Big Investments

I know where most of our hard-earned money has been channeled to most of the times:

1) School fees - Ethan's Living Sanctuary School fees are not cheap given that it's a 3 hour session, plus a $110 per month school bus fare and $100 per term computer lesson fee

2) I can read - we just started Ethan on I can read programme too after seeing how Caden benefited from it

3) Berries - Chinese lessons - pre-emptive measures of having the fear that they are not able to catch up with the Primary school pace

4) Piano lessons - Ethan also just started on Yamaha course. Being my childhood dream to learn piano, I hope my boys will excel and I believe this has many intangible benefits on a child

Today, we decided to drop by Kinderfun store in Centrepoint after getting to know about the ergonomic desks and chairs that they are carrying. We were impressed with the design at my brother-in-law's place where they have bought a set for Emma 1.5 years back. Our curent study table in the study room was customed made by our contractor when we first moved in and the height of the table was made to be used by an adult so both Caden and Ethan have not been able to sit there long enough to do their reading or homework. Caden has always been all over the house doing my pre-assigned homework in the last 2 years, we feel that he should have a more designated spot in the house, and be given a more conducive environment to do his homework and in 2 years time to come, to study for his exams. PaPa was more affirmative to buy the set than me (I was still half-hearted given the price tag that comes along)as this helps to correct the posture, which I agree that it is important to have a good start, and the table is adjustable for an adult to use (which means we can maximise this through his education years). The table has a feature where the main panel can be tilted to a certain angle for reading and be placed at 90 degrees for writing. Nonetheless, we went to see-see-look-look today to have a feel of the prices and the models available.

So happens that the store is giving a 20% storewide discount today and ending tomorrow (they call it a CNY promotion), we worked out that we will be saving $420 if we were to buy them today (yes, it's this pricey!) and ah lou was telling me that it's ok to buy now rather that coming to visit the store again and again while waiting for the best deal (which can be $350 discount plus $50 store voucher plus $50 bag voucher). And so, we decided to go with our biggest one-time investment on the kids so far:-

This cost near $600 before the discount


A Germany brand with a humongous price tag


Ah lou was hoping that this will not end up being a white elephant in the house, I reassured him that we can make it work by encouraging Caden to use the table each night when we spend time working through his school work with him.

So this would also imply that I can forget about replacing my living room's lounge chair and doing an upholstery of our current sofa since our finances are relatively tight this year.

And I should also forget about redeeming my nine west shoes on Tuesday (which is the end of CNY) although they have now been slashed by 50%.

Joy of fetching

We hardly get to reach home on time to fetch Caden direct from school during the evening time. On one of the Thursday evenings, I managed to rush back home from temple (after returning the favour for blessing my mum-in-law speedy recovery) and got to pick Caden up from school on my half day leave. It's quite heartwarming to see the joy of your child looking happy to see you waiting for him at the school gate when he least expected it..


-in my heart, I wish that father doing his parent volunteering all the best in his enrolment period when his time comes :)

A day out with 3 children

In one of the december holidays, we took Kimi and Caden, Ethan out for dinner and a walk to marina bay sands shopping mall. We first started with a slow stroll from marina square to MBS and the bridge was fairly crowded given that it was a weekday around 5pm.

Cousins (1 year apart, Kimi being the elder one)


Caden loved this view and asked to take a picture


Ended up in Ding Tai Fung for dinner in MBS, as usual, upon Caden's request


We ended up in Anderson for some desserts and ice-cream after the walk back to Marina square from MBS (cos it was really tiring chasing after the 3 active kids!).

We loved this 5 scoops classic!


and they serve nice cheesecakes too




Although Kimi by nature is very easy to handle compared to Caden and Ethan but after the trip, I was really sure that I wouldn't be able to cope with 3 children, so I admire parents who have more than 2 kids in the family, beside the financial burden in bringing up 3 children in this economic environment.

Many many thoughts - Part II

Today, again I was hit by another sarcasim remark at work which could easily trigger my anger point. But I stayed neutral. I got my increment letter yesterday and the rate given was one of the lowest I ever received despite the efforts I put through the last half year (cos it seems the HR policy prorates all new joiners), instead of feeling discouraged, demoralized, I was neutral.

Possibly a chain of events happened this week:
1) I saw a little gal aged 7-8 years dragging a pail of dirty dishes while I was queuing up for my fav chicken rice at a food centre on Sunday. Children of her age are typically either out playing or busy with classes during weekends but she had to help out by working at such a tender age. I was quite affected by the scene and think my boys are really fortunate
2) My long time friend had gone through a terrible period last year and I wasn't there for her as I had not made constant efforts to keep in touch with this group of good old friends. I could have lost her then but thankfully she survived that ordeal and sat healthily sharing with me how quick her recovery had happened. I was really affected for the pain that she has gone through and for the fact that my support wasn't given at that period.

