Book Xcess Invation

I have a confession to make. I just cannot resist myself whenever I come across a book sale. I'll go bonkers! Normally it's easier to avoid the temptation because of the travelling one has to make to a book fair. But this time around, it's reversed because the book fair came to me! Not to me literally but to my office.

Book Xcess did a book fair at the lobby of my office and what convenience for us book lovers. How can I not make several pit stops anytime I can to browse through the books and see which books I can bring home. A chance not to be missed since most of the time their book fairs are held in shopping centres or exhibition centres. The book fair was held for three consecutive days and the response were overwhelming. I hope they come back again to do more book fairs in my office.

I was like a kiasu person grabbing the books I wanted and told the Book Xcess staff to hold the books for me because if I spend more than RM100 worth of books, I can apply to be a Book Xcess member. Then on the last day of the book fair when I finally did my payment, I made sure that it's more than RM100. That crazy huh?

So let me share with you the books I took home..hehe.

Book Xcess in my office's lobby! A popular corner where the recipe books are. (Photo courtesy of aqishas.blogspot.com)

The fiction corner. Photo courtesy of aqishas.blogspot.com Thanks Siti!

This is 'my' corner. :P Photos courtesy of aqishas.blogspot.com

Couldn't resist this book because of the 5 jigsaws inside and it's a book of manners. 

A two-pages shot of the book inside. Elizabeth already tackled the jigsaws herself.

An activity book for Joseph that comes with 50 gold stars and sticker badges.

Simple activities to prepare Joseph for pre-school. Gold star stickers to reward him after he finished a page.

A workbook for Elizabeth.

She's not doing so good in the Maths department, so I figure this book can help her practise.

Another activity book for Joseph.

Some 'note-to-parents' inside the activity book and the contents.

I told the kids that there will be a book fair in my office, so I asked each of them what kind of books they would like me to buy. Joseph said he wanted a cars book. So here it is as promised a Disney Pixar Cars book. The kind that he likes too with pull tabs and pop-up.

This is what I meant by the pull tabs. You pull the tab and there'll be some movement as if Lightning McQueen came to live.

An interesting box book. The title says it all. Book costs RM 19.90.

It comes with a book with lift-up flaps, some X-rays and some gadgets to experiment how your body works.

As usual, my princess asked for a princess book. So I got her this thick Disney Princess storybook.

Last but not least, since I've went over budget with the children books, I only bought this recipe book for myself. It is a book of recipes to do together with your children. Hopefully it will motivate me to do more cooking together with my children. :)

 

Boys With Guns, Girls Who Dance

What's with boys and their fascination with guns? I don't encourage and that's why I don't have a toy gun for my boy, Joseph. But still some how, some way he came to know about this thing called 'gun'. From where, I'm not certain but it could be the times when he got the chance to play with his cousin's toy gun or I blame it on the TV although violent or action movies are quite controlled in our household. Maybe it's just natural for boys?

Joseph knows how to build a gun by himself using blocks.

Watch the video to see him in action.

And what's the deal with girls and ballet? I don't know whether your girls are also interested in ballet. But mine is. My best friend said that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Maybe she's right because I learnt ballet when I was young too. Her father took her to the bookshop during CNY and asked her to choose a book. She chose this book called Ballerina Stories. She's so in love with this book that she reads it everyday! So interested was she that we signed her up for ballet finally.

A gift from papa.

The book has many stories in it.

Elizabeth getting ready for ballet class. Joseph is so curious about the ballet shoes.

My little ballerina and her accomplice. Peace out!

Big Bad Wolf Aftermath Sale

I did not manage to go to the Big Bad Wolf first sale in October. So when I heard that they are going to do another round called the Big Bad Wolf Aftermath Sale from the 24 -28 November 2011, I really didn't want to miss it this time around. The venue was in South City Plaza (Ok, I know this place. Shouldn't have problem finding it ^_^). So to the Big Bad Wolf Aftermath Sale I did and came back with some books in hand.

"The ones that were left behind" was the tagline and pretty much sums up most of the books you can find there. Some were torn, stickers were missing, stickers were pasted on the books already, CDs were missing and there were dog ears. But what do you expect for RM5 or less per book! The crowd was still manageable maybe because it was a weekday and it's not the last day of sale. But my goodness, some people really grabbed a lot of books like it's going to be doomsday. LOL. I saw one mother and her two children filled up two big carton boxes with books! :O

Since Christmas was the next month at the time of the sale, I got the books for my children and nephews as a Christmas present. I already had plans to use the books as Christmas present from hubby and me since their bigger present will be from ‘Santa’. Christmas presents cannot only come from Santa right? The kids will surely ask how come they don’t have any present from me. So here are the books that I’ve bought. Aren't they a steal or what?

This is a colouring book with 3 crayons in the shapes of a honey pot, butterfly and star for RM3. One of the crayon is broken if you can see.

Toy Story 3 storybook and CD so that you can listen and read-along for RM 3

Little Einsteins book includes stickers for RM 2

Another Little Einsteins book with stickers but unfortunately one of the sticker is missing for RM 3

A Little Golden Book Classic, who wouldn't want to miss it! RM 3

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book for RM 3. My boy will like this. It's a lift-the-flap book with stickers.

A Scooby-Doo book for RM 2

Another Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book for RM 3.

I Love Jesus!

