Besides that, I told them spiders make cobweb to trap mosquitoes and other insects, so they are not bitten by them. Since then, Justin and Isabelle like looking at spider, and they tend to look for cobweb anywhere they go. LOL!

At the same time, I told them that some spiders are dangerous, so they better don’t touch any spider. BTW, I’m not afraid of spider, do you?

ZZzz…on the way to school…

My kids, like most kids, can be as sweet as angels or naughty to the extend of pulling my hairs off. Yesterday, Justin made a fuss at the temple when I brought our new car for prayers. It’s a norm in Thailand to do so, and SIL suggested that we do the same.

Justin wanted to visit one of the temples where cremation ashes are placed, but considering that it’s the 7th month of the Chinese calendar, I’m a bit pantang. I brought him and Isabelle for a walk just near the building, and those photos of dead people really creep me. Sorry, you can call me coward, but in this month, I will try my best to stay away ok?

However, Justin was not satisfied. He still wanted to see more and kept asking me to walk over to the other side. Just imagine me carrying a 12kg Isabelle in my arm, holding Justin in another hand and walking under the hot sun at 12pm. I kept telling him it’s not a place to go, and we already visited some part of it. But he insisted. He kept crying and screaming and pulling me away. He cried and cried until the monk also looked at us liao. Sigh…

I brought him back to the car as I know that he’s tired. But what do you know, he vomited! He has this tendency of vomiting if he cries too much, and luckily I managed to hold the mess with a small towel and my hands. Gosh, hubby’s new car was almost gone. I could see hubby’s angry face in my mind and how Justin is going to be scolded if he messed up the car!

But the monk was great. He comforted Justin in Thai, and asked us to kneel for prayers. Funnily, Justin stopped and only weeped. He gave the kids some pasteurized milk and snacks too. Right after we got in the car, I tried to talk to Justin again about the reason he’s not allowed to go in there. But he insisted that he had done no wrong, even if I told him he’s not allowed to scream at temples. After that, I beh tahan and scolded him as my patience level was over the limit!!!! I think I scared him, SIL and also Isabelle in the car. However, he fell asleep a moment later.

I’m glad that the monk is very considerate. He told SIL that Justin must be tired and thus he’s cranky. Thank god he didn’t lecture my noisy boy at the temple.

After a nap, Justin was feeling better and he’s my sweet little boy again. After some hard time with him, I realized that he can be very determined now. Reasoning with him might not work anymore so I wonder if I should just let him try things out by himself and learn about the consequence? I can’t stress myself out like this all the time, if not I will need more that best acne treatment and anti wrinkle cream for ME.

But the fair is over now, so I can relax a bit today. Oh ya, we are going back soon. See you in Penang, Ipoh and maybe KL.

• Change the water in the morning
• Feed the turtles twice a day.
• Remind us to go home in the evening, saying that the turtles are lonely and hungry so we better leave the office soon.
• Talking to the turtles, like “hi turtle…”

And yes, he can differentiate the 2 turtles! He even wanted to bring the turtles back to Malaysia next week, but I told him that they don’t have passports.

Something bad happened yesterday. One of the turtles died. It escaped from the tray and fell 2 ft to the ground on the first day we brought the turtles home. Hubby broke the aquarium, so when he was trying to clean up the mess, the turtle escaped. I think it was panic, so it ran and fell off from the terrace onto the grass. It took us awhile to find it with torchlights, and since then, it was not as active as the other turtle. It must be injured, but we thought it was ok.

But now, it’s dead. Justin found out about this yesterday morning. Hubby helped him to take out the body and place it in a plastic bag. The whole morning, he kept repeating, “Mei mei, your turtle died liao. Now we only have one turtle to take care.”

He didn’t eat much at breakfast, and kept looking at the plastic bag. I suggested that we bury the turtle in the garden, but hubby said we would release it at the nearby pond of Justin’s school since turtles live in water, they should die in water. O.o

Anyway, Justin didn’t cry over the turtle. I think he’s sad and confused but he didn’t how to react. He did cry, but not for the turtle. It was due to hubby rushing him to get ready for school! Hubby should have been more considerate….Sigh…

He was awfully quiet on the way to school. The turtle was in the plastic bag.

Releasing the turtle in the pond (Notice Isabelle’s sad face?)

Bye bye turtle…

Isabelle knows that her turtle will never move or be with us anymore. She might be too young to feel sad over its death, but she did look sad when we were letting it go.

By having the turtles at home, I realized that my kids have grown up a lot.

Lots of my friends and relatives are asking the same question these days, why are we sending Justin and Isabelle to Thai school which is totally alien to them, considering that they can’t speak Thai. I want to make it clear that we have thought about this for some time, especially after lots of school hunting on our previous trips.

We visited as many preschools as possible, ranging from Thai Bilingual (with Thai and English syllabus) and International schools (only British or American syllabus and one Thai culture). We have long term plan to build our business here in Bangkok, and there’s no turning back. We invested most of our money here, so we really hope to see a better future. To survive in Bangkok, we need to speak Thai. Hubby can speak simple Thai but me, I just can’t. I understand some words, but not in full sentences. My kids can’t learn much because they still speak in English, so that’s the main reason why they are going to a Thai preschool now. We could just choose a bilingual school, but it’s not near our office. We have to think about traffic jam and time used for traveling, so the nearest school is the best. It has only Thai syllabus, and 90% of teachers and students speak pure Thai!

Besides that, this school is much cheaper. If you are wondering how much you have to pay for international schools, check this, this and this. Besides that, Isabelle is too young for most of the international schools. We really don’t want to separate them now as it’s pretty stressful for kids to start all over in a foreign land.

