When your in-laws have 10 siblings each and your parents have 7 from each side, Eid is a frantic affair. Its the 2nd week of Eid with no end in sight- it will get even busier before I get a chance to kick back and let the kids open up their green packets (at the moment neatly piled together labelled 'Hana' and 'Sara', because I'm anal like that).

Being pregnant has its pros and cons over Eid. There's food glorious food at every house, I'm sure I just got lots heavier over this past week alone. Everyone would smile encouragingly when I stuff my face at every house. They would nod in understanding as I sit like a permanent fixture at the buffet table and go for 2nd and 3rd servings- family.. gotta love them.

But with all that houses to cover (12 houses this weekend alone!!), my feet has shown signs of swelling. Housework is virtually nonexistent and I have had to learn to co-exist with dust balls at every corner of my house. Note to self: start looking at biodatas for Helpers by end month.

What I love most about Eid is the catching up with the old folks- we only see them once a year after all. Arissa is always interested to know which side this old, wrinkly folk came from- Nani? Nenek? Atok? late Atok? And I in turn get a refresher course about the varying branches and sub-branches within our combined massive family tree, and its origins- Guangdong, Palembang, Banjar Masin, Melaka- they all started as FTs you know... :p

Its a journey back to one's roots and my MIL is always happy to tell and re-tell the glorious tales of their life journey.

I'm just happy to capture the special moments when these munchkins act cheeky. They fight like cats and dogs, biting involved, but when there's love they can be oh-so-adorable.

Congratulations to my brother, Shahril for successfully persuading a beautiful woman to marry him.

And Emilie Joson, we embrace you as a new SIL and a new Muslim.

Amin Ya Rabbal Al-Amin.

Hola again!

Four months of writer's block (although I'm not exactly calling myself a writer here), but that's a long time to be away from blogging. I just got a little bit more involved with short-form writing- called Facebook- and started to get chills at the thought of writing longer pieces.

So anyway, where did I leave off? The P1 registration drama, but of course. Anyhow, I went with my initial gut instinct and now it is decided my firstborn will go to a neighbourhood school called Greenwood Primary School where P6 pass grade is "above average" and there is Mendaki tuition in school on weekends. Its a bit more comforting to put her in an environment I'm familiar with, to be honest. And the moment I walked into the school on registration day, I'm greeted by an assuring banner that says "You have made the right choice. Thank you for entrusting your child with us at Greenwood Primary School".. if there ever was a sign from God to allay my fears, then that would be it. If not from God, then at least the School Principal, whatever.. my doubts are laid to rest for the moment.

Next.

Moving the family logistics to Woodlands once again. I've put in the internal transfer form for Sofia to be moved to a My First Skool near home. We will next engage a Helper, hopefully someone just as good and low maintenance as my last one. I put a call to my previous agent and was left feeling totally ripped off. Higher agency fee, higher salary, less work days (if contract starts 2013) but absolutely NO GUARANTEE of a more efficient or more proactive Helper because, hey, that depends on my luck. What ghetto justice is this?! Last I checked, my luck is free.

So anyway because we need one desperately.. we will start looking at biodatas after Eid. Something I'm not very excited about.

In the meantime, I'm 'happily' putting the two girls through bottle weaning and teeth (not tooth!) extraction (Arissa) as well as toilet training (Sofia). I shamelessly dangled a $2 bribe per tooth that Arissa pulls out on her own and she has given me 2 teeth so far, saving up money to buy herself more 'Little Pet Shop' toys. As long as the craze is there, I will continue to milk it! ;p

My brave little 'Toothless' 
 

Also in the works was getting their room ready, that's Daddy's gargantuan task and getting them  accustomed to sleeping in it, which is my endless job it seems! A month and a half later, I'm still sleeping on a mattress in their room, foregoing my resplendant new King bed- a true mark of a Mother's sacrifise might I add!

Before

 Not-Fully-After

And this last piece of news is the best..

I am now 7 month pregnant with a baby boy. :)

Alhamdulillah. Amin. Now can close shop without feeling guilty.

