Pre pre-party preparations *re-post*

Can't believe I clicked "Publish Post" when I'm still editing the last part of the entry. I guess I was too sleepy.

These are the things prepared for my lil' princess birthday party in chronological order :

This was parcel #1 that contained the bulk of the party supplies. The subsequent small packages #2 & #3 (which also includes Athena's birthday supplies for school & home celebration. Yah lah... that hiao char-boh wants different theme. I headache!) - didn't take photos at all.

#1 - received 17th July ( 2 months ahead)

In this box : the tiaras, paper cups, cutlery sets, loot bags, blowouts, balloons, stickers, game

Cutlery packs comes in 6s, packed them individually with the bags I have which I bought dunno how many birthdays ago. Very cute, with the Strawberry Shortcake words on it.

#2 arrived some time in July too!can't remember date :

Stickers x 5 packs + another 5 packs of Athena's stickers for her pinata (I forgot to take photos @ that time, now left with 2 packs. 3 packs were put inside the pinata) - online from HKG

Early August - spent a day to do the template/artwork. Then printed it out. By 11th August, I finished cutting the chocolates labels (still using the better adhesive papers I had) and pasted on them.
Booklet was completed too within 2 days. Real tired! By 14th August, I had finished everything and packed them in the bags. Fast worker huh?

Pinata : The pinata closest to the theme is a tiara but... it's those whacking type. no no! So, I bought this sometime in early August and on 15th August evening, the day after I finished the favors for adults, I transformed this Winnie The Pooh pinata

into this. It was only after I received shipment that I realised I should have ordered the Berry Princess table plastic cover. But thank goodness I was still able to find SSC in Singapore.

Printed her name on the adhesive papers I bought. Pasted on both sides and presto! a SSC pinata.

Late in the night, I was wrapping these as token for games. Wondering why the heck am I wrapping big things up instead of using them as favors? - which will make it look more 大方(generous). Truth is, they are too big to go into the loot bag and I don't have time to make bags which I learnt from J, so.... wrapped it as tokens and then let the adults go and gao-tim themselves how to carry the things back. Heehee!

BTB puzzles - boys
SSC stationery set - girls

18th August - designed birthday card, designed the "find the other half..." card & printed out shoes
19th August - printed out on photo papers birthday invitation card, stick them to a hard paper. Printed out itinery. Now time to cut the shoes and laminate them accordingly. This time round I fully utilised the laminator, laminating a few deco stuffs.
Working through the night, I prepared one of the game - matching shoes

Must ensure it's correct. SSC - girls, BTB - boys and named them correctly eg "You're fantastic, ShyAnne!"

Pasted the shoes to the hard foamy board

By the wee hours of 20th morning, I had everything in - prepared to give out the first sets of invitation card to MH and J

Simple birthday invitation card in sweet pink

The things in each envelope:
1) Invitation card
2) Schedule
3) small card
4) half of shoes
* realised that I should have a note inside informing guests to bring it along for game. But not too bad... only one parent forgot about it * actually it didn't matter, I prepared spares naming "Prince" & "Princess". Very thoughtful huh?

Goody bags

What's in the girls' loot bags : (all items packed in 4 weeks prior to party)

1) sticker
2) cutlery

3) Comb - bought in SIN. Not keeping to the Berry Princess theme but no choice.... very limited favors I can buy online too!

4) Tissue - bought in SIN

5) 4 types of snacks. I love the candy bracelet

Boys' loot bags : (all items packed in 4 weeks prior to party)

In the first place, I realised not many things to get online, I could get them here.

1) Sticker - the only thing bought online.

2) Tractor

3) Playdoh with personalized label

4) pencil

5) 4 types of snacks

All favor bags are then boxed up and placed aside

This time too, Ros was kind enough to help me with the poster after settling down in her new home. Thanks so much, Ros! Hope she didn't mind me giving her a much earlier deadline. I always like to finish things fast so that I can fix all the 'puzzles' together on time. Ros finished the poster for me in time so I quickly sent it out for printing on one Friday after Aricia's class.

2nd Sept :

started preparing the chocolates. I can only prepare 4 at a time, so I was multi-tasking with something else - blogging! Hee!

Prepared 16 chocolates, better to have more than less and the extra dark chocolates were moulded for standby. So in total I made 20

I'm quite disappointed with the taste of it but no choice....

All the chocolates will be put in these prepared cups. Oh yah, the sticks were prepared days before with gold foil sticker, laminated cards with names on it. All I need to do is to bake tiara or carriage or castle cookie, piped with colours, seal it up (so it won't turn soft) & put in cup nearer to party date

Other things that are prepared :
11th - busy!busy! Decided that I have not enough time to make cookies + mooncakes so chose to do the latter.

Anpan-man for boys

Hello Kitty for girls

On this day too, I've put up some decorations. Intend to do them bit by bit, so won't tire myself out.

12th - the eve of the party. After her class, went to Baron Balloons in Tampines instead of Raffles City to inflate the SSC balloon. But.... can you believe it? That place is like a balloon sculpting place don't carry it? Shucks! Should have just pop by Raffles City. Thought I'd just inflate a heart-shape balloon then but lady said with that size, deflation will be obvious. So, left the place disappointed but happy on my wallet. Hee! One day, I must le-long all my previous years' used balloons. Heehee!

Lucky for Athena, she didn't have to do her Maths coz' the syllabus for the week needs guidance. The children ran amok, she wanted to sleep with me so I let her and left the room to do the rests of the decorations.

