Parent-Teacher Meetings

* Back-dated post: Found this long draft today. I wonder why I didn't post this up? I wrote this end of last year, when Tara was about to progress from Playgroup to Nursery.

I'm not sure if other day care hold as many meetings as this one. Yesterday, I attended the fourth parents-teachers meeting. I'm not complaining though. I wish to be as involved as possible, and I'm really glad that the school's holding these meetings to keep the parents up to date on their kids.

Let me see, the first meeting I went to, Tara was only in school for 3 months. As newbies, they got a lot to adapt to, and the teachers gave us updates of how the little ones are getting on and how they have adapted to the new environment.

The second meeting, we (Bob and I) were involved in the activities that the kids do day to day. We sang with them the songs they learned, did art and craft together. I ate an egg sandwich made by my little girl and she even served us milo! At that time, my heart was just bursting with pride, and I was so touched I almost tear. That was 6 months since she attended school.

The 3rd meeting, was the first time that we did a one-to-one. Not like the group meetings before, this one was just us with the teachers. The teachers spoke at length about about Tara. Their observations about her and such. How has she grown, the vast improvement in her languange, how she interact socially. I even know how well she slept during breaks! I was able to ask a lot of questions and it was really a productive meeting for me.

And this 4th meeting, held just last night, was a whole different one. Tara has been attending daycare for 11 months already (God! Time flies!) and she will be advancing to Nursery next year. This meeting was an introduction to her Nursery teachers (different set of teachers for each level). There will be 55 children in Nursery next year, but there are 6 teachers and 1 auntie taking care of the whole brood. 4 English teachers and 2 Chinese teachers. The English teacher touched on the program they will be teaching next year. What kind of approach they will be applying. How the kids will benefit. And how the parents can play a part in further reinforcing the teachings.

During the whole briefing by 2 of the teachers, I was nodding my head so much I'm surprised I didn't sprain my neck. I'm so glad (I think I said that before), that I managed to find a school which is totally in tune with my beliefs and expectations.

Basically, next year's program will still be adpoting a thematic approach, but it won't be structured, like it was in playgroup. The teachers will see how the children will react to a particular subject or theme before they map out what they will teach the next class or next term. Instead of telling the kids what something is, for example, an ant. They don't say, this is an ant, it has how many legs, simply throwing facts at the kids not knowing if they absorb anything. The Creative teaches will instead, guide the kids through their thinking process, and kids at this imaginative stage, will spurn out lots of funny and interesting thinking. For example, the ant. The teacher will ask, what do you think this is? Where do you think it's going? Where does it come from? Do you think the ant has a home? Where do you think it's home is? Through these, the teachers will spark the kids' interest in the ant and whatever the teachers will tell them later, they will absorb with relish. The K1 students actually managed to write a book about a monkey. Imagine that!

The teachers heard about this monkey which somehow ended up in the Creative grounds, they grouped the kids together and wanted to bring them to see the monkey, but the monkey was caught and sent away before the kids laid eyes on it. They were so interested in the monkey and the teachers, through the who, what, where, when and how, guide them into writing a story about this monkey they didn't see.

This is what I usually do with Tara. I read from somewhere that parents should always put the kids in a thinking process and ask them back the same question they ask you. For a kid who always get answers straightaway, they lose the opportunity of thinking and they also lose the interest in that object, thus losing the chance to learn more about that object.

And at Nursery level, the teachers concern is not on how many words the kids can learn at the end of the year, how well they can write and read, how pretty their drawings are or how nice they can do their colouring. Their concerns are more on building the kids' character (something that I've been emphasizing on from the day I gave birth to Tara), their social interaction skills, and self help skills.

The Chinese teacher said something which I agreed totally, she said most people will say, don't lose at the starting point. But to her, it's no big deal losing at the starting point, education is a long road, what matter most is you win at the finishing point. She actually is saying, don't be kiasu and make your kids learn a lot of things they are not ready for.

Claiming her "inheritance"

Last night, I was working on my scrapbook stuff at the dining table. My 4 year old walked up to me, looked at my scrapbook trolley, picked out a bottle and ask:


Tara: Mummy, 这个是什么？

Mummy: Tara, 不要吵 Mummy.

Tara (picked out another bottle and ask): 这个呢？

Mummy: 不要动我的东西，可以吗？

Then she did a sweeping motion over my trolley and said,

Tara: Mummy, 以后你老了，这些东西都是我的。

Then she walked to the TV console, did the same sweeping motion and said,

Tara: 这些东西也全部是我的!

Amused, but very disturbed, I said to her:

Mummy: 哎, 我还没有老，你这么快就分财产了啊！！

I wonder who taught her that?? Is it too much TV drama? I really want to know where she learn that from. Even though it's really funny at the time she said that, but it disturbed me greatly. I've always been really cautious in telling my girl the right things because I want her to grow up with the right values.

