The Week in Pictures

I opened the front door this evening and this is what greeted me:


Thomas, our neutered male cat who has also been mistaken for a pregnant cat, was lying there legs wide open so of course I just HAD to take a picture. After awhile I realised he hadn't moved at all. So I poked and prodded and then he opened his eyes, stretched and yawned. Must be tiring being a non-pregnant neutered male cat.

Here are the boys playing with their new (free!) children's umbrella:




And .... how much for the boy? Takde barcode, so how?




The boys have been enjoying the new LCD screen for their computer:



Not much has been happening here recently, but I'm sure I'll be eating those words soon!

How to Confuse Your Wife

This evening Adik was taking a nap on my bed. Daddy was lying next to him when I came in to talk to him (Daddy, not Adik).

After some whispering - so as to not wake Adik up - Daddy switched to sign language.

Both index fingers pointing upwards, one on each side of the head.
Then the universal (or at least Malaysian) sign for makan.
Then he pointed towards the floor.

I just stood there and stared at my husband. "Um ... ok ... I got it! Devil ... eating ... downstairs! Huh? The devil's eating downstairs?"

I'm surprised all our guffawing didn't wake Adik up.

"AHA! I got it! You want me to go feed the cats!"

Aiya ... Daddy needs to learn the universal sign language for cats. That's when you stroke your pretend whiskers.

A Sad Indication ...

... of just how much Little Einsteins is watched by the adults in this house. You read correctly, I said "the adults".

This evening the boys and I were chilling out in my room and I put the TV on and Little Einsteins was on. After the first minute I thought to myself, "Hmmm, this doesn't look familiar. I wonder if it's a new episode."

Judging by a) the boys' total focus on the show, and b) how they were NOT reciting the script along with the show, I figured I was right but decided to ask anyway.

"Is this a new episode? I don't think I've seen this before."

"I think so la Mummy. I also haven't seen this before."

5 minutes later Daddy came into the room.

"Hey! Is this a new episode? I don't think I've seen this before."

The 3 of us replied in unison:"Yes".

After 10 minutes Abang complained he was hungry. So I suggested that they go downstairs and have dinner while continuing to watch the show as they eat.

Wan kindly offered to feed Abang while I fed Adik. As she sat down she said, "Eh, ni baru punya ke ni? Macam tak pernah tengok je."

How sad is that?

A Good Day At Work

It was such a nice day today. Abang and Adik were minding their P's and Q's, playing nicely together and being generally very pleasant.

After the 3rd showing of CARS (I'm exaggerating, by the way), even Adik got bored (thank goodness) but before I could think of an activity we could all do together, Adik found the painting set which I had stashed away.

He took it out, got his painting shirt and announced that he was going to "do painting, Mummy". And even asked Abang to join him, "Come Abang, let's do painting!"

Abang at the time was busy playing on the computer but soon realised that it would be more fun to do some painting which he hadn't done in awhile. I helped them to set up the newspapers, put out the pallets and their art block.

They both started digging into their respective masterpieces and, perhaps a little unfairly, I kept wondering when the bickering would start. It never did. In fact, Abang was being the perfect Abang.

"Here Adik, I help put paint on your pallet. You want?"

"Oh, sure Abang!"

And when Abang was done he was commended for a job well done, "Wow!" Adik said, "Good job, Abang!"

"Thank you."

"Welcome!"

About this I am not exaggerating. They really were like that!

And they continued painting nicely together, eventually getting paint all over their hands and Adik on his legs as well (much to Wan's chagrine) until I decided that it's time to stop. Abang helped to clean up, wash the rag etc. Sigh... what a great little boy!

Of course there were times when they needed to be reprimanded and scolded but each time Abang realised he did something wrong he would quickly apologise, "I'm sorry Mummy". And everytime I said "thank you" it was greeted by "your welcome" (or in Adik's case, "welcome!").

Here's hoping for more good - no, GREAT - days at work.

So E-mpressed

It never ceases to amaze me how E-zily the boys take to electronic gadgets in the house.

Adik has learnt to use the computer. No, really. Previously he'd sit on my lap and I would navigate for him - he tells me which games he would like to play and I would click on them and also play them for him. Sometimes I showed him how moving the mouse moves the cursor. Over the school holidays he started fiddling with the mouse himself. And now look at him!

