Proud Moment

I’m bursting with pride and joy as I share the news of Cass’s recent triumph at the Skate Malaysia Figure Skating Competition, Delta Level. Watching her glide gracefully across the rink, executing her routine flawlessly, was a moment I’ll cherish forever. Her performance was nothing short of spectacular, and I knew right then that she had a strong chance of clinching either first or second place.

Cass’s routine was a testament to her dedication and hard work. She moved with such grace and poise, seamlessly executing each element of her routine without a single flaw. The competitor from Kuwait also performed beautifully, adding to the tension and excitement of the event. But as I watched Cass on the ice, I felt a deep sense of confidence in her performance.

After a tense half-hour wait, the results were finally displayed. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Cass’s name at the top of the leaderboard, securing the gold medal. The contestant from Kuwait was placed second. It was an emotional moment, and I couldn’t be prouder of Cass. All her hard work, discipline, and sacrifices had paid off in the best possible way.

Cass’s journey to this victory was not without its challenges. Just three weeks before the competition, she suffered a lateral sprain of her ankle, which required her to undergo physiotherapy sessions and take a break from practice for more than a week. Despite this setback, she showed incredible resilience and determination. Although she wasn’t fully recovered, she pushed through the pain and continued to train diligently. This tenacity and spirit are what make her achievement even more remarkable.

What makes Cass’s accomplishment even more impressive is that she only began her figure skating journey at the age of 14. Most figure skaters start their training at a very young age, but Cass has proven that with passion, dedication, and hard work, it’s never too late to start. In just one year and nine months, she has honed her talent to an extraordinary level, showcasing her skills on the ice stage with international competitors and emerging victorious.

Cass’s success is a powerful reminder that talent can be both innate and developed. Her journey shows that while natural talent is a great foundation, it is the relentless practice, perseverance, and passion that truly lead to success. Cass has demonstrated that with the right mindset and effort, one can overcome obstacles and achieve greatness.

Contestants were from USA, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, China, Singapore and Malaysia.

Her dad gifted her a bouquet of flowers.

Plushies thrown into the skating rink after Cass’ performance by team mates and supporters. Cass still does not know who gave her some of the plushies.

Dinner at Din Dai Fung on the day of Cass’ competition. Cass only joined us for a short while before she left to return to her team to cheer for other team mates who were competing.

Sunday, 30 June 2024 ~ Closing Ceremony of Skate Malaysia. We had lunch at An Viet.

Lunch at An Viet

Coffee, Dirty Gato (nicely done affogato with a dirty twist) and cakes after An Viet. I love the Dirty Gato.

After desserts, we continued watching other contestants skate, then left Sunway Pyramid. Cass stayed on to watch movie with her team mates before attending the Closing Ceremony of Skate Malaysia.

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MCO Day 23 ~ 9 April 2020

Today is Cassandra’s 12th birthday!  It’s another birthday celebration in house quarantine for our family but we are very, very blessed that hubs could still get sumptuous takeout food and cakes for dinner from Red Kettle, our favorite cafe in the neighborhood.

This is not the first time that Cass has to spend her birthday in house quarantine. 11 years ago, she had to spend her first birthday in house quarantine too.  I had to keep Cass free from infections and sicknesses as well as plump her up from 7kg to at least 8kg so that she is healthy and strong enough to undergo a complicated surgery on 5 May 2009 to fix her urinary tract.

Today’s breakfast is pork ribs porridge just because the Ketua Keluarga craved for it and his wish was her command. No I didn’t cook it.  The mil did; she cooked it in the slow cooker last night so that everyone could have it for breakfast today.

In our household, we have organization of duties. The matriarch usually cooks. The eldest daughter cleans the dining table, brings the garbage to the refuse chamber; the second daughter washes the dishes and the youngest dries the dishes and keeps them. The Ketua Keluarga sometimes helps to wash the dishes, keeps them and he does the bulk of the groceries shopping.  I do all the shit that no one likes to do like bending my back and knees to mop floor, clean up greasy kitchen floor and stove, scrub bathrooms and climb up the ladder to clean fans and air cond filters.😑  I can’t wait to have Maria back in our house to help out!! And I symphatize with her that she too, has a loss of income throughout the MCO.

MIL made scallion pancakes for tea time, for the first time.  This ‘lockdown pancake’ has been trending on social media lately and many of our friends have been making it.  Not bad for a first try, though it would be better if the pancake is thinner and crispier. Not totally satisfied with the end result, mil vowed to make this pancake again soon.

Our delectable spread from Red Kettle to celebrate Cassandra’s 12th birthday!

