CKD's Little Rosebud Village

My little CKD has a massive imagination. A few months ago I noticed her playing with my collection of Starbucks Bearista Bear magnets that I collected way back when I was still working in Starbucks. Have no idea what stories she was making up because she was telling it in her own language which sounds mostly gibberish to me. Now she doesn't speak gibberish anymore but sound totally like a big small boss.. -

"Okay mama, enough. No more"she says when I'm having some of her juice.
"I taknak! (I don't want!)" when we tell her to go have a bath
"Pigi mandi! (Go shower!)" her way of telling us to go away..don't ask!:P
"MY teacher say put in my bag" to tell me that she brought back a book from school and its in her bag..
"Naiya kacau Keisha!" fibs she tells when she wants her baby sister to leave her alone. Yes, she calls her baby sister Rania - Naiya

Her vocab has improved a lot. And also has some mandarin and spanish thrown into her vocab thanks to Dora the Explorer and Ni Hao Kai Lan.

So anyway, over the weekend, we went to Mothercare in Subang Parade just to window shop at the Christmas Sale that was going on. And little miss CKD discovered the Rosebud Village set. After some negotiations with the little boss, I finally submitted to getting her the Family Doll set comprises of a mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, big sister and a baby.

Rosebud Village Family Dolls

 She instantly associated the doll family to our family with the grandparents being my mom and my FIL (need to get another grandma to include her mak tok!)

Since it was on sale, I managed to get the dolls at RM40 instead of the normal RM60. And as I was paying for the dolls, the salesgirl asked if we already had the dollhouse and she said that it was going at a really cheap price of RM300 (cheap kee????!!!) I politely said no and declined. But she passed me the sale brochure which included all the other sales items anyway.

Rosebud Village Dollhouse

Suami got a hold of the brochure and immediately snapped photos of the dollhouse and sent it to his mother. So I asked him why is he sending the photos to MIL. He explained that she has been wanting to get CKD a toy kitchenette that costs about that price range but he declined because CKD was prone to destroying it. This based on experience when a cousin of his gave us her daughter's kitchenette set and yes..CKD ended up tearing it apart.

But this dollhouse we knew was going to be different. And so MIL replied saying its a go to get CKD the dollhouse and she'll reimburse us for it.

When suami told me so, I got even more excited than CKD! LOL! Because the dollhouse is originally RM699 and was only going for RM300 and it was beautiful! I immediately called the Mothercare outlet in BSC and booked a set because the one and only set in Subang Parade was already booked. They said I could come and pick it up Sunday morning because I had class til late on Saturday.

However, my class somehow ended early that night and when suami picked me up from class together with the girls, I said why don't we just go and pick up CKD's dollhouse straightaway. I could sense suami was just as excited coz he was so eager to get home and assemble it and didn't even allow me to help!

With the parents excited, you can just imagine how excited CKD was seeing her father putting the dollhouse together!

With all seriousness!

We also managed to grab a dining set that was going for RM60 (from RM105) when we paid for the dollhouse so CKD was ecstatic getting her dolls to sit down and eat.. kept on calling us "Mama! Sit down eat!"

Dining Set

That night, she slept with her dolls. It was the only way we managed to get her to go to bed.

Making sure the dolls are sleeping next to her

So from now onwards, I'll be collecting these Rosebud Village items to complete the house furniture and maybe when there's a sale at mothercare, maybe we'll proceed to other Rosebud Village items like the farms and hospital and school *faints!*

I have started a VERY expensive hobby and toyset for my CKD but seeing how she appreciate it (she's still not bored of the dollhouse even after playing with it day and night for the past few days! The longest so far! She'd normally start to terrorize her toys after a few hours of playing with it!) makes it all worth it. And honestly, I'm even more excited to get them for her because they are so cute and well made! Would've gotten them for myself but that would have been useless wouldn't it? ;)

So the rest of the Rosebud Village Dollhouse furniture that will be on the list are

Top from left: TV room set, Bathroom set, Kitchen set
Bottom from left: Figurine set, Kids Bedroom set, Main Bedroom set (got it!)

Can I make a wish list for her birthday next year?*hint hint*

Review: Richard Branson - Losing My Virginity

I have always been a fan of Richard Branson (read: Hollywood Bug). And recently, my choice of reading materials have changed from general fiction or chic lit to autobiographies or true account or motivational (sudah tua!) So my current read is Richard Branson's 'Losing My Virginity - The Autobiography'

A lot of people in my office that saw the title of the book gave me a funny look, because they didn't know who Richard Branson is..wth right???

But anyway..I can't seem to put the book down and always end up missing my train stop when I'm reading it (the only time I get to read is when I'm commuting to/from work) Its funny, personal and most definitely inspiring. He has been at the bottom of the wheel for many times in his career but has always persevered and took the risk to push harder. Obviously he's succeeded..

The thing about him that I discovered from the book is that he works crazy hard and a fair man in running his business, believing in taking care of his employees first, followed by the customers and then the stakeholder - which makes a lot of sense actually. He gets his inspiration and ideas from the surroundings, always wanting to provide what's missing or lacking in the current scene, wanting to make the world a better place. He sees the niche in the business and takes action upon it. Something I lack..taking action.

But most importantly, I think the secret to his success are the people that surrounds him, mostly his parents. They've been his biggest supporter right from the very beginning. If I were ever able to do the a piece on the success of Richard Branson, I would start by interviewing his parents. They've put up with all his adventures and pulled him out from his mishaps. Supporting him all the way.

I wish to one day be as supportive to my children as the Bransons were to Richard. Hopefully they'll be as successful as he is one day..

Most of the parts in the book that would make me laugh are usually of conversation or statements that Richard's father made..a excerpt from the book

More than anything, I marvelled at the sense of humour of the man who had seen it all! One fantastic example of this was early one morning on his birthday; we'd all just woken up and were quite grumpy after a night in the tent but Dad was beaming. We were all intrigued until he said: 'If I was Catholic I'd be doing penance today. I had the most wonderful dream. It involved a girl.'

'Did you misbehave with her?' I asked.

Quick as a flash Dad replied: 'I don't know what you mean. Well I behaved. She was outrageously naughty!' And this from a man in his eighties!

I haven't fully finished the book, on the last 2 chapter of it. Secretly delaying the book hoping there is more because I enjoyed it too much. Don't know if I would enjoy his other books as much as I've enjoyed this one, but maybe I'll give it a try after I've finished reading my Big Bad Wolf purchases! (made some delightful 'damages'!)