Turning 6..

And someone had a early birthday celebration today with gong gong, popo and his dear cousin!
To me, turning 6 is a bit milestone. Going to Primary School next year is one of them but also for the mum to hide her tears as there will be NO more babies in da house!
Blessed birthday Lil I. You are so so precious to us. I am sure you know being the youngest has its perks.
#rayconniebaby #myyoungestson

Learn how to ride a bicycle with Byke Now

As parents, we all agree that other than the academic achievements our children have, we also hope they can attain certain skills set. It may not be an age defining skill as this certainly cannot be apply to me. 

Cycling is always what I wanted to learn but obviously I didn't. But I hope my kids dont miss this opportunity like I did. So I sent them for cycling class. Some may say, "no need to teach.. can teach yourself." The problem is: I cant cycle, how to teach? Ray papa can cycle but his schedule is always very tight so.. I prefer to set aside some budget for this skill set.

According to the bike coach: during the first lesson, Isa was the more cautious one. He didn't really dare to pedal that much and was more wary of falling. 

60 minutes passed quickly.

Then on the second lesson, not even 20 minutes into the lesson, someone surprised us.

This is also Dora on her 2nd lesson. I would not say she had fully accomplished her skill but the bike coach says she had the hang of things but had focus her pressure too much on her hands. 

Well it is ok. We will let her try again soon!

Someone with his newly acquired skill. Really yaya papaya.. 

So how had your September school holidays been?

What to learn cycling? Contact Byke Now

PSLE advice..

Just another day of leave. 

Today I had to brave the heavy downpour to fetch her from school, we went for a quick lunch then head to KKH for her 6 monthly eye check up. And here is my not so little girl in her make shift raincoat. 

After seeing the orthoptist then the eye doctor, both of them gave praise for Dora's improvement for her eyeball control. Though squint is still present but it seemed like squint surgery is not longer needed! 

Small yay for the week! 

Eye appointment aside but I feel my children are amazing. I am sure your kids are too. Not that they study fantastic or what but they have indeed opened up my eyes to many other more necessary things in life. Sad to say, to many, academics expectation is still very much sought after. 

For me, I would not say I don't focus much on academic. If you know me, I do send my kids to enrichment classes too but I also focus very much on one other very important aspect of child rearing. 

Which is health, and this includes mental health. 

For the parents whose kids are braving thru the PSLE this year, trust me. Don't forget to celebrate the journey, the efforts and their willingness to share with you how they feel about the exams. Stretching them a little is fine as it will make them more resilience to handle stress from their co workers or even boss next time but don't ever forget to look into their emotion development. 

After each exam paper, don't be in a hurry to ask them "how's your paper?" Or “why you don’t know?” Or dwell if your child tell you he or she didn't do well. 

Rather you can redirect your focus to "ok, one down. 3 more to go" or “we are done with one”.

If you were to step back and look, these two questions meant the same thing. But the starting foot (question) is the determining factor that sets your child's mood. 

Maybe you don't think I have much experience handling PSLE as only my eldest went thru it. But I definitely have my fair share of handling children since 2003. 

Call it a mummy's instinct. Call it a teacher's gut. But PSLE is not everything, it is just the beginning of a windy road ahead. PSLE results will not determine your child, primary school education might mould your child's character but nobody will judge your child just because he or she score a mediocre range. 

Good luck too all the P sixers. 

When Mama Connie say you can do. It means "You can do it!"

He is who he is..

I would say he speaks, maybe not as much as he should or he would as depends on his mood. But the words that he utter.. are usually the classic or the darnest.

He may not be so academic driven, can't really read very well for his age but his very unique personality will usually leave a deep impression on you for he is really observant. He would nick pick and question me why I'm dressed such, too short no, colour ugly also no. And he would roll down my sleeve if he sees my rolled up sleeve.

Come meet him, my little oppa, aka the emperor (as his chinese name has a character 烨- look into Kangxi Emperor).

So today, he just hop on the bus and hogged this seat, gesturing me to go sit at the back. Me being the worrywart, asked ,"you sure?"
He continued to gesture me to go to the back.

I'm so not ready for you to be so independent lil I.

2020 April and onwards..

Been so so long since I pen anything down here.

For a record, 2020 started with a “Big Bang” as many countries got hit by Coronavirus (Covid-19) from December 2019. Singapore was not spare either but guess we were lucky to steal a movie and a staycay during the March school holiday at Festive Hotel. 

