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Children finds it a thrill to see it filling up (except for my lil' girl) They try their best to fill it up and that makes life a little better for parents (not in my case).

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Boohoo

My 2 neighbours, K and SH are moving this Saturday.
I'm sad coz' they're the best neighbours we had. The kids love them, everytime they hear someone opening the gate, they'd run to our main gate and start shouting "Hello......Aunty"
I think they've stayed here for more than 2 years already ?? K, the Japanese dropped by my place a few times for a nice chat. I'm sad.

And today I realise too, my lil' girl's class teacher and the supervisor had left. No time for goodbyes. And lil' girl simply adores them.

Girls fighting

Can't believe it! KZ brought the kids up while I cleaned the car. I heard mei-mei's cries.

When I reached home, I was told they two of them had a fight from the lift to our home, in our home as well. Let's just say the scenerio was abit like those ladies trying to be bitchy and yank hair kind of fight.

What happened to the 2 of them?

Both of them in the wrong, both of them received their punishment.
Sigh..........

blah blah blah .......

I love Tuesdays! I love Tuesdays! Why? Coz' it's the only day of the week where I can go back home and rot / torture kids with work after I pick them up from school.

I'm contemplating if I should stop Ros's class. But .... my lil' Aricia loves it. She keeps talking about "go Aunty Ros house" and even on Thursdays when I park in the MSCP in Hougang to bring Athena in for her Berries, Aricia would say "I go Aunty Ros house." My idea of the class was for the mother to san-ba (gossip) with other mummies for her to make more friends. I feel I need more time for Athena's work (duh! she's only P1!!) and one additional day of 'heading straight home and rot' would be great. But then I'm sacrificing mei-mei's favourite class. But then she may not need this class afterall since she's already in Shichida + LilyAnn Preschool + MMI and she's not even 3 years old! On the other hand, with this class WE HAVE TO DO HOMEWORK, so there's reinforcement done. If it's mine, I can be very lazy since I'm the teacher (and preparing materials can kill me). *Think think think*

I was quite happy last week too, coz' there's no music class on Wednesday and this week too. Good timing coz' I can take the time to go through all her work with her. I think I'm crazy..... she's only taking her tests not her PSLE but that's me.

Past few weeks we need to start the morning waking up households in Punggol as we scolded che-che. Don't want to wake up; don't want to brush teeth; don't want to eat; laze on the sofa; don't want to put on her school uniform etc... That morning, I did nag at her but thought I should let her learn her lesson. We left home at 7.05am and as I start the engine, I revved up my 'mouth engine' too. I'm so super, can nag all the way from Punggol to Marine Parade leh. Nagged that I shall drive slowly and not speed up just to help her get to school in time, she got a little scared. I was so happy when I saw the clock reads 7.35am when I was about to turn into the road. Guess what? Major traffic jam in that small road. And then there were cars behind me.. so my girl's not late at all!! I mean, if she's late the whole bunch of girls would be late and she might escape the detention or dunno what punishment they'll mete out. Consider her lucky.
Next day, girl tried her luck and even told me "I late, mei-mei also late." "Mei-mei is never late, her school starts at 9am, even if I bring her in at 10+ the preschool won't punish her but Primary schools do." Still want to try her luck until I told her "fine, you take your time and decide when you want to go in to school. I think maybe go in during your English lesson, which is the 3 session. Okay? Just let me know. Immediately that girl spring into action. Next few days, she still tried to dilly dally time, the sentence that got her to move her butt was "tell me when you 're ready." Since then she dare not try her luck further, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed it'll never happen again. Very stressful you know.

The kids can be so good friend one minute and then become arch enemies the next. What I don't understand is they fight over everything. Even when Popular has so many books, they must both fight over that one 'special' book!!! KZ asked "get married how?" "Ai.... they'll also fight who should get married first. Ai yah, let them both marry the same time."
Tonight che-che is so sweet. Mei-mei kept wanting to sleep with us but it's a no-no for weekdays. I put mei-mei in her cot and she tried to climb out until che-che offered to let mei-mei sleep with her on the same bed. So sweet......... I saw the 2 of them earlier on, so lovey dovey in bed.