No matter how true it is, some things are better left said when she's much older and can understand better. Claiming her "inheritance" now is way, way, way too early!!

Junk Food. Control Freak.

Over the years, I've been getting "well-meaning" advises whenever the topic touches on junk food. I don't give Tara junk food. For the first 3 years of her life, she only gets an average of 2 sweets, one pototo crisp and maybe a few sticks of chocolate sticks a year. Ice cream is only max. 3 spoons in her 2nd year and processed food like sausages, french fries and ham are absolutely no-no to me.
I have people questioning my reasons for controlling her intake of these food. I told them it's not healthy and doesn't contribute to Tara's growth, so why would I want to feed stuff with nothing but tons of colouring, salt and sugar? I told them when she grows up, she will get her hands on these on her own so I just want to keep the first few years of her life healthy. Instead of all these junk, I gave her healthier versions of biscuits and fruits whenever she felt peckish.

I won't say Tara won't ask for these junk completely. But she knows that she can't take a lot of those so she's contented whenever I gave her only one or two pieces to nibble on. Sometimes she can even tell me she don't want these junk cos it's not healthy. And I'm glad that I don't have to handle her demands for junk food when we go out.

Okay, I'm a junkie too and I do love junk food. So it's very contradicting for me to be such a control freak over Tara. But if I can keep her first few years healthy, why not? I know the day I give her pocket money, is the day the world of junk food will open up to her. But since now I can still control what she eat, I will of course do so. And it's true that these junk food are nothing but health hazards, so why would I want to feed them to my precious baby?

What irked me most is the constant debates that I have to go through whenever topic on this comes up. I don't know why I have to justify and defend my actions time and time again. I don't understand why it seems like a must that kids take such stuff. I don't even know why people tell me it's a kid's privilege. I think they didn't read the nutrition table on the side of the package, neither did they know about the studies done on the effect of children taking junk food.

And one important fact that these people do not notice is, it's MY kid they are talking about. So it's MY decisions on what she puts in her mouth for now.

I asked a colleague last night why I should give Tara junk food. She told me it will make her happy. I guess she said that because she has never seen Tara enjoying her bowl of fresh fruits. She don't look unhappy to me. And she finishes her bowl of fruits with relish. A healthy bowl of fruits as compared to a lollipop. You tell me. Which is better?

Okay, before anyone thinks that my kid hasn't tasted any of those junk before. She has okay? She knows the taste of the Calbee Barbecue Potato Chips, the Cornetto ice-cream cones and whatoever that other parents are feeding their children. But there's still a limit to everything and I will never overload her with these unhealthy stuff. I will still choose a plate of spaghetti to a hamburger, a piece of butter cookie over a pototo chip or a glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice over a can of coke. To me, there's a healthier choice to every food and for the best interest of my baby, I will still make the better choice. Unless circumstances arises okay?

I will try my best not to give my two cents worth when someone else feed their own kid junk, so please, stop telling me why I should give mine junk.

Unless someone can tell me the healthy benefits of these junk food, then I might change my mind. So, the next time, before you offer any chocolate sticks or sweets to my kid, please consider the feelings of a well-meaning parent (me lar!) okay? And try not to fault me for keeping my kid healthy.

Whoa, been meaning to blog on this topic for ages! Glad it's out of my system now.

Our car rides convo

When Bob travels, the task of sending Tara to day care will be mine. There are days when we will have really interesting conversation in the car, and it never fails to surprise me the things that is going inside the little kid's head. I wonder who has been telling my little girl all the sad but sometimes true facts about life.


Who will take care of me?

Had this conversation with the little one this morning, when I was sending her to day care:

Tara: Mummy, 以后我老了，谁照顾我？

Mummy: 那要看你以后有没有结婚了。 如果你结婚了，就会有孩子。你老了，孩子长大了，就会照顾你了。不过如果你没有孩子，就只好努力做工赚钱，老了就有钱养自己了。

Tara: 我的 piggy bank 很多钱。不过我的孩子会拿掉我的钱。我就没钱了。

Mummy (surprised at her statement): 为什么你会这么说呢？

We didn't finish this conversation, the little girl just trailed her thoughts and babbled about something else.

I want to get married

My brother got married in November. He's the last one in our family to get hitched, so naturally, we were all excited about it and were always talking about his wedding. So one day, just a week before my brother's big day, Tara said this to me:

Tara (in her whiny voice) : Mummy, 我要结婚。

I can't believed she said that, so I ask her again what was it she said.

