Little baker at work :)

Shared 4 sesions of Chefs at work sessions at Brillionaire Kids at Serangoon Nex with my cousin, Shirley. Wanted RA to have some fun learning to bake since she loves to cook but mummy can't bake. Even if I can, don't think I want to deal with the mess. Too dangerous to let her handle stove or fire at 4.5 years old but baking is fine since all the work is done beforehand and heat applied only at the end and there is no open fire.

Today is the first session - Cookies and Cream cupcakes. She is a bit shy but she got round to doing the preparations, stirring and mixing easily. Creaming is quite hard for her cos need a lot of arm strength to blend the butter with the sugar so the instructors helped out. When there were a few kids who were just observing the sessions crowding round her, I could tell she was overwhelmed. Unfortunately, she sat at the corner closest to the entrance so no one else had observers except her. A few times, she did ask me to join her even though I am standing just in front of the preparation table. She asked me to squeeze the icing for her twice but I told her no other Mummy or Daddy is doing it so I will leave it to the teachers.

After the 1 hr session, I asked her if it is fun and if she wants to come again and she said yes. So, I registered for weekly sessions for Gem Tarts, Apple Pie and Strawberry shortcake muffins. Thought it's better to keep the momentum going, if not, she may get shy all over again.

She ate a cupcake immediately but ate most of the icing leaving behind the cupcake. I have not tasted yet. Will try it out and see if it's any good. ;)

Christmas comes early...

RaeAnne's favourite season is Christmas because she remembered it was a day with lots of presents under the Xmas tree and we had a Xmas party at home with my cousins last year. So, I am not surprised that she drew this at CC on Thursday - Xmas with falling snow, snowman, Christmas tree, I can almost hear 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.' :)

ILs support

Finally told MIL on Fri that I will be starting to work full time again, going to try contract teaching and start date is 30 July. She is quite happy when I told her that I managed to appeal to get into Poi Ching. Told her that I will try and ask for pm session but if I did not succeed, will need her to come over around 645am to watch the kids after I leave the house. She said ok but suggested that we leave the kids over for the nights instead. I asked her wouldn't she and FIl be very tired if we leave both kids there for the night? She said it's ok since morning time they go cc then whole day not in so they can still rest.

Hubby is thrilled to have the chance of being weekend parents but I am not very keen. Duh, the point of me working full time instead of real estate agent is not to spend even less time with my kids mah. But let's see how I can cope with my marking workload after I start working first. Maybe once in a while, it will be nice to leave them at ILs place if I am rushing marking or if hb and I want to catch a late night movie. haha.

Sat pm, I had to work, brought an old client to view showflat at Parc Olympia, a recently launched condo. She was looking for low psf condo in the east and Parc Olympia was the cheapest I could find for her. We were lucky to get the staff price for this particular unit and they only paid $840k for 3br, 1163sf. Very happy for them.

But while I was working, the gals didn't nap at ILs place until 430pm. At 9+pm, when we went over after our dinner, ILs haven't even had dinner yet. Faint! Today is sunday so we brought the gals swimming in the morning since RA requested and we wanted to tire them out. But RL didn't nap at all at ILs place though both me and FIl took turns to coax her to sleep since 1pm. RA napped at 245pm. As expected, RL was very grouchy on my way to my mum's place. But going to the playground at my mum's blk cheered her up. After we came home, both gals ko at 1030pm. Phew! 

Sticky Mei Mei

Raelynn has been rather sticky this week, even when she is received by her favourite CC teacher, Teacher Angela, in the morning when I drop her off, she will still cry cry for Mummy. Not just fake cry, until I am walking back to the entrance, can still hear her crying. It has not been like this for a long time. Usually RA is the manja one. Duh...

A new path.... Contract teaching

Today is a happy day. A few months ago, I applied to be a teacher (Chinese) with my partner's Quinnie's encouragement. She was an ex teacher before coming to the real estate business. Seeing my dilemma juggling work and quality time with the gals on the weekends and hubby's busy teaching schedule, she told me I should try and become a teacher too. I told her I'm keen to teach if it's primary school Chinese and she thinks I will have a good chance. So, in the wee hours of the morning in April, I sent in my online application.

