No, No, No

Ethan is getting smarter each day. His recent favourite are " No", "No nah", " No No No". He literally "sings" the "Nos" in a sweet baby melody :)

Me " Ethan, bath time"

Ethan" No"

Me "Ethan, come over"

Ethan " No nah " (giggling away and trying to escape. I caught him and managed to put him into his bath tub)

Me " Ethan, time's up! Let's get dressed" ( after soaking for some 5mins or so)

Ethan " No No No" (showing me a mischievous face while blinking his eyes)

Reading and Comprehension

I am glad that we still can carry on our weekly sunday class.

The girls have developed strong interest in reading the Disney fairy tales. Nicole had read the same book (Cinderella) so many times that she could recite the paragraphs without referring much to the book.

The girls have gradually mastered the basic reading skills and as such, this has facilitated their mathematical progress. They are now able to read some basic descriptive questions and thus derive the mathematical equations. Nicole was quick to take a shortcut. After reading the first question, she gathered that the next would be described in a similar manner. So, instead of reading the question, she just picked out the numerals and added them together :( Well, she wasn't wrong but that was surely not the intent!

We recently added a companion to Greenie. Nicole named it Smartie :). So, the girls were having a fun time drawing Greenie and Smartie after the lesson was over.

Division finally!

The last step to basic maths - Division.

After a couple of lessons with Nicole, she now has a fair idea of division. She knows that it is the "opposite" to multiplication. I taught her to use "reverse multiplication" to solve the division problems and she seemed to understand the trick.

I guess the next stage for her would be the descriptive problems. This would show if she has really understood it. My next project with Nicole!

Nicole's new pet :)

Nicole's new found pet - a snail from the vegetables!

My mom found it while washing the vegetables and it is now added to Nicole's pet list :)

Write and write :)

Nicole was in the mood to write. So, I got her some exercise books to capitalise on her new found interest.

She managed to write/copy those 3 chinese characters (xiao wu gui) on her own while I was putting Ethan to bed. I don't know how she did it but she was just able to put the strokes at the right place though I could tell that the strokes were not placed in the right sequence :)

I am pleased that Nicole is making good progress in spite of my absence during the day. I make it up by spending more quality time with her on some weekdays and certainly during weekends:)

Junky lunch

Nicole was cranky for no good reasons. She wanted to eat "junky" food and I refused her of it. Finally, we compromised. We had Japanese for lunch. The kiddy menu was not exactly very healthy. The bento came with fried chicken cubes, sushi rice decorated with hotdog pieces and some french fries. Nicole was just so happy to have her junky food "twice in a blue moon" as she put it :)

Nic " Mommy, I had junky food yesterday and I am having it again today. Twice in a blue moon, you know? haahaahaa"

Role play - The King and the Queen

Nicole was trying to stage a fairy tale performance. She wanted to be the Queen and she nominated my dad to be the King and most hilariously, my mom to be the maid. I was just watching and enjoying the process :)

Nic " I am the Queen"
Me " Oh dear, the wicked Queen?"
Nic " No, I am sleeping beauty's real mother, the good Queen"
Me " Oic, I thought you were the wicked Queen - Cinderella's stepmother"
Nic " No way. I am going to apply make up for all of you. I will start with the King" (she climbed onto the sofa and tried to comb my dad's hair while my dad tried to resist being "tortured")

Dad " I think it is good enough. The King says so"
Nic " No, not done yet. STOP MOVING ABOUT"
Dad " How can you raise your voice at the King? The King is the most powerful person"
Nic " because the Queen is very angry!! STOP MOVING, I SAID"

It just went on and on. We all just couldnt help laughing and teasing Nicole throughout :) She even twisted her own script to suit her needs.

Nic " Popo, now you be the Minister. The Minister is the most powerful person in this kingdom"
Me " huh? more powerful than the Queen?"
Nic " Ya"
Me " Oic, then only the Minister can sleep in the aircon room since she is the most powerful person in this kingdom"
Nic " No, the Queen will sleep in the aircon room. I will kick the Minister out!"
Me " You can't do that. The Minister is more powerful than you"
Nic " Then I am the Minister now! Do you hear me?"

3D Christmas Tree

Nicole's 3D christmas tree! It should be standing but I can't make it stand :(

Work life balance

This would be my third week at work. So far things are looking fine. People are approachable generally. Lots of projects in the pipeline and I guess I just need to prioritise.

To-date, I am able to leave the office at decent hours but I do sign onto Blackberry at night after the kids are asleep just to get some work out of the way. I am happy with the arrangement. I still get to spend 1 to 1.5 hours with Ethan before he sleeps. Thereafter, it would be a 1 to 1 private session with Nicole.

Ethan has settled down nicely in his school and he enjoys being in the company of his friends. Though all in the same toddler class, Ethan is the youngest of all. The other 3 toddlers are reaching 30 months old and they are due to be promoted to N1 next January. They really dote on Ethan and treat him like a real baby :) I am thankful for it!

I did it!

Thanks to the rain today, I finally dug up my courage to manouvre the steering wheel which I thought I had it burried more than a decade ago.

