Curly

Her curled lashes, lolz

Ms Mok has a last minute meeting at the primary school and wanted to bring forward our lesson time. However, hubby wants to drive the S60 to his golf game and since I've also had the intention to postpone this week's lesson, we decided to skip it. Might as well, then I could boil some soup for Renee! :).

To Follow Suit?

After a couple of hiccups, we eventually met up with Catherine, my long lost touch friend, at Compass Point.

It's been at least 2 years since the last time I met up with her, which was also after a break of many years and this is the 1st time she's seeing Renee 'properly'. However, this naughty girl has to disappoint me by not just interrupting us whilst we chatted during/after lunch, she even made a rude comment that deeply embarrassed me... It had affected me badly 'cos this is the 1st time she's made such remark(dun ask me what she said) and what made it worse is that she did it on her very first meet-up with someone whom used to be a close friend of mine.

Although she had apologised(upon my prompting) and had held on to Cat's hand voluntarily when we went to get the materials for her coming Art classes, it still wouldn't undo what she's done. One may argue that she's still young but we must not condone such behaviour/attitude/choice of words and have to teach her right from wrong when she's young, else she might think it's really ok or even cute to do so.

I kept my cool til we got home and the minute her Papa heard it, he was also very upset. I tried to avoid speaking to her as much as possible but I spanked her during shower 'cos she hadn't shown sincere remorse earlier. She had cried earlier when her Papa was reprimanding her but it's only this time that her cries had sounded more 'sorry' and I took the opportunity to reinforce the ideas of some of the 'wrong doings and why she shouldn't have done them' stuffs to her.

Earlier, Hubby had told her when she was hving her dinner that we would not be giving her a 'full' birthday celebration next year if she still doesn't behave properly and it seemed like she had not taken his words too seriously and got distracted, so he repeated. He even told me that we should stop celebrating her birthdays and then I remembered what PC had once told me, that we shouldn't keep celebrating birthdays for our children and hubby agreed that we should perhaps follow her lead - to only give a 'full celebration' on their next 'milestone(or rather 'mile-year'? lolz)', like 1 year old, K2 or Primary 1/6. I'm not sure if he'd seriously adhere to this idea but I don't mind, just as long as she doesn't become too 'naughty' with too many celebrations. I've also told him that if we really are going to adopt this idea, then we can also follow what my sisters had done for their children on the 'non-significant' years - just a cake at gatherings to mark her birthday, we'll see...

Playdate at the Bird Park

It's time to meet up with Wae Shuen and mommy Sharmaine again, and for a change, we've arrranged to meet up at the jurong bird park which suits us just nice as I could get hubby to send us there in the morning and pick us up when we're done, :D - save my trouble of having to decide between hailing a cab or struggle with the routes, hahahahaha.

Good thing I didn't have to drive as it turned out that I've only managed a 4 hr sleep! I had gone to sleep at around 3am and had woken up at 7:30am by Renee going to the toilet and couldn't resume my sleep, :...( now super tired but yet still don't feel sleepy... Am I having a sleeping disorder? Oh man.

The lack of sleep has certainly added to my already forgetfulness and indeed, I've forgotten to load in the fully charged battery to my camera, haiz... Such a pity, it's Renee's and also my first time('cos it's been soooo long since the last time I stepped into the Bird Park) there and with so much changes to the place and the cute penguins, it'd been an good opportunity for me to test out the new cam, :(. However, I still couldn't resist and took some pics with my mobile although I'm too lazy to upload them, lolz.

This is a very very small park and we had waited about 3 hours in order to get on the monorail and guess what, the rail only covered 3 stations(not too far distance either) which is supposedly to cover the whole park and U're only allowed to take the rail ONCE! Of cos, we didn't really waited as in que-d for 3 hours as we'd detoured for an early lunch(with not much variety) and we almost ended up 'alone' when Sharmaine suddenly had tummy cramp(her younger daughter had already been sent back earlier, together with 1 of her maids who came along).

