Mini Milestone@ Gymboree

Last Saturday, I decided to let Elyssa try out the next level of her Gymboree classes. (meant for >3 years old. Afterall, she turns 3 in less than 3 weeks). Main difference for these classes is that parents are not supposed to accompany the kids. Huge difference indeed! Also, it's arranged in such a way that there are 3 back to back classes - Play class, then Music class, then Art class. Almost 3 hours in total.

The night before, hubby and I started giving her pep talks - about how she's going to a "big girl" class now, how it's similar to cousin Justin koko's school, that mummy and daddy won't be there etc etc.

On Saturday morning, she was a little apprehensive when we reached the centre. I told the instructors I will only try out Play and Music, since 3 classes back to back might be a little too much at one time.

She said "bye bye" to me then walked calmly into her class...................BUT I was struggling hard to blink back my tears! Tears were rolling down my face when I went to the washroom. *Sigh*, it was one of those "my baby girl is growing up so fast" moments. (Yup, I'm definitely emotional when it comes to my princess. Reminded me of my first day back at work after maternity leave - 3 month old Elyssa was calm when I handed her to her "Ah Kong", but I started bawling my eyes out. Gosh! I'm gonna be an absolutely nervous wreck when she starts real school, or has her first concert etc !!!)

Needless to say, I was as nervous as can be for the next hour or so. I knew she was familiar with her Gymboree class, but she had never been unaccompanied before. (plus I've seen how she searches for me when she can't see me in her previous classes).
I kept glancing at my watch and checking my phone to see if there were calls from the instructors. What if she won't stop crying???

Halfway through the second class, I couldn't stand it anymore and decided to have a peek. The instructor told me: "Don't worry... She's perfectly alright! She didn't cry at all and she's following the class well". PHEW! Mummy is definitely a worry wart!!
Since she was alright, I decided to let her go for the 3rd class after all.

At the end of the 3 hours, she happily ran towards me with a big grin on her face, proudly showing off her paper bus made during Art class.

Mummy - look at my bus!!

So, my little princess went through 3 hours of class on her own for the very first time. No fuss, no tears (err... on her part. I failed!).

I am mighty proud of her!

Trip to JB - Part 2

After the long buffet breakfast on Day 2, Elyssa and I lazed around in the hotel room. Around 1+pm, hubby came back (one of his meetings was canceled) and brought us out for lunch.

Well, not just lunch - we went to the Popular Warehouse sale at Plaza Pelangi as well!! Already bought so much stuff at the KL sale, but still want to shop some more in JB!

Popular Warehouse Sale @ Plaza Pelangi

The sale was not as good though. Most of the books at the 70% and 90% section were really, really old and worn out

After lunch, hubby did some work in the hotel room then it was time for some quality time with the little princess. Elyssa jumped around with joy when we told her it was time to go the swimming pool!

Hubby getting Elyssa ready for the pool

Happy Girl

Come! Swim to daddy!
(somehow looks further in the photo. She only did this once - after that, she said she was scared and asked daddy to hold on to her)

Yay! Reached already

Kiss!

For dinner, we went to this quaint little restaurant which our friend introduced to us during our last trip.

Mis-matched tables and chairs, with plenty of knick knacks
The upstairs area is more interesting but I didn't feel like walking up the rickety wooden stairs.

Our fruit smoothies served in little pails

Hub's chicken noodles (I had the beef version)
Simple but yummy! We both liked this cos the style is similar to our favourite beef noodles stall at the Seremban wet market

The next morning, we just stayed in the hotel until it was time to check out.

Happily looking forward to buffet breakfast

After breakfast, we stopped by the rabbit enclosure
We went in for a while only cos Elyssa got scared and insisted to be carried
(aiyoh...sometimes a "samseng", sometimes a timid little girl)

Cute little white rabbit

Had lunch at KSL City shopping mall then drove straight back to KL for my sister's birthday dinner.

Our good little traveller
She slept for more than an hour in the car. After that, she kept herself busy with this sticker book I bought from the Popular sale @ RM1.80. Ha ha...money well spent!

Such a nice and relaxing trip :)
Hubby, when is your next business trip that we can tag along??? ;)

Trip to JB - Part 1

Last Thursday, Elyssa and I tagged along when hubby went for a 3D, 2N business trip to Johor Bahru. Hubby's main objective was work, our main objective was to rest and relax at Thistle Hotel :)

We arrived at the hotel around 1pm. Hubby went straight off for his meeting while Elyssa and I went on with our "main objective" till dinner time...

