Happy Mother's Day

Rather sad that we had to forgo our Mother's Day dinner today, coz' mom hasn't been well on Friday. She was admitted to hospital on Friday and is in SGH now. We will give her a treat another time.

Athena on the other hand gave me a handmade thing, which looks like a flower - early this week, my cards on Friday and sang me the song 邱老师 taught them. She sang it for me again so that I can record it down. Click here to listen

Isn't this interesting? Bak kwa from Mei-Zhen-Xiang in heart shapes. Some promotion thing for Mother's Day

Card design done in English class

Done in Chinese class - outside
Done in Chinese class - inside

They're too young to even know what is Mother's Day. In the car yesterday afternoon, she suddenly turned & looked at me & said "mummy, Sunday is Mother's Day." "Ah ha...." Then my dear girl started singing "Happy Birthday to you.. Happy Birthday to you......." I bursts out laughing at her. Mother's Day became Birthday!
Ai yah......mom asked me if Athena celebrated for me. I said "no. She don't understand... Ai yah, no need to treat me lah! Most importantly is she must be guai guai." Then mom said "now then you understand why I always say this."
Yah... we never knew how hard our mothers suffered and sacrificed for us until we become mothers ourselves.

Children

ARICIA
Can't remember if I've blogged about this. Aricia tends to skip her development milestone.

She didn't start her vocalizing with 'pa' or 'ba' which is supposedly to be firsts followed by 'ma'. We only heard her calling "ma ma ma." Last night we thought we heard her saying "I wan ma ma" when she looked at me and about to cry. I know it sounds ridiculous but we all heard it. Haha! Coincidence I guess.

She's sitting more steadily now. Infact, now she's perfected her lying down on tummy to sitting very well. When she's doing it, I can't help but feel so anxious coz' she looks so fragile.

Early part of this week, I propped her to stand up holding onto the sofa. She was able to hold on and stand up (without tiptoeing). Then she did try to walk a few steps holding on.
At first we thought she's going to skip the crawling part and do the walking, but yesterday I noticed she decided she wanted to crawl and she tried. Very slow.

Buay tahan her sleeping habits. Keeps crying in the night, wants people around her, keeps pinching & digging my nose. That it's so difficult to put her to sleep in the cot. She's been co-sleeping in our bed. I really wonder what will happen in years to come? Probably the same situation as we're facing now with Athena, who still is whiny whenever we ask her to sleep in her own bed. If we had known, all of us should simply sleep in the same room - squeeze in lor........like one happy family like that?!?!

Mention about sleeping and it reminded me of what happened last night. Athena was trying her luck in wanting to sleep on our bed (then hubby will carry her over); I didn't want to waste that time lying down in her bed with her so I agreed. Aricia then started crying for someone to be with her, although she was on helper's mattress. So.. dong dong all 4 were in the room.
The 2 girls fell asleep; hubby also. Then I can't carry the big girl over coz' she's really heavy.I am left with no space, so the next best thing was to push Athena further down the bed. Best part is both my kids follow me - turn to left when sleeping so both their legs kept kicking no matter how I try to push them towards hubby.
Wah...........so happy family hor?? 4 in the same bed. I have no idea when hubby carried Athena back.

Taken on 9th May 07

ATHENA
Dunno if she's really psychological having problem or what. Not that I sukat sukat scream at my daughter for nothing. Hubby sees it for himself, she cries at every single thing (and her tears comes down even much faster) over nothing, over stupid things. Can't be that she's vying attention in such a way right? Athena learnt this from me, I'll usually ask "who's a good girl put up your hand." Then someone will playfully put up Aricia's hand as well. She's been heard saying this : 1) Who wants to feed me dinner/lunch/milk, put up your hand 2) Who wants to take care of me, put up your hand We usually ignore her or someone will mumble "no....."teasing her Her reply "nobody take care of me...." - so funny! Scaredy cat, tell her we want to sell her away etc.. she shouts "No!" Today furniture came & she got scared. Today, our new sofa came. Apparently the guy called from downstairs and we had to unlock the gate for them. She asked hubby "daddy who's that?" Hubby teased her "I sell you two away", she rebelled. "I sell mei-mei away", she rebelled. I teased her "no.... cannot! Sell che-che away." She rebelled. Then she went to sit on the sofa which I told her "uncle is coming to take the sofa away. If you sit on the sofa he'll have to bring you out with him also." Just that they came in and my little dear girl stood fixed in the kitchen - all quiet.

IGGY
He's all grown up, quite big size.. catching up on Aricia who still seems so small.

Oh... he's smiling now. So cute! And when he makes noise, he's so gentle unlike my girl who gives a loud and high pitched noise. He'll make many girls attracted to him; Aricia makes every guy run away from her.
This week, Aricia kept touching him. She's curious; he looks at her too. I wonder what's going on in their minds. She brings up her leg and tries to kick (ahem.. him) we stop her she continues. And he didn't seem to mind being kicked by another person, all he did was to lie there and play with his fingers.
He didn't seem to want me to carry him now.. but he still responds when I talk or sing to him. Boo hoo.... Ignatius dowan gu-gu already!! And you know so funny, alot of times I carry him and talk to him, I almost called myself "mummy". A few times it really slipped and I did say mummy instead of gu-gu. Not used to it lah!
Can't wait for them to grow up and see how they fight over toys. Haha!

Managed to get a few pictures of them together. Pardon me for the blurry photo coz' took from mobile.

See! He guai guai behave & let me take photo of him. Aricia must move hand; move leg

Good and happy memories

Jefferson has been talking about cabin crew lately and on Wednesday he talked about his fiancee's guy friend (who cannot make it in looks) is going for the 3rd round soon. Anyway, I told him I have no idea how the gals and guys are selected. I don't even know how or why they eventually selected me (maybe pity me lor..) or maybe I put gong-tao in their eyes. Haha! My girlfriend who is so gorgeous can't even get in, and me the "long biah' (bang against wall) look can go in.
I encouraged him to try it out coz' I thought he had the height and he's not bad looking. Throughout our conversation I kept encouraging him to try it out. He was puzzled why I kept asking him to try it out. My reply was "you've been asking me about me being an ex-flight crew and from the way you speak, I can sense that you would like to try. You need to try, how would you know if you never try?" After which I cited my living example and how desperate I was to get into the airline that everyone talked about.
The final interview that got me through all rounds and eventually hired was my third try. In my previous tries, alot of times I was "pushed down" when I stood on the height measurement thing. (my 158cm is very risky). Only once I managed to get to the second interview but was still sent home before I jumped into the choppy waters (woh hoo.........I love that. But can't say much if I fall into the big vast sea. I'd turn mentally mad before I get rescued). Once or was it twice, I tried both in the morning and afternoon. That time interview was the walk-in kind at then Dynasty Hotel. But call it suay lor.. never even step inside. Another time, I was sent the yellow card after my first interview.
Just before I went for the last SQ interview, I tried JAL, Asiana and Korean. JAL accepted but thankfully during the transition period, SQ 3rd interview came and I got in, so rejected JAL.
Jefferson didn't believe my story. I swear its the truth,its my way of encouraging him that perserverence pays off.