Tara: 我要结婚。

I didn't expect that she will say this, so naturally, I wasn't prepared to give her a proper explanation.

Mummy: 结婚是大人的事， 跟你这个小孩子有什么关系？

Tara: 我没有结过婚。我要结婚。

Mummy: 好阿。等你长大了，有一个你喜欢的男孩子，你就可以结婚了。

At this point, I started to laugh, because I really didn't expect to have this conversation with a soon to be 4 year old.

Tara: 谁？我可以找谁？

Mummy: 我不知道谁阿。等你长大了，自然会找到一个你喜欢的男孩子了。

Tara: 那我找 gor gor.

Mummy: 哪一个 gor gor.

Tara: 我找 Junxi gor gor.

Mummy (!!): 不可以啦。他是你的表哥 (my sis' son)。不可以跟他结婚的，好不好。

Tara (repeating the same qtn): 我可以找谁？

Mummy (amused): 等你长大了，自然会有一个了，好吗？不过一定要是一个对你很好的男孩子，好吗？

Tara sat back, folded her arms and pout. And I"m so glad the conversation is over.

Mobile Scrapping

I'm getting lesser and lesser space in the house now. The house used to have only 2 of us, then Tara came along, 3 of us. It's still a big enough house for 3, then my PILs came often, and stayed with us, after that my BIL came to Singapore to work and now there are 4 adults and 1 kid in a small 5 room apartment most of the time.

I still have 2 space to hide before my BIL came to live with us. My study, where all my scrapbook stuff are, and my bedroom. I love my scrap space, even though it's only one half of a bedroom space, but all my pretty scrapbook stuff are inside and when I get the chance, I will hid inside for hours of therapeutic scrapping.

But now, my BIL's Mac took up the other half of my workspace, and he's in front of his Mac most time of the night. So I'm forced to find another space if I need to do my scrapping stuff.

The next better location with big table?

My dining table.

But one major problem is getting my stuff out of the study room to my dining table. Quite some items to take each time.

I know I need a trolley. So I went to Ikea and bought one. I even got some containers and holder from the Kitchen Dept for my trolley.

I assembled it weeks after I'd bought it and TA DA!



Though it's not big, it's good enough to hold all the essential stuff I use for my projects. I pushed it out to the dining room when I did Bro's ROM album and I think I'm weird, because I actually felt ecstatic when I'm pushing the trolley.

Yeah, I'm a happy woman..

Tara's 4th Birthday

This year I was pretty slack in the preparations. Usually one month before the big day, I would pretty much already decided what I want to do but this year, two weeks prior to the big day, did I actually ask what Tara wanted for her parties.


She told me she wanted cupcakes, same like last year, but this time, she wanted Strawberry Shortcake. So I thought, might as well make this a theme for both her parties.

I went several places to get the things I want. Thank heavens for internet, I managed to order much of the stuff online. But I still have to go to 3 other places to get the rest of the items.

Home party. Held on Sunday, 9th Nov.




As usual. Adding a personal touch.


Candle from Ebay.




Mylar Balloons also from Ebay


Distributing her cakes.


Posing with her presents.


Her favourite gift. She chose it herself.


Goodie bag for the girls..


The items..


For the boys..


I've tried my best to get interesting stuff for the boys. So much easier to get for the girls.

Quite a lot of glitches on the day itself. I had worked on my bro's ROM album till 5am the night before, couldn't wake up in time to decor the house properly so I did a fast one. When it's time to leave the house to pick up all the party food and cake, my newly acquired Ikea cabinet spoilt and I couldn't get my clothes out from it. Then when I finally thought I'm ready to leave, I realised I deleted the email from Cupcake Momma, with the collection pick up address and the contact no. Usually I will write it down in my note book on info like this but I didn't do it this time. I had to use my mobile to send an urgent email to them, praying and hoping they will read my email.

Fortunately, they did managed to get my urgent email but plans already delayed. Party started at 1pm and I left the house to get the cake at 1.10pm. On our way back from picking up the cake, I realised I had not sent the mylar balloons to get filled with helium. When I reach home, it was already over 2pm. And I have not packed the goodie bags. Luckily the girls helped me out. I also left the displaying of the food to those still at home and it was not to what I expected. But what can I say, it was bad management on my side anyway.

Fortunately, the rest of the party went on without a glitch. Little girl was happy with the strawberry shortcake theme. She told me next year she want Winx, then changed her mind and said Barney. Ah well, we'll talk about it next year, sweetie.

Her school's party was held the next day. Same theme. This year, she celebrated with the whole Nursery level. There were a total of 46 nursery kids, including Tara, and they were divided into 4 different small classes. The teachers told me I can choose to just celebrate with 2 of the classes or all of them. I chose to have the party with all the kids. Some of them were Tara's friends from playgroup so I wouldn't want them to miss her party.

