NANA turned FIVE

 

Nana officially turned FIVE last Sunday. 

 

We brought cakes and goodie bags to school on Friday for her to share with her k1 and k2 friends, and she was grinning from ear to ear.  We had never practice bringing a cake to school, not even when they were in their playgroup and nursery session.  So I can just imagine what a happy day it must have been for her to be at the center of attraction

 

And on Sunday, she gets to cut another cake with us at home.  Iqah had an idea to surprise Nana.  So while we prepare the gift and the cake on the table, she brought Nana out from their room – with her eyes closed, and we sang her the birthday song.  (Good job, kakak!)  I missed the chance to capture that moment on camera.  It was priceless!  Nana was smiling so shy, the joy of having a special day being at everyone’s attention was apparent on her face.  Still smiling so coyly and with no further ado, she blows all her FIVE candles and ‘stab-cut’ her cake. . . .  

 

cashier of the month

  

thank you for shopping. . . .please come again

 

 

meanwhile

ayah has locked himself in mak’s room, to study for his upcoming exams.

 

mommy is in the kitchen cooking lunch.

 

meanwhile, the girls occupied themselves with playing motorstorm pacific rift on ps3.

saya ini melayu . . . . lah

I wonder if people thought we sound ‘mengada-ngada’ when we talk to the girls in English. 

 

We choose to, coz we thought it will help develop their social confidence.  And it proves to be true.  There is no communication barrier in school.  They are able to understand what is being told by their teachers and friends, making their learning journey so much easier.  Both girls are able to speak most comfortably in English, however, I cannot say the same in regards to their Bahasa Melayu (BM)

 

Their cousins, from my family side, can speak fluently in BM.  And it suddenly daunt on me that although my girls can understand all the buzz while at nenek’s house, they had difficulty responding and conversing in BM *gasp*.   Iqah made an effort with regular prompting, and she now knows that when in the company of my family members (mostly), she will need to talk in BM.  And its utterly cute, I tell you.  While nana simply refused, saying she don’t know, or she cannot.

 

Its quite worrisome actually, now that they are in the brink of ending their K1 class.  Takut nanti masuk primary school, dorang yang susah dan kelak jadi ejekkan kekawan (looks like my BM is also berterabor!). 

 

They do have their malay language in school, with no lack of malay girls and boys whom they interact everyday for many hours.  But when asked who are their bestfriends, the names that pop out are most often their Chinese girlfriends ergo conversing in English all day long.

 

Maybe we should borrow more malay books from the library and make regular attempt to speak in BM to them . . . .

 

But then again, kids nowadays are very smart, don’t you think?

- – - – - – - – - – - -

 Their English, the local version 

 

Iqah        :               ‘lah’ means what?

 

Ayah       :               ‘lah’ means lalalalalala (in singsong manner)

 

Nana      :               no ‘lah’. . . . ‘lah’ means nothing.    You don’t knoooow?

 

Pandai anak mommy. Dan lagi pandai ayahnye beri penjelasan

 

and today, ayah IS my hero

Did I heard it correct?  Did she just said, ‘mommy, I want milk in a cup’

 

. . . in a cup? . . . in a cup?

 

YES!

 

With no delay, I rush to the kitchen and made one for her, and she drank to the last drop and proudly announced that she is now a big girl!

 

Apparently, ayah had a father-to-daughter talk with nana yesterday, when he fetched the girls from school.  The essence was that she is turning 5, and all big 5 years old girls no longer drinks from the bottle, as her kakak, thus she needs to slowly learn to let the bottle go.

 

And so effective was the talk that she remembered to ask me to pour out the milk, which I had prepared in the bottle this morning, to her strawberry shortcake cup.  Although it did take her a while to finish her morning milk, coz she was sipping it bit by bit, she did finish it with a sheepish smile on her milk moustache mouth. 

 

My girl, [sigh] all grown up . . . . .