Almost whole family were there, it’s always nice to have everyone around. Me and SIL baked cupcakes so it’s easier to eat, plain ones for the older folks and some with chocolate rice for the kids. SIL also took up the challenge of writing chinese words on the cupcakes.

Grandpa was really happy that day, with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren by his side.

This year, we are determine to let them have the celebration as Kate and Chloe went through one year celebrating their classmates birthdays, they constantly asked why isn’t it their turn yet.

So, first up was Enya, we decided to bake the cake ourselves. Enya requested for 2 tier cake which was a challenge since we never frost 2 tier cake before but we just have to try.

We ended up with 2 cakes, one for school and one for home.

SIL frosted the cake for school and I did the one for home.

For school, pink frosting as per birthday girl request, figurines were purchased not made.

For home, my first try writing on cake, usually done by SIL.

Kids having birthday are allowed to wear their favourite clothes to school.

Birthday girl waiting patiently for cake to be served.

Kate and Chloe joined in the celebration.

Happy little girls

Me: Chloe, I will be home late so papa will fetch you tonight ok?
Chloe: Mummy, can you don’t drive the car and give it to papa?
Me: Why?
Chloe: Because I will be so tired to walk. (she wants hubby to fetch her with car so they will drive home instead of walking home)
Me: If papa take the car then how I come home?
Me: Hmmm….we can go fetch you!

So I drove to the dinner place, get hubby to pick up the car, go fetch her and come back for me. It makes her happy because she gets to fetch me instead of me fetching her.

Me: Later, I will give you medicine for your running nose.
Chloe: Oh….but my nose is not running away!
Me:

Funny girl.

So far, all are well. Enya joined them this year in Nursery 1 and it’s fun fetching 3 kids to school everyday. I make Kate and Chloe escort Enya to her class before going to their respective classes, so the 3 of them will hold hands and walk Enya to class.

Enya cried a while on her first day because of other crying kids but she’s doing well considering that she’s the clingiest of them all.

Chloe’s N1 teacher left this school to another. This whole week, everyday, Chloe will tell me that Teacher Bee is not here anymore and only left with Teacher Mary. I guess she misses Teacher Bee a lot.

That’s Chloe putting away her school bag and taking out her water bottle


Chloe putting away the water bottle

Yesterday my colleague asked Chloe how old is she and she answered. I’m 3 years old but I’m going to be 4 soon.

My little girl is on her way to become a big girl (4 years old = big girl in her world)

Group photo

There was a big tank placed in the studio so the kids get to really float their houses.

Kate came up with something that is more squarish and Chloe’s design is more longish.

First lesson was outdoor excursion where they visited ArtScience museum and the area around, looking at the architecture design and a little treasure hunt to end the day. They also learned about floating stadium as they are suppose to build a floating house in architect class..

I didn’t bring Chloe there as I was busy at work so bro and hubby brought the kids there instead. Kate and Chloe enjoyed themselves so much.

Once we drove past Marina area, Chloe managed to tell me that ArtScience museum building is shaped like a flower and Esplanade is shaped like a microphone.

For the treasure hunt, each kid found a rubber car where they will be placing on their floating house. Chloe proudly show off her treasure when I got home that night.

Between 15 to 20 years ago, my dad used to bring me to Disney on Ice every year. It’s our yearly date, just the 2 of us (my mum dislikes shows like this).

I remember the first show I attended was Beauty and the Beast and my dad bought me the program, it came with a fake rose in between the program. Till this day, I still have the program with me.

I always enjoy live performance, especially musicals. As an adult, I often misses shows that I want to watch because I cannot find people with the same interest. Hubby dislikes musicals too, he often tells me that he don’t mind paying for the tickets but I have to find someone else to go with. The thing is, if I have someone else to go with, I wouldn’t be so desperate to ask him.

Ok, I know I’m digressing. The cause was because I wanted to go watch Wicked so much but no one to go with. I’m now so desperate that I’m seriously considering to go watch it alone.

Anyway, back to the point.

I hope Chloe would love musicals like me. I’m imagining going on dates with her, just like what I did with my dad last time.

I didn’t bring Chloe to Disney on Ice earlier because I don’t think she will understand yet. This is a nice age to start, she’s more familiar with the characters and could understand better.

