Lost and Found

Today, when RL came out of the Gate 4, she started to say that today is the worst day ever. Because her tooth dropped out in class. Her Chi teacher asked her to go and wash. The tooth was bloody so she did as she was told. But being a tiny tooth, she dropped the tooth into the sink. She didn't know what to do and started crying in the toilet. When she told the whole story and wailed, "It is my 7th tooth and my baby toothbook will forever have a 'hole' there" and started crying uncontrollably, my heart went out to her. I know she loves her baby toothbook cos I always catch her taking the book and admire her little pearlies. Sometimes in the middle of revision or homework cos she is easily distracted. Imagining her looking at the baby tooth book with regret as she grows up whenever she sees that empty tooth slot made my heart ache too.

I brought the crying gal and RA home. I had bought yakitori rice for both of them so I scooped some out for RA and asked her to eat her lunch first because she has hw and we still need to do exam revision. Only 4 days left to SA2. I told RL I will bring her back to school to look for it because it should be stuck in the catch under the sink and we only need to unscrew it and sieve through the gunk to find the tooth. She did not stop crying immediately because she thought it was hopeless and she will never find it. I brought a disposable food container and a pair of disposable chopsticks for safe measure.

I went with her back to school, saw the usual school attendant at Gate 4 but she was too busy to help. But she did help to inform the OM Mr Chee and while we sat waiting outside the GO, he came with 2 contractors. Luckily, the OM did not dismiss or roll eyes at me. I was already feeling embarrassed because not even was I a parent, I was also an ex staff and current PSG member so most of the GO staff know me. Mr Chee was very nice and assured us that the tooth can be found. We climbed the stairs to the Level 4 toilet.

The contractor guy, who did not look local, wanted to use his power drill and both Mr Chee and I stopped him. So he helped to unscrew the sink trap underneath and I got him to pour the mixture into the container. It stinks. Ewww... But I couldn't say it out loud since I was the indulgent mummy who was trying to fish for my bb gal's bb tooth. Mr Chee even commented that I am so well prepared. Once we saw a white pearl and even Mr Chee thought it was a tooth but it was not. Then as I stirred the mixture with my chopstick, I saw the tooth. Was so relieved that I found it so fast because I was troubling 3 men and taking up their time. I quickly wrapped the tooth with a piece of tissue and thanked the school staff profusely. Got RL to say thank you to all the uncles too. She was all smiles after finding her lost tooth and skipped all the way home.

As for the tooth, I soaked it with hot soapy water and changed the solution at least 3 times then washed it before I let her touch it. She didn't care how dirty it was of course. As soon as it was dry, she wrapped it up in cotton pad and wrapped it all up with scotch tape cos she said she doesn't ever want to lose it again. Then she put it under her pillow for the 'tooth fairy'. Could not resist writing on her special tooth bundle with a marker.

Her friends had seen her crying and Carlin asked me what happened. When I mentioned the tooth fairy and the coin, Nicole Wong said Tooth fairies are not real, while Carlin said yes they are real. Haha. I am glad I did this for her even though today is probably one of my most 丢脸 days as a mum. The next time she sees her tooth book, I hope she will only remember the love and 'sacrifice'. :)

New Family Car

Our second hand Honda Fit is now 8.5 years old. Currently, the powered side mirrors, air con and back fender are already faulty. But no point repairing since it is already so old. COE has dropped recently so we decided to bring the gals along to Honda for car shopping yesterday. It is the first time they got to accompany us to a car showroom. We had never involved them in any of our car purchases before as they were too young and we were afraid they will get restless.

At Kah Motors, they were fascinated to see so many new cars on display. The first car we saw was the Honda City. I have more or less decided on Honda City as I prefered a car with a boot to store miscellaneous things while hubby wanted the cheapest Japanese car with good fuel economy. Lol.

Luckily the girls fell in love with the Honda City on first sight. They had lots of fun climbing from the boot to the knock down back passenger seats and back again. It was like their secret passageway. They were also very happy to see the rear air con ducts at the back of the car. A little luxury for them cos none of our earlier budget cars had it. I was impressed by the SV model extra features. First one being the touch screen audio instead of knobs. Secondly because of the rear camera (hubby doesn't need it) but I will if I ever need to drive this car. Thirdly, there are two extra power outlets at the back of the car. Useful when the gals become teenagers and need to charge their handphones? One last thing is twin vanity mirrors in the front. I don't have a mirror for the Honda Fit and I had to tape a small mirror for myself. Lol.

