Lovely Cakes

Aiyo...must introduce you to this blog with many lovely cakes. Children will fall in love with them. How I wish I could make one (by myself) for my boys. You will see cakes with Thomas Train, Ben 10, Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty, etc, and also very sweet cupcakes.... They are all done by a wife of a friend of mine.

Check it out at http://www.pinkgingerbynee.blogspot.com/

Aron's Narrow Escape

I came across an article in the Straits Times today. It says " Boy slashed as glass door shatters at McDonald". This unlucky boy was supposed to celebrate his 6th Birthday at the McDonald that day. As he pushed the glass door open, it shattered. The boy got multiple cuts with the glass fragments. The hospital staff took 4 hours to clean his cuts and remove all the glass pieces from his body. He had cuts all over his arms, back and face, but his head was the most severely injured. Luckily, the boy is recovering well.

As I imagined the scene, I started to tremble a little. It reminded me of what happened to Aron on last Thursday.

On that evening, while Ah Mah was busy in the kitchen, my dear son, Aron, suddenly had a "genius" idea. He took the bamboo stick holder, without Ah Mah noticing, walked to the hall and started to "poked" at the old fashion clock hanging high above the wall. Without much guessing, yes - the clock fell. It fell right onto his forehead, bounced away and landed on the floor, about 2 metres away from him. The glass panel, in deed, shattered into small pieces.

Aron was left with a small cut on his forehead, with the rest of the body unhurt. He held on to the bamboo stick holder tightly, even after the shock and the pain sank in.

It could have been worse - much worse. The glass panel could have shattered into pieces from the impact of hitting on Aron's head. Without much explanation, you can imagine, the glass fragments cutting all over his head, face and body. Or maybe a slightly better scenerio, the clock fell right onto the floor, without bouncing off from Aron's head, and the glass probably would shattered right at his feet and cut his legs.

All these possibilities only sank into me much later after the incident happened. I could only explained that the Buddha must have protected and sheltered Aron away from the mishap. He probably wanted to teach Aron a lesson by just giving him a "light" punishment with the small cut on his head.

"Thank you, Buddha, that you have bo pi bo pi my dear son."

Valuing One's Words

I have begun to understand what it really mean by valuing one's words...

I realised I am a person who does not honour my own words, and yet I have been expecting others to honour their words. Honouring one's words would earn respect and power. In this case, I don't deserve any respect and support.


One particular incident actually shows how I have been operating in my life. One day, I in the midst of disciplining my children, I made a very serious statement - No more new toys for them until their birthdays come. Anyone who buys toys for them during this period, I will confiscate.

Yesterday, Daddy bought them toys, I didn't confiscate the toys. The excuse I gave to myself was: I don't want to create another dispute with him and the other family members. While I was upset that he didn't value my words, he gave me another incident that showed I didn't value his words too. What rights have I got to expect him to value mine?

For whatever excuses we gave for our stands, the fact is we have not been valuing each other words. For whatever reasons that I gave to myself, I have not honoured my words too. It must have happened so many times in the past, it will continue to happen again in future.

I am too quiet today, I am too ashame to say anything.

School Holiday - Again?

Finally the June holiday is over. The boys had gone back to school for 2 days. I thought life would be less tiring for me as I got some weekdays to rest.

After a month long of holiday, as I expected, Aron was reluctant to go to school. I have to sweet talk him into wearing his uniform and use "carrot" method to get him into the car.

Last night, after the 2n day of school, we got 2 calls from the school, the 2 teachers of the 2 boys called to inform us that school will be closed for 2 weeks, as a staff is infected with H1N1. While I tried to find out which zone does this "staff" belong to, I only manage to get the teacher to say its NOT from K1 or Nursery.

Then, late in the night, I got a call from a friend whose child also studied in the same school. She heard from someone that the person who got infected is Aron's teacher! She had travelled to Malaysia and was having slight cough on the 1st day of school.

While I understand why the teacher was trying to hide this fact (maybe they are trying not to make the parents too alarmed or panicked, or didn't want the parents to push the blame to any teacher), I am quite puzzled with the incident.

MOH had already announced that those who travelled to other countries during the last 7 days should quarantine themselves for 7 days before going back to school. If the teacher didn't feel well, she should not be coming to school at all. So why did this happened?

I didn't bother to call the school to find out exactly what happen. I trust the principal should know how to handle this. Now my main concern is to monitor my boys and make sure they are "perfectly" well.