My 6-year plan

I've always wondered what the P1 registration fuss is all about.

To an untrained mind like mine, it could not be any simpler- just enrol the kid into the school nearest to home, like my parents did. The parents save transport money, the kids save sitting-in-bus-looking-out-window time in exchange for stoning-in-front-of-the-telly time and we're all set. Right?

WRONG.

Here I am 3 months away from the start of registration and my browser's most-visited site is the Ministry of Education website. Here's what I don't understand-

1) why are all the schools moving to single sessions?
2) why are all the oversubscribed school double session-ed?

I have a feeling its connected. I mean, seriously, who wants to deal with a 7 year old at an ungodly 6am. Mine won't even volunteer to shower at 8am, she says it will give her runny nose (and I agree). And heartland schools like Northland is oversubscribed by 200%, that's got to be a joke right..

My initial plan was exquisitely simple- we would enrol Arissa in a primary school where me and hubby are alumni. It is 3 minutes walk from Mum's house and has been around long enough (all my lifetime anyway) to be erm..fairly.. reputable. At least among the community living within the 1km radius of it. Hey, I'm not that ambitious and the last thing I want to do is stress my kid out just as she's heading down the long and winding path of lifelong learning. Two of her cousins are also there and they seem pretty well-rounded and what was that damn tagline they were feeding us... oh yeah "every school is a good school", I could.not.agree.more. Its all about the kid's attitude anyway, isn't it. Or so I thought.

Enter the illustrious Rosyth Primary school into the picture, about 7 mins walk from Mum's house and offering afternoon sessions- a very attractive package indeed for someone who lives 20mins from Mum's house and has been dreading the 6am wake-up call. Until 2013 that is, when they move back into their newly-renovated school compound in Serangoon North.

"Rosyth is a very good school tau Rin," says Mum and my MIL.

"Ya every school is a good school but primary school is the foundation aper! If you send them to a crap primary, they go to a crap secondary and then they get nowhere," comments a cousin.

All I'm picturing is Arissa turning out to be a cashier at NTUC Fairprice where the prices aren't all that fair and the remuneration benefits will see living in a cramped 74sqm house in Jurong Extension. Horrors!

I feel obliged as a good parent to start her out right. And stress is part of the Singaporean life so let's start her early so she gets used to it by the time she's 20. True?

So as my whole plan disassembles before my eyes, and my brains tries to come up with a brand new, spanking mad 6-year strategy involving temporarily changing my I/C address to Ang Mo Kio and buying a flat in Serangoon North by 2013.. I am taken aback by my kiasu-ness of this whole exercise. Its supposed to be that simple, why am I making it so damn hard on myself?

The husband used to laughed it off but he's slowly starting to get involved in my numerous mad-hatter plans- A, B, C through F. Lets see how it pans out in July. In the meantime, I could really use this holiday:

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P is for Potty Training

I'm so proud to report that the baby of the family is settled well into her childcare routine and absolutely loving the experience (unlike Big Sis who still clings and tears every Monday/Tuesday morning, but that's another story). She has always had the independent streak and 9 solid hours without Mummy...? Pah, not buggered.

Every morning, she rabbit hops into the centre cheekily. She kisses me with gusto at the door then runs off to chuck her bag and bottle into the cubby hole and join her buddies in the music room.

Her vocabulary is also growing, mostly in English/Singlish at this stage although Arissa and I do converse to her in Malay: Daddy, where are we going? / This is yours / No!! That is my one.. are the most common phrases. The rest are a mish-mash of gibberish and actual sentences which no one fully understands.

She has also learned to put on her shoes all by herself. I was bursting with pride when she pushed me away and sat down to figure out her Lacoste mary janes with its complicated loops. I'm not sure how long I waited, must've been a good 4 minutes but she did a great job of putting the shoes on the right foot and pushing the velcro end through the loop and fastening it properly.

Her A to Zs are coherent, 1 to 10s are perfect, even 一 to 十 is making sense to me!





