Back to School

Tara went back to school this morning, after 2 long weeks of absence. Since a couple of days ago, I have been asking her if she wants to go back to school. She always replied yes and kept rambling on the teachers' and aunties' names. But when I said she must not cry when she goes to school and she decided she can't promise me that, so she kept quiet.


This morning, I asked her where is she going, while changing her into her uniform. She said school. I asked where is Mummy going, she said work. And I asked where will Papa be going, she said work. A good start I should say.


When we reached the school, there were 2 teachers screening the kids near the entrance. Tara still remembered where is her pigeon hole for her shoes and the getting-really-particular young lady took a while getting both shoes neatly in the pigeon hole. Taking out one shoe, putting the other in, took it out again and put both in until she was satisfied that both shoes are sitting nicely together.


We queued up to have her temperature taken. Teacher Mingchue, who was at the next screening station, saw Tara, said hello to her, and Tara started crying. Although she was crying, she was able to listen to instructions. I told her to move to the next chair after taking her temperature and she did so herself, although still crying. Teacher Mingchue got her to open her mouth, showed her hands and feet and she did so accordingly. And when Teacher Mingchue said she did really well and asked her to give herself two thumbs up, she did so too, with tears still in her eyes, though. So cute.


As we walked to the classroom, she started bawling again and wanted me to carry. I carried her to Auntie Chen and to my surprised, she reached over to let her carry and then said bye bye to me.


I guess she understands that she has to go to school and Mummy and Papa has to go to work, so even though she didn't want to be separated from me, she knew she has to.


This picture was taken on the way to school this morning. Noticed a chicken box scar on her nose? I asked her to smile for the camera and she gave me a crooked smile.

Tara's Dinner & Beef Stew

This is Tara's share. Beef stew, pan fried fish and spaghetti with a little sauce from the stew. There's also a side dish of stir fried mixed mushrooms.

She loved the beef stew and the spaghetti and finished it all. But she was not so keen on the fish though. She tried a little mushroom, said it's nice, ask for more and I guess she ate a little too much and got sick of it and started spitting it out.

I made beef stew last night again, cos I promised Bob. But I guess I'm too tired and was rushing to get the dinner ready, last night's stew wasn't really good. Tasted like spaghetti sauce cos I added too much ketchup. I wanted to keep to the ingredients from my first attempt so I used the ketchup. The next time round, I must ensure I used the proper ingredients for the stew.

My Virtual Model

I gotta load this again cos I can't see the previous upload.

I "cloned" myself on My Virtual Model. Looks like me, I think.. Hmmz. Except I think I look more fleshy in person.

Strange Behavior

Recently, Tara's been behaving rather strangely. She dare not venture into the rooms anymore and insist that we follow her wherever she goes. Or she will walk into the room to get her hanky and run out, screaming and said she's scared of uncle.

Sounds eerie. I asked her what uncle and where is he but she will keep quiet. Just this afternoon, I was chasing her around trying to take a picture of her. She walked into my room but I didn't follow. Seconds later, she screamed and ran out crying. I'm not sure what exactly cause this fear. I never tried to scare her or anything before and Bob didn't either. So what's wrong with her?

She won't even sit in the hall by herself anymore. And will follow me around. Just now, I wanted to take a shower while she slept in the hall. She woke up crying and came to look for me in the bathroom. I put her back to sleep and crept back into the bathroom, but she woke up again. So I told her mummy really need to shower cos it's getting late and I thought of pulling the mattress to a place where she can see me but she didn't want to. So I told her to sit beside the bathroom door while I get a quick shower. After sitting for a short while, she lay down on the floor and fell asleep right on the spot.

She has never behave like this before.

Strange, isn't it?

At Home and Cooking..

There's no one to take care of little Tara today so I had to take a day off.

And knowing that we both will be grounded because of her chicken pox, I bought some groceries yesterday for my meals. I had this craving for beef stew, so I bought some beef and onions. It's a good chance for me to clear the carrots and potatoes my MIL left behind.