Someone wasn’t in the mood to take photo (as usual 🙄) but she’s got no choice as it’s her birthday! 😆 I had to hide behind my girls as I was in my night gown, sweaty and sloppy from house cleaning.

It looks like Cass would not be getting her My Kad (identity card) any time soon.  I’m sure JPN will waive the penalty. Even when the MCO is lifted, no way would I be risking Cass and myself at the overcrowded government department to apply for the My Kad, even it if meant paying a late penalty.

Happy birthday Cassandra! My only wish for you is for you to be healthy and happy everyday of your life. When the MCO is lifted, you will be allowed into our condo gym without dad & mum accompanying you. Congrats! 😆



No. of times viewed = 19

Update On Cass’ UTI & Incontinence – 26 January 2016

Sorry for the long silence. As I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, if you do not see any update in my blogs for more than 3 days, I am either suffocating in my busyness or there has been a crisis at the home front. This time, it’s both the reasons again and because of this, I have lost my mojo to blog 🙁

I told myself today that no matter how busy I may be, I just have to steal at least 20 minutes to update my blogs today.

After staying at home for a week to recuperate from a Urinary Tract Infection, Cass went back to school today. I swung by her school for about 2 hours to talk to her teachers as well as to the Assistant Principal to explain to them why I have to be in school for the next 1 – 2 weeks for a couple of hours.

While waiting for Cass to come out for recess, I waited at the canteen. Did I tell you that I love observing people?  I observed many things and am really appalled with the food that the canteen serves — sausages, ham on fried noodles, nuggets, bottled and canned sugary drinks, doughnuts coated with thick layers of colorful cream and sugar and other junk. Students are also made to sit on the very dirty floor, right outside toilets and next to the water fountain with wet floors, gawd!!  I guess that’s just the way of life of students and teachers in a public school.

Cass didn’t want me to photograph her in her school uniform, thus the back pose here…

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I waited for 2 hours in school today as I wanted to see if Cass would do what I have advised her to. Well, she remembered a few and forgot a few. She forgot to drink water and only took her first sip at 10am!  I asked her how she could even forget to drink water!! And she is still nursing a UTI and has to drink lots of water to keep flushing out the bacteria.  Good thing I was in school as she pooped in school today and I helped to clean her up.  One of my greatest fears for Cass when she’s in school is that she won’t know how to keep her down under clean after pooping. E.Coli bacteria originates from poop and the last infection was caused by E.Coli bacteria.

Do not even try to think that I am mollycoddling Cass by attempting to keep her as sterile as I can. I know we all need some degree of dirt / germs in our bodies to get immunity from them. You will never know what I am going through unless you have a child with an abnormal urinary tract with recurrent UTIs.  We cannot afford to risk her kidneys being eaten up by bad bacteria anymore. And definitely cannot cope with spending a minimum of RM5k on hospitalization bills each time she has a UTI attack.  Our insurer has still not approved our latest submission of claim totaling over RM5k in November 2015.

On a positive note, I am glad to say that Cass’ incontinence issue is slowly but surely improving.  She is weaning herself from diapers as she hates the feeling of the diapers poking her. As torturous as it is, I am now waking up at 2am every day to bring her to pee. I’ve bought another alarm clock yesterday (making it to 3 alarm clocks in my room!) and have set the clock to 2am. Though she’s still on diapers at night, the diaper remains dry when she wakes up.  This is a significant improvement and I am praying that Cass’ urinary tract will keep healing. Yesterday we were out at Avenue K for half a day and she was sans diapers.  She only wore a pad and it remained dry. 🙂

 

My baby girl achieved another milestone yesterday. She managed to solve the Rubik’s Cube!!  Though only single color at a time, she is definitely getting a hang of it. All she needs is 5 – 10 minutes to solve one side! And she happily told me that waiting for me to shop for clothes is not boring anymore as she has a new hobby to keep her occupy now 🙂

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No. of times viewed = 11

Cass Reads Roald Dahl’s Books

Cass is growing up too fast. With 2 older tween sisters who are currently into pop music and novels that teenagers read, Cass is following her sisters’ foot steps too.

Yesterday, Cass started to read Charlie And The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and got hooked on it. Her 2 older sisters are currently reading Roald Dahl’s books.

 

 

 

 

Cass is able to read and pronounce most of the words but I doubt she understands some of the words, which are too advanced for her age.

 

At breakfast this morning, Cass was still reading Charlie And The Chocolate Factory 🙂

 

 

Cassandra at 6.5 years old.

