Happy XoKoTo

Year of Dragon

2012-01-21T13:20:00.009+08:00

So fast.
Tomorrow is already Lunar New Year eve.
So occupied with so many stuff that I have forgotten Xuan's Chinese Birthday!!! Tsk tsk tsk...
It was only when she asked me this morning that I quickly checked the calendar and discovered that it was YESTERDAY! Very guilty.

Kai started having fever this morning.
What a way to start the Year of Dragon!
Well, it was kinda of expected... festive celebration always (if not 90% of the time) turns out this way. I'm just so "lucky!"

Here are some recent photos to go with the update.
I wish my family, friends and YOU a blissful and healthy Dragon Year.
愿大家身体健康，平安快乐，幸福安详。

A better year please

2012-01-07T13:58:00.005+08:00

Things are up and running

more or less.

Life in the past weeks was scary

You lived in a world that seemed to have stopped while everyone else moved on..

The year has passed

I didn't have time to bid it goodbye

The new year has begun

I didn't have time to welcome it

Anyway, I hope 2012 will be a better year for the whole family.

The kids are back to school and the husband is back to work

I am back to fetching the kids and husband to and from school and from work.

Life is back to mundane...cleaning, washing, and cooking..

Living a mundane life is a blessing..

Unfortunately, we are governed by impermanence

This mundane is always broken by something unusual

I just hope it won't happen too often..

I don't need an exciting life. please, thank you.

Dreadful December

2011-12-23T12:43:00.000+08:00

I didn't know how to write this.
It took me a long while...
I was waiting for things to settle before I start recalling and documenting...
At this point, things weren't settled as yet.. but I thought I should just write something cos' I was living like there's no tomorrow.

The whole of December was emotionally draining.
Since his birthday in November, the husband has been feeling lethargic with coughs.
The coughs went on and off and dragged till December. Then on 5th December, he felt the pain in his tummy. He thought it was just mere gastro discomfort. But we started to suspect something when the pain dragged on for the entire week, without diarrhea. I made him see the GP on the 10th. That day, after the GP, he called back to say he needed to go for a CT scan at the specialist. That very same day, after the specialist, he called back again to say that he had to go for an operation for appendicitis at 5pm. Everything happened in a short span of few hours. But he procrastinated. The husband, with extraordinary high pain threshold, thought that the pain has gone and he should just take some antibiotics to treat the "mild" appendicitis. He didn't go for surgery that day.

We were torn by the suggestion to go for appendicitis surgery. He said that his symptoms were improving and didn't think his appendix will rupture. He lived on Milo and antibiotics for the next two days, hoping that the appendicitis will go away. He had occasional chills along the way. I had fever too but mine was an isolated flu case. I went to see the same GP (our family doctor) for my fever and cough on the 12th. The GP was worried for the husband. He called him personally to go for a blood test on the 13th. That very same day, he finally had the operation to remove his appendix. The laparoscopic appendectomy operation marked the beginning of a "long" hospital stay. He was hospitalised from 13th to 17th. The stay was long and draining for both of us. His post-surgery infections were bad. He was in severe pain the following day after the surgery and had fever. He was nauseous and vomited. He had delusions and he couldn't sleep. He was badly dehydrated. It was an ordeal for him and emotionally draining for me...

Now he is back home..

but not all well

he is still having low grade fever

He still needs to go for a blood test 2 months down the road.

His white blood count was exceptionally high when he was in hospital...

and the doctor advised him to check his WBC again after he is well, to be sure that all is indeed well...

...

It was a dreadful December.

Worried

2011-11-21T16:15:00.005+08:00

I think life is fair.

When you have a disciplined kid who gives you the least worry, you'd also have one who is exactly opposite on the scale. Yes, I'm referring to Kai.

I'm not sure how he is going to survive in Pimary 1.

He only responds to words like "cars", "play", "TV", "iphone" - he is especially deaf to words like "learn", "read", "write"...

Seriously, I am worried sick when it took ages for me to persuade him to sit at the table to do some writing.

"Come, come here, come and sit here, ... come now, sit here, right NOW!"

"Here, hold this pencil, hold it ... hold it NOW!"

"You just need to trace this alphabet, trace only... don't have to write it yourself"

"Ok, start tracing now."

"start now..."

"what are you doing?"

"I said trace this alphabet"

"hold the pencil properly"

"start tracing now... please"

"put your pencil here... here, here.... start here, at this point... start tracing, start... START!!!!!!!"

I'm serious.

It was this bad.

So exciting

2011-11-17T23:29:00.004+08:00

Everyone is getting so excited about tomorrow.

Yes, tomorrow. Not because it's the last day of school.

Well, sort of..., but more importantly, there are two significant events -

1. We are invited to Xuan's school for the 2011 Award cum Graduation Ceremony!

Yeah! She has done tremendously well and we are so proud of her.

We are going to smuggle her doting grandparents into the school as well. Shhh... don't tell, ok.

2. Immediately after that, we are all heading to Resort World Sentosa for a short staycation!

The kids are so happy. They have already packed their own backpack. Kai has been jumping up and down the whole evening just now... he is still chatting with daddy right now (10 min to 12 a.m.) and is too excited to sleep.

Let's hope everything goes well tomorrow.

Good night.

Therapeutic

2011-11-12T10:16:00.004+08:00

Listening to songs, singing or croaking for that matter, can be so therapeutic. Really.

Many times, I find myself lost in the kids' world - forgotten about this enjoyment.

I was contented just living each and every day drowning in noises...

until one day, when I was driving home alone from the kids' school, I pressed on the wrong disc player, which miraculously played all the songs I used to love.

The best thing was, for the first time, it wasn't playing Kai's favourite "爱的初体验" on disc 3 track 9.

And I fell in love with these oldies once again.

At home, I quickly checked out the Yamaha theatre system and the Blu-ray player but started to curse its inability to play CDs!!!

What was the use of a sophisticated sound system when it couldn't even perform the most basic function and provide the simplest pleasure???

I was about to dismantle it to pieces when I spotted a USB port on the blu-ray player.

So I inserted my thumb-drive, which contained all my favourite songs, and...

Voila! It worked!

BTW, I was never good with all these sound or Tech gadgets - how they connect to each other - which way in and which one out...

But somehow, with lots of button pressing, a myriad of determination and a great deal of desperation, I managed to do it!

It felt good.

Really good

- to bring music back to my life again.

SA2 2011... her first exam

2011-11-08T09:06:00.003+08:00

Results for SA2 main papers came back.

English 60/60

Maths 100/100

Chinese 69.5/70

So proud of you, baby!

*Muak*

Exam-anxiety

2011-11-01T14:50:00.006+08:00

The time reads 2.50 p.m.
HOORAY! The exam is officially over!

Today Xuan sat for her last paper - Mathematics.
She must be very happy by now.
I can imagine the exhilaration and happiness showing on her face NOW.
Yes, right now.
YEAH...! It's over!

*Erhem* If she was happy, I would be 20 times happier!
For the past week, and especially the day before each of her exam paper, I had read through, ingested and digested all her school textbooks, workbooks, worksheets, test papers... to help her with her revision. I highlighted all her mistakes to her, without her going through her entire stack of school work. I WAS the one revising!
[I can see your head shaking vigorously now. Don't judge.]

Occasionally, I would be questioned by the "invigilator" who did a surprise check and slapped a question like "How come she didn't know her punctuations, I thought you already went through with her?" in my face.

When she was in school for her examination. I watched the clock.
When the clock read 1.20 p.m., I told myself, "exam starts.."
When it ticked 2.50 p.m., I heaved a sigh of relief, "one down.."

Well, this was the first time she sat for her exams - REAL examinations - not those bite-sized assessments or short tests.
It was also my VERY FIRST EXAM after my last departure from school, when I had long forgotten what it tasted like to be EXAMINED. All of a sudden, scent of the burning mid-night oil came gushing back to me. And those mountain-high stack of lecture notes. Oh, oh... how could I forget that it almost cost me my sanity, when I forgot momentarily how to write or even spell for that matter - my.very.own.NAME, on the exam paper! That moment was really scary.
So you can't exactly blame me for my anxiety this time, can you?

Anyway, I am so thrilled that it was all over.
But I can't get over the fact that I have to sit through this ~~sh*t~~ exam-anxiety for the rest of her academic years.
Err... by the way, did I tell you that she is only in Primary TWO???

P.S.: Actually, Xuan has been doing consistently well in her studies this year. That was why I did not attempt to drown her with the entire year's school work for revision. During her examination period, she could even afford the same amount of play. No less. She was very disciplined. She needed minimal supervision. I could not even hold a candle to one-twelfth of her willpower at her age.

We are going to celebrate today.

How their baby faces have changed

2011-10-22T16:13:00.006+08:00

I was doing some housekeeping on the PC the other day and came across some old photos

and a recent one...

and realised how time flies
and how I missed their baby faces...

Kai's temper tantrums

2011-10-21T16:40:00.002+08:00

I am exceptionally happy with Kai today.
Simply because he is behaving very well.

Let me put this on record.
In fact, I have been having a very difficult time with Kai these few days.
His temper tantrums were getting worse.
He got upset easily.
He hit and kicked, whenever things went against his will.

This time, I'm attributing it to the iPhone again.

And I am blaming the Dad for giving him the phone after it has been renounced for a long while...

yet now iPhone has become an everyday demand whenever dad's home.

There wasn't any educational apps... but his all-time favourites -- Temple Run, Traffic Rush and the like, that could stir up his adrenaline too easily.

Sigh!

There must be a way to stop all these before it become worse.

You heard me, Daddy?

Playing cars together

2011-10-19T21:27:00.005+08:00

Nowadays, Xuan has turned to playing cars.

She likes playing cars as much as her younger brother does.
And she likes to play them together with him.

Instead of the usual Barbie and Ken chatting, shopping, and the mundane day-in-day-out activities, she actually enjoyed using Lightning McQueen, Mater, Francesco, Shu Todoroki in the cars play - talking, arguing, racing, winning... and more often than not - crashing, injured, rushed to hospital, and stuff. OK, to be fair, the crashing parts and the more violent plots are often dictated by Kai. Xuan's are mostly of sleepovers, cars performing on stage... sa ma ma ma la la la la...

But Kai will protest, "the cars don't want to go to the performance"
Instead, "You see..., Jiejie, Lightning fly up, there's a river here... WEEeee, and SSsplashhhh!
Well, they'd reach a win-win compromise somewhere somehow

But in the end, towards 11.00pm every night...
"Why Francesco races so fast??!!!"
"No! Lightning wins..."
"No, he wins..."
"NOOOOOoooo"

Exhaustion kicks in
No more compromises
One of them will cry

And that calls for the end of the play,
the end of the day.

Not a good way to end the play.
But without that, NO WAY are they going to end the day.

Fever fever go away!

2011-10-12T16:11:00.005+08:00

The week that passed was hectic and exhausting with the duo taking turns to fall sick with fever as high as 40.4 deg. Celsius. That was 1st October. Kai got it first. Three days later, Xuan caught it. The fever was really scary - it didn't go away after three days - it stayed for a good 7 days. No joke!

We had to dose them with Voltaren suppositories and I became an expert in pushing that stub into their butts overnight. Without those suppositories, I wouldn't know what would happen. The fever had made them vomitted, especially for Xuan. She couldn't take the oral Nurofen prescribed for high fever. A few seconds after she has taken Nurofen, she'd vomit - it never failed. It was messy.

Well, I'm glad it was over although there are still lingering coughs here and there...
I just have to pray hard that she doesn't fall ill again on her exam days.

Primary 2 examination

2011-09-24T11:51:00.005+08:00

In most primary schools, children are "streamed" according to their academic abilities at the end of P2. So the pupils from the first 3 classes in P3 are so-called top of the cream. No matter how much we parents disagree, it has become a reality that we have now came to accept, especially when your kids are currently in P2, as in my case. The system might change for the better, but we won't see the light that soon. Schools are still very much in the competitive mode.

Xuan is in P2 this year. She will be sitting for her year-end "streaming" examination in end October, which is like... one more month down the road!! Schools, principals, teachers, parents are all very competitive. It's not easy being a child at this age. There is nothing much we can do except to revise with her and help prepare her for the examination.

