Though Darrius was supposed to be attending Primary 1 early this year like all his peers, but due to our move to Melbourne recently, he has to starts a month later. That is because, the new school year for Victoria only begins in early February.

The timing was great as it gave us some time to settle down in our new place and gave us ample time to prepare. We got him registered to a school nearby our house (just 3 minutes drive away) and everything was set! His first day was yesterday (2 February 2012) and he was pretty excited about his new adventure!

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Most schools here start at 9am in the morning and end at 3.30pm. The kids get 2 breaks in between.

We brought him to school at around 8.45am and the school compound was already filled with cars of parents sending their children to school. We have to park quite a distance away.

On our way to the school’s office, we bumped into the principal and he brought us to Darrius’s new classroom which is just opposite the school’s car park and playground. There are a total of 5 Year 1 classes this year with 20-25 students in each class. Darrius is placed in 1E which is the last class since we only registered him a week ago.The setting of the classroom is very much like his kindy in Penang. They are seated in groups and all writing materials are provided. Oh, did I mentioned that there are no books required??? Yes!!! We have not been asked to get any text books!!!

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The students are required to remove their shoes upon entering the classroom. Not sure why they have this rule but I saw the teacher had her shoes on…

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Once the clock strike 9am, the class teacher made all the students sat in a circle in front and lessons begin. Pretty fast for a first day!!! Parents still mingle around but within 10 minutes, they have all dispersed! I’m surprised as this was actually the 1st day of school! There were a few sobbing kids in Darrius’s class (I am proud of Darrius as he did not shed a single tear!) but they soon stopped once the sat down in front.

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When we went to pick Darrius up at 3.30pm, he was so excited and can’t wait to report to us what he had for the day. He was so happy that he got to play at the sand pit and the playground. He told me he has a few new friends and did a whole lot of stuff with them! The class teacher even gave each of them a tub of yogurt for morning tea break! Well, looks like he is really enjoying school! No homework, no stress! Good for him and good for me!!

We always laughed at him for wearing diaper after his 5 years old birthday. He don’t really take it at heart initially but when I told baby to do the ’shame-shame’ motion at him, he will get very annoyed!

He used to have a bottle of milk (270ml) before bed time until about 2 years ago. We stopped him from taking any as his bladder will be full by mid night so he will need to answer nature call(s) but he can’t wake up to go to the toilet. Sometimes his diaper will be dry for a few days but occasionally he will wet it a little. Due to that, we have let him have a diaper on each night until 3 weeks ago.

We were heading for dinner before going to visit my dad at the hospital. PiggyBeng specifically asked Darrius if he wanted to pee first before we leave our hotel and Darrius shook his head. Fine. We were caught in the worst after office hour traffic jam and the kids all fell asleep for that entire hour we were trapped in the jam. When we arrived at our destination, Darrius woke up and yelled ‘why my car seat is wet????’

We knew immediately he has peed in his pants without realizing due to tiredness and that was the last straw. PiggyBeng was so mad that he made Darrius wear the wet pants throughout dinner.

Luckily we were near Carrefour so I decided to get him another pants since I did not bring an extra pants for him. And we told him that, from that day onward, he can’t wear any diaper to sleep when he is at home. Told him that if he peed in his bed, he will have to swim in his own pee. *evil grin*

So, on the night we arrived home, we told him to sleep without his diaper. He was of course apprehensive coz he knew he will pee… and true enough he woke us up around 3am after he wet himself…

We were undeterred of course, as we knew that if we are not adamant, he will not bothered. True enough he has not wet himself since and that has been 3 weeks!

Way to go boy!

We each pushed our trolleys in separate directions as we wanted to check on different items. When we met later on, Darrius has a small cup of Ribena from the tasting counter and Glennedine saw it. I quickly motioned to Darrius to hide the cup before Glennedine sees it but that girl was quick and saw it. Darrius, who is a very selfish person since he was a baby, quickly finished up and waved the empty cup in front of his sister. Luckily, Glennedine did not make a fuss and merely said ‘no more!’. Phew~

Then we left using the lift and both kids wanted to press the button but I was angry at Darrius as he started to scream when I told him I will press. I was so pissed with Darrius’s behavior that I told PiggyBeng to dump him into the big bin they were standing next to. Of course, Darrius screamed and cried even louder!

Darrius continued to cry even after we got out from the lift and I told Glennedine to show the ’shame-shame’ action at his brother. Darrius, upon hearing that, whined further but what melted my heart was, instead of doing what I instructed her to do, she went and put her arms around her crying brother and hugged him!

