Well, Rachel has been going to kindergarten for two months now. I think she has gotten used to the routine by now.

She is enjoying herself with her friends and learning new things. When I come home from work, she’s so excited to tell me what she learned that day.

One of the things I can’t understand is the fact that she has homework.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like there’s a huge amount of homework or anything. Maybe one or two pages to practice writing Chinese characters.

But I’ve never had homework when I was in kindergarten. I’m sitting here for 10 minutes and I can’t recall any homework until I was in Standard 4. Maybe I had homework but I didn’t do it haha.

But seriously, I don’t remember any homework from kindergarten. I remember singing, painting, drawing patterns and doing craft.

Even in primary school, we didn’t have much home work because teacher would allocate some classroom time for doing exercises. Either we finished all our work books on the same day, or we would all hurry to finish before teacher walks into class haha.

Maybe it’s different if you’re studying in Chinese medium. Maybe all that repetitive writing is neccessary to help them remember how to write the words.

Poey Chin is already complaining that the standard of Chinese Rachel is learning is actually at primary level. I guess there’s a good and bad.

Good because Rachel seems to be coping well, and she will find it easier when she goes to Standard 1.

Bad because I’m not the type of parent who expects academic excellence from my kids the moment they step in school. I guess, I want them to enjoy their childhood learning, playing and exploring the things they love instead of filling their time with repetitive tasks.

Anyway I guess the idea is to build the discipline in them, that they have to take learning seriously. It’s great if homework can teach the kids to sit still for half an hour concentrating on a task.

It’s also a good way for we parents to keep track of what Rachel is learning in school.

I’m not anti-homework. I’m just observing how things have changed today compared to when I was young.

I must have changed thousands of diapers. Calculating an average of two diapers a day, I would have changed almost 5000 diapers for all three of my kids (I’m so tempted to convert that number to ringgits and sens but I won’t). 

As a parent I can testify how I’m especially attuned to any diapers related news. Cheap diapers sale? I’ll travel across town and buy 10 packs. Diaper discount at the hyper market? I’d fill the whole shopping cart to stock up.

We parents can also be very brand conscious and loyal when it comes to diapers. One of the hot topics whenever parents meet is to discuss the pros and cons of our diaper brands. 

Huggies has an ongoing roadshow campaign titled “Tukarlah untuk Lebih Senang Dipakai”.

I love the word they used, “Tukar”. It’s so clever in so many levels.

The first stop of the campaign is at Mydin USJ. Details of the roadshow are: 

Venue: Concourse, Mydin USJ (click for map)

Date: From 25/02/2013 (Monday) to 03/03/2013 (Sunday)

Grand Finale: 03/03/2013 (Sunday) 8:00 pm

If you haven’t heard of Huggies®, they are one of Malaysia’s leading baby and child care brands, providing mothers and babies with the complete range of disposable diaper and diaper pants to helps keep skin healthy and babies happy.

The highlight of the road show is Huggies Dry Pants, the easy-to-use option when you have to change active infants and toddlers. Just need to pull them up, tear and go!

 

Here are some fun activities at the roadshow, so bring your family along:

1. Free samples
2. Discounts (get your shopping cart ready)
3. Magic performances*
4. Live performances*
5. Games
6. Giveaways
7. Huggies 30 Second Diaper Change Challenge*

* Challenge and performances are scheduled at 10.30am, 2.00pm and 8.00pm daily.

Now if you fancy yourself an expert diaper changer like me, why not take part in the Huggies 30 Second Diaper Change Challenge? 

Actually I think 30 seconds is only possible if my baby is not squirming or struggling. But maybe it is possible with Dry Pants, even with an active baby.

You can also check out the Huggies Malaysia on FaceBook.

 

I’ve switched my blog over to the new theme I was building.

Actually it’s just the default WordPress Twenty Twelve theme. I chose to customize this theme because:

1. It’s a blank template so it’s easy to add stuff
2. I like the minimalist look

Basically I spent most of the time putting in the picture slider in the header. Took me about 15 hours to complete this basic stuff because I changed my mind on the design a couple of times.

