I am so proud! :)

Yep, I'm so proud of my son, even though he got just an average of 70+ for his final year exams (which considering he's only in Primary One, many parents would have expected their kids to acheive much higher scores).

The main reason I'm saying myself being proud of Ee Zen is due to what he told me last night. His words still brings me to near tears even as I'm writing about this account now. ;)

Last night, he told me his form teacher announced the top three students in his class. When I asked how he felt when his teacher made the announcement (based on past experiences, my son usually gets upset when he's not being involved or fails to achieve something, even during games), he said these words, "I did not feel sad. I am still very happy, because I have done my best and passed."

Indeed, as he has been not very consistent in his paperwork, sometimes scoring full marks, while sometimes getting grades like 2.5/15, hubby and I don't really wish to add too much pressure at his Lower Primary stage. Our "expectations" of him are just he should do his best and try to pass all his school subjects. We know he is most often careless or "loses interest" afterall he has short attention span all along.

So, I'm just just happy to hear my son's words. Yes, mommy knows you have done your best and you're happy about it!" :)

The Silent Killer

86 year-old Mum in-law whom I has been staying with for the last 8 years is admitted today to private nursing care for treatment of suspected osteoporosis in her spine.

She has started complaining of backaches (she's quite headstrong, so any complain of pain would mean it's REALLY painful) and couldn't properly walk, get on and off the chair/bed since 2 weeks ago. There was an afternoon when we returned home to see her lying on the floor and soiled herself. Guess it was still a task we wouldn't complain, since I still am experiencing cleaning after my 2 kids, but it's no simple feat to clean a grown-up who may have fractured her backbones. Few days ago, she even suffered a nasty bump on her head as she couldn't steady herself while sitting on a stool. Hubby took her to a GP twice who admitted there's nothing much he could do except prescribe painkillers and recommend physiotherapy.

Hubby and his brothers debated on various options. Initially hubby and I were set on hiring a live-in domestic help to tend to her needs, but expectedly we would also required the other siblings' willingness to at least visit regularly and supervise. In the end, the conclusion was to admit her somewhere with fulltime medical care and physiotherapy service.

Though I'm somewhat relieved mum in-law is getting the needed medical attention (though I passed basic first-aid, I was quite anxious when I saw that nasty cut on her head after her fall and placed the gauze pads on the bloody patch), I still hope her condition may improve after the treatment and if she could be more mobile to return home. But I know if it's indeed osteoporosis, then could only hope physiotherapy and more calcium intake would help relieve her pain.

A month that passed in a blink!

October seemed to pass in an eye's blink. Perhaps it's because of the few major happenings which includes Ee Zen's first 'official' exams and the start of my art outlet at Liang Court.

I'm glad to note this venture somewhat allows me to bring my kids along, though admittedly I can't bring BOTH of them at any one time as they really treated the mall like their home, playing and running around. But so far it's manageable if I bring just one at a time, and that's when they could stay within the outlet and even helped around, like the other day when Shan Ee tagged along. :)

Ee Zen had a week's break from school due to PSLE's marking days and as it's right before the week of his first SA exams, I had to "enforce" he revised his files and at least went through those worksheets that he had to do corrections, especially with Maths which he is weaker and more careless with.

I must admit I'm lousy with tutoring my boy as he couldn't sit through more than 15 mins. But I noticed my boy worked better when he drew out images of the Maths questions. So his art lessons paid off in a way with these "visual aids"!

Last week's Children's Day happenings

Ee Zen and his daddy fell ill last Wednesday with possible stomach flu (possibly infected by his sister who fell ill the week before).

My boy was super upset that he was unable to attend school that day as his class was going to celebrate Children's Day with a class party. I was to bake some choc chip cookies for him to bring to school.

Well, didn't want to disappoint him too much, so I went ahead with baking the cookies after bringing him to the doctor, and they turned out quite ok, though I think the cookies were somewhat over-baked. :p

Anyway, I brought the cookies over to his school but expectedly, not allowed to enter the school compound and had to hand over the items at the General Office for someone to bring to his class. The school clerk certainly didn't look too happy having to run this 'errand'!

And the very next day, I was also feeling nauseous with a bad migraine, even threw up in the taxi to Liang Court (no choice, had to be there to receive some furniture delivery), but luckily I had a plastic bag with me. Thank goodness I was feeling well enough to last me through the Open House weekend.

open house weekend

It has been quite a while since Ee Zen acted hyper at public places.

He was his usual self on Saturday evening when hubby brought him and Shan Ee to fetch me after the Open House. But yesterday morning, he went back to running and lying around at the mall when I brought both of them to the outlet as I was shorthanded this weekend.

Don't know if it's the crowd at the Open House that overwhelmed him or it could be due to one of the younger kids pouring back his Hama beadings that he so patiently did for Shan Ee (Sorry, Ee Zen!). I tried to ask him to bead again, but guessed he was too upset (hence turned hyper).

I tried to restrain a reproaching tone and ended up feeling upset (and defeated) with myself. :p So I just left him like that and "allowed" him to run around the mall and played near the escalator (*gasp*, I know. I tried to pull him away from it and made him sit on the stool in one corner, but he was back to running almost immediately) with Shan Ee tagging behind him.

I was afraid he and his sister might fall in the course of their run or knocked into people or kids as the corridor was rather narrow. But I was too tired to chase after them, after a couple of rounds while the regular class was going on.

I guessed my boy was also feeling very shy to meet a longtime friend as JJMummy brought Joy Joy and Jaz to the Open House yesterday morning. Thanks, JJMummy, really appreciated your support to drive the kids all the way to Liang Court amidst your busy weekend schedule. :)

long-overdue library book

Despite my reminders and asking 7 year-old Ee Zen about returning his school library book, I found that book still lying in some corner of our home this morning.

