School hunting

I used to thank my lucky stars that I have the support of my in-laws to help babysit my child.

Jayden gets to attend a 3-hour school on weekdays and have his proper lunch & nap in the comforts of a familiar environment. At the same time, it also minimize the exposure of unnecessary diseases such as HFMD.

I thought I could put my heart at ease at least until the boy goes to elementary school. But alas, my luck ran out earlier than I could have expected.

Things changed 360 degrees the moment my BIL's wife gave birth in Adelaide. At first, it was just a simple 'going over to visit them' kind of arrangement. But the dis-organized irresponsible parents had to drop the ball on us 2 days after birth by saying that nobody can do confinement for the poor poor wife (I said poor cause they acted like very pitiful)

And so the MIL have to fly over pronto for 5 weeks which leaves the Singapore home here in a mess - Dylan was in reservist, I was due to fly to Perth for business trip for a week and there was nobody to take care of Jayden!!

Of course, when the well-being of my son is at stake, I will turn into an enraged mother rather than a sympathetic one. We all have our selfish sides so surely, my son comes first. Then again, all these displeasure and discontent could have easily been resolved if PLANNING was made in ADVANCE. I really don't appreciate last minute bombs!

Unfortunately, the damage was done. The FIL took over the baby-sitting for Jayden, the MIL's sister came over to cook the son's lunch and the rest of the adults in the house settled for ta-pao food. I had to accept the arrangement - as long as my son still eats home cooked food, I am happy.

With all the inconveniences going on, I decided that this was the last straw. I have been putting the idea of sending Jayden to childcare at the back of my head. I did consider sending the boy when he turns 4 and that we have settled our new home next year, in addition to him having better immunity by then. But life just don't go as what you plan for sometimes.

In a span of 2 days, I have scouted and rang 29 childcare centres. (I am not kidding. I even have it on an excel spreadsheet) As expected, all centres were fully booked and on long waiting list. Finding a school for kids these days is a torture!

Finally, one of the Oct mummy recommended me Agape Little Uni @ Serangoon. I was apprehensive about selecting childcares as I would prefer someone I know has/is attending the same school.

Dropped by the school and fell in love with it instantly. The place was spacious, facilities were CLEAN, the kind of place I can put my heart at ease for my child to sleep in. I have visited one childcare in private housing before and the cleaniness of the building was atrocious. Can you imagine letting your child sleeping on its floor??!

Back to Agape. The school fees left a lump in my throat. $1.8k for initial deposit - there goes one bag :(

Unperturbed, I decided to bring the son to visit the center himself. He must at least like the school to be in it right?

We brough Jayden to the center. The boy, as usual, was shy in the beginning. But it didn't took him long to get used to the environment. He played the drums on their performing stage, played doh, mixed colors and even spread nutella and sprinkles on a cookie.

And then we asked the ultimate question: "Do you like this school, baby?"

The boy shouted excitedly: "Mummy! I like this school! I want to study here!"

I don't know if it's a moment of over-zealous joy but that was the deciding factor. We signed up on the spot.

Jayden will attend his new school in Dec when his current school term ends. We hope it will be a smooth transition for the boy. *cross fingers*

And for now I can put my heart at ease again.

Days of the life of a SAHM

.... .... Temporary SAHM (Stay-At-Home-Mom) that is. The MIL had to go over to Adelaide and take over the task of infant sitting for my SIL's newborn - on a VERY LAST MINUTE NOTICE. I shall grief about that later.

I was actually quite excited about this 8-day bonding time with the son - planning some REAL activities for the boy.

Day 1: Sent the boy to school. Indulged on a heavy breakfast - never mind the calories for now. It's only Day 1.

Picked the son from school. Had lunch at Jack's Place and spent the rest of the day/night home.

Day 2: Decided to quarantine the child at home for 2 days due to the high rate of HFMD cases in school. Plucked up courage to bring the terror out ALONE to meet the Oct mummies for lunch. It wasn't so bad after all. :)

After lunch, decided to go for a hair treatment while son takes his nap. Wrong move. Son woke up 45 mins later and me with dripping wet hair. He used to sleep for hours!

