Our first tween

Haven't posted any daily stuff for a while, apart from the recent term break. Going through my photos, I realised I have fewer photos of Kai these days. But he probably has the most number of baby photos coz it was easier to have a free hand for photos when it was just one kid! 

BK breakfast as an only kid - coz the brothers wanted to sleep

Eat more!! This boy has lost some of his meatiness as he gained height, weighing only 46kg now against a 164cm frame. He's only 4cm shorter than me now.

Recently, he's starting to slouch again. He was slouching a lot in the months before we moved and then improved. I'm guessing he's slouching again coz he's gaining height again. 

Think he grew some 10cm in the past year; my oldest (easily!) available record showed he was 154cm in October 2023. He seemed to have grown more since the start of this year, with puberty clearly on its way - his voice is starting to change, and the boys like to run around naked and/or comment loudly about private parts *.*

Mama doesn't want to see naked boys anymore!

Luckily, Kai has largely obliged by the rules - to always wrap a towel around him when he comes out of the shower*, and get changed with his door closed. I said "largely" coz sometimes he would just open the shower door to say something!!!

* It is kind of impossible for them to wear clothes in the shower coz they would more likely get the clothes wet before they wear them *.*

But he still has milk teeth coz these three started teething rather late. Just this month, he dropped two teeth three days apart. 

I don't know since when but he stopped asking me to 陪陪 him at bedtime. Instead, he played chess. Then we stopped that and he does some work or reading for PSLE instead. Sometimes he came in to lie down on my side of the bed when I was with his brothers, to watch Papa play games. But I don't like to come back to a warm bed. So we stopped him from lying on my side. 

That doesn't stop him from coming in at about 9.15pm when his go-to-sleep alarm goes off - he just kneels next to Sito's side of the bed to watch Papa play games. And then he would still hang around sometimes. Sometimes he brings a paper. Sometimes, it's just him at the foot of our bed, like this:

So big and still wants to nua on our bed!

Ok, good chance for him to sayang him. Think that irritates the hell out of him haha! Coz I cannot call him baby ok...

So, to irritate me or to shut me up, he often asks me lewd questions *.* Oh yes, he brings home a lot of "sus" stuff. Wth. Sometimes, we have to correct his perceptions or random sus comments he heard from his similarly sus classmates *.*

Yup, plenty of rolling eyes here...

Recently, Sito arranged for Kai to come in at the end of his regular chats with his cousin KS to play chess with him. As KS is a good chess player, it's more fun for Kai to play with him than with us :p In fact, I can hardly tell one piece from another!

Playing chess with KS 表舅

Anyway, PSLE is coming. In fact, the orals are already done. He was rather upset when he came home after Chinese orals on 13 August but no comments for English the following day. No comments means ok... Listening compre is coming up this Friday, and the written papers start in two weeks.

He didn't do well for prelims, totalling AL18! His maths and science were unexpectedly poor - came home with lots of comments! Hope he has learnt from his mistakes and can do better for PSLE. Jia you! :)

A rather studious week

This term break, we did nothing and everything....

What we did not do:

Leave our neighbourhood, with the exception of going to Yang's dermatological appointment on Wednesday and to Clementi on Saturday coz must return books and cut hair. No library until after PSLE so we did not borrow any more books; enough books at home and there's Libby. Kai needed a haircut so he could be more comfortable for exams. 

After last weekend, we won't leave our neighbourhood until after PSLE - 闭关修炼 and avoid germs! We didn't even sign up for mid-autumn cele at the CC this year coz too crowded and too near exams...

What we did:

Papers, papers and more papers!

Even Yu did some papers - gave him Yang's leftover P3 English and Maths papers from last year :p Not bad, he did very well for the WA1s!

Yang did a paper every day with varying results. He really needs to work more on all subjects, sighs...

Kai had a science boot camp over zoom on Monday to Wednesday - need to brush up on his open-ended questions. Sito sat in so he could teach the brothers too :p

Even though we didn't go out for a movie etc, the kids also had fun at home. Since they work in the morning to early afternoon, they got to play the rest of the afternoon, though Kai did more work later on too. One hour of phone games and all their rumble tumble. 

Also watched Papa play games

Yu also completed a few mini Lego sets, with Kai helping when he was free

The younger ones went to the playground too. One day, I had to go downstairs to look for them - they didn't hear me say 5 pm and thought they could come back at 5.15 pm *.*

After years of saying we would eat there, we finally went to the claypot rice stall at the hawker centre! It was so yummy! But Kai didn't like it. Also went to Paradise Classic where Yang finally dropped the fried rice he doesn't really like, to try hor fun with us - success! 

These two enjoyed claypot rice

These two also enjoyed making their own pizza

But only Yang liked to eat this pizza. Yu found it too thick. Nvm, I'll make this again on our regular Sunday pizza day and see how.

The kids had Ikea hotdog buns and chicken wings for lunch on Tuesday when I had an appointment at Alex Hospital. Also bought a lot of chocolate bars.

Kai wanted to help me cut up the chocolate to put into boxes in the fridge for easier retrieval

We enjoyed a nice BBQ hotpot lunch. Kai enjoyed it less than expected as his tooth hurt. Later during his haircut, the tooth came out! Anyway, the deal with the kids was that after this happy lunch, we would just eat downstairs on weekends until after PSLE.

