Monster

Lil Shauna threw a tantrum at bedtime and refused to go to bed. Tired and angry, I threatened her that the monster will catch her later. Defiantly, she replied, "no such thing"!

Great, my daughter is really growing up and growing out of monsters under the bed and in the closet. No wonder the monsters in Monster Inc had such a hard time learning to be scary monsters. It is indeed not easy to be a monster now. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Kiasu Parents

There are 2 other parents who also perform the every-Wednesday gate duty at a different gate. We have to sign in and out manually whenever we do our duties and the records are kept in a file. Each (set of) parent has a file. All the parents' files who perform the Wednesday gate duty are kept in e same pigeon hole.

Today, while searching for our file to sign in, we saw that we have performed 5 duties so far. Yeah! But the page in the other 2 parents' file is like 3/4 filled. Looks like I am only mildly kiasu in comparison. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Capable Us

Yday, we brought the kids to JP for BK bfast before we headed to church. In the afternoon, we brought the kids to Port of Lost Wonder, Sentosa. We had 2+ hours of great fun in the sun.

We had dinner at Haborfront before we left for home. Right after dinner, Daddy Lim commented that we can definitely survived Taiwan. We are planning a trip on our own to Taiwan in December. 

Daddy Lim is actually saying that we are very capable manning the kids already. Of course we are and it just made things easier now that the kids are older and can communicate now. We survived the 8hrs flight to Gold Coast and the 8 days trip without additional help, what is a 4-hours flight and 7 days in Taiwan. Muahahaha.

Mummy Lin

Water Heater

After working for almost 7 faithful years, our water heater had finally decided to retire. Unfortunately, it didn't serve notice and we are suddenly left with no hot water.

The new water heater installation had been arranged on tomorrow. So, popo had been boiling water for the kids to shower. It was way too cold to shower without the heater or the boiled water. I tried and was jumping and squirming under the shower head. Hmmmm... Didn't we all shower without heater when we were young? Was the weather warmer in those days or our body has gotten used to comfort and couldn't take this little bit of hardship? I think it is the latter.

The kids found scooping and pouring water on themselves to be so interesting. It reminds Daddy Lim and me of the days when we were young. Then, such occurrences only took place when it was raining and really chilly. Otherwise, we stuck to our cold water.

The kids all wanted to scoop and pour water. It must be like some kind of game to them. Suddenly, showering becomes quite fun. Luckily, the excitement started dying down on day-2-without-water-heater. It was quite troublesome to shower this way. I really wanted to just get the kids out of the tiny bathroom with the big bucket ASAP. I wasn't even sure if I had washed away all the shampoo and soap. 

I am so glad that the new water heater is coming tomorrow. Hooray to technology. Hooray to warm water. Hehe, weak mummy.

Mummy Lim

Fat Pig

With all the lunch dates, it is really not doing my waistline any good. Within one month, I saw my weight steadily crept up by 1kg. The 2 cups of coffee daily is not helping too. Worse, I got addicted to eating too and am constantly munching during the weekends. It got to the extend that I cannot bear to look at the reading on the weighing scale. It was that bad. Isn't it ironical that one of my new year resolutions is to lose weight? Well, then again, that item is like a permanent resident on my new year resolution list. Muahaha.

Finally, I decided that it was enough and set my mind on losing at least whatever that I had put on. Losing weight is always painful. And when I have almost no time to exercise, the only way is to cut down on my calories. Food! We have a love-hate relationship and it is so hard to say "no" to food.

I started back on my meal replacement this week. I am less disciplined then when I first started but at least I am not eating 3 full meals. I have definitely not lost all that I am supposed to but at least it isn't that painful now to look at the scale. Hehe. I will work hard. 

Mummy Lim

New Car, Old Car

Daddy Lim has been bugging me to go car "window" shopping with him. I finally obliged on Saturday. Lil Shauna didn't tag along as she was happily playing with the nieces. We only brought the boy and Daddy Lim couldn't be more thrilled. I can look after the son while he does his shopping (read: window shopping) leisurely.

