She's Back

For those who were asking me if Aunty Nia was back ? Yes she is. Her flight was suppose to be landed on 11 Dec 10 p.m. but the flight number was changed and the timing too. She flew from Semarang and reached Jakarta at about 5+ p.m. and she had to wait in transit for about 5 hours. Her flight landed Singapore at 12.35 a.m. Talk about the efficiency of Indonesia. The whole journey could have been 2 hours - 1 hour from Semarang to Jakarta and another 1 hour from Jakarta to Singapore. That goes to show why Indonesia is still very much a developing country... *sigh* Anyway, Aunty Nia was smart enough to sms me to inform me of the change when she was in Jakarta. We checked the teletext and left the house at about 11 p.m, putting the sleeping Phoebe in the pram. We were hoping that both of them would be sleeping in the two prams so that we could have a nice cup of tea at the airport while waiting for the flight to arrive. However, Reuben was awake, the minute we carried him out of the bed. In the end, we just had a quick tea break at the Killiney Coffee stopover in Terminal 1 because Reuben did not want to sit still. He wanted to walk about. We returned home at about 1.25 a.m. and Phoebe was still sleeping, all the way to the next morning. She's an easy baby :)

Life is easier now, with Aunty Nia around... *a sigh of relief...*

Sentence Formation With Word Cards

In the beginning of the year, I copied down some of the common sight words in Phoebe's readers onto cards. I had wanted to flash the word cards so as to help her to recognise some of the sight words and to retain them in her memory. Phoebe is able to read some of these sight words. So what I did this holiday was to use the word cards to form into sentences and get her to read. I also tried to encourage her to form her own sentences using these cards. She did manage to form a few sentences although some were rather nonsensical, which was a deliberate attempt on her part. But I'm glad that at least she knows some sentence structures. This will help in her word order in future. The cards are limited because I was rather lazy to copy down the words from the rest of her readers (I've stopped copying after Term 1 :p). I think I should carry on in making these word cards, seeing how much she enjoys playing with them. Maybe next time I should get her to copy down the sight words onto the cards herself. Haha :) Easy way out for me :p

Phoebe reading the sentences that I have formed

Phoebe creating her own (nonsensical) sentences

Jigsaw Puzzles Again

Another jigsaw puzzle solved by Phoebe. It's giant size, big enough for half of her body. It's 30 pieces and not too difficult. She enjoys piecing them up :)

I Love Jigsaw Puzzles

Recently, Phoebe was taken an interest in fixing Jigsaw Puzzles. Finally, I can take out all the puzzles which I had bought over the years for her to fix. They range from 12-40 pieces. Phoebe loves to solve them and she has tried all the existing puzzles that we have. She would fix them and then scramble them up and re-fix them again. Yesterday, she fixed a giant jigsaw puzzle which was handed down by one of my colleagues. It was a very good set with solid pieces and they were "Made in England". Most Jigsaw puzzles are made in China. In fact, everything is made in China these days. Anyway, I'm glad that she has this interest in jigsaw puzzling because it takes quite a lot of patience to fix it. It also helps to train the eye coordination and the fine motor manipulation. It is also a quiet hobby. Phoebe is too noisy a girl. It's good that she cultivate some composure. Seal of approval! I guess I will be spending more money on jigsaw puzzles soon! :)

The Bar*** Performances

Sunday was a performance marathon day. First, we went to Raffles City at 3+ p.m. thinking that we went to catch the Barbie performace at 4 o'clock, only to realise that the Barbie performance was at 7 p.m. The 4 p.m. session was for Meet-and-Greet. So, we quickly zoomed to United Square to catch the Barney performance which was at 5 p.m.

