How much vegetables is enough?

As part of the new Grow Well SG initiative, parents of P1-P3 kids were asked to complete a "child lifestyle questionnaire" so that the kids could receive personalised lifestyle advice during school health screenings.

Last Friday, Yu had his health screening in school. His key takeaways were (1) Mama told the doctor he didn't eat enough vege, and (2) he should eat more vege.

On school days, his lunch is just carbs and proteins; why add vege to lengthen lunch time and eat into study/play time plus get too close to dinner time? His school-day dinner gives him one serving of vege and one serving of fruits. 

On weekends, I don't cut fruits but he gets one serving of vege in our Saturday porridge. When we eat out, he may get some vege but the bits in ban mian? It's definitely not one serving. 

Since HPB says that we should have two servings of vege and two servings of fruits a day, he's certainly falling way short. And I pretty much told him that when he came back to complain that I bao toh-ed him.

Well, I could have added vege in lunch and lengthened lunch time (plus bear with complaints) but our dinner starts at 5.30 pm. I need to put some time between lunch and dinner or the kids couldn't eat.

I can't change lunch time coz school ends at 1.30 pm and they have to bus home. It's usually 2.45pm before they start lunch and 3.00 pm by the time they're done. That gives only 2.5h before dinner. That's why my lunches are always small and heavy on proteins rather than carbs, e.g. beef and egg burger, chicken leg with toast.

I also can't change dinner time coz bedtime is 8 pm and they can take an hour for dinner 🤦‍♀️  More for Yang if the food isn't to his liking. Then it's time to poop and shower, and relax a bit with TED-Ed (latest fancy) before calling it a day.

By the way, HPB is also the one who says kids aged 6-13 years need 9-11 hours of sleep a day. Since they now wake at 6.20 am on school days, they should sleep by 9 pm. And since they don't drop off like sleeping beauty, we have to start bedtime routine early. AND since HPD also says （什么都是你讲的……）that the last meal should be consumed three hours before bed, by right must finish dinner by 6 pm - possible only on spaghetti day or curry day. 

Simple maths will tell anyone that it's impossible to sleep well and eat well at the same time. (And maintain good mental health for this Mama whose kids don't like vege.)

Actually around the time of completing the questionnaire for Yu in ~ March, I also looked around for info on vege servings. What I found about what constitutes one serving of vege was baffling:

1. A quarter of a 25cm plate of cooked leafy vegetables such as stir-fried kang kong
2. 150g of raw leafy vegetables like kai lan
3. 100g of raw non-leafy vegetables like broccoli
4. ¾ mug (250 ml) of cooked leafy vegetables like spinach
5. ¾ mug (250 ml) of cooked non-leafy vegetables like carrots

#1 ok, I understand, it's like a portion of vege at the cai fan stall - btw, link points to kids' current fave song. Never mind that I don't understand the difference between the two leafy vege, kang kong in #1 and spinach in #4, but ¾ mug of cooked spinach is quite a lot... As is ¾ mug of cooked carrots - sekali the kid turns orange overnight..!

But the one that got me scratching my head is #2. So for my family of five, we need 750g of raw leafy vege. 750g. You know how much of vege that is???

Fairprice sells vege in packs of 150g to 300g. Last time, I always bought three packets of 150g xiao bai cai for Wednesday dinners, i.e. 450g. It's probably less after discarding the ends etc. The kids took a long time to finish their food, and gave me tons of complaints and headaches. But yes, they dug into their bowls and finished it eventually.

Then, I changed their bowls to plates. It's not the standard 25cm plate; ours are 21cm. So the amount for a 25cm plate would fill all the way to the edge of my 21cm plate. But the 450g of raw vege for five of us could fill more than a quarter. I cannot imagine what 750g looks like!!! 150g per pax probably takes up half our plate and my sanity along with it.

Ok, I changed tack. Maybe the serving size for kids is different. As angmohs don't eat our kind of green leafy vege, I searched for Singapore resources only. Only saw that Singhealth suggested a third to half an adult portion for kids 3-6yo. My kids are all older now so maybe half to ¾ for Yang and Yu; Kai is adult size. Even then, half a packet of xiao bai cai is a lot of vege when you don't like vege.

In the end, I don't bother with all the numbers. I just cook an amount that we can all stomach well, which is about a quarter plate (our size) for the kids with the remainder split between the parents - and we usually get more vege than the kids. And I get better mental health (and better poop).

Even with our own serving size, we don't fulfil the two servings of vege a day, as mentioned in the first half of this post. But never mind. If the kids are growing, they are healthy, they can poop, then I'm giving them enough vege. 

Xiao bai cai for Yu ~ 50g raw

He's big and strong, and he poops.

To each family its own.

Moving moving! - Part I

Part I is on what happens in the old house, mostly packing. You can guess what Part II is about.

I lived in the same house for the first 19 years of my life. Then in university, I moved a lot:

• When staying in college in my first year, I had to move out during term breaks. For Xmas break, I went to a temp room. For Easter break, I bunked in with LS.
• Other years were great as I could stay in my room for term breaks. At least one summer though, I had to rent a temp room after my lease ended and before I came back to SG.
• But in my fourth year when I had to do a summer dissertation, I had to move for the summer as the college wanted to renovate the house.

Then during the upgrading in 2006-2007, I moved to Grams' place for a while to avoid the dust - and back again. 

