Day out with Yan :)

Yan is back! Well, for a few days at least. And we arranged way back to meet up today :)

After a long breakfast at Straits Kitchen

Yes, we started before 9 am and by the time we left, the place was ready for lunch! We took a cab back to BP and sat around at home before heading out to karaoke!

The singing cousins, woohoo!

We thought the last time we sang together might have been 20 years ago *.* I remembered Yan singing a Hokkien song. She remembered Ah Yee singing Teresa Teng and Hokkien songs. What took this reunion so long? It was so fun!!

We started out with older songs. Then the newer ones came out. Then the crazy ones came out. And silly ones too. At one point, I think it must have been after Taylor Swift's Shake It Off, I thought I needed some Jay Zhou/Fang Wenshan to put some brains back into my head :p

Very high!

Even Kai and Yang joined us!

We gave them their current fave, Let It Go. Kai sang along for a while and then ditched the microphone. Yang was just sitting quietly on my lap. Gave them Old MacDonald and then I gave up. Time to fetch Yu and get everyone home!

Welfie before saying byebye to Yan

Hope it wouldn't be too long to our next meeting. And certainly hope the second cousins will get to meet soon too!

May Day with caterpillars!

We had such fun today! But first, a little throw back to Friday when school was closed. I had great plans to bring the boys out for breakfast and then to the pond.

Too early for Yakun so we terrorised fruits in NTUC

Yu: I want Milo too!

The short walk

It started drizzling when we got to the pond so we circled the CC a little. We were going to leave after that but the drizzle stopped so we went back to the boardwalk. And then it started drizzling again! Ah well, we left. But at least Kai and Yang saw a couple of tortoises in the pond.

I thought we missed seeing the big caterpillars but as it turned out, the caterpillars I read about online were not at Pang Sua Pond but at the part of Pang Sua Park Connector near their school! And today was the day!

Giant caterpillars the length of my index finger but fatter!

We left the house before 9 am and took a slow walk to the park connector between their school and the post office. A little bit in from the main road, we spotted the first caterpillars. They have blue pads on their feet! I felt so amazed but disgusted at the same time.

Years back in AMK, I walked by scores of these giant caterpillars feasting on the trees along the tracks between the station and my place. Needless to say, giant moths plied that path every night and scared the hell out of me every time they flew too low. Once, I even saw a moth hanging on a tree, seemingly sleeping!

Anyway, we also saw many cocoons. Think there were more cocoons than caterpillars already. One caterpillar was in the midst of spinning its cocoon!

40% done?

A camouflaged cocoon; finger for size

Also spotted some dead caterpillars but here the boys were gazing at some ant *.*

Token picture of the other boys :p

Yu was running about while Kai and Yang were busy searching for more caterpillars and cocoons with me. I carried Kai and Yang to see the caterpillars and cocoon up close. One cocoon was low enough for them to touch. It felt like cardboard. But no idea how hard it was coz I dared not press it. I don't like moths but I'm not killing them.

Time for some chow!

I forgot to get milo for Yu too, oops. But he enjoyed the chee cheong fun, which his brothers didn't like. It was going to rain so no waterplay. Instead, we went to the playground downstairs.

Seesaw time!

Not terribly friendly to my heart, this playground

Then the rain came. We went into the nearest block. Which isn't ours! Ended up buying lunch before cutting through the mall to get to our block.

Sent the boys in for an early nap coz we were due for caking cutting after nap time. Only Kai was up early though. I was on my way out to meet Kel and D for five minutes when Yu woke. So he came with me. He was so shy but when he was offered a Hello Panda cookie, he wasn't shy at all *.*

Happy birthday to AhYe!

We went out for dinner at the Flyer and got back late. Yu went down very quickly. Kai was next after a meltdown - he was supposed to go straight to bed but asked for some time to play in his room. I told him to turn off the light at 8.45 pm. Turned out that that was only a few minutes away and he blew. Yang just came in, demanding to know who closed his room door - I have to leave the door very much open than ajar every night. Hope he's sleeping already.

So there, our May Day. Think it was great to head out early for a stroll and breakfast. Need to do this more often :)

Super big bruise!

Totally random post because I haven't had such a big bruise since I was a teenager! And I love bruises! *crazy*

Beautiful? Haha!

