I love ralph and rachel

Ting turns 4 today!

2011-09-05T23:56:00.000+08:00

My baby turned 4 today. Ky had taken the day off to bring the kids for a movie. It's a pity that NIE does not entertain leave application except when you're representing the country.

Two days ago, he asked whether they wanted to watch cars or smurfs. Being very typical boy and girl it's not beyond our expectation that fu chose cars and ting chose smurfs. I told them that since it's ting's birthday she'll call the shots.

So, the day arrived and Fu was kind of making a fuss and using delay tactics so he didn't need to watch the show. Then ting saw her brother's behavior and said, "ok, I just changed my mind, I want to watch cars."

Isn't she sweet? Of course we convinced Fu to watch smurfs. We can always watch cars another day.

Of course I do...

2011-08-09T15:40:00.001+08:00

remember that exactly fourteen years ago was when our eyes first met each other at that busstop...

Tribute to the other Mrs Rao

2011-06-11T16:02:00.007+08:00

Whenever I'm in my mil's, I cannot help but admire the woman of the house. My mil is always working. She lives her life fully, 敬业乐业, she truly lives her life without regrets.

She wakes up early for morning exercise, goes to the market, cooks and most of all looks after her three grandchildren. Mind you, she doesnt just watch over them but

she makes sure they grow healthily by preparing carefully thought-out healthy meals;

she makes sure they grow up wisely by spending time sitting with them to do puzzles, sitting with fu to make sure he completes his school/assessment work;

she makes sure the children grow up happily by playing with them ever obliging to mxl's requests of "catch boyboy"..

She is truly the woman to look up to.

2 consecutive slippers mishaps!

2011-06-09T23:38:00.008+08:00

sigh.... just when my own broke before the SAM trip. Another mishap happened.. :(

As with other days of stay-at-home-during-holidays-in-the-morning-then-of-to-Ma's-place-in-the-afternoon, we did just that this morning. So until we've watched enough 喜洋洋 cartoons, showered, done some work, we took the LRT then MRT to Hougang to eat Fu's favourite lunch at Pastamania.

So did someone's slippers break? No leh..... sigh... as I was giving Ting a swing from the escalator, an alarm seemingly of the MRT leaving sounded. I continued ting's monkey swing and swung her directly into the MRT. Then I noticed something amiss with Ting. She seemed to be frightened and I put her down. To my HORROR, I noticed one slipper missing. I looked out and didnt see anything! Ting confirmed that to my horror of horrors that it went through the gap between the MRT and the platform.

(I do not know why blogger refused to let me post this picture in landscape mode)

Poor Ting, she was so sad.

So I gave her a shoulder ride,

and of course, it ended with a very happy ending!

To SAM with Ting!

2011-06-09T23:11:00.002+08:00

I didnt have to consider at all whether or not to go with ting to her field trip. With my new job, I can no longer take leave for such occasions. Yes the management think teachers are indispensable... ok not worth elaborating here.

I tried so hard to ask Fu to go along but now that he's in primary school, he is adamant that whatever his kindergarten does is babyish to him. :S I was afraid that he may get bored when I was not with him so I brought him to the Marine Parade Library to get him to borrow enough books in the morning to fill his afternoon while I was away. BUT MY SLIPPERS HAD TO BREAK?! I then wore (without owner's permission) big-footed mushroom's YSL slippers which were of cos over-sized for me. Sorry my feet didnt do the brand justice but I had no other choice at my mil's place!

Nevermind! I had a good time with ting. I was really glad ting followed instructions well and was attentive. I was not so glad at how some of the teachers seemed to be just mindlessly getting through the programme.

Click the following links for

Pictures with Fu and

Pictures with Ting.

儿子，你好像长大了

2011-06-04T17:06:00.006+08:00

I had such a great time going out with you. We had a number of things to accomplish, i.e. to collect our passports, to see Dr Belinda for your complaints of chest pains, to Dr Kowa's clinic, to collect a watch mummy sent for repair, to change Dajie's helper's air tickets. We swiftly completed our tasks and also had time for lunch, browse at Borders, shopped at popular bookstore and bought 2 waterbottles, one for you and one for your sister.

You agreed, though reluctantly, not to bring your DS lite and my iPad and as the choices were limited at nainai's place, you chose to bring a heavy dictionary as your time-filler. The mere act of talking and walking with you hand-in-hand in all those places made my head swell with pride and heart filled with love.

More pictures here.

Fu's height and weight taken at Dr Bel's Clinic: 117cm and 21.4kg

三字经

2011-04-06T21:51:00.005+08:00

Look what ting learnt in school... :)

her recital:
rén zhī chū 人之初 xìng běn shàn 性本善
xìng xiāng jìn 性相近 xí xiāng yuǎn
习相远 gǒu bú jiào 苟不教 xìng nǎi qiān 性乃迁
jiào zhī dào 教之道 guì yǐ zhuān 贵以专

xī mèng mǔ 昔孟母 zé lín chǔ 择邻处
zǐ bù xué 子不学 duàn jī zhù 断机杼
dòu yān shān 窦燕山 yǒu yì fāng 有义方
jiāo wǔ zǐ 教五子 míng jù yáng 名俱扬
yǎng bú jiào 养不教 fù zhī guò 父之过
jiào bù yán 教不严 shī zhī duò 师之惰

check out the rest of 三字经with explanation here.

Tornado in fu's brain!

2011-04-03T17:27:00.000+08:00

During the relatively long drive while on our way for mil's birthday
dinner last night, I suddenly remembered that my colleague was
complaining to me about a primary 4 student of hers who couldn't give
her the answer to 2 x 1. I decided that I could use the time in the
car to verify my claim - that my son knows the answer.

Me: boy, what's 2 x 1?
Fu: hmm.. 2!
Me: very good! So what's 2 x 2?
Fu: very easy, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28...
Me (obviously feeling pleased): ok ok ok! Stop stop stoooppppp!
So.. Do you know what's 3 x 1?
Fu: hmmm 3!
Me: then?
Fu: hmmm.. 3, 5?
Me: noooo... 3, 6, 9...
Fu: 3, 6, 9, 12, ... 15... 18... 21... 24... Errrmmm... Wait! There's
a tornado in my head! (swirls his finger around his head)
Me: hahaha! What was that? A tornado in your head?
Fu: ya! oh! 27... 30... 33, 36, 39, .......
Me: ok ok ok! Stop stop! What about 4 times table? Will that give
you more tornados?
Fu: yes! And maybe earthquakes and floods!

But he tried 4 times table as well amongst thunderstorms, electric
shocks and volcano eruptions but that left me feeling really pleased.
Oh, and of cos he recited the 5 times table in the absence of
calamities in his brain.

Do you know the colours of the rainbow?

2011-03-05T13:05:00.004+08:00

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ROYGBIV - The lyrics (Music by Shichida Method)
Red
Orange
Yellow and
Green
Blue
Indian (Indigo) and
Violet
I came from the rainbow land
I (To) give you an important comment
Remember my name
My name is ROGIBIV
R O Y G B I V - Roygbiv (x2)

She loves me, she loves me not...

2011-03-01T20:20:00.001+08:00

Ting was still rousing from her afternoon nap when I stole a glance at her after work this evening. With her eyes half opened, she greeted me with the following..

Ting: mum, you know today S is not my friend, she's A's friend.
Me: ohhh... what happened? Was she angry with you?
Ting: *shrugged her shoulders* but you know mum, 昨天 S 是我的朋友…
Me: oh so some days she's your friend and some days she's not?
Ting: *nodded with lips pouted*
Me: so who did you play with today?
Ting: S.

Hmmm...??

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What did you eat during recess today?

2011-02-10T19:21:00.004+08:00

This question became a question that Fu had and has to answer on every school day since 4th Jan. 80% of the time, the answer would be "chicken rice", the other 20% of the time we'll get answers like jelly or pancake and yakult. Naturally as I received him from his school bus today, I asked him the same question.

Me: what did you eat today?
Fu: nothing!
Me: huh? How come?
Fu: cos of this! *pulled a green pen out from his pocket*
Me: you spent all your pocket money on this pen? How much is it?
Fu: $1.55!
Me: That's more than your pocket money!
Fu: never mind
Me: The Aunty said never mind?
Fu: She didn't say anything.
Me: Are you sure?... Why did you buy the pen?
Fu: It's for gugu. I didn't buy her anything for her birthday.

Aww.. I was quite moved that he actually gave up his pocket money for the day to buy a gift for his gugu. We later told him that if he wants to buy something we can buy it together over the weekend or he can at least bring some snacks to school. We also made him pay the balance of 5cents to the book shopkeeper.

So was gugu moved? I think she may not even be aware of what happened. Fu later told his daddy that he bought the pen for himself and it had been since lying in his blue stationary box... What an anti-climax!

新年快乐！

2011-02-07T19:09:00.001+08:00

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我的小胖妞

2011-01-25T20:46:00.002+08:00

Ting has put on some weight lately. She's really nice to cuddle with (if she lets you). For someone who had never really been slim in her life and for someone whose mum's nicknamed as "dua bui B", I'm thinking to what extent I should allow her to eat and grow (fat) before I decide to control her diet.. Hmmm..