We went for a test drive eventually in one of the Volvo cars. Oops, I don't even know which one. While the sales was explaining the functionalities, I was half trying to listen to her and very much trying to entertain the boy such that he doesn't engage in damaging acts such as leaving his shoe print behind, ripping the leather seat or jump off the car while it was cruising. So, I was busy talking to him and one of the conversations went as follows.

ML: Zaky, if we buy a new car, then you and jiejie cannot eat in the car anymore. Pappy says that we cannot eat in the new car.

LI: Then we buy old car lor.

ML: ....

This boy is pretty creative huh? Haha.

After the test drive, Daddy Lim asked me if the car was as noisy as our Tiggy. What? I only have 2 ears lor. Lol.

So are we buying a new car? Muahahahahaha.. The prices are crazy!

Mummy Lim

On Track

Lil Isaac had a follow-up session with the PD at the NUH Development Center last week. This is following his session with the speech therapist. The PD tested him on his motor skills, his vocabulary, his reasoning and understanding skills.

After the short test, the PD assessed that Lil Isaac is very much on his milestone except for his clarity of speech. She said that he got everything right on her checklist and not many 2+ years old can achieve that. I raised that point that it is so hard to teach Lil Isaac his alphabets and I was told that it is way to early to teach him the A, B, Cs. True? Can't be, I know of kids who know their alphabets way earlier. Lil Shauna knows hers earlier too. 

Anyway, I am just glad that Lil Isaac is on track. Now that his hearing is tested ok, we just need some help on his speech. And I will continue to work on his A, B, Cs. I will sign him up for his phonics when he turns 3yo. Muahahaha.

Mummy Lim

Candy Making

We have been watching various japanese candy making videos on YouTube. Those demonstration videos alway make the candy making seem so easy.

That day, ah yee bought me to this shop in JP and it sold various types of the candy making kit. They aren't cheap, the simpler ones are $8.90 and the more complicated ones are at $11.90 each. Although what we eventually made look quite different from the desired results, the kids had great fun.

Mummy went to buy more for the kids today. We chose 2 at $11.90 each and the sales told us that there is a promotion currently - 5 for $50. Mummy felt a little heartache but still bought 5 nevertheless. Hehehe.

The kids had fun. Ah yee helped. Lil Isaac made gummy bears and they must be quite yummy bcos Lil Isaac was fighting with the rest to eat what he had made. The girls shared and made sushi, which are much more complicated. I think the sushi tasted less nice, but the kids ate them anyway. 

We had great fun. 

Mummy Lim

PV-ing

I am on leave today. My very first since I joined the new company and I am barely one month old and still on probation. I have to serve as PV during the school library week in the morning and have to bring Lil Isaac for his speech therapy in the afternoon. My plan was to leave the house early and go for Mac breakfast before leisurely strolling to the school for duties.

Unfortunately, I overslept. I woke up at about the same time that I have to report for duties and only managed to brush my teeth and changed into something, grabbed my bag and started running. In fact, the kids woke up earlier than I am and I would still be sleeping if Lil Isaac didn't call for me. I almost ran all the way to school and it took me about 15 mins. There was no time to wait for a cab and I had no time to think if there's bus service that goes to the school. I have to admit that the school is not that accessible from our home. There is no direct bus and walking (or running) appears to be the quickest way. I have to start figuring out how to get to the school via bus.

I was half suspecting that my heart might give up on me considering the fact that I haven't exercise for a long while. Midway, I was dragging my feet. When I finally reached the school, I was an embarrassment, panting and perspiring. I bet I looked and smelled bad. Despite all the running, I was 15mins late for my duties.

The duties were really easy, manning a station in the library, handing out worksheets and stuff. I couldn't be more glad to find that the library is aircon. There was an hour break and I walked around the school. The compound is really nice and there are artwork put up everywhere.

