On Time Management...

Been trying to juggle my time with a whole list of responsibilities and roles that I currently hold... well, what can I say except that I am really in need of a very important skill right now... TIME MANAGEMENT SKILL! :p

Theoretically speaking, it is not difficult to handle many things at a go, being a multitasker I'd say. But this time, it's not just about being a multitasker, but about being the person I need to be (as a wife, mummy, daughter, employee, student, etc) and strive to carry out my responsibilities with the best of my ability.... OK OK... enough said! Practically speaking, it is really not easy. Sometimes I could just stare blankly at the white wall and think of nothing but rest. I just needed that.

I've so much to do and learn in my new workplace (not a complaint but a fact) and I currently enjoy going for my classes in uni. There are also so many assignments given... assignments that I've no complaints, cuz I'm really enjoying each one of it. The only BIG BUT about all these is.... I'm just afraid I couldnt complete it due to time. At times I had to stay back in the office just to do some of my assignments as being at home, my role is totally switched to MUMMY!

One thing I know I cannot compromise is my role as a mummy (and wife). Therefore, the times that I have left everyday after work is so essential to be given to my family. Every evening when I come home, I will make sure I'll spend quality time with little Sarah. Sometimes I do need to stay back at work for a little while more before heading for home, but after that, it's Sarah's time. I did for a couple of times brought work home. First attempt to do it with Sarah being present with me, but failed to distract her with other paper and pencil. She just wanted her hands on mine! But anyway, I only had one choice then... wait for her to sleep (apparently I slept too!). So i woke up earlier in the morning to complete my work.

So, other than work, it's the studies that I have to juggle with. Books to read and study and research to be done.

At present, these are my assignments (in brief):

1. Create a book for a child (for ages between 0-8yo)

2. Propose an ideal kindergarten - design the environment of my childhood centre.

3. Plan activities which encourage children using their senses.

4. 16 practical observations to be done with my little nephew (I've not started any yet!)

5. A lot other art assignments that are done on weekly basis (will post some pix of them later! :))

OK-la... so there you are... the summary of my life right now. Seriously need time management skill to handle each and every "assignments" given to me (in school, at work & at home)

Pray for me ok? Thank u! Sieh sieh! Terima kasih! Nandri!

Good friends....

One born on 15th Feb, another born on 15th March. They grow up so well together that now they become best of friends... we all believed so!

They would influence each other into liking the same things and speaking the same words. Of course, being egocentric at this age, there'll be snatching of toys from each other and jealousy towards each other's own little world. The good part about it is they are learning things quickly this way and are both developing very very well in many aspects.

Well, not forgetting, big brother Ivan too, will not miss out on doing things together and playing together. Being the big brother, his "responsibility" is pretty BIG - to take care of the little sisters and be a good role model for the other two to follow. Hehehe... Of course we cant expect a perfect role model from this little boy, but he's growing well too.

We pray that all of them will influence each other to do good things - like the very famous quote says: See No Evil; Hear No Evil; Speak No Evil! We, parents, have BIGGER responsibility to ensure that our little ones grow in a positive environment in all aspects of their growth.

[+video] Chit chat with Sarah before bedtime...

Just some of my everyday/night conversations with my lil one... :)

Sarah... the little poser! :)

Taken few minutes ago... yes, she purposedly posed these as mummy asked her to. She's such a darling! :)

Just making some noise after some silence....

Wah! Seems like a long time since i pen anything down here.... Been pretty busy actually. Both at work & at home.

So here's me saying "HI" to all my friends & readers! I'm still ALIVE! Thank God! Kekekeke...

I've so so so so much to share about my job, my studies (assignments), and not forgetting my lil girl's day to day milestones, but time is just not on my side... sob! sob!

Will update you guys whenever I can. Currently, early morning blog writing is so difficult to maintain, simply because I'm too tired to wake up! :p

Oh yah... thank you all for the best wishes on my Birthday! FYI, I had to spend more than half of my special day listening to lectures in class. After that, got caught in a traffic jam on the way back... i guess, it was due to people celebrating "Halloween" in KL :p After that, my family & my in-laws celebrated my birthday together in KFC. Kekeke... Of course, the children loved it. CK, thank you for "bending" on that day. :D

OK-la... tata for now... back to work! :p

[R.E.A.L] Job Vacancy for Preschool Teachers

Location: Bandar Tun Hussein Onn (Cheras)

Job position: Preschool Teachers (Class teacher/Subject teacher)

Min requirement: SPM/MCE/PTM (Persatuan Tadika Malaysia) or equivalent, with at least 1 year working experience.

