Elyssa's First Cinema Experience - "Shrek Forever After"

We brought Elyssa for her first cinema experience last weekend. A few hours before the show, I started prepping her for the event.

Me :Elyssa, you want to see Cartoon?
Elyssa : Yes.
Me : Mummy bring you to Cee-Nee-Maa. Cee--Nee-Maa. Can see cartoon BIG-BIG, Nice-Nice.
Elyssa : Want to go Cee-Nee-Maa. See cartoon *very excited already*

I also warned her : Cee-Nee-Maa dark dark. Elyssa cannot make noise, cannot cry. If you're tired, just close your eyes and oi-oi on mummy's lap. You still want to go? I got an excited "yes" each time.

After all the "prepping", I was pretty confident when we entered the cinema to watch Shrek Forever After. I also brought her water bottle and biscuits as a back-up. My main concern was that she would talk and laugh too loudly (she's a noisy viewer at home), so the biscuits were meant to keep her mouth busy :)

So we went in and found our seats just before the show started. She told me quietly - "Cannot talk. Shhhhh". Ok, good. Then lights off and screening previews started. First preview was some M. Night Shyamalan movie. Not good, I thought as it's a scary movie with plenty of dark eerie scenes. Poor girl started crying. Gave her biscuits..... quiet for a while. Cried again, gave another biscuit.... quiet again. Then suddenly: "Waahhhhhhhhhhhh. I don't want. I don't want". *loud wailing started*

Hubby immediately carried her (he hehh.... agreed upfront since he wasn't keen to watch Shrek in the first place!) and said he'll be back when Elyssa calms down or falls asleep.

I thought they would be back after a while, but............ I ended up watching the entire show all by myself !! (btw, I loved the show!)

When we met up after the show ended, I asked hubby why he didn't try to return to the cinema. I was surprised when he said he did a few times, but each time Elyssa started crying and told him "scared, scared".

*Sigh*, So THAT was basically her first cinema experience - Less than 10 minutes in the cinema hall. She didn't even make it past the preview screening! And hubby wasted his RM11 ticket. All my "prepping" failed :(

Ah well, I guess it was worth a shot. Won't know if we don't try! Mebbe next time I'll time it so that we enter the cinema after the show starts so we don't risk having to sit through a scary movie preview.

Oh yeah, what did she say when we walked out of the cinema lobby? "Mummy, I want to go Cee-Nee-maa Again".

What is this Thing?

"What is this Thing?"

"Hmmm...... maybe I'm supposed to use this Thing to massage my cheeks"

"I don't think I like this cheek massage Thing"

"Oh wait.... I think I hear some music"

"Hey this is nice !!!! No wonder my daddy loves this Thing!"

"Mummy. Come, come..... can hear music from this Thing!"

Day Trip to Colmar Tropicale

Last Saturday, we went for a day trip to Colmar Tropicale. Heard plenty of bad reviews about the place so we were not expecting much! Just wanted a change from our typical weekend shopping centre routine.

After breakfast, we took the short drive up. About an hour plus I think, but hubby went quite slow since I got a little car sick when the road got windy towards the end. Luckily Elyssa was fine. Entry fee was RM12 per person for the French Village (Colmare Square) and Japanese Village.

Some of the photos we took -

Attraction 1 - French Village
Basically just ONE row of french-style buildings. Nothing exciting.

Graceful white swan

To Elyssa, this was the best attraction of the French village

Elyssa and mummy with the swan

With the swan again
Nothing else to do at the French Village!

A rare photo of the 3 of us

A friendly Jordanian tourist offered to take our photo

Attraction 2 - Japanese Village

We enjoyed this a lot more compared to the French Village. Place was big and surprisingly quite well kept. But it was hot, hot hot !!

Elyssa walking around the Japanese garden

After a while, wanted Daddy to carry


Lunch at the Japanese Restaurant

As expected, overpriced and not nice. Served us right for being too lazy to bring food up!
The surroundings were nice tho.

Koi Pond outside the Japanese Restaurant

We left the place around 4pm. Wanted to go to the Rabbit Farm but it was just too hot so decided to skip it.

Overall, I think the place is worth a one-time visit. The French village was exactly as I expected, but the Japanese Village more than made up for it.
The best part for me was spending time with hubby and my little precious :)

Learning Chinese

Hubby and I plan to send Elyssa to a chinese school next time. But both of us can't even read or write Mandarin!

I was worried that we can't guide Elyssa with her chinese homework when she goes to school. So at the end of last year, when I thought about my 2010 New Years Resolution, I decided that I wanted to learn how to read and write basic Mandarin.

I found an adult chinese learning class near my area. I went there to find out more but was told they didn't have enough students to start a class yet. Anyway, I ventured into Popular Bookstore one day and then thought, hmmm...... mebbe I can just do this myself !!! I can speak basic mandarin so it's not like I'm starting totally from scratch.

So for the past few months, I got myself busy with all these -

My reading materials (yup, pre-school books !!!)

My Homework
(for chinese characters, it's all about repetition, repetition! I think I've finished about 10 exercise books)

Close-up

My well-used dictionary.
A very good investment @ only RM19.90! I really like this as it shows stroke sequence and the words are big enough for a beginner like me.