It’s times like this I wish I was more artistic or creative. I keep trying to think of something nice but in the end I stuck with just a simple layout.

To be honest, I enjoyed working on this mini project. It’s nice to spend time with the blog, feels like meeting an old friend again.

Update: I just tested browsing my site on mobile and it looks strange. Too sleepy to fix that tonight

Upgrading to the latest version of WordPress has broken my previous theme display (or it may be one of the plugin upgrades), so I’ve reverted back to the default theme while I look for a new theme.

Please bear with any occasional strange displays or theme changes for a while.

Update: I’ve decided to build my own theme!

Update: I’ve sort of completed the header design. Now working on sidebar.

I could sum up last year in one word… Challenge.

Challenge at Work

In the middle of 2012 my team doubled in size, which means I’m trying to track and remember what 12 other people are doing.

I had to know a bit of what everyone was doing, I could no longer depend on the ‘other team’ to share to work load.

Sometimes I feel like I’m lost and drowning. And if I’m ineffective then it means I have failed my boss’s expectations!

There were a lot of projects to deliver and I’m really amazed at my team. They managed to pull everything together to implement without major problems. They are wonderful people and I’m lucky to have them, and I’m thankful for my boss’s support and mentoring.

I feel more comfortable now. I’m hoping to build up a couple of people to help me so I can move on to other things.

Challenge in Finances

2012 was a mixed year in terms of finances.

It was better than 2011 in balancing a budget, but still nowhere near where I wanted to be. At this rate I’ll have to spend my retirement in some small hut in a remote jungle.

Expenses have stabilized. We didn’t make any major purchases except buying an iPad.

I’m just hoping for a nice increment so we’ll be able to start saving some money.

Challenge in Health

My body is not aging well and I seem to be getting some warning that I have not been looking after myself.

I feel a little depressed about this sometimes, but life must go on.

Recently we’ve started going jogging again, and it must be quite funny to see us. At first we went with a stroller and it was too bumpy for Caleb so he hangs over the side of the stroller.

Now we just take turns carrying him round the track. He must feel like a baby kangaroo.

Sometimes we take either Daryl or Rachel along and they can run quite a long distance!

Last New Year’s Resolutions

Last January I wrote how I wanted to focus on one goal for the year. I didn’t tell you my goal because I wasn’t sure if I could achieve it.

My focus for 2012 was “Learning”.

Here’s how I applied “Learning”:

1. I attempted to learn Korean. Sorry I lost interest but I know about 50 words, some basic grammar, and know that there are common concepts with Mandarin.
2. I started doing math exercises on Khan Academy. All my life I learned math in Bahasa, so it was quite interesting to re-do everything in English. I think I reached Form-4 level math before I became too busy (refer “Challenge at Work”)
3. Learning Korean and doing math seemed to awaken a part of my brain that I haven’t used for years. I had better attention span and really looked forward to learn new things. This came in handy because I had to learn a ton of things at work.
4. New programming stuff learned: jQuery, using pure CSS for website layout, Python
5. I became certified as an ISO Internal auditor. Again it comes with learning. The ISO clauses, how my company conducts business, and how each department has a role to play.
6. I had to learn new systems, processes and responsibilities at work.

I would say it’s been a pretty successful new year’s resolution.

Looking Back

I’ve made a lot of mistakes this year as a father and husband.

Some people want to ignore me or pretend I don’t exist. It’s a pity but no big deal. I’ve had worse kind of haters so I’m not losing any sleep over this.

I didn’t blog a lot this year.

I spent too many moments complaining about my kids, about how noisy they are, how they disturb me.

Then I look back at their old photos and see how fast they’ve grown. I see tragedies happen to other children and my heart is convicted.

There’s so many regrets.

There are happy moments too. Watching the kids do cute things and learning new things.

Finding the joy of playing with toys and eating snacks again.

Looking Forward

I haven’t really thought about my resolutions for 2013. Give me a few days to think about it and I’ll write down my thoughts.

Have a happy new year everyone!