Of sperms, eggs and balls...

I was sitting on my notebook with Brendan (age 8+) beside me doing his homework while Eryn (age 6 1/2) was reading a book.

Suddenly, this conversation came up :

Eryn        : mummy, my egg is here right? (pointing below her belly button)

Mummy  : Huh?

Eryn        : There, you see, (pointing to a kids Biology book, as per picture below),

                  this is an egg.

Brendan : Oh, I know, it's where the sperm swims towards the egg.

Mummy  : *eyes big big* (double) HUH?!

Oh well,  and that’s how I realised I had to get started on my basic introduction about the birds and the bees. I asked if they really know what are the sperms and eggs for and this is how to conversation went on :

Eryn        : The sperm is in the boy’s kukubird

Brendan : Ya, and the egg is inside the girl’s body.

Mummy  : Yes, and when the sperm meets the egg, you can have a baby.

                  And it is very important that you must understand.

And then, the conversation got really funny :

Brendan : How can the sperm go to the egg? The sperm is in my 'kukubird' lah.

Eryn        : Hahahahaha......

Brendan : So, you better don’t touch my sperm. Actually, the sperm is my two balls.

Mummy  : *eyes rolling and controlling laughter*

Eryn        : You see this book (pointing to the picture below), sperm plus egg equals

                  baby in the womb.

Brendan : Mummy, do you know that it is very dangerous if a boy only has one ball?

                  He can die one you know.

Oh well, that’s all on the so-called basic sex education. This was really getting nowhere. Besides, I was so tired to be able to do any proper explanation as it was nearing bed time for the kids.

This is the cover of the book. A very, very good book which I bought in the last Big, Bad Wolf sale. It covers mostly on the human body and the kids learnt a lot from there.

How babies come out?

Last night, I heard a very funny and wierd conversation between my 6 y.o. gal and 8 y.o. boy. They saw a news  highlight on Channel News Asia about a Japanese lady giving birth to a baby.

Brendan : Mei-mei, you see the baby looks so funny.
Eryn        : Last time when we were babies, we looked like that too.
Brendan : Why they didn't show where the baby come out from? Baby doesn't
                   come out from the 'du-chi' (navel). Actually, the doctor cut open the
                   stomach to take the baby out.
Eryn        : No lah, baby come out from 'petpet'.
Brendan : *silent, and thinking seriously about something*
Brendan : Hmm..... how to come out? the 'petpet' so small lah.
Mummy : *burst out laughing* (both Brendan and Eryn turned quickly to look
                   at mummy)
Eryn      : Mummy, why you laugh? (both their face were very serious and thinking
                hard about the baby issue)
Mummy : Some women deliver baby by cutting up the stomach. We call that
                 caesarean, or c-sect. Some women deliver baby naturally, like how I
                 delivered you two, which is through the vagina (had to explain that it's
                 not the 'petpet'). God created mothers to have a womb where the baby 
                 is kept and fed (another long explanation), and grow safely. The womb
                 can expand according to the baby's growth and when it is time for the
                 baby to come out, the vagina will prepare itself and expand for the baby's
                 head to come out as well.
Eryn      : If the baby get stuck then how?
Mummy : then the dr will help to cut open a little, or maybe use forceps (again,
                  have to explain) or vacuum.
Brendan : hahahaha... BRRRRRRRRRRR .. take the vacuum cleaner and suck
                   the baby out meh??
Eryn       : hahahaha..... (pretend to hold vacuum cleaner and pulling action).
Mummy : sigh! No, this is a special type of machine ONNNLYYYYY meant to
                  deliver babies.
Brendan : Girl so poor thing hor. Have to pain-pain to give birth. Boy no need.
Eryn      : But your tummy so big leh, kor-kor. Like got baby like that...

Brendan and Eryn started laughing and continued doing their normal drawing activities.

tummy pipe??

Kids always say the darnest things. They say it sincerely. They ask you serious stuffs. They sit and think about what you say. And all these without them knowing that it sometimes get hilarious just hearing the things they say.

Here's what happened recently.

Eryn was staring at mummy using a pencil eyeliner to draw on mummy's eye lids.

Eryn :    Mummy, this one draw on people one ar?
Mummy : draw what on people?
Eryn :    Neeehhh.... why you use pencil to draw on yourself? Pencil is for drawing
               on paper lah.

Brendan about to take his bath yesterday morning.

Brendan : Mummy, must wash my pyjama or not?
Mummy : Yes, must wash your pyjama
Brendan : Which one? Shirt or pants?
Mummy : both lah...
Brendan : then you must put "s"
Mummy : What ass?
Brendan : You must say Pyjamasssssssss and not pyjama. Must got "s".