Preferred skills:

- Initiative

- Independent (able to work under minimum supervision)

- Able to speak and write well in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese Language (for Mandarin Subject teacher)

- Have passion to educate and care for children

Working time: 8am-12.30pm, 5days/week

Interested applicant may send us your resume at realkids_hussein@real.edu.my or call us at 03-90769511.

If you are interested to work in PJ, there is an opening for you too! Just drop us an email! :)

[R.E.A.L] OPEN DAY on 31st October 2009

Hi everyone!

Just a short note to share... that our centres' open day is this coming Saturday from 9am - 3pm!

Come! Bring your child, aged 4 - 6, and check out my centre at Bandar Tun Hussein Onn. We have lots of activities prepared for your child too on this special open day. When you register your child on this day, we will waive the registration fee and give you a mystery gift as well! Chun leh.... :)

See you then!

"Wah-cha-you..."

Hmm... both daddy and mummy have no idea what this phrase means...

"wah-cha-you..."

It's Sarah's almost-too-commonly-used phrase that we both cant figure what it means. She will say, "Don't want wah-cha-you..." or sometimes in mandarin, "Wor pu yao wah-cha-you..."

Hmm... when we later find out what it means, I will update you guys, OK?! :p

[+video] Pencil color turned into... ?

I bought this "pencil color" for RM1/pc from a stationery shop nearby. I got 3 pieces for the 3 angels at home. It's cute & cheap! Hehehe...


Well, when I saw this pencil color, I thought of course that this pencil color is a tool for coloring... a cute tool for coloring, but what do our kids actually think of it? *think think think*

This was what Sarah did to the pencil color at the beginning...



She decided that the pencil color looks better when they're all dismantled... thus she calls it "ball-ball"...



Since Sarah has decided what it should be, mummy respected her decision and made sure that all pencil leads were taken out. She likes the sound that the "ball-ball" make when they are being shaken in an empty container... and bottle too... as shown in the next video!



Actually, this "ball-ball" were imagined as "vegetables" when she plays "masak-masak". She likes to role-play as a chef and cook these balls in her cooking pan. Oh, but too bad that I haven't gotten the chance to record her cooking these balls.

So yes, that's the imagination of our little ones... Thinking out of the box, ya?! :)

[+video] Sarah... cut! cut! cut!

[+video] Sarah writing... (at Month 18)

We noticed Sarah has been able to hold a pencil quite correctly the past few weeks. I'm so proud of her. Daddy & I showed her how to hold it and the next thing we knew, she started holding the pencil the corrrect way. Way to go, Sarah!

We started letting her get exposed to drawing when she was about 12-13 months. Read previous post here. We let her use a pencil at first, but later on got her to use some crayons. Practice makes perfect! Eventually, we gave her a pencil again and found her fine motor skills have improved tremendously.

Here's the video showing Sarah learning to write (draw). She seemed pretty enthusiastic about what she was writing/drawing...

Sarah, the little song leader...

"Yi Chieh Ge Song Zhan Mei...." - her lullaby song since baby! :)

"Jesus Loves Me This I Know..."

"Give Me Oil In My Lamp..."

"We Want To See Jesus Lifted High..."

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star..."

"If You're Happy & You Know It..."

These are some of the songs that we sing to her since she was a little baby. Today, she is able to sing some of these songs on her own (her very own version!) too, like "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" & "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

Let me share with you 2 other cute incidences:
1. Happy Birthday song... Sarah would sing this song every time she sees a candle! She would only sing the 3rd line of course, which is "Happy Birthday to Sa-raaaaahhhhhh!" :)

2. Ask her "What song you want to sing?" She would say, "Na na na na na..." Hehehe... Yes, that's the bridge for the song "Waves of Mercy"! She just loves that part... :)

More updates on Sarah's development.. (at 18+ months)

Sarah's growing very well I would say and praise the Lord for that! However, we do pray that she will tone down being quick-tempered (by nature I believe). Recently, she started yelling as well, if she doesnt get what she wants. Really pray that she will come out of it soon.

Also, she's definitely an attention grabber. As I am typing this in my room, she is giving me all kinds of things so that I would participate with her in some "tasks", often which she is able to do on her own as she explores. This time, because she knows I am on the laptop, she tries getting my attention by all means. Shrewd, eh?!

