Of My Little Girl

Hooo.. It's been quite a while since I last blogged. With so many things happening in my life now, blogging is the last thing I want to do.

I had wanted to close down this blog so that I don't feel the burden of responsibilities if I don't update. But then again, there's so much in this blog that I couldn't bear to delete away. So much of the past 4-5 years of my life.

So, after a hiatus of a few months, I shall dedicate this entry to Tara, my precious little girl.

Tara will be 5 years old in 5 months time, so now, technically speaking, she's still 4 and a half, although she will vehemently protest when I said that and push her five tiny fingers into my face and exclaimed loudly, "NO! I'm 5!!"

I looked through her younger photos and was amazed by the difference in her looks from a year ago, and a year before that. Even a year ago, she still have that babyish look. But one year on, she suddenly became a little miss (to me, that's very sudden).

I know she's a little girl through and through because:

1) She only likes wearing dresses and skirts, even to places where we have rough play. I don't want her undies to show, but she couldn't care much. No pretty dresses, no chance we can step out of the house.

2) I wear lip gloss, she wants it too. So I bought her something close to a lip gloss. Lip balm. And she will use it EVERYDAY before we drop her off at school. If I accidentally cleaned it off with tissue while I'm wiping off her snot. She will scream. No joke.

3) I wear nail polishes, she wears clear varnishes. I really don't want her to go to school with pink nails. But somehow, I have to give in to her whiny cries.

4) PINK, PINK, PINK. She's overloaded with pink stuff. Pink water bottles, pink school bags, pink EZlink card holder, pink Crocs, pink PJs. Okay, I may love pink myself. But then, this girl was way overkill with her top to toe pink stuff.

5) Cannot cut her hair short, no matter how messy it is, because she wants to tie a cute ponytail when she goes to school everyday.

6) Finally, her whiny voice when she wants something. It's the kind of voice that irritates you to hell if you are not in a good mood. Or melts your heart to molten when you are in a happier mood. "MUMmmmmmmmyyyyy~~~~", plus her big doe eyes. And she gets her way sometimes. Or most times I guess.

Because of school and her grandparents, she's effectively bilingual now. She has no problems speaking in mandarin and english. Now, she speaks either mandarin OR english and makes us all do the same. If you don't, she will go "Mummy, if you want to speak English, you speak English, if you want to speak Chinese, you speak Chinese. Don't speak both together okay?" Well, that was what I told her some time back, and she remembers. But darling, Mummy got problems translating some Chinese to English, mah.

No singlish allowed too. No lar-s, no lor-s. If not, "I will send you to 'lor' island, if you say lor again", she says.

Up until now, she attends a single enrichment class a week. Phonics at Zoophonics. She's been attending this class for the past 1 year. Done with all the single letter sounds and moving on to blending. But Daddy wants to switch her to "I Can Read" so now I'm checking which branch has a better environment. She used to attend Speech and Drama and Lorna Whiston but we pulled her out after a few months, reason? Don't really like it.

I wanted to enrol her in one more class, but something that she really interested in. She loves dancing to fast beat music, art and craft and going to swimming complexes. So I guess it's either hip hop, craft or swimming classes. Yet to decide because I didn't want to tire her out. But she told me she wants to learn everything. Whoa. Even got the money must also have the time right?

Her favourite food. Mostly carbos. Noodles, dumplings, buns, bread. Love fruits too, especially strawberries. For a while, she steered away from green veges because her friends doing the same. Peer pressure, I guess. Then one day, she woke up from her evening nap while we having zi char outside and with a chop stick, finished up like 10 pcs of Kai Lan in top speed. So now, she's taking more vege. And only the green ones.

I'm more relaxed on her junk food intake already. But then, I still try not to give as much, if I can help it.

Okay, enough of updates. Now, a photo of her, taken just days ago.

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.

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...

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.

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?

The Change in Tara

Weeks leading up to Tara's 3rd birthday, which was last November, my sweet little girl suddenly morphed into this pesky little kid. It was really hard handling her. Especially when Bob and my PILs wasn't in town and I have to do it all alone.

I gritted my teeth and hope for the day where the tantrums will be over, the fights, the screamings and her unreasonable behavior. I'm the kind who always see the light at the end of the tunnel, good days will come after bad, and sun will shine after the rain. So for a while, I managed to keep my cool and patiently tried to discipline my little baby.

But it went on longer than I can take. And soon, I lost my cool, my patience wore thin, and exasperation took over. It didn't help that Bob travelled more often and it was even worse when my PILs weren't around. I have to handle the little pesky one all by myself.

I dread every day that comes. Trying to get her ready for school became a challenge. Getting her to wear her shoes became a 15 minutes affair, coupled with screaming and crying. It was a lot of "I don't want this, I don't want that" from her. Even if I tried waking up earlier than usual, I'm still late for work in the end. She refused her milk, refused to wear her clothes, don't want panties without princess, and don't want to wear shoes all. There are times she tried leaving the house with just panties on. Try to get her to wear pants? Be prepared for at least 15 mins of meltdown and lots of shouting (by me) before she finally relented.

