Birthday Party

Alfee's classmate invited him to his 5th birthday party and CK took him. Sophie wanted to tag along but I insisted against gate crashing. Instead, I took her shopping for clothes.

After 1.5 hours of shopping, she told me her mind wanted to go home but her heart wanted to stay. Upon hearing that, I ditched the original plan of dining out with CK and Alfee after the party and headed home. Both of us were tired and wanted to go home.

I'm quite proud to have successfully cooked some Thai curry today. And tge kids abd CK ate a lot... to my surprise. WOOHOO! While I was preparing dinner, CK got Alfee to wash the car at the carpark.

Once Lost, Now Found

Alfee took out the propellers of his play mobile helicopter a few months ago. It should not have been such a big deal but it was. He did it without me knowing and my helper just dumped all the parts, including the two red screws that hold the propellers in place, into a container. Over time, other toys and stuff were dumped into the container. Yes, my helper is not very helpful when it comes to this. And by the time I got to know what had happened, the two screws were effectively lost. Since then, I have been searching high and low for the two elusive screws. It was particularly challenging when I had no idea how they look like and new things were dumped into containers daily. 

Today, I finally found the screws! Yay! It feels great! Now, my itch is gone!

Art Class @ Home (3)

Sophie's Butterflies

Alfee's Butterflies

Counsellors Unite @ Halia Restaurant Raffles Hotel

Family Day @ Cherrybrook

It's Family Day at Cherrybrook today and all of us went to support. CK performed with The Grateful Dads and I ran the Giant Jenga Stall. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves in that short 3 hours despite the rain. I didn't plan to buy more tickets but the kids used up the coupons too quickly. In the end, we spent $40 on games.

Mothering Them

Mothering the two kids is a daunting and lonely experience. Most of the people around disagree with the choices I have made and continue to make for them. And one of such decision is for them to go to bed by 7.30pm and another is to minimise gluten and dairy in their diet. 

Today, I was telling my kids' therapist that I 'can't make it' anymore and I need therapy myself due to the stress and our lifestyle. I didn't sound very serious, in fact it's my way to cope... to jest about my struggles and helplessness. She grabbed my arm and said in a very empathetic yet firm manner, "But you are doing so well, given the circumstances... " She added that I gave Alfee very healthy snacks after she took notice that he was eating granola and dried cranberries with gluten free biscuits. 

Although it was just a comment, I am so grateful to have heard the validation. I feel quite lonely to venture out on a different path from others, but moments like these give me a lot of courage and motivation to move on. Along the way, I have lost much of my confidence but now I feel very encouraged to trust myself again.

Alfee's Long Bean Harvested

Alfee has been raving about his long bean plant in school. During their gardening time, he's been faithfully watering it and now it's finally ready to be harvested. What I didn't know is how small (or short) it is. And Papa told me to take a seed and plant it before we cook the rest. So that's exactly what we did. Alfee thoroughly enjoyed his long bean egg even though there was very little of it in the fried egg. Wish we had a garden!

Playing With Olympus Camera

Our compact camera died recently so we bought one which is shockproof and waterproof to cater to the needs of our kids. Compared to our old camera, this is a lot more fun to play with. We did a bit of experimenting and we thoroughly enjoyed it and its functions.

Writing Chinese

It's challenging to write Chinese characters, especially so for Alfee. He only started to have better pencil grip and control over his writing skills. Thus, he struggles with his strokes.

I'm glad he's not too resistant towards Chinese. In fact, he's showing some good progress in reading as well. Hopefully, brain gym will help him further in the long run.

Stuck In The Sand

CK took the kids to Bishan Park while I cooked dinner. I think they would probably enjoy themselves more if I wasn't around. I was physically not up for outdoors and the heat.

Art Class @ Home (2)

Sophie's Snail

Alfee's Snail

Sister & Brother

Occasionally I would feel very encouraged and touched when I see my kids doing something together so naturally and harmoniously. Today Sophie was playing some simple tunes for Alfee and they were singing together. This is how I have wished they will be as sister and brother.

Active Alfee

End Of Drumstruck For Sophie

We enrolled both kids in Drumstruck some time last year. Sophie wasn't doing very well with our Russian piano teacher so we wanted to change her perception and motivation a little with a different teacher and pop piano. Indeed, she has become less resistant and more keen on playing songs that she likes. In fact, she even starts to show interest in singing.

But we know that pop piano isn't very good for building foundation so it is time to pull her out. Meanwhile she's taking lessons from a very experience piano teacher who comes over every Monday. I know we face a lot of criticism that we change too many teachers and quit enrichment classes too often, but I never believe that blind persistence equate determination. As much as we need to teach our kids not to give up, we need to let them know it's not wrong to quit. It's part and parcel of life, not a matter of life and death.

For whatever it's worth, we are determined to find the right niche for the kids and if something doesn't work out, we just need to ditch and move on. Isn't that resilience? So many people out there are trained musically, but how many truly love their skill and play to be happy? I figure not many. I hope my kids would be more like their dad, truly enjoys music and play for leisure without the worry of a certificate. And he would gladly learn another instrument if he has the time and resources. 

Star Trooper & Us

We were at Orchard Central and bumped into Star Trooper and Spiderman, who just knocked off. They were part of a donation drive for the victims of the earthquake in Nepal.

Art Class @ Home (1)

We engaged Mr Tay Lai Meng to come to our place to teach the kids drawing and painting . We did a trial lesson and the kids like him. He will spend half the lesson on drawing and painting and the other half on crafts. Frankly, the kids enjoyed the craft more. 

Sophie's Cube

Alfee's Cube

Fooling Around In Our Family Car

School Bus Buddies

Sophie's fortunate to have school bus buddies in the mornings. We would gather at our lobby and chit chat while waiting for the school bus. Funny how diverse we are though. Richard is from China and Lashirah is from India. Sadly, Lashirah will be going back to India soon because her dad is changing his job.

It's almost as if we are in an International school. In school, Sophie befriends children from England, Pakistan and Vietnam, of all ages. She's such a strangely sociable girl.

Art Therapy - Coloring

The kids finally took out their Christmas present (huge colouring paper) and sprawled on the floor around to work on it. CK found it therapeutic so he joined in.

So Sunday at ECP

We went cycling and skate scootering at ECP again. The kids always stop at the fitness area to play even though theres nothing suitable for children there at all. I suppose they can always come up with their own games - free play.