I only tried cooking beef stew once, and following a recipe I pulled off from the internet. So I can't remember what are the ingredients I need to get. Anyway, I tried to get a basic beef stew recipe this morning and found there's still quite a few stuff that I lack. Like I mentioned, I'm grounded, I can't even bring her to the provision shop down my block, so I thought, I'll just make do with what I have and pray for the best.

I had to substitute a couple of ingredients. I used potato flour instead of wheat flour, fresh tomatoes and get this, tomato ketchup, instead of tomato puree. Chicken stock instead of beef stock. And china potatoes instead of small potatoes. I don't have sage leaves, some other herbs and celery. And I thought, hmmz, it will be quite a task to get a decent meat stew.

When I started cooking the onions with the butter, Tara stood beside me and kept saying how nice the smell is. She kept telling me she wanted to eat.

After an hour, my stew was done. And I would say it's pretty decent. And I'm really surprised that the ketchup really brought out the taste of the stew. And the flank steak wasn't tough at all. It's so easy to prepare. I sms Bob to tell him that I will cook beef stew for him when he's back. He's been asking for it for eons, but I didn't dare try after my 1st attempt, which was quite near to disaster.

I even cooked the butter and herb rice I bought some time back. And also stir fried some mushrooms to make the meal complete.

Here's my lunch:




The butter rice was too salty, even though I followed the instructions on the box and added the right amount of water, it tasted like I added a packet of salt! I even added almost twice the amount required but still it was too salty.. I don't think I will ever buy it again. And I really love the stir fried mushrooms. Just some garlic, butter and salt and it will taste fantastic!

Anyway, Bob replied my sms just now. He said "Good! Can add oxtail?".

Little Miss Polite

Just now, I was washing the dishes after dinner. Tara came up to me, passed me her bowl and said,

"吃饱了。谢谢。。"

Way too cute....

Crabs from Mellben

I had this for dinner on Saturday night. Bob and I went all the way to AMK to get this. Not only this butter crab, we also have crab in fried bee hoon and crab in soup been hoon. Ah... Bliss..

Spots All Over

This is how Tara look like now.

Her face.



Her back



It's very difficult to stop her from scratching especially during the night when we were all asleep. I noticed 3 spots on her face was scratched rather badly, and I guess the scarring will be inevitable.

Bob trimmed her nails really short last night. I just hope that her amazing healing power will work it's magic again.

Chickenpox Spreading Islandwide

I spoke to the admistrator minutes ago, and informed her that Tara was diagnosed with chickenpox. She told me 3 other children were infected too and the school did a screening this morning. They had to turn away quite a number of kids as they have shown symptoms of the infectious disease.

The administrator told me that they have checked on the Ministry of Health website, which reported that there is an increase of chickenpox cases islandwide. I tried checking the website but I couldn't see anything related. Or maybe I'm checking on the wrong website?

Anyway, for those of you out there who has yet to vaccinate your child against chickenpox, you better do it soon. But even if your child is vaccinated, there will be chances that he/she will still get some mild symptoms. However, it will not be as bad as those who are not vaccinated.

And those who are pregnant, avoid crowded places. The disease has an incubation period of about 10 - 14 21 days before symptom starts to show, so you won't know you are infected till it's too late. For the sake of your baby, try not to go out too much.

I asked the administrator if they will be closing the school, she told me they are monitoring on this and will keep me updated.

Poor Tara, I saw quite a number of new red spots on her this morning. She's starting to get cranky too. I guess she must be feeling really uncomfortable.

Tara has chickenpox

Last week and yesterday, the school gave parents letters to inform about chickenpox cases in the school. There's only 1 case last week, from K1 class and yesterday, there were 5 cases. Only 1 case in Tara's playgroup class though.

