The last to turn 10

Yes, the baby of the family is now 10!

First celebration was five days before his birthday. He booked his cake and ordered his presents a month ago and had to bear with not opening the presents the last time we were there! 

Strawberry cake 

He requested for dinner at his new fave restaurant downstairs - he loves the tomato eggs there. And indeed, he ate a lot of those!

I don't think I have mentioned this before - when we go outside to eat with the grands, the kids will arrange the seating. Kai will sit with AhMa, Yang with AhYe and Yu with YeePo. Why? Play their phones before and after food 🤦‍♀️ 

Playing games on YeePo's phone

Second celebration was two days before his birthday. Yes, it was a Wednesday coz YQ wasn't in town during the weekend, and Mother insisted that birthdays could not be celebrated after the date! I roll my eyes la...

So that the kids could still go to bed early, we set the venue at the other Chinese restaurant downstairs which also serves tomato eggs. But it's very Chinese - we ate cake with soup spoons!!!

Chocolate cake - coz no strawberry cake at the MRT bakery

The 10yo and the 80yo

Nowadays, Yu likes to cut cake, especially his own slice :)

Interestingly, Kai decided to have some cake! Was it the flavour or the novelty of using soup spoon to eat cake? :p

It being Mother's 80th birthday, I bought her a bracelet of jade beads and a gold lotus flower instead of giving her a hongbao. I have more to say on this but maybe another time...

Finally, Yu's birthday arrived! I was busy with breakfast and forgot about it in the morning rush. But this boy said loudly, "I'm 10!" when he was changing into his school uniform. Oh yes, indeed you are!

He had been looking forward to this day for so long! But as usual, he grumbled quite a bit over why his birthday was always during exam period... Um, we didn't think about that when trying to conceive, did we?!

Later, Sito and I went to Star Vista for lunch and to buy a strawberry cake - yes, again. I didn't get those number candles and since Yu likes to blow candles, we decided on 10 small candles - 给他吹个够！

Happy birthday, not-so-little Yu! :)

We had a little mishap... After sticking in all the candles, we discovered that our cigarette lighter was spoilt! I bought it probably over 10y ago just for birthday candles and brought it along when we moved a few times... There was still lighter fluid in it but the ignition couldn't work. So Sito had to run out to get a kitchen gas lighter - much easier than a cigarette lighter to light candles!

He saw his birthday present - Yu-Gi-Oh cards - on the dining table when he got home from school. They didn't seem as good as Yang's but Papa has since shown Yu that he could build a deck good enough to defeat Yang! It also happened to be Yu's movie night so I think he kind of enjoyed his birthday? :)

The next day, we went to Swensen's after library for the usual birthday ice cream. He wanted Firehouse but that was available only on the actual day. We didn't do actual day this time as Kai had CCA.

He still got a lovely birthday sundae

Just like that, we have no more sub-10 at home! All growing up!

It was a bittersweet birthday. I couldn't wait for the kids to grow up but to see them growing less and less babyish through the years is a little sad... And turning 10, turning double-digit, that's a milestone. Next will be the short tween and teen years before they become adults. Adults!!

Yang's hilarious moments

Yang did three funny things recently. Must write it down so we can look back and smile in future :)

1) What's your foot size?

Yang has very big feet. His feet are about Sito's size but meatier. He's very proud of his big foot. He thinks he's Big Foot sometimes! So he loves to compare foot size, hence the question.

Yang's VS. mine

Nothing is wrong with that question - until a boy asks a girl he barely knows!

Yes, my boy made this faux pas. It was at his tuition class a couple of months ago. A girl from another class who was there for a makeup lesson happened to sit in front of him. He noticed she was quite tall and had biggish-looking feet. So he pointed to her feet and asked her his fave question.

"Piak!" She swatted his hand away and ignored him!

Yang told Sito over supper that night. Sito had to guide him in the way of, well, friendships with girls. And he used me as an example coz I was conscious of having big feet as a child with very limited shoe options - not pleased of course! We had a good laugh about it. 

2) The prude

Couple of nights ago, I had to change my pyjamas top after Yu put his sole to my back during bedtime chat - I leaned on my pillow while watching drama so ya, not transferring any dust to my face eventually!

After changing, I went to Yang's room. He looked at my mismatched PJs and asked whether I changed in front of Papa who was already in our room. And the following exchange took place:

Mama: Yes.

Yang: *eyes wide* Are you wearing a bra under that? *pointing to my top*

Mama: Um, no....

Yang: *eyes wider* How can you do that?!

Mama: Eh, you change in front of me all the time!

Yang: You're my mother!

Mama: But I don't want to see you change! ... And you change in front of your brothers all the time!

Yang: But it's different! Papa is a boy, you're a girl! *wagging finger in my face* Don't do that again ah... 

I didn't promise :p But this is the boy who said "shame shame" when I wore a tube dress so maybe I shouldn't be surprised!