My happy little sausage, after a looong time in the bath tub

Enjoying her cartoon show

"Samseng" pose while watching tv

I love the big bathroom window cos I can still keep an eye on her when I'm soaking in the bath tub :)

I had plenty of time to learn my Chinese!

I just love, love this book I bought from the recent Popular warehouse sale. My old way of learning chinese was good at the beginning but after a while, I got a little frustrated cos I kept forgetting the characters or got them a bit mixed up. This book is all about word/picture association (and breaking down the individual components of each character) to form a short little story. So by remembering the story, I get the characters crystal clear in my head. Yay!!! I'm pretty obsessed with the book at the moment!

For dinner, hubby had a work related dinner appointment, so Elyssa and I met up with my old uni friend. It was nice to catch up again! Plus, my jaw dropped a few times when I visited her new house. (let's see....guest room nicer than my master room, huge walk in and colour coordinated closet, 2 maids, 1 driver, state of the art cinema room with 6 fully reclinable sofas etc.... Oh Man, what a life!!!). It's like a different world, but no lar.... I think I'm happy with my humble little world :)

The next morning, after hubby went to work, Elyssa and I lazed around a bit then enjoyed a nice long buffet breakfast.

Cheeky Elyssa during breakfast

- to be continued-

2 years, 11 months old

Just one more month to her 3rd birthday!



About her -

1. Weight : 13.6 kg

2. She's into her "WHY" phase now. "Why, Why, Why?" from morning until night. I know it's good that she's curious, but it drives me absolutely nuts! There were times when I got so frustrated that I just said "I don't know"...... which of course invited the next question "Mummy, WHY you don't know??????" Aaaaarghhhhh!!!!

3. She's pretty observant. When the cleaners came in last week and changed some of the position of things (like floor mats, her potty, dustbin, table angle etc), I got a never -ending stream of "Why this one put here, why that one put there" questions from her. Which means she knows where each thing should be.
And when I wore a new top last week, her first response when she woke up and saw me was "Mummy, you wear new shirt!" (ahem..... blur daddy didn't even notice)

4. She still kisses, hugs and says good night to my belly every night. I just love it!
When she's in the mood, she'll talk to her baby sister as well.
She will tell me : "Mummy, you play with your Ipad ok? Elyssa talk to baby sister". Typical conversation :
" Baby sister, next time when you come out, you can eat potato..carrot..tomato..porridge..soup (etc etc... can go on for a while)
You can play toys, can play Ipad, can go playground (etc etc..) Next time I share my toys with you ok??

One morning, I told her I was tired cos her baby sister kept on kicking me. That night, I overheard her whispering softly "Baby sister - you don't kick mummy ok? Mummy pain pain. You must be good girl". Awwwww!!!!! I absolutely melted. :)

5. She talks wayyyyy too much!! Definitely daddy's genes!

6. She still bullies her 2 baby cousins. We're pretty sure it's for attention cos when no one notices, she will announce "I kick baby Jo Ern" or "I push baby Jensen". *sigh*

7. She's starting to have a mind of her own (my baby is growing up!). For her birthday cake next month, she has already specified - a) Hello Kitty Design b) pink colour c) must be chocolate cake.

8. Current bad habit - whenever she's asked to do something (eg: stop playing/shower/keep toys/sleep/change clothes) her standard response is "5 more minutes!". The only time she doesn't use this excuse is when it's time to eat..

9. Some of her comments really make me laugh. Like last weekend in Ipoh, I told her that she can go swimming if "got time". Her response? She took my watch and said "Mummy, you check your watch la.... see whether got time or not". Ha haa!

Weekend in Ipoh

Over the weekend, we were in Ipoh for an early "Cheng Beng" - prayers for my late FIL in Kampar on Sat morning followed by prayers for hubby's ancestors in Tg Tualang on Sun morning. It was also a fun family reunion since all of hubby's siblings came together for this occasion.

And of course, when there's family, there's food!! Hub's eldest brother from Singapore already had his food itinerary all planned out :) We had so much good food over the 2 days - fat crunchy bean sprouts, kway teow, "liu" & whole steamed chicken @ our favourite shop in Pasir Pinji, char kway teow & rojak @ Hollywood Restaurant, the best Bak Kut Teh @ Tg Malim etc etc. Also celebrated BIL's birthday with cakes, drinks and wine @ Maria's in Greentown.