Cockroaches??
I can't believe it! I clean the car interior at least 3 times a week and I thought I killed a small cockroach the other day. Maybe it crawled in from outside, or maybe I keep thinking my interior is clean enough but it's not.
I almost died of Dettol spray inhalation that evening when I clean the car more thoroughly. After cleaning with Dettol, I ended my cleaning session with Dettol spray. I didn't see any cockroaches since.
That is why I don't want to drive hubby's car when he's away unless I need it for the extra boot space for shopping / stroller.

Out with the old
Did some clearing of clothes. My clothes went to the Salvation Army. I wanted to put mei-mei's clothes and some toys (old and very new ones) too. I'm not willing to let go of the clothes, very sad but just had to to clear space. Every piece brings back memories doubly times for me as I recall what funny or cute things Athena/Aricia did when they wore that dress. (I kept some really nice ones). I didn't bring it out with me today, instead I thought I can try to donate to an orphanage straightaway. And I'd bring Athena along during the June holidays with me, to see how blessed she is.
For those interested, there's this organisation in Singapore which tries to help you match who needs the items that you have. You know where it goes to, and feel comforted that it will continue to 'serve the new owner' well.

Flu
Brother has first hand news, when they received the ORANGE alert he informed me. I became paranoid and started stocking up on Dettols, Dettol sprays and sanitizers. Dunno how long this will last. And should the children need to put on masks, I have 2 ready for them - which I bought in Taiwan. Cute masks.
Then the lazy me started thinking "what if one day every Singaporeans need to stay at home." What I would stock up?
1) cartridges
2) rims of papers
3) staplers
So I still can continue my printing. Haha!
What I would do
1) Print and print (need I say?)
2) Bring out whatever stuffs I have at home - craft stuffs, books etc.. to keep the children occupied.
3) Ermmmmm................finish my holiday photos (haha! Yup! My NZ's photos - and I've been to another place in March.)
4) Bake?

Duh! I forgot about stocking on food. Never mind, I think hubby will do that. Hee!

My week

Haven't been updating. Everytime I try to log into the computer, I get so sleepy. What's happening to me? And then my blogs are all backdated; the childrens' blogs are un-touched. Hmm... I had better update their blogs more diligently.

Tuesday - 21st
I took my "snowballed for many years annual leave" on this day to do facial. I haven't been to my beautician for ??? okay I shan't think about it, it should be some time last year. Athena did seem happy for a moment coz' mummy is not 'drilling' her grammar on this day. You think I was kind?? I never let my children off. She was given more pages of assessment books to do, Aricia was given homeworks as well.
Brought them home, then I left. It's freedom!!! Feels good to be pampered. Today's treatment is one of my 2 FOC treatments for buying the facial products - the $800++ products. Expensive! I'm using this range SkinScience now.
I have these skin tags and milia and dunno what nots (if only it's so easy for me to strike lottery) and was thinking of using Dr Secrets which I heard costs $500+ then my beautician introduced me to this and that it doesn't contains hydroquinone which she says Dr Secrets does. When it comes to face, I'm the easily ke-tok kind. Anyway I tried and yes - there's slight improvement although I may need to do some 'dian liao'. Not like my face is made of gold or I'm banking on my looks (what looks??) for my job, I may reconsider the 'dian liao' - which costs $300 per treatment and says I need 2. $$$ flyyyyyyyy

Found the SSC children table (finally!) and immediately bought one set. They had a display set which looks a little 'destroyed' and kept telling me no more left until someone took one set from the office. Apparently someone had ordered it but didn't come to collect after all the phonecalls so they sold it to me. Yay! There's a matching chair too! It's cushioned and I have to pay separately. In total : less than $50 for 2 items. Happy! I placed an order for another full set which they said they'd try to see if other outlets have it. Ehh........have space in the house or not? Buy first; think later.

Children were elated and started fighting for the table. In these pics, che-che is sitting on the SSC chair
Which is why I thought it'll be good to have 2 sets. I know there's giving wrong information afterall they're suppose to learn to share. But then the lil' one always fights; screams; cries and che-che gives in to her too often already. I always see that disappointment in che-che's face. Anyway, I thought 2 sets will be nice if I can put them in the spare room and make it their study table and I have a big whiteboard behind me; I put on glasses and act like SuperNanny. Presto! I'm a teacher. Ahem... I'm still dreaming to convert that room. So why the hesistance? Coz' I need space to put all the study materials which obviously I don't unless I rip off the wardrobe and change it into cabinets. (and then where to put the yet to pass-on to mei-mei's clothes?)
No wonder one of my friend ever said, it's no use designing your house to your dream house until the children are older. I thought I could save the money by having a study table in the children's room so next time we don't have to do the build-in. Then mei-mei came along. Luckily she's still small enough to sleep in the baby cot.

