Another milestone

I just brought Solomon and Claire for their, as usual overdue, immunization jabs this morning. Plus, Eva was sick with cough and fever last night, so we just made it one big happy family outing to our friendly neighbourhood paediatrician! Annie was the only one spared!

They're all supposed to be in school today, but Mummy thought it was a "last-minute-declared" Hari Raya school holiday extension and just found out last night that it only applied to government schools! So, lazy Mummy declared her own, "not-enough-time-to-get-back-into-school-mode" holiday! :)

So anyway, I detest waiting at clinics and also finding parking space at the congested hospital area. I'm also totally lazy, in case you don't already know, so I always try to find parking as close to the main entrance as humanly possible and also do not particularly enjoy poking holes in those meddlesome parking coupons!! This is how I ended up parking on a yellow line *teehee* and getting an RM300 summon!! (yup, my bad, can't complain)

Okay, so where was I? Ya, Solomon's jab. Like his sisters before him, Solomon has, since birth, had vaccination injections almost every month of his wee life! So with 4 kids, and each having a comprehensive schedule of compulsory and optional vaccinations, I would imagine that by now I could fly around the world free if the clinic had a "frequent flyer" program! :)

For the whole 2 years of Little Solomon's life, he has had a total of  20 injections;
one BCG,
three shots for Hepatitis B,
four for Diptheria, Pertusis, Tetanus and Polio,
another four for Hemophilus Influenza,
one for Measles, Mumps and Rubella,
three shots of Japanese Encephalitis vaccine,
one Chicken Pox vaccine
and finally three shots of the newer, pneumococcal vaccine!

*phew*

There are even more optional ones which I did not sign up for, like the Rotavirus vaccine!

Well, Solomon has completed the bulk of vaccinations which will see him through a long healthy life. He had the last JE booster today and does not need to see the doctor with the awful sharp needle (who nevertheless has nifty wooden sticks and cartoon chops in his possession) until he is 5!! Yay! (except of course, for the standard visits for bouts of upper respiratory tract infections which will no doubt surface periodically)

So... no more monthly visits for vaccinations!

Ever... again...!

After 9 years, (albeit 2 years break between Annie & Claire) of constant vaccinations...

I just might miss the clinic waiting room.......

Not.

Annual reporting concert 2010

Another concert... Annie's ballet school, had their annual reporting concert on Monday night. This is when all the students and teachers perform for parents and the public, to showcase all that they have learned and achieved throughout the year.

Annie has been learning classical ballet with them for 4 years, along with cousin Allyson. They initially took up traditional Chinese dance along with the ballet, but we let them drop the Chinese dance after a year or two because they kept complaining that they wanted to stop dance lessons altogether. So, we made a bargain with them to stop just one.

I believe we have to push them and sometimes even force them to see something through, once they start it. Being so young, they of course do not have much determination or discipline yet and there will be days when they enjoy their extra-curricular activities and days when they'll cry and beg to quit! Sometimes we do feel guilty for forcing them to do something which they do not seem to enjoy. So, I was really happy when Annie told me after the concert that she decided she loved ballet and wanted to continue learning until she was grown-up like her teachers! :)

There were many new students; cute little girls!

Kids no.2, 3 & 4 and cousin Michelle came to cheer their jie jies on!

Annie and Allyson performed in "Kingdom of the Little Birds"

Annie is at the back row, far end, back facing the camera -  I couldn't get decent shots of her.

She's at the back row, second from left.

Cousin Allyson was in front, the one kneeling and facing the camera.

This dance was quite impressive, something about egrets in a storm...

Well done young ladies!

Solomon in school

This is Solomon's first passport-sized photo taken at the shop. It's so funny how he looks exactly like his Daddy! :) I had to take a photo because I just enrolled him in playschool today. He'll be going to the same school Claire and Eva went to. He starts on Wednesday!

He came along to visit his new school and fell in love with the toys! After the tea set, he went on to play with the farmyard animals set and refused to go home! Let's hope when he starts school for real he'll have this same level of enthusiasm!!

Here he tried out the uniform. Doesn't he look dapper?

*sniff*  My baby's a big boy now! Now there won't be any more babies at home with me while the big ones are away at school...

ABBA's back!

Saturday night, we went to a charity dinner, featuring ABBA's back, an ABBA tribute band from Australia. This dinner was in aid of three charities, namely the Catholic Welfare Services (of which Kung Kung Titus is the chairman, so we were all busy selling tickets previously...), The Sarawak Kidney Foundation and the St Vincent de Paul Society.

It was held at The Borneo Convention Centre. The production of the event, the entertainment, down to the cost of the food served were all generously sponsored! They managed to raise RM1.2 million for this event!

