Rachel says "Bye Bye"!

Last week, we've heard Rachel calling out "Bye Bye" in reply to ours! 

As usual, we would wave to her or say "bye bye" to her whilst she waved back but a few days ago, she responded verbally too!  And since then, she'd respond the same way whenever she felt like it, :D.

The Play Corner

Finally, hubby's got the 'internal' movers(they have this group of movers stationed at the condo premise) to remove our own sofa from this home - 'cos we can't have the existing ones removed :( but ours look alot nicer! haiz...And, within the same vicnity we have to pay S$30 for them to move it???  What's more, they might be hving it for own use, aiyoh, tsk tsk tsk...  Who asked him to delay?  Earlier, the community members had indicated that they might wanna have it for use at the club house, now he got the movers to do it instead...anyway... I don't care, I just want the space to put up the playmat and play-yard for my girls! :)

Play-yard with a touch of music(cot mobile, :D)

Baby Monitor

The baby monitor we've bought from Philips had conked out on us again!

A few days ago, the baby monitor screen started to blur out and then it went blank.  Today, we brought it back to Philips consumer centre and this time round, we did not let them talk us into 'delivering' a new set to us in 4-7days' time.  That was what they've promised the 1st time the monitor blanked out on us within a week from its purchase but, they gave us a much inferior set as standby(which was totally useless) and did not deliver when it's done.  They simply sent us a text on the mobile to tell us that it's ready and even made us wait.

Finally, after a long wait due to their inefficiency, we collected another new set.  Hopefully, this will serve us well, else we're going to demand a product return.  Ridiculous, every set just didn't work!

Another Week of Rest and... Good News!

We're talking about practices here...  Lucky Renee(I guess she felt it's luck? hahaha).

After >than a week's rest from her violin practices(what with her falling ill, CNY hol etc), I had almost given up and expected the teacher to give her a good scolding for slacking, they both came to pick me from Eileen's, with a piece of good news.  We were informed, in preparation, we've to let her go for more lessons and accompaniment classes(woah, gonna cost alot more!). 

We were supposed to be going to AMK hub to look for their CNY costumes, but Renee's violin needs fixing again and so we headed to Marina Square instead.  We've just changed the strings not too long ago, when we changed the tail piece but now, as instructed by the teacher to have its bridge changed, we have no choice but to have the strings changed again and this time round, it cost more but what to do...  We had thought that we could go back for the violin after our dinner but were told that we'd need to leave the instrument there for about a week.  Renee must be a happy girl this CNY, :)

A Birthday Dinner

To celebrate hubby's birthday, we went to the Cafe Cartel @ BPP for a simple dinner before heading home for the cake cutting.

Finally, I managed to get him a Tiramisu cake from Polar this year and even Renee commented it's nice(ya la, always din wanna try it!).

Haircut for the Lunar New Year

Finally, on hubby's birthday today, I got my lonnnng awaited haircut!(my package still has quite a number of cuts left).

Actually, I've been contemplating if to go for a cut or just a trim becos I simply do not have the luxury of time to go for a full head rebonding service so that I could have a really nice bob cut.  However, the change of weather is getting to me again and with a baby who needs me, to go to sleep, to blowdry my hair after every shower is a big challenge(even waking up in the middle of the nights for feeds are too...).

Although I didn't get the exact style I'd like this time but I got to try a different bob(not straight bob) and at least I don't have to ensure that I blowdry my hair immediately after my shower every evening, just to have it tied up like an 'aunty'.(of cos I'd pin my hair up in style when I go out la, hahaha)

At the final check on the cut, I felt a shorter length would be better but as we still needed to grab a quick lunch at the Wendy's so we could rush home with our groceries, to pick Renee up(we've reminded the maid to do so but we preferred to be home when she's back), I had to make-do with this length...

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!

Thank goodness, both mine and Renee's high fever were under controlled on the 1st day of CNY...  So, we still managed to 'enjoy' the CNY gatherings afterall.

However, when we got home last evening, we discovered that baby Rachel has got the fever, :( and we were sooo worried if Renee's fever will drag any further.  Luckily, her temperature didn't go up today and thus, she was able to resume school.  I hope it remains so...

