Fast Learner

One day while watching her cartoons on tv, some advertisements came on.

My Girl: Mummy, what happened to my show? Finished already?

MG: No, that is an advertisement. An advertisement shows you something inviting you to buy it. When you see the advertisement then sometimes it makes you want to buy it.

To illustrate the point, each time an advertisement comes on, we would ask her to think what the advertisement is about ie inviting people to buy what? She would reply "wash hair" for shampoo etc.

A few weeks later......

My Girl: Mummy, I want to buy the barbie dollhouse I saw on the advertisement on tv. I want to buy!

MG: *slaps forehead*

Books Indulgence

Mr MG and I can't seem to stop this indulgence. Both of us love to browse at the bookshop and we love to buy books for the children. Mr MG loves books. He used to tell me, that a book is worth its price as long as he can learn at least one thing or pick up just one idea from it. He devours books. Most of his collection are finance, investment, technical books and ........ comics! Lol! He has a vast collection of marvel comics. Sometimes when I am free, I would read some of his Thor, Iron Man and Silver Surfer in the bathroom as well. Hehe.

I'm not as avid a reader as him but I do have my own collection too. My collection are mostly health books, novels, self-help books, women's magazines, pregnancy and childcare books as well as recipe books. There are lots of e-books available these days but I don't read them, preferring to read blogs instead. Blogs give me a peak at the real world, into people's lives, which I can relate to better. When it comes to books, I still prefer the old fashion handheld way. Reading from a PC or a portable device just doesn't do it for me.

Hopefully, we can pass on our love for books to the kids. They do love their books and the trips to the bookshops. My girl is often delighted when she can read from my newspaper or her own books and my boy is picking up too with his "Mummy, please read!" Hopefully this is a sign that they are on their way towards a lifelong love for books.

Reading opens up a whole new world and to me, the best gift that you can give a child is the love for reading and books rather than endless toys. (although .... hmmm......... we do tend to indulge in that as well). Their books and tapes (vcds and dvds) are quickly growing at a much faster rate than mine!

I would rate the following

1. books
2. tapes (vcds and dvds)
3. toys
4. clothing

in this order as the top best gifts for a child so keep that in mind if you're doing Christmas shopping soon. :)

My Swicki

Being kiasu and not satisfied with having just one search tool on my blog, I have two! Lol! Actually, I just love searching for more and more cool blog tools to try out on my blog. Usually, I would try it out for a while and if it serves no purpose or causes my page to load too slowly, then I will discard it.

Switching template for my blog is like changing clothes whereas having new blogging tools on my blog is like wearing accessories to go with my clothes. I like to wear various accessories (new blog tools) and if they don't match my clothes (blog template or page) then I just change them to something else new that I fancy. Being woman, I am fickle! So my page changes along with me. Hehe.

I have worn and discarded photo tools from Flicker, a tagboard for chatting (which was fun too as it gave me another way to chat with my blog visitors other than through the commenting system), RSS for news tickers and headlines from my other sites etc.

My latest accessory is my Swicki.

A swicki is new kind of search engine that allows anyone to create deep, focused searches on topics you care about. Unlike other search engines, you and your community have total control over the results and it uses the wisdom of crowds to improve search results. This search engine, or swicki, can be published on your site. Your swicki presents search results that you're interested in, pulls in new relevant information as it is indexed, and organizes everything for you in a neat little customizable widget you can put on your web site or blog, complete with its very own buzz cloud that constantly updates to show you what are hot search terms in your community. Read more here.

What I really like about it is the fact that everytime someone does a search using my swicki, I am informed via email of the term they searched for. Cool! Another thing which I really like is the buzzcloud which you can see way down on my sidebar. Its like those tag clouds you find on Technorati. The bigger the word, the more widely searched it is on the personalised search engine you created. Nice.

I will wear this new accessory (blog tool) for a while and if I lose my fancy for it, then I will go searching for something else new. Typical fickle woman! Hehe.

Google Custom Search

I've put up Google Custom Search for all my blogs and I love it! It enables me to customise the search results to show the webpages of my choice. This allows me to search my 3 blogs all at one go. It is a really useful tool to have if you have been blogging for a while and you have a short memory. Sometimes, you remember having said something but its a pain to go through your archives one by one searching for it.