These were small moves. As a student, I didn't have much beyond personal goods, and I brought only a suitcase to Grams'. The idea was to keep it simple. The major moves came with marriage... First was to move in with Sito in 2009 :)

But I didn't expect more moves to come - to Evanston in 2010, back to SG in 2012 but to a serviced apartment for a month before pulling our stuff out of storage back into our home just two weeks before Kai arrived!

After that, we had two big moves - HV to BP, and BP to HV. I'm so done! 

I actually started a one-line draft to this post back in Evanston (!) but I think I'm now more qualified to talk about moving...

Planning

Yes, must plan first! 

1. Decide what to dump, what to move, so that you can go to #2.

This means time for some Konmarie. If a blender is seldom - or god forbids, never! - used, Carousell away. I find it easier to list stuff as free - moves way more quickly. No loss to me since I don't use it.

For the frequently used stuff, two ways:

1. Buy new ones for the new place and dump old ones on moving day, e.g. TV (not as smart by then), well worn magic mop sweeper
2. Pack in the last couple of days / last day to bring along on moving day, e.g. kettle, facial moisturiser

Don't need to say which is more convenient but sometimes, no choice. 

For example, we bought new bed frames and mattresses when we moved to BP in 2018 so I set up everything nicely before moving day. Our old bed frame was falling apart and the kids were then on small mattresses. But for the move back to HV in 2023, we decided our sleep gear were still in very good shape so we dismantled the beds three days before moving, slept on mattresses on the floor, moved, reassembled after the move, and cleaned everything to sleep on moving day!

2. Estimate number of (a) moving boxes required and (b) big items requiring separate handling.

You need to tell the moving company so that they can provide enough enough boxes and give the correct quote, usually in terms of number of truckloads. Sito estimated our 2023 number based on 2018 number, plus more coz of accumulation. He also went around the house to look see and his estimate was pretty accurate!

For disposal of big items, movers will usually give a separate quote. HDB dwellers can also tap on town council to dispose of them for free, but nice to give some drink money to the workers who help you :)

3. Decide when to start packing.

Which depends on how much stuff you have and how much time you have. Remember that packing does not happen every day coz there's regular life to attend to as well. Also remember to factor in cleaning time for the new place. For our 2023 move, we started packing things that are less used three to four weeks before moving day coz had to...

4. Find space to store the boxes. 

Best enclosed to protect kids, else isolated enough that the kids wouldn't bother, especially if there's a need to stack high. We had to dismantle Kai's bed and used his room as a store room. He slept on a floor mattress in his brothers' room for a few weeks, oops :p

#3 and #4 can be combined if you decide to get white glove service - the packers will pack everything for you within a few hours max, just a couple of days before the move. You just eye power. I got a quote for this ~ $300-400 but decided to save the money. If you do this, you can go straight to Part II :p

Next, how to pack... 

First, get ready the boxes, tape, marker and pen and paper - need to label the boxes and write down in a list what's in each box to facilitate unpacking.

Remember to take a video for the memories before packing!

Less used stuff

This is easy. Memorabilia, decoration, books. Even if they don't fit into boxes, just remove them from their hiding places anyway. Like our memorabilia boxes at the top of our wardrobes - empty those shelves early and forget about them. 

Btw, don't pack boxes of books and books alone. They're very heavy! Our books took up max a third to half of the box, with lighter things on top. 

I would exclude winter gear here to avoid cardboard smell - see below on clothes and linen. But go ahead and throw in the shoes!

Oh, army stuff - Sito is already done with reservist but otherwise, pack them in one well-labelled box in case really suay kena called up!

Work, school and play stuff

Pare down to the minimum. The monitor can't fit into the box so can use to the end :p All documents, document trays, files and writing materials etc can be packed early. If the kids must lose that last eraser, here's $2 for the school bookshop! 

No need to do drawing or painting in those last few weeks. No need 1,001 toys too. Play with Toy X or just read library books. Remember to return said library books before moving :) Just don't accidentally pack library books into boxes...!

Big Lego structures may need some dismantling and packing into bags before putting into boxes.

Kitchen stuff

No time to make anything fancy while busy with final reno touchups, delivery of goods and packing. In fact, best to eat out or pack food in the last couple of days. So almost all appliances, cutlery and utensils can go into the boxes, save a small pot for comfort food aka instant noodles, kettle and cups. 

For opened goods, put them into big boxes or clean plastic bags before packing into the boxes. Not nice to have cardboard smell in food??! Not all the boxes provided by movers are brand new too...

Don't forget the fridge until it's too late. Must disconnect early to cool down the hot parts, and after the move, must let it stand for a couple of hours to ensure compressor/refrigerant etc has settled before turning it on. That means it's best not to stock up on ice cream, frozen meat etc. From when? Could be from weeks before you start packing so the planning is important!

But what about regular items like dark soy sauce, garlic salt and dried scallops? Get help from family/friends or an ice box that can last at least eight hours*. We pack our stuff in a cold bag and brought over to my in-laws' place that day before the big move.

* More is better. It's at least two hours each before and after, and another four hours for the actual move - weather and traffic may not be kind, worse if you have to dismantle the door and put it back again *.* Speaking from experience...

Cleaning materials

Sito had a good laugh when he was packing some six 3L unopened bottles of laundry sanitiser. Coz I bought a lot during a sale months ago.... Oops...

