Seashell the Fish

Rayyan wanted a fish. If that's the case, I want the fish with the lowest maintenance level possible. So, we bought the fighting fish. Bought it at Pet Safari @ Ikano for RM10 (too pricey, I think). Also bought the food, and plastic plant on plastic rock (wanted the real plant but it requires oxygen, lights, etc.. pergghh.... tak payah!). Then bought the bowl just outside Cold Storage (RM12.90).

When asked what name he would call his fish, Rayyan had several names... ntah apa-apa nama ntah... then finally he settled with one name - SEASHELL. I guess he's so hooked on to the tongue twister "she sells seashells on the seashore"... haha so.. Seashells it is.

Rayyan asked if he can teach the fish to do any tricks. I asked what tricks? He said "spinning round and round, jumping," etc... haha like it's a cat.

Anyways, he's happy with the fish now, and never fails to feed the fish once a day...

Boxes from London

After a looooong wait, finally the boxes arrived a few days ago... 3 boxes altogether (2 medium boxes and 1 large box), filled with London Book Fair brochures, the stuff we bought, and of course tons of dirty old clothes that we didn't get to wash while we were in London lol! (yalaa.. unlike in Bologna and Paris where we had access to washing machines and dryer/heater... Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel charges Malaysians too much for laundry.. hehe)

Of course, Ja stocked up on baby's stuff... AVENT, and other Mother Care products... murah giler.. we checked the 7-pack baby clothes that we bought for GBP10, kat sini harga about RM100+ and the design tak menarik... there are some in Malaysia with good designs but the quality nipis sikit...




And of course... tell me siapa yang duduk hotel tak bawak benda-benda ni balik.... hehehe... if you're staying in a room that costs GBP250 per night for 5 nights, you DEFINITELY have to bring this home.. hahaha...


...although I only paid RM100 per night because I'm a member of Palace of Golden Horses's Palace Vacation Club! Very simple booking process... I booked the hotel about 2-3 weeks before we actually left for Europe). So sesapa nak jadi member of this club, let me know! We can have free buffet dinner at Palace Golden Horses.. hahaha...

Actually considering their shipment timing, we were unlucky that while we were in London their kapal just left.. so our stuff is stuck at their warehouse for almost 2 months before it gets shipped.. 'coz Crown Ace UK (www.crownaceuk.com) only ships stuff from the UK to Malaysia every 2 months. But I have to tabik these people... very professional... even dekat Malaysia pun the guys who delivered right at the doorstep were wearing company uniforms.. at 9PM when they delivered! FYI, Crown Ace UK is a company owned and run by Malaysians that ships stuff out of UK to Malaysia... cheap!!

Ka ki ku ke ke ko

We started with these...


I printed the letters and posted on the wall in the bedroom. I read from somewhere that the best time to get information stuck in your brain and remain there for some time is at NIGHT. So before Rayyan sleeps, we always review the sounds of the letters... and when he wakes up.. those letters are the first things he sees before he gets out of the room on his way to his nenek's house...

When I get back from work, I would always give him a pop quiz asking him how a, i, u, e, e, o sound... and again, before bedtime, we review... Rayyan seems to enjoy the learning process.. maybe because he doesn't feel like he's learning with me running around the room making high and low pitch sounds to "illustrate" the best methods to make him remember... hahaha


That took us about 2-3 days.. and then we started with the ka, ki, ku, ke, ke, ko... At some point, he became the "teacher", asking me how to read the letters as he spelled them.. haha.. then when I've said everything correctly, he said.. .. "GOOD!"... hehe... that's when you know your kid starts enjoying the learning process!!

After a couple of days... we added another line...


And he took less than a day to master this whole line... although at times he gets confused when it comes to a-ki.. and a-ku... the rest of them he knows it well... Again, me and my pop quiz.. "How do you spell kuku? How do you spell kaki?" Hahaha.. nak ajar Melayu pun kena tanya in English.. hehe lantakla.. janji dia jawab betul... hehehe

Next.... ba, bi, bu, be, be, bo.... and with these new syllables, he should be able to read something like...

buku baba
abu buka buku baba
baba buka buku abu
ibu buka buku baba
bobo buka buku abu

and other words like... beku, baka, baki, babu, bubu, babi (as an educator, I strongly believe that there is no such thing as dirty words... and the word babi is not haram...).

Oh yeah.. most of the time, while I'm "teaching" he doesn't sit still... he creates his own "Megatron" and plays with it while "learning"...

Bored, hence the change...

I am bored... at work... have a slight headache... lots of things to do... can't seem to prioritize when everything needs to be done at the same time... can't decide which should be done first... so I did what I have to do... change the look of the blog ;-P

The only thing I disliked about the old version was the fact that they didn't have the "Previous Posts" link at the bottom of the page. And since I'm trying to post more blog entries from now (hahaha...) I guess I better make thins change, so that I don't have to put so many blog entries on the first page and make it ridiculously long that you need 10 scrolls to get to the bottom of the page.

I've started teaching Rayyan how to read in Malay, using the syllable method, according to the proven lessons taught in the "Bacalah Sayang" book we published and reprinted over and over again since 1995.

So now, Rayyan knows how to pronounce a, i, u, e, e, o (it's confusing coz we have the "e" as in epal and "e" as in emak...) but Rayyan knows now that there two sounds of "e"s.

He also knows the sounds of ka, ki, ku, ke, ke, ko.... so with these few syllables, hopefully by the end of the month he can read...

kuku kaki
kuku kaki aku
kaki aku kaku

How I managed to teach him without having him to sit still? I'll show you the pics later...

Ubat Happy

As usual, Rayyan dok melompat-lompat atas katil... I was screaming at him to not do that... especially while I'm working in the room... and Ja, who just got back from work, penat kena tukar his pampers because we were supposed to go out to buy some stuff at Giant... and Ja was babbling to him about being 4 years old and still kena pakai pampers lagi when suddenly...

Rayyan: "Mama, you eat ubat happy and drink water so you become happy..." (while dia tarik both sides of Ja's mouth so that she's smiling cheek to cheek)

How on earth can you stay mad at this guy??!!

Rayyan's 4th Birthday Today!

It's Rayyan's 4th birthday today. No fancy parties like the last 3 years that we've had. No friends or aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces... just a quiet family affair... at least for the "soft-launch" of his 4th birthday at 12 midnight just now.

We might have a family dinner tomorrow... maybe inviting 1 or 2 family members.. that's it... hehe..

Will upload pictures soon...