And so starts our 闭关！

One year in!

On Saturday, 17 August, I suddenly realised we have moved here for just over a year!

And the kids have broken the soft closing function of not one but two toilet seats! Haha!

The original seat broke but we managed to get a free replacement in March as it was still under warranty. At that time, we weren't quite sure if it was the seat or the kids. But mid August, the replacement seat broke. So yup, it's the kids. We're not replacing the seats anymore. They can deal with lifting the seat up and putting it down gently. Just don't use my toilet, EVER!

The toilet seat is not the only thing to suffer from the kids. Their sofa seats are also depressed to varying degrees. Yu is the Papa Bear, Kai the Mama Bear and Yang the Baby Bear, i.e. Yu's seat is the most depressed, no thanks to him bouncing and standing on his sofa! In fact, it has a hole... We put a cushion over his seat and turn a blind eye to it.

The walls in the three kids' rooms have scratches and even holes, even though Yu has not moved into his room yet *.* Other walls have also suffered, like the part above the skirting near Kai's sofa - it's all yellowish coz Kai steps and rubs over it all the time... The study wall and even the sideboard door have scratch marks from the chairs coz these little butts are very itchy - must roll Papa's chair everywhere!

Kai knocked a bit of the laminate off a corner of his wardrobe. Yang's wardrobe is also suffering from his and Yu's weight when they push in clothes after folding them - no damages yet but it's a matter of time, right?

Why are they so rough?!

Other damages are kind of expected - food/drink splatters on painted walls, cracks in the plaster, mould on silicone in wet areas. But we had one unexpected damage in May - a strong wind slammed a window shut and the glass cracked!

I taped the glass in case it fell off and hurriedly got someone to replace it - that was $120 gone. My only consolation was that I didn't need to shift the washing machine at all as the guys took down that window and cut and replaced the glass at the corridor before installing it back. 

Apart from these mishaps, we also face polluted air from incense burning. This being an elderly area has lots more burning compared to BP. Our immediate neighbour burns a joss stick at the corridor at least weekly - I haven't figured out her schedule :p And we have survived two lunar seventh months already - with much aircon and runny nose...

There is of course cigarette smoke but that was present in BP too and is a whole other story that I hope to write about another day...

And pests are also another story. I talked about lizards already. Outside, there are pigeons which make me feel like I'm in the horror movie "Birds" sometimes... The community cats here are too well fed and cared for - with beds! - that they don't bother swiping down birds. And the birds are also too well fed by silly old people who throw food from their kitchen window, to catch lizards! Grrr!

Recently, we also noticed some amazing lost laundry. A lot of families still hang out their laundry here and the wind can be pretty strong. But we didn't expect to see a bedsheet hanging neatly on a branch of a really tall tree in between the walls of two blocks. Walls ok, not the kitchen area where people put out their laundry. Some freak of a wind must have blown it high and far before depositing it so nicely on a branch.

It happened to be the lunar seventh month - the bedsheet looked freaky :p I took a photo and sent in to the One Service app. The town council dealt with it promptly. I don't know how - it was high up and right above some steps. But right after that, we found yet another bedsheet on another tree. This time, it was lower and nearer to people's laundry, and it was gone the next time we passed by. And then I saw another piece of something on the tree right below our kitchen windows *.*

All the above aside...! I must say we enjoy living here. It's convenient and close to the kids' school and various amenities. 

*** silence ***

Oh, is that it? Haha! I guess there's always more to say about bad things!

These days, we eat more at hawker centres and coffeeshops coz they're available. We found that that really make a difference to our dining-out expenses! And yummier sometimes! The new mall that opened in December was also good for our fave Paradise restaurants - it's cheaper to eat at Classic than at the coffeeshop sometimes when Kai and Yu choose to eat steak from the western food stall... 

And now that we're not staying right above a neighbourhood mall, we eat way less fast food, which is better for our waistline! We still make the trek to Macs often enough but more for breakfast or ice cream after dinner - and Sito and I don't eat as much at breakfast :p

At home, one of our fave spots is the dining room. On weekday mornings, Sito and I would sit there for breakfast, read news, chit chat. Before the kids come home, we also sit there for brunch/lunch/coffee and tea. This half of the year until about April, we have a nice bright morning without too much sun in our eyes. From about April, we have to pull down the blinds but we still get the view in the afternoon :) It's so nice that we saw someone pass by our corridor and take a step back to take a photo haha!

This was one rainy afternoon in December 2023

I'm thankful we haven't had to buy a single umbrella yet to cross from HV to our block! We bought quite a number from Cold Storage when Kai was a baby - always went out without a brolly and it rained on our way home *.*

Anyway, last weekend, we were queueing to cut hair at Clementi and bumped into the previous owner of our place. She moved to Clementi. I took the chance to ask her about ownership of this flat. So we are the fourth owner of my side and the third owner of the kitchen side. She bought over the kitchen side when the original owner wanted to sell. Mystery solved! Didn't see the lease this time coz HDB didn't give us a copy.