Endearing Yu

Yu still comes into our room every night. It's a matter of what time he comes in.

Most times, he snuggles up to me, nestling his head against my neck. It's a bliss to feel his hair on my skin and smell his sweet little round head :)

Sometimes, he snuggles up to Sito. Actually, Sito's back coz he has adopted a protective stance against Yu's 夺命剪刀脚 :p

But in the morning, if I'm still in bed when he wakes, he hugs me around my neck or torso. Often, he'll shower me with wet baby kisses. He is such a dear :)

Managed to take a photo two Saturdays ago when I wasn't too groggy - I think he was trying to close his eyes purposely but ended up squeezing his eyes shut :p

That monkey is our usual 第三者

Yu also likes to act baby. Instead of using words, he uses sounds with cute little actions. He tilts his head to the side and gave me a cute blank look. He pouts. 

All of them pout - I melt!

The other day, he came home with the heart gesture - curved arms over the head. All three did that during bedtime and there was a lot of hugging and I-love-you's.

At bedtime, he says he's Lula and I'm Mima and Papa is Bubu - names of the aliens in the Shaun the Sheep movie we watched over LNY this year. 

I don't know if I got it all but the point is, Yu brings a lot of cuteness with his actions and words.

And then there's this...

So yesterday, we had a debrief after his bout of defiant running. I explained to him why it was dangerous for him to run like that - towards the road and there were bicycles on the walkway. I explained why he had to hold my hand when crossing the road. I explained why I had to suspend his funny video that day. 

He nodded to show understanding. I asked if he was sorry. He nodded again. I asked him to say sorry for hitting me, and he gave a quiet "sorry, Mama". Ok, time for a hug. And in my arms, he started to cry silent tears.......

Yes, unlike his brothers who wail, Yu cries silently. (Yang did once too.) I still remember the first time - we were at a restaurant and he wanted the ice in Sito's iced water. But by the time he finished his food, the ice had all melted. We showed him the cup and his tears dropped silently. Sito decided to ask for another cup of iced water even though we were getting ready to leave the restaurant already. I think that was when we were in Malaysia with the extended family but that would mean he was only one!

真让人心疼死了！

Achievements unlocked!

Took leave on Teachers' Day since the kids would all be home. I think we went to Mother's place in the past few years but this year, I forgot :p

After nap/quiet time, three boys and two balls started bouncing off the walls. Nightmare *.* So I hauled them out of the house. Sito and I were thinking of ordering pizza for dinner but since I was bringing them out, I thought I might as well bring them out for dinner. I was also inspired by JY who brought her three boys out on her own - granted, her eldest is older than Kai, so I'm not too adventurous, staying only in the neighbourhood :)

Yu wanted to play scooter

While his brothers had fun with soccer

The last time we went downstairs to play scooter, Yu fell and had a huge baluku on the left side of his head. This time, I made him wear a helmet.

Later, he wanted me to "practise" ball with him

His brothers went up to get their scooters too. Soccer was very hard work! They drank so much water! This time, they scooted a lot instead of playing at the playground. Maybe coz there were quite a number of kids at the playground and my kids were anti-social haha!

My awesome boys getting ready for their last race of the day

Went up to put the stuff away and peed and topped up water before heading out. Gave them a prep talk at the lobby before we left for BPP.

Our first stop is BATA - need to get shoes for Yang. But Yu wanted new shoes too. Oh well, his shoes are mostly just nice now, so I got a slightly bigger pair. They were so happy! Kai's shoes still fit so he just went around pointing out girly shoes to trick his brothers into trying *.*

Then we headed to get some melamine sponges. For some reason, I thought I could get them at the value shop. It's a dangerous shops with lots of traps! So I allowed them to choose one snack each, subject to my approval. I ended up getting snacks and toothpaste - no sponges. 

It was only when we exited that I saw Japan Home - sponges! But that's also a dangerous shops for a different reason - gotta pass by glassware... I made them promise to stick close and not touch anything before we went in. Success!

By then, I was ready to sit down. I had a sling purse, a backpack, a bag of shoes and a bag of snacks and household goods. The kids were also hungry, after all that kicking of balls and scooters. On our way to the foodcourt, the older boys played some Candy Crush or something on the laptops at Harvey Norman. Yu would have done the same except that he's too short!! I waited outside the foodcourt while Yu ran back to fetch his brothers.

