Mother's day Surprise

From the kids.. and I feel so loved darlings!

Puzzles

Nathan loves puzzles that comes in all shapes and sizes. He could play it over and over again, toppling them over immediately after completion. I am pretty certain he gets a great sense of achievement when he finishes his puzzles, but the act of starting all over again before bedtime can sometimes push you to the limits. We tried turning off the lights to end the game but he will attempt to see using the street light. Not sure where this spirit of relentlessness came from well at least he is not easily distracted when it comes to playing and it helps him concentrate. I certainly hope he will use this on his school work as well!

Beautiful artwork

Dinosaurs are by Nathan and drawing of nathan and natalie in the garden by Natalie. Works are completed on 26 April 2014.

Easter eggs

Both kiddo brought home their self decorated Easter eggs yesterday. Attached are photos of their little handicraft. According to Natalie these are the steps for their project:-
Step 1: prepare a boiled egg
Step 2: wrap the plastic wrapper around the egg
Step 3: dip the egg in hot water. The wrapper will constrict and stick to the egg.

Amazing science lessons!

Bollywood

Guess who won the best dressed?

School bus rides

I have extended the hours of Nathan's kindergarten just so that he avoids the long and arduous journey from grandma's place to school. The ride takes 40 to 45 minutes and takes him through multiple carparks before dropping off at
school. The bumpiness of the journey causes him to suffer from motion sickness and creates a mess before school starts thus affecting his mood and destroys the eagerness of going to school. Each morning he also faces the grab and go situation similar to the kidnapping scenes which we see in movies where a van drives by and grabs him from his mommy and he screams and struggles on the bus before the auntie manage to calm him down. As a third party, i feel that the process is highly traumatic! Imagine the negative association and how he would have felt about education and the impact long term? It dragged for weeks, but his relentless crying and vomiting still hasn't stopped. I knew i had to do something about this.

Extending the hours meant that he can go to school from home together with jie jie who can look after him which helps make the journey bearable. He is a much happier student now and the driver who prepares a morning surprise for him to settle him down certainly contributed to the calming down effect as well! Fortunately this worked! He is starting to enjoy school now!
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Benefits of siblings

There are several benefits of having siblings here are some of them:

Everyday, children with siblings learn to negotiate, or cooperate with another social being. Over time, siblings learn how to compete and what to expect from an opponent. The dynamics changes as they mature in age. This largely depends upon how the parents interact with the siblings as they learn from your behaviours and mimic your personality. Children loves to play pretend and some times naughtiness develops a ripple effect because of this as it only takes 1 to create mischief and the second will have a tendency to follow. However, this also speeds up the development of the younger siblings as they would have some one to constantly play and talk to them, be it scolding received from an elder sibling, the little ones have a tendency to be impatient and pushes themselves further to acheive a task that is way above their developmental milestones. I believe this was what happened to Nathan as he has the luxury of having his sister to coach him and talk to him. Natalie also learnt people management skills through negotiations and drawing territories on what's hers as she act as the teacher or the boss in the family.

I feel that Children who must deal with multiple siblings learn to be better leaders And parents with more than 1 child makes better coach and multitasker. Dealing with group requests and tricks makes us learn to think alternatively and Though we tend not to give in to negotiations, siblings who learn to work together have a higher tendency of success in dealing with rejections and in achieving what they want.


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Frozen- let it go

I overheard her singing this song to herself. Came as a surprise to me since I was not the one who taught her and she didn't even watch the movie. Apparently it was a hit amongst her friends and they were the ones who taught her how to sing the chorus! I am utterly impressed. ..I knew the popularity of this song ...but not enough to know that it had infiltrated my household too. Until this weekend where the children were home since its the term break.

She was not aware that it was from the movie frozen of course and now that I connected the dots for her, she has been asking to learn the lyrics of the entire song! Am Adding it here so I can make future references.

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight

Not a footprint to be seen

A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the queen

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside

Couldn't keep it in

Heaven knows I tried

Don't let them in, don't let them see

Be the good girl you always had to be

Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know

Well now they know

Let it go, let it go

Can't hold it back anymore

Let it go, let it go

Turn my back and slam the door

And here I stand

And here I'll stay

Let it go, let it go

The cold never bothered me anyway

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small

And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all

Up here in the cold thin air I finally can breathe

I know I left a life behind but I'm too relieved to grieve

FROZEN - Let It Go Sing-along | Official Disney HD: http://youtu.be/L0MK7qz13bU

Let it go, Let it go

Can't hold it back anymore

Let it go, Let it go,

Turn my back and slam the door

And here I stand

And here I'll stay

Let it go, let it go

The cold never bothered me anyway

Standing - frozen in the life I've chosen

You won't find me, the past is so behind me

Buried in the snow

Let it go, let it go

Can't hold it back anymore

Let it go, let it go,

Turn my back and slam the door

And here I stand

And here I'll stay

Let it go, let it go

The cold never bothered me anyway...

