Special Treatment

Mommy has a special way of getting the kids up to bed. She calls it Special Treatment. Basically, who ever is more cooperative gets this Special Treatment, a special brand of tender loving care, from Mommy. Here you see Arman having his Special Treatment.

And who ever is left (in this case Melur), just gets ‘Treatment’ from good ole Daddy. After brushing their teeth and washing up, Arman and Melur get into their pyjamas and read a book or two before bed. And that’s the nightly ritual for Melur and Arman, pretty much. And BTW... Happy Hari Merdeka!

Happy Birthday Melur

Today is Melur’s Birthday! Happy Birthday, Melur! But unfortunately, all the birthday venues are used or booked up (since the semester at UBC is starting this week). So we won’t be having a big party with her friends for another 2 weeks. Hope you can be patient.

But today, since it IS Melur’s birthday, we decided to have a small cake at home – Ice Cream cake from Dairy Queen. We also let her open some of her presents. Check out the watch that Nenek got for her. It comes with instructions for how to tell the time… simplified for kids. Pretty cool…

Anyway, you have to check out this Barbie laptop we got her from Toys R Us. It is so cool. It may look like a toy, but it has all kids of games, math games, spelling games, and games about manners, if you can believe that. I was in shock. Melur is going to be so popular with her friends.

I have to add one more story to this entry. After our little party, as we hung out in the living room, I taught the kids how to play checkers. I was so impressed. They picked up the rules pretty quickly, and were able to play on their own.

I’m so proud of Melur and Arman. Hope they have fun with their newfound game. I’ll be sure to teach them new and interesting things to do in the years to come. I wonder when they’ll start playing chess…

Melur’s Arts and Science Play

For the past week, Melur has been attending an Arts and Science camp over at the Commons Block. It’s a week long camp for kids during the Summer Break. And today is the last day of the camp, culminating in a play about Robots, Pirates and a Volcano. Daddy wasn’t able to attend, since it was during work hours. But Mommy was able to bring Arman along and take some video of Melur’s performance on stage with the rest of her class.

Arman was apparently quite bored, and wanted to go home. One girl (from the play) cried profusely, because her mother wasn’t there to watch her (how sad is that?). Anyway, I’m sorry Daddy wasn’t able to attend. Maybe next time…

Keep up the Good Work, Melur!

Curry Puffs and Dancing

We usually have swimming on Saturday. And today, after swimming, we stopped for some Curry Puff, which Mommy made last night. It was very, very yummy. Take a look at a video of us eating Mommy’s Curry Puffs outside the UBC Aquatic Center.

Anyway, later in the afternoon, Tamara and Jaden came over to play with Melur. Tamara and Jaden’s family are actually originally from Brunei, but have moved here permanently a few years ago. Here they are dancing in Melur’s room.

Tamara and Jaden are moving back to Surrey at the end of the summer, since their Mom has finished school here at UBC. If we don’t see you again, we wish you the best of luck. And do keep in touch!

Bike License

The kids have been having so much fun these past weeks on their bikes, and I guess somewhere, they got the idea of having bike licenses. And so they started making bike licenses, first for themselves, and then for their friends. Such fun. Check out the pictures:

I'm looking forward to many more bike rides ahead. Maybe one day Mommy will join us too. I know she's not too fond of riding a bike, but maybe with enough convincing from Melur and Arman, she'll change her ways.

Natural Chef

I remember being very impressed by Arman’s knack and appreciation for cooking. I called him a Natural Chef at a BBQ we attended at Jericho Beach some weeks ago. Today, Arman helped me prepare some dinner for the family. He was so excited to help me in the kitchen, as he usually is. In fact, he frequently asks me if he can clean the windows. I think he just likes spraying the windows with the Windex. It’s like a game to him. Anyway, I wanted to encourage his passion, and decided to let him help me put things together on the stove (after I’ve prepared all the ingredients). See for yourself:

Dinner was really good. Arman was so proud of himself, as was I. Melur was outside playing. But during dinner, it was clear that Melur wanted to help too, if given the chance. We’ve started a trend. Hopefully, it will stick. Look at all the food. It’s GONE!

Thank you Arman, for helping Daddy in the kitchen. As a reward, Mommy made cookies for dessert (since Friday night is Baking Night for Mommy these days). Yummy...

Reading and Math

I always make fun of Melur, telling her to do reading… and then math… and then reading… and then math… and so on. Mommy has been really good in providing Melur with more reading and math activities at home. And you can see from this video that Mommy took, both Melur and Arman are diligently studying at home:

Arman has been pretty good with his studies. We were able to put Arman through preschool, and I think he’s better prepared to go to Kindergarten, compared to Melur when she was his age. We couldn’t get Melur into preschool when we arrived in Vancouver. Everything was filled. And if you remember from our first year, we had to settle with a part-time nanny.