Chest pain and aches

2011-09-12T15:34:00.006+08:00

It all started with an innocuous pain on the left lower chest. Then it turned into sharp pounding pain with each deep breath. Next, the pain spread to lower left back. The pain was aggravated with each movement. I could hardly twist or turn. I could hardly walk straight. I could not lie down.

I had fever.

The best and wise thing to do was to see the doctor.
The doctor could not identify the cause and advised me to go for a chest X-ray and blood test.

X-ray showed pleural effusion, which is explained as excess fluid that fills up the fluid-filled space that surrounds the lungs.

There are many causes for pleura effusion.
One of them is pneumonia.
But it couldn't be pneumonia as I didn't have any cough.
So the GP advised me to see a chest specialist.

Oh yes, and I remembered that I crashed my chest into the marble counter top in the kitchen while doing work the other day. But there was no bruise in sight. So this cause was also ruled out. (btw, I have concluded that I should wear an armour when I work in the house..)

At the specialist, I was told to do another blood test for mycoplasma.
The result was negative.
So it couldn't be fungal infection.
Maybe it was other unknown bacteria.

I was prescribed with Avelox, an antibiotic which made me nauseous, giddy, blur, sometimes high, sometimes low, and more..
The pain was gone immediately after I saw the specialist.
The side effects of the drug was still there nonetheless.

Then, on the fifth day of antibiotic, I woke up with the pain on the right side of my back.
It couldn't be bacteria then.
And this warrant an immediate visit to the specialist.

Another X-ray taken...
The hb was with me all these while.
He was worried.
I knew he was thinking what I was thinking.
But we never spoke about it.

I tried very hard to focus on the positive.
But I broke down and cried when no one was around.
It was the thought of separation that brought me to tears.
the thoughts of leaving behind my hb and two young kids..
the regrets of not doing enough for the kids..
the agony of not able to watch them grow up..

That was even before I took my second X-ray.
I was so silly. But the thoughts were depressing.
We never know when in life we are going to fall ill and die.

Thankfully, the second X-Ray showed improvement in the pleural effusion.
Phew. It wasn't as bad as we thought.

I am well.
The rest are history..

Talking too much

2011-09-07T15:28:00.003+08:00

I'm not sure whether it is the age problem
but at 8, Xuan really likes to talk
She can go on and on and on... about the same topic, non-stop, until I had to say "ok, that's enough of talking."

Example:

Xuan: "Mummy, do you think mechanical pencil is better or normal pencil is better?"

Me: "I think mechanical pencil is better, I like mechanical pencil"

Xuan: "I also like mechanical pencil. But I think normal pencil is better... Do you know why? Because it is thicker. Some mechanical pencil lead are very light, but normal pencil lead are always darker."

Me: "That's not true, normal pencil also have lighter lead like HB, just like mechanical pencils"

Xuan: "Oh is it? Then I think mechanical pencil is better. I can write in nice handwriting using mechanical pencil. But sometimes, I still think normal pencil is better because........................"

If I'm not wrong, for the next 8 minutes, she was still on the same topic.
*slap forehead*

Colouring and CARS

2011-08-26T15:48:00.009+08:00

Kai loves cars so much that he has been colouring, painting and drawing them!
He especially loves the cars in CARS movie. His favourite is Lightning Mcqueen.

Recently, he was colouring the cars in his colouring book when I saw him coloured Mater wrongly. Mater was supposed to be brown in the CARS movie. So I asked,"Why do you colour pink here?"

His reply was "This is called ART!"

Btw, we caught CARS 2 as soon as it hit the theatre's screen on 25 August. Both kids were equally excited. Kai had been looking forward to that day. He kept chanting that it was his 'happy day'! We went to Shaw Theatre at NEX and watched the 3D show from 9.30pm to 11.30pm. On the whole, I felt that CARS 2 was more action-packed and its pace too fast for me. Hee.. I am those slow-by-few-beats type. So I still prefer CARS 1.

Throughout the show, Kai kept asking me what was going on.
"What did they say???" he probed almost every other second.
Well, he enjoyed the show nevertheless.

Lizards' stuff

2011-08-20T08:41:00.009+08:00

Adventures with lizards continued even as we shifted to this new house few months ago.
I was so looking forward to a fresh start---life without lizards!
But things just didn't work that way.

Everytime I dream about lizards, they'd come and greet me the very next day. It's that mystical. It's creepy! It was rather unfortunate that I seemed to dream about horrifying lizards very often recently. Sigh! But in a way, the dreams helped me to be on high alert.

By the way, I have tried very hard to keep the house lizards-free. Other than religiously cleaning the house and eliminating lizards' food source, I've also tried:

hanging empty egg shells near windows;

mixing TABASCO sauce with water and sprinkling them all over the house - err.. lizard-frequent spots, that it;

using PEST-STOP 5000 - electronic pest repeller that uses ultrasonic technology to chase lizards away; (this one is supposed to scare away cockroaches and mosquitoes as well)

Non-toxic RIDSECT repllent - deters the lizards ability to cling onto the surface and therefore prevent them from going back to the same spot; (I'm pretty sure this one works, cos' the other day I saw this little lizard that dropped to the floor after passing through the sprayed spots and it had to hop out of the house.. tsk tsk tsk, already told u not to come in!)

And finally, the rubber door seal to prevent lizards from crawling into the house. (The same tiny lizard mentioned above apparently resided in the corridor. It loved to visit me. It has came into our house a few times through the main door, despite being chased outside by a stick. I had quite an adventure with it. Now with the rubber door seal, I hope it will not come into the house again.)

Anyway, I'm not sure which of the above "smart technology" works best. Cos' it seems like I've used them all almost at the same time. Too smart. *shake head*

However, if you are as terrified and paranoid of lizards, just try them.
They are harmless methods anyway.

Best friend

2011-08-19T20:46:00.007+08:00

Kai's best friend in school is a girl - Jenny, who is very popular in class. I've seen her, she is very sweet and friendly - the next-door-girl who is every boy's dream. There is something special in her that attracts. I just couldn't tell.

Hmm... my son has taste. He told me he wanted to marry her. Haha...
There was a little small talk among the four of us (Xuan, Kai, Jenny and Me), outside Kai's school today.

Jenny: Hello Jun Kai.
(Being a shy and quiet boy in school, Kai just smiled and kept quiet)

Me: Hello!!

Me: Do you partner him? (pointing to Kai)

Jenny: (nodding her head) Yes, when I partner him, I smiled.

Me: Do you like him? (What a question!)
Jenny nodded her head.

Me: He said he likes you too!

Xuan to Jenny: Who is your best friend?
Jenny thought for a while and pointed to Kai.
Then, she held his hand and led him into the classroom.

Aww... this attractive little girl has stolen my heart.
Think I couldn't wait for her to be my future daughter-in-law... hahaha!

Hair

2011-08-12T18:05:00.004+08:00

Just when I was about to feel smart for choosing black ceramic tiles for the floor to camouflage dropped hair, I start to shed the whites...
ARGHHH...

What's happening on the homefront

2011-07-30T16:26:00.004+08:00

Has been pretty busy for the past several days.
The motivation to work harder and earn more income has somehow kicked in..
Guessed I was guilty for submitting too little indexing records for the past few months.
Partly also motivated by people around me who are earning 5-6K a month.
Oh well...

Some quick updates:

All is well on the homefront... except

Kai developed a new bad habit - licking his hands and fingers!!! He was all finger lickin' good and you wouldn't believe that he has never tasted KFC.

He has more cars than ever. All his cars were stored away and only rationed at appropriate times. So everybody thought he didn't have cars and kept buying more cars. Even he himself thought so. So whenever, an old worn-out and almost forgotten car made its appearance, he was happy as a lark. I used that to motivate him to write his ABCs and 123s, and to try new food.

As for Xuan, she came home from school, telling us:
so-and-so whispered something bad about her
so-and-so ganged up against her
so-and-so was so funny
so-and-so always get scolded by the teacher
and more often than not, she also came back telling us that she forgot to complete her homework...

She was having more nightmares than usual, especially after watching some playbacks or screenshots in school relating to racial disputes, or some poor limbless souls with great perserverance, or the loyal dog who stayed true to its dead master... the school just wanted to put across the values and morals, but those didn't seem to work on Xuan. She became fearful instead.

Last but not least,
boths kids are waiting anxiously for CARS 2 to made its debut here.
Read that it'd be 25th August.
Ka-chow!

The start of Kaisu syndrome - feeling pressured

2011-07-15T14:21:00.012+08:00

Yesterday, I chatted with the maid of a classmate of Kai. In the past, when I had maids, chatting with those 'made-your-blood-boil talents' was almost impossible. I had only secretly wished that they got flushed down the toilet bowl when they took hours to clean it - if only there was one big enough for them. Now, I treat maids as friends - we talk and chit-chat, just like what aunties do. When I'm not their employer and they are not my maids - it's a different story altogether.

Now, back to the story. This maid was telling me that the girl (classmate of Kai) went for tuition at Kumon. She said the girl also knew how to spell. Then I recalled the other day, the grandma of another classmate of Kai told me that her grandson was learning piano and English enrichment... immediately, i could feel the pressure. OMG, the K1 kids are all going for enrichment, piano, phonics, hanyu pinyin, Chinese, ...

What about Kai?
He only played cars at home!
Will he lose out in the rat race?
Then I started to contemplate if I should also send him to some kind of enrichment... you see, this was how the whole Kiasu syndrome arose... out of conversations, out of chit-chatting with fellow aunties. Scary.

But no. I am going to stand firm. I shall not waver. I shall not be pressured. As the wise saying goes, "Children are young only once". So Kai has the privilege to enjoy his childhood.
...
...
Before you knew it, I'd be standing next to him with a whip and forcing him to write his ABC's and 123's... ahahaaa !

Life's a contradictory constant.

Crying before school ritual

2011-07-08T12:03:00.003+08:00

Kai's crying before stepping into school has become a ritual.
He simply doesn't like to go to school.
He used to just cry and try grabbing a part of me so that I couldn't go.
sometimes, it was quite dramatic
other parents looked on in wonder..
I could hear sympathetic sighs

Now he is a bit better.
He still teared but can bid me farewell.
yup, these few days, he added a bitter-sweet message to spice up our little parting:

Bye Mummy
See you later
Be careful
Good luck!

Then his eyes turned red..
I wonder why the need for "good luck"
i guessed "it" was for me to be well so that I could fetch him from school later

Anyway, I'm already immune to his crying by now..

Hi five!

2011-06-28T14:14:00.005+08:00

Kai turned five yesterday.
I'm sure he had a great day.
Xuan promised not to fight with him on his big day.
He had his first birthday celebration in school.
He received all things relating to Lightning McQueen from Daddy.
He got to eat his favourite lolly twice in a day...
and Cheezels, M&M, KitKat...
All these made him a happy little man.

Happy Birthday, 帅哥!
Tons of love from Mummy, Daddy and Jiejie

Holidays fun

2011-06-26T10:26:00.001+08:00

Holidays are over.
Here's the fun they had.

Now, it's back to the routine.

I don't have green fingers

2011-06-24T11:31:00.006+08:00

She is Adenium Obesum.
Also known as desert rose or prosperity flower.
This was how she looked when she first came to live with us.
Barely two months down the road,
she became critically ill.
Her flowers withered
Her leaves turned yellow
and she was almost bald.

We grieved
We googled for remedies and prayed for miracle
Then, we had no choice but to send her to the nursery
The gardeners examined her closely
But couldn't find an answer for her condition
They said she had to be put under closer observation

So now, she was admitted.
Two weeks later, she might be discharged.
We are keeping our fingers crossed and waiting for the good news ..

I'm not even sure if you are a good mother

2011-06-11T15:36:00.005+08:00

Xuan came to me just now, and said doubtfully,
"Mummy, now I'm not even sure if you are a good mother."
These were her exact words, which I'd remember for life.

Calm and expressionless, I asked, "Why did you say that?"

She reasoned, "All my friends have tuition. Yee Rei (friend and neighbour) also said he went for Holiday classes. But I didn't go for anything... Why didn't you send me for tuition?"

