Happy Birthday & Halloween!!

This morning I was woken up by Rey.
R: Mummy, something happened to me!!
I: What?! what happened? (my eyes now wide open, I thought he got a cut somewhere)
R: I'm 4 years old now!!
I: ....., Happy birthday!! Otanjoubi omedetou! (yeah, good way of waking me up b4 the alarm goes off)

Since it's Rey's B'day today, I have to decorate the house, blow up balloons, rent Ultraman video, put away his homework books JUST for today, and collect cakes, not forgetting ordering pizza or sushi. Afterall, 4 years ago I was the one who delivered him so I have to grant myself a no-cooking day too.

On Sunday, I brought Rey to buy his 1st Ultraman toy at Jusco for his birthday. He chose his figurine and when we were approaching the cashier, we came across the Thomas train section.

R: Henry! I want Henry!
I: but what about the Ultraman?
R: I don't need Ultraman anymore. I want Henry because he can run faster than Percy.
I: Percy can be fast too if I change the battery! And you see, Henry and Percy look alike. you don't need 2 green trains.


no matter how many times I tried to convince him, Rey insists on buying Henry. So now we have 11 trains (i forgot to put thomas in).

autumn

I like autumn the best! It's the time when you can enjoy festivals, maple leaves, cool but sunny weather, and having picnics in the park. Rey enjoyed his train ride at an event. There was a flamenco dance performance too.

ultraman

Rey is re-screwing the shelf while I'm typing this. I'd better do it fast. Let me explain. He's new interest is 'screwing' screws with a screwdriver (this sounds weird, any better way of saying this?). Rather than playing with toys, he is into doing practical work like sweeping, washing dishes, cutting veges, pouring juice on his own. There are lots of merits when children are allowed time of their own to experience practical life work such as hand-eye co-ordination, independence and create awareness of their environment. Another merit is I get my own free time.

ok, recently Rey has popped up alot of questions about Ultraman. The TIME has come. Even when you try all means to censor those 'uneducational' shows (sorry if you're an Ultraman fan), eventually he will know about it from his friends. But what's so great about Ultraman? It's just about heros throwing foam-made rocks at someone in monster costume, and the city buildings are all made of cardboards. So fake!

Anyway, to help him understand what Ultraman is and what he does, we watched the youtube.

Ultraman teaches you how to exercise!http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=jZjFiB-radw
ok, this is the show, Rey likes the part when the monster splits into half!http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Mytdh55-KOE

I'm getting quite forgetful again and my reaction has slowed down by 20%. Perhaps due to the cold weather that my brain is half hibernating already or simply the result of excessive youtube watching. I can go grocery shopping and forget about the time. My mum used to call me 'Chi Dao Da Wang' cuz I was always a last-minute person. And even up till now, I would suddenly 'remember' what I forget to bring only after I'm 10 steps away from the house.

this always happens...
I: aiyah! Rey, I forgot your school hat!
R: Why did you forget!!
I: sorry lah, I'm getting old you know. You should remember since it's YOUR hat.

sigh, and just this morning, I sent Rey off in his school bus, only to realise that his bag is still hanging on my arm when I reached the supermarket! I cycled to his school to pass him the bag in the end. This is the 2nd time. the 1st time was when I forgot to put his spoon and fork in his bag. And I was like late for his school bus about 6 times? This is really a traumatic experience for me. A leopard won't change its spot even when she is a mother. And I dread what Rey is thinking of me now....very depressed already. someone please SHAKE ME AWAKE!

my little helper

On Sundays, we would wash and brush the entrance. This time rey was the one who did the brushing cuz I didn't want to step on the wet floor (lame excuse, I know). I simply poured the water on the floor while Rey brushes away. He enjoys it anyway. Imagine my horror when he says he wants to be a road sweeper!

child's play

Sometimes Rey will just leave me alone to play with his toys (see above). Simple for us, but when you observe him, he is actually thinking which square or rectangle, flat or thick ones to use to make a cuboid. Montessori had mentioned that when a child is at his work, it is best that adults don't intervene. I just sit and watch, took some photos too. The minute he finshed his work, he looked so satisfied and showed me his work. I guess I got too excited...

R: Mummy, look!

I: Whow! Good job. Come, let me teach you about volume. (and we counted the squares Length,Breadth and Height.) ....so 2 X 8 X 6 = 96. There are 96 squares in this cuboid!

R: ????

