We Love To Shop!

We've been going out everyday since Tuesday and today, unable to resist yet another outing, I took them to Marina Square and whilst jiejie's playing at the playground, Rachel and I roamed around the shops, :).

Saw this and thinking that since jie jie will be dolled up at their cousin, Lyn's wedding, mei mei should be too!  So, I got her this, heeee, although I'm not sure if she'd keep it on, :)

Then, remembering what I've promised Renee, I got her these :

Bought this pair of shoes for Rae over the earlier wkend

The Ordeal and Thank Goodness for the June Holidays!

Finally, the mid-year school holidays are here!  As discovered during the earlier March holidays, I really feel the big difference about the school holidays now that Renee's in the formal school system.  For the past few weeks, I've been like a mad woman, trying to watch over Renee's practices - something which I hardly managed to, due to the need to attend to Rachel's needs and  the house-chores.

The highest point of stress came from Renee's preparation to the latest Nafa internal examination as it also served as the audition to the performance at their year end concert and the participation to the International Competition at Italy next year.  Renee's reluctance to practice hard/seriously almost drove me crazy!  She's still a kid, we told ourselves but as the teacher remarked "这是一个难得的机会"(this is a rare opportunity) and only a few are given the opportunity to go for the audition.  Thus, we felt the obligation to push her abit more, especially during the last 1 week since she's also been falling ill on and off for the earlier weeks which also affected her practices(but still... haiz).  But, seeing that she's finally feeling alittle tensed up(strange, since she didn't seem bothered abt her laziness to practice), we decided to 'let loose' even during the last crucial days - whatever will be, will be...

Having to stay home(so that Renee can do her practices, however willing/unwilling she was) alone with no help(hubby's out most days and nights too! even when I was hving high fever myself these nights...) had also made me felt soooo trapped, so this break will give me some allowance to relax abit - and I sure need it, badly!

Although Renee's shown reluctance to practice her violin and we were at the point to think that perhaps she still didn't see the importance of this audition, when she proved otherwise(arrrggggh, in this case, I really dunno what to say anymore...) by being nervous during the studioclass a day before the fateful day(her nervousness can be observed obviously over the video which I'd be posting up at FB soon).  She even 'followed' what her fellow classmate did(another selected one) and placed her bow on the violin whilst waiting during the piano part, aiyoh!

On the actual day, we weren't allowed into the exam room and standing outside, papa's overhead and told me(I've gone to nurse Rachel whilst waiting for her turn earlier) that Renee has forgotten some parts of the exercises piece earlier.  However, from the bit I've heard, I think she played ok, though I missed the 'forgotten part', :P.

Prior to the exam, the teacher had told us that he'd arrange with us again for the lessons during the school holidays but we did not hear from him and began to worry that perhaps Renee really didn't do well afterall.  I was tempted to phone the teacher but papa told me not to...  However, unable to resist the wait and with the need to clarify the lesson arrangement with the teacher, I phoned the teacher this evening and boy, were we all SOOOOO relieved to hear him say : "哦, 拉得很好, 所有的老师都觉得她拉得很好, 只是Kayser她有拉错".  Of course, as a parent and for the good of her future, we certainly hope that besides the group performance, she'd also be selected as a soloist at the concert and as a participant to the competition,  but with such a remark, honestly, we are very happy/contented already... *phew*

Maidless and an Empty School

Just a couple of days working for us and the replacement maid had already shown us her true colours!  Geez, request after request and she even showed me her displeasure outright when I chided her for her repeated mistakes! She didn't bother to try and remember the daily chores' routine(would even 'change'  my instructions), didn't sterilise my baby's drinking bottles(which led me to wonder if she's really wash them clean) and even left me to doing it myself in the end, etc etc etc.  The worst being that I have to be her walking alarm - twice on one same morning after being told/explained a week ago(she did that on her 2nd day with us!) that she cannot resume sleep after she's switched the alarm off - she thought she could sleep in as late as us on days that Renee need not go to school, geez!

We could already see her incompetence on her 3rd day but the agency reminded us of the contract's stipulation that we have to use her for at least a month(we'd still have to pay her 1 mth's salary if we send her back earlier), so we thought perhaps we could try giving her another chance and maybe, just maybe, she might change.  However, laziness is something that's super hard to change and especially so when one's not putting an effort and thus, we decided to send her back earlier.  Unhappy with the situation we Singaporean employers have to put up with in such a situation(am 100% sure I'm not the only one and certainly not the 1st with such situation), I called up the MOM(which said that they can't help us and made me wondered why they take our monthly levy for?  Their policy has always been foreigners pro and our Singaporeans' feedbacks are not taken into serious consideration, etc...) and in the last resort, the agency itself.  It's only upon the desperate mention of my approaching an MP, did I finally get a compromise on the agency's part, for us to pay the lazy maid half a month's salary.  MOM was supposed to get back to me on this matter(also only upon my mentioning of getting the MP's help, did I get them to try and look into my case) but if I were to wait for their response, I think I would have gone crazy, plus I'm not sure what she, the maid, would be capable of doing- such rebellious maid is dangerous to be kept around, especially when we have young ones at home, So, we decided to send her back to the agent's office on Saturday. Although I may be depleted of the energy to even relate fully to you about the maid, but if you wish to know and if we do get to meet-up, I'll try to provide the info...

So, for the past 2 days, I'm totally bashed just doing the house-chores(worser now when the unit's bigger-we've decided that if we're going maidless, we'd need to get a smaller place in the future) whilst having to look after Rachel's needs and I have my hubby's eyes over the kids.(though he went out in the evening to watch soccer, leaving me alone at home with the kids - I had to tackle the chores and Renee was alone to watch over Rachel when I go for my shower!) I can't imagine those days/times when he's not home and I'm alone - it's sooooo hard to tackle the chores when Rachel refuses to sleep in her cot most of the times!

Today, already so tired and aching all over, Renee has to make us wake up early for nothing - because, there's no school today!  She must have been day-dreaming away or looking around in school and whatever she was doing, she certainly must have not paid attention 'cos how else would she have missed the information that there's no school today?  When will this girl learn to concentrate and pay attention,   She's the same when it comes to her music theory lessons, she'd try to copy down notes when the teacher is still talking/explaining, OMgosh, how is she going to cope when she goes higher level in her learning! Haiz...  Now they're all back to bed and I'm still awake - this is me, no matter how lack of it, I'm one who has difficulty in resuming my sleep after I'm awake.

Meanwhile, we have standby a selection of Indo maids and will have to decide if to give it another try when the agency confirms their availability...