All 12 of Kung Kung's Kuching grandchildren were there to support this grand occasion.

Killing time before the concert...

We were seated up at the gallery. Tickets were RM100 per seat up here. Down in the hall, tables of 10 were sold for RM10,000, RM5,000 and RM3,000.

The whole gang enjoyed each other's company. Luckily there was a Gameboy, a PSP and many handphones to keep them occupied during the boring and super long opening acts which included a Chinese orchestra and Dayak sape music. They were good, but could not hold the children's interest and went on for waaaay too long.

They had the usual 8-course Chinese dinner downstairs...

... while we had a '3-course western' snack upstairs!! :)

L-R: Bishop Dominic Su (my mum's cousin), Archbishop John Ha and Kung Kung (who did join the seminary for a while in his younger days!!) launching the Catholic Welfare  Services website. Kung Kung also gave a speech, inviting the public to help their cause, and it was screened on the big screens set up on the walls and all the little ones were so excited!

Here's one of the opening acts which was quite amazing. They're doing a line dance, which is boring enough, if not for the fact that they're hearing impaired (deaf)! I think there was one lady in the front who wasn't, so she lead them. Still, very well done!

Here's a guy called Stanley who was one of the Akedemi Fantasia (Malaysia's version of American Idol) contestants. He sang the Spanish version of "Unbreak My Heart" and has a very good voice. Then he sang Josh Groban's "You Raised Me Up" which he said was requested by the organizers and also reminds him of his mum who suffered from kidney failure. Coincidentally, this song also reminds us of our mum. We played it during her funeral.

Hmmm... I wonder if it was my dad who requested it, though I doubt he knows much about songs from this decade!! 

Hehehe... better not underestimate him... :)

ABBA's back finally came on at 9:30pm! The kids were already pretty tired! It was worth the wait though, cos who doesn't know and love ABBA songs? The kids definitely enjoyed it more than the previous acts and were clapping along (even Solomon) while us old folks sang along! (If you know ABBA lyrics, I'm sorry, you are old!)

I really wanted to catch my favourite, "Dancing Queen" (which I later learned was left to the very end), but the kids were all too sleepy to stay on, so we left at 10:45pm. The concert finished around 11:30pm, after some encores. Annie was also hoping to catch "Mama Mia", but that was the third last.

Although a little draggy in the beginning, it was well worth the wait. The ABBA performance was of good calibre and now even the kids are singing, "Money, money, money... Must be funny... In a rich man's world..."!

You can have a peep at ABBA's Back here:
http://www.abbasback.com/video.html

National Day concert

Annie's school held an assembly cum concert to celebrate national day on Friday. There are a lot of Indonesians and Koreans in her school, so they celebrated their countries as well. Their concert was entitled "Lodge (maybe) got talent" :)

Annie performed in a Bidayuh dance and also recorder repertoires of "My heart will go on", "Eight days a week" and "Can you feel the love tonight?".

Here is Da Bin, our neighbour, with some friends in gorgeous traditional dresses. They performed a traditional Korean fan dance.

Cousin Amanda was in a skit portraying multiracial harmony. It was about a Malay wedding, attended by friends of different races, speaking different dialects. It ended with a loud "Yaaaamseng!" (a toast to the couple, Chinese style)

King of fruits *burp*

I thought I should write a tribute to the fabulously unique King of Fruits, a.k.a. the Durian! You either love it or loathe it!

Durian from Kung Kung's house

Kung Kung Paul has a durian tree at home, which he brought back as a seedling many years ago from Terengganu. It is apparently a Thai breed and I can attest to it's superior genetic make-up, because it's fruit is a beautiful yellow, with thick, sweet, rich, creamy, mind-blowingly delicious flesh! I have never bought any durian in Kuching which tastes as good as Kung Kung's. Thus, this tree is understandably famous, and dare I say legendary, among those who have tried it's fruit! So much so that I don't bother with other durians in the market, because they are never as nice and are not at all worth the calories and the stinky breath which results (and not to mention the other noxious bodily gases!).

Rich, creamy goodness!

The only time I have eaten durian which tastes as good is when I was with Hubby at KL, on the road, what's the name, the one behind Lot 10? Where there are plenty of durian stalls (during durian season) selling branded durians by weight! We had one called "Wang Shan Wang" or something like that which cost RM100+ for just one durian! It was expensive alright, but really good!

