Decisions, Mecisions

After Nanny Siew Lian (Cat, I know what you're going to say. Even the name befits her 'role', rite?) suddenly got into a coughing fit for almost a week and the subsequent xrays showed white spots on the lungs, it was a mutual understanding that she would have to stop caring for Seo Yeon. 

Sigh. It had been a pretty comfortable arrangement for me with Nanny SL looking after Seo Yeon on a part-time basis so far. I could at least give myself some free time to run errands that had to be done without a child hanging at the hip. Especially those indulgent ones like manicures/pedicures, facials... And of course for times when En Bi had to be accompanied into class.


So from last week, I was suddenly thrown into the world that a few mommies I know have already been living in, i.e. the world of 'looking after the child by yourself only'. When Friday neared, it occurred to me that I had no backup to look after Seo Yeon while I bring En Bi for her Shichida lessons. I had no choice but to ask Uncle Tee for help because I knew that he was on leave that day to bring my cousin and her family around. At least I knew that they would all be able to help me with her for that 2.5hours. Their babysitting turned out to be relatively effortless because they brought her to the fish farm where she enjoyed herself tremendously feeding the fishes.


Prior to handing Seo Yeon over to Uncle Tee, I had decided to go along with Catherine for her appointments at Pibo and  Odyssey since I had some spare time, thinking that it would be good to look at some pre-schools in Bukit Timah area. It would logistically be quite reasonable to have Seo Yeon there since En Bi's school is in the vicinity . But the former was definitely out, while the latter was out-of-reach. Lucky Bernice is going there though!


After mulling the problem over the weekend and discussing the situation with Cat, I went down to S.E.E.D.S at both Tembeling and Katong Presbyterian Church today. Both principals were very professional and polite. Both centres had their pros and cons. Seo Yeon seemed very comfortable at both centres.... At Tembeling, Mrs. Yong led her to the PG area without me and she followed and even stayed there for a wee bit, playing with a toy before decided that she wanted to look for me. At KPC, she was wandering around and exploring the PG and Nursery area on her own while Vicki and I stood near her discussing.  I was still undecided.


We headed to Parkway Parade for lunch. Settled for Toby's because I wanted to try something new and didn't want to walk too far. The only satisfying thing about lunch was that I had come to a conclusion about where I will want to send Seo Yeon. I'll send her to Praise (exactly same curriculum as SEEDS) at KPC. We'll start our new adventure next week!

2 Hours Later and Still Wide-Eyed

Another night that the girls decided to drive me crazy. I had to seek solace with a warm cup of Milo and some chocolate in between putting them to bed. Yes! It took me 2 hours to get them to sleep! Oh gosh... save me....

She loves 'Tau Sar Piah'!

She loves her 'Tau Sar Piah' (which will henceforth be referred to as 'tsp')! I can't imagine a child having her Grandfather's taste for food. My father, i.e. Seo Yeon's grandfather, loves tsp. So we decided to let her try tsp one day many weeks ago and voila! There you go! We have a toddler in the house who loves tsp. 

Today is an extreme case. If you will see the food intake list for the day, you'll understand why I said that.

- 3 miniscule pieces of boiled sausages in the morning;
- 1 tsp; 
- half a 'yu gwa' (유과: traditional Korean oil-and-honey pastry);
- 1 tsp;  
- a serving of fries;
- half a cup of iced milo (her favourite drink);
- 2 small spoonfuls of rice;
- 1 tsp;

Not to mention 180ml of formula in the morning and before she sleeps.

The picture below shows the infamous tsp and yu gwa. Seo Yeon's 2 favourite foods. En Bi likes neither. 

So, altogether, we see this toddler eating 3 tsp in a day! Record-breaking. I look in dismal at her food intake in terms of quality as well as quantity. I start to hope that tsp contains something good so that she didn't take 3 in for nothing today.

May tomorrow be a better day for Seo Yeon's diet! 

Farewell Lana! Till we meet again!

Today marked the end of the 5-day trip of the Nguyens in Singapore. Oh! It was a short trip... Juanita, my cousin, usually stays in Singapore for at least 2 weeks each visit. Well, this time the visit was cut short because they spent the other half of their holiday in Bangkok. Just as well, I guess. Got to have some variety in the holiday destinations eh?

What's so special about this trip? We got to see lovely Lana! Such a cute little thing. The last time we saw her was when she was only a 6-month-old chubby baby. Now, this 2.5 year-old girl is running around, climbing up and down, with no care in the world.

I love it when she gives me countless kisses on my cheek without me even asking for it. I feel her sadness when it comes to farewells because she doesn't want to say 'goodbye' to us. Such a gentle bub.

I am really glad that I have more time to spend with the Nguyens this time. Previously, I was still working and hardly had any time to spend with time, short of taking a day off to bring them around. Even then, it's very different this time as I had the time to bring them around and also because we had the girls with us.

En Bi and Seo Yeon simply loved having Lana around. It was as if they had been playing together ever since. En Bi and Lana are just 8 months apart while Seo Yeon is a year younger than Lana. And Juanita is expecting another addition to the family soon. The timing is impeccable, one after the other! If only we stayed in the same country, they would be inseparable playmates! Just like Juanita and I, we're more than cousins, we're like sisters. 