We reached United Square at 4.05 p.m. and there was already a large crowd queueing up. We decided not to queue up but to watch from a distance. We could still catch a good view because Barney and friends are very big and our spot was just behind the baracade. The Barney performance was great! It was worth waiting for 45 minutes. My two children were totally engrossed although they were fussing initially. Phoebe wanted to buy the giant Barney helium-filled balloon and her papa bought for her ($12.90! Ouch!) When Reuben saw it, he wanted it too. Papa said, "This time, you get for Reuben." But Reuben was happily settled with a small Barney balloon which comes with a stick. ($3.90 only. Phew! Haha).

After the 25-minute Barney performance, we zipped off to Raffles City again. We reached there at about 5.45 p.m. and quickly settled our dinner in the foodcourt. We fed the children and ourselves and at 6.40 p.m. we were at the queue for the Barbie performance. The response for the Barbie performance was not as overwhelming. The queue was pretty short as compared to the Barney's show. I guess Barbie is more of a girl's thing while Barney is more unisexual appealling. We got quite a good spot to sit. It was also a great performance, very captivating for the children. But I thought I was intoxicated! Everything was so pink, not the baby demure pink but the shocking loud pink! Can you believe it, even one of the songs were entitled "Think Pink" ! And I thought the cast, the whole idea was so bimbo-ish! :p But the music was good, the dance was great. The children were memorised. Reuben enjoyed himself very much. He was very still and focused. Phoebe, needless to say, loved the pinkiness.

Worth all the zipping. Quite an adventurous day. Fun but adrenalin rushing. Not for the weak-hearted. Haha :)

The giant Barney balloon was even taller than Reuben!




Who said Barbie is for the little girls? Our little boy loves it too. He was memorised by the blond babe.


Ken's face looked so waxed and plastic. Barbie, pinky.

Christmas in T3

I love Christmas. It is a day widely celebrated in Singapore. I love the fact that everywhere we go, the places are beautifully adorned with Christmas decorations.

We went to T3 after finding out about the 'Big-Christmas-Ball-that-drops-sweets-through-pipes'. I personally find that it was quite a disappointment because the sweets that they dropped through the pipes were so few and they are all mint which little children do not like to eat. They should have a variety of candies such as chocolates, toffees, mint bugs, small packs of jelly beans etc. Anyway, Phoebe did not get the "pink" ping pong ball because all the rest of the bigger kids were too rough. She only managed to pocket a few sweets and was very disppointed to find them too minty for her liking. Seeing her disappointed face, I decided to go to The Cocoa Trees nearby to get her some nice chocolates. Then we went to the other side of the departure hall.

There was a huge bouncy castle. We had to queue for about 25 mins to enter the bouncy castle but it was worth it. Phoebe really enjoyed herself bouncing up and down and sliding down the castle. I thought the crowd control was good, they only limit a few children into the castle each time and the play time per child was about 10-15 minutes. No footwear was allowed and everyone going into the castle had to sanitise their hands. I thought they should sanitise their feet too. Haha :) Have I told you I'm a hygiene freak too? ;)

Surely Changi Airport can provide cute chocolates like these right? Anyway, these chocolates are a ripped off! Each of them cost 95 cents and Phoebe was happily putting them into the plastic bags. I had to secretly take some of them out of the bag before payment. In the end, we bought only 5 pieces (out of the 10 pieces which she had chosen - which would have cost me $9.50! Ouch!)



She just loved to bounce! It's worth waiting for.

A Happy Cleaner

Everyday, I will clean the floor, dry and wet. I'm a neat freak. I cannot allow the floor to be dusty, especially when I have two young children running, sitting and lying on the floor all the time. And Reuben likes to drag his yellow blankie all over the house, even into the toilet. So while I do the wet cleaning, Phoebe volunteers to do the dry wiping using the Magic Clean wiper. She likes to push the wiper around. I let her do that because it trains her to be more responsible and it will also let her know that cleaning is not easy. She does not do a thorough job and I've to always re-wipe it again with the Magic Clean wiper. But it is a good effort on her part. She has also learnt to put away her toys after playing, though not all the time. We will always praise her when she cleans up. :)

