Loving school?

Out of the past 3 weeks, K had only been to school for one week.

Cons = Money wasted.... Fees still had to be paid! He missed too the class phototaking session and thus I wont have a formal photo of him ever, in N1 :(

Pro = He finally misses school!!! He pretended to be leaving the house to go to school yesterday, taking his school bag and all... And tonight, as I put him to sleep, he was seriously happy when I told him that he can go to school if he recovers on Monday.

I am excited! 

The boy, used to whine having to go to school, in the morning of every day. He will go "dont want dont want dont want to go to school".... Of course we never acceded to his request so off he goes anyway. His Grandma swears he even pretends (or really created) tummy aches worrying over the reality of going to school.

Once he arrives in school however, he dont even pay me a second glance when I tell him I am leaving him there and going off. He just goes on to deposit his bags, water bottle and then settles himself happily at the desk to do some art or play with toys. My leaving becomes oblivious to him and when I finally pick him at 5.30pm when school ends, he would be so happy having been there that afternoon that he smiles wide and grins happily saying goodbye to his teachers and promising to return the next day.

However, in the morning of the next day, the charade starts again... he whines he doesnt want to go, and looks ill in the stomach, again! Hmmm.

So, obviously, I raised an eyebrow when he said yesterday he wants to go to school. 

Well I guess I cant really complain yeah? I just wonder how long this "I want to go to school" phase will last....

Well eventhough keeping him at home seems to work, I would rather not as the poor boy (and of course he infected his sis) was sick! He had running nose, cough for a week before retuning to school for one week before falling ill again! This is the first time the kids fell ill within a week of recovering, terrible! The 2nd bout of flu was bad with high persistent fever for 4days. Glad though it is not HFMD that is lurking now in preschools!

And, yeah, sorry I didnt write about K attending school.... Yes, its one of my backlog topics! He goes to Nursery 1 in the afternoon (as all mornings are full) every weekday. He enjoys it and loves especially their playground :) Will post soon, our experience on his 1st week at school it wasnt all too bad, of course, tears the inevitable but its alright... it was quite good :)

Pigtails!

With the weather sometimes super hot and humid, Mei who breaks into a sweat easily will have her hair wet and plastered to her head, many a times.

As her hair is now long(er), and I (and the maid) wanting to keep the length so we can tie her hair in various styles :), I tried tying little tiered pigtails for her a few weeks back.

I... think.... she.... is..... way.... CUTE... with her tied up. 

All adorable and fresh with hair wisp all neatly pulled away from her face.... The trick is to do it when her hands are busy so she wont know of it and yanked them down... Record time it has stayed up was 4-6 hours at a stretch! :)

Everyone gave a good review of her new 'look' except for Grandma who is scared her hair will drop off... she read it in the papers that tying a young person's hair will cause it to drop (baldness, yikes), and I think she is right as strands tend to drop off when we pull off the rubber bands... so I dont tie often anymore, just maybe once a week or two... :)

Eczema

Mei is 14+ months old now... and I am so so glad, her eczema seems to be tapering off (hope I didnt just jinxed myself there).

After trying many many creams and lotions for many many countless months - QV, California Baby, Hydrocortisone, Daktacort, Physiogel, Physiogel AI, unnamed ones blended by Chinese medicinal halls, etc, we finally found Cetaphil to be a good suit, as well as Egocort.

Although I was against the application of steroid creams, WK's advice of control and prevention works. So once we see spots appearing on her face, we will apply Egocort and the rash will be under control within a day or 2 instead of breaking out the way it used to...

Its been closed to 2 months her skin is eczema-free. However tho she still loves to scratch her thighs when she is not wearing long pants.

Seriously hope the rashes wont be back as it is so much better to see her with clear skin!

Toys

Those who has been to our house recently would know that the kids have their own mega playroom in the attic. Over the 2.5years, we had built up a LOT of toys... Mainly however, more boy toys than girls as Mei has just turned a year and thus, no Barbie, Dora etc.

Over the past month, he had taken a liking to Thomas and Friends - especially after I got him a Tomica Thomas & Bertie set, and now the die-cast magnet Bring Along Thomas. However, his heart is still set on construction vehicles and he owns a lot of tipper trucks, cranes, big diggers (front loaders), excavators, tow trucks etc.