Anyway, make sure you have enough cleaning materials including laundry powder, toilet cleaner, general wipes and rags for the last days and for cleaning up after moving - need to hand over the house properly to the next occupants. 

Clothes and linen

I cannot put clothes and linen directly in moving boxes. If I do that, I'll have to wash them all over again. Yes, I'm OCD like that. Even if the boxes are new. This is where an old duvet cover or bedsheet is very useful! Heck, I would use my fave duvet cover if that's the only one available!

Just line the moving box with the duvet cover/bedsheet, and dump the stuff inside together with the hangers (if any). Keep them clean between the old and the new wardrobes :) Then just wash the duvet cover/bedsheet. Done!

Also make full use of suitcases - they need to be moved too so might as well put clothes in them, assuming they're clean, else there's always the duvet cover. In fact, I kept bringing clothes over when cleaning up the new house - might as well!

For clothes that should not be crumpled into boxes like suits, movers can provide a clothes rack - they'll hang the suits, wrap with clingfilm and move. It's unlikely they'll provide more than one or two though... If you have your own, they can wrap it up and move for you too - just remember to mention when asking for quotes.

Minimise dirty laundry to bring over by doing your last laundry as late as possible. Don't bother packing dirty laundry - just bring the whole laundry basket over.

Two things to remember:

1. Prepare clothes and towels for moving day and perhaps the next couple of days, and put them in a suitcase for easy access.
2. Pack clothes and linen last so they don't get much cardboard smell. Duvet cover is totally porous...

Big stuff

Things that don't fit into moving boxes, e.g. large paintings, furniture, white goods. See above for fridge.

Movers will secure doors to cabinets etc but good to empty them so things will just rock and roll inside during the move. 

Some stuff needs dismantling to fit into the lift or to ensure safety for both movers and goods, e.g. bed frames. Note that dismantling and assembling attract fees. As it turned out, we realised that it wasn't difficult to DIY.

Finally, the move.

This is easy after all that planning and packing. Do a few checks to ensure nothing (big!) gets left behind. Tell the main guy on the ground what to move, what to dump etc.

Usually the movers' truck cannot take people. So someone must be present to lock up in the old house and open up in the new house. I think the latter is more important coz you want to tell movers where to put the various things.

We had 1.5 truckloads so the movers had to return for a second trip. So we left for the new house while they were still packing coz they drove and we took MRT :p I gave them the door code and the access card for the old house, to be returned after the move.

After moving

Not done yet, ok... I went back to the old house a couple of days later to clean up a bit. Lots of dust from the moving, e.g. under the fridge. Also found that the movers did not throw away our old duvets. I felt lucky it was just that and not the old washing machine! After clearing rubbish and checking that the keys etc were nicely laid out for the new occupants, I said a last goodbye and left with the last of my cleaning materials.

And that's it!

How is Clan Sito lately?

I realised I haven't written about our daily life for a while. The start of the year is always so busy, especially when the breadmaker broke in January just as I started to have to make breakfast for Kai. Now, making bread takes more active time. More fun though :p

Anyway, let's see what we have been up to in the past couple of months, apart from Legoland trip etc...

"I like this!"

Fried eggs are always good. That was a lazy meal coz I just stirfried minced beef, add mixed vege and top with eggs. Made a few things for the first time this year - swiss roll (kind of flat instead of round :p), onigiri (rice came loose!), tomato with egg and noodles (single serving - easier to cook) and airfryer chicken burger. I've also turned their usual beef burger into double cheeseburger - easier to cook two thin patties than one thick patty :p

But the most interesting one was the bread. I bought a Pullman loaf pan when the breadmaker died. I tried various recipes using 250g, 300g, 400g and 450g flour. The 450g flour really filled the pan so I got a nice square loaf but it was difficult to remove from the pan. 400g was just nice. What was surprising was the 250g with egg - it almost filled the pan like the 400g, but how?? Coz of the egg? 300g without egg didn't fill up nearly as much.

Anyway, back to the boys...

Sito being 奶爸 - my fave persona, haha!

So nice to see my boys working together. Kai is not in this picture but he was also working hard in his room. He has homework almost every day now.

Earthquake!

We go to Swensen's at least once a month. Finally, we accumulated enough points for a free earthquake! Kids were very pleased :)

Individual hotpot at Paradise

Such good value. No wonder the queue was long! We went for lunch and took the premium set but realised the value set was good enough as the buffet counter had a lot of food too! Can't wait to bring the kids one day. And there was a sale so we topped up our Paradise credits - time to eat more!

A little pet came over at times, must feed :p

Does he look like Labubu??!

That was after watching Ne Zha. Papa said 哪吒 looked like labubu. Yu tried to look like labubu too. 谁比较像？

For Founder's Day school holiday, we went to the pool. It’s been almost a year since our last trip! Topped off the happy day with lunch at the adjacent Macs. Then Kai and Yang napped on the bus back. Yu dozed off while practising for his maths test. Parents were also sleepy...

Kai carried Yang who was tired

Coz Yang and I walked to the pool from some 20min away. We went to buy PE shorts for him but they ran out of his size. In the end, he decided on a pair of comfy berms from his home clothes for his CCA instead. 

Yu forgot how to swim?!!

Kai the shark beneath the surface and Yang the inflated balloon 

At one point, he let the water into his mouth 🤮 

Happy after dinner!

