Parenting

"If you don't finish up your Dosai, no karate class for you".

"If you don't clean up the room, no more books for you".

"If you don't finish up your lunch in school, no more lunch for you"

"If you don't braid your hair, it will fall off".

"If you don't drink up your milk, you are going to end up with osteoporosis like kollu paati".

All of the above within a span of 20 minutes. I am well on my way to becoming a professional blackmailer.  Anyone need my services?  Charges nominal.

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Soon-to-be-six: "If you tell a lie, God will dance in your brain and you will get irritated" 

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Neighbour:            What do you want to be when you grow up?
Soon-to-be-six:      A big girl.

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Soon-to-be-six:  "I don't like boys.  They are rash".
Mom ruminating: "I'd like to hear that in ten years.  ummm..on second thoughts, I don't think so."

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Soon-to-be-six: They show Tom&Jerry and Mr. Bean on TV during AV period in school. I don't like it.  I want to read my book.
Mom ruminating"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS".

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how often does halloween fall on a saturday night? not often enough!

it was so nice not to have to race home from work along with all the other parents doing the same thing, thereby making rush hour even crazier. and then, not having to rush dinner to leave time for trick-or-treating.

and then, it was just so very nice not having to try and rush the whole bedtime routine knowing that it's a school night.

what made the night even better was that we got to spend it with friends. di and rick hosted a little halloween party which ended up being just as fun for the adults as for the kids.

uncle hoa had fun, too!

the food we had was crazy. ada made short bread cookies in the shape of ghoulish fingers. they looked creepy but i will definitely agree that it tasted amazing. doug spent all afternoon making chocolate-chip pumpkin muffins from scratch - yum! and ada also baked a halloween-themed birthday cake for hoa, as his birthday falls on halloween.

i loved that chaeli got to go trick-or-treating with a friend this year. it was differnet - plus, all the guys had a great time taking the kids out. chaeli finally got to be bumblebee (transformers), brayden was a dragon and little maddy was eeyore.

transformers, dragons and a little eeyore

more then meets the eye

we turned our clocks back an hour which gave us that extra hour of sleep. heaven! however, i can officially say that i'm officially sick of all the halloween treats. not chaeli, though. that was HER kind of heaven.

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so we ordered chaeli some chocolate ice cream after dining at a local german restaurant this past friday night.

about halfway through, chaeli starts to moosh up her ice cream.

my mom asks, "chaeli, what are you doing?"

chaeli mumbles, "i'm making food."

"you're making food?"

"no - i'm making POO!"

so exactly when did my sweet little girl turn into little miss disgustington?

but... if it's even possible, i love her even more then when she was first born.

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She does complain when we have to take the car.

Alley

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DSC_0111

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Transformer-Costume-bumblebee

i searched high and low for a transformers bumblebee costume (without paying through the roof - as some of the complex ones are over $50)  and finally found one, only getting the school's newsletter last friday requesting that the following costumes should not enter the school: witches/warlocks, superheroes and weapons.

damnit.

i remembered the part of the warlock/witches because it is a christian based establishment. i remembered the part of the weapons. i don't remember the part of the superheroes. honestly i believe this is new. and it's really sad. i don't see why dressing up as spiderman or supergirl is a bad thing. sure, make sure they leave the weapons at home. but what a bad tiem to take on this rule when superheroes are all the rage!

anyway, luckily, i explained to chaeli that she'll have to dress up as a princess for school. but on halloween day, she can be bumblebee. she was actually happy to get to dress up twice so all is good.

(to be honest, i like the princess costume way better, anyway - the transformer bumblebee looked a bit cheap, but it was the best we could get).

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saturday @ g.i. joe matinee:

c: mommy? what movie is this?

s: it's g.i. joe, remember?

c: this doesn't look like the same movie.

s: it is - just watch. you'll start to recognize some of the scenes from the commercial.

ten minutes later...

c: mommy - this isn't the same movie.

s: it is.

c: but where are all the hamsters? and guinea pigs?

s: what? ohhh - no, sweetie. it's g.i. joe - not g-force!

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last night, before getting ready for bed, i sat chaeli on my lap and gave her an extra long hug.

while holding her, she said, "mommy... um... i think you can stop hugging me now."

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OK, she's still a long way from riding by herself in the morning (senior primary school perhaps?  Dunno... maybe even later), but she can now carry everything she needs for the day.

Backpack sourced from the Royal Melbourne Show (I give the zippers about a month), and there was a car in the way on the ramp, so we had to take the front steps. 

He he - and tonight, her buddy rode home with her, and he, too, had got a bag from the show.

Riding home with Henry

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In Her Own World v2.0

I created this “scene” in response to a piece read during my creative writing class with poet Tony Medina. The poem was called Mermaid Song by Kim Addionizio

www.poemhunter.com/poem/mermaid-song/

Our assignment was to create the scene via snapping a photo or drawing one - based on the poem.

Though my own child likes to pose for a photo, I wanted to do something a lil bit more than to have try and recreat the picture presented in the poem.
I thought the shot was rather cute, so did a few of my classmates, one of which had to create a poem from my photo. 

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i'd like to say that we ended of our journey with perfection. unfortunately, poor chaeli has come down with a fever. it didn't develop until we got back to our resort room today. but i knew she was coming down with something (while doug kept on saying that she was just tired - when will dads learn? mommy-psychic powers should never be challenged).

of course, i'm worried that she will have an unpleasant time tomorrow on the way home, as our flight doesn't leave until 6pm. we will try to keep her as comfortable as possible, of course. poor kid. but at the same time, it's good that she didn't get sick at the beginning of the week. she was, at least, able to enjoy disney.

there were some magical moments for her at disney.

the first was her chance to meet five of disney princesses during our character-dining breakfast. she met belle, sleeping beauty, ariel, snow white and cinderella.

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we took off first thing thursday morning in search for mickey. what we didn't anticipate was to find both mickey AND minnie. chaeli was beside herself as this was the first time seeing minnie up close and personal.

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and as if meeting both mickey and minnie were not enough (as well as the princesses), she got to see them all come out in a spectacular performance infront of the castle. the 'dream along with mickey' is still a family favourite. i always get a tug in my heart during this show but even more so, i love watching chaeli's facial expressions. :)

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lastly but not least, we were waiting to line-up for the musical, 'beauty and the best' today, inside hollywood studios, when a disney attendee started to chat chaeli up. she then gave chaeli and us a vip pass which gave us 3rd row and centre seating. at the end of the show, chaeli was lead to the front of the stage where she was presented with a special rose by belle and the beast (turned back to a prince). this rose is only given out five times a day and can not be purchased anywhere else in disney. she was also given a certificate for honourary princesses.

you can imagine how special chaeli was feeling at that moment. :) here is the video capture:

MOV06954

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