Took some photos of him and some (only a fraction of) trucks and trains over the weekend. Thought the photos turned out quite well esp with the colorful playmat background :) its definitely way easier than capturing the active boy - you will soon see the results below!

Of trucks, trucks, trains... the little Sodor tow truck (name's Butch) was his fave over the wknd, today he likes the excavator!

He now knows how to play with his ELC kitchen set - he asked if I wanted fried eggs! :)

The Little Tikes slide bought by their grandparents

Being a fireman!

Playing with Papa in the ball house.

Engrossed with Thomas!

Finally a decent shot of him looking at the camera!

Btw, yes, the above's all played in one afternoon, or actually in 30-45mins while Mei is having her dinner downstairs.

I know some of you had offered to pay for me to organise playgroups but haha, dont think I will do so anytime soon. However, you are welcome to come over with the kids to play - just let me know when and we can set a play date! 

Someone's maid also asked Gigi if the toys are rented in awe of the quantity (?), for the record, no :) All are brandnew mostly contributed by me, and some from his grandparents. WK thinks they are a waste of money, but me, otherwise. I love my kids to have lotsa toys :) I do know that toys are definitely pegged to age, hence, all of what I have now will definitely gather cobwebs in a few years. And I wonder, where can I find space to keep them all then?

A new chapter, my life

Today is my first day being unemployed.

OK maybe not exactly unemployment, like Serene (my ex-colleague) stated in the farewell card, I have moved from HR Head (of a unit) to being Minister of Home Affairs. A big leap. I totally agree. 

I dunno what I will be doing daily other than our usual routines of wake up, breakfast, bathe, one half hour to kill (flash cards? art? craft? others - what?), lunch, driving Kayden to school, 3 hours of freedom in the afternoon w Soph, picking Kayden up, bathe, dinner, sleep. And the same cycle repeats every weekday morning.

This morning I started the day by making trips to the ICA - to replace IC and Traffic Police Centre - to replace driving license. I was done by 10.30am. Then, I didnt really have any specific chores to do, or like work to go to. It was either home or home. So I ended up having an early lunch and now I am back....

Well, I wont exactly say I am at a loss. 

It just got me thinking, what can I do during my free time that wont involve spending money? I guess going to a fellow stay-home-mom's home will be good (Mich, can I come and we bake some cakes while the children play? :))... Or better still what can I do to earn some side income? Well, now I would have some time (between the kids) to figure it out :) 

In my to-do list includes refreshing my blog template, attend cake & breadmaking classes, pack up old stuff eg clothes, attend my DSLR training (yes, still not done! yikes!), complete Mei's patchwork quilt, send printer for repair, replace all the missing membership/discount cards, etc.

Hmmm...

Time to post photos in the blog too! Dont usually like to do much cos it is very time consuming to post... here goes, some photos of the kids on a weekend morning with Papa still sleeping!

Waiting for Thomas & Friends to start - our 9am weekend staple.

Mei Mei happy to hear the Thomas & Friends song - the show starts!

Kor Kor totally engrossed in the show..

Water play!

We dont bring the kids to water often as there isnt an easily accessible pool... Our most recent trip was in the last week of March, the day before WK's bday... it was fun. The kiddies pool at Warren is awesome, has water 'rocking horses' in the shapes of dolphins etc, huge water fountains - see the one in the pix below and lotsa others - haha, most WK and I just couldnt figure out how they work until we spy some kids playing (hehe, shame shame).

Needless to say the kids had great fun. K was of course afraid to get water in his eyes, on his face but got better after a while. Mei was also quite the same... guess they are not natural water babies!

Not too many photos to share as half of its gone kaput - in the memory card inside the stolen Ixus, sob sob. Well at least I did manage to take some with the DSLR before the battery ran out!

Had some good shots of Soph, but none of K cos he just refuses to stand still for even a second to have his photos taken nowadays! Really difficult!

Only 2 close up shots of the kids, solo...

And I simply love these pix... The water droplets are so clear... Its WK attempting to lure K into the fountain to get his water gun, and nay, it didnt work! :P

Worst April Fools

April's fool it is. I didnt realise it is 1 April until the police took down my report, not without me crying earlier.

