Zaky is Baptised too!

One year ago, Nana out of the blue asked if she can be baptised. I don’t know why she thought I would disagree. Of course I was thrilled. For a 1st generation Christian parent, there is no bigger joy than for their kids to find a personal relationship with the Lord; not be a Christian bcos they are borne into a Christian family but choosing the Lord as their personal saviour bcos they really believe in Him. Praise the Lord. 

I read my blog post on Nana’s baptism and saw that I had asked Zaky if he would be baptised too. He wasn’t ready then and said that he would see if God would speak to him.

Fast forward 1 year later and Zaky came with the same good news. He wanted to be baptised in CNL too. Of course I am supportive and just as overjoyed. 

His baptism was on Easter Sunday, just like jiejie. Daddy Lim and I attended the service and were much more prepared for the long service, as did 1 year ago with Nana. The schedule was similar and started off with videos of the people who would be baptised. 

I duno why Zaky had crazy hair for his video. lol. It was pretty touching though. 

The worship went on for a long time, for as long as it took to baptise all 12 of them. Finally, it was Zaky’s turn. 

Again, the pastor said a lot to him.

With his wet clothes and all, he went to hug jiejie, who obviously didn’t share his hugging enthusiasm. lol. He went off to change but shortly texted that he had forgotten a change of underwear. Luckily, there was a supermarket next to the church and we bought him disposable underwear.

All “clean and dry”. Haha.

Zaky was awarded a certificate. The pastor said that it is his house deed in heaven. I hope it is a big house. 

The service ended with holy communion and also worship. 

Yes, Zaky is baptised too! Praise the Lord for choosing the kids to be His children and touching their hearts. May Zaky continue to seek God and strengthen his walk with the Lord. May the Lord bless him with abundance and surround him with God fearing people to aid his growth. 

Mummy Lim

I Got My Shot ✌️

Whoever in our household can jab already jabbed le. The only one left is Zaky who has to wait 2 years or clinical tests to finally allow jabs for child. 

Popo was the 1st in the household to take the vaccine. There was initially loads of hesitations. She came over to the light when she realised that vaccination is likely to be the key to travel, including cruises. Nothing stops her from going on her cruises. 

Daddy Lim got his 2nd jab 2 weeks back, Lil Shauna had hers on Sunday and I closed the file y'day. Yay, 80% of the household is now 95% protected!

None of us came down with fever. The only complaint was sore arm. I thought my 2nd jab was less painful. Maybe I got a more skilled staff, who reminded me to breathe. Lol. While the injection was less painful, the arm sore seems to set in faster and more intense this time. I had problems trying to tie my hair last night. Hoho. 

Next step? No strenuous exercise for 1 week! I don't even remember when was the last time I went a week without exercising. It must have been years! Even on holidays, we went hiking and stuff. Speaking of which, the cycling friends who took the jabs much earlier were joking about how they worked out straight after their jabs then bcos of the lack of advisory. #Socheated

Mummy Lim

New Routines

With the start of the new year, we started our new routines. We stopped the kids LCentral classes; we had been loyal customers since the kids were like 3.5 YO. My mum thought I was crazy to pull the stunt when Lil Shauna is in her PSLE year but I had been contemplating for a while. The kang tang kias do fine in English and LCentral appeared to be teaching and revising the same thing. Time and money can be put to better use, like their Chinese tuition. Haha. Lil Shauna is still with her Chinese tutor and we just switched Zaky's Chinese tutor. Finger crossed.

As a result, the kids now attend one more day of student care. I like that they are better utilising the monthly student care fees though they don't quite agree. Sorry, not sorry.

Popo used to go to school to fetch the kids on days that they return home despite us telling her not to. The boy is always a handful but he will have to learn somehow especially when jiejie leaves for Sec 1 next year. The kids have now upgraded to taking bus home themselves. Well, things are so good so far and I haven't heard much complaints from Lil Shauna.