I have to say though that she looks quite cute now especially with her new hairdo, lovingly trimmed by mah mah..

(photo to be added)

Cents and centsibility 2

2011-01-06T22:32:00.004+08:00

I have to admit I'm not a "on-the-ball" mother. I only really tried playing "money games" with Fu on the Sunday before he started his Primary One. Most parents would prepared their primary-one-going child much earlier. In fact, i had only suggested to him that we should play a pretend paying game at my mum's place on our way there and had already forgotten about it when we reached there. It was fu who reminded me.

And so we played. I just sat lazily at the sofa, reached out to whatever items I could reach from the telephone table, dug out whatever coins I had from my wallet and started the game, and it went something like this:

Me: *holding Audra's toy* ok, you have $1 with you. This is 70cents, this is 80 cents, which one do you want to buy?
Fu: this one.
Me: ok, this is 70 cents and you give me $1, how much should I return to you?
Fu: *pauses for a while* hmmmm.... 30cents?
Me: Yes! Very good! *gives him 30cents*

We repeated the game with another toy of a different value, then i was reminded to tell him that his pocket money is for buying food not for buying toys, which i did. Then i moved on to the next items:

Me: ok, now you see these 3 books, this is $1.20, this is $1.50 and this is $2, which one do you want to buy. (they're actually the same series of books just of different titles)
Fu: pointed to the $1.50 book.
Me: Hmmm, boy, you know, when you see things that are similar, with very little difference but of different values, you know which one you should always choose?
Fu: hmmm, no.
Me: The cheapest one.
Fu: Why?
Me: because that is value for money! You pay less and get almost the same thing, then you can use the rest of the money for other purposes, you can accumulate them to buy something else. Ok, so which one should you choose?
Fu: hmm.. This one *still insisted to have the $1.50 book*
Me: huh? Why?
Fu: because this is xxx autobot and yellow... and other reasons i cannot remember

I let Fu have that since it was a game and I didn't want to impose on him since i let him choose in the first place. With that we ended the game...

For the rest of the day, i kept a lookout for a watch that Fu can wear to school, I had what i wanted to get for him in mind for a couple of days but didn't get on to it as they were no longer spotted. It's a $5 watch that I wear during weekends a rather presentable and digital digital watch. I searched all over the hougang area where Zoe bought me the one I am wearing, unfortunately they were no where to be found.

Then came Monday which was a school holiday and I brought him to make a pair of spare spectacles at amk. Again I was keeping a lookout for the watch and yes! This time I found them! In desirable colors and also at $5. So, I let him choose his colour. He chose the one in yellow. The shop assistant then took the yellow watches out and asked which one in particular. One type has a yellow face and the other has a black face. Fu took a look at them, couldn't see much of a difference and said something that I totally did not expect, "the cheaper one".

slide at T3

2010-12-26T23:07:00.002+08:00

The airport has always been one of our favourite hangouts especially for rainy days. It didn't rain today but coincidentally fu and Dajie gave the same reply when I asked them where they'd like to go.

So off we went! We swiftly had our lunch settled at the airport and went back to terminal 3. The kids were having fun chasing one another and hiding from their imaginary enemy's eyes by dodging their heads.

Then we (except Dajie and Audra) tried something for our very first time... :)

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school shoes

2010-12-26T22:58:00.001+08:00

It's just a pair of ordinary white shoes yet I actually felt kindof emotional when Fu's trying them on. He's really going to primary one in a few days' time? Strangely I'm feeling 不舍得…

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宝贝，一眨眼你已经六岁了

2010-12-16T16:05:00.005+08:00

Time has no mercy. Fu is already 6. It felt like yesterday that he's still this cute little thing lying on my chest with his perfectly round face and perfectly tiny mouth. Then I had never projected my thoughts to the day he starts calling "mummy", the day he starts to walk, the day he starts his school or the day he first writes his name. All those had happened and he's not turning back. Like all other boys his age, he cant wait to grow up. To him, being an adult is cool. I wonder if he realises that his mummy has a totally different set of ideas and only want to slowly savour each moment of him growing up.

Ralph, I hope you had a great time at the zoo and xinwang. What a lucky boy you are, loaded with presents from the people who love you.

Next year's going to be a big year for you (and for me too). Let's work through it together and I'm sure you're going to do exceedingly well and so will mummy! Love you..

The Master key to socialisation

2010-12-14T11:51:00.012+08:00

yesterday I was on leave for a playdate that I arranged for fu and ting with their new friend we got to know from the Beijing trip. Since we were only to meet at 11am at their home and I was borrowing dajie's car for the date, ky dropped us off at ma's place in the morning.

When we were there, my mum asked me whose place we were going to. I told her. She marveled at how fast we could made friends and she never really made any from her tours. I told her it's cos of a universal language, it's cos of ting and fu. Many tourmates came to strike conversations with whenever their children tries to befriend ting and fu, who happened to be the youngest in the group.