He then asked me in my years of service, did I have any bad experiences. Somehow I enjoyed my job so much that I forget all unpleasant things, but I must say I had been really lucky (dunno is it a luck shield that is protecting me). Attitude matters I explained. There were "zapping" around but I never thought I was being zapped like a mosquito. When the senior crew corrected me, I take it positively. And I must really say I've met alot of really nice crew, all the things I heard about during training didn't seem to happen. Perhaps they were really zapping me?? I don't know.

Boo hoo... I got zapped!!
But oh yes! I really did remember this LS who really picked at me for nothing. Even expected me to say "thank you" to him really loud when he helped put a breadroll on the tray I was preparing to serve passenger. Yah, it's SQ culture you gotta thank for every single thing. Anway I did say thank you but was too soft for him to hear me properly. And he scolded me infront of pax. Somehow we didn't know IFS was there, observing me (can't remember if I was on check at that time) and it didn't stop just there. He picked at me for every single thing, IFS spied from our galley. We were in FWD galley - B743 (macdonald galley) so we didn't know he was there. Once I came back from cabin and IFS asked me if the LS was making life difficult for me. I lied to him trying to cover him up. After the meal service, the IFS came back to galley and asked him to proceed to PCL. Guess what that LS told me? "If I had known you were the IFS pet, I wouldn't have scolded you." I was shocked, blur and didn't know how to react (afterall I was still a newbie) Then IFS asked me to see how I am feeling. Didn't know to say Thank You to him for siding me? or start tearing coz' I was really scared.. but somehow at that time I realised that in life the truth prevails. And you know what? We worked alongside in PCL, I was already promoted to his same rank liao, he cannot zap me. Ai yah.... he also forgot lah! I should have pretended to ask him "do you remember me??" And retribution - he didn't get his promotion to CS and mind you he is very senior!!
Other than that, I remember another LS who dunno why his 8-character cannot suit another 2 girls and me. We all had been flying for long, no other crew found fault with us except him. He'd picked on us. And you know whenever we help EYCL after (whoever) is working in JCL, we'd see situation and help the side where the junior crew is. After that then we'll help one another. That mad LS didn't like it, say why must we help one another. ??? Karina put in the breadroll for me (I was doing galley work) coz' she was putting in her 2nd meal service towel, she kena scolding. I felt bad that she got scolding for nothing. IFS (he's quite a famous guy inside) dote on us 3 musketeers. He knew that when we work we will work hard, and when we play we play. So much so that he can joke with us but he will not joke with that mad LS.
Another IFS, superbly on the ball kind (crew will freak out when they hear his name).. yah lor.. yours truly kena from him. And anyway that was injustice but I didn't bother explaining myself coz' he won't listen. And if I stand up for my right infront of that guy, I'd be seen as challenging him. What happened was the girls B3 & B4 was giving out headsets on the ground. I told them to stop doing it and do it after take-off. Dunno what they doing, perhaps scared until mind go blank; ears all go deaf. The aircraft taxiied and safety demonstration was about to be played, I stood by at my door D3L (IFS can't see me coz' toilet infront) but somehow heard some noise so turned to look and saw them stilll giving out. I went to call them back and yah lor.... IFS saw me not standing at my door - then I kena scolding. Call it suay!
On the return leg, I worked with him in PCL and I must say I really learn alot from him. He didn't seem that bad afterall. He was teaching me things, for someone who hardly work in PCL. And why hardly work there?
1) I was the most junior LSS so priority would have been given to those senior crews
2) They choose position and I get the worst deal lor! Full load in PCL for HKG, work until my kebaya almost dropped. Haha!
3) Most IFS never follow the books, LSS who are Graded 1s are suppose to work in PCL EX-SIN. Of course I dunno what their grades are, but when I hear their announcements, they didn't sound like a 1 to me. So, this poor girl got 1 also no chance lor!

The cycle goes on
I was treated nicely by my seniors who did their best in mentoring me. So.. this must go on. I do my best to mentor the junior. I didn't know how well I influenced them but I had so many crew coming to me to thank me or remembering me & some who tell me "So, you're Lily Ann Teo? My friend XXX told me about you, you being nice blah blah!" I just did what I can and my name spreads?? I dunno.. I don't need credit for this at all.

Nice passengers
I look upon all passengers as equal, so it makes my work easy. I've met funny passengers who make me tickle.
I have passengers who remember me and call me by my name when they see me. I'm shock but they tell me I serve them on what flight; when etc... (when I went back home or check in hotel, I go through my homework book - yah! they were right. One PPS stands out. He shuttles between SIN and CAN quite often, so I bumped into him a couple of times with his mother. Then for a period of time I wasn't rostered (probably a year or 2) then one fine day.. he came on board again bound for CAN. He first saw me, my back was facing him coz' was helping pax, then he greeted me first. "Hi Lily, long time no see. And congratulations on being a ninja (termed for LSS)." Isn't that sweet? That was the last time I met him, I left the company a few months later.

Nasty ones
Okay, I encountered a few. But I totally forget what they did so only remembered the good ones. There's one I remember, he kept pressing call-bell during meal service. I did try my best to give him his drinks but he kept pressing every few minutes, and it disrupted me serving other passengers. I did tell him I will definitely come back to him, infact the last time I served him. A lady passenger saw the situation I was in and offered to vouch for me just incase I get a complaint letter from him. So kind of her!

Summary
On the whole, it was many happy and good years for me. The things I've learnt are intangible. I enjoyed every single moment of it. I've grown up alot since and thanks alot!

'Chan' no more

Did I ever mention that Ms Chan is no longer in the school? And her class is definitely not 惨 (read like her surname) anymore. Athena's form teacher is now Clanna, a soft spoken teacher and is definitely well received by the children.

Why not 惨 anymore? Well, Ms Chan likes to shout at children, some say she shouts like gila woman and she don't understand how to handle kids well coz' she's single. I think there's good and bad, I don't mind her being her teacher coz' Athena is afraid of her. She knows I don't mind her disciplining when my child is naughty or wrong, but somehow she has been trying to get into my good books after the incident so she will tell me if Athena is naughty. Though she has been rather slow in the curriculum, she will gladly tell me what she's doing in school or tell me how to teach Athena. As for the new teacher, Clanna, she seems quite aloof when I ask her questions.

Finally, they're doing digraphs now and number bonds. Heng ah...................

Passed them down

When I was younger, my mom would sew beautiful dresses for me and my sister. Well... my tomboy sister didn't appreciate them so my mom sewed more dresses for me.

I asked mom to keep those dresses and she did. Just a few days ago she took them out to wash them. Did some mending etc.. ironed and there you go - all my pweety dresses.

Athena saw one of the dress and wanted to wear it. Didn't expect that she can wear it at her age, I think I wore it at 8 yrs old? Though it's quite loose at the armhole. When she wore it..........let's just say it was fashion then, and out of fashion now. (strangers will say a sua-ku kid is out in the mall)

But what to do? I can't bear to throw away dresses that my mom had made and sewed through the nights with such great love. Thank goodness I have 2 girls to pass it down. Umm... maybe should ask them to pass it down again?? Like my family heirloom?? Haha!
Ai yah! Don't care suaku or not lah! I see so many children out there who dresses terribly so this is nothing!
PS. Her shoes is mismatched.

A breakkie

Had a breakkie (first one this week), met up with Angeline to pass back her books at Ikea Tampines. She first enrolled Alexandra as a Smalish, coz' she just turned 4. OMG! I missed her birthday - 21st last month! Gotta give her a belated birthday pressie the next time we meet. It's a pity that Athena had something to do in school today, otherwise I would have gladly pulled her out from school and let her play with Alexandra.