I had a big headache getting the stuff for the kid's goodie bag. I had to keep the budget for each bag to about $1.50, quite a bummer but no choice. The cake itself already cost almost a hundred. And this year, I bought home-made cookies from Cookie Culture. They were really nice people, and willing to pack smaller packs of biscuits so I can work within my budget. It's much easier for me to get small packs of tidbits and snacks from the shops but I really didn't want the kids to stuff themselves with junk food. 85 cents per pack. The stickers and stationery items cost about 50 cents.






Tom and Jerry bags for the boys, Strawberry Shortcake ones for the girls.

Tara helped to pack the goodie bags after her home party. Even though she was really tired, she insisted on packing the bags.


2.5kg Strawberry Shortcake from Prima Deli.









Even though 1/4 of the Nursery level didn't turn up on that day, the kids still managed to finish most of the cake. And quite a few of them came back for 2nd and 3rd servings.



Tara giving out the goodie bags.

The cake from Prima Deli was delicious! I will definitely order from them next year, if they have the cake that Tara wanted.

This is not the last cake that Tara had cut for her birthday. Bro held his wedding on Tara's birthday and he got the hotel to give her a complimentary cake, and we celebrated in Bro's hotel suite after the wedding banquet.

I will post this up once I got the photos from Bob. Lucky girl. 3 birthday celebrations in 3 days.

Princess has fever..

Tara has been getting on-off fevers since last week. Sent her to my mum's place for 2 days. She went back to day care for one day and came back with a fever again at night.


And on Monday, the fever came back again, a low grade one though. Mum had to come to my place to take care of Tara since my little baby nephew also caught a fever and admitted to hospital over the weekend and she didn't want them to be near each other. Fortunately my sis is still on maternity leave and can look after her baby prince.
And since yesterday, the fever just kept shooting sky high, was 39 when i was at work and 40 at 1am last night. I gave her bufen before I zonked off. Little girl woke me up at 6am in the morning asking for med, saying she was very uncomfortable and asked to be sponged. Wow, imagine that, she asked to be sponged and fed her med! I kind of felt I'm not doing my job, you know. Her temperature was at 40.2 despite the bufen so I sponged her for 40 mins till the temp went below 38.5. Then I tried to catch a bit more sleep before I go to work.

Something that got me really worried was her actions. I will expect her to be lethargic and drowsy when I wake her up for med, but this little girl, actually start talking, in a tired-but-trying-to-be-alert way and saying a lot of things that actually make sense. Kind of scary.
Just hope her fever goes away soon. I'm not usually a pantang person but sometimes I just have to admit it's better to keep my mouth shut. Just last week before Tara had her fever, I spoke to my manager about her and saying Tara is okay in day care already, seldom fall sick and see what happens? Me and my big mouth...

Batch Freeze: Spaghetti Bolognaise

I'm supposed to cook this for dinner last night, but Tara fell ill and we had to bring her to doc, thus we ate out while waiting for doc to open for the night.


Foresee a busy week ahead and many days of OT so I still went ahead and cook the spaghetti and bolognaise sauce, so that the guy and the princess still get their home-cooked dinner even though I'm still slogging in the office.

Was 10pm when I'm done cooking. Tired but satisfied to see food in the fridge.

Defective already

Someone commented that to me some time back, that I'm defective. I have scars all over, a crooked right arm, frequent migraine, constant aches and pains. Even I have to agree that I'm defective already.


Bob said I'm a 29 year old trapped in a 50 year old body. Guess I'm sedentary all these while so my body aged faster than it's supposed to be?

Like now, my both arms are aching badly. And they always ache once every 2 months. It's really frustrating. I can't do tedious housework, they will ache. I can't wring a wet cloth more than 10 times, they will ache. And this time, I actually did a human sarong thingy with Jayden, and my arms ache. It's crazy!

Now, I have to sleep with like 10 plasters on each arm and pills to knock me out. Even the old folks are not as bad as me. I can't lift my arms above my head or the ache will get really bad, so just now, I even had to get Bob to wash my hair for me.

I can deal with pain, but ache is something I can't handle. The last spring cleaning I did before Chinese New Year was the worse. I can't move both arms after that and when I woke up in the middle of the night, moved my arm an inch, the ache just shot through both my arms and I remembered I actually cried to sleep. How bad is that??

I guess I really have to try and lead a healthy lifestyle, and exercise more. If not by the time I'm 50, I have to use a walking stick. And that's really pathetic lor. Defective.

Teacher's Day Gifts

The gifts were a day late. I thought of doing up the gifts a week before but I didn't expect to end up in the hospital. Even though my sis already brought up this subject early August, being the major procrastinator, I always waited till the last minute to do anything.