We left a 27kg box near the doorway after lugging it back from Ikea one night - it was our desk. The next morning, I was standing there when Yu pulled it over. Luckily it landed on me and not him.

When I had such a big bruise years back, it was also on a shin but higher up. Mother wouldn't bother normally but I think she couldn't bear the size and took Zam-Buk to it one night - I was sitting on the step leading to the kitchen howling madly at 11 pm! Now that I think about it, it should be that time when I was studying at the table, got up to pee but got dizzy and fell into the bathroom. That's about half my life ago *.*

Water is money...

That's what I say to console myself - water is money...

On Easter Sunday, and that's 1 April, almost a whole month ago, I discovered that Kai's wall was wet on the bottom 50 cm or so. A tiny 5-cm puddle was found at late morning under the magnetic stopper for the door.

Yu was due to start PG the next day so I was on leave. Got the main contractor to come have a look. Did a little conference call to ID. I dug out the floor plans to check the no-drill zone but couldn't tell whether the cabinet nails were safe unless we took it apart. Decision was thus to remove the cabinet to check the nails.

Tuesday morning, the carpenter team came, remove the cabinet and basin. No issue with the nails there. Did pressure test to confirm. But maybe it was the bidet spray holder?? So they took down the wall tile. Looked fine. But there's still leaking.

Bathroom on Tuesday

And the cement was wet above the bidet spray. Guess what? Need to remove mirror! That was scheduled for Thursday. But the nails were fine too. So they started hacking the cement. Somehow they then said it could be the bidet spray point which had multiple joints. So they removed it and did the pressure test - it showed no leak! Did magic just happen?? But how did the leak in the joint cause the ponding on the other side and wetness up 50cm?!

Bathroom on Thursday

Mirror part

Since they have drilled, they might as well drill the part right behind cabinet so they did. And somehow puncture the wall in Kai's room!

Ugly patching of wall that took three days to cover up nicely

There being no more leaks, main contractor wanted to seal things up. But where was the problem? And my ID had not seen anything. I held up the work and called ID - I think he should go have a look. His plumber couldn't make it but based on my pictures, he had a theory that the leak was probably in the joints of the pipes inside. But there being no more leaks, ID gave the go-ahead to seal things up but suggested we wait some time before we put everything back.

Bathroom on Friday

Bathroom next Tuesday, 10 April

They wanted to come back to fix back the bidet spray holder but I rejected it. I never wanted to drill that in anyway but I forgot to tell ID. I used the Daiso shower head holder instead. So I'm still looking for a replacement shower head holder for the kids... No stock at IMM or ION Daiso...

Anyway, and then we started waiting. I flushed the toilet, ran the water here and there, and checked the walls every day. Last Thursday, I called ID to get the bathroom fixed. This Tuesday, the carpenter team came and fixed everything. Since yesterday, the kids got their bathroom back. Sito and I also got ours back - no more wet floors and crumpled towels!

The kids are still getting used to it. After all, they spent more time using our bathroom than theirs since we moved it!

Dating my husband :)

Last Friday, we decided to go to Ikea to get couple more stuff for the house. We ended up with a desk for ourselves (finally!) and a pot of money plant, plus some smaller goods. Sito had the bright idea of going to Two Chefs for dinner - we first heard about it in 2012 and kept saying we should go. Well, we finally did - three weeks after we moved away from the area!

Actually I met G et al at Two Chefs week of LNY but I didn't join for dinner then, only tried a meat dish that looked white. We ordered that - was milk powder *.* The eatery was very near our old place. I cut through the school to get there. A little freaky coz it was very quiet and still at night...

Us last Friday, at Two Chefs

Us yesterday, at Oasis for porridge

Just had to take a picture yesterday coz I realised we were wearing the same thing one week ago! True, we don't have much clothes so we cycle through them pretty quickly. The kids have significantly more but they no longer wear them much coz it's now uniform after lunch in the new school instead of home clothes in the old school

Porridge was lunch. We needed to do refinancing of our mortgage that afternoon at TPY. As we had some time, we tried to go for foot reflexology but there was no immediate vacancy. So last night, we tried again! No vacancy at the $20 place but there was vacancy at the $40 place *.* Well, being suckers, we went for that. I found it quite good though Sito thought the therapist could have been stronger. I got a package right away, not so much for the massage but for pedicure.