I went to the canteen and saw children queuing up for food. The portions are all so small and I started wondering if my princess would dare to buy her own lunch in 2 years' time. 

I also realised that the school uniform is tucked out and it does look really comfortable. The children wore black school shoes and I supposed it means less cleaning since dirty shoes don't show up as prominently. Hehe. I see see hardworking kids but mostly were playing harder. I hear quite a few speaking in their mother tongue though but this is afterall a neighbourhood school. Well, I have good feelings about the school so far.

The thing that really struck me was how the upper primary kids all carried big pencil boxes. It holds their pens, rulers, corrector, calculator, highlighter and plenty more. A new trend I guessed. I wonder how things will be like when our kids are in primary school.

Mummy Lim

He's not Deaf

I forgot to blog about it. Lil Isaac finally passed his hearing test on his 3rd attempt. The specialist said that there is nothing wrong with his hearing. We have one less worry on our plate. It is now only the speech therapy. Phew.

Mummy Lim

To the Movie

We brought the kids to watch Despicable Me 2 with ah yee yday evening. With the minions' clips everywhere, the kids had been asking to go for the movie, especially Lil Isaac, who wanted to watch the "ba ba ba" show (see YouTube on minions to understand).

Lil Shauna thoroughly enjoyed herself. She totally understands the movie now. Daddy Lim just found himself a movie kakis. Lil Isaac was more concerned about when his "ba ba ba" would come on screen and would be so excited that he spotted anyone of them. Well, at least he didn't drag me out of the cinema midway.

The show was pretty good. The kids enjoyed their popcorn and chips too. 

Mummy Lim

Long, Long Time Ago

This morning, Lil Shauna asked to see my wedding pictures. I don't know why the sudden idea. I agreed and lugged out the 2 big albums. Then I realised that the last time that I took out the albums was like years ago. To think that we spent $5k on them then.

It was pretty surreal to be looking at the pictures with my kids. I looked so young and slim then. Lil Shauna asked why I looked so different then. Win already. 

Lil Isaac got upset that he wasn't in the pictures, even when I explained that he wasn't even made then. Lol.

Looks like I should have hide the pictures somemore and take them out to admire with the kids when they are older and more tactful. Lol. Beautiful memories.

Mummy Lim

Addiction

Ever since I joined the new Company, I became addicted to 3 things that I am trying my best to wean on my addictions.

Coffee
This is my least worry.
I am an instant 3-in-1 coffee or Starbucks (read: espresso coffee with milk) person. The traditional kopitiam kopi fails my taste buds. Somehow, my selection of coffee becomes very narrow toonly one brand of instant coffee after I gave birth to Lil Isaac and I could at most take one cup of coffee a day. Going beyond 1 normally gives me a spinning head – caffeine overdose.

We have espresso machines in the office, in the pantry on every floor! These espresso coffees are not cheap and I am very surprised to find them everywhere in the office. And so, I have been enjoying the coffee and taking 2 cups a day. Interestingly, I don’t feel any effects from the caffeine.  I think my threshold has increased and I am addicted. Lol.

Eating Lunches
Late last year, I went into a very disciplined regime of drinking meal replacement for lunch and finally lost 4kgs that I have gained for Lil Shauna and Lil Isaac – 2 kgs each. Since then, I did get off the meal replacement (on and off replacement) but observed eating very little during lunches. Somehow, my body also adjusted to very light lunches and now, normal size lunches made me sleepy in the afternoon.

Since I joined the company, lunch dates are lined up and I have been eating and eating. I can feel my waistline growing and have been constantly fighting my weight. I think the only good thing is that there is minimal snack and I cut down on snacking. I wish I could cut down on the lunches too but the culture here is to talk business over lunches, semi-formally and my boss has “ordered” that I lunched more with colleagues to mingle. Ouch! Love handles!

This addiction is scary. I cannot afford to put back the 4kg. In fact, I was hoping that I lose another kg or 2. Sob. I don’t want to be fat again.

