As we move back to Singapore, it signifies a brand new start to our life as a family. This blog will be filled more with Trisha's growing adventures in Singapore but at the same time, there will be more on how we spend our days with our family and friends which we have sorely missed in these past 2 years.
We decided to close this blog and has created a new one. But don't worry, you will not be missing any of Trisha's past adventures cos all those have been copied over. =) If you have linked this blog to yours, please relink the new blog to yours. Thanks for continuing to follow our adventures in raising Trisha. =)
Welcome to our new humble abode - 胡家庄
Here's the new blog address: http://hujiazhuang.blogspot.com/
PS: this old blog will not be deleted and it will still be around but any new updates in Singapore will be in the new blog from 1 Jul onwards.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
From Happy To Unhappy To Worried....
...all in the course of a day.
Happy in the morning cos we finally confirmed and received our air tickets to travel home to Singapore. It has been a loong wait for them cos Daddy's repatriation package took eons to be settled and that's why it took the HR till today (the day before we are supposed to fly!) to finally book the air tickets. Luckily we picked a Tuesday to fly cos the plane is usually not fully booked and we should be able to get tickets.
Unhappy in the afternoon cos Trisha took 1 hour before finally napping. Arrgghh! I was so tempted to just let her skip her nap but I didn't want her grouchy at dinner time. Then at dinner time, she didn't want her dinner. Only when I was so fed up with feeding her, brought her out of her highchair then realised she pooped. She probably doesn't want to eat with soiled diapers. But SHE NEVER TOLD ME SHE POOPED! So angry with this little miss. Sigh....in the end I think she ate only half her dinner. I still have tons of things to pack so decided that if she wants to be hungry, so be it. That brought me to the next thing.....
Worried about tomorrow's 13 hour flight. If she has this restless behaviour throughout the whole flight, don't sleep, don't eat, I think I will die! =( So our plan is to wake up real early at 6am, leave house at 9am for our 11.30am flight. Feed her lunch before boarding, NO afternoon nap, feed her dinner at 4-5pm, drink milk again at 6pm then pray that she falls asleep quickly so that all 3 of us get a decent 6 hours of sleep at least before we land in Singapore. Sounds good? Hope all will work out tomorrow! And oh yes, I better get back in to bed right now so I can wake up at 6am...kekeke. =p
The next time I update this blog, we'll be in Singapore! Hurray! =)
Happy in the morning cos we finally confirmed and received our air tickets to travel home to Singapore. It has been a loong wait for them cos Daddy's repatriation package took eons to be settled and that's why it took the HR till today (the day before we are supposed to fly!) to finally book the air tickets. Luckily we picked a Tuesday to fly cos the plane is usually not fully booked and we should be able to get tickets.
Unhappy in the afternoon cos Trisha took 1 hour before finally napping. Arrgghh! I was so tempted to just let her skip her nap but I didn't want her grouchy at dinner time. Then at dinner time, she didn't want her dinner. Only when I was so fed up with feeding her, brought her out of her highchair then realised she pooped. She probably doesn't want to eat with soiled diapers. But SHE NEVER TOLD ME SHE POOPED! So angry with this little miss. Sigh....in the end I think she ate only half her dinner. I still have tons of things to pack so decided that if she wants to be hungry, so be it. That brought me to the next thing.....
Worried about tomorrow's 13 hour flight. If she has this restless behaviour throughout the whole flight, don't sleep, don't eat, I think I will die! =( So our plan is to wake up real early at 6am, leave house at 9am for our 11.30am flight. Feed her lunch before boarding, NO afternoon nap, feed her dinner at 4-5pm, drink milk again at 6pm then pray that she falls asleep quickly so that all 3 of us get a decent 6 hours of sleep at least before we land in Singapore. Sounds good? Hope all will work out tomorrow! And oh yes, I better get back in to bed right now so I can wake up at 6am...kekeke. =p
The next time I update this blog, we'll be in Singapore! Hurray! =)
Lekker
Lekker means tasty or delicious in Dutch.
Somehow she picked up this word from the Dutch cartoons she's been watching and used it correctly last night during dinner at All Sports. Hahha...we were very tickled that she actually knew how to use this word and that is after finishing her potato wedges and she said "lekker" with a satisfied smile....simply funny. =)
Somehow she picked up this word from the Dutch cartoons she's been watching and used it correctly last night during dinner at All Sports. Hahha...we were very tickled that she actually knew how to use this word and that is after finishing her potato wedges and she said "lekker" with a satisfied smile....simply funny. =)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Last Family Weekend In The Netherlands
Time flies. We've just spent our last weekend as a family here in the Netherlands. If HR services do their job well, we should be heading back to Singapore on Tuesday.