But the extended school holiday is making me moody.

Club Med Bintan,11 - 14 Jun

Usually, school holiday is my working period. A month long of school holiday is a lot for me to plan, especially on planning for family holiday trips and holiday classes for the boys to attend.

This was a difficult June holiday, especially when the spread of swine flu is unpredictable. With the news reporting on the increasing infected numbers "flying" in, I finally decided not "fly", or travel to any places with high number of cases. In the end, we decided to go ClubMed Bintan.

Thinking that its a beach resort, and we will not be having much shopping to do, it would be a very laid back holiday. Especially, if the boys are alright to be put into the children clubs within the resort, Hubby and me would have some "personal" time together.

Well things didn't really turn out to be what I was hoping. MIL was still keen to go with us, despite of me telling her that there wasn't much things for her to do and see there. Well, not that I mind about the in-laws tacking along. If only, we are going to cities with lots of shopping, I know she would enjoy more (she had made it clear that she is only interested in shopping and not sight-seeing). I just felt that she would not be "maximising" the value of money we spent. I was also hoping that we could try going on a trip, just with the 4 of us, so that we could test out if both me and hubby could handle the boys without the in-laws. Skimmingly, I suggested that she could go somewhere else with her friends or relatives during the same period, so that she could also relax and enjoy herself.

With the Grand-parents tacking along, the boys usually behave much "yang-ou", cos they know how to get over the grannies heads. The half day trial putting both the boys in the Petit Club had scared them off their butt. First, the daddy brought them to the club and left quietly without telling them when we would be back to pick them. The boys must have felt so betrayed and insecured, that Aron was too frightened to go back there the next day. Second, with the grannies around, the boys knew they have a "safe habour" to hide. Plus MIL's multiple "throwing" of negative comments, the whole family just follow the same direction and thoughts - stop sending the boys to the Petit club. So, the boys continued to stay in the "safe habour" for the rest of the stay there.

Despite of the unsuccessful attempt to let the boys to go independent and adventurous, we did have our pleasant stay in the resort. The young, energetic and outgoing GOs (the resort guest relation officers) gave us a very warm welcome at the lobby upon arrival. I personally enjoyed all the meals provided by the resort, as they changes the theme and dishes everyday, every meal. If I were to stay there for a week , I probably would put on at least 5kg. You will see the GOs casually sit down next to the guests and chat with them. For us, we had a Korean GO approached us during 1 of the meal. There is also a bar where you can drink till you drop, along with some light snacks available in-between meals, and they are all FOC.

Though we didn't join much of the activities, MIL and me did enjoy the yoga session every morning. As I have some "balancing" problem, I was being teased by her that I am so lousy, despite of having attended few months of yoga class at the CC. She felt she could perform better, even though she had never attended any classes. She attended all the 3 mornings classes, while I joined the rest to go to the beach on the 3rd morning.

I have my very short romantic time (about 5 mins) with hubby, when he left the boys with FIL at the beach, held my hands and brought me out to the sea (a short distant away from the beach) to look at a big bunch of marine fish swimming around us. That was the sweetest moment in the whole trip. It was really short, no romantic words exchanged, but the action enough to melt my heart. That 5 minuites could give me a very good memory for my life with this man. The boys also have a very good time playing sand castle at the beach and swimming in the pool. Our greatest achievement here is that the boys had finally got over the phobia of the waves.

I m particularly impressed by the GOs' talent. Not only did they welcome and send off all the guests, organise the various activities in the day, engage in a warm conversation with the guests during meal time, they also need to perform at night. We watched different entertainments every nights, from dance to fashion show to musical performance and even acrobatics.

The resort has given a very lively, warm atmosphere which I have not experience in any other places. It is filled with many fun activities that you will not feel bored even if you stay there for a week without leaving the place. Otherwise, doing nothing and just lazing at the beautiful beach front would also be worthy enough. However, we didn't engage ourselves in many activities, nor did we laze at the beach. Everyone's focus is always on the boys. Perhaps, we will all enjoy more when the boys are more independent, adventurous and courageous to engage themselves in the activities. Till then, Daddy and Mummy will be able to hold hands and walk out to the sea the watch the fish again, perhaps also get the chance to go for spa or snorkelling. Mummy can also try out some adventure like the trapeze or the archery.

As for the photos, you got to wait for my Hubby to upload them to his shutterfly blog.