Sunny Sunday

With the sun now more of a daily occurrence rather than the exception, Sunday was a day of walkies with Mama, Daddy and the Dog
With Kecil all dolled up in her newest dress from her Tante, of course.

We explored the neighboring sidewalks, even tried to fly...

Took picture with Mama and the Dog...

Then squat down of exhaustion. Ha!

Well... actually the exhausted one was not Kecil, but the camera's battery. Hmmpph...

And so we went on without taking more pictures that day. 

But I suppose there's always next Sunday, isn't there?

Until then!

Trixie

This is Trixie (being chased by Penny)
Still remember Kecil's short-lived fascination with the uber-tall slide yesterday?
Trixie here was the distraction that pulled Kecil away from the slide.

Trixie arrived at the field next to the playground with her 'Momma' around the same time we arrived
While Kecil climbed the slide, Trixie's Mom took off Trixie's leash, took out a tennis ball and started throwing the ball around with Trixie fetching it.
Such a clever dog! And to think that we've tried teaching the Dog the very same trick for years to no avail!

The fetching trick soon attracted the attention of bigger audience, the attraction is all the more potent given the chance to throw the ball for Trixie to fetch.
Even Kecil tried it, and she managed pretty well despite throwing the first few balls right into Trixie's mouth

It was an interesting afternoon, and Mama is even minded to try to train the Dog again.
After all, Kecil should be able to serve as Mama's assistant, right?

Umm.. actually Mama is not too confident on ... both items: the Dog ever learning, and Kecil being an assistant. For one, the Dog prefers to chase Trixie around rather than the ball. For two, Kecil? Being assistant? Yeah, for about the whole of 2 minutes. Then likely she would run off to do her other stuff.
Still, should we really do the Dog training, we'll let you know. Deal? 

scaling new heights

Among the few playgrounds within walking distance to the house, there is this playground right across the minimart,
Which includes a very tall, wavy slide in its array of playground equipment available

Let none of you accuse Mama of cowardice,
but after seeing quite a few aborted slides (including one by Kecil as well),
Mama simply does not think that the slide is worth the climb.
[By aborted, Mama means climbing all the way to the top only to come back down by the same way (ladder) instead of sliding down. I imagine that should any slide was aborted through falling, the consequences is fatal, but I have not heard of any such incident]

Still, apparently one failure is not foiling Kecil's determination to conquer the slide,
And that day, while Mama was busy with the Dog, Kecil just went on to climb the tall tall slide on her own and continued down the slide...

Then she almost gave Mama a heart attack when she stood up half way!

EEeeek!

Thankfully she sat down again.

And even more thankfully, after that one single less-than-successful slide, she got distracted by the Dog and we abandoned the slide for other things.
Fiuh! We might try the slide again next time, but perhaps Mama will reserve the next post for the thing that had (most thankfully) distracted Kecil from the slide that day.
Until then!

our budding photographer

Thanks to the recent Family Fun Day organized by the Skool, Kecil now is into running around as if she was still in the games.
But a more pronounced effect was the acquisition of her toy camera.
Oh, she loves her new camera.
Now she can take pictures of Mama taking picture of her. Ha!

I suppose it's a case of 'monkey see, monkey do'.
Of course, in Kecil's case, it's slightly more literal as we do have real monkeys that we do take pictures of.

For now we are just hoping that all these exposure to cameras and photography would benefit Kecil through her life,
For now, we are happy enough that she's happy with her camera.
Perhaps sometime soon, we'll be able to get her a real one with which she can start real photography.

How about you? Any major investments on learning something new lately?

on a hot summer day ...

Just as soon as the typhoons left, the temperature has gradually pushed upwards to 'normal levels'
Normal as in 'extremely hot and dry'
Like VERY VERY hot
Which results in quite a few things:

• Kecil got sick, which means she can't go to Skool 
• the house became seriously HOT! 
• Mama itched to be out and about to embrace the weather rather than hunkered against the elements

So we went out, took care some errands, and of course, bought some ice cream to alleviate some of our heatstroke thirst. It looks like it's going to be a hot summer.
Perhaps we'll get back to swimming soon.

Until then!

these yellow boots ...

These yellow boots were sort of passed on from Ami,
Who happened to have two pairs of the same size, one pink and one yellow,
Which then was not worn since it kind of clashed with Ami's pink raincoat,
But was a definite match to Kecil's yellow raincoat.

And so began the story of the yellow boots.

A perfect fit, the boots made many appearances here as Kecil, happy as a punch with her matching raingear, took to conquering the outdoor, well-equipped in a land that has thirsted for a long while for rains.
And so there was that first storm, the following rains, the paper & plastic boat games outside, more outdoor games cum photo-op, and even casual walk on a non-rainy day with the boots, just because she loves her yellow boots so much.

Ah yes, Kecil does love those boots (just as Mama does!),
But Kecil seems to inherit her parents' genes of big feet as well,
And a couple of weeks back, Kecil had started complaining of feet hurt, followed by inability to wear those lovely boots of hers anymore,
And just like that, the boots was no longer a fit. Hhhhh.....

So it was time for new boots, especially in the face of violent storms and rains,
Not that she would go outside during those, mind you! Still... in the interest of being prepared...
Mama and Daddy managed to find Kecil ... a pair of PINK boots with heart pattern!