I: hmm..never mind, you'll know when you're bigger.

lunch with neighbours

Every household in this town has to pay 6000 yen a year for I-still-don't know-for-what? fees. Maybe to maintain the expenses incurred for Sports day, local festivals and lunch outing like what we had last Saturday. It was held at a nice restaurant called Ikumatsu. It is registered as a cultural heritage. It exists from the Edo period, 200 years ago! It was built in 1810 when samurais still exist. The lunch course costs about maybe 5000yen and we pay only 1000yen for it (rey is free!). Quite a bargain and I consider it a loss if I don't attend such lunch outing. This is what you get....



Rey's lunch



This is what went into my stomach. 3 more dishes came but I was still hungry!


The people behind us are our neigbours, all 40 of them. Seroiusly, I don't recognise most of them.


The 1st entrance


2nd entrance


3rd entrance where we finally take off shoes

love letter

A new trend has started at Rey's kindergarten, that is writing letters. Rey 1st wrote a letter to his favourite teacher. In Japanese, it says, "Ikeda-sensei, I like you!" The next day, he got a reply from her. He was so happy. Then, he decided to write another letter, this time is a love letter to his rumoured 'girlfriend', "Airi-chan, you're so cute!". Tenderly, he put 2 heart stickers, and then sealed the envelope with a star sticker. For the whole morning, he looked so sweet and if you tease him, he'd give a shy smile.

I: Are you going to pass the letter to Airi-chan on the bus?
R: No, I'll do that in school.
I: Do you like Airi-chan more or mummy more?
R: ........... (avoiding my eyes)
1 minute passed..
I: So who? mummy right? mummy?
R: ...........

I can picture the future, dates come 1st, birthday & xmas spent with GF, son siding with DIL...sigh, that's life. What to do? Just treasure the time with him now lor.

PS: he got a reply from her, "I like you too!" The love letter is now kept in his secret box kept in a secret place. I hope he remembers where he keeps it. Sometimes he'll forgets the secret place and insist I search the whole house.

Nana vs Bai-kin-man

Added sunglasses and mask for you!! hhahhaa

***Nana kicked up a fuss when I put her photo above. I kindly agreed to edit her photo such that no one can recognize her. (Like this can right, Nana?)

Here is Nana dressed up for her Chinese dance performance with her Nanyang Pri. I think they got GOLD award for some competition. She has performed for Singapore's education minister and even went to Beijing for training. Her look reminds me of Rey's favourite story character, Baikinman, an enemy of Anpanman (the purple character above). What do you think?

mama-bicycle

For 3 years, I have been bringing Rey out on his baby stroller. Walked like 3km to and fro to his weekly classes, and at least 4km to his fav indoor playland almost every weekend. See the bicycle above? It is now my new mode of transport. I have denied the convenience of having a mama-bicycle citing the dangers involve, such as, narrow streets, many cases of children falling off the bicycle when their mamas are not attentive and impatient drivers roaring down the streets.

but after seeing how one of my mama friends skillfully transporting her 2 kids on front and back, I decided to give it a try. Afterall, this is the only way out if you want to save on transport fees! I borrowed this bicycle from Rey's grandpa. It is very BIG and HEAVY! I should have stood next to the bicycle to show you how big it is.

After 1 week on the bicycle, now I'm so confident! HAHAHAHA! Rey's trips to his park and library doubled. There were some embarrassing moments too. I got 'stuck' on this slope and needed help from a worker to push the bicycle from behind. Rey was very amused. He was also concerned when I screamed "kowaii kowaii (scrary!)" on our trip to his pool. It was Rey who helped me conquer my fear.

R: mummy, if you're scared, you can say "baaaaa".
I: oh, ok..."baaaa..."
( at that time, I finally understood why Rey was screaming "baaaa..." all the way from house.

october kids

Rey was so excited the day before and in the morning when I told him that his B'celebration at school has finally come. There were altogether 17 kids born in October. Every child has a special seat on the stage. The question and answer session went on smoothly. At the end, the teachers presented a puppet show for all. He came back with a nice present too.

October kids in his class

Q & A session

Went for a nice lunch buffet with some mamas from Rey's kindergarten on Tuesday. I ate 3 rounds of food you know. SO delicious and healthy. Why healthy? Cuz the it's a free flow of vegetarian dishes and salad. With the price of 13$, you get a main dish (meat), desert, drink, and all vegetables.

And to balance off such occasional expenses, I decided to have oden (similar to yong dao fu in Singapore) for 2 days!! I added chicken wings in it and it tastes marvellous! Usually, Japanese don't add chicken wings for oden.

lunch buffet

this lasts us for 2 days!

