Buttons

Raelynn has been getting more independent and recently she has always been saying that she wants to dress herself. Last Monday, she finally managed to button the her pinafore straps herself. She was very happy. And kept telling 'Mummy, 你看，我会button了。' Of course, the buttons are much bigger than those on her shirt, and she still can't button her own shirt but at least it's a minor accomplishment for her. Jia you, Mei Mei! ;)

Wedding photo :)

RaeAnne drew this for me today. I asked what it is. She said "I drew Daddy and Mummy 'Dang Dang Dang Dang' photo aka wedding photo. See, holding hands and a heart shape behind. The heart shape got smiley face." True enough, can see the semblance. She must have recreated this after seeing my wedding album a few times. Wonder why she drew Daddy with ye ye's hairstyle. I asked her and she said she don't know how to draw Daddy's hair. Haha.

RaeAnne really loves to draw and she brings home from CC 1-2 drawings everyday. Some of them are really not bad. But unfortunately, I don't have the time and lazy to scan and archive everyday so I keep the nicer ones in a art folder. Raelynn likes to imitate her sister and draw too but so far, she can only try to trace her hand. ;)

National Day celebration at ECP

Decided to bring the gals to a picnic since I woke up very early due to my night cough. Prepared my newly created baby octopus, crabstick japanese salad, baked cod fish fingers and the usual fishball, sausage skewers that RaeAnne loves and a flask of hot milo. This time, I used the taiwanese pork sausages for variety. By the time, I prepared all the food, it was 9am but hubby, and the gals were still sleeping. They took their own sweet time to wake up and get ready so it was 1020am when we finally left the house. So much for trying an early start so that we can have a cool morning picnic. Hmpff!

When we reach ECP, most of the good spots were taken. but we found a partially shaded area with no red ants and the gals got started on the food immediately. Mei Mei loves the baby octopus and fish fingers while RA is contented with her fish ball and sausage skewers. She keeps trying to pick out the cucumber though. After tucking into some food, RA went off to build sand castles, the sun was hot by then as it was almost midday. i tried to help her but my sand castles keep collapsing. Arrowed the task to hubby instead and he did a much better job than me. haha. After that, I tried to take a nap inside the tent cos I was drowsy from my morning cough syrup. But it was too hot to sleep as the sun was shining through the top and window of the tent by then. So, we decided to pack up around 1pm and we went to rent a quad cycle. Always see small groups of people on the quad bike, it looks fun but we have not tried before. It's not cheap, $28 for 1 hr. Progress was slow and both hubby and me need to pedal quite hard but at least the gals were entertained. Maybe next time, we can get 2 bikes with child seats, progress will be faster and price lower too.

We left ECP around 215pm and finished the remaining picnic food in the car. The gals were hot and sticky so had to shower them. By the time, they took their afternoon naps, it was already close to 4pm. The whole family knocked out till 6+pm. Then hubby went to tapow dinner and we watched the NDP together. Really glad to see LKY cos heard some rumours of him recently. At 8pm, we went up to the 16th floor of our block to see the fireworks but it was really small. I think next year, I should book a hotel room and get a good view of the fireworks since the gals are older. Maybe in 2014, when RA is 6.5 years old and RL is 4.5 years old, I can consider bringing the girls to NDP provided we get tickets through ballot of course. ;)

Happy Birthday to Mummy Piggy!

An hour before mid night. Happy birthday Mummy Piggy. Hope you hv a happy birthday with the nice nice fur-ly gifts despite all that has happened. Stay youthful! :)

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.