Spending Money
I made the effort to want to dress nicer here. Although I was sloppy then, the others were worse and I didn’t feel that bad. So when I tried to dress up, I realized that I needed to buy so much more to update my wardrobe and had been throwing away many of the ill-fitting and well-worn pieces. I am also trying to learn to accessorize. It is not surprising to find that everything cost $$. I have always been very stingy on myself and I am not used to spending so much $$ and had actually felt bad and guilty.

However, spending $$ is really an addiction. Once I started buying, I couldn’t stop and realized that I am feeling less and less guilty each time I opened my wallet to pay. Oops, somebody stop me! I also had another realization – women will never have enough clothes, shoes and accessories, even when they have used up every single bit of space in their wardrobe. If that happens, what we need is not to stop buying but to buy a bigger wardrobe.Muahahahaha.

Daddy Lim wouldn’t stop me. To him, these are small $$ and he need me to spend so that he has the excuse to spend bigger $$.On a positive note, the economy needs people like me to stimulate the sluggish economy, right? Oh gosh, I feel bad. I need I need retail therapy to chase away the blues. Muahahaha.  

Mummy Lim

 

USS Again!

Where should we go on a Saturday late afternoon with nothing to do? USS! I think we can be their spoke person already. We didn't go USS for a couple of weeks bcos of the haze and more so bcos Daddy Lim complained that he was getting sick of it. Lol. But somehow Daddy Lim agreed to go yday. 

It was really warm yday and we only headed to the park at 3ish. The park was really crowded and we concluded that Sunday is better if we want lesser crowd. Lil Isaac fell asleep on the way to USS and was still napping when we were in the park. We literally strolled in USS and only caught our 1st ride after our Ben and Jerry ice cream to cool down. We had to wake didi up and he wasn't too keen to suddenly find himself in USS. He still resists the rides. We didn't want to force him this time. It is way too embarrassing to end up with a crying kid on the ride. Lol. Most of the rides are scary to Lil Isaac, he was only willing to ride on the merry go round, the flying Dino and the ferris wheel. Everything that goes round and round.

So, we ended in a situation where didi found whatever that jiejie wants to ride to be too scary and jiejie found didi's ride too boring. Many times, Daddy Lim and I had to each take one kid. There was also plenty of waiting since there was no ride (except the ferris wheel) that they were willing to take together. However, we didn't mind. There was no pressure to rush thorough the rides, we can always come back another day.

We stayed until the park closes at 8pm and caught the fireworks too. At the later part of the day, jiejie wanted to catch the transformer ride and the wait time was only 10mins. Daddy Lim caught the ride with her, his very 1st. He too agreed that it was the nicest ride in the park. 

We left after the wonderful firework show. Even though we didn't catch many rides yday, it was still very enjoyable. I still think the annual passes are fantastic investment.

Mummy Lim

Sunday Afternoon

We had intended to go church. However, mummy realised that Popo was attending a wedding lunch and mummy is not as brave as she likes to think she is. So, we stayed at home. Bouncy kids at home is no joke. Keeping them occupied yet not wanting to get too tired (on my part) requires good planning. Haha.

We set up a "house" using chairs and blankets. They were occupied for a while. Then mummy set up an obstacle course in the room but it was way too easy for them and they lost interest quickly. They had 45 mins of iPad. Then we headed downstairs for some scooting and roller blading. It was good.

It is interesting how going round and round the void deck can keep them so happy. They came home hot and sweaty and are now happily dipping in the "bath tub". Muahahaha. I think they will be good playing with bubbles for another 20mins.

We are heading to Auntie H's house in the afternoon. What a happening Sunday. Woohoo!

Mummy Lim

Friday Evening

Daddy Lim has a company dinner tonight. Lil Shauna has phonics at JE and my sil helped to bring her to class. I was told that Lil Isaac didn't go and I had a choice to head back home after work or pick Lil Shauna up after class and head home via mrt. I opted for the latter for 2 reasons.