3) Chinese swear word is funny?!

Ytd, we were at Japan Home at Star Vista. It's been revamped and carries more snacks! While I was checking out the batteries at the cashier, I overheard an exchange between a cashier and a PRC customer that went something like this:

Cashier: 只有 NETS 

Customer: 不收现金卡？

Cashier: 我们收现金，卡只有 NETS

Customer: 对，所以不收现金卡？

Cashier: 现金收！不收信用卡！

Then the customer went off to get something. When we were paying, the customer came back to scold the cashier, something about her being unreasonable, not speaking nicely etc. Cashier auntie said she tried to tell her nicely. Voices were raised but eventually, cashier auntie went back to her job, saying she wouldn't bother quarrelling with that customer.

When we left the store, the customer was standing outside with a bag and a basket of goods, complaining loudly to presumably her husband about the cashier. And Yang was laughing madly at the side, with the two smiling widely too. Turned out that he overheard the customer say 操你妈的！

He learnt about this swear word from his classmate and knew the English equivalent but he said this was the first time he heard it in use and he found it super funny! Sito and I found it super funny that Yang found it this funny lor, hoho!

Kai asked us about another phrase he heard though - 狗眼看人低 - so the quarrel became a mini Chinese lesson for the boys as Sito also told them about 有眼不识泰山！Chinese immersion continued that evening as we watched MTVs on YouTube, AI 仙 侠 style!

Anyway, I still can't get over it. At first, Yang said 操你妈 a few times while recounting it. I think it's in Chinese so it sounded funnier than rude to him, compare with the f word. Had to tell him that it's still a very rude swear word so please don't use it!

PS: We thought at first that the customer referred to debit card as 现金卡 and the cashier didn't get it. But now I think it's cash card? In any case, we don't use this term at all so it was a matter of 鸡同鸭讲 🤦‍♀️

PSLE, a rite of passage for both parents and child

And perhaps also nightmare.

This is the least consequential exams. No employer will ask to see your PSLE results. So why are parents (and some children) so gan cheong about it?

Perhaps coz it determines which school and stream you go to, and hence the company you fall in with. I didn't think much about this until R told me she decided on NA for her middle kid whose grades could go to either Express and NA, and regretted it years on.

Now that I think about it, even though my secondary school was (still is) a so-called good school, the kids were very varied, just that my class was rather homogeneous. I recall visiting my form teacher and she hardly stepped out of the classroom when a boy jumped onto a table top! We were so shocked but she assured us it was normal *.*

So we were concerned for Yang. His grades were inconsistent and could range from AL 1 to AL 6. AL 6 is effectively a fail grade. At the end of each year, he usually averaged out to AL 4-5 mostly, at the borderline. A careless mistake would easily pull him down one grade. He scored a total of AL 16 in P5. One grade down per subject is a tad too close to G2 for comfort.

Sito worked very very hard with Yang. Finally, Yang understood maths though that didn't stop him from making careless mistakes. English tuition did not seem to have helped much; he still has issues with spelling (which, honestly, tuition cannot help) but hopefully the practice helped somewhat... Yang likes science but the darn OEQs! 

Yang really worked very hard, and mostly with no complaints. Even Kai acknowledged that Yang worked harder than him! With exams coming up for everyone, we decided encouragement dinners were necessary!

Kai had two kaedama while Yang didn't have a hardboiled egg for once

Yu had a hardboiled egg and all the soup

Day one of study break - 必勝！

That was just before he went into his room for one of the last practice papers. And oh yes, we moved the keyboard out of Yu's room to the living room and finally to the space outside Yang's room. Had to shift the fridge a little..

Second encouragement dinner was during the PSLE weekend break. We chose Saturday coz Sunday before exams should be normal... Yang chose ramen again but we decided on a different shop. They preferred the first in the end.

Kai had two kaedama again; also ordered karaage

Topped up with kaya butter toast for the two older boys!

I think another reason for such high parental involvement at PSLE is that, this is the only level that parents could possibly help with. Sito and I together can cover all four primary school subjects but we had to learn new things in order to teach the kids. But we doubt we could help secondary school subjects very much - it's the kid, not us, who's doing O levels! And we're not redoing the Os!

So far, Kai could study on his own though he asked for help in maths a couple of times - mostly careless. So we haven't had to study secondary subjects yet. Now we're trying to guide Yang towards self learning like Kai. But I suspect I may still have to come in for Chinese...

I think what PSLE does for us - both parents and children - is that it lets us understand the kids' learning style and strengths and weaknesses, so that we could better support them in their self learning as they progress through the academic levels.

Anyway, it's over - for now. Yang came back feeling kind of meh about English and Maths, but he was all smiley for Chinese. For science, it was super wide smiles - last day! And also, he thought it was easy. So now we just enjoy ourselves :)

Happily opening his Yu-Gi-Oh! cards which are his birthday present withheld for three months!

