My Little Dreamer

I woke Niki up for school this morning at 7.30am; and had to get her ready by 8.15am so that she be at school at 8.30am. Why am I stressing about the time?? Coz already got reminders from her teacher to send her to school early. So I've got to bulk up or face the wrath of Niki's pre-school teachers! So I choose to be on time instead.

I woke the little poppet, by telling her to wake up coz she's got concert practice to which she replied "teacher told Niki to stop dreaming" .. So my kid is a dreamer and will zone off when she's on stage, I expressed my worry to her daddy who had this simple solution ... the kid is not even three yet, so let's not drill or bog her down with rules and whatnot..instead let her enjoy her 15 minute of fame her way..

I thought to myself, on how right this sounds, I am becoming one of those pushy parents whom I use to cringe whenever I see them reprimanding their kids in public for not performing up to par..but what is the par? Why is there a par, and there's certainly no need to measure our kids against what we think is right or trying to relive our childhood through our children, that's just so wrong. So I made a silent promise to myself to not conform to the peer pressure of over pushing our kids. So what if she zone out, according to her dad ..the least we could do is catch the footage on video and use it to embarass her once she's all grown up.. now that sounds like fun!

Under the weather

It's official, all three of the Kumars has been strucked down with the dreaded flu bug. It's sniffles, and hankies galore. On a positive for me at least is that I can abstain from eating for a bit and hopefully the extra pounds can just drop miraculously. Yeah, wishful thinking but what's life without hope as quoted by Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux!

Friday, my dears!

My munchkin lurves bubbles

Today is Friday, I've got tons to do in the office before I even can think of the weekend.

And puasa has just started which means ... ramadhan bazaar..yay .. food!!!!

Gonna go check out our KK bazaar in the evening, without the munchkin of course. Gonna go pick her only after .. too crowded, small stuff might get lost ..

Yum..omg .. thinking about dinner when I've just had my breakfast .. ishh.. terrible. Ok then will think about it at 5.45pm then .. teeheehee..

So amigos and amigas .. have a fab weekend, ok!!!

The Kumars at No.9

Vicky's Celeb Look-a-likes

http://www.myheritage.com

Celebs that look like me

http://www.myheritage.com

Bangun Pagi ditty

Here's Niki singing for her mom and pop .. Bangun Pagi .. we especially like the part where she goes makan roti, minum susu with its accompanying actions, had us in stitches!!

The Many Faces of Niki

Mysterious, Shocked, Overwhelmed and Smiley -- the many, many faces of Niki.

Niki's First Salon Visit

Sunday the 9th marked Niki's first haircut ever at a salon, all this while we've been DIY-ing her hair, and we think a real cut is very much due. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree I guess and loved the salon experience and requested for a "princess cut" .. priceless I tell you that girl. Her hairstylist's name is Apple.

The Merdeka Lantern festival @ Niki's Kindy

Niki and her leet classmates patrioticly waving the jalur gemilang, our Niki was more than patriotic I guess, with tears streaming down her cheeks as they sang Jalur Gemilang

Niki's bff, Bak Shun Ling and Nicholas Lim

Niki with her cuz

Here's us at the Merdeka Lantern Festival party organized by Niki's kindy. See the top pic * points up* That's me, Niki and her classmate Nicholas.

Here's more photos as the night progressed on, teeheehee, you can see Niki crying in on of the pix, she very the tension already :-)

Then all the kids and the kiddults went for a walk around the block with litted lanterns! Niki's Amama, her fave Ammu-Ka, Lavin, Aunty Barbara and Mohan PPpa joined us there as well.

Today's Friday!

Ah, Friday at last.

Tonight is Niki's Lantern/Merdeka party at her school, it's 3pm now and raining kitties and puppies. Hopefully the rain would've eased up by then. *fingers & toes crossed*

Got her cakes, jellies before lunch just now and ordered the fuits which we will pick up a bit later. Tucked the little girl for her afternoon nap and cam right back to the office.

Will rush off later coz the shindig starts at 7pm this evening. Will update with photos later.

Have a good weekend, y'all!

The day before..

Niki's school is organizing a Merdeka/Lantern festival shindig tomorrow. There's gonna be marching, singing, and a whollotta food & merry making tomorrow evening. Can't wait to see the girl march and perform in her first school recital!! So the "jackoon-la" her parents :-) We've been waiting with abated breath for the past one month.