KZ helped with inflating balloons. Every year, she likes to inflate my balloons looking like papaya. She said it lasts longer... I don't know but I don't like the shape, so requested her to help me inflate balloons that looks like what it should be.
Putting the SSC balloons bought online to use but they're really lousy. In that night, 3-4 balloons bursts. Strange the children slept through all the 'bom bom'.


I put up streamers, she put up balloons
This was left to her discretion to do it in the afternoon. Came back to look at the wordings, found it weird to have it read "Aricia 2nd Happy Birthday". She was happy and proud of her smiley face placing. I found it nice and thanked her for her good job. Then..... I pointed out her mistake. "KZ. Birthday is spelt B-I-R not B-R-I!!" Hee! She found it funny and disappointed that after 2 years in Singapore, she's lost her ability to spell properly. Nonetheless, must admit it's rather nice huh? I added the paper tiara on top when Aricia accidentally tore one.
Activity Corner : with colouring pages of SSC and BTB. A peel n stick bookmark thing. All placed on a table which I borrowed from dad, and wrapped in SSC table cloth - notice it's the same as the pinata



Favors for adults packed in 2 different colours, which.... will be using the same colours for Athena's favor bags. So good also, anything left over will be re-packed. Hee!

Finished the job for the day and looking forward to tomorrow's party. I'm running through alot of things in my mind, the sequence; what needs to be done tomorrow. OMG! Can't believe I'm thinking too much into it, like my daughter's getting married like that?!

Caterpillars 4

Called to check on mama butterfly in the early afternoon , mama still sleeping - wah.... just like me so lazy.

But when I got back home, KZ told me mama came out at 4+pm. sob....sob..... How? Should I let it go today or tomorrow? But most importantly I checked on the colour. "The colour is similiar to the 2 sisters. So it means that our weird way of identifying the butterflies were correct. Papa and mama together in one container. The two sisters who were seen moving together stayed together in another container. Hee!

I couldn't get a good shot of the 2 sisters flying off yesterday as it was getting late. So today went down first before the children had their dinner (otherwise both of them eat so slow....will be late again) I wanted to let it go tomorrow during her party but dunno if will survive that long. It will perhaps survive but I felt pitiful that the butterfly will be enclosed in such small container for the next 17-20 hrs. Better do a good deed by letting it go today, anyway not like she's letting a dove fly off or what. Ahh..... make her birthday until like.....macam wedding.... people will say I siao!

She was brave and held onto the container and looked at mama butterfly. Athena was so far away and kept claiming "che-che protect you. che-che protect you." Funny! Aricia kept looking it, I captured it on camera and............next minute she was either a lil' frightened or angry. She threw the container on the floor! Argh! Poor butterfly, KZ had to pick mama up. Wah..... I heart pain siah! It toppled sideways and I thought I saw it a lil' handicap??? Hmm... in the container, once I saw it toppling on the side.

Mei-mei opening up the container with KZ's help

Peering into the container

Holding and looking at the butterfly until ......

Butterflies' Godma comes to the rescue

It flew off after that. Can't convert the video into Mpeg to load into youtube. Anyway, think better don't load in - show the attempted murder by mei-mei. Years down the road, media will show it to the world that the current Miss Universe was a attempted murderer. Haha!

Caterpillars 3 - updates

As I'm writing this, I have already released 3 butterflies. One more aka me is still in the container, all alone. I think tomorrow morning I will see it coz' the chrysalis has somewhat changed colour the last time I saw - ahem....5 mins ago.

In my previous post I mentioned that papa butterfly greeted me early in the morning. I might as well bring papa to school and let the children see it. A small request to Teacher Mamta for a short disruption to her curriculum before i let it go. Children were excited but they were not allowed to touch it coz' mama butterfly is sleeping.

It was out from chrysalis for almost 2 hours and no sun, MH told me to bring it out for sun-tanning without sunblock to dry out wings. I don't know if papa butterfly was a solar butterfly but it was flapping its' wings more when I brought it under the sun. And thank goodness I brought it to Tampines coz it was cloudy in Punggol.

Soon, it was time to let papa go free. It's funny..... last week when I brought the caterpillars home, KZ thought I was going to keep the butterflies as pets. Well, to me anything with wings - I'd let them go coz' they're meant to be free.

Papa was hesistant in leaving. And if I had stayed on longer under the hot sun, I would have suffered from heat stroke. My children looked for a short while before running off to play. Haha! KZ was so funny, she felt it was too long and she started sharing a gospel to papa butterfly.
"Jesus said you're free to go. All your XX burdens have been lifted off. Fly, fly!" Red are what I said for her coz' she couldn't phrase her sentence in English. I thought it was hilarious to share a gospel to a butterfly

My best shot of papa butterfly
About to fly off

What's left is mama butterfly (to the left of this picture)

When we got back home, one of the 2 sisters was flapping its wings. I thought "oh no! am I going to waste my time the whole day releasing them?"

Aricia with che-che butterfly

Aricia was not afraid whilst Athena was so frightened. Though must admit I didn't dare to open the cover for fear of Aricia killing the butterfly.
Somehow I kept looking at the sister and noticed it didn't look as nice as papa butterfly and suspect it must be of different gender. But what gender I had no idea but suspected it might be female coz' usually the 'mu' animals don't look nice.

Soon..........at first I thought it was my shaky hands but I soon realise that another sister is trying to emerge itself. Contrary to what MH said, this didn't shake vigorously prior to emerging. I tried taking photos of it but the container is blurry. And not to mention video taping - I don't even have a video cam!! Had to rely on camera's video...but still not clear. Athena was excited but frightened, exclaiming "mei-mei, mei-mei you come out already. mei-mei you see- you come out already." Mei-mei came to the container and I had to bring it above her eye level just in case she made mei-mei giddy inside.