My mum agreed, having children will open windows to people's hearts. She said you can be neighbours for many years before and when you finally speak to each other, more often than not, it's regarding children.

~~~~~~~~~

B and O are such wonderful children. O is going to primary 6 next year and she adores ting. She kept ting company the whole time, made sure she didnt fall down the stairs, made sure she didnt make too big a mess of herself from eating. B is 2 years older than fu, he lets fu play with all his toys, lets fu win in all the games, gently adjusts fu's spectacles for him when it droops down. Two of them are such great kids.

I own two master keys, so do C and her husband. :)

Ok enough of my rantings, here's what kept them occupied for hours at their house!

Did you see how O helped ting when ting's bey blade didnt spin?

Are you a cowboy?

2010-12-11T20:26:00.002+08:00

Me: Are you a cowboy?

Ting: Nooo!! I'm a girl!

Me: oh... so you're a cowgirl?

Ting: Nooo!!! I'm not a cow.... I'm a PIG!

Me: *laughs* hahaa so you're a pig-girl?

Ting: YES! Gorgor says I'm born in the year of the Pig so I'm a Pig-girl!

dajie's sms

2010-12-08T22:54:00.001+08:00

"Your son asked, "dayi, why do my mum and dad take so long to pay?"
I said, "maybe they went to buy something for you and the family."
He said, "orh," and walked away.

Fu can be so grown up and independent but he is still a little child that will miss his mum and dad when they are away for too long.
He has taken his own shower with no one having to nag at him. Earlier, he gave up watching his favourite tom and jerry to let Tessa watch playhouse Disney.
Darling fu..."

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mole

2010-12-08T22:10:00.001+08:00

Fu: mum, is this a mole? *points to a mole on his upper arm*
Me: yes it is.
Fu: why do we have moles? What are they?
Me: they're skin pigmentation.
Fu: pigmentation? What is that?
Me: hmmm.. it's kind of discolouration.*searching all over my tiny brain and getting worried that he'll ask further*
Fu: HEY MUM! A mole is an animal! Why is it on our body?

Phew!

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Fu's birthday wish

2010-12-07T23:49:00.003+08:00

Fu first told me about his birthday wish a few weeks ago. Then, I didnt think too much about it as I really did not know whether his level of seriousness. He had requested me to buy him a birthday card at the shops near 奶奶's place.

That request did linger in my mind but I guess it kindof got buried deep within and memories of it will only be triggered when the topic of birthday present is being brought up.

I dont know what triggered him but yesterday Fu asked me for the card again. He has his way of talking to you in his gentlest and sweetest voice when he has a request to make. I guess all mothers can attest to this inborn skill of their children. I promised him that I will go to the shop with him the following day to take a look but did not promise him that I will purchase the cards for him.

Yesterday was a late night for him but I was not overly concerned since it's the school holidays. He woke up in good spirits this morning even though his head swung from one side to another as he fell asleep while on our way to 奶奶's place. When we reached the carpark, Fu held my hand and asked me to go view the cards with him. I went along with him as I was also very curious on what cards he's referring to.

He squatted down in front of the shop and looked through the cards. When I finally saw what the cards were, my heart really turned soft on how simple a child's birthday wish can be. He carefully browsed through the selection and made his choice. I questioned him to confirm that that's really what he wants for his birthday, reminding him that once that is bought, he will not get another birthday present from me. He confirmed that without hesitation. Unfortunately. I couldnt buy the cards at that point of time as I did not have a single penny with me.

Back at 奶奶's place, he was very anxious and kept asking me whether I'll get the cards and when I'll get them. He was worried that someone will buy what he had selected off. I assured him that if in the evening I return and it's already sold, I will make sure I find that somewhere else. With that, I left 奶奶's place. Of course, I couldnt bear to disappoint him and I headed straight to the shop to buy what he selected and set-off for work.

When I returned, he eagerly came to me and asked if I had bought the cards. I smiled and asked, "what do you think?"
"I dont know!" was his immediate reply, almost in exasperation.

I took the cards out from my bag much to his delight but reminded him that it's not his birthday yet and cannot open it up. He obediently agreed and went back to his dinner.

When he was done, he excitedly showed 爷爷 the cards and as 爷爷 was unaware that it was not to be opened till his birthday, he had taken out the cards to browse. Fu later asked me if he could play with the cards and I maintained that it's not his birthday yet. He was going to put the cards back into the box and with that, I relented and told him, "ok, you can have your birthday present in advance."

Oh boy, you should the delight on his face.

I later learnt from mushroom that when they passed by the shop in the afternoon, he was looking for the cards he had selected and wiping his perspiration off when he couldnt find what he had chosen. Poor boy!

Want to know what his birthday wish was? Animal Kaiser cards that cost me $1.20. How can any mother reject this simple birthday wish? I'm actually very tempted now to buy all the Animal Kaiser cards at the shop after seeing how much he enjoyed playing with them with his father.

how do you make up?

2010-12-07T22:59:00.002+08:00

nah... this is not a post about cosmetics. The make up here refers to making up after a fight/a quarrel.

Here's how ting and fu made up, the conversation happened when ting accidentally stepped onto her brother..

fu: awwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooo!!!
ky: ting, you better say sorry to gorgor.
ting: sorry gorgor..
fu: awwwwwwwwwwwwooooooo... it's very painful you know? You better do something more!
ky: ting already said sorry to you.
ting: *at a loss*
fu: you better give me a hug
ting: *hug*
fu: and a kiss also
ting: *hug and kiss*

What's your favourite number?

2010-12-04T02:25:00.003+08:00

Ting will take every opportunity to tell you what her favourite number is. At one stage, it was about the only number she could always identify correctly. Ask her how many pieces of biscuits she wants, how many sticks of pokeys, how many coco pops she would like to have, how many times she wants to watch hi5 on my phone, how many... OK you get the idea, her answer will always be the same.

Just now, I stumbled on one of my previous posts that made me realize something. Both my children have the same favourite number at the same stage of their lives!

PS: luckily she doesnt say 4 when I ask her this question: 你要帮几条？

Today I received a message

2010-11-10T00:32:00.001+08:00

I received a call from a ex-customer asking me about video conferencing solution. One thing led to another and we started talking about parenting.

Mr ex-customer is a proud father of two dashing young lads, sec 2 and 4 and proudly told me that till date, they still prefer to spend their, weekends with the family.

His parenting tip:
It doesn't matter which school they go to, more importantly is the amount of time you spend with them and the bonding they have with the family. If you bond well with your children, you know what's happening and they will turn to you when they encounter problems.

Even when you have no time, never say "go away". Tell them that you're busy now and go back to them later and make sure you go back to them.
Then when you return from work, you'll notice they'll put everything down and welcome you home.

His tips are plain, logical and simple. Coming from Mr nice-man, I believed firmly that he does what he preaches. After the phonecall, I honestly felt guilt-stricken. It felt like for some reasons, God sent me the message through Mr ex-customer and all I wanted to do was to run home to be with ting and fu..

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My daily tickles

2010-11-10T00:19:00.001+08:00

Almost every night, I will be tickled when the lift door opens. Ting and Fu will run to our door..
Fu (big smiles): YEAH! I'm the first!
Ting (even bigger smiles): YEAH! I'm the last!

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is wanting a pet every child's wish?

2010-09-19T00:29:00.002+08:00

warning: long-winded post

Fu had been asking to have a pet for months. Like all other children, he asked for a dog. Being at home on weekdays only to sleep is not going to give us any time for a dog. I told him the dog will have to wait for us all day to return only to send us to bed moments after he/she sees us. I told him also that dogs have shorter lifespan than us and we will feel very sad when the dog passes on. There is also very little room to allow us a dog in our little 5-rm flat, blah blah..

Then once, he asked to have a chick! He said chicks are so cute. I asked him what we'll do with the chick when it grows up to the chicken. He gave such a childlike and somewhat cruel answer, "we'll just throw it out of our house and lock the door."

Tsk tsk tsk.. we told him, "OKAY! That'll be exactly what we're going to do with you! When you grow up, we'll just throw you out of our house and lock the door!"

That made him to think a little, he then said that we'll send the chicken back to the farm when it grows up. Still, we didnt think that keeping a chick will be a good idea. Yicks! So I thought I had the best idea of dealing with it and I thought that he wouldnt want to keep what I'm going to suggest, so I suggested to him, "the only pet that you can have at home is a fish."

"OK!"

....... oh man..... what have I done? So for the next couple of days, turned weeks (I'm not sure if it turned to months), that agreed proposal stuck in my mind. Finally last long Hari Raya long weekend, we went to the fishfarm. The same day that Dajie and family went.. my goodness, we didnt even know we went to the same place in the same morning till that same evening!

We enquired about the tiniest fish tank we saw there, it comes complete with a filter with an affordable price tag. I went on to ask which breed of fish to keep, "请问哪一种鱼最容易养，最难死？"

"红鱼." came the reply. We later found out that 红鱼is platy fish.

So we happily netted our 5 fish. Let me introduce them to you..

....hmm..... something's wrong with blogger's photo upload so please click the links..

Tiny - fu named it Shiney originally. He said cos its body was Shiney. At the time when we named it, it was already dead :(