I've decided that I shall not make dinner on bedsheets days. Just too much work. So we told Yang and Yu to go straight to Paradise Classic downstairs after CCA. Packed for Kai who was already in PJs and doing homework.

Oooh, my fave handyman!

Somehow, the LED got busted. Soon after, the kids' toilet was partially clogged by Yang - there was a gurgling sound when flushing and the water level was lower than usual. Unlike a full clog, I couldn't just break up the poop with a chopsticks coz there was nothing I could see! A combination of dish detergent, bleach and hot water did the trick, phew!

Then Yu told me this: Our family is so good right? Papa can fix the light, and you can fix the toilet.

😂 

Funny boy is also the lumpy boy - new baluku his head!

The balukus on the side took a few years to subside 95%! Sighs... This time, he and Yang were at the playground and he fell while bouncing on a car structure. Yang brought me to the scene - turned out he fell within the car structure. I suspected he first landed on the metal bar hence the baluku, coz the bottom of the car was wood which gave when I knocked and shouldn't cause such a lump. The ground at the playground was also the cushioned type. 

Poor kid... Made the two write Rule #1 - safety - a hundred times!!!

This boy - and Yang - likes my belly so this is common...

Let's cook!

We met JY's family last Saturday. First, lunch at Kiseki. Yang is one year younger than K2 but taller so ended up paying for adult price while K2 got child price. Sito couldn't help laughing coz K2 looked heftier than Yang! Indeed, Yang had mostly tamago sushi 🤷‍♀️ But ok la, we all enjoyed ourselves. Sat there until we were the only ones left, ha!

Next was the National Museum. It was unexpectedly fun! Yesterday, Yang could still remember when the Japanese invaded China!

Listening to a Brit and a Dutch quarrel

An old-school phone!

These two "called" me. And even wanted to scam me with the fake friend scam! Yu was so funny, claimed he was "your friend, Auntie J". I told him, my friend wouldn't call herself that! So he went to ask JY for her name, and told me he was "JY" - yes, full name. Still wrong! Haha!!!

We were supposed to go to the National Library but it started to rain! So we took a bus instead - JY they all went to HV for dinner while we stopped at Somerset to catch a train to Bishan library instead and had dinner there. Sito brought them home while I went to meet KLK.

Sali was here!

It was so good to see everyone again, especially Sali. At one point, the girls all went to the toilet together, just like in JC haha! We left in batches. By the time we split, it was like 1 am. I haven't been out this late for a long time!

When I got home, the second living thing I saw after Sito was... a roach! Argh! We spent some time killing it and cleaning up. Now, I still shudder if there's a shadow near the bottom of any cabinet :(

The next day, I texted the group to scold AT - I saw a roach at the bar, which led to a small convo on roaches at home. I said I had very few roaches fortunately and he said something like “怎么可能没有蟑螂的？” Really is 承你“吉言”！

Reading an old book on fairy tales before bedtime - on our bed

On Hari Raya Puasa, we took the chance to do our annual 清明 but at home instead of at the columbarium. As it was Ah Yee's birthday just two days before, we used the gathering to celebrate her birthday too!

Swirling - what's the verb? - incense paper

Two cakes coz ML/MT and I 英雄所见略同！

Yes, that was after lunch and there was still a lot of food! There's also a third cake in the foreground but it was part of the offerings.

This year, a distant aunt was also present. She's the daughter of my grandfather's youngest brother, I think..

Was chatting with MY when we had to go as Yu had a playdate arranged just that morning. It was near his school. Probably my second time in a black and white bungalow and my first in a lived-in one. The five boys were playing in the pool when more than 20 monkeys came over! One even swiped at my drink! A boy kept throwing water balloons at the baby monkeys. Eventually, we had to get everyone into the house for safety.

Playing nerf guns

No such space at home for long distance shooting! The final activity was outdoors again - tennis and badminton. Monkeys were gone, phew! But I got bitten by mosquitoes! More than 18!!! Still a little itchy now...

Kai had tuition via Zoom that night

There is no class on public holidays, and no rescheduling. But his tutor is very dedicated and arranged a free session via Zoom! Only three kids attended so quite full attention. She also organises additional Zoom sessions to prepare her kids for Literature as well. We are so lucky to have her!

This week was learning week for Kai. Tuesday was training for his new PLD - personal learning device, i.e. his Chromebook. From next week, he is to bring it to class every day. Wednesday and Thursday were for coding, including a WA for D&T which he said he failed coz his thing didn't work. Ah well... Friday was science carnival in school. We also signed him up for Chinese day camp on Thursday and Friday after the mandatory activities. He didn't like it, as expected :p But better the immersion than not!

I'm typing this while kids were watching TV and now doing some work alone/with Papa. I should go make lunch soon.. Hungry!

Kai must be hungry too. He just asked to go to the coffeeshop at blk 6 for dinner today - we went there for the first time last Sunday and they all liked it for the ban mian and the prata :)

Finally, update on height and weight, measured on 29 March:

• Kai: 168cm / 49.5kg
• Yang: 150cm / 39.1kg
• Yu: 133cm / 29.8kg

Yes, Kai is now my height! More or less la, coz he keeps moving... Yang gained the most weight in the past three months ~ 4kg!

Congrats, Kai :)

Kai attended his first National Schools Individual (NSI) Chess Championships on 15-16 March and ranked 50 out of 283 in the U14 category, woohoo! 

I told Sito this was a bad wefie, haha!

