Replacement Maid

Finally, after a LOOOONG wait of almost 3 months, we're able to get our maid replacement!(she arrived in Singapore only this Tuesday) and so, we brought our current maid back to the agency earlier this afternoon, for the 'exchange'.

Our 1st maid, a transferred(from my ex-cleaner) Indonesian maid was rather 'fat' and the 2nd one was super skinny.  This one is 'fat' again...  Not sure how's her work performance/attitude, well, if she can do her work well, we have no big issue about her weight/size(except that usually, these fatter maids tend to be 'lazier' as we were told...).

It's starting all over again for me and just an afternoon of re-training, I'm already feeling tired, haiz...

Unplanned Visit

It's been 3 weeks since we last had our family gathering and certainly a much looooonger time since her aunty LiLi had visited us at our home(since we've moved out of the NE region).  Today Renee had a surprise visit from her and her aunt, armed with little gifts from her recent trip, made Renee very happy although Rachel cried like anything, hahaha(but she's ok when her aunt 'force-carried' her, :P).  Renee even managed to persuade her papa to let her go down for a swim practice and finally made her aunt to bring her down, hahaha.

In the evening, we went to the restaurant down my mom's place to have our dinner before we dropped her aunt at a nearby station so she need not travel too far back to home.

Although Renee really loves her aunt(s) to visit her more often at home but I think this wish of hers is not going to come true any time soon, for we might be staying put around this region since it's gonna be tough for her to get to school if we move too far out from this area, :(...

Ask N Learn

Just this morning, I was just wondering when will the AskNLearn workshop be when the school phoned me, to confirm my attendance, so they could arrange for Renee to stay back in school instead of boarding the school bus.  OMG, I had still thought it's tomorrow!  Good thing they reminded me.

As papa wasn't free to accompany us, he suggested that we give it a miss but I wanted to go, so I quikcly fed Rachel her meal, rushed through her bath, packed her up in the carrier and took a cab down, heee.  And since the maid has nothing much to do, I've also told her to prepare Renee's lunch(we'd have prepared extra rice in e morng had I rem it's today...) and told her to go along with me.  However, when we were finally let-in to the school, Renee didn't want to take her lunch, saying that they've eaten!(she also didn't finish the rice set we've packed for her in the morning) and so we just sat there waiting whilst she chit-chatted with her buddies.

This workshop gave us a better understanding to guide our child in accessing the school's e-learning portal where homework courses, quizzes, content, etc etc are available/posted online by their teacher(s).  Earlier, we've changed Renee's password but couldn't log-in after a few days and I'd thought that they'd need to re-set Renee's password.  However, when I've logged-into the parents' portal during the workshop, we suddenly could log in with Renee's!  So, there's no need for a re-set and I hope it'd still be accessible when we try it at home in the near future 'cos Renee's buddy's mom, whom had also logged-in to the parents' portal on the spot, couldn't re-log in with the newly changed password as well...(but they cld log in with the child's...)

The workshop for our group ended earlier than expected but Rachel has already fallen asleep midway through(which allowed me some concentration during the session, *phew*)...

Science Inspire Day

It is Renee's school's Science Inspire Day today and parents are invited to join their kids at school.

This event/project's presented mainly by the older students of the school and as before, we were greeted by some of the older kids at the school gate, ushering/informing us to where we were supposed to register our attendance and, where we were to gather.

First, parents and students were led by each class' form teacher to the 1st 'station' - where the P5 students presented their work to the P1s, group by group.  Due to the lack of time, Renee's group only managed to 'listen' to 3 groups, out of 4, - (1) 'Making An Object Float' and (2) UV Light and (3) Density, before we were being led to another room where a shadow puppet show was presented.

This is the station her group missed... 

The Shadow Puppet Show

and the group got bigger when another class joined in...

Parents were invited to join the kids at tea-break and though I've already taken my breakfast(after dropping her off earlier), it's still nice to be able to join them at the canteen

Renee had requested the night before, that she be allowed to buy food from the school today, citing that I could dictate what she should buy but, she didn't wait for me to do so this morning and bought 1 of her favourites - the burger, hahaha(her friends bought the same!)

The 3 buddies 

When they're done with eating, Renee just ran off with her friends and I was left alone, wondering where they've gone to, then I saw her entering here ...