A Trolley of Children

We went to Tampines Ikea for dinner and to get a new lamp shade as our old one was torn when the children accidentally hit it with a ball while playing. We'll usually get a trolley to put the two of them in it to prevent them from running around in Ikea. We put two cushions for them and they decided to lie on the cushions and snuggle close to each other. They were quite comfy. It was a funny sight :)

Playground with Mommy

Life has been good and manageable though we didn't have Aunty around to help us. The children were pretty well behaved and cooperative when they only have mommy with them. Every morning, I would fixed their breakfast, prepare their porridge for lunch. get changed out of their pyjamas and then we would head down to the playground in our estate. There are 3 to choose from. Reuben will be pushed in his tricycle while Phoebe rides her own tricycle independently. We would stop by the playground to play for about 15-20 minutes, then the children will return home to shower and have their lunch. Our mornings are quite routine, which is good because the children can anticipate what will happen next. So this will minimise the fussings which is good for me and them. :)

They have so much energy and love all the running and climbing. They will really sweat it out, which is good exercise for them. It's also a good time for the two of them to bond. After lunch, they will be tired (at least for Reuben) and they would take a longer nap. They looked so tired and sweaty in the second picture. Phoebe's hair is all over the place but Reuben's will always look neat and tidy. Haha :)

Phoebe's Family

This is Phoebe's recent drawing of her family. It consists of Mommy (in a green dress because it is mommy's favourite colour), Didi Reuben (very small), Papa, Auntie Nia (who is very brown, hence in a darker shade of beige) and Phoebe (who loves to have long hair and is wearing a pink dress).

Follow Jesus Christ

This is a backdated video recording of Phoebe in her recent school concert in SKMCC. All the children gathered together to sing a finale song, "Follow Jesus Christ". I felt so proud of Phoebe and all the little children. They're simply great! (^_^)b

Penmanship

Phoebe already knows how to write her numbers from 1-10 and her alphabet in capital letters. She can write most of the alphabet in small letters. For this holiday, I intend to get Phoebe to practise on her penmanship. I always feel that penmanship is very important. I have come across many pupils who do not have good penmanship. They would write their capital letters below the line, e.g. their capital letter J and small letter j will both be written below the line. This will result in untidiness and marks lost in punctuation. I try to get Phoebe to write 2 sentences per day. Sometimes, when she is in the mood for writing, she will write 3 to 4 sentences. But in her lousy days, she will only write one. I am getting her to scribe sentences starting with the stem "I am ..." so that indirectly, it will drum into her the Subject-Verb agreement rule of "I + am".

I also hope to teach Phoebe how to write her Chinese name. Each character has only 3-4 strokes. I have not started teaching her how to write her Chinese name yet. Hopefully, she will be able to write her own Chinese name by the end of December (^_^)b

Phoebe is also able to do simple addition sums (e.g. ___ + ____ = _____ without renaming). I will try to teach her how to do simple subtraction sums (e.g. ____ - ____ = ____).

Her school has also given her some worksheets to be completed. I thought it was good. We can all work together to keep the children occupied with meaningful activities. :)

Food Chain

A chain effect!
I feed Phoebe, Phoebe feeds Reuben :)

Our Independent Days

Aunty Nia has gone back to Indonesia, Semarang, for her 15-day vacation. Actually, her 2-year contract will only end in April 2010 but it will be inconvenient for her to go back in April because I will still be working. So I thought that I will let her go back earlier. Actually, she has been in Singapore for about 27 months already. We were the third family she has worked for. The first 2 rejected her and returned her to the agency (for whatever the reason, we do not know). Hence, when we chose her, she was a transfered maid and we were actually taking a huge gamble to employ her. We chose her because we saw her in real person. We interviewed her and she could speak English pretty well, having being stayed in Singapore for almost seven months. She does has her share of nonsense (which I don't wish to mention because anyone would have sent her back if they had known about her nonsense) but the most important thing is that, she loves my 2 children and she's pretty good in housework and she's teachable and has a good learning attitude.

