Swimming 2011 T1 Lesson#4

We changed our swimming lesson to be on Sundays, this was going to be the 1st Sunday's lesson. Mr Sun is not cooperating, Ms Dark Clouds n Ms Rain decides to join hands to create a downpour. Master Thunder decides to join in the fun too.

Yupe... it starts to rain in the morning and no sign that it is going to stop any sooner. Received a text from Coach R that lesson will be cancelled. And so we head off to our snuggling soft bed and enjoy a long nap instead.

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English Spelling

As if I am not worried about Chinese spelling, now I have to worry about English spelling too!

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Swimming 2011 T1 Lesson#3

I watched Little DinoEgg like a hawk, walking up n down the pool along side with him while he kicks n swim to the red & white flag. Catching Little DinoEgg when he misbehave or disturb his friends while sitting at the pool waiting for his turn to swim. I was starting to get a little bit vexed... coz Little DinoEgg does not seems to be improving. Still swimming with his "bat man wings", I would have expected Coach R to encourage him to go for 1 board today.

When Coach R ask if I want to change to Sunday class I was in for it almost immediately. He says there too many kids in this class and he would like to put the lower level kids together. Our thinking are mutual hehehe~ I shall wait for his good news.

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I can do it myself

Its been very frustrating every morning when its time for Little DinoEgg to wake up. Usually I will wake him up before I head off to the bath room to brush my teeth n bath; told him that when I am done it will be his turn to get up and brush his teeth. Every morning without fail it will be at least 30mins before he gets out of bed. By the time I will be either frustrated or mad.

Ytd I got so upset that I left the house for work with him still lying on the bed. I told him that if he still does not want to get up, I will leave for work, he did not bulge, choosing to ignore me even when I threw his uniform onto him and told him to get dress himself WHEN he decides to get up. Off to work I went, feeling frustrated.

That night daddy says he got out of bed shortly after I left the house, brushed his own teeth and change into his school uniform himself. He did not make a fuss, misbehave or gave daddy any problems. "He was an angel this morning." says daddy.

Ok~~ my little boy is growing up, he is more independent then I thought. Time for me to start letting him do more things by himself.

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Swimming 2011 T1 Lesson#2

Happiness is...

• when you swim with your beloved Coach
• when you see your child swimming happily

At least in this situation...

I wasn't sure if Coach R is able to take in Little DinoEgg even though he mentioned that he has 4 kids in his pte class. We reached the swimming complex at 2.45pm, I wanted to look for him at the usual pool area but Little DinoEgg stopped at his track outside the toilet and refuse to bulge. He suddenly feel shy, refuse to walk to the pool with me. He wants me to find Coach and see if he say OK then he will (change into his swim suit) go to the pool. I did not see Coach nor his class mate Bryan too. I thought maybe the class is postponed or they are at some other parts of the pool. I walked back to the toilet area to tell Little DinoEgg, was about to walk to the other side of the complex when I say Bryan's daddy *phew*. He told me the class starts slightly later. Since there are about 15mins more to the class, Little DinoEgg joined Bryan in the pool for some water fun with the slides and every thing.

Luckily Coach R says ok to continue teach Little DinoEgg otherwise I will have to deal with a super duper disappointed child who will most likely cry his heart out.

There were 7 kids in the class; including Little DinoEgg, all at different level, Little DinoEgg & Bryan being the most "elementary" lol They are still practicing swimming with their "batman wings", blow bubbles and swim to the red & white flags. 3 weeks of no swimming really is bad :( Little DinoEgg lost abit of confidence, he was able to swim with 1 board before. Never mind, he can build up his confidence again.

When I see so many kids in the class, I feel that its too much for Coach R to handle. I was right... half way through the class, he gather the kids and told them that to listen to instructions carefully and do not jump down into the water unless he instructed them to do so. "There are 7 of you, and I need your FULL corporation. Listen to me, swim only when I tell u to swim. DO NOT swim on you own." I guess he got spooked when Little DinoEgg was struggling and almost capsized while swimming with 1 board. He was too far away to help, luckily I was there, keeping an eye on him, managed to pull him to the side before he goes under. From then on, I am by the pool, watching Little DinoEgg, watching the kids, just in case some of them need help to get out of the pool.

The hour pass so fast! And it started to have a downpour just when the class is ending. I was drenched while running fm the pool to the sheltered toilets. Must remember to throw brolly into "swim class bag". We head off to Mac for some food and to wait for the rain clouds to pass.

PS : I gotta get a foldable stool soon! That way I can sit by the pool side instead of standing for the full hour.

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"Getting better at cooking"

That's what daddy says when I asked him about today's dinner *I'm grinning from ear to ear* This is our dinner tonight.

