老同事聚餐

上个星期六和一班旧东家的同事们搞了个聚餐。有七八个那么多，都是偕老伴小孩一起来。
最久远的该有八年没见了，有的发福了，有的沧桑了许多。现今都各自在不同公司，有的当了主管级人物，有的还有暇兼营保险事业。可谓各有成就。
话题虽然不多，但胜在彼此默契犹在。大伙儿志在闲话家常，问问近况。
闲谈中也不难发现到，大伙在心智上真的成熟了很多。对生活的要求及领略也踏实了许多。 那也许是时光及人生历练所造就出来的吧。
这是个蛮难得的一次聚会，虽只是短短三局钟，但却也真难能可贵。
还是希望有空再来聚聚。

Puzzles

2 years old being a new milestone for Wen Jia. She has started showing interest in things that she didn't ever bother to take a second look on. One such example is her interest in puzzles.
I bought a simple set of puzzles with a maximum of 8 building blocks each. Each with farm and pet animals such as dog, cat, duck, cow that Jia Jia is exposed to from various sources such as educational VCD, story books, and flash cards.
She showed interest after a few rounds of playing. Most importantly, either Siew Wei or myself has to accompany her in solving the puzzles. We were by her side to show encouragement as well as praise her when necessary for her "achievement". With that, she built her interest in these puzzles and has since volunteering to play them every now and then.
It is crucial to start with simple puzzles so not to discourage the kids. Even adults find it hard sometimes to solve moderate to difficult puzzles so why burdening our children to do the same!
I am happy with what Jia has achieved and will continue to add into her collection some new puzzles in future.