Wednesday - 22nd
OMG! I was so tired that I overslept in the car!! Normally during the 1-hr campout, I'd be trying to do a portion of my preparation of stuffs for children. Today, I did and I was so sleepy. I set the alarm clock and thought I'd close my eyes for 15 mins.
I woke up startled and stared at the clock in the car. It says 2.00. I heaved a sigh of relief and told myself I still have some time before I pick Athena. Then I jumped, OMG! I'm usually home at 2pm. Maybe I was getting a little carbon monoxide poisoning already?? I quickly drove off and I kept thinking "cham lah, cham lah must go into General Office to pick her up liao. She must be crying.. she must be ...."
When I drove to the gate, I saw that Dora-looking girl staring at me and picking up her schoolbag from the floor. Heng ah... she didn't cry but she did ask me "mummy, you're very late today." in a calm manner. She surprised me, I thought she'd cry. But then like I said, she always surprises me. Once I had to bring the two of them to the clinic. I did the registration and then told them to stay in the clinic to wait for me coz' I need to find a proper parking lot as I had parked illegally on the roadside. I went back about less than 10 mins and just as I was about to go in, she came out holding her mei-mei's hands and started crying. Huh? That was the time I didn't expect her to cry.
Anyway, I did apologize to her and told myself it should never happen again. Since I've lost some time I didn't let Athena do her Maths at home. I brought the two of them to the room with the table/chair, minus the whiteboard (coz' haven't bought whiteboard) and tried to do Aricia's home session. Just didn't have the feel of a study room - yah! with a bed there; a sofabed; toys in the stacked drawers. You think it looks/feels like a study room?
They fought over the chair; they fought over who's going to sit in the middle; they fought over 'my legs hitting the side legs of the table.' They fought over >> almost everything. Then somehow during the session, Aricia kept asking che-che to help push her seat in. Honestly, I don't know what's wrong with my girl. In MMI, Ros', Shichida she keeps asking teacher/me to push her in. And there's no way we could push her in further she still keeps telling us to help us, makes noise. I was angry............ so you think it's a good idea to have a study room? Supposedly they have a table each, they'd start fighting over "I'm not in the middle, I cannot see etc..." Endless fights! Better solution, no tables at all. And so the next few days I resumed back my usual good fengshui spot where they can't fight over anything, they sit on the floor; I sit on the floor. So what to do with the table?

This time, che-che again asked me to teach in her class. And then asked me to give her the answers first before asking the class so that she knows how to answer if I ask her. Oh no, no way am I going to make it easy for her if I do teach (which is very unlikely too)

Thursday - 23rd
Been practising hard. All the memory stuffs are getting me confused coz' we gotta practise both Shichida's and Ros's. There's a Brain Olympics in Shichida some time in June for the 3 year-olds. Suppose to put 40 cards in sequence in 3 mins. Eh... I don't know if she's able to do it. She's good in messing the cards up in less than 3 mins. And she simply refuses to touch the cards, only reciting out the key words for me. All the memorising for 2 schools, + my work for her is leaving me totally drained.

I wait for Athena in Berries now (tired from shuttling around), I bring some work for Aricia to do. After that P and Aunty S comes back from their shopping and we chat. It's really nice talking to P and Aunty S (Berries). F once told me that all the time she meets unfriendly mothers when she brings her children for any class. I think I'm really lucky, I meet alot of nice friendly mothers. Hmm.. I wonder whatever happened to me swearing to be a mega-bitch and not talk to anyone. Hee!
Athena hasn't hugged my legs or cried - thank God! Now she has a good friend there, A, who's from IJ Counsel. They play in the playground after class.

This day, one of their classmate's sister (P2) asked them for their help to find her younger sister, who's in her class. Aunty S and myself put a stop to it coz' we wouldn't want to end up finding them instead. Instead, the 2 of them tried to find their friend in their own ways. They climbed to the top of the slide, Athena told A "okay, you look this side; I look that side." Hands on their forehead trying to look far "Elizabeth... cannot find her. Can you see her?" I found it funny. Then they whispered amongst themselves "you sit behind me, we go down slide together." As they were sliding down, the both of them shouted "ELIZABETH......." Yah, they "were" looking for her. Haha!