Then came the infamous circuit breaker bestowed to Singapore as most of us have to adhere to 56 days of school closure/WFH. Everybody became homebodies, like it or not. No visitation is allowed unless you are dropping some necessity items for your close/direct family members.

Cars were not zipping through town anymore, ERP was off for a record, public transport were labelled with stickers for passengers to adhere to safety distancing. If out, you have to wear a mask or you face a risk of being fine $300. 

Then school reopened on 2nd June 2020, with HBL kicking in for alternate levels reporting. We can visit but not more than 5 people from the same household. 

Retail and restaurant opened from 19 June 2020 with crowd no larger than 5 to be seated together. Masking on is still mandatory. We can also receive guests but not more than 5 in the house. 

Many regulations are still technically in place. Some people are worried, some people are just lax (wearing masks below their nose). I’m just becoming to getting used to be a homebody. I only dined out once, went to the mall because I need the washroom. Else I’m usually home with the kiddos.

We enjoy our time a lot at home, weekends are just meant for doing more school work, they having more access to screen time while I binge on watching my oppa. Ray papa says this seems like Australia retirement plans already. 

Then came the news of Paliament dissolving over the weekend and also came the polling date that gave my birthday a long weekend. Also came the news of a white candidate brought under the scrutiny of the public eyes then came another one, hopefully a more cohorent one.

What a happening year we have so far.

But in the midst of this chaos, I never forget to give thanks to the Lord, never forget to pray to him humbly and continue to serve Him with all my heart for I know what we are going through is according to His will. 

Another thankful moment that everyone in my family is doing good, my kids are healthy as we are bestow with such abundance of His love. 

Here is Lil I at school, drawing his version of the world.

What more can I ask for.

2020 March..

2020 didnt kick off quite nice so far. Coronavirus also know as #covid19 hit our shores as early as late January 2020.

We have been quite hiding at home since CNY period in fact. We were worried but did not panic. It is even more really scary to see how fear can consume one. Govt has been exercising many implementations, QO, SHN etc.

Today is 24 March 2020, even more additional implementations took place and all I can say, our daily routines are still good for now as govt focuses more on public management of crowd for now. So not looking forward to school closures really but it could be happening in a matter of time. Anyway in the meantime, take care everyone. Wash your hands more often, lessen on alcohol sanitizer as there was a report of someone had a third degree burn from lighting up the stove after she used a alcohol based sanitizer before she started cooking.

Covid19 is one thing, we still had to bring the kids out for the school holidays. We don't need a city shut down to tell us to contribute to our own economy right. So here we travelled to .. Sentosa for a 2D1N staycay at Festive Hotel.

Budget tourist on public transport. You will only see this in Singapore perhaps. And from home to the shores of Sentosa, we only took less than an hour.

Upon arrival, we deposited our luggage at the hotel concierge before heading over to have fun at Sky ride/Luge. Boy it was tough cos I was a scary cat and I had to tell Lil I that it is "very exciting" and we are like in the sky. Seriously I really try very hard not to look down. 

But the truth is.. one ride is really not enough.

After the ride at Luge, we had lunch and managed to check in around 3pm. Kids were still bursting with energy so we headed to the pool. Seems like most of the guests here are locals. Everyone seems to be especially nice and kind. I guess we all know that we are all going through a very tough period of this year indeed but we are all glad that we can still call this our home. #OneSingapore 

Day 2: we had to have our SOP breakfast at Slappy cakes after a staycay here in Sentosa.

Time was quite tight so we had to check out before heading to Trick Eye Museum.

And too many pictures to upload so simplied down to just one cute one.
And spot the clown. 

Happy moments always pass fast, dont they. Till the next staycay.

13 years of parenthood..

Isa turned 13 yesterday and this make him an official teenager. Praying for Isa to grow up to be a Godly man and journey his life with Him.

Thankful 2019..

1. Child first aid course over the weekends

2. Oven baked food 

3. My dad’s birthday 

4. Trip to Bangkok Zoo

5. Isa’s fever episode

6. Dora’s swim class

7. Isa’s swim competition 

8. Isa’s swim competition (again)

9. 2019 CNY

Regardless of all the good or bad, thankful and grateful for His provisions for the year.