Day 3: Ok. We need to get some serious activities done! Wrapped the teacher's day presents and got Jayden to 'write' and decorate the cards. He chose the colors himself. :)

Day 4: Brought Jayden to visit his maternal grandmother at her workplace. Everyone treated the boy like he was a celebrity - giving out balloons, chocolates, sweets. They are now hidden in some corner of the fridge hopefully forgotten by the kid.

Day 5: I declare myself child-care day free. Went for medical health screening and Dylan took over the nanny job.

Day 6: I am almost approaching the end of my SAHM stint and I realized I have not done anything productive with the son yet! *gasp* What happened to flash cards? Tracing letters? Doddling art?!

Jayden mentioned today that he wants to go to the beach for sandplay. Let's see if I ever fulfil his wish. And I have 2 more days to remedy myself. Bleh.

The things that happened in August

Before I rattled about the fact that my boy is turning 3 soon in less than 2 months time, there were quite a handful of things that happened in August.

Having witness that Jayden could nicely sit through any shows/plays/movies, we brought him to a children's recital play in early August.

** UPSTAIRS IN THE SKY **

It was a low budget recital which compromises of only 2 ppl who created a story base based on whatever objects they could find on stage. It was mildly entertaining for the adults but the focused boy sat listened hard to understand what was going on.

Next up, Barney show in Sep. The boy has been harping to me non-stop on when Barney is coming and where he is coming from. I have instructed the inquisitive son to question the purple dinosaur himself. Let's see if that happenes.

** CHANGING THE PINK CARD **

I acknowledge that my birthday has passed nearly a month. I only got down to sending my new IC application before ICA sends me the penalty letter and ask me to stop living in denial - NO MORE PRIMARY SCHOOL PHOTO ok.

I used to laugh at how dorky I looked when I was 12, now I wished I was still that young. :(

** BUSINESS TRIP @ PERTH **

The last time I visited Perth - the land of boring town, I was the least impressed. Shops were closed even before I knock off from work. By 7pm, you had nowhere to go but hibernate in the hotel watching soapy Aussie dramas.

So this time, I decided to schedule my flight timings that allow my to check out the rest of Perth City.

Arrived around 2-ish, checked-in and dashed off to Harbourtown factory outlet. I'm so delighted that buses are FOC in Perth! :D

Did some shopping before proceeding to dinner @ Shilla's Korean BBQ restaurant. Sadly, although it was run by an authentic Korean family, the beef were nothing like that one I had in Seoul. :( And it certainly wasn't worth the trip out in the cold, windy evening to search for this place located at some ulu street. Well, it was recommended by a colleague so must at least try mah.

DAY 2 & 3

Woke up at 3AM!!! to fly off up north of Perth to visit our work sites. Nothing glamourous to begin with but it was good to put an image to the work I've been doing all these while.

I know Aussies like to drink ALOT, but having a fridge full of beers and spirits was kind of overwhelming for me.

Shall not delve on the rest of the work days - it was just more sites and acres and acres of brown land.

Day 4 & 5

Spent the last 2 days back in Perth and did more shopping including buying snacks that cost only 1/3 of what we can get in Sg!

Towards the end of Aug, starts my 8 days SAHM stint with Jayden. More on that in next post!

Count on me

Red is the colour of our nation. It is also the colour that symbolize luck. And we were darn lucky to be given tickets to watch the NDP live at the Padang this year! All thanks to R & SY.

It was 15 years ago when I was at the NDP. The unbearable heat still remained etched in my mind. But since it will be Jayden's 1st joining the rest of the nation celebrating its birthday, we thought it would be a great experience for the boy.

J surprised us when he stood up joining in the chorus "Count on me Singapore" and waved the Singapore flag like it was the most fun toy he had.

All was enjoyable despite the humid weather until the fighter planes and fireworks that scared the shit out of our timid boy. Naturally, he demanded us to go home pronto. We didn't even get to see the fireworks finale. :(

Still, we were glad that we were given the opportunity to be part of this mega event of the country. Well, let's see if we still get lucky next year.

