My boy was only 3 then, sweats a lot and didn’t fancy anything over his head. Also, there were limited characters he was familiar with since he’s a HUGE Thomas the Tank Engine fan. He also only knew about:
- Bob the Builder and
- Fireman Sam

Gosh, I wish we could have bought these *CUTE* costumes (with the accessories!!!):

As I only had ONE costume outlet to shop at, I only found the little Musketeer the most suitable. To join in the fun, I dressed up as a Musketeer myself. It was pretty easy since I only needed a buccaneeer blouse, stretch pants (like jodhpurs) tucked into boots. I also got myself a feathered hat to match LOL

This year, he’s into more characters as he’s reading more Winnie-the-Pooh books (he used to identify with “Roo” and loves “Tigger” but now he says he looks like “Christopher Robin”).

After watching Batman & Robin and Batman Returns (rather violent and I’ve hidden away the DVD), he’s declared himself as “Batman”. In jest, I said that I was “Catwoman” and he found that really funny! I guess poor Dad is Robin LOL

He just *LOVES* the segment when Batman puts on his costume - you know, the mask, the gloves, the utility belt and of course, the arrival and opening of the Batmobile!

For now, I approve of Batman (and not Superman due to the fantasy of flying off roofs) and think he’d look really cute strutting about in a Batman costume

Check out the Batman, CARS, Musketeer and Winnie-the-Pooh costumes below:

Here’s another outlet for Halloween costumes:

Unfortunately, his preschool here will NOT be celebrating Halloween, which means his Batman fantasy is very much confined to the TV. Sigh! I hope that they’ll have drama, dress-up sessions and theatrical events though because he LOVES imaginative play and dressing-up…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Have fun dressing up

A young married woman myself (with a living husband), I certainly didn’t want to read about such a horrifying situation.

When my father died suddenly in 2008, PS, I Love You was the first book I grabbed from the bookstore. When you lose someone so dear and important in your life, it didn’t matter whether the protagonist in the book was a woman, a man and whether the person who died was their father or husband. I just NEEDED to read a book about someone else who’d recently lost their loved one.

P.S. I Love You is about Holly who loses her childhood sweetheart and husband, Gerry, to cancer. A few months after he dies, Holly finds a package Gerry sent to her mother’s house - it contained 12 letters for her - one to open each month!

Of course, Holly is very, very happy to grasp at this last “conversation” with her beloved Gerry, especially as her only fragment left of Gerry was his voicemail recording. When his scent starts leaving his clothes, the bedding and the apartment in which they live in, Holly looks forward to the beginning of each month when she can still “keep in touch” with the dead Gerry.

The letters really help Holly to get through the first year of Gerry’s death because they got her out of the house, focused on DOING something new and also to move forward in her life.

Reading P.S. I Love You, I could identify with:

• her desperation to hold on to EVERYTHING that reminded her of her happy times with Gerry. Unless you’ve lost someone who died, it must seem crazy to you when one clings on to the dead person’s photos, personal items,  clothes, cigarette ashes - anything that person used, bought or used;
• her sense of loss and confusion. Gerry was Holly’s anchor and compass in life. He motivated her, helped her to focus on what’s important and most importantly, set her on a straight path ahead. Similarly, my father’s personal values, beliefs and expectations keep our family together - even though we didn’t agree with him on a lot of things, we knew exactly EXACTLY where he’d stand on various issues in life. Losing such an anchor can really shake you to the core until you find yourself again…
• “It’s been a year. You’re STILL grieving over him?” The most common, over-used and over-rated sentence I’ve heard said to my mother and our family is “Time will heal.” Yes, that’s right and the sentence isn’t “Time will heal in ONE YEAR.”

When someone has been an important part of your life (50-100%?) for more than 10 years, how do you expect that person to get over his death or absence in just 1 year?

I really sympathize with Holly here because she is a young widow and when she is seen with another man within a year of Gerry’s death, tongues wag and people even accuse her outright of being “unfaithful” to her late husband.

I find it really ironic that people would say, “He’s gone. Look ahead of you. Move on with your life.” but when she actually does that, people are shocked! Somehow, they expect her to continue being the Black Widow and if she does…I’m sure they’ll go tsk, tsk, tsk, “She can’t let go of the past“.

And somehow, people seem more forgiving of the depressed, grieving person even though they’ll say, “She should have moved on with her life…” when a young widow ends up alone and sad.

How many people do you know who’ll say,

“Wow, look at her now! She’s gotten over her dead husband and is moving on with a new life. A fresh start. I’m sure her husband will be comforted to know that she’s getting on well without him. She can survive.”?

Before my father died, he was worried for us and left a few last instructions (which, of course, got us all angry because it felt like he had given up hope). On hindsight, they were his last messages. And I sure wish he’d left us more because now, we’ve only got his diaries, his books, his lectures and of course, our memories.

Overall, I think P.S. I Love You is a good read for someone going through grief and loss. However, I think the book painted a rather rosy and perfect picture of “life after a death” because Holly found replacements for the various roles Gerry played in her life through her father, Gerry’s best friend, Holly’s older brother, Holly’s younger brother and her new male friends.

Real life isn’t like that at all!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

# Publisher: Hyperion (November 6, 2007)
# ISBN-10: 140130916X
# ISBN-13: 978-1401309169

First, his parents are divorced but his erratic, reckless motorbike-riding father doesn’t seem to want to move on because he stalks his ex-wife and her new boyfriend frequently.

