Family fun

This is me, slightly sunburnt from yesterday’s Adventure cove outing. Life unfiltered and trying to be more confident of how I look, despite the flab and age spots.

Decided to do a 12pm swim coz I needed an extra dose of endorphins plus I’m trying my best to stick to “exercise 4x a week” regime.

I survived 1 whole week without Uncle Choo! Woohoo! 🥳 🎉🎊

The little man has been merciful to me too, having slept thru the night for the last 3 nights. I have been doing the night closings and I guess this kinda assured him so he doesn’t need to wake up middle of the night to check on mama. My dear Angela said it’s bcoz it’s full moon coz her son has been generous to her too..hahaha.. well if that’s the case, I do pray that it’s full moon every night! And it does make a lot of difference - between sleeping uninterrupted sleep for 5-6hrs vs sleeping intermittently for 8hrs. The last few days I’ve woke up automatically even before my alarm rang! The same for my naps too.. 儿子啊，请你对娘好一点吧！

This was us yesterday - the day where all the stars align where it wasn’t raining + no one was having her period day. 

They were supposed to do this during the Dec holidays but it was raining mostly and then sch started which meant only Sundays were avail. I ended up being tasked to do this bcoz the papa is already not in sg and the tickets will expire by the time he came back. 

Becoz Joash was so clingy, there was a stage where I was secretly praying that it will rain super heavily so that I didn’t need to leave him at home (Honest). But eventually I told myself that if the weather was good, we will do it! Then one thing leads to another and our great helper ended up bringing Joash to Jewel coz he wanna see planes. I suggested she meet up with her friends after that so that she could take a breather too. He had fun taking train + bus as always. 

Glad that it all worked out! 9 more days to go! 

Emo-ing

Couldn’t zz well the whole night. It’s the day before I fly with the twins. Contemplated going to the gym today but in the end I chose the easy way out. I went for a swim. Thought it will do me more good to have time to clear my thoughts and realign myself.

Told Angela yday that I was emo-ing. Kinda question myself why I decided to fly AGAIN. When I’m buried in my work and there seems tons of things to do. She reminded me that it’s to spend time with the twins who are often the neglected generation/ kids coz we were trying very much to stay afloat (financially/ mentally / physically) most of their toddler yrs and we hardly did anything special for them. That is a timely reminder. And that was why I signed up for this. They are at the stage where they are old enough to take care of themselves while overseas, and young enough to still follow instructions.. lol.. yes yes, I do wanna spend time with them, do girly things like shopping or cafe hopping or just bring them to their fav Running Man sites. 

Just praying that the directionless mama don’t get too loss everywhere. The map seems to show that all the places are quite within walking distance, and my strategy is to cab if possible. Coz I’m afraid I’ll drown in their metro. Hahahaha.. 

Praying that I’ll survive the red eye flight. Grace is still nursing a cough, praying that God heals her soon! May we find favour on this trip, that everyone will have mercy on us. In Jesus name I pray, amen!

P/S: I’m really scare to be honest. Afraid that I can’t zzz on the plane, or my room booking was rejected or we get really lost or the twins end up killing each other. But we will see. This is for them. This is to spend time with my neglected twins. 

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We did the MRI yday.. like finally and it wasn’t a walk in the park. Firstly both of us couldn’t zzz the night before but we didn’t tell each other.. lol 

Anyway, on Friday morning brought the big baby for his MRI. You could see that for all the things he could do for his family, medical appts isn’t one that he can just go. Which is fine. It’s an opportunity for me to sayang the big giant I guess. Anyway, long and short of the story, he had to be sedated bcoz he freaked out again. I’m trying to be the emphatic wife but hor, I had to bite my lips several times just to remind myself not to say the wrong things.. 

We finally did it. The appt took 3 hrs plus. Next wed going to see the doctor. Praying that the results would be clear and that the dizzy spells are just due to fatigue or “gaming too much” (his own words). 

I slept so well last night. Could go back to zzz immediately after settling Joash motn feeds. So thankful! 

Brought the twins to their enrichment class today. We took public and literally crawled from woodleigh to Delfi! Enjoying my breakfast at Starbucks now bcoz I’m down to 3x pumps a day! Yeah ! First time on a Saturday where I don’t need to blog while pumping at the nursing room at forum. 