Umm..........same colour. I saw how the butterfly wings grew in size. Oh no! Mama butterfly might emerge tonight? or tomorrow? I tried my 5 mins suggestion to mama butterfly telling her not to come out so fast. Haha! If sharing a gospel was ridiculous, I even did a 5 mins power of suggestion to mama butterfly. Oohh.......

Before the butterfly can be let go, I was about to close my eyes. Took a nap first, I was really tired. It was suppose to be a 2-hour nap, ended up 4 hours. I didn't even hear my handphone alarm going off.
Poor butterflies, they waited too long for me and couldn't bring them under the "what where is the sun". Finally let it go off at 6+. By then it was getting dark and the 2 sisters were flapping their wings. I didn't want KZ to open the lid too quickly for fear of not being able to capture it on camera.

Told them to stay together and take care of one another. Siao! They paused a moment and flew away in different directions. sob sob...........

The two sisters are really sisters leh! In the night, after I was free I logged in to check on the breed Leopard Lacewing. I realised papa butterfly was really a male. And the two sisters are females. So now will have to wait and see if mama butterfly is a female or a tom-boy. Hee!

Click on these :
Naturephotosociety.org.sg
Leopard Lacewing

The ignored children

The children - they are either very happy or very sad.

Athena might be happy coz' I didn't have much time to sit down and do her assessment books with her. So this week she has lack of home work to do and less of piano practice. Happy child?

Aricia on the other hand has been ignored too.... I'm busy in the day. I can't seem to do the full home session with her. So all I can do is to do the GD flashcards and that's about it. Good thing my 65 day dot program ended early this week, so it will be break time until the following Monday. With so many things on my mind and checking my To-Do list stuck infront of me, striking off whatever is done, needless to say I've forgotten about Aricia's homework!!

She has 2 homeworks to do last week and I haven't even found the time to do it with her. Tomorrow morning must do one. Sensei will accept my reason.... but then on the other hand, I think 'which is love'. I haven't been spending time with her this week is it "no love shown to her" but then I've been preparing her birthday party which "is love".

I think Aricia sensed it, noticed she's been very aggitative this week, throwing even more fiery tempers. And she's been looking for me all day, and she refuses KZ to carry her. She'd walk to me, hug me and then make me carry her. Then she'll lie herself down on my arms and say "or or!" She feels comfortable and quietened down. Honestly I don't mind this but this is not the time...

I'm sorry Aricia! Mummy do love you.

Next week, will take a break and cuddle her more. Then I'll start to embark on che-che's birthday party. Wah piang eh...........whole life party party. Thank goodness I'm not a real tai-tai, if not whole life also party party. But then if I tai-tai means I'm very rich = outsource lor! Time being I'm just an ah-soh pretending to be a tai-tai. Haha!

A flutter of hope

After days of frustrations trying to edit the video camera using Pinnacle Studios = successful
(I finally managed to get it working on one desktop but turned out can only burn half hour. It looks extra nice with all the editing but I'm not going to waste more time. So will wait for hubby to help me with the installation and I'll dub it over. Will have to borrow dad's DV camera for Saturday's use)

That aside, I was also trying to do the video montage from still pictures to be played on Aricia's party... it took me hours and days too! Serious! Twice I worked through the night, finally on this night (didn't sleep) I managed to burn the VCD successfully. Is it nice? I think it's simple but I tried using Ulead Video Studio 11+ this time round, my Pinnacle just can't seem to load the music in, which was real frustrations and more cries of "suay" from me. Imagine, when you're that near to completion and spending hours to collate the photos and ..... *bang head*
Okay, seriously I think my determination is there, try until can, try until give up sleep, try until I die from exhaustion..try until...( I have no idea at what point I'll give up) then maybe forget about the whole thing.
Ulead is very new to me, and I must admit I still prefer Pinnacles. There are so many things I can do with Pinnacles. Then when I tried to burn into VCD, I had countless prompts of failures. I just didn't understand why... there were alot of possibilities :either my lappie don't have in-built burner (which I only found out today, I have. Stupid me, have been transferring my data files the tedious way to desktop to burn) or something is not installed in or.... or..... It was to the point where I thought I might have to use bro's computer to see if it works there. Somehow after all the trial and errors, I finally realised why? Certain transitions seem to work fine but it doesn't play back on video so that's why I've been stopped a couple of times. Slowly, I go through the files and compare when playback and delete those that are causing hindrance. I didn't bother to go through replacing them with other transitions, I was already tired. It's a pity, my header was nice but it doesn't go through... Umm...okay, finally churned out the VCD out at 7+ am. Remember I worked through the night?? Ran out to test on the player outside. Hooray!!!

Just as I was walking back to the room, I noticed something. Papa butterfly just came out from chrysalis. Goash! I was awake but missed out the whole action. Sob..sob.... (photos uploaded later). I think the sisters will come out either tonight or tomorrow and me will be a little later. I really hope at least one will wait for Saturday. I want Aricia to let it go on that day, my brother says it's nice coz' it's like a symbolic act.
The papa butterfly was the sign of some teeny weeny wingy of hope. Fluttering all the good luck dust back onto me.
Let me give some to you and I hope you'll have a nice day ahead!

Glitterfy.com - Glitter Graphics

Much ado nothing

I've just wasted my whole day doing/achieving nothing!!!!! Angry! Fed up!

