Another attempt at exercising

Jo inspired me to exercise. Since Yang decided to stop going for Yamaha, I put on my old New Balance last Saturday but strain them I did not.

I walked across the junction and started a slow jog from BPP. The next junction stopped me - and I was grateful! - but after that, no junction until my destination. As expected, I couldn't go without stopping for a walk every so often. And the drains emitted a strange but not too nasty smell.

I was very glad to reach the hawker centre! In all, I moved for only some 10 min *.*

But no, I didn't go overcompensate.. I only wanted to get some cakes for tea later. With a bag in my hand, I didn't bother jogging back. Who am I kidding - I wouldn't jog back even without the bag, ha! I just did some arm exercises on the way back.

By evening time, I felt a developing soreness. By the next day, it got worse! My thighs were killing me!!!!! Yang and Yu helped by walking up and down the back of my thighs :) I used a massage stick to hit the muscles for a couple of nights, and developed bruises instead *.*

Those darn bruises

Yesterday, I went jogging again. This time, I took the other route to the hawker centre as I wanted to check out the other market. And this time, I went slow when I was tired instead of stopping. And I didn't actually hit the hawker centre - I turned back just before the junction and jogged a little until I hit the next corner. Like before, I did arm exercised after that.

This other market is nearer but smaller. But I think I can go there next time to pick up some yong tau foo, and even bring the kids for breakfast one day - they have toast and prata!

My route yesterday - yes, very slow pace!

Hope to keep this up! Really need to lose some weight and get healthier...

Common side dishes for the kids

I have dinner blues.

Since we changed helpers, dinner time has become super stressful for both the kids and me. Previous helper used to either feed or poke them to keep feeding themselves, generally coaxing them to finish their food and quickly.

The kids still don't like this helper as much. Yu doesn't even want her to feed him unless I went to the toilet or shower. So I had to feed when Yu doesn't feel like feeding himself.

I'd much prefer to just watch them eat and chat with them or read books to them, and let someone else poke them to eat :(

Finally, this week, I decided to make a change to dinner.

We used to put all the meat and egg/tofu and vege onto individual bowls of rice for them. From Monday, I told A to put all the side dishes on a tray plate and told the kids to take side dishes for themselves.

Rules:
1) They must try everything.
2) They decide how much or little of each dish they want.
3) One boy can't have all of one side dish; they must share unless the others decide they don't want any more of it.

First two days went better than expected. They helped themselves to the side dishes but of course, they didn't eat much vege - 20% of vege were taken at best. But I was already happy that they actually took a bit of vege!

We had fried rice yesterday and resumed the common side dishes today. For the first time, Yu didn't want any side dishes! I had him try some egg and fish, and he wanted them - yeah! No luck with the vege and tofu though...

Yang and Yu sat together on Tuesday

Feeding themselves very well!

There are still other woes at dinner time. Kai usually starts and finishes his dinner first. Then he would keep talking to his brothers, especially Yang. I had to stop him from asking Yang to play chess else Yang could not finish his food!

And of course, they continue to be slow. Have to work on that separately. For now, I'll focus on giving them some power over their dinner and introduce more varieties to them through A's cooking!

Yang was still eating; why can't Kai play quietly like Yu??

To change or not to change....Mama!

Some days ago, I was scolding them at dinner time (more on that separately) when Yang gave me a black face and said he wanted Papa to go back to when they were small and choose a different Mama coz Mama so fierce!!!

Sobs :(

Then I went nenenibubu! Haha! No, I didn't. I simply told him to go tell Papa that. Later that night, I added that if Papa had chosen a different Mama, they might not be Yang - gasp! But don't think he got that.

Well, that was sad for me :(

But tonight, as I stepped out of their room. He came down from his bed to hug me. Then he went, "Mama so warm, I like! So happy that when GeGe and me and Yu were young, Papa chose this Mama! Coz this Mama so warm!"

My silly boy :)

I made my kids cry :(

Just now, I made Yu cry.

He was going "I'll hit your face ah!" just before bedtime so I had to sit him down to talk it through. I even had to bring in the police - yes, 马达来抓 *.* We went all the way to jail and yet he wanted to be a bad guy! So I told him, ok go be a guy and go to jail, don't be my son anymore, and rolled him off my lap to the bed.

He rubbed his left eye. I thought, oh no. I asked him if he was sad and he burst out in tears!

Poor boy! Nasty Mama!

I cuddled him once again and assured him that he would always be my dear son!

This happened to Kai before as well. It was likely before Yu came. One night, when he should be in bed, he came over to our room. He stood in front of the bed, and started crying, saying "Don't tell me to go away coz I like you!" and pointing to me!

