Blessings from Above

Claire has been doing spelling since the start of this year - are there specific methods to learn to spell? I teach her to recite the letters and then the word as she writes them so that they 'register' in her brain. Is this a good method?

I always know its trouble - when the OTHER family falls ill. Though we do not meet often (once every two weeks, maybe - even that is too much), there is a 'carrier' who will bring the germs and viruses over to my household. It normally starts with the children and then DH... and I'm usually the last to get hit. But since I am pregnant now (there are many articles explaining why pregnant women get sick more easily - just google it), I got infected before DH and I'm glad to say *touch wood* that the children got a much milder version. It started last week - with a horrible feeling in the throat and before I knew it, I lost my voice *almost completely* - conversations were reduced to whispers and I bet the children were glad that I couldn't SHOUT at them when they did something dangerous! I started off with laryngitis and then, drippy nose - I've got my voice back now but now the throat is always itchy, the nose is stuffy and the phlegm is greenish. *YUCKS* ...

Recently, there has been a furore among parents with young children over plans by the education ministry to 'review' the current primary school registration process as the current system gives priority to certain groups of people, much to the chagrin of others. I belong to a group who has some 'slight advantage' over others as I graduated from one of the local top schools - that 'automatically' qualifies Claire for a place for the school. Never mind that we stay a good 30 - 40 mins drive away from the school. However, being a single gender school, we will need to seek alternative schools for the boys, adding to our logistics woe in the future. Our current residence is in a private estate and the nearest school is 1.3km away. We have started looking at properties nearer to school for Claire, which means that we will have to move out of our comfort zone in the east. To make matters worse, property prices have escalated to ridiculous levels with suburban prop...

I guess its pretty obvious that I'm not able to blog as often as I'd like to even though its what I set out to do. Between shuttling the children to and fro school, catching up with work in the office and occasionally cooking a meal or two, I can barely find time to do anything else. It doesn't help that I need more sleep than normal now or that I'm not very good at managing my time. :| Just for the record, Chace at 30 months, only has 19 teeth and is still not potty trained. I'm a believer that the child will achieve a milestone when he/she is ready and thus I'm not worried. The grandmas, on the other hand, have been bugging me to toilet train him particularly because Claire was off diapers in the day when she was about 18 months. However, he is way before schedule for other milestones e.g. speech and motor skills so that, in itself, really isn't a cause for concern. As for Claire, she is starting to realize that school is not all fun and play. Oth...

Another 6 months has gone by and I've barely blogged - I shall attempt to blog more often this year with my reshuffled schedule. Both children will go to school from 11am - 3pm for the first six months, though Chace will only go in 3 times a week (since Claire only went 3 times a week the whole of last year). On the days that he doesn't go to school, he will get to spend some quality time with his grandma when Claire is in school. On Sat mornings, grandma has decided that they need to spend some time with God so she will take them to attend the kids programme in her church. This schedule will allow me to do lunch appointments on weekdays in an attempt to clear my production for the year in 6 months since I'm due end June/early July and most likely will have to take the rest of the year off to care for the newborn. 2011 wasn't very significant - but we did manage to take our first vacation alone without the kids since Claire first came into our lives in 2007....

Singing! We are just a couple of days away from Chace turning 22 months ago and he has started singing! It's so funny because there is no tune whatsoever... Just the words to his favorite song. He loves fishes and his sister learnt the song a couple of months back in school and has been singing to him.   I have previously posted on YouTube some other videos of Claire singing when she was about 2 years old... And I really enjoy watching her sing!

this is my latest 'workhorse' - yes, I really use it for work! it is most unfortunate that we smashed two ipads in 6 months - and I'm quite determined not to let it happen again... what happened? Oh... we folded up our stroller TWICE with the ipad1 in the basket below (I say 'we' because dh did it the first time and I did it the 2nd time). mega OUCH! instead of getting the serious-looking black folder used for my ipad1 - I got this bright and cheery one for my ipad2 instead... so that I will NEVER miss it again (the black one blended in with the stroller basket at the bottom so it was easy to forget that its there) and oh! I will NEVER put it there again! It has been safely tucked in my bag ever since I bought it - talk about expensive mistakes! on a side note, I found a website that sells the LCD part (for a fraction of the cost that I paid to replace it first time round) so I'm going to attempt repairing my ipad1 myself! u...

like li'l missy, Chace won the 1st prize in the healthy baby competition even though they were in a different age group category - the goodness of mummy's milk! :)

one of the many ways we entertain our two precious on weekends...

this is the 4th year that I am celebrating as a Mom (in the 1st one, li'l missy was only less than a month old!)... but its the 1st time I'm getting presents... :) li'l missy made this bracelet for me in playschool - she couldn't wait to give it to me. since she only goes to school on Mon, Tues and Thurs, I received this early present on the 05 May. Thank you sweetie! Mommy loves it... dh got me a present too - instead of getting one for our wedding anniversary, which falls on 10 May (we've been married for 8 years now!)... I think its really a present for himself - he has been fascinated with them since he first laid eyes on the Nespresso machines! haha... I don't even really drink coffee to begin with but this machine 'processes' tea capsules too and that's why we chose this over the Nepresso machines. But anyhow, a nice machine to have when my guests come over and I love having people over! I just need to learn how to froth milk in the proper ...