I have now upgraded to work in atas Raffles Place and also head to the subsidiary office at AMK once a week. This must be one of the biggest adjustments that we had to make. I no longer send the kids to school with Daddy Lim or have bfast with him before work. It makes sense to hop onto the train at Boon Lay and I get to leave the house later. We realised how much we missed having bfast together, where we often catch up with each other. Just the other day, Daddy Lim was telling me that we no longer know what is happening in each other's lives. Sob. I felt so foreign stepping in the car only during weekends.

Bcos my day also ends later, the burden of picking the kids from student care falls solely on Daddy Lim. It is seriously stressful but fortunately, the kids now can take the public bus home in the event that Daddy Lim had to miss them. There is no way that I can grab a taxi from Raffles Place and be in time at last minute notice. Ok, even if many minutes' notice, it also wouldn't work.

The daily commute is a drag. On rare good days, I get a seat on the MRT and it is a blessing especially if I have my laptop with me. It takes me about 50 mins to get to the Raffles Place office. It takes me a train and a bus ride to the AMK office, requiring 1.5 hours but fortunately the northbound train starts at JE, guaranteeing a seat. Now that I take the train, I started noticing how many strange commuters there are. Blame it on my perfect eyesight and roving eyes but I have seen my fair share of strange messages on people's phone. Lol. They are really, really strange. 

Trying to find the most efficient/ comfortable way to commute to office had been my mission for the last few weeks. I was told that there is a sharetransport bus (somewhat like grab shuttle that has exited). For $6 one way, I get a confirm seat on the bus from JW to Raffles Place. Woohoo! I tried it once and while I get a seat (on one of those big buses), the pickup point is about 15 mins walk from our place. I haven't decide if that is the best way ahead.

Alright, that marks our new adventures for now.

Mummy Lim

New Adventures 2020

This picture is so late.
Just like every other mother who must take a customary picture of their kids on the 1st day of school, I did likewise.

Fb also prompted me the 1st day of school picture taken 1 year back. 

I thought they looked about the same and am glad that Zaky wasn't like 2x his P3 size. Hahaha. The school holiday is not doing his waistline good.

This would be a challenging year with Lil Shauna doing the big PSLE, which she no doubt viewed as the biggest challenge in her 12 years of life. As expected, I am dancing the gan cheong spider dance alongside. Hoho. At least we got things started and she had listed down all the Science and Maths topics and timeline to cover. Now, it is about the question of whether she would execute. I don't want to nag and would do my best to only *gently remind*. If all go with plan, she would have covered all topics by end May 2020. Yay.

We had also decided to stop the kids' English enrichment despite Lil Shauna impending PSLE. We thought that time and money can be put into more important areas. As a result, the kids would be spending more time in the student care much to their protests. Hear no evil.

I am stepping into a new adventure myself and had embarked on a new career. While still in the same profession, my workplace has been "upgraded" to atas Raffles Place. Truth be told, after spending almost my entire working life in Tuas, it is a huge adjustment. This definitely called for a wardrobe upgrade and I lugged the entire family to Ikea over the weekend to buy a full length mirror.

The commute to work now takes about 50  mins by train but I am on my 2 feet the entire way. I should explore the many shared shuttle available though at a higher price but at least a guaranteed seat.

The smart thermal flask from my ex-colleagues accompanied me on my new adventure. I now have hot coffee at the desired temperature the whole time. This is an absolutely wonderful gift.

I had my 1st lunch in the CBD today and realised that other than $$, the tissue paper is the next most important thing. The tissue paper chomping culture is so real.

It was a sight to see so many people during lunch hour, a skill to spot empty seats (not even table) and an experience to sit shoulder to shoulder with strangers who would share table.

This would be an exciting and busy year. Yay!