My daily homework (about 10-20 mins)
Start with the pre-school story book. For new characters -
(i) check meaning in dictionary
(ii) if not sure about pronunciation, go to this website to find out.
http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html
(iii) learn stroke sequence from dictionary
(iv) write out character over and over again in exercise book.
(v) add character to my "list of new words learnt". (another exercise book)

My personal target was 5 new characters a day with a minimum of 2 characters if I was busy.
Ha hahhh........ with a minimum set like that, yup, my daily norm is .......... TWO characters a day ;)

I know I'm inching forward like a snail with just 2 characters a day when there are tens and thousands of chinese characters out there, but at least I'm making an effort eh?

Surprisingly, I actually enjoy this daily routine. It is satisfying when I come across more and more words that I recognise. And after a stressful day dealing with all sorts of people and expectations at work, it is somehow therapeutic to just write and write the characters in my exercise book.

So I started all these for Elyssa, but somehow along the way, it feels as it's for ME as well :)

2 years, 1 month old

It's already one month past Elyssa's 2nd birthday. Sometimes when I look at her, I'm just amazed at how much she has grown. I know, I know..... I see her everyday, but I still can't help asking myself "since when did she get so big".

But I know in decades to come, I will think back of these times and tell myself, "she was so small then, only 2 years old". So I tell myself that "big" or "small" is relative to what it's compared with. What I should do is to enjoy and cherish the "now".


Anyway, back to her monthly updates.


1. Weight - to be updated

2. She's like our mini law enforcer. Whenever we get into the car, she says "Daddy, wear safety belt", Mummy wear safety belt" !

3. Very stubborn.

4. Very persistent. Like when my mum started to blow her harmonica one afternoon. She went "Ah Mah, No Need", "Ah Mah, No Need" over and over again. No temper tantrum, no raising voice. But just over and over again....... until my mum gave up.

5. Being stubborn and persistent, we have definitely started to see signs of the "Terrible Twos". It can be something simple like her refusing to keep a toy or walk up the stairs. If she doesn't want to do it, she absolutely refuses to. When we insist, the cry&scream until goo-starts-dripping-from-nose routine starts. *Sigh*, it's so tempting to give in to her but for long term discipline sake we try to be as consistent as we can.

6. She tends to say I do "in-the-self" rather than "myself". I suppose it's hard to unlearn something! We keep correcting her and these days, she mostly says "myself" but when she's excited about something, it tends to be back to "in-the-self".

7. Her favourite playmate at my parent's place is her 4 year old cousin, Justin ko-ko. But also her No. 1 enemy when they fight for things and attention! The two of them are very close and I hope they will remain close as they grow up.

8. This girl can be a real chatterbox. Just a few days ago, the 3 of us had an after-dinner walk around the neighbourhood. Hubby was holding my hand, I was holding hers. Hubby and I were yakking away about work related stuff. Yak Yak Yak..... then I realised that she was yakking quietly to herself too !!! Hers was quite soft but I picked up words like "and then do like that".. ha ha so funny. Go oi oi. etc etc. Non-stop talking (to herself) for almost half an hour while we walked. ;)

"Why Elyssa Tear?"

Whenever she comes to me and says "Why Elyssa Tear?" , I ask myself "what now?" cos she only says that AFTER she tears something.

Over the last week, she tore her jigsaw puzzle, my story book cover, our dining table placemat and even my Mother's Day flower!!! Aaargh..... I hope it's just a phase that she'll grow out of. Of course she gets a smack on her hands each time she does it. And I make her say "Sorry Mummy" too.

The one that I got the most angry was with the plastic placemat. Hey, it's not easy to tear a plastic placemat so I know she did it on purpose. So she got more smacks for that. As usual, she howled but when she went "Soh *snif* Ree *snif snif* Mah *sob sob sob* Mi *sob sob*" my heart absolutely melted. Had to still maintain serious face and tell her sternly not to tear again but inside, mummy's heart was like warm marshmallow already! he he. (Not that this is the first smack-then-sorry moment, but didn't write about it earlier)


The Placemat -

What was left of my flower -



Actually, when she broke the flower stem (she was in her car seat) I saw it before she managed to ask me her question. So I asked her "Why Elyssa tear?"

Her response:
"Mummy, Elyssa cough *fake cough*. Elyssa cough again *another fake cough*
Elyssa tired, Elyssa want to read book, Elyssa want to sleep............ bla bla bla bla

Wah........ can use "distracting technique" on mummy somemore!!!

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day today!

Hubby bought a small cake last night. Not that it was planned. We were at a bakery to get some buns and were surprised to see many people crowding around the cake counter to buy cakes for Mother's Day. So when a fresh batch of cakes came out we decided to get one too. Hubby jokingly said that he should deduct from Elyssa's angpow money since he's not my mum ;)

Sure enough, it was more like Elyssa's cake rather than mummy's cake....

"Yay..... got cake. Ok, must smile for mummy's camera first"

"Mummy stillllllllll taking photos........ mummy, faster pls..."


"Cannot wait already..... I eat first"

"Yummy"

For lunch, we had steamboat at one of the restaurants in Sunway Giza. Walked around the place after that and I was pleasantly surprised to discover they were giving out single stalk daisies for mummies :)

Not surprisingly, it became Elyssa's flower rather than mummy's flower....




Since it's Mother's Day, must put up one photo of myself with the little princess who "upgraded" my status to MUMMY :)