Action speaks louder than words

My Girl: Mummy, I don't like school anymore. Its boring. They always teach the same thing. Always ejaan or spelling.

MG: Oh, like that ah? Like that no need to go to school anymore loh? (*teasing*)

My Girl: Mummy, I think I want to go to school lah (serious)

In another incident.....

Mr MG: She's vomitting. Tomorrow better not let her go to school.

My Girl: Daddy, I think I no more vomittting already. Tomorrow I can go to school.

I only wish this eagerness to go to school will continue through "big school".

The first term school holidays is approaching. How fast time flies. First term is almost over. As we were looking at the calander and the holiday dates together.....

My Girl: Mummy, look, November and December so many holidays. So nice one?

MG: Yah, that also means the end of kindy. After that you go to big school.

My Girl: Oh. *face fell as realisation sets in*

An email to daddy

Sometimes when I sent an email to the hubby at work, I would call the kids in and ask them what they wish to say to daddy, then I would type it in and read it out loud to them. They enjoy this little "activity" a lot especially if they get a reply from daddy.

My girl who is older prefers to type her own email message. Recently she typed this to her daddy. (using one finger typing). I shall copy and paste it here for us to enjoy and remember years later, long after we have deleted the message.

Dearest Daddy,

Today i had a nice day at my school/kindergaden becauese got sweet's that's why today i had a fun day at my school. and now how is YOUR day at work today? but, some of the sweet's might have nut's so mummy/you have to take out the nut's /eat the nuts or orange that we eat. We are going to rest soon.

She likes pink so she always uses pink in the messages. I was amused that she had remembered what I told her when we read together. I told her to read with emphasis those words that are highlighted, in bold, in italics or in caps. She remembered and put "YOUR" day at work to emphasize "YOUR".

This is actually a good way of teaching and encouraging the kids to write, spell and form sentences. They don't realise that they are learning at the same time because they think its such a game but of course you can't do it too often or hubby may get distracted at work, worse still if they screen his incoming emails. Lol!

The Vomit Bucket

The whole family is down with some stomach flu which I thought was food poisioning initially. I've been wiping vomits 2-3 times daily for each of my babies (including the big one). A yucky and tiring task.

When the kids were younger, I didn't know how to handle vomit. Sometimes in the middle of the night when they looked like they were going to throw up, I would carry them to the bathroom as quickly as I can. This is definitely the wrong thing to do because not only does it leave vomit on the place of origin (usually the bed), there will also be vomit on my clothing (usually the shoulders and back) and a trail of vomit all the way to the bathroom. Ewek!

After a while I got smart and decided not to carry them to the bathroom. I just let them throw up all over the bed and I cleaned up afterwards. At least this way there is no vomit trail. Usually, I tell them to try to throw up on the floor at least if there is no time to get to the bathroom. Cleaning up the floor is much easier than the bedsheets.

I hate cleaning vomit. Previously I used to try to rinse the vomit off their soiled clothing or the pillow cases, bed sheets and blankets. But that was before I thought of the SCOOP METHOD. With the SCOOP METHOD, I try my best not to touch the vomit. I would fetch a toilet roll and a plastic bag. Then I use the toilet roll to scoop up the vomit into the bag. I do this whether the vomit has landed on the floor or the pillows and the bed. Sometimes I finish up the entire toilet roll in the process. If the vomit is on the floor, I would spray something (anything) to get rid of the smell and use a wet cloth to wipe the floor after I've finished my scooping task. If its the sheets and pillow cases then I'd put them aside, quickly change new ones and throw the soiled ones in the washer the next day. Before I thought of the SCOOP METHOD, I remember crazy nights when I would go to the bathroom and use the shower to try to wash or rinse away the vomit from the sheets and pyjamas then leave them on the floor before throwing them in the washer again the next day. This left dripping water all over the floor because I couldn't wring them as dry as the "DRY" function on the washing machine. Not anymore. Now I just scoop and wash the next day.

And now, after days of wiping vomit I finally got the EUREKA moment. EUREKA! I came up with the Vomit Bucket. Now why didn't I think of this much earlier? I took a pail and showed it to the kids and informed them that if they could not make it to the bathroom they were to rush to the pail or the pail would rush to them so they could throw up into the pail. They both giggled and wanted to try it out immediately (*rolls eyes*). Nevertheless, they both DID get to try it out over the next few days.

The vomit bucket is perfect. It has saved me from lots and lots of clean up work. Whenever, I here a cough or a cry in the middle of the night and I see their faces turning green, I would rush to them with the pail and EWEK! Then I'm off to throw the contents into the toilet bowl, flush, rinse with sweet smelling soapy water and we go back to sleep. Hahaha. Now why didn't I think of this much, much, much earlier?

So, how do you clean vomit? (If you get the maid to clean, please don't share. I'm jealous. Lol!) However, I would like to hear your experiences of hiring a maid.

She loves Kindy

My girl loves kindy. Everyday when I ask her "How was school?" she usually replies with a smile "Its very nice." I only wish that things could stay this way when they go to Primary One. Boy, are we in for a culture shock when she goes to "Big School."

The shock of unsystematic parking and traffic jams when picking up kids after school, the heavy school bags, the either too lepak/too strict culture (whichever school you choose to go, there's no in between it seems) etc.

Oh well, we will enjoy it for a little while, while she is in Kindy and things are rosy. Her little brother misses her when she is away for half a day. He plays quietly by himself instead of running around playing and fighting with her either that or he enjoys playing with "her" toys while she is away and there is no one to fight with him over the PC games. :)