Oh no, kids nowadays measure up by comparing what other parents are doing for their children.
Send kids for tuition = Good mother
I was speechless for a while before I explained to her the rationale of going for tuition and why tuition is not necessarily good for the kids.

Erm, but after this, I'm definitely going to send her for some tuition.
Not academic ones but spiritual ones though.
I have actually been sitting on this Rahula Sunday Service from Buddhist Fellowship for a very long time.

So, it's time I shake up my butt and start "move it move it!"
before Xuan came to me again and said "I'm not even sure if you REALLY REALLY REALLY is a good mother..."

Gardening

2011-06-08T17:01:00.010+08:00

I love flowers. I like their cheerful colours.
I can't resist taking pictures of them but I've never thought of growing them.

On the opposite, the husband is fond of growing plants.
When he declared that he was going to grow different types of plants and flowers after we have moved to the new house, I was against the idea.
I shuddered at the thought that I have one more "baby" to look after...
I quoted "mosquitoes" as the potential hazard
Until now, I am still not sure how plants could invite mosquitoes, but, err... just to throw up any possible risk so that the idea could be dropped (BTW, I didn't study Botany and have no clues about plants)

Anyway, my hypothesis was not convincing enough to fool the man
and we headed to the nursery soon after we shifted in.
At the nursery, MY ONLY question to the gardener was "uncle, which one doesn't need water?"
OK, now you know how hopeless I was.
Anyway, these plants and shrubs and flowers came home...
and my new journey to gardening began.

We brought home pots of:- small lime tree, foxtail fern, prosperity flower (desert rose), Cantonese "lu yao yit", and a pot of bright yellow-green shrub.
I watered them everyday
and watched them grow...
I am starting to like them secretly.

Few days ago, we visited the nursery again.
I chose a pot of Japanese rose, otherwise known as the "9 o'clock flower"

The plant was amazing.
It was supposed to bloom at 9 o'clock in the morning (read: bloom when there is sunlight) and closed up when the sun set.
I was intrigued and started reading up on plants and flowers.
By now, I am pretty much inspired
I do not mind watering them everyday now
except the pest control part, I'd still leave it to the husband (haha, he is the mastermind anyway)
So next, I'm going to grow all kinds of pretty flowers
and turn the planter box into a flower heaven
something to this effect...

Karaoke night

2011-06-05T09:14:00.007+08:00

Ha... finally got this out!

I tried many converters before getting this FREE one that converts my MTS file to MPEG to be downloaded here... it was a tough!

Well, I like how the kids sang their favourite "爱的初体验"
... can see they really can't wait to be "十八岁" !!!
Enjoy...

Learning good the hard way

2011-06-01T14:30:00.006+08:00

Kai is not an easy child to manage.
As you might already knew, he has several weird impositions on me... Only ME.
He used to demand that I always tie my hair - "cannot let down" were his exact words.
Thank goodness, after I cropped it off, he had stopped saying that.
Since young, he has been forbidding me to pee - Whenever I emerged from the loo, he'd questioned if I had peed?!
Oh, and I'm not allowed to say "OUCH!" - it's a forbidden word.
So, whenever I hurt myself, I'd have to bite my tongue and say "ARRRHHH" instead.

Until today, he still bawls his lungs out whenever he spills his water or even drop a tiny grain of rice.
I have told him several times that it was alright to drop or spill and there was no need to cry over such a small matter.
But my words all went heedless, and all he wanted was to lick up the spillage!
So whenever he wailed, we knew he had spilt something and it needed to be cleaned up immediately.
And I hated when he cried out loud in public places.
It wasn't easy to tame him down.

So today, I let him learn to be good the hard way.
I left both him and Xuan at the hawker table while I went a few stalls ahead to buy Roti Prata for breakfast.
He was drinking his water when he accidentally spilt some on the table.
He bawled out loud as expected.
I observed him from a distance.
He refused to stop crying.
All eyes in the hawker centre were on him.
Then Xuan ran to me to relate the spillage to me.
I asked Xuan to convey to him that "if he doesn't stop crying, strangers are going to ask him what happened and bring him to the police station nearby."
Sure enough, as he continued to bawl, a Muslim stall owner who couldn't stand his cries asked him what happened and suggested to bring him to the police!"
He stopped crying immediately.
His loud cries turned to wimpy sobs.
He was scared. I was secretly happy.

As we walked home, I tried to reinforce the lesson learnt.
It was unfortunate that he needed to learn good the hard way.
I really hope he learnt his lesson.

A peek at the new house

2011-05-27T15:30:00.010+08:00

We have kinda settled down in the new house and adapted to the new living... more or less. I'm pleased to have a brighter and airier kitchen. Both Xuan and Kai are happy to have their own bedrooms. And we are all contented with our new home location.

Take a peek.

Siblings' fights

2011-05-18T21:33:00.003+08:00

Xuan and Kai have been fighting. Everyday.
They fight over everything -- from being angry with each other for saying the wrong things to competing to be the first to press the lift, buckle the seat belt in the car...
They fight at home. They fight in the lift. They fight in the car.

Each time they fight, they'd be 'entertained' by the cane.
I've lost the patience to talk and explain things to them nicely.
Those talks never work. They always fall on deaf ears.

Sigh! Life's not so good at present.
I hear fightings everyday.
and at this moment, everyone is sick.

ps: June holidays' coming! HELP!!!!

Past two months

2011-05-03T14:50:00.005+08:00

Life for the past two months was crazy. First, it was the renovation. Then, there was the big clean-up after the renovation. Next, I had to carry bags and bags and BAGS of stuff to the new house. Err.. yes, we hired a mover, but since the distance from the old house to the new house was not too far away, I thought I could start by transferring some stuff over first... by myself. That was really a crazy act. We should have let the mover do it ALL on a single day. To think that I moved the stuff over for 10 continuous days, with load of 8kg on right shoulder, 7kg on left shoulder, 6kg on left hand and 8kg on right hand on each single trip, I must be insane! So currently I am suffering from extreme fatigue symptoms.

And by now, we have finally shifted.
Life was a bit disoriented.
The cleaning continues in the new house cos' everything is sparkling new and you don't want to see any dust on it. You get really upset over small scratches on the new dining table, and you scream at the kids for dragging the chairs all over the polished floor...

Damnit. Life is truly crazy.
It will take a while before I loosen up and life gets back to normal... thank you.

Birthdays

2011-04-14T16:14:00.000+08:00

Every year, on my birthday, a special woman would call
That is my mom.
She never fails to call me on my birthday to send me her birthday wish.
That is how lovely my mother can be!
"祝你生日快乐，祝你生日快乐，祝你生日快乐，祝你生日快乐。"
这是自从嫁了人之后，电话听筒每年都会传来的歌声。
歌声虽然不是很优美，但却相当动人。
那就是我可爱的老妈！
Birthday is not only time to celebrate ME but also to celebrate MOM
the most important person without whom, I won't be here today.

Going shopping with Kai

2011-04-13T17:06:00.013+08:00

I enjoy going shopping with Kai.
He is such a darling when it comes to shopping "alone" with me.
Yes, shopping with 'just me' and shopping with 'Dad and sis' are two different stories altogether. When it comes to shopping in a 'group', he tends to be more grouchy. But when he shops with 'just me', he is sooo obedient and good.

Earlier this afternoon, I brought him to NEX. We went shopping for some bedsheets at Isetan but unconsciously stepped into the kids department. His eyes widened when he saw so many toys in front of him! "Wow, here also have Toys"R"Us!" (to him, any place with toys are called Toys"R"Us). I was like OH NO! He's going to bug me to buy cars! But to my surprise, he didn't. He just looked at all the cars admiringly, showing me all the variations of Lightning Mcqueen and how they worked. When I accidentally knocked down some cars from the shelves, he helped me arranged them back neatly. When I said it's time to go, he just put his favourite Lightning Mcqueen back to the shelf and left quietly without any fuss. He didn't make a single request to buy anything AT ALL.

Next, we had a field trip to the newly opened Serangoon Public Library. BTW, he was supposed to follow his school on this field trip today, which I didn't allow as usual, unless I can also tag along, which the teachers didn't allow as usual, because they said I was 'too big' for the trip. Oh well, the main reason for not allowing him on the school field trip is out of fear that he might get lost and that I lost a son in the process, ha... paranoid parenting, don't bother! Anyway, I told Kai that he will be able to go on school field trips next year in K2... And to cut the story short, I ended up being the teacher conducting the tour to my only student. I registered him as a Library member and he was very happy to own a card with his name 'WOO JUN KAI MR' on it! He told me that the library had his name printed wrongly. "It should be 'MR WOO JUN KAI'!" he said. Well, he treasured the card so much that he held it tightly against his shirt pocket until I asked him to relax and assured him that it would not drop out. Altogether, he borrowed six books -- all about cars and trucks, after my attempt to sneak in a book on 'rabbits' failed! After the library field trip, we sat down for some quick snacks at Long John Silver's, his favourite fast food outlet, before heading home.

He was on his best behaviour throughout the whole trip, holding on to my hands all the time, sitting absolutely still on the train, obeying all my instructions and miserable imposition - "just look, cannot buy." Shopping with Kai can be such a pleasant experience if he behaves like this all the time.

Kai's request:
As I was typing this, he reminded me to write down about the part where 'an auntie called him a sweetie'... hahaha! It was a casual remark but had such a deep impression on him.

Updates on Xuan and Kai

2011-04-11T19:45:00.010+08:00

Xuan has been getting a lot of phone calls recently... from boys! Er... I mean boy. It's always the same person who call. At night, after 10.30pm, sometimes as late as 11.30pm. Arrhhh! She is only 8.

She was nominated as the class monitress this year, which is good. With that, she has become more outspoken and has made more friends.

Her school is giving her homework everyday. And almost every other day, there are bite-size tests and assessments in school! Recently, she came back from school and drew this Math test quiz which she just had. She said that she was quite stressed as she couldn't solve it. Well, I was stressed too, I also don't know the answer. At least she managed to solve one of the ?. Until now, I am still clueless. OMG, she is only in P2! Take a look. Solve it, anyone?

As for Kai, believe it or not, he still cries everyday before he steps into school. But once he steps in, he is as quiet as a mouse. Phew! He is learning a lot of songs in school. His command of Chinese is better than Xuan at the same age. I think school plays a big role. His school taught him Chinese when he was in Nursery, unlike Xuan who only learnt the language in K1. The Chinese songs that Kai learnt in school were also appropriate for his age, unlike Xuan's, whose Kindergarten taught her oldies like 《兰花草》、《乡间的小路》、《茉莉花》。。。

So nowadays, Kai came back home from school reciting:
小白兔白又白
两支耳朵竖起来
爱吃萝卜爱吃菜
蹦蹦跳跳真可爱

大乌龟小乌龟
集在一起成一堆
前面爬后面爬
一只一只爬进水

He has also been doing lots of drawings on rough papers, and has added more details to them. This is one of his favourite. He brings it wherever he goes.

Last but not least, he is behaving very well in school :)
When asked if he was a good boy in school, he replied,"I'm more than a good boy."

People

2011-04-10T07:58:00.000+08:00

I've seen different types of people. Not all. My hb has seen more.
There is this short-tempered type, whom I loathe
who looses his/her temper at the slightest irritation
who lashes out at people and never gets any snap back
who lacks empathy and has extremely low EQ.
The people who were snapped at were all surprisingly subdued.
It upsets many people, all except the one who snapped.
It is amazing how this type of people manages to breeze through life...
...
...
yet another gripe in life

How to fold a fitted sheet

2011-04-08T11:49:00.016+08:00

Do you have problems folding your King or Queen fitted sheet?
I have, big time.
I folded them anyhow, which always ended up a big lump.
And I don't really have time to care...
until today, I looked up in google and found this wonderful video.
It solved all my problems in folding a fitted sheet!
No more mess.
No more lumps.
Now I'm able to fold all my fitted sheets with pride..
Share this with you...

Cheers to Youtube and the wonderful people who made up the videos!