I was discharged on the weekend prior to Teacher's day, and Tara's day care was closed on the day itself thus she was only able to give her gifts one day after T day. Last year, I bought flowers for all the other teachers and helpers and even made gifts for her Ah Yis but this year, I cut short everything and only made gifts for her own teachers, 3 of them.

This year, I made memo boards bought from Daiso. Okay, actually both Tara and I made the gifts but I did the major part of it. She only painted parts of the frame, made the tags, with her own handwritten note. She was involved more last year since I was more well-prepared. Ah well.

Pictures here:


Haven't scrapped for ages, so didn't have no mojo to do these. So there, something simple for the teachers to use. Hope they like it.

And I bought kraft paper from the provision shop downstairs to wrap the gifts.



And they look like parcels. I never liked to buy pretty wrapping papers to wrap up the gifts I've made because I just like the minimalist and rugged feel. For smaller gifts, I even bought clear bags to contain them, making no effort to conceal the gifts in layers of papers because the papers that I use to make the gifts are pretty enough and there's no reason to hide them.

Tara's handwritten notes. I think only she can make out what she wrote.



I had to help her with the chinese one, since she has yet to learn to write chinese.

Tara's Crocs and Reasoning

I totally give up on Colettee. Just cannot make it! Within a few days after my post on shoes for Tara, I went to Colettee and bought her a pair of mary janes. I was skeptical that it will last, but I was crossing my fingers maybe it will last like 3 months at least, until I get a better pair. Boy, was I wrong! The shoes last only 1 miserable month! The stitches broke and one of the shoe got a gaping hole now. And she don't even wear it that often, only on outings and a couple of times, to school. I'm totally giving up on Colettee. Unless I need disposable shoes.


So I had to shop for shoes again. Last night, we trotted off to Vivo for dinner and to get a new pair of shoes for Tara. I decided I'm still going for Crocs. Durable and odor-free. We got 2 pairs for Tara from our Hong Kong trip last Dec and they still in good condition now, except that she's growing out of it very soon.

Little girl wanted the Disney versions but I find the prints a little too cheapo so I steered her towards the mary janes side. She was easy to please and promtly chose a fushcia one. Tried and bought a slightly larger size, so it will last her quite a while.



Crocs fuschia mary janes with old charms.

While we were at the cashier, she saw the wide array of charms on display and asked Daddy for it. The way Tara tried to reason with Bob was hilarious! The little girl trying hard to convince her Daddy that her new Crocs must have new charms and Daddy kept giving a curt no. He don't see the need to get new charms since she can use those old charms from her old Crocs and he told her that. Tara refused to give up and kept reasoning some more, saying the Princess ones are nice, she want them and it will go with her shoes blah blah blah. Even the staff there was amused by how adamant Tara was.

Bob still refused to get it for her. Citing reasons like waste of money, not necessary etc. I told him his little girl might grow up to be a salesperson some day, since she was like making a sales pitch when asking for the charms. I gave in actually, and asked Bob if he's okay that I buy for her instead, but still, he said no. We do have this understanding that when we said no to Tara, we don't give in. So, I had to give up too. Anyway, Tara knew she lost the fight and just trailed along with us when we walked out of the shop. She's didn't bawl or sulk though. And I'm really glad on that.

So far, I never had to deal much with her tantrums when she don't get buy the things she want. I guess she understand that crying for things is useless, because Bob and I will never give in. So she tried to reason nowadays and it's really cute to watch. I guess once a while I do have to give in, or it might be just too harsh for the little girl, always hearing nothing but NO.

By the way, I just threw out a pair of running shoes I bought from Kiddy Palace. She still can wear them but the smell on her feet when she took the shoes off was "FWAH!!". Tara herself can't take the smell. It was so bad we can smell it a distance away. Even 2 washes can't take that smell off so I had to do something about it. I gave her a dettol feet spa!



And she enjoyed it a lot. And the smell eventually came off.

4 days 3 nights stay at SGH

SGH = Singapore General Hospital.


Yep, was hospitalised for 4 days last month. Had really bad rashes and swelling lymph nodes after my 3-day fever. Went back to the doc when I saw how swollen my groin was. He gave me anti-biotics and told me to go home and monitor.

Woke up the next morning to find rashes and swells got worse. Doc gave me 2 choices, either to take blood test or to go to the hospital. I chose to go hospital to have everything done together. Kind of no point taking test and getting admitted after that. I actually ask to delay the admission as I had to attend a food tasting session for my bro's upcoming wedding dinner that night. Called up bro to check if I can be excused and he said might as well, since the rashes so bad and I also didn't want to scare anyone.