Kai and I read a short story about 食阁 a couple of days ago. So I showed the boys around the foodcourt, and pointed out the mixed vege stall specifically. Yu saw the fried chicken and wanted that hoho! But when we sat down, he decided to stick to his first choice - fishball noodles. His brothers took up my suggestion of fried rice.

He claimed it was the yummiest fried rice in his life, hmm...

Poser Yang, hoho! He had all the egg coz Kai didn't want it

Yu had maybe 70% of the fishball noodles, yeah! (The rest was my dinner)

I couldn't bring them to Macs coz I couldn't wipe ice cream off Yu with my hands full. So after dinner, we opened up Yu's chosen snack - ferrero rocher! - and they were happy :)

Were we done? No! We had to get food for Papa and Kakak too! So we went down, and bought food at three adjacent eateries - Papa wanted to 加料 heh :p And on our way out, I can't remember which pair of sharp eyes spotted Old Chang Kee. Since they had been good, I let them choose a snack. Kai, Yu and I shared a stick of cheesy chicken balls while Yang had a stick of fried fishballs minus one for me. 

It was quite a breeze going home :) So they were given a mini Cornetto at home :) And when all were showered, we sat down for three short Chinese stories. I had them sit in front of me while I read - I was Teacher Mama! They were super cute and played along.

Ok, take your phones now, boys. Time for my cave haha! So tired after three hours outside with them!

It was that day that I truly appreciate my Triple P Online! All the prep prep and more prep works! Giving rewards and stating consequences of not behaving as expected gives them both motivation and deterrence. I was rather pleased :) First achievement this weekend!

Then yesterday, when Sito was with me, I forgot about prep towards the end haha! It was wet so we didn't go downstairs to play. Kai played chess with Papa while Yang and Yu made a mess of the dining area with their painting. That really got us out of the house so that A could clean properly.

Paint on hand is fine but they started splattering paint!

Tired from sharpening a colour pencil while waiting for food, hoho!

There was no place to go to after dinner - everything was still wet. I suggested hanging out at the kiddy ride area but Yang wanted to go outdoors. Then an idea struck me - the pond!

Looking at turtles - also saw a huge fish for the first time!

They kept running ahead of us at the second half of the route around the pond

Thanks to Yang for wanting to go outdoors, we managed to take a nice little stroll after dinner. We took the bridge to the CC and went down to the pond. For the first half, they talked a lot - I said we were disturbing the peace of the area hoho! But second half, Sito and I enjoyed our walk while eyeing the kids in front of us :) Sito said four is a magical age haha! Second achievement!

Then Yu started running on the walkway outside the CC and refused to stop. See? This is what happened when I forgot to prep talk them.

Managed to catch up just before the zebra crossing. I don't think he would cross the road on his own but better safe than sorry - grabbed him the whole way to the other side of the road. He was angry and kept trying to break free, hitting in the process. Suspended him from funny video and did a debrief back home - I think the debrief deserves a separate post...

Today, we're likely to stay home as Sito had requested for pasta dinner :)

Goodnight, cable car!

We haven't ventured out much since we moved to BP. That was over two years ago! Used to head out to Vivo, Orchard or just Star Vista. I guess that's why none of us had any problem staying home all the time during the circuit breaker...

But that's over now! The kids should get more experiences than BP. So I suggested cable car. They were so excited! We were raring to go two Saturdays ago but it started raining heavily during nap time. So our trip was delayed for a week. Even though it was drizzling lightly yesterday, we went anyway.

The bus took 50 min. Kai rested with his eyes close towards the end of the trip. Yang dozed off. Yu started complaining that it was "so long" but otherwise remained seated and cheery. 

The last time we were there, we started at Mount Faber. This time, we started at Harbourfront. We went towards Sentosa and came back to Harbourfront. As it was close to dinner time, we decided to continue our trip after dinner.

We bought tickets on the spot - online :p So much cheaper! And there was no crowd. Love it.

The rain made this look like an old photo!

Taken by Yang :)

The cable cars are all black now. Last year when we were there, there were still colourful cable cars. Yang liked the colourful ones. But he was scared of glass-bottom ones - like the one he took in Taiwan.

Let them have their colouring while waiting for food

Can you guess where?

Morganfield's where kids eat free! Oops, Sito's eyes were closed :p

The younger ones had hotdog rolls plus some steak and ribs

Yang posed for me when he saw me with my camera

Kai had a big burger!

