Malcolm celebrated Teachers’ Day in school today.
Since last week, he has been telling me how he can’t wait for Monday to come.

The reason being this

We made them for some of his favourite people in Paris
We made them again this time

With a bit of improvisation
Nicer paper with ready printed design on one side
and brightly painted colours on the other

He suggested rolling 2  handprints instead of 1 on each stick
Making it a DOUBLE flower

He is right
It looks better

Easy peasy
here are the few simple steps

Note :
Curl each fingers using a pencil to get the curly petals
Containers for the flowers are made from toilet rolls

It is not a rich man’s life with abundant wealth that I strive

Neither is it a poor man’s hunger for a lavish life that I crave

Nor a poor man’s ignorance that bound him to a simple life that I envy

It is the wisdom behind a rich man’s choice of a poor man’s life that I seek

and this wraps up Inspiration from the Alps

At 29 weeks, my 3rd trimester is at full swing and I CAN FEEL IT!

I have almost hit my 10 kg weight gain mark. Aches and pains is becoming bothersome as my uterus grows and the joints of the pelvis begin to loosen in preparation for deliver. I don’t sleep as well as I need to frequent the restroom more often during the night. Getting into the most comfy sleeping position is no longer a given as it all depends on the baby’s mood. During times when he decides to wreck havoc, practice his Kungfu kicks, make waves and ripples across my burgeoning bulge or just get into the weirdest position, NOTHING helps, not even when I set up a fort in bed, prop myself up with 3 pillows or hog all the pillows to myself. A gentle back massage is good but still, I am very much at the mercy of the little fellow that wriggles inside me.

I failed the glucose tolerance test like for my first pregnancy and was asked to monitor my blood sugar 2 days a week, 7 times a day. After a 5 years break,  I had forgotten how needle pricks feel like and it took me a long while to muster enough courage to carry out the first test myself again. Now, I have grown fearless of the pen-like needle and pricking myself is a piece of cake.

Because of gestational diabetes, I have to be mindful of what goes into my mouth, which I guess isn’t a bad thing afterall considering how I can glut like a pig. According to studies, contrary to common belief that a pregnant woman needs to eat for 2, ONLY 300 calories is required to be added to her daily food intake in order to support the growth of the baby, the increased blood volume, the placenta and amniotic fluid.

Examples of a nutrient-rich food choices that add up to 300 calories is
1 cup cold cereal with 1 cup of skim milk and a banana OR
2 ounces of turkey on 2 slices of whole grain bread topped with lettuce and tomato.

Your premium sweet bread from Breadtalk, the yellow noodle in your Bak Cho Mee and your Indian Roti Prata are NOs NOs for a pregnant lady with gestational diabetes. It will send sugar level off the roof. In short, the diet plan should replace simple sugars with complex carbohydrates.

Apart from a healthier diet, I am doing my daily walk, to and fro Malcolm’s school. I swim regularly, usually after sending Malcolm to school. I am glad that I can still squeeze into a size M swimming costume and I now wear a gleaming tan. I love the colour.

Despite being more fatigue, exercising actually helps to make me feel more energetic. From my first child, I have learned that STAMINA is an underrated requirement for being a SAHM. You NEED stamina to wash, clean and run after the kids!

I feel like I am growing at an enomous rate and it kind of scares me to think that I have 11 MORE weeks to go before I hit week 40. I have forgotten how big I can grow and how far my tummy can stretch.

At times, I can’t wait for the baby to be born but I know that the road ahead will get more challenging and busier once the baby arrives. With that in mind, I am treasuring my ME time, my TWOSOME time with Malcolm and my COUPLETIME with my husband even more.

Since we were back from Paris, I have been slacking when it comes to cooking. I do not  cook as often and to date, I have yet done any proper marketing at our traditional wet market. There seem to be endless reasons to eat out. We can be back at my parents’ place for dinner one day, and at my in laws’ place another day. Then there are gatherings at friends’ house, to try out a restaurant in town, or simply just hawker-hopping, East Coast, West Coast, Bedok, Newton, Old Changi basically island wide! There are just so many options when it comes to food and there is little motivation to cook at home.

I only  knew that my cooking was missed, when Malcolm went ‘Mummy can cook nicer chicken rice’. I was flattered. It occurred to me that my boy grew up eating ONLY MY chicken rice. No matter what others say about Boon Tong Kee chicken, it can only come second best as he recognizes chicken rice taste the way Mummy cooks it and to him, that’s the BEST.

So when I whipped out some pancakes for breakfast over the weekend, because the house ran out of bread, the duo at home were over the moon. I am thankful that they are so easy to please and I was reminded once more, other than my own taste bud, THEY were the motivation behind all those tasty dishes and yummy bakes when we were overseas.

Here’s the recipe.