Bully - there's no rocket science to how this fish got its name. It was chasing all the other fish away when we first fed them. We made it "swim at a corner" with a net and amazingly, it worked miracles and right after that, it was very well behaved!

Spotty - named after its spots. This one can really eat!

Rabbit - named after its colour its timid behavior.

Bulimic - Lastly, bulimic. We had wanted to stop at 4 but fu said get another orangy one for his sister since that's her favorite colour. Why Bulimic? It would spit out the food that it just swallowed. It later turned into the real bully though, biting and spitting the scales off rabbit in its last hours and chasing the other fish away from food. Maybe its meant to be bully-mic!

When we reached home, ky spent a considerable amount of time cleaning up the sand and stuffs and preparing the tank. When it was set, I thought the fish looked kind of jittery in the tank, then ky asked me to touch the water, he said the motor from the filter seems to have some short circuit! I touched the water with much hesitation and it really did give me a numbing feeling! Omg... I was wondering how the fish must be feeling, being electrocuted from their eyes all the way down... good thing they dont have a pexxx!

So ky sent us to our mum's place and brought the tank back to the fish farm. When he really got everything set, he told me at my mum's place that he's worried the fish will jump out. When we reached home, fu was the first to run to the fish tank and I saw him squatting nearby looking at something on the floor...... sigh... Tiny committed suicide..

It's kindof weird owning pets. Even though they are just fish, there's still a feeling of responsibility. First we were worried that they didnt eat, then we were worried that they overeat, then we were worried we'll find another dead fish when we wake up.. etc etc..

Sad to say, today, only Bulimic and Spotty are left. Rabbit died on the third morning, followed by Bully two days later. Fu wanted to get more but I guess, we'll stick to 2 for a while, to learn more before more fish become victims of our inexperience of owning them!

Such Brilliance!

2010-09-17T19:04:00.001+08:00

sometimes it may not be a bad thing when the kids bicker all the time. it trains their responsiveness and reaction speed. The following conversation happened with fu trying to antagonise his sister..

fu: ting ting is poisonous!
ting: (me: no she's not.) Yes! *grinning*. So don't touch me!

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Which one will you choose?

2010-09-14T23:07:00.001+08:00

As with most nights, ting cries and whines for attention of her parents. (I was still not ready from my shower while ky was busy with other stuffs outside the room.)

I was getting annoyed and raised my voice at ting to keep quiet from the bathroom. Then I heard fu speaking to his sister with an unbelievably calm, comforting and wise tone....

fu: Rachel, mummy will care about you if you keep quiet and mummy will not care about you when you cry, which one will you choose?

Then it was peace and I was certainly very pleased!

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carrot cake from Old Chang Kee

2010-09-10T10:38:00.001+08:00

一看到你就想起我那胖嘟嘟的外甥 - Enzian..

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so what happened on ting's birthday?

2010-09-08T00:15:00.001+08:00

I remember my friends asking me when the terrible twos will end. my answer was without hesitation: oh.. it will end miraculously when they blow the candles of their third birthday, followed by a big laughter. ha...

well of cos I have no idea when terrible twos will end. Unfortunately it doesn't happen like the way I answer my friends. How I wish that's the way it is!

So as dajie wished ting happy birthday and told her that's the last day of her terrible twos, I was secretly laughing inside my heart. Probably knowing too well, dajie followed by saying, "but the beginning of terrifying three!"

On ting's birthday, our family went for a short getaway to port dickson. it was meant to be a trip with my in-laws. Unfortunately fil's boss didn't approve his leave, neither did mushroom's. Still we went ahead. The last minute confirmed trip mitigated my guilt for having not prepared ting's birthday present a little. Still, I reminded myself that I'll get one for her over the weekend.

Being seasoned north-south highway travellers having visited Erjie at PJ several times, I had least expected the journey to give us any problem. True enough, ting fell asleep shortly after the causeway. Unfortunately that did not last long. I think she was awakened prematurely while I was talking to fu.
Then came the terrifying moments. She wailed and screamed for no good reason and nothing was stopping her. When we pulled over at the stop point, I grabbed her and pulled her out of her carseat. I remember vividly the look of her face. Shocked but at the same time relieved that she's finally getting out of the car. As I left her on the pavement, her little woody wood-pecker's suitcase of books and toys I had earlier allowed them to pack followed my motion and dropped into a puddle of water.

I picked them up from the puddle hastily amidst complaints from ting, "eh, why so wet." I left them on dry ground next to her and, went straight back into the car and shut the door. In my heart, I was in a mess. I even had thoughts of leaving her there but how my heart ached when I thought how far she has come from just a 1.5kg premie.

ky went to her and gave her a talk and soon brought the still sobbing but apologetic ting back to her seat. By then I already couldn't contain my emotions any longer and started crying looking out of the window. The saga continued when ting resumed her tantram throwing, by then I had gone berserk and seriously wanted to turn back (we were already around two thirds to our destination). If I were the driver, I would definitely have done so.

Of course that did not happen and perhaps marred by the bad experience of the journey, I honestly did not enjoy the holiday. Even now as I sit on my own bed, I'm still feeling the heartache when I shut the car door...

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lovely shoes from lovely mushroom

2010-09-04T13:39:00.001+08:00

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Sometimes I don't know what to do too you know?

2010-09-03T01:03:00.001+08:00

Lately I have started to feel very bothered and frustrated by the never-ending bickerings between ting and fu. Fu simply enjoys disturbing her sister. It's not hard to know why as ting will always shout, whine, cry and protest at the tiniest and most harmless teases from her brother. Fu will get the extreme kick from the noise her sister makes and he'll seize every opportunity to get that kick.

Every activity is a competition. From drinking milk, to holding hands, to changing to school uniforms, to taking showers and reaching our door step, there's no way that they will allow their sibling to get ahead of them. Each activity is thus filled with breath-stopping dashes and ear-piercing screams (from ting) and laughters (from fu).

Tonight they had to compete on "who gets to be read their book first". Feeling a little tired and very gloomy after reading Erjie's blog, I almost felt like running away from them.

Fortunately I did not and I turned to them, "mummy doesn't know who to read to first you know? Who wants to be read to second?"

"Me!" came an immediate reply from ting. I was surprised and asked again just to be sure and ting repeated the same. Even so I was still not sure whether she really understood what I meant. Then fu interrupted, "no I will be read to second."

Thank you for your understanding my children.

This perhaps is a reminder that there's really no need to act strong and know-it-all all the time. In fact showing my sense of lost gave them a chance to show empathy.. and be nice.

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video upload from Blogger-droid

2010-09-03T00:06:00.001+08:00

fu reading to ting...

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Primary 1

2010-08-22T00:03:00.002+08:00

The stress began way before fu stepped into his primary school. I literally suffered from insomnia, nightmares add palpitations. I was that close to having a nervous breakdown during the balloting exercise.

Number 346. The 44th applicant to be called out of 57 vacancies. On Friday, 13th August 2010, I died 43 times. That was one helluva experience you can get and only in Singapore...

Thank goodness he got in.. and like a friend commented in facebook, "relax, it's only the beginning".

Ting loves babies

2010-08-21T23:53:00.001+08:00

Ting said to me in her expressive face, complete with hand gestures, while I was showering for her..
Ting: we have so many babies, we have Xavier, Audra, Matthew and hmmm hmmm....
Me: Reyes?
Ting: and Reyes. We love all the babies.

手拉手

2010-08-21T23:42:00.001+08:00

你知道我多么喜欢拉着你的小手吗？

祝福

2010-07-15T15:28:00.000+08:00

  不要问不要说一切尽在不言中

  这一刻偎着烛光让我们静静的渡过

  莫挥手莫回头当我唱起这首歌

  怕只怕泪水轻轻的滑落

  愿心中永远留着我的笑容

  伴你走过每一个舂夏秋冬

  几许愁几许忧人生难免苦与痛

  失去过才能真正懂得去珍惜和拥有

  情难舍人难留今朝一别各西东

  冷和热点点滴滴在心头

  愿心中永远留着我的笑容

  伴你走过每一个春夏秋冬

  伤离别离别虽然在眼前

  说再见再见不会太遥远

  若有缘有缘就能期待明天

  你和我重逢在灿烂的季节

  伤离别离别虽然在眼前

  说再见再见不会太遥远

  若有缘有缘就能期待明天

  你和我重逢在灿烂的季节

  伤离别离别虽然在眼前

  说再见再见不会太遥远

  伤离别离别虽然在眼前

  说再见再见不会太遥远

  若有缘有缘就能期待明天

  你和我重逢在灿烂的季节

  不要问不要说

  一切尽在不言中

  这一刻偎着烛光让我们静静的渡过

  莫挥手莫回头当我唱起这首歌

  愿心中留着笑容

  伴你渡过每个春夏秋冬

Ting's entanglement...

2010-06-18T23:22:00.000+08:00

My ting twisted her hair until they were so entangled. I had no choice but to snip them off after my failed attempt to remove the knots.
Fu had a brilliant idea though..
Fu: ting did not twist them to your left or right?
Ting: hmmm.. right.
Fu: mum, just twist them to your left!
Me: .....

Please don't grow up too quickly my darling

2010-06-16T20:01:00.003+08:00

16 June 2010, Fu's exactly 5.5 years old. He's going to have his first tooth fairy encounter, tonight....

Update:
I really dont know how others manage this teeth dropping and sprouting process. I remember I used to be so terrified when I was little. I will attempt to push my loose teeth back to its position. I vividly remember there was one that was already out and just connected by a vein (or whatever you call it) but I was still frantically trying to push it back and hide from my mother whom of cos eventually found out and pulled it out.

Why was fu not scared at all? In fact, I heard from my mil that he took his toothbrush to ask her, "奶奶，为什么我的牙刷这样？" (red) He didnt even realise that his tooth dropped and they were searching for it on the toilet floor.