About 3 plus today, when I was in my manager's room, my colleague intercom me and said Tara's teacher called me. I knew something wasn't right already, and told my colleague that I'm worried Tara might have contracted chickenpox since there's so many cases already. I returned call to the teacher and she confirmed the dreaded news. She said there's quite a number of red spots on her body, one on her right eye brow and one on her neck. I saw the vesicle on her brow last night, but I never thought much of it since Tara has no fever.

Bob wasn't able to pick Tara so I took time off work and went to her school. She was kept in the office and was crying when she saw me at the door. Teacher Ming Chue was with her. She showed me the spots on Tara's back and her neck. She said Tara saw her classmates going into the Nemo room (indoor playground) and was pretty upset that she couldn't go. Tara had a good appetite though, both the teacher and the administrator looked so proud when they said that Tara finished her tea.

We went to Kelly's clinic in the evening and the doctor confirmed she has chickenpox. Tara's only given calamine lotion, fever and itch medicine.

I had wanted to bring Tara for her chickenpox jab once her persistent cough goes away. But it's too late.

Tara is still as active as ever though. With only low grade fever. Now my only worry is that she will keep scratching the spots. Tara kept touching the vesicles and I stupidly told her not to scratch them, to which, she immediately did so. I should have just shut up.

Just now, I counted the number of spots while changing her for bed. Total 18 spots. See if there will be more tomorrow.

Hana Kimi

I have just finished watching the last episode of Hana Kimi on YouTube.

So sad that the show has ended.

The male lead is way too cute! And I thought cute guys don't exist anymore. I think his features are too perfect.

I felt I'm becoming a 16 year old all over again...

Conversation with Tara

On our way home after picking Tara up from school.

Tara: 我要听 zai！我要听 zai！(She wanted to listen to her favourite CD but she can't seem to remember the word 歌 despite numerous correction).

Me: Tara, 要听歌， 要讲清楚....

Tara: 清楚!

Actually I wanted to tell her to ask me properly. I tried again.

Me: 不是，要讲好好...

Tara: 好好!

I was in between laughing and knocking my head on the steering wheel! She didn't even wait for me to finish what I wanted to say!

This is what I wanted to tell her..

Tara, 要听歌， 要讲清楚, 你应该说，"妈咪，我可以听歌吗？Please."

Income Tax Submitted!

Whoa. I've never been so 'on the ball' before! My record was always submitting my income tax on the extended deadline!

I realised my income last year is higher than 2005, even though I didn't work for a month and I was in my current company for 3 months. Meaning to say that I only work 8 months on my sales job yet I earn more? Should be that fat comm cheque I received beginning 2006.

And I realised something else. I actually forgot that I was still eligible for the Grandparent Caregiver relief! I stupidly took it away, thinking that Tara was already in childcare but totally missed that fact that she started school this year, not last year! Last year, my parents are still the main caregivers! I want to shoot myself.

Guess I will just let Bob claim that.

Anyway, I'm happy. One task done.

Many more to go.

Biting Ants Attack!

Last night, Tara and I had dinner at my parents' place (Bob's away on business trip). We took the lift down with my Dad and after Tara said goodbye, we walked to the car.

The minute I placed Tara on the passenger seat, she started crying and scratching her feet. I took a closed look and saw many black ants on both her feet. And I saw this really big one biting the big toe on her right foot. Immediately I pull a piece of tissue and tried to pull the big ant away. The big guy refused to budge! It took me quite a bit of strength to finally pull it out. And when I removed Tara's sandals, I saw the bitten area starting to bleed.

It took me a while to remove most of the ants from both her feet. All the ants were biting my darling! I'm not spared either, but I only had about 4 or 5 bites, whereas I found at least 20 ants on Tara!

I was very worried about the bleeding wound though, and called up Kelly's clinic to check if I should bring her in for him to take a look. The assistant told me to do so. Kelly checked and told me that it doesn't look like an ant bite, which is supposed to be a just a hole. Tara's looked more linear and look like a scratch. I thought I might have scratched her in my haste to remove that ant. Kelly disinfect the area and said he can prescribed a cream if I want one. Since he said it wasn't an ant bite, I didn't ask for the cream.