In the cafe itself, saw a few crew. Bumped into Grace (Peizhen's mummy) and her pilot husband. Seems like alot of crew couple (wife ex cabin crew, hubbies - pilots) living in Pasir Ris. I already know a few of them in Pasir Ris. I have bumped into Elaine a couple of times in Ikea. Funny! Ikea seems to be their hangouts.
Well, Angeline and myself met up some time in January, quite a long time ago if you should ask me, so naturally we were chatting about everything. Umm.. I gotta pop by her place to borrow some VCDs, I think she has more than me. I definitely need some VCDs from her, eg. the Shichida materials that she has.

Oh yes, another VCD I definitely need from her is the Sign language she has. I was raving to her about how blur Aricia looked at me when I tried signing to her about cat and dog, and how I panted like a dog. Yah! That's what the book said!! Neh! Not bluffing you!!
(To think I was thinking of doing it as powerpoint for her. Think save my time, borrow the VCDs from her.)
She corrected me and said I'm wrong. Dunno lah! No wonder Aricia looked at me with a blur look.

Alexandra is such a darling, so sweet with her short hair; so sensible. I see how Angeline behaved with her and can see that Alexandra is one easy kid to bring up. She is so gentle the way she speaks, I wonder why Angeline said "she's totally different." She speaks in a gibberish 4 year-old manner - very cute. And she speaks so soft to her mummy that I was trying hard to listen to what she's saying. Told Angeline either I'm deaf or I'm so used to Athena's loud voice that I can't seem to hear Alexandra now.

About 4 hours later, we parted ways. I need to pick Athena up from school.

Well... look forward to meeting her again, this time a playdate for the 2 kiddos.

Bits & pieces

Hate the weather
The days will get hotter and hotter in months to come. Already yesterday, I was perspiring alot and had (what?) 4 showers!
My poor children's hair wet (as if they went swimming-ok abit exaggerated lah!) in the mornings although they each have a fan. Poor things!
Decided to turn on their aircon to cool the room, will then ask helper to sleep in the same room.

Last PT session
Had my last PT session today. In a way I'm relieved that my torture is finally over, on the other hand wondering if I can push myself that hard without Jefferson around. Already I was complaining to him that everytime I try the abs machines I can't do it on my own, but I can do it when he's around and suspect if he was pushing it for me from behind - he said no. Duh!
Anyway, weight loss is slow but healthier this way. Gotta try harder, hopefully get the weight & size I want back.
Mom keeps rubbing salt into my tummy.. saying "the women in our family all have tummies. You see your this auntie; that auntie. Very difficult to lose one." Ahh!!! That's the most dreadful thing I want to hear apart from "chocolates have disappeared forever."
I want my figure back! I want to try to fit into my last kebaya. I want! I want! Oh shut up Lily!

Winnie
Winnie gave me a call today while I was in the gym. Ya lah! And my dear friend had to say "wah.... you so on ah.. to go gym?" Of course lah! I'm not so blessed like some mothers who slims down after their 2 pregnancies or 3rd for another girlfriend.
Winnie is my girlfriend from MDIS. We both did our part-time Dip in Mass Communications together. Strangely, we weren't that close in the class. We both had our own cliques, she was sitting across me and all we did was small chats. But somehow after we both graduated, I moved on to Adv Dip (she didn't) and through her good friend from that class who is still in the same class as me, we met up. And it didn't stop there. What finally connected us is us being mothers. Elaine is 6 months older than Athena, Jolene is like 1 or 2 years younger than Athena. Oh goash! My memory's failing me. Actually can't blame me coz' the last time I saw Jolene was during her full month celebration. Winnie and myself have met up since but usually without the children. You wouldn't want to hear two mad mothers screaming at their children.
Umm.. I think I got too carried away. Anyway, she called to inform that she'd being migrating over to Australia sooner than planned - this November. Argh! She's going to miss Athena's birthday party again. (She missed last year as she had to clock in the PR status). I felt rather sad that she's leaving. And then I started to think to myself "Yah lah, when she haven't leave the country you contact her once in a while. Once she's going to leave, you start to panic and think.. my friend's leaving for another country for good better meet up with her more often etc.." I kindda took her for granted.
Well.....what can I say except that I can look forward to free accomodation when I holiday there. Haha!
All the best Winnie!
She's asking if anyone is selling their keyboard or electone organ?? She has the intention to buy a proper one to let her girl use it for her music lesson coz' the current one that she's using is out of tune. Do leave a message here for me! Thanks!

Violin
Notice I write so much about the violin in my blog? I do.. coz' it seems to have some flaws here and there.
1) Jenny heard me complaining about how Athena's bow keeps bowing from left to right, playing from the proper place to the bridge to the fingerboard. Then she taught me to use the hard roll from a paper hand towel and put it on her shoulder, let her slid the bow down and up. I tried and dunno how that chor-lor girl do some hairs from the bow strayed off. Duh!
2) Mom mom keep insisting me to give up violin? Don't make myself more angry whenever I need to coach her in the evenings, won't it be better off if I just let her quit?
Is it really a bad choice? Anyway it wasn't my choice! Mom raved about "ai yah... you know children lah! They don't really mean what they say." I knew what mom was trying to tell me, it's indirectly telling me not to trust the words of a little girl. Yes! I had Athena telling me "mummy, it's very difficult to play the violin." and another time "mummy, I want to learn ballet just like Elizabeth." I said "no. I did gave you a choice earlier on but you kept insisting on violin."
And although I suspect it was a passing phase that she 'so loved the violin' that made her so persistent (and finally resistant. Not really resistant lah! Prob it's becoz' she gets more scolding from me for violin so she's a little uptight about violin) to learn. But I'm still insistent about her learning all the way, and not giving it up halfway. I do want her to know that just by claiming "it's difficult" she can't escape from this. If I give in, she will know "oh.. next time any thing I can't do. I'll give up." Then she'll never achieve anything. See my example! Already I've been doing things halfway and my future seems bleak!
a) Stopped organ at Grade 7 for my O Levels and never went back since. My sight reading is bad and slow.. takes me quite awhile to even play a simple Canon in D on piano!
b) Stopped my Japanese when the language school closed. So now... wakarimasu shikoshi.

Things that I'd love to learn :
1) Sister has been trying to ask me to go diving (eeks! I have sea phobia. Then why the heck I flew you wonder right?) and next horse-riding. Nah! Not interested. Something which I am interested and had been wanting to learn. SKIING. Actually been wanting to go skiing since I was flying but never got the chance. The annual leave were for holidays with mom. One year my team Leading Steward organised a skiing trip with a few other crew. I wanted to join him but alas! I was studying and exams were around that time.
I know sister will be thinking "ask her learn diving, she say body kena ripped apart by sharks. Ask her learn horse riding, she not interested. She can learn skiing meh? Not scared roll down the slopes and hit the rocks and die?"

2) Continue my Japanese. Although it's of no use for me now that I'm no longer meeting Japanese that often, or neither am I going to be a translator. But... my Japanese is very 'lan' now. Wah piang eh............this mad woman can't even master her teochew, wanna learn another language!