I still remember Sito and I were sitting in bed facing the door - that was our old house - and we were sitting there as he said that. Poor kid! We sayang-ed him and sent him back to bed.

This was still my fault coz I had this tendency to say "go away" kiddingly but babies, they don't know we're kidding!

Yang asked me to tell him the same thing - he smiled throughout and then said, "I never cry!" Gosh, psychopath in the making? Hoho!

The two boys I made cry

Catching up with an old friend!

Took leave to catch up with Jo on Wednesday. Gosh, how long haven't we met?!

Dropped off at Far East Plaza after sending Kai to school. I wasn't sure if there were seats at Ion for me to wait until 7.45 am so I sat at Far East for a while. I intended to leave at 7.30 am but I took off when I heard a fart from the guy sitting in front of me - I looked up and even saw him adjusting his bum! So hilarious that I texted Sito this random incident :p

So I reached Yakun by 7.30 am. And Jo was there already! So good to start the day early :)

Friends of 26 years!

We chatted over and after breakfast, then walked around Ion n times as we chatted. And we set off for Central as we continued to chat. We popped into a few shops to see things but spent the most time in Uniqlo at Central.

This 损友 had me buy two pairs of shorts when I had wanted just one :p She bought a lot more to bring back. Uniqlo now charges for bags. I forgot my little bag but managed to squeeze my items into my bucket bag. Jo had a bag with her and squeezed over $300 worth of clothes into that. While she was packing, a memory came to me - Jo packing a pair of shoes into a ziplock bag! Gosh, that was secondary two, I think...!

Maccha dessert for lunch! Check out her bag of clothes on the seat

Went to fetch Kai after his CCA. We managed to convince him that Jo was sleeping over at our place - she went back with us, carrying her bag of clothes you know, haha! Kai was surprisingly chatty, maybe coz my dear friend could speak Nintendo!

Then we went to fetch Yang and Yu. They were surprised to see someone with me. But they were hardly shy at dinner time - they continued to refuse food as usual! In fact, Yu later told me that he didn't want to eat coz auntie was there!!

Sent Jo downstairs to wait for her friend who was putting her up. It was maybe 7 pm then so we spent some 11 hours chatting! No wonder I had an itchy throat the next day... But it was so nice to finally meet!

With work and kids, it's hard to go out much. Sito and I are lucky to have our weekly date night. But with friends, it's largely over WhatsApp now. To be able to catch up in person is such a luxury!

Childhood grooming

I started cutting nails for the kids again when we changed helpers in December. And more recently, I started filing Yu's nails coz he always has some scratch marks on his face. Now, Kai wants his nails filed as well coz he likes the feeling!

This morning, I was giving them a manicure when I suddenly thought about how we used to lie down on Mother's lap at the door when the light was better so she could dig our ear wax! That started after I had to go to a polyclinic to get ear wax out - that was quite shiok, with warm water and huge chunks of ear wax coming out, haha!

I don't dig their ears. So scary. Anyway, no issue of them not hearing me; if they don't respond to me, it's coz they are ignoring me or they are too distracted!

Anyway, I thought we should have some visible memories of such childhood grooming so I asked Sito to take a photo.

Three pairs of eyes on the TV, one pair on nails

I didn't expect that Kai and Yu were holding hands! Love :)

Recess food

Recently, I started making recess food for Kai again. Really couldn't take it when he eats only Wang Wang biscuits for recess!!

But I took feedback seriously. He said the sausage rolls last time were nice but they were cold coz I took them out from freezer overnight. So I decided to make things more fresh by cooking just one dat in advance. Or at least the last step is done just one day in advance.

So instead of making over 20 sausage rolls to freeze, I made homemade sausages to freeze. I'll take two out of the freezer when I get back in the afternoon to defrost in the fridge. After the kids go to bed, I pop them into the microwave to heat them up thoroughly, and wrap each in half a slice of flattened bread to toast! When they're done, I let them cool on my bed while I read or watch TV. And they go straight into his school bag. The next morning, I throw in a small pack of ketchup and we're happy!

Homemade sausages just before they went into the oven

Sausage rolls!

I also made pasta salad. Below is my second attempt - aglio olio fusilli with julienned capsicum and sliced hotdogs. A couple of weeks back, I made a better one with onions, broccoli and canned tuna but it came back half eaten coz broccoli. And he didn't like the tuna much.

He said he couldn't wait to eat this coz hotdogs - but it came back with a third of the pasta coz he didn't like capsicum

As for little bites, I bought UHT milk packs. I started out with the baby packs but Kai complained that it wasn't enough. So I got the bigger packs but decided to throw in regular milk on top of the chocolate one. Of course he way prefers the chocolate version!