7th Birthday

Another simple birthday celebration for our dear 1st born this year.  We had wanted to give her a 'bigger' party to celebrate her 7th birthday with at least some of her new found friends but the lunar calendar doesn't allow us that...  Her birthday this year falls on the CNY's eve!  Even an invitation to own family pose a little problem hahaha.  However, knowing how much she'd like to celebrate her birthday with her aunts, we decided to take up Elsie's suggestion, to join them at Li's place for the reunion steamboat dinner and we brought the cake along.  We hadn't known that my elder sis and her children would be there as well(good to have more company) and were rather worried if the cake will be enough but luckily, they were too full from the dinner to consume much of the cake and we even get to bring back a portion, haha.

It's just as well we had not planned a big party, 'cos she had fallen ill to virus fever just days before her birthday and I caught it from her a couple of days later too!  I even had to go into one of Li's rooms to rest before we began the cake cutting...  When we got home, my temperature had shot up to 40.2 degrees...

This year, busy with the move, we didn't have the time to let her go find out what she'd like to have for her birthday presents and when her aunts asked, she had to choose something from the ToysRUs catalogue she's kept from the Christmas, awww...  In the end, she didn't get exactly all that she's asked for but I guess she didn't mind, :)

The cake even came in a very nice matching box

Relocation

Yes, we've finally moved!

Although the organising of unpacking is faster this time round, but we've still bits undone yet.  Why?  I'm too lazy to explain here, hahaha.  Anyway, I hope, that we could really clear up everything before this weekend...

Another Milestone

Finally, I got to witness Rachel sitting up on her own from the crawling position(papa's seen it much earlier)!  No, she hasn't exactly started crawling yet, but she's trying(though I think she rather push/pull herself to her desired location just like her jiejie, but she seems more willing to try, not willing to give up).

She's also been pulling herself into standing position and have cruised along her cot since awhile ago. But, as we seldom let her explore on her cot nor on our bed/the floor, I'm happy that she's able to achieve these development when she hasn't been given much opportunities to try them out, :).

I hope, by the time we've settled down in our new premise, I'd be able to find time(before CNY), to get her the playmat so I can put up her playyard and let her explore and play in there, rather than sitting on the excersaucer all the time - in fact, nowadays, when we want to put her down there, she'd cringe up her legs and cried out in protest, hahaha.

1st Snack

Had wanted to let Rachel try out the baby puffs awhile ago but hubby's unsure.  And since I do not want her to reduce her milk intake(in case), I let it be.  But, she's been siting on the high chair whenever we dine out, I think we should really start her on the snacks, so she could be kept entertained.  In fact, jie jie has started on these puffs earlier if I remember correctly.  So last week, we finally got a 'tub'? of the Gerber puffs in sweet potato flavor but to my surprise, unlike jiejie, Rachel didn't like it!

She also didn't want to use the pincer grasp to pick up the broken up pieces(I break them out for fear of chokage), very stubborn.  Anyway, I've seen her using the thumb and forefinger to pick up small items/ribbons a few months ago, so I'm not too worried on this developement and I guess for this girl, I'd have to let her do things on her own, :)

This morning, after I've been giving her grains of rice when we dine out, I decided to let her try the puffs again and she accepted them.  She even asked for more!  But I can't give more, heaty...  Then, I let her drink water from a cup, something which she seems to enjoy since a couple of months ago, but I think she still can't control very well, not much spillage this time round though but she choked abit, heee.

Then, as I was snacking on bread, she wants too, I peeled some tiny bits for her and she likes it too, another bread princess? hahaha, but at 9mths old, I'm not sure if bread is ok, 'cos it contains yeast.   Will check that out...

School Bus

Everyday, we'd question Renee if she's had her seat belt fastened whenever she's on board the school bus/van and yesterday, she told us that the seat belt wasn't working, since day 1, alamak!

The other thing is, remember in my earlier post I've mentioned that the school bus driver had told Papa that it'd be around that timing, which is 6:40am+, that the bus would arrive?  This morning, when Papa brought Renee down at 6:38am(around there, cos they left home at 6:35am), the school bus had already left!  Aiyoh!