She sms-ed me to ask about us and the kids. I felt touched that she does remember the kids although she is back home. Phoebe kept asking me about her Aunty Nia. She doesn't understand that Indonesia is very far away. She asked me, "Mommy, why Aunty Nia go back so long and haven't come back yet?" I've to explained to her that Aunty Nia's home is very far away and she cannot come back so quickly. When Phoebe sees me folding or hanging the clothes, again, she will ask me why Aunty Nia didn't come back to fold/hang the clothes. I asked her if she liked Aunty Nia. She gave me a shy smile and said yes. I asked her if Aunty Nia has ever scold or beat her or Didi Reuben before. She smiled and said no. I am glad that Aunty Nia has been kind to the children. Whenever the children are naughty and did not want to bathe, she would try to lure them into the bathroom. When we go to the supermarket, she would take her initiative and bring jackets for the children, in case they feel cold. She has cooked porridge for the children for 20 months and never once, have we found any fish bone in it. She has the patience to spoon-feed Reuben his milk every night and Reuben is a naughty-eater. Reuben addressed her as "Na" and Phoebe said affectionately that Aunty Nia is very brown.

I've asked Aunty Nia if she wants to come back after her trip home. She told me yes, but I didn't want to take her word for it, knowing that many maids have promised to be back home and yet did not fulfill their promises. Anyway, I have bought a return air ticket for her. I've told her that to be fair to me, she has to let me know earlier if she has no intention of coming back, so that I can have ample time to look for another helper. Anyway, if she does come back, I'm glad. If she doesn't, I would think that it's very foolish of her because we have been good to her. Well, unless she has other difficulties. Anyway, She is suppose to be back on the 11 December. Let's see if she'll be back :)

When Aunty Nia is not around, Phoebe volunteered to feed her Di-di Reuben. I thought she has done a great job!



I'm glad that Phoebe has matured quite a bit these few days. She would volunteer to put the clothes pegs for me when I am hanging the laundry. She would remove Reuben's shoes when we come back from outing. She would also watch out for his brother and alert me when Reuben wandered off. She would say, "Mommy, di-di has walked away already. Quick mommy. Hurry up catch di-di. Later di-di gets lost!" She would also let her brother have a go if he wants to play with her toys. (^_^)

What about papa? Papa has been most helpful during this period. He is very patient with the children, feeding Reuben porridge and spoon-feeding him his milk every night! When I shower the children, he would volunteer to moisturise and dress them. He will even wash the utensils when I'm busy tending to the children and make my Anlene milk for me every morning :) Three cheers for Papa!

So, can we do without a maid ? Technically, we can. But when we go back to work, my parents probably cannot because they are growing old and my mom needs more rest. We do feel tired fussing over the two little children. My parents will feel even more exhausted watching them for the whole day. As parents, our children will listen to us when we speak with authority over them, but with grandparents, I very much doubt that they will be just as obedient towards them.

Anyway, I'm enjoying my days with the two children. Till Aunty Nia comes back, we just have to work a little harder in taking care of our own children :)

Another Head Gear

Phoebe received another customised sweet hair band from Yi-yi (my sister) for her birthday. Last year, she received her first customised tiara from her too. Lovely presents :) Phoebe loves it much! :)

This year's hair band Vs last year's tiara :)

What's Our Height?