Yesterday, he discovered burrito during lunch and liked it! I told him to try more stalls so that he could be a better buddy to a primary one kid next year! But please, let it not be his brother! :p

Back to regular weekend!

After a weekend away, it was nice to have our regular weekend again!

Mum left the car with us on Friday. Thought we might go to Ikea for fried chicken again but they seemed to be coughing a little, probably from some grapes this week, so we just stayed in.

But let's start from earlier in the week...

Ane cooked chicken feet soup on Monday. I told her to take it out of Sito's soup as he wouldn't eat it. So she brought one foot to me. Yang saw it and asked excitedly, "What is that?!" I guess the little toes were attractive? :p I told him what it was and he wanted to try! And so did Yu!

So I did a demo with the first of three feet in my soup bowl. Bit off the toes one by one, sucked off the meat in my mouth, spit out the bones. Then they had the remaining two. Kai bit off a toe gingerly but spit it out almost immediately - 不识货 *.*

Yang bit off a toe!

Yu bit off a toe too!

Yang cleaned off the last foot!

Kai decided to go botak on Tuesdsy

Yu wanted corn from my soup bowl on Thursday - he cleaned it up nicely!

Kai also had a bit of corn - may this be a good start....

Yesterday was Yang's last music lesson. He decided to stop coz he wanted to watch TV with his brothers on Saturday morning - what a reason! But I had decided earlier that I wouldn't force him if he didn't want to continue. I did try to persuade him but he didn't want to continue anymore.

Last video of him doing chords - a bit of mistake here but he did it perfectly before and after the video!

Kai now has this big smile, just like the one above :)

Yu made a lot of boy sounds yesterday. Sito said he was mimicking the card/robot/car fights in Turning Mecards, hmm...

Kai drew these cards

This weekend, they spent more time playing and running about than watching TV coz Sito and I bought some Daiso toys on Friday

Btw, the sword handle has already come off *.* But they couldn't wait to fill their guns with water at the pool!

Yang did his 老爷爷 with moustache and beard!

Running and jumping around in our room

Climbing my poor sofa

We had "yummy spaghetti" for dinner. That's 18 Chefs, ha! It's easy to eat there coz they can play at the kiddy ride area until the food arrives, and they like the food. We went to the playground for a while and then the library.

Yu was disobedient on the way home. I scolded him and he pouted. Cute until... But I kept my stern face: 扁嘴没有用！要乖，懂不懂？He nodded..

Sample pout at only 50% power when I didn't want him to cut me up!

And they brushed their teeth at the same time Sunday morning!

It can be so hard to get them to brush teeth! Kai can go days without brushing *.* Yang used to forget but this week, he was quite diligent so finally, I see less yellow on his tiny teeth. Yu started showing some yellow on his teeth but after a weekend of brushing, he's fine now.

Next is to get them to brush twice a day!!

Yang playing Chinese checkers with Sito yesterday

I used to like this game but now I've forgotten how to play :p I have this suspicion that I'll slowly relearn all these games in the next few years...

Bintan wedding weekend

I can still count the number of times the boys didn't have their mama with them at night.

Three times for Kai - when Sito and I went for a babymoon with Yang, when Yang was born and when Yu was born. Two times for Yang - when Sito, Kai and I went for a babymoon with Yu and when Yu was born. I thought it was once for Yu but I just remembered that it was twice - in 2018 when the rest of us went to Legoland and last weekend. And this monkey missed both naps!

Monkeying around at nap time

Caught him in the act! (The lump on the bed was Sito :p)

So yup, I left the three monkeys with the old monkey, said good luck and left for RN's wedding in Bintan on Saturday :p

I purpose chose 2 pm so that I could still send Yang for Yamaha. I had meant for Sito to buy lunch while I spent some last minutes with them before I left but Sito was still working when Yang and I got back, and Yu was very hungry. So I rushed down to get lunch and left as they were eating.

It was a long ride to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. But I was well entertained on the Grab ride - retro songs! Forever Young is still ringing in my ears...

Then it was a long wait for the ferry... Texted with Sito before he starting trying to get Yu to nap. He said Kai said that he was missing me already, awww!

First of many selfies - this one on the ferry before it moved off

The walk down to the berth reminded me of our trip to Bintan in 2016 - I think Kai was rolling his trolley bag along that path :)

It was a very choppy ride! I'm glad I had my peppermint oil with me! Applied it before we started off and again past mid way. I tried to sleep but couldn't so I just kept my eyes closed. I kept hearing retching and puking noises *.* When I took a peek, I saw staff walking around with big bags to collect puke bags - and it was a pretty heavy-looking bag!!

It really felt like a roller coaster at some parts. Once, I opened my eyes to see if shore was near and happened to see the ferry rear up and I saw only sky for a split second before we crashed down on the surface of the water! Wa liao, better shut my eyes...

