5 hours of waiting.....

Yesterday I woke up at 5am. Hubby and I were contemplating whether to buy Ipad2 online when it opens for sale at 1am on 29th of April or we should go to a Machines store to get them. So the crazy me decided to go queue and buy! We were monitoring the queues at various outlets of Machines on Facebook and as of 5am (29th of April) the queue was around 20+. So at about 6.30am, I left house and headed for MidValley. When I reached the queue, there were about 50+ people ahead of me. So I waited 5 hours and went home with 2 Ipad2s. This was the first time I actually queued up for so long to purchase something. The whole experience was not too bad. Sat on the floor (pins and needles after a while!), played Ipod(Got bored after sometime), chit chat with a couple next to me, sms hubby and finally walking into the store and pay for my products!
Now hubby has his own Ipad and Reese has one. No more fighting!

This is only half the queue at 9.30am, when I left around 11+, the queue has grown to a few hundred. All Ipad2s were sold out in a few hours.

Order cards that were given to each customer before entering the store. Once you make up your mind on the Ipads, no exchange is allowed. Each customer is only allowed to buy 2.

The first hundred customer were given a goodie bag. T-shirt, notepad and a bottle of water.

7th Wedding Anniversary

Hubby and I went through so much in 7 years as husband and wife. The greatest joy is having Reese and we celebrated our anniversary by having a buffet lunch at Al-Amar in Pavilion KL last Sunday. Reese enjoyed his Lebanese food and he eats for free!

Yummy!

Eating his favourite Wantan noodles at Lotong (Lot 10). He can easily finish the whole plate. Everything gone in less than 15 minutes. :)

Major Construction and Destruction...

New York City (Lots of skyscrapers) with a parade going on

Partial view of his construction. Here you can see part of the city was blocked off (Fences, bolders and cones) for the animals to into the city

Right in the middle there is a harbour

All ready for major destruction....

Total destruction!

Reese is in building mode. He builds elaborate structures like St. Basil Cathedral, Mickey Mouse Castle, New York City, St Petersburg Winter Palace, United Nation building... (He is into Little Einstein). Along the way, he will tell us what was going on and bla...bla...bla... and his greatest joy is when a disaster strikes! Hence the destruction. Total satisfaction for him. Crazy boy!

TV Privileges Removed, Effective Punishment? Nah!

The last two weeks were not very good for Reese at school. Most days I got complaints from his teachers over his behaviour. So last Friday I really blew my top! I got so mad with Reese that I told him as punishment, he will not have Cartoons for a whole week and really threaten him that he will not be going back to school! (As I type this, he is standing next to me reading my post!)

So did it work? Nope. He never even bother to ask for any TV. He happily plays with his toys or read his books. He can really live without any TV! *S0 proud of him*

Anyway, today he was behaving well at school. Really cracking my head what else we can do to get him to behave! Rewards are short term solution. Threats are not working too well either.

Going to make a reward book for him to be used at school. 1 yellow sticker for good behaviour and remove a sticker for bad behaviour/or he will be given a red sticker for really really bad behaviour. If he gets a certain number of red stickers, he will be punished like taking away certain privileges. Collecting a certain number of good stickers will allow him to redeem a certain reward. I wonder whether this can work at school.....

Reese Singing Silly Songs...

Singing 'No, No, Yes, Yes' and 'I'm a nut'

Reese singing silly songs. He has been obsessed with singing in the car using the song book. Check it out... quite funny and he is out of tune most of the time.....hehehehe

'Russia Church' Reese's latest obsession....

In two days, Reese drew 5 drawings of the 'Russia Church' he saw in Little Einstein's Fire Bird episode. I shown him some pictures of Russia's unique churches with onion domes. Reese had been studying them and drew them repeatedly. Each one more elaborate then before.

First drawing

Second Drawing after seeing some real life pictures

Third drawing with fireworks

Forth drawing with pixie dust (did this at school)

My favourite. Pixie dust, buds opening and becoming flowers. If you view the picture in detail, you will find dots everywhere. They were pixie dust lighting up lights!

Art At 4 years 6 months Old

Reese draws all the time but it has somewhat slow down as compared to a few month ago. Now when he draws, he 'draws' a story! He tells you what is going on in his drawing. He draws with a purpose and most of the time, he draws very quickly without caring whether it is beautiful or not. He just want to tell his story though his drawings! He usually completes a drawing in less than 5 minutes and when he is really in the mood, he can take up to 20 - 30 minutes working on his drawing or sometimes a few sessions to complete it.

He only likes to draw and not colour but when he does colour, he does it very well.

He loves castles. He coloured the above all by himself and added some fire works on the left picture and a sun and fountain (in pink) on the right picture.

In a city. A rocket blast off with sparks and falling debris.

A cumulonimbus cloud. Lighting strikes the communications tower and electrical cables.

Check this out. He was trying to draw lanterns hanging over our heads across the arch!

Tornado. House and fences got swept away!

Right at the top you see a flat and tall volcanoes erupting. Second row depicts a house with palm trees. Next row was a jungle and the next row was a huge cherry bush. Next different types of flowers and the last... can't remember what Reese told me. :)

Hot air balloons around sleeping beauty castle.

His favourite. Sleeping beauty castle with shooting fireworks.

