Hopefully the end of our moving

In January, Kel commented that we seemed to be moving or looking forward to moving all the time - from Holland to BP and now to Holland again.

I found drafts of us wanting to move to BP and settling into BP dated July 2017 and May 2020. Sorted out the key points and added on...

So we bought the condo in March 2013. TOP happened only in 2H 2017. During the wait, we had two more kids and hired a helper. It was a long and difficult wait...

Don't get me wrong. We loved our little three-room flat in Holland back then, which, btw, was no longer ours - we transferred it to Mum and Dad on in November 2013 in order to claim back the additional buyer stamp duty. But this little place was really little.

• My biggest beef was about sharing the one and only toilet with our domestic helper. I really cannot stand sharing toilet with someone other than Sito. Even the kids now that I'm washing their toilets 🤮 Anyway, the toilet floor was always wet coz of handwashing even though I offered use of the washing machine. With so much splash, the toilet seat was always wet too, sighs. 
• Then Kai and Yang were also using the same toilet. It was bad enough having only one toilet to five users but if we didn't move soon, Yu would join the troop, making it one to six *.*
• We had our daily bags hanging off the shoe cabinet, and resting on the sofa arm rest and the TV bench. 
• The kids' ever-growing amount and size of clothes were all in our wardrobe originally meant for two persons.
• There was no proper study area with only one desk - thank goodness this was pre-COVID and the kids were still in preschool!

When we finally moved to BP in March 2018, the house often felt like it was falling apart.

• Electrical trip on our first day :(
• All our water issues from two weeks in all the way to April this year - Kai's room wall, Yang's windows and floor, kids' toilet door frames, rainwater splashing through the narrow balcony into bedrooms when we forgot to close the balcony doors
• A tile near the ceiling of our bathroom was a bit - how to describe? - not flushed with the adjacent tile on the tangential wall, as in there was a slight gap between the tiles. That was after only two years of stay; no such thing in our old flat. 
• Tile grouts were also coming off. I had to buy a tube of filler to fill in the grouts. 
• In the last two years, we also found cracks in two tiles. 
• Many walls have crack lines at the part where concrete and fake walls joined and this started within weeks of moving in. 

These were troublesome but could be resolved or ignored. What could not be resolved or ignored was the lack of space for kids to have their own desk in their room - necessary eventually - and the wind. I remember Sito went out of town shortly after we moved. It started howling one night. HOWLING leh. I closed the balcony doors but they continued to rattle madly! I was so scared! I think I went to sleep with the kids. 

We also found that if we sleep without aircon on windy - not howling type - nights, we would fall sick. We call it 毒风 haha! Actually, I fell sick a lot at BP. As early as January 2019, I got frequent colds and this persisted all the way. I had to take Berocca in the last few weeks to sustain myself through the move!

And the strong winds tore two magnetic door stoppers early on. We had our door and the adjacent door slam a number of times. The door frames shook so bad that paint or plaster flaks came off the walls next to the door frames! Had to use those horseshoe child-safe thingies to supplement the door stoppers.

But I liked that house, our home. I liked the space it offered. I tried to keep things minimal so that the kids had enough running space. That turned out well in view of COVID! Even then, the boys could still somehow turn and knock themselves on some wall or edge or corner *.*

So it was early that we knew we had to move at some point.

Now, we get nice winds but nothing scary and no 毒风 so far. There are some issues with the renovations. Just had the painter come in to rectify waste pipe paint, for example. Have I mentioned the four lizards so far? :p But it's been a very nice two months in our new home. We know we are in our forever home now :)

Happy together

I really like to see my boys happy together. Found some shots recently that I really like :)

Let's grow strong together!

These days, they have been heading to the playground on their own, be it after breakfast outside or before dinner at home, since there's no road to cross. We just tell them to go and return together. And we don't give them their bottle so thirst will naturally limit their time, haha! But this means we have fewer playground shots these days. 

Playing together

That was two Saturdays ago when we went to Empress Place Market for breakfast. Went to the playground after makan. Yang and Yu had been harping about it for a while as we pass by on the bus every day. 

Cowding around Papa to watch him play games

These kids gravitate towards phones *.* As I type now, the three of them are making animations on their phones. Goodness, my first Flash animation was at age 20?! Maybe write about that next time...

Brotherly love!

Or so I thought. It turned out that Kai ordered Yang to close his eyes and let him guide him along!!! Poor Yang! But before knowing the truth, I was happy haha! I asked Yu what he thought they were doing. He said maybe they were married?! Haha!