Renee had been rather co-operative today, despite having woke up earlier as well - hopefully she'd be like this all the time, lolz.

Hubby had sms-ed me twice during our outing, the 1st asking if we'd had lunch and the 2nd, 'not done yet?' and I got him to fetch us at 4pm. Otherwise, I think we might have stayed there til 5pm, not really 'touring' the place but merely enjoying each others' company(both kiddos and mommies), :D.

And no, I don't think I'd wanna go back to this Bird Park again(unless they've made tremendous changes or I've no choice) even though I've not seen much of it today, :).

Our Christmas Holidays!

It's boxing day, and before I jotted down the events of the day, I remember the X'mas', :)

By the time I've made the mango juice dessert and we've collected the mini rice dumplings, we arrived at sis alittle later than the 'scheduled' time of 3pm but luckily, we weren't the latest, :D.

I suddenly remembered her santa rina outfit and washed it last minute last night(again last min!, and she appeared at the gathering in it, heee.

As usual, there's a feast, contributed by each family, including my nieces' friend and Renee even had fun playing with her little cute boy, :D.

Only took pic of the log cake, lolz

Oh oh, 'see only, no touching plssss', hahaha

And he couldn't stop hugging our little Santa Rina, lolz

Then, it's time for her to try to get Kobi to do some tricks, like 'Hi 5 and shaking hand(paw, of cos lolz)'

Then she got jealous over me carrying the little boy that she started to manja her 'gor gor', lolz

Just look at the presents!

And here're Renee's

Gifts Exchange time!

Fireworks play came next(at the corridor and later, at the playground)

And today, for the mahjong khakis to continue their session(as if the night before's wasn't enough! I only got to sleep at 4am and ended up with only 5hrs of sleep!), we went to Li's for a small gathering - only Sis, Elsie, my family and Bils were present(wayne boy came later and we had thought he got lost, lolz). We ended up wrapping up the presents for Eileen's gifts sales box and Renee helped even 'cos she's bored! lolz

We usually go out on Sunday afternoons and perhaps, we might take a rest at home tomorrow 'cos next week's gonna be a week filled with meet-ups again...!

It's Christmas!

We weren't sure if Papa would be having dinner at home last night(his client was here yday) and thus, I didn't get much food in preparation. However, he came back and good thing I have enough ingredients to prepare a dish of japanese curry chicken wings, heee. So, this year, we only had a super simple dinner of that and of cos, the ribs I've bought from the mall the day earlier(not cut to preserve its juice, :D). Oh, and this, which I've got hubby to buy last minute 'cos I've forgotten to get one yesterday :

At night, we were all relaxing by the sofa, when coming out from the room, I noticed hubby dashing across the hall and I thought I had a glimpse of a present on his hand. Then he sighed "aiya, mommy saw it already", hahaha. I tried to make some guesses whilst hanging up the laundry and I got it right on my first!. He's got me a new camera! Indeed what I super needed! I've been thinking of getting 1 for quite some time now 'cos the current one I have, had started to blurr esp. whenever I took videos and I never seem to get enough photos on the very limited memory card space of onlly 256mb(very frustrating to have to keep downloading th photos to the pc soonest posisble or even delete them away, if I wish to get more photos later) and the battery needed charging more frequently now.

Actually, I had comtemplated about getting an extra memory card for not wanting to 'waste' money 'cos it's still usable anyhow but was afraid that it might be made redundant should the camera give way(Sony's accessories cannot be used with other brands'), so, this is really a good surprise gift for me, :). We'll be taking 1 of our old camera(which we've passed to Eileen and she has no use of it now anymore) for the trade-in discount(yeah!) that the store has kindly 'withheld' for the time being, :D.

SONY DSC-TX1 - Obviously, this was taken with my old camera, :)

Hubby said the pink colour had looked 'faded', so he chose this(which co-incidentally is my 2nd choice!)