Bob drove me straight to SGH. Even though it was a direct admission, I was still kept waited for 3 hours. The last 1.5 hour by myself as the guy had to go back to work. Waited at the ER by myself. While everyone has some relative inside the ER, I'm the only sitting by myself waiting for my bed to be ready. The aunties sitting beside gawked when I was put on a wheelchair, strapped with patient tag and pushed away. I guess nobody was expecting me to be the patient.

I'm not one to be confined so staying 4 days there was pretty torturous to me. I'm just glad that the medicine I took 3 times a day got me groggy and sleeping most times. My doctor was a professor, but he always came with 3 other doctors who did the checks.

One of them stressed me out the most. She's a lady doctor from Malaysia, can see that she just graduated not long ago. She came by one morning to take my blood for tests. Tried 2 locations before she managed to draw blood, said couldn't find my vein. The first time, she actually tried to find the vein while the needle was INSIDE. Fortunately, I was feeling numb from the rashes, otherwise I might just die from the pain and watching the process.

I thought that was all but it was not. She came back 30 minutes later and said she need to put me on drip as my blood pressure was low. I felt my heart skipped several beats. Same thing happened, she couldn't find my vein. And when she finally found it on a 2nd location, the blood spurted! Literally! Then formed a pool of red on the bed. Her hands were all bloodied and I just watched the whole spectacle in a daze. She tried to stop the flow and kept apologizing for the mess. The whole time I was thinking, mess!? These are my blood!!

I think I lost quite some blood there.



I have to say thanks to all the people who came to visit. My friends and colleagues. Thanks to Nico, Sally and Jaime for coming twice. And thanks to Angela for the magazine. My sis and bro came too, but I was too groggy and sleepy when my bro was there and I didn't talk to him much. Dad brought porridge my Mum cooked, a special order from me. Some ask whether I inform who and who, and why didn't I inform who and who. Erm, I wasn't exactly looking my best, with my angry red rashes from top to toe, finger tips to toes, so I didn't really want anyone to see. Those who came just happened to call/sms me when I was getting ready to go hospital.

I'm not used to getting fussed around and was really awkward when my friends/colleagues were helping me cut up my food (I'm crippled by the drip on my left hand), take my things, get my water, pushed me the meal tray etc. But come to think of it, it's quite enjoyable wor. Haha.

Thanks to my sis, Jaime, Angela and Cindy for the hamper too. The flowers really cheered me up. The delivery guy might not think so though, as he actually woke me up from my nap to sign for the hamper.



I got 3 days of hospitalisation leave after my discharge so I spent these 3 days watching dramas loaned from others and catch up with friends over meals. 4 days being confined was enough for me, so I was running around during the 3 days of leave. Hope no one in my office is reading this!



My bed for 4 days.

It's been slightly over a week since I've discharged and I have almost recovered. Just that my skin is still slightly red, patchy and dry after the rashes. Swells have all gone on the 4th day of my stay. Now I still get patches of rash here and there but other than that I'm totally fine.



Pix taken on my 3rd day when I was much more alert and super duper bored.

Now I'm just waiting for my appointment with the allergy clinic to find out what exactly was wrong with me. They took 4 tubes of blood in the hospital but nothing conclusive, thus the professor sent me to see the allergy doctor. My diagnosis was viral fever with suspected drug allergy. Now just have to find out what drug I'm allergic to.

Beef Stew again..

Oh yes, I'm crazy over beef stew.


It's now 9.21pm and I'm still cooking my pot of stew. We've had our dinner of claypot rice already. And since there are still some beef in the freezer, I thought I will cook the stew today, dump it into the fridge and warm up for dinner tomorrow. I'm using a different recipe this time. No beef stock, less wine. Hope it tastes as good. It sure smells good now.

Cooking eastern and western in one night, my legs are tired, back aching. I'm glad I don't have to do this often.

My dreams

In my old blog, I have this line on my banner that says "My thoughts, my dreams, my life, myself, my child, my man"... When I wrote my dreams, I don't mean my dreams about the future or whatsoever, I actually meant the dreams I'd have every night I sleep.


I seldom have dreamless nights. I don't know why. And out of all the dreams I've had, 30% are comical and nonsensical, 20% forgettable while 40% are blood, gory and death.

The bloody and death dreams used to be more, almost like 70%. Someone told me I might be a deeply disturbed pervert and all these are subconscious thoughts which might just materialized when I'm in a highly stressed mode. All crap lar. Lucky that bloke was laughing while saying it, if not, he might just be my first victim. (I'm joking...)

