Cassandra's Life Blog

According to Cassie.

吹牛： There's a huge cloud up in the sky and the wind is so strong it will blow away things !

Cassie : "Mom, why you and daddy love me ? " "Oh, i know, because i'm a beautiful precious little girl ! "

Cassie : "Mom, why does the fish swim up and down ? " "Oh, i know, because the fish wants to blow bubbles "

Cassie's problem solving.

Cassie has weekly ejaan (Bahasa Malaysia's Phonics) test and she was having some difficulties learning the language. Mainly because we do not use BM (Bahasa Malaysia) that frequently at home and also because she did not have any contact with the language at all. Until she attended her K1 here, only she started to know that there's this new language the she needs to learn.

Because of unfamiliarity she don't understand why 'Feri' is not the same as 'Fairy' !

Anyways, she was having this ejaan session a month ago and she somehow forgotten all the ejaan that she learned at home. So, what's the simplest solution to this situation for a 5 yrs old ? Well, at one hand, she doesn't know the answer, at the other hand, she knew her friends can do the test. To solve this problem, Cassie turned to her friend and look at her friend's answer.

In the adult world, that's cheating. But for Cassie, it's just pure problem solving ! Needless to say, she got all the lecture from the teacher and me after that and understand the seriously of cheating now.

It is of-course one valuable lesson she picked up while growing up.

Good Friends.
When she first started the new school, we encourage her to make friends. After a few weeks there we get to know her friends from her daily school event's narrative. Her good friends are now consist of a circle of girls (michelle, karen, abby, kai-yin and cherry) and she is particularly very close to Cherry.

Because Cherry is her best friend, she wanted all the opportunity she has to talk to her. The problem is, she wanted to talk to her even when teacher is teaching ! aikes.

After hours .... While the staff are cleaning up, i got some time on my hands and managed to snap some photos of Cassie.

I was having the usual conversation with Cassie about how i gotto work to earn money. This time she actually completed the sentences for me and told me that she understand why i cannot stay at home with her and why i gotto work. Specifically i told her that after i worked, then we can go to the shopping mall and she can pick up a new water-bottle because she broken hers the other day.

Then Cassie went on and said : "But mom, i don't want the water bottle already, i just want you to stay home with me." >.< ...

aw .... lil chic ... *sigh*

One of the recommended things to do in KL is the Balloon Fiesta. This is the first time we join in the fun with the rest of Putrajaya in the Balloon Fiesta. We drove from PJ area at 7.30 am for about 50 minutes and we can already see the balloons filled up the skyline of Putrajaya. Cassie of course is the most excited one.

She asked grandma to purchase the "bubble-gun' for her and as every grandma in the world would do, my mom no just bought her the gun and extra bubbles to play with later.

She then start all her pretend play and pose like a 'super-spy' :) She caught so much attention to herself that some photographers lined up to take her photos.

It was a fun way to enjoy weekend and one good way to end her short school term break. Just like how Cassie put it : " It's so much fun ! "

I've been trying to talk to Cassie about the value of money because i think that's one subject that has been left 'unspoken' within the school. I also think that it's important she understand the subject so that she can do sound money judgment as young as possible.

She asked me to buy her some toys the other day and then i take the chance again to talk about money. I told her the usual thing like you gotta study hard, so that when you grow up and you can earn money and etc and etc. You know, the usual thing your mom told you. I know, this story that we've been hearing has a lot of gray areas. So and so, don't have to study hard but still can earn a lot of money.... some one study so hard but got no money. yes and yes, i understand that. But for a 5 years old, i think it's important we keep the story as simple as it is and leave the gray area when she's older.

anyhow, after she hear my pitch, then she said : "OOOooo, i understand already" i'm so happy when she said that. Then, she said : " Mom, you're not clever and not hard working when you're young and thus you don't have money now ! "

she's rite, again !

yikes, i knew this sentence is bound to come out from her and all along i think it will be something i can answer when she's like 10. but no, bo-ho, my lil chic answer me with this silver-bullet answer when she's just 5. OK OK ... here goes the gray area explanations ... :)

After her flu last month, we've been telling Cassie that she needs to take in more food so that she can gain some weight and not this skinny.

Yesterday, her dad told her that we can see her ribs because she's too skinny already and again repeat the 'eat-more-rice' talk with her. She then told her dad : "Dad, i cannot see your ribs because you got a big tummy !"

hahaha, she's rite ! again !

We visited the 'Thian-Ho" temple with my mom and auntie when she was here for the CNY break. It was so hot that we can't keep our eyes open ! i basically shoot those picture with my eyes half close !

You can see the 'fire-crackers' burn bandage on her foot ...

Cassie went out with her auntie and friends last weekend for a light and sound show. As usual, while getting her ready for the event, i reminded her to listen to her auntie, hold her auntie's hand and etc and etc.

She then told me that she will do all that and when she did, her auntie will give me a call. She said : "auntie will give you a call to the telephone, and she will say, miss tan ...... (my full name), your little girl is a good girl". She then act out my 'happy-look' !

that lil' chic, she's now very good at imitate others and she can do my facial expression quite well ...

While we were shopping for chinese new year a month ago, Cassie saw the fire-crackers photos and asked me to buy for her. I told her i have no idea where to get them in PJ and thus asked her to get help from grandpa.