Woah! Lily Ann Shop selling VCDs
We're waiting for our TV console which is to be delivered on Friday.
I took some time to clear the drawers first. And oh my! We have so much VCDs! Athena's VCDs were the largest - she has all her full volume of Spot, Maisy, Wheels on The Bus, SO Smart, Baby Einstein, Cubeez, Beatrix Potter etc... and what nots. Actually I counted and think I had spent close to a 4-digit sum or maybe 4-digit sum on all her VCDs. That's not it! The videos of Athena were alot too! We had all our holidays' videos.
Second largest - mine! My music took up the most. What to do, I'm either stuck in book stores or music stores - never leaving the place once empty handed. My CDs consisted on classicals, new Age, instrumentals, musicals (I'm a musical freak. Everytime I watch one, must buy one. So the collection is alot) , jazz. My DVDs are classics like Sound of Music - all time favourite, My Fair Lady - all time favourite, Cleopatra, Roman Holidays, Casablanca etc... can't believe I go for all these kinds of shows huh?
So many VCDs, I can open a shop from home and sell them away.

So... I'm not the only mad mother around

KZ was telling in the afternoon that on Sunday night, she had seen a mother (directly across our unit) in the opposite block scolding her child.

That mother was teaching her daughter Maths and was heard screaming "5+4 = 9. 5+4=to what?? How many times must I tell you......" Duh? I thought that was my line. She must have heard me screaming to steal my line.

And the funny thing KZ told me was, she was holding on a cane and using the cane to keep tapping her daughter's head. Haha! I don't tap on Athena's head but thought I was already bad in my discipline method - I've met my match!

No rules in the house

Was pretty fed up with Athena in the morning. There I was explaining her assessment book instructions to her; there she is eyes wondering about everywhere; hands playing with her crayons.
Asked her the questions a few times; drew a big hint on the square. Asked her where the bear is supposed to be, she still gave me a wrong answer. Did step by step with her, getting fed up from explaining to her, still explained, asked her "so where is bear supposed to be?" That girl gave me wrong answer again.
Told her again and again, "listen carefully" and she was looking elsewhere. Asked her "what did mummy say?" She couldn't answer coz' she wasn't paying attention. You tell me, will you get angry?? Naturally I was fuming mad and I smacked her hard. Ouch! My palm's painful. Argh! I tell you if Satan had taken full control of me, I would have strangled her.

Hubby thought I was abusing my kid for nothing again. Came out of the room and said "enough lah!" Darn! I don't even have an understanding husband who thinks I'm f%^&-ing free to scream at my child over nothing. Girl started crying "I want mummy... I want to do assesment book..I want to listen to mummy...." and then I started hurling harsh words at her. I couldn't take it anymore, the least I need is a husband who's supportive of me and sides me. Instead he - don't even know what is parenting- simply kept quiet. Never even reiterate what mummy's intentions were. When he's suppose to talk; he don't talk. When he's suppose to shut up; he talks rubbish or tries to act funny infront of child.

Girl kept coming to me, I pushed her away. Rejecting & giving her the cold treatment coz' I was really angry with her.

We all went out for lunch, she kept asking to eat my food. I refused and infact ignored her even though she kept saying "mummy... I want to eat.." upteen times. Probably people were looking at me but I just couldn't be bothered with her.

In all, I refused her getting close to me. She kept peering into the room while I was doing things and updating blogs; carrying Aricia to watch her DVD. She did that a couple of times, I turned away the computer screen from the main door and concentrated on the little one. I refused to talk to her.

From the moment we were home, she had been a ting-ting-tong-tong girl. Kept shouting in the house "Supergirl..........fly.........fly..........." Then made so much din the house, I heard hubby scolded her a couple of times. Wonder if he really gets to understand how difficult it is to 'guan-jiao' that girl, and really understands that it's not the gila mother or the mother kena possessed to be angry with child.
Basically she was rule-less. So tao-hong in the house and nobody cares. I get to do my things in a relaxed manner; not so stressed up with that girl; she may be on the other hand happy that she's finally got her freedom. But coz' she suddenly had too much free time she simply didn't know what and how to play; ended up doing and talking rubbish. She wanted to play with so many toys, kept coming to take them from the room. I stopped her and refused to let her play coz' I was the one who bought her those toys. She had better not touch it, it's not meant for her anymore since she don't listen to me. Call me immature or what, but I'm real angry with her.

Mass update

I'm so addicted

when I buy Athena her Princess magazine & Pooh magazine , it's because I want to read it first & I want the goodies. I love anything cute, pretty and fairytale-like. (Pity I'm not living a fairytale life)

Athena likes self-inking stamp and I love it too. I buy it even when she don't asks for it, coz' I want it. I bought her two Disney Princess on Saturday, and today I found two of Dora the Explorer & her cousin Diego by chance. What do you think I did? Buy lah! Now she has a boxful of stamps.

Love it! But I've not reached to the stage where I'll open up the box and stamp on a plain paper when she's not looking.

Promegranate leaves
Remember last week I blogged about plucking promegranate leaves from mom's place? I didn't explain to mom why I did that, and when I did she told me "do you know that you're not supposed to pluck it when you're having your menses. Coz' this one very pan tang. It will wither."
I felt bad and apologised for it. And true enough part of it withered.
Coincident? Or really pan-tang?

Ch8 drama serial : Mars Vs Venus
I hardly have the time to catch serials, but since the first episode was telecast, I made the effort to watch it. Heck Athena's studies, I need a drama that will lighten me up. A drama that speaks the truth about couples, what's the difference about men & women (which explains the title of the drama)
The couple that I like are played by Huang Biren & Tay Ping Hui. Biren very ah-soh and of course you see their behaviour is unlike the other lovey dovey couples.
One scene speaks so real of men :- they want to see a well-groomed lady and well-behaved kids blah blah when he opens his house door. But in reality when he did, what he saw was a frumpy-looking Biren caning her children. Made me laugh so loud, coz' I feel like she's playing me.
Really.. I really wonder why is it all men expect their wives to look and dress up for them. If they look frumpy, they'd look elsewhere.. and if they stray they blame it on their wives.
Don't they realise that if their wives don't scold their children (as for caning, it all depends on individuals' belief) how they'd bring up good children. Do they think that children are born to know everything; to be mature and sensible. Point is, men want everything good to look on the surface but don't understand the effort to put in. And about looks.... where will you find the time to curl your hair; dress nicely to welcome the men home?? Umm... anyway....

Small little Aricia
During the examination, I brought up the topic of Aricia's size to her. Her question to me in return was,"what is it that you're concerned about?" After explaining to her about my concerns, she did assure me that Aricia is doing fine and it's just that she'll be on the 3 percentile line. You know the thing I liked about Dr Tan is that she'll take her time to listen to your questions, no doubt we always have to wait long to see her but she explains things to you in details and won't chase you out of the room asap.

Anyway, she assured me that there's really nothing to worry about since Aricia is developing well in her motor skills; agility; alertness and generally a very happy baby. The only time I should worry is if she suddenly drops from her normal 3 %tile (eg. also for other children who suddenly drop from their %tile). Only then will she do a blood test on thyroid (which based on her birth TSH level is okay); check on liver & kidney. But as for now, she's doing well in her own ways.
Her weight should be 6.5kg at 9 months and 7kg at one year,based on her birth weight. Currently she is 6kg, hopefully she gains that 0.5kg soon.