So far, I dreamt of people being killed, killing themselves, tortured to death, burnt beyond recognition, executed etc. Some are really disturbing and have since been permanently imprinted in my head. Most victims are people I don't know, only once I dreamt of an ex-colleague leaping off the building and her head smashed on the water fountain right below, causing the fountain to flow bloody water. And all this while, I was watching it from right across the building.

Just 2 days ago, I had another suicide dream again. It happened right across my block. An old lady was standing precariously near the window ledge, contemplating on jumping down from the 6th floor. Only after some persuasion from the people behind her did she gave up the idea. But the next minute, another woman just walked out to the ledge and leaped off. I was in a dazed and kept staring at the dead woman at the foot of the block, no blood and nothing gory though.

It wasn't the scariest dream I had but I just wonder, how come I'm having such dreams again? It's been quite a while since I last had one. Is it stress? Or I'm getting depressed? Or I'm really a disturbed pervert subconsiously?

I wonder..

Beef (Oxtail) Stew

I love stews. And the best stews comes only from those home cooked. When I think of comfort food, stews are the first thing that comes to my mind.


I have this awesome website, http://www.epicurious.com/. This is one place that I go to whenever Bob gets his craving for anything non-Chinese. And through here, I found the best recipe for beef stew (beef replaced with oxtail). What I love about this website is the reviews from people who tried the recipe. I just need to compile those feedback, makes my life easier so I can skip the trial and error part.

I cooked this once before, and received rave reviews, even from my bro who seldom eat beef. I cooked it last night again. Didn't came out as good as the first. Feedback was the stew wasn't beefy enough. It was okay for me though, I'm more than happy to have the rich, dark, flavourful gravy. Yeah, I'm a sucker for that. Ooh, salivating again.

The recipe calls for almost 1 bottle of red wine though. And Bob actually passed me a bottle of Grey label last night. The last round, we used a bottle I got from my company D&D. So imagined my jaw dropped when Bob told me the price of the bottle. I told him, you just made this stew costs 3 digit! (On top of the oxtail lar.)



We served the stew with home made mashed potatoes and garlic bread. Bob managed to find this great brand of garlic spread that's fragant but not over pungent with garlicky taste.



By the end of dinner, all the oxtail were gone, leaving lots of gravy and some vegetables. Can't bear to throw them out (usually what we did, since we always forgot what we kept in the fridge), I stored the leftover gravy in the fridge and told Bob I will eat that with spaghetti for dinner some day.

And today was the day. 10 mins job. Cooked spaghetti, microwaved the gravy and voila! Dinner's ready. I can eat this everyday! I was just thinking how perfect this will be if I have some Ikea meatballs.



This will be my number 1 recipe for beef stews. And I'm thinking of cooking this and freezing them in batches so when I need a quick meal fix, I can just pop them into microwave.

By the way, the recipe's here, if you wish to try. Add more shiitake mushrooms, they go perfect with the stew.

Learning Phonics

Tara is learning phonics in school now. She's still at the stage where she's sounding the letters and as per her teacher, they are now at the F letter. (Don't think otherwise yah?)


Tara came home asking me things like, "Mummy, what letter is the word 'window'?" She meant what sound does 'w' makes. I looked at her, dumbfounded, not knowing how to answer. Phonics is something new to me. I have no idea how to make the 'w' sound!

Bob has been thinking of letting the little girl take some enrichment classes. So I was taking note of the things she's interested in. All the while, it was singing and dancing. Her teachers said she loves to sing and dance, especially to fast music. And she loves to perform too. But she's also very interested in phonics now. So I looked around for some phonics classes instead. Dancing will come later. I'm not going to overload the little one now.

2 weeks ago, I casually mentioned to Tara that I will send her to phonics classes and she has been asking for it since then. When we were on our way to breakfast yesterday, she asked if we were on our way to her class. So enthusiastic!

Anyway, while going through the websites, I shortlisted a couple of centres that I'm going to check out tomorrow, including a speech and drama centre. But then I also came across this wonderful website. This is one cool website that teaches phonics right from basics, for free (that's the best part). A mummy from one forum mentioned that it's good to try this website before sending the kid to classes, especially if it's a fast paced one. So I thought, I give this a try first.

Thus tonight, I sat Tara down in our study for our first lesson. I kept it short, only 15 mins on the laptop and 15 mins on the worksheets. I'm quite against young kids spending time in front of computers so I felt 15 mins is more than sufficient. And when I said it's our first lesson, I meant it because it's my first lesson too.



I wasn't comfortable with the distance of the laptop and her eyes. But I guess we will make do for now until Bob has the sound card of the desktop replaced.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed the lesson tremendously. This was Tara's first time using the mouse and she took quite a while to get used to it. And when she finally managed to do a drag and drop, I was ecstatic and so was she. I gave tons of encouragement, and applauses when she managed to get a right answer or drag the item to the right places. And so happy was she that she gave me bear hugs after each praise that I gave her. This was one moment that I felt truly bonded with her. I'm going to keep up with the lessons for as long as I can. And I will try to keep to a routine so Tara knows what to expect every day.