Nintendo is all his until the school holidays

In the meantime, two piles of P5-6 stuff goes to Yu :p

PS: Yu's desk was super messy for a week coz of some craft making swords and shields etc. Just got him to clear it this morning.

PS2: We put together a very big bag of dead wood for the recycling bin too!

On Wednesday, Yang had no school as the HCL kids were taking their exams. So we went to Jurong East to eat and run errands. First was the library. There was a queue of over 10 people before opening time - I felt happy seeing that. Didn't know library staff would line up to welcome the first readers! Felt like in Japan, hoho!

Searching for books

Lunch at Jack's Place

We then went to Ikea to walk the showrooms - Yang loves to try all the furniture! Then we headed to Popular to get a present for Yu's friend's birthday, Scarlett for oyster sauce, Donki for curry roux and finally back to Ikea to pack hotdog buns and chicken wings.

Yang was very tired by then as he had the sniffles. I also had sniffles. So both of us fell ill together right after exams. Thank goodness it was after exams! We both recovered quickly enough. He's now very free every day while Kai and Yu are still studying for their exams...

This is the first weekend after PSLE. Finally, we don't have to hurry Yang through breakfast so that he could finish a paper before 9.30 am Doraemon, and we could have lengthy breakfast chats about random things that come up. That's nice :)

Baby of the family

It was PSLE listening comprehension on Tuesday so no school for P1-5. I went back to bed after sending off Kai and Yang. Soon, Yu woke and came into our bed.

Somehow, we started looking at his hands. And he told me that Kai said that he's still a baby coz he still has those dimples on his hands.

6 March 2017

Tuesday

Just when we thought that actually Yu wasn't small anymore, he showed us that he's still a baby 💕 

Then yesterday, he came home sad and starving. He didn't have anything to eat during recess coz a boy bumped into him and knocked off his "panko rice" - panko chicken with Japanese curry. The queue was too long for him to buy again. He said he looked at the boy and the boy looked back at him before walking away without even an apology. I think Yu was too shocked to do anything. But he said he was too timid to do anything.

What did he do then? Cried :( He also cried when recounting the incident. This boy cries silent tears. Which are the worst. So poor thing. And so hungry coz he had only a cup of warm milo at home before school and a pack of milk at noon. Luckily it was a shorter day than usual due to P5 oral exams.

Over lunch, we told him that if this should happen again, he should just get a quick snack at a stall with a shorter queue instead of starving. More importantly, call out the boy. Not to expect the boy to compensate for the food but at least he should apologise? And if he should see this happen to other kids, he should step in to help. But again, he said he was too timid *.*

Today, Sito reminded me that this boy could stand up to his big brother who is almost two heads taller. So I told him again to stand up to others too when need be. Don't suffer in silence. He just gave me cute look and said ok 🤔

Maybe he's still too young. Ah well...

When the third term ended and the final term starts...

The Monday after prelims, Yang got all his grades - AL11 in total! All of us were pleasantly surprised! To think that last year or even earlier this year, we were concerned he might go to G2!

But cannot be too happy yet. Sito found a stash of past year PSLE papers in Yang's bag a few days later coz it was the end of term, and they were not pretty... Not pretty at all!

Were the prelims too easy? We shall find out in due time, I suppose... 

In the meantime, studying must continue. The term ended after Teachers' Day celebrations on Thursday, and that afternoon, we started on the first paper of the term break.

Yang had two busy days on Monday and Tuesday - first was a full-day online English bootcamp, and then he had two tuition classes with a 15-min break in between coz the last class of the month would be after PSLE and so was brought forward. 

If Yang can get AL3 like in prelims, we won't send him for English tuition anymore. Kai will also drop English tuition by end of this month as he wants more time for self study instead.

Then on Wednesday, while I accompanied Yu to a playdate far far away, Yang had a tooth extracted as it was shaking but didn't look like it was coming off. He had been trying to shake it for some days and eventually decided on Tuesday that he would have a dentist take it out. Better not let it dangle during PSLE! 

Sito said he was so brave - the dentist thought it wasn't very shaky and suggested anaesthetic injection but Yang didn't want the injection so he just had numbing gel! Yang's own recount was so funny - he said he stared at the light above and pretended he was dead, and then he raised his palms up, saying "ohm"!!

Apparently, the dentist was very good with kids

Sito said his hands were tense but he didn't make a sound during the extraction, but he couldn't stop talking after that, bloody and all! He was all fine by the time I came back with Yu but his dinner was only ice cream 🤦‍♀️ 

Somehow this one extraction was way more expensive than Kai's two last year. Maybe Kai saw a hygienist that day. Not sure but I'll check it out one of these days.

Now, Yu also had ice cream. He started on a Magnum mini two minutes before our ride arrived, and finished it off just before getting into the car. I told him to hold on to the wrap to throw the stick in, but right after he was done, I realised he wasn't holding the wrap in his other hand - it was another Magnum mini!!!