Then, it's time for Renee to play for her Papa, before she got to open up her presents :

And thereafter...:

This year, for letting Renee to open up her presents after midnight(she had suggested to open them today), she had gone to bed super late(or should I say 'early'? it's already past 1am! lolz) and we've decided that we shall let her do it on actual day instead, for the coming years...

This morning, our neighbour dropped by and gave Renee a christmas present! We were caught unprepared and it's awkward not being able to give them back... Must remember to do so next year...

We'll be heading to Sis' for our X'mas gathering later, So...

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Home Lesson

I received a sms from Ms Mok this morning that she'd have to conduct house-call lessons today as there'd be no one at home to look after her doggie. Well, I don't mind, :)

For the past few lessons, it had just been revising, correcting, fine-tuning the 3 exam pieces plus of cos, the sight-reading tests... And as usual, each lesson ends with more sight-reading homework and today's no exeception, arrrggggghhhh.

We went over to H. Mall, to grab some last minute x'mas pressies(have been too lazy to make them this year), although there's been no prior practice of family children to give x'mas pressies at this age but I thought it'll be good to teach Renee how to show appreciation and not just 'taking' all the time... :).

Presents Under the Tree

I hurriedly wrapped up our X'mas gifts to Renee and instead of bundling them up in 1 present, I decided to wrap them up individually to allow her 'more joy', :D(left one out though, cos I think 5 wld suffice for nw esp. when she'd be getting pressies frm her jiejies, aunties, friends).

This morning, she woke me up and 'reprimanded' me for taking out the name stickers we've placed on her aunties' pressies and I was puzzled for a while before realising that she must have mistaken her pressies as theirs, lolz. She lied down 'manja-ly' besides me when I explained to her that those are hers, :D.

Renee's very happy that she's got so many pressents and I teased her that we'll take 1 out for each time she throws a tanthrum, lolz.. I added that should X'mas be over and she's already got the presents, I'd still take them away from her if she doesn't behave and guess what she said? "errm, if a long time later, then it's ok", oh man...

'Tang Yuan'

Remembering last year's, she couldn't wait to make them, :)

Ice Skating

We've been invited by 1 of hubby's golfing khakis(a retiree) to watch a 'celebrity' ice-skating competition - Ice Star Asia. Hubby has totally no idea that his friend's daughter's an local artiste, lolz.

He came home at around 4pm without buying any dinner home, so I have to rush cooking Renee's dinner, packed it up so we could dine out without having to wait for her to finish hers first. We were told to be at the stadium by 6:30pm and it was already 5:35pm by the time we were all ready to go, so we decided to go for fastfood since it'd seemed more feasible for the 20mins we've left for eating.

We rushed through our dinner and would have got there on time if not for the confusion of location. We've never heard of the Arina Stadium Waterfront and my GPS didn't help either. However, hubby still managed to locate it and we got there before 6:45pm. There was already a que outside the stadium and hubby went to look for his friend to get the tickets, whilst Renee and I joined the que.

The show's supposed to start at 7pm as indicated on the tickets BUT, it wasn't until 7:40pm before we were let in! Geez... Told hubby Renee had told her aunty Lili that she could join us for the show as she, being small, had not needed the ticket, hahaha(which of cos wasn't true, she'd thought of it herself) and whilst waiting, hubby suggested we tell Li to rush over and she might be able to make it. Haiz, if we had known that we'd only be let in at 7:40pm, we would have tried... Li, could you have been able to make it? :)

We were also made to sign a non-disclosure form as an agreement not to divulge the winner as this show has not been telecasted yet.

The area where we audiences are seated is cold though the stage, as we were told is warm(what with the spotlights, plus they're using the normal residential air-conditioning) and it was a good thing that I've washed a new jacket(she hasn't been really needing one for the past 1/2 yr) for Renee last minute last night.