We managed to get the tickets at 40% off due to Maybank card promotion. Too bad, I bought the tickets a bit late, the seats are not the best available but I don’t think the kids will mind.

Chloe been bugging me for ballet lesson for a while, she kept telling me she wants to be a ballerina.

I’m all for it, it’s good for posture and co-ordination and she always like dancing.

Since she’s already had enrichment at Superstudio, I’m not ready to put her on expensive ballet class so we enrol Kate and her into ballet class at community centre. It’s 10 mins drive from home and only cost us $70 for 10 lessons.

They just started term 2 with Enya joining them from this term onwards. Enya’s really excited to finally be able to join them for classes.

All ready for class

She chose the tutu herself.

And not forgetting to act cheeky.

While sorting clothes, she picked up my bra and said “this is nipple’s clothes”.
I couldn’t help giggling, technically she’s not wrong, it’s a piece of clothing use to cover the nipples.

I corrected her that it’s called bra but I don’t think it went into her head because the next moment, she picked up another bra and said “nipple’s clothes again”

-_-

I have no idea why it took us so long to visit Jurong Bird Park. We usually plan to visit this kind of places on our family day (the day where my dad and bro gets off on a weekend, which happens only once a month). Guess it’s because we always end up choosing zoo over bird park instead.

So here we are, finally.

Happy and excited kids

Checking out where she wants to go next after the show.

Took the rail to go round bird park

The kids tried feeding the birds

Trying to get the kids to take a mandatory picture at the artificial waterfall.

Chloe’s happy to find an elephant chair

After bird park, we brought the kids to Vivo for dinner. They were constantly holding hands and walking together that day. They were wearing the same outfit and attracted a bit of attention, either that or because they will giggling non stop.

This lesson is about biomimicry in architecture, they learned how Beijing Water Cute was designed and created. They then use styrofoam and toothpicks and create a pavilion, the form are in odd shapes that looks a bit like bubbles.

This project was hard to do, the materials are fragile therefore collapsed easily, Teacher Liang spent some time helping kids to fix and make the structure more stable.

Bad pictures because we took the photos at night, worried that it will collapse if the kids meddle with it.

They learned about biomimicry in product design and create a pencil-case. You can put anything into the case and it will take shape of the item because of the stretchable material used.

They were given a choice to choose between pink and yellow. Kate chose pink and Chloe of course chose yellow.

Put in a toy robot to show how stretchable the material is.

Lesson 7 was about functional sculpture and they learned about Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their works. They then wrapped helmets to make into lamp shades, there were different helmets like firemen, policemen etc. Chloe as expected chose a yellow helmet.

After they complete, each lamp shade was placed over a light bulb to show the kids how it works.

They learned about Zoomorphism, exploring how animals inspire architects in design. They created a pavilion using gull-wing, I like this very much as you can change the look of the pavilion very easily.

Last lesson was on diversity of single material, this week they learned about using different materials and try to create a product.

Chloe came up something that when you blow from one end, it will inflate the rubber glove on the other. Something like those you receive in party packs.

They learned about diversity of materials and uses rubber band to paint. They had to wear goggles and apron because they dipped rubber bands into paint and tied it on canvas. Then they pull the rubber band and let go, it sounded like a lot of mess and fun at the same time.

Below left is Kate’s artwork, top being Chloe.

Everyone’s artwork being put out for drying. One simple material created totally different results.

This lesson, they learned how Burj Khalifa was designed from a flower and using the same concept, they each build a section of a skyscraper.

Each kid did about 20 floors for their section. After that, combining 8 kids work together, they made a skyscraper of 160 floors, almost the same as Burj Khalifa. I didn’t manage to take a photo of the skyscraper but it was really nice.

They painted the creature they did the week before.

Ladies hard at work

She had paint all over the artwork and her face too.

Theme: Design + Diversity

I’m very very late, we just complete our 2nd term at Superstudio last week and here I am blogging about lesson 1. Better be late than never I guess.

This term, they learned a lot on biomimicry, seriously I had never seen this word before and had to googled it. What I really like about this school is that Teacher Liang will explain what they did for the day so while the kids learn, as parents, we have a chance to learn and grow together.