I have to say, this is by far the WORST April Fool's of my life. Really. Cross my heart. And I hope as long as I shall live, this would be just the worst day ever.

It started out just like any day, and it is ending just like any too, just that as the day draws to a close, instead of someone with a light heart, ie with not much worry, I am troubled and scared.. in a way.

I was at Jurong Point earlier, wanted to duplicate our flat keys and had planned to only go for a while, about 1.5hrs. As soon as I parked the car and walked into the shopping centre w Mei2, I was drawn to this push cart selling kids' clothes... As usual, I couldnt walk away, more so when I'm such a sucker for sales and good buys that the "$10" posters tempted me naturally.

I was browsing the items and pushing Mei in the stroller. After a while of that and selecting, I enquired the sales lady on sizes etc. I had the stroller to my back (it was next to me) but constantly checked to see Mei is still there. When I was ready to pay for the 2 teeshirts, I was shocked. My hand bag's gone, the one that I had carefully slung on the arm of the stroller! 

I remember just standing my ground and stood there dazed. My mind was empty except for... where is my bag? It then hit me, I had been robbed.

The next few moments were a big blur, filled with anxiousness.... of running to MIL at supermarket, both of us running back down to the carpark to ensure the car's still there (cos the keys were in the bag too!), talking to the security officer, calling the police who arrived quite quickly, calling my own phone (yes, it was in the bag too!) and pleading with the perpetrator to return my belongings he can have the money - he answered my calls 4 times but just kept quiet, before turning off the phone.

I went to the security office and the guard started to replay the video on the CCTV and the police came... They finally found the segment showing the man stealing my stuff!! He was definitely caught on tape. He was seen loitering around the pram, walking back and forth, and then took the bag casually when I wasnt looking, and simply walked off naturally.

It is interesting that no one saw. JP was crowded as usual, maybe ppl just wanted to mind their own business. I dunno.

I lost a lot of cash (cos I just collected money from someone), few hundred dollars of cash vouchers, my 1yo Sony Ericsson handphone - worst of all the photos and the clips in there of the kids - which I didnt keep any copy of, lotsa credit cards - all of which has been cancelled, 2 Ez-link card, cash cards, discount cards, car key, etc. And even my 5 yo Ixus cam is inside too!

This is the first time I had ever lost my personal stuff. And it is indeed a huge big lesson, value of all is close to $4K! Sigh. I was absolutely careless. I had always taken security and safety for granted, as I really never ever felt threatened here in Singapore. Now I know, it is just so easy for crime to happen and it happens anywhere all the time. The security guard didnt even bother to walkie talkie his peers to try to look for the man when my bright pink Coach shoulder bag is actually quite obvious to be seen. I guess such crimes are normal to him, but he did say this has been a quiet month, with usually surges in cases during the festive months.

Yes I do know that everyone says money can be replaced - and according to MIL, there is a Chinese saying that says the thief had not only taken away my belongings but also all my bad and ill fate - I am going to agree to this!

I am glad to say at least Mei is unharmed and she is still here, save with us. At home. For this I count my blessings and I will not trade my bag at all for her or our safety.

I saw the clip - the wanted man is a 25-35 yo tall thin Chinese man. Unfortunately the resolution of the photo's not too great so the photo didnt look too clear to me. The police had taken a copy of all CCTV recordings and the Investigating Officer will start investigating the case tomorrow (as it was already end of work day when the police and I left), hopefully he could get a better shot of the man from another camera.

I really hope that this ends here, I dont expect to get my stuff returned, but I hope no further harm comes from him - as unfortunately, there are information on my bank accounts and other personal stuff in the bag as well - he has my address cos he has my IC!!! Sigh. All I wish for now is safety and security. As for the car, the only thing I could do is to also lock the steering wheel with those additional car lock and hope this thief feels he has taken enough from me to not come looking for more! 

Wish us well please.

P/S. Do sms me when you read this so I can save your no again... Will try to reconnect back to the mobile world asap, lotsa places to go as well to reinstate all those cards! Doubly triply sigh. But definitely a heave of relief we are all good and safe otherwise.