Two weeks and a day into primary school

I last updated on the second day of school... They were kind of late that day... Two days later on Thursday, they were definitely late! We took the late bus again and this time, it looked so bad I thought we might be less late if we got off and walked instead. 

So we got off after Tanglin CC and walked five bus stops to school. Five! I carried their bags and a brolly for Yang as there was a tiny drizzle. Watched them go into the school at 7.33 am. I had guessed we would still be late but might as well tire them out so that they could - hopefully - learn to be faster in the morning. One could tie his shoelaces instead of whining about the other eating slowly!

After that, I took a bus to Newton to change to a train, and when I alighted, I saw our 960 just behind, approaching Newton. They would have been very late!

On Friday, I thought we were doing ok but Kai decided to walk. Ok, I followed his decision and we alighted after Tanglin CC again. As we were walking towards the turn, our bus went past us. Kai looked stunned!! We took another bus at the next stop :p

Thankfully, we were not late again - so far... I don't recall ever being late for 12 years of school in Singapore! Granted, I needed to take a bus for two of those years :p There was once when I had to run up the NJ slope to assembly though...

Anyway...

Today, I saw a number of buses before us just before we reached the school bus stop. That meant I would have to wait quite a bit for the next bus after sending them in...  So I told Yang I would not leave the bus this time.

"But I want to wave to you..."

Awww.... Yes, this boy has been waving bye bye to me every day except that day when they went in by the transport centre. Think he was too curious about his environment that day.

Some time last week, Kai agreed to go via the transport centre. Then, Yang wanted to go by the bridge so Kai agreed - that was his first time going by the bridge in over two years! But he went out onto the slope instead of underground. I wanted them to learn the bridge way coz it's sheltered all the way from bus stop to the classroom block. The next time, Kai didn't want to go by the bridge so I let him go by the main gate while I brought Yang up the bridge.

This boy was so sweet. He turned back twice to wave and say bye bye Mama :)

This morning, he did that twice after leaving the bus too :)

He's this cute every day when he comes home!

He likes to come to my desk where I'm inevitably still working even though I'm on part-time (tmd!!!) and tells me how much he has saved that day. I'll take the chance to ask him what he had for recess. 

Today, he had wanton noodle soup! :) He tried kaya toast last week and also things I frown upon - chips but he said he bought fruits with chips.... These are apart from his usual pizza and pizza roll (huh what?). In two weeks, he has had more variety than Kai ever had in two years! So proud of him :)

But he isn't too sure about homework. One day last week, he came home to tell me he had homework. Today when I asked him, he said he didn't know *.* Well, he had homework *.*

He showed me how he packed his bag in school last week

He is also not too familiar with his uniform. The buttons and the zip are still a little difficult for him. He could clip his wallet to his pants maybe half the time. I can't remember about Kai now - maybe ex-helper helped him but I think he did it all by himself. Two weeks into wearing shoelaces, he can do it pretty well now. I only had to wash his shoelaces once after the first week coz he was stepping all over the ends on rainy days!

Let Yang practise buttoning

Yang also had some difficulty getting up in the morning in the past two weeks. I set their alarm for 6 am and got helper to make sure they get back. This year, I set my alarm for 5.55 am (sobs) so that I have a bit of time to check on two kids - are they up? Are they eating? Are they fighting? Are they getting dressed? Did they zip their pants?

And I'm glad I did that coz of two incidents last week: (1) I stepped out after brushing my teeth to find only Kai having breakfast - Yang was still in bed and my helper was not waking him up! (2) Kai's shirt was put with Yang's pants and vice versa. Nowadays WFH so I get ready very quickly and can check on them frequently. I worry on days when I have to go to office - I need more time to get ready! :(

It's still a bit early, with them arguing over seats at the bus stop and on the bus, but I hope that one day soon, Kai and Yang could take the bus to school on their own after I send them to the bus stop. Then I can go settle Yu and no need helper anymore!

41 is a prime number

生日年年过，but it's not every year that you get a prime number! :p That said, I'll get three this decade...