Even though his school does not have chess as a CCA, a group of boys have come together to play chess in school. There's even a WhatsApp group - I didn't look at this but I saw some messages from Kai's class chat and, shall I just say I don't understand boy humour??

Anyway, so a number from this group of boys donned their school uniform and represented their school at NSI, chaperoned by parents. And for such an informal group with no coach, they all did pretty well!

Just playing with friends before the tournament started

Source: Parents' group

The parents of the Sec 1 chess boys also have a WhatsApp group going :p And parents who were there posted photos of the tournament. Sito is the chess parent of our family but he declined to be invited (by me) into the WhatsApp group - anti-social, haha! 

Anyway, my poor laogong aka dedicated chess papa sat at Macs the whole two days! Sian of Macs after that... But by doing so, Kai had a spot to rest in between matches and didn't need to sit on the ground like some others. A friend also joined him at Macs, and he told Kai that Sito was a good papa :)))

So tired at the end of day one

It was a long journey to Tampines so they both wore a mask for the train rides. But later, we found that Kai had a fever. No wonder he was so tired. He asked for dinner to be packed and eaten at home, and went to bed shortly after that. Found him hot while sleeping. When he woke due to his 9 pm sleep alarm which we forgot to turn off, we gave him some paracetamol and thankfully, he was better the next day.

Overall, Kai lost one game, drew four and won four. This tournament was just one week after his last tournament where he did quite badly 😢  So Sito said he was perhaps overly cautious hence the many draws. It was a good experience for him, and Sito also managed to put faces to some names that the boy mentioned. We were happy to see him having fun with his like-minded friends :)

A very wet Legoland

Our last trip to Legoland was 2023, before Kai's PSLE year. We were all so excited to go back again! Yu especially could be heard saying how excited he was about it in the days leading to the trip. But I was apprehensive due to the weather forecast about a monsoon surge on 19-21 March, the last three days of our four-day trip *.*

This time, we did a Tuesday-Friday instead of our preferred Wednesday to Saturday routine, as we were not sure if NSI for chess would take place that weekend. As it turned out, chess was on the weekend before our trip but we didn't change our dates, which was just as well given the weather!

Tuesday, 18 March

Everything is still awesome!

Our car dropped us at Tuas checkpoint for us to go through immigration personally, as is the rule for bigger cars these days. Didn't need to bring the big suitcase with us. It was very, very smooth. There was a slight wait at the JB checkpoint but it was ok. In Legoland itself in 1.5h.

This time, we chose an AirBnB at Afiniti which allowed us to drop baggage before check-in and after check-out time. But we were lucky - apartment was available for morning check-in! 

The boys were queueing for VR when I went to get our annual passes settled at guest services. Again something new - I pre-registered online and sent in photos so there was no need for all of us to be present to make a new card. The funny thing was that the staff took photos of the emailed photos *.* So all our cards show us looking ghostly blue...

But the VR ride went down and the boys didn't get to ride. They got a card that allowed them to jump queue for any ride though. The sad thing is, Yu never wanted to go for the VR again, sighs... But he did go for the volcano ride and the little dragon roller coaster later. After USJ, nothing can be that scary! 

Hello again, Legoland!

No, Kai isn't that tall yet! And Yu said he knew why I chose this top for them that day, yup!

My son has purple tongue!

That was after lunch at our fave restaurant in Legoland - Burger Junction. Don't know why he likes the paddle pop twister ice cream. I tried once and it was like... fondant?! 

Oh, I joined the boys to ride the volcano roller coaster - my first time. So wet! Thank goodness the boys had raincoats and I had a poncho. The boys' pants were a little wet but it was a hot day so everything dried quickly.

Yu was excited by Papa's quakeproof building - for 10 seconds

I meant his interest was 10-sec long :p

Bumped into JK and his family. Long time no see this primary school classmate! Yang also bumped into his classmate there but he didn't want to take a photo with him, just wanted to build racing cars.

Posing like the penguin

Robotics!

We were lucky to get the slots though we were not the first in the waiting list. Yang did this before but he still enjoyed it. He did the first task and Yu the second. We asked the staff if we could buy robotics materials but nope, only online. Very ex anyway... Shall let Yu continue in school first...

Big enough to drive the boat on his own!

We found more options at Medini Mall this time. Happy! But maybe due to that, the bakery at BIG was no longer as filled as the last time we were there, so not many options for breakfast... Also bought water. 

Dinner was at a new place - Eco Botanic, recommended by JY. But the roast place we eyed was being renovated and only takeaway was available! So we had the Korean BBQ next door. Got the kids drinks and poor Yang clipped his tongue on the Pororo drink bottle, ouch! Luckily he took it quite well.

A short walk brought us to a massage place. Cheaper than our usual but it didn't feel as relaxed. The boys sat at the waiting area to play phone games. When we were done, we joined them there and were served ginger tea, red bean soup and warm water.

For this first day, we had only leftover Korean pancake for supper. Not so familiar with Eco Botanic. And we were all tired.

This apartment was nearer to Legoland. There was a single bed in the MBR so we gave up that room to the kids - Yang and Yu shared the big bed and Kai took the single. The bed in the other room was bigger, so just nice for us adults :)

But the beds weren't very comfortable *.* The worst was the fifth towel - it felt more like a blanket?? I still felt wet after using it and there was fur on me?! Had to shower again and used my own towel originally meant for the water park.