Because it is his obsession as of late

Because after 3 hours of school each day we still have lots of time to spare

Because going Green can be fun

Because there IS really life after being a milk bottle and juice carton

Because the 3R concept (Reduce, Reuse, Recyle) can be addictive

Because he really doesn’t need another toy to fill up his play room

Because it has been proven that play things that run on alkaline cells never hold his interest for long

Because when you do the math, [price] / [interest span] it doesn’t make economical sense to fall for the merchant’s lure

Because they don’t need fanciful toys to make play time fun

Because it is not always about the product but the process

Because we were bored

Because there is nothing that THRILLS me more than to see him jump with joy with each new creation

Because there is reason why a Stay at Home Mum will NEVER grow senile

We built

bridges, ramps and skyscrapers

Optimus Prime in Autobots City

and it is still growing …

During days

When the child doesn’t listen

When the little bulge you carry shows no mercy at kicks and turns

and gets into the weirdest position that makes even resting, breathless

When you get locked out from your own house under the midday sun

When a goodwill attempt to update the browser crashed your only means of connection to the cyber world

When your to-do-list seem to get longer and you are getting nowhere

because having flexible deadlines means procrastination

When you are beaten and worn by sunset

When you have no inspiration to write

but yet you need to vent

and cool down

Geysers at Sunset, Yellowstone National Park 2007

for a 7 month preggy housewife
is an invitation to a FORMAL dinner function
when she REALLY doesn’t own a single piece of formal maternity wear !

And she is trying her luck now
digging through her ENTIRE wardrobe
including outfits that she had stashed away in the most obscure corner of her utility room
(as they are simply NOT maternity wear)
hoping to find something that can do the job

And here’s the outcome …

Arrrggghhhh !!!

Maybe she should just head off to town to find something that is really meant for a 7 month preggy !

I learned from friends around me that it is not a norm for a 5 year old to be hanging around at home after school. Time after school is spent attending classes, enriching the mind, learning something new in a structured manner.

The mummies are tired from sending and fetching their kids to and fro lessons but they have no choice. It’s life.

I was assured that I will soon understand, from parents around me, why everyone is kept busy this way.

Perhaps I am too near sighted

Or maybe I have yet reached that point

Or worse still, I may be out of sync with the real world

This is what I understand from my 5 year old …

that Play Is A Serious Business
and My Life Revolves Around It

Not the best shot

Not the best view

But we celebrated Singapore’s 44th Birthday, the best way we could.

With family and fellow Singaporeans, on home gound, not far away, half way around the globe, ogling at the computer screen.

It’s good to be home.

One of those practical toys we introduced
Convenient and easy
He loves them

We have books on How to Fold a Paper Plane
We fold, he sees and he follows
but he never remember how to fold one himself
we ended up folding planes for him everytime he wants to fly one

Coincidentally, the school happens to be teaching about planes
they teach how to fold a paper plane
It’s like the most fun thing to do
How can he not love school

Within a week
he came back annoncing smugly
‘I can fold my own paper plane’
and he says that to anyone who shows the littlest interest in what he can do
He is proud of his achievement

We ended with a basket full of them
polka dots, stripes, floral, funky prints

He is more than happy to fold one for you anytime

What we have been doing together for months
took him less than a week to learn in school
I am impressed
Perhaps that is the power of peer learning
Perhaps it is the teacher
someone new to impress other than mum and dad

Just when we thought that he is all ready
to sleep on his own
in his own room
in his own bed
without the bed rail

He fell
and broke the silence of the night

He cried
He bawled
He wailed

It hurts
We know

The swell made his already small eyes even smaller
and each day we joke about the new eye shadow he wears

One day it was red
then purple
then blue
then green

It’s Day 6
and it’s still there
we could almost made a rainbow out of it

He still laugh
He still play
He still sleep

in his own room
in his own bed
without the bed rail

When we first enrolled Malcolm in the school a month ago, we were briefed the things that he will be taught and the things that he had missed out, since the school term was already 1/2 way through.

The school will teach reading, writing, phonics, math and flash card. Apart from these, they have speech and drama, music, art, gymnastic which are optional. I was glad the teacher did not pressure me into signing him up for any of these classes but pointed out that gymnastic was very popular with his classmates and the kids enjoy it. So, Mal was put in the gym class which is held once a week during school hours.

I attended my first Parent Meet Teacher session in Malcolm’s school last Friday
I didn’t know what to expect.

It turned out that his teachers have all the good things to say about him
perhaps they do that to all parents
Her praise for Malcolm’s learning attitude
was perhaps what that matters most

Since I was back
I’ve heard and read this umpteen times
‘How to prepare your kids for Primary 1 ?’
Frankly I was perplexed
perhaps a little disturbed
I want to prepare my kids for life
NOT for Primary 1

and I know I want him to learn
not through stacks of flashing cards
not through sounding every vowels he sees
not through feeding him
this is this
and that is that

Throw him some numbers
he is happy to juggle them
What is 53 - 7 ?
He will tell you 46
How did you do it ?
‘Pretend it is 13 minus 7
which is 13 minus 3
minus 4
bring you 6′
and that’s how he ends up at 46

making big numbers small
is his way of doing it
It is a system we didn’t feed
A system so precious
like many things I am still waiting for him to figure out

I realised
I have really little or nothing to teach
A is for apple ?
B is for boy ?
Frogs are green ?
Roses are red ?

I believe
when a child is doing something he’s passionately interested in
he grows like a tree
in all directions

“Children do not need to be made to learn to be better, told what to do or shown how. If they are given access to enough of the world, they will see clearly enough what things are truly important to themselves and to others, and they will make for themselves a better path into that world then anyone else could make for them”

~John Holt (1923-1985) American Educator,
How Children Fail