This is brotherly love

Think Yang was telling us a story or a dream when Yu was wearing shoes. Yu was so taken that he stopped wearing shoes! I told Yang to step out and talk later coz his story was too interesting! When we all got out, Yang happily continued telling his story to a very willing audience :)

Happy Children's Day!

Happy Children's Day again!

The first was 1 Oct Sunday. Sito and I also had ice cream for the original Children's Day of our childhood :) The second was after their celebration in school on Thursday. They came home so happy with their haul! There was almost no space for their lunch on the dining table... Yang and Yu were still showering. I made their fave lunch that day too - prata with omelette and roast chicken inside.

Happy Kai

He was so happy coz he just had King of Fried Rice and was sipping a big cup of milo before his Chinese tuition. That day, I went to school to send him to tuition via a new route which gave him more time for a proper lunch. 

Digress a bit: The following week, he was way less happy... I decided to meet him there for lunch. But Sito forgot to bring his tuition bag so he had to carry his pencil case, water bottle and tuition file (brought to school to study for tingxie) by hand. So I thought I would meet him at the train station instead of the coffeeshop so that he could drop those things into the bag. I stood at the staircase which he must take. 

But somehow we missed each other - he probably ran by while I was looking at my phone :( I waited a long time and finally went to the coffeeshop where I found a very upset boy :( No time for KOFR so he said I must "cure his soul" next time with KOFR!! Well, next time will be tmr - no school due to PSLE marking so we will all have lunch at home, oops!

And finally, this makes my heart sing :)

Love such times with my boys!

Mid autumn festival

Ok, very late but this has always been one of my fave time of the year - what's not to like when you have yummy mooncakes and nice lanterns?

We signed up for a celebration event by the CC. At only $2 per person, it provided gift packs, snacks and games to keep everyone happy!

We arrived quite early and the snacks were not ready yet so we started with the games. Every game came with snacks which the kids were very happy with. We grabbed the gift packs soon after coz they came with a bag that could hold all the snacks!

Snakes and ladders

Hopscotch

Tic tac toe

We queued quite a bit for muah chee, cotton candy and ice cream. It was relatively easy to grab the hotdog buns and drinks. We went home with lots of yummy stuff! Obviously we didn't watch the shows or participate in the riddles coz we were busy queueing for snacks :p

Cute lanterns lighted our way home :)

This year, the actual day fell on a Friday. We left the kids to watch TV on their regular movie night and left for our date night with a little lantern lighting our way haha! Just nice coz the pathway to HV was changed in the day and we had to walk through a walled path which was kind of dark...

Fries, souffle and coffee at Hoshino

Went to check out the development of the new mall and found the big round moon!

Two days later, Yang suggested exploring the house with the lanterns :)

This year, we didn't eat much mooncakes. We went to the mooncake fair at Taka but bought only one round to snack - 吃爽的 :p - and a box for gifting. Let's stay slim and healthy ya? :p But I have been thinking of making mooncakes for some years (!) now. Maybe next year I should start thinking about this earlier and plan for it!

Yu turns seven!

The baby of the family has turned seven! Sometimes he looks like such a big boy; sometimes he's so baby-ish; and sometimes he just acts cute. 

Fat face look

No matter what, he is growing up so fast. I can't wait to see him grow more and more! But maybe coz he's the last baby, I feel kind of sad that he's growing up already, sighs...

We had a few celebrations for him, just like we did for his brothers. First was a joint celebration with WaiPo. We packed Thai food for lunch and just chatted here and there for a while before having the cake. The kids were very happy coz JiuJiu gave them Netflix and Disney+! 

For strange reasons, Mother and Ah Yee kept standing in the kitchen to chat. My kitchen very nice or my seats not comfortable? Haha!

His 7th and her 77th 

We got a Sara Lee pound cake - so nostalgic coz it used to be a treat in childhood! Um, it's still a treat now coz it's like $7?! I made the chocolate version for way less... To be honest, I have no idea if mine tastes like the real deal as I haven't had it for years! But it's very yummy... 

Sito wants me to make the vanilla version so I chose the plain one for Saturday to try the taste first. It wasn't as nice as I remember it to be - maybe I remember the feeling of a treat and the lovely expectation of cake while waiting for the frozen block to be soft enough to cut :)

Anyway, all except Kai had the cake. Yang had two or three small slices! I was very surprised.