And among all these milestones, the one that made me throw up my hands and clap in sheer delight is when she daintily perches on my toilet seat and lets the flow come through. At first, she looked mildly stunned then grinned hesitantly at the new experience. Wheeeee! Toilet training in the works soon enough!
ps: if I have the ..energy.. to toilet-time her. otherwise, let's wait til she's 3 please..

Tribute to Whitney

Warning: the next post is narcissism in full swing (pun intended).

Everytime I go to Omar at Tresses Couture, I hyperventilate at the cost of a haircut.


I come back, whine and whinge on Facebook and always get amazing responses..


Whether its a 'Whitney' or a 'Halle', 26 'likes' is good enough reason for me to keep going back. Now, if only I wake up to a head of voluminous hair every day!!

Catching Up

I got lazy filling out the last day of HK where we visited Ocean Park. It wasn't as exciting to me, perhaps the weariness from a full day expedition to Disneyland hadn't worn off before we had to drag ourselves to another amusement park.

Even the dolphins at Ocean Park shared my sentiment and refused to perform that day. In the end, everyone decided we've had enough of amusement parks and instead headed off in search of other (gastronomical) pleasures.

These 2 places were our salvation, finally I got to delight in some Hong Kong food proper.

ISLAMIC CENTRE CANTEEN serving dim sum + Cantonese cuisine
40 Oi Kwan Road
Wan Chai

MA's RESTAURANT serving Northern Chinese cuisine
::address tba::

For once, even the kids seemed to truly enjoy their meal asking for doubles and triples. Maybe I should starve them more often at home, so they learn to appreciate food!

The one thing we created on our HK trip is a theme-parkaholic. Big Sis just couldn't get enough of it. Sapna convinced Arissa to join in on her company's Family Day at USS right after we unpacked from our holiday..




but no... not in Paris. *i wish*

For someone decidedly timid, whose most-used phrase is "...but I'm scared", she surprise me with her display of courage the moment we get past the park gates. I get sick easily so theme parks and me, we never get along but she convinced Mousey Mummy to get on the 3D Transformer Ride and some crazy roller coaster where I was yelling my lungs out. I should've just hung out with Anish while she takes Godma along with her, my mettle is not made for any vomit-inducing thrills.

When Godma is on a roll, she gets nutty on big adventurous outings- next she promised the kiddies a zoo trip. It was Arissa's fifth trip to the zoo, Sofia's second, Anish's third (seriously they average 1 zoo trip per calendar year) but the first time actually buying the tickets for me, and I felt cheated that a whole day at our award-winning zoo costs less per child than an hour at Kids Explorer. And they learn more too!


**Last photo with the Helper before she goes home?! :(

And with January, comes the most important day of all- the husband's birthday. He turns 36. THIRTY SIX.. omg, neither of us could come to terms with it- we kept counting and recounting until finally he admitted that yes! he is an old fart. The conversation during dinner centered around our soon-to-be-set-up retirement fund.. *pah*


Then comes one exciting Anderson Secondary School Class of '93 reunion, in time for Lo Hei. We celebrate one school mate coming home from the States (for a holiday) and another leaving for Canada (for good). Someone decided it was funny to look at old photos of our prom night and I almost died laughing!



Since we enjoyed the gathering so much, Aisyah decided to organise another one in quick succession as a 'going-away' dinner for our dear friend, Siti Aminah, who is relocating to Perth. Perth!! Sigh..

one with the boys..

And so....with the start of a new year and the end of CNY, its crunchtime (read: building on that retirement fund). C'mon water dragon, take me on a thrilling ride this year (just make sure I take my motion-sickness pill beforehand).

Disneyland: Welcome to the Magic

By the time Day 3 rolled around, we were pretty much into all things Hong Kong including learning the different ways to speak and learning the meaning of certain mispronounced words. Our tour guide, Tim, was a funny guy and often referred to himself as Andy Lau.