But there was a crazy - presumably angmoh - guy behind me who went "YEAH!" at every crash. I had to laugh :p

When shore was near - I peeked again - it was finally calmer. I survived without puking!!

The ferry was not full at all and I breezed through immigration. Found the resort guy and went to collect my boarding pass for the return trip before boarding the car - it was only me! The ride turned out to be bumpy and I had to put on peppermint oil again...

At some point, it hit me that this was the first time I was out on my own. The last time was probably before we got married?!

I arrived at the resort just as the tea ceremony ended. The guys were just standing on the main pathway separating the two rows of huts. I went into the room I was going to share with Mother and MZ, with them and Ah Yee, and spent some time dolling up :) Then I called home and saw my boys! :)

Cosy room but I slept on a rollaway just visible on the right side of the picture :p

Jacuzzi in the balcony, overseeing low tide when I got there

Windy at the beach where the couple exchanged rings

I was glad I decided to tie my hair and gel up the stray bits. Yes, the stray bits were still flying. But can you imagine if I didn't tie my hair? There would just be hair and no face *.*

A rare photo of the clan and Mother was looking elsewhere! :p

A photo with the sisters

So glad I wore slippers! Heels are no good with sand...

Our hut of four or five rooms - the tide was starting to come in towards the evening

By the end of the day, the waves were lapping on the shore under the hut. Natural white noise! I'm glad I'm the type who can sleep coz it was really quite loud *.*

The dinner setup

When we came out of the hut, we realised it rained a little while we were resting. Lucky! Saw the staff wiping the chairs at the dinner area...

While waiting for dinner seating to begin, I hopped into the gift shop and bought two dresses for $30 in total - happy! :p

I rejected the wine and got me self a beer, burp!

The groom gave a little speech and impressively remembered the names of almost everyone there, including RN's colleagues and extended family members. Then the buffet dinner began! I started with chendol and ended with ice-cream - in between, the otah was good!

I finished eating quite quickly and sat around listening and singing to the songs. There were some old songs I recognised and songs from Taiwanese dramas, like 99次我爱他! Gosh, songs of my early 20s?! Also went around taking photos.

Photo at the swing behind our table

With MY and RN - don't they look like Nakajima Nanako and Matsu Takako?!

The wedding ended with a huge bang - fireworks!

My sparkler went crazy in the wind

A few of us cousins and a niece stayed around to play darts, foosball and pool. I love foosball! But the handles were so rough they hurt my hands - I very 激动 you see, haha! Auntie couldn't take such late nights, especially when I was still in SG time so I bade them goodnight and went back early.

But I didn't sleep immediately. After washing up, I decided I need a snack! This one, I learnt from Mum, haha! But no one wanted to eat with me! So I had only some groundnuts - yummy! :) The wifi in the room wasn't so good but I managed to send a photo of snacks to Sito :p

What I had intended to eat

That night, I slept with no little ones snuggling up to me and waking me. But I woke early anyway - pai mia?! Mother and I left for breakfast at the starting time. Just as well coz I intended to eat lots and skip lunch - let me not puke out any lunch on the ferry!

Called home again - better wifi at the lobby/breakfast area! - and they were like, are you at Bintan??! They also recognised WaiPo who was sitting beside me. Seeing them soon!!

Took this photo to show the kids - not much reaction to see banana mama, ah well!

From the balcony - high tide with people para sailing in the distance

I started my spa session a little earlier while Mother they all went out of the resort to walk to a bridge visible from the resort.

Mother and SuiGu on the bridge

Source: Group chat!

My two hours of relaxation was truly relaxing, with a quick foot bath, a vigorous scrub and a massage. But it wasn't therapeutic; I felt like I still had sore bits all over. I miss my Amore massages! But auntie has not splurged on that for years...

Washed my face and watched an old Jackie Chan movie before checking out. This time, I shared a car with a family of four. We were early and had to wait for check-in. I just read my novel - saved three long chapters on notes coz no wifi at the ferry terminal! - and when I turned around, wow, long queue behind me!

More waiting past the checkpoint. I was thinking whether to get some polo shirts for Sito but suddenly there was an unintelligible announcement and people started moving so I moved. And ended up standing for a long time again!

So glad to find a seat - this time, I sat at the back half of the ferry in case it was choppy again. But thankfully, it was pretty smooth sailing. I watched a lot of Mr Bean cartoons on the TV screen, hoho!

Plenty of taxis at the ferry terminal so I hopped into one. Going home, I realised this is how Sito does it all the time - long journeys to and from Changi. Can be super sian :( It was nice to have some me time but gosh, I was yearning to be home!