According to my last write-up on Disappointment 2 earlier in the day. The computer crash?!?! @#$% !!!!! Gawd! I can't believe it!! I was loading it, almost close to 1 1/2 hrs and ....@#$% ....prompt comes up and screen turns blank. Argh! I've turned on/off main switch countless times but can't go into the normal mode, tried on safe mode but once I go into Pinnacle Studios it shuts off. Argh! Thank goodness the clips are still in my camera.
Makes me more frustrated coz' I'm in a hurry to burn them into disc to free up space.

Then quickly called to check with sister, said I may need to reload OS etc.... OMG! At this time? And I don't even know how to dismantle the whole CPU from the computer. It was then I decided perhaps getting another DVD recorder would be a better solution, afterall fixing the DVD recorder to TV is simple. Yes? All you need is 1 Out and 1 In. Simple? Tried but it doesn't catch the signal. Argh! More frustrations.

In the end, I realised I've spent the whole day fidling the stupid computer & DVD recorder without any good result. I could have used the time to do other things

Aricia speaks

her favourite sentence now is :

*starts laughing* "ah yet (Aunty Zet)/mummy so farnie......"

Yesterday, she was doing some things, she stopped and asked "daddy, correct?"

Sister said she heard her saying "can't see" on Friday when the ball fell under the bed and she peep under the bed to find it. Hee!

Toddler milestone: Talking

* extracted from Babycenter *

Highlights

Talking
When and how it develops
Your role
When to be concerned
What comes next

Talking

Talking is inextricably linked to understanding speech. By listening to others, your child learns what words sound like and how to put a sentence together. As a baby, he discovered first how to make sounds, then how to make those sounds into real words ("mama" and "dada" may have slipped out as early as 4 or 5 months). By the time he was a year old, he was diligently trying to imitate the sounds around him (though you probably heard him babbling away in a lingo that only he could understand). Now comes a period of extraordinary growth, as you watch your toddler go from speaking a few simple words to asking questions, giving directions, and even telling you stories he's made up.

When and how it develops

Here's how you can expect your toddler's talking to progress. If he's being raised in a bilingual environment, the number of words he can speak will be split between the two languages he's learning.

12 to 18 months
At his first birthday, your child will likely use one to five words meaningfully. By 14 months, that working vocabulary may grow to seven real words, though he may have up to 20 "words" (these may be more like sounds) that only he and someone close to him can understand. He'll even practice inflection, raising his tone when asking a question. He might say "Up-py?" when he asks to be carried, for example.

Your toddler is realizing the power of talking as a means of communicating his needs. Until he learns more words to get his ideas and desires across, he'll likely combine his speech with gestures to show what he wants. He'll reach his arms toward his favorite toy, for example, and say "ball." In fact, some toddlers develop a whole sign language of gestures to communicate with their parents. Your child might cover his face when he's embarrassed, for example, or pound on the table when he's mad.

Don't worry if he struggles to get his meaning across now and then. This frustration is actually a healthy sign that he's trying hard to communicate and cares whether or not you understand him.

By 16 months, your toddler will probably start making many common consonant sounds, such as t, d, n, w, and h. Learning to make these sounds is a watershed event, one that leads to the rapid vocabulary spurt that most children go through starting around 18 months. Don't expect to hear all these sounds in actual words yet. But you may hear him repeating them when he's alone in his crib or playing with his toys.

19 to 24 months
Your child now understands as many as 200 words, though he'll probably use only 50 to 75 of them regularly. Many of these words will be nouns that designate objects in his daily life, such as "spoon" and "car." Between 18 and 20 months, his pace will pick up as he acquires ten or more new words each day. If he's especially focused on learning to talk, he can add a new word to his vocabulary every 90 minutes — so watch your language!

During this phase your child may begin stringing two words together, making basic sentences such as "Carry me." Since his grammar skills are still undeveloped, you'll often hear odd constructions such as "Me go." He's understood for some time that he needs language, and he'll attempt to name new objects as he observes the world around him. He may overextend the words he already knows, though, so that all new animals are called "dogs," for example.

Starting around his second birthday, your child will begin using three-word sentences and singing simple tunes. As his sense of self matures, he'll use "me" to refer to himself, and he's likely to tell you what he likes and doesn't, what he thinks, and what he feels. You may hear him say, "David want juice" or "Baby throw," for instance. (Pronouns are tricky, so you may catch him avoiding them.)

25 to 30 months
Now that he has a bigger vocabulary, your toddler will begin to experiment with modulation. For a while he may yell when he means to speak normally and whisper softly when answering a question, but he'll find the appropriate volume soon enough. He's also starting to get the hang of pronouns, such as "I," "me," and "you." Between ages 2 and 3, his working vocabulary will grow to up to 300 words — and he'll understand up to 900 words. He'll string nouns and verbs together to form complete but simple sentences, such as "I go now."

He'll even get the hang of speaking about events that happened in the past. He may not quite understand the concept of irregular forms, though, so you'll hear expressions like "I runned" or "I swimmed" and plurals like "mouses." Sure, it's cute, but it also shows that he's picking up on the basic rules of grammar (that you add a "d" sound to a word if it happened yesterday, for example, and an "s" sound to make things plural).

At this age, your child will start answering simple questions, such as "Do you want a snack?" and "Where are your shoes?" If you notice that he consistently echoes your questions rather than trying to answer them, bring it up with your child's doctor. Such behavior can be an early sign of a developmental problem such as autism.