Anyway, Fu didnt have any encounter with the tooth fairy. Apparently, he seemed to be afraid of the tooth fairy coming and asked that the tooth fairy not visit him. He left his tooth on the table instead of under his pillow. He said we can go and buy the present ourselves. What a funny little boy :)

我的婷婷很会撒娇

2010-05-10T07:51:00.004+08:00

my parents-in-law must be missing tingting. They came over to our place yesterday to take a look at their 宝贝孙女. They were happy to see that her spots were did not appear much at all on her face and the others are also subsiding.

Fu of course could not let the opportunity to play wii slip. Within minutes of his grandparents' arrival, he had taken out the wii controller and was preparing to load wii sports. Within all the fun and laughters, ting came to me pouting,

"Mummy, Rachel is too small... Rachel cannot play... Rachel is sad..."

Then she happily ran out to watch them play.

There's only one word to describe her, the way she pouted, the way she tilted her head, the way she gestured with her hands and the way she said it, alluring.

ting is down with chickenpox

2010-05-06T17:58:00.002+08:00

I kept thinking.. did I vaccinate ting from chickenpox? My brain went for “I did leh….. aiyah… like no leh…. hmm.. like have leh… aiyah have or don’t have?”

We checked ting’s healthbook and nothing’s indicated. Then I started thinking again…. Why didn’t we vaccinate her? We did that for fu mah..

So this morning, as expected, we were being asked this question at Dr Belinda’s Clinic. Having done our homework, I promptly replied them that we didn’t vaccinate her. Then as they flipped the medical cards, Dr Bel had previously remarked that I told her Ting was vaccinated in SGH. I don’t know what to trust, my words then, or the records on the book? Anyway, ting’s chickenpox outbreak seems to suggest that she was not vaccinated. The blisters are growing steadily. More now than in the morning.

Frustrated with my lack of recollection, I asked myself aloud in front of Dr Belinda, “why didn’t I vaccinate her?”

Then came a calming and somewhat consoling voice, “you had your reasons.”

After examining Ting, Dr Belinda confirmed it is chickenpox. She commented that ting didn’t seem to be bothered by it but cautioned that it’s not at the itchy stage yet. Ting is at a good age to just let her go through the process and pop everything out. I however have a concern as we are to attend ky’s cousin’s wedding on 15^th May. So comes the decision on whether to take the medication (which of cos the name I had already forgotten) to reduce the outbreak and quicken the recovery. There are no known side effects and the only shortcoming is it’s expensive. We took a while to make the decision which Dr Belinda respected despite the long queue outside. We decided to take it, so ting suffers less and we are almost guaranteed recovery by 15May. Then Dr Belinda took pains to call up the pharmacies to get the cheapest option for us and that certainly helped us to save some bucks.

After asking things like “dos and donts” I asked Dr Bel why she covered her “consultant” tag at her. She said it’s against the ministry’s regulation. I was surprised and told her but there are a lot of others who still left their consultant tag on their logo. She said the ministry can come and “scold” them cos they are not supposed to call themselves consultants. Then she said, I’m not consultant, I’m senior consultant, very old already you know? I laughed it off… knowing of cos the tag senior doesn’t correlate to age.

As I went out to make payment, the clinic assistant, S, who must had been there for the longest time told me, she’s Associate Professor, not just senior consultant. I replied as proudly as I could be, “I KNOW! She’s a President’s scholar! I googled her name you know? Her brother’s also a president’s scholar!” :P I only stopped myself from saying that “she’s my idol you know?” Haha..

Along the way back, I suggested that we should pick fu. At home, fu did the sweetest thing for ting. She helped ting change into her home clothes. :)

Get well soon babe!

Cents and Centsibility

2010-03-17T22:09:00.000+08:00

I finally managed to knock off early this evening so I took the opportunity to bring fu for his long overdue haircut. We were surprised to find the salon crowded. The expected waiting time was about 45min. Not wanting to waste our precious 45min waiting in the salon, I suggested to fu that we can buy some cheese rice crackers from NTUC.
We promptly spotted the cheese rice crackers and next to them were the all time kids favourite panda biscuits. I thought the panda biscuits were a little expensive and suggested we walk over to the value shop near the mrt station to take a look. So we happily walked to the shop.. Small hand in big hand.. Chatting about bicycle gears and MRTs..

At the value shop, we quickly bought the panda biscuits, nutella spread, pokey sticks and yan yan biscuits. As we were making our way back to the salon, I asked fu if he still wanted to buy the cheese crackers.. Then he said this, "but u already spent so much money, i dont want u to spend so much money mom. Now you must work and work and work and then we'll have money again."

Transformers

2010-03-14T00:31:00.001+08:00

Fu is a 200% transformers fan. This picture is taken by him with my phone. His craze over transformers had influenced her sister.. I caught ting at the sofa singing to herself..

Ting (singing a self-made-up song): Optimus Prime... Optimus Prime...
Me (pretending): Who is Optimus Prime?
Ting: Optimus Prime is Autobot
Me: :O

Ting's favourite colour

2010-01-27T20:01:00.001+08:00

It's really not hard to guess what ting's current favourite colour is right?

another milestone

2010-01-12T15:38:00.000+08:00

As fu’s still not well, ting went to school without her brother. I was surprised that she readily agreed to my suggestion of her going to school alone today when I was testing her out last night. On top of that, FIL went to fetch her without MIL..

Good job ting!

Love hate relationship

2010-01-12T00:03:00.001+08:00

The title describes the relationship between ting and fu.

Whenever they're together, they will get into bickerings and fights. Ting will oppose to whatever her brother says (whether or not she understands them) then they'll start a shouting match of
"YES!"
"NO!"
"YESSSS!"
"NNOOOO!"

Or Fu will find whatever ting is holding more interesting than whatever he's holding and snatch that away from ting's hands. Then it will be followed by screams, squeals, hair-pulling, face-punching, etc etc..

Then today, when I told fu that I'll be bringing him (only him) to see Dr Bel, fu came into the room and pleaded with me, "mum, can u bring ting too? I promise I will not fight with her."

I had only wanted to bring fu cos his symptoms are more serious and it's really not necessary to bring both since I'm very sure both caught the same bug (incidently and embarrassingly from their mother). Nonetheless, I asked fu, "Why do you want mummy to bring ting?"
"Cos she's still sick!" was his immediate and as-a-matter-of-fact reply.

I didnt have to heart to reject him and of course ting was delighted to come along..

height and weight before i forget

2010-01-11T15:07:00.000+08:00

12.6kg

87.5cm

19.6kg

110.2cm

I mentioned to Dr Bel that fu now has to wear spectacles. She seemed worried at first until I told her it’s due to astigmatism. It seems like most doctors are more concerned about myopia than astigmatism since astigmatism usually occurs from birth and is relatively stable.

Astigmatism

2010-01-09T17:07:00.000+08:00

Not that I'm rejoicing but my ralphy seems to have become so studious-looking all of a sudden.

He was referred by HPB during an eye check with his school to the polyclinic and was diagnosed to have astigmatism of 150 and 175 degrees. Most likely a result of bad genes. :(

missing you....

2010-01-02T18:29:00.002+08:00

New year resolution?

2009-12-31T12:15:00.002+08:00

i was talking to my young colleague whom i've observed to be sleeping at times like 3am/5am.. I told her her new year resolution should be to sleep by midnight. Then i started to think for myself... what resolution should i make?

i've got one.. just one.. and it'll probably sound crappy to you as it's without specifics...

"I want to be a better person.."

Christmas 2009

2009-12-30T12:54:00.003+08:00

A very special christmas spent with my erjie's family. The boys sang us a German song. I didnt understand a word but it was lovely....

wake up call

2009-12-30T12:52:00.004+08:00

i got a wake up call this morning and i better buck up about my blog.. i was busy lah, when i was not busy anymore, i got lazyyy...

i have no intention to let it "die" but you know... not everything happens as intended..

so stay tuned! eh... no need to come too often.. maybe just check like once every 3 months :P

hello? my name is CaroLINE

2009-10-27T16:51:00.001+08:00

EH hello? In case you're not aware, my name is CaroLINE, not CaroLEEN. Caroleen is spelt with Carolyn, and CaroLINE is pronounced as how it is spelt, Caro-LINE. Have I made myself clear?

a: hello may i speak to caroleen please?
me: this is caroLINE
a: oh hi caroleen, regarding the.....
me: this is caroline. yes regarding the... so?... Read More
a: blah blah
me: bla..
a: thank you caroleen
me: ya. This is caroLINE

Those idiots.

First day of school

2009-09-28T17:26:00.003+08:00

After the trial class one week before the term ended, Ting finally started her first day of school today. I thought she handled the trial class alot better than today. She was sooo sticky this morning i couldnt break free from her. Her teachers didnt impress me at all today.

没关系，明天会更好！

the adventures of our wedding band

2009-09-25T17:32:00.004+08:00

It's not the first time I dropped my ring...

I dropped it during our honeymoon. I remember it very clearly. I was getting off the coach and cos it was cold, I flicked my hand, with the intention of bringing down my jacket sleeves and pioawwww.... my ring fell... AND! It went into a very deep drain. What's more, the drain cover was not openable. Everyone in the tour group were crowding around the drain to look for it. Someone had a torchlight and spotted it from above (it was getting dark).

Luckily, a local told us that the drain could be accessed through some opening in the basement carpark next to where the coach was. He even went down and.. phew... my ring was retrieved. With some scars of course. We took some pictures on the following day of the spot. I remember someone viewed our pictures and asked why we took that pic. Ha..

Then not long ago, ky almost lost his ring, that resulted in the "rough wear ring" I bought for our anniversary :P. Another close shave.