Now, with the google custom search, I can easily locate my old posts and I can do it for all my blogs simultaneously. No need to crack my head wondering when I wrote something or on which blog I wrote it. Lol!

To create your own custom search engine, all you need to do is sign up for a Google Co-op Account. You can sign in for this service from your google account if you have one. Then merely follow the instructions, copy and paste the code on your blog and you're done! If you have google adsense, you can even show ads on your search engine and earn some extra $$. Well........, the custom search engine is really for my own convenience but this is an added bonus.

Mirror Image Painting Craft for Young Children

Previously when I blogged about some of the other arts and crafts projects I did with my kids, some of the commenters suggested that we do a mirror image painting craft. I love to blog about the crafts we do, because the input I receive gives me more and more craft ideas to try out. Thats what is so great about blogging.

Anyway, we tried it out and here are the results. Its really a very simple painting craft for young children. Just paint on one side of the paper then fold the paper into two and press to smoothen. What you painted will be imprinted on the other side making it a mirror image or reflection of what you have painted. We tried out this craft before but it didn't turn out quite as nice so here's a tip: Use thick paint, lots of it. (but don't overdo it till you have a glob of paint instead of a nice smooth surface. Lol!). As you can see from the results below, we didn't use enough paint on the second one and it doesn't look as nice as the first.

Sister's Day Out

I had a lovely time on Sunday with my sisters. Its been such a long time since we went out together, just the three of us. We shopped, we pigged out, we talked, we shopped some more, we pigged out some more. Hehe. We had an absolutely wonderful time together. Too bad we can't do it more often.

And where was Mr MG and the kids while I was out having fun with my sisters?

At the Zoo Negara, thats where! It was the kid's first time at the zoo so they had fun too, sweating it out and cooling it down with ice-creams. They bought me a pink flower hat. Hehe.

Official opening of my virtual department store - Its not too early to start shopping for Christmas!

I have become a retailer, a virtual one that is. I signed up for the Amazon Associates Program and created an aStore. I had so much fun doing it! Its akin to playing with a SIM computer game. I really had so much fun deciding what to sell on my store. Lol! Building a store is so simple. You can build a store relevant to your site in minutes. You can restock anytime too or add any number of departments that you wish. In other words, you have a lot of control over what is sold on your stores.

I created a store for mothers and then since I believe that there is a vain woman lurking beneath the exterior of every mother, I created another store for women. (Sorry men, I have no idea what to sell in a men's store so this is strictly for women but you can visit this store for ideas on what to get for your partner.) I then added some departments in my virtual store. They are a bookstore and a Christmas Gift store. If I allow myself to be carried away, I'd probably create a children's department and a household department for my store. Lol! It was so much fun. Even if I don't earn money from it, I got a kick playing this "SIM game" and pretending that I'm a store owner.

Feel free to enter my store and browse around. (Christmas is coming. I've got some ideas for christmas gifts in there) Its ok if you don't buy. Lots of people do window shopping at real department stores. (But don't let your boss catch you shopping at work. Lol!) Thank you for shopping and please come again.

Enough of this silliness of pretending to be a department store owner, now on to something more serious. For those interested, the Amazon Associates Program allows you to build several types of links including text links (which is on my sidebar under the heading "New Hot Links". I added the links to the stores I created here as well as direct links to Amazon on items which I felt are relevant to the theme of my site). I also put in a recommended products link which I did on my Mothering Times blog (I recommended parenting books which are relevant to my page. Another reason why I put the recommended products link there and not here is because I didn't want to clutter up this blog. The text link ones are fine for this blog as they are less obstructive or intrusive. However, I felt the other blog needed some colours. Its so dull, all blue blue. Hehe).

So, what do you think of my store?

Monetising my blog

Should I or should I not? Recently I've been pondering the idea of whether to monetise my blog or blog for money. I've been thinking hard about whether to turn my blog into a money making machine and start earning some money in my pyjamas! Well the idea of that is too good to resist! In addition, after blogging for two years with no knowledge about how to promote blogs, increase traffic or do any SEO (search engine optimization) to improve search engine results and page ranking etc my blog has automatically achieved some of these to a small level of being able to generate some revenue. Its amazing and an opportunity that seems too good to let it pass just like that.