Cashew Chicken (腰果鸡丁)
Ingredients
* 1 boneless & skinless chicken breast, about 10 oz. (cut into small cubes)
* 1/2 cup cashew nuts
* 1 small green bell pepper, about 4 oz. (cut into small square pieces)
* 5 slices ginger
* 1/4 onion (cut into small square pieces)

Marinate
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon corn starch
* 1/2 teaspoon rice wine

Sauce
* 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
* 3/4 teaspoon soy sauce
* 3 tablespoons water
* 3 dashes white pepper powder
* 1/2 teaspoon sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon rice wine
* 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
* Salt to taste

Method
1. Marinate the chicken meat with the baking soda for 15-20 minutes and then rinse the chicken thoroughly. (Please make sure that the chicken is properly rinsed clean of the baking soda.)
2. Pat the chicken meat dry with paper towels and then marinate with the rest of the ingredients for 15 minutes.
3. Mix the sauce together and set aside.
4. Heat up a wok with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and stir-fry the chicken meat until the color turns white or half-cooked. Dish out and set aside.
5. Add another 1 tablespoon of cooking oil into the wok and add in the ginger slices, bell peppers and onions.
6. Stir-fry until you smell the peppery aroma from the green peppers and add the chicken meat back in.
7. Add in the cashew nuts and do a few quick stirs.
8. Add in the sauce and stir continuously until the chicken meat is cooked and well coated with the sauce. Add salt to taste.

*As usual, I got this recipe online, so I just take away those that I do not wanna add or do not have them on hand at the moment. This time I did not put the pepper powder, onions (dun have it), rice wine & sugar.

Sauteed Dou Miao With Carrot
Ingredients
* 1 packet of dou miao
* 1/2 carrot
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 - 2 garlic cloves, minced

Method
1. Cook the carrot till soft, dish out and set aside
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil, add in minced garlic till fragrant
3. Add in dou miao and stir fried till tender
4. Add in sliced carrot
5. Add pinch of salt for taste
6. As the moisture from the dou miao leaves evaporates, add in water, simmer for a while

I did not prepare the fish. Daddy decides to do it, he is after all a Teochew so he wants this to be hhmmm~~ per-fect!


Steam Fish (Teochew style)
Ingredient
1. 1 whole fish, either seabass, white promfret, garupa or this red fish (I have forgotten its name), ask the fish monger to celan it
2. 1 clove of salted vegetables, sliced thinly
3. 1 - 2 tomatoes, sliced
4. 3 - 4 ginger, cut into thin stripes
5. 1 salted plum
6. 1 - 2 tablespoon of bean paste
7. 1 - 2 tablespoon of steam fish sauce


Method
1. Make 2 diagonal cut along the fish's body on both sides
2. Place the salted plum in the stomach
3. Put the fish on a plate, place the salted vegetables & tomatoes all over the fish. Lastly put the bean paste on top.
4. Once the water in the wok boils, put the fish in and steam it for about 15 mins

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Drama King!

On the way to work when daddy called me, saying that Little DinoEgg complained that his leg is very pain and he cannot walk, tell me to take leave to bring him to see doc. I was puzzled, when I see him this morning n when I left the house just barely 30mins ago, he was ok, no complain of pain or anything. Daddy says he was limping & can't walk when they were about to go out, he has to carry him.

I was worried, called the school and was told that he was ok, walking around the school, not limping, no complaining of pain. Teacher Sue says she will observe him and let me know later.

I called again at 1pm+ Teacher Sue says he is ok! She even did a small experiment, she called out to him at a distance, telling him that she has something to show him. This imp... got so excited by her tone and skipped n ran to her =.= She teased him, asked him if his leg is pain or not? How come he is not limping any more? And this fella just smile at her cheekily.

I told daddy and he was upset... coz his son made him so worried n it turn out to be a lie. However I feel that Little DinoEgg just want some extra attention from daddy today. Later that night, daddy says he really know how to act, he was holding on to his knee, limping n his face shows that he is in GREAT pain. Both him n grandfather was fooled by him.

Must be the Act3 classes that he went to haha~ teaching him how to act hee~ Next time must be very careful when he complain of any pain n sore. Dun wanna be fooled by him again.

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Chinese 听写 sentence

"我有一个头、口、手、耳" that what Little DinoEgg wrote after I test him on next Monday's Chinese spelling word of 头and 我. These are the Chinese spelling words for this month. And by the look of it, he does not need to practice it haha~

He tried writing his name many many times on 2 pieces of paper. Why so many times? Not that he does not know how to write. Its the pencils... the ones that Granny gave him keeps breaking, and the sharpener are lousy... A few strokes with a newly sharpened pencil and the lead broke again. And he does not continue from where he left off with another newly sharpened pencil, he has to start all over again coz when the lead broke, the strokes were out.