Reese said this is an extinct volcano with houses built on it and can you spot the twin towers?

Fire in the forest

Homes with open windows and lots of lanterns and street lamps

A home decorated with a big fountain and hanging lanterns on street lamps.

Hot air balloons at Putrajaya and see how he drew to show a part of the hot air balloon flying behind a part of his castle (right). Below the hot air balloons is the bridge.

Reese said this is the Pantheon. See how he tried to draw those Doric pillars.

Sometimes, he draws really pretty pictures like this one. Most of the time he draws to tell his story and not care whether the picture is beautiful or not.

Rarely he draws with different colours. This is one of the exception.

Inspired by the dancing and sing flowers in Alice in Wonderland

The four seasons. From left, clock wise - Spring, Autumn, Winter and Summer.

Reese's art work on the school board. Parents that saw his work were impressed. Even the teachers took an interest at the way he draws. Reese is very proud of his art work when it is on display. He gets to draw during group time or whenever he doesn't want to join in an activity. He has his own permanent set of markers and A3 paper at school.

Our Loot for the Month

10 'I Wonder Why' books for Reese and 'What on Earth Happened?' for Mummy

We went to BookXcess yesterday and came back with some books! Reese's little library is growing. If you are looking for some good general knowledge books for kids (not too complicated) then now is the time to go BookXcess. They have about 3 different series for children (5-12 years old) on general knowledge. We bought the 'I Wonder Why' series (they have about 10 books out of xx books in this series). RM12.90 per book. They also have '100 Facts' books about pyramids, planet earth and etc. There is another series... can't remember the name. Oh, they also have some Reader's Digest compilation books on some interesting topics. Better go now before these books go out of stock.

Father (playing Ipod) and Son (reading a book) while waiting for me

Really engrossed in the book

Aiya! Reese found out that I was snapping pictures and quickly cover his face with a book!

At 4 Years 6 Months Old

Reese is finally 4 and half! Another 6 months and he will be 5! Why is time moving so quickly? I miss the little baby Reese. I have been looking at his baby photos and videos and sometimes wish I can go back to some of those moments.

For some reasons, I have been seeing a lot of baby photos of friends on FB and some mummy bloggers. They are so cute and I am drooling with envy. Mmmmmm..... still considering whether to have a second one! :)

Anyway... back to my sweetheart. He has grown so much. We are so lucky to be his parents. We love him so much. We are learning to understand him better and is working hard together with his teachers to help him behave and fit in better in his current school environment. He is scheduled to see the developmental pediatrician on 3rd August 2011. We hope to have some answers to his behavioral problems at school as well as a conformation of his giftedness.

He expresses himself very well and super cheeky. He is still very sensitive to loud noises and sometimes bright lights too. He is very sociable and is a little giant for his age. Everywhere we go, people will think that he is at least 6 years old. He is also very demanding and expect you do act immediately when he ask for something.

Reese loves building things and creating scenes or situation during pretend play. He is a child that needs a lot of space when it comes to pretend play. He creates situations like a town/airport got hit by an earth quake, tsunami and flood, castles with draw bridges with soldiers guarding and war broke out, going camping with fire place and fishing pond and clothes line and etc....
As he plays, he will narrate to us what is going on. At times, when we are too tired, Reese can really mess up the whole house. No kidding. Every corner and available space will be filled with his toys. We cannot remove or touch them without informing him (He has a superb memory so we can't trick him).Otherwise he will throw a big tantrum and sometimes became hysterical! He is quite a perfectionist.

Besides play, Reese loves to draw. He draws regularly. He loves to tell us stories through his drawing. His drawings are always based on his own life experiences. He still doesn't like drawing people. He loves drawing castles and fireworks the most. His drawing skills has improved as well. He doesn't like coloring but when he does, he does it very well.

Outdoor skills still lacking. Must be because he is hardly outdoor. Doesn't know how to ride a bicycle yet. Need to work on that (we have to buy one first!). He only likes to run and jump around. :)

He is very cautious when trying new things. A lot of times we have to force it on him before he realized that there is nothing to be afraid of! Some improvement though, he is no longer afraid of moving rides. He enjoys them very much now. He is still afraid of water though. Anything to do with water is a no for him. Even going near a lake is a big no no. He thinks that he would drown! My boy will think of all the possible bad outcomes associated with water!

Academic is way advance. Grandma is teaching him a little bit of Chinese. He seems to like it. He is learning Chinese characters too.

So in general, my boy is a happy boy and growing well. I thank God for such blessing. Amen!

Volcano Eruption Experiment

Last night we did a fun experiment on volcano eruption. Reese was so excited and he did the pouring and scooping.... it was just pure fun and educational. We were learning about volcanoes and the formation of it. During the experiment, Reese had a chance to see how the lava flows out and how it spreads to the surrounding area and at what speed....etc...

To do this experiment you will need:

Baking soda/powder (4 tablespoons)
An empty plastic bottle (500ml)
Vinegar (enough to cover 1/4 of the plastic bottle)
Dish washing liquid ( A few squirts)
Red food colouring ( A few drops)

Put in baking soda, dish washing liquid and food colouring into the bottle. Then add vinegar and watch the action. Cost of this experiment is about RM5. Baking soda is expensive. :)


Have fun.