Having decided to go ahead and take the plunge to earn money from blogging, I feel rather excited. Excited because there is so much to learn. Its really thrilling! Its like how I felt when I first started blogging. Suddenly, my blogging has taken on a new dimension. After two years blogging, you sometimes start to lose steam a little and wonder how long you can keep at it but with this new twist, yes, one can certainly maintain the momentum and keep on blogging. Now, I can blog on with this new direction and goal in blogging.

The opportunities out there for generating revenue on your blog is plenty, you only have to look for it. You can sell adspace (for a flat fee or payable per click) to advertisers who are willing to advertise on your little cyber space that you've created and grown to love. You can be paid per post to write reviews (I prefer to call them press releases) and provide a linkback to the advertiser. Yes, there are lots of oppportunities available.

I've made several starts and have done some blog housekeeping to achieve my new objective in blogging. I will be writing about some of what I've done in my next few posts.

In the meantime, how about a little debate. What does everyone think about the issue of monetising your blogs. Good or bad? Shoot!

Technorati tag: Blogging

My Girl's Dream

My Girl: "Mummy, I got a dream. I want to tell you about my dream."

MG: "Ok, what did you dream about?"

My Girl: "Mummy, I dream about the kite. I was playing with the kite. I couldn't hold the kite. I fall down and the kite flew away. When I "wheeeeee pom" (fell down) from the hill than you and daddy and baby disappeared and I couldn't find you. The kite is square with a tail."

Later on.........

My Girl: "Mummy, I want the kite can or not?"

MG: "Yes, you can play with your blue kite."

My Girl: "No, I don't want the blue kite. I want the kite in my dream."

MG: "Ok, you can play with the kite if you can tell me where to find it."

My Girl: "Mummy, its in the dream shop."

MG: Hahaha!

Can anyone tell me where to find the dream shop please?

Baby's New Favourite Phrases

My boy loves to talk now. Presently his favourite phrases are:

• "very bad" (said full of emotion with lower lip hanging out in a pout. He usually uses this phrase on me when I scold him or when his sister bullies him. Hahaha.)
• "I did it!" (said full of exhilaration when he achieves something)
• "Cheh cheh (elder sister) and baby good. Daddy and mummy ndotty!" (naughty)
• "thats why" (he adds this phrase to the end of almost every sentence. Its really amusing to hear him mumbling to himself and adding "thats why" to the end of his sentences. Lol!)
• "be careful" (thats because I'm always telling him to be careful so he's just mimicking me but it sounds much nicer coming from him. Coming from me, it sounds like a nag and being overprotective. Coming from him it sounds cute that a little fella knows how to show concern like that. Hahaha.)
• "I want too" or "baby too" (because everything that his sister wants, he wants too!)
• "I dunno" (said very nochalantly when we question him)
• "I wanna drink nuke" (nuke=milk)

I love to hear his baby talk. He sounds sooooo adorable especially when he tries to speak like an adult with his childish baby voice. *Muaks muaks baby* Mummy sayang!

Now that baby can talk, my girl has more fun and someone to keep her company. I hear them having funny conversations when they are playing together. Its really amusing.

Related Posts:

Eavesdropping
Eavesdropping Again
Look who's talking now

My Kids' Crafts

"Crafting is great because it gives kids a creative outlet, allowing them to learn about trying new things and making mistakes in a low-pressure environment. Depending on the craft, it can help kids with math, and almost all crafts help with following directions and logical order.
Crafts can help with spatial development and a child’s sense of color. They give kids the confidence to start a project and see it through to the end. Crafting can teach kids to be generous, especially when crafts are made to be given as gifts or donated to those less fortunate. And crafting provides a way for two (or more) generations to work together, providing memories that will last two lifetimes. What better reason to craft with your kids?"



The above excerpt was taken from lovetoknow.com on its crafts for kids category.
I love to do crafts with my kids and they enjoy it too. Below is the link to some of the fun crafts we have done together. I hope to add to this list from time to time. If you're looking for some easy craft ideas, do visit the links as I've posted photos of the completed craft projects. I hope you and your child have fun doing the crafts too. If you have a fun craft idea to share with me, please drop me a line. Thank you.