It's so hard getting the kids to sit down and eat properly and at times, they take such a loooong time to finish their food! One particular night, we were talking about the importance of finishing their meals.

Mummy : You have to learn how to eat yourself and finish all your food.
                  Mummy have to spend time to cook for you all. Not many
                  people are lucky to have nutritious home cooked food you know.
Eryn :    Ya, I know, but mummy, my mouth so small. Your mouth bigger that's
                 why can finish faster mah. So you feed me can?
Mummy : Are you still a baby? No, right? When you were a baby, I fed you cos
                   you didn't know how to eat on your own yet.
Brendan : Mei-mei, you know baby got tummy pipe.
Eryn :    What tummy pipe?
Brendan : We all got 'du-chi' (navel). Why baby one is tummy pipe?
Mummy : I don't know what tummy pipe you are talking about.
Brendan : neh.... the baby inside tummy got one long, long pipe.
Mummy : Oh! That is called the umbilical cord. It's for the food to be transfered
                   from the mummy to the baby.
Eryn : Why? Baby got no mouth meh?
Brendan : How the food go through the ambicolor cord?
Mummy : It's UM-BER-LEE-CAL-CORRRRD
Brendan : So difficult to say. Tummy pipe easier.

And so, the conversation continues into the night. And both asking me tons of questions at the same time and then started arguing, insisting on me answering their questions first!! And I almost lose my patience trying to explain.

Words Twist

My boy likes to disturb his little sister by immitating her in the things she says and do. He's also got this tendency to twist sentences and words around which irritates us at home. He finds it funny but stops short for a while, when daddy scolds him, before continuing the words twist in whispers.

Here's just some of the things he says :

Case 1 :
Eryn : Mummy, can I go to jie-jie's house and play Barbie doll again?
Brendan : Huh? What? You want to play with pig doll? You play with a pig? hahahahahaha

Case 2 :
Mummy : Brendan, you better eat some herbal chicken. It's good for you. You're too skinny.
Brendan : I don't want purple chicken.
Mummy : It's not purple chicken. It's herbal chicken.
Brendan : No, it's not herbal chicken. Just give me the purple chicken.

Case 3 :
Poh-Poh : Brendan, don't play and eat faster. You "bi3 sai4" (mandarin for compete/challenge) with mei-mei and see who eats faster.
Brendan : HAHAHA (super loud). " Pi3 sai4" (hokkien for those dried snots, or whatever you call it, in your nose). Mei-mei, you want "pi3 sai4" ar?
Eryn : NO!!!! MUMMY!! Kor-kor want me to eat tahi!! (malay word for faeces)

Now, on the other hand, Eryn is a big whiner. When Brendan does this thing with those words and disturb Eryn, she will start whining and complaining and sometimes cry, and it goes something like this :

Eryn : (singing) I said hey..... Ah be gun-duh-dere..... la la la ah be gun-duh-dere
Brendan : Mei-mei, you sing it wrongly already.
Eryn : Eeeeeeee...... You don't say ar.....
Brendan : (singing) Hey.... Ah be gun-duh-dere....
Eryn : Arrggghhh!!!! Mummy!!!! (whining and complaining) Kor-kor follow me talk!!
Brendan : hahaha... Mummy!! Kor-kor follow me talk!! (immitates Eryn)
Eryn : (starts crying and stamps her feet)

Sigh! People say that my girl talks non-stop and my SIL says that my house must be really noisy with these two fellas voices. Tell me about it

A decade in pictures

Some fond memories of my kids from the time Brendan was born in October 2003, followed by Eryn in June 2005. I'm getting older.....

Brendan proved to be quite an alert baby but was quite a difficult baby to take care as he tends to wake up at night and cry. He started speaking a little later though, compared to Eryn who would start speaking at age 1.

Brendan was under the care of my mum in Johor and I used to travelled every weekend to see him from KL to Johor, transporting frozen breasmilk in a cooler box in the KL-Johor bus. The breastmilk stopped at around 6 months and I continued my weekend visit, travelling alone most of the time as hubby was busy working until I was 8 months pregnant with Eryn. Brendan is actually quite a matured kid for his age, but can be quite mischiveous when he's with his maternal grandparents or his little sister.

Eryn was a very smiley baby and was so much easier to care for. Eryn was under my care and with the help of a maid, it was time for Brendan to be up in KL together with us as a family. I'm so grateful to my parents for their great commitment in taking care of Brendan in the first one and half years. Eryn was lucky to be breastfed until one year old, before supplementing with formula partially until age two where she only suckle at night.