The one that got everyone cracking on the bus was when he joked, "When Hang Kang powlis want to catch thief, he will run vely fast beco he go thlu 18 monks physica twaining.. he run vely fast in the opposik dilection!" Now, if you didn't get that don't bother going to Hang Kang. :)

So thankfully the day arrived when we will get a full day at Disneyland. The girls were so wound up at this stage too, having waited a full 2 days on top of the month long wait to get to Hong Kong. We were also to join up with my brother's family (they are booked into Hollywood Hotel in Disneyland and had a headstart).

Sofia's typical breakfast- haiz...

almost there!!

hip hip hooray!! we finally made it..

a rare smile for the camera.

And the moment, we entered the gates (and sneaked in our foodstuff), I was lost in wonderland. In all my worldly travels with my parents, we have never been to Disneyland. I was as excited as the kiddies, hence proving it a place "where adults become children".

I handed Arissa the map and time guide and told her today is her day- that we will do everything she wants to do. Her little face immediately lit up "everything ker Mummy?" so I had to bring her back down a little "well, most things ok?" I don't want her to think she can eat lollipops for lunch and stand on her head while riding the Cinderella Carousel.

So the map pretty much stayed with her the whole day as she tried her darnest to decipher words on it, a really good spelling exercise mind you!


While waiting for the rest of the clan to arrive, we hopped on the tram that took us on a parameters tour and got off back at the main entrance to be met by a long snaking queue that was Mickey & Minnie- Meet & Greet. This was about as close as we got, the hub and I never could be bothered with queues..


One photo for posterity and then we're off to explore Fantasyland (Flower Earring aka Angel from Lilo & Stitch included)..


The Cinderella Carousel is a perfect ride for me and Sofia- its safe, it doesn't give me vertigo and it plays beautiful music. We took this maybe half a dozen times, every time we pass by here Sofia insists to get on it. Again. See how happy I look- haha? :)



Even Hafidz couldn't resist the lure of all things golden and made of kiddy dreams..


The following rides in Fantasyland included Winnie the Pooh:




..Dumbo the Flying Elephant:



Toy Story Land, the latest park to open, is chock-full of kids and waiting time was 60minutes to get on any ride. This is the inherent problem with travelling during school term break, we just could not be arsed to wait as the rest of Disneyland beckons.


We broke for lunch at Adventureland with vegetarian Indian fare and the usual cup noodles for the kids, and some mucking around session. Dad bought tasty grilled sotong from a street vendor and we ended up eating so much of them because everything else had pork.


I'm not sure if spinning in a little teacup is ideal right after lunch but since no one puked, its not my day to say anything.


The weather had gotten a lot warmer too and everyone ditched their jackets- thank goodness for my kiddy stroller which became a coat rack of sorts. It was warm enough to warrant an ice-cream treat, which we discovered even the sparrows loved and begged for more..



And then it was another ride that Sofia truly enjoyed, I know this because she stood up straight throughout the 10min boat ride- wide eyed and curious. Mum had the same expression actually.. hehe. I don't remember the name of this ride but it kept playing Its a Small World After All music sang in various languages and the props were awesome!





By this time, we were all pretty tired and Sofia fell asleep soon after allowing Hafidz and I to get on with our agendas. Mum and Dad volunteered to look after her while Hafidz and Danial got on some crazy indoor roller coaster ride with shooting laser lights that left him partially paralysed for the next hour, and I got on a car ride with the rest of the kids that took 40 minutes in queue and 4 minutes in action- waste time only..!

With Sofia awake, we squeezed in Adventureland minutes before the fireworks were due to go off at 9pm. We went up the treehouse that belonged to Tarzan, got on a thrilling (but wet) boatride that took us through spouting geysers and fiery volcanoes, past dangerous crocs and water hippos to safe ground.




We had a ball of a time! I have not felt like a kid in ages and it was wonderful to forget everything and live life for the moment. By the time we got to Sleeping Beauty's castle for the fireworks show, the camera was sucked dry of batteries. Oh well, there are loads on youtube that you can watch so it doesn't really matter. What did matter was it was the most fun-filled magical day of my adult life! :)

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~ Dalai Lama