The show was being run like it's on a live recording, so it dragged... due to wrong/stuttered speech, wrong position, tensed posture, whatsoever and by the time Renee's requested to go home, it was already past 9pm. My back's also abit stiff from the sitting in between hers and my seat, so I told hubby that we should leave as Renee should be hungry already too. So, it turned out that we needn't sign the agreeement afterall - 'cos we didn't even know who the winner is! lolz(except that we do know who the finalists are since we were watching the grand final).

Nope, no photography nor videography's allowed, so I've nothing to show here, :).

More Violin Stuffs

Have dropped the rosin a few times and it finally cracked... Although it can still be used, I thought, since we'd be going to Gramercy to buy the Tuner/Sound/Metronome(need the metronome to practice her exam pieces) Ms Mok's recommended, I might as well get another as spare. Whilst there, I also got another(also as per Ms Mok) of the violin sight-reading test book.

Indeed, it's not cheap to learn musical instrument such as this.

PanCakes

It's pancake time again!

Last night, before she's gone to bed, Renee requested for pancakes breakfast and woke up this morning with great anticipation, :D. And no, this time round, I didn't allow her to gorge herself with too many a pancakes, only 2, after her milk, :D.

'Crying' Practice

Since the time we've agreed for Renee to go for her ABRSM exam, it has recently been quite texing for both of us on the practices - especially the excercises in preparation for the exam.

A few times, she had cried for not being able to do them, especially when they got 'harder' and the minute she cries, I got aggitated, haiz. Today, with her papa home, she took the opportunity to 'manja' even more and cried when we embarked onto another 'tougher' exercise, arrrggghhh. Now I know why so many music schools are not willing to take in students younger than 6/7 yrs old for violin lessons, haiz. It's really very tiring at times like this and quite often, especially lately, I've thought of giving it up - not letting her learn the instrument, but she said she wants to...

I'm not aiming for her to score distinction, I only hope she could at least pass the exam...

Mood Spoiler

Earlier this month, I was just re-confirming with hubby, the timing for Renee's school next year and a few days ago, he told me to hold on to the payment(that led me to call the school up to check on the payment) as he might need me at the office again. Oh man! I was thinking "Oh no, not again..." to myself the minute he mentioned it to me but I calmed myself down and asked him about his plans. It was a sound plan but much as I'd love to render my support to him, I'd hope more, not to disrupt Renee's learning especially from next year onwards. I shared my thoughts with him on this and agree-ing with me, this is now put to 'rest' or on his 'shoulders' and today, after PX's left, I brought Renee to the school to make our payment for her K1's first term fees - S$1, 446.55(ex man...).

With the schooling matter settled, we went to look for some x'mas gifts which turned out to be quite fruitful and mood was just beginning to build up when just now, hubby revealed something to me that brought my X'mas mood down, haiz...

Artwork(Drawing) Display

School Fees

Having not received any payment notice from Kinderland Preschool(Serangoon), I phoned them up this morning and when I finally got to speak to the administrator, I was greeted by surprise that I'm to pay re-enrolment fee + a deposit of S$535. Due to some parents pulling out of the school without notice, this shall be the new ruling for students joining from 1 Dec, 2009 but Renee's not a new student! Yes, perhaps she had pulled out from the preschool but she was still on the Kinderland system when she went to the childcare centre! I was abit furious 'cos this has also been acknowledged by the preschool principal earlier. In any case, the administrator told me that she'd speak to the principal and get her to get back to me by next week as the latter's on leave this week.

I thought for a while and unwilling to wait so long(wld be busy next wk onwards also), just in case they've changed to being inflexible and remembering that I do have the principal's mobile no. in my list, I called her up(not wanting to be 'rude', I tried calling the administor to tell her so but couldn't get her) so I could get this matter sorted out before the X'mas week. The minute I spoke with her, she recognised and remembered, told me that Renee's case is exceptional and since we've informed her before the dateline, we're to pay as per normal - yeah man, else, it would be soooo unfair for just us having to pay those when Renee's never pulled out of Kinderland's system at all, plus they're fully aware of all these 'changes'.