Today, che-che told me that she has to bring newspaper to school the next day to sell. She can get $250, $1 and dunno what she was mumbling about for that small little 2 stacks of papers. I explained that it wouldn't cost that much coz' the garung guni woman only pay us a few cents for our huge stack of papers. And that girl kept insisting that she will get that huge amount of money. And in her innocence, she quipped "I bring alot of newspapers to school to sell. Then papa don't have to work so hard." Aww.........so sweet...

Friday - 24th
I didn't want to bake, I'm so tired I just want to rot in one corner and stare into empty space. But my girl was so happy and kept telling me "25th, my birthday" I can't do fanciful cakes like Mel did for her girl & boy. So inspired by her and I wonder how she managed all even without a helper. I have helper and can't find the time to really sit down for a long time to decorate my cakes. My block of cheese will expire next week so decided to try Japanese Cheesecake. Athena do eat cheesecakes but she don't eat cheese. ??!!??!!
I'm lazy to decorate, okay truth is I don't have much patience like Mel. I have 2 kids who will keep interrupting me; the helper will be busy to bring them away from me. Finding excuses? Yah, maybe I should just lock myself up in one room next time and totally ignore their studies. (very hard leh!)
I like the browning part, has that chao-tar taste. Then I die faster from cancer.

Saturday - 25th
Was thinking probably chocolate ganache is a very lazy style of decorating. Chocolate + cheese taste ?? Then she reminded me about Ariel. Sigh.........there goes my hope of relaxing

I then remembered the leftover buttercream I have in the freezer from the Easter Cuppies batch. Not much left to cover the whole cake and I wouldn't want to re-whip another batch only to have leftovers again.

Guess what? It's only sufficient for me to do this. I tried to cover the backing but can't even cover half of her hair. The only thing I can do is to pray - pray that it won't break when I transfer over to the cake
My prayers didn't work. Ariel was broken to pieces even without Ursula's spell. Argh! Anyway considering this is a lazy job.. I don't have high expectation. But I must admit I like the blue eyes which I managed to colour in nicely.
Itchy hand, bor-liao me (dunno what I was thinking) tried to put macaroons on it. In the end, the cake looked really funny. Heck lah! When you're only an amateur, no patience and not that highly creative all you can do is a 'dump rubbish' job
Afternoon we headed to Tampines 1. Interesting shops but can't really shop with the man and the kids around. Plus the crowds gave me headache. Must wait for at least another month for the crowds to tone down, by then it'll be school holidays.

My lil' one posing for me. I like this shot - notice the way she stands. Macam like model like that. Kekeke!

This girl is getting the idea that her mad mother loves to snap photos. Smiles for me. Must treasure this moment coz' few years down the road she wouldn't even bother to smile for me.

In Manpuku

Portion is really small, quite pricey. Not worth it! Neither of them is full. Anyway, it was like a snack for them at 4+pm

We then proceeded to mom's place for dinner. We had the cake thereafter.

Worrying too much?

Am I worrying too much? I seem to worry about everything with regards to my children. Too over-protective?
So many questions but no answer.

Scenerio 1
Two mondays ago she met her schoolmate at R's place. After playing together the girl sat down to do her work. Athena sat down in a distance resting.
A while later the girl called Athena back and showed off all her many pens in her pencil case. It was really alot!! - all in different colours. Athena stood there looking with her puppy-looking eyes, head cocked a little to one side and her lips pouted a little.
I observed her.... then the girl (in a very authoritative voice) told her "okay, nothing to show already." Athena went back to her place to sit down.

The thoughts that went through my mind :

1. My girl is being bullied. In this case she obediently followed the girl's instructions and sat down. It's like she's been called only when needed and then discarded aside when not needed. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it... but if it happens once it can happen again. Subsequently, I worry if she's being hurt emotionally or she's too young to even understand it.

