Survival Test - 1 yr+ later - Part 1

My entry is 2 weeks late. No time, no time. 没有时间.

My last survival test was 1 yr 7 months ago, fast forward that same time later - things do look different. At that time, che-che was in K2. And now that they're both older and supposedly to be more 懂事, I thought I can handle better. Noooope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then, che-che was in full day childcare thus I had a much longer "window period". I can spent a longer time on household chores. Then, I only needed to bring her for Berries on Mondays evenings, after mom helped to cook her dinner (+ mine as well). Wednesdays evenings were her music class, then she gets to sleep over in mom's place for that night. I didn't have to get up that early the next day and can be a slave the whole of next day till I go over to pick her up. Fridays - I get to spend the whole day out as I had to bring mei-mei for her Shichida class.
And if I needed a bailout, mom could help out since they had a helper then.

Now, I'm totally relying on myself. To make it worst, hubby has been travelling extensively. He was back and feeling a little relieved, he told me he was flying off again. For 2 weeks, I was left single on/off. When he was back, he was working. It made me more miserable and grumpy, I know he's working really hard for this family; I shouldn't be feeling this way but because I was hoping for a lighter load and ended up ladled with the same load.

2 kids, although older, means I'm more busy. I have a shorter "window period" each day coz' have to pick mei-mei up from school early. I have only like 3 hours plus to speed through work. Exhausted! For the last 2 weeks, they had their classes from Tuesdays to Fridays consecutively. (Tuesdays were mei-mei's music make up lesson). I had been zooming around until I go giddy. Had to cook their lunches on both Wednesdays and Thursdays. So bloody busy and was still so concerned about giving them home-cooked food. Not like yours truly is a good cook.

Che-che asked me after she had a taste of my cooking for 2 days." Mummy, I thought you say you cannot cook?" "Mummy can't cook. I cook rubbish; you'll eat rubbish. Why? Is my cooking nice?" "Yes, very nice." "Nicer than Aunty Zet's?" "Yes, I like." *happy happy* Aiyah! Something new mah!

Today marks the end of the schoolterm. I don't have to handwash their school uniform daily. They change uniform daily. I can simply wait and throw them all into the washing machine. But still house has to be kept clean right? And for a extreme fussy person, I'll work myself to death.

Tomorrow, we fly off. I have a week off from housework.

Wait for my next blog entry on this topic then.

The Survival Of The Fittest ahem.. Fattest -2

Day 5 - 10th Oct
I bailed out last night, dunno why Ari was still in kuning-land at 4+pm. Called mom to bring Ath home to stay overnight otherwise it'd be a rush for me to wait for that girl to wake up and bring her out. Pity, I forgot to pack in her assessment books for mom but lucky for Ath - she got her break.

We left for her class from home today, which means I can have it easy in the morning. Don't have to scream at the older girl to finish her breakfast faster so that we can leave the house in time. I was able to do a sweep & mop in the morning. Nothing's planned for Fridays just the normal sweep & mop coz I'd be out the whole day. Fed her, bathed her and we left the house via KPE. It was totally different when hubby was behind the wheels the first time we tried KPE. Today... I was thinking to myself if I could blur out with this straight road and fall asleep... eeks! Goash! Next year I'll be using the road in the mornings so I must be wide awake siah!

It was a rather relaxing day for me. Normally I would bring Ari out for short gai-gai before picking Ath up from school but today I had to bring her to TM. Sigh....trip to Meidi-ya will be postponed to next week.
Waited for Ath to finish school @ mom's place and I actually fell asleep oblivious to the noise Ari was making. I was that tired!

Brought dinner home & was fighting with Ari. Very difficult to feed her, she'd scream; cover her mouth etc... Why can't she be like her che-che? Ath used to be so guai - she'd sit and eat her meals, opening her mouth wide for you (no wonder she's still so greedy now) = she looks pui pui. Ari will sit down but not for long, I can't restaint coz' she'll scream & I worry I break her bones. But then again, I think I should start to worry, seems like now Ath gets scolding from Peggy coz' of her short attention span. Goash! Do they have ADHD??

Did Ath's school laundry and did Math with her for a while before I leave her alone to finish up the work, bonus for Ari - did a shortcut home session. Too tired to do her Shichida homework with her.

The children slept with us. Had sufficient time to blog but I'd prefer to sleep early. 11pm I was already in kuning-land.


Verdict : Very sleepy but I survived! Looking forward to the weekends where I can sleep a little late.