 

 

 

 

No. of times viewed = 411

Cassandra’s Graduation From Kindergarten – Sunday, 21 September 2014

It was a glitzy affair and made to look like a university graduation!  The graduation ceremony was held at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre (SPCC) on Sunday, 21 September 2014. Yes at a convention centre – don’t play play! My beloved parents were there to witness Cass’ graduation too.   We reached Sunway Pyramid at 2:30pm and left the mall at 10pm.  With an entire day spent at the SPCC and then at the Sunway Pyramid mall with all her loved ones, I am sure this memorable day will be etched in Cass’ memory forever.

The pre-schoolers walked down the red carpet to the front of the stage.

The entire hall was filled with parents, teachers and 6-year olds from all the branches of this kindergarten chain.  In the mad crowd, I managed to snap a picture of my baby girl walking down the red carpet!  Like celebrity only haha!!

While the kids went to another hall to wear their gown and mortar board, the parents went to another hall to attend a parental seminar *yawnnnnn*!

 

A graduation made to look like a university graduation of some well-known universities with all the big fanfare.  And the VIPs were only a bunch of 6-year olds 😀

The management staff of the kindergarten chain wore their rope and mortar board and were seated on the stage during the certificate-giving ceremony.

From a distance and with shaky hands, I managed to snapped a picture of Cass receiving her scroll on the stage.

 

In 15 years’ time, my baby girl will be up on a grand stage again and this time, she will be receiving her Degree. I can’t wait for the day to come! 🙂

 

 

 

 

No. of times viewed = 449

Math Craze Cass Scores!

Today Cass gave me a very very BIG SURPRISE!

When I picked her up from school today, she told me that she scored 100% for her Math test! I could not believe my ears. I know that she is Math craze and can spend hours doing Math sums while waiting for her turn to see the doctor in the hospital.  While waiting for our food to arrive when we eat out, she would also crunch on pages of Math sums from the workbooks that she puts in her little backpack.

To add icing to the cake today, she told me that she was the only one in her class to get a 100% for her Math!  And she beat Ethan (who scored 92%), the top student in the class!  Her class teacher asked all her classmates to clap for her!  And she told me that she felt really shy LOL!

Actually I was not confident that Cass would even get 90% and above for her Math as I only did less than an hour of revision with her on the eve of her exam.  We were out shopping at Mid Valley Megamall  *guilt stricken*!!

When Cass told me that she was unsure of how to sum up money and panicked on the night before her Math test, I fished out my purse and did what I used to do with Alycia and Sherilyn, by using real notes and coins to teach her. De ja vu! I had gone through my nightmarish days of teaching her 2 older sisters money and hidden numbers sums and now it is Cass’ turn!

If you are struggling to teach your pre-schooler money, i.e. how to add up Ringgit and Sen, I suggest that you use real money to teach. It really does make a big difference when your child can see the real money and touch it. And she/he will find it very fun to be touching and counting 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 Ringgit notes and coins.

Fortunately, my Math lover girl grasped pretty quickly. When I needed a break, Sherilyn took over and guided Cass.
 photo Cassrevisionexam_zps3780cb6d.jpg

 

 

 

Wawavooooom!! I am so proud of you baby girl! Keep up the good work and I can only hope that your interest in Math will never wane even when the tough gets going.

No. of times viewed = 525

Cass’ Reading Progress

Today while I was helping Cass to shower, she suddenly remembered something that transpired in kindy in the morning during English lesson.

Cass – mummy, do you know teacher A gave me a STAR and a “VERY GOOD” in my reading today!?

Me – really? *with face all perked up though I was almost going to doze off in the bathroom* LOL!

Cass – I can read the whole of Chapter 1.  Are you glad? *and gives me a cheeky and smug smile*

Me – yes of course! I am very glad! *I could not help but grin proudly*

Cass – last year I could not read, now I can read all the words.  Are you glad to hear this?

Me – yes of course. You see, practice makes perfect, so you have to read more ok?

Cass – Adam could not read, but I can read  the whole of Chapter 1 and 2.  Ethan can read very well too.

Me – you can beat Ethan  you know?  You just have to practise reading more. (Ethan is the top student in Cass’ class)

Cass – yes I know.

And then she went on and on telling me how well she could read these days.  And that was my moment of glory hehe…

 

Cass reads1

 

 

 

Cass reads2

 

Cassandra at 5 years 9 months

 

No. of times viewed = 3176

Our Saturday – 26 October 2013

My parents have just returned to Ipoh. I am sure going to miss them a lot after having them with us for almost 2 weeks.

Alycia and Sherilyn’s final exam ended yesterday but Alycia would have to sit for the Science and Math test papers in English on Monday. Cass’ final exam is also starting on Monday. Yep, the pre-school that Alycia and Sherilyn attended and now Cass is attending, has twice-yearly exams for 5-year olds and 6-year olds.