When I reached home, I told my PILs about the ants biting Tara and the bleeding wound. My MIL said ant bites doesn't cause bleeding. Well, I'm not so sure about that but I had to use a bit of strength to pull the big ant out, so I'm not surprised if it caused a scratch there and then. Then again, I remember I used a tissue to catch the ant, so I don't think my nails would have scratched Tara.

On the trip to the clinic, a couple more ants still managed to get onto Tara's body to bite her, I was driving at a fast speed and I told Tara to smack the ant so it won't bite her. I said Mummy is very angry because the ants are biting my baby, I said tell the ants to go away. And almost immediately, Tara said "Angry! Go away!" and kept smacking herself, laughing away. Funny girl loh, still can laugh at this time. I was so worried. Even when we reached the clinic, there are still ants biting her! I even found 4 on her hankie!

I tried to recall the route that we took to the carpark prior to the ants biting episode. Both Tara and me only stopped once and for less than 15 seconds! I'm really not sure where the ants came from. I've already told Dad to go investigate and report to the RC (where he's a member) to do something on this. My Brother told me both he and her girlfriend was bitten before too. Around the same area where I parked.

Tara had nightmares last night and kept waking up crying. I'm not sure if it's the ants biting episode or still because of school.

But one thing for sure, I'm very sleepy now.

Just some updates on Tara

Yesterday, I was looking through my blog archives looking for one particular entry I've written last March. As I read through the old entries, I realised that I constantly write updates on Tara in the past. Unlike recently. So now, I will do a point entry of Tara's latest updates!

- Tara has gotten used to school initially, and on the day of her Daddy's birthday, she happily walked into her classroom without crying and whining. I told Bob maybe she knew it was his birthday, so she decided to behave. This went on for only 2 days only. After that, she fell sick and had to stay at home for a week plus. 2 days ago, she went back to school and reverted back to the whiny little baby. Gotta start all over again.

- Since 8 Jan, the day Tara starts school, she has fell sick 3 times. And for the month of Feb, she only attended school a couple of days. We even had to send Tara to NUH A&E cos her temperature shot up to 40.2! She wasn't admitted cos the doctor said she was still active. In her medical report, it was written that she was "active, singing and dancing".

- Little girl is fully toilet trained. Diaperless in the day starts from last September, and she stopped wearing diapers in the night a couple of weeks ago. Now I wonder what do I do with the leftover diapers? She has a little potty in the toilet and she always go there to pee and crap, by herself, or making us follow her. But she pretty much independent on this aspect. She even learnt to use toilet paper to clean herself, empty her urine into the toilet bowl, attempted to flush the toilet and also wash her own hands after using the toilet.

- Tara knows how to speak in short sentences. She's a full Mandarin convert now. We used to speak to her in English but from day 1 she started speaking her first words, it's more Mandarin than English, so I and Bob decided we will speak to her Mandarin and let her learn English in school. During the "transition" period, she will speak a mix of both, for example, "I 要吃面".

- She used to call herself "娃娃", now it becomes "Kara". Hope it will be "Tara" soon.

- Tara's starting to behave better, unlike the little monster months ago. And since she entered child care, she has grown really attached to me.

- I'm very strict with what she eats, and she has learnt that whatever she wants to eat, she has to ask me first. But there are still times when she will be offered some snacks there and then, and she will go into a major fit when I tried to take it away from her. No, don't tell me kids have to snack once in a while, and sweets are made for kids, and it's cruel not to let them snack, I don't believe in that. It's just a whole load of crap. She will get to taste all these food in future, so I'm keeping her healthy for now. But if she decides she hate all these junk, all the better. I'm glad Bob is standing on my side.

That's basically all for now.

