Yes, why?!
And recently the KTV cluster really irritated me. Irresponsible owners and patrons. Then the fish cluster happened so I decided not to bring the kids to the hawker centre for prata when we could finally dine out together. Even that was short-lived coz we're now back to dining for two no dining out!
Meals at home are long affairs, even if we pack food, unless it's Macs or KFC. The same wantan noodles are eaten at different rates at home and outside *.* Sighs...
But we did have quite a bit of fun this month, with Yu's play date, Kai's birthday, new swimming lesson (one and then suspended!), and a bunk bed!
And not to forget - the REAL PIGEONS...
Not referring to these two boys; it's the book they're reading. I bought one book, left it on the bookshelf without saying a word. Kai discovered it within a couple of days, tried it and liked it! He finished it quickly so I bought two more. Yang also started reading it. I read chapter after chapters to Yang (who likes me to read coz I'm faster than him) and Yu until my throat went dry!
So I said, 世界变了 coz Kai and Yang are reading on their own, without me asking them to! Woohoo!
The boy who can read some words still clings on to Mama :)
Egg sandwich - egg on the outside, ham and cheese inside (he had this first in school :p)
He also inherited that Iron Man PJs from Yang, just the top coz the bottom was long torn. Every evening, he'll try to find it in his drawer when he sees that his laid out PJs are of other design. I discovered later that my helper had kept it away in the "cannot wear already" shelf. Probably coz it's sian to have him dig through other PJs to find a pair of bottoms for this *.*
Lego for Yu every day!
Browsing at Popular 😍
It was that one weekend when five of us could dine out. We had Yakun for breakfast and Ichiban for dinner. Then Kai suggested finding the eighth REAL PIGEONS book. I was so happy that they wanted to go to the bookshop! Oh yes, I bought all seven books by then. We found that there was no eighth book yet - to be released at the end of the year. They can't wait..
Yu can ride escalators on his own
Earlier, when we were going up, he turned around and gave me a thumbs up :p I still forbid him from walking on escalators though.
Selfie while I was in the shower; that's Papa's belt behind him
I woke up to this on Hari Raya Haji
And this
I decided on salmon rice balls for rice. Finally got to use my Daiso gadgets bought years ago! Think I only used one of them once to make meatballs but little bits of meat kept flying out. This time, they worked very well for the rice balls and even salmon balls when I realised I couldn't get much salmon into the rice balls.
The seemingly empty bowls had water and salt for onigiri but my rice was too dry to make onigiri :(
Cute little rice balls!
Yang made rice balls with me; Yu took mine to shake :p
Think they each had at least five rice balls and three salmon balls; Yang had the most for once! I think this can be a staple in future, to get them to eat rice with meat and vegetables... Will try again another day..
Stuffed his mouth, as usual!
Oops, I succumbed to durians :p
Also succumbed to one last dining out the day before dining in ceased :p
But most of all, I succumbed to a bunk bed. Headed out to the market to buy after Yakun breakfast. Walked the whole market looking for the furniture shop; turned out it was right next to the hawker centre... Hope the walk didn't expose me to any fishy COVID cases!
Anyway, we decided to get a bunk bed. I wasn't too sure about it coz I know the kids would love the top bunk a bit too much... The alternative was to get a third single bed - the third mattress was on the floor, "owned" by Yu then Yang when Yang went to primary school. Key consideration was, and is, to separate primary school and child care kids due to different waking times. On weekends, two boys would squeeze into the mattress. But they're getting big.
Sito said let them sleep together if they wish to. So I went ahead to get it. This means we have four beds for three kids. On school nights, Kai takes the single bed, Yang the lower bunk and Yu in Kai's room; other nights, Kai takes the top bunk, Yang the single bed and Yu the lower bunk. Very fair - all boys get to sleep in the bunk bed. And for rule number 1, i.e. safety, only the eldest boy gets to sleep on top. (Don't care even when the younger ones turn nine!)
The bed arrived on a tiring Thursday. I received a call from school at 7.45 am that Yang had a running nose and I had to pick him up. I thought of asking helper to go but I went in the end so that I could send him to the doctor immediately. I knew it wasn't a cold. He started having to sneeze and wipe his nose every morning ever since he started primary school. I think it is because he wakes too early. True enough, when I got him, he was perfectly fine and I was the one with a dripping nose!