Eryn can be quite cheeky and is quite a messy girl, compared to Brendan. She started walking at 10 and a half months, compared to Brendan who started walking at 12 months plus. She loves posing and can really dance so naturally with her soft body movement.

Together, Brendan and Eryn makes a perfect sibling companion, playing masak-masak together, toy cars, combat, and many more. However, sibling rivalry is always there. It's always a case of 'I first, you second' or 'He/She disturbed me', or 'This is mine, not yours', etc.. Well, you get the idea.

A decade has passed and it has been an interesting one, with the birth of my two beautiful children, a great gift from above. They stressed me up, I screamed at them, they whine and fight, but they're still my love and my sunshine and their surprises never fail to bring a rainbow on after a rainy day.

Dentist Dentist here we come

It was about a year ago, when we were experiencing Eryn's tooth problem. I called up numerous dentists and finally found ourselves the best dentist for Eryn with the best advice I've ever heard after many attempts in finding a suitable dentist for Eryn.

Lately, Eryn has been complaining of food getting stuck in her bottom right molar while Brendan seems to get food stuck in his molars on both side. Their molars seem to have small holes which could be the cause of food getting stuck. So far, there's no pain, but we will have to nip the problem, if any, before it gets worse.

The kids used to brush their kids on their own but now, hubby and I have taken the task of brushing it again and flossing it as well after they've brushed their teeth.

Looks like I have to take the two kids to Pristine Jalan Gasing. I called them up and booked a time for them some time next week and it was such a great pleasure to know that the nurse, Ms Prema, actually remembers Eryn.

Monopoly

Now that I've left my full-time job and do my own business in freelance media and also, being in the financial services sector, I sometimes, teach my kids the value of money and the importance of not spending unnecesssarily.

And there's no better way I've found than the game of monopoly. Though, my kids may get frustrated when they're out of money and cry when they lose, the games somehow taught them the importance of proper planning and knowing what to invest when their monopoly money runs out.

At only age 6 and 4, I would never expect them to really grasp the importance of savings until Brendan came up to me and say, "Mummy, I think we don't buy this because it is not really important. We save the money and buy it next time ok?" or when Eryn came up to me in the shopping mall and say, "Mummy, I like this beautiful dress but no need to buy because I think it is expensive.."

Oh well, I was pleasantly surprised at their mature thinking. Well, they don't always say these unless something strucks their little mind, like the game of monopoly. Anyhow, instilling this experience is somehow fulfilling for me as a mother.

I remember starting my first investment into unit trust in my early 20s and buy my own insurance at the age of 20, and I'm glad that my own kids are beginning to understand the importance of savings at an even younger age.

Concert 2009

It's Brendan's and Eryn's very first concert and it was such a wonderful feeling having to attend my own two kids' performance 2 weekends ago.

Brendan was in a Mexican dance and he has grown from a very shy boy to a boy that is willing to dance in front of the crowd. Though his movements were a little stiff, he did give his very best and it was such a wonder how he has changed over two years.

Eryn, on the other hand, seems to be the 'leader' of the dance group, ever so talkative and so confident in her dance. She loves to dance and her body movement is just so natural. I'm considering sending her for a dance class - probably hip hop or modern dance. Ballets would be too rigid for her. hmm....

Love is in the air

This sight made me felt so warm and feeling good. I was eating my KFC, when out of the blue, Eryn started hugging Brendan.

Back at home, when Eryn give Brendan a hug, he'll scream at her. When Brendan tickles Eryn, Eryn will start whining for me. Oh boy! It was always a little battlefield at home. They tend to chase each other round the house and play 'catch me if you can', sometimes driving me up the wall with their non-stop action!

But this particular day, they both were just so good and I can't help but pull out my camera phone to snap photos of them.

Such a pretty sight, don't you think so?

The kids and dogs

Brendan and Eryn are not really fans of dogs except for our neighbour’s tiny little dog which doesn’t really bark and one of hubby’s aunt’s golden retriever dog.

The kids called our neighbours dog the “disco dog” as it can dance on its two hind legs, but with the help of its owner.

Hubby’s aunt has two golden retrievers, Murray and Musha. Musha is a very friendly dog and loves children. He will come near you and sniff and lick you, which makes the kids extremely terrified of it. Murray, on the hand, doesn’t really bother anyone, probably of age and loves to lie down for the rest. The kids are more fascinated with Murray as they can go to him up-close without having Murray suddenly giving them a jumpy surprise.