Monkey see monkey do. I am mega proud of Cass. She is doing revision on her own by writing out almost everything from her school books onto her own exercise book. I will then ask her to read to me what she has written. Her reading skill is improving by the day.
Cass revises

After a short revision with Cass, I did some exercises with her on the trampoline, as well as some pelvic floor exercises and gripping exercises to strengthen her sphincters in the hope of countering her bladder issues. I have to do this with her twice a day and I hope that I can steal more time to do more sets with her.

Alycia is in school the whole of today for a camp and Sherilyn is now at the ballet school, after which she will have a birthday party to attend.   In about 5 minutes, I will resume my driver duties again.

Have a great weekend friends! 🙂

 

No. of times viewed = 933

Cassandra’s First Written Journal

Monkey see monkey do.  Alycia and Sherilyn are required to write a daily journal. This is part of my efforts to help them to improve their writing skill, both in BM and English.  Every evening at around 7ish pm, reminders of “Have you written your daily journal?” resonates in the house, without fail.  Alycia has to write her journal in BM and Sherilyn has to do hers in English.

Yesterday evening whilst I was busy washing up in the kitchen, Cass came running back and forth to me, asking me the spelling of some words.  I did not ask her why she needed to ask me as she is very fond of writing cards for her grandparents and classmates.

After I’d finished my chores in the kitchen, I saw this written journal by Cass.  She said “this is my daily journal”! After I praised her sky high, she told me that she also wanted to write a daily journal, just like her 2 sisters. Well, I shall see how disciplined she is…

Check out the exclamation mark and heart sign after the word ‘mum’. I broke out laughing seeing it. It shows that this rascal knows the usage of punctuation marks. She has definitely been listening whenever I teach her 2 sisters!

Cassandra’s first written journal, at 5 years 5 months.  Her corrections are in red ink.

No. of times viewed = 395

Science Subject For 5 Year Old Pre-schoolers

Cass came home from kindy last week telling me that her teacher had instructed the kids from her 5YO class to practise playing around with Microsoft Paint on the computer!  This is what pre-schoolers are taught in this high technology day and age.  Now, what did we learn in kindy as 5 year olds back then? I only remember  vaguely that I played with play dough (and fought with one Tracy who was a Caucasian girl with a play knife over some play doughs LOL!), sang nursery rhymes and bible songs and recited A to Z and 1 to 100, that’s it LOL!

So after lunch, this rascal took out the laptop from the laptop bag and hooked up everything herself and with very little guidance from me, she was having fun drawing and coloring shapes in Microsoft Paint.

Check out the contents of her kindy’s Science text book…

I doubt she knew how to read all the words and understood the meaning of everything but she definitely is very adept with using the laptop and iPad since she was a little over 3 years old 🙂

No. of times viewed = 657

Exam Season Yet Again

It’s the most dreaded time of the year again. This time, I have 3 times the amount of stress as Cass is in her 2nd last year of kindy and has to sit for the twice-yearly exam as well.  Today, I spent my morning doing revision with Cass.  It is a kindy holiday for Cass as Saturday was their sports day, thus they get today off.

Fortunately, it ain’t that stressful revising with her. I remember those hair-pulling moments spent with Aly and Sherilyn each time I did revision with them in Math.  Cass is pretty good with her Math and numbers.  After this stressful week, I can’t wait for the school holidays to start so that I can get away from this exam pressure and enjoy our 2-week holiday, yipeeeee!!

Testing Cass on smallest number, biggest number, ascending, descending, money, time, etc.! Thank God, she has no problems mastering them.  These days, a 5-year old kid has to know all these and even more!

No. of times viewed = 403

Cassandra’s First Swimming Lesson

At 4 years 9 months, my baby girl finally attended her first swimming lesson. She did pretty well, was very excited and was totally not afraid of the water. She’s a born water baby 🙂

The very first practice that the swimming instructor taught her was to submerge her head in the water in the baby pool, which she did pretty well.

Next, she was brought to the adults’ pool and taught to float and submerge her head in her water. She can’t wait to attend her next swimming lesson!

No. of times viewed = 633

Loving Math

My baby girl loves Math more than reading. She never fails to bug me for Math sums whenever she is bored waiting for something, like when we are waiting for our food to arrive or when we are in a car ride. At 4.8 years old, she can solve 2-number additions up to 20+.

5 + 12… 12 is bigger so put that in my head and take out 5 fingers. After 12 is 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Answer is 17! That’s how I’ve taught her to do addition.

