Worry

Lately I realised I became a worry queen. I worry for Caden and Ethan almost everyday if their journey to school is safe. I worry for my ah lou if his road trip to work and back home is safe. I worry for my mother-in-law at times and hope that she doesn't have another fall again. I think the older I become, the more worries I tend to cummulate, which is not helping me.. I concluded the less sleep I have, the more worries I would start to generate.

3 weeks on

Ethan has been in LSK for 3 full weeks. He didn't want to go back to school after Day 1 and it took us quite a lot of effort to get him dress up each morning (one day he wasn't wearing his school uniform!). Since Ethan has been having night terrors on the first week as well, on week 2, I decided to go to the Guan Yin temple near my office to hope for the best. My sis-in-law also counsel Ethan on the same week and told him to guai guai be a good boy and go to school and in return she will get a new toy for him if this is done.

Miraculously, the night terrors stopped and Ethan did not have too much trouble then on.. to be honest, I did not know which actually helped but the objective has been met so let's hope it stay as it is.

Ethan's first day of school at LSK

Today is Ethan's official first day of school at LSK. The comforting thing is that Caden is currently in K2 this year and can accompany him on the bus ride to and fro. Ethan has been looking forward to this day since the Dec holidays.

We were fairly worried for Ethan as he had trouble settling down at Tots House last year. It took him almost 1 full semester (3 months) to stop crying or fussing before his lessons. Today we both took half a day's leave to watch over his adaption in school (in discreet).

We didn't have too much of a problem getting the boys ready on time. Ethan was fine in the morning and happily walk towards to pick-up point. We went off in our own car and reached the school earlier than their bus so we hid in a corner to wait for their arrival.

Ethan shown signs of worry during the assembly. Caden obviously was happy to see his friends back at school on the first day (and forgot to watch over his brother). Throughout the 1.5 hours in class, Ethan did not settle in well, he started to look worried and upset, and burst out crying upon spotting us in a corner. He hang on to us and refused to join back the class although we assured him that we will be by his side.

It took us a while for him to get back into the class (unwillingly). Thankfully the day ended with only 1.5 hours as part of the orientation programme for the school so Ethan was not traumatised for too long.

Hopefully we don't get too much problem getting him dressed up in uniform again the next few days.

This Christmas

My boys are fortunate to earn themselves a bags of new toys this Christmas again. Caden has been counting down to this day since beginning of Dec and kept asking, "Mummy, how many more days to Christmas?" I will help him by telling him that, "oh, it's another 22 days.." and the countdown began. He got more excited as each day closed and as the number of days to Christmas becomes shorter. On the eve of Christmas, before we both left for work, Caden suddenly woke up and asked, "Mummy is today the Christmas eve?" Caden and Ethan both knew that they are getting a Metal Fight beyblade from Samuel and will get to battle together with that metal spin top.

They both earn themselves transformers toy from Uncle Alan, Ben 10 stuff from Uncle Brian and Auntie Winnie and best of all the metal fight beyblades from Ah Gu. These adds to their load of boxes of toys at home. We have been conscious about the amount of toys given to the boys and not be overly pampered. This year, I have bought them on the basis that they use their reward stars to claim and only 1 present that did not require any deduction of their stars was their birthday presents.

I was just telling my ah lou that I still have memories when I was five. He was amazed because he cannot even recall how he was like when he was five years old. I told him that at Caden's age, I have already lost my father from cancer. It was quite horrid to think that at Caden's age, either one of us were not to be around. And obviously I didn't have the luxury of having many toys to accompany me during my childhood. I only had a barbie doll and a bicycle plus some paper cut-out dolls to keep me occupied.

Today's children are really well-pampered. And certainly, Christmas is the time of the year that they will look forward to every year.

Mummy's last day of block leave

Today is my last day of block leave. PaPa has already returned to work and my mil had to attend to some praying matters during the day so the house is left with only the boys plus me. I got the boys to eat their breakfast as usual and watch a fair bit of TV programmes. At 10am, I started them with their homework and told them that they can play their computer online games as soon as they finished what I have assigned.

The boys are looking serious with their assignments





Ethan's homework is just to trace the dotted lines to improve his writing skills


The boys did quite well and complete the sections quickly knowing that they will gain more time by doing so. I gave them about an hour to play on the laptop and thereafter we break for lunch at 12pm.

Ethan was tired halfway through his lunch and ask to take his afternoon nap (his usual excuses again). I brought Caden to the supermarket at Punggol plaza after his lunch for some groceries top-up. It was nearly 3pm by the time we reached home and lil Ethan was just awake.

I got Caden to practise his piano while Ethan continues with his homework as his brother plays the instrument. The boys then got themselves some chips after their assignments are completed and play with their toys. As one of the finale reward, I allowed them to play on the laptop once again for abt an hour before we break away for their shower and dinner.

It was quite a fulfilling day as I managed to get the boys do some work without much resistance. And I even got some time for myself to watch amazing race on AXN and 2 episodes of my fav Sat Korean shows (just didn't get enough!).

Tom onwards, I will be spending long hours again in office.. adieu to my homemaker life (minus housework ;))

Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon

I signed the 2 boys up for kids dash this year. It's Caden's 2nd attempt at the kids dash while it's Ethan's maiden marathon event.

As the roads in town were majorly closed for this year's marathon, we decided to park near my office and take the circle line down to esplanade station to reach the starting point (we were fairly late this morning so did not have the time to visit the games booth as planned. Ethan rarely takes the public transport and was finding it fun to ride the train.



the race was scheduled to start at 1045am and 11am for both Caden and Ethan respectively (they belong to different age groups with different start times). We decided to defer Caden's run to start with Ethan so that both brothers can do the run together at the same time and motivate each other. The sun was scorching hot during that time and Ethan started to show signs of tiredness after waiting for 15minutes (he even had to sit on my legs when we pose for pictures!).





Lagi sian waiting for his turn


Finally the race started and PaPa managed to get Ethan start running with the rest of the kids - btw, throughout the 750m distance, this is the only stretch he ran (the rest of the journey was carried by PaPa)


Caden has been conditioned by Mummy prior to her ankle injury and had managed to cover almost 70% of the distance via running - I am so proud of his determination although I need to admit it's not easy given the humidity at that time (11plus am) and his pace is comparable to my injured ankle pace.

Running with his brother


On his own when DiDi cannot manage to keep up with the pace



Still hanging strong


Making his last dash to the finishing line



Sweet boy looking back and see how his DiDi is doing (or rather PaPa) before crossing the final line


the 2 boys got their rewards at the games booth after the run



We also had a Polaroid taken at the resorts world booth as a bonus

SCB Marathon Carbo lunch at Fullerton Hotel

On Saturday, Mummy has signed up for the annual carbo lunch organised by her bank held at Fullerton hotel. There were some kids activities included before the lunch treat so it enticed mummy to sign up both Caden and Ethan for the event.

Ethan and Caden gamely went to get some painting done at the face-painting booth, after Reuben took the lead to be the first to get his artwork done. Ethan chose a Batman logo while Caden picked his Transformer logo. Rachel was brave enough to pick a face mask which was done around her eyes.

The kids were seriously flipping through the samples while Caden had already had in mind what he wanted




Ethan went first with his artwork



Ethan showing off his new found powers


Caden with his Transformer energy


The 2 boys posing for the official cameraman while PaPa took a shot from behind


Rachel with her half-done face mask


After the so-so carbo lunch, we decided to let the boys queued up for their long awaited ballons and they were kept occupied with the gameboy gadget that the boy in front of them was playing

happy faces displayed after waiting for almost 20minutes