After I told hubby, he asked me '你为什么这么 冲动?' My bro asked me '你为什么这么想不开?' Duh, the two teachers closest to me are not supportive lor. But yes, I do understand where they are coming from cos teaching is a very tough job, long hours, high stress and still must bring work home to mark. Working part time in real estate was rewarding (not monetary but the satisfaction I get when I help clients get their dream home), and many of my clients have become my friends.

But the main problem is that my working hours clashes with hb and the gals' leisure time. It gets worse now that RA is dropping naps over the weekends cos once we leave both gals at ILs place when I need to work, ILs will complain that both of them didn't nap. Most of the time, cos RA was not sleepy so she was disturbing Mei Mei. I feel bad 'stoning' at home during the weekday while sending both gals to full day cc, then when they get home or when they are free on weekends, I got to work.

Anyway, I was lucky that MOE shortlisted me for interview and after the interview in May, I waited 5 weeks before getting a offer in end June for contract teaching for primary Chinese. I waited so long that I seriously thought it was gone case by then cos no news from MOE means bad news.

Haha, after getting the offer, I went for appt briefing to sign the contract. Two days later, went for medical check at Raffles Hosp and photoshoot for the PS card.Then, I appealed to both Poi Ching School principal and MOE deployment unit to send to me to Poi Ching because I have logistic issues with the two gals, I have no maid and I need to send my gals to CC in the morning which only opens at 7am earliest and my hb is also a teacher teaching at Marine parade so no one else can do the morning ferryimg. Also I have already registered for PV for Poi Ching as I want to enrol my gals in the nearest primary school to my house and the only school within 1 km. If I posted to other schools, I can't do PV at Poi Ching anymore and RaeAnne doesn't have any nearby primary school within walking distance to go to.

Thankfully, my wish came true! Today, I received the email from MOE that I will be posted to Poi Ching Primary and assuming duty on 30 July. :)

I know I got lots to learn cos I hardly taught except a brief relief teaching experience in Poi Ching in 2009. I know I will be very busy with marking and school work in future. But I hope this will be better for my family in the long term. At least the family finances will be better and we will have synchronised holidays and hopefully I can coach RaeAnne better in Higher Chinese in future if she gets into Poi Ching Primary in 2015. :)

Parent Teachers Conference (PTC) and afterthoughts

This is a backdated post cos RL's PTC was on 26 May before we went to Taiwan and RA was on 12 June after we came back from Taiwan.

Raelynn's PTC didn't go so well cos Wang Laoshi said she has short attention span. 上课, 没有听课, 只顾着玩她的裙子. 叫她的名字,旗庭,旗庭... 她也不知道. When the teacher asks her to do colouring, she will pick a colour pencil, colour a corner here, then take another colour pencil and colour another corner, and repeat until she has a few parts coloured, she will be happy and stop. Wang Laoshi said she is very different from RaeAnne (whom she also taught) who paid attention in class and consciously try to colour within the lines very nicely.

I really wanted to dig a hole and hide inside then, so embarrassed. But luckily, I redeemed myself and Raelynn cos I asked Wang Laoshi if she was as bad compared to the other year end babies. Wang Laoshi didn't know RL is a Dec baby because she is half a head taller than the other year-end-born classmates. After I pointed out to her, she said then she's better cos at least she can answer when Wang laoshi asks her a question (in Mandarin), some of her peers cannot answer yet. RL's form teacher Teacher Jean is new so she said she still needs more time to observe RL.

I am guilty of not doing anything for RL's studies cos I still treat her as my baby since she is the youngest in the family. I am not keen for her to grow up so fast too. So, as long as the teacher said she is better than her peers, I will leave her be. After all, she has an elder sister to emulate so I don't think she will take that long to catch up. :P

RaeAnne's PTC was the one we looked forward to cos we wanted some advice from the teachers. We find her very impatient (always shouting and raising her voice), emotional and bad tempered and always fighting with Mei Mei. Yang Laoshi (her form teacher) and Teacher Samantha (English and Maths) said RaeAnne is a good student. Never gave them any trouble just that she is too quiet. Told the teachers that she talks a lot at home but she is bad tempered. Asked the teachers if she is like that in school and the teachers said not at all, she is well behaved and gets along well with her friends so they are surprised to hear this from us.

