HBL Day 1

When I heard this on Sunday, I was dazed.

NOT AGAIN!

Then I realised I'm on leave 19-21 May and 27 May, there's a Vesak Day on 26 May, no school on 28 May, which means only two days 24-25 May where I have both my paid work and HBL work. Yes, HBL is work for parents too.

THEN I realised Yu's child care centre is having its usual three-day closure on 19-21 May, which means (a) no more one-on-one time with Yu that I was looking forward to; and (b) all three kids will be home with two needing HBL help and one monkeying around!

THEN THEN I realised Yu's cough over the weekend meant he couldn't go to school on Monday. But I couldn't take leave when I would be on leave for so many days already so Monday lunch time was terrible - I was in a call and Yu was whining about missing a cartoon coz he was playing chess on the iPad...

Yu also stayed home on Tuesday coz he still had a slight cough. In his words, he was "normal coughing" on Monday, and "wind coughing" or "air coughing" on Tuesday - that's phlegmy vs. dry for adults! Luckily, he was way better on Tuesday. I heard him cough maybe five times a day these few days.

So busy all way since... last Saturday when all kids were home!

Yesterday, I also realised that I had made almost three weeks' worth of sausage rolls and meatloaf muffins for nothing coz they would be having lunch at home and hence no need to supplement protein at tea time. And they would want confectionary for tea time too, just like on weekends. Sighs.

So the day finally came! 

I set a 7.00 am alarm for the kids but of course they all woke before that. They got changed and started preparing for class - school uniform with bare feet, and I cleared the two desks for them. Kai took Sito's desk while Yang took mine.

Assembly via Zoom!

Kai started later due to hiccups at teachers' end

We had our share of IT woes too:

• I couldn't change the name on Zoom from my name, complete with company name behind, to Yang's name. On the third try, I realised I could paste the link into the app directly and change name, instead of clicking on the link which brought me straight to the password page.
• Kai's link was up quite late so I attended to him later. Then we realised that his laptop camera wasn't working so I had to put him on the iPad.
• While they were having their assembly complete with devotions and greetings, I tried to fix Kai's camera to no avail. So Kai would have to use the iPad for Zoom and the laptop for SLS coz he prefers the mouse. Also connected my office mouse to the Mac for Yang.
• They started SLS fine but shortly after, I think the system became overloaded so Yang kept taking TV breaks! Kai had quite a bit of offline work so he just did them. Very proud of Kai for finishing his HBL almost entirely on his own! :)

Also had to watch the two class chats for info and jostle with Yu to get to his brothers through it all! Can't put the two in the same room coz it's just too noisy. Eventually, I settled Yu down at the TV in my room to get some peace and my breakfast.

Pulled together a timetable for their live lessons so I don't miss them!

Spent most of the morning sitting next to Yang coz he needed help with instructions and IT. Expected coz Kai also needed that in P2 last year. But Yang wanted to go watch TV and not do his work! Coz "so boring"! And he wasn't pleased that I stopped him from using the auto correction/completion thing on the Mac touch bar. Haiyoh!

Kai finished his before noon and joined Yu. Good for him! Yang finished his close to 2 pm with lunch and a long toilet trip in between. But he managed the last bits quite well - he promised he wouldn't be distracted by Nintendo and he really focused on his work for the last lap! So I was able to make muffins for tea, yeah!

It must have been the HBL coz I was very sleepy at 3 pm when we settled down to read some books on the iPad. I think I dozed off holding the iPad while it read to us, oops... 

On the other hand, they still had energy to burn...

Wanted to sleep with them at 8 pm but they wouldn't let me have any peace so I came out after a while and here I am!

I'm glad to have these three days. Need to help Yang be familiar with HBL coz I have to work next Monday already! Good luck to us man....

A different kind of date night

Sito went to KL on 26 April and came back on 7 May. But of course he couldn't come home. He's still serving SHN at Swissotel.

So yesterday, Friday, we had a different kind of date night. I ordered Taimei to be delivered to him and I bought some for myself when fetching Yu. After the kids went to bed, we had our little date night, 17km apart :)

With our twin milk teas

This was on HRP when he brought me out to the balcony :)

Looking forward to end of May!

