Besides our nightly activities of colouring, writing, cutting and pasting, another thing we love to do together is reading. C loves to read, rather she loves for us to read to her and she will carry her stash of books onto the bed and insist that we read every single one of them.

This evening, she came back with a chinese book she has been reading.




She was so conscious of her own reading... . Guess she isn't as confident.

I hate this part of my job.

I missed Cheryl's first day in school this year because I am a teacher.

I missed 3 discussions with Ms Sally because I had to meet up with parents on the last day of each term.

I will miss Cheryl's concert at the end of this school term because yes, you guess it, the school has its own concert.

How fair is this? I only have 1 child and you are telling me, I am going to miss every freaking milestone in her education life! And two weeks later, when the many parents are talking about the concert or post videos on their children's blogs about how well it went and so on, I would have that I-wish-I-were-there look and try to slowly creep away to cry silent tears.

In a morbid sort of way, I am glad I only have 1 child because I don't think it is fair for any thing more than 1 child to bear with such disappointments. Actually, I also have a weak heart and honestly, I too, can't bear to keep telling C, "Sorry Baby, Mummy has other children to tend to and they are more important than you are. Well, you know they aren't really more important but they can actually cost me a "D" at work and that would have terrible repercussion for at least the next 3 years so yes, they are more important."

C's been busy in school too. She has been taught the concept of less and more and she has been doing some writing of her numbers as well. Daddy commented that her penmanship still needs working on and I agree.

C had dance this evening and she was all geared up for it. She woke up from her nap without a fuss and had her dinner quickly.

Once we got out of the train station, she immediately insisted on having her picture taken.

When her class started, Ms Blue told me to change her into her ballerina get-ups. I was pleasantly surprised because the previous time we were there, it didn't seem like Ms Blue had taken C's measurement so naturally we weren't expecting this.

Cheryl was totally transformed into this really sweet girl after she donned the dress and leotard. I didn't manage to take any videos this time as she was standing at the other side of the dance studio and was rarely in sight except for a few seconds.

When Daddy saw her, he exclaimed, "Cheryl, the piglet!" as she was all pink.

After taking a break (quite a long break), C got back to writing her letters and numbers. This evening, she did "D" and the numbers from 11 to 15. She likes the join-the-dots activities and she is always amazed at the outcome after she has connected the numbers to reveal the picture.

I am planning to do a little dictionary for her and her little craft work. I am kind of running out of space on her door to display her pieces.

The last time we went to Kuala Lumpur was almost a decade ago; while Daddy and I were still dating and KL then wasn't as developed.

When we learned that a long weekend was approaching, we thought it would be really nice to go there again and also visit our relatives so a month before, I went down to get tickets for our rides.

And I was excited and asking my colleagues where would some good places be to go to in the city. I even printed out a map and marked out the various shopping spots and eateries. But Man can propose all he wants because eventually, it is God who disposes.

This is me on the journey up North: I was flushing hot and cold, suffering from a blocked nose and aching joints. My already bad throat erupted into a very sore one and I completely lost my voice so through out, I was trying to sleep off the effects of the medicine: which explains these rather unbecoming pictures Daddy took of me. But C was clearly enjoying herself. :)

And as luck would have it, our coach broke down and we waited a very long time before a replacement one came (read: will NOT take Grassland coaches ever) and by the time we reached our destination, it was 7pm. (We would have been there by 5pm latest.)

Cheryl was excited and running around the lobby while Daddy did the check in.

Oh, the nice huge bed!! Daddy headed for it the moment we stepped into the room and C was trying her best to remove her shoes quickly enough to join Daddy on the bed.

We did a little walking and found a food street and there were so many stalls we just stopped at one which had some crowd thinking that it was perhaps an indication that the food was good.

My two Darlings waiting eagerly for dinner to be served. Hmm, the food wasn't anything to rave about either. But at least we were full.

And for the rest of the night, I was out from the medication. My fever didn't subside the next morning and after breakfast, I headed back to the room for a rest while Daddy and C went for to play in pool. *Sorry, no pictures as I was completely zonked out*

Later in the afternoon and feeling much better, we ventured out for a little shopping and a very late lunch.

Me looking much better! :) And C ... I asked her for her wide-eyed look and she gave us this!

Even Daddy got himself busy while waiting for the food to arrive.

Our spread! Looks like real food!

On our way back, C caught sight of this mascot and she immediately asked to have her picture taken.

This was how we spent the rest of the evening. Daddy bought C this really cute and funny game where we could put together different faces. The winner: Cheryl of course! My pirate face didn't even come close.

C was hungry but we were stuffed so we ordered room service for her and she obviously loved her fried rice with crackers!

Grand Uncle Bok called us up and said he would take us out for breakfast before we left town and it was really sweet of him. We haven't seen him or Grand Aunt Poh Choo for eons and meeting up with them was great. He drove us around town and gave us an update on what's been happening in KL for the past decade. We drove to some upmarket estates and went passed some really huge malls and alsos some monuments like the Petronas Towers. Grand Uncle explained that some parts of town specialised in certain items like electric stuff and such. I have always thought KL is a myrid and in the short 3 hours that we spent together, we were really impressed.

Grand Uncle even wanted to take us to Batu Caves but we didn't make it as there was a jam and we forsee ourselves not returning in time to catch our ride back so we headed back to the hotel.

This was taken just minutes before we boarded the coach. We had lunch at Times Square and then my camera went dead.

But we will come back again... .

Actually so am I as lately Cheryl has developed this very undesirable and anti-social habit of slapping and hitting us when she doesn't get her way. This happens when we tell her it's time for bed and switch off the television, or when we tell her to go take her shower when she still wants to watch her Play House Disney channel. It also happens when she is playing with Daddy.