Since we didn't manage to catch the Big Bad Wolf Sales, we caught the Logos Hope Book Fair instead last Saturday. If it wasn't because of my mum and two nephews, we wouldn't have thought of going also. We met my mum and two nephews who were there for a day trip from Malacca.

Surprisingly, the journey didn't take that long to reach Port Klang Cruise Centre. It was a gloomy day and the skies were threatening to rain but fortunately it did not. Someone must have prayed hard. LOL. Upon reaching the car park, I started to worry by judging at the amount of buses and cars. Then as I was fast approaching the ticket counter, I saw the long queue waiting to go up the ship (started to cold sweat already!). After I enter the ship and saw the sea of crowd (like exaggerating only), I started to panick already! Never mind, I told myself to keep calm since I've come all the way. Might as well just get on with it and finish the journey. 

My mood was a little dampen by the crowd, so I didn't get to browse through every rack thoroughly. I managed to get four books though. The children and I are happy with the books just that I'm not so happy with the price. I only managed to get one RM8 book. >.< Oh well, can't stinge so much on books because books are precious and knowledge is power. Hehe. 

Port Klang Cruise Centre.

Can't get a nice picture of the boat with children who can't keep still..:P

Hey is that Spongebob Squarepants?

The Logos Hope Ship.

I took this pic while queing up. If you think this is not terrible, wait till you see inside.

Finally, it's our turn.

Take a pic while waiting for the short presentation to start. Elizabeth and her signature peace sign.

Joseph already getting restless and started to walk around.

All I see is just heads. I felt like shouting, "HOT WATER!" So that everyone would move aside and make way for me to walk at ease. LOL.

On the way out of the ship. The story of 'The Prodigal Son' there.

I'm Eli the sailor moon..eh..girl!

I'm Joseph the crew boy!

With Elizabeth it must be Disney Princess. This book for RM32.

This Toy Story book for Joseph at RM32.

This lovely book with a CD of Christmas Songs for RM8!

This book about Jesus for RM20.

Talking about books, that comes to the title of this post. I was reading the book "The Beginner's Bible:Jesus and the Children with Elizabeth the other day. Along the way she asked me some questions and I explained to her that Jesus loves all children, including her. In the book, the children also loves Jesus and loves to follow Him. So I explained to her that the children loves to be around Jesus because He is very kind, loving and helpful. She felt so good after reading the book that she exclaimed, "I love Jesus! He's so beautiful!"

I felt so good after hearing that and I have never been happier. So proud of her. ^_^

To Be A Bookworm Or Not?

I love reading. Story books, interesting blogs and only articles in the newspaper that interests me. I am not an avid reader though because I don't fill my house with books and read one book after another. Maybe that's because I don't have the opportunity. Time is not in favour with me when my hands are full once I reached home. My mom told me that when I was a child, I loved to browse through story books and my kindergarten teachers also noticed that and made a comment in my report card.

Now that I have children of my own, I would also want them to love books. I hope they can be bookworms la but I'm not asking them to be nerds. LOL. I've read from parenting websites or magazines that we can actually start introducing reading to our child as early as 0 months! But I was thinking crazy la. As if the baby would give a damn and I'll be like an insane person trying to read to a baby who can't even see things clearly at 0 months. But it seems it can be done and it's probably just to introduce books and cultivate the reading habit in our child.

The most recent picture I have of her reading.

And so I was quite gung ho about it and being a first time mom before Joseph came along, I started quite early (considered early la by my standards). I read to Elizabeth I think at the age of 6 months. I read to her pop-up books and lift-the-flap books to make it more interesting and encourage her to interact. You can imagine the joy I had when after a few times she was able to anticipate the right time to lift the flap herself after I finish a sentence. I usually read to her before bedtime and it became a routine. So I'm not surprised that she loved reading books. These days, I still read to her before bedtime and ever since she started kindy she can recognise many words and finish reading a book by herself. She was the top reader in her class last year. I hope she will maintain it this year. :) Somehow, I've noticed she became a little lazy recently and only read before bedtime. Thanks to the idiot box! I guess consistency is the key and we must continue to introduce new books to maintain interest. I do buy books but not all the time. My house have no space for too many books and I will be poorer la. Fortunately, we have the national library and I'm a regular there. ;)

Now with Joseph it was a bit tricky. Lets admit it. After being promoted to a second time mom, we can get a little lazy due to age and limited time. We're aging and have less energy. We have two children to divide attention now and it comes with even more chores to do. After doing all that sometimes we have no energy to pick up a book and read to them. You just want to rest and take a breather for a while. Many excuses and reasons huh? But it's true. Maybe I did a mistake or maybe he's just a boy. I started later reading to Joseph. Probably after 6 months but before he was 1 year old. I did the same thing but wasn't that consistent. Sometimes I miss a day or two. He was quite interested but he was also interested in turning the page so quickly! LOL. Maybe boys have shorter attention span.

Imitating the way I read to him by pointing at the words.

Relieved to finish a book? LOL

Aiyah..have to read some more?

These days, I tried to be consistent and read to him everyday. The difference I noticed between the both of them is that sometimes I have to drag him for reading time but not with Elizabeth. I have to read faster with Joseph before he shifts his attention. He can't wait to turn the page and he is more in control rather than me. After finishing a book, he won't browse the book again for long. When Elizabeth was his age, she used to browse quite long until I had to snatch the book away from her because I want her to go to sleep. So will he love books as much as his sister and become a bookworm? I can only cross my fingers.