Feeling sorry

Ethan has a completely different personality from Caden's. When we scolded Ethan for his mischief, this is what he does.

He bows down his head and look upset, and steal some glances with his head continued to be kept low checking if we have forgiven his mischief.

(Caden cries when ganna scolding)

Ethan's reading behaviour

As I am busy clearing my annual leave (at such a bad time) since last week, I managed to spend a fair amount of time with my 2 sons (coupled with constant nagging from my mil abt the maid).


Ethan doesn't seem to have an interest in books like his brother, Caden at this age. Ethan loves to fiddle with the little corners of the books given to him, pulling out the furs and hairs of another storybook with such textures incorporated and licking them like his favourite food.






Ethan has just turned 13th month old and has a good appetite in comparison to his elder brother, he eats almost everything! But, somehow, he maintains his lean physique, probably due to his genes and active movements around the house. At this stage, he has also progressed to walk a few steps on his own with confidence!

Ethan's first steps

Ethan has been cruising around the living room's furniture for the last few weeks and these few days, he has taken the courage to stand up on his own without support around him and walked a few steps without our help.

Ethan likes to be handheld on one side as he takes his steps around the house, but somtimes, in order to reach his destination faster,he'll choose to creep around instead.

Let's wait for a few more days/weeks to check out his progress!

Caden's year-end BrightKids concert

Yesterday was Caden's yearend concert in his last nursery yr at BrightKids school, as we are placing him in Living Sanctuary next year.

Caden was very shy during the waiting period with his classmates around him, he sticked to us like super glue and refused to acknowledge his friends.. but it really took him a long time to get warmed up before he started playing catching with shannon..

Shy moments

With Shannon

With Shaun and Venice

Caden was pretty calm and composed with his dance act on the stage, too bad the camera couldn't capture the moments as the distance from our seats to the stage was too far for us to take some decent clear shots of him doing the moves..

End of the concert, posing with his makeup done by his teachers

We think it was an enriching experience for Caden to participate in the performance, next year, we will probably catch him again doing the dance in his new school.

PaPa's birthday!

Photos courtesy of Samuel and Kimi Leong

We celebrated PaPa's birthday last Thurs on the 20th Nov and went for a show (James Bond movie) without the kids in the late morning and came back home in the afternoon after a quiet lunch at Marina to fetch the children and parents in law to paragon for a sumptuous dinner at Ding Tai Fung.

Mummy didn't plan any outing with the kids this round cos I gathered that we shd take this opportunity to have some private time since my mil is ard at home to jagar the kids while they need their power naps in the morning and afternoon :)

PaPa's present is still owing as he needs to renew his phone plan soon in the month of Dec. Till then, Mummy will pay for his phone of his choice.

Practical motherhood issues

We have always been encouraged to have more children in order to curb the aging population issue. Although the monetary perks seems attractive and economically sensible to have one, the practical issues loom. I always struggled with the decision to be a full time homemaker cum tutor to my children or striking a balance between my mid-life career and family. Honestly I have not been able to achieve the right work-life balance to date, and striving to do soon but facing higher challenges in this economic downturn.

Incidentally, today when we reached home from work, we found out that my mil brought back a computer table from downstairs which has been dumped by someone and place that in her room.

The condition is not too bad but I didn’t like the idea of picking pple’s trash back home for further usage cos somehow I don’t have a good feeling abt it (call me superstitious cos I am really frightened by those horror shows I watched)

So I told mum to not use it since it has been retrieved from unknown source.. this is already not the first time, she also picked up an old hello kitty children’s bike for Caden to play.. my hubby put that bike outside cos we didn’t have too much storage space in the house to park that.

MIL got offended a big time with the remark I made and interpreted that it’s my house so I have the rights to revoke her actions. Started putting remarks across to Caden that she is just here to be tong pang for time being (macam we make use of her) and when my son unknowingly still pester to sleep with her, she shooed him away and said she wants to go home!

And really off she went back.. angry and awfully pissed. I only make one honest remark to ask her not to use that computer table picked from dump area.

My hubby tried to salvage the situation by saying that we are ok to leave that table there in her room.. she said no need, and anyways she is only just staying here for time-being.. I asked Ricky if I shd apologise to her, he said no point to talk anything tonight cos nothing will get into her mind straight..

Sigh.. my mil is just another sensitive lady in my life whom I need to learn to manage… this is the kind of prob I most feared will happen has happened.

Most of the time, I am faced with constant guilt of not able to see my children on weekdays or spend fair amt of time with them before they retire for the day. And this guilt is strong enough to make me give up the current job which I have been doing for the last 10 years. Having a reliable and responsible caregiver like my MIL is hard to come by, so learning to close one eye on her actions seems the most logical way and beneficial behavior to allow us work in peace. It is indeed conflicting but that is one of the practical motherhood issues which many working women are facing now.