On the last day of 2009, I would like to talk about...

what touches me.

1. When my girls say "I love you Mummy".
2. When a student from 1 semester ago, remembered a song I was looking for, and actually messaged me to tell me she found the title and singer name.
3. When students, previously perceived to be lazy or had poor learning attitudes, actually turned around, put in effort and produced decent results.
4. When people around me surprised me with their resilience in times of adversity.

And many many more.

2009 has been a tough year. One friend had depression for 2 months, another passed away in Oct, my family went through some turbulences and there are many changes in my career. 2009 has been filled with blessings too. That friend with depression recovered, the family of my deceased friend is facing life head on, the family turbulences are manageable and I still love what I am doing.

So there's always 2 sides to a coin. 2 ways to see a half filled (or half empty) glass.

I am looking forward to 2010.

Learning Through play

Yan's English teacher told me that Yan cannot recognise letters and numbers, even though she is familiar with all the basic shapes and colours. She advised us to expose her to the alphabet and numbers more through play. Here's one attempt at getting her to learn the numbers through a jumping game!

Parent teacher meeting

I met with Rui and Yan teachers last Thu for a quick review of their performance in school so far. It is standard procedure in all pre-schools.

The 2 girls are academically and socially competent, according to their teachers. What pleased me most, however, was a comment from their Chinese teacher (they share the same Chinese teacher). She told me that it is very enviable to have 2 wonderful girls like Rui and Yan. She thinks it is a blessing to have daughters like them, who are not only doing well in school, but are kind-hearted, independent and well-adjusted.

My heart was all warm and fuzzy after hearing that.

A budding artist

These are some pictures drawn by Rui. I thought they were pretty good. The proportions of the figures were about right, the strokes were bold and confident and the details showed creativity. In short, she has some artistic skills that her Momma never had.

What a weekend!

We had a hectic weekend. Ben's mum and sis were in town. The kids were excited to see them. In fact, they get excited whenever someone comes over to visit and stays over.

On Saturday, I brought the girls to see The Jungle Book with Aunt E and Tessa and Jacob. It was a good play. All the children thoroughly enjoyed it. It helped that we were sitting in the first row cos that meant they were real close to the action on stage. Downside was the adults had sore necks from craning our necks. After the play, we went to Marina Square to check out the Winx club fairies live show! Ben and I had chanced upon the show last Sat and we secretly planned to bring the girls there and to spring them a surprise. The girls were happy they got to meet Stella, Bloom, Layla, Mussa and Techna!

On Sunday, Ben took part in the marathon. He clocked 7hrs. He was pretty disappointed with the timing but to me, being able to complete the race was good effort enough! Rui surprised me by trying out the kids bungee and sphere ball. I had always thought her to be slightly timid and would not want to try such adventurous stuff. I even told the game master by the side to not swing her too high. I should not have done that as she totally relished the experience of kids bungee. I have to remind myself to NOT watch out for her that much in the future. That's how they grow and learn, isn't it?

Then on Monday, we brough the inlaws and the girls to the zoo. We spent half a day checking out the animals and the rainforest water play area. In the evening we met Auntie Pik Har for dinner at Suntec City before we sent Ben's mum and sis to catch the coach home to Ipoh.

What a weekend.

身为母亲

十年前的我，绝对没有想到自己会这么享受当母亲的过程。

年轻时的我，完全以自己为中心，什么都以享乐为重。一直觉得，当人家妈妈是一件辛苦又磨人的苦差。

可是现在，我十分享受和两个小孩在一起的时光， 并且愿意为了她们，牺牲自己的时间与精神。因为两个小孩乖巧听话，使我觉得和她们在一起是一件很快乐的事！

小孩子带给我们的愉快，是很纯真，很真挚的。我希望，我也为孩子们的生活增添了乐趣。

蕊和妍，谢谢你们出现在妈妈的生命里！