big sister), so she should give in to the younger ones. Sometimes, accidents like this are unavoidable coz they are very rough with each other. That's why we have to keep an eye on them at all times. The scratches aren't deep and I doubt they'll leave any scars. But to be on the safe side, I'd better apply some cream or lotion. Do you have any to recommend, that has worked for your child?

While snapping jie jie's "injury", didi asked me to take his pictures too. Then he made funny faces, with tongue sticking out. :-D I asked them to hug and got this...

His First Field Trip

CE went to Zoo Negara yesterday. He wasn't overly excited about the trip but he'd answer "Yes" every time we asked him "Do you want to go to the zoo?" Before the trip, I kept reminding him to follow his teacher and don't run off himself. If he needs to pee, must tell his teacher. When I picked him up, the principal told me he wanted to pass motion during the trip (aisay... he just HAVE to poo during outings *shake head*). I'm glad he didn't dirty himself (in any way) as his spare clothes were not used. And he didn't lose anything. His cap, hanky and water bottle came back with him. :-)

I don't know how much he enjoyed the trip. He didn't talk much about it. Anyway, he's a boy with few words, sometimes. Unless he's really in the mood to talk, he'd not respond when you talk to him. He'd purposely look at you blankly or look up high (yeap... the dude's got an attitude problem). He didn't talk about the animals but told me he sat on the train. hahaha Looks like the the highlight of the zoo for him is the train ride.

~ I wanted to take a photo of him with his Zoo Negara
wrist band. But obviously he didn't like the idea :p ~

Cheaper Airfare

Kakak will be going back to Indonesia in August (for a month) to celebrate Hari Raya with her family. She's been with us for 2 years already and we've just renewed her contract. Every time I think about her long leave, I'd be wondering how I'm going to survive a whole month without her. I know, I know, I'm terribly pampered. :p Too dependent on her already. Anyway, I'm sure we'll be fine. Definitely more work to do than usual but it's just for a month. Sure can survive one. :D

She told me the nearest airport to her kampung is Semarang but AA doesn't fly there. Based on my "research", there's no direct flight from KL to Semarang. She'll have to transit Jakarta. I finally decided on Garuda Indonesia. It's better to get the ticket from one airline, just in case of delays. When buying from different airlines, if the first flight is delayed, causing her to miss the second (or connecting) flight, the ticket is considered burnt and she'd have to buy a new one. And there's the risk of the tickets being sold out.

Garuda has a special fare for Indonesian passport holders. I've checked with a tour agency, for the same flight, the price was very much higher (more than double). With the special fare, it's also cheaper than buying from 2 separate airlines. Purchasing the ticket is hassle free. I don't have to go to their office to make payment or to collect the air ticket. I made the booking via telephone and given 3 weeks to make payment (bank-in or transfer funds online to their Citibank account). After payment's been made, just fax to them the payment slip and they'd e-mail to me the e-ticket. So simple.

By the way, this is NOT a paid post. Just want to share this with you. So if you plan to buy flight tickets for your Indonesian helper, do check out Garuda Indonesia for comparison purpose.

Charter On Demand

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