So we sent them off to the airport this morning. Really glad that there technology has improved so rapidly, what with all the airplanes, mobile phones, internet, etc. It felt like they were going home in another town just nearby and not another country. No boohoo farewells where the separation at the gates only brought sadness, but happy goodbyes knowing that this was a good trip and we will see each other soon.

Goodbye Nguyens and see you soon! 

Maleficent, Mickey, & The Incredibles!

Disney on Ice!! Wow, thanks to Cat's early alert for Disney on Ice, not forgetting Cat's friend who helped us book the tickets, we got quite good seats! Expecting to be seated quite high up, but found myself walking further, and further, and further down. Cool!

Good view as well as there was no exceptionally tall persons sitting in front of us. Great great great!

Ok, enough raving about the seats. Let's talk about the performance... It's actually the 1st Disney on Ice performance for the girls. En Bi was happy about watching the whole Disney gang (except for 'Maleficent'). She was especially happy about 'The Incredibles' because that was one of her favourite cartoon movie about a year ago. Seo Yeon was not as excited as I imagined her to be when she saw Mickey and gang. Maybe because she still wanted to nap? But nevertheless, she was pretty much enjoying the show and popcorn.

I liked the effects like the glow-in-the-dark one when Mickey and Minnie visited the Haunted Mansion, the mini fireworks when Buzz Lightyear appeared, and the lighted-up march-in at the show finale.

We bought 2 souvenirs from the show. With Seo Yeon passing the 18-month mark, I don't imagine myself not getting 1 item each for the 2 girls, lest they end up in their catfights again. We bought the handheld 'Incredible' spinner as well as a plastic 'Violet' that, most unfortunately, ended up in halves by the end of the ride home.

It was all pretty much good apart from the heavy downpour, the slightly chaotic booth area where people just don't queue up to buy stuff, the traffic jam while leaving the carpark and area, getting out of the wrong exit on the way home... haha... WE ENJOYED OURSELVES! Yay!

Slacker, Busy Bee, & "Wailers"

Mamakim here is such a slacker when it comes to blogging.. It's just me. No excuses. Luckily I didn't make any New Year resolution on 'no more procrastination' or I'll really be biting my tongue now.

What happened during that void of posts? Well, I was supposed to post a summary of our Lunar New Year Bintan Getaway with the family. When Papakim gets back with the camera, I'll download the precious few photos that we took and do my short writeup. (Eeks, excuses, muhscuses..)

Latest happening: Frantic search for a suitable Playgroup for dear Seo Yeon. Now that En Bi has FINALLY started Nursery, Papakim thinks that Seo Yeon should be going to school as well. Hmm... Anyway, I've more or less narrowed the choices and will review it again. More updates on that when I finally make a choice.

To wrap it up, I'd like to share a discovery with you. My girls come from France. They are 'Wailers' hailing from France. All those who have interacted with En Bi definitely know how loud she is. Now, younger sister Seo Yeon doesn't have comparable volume, but she's catching up. Oh boy! They drove me almost crazy at the supermarket today with their crying fits. If anyone saw me there today with 2 'Wailers', please understand and empathise. Meanwhile, I'll work and pray harder.

En Bi at Nursery

Today, March 3rd, is the day that En Bi starts Nursery! Yippee! She didn't say "I doh wan, I doh wan" like she used to when she attended MMI. In fact, the 2-day orientation (that lasted 1 hour each time) seemed quite well thought-out on the part of the school. She seemed already familiar with her classroom and zoomed in straight to classroom without even saying 'bye-bye' to Mamakim.

For this week, we start off with a 2-hour day and will slowly extend it to 3 hours next week and to the full 5 hours the week after. Oh yes, and after meticulous consideration, many consultations with Catherine, and Papakim's usual 'You decide' (when he doesn't know which is the best choice), I've decided to fetch En Bi to and fro school. Putting a 3-year-old kid on a school bus for an hour... nah.. I don't think so.

Picked up En Bi 2 hours later and she was still very happy and energetic. Good! No more worrying about what goes on behind those closed doors in school that makes her upset and not want to go to school.

Good job, En Bi! We did it!

The Trial

Okay, I know, this could sound like some serious court case if it were on another blog. But wait a moment, this is a mommy's blog. So, when you see the word trial, you know what I mean :)

I just wanted to pen down quickly the 'happenings' of En Bi at Teacher 王's trial class at Berries. She was quite sticky, refusing to let me out of the classroom. This is usually what happens when we're late for class. (My pet peeve: We being late for classes.) Thus, the teacher encouraged me to sit in class with her. So I did. She didn't want to participate almost the whole while I was there. I slipped out of the classroom 15 mins later.

Went to pick her up and just quickly asked the teacher how she did, she gave me the 'thumbs up' sign. I was beaming. En Bi, I knew that you could do it. 

Mrs. Kim: En Bi, did you enjoy the class?
En Bi: Yes, Mommy.
Mrs. Kim: So, do you like 'lao shi'?
En Bi: Yes, Mommy. I like 'lao shi'. And my friends.
Mrs. Kim: You prefer 'wang lao shi' or 'wu lao shi'?
En Bi: 'Wu lao shi'.

Faint.

Now, tell me. What would you do?