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

Just Lucky?

Just when I blogged that Lil Shauna has got the hang of spelling, she came back with 8 out of 15. Faint. But I have to justify that most of it are careless mistakes.

This week is another 15 words and I hope that it would be too hard to get them into her. She's practicing her reading now and I think she has made great improvements. So proud of her.

Mummy Lim

Sun Cruise

I think I joined the company at the right time. It is the end of the fiscal year and my boss wanted a gathering to celebrate and to rub shoulders with the new comers (me and a few others) . A sun cruise was organised. It was basically a speed boat that cruises on the sea for 4 hours. We met and set off from One 15 degree at Sentosa Cove. Way too cool, right? I have never been on a yatch and was pleasantly surprised at what awaited me.

Sentosa Cove was surprisingly huge. It was a part of Sentosa that I have never been before and I was very shocked that Sentosa is this big. Actually, it didn't feel like Sentosa at all. It is very residential. Yet, with all the yatches parked in front of the condos, it didn't even feel like part of Singapore. It was weird. Well, this is afterall a "neighbourhood" for the really rich, so it is right that I feel weird. I heard that an unit at Sentosa Cove can cost $12 million! Definitely not for the ordinary Singaporeans. I saw many ang mos and maids walking the boss' dogs. 

I was behaving totally like a mountain tortoise, busily snapping pictures. I was so excited to see Manoko, the boat that we would be taking. It is a small boat that can take only 10 passengers. It was a really neat boat. Unfortunately, I got so excited after I boarded the boat that I forgot to take more pictures.

The captain drove the boat to St John island and we berthed at the island. The ride was pretty bumpy and I was at times worried that i would be sea sick. Luckily, i didnt. 

We picnic at the island as the captain had forgotten to prepare our drinks and was turning back to retrieve. We had an "unique" picnic on a pathway that we could find, fighting off ants and dont know what in the diminishing daylight. We were so glad to go back to the ship when it finally come back half an hour later. It was a potluck event and there were so much food.

We further cruised and parked in front of Sentosa to catch the fireworks from the Song of the Seas.  It was really nice to be sitting at the front of the boat, enjoying the sea breeze and chatting. Four hours went by really quickly. I was at times worried for Daddy Lim - he had to tuck the 2 kids to bed without me. But I know he can handle them. We brought them to vivo city with nainai before I left for the event and he brought them to nainai's place thereafter. I guessed that the worse would probably be somebody got whacked. Muahahaha.

Overall, the cruise event turned out much better than expected. There were awkward silences at times. They are afterall colleagues and I don't know them that well. Moreover, our boss was there and how close can we be to our boss? However, the cruise was brilliant and it made up for all shortcomings. I heard that 4 hours' cruise cost the company $2k. Woohoo!

There are many rich people on Singapore. Other than those who lived in Sentosa Cove, we also met the others who went cruising. For some, it looked like they actually owned the boat! Unbelievable. 

Mummy Lim

One Headache, then Another

Three weeks ago, Lil Shauna got 8 out of 10 words correct for her spelling. The following week, she got perfect score! Last week, spelling was increased to 15 words and she got 12 right. I hope that she is not just lucky or cheating (worse!) but really getting it.

When I was teaching her the new list of 15 words this week, she seems to get them easier. Maybe it is really an age thing?!! We were struggling so badly when she first started spelling and I almost vomited blood. She was about 4.5 years old then. Now, almost one year older, she suddenly got it? 

Anyway, I didn't have much issue with Lil Shauna's learning. She is attentive and learns well. I think she is on track and I guess she probably wouldnt give me too much of a headache academically in the future. Crossed fingers and toes.

Now, we are worrying about the boy. He could barely sit still. We have been trying to teach him the alphabets for weeks and we are still stuck with A, B, C, I, O, S and T. I think it will take us forever to teach him all 26 letters. Then there is the lower case and phonics sound!!! The thought is already too intimidating, let alone the actual work. 

He just couldn't concentrate. Most of the time, he would be playing a fool and refused to learn. It is really painful trying to be patient to a monkey. So, we have been trying to reward him with iPad time. If he can recall the letters, he is allowed iPad time. I hope the rewards work.

Talking about the iPad, I think the kids are addicted. The TV is bad enough but the iPad is worse. The apps allow the kids to interact with the iPad and one YouTube leads to another and another. Lil Shauna can play for hours when she is given the iPad. It is not healthy and I have to hide the iPad to prevent Popo from using it as a babysitting tool when she hurries about her chores. The kids actually threw tantrums when I first stopped the iPad, it was like they suffered from withdrawal symptoms but things are much better now. iPad time is now used as a reward and the kids know that they have to earn it. Hehe.

Mummy Lim

New or Culture?

It had only been my first week and my first weekend. I feel great when I don't see many emails coming in during the weekend. I hope that this is the way that it is here, that people usually do not work on weekends and thus there will minimal emails or calls coming in. I hate how I am supposed to check emails and respond during weekends in the past. Or the horrible feeling that work had accumulated over the weekend and is waiting to pound on me on Monday morning. I wish there will be none (or at least little) of those here.

I still feel good. There are still loads of reading to be done and my calendar is still packed with people meeting. However, I have to get on top soon. I had been behind time. Jia you!

Mummy Lim