He managed to write his name and show it to Granny, proudly.

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Popiah days

Recently, Elizabeth has been ordering popiah to share during lunch, we've eaten those from Food Republic & Malacca Cafe in 313@Somerset. Today early lunching alone @ Plaza Singapura I thought I buy 1 as snack in the office later. While eating, suddenly I remember my younger days, the days when Mum decides that "today is popiah day". We will be excited about it (or at least I am) coz Mum's popiah is truly yummy.

Mum will start preparing the ingredients early the morning. Peeling the turnips, carrots, pounding the peanuts, fry the eggs, cook the prawns, then there were lettuce, lup-cheong (chinese sauasge), bean sprouts etc etc. Its labourous! And the results is of course way over the meaning "satisfying". When all the ingredients are ready, Mum will lay them on our round dinning table. The colors of the ingredients already makes us salivates n couldn't wait to sink our teeth onto one of it as soon as possible. I have to ask mum for the recipe, the Lim's popiah receipe hahaha~

I love to wrap my own popiah but I prefer Mum to do it for me. Somehow the ones that she wrap tastes million times better then the one I did it even though we are using the same ingredients n sauce. I especially love Mum's chili; she laborously pound the chili padis n mix them with some thing (i forgot what, must ask her). I remembered I had it as lunch n dinner~ woot~ yummy!

I remember I had a popiah gathering during my ITE days too. The few of us gathered at Christin's house n pig out (^^,) Of coz Auntie prepare the ingredients while we do the eating. We just wrap eat chat drink play mahjong.

Come to think of it, a dish that costs less then $10 to gather the ingredients needed to complete it, but can make so many to feed a village can cost so much per piece! $2 - $2.50 per piece... no wonder every where you turn you see stalls selling this very profitable dish.

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不怕、不怕！

All ready for our first 听写, the word with proper stroke sequence.

Am I being too "over"?? Go out all the way to do this just for some writing :( But my intention is for Little DinoEgg to learn to write beautiful Chinese characters, not the ugly scrawl like mine. No one has commented on my crazy doing, at least not yet, but I just have this thought... *sigh*

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Another good book about dinosaurs

Popped by Catherine's house after returning from granny's house ytd to collect her christmas gift to Little DinoEgg :) Only managed to open the pressie now;

Its a book of dinosaurs~ and Little DinoEgg was very excited when he sees the book, eagerly flipping through pages.

The book, Extreme Dinosaurs by Robert Mash have lots of interactive elements such as pull-outs, gate-folds, flaps, moving parts etc that really catch a young child's interest. I am sure this will be another father & son bonding book that both daddy and Little DinoEgg will enjoy.

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Practice writing

"Mummy, can you teach me how to write my name?"

I took out the exercise book I bought yesterday and write out his name (see my super duper ugly handwriting!) and he sat down to write patiently. He was so proud when he wrote the 1st line.

Half way through, daddy came back, he turn the exercise book over and this silly boy says "Papa~ Nothing! Nothing ok? There is nothing in this book." I whispered to him that he can continue when daddy goes into the room to change. But daddy was doing something in the living room so he took the exercise book and ran into his room to finish up the writing before showing it proudly to daddy.

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Family Portriat

~*~*~*We are the Flying Family*~*~*~

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Swimming 2011 T1 Lesson#1

NONE.

ABSENT.

AWOL.

MISSING.

EVERYTHING!!!

Becoz he simply refuse to get up from his nap to change and meet the new coach. He keep saying "I dun wanna go swimming with the new coach! I want Coach R!"

Give up......

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1st Chinese 听写

Last Thursday I open up the blue comm book and saw this....

Yesterday evening 2nd Bro Simon wanna fetch Little DinoEgg from school so I took the opportunity to dash to Popular and grabbed some XL squares exercise books so that Little DinoEgg can practice writing this weekend.

Then it struck me.... my written Chinese character is ugly to the MAX! I definitely do not want Little DinoEgg to learn my ugly handwriting. I thought "just print out the words, cut and paste on the page for him to write". With that I printed out the words in the office, thinking "problem solved!". While on the way home it struck me again.... how about the strokes sequence? We have seen how this fella write his Chinese name, strokes are all wrong =.= This morning I search frantically for some websites that shows Chinese character writing with numbered strokes, just that the ones you see in school. I couldn't find it :( There are some site where they show you the strokes online via video. Some let you generate worksheets for the words you want to practice BUT you have to pay a price to join their membership (BA!)