This must be the piano the Principal had told us about,

where students often displayed their music talent, :)

So far, from the few occasions that I've visited the school, I've observed that the older students seem to take good care of the younger ones, even the boys!  The gentle way they spoke to the P1s painted a nice example for the younger ones to learn from and of 'cos, there had been a few incidents whereby Renee was treated roughly(like an older girl had pushed her from behind for no reason, causing her to fall onto the ground dur recess one day) but if the majority of the children has learnt/been taught to behave this nicely(perhaps we were only shown their best side on these occasions? hahahahaha), then such a caring environment's an added reason for her to stay put there...(we've also been told  by some parents whom had done comparison on schools' work, that this school seems to have good worksheets that are prepared by the respective HODs, but their workload seem to be abit on the heavy side...).  Anyway, it might be too early to tell now and with other factors involved, we still have to keep our minds open, :D.

*poor Rachel's super tired today, being woken up at such an early hour, after only a 6hr sleep...

Maths Project

Really zombie, had only managed to go to bed around 2:50am this morning and I've to wake up early, to ensure that Renee knows how to pack her work to school.

What kinda work that need such attention that kept her mummy awake til the wee hours and waking up after a mere few hours of sleep...

This is it...   Her maths project work.

She had came home last Thursday, citing that their teacher had not given her and the rest of the classmates the required coloured paper(only 2 persons of each group got the paper first).  Thinking that she'd need to hand up the project by Monday, I asked papa to drop me at BPP so that I can go get the papers for her whilst they go for her violin lesson.  I got the coloured papers... But, papa told me that our dear girl has told him that the teacher will give out the colour papers to the rest of the class on Monday, aiyoh!

Before she came home from school yesterday, I took the opportunity for a quick nap since Rachel was ready for hers after lunch and when I woke up, I saw Renee working on this project on her own!(with the papers given by her teacher).  I like her idea of using transparent thread to hold/join up the paper cards, but the thread, being thin, kept dropping and finally I told her in the evening, when we got back from our dinner, that I'd join up the cards for her so that she could go to bed...

Thereafter, I was busy re-entering my contact details to my new mobile phone(yes, my iPhone3S' damaged, by our dear Rachel's constant dropping it to the floor, hahaha and since it's old and not worthwhile to have its internally cracked screen repaired, we decided to get a not too ex Nokia for the time being before I could take over papa's current iPhone 4S should he decide to get the new iPhone5 later) that I almost forgotten about it but fortunately, I did on time and spent another 1 hr+ just trying to fix up this thingy...  Not a perfect produce but I tried my best...

looking at the pic now, I realised that the sequence of the cards seems different

luckily she's the one who fixed the order for me in case I forget(we took a pic to record it, hahaha)

I've even set alarm to ensure waking up on time myself to help her pack the work up to school but it turned out that she could pack it up herself!  In an even better way than I knew how, oh man, don't under-estimate the capabilities of today's kids! hahaha

Dry Ice

Been hving ice-cream craze lately and bought a tub of macadamia nut ice-cream from Swensen's just now.  When I saw them packing the dry ice into the paper bag, I thought, I should let Renee try touching the dry ice!  But, remembering how it had hurt my hand the last time I did that, I decided against it(she needs to play the violin...), heee.

A New Baby Bag

Been looking for a new baby bag but, so far, all that I've seen were either too big or 'ugly', so I decided to take a look at alternative, normal bags with lots and useful compartments.  Finally found one today, although not in the print that I really wanted, but it'd do for now... :

'Handy' Work

Had wanted to do this for Renee long time ago but only finally got down to it this morning.  However, the clay had dried up pre-maturedly whilst we were still mixing/stirring it and we ended up with only half a pack left of the moulding powder(3 packets provided in the package) and we decided to give that minimal lot of it a try and this is what we ended up with, hahaha :

Renee and Rachel's handprints!
can't really see, esp. from the pic :D and we've yet to decorate it up...

The process...

J.Co Donuts

After the 1st birthday party of hubby's ex-colleague's daughter, he dropped us off at Lot 1 for me to collect my 2nd pair of Levi's jeans I've bought 2 days ago(sent for alteration) .  However, he came back for us shortly and Renee started to frown...  To that, we told her that if she'd practice abit more later, we'll take her out for dinner(she thought I had meant that we'd stay at the mall till dinner time).

She did(only a super short while, hahaha), but as it's already 6:30pm, we do not wish to go too far and I suggested that we go check out the new mall, Junction 10.

Another reason of my wanting to go there was to try out the JCo's donuts, heeee.   Renee saw the yogurt counter and thinking that the yogurt they sell would taste like the ones she had at Sogurt, she innnnnsisted on hving a cup but ended up only taking a small spoonful!  What a waste, haiz... 