Chinese New Year Craft

Paper Lantern Craft for Lantern Festival
Chinese New Year Angpow Fish
Chinese New Year Angpow Rabbits

Drawing And Painting Art

Our first craft
Freehand Drawing
Crayon Resist Painting
Mirror Image Painting Craft for Young Children
More Mirror Image Painting - Mirror Image Twins
Experimenting with Crayon Resist Painting
Homemade Father's Day Card using Sponge and Finger Painting

Origami And Other Paper Crafts

Cheap Homemade Bookmarks
How to make Chain Paper Dolls
How to make a Pop-up Book
Origami Fun
Paper Plate Duck
Origami Ice Cream Craft
Paper Plate Craft
Homemade Card
The Best Toys (Origami Ice Cream Cones)

Special Themed Crafts

Leaf Art
Balloon Sculpturing Fun
Having Fun with Playdoh
Food Art for Young Kids
Science and Art Craft for Kids

Kids Craft for Telling Time and Learning Numbers
Pencil Shaving Flower Craft for Kids
Fireworks Glitter Art - A great craft idea for festivals and celebrations
Cotton Ball Craft

Christmas Crafts

Christmas Craft: Christmas Tree & Snowflakes Scene
How To Make Paper Snowflakes
How To Make A 3-D Christmas Tree
Making Pop-Up Christmas Cards
Santa's Reindeer Art

Technorati tag: kids craft

"Please key in your password"

"Please key in your password". We are bombarded with this phrase on a daily basis. I don't think this phrase was quite as widely used previously as it is now. This is just one of the ways how our world has changed compared to our fore father days.

I come across this phrase several times daily. I encounter "Please key in your password" when I sign in for my several emails and blog, websites for which I have signed up for some services or newsletters, when doing my online banking, at the ATM machines, when commenting on blogs, participating in forum discussions etc. Its driving me crazy!

In my previous job, I had to change my password every three months to access my computer screen to do stock trades. When the stock market was languishing, I played truant and sometimes when I finally turned up at the office, I had forgotten my password! (I was a constant visitor to the IT department to get my computer reactivated). I had trouble keeping up with and coming up with more and more passwords. After a while it became tiring to come up with new and different passwords that won't be easily figured out by others.

Remembering new passwords has become a chore which is why I probably would not password protect my blog posts. I think that defeats the purpose of having a public blog. However it would be useful I suppose for those who want to make use of the blogging platform to have their own private journal for their eyes only. Otherwise, your poor readers would have another password to remember in addition to keying in some other word verification nonsense. (which is required to save us from Spam). For example, to save this post, I have to key in "zwbuaak". Hmm..... to the spammers who made this necessary, well, all I can say is "zwbuaak" to you!

So tell me everyone. How do you manage your passwords? Use the same for everything? (That would be pretty dangerous. Someone who can manage to figure out your password would get access to everything!). Using birthdates, pet names etc could all easily be figured out too. While, in some instances (to prevent others from accessing your private information) you come up with such a unique password that even you cannot remember it!

While I leave you to ponder that, I'm off to key in my new password to login to my ReviewMe account to check if I have any new writing or Reviewing Assignments. Now that is one password I will happily remember for now. After earning my first US30 from the previous post, I can't wait for more. Lol!

ReviewMe - Another exciting way of monetising your blog

This post is a sponsored post or an Advertorial.

Recently I've been on the lookout for more ways to make money in a legitimate way on my blog. Afterall, my blog has been around for 2 years so why not make full use of this opportunity to earn some income from it.

My take is that money does not drop from the sky and if there is a money making opportunity, one should make full use of that opportunity. Blogging began as a hobby for me. A love for writing led me towards blogging. However I learned that blogging is much more than that. Its a stress reliever, a place to rant, to make friends with like minded people and now, its become an opportunity to make some much needed income.

I first read about ReviewMe from 5xmom's Make Money blog and immediately subscribe to their email to be informed of their launch. Well they have launched! It looks like another exciting way to monetise your blog for those of you who are interested.

So to all those who are interested (especially other SAHMs like me), why not sign up and give ReviewMe a try. ReviewMe is giving away up to $25,000 to the first few bloggers who write a review for ReviewMe (like what I'm doing now). I signed up 3 of my blogs (you can sign up to 6 blogs) but one was rejected due to poor traffic. For this first review that I'm doing, I am using this blog because it pays more ;) and I want to reach out to more of my readers to tell them about this opportunity but for subsequent reviews I will probably use my Mothering Times blog because that is less personal. So hurry up, go sign up and do a review and remember to give me a treat for recommending you. Lol!