We learnt 'a', 'o' and 'w' today. And she's pretty good at it!



Tara on her worksheet.

Tara was asking for one lesson tomorrow too. And I will keep to the 30 min routine until she's ready for a longer lesson.

Oh ya, I finally know how to sound 'w'!

Shoes for Tara

I'm looking around for good shoes. Tara's grows out of hers very fast and I'm constantly looking out for nice and comfy shoes which will not hinder the growth of her feet.


I used to buy Clarks, but the designs are getting so mundane and no longer attracts me. But I love the fact that the shoes are good for growing feet. Are there more of such brands out there? I lost touch of all things kiddy during the months of depressed mood, thus I need some help here.

I used to buy the loafers from Colettee, because of the soft fabric, but they just wore out even before my kid grew out of them. Even though cheaper, I rather spend more on better shoes.

Bought 2 pairs of Crocs for her in Hong Kong last year, but those just aren't dressy enough.

I was looking through Startrite shoes just now. Love the pretty designs! And most importantly, they are good for growing feet. But sad to say, there are no outlets in Singapore, or so the website says. I have sent them an email to check for the nearest location.

Are there anymore? Can anyone help me? Drop me a comment yah?

Potting Around

I have a few pot of plants along my corridor. I bought them when I first shifted here. However, over the years, managing the plants became my MIL's responsibilities. I can't even remember if the plants out on my corridor are still the ones I bought 6 years back, I guess not.


MIL would spend time changing the soil, trimming the dead leaves and re-potting them. Of course, this got the little one interested. She would insist on watering the plants every morning, and helping out in whatever way she can.

The other day, Tara was trying to water the plants again, then I thought, maybe, I can get her some potted plants to instill some responsibilities on. So I told her I will get her 2 potted plants the next time we go Ikea. Tara was ecstatic, no doubt. And I told her, the plants will be under her care and she must water them everyday.

The other day, we had to get some stuff from Ikea and we didn't forget to let Tara choose her plants. Both Bob and I thought she would choose flower pots but she just went ahead and chose the leafy ones.



It took her quite a while to decide on the final two.



She even chose a spray bottle for watering the plants.

Bob got her a shoe rack to place the pots and once we reached home, the little girl got me to fix up the rack. Daddy helped to transfer the plants into the pots and Tara happily filled up the spray bottle and went about watering her prized pots.



And I'm relieved to say that the interest hasn't waned. She's still tending to her pots every morning before school. The other day, while shopping at Daiso, I came across these pretty windmills at the gardening section and bought her 2.



I also bought a mini shovel.

Now, I'm wondering how long the pots will last.

Tara asked..

Tara: Mummy, will you (grow) old?


Me: Of course, we all will. And Mummy will grow old just like Grandma. And you will grow up just like Mummy.

Tara: No! (Wailed slightly), I don't want you to (grow) old!

Me: Why not?

Tara: Because I don't like old. I don't want you to be old.

After a while...

Me: Tara, if Mummy don't grow old, you won't grow up too you know?
 
And Tara gave me a knowing look after that. I guess she can't wait to grow up?

My New Love..

I'm in love with someone new. And I'm introducing him to you all. I know I love him from the minute I set my eyes on him. Absolutely adorable! And he is...
 
My nephew! I'm Yiyi of 3 nephews/niece already. Oh gosh! My new nephew, born in Thomson Medical Hospital on 12 July afternoon. Don't know what is his name yet. My sis hasn't name the boy. Guess when you have 3 kids, you tend to lose the excitement of naming the child? I went to visit the both of them on Sunday. Had to wait an hour as all the babies were taking their jabs, so the lot of us went for our lunch. The minute my sis text me saying the baby was with her, I literally sprinted up! My first sight of my baby nephew is the back of his head, as my sis was feeding him. And that was enough to melt my heart. And the sight of him sucking for milk, absolutely sweet! I didn't have such feelings for my first 2 niece and nephew, most probably because I wasn't a mum yet. Guess being a mother makes all the difference? Baby took a pretty long milk feed and I couldn't cuddle him, didn't take a proper look at his face either. Was getting a little bored until he stuck out his right foot from the cosy swaddle.

I took about 10 shots just on this foot alone. So tiny. But baby still wasn't done with his feed. The next thing I did?

I kissed the tiny foot. Cute. Not me. The foot. Close up shot of my beautiful nephew. With my sis at the background.
 
Look that this face. What's there not to love? Aww...