31 to 36 months
By the time he turns 3, your child will be a more sophisticated talker. He'll be able to carry on a sustained conversation and adjust his tone, speech patterns, and vocabulary to fit the person he's talking to in a particular situation. For instance, he'll often use simpler words with a peer ("I need go potty") but more complex constructions with you ("I need to go to the bathroom").

By now, other adults, including strangers, should be able to understand almost everything he says, which means you won't have to do as much translating. He'll even be a pro at saying his first and last name and his age — and will readily oblige when asked.

Your role

You can help your child's language skills along by providing a rich and nurturing communication environment. The most important things to do:

• Talk. Research shows that children whose parents spoke to them extensively when they were babies have significantly higher IQs and richer vocabularies than other children. You don't need to chatter nonstop, but speak to your child whenever you're together. Describe what you're doing, point things out, ask questions, sing songs. (Although some baby talk is okay, resist the temptation to coo and babble. Your child will learn to speak well by listening to you speak well.) • Read. Reading to your child is a great way to expose him to new vocabulary, the way sentences are put together, and how stories flow. But don't just read the words — ask your child to find things in the illustrations or tell you what happened to the characters. • Listen. When your child talks to you, be a good listener — look at him and be responsive. He's more likely to speak up when he knows you're interested in what he's saying.

When to be concerned

You're the best person to gauge your child's speech development. If he's showing any of the signs listed below and you feel concerned, it's a good idea to discuss the possibility of a language delay or hearing problem with your child's doctor.

If it seems necessary, your doctor will refer your child to a pediatric speech-language pathologist for an evaluation. (A searchable directory of certified therapists can be found on the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Web site.) Alternatively, your doctor's office, daycare provider, or local school might be able to direct you to an early intervention program in your area — usually coordinated through the county or public school system — that will provide free screening for language problems.

Some signs to look out for:

12 to 18 months
Your child isn't saying any words by 15 months (including "mama" or "dada"), didn't babble before his first birthday, is unable to point to any body parts, or you still can't understand a word he's saying by 18 months.

19 to 24 months
Your child rarely attempts to speak or imitate others, drops consonants from words (saying "ea-ut" for "peanut," for example), doesn't seem to get frustrated when you can't understand what he wants, or only uses single words — no combinations.

25 to 36 months
Your child continues to drop consonants, has difficulty naming most everyday objects, hasn't started to use two- or three-word phrases, or by age 3 cannot be well understood by someone who doesn't know him.

If your child stutters, it doesn't necessarily signal a problem. Stuttering is a normal phase, especially when his ability to communicate is expanding so rapidly. Sometimes he'll be so excited to tell you what's on his mind that he can't get the words out fast enough. But if his stuttering continues for more than six months, or if it's bad enough that he tenses his jaw or grimaces in an effort to get the words out, talk with his doctor about it.

What comes next

As your child grows, he'll become more of a chatterbox. There might be moments when you long for those peaceful days of speechlessness, but for the most part, you'll delight in his play-by-plays of what happened at preschool, what he thinks about dinosaurs, and his descriptions of what his best friend likes to eat.

By age 4, your child will use about 800 words. He'll begin to understand and use correct tenses, along with the words "won't" and "can't." Oh, and get ready for every why, what, and who question under the sun.

Disappointed

Disappointment 1
I am so disappointed! The chocolates that I bought for chocolate moulding don't taste as good as the last one (Elmos and Mickey etc..) I did. I did went back to BIY on Monday to try to get it but they don't sell it anymore. In the end, I had no choice but to open up the compound chocolate which I had bought from Sun Lik. Taste-wise not as good. But I have no choice already.... I still need to prepare the favors for the kids, I don't have the time/energy to 环岛追追追.

Disappointment 2
Managed to buy some cable from Sim Lim Square (goash! I spent 1 hours just walking in/out of shops) on Friday. It can't work, my desktop shuts off with some prompts.
Then guess what?! I am not convinced that I am going to give this up. I stared at my video camera small labelling, it states it has IEEE1394. FYI, IEEE1394 is some firewire thing which we have in our old desktop (in children's room). You need this to capture video at high speed (ahem.... so I'm not IT idiot afterall). Then I realise I have a dock for the video camera and I can connect it to the DV plug. You say I idiot or not? Blind also!
So happily I plug in and Pinnacle can capture the videos. But...........(you see lah! one setback after another) it can load a few screens at a time and then I gotta re-start the computer otherwise it can't read the DV plug. What rubbish!! I'm recording my holiday videos and only in the aircraft scenes, I have to re-start the computer thrice!! My video is ..... okay, I shan't say how long. But I have a feeling that I'm going to sit infront of the computer the whole bloody day. Skipping home sessions today. The children will be so happy.

Sigh.......thought I can try to make traditional mooncakes today.

What's wrong with her??

I really don't know what's wrong with her? Many people say it's due to jealousy. I admit yes, it's jealousy and I'm not the only one who have a child who's demanding attention. Every parent go through the same thing as I do.

Short temper? Yes too! I get irritated too when despite millions and trillions times tell her that we love her blah blah blah..........she still do things that makes you angry. And I must have felt everything targetted on me coz' I'm always the punchbag since daddy is not around. Even so, I am still the person who's in contact with them more coz' I'll be pulling them out one by one to do home sessions or going through work. And I'll have more 'short-circuits' or my 'crazy neurons' activated most times. Sigh..........this is not doing me any good, I might fall into depression.