So pleased!

His friend's mum was very kind, bought a lot of snacks for the kids and told them to eat more so this boy took one more... That one more was eaten after we got off the car at Bishan. He wanted Macs for dinner. Ok since Sito also packed Macs for Kai. But instead of cabbing back to the Macs near home, we cabbed to Bishan for Macs then took MRT home, saving transport costs and walking time, yeah!

In fact, that morning, I also split my usual frozen meat purchase to make full use of vouchers while still getting free shipping. 

Gosh, I must be getting smarter. Hahahaha!

Another reason for taking out the tooth? Swensen's Unlimited on Thursday!

Four of them made sundaes; I prefer my MSW ice cream neat :) Though I also had a croffle with chocolate ice cream, just to satisfy cocoa cravings...

And yes, Yang could eat more than ice cream by then. He seemed to have eaten more than usual that day. Maybe hunger debt from day before :p I gave them frozen dumplings for lunch - Yang ate 10 out of 24! Kai and Yu had six each so Sito had only two but well, he wasn't hungry. I had my usual overnight oats. Didn't sound like a lot but Swensen's Unlimited is always an early dinner for us.

Piano at MRT station was available, finally!

I ran out of chicken leg for curry on Friday so I used beef shabu but it was a small pack. We had some fish fingers on Tuesday and I kept the sieved oil. It smelled super non-neutral (!) so I used it again to cook the last box of fish fingers to top up their protein. Then the oil went into an empty peanut butter can to be dumped - I loved keeping some cans aside to help contain excess oil or gravy to dump. Must keep my drain clear and my rubbish chute clean...

Saturday was a busy day for me - baking in the morning as I would be taking Yang for Chinese on Sunday. The revision schedule was set when we didn't know whether Sito would need to accompany Kai to chess NST on Sunday. In the end, Sito only sent him up a Grab ride. But it's ok. We had cake for tea on both Saturday and Sunday!

Also sent a quarter butter cake to Jo on our way out. Somehow the three boys ended up going with me. Yu even stroked her cat's furry head; he was so pleased!

We still borrowed some library books despite PSLE coz Yu can read quite a lot and Yang wanted some relaxing reading... Then it was our usual dinner at Eighteen Chefs - our new fave at Clementi now that Swensen's is gone... The boys attacked the brownie and ice cream dessert like vultures 🤦‍♀️

Next was Popular. The kids like to play with the display phones there but our purpose this time was to get a new calculator for Kai - his is cracked. How? Dropped. Squashed between books. No idea. Tried to find a Singapore map but they don't sell it anymore. If I order one online, it will be sent folded so I'm not too keen...

Sito, Kai and Yang had their hair cut; Yu thought his was ok so we would wait until before his exams.  While waiting for their turn, the boys watched Kai play phone games. It was only after Kai had gone into the salon that I managed to draw Yu away to the pasar malam stall to check his size for new underwear! I thought his current ones were a little too snug round his chubbiness...

On this trip, we were sad to discover that our fave value shop where we got snacks and random foodstuff was closing! In fact, that was our last trip there. Sighs. Where to find such cheap stuff in future??

One last stop - Macs. Promised them kyoho grape ice cream cone. Sito and I shared one too. Oooh, so good!

With Kai away, Yang and Yu had full control of the Nintendo. So they decided to stay in to play and wait for us to pack dinner for them instead of going out with us. And they agreed to have cai fan!

They finished everything, yeah!

Sweet and sour pork, steamed eggs and beansprouts. At first, Yu wanted lady's fingers (my suggestion) but when he heard about beansprouts from Yang, he changed his mind. He had also wanted curry vege but that stall doesn't do curry vege. So that day, four of us had cai fan!

Kai had Macs with a friend after NST near the venue, and took public transport back on his own. It was rather late by the time he got back from Pasir Ris!

With that, the term break ended. And we're now in full combat mode - 闭关修炼！Only going to school and the grands' place before PSLE. Last lap already 💪💪💪

古人的智慧？

Yesterday was the final gathering at AhYee's place for the year. Usually we have four - CNY, 清明，and the two death anniversaries of the grands. I think once we had an extra one when Yan was back with her family.

This time, the turnout was smaller than usual. MY, YQ and XW, SanGu and family were overseas. LY didn't mention but his family was not there too. I was there on my own as it was our fortnightly visit to the kids' grands. It was quieter. 

And I had a revelation. 

Such praying occasions are not really for the dead. They are for the living to come together as an extended family. Such is the wisdom of the ancients, no?

I really enjoy chatting with the extended family. Sometimes we talked about funny things in the past, sometimes we asked about travel plans and tips.

So I bear with all the incense smoke. To say I'm not a fan of our neighbour's twice daily incense burning is an understatement. But I can deal with it once in a while, at such praying occasions or at temples. Just don't get too close for too long. 

I was amazed at this!