Ha! Aren't they adorable? And Kecil loves them too! (Of course! Mama & Daddy did involve her in the selection process. After all, we wanted to get something at least slightly too big to give her feet some room to grow)

There are, however, two little problems.
One, in a case of pretty bad timing, we only managed to find the boots towards the end of the rainy season. Hmmpph.
So... will there still be rainy days for her to wear it? Not sure.
If there isn't, would the boots still fit her by the time the next rainy season come? Ummm.. not sure either.
Ah well.

Problem two?
Ah.. well... you still remember Kecil's raincoat, right?
Yes, exactly. It's YELLOW!
Ahem, so now Kecil is 'waiting' for her pink raincoat with hearts.
She does not demand. She does not ask. She just knows that Mama would get her one.

Ummm... Not so sure about that. Not with the yellow raincoat still a wee too big and in good condition. Sorry, Cil.
Now... why don't we just deal with the rest of your long list of 'wants', instead?

Ah yes, the long list of 'wants'.
Of course, we'll start with what we need first, then we'll go on to the wants, OK?

yet another playground ...

There are many benefits of having friends who go to different schools:

• You get to compare your schools, hence widening your horizon
• You get more friends (like Daddy, who found Mama from a different school, and vice versa. Ahem)
• and sometimes, you can even get invited to using the other school's facilities, like Kecil the other day.

We do love Kecil's current Skool. Seriously. But at the same time, it is a fact of life that Kecil's current Skool does not (and not likely to have) a playground of the proportion pictured above.
Not that it's a really bad thing, mind you, since Mama does not quite judge a school overall quality merely from the size of its playground.
Besides, Kecil can still go and enjoy this kind of playground in the mall, or via invitation from her friend, right?

And so she did. The lucky girl!
Ami actually invited here to come along to play at her school playground.
And of course, not only Kecil got to play there, I guess she made a new friend as well.
And since Mama got some pics (and a blog post out of it), everybody benefits.
Oh ya, even Ami (who got to play with ALL her friends at the venue of her choice), Ami's friend (same as Ami plus a new friend), and Ami's Mom (adult conversation and back up).

Kecil is obviously enjoying herself.

This Mama hopes that Kecil would still continue in this pattern: making friends with everyone from everywhere. In the meantime, I suppose there is that playground maze to conquer.

How about yourself? Do you go outside your circle to make friends? It can be other school, different department at work, different walk of life, background, anything!
If not yet, you should. You'll be surprised at what you might learn.

the blanket

Between dreaming, growing, resting and generally sleeping, sometimes accident does happen while her royal Highness was sleeping.
Given such predilection, a thick comforter that does not fit into the in-house washing machine is not the most practical arrangement of Kecil's sleeping area, no matter how much Kecil love to snuggle under the said comforter right before she falls asleep daily.
So we came up with a new arrangement.
It's called a new blanket.

A pink, flowery, extremely girly Hello Kitty blanket. Ahem.
Well... for one, the girl in question happen to love both the color pink and Hello Kitty.
Two, it just so happen that the market in town has, not one but two!, shops specializing in Hello Kitty merchandise, which include the said blanket, at affordable prices.
What a Mama to do?

So the Little Girl LOVES her new blankie.
Both for sleeping and for jumping around whenever she came to her room to be greeted with a sight of the said blanket spread over her bed, proudly displaying the huge Kitty.

Hhh... this Mama never thought that she would buy something like it.
But then again, Kecil is happy.
So Mama is happy.

Night night, Kecil. Sleep well and sweet dreams.

Family Day

Last Friday, instead of going to school, Kecil and Mama and Daddy(!) spent the morning at the gymnasium, where the Skool organized Family Day for all the students and their parents.
We had some performances (2 dances) from the student body which involved every student (and teachers!), we had some games, a meal and a whole lot of fun.

Of course, for a family day, the whole family had to be decked in the same colors. In this case, we were all wearing the Skool T-shirt, specially made for the occasion.
We umm... forgot to take a group picture, but as you can see, Kecil, Mama and Daddy are all in the same T-shirt, no?

The teachers looked lovely in their pink T's.
And apparently all those toys (presents for the kids should their group win a game) proved too much of a temptation for one little boy.

First up was the student presentation, aka dance.
Most participants are excited, especially the parents, all eager to finally see their kids performing.
Alas, the pressure seems to be too much for some Little Ones.

Kecil? Ahem... I think she was either too bewildered by all the spectators
Maybe she was a bit cranky thanks to the minuscule breakfast she had in the morning.
Well, she was not the only one.

We had a boy who cried, a boy who lied on the floor, a Kecil who wanted to be carried halfway through the song.
On the other side, we also had a little baby girl who outperformed her older fellow students.

Thankfully it did not take more than a bowl of spaghetti to perk the Little One up, after which, she gamely participated in the games, even won a magic wand for her team efforts, and went on to explore the rest of the gym on her own.

Lesson learnt: big breakfast is absolutely necessary before events.

Well, so we learned something, and had a lot of fun doing it. We look forward to the next event. Thank you, Skool for organizing such a great event! Until next time!