I fear witnessing losing the people around me or seeing them suffer. Most of us are really the fortunate bunch and things are usually taken for granted. I have to count my blessings for each day that is passed..

Many many thoughts..

I'm back feeling the same old guilt again. I remember the last time I felt this was the year I decided to move out of grp CB finance dept in SCB and seems like each time I had this guilt, I will make a career move. I experienced this level of guilt each time I work late ( over a period of time) and when I realized how much I have missed the kids growing up years.

Actually, I'm been placed in a more challenging role this time, with higher visibility to the management and greater responsibility. I believe it's in the culture of that organization that employees are relatively less committed. Actually I think it may be a bit unfair to use the word committed but given the state of my mind I am in now, no other suitable words surfaced out. So the imbalance comes on again when u realised that u are tasked with many key issues when there are a whole army in the background relatively available to fight the corporate battles. Anyways, I have been hovering with the idea of being a stay at home mum since years back but had not executed to date. These are usually the road blocks:

1) can I be a good teacher for my children's school work ? (not certain)
2) would my boys benefit with my 24/7 presence at home ( possibly )
3) can we give up the luxuries of buying books and toys ( the boys will feel shortchanged)
4) can we still eye on non essential stuff like ergonomic desks and chairs for the kids which costs $1.8k per set? (definitely no)
5) can we support a second property as investment (no)
6) will the relationship bet my boys and me be strained with my expectations on them since I will devote all my attention ( depends on my tolerance threshold and their cooperatibility)
7) can I still shop as much? ( definitely no!)
8) will I be envious on friends with better achievements ( no, because it depends on how one defines on the intangibles)
9) can we still keep the car?
10) can we still put the kids in enrichment centers for most subjects ( may not)...

Sigh.. I need a trigger point to give it all up. Somehow, I still cannot get away from the curse of extended working hours compared to the rest of the dept.. I ended up in a role which is currently the boss's focus point for every day!!

开学了

Gladly, today went well with Ethan feeling excited about getting back to school and taking the school bus all by himself, without the company of his brother.

Caden didn't show any excitement as he depart the house, probably he knows that he has to get to know new friends from today onwards and getting a new teacher. We were invited to hang around in the school during his first day and were awed by the excitement which were displayed by other parents.

Before we depart from home, Caden will have Kimi to accompany him to school everyday from now on.


I saw one father holding on his ipad and was literally standing up on the stage to take the video of his child despite the vice-principal sending numerous announcements to inform parents not to crowd around the assembly area in the school hall.

The children were surrounded by parents during the assembly period


When the children were released from the classroom during recess time, parents were participating by joining in the class queue and walking with their kids hand-in-hand (we didn't and stayed out of his sight).

(I got a shot of his seat in class)


The kids were surrounded by paparazzi during their recess time as there were numerous iphones and video cams or cameras filming their every move.. hahaaa..

I only managed to squeeze through the crowd and got myself a shot as a memorial and evidence that I was there in school for him on his first day!


The briefing conducted for parents ended at 5pm, we were so drained by that time, being drowned by all the academic scoring for every subject that Caden has to go through. We were told that there will be questions to test how the children can apply the mathematical concept, for example," what is the meaning of 1 plus 1" and they actually failed a child for answering " chicken plus rice equals to chicken rice".. they will also grade how a child performs during the show-and-tell and I was also told that more points will be rewarded if the child brings along a costume to compliment the presentation! Truly this is the beginning of experiencing the stress of Singapore education system..

Eve of the first school day

There was a special coverage which run on Sunday times for parents to prepare our kids for their first day at school. We used to have a lot of problems getting Ethan prepared in the morning drinking his milk and getting changed into his school uniform and had to even enlist my Sis-in-law's help to pep talk him after he had this resistance for 3 weeks. Last year, Ethan displayed this behavior on an occasional basis and we had to force him to go school even without getting dressed in his uniform and 'dumped' him into the school bus. It was only towards the last semester we noticed that he finally enjoyed his school term because he got his rewards for getting his dance steps right for the year end school concert.

Now, after a month and a half break, tomorrow will be a test again for us to get him out of his bed, drink milk and get changed. It seems that he was pretty receptive of going back to school again, but somehow I was worried that he may be resistant again since Caden will not join him for the bus ride from this year onwards. I told Ethan, that he's K1 boy tomorrow and he needs to act like a big brother to those children from nursery classes and take care of them in the school bus. It was only before we lights off in bedroom and he said, " I don't want to go to school.."

Now I became the one to feel jittery.. As for Caden, although he's on the shy side but I believe he's highly courageous to face the new beginnings in his new school tomorrow :)