Day 6 - 11th Oct
Weekend suppose to be relaxing but I wasn't the least relaxed. Shan't bore you with what work I did, what else can I do but to keep cleaning, hate it when you have black furnitures, black piano, black electone organ. 飞尘 very obvious to the eyes. My soft hands are going to turn rough soon even before the 2nd week ends.
Feeding Ari - big problem. I flew fiery and punished her to stand at her punishment corner while I 'cooled' myself down. She was screaming and crying for daddy; for che-che, for pacifier ?!?!? You must be thinking I'm crazy to punish her but I've had it enough. That's why normally I leave the feeding to KZ, and we can only feed her @ home. I've seen how KZ's face would change..and she can't beat or punish my child - but I can!! And then I can threaten to "let you go hungry if you don't want to eat. No milk later!" But I can't bear to carry out the threat on Ari coz' that girl is so skinny; I'm trying hard to plump her up. As for Ath - I can carry out the threat coz' she's got so much fats reserves.

Verdict : Apart from the feeding which is , I am still hanging on But shucks! I forgot about Ari's Shichida homework again!

Day 7 - 12th Oct
Woke up early (my standard of early for weekends) at 9.30am. The children were laughing and playing coz' the Empress Dowager hasn't stepped out and asked them to do their work - Ath to do her English books and Ari to play - hee!
I want to laze but I'm so worried about what hubby is going to feed them. You know hor.... long time ago when my Ath was a toddler - hubby can tell my mom that she (Ath) has eaten & she's full after mom asked him about her. Mom asked him what she ate. " 吃了两粒汤圆, 已经很饱了" ??????汤圆!!! God! Dunno what the heck he's thinking, can fill a stomach with 两粒汤圆? In other words, he's lazy! Maybe it's men thing that they don't get so kan-cheong as women but ... use the brain and think lor! I must make sure she gets her equivalence of one bowl of porridge. In the end I think it's better that I feed her myself, just give up on my beauty sleep and then I shall go for Botox with Woffles Wu soon.
Handwashed the childrens' laundry and since I haven't been doing the children's laundry I needed to know which one can fade off colours. And bingo! Ari's dress's ribbon caused one of her own romper to have yellow marking. And the funny thing is that I only put all the dry dirty clothes together and was sorting out to wash when I notice it. Tried to scrub it off but can't, was about to take my Baking Soda when I remembered I had bought something a long time ago. Wah! Better than David Copperfield. I sprayed and it's gone. Good things must share, it's Kiwi Kleen Stubborn Stain Removal. I sound so ah-soh!!


Work until so tired, worse than gym (at least after gym I can look forward to gossiping with MH and have food to stuff). I left the kids alone to play in the cot, created a big mess but I'm closing my eyes and ears. Oommmmm

Couldn't take it, even if it means flipping through my bake books and fantasize also better than nothing. 我讨厌 MH, her helper is back and she can bake; do whatever she wants.

Feeding Ari is a breeze today. Phew! Why? Lunch & dinner are porridge! I don't like to feed her too much porridge and prefer adult food to get her exposed to many things. But.... maybe she's lazy to chew these days or maybe I'm an expert in cooking porridge ahem... my porridge taste nice/edible compared to other food ( I used to keep cooking porridges for Ath for lunch & dinner, which I do blame myself that her being so chee-na is prob my fault) but hey! must 跟我 拜 师

Verdict : Week 1 is gone. I wonder what the next 3 wks+ brings. 我 还活着!

Day 8 - 13th Oct
Dying for a holiday, we were thinking of a holiday when KZ is on home leave. But with her home leave brought forward, too last minute to do anything. But then again, be it the year end or now, we're a little tied down. Some time in Dec we're left with neither here nor there when she has her concert on 13th and the days prior to that will be her practices and full-dress rehearsal (they will video down the rehearsal & sell that VCD - imagine if she's not inside), FSS is either 3rd or 10th Dec, 22nd Dec is the school orientation. Sigh....I wanna go Japan, a place hubby is not keen. Ath has no mind of her own, says "I also want to go Japan, I want to see Hello Kitty, I want to go Disneyland. I can speak Japanese." Hahaha! She can speak Japanese? And you know where hubby is looking at? China. Argh! And of all places he likes to look at those places where it's so difficult to handle with a young kid, who'll struggle when you carry but you worry may slip and fall off the cliff if she walks on her own. Not Huangshan, we did that already but he was looking at Jiu Zhai Gou. Wah piang eh...
Ai yah! Not sure whether I'll live through these next few weeks or not, better don't think too far.