This lesson, they uses paper in different shapes and to create a creature they want. There’s no restriction what they can do, it’s up to their imagination. I asked Chloe what creature that was and she said elephant. Doesn’t really matter that it doesn’t look like one as long as she sees it in her eyes.

That’s her showing me the creature she did for her elephant.

It’s suppose to a ornament but we snapped off the string and let her sat on top of the tree, it’s perfect!

Upon seeing it, Chloe says “she’s beautiful”.

We booked tickets for the show on my mum’s actual birthday. We first went for lunch, then a bit of shopping before the evening show.

September was also the month of my parent’s wedding anniversary. My dad chose the restaurant in the hotel where they held the wedding, how romantic was that.

Chloe and Kate are both fans of Mickey mouse clubhouse and are really excited going for the show

Bro with Chloe

We were having dinner at food court when Chloe got my attention.

Chloe (while pointing to tissue): Mummy, you see. The poop is dropping. 

Me and hubby couldn’t help laughing, totally didn’t see that coming.

She chose it herself, which I am surprised by her choice. I thought most kids would prefer something more traditional and bigger. I asked numerous times before payment and she stood by her choice. I was smiling in my heart because secretly that was my choice too.

We set it up tonight, only missing angel which was hubby was supposed to buy. Chloe insisted on having an angel instead of star on top of the tree because of a book she read about Christmas and absolutely adored.

After the “lights up” ceremony, she stood beside the tree and asked me to take photo for her. She hardly request for photo taking so it shows she really love the tree.

Most of items that she got Progressing remark in term 3 been improved to Competent in term 4 and that makes me a happy mummy.

Her teacher commented in remarks that she practice good social skills and has good vocabulary which helps her express her thoughts well.

I totally agree on that, she’s getting better in expressing herself. A lot of times, I am dumb-founded with the things she says. Which makes it really fun chatting with her.

This year seems to fly past, after the holidays, Chloe will be in Nursery 2. Received news that her current teacher quit, although Chloe will not be under her (if she’s still teaching) for Nursery 2, it is still sad as she’s really a good teacher.

Before the start of June holiday, I had a talk to Chloe’s teacher during parent-teacher meeting and she brought up the subject of potty training.

She mentioned that she felt that Chloe is ready to go diaper-less in school. Despite me telling her that Chloe still have not gone diaper-less even at home and I’m worried that she will have to trouble the teachers to clean her up if she messes up at school. She was very encouraging and convinced me to let Chloe try after June holidays.

Who knows, luck was on my side. At the first week of the holidays, Chloe suddenly told my mum that she doesn’t want to wear diaper anymore. From that day on, she had been diaper-less except for bedtime.

We are really happy with the huge improvement, letting Chloe take her own time in potty training is working towards our advantage. Without pressure, the focus was more on little achievement rather than why is Chloe taking longer than “normal” kids.

She even requested not to wear diapers when we go out, which is a little scary at first because I’m not sure how long she can hold and if we can get to the toilet on time. Whenever we reached a mall, I make sure I know the toilet location and the shortest route there. Till now, I still bring along a piece of diaper in case she needs to go during the car journey. So far, didn’t have a need to use it yet.

She has also gone off diaper for afternoon nap. The same, she requested for it and I told her she will have to wake up and go toilet if she needs to if not she will wet her bed and she has been doing it so far. I have no intention to ask her to go off diaper for night-time, I believe that she will again ask for it when she thinks the time is right. That and because I still have supplies of diapers which I hope we can finish.

If I don’t remember wrongly, this is slightly longer than those she did before.

Messy me! by Marni McGee & Cee Biscoe

Messy bouncing, messy bed. 
Messy feathers round my head.

Messy milk and messy tray
My messy breakfast starts the day.

Messy paintbox, messy brush.
I paint pictures just for us.

Messy puddle, messy tree.
A messy wind blows leaves on me.

Messy lipstick, messy floor.
Oops! There’s mummy at the door!

Messy soap dish, messy tub.
Mum gives tickles and a scrub.

We all cuddle, one, two, three…
A snuggly hug for messy me.

Messy, messy me!

A touching scene was when Chloe read it to my mum last weekend. Although my mum doesn’t understand english, she attentively listened and praised Chloe after she’s done.

Could see the proud grin Chloe had on her face.