I forgot to take a photo of the fruit in it's shell, and durian season is over, so I took this off the net, for the benefit of those poor deprived souls who have never seen the inside of a durian! :)

Kung Kung's tree is huge, around 3 stories high, but is now really old and not producing as many durians as it used to in it's heyday. During the peak of it's career, some 4-5 years ago, the faithful tree could produce as many as 200 durians in a single season! Now it only produces less than a 100. Efforts are being made to graft the tree to make new seedlings, but have so far been unsuccessful. We tried planting from the seed, but it resulted in a tree which produces durians of a different quality, whiter and thinner flesh, with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Anyway, when the tree was performing at it's very best, that was the couple of consecutive years I was pregnant with Claire, then Eva. My due dates for both of them were in the middle of the year, right smack in the middle of durian season! Thus, during my last months of pregnancy, I had durian every single day! There was always at least two containers of fresh durian in the refrigerator, it was like yummy durian ice-cream! It's no wonder I gained around 20kg per pregnancy!! :)

Well, I sure hope the good ol' durian tree has many more good years left in it!

So what are you? A durian lover or hater?

Little Miss Destructive III

Eva has struck again...

This time, she broke this water gun/ pump thingy...

when she bashed her Daddy over the head with it!! :)




For more on Little Miss Destructive:
Little Miss Destructive II,
Little Miss Destructive
Wanted

New ambition

Yesterday, the kids were having roti canai at the Indian coffee shop next door. Claire and Eva were watching the man making their rotis. Just to let you know, Claire is passionate about food.

So, when I sat down to join them, Claire informed me of her newest ambition:

Next time I want to be a Indian so I can make curry! :)

Kampung Segong

On Sunday, we followed Sis no.3 and family up to Kampung (village) Segong. It is her colleague's kampung, and there is a nice stream there, just right for some dipping and catching small fishes. It is a 40 mins drive from town, and I was initially reluctant to go, as Hubby was not around, cos that meant that I would have to drive. I have never really driven long distance, since Hubby always chauffeurs me while I snore away! :)

However, Annie is obsessed with catching fish (like her mummy and her mummy's mummy!), and if I did not bring her, I would never hear the end of it! It also didn't help that Sis no.2 and family were spending the night at a beach. So, I had to either bring them to the kampung, or listen to, "No fair!" for the rest of the day...

The place is pleasant, clean and not overcrowded. Annie went straight to her fish catching while Claire and Solomon took a while to warm up. Eva however never warmed up and refused to sit on the stones, let alone go in the water! She stood up the whole entire time and wouldn't even sit on a towel I placed on a bench! Oh dear, she really needs training. When we go to a park, she sometimes even refuses to step on grass!

When the others started throwing stones into the water, she wanted to join in, but would not pick up the stones herself! Sidekick had to pick up the stones for her and wash them first, and only then would she hold them and throw them into the water!! In frustration, I forced her to sit, thinking that if her butt touched the stone, she would think that it was already 'contaminated' anyway and she might as well just remain sitting... but it only made her cry!! :)

Anyways, here are the rest of the pics:

 

Second hand books

Last year, a group of people came to Annie's school to sell second-hand books from the US. I bought her a few books and she seemed to like a series called 'Junie B. Jones' by Barbara Park. Annie barely read books then, so I was exhilarated that she found this book interesting and would actually read the book from cover to cover! I only managed to buy three of these books and then the book fair moved on. I tried looking on eBay, and apparently this series is very popular and common in the US. I tried bidding a couple of times for a complete set, but the price always went too high!

So, after a while I gave up looking for Junie B. Jones books and forgot about them. Annie also stopped reading! Then recently, when her friend Samantha and cousin Amanda came for a sleepover, I noticed both of them reading some books which Amanda had gotten for her birthday. I told Annie to go choose a book to read with them, but she chose to go to sleep instead! (She dislikes going to sleep early, but apparently considered that the lesser evil!!)

Amanda and Samantha continued to read into the night and I had to know what they were reading. It was the 'Geronimo Stilton' series; books about a mouse who is a detective or something like that...

So, I bought Annie a Geronimo Stilton book to try and she really liked it and has read many of them since then. Thank goodness! I think reading is so incredibly important, not only to improve the language, but also for general knowledge. I used to love reading the many books we had at home when I was a kid. We had all the Hans Christian Anderson and Brothers Grimm fairytales, Bible stories, Mother Goose nursery rhymes and I loved a book called 'The Book of Where, Why and How' with lots of interesting and unbelievable facts.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we heard that the book fair was back, at one of the shopping complexes. As usual, they had good condition, second-hand books from the US, priced from RM3.90 to RM19.90 only! We've been there twice and Annie has managed to add another 13 Junie B. Jones books to her collection. What's more, she has almost finished reading them all!

The smaller ones also chose some books for Mummy to read to them at bedtime.

Plenty and plenty of wonderful books! I had to control myself from buying too many to carry!

There were so many classics, like Dr. Seuss, Disney, The Berenstein Bears, Richard Scarry and this was one of my favourites; Babar!

I truly hope that all of my children will discover the joy of reading!