Then we went back to the cable car. This time, more cable cars were occupied and a number had diners - Sito and I had a dinner date there once long time ago :) So we waited a while for our turn, this time going towards Mount Faber and then to Sentosa and back.

Managed to catch the sunset, somewhat...

Thought they had torn down the Merlion but it was still there, with black head...!

That's the Sentosa Line cable car

The boys were quieter now...

Final shot as we left the ticket lobby

Just before we left the cable car, I told them it was time to say goodnight to the cable car! And Yang and Yu began a whole slew of goodnights to: cable car, moon, boat, fart ("coz I farted") etc...

We came home quite late. It was 8.40 pm when we climbed into bed. But they dozed off quite soon after I left. Must have been tired...

Sito and I were also tired!! Gosh! 

We thought that Yang likes the cable car ride more than the other two. Especially Kai who kept thinking about having no time for iPad and funny video *.* I think they are either too reliant on digital food or just too 宅 *.*

Hope to bring them out somewhere fun every week! But Sito has to OT alternate Saturdays so just nice - save more major trips like this for alternate weeks :p

A different National Day, still happy :)

I grew up watching the NDP before, during and after dinner. I remember being super taken with it as a child - the President waving, the incomprehensible parade commands, the parachutes and all flying objects. But all those marching took a damn long time for a child! Coz I was always waiting for all those floats!

Digress a bit. For a period of time in kindy, I was in some art class. I don't know why I was signed up for it. Anyway, I only remember drawing two things:

1. A dark red heart - as in the one with aorta and whatnot sticking out. And for some strange reason, it was on exhibition at my kindy graduation. I remember PM - he was my MP - laughing at it. Indeed, why did a kindergartener draw a bloody heart?! But I was strangely fond of that :p
2. NDP - with the President's chair in the middle and floats in front. This memory is more blurry - I remember only the colour of the chair (red, as always!) but not the colours of the float. I recall vaguely that I was struggling with the drawing coz I didn't know how to draw the amazing floats.

Over time, the floats stopped being so amazing to me. Attention was turned to the various formations - always better on TV than at the NDP itself unless the seat was super strategic. 

Watching NDP on TV from my 20s onwards was, sadly, not as exciting anymore. But I still tried my best to tune in faithfully, and read or do something with NDP in the background. 

Coz I like National Day :)

Two or three years ago, I learnt about the Gottman Sound Relationship House in the course of a project at work. At the top of the house was "create shared meaning". One way to do that is via rituals.

Watching NDP on TV with Mother's fried rice and teh C was a key childhood ritual of mine. So I have been thinking of having more rituals for our little family. 

In particular, I want to raise my kids as Singaporeans. Looking at them and looking at myself as a kid, I realise that they are very insular. We have been singing those lovely songs every year but more needs to be done.

Firstly, we would not leave Singapore over any long National Day weekend in future. We did it last year and spent more time travelling than on leisure. More importantly, we should celebrate National Day with and in our country.

I have been thinking about it on and off since last year. I had great plans to have a simple dinner at home so that we could eat and watch NDP on TV together, and even decided that they could go to bed slightly later so that we could catch the fireworks.

Big fail coz the NDP schedule today was different due to COVID-19. Both the morning segment and the evening segment didn't fall within our regular lunch and dinner time *.*

As every channel was showing NDP, the kids had no choice but to watch, haha! And they were quite patient about it mostly. We managed to catch both the flag and the jets (gone in five seconds :p) from our window! So happy to see that they were curious and happy to see them and the parachutes on TV :)

Kai standing to attention for the National Anthem - so proud of him!

His brothers didn't listen to me and were rolling about on our bed *.* Well, they will learn!

The flag floated by far away and we saw the reverse side - but "helicopter!"

Yu took this picture of a parachute on the TV :p

Of course they had a lot of questions:

• When is the flag coming?
• Where are jets?
• Can we see the parachutes too?
• What if they forgot to bring the parachutes?
• What if the parachutes don't open?
• Is it very high?
• Can we jump too?

It just so happened that we had a family dinner outside. That was when my 30GB data plan came in useful! Yu and I watched a little of the evening segment - we got to watch some over dinner after all, haha! But I couldn't turn up the volume so I saw only images...

Wanted a photo of me with this lovely mask from the fun pack but my koala stole the show totally!

The restaurant had people going around to take photos so I took too!