No. of times viewed = 323

Cassandra’s 1st Art Piece From Art Class

Cass attended her very first art class last Friday.  Her excitement in attending her very first art class was shown all over her, which she took no effort to contain.  The day before her art class, she kept asking me if I was really, really sending her for art class.  And I took advantage of this to bribe her to get things done, without fuss!  On the day of the art class, as we were walking to the art teacher’s unit, Cass gave me a really HUGE  ‘I can’t wait’ grin.

1.5 hours later, this is what she produced:

Not bad eh?  The art teacher was taken by surprise that a 4.5yo girl could produce this piece, which she said many of her 4-5YO students could not.   She did this with very minimal supervision from the art teacher.  My baby girl must have been observing how her 2 che ches paint and draw at home. Plus she must have regurgitated all that she had videotaped in her head whenever we bring her to art exhibitions.

Good job Cass! Mummy’s really proud of your art work.

Cassandra at 4 years 7 months and she can’t wait to attend the next art class!

No. of times viewed = 6109

Cassandra’s First Day Of Kindy!

My baby girl finally went to kindy today! She is exactly a week away from her 4th birthday. She has missed 1 year of kindy meant for 3 year olds last year but I hope that this isn’t a big problem for her to catch up with her peers. The syllabus used in this pre-school is pretty tough.  6 year olds are taught the syllabus of Primary 2 and thankfully Alycia and Sherilyn sailed through this pre-school without much fuss.  She was still soundly asleep at 7:30am today and had a hard time waking up. It was a rainy morning and the weather was cooling, so it was a perfect weather to sleep in. I had to carry her up from bed and cuddle her like a baby, talking to her in a very, very gentle and loving tone, so as not to add fuel to her early morning crankiness. She did dilly dally mildly and we were about 15 minutes late when we reached the school. When we were doing the registration, we saw the principal testing a 4YO girl (Cassandra’s to-be classmate) on some flashcards. I was stunned to see the words on the flashcards, which consist of the words electricity, technician and some pretty tough BM and Mandarin words! I cannot imagine my baby girl being able to read all these very soon. Well, Alycia and Sherilyn had gone through this stage not too long ago but Cassandra is still very much a baby in my eyes *sniff*

After paying the school fees, we brought Cassandra up to the class, which was already on-going. There was a slight degree of separation anxiety in her. In the classroom, she kept saying “mummy, my sweater is very smelly” repeatedly and kept tugging my leg, away from the classroom, LOL!! When her class teacher was in the midst of distracting her, hubs and I quickly sneaked away. About 2 hours later, I went back to her school to check how she’s doing. When I opened the classroom door, she was seated comfortably at the front row and the English lesson was on-going. She wasn’t even excited to see me and after I had brought her to pee, she hurried back into the classroom eagerly and did not show any sign of missing me!! I guess I am more excited and anxious than she is today. I promised her that I will buy her a birthday cake so that she could cut it and share it with her friends on her birthday next Monday.

My baby girl is growing up really, really fast.  I did miss her a lot when she was away in school but nope, I didn’t get teary eyed. I guess what I had gone through with her during her babyhood had made my heart tough like a solid rock.

No. of times viewed = 374

Tons of Patience

Of my 3 girls, I think Cassandra has the most patience or should I say, she has the longest attention span in whatever she does. She also has nimble fingers and likes fixing things like jig saw puzzles, building stuff with Lego blocks and today I found out that she is also a handy-girl! Just now a knob dislodged from its position on one of the drawers of our 5-drawer cupboard. With her bare hands, she screwed the knob back. Then excitement kicked in when she discovered that she can fix a knob back onto the drawer… and she deliberately yanked off the other 3 knobs off the drawers! With her bare hands, she managed to screw back all the knobs back into their positions TIGHTLY on the respective drawer in under half an hour, after which she was sweaty all over, just like any handy-man would and she gave me a very satisfied grin, as if telling me how clever she was! Indeed she is. I for one is not the type of person who would have the patience to do such a tedious job and would tai chi this sort of job to my hubs, who is a very adept handy-man. Good job my baby girl and mummy hopes that you can build BIG things in future and make mummy proud of you hehe.

Here’s wishing all my friends and blog readers a very happy new year. May this year be a better and happier year for all!

Here are some snap shots of our New Year’s Eve dinner at home with some close friends and relatives yesterday..

Delish food which the hubs and his chef whipped up…. oh yea if you need catering service, you can call my hubs Alan at 019-266 4297. He has been in the catering biz for over 10 years.

Perfect view of KLCC and KL Tower with the fireworks in the middle…

Kids scrambling to get a nice spot to watch the fireworks display at the KLCC, Dataran Merdeka and other areas around KL at the stroke of 12 midnight





No. of times viewed = 202

HEALTH FREAK MOMMY