With this info, I was reminded and called up the bus operating company and told them about this, and also to talk to them about the seat belt thingy.  For the timing, they told us to stick to 6:30am as things aren't exactly firm yet since it's the 1st week and as for the seat belt, they said that they will check and ensure that, if any faulty seat belt(s), will be fixed by next week.  As a parent, I'm definitely not happy to hear this, 'cos afterall, they have the whole school holidays to check their buses properly before the school re-opens right?(mind that we parents still have to pay them for the non-service rendered during all the holidays)

Then today, after we've picked up our new maid, I brought her down at the stipulated timing to wait for Renee and when the van finally arrived, Renee alighted at the opposite direction and when I called out to her to watch out for cars 1st, she's already running across!!!  Oh My Gosh!  U bet I sure did give her a good scolding.  Papa told me later that the bus normally stops right outside our premise - he has to make a U-turn to alight the other child from next building too, hmmm...

Anyway, the back of her uniform was soaked wet, I asked her why.  At first she told me that there's no air-condition and the children were all making noise, requesting for the air-con to be switched on.  Then I asked, if the seat belt is working today, she said yes but some of them were standing, even herself! Her comment was : "overcrowded".  Hearing this, I'm really upset.  It's illegal to overload a school bus and thus, I called up the school bus operator again and he told me that it's impossible and he has the list onhand, not overloaded.  So I queried him "in this case, why is my child made to stand?  in fact, some of the other children were standing, not just my kid and this is very dangerous".  He replied that perhaps some kids might have 'choped' the seats with their bags or they took up 2 seats.  I asked Renee and she said yes.  Hey, this is simply unacceptable!   First of all, we're now talking about the 'returning from school' trip, which means that the bus driver has ample time, not forgetting, a duty, to ensure that all kids are properly seated and belted up before he begins the journey, isn't it?  2ndly, even if it's the 'going' trip, with no 'aunty' onboard the bus, the driver SHOULD come down and ensure that the kid is properly seated/belted up 1st before he moves off!  This is absurb!  I'm sure to follow up on this.

Another thing, it seems like there're more older kids onboard the bus now and I was told that, being older, these kids can walk/get to the bus faster and they would all take up the centre seats, leaving the younger ones the back seats.  On man, don't tell me what I feared from what I've heard is coming true?  Oh no...  But so far, no actual bullying yet(an older girl even helped Renee closed her toy umbrella), I hope NOT!

Missing Jie Jie

Some of you might have wondered, does baby Rachel miss her jie jie these 2 days?  U bet!

She's been calling "jie jie, jie jie, jie jie" the moment I carried her out to the hall every morning, and the minute she sees her jie jie back home, she'd be very very happy, hahaha

P1 - 2nd Day II

I had thought that things would be easier or 'free-er' for me with Renee attending the primary school, but it's actually worser!  With all the house-chores and being maidless, hving to attend to Renee's needs(both at home and to school) whilst needing to take care of an infant is really no joke!  I'm already half-dead since our maid's gone back,  now my bones are breaking...

With no spare time, I simply cooked myself a bowl of instant noodles with sliced fish and forgetting about the different school hours for certain days, I had just started cooking Renee's lunch(hv not even 'attacked my own lunch) when I heard the door bell rang, followed by "mommy, I'm Renee", hahaha.  Oh dear, this girl has came up all by herself!  Although we have a guard at the premise, I still do not think it's totally safe for a young child to be doing this alone.

So, after our home viewing this evening, I told hubby to drop us outside the guard house and I taught Renee how to operate the phone system at entrance gate.  Then, as instructed by hubby, I also went to speak to the guard to let Renee in from the small gate instead of letting her go through the carpark gate.  To my surprise, the guard said this, pointing to Renee "Oh, u're the one!  Arh Mam, I wanted to tell you to ask your girl not to rush through the gate like that, u know ar, this gate is automatic, and it's closing and she just rushed through it.  I was just about to open the gate for her.  It's very dangerous".  Yes, it's very dangerous!  I quickly took the opportunity to reprimand Renee on this.  Being small in built, the vehicle drivers might not see her and whatever it is, it is indeed a very dangerous act!  Plus, she was sooo afraid that she ran all the way up to home and was panting/sweating like mad when she got back. 