Seems like the adventures of our wedding bands didnt end there. I was fiddling with my ring in my colleague's car on the way to lunch. Examining a new scratch and in a split second, it dropped off from my clumsy fingers and just like the golf hole-in-ones, it went straight into the hole where the seat belt buckle comes out from the seats. My helpful colleague with the tiniest had volunteered to slip her hand in but there was no way to reach the ring.

Luckily my resourceful colleague kindly drove his car to his friend's workshop. He called and asked if there's any diamond (i almost wanted to lie to him that there is but was too paiseh to say that cos i had already created enough trouble for him). I spotted his perspiration on his forehead when he came back to the office and I couldnt thank him more.

Ahh.. a pity that 4D didnt strike...

I hope it'll be the last of our wedding band adventure!

my little expert wii boxer

2009-09-22T16:57:00.002+08:00

look at the way his bums move!

Just updated!

2009-09-21T15:13:00.007+08:00

Just updated!

1) Zoo 18 Jul 09
2) Botanical Gardens
2) Fu's lego creation
3) Happy birthday to ME!
4) Ting's 2!
5) Fu's creations on samsung jet
6) Little Green Frog
5) 20-09-2009

20-09-2009

2009-09-21T14:18:00.004+08:00

I didnt know I picked such an auspicious date for our Botanical gardens picnic. Ky went for a wedding dinner last night and my in-laws were at my place for a stay over. We went to the Botanical gardens only to find the carparks full. Something reeaaallly unusual.

So the pictures will be proof of what I meant in the earlier botanical gardens post. Fun for the kids, but relaxing for the adults :) (but too hot for the pregnant! Oops!)

Little Green Frog

2009-09-19T15:59:00.001+08:00

(Click on the frog to see more)

It was dajie's idea to catch the children's play. She checked the SISTIC webpage and suggested we can get the family pack of 5 (discounted). So we bought that pack, intended for Zelda, dajie, ky, fu and I. Ting would have to be deposited somewhere (you dont have to be a genius to make the right guess).

Eventually due to some "logistics issue", the 5 became Zelda, fu, ting, ky and I. I thought the show was great! Nice songs and educational. My favorite part about the show is that allowed for audience participation :) 5 thumbs up!

Fu's creations on samsung jet

2009-09-17T14:58:00.001+08:00

My favorite part of the creations? The colours. What's yours?

Ting's 2!

2009-09-05T13:25:00.000+08:00

How time flies and how glad I am that ting has turned two. So many milestones have been reached. Soon she will be donning the school uniform and attending school. We had a BBQ at the BBQ pit at my place with just immediate family members and some close friends. I was busy and I didnt manage to take any pictures! Luckily there were "paparazzis". So for those of you in my facebook you'll be able to see them.

Happy birthday my 心肝宝贝!

Happy birthday to ME!

2009-09-04T13:14:00.001+08:00

我有老了一岁。 A perfect excuse not to go to work! So many birthdays already nothing to talk about. Purpose of the blog is just to share some pictures with some of you who are not on my facebook. (Click on the picture to reveal more shots all from ky's Samsung Jet).

What a conversation!

2009-09-03T19:25:00.001+08:00

Me: ting, why are you pulling my shorts?
Ting: hmmm.... Becaauuseee.... I THINK SO!

undeniable fact

2009-08-26T15:59:00.003+08:00

ky and i went for our very first mass run on 23 Aug. It was organised by the Singapore Cancer Society, the Race Against Cancer. Not meaning to undermine the triumphant feeling of completing my first ever 10km, the possibility of doing the run reminded me of an undeniable fact.

For both ky and I to go for the run, there were "logistics" issue to grapple. Who's going to look after our cutebeings? The first solution we both thought of was to send both ting and fu to mil's place on our way to ECP for the run, still that would be dependent on the availability of mil. When ky asked mil, not only came an immediate consent, we were "counter-offered" by mil that fil and her will come over to our place to stay over on Sat night so we dont have to drag everyone out of bed early on sunday morning and rush back again to go for their shichida class.

When we came back dirty and sweaty from the run, the house was neat and empty. We took our time to take our shower then call mil. Joined by mushroom, they were happily having breakfast and shopping at PP. When they eventually returned, having had a good time, fu and ting came running in happily. We were of cos as happy to see them as they were to see us.

There are a thousand and one things that you can say to me that I may deny. One thing that I'll never deny though, is that I have the best inlaws you can ever dream of.

Conversation at dinner

2009-08-11T15:17:00.002+08:00

My little girl, who weighed only 1.495kg at birth, is now 11.5kg! Mil showed me pictures of her children when they were young and I was WORRIED that ting will become like her gugu! She has got to be the chubbiest girl I’ve ever known. Haha :X

My worry is not unfounded. Ting has been putting on recently. She’ll throw a tantrum if she doesn’t get to eat what she asks to eat. Sometimes pointing to my gmil’s crackers or oreo cookies right after her meal. Being in a family with multiple meal times does not help. She will ask for food whenever someone’s having dinner. We all have different meal times and you can imagine how many times she will run to the table and demands for her food!

However, I recently discovered that she likes to eat vegetables! So now, whenever she asks for food when I’m having dinner, I will give her some vegetables which will keep her occupied for a few minutes before she comes running to the table for more.

Last night, we were having dinner at home. Ting, as usual was asking for vegetables..

Ting: want ehtables… nOW!

Me: hmm? That’s not the way to ask. Say “May I (may i) have some (have some) vegetables (ehtables) please mummy (please mummy). Ok.

Ting: Thanks.

Me: you’re welcome!

After a few minutes….

Ting: want ehtables… nOW!

Me: hmm? That’s not the way to ask. Say “May I (may i) have some (have some) vegetables (ehtables) please mummy (please mummy). Ok.

Ting: Thanks.

Me: you’re welcome!

A few minutes later… (Wow.. now, I’m really liking the cut and paste commands of the computer!)

Ting: want ehtables… nOW!

Me: hmm? That’s not the way to ask. Say “May I (may i) have some (have some) vegetables (ehtables) please mummy (please mummy). Ok.

Ting: Thanks.

Me: you’re welcome!

Then..

Ting: want ehtables…. NOW!

Me: hmm? How should you ask?

Fu: may I (may i) have some (have some) vegetables (ehtables) please mummy (please mummy)?

Me: (pleased) ok!

Ting: thank you

Me: you’re welcome!

Fu: (speaking in his mesmerizing high pitched gentle tone to her sister) ting? You like vegetables (his eyes widened, nodding his head), gorgor give you ok (nodding more vigorously now)?

Ting of cos agreed. Wasn’t fu sweet? I thought it was sweet of her brother to do that.. but I, his mother, knows him too well! He wanted to get rid of his vegetables in his bowl!

So of course I stopped fu from giving ting more vegetables when ting finished what he gave.

Soon, fu finished his dinner and left the table.

Ting: (looked at me)…. Have.. ehtables please mummy?

Me: good job! (repeats the full sentence) May I have some vegetables please, mummy?

Ting: nodded

What a delightful dinner!

my ah liam

2009-08-11T14:44:00.001+08:00

It's been a while since I last wrote about ting. Someone commented that she "越大越可爱", my instant reply was "越大越粘"！

I tend to forgive her "stickiness" to me as I tend to think that she's making up for lost time in the womb. Of course there are times when I will lose my patience and go on strike. However, when I'm not in a hurry, it's still a rather nice feeling to have your girl stick to you, nice, warm and cuddly. My favourite time with her has got to be bedtime. She will go "mummy sleep!" patting my usual sleeping place (just next to her) with her hand. After I do, she will lie down with me.. turn to my side, put one arm under my neck, the other on my face (essentially hugging by neck). The position is complete with her left leg in between my legs and the other on top of mine.

We will then sing her favourite nursery rhymes. It used to be Twinkle Twinkle, then it became A B C D, then a little train song.. now her favourite is 客人来. Improvised version. We used to sing this to fu when he was small where other than 爸爸, all the members of the family will take turns to be featured in the song. 妈妈，哥哥，爷爷，奶奶，姑姑，Uncle (姑丈)，mahmah, 公公 etc etc etc.. It's a great way to sing cos you don't have to keep thinking what song to sing after you finished this song. Also, since her those were her first words, it keeps her very interested and involved when the song is sung.

On other days, she will climb on top of me and fall asleep on my chest, just like when she was a baby..

Fu's lego creation

2009-08-09T14:03:00.002+08:00

Fu made a prison complete with helipad and a naughty corner. :)

My big boy

2009-08-08T18:10:00.001+08:00

When i posted fu's pictures yesterday, many friends had commented what a big boy he is now. Time flies.. bringing him home from school really made me relish the times when i used to be the one send him to school. Then, he was just two and sporting the number 3 durian haircut from the hairclipper. He would chatter all the way from mil's place to school. I wished the adult life can be as carefree as his, he walks his pace, faster when something excited him, slower when something caught his attention, stopped when he wants to catch another glimpse of the MRT moving by.

Other than his physical growth, I noticed he had shown signs of growing up recently.

On one typical weekday night, we got home and as usual, I went on to take my shower. Having made milk for both fu and ting, and tucked them nicely at their sleeping position, ky left them in the room for a while, probably to get something from the another room/kitchen. Being the super "sticky" girl, ting got up from the bed the moment ky closed the room door.

"Daaddddeeeeee!!" she shouted.
"it's okaayyy," fu replied with an assuring tone.
Ting persisted, "daAADDDDEEEEE!"
"IT's Okayyy.... daddy will come back," fu reassured her again and ky emerged and agreed, "yes, daddy will come back."

I felt very warmed by what I heard and was smiling to myself in the bathroom. When I was out, I immediately gave praises to the big brother fu for his comforting words.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not long ago, he was down with high fever and missed school for a couple of days. Teacher T called to ask about him and she related an incident that happened in school... Teacher T asked if I ate the egg mayonese sandwich he made in school and i said i ate half..