Mama vs. three kids

It's a public holiday today! I had wanted to bring them out but 1) nose, 2) hot, and 3) COVID-19. But Sito is serving stay-home notice and helper had a day off for Hari Raya Puasa. So what did we do?

First of all, they woke me at 7 am *.*

Breakfast was pretty fast coz I got hotdog buns yesterday. Yang also downed an egg mayo sandwich, yum yum! But he took a very long time brushing his teeth coz they were so yellow!

Yu wanted to play chess so we did. He learnt from AhYe how to place the pieces and could remember most of them. But of course he doesn't know how to move them correctly. Somehow, four of us played a few rounds - no idea who was playing who haha!

I wanted to take a photo of him placing the pieces and he decided to pose for me :)

Then it was time for 奥特曼崛起！Yu was scrolling through the list on my phone and picked the movies for today. Interestingly, his brothers didn't object much. So I managed to cook lunch and prepare ingredients for dinner and after-school snacks.

It was a super hot day. I let them go on to Shaun the Sheep while I took a break while waiting for the rice to cook.

Claypot chicken rice for lunch!

This time, I cut the chicken into smaller pieces and added cornstarch to the marinade. Less dry than before but I didn't realise we ran out of oyster sauce at home so the taste wasn't as nice as before. The kids didn't love it but they finished it anyway. I also dangled panda biscuits as dessert :p

We went according to weekend schedule, i.e. Nintendo after lunch, during which I drafted Sito's appeal for early vaccination. When they were done, they played toys etc. Yu took Sito on a trip across the house via WhatsApp video :p

Popcorn for tea!

I hope that was enough fibre... I forgot to get vegetables yesterday when I bought stuff for lunch :p Anyway, I thought I would give them fruits after dinner but I forgot too! :p

Sito took me to his balcony :)

They started another Shaun the Sheep while I got dinner going. It was only chicken wings but I had to bake after-school snacks as well.

Then I rolled out our brand new but old Monopoly set!

It was a very long game :p I was banker and guided them to play while listening out for the oven alarm... I took longer than expected but they weren't hungry from all the rice and popcorn earlier anyway.

Baked chicken midjoints with only garlic salt and baking powder - we finished 24!

That was one of two packs I bought yesterday after fetching the older two. Helper took wrong bus and called me at 1.34 pm when she found herself in Woodlands. Goodness... The kids are dismissed at 1.30 pm but luckily the general office staff helped find them. They ended up spending almost an hour waiting for me at the general office. It was late when we got back. I let them go up to shower first while I grabbed these and OCK snacks from BPP as we ran out of after-school snacks.

Anyway, they continued with a bit of Monopoly after dinner and shower while I washed up. That was the least manageable part of the day - my hands were full when Yu came complaining about Kai bullying him AND Yang finally pooped and needed help. I ended up splashing some soapy water on the floor. Oh well.

Took five buckets of water to flush away one week's worth of poop before showering Yu who had been half naked for a while. Finally, it was time for my shower while they settled down for some funny video. It was 7.45 pm when I sat down with them, phew!

I reflected on this day - is this a preview of helper-less days? Nope. I did not mop or wash toilet or do laundry today! :p In future, I wouldn't cook this much when they're home whole day. No choice today coz we ran out of after-school snacks and I don't fancy getting OCK again.

The kids' learning

A parent mentioned in the P3 class chat how she was having difficulties teaching her kid times table for the weighted assessment.

WEIGHTED ASSESSMENT?!

I wrote down all the dates in my calendar but obviously, I had forgot all about them! Not the first, not the last...

I remember revising science with him once before his first weighted assessment. Nothing else... He came back with 9/14 for English, 10/10 for Maths, and relatively high marks for Chinese and Science - oops, cannot remember :p I only remember the best and the worst. This boy can speak English well, but coz he doesn't like to read, I think his comprehension and composition need a lot more work....

Anyway, after seeing that message, I turned around to Kai and listed the various topics in the upcoming assessment. He assured me he knew them. Also tested him a bit on times table - passed. Checked his mock test from last week - 27/33, very decent - and went through the two questions he got wrong. Ok, good luck to this boy then! :p

June holidays are coming up. I think holiday camps may be out of the question if the COVID situation gets worse... So I'm preparing to give him test papers! Seriously, good luck man... And that's to me :(

This boy is keen on selected stuff; here, he's teaching us his way to fold aeroplanes that can fly far

As for Yang.... I wrote about his spelling already. I think I need to redo phonics and go through all the hanyu pinyin sounds... Thank goodness there are no exams until P3!!