On Thursday, I was frustrated with her for being so whiny. All the kids are so sporting, except for her. Then what made me more frustrated was she kept clinging onto me, it's the same thing whenever I bring her in to school or to Berries. You might think I get used to this behaviour, I'm not! Infact I hate it!! Most of the time I'd sound very negative towards her coz' I've already told her very nicely before, she still don't listens...still do this kind of shit. So needless to say, I was in a happy mood and she had to be the spoiler. Was even prepared to leave the place!

Saturday - one of the stupid things she fussed about. I asked her to erase her chinese writing coz' it was so untidy, and I circled it out for her which one to erase. She said "I want mummy to help me clean" I explained that she has to do it herself coz' it's her work, she continued ranting "I want mummy to help me erase..." and then started crying. Crying for no reason!!! Despite my nice tone of voice, she continued crying. I screamed at her, asked her to shut her mouth up. She was already triggering my "anger" button.
In the night, in the car. I had to sit infront and she whines "I want mummy... I want mummy to sit with me........." Tell her I can't coz' it's a squeeze (and I didn't want it to be a bad habit) and she can hold my hand "no! I want mummy........." *starts crying*
So now, dear readers you see.... who's the one who's at fault? She? or maybe me since we decided to have another child? Day in/out she irritates me with the slightest thing. Honestly, I do feel bad when I smack her or scold her. So, I do ask her to sit on my lap and I 'sayang-ed' her and cuddled her. Next minute in her yang-or behaviour she'll cry when I ask her to do something. Ai yah.........every night gotta go through her tao-hong-siao crying when we ask her to brush teeth, sleep now etc..... practically whole day get irritated by her.

You think I should bring her to a child psychologist? You may say I'm making a big booha over nothing. I've observed friends' children who are so sensible and listens to my friends. Makes my life so miserable, I thought children are suppose to bring me joy - it brings me misery instead.

Caterpillars 2

Day 4 - Thursday
All caterpillars have turned upside down by the end of the day. In the morning,the sisters were so united that they positioned themselves so closely and the same time.
In the evening, noticed too - the 'me' has already moved to the top and there's white thread on the top.

Evening time, 'me' is slowly forming into pupa. I saw the struggle again, this time noticed it's pink outer shell.... within 1 hour it turned to looking like 'dried shrimp'.
The sisters' head has already dropped except for mine. Strange? Noticed the head has been moved to the netting. How is it possible? They were hanging upside down remember?

Day 5- Friday (5th September)
All caterpillars are hanging like bats now.
It's the 3rd day for Papa Caterpillar, 7 more days to go??
It's the 1st day for the three female caterpillars, 9 more days to go??

Day 6/7/8/9
I shan't waste any time blogging this now, until Papa butterfly emerges.

Meanwhile, just log on to read the excitement.

Yakult Tour

Big thanks to A who painstakingly organised this tour for 40 people.

We met @ Commonwealth MRT station for the chartered bus to take us to the factory in Senoko - Woodlands? (ehh.... closer to home for me right?).
We train-ed down and Athena was excited. She kept yakking and yakking away. *buay tahan* On the EW line, the train at dunno what station was elevated. She was so excited, "mummy.....you see outside. Can see outside..... so many cars, trees..." *suaku*

A asked the kids to have photos taken together while waiting for the bus. And that girl have to make me angry..... (will blog about that later) MH was consoling me "never mind, never mind...." while I was so frustrated with that girl. Anyway, some photos to share : Alexandra & Athena

Yakults from all over the world

The so-called good bacteria in a small drop of Yakult

Caterpillars 1

Day 1 - 1st Sept
Brought home our little crawlies home. Makes my hairs stand. Eeeks........

Athena was too fearful, Aricia is not. She wants to touch the container which I'd love to. I didn't let her hold it coz' she's quite 'rough' and afraid the caterpillars might have been mishandled. Or worst still, she has been throwing things, she might suddenly throw it and the poor caterpillars will have internal injuries. Once she shook the container while I held on to it . *giddy giddy*


The caterpillars' Godma cleaned the containers for them. keke... I filmed it and half the time tell her to "hurry hurry" even before she step into the kitchen to throw away the faeces. Heehee! I was feeling so ... itchy. No wonder Athena also feels so fearful lah!
Since we have 2 pairs, we'd have them named like our family.
Noticed this 2 always stick together. We decided to name them the 2 girls. In another container, the caterpillars don't stick together that often. But I saw them head to head and moving together like courtship.
The two sisters are very hungry. I mean real hungry, they finished munching the leaves that MH put in, we put in one more they finished it fast.
The two of us' digestive system no good, no appetite to eat much. Signs of ?? aging?
Gotta tell you our caterpillars - we are breeding special and high-class butterflies, okay.........they're on top of the piano = get to enjoy lovely music. Ahem.... let me rephrase that last sentence-trash music.

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Day 2- Tuesday
The day passed with the 2 sisters eating alot.(they are always together) Really alot. When we brought home, MH put 2 leaves. Last night when Godma cleaned the container, we threw in another leaf. This morning, threw in one, they finished quickly. Threw in another. Amazing! No wonder Eric Carle wrote that book.

The caterpillars eating. Very yucky to see the eyes.
Daytime, noticed too one of the older folks have been hanging around the netting area. Did notice something white but it didn't stick to it, probably still finding a suitable fengshui spot.

In the night, the sisters are playing alongside. Serious! They kept moving together, at one point I thought they were doing syncronise swimming.(moving symmetrically and same direction).
As for the 'us', old folks not moving much. The leaf was still the previous night's. One decided to crawl up to the netting again, suspect is the same one last night.
Later, very late in the night, noticed that one moving the body in a funny way, and noticed the caterpillar trying to push out white silk or dunno what threads. Very poor thing, it's like how our body move when we're vomitting??