Time out for me!! Buay tahan... ask me to stay @ home and face the 4 walls and clean the house with my hair tied up like chicken backside; squatting down like ah-ma scrubbing the clothes. Kena sai! I'm going to kiss and hug KZ when she comes back siah!
Brought the kids out. Kids? Yes! Ath whining and whining about her ulcer very painful cannot go to school etc... fed up with that lor-soh girl. Brought them out to get their Halloween costumes. I didn't get any for myself coz' I reckon being myself is devilish/scary enough.
Trip down to Orchard, library and then Hougang Mall before her Berries class exhausted me out. That lil' one tire me out, she didn't nap @ all and still had all the energy.

Verdict : I definitely am alive and kicking and nagging incessantly.

The Survival Of The Fittest ahem.. Fattest - 1

Day 1 - 6th October
Sent KZ off at the airport and then went back home and first thing first - I cut my nails. I cannot paint nails, this is my longest record for going without nail polish since September when I had to bake a cake for Ari. Argh! Not a tai-tai!!!
On way home, dropped by Giant to get some groceries since we didn't stock up any over the weekend. It was close to 11 by the time I reached my carpark, and normally that's the time my girl will doze off in the car. Didn't want to disturb her, so make full use of time - started to vacumn the car. Wah! That girl can sleep with the noise?!
Brought the car mats back home to wash. I embarked my first mission - feed my child. Can cook meh?? Of course lah! I cook horribly, children kena my gong-tao also eat; not nice also nod head. Wah.... good thing hubby don't need me to cook coz' he knows he'll be DEAD for sure!!

Back @ home - old habit die hard - I cannot see mess. The house living room was in a mess in the morning when we left - the 2 children lor! So, I popped that girl infront of TV and played her "Colours" while I quickly cook her lunch and tidy the place up. At the same time I quickly sweep the house. Honestly speaking, if there's an award you need to give me, you must admit that I'm a pro in multi-tasking.

Had her lunch, showered, home session, nap. While she napped, I mopped the floor and did the first batch of towels while srcubbing the car mats. The night before I did up a schedule for the month making adjustments to the normal schedule; needed to space out the time. Normally, we wash the towels on Tuesdays and Fridays. But this time round, I needed to space out the timing (well... will see how it goes), I decided to do towels on Wednesdays and Saturdays but Wed mom has an appt in SGH so can't babysit. So, I did on Monday & Tuesday. Why space out? Just dump into washing machine? Nope! I have this bad habit - I need to boil my towels, kitchen rags, toilet rags, toilet towels in colour bleach and some detergent. After boiling them, I'd scrub them with and put them into the machine to spin-dry. Towels - still need to be separated as in adults spin dry one time, children's spin dry one time. Infact, all our laundries are separated as well. Even mei-mei's and che-che's are separated. Hubby's and mine can be combined. So normally laundries are divided into 3.

Left home and brought down a small pail to clean the car interior. I'm very particular about cleanliness, KZ cleans it for me twice a week now I have to do it. Lil' one was entertaining herself in the car so I thought I should quickly clean the car. Hey! There's advantage of having small car you know. I finished cleaning the car with that pail. Can't clean the windows with dirty water so left it and went to mom's place.
Dinner - settled @ mom's place since I needed to pick che-che up for her Berries class. I can relax a little coz' Ari is being fed by someone else - don't have to drive me crazy. It's not easy feeding that lil' naughty girl. Really! Now let's see how I am going to survive that 1hr 45 mins in Berries with that hyperactive girl.

Back @ our carpark again. The children were playing; singing. So I cleaned the windows with the glass cleaner. Hmm..... not bad! Managed to clean the car; though staggered timing.
The day ended, I can't do much with che-che. Sent them both to bed. Hubby said they can sleep with us on Mondays as well - so it's Mondays and Fridays for now. He told me later, let them sleep everyday with us. No way!! It'll be more difficult to put them back into their room after that and worst still - I have to carry the stupid mattresses to and fro daily!

Verdict : I survived !


Day 2- 7th October
" BRACE! BRACE! BEND OVER. KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN. STAY DOWN! STAY DOWN!"
Crew will know these are the commands the gentle (ahem) Singapore Girl will have to shout ungracefully when it comes to emergency.
Dang! I really kept my head down the whole bloody day!!! Head down looking at the floor and keeping the toys/mess. What a day! Normally my kids do co-operate with me with or without helper - they'd keep the toys of course there are days when they both defy you. And today, that lil' one added a new word in her vocabulary " Don't want" - she defied me the whole day!!