But his maths is good :)

Yu is experiencing some explosion in language. He is always asking me how to spell this word or that. Very cute :) And he can spell and read some words on his own. Like that day at Tori Q, he pointed to HOT on the glass and said it out loud.

His first ever spelling!

Kai had his in P1. Yang had his in P1 too, I think, though by then he had a more structured curriculum. This year, they started spelling at K1, gosh. But Yu did pretty well. He also did well for Chinese - he has been talking about words with 草字头 for some time now :)

Sometimes, he'll get me to write various words or phrases for him

He can also write a lot, both English and Chinese. Above bottom right - he wrote 小 and 子, saying he learnt the former but nobody learnt taught him the latter. Good job, boy! On the other hand, I realised after reading one of the Chinese books at home that I got 猴 wrong; I wrote an extra 竖 oops :p

Yesterday was half day for Yu. We were supposed to do some family activities that afternoon in lieu of a family day with the school and friends, cancelled two years already due to COVID. But of course I had to misread/forget that we were to hand this in on Monday, not yesterday, so we did it all the weekend before.

But we only stuck the photos on yesterday coz I had to get down to printing them :p

First photo within - video call with AhMa to learn something passed down from her grandparents (cooking yummy noodles)

Second photo - hanging out at our fave spot (with doughnut of course!)

Third photo - doing up the family tree (Yang came to write his and Kai's names)

Best of April :p

Started this post at the beginning of April but there's no specific theme to it. So maybe I'll do monthly posts of our dailies.

April started with Easter weekend. But less known is 清明节 which also fell on that weekend this year. Due to COVID-19, there was no extended family gathering again :(

Yu had a nice celebration in school

This is becoming a thing - going to Yakun and playing games, in PJs no less!

That morning, I came back to fix our new drying rack. Kai and Yang helped a bit by fetching rods and holding them in place while I hammered them in with my hand. I felt some pain in my hand after a while - think I burst a vein in my right thumb and bruised the base of same thumb *.*

Sito came out of the shower just as I was preparing to fix the wheels so one on each wheel!

We've been using it so much that I now find it surprising that we got it only in April! Also goes to show how much I personally use it, even though I have a helper....

New game of sticks - love it when they play nicely together

Check out their cuteness and matching shirts!

The baby also wanted to climb everywhere now

I wrote him a note to congratulate him for not coming to my bed at night three nights in a row!

But he came in every night after that *.* Usually, he slept through on Friday nights - maybe coz it's the first night with his brothers after the last weekend? Awww... 

Kai stopped coming in at 3yo; Yang maybe 4yo. But this baby does not need to give way to a younger sibling so he's still coming in some nights... Sometimes, I woke in the middle of the night to find him nestled close to me and my arm wrapped around him. How, I don't know! :p

Yang got 5/5 for his second spelling test!

His first test got me worried. He got 1/5 during practices and he could spell a word correctly and then wrongly the next time. By the morning of the actual test, he finally passed: 3/5 while on the bus! I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he got 4/5 in the end. 

Of course, Kai was very yaya papaya about it coz he got full marks almost every time the past two years :p

The second time, I was busy with Kai so got Sito to teach Yang instead as we were on leave to settle remortgage that day. And Yang learnt quickly! Sighs, I'm not a good teacher :(

Anyway, I was worried coz when he reads, he tends to just read some words wrongly, e.g. the/a and in/on. I wondered if he was dyslexic. But then again, he did pretty well for his Chinese spelling which has both Chinese characters and hanyu pinyin. His hanyu pinyin didn't start out too well but now I think he's getting the hang of it. And if he can do hanyu pinyin, surely he can do spelling?!

Ah well, maybe he's too relaxed. He told me he 被罚站 in Chinese class coz he was sloughed over his desk *.* And he tends to do that at home too, when reading or even writing! Have to nag at him to sit up straight...