Her vocabulary has totally increased by the days. She even makes sentences now which are meaningful. One particular (almost) complete sentence that I heard her spoke about a week ago was: "I want put here"


Her "I wants"... and "dont wants" are used with meaning too, for eg:
"I want/don't want water"
"I want/don't want go upstairs"
"I want more"... or "some more"

Just some updates...

Well... it's been more than 2 weeks since my last post. Yeah, what's new? Been busy of course. I'll try to make this post short & sweet! :)

OK... just some updates...

I just started my professional diploma course in Early Childhood Education in University Malaya 2 Saturdays ago. Back to school for 13 months! It was only after my first lesson for the semester and I already had to "ponteng" school last Saturday for my kindi's annual concert and graduation. So, yes... it was yet another busy Saturday last week. I was the "middle-man" between back stage & waiting room... so I was actually busy running about as well. Came back with sore feet but nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience being directly involve in the children's concert & graduation. There were about 300 students as we had 3 centres combined for this special day.

Some photos to spice up my post a lil... hehe...

The children... while waiting for their turn to perform.

Some of our teachers... "Hi-5!, teacher Azeela!" LOL!

Sekolah Seri Suria invited us for a "makan-makan" before the concert. It's the school's "open-house" for the raya celebration.

Our concert & graduation was held at Sekolah Seri Suria, Hulu Langat.

Thise above pix is the concert hall. It's called "Hall of Character".

Well, unfortunately, I didnt manage to take much pix as I was pretty busy that day... which also means no pix of the performances as well as I was mainly at backstage & the waiting area. Well, maybe next time then... :)

Sarah not feeling well...

OK... one last post for the day, and maybe for the week!

After our short trip back to Melaka, Sarah is now down with fever, flu and cough. Second time this month... :(

She's not been having good night sleep, and that means we parents dont have enough sleep as well. Her nose is blocked and it keeps running both day and night. Her fever fluctuates between 37-38 degree for the past few days (really longer than usual). She's been having fever since Wednesday so we really pray that it will break soon. Just last night, I saw that she was also having ulcer in her mouth. It's sad to see her unwell. Do pray for her for speedy recovery and total healing.

On the other hand, I had fever and very bad sore throat on Thursday evening as well but I thank God that my fever broke by Friday morning and I went to work as usual that day. I'm recovering fast too... really needed that so that I can take care of our little one.

Last night and today, we feed her milk with spoon as she rejects her milk bottle. Thank God she did not reject the spoon. She accepts medicine quite well with spoon too so praise God for that. Do continue to pray for her.

"Lord, I uphold our dear Sarah into Your loving hands. Heal her of fever, flu and cough. Take away any discomfort from her body. Grant her peaceful sleep both day and night. Let her also have appetite for food & milk. Keep her healthy and safe. In Jesus' name I pray - Amen!"

[+video] Sarah, the lil businesswoman...

Businessman (or woman) is always being associated with handphones. Here's Sarah portraying one busy businesswoman with her toy handphone! :)



The video was taken about a month ago... mummy here out-dated oredi ler... :p

[+video] Sarah.... 123 with daddy!

The video was taken on 22nd August. Yes... this post is about more than a month over due oredi (haha!)

Updates on Sarah... (at 18 months)

Sarah has been an active little girl, ever since she cried her first cry. She's "fierce" like what my gynae said when he first held her. :)

Well, it's not the violent kind of fierce, but more like the strong-willed, competitive, determine and demanding kind.

At this age (and even way before), Sarah has shown much of this "fierce" character, like snatching things from her cheh-cheh and kor-kor, throwing tantrum when she doesnt get what she wants, "kiasu" in terms of getting attention, and she never gives up easily (well, this, a good trait I must say!). However, apart from being fierce, there is a part of her that is "tame" (for lack of better words).

She likes to look good and beautiful. She likes wearing hat on her head and look at the mirror after that. When I wear her a dress and told her she looks nice, she actually smiles! She's really a darling. During her personal play time at home, she would play on her own (with mummy or daddy beside her) and when she finds something amusing to explore, she would give her full attention to it.

Sarah's vocab has been increasing too. I totally lost count of it. She's been learning to combine words like:

"Don't want" - almost over-used in a day! Oh boy....

"Let's go" - she would say this when we're about to go out after wearing shoes, and sometimes when we're in the car and daddy stops the engine.