Wednesday, 19 March

Water park in the rain

Well, since it's water park, right??

We went there in a slight light. Played all we could as the rain got heavier. Finally, we the parents couldn't take it anymore and ushered all out of the park within two hours. Really walking in the rain man... We only brought out the towels to dry ourselves right outside the apartment building. Sito and I shared a towel but ok, shower was very near!

Romantic (?!) stroll in the rain or waddling through the lazy river? :p

Lunch was supposed to be our usual Tian Lai but it was not open! Coz last time we went on a Thursday... Luckily our driver was Chinese and knew about another similar restaurant just across the road and he brought us there. We had their special 甘香 crabs - very nice! Reminded me of fish head curry and the assam sauce at our fave cai fan stall. But very spicy. And my fingers were stained despite gloves. Sito didn't wear gloves so his hands all yellow!

First time using gloves for crabs, I think

Big gong!

The staff were kind to shelter us to the car with big umbrellas. We headed to AEON to shop and eat. First stop was Mixue - kids had a sundae each. Surprisingly, Yang and Yu didn't have any leftovers!

Bought some underwear for Yang and Yu, and bread for breakfast. I even went to Daiso while the boys read at Popular! Of course they went there for phones but nope, not this outlet. Dinner was at Vivo Pizza - bought their membership again since the kids like it there.

Nice and quiet

Egg tart in yam base - so good! 

Hey Tea in a bottle, after LiHo at AEON

Kai and Yang had supper too - tamago sushi but all gone while at the mall! Papa went to buy drinks for Yang and Yu after returning to the apartment as they complained all we had were fizzy drinks.. That's how we also ended up with some candy - left of picture behind Hey Tea :p

Thursday, 20 March

Very wet day!

We woke to rain, rain and rain! But we went to Legoland anyway. We had four umbrellas but Yang and Yu wore their raincoats as they were cold. Just as well coz (1) I could shelter myself better as Yu could take a little splash (:p) and (2) Sito could shelter himself better when one umbrella got stuck later in the day and he had to shelter Yang too. 

In fact, another umbrella kind of broke too but still usable. Both umbrellas came apart in Yang's hands. Sighs... I bought six more umbrellas at home on Saturday. More to replace lost and damaged umbrellas in the coming year!

Anyway, all the outdoor rides were closed as expected. We went for the indoors stuff like Ninjago, mummy adventure and 4D shows, but the rain was really dreary...

When Ninjago first came out, these figures weren't that much shorter...

Mini flood!

Sito's mi bandung and bandung soda!

I had chicken briyani and the kids maggi goreng ayam. Yang and Yu also had a banana each as the bananas on every table were too tempting! That was at Faaz Bistro. Friendly staff and fast service. We went to Ridwan at first but they had only nasi lemak and steamed rice so we changed.

Kai also had Shilin fried chicken. Sito had some seafood tempura from Shilin while I grabbed a coffee from MYCoffee. All very nice. Kids also played at the small arcade. Raining day activities :p

Then we decided to go to Sea Life. Yang was the one who was very on about it but when we got there, the other two were also keen! In fact, Kai was the first to want to touch the sea stars! They also asked questions and thankfully, we had a very patient guide :)

All done, we went back to the apartment to change bags and grab their phones, and went to AEON again. Dinner was Johnny - Thai style hotpot. The kids weren't super hungry due to their big lunch but it was really nice to have some hot soupy stuff on a raining day!

They wanted ice cream again so this time, we had Baskin Robbins. Then we bought bread and supper again - tamago sushi for Kai and Yang, muah chee and yam cake for us - before massage at our usual place.

Kids sat near us to play phone games. Later, they shifted to another chair when other customers came in, but the staff were very nice about it. The kids said they preferred this place as we were there longer (!) and they had soft chairs. After the massage, Sito, Yang and Yu enjoyed the free siew mai and fishballs at the reception area. So happy!

Not done yet! Must get Blackball for dessert!

Friday, 21 March

Homebound

We woke to a visibly clearer day. There was a light passing shower while we were at Ninjago. But oh well, time to go!

We checked out at 9.30 am and left our baggage with the security. We were the first to enter Legoland, yeah! After the opening show, we split into two groups. Yang and Yu were the first to get to the boating school, and Kai was the first at the big dragon roller coaster. So happy no need to queue, haha!

Tuuurning! Must catch up with Yang!

They won!

Kai helped Sito with the pumping. He looked so tired!

As the Ninjago ride went down while they were in the queue, they were given a fast pass again to any ride. Kai and Yang wanted VR but Yu didn't. So Yu was very upset. I gave him a cotton candy.

Cotton candy - with conditions!

Later, Sito managed to "refund" a fast pass for Yu after the brothers took their VR ride. So Yu went for the boating school and overtook one boat and almost overtook another but got stuck instead :p

So the brothers got their cotton candy too

Kai looked so happy! He ate his so quickly... Yang's was still round and nice...

Bought 75RM worth of buns and cakes at the BIG bakery - finally found our usual hotdog buns there! - while Sito grabbed some snacks with the boys. They must have some candy...

Had a simple lunch of buns at the apartment lobby while waiting for our ride home. I forgot to factor in bigger appetites so in the end, we didn't have enough buns for breakfast today, oops! Must buy more next time! I'm very happy to buy their tea cakes though - for breakfast and for their school little bites next week!