By the time I dropped her off at school, she already zapped 60% of my energy. I went to work feeling frustrated, weary and totally puzzled at her behaviour.

Then the time for me to pick her up from school. Tantrums start the minute she stepped out. Bringing her out for dinner alone was a big challenge too. I would ask her umpteen times if she needed the toilet and her answer was always no. But the minute the food was served, she wanted to go. When I told her later, she would go into a major prissy fit. I was finally one of those mothers who can't handle her kid and let her roll on the floor and scream while I look on helplessly. And I thought that would never happen to me.

When we finally reached home, I already felt my energy all gone. But that was before making her take her shower, and putting her to bed. More screamings, cryings and resistings. And when I finally got myself ready for bed, it's already 1am in the morning. And I'm totally drained out.

It was really amazing how I got through all that. I almost gave up. I questioned myself if I'm a good mother. I asked what I did or what I didn't do that caused her to behave like that. And finally, I asked, when would all these be over.

Slowly, I dreaded going home. When my PILs around, I literally went missing. There was even once I was home around Tara's bedtime, and I sat down at the garden waiting for her to sleep before I dared to venture home. I look at Tara as though she was a stranger, some kid left in my care, and I slowly felt detached from her.

For a few weeks, I lost my appetite and took little food. I was depressed, completely stressed out.

There was one night, when I tried to put Tara to bed, she went into one of her many prissy fits again. Asked for milk then not wanting it when I gave her the bottle. And I completely lost it, I hurtled the bottle at the wall, screamed at the top of my lungs and finally broke down. I sat there crying. Not knowing what else I can do, I sat on my bed, totally helpless. And what did Tara do? She cried, saying I broke her bottle. But after a while, sensing something was wrong with Mummy, decided it was best not to agitate me further and left me alone to sob while she fell asleep. I look at her sleeping soundly and tears flowed even more.

The next night, I asked her if it was okay Mummy don't go home after work. As in literally don't go home at all. She don't understand what I meant. And I don't really mean what I said.

Bob couldn't stand her behaviour anymore and bought a cane. I had bad caning experiences as a child so I hate the idea of discipliining with cane. I was even angry with Bob for buying that cane. But what I didn't expect was, I was the first one, actually the only one, to use it on Tara, on a day where she insisted on going out barefooted. When I saw that red cane mark on Tara's leg, I regretted already. And my heart broke into a thousand pieces.

Still, the pesky behaviour went on for another few months. Bob finally saw that I was getting depressed. I asked for a vacation without Tara, he agreed immediately. And he would arranged for his parents to be here when he had to travel. He didn't even complained when I went out almost everyday and neglected the house and the kid. I guess I was in a bad shape then. My colleague even recommended me a counsellor. I stopped all plans of making baby 2. I know of people who questioned at my ability to handle the kid, I doubted any too. But I guess not all women are made to be mothers?

It took me quite a long time before I was able to sense any enjoyment in Tara's company. And after 7 long months, I finally was able to look at my kid with some adoration.

I still didn't know what causes the change in her behaviour that time. My mum told me might be the bad chi in my house. And of course I dismissed that.

The days of prissy tantrums were finally over. And Tara had become this sensible little adult, witty and funny, and I can't help falling in love with her all over again.

Zoo Trip

We took Tara to the zoo today. I thought it's a good idea to bring the family together again. Not that we are falling apart, but we are simply living in the same roof but each doing our own stuff. Bob and I are kind of ignoring Tara, she's at the stage where the terrible twos revisited and won't go away. And now that she can talk, sometimes we can engage in a verbal war. And I can tell you, the 3 year old can really spar! It gets really tiring and super frustrating most times.

Anyway, last night I already told Bob we will go as plan and take Tara to the zoo. And if anyone of us gets impatient or frustrated with Tara, we will keep each other in check and cool each other down. We did it, I can see Bob trying to suppress his anger at some stage, but otherwise, Tara was in a pretty good mood to create much havoc today.

Every morning, getting her to wake up for school is a tedious task. But this morning, three magic words did the trick. Upon hearing "动物园" (zoo), her eyes sprang open and she willingly walked to the toilet to pee. It was funny to watch, and her good behavious increased my confidence that a good day lies ahead.


Tara's favourite breakfast. Soft boiled eggs.

Once we turned into the road leading to the zoo, Tara went all excited at the animal pictures hanging on the lamp posts. Her excitement brought a smile to my face and lifted my spirits. I almost forgot how enjoyable it was to have Tara for company.

I rented a carriage (aka wagon) for the little princess. I thought it's quite fun to sit in that, I would have loved to get one if I was a kid. And I thought Tara wouldn't want to walk for too long, she's a lazy bum just like her mom. When Bob saw the wagon, he sort of hinted that I'm spoiling her, and I should let her do some walking. I think he's quite right. The little girl sat in the wagon most of the time and only got out to look at animals. Besides that, we parents have to drag and pull the not-so-easy-to-manoever wagon while she sat inside comfortably and even chose who she want to pull that wagon. Yikes, although I rented the wagon in the name of fun, I later realised it was indeed a bad move. And it $15 by the way.