Our first home

2011-03-28T14:26:00.025+08:00

So fast, we have stayed in this home for 9 years... soon we are going to bid her goodbye. Before we go, I brought the kids to the park downstairs for a last bash... we gonna miss this place!

Staycation at MBS

2011-03-18T16:04:00.010+08:00

This is one place, which I never would have gone if not for the promotional hotel voucher we bought earlier from brother-in-law. I mean, this kind of fine dining and luxury shopping is not my cup of tea. Anyway, we have finally went up to the much-touted Sands SkyPark! It was yet another night scene with panoramic view of brilliantly-lit skyscrapers. Oh, the rooftop swimming pool was cool! Well, lying on the lounge chair and gazing into the night sky was awesome!

The kids enjoyed themselves, especially Kai, who received a CAR present from his ma-ma.

Drawing

2011-03-14T11:53:00.008+08:00

Kai has been doing a lot of drawing recently, especially after the forfeiture of his cars.
He drew cars... lots of them.
He also started to draw things other than cars.
He drew his family, house, sun, clouds and trees.
He is living a healthier lifestyle now...
I mean, not so obsessed with cars anymore!
Yah!

He actually had the patience to draw to so many cars!

That's me on the bus! It's a bus advertisement, by the way.

Happy vehicles with eyes and mouths.

Nouns and adjectives

2011-03-01T14:22:00.001+08:00

Xuan was doing her homework.
She was supposed to think of as many nouns, and next use each noun as adjective.
Examples:
football - football match
rubber - rubber band

Husband and I were eating our late dinner while helping her to brainstorm for more examples.
"hair - hair clip"
"school - school bag"
"tissue - tissue box"
"photo - photo album"
"table - table cloth"
"pencil - pencil box"
we shouted the examples as soon as they came into our heads ...

Kai was sitting on the floor cutting some craft, and at the same time listening.

Suddenly...
"Rui Xuan," he shouted He likes to imitate us by calling his sister's name :(
"Heart - heart shape!"

He caught us by surprise.
We were absolutely impressed!

童謠1987 -- 让我慢慢成长

2011-02-21T15:01:00.006+08:00

This is a very beautiful and meaningful song, which I heard from my friend's blog recently.
I think I played the song repeatedly over 10 ten times.. haha..
Let's listen and reflect...
让我们一同聆听孩子们的心声。。

He is still our little darling

2011-02-19T20:11:00.001+08:00

I guess anyone who knows about Kai and his energetic behaviour will not hesitate to associate him with ADHD. In fact, I myself have been googling and on the lookout for ADHD symptoms in him. His activeness is a cause for concern. His short attention span in all learning activities and his recent hitting in school are worrying.

However, under closer observation, I realised that Kai is merely active in his own right. Most of the time, he listens. He is a good boy. When I ask him to help me hang the laundry, he readily complies. When I request him to keep away the messy toys, he obliges.

When I kept away all his cars for good, he didn't make a fuss. He knew his error and accepted the forfeiture of cars as a form of punishment. He has not played with cars since his hitting episodes in school. He has been chit-chatting with me while I do work in the kitchen.

Now, without any cars to play, he'd fix his jigsaw puzzles and can do so for a whole 25 minutes without being distracted. I'm happy he can stay focus on a task he likes. He also listens to stories and responds to questions intelligently. I'm glad he is listening!

He is so innocent and adorable when he said...
"Why the lizards anyhow poo-poo? Where is their toilet?"

"Next time, I will marry a good wife. She must be pretty... have long hair and tie a bun."

"Next time, I will grow up to be a man like daddy. I will become a father. I will take care of my children... and also take care of you and daddy because you are old already..."

Despite all the unpleasant incidents that have happened, Kai is still our little darling.
We hope his negative behaviour is just a passing phase, and it'll be over soon.

Media violence and aggression

2011-02-12T14:59:00.009+08:00

Kai likes cars.
So his over-indulgent parents bought him many cars to play.
They bought him the "CARS movie" DVD to watch.
They downloaded different kinds of cars games on the iPhone, showed him how to navigate on YouTube and saved cars-related games as favourites for him to play.
And so, they ruined the kid at 4.5 years of age.
Although Kai has cut down on many of these unhealthy activities, the damage was already done.

He started to hit his classmates a couple of weeks ago, for no reason.
His ignorant parents were at loss.
They didn't know what happened to him, why he displayed those aggressions.
I mean, hitting someone without a reason is really scary. I rather he hit with a reason, so at least we can still explain and correct his behaviour in time.

Last Friday, the dad let him play "Spiderman" on his iPhone.
That same day in school, he kicked one of his classmate.
It was only then, that the parents realised the big blunder they had made.
One of the many studies that linked media violence to a child's agressive behavior, revealed that "even a brief exposure to violent video games can temporarily increase aggressive behavior in all types of participants." (source)
In fact, Kai's "car crashing" act in Tokyo should have sounded the alarm. Prior to that, he watched the CARS movie and mimic the cars racing/crashing using his toy cars...

For now, media violence is the only reason we can think of, to explain his hitting. Now, the parents have kept away all his cars, deleted all his favourites on the Internet and all action games from the iPhone...

We are the guilty parents.
We hope to see some improvements after these corrective actions.
Hope it's not too late...

Update

2011-02-09T10:13:00.005+08:00

For that big scene that took place on the first day of school after CNY holidays, the principal called to apologise. The girl's mother also apologised. Luckily the mother was the understanding type. She was nothing like her husband, who displayed certain traits of violence. He was all in fist and pointing his fingers at Kai when he bellowed at us that day.

The parents had attributed their daughter's refusal to go to school to Kai. The principal however, disclosed that the recent change in teacher might be the other reason. Also, the girl's mother had divulged that the girl has been punished by teachers, which I thought could be another reason for her anxiety about school. Anyway, I hope this will never happen again.

As for Kai, he needs to brush up on his social skills. His teachers said that he wanted to play with his friends, but his hand gestures, which he used to greet his friends were too rough for them. This little boy needs lots of help and guidance here...

Upset

2011-02-07T14:36:00.012+08:00

I was very upset today.
I was bawled at by a parent.
First time in 35 years of my life, I was bawled at in public.
I was speechless. I nearly cried. But I told myself I couldn't. Kai was there.
He was scared. He just hugged close to me.
Technically, the man was bawling at my son, but I felt he was bawling at me.
Because I am his mother.
"THIS IS THE LAST WARNING," he bellowed.
"DON'T YOU EVER HIT MY DAUGHTER AGAIN! SAY SORRY TO HER NOW!"

"Sorry," I whispered. (Kai had apologised to that little girl before, when her mother approached us before the CNY)
I wished I had defended Kai, like what other mothers did for their children.
But I couldn't. I knew he was wrong.
Everybody was looking at us.
It was a big scene.

Kai's teachers had feedback to me that Kai hit his classmates a week ago. They said he actually wanted to play with them but didn't know how to express himself. I was very upset when I heard that. I never expect Kai to beat his classmates. We have talked to him since and taught him how he should ask his friends nicely. I think he felt bad for his own actions too. Whenever, I tried to talk to him about this, he'd buried his face in the pillows. Like what the teachers said, he actually wanted to play with his friends but lack the social skills to do so. His hand gestures, which he used to greet his friends may be too rough for them.

Apparently, the man's daughter, who was in the same class as Kai, has been complaining to his parents about how Kai "always" beat her in school. And that she refused to go to school. When I confirmed with the Teacher again, she said she didn't witness Kai beating the girl. So I believed that "always" might be an unjustified word, often misused by kids. Kai could have beat her once but not "always". Next, I saw Kai's eyes whelmed with tears. He clung on to my thighs tightly. I was hesitant about sending him to school. But I also thought he should brave the storm and let it be a precious lesson learnt. I told him, "I know you are a good boy. You wanted to be good. But you are still learning..." and pushed him behind the closed door.

I felt terrible.

Life is too short, but just long enough

2011-02-05T13:04:00.003+08:00

Two days of Lunar New Year holidays have passed.
Time seem to have flown past too quickly.
There are so many things waiting to be done
I need to work harder
race with time, before another year slipped past by...

Love this poem...

Life is too short to be spent
griping about the past,
things you don't have,
places you haven't seen,
things you haven't done.

Life is too short to be spent
holding grievances against another,
finding fault in your brother,
counting the wrongs done on you.

Life is just long enough
to enjoy the beauty of a sunrise
the smell of wet earth
and the sound of laughter
after a long day's work.

Life is just long enough
to practice compassion and generosity,
to comfort the grieving,
to lend strength to the fainthearted,
and direction to the lost.

- Tricia Mae Chua

Xuan is 8

2011-02-03T21:21:00.009+08:00

It's how strange the brain works... I seem to have stopped counting and remembering Xuan's age after she hit Primary One. There's this subconscious bit in my brain that stops functioning when age reach a certain number. This subconscious element, which I can hardly explain, remembers and counts age diligently only for the first few months of a child's birth and function till the child turns five, then it wavers a little before stopping dead completely. Perhaps I couldn't accept that the kid is growing up too fast. I still tell people she is 7. Sometimes, I skip a number that tell people she is 9. I really don't know why... I've stopped counting her age like I've stopped counting mine. I'm 27 and my mom is always 35 =) oh well.

Anyway, Xuan just turned 8 few days ago. Here's to my dearest daughter,

Mummy wishes you a very bright future - full of meaning and fulfilling.

The road is long. Be strong and persevere in whatever you do.

Grow up strong, happy and healthy.

Remember that mummy always love you.

Happy Birthday, my child.

Guilt

2011-01-31T21:14:00.002+08:00

It was 6pm. I was darn tired and sleepy. I thought there was a good half-an-hour for me to rest. So I summoned Kai to the bedroom with me for a short rest. I didn't want to leave him unattended in the living room.

I plonked onto the cool cozy bed. The weather was good for the sleepy head. It has been raining the whole day and so the bed was cold. I could hear Kai's talking... but soon, I heard nothing. I was fast asleep.

I wore my watch to bed. So that I could keep a tab on the time. I didn't realise that it couldn't wake me up if I fell asleep. Stupid me.

When I finally woke up. The time was 6.40pm. I had slept past the half-an-hour allowance. Shucks! I went into a panicky mode. Then I saw Kai sleeping sound asleep on the bed too! Double shucks! I quickly carried him on my shoulder, grabbed his slippers, and hurried out of the house with quick big steps. I couldn't run with a sleeping Kai. I was extremely guilty. I felt really bad. This was the second time I didn't fetch Xuan on time. My mobile rang. Xuan had called from the school's General Office. This time she didn't cry. "I'm very sorry Xuan. I'm on my way right now!" I assured her.

I was panting heavily by the time I reached Xuan's school. I was very apologetic. I apologised to Xuan profusely. When she knew what had happened, she said it was OK. "Don't worry mummy. I will not cry because I am in Primary 2 already. I will wait for you in the General Office. You don't have to panic, OK?"

That was a very sensible reply.
My girl has really grown.

Back home, when I looked into the mirror, I realised my hair was still in a mess.

New routine

2011-01-28T15:50:00.004+08:00

The new routine, which started since the start of the year, has worked out pretty well. I'm glad I didn't have to switch Kai back to morning session like the last time. He has taken to afternoon session and doing it without naps rather well. But I do feel guilty when he became more short-tempered towards the end of the day due to nap deprivation. Other than that, he seemed to be adapting quite well.

Now with both kids in school at the same time, I finally get to have 4 hours of precious time to myself. I get to do marketing in peace, without two playful kids in tow. I get to complete more housework and home-work without any disruptions, like dropping the dirty dishes and dashing out to the fighting kids who cried foul... In short, I get to enjoy 4 precious hours of P.E.A.C.E. What a luxury!

Another treat about this new routine, is the revival of dating with the husband - something which we missed since the kids came into our lives. It was like going back in time some 14 years ago. The feeling of being in love again is good.

Well, coming up next, I'm going to make time for the gym and do some justice to health.
Sometimes, those 4 hours seemed to vanish in a blink.
Oh well. Life is good. I shouldn't be asking for more.