Once a puppy chased after some children at a nearby field. All the children were laughing and running around, and enjoyed having the little puppy running around them but Brendan screamed and yelled at the top of his voice! Gosh, that's how terrified he can be..

mini Olympic 2008

It's the Olympic now in Beijing. Back at home, we have our own little olympians :-) With the Olympic fever happening everywhere, I took some fun shots of the weekend exercise the kids enjoy having.

Exercise

Though I was a sports girl in school, I've somehow succumbed to my laziness, and yet I complain of not having any energy and gaining weight on my butts!

Early Sunday mornings are the days where the kids will go jogging with their daddy while I choose to take my own sweet time to get up, sweep and mop the floor while waiting for the kids and daddy to be back for breakfast.

They wake up really early at around 7am+ and will go, "Daddy! Daddy! Where are you? We want to go jogging!" and then, followed by, "Wake up, lazy bug mummy. Let's go jogging!"

Below here are some snapshots of some stretching exercise they are doing at home.

Outing with friends from overseas

Sometime last week, daddy took out a friend from Netherlands out for dinner at a Chinatown cafe in KL together with the kids and mummy. Uncle Robert, as the kids call him, was here for a working assignment with daddy's company.

We were later joined by the kids' favourite Uncle Dejok, an engineer from Frammersbach, Germany and Uncle Kwan, daddy's colleague.

It was the kids' first outing in a very long time and so, they enjoy the sights and sounds in Petaling Street and KLCC.

Uncle Dejok, fostered a close friendship with the kids, making them paper planes in various types and even tried performed some magic tricks. Uncle Dejok is also known as Magic Andy in Frammersbach as he sometimes performs magic shows in children's party and in schools.

It was a short but fun night for the kids who enjoyed going out instead of staying at home most of the time.

Never-ending homework

There seems to be quite a number of homework to do for Brendan. There was one time, when he came back with 5 homeworks - English writing, BM writing, numbers writing, coloring and chinese!

Before Brendan started his daycare, he used to dread doing his homework at night. I tend to lose my cool when I wanted to do my own things and he was getting tired of his homework.

Eversince he started daycare after school, he finished his homework in school with the personal guide of his teacher.

After daycare, he can actually asks for more colouring homework to do! He enjoys doing homework now though I only limit him to basic reading and colouring. I wonder what got into him. Maybe my teaching method is wrong, or maybe I'm just plain lazy and impatient to go through this homework.

Brendan is bad in spelling and reading, but loves painting. He took after both daddy and mummy in the arts department cos' I love drawing and painting when I was young. Daddy is also a good artist as well. Well, afterall, I took after my dad who is a superb artist.

Eryn, on the other hand, also took after me in the music and sports department. Eryn can really run, and run, and run, so unlike Brendan who is always complaining of getting tired.

Grocery shopping??

Imagine this - it's raining, you have lots of groceries to buy, the kids are cranky, the queue is long and it's running late. What do you do?

We were on a recent trip to a hypermarket when the kids started to whine and throw a tantrum. We decided to just get only a little bit of what we wanted on the long list of things to buy, and proceeded to queue up with whatever little things we have in our trolley.

"Zzzzzzz", the kids were sleeping already, what can we do but to move out quickly to get home and when we are home, their eyes were opened wide!

Open your mouth

"Show me how you laugh", I said, and the kids laughed and then freezed with their mouth open wide! They love doing this and I don't know what's so interesting about showing what's in your mouth. Hmm..... since it's quite difficult checking their teeth and tongue, maybe taking photos is a way for me to make a clear analysis on how clean their teeth and tongue are!

CNY in Kluang

Brendan and Eryn are usually in their old clothes. So, it's always nice to see them when they're dressed up quite presentable for the camera.

They seldom wear socks and wearing socks is like being so "cantik". They would proudly parade around the house and stare at the socks on their feet! But it doesn't last long cos the heat would make their feet all sweaty and uncomfortable and they would asked it to be taken out.

Piano Duets

Actual Post dated 20th Oct. 2006

One pretending to be Beethoven, one pretending to be Mozart? All I know is there love banging and banging and banging on the piano.

Ahem! Mummy here is a good pianist and they’re trying to take after mummy, I guess. For now, I just have to bear with the “lovely” tunes that come under their little, fat, fingers…..

Christmas 2006

A lovely picture of Brendan hugging Eryn on Christmas morning.

Christmas party

Brendan and Eryn had a good time dancing away at a Christmas party in a golf club in mummy's kampung. It was their first time watching Christmas Carollers singing away. While all the other children were playing games and watching for Santa Claus and the adults sitting and chatting among each other, Brendan and Eryn were the only listeners and supporters of the carollers.