Parents Dialogue Session

Yesterday, Bob and I attended the Parents Dialogue Session at Tara's school. The session is meant for the teachers to address any concerns of the parents, as well as for the parents to know more about what their little one is doing in school.

We were told that there will be a new Chinese teacher joining the playgroup (PG) class in March, that makes a ratio of 1 teacher to 5 children for the expanded class of 26. Teacher Yiang commented the 2007 class has really wonderful parents cos after the 3rd day of school, we never appear in school at unusual times to peep at our little ones.

After all the teachers have spoke to us, we were shown video clips of the class proceedings. The school understand that parents are anxious to know what their little ones do in class, how they behave etc.

We saw a total change in Tara. In the video, she was sitting down quietly listening to the teacher reading stories. She has never sat quietly to listen to stories before. And she was sitting by herself. Her favourite Auntie Chen, whom she held on for dear life during the first few days of classes without me around, was sitting some distance away. We were amazed! And she was really interested to volunteer herself during a particular activity in class. Singing and dancing was her favourite. She took a while to warm herself up to the actions though, prefering to watch more than to follow the actions. And I finally know why she did some funny actions when we were at home. She learnt them in school. That day, I taught her how to do "Gong Xi" while singing to the "Gong Xi ni" song. A few days later, she started going "Hey!" once I finished singing a line.

We got to see some pictures taken during dressing up corner play, Teacher Ming Chue told me Tara loved to dress up! Quite a few pictures was taken of her wearing different outfits. Bob wanted to buy the photos and I arranged with Teacher Ming Chue to develop all photos that has her in it.

There were photos of outdoor play too. And a few photos was taken when Tara was still clingy to Auntie Chen. She was standing on one side, holding Auntie Chen's hand and hugging her little monkey, watching the rest of the class play. She was crying on one photo, taken during the same session.

After the dialogue session, Bob and I were assured that Tara has finally adjusted to school life. I'm grateful to the school for holding this session, if not I would have thought Tara has yet to get used to school. Every morning and evening when Bob fetched her, she would cry a little and each time, Bob would feel a little guilty for leaving her there. Now that we know she actually enjoyed the classes, we believed the crying might just be a little habit that she has yet to grow out of.

Before yesterday, when I'm at work, I used to think of her a lot, whether she's crying again, or whether she's enjoying the classes, ate enough etc. But today, I know better.

Tara's 2nd Day @ School

I thought with the crying episode on Day 1, Tara will go into a major meltdown in the morning when I got her ready for school. To my surprise, she didn't kick up a fuss and even said school in a happy tone. Oh great, I thought, at least she didn't resist the idea of school.

While I was parking at the school carpark, Tara said "Mummy... 吃饭... 娃娃 (that what she calls herself these days).. 哭..". I was taken aback for a while, she actually remembered she cried when I went for my lunch the day before. I assured her I will be there with her the whole day, that school is nothing to be afraid of, there are so many things to play with, so many new friends, nice teachers and aunties.

Tara walked into the classroom without any resistance and was pretty excited to start the class. She refused to eat the breakfast of oats cooked with milk cos it's too bland for her liking. She happily joined the class for songs and dance but she kept her eye on me the whole time. I cannot go out of sight for even a minute and I can't even leave her side for long. Tara will be happily dancing and singing for one minute, and pulling me out of the chair to join her the next. I can't even go to the toilet.

Communication booklet. We will write any messages we have for the teachers, and vice versa, in this booklet.

There was a music and movement class today. Mats were placed on the floor. The teacher played the piano, called out a student's name and he/she have to take their place on the mats. I enjoyed the class tremendously but I can't say the same for Tara, she preferred running around the big room and I had to chase after her every now and then. Before the class ended, Teacher Red (Her chinese surname is Hong) wanted the kids to lie still on the mat and she will give stickers to those well behaved ones. Tara was still on a high and running around, but when she saw the other kids get their stickers, she quickly lie down on the mat and pretend to sleep. The little girl was so happy to get a sticker and was pasting it everywhere, until it could no longer stick.

