The Apple's Diary!

I only started a routine to teach Jon and Matt sometime in March or April this year. In the beginning, getting the boys to settle down and do some activity was exhausting. Slowly it got better and we started to have some progress. Recently the Heguru teacher held a parent-teacher meeting and I was advised to make good use of the materials and tried to practice with them at home. Acting on the advice, I came up with a time table so that 1) there's a systematic way to practice Heguru's teaching with them 2) the father can continue the learning with the boys if I'm not in. sounds scary? Actually for them, the learning session is probably just 10-15mins each night. I listed down the possible activities I could do with them. We just started in September and so far, the boys have been quite cooperative. example of mandala Sometimes, I forget that each activity could be something new to them and I shouldn't be asking for perfection. Well, in the case o...

Last night I served my 1st voluntary work @ NHPS alumni. The school had a major event, mid-autumn festival which had the former principal, Mdm Fong joining us. I hadn't been to the new school campus and so yesterday was an eye opener for me. I stood in awe of a huge campus but the signature of NHPS was still deeply etched in the new architecture.  The root of Chinese traditions and cultures could be found in all corners of the school.  Which explained why mid-autumn festival was a huge event for the school. I served as one of the drink sellers for this event. It wasn't a bad experience for a first timer. I probably would like to join more of their activities in future.

birthday gifts The birthday gifts for Jon at his 3rd birthday were countable by 2 hands. However, the amount of cash gifts blessed upon him had made me sit straight up. This came about when I looked at both boys' saving accounts. By a mere difference of 16 months (15 months 3 weeks to be exact) in age, the difference was not by tens nor hundreds. It was significant thousands. I'm bewildered by such difference and I thought of secretly topping up the difference myself. However, the father has another view. He felt that this is how life is, you don't get fair share at every situation and some things for instance in this case, it is a privilege of being firstborn. Parents with more than 1 child, what would be your view?

We have waited for 3 years to be able to really celebrate Jon's birthday. For the past 2 birthdays, the poor boy had fallen sick on his actual birthday and there was no mood to be merry. So it was very dear and precious to us that our firstborn could enjoy his birthday as much as he liked! His birthday morning started with his revelation of a shiny bicycle as his birthday present. happy with his surprise gift Jon was thrilled he has a bicycle of his own. He went round the house with his father's help before we brought the boys out for breakfast at West Coast Park.  the new 宇宙小毛球 For some unknown reasons, Jon started insisting on tying his hair up! Yes, he has been bugging me to tie his hair and on that morning, he went to the park with his new hair-do! Luckily I managed to persuade him that he was cute enough and needed not do anything to his hair! We spent a happy but tiring morning, teaching him to cycle and letting the boys run around in the park. G...

We went for a Tiger theme, not necessary to be Tigger the Tiger but any cute, smiling, happy Tiger will do. So we got Cloud9 (yes, again….) to bake this lovely smiling Tigger for Jon's school celebration. Cloud9's bake We went around 3.30pm after the children's nap and when the children were ready, we got ushered into his class. There we found Jon waiting patiently for his birthday party! Pondering on his cake? All children love a birthday party, whether it's theirs or not. We got a class of 10 toddlers, surrounding the birthday boy, singing the birthday song so heartily and cheering so happily at the end. family shot We didn't bring Matt along as firstly, it would be difficult to handle so many things at the same time, secondly, I am paranoid about what Matt is exposed to as you know, childcare is like a germ incubator. On the same day, we had another boy in Jon's class celebration his birthday as well. It was really a case o...

Decided to split Jon's birthday celebration into 3 parts otherwise it would be a too lengthy post with too much photos at one go. Continuing with  birthday preparation  post, we started the first celebration with the Chinese Birthday which was based on his lunar birth date. It was a simple Mac's takeaway with a cake block from Polar. Yes, that's about it! SuperHero Cake Block from Polar Say Cheese! It was a practice session for Jon to blow his candle and cut his cake. From the boys' look, I guess the boys are more excited to blow the candle than anything.

It's the season of celebration again… our firstborn is turning 3 soon! For the past 2 years, he had fallen sick on his birthday, first year was with a high fever and second year was worse with croup cough and a viral fever. This year, we kept mum on our birthday plan for him and prayed hard that God keep him healthy and safe so this little boy could really enjoy his party. Starting with his school celebration and I heard that a boy from his class actually would be celebrating his actual birthday on the same day as Jon is going to celebrate his too. So we are still pending on the reply from teachers if we need to shift our celebration a day earlier or what. In any case, we had gotten the goodies bag ready. the goodies We are going to have a drawstring with handle type of party bag, filled with a yakult coin bank, kinder surprise and a pencil. The kids will have a party hat during the celebration. Instax Then we will have the kids' polaroid taken durin...