The Other Duo

Another day, another walkies with the Dog, this time with a different duo of girls following.

Still fresh with her new-found mastery of the two wheel bike, Kecil wanted to ride. Jessica, on the other hand, had started to feel the pinch of a too-small bike, so she chose to walk. I guess all that epic bike-dragging across two countries totally paid off, eh? I'll give it perhaps a couple of months before we need to get her a new, bigger one.

Anyway, we ended up at our usual playground, the one with the big slide, where the girls quickly got busy with the slide.

This Mama?
Got busy testing the Dog's agility by inviting her up unto the wooden platform. The Dog is agile, all right.

Then, of course the girls wanted to prove their monkey-like agility as well, by sliding down the pole, firemen style.

The Dog, I can tell, snorted and said "I'll pass". Hihi....

Still, she got adoring hugs from the Little Girl who was very proud of her wonderful, loveable dog.

T'was a good, fuss-free, quick walk in the late afternoon. With the holidays coming, I guess we will all need more of these kind of things. Cheers!

Her own space

This Mama was reverting to her old (specially reserved for boring lectures) pastime of doodling around the other day, when Kecil got hold of Mama's doodles and promptly asked for another. Actually, all the three girls were there, I think, and so Mama got stuck for a while, doodling for one kid after another.
I have no idea what the other girls did with their doodles, but for Kecil? She put them to use to 'mark her territory'.

This, indeed, is her territory, the place where she could bring her friends to just chill, and play, and do whatever they want (except eat! No kids with food on upper floor. Mama's rule!).
So... they did what little girls do:

Pose with each other....
Uuuuu... did you notice Kecil's and Ami's T-shirt? Or the fact that ALL of them were wearing pink? Ouch, my eyes hurt.

... take picture of one another...
... and giving this poor Mama a pretty bad heart sport watching them 'playing' with Mama's precious big camera...

... why, at the end of the camera roll Mama even found this mugshot of Kecil, right next to her door.

Having the Kiddo's friends over can make the house shake with all their shriek, their none-too-light footsteps, laughter, fighting and what nots. But it's always interesting.
Why, the other day there was even a sleepover! (Kecil stayed at Ami's place, right next door, yes) When the report came back, it would seem that she's not quite ready yet, so... maybe we'll wait a few more weeks before we have a repeat, if any.

In the meantime, let this be Mama's reminder to REALLY enjoy the peace and quiet during the school term before the little people come back in house. Cheers!

Swimming in School

Between the carpool and the fact that Kecil is now getting bigger, this Mama does not quite spend a lot of time hovering around her anymore, especially in school. But when it came to the first swim of the term..... now that's a different thing, isn't it?

Sometime last month, the weather finally let up, and the teachers finally started rolling the kids through a rotation for a swim at the pool. Parents were invited to volunteer, but even without the invitation, this Mama was curious enough to come anyway.
Of course, on the D Day, this silly Mama came waay to early, and spent quite a bit of time taking pictures before finally the kids emerged from the school building.

Already in their swimming suit, lined up in a line like very cute little ducklings..... aren't they adorable?
Anyway, before anyone got into water, it was time for some safety briefing. Very important!
The rules: no running around the pool, everyone must be in the water, no touching or splashing without unless the other party is agreeable.
Sensible rules.

And once the formalities were done... it was splashing time!

Those kids obviously had a capital time. Rest assured that they do get regular dose of wet activities at the school pool (they do!).
Until then!

In the morning ...

While there are definitely obvious benefits of carpooling (such as savings of time and fuel), there are apparently not so obvious benefits. One of such benefit actually has to do with 'waiting'. You know, getting ALL the kids ready often takes time. So... given that this Little One is always anxious to get off, we tend to have some time in our hands while waiting for the rest. Time that is often used very well, I'd say.

Right after her birthday, for example, the morning wait was used to ride her brand spanking new scooter.

And of course, there was also a spat of cycling practices, right after she mastered the 2 wheel bike. There was even cycling on her friend's bike next door!

Right after Halloween? It was Zombie-posing time.
And by then, of course you have arrived to Mama's use of those waiting time. Taking pictures, what else?
That was how this Mama established a few facts:

- Kecil still has her patented grimace/smile for the camera face. Grrrrr......

- Despite her enthusiasm, Kecil still can't drive yet because her feet are yet to reach the pedals

- Her hair, on the other hand, has definitely grown longer, long enough for her beloved pigtails.

- And kids basically face each morning with different level of excitements: pretty cool, sleepy, excited! (Haha.. just kidding)

Waiting may not be everyone's favourite pastime, but I think Mama & Kecil have both figured out that we can certainly still enjoy ourselves, even doing a traditionally non-fun stuff (waiting for others) on a traditionally non-fun part of the day (early in the morning, right before school. Ugh!)

Kecil got to pose for Mama, Mama got her pictures (and her blog post, ha!), and bonus point for managing to still do her own stuff, like catching up with friends and comparing the benefits of different hairstyles ....

.... posing at other people's house, and even trying out every single seat in the day's ride to find out the best one.

Moral of the story? I guess when you are one of those 'the glass is half full' kind of people, you can always make the best of whatever life throw at you. A lovely thought that hopefully be a good start for our week.
Here's a good cheer for the new week, especially as we head on right into the busy holiday season. Have a good week, everyone!

Doggie day out

The Dog, despite being a puny Golden retriever, packs up enough mass to exclude her from most our weekend trips. The other weekend, however, the focus was on her as we took her for a special kind of outing.

A doggie and Kiddo exercise day at the tracks! Ha!

Haha... I'm kidding. The local dog-lovers organised a dog agility competition at the field. Having never seen such competition, we went, with the Dog tagging along.

As you can see, the Dog was not the only dog at the venue. There were dogs of various sizes, breed and temperament, including the competitors.
We spent most of our time milling around, waiting for the competition to start, but we did get the Dog groomed.

The grooming was done in a grooming van/truck, so Kecil was understandably excited about the whole thing, although the Dog was pretty obviously was not thrilled. She emerged smelling a wee funny (a bit like men's cologne), but otherwise VERY clean. She did seem grumpy about having her butt scrubbed clean. Hihi....

This Mama did not take any pictures once the competition started, since we were pretty busy with Kecil and the Dog and watching all the comings and goings. We did try Penny on one of the hurdles, however, and she managed to clear a decent height despite not looking very keen on doing it. I suppose you really should start agility training when the dogs were still puppies.

We did enjoy ourselves very much. Why, Kecil even got to pose with another Golden.
We do hope there will be more opportunities (that we grab!) to have more outings with the Dog.
How about you, do you bring along your pets for outings?