From next year, there is now an extra fee of S$277.50 to the first term fees of S$1,166 and this is the loyalty fees to IBM(I duno what it stands for) for the WTR programme - apparently, it's a writing or reading programme.... Preschool's education is sooo ex, and we still have to send her to enrichment outside the preschool even, aiyoh, why has it become soooo stressful for the kid(not forgetting the parents's pocket, hahaha) to catch up these days!

A Pre-X'mas Gift Exchange

As my friend, Vicky would be joining her hubby this weekend, we have to arrange yesterday for our X'mas meetup + gift exchange.

Vicky has earlier suggested buying food over to my place as Renee's been inviting her over to play with her but I know her, she's the 'dine-out' kinda person, lol. On the other hand, I was feeling tired and lazy to go downtown, plus hubby wasn't very keen in staying home to look after Renee, I was even more reluctant. In any case, I asked hubby to come back early and shift the car seat over and I took Renee downtown.

It was however good that I've brought Renee out 'cos not long after we've reached Orchard road(wah, jam packed the carpark and I was early, before 5pm!), hubby text to inform me that his client has just arrived and that he'd be having dinner with him...

Before we went out, Renee asked to put on mascara which of cos, wasn NOT allowed, but however, I did allow a little curling of her eyelashes and she was elated, hahaha, jialat man...

We walked from Paragon, to C.K. Tangs, to Ion, then Wisma Atria, Takashimaya before heading back. It was already 9pm when we left the place and Renee has enjoyed herself with the company of my friend and trying new flavours of pop-corn and ice-cream, hahaha.

To try out the new coffee machine Vicky's got, we proceeded back to Vicky's place(where renee chatted with Vic's mom whilst I go check the machine out, :D) for coffee and it was really good, and what makes it better was its low maintenance cleaning process! Ooh, one could have a nice cup of 'starbucks/coffee bean' coffee at only a fraction of the price and at the comfort of home, why not..., but, not now for us, :D.

Isn't it lovely? It's not very expensive yet it's compact and easy to maintain, very tempting(the mug like thing on the side is the milk frother)

my gift to vic(Renee insisted on putting the snowflake on top, lolz)

Fretting that she hasn't got any gift for aunty vicky, I told her that she could make her one of the snow-globe which she's made for her uncles last year

Hers to us, which are sitting under our tree :)

The March-In

Despite her little fever(wasn't high, thank goodness!), Renee had woken up super early yesterday! I heard her going to the toilet(she's been going to toilet in the wee/early hours since the day she wetted her bed, hahaha, which is good 'cos she super like to hold her urine) and thereafter, she lied on her bed unable to resume her sleep. I went to her, telling her it's still too early and tried to persuade her to go back to sleep and gave her a dose of paracetamol + flu medication which I guessed, had eventually helped her to go back to dreamland. I didn't wake her up til it was almost 11am when we quickly got everything ready to go over to my sis' for the tea ceremony. She was indeed excited and told me whilst she's getting changed that she likes 'snowie', :D.

When we finally got back at close to 2pm, I quickly fed her lunch and after drying her hair from the shower, told her to try get a nap so she could recover fully and be a pretty flowergirl(she still looked alittle bit tired). She took my words literally and really tried to nap beside her papa(yeah, he finally gave up going to the office as it'd be too rushing for just that 2 hours left). Sis came over with Jo at about 4:10pm for her makeup and hairdo and when they left at 4:50pm, Renee woke up and was upset that I didn't wake her up to meet them, hahaha.

Nevertheless, she recovered fast when I reminded her about the 'event' but lazed about(something I don't usually allowed her to, 'cos lazing on bed can be made habitual if not corrected) on our bed which I let her, just for today, :).

