Happy Father's Day!

Just a lazy Sunday spent at home mostly. I took Nic to the mall for lunch and when we got home I noticed the left front car tire looked under inflated. Upon closer examination the cause was a screw that is causing the leak, albeit a slow one.

Nic was so eager to help me so we did a tire change at the parking lot. That's my girl reattaching the lug nuts onto the spare wheel.

A Rally for Change

Dear Nic,

You cried when you heard daddy was going to the city for a rally even though you did not understand what it was all about. You wanted to join me but it is no place for a child to be. Many years from now when you are old enough you will understand. You have a strong will and whatever you political inclination may be I will respect it. I only hope that you HAVE one.

Some folks say politics is not their problem but it is a fact that almost everything that happens around is a result of politics. Like why the hell we pay more than some of our neighboring countries for automobiles! Protectionism, lop-sided agreements of public works projects and on and on.

Anyway back to the rally. I believe over the years more Malaysians are emboldened by the determination, courage and sacrifices shown by some of the leaders of NGOs. All the big guns out today will be harassed and targeted for arrest. I merely have the simple task of uprooting my butt from this chair and joining the rally.

Let's MARCH!

You Tube

Nic likes to watch cartoons on You Tube. She has devised a fool-proof method of finding what she wants. She uses a story book (Disney's Tales of Wonder) as reference and types in the names like Mulan, Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, etc.

She used to write them down on scraps of paper but she kept losing them so it is better this way as the hard-cover book is 300 pages. I doubt she can lose it.

Nic forwards an email

We find this amusing now but I bet in a few years time we'll be worried about stuff like online predators. We shall monitor her learning and do our best to teach her to be 'streetwise'.

Nic is learning to send emails

Not content with logging on and off the Net our baby girl just sent (with help from mum) emails out to family members. She wanted to forward emails to everyone including Uncle Ah Fatt. I told her Uncle Ah Fatt's email is special, it is ahfatt@carlsberg.com

Internet

Here is Nic multi-tasking, one hand on the mouse and the other clutching her bolster.

Playhouse Disney & Braveheart

Nicole has been watching Braveheart everyday for the past three weeks. It is an amazing streak as even her previous favorites like Barbie's Mermaidia and 12 Dancing Princesses never caught her attention for so long.

I think she likes swords a lot and it is beginning to scare me. Today I thought I'd divert her attention to something more productive, kid's activity games on Playhouse Disney's website. She really enjoyed all the games and refused to stop playing at 11pm.

I'll have to see if she goes for Playhouse Disney or Braveheart tomorrow.

Schoolwork

I was checking on Nic's schoolwork a few hours ago as usual. The kids each are given three workbooks to work on daily. There is a alphabets book, a numbers book and a pictorial book.

As Nic was beside me I proceeded to review today's work with her. I duly picked up the alphabets book and her task today was to write the letter Zz. I was quite surprised that she calls the capital Z, upper case and the z, lower case.

Later on I mentioned this to mommy who asked, 'What's upper case and lower case'? OMG!

Learning; Three Months Later

It has been three months at kindy and Nic has learned a lot, both good and naughty stuff. She now speaks with a typical Malaysian style now with the 'lahs' added to the end of most sentences. But she is adaptable enough to put on her 'Disney-like' type of exclamation when the occassion warrants. As her cousin Sammie so puts it, Nic's a 'drama-queen'.

At kindy she writes her ABCs very well for a 4-year old. I have seen worse from adults. She has learnt addition (as long as its under 10 as she needs to use her fingers) but subtraction is still a little hazy to her. Kindy teacher has just taught herto write up to number 30. That's a long way from day one when she could not even write a single alphabet.

Learning to write

We have tried to teach Nicole to write but it was futile. She'd come up with excuses like her fingers hurt or she's tired. Well like all kids she's starting to learn to write in a 'learning' environment. I gotta say her writing looks pretty good. There is hope after all.

Nic is starting to go to bed a little earlier than before ever since she went to day care. These nights she'll ask mom to accompany her at around 10.30 pm. That's early for by her standard.