If your blog is accepted (acceptance or rejection is immediate) your blog will immediately be given a pricing based on some criteria for eg your blog theme, estimated traffic, link popularity etc. Its fun to know how much your blog (your words) is worth when you do a review. Mine is worth $60 and $40 and I'll get paid 50% for doing a review. Woohoo! To find out how the ReviewMe ad model works, go to their Why ReviewMe page.

I love to write! I love to write! I used to do copywriting of brochures, leaflets etc as part of my job but I've always dreamed of becoming a paid writer and I believe I've just become so!

Technorati tags:ReviewMe

Weaning baby from breastfeeding - Baby led weaning is much easier than mum led weaning

Dragonmummy was asking about how to deal with boy obsessed with breast which reminded me to post about our weaning progress. I wrote about my plan to wean baby from his breastfeeds in February. Oops! Its November now. How are we doing?

• He no longer rejects his formula milk taking it 3 times a day together with his sister. (Phew!)
• He now sleeps through the night so theres no longer any need for a middle of the night feed or a need to wean him off it (Yippee!) In my previous post, I read some articles that suggested getting up at night to offer the baby water instead but I didn't try it because I was too lazy to do so. I continued to offer him the breast because its easier for him and me to go back to sleep this way. Eventually, he just slept through the night and if he does wake up and make a fuss, he normally goes back to sleep when I put my arms around him and pat him a little bit so there was no more reason or need to wean him off the middle of the night feeds.
• I've managed to wean him off the morning feed. This is easy as he is distracted in the morning by other things so he no longer asks for a feed when he wakes up.

So now, we're down to two feeds a day, at naptime and at bedtime. Last night (nope should be the night before last actually), he forgot to ask for his breastfeed, so I quickly pretended to be asleep. (Hahaha. Lets hope this is the first step towards self weaning). He just played with my face (as he usually does), pinching my cheeks, poking my eyelids and pressing my nose while he smiled and talked to himself till he fell asleep. Lol! (Admittedly, he did forget about a night feed once many months ago but I hope this time its because he is ready to wean himself off breastfeeding. ) Baby led weaning is really much easier than mum lead weaning so I really hope that we're heading towards that direction.

How to store drinking water safely

Mr MG has been complaining telling me that I am not taking care of our family drinking water well enough. He asked me to do a little more research on what is the best and safest way to store clean drinking water. So being lazy busy as usual, I have decided to do my "research" here on my blog.

First, let me share how I store our drinking water. Our tap water is not very clean at times. After boiling, I can see lots of sediments collected at the bottom of the flask or water container. I usually boil water once a day using an electric kettle. I would boil two rounds of water. One, just enough to fill up my hot water flask. I throw any balance water from the previous day away to get rid of the sediments. I leave the second round of boiled water in the kettle to cool, after which I would pour them into plastic containers and tupperwares for drinking.

What am I worried about or what is wrong with my system?

1. I presently do not use any water filters
2. I am worried that storing water in plastic containers would cause the plastic and other chemicals to leach into the water (sometimes the water has a funny smell)
3. By cooling the water in the kettle itself, the filamens get rusty.

I have many questions for my readers. I hope you can answer them as I need a little help in this area. I have also seen many people buying water from water kiosk machines. Is that any good?

1. Do you use a water filter and what type? Indoor or outdoor?
2. What type of water do you drink? (Pure Distilled water? Boiled tap water? Purified water? Mineral water?) Which is better?
3. How do you store your water?

I have many more questions but I better not bore you guys. Haha. Hopefully, I can have some answers so I can tell Mr MG that I have done my "research". Lol! Thank you for reading.

Related links for me to check out when free:

What type of water do you drink?

Multilistening Skills

Mothers are not only good at multitasking, they have to be multilisteners too.

Often, I have to listen to three people speak at the same time. It goes something like this (with everone speaking simultaneously):

My Boy: Mummy, Up! Up! ........ blah, blah, blah...........

My Girl: Mummy, afterwards we play party, okay, mummy, okay? Say okay! blah, blah, blah.....

My Man: Hon, what do you think of this..........blah, blah, blah.

Its really hard to focus. After the first few lines from everyone, sometimes my mind goes blur or I tune out. (not purposely) This happens all the time, most frequently in the car. Gosh! It can get really noisy. My head is full of noise when this happens.