"Be careful" - she totally imitates me on this. Whenever daddy drives and brakes suddenly, I will say these words to him. Now, Sarah would say this even before I do! :)

REAL Work challenge!

It's been more than 2 weeks since I started with my new job. Some new challenges that I've been exposed to lately has been...

1. Driving! Haha... am still like a "P" driver for now, eventhough I have gotten my license for more than 10 years ago! But praise God my "mati-enjin" experience is reducing slowly but surely. Every time when I had to stop at any toll booth or traffic lights, I would whisper a short prayer... "No mati-enjin please!" :p I did tell hubby during my first few days of driving - We need to change the gear box to auto... PLEASE! But all he said was, "PRACTICE makes PERFECT!" Hmmm... looks like I will be stuck with a manual car for now.

Confidence level on the road has surely increased by now, but I do hope I could improve in my changing of gears as the car do jerk at times when I change gears. (Hehe... here's me telling all you readers about my weakness on the road! Shhh....) I like to speed once I am on the highway, but just today, I experience speeding even in the heart of PJ (of course when there arent many cars around me :p) Infact I have to keep reminding myself that there is no hurry and that I shouldnt be speeding.

2. Remembering routes! Yep, it's not just about getting used to being behind the wheel, but to explore new routes as well! Those who know me inside out will know that this is totally beyond Rachel. I could even get myself lost in places I've been to dozens of times! So far, I drove myself to certain areas of Cheras, Subang, PJ (besides the usual route to church), some busy roads that I often try to avoid and other highways that I've to drive by to go to places and of course back home. I think I have to pat myself on the back for taking the challenge to drive. And I must say "Thank you" to hubby for encouraging me all the way and taking the extra miles to show me the different routes whenever possible. Much stress from both sides, but I learn that nothing comes easy. Thank God for His protection upon me. Though I was afraid, things are working out fine. Praise God!

3. Remembering names! Yes, and that would mean remembering about 100 names of students and possibly their parents as well! I'm not sure how well I could do in this but this would definitely need some time. Hope to be an expert one day (dreaming on...). I heard of some Principals and supervisors (and even teachers) in some other centres who could remember names of all the kids and parents of even up to 300 of them! (Really tabik them la!)

4. It is always a challenge for anyone if that anyone has to start learning everything from scratch. This new job with new tasks is indeed a challenge on its own - a positive challege of course. There are new things for me to learn, to know, to think, to plan, to execute, etc. No doubt, it seems pretty challenging for one like me who has no experience whatsoever in this line to take up this position, but NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, Amen?!

I would also like to praise the Lord that with the knowledge I have in multimedia, it somehow helped to enhance effectiveness in the job - not just for myself, but for my colleagues, the centre and other centres as well. In conclusion, I am happy to be able to apply multimedia in education, where seems to be lacking unfortunately. Thank God for working through me! :)

OK-la... that's all about my job for now... hehe...

Honestly, there seems so much to share (even photos) - but time for blogging is just currently not on my side... for now.

Baby Sarah's Weight & Height - Month 18

After almost 4 months "break" from the visit to the doctor to get Sarah's vaccination done, we thought she would have so-called forgotten about the "agony" she went through when she got her jabs.

Well, we thought wrong! During the last visit, she cried only when she saw the needle. This time, she held me so tightly and cried her lungs out the moment she saw the doctor. In fact, when the doctor's room door was open, she ran away. So, I had to "catch her" and carry her in. She cried when the doctor and nurse wanted to get the measurement of her height & head circumference. She just wouldnt stay still and with all her might, she tried to free herself from being held. Well, she must have really hated the doctor. In fact, she doesnt like any doctor at all. Everytime we visit a doctor when she's not well, she would cry and just wanted us to get out of there a.s.a.p!

OK... so finally she got her 1st boosterTriple/Hib/Polio jab. It took daddy, mummy and the nurse to really pin her down so that the doctor could quickly jab her and get it done. So, yes... because she was really crying her lungs out, doctor gave her more free gifts. Hahaha... I guess, normally the doctor would just give some sachets of milk powder samples to his patients but this time, doctor gave Sarah a free bag from Huggies as well so to cool her down. She immediately stopped crying when she got those freebies in her hands.

Month 18 (15 September 2009)

Weight=11.5kg (+0.61kg)

Height=85cm (+6cm)

Head circumference=45.4cm (+0.9cm)