I need to focus on myself and my well being; instead of the pump! Going to eat clean again and lose the excess weight. (The emotional roller coaster and sleepless nights did nothing to help)

But today is good bcoz I had good rest last night. 🤗Beautiful Saturday! 

Today’s such a hot hot day.. took the twins out coz they didn’t have school today. We went to Pasir Ris to pick up some documents from my client’s place, before dropping some mooncakes over at my mom’s. My mom decided to join us for lunch so she followed us to Jewel. 

Her delightful face when she gets to have one whole glass on her own.

Loving this picture coz I’m at the back.. hahaha..

Dropped mama back home, pumped and dropped twins at their tuition place. I was so tired and baked from all the driving.. plus Joash kept screaming and waking up last night.. and that was despite I decided to just give him the bottles yday.. felt like I had an hangover lo.. lol.. 

Finally reach home at 3pm and thankfully William will be bringing Joash along to pick his sisters from tuition. Managed to zzz for 2 hrs of uninterrupted sleep.. it’s really so nice.. to wake up naturally, not bcoz someone was arguing outside or to a wailing baby etc . I’m thankful for the rest. 

Enjoying the nice view from my bedroom. The twins are delayed from their tuition .. I hope time could freeze here for a moment. I hope I can zzz for another hr.. hahaha

Tonight William will be going to the hospital for his sleep test. I will be holding the fort at home and ideally if all’s good, I could still pick him up tomorrow morning. (Assuming tonight is easy) 

I had a random check on my blog to see what my life was about 12 mths ago and laughed when I saw this. It was things that I could do, for myself not as a mom. I will be back to do all of these (I hope) in time to come. Coincidentally I’m thinking of getting a small car for myself, an indulgence I know. Well, the hubby bought a new tv which arrived today. And I just thought maybe I should get something for myself too.. after all, it’s seldom that I get something for myself. It was always abt getting things for the kids or essential household stuff .. oh well.. we shall see coz I also don’t wanna it to turn into “need to work to pay for it” mentality. Will explore it further in the days to come. 

Next week going to be an hectic week with a few doctors appt and some zoom back to back.. praying for wisdom and strength to pull it thru .. 

Be Positive!

In all things, there’s at least 2 ways we can view things.. look at it negatively and be sour/ bitter over it, or just look at it positively and laugh it off how different/ difficult the comments / situation is.. 

I’m trying to be the Mario in this pic, and trying to visualise all the mushrooms 🍄 will turn into pretty flowers 🌸  after I step on them. Lol.. 

I don’t know what gave me the courage to do a public announcement of our pregnancy.. I just wanted to praise and thank God for giving us this special blessing and how He has protected me all these while, even though the pregnancy hasn’t been a walk in the park. Friends close to me know how emo it has changed me but despite it all, I’ve managed to survive till now, for which I’m thankful. Like seriously, it has to be because of God who has provided for the little bundle of joy, and protected me from self harm that I manage to tahan until now ah... otherwise no one knows what could have happened.

But I guess I didn’t expect the overwhelming responses.. some on fb n some over WhatsApp... some very nice, some blunt.. 🙄🙄🙄 . I was tempted to paste it here but I decided not to bcoz I’m just going to delete it and move on with my happy life.. 

Yes I shall look at my pretty flowers and say my blessings. I really love flowers.. it’s so therapeutic and calming to the mind. 

Thankful that I zzz at 10pm yday, so we could all go for dim sum this morning.. thankful that I manage to still bring the twins down for our Sunday swim 🏊‍♀️, to spend some time with time and at the same time clock some exercises.. hahahaha

After our swim, they manage to clear some of their hw while I also did some work.. they like it when mama is working alongside with them.. 

And now sleeping beauty is sound asleep.. I shall go zzz too before my extended kampung come over for dinner.. 

Be positive, @queenlena!! What doesn’t kill you will make u stronger. And time should b allocated to people who matters. 

Happy weekend! Happy me, happy life.

mom's guilt

Waving bye to the twins before heading to work. Time: 5pm. Need head to office for an evening appt. Manage to have another morning appt today. I'm exhausted.The past 2 weeks have been crazy packed that I hardly come back for dinner. That's why vera made me promised I pick her up from school at least once this week.