We reached home within an hour. No queue at both checkpoints. Clearing immigration personally at Tuas was actually much faster than clearing in car.

So nice to sleep in our own beg last night!!

The sly ones

On Wednesday night, Kai was about to go to bed at about 10 pm when he saw Yu's door ajar. He took a peek and found Yu totally in his blanket. As usual, Kai decided to disturb his brother if he wasn't asleep. So he went in and lifted the blanket, only to find Yu wide awake inside AND WITH HIS PHONE!

Sito and I heard Yu shout at Kai to go away. At first we were upset at Kai for disturbing his brother's sleep and went to the walkway outside Yu's room as Kai came out. But when Kai told us Yu was playing with his phone, he was partially absolved. 

Later, we reminded him to never disturb his brothers at bedtime, and if he should suspect anything, to come straight to us unless he was also looking for a scolding.

Back to Yu. I went in to see him holding his phone, which shows Pleco, our usual Chinese dictionary. I set a passcode immediately and gave Yu a piece of my mind. 

I trusted him to use it only when given permission, e.g. Chinese dictionary during term time, so there was no passcode. The phone is always on his desk in his room as it acts as his alarm clock too. 

But he betrayed this trust! 

Cue the silent tears...  

Told him he would suffer consequences, the first being that he would be very tired the next morning. Papa said he would have to give up some phone time during the holidays.

I felt the gods of parenting programmes nodding their approval as I scolded him in a calm voice :p

Yesterday morning at the breakfast table, Kai was taunting Yu for looking at anime girls* on his phone the night before. Yu claimed again that it was just the Chinese dictionary. Anyway, Yang and Yu were always running late so I chased them out of the house first.

* The kids have this thing about it being sus to look at anime girls. Later, Yang said Kai probably saw an in-game ad.

Later in the morning, I thought if Yu was looking at the Chinese dictionary, I might as well review the words he saw and go through with him. So I went to the app history, and found only a couple of words at 9.59 pm; the earlier words were seen earlier in the evening when he was doing Chinese homework.

I was very upset. He not only used his phone without permission but also lied!

I went into screen time and found all the evidence I needed and more. He was playing games when Kai walked in on him. Worse, this boy had been using his phone almost every night at 9-10 pm and even in the middle of the night like 2-3am!

No wonder he was always sleepy when I woke him for school. No wonder he was always asking if I were going to check on him at 11 pm!

I also found that this happened on nights he slept with Yang. So I took out Yang's phone and found that this boy also used his phone without permission after I left his room at night! His poison was Youtube rather than games though. But before I checked the history further, I turned on parental controls - his is an Android - and all the history was gone somehow!

I didn't have time yesterday but just now, I saw from Youtube history that he watched some videos on facts but mostly reels on Squid Game or random stuff like "saddest find inside an egg"?!

When Yang came home yesterday, I told him I was very upset with what he and Yu did behind my back. He didn't come out during the 10 pm commotion but he was actually up based on his Youtube history so he probably heard something. When I asked him if he could tell what I was upset about, he went, "Phone?"

Then he owned up to everything - using phone without permission after I left his room and in the middle of the night when he woke and couldn't sleep. Gave him a good scolding! Also talked about trust and reputation.

Kai was happily (!) watching by the side, coz I told him I'd scold him if he interrupted. But actually Kai is the one with the best sleep discipline - sleep means sleep. I checked his screen time too and he has been quite ok, mostly playing chess on the way to and from school, and in the evenings mostly. Told him I wouldn't restrict him if he uses it moderately and always puts his studies first.

Later, when Yu came home, I questioned him. He continued to claim he was using the Chinese dictionary. Then I revealed I knew everything. Scolded him again and also for lying, which was worse. 

Now both are afraid that they wouldn't be able to use their phones at night during our holiday next week as I have set downtime from 8 pm to 8 am.

Let them be scared!

Good boy and his sly brothers

Btw, these glasses were used just that one time as they prefer their plastic Ikea cups. 

Update 24 Mar 2025

The most sly one made a confession during our last dinner at Legoland last week - he also watched YouTube on his phone at night but using browser as he didn't have the YouTube app. Tsk tsk tsk. I don't know if I should be happy he's tech savvy or sian...

Taking over from the helper - Part II

I started this post back in 2022 when we were still staying at BP.. Finally I'm finishing it!

*********

Following Part I on clean-repair-replace, here's Part II on changing the way things are done.

Cooking - Helper would start preparing at 4.00 or 4.30 pm to get dinner to the table by 5.30 pm. But I want to spend as much time with the kids as possible, so:

• Prepare ingredients in the morning, marinade them etc and pop them into the fridge - this usually takes much longer than the actual cooking!
• Bring out the ingredients and set the rice cooker at 4.30 pm
• Start cooking by 5 pm - I usually takes 15-30 min to cook and serve.
• Use thermal pot recipes where possible - no need to cook in the evening! Very helpful when we had swimming lessons - I could get the laundry going and dish out hot porridge by the time they were done with showering!

And of course, use less oil and salt! It's hard to gauge how much salt helper used as we used salt water to soak fruits but we used to buy 2L/5L bottles of oil every couple of months! As we happened to start new bottles of oil when moving to HV, I realised that I used only 7L in one year, including deep frying just once or twice.