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Though she is such a ferocious little girl but she has a BIG-BIG heart! I am so proud of her!

About 2 weeks ago we finally received the most awaited letter from the Ministry of Education…

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Yes, Darrius has got a place in the primary school which we had registered him last year. It was a great relief now that we are assured that he has got a seat so we do not have to fret like one of my friend in Singapore where she has to go through balloting for her choice school for her son.

The school which Darrius will be going to (in any case our move to Down Under is delayed again!) is just 5 minutes walk from our house so it is ultra convenient for all of us! I hope he will be in the morning session but I have a hunch that he will be in the afternoon session. Which ever it is, I guess it won’t be a major problem since the school is so near.

And yes, Darrius will be attending a Chinese school… wish me luck!

Though Darrius plays other PC games as well as other games on iPad and Galaxy Tab, his favorite is still Angry Birds since we have most of the versions available. His personal favorite is the Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Seasons. Personally, I like their creativity in engaging users with their simple yet colorful graphics.

I bought one of the red bird plush toy for Darrius a while back when I first spotted them in one of the gift shops in QBM. I have wanted to get him the entire collection but was stopped by PiggyBeng. Instead, I went to felt one smaller one for him…

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Since it took a while for me to felt one so I have stopped felting the rest of the ‘gang’ but do hope I can resume making them some day…

While PiggyBeng stopped me from purchasing more of the plush toys, he on the other hand went to get all those misc stuff for Darrius when he spotted them at the market…

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Honestly, I would rather spend the money buying those cute plush than the above al-cheapo stuff which to me are more like ‘junk’. Though they are only RM1 per item but they are of poor quality and to me quite ‘useless’. Don’t you agree?

Anyway, Darrius already told me he wanted the entire plush collection for his birthday…

Therefore, we just stayed within Traders and KLCC area. On the day before we left, this very busy and hot mama came together with her princesses to visit us. Both our younger girls are the same age, only difference by a few months and they were so cute when they first met that day…

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The last time they met up with each other was some 6 months ago so I guessed they grew apart after such a long time and thus being so distant! Glennedine was not that shy but T2 was… she was trying to hide and kept clinging on to her mommy. She is just so cute! Anyhow, they warmed up after a while and became buddies soon after… especially the 2 older kids!

Last shot before they have to say good bye to their little friends…

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P/s: what a co-incidence that both older kids are in white and younger kids in pink!!!!

He hasn’t been playing for a while as I have been trying to occupy his weekends with a few other activities. Normally he will either play the tab for a while but I will tell him to stop playing and watch TV instead as I do not want him to cultivate the habit of playing too much PC games.

Luckily we did not get him any PS3 else we will have to buy ps3 games for him as he gets bored with a single game very fast. He likes to play different games each time he get a chance to play. He knows where to get those free ones so he will look for them himself!

I am a very liberal mother and I don’t really restrict my kids in their play as long as they don’t fight. For one, I am also a very lazy mother as I don’t go around monitoring what my kids do all the time. I let them play whatever they like so long they don’t get themselves hurt in the process. I just don’t want to be over protective so that they don’t grow up to be too dependent on their mommy or daddy.

According to Darrius’s teachers, he is a very bright and smart boy. However, I choose to think otherwise. Why? I discovered that he is more book smart and not very street smart. He can’t think logically. Maybe he is lazy to use his brain to think? I don’t know… maybe it is too early to assess him but I just hope I am not too late in guiding him to the right path.

The school syllabus plays a major role too. Especially since I have enrolled Darrius to a Chinese Medium school when he starts Primary One next year. His kindy is very academic based and his class teacher emphasized on a lot of reading and writing so that the kids are prepared when they start formal school next year. According to her, if she don’t presses the kids now, they will in for a shock next year.

All of us know that too much book based work will sort of hamper the creative part of us. And this is what happened to Darrius. He is getting very lazy and though he finishes his home work, that does not mean he learn a great deal. Most of the work are mostly memorizing. I doubt the kindy engage them in creative play or creative thinking.

Though the current principle is more on the Montessori style of teaching but I am doubting her ability since she is neither here nor there. I noticed that she pays more attention to the nursery class rather than the K1 or K2 classes. Probably she has just joined the school early this year, she thought she should start a-new with the most junior class. However, abandoning the other classes will definitely harm the older kids’ progress.