I have this fear of driving though I am legally fit to drive. In the absence of Lawrence, who is again travelling, I drove my family to a shopping mall after trying to flag for a taxi for over 15mins but in vain! I am now much more confident just after one trip. I must qualify that I didn't park the car at the shopping mall, Dad did! haha

When I sms-ed Lawrence who is currently in Shanghai, he was overjoyed and couldnt believe that I actually did it! He has been pestering me to drive for the past 5 years but I just turned a deaf ear :) I guess the next thing to do is to re-learn reverse parking, without those sticks at the driving school :( Another uphill task for me !

Bento #3

Quick and easy to prepare - simple and healthy.

High calcium Milk bread with pure pineapple and mango jam (no additional added sugar) AND the other with organic honey and avocado.

Some grapes and bite size oreos.

My brave little girl!

Nicole went for a school excursion. The children were under instruction to walk two by two, holding hands. Nicole and her partner happened to be the first pair of children walking towards the reception area. I believe the 2 of them were all so excited and walked ahead of the rest and soon they thought they were lost when they couldnt see the rest of the children. Nicole was very brave. She didnt cry. She led her friend to the receptionist.

Nic "Hi, my name is Nicole and I am from XXX school. We are lost. We are looking for Ms S."
Receptionst " Oh dear! Let me try to contact your school"

Before the receptionist could react to the situation, Ms S appeared from behind. Apparently, Ms S had been following the kids but they were too short to notice her amongst the crowd.

Both Ms S and the receptionist showered Nicole with praises and the receptionist rewarded Nicole with a lolly pop.

Receptionist" You are a good girl. I give you a lolly pop"
Nic " No thanks. It is made in China and my mommy says I can't have it"

The adults just broke into laughter in admiration of her maturity :) Ms S communicated the situation to me and I was very thankful that Nicole did not panic and was able to handle it well :)

The Lord's plan for me

I don't know how to put this...because it came so quickly that I didnt have much time to digest.

I wrote much earlier that the market demand for tax folks is still strong and growing despite the economy downturn. Since I left my job, there have been numerous aggressive head hunters knocking on my door for various roles which I had politely declined as I wasn't ready to get back to work as yet. The roles were varied, ranging for department heads to senior regional tax managers in organisations of various sizes and industries, many of which were US MNCs.

As you could imagine, my heart was a little unsettled given the constant "knocking". So I prayed. I told God not to send me any jobs in US MNCs in which I would have to deal with night conference calls. I also told the Lord not to give me a job which requires extensive travelling, if it was His will that I returned to serve Him in the workforce. Indeed, the Lord heard me and had been busy drafting out the best path for me.

One fine day, this head hunter called for a post with a Singapore listed company and I thought the scope was interesting as it met my requirements. So, I agreed to the interview which took place on a Friday morning. Guess what, as soon as I got home, before I even had the chance to remove my heels, my phone rang. The head hunter called informing me that the CEO wanted to meet with me on Monday morning. Wow! I thought that was efficient and I agreed to it. The next thing was the verbal offer which came on Tuesday. Then, it was the "cooling period" for me to consider the offer. After some ding-donging, I accepted the revised offer and I signed on the dotted line on Friday! Phew!!....I don't know how it happened but it did!

Knowing that I needed to form a team, the Lord had also arranged for my ex-colleague to join me. The timing is just perfect in every sense. Perfect for my ex-colleague who is working in UK now and will be joining me in January 2o09.

And I am back to work now, by God's grace! So, from now on, I would probably have less time for my blog but that said, I will still keep it alive :) Please do pop over every now and then. I would probably update it 2 to 3 times a week, instead of on a daily basis!

Isn't it just so miraculous? God's timing is just perfect. Ethan was ready to go for half day toddler class last month which I would have otherwise sent him for a 2 hour playgroup anyway. With Ethan under professional care, my heart is settled and I am able to focus on my job now. The Lord's plan for me has always been so perfect and seamless and I am counting my blessing everyday!

"I can whistle"

Nicole has picked up "whistling" recently. No tune but good enough to catch attention. I dont know how she managed to do it when I can't do it myself :(

Me " nicole, who taught you whistling?"
Nic " Nobody"
Me " Nobody? then how did you do it?"
Nic " I figured it out myself"

Huh? I was impressed by her response. "I figured it out myself"....I wonder how? :)

Christmas tree ornaments

Christmas is just around the corner, hence the theme! This is part one of the art work. The kids are going to decorate their christmas tree with all these beautiful ornaments next week:)

Simple Sunday lunch

It was a peaceful Sunday. Parents are in town and they love Din Tai Fung's Xiao Long Bao and so we patronised it again. We had the usual stuff, beef noodles, fried rice etc etc and the must have Xiao Long Bao.

We walked about at the mall briefly as Lawrence had to rush back to finish up his work. He had an early Monday morning meeting to chair and there went the rest of his sunday afternoon:(

Bento #2

Another creation just to give Nicole a surprise!

- Home made pancakes, one with hazelnut spread, the other with organic honey and avocado.

- Strawberries, apples and pineapples.

- Cheese cube and almond nuts.