*Oh, having just checked the school hours, I suddenly remembered that I needed to check the daily 'to bring' list(for this week, before the proper schedule's ready).

P1 - 2nd Day I

Feeling tired from the shortage of sleep, Renee had wanted to take a nap but we forbidded her.  Instead, we allowed her to skip practice and let her played with meimei.  Then, around evening time, after searching online on how to make a lantern out of red packets, Renee tried to make one herself but we told her to stop 'cos it's getting late.

Good thing we had not allowed her the nap 'cos she knocked out almost immediately when she hit the bed, hahaha.

Hubby told me yesterday that he's golfing this morning and thus I'd need to bring Renee down to wait for the bus instead since he has to meet his golf buddy(ies) at 7am.  Oh man, that means I'd have to wake baby Rachel up right? Geez...

Just now, with Rachel sleeping soundly, I complained about this and since he's already leaving home later than he's anticipated, hubby said he'd bring Renee down.  Actually I don't mind to bring Renee down 'cos I could take the opportunity to take a pic of her boarding the bus, heee but having to wake baby Rachel up when he's able to help?   Anyway, it doesn't matter now...

P1 - 1st Day II

Finally decided to go look for Renee at the school during their recess time, we went for a short nap(mine's really short, only managed abt 30mins! 'cos I have to 'make' little Rachel fall aslp 1st...)

We drove out at 9:45am and managed to get to the school just a couple of minutes before the recess and many parents were already there waiting.  Renee's class is not amongst the 1st few to come down, so we didn't get to see her til awhile later.

Each P1 kid is assigned an older schoolmate as a guiding buddy and we were so glad to find out that Renee's buddy is a very nice girl!  She really took good care of Renee and if no one is aware of this buddy system, one may mistook the situation of an elder sister taking good care of her younger sibling.

After their snack, on their way back from the toilet, Renee's buddy saw us and greeted us "aunty, uncle" immediately, a well-mannered girl! Papa and I thanked the girl for looking after our Renee.  Told Renee to thank and learn from jiejie whatever she wish to know and also on how to buy food.  Then I asked if she'd like to try buying food tomorrow and Renee's very happy.  I then told the older girl that Renee's allergic to eggs and asked if she could help watch out for her and she in turn asked if Renee could take those 'maggie' noodles.  This showed that she really listened.  However, if it's like what Renee's cited, that they may not get the same buddy everyday, then how?  Anyway, I've told Renee to inform her buddy(whoever that is) about this and reminded her to ask the stall owners if the food contain any egg.  Guess I'd just have to remind her again.  Not sure if it's really different buddy everyday but if it's the same one throughout the 2 weeks, then we'll do as Papa's suggested, we'll get a little gift at the end of the 2 weeks for this jiejie. Otherwise, I hope Renee will get nice buddies to guide her for these 2 weeks(she told me that she's had a different buddy on the orientation day and that jie jie's pretty and nice too).

The buddy only settled down to eat her sandwiches after Renee's settled down

Look at how she kept ensuring Renee drank her water? :)

(with e last of these 4 showing Renee kaypohing whilst the jiejie chatted with friend, hahaha)

Renee left alone whilst jiejie went to get herself a drink

Getting Renee ready

Parents crowding the tuckshop/canteen

When the older girl has guided Renee back to the assembly area, she came to us and told us "aunty, uncle, she's already there"(something like that) before she returned to her own classroom, aiyoh, this girl is really nice and responsible!(we were alittle shocked 'cos we didn't expect her to come and inform us)

Again, parents all crowded around the assembly area and the school has to announce over the speakers to get them away, lolz.  We both just left, after seeing her settling down in the que.

Feeling hungry, we headed to a nearby coffeeshop and had a super early lunch of porridge(but I still cooked pork cutlet for our lunch, hahaha) before heading home.

Back home, I was back to craziness, preparing and cooking lunch, etc and before I knew it, it's time for jiejie to come home!  I was bathing baby when hubby went downstairs to fetch her. She was very excited and all eager to relate her 1st day to us, we even teased her, on what we saw at the school earlier - the buddy jiejie really treated her like a small little mei mei, getting her water bottle ready for her to drink every now and then.  I saw Renee shy-ed away and tried to put the bottle nearer to herself but each time, the older girl will reach for it and get it ready for her, hahaha.  She's sad to hear that the buddy(ies) will only be with them for 2 weeks but if she's already made some friend, I think it's before long she'd wish to be left alone, hahaha.