Hubby said "she's cute what?!" Mom and everyone said the same thing. True, I don't deny that being small is cute, especially when she looks over hubby's shoulders (when carrying her) and I thought she looked like a little meerket. But.... frankly speaking we can say she's cute now, 10 years down the road - am I suppose to say she's cute? People will in turn ask him if she has any health problem.
Mom also remarked, "isn't it good that she doesn't put on weight even though she eats so much?" How I wish I have that high metabolic rate myself.. Yay, I don't deny she's damn lucky to have such good genes. From who? Definitely not me!!

This explains why I'm quite worried about her size.

Took the longest time to update blog
Can't believe this is the longest time I'm taking to update my blog. Busy busy busy! Busy with what you might ask. Preparing her flashcards, trying to get a headstart in doing a little of the Shichida thing at home. Can't do much, but still able to flash her her GD (better than nothing); still able to squeeze in one short video for her. Then now have to totally rely on helper to put her to nap in the afternoon while I quickly rush through the preparation. Not much time considering that I have to gym in the mornings, and pick Athena up from school. The only time I'm left with is only like 2 hours. How much can I accomplish?? Wonder if I can pay someone money to help me prepare homemade customised flashcards?? This can definitely save time for me siah! I can use the time better for other things.
And once Athena is home from school - totally no time! I have to give Athena her ... okay.. better don't say (I'm already being accused of cramping too much into a 4+ yrs old girl)
Night time, again helper helps to put Aricia to bed while I continue with Athena. No choice, I can't bao-ga-liao (take responsibility for everything) - if I do, the last thing left of me standing is my skeleton. Think everything would be fine as long as Athena goes to bed right? No! The hard part comes in, that girl wants to be put to bed by me, have to sleep next to her etc.. she's scared of dark (ah! that girl's scared of everything lah!) And she always don't want to sleep; try to "disturb" me by telling me she wants milk; wants water, wants etc.... Very frustrating! By the time she sleeps -11pm and I can't do much. All I can do is to try to save some works in the computer to be printed out (hopefully) the next day.
Very slow in producing the flashcards. And I still have so many other things to do leh! Duh! Stressing myself over nothing. Maybe it'll be better to bring up a stupid kid instead?!?!

Helper needed to :
I guess this time no choice, must rope in my helper to help me with the flashcards liao. I'm not a superwoman leh! Anyway, she's seen me preparing the flashcards and she says it's good coz' she can learn. So.... maybe should ask her to help me cut and paste, so that she can learn at the same time hor??
I don't know how much more I'm supposed to prepare with the Shichida method. Gotta find out when Aricia's class starts.
Dunno if it'll be justifiable to just get the laminating machine and pouches. Otherwise what I'm doing now is to paste it on a cardboard and stick laminate them - very time consuming. Maybe should just print on A4 paper, laminate and voila! flashcard!!
Sometimes I really feel like buying and buying flashcards but their price aint that cheap if I add all up. Some DVDs will cost a ridiculous price of USD32 per piece. *Gasp* my heart missed a beat. If I do on my own, it consumes up my time. If I buy, it's only for Aricia's usage so the money is not fully economised there. Sigh......

Tak boleh tahan
Brought Aricia out for a short while at Compass Point yesterday. Was out for only 3hours and I cannot tahan that girl. Wants to be carried, put her in stroller she starts wailing. Was in KFC feeding her her lunch and then I had a quick bite myself. In that 20 minutes she was crying half the time. When I carry her with the baby sling, she keeps arching forward looking down on the floor. I was so afraid she might fall forward head down. Then she keeps bending over to hold onto the stroller handle. Argh!
Helen used to ask me "how did you do it? You are able to cope bringing 2 kids out alone. Is it positive attitude?" I told her, I dunno what it is probably coz' I'm a independent person, but now I guess it's gotta do with the child! I always brought Athena out jalan-jalan alone when she was younger. I want to do just that with Aricia when I can (coz' I'm usually quite busy with 2 of them) in that once-in-a-blue moon time. But she's made me so adversive of her. Dowan to bring her out. Suffer in the end! How to shop for clothes when that girl keeps wanting me to carry her??

LE Mon
This is the MP4 player I bought some time last week. And... I've been throwing up a fuss with them. Why? Apparently when I brought it back home, my piece is a used piece whereas helper's one is a brand new, shrink wrapped one. Okay, then why didn't I check whether mine is shrink wrapped right? I did, they told me they brought it out to show customers only. And guess what?! On Sunday I was trying out the MP4 player, only when I plugged into my computer, I realised that there were songs inside. Apparently someone has been using this set. Maybe the staff?
Of course I'm not at all pleased for giving me a used set. Well on the hindsight, I know that this piece is definitely working but God knows how long the person been using it, and utilising the battery - thus shortening the battery life. I paid the money, I want a new set. If I had wanted a second hand goods, I wouldn't even pay that amount!!
Helper's set was perfectly alright. It was so easy to change from one album to the next. As for mine, no matter how I tried to change and select another album, it keeps jumping back to the same track. There's no way I can change to another album. If I had wanted a player playing the same song over and over again, I can save the money and ask my daughter to sing me a song - anyway she likes to sing the same song over and over again.

Went back to AMK Hub to change it. Call it suay, said no more liao. And the last piece they have is white and the card is corrupted, so I gotta go back home and reformat the card. Siao! Pay the money of course to get a good piece not one crap piece. And who knows that one may be corrupted beyond repair. Asked me to go down to Sim Lim to the service centre to get a new one. What?! And she can't guarantee me that they'll have a piece reserved for me. Then I insisted that she call and make sure a piece is reserved for me. Dunno what the $%^* the recipient was talking about coz' I kept hearing the girl telling her the story all over again. "customer say it's a used set. There are songs inside. No.. not demo but downloaded songs."
The more I think about it, the more frustrated I am. Here I am, wasted one trip down and they can't do a proper after sales. Talk about being professional, I think it's more of a poorly run business! I asked them to do a delivery to my home coz' I don't have the time to go all the way down to AMK or to Sim Lim.
And guess what?! The girl took down my name & address and said someone will contact me. Nobody ever contacted me, and I had to make that call again. The guy told me "no. I'm not sure of this. Let me check with my colleague who's on leave today tomorrow. Maybe Ken Ji spoke to her. I'll give you a call back." 2 days later and no call.?!?! And whatever has happened to Ken Ji, heard she has resigned. Either she couldn't tahan a customer like me or that girl was using her colleague's name.
Damn it! I've had enough of this crap company. They don't call again I'm going to kick up a big fuss, and get my money back. I'm not going to hold on to a crap MP4 with poor after sales service (now already like that, wonder how their service is like during my player warranty period)
Readers, don't ever get this stupid brand LE Mon!

Athena & her raincoat
Athena has been wanting to wear her raincoat, just because one of her classmate wore to school. She asked to bring it for her when I was already in TPE. Ridiculously asked me to turn back home. When I'm already caught in the stupid jam! I promised her I'd bring her raincoat to school when I pick her up in the evening.
I did, but no rain. She still wanted to wear it. So I let her be, she didn't believe me when I told her no rain. Didn't want to dampen her 'drought' mood, so I pulled her to stand under the block where water was dripping down every 7 secs or so. She was happy. Crazy!
Friday morning, insisted on wearing her raincoat to school from home. Ai yoh.. neighbours all looked at her; looked at me like one crazy mother like that. To save my face, I kept telling her "na, it's not raining outside. Why do you keep insisting on wearing raincoat? It's hot!"