I am extremely worried about how Darrius uses his brain to think. Whenever I asked him to do his Maths, I found that he don’t use his creative mind to think. When he is stuck, he can’t move on or refused to move on and will start to whine. It is the same when I asked him to find a solution to his problems. He will just sit there and day dream away rather than finding a solution and on most occasions, he will wait for a solution from us. *sigh*

Hopefully he will turn street smart when he grows older as being book smart is not enough to survive.

The previous Friday, the day PiggyBeng was due to come back after a week in Hanoi and Jakarta leaving the 3 of us in Penang, Darrius developed fever. I was glad it was not any day earlier else I would have gone nutz! It was already tough handling the 2 kids alone (though MIL was around but she left the house before the sun rise and came home when we are about to sleep) since it was a school week so was damn lucky it only happens on the last day.

That morning he was unusually pale and refused the chocolate milk I made for him. He kept saying he wanted to sleep at the dining table so I suspected something must be not right and put my palm on his forehead and felt the heat instantly. Quickly, I took the thermometer and tested him and BINGO! His temperature was 37.9C. I made him a cup of warm fresh milk and he drank it before going out to the living room and lie down on the sofa.

While I was busy with Baby G and doing some washing in the kitchen, Darrius called out to me. HORROR! He puked on the sofa! I have to quickly confined Baby G and started cleaning up… Bathed Darrius since he has puke all over his body… *sigh* Then also take the opportunity to clean the bathroom and mop the living room!

I gave him a dose of paracetamol and told him to nap together with Baby G. Was lucky that his fever subsided when he woke up. Then we prepared to go out as I have planned to pop by QBM before going to fetch PiggyBeng from the airport.

He complained after walking for awhile so I quickly settled my stuff and off we went to the airport. It was a Friday and after lunch so we were caught in the traffic jam once we turned out to Bayan Lepas! Yeah, mosque time!

Once we picked up PiggyBeng, we went hope to drop his stuff before going out again as PigyBeng thought we’ll just have dinner earlier before the traffic build up. He thought giving fresh coconut water to Darrius will help bring down his fever so we went to Abu Siti Lane to get our coconut water fix. Half way through… Darrius puked all over himself!!!! Arrrgghhh!!

No choice but to drive home right away! However, Baby G was enjoying her coconut water and refused to budge! *o*

Since it was already about 5pm, we thought the pead was closed so we kept Darrius home. I forgot that the pead has night clinic on Mon, We and Fri… it has been some time since we visited! Darrius refused to eat that night so just cooked him some noodles soup and off he went to bed.

The next morning, PiggyBeng went to drop the card at the hospital very early in the morning so we can be among the first few in the line. We arrived around 10am and the pead just got back from his morning round from the wad. We were the 5th in line so waited for about 30 minutes or so, it was our turn.

Pead said Darrius has throat infection which caused him to puke when he tried to cough as his throat will itch from the infection. He prescribed some antibiotic and other med. Before we leave, I told the pead that Darrius has difficulties hearing me as he has a GIANT ear wax stuck in his ear!

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YUCKS! Can you see how big was that piece of gold nugget??????!!!!! It has been there for the past 5 years!!!! I have wanted it to be out for quite sometime and even asked the pead a few times before to take it out but he said it was ok… so this time it is BIG enough to be removed! Finally!

He was fine the next day and I thought his fever has gone away. He refused to take the paracetamol so I thought he can skip that but the fever came on and off. When Monday came, he was still a little restless but we made it to school. However, half way through, around 10am, the school called and told me to bring him home as he is still spotting a fever.

His fever was limboing around the next two days so I told him he either take all his med or having to have Mr Fever staying on! So, he guai-guai takes in all his medication and finally on Wed, Mr fever left for good. *Phew*

Can’t believe it lasted a good 5 days!

But, Mr Flu seems to be visiting though…. *sigh*

However, thinking that he might not have much of a chance to enjoy all these when we relocate, I told PiggyBeng to get him some after we had our reunion dinner.

Being a chicky (he was born in the year of the Golden Rooster), he only dares to play with the harmless ‘POP POP’! Damn useless right????!!! No matter how we coaxed him to play with the sparklers it was furtile, he will shook his head and ran away!

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Since he dares not play, the daddy keep no reservation and played them! Well, the little princess wanted to watch all the bright lights mah!

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Then on the eve of the 9th day, we finally managed to persuade him to try playing with the sparklers since his boxes of POP POP finished. Also due to the continuous banging from our neighbors (there were so much fireworks being played!) that the little chicken heart ventured out…

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I am glad he enjoyed himself and has those memories with him to bring along when we are in DownUnder. Don’t know when he’ll gets to play with all these fun festive stuff again???!!!

Guess this post wraps up our Bunny year celebration!