The restaurant kind of mixed up our order so the adults waited quite a while for dinner. I was quite pissed coz we could have caught the fireworks!!

We were in the car by about 8 pm but I drove s l o w l y - scared coz second time driving this car... Ya, I lousy :p We managed to catch the Pledge moment on radio at 8.20 pm - I was very happy we caught that coz Yang had been learning it the past week, from the song during dinner time and also from school. But there was no sound from behind me... Yang had dozed off! T.T

We turned into the carpark as the Anthem ended but I parked s l o w l y... By the time we rushed up, the fireworks were over!!! Our location should have sight of the Yew Tee one and maybe even a bit of the Woodlands one? Sighs...

Today, I was happy to watch the NDP segment re-run! The evening segment started just as we turned on the TV, phew!

And Yang got to recite the pledge, yeah!

Secondly, I decided I need to set up a small curriculum to teach them about Singapore, our people, our culture. 

There are plenty of homeschooling resources out there but much less on national education. Since this second idea came about just before National Day, I thought I'd start with how Singapore came about. I searched YouTube for videos on our history but it wasn't easy finding something suitable for kids - need to be fun and not too chim. Going to spend some time curating videos etc. Need different levels to engage the three of them too.

Hope to have some time this week to do this instead of doing OT!

Rediscovering 相声

Kel introduced me to 德云社 and gosh, what a gem!

I recall watching 相声 on TV when I was very young. Remember 马季 and  赵炎？For a while, I think I didn't watch TV too much - busy studying hoho! But in JC, I came across 相声 in CLDDS again；I think we had that in the variety show in the first year. I don't think I heard it again since then.

Over 20 years!!!

He sent me a few videos and I went on to find a few more, and read about the various 相声演员. I was laughing so hard at a show in Adelaide that the kids rushed over to ask why!

And even though I was expecting all talk, there was music too. And this 探清水河 was the first I heard. Also read the story behind it and heard a few versions of the song!

Attached this version: 看着、听着、看评论都有所感触，把人弄哭了！😭

And there are many more songs! I like #6 :) #3 is funny!

As I read more, I realised that I have seen 郭麒麟 in a drama previously - it was quite a memorable role. In fact, I'm now reading the novel on which the drama was based, and I always imagine his face whenever this character comes up!

But where are the 相声 videos?

Actually, they are mostly quite long so I watched a few minutes here and there every clip. Here's the clip where I laughed out out. 

Go to 16:50 - though whole thing is quite funny

This is a short clip - easy to watch and funny too

Hope to watch more!

Is CPF poorly misunderstood?

Caveat - busy working mama of three has no time to dig into policies in detail. Just agak agak google.

Most of my reading on current affairs happens on Facebook, thanks to friends sharing various articles. I also read comments to see what other people say about the articles. Often, I see people asking for CPF to be returned in full at age 55. I don’t agree with that, not before and most definitely not after a recent knowledge came to me.

Before

I was at first quite bo chup. Then hub and I were calculating our needs for retirement a couple of years ago, and read more about CPF life. 

Honestly, I’ve never bothered to find out more about it earlier coz hello, still young and far from CPF life age right?

I was glad I found out!

With CPF life and us being quite low maintenance, we only need to have enough money for the kids’ education, contingency and some discretionary spending before we can retire. Or at least retire from siong work. We don't mind working but the hours are really no good for family life. It's better for me now with part-time; I hope to never return to full-time work so that I can be with the kids after school. But there's still plenty room for improvement for Sito's hours.. 

The recent knowledge

On 8 June, my siblings and I each received a letter from the Commissioner for the Maintenance of Parents (CMP). Our father had made a claim against us.

We had a long whatsapp discussion during which I learnt that while I haven't seen him for maybe 15 years, my siblings had been giving him money to get him off their back, even paying off loan sharks a few years back so that he wouldn’t show up in front of Mother. 

I couldn’t help thinking of 房似锦 in 安家 hoho!

Long story short, we signed the maintenance agreement by 16 June. Chop chop formalise all our payments to him, divided equally among the three of us.

What's this got to do with CPF? Ah.... 

We were given a PDF of his bank book in the process. He had over $700 in deposit in the first 10 days of June. This included a sum of close to $400 from CPF. The CMP officer mentioned it had ended, which was an impetus for the claim, but it was still in the June statement so we supposed it was ending. $400 is not a lot of money but it is enough to feed one person - $4 each for lunch and dinner every day = $248 for a 31-day month, with enough left over for bread and spread for breakfast, 3-in-1 beverages, utilities for a rental flat and the occasional MRT/bus trip. My siblings have been paying rental and town council fees directly, and this arrangement would continue as part of the maintenance agreement - no chance for cash for rent to be drunk or smoked away! 

