Thursday 30 September 2021

End of 3rd and start of 4th

The title pretty much summed up September. It's the month which marks the start of the end of the year. And it's more obvious now with school-going kids.

Term 3 ended pretty uneventfully with Teachers' Day. Kai and Yang wrote little notes to their form teachers on a website while Yu made cards for his teachers.

Copying text for the card to Ma Laoshi


The finished work


They had a party in school on Monday, trying out various food with the healthy choice symbol on it. I couldn't find regular snacks with that sign :p Only nuts but I'm not sure if the kids would eat them so I packed three packets of Milo with less sugar for him. 

Some time in the late morning, I received a call from the school to say that Yu had a swollen, itchy eye. The only new thing he ate that morning was a walnut. He had had cashews and peanuts before, but google says it's possible to be allergic to one nut. But Yu was doing fine otherwise so I picked him up from the sick bay after work.

Looks like a poor boy :( but still a ball of energy when I saw him *.*


I think he probably had a case of bad nose allergy that day.. Anyway, I ordered a small pack of walnuts and will let him try!

They suddenly wanted chicken feet again!


As school holidays started, Sito left for KL once more. The kids wanted to sleep with me - still babies! I had to wake early to go to the office on Tuesday so only let them come in on Tuesday night - and never again!

Coz they took up the whole bed


I had to shift Yu so I could lie down


Didn't sleep well as all three moved quite a bit. Kai even woke at one point and made a lot of noise cracking his knuckles! And lucky I had the good sense to grab Yang's small blanket along to cover my upper body coz by morning, the entire queen duvet was on Kai alone. Yang and Yu were wearing longs but my arms were exposed!

I took only one day of leave during this term break. Got JY over for a 5-hour play date for the older kids - left the K1s in school :p They mostly played on their own - Game of Life! - while the mummies chatted. I even made pasta for lunch and went downstairs with JY to grab her lunch as she doesn't eat pasta. Forgot to take pictures - next play date!

We left about 3 pm. They went to get cake while we went to get Yu. We were going for an early dinner! Learnt from JY about 40% at Paradise Dynasty from 3 pm to 5 pm, and had been wanting to bring them. 

So happy that Kai and Yang tried xiaolongbao and liked it! We finished 20 xlb, eight dumplings, two plain noodles and all the pork cutlet on the fried rice. Just nice, leftover pasta and fried rice for the two the next day - gave Kai $5 to buy chicken balls from downstairs on his own as his fried rice lunch was meatless.

Kai asked for this fried rice which he had the last time we were here in December


Yang showing off his noodles - he finished almost everything


Yu had mostly xlb and dumplings, plus some noodles


Slurping up the soup!


Went to buy new shoes for them. Yang and Yu were fickle but finally decided on what they wanted. Kai decided fast enough but they didn't have his size! Big boy already, no more kiddy brands for him. Will bring him to another place another day.

Next was doughnuts! The lady was so nice to give each of them a hat. They were so cute posing with the hats, especially Kai with his thumbs up! But the younger two continued to wear their hats almost all the way home, um...

All ready to eat! But we ate at home and only Kai finished his.


Monkeying around after pretending to sell me various foodstuff - super noisy but couldn't make them quieten down


We started our second set of four swimming lessons during the term break. The coach said he would get them to swim on their own this set. I didn't realise it was the first lesson of the set. It was 9 Sep so I was busy shopping online during their lesson :p Only looked up towards the end and to my surprise, I saw this tiny boy swimming on his own across the width of the pool! His coach was walking next to him. 

I commended Yu when he climbed up and he told me he drank some water *.* That night, he clarified that he only drank water during the practice. The coach also told me that all three did it, and he would get them to do the length the next week and progress to no goggles next. Cool!

Debrief at the end of the lesson


Little did we know that we wouldn't have lessons for a long while after that, sighs... Darn you, COVID-19!

Green bean soup popsicle made by AhMa!


Those are way too big for you, my dear...


Yummy ear!


JY's self reader books are more interesting than ours - and in English!


Yang's hardboiled egg baby!


Kai got a Dog Man bag when buying Dog Man!


For some reason, I didn't remember to do things for Mid-Autumn Festival this year. Maybe coz no Taka mooncake fest again :( Forgot to shop for mooncakes; only bought some yam ones when I happened to see a flash sell on Shopee! 

My very sad half mooncake with tea; kids had munchkins - another round thing :p


Forgot to let the kids play with lanterns over the weekend too. So on the day itself, I brought them downstairs after dinner. Lucky we still had enough paper lanterns from last year and some bulbs. Brought along a candle too in case anyone was adventurous...

But sparklers first!


Then we walked one full round around the estate. Their lanterns dropped N times. Yang's bulb went dead. Well, the bulbs were all very old anyway. So he gamely tried the candle but dropped it of course. Luckily, it didn't catch fire. But after that, guess who was still carrying a lantern? No one. Coz I carried THREE!

Posing next to our block


The candle one was so bright!


Might as well play a bit...