See the white thread.
At 2am, the caterpillar was hanging in 'J'

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Day 3- Wednesday
MH had prepared me for this, the head will drop out. So the head was on the base of container. Thank goodness last night when Godma cleaned the containers, I told her to put more leaves for both so that I won't interfere with the 'forming into pupa' caterpillar and can feed the other the same time.

In these picture, notice how the 2 sisters keep sticking together? The 3 pictures are of the pupa which has hardened-looking covering (can't get good photos) At one point, I saw the pupa shaking vigorously. Had it recorded down but will upload later.
Later in the night, noticed the 2 sisters have spun threads too. Thought they were dead but they were still moving in that 'J' position. Playing?

What happened to me? Athena says the other lazy one is me. The container have not been changed, alot of faeces but we can't interefere with movements.

Mooncakes - 1

Didn't let Athena go to school today coz' 1) she's on a chinese medication. (yah.... her cough came back, so brought her to one new chinese sinseh to try out) 2) they're not doing much in school. Doing work that is still undone, and those I've completed with her long long time ago. So she stayed home and do assessment books at my pace. Trying to finish everything fast so year-end can let her "sit for exam paper' - wanna see her standards. Stress huh?

Anyway, while she was doing her assessment books I was making mooncakes. Trying it for the first time. Wanted to do both kinds, the snowskin and traditional method. In the end, I can only manage the snowskin. I must admit I'm happy with the taste of it, I got the recipe from the internet. It's easy to make but............the moulding is tiresome. I started at 11+ all the way till 6+pm. Poor Aricia, can't play with her. I planned no home sessions on Wednesdays, thought I could try since I'm home today but.... okay mooncake comes first.

Enjoy! (so tiring.. thought of doing some for the kids during the party since 14th will be Mooncake Festival. But hor..very tiring (I wonder how those home based can make to sell)... dunno lah. If you all see it there means I am able to rush through it. If not, take it that you're eating it by looking at these pictures.Hee!

The dough > when the instructions tell you to put colouring and mix water to knead the dough - follow it! I didn't, I kneaded first then separated to do the colouring. Made life difficult for me, don't try to geh-kiang like me.
Green = pandan, Pink = strawberry. Wanted to do durian but KZ don't eat. So will try that on another day.
Yellow balls - white lotus, black - red bean
Presto! Cute hor? The rice moulds come to a good use. Want to try my cookie cutter next. Hmm.... KIV
Taste is nice, but I can't do a good job moulding it and sometimes notice thick skin (like me) one side though I did peel off. Sometimes too, noticed the thing is not smooth, not enough water?

Other mumblings

Wednesday : (make me so depressed)
During YJc, children suppose to do improvisation for The Dove. And that girl had to play wrongly!! Of course Peggy was confused, I was confused, Peggy thought she was playing something else & corrected her = Athena was more confused. Peggy turned to look at me and asked me if that's what she's suppose to play. I showed her the first bar, then she mentioned something about it being " the mother's work not children's." What the??

Or course lah! Ask Athena to think, she say "dunno dunno." So I had to help her. And mind you her style quite easy okay? I mean, I also know my daughter's standard lah. But the way Peggy commented is like she don't even believe my child has this capability of playing it. Actual fact, she can play but it's just that she loves to play and like to daydream = playing rubbish and thus driving me crazy.

Everytime I finish one class I tell myself "should I pull her out?" S feels that Peggy is picking on Athena. I feel that too, I know my daughter makes alot of mistakes (silly mistakes) - I don't deny that. But I realise when ppl make mistake she don't sound that sacrastic - it breaks my heart when you realise your child is a punchbag. When she notices girl making mistakes she has to make a big booha over it. Alot of times, some or maybe one child (not my girl) play wrongly she heard it and dunno who right?? Asks them to play again, then .... at that time my girl have to make mistake. Then... she sighed and tsked tsked.. looked at my girl, thinking she was the one who made the earlier mistake. Prejudiced? Picking on her? Seriously!I think even before the mother loses face (I'm so thick-skin) & decides to pull her out from group lesson, the child already feels being put-down by the teacher. Dunno if what she said during the last YJC is helping my girl lor! I mean, I needed a frank answer from her - if girl is suited for individual lesson. She said "no, she's doing fine." Then why keep picking on her??

As if the children didn't make me depress enough, KZ had to make me even more depress/angry when she spoilt my precious top. All because she dumped it into the machine to spin dry. @#$%! She took out and asked me "mom, this one cannot put in machine?" Shucks! "of course cannot! can't you see there's an external thing here?! And this is not the first time you wash this!!" Damn! I bought this top in US and she had to spoil it. In total since the day she came - she spoilt 3 clothes of mine. And you know what she asked me "mom, I glue it back?" siao! how to glue back, I had to use that to support the strings which acts as a halter. If the glue give way, won't I be exposing myself? Not that everyone would want to see... a fat dumpling! I don't understand why? They say helpers usually cannot think are dumb, I didn't want to believe that KZ is one coz' she does seem smarter. But.....???? Can't she use her brain?
What makes me angry is that she spoilt 3 in a span of 2 years! Thursday, I showed her my jeans and told her she better not spoil that coz' that's $270+, very sim tia if she spoil it.
Talking about helpers, MH talked about this the week before. It's not that we're picking on them but please lah! they've worked with us for the 2nd contract they already know what's going on around, still make stupid mistakes.