Today's Ari's first class with Ros (every Tuesdays and Thursdays - 9am). And I told Ath to "hurry up, hurry up" dunno how many times. Still taking her own sweet time munching her breakfast. That's it! I'm going to let her have her small portion breakfast served in school and let her go hungry after that every Tuesdays now. I wanted to arrive @ Ros's place early, in the end I was so punctual/late! And you know what made me more angry in the morning?! When I helped her to buckle up in the morning, I saw that she had been playing with the used coupon the night before, the small tabs are on the floor. And I only cleaned the car the day before! I wanted to kill her!!!

Class was fun. Ari's shy kept clinging to mummy koala (normal behaviour :- she clinged onto me during her first 2 months in Shichida). Mom asked me, why am I sending her to another class when I'm giving her home sessions. "这么可怜, 这么小就去这么多读书". Hee! Actually not really 读书, but my habit of saying it refers to Shichida class, home sessions and any input sessions I do with her. Give her a chance to mix with new friends, for me to 3-8 with other mummies, try something new otherwise face the mad mother everyday also bored.
That means for this term - I'm busy almost everyday with time restrictions.
Mondays - Berries
Tuesdays - Ros class
Wednesdays - Ah Soh days
Thursdays - Ros class
Fridays - Shichida
Saturdays - even more Ah-Soh!
Sundays - That is if I haven't died --- still an Ah Soh!!

After her class, back to "cooking" the towels and cleaning up the house. Not much laundry to be done coz' KZ tried to finish as much clothes as she could before she left. So tempted to iron the clothes but I decided against it. Though I must admit, I never ironed our home clothes nor my work clothes. I only iron them when I need them (and do it week by week), no need to iron hubby's coz' he does it himself. So when helper came, she did everything for us including our undergarments. ?!?! Don't deny that I'm so used to seeing our home clothes neatly ironed for 2 yrs + and suddenly I decided that "oh no, I'm not going to geh-kiang to iron every piece of clothes. Otherwise hubby thinks I'm so free.." Folded the clothes and only one set of hubby's work clothes + Athena's school uniform to be ironed. Laundry = done!

Apart from the constant picking up toys especially today - her defiance drove me crazy. I'm so glad for the invention of Kao Floor Magic Clean for those quick cleanups or those lazy days lazy style "sweeping". Dunno why.... I sweep and mop already.... after that still see strands of hair around. Argh! I think we must all tie up and use a shower cap around the house.
Told you I am particular about cleanliness - so this time round I thought if I should close one eye and pretend I didn't see or.... in the end, Miss Kao FMC came to my rescue.

Home session with Ari and then played letter games with her. Let her nap while I sort out her cards for the next day's session. Hmm... Ari's time table for the 65 Day Math Program --> I don't cover Wednesdays (gym days) and Fridays (class) so I kept it the same since Wednesdays will be my AH-SOH day! But since mom can't babysit Ari, I'll bring her home and do the session... so maybe Thursday I can sneak out to jalan-jalan?? Only 2 days and I buay tahan already. Strange? She seems to nap very long, maybe it's the weather?
Anyway, I just leave her in her cot and don't bother to pat her to sleep. She'll still rattle off "bye bye hippo, bye bye li-lon, bye-bye bear bear" very talkative and she fell asleep.
Since I have sufficient time, washing of toilet rags, mats will be brought forward to today. Can't boil over the stove, so what I normally do is to boil water and pour into the pail soaked with colour bleach + detergent. Let it soak for some time before I take it out to scrub.

Whole place's dirty after their dinner! Asked Ath to bring Ari to the bathroom to play with bubble first before I shower Ari. I cleaned up outside and they made a mess inside the toilet. Argh! It's never-ending work!
After shower I was rotating studies between the 2 of them. And sent them to bed in their room. I'm exhausted! No time to check emails or blog, sleep is more important.

Ath asked me why I haven't been bento-ing for her. How to? So fussy about food.

Verdict : I survived!