I guess both Justin and Isabelle have no choice but to learn the language. A year later, I think they can speak well as kids learn faster than adults. Justin said he doesn’t know what’s the teacher teaching everyday, except for English lesson. We pay for extra English class with an American teacher, so he teaches him 4 days a week. I know that he won’t be able to learn much until he masters Thai, but we cannot be kiasu. The main priority is learning Thai language, so we have to “let go” of other aspects first, and he can still pick up the subjects at elementary in international school later.

I bought lots of books from Kumon and other publishers. I thought that I can start some home schooling, but Justin is too tired to do so when we get home. We are only busier in the late evening, so we go home rather late. After dinner, the kids are exhausted, so how to learn more? On weekends, we prefer to bring them around to see REAL things than going for extra classes. They are still very young, so let them have a break first. Maybe they will learn science by digging the worms in our garden, taking care of their turtles or watering their bean plants (I didn’t blog about it). Maybe they will learn maths by helping me washing the potatoes or getting their jelly beans. Maybe they will learn about English grammar by just speaking to us. Maybe they will learn Chinese by watching some movies or speaking to their “half bucket” parents. LOL! All I know is, we cannot compare how much they learn based on academic anymore.

I am not too concern about Isabelle as she’s very young. She only cried 2 days for a short while at school and she’s ok now. She makes excuses like “I want to go to office now” every morning when we send her to school, but she’s alright when I pass her over to her teacher. She wet her pants for the first 3 days because the teachers couldn’t understand what she’s trying to say by “I want to pee pee”. Pee is ssh in Thai. But now they know. LOL!

Both of them like school and I can see their happy faces when I pick them up. We know that our kids cannot be learning as much as most kids in Malaysia and we are very lenient in their education. But again, we cannot be kiasu as they are growing up in a different environment now.

So, now you understand?

After visiting the first temple, Justin wanted to go home. LOL! We are not used to visit the temples when we stayed in Malaysia, but now we have to learn how to live like Thais.

In between visiting the temples, we went to visit a home of disabled kids too as most Thai will donate money on their birthdays. My kids had an eye opening opportunity of seeing those kids who can’t walk, or talk and there was a man who has a disfigured face too. But they were not afraid at all and in fact, they greeted everyone in Thai and smiled to them. They even wanted to talk to some. Maybe we will bring the kids here more often next time on some charity functions.

Taken at the home of disabled kids.

After hours of driving, the kids felt asleep in the car. For the last temple in Bangkok city, both Justin and Isabelle woke up from their naps and they were energetic. This temple is very nice, so they were eager to go in and have a look.

Taken at a temple in Bangkok city, with BIL pretending as weirdo. LOL!

I can’t remember the name of the wat.

I like the painting on the wall of the temple, it’s magnificent!

The buddha

Justin followed whatever BIL and SIL did as if he understood the praying ritual. But Isabelle was running and nosing around. Hubby kept asking her to keep quiet but she just didn’t obey.

The good boy and the ka ka cau cau girl.

There’s a big garden at this temple, and we went for a walk too…

Mommy, what’s this? (I also dunno)

Gosh, there are dogs everywhere!

After visiting 9 temples (thank god), we went to Central Pinklao for dinner and shopping.

Enjoying their cold ramen. Nice meh??? But they like it.

I made a promise not to shop, so I only bought food that evening. While waiting of my shopaholic SIL to grab some clothes, we enjoyed our ice-cream from Baskin-Robbins.

Mmm…yummy ice-creams!

BIL bought an ice-cream cake for the kids, but they felt asleep on the way home. We supposed to cut the cake at home, but the kids were too exhausted. Last night, we went to his house again for the cake, but he came back late. Both Justin and Isabelle felt asleep on the couch and they missed the cake cutting again!

But never mind, I will surely bring them over for the cake tonight. They have been waiting for the cake for 2 days!

Baby cannot come in!!!

Actually, not only baby cannot go in the room. Even mommy is also being pushed away. Aiyo…

Mommy also stay out of here. 

But anyway, it seems like they are enjoying each other’s company more, so mommy can concentrate on doing my job. I am only busier in the late afternoon, so the timing is right. At least I don’t have to crack my head between work and kids and cause myself more acne. LOL!

I think I’ve blogged so much, my brain is a bit ku ku right now. So I better get back to my work instead of crapping writing so much online. LOL!

We haven’t thought of doing anything yet this weekend. Maybe I should bring them to the park this weekend and let them have fun playing catch with the Baseball Gloves. I found some kiddie baseball gloves the other day, but I haven’t bought them. Maybe they won’t be able to catch the ball, but they can still learn how to do so and one day they will master the skill.

However, Isabelle’s hands are very small. I wonder if she can fit in the glove? LOL! But anyway, she can enjoy throwing the ball and she is very good at that. They used to do this when we were back in Ipoh as the house compound is much bigger. But over here, I hope that they won’t accidentally throw the ball at other people at the park unless I know how to say “sorry” in Thai!

However, hubby likes those stuffs. If he knows any Art Moving company, maybe he will try to move some of the figurines over here to our new home. Most of these objects are very fragile, so it’s not easy to move them. You will need to find those art moving companies with experience  in packing and handling the masterpieces. They can’t just be shipped by sea like the way we did for our stuffs! Some of our boxes were opened and torn, and some of my kids’ wooden toys are ruined too. So, those fragile China and figurines will definitely break before they even reach here.

Thus, if hubby wants to place anything fragile of his liking, he can do so at the office. My kids only come here in the evening, and they have a kids room now. I guess the possibility of them breaking the objects is much lower here!