First celebration was with the extended clan

Kai and Yang like to make faces all the time... Only Yu gave my camera some face :p But it's a nice shot. No other family shot this birthday.

Dinner was from Majestic - so much food!!

The six adults ate at the dining table while the three monkeys had their own arrangements...

Very pretty envelope!

Inside is butterfly pendant from Mum - I pulled out a necklace to thread it through to wear :)

After months of working from home, we started going back to office once a week on our split team week from January. It was so good to see people!!!

And my old team gave me a surprise :)

When Friday, i.e. my birthday, really came about, I didn't have a plan. I had wanted to have breakfast in town and walk around a bit. Then I decided to go to Zhenghua Park nearby. But it was a rainy morning so I went to town after sending Kai and Yang, who, btw, didn't wish me happy birthday *.* But I was happy to see Yang turn back a few times to wave bye bye to me :)

I googled cafes that open early in the Orchard area and thought I would go for an angmoh breakfast coz I didn't fancy kopi C that morning as the tummy was a little weird. But after looking at the menu, I decided I wanted a local breakfast - at most drink tea!

Attempt a picture of my silhouette coz you don't get a flat(-looking) tummy every day! 

Passed by LNY decor outside Isetan

The mask was a recent Christmas present from SF when we were at her place on 2 Jan - my first patterned mask! Was there with Kel and AM, and had a great time catching up with YX. Also witnessed their kids doing work at 8.30 pm - have to admit that provoked the tiger mum in me, haha!

Mask off! Spot my new bug on my throat? :)

I wore my new necklace the whole day. In the afternoon, Kai and Yang noticed it - my new "jewel", as Kai put it. I told them it was from AhMa. I also had three rings on me and showed them my wedding rings from Papa. On hearing that Sito asked me to marry him with a ring, Kai went, oh did he do this? And he demonstrated going down on one knee, hoho!!! 哪里学来的？Probably one of the songs we watched last time :p

Mee rubus and teh C kosong

This was my second teh C kosong in a week. Super disgusting both times. So I guess it's the drink itself. Why when kopi C kosong is so nice?? Was discussing with Kel about this and I had an epiphany - tea is siap so take it neat or with sugar, not just unsweetened evaporated milk! I haven't felt so smart in a while, haha!

I sat at Toast Box for almost two hours, waiting for Daiso to open :p But I didn't get anything coz they didn't have the box I wanted. So I went to Uniqlo women's section. But I ended up getting kiddy pants and kids' masks. I gave up and headed to Wisma to get popcorn for the kids. But they were not open yet!

Went to BPP instead. No luck again at Redman - wanted a new silicon mat but realised I didn't have the dimensions of my oven!

Took my ezlink out to admire on the bus back to NP - kitty was from Sito a few years ago

Shopping luck was really bad that day! I finally got a pair of comfy shoes with my birthday discount. Been eyeing them for a while... But I regretted it the moment I walked out of the shop - I should have brought the kids to buy shoes too with 20% discount, argh! Went to Bee Cheng Hiang to get some goodies for Yan and headed home to pack them.

A little digression here: I went to the post office on Saturday to post the package but was told that postage to UK was suspended! The guy told me to check website for when it would resume. I was with Yu so we left for the supermarket first. But when we got back, I saw from the website that services had resumed from Friday! I called them to confirm and headed down to the post office again, this time on my own.

After taking my temperature, I told a lady standing by the side; I wanted to get to the same guy and quickly. Then she turned to the lady who took my temperature who then told me to join the queue and if I wanted, I could find the guy directly. What kind of response was that?! I was so stunned I joined the short queue. By luck, I got to the same guy and told him he gave me the wrong info. He was at least sorry about his booboo. The state of customer service at our national post is so terrible!

Anyway, I decided to stay home to sing instead of fetching the kids. So I sang the house down with a microphone, woohoo! But it was very warm coz I had to sing in kids' rooms (I roamed about) to avoid disturbing the neighbours.

Got a call from this woman to meet her downstairs - she brought me presents!