Mr MG always tells me to ignore the kids when I show stress or annoyance when he tries to speak to me and I can't concentrate with the kids talking to me at the same time in the background. He usually can carry on talking and tune out the background noise (of the kids talking). (but then they're not talking to him what, so of course, can lah! Hehe.)

Usually, by the time, when its all peace and quiet and I can have a little time to myself, its time to sleep! Chey!

Origami Fun

I bought some Origami books over the weekend. The kids love to do the paper folding craft so far. I didn't know that this ancient Japanese art of paper folding could turn out to be such a fun and simple activity to do with the kids.

I've been hearing "Mummy, I want to play folding" and "Mummy, please fold something for me" from my girl and "I wanna fold." or "Fold!" from my boy as he folds the paper here and there or crushes them up. Lol! He's still a bit young for this craft and sits impatiently waiting for the end product. Luckily he likes the end product. His sister on the other hand is old enough to fold some of her own and draw in the patterns to complete the origami. It requires manual dexterity as well as the abillity to follow some simple instructions so its a good craft for kids her age.

The books come in a series of 4 books. I bought Book 1 and 2 to try out. It costs RM4.90 each and comes with 27 pieces (each) of coloured origami folding papers. Really value for money. I think I'll probably go out and buy the other 2 books next weekend so I the kids can have fun folding more stuff.

We've been busy folding boats, houses, dogs, cats, bunnies, dolls, paper planes, swans etc. The instructions are really easy to follow and some of the origami featured in the books are incredibly simple but with beautiful results.

We even folded some finger puppets which my girl took to bed with her. Then she tried to trick me by making the finger puppet talk. "I want 4 stories. I want 4 stories." she made the fox finger puppet say. Then she said "This fox very naughty wants you to tell 4 stories." (Everynight she bargains for 4 stories) to which I replied "Yes, but you are good. You want only 3 stories." Hehe. Bad mommy!

While writing out this post, I surfed around for some origami for kids internet links and found many. Woohoo! I love the internet! Maybe I won't get the books afterall with so many free ideas available. Hmm... but maybe I'll get it for the free origami paper. Haha. Like I said, its value for money. I think some of the origami paper sold costs more if bought separately. If I have the time, I'll share the origami links after testing them out with the kids.

I didn't know that origami could be so much fun for the kids, even for me! If I had more time, I would like to graduate to more advanced origami projects like folding some paper flowers etc to decorate the house. I saw some beautiful paper flowers origami books at the bookstore but they look really hard to do. Ahhh... If only I had more time. It would be a nice hobby.

Now, if only I had more time, I'd like to learn to play the piano and guitar, learn to sing better, do more of my cross stitch, learn to cook better, learn to dance.........*Dreaming* Oops! I got carried away again. This was supposed to be a post about Origami Fun. Hehehe. Anyway, its time to go. Time to go and do some paper folding!

Banned Books Furor

Did you know that this wonderful children's book is among the list of banned books? I'm really speechless when I saw this book in the list at 5xmom's blog.

Errr.... can anyone tell me why anyone in their right mind would want to ban this wonderful children's book that teaches counting in a most delightful and interactive manner that encourages learning? It even plays wonderful age old nursery rhymes music. Can anyone see how this book can be "detrimental to public order" or liable in some way to"contribute to immorality".

Gosh, this is so sad.... so very sad.... *shakes head*

Go visit freethebooks.blogspot to read more about the book banning.

Never marry a man your age.

Or you'd end up looking like his elder sister or worse still, his mum!

As babies, boys develop slower than girls so I suppose it is only fair to them that they age slower too. Lol!

I used to work in a company where all the wives were much bigger size and taller than their husbands of the same age. After a time, they (the wives) end up looking like an older sister to their younger looking spouses.

My bros-in-law both of whom are the same age as my sisters look younger than their wives too. My eldest bro-in-law once had someone telling him that his son looks like his younger brother. That left him smiling and my sister fuming. "What does that make me then? His mother?!" she tells me. Hahaha.