We visited most of the animals enclosures, and my MIL, being teacher most of her life, went about explaining what animals we were looking at and pointed out some distinctive features of the animals. It was a informative trip for the little one.

Tara showed interest in half the animals before going into a slight cranky mood, as she was feeling sleepy. She wanted to doze off but the wagon wasn't a place for napping. She tried various positions to take a nap but eventually gave up.





We watched two shows, one at the new splash amphitheatre. Which has pretty limited seats that were 60% filled 30 mins before show time. I always enjoyed animal shows, but I must say that both shows weren't as impressive as before. The other show we went to was the Animal Friends Show, where dogs and little animals performed tricks. By the way, they held their last show today as area will be undergoing renovation and only re-opening in Sep. The show today was quite a bore, the dogs did great though, but the host and her assistant kind of went into their 2-man show for longer than I can take. Bob commented in a far worse language.

I took a picture of Tara with one of the dog, can't remember his name. I'm glad I managed to find a nice angle.



Why? I wouldn't want this (see red arrow) to end up in Tara's photo album ya. Gah, so unsightly. I'm just glad Tara didn't notice and start questioning me. I'm sure I will be stumped big time.



We were there for 5 whole hours. And I'm glad we went.


I'm always attracted to white blooms. So pretty.


My favourite animal have got to be these fellows. Meerkats. They are s..o.. cute I want to take them home.


Me with my tired baby. Doing the "我们是清白的" pose.

Anyway, for those parents intending to bring their little ones to the zoo, be warned that there won't be as many animal shows as before. The one which is normally held at the big amphitheatre will only be starting in May, and the Animal Friends show will only start from Sep onwards. There will only be 2 shows as far as I know, the one at Splash Amphitheatre featuring the sea mammals and the Elephants Asia show. Not sure if they are adding more in the midst. Check before you go ya?

Tara's 3rd Birthday Part 2

We held a party for Tara the next day after the school's celebration. This one was held at home and only family and Bob's close relatives were invited. We wanted to keep it small.

One month before her birthday, I had already started sourcing around for cakes. And I got cupcakes for her home party. Actually, it wasn't my initial intention to buy cupcakes. I wanted to get the cupcakes for her school's party actually, but after looking at various websites, I realised that a nice cupcake would cost me quite a bit for a class of 27, 4 teachers and 2 helpers, so I thought of getting for her home party instead.

And the cupcakes, oh man, they are so pretty! I got them from Cupcake Momma by the way.

Pictures first:


The cupcakes, still in the box.


The birthday banner painstakingly made by me, my fingers almost went numb trimming the paper off the greyboard.


The food. Almost the same as last year, but with a touch of my comfort food, cooked by my Mom. The noodles and popiah fillings all cooked by my dear Bob, with the help of the experts though.


Me with my little girl.


Goodie bags for the kids. I got the same bags for Tara's friends in school. The cousins got some extra stuff though.


The cupcakes sitting on the 2 tier stand I made out of grey board. It doesn't turn out as pretty as I thought.


Tara with her birthday cupcakes.


Tara holding on to the knife waiting to cut her cake while we were all singing the birthday song. This year, I made the "candle" myself, using my usual scrap stuff, I stuck the candle at the back of the number 3 and adhered a satay stick.


The little girl going around giving out the cakes, Bob made sure she gave out the cakes all by herself, it's a way of thanking of the guests for gracing her little party and for the gifts.


Tara eating her cake. When she first started giving out the cake, she kept holding on to this particular one on her left hand, while giving out the cupcakes one by one with her right hand. She was trying to "chope" her favourite cupcake!


I had thought this will be her favourite! It's mine, no doubt!


Turns out that this was her favourite! She liked the little worm sitting on the grass.


The only non-monetary gift she got for her birthday. My bro and his wife-to-be bought this for her. A musical instrument set, with harmonica, recorder and many other instruments inside. By the end of the day, almost all of us were playing with the set, doing an orchestra performance, albeit a out of tune one.

Tara absolutely loved her cake! And I'm so glad. When I wanted to order, I was so worried that she will throw a prissy fit when I opened up the cake box and she didn't like what she see. The little kids loved the cakes too!

Bob commented I enjoyed the preps this year and was also much happier. Of course, last year, one of the important person in my life wasn't able to celebrate with us.



Yep, my dear Mom. She got a mild stroke and was in a rehab hospital when we celebrated Tara's 2nd birthday. I still remembered how down I felt when I ordered Tara's birthday cake from Patissier. Time really flies, one year has passed. My Mom cooked 3 dishes for the party too, and when she was slicing up the pork in the kitchen, I looked at her and had this overwhelming feeling. Very happy, and very touched that I almost had to sniff back my tears.

Alright, I will end the part 2 of Tara's birthday entry with a video of her, blowing the candle and cutting the cake.