The Giving Tree

Ilyasak completed this book in about 4 days. I am extremely proud of him. He read about 2 or 3 pages a day and he will read more for pages with very few words. Of course, I had coax him and give him occasional nudges for him to perservere to complete the book.

Young Parents finalist

I was flipping through the Young Parents magazine September issue thinking of checking out the litte duckboat project which Ilyasak and the hubs sent in. Instead of that, I was surprise by a picture of Balqis in one of the pages. She was selected as one of teh 20 finalist for the cover baby contest 2010. Ilyasak was shocked too and told me excitedly, 'Umi , this is Balqis'

This was really a surprise for us as we did not even think that Balqis could make it to teh top 20 finalist. We even forgot about the contest. For a start, she refused to look at the camera and did not want to smile at all. We don't know of the existence of this particular photo which was taken. Anyhow, we were glad. Alhamdulillah, she still won something even if she did not make it to the top 3. It was already a big achievement for her and we were really happy for her. It will definitely be something for her to remember by when she grows up.

Huggies Babe

A few weeks ago, on the 21st of August we headed down to Downtown east (D marquee). I signed both Ilyasak and Balqis for some kid's race. Ilyasak teamed up with the hubs for the race but Balqis was on her own. We had to wait for quite sometime before each of their race started. Ilyasak was in category E while Balqis in category C.

I was scouting around for the Huggies babes and dudes contest as mentioned in the flyer as it was an on-site registration. I was surprise when I learned that the queue which was developing at that point was indeed the huggies babes and dudes contest. I was hesitant whether to join the queue as it was limited to only first 50 participants and looking at the queue, I had doubts that I could safely be in the first 50. Nevertheless, I went ahead to queue hoping that I was lucky enough to be in the first 50. My sis was there to accompany me in the queue so I wasn't too bored. It took me close to an hour before it was Balqis pictures were taken.

It turned out to be fruitful for us indeed as Balqis was shortlisted as the 10 finalist out of the 50. It felt good to hear the MC announced her name. She was called up on stage later where the audience had to vote for the huggies final babe or dude. The winner, of course the one with the most number of votes. Alhamdullillah, Balqis was crowned the Huggies Babe. She won 4 large packs of Huggies diapers for herself which was a good saving for the hubs.

We were very happy for her. We did not win any of the race although I was pinning my hopes on Ilyasak and the hubs to win some kind of prize. Oh well, most importantly we were there for the fun so it doesn't matter.

Ferdinand

Ilyasak had just completed the book 'Fredinand' by Munro Leaf. An entertaining book about a bull who love flowers and simly uninterested to fight. He truly enjoyed the book. It took him about 3 days to complete the book with the umi of course contributibg to a few pages when he is tired to read some of the pages. I am truly impressed at how he had progressed in his reading. He still needs to improve on his attention span while reading and hopefully, he can managed a slightly longer reading time in one seating. It would make me most happy, if he can read for about 15 minutes in one seating. Currently he is reading out loud to me.

This book is a good read and it is equivalent to Level 4 of the P&J series. He is now reading The Giving Tree and hopefully he will get though that in another few days.

We are slowing down in his progress in the p&j series simply because I want him to be expose to other books and the p&j books can get pretty mundane. I am not giving up on that series though but just a temporary halt for the time being. No doubt about it, the series had done wonders to Ilyasak's reading ability.

Kite Flying

Our first attempt at kite flying turned out to be fun and we are planning to have another round before Ramadhan. Ehmmm! actually I am not really a fan of kite fying but it is just simply pure joy when I see my brood looking so happy running around exploring the area. I personally don't fancy straining my neck and looking up at the bright sky trying to get your kite up It's just not me. The atmosphere however, helped a lot when you see little kites flying around in the sky. He We went to Marina barrage by the way and it was pretty crowded today due to the long weekend (national day holiday)
My sis and her hubs joined us today so we got extra pairs or hands to help us with the kids. It was pure coindcidence that we bumped into them in the train and they decide to join us.
The hubs was one serious kite flyer. He took turns to fly the our kind of pathetic kite with my brother-in-law. Of course with Ilyasak running around them.

When Ilyasak had enough of running around in the heat and he was perspiring from top to bottom, mind you-he requested to us that he wanted to do some water play. We took him to the water play area and could not even wait a asecond longer when he was all geared in his swimming costume. It was the same with Balqis. Both siblings simply love havng water play. They went sloshing around in the 10 inches of water pool, entertaines by the various fountains. I mean you can't go around sloshing around at every water fountain right?

Both my children are truly simple children. They can be made most happy by just having simple inexpensive (in fact free)activity. Going to the park, playground, water play and the pool are their favourite activiies-simple, cheap and sometimes FOC.

Hope to do it again but with the hubs of course.

Balqis to the finals

We registered Balqis in another contest a couple of months back. Call me 'obsess', but I am so into paricipating in every baby contets available. It is probably due to our small win in a contest in a CC previously.

She was scheduled for a preliminary round on June 5th at KK hospital. Hope she through. Good luck Balqis!

Curious Ilyasak

Recently I introduced Ilyasak to the 'Curious George' series. He enjoys it very much-be it being read to or his usual daily 1 page reading practice.Although, he tends to mimmick the George the monkey's behaviour too which irritates me ever that much but still put a smile on my face at the end of each stunt which he pulled.
Sadly, the Peter and Jane series are long forgotten. Even the mummy temporarily stash the peter and jane series. Mummy has to get back him read Peter and Jane nevertheless.
When I get him to start reading one of the book in the series-Curious George flies a kite, I was filled with utmost sheer joy as I heard him reading to an almost fluent level. Who wouldn't? When one see your 3yrs 9 months old preschooler reading at such a level without any formal lessons in any phonics school/class. This makes the desire of extending my current SAHM status even longer. Ehmm...