And next month is her school concert .. wooppeee!

Our mischevious Niki

Niki's class teacher told me that the class was too quiet the whole of last week when she was absent from school when I went to pick her up last evening *raises eyebrow* .. hhhmmm .. and she added that no one called her "oh .. teacher, oh my teacher" since Niki is the only
one who calls her like that .. such a drama queen I tell you. And I don't mean the teacher .. I mean the tot!

Niki Sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

I had the pre-schooler sing me Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star before I tucked her in for bed last night. ps. Must get her a haircut coz her hair's quite long already.
Enjoy the video!

The weekend before..

salsa!

mugshots

"gene simmons" shots

Getting back to school.

Niki was at home the whole of last week due to the flu bug. Actually she was all better by Saturday but we only took her out yesterday. Went to Burger King's .. actually Nix wanted to go shopping but her parents wanted to go eating, since it was 2 vs 1 we went with the majority vote heeheehee..

Then we went home and fooled around with the camera before watching a movie.

Well here's the bunch of them.

I just finished reading Ranee's blog, and how Dhiren's going to school already etc..and Nee, I hear you, and over here it's pretty that much paperwork to go thru as well... there's so many that I asked the principal to pass it over the weekend so that I can slowly go thru 'em and write it all down, since "the computerization era" I haven't actually done much real writing so my hand were super sakit once I finished all of it!

This morning, sent Niki off to school, she was pretty lazy after one week of home schooling, so thank God the principal was there to take her into her class *phew*

So back to the grind, the boss is coming in soon so better get my a** back to work!

Have a wonderful Monday y'all!

Mid-Autumn aka Mooncake festival is coming

How time flies, time and time again I use this phrase, I feel as if it was only yesterday I ate mooncakes from Tai Thong and now the time is coming again. Ammu bought Niki a Mickey lantern so we're gonna take it for a little dry-run later this evening. For the kiddults I got 'em paper lanterns, so all of us can have a go!

But gotta wrap up early lo..coz now is the Happy Ghost Festival as well .. being Chinese gotta respect that lo..

For those who're "bananas" like I, here's some history on how the Mooncake festival came about, like all Chinese tales, its quite romantic.

Originally named the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Moon Festival is one of the most important holidays celebrated by Chinese communities around the world. Let us first explore the creation of mooncakes.
Mooncakes earned their popularity during the Yuan Dynasty (1200 A.D.- 1368 A.D) when, as legends say, the Mongols who had established the Yuan Dynasty were too oppressive, and were overthrown by the Chinese with the help of this simple dessert.

Since Mongols did not eat mooncakes, the Chinese took advantage of this cultural difference and planned a revolt against them. Leaders of the revolts distributed mooncakes, under the pretense of celebrating the emperor's longevity, to other Chinese people. The mooncakes held secret messages baked within the skin, informing people to revolt on the 15th of the 8th moon, also the Mid Autumn festival. The rebellion was successful and mooncakes were forever kept a national tradition of China.

"When the moon is full, mankind is one" -- In China, the full moon has always represented the gatherings of friends and family. Thus, Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunions. On this night, families will go together to scenic spots and parks for moon appreciation parties, and eating mooncakes.

Traditionally, Moon Cake Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month in observance of the bountiful Autumn harvest. This year, Mid Autumn Festival is celebrated on September 18. Although old rituals are no longer followed, families continue to gather for a day to relax and eat moon cakes. Upon this occasion, the legend of the Moon Goddess, CHANG-O, is often told to children.

Once upon a time there was a famous archer, Hou Yi, who with his arrows was able to slay mankind’s worst enemies, ferocious beasts that inhabited the earth. Yi was married to Chang-O, a beautiful but inquisitive woman who had been an attendant of the queen mother of the west before her marriage. Now at this time, there were 10 suns that took turns circling the earth-one every 10 days. One day, all 10 of the orbs circled, together, causing the earth’s surface to burn and threatening mankind. The wise emperor of China summoned Yi and commanded him to kill but one of the suns. This Yi proceeded to do. Upon the completion of his task, Yi was rewarded with a pill, the elixir of life, and advised: "make no haste to swallow this pill, but first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year." Being a wise man, Yi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter while he began healing his spirit, In the midst of this, Yi was summoned again by the emperor.