And we missed out on a group shot coz I realised at the last minute that there was no space for my table tripod! I made a note to find a spot for the tripod. But the backdrop of doors and cabinet isn't as nice as our old bookshelf in the old house...

Library books were due so we went to Bishan. We're loving it more with every trip haha! The library is big but not as crazy as the Vivocity one. There's Swensen's for the kids' beloved ice cream. There are Pokemon machines. There's Popular for the kids' essentials and nightmares (assessment books haha!). There's Venus for my cheap toiletries. It's a Capitaland mall with points too! :p

So happy with his ice cream before he discovered there were nuts!

I ended up eating the nuts for him. He also spitted out quite a few before giving up altogether!

I was so trigger happy that I didn't notice his mouth was full of wafer!

Still super game and cute la, this one :) Let them play Pokemon for a while - standard birthday game treat. Then we did some shopping but not all - we gave the value shop outside the mall a miss as we were quite tired! It was almost 8 pm by the time we got home. But got lots of things done, yeah!

Celebrations continued the next day when we went to AhMa's place. No cake coz the kids don't really eat but there were presents! Dinner was Tokyo Shokudo at Vivocity. Didn't roam the mall much as we had to be home early - the kids must rest early as Kai and Yang had English Paper I on Monday!

YeePo's powerful camera took in the whole row

Yu's birthday fell on Monday. I went to Ion to buy their fave doughnuts to make a cake for Yu. I spent 30 min roaming Tangs but bought nothing, very sad. To make my trip more worthwhile, I decided on Tori Go for their lunch instead of getting OCK coz the former is not available near home. Gosh, miss our old mall right downstairs haha!

Happy birthday, Yu!

Yes, found a spot for the tripod! But don't know what weird poses Kai and Yu were making *.* Yang was the sweetest :) He even got a nice pencil for Yu from the school bookshop :)))

For his brothers, we went out for dinner even though their birthdays fell on weekdays. But for Yu, we decided to stay in so his brothers could rest well for Chinese Paper I the next day. The planned pizza dinner become a zi char dinner coz somehow the shop was closed... But ok, Yu had a second doughnut and some popcorn after dinner. 

Just like that, he's on to his eighth year of life. In a flash, he will go to P2! Gosh, slow down, baby! 

My old notepad!

Found this draft post dated 14 Sep 2014! I add a much more recent photo from last week that reminds me of a scene in my JC scribbles - see the Milo tin right under the banner?

*** *** ***

Found my old notepad from JC while clearing stuff recently. Only a couple of pages left. The cover was filled with words - see, mf-ism has taken root back in 1998!

I took precious time out of watching drama to type this out ok.. Haha!

Line at the top of the cover:

花开花自落，世事有定数，糊涂心自然，得而又复散

Next line, in green, with reference to the Leonid meteor shower in 1998 which was supposedly a spectacular one that wouldn't repeat itself for another 66 years but which I missed - I used to really like astronomy:

遗憾⋯⋯希望66年后我还在

The rest of the cover - super kiddish writing and lots of 错别字 written during what must have been a super boring lecture very near to "A" levels:

若说我喜欢新的东西，是啊，没错。
新衣服，新鞋子，新书，新书包，新发夹，新耳机，新电视，新橱柜，新床，新唇膏⋯⋯我喜欢。
也许是因为新事物带给我新鲜感吧，还有那种能够拥有新东西的欲望在推动。
有了新鲜物，旧的东西放哪里呢？
所谓旧的不去，新的不来。
旧衣服破了，旧耳机坏了，扔吧！
新的马上到！
“旧”
我想起小时候和奶奶到传统咖啡店－那种只卖kopi，面包涂kaya的，桌面是marble的－喝咖啡；她带我到露天理发院剪头发，还记得曾经过一间间简陋的小店。
印象是有些模糊了。
都十多年了。
但我对这些所谓“旧”的街景还存有浓浓的依恋。
爱吃的kway chap，鸡饭，kaya面包（用火烘烤的！），倒在碟中的kopi，我怀念。
还有CD的老祖宗－唱碟。
那个深红色的旧唱机，细细的针，黑黑的唱碟播着我听不懂的歌。
现在有多少年轻人在这水泥钢骨中尝过路边摊烹煮的街边小食？（不包括 Clarke Quay area 的）
虽然不是很谓[sic]生，我也不是这样子成长的！
外公的旧式杂货店租了出去，成了美容院、验药室。
我已经不知道要到哪里才能找到类似帮顾客拿东西的杂货店了。
没有收银机的杂货店，没有XXX的杂货。
有两个 Milo 桶从屋 ding3 hang [sic] 下，桶里装的是钱。
店屋的二楼有两个小房间，一个装满了玩具和别的东西，另一间都装满了一箱箱的货物。
还有一个小洋[sic]台，让我们几个瓜在那儿玩。
暗暗的厨房是大伙儿享用午餐的地方。
小客厅是小孩子庆祝生日的地方。
店屋后种满了花，记得“五点花”，旁[sic]晚五点才开花。
其实，旧，也是值得怀念，值得保存的。
051198