Today was probably one of the busiest Sundays we had in a looong time. First stop, Trisha's last Little Gym lesson. We made a card for her teacher to thank her for all her help and patience. We're sure Trisha had a lot of fun as going to the Little Gym was one of her weekend highlights for the past year.
After the lesson, we met up with Daddy's colleague Wencai for a farewell meal at his house near the Hague. Small cosy affair but we forgot to take pictures! Look forward to meeting them back again in Singapore in about 2 years time.
After lunch, we came back home to let Trisha take her afternoon nap. Naughty girl took a long time to fall asleep. As a result, we had to wake her up earlier than normal and were late attending Sophia's 4th birthday party. It was our 2nd trip back to the Little Gym today.
Watching Trisha interact with other kids without much parental intervention was a little nerve-wrecking. Maybe she's too used to getting her way at home, we still need to reinforce the notion of how to play along with others. Hopefully, this will improve once she starts attending childcare regularly.
To top it all off, we went to our favourite restaurant "All Sports" for dinner to wrap up our last family weekend in the Netherlands. Don't have strong feelings yet, but we think we will miss some aspects of life here. At the same time, we're really looking forward to be heading home. Homeward bound!
At the table with other kids
Together with Birthday girl Sophia
Favourite Restaurant, All Sports!
Today was probably one of the busiest Sundays we had in a looong time. First stop, Trisha's last Little Gym lesson. We made a card for her teacher to thank her for all her help and patience. We're sure Trisha had a lot of fun as going to the Little Gym was one of her weekend highlights for the past year.
After the lesson, we met up with Daddy's colleague Wencai for a farewell meal at his house near the Hague. Small cosy affair but we forgot to take pictures! Look forward to meeting them back again in Singapore in about 2 years time.
After lunch, we came back home to let Trisha take her afternoon nap. Naughty girl took a long time to fall asleep. As a result, we had to wake her up earlier than normal and were late attending Sophia's 4th birthday party. It was our 2nd trip back to the Little Gym today.
Watching Trisha interact with other kids without much parental intervention was a little nerve-wrecking. Maybe she's too used to getting her way at home, we still need to reinforce the notion of how to play along with others. Hopefully, this will improve once she starts attending childcare regularly.
To top it all off, we went to our favourite restaurant "All Sports" for dinner to wrap up our last family weekend in the Netherlands. Don't have strong feelings yet, but we think we will miss some aspects of life here. At the same time, we're really looking forward to be heading home. Homeward bound!
At the table with other kids
Together with Birthday girl Sophia
Favourite Restaurant, All Sports!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Summertime Trisha
We've now no doubt that Trisha will need more baths in Singapore. At a nice indoor temperature of 25C, this is how she looks like after a short play session. Wonder how she'll fare when it's 32C in sunny Singapore.
Whew, we're now glad we chose an airconditioned childcare though we did have some initial doubts.
Hmm, what should I play next?
Did I just shower?
Maybe we need to trim her hair?
Whew, we're now glad we chose an airconditioned childcare though we did have some initial doubts.
Hmm, what should I play next?
Did I just shower?
Maybe we need to trim her hair?
Friday, June 26, 2009
In Preparation For Hot Singapore
Trisha has not had her hair at the back cut since she was born. I can say she has shoulder length hair now...kekeke.
When in Holland, having long hair and not tying it up is no big deal but when we get back to Singapore, I can imagine how hot she will feel if the hair is not tied up. But she doesn't like to tie her hair! And I really hate to cut her hair cos it took 2.5 years to grow to this length. =(
So I bought her a Hello Kitty set of clips and rubber bands to entice her to have her hair tied up. Aiyo.....failed miserably. She did let me tie her hair up.....but only for a short while. Sigh....never mind, I shall persevere and keep telling her how pretty she looks with hair tied up...heheh. If all else fails, I guess I really have to chop off her locks if the heat becomes too unbearable in Singapore!
This cute Hello Kitty set comes with a case. =)
Hair all neatly tied up and pinned up. =)
That's her smile when told to smile. =p
2 ponytails.
When in Holland, having long hair and not tying it up is no big deal but when we get back to Singapore, I can imagine how hot she will feel if the hair is not tied up. But she doesn't like to tie her hair! And I really hate to cut her hair cos it took 2.5 years to grow to this length. =(
So I bought her a Hello Kitty set of clips and rubber bands to entice her to have her hair tied up. Aiyo.....failed miserably. She did let me tie her hair up.....but only for a short while. Sigh....never mind, I shall persevere and keep telling her how pretty she looks with hair tied up...heheh. If all else fails, I guess I really have to chop off her locks if the heat becomes too unbearable in Singapore!
This cute Hello Kitty set comes with a case. =)
Hair all neatly tied up and pinned up. =)
That's her smile when told to smile. =p
2 ponytails.