All geared up in red

Spectacular sights @ the Padang

A little indulgence

A while ago, Dylan's colleagues organized a short trip across the border. It was a more perculiar trip as it did not associate with any shopping at all - very unlike of me.

D's col brought us to authentic rural areas feasting on cheap food and top notch mao shan wang durians. D liked it so much, he bought $300 worth of it! What a not-so-brilliant way to get fat.

Of course, after all the calorie binging activity, we had to do something to burn out. Again, we were brought to this ulu pandan place for go-karting. Ended the day with 2 hour long foot & back massage with atrociously cheap rate.

Ahh... the simple pleasures of life. :D

Man in the house

One of the reason why I wanted a place of my own was that I would have the freedom to do the things I want, at my pace and not have people dictating on the time I should go to bed, have my dinner, etc.

However, now I have a little man in the house who decides when I should go to bed, where I should be sleeping and WHO I should sleep with.

Jayden has been sleeping independantly in his own room since he was 8 months old and able to sleep through. But nowadays, he demands that he sleeps at our room. I offered the boy a mattress beside our bed but he is determined to be by my side and even ushered his father to sleep in his room instead.

At times when I want to do my things, the son will drag me to bed and say "Mummy, you're tired. It's time to sleep." Sometimes such gesture warms my heart for I know he just wants me to be by his side. But at times when I really just want to vege catching the tube, I end up being asleep! Grrr....

Of course, the other man, aka Dylan is not very pleased with the current sleeping arrangement but we would just have to make do until the son gets bored with me.

On another note, Jayden has also started to ask a string of questions that leaves us baffled sometimes.

Where is our home?
Where is Seng Kang?
Why Mummy have to go work?
Where is work?
Where Jayden has to go school?
Where is the truck going?
Where are we going for dinner?
When is my birthday?
Why is it in October?

It's an endless list of questions that only starts from one. Even the neighbour who used to coyly answer the curious boy's questions now keeps his doors closed.

Outing in the open waters

A week before my birthday, my mom came up with this brilliant idea of going on a cruise as she had excess points on her system so everything was ON THE HOUSE.

I fervently recalled of my last cruise trip 8 years ago that didn't left a lasting impression and was really apprehensive to accept her invitation. However, to fulfil her wish to bond with the grandson, I reluctantly agreed. It would be my first trip overseas without my other helper aka Dylan.

Jayden was quite excited that we're on a big ship - that's what he said. Because grandma told him there were free flow of ice cream.

We had dinner at the buffet terrace, enjoyed some night breeze and parents went for their casino dosage leaving me and the terror alone in the terrible small cabin. Even Jayden wasn't impressed with it and asked if we could go home. I told Dylan that our son is spoilt now after being to luxurious places.

As usual, the son woke up at 8 and we proceeded for mediocre breakfast that even the boy only had a mouthful. At that instant, I just wished I was home, lying on my comfy bed and eating some decent food! Ok we are very spoilt.

The trip took a turn for the worst when Jayden started to develop a low grade fever. But the gungho hero insisted that he wanted to go for a swim. That was the whole purpose of bringing him here right? What to do? Look at his smiley face after a dip.

Of course, I got bored and started playing around with my camera functions and cam-whoring.

In his cot and reading a book at the library

The entire trip made me felt like I was more of a nanny attending to a hyper-active albeit sick child. I didn't have any single ME time at all which was why I wanted to come back to land so badly.

Thankfully, I managed to sneak into the casino past midnight when my dad came back after he lost some money. I, on the other hand, won some small money. Hehehe. So I guess that is the only comforting/enjoyment I had.

Dylan has never been on the cruise before. But I managed to convince the old man that it's worth giving it a miss. :P Still, it was a pleasant trip with my parents. I'm glad they bonded with Jayden one way or another. But I doubt I'll ever step foot on a cruise-liner again - not without my helper hub Dylan.