Not willing to give up, I continue to search and it pays off! I chance upon Learn Chinese Everyday 每日学华语 and my problem is solved! It not only shows the stroke sequence in video, it also audio to let you know how to pronounce the word correctly. Best of all the blog owner 敏敏 has worksheets that show the step by step stroke sequence and its FOC~~~ 敏敏 also have useful Chinese Tools such as Pinyin Chart with Tone, Pinyin Generator & Online Chinese Input. Very helpful for adults learning Chinese for the first time or checking out the pronunciation of unfamiliar characters. I am definitely going to bookmark her website in my blog.

I have found the words in 敏敏's worksheets, emailed to daddy for him to print it out in the office (no printer at home). Going to stick them on the top of the exercise book, tomorrow will be 听写练习日。

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End of agony wait

I got the call I am waiting for and the truth is;

Pencil poking

ZX was not making noise nor was he talking. He was doing his writing quietly, in fact everyone was concentrating on their writing. Teacher Sha walked away for a minute and she caught Little DinoEgg putting the pencil into ZX's ear. I already suspected that he is not being 100% true to me. I was telling Chris this morning that sometimes when Little DinoEgg knows that he is in deep trouble, he will make up stories to "save his butt".

Scissors cutting

This is 100% an accident. It happened as what Little DinoEgg said. Teacher Sue says Teacher Siti told her its just purely an accident. And the cut could have cut open a vein thus the blood flows out so much n so fast. I feel so sorry for this incident, this morning I prepared a tube of Dr Lily's aloe vera gel, write a little note and told Little DinoEgg to give it to Teacher Siti the moment he sees her in school. Just now when I see him at granny's house, the 1st thing he told me is "I forgot to give the aloe vera gel to Teacher Siti." *faintz*

These incident makes me more determined to strive to my target, to be a SAHM when Little DinoEgg starts P1. Daddy, if you are reading this, BE PREPARED lol

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1st sign of disasterous behavior?

"Son use pencil to poke friend's ear n scissor cut Teacher Siti's hand" - daddy's 1st text.

"Teacher Siti's index finger was covered with blood" - came the next text.

My heart fell to the floor and broke into many pieces. I immediately picked up the phone and called the school. Managed to speak to Teacher Sue and she wasn't sure what exactly happened, she did not have a chance to speak to both Teacher Sha on the ear poking incident and Teacher Siti as she has to attend to some other matters.

While on the way home, I ponder n wonder how I should hand this problem. I want to get the truth or at least the near truth out from Little DinoEgg but I do not want to have to scold, threat, demand or see tears or hear screaming or crying, the last thing I want is to send my blood pressure soaring up up and away~~~ I search my memory bank for the various methods I have read from the few good parenting books. I decided to do it in a calm n non threatening way; I'll have to keep reminding myself not to blow my top though, I text daddy to tell him not to scold Little DinoEgg or tell him that I am going to scold him.

When I reach home, I went on as usual, pretending nothing is happening. Then I called him to join me in his room to play with his toys. Casual talking while playing. Then I asked him how's school which he replied "perfect.", I proceed to ask if he has anything to tell me. He gave me a sad look and said "Yes... I cut Teacher Siti's hand with scissors." However he clammed up after saying that, I have to reassure him that I am not going to scold him before he continue.

Here is his version of the story;

Pencil poking
"ZX was talking and making alot of noise, he don't want to stop and listen to me so I put the pencil into his ear to make him listen to me."

Scissors cutting
"I was cutting paper then daddy come to fetch me, Teacher Siti's hand move forward and I cut her finger."

I am giving him benefit of doubts on the 2 incidents. Of course I went on to tell him (calmly) that it is wrong to put pencil or anything into his friends' or his own ears. I reminded him about the ear diagram he saw in The Body Book (as he called it) and the things that daddy taught him about the ear. What happen when we break the ear drum, the consequences of doing such act etc. He was very remorseful about it and accepted the punishment of no playing with Lego till next week, without any protest. I made him promise that he will give Teacher Siti a hug n kiss (which sparks his immediate reaction of eeeeeeeeeeeee) follow by "I'm Sorry".

With that, our small little talk is over. I pat myself on the shoulder for a job though not skillfully carried out {YET} but done with my desired outcome achieved. My heart is still sad, I will only know the real truth tomorrow when Teacher Sue call me after she talk to the 2 teachers.

PS : The No Lego Punishment was thrown to the back of his head when we stepped out of the room... He threw a scale 3 tantrum when I told him to keep the Lego and reminded him about the punishment we talked about in the room. He threw a scale 8 tantrum when I told him to go to his room to cool down before talking to me. OMG! He has short term memory like me?????

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