Piano Graduation

Finally Caden has completed his 2 year course at Yamaha Junior Music Course Fundamental level. I am quite impressed with our determination to see him through these 2 years, although I must admit that I have almost given up on this course for Caden many times in the last 2 years, if not for my friends' advices.

Caden did not seem to display any interest in piano lessons when we first started him at almost 4 years old. Initially we did not have any musical instrument for him to practise at home until we bought a keyboard only after 1st term was completed. Along the way, he had difficulty catching up with his classmates as he is generally the youngest in the class and we did not instill a proper practicing schedule for him on a weekly basis. It was only until the last half a year, when we decided to leave the keyboard plugged on all the time and put it as a homework for him on 3 times a week, and we gradually see some improvements in his play.

My friends have been advising that music helps to stimulate a child's mind and I can understand that it actually trains his listening skills, concentration span and memory skills. His teacher had also told me that Caden's listening ability is very strong as he is the only child who is able to recognise the chords when she tested the students in the class as part of their learning skills. It was this that made me felt that if we do not continue him with piano classes, it will be a pity to not be able to further enhance his strength that is being identified at this point.

I am not sure how long more would we continue Caden with piano lessons, maybe for as long as he still enjoys (he only started to enjoy when he is able to play along with the class) or probably when he reaches P3..

And as a matter of fact, he did very well in his fundamental exam - Caden has achieved 4 medium stars and 2 big stars in the 6 areas of music abilities' tests


Singing their concert song - Lullaby of Stars


Receiving his graduation certificate from his teacher


Taking a class photo with his friends and teacher. The girl on his left is of the same age as him and he is the smallest in built. The rest are either 1 to 2 years older than him.

City Square Mall

We haven't had the chance to clear any leave during this week long school holidays as we are very occupied with work at this period. Today we decided to bring Caden to eat his long awaited xiao long bao at raffles city mall after his piano lesson and he was looking forward to this lunch since the night before.

In total, he broke his personal record and gobbled down 8 xiao long baos this round - so we had to order 20 in total for the lunch, along with the noodles and Ethan's favorite egg fried rice. Ethan was fairly cooperative throughout the lunch and managed to eat 2 xiao long baos and a bowl of rice. After lunch we decided to check out City Square mall at Kitchener road (since I haven't been there yet despite being opened for a year to date).

There were some candy fair carnival held at the atrium. They boys had quite a lot of fun playing the booth games and collecting sweets as part of the reward for completing the games. They both watch a live show and were also being explained how the candies are being produced. We had free sampling of the candies on the spot and ate the floss candy since I had made some purchases at one of the shops there. The mall does not have any interesting shops for mummy so I was really bored after a short while. We probably will only come back to this mall the next time when there is any children's activity held.


At Ding Tai Fung.. (again) for Caden's fav baos... this is our 2nd serving of the set of 10 xiao long baos..



playing at one of the games booths - they both had a lot of fun there

A surprise treat from Mummy - a fish ride that comes along with electronic game together with the ride


Tomorrow the boys are going back to school to start term 2. Hopefully Ethan does not resist in the morning after this short break.

Crisis in Japan

It is really upsetting for me to watch the damages that were being done to my favorite holiday getaway - Japan. On 11th March 2011 (Friday), I received an sms from ah lou telling me abt a 8.9 magnitude quake that has just happened in Sendai. And shortly after, we heard a 10m high Tsunami hit Miyagi Perfecture.

When the images are played on Saturday's news channel, we were hard hit with the true facts that many people close to our home are left homeless, missing, dead and orphans. Japanese citizens who escaped from this disaster still look calm and patient, despite not having enough food and water given that their place called home were destroyed. And even aftershocks with magnitudes of 7 and above are still happening.

Part of the reason why we were paying our 80% attention on the quake updates on Sat and Sun was that we had already scheduled for a trip to Tokyo in mid-April for a 2 weeks holiday in celebration for Caden's birthday and also our last chance to travel during non-school holiday season before he starts Primary 1 next year. With the understanding on the nuclear plants are also facing a meltdown at this point (ie, radiation leak), we will cancel the trip and most likely will not think about postponing. What we lost on our end is most likely the full cost of the 4 round trip tickets, but we are thankful.. and our loss definitely cannot be compared to the emotional tremor and financial losses the japanese locals have experienced in losing their family members and their homes and witnessing the worst crisis that had just happened.

Now all the attention are on the nuclear plants, we really hope that Japan can pull through this quickly and rebuild their homelands for everyone.

This picture touches me..

A four month old baby who survived the Tsunami attack - the soldier was smiling with joy to have found her

Fatten us up!

I had 3 persons coming up to me in the last 3 days to let me know that I have lost weight. I decided to take my weight test last night to see if this is true and indeed I have shed almost 2 kg in the last 3 months although I did not deliberately work on any weight loss diet or exercise to achieve this. It's quite worrying if one loses weight for no reason.. which may imply that some disease has already started attacking you.. but then again, my loss may be a temporary issue since I have worked fairly late in the last 2 months over year end closing.

Caden on the other hand, probably has inherited the genes from his PaPa. He is not a picky eater and is adventurous to try out all types of food. We are fairly amazed with the amount of food he is able to consume at one meal - sometimes he can gobble up 6 xiao long baos + noodles + fried rice from Ding Tai Fung, or 3 slices of pizza + wings + garlic bread, or a chicken burger + chicken tenders + fries at BK. Despite the amount of food he takes, plus 3 cups of milk a day, he is still considered a very lean boy at his age. Ethan is showing the opposite behaviour, he turned out to be a very fussy eater, refusing to finish his usual meals, still a sucker for his milk.. sigh.. and obviously, his built is really small compared to other children of the same age..

must think of a safe and healthy way to fatten all of us up (including the father)..