Saying goodbye

I found this draft from April 2022! Finally posting this after adding on point 16 onwards:

*** *** ***

18 years of education; 18 years in civil service including breaks. Excluding breaks, I clocked in at 15 years - just heard that I got my long service award, ha!

Looking back at the past 18 years, I am glad to say that I have done meaningful and fulfilling things in my 15 years of work. Most memorable were the years of 2004-2009 and 2015-2021.

Fresh out of school in end 2003, I wanted to do family work but there was no vacancy. I took on what was available then but that somehow led lucky me to marriage and parenthood work three years later - I liked it a lot! I didn't enjoy my portfolio after Evanston so I found my way back to the family sector again, this time dealing with (potential) family conflicts - I liked this a lot too! 

Even though I liked my job, I had been feeling the heat for some time, having to manage demanding work and demanding kids. When part-time didn't cut it anymore, it was time to go. It is very clear to me which one to choose. 

So on Friday, 7 Jan 2022, I returned my laptop and PS card. Not the first time returning these two things that identify me as a civil servant - MCYS to NPS; no-pay leave in Evanston; NPTD to MSF. But this time, it's different; the chances of me returning to work are way slimmer...

My first office - bye after de-kit!

My last office desk at Enabling Village - before packing

After packing - the mirror was from 2003, for us to remember to smile when picking up phone!!

Returning to office aka second home the following Wednesday to bring back stuff

There were happy times, frustrating times and even boring times. I have been lucky to meet mostly (gotta be honest) nice colleagues and some remain friends. 

Let me reminisce about some memorable things...

1. Playing Scrabble during lunch time in my first posting. Back then, things were less hectic. Even though we packed lunch to eat in the pantry, there was time for chatter and games. None of us logged off at 5.30 pm anyway! And I didn't have kids yet :p
2. Getting my first laptop a few months into the job. Yes, I started with only a desktop! At one point, I had both a desktop and a laptop, which made it much easier to go party after work coz no need to worry about losing the laptop haha! (Always brought laptop home to OT after partying!)
3. Feeling scared, alone in the office on a Saturday or PH afternoon, coz desktop. Stories of printer starting on its own. Sounds of chairs moving. Help!
4. Dialling in to log on while sitting on the floor in AMK, before the HDB upgrading was completed in 2007. No broadband at home *.* Once, wrote two papers in TPY Macs coz I was hungry - couldn't remain in office - and there was wifi in Macs.
5. Chitchatting with the canteen staff who knew some of us very well coz we always bought from them. Unfortunately, I missed their last day as I was on an overseas work trip.
6. Being part of a "secretariat" - more than arranging meetings. Learnt so much and got to know so many people in this role which I held from 2004 to 2010.
7. My first COS in 2007, of many many to come *.* But none could beat that first one in terms of camaraderie.
8. The first Singapore Day in 2007, of a few more to come. But again, none could beat this first one!
9. Hearing discussions at high-level meetings in 2008 - just shiok, haha! But it was a lot of work. Missed the highest level though, even though I put in a lot of work. But it was for a dancing competition with Sito so ok :p
10. Major announcement in 2008 and attending NDR to hear it live. From policy to public comms. I was also emcee at the media conference. Pulled on a nice suit, ha! Nothing ever beat this piece of work. Ever. 
11. Going through hundreds of feedback, queries and appeals following the announcement.
12. Having two dinners during super peak in 2008 - one in the evening and one at any time between midnight and 3 am on my way home. Better to manage the tummy and mind than image.
13. Getting a shock when I heard a shout in the staircase area while waiting for the lift in the middle of the night. This office had always felt very "safe". No issue staying there on my own at 2 am type. But who shouted?! Still a mystery...
14. Mid week Zouk. Enough said :p
15. Running a "clinic" at my desk in MSF at EV. Stole an Ikea chair from a meeting room to put it next to my desk so that people who came to find me could have a seat instead of sitting on the floor! Eventually, it was known as the clinic and I was the doc of course!
16. Working with social service agencies who are very, very nice people. Learnt so much about their work and from their experience as my team planned for new services.
17. Suicide case was quite an experience! Got a call from an agency after dinner. Thankfully, I had just this one emergency to deal with in the course of my work in service management. Other incidents were relatively minor data cases. 
18. Mad MS Excel days and nights with three of us discussing in the day, and then taking turns to log on to check etc. I logged in just past 9 pm, then RT at 10 pm, then DL past midnight. I slept by midnight but I started before 8 am and could go through stuff before they got in.
19. Enjoying part-time work for the first year. Thanks to the team then, it worked. 
20. Launching new services just before I left. It's an islandwide initiative with phased rollout so the team continued with the rollout after me. 