Mr MG is two years my senior and we're headed that direction too. To me, he still has the boyish look whereas I'm headed towards auntyhood (Ah Soh in chinese). Luckily he is much taller than me, otherwise he'd look like a younger brother. Phew! However, he did look a like my younger brother when I was heavily pregnant with my second one. I looked like a beached whale then. Huge! Humungous! Waddling clumsily beside my tall, trim man, I really felt a lot older! I think size has got a lot to do with it. You tend to look younger if you're petite.

So ladies, if you're not married, better pick someone much older. Hehe. If its too late for you and you're already married to a man your age, you can always resort to things like trimming your hair shorter to look younger (the safest hairstyle for Ah Soh is layered shoulder length), don't perm, it'll add years. slimming down, wearing brighter, younger looking outfits (but not too young or you'd be call "lao hiao"), lose those spectacles etc. Or if you're really desperate, maybe botox, latest eyelash treatment or whatever. (I laughed so hard when my sis told me about some of her friends who went to have their eyelashes painstakingly sewn on one at a time and wonder where do these women find the time for such vanity?! In fact, I wonder where the people who go for pedicures and manicures find the time to do so! Must be too free and too rich. I find it wasteful in terms of money and time unless you're young, single and carefree that is.) Is it no wonder than that the slimming centres and plastic surgeons are making lotsa money and sprouting faster than you can say "sprout". (Errr... anyone smell some sour grapes around here? Hehehe.)

Oh, when can I own a Barbie Doll?

I've never owned a Barbie doll before, though I would very much like to have one. Hey! When we were younger, we didn't have the number of toys our kids have nowadays.

I remember drooling over a pretty doll with a blue can can ball gown. Oh! How I wanted it! And when my dad bought it for me, finally, I was soooooooooo HAPPY! Hahaha. However I never had a Barbie. I don't think they had them in the stores here during my time.

My little niece has dozens of them, all with matching little outfits, handbags and shoes! I remember at a family gathering a while ago, how me and my sisters and sisters in law ended up playing with the dolls instead. Hahaha. We were so fascinated with the assortment of clothes and kept changing them over and over again to see how the doll would look!

Recently, while at the toy shop, as I usually do, I steered my girl towards the Barbie dolls and asked her what she thought of them:

MG: What do you think of this?

My Girl: What is it?

MG: Its a beautiful princess doll, don't you think?

My Girl: Yes, but what is it for?

MG: ............

My Girl: But what does it do?

Lol! I was stumped for an answer. I've tried this many times. Earlier on she just showed disinterest and moved on to something else. Now she tells me why she is not interested. She thinks its boring because it doesn't do anything so she can't play with it. Hahaha. Looks like my little girl is more intellectual than her mummy.

And looks like mummy cannot buy the toy for herself on the pretext of buying it for her daughter. Hahaha. We parents do this all the time don't we? Mr MG buys his kids the remote control cars he never had. My bro-in-law buys his kids the construction sets he wished he had as a kid. (he has dozens of them including a sandpit and often plays with them. When my sister teases him, he says its relaxing. Lol!). I used to own a roullette set which my dad used to take out to play with me. (So he could have some practise before going to Genting, I suppose. Hahaha!)

I wonder when I will get to play with the Barbie dolls! Will my girl be more interested in dolls as toys as she gets older? Right now her current craze is party toys ie masak masak, cups, plates, teapots and pretend food so she can pretend to have a party or picnic or she'd set up a supermarket, by displaying the pretend food on her own makeshift shelves (made of alphabet mats) and pretend to buy them from me (the designated shopkeeper) by placing the toy food on a toy plastic tray and "paying" for them with her "money" (flash cards) which she keeps in a small little handbag. (She likes to pretend to be me buying stuff at the supermarket. So she carries her little handbag in an "aunty" manner like me. Lol!)

Kids learn a lot from play and we can learn a lot of whats on their minds when we play along with them.

Kid's Craft: Cheap Homemade Bookmarks

My girl loves to read. One day we introduced her to the bookmark. We told her she could insert the bookmark into the page where she stopped reading and come back to it later. She was delighted and immediately wanted to buy some bookmarks. (As soon as kids learn to speak, one of the first few words they master is the word "Buy!")

The bookmarks at the shop cost about RM1.50 to RM3.00 each. So cheapskate mummy decided to get her to make her own homemade bookmarks instead. Besides, it makes another easy activity to do with the kids.

And so making bookmarks became yet another activity for crafting time.