Trust R to give me cake and so many slices!!

And a lovely bottle :)

I had a slice of the unexpected cake and stuck to my plan of having kitty biscuits for afternoon coffee

The kitty biscuits were actually wafers with cream - very cute and dainty :) Sito got them for me when he was on leave on 31 Dec, along with some really expensive chocolate that we just finished last night.

Fancy chocolate with fancy name

Oooh, yummy though / coz it's like $1-2 per bite!

It had been a tiring week with the new school term starting and having to wake early again. I decided I didn't want grief on my birthday so I let the boys play Nintendo after a nice chat over lunch about their week in school - Yang said he's almost as tall as his P4 buddy. I just nua-ed :p

The kids wanted to play with my microphone so I made them sing me a happy birthday song :)

Kai gave me some poo poo song *.*

Yang make the song funny...

Yu sang the song earnestly for me :)

Friday is our usual data night and this time, I chose Korean! Kimchi and army hotpot sounded great for rainy weather :) And no need to walk too far after a nice foot massage just down the road.

We had to pack half the pancake home - really want to learn how to make all these!

We didn't celebrate anymore on Saturday. But for the first long in a while, I had a wazen at Ichiban! Coz I wanted to try the mackerel to see if the kids would like it if we had it at home :p I guess that's it - mum's life! :)

Yang goes to Primary 1!

The day finally arrived!

With the announcement of Phase 3, the school changed the original plans of having the P1 kids in school with their parents for one hour in different slots, to having them in school the whole day with the parents in for a shorter duration. And since the other kids would start school one day later, I managed to focus totally on Yang on his first day of school :)

Monday, 4 Jan

I don't recall waking early to prepare Kai on his first day, maybe coz then-helper was less blur and logistics were easier with Kai in his own room.

The night before, Yang slept alone - for a short while... I moved Yu to Kai's room so that these two didn't get disturbed so early in the morning. I gave Yang the old dino night light which we never really used. But when I came out after settling Kai and Yu, I found Sito sitting on Yang's bed. Yang had climbed into our bed after I left his room! And he crawled into our bed again before 2 am. We let him be.

I decided to wake 5 min earlier than usual, to get his mask and shoes ready. I had moved his uniform out of Kai's cabinet so we didn't need to disturb them but I had forgotten about the mask until it was too late. So I had to take it from the laundry rack - thankfully, the masks were dry by the morning. A prepared the shoes so I just had to check that the socks were of the right size.

Also watched Yang sleep for a while before waking him :)

But this boy was harder to wake!! When he got to the dining table, he lamented that he didn't have enough sleep! Poor boy!

Yang seemed fatter than Kai on the first day of P1 - think Kai tightened both buttons of his pants while Yang tightened only one button :p Same pair of pants, heh! But the shirts are new coz name tags :p Also taught him to put on his wallet hook and wear his socks. Oops, a bit last minute!!

All ready for P1!

With his school bag

Must have action!

He chose to sit all the way behind

Kai and I had been taking the 6.25 am-ish bus but today, we took the 6.40 am-ish bus coz Yang eats more slowly... We managed to alight at 6.59 am but lightly coz few kids were on the road that day. I had to manage Kai's expectations for his first day - we might not get to school as early as before.

As it was still early and we had to pass through the canteen, we checked out the stalls and also the seats - due to COVID-19, the kids had assigned seats - so that we could more easily find each other later. At that point, I didn't know that I would get to sit with him...

This year, due to PDPA and social distancing, the school didn't allow photos at the classroom in case photos show congregation of people! So I didn't have many photos to show... But he was seated second column from the window so I saw him and his name and serial number 24 on his desk very clearly, and even from upstairs during a break from the briefing to parents, conducted via the PA system! He even waved at me when he saw me upstairs :) I left him to flip read his Captain Underpants.