Music & Movement class


Tara lying on the mat and waiting for her sticker.

The difficult part came when it was time to shower. Tara got scared and insist that I shower her. I stood at the side, watch her bawl her lungs out and resist from snatching the shower head from Teacher Yiang and showering her myself. It was hard. But I had to stop babying Tara, so I stood and watch and reassure her at the same time. It was only when I towel dry her that she finally stopped crying. I brought her back to the class where Teacher Cai was blow drying the kids' hair, two by two. Tara's hair didn't need any drying actually cos it's so little and so short. It took a mere 10 seconds to dry her hair.

Water play in the toilet. She loves it!

A video of Tara playing with water. She's the one in blue.




Teacher Cai drying Tara's hair.


Snack time! Her favourite fruit, papaya. She had 3 servings!


Lunch was spaghetti and she finished 2 bowls! Great appetite.

She kept asking me to take pictures of her while she was eating and purposely made funny faces when chewing the food. I took a video instead.



I spoke to Teacher Ming Chue about Tara. I told her Tara wasn't like that at home and she wasn't that attached to me. Tara was a pretty independent kid and was able to do quite a bit of things herself. Teacher Ming Chue said she could see traces of that (Tara being independent), commented Tara wasn't feeling secure in a new environment and need more time to get used to it. I said I don't intend to accompany her on Day 3 but the teacher wanted me to give Tara the full 3 days, of me accompanying her, that is. She told me to bring anything that Tara likes to school, for e.g. a toy, a bear etc. The only thing she loves most was holding her hanky and sucking her thumb, I told her. The teacher observed that I’m always trying to slowly distance myself from Tara and she said it’s a good method.


Her favourite place, the dress up corner.

After a story, the little ones queue to go into the Dory room for their afternoon nap. I had to go in with Tara. And during the half hour I "human sarong-ed" Tara to sleep, I was so impressed that the little ones were able to fall asleep without much fuss. I left for my late lunch after Tara fell asleep.

The Dory room. The kids packing up their sleep gear after the nap.

When I came back, Tara was awake and crying for me, again. It took me quite a while to calm her down.


Colouring an apple.

Her favourite time of the day was playing with dough. I made a little pig for her and I got her to make one herself. I pinched and rolled out little bits of dough and tell her to put fix it up herself. She was really cute, she actually picked up the pig body and stuck all 4 feet right underneath the butt area, instead of following the way I place the legs.

This was made by me.


This was made by Tara.

Classes ended at 5pm but I thought I will let Tara play for a while in the indoor playground. After 20 mins, while she was having fun with the kiddy rides and slides, I told her we are going home and she lightly pushed me, and said "No! Mummy 去吃饭! Bye Bye!". She wanted me to leave her!

Tara having fun at the indoor playground.

Oh well, kids.

Name Embroidery

I've decided to write this entry for those who's interested in the name embroidery thingy. The one I went to, it's on level 3 of Golden Mile Food Centre. The place is famous for army supplies.

This shop is called IVAN. Exact unit unknown. The flight of stairs you should take is the one which is just beside the level 2 toilet. When you reach level 3, go straight and you can see the shop on your left. IVAN charged at $3.50 per line of characters for non-towel or easy to sew material and $4.00 per line for towel material. Reason for cost difference, the thread on the towels always jam the machine.

There is also another shop just 2 units away called Stitch and Print, person in charge is Adrian and phone no. is 6293 9552. Adrian charge by per letter and if you kiddo's name is short (less than 6 characters, then it's worth it. For Tara, her full name has 15 characters, so it will cost me $7.50 a piece. That's why I went to IVAN.

I don't have IVAN's contact though. There's a uncle there who refused quite a no. of customers when I was there. Try approaching the young man instead. Don't go after work as the shops there close early.

Oh, by the way, I waited half hour for mine to complete. Hope this helps!