Laundry - see separate post. While the kids can't help with cooking, this is easy to involve the kids - get them to fold their clothes! Very ugly and full of creases but I don't care coz it's their home clothes :p Anyway I still hang up school uniforms and street clothes. Should teach them how to iron clothes by end of sec school..

Cleaning - I had a task list for the helper, comprising daily, weekly and monthly tasks. Now I know exactly what to do so no need to stick the list on my fridge already. But I have a Google calendar for chores to remind me of less frequent stuff like cleaning the washer or under the fridge.

High-frequency areas which I have changed:

• Reduce bathroom cleaning from three times a week to twice once a week coz Auntie is busy - and the kids' toilet is where I don't want to go in often! Back in our old place, I even closed up the third bathroom totally - one fewer to clean ✌️ 
• Change kitchen and hand towels every day instead of I-don't-know-previous-frequency! Nowadays, coz the boys make their vanity so wet, I have to change their hand towels twice a day..
• Use Robot-kun for the floors, including the balcony in the old house, instead of mop cloths. But I still used Magiclean and even steam cleaning for the yard in the old house coz it got very dirty from the elements.

Also added new tasks: 

• Steam the floors every month - I bought this to sanitise the floors and coz I heard it helps clean up oily areas. But in the end, I'm very pleased that it cleans dirty grout lines and also the dirt spots left behind by Robot-kun. But I'm lazier after moving to HV, a lot more things to shift to steam floor!!!

• Steam kitchen accessories with the same steamer but with different steam heads - When I first did this in the old house, a lot of black stuff came out of the tap handle! 🤮 Used it to clean sink drain and hood filter covers too. Again, lazier in HV but my sink is very clean now and I have no hood.

• Vacuum the aircon units - Helper used to wash the filters monthly. When I took over, I got more regular servicing instead. Then I forgot about the servicing one time and it was too close to school holidays; I prefer to do this when kids are not home. So I washed the filters myself. This is easy enough so I'm still doing it, plus brushing the coils. So far only need annual servicing :)

• Clean the microwave every week - when microwaving kitchen wiping cloths and sponge, the steam makes the inside of the microwave all wet, which makes it perfect for cleaning! I don't think it was ever cleaned before coz not in the task list, unless there were obvious stains...

• New for HV: Cleaning the corridor windows twice a year - these sliding windows get really dirty from dust! Sito will clean the corridor side while I handle the inside. Need a bottle spray, a squeegee and lots of rags! The casement windows in the bedrooms always get a wipe every time I change bedsheets.

Hmm, it looks like it's more than changing how things are done but also adding on things to do...

Anyway, hope this info is helpful for families who are looking to take over from a helper! :)

New CCA for all

On 9 January, Sito and I went to school for a talk for Sec 1 parents. It was the usual, but it was followed by a CCA fair. 

We met all three in the canteen when they were dismissed at 1.30 pm for lunch. Yang was to wait at the canteen while Yu attended his Higher Chinese extra lesson and the remaining three went for the CCA fair.

Kai eating rubbish for lunch *.*

Now, while their primary school allows kids to explore CCAs on a recreational basis, secondary school CCAs are a different ball game. Cannot just be recreational. Sports means school team. Everything has a competition or something.

If the school has chess, it would be easy. But it doesn't. We had gone through the CCA options with Kai based on information on the school website. But he wasn't terribly interested in anything. We shortlisted a few for him to seek out the booths to ask questions. 

At the fair, we started off walking around but Kai wasn't very into it. So Sito tasked him to go to the booths himself and come back to tell us details etc. We just stood at one side or checked out the booths on our own. Some kids also came up to us to tell us about their CCA. At one point, I told a kid to tell Kai, not tell me :p

Eventually, Kai signed up for four trials: basketball, badminton, track and field, and NPCC. We also filled up a form to inform the school of his interest in chess; we have already signed him up for the National Schools Individual Championship next week.

Going home after CCA fair - rare sight of them four (and me) on the bridge!

The trials started after LNY. He was told he didn't make it for basketball on the spot. He wasn't super keen on it but still felt bad. So that was a lesson in failure, gone through at lunch and again before his bedtime.

The next two trials were badminton and track/field. He didn't know the outcome immediately. But he said track/field was very tiring so even if he got in, he wasn't too keen. My son is a sedentary creature...

The last trial was NPCC. It seemed like more of an intro session than trial. They did some drills. Kai came back to say he loved it. Love ok, not just like. 

So it was good that he was eventually allocated his first choice - NPCC. 

It was his first session yesterday. We knew it started at 3pm but had no idea when it would end. We kept stalking him using the Find My app. He finally came home at 6.45 pm. 

So they had drills for some two hours. While the Sec 1s were in PE attire, the seniors were all in uniform. But they got their measurements ytd too so I suppose they would get their uniforms soon. Will post pictures later :)

As for his brothers, their CCAs started on the 15th day of LNY :p Yang came back to say track/field was fun, yeah! So happy that he enjoyed it! He ran like 10 rounds in the auditorium - with aircon, haha! 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed but it seems that since he started track/field, his poop became more frequent than every 10 days! Probably a combi of vigorous exercise and more water? 🤞 

On the other hand, Yu said robotics was boring - just talking. This was after he was so excited at getting this CCA. I told him there would probably be more hands-on stuff after the first intro session.. 

But it was still boring the second week. Finally, they got to build things from the third week and he was happy! He also asked for the Lego set - um, very expensive... Let's see how it goes...