Coz all the P4 buddies were not in school, parents got to be buddies, yeah! I brought Yang to the canteen, found his table, and started queueing at the burrito stall. He heard too much about it from Kai, haha! But turned out, he didn't like it coz it was slightly spicy. I was hungry so I finished it for him :p He complained that he had wanted to queue for chicken rice but I stopped him - yup, coz we were queuing halfway and the chicken rice stall had a long queue already!

Later at home, he told Kai it had vegetables. Kai told him that he could ask for no vegetables. But I confirmed with Yang that it was the spiciness that did it. So no more burrito!

While queueing for burrito

He ordered, bought, and carried his burrito and milo all by himself :)

I guided him with words to pay with cash but didn't extend a hand coz he would need to do this himself from the next day. The drink stall uncle was also very patient, asking him how much change he expected for his milo. He didn't know at all!! Ok, more to teach...

Trying to see what's inside before taking a bite

There were two other boys at the table. We didn't really strike up a conversation. The other mother and I spoke briefly but she was quite quiet. The father turned his chair away from us and didn't even wipe down the table when he left - never listened to the teachers *.*

We took a quick look outside the canteen and I encouraged him to eat more quickly so that he could go run about a bit with his friends next time. Also bumped into an old schoolmate WY - so qiao!

I'm very glad to report that Yang peed on the way back to his classroom! I still remember that Kai did not pee the whole time in school on his first day *.*

For the next segment, I only briefly listened as I took a Zoom call with my headphones - luckily no need for much contributions from me! I just read the P1 entry for Kai and there was plenty of interruptions from work too, sian. 

But I got out of the call once the form teachers started. I'm more interested in the class-specific info than generic P1 info. Like what to keep in school and what to bring to and fro every day...

On my way out, I noticed a sign for a sheltered area for waiting on rainy days. I took a video to show A but turned out she already knew. Think the security sent parents and helpers in before... With that, I had to kill two hours...

Had wanted prata and coffee at Balmoral but the shop was gone! Settled for fish and chips which looked promising. Unfortunately, it only looked good. Pretty tasteless until I doused it with copious amount of vinegar.

Poster looks better than my photo...

Of course I couldn't eat for two hours! I actually took a nap after that haha! But it was too boring. My phone was almost dead so I couldn't read. I just took a slow walk back to the school. And lucky for me, the kids came out earlier than the expected 1.40 pm.

Yang and I checked out the entrance from the bridge before crossing it to get to the bus stop. Missed out bus by an inch. By the time we got back, he went from not hungry to hungry. Packed some pontian noodles for him and went home.

I managed to show him how to pack his schoolbag, get him to put his savings today into his piggy bank, and top up $3 in his wallet before I concussed on the sofa where Kai and Yang were playing/watching Zelda. So tired for me!! Think the kiddy chair was rather uncomfortable for me...

Tuesday, 5 Jan 

Two boys to school today!

With Kai starting school as well, Yang moved into Kai's room to sleep, along with his big duvet! Yu took Yang's bed and the dino night light. Amazingly, all slept through the night, woohoo!

But Yang ate super slowly. It was 6.30 am when he went to brush teeth *.* So we ended up on an even later bus at 6.45 am. The traffic was bad and the bus kept getting cut by cars. I was trying hard not to let my anxiety show... We alighted at 7.26 am - they must reach their classroom before 7.30 am or they would be late!

Just now, Kai told me that he heard a boy say it was 7.29 am and he ran to his class with the boys around him, hoho! I guess they were not late after all... But need to do better tmr!

Still calm while waiting for the bus

While waiting for the bus, I asked Yang if he knew how to get to his classroom. "Of course! It's right next to the toilet!" Kai also knew where his classroom would be coz his teacher told him before the end of term. Yeah!

Still normal at this point...

Big hug!

The bus was quiet everywhere else *.*

Oh, Kai has started wearing shoelaces!

I was still trying to finish up work when they came back. I heard them before they even got to the door ^.^ Tried to separate them for their shower but gosh, they wanted to shower together - just meant a lot of water wasted and a lot of water on the floor!