I popped Chloe a question on whether she like piano or violin.

me: you like piano or violin?
Chloe: I like drums. (she then went on to pretend beating on drums, with sound effects no less)
me: oh drum……I thought you like piano?
Chloe: I like drum, drum is a good instrument.

Maybe there’s a drummer in the making. 😁

We were in the car, getting buckled up when Chloe suddenly insisted that we need to buckle her duck blankie too.

She told me that it’s dangerous without seat belt, even for duck.

We went zoo again and it finally didn’t rain but I wasn’t in the mood to take photos, ending only with a decent one.

The kids showing how they can be flamingos…

Went to Vivo for dinner and took the kids to playground.

I like this photo, we put Enya to sit together with Chloe and immediately she hugged Enya to protect her, very touching.

School had a carnival for fund raising. We bought some coupons and brought the kids there after their enrichment class.

We didn’t stayed for long as it’s quite crowded.

The kids showing off the gifts they won from playing games.

Went to West Coast Park for kite flying. Mum bought the kids small kites that are very light and supposedly easy to fly but we have no luck at the wind side.

We couldn’t get the kites up with totally no wind. The kids end up ran around pulling the kites along.

Still a fun day no less

While running, Chloe fell flat on ground but she didn’t cry, she just picked herself up, dust off dirt from her pants and continuing playing.

That’s bro with Enya running behind him.

After that, we went to Mac for some food and drinks before cycling.

Chloe gets tanned very easily, half hour under the sun and she’s visibly darker.

Super hot day but everyone had fun.

She happily brought it over for me to see. Upon seeing it, I excitedly told her “that’s a nice boat!”

Then she says, “mummy, that’s not a boat. It’s a car and the black lines is the road.”

Realising my mistake, I immediately change my tone and says “oh, that’s a nice car!”

Afraid that I’m not convinced. She went on explaining her drawing to me, like the circles are wheels, there’s 2 doors, 2 windows and a flag on top.

After that, SIL (who saw Chloe drawing) told me that initially Chloe drew cross on the windows but it was covered up after filling their the colours.

Then I told SIL, next time, I better asked Chloe what the drawing is so not so to make a blunder again.

We did an early celebration. We secretly invited all our family, including my grandpa, uncles, aunties and cousins to dinner without my mum knowing. She just thought we are having a quiet dinner.

Upon reaching the restaurant, she was so surprised to see everyone there. Everyone bought a lovely expensive bag, my dad bought her iPad 2.

Me and SIL baked her a cake. My mum did asked us why we baking the cake and we told her someone ordered it and she believed us! We chose pink frosting because that’s her favourite colour.

SIL wrote those words, for the various roles in her life.

Dad’s company had a get together to Johor Bahru for day trip, staffs get to go for free and family can tag along at half price. We decided to go because we get to visit fruit farm and ostrich farm, something that the kids don’t get to see much in Singapore.

On the way to meeting point

Happy with the huge coach seats

They get to feed the goats

She’s so excited to see ducklings!

More ducklings!

Up close with ostrich

Holding a real ostrich egg, the kids even tried standing on it.

I wanted to jot them down for some time but……as usual, not enough time to do it. Really have to get off my lazy ass and get down to doing it.

Scene 1
Chloe been telling me that she have not been eating anything in school for some time. Not sure why she does that but her teachers verified that she’s eating well in school.

Me: Chloe, how was school today?
Chloe: It was fun! I had Ribena.
Me: That’s nice, what did you ate then?
Chloe: I ate nothing.
Me: Nothing? Why?
Chloe: Because auntie never cook today, we had Ribena and bowls.
Hubby: What’s inside the bowl then?
Chloe: Nothing, it’s just a empty bowl.

Scene 2
Hubby had conversation with Chloe about the meat they like.

Hubby: What meat do you like?
Chloe: I like vegetables!
Hubby: Vegetables are not meat. Meat are like chicken…fish…
Me adding in: and duck….
Chloe: DUCK?!?!
Me: Yes, duck meat
Chloe: Are you sure?

Funny cos of Chloe’s undying love for ducks.

Scene 3
I lit some scented candles in the toilet.

Chloe: Mummy! you cannot put fire in the toilet.
Me: Those are candles with nice smell so the toilet smell good.
Chloe: But you cannot put fire there, fire is dangerous. It will burn you. Next time you don’t put fire there ok.