Mom's guilt is real. I don't remember feeling this way for a long time especially now that the girls are older. Planned today's schedule deliberately around their timing so that I could pick them up from school and have meaning conversations with them. We played hide and seek for a while before it was time to head to work. They were sad n I felt so bad. Penning it down so that I make an effort to pick them up again and leave the rest of the day entirely to them. 

I love my work, dont get me wrong. And I'm thankful that in current times I still have people to meet up with. I just need to remind myself that I need to give TIME to myself and my loved ones. 

Goodbye 🐷, harlow 🐭

We are getting there.. probably settling down to the new place soon, in the midst of the many cny hostings.. the twins cant be happier that they finally can scoot again! They didnt get to do it at jewel coz there wasnt the space to do it then.. happy with the pool/playground/scooting fun..

A a resident lend them this float while at the pool.

this is a huge carousel by any standards..lol..

Before we say goodbye to the 🐷 year, just wanna take this chance to give thanks. 

Thankful that we found this place, and even though it isn't near the mrt, the twins and I are really enjoying the benefits of staying near the school. There were days where they only woke up at 645 and we would reach school by 715. Tight, but not late.. hahaha.. 

Thankful that Joy is adjusting well to her new school. As of now, she has been talking on and on about her fantastic her secondary school is, and how glad most of her classmates are like her - first yr in the school.. blah blah blah.. 

Thankful that I've rested for 2 mths..lol.. dec and jan have been great, just simply being with the kids and not working much (oops!) .. just trying to take things easy at each season.. work will come from feb onwards and I will accept whatever plans my Lord has for me..

Thankful that everyone at home are healthy; that's most impt to me. Health and time with them.. 

Praying that God protect us from the flu epidemic.. trying not to over react even though most places have ran out of surgical masks.. my God is my shepherd..

Morning me

And we made it in time (714am) to school today! Yeah! Praise the Lord! Missed the alarm at 6am and only woke up at 635 by the helper vacuuming noise. So thankful that the twins managed to get ready in double quick time. Though there was some traffic along the way, I'm glad that we managed to arrive in time.

Enjoying my breakfast at Hong Lim now. The osaka team are on the plane back to sg! Yeah! It feels so long that they are away. Haven't been able to zzz well since we camped at my mama place after the cruise. The body is sleepy but mind is too awake... hopefully things will get better when they are back!

Haven't been so close to the twins for so long. We showered together; slept together and chatted before we zzz.. there was a little drama during the sleeping time yday and both vera and I cried for stupid reasons. I was hurt by her remarks but oh well.. I guess it's part of parenting. There were episodes being replayed in my mind, exploding or scolding/bulldozing my way thru. But I didnt. I was tempted. (Haha!) She is lucky to b my 3rd kid where I've mellowed so much in my parenting style. I've learnt to exercise control with my temper/anger mgmt. I've learnt to empathise more and expect less. I've learnt so much from these girls, to which I'm thankful for. 

Today's mad rush made me realize how much william does for the girls in the morning..coz I'm usually still in Lalaland when they leave for school. Probably should do this once a while.. prepare bf for them, bring them to school etc and let the man sleep in..hahaha..  

Wanna try to squeeze in a trip for the 2 of us before the end of the year.. hahaha.. but our schedules are pretty packed.. shall see how.. there is HKK in dec for the entire village too.. which the girls are so looking forward to.

We are going IKEA for lunch later just bcoz the twins loved it.  Hahaha..

The twins and I

On the 2 hr bus ride back to the port. We are into the 4th day of the cruise. Decided to do a 6D5N cruise with the twins and my mama since william will b going Osaka with Joy and I can't work much since J is on leave too..

My sleeping beauty who zzz 10 mins into the bus ride, on both ways of the trip. Thank God! Hahaha...

Thankfully we manage to do some shopping with the twins buying quite some stuff too. Hahaha..

Checklist: After you - simply loving their desserts.. 

Sugar treats motivation

Thankful that these few days on the cruise have been awesome. Stopover at redang on the 2nd day and even though the twins didnt want to disembark initially, I just wanted them to see the beautiful beach. And I'm glad that we all enjoyed ourselves that day too..

Pretty!