753 photos out liao

If you have read the latest news, yet another Japanese child is killed by some crazy people. What's bizzare is that she was stabbed outside her house entrance! Appalling but it is really sad to say such things happen too frequently in Japan. There were past cases like a man entering a kindergarten and killing 2 children and injuring others, another mum killing her child's classmates, neighbours killing neighbour's kids.

Now you all must be blessed to live in a safe country like Singapore. The other evening I heard this crazy man shouting "HAa----I! Haaaai!" along the street outside my house. I swtiched on the entrance monitor to see what was happening outside and saw a man riding around on his bicycle shouting down the street. I was so afraid he will enter the house even though I knew I have locked the door. But to be sure, I did a double lock.

Rey was all excited and he was like, "why is this man shouting?"

I: He's crazy lah....and he is DANGEROUS!

and i went on to lecture him about the dangers of bad uncles, bad aunties, people who pretend to be friends of mummy.

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alright, enough of complaining. I collected the photos we took for 7-5-3 (if you still remember what it means). Rey's head looks BIG cuz I forgot to blow his hair (shucks!).

Another sports meet

Remember I mentioned that we were going to another sports meet? It is organized by the town and most people brought big bags to contain their prizes such as toilet rolls, tissue boxes, detergent, cooking oil.....all the things that can make any housewife happy for as long as the goods can last. Frankly speaking, I was there with this motive too and prepared 2 big paper bags. This year I made Anchan go there so we can get more prizes hehehe. You see, with every race you take part, everyone gets a reward. Sigh, talk about sports spirit. Yah, maybe if I were much younger I wouldn't bother about the prizes but you're talking about saving more than 20S$ in household expenses you know. Oh yes, and Rey won me a much desired saucepan from the lucky draw, hehehe.

ok, here are the photos.





rey's 1st tug-a-war, contributing 1% to the team's victory.

Rey's birthday wish list

Rey's birthday is coming. He has a wish list ....

1) a Henry train to add to his Thomas train collection

2) The rest of Thomas book collection (these are the numbers he already has ...1,5,6,10,11,18,27,30,32,33,35). He wants 10 of any other numbers, maybe Henry, Harold, Cranky, Diesel, Toby and others. SO Vincent uncle please help me get the books, thanks!

3) a nice kite to fly in the nice autumn wind ( 2 extras in case 1 is blown away or torn) I don't know why but you can't buy kites anywhere in Japan! So nana, remember to buy it for him, ok?

4) a homework-free day and only-video day (can be done if I close 2 eyes)

5) a free ticket back to Singapore (any sponsors?)

6) lots of ikura (salmon's roe) on his rice (he enjoys squirting out the juice with his fingers much to my displeasure)

and he says he wants this too ...

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R: mummy, I want that present!
I: hehehhe, tan gugu (wait long long)

It was a partly cloudy and partly sunny Sunday. Brought Rey to 'play till he drops' at the park. As you can see from the pictures, an event was going on. Rey gets to ride on a Honda police bike.

Cute little Halloween tap dancers. (actually, they didn't really dance, too nervous!)

Rey's clothes matches the bridge quite well right? can you spot him?

Pro-camera man

Rey has a cute bus-mate called Rei-chan. Coincidentally, they share the same name, sit next to each other in the bus and in class and both were born in October 10 days apart. Rei-chan's dad who works for a local newspaper had taken photos of big shots like Bush and China ministers. Just recently he asked if he can take photos of Rey and Rei for a short poem column in the papers. The theme is on 'children'. Of course I agreed!! What the children has to do is simple.... hold hands and walk/ run while the pro take photos of their backs, shadows and occasionally the faces. Despite the occasional hiccups when Rey stopped to pick up a thrown rubber band and bit a dried leaf, all these was done in 10 minutes. The Canon camera with lens of more than 10cm long can take 8 snaps in 1 second. The pro-photos are not out yet, the ones below are from my lao-ya camera.

sushi surprise

The other day when I was eating at this sushi restaurant on a rainy day, I witnessed something comical. It was raining inside the restaurant too. I'm not exaggerating. It rained on 2 unlucky customers' shirts seated at the front and on all the sushi plates travelling along the conveyor belt too. All the sushi were ruined when they travelled past my table. I thought to myself, "just how old is this restaurant?"