Actually kids love to play with rain. Mom said she loves to hold umbrella. So mom deliberately brought her downstairs to play with the umbrella. Speaking of which, it kindda reminded me of myself and Jasmine in my schooldays.
We love to walk in the rain. And when we do, we'd normally deliberately walk the long way from our school to East Coast Rd to take bus no. 10 instead of 31 which is directly outside our school to our home in Tampines & Pasir Ris. Happy memories of my schooldays.

Athena & her 1st drawing class
Was looking forward to it as I wanted to know what they'd do and the outcome of her first drawing.
She went in didn't know what to expect, I was blur didn't know what to do. Noticed the other parents taking out the paints, crayons, pencils etc.. for their children so followed suit.
One mother praised her for being so brave, her daughter has been in the class for quite a while but she stills get so whiny everytime. I reasoned that it could be due to her being in childcare that's why.
The class started and I quickly went off. I didn't get to see her doing everything from beginning. I went back to pick her up about 10 minutes before her lesson ends, had a surprise. She was slowly painting the background and she already had a drawing of something on it.
Then the parents all went in like swarm of bees, helping to keep things etc.. and a few of them were still painting. I went in and first remark "wah.. so nice... (had to compliment her mah!) And then the usual comment from me was "ai yoh... Athena don't put all the water on the paint." I don't even hear any other parents say that to their children. Either their children are very careful or the parents just let them mess up. At that time I felt like slapping myself. Ok... then compliments and disbelief, I asked the teacher "did she do this herself?" "yes" Okay, kick myself hard on my butt. She can follow instructions to draw what?! I'm rather pleased with her.
Then praised her loads more (never praised her so much in half an hour) and said "you see! che-che you can draw what. The dinosaur you drew is so nice.... next time you practice again and draw for mummy." "mummy, it's a kangaroo not a dinosaur." Haha! On closer look, yes it's a kangaroo with a pouch and a joey in it.
Oh well.... better that she draws more recognizable things now.



Future Saturdays
Felt silly having to wait and wait for her. 10-11am : Speech & Drama, 11+ : quick bite, 12-1pm : Kinderart.
Told hubby that next time I'll bring her alone. So stupid 3 of us had to wait for her. Walked dunno how many times from Yamaha to Heartland Mall vv. One hour is neither long or short, can't do much but better to wait on my own.Today already, hubby & myself like playing hide & seek like that. Buay tahan! Brought her for snack at KFC, then I walked her back to Yamaha and then went back to KFC. Cannot find him & Aricia, walked around the mall looking for him coz' my handphone/wallet with him (can't call him). Then saw him, bumped into ex-colleague Rodney, we chatted. Hubby disappeared again, then look for him again.Commented to Rodney, got no handphone; no money.. how? He suggested selling Aricia away so that I can get home. Found him, this time we brought Aricia around. Less than 10 mins later, I picked Aricia up from the kiddy ride and he disappeared again. Duh! Very sian have to look for him again. Dunno where the heck he walked to? This time I'm only smart in picking up my handphone with me, but no money how to go home?? Irritating! Next time must really hide spare money inside my bra. I ended up walking back to Yamaha with Aricia, coz' needed to pick Athena up already. No more hide & seek games anymore. Yippee!!

Anyway, with Aricia at home with him and helper. I think I can bring Athena to her lessons alone. Well... if she wants to train down, I'll oblige her too! I can probably wait for her with my book & music (finally a time on my own!) and probably walk to shops myself.

Aricia's playarea
No space in our house for her playarea. The place where I used to convert Athena's playarea is where her current bed stands.. so no more space in their room.
So, pushed her easel in between the speaker & electone organ. Pushed back the dining table nearer to our display unit -anyway most of the time it's only 2 people eating at a time. So that we have a walk space & that pathetic space for her. But I must admit, it aint that safe at all. So we gotta keep watch over her when she's there.(anyway I'm always there for my children at every seconds) Try not to put too many toys there so that it's easy to do cleaning up coz' I instructed helper to Dettol-lized the area & foam mats every 2 days. (I'm that careful with my children)

She seems happy in this picture huh?

Oh yes.............zooming in.

She likes the foam mats and then she starts peeling off the mats now. Reminds me of Baby Athena.

Livejournal

I seem to have problem loading the livejournal page. Blogspot isn't a problem at all, but it takes ages to load (if I'm lucky) if not, I can't even get into the page at all.
Messages :
Emily, are you still blogging? I haven't seen your entries at all until the last one on PSI reading.
Audrey, I think you did some slide thingy right? I can't seem to view it.
Hope you gals understand.. not that I suddenly disappeared. But I really have problem reading your blogs.

5 years in June
HDB called to say that we can't try for the BTO. Siao! Make me waste that $10 for nothing coz' our place is not 5 years yet. 2 months short and they're so gniao! Anyway, not that I'm hoping to get a place there.... but like so bloody stringent over this.
Our blocks (7 blocks) here are prime area. Just 5-10mins walk to MRT station. And already we have agents knocking at our doors; calling us at our home phone asking if we're selling this unit.

Iggy
Early in the week was told that Iggy had a shave. Thought he'd look good, anyway boys do look good shaven. Asked me if I want to shave Aricia. Siao! I like her brown tint (like highlighted hair) and curly locks - like Goldilocks.... why would I want to shave her??
Anyway... when I went to see him a day or two later. I thought he really look cute and good. And he really resembled my brother when he was a baby.
Aricia kept pulling his short hair (she always pull hair). Being curious about everything, she'll touch him etc... while he's so guai guai. And she makes the loudest noise.Most of the time, I wished they'd switch places (personality).
Actually mom said I was a very good baby, so I wonder where the traits of my two DDs come from. Doesn't resemble my hubby's traits either!

Hunt for a big 'C'

Not the 5 Cs that you are thinking of, or a C-cup bra.. but we were hunting for
>
>
>
>
C-alcium
Calcium loaded biscuits, calcium loaded snacks etc....

Why? Just because of Aricia refusing to drink milk (but she's better now after what medicine the sinseh gave her), we needed to replace whatever she's missing out from her milk intake in another way.

I've never felt so relaxed

and I must admit it feels real good. I didn't have to think or scream at Athena when she takes her own sweet time in eating her dinner; I didn't have to nag at her to hurry undress so we can shower her etc...........

For the past few days I was 'switched off ', although must admit I was panicking and kept telling myself & hubby "shit! gotta do alot more on Friday.." then it became 'Saturday', 'Sunday'. Before I know it, *gasp* it's Monday tomorrow and I haven't done anything. What had happened? Simple. Hubby wanted to bring us out these days so... we spent some family time together.

I thought Athena would looked forward to this 'no need to do lessons with mummy' But my edgi-ness got to the better of her. She gasped in shocked when she saw the dark sky when we walked out of the mall and said "oh no mummy. We haven't do assesment book and music lesson. How? Is it too late? We have to do it tomorrow." Is it good or bad when she made this statement? Have the pressure gone to her?? Was she being responsible?

A note that says ....