Throw it away

2011-01-24T19:34:00.004+08:00

Seems like a good way to start the spring cleaning for CNY, with this "throw it away" phrase from Kai. Unfortunately, his "throw it away" has nothing to do with spring cleaning and none of them is applicable.

"Ok, it's time for bed. Look at the clock, it's very late already"
"I don't want! Throw the clock in the rubbish bin!"

"Today is Monday. You have to go to school."
"I don't like Monday. Throw it into the rubbish bin!"

Kicked the corner of the sofa accidentally.
"I don't like this sofa. Throw it into the rubbish bin."

Slipped and fell in bathroom.
"Naughty floor, throw it away!"

Seems like everything that falls into the "naughty" category has to be thrown away in his spite of anger!

Kai's dry lips

2011-01-14T14:01:00.005+08:00

For the past six months or so, Kai's dry lips has been our biggest worry. His Pediatrician said it was due to frequent licking of his lips. That it was difficult to recover and that it would recur. He advised us to use lip moisturiser on Kai. We did as told but his condition didn't improve.

We bought a humidifier and turned it on every night so that the air conditioner would not dry out his lips. We bought a good vacuum cleaner with HEPA filter to vacuum his bed, in case of dust mites. We cut down his milk intake, in case of cow's milk allergy. We gave him more barley water, in case of heatiness. I made sure he drinks 1200ml of water daily, in case of dehydration. We thought of all possible causes. But his condition didn't improve. Sometimes, his lips cracked and bled. Skin around his mouth were dry and flaky. It was painful to see. But he never complained of pain. Friends and relatives all questioned about his lips...

It was long after that, that we saw our family physician for a second opinion. He pinpointed to some form of allergies. He prescribed some mild steriod and antihistamine to treat his lips. And we finally saw some improvements. We were so happy. This is how his lips look like now.

We have missed his soft healthy lips for the longest time.
However, until today, we still do not know the exact cause.
We pray hard that it will never recur again.

Do-it-myself skirt

2011-01-10T15:18:00.007+08:00

Xuan grows taller every day and outgrows her dresses at lightning speed.
Most of the dresses bought for her were worn only once or twice.

I prefer to buy her skirts nowadays.
Cos' she can pull it lower and wear as a low-waist skirt even when she grows taller. Ha!
And that is a lot of money saved from buying more dresses to compete with her ever-growing height.

Recently, I was even desperate to alter her old dresses and transform them into skirts. This was the result of my alteration. I was so pleased with myself.

From this...

... to this

Here are the steps:

1. unpick the dress at waist

2. sew in the elastic waist band

3. add a little decoration using ribbon and the old button

4. laced the edge of skirt with ribbon

And that's a new skirt, that would last for 2 more years, perhaps.
Hee...

Separation anxiety... not again!

2011-01-05T19:31:00.004+08:00

I never expect Kai to go through the same separation anxiety process again since it was the same preschool with the same teacher, although there were changes in classmates. Oh well, these two days, he was like clinging to my thighs with all his might, refusing to let go, until I had to release his grasp by force.

Luckily, all was well, after I disappeared behind the closed door.
When I peered through the window, I could see him participating in the activities.
It was then that I felt better.
I knew this kind of feeling too well.

There was this piece of advice that helped me cope better:

證嚴法師說："如果父母希望他的孩子有福氣，就要多多祝福他的孩子，而不是擔心她的孩子。"

如果一個父母常常擔心他的孩子，他的孩子會沒有福氣；因為福氣都被父母給擔心掉了。

如果父母希望他的孩子有福氣，就要多多祝福他的孩子，而不是擔心她的孩子。

As parents, we never stop worrying about our children.
But it is so important to give them our blessings instead!

Fireworks

2011-01-01T15:05:00.008+08:00

This year, the best place to catch the beautiful fireworks, was no other than home.
Yes, home.

There was no crowd to jostle with,
no stampede to worry about,
no exorbitant hotel bills to fork out.

These were the views we got for free, just outside the house.

The best part, however, was the camaraderie shared by the neighbours, as we counted down to 2011. We shook hands and wished one another as we ushered into the new year. There was never such affiliation before. It was awesome.

Happy 2011 everyone.
May all be well and happy.
May there be lots of love, joy, peace and bliss...

Coming to an end

2010-12-29T20:20:00.018+08:00

The year is coming to an end.
Overall, not exactly a fabulous year...
see, I'm going to whine again.

Looking back at the old entries, I discovered that the not-so-good things always happened around the last few days of the year.
Last year (2009), I encountered a Mischievous Kai.
The year before last (2008), I bashed myself for being a fiasco parent.
In 2007, I suffered a bad injury to my nose!

This year, with no exception, my "blur" nature has gotten me into some detestable "trouble"...
Well, I must not forget to count my blessings.

I wish everyone a peaceful year in 2011.
Again,
Let us all be blessed
with the wisdom to think
a heart to reflect
and a voice to give thanks
(anonymous)

Happy New Year!

Bubble fun

2010-12-21T17:24:00.010+08:00

This slideshow couldn't load properly.
Sigh, this is the best I can do...

School holidays means...

2010-12-17T15:59:00.002+08:00

The house will be in a constant mess
the sofa is forever occupied by cars and toys
everybody sat on floors only...

The "sua-gu" kids get to fulfill their first excursion on Singapore buses and MRT.

They get to watch Rapanzel in 3D.
It was the first time they stepped into the cinema too!

The kids had fun at the Lego Competition.

We tried the Sentosa Luge and I 'sweated my palms' out on the skyride. Don't laugh!

... some insects-watching at the Butterfly and Insect Park.

There were more gatherings and outings with families...

Prata hotcakes

2010-12-10T18:07:00.005+08:00

Sounds cool?
Self-invented dish.
Nah.
It's failed culinary transformed into something weird - that's why the funny name.

The kids have always loved hotcakes from McDonald.
Before the hoo-ha's about the never-rotting burger, we had treasured our Sunday family breakfast time at McDonald - Hotcakes with hash brown were most well-loved.

So I thought, since we have now bade goodbye to McDonald, and the kids must have missed the hotcakes, why not I made some for them - to make up for the loss.
"They will be jumping for joy," I imagined.

The recipe I saw was easy.
Flour+Sugar+Eggs only
Stir the mixture, fry in wok, that's all.

And as expected, the outcome was disastrous.
But the worst misery was - MY GUINEA PIGS FAILED ME!!!
"EEeeee.." was their first reaction.
They zipped their mouth, refusing to try.

I had no choice but to bite the bullet and ate a few bites.
Then I had to trash them.
What a waste.
But I guessed it was wiser to waste ...
(errm. Actually, I've taken a picture of my prata hotcakes but it was a shame to show)

OK, I promise
From now on,
I'm going to store my wok in the cabinets for good.

Talking to a child can be therapeutic

2010-12-06T12:59:00.000+08:00

Seriously.
Especially if you pick those cute, chatty and innocent ones to talk to.
More so, if you choose those who would yank out the juiciest gossip or the most embarrassing secrets of their parents... "Mummy hugs her smelliest pillow to sleep every night" or "Daddy drools in his sleep until my whole bolster is wet" something of that sort.

If you want that, try talking to Kai.
This boy talks incoherently whenever outsiders initiate a chat with him.

To start the humor, the two most popular questions, "What's your name" and "How old are you" - he will answer wrongly.

When asked "How old are you?", his reply was "My name is Jun Kai."
I bet he already assumed that everyone would asked for his name in their first question!

You won't feel bored talking to him.
He'd go on and on, talking and divulging bits and bytes, without you having to ask or said anything!!??!

"I have a new car at home."
"My Ye Ye's birthday is in August."
"Just now, the boy peed in the bushes."
"My father is . . . "

I'm afraid one day, I might have to intervene and said, "Alright, that's too much info..."
Yes, no boredom, no awkward silence.
He'd keep you entertained.
He has done that many times, much to the amusement of those lucky people who has talked to him.

He is simply too friendly and too cute to be true!
To me,
that's the beauty of the innocent mind.

My kids

2010-12-01T11:39:00.004+08:00

I always thought I hated the fighting, the squabbling, the noise
until one day...

I deprived Kai of his afternoon nap,
and made both kids sleep early that night.
Real early. As in 8.30pm.

Then all of a sudden
noises died
laughter ceased
fighting stopped

I thought I would be enjoying the peace and bliss of my lifetime...
Instead
a strange feel of loneliness overcame me...

They have never slept this early
They have always played and fought late into the night.
I missed the noise all of a sudden...

At that moment
I knew my life will never be complete without these two kids...

PS: It reminded me once again that, we take too many things in life for granted until we lost them...

温暖的窝

2010-11-26T08:00:00.006+08:00

那天，我静立在窗前
欣赏着眼前美好的景色
望着那绿油油的草原
享受那柔风轻吹的写意

这时，收音机传出了一首让我感慨万分的歌。。。
“其实不想走，其实很想留。。。”
两句简简单单的词
说出了我内心无尽的依依不舍

再过几个月
我们就得离开这温暖的窝
搬家了。。。

It was a special day

2010-11-22T12:40:00.001+08:00

19 November 2010. Friday. Last day of school.

I put on my most decent outfit - one that didn't make me look so 'auntie'
slapped on some cheek powder - I've almost forgotten it's called 'blusher'
sprayed my bangs with some expired hair mousse ...

The dad put on his favourite shirt
gelled a few streaks of his hair carefully in front of the mirror...

I helped Kai put on his best shirt and pants...

Next,
we strode into Xuan's school
gleaming with pride and joy.

We were going to witness her Graduation cum Award Presentation Ceremony.
No, she wasn't graduating.
She was just in P1 and would be receiving her award for being the first in class.

In the school hall
we had to sit way behind (first-come-first serve sitting)
despite reaching earlier than the stipulated time.
There were more eager parents who arrived much earlier than us!

In the end, the photos and video taken of Xuan were too small and far too dark.
We didn't want to scramble to the front of the stage like what the others did
('image is more important' - haha!)

So, we only had these to show... (with some brightening and contrast editing)

It was indeed a special day
for all parents who attended the ceremony
who saw their children graduating from primary education
the pride. the joy. the fulfilment...

I am waiting for this day
5 years down the road
to be immensely engulfed,
by this incredible emotion,
called pride.

Results 2010

2010-11-18T09:11:00.005+08:00

It's that time of the year when anxious parents get insomnia awaiting the release of their children's academic results. There are over-ambitious parents who couldn't do anything except to pace up and down the hall, thinking "will my child top the school this time round?"; there are also sotong parents who blurted, "huh? I need to meet the teachers today for your report book, meh?"

I'm neither here nor there. For this whole year, we have just let Xuan progressed at her own pace. No demand. No pressure. She played hard as usual but she was diligent to complete her school work on time. We guided her whenever she needed help. We were happy with her progress and diligence throughout the year.

On Tuesday, we met up with her form teacher.
I think our session was the shortest among all the parents.
There wasn't much feedback from the teacher except, "very good!" .... "good"... errr... again "very good!"
I wished we could drill more constructive feedback out of her, other than "very good"
Maybe we were such boring parents, we didn't know what to ask, and she didn't know what to say...

As for results,
Xuan has TOPped her class, and emerged the 28th position for the entire P1 level.
She has also won herself a "Queen Reader Award" for being a keen reader.
And her neat Chinese handwriting won her the first prize in her school's "低年级硬笔比赛"
We didn't know there were such award and competition in the first place!
They came as surprises to us. We were so overwhelmed... *sniff sniff!*

We were invited to attend the school's Award Presentation Ceremony tomorrow.
You made us proud, Xuan!

My guinea pigs

2010-11-16T09:40:00.003+08:00

Once in a while, I like to torture the kids and the husband with some dishes that are not quite fit for human consumption. Deep fried prawns that are tough to chew, fried rice that is tasteless and undercooked...

I've enough said of how bad a cook I was.

But if you are new (to this blog) and need to know how bad, this is it:

Even if I have the best ready-made Tempura batter bought from the supermarket, and when all I need is to add water according to the instructions specified on the package, and when I just need to dip the prawns in the batter and then drop them into the heated wok, my prawns have never once resembled the ones shown on the package! Far from it, too far. The prawns are all botak (without batter) on one side. And they are tough to chew... OK, enough said.