Digress a bit: Goodness knows what happened in eight days but he called on 18 June coz he ran out of money, i.e. $700 was gone in eight days! Now, my household of three adults and three kids spend about $600-$700 a month on regular groceries for all meals except weekend dinners. Regular groceries exclude the many pints of B&J ice cream which I fully intend to quit for health and waist *.*

Now back to CPF.

Retirement Sum Scheme

My father was in an old CPF scheme - the Retirement Sum Scheme, I think. Based on the website, he had to set aside some minimum in the Retirement Account before he could withdraw the remaining CPF money at age 55. 

Now, he withdrew all that he could at 55yo, just before the divorce. He gave each of his kids maybe $4k or so each - I can only vaguely remember the range now. The rest, he lost in no time - apparently he was cheated by some woman. I’m sure that’s not a trivial amount if he could give us that much - this is the same man who proposed to give a total of $200 a month in maintenance to his three children and ex-wife, which was thrown back by his own LAB lawyer. (Quite unfortunately, I was at the court hearing and out-of-court discussions...)

Mother later withdrew all the CPF money he gave us to pay him so that she could keep the flat. Of course that was gone swiftly coz the monthly maintenance was not forthcoming even from the beginning.

Anyway, the point is, I think his CPF would bring him far into retirement if he had been prudent, even though he did not earn much. He earned only about $1k a month in my primary school years before he was retrenched and started driving a taxi - I saw his payslips as I filled in the forms to apply for bursary awards. I don't think he was otherwise employed before age 55. Yet, the flat was fully paid up using CPF money. I don't know when though. But it was likely before he was 55yo coz there was no mention of that during the divorce.

And after he withdrew a significant amount at age 55, he had a monthly payout of almost $400 every month since age 65 at the latest - I don't know if it was 65 back then. He is now 77yo so at least 12 years.

It looks like a pretty good deal to me. Whatever is lacking after CPF payouts and any of the person's own retirement funds should be covered by the family. Those with no savings and no family support should be eligible for government support.

CPF Life

While the Retirement Sum Scheme will run out of money at some point, CPF Life is, as the name suggests, for life. Under the standard plan, someone aged 65 in 2030 will get $750-$810 a month until he dies. I think that's sufficient to get by, based on 10% yoy inflation and my $700 a month on groceries for 3A3C. I mean, retirement doesn't mean you go into enjoy mode and splurge on lifestyle and travel etc right?!

If we take out CPF in cash at 55yo, can the amount last until we die? I don't know, especially for those who use CPF for housing.

So, why do people complain about not being able to withdraw CPF in full at age 55? Why do you need a lump sum at age 55? If it's to splurge, see negative example above, and I worry for their retirement. If it's to pay back debts, I also worry for their retirement. If it's to alleviate hardship, I again worry for their retirement after alleviating current hardship for which there are support measures. If it's to just guai guai keep in the bank, kena scam how? If it's to invest, CPF interest rates are very good too.

What about people with no CPF? Then the debate of whether they can withdrew everything at age 55 does not apply to them. Like Mother but she has the three of us. There are programmes to help low-income with no savings and no family support.

***

Sito and I love to talk about retirement, be it planning for it or what we would do then (read whole day in bed!) and in between. Recent talks centre more on cash planning. CPF is, I guess, our insurance, and it looks like a darn good one :)

Parent-teacher meetings

The mid-year parent-teachers meetings are over for all three kids. I'm happy to hear that they are all doing well though in varying degrees for both academic and social.

Unlike last year, I booked slots with only four of Kai's teachers instead of all. I forgot about it until his Chinese teacher called me, oops... All of them said Kai is a happy boy in school - am I glad to hear that! Coz he can be triggered at home - we're trying to address that so maybe talk more about it later..