Last Wednesday, while the children are still in the house. I heard her exclaim out loud "ah.. who spoil this?" Apparently I got to know the Sudoku game I bought from her is spoilt, Athena blamed it on J. I don't know who spoilt it exactly but I didn't lecture my child coz' KZ deserved it. I mean, even if J is not around she knows we have 2 young kids @ home, she should have put it high up - she didn't. Left it on the sofabed. I don't intend to buy to replace it for her coz.... 1) she deserve it 2) still unhappy that she spoilt my top.

Some other minor issues lah! But I don't like it when she thinks my mom's bag is her bag. Asks my mom to put her camera inside. Please lah! Carry one bag lah! Then we have to carry the things for her? Hey! I think if you were me, you wouldn't be pleased at all.

Damn! This must be a suay week! Bad luck, need to have myself dipped in holy water. I think this is really a bad week, I have been very temperamental. Things don't go smoothly, even melting chocolates also can - burn?!?! I remember the DJ was talking about grey being my lucky colour this week, and not a good week as a walking fire.
Aricia has been spitting food; rejecting food; throwing things. And she has flung away her meal thrice. Twice, I saw KZ's face change. Anyway, who wouldn't? Cook until like siao and then get thrown away. If I'm not there, I'm sure she'd scream and maybe ill-treat my girl. ?? I've punished her thrice already, and though she's naughty - really naughty. She listens to me and dare not move away when I put her against a wall.
Argh! Dunno what to do with her leh? Already so small size, still dowan to eat. I open her mouth, 3 teeth are coming out. I hope that's the reason for her sudden outbursts and not coz' she knows she's going to be "terribly horribly 2" soon. Sigh..........

Last week, I wanted to record our videos into the DVD player coz I need to free up the space in the camera. Duh! I'm so fed up with all these gadgets stuffs. Our DVD recorder was in the living hall. Then when we changed the flat screen, can't match up to it so I suggested putting it in our room. And I had no problem recording our video camera over from there until we got this new video camera. Argh! I plugged into TV, I get colours. I plugged into DVD recorder direct, I see black/white. sob...sob.... (that's the thing about technology advancing and so difficult to keep up with it)
Thought IT savvy hubby can help me, so I want to try to use our computer to burn the disc. But I need to go through Pinnacle Studio, so I need firewire. (confused yet?) Thing is, we have firewire installed into our old desktop which is currently in the children's room. But I'm having problem with the mouse. And I can't be editing the shots in their room while they're sleeping, right? So I asked "does your desktop (in our room) have firewire installed?"
He : (shrugs shoulders)
Me : What's the problem here? Which is the wire now? (coz' I smart alec went to pull out from the old desktop some loose cables.) Ay, you remember which one is it?
He : (shrugs shoulders)
Me : I thought you say you know alot of computer stuffs? I think I know more than you.

When I finally identified which cable. Argh! One problem after another, the USB part doesn't go into our current camera. You say suay or not? Here I am rushing to empty the space, I'm stuck. I tried looking for it in Challenger in Hougang Mall - no luck. Say I must try in Sim Lim. Wah.... I'm getting so frustrated over all these gadgets.

Wasted trip!!
I needed to get the castors for my trolley, so on my errands day - Monday made a trip down. Prior to that, I called them to enquire and the lady told me "40 sets". When I went there, the staff told me it's OOS. Damn!

When I got back home, decided to bring down the mixer first. Coz' have no idea when the stock will come in, and I do need/want to bake.
Welcome new mixer, goodbye old 'cargo bag'
It's a lil' sad that I have to throw away my cargo bag which I call it "my ah-lian bag". Reason being I don't use it now and rubber things from two wheels have dropped out.
My ah-lian bag served me for only 2 years before I resigned. And infact it wasn't the 'cargo bag' I was looking for. My first cargo bag was a nice grey Echolac bag. It's very lasting and not as flimsy as Delsey or what nots other crew buys. Infact, my bag was the odd one out coz' it's not a common brand as you would see crews dragging LV cabin bags and Delsey cargo bags behind them. But Echolac was really very lasting that I could even throw it down the countless bridges in Venice. I was frustrated for bringing it up/down the bridges. Perhaps that's why the Polizia don't even dare to catch this tourist who's trying to destroy public amenties. Hee!
Nope! It wasn't even spoilt then. I could still use it for another year, what made me buy a new one was the lock couldn't latch at all. Hmm.... couldn't find back the same brand so in the end went to get Lojel - also more sturdy compared to Delsey. The only setback was the outlandish colours - pink & purple. I wondered what the senior crew might say but thankfully nobody said anything. And I'm quite happy with it coz' I can pull it up to stand vertically besides dragging it horizontally. With it vertically, I didn't have to strain my back at all. Very comfy, feels like holding a child's hand and walking alongside.
It was hard making the decision to throw away the bag. Coz' I've been clinging onto this bag, reminding me of my happy experiences in SQ. This gone, I've got nothing - ehh...ok still have my LV bag (I'll be crazy if I ever threw that away)- feels like I'm half dead like that.

Caterpillars
I was just talking about getting caterpillars ( I saw it in a stranger's blog, now I can't remember which & whose blog) for the children to see the life-cycle to hubby. And on the same day, gf MH sms-ed me that she is going to get caterpillars and if I'm interested in it. Uncanny huh?
Got 2 pairs and I swear my hairs all stood up when I went to her place to collect it. They have 5 pairs for the family & helper. I don't know what shit I put myself into. I'm so worried they'll topple over in the car and end up crawling in the car. Eeeks! I don't even know what breed it is.

Will update on the caterpillars