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part of the Montessori ciriculum includes cookery classes. One day, he came home with a egg mayonese sandwich. We were curious and asked him why his sandwich is made up of the skin of the usual sliced bread. He didnt explain..
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Teacher T said when the classes ended on the day of the cookery lesson, the children were all at the shoe rack area putting up their shoes to get ready to go home. Fu's sandwich was accidently dropped on the floor and some of the younger children had stepped on it. He didnt complain nor tell any of the teachers and had even wanted to put the sandwich back into the plastic bag to bring it home. It was however witnessed by 老师 who in turn informed teacher t. Teacher T quickly brought fu over to the kitchen and hurriedly made another one with him (which explained why the skin side is used as one side of the sandwich).

Even though it was not really a very big deal, I still felt a little sorry for my boy, whose sandwich was trampled by his friends (albeit unintentionally). When i got home on the day, i asked him about the incident. Again he didnt complain, he only nodded and pouted a little. I asked him why he didnt tell us about it but was caught by surprise when he asked me back, "why?"

To me, it was giving me a chance to comfort him. I dunno if he understood what I meant when i tried to explain that to him. Perhaps, he is really a big boy now..

Botanical Gardens

2009-08-01T14:00:00.003+08:00

Nice and shady. Kids can have their fun running around. Adults can sit down and enjoy a snack or chat. There's no need to worry about kids falling down or stepping on broken glass as the grass is clean and well kept. Highly recommended for those who looking for a fun yet relaxing place to go.

Zoo 18 Jul 09

2009-07-18T13:46:00.004+08:00

I cant remember why we went to the zoo together. It's good to have someone close to you to be a FOZ as you. Fu and Zelda mutually enjoy each other's company and it makes bringing them out together easier for their parents. More pictures by clicking the picture above.

妈妈可以打孩子吗？

2009-07-06T20:19:00.000+08:00

We were at my mum's place on Sunday as usual and my mum (mm) decided to tease/test fu.

mm: 福，我可以打你的 mummy 吗？
fu: 不可以!
mm: 我可以打我的孩子吗？
fu: huh? 谁？
mm: 我的孩子咯，你的 mummy, babi 和大姨。
fu: hmm.. 可以，你可以打大姨。不可以打我的 mummy!

Please help Charmaine

2009-06-22T15:13:00.003+08:00

I was directed to Charmaine's webpage last week. When I first read the blog, my heart sank. Imagine just when life seemed perfect with two healthy and beautiful children and this happens. Please read Charmaine's story by clicking her banner that I've just inserted on my sidebar and offer whatever bullets you may have for Charmaine to fight her battle.

Thank you.

my playground kids

2009-06-16T12:22:00.001+08:00

i love this video, taken on our 13 Jun East Coast trip :)

where have we been?

2009-06-15T23:11:00.007+08:00

where else? you guessed it!

Must be pasir ris park lah, east coast park lah, zoo lah. The only new place we'd been to was the Discovery Center and the Army Museum. We've been avoiding the one of our favourite haunts, The Changi Airport, due to H1N1.

If you have not already gotten sick of my pictures, I've shared them in my facebook and here're the links (click on the pictures):

9 May 09 - Pasir Ris Park

It was meant to be a cycling outing but we ended up at the playground after alot alot of whining from fu. Fu just couldnt go fast enough to catch up with us on his old hand-me-down bike with training wheels. It didnt help when ky was, in my opinion, overly strict and unsympathetic to him. It was realy hot and it was really a lot harder for him to paddle the same distance compared to us on the adult bikes. Nonetheless, we had a great time at the park!

24 May 09 - Cold Storage Kids Run

6 Jun 09 - The Discovery Center and The Army Museum

We went to the Discovery Center for the first time. It's most likely our last time as well. Total crap. The captions in my pictures will tell you why. We hopped over to the Army museum next door. It's a pity that fu was too timid for the shows which were depicting war and was too loud and dark for his little heart. The highlight of the trip has got to be the mini "SOC" outside the army museum. Ky smilingly told me that "this is the SOC." I was like, wth is SOC? I learnt something, it's the standard obstacle course. Sorry we didnt take any pictures from the army museum onwards.

13 Jun 09 - East Coast Park
Barely having settled down, ting repeated gestured to me that she needed to pee. I asked her to go ahead as she had diapers on (paiseh lah.. i know this is quite uncalled for but I was just being lazy) but she insisted that I take off her diapers. Eventually I did help her and brought her only to the nearest tree to "mark her territory". When she squated, she went "ng ng" for 1 second and something fell off.. I was almost laughing my head off and I thought to myself, "tsk tsk.. dont own pet also need to pick feaces up from the grass!"

15 Jun 09 - The Singapore Zoo
"Daddy! It's daytime quick we must wake up!"

Fu was very excited this morning when he woke cos we told him last night that we'd be going to the zoo today and he can take the TRAM! You see, we're FOZ and we're only entitled to free tram rides on weekdays. So on our previous visits to the zoo, even when fu begged us to let him take the tram we didnt. He was the happiest boy on earth today!

Cold Storage Kids' Run 09

2009-05-24T14:46:00.003+08:00

It was a hot morning and this time fu was not too excited about running. Still, he was delighted to get the medal. Some pictures uploaded at facebook:

Cold Storage Kids' Run 09

十万个为什么

2009-05-23T11:57:00.000+08:00

A young colleague was asking me about the types of questions fu asks and how I'll answer him cos it can be so endless. I told her sometimes I will just tell him as a matter of factly from an adult's perspective and often when I do that, he'll be "satisfied" (or he has given up).

This morning came an example of his 十万个为什么 questions:

As i was epilating my leg hair..
Fu: mummy wat r u doing?
Me: i'm epilating my leg hair
Fu: why?
Me: cos it's so ugly..
Fu: why? Why is it ugly?
Me: cos that's how shallow people perceive women's leg hair, and I'm one of the shallow people.
Fu: ohh... (walks away)

ehben.... egg.. neighn... ten!

2009-05-21T17:37:00.002+08:00

these words still bring smiles on my face.. it rang in my head for two full days..

last thursday night, as ting was playing with her toy, she started to utter, "ehben.... egg.. neighn... ten!"

my eyes lit up when i heard ehben and egg... and when she continued with neighn and ten, what I thought she was saying was true! She was counting from seven to ten!

games.. games!! games??

2009-05-21T17:31:00.002+08:00

Yesterday on our way back to the office from lunch, we were having a hearty childhood card games chat in the car as I bought two new games to introduce to fu, "Happy Family" and "Snap".

Then I was sharing with my colleagues something about fu.

He has to play all the time. If he’s not sleeping, he HAS got to be playing something of some sort. That applies even during our car journeys. So in our car rides, we’re either playing
1) scissors, paper, stone or
2) some invented games like,

“Who can name more theme words (e.g. animals)” then we’ll take turns to name animals and the person who’s first to repeat the animal will get a loud “DEH!”
“Who is the first to spot something (e.g. a yellow car)”
When the car is moving, we can only speak in mandarin (then he'll be very quiet.. haha)
When the light is red, everybody must sleep!

Now, my game ideas are almost exhausted. Other than "Simon Says" which I've not played with him in the car, I'm afraid I'm really running out of ideas! The games have got to be something that that I don’t have to use my hands cos sometimes I’m busy with ting as well.

So ideas anyone?

Where do u want to go today?

2009-05-16T12:36:00.001+08:00

On a lazy saturday morning, ky was lying on the floor and fu was using ky's torso as his pillow...

Ky: boy, where would u like to go today?
Boy (cheekily): into your NOSE!!

他不是印度人

2009-05-08T11:21:00.004+08:00

fu is very bad at conversing in Mandarin. Sometimes my in-laws and ky will chide on him that he's an Indian which will come with violent protests:

我不是！我是华“已”。(He will say he's Mandarin 华语 instead of he's Chinese).

Every Friday, fu will have 听写 in school I have to admit that sometimes we forget about the chinese spelling sessions and forget to run through the words with him. Luckily last night MIL reminded us and ky was sitting with fu to go through his words while I was entertaining ting.

I thought he did really well and took some snap shots of what he did.

his practice worksheet on A3 paper

His mock 听写.

Happy time

2009-04-21T13:19:00.001+08:00

It's delightful to watch fu play. If only time permits, I can just sit by the playground and watch him play all day...

Small commotion, big discovery

2009-04-20T23:36:00.000+08:00

Mil carried ting away from the sofa not knowing fu was crouching on the floor. She stepped on fu and almost fell. Fu let out a big cry. Despite the commotion, all are well.

Minutes later, mil was beaming when she told me that ting said this sympathetically to her:
Gorgor 哭，奶奶痛..

Wow... My ting is starting to form short sentences. :)

"Can we bring something to sleep at the beach?"

2009-04-19T23:58:00.004+08:00

I dont know whether it the play fu watched (he watched Bear and Chicken Goes Camping with his school the day before Good Friday) or our last east coast outing that had inspired him. He suddenly made this request on our way home from mil's place one night

fu: can we bring something to sleep at the beach?

me: huh? You want to bring your pillow and bolster to sleep at the beach?

fu: no..

me: huh? you want to bring your mattress to sleep at the beach?!

fu: no...

me: hmm.. so what do you want to bring to sleep at the beach?

fu: hmmm..... I dont know how to say that.. *thinking hard*.. ermm.. p eennt??

me: oh! you want to bring the tent to the beach? Yes we can do that! I think daddy has a tent somewhere!

So yesterday we brought ky's tent to the beach. He bought this during one of his reservist at Australia. It was a really HOT day and I'm so thankful there's this thing called the SUNBLOCK! I cant wait to do it again. Anyone game to join us? :)

Click on the picture to see more pics

Zoo with Dajie

2009-04-19T23:28:00.003+08:00