That's reassuring cos it shows that she knows that in public social settings, she should behave herself. At least we won't be getting complain calls from her teachers. As for her tantrums, the teachers advised us to be more indirect and not to hurt her ego when she does something wrong cos she has a strong personality. Encourage her that she can do something better if she does it another way but don't say that she is wrong.

Anyway, my conclusion is that RA is usually at her best behaviour when Mei Mei is not around so she is just trying to fight for attention and love with Mei mei. She always wants us to treat them fairly and even for us to love her more so I guess she is insecure. Think we should try and bring her out on solo dates with us so that she can feel our love without Mei Mei around to compete with her.

18 June 2012

It's been 9 long years since hb and I first became an item. And I almost forgot about our dating anniversary date. I slept at 3am last night and crashed in the morning till afternoon 3pm. No thanks to RA who was sleeping and whining the whole time last night even when I let her sleep on my bed after she came into my room. The gals already slept late close to midnight cos they had late afternoon naps at ILs place.

Anyway, we didn't celebrate the day at all. Initially, wanted to bring the gals to watch Madagascar 3 but that plan was aborted cos they were more keen to go to Uncle Ringo rides next to Tampines Mall. But at least the gals had fun. Hope we can make it up for it next yr, when it's our 10th yr together. :P

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to hubby! :)

Today was a hectic day so didn't have time to celebrate with hb though I did get him a gift yesterday and RA drew him a beautiful card.

In the morning, we went to Compass Point for late brunch at Burger King then collected the Father's Day cake for FIL. Then we went to ILs house to celebrate with him. RA was excited and keen to blow the candle but RL didn't. RA ate quite a bit of cake but RL refused to have a single bite. Strange that this gal doesn't like cake. Thought most kids do. She loves sweets and chocolate though. :P

Around 245pm, Hb went to China Square Central to 'beow' toys but I was tired. Supposed to go back and nap but I ended up tidying up the mess created by the gals for the past 2 weeks which got worse after our Taiwan trip cos there was so much loose barang barang lying around.

Hb helped to get the Boon Tong Kee chicken from Macpherson Road cos I wanted to go to the temple to pray to my dad. This was my first Father's Day and it feels weird not spending it with him. He always liked Boon Tong Kee chicken. Spent some time 'talking' to him and updating him about our lives. Hope he can really hear me and that he's at peace.

Taiwan 8D7N Family Funtasia

This is going to be a very short post (by my standards). We went to Taiwan with the kids, my mum, mil and small aunt from 2-9 June. 7 people in total. We joined the goup tour by Chan Bros. There were 14 adults and 6 kids in this tour.

We went to Taipei, Jiaoxi, Yilan, Jiufen, Nantou, Sun Moon Lake, Chiayi, Tai chong, before returning to Taipei. The first few days were rainy so it was a bit difficult to move around esp with 2 young kids who dun like raincoats but they were too heavy to carry. The next few days were better but super sunny. As hot as Singapore. In fact, we perspired as if we were in Sg too. :P

What the kids enjoyed: the doctor fish feeding at Spa resort (though RaeAnne kept asking why the fish didn't want to bite her feet. She didn't know it was a compliment paid by the fish cos it meant that her skin is so smooth that the fish had no 死皮 to nibble on),  bubble baths at hotel room bathtubs (only when avail) as usual! The carousel and other kiddy rides at 九族文化村 esp when it's free, no queues so they can go as many rounds as they like. They also like the animals at Leofoo resort hotel but since they were too far for them to touch, they were not especially wowed.

What I enjoyed, the food! Especially the 卤肉饭and醉鸡at 张记 in 九份. And the white bittergourd juice. The scenery at Sun Moon Lake was very nice too. Couldn't wake up for the sunrise though I think it would have been beautiful.

As for the old folks, I'm not really sure what they esp like. Keke. But hope they enjoyed the trip. Dun think we will be going on such big group tours in future, cost being one of the major reasons. ;P

Clearing bb stuff

Finally decide to sell off some bb stuff yesterday esp the bigger, bulkier items. Posted at SMH WTS thread and today, already sold off the Maxi Cosi car seat, FP Laugh & Learn Home, FP BB Grand Piano. Really felt 'bu she de' to let go of these memories but the house is really too messy and I can't keep waiting for something that may not happen. Time to move on. :P

P.S. 17 July, a day of reckoning. A day to regret my decision. Duh...