i know why

eversince, yu ze mentioned he wants to stop violin i have been checking and double confirming with him if he really wants stop. i always get the same answer of violin is yucky and slowly to don't want to ok.

 

today then i finally realised why yu ze wants to stop violin. i remind him about going to violin class on saturday. he shake his head first and nod his head. then he say he can't and don't know how cos his hand is painful, pointing to his thumb (he had blister on his thumb previously for plucking the strings on the violin.). i told him we go to another teacher, the teacher who willl teach him how to play twinkle twinkle little stars like didi, hayden (i show him a video of hayden playing twinkle twinkle little stars). he then show me the action of 'plucking strings' and say don't have like that (the action), only like this (action of playing violin). i say yes only play violin, no pluck strings. then he nod his head again. i guess, its not that he don't want to learn, its the 'painful' experience of the blister that make him wants to stop. hopefully, he will perform better with this new teacher this weekend.

 

i had also text weihan (violin teacher) to inform him about this and confirmed that there is no plucking of strings on the first lesson.

new routine - keep toys

all these while, darling has been the ones keeping the toys that are left lying around. i never bother to keep them as they will mess it up again. so why bother keeping them? its bad parenting, i know. to me, its also another way of telling darling where his children had been up to for the day by looking at where the toys ended up. good excuse right?

anyway. darling is away for camp. no one to picks up toys right? so i decided to get them to do it. whoever don't keep the toys, no bedtime story,straight to bed. any toys on the floor will end up in dustbin and don't ask me to buy again.

i didn't expect this to work. for the bedtime story, they really keep all the toys back to where they belongs or put them on the sofa (which is a good start). i keep to my promise too, bedtime story for them, brush teeth, drink milk and sleep. let's hope this new routine stays......

stop violin?

we are back for class after the chinese new year break. as usual, we reminded yu ze about his class during lunch time. he told us he don't want to go for class, violin is yucky. we just leave it as it is thinking he is just trying to push his luck to skip class.

 

lesson didn't go well, he refuse to do anything. doesn't want to hold the violin at all. only thing he did today is to stand and bow with the violin. end up, i call off the class after 5 minutes. we walked out with a crying yu ze. he has been a good boy for the past 7 months. though he make noise about the class, he will still go and concentrate and do whatever for 15 mins on bad days. today is the ultimate.

 

upon reaching home, he dare not ask for his favourite tv. he just play with his toys. darling asked him if he is serious about not wanting to do violin. he say yes and violin is yucky. darling agreed to let him stop. i was sad when he said he wants to stop. violin is what he asked for, i didn't expect him to tell me he wants to stop. 

 

however, his behaviour today also set me thinking, is the class to slow and boring for him. all he did  is stand, bow and bow activities. nothing on the violin except for plucking some songs which yu ze don't like. his way of plucking is not right end up having a sore thumb and blister.

 

i hope today is just the 'wrong day' for him.

huat ah!!!!!

happy chinese new year!!!!

its the first day of the new year. instead of heading to father in law's place first, we went to my mum's place. after our breakfast (bread, ham and bacon), have the kids change into the traditional clothings and we are ready to go.

in a way, the kids only get to see my parent once a year or maybe twice. that is only during first day and second day of chinese new year. i know i should bring them to visit more often. no time is my excuse of not going.

anyway, after visiting them. we headed to father in law's place for lunch and we are done for the day. chinese new year is pretty boring for us since we don't have many visiting to do.

back home, i started preparing for our steamboat dinner. a tradition in our family that started a few years back. while having our dinner, i received a text message from yongjie telling me that we had strike 4d. though its only a small amount of $10, its a good start for the year too.

hopefully with this good start, this snake year will be smooth smooth for all of us. huat ah!!!!!

new year deco

 

yu ze and yu xi's work had become part of our chinese new year deco this year. it doesn't matter if they are the one really doing all the work or with teacher's help, its still their work. yu ze wrote the 春. yu xi did the fire crackers.
 

 
i also bought our very first pot of flower for the house, taiwan orchid. i was told its very easy to manage and maintain. i don't have green fingers, even catus also can died in my hand. i'm not confident that this will last a long time, as long as it last through the new year.

another new thing for the year is the chinese paper cutting. after seeing many of my friends posting it on facebook, i decided to get one for ourselves too. $10 for each person inclusive of the frame. its not very expensive. you can have your name if you want but we decide to do away with it and just name them, papa, mommy, gor gor and mei mei (single word). isn't it very cute?