While her husband was gone, Chang-O noticed a beam of white light beckoning from the rafter. She followed it and a fragrant perfume, discovered the pill and swallowed it. Immediately, Chang-O found she could fly. Just at that moment her husband returned home, realize what had happened and began to reprimand his wife. Chang-O flew out the window into the sky. Yi sped after her, bow in hand, and the pursuit continued halfway across the heavens. Finally, Yi had to return to the earth because of the force of the wind.

His wife reached the moon and there, breathless, she coughed and part of the pill fell from her mouth. Now, the hare was already on the moon and Chang-O commanded the animal to take pestle and mortar and pound another pill so that she return to earth and her husband. The hare is still pounding.

As for Yi, he built himself a palace in the sun as Yang (the sun and the male principle), Chang-O as Yin (the moon and the female principle).

Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Yi visits his wife. That is why the moon is full and beautiful on that night.

Story by Thomas W. Chinn, Historian

The Greens and the Lights

lights abound in KK

the "si-fu" at the range

Merdeka is in four days' time.

Independant Malaysia is turning the big 5-0.

KK is all decked out in a dazzling array of lights come night time.

One type of which looked rather like a *inside joke* ______ pointer

Anyways, I'm feeling super patriotic and feel blessed to be living in M'sia. This feeling doesn't come very often but I think we should start appreciating our motherland .. though the govt still sucks but that's another whole subject all together.

The whole country's gearing up for the celebration this year, and there's a tinge of excitement in the air, a feeling that I have not felt for a very long time. Since it's making a comeback I think it's a good sign for our country..

Sunday was a super lazy day, woke at 10-ish.

Went for breakfast at Jin Man's, ate saito fishball noodles ..which was yummy..*slurp*

Went to the driving range for a bit with Vicky then off I went for my pedi appointment at Refranc's

After pedi which was 2.5 hours later, Vicky was still at the range ...met him back there again and promptly harrassed him into finishing so that we can go eat..it was already four pm so had pastries and cakes at secret recipe..

Then went for an uber relaxing hairwash @ Refranc's ..wanted to follow up with him & her facials but thalgo's was already closed by then..

Vicky went to Joy Luck while I went home to relax abit..

Texted him at 7-ish informing him that I am craving betty's nyonya laksa..and went to betty's for exactly that..

Then watched tv and fell asleep in front of it...

It goes without saying that ..we had the most wonderfully slow Sunday...*heavenly*

I Miss My Little Niki

" I Love Mickey", says Niki

Niki stayed over at her Amama's since last weekend after the Circus gig, was supposed to come back home today but caught the flu and Amama suggested she best stay over so she can take good care of her since I'll be working. I called into Niki's school today and took 2 days off for her. Today marks the first time that I've called in a sickie for my Niki for her kindy. Teacher Alice took the call and thanked me for calling in. Ahh .. she's always so polite, I'm praying that she gets to be Niki's class teacher next school year.

Anyways my baby sick and Mommy feels sick inside too. I miss the little munchkin so very much...

So how, nevermind gonna pray that my baby gets well soon ..

Weekend is Here!

Yesterday was a headache gone actually, completed an ISO recertification audit! It was a huge deal and now tra-la-la, all I have to do is wait for my fee! I have been slaving on that particular project for the past half month and was intensified by last minute work two days ago! Apart from my day job, I also freelance for ISO consultation -- if any of you are looking for one for your company look no further.

Next month I have to conduct a training and some consultation work and hopefully wrap up for this year and concentrate more on my day job!

Anyways tra-la-la..and woop-dee-do, the weekend's 'ere and I'm looking forward to some well deserved r & r, beginning with a pedi & mani tomorrow..heeheehee...after I send Niki off to Aunty Barbara's. Aunty Barbara is treating Niki to the Royal London Circus which is in town tomorrow evening,thanks Aunty Barbara! And so Mummy's gonna go do some pampering :-)

Have a good one y'all!!

Like I was saying

..I am still reeling from the fact that Niki is schooling already.

..Niki sang for me & her daddy, yesterday, with crystal clear pronunciation;

One two buckle my shoe

Three four shut the door

Five six pick up stick

Seven eight lay them straight

Nine ten begin again.

Can also sing head & shoulders knees and toes; if she the mood hits her.

Ok back to work.

Lunch was good, too good, now feeling a wee bit sleepy, wonderful .. and I have tons to do