Day 3 - 8th Oct
Planning is crucial for survival, loosening up a little helps too. Not that I'm compromising on cleanliness or tidiness for one month. There's an advantage on being too "scheduled-like" with my calendar, I'll know how to space out my work without killing myself. Afterall, more planning is necessary when you have two kids to handle. Don't plan, who's to help me? I die out of housework exhaustion who's to pity me? Realised too hubby's been busy these days, perhaps he was suppose to be out of country? And then had to stay back in SIN but had to do more work back @ home?
When I stayed home with Ath, I was able to manage everything including her home sessions. But of course you're talking only about one child. Now with 2, you gotta cope with a limited time to do work before leaving the house again. Thank goodness I don't sign Ath up for so many courses. And thank goodness too - the potty training was a failure coz' that girl simply refuse to do anythign except to play on the toilet seat. At least now I don't have to worry what time to bring her to sit on the toilet seat. Want to pee & poo, do it in her diapers.
Perhaps I am in a better situation or worse compared to MH (my batchgirl aka gym kaki) who coincidently let her helper go on 2 wks home leave (she's smart but stingy while I'm stupid but generous. Heehee! Just kiddin' MH.) at this time too. Better coz' Ath is in full day childcare so it means I can have longer time alone with one kid @ home. I can't cook so it means hubby don't have to rely on me... or I feel obliged to cook for him. My meals are easily settled, even with helper I can survive on instant noodles or just one dish without rice or bread or .... very easy-going. So, I have been having my favourite nonya dumplings thrice already. People say when you do housework, you'll slim down. I don't know in my case, coz' my mealtimes are irregular and I don't sit down to munch food slowly for it to be digested well. I eat easy food - dumplings are fattening!! For gf MH, she's lucky that she has her MIL to help her out when she needs her. I can't! Mom has to take care of Iggy. The advantage I have over MH is when I need to bail out, I can leave Ath @ mom's place since her school is just downstairs. Mom offered to cook my dinner + the childrens' but I had to reject it. Or... another solution is for her to help me cook and I'll bring it home for them to eat. Staying back @ mom's place will delay alot of time, coz' it'll be too early for them to have dinner. Then if too late + they take own sweet time to eat.. = finish late, then I find it redundant to go back home with me = then why waste my time driving down to Tampines just to eat?! Know what I mean? Not that I'll die without proper 3 dishes meal or what! One thing I can't cut back is that I still need to do the children's assesment books/homeworks with them.
Any changes with the children's behaviour without helper? Hmm... I think I should thank God that although Ath can be very naughty, she's actually very kapo &wants to help her sister. Once I saw her feeding Ari her dinner when I went to wash the table cloth. Prior to KZ's leave, I had explained to Ath how she can help me lessen my load. Not to mess up the place, tidy up after they finish playing toys etc.. And I must admit it's good training since young. Both kids will keep things, sometimes they forget and I'll tell them and they'll do it. Of course I must admit Ari is the smarter but most defiant of the lot. Ath will stupidly/guai-guai keep the toys. They wear shoes by themselves, keep the shoes in the cabinets, hang the clothes behind the door (Ari can't do this though). I still need to pack the house, but not so much- it's basically the same as with KZ around.

I managed to clean the windows spotlessly today and guess what? It rained after that?!气死人! But my windows + grilles are still very clean despite the rain. My girls can lick the grilles and will not die from germs but die from Dettol-poisoning. Hee!
I only needed to iron Ath's school uniform. I swept the floor in the afternoon and was telling mom, "I don't think it's my house that's dirty, or I'm the only one who's been dropping hair.. I can sweep the floor clean now, later the floor will be dirty again. I mop the floor twice also get dirty water. I wonder how some people can claim they only sweep and mop the floor once a week? So dirty!

Ari gets to sleep with us tonight. Yay!

Verdict : Another day of survival!

Day 4 - 9th October
I slept real early last night, I haven't been blogging and checking my emails. I'm getting withdrawal symptoms - I want to BAKE!!! I had to throw away my buttercream coz' I doubt I have the time. And..... I still need to think & book where to go for Ath's birthday. Argh!
Brought my last 2 butterflies out with me coz' I'll be out the whole day and worry it'll not survive. Wanted to bring it last night to show Ath's YJC friends & Ath (since she stays over on Wednesdays) but forgot all about it .
Went for Ros's class and after that had planned to go out, so I did today's home session yesterday. In the end, trip to Beacon alone with her was sufficient to tire me out. In the end, I came back home with loots for Ari instead of Ath. Wanted to get her this, I almost fainted when I heard how she structured one simple sentence.
Not much to do except the laundries, the usual sweep & mop as well as wiping cabinets/shelvings. Had time to sit down to draft this entry while she napped.
Oh! That lil' girl.. kept herself occupied by pushing all her finger puppets under the coffee table sneakily. No wonder I saw her lying on the floor and yakking away, pushing some things in there while I was cooking lunch. When I was about to sweep, I saw some thing sticking out; peered under to find a whole lot of finger puppets. Sigh...

Verdict: I survived another day without my hubby's lifting his fingers to help!!
Another 29 more days to go - to make it feel shorter I shall say " 5 more Fridays, 4 more Saturdays to Thursdays.