Once we decided to buy the car, the girls were also involved in the choosing of the car colours. Hb stayed out of this as he doesn't care what colour as long as it is not white or black. All the gals wanted a blue car but there were 3 shades of blue. Initially the two gals wanted a bright blue. I thought it was a bit "Ah beng" and wanted to go for a navy blue. But turns out there was a new colour. Nocturne Night Metallic. We went to see the actual car in this colour in the car park. Part of the car was in the sun and the blue paint had tiny sparkles in it, looks like diamond dust. We were sold and all the gals decided on this colour in the end. Haha.

We can only collect the car in November as only white and black colour were available in Oct. But it suits us fine since we have already paid our road tax until Jan 2018. The car's COE will expire in Jan 2019 so our car will be almost 9 years old when we trade in. There are still 4 more months to go but RA has already told her friends and my brother about our new car. It may be just a Honda car but she is already so excited. I read before about an ACS boy whose father drove a Toyota and he asked his father not to drop him at the gate. My gals study at a neighbourhood school so they are not as exposed to the wealthy people of Singapore. She doesn't know much about luxury cars and luckily she is not brand conscious and happy with our 'cheapest' range Honda car. Lol.

Exam Woes

It is exams season again. This time, we have less time to prepare because both gals have a lot of homework and they take a long time to complete them. We hardly touched the assessment books and the exam revision schedule was tossed out of the window after many disruptions from them having to complete their homework, revise their weekly spellings/tingxie or shengziguan etc.

The 1 week of staying home to mug and 临时抱佛脚 took a toll on Raelynn. She was sick of being cooped up at home. Yesterday afternoon, I had a very funny conversation with Raelynn.
RL: I am home sick.
Me: What? We are at home leh.
RL: No no, I mean I am shop sick.
Me with *Blur like sotong* face.
RL: I mean I am Toysrus sick. I miss Toyrus.
Me : LOL!

But tonight she also made me very angry. Tomorrow is Chinese exam. I marked her comprehension practice and something was off. Because she got questions 1-3 wrong but the hardest last question correct. I asked her what is the answer and where did she get the answer from? And she stumbled. She had copied the answer as I suspected. I was super mad that she has learnt to cheat and lie to me. When I asked her why she did it. She did not answer. When I asked her if she think I will know about it and get angry, she nodded her head. I am even angrier that she chose to do something even though she knew I will find out and be mad about it.

She did something similar recently. She made a mistake for 听力测验。But she told me some people wrote no. 1 and no. 2 and no. 3 But when I probed. No. 1 was the correct answer and there was no one who wrote no. 2 and no. 3. She did not have friends who wrote no. 2 and no. 3 as the answer. She only said that to justify her answer. I scolded her, made her apologise and write lines after that incident. But instead of repenting, now she did something even more serious.

I remembered being super mad when RA did something similar at Primary 1. She withheld the truth from me when her school pocket money did not tally with what she said she bought for recess. Did the stall uncle give correct change I wondered then. I only found out the truth the next day from her classmate's mother that RA had bought a $1 pencil from the bookshop. I was hopping mad. Minus her stars and made RA copy lines. HB was more zen. His words were "she has evolved". 进化了。。。

Needless to say. I was not amused. I chose to be a SAHM to spend more time with my kids. To have them lie to me is like a slap in the face. Especially when they are still so young. I have never punished them for getting the wrong answer. But of course, I did rant and rave if it was a careless mistake or they copied blindly from passages. My explanation to them was if you are careless then you are not doing your best. And I want you to do your best. For tests, I will always check what kind of mistakes they made. If it was really a question that was beyond their abilities, I will tell them that they need to study harder next time.

On the bright side, RA did not tell anymore lies after that incident in p1. And she will proudly tell me that she did not ask her friends for Science mock tests or use her e dictionary for her Chinese mock tests. I hope it is because she has learnt her lesson. I don't know if telling lies is something all kids will go through.

As for RL, I marked her answer wrong even though it is right. Also going to make her write lines and take away her reward stars.
I hope she can really learn from this incident to always tell the truth.

Safety drills

The school was having a terrorist attack exercise. They have been rehearsing in school and next week will be the actual exercise involving the police. Well, I am glad that the schools are practicising such drills for the safety of our kids. Children were told to hide and be very quiet.

RA told me her class was very noisy and got scolded by the P during the exercise. 4 classmates who cried. One of them was a boy who was accused of laughing when the P (who was pretending to be a terrorist) walked in. He was called to go to the GO. The other 2 boys were his good friends also cried. RA's good friend, Colette, also cried cos she imagined how it would be if everything was real. RA was affected too and told me the whole exercise was very scary.

For RL's class, it was less traumatising. Their FT had pretended to be a terrorist and knocked on the door. RL's friend WS immediately said "Oh Hello!" and went to open the door. The FT 'caught' Wing Shi and warned her not to open the door to terrorists. 2nd round, the FT knocked on the door again and this time Wing Shi went to peep instead. Sure enough, WS got caught again. The teachers and her classmates were exasperated with WS. Haha. It took 3 rounds and a different teacher (MT tcr) b4 the class got the procedures right.

RL also told us what happened with her classmates last night and RA and I couldn't stop laughing.

One of their boy classmates was noisy when all were supposed to be quiet.
So a gal shushed and told him:
"Quiet! We are supposed to be statues. And statues don't talk."
"Statues don't go shhh..."
"Now you are doing it." said another gal.
"Shh..." said another classmate.
"Now YOU are doing it"
"Shhhh..."
And this went on and on...

The P2s are really still so innocent compared to the P3s. Wonder if it was even more chaotic with the P1s. Nothing funny about the whole exercise. The gals even cried when I explained what it means to be hostages and to be killed if they were not rescued. Terrorism is a harsh reality of life and it's sad to have to explain this to our young and innocent children.

Finally recovered my Blog site

It has been so long since I managed to log into this blog. Not sure if Google bought over Blogger but suddenly my old yahoo login didn't work and it didn't occur to me that it will be linked to hb's google account instead.


I remember wanting to blog a few important things before I forget. But I admit I have forgotten some by now.

Ok. 2016 review. Or rather whatever I could remember of it.

1) Very happy that RL got 3rd in class last year for her P1 results. The aggregate is really not fantastic (270 I think?) but she got a $10 voucher from school bookshop and it was a good encouragement for her. RA didn't do as well though her aggregate was still higher than RL. 287? Her position dropped a lot despite adding Maths enrichment. Not sure why. Maybe because of Band CCA? Or because she lost focus. And I don't have as much time with her after RL entered P1. Told her I was quite disappointed and to please study harder and improve in P3. Luckily for her, class allocation was by zig zag manner and she was very lucky to get into 3C, one of the top 3 classes.

2) RL turned 7 and had a Pokémon Go birthday party in end Nov b4 her actual birthday. Finally she made enough friends to invite 4 girl classmates over to our humble house party. Only 3 came though as one was travelling. But her friends had fun and didn't want to leave. So I am glad.

3) RA had her usual bd party with her good friends Val, Jx, WY. This time we added Colette too as we got closer to Remy after we added her to our mummies chat group. This time G couldn't make it. Maybe it's a gender thingy. Being the only boy, maybe he doesn't like to come for gals' bd parties anymore. Lol.

4) Was very touched when RA told RL about her bd wish. Then RL said she made the same wish. Both of them wished that Mummy will never die. I never knew that they would use their wishes on me. Awww... So sweet. And I really cannot make that wish come true leh. How to explain about life and death and that Mummy will die one day and I don't know when too. Feel emo just typing this...

5) Both gals had long hair but RL got MIL to cut her hair short when she was finally chosen to be a monitor. She skipped all the way happily to the gate to show me her badge. Her wish came true. But she was not as thrilled when she realised she has to wake up earlier for school to mark attendance. That's why she decided to cut her hair so that at least she didn't need to waste another 5 minutes tying her hair. I admire her determination. But got upset when she used scissors to cut one side of her hair one night. She claimed the (now short) hair was tickling her ear. So impulsive. It was so uneven and ugly. Luckily MIL cut the other side and made it less obvious.

6) The two girls are still about 1.5-2 kg different in weight. RL is fast catching up because she is still taking FM. Lol. She tried to stop for about 3 mths after we went to BKK. But she lost so much weight that I was a bit heart pained. Cos she doesn't wake up early enough to eat bf if she doesn't take FM. RA is growing very tall though, 131cm when we measured her during her BD and her shoe size is almost an adult size 5. Even for school shoes, she cannot wear kids' size anymore. Gotta buy Bata's white track shoes.

7) RA scored full marks in her recent Maths HA. Although it was only 10%, I was very proud of her because she had fever and vomiting for almost 1 week b4 the test. She got so turned off by the medicines that she was puking everything out even the anti vomit and paracetemol. Nearly wanted to send her to KKH but luckily GP managed to insert suppositories to stop the fever and vomiting. Even during the paper, she had no time to check her answers as she had to run to the toilet halfway and only managed to complete the paper. RL didn't do as well cos of careless mistakes. But she had a runny nose and no tissue paper as it was in her school bag in front of the classroom and she did not dare to ask the teacher if she could go and take the tissue. Oh well... Hope she can do better next time.

Hmm... Think this is all I can remember for now. RL climbed into my bed as I was typing about her bd wish. It was like she can sense me missing her. Lol. Time to off the light and sleep with my not so little gal. :)

Passing Piano Exams

The gals' piano results were out today. RA got a pass (110) while RL got a pass with Merit (122). RA was feeling a bit disappointed and cried a bit. I had to reassure her that I am happy with a pass because Grade 3 exam is harder than Grade 1 and she had lesser time to prepare for it compared to Mei Mei.

Mei Mei had an extra 3 months to prepare for her exams due to the retest but RA with her CCA and Hw commitment did not have as much time to practise. Even RL was not very happy with her Merit though. She was hoping to pass with Distinction. But since she made some careless mistakes, a Merit was a pleasant surprise for me.

To reward both of them as I promised before, we brought them shopping. RA chose a Smiggle pencil case. Something she asked since Term 1 but I didn't buy it for her as there were other pencil cases at home. She also got a pen and a ruler. RL chose the Shopkins Gumball machine which she had been eyeing for months.

Glad the exams are over. For now, I got the tcr to teach them fun songs like Kiss the Rain by Yiruma. We will take a short break before starting the exam songs. Hopefully they can skip grade to Grade 3 and Grade 5 respectively. I also told them if they are not happy with their results, they got to work harder and practise more next time. :)

Bunk beds at last

We bought the modular Princess Emily beds for the gals 4 years ago. We have been planning to let the gals sleep in the bunk beds but procrastinated for a few years cos they were too young then. We let the gals sleep in separate rooms in their own beds previously.

Now that RA is in Pri 2 and RL in Pri 1, we decided to finally do it. The gals have been asking for double decker beds for some time while RL has always preferred someone to sleep with her. Since our condo will TOP in 2 yrs time. It will be a waste if we were to move without even giving the gals a chance to sleep on their bunk beds.

Since RA gets to sleep on the upper bunk, I decided to get curtains so that RL won't feel left out. This way, RL has her own cosy corner too. Tonight is their first night sleeping on bunk beds. So I paid $50 for the bunk bed installation, $85 for an additional guard rail and $80 for a set of chiffon curtains.

Not sure if they will fall asleep easily in their excitment. At least the air con is on. Hope that will help. :)

The Gals' Piano exams

Today, Raelynn finally went for her repeat Grade 1 piano exam. It took her another 5 months but I am glad history did not repeat itself. She was cheery and happy. She even made jokes to make RaeAnne laugh as RA was going for her Grade 3 Piano exam before RL and feeling butterflies in her stomach. RL also gave Cheh Cheh big crushing hugs. RA complained a bit and I think their squabbling did help ease the tension and stress a bit.

What made it work the second round?
Think the major factor was that RL got to do the exams together with RA. She had someone to 壮胆。
We booked 2 practice slots at Award Music studio so they were quite familiar with the place.
Raelynn has matured and grown more confident after 2 terms of Pri school.
Brought along little bribes and let them open the pressies once they come out of the exam room.

RA's heart was thumping fast before and after the exam. And RL made it through without any tears. In fact, RL she came out. She said she wanted to do the exam again. And asked if she can have the same examiner for her Grade 3 exam. She said the examiner was smiley even when she made mistakes. Long way to go, Honey. But I hope you can get your wish. Not sure how the gals will do as both admitted that they made mistakes for nearly all the pieces but I am happy with just a pass. Anything extra will be a bonus. Jia you gals!!!

Raelynn's Grade 1 piano exam

Today is Raelynn's Grade 1 piano exam. She has been learning the songs for more than 1 year now. Teacher said she was ready and registered her for exam last Sept. The exam was at East gate at Katong. Not a familiar place to us. So I booked her 1-hr practice session 3 weeks ago so that she will be familiar with the room set up.

Last night, she started to cry that she doesn't want to do the exam. She wants me in the room with her. This coming from my usual fearless daredevil gal who has at least 3 times more bumps and cuts than RaeAnne because of the gravity defying acts. The same girl who jumped up on stage to answer questions whenever there is a mall show because she wants a prize or a sweet. My garang gal suddenly becoming shy and scared.

I tried to reassure her by promising a toy once she comes out of the exam hall. Even her teacher, who was busy, turned up to give moral support. Even gave her a cute soft toy pillow to hug. But she started whining and crying before her turn. The exam admin asst was nice enough to let us postpone and let other candidates go first. But she kept crying and crying and refuse to calm down. 1 sweet from the receptionist, 1 pep talk later, she finally went in holding my hands. But even when the examiner made extra concession for me to stay in the room for 1 min so that she can play a scale which he will not grade. She still refused to touch the keyboard. So exasperating and embarrassing.

The examiner said he has no choice but to mark her absent. I understood as they have done all they could to help. I apologised and brought her home. Never knew that after her lessons, nagging her to practise, all the sightreading homework she had to do, prepping her on the exam venue, her biggest hurdle end up to be getting her to walk into the room and well, just play the piano.

$277 poorer and a lesson learnt. While the teacher and I were focusing on ensuring that she will not fail the exam, we failed to prep her and convince to take the exam. So ya, you can choose what you want your child to learn, guide that learning, book the exam, pay for the exam fees and ferry her there. But if 牛不要喝水，nobody can force her. Hiaz...

But I will not give up. So far, she seems guilty and repentant. I will show her youtube videos of how the exam takes place. And I will time her next exam with RaeAnne in July/Aug so that both of them can go for the exam on the same day. Hope that will lessen her anxiety.

RaeAnne is 8!!!

We had a celebration for RaeAnne with a few of her classmates last Sunday. Our house is too small to have a big party so we only invited kids and mummies from our 2C closed WhatsApp group. It was a cosy get together for the mummies as well as we have been chatting for more than 1 year since we attended the P1 Orientation together.

RaeAnne had fun with Valerie (her no. 1 BFF), Jiaxin, Wanyee and Gerrard. THe house was so noisy with just 6 kids that I half expected the neighbours to come knocking on our door to complain. Lol.

Today is her actual birthday. They are not allowed to bring goodie bags to distribute to classmates anymore but I did tell her to distribute some of the Aji no san waffle snacks to her classmates during recess. I woke up at 5 am with a terrible tummyache, bad stomach spasms so I went to the doctor and got MC. Rested at home until 3+pm as I promised to bring her to Toys r us to buy a toy.

We were supposed to have Swensons but RA changed her mind. She said she doesn't want Swensons anymore since Mummy cannot eat ice cream. We ended up at Din Tai Fung. Just a simple meal of mushroom noodles before she went for her usual Art class. I went home to rest as simply could not take it anymore.

At bedtime, we sang a birthday song for her again. Daddy sang in Mandarin, I sang in English while RL sang in Korean. It was a funny sight and RA laughed. I told her my wishes for her is to be kind, wise and healthy. I forgot my most important wish. And that is she will be happy. Love you darling!!! Whether you are a smiley baby with cute dimples or an eight year old fast maturing primary school kid. :)