• Very happy to hear that he's a good example in Chinese class! We both agreed that building up his vocabulary would help him. I'm working in the right direction woohoo!
• He's doing very well in Maths. I expressed concerns over his problem sums so his teacher gave me some tips - will work through with him!
• He can work better with instructions in English class now, and has neat handwriting like Sito, but he tends to make careless mistakes. I'm glad I've already starting to look into his comprehension. His teacher also noted that he is quite selective about his friends, hmm...
• He remains not very well coordinated, according to his PE teacher :p But he isn't bothered by whether he did well. When I checked in with him, I realised that they were all doing individual exercises during PE now due to COVID-19. So there's no win-lose situation. When team sports resume, I'll check on him again...
• His PE teacher also observed that he could not occupy himself before assembly instead of disturbing others *.* He did tell me before that he liked drawing in the morning.

So we did had our first online art lesson a couple of weeks ago :)

Yang had raving reviews from his teachers. In short, he's ready for primary one! In long:

• He can read long sentences now :) But his handwriting is not nice, like mine!
• He's very good in Maths too!
• He can speak a lot of Mandarin with his Chinese teacher and has good pronunciation! Yes, he recited short stories to me sometimes :)
• He's super rowdy with three other boys in his class *.* But great, it's easy for him to make friends!
• He is picky about food and can take a long time to finish his food. I told his teacher to just clear his plate at the end of lunch time if he still hasn't finished, AND be sure to not give him extra serving of tea later. Have to take the same stance at home and in school. 

He's been coming home with drawings and little notes in Chinese, like this - awww...

Yu is also a dear in school. But the one thing that stuck with me right now is that his English teacher of almost two years is leaving this month :( He told me he likes the new teacher after three days with her, so ok la... Kids are heartless and will forget people soon enough - our of sight, out of mind!

• He knows his phonics and ABC, and can say long sentences :)
• His Chinese teacher started with him only from this year and with the circuit breaker, she didn't have much opportunity to observe him. But he's speaking Mandarin with her, which is great!
• He has a group of friends - all girls, three of them, hoho!
• He's not picky about food, takes green bean soup and even yam cake! My local baby :)

We made this card for his teacher - nice?

Self care day

Took leave today for self care.

After sending Kai to school, I bought coffee from the coffee shop nearby before going home. Yang and Yu were already on their way to school - missed them on a day when I was free to sayang them more...

First thing I did was to repair Yang's pink panther - a seam had opened up for a week but I had no free time to repair it during the term break.

Then I curled up in bed in my PJs, with an ebook and my coffee - still hot!

It is a very long book. I don't even know if I'm halfway through! It's very interesting though - I didn't get out of bed until almost 11 am, when I felt like going to collect the NDP fun pack. At first I wasn't going to but hey, they're all produced already right? And I had a bigger target in mind - the Singapore flag!

Finally put up the flag in our home!

It flapped about for a while. When I turned back again, I found that the flag had ended up between the glass and the grilles. Idea!

(Yes, those plants are dying...)

Took a picture before I kept the bag

I should really clean my mirror, oops...

The staff at the CC were very nice and asked me to pick any design I wanted, just that I couldn't open up the pack. I selected a blue bag coz I thought it's quite a sturdy bag for the boys to bring files etc to school. Yu is fine with red now but Kai and sometimes Yang complain about pink being "girlfriend", whatever that means...

Tried to get a foot massage after collecting the pack but no slots. So I went shopping for some toiletries and went back to put away stuff and down an onigiri. I felt only the slightest hunger but I thought I should eat something so that I could have some output later, hoho! My stomach is still feeling a little weird now, sighs...

Next was a scheduled scalp treatment. The head and shoulder massage was a good replacement for the foot massage, and I fell asleep during the heat treatment! But I think I won't extend the package when it's done - I'll try to DIY using my peppermint essential oil!

It's only half a day as it's time with Kai in the afternoon but it was a good break. All this WFH means no down time between work and child student care so need to take time from work to rest properly. Looking forward to the next self care day as I have plenty of leave from last year to clear!

Boring term break

I kind of forgot about the term break until it was too late to plan for anything. But Kai is quite the homely sort so he is ok if I just play with him. But I had to work until 2 pm except Tuesday when I took the PM off.

A couple of weeks ago, Kai's nth version of his yankee doodle song included mention of char kway teow. I asked if he knew what that was. Of course he didn't though now that I think about it, he tried it some time ago at the coffeeshop nearby.

So on Tuesday, I brought him to the foodcourt to try it. But it was a bad choice. The auntie was unfriendly. She took my order and went in to cook. 10 seconds later, I went in to tell her mai hum. When the dish arrived and we tried it, I realised I should have told her mai hiam too! But why she also never asked *.*

Kai had chicken rice instead; the CKT was too spicy and not nice at all!