The doctor was understanding, and gave us a letter stating Yang has nose allergy and even listing all the symptoms! So helpful! I emailed his teacher and sent Yang to school the next day. But I was kind of worried that we might have caught something in the clinic - there was a guy with a hacking cough before us, and when we came out of the consultation room, some five persons came in for swab tests!
I started work after that but paused when the bed arrived. When the assembly was done, Yang and I wiped the whole frame. So hot. I worked until almost 5 pm, and when I got back from fetching Yu, I brought the third mattress over and had a hard time pushing it on the lower bunk! Then the new lighter one went on top. And I put on sheets. So hot. I couldn't do anything much after that.
That night, the three of them had fun climbing up and down the bunk bed *.* But only Yang got to sleep there that night as it was a school night. They finally got to sleep there together on Friday night! But Yang and Yu were asking why they couldn't sleep on the lower bunk together. Um, coz you're getting big?!
To remember this first night on beds together
Don't know when they will want to have their own space. But it's sweet that they want to sleep together :) Btw, Yang and Yu were holding vehicles from Lego City sets - I put them together over a few nights while they were sleeping :)
Finally constructed the roller coaster!
It was mostly me this time. Kai helped a bit when he felt like it. Yu was there every time but his helping kept getting distracted by the discovery of a special piece or a cute one or something he recognised from another set :p Still short of some decoration but I think we will get there. Let them run the roller coaster on it first. No Legoland, just this :)
Painting or playing with paint?
Yu doing some work in the morning before school :)
I realised that after many weeks of HBL/school holiday, I spent a lot of time with Yu in the morning this month. Usually, he would still be sleeping when I get back from sending Kai and Yang to the bus stop. On Friday, I even managed a supermarket run before he got up. He usually gets up between 7.00 am and 7.15 am. Then he would have breakfast while I have coffee. And we have a random chit chat! After washing up, I set an alarm for 5-10 min, and we play Lego or do some work. It was really nice :)
We don't see each other for the whole day until evening time when I pick him up. Sometimes, he looks out the door and says "Mama!" happily before getting his stuff. Sometimes, the first thing he says is "I have something to show you!" Super sweet boy :) I think his brothers were probably very sweet to me at the end of the day as well but I was busy handling two or three to notice this much with just one, oops...
Last last week, we were chatting randomly on our way back when we passed by two young teenagers sitting on the ground at the open area between the bus stop and Hillion Mall. Yu suddenly went, "Cool shoes!" He then turned to me and said, "Cool, right? The shoes are so cool, right?" So he missed the boy turning to us and saying, "Thanks!" before turning back to his friend. I don't know who was funnier!
Anyway, speaking of HBL, the final week of July started with a scare on Sunday evening. Saw a message from a parent with a boy in secondary that they had a COVID case and the school would go on HBL for Monday. Within hours, Parents Gateway notified us that a boy in primary (not our levels) had a COVID case and we had to go on HBL too on Monday.
Quickly turned our 6 am alarm to gain 45 min more sleep. Kai was still awake then so I told him. Yang discovered it at night when he woke (?) and saw no phone. Also informed helper. Ended up she was still sleeping when it was time for breakfast - the boys must be ready by 7.30 am for assembly! Had to rush them through breakfast, clearing up table for HBL, washing up and setting up the devices, and we barely managed to log in on time, lucky!
Also last week, Kai somehow took out his dominos to play. He hadn't touched them for a long time. We had a mini contest to see who could build the highest tower with just four tiles per layer. He was also playing more with his Rubik's cube. We even had two rounds of Chinese chess - we each won once :)
Yu doing his homework
Wanted a photo memory of him writing with the milk pack in front coz he went by the initial consonants and read “full cream milk” as “fresh cow milk”! This homework was on food expiry date. Our selection included a packet of instant noodles. When I introduced that, he paused. Then:
"Oh, instant noodles? I learnt instant noodles before. When you have no food at home and you have no money, you can cook instant noodles. But not every day because it’s not quite healthy…"
I'm not so sure about the no money part, but yes, it isn't quite healthy!!
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