Actually, I've never been fond of donuts, not at all, but a recent tasting of such 'new generation' donuts(a different brand), I find that they taste much better now, and softer too!  I've got a box of 6 this evening and even hubby loves it after downing 2 of them just now! hahaha.

However, there's nothing much to say about the mall except that it's kinda small and will definitely be very cramp to shop in should it be fully retailed, thus I don't think there would be much chance of us going there to get the donuts again(unless I take up my SIL's suggestion to meet there for morning coffee? heee...)

Mummy's Handiworks - HairClips

Remembering that Renee had clipped up her fringe instead of using the hairbands on some days, I told myself that I must get her some nice clips but as they've got to be in the colour of black or dark blue, it's hard to find her nice ones.

Unable to find nice suitable ones online, I decided to try and make her some myself and these are what I've come up with, using a little of time last night(after they've gone to bed) and this morning before we rushed out to the party :

The smaller polka dots clips are for Rachel... :)

I even managed to capture a nice of picture of them, gazing lovingly at each other, with the clips, :)

Allergy Trial(Egg) II(b)

PD phoned and when I told him about the reaction Rachel had, he suggested that we let his collegue do an allergy test on her a week later.  I was thinking, if she's allergic, she is allergic, the test only further confirms it right?  I shared this notion with him, he agreed and said "ya, it's not really necessary", ......

I asked if I should give this egg protein test again and he said that, from the reaction she's got, it's pretty certain that she's indeed allergic but if I still wanna give the test, do it 2 weeks later and give only bit by bit the next time round.  He's also suggested for her MMRV immunisation to be postponed to 1-2 months later and in the meantime, I should lay off fish and egg white for Rachel's meals...

Before the PD had returned my call, I've gone to the room and checked on Rachel and noted that she's poo-ed in her sleep!  I've also informed the PD on this to let him know how bad the situation is but personally, I felt relieved in a way 'cos I know that it's good for her to purge the allergy reacting histamine(not sure if this is e correct way to describe it) out of her body.

I hope this allergy would not stay with her for long(like her jie jie - I'm not sure if it's the yolk or white jie jie's allergic to.  A few days ago, she's tried the egg I prepared for Rachel but both yolk and white at the same time.  mayb I shld get her to test them separately too one day) and she'd also be ok after the MMR jab...*praying hard*

Allergy Trial(Egg) II

With no experience(never did this 'test' with Renee) and hving forgotten the PD's instruction, I realised only mid-way yesterday, that I might be doing it the wrong way - must test-feed the egg yolk and white separately!  Luckily, I've managed  to recall on-time, before I started to mix-smash the egg, but because it's already her meal time('cos we took a nap after coming back from jiejie's school) and the clinic's closed for lunchbreak, I decided to play safe and only fed Rachel with the yolk.

Today, being prepared, I began to feed Rachel with only the egg white and of 'cos spinach.  It had seem ok at first, a tiny bit of rashes like when she was first started with the yolk but slowly, as I increased more of the egg white into her porridge, she began to stick out her tongue.  She's been testing limits with this action which her jie jie had taught her some time ago and thus, I couldn't tell for sure if her tongue has got the itch or was she merely pulling a naughty stunt.  Moments later, she seemed to appear tired and more rashes/hives also started to appear, 1st few on the temples of her forehead and she kept rubbing her eyes.  Soon, she became restless and started to wail... Poor baby!

Even nursing couldn't placate her and I saw that both her palms and the soles of her feet were red and had swell up abit, rashes all over her face, arms, body, Oh No!!!

Somehow, I managed to distract her for abit with the appliques I've cut out from her clothes and I quickly got myself cleaned-up and ready in case I need to bring her to the clinic should the medicine didn't prove enough. The distraction was only for a short while and she started to wail again but this time round, she cried herself to sleep and now, I'm still on standby mode...

A Bouncing Ride

Now that we have cleared our home of all the older walkers and/or riders, I unwrapped this gift(1 of her 1st birthday gifts) today for Rachel's fun.  She was super excited when she saw me unwrapping it but managed to contain herself and waited patiently whilst her papa was fixing it up, hahaha.

Then, when she sat and bounced on it, the sound it produced scared her and she refused to sit on it again(the sounds were rather fun to me but I guess she's just afraid).  But..., shortly after I've switched the sound off, I saw her went to it, climbed onto it and started bouncing away, hahaha