Made it up with gui ling gao which he chose - my boy has adult taste when it comes to non-ice cream dessert :p

Kai often asked me what to do in the day. Of course I suggested reading - reading used to occupy me for hours when I was a kid. But he doesn't like reading T.T So I told him to find something he would like and could occupy him. He has to learn. 

I found him folding his nth origami boomerang on Wednesday

But his wait for worthwhile coz instead of our usual comprehension for Wednesday, we headed out for Yakun! He likes Yakun kaya toast :) But that was before his dental visit, heh heh :p 

So satisfied!

I think he last saw a dentist last year in school. This year, there was no mention and COVID-19 hit. His upper incisors had stubborn brown streaks. I wondered if it was coz they were old milk teeth - he's eight and the two incisors finally started shaking just a few days before his appointment.

Found a dentist at BPP. It's quite costly but for a child, they recommended seeing a hygienist so that was cheaper. Though at almost $70, it was only slightly cheaper than my orthodontist who has been charging $80 for the past few years. Yang's visit cost $50 at the B9 at Buona Vista in June - gotta travel and I realised I wasn't sure if he had polishing done, as his teeth were still yellow. So I decided to go more local.

Anyway, we were happy with the result!

The hygienist did a great job! And he said the stains were probably due to food, and told Kai to brush after dinner too. So Kai had been brushing after dinner, finally! Though it hasn't been too consistent coz he forgets. But it's a good start :)

Took two hours of leave on Friday morning to bring Kai for breakfast. I had wanted to take the PM off but there was a meeting so I shifted the time to morning. Benefits of part-time and flexibility! And Kai wanted Yakun again. Just as well. The eggs I had were gentle on my tongue ulcer and lasted a long long while...

I thought of ending the term break with something sweet so made jelly on Sunday. But to my horror, it didn't set! I think I used too much water *.* Should have measured properly... Poured the liquid into popsicle moulds instead and they were an amazing motivation at dinner time today - Yang looked like he couldn't finish his dinner in time but for the popsicle, he finished his last bite with 10 seconds to go, yeah!

Yu was very happy when Kai announced he didn't want the popsicle anymore - Yu didn't mind any saliva haha!

Poser, this one :p Really, it wasn't a candid shot!

Poser said the head was like the single eye of a minion....

Kai also wanted to pose

Yu added on to posing by pretending to be minion on top and Vector on the bottom - they always pull their pants up high when referring to Vector, I don't know why....

But I digress from term break! Hope to plan better for September!

Stay-home, slimming weekend

After a weekend out there, we stayed in again last weekend coz kiasi.

Some time during the day on Saturday, Sito read about a new cluster linked to the bus interchange downstairs. So we decided to stay home coz the boys always anyhow touch surfaces outside. Sito went to pack dinner from BPP and the nearby coffeeshop for the weekend. Lunch was as usual, porridge on Saturday and pizza on Sunday. 

Nowadays, I make salami instead of ham pizza - this was a trial run to make sure Yu was ok with the salami

I must add that the pizza this time was super fluffy! Coz I had time for the dough to proof a little longer than usual. I wonder if that's why Yu finished all but one little square of pizza when he gave up four to six squares before... Or maybe he was just hungry - he had close to two bowls of porridge on Saturday!

Just as well coz I could hardly eat. My tongue ulcer came back with a vengeance on Friday. I had mostly beverages on Friday until Sito came home with 舌尖尖 for dinner. Thanks to Yu, I had maybe three spoons of porridge on Saturday, my first meal of the day.

Then, as luck would have it, I had a major tummy ache on Saturday night around. Had to wake Sito to get me meds. For the whole of Sunday, my tummy was slightly painful. I finally felt better about 9 pm. I wonder what it was - couldn't be food poisoning coz I had just about the same as everyone else and if it were stomach flu, where did it come from?! Blame it on my lousy digestive system...

The good thing is, I didn't feel my painful tongue for most of Sunday; tummy was worse *.* And I lost some weight from the lack of food and snacks :)

Some photos from the weekend to end this off:

Sword play with fancy markers

Watching Transformers - love to see them lie on Sito :)

Yang was on my legs - he loves lying on me :)

Yu likes to feed us our vitamins! This time with a pizza crust in his mouth :p

Yang and Yu were chatting away when I started typing. I just realised they're quiet now.. Hope they're asleep already!!