Now that we've moved, our dates would take place around our place. No more Vivocity or Orchard - just too far for the little time we have. Plus my mind can stray to the kids at home... Maybe one day when they're older...

A bleeding nose and more

Just now, I was doing bedtime with Kai when I tickled him a little. I was lying down while he was sitting up in front of me. Time slowed to a crawl as I watched his head fall back hard on my nose!

I clutched my nose in pain, made some horrid sound and leapt out of bed to grab some tissue. Blood! I asked Kai to turn on the light as I sat on the floor, blowing blood and mucous out of my super painful nose.

I was too absorbed in my pain to see him before but when he brought me the tissue box, I saw concern in his face. He said, sorry Mama, as he dabbed my tears away - yes, it was so painful I started tearing. Or just my sensitive nose causing the tears.

But those little tears soon gave way to big wails as all the recent stress over the house - now we have a water issue, akan datang - and all the tiredness from work and child care overwhelmed me. Kai continued to dab my tears as I sobbed and poured out my heart to this poor boy. I told him I was so tired and stressed coz of this and that. He just looked at me, listened and dabbed at my tears.

When I asked for a hug, he put his arms around me and held me tight but not overly tight as he tends to sometimes when super angry or excited. It was so nice. I thanked him and told him I would be brave, ok? Ok, he said. Did I scare him? No, he said he was ok. I think he fits into a protecting role very well :)

When I stopped wailing, he said sorry again. I told him it wasn't all his fault coz I should know better than to tickle him in that position. So, recalling some words of wisdom from my marriage preparation work, I suggested we take responsibility for our parts - I don't tickle like that and he tries not to fall backwards. He tends to do that since he was a baby, especially when he throws a tantrum but he usually falls on his bed. He agreed but highlighted back to me that I should not tickle him like that cos he MIGHT - with finger emphasis! - fall on me! We locked our pinkies and pressed our thumbs together. Deal.

My loving little boy

Yu goes to playgroup!

For the last time, I sent a baby to playgroup today. So many lasts...

Look how cute he is in his still-so-big XS uniform!

It's nigh on impossible to take a good shot of them three together!

N and I walked the boys to school, with Yu in the stroller. Kai started introducing Yu to everyone at the check-in area, as his "new brother" hoho! He was so sweet to him, wanting to carry him and all. Quite scary sometimes :p

Kai and Yang put their bags down outside their respective classrooms, and we sat down to play while waiting for breakfast. The younger kids played with blocks while the older ones were playing elsewhere. I shooed Kai to his friends but he kept coming back to his baby brother :)

Baby playing with blocks

Yang can do a mean truck now! "Coz I'm big boy!"

Breakfast today was koko krunch with Milo. I thought that was a chocolate overdose *.* But surprisingly, Kai said he didn't like the cereals so he just drank half a cup of Milo - so restrained! I guess his two slices of bread and a small piece of chocolate cake left over from tea yesterday were still in his stomach! Yang had two bowls of breakfast though. As did Yu! But Yu did not have Milo - I thought that would be too messy..

Yu did this after seeing Yang do it

Else he could scoop some up!

That was Kai standing next to him, telling his friend about his baby brother :) Another friend of his told Yu he was cute :) A little girl came over to Yu to make friends; I guess she found him cute too haha!

Then it was circle time! And Yu proved a little hard to sit still. He strayed to the side a few times coz he wanted the toys. And I couldn't move coz Yang was on me! Thankfully, more teachers had arrived by then.

Taking centre stage just before we got into the circle

Somehow we I lasted until 9 am outdoor time! Yang was clingy and wanted me to follow him to his class. After a couple of minutes, a kiss and a hug settled him - he went to class willingly. I picked up Yu who was roaming in and out of Yang's classroom, and went to find his class at the play area.

And I made a discovery - he doesn't like artificial grass!

I was wondering why he was so ai-mai ai-mai about the slide. When I helped him on, he wanted to go head down! When I turned him around to go leg down, he lifted up his legs as he reached the bottom! Super cute la.. And he didn't take well to sand too *.*

So he settled with this

We then went into the next area where it was ALL artificial grass! He refused to walk in! I gave in and carried him in but kept trying to make his feet touch the grass when we were seated on it - naughty Mama! Anyway, we were only resting there, drinking water. But that was useful - he wanted water so I asked him to go get it from his teacher, who was seated a couple of steps away. He did it! But he scrambled back into my lap quickly. I guess all it takes is time...