His mother is another crazy case - she’s so caught up with making it work out with her new boyfriend (another weirdo who is super calm and cool and snaps photographs of EVERYTHING), she doesn’t realize that Joey needs her attention.

Joey’s paternal grandmother is the best! She suffers from a chronic lung condition and is just about the nastiest, meanest, most foul-mouthed old lady you’d ever meet. And she smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and never fails to buy the lottery.

Ironically, this mean old lady is the one who loves Joey the most - she took care of him since he was a baby and ultimately knows him inside out. She also realizes that both of Joey’s parents are too caught up in their own selfish needs to be able to give him the attention, care and encouragement a special boy like him needs.

And she also knows that what Joey needs most is a friend and she tells Joey that she’ll only roll over and die when he finds one.

If you’ve ever been around children with ADHD, you’ll know that they NEVER sit still! Yup, they are so “wired” that they literally bounce off the walls. Joey’s ADHD is kept under control with medicinal patches and he’s even learned to snap on an extra one on days he’s especially S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D.

What’s sweet about Joey is that he grew up thinking he’s A PROBLEM that he goes around being Mr. Helpful - he goes to the supermarket to pick up and re-stack the fallen cans on every shelf for FREE! I thought the supermarket manager could have rewarded him with something in appreciation…

He also tries to be the best little boy for his mother who is always moaning and whining about her failed marriage and how she wants to make her new relationship work. The poor fella - imagine a child being an adult to an adult who acts like a child?

Finally, his mother takes him out of regular school (which he loves) and forces him into a homeschooling environment organized by an infinitely religious Christian neighbour with a blind daughter.

The homeschooling situation is the WORST of Joey’s problems because the blind girl is the total opposite of Joey - she’s extremely spoilt by her mother who feels guilty over her child’s blindness AND she is frustrated by her mother’s overprotectiveness and religiousness.

Because of this, she is DELIGHTED to prey on her ideal victim - the earnest and honest Joey It’s amazing the types of trouble she could get him into!

The book title actually comes from the girl’s mother’s rug at the door entrance = “WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?”. Every morning when Joey arrives at her doorstep for ’school’, she would ask: “What would Joey do?” You’ll laugh when you read his responses to her strange question.

However, Joey soon learns that he can use this to his own advantage…

What happens to Joey? Can he stay sane and save himself from his CRAZY family? You’ll have to read “What Would Joey Do?” yourself to find out. I guarantee you this book will keep you peeled to its pages right from the start!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

# Publisher: HarperCollins
# ISBN-10: 0060544031
# ISBN-13: 978-0060544034

A middle child with two other sisters, Andrea and Kirsty, Anna’s mother knew she had a problem when she refused to attend preschool. Finally, when Anna was told that she HAD to attend school, the young girl panicked.

For nearly 7 years, she lived by herself in the secret rooms, only showing her presence briefly (like a ghost) to her younger sister, Kirsty.

She went berserk when she hit puberty at 12 and let her hair grow matted, her body grow stinky with body odour and her acne run wild. After a while, she thought:

“Was I really a monster? Or was I just plain dirty? If I washed and combed my hair, cleaned the dirt out from under my nails and changed into clean clothes…”

she realized that she looked quite presentable

Anna is happy in her own little world when she discovers a note written by ‘F’ declaring his love for ‘A’. She posts a reply and is surprised to find another note in return! They begin a regular correspondence…

One day, Anna overhears her mother dating a man who wants to marry her and move the family to a new house.

Furious and angry that she would be abandoned after all she had done for them (young Anna is a wonderful seamstress who makes beautiful clothes and also a handy repairman!), she flung herself about and drummed her heels against the wall in a rage.

‘F’ hears her and he and Kirsty visit Anna in her secret world. Together, they hatch a plan to bring Anna back into the real world. Will Anna be able to come out of her shell? With her friends’ help, she just may be able to…

Reading “The Woman in the Wall” gave me an idea of how an extremely shy person feels about herself and about everyone around her. I’m an outgoing person but I do have friends who need a bit of prodding, urging or threats to join in activities and events.

Just like Anna in the book, these “shy” friends of mine got more help from annoying friends like me (who is always bugging them to join in) than parents who:

a) declare to the rest of the world (in their presence) that their kid is “shy” or
b) ‘force’ them to join in activities and events when they clearly don’t want to.

Seriously, this makes the problem worse! If you have a shy child or if you’re shy yourself, do read about Anna’s experiences in “The Woman in the Wall”.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

We’ve been barely back for 2 weeks and he’s already using less and less Chinese. Although he still uses a bit of Chinese, I can imagine how easy it is for him to stick to English completely since:

• we speak English at home;
• we read English books to him;
• he’s watching his VCDs in English AND
• the new kindy (as with many of the kindergartens or preschools here) he’s enrolled in emphasizes English…

Although the principal mentioned that Chinese is used during the second half of the day, in reality, he listens, speaks and reads English for nearly 3 hours and has casual conversations (if any) in Chinese with the attending caregivers.

Since it took him nearly 3 months to finally pick up the courage (or vocabulary) to converse with his teachers, friends and neighbours in Chinese in China, I’d hate to see him lose this second language he has acquired.

Solution? I’m hoping to find a Chinese teacher who could come to our home twice a week for Chinese conversation, nursery rhymes, flashcards and reading. Keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to find a lady as nice as his preschool teacher in China!

Are you learning Chinese too? Check out these resources: