December A Long, Stressful, Worrying and Tiring Month..

December's been an extremely long month for me.. 

• I started my online business, took a plunge and went ahead with my pushcart idea, got so tied up that i am literally worked day and night.. 
• Grace started on this bad habit that every day the first thing she does when she opens her eyes is "Mummy, i Love You. I don't want to go to school, i want to go kai kai (since the push cart is in a shopping mall) with you.."  Every day, to send her to school, i need to pacify her.. And, Nick and her will cry buckets from the moment they alight from the car till they reach the school.. 
• Nicholas and Grace are behaving badly these days. Am not too sure if it's because i am not giving them enough attention compared to previously, or is it Grace is going thru her terrible twos and Nicholas "monkie see , monkie do", they now cry and scream in public whenever i say NO to them.. Grace even goes to the extend of sitting on the floor, cry, and at times, lie down on the floor to cry, attracting passerby who stop and shake their heads. 
• Sam's school holiday was packed with holiday classes in the mornings, and usually afternoons are free. So i usually have to drop him off for classes and pick him at noon to send him home. Perhaps, the positive part of me doing some small push cart business is he has learnt to be more independent. On a few occasions when i cannot pick him on time, he is able to take MRT or catch a cab home on his own after classes. Also, he now is not afraid of being at home alone for a couple of hours.
• My mum had went to go her tooth extracted. Somehow, the extraction didn't go very well and to my disgust, apart from the whole extraction trauma she went through, the left side of her face had a huge patch of blue-black from the cheek all the way to the neck indicating that some blood vessels have been punctured during the procedure. The whole swell took 2 long weeks to subside of which during those times, we were so scared whenever we saw her bleeding thru her nose and mouth after the extraction procedure.
• Grand-mama had a mild heart failure some 2 days before Christmas, and we cancelled the family vacation to Hanoi so that i can bring her to the doctors. You may ask why is it me.. Where are her children? Well.. Mum took long MC after the tooth extraction, so she couldn't apply for leave when it happened.. My aunty also recently started work with a new company, and since it was close to x'mas, many of her colleagues were on leave and there was shortage of man-power, so it was tough for her.. My uncle? Honestly, i dunno. He's at home, still unemployed after 10+ years, so perhaps that's the reason, my grand-mama didn't want him to bring her to the doctors knowing that he will have to approach his wife or us for money.. And, dad and hubby are pretty mad with the family. From the cost incurred from the cancellation of our trip, to the doctor's visits and tests, neither my aunty nor my uncle has offered to pay any part or a portion of Grand-mama's bills. Mum helped with half, i am quietly paying the other half, and hubby is feeling the pinch since cardiologist bills are as expected, hefty.  I will blog about the whole story in a separate entry..
• The unit above mine was sold sometime ago.. Owners i supposed are rushing with reno works, intime for Chinese New Year. But, of all days, hacking works had to start today! The kids are at home since school is closed today, so they couldn't even catch a nap with all the crazy hacking noises and were cranky.. Hubby and myself were obviously too tired for all their nonsenses.. And what's worse? The hackings will go on all the way till 3rd Jan which is the whole long weekend with the kids! Seriously, i couldn't understand how some people can be so inconsiderate or don't they even have any common sense!.. It's a long weekend, and like many other people, we just need our quiet break.. Can't they schedule their hackings on a normal working day when the chances are, people will be out at work? Haiz.. 

Anyways.. It's the last day of 2009.. I supposed in this post, i have used up my grumbling quota for 2009.. Although, my December's been a crazy month, and I believe my 2010 will be better.. :) My 2009, i am blessed with lots of love and patience from my darling husband, countless kisses and hugs from my 3 monkies, a healthy and happy family, and a lot of good friends who love and cared about me.. I hope i will be blessed with the same if not more for 2010.. 

For 2010, i hope -

• grand-mama will recover real soon..
• hubby will shower me with more love (greedy!) and more pocket money :P
• i will be very discipline on attending my lectures and on sending the kids for their enrichment classes..
• everyone will be blessed with good health, lots of love, happiness and money. 
• every wish and dream will come true. :)
• all will be generous in donating to the less fortunate.

Have a blessed 2010!

X'mas Gift Exchange in School..

On 24th, the kids were asked to bring a gift worth $8 (min.) to school for gift exchange. 

  

I was as usual, skeptical, afterall, we have received trash (people's unwanted gifts or old and poor condition toys) in last few years gift exchange.. 

  

Nick's bugged me for the whole week since the day his teacher told him about it, reminding me every single day of his pressie for gift exchange. I bought the gift over the weekend, but wasn't very interested to wrap it up since i was still contemplating if i should give something else and keep these cute gifts for my kids instead..

    

Well, the night before 24th, i was supposed to do wrapping, then perhaps i would have tried to look around for something else for the exchange instead. However, the crazy rush to bring grand-mama to hospital had worn me out and i ended up coming down with some throbbing headache and fever.

   

On the morning of the 24th, i had no time to think.. So, wrapped the gifts up and off the kids went to school with their little gifts and names written on it in their hand! 

  

Grace's Hello Kitty Gift for the exchange

Nick's Ben 10 Gift for the exchange

In the evening when they got home, both Nick and Grace proudly showed me their X'mas gifts and asked for permission to open them.. 

Guess what they got?

Grace's pressie

Nick's pressie

I thought the note to parents said $8 (min.) but looking at Grace's gift, it's probably worth only 2 bucks from the shop 2 blocks away from the school. And Nick's gift? The price is stated there.. $4.90.. Hmm.. Hubby told me i forever never learn my lesson! Bought some 9 bucks projector watch for the gift exchange!

Well, at least, the gifts are new and not someone's unwanted trash! And, most importantly, Grace and Nick likes their pressie! Nick used the box to store all his prized collection of toy cars while Grace will draw on her board every day.. :)

The New "Grandma" In The Car..

These days, i am usually on the move to deliver stuffs, attend meetings etc.. So, to help me find my way around Singapore, hubby got me a new GPS that is a lot easier to use compared to the older one we have.. 

What i want to blog about this GPS is not about whatever super high tech function it has.. But it has this super tok-kong feature that will repeat and repeat itself once you exceeds the road speed limit for that particular road. 

  

For instance, if this particular stretch of road is 60km/h, the moment the vehicle goes at 61km/h, this machine will keep nagging "PLEASE SLOW DOWN!! PLEASE SLOW DOWN!! PLEASE SLOW DOWN!! " until you reduce speed to 60km/h.. And if you choose to ignore it, it will speak louder and louder and louder until you bo-pian have to slow down..

Samuel says we got a grandma in the car, except grandma will go "Don't drive so fast" whereas this machine-grandma is more polite and it uses a "PLEASSSSSE".. 

And when hubby drives, he never fails to "quarrel" with the machine-grandma cos he thinks it is just too IRRITATING.. Worse than his wife cos the wife don't even say a single thing where the machine-grandma "nags" at him to slow down.. And today i heard hubby telling it to "shut up otherwise i smack you!!!"  hahaha.. 

Nick's Music Class

It's been a while since Nick attended music lessons.. And, i am proud to say, my little monkie can play simple pieces on his own, and he never fails to practices his electone every evening when he comes home from school.. :)  I cannot help but to be proud of him for being so discipline.. 

Some pictures of him in class.. 

On the electone, practicing before teacher comes around and hear him play..

 

Music and movement time

Percussion Time

Mummy, I want to go KAI KAI..

This is what Grace been telling me every morning when she opens her eyes.. And, it's quite stressful to hear this since i am supposed to be super busy with my whole string of events happening at home.. 

  

Nevertheless, i woke up in that morning, after daddy left for work, decided i deserve a short break from all the long working hours, so, Grace and Nick gets to "pon-tang" school again!! :P

And guess where we went?

   

Bouncy Castle at Changi Airport!!

Nick went up the castle and started sliding down, up and down and i didn't get a chance to capture him on the camera.. 

Grace needed some warm up bouncing around before she went up the castle and started sliding down.. :P

 

Glad to see these little monkies smile ya.. :)

So Much To Do, Yet, So Little Time..

With the recent move to go into business, the upgrading works that requires plenty of cleaning up, the school holidays that the kids have more school holiday programs, i am getting very exhausted.. 

I have so much to do, yet, so little time, and being almost a perfectionist, i am finding myself struggling to breathe and rest.. Yet, i cannot depend on hubby for help as i know i will jump at him for things that don't quite fit what i want.. 

Friends have been sms-ing me arranging for play-dates or even coffee, but i barely have the time to do so.. 

I clearly need a break now, yet, we are going on a family vacation again soon which means, i will be more exhausted after that.. 

Haiz.. What did i get myself into??

PSLE Results - 2009

Quoted on Channel News Asia website : "For home-schooled children, 37 took the examinations this year. Seventeen, or 46 per cent, did not meet the benchmark."

  

I am considering to home-school my children.. Perhaps i should reconsider... 

  

Quoted from Channel News Asia website : "The fact that seven of the 13 best students this year came from neighbourhood schools. This is a surprising change from the last year’s result where only two students from these schools topped the exams."

  

Perhaps neighbourhood schools are not that bad afterall...

  

BTW, Sam got into Tao Nan School under the GEP selection test.. He took and passed the GEP (Gifted Education Program) test last year, but we did not transfer him and move him up to P4 this year as we felt that P3 was very important since it's the year where they introduce Science as a subject.  Also, there was much debates on the Singapore GEP program aren't very tailor-made for gifted children.. 

  

So, why decided on the GEP now? 

- He will get into Tao Nan School which grants Nick and Grace admission at Primary 1 without me having to do voluntary work (yes, for my selfish reasons). 

- It grants him a higher chance of going into Dunman High School (my dream school) since they are one of the 7 schools in Singapore that offers SBGP (School-Based Gifted Program) + IP (Integrated Program). In fact, i am so desperate for Sam to enter Dunman High School that i have signed him up for violin, piano and now electone (because he saw Nick practicing, so he wanted to learn too) since he was 4yo, so in the event he is a few points shy of getting into Dunman High School, he will still get in thru the music elective course. 

  

Oh course, my father had reminded me that Dunman High School may not be the best option since they are on the IP (integrated program). That means, the child will not be sitting for the GCE 'O' Levels exam, and will do a 6 year program in secondary school, and only doing the GCE 'A" Levels at the end of 6 year.. Incase he fails he GCE 'A' Levels at the end of 6 years and doesn't wants to retake, then he highest education level reflected on his job application will stand only at PSLE (ie. Primary 6)!

A Busy Week

Mummy haven't posted anything on the blog for a week as she was so so busy.. There are some changes here and there around the house, which poor mummy is so busy and just couldn't find time to post..  She's almost a super woman now, clocking only about 2-3 hours of sleep a day. 

Here are some little updates.. 

1. Mummy started her own small home business selling some kids products online, and was a hit instantly, drowning her in hours and hours of being stuck in front of the computer, and many trips to the supplier's place to drag goods home, check them and post them out.. 

2. Mummy and daddy has decided to give in on the maid thingy and went to the agency to apply for a new maid. This new ka-ka will help to do the housework and entertain the kids if mummy and daddy are busy.

3. The sad thing about this whole week is, since mummy was so busy and daddy couldn't bear to see her struggling alone, he will usually help her out. As such, the little ones are pretty much neglected this whole week.  Poor little Grace been planting kisses on mummy's lips every now and then hoping mummy would play with her, but only to be shoo out of the room most of the time.. 

4. Mummy got crazy over the Iphone launch at M1, she spend 6 hours Q-ing for the 32gb iphone for daddy and herself which is so expected of a "mac-lunatic" right?

What else? Cannot remember liao.. I better catch some 40 winks and will be back for more updates soon. :) 

Pregnant..

Recently, many of my friends are getting pregnant... So Grace must have thought it's cool to have a huge tummy with a baby inside..

  

Today while playing, she decided to do this.. Made us laugh till tears flow out.. :P

  

 

Little Grace's First Ballet Lesson

After months and months of telling and reminding me, Grace finally gotten her wish today.. 

  

She attended her 1st ballet lesson, and wore her pretty little ballet shoes for the first time!!.. She couldn't quite tip toe or does most of what teacher asked the rest to do since it's her 1st lesson and she's also the youngest in class.  But teacher says it's fine as her bones aren't as developed as those 3 y.o. jie jies yet, so her teacher don't recommend she does all those yet.. 

  

So why is mummy so kan cheong begged the school to take her in even she's not old enough yet? Well, since it's something little princess likes, so i think would be a good idea just to send her to class, jump jump and play play and see what comes out of it at the end of the day! 

  

It's happy to know she loves the classes and at bedtime, she told me she wants to go to ballet class again tomorrow.. :)

Mummy, I Love You!!

These are the words i've been hearing Grace repeat over and over again every day, every hour or so since the day we got home.. Am not sure if it's the "run away" that made her realized she missed and loved mummy so much or is it just part and parcel of growing up for a girl, afterall, the brothers seldom comes and tell mummy such touching words that will make me melt!.. 

  

But for now, am not going to worry about the whatever reasons that she's doing it.. 

  

Right now, i am just enjoying it every time she come and tells me she loves me and her "not at all stingy" kisses all over my face!  

Infact, I'm Loving It!.. :)

Genting Blues

Grace is missing Genting loads!..  

Last week, daddy drove to KL for a meeting with mummy and Grace tagging along.. And the moment we paid the toll at Sg. Besi, she's been asking we going to Genting yi-gee (is it)?..

And from then on, the moment she wakes up, she will ask, "we going to Genting yi-gee?.." We put her into the car, she will ask "we going to Genting yi-gee (is it)?.." We pick her from school in the evening, she will ask "We going to Genting yi-gee (is it)?.." We put her in bed at night, she will ask "We going to Genting tomorrow morning yi-gee (is it)?.. Last night when she was asleep, i heard her say "papa, tomorrow we go genting and play ok.. i want to sit the caterpillow (she meant caterpillar).."  

Hehe.. Poor little girl.. She must have really missed Genting a LOT!!

Grace and Her "POWER" English..

 

These days, Grace expresses herself very well, so well that often passerby will stop and ask if she's already 4yo..

  

She is able to use words like drizzling, heavy showers, thunderstorm to describe the rain; wonderful, fantastic, amazing instead of the usual nice; lovely instead of just cute or pretty etc.. 

  

Of cos, as much as we like her to learn to speak proper english, she is also picking up the yi-gee (is it), huh?, hor, lah, loh, leh.. 

  

And, although she's able to express and speak up, her words are sometimes not too clear and it will make us laugh until tears flow out.. For example : 

yi-gee = is it, 

Mc-don-ne-ner = McDonalds

Hun-gee = hungry

key-not = cannot

  

Oh, but the down side of it, she can now talk from Bedok to Jurong and back without stopping!!  And if we choose to ignore, she will go "mummy, mummy, mummy, then mom, mom, talk to me leh, talk to me pleassssseee... mummy, mummy i love you so much leh, talk to me pleassseee..."  And then she will attempt to unbuckle her car seat to climb out and offer my a kiss hoping i will not ignore her.. 

  

Poor ears just cannot have a break at times.. :P

Today..

I can't seems to be able to find a suitable title for this.. But, today's a weird day.. 

Weird Incident 1 :

First, someone called and tell me i owe his company some money which i dunno who or which company it is..

Then, another someone called and apologize, saying they made a mistake..

And then, another person called to tell me they have received the payment, and will send me the receipt.. 

Then, Weird Incident 2: 

I went to pump petrol.. Wanted to pay with the DBS credit card. For some unknown reasons, i had a credit card "decline status" which left me wondering if it's because i haven't been using the card for a long long time (since this card is mainly for the kiosk discount and i usually am not the one putting in petrol). 

Since i didn't bring another credit card along, i gave my atm card to the cashier which means i will not get all the extra discounts.. Weirdly, it also declined!.. 

I ended up having to go into the car to dig every corner for dollars and cents to pay up for the $45 petrol bill.. 

Then, i wasn't too satisfied that i had a decline status with my atm card since i am very sure that i have money in the account.. So i proceed to the atm machine and tried to check my account balance and was given a rude shock that there was only a mere 81 cents in my account!!

So i rushed home to check on iBank to see where did my money went, only to realize that internet banking website is down.. 

Hmm.. Until now, problem is still not resolved yet..  :(  Where did money go? I hope they mysteriously re-appear tomorrow just like they mysteriously disappeared today.. 

Gone Missing..

Hubby and me left on Friday morning. The 3 monkies were at Granny's.  As usual, i didn't feel good leaving them with granny even though she's my own mum, afterall, they barely looked after the kids, so i just didn't feel comfy. 

  

But since daddy has already approached granny and "i dunno what he did" to convince her to look after the 3 monkies over the weekend, so i just went along with the plans. 

  

It was only Friday morning that we flew out, and we were back on the 1st flight home this morning as something unexpected happened.. :(

  

Granny called at 7.43am this morning, i could remember the time so well cos i was staring the clock at the bedside cos it was supposed to be a holiday, yet, some irritating people had to call and disturb us so early in the morning!  From the caller ID, it was granny's home number.. I thought it could be the 2 younger ones missing us since they wanted to go back home so badly on Thursday and Friday night, giving granny all sorts of excuses.. 

  

I pick the call, only to hear a panic granny on the phone telling me that Nick and Grace are MISSING! My heart missed more than a beat! The first question i ask was "DID YOU LOCK THE WINDOW GRILLS??"  Granny said yes.. so i went on asking then what she meant by the kids are missing?  She says they are not at home, and they have likely left the house in the morning before anyone at her place woke up!  I went blank.. LEFT THE HOUSE meaning what? Is it for real?????  Granny told me that my sisters and dad are going around the in the estate looking for the 2 of them while she is waiting at home for them..  And they have already called the police to help search for the both of them!

  

SHIT!!! The image for that missing 6yo boy who drowned in the drain near home surfaced, but since there wasn't any huge drains near home, i was more worried they might fall off the building or get knocked down which attempting to cross the road!!.. 

  

I called the hotel operator and told them to book hubby and me out on next flight home, never mind if we had to top up for whatever reasons!.. Hubby and me next threw everything back into the luggage, rushed to the airport hoping to catch the a flight home..

  

On our way to the airport in the cab, my phone rang.. I was scared, scare that it could be bad news... I looked at the Called ID, and realized it's my neighbour's..  Picked the call... 

  

She informed that she saw my kids sitting at the stairs outside my door, so she took them, gave them some food cos they were still in pajamas and she called me.  She also knew i wasn't in town as we usually have the habit of informing each other before we go away, so she called to ask for my mum's number.

  

At that moment, i just couldn't tell anyone how thankful i was.. I just cried and cried and told her i will call my mum to pick the kids from her place... I just couldn't recite the number to her cos i was sobbing away.. 

  

We got home around 2+pm, cos there wasn't seats on the direct flights, so we took the flight via KL to return home.. We saw the 3 monkies and granny + grandpa at the airport waiting for us.. 

  

Thank god there are unharmed.. 

  

So we sat down to have a late lunch and tried to ask Nick what actually happened.. 

  

His story..

He woke up earlier than granny and meimei.. He missed mummy and daddy a lot, so he woke meimei up, asking her if she wanted to go home to mummy and daddy's house.  And  since mama (granny)  the night before said he cannot go home cos we (daddy and mummy) went out, so he thought we would have returned at wee hours.  So he quietly took his meimei, walked down from the 10 floors (as he wasn't tall enough to press most the lift buttons yet) to the ground floor and then walked to our staircase landing, and walked up 4 floors.. He knocked on the door and no one opened, so they sat there and waited.. And, Grace actually suggested to see if daddy's car is in the carpark, so they walked down 4 floors again, and they saw daddy's car parked there, and concluded that we are at home.. So they walked up to the 4th floor again, knocked again, and then decided to sit there till the neighbour found them..

  

When asked about the time they went downstairs, did they try to cross the road to daddy's car, Nick told us meimei went on the road, but he told her to come back cos wait the car bang her backside, and she obeyed.. So i suppose we had to thank god that at that time, there wasn't anyone who drove past in that carpark at that time cos i don't think Nick would know what to do if there was..

  

And we asked why he didn't "enlist" Sam in his big run away plan, he say cos Sam loves to stay at granny's place, so Sam will not run away.. 

  

Oh boy! A 4yo and a 2yo, can actually plan an "escape".. I am more than thankful we found them unharmed.. Phew!! No more trips without the 2 younger monkies for now!..