(let the music go on)

let it go, let it go

Let it go, let it go

Fever- little nathan

Little Nathan is down with our cough virus. Although with a fever of 39 degrees, he still insisted on completing his favourite transport puzzles at least 5 times before falling asleep. Poor little baby get well soon please mummy, daddy, jie jie, gong gong and popo are all cheering for you.

Princess' Birthday

Natalie planned her big day a month in advance. The requests became more specific as we come closer to the day and she would remind us of the dates and number of days left to her party.  She wanted party hats and blowers and little presents for her friends. Not forgetting a princess cakes and lots of balloons to decorate the classroom.

On the actual day, She donned on her cinderella dress together with its accessories. .. well she even brought a magic wand to school! The smart me had heard the kids sing Happy Birthday after the assembly on one of the occassion where i accompanied Nathan to school and decided to sneak in from behind the hall just so I can capture her moments!  And yes i managed to get the process videoed down on phone!  Only two children were celebrating that day and fortunate for her the other kid was a boy who came dressed in blue too.  So a prince and Princess stood before the entire school that day and she had the pleasure of thanking her school mates at the end! What an experience for a 5 year old!

The team at home was busy blowing up the balloons and getting them tied to the stick. we transported the balloons,  gifts and cake over to school. Huang 老师 guided her on cake distribution and little children lined up to collect the gifts from princess natalie who was beaming from left to right! It was a day with multiple memorable moments! We were all exhausted but happy to have participated in this special memory. And yes Nathan hours will be next!

What a good reminder!

Instructions from boss

Been told that Nathan is a natural coach. He will transmit my instruction to his 'subordinate' in similar likeness..except for the context.

Mummy: "Hi Nathan have you had lunch?"
Nathan : " mm"
Mummy: "so is that a yes or no?"
Nathan : " yes mama"

Nathan: "mimi come I want to talk to you."
Helper: "Yes,  boss." ( she calls him boss instead of me).
Nathan: " Mimi, you cannot say mm .. must say yes or no ok. Cannot say mm."

Mummy: "Hi Nathan, are you watching tv?"
Nathan:"ya"
Mummy:" is that a yes or no?"
Nathan:"yes.  mama"
Mummy: "you cant watch too much tv alright. There is a time for play and sleep..."

Nathan :" mimi. Mama say we cannot watch too much tv. Only a short while ok. "
Mimi:"yes boss.."
Nathan:" mmm..good."

Helper -help!

Mount Kelud, considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the main island of Java, spewed red-hot ash and rocks high into the air late Thursday night just hours after its alert status was raised.

Three airports in Indonesia reopened on Saturday while four others remained closed, after a volcanic eruption killed three people and forced mass evacuations.

Mimi's flight was affected with solocity airport closed till 22 feb. We were devastated and tried means and ways to get her to Jarkarta. However the train system in solocity was unable to take in orders on the same day. Technical inefficiencies with no proper system linking the city train systems increased the difficulties to purchase a train ticket from solo to Jarkarta.

I sought help from silkair and they managed to get a connecting flight from semarang to singapore, but catch is that the earliest departure will be on 17th feb which means I will have to take an additional 1 day of leave.

Sigh... we are praying hard that she comes back in time and safely.

Trailing

Second day at school and we were told by Mrs Lee ( principle) that he missed his red car..speedy. daddy and mummy were both peeping at  him and saw him sobbing at the waterplay area. Poor little one .. my heart goes out to him.

First day at pre-nursery

Waking up has been our greatest struggle for the kids and me. Preparing for school was a nightmare with Nathan wanting similar or more attention from me the level of difficulties increases exponentially!  The fact that I have been home for the past two weeks makes him fully reliant on me and he has mastered the art of "mummy manipulation". Tears and pity puppy eyed, who can resist the temptation? I definitely am not cut out to be a tiger mum.. loving but ferocious. Natalie ends up landing herself into trouble since she is the common trigger of the disagreement.. either it's " he can't touch my things!" *fist hit towards Nathan's chest* or "I don't want him or his things. . Its git his smell" * pushes him to the floor whilst he attempts a hug*. She gets reprimanded and apologises quickly.. This is the smart her working her way through adults' world of mutual respect and sorry saying without truly meaning it. I have threatened her with the cane but didnt use it since she is quick with her corrective actions. If it's popo she would have gotten a spanking already.. which I do agree its effective but just not my favourite style of discipline. 

Well this post was meant to log his first day at school but here I am drifting to other matters.