So, she make the phone call and asked my father to buy some fire crackers for her. Of course my dad said yes.
During the chinese new year evening, she happily played the fire-crackers with my dad and i seriously think that both of them are having fun, not just Cassie ! :)

Then, as usual (at least for me), the fire-cracker ashes fell in between her foot and shoes and she got minor laceration from the burn. My dad felt more pain and more guilt than cassie out of love. he think it's his fault that he got the fire-crackers even i re-assure him that this is part of the process of growing up and it's definitely one of those growing pains :)

i think both my dad and cassie both 'grow' a bit from this fire-cracker incident :)

Cassie came home the other day and very excited. I asked her about her day and she proudly told me that she's a job leader. I asked her what's the job leader about, she told me she and 3 other friends are now responsible to be the teacher's little helper. So, she gotta distribute books, collect the color pencils, bring back and books and etc. For me, this is all the work of a busy body. But then again, she loved it so much. She thinks it's an accomplishment that she has been appointed with the job.

So now, she will do anything for the sake of being a job leader. For example, eat the extra rice potion so that she got energy to do the job, sleep that extra 1/2 hour so that she can do that job, and etc and etc. I basically can 'blackmail' her anything so that she continue to be a job leader .... haha

of course now she has her own job-leader pack ! her job leader friends including cherry, michelle, karin, kai-yin with kai-yin being the job leaders' leader ! job leader or not, i just want her to have fun at school ! :)

i was bz and this is actually a late post ... but nonetheless ..

Cassie and i were working on her math's addition lately. We have been working on simple 1 digit addition like 2 + 1 equals 3 and etc and etc. After a while, she got so used to it and will shout out numbers for me and her to work together.

We went to our bank few weeks back and while we were driving away from that place, Cassie suddenly shout out "mom, look, there's 1 + 3 and there's a d and the back ! what's the number ?" i was puzzled and turn to the direction she was pointing from
.
.
.
and realized she's pointing to the 'magnum3D, 1+3D & 4D" center's signage !
Well, it's all about numbers and maths anyways rite ! :)

After 3 weeks of school, cassie got infected from school and is now down with flu. This is the 2nd day she missed her school and i don't think she can go to school tomorrow because she has stuffy noise, rough cough and slight fever.

Anyways, i told her today that we gotto go to school to pass up her homework from the weekend and then collect back previous days homework. She then told me she's not feeling well, cannot go to school yet and start a string of cough ! Oh no ....

Every time she's down with flu, it will take her at least 2 weeks to get better. And during the two weeks, she will be grumpy, pot-sticker to me and very demanding ..... i guess i might be too if i'm not feeling well.

She didn't have flu when she didn't attend school. there's two possible reasons to it i think. One, she's not stressed out and thus body does not strain that much. Or Two, she doesn't get infected that easily at home comparing to school. I can see now why some parents prefer to home-school their kids because home-school will mean less chance to get infected. Then i can also see why some parents got very insisted on taking supplements, again, it is supposed to lower the change to get infected. Now, i am thinking about all the supplements that she can take and wondering what might be good to try ....

It's now 8.30 am and i've sent Cassie to her new school. Here i am, wondering if i've sent her to some kind of mental institution ! i know, i think too much ! :) it's just that we've let Cassie run her own show, do her own things, make her own schedule, make her own decision and now, when she's at school, she no longer can do what she want, whenever she want. There's schedule, there's discipline and there's this big brain wash all awaiting for her starting now on .....

Don't get me wrong, schooling is not a bad thing, but it's just that i will missed the 'running-wild-Jane' that i sometimes called her. She's actually very eager to go to the school. She even know how to behave, know where to go and what to do at her first day !! :) something inside me was hoping that she runs around, and behave like a baby.... i guess it's because more than anything else, i missed my baby gal...

Even this morning, i got my laptop, my handbag, my car-keys and all. While we were walking to our car, Cassie was the one that reminded me i didn't bring her 'school-bag' !!!!!!!! :)

She's really growing up izn't it ?

It's a new year, new semester, new school for Cassie. As i'm here, woke up about 6am preparing her things for school, i've came to realized this is gonna be a new routine to get adjusted to.

She's now enrolled to a more 'serious school' near our house. It's near the 'Yoke Chai' primary school and it's using all the school's syllabus. It does sounds like some kind of pre-school for university studies isnt' it ? but that's the way it goes in KL.

There are a lot of choices in KL or PJ, where i'm staying. There's the 'branded' type meaning the school brand is as close to 'Gucci' in fashion. In addition, there's the 'private' label as i called them. Those are the private school, starts from 2 years old till you're ready to jump into college. Then, there's the 'carefree' type. This is the ones where the school does not emphasize on anything except freedom. Oh, no my friend, this type doesn't work very well in malaysia. I'm sure it worked well other places, but nope, don't think so here. Then there's the 'serious' type. The schools are serious over discipline, independant, reading, studying and the whole load of homework. OK, so, among the 'branded', the 'private', the 'carefree' and the 'serious', she will be attending the 'serious' one mainly because she got her share of freedom from her play-school and i do not wanted to instill the 'brand' idea too much to her.

However, nothing more but because she's now 'officially' 5 yrs old (even she just got her 4 yrs old b'day present 3 months ago), meaning all the serious heavy lifting study now is required. She had taken a break from schooling for at least 6 months now since we decided to move down to KL. Thus, i know inside me that this is the right thing to do.

So, here we go. A new year, new beginning for all of us ! it's gonna be a good year :)

It was my brother's wedding and definitely a joyous family occasion. Cassie is the most happy person in the whole day because she get to lead the flower girls/boys brigade, run around the whole place the whole time! i am totally amazed at her energy and stamina and finally at 11 pm, she told me she's wanna go home ! ha, that's the first time i ever hear her willingly saying good-bye :)

It was a very warm and happy occasion. It's perfect all the way (even dad get to sing a song on stage ! ) and i just wished we can have more time :)