Here's what we used:

1. Coloured paper. (No need to buy. Just look around the house for some old thick brochure or annual report or whatever)
2. Scissors
3. Ribbon or Thread
4. Hole puncture
5. Stickers (For an older child who is artistic and likes to draw, drawing or painting would be better, but I'm lazy so we used stickers)

Here's what we did:

1. Cut out the coloured paper into various shapes and sizes (My girl wanted to make big square ones. She's not very conventional. Hehe.)
2. Punch a hole at the top
3. Thread a ribbon or coloured thread through the hole and tie them into place
4. Decorate (in our case, we used stickers)

And voila! You've got yourself pretty bookmarks that your child will be proud to use since she/he made them herself/himself.

Total Cost: You can get a whole page of stickers for just RM1 at the pasar malam (night market). So our cost for more than a dozen kids bookmarks was around RM1-2. If you draw, the cost is negligible.

Total Time: Only a few minutes of quality time spent with the child which translates to lots of fun for him or her.

So now we're using the bookmarks for all her lesson books and story books and she feels even more proud of them because she made them herself.

The car and fish bookmarks are my boy's. The other's are my girl's.

Note: Making bookmarks are an easy to do activity for children but they're not only for kids. These bookmarks make great gifts for friends or sweethearts. Anything thats remotely "make your own" with your signature touch make great gifts because they're so personal. (even if they're very simple to make). Years ago, I made a dozen bookmarks for my boyfriend (then) husband (now) as a Valentine's Day gift, all full of lovey dovey messages and hearts aplenty but that feller hoh, donch know how to appreciate them, simply chuck them here and there. Chey! (He still has some of them but I don't think its because he treasures it, its simply because he doesn't know what to do with it or where to keep them! He even gave some of them to his girl to play with before she made her own. Chey!X2)

What Is A Friend?

Friends are people who ....

• support you when you're feeling down
• encourage you in your new endevours
• cheer you on
• give you a pat on the back
• cry with you
• laugh with you
• know you well
• give you advise when you need it
• etc

Now, in a very strange way, that makes bloggers friends doesn't it? Because they do exactly that. And yet, you've never met them, nor know how some of them look like, and perhaps you may never even meet them.

Yes, its very strange indeed. Yet, some of my blogger friends do all of the above for me much more than my real friends. Sadly, as you grow older, you also grow apart from some of your friends. Why, some of my friends whom I giggled with and stayed together with for longer than a year, now no longer bother to keep in touch. I don't think they even know that I have a second kid nor care! Thats the sad state of things. *Sobs*

I find that the best of friends are those made in your growing years, those whom you meet in school. All the rest, the colleagues you get along so well with at work, etc sort of just drift apart when you no longer work together. Oh, you may still get together once in a while but its just not the same kind of friendship as your childhood friends.

I have a friend of 23 years. We parted many years ago and she gave me a gift. A decorative stand with the words something to this effect "Though we're apart, when we meet again, we just pick up from where we left off as though we've never really been apart." Something like that. I don't remember the exact words but I think thats the message and thats exactly how I feel with this friend.

There were some years when we were not in touch at all but when we got in touch again, things just felt the same, no awkwardness at all. Maybe we just belong to the same wavelength, thats why. We used to call each other "twins". And after all these years, we're still both the same person we were back then and we've both grown too, horizontally that is. Lol!

Then there are other close friends, whom after some years of not being in touch, you just feel awkward and can't find the right things to say to each other nor find common things to talk about anymore. And there are a lot of those cases. Sigh!

Anyway, I'm trying to spread the blogging virus fever to her encourage my old friend to blog, so that we can keep more closely in touch again. So to my fellow blogger friends. Can you do me a favour and drop by her blog to leave her a comment and help me encourage her to maintain her blog? She has a way with words and you'd enjoy reading her blog. Do welcome her to the world of blogging and share with her what joy blogging has brought to you. Hehe. Can anot? For me? (*fluttering short eyelashes). Thank you.

Another thing, I have a question. Do you consider bloggers your friends or mere acquaintances ie people you just happen to meet along the way of life. I suppose they're both. Some of them are merely superficial (you just happen to bump into them in passing in cyberspace) while you can actually feel a real connection with some others. You've just got to weed out or be able to tell between the genuine concern from those who just comment for the sake of commenting. Don't you think?