Few weeks later, I visited the same restaurant to find that the old restaurant has been revamped into a high tech one. The owner has done more than repairing the ceiling! 1st, I was told to get a queue ticket from a touch screen machine after indicating how many persons, table or counter seat. Then I noticed that there were touch screens for every table and counter seats. And less than 3 minutes after I ordered my sushi from my private screen, Rey was screaming "shinkasen (bullet train) is coming!". Before I managed to shut Rey up, I was surprised to find a shinkansen carrying my ordered sushi on the belt. "Whaa!! SUGOOOOi! hahahahaa" The 2 of us couldn't stop laughing. From then, we refused to take the ready made sushi that goes on the traditional conveyor belt. We order on screen and wait for the express delivery by the train. I can see lots of customers doing that too. The train travels non-stop...


here comes the train

Cosmos flowers

Brought Rey to see autumn flowers named cosmos somewhere west of Kyoto. The flowers could have been more beautiful if not for the long heaty summer this year. I had expected some crowd, but there was not even a single soul at the entrance to collect entrance fees! (Yeah!) Just 3000000 flowers, Rey and I. Another 3 couples came later. Rey spotted a baby grasshopper riding on mama grasshopper's back. I had wanted to take a photo of it, but no use taking pictures of grasshoppers well camouflaged on the leaves, all green!

in the train, to our destination.

Rey was laughing at this boat "what is this boat doing here when there is no water! hahaha"

little cook

Rey started using a knife since he was 2 years old. Recently I bought him a real knife (for children) and he does the usual stuff, cutting cucumbers, eggplants, carrots with it. But last week, he decided to cut his index finger too. Maybe he was testing the blade to see how sharp the new knife is compared to the old plastic one. And I didn't realise how 'real' the children's knife can be until he calmly flashed his bloody red finger at me. This is no joke. I could see how deep and wide the cut was when I rinsed his finger. I added salt to the wound by saying "This is what happens when you're not careful..", "Didn't I tell you...?" The blood didn't stop flowing so I decided we should go to the doctor instead. All the while Rey was calm. He even fell asleep when waiting for the doctor. I hope he learnt his lesson. I learnt my lesson too. Small cuts can be treated at home. The medical fees caused me a whopping 2200yen (about 30$)

Anyway, yesterday I decided to let Rey participate in a low-risk cooking lesson ...making wanton. What he learned in origami came into use. He simply fold the wanton 'skin' into triangles. We had wanton soup for dinner and deep-fried wanton the next day.

holiday

Rey is having his 5-day long school holidays. I'm very scared of the word 'holiday' actually. It means 'Horror-day', minimal rest time for a mum, you know. And that explains why I haven't been able to update my blog. And even when I'm blogging at this instant, I'm fending off attacks from Rey, followed by shouts of "Ouch!", "Stop it, please!", "Get away!!". These few minutes of blogging doesn't come easy. It usually ends up with a messy room filled with scattered toys, the aftermath of not entertaining your kid when he is bursting with energy.

ok, Saturday has been well-spent. I brought Rey to a 'green' festival, something related to energy saving campaign. We sat on a vehicle called 'velotaxi', similar to a trishaw in Singapore, except that it is nicely designed and ridden by some good-looking young man, not 'lao-ah-peh'. It brought us round the Kyoto city hall. 'Velotaxi' originated from Germany. It looks like this.......


After that, we went to Kyoto station to watch a singing festival organized by Kyoto students. We enjoyed the rock band performance for 30 minutes before heading off to some events held on the sky floor. sorry I can't put up the photos cuz my camera has died...I need a new one. Misa has promised to buy me one hehehe!

shower time

Most of the time Rey will take his shower without any protest. He is generally a clean boy. But there are times when he is too sleepy to wash up. One of the most convincing excuses which he thinks best work for me is...

I: Come on, take your shower. I'm not going to share my bed with a dirty pig.
R: But I'm not a pig!
I: all right, just go now. Shower time!!
R: No, I can't....(and he looks right in my eyes)....I'm trying to save water! You said we shouldn't waste water, right?

Maybe it really convinced me but I let him off that night because I think children have their rights too. Didn't want to end the day with him screaming in the bathroom either.

Sport's day

Rey's kindergarten sport's day event was held at a high school nearby. I surprised myself by not being the typical kiasu Singaporean compared to other parents who had reserved their best view early and armed with the latest video cameras. Afterall, this is not Rey's 1st sport day experience. He has run in the town's sport meet for the past 2 years. Btw, we'll be going to another one this coming Sunday. The event started with all the children marching in, followed by the principal's opening speech. Here are the photos...




the entrance for children to march in. Look at the sea creatures the teachers made.



Can you spot Rey in his oranges shoes?



Rey's seniors doing human pyramid.


I'm a little worried...that's a girly pose!


They are doing the Ninja song.



He's got a real Hello Kitty medal!


A sushi treat for my boy at the end of the day.