Anyway, one month on, I think he's getting better, can learn the words more quickly now. I even did a whole round of phonics with him this week. Hope it can help...

Yang writes me love letters, many many love letters, sometimes with envelopes :)

Poor Sito had to sleep on my legs coz no space on the sofa at Mum's place, hoho!

Came out of the bathroom to find this sweet scene!!! :)))

Don't know what they were looking at :p

I thought this is cute!

Was leave 22 Apr, came home at 7.30 am after sending Kai and Yang to find Yu still sleeping and in my bed!

Sito forgot to set his alarm that morning so he was sleeping too :p I happily took photos before waking them up. Was nice to spend some time having breakfast with Yu. Also showed him pictures of his ultrasounds and videos of Yang and him moving in my belly!

Enjoying a meatloaf muffin

I'm very frustrated at dinner time coz Yang eats very slowly! I get him and Kai to start at 5.30 pm while I'm fetching Yu. But he would still be eating after Yu has pooped and showered and finished his food! So I now send him to eat on his own in the kitchen. He can join us at the dining table for fruits when he's done with dinner. If he wants to eat slowly, I'll clear when it's bedtime. So far, he has been able to finish by 6.45 pm-ish - faster than before!

"Handsome booooy!"

Only short of Kai - don't know where he was while these two were playing with my phone...

All of them wanted Papa to carry them!!!

The younger ones first - both look so big already!

Gosh, this one is even bigger!

Do re mi watching people play Pokemon - so interesting meh?

儿子的背影 :)

So after the helper incident on Wednesday, I had A send Kai and Yang while I sent Yu on Thursday. Yang wasn't too happy coz he wanted me to be with him :( Since I was on leave (emptied out a whole cabinet to put school supplies!), I went to fetch them :)

And since I fetched them, we ate outside :p

That day, I also dug out a Superman cape. I thought Sito bought this while Kai was young but the tag said Six Flags - gosh, that would have been Evanston?!

Yang was halfway through wearing clothes and decided to be a Superboy

Kai is also a Superboy!

Yu hasn't discovered the cape yet else he's also a Superboy! Ok he just came to me and I sent him to find the cape :p

Another water issue!!!

Found this post in draft in early 2022... Decided to continue writing and date this in 2021:

Saturday, 2 Jan

After a whole day and night of light rain, I walked into the kids room in the morning to find the floor kind of damp. I thought it was moisturiser from my feet last night but nope - I found wet floor at the corner AGAIN!

Two years ago, the water went all the way to the matters just a metre from the wardrobe after heavy rains. This time, it was thankfully about a metre from the window. The issue was also at the corner, not along the longer length of the windows which was fixed only last year.

Water seeped up from under the parquet seams, hence the lines

I was so upset about it. I ended up googling the fengshui about this, haha! So turned out that while leaks are bad, water coming into the house is good... Some consolation!!!

Tuesday, 5 Jan

I was busy on the first day of school and forgot about it until the end of the day when I bumped into a neighbour who saw my post on Facebook about the issue. I realised I didn't get a reply on my email on the issue. He reminded me to go to the management office. So I went on Tuesday. Turned out that their email system was down!! Anyway, the manager wrote down my unit number on a board with many unit numbers *.*

Thankfully, it hasn't been raining much since Saturday!

Sunday, 10 Jan

So it rained the whole night. When I went into the room, I found more leaks and had to check every 10-30 min depending on how heavy the rain was. This time, the water came in from the window sill - four corners were affected.

A puddle!!!

The worst corner

Even the far corner - the curtain was damp at the bottom when I discovered it

The original corner - I killed many trees today

I stopped writing at this point in Jan 2021. Below are based on photo records.

Monday, 11 Jan

Contractors came to inspect the leak. Eventually they fixed things and even alerted to me that water had been leaking along the decal wall! Luckily it went away after they fixed the leak.

Apr 2021

Fast forward a few months. I discovered water spluttering into the same room - this time from both windows! Somehow, the seal was not tight. We opened and closed the windows a couple of times until water stopped coming in but the whole place was already very wet. It was a nightmare!

The contractors came to fix it but accidentally broke a window pane *.* But they managed to fix it in the end. 

A canvas over the hole

I am still paranoid about leaks. Must check whenever it rains :(