Anyway, I’m proud of Melur and Arman. They’re not study averse, which is great. Sure, there are times when they are grumpy and cranky (especially when they’re tired), but when they’re not, they can get a lot done. Keep it up guys!

Happy Birthday Kakak Jehan

For those who don’t know yet, Kakak Jehan baby-sits Arman and Melur every so often. She’s been great. And today is Kakak Jehan’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Kakak Jehan! Anyway, Kak Ina is throwing her a surprise birthday party, and what an elaborate surprise it is. Apparently, Kak Ina had told Kakak Jehan that she and a bunch of her friends were leaving town before they could celebrate her birthday. And believe me, Kakak Jehan was really upset that she’d be celebrating her birthday by her lonesome self.

So you can imagine, when we surprised her with her surprise birthday party, she was shocked to the core. Just look at her facial expression.

Anyway, the cup cakes were excellent!!! Kudos to Kak Ina for the big surprise. But I don’t think Kakak Jehan can take another big surprise like that.

Happy Birthday, Kakak Jehan

Summer Trail Biking

It’s Monday, and a Statutory Holiday here in Canada. And since the weather is so awesome today, I decided to take the kids out for a little trail biking. The kids were very excited, and prepared themselves with backpacks filled with snacks and goodies to enjoy midway through our ride. Don’t they look so cute, filled with so much energy and enthusiasm… It's so contagious:

I have so much fun riding with Melur and Arman, watching them as they pedal their little feet away. Take a look from my perspective; I’m sure you’d agree:

Okay, okay… so I fell that first time around. Mommy had a hoot watching me fall (or seeing what I saw as I fell). Anyway, we took a break at our usual stop for some snacks:

On our way back, we stopped by the park near Arman’s preschool. I thought it’d be a fitting ending to such a fine day. The kids are really good cyclists. I look forward to many more rides with them, especially as they get older… Hopefully, they won’t get bored of it.

Melur is always able to find someone to play with at the park, or almost any park for that matter. And Arman is usually content by himself. Here, he’s climbed himself into a situation where he’s stuck and needs some help to come down.

Anybody want to join us for a little trail biking?

Kung Fu Panda

We decided to watch the new Kung Fu Panda movie today. We’ve been waiting a long time for this. They weren’t showing it at our regular Empire Theatre at Oakridge Mall. And I acquired a couple Two-For-One coupons using my AirMiles. So where did we go instead? This is our first trip the Empire Theatre on Granville, located downtown. We took the 17 from UBC to Pacific Centre Mall. Mommy had to get some contact lenses, since she ran out recently and forgot to get new ones on-line. That wasn’t too hard. And since we were hungry, we stopped by the Food Court for a late lunch:

The movie theatre is only a couple of blocks south from the mall. It was a pretty good mall. I think the one at Metropolis is the biggest, and the best, but it’s also the furthest away. But it wasn’t a huge compromise coming here. It was a little cozier. And since the movie had been out a while already, the theatre was quite empty. I dare say it was just us, and maybe 2 other parties in the entire theatre. I know Arman is easily excited by movies. And true to form, he couldn’t sit still. He was actually quite scared of Tai Lung (the antagonist from the movie). Check out what Melur and Arman had to say about the movie, after the movie, while waiting at the bus stop:

Anyway… it was a good fun. We may actually come out here again. The theatre is pretty good. But the kids’ show here always comes out a little later than the other theatre further away. Did anybody else watch Kung Fu Panda?

Family Saturday

I woke today to the kids playing on their own in the living room. They get up early everyday, even on the weekends, whilst us parents tend to sleep in, especially since there's no swimming class today. It's the long weekend, with Monday being a Statutory Holiday for Canada.

Anyway, this morning I found Melur playing with the jigsaw puzzle. Both Arman and Melur enjoy puzzles, more so Arman actually, but today it was Melur trying out the new puzzle.

As we have on many weekend mornings, we decided to make pancakes for breakfast. I'm usually quite lazy when it comes to cleaning, so I usually just get the kids to eat in the kitchen, as the pancakes are made fresh off the skillet. Check it out:

Mommy usually sleeps in on the weekends (she works late many nights), and was up rather early this morning to join us for breakfast. So it was the whole family in our tiny little kitchen having pancakes for breakfast.

That was pretty much our lazy morning. But after lunch, we decided to take the bikes out for a spin around the local trails. We love biking along the trails, so it's nothing really new. In any case, here are some pictures from our trip:

Summer is going fast. Got to enjoy it while it lasts.