AhYee said YQ also knows how to do it. Later at home, I learnt that Sito also knows how - for exam scripts!! And better, while watching AhYee, I suddenly remember how we used to help Mother fold the incense paper into tubes tucked in the ends and throw into a big bag to bring downstairs to burn! 

The offerings yesterday

The table wasn't filled as we had fewer people. Notice the pair of shoes at the back? For Grams :) One thing is missing though - her 3-in-1 kopi! Oops...

I was so full... Was chatting with Mother at the dining table when food coma attacked. We went into the bedroom with the rest and continued chatting in aircon comfort. 

When we left, everyone packed something home. I was happy to pack more bah zangs hahaha! And some snacks plus a box of jelly (not in picture coz not an offering) that was meant for MY but Mother didn't know she was overseas coz she still doesn't have a phone and hence no WhatsApp *.*

Vivid dreams

I tend to get vivid dreams. Some dreams are epic; if I could remember the details, I could write a book! Some are short. Some are repeated. Some evoke strong feelings - at least once, I shouted myself awake. Some are forgettable; vivid while dreaming but ultimately forgotten. 

Thursday night, I had two dreams in which I was showering. Actually, trying to shower. I don't think I have had two similar dreams in one night before. 

In the first, I settled the kids (very young and only the first two) and decided to take a shower. But I barely closed the door to the super big bathroom (I don't know where we were!) when a burly man entered with a toddler in his arms, saying he had to bathe the kid.

I was taken aback - no, you wait for your turn! But no, he went ahead into a small room in the bathroom.

That wasn’t all. More people came in for various things! I was so upset I started screaming - “Ahhh! Get out!”

Twice. I screamed twice. Think Sito tried to get those people out.

Anyway, I woke up. Didn’t scream myself awake. I just woke.

Second dream was in a hotel. Maybe coz Thursday evening, I was just chatting with Yan about Beijing, where we - my family - took two adjacent hotel rooms. So in the dream, I settled the kids in one room, and went to the other room to shower.

It was a very old-looking bathroom. Quite bare. No shampoo or shower gel in sight. But there was a CCTV in a ceiling corner! Ah well, already naked. Keep going…!

Found a bottle of shampoo in the vanity cabinet. Just pumped some into my hands to lather my hair when I heard a knock on the hotel door and the door opened!

Wa, very angry!!

Next moment, Yu was on my bed. It was 7.18 am.

And thus started my Friday, day one of term break!

The kids in numbers

Measured the boys last week:

1. Kai: 177cm / 59.3kg
2. Yang: 164.5cm / 56.8kg
3. Yu: 142cm / 40.7kg

Kai seemed taller when standing against the measuring tape sticker on the wall, maybe coz he doesn't stand straight normally?! He grew 2cm since the last measurement in June so his feathers were all puffed up hoho! I don't know if I was accurate though Sito said I held the box quite level on their head..

Simi box?? I used a small box to level on their head, with one side touching the measuring tape.

"Did I grow taller?" Yes, you did, my boy! He grew just over 2cm. He seems to be growing more quickly. Maybe coz he has supper all the time... And recently, he has been having two cups of milk at tea and at supper!

Yu exclaimed, "Why am I still short?!" Well, he grew only 1cm but he hasn't been eating as much as before this year. But he still eats a lot sometimes - at Swensen's last Saturday, he finished a bowl of soup, the whole cornflake chicken, a bit of my sausage and a bit of fries. His parents could only eat kids' meals or be stuffed to the brim!

Weight-wise, it's really hard to fatten Kai up. I've been giving him a good breakfast this whole year but he's still skinny. Sito says he needs to exercise.

So Yang is catching up with Kai while Yu crossed the 40kg mark. But I should remind myself that I weighed them right after lunch so the weight might be inflated... Still, a significant increase from two months back.

Another measurement is their foot length.

Two Sundays ago, I realised that Yang was outgrowing his crocs after just six months. I measured their feet again. Strangely, Kai's feet shrank instead of grew?? Anyway, I bought bigger crocs for everyone. Yang can wear his new crocs before the other two who could still fit well into their current crocs. 

School shoes are fine though. Maybe coz they were rather big to begin with. Think Yang chose 42/43! But I need to get new shoes for Yu - both pairs are holey! Kai has a pair of holey shoes too but his other pair is going strong and since he doesn't get his shoes as dirty anymore, maybe I'll just stick to one pair for him.

And talking about shoes, I must share something funny.

Yang is very proud of his big feet *.* So last week at tuition, there was a girl sitting in front of him who was in his class for a make-up so he had never met her. He found her quite tall and wow, her feet quite big! So this boy pointed to her feet and asked her how big her feet were. The girl slapped his hand away and ignored him. We had such a laugh when he recounted this!

Sito told him that maybe the girl was sensitive or she wanted to focus on the lesson. And hello, I had big feet as a kid and it was very hard to find shoes! Thank goodness it's much easier now. I think I would have been quite pissed and/or embarrassed to have a boy point out my feet!