So far so good.  From what we saw today, it seems to us that this is indeed a good school(according to several people, including some of our neighours here) but then again, today is just the 1st day, so we'll still need to observe, heee.

*From what I've heard from a gf, I was worried how the school bus would 'mix' the group of students on board, but Renee told me that most of the students are from P1, except one, from P... Also, mostly are staying at Shelford Rd, our area...  With this pc of news, I'm more relieved as I've heard that some older kids might bully the younger ones on bus...

She told me that 1 of her friends' also put a HK bag tag and being indecisive, she wanted to change to another design of the HK tags she has.  I suggested her to use some of her bag/key charms and then, she decided on these(kept from her Mother Garden bag, :D) :

P1 - 1st Day I

Having only gone to bed at 2:15am, I was woken up by baby at 2:40am for milk and then it's her kicking here, soft crying there all the way til my alarm rang at 5:25am...  Luckily I managed to carry her back to the cot, so I could get up to get things ready for jie jie(to try and capture as much rest/sleep as possible, lately, I've been letting her sleep with me on our bed whenever she woke up up feed at night).

Zombie-d, I got up to make myself breakfast whilst tackling Renee's.  However, I think I've worked myself silly by waking up so early 'cos what's the point of getting up so early to prepare her breakfast when her alarm's only set at 5:55am? hahaha.  Nevermind, I took the 'spare' time to tackle the other chores.

With the last things to pack into her school bag, hubby saw and asked Renee if she's got anything 'special' to hang on her bag for easier and faster recognition, then I remembered the hangtags her cousin Irene jie jie had gotten for her from France!  She chose this:

Renee has been feeling very excited since last night and this morning, she was so tired from the lack of sleep that she didn't hear her alarm rang!  Whilst hving her breakfast, she grinned and told me "mommy, I can't believe today is the day! P1!", hahaha.

At 6:25am, hubby took Renee down to wait for the school bus and as bb's still sleeping, I have to stay home and just as I've started typing this post, bb cried for milk again...

Hubby came back only after 6:45am and the bus driver told him that it should be around this timing from now on(6:40am) and this is even better news for us, heee :)

Told hubby to take some pics of Renee boarding the school bus, heee but after taking some shots of her waiting nervously outside the gate, he coudn't work the camera when the bus came!

The Forgotten Project!

After our home viewing, we headed back to Bukit Timah Plaza for our dinner(which we decided to pack home thereafter) although we've just been there the day before, 'cos we want to get home early.

On our way home, I suddenly recalled that the school has informed us, both verbally and in writing, that they 'encourage' us to do a family project for the new CNY - a hongbao lantern.  Alamak, I have totally forgotten about this! And why of all time, I only remember this now?  If I had recalled this matter a day earlier, I could have gotten some help from my sisters yesterday!

There are some caucasian friends in Renee's class and we're thinking, perhaps, we might not be the only one whom didn't submit the lantern on the 1st day(as stipulated).  We told Renee that she could tell the teachers that mommy has forgotten about it(I dun recall telling her about it, except hubby...) but she's anxious. So, within half an hour when we got home, I managed to come up with this(with her helping out abit), :) - hubby laughed at it, why then didn't he help to think of something else then? : {   At least I still come up with an idea and did one...

Is it sooo funny, this lantern?

 

With the last minute project to complete, Renee only went to bed, slightly after 8:30pm but she woke up around 10pm+ and told us that she couldn't fall asleep.  How could that be?  When I've gone in to take something and she hadn't stirred... I asked her if she knew I was in her room earlier, she looked blurr, so she had fallen asleep afterall and must have woken up in excitement, hahaha...

She couldn't resume her sleep and cried, fearing what I've told her - she needs to have enough sleep to stay alert in school.   No choice, I told her it's normal to lose sleep over something she's excited about and I'm sure many would be sleepy especially on the 1st day of school.  And since she's slept for a while earlier and she won't exactly be sleep due to excitement on the 1st day, she should just relax and think of something happy, like those Luge+Skyrides and she did, :)