Yes, I know, he's a little close to the screen but we're working on that. The first couple of days he was limited to that one game on Little Einstein where he has to guess which musical instrument made the sound and click on it.

Now he can play a different game where he needs to click on the musical instrument and drag it to the correct outline. Amazing.

Abang too has his own accomplishments. He's learnt to play backgammon. By himself. On my phone. And he can win!

He'd been asking me to teach him how to play it, I guess, because he's tired of the other 2 games on my phone which are golf and a racing game. I kept telling him that I don't know how to play backgammon. I did try a few times, and even read the instructions, but I didn't have the patience to continue.

But he did. And he just learnt it by trial and error.

E-mpressive!

How to NOT Insult Your Mother

Abang said the funniest thing today.

We were driving past 1-Utama on the LDP and suddenly he said, "Mummy! See that picture! It looks like you, right?"

At first I thought, "Surely he can't mean some model on a billboard poster?" But then the perasan in me giggled and thought it must be that huge ad with some random looking model on it.

"Um ... do you mean that one? The big one between the old wing and the new wing?"

He shakes his head, "No, no... the other one. The one with the superheroes on it."

Talk about coming back down to earth with a thud.

"HA?!? That's a man la, Abang. How can it look like Mummy?"

"Yes la Mummy. You see the face. It looks like you."

I think I need to teach him the RIGHT way to compliment a woman. Rule #1: Pick a picture with a WOMAN IN IT!

Or better yet, go ask Daddy for pointers.

Did You Exercise Today?

Exercise your right to vote, that is!

Daddy and I went bright and early at 9:30am to the polling station. It's the nearby Sekolah Menengah so we decided to walk. I wanted to bring both the boys with us, but, alas, 9:30am is also the time of Adik's favourite show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so he politely declined.

It turns out the walk wasn't as short as we had expected but Abang put on a brave face and soldiered on with us. Harun followed us too, but only up until the playground. Poor guy was meowing away, obviously concerned why we weren't taking our usual evening walk route. (Actually Abang was equally worried about Harun, too, because this is an unusual route and we had to go on the main road.)

By the time we arrived at the school, Abang was ready to ask for a ride home. The SPR dude at the gate chuckled when he heard Daddy ask Abang, "So you want to walk home or you want Daddy to go home and get the car?"

After we voted, while waiting for Daddy to get the car, we met one of Abang's classmate's grandfather who always goes to the kindergarten to fetch his cucu.

Here's Abang mooning the SPR (well, not really, but it certainly looks like it):

It was a good experience for Abang, although he doesn't fully understand what it's all about. But he will!

Independent, Woman! Part 1

The boys have really been asserting their independence lately. I think it's more evident in Abang than Adik, primarily because Adik has always asserted his independence anyway. He's much more willful, for sure. But that doesn't mean he will be excluded in this race for independence.

Abang wants to bathe himself. His definition of "mandi by my own self" is to do the fun part of splashing about without Mummy around to tell him not to but keep Mummy nearby in case he needs something that is out of reach. A shower head, for example. Bath toys, perhaps. On a good day he might even offer to bathe Adik which I view with much trepidation.

Adik ups the ante. He refuses now to let me help him up the loo when he needs to, um, read and even reaches behind for the first available magazine after settling himself down. (Seriously, I did not put that magazine in his hands!) No captions needed for this photo.

Abang insists on dressing himself. When he's not fussing and whining that is. He's been a bit unwell of late, so fussing and whining seems to be a side effect of that. But otherwise, dressing and undressing is something he seems quite proud to do by himself. The undressing part also comes with what he calls "a show". I really do not know where he got that from but when he takes his clothes off to go to the loo he does what is disturbingly like a strip tease. And the worst part is, he told Daddy, "Today I did a show for Mummy and Mummy was the instructor." I'm like, WHAT?!?! Daddy raised an eyebrow at me. I repeat, again, one more time, WHAT?!?!

Adik's latest motto is "Adik Do It" and "No, Mummy, no!" when I go against that motto. He'll climb up his highchair by himself (or "by his own self" as Abang would say), slide in the tray table and proceed to feed himself his breakfast. On a not-so-good day he'll ditch the highchair idea and sit at his little table and chair.

But I guess the ultimate sign is this: Abang has asked for a handphone when he is bigger so that he can call me when he's done at e.nopi class. I assume the bigger kids do that there.