How To Stay Safe - From Children's View

The recent case of a 15 year old being murdered, has made me extremely worried about my girls. (What is this world coming to?)

I went on to share with the girls some of safety measure they could take to prevent themselves from being a victim. Just to make sure they understand it, their writing project yesterday was to write about How To Stay Safe.





One thing still missing from their list, that is to keep their parents informed wherever they go. I have to continue to drill that.

And mind their spelling, they don't use spell check like us adults on the PC/phone/tablets.

(Zaria still have a very vague understanding of what rape is, but Zara knows what happen in a rape, and she said it's too disgusting to write it down in her journal.)

Bubbles, Our New Dog

For the longest time, the girls have been asking us for a dog. Last weekend, we succumbed to their request.

Bubbles, a 2 year old West Highland Terrier, was adopted, and moved in with us on Sunday.




I'll let the girls tell you about him.

From Zaria.




From Zara.

Zaria Missing Her Sister

We sent Zara off to a holiday camp meant for 8yrs and above.
How fast they are growing up. Sigh.
I asked her if she was fine on our drive to the pick up point, and she told me she's a bit scared (scared not being near us) but at the same time excited with what she would be doing, and the people she would be meeting.

It was with mixed feelings I saw her carrying her overnight bag climbing into the car that would transport her to camp. Zaria's face turned gloom when she saw her jiejie closing the car door.

This is the very first occasion where Zara is away from home, without her parents (it's always either the hubs or me will be with the girls; only once we had to leave the girls at their aunt's house because both of us had to travel for work); this is also the first time Zaria won't get to sleep with Zara.

So how are the girls doing?

We called Zara at camp yesterday night.
Me : Are you ok?
Zara : Yes ma. We are having so much fun.
Me : Everything is alright then?
Zara : Yeah.. I'm having so much fun.
(sounding impatient, like she couldn't wait for the conversation to end to get back to whatever she was doing)
Me : Anyway, just wanted to tell you, Zaria missed you.
Zara : Oh... (2 seconds) But ma, I'm having so much fun. The river swim was so fun.. We got leeches all over our hands.
Me : Ewww... but aren't you afraid of leeches? (I had a leech clinging on to me once in Sri Lanka, and the girls were all screaming like they had seen ghost.)
Zara : No, I just flicked them off my hands.
Me : Oh wow. Alright. You have fun then..Bye. Love you.
Zara : Ok ma, love you. (put the phone down real fast).

I told Zaria about our conversation, and Zaria asked, "Huh? She doesn't miss me?"

And this morning, she woke up asking me "What bed did jiejie sleep on?" "What do you think she ate for breakfast?"

Per the usual holiday routine, Zaria did some homework from me, and then did her journal writing in the morning (and painted her nails in between doing these.)


And this was what she wrote and drew in her journal (she always like drawing first, then writing, as though planning out the scene).




My sweet sweet girl, missing her sister badly.