We went into the classroom and he sat down next to his teacher

I made a call to the management office coz - believe it or not - we have a leaking pipe!! And the contractor was coming up to inspect so I left Yu :( To be honest, I intended to leave him to run errands but not as early as 9.30 am...

When I went back to get the kids in the evening, the principal told me Yu cried really hard! :( I felt a bit bad :( But then she said it was after nap time - oh, then that's normal! :p Somehow, Yu would sometimes cry after a nap. No idea why.. When his teacher brought him out, she said he had been good and adjusting well. Another teacher who was at check-out said he let her wash him after a poop, no struggles! So proud of my baby :)

PS: I was searching my blog and realised I didn't talk about Yang going to playgroup!!! :(((( He was very cute too! But Mama was bad and didn't blog about it :(

Look at this cute toddler!

Bye bye, old school!

When Kai and Yang left, we still went back to get Yu. They also went back for LNY celebrations. But now, it's really the last day - there is no reason for us to go back any more, big sobs!

Thursday was Yu's last full day. When I went to get him in the evening, Teacher S handed me a booklet. I thought it was his art work. When I got back, I realised it was more like a gift from the teachers!

They are so sweet!

Today, I said bye bye to Kai's classmate who was the only other kid in school. He knew it was Yu's last day. As we said bye bye to Teacher K and W Laoshi, I felt like crying already! :( My baby is graduating from infant care, and we were forever leaving the place that saw my three boys through their infanthood!

A wefie outside the school

(Oh yes,  我又想不开了! Cut my hair again, almost two years to the last drastic cut.)

Yu will be one week shy of 18 months on Monday. But I think he is ready for playgroup. He can make his wishes known with sounds (grunt), some words (bread!) and pointing. He can understand adults somewhat, nod and shake his head. He can defend himself - ask his brothers me and my poor face.

And he can pose with a nerf gun like his brothers!

But I've taken leave on Monday. My last baby is going into playgroup, with a new routine, new teachers, new classmates. Let Mama be there. At least for a while...

Two weeks in

In the flash of an eye, we have slept in our new house for two weeks. Unpacking is still ongoing - actually it's more of putting things in their right place but it's also very hard!

Here are some random shots of our life in the past two weeks.

Yu putting toys through the grilles and retrieving them

First dip in the pool!

The boys were very happy!

Sitting on the floor coz no sofa until last Saturday

Yu does it so often *.*

Kiddy activities downstairs! They were making SLIME :p

Yu looking at the pool - so cute!

Universal Design for persons of all abilities indeed...

We realised very quickly that it is much easier to "lose" kids in this house - four rooms, of which two were connected by a balcony. The two connected rooms felt magical, like Monsters Inc!!

Moving to Bukit Panjang meant the end of crazy HV-BP-Redhill-BP-HV commutes. We "upgraded" to less crazy BP-HV-Redhill-HV-BP commutes. We started with Sito joining me in the morning and N in the evening to help take care of Yu. But with the electricity work on our first Tuesday, I had to leave N at home and fetch Yu on my own, gasp!

Turned out Yu was very kind to me!

But gosh, it started pouring when I pulled up at his school and I had to drive in heavy rain the whole way! Stressful! Just glad he didn't cry like he did towards the end of the journey the past three times.

Turned the TV towards the dining table for Kai and Yang, and caught Yu and Boo in the picture :p

Our new house is full of knocks already, with the latest casualty being the wall behind the sofa - I got the drawing board so that they won't draw on the wall, right? Wrong! The markers found their way to the wall in two little hands - Yang's and Yu's.

But Yang is so happy with the board!

We're so near the farms now!

We all still refer to our home as "new house". Sometimes, the kids would check to make sure we were coming back here and not the old house. Sometimes, I thought of the old house and felt sad - it's hard to put into words but 心酸 kind of cuts it. I'm a little apprehensive about going back tomorrow morning - arranged for people to get the buffet table and the dining set. We shall see how...