We used the measuring scale found in every MRT station to gauge the children's height. Phoebe is about 103 cm tall and Reuben is almost 80 cm. If he grows 10 cm taller, he'll need to get his own personal Ezlink card :) Phoebe has already started using her own Ezlink card since she was about 3 years old. We don't mind getting them their own Ezlink cards because it is rather cheap to travel using MRT in Singapore. For children, it's only 50 cent per trip, regardless of the distance travelled and the children enjoy tapping their cards to be scanned at the gantry. :)

Reuben's Giggling Laughter

We brought Phoebe and Reuben to Xiao Ci's birthday party. It is one of the best parties I've attended. There were face painting, magic show and yummy food for the children. My two children enjoy themselves very much. The magic show was very entertaining, even Reuben kept giggling himself silly :) Phoebe has a beautiful princess and butterfly picture drawn on her hand. Too bad, silly mommy forgot to bring her camera along, couldn't take pics of the nice drawings and we did not even take a picture with the birthday girl and her pretty pink cake. The adults felt very much at ease too, eating and drinking and chit-chatting. A very fun and comfortable birthday celebration! :) Thank you Auntie Jessy! :)

I Walk By Faith

This is Phoebe's concert performance with her class : Joy 1. The title of their performance was "I Walk By Faith".

Phoebe's SKMCC Concert

Phoebe had her school graduation concert on 7 November, Saturday. The concert started at 10 a.m. but the children had to reach school by 9.30 a.m. for make-up. It was an excellent concert and we could not help but teared when we see all the little children marching in. My throat was tight and I had to fight to swallow my tears in. It was a very touching moment. We grinned from ear to ear. Phoebe and her classmates performed an item entitled "I walked by Faith". In the grand finale, the children sang "Follow Jesus Christ". The school has an excellent instructional programme and every achievement of the children are celebrated. The teachers and principal are very kind and loving.

We're very proud of Phoebe and is very glad that she is growing well academically and spiritually in such a loving and kind environment! :)

Do you remember Dr. Moo from NIE (the lady in pants on the right)? She was my lecturer for one of the teaching subjects. Apparently, she is one of the school advisors in SKMCC committee.


Phoebe's Chinese teacher, Zou lao shi and her Form teacher, Ms Hoe.


Her little friends, Ezann, Mae, Phoebe, Alycia and Hui Sze. One of her art work done in school.

Bedtime Stories

Usually before bedtime, the Phoebe will get to listen to two to three stories while Reuben latched on to sleep. But recently, Reuben has developed an interest in reading bedtime stories too. He will take a book and pretend to read by babbling. Sometimes, Phoebe gets annoyed because she thought that di-di is disturning her, especially that he 'reads' very loudly. But other nights, Phoebe will play along and guide his brother to pretend to read by helping him to flip the pages. :) Reuben is reading Auntie KF's HOP on POP book. He likes that book very much. :)

What's Reuben Saying Now?

At 20 months, how is Reuben's verbalization of words ? :)

papa, mommy, jiejie, didi (himself), Ana (Auntie Nia), mama (grandma), gonggong (grandpa), yiyi (my sister), milk, car, nana (banana), apple, eddie (elephant), ostrich, orange, bish (fish), oosh (shoes), dog, baabaa, meow, ball, no, mum mum (eat), open, roar, two, dirty, there, lah lah (spicy), babbit (rabbit), Ah-ppo (hippo), dada (busuk senja da - poo poo), but but (butterfly), bird, woo-woo (monkey), moon, star, go, open door, eye, nose, mouth and Oh no!

43 words and still counting :)

His three popular words are papa, open and eddie. He loves to greet his papa voluntarily, which always brings about smiles and praises from his papa. Even if his papa is on the verge of falling asleep, he would sit up to entertain his favourite son :)

The two of them like to play the "Call Papa" game. What's that ? Watch this :)

Curly and The Log

Usually, the school will do activities related to the readers. Actually, it is very much similar to what we're doing in Primary school's STELLAR programme except that in primary schools, there are many more worksheets to be done. In fact, I think the primary school curriculum is following what the Pre-schools are doing. Sometimes, I wish that I'm more passionate about what I'm delivering, just like Phoebe's pre-school teachers. I also wish for more time for the primary school children to play and explore.

Anyway, for "Curly and the Log", the children made Curly the worm out of egg trays. Phoebe brought her Curly home and I love it! She's very proud of her work :) Me too! :)