However, once in a while, I like to put my culinary skills to test
Cos' I have ready guinea pigs ...
but who aren't very truthful (unfortunately) :
- Xuan gave flattering remarks no matter how bad the food tasted
- Kai ate up the food ignorantly
- The husband swallowed the food to the last bit no matter what

Thankfully, that was really ONCE IN A WHILE... haha!

Well, the idea is NEVER GIVE UP!!!
More to come, my dear guinea pigs!

Simple pleasure: decorate your own cake

2010-11-12T14:30:00.000+08:00

It has been a long while since I D.I.Y.
So yesterday, when Kai and I saw people decorating cakes for their loved ones in The Icing Room at Compass Point, we quickly followed suit.
Just nice for celebrating the dad's birthday today!

It was fun to have hands on the cake.
And it made a special treat for the dad!
Kai had as much fun as I did.
When the plain cake first came, Kai was too quick to touch it
Luckily he didn't press his whole hand into the cake!

This was our first D.I.Y. cake (more to come...)
I believe we can do a better job next time!

At the end of the whole session, Kai told me he wanted to eat the "hair" when he reached home
Obviously cos' it was made of chocolate!
We should have decorated the cake with more chocolate!!
Nevermind, there's always next time.

I really love the Decorate-it-Yourself concept.
It's simple!
You can blast the cake with your imagination!
Basic decorating ingredients are provided.

and best of all, there's no mess, no dirty hands...
It's fun. Try it!

Flavours & Sizes of The Icing Room DIY cakes:
2 flavours:
Vanilla
Blackforest

3 sizes:
4 inch ($12.80)
6 inch ($20.80)
8 inch ($28.80)

When nieces and nephews get together

2010-11-11T16:22:00.004+08:00

They play madly...

such gatherings are few

such happiness is short-lived

Hope the school holidays bring together more of such madness

the more we get together
the happier we'll be...

Weakness

2010-11-10T14:13:00.005+08:00

Many times
we get upset when expectations fail

we were too caught up with the trivial things in life
so much so that
we lost sight of the bigger picture

we fall prey to the biggest weakness of mankind

The not-so-smart way of defending his actions

2010-11-08T13:49:00.000+08:00

One day, Kai brought his half-battered toy-car to me and said,
"Mummy, look at this... I didn't spoil it. It spoil by itself..."

If I were 70 and a little senile, I'd probably dismiss it as some mysterious strong wind has selectively blown that fateful car out of the basket of toys that it smashed so hard on the floor until its tyres came off.

Not a smart move, my little boy.
Need to polish up your skills of defending...

Remember Rule Number 1:
Never "tai-chi" to non-living object!!!

Kai has yet to outgrow the stage of dismantling his cars and toys.
His cars are mostly without tyres or wheels...

The two kids are constantly fighting

2010-11-02T13:46:00.001+08:00

Mr Mischief was fiddling with Miss Fiesty's coin-bank.

Miss Fiesty fired up and stormed towards Mr Mischief, snatched away her coin-bank and shouted "Naughty Kai!" .. then marched towards Mr Mischief prized car collection and messed them up.

Mr Mischief dashed towards her with a "bang" like how Chick Hicks banged other cars.
Fighting started.

Mummy dropped all her tasks, stormed out from the kitchen with a cane.
Fighting stopped.

For little squabblings, mummy dropped her chores, emerged from the kitchen, gave both kids a little yell before returning to her chores again.

Sigh...
School holidays approaching = More fightings + More yellings.

My two telephone operators

2010-10-25T16:44:00.010+08:00

I bet what the kids didn't tell me, was their ambition to become nimble telephone operators when they grow up. Their recent hospitality towards anybody who called, was a robust testament. Whenever the phone rang in the living room, both of them would drop all their tasks and dash to the phone without fail. It was like whoever pick up the phone first will win a prize! Then they'd go "I talk first!"... "No, I talk first!", leaving the other party on the phone baffled. Sigh!

Think I'm gonna miss this when they become teens. That is when I'd have to beg them to help me pick up the ringing phone!

As of now, they are still at the stage of fighting to answer calls.
Each of them get his/her turn to talk to the caller (be it a property agent, a wrong caller, or friends or family members) for a good 5 minutes, before I get my chance to talk.

The other day, my mom (po-po) called and Kai answered it...

Po-po: 你的咳嗽好了没有？
Kai: (nodded his head) 阿，我冲凉了。

Po-po: 不是，我问你咳嗽好了没有？
Kai: (nodded his head again) 阿，有。我有吃饭。。。

Po-po: (surrendered) 你在做什么？
Kai: 妈妈在Kitchen啦!

I was amused at his ability to sustain a conversation like this!
Funny boy.

Best drawing ever!

2010-10-20T15:54:00.003+08:00

Kai likes cars.
So the best way to encourage him to draw is "draw cars, draw cars!"
- cars with eyes and mouths though (thanks to his favourite Cars movie)

After a while, I assumed it was about time to start him on drawing some decent human beings - even a stick figure with skeletal arms and legs would be good, I thought.
So I said, "draw mummy, draw mummy!"

And this was what I got.

[with some guidance - I've asked him to include a nose and more hair for me]

Despite my limbs being replaced by wheels,
I was still happy.
Cos' this was his best drawing ever!

SIMPLE Chicken Soup for the soul

2010-10-14T14:55:00.014+08:00

Anything that says "SIMPLE" pleases me to no end, especially cooking recipes.
So, that day when I saw the mention of a SIMPLE and yummy chicken soup in Jayne's blog, my eyes sparkled.

It was indeed simple. I mean, it can't be that difficult when you just need to boil a whole chicken in a pot of water with ginger and wolfberries. The difficult part to me, however, is to overcome the psychological barrier of working with a dead poultry.

You know, after reading the post, I was so inspired to try it out. I went to Sheng Siong Supermarket, inspected a few pre-packed packets of whole chicken, and discovered to my horror that the chicken heads were all intact. Well, I know it's not that difficult to comprehend the meaning of "whole chicken" - my brain was just fused that very moment. Anyway, I almost wanted to back out when I saw the heads! The thought of having to meddle with a flimsy neck and a chicken head with eyes staring at me, yikes me out. The idea of chopping up the chicken (if I don't want to work with the whole chicken) was equally horrifying.

Just when I was about to give up, mom's words rang in my ears, "you can always get the poultry man to chop it up for you..."

So I did just that.
As there were no poultry man, I got the fishmonger to chop it instead, with special instruction to the "uncle" (who was obviously younger than me) to discard the chicken head. With that, I thought the most difficult problem was resolved...

Back home, I realised there were still the chicken feet! And I was supposed to cut off its toenails!!! Oh no! It was as appalling as chopping off the chicken head. So I discarded the chicken legs in the end. I had to cross my fingers that without these essential parts, the chicken soup would still taste as yummy.

Haiz... that was a long story.

Finally
here comes the chicken soup!

Cooking in progress (steam + unseived oil )...

Mmmm... it was indeed YUM YUM!
Even without the head and legs :)

Ingredients:
Whole chicken (de-skin)
Pot of water
Ginger (5-6 slices)
Wolfberries (a handful)
Salt to taste

Note: Boil for 3 hours. Quantities of ingredients may vary according to individual's preferences.

First "earning" at age 7

2010-10-13T14:25:00.006+08:00

No, there's no child labour syndicate here.
Hear me out.

Xuan's art submission for the Colgate Global Art Contest "My Bright Smile" won her a S$50 cheque and a Colgate hamper! It was a consolation prize.

We didn't expect her to win anything, cos' it was a nationwide contest, you see.
We bet there were more talented artists out there!

The prize came as a terrific surprise.
Xuan was thrilled!

I've totally forgotten to snap a pic of her masterpiece!!!
ARGGGHHH!

Writing and colouring milestones

2010-10-11T10:23:00.003+08:00

Kai is four. Checked.
In fact, 4 years 3 months.

He knew how to hold the pencil correctly. Checked.
No more flying hands above the writing paper.

He succeeded in tracing numbers 1 to 10 legibly. Checked.
No more alien doodles to decipher. Happy.

He managed to use colours other than RED in his colouring. Checked.
No more blotches of red in colouring books.

Did you see the 2 shades of green in this grasshopper?
Brilliant!

It was a great milestone achieved!
Despite a little late.

Consequences of sleeping like a PIG

2010-10-06T10:02:00.009+08:00

PAAAMMPP!!

WAAHH. WWAAHHH...
He cried out loud.
I scrambled to the floor to pick him up.
A big ba-lu-gu popped out, almost as immediate.
Guilty.

The consequence of sleeping like a PIG!
Not the first, neither the second, nor the third...
I confessed.
Mercy please, don't kill this sleepy pig.

P.S: Xuan said I need to write this down in my 'journal' (so that we know who is accountable in case of brain fuse).

Realisation...

2010-10-05T09:53:00.007+08:00

Last night, I came to a subtle realisation that I have crossed half of my journey in life. If nothing goes wrong - if I don't wake up one day with some innoxious pain that is diagnosed as cancer, that is, and if I don't recklessly drive into a divider or big tree, that is, I may get to live for another 30 years, maybe.

The first half of my journey is all about growing up - from a malnourished skinny girl to a whiney mother-of-two with stubborn baby bulge. It saw me emerging from a protected shell of a little schoolgirl, to slogging in the corporate world earning meagre bucks, before landing on a ship which calls home and giving birth to little Miss Fiery and Mr Mischief. It was very much a typical life of any women born into this earth, this space. A life that was not exciting, ... absolutely dull and pretty much lifeless. In a nutshell, a life void of happening and pampering. I've never been to a disco, not tried the bungee, not yelled to the world on the top of my voice to get crazy... (not that I yearned all those (haha!), it's more to illustrate the boring life I had). I've never treated myself to any spas, massages (other than the Malay postnatal massage), facials, hair colours, manicures, pedicures, and the like. I've just led a simple life.

Now the second half...
I would spend some time watching the kids grow, worrying about their overall well-being until they settle into their own families, spend little time looking after my grandchildren perhaps, and finally...
I will become old and wrinkly, frail and senile. I will be plagued by illnesses, patronising the hospital on a daily basis and finally being chucked into the nursing home until the day I bid "bye, see you next time."

What a realisation...
Is that the meaning of life?

Wait!! Before I go, I've got to see the world and do my bit for the less fortunate!
Still have time, 30 years I hope.

...

oh by the way,
There is a very meaningful event coming up on 31st October 2010 (Sunday) at Hort Park. It's called Happee Day for Children with Cancer, organised by awesome Mom-of-two (and counting...), Daphne and her husband and the Children’s Cancer Foundation, with hope to bring smiles to these brave kids. Find out more by clicking on the banner below!
Give your support!

This is the least I can do to help for now...

I like RED

2010-10-01T12:47:00.000+08:00

I really do!

See...

Learning phonics through Leapfrog

2010-09-27T11:59:00.000+08:00

That's how Kai learns his 26 alphabet sounds and the blending of alphabets to make words. I simply couldn't recall learning English through the phonics way when I was a kid. The term "phonics" was completely alien to me until my university years (no kidding) when I selected the subject as one of the study module in the Chinese department. I wonder how I picked up English without struggling through phonics when I was a kid?!

Kids nowadays learn English the phonics way, which has become part of their everyday life, as early as 3 years old or even earlier. It is like if you don't know phonics, there's no way you are able to read the language! But erhem, didn't I (and perhaps parents of my generation) do English without phonics?

Anyway, every kid is learning phonics today. So I made Kai learn it too! (Xuan missed out on that. Lucky for her!). First I made alphabet cards (more of paper) and made Kai sit through the phonics learning process with me. He wasn't interested. After a few mouth-opening session of "say 'ah'", he'd run away. Obviously, I wasn't train, and didn't know the correct sequence and process of teaching phonics.

It was later that I learned about Leapfrog DVD through some online forums, and decided to purchase them! It was definitely a much easier way out! The DVDs were truly awesome! Both Xuan and Kai were glued to the DVDs. They were a million times more effective in grabbing Kai's attention than torturing him with "open your mouth and say ah!"