So first day was not without the tearing even with mummy and popo around but kids being highly adaptable the  second day becomes  easier and watching him mingle with the little children makes me wonder if how quickly he's growing up.  Yes I followed and hid behind just to make sure that  everything is ok. So I can't let go my mum says.. yes it's hard and I find it a struggle. I could imagine myself following and trailing them on field trips whenever I can. Sigh mummy is not good at letting go ya. And please forgive me if I continue to baby you even when you are into your teenage years.

Grandpa and grandma

I am fast approaching week 2 without a helper. Life is getting adjusted to self reliant. Fortunately I have a wonderful and supportive hubby who helps out with the hard chores and wonderful parents who did most of the cooking as they complained how unpalatable my cooking tasted. Hey I must mention that most times its way too flavourful with sesame oil and light sauce,  but kids complained that it was way too salty and refused to eat. When I cook really bland tasting food.. my dearest hubby will complain and mention that perhaps he should just grab takeaways for dinner each day. Sigh its not easy being a mum, a cleaner and a wife. And without popo I am not sure if I could have managed it on my own with both babies wanting my full attention all the time!

Thanks popo and gong gong for helpimg me tied through the tough 2 weeks!

Favourite toys

From left to rt..

Ellie the elephant
Crabby the lobster
Rudy the dog
Ginger which is Nathan's cat
Clover which is Natalie's cat

What nice names for their little toys! !

First independent class

The plan is to get him used to going to enrichment classes independently before starting pre nursery, where he is expected to take the transport and go for classes on his own.

Last week he cried when I left him half way. Me: "Did Nathan cry today?"
Nathan: "Other children cry.."
Me: "I see..so Nathan never cry? So brave wah!"
Nathan: "because I want mama and mimi."
*hugs*
Me: "Nathan will be brave next week k."
Natalie: "Yes must be like jie jie. Jie Jie never cry. The teacher will look after you and mama will be outside waiting for you ya. Be brave like jie jie. Ok?"
Such a wonderful and encouraging big sister!!!
Nathan: *pause to think* "because I want mama."
Me: "Let's try next week k!"
*pouts from Nathan*

Today was his first independent class with berries having accompanied him for the past 3 lessons. My departure is not without tears but the past the lessons helped him to familiarise with the teaching staff and classroom environment. Cried and sniffled for a while but settled down rather quickly this round.

I am so proud of you Nathan! At 2 years 4 months you could do more than what mummy and daddy has probably achieved whilst we were young! Keep it up my dear!

What is your prototype

Found this draft and looking back our curent helper is such a wonderful find!!

What kind of parent are you?
The kind who would give in to your kid's whims and fancies? Or the type who controls each and every little thing they get their hands on? Or the type who gives them a free hand but sets parameters in which you would like them to grow?

Would want to think of myself as the 3rd type, but some how i have feeling my compulsive control temperament may take the reign. Just looking at the way my mum manages the maid today makes me think if i am like her sometimes.. . expecting her to do everything to the T following the operations procedures without a glitch. Honestly I think it boils down to insecurity. I feel insecure about leaving my baby with the maid. I hate it when she does things to her standard, cutting corners, skiving when we are not looking and coming up with excuses to cover her ass. Just today I scolded her for not responding when I talk to her. How would I know if she understands what was conveyed when she does not acknowledge with a simple ok or yes. Tried explaining to her why Philipino maids ought to get higher pay ... at the very least they respond with a 'yes mum'. She'll only respond with a 'ya'when she is either in a good mood or when she is truly listening. If had to work past her bedtime she'll not acknowledge you and proceed to do things in a rushed manner, wearing a black face. By the way in case if you are wondering 'So what time does she sleeps?'. I must say she has at least 10 hours of sleep each day. At my mom's, she tend to sleep at 9ish and at my place she could go to bed at as early as 8ish pm! I've tried explaining about the concept of customer care and the need to service with a smile. She meerly giggles with some sort of understanding and forgets about it the very next day. No wonder she tells me she gets scolded by her supervisor quite often when she was working in a departmental store back in Malang!

Hubby just cannot stand how she packs food slowly and do things with no sense of urgency! He simply took over the tasks and this made things worse. She doesn't know her place anymore! My mum and I often end up playing the bad guy as we are the key personnels ordering her around! I got to keep reinforcing the idea that she is the one earning a living not us. Appraising her each month before giving her her salary seems to work for a while but when new issues comes up the old ones gets forgotten and production became inconsistent again. My dad irritates the hell out of me when he keep asking her to take breaks and rest. How can I manage her when there are so many Indian Chiefs in the hourse! And she is smart enough to know who to go to when she had issues. I think I ought to really scold her to reinforce my training. Bad habits are indeed easy to pick up but difficult to correct. Till then it'll be too late.

Am feeling kinda frustrated now as I meant to dedicate this page to parenting, but ended up writing all about maid management!