Alphabet Learning Afterthoughts
Finally, finally completed home teaching on the 26 letters in the alphabet. Hmm....it wasn't easy at all! All thanks for Tona and Serene for giving me inspiration on home teaching. I think I need to meet up with you 2 when I get back to give you guys a treat! =)
Let's see, I started on 1 Nov 08 and ended on 26 Jun 09. That's almost 8 whole long months! Wow! Hmm....I hope these 8 long months weren't wasted on Trisha. At least I know one thing for sure, she loves learning ABC cos everytime she wanted to do something I didn't want her to do, I'll say "ok let's go learn ABC" and she immediately dropped everything she's doing at that moment, rushed to the shelf where she knew I kept the teaching materials and craftbox and jumped up and down trying to reach for the craftbox, at the same time, chanting "learn ABC, learn ABC, learn ABC!" =) I'm so glad she has a thirst for learning. =)
Like I said earlier, it wasn't easy teaching her especially preparing the materials, trying to think of activities to make it interesting for her. I admit towards the end, I got a little "sian" about the whole thing especially when I couldn't think of interesting activities for that particular letter. I actually felt guilty about it when I taught her that few letters and wished I could make it more fun for her. Luckily, to her, she still enjoyed the sessions no matter how short (or boring according to me!) it was. Phew! =p
Eversince I started blue-tacking her art work on the wall, she loves to show it to Daddy whenever he came home from work. For instance, we made the skeleton X-ray the other day and when she saw Daddy downstairs walking home, she was shouting "Daddy, Daddy, hurry up, see, see, X-ray, X-ray!" I was so tickled by her. I'm happy to know that she's proud of her artwork and wanted to share with her dearest Daddy. =)
So now that our alphabet journey has ended and she can surely recognize all the letters whether in capital or small cases, it's time to progress to another level - phonics. I did try to teach using phonics but I was too lazy to do much research and basically just wanted her to have fun rather than really schooled her in all these. However, I think it's the time now. Besides, I believe once she starts her childcare sessions when we get back to Singapore, she'll be exposed to all these so I decided to start teaching her about phonetic sounds now, so she doesn't find it unfamiliar and lose confidence in not being able to follow. I chanced upon another mum's blog about teaching her 5 and 6 yr olds when they were younger and I'm inspired by her too. She's a full time working mum and she did so much for her kids! 真的很佩服她! 我要好好向她学习!
Anyway, I think I'll take a small break first and not go too deep into this new phonetics journey with her as yet. However, I'm pretty looking forward to it! =) Let's hope we have as much fun as we did in the past 8 months!
Let's see, I started on 1 Nov 08 and ended on 26 Jun 09. That's almost 8 whole long months! Wow! Hmm....I hope these 8 long months weren't wasted on Trisha. At least I know one thing for sure, she loves learning ABC cos everytime she wanted to do something I didn't want her to do, I'll say "ok let's go learn ABC" and she immediately dropped everything she's doing at that moment, rushed to the shelf where she knew I kept the teaching materials and craftbox and jumped up and down trying to reach for the craftbox, at the same time, chanting "learn ABC, learn ABC, learn ABC!" =) I'm so glad she has a thirst for learning. =)
Like I said earlier, it wasn't easy teaching her especially preparing the materials, trying to think of activities to make it interesting for her. I admit towards the end, I got a little "sian" about the whole thing especially when I couldn't think of interesting activities for that particular letter. I actually felt guilty about it when I taught her that few letters and wished I could make it more fun for her. Luckily, to her, she still enjoyed the sessions no matter how short (or boring according to me!) it was. Phew! =p
Eversince I started blue-tacking her art work on the wall, she loves to show it to Daddy whenever he came home from work. For instance, we made the skeleton X-ray the other day and when she saw Daddy downstairs walking home, she was shouting "Daddy, Daddy, hurry up, see, see, X-ray, X-ray!" I was so tickled by her. I'm happy to know that she's proud of her artwork and wanted to share with her dearest Daddy. =)
So now that our alphabet journey has ended and she can surely recognize all the letters whether in capital or small cases, it's time to progress to another level - phonics. I did try to teach using phonics but I was too lazy to do much research and basically just wanted her to have fun rather than really schooled her in all these. However, I think it's the time now. Besides, I believe once she starts her childcare sessions when we get back to Singapore, she'll be exposed to all these so I decided to start teaching her about phonetic sounds now, so she doesn't find it unfamiliar and lose confidence in not being able to follow. I chanced upon another mum's blog about teaching her 5 and 6 yr olds when they were younger and I'm inspired by her too. She's a full time working mum and she did so much for her kids! 真的很佩服她! 我要好好向她学习!
Anyway, I think I'll take a small break first and not go too deep into this new phonetics journey with her as yet. However, I'm pretty looking forward to it! =) Let's hope we have as much fun as we did in the past 8 months!
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