These were what I got for him.

The Leapfrog characters are extremely effective in grabbing the kids' attention with their wild adventure at the Letter Factory and the Talking Words Factory. Letter Factory teaches the 26 alphabet sounds while Talking Words Factory teaches the simple blending of alphabets.

Unfortunately, these two DVDs were heavily battered by Kai with scratches and cannot be played anymore. Luckily he mastered his basic phonics from them before they bid goodbye. Sigh!

Full moon

2010-09-23T14:12:00.007+08:00

The kids had some fun (despite a short one) carrying conventional lanterns in the park last evening. That was the first time we celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival in such traditional way...

"Look at my lantern made in school!"

When the dad is sick...

2010-09-22T14:44:00.005+08:00

it means...
there'd be three stucked in a bed.
literally stucked...
Kai demanded that I wrapped my arms around him while Xuan glued tightly to my backside, whispering, "I'm scared... scared..."
that's how the trio got stucked in an unshakable bond. at night.
what a 'bliss'
an unmistakable bliss!

it also means...
the poor dad would be gazing miserably into the starry night sky
while the crazy mom croaked "明月几时有，把酒问青天。。。" to the tune of Faye Wong's 《但愿人长久》
to crack herself up.
what a clown
an unequivocal clown!

You saw similarities between the two? Yes? No? Haha!

A view from our window

2010-09-20T09:48:00.007+08:00

Sunset. High-rise. Tower cranes.
Reflection?
I thought I saw two suns..

Oh may I be granted the power to talk enthusiastically to the kids ... always

2010-09-16T10:30:00.002+08:00

Communication with kids is a critical survival skill. If communication fails, it will be like end of the world. You'd live in misery, constantly bickering with the kids, and at each other's throat. Of course this applies to all other relationships, not only to parent-child relationship.

I realised (seems like lots of realisation lately) that we need to use lots of enthusiasm when we talk to the kids, for them to listen, to participate. In fact, we need to talk like them and act like them. But seriously, how often do we have the energy to do that?

Good communication with kids is a skill, which I am trying very hard to master. Sad to say, I've changed from a quiet, sweet, demure next-door girl (shameless, haha!) to a chronic nagger cum yellow-faced grumpy woman since the kids can communicate sensibly. It's like a 360 degree transformational change. Seriously, I tend to nag a lot and I hate it. I simply lack the energy to be enthusiastic.

"Xuan, your study table is so messy... can you tidy it up now?"
"Kai, your cars are everywhere on the floor, can you pack up the toys now...??!!!"
But no matter how much nagging I administer, the kids will not budge. They have somehow turned a deaf ear to all my nagging.

Occasionally, when I try to force out some vigor and gusto, I find my enthusiastic communication with kids work like charm!

OK, kids! Let's tidy up the house now!!! (stood up, give a few claps)
Xuan, you'd tidy up your bed and table.
Kai, you'd pack up your toys in the living room.
I'll take my bath and when I come out, you'd give me a BIG SURPRISE OK!!!"
(the secret code word is "Surprise" - it always work... but I can't use it too often or it'll lose its effect. Just like all good things - must use sparingly, Right?!)

Kids: "YEAHHH!!! OK!"
And they quickly hurried to work on their respective areas.
I couldn't be happier.
With this enthusiasm, I have the best of both worlds.
I get to bathe in peace.
I get to be greeted by a tidy house after a refreshing bath!
Couldn't be better!

Unfortunately, this kind of enthusiasm is difficult to sustain, with the never-ending housework and whatever work... sigh!

Coolest Gadgets and Gifts

2010-09-13T07:00:00.000+08:00

Let me proudly present
my new baby...
a new kid on the BLOG

Taa-laa...

and another

yet another...
...

haha,
no lah, just kidding!

They are more for fun.

Simply because of my new-found hobby (modifying blogger templates!)...

I'm not serious into web designing yet (2nd display).

Stay tuned for more ... if I have the time.

Game of the season

2010-09-10T14:32:00.008+08:00

I realised that some games the siblings played will get out of fashion after a while. Just like the iphone hype, which they couldn't put their hands off during the few months craze. I was glad the craze died off, .... (sigh!) only to rekindle slightly of late. Well.

So, while this particular 'TOM Play' is still in fashion, I shall document it here before it slipped totally off my memory after it goes off season.

It is a highly disturbing play which I dislike.

It will start whenever one of them is 'naughty'

The angry party will put up a phone-calling gesture and script goes, "di-di-di-di, Hello Tom, can you catch this naughty (Jie Jie/Jun Kai)... te-te-te-te."

And with both arms stretched out, they will run towards the naughty person, while that person will shriek loudly in excitement!

Terribly loud play.

I wish it will go out of season real soon, just like the iphone (and never make a comeback)!

Another update,

We've finally bought the duo a training bike each...

I hope they will divert their energy to cycling rather than focusing on the 'Tom play'... well provided I bring them to the park (haha, u know lah, this lazy mommy)...

New milestone: Reading

2010-09-06T11:58:00.010+08:00

I used to envy those parents whose kids love to read.
Afterall loving to read is a good hobby.
I'm not a book-lover.
I don't really like to read.
(I know you wouldn't believe I have worked in the library for 10 years!).
I read only for essential information.
The dad also doesn't like reading.
So I thought no way is our kids going to love to read.
...

Then one day, I saw this and I was really happy.

It has become a common sight in the house now.
She holds up her story books during meal times.
And it has even become a problem...
albeit a happy one :)

And I thought it is this particular Rainbow Magic series that ignites her interests in reading!

New hobby

2010-09-06T10:40:00.003+08:00

I'm into a new hobby lately and have totally neglected this space!
Sometimes I wish I can go to sleep with a laptop. I can't work in the study in front of the PC at night cos' I know my 'best friends' are waiting for me. We have come to a compromise of late. They would only crawl out when we are in slumberland or when we are out of the house. When lights are off, it means party time for them!

Oh, let's forget about them... yup, my new hobby, that's right.
It's a hobby that is not good for the eyes. It entails staring at the PC and deciphering programming codes... And it is extremely addictive. But I enjoy doing it. It is web designing. Nah, actually it is merely hacking html codes in existing blogger templates. I'm even thinking of earning pockets out of it. It is too addictive. I need to stop and go back to my indexing and blogging soon.

Arrggg... I wish I have more time!

Teachers' Day craft

2010-08-31T13:47:00.013+08:00

This is an easy flower craft to make with the kids.
To make one flower, all you need is
1) half piece of tissue paper (the more plies the better);
2) disposable chopsticks;
3) coloured paints for the petals and stem.
4) scissors; and
5) scotch-tape.

What you need to do is to gather up the tissue paper at the center (see photo on left), fold it up and tape it to the chopstick. Thereafter, separate the plies to let the flower blosom. Then add colours to the petals and the stem.

And...

Taa...laa!!!!

That's it! As easy as ABC.

Oh, and don't forget to tie a "Happy Teachers' Day" tag to it, so that your child's teacher knows who made that lovely flower ;-)

Happy Teachers' Day!

Her passion for Chinese. Finally!

2010-08-25T15:15:00.005+08:00

I was once pretty worried about Xuan's Chinese. She could barely speak a word in Mandarin when she was four. When she was five, I was horrified by her reply of, “好！” when I asked her “你几岁？”. At six, when I asked her what was “一月”, she said it was "one moon".

We encourgaed her to converse in Mandarin at home but she couldn't. She couldn't understand and wasn't interested in the language at all. We went into a panick mode, sent her for a few lessons of Chinese Speech and Drama, and she gradually showed some interest in Chinese! But still, her Chinese standard was far from borderline.

We encouraged her to tell us her usual bedtime stories in Chinese, and she gave us some oh-my-god sentences like "大粒的老鼠又是小粒的老鼠". We totally didn't understand what she was trying to tell us. She was already six then. We thought she is going to flunk her Chinese in P1.

But even though I was despaired, I tried to teach her the full set of Hanyu Pinyin. "See, see, Chinese is about English alphabets too!" - bearing the hope that she'd be more receptive to the language. I used to blog about how terrible her Chinese was. Back then, I was assured by a blog reader that the problem would take care of itself when she goes to Primary One... And... IT DID! She was abso-freaking-lutely RIGHT!

Xuan's interest in Chinese took a 360 degree turn after she went to P1.
Today, she scores full marks for all her 听写，which comprises pinyin and Chinese characters.

She engages in intellectual discussion with me regarding Chinese characters and pinyin -
“家”是宝盖头；宝宝的“宝”也是宝盖头。。。你知不知道还有秃宝盖? 写字的“写”就是秃宝盖。。。提土旁的字有”坏“、“地” 、“坡”、。。。

She concocts Chinese riddles for me to guess the word -
“两个人坐在土地上” （答案：坐）

One day, I concocted one for her as well “一个日本人，拿着一把刀，站在大门口，杀死四个人” （答案：照）

But she said she didn't like "杀死四个人" (too violent), so she replaced that with “杀死四只蚂蚁”
I smiled.
Two years back, she might have told me “四粒蚂蚁”
It was a quantum leap from where she first started two years ago.
Kudos to her Chinese teachers for igniting her passion for the language.

P/S: So don't worry if your child's Chinese is as bad, primary school education will do the trick!

Mari kita ra'yat Singapura... then what?

2010-08-19T15:02:00.004+08:00

The recent NDP, YOG, fireworks and all, definitely has a big impact on him! He is a bit confused with saying the pledge and singing the national anthem though (see how he held his right fist over his chest while singing). Errm... and still a long way to go to perfect his national anthem.

Take 1

Take 2

When your maid added you as friend on Facebook...

2010-08-06T12:00:00.000+08:00

you know she is doing well;
you know she has become oh-so-tech-savvy;
you know she is leading a comfortable life back home;
you know she misses you so much that she needs to pin you down on FB!
you know she yearns to be your friend more than your maid!

My experiences with maids had never been good. (Read about my maids here)
But, however bad experiences I had with her, it's all over.
We are now friends!

Ready, 1-2-3, BLOW!

2010-08-04T09:59:00.000+08:00

I am those types of impromptu mom. I don't train the kids. I always think that they can master certain skills themselves without having to teach. Skills like drinking from cups, blowing their nose, blowing out candles, coughing out phlegm, holding pencils, etc. I mean these are skills naturally acquired along the way as they grow up. They will know it when the time is ripe for them to know. So I don't really have the urge to teach them. Actually I don't really know how to teach them. (full of excuses!) Actually, you can just call me lazy...

I know there are many parents that teach and train their kids in these. It just hasten the process of growing up. And that's just about it, so I thought. With these kind of impromptu attitude, my kids' life skills acquisition and development are slow.

Kai doesn't know how to blow his nose and the candles until recently. It was not because he acquired it naturally. But because the dad, who was more systematic and clever than I am, taught him the skills! "This is call systematic!" the dad proudly acclaimed.

Here's a peek at his secret recipe:

Blowing out candles
Step 1: Let out a deep sigh with mouth open, ensure there is air coming out from the mouth as you do it.
Step 2: Round up your mouth into O shape, and perform the deep sigh in step 1.
Step 3: You got it! Blow out the candles now!

Blowing nose
Step 1: Let out a deep breath, just like the deep sigh, but with mouth closed.
Step 2: Repeat step 1, do it harder
Step 3: You got it again! You are blowing your nose now... blow harder!

Haha....!
I was amused and amazed.
I never know these two skills can be taught!
Well, perhaps some parts of growing-up just has to be hastened.

From now on, I won't have to use the soft rubber suction bulb to suck out the mucus from Kai's nose!

We are Singapore!

2010-08-01T11:13:00.001+08:00

National Day is drawing near.
And Xuan has been singing those NDP songs written in the 1980's - "Count on me Singapore", "Stand up for Singapore", "We are Singapore". One of those songs that never fails to raise the goosebumps whenever it was sung together. These are the songs, which when sung, will made you feel you would die for SINGAPORE. Oh well, at least true for me. They gave me that kind of shiok patriotic feel! Especially this! It is classic!