As expected, Elyssa had a fantastic time over the weekend. Being the youngest, she got to be the centre of attention (which she loves), got treated like a princess (on a few occasions, she just sat there while "ku jie" and "tai mou" wore her shoes for her) and her older cousins gave in to all her whims and fancies when they played with her. She also surprised everyone with the variety (i.e. everything) and amount of food that can pass through that little mouth of hers!


Some photos taken during the weekend -

Yummy Dim Sum Breakfast @ Foh San

Loooong wait to get table. Then had to to queue up to get the self-service dim sum. But I think it was worth the wait :)

Queuing up for freshly baked kaya puffs @ Sin Eng Heong
Highly recommended by SIL. My first time trying these kaya puffs and I must say it was also worth the wait!!! (and I normally hate waiting for food)

Magnetic Appeal of Iphone
From 1 head, to 3 heads, to 4 heads to 5 heads :)

Popular Clearance Sale @ Summit USJ

I went on a book shopping spree yesterday!!! Was initially half thinking whether to go to the sale or not, and was so glad that I decided to drag myself there. Prices were slashed up to 90% (limited), 70% (pretty good selection) and below 30% (I didn't bother with this).

Note : Sale is on from March 11 to 20, with members preview on March 10.

I ended up spending almost 5 hours there, including lunch and queuing up to pay. (ok, plus answering a thousand "why" questions from Elyssa. Gosh.... I really need earplugs!!!)

When hubby returned home from work and saw my loot, his first comment was "Aiya, why buy so much???". Then he looked at the books, fell silent then finally said....."Want to go after dinner???" Ha hahhhh!!!! I think I really know him well enough cos I was already expecting BOTH comments from him. ;)

Asked my parents to go along, and we happily bought more stuff last night :)

Main part of the loot -

Clifford "Phonics Fun" Collection - Set 4, 5 & 6
12 small books in each set.
RM13.50 each set (Original : RM45. Discount : 70%)

Items bought at 90% discount

Less than RM3 each

Items bought at 70% discount

Sleeping Beauty & Snow White - RM4.50 each, Nursery rhymes - RM 3, Puzzle fun - RM 1.80. Can't remember for the other two.

Threading board at 70%. (original : around RM45)

Elyssa playing with the threading board

I thought it was an easy game, but I was wrong!! She still doesn't get the concept yet.

Books for me at 90% discount

Around RM3 each after discount :)

Books for me at 70% discount

Hubby was grinning from ear to ear when he saw this - "Death Note" Comics box set @ 70% discount (original : RM333).
He also bought a couple of CDs

Quite a lot of stuff eh??? And I was thinking we wouldn't really be buying more books after we got all these at the Big Bad Book sale late last year -

Gymboree Classes

One of the advantages of not working is that I can now bring Elyssa for her Gymboree classes on weekdays. Recently, I have not been too pleased with weekend classes at the Tropicana outlet cos it's normally very crowded. I don't like it when there are too many kids cos classes feel more rushed, facilitators gets more stressed, less attention given to each kid, more distracted kids etc..

I guess that's the downside when a programme gets more popular. When I first signed Elyssa up, it was pretty quiet and I used to hope there were enough students for the class to start! (I had an experience where the class was cancelled cos there was just one other boy besides Elyssa).

Weekday classes are far more conducive and enjoyable. I managed to take some photos when I brought Elyssa for her 2 classes today (Music and Play) -

1) Music Class

Playing with her sticks
The kids had to do some basic actions according to the song

Dancing with 2 scarves

Solo singing on the giant microphone
She sang "twinkle twinkle little star" and "baa baa black sheep"

Dancing in a circle together with the teacher and her classmates

2) After the 45 minutes Music class, it was time for her Play n Learn class

Story telling time

JUMP!
Little "samseng" in action

Bouncing on the Air Log

Catching Bubbles

Tidying up after the "popcorn making" session

Happy Girl

Overall, I am happy that she enjoys and participates well in her classes. But for every single class, she has some of her "I don't want" moments where she just refuses to follow instructions. Ah well..... I guess that's pretty normal for kids her age!