2. My girl is pitiful. She is probably envious of the girl's possession of multi-coloured pens and I should be buying her more pens than that girl (that's wrong message sent across to her then) but .... maybe I'm too free (free meh?) to read too much into it. But then again, you should really see her expression - very pitiful looking.
I was worried she'd feel sad (then again, she's always sad when I scold her. Meaning she'll feel more sad in my home then whatever sad thing that happens outside) and so I asked her later in the car. She said she didn't feel anything, I then explained that if she felt envious of her friend she should be thinking how fortunate she is to have so many things. Different people have different likings, maybe to that girl she loves pens so her mother keeps buying. I know my girl loves stickers so I try to buy her stickers (though I hate her sticking stickers around the house/things) Damn weird mother I am. And she is indeed one real lucky child to have so many things; to travel to so many countries (though other kids may travel more than her) and oh boy! she's spoilt by the mother. Really!

What can I do? I think as a 30++ ah-soh, she thinks the world as a 7 yr-old. She don't think the world is that complicated. I think I'm the one who's complicated!!

Scenerio 2
A classmate used her pen to draw on her blue pinafore. I freaked out when I saw that long pen mark. Argh! I probe her if she did rebel or complain to teacher. She said no. Meaning = she simply sat there and let her friend drew on her pinafore. What the ?? Was that girl sitting next to her? No, she came from another table while the Chinese lesson was going on.
Point is 1. my girl is a god target for bullies. Ask her to fight for her rights, that timid girl wouldn't dare to do it. She might decline and say "no" to her friends but after some time she can't do anything and .... that is something I should be grateful for - her chin-chye-ness (which makes caring for her easy last time)

I worry she has no friends
I worry she is being taken advantage of
I worry she can't judge what is good/wrong
I worry, I worry, I worry

Green Tea Swiss Roll

Wanted to bake a cake for Aricia's birth-month celebration.

Chose the healthier Green Tea. Thought swiss roll must be easy since I did much better than my Home Econs teacher. I shouldn't have such high ego. Kekeke!
Turned out a major flop! Cake a little hard, had problem (obviously) rolling it and then ----- became this. 失败!失败! Must try again.

Green tea sandwich, anyone?

By then it was late, I was real tired to re-bake another cake + insufficient time to decorate. Hmm......shall bake for Athena next week. Poor mei-mei.

On the other hand, my bread turned out really well a few days ago. Notice the difference between the bottom pic & the top?? Coz' I forgot to "paint it with egg" and simply pop into the oven. Kekeke!

Short outing

Brought the children to send hubby off at the airport.

A week ago, I couldn't fulfill their wishes in going to the viewing gallery.
Today, I armed myself with the spare camera (haven't found the time to collect the camera).

I wonder why they like to go to viewing gallery when they're running about all the time. And when I tell them "look, an airplane's taking off." They stop, look, jump, scream just for the sake of doing it. Once out of sight they start running around again. ???

Photos :

Treasures

Too tired to write, pictures will do the talking.

Thanks to my family who surprised us with more アンパンマン things. And mom bought one bento accessory for me, which I was really happy coz' that's what I had wanted. (and thank goodness I held back confirming my shopping cart and decided to wait till they return)
It's アンパンマン power!
1st row : furo cloth, furikake bottle
2nd row : shampoo, snacks
(these are the 'out of my list' items

the children posing for me.

My lil' bunny

Baking

I haven't baked Athena's favourite Pandan cake for a very very long time.

And I'm really nervous. My first 2 tries were edible but needs alot of improvement. And as a baking newbie I simply couldn't deduce what went wrong with my bakes, only using my assumptions.

Chiffon cakes may seem easy but I read from somewhere that it may be hard to do. And I thought that statement is true coz' all my other pound cakes, butter cakes, cheese cakes etc..turn out okay even if it's my first try.

But after some other bakings and certain rationales learnt, I did realise my probable fault for chiffon cake.

Here, my girl waits for her cake. She was extremely happy. Cakes turn out okay, except for the second rung.
You can guess that I used the Hello Kitty and Pooh bakeware as well. But peeling it off the silicone bakeware has to be done cautiously. My impatience has caused a scar in HK's face.
I'm really nervous you know. Not that I'm being tested by some sous chef or what but... if I fail this time I'm really a big failure.
I peeled the cupcake liner and nervously break it into half. Wow! The texture is definitely what I see in chiffon cakes. Oh man! this is really chiffon cake!!! 成功!!! Happy like crazy.
The lucky children saying "yes, I want 2 cakes" made me really happy. Hubby don't like cakes so my faithful 'customers' are my 2 children (who still thinks I bake the best cake in the world.) and KZ.