Now, I'm more than a year into my no-pay leave. Two weeks after moving in, I got a call from HR to say a director asked for my number - she texted me and I declined politely for now. Also had a chat with my DD a couple of days later - director thought I could go back to work now so um, no... But it's inevitable. I need to think about whether or not to go back!

Wait, this is goodbye post! Haha! Ok, bye!

More independence

We wanted to do this for some time but never got down to it. Finally, it's time.

Carrying their own bag with water bottle and books

Yes, we finally retired our baby bag! But we'll probably fish it out on holidays. Easier for the kids to run about in Legoland without a bag.

We also want them to bring a book out so they have something to do on the train or bus or while waiting for food. So useful.

I also fished out their bottle holders which they used just once before. Perfect for them to carry their own bottles to go to AhMa's place across the road. But when we go downstairs to play, I would just chuck the bottles in a reusable bag - but I'll throw back to them when I need the bag for groceries :p

At home, I also started a new routine for folding clothes. They're now used to folding their own home clothes though they still complain - more clothes to fold? Again?! :p

In BP, I put everything on two beds in one room. Here, I had to put their stuff in two rooms. Um, nope. I shall just sort them out in the laundry room. So I got a set of three baskets. They can grab the baskets, empty it onto their bed and return the basket. No fear that they won't get the baskets coz there are limited home clothes haha!!

Need to think about what to "outsource" next...

Dizzy spells

We have had two scary dizzy spells in the past couple of months.

In the first week of moving in, I hurt my second toe when opening our gate - the corner is just above floor level and I stood too close. Hurt madly but otherwise ok. 

On our second Thursday, Sito hurt his big toe similarly but it bled. I came home from dinner earlier that day; probably needed the toilet or something. I saw him standing in the corridor with a grimace when I came out of the shower, holding up one leg.

Then I saw blood dripping! Told him to sit down on our bench outside while I grabbed tissue. When I went back to the door, I saw him sliding slowly down the bench with a weak "ahhh..." 😱

Dashed out to see him bee bee and barely realising he had slid off the bench. Think he fainted momentarily! Luckily he didn't fall hurt; he slid into a sitting position on the floor with his legs stretched out. He lied down on the corridor for a bit before going in to lie down on the floor in the foyer. 

Wa liao, 吓死我...

He scraped his arm as he slid down. That and the cut on his toe took a few days to heal. He hurt his back from sliding down the bench too. Somewhat like a bruise. It improved over the weeks but it still hurts a bit now.

Sigh, now he had experienced vasavagal syncope like me too :(

After that, I pasted a thick kitchen sticker over the corner while waiting for corner guards to be delivered. Our existing corner guards could not be used and they would prevent the gate from closing. Managed to find some with shorter width. Working well so far - I pulled the corner against my foot again a couple of days back but the corner guard protected me, phew!

Then last Saturday, I had a tummy ache after dinner at Vivocity and went to the toilet, leaving Sito with the kids and a basket of stock concentrate in the supermarket. I expected diarrhoea but didn't expect the tummy ache to persist until I felt dizzy and nausea. 

I thought it would pass but it didn't. I had to call Sito for help but his phone was on flight mode as the kids were playing games on his phone. So I shouted for help. 

Eventually, the cleaner came by but didn't know what to do. I asked her to get mall staff to bring in a wheelchair. A staff came by first. I forgot what she said but she helped to call Sito. Took a few times before the call got through - he checked his phone periodically thank goodness! By the time the wheelchair arrived, Sito was waiting outside the toilet. 