When we got to the restaurant, the bride and bridegroom both seemed to be busy at the reception regarding the seating arangement and so we didn't get to have a proper rehearsal. I was told that they will begin the dinner at 8:30pm, but at 8:25pm, no one came to inform us about getting ready and seeing that Renee's hair has gotten alittle messy, I began to work on it when suddenly, the march-in was announced! Good thing I was almost done by then and quickly rushed Renee to the door(with everyone looking 'cos we didn't know which way to go...).

Although we did have a briefing on the march in with the girls and the other flowergirl, Charlize's mom, but 'cos it wasn't a proper one, so during the march in, Charlize again, had walked too fast and forgotten to 'sprinkle' the flower petals, :). The flower baskets are kinda small(due to their small size, we chose the smaller one) to begin with and with the long 'path', Renee's was already empty when they got to near the stage. I had earlier tried to squeeze in as much petals as I could to her basket and had told her to 'throw' bit by bit(she even suggested to throw just 1 petal at a time) but I guess the petals just couldn't last the walk, lolz. Anyhow, the girls were already lovely, just by their appearances alone and that's quite enough I supposed, especially judging by the anticipated looks on the guests when the march-in was announced, :).

It was past 11pm when we got home and Renee had gone to bed only after 12am but hving woke up early at 9am, I guessed she must have also felt tired 'cos when I had gone for a short nap just now whilst she's taking her lunch, I woke up half an hour later to find her sleeping beside me, :).

The flowergirls(with the bridegroom)

Toasting Time

Her 'partner''s been sitting on a high chair, so she played the sister instead(no no, she wasn't the 3rd flowergirl, just wanna dress like 1), :D

Oops, here comes the bride again, 'stand still!', hahaha

Oh no, we just noticed earlier that Renee's running abit of a fever!

She's been waking up with stuffy nose for the past 2 days and have been urging her to drink more water but I think she must have caught a cold as it's been super windy the past few nights. Arrrggghhh, hopefully she'll be fine by tomorrow, else she'd be sooo devastated for not being the flowergirl...(just now she even tried to drink quite abit of water even though she's already quite full after her cup of milk and pandan bun, heee)

Hair Day

Last night, looking at Renee's hair, hubby suddenly said that it might look nicer with layers(that's what I thought too, but was thinking to wait til it's much longer) and since he also agreed so, I sent my h/stylist a text asking if she could go to the salon earlier for my hair trim today.

Whilst I was having my hair wash, she began to work on Renee's and then she suggested curling her hair. I had declined actually but later I relented... As anticipated, it didn't look cute on her but Renee had enjoyed it.

After I've signed off my cut from my package, they didn't ask for payment on Renee's hair cut and I thought, oh, how nice, free again? Anyway, hers was a very easy cut(in fact mine was too). However, about 1 1/2 hours after we've walked out of the salon, they called up and told me that they've forgotten to collect payment for Renee's cut! Good thing we were still at the mall.

Then, I told Renee that it had been a real waste for her hair to be curled 'cos there's no occasion to warrant a hairstyling for her at the salon today and they even charged S$5 for it! Although S$5 is not expensive for the job but I hadn't wanted it. Besides, the curls didn't even last despite the fact that they've applied mouse on her hair prior to the curling, it had almost straigthened off even when we returned to the salon. When I curled her hair myself, the curls had stayed longer without applying anything. The cut, 'cos it was done by my h/stylist whom's the director, was charged at S$21 and the overall cost for her hair treat today, after my package discount = S$22.50. It sure is expensive I would say, for a kid's cut, hahaha. Nvm, it had been a fun treat for Renee and at least now she knows that she can't take such services for granted, :D.

When we got back, my neighbour's mom came knocking on our door and wanted to give Renee a stuffed bear. Not wanting to waste another toy, I declined politely(she could give it to her grandchildren)...

Charity Act