Mummy Lim

Couple Tattoo

I had been toying with the idea of a couple tattoo for a long time. Daddy Lim being the tattoo frenetic, will definitely be gamed if I bring up the idea. I was careful not to raise his hopes. I did briefly speak about it on several occasions but never too seriously. After thinking over and over and over (it is permanent ink afterall), I finally brought up the idea - our perfect anniversary gift. The date was nailed - 16 Apr 18, one day right after our 12 years' anniversary. Yay!

In the last few weeks, we started researching on couple tattoo design. It wasnt easy; it had to be something that we both like. The common ones that came up on google are lock and key, jigsaw puzzle, king and queen crowns, sun and moon. We also explored identical tattoos. The possibilities are basically endless and the sky is the limit. Then, there is the question of the size of the tattoo and where to tattoo. In my initial thought, it was meant to be a small, cute little one, somewhere on the hand.

As we google and searched we were able to narrow down to the idea of a "connected" tattoo. We eventually agreed on a rocket for me and an astronaut for him. Cute right? Hehe. While I am totally comfortable with a 2cm by 2cm tattoo, Daddy Lim would probably opt for one to cover his own back if he could. Lol. Given that the tattoos will no longer be mini-sized, we decided on the back of our ankle/ calf, so that the rocket and astronaut will be side by side when we walk. Aiyo, so lovey dovey. Melt already.

It was Daddy Lim's job to look for a tattoo artist bcos I have totally no idea where to start. He was more enthusiastic than usual and found one in Chinatown who bothered to reply to his email. That sealed the deal.

We arrived at the tattoo palour at about 2.30pm and we were surprised to see how young and pretty she is. We started discussing about the design and the size, which was determined largely by the amount of pain. Lol. That has always been my main focus.

This was the rocket design that we found on the internet and sent to the artist.  Based on the concept, she designed something similar but much nicer. Hehe.

She made some final tweaks to include a milky way to both our design to "connect" the 2 tattoos. Then the agreed design was stencil to the decided part. Following which, the nightmare started.

I remembered that tattooing was painful; I just cannot remember how painful it really was. I had to lie down on my stomach for the artist to work on the tattoo. It was very PAINFUL. Sob. Daddy Lim had initially raised the question of numbing cream but I thought it was too sissy to even mention it. I should have opted to be a sissy.

After like forever, the artist took a smoke break and I was devastated to see that the outline was barely completed. Sob. This was how it looked like. I didnt remember the last 2 tattoos taking so long but this artist was really detailed. Her lines were really clean.

I could opt to leave it with the outline or to color it. While Daddy Lim was super encouraging about having a full color, I told him that I would decide after the outline had been completed. Maybe I would have fainted by then. Lol.

Ok lah, truth be told, I could still smile and talk though I much preferred to not be disturbed so that I could concentrate on bearing with the pain. Haha.

Eventually, we compromised for a partial colouring. I had thought that the worse was over when the outline was completed but I was so utterly wrong. The color was the ultimate. Sob! It was like 3x the pain. I was literally clenching my fist and reminding myself to breath, as if going through labor pain. No joke! Daddy Lim said that I had low pain threshold. I almost shed tears of joy when it was finally done - 2 over hours of agony! Luckily, I didnt do a full colour in.

Afterwhich, it was Daddy Lim's turn. This was the stencil.

By the time the artist started working on Daddy Lim, it was almost 6pm. We were initially hoping to leave the palour at 7pm but the outline was barely done by 6.45pm. I decided to take a grab hitch home to the kids, leaving Daddy Lim to suffer alone.

Half way done.

Tadah! He was done only at 9pm. It was the right choice to leave 1st.

When he was home, he too relate how bloody painful the tattooing was. Hahaha. Especially the coloring part. I know right. So much so for teasing me about low pain threshold I have and not brave enough to do a full color. Hahaha.

This was how our tatoo look like this morning. Lil Shauna helped with the picture. Hehehe.

Totally awesome, right? Hehehe. The only upset part is that nobody asked me about my new tattoo in the office today. Lol.

Mummy Lim