Dear Parents,

We regret to inform you that Mr Dominic Quah will be resigning with immediate effect due to personal reasons. Your child's class will be taken over by XXX ..................................

This is the note that sends the parents into action.

I didn't get the note until the lesson ends but Doreen (Yamaha staff) was making her rounds and I asked her when the class was still on-going. She told me the news and I was a little disappointed, I have found a teacher whom I like and he had to leave. In my mind, I was thinking if I should pull her out then since the new teacher don't speak well, which was my purpose to let her stay on in his class when her school started S & D recently.
When her class ended, one mother told me she's pulling her son out. I saw another parent sitting at the counter as I was leaving. Was she going to pull her son out too? Looks like most parents have the same sentiment about Mr Quah.

Looks like I gotta work fast this week, see if there's any available class near Yamaha Kovan.

June Holiday

Events that are KIV-ed :

THE LITTLE RED HEN

Date : 23rd May - 3rd June

Venue :
Alliance Francaise Theatre

Synopsis:
One day, Little Red Hen found some grains of wheat.
"Maybe I can make some bread from these," she thought. "I wonder how?" "I know, I will ask my friends; Mouse, Cat, and Goose!"

Come and join us to find out what happens to Little Red Hen as she learns all about how to grow and harvest corn; and how bread is made. On the way, some very valuable lessons about friendship and helping one another are learned by all.

This Musical Theatre production is specially designed for younger Children. Excitement, humour and learning points come thick and fast, as you listen, engage and interact with the story. Ideal Family Entertainment for all!

As the Drama unfolds, watch out for: Catchy songs and music! Colourful characters! An engaging and delightful story presented in a visual physical style! Audience interaction!

Duration :
Approx 60 Mins

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Date : 19th, 20th, 26th, 27th May

Venue:
Tampines Library Theatrette

Synopsis :
Lewis Carroll's Alice comes to life in this clever adaptation of the classic story "Alice in Wonderland". Join Alice as her insatiable curiosity draws her into a madcap adventure that's beyond imagination.

Alice's trip down the rabbit hole lands her in Wonderland where she meets it's remarkably quirky inhabitants like the Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar and Queen of Hearts. Her adventures lead her on a journey of self-discovery. She learns that there¿s no better person to be than herself and that the best place of all is home.

"Alice in Wonderland" is inventive, exuberant, totally enchanting and perfect for the adventurous of all ages. Don't forget to keep your head firmly on your shoulders and stay on the good side of the Queen of Hearts!

Duration :
Approx 60 mins

Yak & Yak

Too much to yak about, gotta sum it up :-

26th April
- Mom helped me buy some chinese medicine from the medical hall lady. She said there could be phlegm in her throat (based on assumption), causing her discomfort when sucking but still eating well. And she did confirm what I told mom, Aricia probably hasn't drank enough milk that her teeth are not growing yet. Was given a medicine, normally I buy the prepared by her ones at $50+ per bottle. This time round she prepared one which costs $130 and only for a few consumptions. Gasp! But if it really works, I'm prepared to spend the amount of money on her.
- Hubby decided to bring Athena to Ikea after picking her up from school. Read more in her blog. Aricia's not left out, give me some time to post it in. Pls check back

27th April
- Finally got to meet Athena's Chinese Speech & Drama teacher, whom everyone addressed as 小白兔老师 - real name I found out 徐老师. Tried to find out how Athena fared in the class, said for the last 2 lessons she was jumping about in class. At least today's she's more well-behaved. She's smart (oh ya.. like real) but her pronunciation of some chinese words ain't clear. I think I know what she means - sometimes she's got the angmoh accent in it.

- Hubby needed to collect a free gift at AMK Hub, so the whole army went out. Baby was crying coz' she wanted to eat (she just took a little milk before we left the house. Hungry again?). But it's quite difficult to feed in the car, with a driver who can suddenly swerve the car left to right + a baby who moves her arms & face alot. I think end up all the porridge on the carseat. Anyway..... I get blamed again for not packing in baby biscuit for Aricia. If you'd like to know, my hubby's nickname is "赖(Lai)先生", always blaming me when things go wrong. And can't he blamed the helper? She was the one who packed the bag what! Remember I just woke up from my 100years of sleep?!?! Athena upon hearing mei-mei hungry also started crying (trying to get attention) that she's hungry. Too noisy kids - very distracting. I was wrong and thought that he'd drop us much earlier (to get the peace he needs) and make us walk to AMK while he struggles to find his way to the carpark. Worst! He tolerated a little longer and we still got kicked out of the car - and had to walk further. Argh!
He didn't have to tell me, I knew I had to settle down somewhere to get food for Athena while KZ feeds Aricia. Mac's the best choice. But hor..........as I was walking..........argh! my keypouch's in the car. We were all penniless, I quickly called hubby to tell him to bring out my keypouch. He didn't know my money is in there and told me "go and find something for her to eat first" but had to tell him " I have no money now!!"
Quite hilarious that KZ & myself kept laughing "no money, so poor thing.. become beggars." while the ignorant Athena is still screaming "Mummy.... I'm very hungry." People are looking at us thinking :
1) we're sitting in there for free- aircon while feeding baby
2) mother ill-treat daughter by not feeding her
Finally my saviour came and my dear Athena didn't complain. She got her Happy Meal doll and meal. No more hungry, no more penni-less.
Umm......I think next time I must remember to hide some money in my bra.

Walked around AMK Hub. Bought a MP4 player. Yippee! I'm still wondering if it's a hasty choice coz' I'll only use it while gyming but I've been eye-ing on one for a very very long time (since IPod Nano was introduced)
Athena kept asking for her birthday cake coz' she didn't get hers 2 days ago (who asked her to stay at mom's place??) so hubby bought her one from Breadtalk. We celebrated her turning 4yrs 5 mths 2 days late. But oh well...........she was happy. We're one weird family, celebrating birthdays 12X in a year, now x2 cakes.

At NTUC, since Aricia love bread so much hubby decided to buy Hi-Calcium bread for her tea-break, so that she'll get her calcium.
Funny.. hubby never like to read the Nutrition Values of items that he buys, but he did that for Aricia's bread. Compared and took the one with the highest mg.

Photos

Taken on 24th April. See how unglam she looks!

Refused milk but ate bread at Ya-Kun

Sleepless nights

What they day about siblings being different from one another is really true.

I have a heavy sleeper - Athena and I have a light sleeper - Aricia. Both my babies sleep through the night very early, to the envy of others but now I'm beginning to feel how they really go through when their children wake up in the wee hours. Perhaps I'm in a worse shape than them, coz' I jump out of bed at least 3 times every night (when I'm lucky), if not it's more... Why? She drops her pacifier and cries for it. When I say cry, I don't mean the soft cry it's the loud cry that can wake the whole household kind. Most of the time, it's easy to lull her back to sleep. Just tap her and she sleeps. But sometimes she needs to be carried, whether or not she cries when I put her back is a another thing. Aricia also needs to have someone around her, be it in the daytime or night time. So, sometimes if she don't see anyone.. she wakes up.

Then there are some occasions too when hubby peeps it at 4am to find her playing by herself. But then he'll let her play and prepare milk for her, feeds her and try to make her go back to sleep for the next 3 hrs. Most of the time, she does go back to sleep.