Anyway, I expect to be the one with the smallest feet by next year.. Yu also has meaty feet and they're not much smaller than mine now!

The boys in matching outfits from the grands

That was Saturday. It is now harder to get matching outfits for them - have to find Kai's from the adult section. In any case, he prefers plain stuff - he often chooses plain tees or polo tees when he's alone for tuition class or chess tournaments. And he's such a grown boy now. Maybe matching outfits are getting too kiddish... Maybe family outfits for CNY ok :)

Walk and chat and eat and shop

Sito and I tried to take walks sometimes. We walked to Ikea for brunch and shopping some weeks ago. Yesterday, we walked to Kent Ridge, passing a few schools and a bit of NUS, and took the train to Vivo for lunch. Obviously this is not a venture to lose weight coz we definitely ate a lot on those occasions!

It is just... nice :) 

When we're home, we're usually busy with various stuff and the kids, or there are distractions like, oops, drama even when kids are not around... When we're walking, there's only us :)

Brunch at Ikea 5 August

See the chilli crab sauce with mantou? Coz National Day was round the corner...

Five minutes away from the edge of NUS

Notice my bag? It's a sling bag that I usually carry on my right shoulder, or cross body on the left shoulder. But on long walks, a backpack can better distribute the weight on both shoulders. I was too lazy to pack my things into a backpack so I lengthened the strap of this bag to carry it like a backpack ✌️

The final lap

Yang's PSLE oral exams reminded us that we had moved back to HV for three years already. I remember coz the boys had no school on the two days after moving day and were just walking around the boxes and busy parents.

We worked very hard with Yang on both English and Chinese oral, with Chinese starting much earlier using Kai's Wang Laoshi materials - there was oral practice every week! I also attended a Mindstretcher zoom lesson on Chinese oral and collated loads of material. In the end, I summarised all the techniques in a 4x6" card for him to bring with him. 

During our practices, we reminded him of various experiences in both languages - how he thought of AhMa and brought her a cake（关爱老人）, the teen who took up three seats on the train （好公民，为人着想）, riding a bicycle （克服困难，一家人）, sharing at dinner time（家庭和谐）, local ND and mid autumn festival celebrations （社区活动）, and even an imaginary neighbour's parcel（邻里守望相助）!

Nearer the oral exams, the kids somehow found Crime Watch on YouTube. They've always been interested in it and would want to watch it if they happen to catch it on TV. So they watched old episodes whenever they could. The evening before the oral exams, Yang was at tuition when Yu watched an episode on burglary.

Now, there were English and Chinese oral exams on both days, and Yang happened to be assigned to English on day one. If he were to take Chinese on day one, I would be so upset he missed that burglary episode coz the Chinese video was a burglary! 

As usual, we didn't ask questions when he came home. Best to just focus on the next one. So it was Mandarin all the way that day. Even got them to watch Crime Watch in Mandarin, and a Tuesday Report on voluntary work since Talking Point doesn't come in Mandarin...

Prelims started the week after PSLE orals. Learning from our experience with Kai, we decided to just revise rather than do a last paper on the day before each paper. Too tiring for the kid. 

I didn't manage to go through our entire Chinese word bank. Only covered P6-P3, no time for P1-P2. The MCQ will more likely test P5-P6 words but he needs the rest for compo and comprehension... Ah well, we finished up after the prelims, and I'll probably do another round starting from P1 for the PSLE.

After his last paper, we brought him to Macs for lunch. A little treat to celebrate his efforts so far and also to motivate him for the next four weeks 💪💪💪

Relaxing after his Maths paper last Friday

Aside - yes, the sofa is new. Arrived 18 August, i.e. our old sofas lasted almost exactly three years. In fact, Kai's and Yu's individual sofas were long gone. Yang's was dented beyond words coz jumping. The parents' two-seater was kind of flat... Hope these old-school sofa - which came in through the windows! - can last...

A quick thought on the NDR

I missed most of the NDR as we were on our way home from the grands' and there were evening and bedtime duties etc... I sat down only when PM was talking about integration of foreigners in Singapore. But Sito said the government was going to give out loads of money.

This morning, I read the news. Finally, support for parenthood, not incentives!

We started on the support narrative way back but Baby Bonus - which I dislike - was by then so ingrained that it was tough to shift the idea from incentives to support. Doing away with Baby Bonus is very loud and clear - we're not giving parents a bonus for having a kid. Naming the new one "child support" puts it across plainly - we're supporting child raising.

I'm also pleased with the leave even though I have nothing to do with leave anymore. If anything, I don't get leave! Giving parents eight to 12 days of leave a year is great, coz mandatory child care centre closing days (the dreaded CCCC!) are already six days! 