Then some argument must ensue. I let them be while I finished up work. But I still couldn't finish before Kai had to start his online Chinese class!! He also hadn't finished his lunch *.* Anyway, it was a squeeze at my desk for 5 min while I finished up so that he could take over the seat to be near the charger. But the iPad died anyway and I had to bear with more whining coz no touch screen on the laptop...

Yang was pretty excited over Kai's lesson. I kept having to pull him away. Learnt that he bought a pizza roll all by himself while his buddy followed him - I'm so proud, whatever a pizza roll might be, haha! He still couldn't tell me what happened in class though *.*

Had them pack their school bags with me after the online class. Quite a lot to bring tmr :( Also a lot of confusion over Kai's list - think the teachers were training them and made them write the list in a notebook. Kai missed out one item. For two of his items, he didn't know what they were *.* Thank goodness for parents' chat group!

Had to go downstairs to settle a repeat water issue - more on that separately, sighs. So let them have Nintendo. Then cannot stop already *.* I went to dig for a container for coins - need a lot for their pocket money now that they need $3 to get food + drink. But Kai didn't get a drink today and saved $1 :) Yang still happily guzzled milo so he saved $0.40.

I told them that they must remember to put their savings into their piggy bank or I would just top up to $3 instead of giving them additional $3, wahahaha! Evil Mama :p

Finally...

And no less momentous was Yu starting K1 yesterday. He took over Yang's trolley bag happily :) When I fetched him yesterday, he told me kind of proudly that he didn't take the stroller in the morning. Then I remembered that I told A that he could walk to school once Yang went to primary school. It was such a nice and easy walk home with one boy to handle! I let him play at the kiddy ride but 10 seconds in, he needed to pee so we went home. Guai guai all the way :)

My big K1 boy!

But today not guai at all, not guai!!! Today, Mama was very upset with the boys at dinner time.. I need new strategy for dinner, sighs...

Happy scary and bouncy new year

We're in 2021.

That's a full stop. Not "Yeah! It's 2021!" I guess I'm past those crazy years of celebrating the new year by hanging out in crowded places and counting down. We didn't even stay up to see if we could catch the fireworks from our place.

Nope, no yay even though 2020 was COVID year. Coz COVID is still here. We're still wearing masks *.*

The only exciting thing is that this year, we'll have two kids in primary school :) More on that later...

So it was half day on the eve for both parents and the preschoolers. Like Christmas eve, I made it to school just before closing time. Yu's first words when he saw me were to ask why he was the last (in his class) to go home :(

I shaved Kai and Yu's hair but Yang wanted "handsome", i.e. non-botak look. It was drizzling so we went to the barber at the bus interchange instead of our usual K-Cuts at BPP. There were four people in front of us, so said the barber. So I set the alarm for 30 min and brought them for a little bite.

Youtiao babies!

Then we bought some buns for breakfast and went to the kiddy rides. The idea was to hang out there until it was time to wait at the barber. But suddenly, Yang had to poop! So I pointed out the way home - up to level past the art school as he is very familiar with the route - and went to the barber to say we would be later, which was fine.

When Yu and I got home, I started unpacking their bags while Yu went to shower. I can't remember why but Kai was looking for Yang. He was standing outside the kids' bathroom so I thought huh, how come Yang went to poop in my bathroom. But Kai said Yang wasn't in my bathroom! Shocked, I turned to the shoe rack and found - no Yang's shoes?!

I took off immediately. When I reached the ground floor, I called Kai to ask him to confirm whether Yang's shoes were there coz his shoes and Yu's were all red. I was scared I saw wrongly. But I don't know why I asked him to check that instead of looking for Yang at home *.* Maybe coz Yang had hidden from me when he got back earlier than Yu and me...

Anyway, no Yang's shoes. I went to the level 1 toilet in case he couldn't hold it anymore - no Yang. Next was the level 2 toilet which he definitely passed by. Before I got to the toilet, I saw this boy in red and white uniform looking at another boy play Pokemon *.*

Turned out that he thought I told him to go to the level 2 toilet so he went there. Then he watched some Ben 10 outside the clinic before ending up at the Pokemon machines where I found him.