I don't know if she knows how hurtful it is to be hitting Daddy or to reject him when he wants to hug and kiss her but I am going to make it known to her. C tells me she is afraid of Daddy because Daddy can be rather fierce at times but he is really a pussy cat with C unless she goes overboard. But most of the time, Daddy just wants to play with his little girl.

Often, it pains me too because I know Daddy works extremely hard at work and even though he wishes to come back earlier to catch some time with her before she sleeps, sometimes, he doesn't make it back in time. And on other days when he does, I can imagine how sad and hurt he is when C just turns her nose up at him or worse, hits and kicks him.

Cheryl, we are going to have a talk this evening.

Update:
Seemed like our little chat worked. She has been good these days. :)

I had to work late this evening and it was not fun to reach home so late and yet have a million things to do... .

Cheryl helped me prepare some food for a BBQ that is going to take place on Friday and after that, I was kind of tired out with an aching back, and a splitting headache so we didn't do her usual activities and writing. Instead, Daddy and Cheryl did some drawing.

Daddy drew this and once C saw the purple and green combi, she loudly exclaimed, "Barney!"

Here is a clip of her doing her "Singapore Idol". She loves this song.

This evening, C got down to do "C" and writing of her numbers. Ms Sally had commented that C didn't seem confident to write her letters and numbers so I thought it would be good to get her to practise.

It was not that she didn't know how to write but rather she needed lots of encouragement. I had to praise her all the time and I am wondering if this was even a good thing in the first place. Yes, I mean, praises are good but they can become superfluous if used ever so often. And more importantly, I worry that if she got used to an environment where she received such attention, it would prove a tough deal when she eventually got to school because in a class of 40 kids, which teacher would be this vigilant and give so much thought to just 1 kiddo.

This evening, C did writing of the letter "B".

Yeah, her Daddy Dearest found time to guide her as well.

But she wanted to do the join-the-dots worksheet so much and so eagerly so we did one as well.

Her scarecrow. She commented that she had to sign off so she wrote her name at the side. *Still raw but that will do for now.*

This is so frustrating and not to mention, triple irritating because my HTC Diamond decided to act up. Argh!!!! It has been like this since yesterday ... .

Updates:

My phone is fixed! Thanks to the patience of their helpdesk. I think there were easily at least 20 emails exchanged between us and the person was very patient and provided guidance. So after umpteen tries, I finally got it working. :)

As the school year is drawing near, I am also able to come back earlier than usual and these evenings, we have been busy.

C said she wanted to do some drawing so we got out her colouring pencils and she got down to business.

I asked her what it was that she drew and she told me it was a jelly bean. Hmm... I thought it resembled a cocoon of a silk worm but I was not the artist. Ha ha ha.

Then we did some revision on her alphabets.

I recently printed some activities from the Internet again. This time, it was some Math worksheet cum craft stuff where she had to join the dots base on the sequence of the numbers. Then after, she coloured it and I cut the pictures out and we pasted them on a nice blue piece of construction paper.

Our Spark's final piece!

This is definitely much better than what she usually did in the evenings where she either hogged the TV or the computer. :)

C came back with a note from Josiah informing us that Miss Sally had fractured her ankle and would be out for a good 2 weeks. So we decided to make a Get Well Card for C's teacher. This afternoon, after C woke up from her beauty nap, we sat ourselves down and started work.

Hopefully Miss Sally would recover soon enough.

After scouting around and making numerous phone calls to different dance studio, I finally received a call from Ms Blue and she told me that she has a vacancy for Cheryl *thanks to Aunt Evon who introduced the teacher to me*. I was overjoyed and when I broke the news to C, she wanted to go for dance immediately.

So the long awaited date arrived and we trotted off for dance in the evening. C was asking me all sorts of questions and she was already skipping and hopping along the way. C had this habit of wanting us to carry her mid way and she would complain of leg cramps and all. So I told her if she would to complain while we walked to the train station, we would turn around and head back because she obviously couldn't dance with aching legs and feet. That did the trick and she happily walked.

On our way to dance!

We were early and there was a class already in session so we waited outside. C was posing and prancing around and everyone around us were laughing at her little childish antics.

Cheryl peeping at the little ballerinas in the class. Yes, this was also how I took the video *totally unglamorous, I know* as parents were not allowed in the class.

I must say, it sure didn't look like C was attending class for the first time. She adjusted fine and was following instructions, much to my delight. It seems like she has found something she likes to do! and it took me so long before I got her into dance class because I didn't think her interest would last. *sorry darling*

I had texted Daddy earlier and he wanted to catch his little girl in action so he knocked off earlier and came down.

Cheryl received her Doctor play set and she was thrilled with her new play things. We spent the entire evening play Doctor and Patient and she had all these rules and procedures that I must follow or else she would not want to continue the game.

The Doctor is in the house!

So I obliged and when Daddy got back, she played the game all over with him. Did I say that playing with Daddy is always more fun?

And Cheryl received another mail today! Nope, this time, it wasn't any bills *thank god!*

Her membership card finally got here and C was really happy to have her own card. Ha ha ha! A real one with her name printed on it and not one of our old, expired credit cards. She immediately told me that she wanted to go to Forum again with Keziah to ride bicycles!

Okay Baby! Will do, when the holidays come by.

Daddy and I attended a seminar this afternoon so Aunt Di and Uncle Ben were given the honours to be C's babysitters for the day.

I must say, they did a fine job! :)

Thank you!

Aunt Di even bought us nice sweaters...

... and breakfast!