I have been eyeing a liquid foundation from Forever Makeup and there is Sephora at Jem, JE. I haven't the chance to shop at Jem. I did step into Jem last week and was totally in awe. There is H&M, Marche, Pazzion, Unigloo and a lot more brands that one would find in town and not heartland, somemore in ulu, ulu Jurong. I didn't feel at all like I was in Jurong when I am in Jem. It was wonderful. No need to go town for shopping already. Muahahaha. 

So, I headed to Jem and finally bought my liquid foundation. My very first in my 34 years of life. The set burnt a hold in my pocket but I think it was a good investment. What is this little $$ to look good? Muahahaha.

The 2nd reason was to spend time alone with Lil Shauna. Now, my attention is always split when I am with the kids. What to do since there are 2 of them? So Lil Shauna and I had a nice chat while we took the train home. We didn't talk about anything in particular but simply chat about what happened at home and in school. The conversation was very enjoyable. My jiejie grow up already. Too fast, too fast!

Mummy Lim

Start of our PV-ing...

School starts and so did our PV duties. We signed up for the weekly gate duty. Basically, one of us has to "watch" one of the side gates from 6.20pm to 6.50pm every Wednesday during school term. Even if both of us turned up for the duty, it is still considered as clocking only half an hour.

For gate duties, we are supposed to make sure that the parents and guardians do not enter the school. By 6.50pm, students who are still waiting at the gate for their parents/ guardians are to be brought to the security. Daddy Lim says that he feels like a bouncer. I think he can easily pass off as one too. Muahaha.

I think there are 40 weeks in a school year, so this will help us to clock 20 of the required 40 hours. The rest will come from ad hoc events that usually take place during office hours and we have to take leave to do such duties.

Well, I supposed these are the sacrifices that we have to do for our kids. Putting things in a positive light, it will also help us to understand the school better and help us to decide if WGPS is really suitable for our kids. It better be, after we spend 40 precious hours doing duties. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Spelling and Ting Xie

School starts! And Lil Shauna came home with her very 1st list of spelling and ting xie. I was worried. These will be additional weekly words that she has to learn on top of her phonics spelling.

However, I burst out laughing when I saw the 1st list of 4 words for next week - "can, man, van, pan". Words that she can easily spell using phonics. No sweat at all. She didnt even need to learn them. She is learning much more difficult words such as "without, couldn't, between, through, though, thought" in her phonics class now. Ting xie is something new though and we probably has to spend some effort on that. 

I am proud of my big girl. Soon, it will be didi's turn. We are going to sign him up for phonics when he turns 3 year old this October. Poor teacher will probably pull hair like what we did. Lol.

Mummy Lim

End of School Holiday

Finally, the school holidays are over and the kids are going back to school tomorrow. I bet Popo is over the moon. Putting 5 kids together the whole day is no joke. They are constantly running around, shouting and at times fighting and bickering. It is good that they are going back to school. They need an outlet for their never-ending energy. 

Today, the last day of school holiday, we brought the kids to the zoo. It had been a while since we went to the zoo. We bought the uss annual pass recently and we got distracted. It is much more fun to go to uss that the zoo in mummy's perspective. It is also tougher to push kids in stroller in the zoo with the many up and down hill. Hehe.

We were pleasantly surprised to find Polar Bear's new home ready. His home is huge and there is only one bear. He had a nice treat of huge ice cubes thrown into his pool and we saw him swimming around, hugging a big chunk of ice. The bear does know how to enjoy himself.

Then we headed to the children's water playground and visited the animals along the way. The kids had a good hour of fun at the playground. Lil Isaac is a big boy already. There is now no need to follow him closely as he climbs up and goes down the slide. Using eye power is good enough most of the time. And we see him went up and down countless times.

We left the park at about 6pm

. The kids were happy. Must be a good way to end the school holidays. Hurray, back to school!

Mummy Lim