Doesn’t matter that we didn’t do anything special or how tired I am, it’s all worth it.

On the day before my parents fly to China, my dad wanted to get an amulet for my mum so we went to temple at Waterloo street.

My dad held hands with the kids while walking and I took a shot from behind. I still very much enjoy taking photos of people’s back.

I hope one day the kids will see this photo and remember the moment they had with their grandpa, who love them so dearly.

Ps. Chloe and Enya are holding Chloe’s duck’s (blankie) hands.

Once, she drew this.

I asked Chloe what she’s drawing and she told me it’s herself.

Date of event: 20th September 2011

Dinner at Andre @ Bukit Pasoh

French fine dining, once in a lifetime experience.

Not my drink of course since I can’t drink but the bubbles looked nice.

Best dish of the night, in my opinion.

Last post, I mentioned the kids were working on their 3 weeks project to build eco-city.

Today, they discussed how to build the city. Teacher Liang (I just realised recently his name is Liang and not Leong), guided them along.

When we walked into the class at the end of it. We were blown away by the scale of it. It covered almost the whole table. Teacher Liang then explained that kids were given different roles in building the city and they have to check and make sure it can function. Kate and Chloe, being the youngest in class shared a role, they were in charge of water resources. Each kid have their title, like water resource minister for Kate and Chloe. There were agriculture minister, transportation minister, to name a few. The kid whom I assumed the oldest was prime minister, so he oversees the whole project.

Could see the proud looks on all the kids faces when teacher Liang introduced them. I am able to feel the pride because of the efforts they put in.

Here’s their eco city, blue to represent reservoirs, green to represent agriculture, paper umbrellas to represent super trees. They have bridges put in for east access. White tapes represents the line to move eg, agriculture into the city.

This year, coincidentally I also took leave in September because my parents went traveling.
This year is totally different. Today is the fourth day of my leave but I’m very much sleep-deprived.

Chloe been sick since 4 days ago and I fell sick as well, her fever & cough been waking her up often at night so I’m not having much sleep either.

Being sick + taking care of sick child + working from home, not exactly the nice combination while on leave.

Beside all these virus, all are well. Chloe been skipping school this whole week so she’s enjoying having mummy the whole day. I initially had plans that I could use this time to update the blog but obviously failing at it.

There are so much things to update here, really must find time to do it.

But for now, I just need us to recover first.

It was our 2nd lesson of the term, before the class starts, Chloe was already running around the dance studio due to her excitement. Although I did remind her that she should not run about about because “ballerinas don’t do that”, I was also secretly hoping that the running before lesson will tire her a little.

After the lesson, we went to pick them. While waiting for the kids as the teacher was giving out stickers (which she does after every lesson). I was approached by a mum of her dance mate and the conversation went like this.

Other mum: Are you Chloe’s mum?

Me: Yes I am

Other mum: your child been running around for half the lesson and the teacher had to constantly catch hold of her. Can you later go home and teach your daughter.

After that, she gave me an pissed off look and stormed off before I could utter a word and she had her arms crossed throughout while all these happened.

I was shocked by the whole episode, more on the attitude of the mum than being told off because my child was condemned by her as over-active.

I always knew that Chloe was an overly active child, constantly getting excited over new things around her. I never really see it as a problem (though I have to admit that it is tiring at times). In fact, when we were at Julia Gabriel, I was encouraged to embrace the curiousity and activeness.

It sets me off thinking, she have a toddler like me, shouldn’t she be in a better position to understand what it’s like to be a mum to a toddler?

Some toddlers are overly shy, some are overly active, it all boils down to the child’s character. There is no right or wrong about it, why does she sees it as a huge problem? Does she seriously thinks that by me telling off my child not to run, my child will miraculously become focus and determine to become the next lead in Swan Lake?

I did not put Chloe in ballet class to train her into a professional ballerina. Reasons were simple, she bugged me for it, she can get more exposure and I hope that she can get better posture out of it. I always feel that learning is about the process and not of the result, maybe some mums might feel that I am naive to think that way but I am not sorry for it.

The lesson is an independent class. Parents are not supposed to be in class and I have no way to see what’s happening inside the dance studio. My biggest worry now is if this mum takes it upon herself to tell my child off, during future lessons, while I’m not around?