I told you right? After joining FOZ, we're sure to visit the attraction very often! Dajie has been FOZ for the second year and they usually go to the zoo on Sundays. That's a bad thing for us cos we wont be able to join them on sundays since fu has to go for his shichida class. Saturdays are kindof out for Dajie too cos ZH sometimes needs to go to school and according to dajie, it's too tiring for her to go to the zoo then to her in-laws place! MY GOD!

So the Good Friday holiday was indeed a good one which gave us a chance to go to the very crowded zoo together! I'm looking forward to our next public holiday already!

Here's my favourite picture for the trip. Very pleased with this one esp when I took this while walking and pushing ting in her stroller with my other hand! Click on the picture to see more pictures :)

boyfriend versus husband

2009-04-14T11:29:00.001+08:00

Last night as i took out ky's tennis racket to wipe the mould off, i suddenly recalled that my ex-boyfriend actually took up tennis classes many years ago so he could play tennis with his then girlfriend.

So while i was airing the cleaned mouldy racket, i asked my husband if he'd like to join me for tennis this evening, he shook his head.. ahh.. i suppose that's the difference between a boyfriend and a husband?

MMR and booster

2009-04-09T01:35:00.001+08:00

I had totally lost track of ting's injection schedule. Thanks to brigette whom I bumped into at NSRCC who casually asked if I had taken ting for her booster jab that spurred me to check her health booklet.

Ah.. We missed the MMR jab at 15 months. Luckily the assistants at dr bel's clinic said it's not a problem and the jabs can be administered on the same day (27 Mar 09).

Ting at 19 months (chrono age) weighed 10.5kg and measured 78cm. Dr belinda immediately noticed ting's bruise on her forehead (which was already very light). She commented that ting definitely does not have her brother's size (fu has always been in the 90th percentile even now, we weighed him and he tips the scale at 19.1kg with ht 107cm). I told dr bel that she doesnt have to which dr bel totally agreed and took the opportunity to tell dr bel fu's height. She remarked that he's just big not fat. :)
So dr bel started her string of questions..
Dr bel: How many words can she speak?
Me: Err.. Many
Dr bel: Can she speak in mandarin?
Me: Yes. I think in fact she has more mandarin words than english.
Dr bel: Good! Minister Mentor will love you!
Can she run?
Me: No.
Dr bel: Can she walk fast?
Yes.
Dr bel: How many teeth does she have?
Me: Errr.. let me count. Are half teeth counted? (yes) err.. 14
Dr bel: When do u plan to send her to school?
Me: After sept's term break.
Dr bel: Where r u sending her to?
Me: Her brother's school.
Dr bel: Which is?
Me: SLM.
Dr bel: Is it good? Must be?
Me: Yup, pretty good.
Dr bel: good usually they adapt well when in the siblings' school.
Does she play with other children besides her brother?
Me: Her cousins on sundays.
Dr bel: Does she fight with her cousins?
Me: Hmm... Zelda?
Dr bel: Well zelda will definitely give in to her.
Me: She does steal/snatch toys from tessa's hands.
Dr bel to ting: wait till tessa is bigger, she's just not so mobile now, next time she'll sit on you! (hahaha)
To me: What does she do all day?
Me: Huh? Err (remembering the same question in our previous visit).. your question very difficult to answer leh..

And with that, we proceeded with the jabs. Simultanous jabs MMR on the left arm and booster on the left thigh while i breastfed ting to keep her calm. It was over within 2 sec and ting though shocked, didnt cry. And so, in dr bel's words, ting's "finished here".

She developed a very low grade fever (around 37.4deg) on the same night and it went away without treatment. :)

ZOO!

2009-04-02T16:42:00.003+08:00

Click on the picture to see more.

I love the Singapore Zoo. It's my favourite tourist attraction in Singapore. 2 weekends ago, we finally joined the friends of zoo. I'm so happy and I cant wait to go there again!

This is the reason

2009-03-30T18:49:00.003+08:00

A friend pinged me at msn today and asked me my opinion of having two children (instead of one). Here's my reason:

PS: it only lasted 5 minutes though. Fu got a little uncomfortable. It was still a very sweet open-arms offer from him to let ting sit on his lap

Weekend fun - 14 Mar 09

2009-03-16T12:02:00.004+08:00

After our flu relay, we're finally good to go for some outdoor weekend fun. Took some pictures with my lousy camera from E71 linked below:

Weekend fun - 14 Mar 09

oh and here's a video of ting in the swing:

gorgor loves tingting

2009-03-12T19:24:00.003+08:00

Pardon my blur images...

eating woes

2009-03-12T19:14:00.003+08:00

it's hard for others to believe that my chubby boy doesnt like to eat his meals. In fact, he only recently learnt to chew his food properly, around 6 months ago he was still swallowing his spoon fed meals in such huge mouthfuls that makes you gag.

Recently we've been trying to make him eat his own meals. Ya, that's right, recently. It's embarrassing but it's true. We've been feeding him his meals till about a month ago. So now he would sit with his meal for hours, scooping small spoons of food into his mouth only after much prompting/nagging.

ky's aunt suggested perhaps we can use a more fanciful plate to make him more interested to eat. So this has been what fu's been using for his meals:

Did it help? dunno leh... ?

Fu's colourful masterpiece

2009-03-10T00:38:00.000+08:00

While we were at my mum's on sunday, zelda kept saying, "eh sanyi, ah fu so long never come my house already leh."

Zelda loves inviting fu to her place. She's a great host and will show fu her toys, books, drawing materials and sometimes food when we're there.

This time, they crouched on the Thomas rubber mat to draw with Zelda's water soluble coloured pens. Silly me should had taken their pic while they were drawing but i didnt!

Fu started off by drawing a crocodile. Then he drew his favourite loops which he always calls them dinasaurs. Inspired by the thomas rubber mats, he began to write numbers. He also drew a sun (mummy, sun has how many lines?) and a cockroach. Zelda was drawing her garden with grass, clouds, flowers, moon and stars. She then added several butterflies to her drawing. I guess fu must had seen zelda's drawing cos he eventually added his upside down flower and several fat butterflies. Can you spot them? :)

Byebye mummy!

2009-03-10T00:30:00.002+08:00

My xiao ting sends flying kisses after flying kisses when I go to work. I feel so loved!

The joy of parenthood

2009-03-09T18:36:00.003+08:00

I believe every parent has their concerns on sibling rivalry. Most people I know will practise this present thing (whatever they call it) for the newborn to give to their elder sibling a little 见面礼. Ting's arrival caught us by surprise and needless to say, we didnt prepare ting's 见面礼 for fu. We made do with a handkerchief from a hamper and gave that to fu as ting's present to him. I didnt get to see fu's reaction as I was still in the hospital but I understand he liked the little present her little sissy prepared for him. That was 1.5 years ago.

Ting, adores her brother (I'd like to think of it that way). She'll call him gorgor affectionately. While she was still learning to walk, I'll ask her to walk towards ky. Embarrassingly (ky, not me), she'll always hold my hand tighter or turn towards me when ky calls out for her. One day, when ky got rejected, fu clapped and stretched out his hands and called out to her, just like the way we adults do, instantly ting happily wibbled wobbled to her. It was so sweet to see fu holding her tight. Their height difference is just nice for a big brotherly hug. It's a pity that I have not been able to capture this lovely sight with my camera/phone.

Of course, they will have their fights. I dont know any siblings who dont (oh, maybe zoetoh and me? :P ). Fu will sometimes give her a "whack" when she takes his pricely possessions. Ting wont lose out either and sometimes give his head a slap when she's being carried. When that happens, we will always make sure they make up by saying sorry. Still unable to say the word sorry, ting will give a light butt on fu's forehead with hers.

Recently, I've noticed more and more that fu will speak to ting with a gentle tone, ending his sentence in higher pitch than he started, coupled with several nods and widened eyes. Ting will in return be so mesmerized by his brotherly charm and nod continuously to whatever fu's up to. Such are the scenes that make parenthood simply priceless...

round and round

2009-03-04T14:13:00.000+08:00

Daddy, we’re going round and round the carpark, we’re getting silly!

Milk party on sunday morning

2009-03-01T09:50:00.000+08:00

My Family

2009-02-28T09:21:00.009+08:00

One thing I like about fu's school that he started attending last Sept is that there're always new activities and excursions the school organizes.

A few weeks ago, we received a note from the school that they will be conducting a "show and tell" session fortnightly on Mondays. "Show and tell" basically means that the child will, depending on the topic of discussion, bring along an item to school to show and tell his teachers and classmates. Something like a "public speaking" activity.

This year, the first topic was "my family". I definitely wouldnt bear to let fu bring along a real family photo to school. It will definitely come back crumpled unless I find something really suitable that will protect it yet fit nicely into fu's backpack that he carries himself. Fu's also not into drawing. So I eventually decided to use the facebook's sketch application to trace out our family portrait which we recenty took. Here's how it looks like:

I brought this printout to show fu. He looked at it with delight and asked me, "mommy, can I colour it?"

This was what he brought to school:

Arent we colourful? :D

He started colouring my face first and I asked him, "why's mommy purple?"

He pointed to my arm and said, "I dont have this colour.."

haha.. according to him, daddy is red apple. You like it? I certainly do. :)

Here's the original photo: Click on the photo to bring you to other photos we took on the same day. :)

new favourite time of the day, 3rd actually

2009-02-27T17:36:00.003+08:00

Yesterday I managed to knock off promptly to go for a swim. When ky came to pick me from the pool to mil's place, I told him,

"I finally managed to swim today but i'm not happy, I missed my favorite time of the day."

"huh? what's your favourite time of the day?"

"Bringing tingting down to the void deck after work"

1st and 2nd linked if you're interested

9 years ago

2009-02-18T17:36:00.000+08:00

I excitedly took leave from my employer and rushed to mount Elizabeth to wait for the arrival of my parents’ first grandchild.

Happy birthday Barty!