I waited at the lift lobby near the taxi stand while Sito grabbed the kids who were nicely waiting for him at the supermarket eating area. 

Kai and Yang were quiet, looking at me curiously, but Yu called out, "Why are you sick? Are you ok?" :)

The kids had to pee so Sito brought them in again while I remained in the wheelchair. While waiting for them, I remembered I had a bottle of peppermint oil in my bag - for Yu as he sometimes feels bad on the bus. I dabbed some on my nose and it helped so much!

I also remembered the basket of stock concentrate. We finally found this brand after six supermarkets and we couldn't finish our shopping! So sad!

By the time they returned, I felt better and could get up. I felt even better when I saw a bag on Sito's arms - he bought the stock concentrate! Later, he told me he had abandoned the basket which had more stuff he added while I was in the toilet. But he decided to grab the stock concentrate on their way back from the toilet coz I wanted them, never mind if the mall staff should find it odd!!

Priorities. I like. Haha!

Anyway, we thanked the mall staff - too blur to get her name! - and waited for the taxi to bring us home. Kai helped watch out for the taxi; Yang helped carry my bag; Yu sat with me to sayang me.

Took some baojiwan and put on some ruyi oil. Sent the kids to bed but not before answering Yang and Yu's questions on what happened. Kai and Yang were not scared - just curious - but Yu was scared when he saw me in the wheelchair. Knowing the details helped.

Sito and I discussed the whys. Lekor with chilli on Tuesday? Um, my system is slow that way... Or dinner on Friday? Could be the plate which was already on the table before we sat down. Saturday dinner was too soon.. When I mentioned food poisoning to the kids yesterday, Yu said he read about it in Young Scientist and proceeded to pull down the series to look for it. But think he forgot; he just read on :p

Exam fever!

Kai came back with dismal results for a weighted assessment (WA) a while back: 20/40 for English compo. I read his compo - still like last year's, all my comments forgotten, sighs... But he's P5 now, just one year away from PSLE! So Sito started drilling him on English compo while I took Chinese compo. In Term 3, he improved by four marks!

During the recent term break, we also signed him up for an intensive course for PSLE English. Unlike Maths and Science, he can start preparing for English now. And he wasn't the only P5 kid in the three-day online course. Sito sat with him throughout; I was in and out often for the brothers and lunch. We thought it was very useful - Kai learnt from it, Sito and I learnt from it, and best of all, our notes (coz we are good students) can benefit Yang and Yu eventually!

Kai also had his first Chinese tuition class last Tuesday. We wanted to sign him up at Bukit Timah before moving but no vacancies. We went to Clementi after moving only to find all vacancies taken up. So we started at Jurong East. Each lesson takes three hours! The teacher spoke with us after the lesson to share her observations and how to do tuition homework at home. 

Yang is also having exams starting from this year. While Kai is competitive, Yang is happy to just pass; in fact, he said it's ok to fail since it doesn't affect PSLE!!! I want to faint ah...

But I read his compo - the content is better than Kai's but he gets a lot of spelling wrong which would cost him marks so I still need to continue with phonics which I stopped amid all the renovation and moving stuff. I also just finished putting together over 500 commonly used Chinese phrases using the word list from the MOE syllabus for P1 to P3. Yes, 500! With hanyu pinyin and meaning!

Being kiasu parents, we also bought past year papers and started both Kai and Yang on them the week before term break - four papers each every week!

Kai has been conscientious in doing his work so we can bear the complaints

Oops, caught my Robot-kun in action, cleaning around his desk... Anyway, this is a 140cm Ikea lovingly assembled by Papa :) Bought new chairs with cushion - we all prefer this to our old dining chairs.

Papa going through his work

Sito marks most of Kai's stuff and some of Yang's stuff. I usually take more of Yang's and all the Chinese. Their Chinese makes me cry la...

Yang also has his own desk

This boy prefers me to go through his work. As I had to wait for Kai to finish his tuition last week, I alerted him that Papa would help him with tingxie. He said Papa would make him write many many times! Eh, means I should have been more strict?? He couldn't remember his times tables with me but with Sito, the "many many times" made him remember so much more!

As for Yu who has no exams, we let him do some very old test papers for his level. He did quite well, which is comforting! He could do more than one a day so there isn't much for him to do already. Sito got him a maths IQ book. When left on his own to do, he copied from the answer sheets! Naughty boy!