If the kids don't fall ill (they shouldn't after a while coz immunity :p), that leaves parents with two to six days to really spend time with the kids on their own schedule, rather than on the centre's schedule, especially for those with older kids who can only go on holidays during MOE term breaks. My experience was that CCCCs did not happen during MOE term breaks *.*

The lower preschool fees are very welcome too even though once again, they've got nothing to do with me. But I cannot forget that for a period of time, with two kids in child care and one in infant care, half of my pay went to the centre 😭 It was more expensive than uni! I wonder how the non-anchor operators will cope with the competition... Ah well...

And finally, the BTO chances. Just on Thursday, Sito was jokingly saying, give two BTO to large families! I said no way that's going to happen, but higher chances at the ballot possible. Really! I'm good. Hahahaha! Oh, and bigger flats please! Well, nothing to do with me coz I'm NOT moving! 

I also read comments on social media. The dissent was mostly about those without kids having to cover for parents at work given the more days of leave.

Actually, before I had kids, I covered my direct boss not once but twice when she went on maternity leave two years apart. I didn't mind coz it gave me more opportunities to do things that I otherwise would just happily leave it to the boss to do! But I can't say for those who have to cover a peer. Maybe that would be more work... In the end, it's a give and take? I used to go on long vacations before kids and my colleagues with kids had to cover :p

Covering for maternity leave is harder - probably need a temp or intern... More opportunities for youngsters to learn?

I also think at some point, there also has to be greater support given to caregivers of elderly parents, besides parents who care for kids. It's how our population is heading - old...

And then some wondered about the cost of the package. Sito did a search and told me that back when I was working, IRAS collected $30b in taxes; last year, they collected almost $90b. So just the tax alone can more than pay for the annual cost of the new package, which is about 40,000 kids x 16 cohorts x $2,000 + 30,000 newborns x $25,000 = $2b

Based on the $70,000 support per kid from birth to 17yo, the package estimates that each kid will return more than that in taxes as an adult. Assuming 40y of working, $70,000 of taxes mean under $2,000 a year, which is very low and so hence the returns are almost guaranteed. 

But of course, this is beyond the money. It's "existential".

I heard a bit on the part about Singaporeans remaining the majority and integrating foreign-borns. I thought it is helpful to put it out there - births not looking promising but we'll support parenthood AND we'll need to continue to import people while ensuring Singaporeans this 👆 I talked about new citizens being newfound births before.

Ok, very hot in the study and Yu is 虎视眈眈-ing my laptop as he wants to read my holiday posts so I'll end here.

Ask and it shall be given?

Some months back when a lot at HV MRT was vacated, Sito wrote in to Luckin to suggest an outlet here. The lot was vacant for a while. And a few weeks back, we saw the lot boarded up with the signature blue of Luckin! Woohoo!

So we must support, right?

Yesterday was a very hot day so something iced, please! But I prefer their hot coffee. The iced coffee was too milky for me.

We sat there for maybe 30min plus. Saw many ACS International kids coming to get drinks; a generation ago, I used to see these kids grabbing Starbucks but now Starbucks is sited in the mall away from the main road. Towards the end of our stay, the lunch crowd from nearby offices started appearing. So it appears that business is brisk! 

Happy National Day!

And a very busy one, which started with Kai waking up at 530am to report to school on Friday as he was part of the school parade - can see pictures here. 

Yang and Yu brought loads of goodies back - the ND gift from school was a 12" LCD tablet which I also like, hahaha! Yang also had a care pack for PSLE 💪💪💪 I think he finished the pack of Ribena gummies that day; I closed two eyes...

And of course ND tattoos! Yu gave me Ang Ku Kueh Girl, which is still on my left hand as I type. Yang couldn't bear to part with any *.*

After about one whole year of talking about baking class, I finally signed Yu up for one! But he said he was nervous about it coz he wasn't sure if he could do it. No worries, my baby, I'll be with you!

We were the first to arrive and assigned to right next to the chef and the hob. It was a good spot as we had first turn on everything. It was a small class of six settings. Kids below 10 could attend free - that's Yu!

First, we folded the parchment paper to fit the moulds and wrote our names on a corner. Then, we measured out the chocolate, added the pre-measured butter, and measured and heated the cream. Yu asked me to heat and pour the cream out coz it was hot. Yes, dangerous so over to you, Mama...!

Mixing hot cream with chocolate and butter

Our mixture was lumpy so asked the chef to microwave it a bit :p Yu: Smells so good!

Pouring chocolate into his mould

The chef put all the chocolate into a blast freezer and went on to the next step: folding the gift boxes! It's like we were getting chocolate from Royce :p After folding the boxes, the chef brought out some chocolate from the morning class to share with us - so yummy!

Yu did it all by himself :)

The next step was tricky. We had to cut each moulded block into 16 bite-size pieces. Yu decided to use a glove while I thought nay, no need. Then we flipped out the block and started cutting with a bench scraper. This boy measured so nicely (divide by two a few times) and after the first cut, discovered he couldn't lift the scraper off the chocolate. 