The weather was pretty and so were their moods.. thankful that they have been pretty cooperative all these while.

The tattoo they made at redang..

Bento for lunch on board! 

Ice cream again! Becoz it's only $1.50 per scoop, so we had to have it everyday. Hahahah.. we later realise that we could have it for free at the palace lounge..🤣

While on this cruise, there were many times when the twins only wanted to stay at the kids club 0r in the room bcoz the last few times when they were here with their grandparents, they literally had TV / sweets buffet.. but bcoz I'm here this time round, I wanted them to try out more things. Thus we went to the beach and shopping at BKK today..

Lovey dovey.. may they continue to be close buddies even when they grow up 

I also managed to have many one to one occasions with vera. Usually when Joy / papa choo is around, they are her default choices to go to. But this past few days, we probably hang out tog more often than for the whole of this yr. I now know that she doesnt like prawns or soya milk, but she loves beef and lobster. Shes more of a meat person and her love language is quality time now instead of touch previously.

Thankful for the opportunities to create memories with my family. Looking forward to tomorrow's activities on the cruise.

*******

*waiting at the lounge for the twins to finish their "kidzania" activities*

Hello captains!

Them as butlers..

Seriously, I'm dead tired by late afternoon and there are probably a few more activities before this end.. its their 3rd time doing it but its still pretty fascinating for them, which is good enough for me.

Thru the activities, Grace is always the vocal one, willing to say her thoughts and views to the trainers while Vera is the reserved one. She is able to vocalise, but given a choice she would stand behind her sister and wait. It's something that we already knew, and slowly but surely, given the right opportunities, she would be able to grow her confidence.

*Pizza making*

*cheers to fruit punch*

We did 1 last swim; had dinner and packed our bags. It was time to go home tomorrow. The kids are at the kids club for one last time while the dowager is doing her final sprint at her casino, trying to recover her losses. I finally have some me time alone in the room. Yeah!

Overall this trip has been fun, they have been amazingly cooperative; and even though there were little spats, they always managed to patch up without much interference. I'm glad that we came for this trip. It was good bonding for the girls and me; n for my mom with me/them too.

Lazy Thursday

Mama duties today after a hectic morning. Took uncle choo's first "bus" with the girls and reach office by 7am. Printed some documents and collected a chq from client at yishun at 8ish before heading to another review appt at 930 at potong pasir. By the time it was done, went to office again to submit all the paperwork. Headed home to take a catnap before fetching the girls from school. 

Papa choo took the car to bring his mama to the doc so today was my first time taking public with the twins from school. Thankfully we manage to squeeze into the first bus... hahaha..

Moments when they are sisters and not sworn enemies..

To be honest, I'm exhausted bcoz I only manage to zzz at 4am (intoxicated by coffee) and what better way to exhaust their energy than to swim! 

Probably becoz the other kids are still in school so we have the whole pool by ourselves..

Thankfully I'm done with work for today. I told them that they can swim for as long as they want till it rains or when they quarrel big time. Going to miss this place when we move out end of the year.. 

Thankful for the time to enjoy my kids, breathe and the happy moments. Now that I'm going to scale down this yr, I wanna bring them for swimming more frequently and to also make use of our zoo passes next week! Yeah!

Lesson to learn

Woke up by the man stomping into the bedroom and changing back to his home clothes. Time: 830am. He had intended to bring the twins out on an excursion since we had a whole Sunday to ourselves. Gave them instructions to change and get ready but when the man was ready, the twins were still in their own world; grace reading and vera drawing. That was it. The man told them they are not going out anymore and came back to the bedroom.

Thus began the long episode of crying and crying. Haiz.. there was an interval for bf at home and the twins (and me also) probably thought that they could go after bf. After all, it's rare we have a whole Sunday on our own. But the man wanted to imprint this lesson in their minds. After all, this was getting too frequently.

The twins realized that they r not going after all, cried even louder and longer.. at this point, I was tired. I was tempted to use my "priority pass" to ask the king for a pardon. But I too realise that I shouldn't.

Peace has resumed. We are all back to our home clothes. Crying has stopped. Episode ended faster than I thought. It seems a long day though its only 1030am.

God, I pray u grant me the stamina t0 last thru today. I pray for wisdom as I figure this topic of parenting. I pray for strength, in jesus name I pray, Amen!