Tara's First Day at Day Care School

We enrolled Tara into a day care school in September last year. And today, she starts her first day of school. The school is Creative O, located at Creative Technology building in International Business Park at Jurong East. It's not very convenient if I have to take a bus, but heck, Bob is in-charge of chauffering the little lady everyday. And on days he's out of town, I get to drive his car so no issues there, besides, there is a straight bus from where I work, so no issues if I do have to pick her up after work.

I've been preparing for her school since a month ago. Buying all the necessities. Blanket, towels, baby pillow, toothbrush, mug, comb etc. I need to get lots of bottoms for her too, as the school's uniform is only a t-shirt. I even sent the blanket and towels to Beach Road to embroider her name onto. I'm told to write with the marker but I decided that sewing her name is much more permanent and definitely looks neater and nicer.

And I also bought a label machine just to print labels for her water bottle and mug. Over the top? Yeah, I know. But I can't help it.

I even made tags for her daily and weekly bag!

Can't see properly? A better view here.


Bob wasn't in town so I had to send Tara to school myself. I almost thought I couldn't make it cos I was running a fever last night. I'm still not fully recovered from food poisoning from my Kelantan trip (I'll update this later) and the symptoms are showing slowly. I popped 2 fever medication and hope that the fever will subside in the morning. And lucky, it did.

This morning, I kept telling Tara not to laze around and that she will be going to school soon. It's only when I put on her t-shirt that she realised she's indeed going to school, cos she looked at me wide-eyed, pointed at her t-shirt and said "读书啊?". The t-shirt is in blue, and I matched it with a blue shorts too. To make her less boyish, I put on a clip for her, but the clip did not managed to stay for more than 15 mins. Picture of Tara in her uniform.

While we were walking to the carpark, Tara refused to walk the usual path that leads to the carpark and instead, kept pointing to the front direction and after a while, I finally understood what she was trying to tell me. She thought that her school was the one 2 blocks away, the one my FIL brought her to every day on her morning walks!

It was a chaotic first day, as most parents of the playgroup kiddos are there. Quite a bit of bawling. Frankly, I can't understand why some parents would leave their kids alone on their first day in a totally unfamiliar environment. One little girl looked pretty scared and was crying quite a bit for quite a while. Tara was shy at first but after some sessions of singing and dancing, she relaxed and little and start mingling with the other kids.

Tara's own cubby hole!

Part of the school

Outside the school. My favourite part of the school.

Tara playing dough

Tara called out to the front during story telling. She's mimicking a dog woofing.

Playing at the make-pretend kitchen.

The little boy standing beside Tara is the son of a local Chinese DJ. The boy wasn't able to stand and walk properly but this Tara kept shoving him aside to play with the basin. I was half expecting the famous Mummy to come confront me.

It's really a PLAYgroup. They were playing most of the time, with dough and then with toys and make-pretend kitchen. There's also one session of story-telling which Tara didn't like. She never likes to sit down and listen to stories. She was roaming around while the other kids sat down quietly. And Tara totally loves the toilet. Because she loves washing her hands. She went to the toilet and the washing area for at least 5 times.

Tara loves to wash her hands

Lunch was rice with tofu, carrot and corn cooked in gravy. But Tara only ate a few spoonsful. Other kids were having 2nd and 3rd servings but Tara refused to finish her food. The school emphasize on training the kids to be independent and they have to clear their bowls and spoons themselves after the meal.

It all went well, even when I had to leave her side for a parents' briefing. She didn't come look for me and even bid me goodbye when I had to go out for my lunch. Everything went better than I thought. While I was having my lunch, I decided to change my plan. Initially, I wanted to go with the school recommendations of letting her stay till lunch for day 1, and for day 2, till nap time and full day for day 3. But since she was coping well, I decided to let her stay full days for all 3 days and I will accompany her full day on day 1, half day for day 2 and leave her there on the 3rd day.