Maybe it's because of my stomach flu yesterday, I wasn't in the best frame of mind to talk to my son. I was very upset and felt like a monstor interrogating my boy about him lying he has returned the book every time I asked him about it.

It has been more than 1 month since I found out about this long overdued book (it was already several weeks overdue then) and I've been reminding him to return it and asking if he has returned the book every few other days. So, one can imagine how upset I was when I found this 2-month overdued book hidden in some obscure corner of the home.

Now, I'll need to accompany him to school yet again and make sure he returns it TODAY. Expectedly, my boy is very upset that he can't take the school bus today and possibly face a round of reproach by the teacher of the school library. But he has to learn the fact that something borrowed would need to be returned as promised.

"Soft" opening

I've been too caught up at home (Shan Ee fell ill last week and Ee Zen caught the bug yesterday, not mentioning me and hubby also catching some degree of the bug too!) and stuff that I almost forgot to share about the start of my new unit at Liang Court. :)

Due to quite a few non-approvals and glitches from contractors, I need to settle for a "soft launching" this coming Saturday 3 Oct. Operations would start from 3 Oct as we have few on-going regular classes, and I hate to inconvenience the parents and their kids too much. Hope they would understand and accommodate just for this weekend, promise would rush that contractor every single day to complete the fixture off-site and send it in next week!

So if you can come by even to just say "hello", please excuse this interim messy setup. :)

Reminded

I hope JDbaby wouldn't mind me tagging one of her previous posts which I felt hit the nail on what I just commented in my earlier post. It's a good reminder to perhaps make me feel a little better. :)

confused yet heartened

A friend commented I seem to be too lenient with my kids, I always give in to their wants and needs when we're out. But hubby felt I have been raising my voice too much at them at home, wanting them to adhere to my 'wishes'. I'm really confused by this two different poles of thoughts, just how am I treating my kids?

I decided not to be too troubled by these comments, even if it comes from hubby. Guess it's my PMS at work again, just making no sense of how I feel. :p

Only redemption point was that I noticed given 7 year-old Ee Zen's playful nature (can't help but associate with Jim Carrey's antics lately...), it meant he could still sing "kiddy" nursery rhymes and play "kiddy games" with his 2 year-old sister. I'm guessing some Primary school-going kid may see this as "babyish", but it certainly doesn't bother my boy.

So, there are some peaceful moments that my 2 kids can be, though it usually ended up with "babyish" fights too like the other day...

OH well... :)

crossing the boundary again

7 year-old Ee Zen went down to wait for the school bus without waiting for me to accompany him for the umpteenth time, despite promising to wait for me and for the rain to clear earlier when I took him to breakfast this morning. I guessed because my mum was around, my boy conveniently thought someone would definitely run after him even if mommy wouldn't because mommy wants him to answer his own consequences. I am feeling rather disheartened and wonder when would my boy comprehend our intentions to accompany him because he is not ready to look out for traffic dangers. Just this morning, he stopped in the middle of the street we were crossing and I had to drag him to cross quickly. I know he thought it was like a fun game, or perhaps this is the nature of most boys to dare limits of boundaries? But it still bothers and upsets me.

Praises after Praises...

Thanks to the mommies who wrote me replies. I tried to step up my "dates" with my 7 year-old. Brought Ee Zen out to the nearby coffeeshop for breakfast for 2 weekdays when I could be off work. I think it did help to improve his temperament somewhat. :)

Most importantly, I tried very hard to capture every little positive gesture that he did and immediately praised him for it, like when he said nice things to his sister, tried to put things back neatly...

On the days he still did the dangerous thing of not waiting for me or my mom to accompany him downstairs for the schoolbus (even went and waited by the main road all by himself on these occasions), I made sure he saw how upset and sad I was, though his partial memory ability meant it was quite forgotten by the next day. Aye...

Never mind, would still try my best to catch all those little positive gestures and remember to praise and praise and praise.

I want to wear diapers again

Ee Zen is back on his sibling-jealousy moods and has been trying to gain attention with biting his sister. Yesterday was the final straw in the car. I wished I was mistaken but the teeth marks and what looked suspiciously like saliva stains on Shan Ee's arms proved otherwise. :(

Tried my best to restrain my tone and just gently scolded him. Expectedly, my 7 year-old boy threw into a temper fit and kept whining "why you and papa always like Shan Ee more? Just because she is baby and I'm not!". The volume of his voice can be quite resounding in the car, gave me a headache.

When Ee Zen saw I bought a large pack of diapers later that day, he suddenly said "Mommy, I want to wear diapers again tonight!", "Why do you want to do that? You can go to the toilet in time now.", "Because I want to be baby again and be like Shan Ee, still wear diapers to sleep".... aye, >_< must be his jealousy at work again.

Feels Like A Family Reunion (almost!)

I was really glad to see many familiar faces at the NDP this year (even though it was just from a TV telecast ;p), faces of people whom I had met and worked with at some point in my life.

Besides Electrico who wrote this year's theme song , I was pleasantly surprised to "meet" the Indian Bharatanatyam lead dancer, the pipa and erhu musicians who were all familiar faces. :)

I suppose, with someone from the performing arts segment being appointed NDP artistic director this year (if I'm not mistaken), it's no wonder the platform has risen for these not mass public-known but nonetheless very talented people. Kudos!

if there is a chance...

This is a very good video on what happens behind the scenes of a theatre's post-production. Dear friends, does it remind you of our productions (especially the part of saying goodbyes on stage and demolishing the set, haha...)? :) Anyway, I'll definitely sign up for the chorus audition of this musical if it's re-running. someone, please let me know if there is going to be an audition! But don't know if i'll be over-aged or deprived of energy by then?!