P/s: as I draft this entry, episode 2 has started..  God pls save me.. 😣

Reading

The twins came back today with 2 bags full of library books. Bus Molly had visited their school today and they were excited to borrow books with their newly made library cards.

Since young, the twins had always enjoyed reading though their reading levels are greatly different.

At a recent PTC, the teachers commented that Vera had improved a lot since the beginning of the year; from a level 5 to a level 12. And I have to agree that I do see a mark improvement from last yr. I know that and I'm happy with it. Even though the teachers later on commented that Grace is at level 21 in her reading. Yes, and I know that it would have send many parents on red alert knowing their disparity. Lol.. I'm glad we didn't.

It's hard not to compare but we try our best. Bcoz each child is different. And rather than fret over how one is struggling with reading and not knowing as many high frequency words as her chek-cheks, we try to remind ourselves that as long as she continue to be interested in reading , she will get there eventually. What is impt is to encourage, interest her and not let her feel that reading is a chore or make her feel that she is incompetent. Building up her confidence is more impt (at least to me) than her competence.

I know that as they grow older, their teachers; friends or external influences will compare. It's inevitable. May I remember to always treat each of my child independently n to always fill them up with love and lots of love.

Happy Labour Day!

What are the choos doing this Labour day? When the twins are down with flu and Joy is busy preparing for her SA1...

Spring cleaning !

In particular- twins section..  hahaha.. coz they haven't been keeping their stuff properly.. e.g. their pencils are kept one corner here another one at another corner.. 4 jackets on their bed and many many of their toys on it..

This is the start .. and this is not even counting the recent big load of presents that they received for their bday.. need to keep it neat and tidy before they can start playing with their new toys. .

Halfway thru... house in a mess.. hahaha..
Kids are losing steam.. Hahaha .. but we will get thru it !

2 points to Vera for finding the missing "dolphin" and "cube"! One of the ways to keep them motivated in the midst of their "treasure hunt".

This is almost the end of round 2; with papa choo helping out with most of it while I go thru the revision with Joy.. (thank God I'm still useful..haha!)

Round 3: room

The new toys that they have gotten and This is not even the whole of it.. that's why I always say my kids have TOO much toys.. Grace asked me that day why they haven't received any presents fr us yet and we told them that their present was the Mac party simply bcoz they have too many toys that's just sitting there..

Labourer @ work..  between the 2 of them, Vera is the more hardworking person when it comes to housework.. Grace will try all means to "siam" or eat snake..

The amt of hidden "treasures" they have in their bedroom is astonishing. . Papa choo is pissed.. how can 3 girls b so messy? Omg.. 

The mattresses lying in the living room while papa choo cleared up the rest of their bedroom..

Time : 5pm
Finally cleared out their bedroom, washed and dried 2 loads and changed their bedsheets, which is in the 3rd load of washing now .. Papa choo says going to b iron man tonight.. 

Gotta pick joy from tuition in another half hr time.. dinner and the end of today..  Hahaha.. I'm exhausted even though I haven't really done much..  just enjoying 5 mins of peace while the twins play by themselves.. #thankful

Happy birthday my twins!

Back post on the twins actual bday.. was too busy that I didn't have time to complete it..

We decided to let the twins "potang" today and where are we heading to ?

First stop : Ikea!

The choos love coming here. Papa choo loves shopping for the Ikea things , while joy loves the food here. The twins love coming here bcoz of its big playground where they could play for 1 hr while the parents take a break ! ( yeah !) I love it bcoz it makes everyone happy.. Hahaha

Can u imagine all these for only $12.60? One of the few places I could feed the village at v affordable prices.. hahahah

 Inside the big playground..

2nd stop: Longkang fishing
Saw this promo on qoo10 where kids can try longkang fishing..

In reality it's more like papa choo helping the twins catch the fishes coz city kids have no idea how to go about doing it and Vera, being the "princess" , is too scare to step into the pond.

Their catch of the day..

3rd stop: RWS staycation

Picked joy up from school and brought them to our staycation. 3 days of swimming and sand play and before coming back home...

Happy birthday my girls! May the Lord continue to watch over you and guide u in yr growing years.. mama and papa loves u..