Meanwhile, Sito took bites off his mooncake at his SHN hotel :p


This is a milestone month as Kai had his first exams! He had Chinese and English oral exams on 23 and 24 Sep. Yang had early dismissal so I told Kai to come home on his own - big boy now. He was home earlier for English as they started from the last registration number. He told me Chinese was easy, but he didn't think he scored too well. Huh? As for English... "Why should I tell you?" Eh!

Can my Ironman boy make you tell me?! :p


And on Friday, 24 Sep, the news broke - dining in would be for max two from following Monday! I was so upset!! That means we could not go out for dinner on weekends, i.e. the boys would take ages to eat at home even on weekends! That means we can't bring the boys out far coz there would be nowhere to sit down for a bite! Can't even go to visit the grands together! Planned birthday celebrations were also cancelled! Argh!

I've not felt like that for a long time, so I bought two dinners for myself


I ranted at the dining dinner when I saw the news. I didn't think they heard me until I mentioned that their swimming lessons would likely be affected. Kai who was doing some homework after dinner, shook his head and went, "COVID-19 has gone too far..." Hear hear!

Interestingly, the boys had a pretty quiet Saturday afternoon after their usual Nintendo. Kai and Yang were drawing. Yu was reading and then watching his brothers for a while... It was cloudy so not too hot, perfect for the playground! We headed there to play before our last meal out together for a long time.... 

Drawing Dog Man; Yang was pottering around waiting for the same book


Reading Plants and Zombies comic - in Chinese?!


Kai wanted steak. After being reminded of what steak was, Yu wanted it too. Yang still wanted spaghetti. So we went to Andes. But when the porterhouse arrived, Yang also wanted some steak... I also had steak - the leftovers, haha! But I wasn't hungry. I took the creamy mushroom soup that came with the steak.

Happy ending at Macs!


Kai adjusting the seat when we were at the J10 junction


The last time we went to Mum's place, Kai took Sito's place next to me. The car was quieter when the three of them were not seated together behind! So this time, I asked him to sit in front too. He was adjusting the seat last time as well but this time, he asked about the memory function. 

Notice that he was holding the bag too. He has to help dish out water bottles if his brothers need water. He also helped to call Mum twice coz I kept forgetting until I started driving. We needed someone to fetch them from the porch coz I don't trust them to stay close at the busy carpark.

And then, HBL started. This is less sian than dining in for max two. And I know the drill already - tray for books, snack box, water bottle, machines fully charged. I even made them commit to the same breakfast so that we could save time asking in the morning!

What I didn't know was that they were also familiar already. Yang even blurred his background in Zoom! Overall, things were smooth except for two things - unsteady internet this week and "what can I do now?" when they were done. But helpdesk tickets were few and swiftly closed. And I just opened up Nintendo :p

Ah Beng didn't tuck in his shirt despite reminders; reading timetable


I hope this dreamer was focusing...


Yang had a his second follow-up at NUH Kids yesterday. After his first, he was given one packet of Forlax a day, with instructions to eat more vege and fruits and drink more water. Avoid refined carbs! He didn't poop every day even with the daily Forlax. We were told to continue for a few more months. Review in two months.

I also asked the doctor about the redness on his upper lip. Last time, he suggested cloth masks in case the paper masks were irritating him. But one month on, his upper lip was still red! Sighs... I've been putting paw paw on him nightly to no avail... Maybe get Vaseline already...

Anyway, our visit was super smooth - I registered on the app just as we entered NUH Kids. Waited maybe two minutes to get to triage. We went to level six and the nurse told us to walk straight in to the doctor. Lucky! We were out so quickly with medicine and payment! Ended up spending more time snacking downstairs - he couldn't resist a bun (refined carbs!!) and I also had a bite.

How long more would you be this small for??


Yu with a big picture of himself as a vege seller!


Sell vege to your XiaoGeGe, please :p

This poor boy fell just now. I was standing, talking to Kai on the upper bunk. Yang and Yu both got up too. I told Yu who was nearer the ladder to get down. He got down halfway, turned and tried to manoeuvre something to get to his lower bunk, but missed and fell! I saw him land on the floor just under Yang's bed!

I grabbed the crying boy and checked his head. No bump but there was a redness on the centre back. So poor thing! And Kai made me so angry I cried. He said, "Maybe he'll die tonight..." Goodness! He got a bad scolding from me! If you've got nothing good to say, keep your mouth shut! :(

As Yu settled, I reminded him of rule number 1 - safety. And told him not to do that thing he did again. Else it would be painful all over again. He asked for more hugs tonight :(

And Yang the sweet boy helped to turn on the light and grabbed tissue paper. He also stared into my face and gave me a toothy smile - that's what I think his way of checking in on me :)

Tomorrow is Friday, 1 Oct. In my childhood, 1 Oct was Children's Day. Now it's the first Friday of October. But not tomorrow coz it's in the midst of PSLE so... In any case, I'll try to remember to give them a treat tomorrow - to celebrate the end of one week of HBL! One more to go!

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