But I didn't have a chance to go with my plan. When I went back to the school, Tara was just stepping out from the toilet after her shower, sobbing hard, calling for me. The teacher told me she was okay during my absence but started looking for me when she was having her shower. Her cries pierced through my heart. It was so heartwrenching. She clinged on to me and asked to go home. I tried talking to her, and hoping she will stay but she walked to the door and asked to leave the place. So I brought her home. In my haste, I forgot to sign her out and even forgot about her water bottle.

It's not a pleasant experience for her, I guess. Cos she kept waking up crying, during naps at my mum's place and even when she slept just now, she whimpered in her sleep. She's sleeping in the hall now and while I was typing this entry, she woke up suddenly and went looking for me, crying. It really breaks my heart.

I spoke to Bob earlier, and said Tara said she didn't want to go to school when I asked her and he said we just have to let go. Yeah, I know. But it's not easy. Especially after school today, she refused to let me out of her sight.

Now I just hope that Tara will be okay with school tomorrow. Crossing my fingers.

Tara's Little Adventure

Last night, we were lounging around the hall at Bob's aunt's place after dinner. Tara was sitting in front of the TV and rummaging through my bag, which she usually does when she's bored. I was reading my book and not paying much attention to her, but I know she was taking out the notes and coins in my wallet.

I heard Bob asking Tara where she wanted to go, and I saw Tara trying to wear her sandals, while clutching $2.10 in her small hand. Bob asked her again, where she wanted to go, and Tara said "钱! 买!". I told Bob maybe we shouldn't ask her and should follow her instead, to see what she's up to. So I thought I'd follow her, since I've got nothing much to do.

She put on her sandals, opened the door and walked to the lift. I followed behind her, never asking her where she was heading nor did I held her hand. I just went along with her.

She went in the lift and pressed level 1. When the door opened, she walked to the carpark. I thought she wanted to go to the minimart straight ahead but she made an abrupt turn and walked towards the wet market. She walked up the flight of stairs leading to the wet market, with my assistance of course. And when she reached the wet market, I told her all the stalls are closed and I thought she better not climbed another flight of stairs up the hawker centre on level 2. She didn't, and turned back towards the flight of stairs where we came from. She stopped right in front of the stairs and turned back and check on the stalls again, to make sure they are really closed.

Once she was sure the stalls are closed, she walked straight ahead to another flight of stairs, all the while holding the $2.10 in her hand, and with me following behind her. It was so surreal, I thought I was in some kind of TV show, looking at other kid instead of Tara. She was really sure of where she's going, just that she couldn't find her way, I guess.

She descended the stairs. I was smiling already, cos I know where she's heading. The minimart. Just that instead of walking straight from the carpark, she made a big round. I thought if she wanted to buy Yakult, I would give it to her, even though it's against my rule of no sweet stuff after 8pm. I thought the effort she went through deserves a reward.

And I guessed it, she walked straight to the minimart, but stood in front of the shelves of tidbits instead. She picked up a packet of Chetzels, put it down and picked up Super Rings instead, walked to the counter, and put Super Rings on the table and paid with the $2 (she dropped the 10 cents along the way). The auntie was pretty amused and was smiling away when she gave Tara her change. Tara pointed to the packet and indicated she wanted a plastic bag. After all her effort, it breaks my heart but I had to tell her she cannot eat the Super Rings, but I told her she will get a packet of biscuits instead. And the little girl actually took the Super Rings and put back onto the shelves. I told her she already paid for it so we have to take it, just that I will be the one eating instead of her.

We went home and she was happily telling Bob again "买! 钱!". I guess she wanted to tell Bob she went to buy something using money.

It was so funny. I have to blog about it. I must also scrap on it. Tara has understood the concept of money, and buying something with money.

I don't think I will find it funny if 10 years down the road, if she does the same thing; taking money from my wallet without my permission and going to buy tidbits which I don't allow her to consume.

But at only 2 years old, it's so darn cute, I hope I will never forget this little adventure of hers.