A Day at the Zoo

I did the school holiday thing and took the boys to the Zoo Negara yesterday. Nenek was keen to join us so on the way there we swung by her house to fetch her.

We eventually arrived, having made several u-turns around the zoo before we found the correct entrance to the car park. Yes, I know, it's the immediate left after you exit the highway but are there signs to it? Nooooo. Instead, there are huge signs to an alternative car park way yonder which is totally deserted and is even closed.

Aneeee-way ... when we were queing up for the tickets, the staff asked us how many in our party, etc. After he had explained to us the ticket structure and how children under 3 enter for free and children between 3 and 12 are half price, Abang suddenly blurted out, "Sebab saya dah lime tahun!" The staff were quite amused. (By the way, it's RM12 for adults, RM9 for senior citizens, RM6 for children but these school holidays children get half off.)

Generally the staff there are very nice and helpful. The animals look a little sad and to be honest I thought the zoo was just so-so. It's a great place for kids to run around and learn about animals but make sure they are well protected from the sun. I slathered the boys and myself in sunblock and although they had hats, they didn't like wearing them all the time. It was a blazing hot day and I managed to get them both to constantly sip at some chilled soya bean drink.

The train ride thingy was nice, because not only is it free but you also get a quick tour of the zoo while sitting down plus the bonus of not having a guide try to explain everything using the loudspeaker which you wouldn't have been able to hear anyway.

When we arrived the Multi-Animal Show was just about to start so headed straight for it. It was quite nice, they had 2 sea lions and a hornbill doing various things. The children loved the show. I guess it must have been pretty fascinating to be so up close to them.

We had a pretty nasty lunch at the so-called fast food restaurant at the zoo. Or rather, I had a pretty nasty lunch since the boys refused - understandably so - what looked like fried chicken and nuggets and only scarfed down the fries.

By the time we headed for the exit Abang was asking for a piggyback ride and Adik had to be carried by Nenek. I'm not sure about Nenek, but I sure regret doing that because of what it did to my back!

Unfortunately I think it was a little too hot for everyone because that night Adik had a slight fever and Abang got one the next day.

Taking a Break

You may have noticed I haven't been blogging much lately. That's mostly due to the fact that Abang has been rather difficult lately, making me (and Wan) extremely tired.

Daddy and I suspect he's adjusting to Adik being at kindergarten with him. It's almost like going through the emotional adjustment of having a baby brother all over again. The difference is that now, Adik is getting fussed over at kindergarten by the teachers (including Abang's!), whereas kindergarten used to be Abang's territory.

So he's feeling somewhat insecure and much in need of attention, even if it's negative attention. And that makes it extremely exhausting for all the adults.

Anyway, I try to take the boys to play outside for as long as I can. We recently got the mango tree pruned lately because it was getting way too bushy and semak. Since then there has been renewed interest in climbing the tree!


Even the cats are enjoying it. Well, in this case, Harun chased Thomas up the tree and wanted to bergurau but Thomas was trying so hard to have none of that. In this photo Harun looks like he's biting Thomas' butt. I thought that was hilarious. Well, probably not to Thomas who, after the humiliation of getting bitten on his behind, lost his balance and almost fell into the drain. He managed to cling on to the fence in a Garfield-like manner.

Adik too enjoys climbing the tree and he's been pretty brave about climbing up by himself. He put the red stool at the bottom of the tree and went up and up until he wasn't sure how to go up further. Which is just as well because I was starting to get nervous and so asked him to get down.

At one point he was pretty high and needed help coming down so I had to ask Daddy to reach up and get him.

Back to Abang, I've been reading up on 'dealing with regression' (which is essentially what it is) and apparently I need to:

- be patient (oh boy)
- shower as much praise as possible on him whenever possible
- be consistent

Wish me luck.

More Experiments!

Daddy requested an "orange cake with chocolate icing" so I decided to attempt the orange cake part first before I start fiddling with chocolate icing.

In fact, before I even attempt an orange cake I thought what I'd do is find an orange cake recipe and make cupcakes first, just in case tak jadi. (If tak jadi at least it's easier to camouflage in a cupcake as opposed to a cake.)

After looking for recipes on the internet, I noticed that most of them were at least one page long. A pinch of this, a teaspoon of that, a smidgen of whatever, a blah-blah to taste. Whatever happened to just butter, sugar, flour, eggs and orange?

So I decided to experiment with my own recipe. I usually make regular pound cakes, i.e. butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla essence. Nice and simple. My experiment was to replace the vanilla essence with - believe it or not - an orange! I grated the orange peel and squeezed the juice out. In the end I didn't use all the juice as I was worried it might make the mix a little too runny, but I did use all the peel.

If I do say so myself, I thought they tasted rather yummy! In fact, I tried something new with the topping - I spread some icing and put a smarties on each cupcake. Here are the results:



As you can tell, I'm rather pleased with myself!

Happy Mothers Day and Happy Sports Day!

Finally, the boys' sports day is over, yay! It started out nice and early when Daddy wished me Happy Mother's Day and got both boys to wish me the same thing. In fact, they ran to me, gave me a big hug and ran right back to their respective computers.