吓死我！

I called to inform Kai and brought Yang to his haircut. I was panting like mad as I asked for details about what happened. So glad to have a seat at the barber. But we had to wait for two more after the current boy before it was our turn. So ridiculous. Won't go there anymore; the BPP one is better with more staff.

Haven't seen him wrapped up like this for a while

Sito was home by the time we came back :) He bought some toriyaki to go with dinner, which was rice cooker claypot rice, with some vege and eggs. Unfortunately, the boys didn't take to the rice. Yang and Yu must go poop after having the toriyaki and two mouthfuls of rice, and then ended up eating maybe half their bowl. The taste was yummy but the chicken was tough. Will try chicken thigh instead of chicken breast next time.

My unpopular dinner :(

Sito and I watched three episodes of our current period drama, chatted a bit and dozed off. The new year greetings were said only in the morning :p

I booked slots at Bouncy Paradise 10 days ago - set a reminder to go book it once the slots opened up! And so glad I did coz the boys enjoyed themselves! Kai found it a hundred times more fun than Nintendo, yeah!

The entry tickets came with a token each for the claw machines - none of us caught anything, obviously

We were in for a short while then Yang came to me with a pained expression and curled feet. I thought he fell and hurt himself. But he was silent and kept on hentak kaki-ing... Then it hit me. He needed to poop! But he also wanted to play! I managed to convince him that he had to go else he wouldn't enjoy himself. So I got Kai to stay with Yu all the time while I sent Yang to the toilet.

After the Yang incident, I was thinking, please don't let me come back and not find Yu!! But Kai did not fail me :) Came back to find him trying his darnest to push Yu up a slope with no handles :)

Now, indulge me as I retell the tale of Yang in the toilet...

I found only one toilet with an attached seat but it was dirty. Thankfully the toilet was well stocked up with toilet paper and hand towels so I managed to clean the seat for Yang. And I did so with little time to spare! It didn't take long for his poop to come out, and I was so glad for him! Could hear the relief in his voice too.

After my own toilet break next door to him, I braced myself for some shit work... He had some poop smear on his underwear so I cleaned that with a wet wipe while his amazingly huge poop was fully visible from between his legs. It was bigger than those big bananas in the supermarket. In fact, it was as long as my forearm! It was just lying on the toilet bowl, somehow not slipping down. Thanks, poop. 

The flush was scary. The poop was still standing in the water after the first flush. I tried a second time. The poop stood for a split second after the rush of water and suddenly got sucked away, phew!!

Ok, back to the playground!

Three boys down the slide! I tried and it was too fast for me!

Kai was so tired!

Nothing to do except take selfies

Yu almost climbed out of my frame

Need water!

Only Yang managed to get himself up on this thing with no handles to help

What a big ball pit and only three of them!

Ahhh! Hoho!

Yup, I made Yu stick out his hands :p The boys liked to get themselves buried under the balls. We had a lot of fun there :)

We were supposed to have two hours there but Kai and Yu were tired and/or hungry. So we convinced Yang to leave early. Still worth it for 90 min of fun! There was still a light drizzle but we made it to the adjacent CC for lunch.

Playing something with hands and bottles while waiting for lunch

No kiddy bowls and utensils woohoo!

Ice cream for dessert!

Took a while to get a taxi for our ride home. Yang was very interested in the GPS for both rides that day, and was quiet most of the time except to say "we're near!" etc... Surprisingly, they didn't doze off in the taxi even though they were tired. Thank goodness coz it would have been difficult to get them out!

Dinner was pie! Made two and the boys again didn't like them :( I sad... But the adults liked them, yeah?

Not very brown but couldn't wait anymore! :p

Chicken, bacon and zucchini pie for the kids coz they don't like potatoes when it's not french fries

Chicken, leek and potato pie - can't see the leek but can taste

The boys all got their phone video yesterday. And after a whole morning of fun and some hours outside, they dropped off to dreamland pretty soon... So parents got their rest too :)