Doing his work at the dining table even though he also has his own desk

Yang had his first oral exam yesterday. He'll have his English one this afternoon. I went through the oral structure only once. Hope all goes well... Kai's will be tmr and next Tuesday, followed by a break before the written papers. Can't wait for this to end!

眼镜找到朋友了

Sighs. Inevitably and statistically, at least one of our kids must wear glasses.

Yang had his annual health screening in school in late July and came back telling me he might need glasses :( But he didn't fish out the referral letter until just before we moved or even after?! I also didn't ask amid the moving hassle *.*

On the second Saturday after moving in, we went to Clementi to get specs for him. It was straightforward enough. Had dinner at Swensen's before collecting his glasses.

So cute!

So studious!

It's only 25 degrees in one eye and none the other but his astigmatism is apparently high. He also finds himself seeing better with the glasses. But since it's not serious, he wears only in school.

We're supposed to go back to check his eyes six months later. Hope it doesn't worsen...

Regular bits amid the busy move

Despite all the moving hassle, we still had some family time. Some pictures in about one month before and one after.

Found while packing: Sito's secondary school music project work - Zelda!

We didn't have time to go through everything we packed but those we eventually dumped, we took pictures. A lot of memorabilia that we brought with us are still in their own boxes hiding above wardrobes...

His toy is taller than him!

Ok, now dissemble and pack them into a box! I think their toys took up as many boxes as our books...

Our last time at this playground :(

It's near the coffeeshop at Gangsa/Petir. We walked there with much complaints from Kai. But he got use to it after a while. The prata there was nice even though the maths was weird - five pratas for $5.10?!

Chanced upon BPP mall event - the kids had some fun :)

We miss this mall! So convenient to get to the library and Popular and Redman etc. But I'm ok to not have Ichiban every week haha!

Yang on his way to release his beetle that he raised from a mealworm from school

Kai brought mealworms back from school but they all died... At least this time, one survived. I'm not a fan of beetles but it was a happy moment for Yang and for me to see him so happy :)

Don't ask me why we have so many ice cream sticks!

They wanted details on the parts so we labelled the picture together on Meitu. 

Sito convinced them to try kaiten sushi while I was away cleaning...

And they liked it! All those years staying right above one and we had this just once! Now no more easily accessible kaiten sushi....

Let's see how the ice melts...

We must have Captain Kim one more time before we left BP. We said this was our farewell dinner... But they kids are now still asking for it. Well, there's I Am Kim at Clementi... Celebrate end of exams then!

On another cleaning day, I found them enjoying ramen and karaage

Another place we miss - yummy and such good value. Yang and Yu also like the free flow hardboiled eggs. Yang had three one time; I had to stop him from getting a fourth!

Back at Yee Cheong Yuen

Kai was chatting with Papa while Yang and Yu were chatting away. I was the camera mama as usual, and probably still nursing an ulcer. This time, I had ulcers lasting over a month! Sito figured it was moving stress.

We mostly ate at places within walking distance, as far as Star Vista. When we finally cleared most of the stuff, we started going further out on weekends. First was Clementi - to check out a tuition centre and get specs. Then it was Bishan - for the library. 

What's he laughing at?

Kai's funny expression!

We decided to try Tan Jai Sam Gor. The portions were huge! While we found it yummy, the kids didn't like it as much. But we promised ice cream if they finished as much as they could. We didn't expect that Kai could finish the bowl. Yang was quite ok with the food but he couldn't finish. Yu was whining throughout *.*

The kids found Monopoly Deal while unpacking

I was reading on the sofa when a head popped up!

Now they have their own sofa - no more less fighting!

For some reason, Kai ferried his brothers around one day...

So strong!

Yang is not light anymore. They're all growing so fast... But we haven't got down to getting a new wall decal to measure their height.. Should get that one day soon...

There was a family gathering to mark my Ah Ma's death anniversary so we all went; we missed the one for Ah Gong as we were in Legoland. I realised they were the only kids in their generation that day. 

This time, they were in the house for a long time as it was raining and the playground was wet. They even got familiar with another "uncle" - had to teach them the proper address *.*

Reading while waiting for lunch

Arm wrestling with LY 表舅

Then it became thumb wrestling...

After the first month, we managed to settle down more as the dust settled and the term break ended. Gosh, term break was hard! But more on that later...

It's a rare day that I could sit here with Sito to just write. I shall write more :)