can't believe how long it has been since I last posted... there's plenty to catch up... will do the posts randomly (according to my memory!) starting with our most recent family studio photoshoot. actually even before li'l missy was borned, I made a mental note to myself about getting photos taken regularly for memory... but me being me with a goldfish-kinda memory (read: pea-sized brain for remembering things), this kinda got forgotten along the way. even for this recent family photoshoot, it was really because I need to get some 'mugshots' taken for work and the studio happened to have a promotion of sorts and well, you know me, I can never really resists promotions so... :) I chose to go to the studio on the day li'l Missy turned four for obvious reasons but you know what, the studio still has not sent me her personal shot (that reminds me that I really should be calling them up to check) - I've collected the rest and here are a couple: ...

talking.... its amazing how chatty my two kids are... they just go on and on... most of the time, i wish that they can be quiet for even 5 mins! obviously to those whose kids are far behind developmentally, they probably feel like kicking me. some of the words that Chace is saying right now... before he turns 16 months in 4 days' time: - jiejie, mummy, daddy, nai-nai, ye-ye, po-po, da-da (mida - my parents' maid) - bus, fish, yes, bear, ball, no, wait, prea-sh (please!), bite, meow, wooh-wooh (dog barking), aa-ghhhh (lion roaring), mil-k (milk), where? (with hand signal), mine.. in other aspects of development; - he pats himself on the chest when he is frightened - he lies down & pats himself on the bum/thigh when I ask to him go to sleep - he shakes his head violently when he says 'no' - when his sister tries to snatch away from he is holding or when I try to take away something that he is holding, he will scream 'mine!!!' and try his might to hold on t...

walking.... the ability to pull and stand and being able to walk is totally not related in the case of my children. Claire pulled herself up when she was just 7 months but only took her first unassisted steps when she was 13 month. Chace, on the other hand, pulled himself up to stand probably when he was 8 or 9 months old but took his first unassisted steps just before he turned one. Guess its obvious who has more 'balls'? I don't even have a clear photo of Chace's 1st attempt, not to mention a video. Here's a lousy photo that I manage to take on the day he decided to show us that he is now a toddler... Just for the record, before he turned one, Chace: 1) has 8 teeth 2) stopped crying/screaming during bath time (on his lunar birthday) 3) started taking his first few unassisted steps 4) is a really 'old-hand' when it comes to food - no problem chewing and drinking from straws! 5) weighs 10kg (as a comparision, his scrawny sister is 11.5kg at 3 years 4 mth...

since i wrote an entry??? almost 2 whole months!

In order for me not to field questions about favouritism when my kids are grown up, I made the effort to throw a 1st birthday party for them. The theme for both was animals (Chace's party was a little more specific - it was a Safari Adventure theme). For Claire, we booked a holiday bungalow to accommodate our guests - but with our temporary abode, we had plenty of space for everyone so I used the money instead to have a more elaborate setup for the party. We had the same balloons, goodie bags from the same source and more or less similar guests. However, since Claire is now more grown up (and not wanting her to feel neglected), we hired a face-painter & balloon artist for her enjoyment. Unfortunately, Yas Meen didn't really get to do much balloon twisting because she was just too good with the face painting - all the kids were queuing up (again and again) to get inked! View photos of the party here ...

sigh... my li'l boy is down again... the last round, we took him to KK coz he woke up MUTE on a sunday morning... the DR @ KK prescribed him a dose of steroid and some nebulizer treatment as his oxygen reading fell below the optimum level and we were out of the hospital within hours. this time round, i started noticing the 'barking cough' on tuesday... instead of going to KK (since its a weekday and not really an emergency), we went back to see his regular PD on fri (rather than wait for it to get worse over the weekend)... the bill costs us more than twice the amount incurred @ KK's A&E but there's no respite... because it is virtually impossible to get our li'l prince to swallow his medication because he has learnt to spit out (what he normally does when he has enough food or doesn't want to eat anymore). his attending PD didn't deem that his condition was serious enough and sent us back after prescribed some nebulizer treatment and some med...

Chace now has 7 (?) teeth and we are still unpacking... and still no photos of our new home yet because i cannot find the battery charger for my dSLR... :P

with our move, we now have double the living space... so over the weekend, we blew our first month rental on a luxurious massage (arm)chair for our tv cum study room! :) yay! no more body aches from carrying my two li'l precious... can't wait for the chair to be delivered!

that's what our li'l princess likes to say whenever we are out after a while - so for the longest time, i have been contemplating on buying a twin stroller. never mind that we ALREADY have two strollers... to me, it just made more sense to push around a twin stroller than to push around TWO strollers, one with each hand - a bit like doing stunt, don't you think? And yes, I know they sell clips to attach two strollers together but that's provided the two strollers are similar.... we have a Jeep umbrella stroller and an Aprica one so i don't think those clips works.... and i finally found my solution today! i have seen these around but all the shops i asked told me that it CANNOT fit my Jeep... but guess what, i found that there are in fact three sizes and the 'mini' one solves my problem! :) now i'm happy as can be! my hunt for a twin stroller can FINALLY end... *i just have an affinity with sweden made products for some reason

we are officially out of our matrimonial home as we handed over the house keys to our tenant today... and it marks the end of my 10 years living in a public housing estate (even though not in public housing). hopefully our next purchase will be a property in a private housing estate... :) and horrors! we are still unpacking!