WE ARE SINGAPORE
There was a time when people said
That Singapore won’t make it, but we did
There was a time when troubles seemed too much
For us to take, but we did
We built a nation, strong and free, reaching out together
For peace and harmony

Chorus 1:
This is my country, this is my flag
This is my future, this is my life
This is my family, these are my friends
We are Singapore, Singaporeans

Singapore our homeland, it’s here that we belong
All of us united, one people marching on
We’ve come so far together, our common destiny
Singapore forever, a nation strong and free

( Repeat Chorus 1 )

( Sung )
We the citizens of Singapore
Pledge ourselves as one united people
Regardless of race, language or religion
To build a democratic society
Based on justice and equality
So as to achieve happiness
Prosperity and progress for our nation

Chorus 2:
We are Singapore, we are Singapore
We will stand together, hear the lion roar
We are Singapore, we are Singapore
We’re a nation strong and free forevermore

( Repeat Chorus 1 & 2 )

We are Singapore, Singaporeans ( X 2 )

I love my country!
Happy 45th Birthday SINGAPORE!

Passing phase in life

2010-07-30T15:42:00.012+08:00

As I watched my sister cuddled her newborn baby in her arms...

I was glad that I don't have to panic frantically to care for a fragile baby all over again
I was happy that I don't have to work tirelessly through the sleepless nights...

But at the same time
I also couldn't help feeling sad
as I secretly mourn the passing of this sweet little phase in life --
-- that I no longer have babies to cuddle and bond with...

p/s: Erm.. but it's ok, don't ask me to have a 3rd one, all phases in life have to come to an end, whether we like it or not :)

SEE THE WORLD, ABIGAIL !

4 year old tantrums

2010-07-19T08:47:00.002+08:00

I heaved a huge sigh of relieve when Kai passed his Terrible TWO's.
Cos' I was told there would be Fabulous THREE.
Well, I was conned into believing it. It never happen.
And if anybody is going to tell me there is Marvelous FOUR, I'm going to blow his head.

Kai's tantrums started shortly after he turned two and continued until today. Now he is four but I don't think it will cease anytime soon. There are simply too many triggers to his tantrum fits. Things like spilling his water onto the floor and wanting to lick it, dropping food on the floor and wanting to put them back into his mouth, people helping to put on his shoes when running late, having the correct toy cars in his bath, as well as the many forbidden rules he laid down for me. If you are not already aware, he actually forbade me to pee and to let down my hair!

I was worried. I started to think that something is very wrong with my child. But when I found out from google that temper tantrums is also common in 4-years old, about 20 pounds lifted off my shoulders. My son is not abnormal. He is testing.

Research (Potegal & Davidson, 2003) have shown that children between 18-24 months throw 87% of tantrums; 30-36 months old throw 91% while 42-48 months old throw 59% of tantrums. And on average, tantrums lasted for two minutes in one-year-olds, four minutes in children aged 2-3 and five minutes in four-year-olds. As for frequency, the tantrums occurred eight times a week for one-year-olds, nine times a week for two-year-olds, six times a week for three-year-olds and five times a week for four-year-olds. (Source: Raising Children Network)

Common causes of tantrums include being hungry or tired. How true that is! No wonder Kai was extremely difficult in Japan. Oh, and how clever it is for experts to say that temper tantrum is the child's way of asking for attention. I think they are abso-freaking-lutely RIGHT! I realised that in most of the tantrums, Kai wanted my attention. He wanted undivided attention, which I couldn't give. I can only give divided attention, which is left after splitting them between Xuan and housework. Anyway, I'm learning to manage Kai's tantrums. When he spilled food or water on the floor, I'd tell him the correct way to do it is to pick up the food with a piece of tissue and throw them into the rubbish bin. He is buying into that. I also realised that if I blurted out a loud and quick 'NO' to any of his actions, he'd become defensive and there'd be a complete meltdown. Slowly but surely, I am managing his tantrums.

Yes, Kai has a lot of growing up to do before he can outgrow his tantrums.

There is a long way to go.

Parenting is an untiring and challenging journey. You just said that, didn't you?

Malaguena

2010-07-16T15:36:00.003+08:00

One of my favourite pieces played by Xuan - so much so that I'm struggling to learn it!!!

Me time? Trying my luck next year

2010-07-14T09:03:00.002+08:00

I was reading a mother's blog (Jayne's Why Not) the other day. She wrote that it was sad to have her kids pounding her toilet door in the morning when she was taking a dump, screaming for her to open the door just to see her! And she hilariously put "A mom who can't even shit in peace, is in deep shit." I had a good laugh but at the same time I couldn't help but relate it to my own plight and misfortune.

Actually, on a lighter note, unlike her, I was given the luxury to shit in peace. But unfortunately I was not allowed to pee. Erm... given the higher frequency of pee to poo in a day, you might understand how unfortunate I was. Sometimes I need to hold my bladder until he (Kai) was distracted into his CARS zooming mode before I can scurry into the toilets. Worse, I need to come up with lies that I want to poo in order to pee in peace. Never in my life had I ever perceived parenting as about not being able to pee or poo. That's life when your kids are weirdo! No, I don't mean to badmouth my kids here. They are the sweetest angels a quarter of the time. In parenting, there are just too many weird things you can get from kids.

So the case in point is -- in order to maintain a sound mind, the stay-home mom needs to constantly give herself some 'me' time. Which is what I need badly. With their staggering school hours, I always have a kid with me at any time. And it is almost impossible for me to step out of the house alone, all by myself, to feel the breeze (if any) and to catch a breath. And to do that without the need to hurry back home or feeling guilty.

Oh, and that is why I attempted to put Kai in the afternoon session when he first started nursery, so that both he and Xuan are in school at the same time. Unfortunately that plan failed miserably. I still haven't figured out whether it was the lack of nap or the anxiety, which made Kai so grouchy that we drew him out from that preschool to another one in the morning session.

Anyway, I've decided to try my luck again next year by putting him in the afternoon session (never learn my lesson)! I really hope he can do without naps by then. And without naps, perhaps he can fall asleep the moment his head hits the pillows at night? Perhaps?

Well, if everything goes well... I will have time to take up pilates, yoga, dressmaking, hairdressing, fashion designing, cooking, swimming ... ah! Wishful thinking!

The Animal Resort

2010-07-11T14:46:00.018+08:00

We went there today. Couldn't wait till the school holidays.
It is so near to home. So we thought we might just hop over to take a look.
First thing out of the car, we were already bitten by the mosquitoes.
Erm... and don't put too much expectations. There is nothing much to see actually.
You can't expect too much from a free-entrance resort anyway!

It is nevertheless a good place for kids to feed and interact with the animals. So if you are a protective parent (like us, unfortunately) who feels that the chances of the kids being bitten by the animals are higher than what they can learn from the close-up interaction, then forget it, there's nothing much to muse about, really.

There were some exotic animals, which I don't know their names, for the kids to 'woo' and 'ah'.
But all our activities were confined to pointing at the animals from afar... and then "err... sorry kids, I don't know its name, I need to go back and google for it!" Not at all educational to have parents like us! Sigh! Anyway, some of the animals that we recognised were: hamsters (quite easy to tell since I watch a fair bit of Playhouse Disney with the kids), swans (overheard from one of the parents telling their kids, as I always thought swans are supposed to be in waters), rabbits (these I know pretty well since I was born in their year), peacock (can tell from its colourful feathers), peahen (not that difficult since they live together with the peacock)... There were also ducks, goats, roosters... oh and a pretty decent and handsome horse! There were some fishes too, but we didn't join in the crowd on that bridge overlooking the fishes. We left the place after some 15 minutes.

Well, here are some photos. Do let me know the names of the exotic ones here...

The Animal Resort
T81 Seletar West Farmway 5
http://www.rictedkennels.com/

Now, I'm worried sick if there were any Aedes mosquitoes over there. The bites on Xuan and Kai's arms have ballooned...

Small talks

2010-07-08T09:52:00.002+08:00

Kai managed to sleep through the night for the past week.
I bet it's the Japan trip that did the trick.
(Keeping my fingers crossed that this luxury will continue ...)
And since I also slept through the night, I was happier to indulge in small chats with him before sleep.

Me: Will you take care of me and daddy when we grow old next time? (the same question I asked Xuan when she was younger)

Kai: Yes!

Me: How will you take care of us?

Kai: Bring you to the doctor (the same answer I got from Xuan when I asked the same question)... *pause* umm... first it's jiejie (he thinks of Jie jie when I didn't mention her in my question) ...then you go in, then daddy... (I guessed he is refering to taking turns for consultation at the doctor's)

Me: I see... you will bring us to see the doctor when we are sick. But how are you going to bring us there? Do we take bus or taxi or MRT?

Kai: NO... car!

Me: You will drive the car?

Kai: Yes!

Me: But do you know the way?

Kai: Yes! *complete with his driving/steering pose* Turn right... correct or not? (still must double check) Then turn left... then OK! (I wish driving is that easy)

Me: Ok. Then what else will you do, how will you take care of us?

Kai: I will buy you things. I buy white clothes for you (He knows my favourite colour). Pretty one..., you want or not?

Me: Yes... (starting to get excited, but guess what?...)
...
..

Kai: OK... we sleep first!

He initiated SLEEP!!!
Haha...
Must be tired of this kind of little women's small talks.

Holidays???

2010-07-03T14:29:00.007+08:00

We just came back from Japan not long ago but I'm already searching the Net for our next holiday destination. I was so put off by this Tokyo trip that I thought to myself that it'd be for a long while before we travel again. Yet, what am I doing here? Sitting in front of the computer searching for the weather conditions in Taiwan, China, Hokkaido, and even Mauritius; comparing deals offered by various travel agencies to these destinations!!??? What an irony!! I guessed Kai's easy-peasiness on the 7-hour flight has given me the kick and punch for more traveling.
Oh well...

Traveling has now confined to June and December school holidays only. December is not a good month to travel due to the chilling winter, while June is typically stormy and rainy. At first I settled on Mauritius for December, which surprising is a good month to travel to. But the lack of place of interest for the kids extinguishes the original excitement I have for that place. It is more for honeymooners, I concluded. We had long passed that stage, so had better forget it.

I also thought of Hokkaido for December. But two trips to Japan in a year? Not too good an idea. Next I thought of Taiwan... then Shanghai, Jiangnan and the like... and now the plate is full. But not in December. Too cold. So it shall be June next year!!! I'm sure we'll take the tour package in full. No more F&E, no more homework.... just need to compare and sign for the best deal from travel agencies.

Meanwhile for the September short break and December month-long holidays, we shall have our holidays in SINGAPORE. Yeah!!

There are just so many places we have yet to visit in our own homeland:

Kids Kampung
http://www.prkidskampong.com/
Kai was supposed to go to Kids Kampung in one of his school excursions, but due to his mischievous nature, we pulled him out from this fun as we were extremely worried that he'd drown himself in the process of longkang fishing during the trip. So we will bring him there ourselves. We promise we'd be extra careful.

Museums
http://www.nationalmuseum.sg/nms/nms_html/index.asp
Heard the hype about museums, museums and museums... but don't have the time to bring the kids there. We shall do it this time, alright.

Marina Bay Sands
http://www.marinabaysands.com/
Not forgeting the newly launched baby... I hope we'd be wowed by the Sky Park. The astounding rooftop paradise (is suppose to) take your breath away...

The Animal Resort
http://www.rictedkennels.com/
This hidden treasure is (alas!) so near yet so far... This place provides farm experience, allowing visitors to observe, interact with, and feed the animals (geese and crown cranes, turkey, swan, peacock, rabbits and hamsters ...) We will go there one fine day! It is at T81 Seletar West Farmway 5.

Escape Theme Park & Wild Wild Wet
http://www.escapethemepark.com.sg/index.aspx
http://www.wildwildwet.com.sg/index.aspx
Instead of throwing the precious dollars down the drains of the Universal Studios and next to the Tokyo Disneyland due to bad weather, I think we should go to the more economical Escape Theme Park and next to the Wild Wild Wet on one fine day. But must make sure to read the weather forecasts before we go!
....

more places will be added as I continue to plan the itinerary for our upcoming SINGAPORE holidays...

all suggestions welcomed!

Happy *XoKoTo*