About 10 minutes after that Abang came bounding out of the study and excitedly told me, "Mummy! I have a treat for you! You can play Cannonbolt Pinball on my computer!"

So I played along and showed much enthusiasm for his Mother's Day treat for me - it's the thought that counts, eh? By the way, that's the game he's not very good at and usually asks me to play it for him :)

Anyway at 8:30am we sent them to the dewan where the sports day was held and then we came back later, with Atok, Wan, Nenek and Ant J. When we arrived it was already in full swing - I have to remember the kindergarten's clock always runs about 10 minutes faster than ours.

So it was really cute to see all the children doing their respective sporty races. The older 5- and 6-year olds actually seemed to know what they were supposed to do whereas the 3- and 4-year olds had to have a helping hand from their teachers.

During Adik's game, he was supposed to carry a plastic fruit on a big senduk across the hall and then put it in a basket. After 2 steps, he decided it would be much faster if he just held the senduk in one hand and the fruit in the other hand. Still, I give him marks for putting the fruit back onto the senduk just before emptying it into the basket!

Abang did a fantastic relay race when he sprinted right to the finish line. At the end all the children received a medal and a present as well as refreshments. They only gave prizes for the parents' game.


Oh, did I mention the parents game that we joined? There were 2 games and the first game, which we participated in, involved making the longest possible line with anything and everything that we had on us at that time including the children. We started with the usual - handbag, shoes, socks, wallet, Daddy's belt, wallet, phone. Then we lay the boys down. Then we lay down ourselves! Unfortunately that wasn't enough to win. In fact, we came last. The family who won had a very brave dad who took off his shirt and used that too!

Good thing there was a playground next door to keep bored siblings entertained...


Phew, what a tiring day. So tiring that Adik took a 3.5hour nap in the afternoon and he looked like he still needed/ wanted some more when he woke up.

All's well that ends well, back to our regularly scheduled programme at school.

The Perils of Sports

Who would have thought that a kindergarten sports day could be so frought with peril?

The Sports Day will be on this Sunday, so for the past 3-4 weeks both boys have had "sports practice" everyday. I'm pretty sure it's not for the entire 3 hours, because they need to practise one class at a time, so I suspect it's for about an hour each day.

Initially I thought it would be a fun thing and even Adik gets to participate. The principal asked me if he is joining in the sports day activities and I told her that if he can follow instructions and actually do what the others do then why not. After all he enjoys these physical activities plus he's quite well coordinated.

Unfortunately, it's starting to take its toll on the boys. Everyday when I fetch them it seems like they're overtired from the extra hour of running around. Today they had a rehearsal at the multipurpose hall so the entire morning was spent there which made them even more tired. When I pulled up at the kindergarten gate, Adik immediately ran from the bench to the gate. Abang did the same and they bumped into each other causing Adik to fall *SPLAT* on his face. He had a small cut on his forehead. Later that afternoon it changed to a benjol with a slight green colour. So now he looks like a unicorn. A cute one, though, but still a unicorn.

Oh, how he howled. And Abang howled too even though he didn't fall. As I was pacifying them while trying to pack them in the car, I heard the teacher scolding the other children about running around and falling down. I think this sports day thing is taking its toll on the teachers too!

After lunch I immediately got to giving the boys a shower so that we could all have an early nap. On the way to the bathroom, Abang stubbed his toe. He gets even more clumsy when he's tired. During the next few hours he complained about the pain but only off and on. By dinner time it was a little swollen.

In addition to all that, because of the time taken for daily sports practice, the homework has been piled on (for Abang, not Adik) I suppose to avoid falling "behind". I finally had to have a word with the principal about it today.

Man, I'll be glad when the sports day is over.

Abang's Birthday, Part 2

Today we had a little swimming party followed by lunch to celebrate Abang's birthday. Cuz and AJ (and their dad) joined us for the swim as well.

We practically had the whole pool to ourselves, save for another little boy and his dad, which made it really fun. It's interesting to see how social Abang is nowadays. Such a far cry from the shy little boy he used to be. In fact, the little boy (Ryan, age 4) kept following Abang around! Adik, being the youngest of the lot, just followed what the other 2 older boys did. Which in actual fact was what Abang did because Ryan followed Abang and Adik followed both of them.

Since there were 4 boys and 2 Daddies in the pool, the 2 Daddies took turns to take the boys (except Adik) to the adults pool. Abang's definition of "going to the adults pool" was to walk alongside while Daddy or Uncle Fred swam the length of the pool. Or, be carried on piggyback while Daddy walked the length of the pool.

They splashed around for a full hour and then got out to shower and get ready for lunch.


I attempted another Omnitrix cake and I thought that it turned out better this time around. I may be right as I had never seen a cake disappear so fast in my life!

After barely 15 minutes, this is what was left:


Most of it was eaten by the boys while the adults only 'dapat merasa' a few slices. Also seen here is the cake that Ant J made, a very yummy carrot cake which got a 9.5 (out of 10) rating from Atok and a 11 (also out of 10!) from Cikgai! Thanks Ant J!