Just like night, at about 3plus she suddenly started crying out loud. How we soothed her didn't help. Mind you, it's scary to see the way she cried - she was literally screaming. Turned on the room light to make sure that she's not screaming coz' dreaming (it happened to Athena a few times before when she was younger) and we tried to wake her up. Or.... a re-enactment of poltergeist. Eeeks!
It took us quite awhile to soothe her. She wanted nobody except me and I had to carry her in a certain position ONLY! Needless to say, everyone woke up except for the Little Miss Piggy, Athena. Finally, about 40 minutes after the drama she fell asleep next to us, and I hugged her to comfort her.

Well, was really tired. Took no chances this morning, after I dropped Athena in school. Brought along a red thread and pluck promegranate leaves from mom's and gave her a bath in it. Dunno what happened but I just needed the reassurance that it's not....ahem.
As for what happened the whole day today. I tell you.... I bathed her at her usual time, she was very sleepy. I carried her to sleep while she was still naked except for diaper. And I promptly fell asleep too! Somehow I woke up (quite short) and hand it over to hubby to take care of her. Skipped lunch and slept from 12 - 4+pm. Never slept so well.........But my day wasted coz' I'm supposed to complete doing the rest of the flashcards for her. Argh! Woke up just in time to shower ( I actually fell asleep without showering. Yucks!) and bring Athena home. Ha!

Now as I'm typing, I'm keeping my ears opened. Hopefully no more episode tonight!

Small but mighty

Caught Aricia pushing herself to sit from her tummy position twice!

No wonder I walked into the room (when I thought she was fast asleep) and found her sitting on the floor. Haha! Thank goodness, she didn't hit her head.

Missed his class

I've missed Azrino's class for..... gasp! 1yr +. Since today I was early in bringing Athena to school, I decided to go for his lesson at 9.20am. Was quite kan-cheong when was caught in the heavy traffic at PIE, surprisingly the traffic in CTE was smooth.

As I was going home, after half an hour after his class, I bumped into him at the stairs leading down. He spoke to me "I didn't see you for a long time" I was taken by surprise coz' normally his class is quite crowded, how would he even noticed me? Maybe I stand out from the rests coz' all the sala- moves. And a note for my sister (who's reading this) - no! I didn't faint in his class for him to remember me.
Well, when I explained to him of my long absence, he suggested to me to resume back my Pilates - to build up my core muscles especially good after C-section. And if I can to go for Bodybalance class, it'll be better. Umm.... might try and see how.

Help! Help!

Help! Help! My little girl doesn't like to drink milk!! Perhaps it's not surprising afterall she wasn't a good drinker since she was a baby. But now..... she takes one sip or two and stops, the only time she really drinks up her milk is in the morning after starving for one whole night. If I calculate correctly, she only takes 200mls a day in total now. It's really depressing to see her rejecting milk, but she's oblivious to it and still remains so active & happy. Anyone can give any suggestions??

She eats alot though, she can have her porridge now, next minute finishing half of a bread, less than an hour later - biscuits. I really wonder where it all go to??

She's still mistaken for a small baby. Today someone thought she's 3 months old. And I believe it must be her sleeping patterns (don't sleep much) that attributes to her small size.
Another thing to worry about is - she's bo-ge (no teeth). Perhaps the lack of calcium is the reason. One stranger I spoke to today told me that she had read that researchers have recently shown that it's better when children's teeth grow late - suppose to be better.

********************************************************************************
Insomnia
Aricia & myself are suffering from insomnia. She sleeps little, even at nights she'll cry when she drops her pacifier. And she cries many times. Perhaps we should all let her cry her lungs out so she'll know we'll not run to her everytime her pacifier drops.

Can't believe mom told me this!

Mom saw & heard how pek-chek I was on Saturday when I was coaching Athena on her violin lesson.
I kept reminding Athena about her hand " don't move your arm! Press down the strings harder! Pluck the string properly!" Very pek-chek and gek-sim to keep raising my voice at her.

Mom told me "violin very difficult is it? Since so difficult, don't let her learn lah!"

I can't believe she actually gave me the suggestion to pull her out, and give the idea that 'my daughter can give up things halfway when she can't do it?' So her whole life she'll be doing things halfway. No way! I'm going to stand behind her and nag & nag & nag at her till she's old.(that is supposedly I don't die before she turns 18)

After that remark from her, the more I wanted to prove to her my daughter can do it (just that she's lazy and needs to be pushed). I told Athena to follow me to the bathroom & made her see herself in the mirror. She did, and next minute you know it, she was doing it correctly - coz' probably she was admiring her ownself playing the violin. Duh! If only I had thought of it sooner, save me from screaming myself out.

I remembered too that Sam's blog has this link on techniques, showed it to her. She paid attention to it and even admired Sam's son playing his violin.

Today's lesson was stress-free. Simple! Brought her in to see herself and she told me her mistake. I deliberately fling my arm as I played the song for her and she corrected me. I deliberately moved the bow about from 'playing at the correct position to the fingerboard and very close to the bridge' - she corrected me. She tried playing the bow on the 'E' & 'A' string, umm.......... sounds okay to me.

Iggy's first visit

Brother, SIL and Iggy came by our house in the evening to pick mom back home.

As what the old folks would do (I'm an old folk too!), an angpow was given to him.

It's for good luck, and welcoming him coming to our house.

Aricia is as usual - noisy! Whilst he's so quiet; kept looking at the musical mobile happy in Aricia's cot (and we're so worried the chor-lor girl might kick him)

C is for cookies

Finally had the chance to make cookies today. Athena was excited when I told her that, and she thought she was going to colour ready-made cookies. She stared at me when I was trying to make the dough (when I should be mixing colours into icings for her)

The greedy girl took the biggest cookie cutter - star and then a house, by then not much space left in the glassware to cut anymore shaped cookies. Haha! Quite a sore disappointment to have her ending it so soon. Had to make it 3 batches, the 2nd time round I made the dough thicker so that it won't alter the shape of cookie when I bring it into the glassware. But alas! It still broke after that, such a pity the bear broke into 2 - she had wanted to give that to her dua-gu. In the end, she told me "no mummy, not enough. We keep for our family all these, next time we make for dua-gu and ma-ma." Goes to show how sincere she wants to share her cookies now. In the last batch, I told her to make smaller ones instead, as it seems they were much much crunchier than the bigger ones. We poured in some mini M&Ms into the dough and put one in small spoonfuls. She had more M&Ms in her hands so she put in more in each cookie. I'm happy with the turnout of the cookies, I thought they'd be horrible since I kindda lost touch with baking for quite awhile. Athena had quite a couple of cookies, KZ was looking forward to each pathetic batch of cookies. At least now I know I have a girl waiting for my horrible cookies no matter how bad it tastes.

Conclusion : 1. I think I put slightly too much butter, which was why dough was soft.
2. Should make it into small bits instead of the big chunky ones - too ambitious liao

I was worried over nothing, the microwave works well. Just press the preset button and wait for the whiff of cookie smell in the kitchen (and you know everything's ok) Next on the list - muffins.

First batch

Aricia : che-che, what are you waiting for? I want to see..
Athena : wait for our cookies lor...
Athena : 10, 9, 8, ....
Athena : How come so long huh?(still waiting)

Top (L to R): 1st batch, 2nd batch (notice we have a turtle??)
Bottom (L to R): 2nd batch, 3rd and last batch for the day

Athena eating her cookies