~help~

Hello, boy, use your gloved hand to press the chocolate down...

Then, I helped him invert the chocolate back into the mould and peel off the parchment. Now the chocolate pieces were sitting nicely in the mould!

Must dust with cocoa powder

After dusting, we used the bench scraper to gently cut through the dust to show the pieces clearly. Then we wiped the perimeter of the mould, covered it with a clear cover, popped it into a foil bag and pushed it into the paper box.

Yu and his box of nama chocolate!

I brought a cooler bag with icepacks to keep the chocolate as we were going to have dinner at Le Shrimp. We ended earlier than expected though so we walked around a bit while waiting for the other three to join us. 

After dinner, we shopped at Japan Home, Redman (I had 10% discount thanks to the baking class!) and Cold Storage (running out of milk before delivery day), lugging over 10kg of goods home, which was fine for my laogong but but but... Yang had to cut hair at the salon on our way home - neater haircut for PSLE oral this week... So I took the load off Sito who accompanied him *.* Kai was already carrying one bag. By the time I got to the lift, I could hardly speak so Kai quietly took another bag off me 💕 

Guess which is his and which is mine?

Answer: His on his left. Yes, they look the same but the differentiation is important coz he's having his all to himself! The remaining four of us shared my box. Since everyone likes it, I'll make some since I bought more chocolate and cream :)

We signed up for the BV ND Observance Ceremony as usual. At first, we wondered if Yang should go, given his oral exams this week. He wanted to, so we said, ok, wear a mask. Then we forgot the mask *.*

All decked out in red!

This time, it was held at Blk 2 atrium. It was fun as usual, with games and snacks and performances! I think next year, I want to go near the front to see if I can grab a slice of cake :p

Eh, the hand very long, hahaha!

Yang didn't get a prize for this game and when he went back to try again, someone gave him the prize and he was happy!

Papa also played!

Yu very gamely answered a quiz again!

He could only remember three of the five stars, and a guy went over to whisper the answers into his ears :p Emcee couldn't get her hands on a prize immediately. She remembered us though but we left before she could find us again.

Fighter jet simulator!

Looks like the real deal for training, not a science centre ride

Sito said, yes, don't crash his tax money! Hahahah! But his sons very funny - Yang didn't manage to drop his bomb in time; Yu dropped it too early; Kai dropped it on himself!!?!?! We had a good laugh at the end of it :)

The anthem was played while we were in the queue for the jet simulator. I heard a loud booming voice singing nearby and spotted an angmoh on my right front singing his lungs out. On the other hand, my sons didn't open their mouth 🤦‍♀️ Don't kids sing anthem in school?! I sad and sian...

We went home to drop everything before heading for lunch at Oriental Food. Kids all enjoyed it so I guess we now have another option in the neighbourhood!

Yu and I left for his friend's birthday party in Chinatown after lunch. On the bus there, I told him I remembered two compositions in primary school and gave him the starting para of one of them and the gist of the other. He retold the former with kiddy details, and went on to spin a two-part story of the latter.

I really enjoyed the second one. Part one was about a boy who liked cheese. At the end of it, he became a mouse. Part two started in the first person. I wondered why, and then he went, "Oh, I forgot, I'm a mouse now so I can eat the rotten food!" So cool! Yes, gross content but his storytelling is so cool!

We were rather early, so he made me follow him to walk around. We ended up walking around People's Park Complex like three times... I enticed him with OCK and ok, he would follow me instead, haha! Took a walk to Chinatown point and went to OCK twice coz the first stick wasn't enough! Then I bought some plastic bags from Daiso before finding our way to the party venue.

Bye, boy. I'm going for a massage!

Spotted the massage place I wanted to go to when I was following Yu around People's Park Complex. Sito and I went there some 20y ago! And the prices were not much higher than 20y ago. I paid only $25 for an hour of foot massage, vs. $37 at HV. But I realised that night that the guy wasn't fantastic as I no longer felt anything by the end of the day :(

Bought a marshmallow snack which Yu said he wanted, and a rose bagel from Daily Artisan and Bakery. The latter was so pretty! But it was too much like bandung for me - I don't like bandung, hahah!

Anyway, went back to the party venue to find Yu still happily playing balloons after two hours of VR games. I sat for a while before I think the staff was ready to close the account... We took a bus to Vivocity to pack dinner - Jollibee!

It was still early by the time we got home. We managed to finish dinner before NDP started proper. Of course the adults had to clear up a bit more... But in the end, we all sat down to watch the parade and performances. Made them all stand for the anthem even if they didn't sing.

Again, we all said the NDP songs this year were no good. Two didn't feel like NDP songs at all. Only Sparkle was more upbeat. Anyway, I realised that this year, we didn't spend much time listening to NDP songs on YouTube - too busy with PSLE prep...

And so I guess that was our very busy National Day :)