Nate's Report Card - term 4, 2008

Class : Hedgehogs, Height 106.5 cm, Weight 18kgs, right hand dominance

Social & Emotional Development and Independence
Nate is an independent and self confident little boy but can be defiant or cheeky on occassion. I have found that firm boundaries have helped with these new behavior patterns.

Gross Motor Development
Nate is well balanced, agile with good ball skills, his motor skills are well coordinated and he is very energetic. His upper body strenghth has also improved and Nate can now swing on the monkey bars and the climbing ropes.

Fine Motor Development
Nate's pencil grip has become firm this year, he has learnt to hold it correctly and copy simple writing patterns with few mistakes. Nate handles scissors with a strong grip. He can cut out on a curved line and a straight line.

Language Development
Nate is a well spoke little boy, his vocabulary grows daily, he uses correct sentence construction and the right grammar. Nate seldom mispronounces words. He is able to listen to instruction but can become distracted and will therefore not carry it out correctly.

Intellectual Development
nate can recall 5 objects that have been hidden. He knows how to touch count up to twenty and do simple mental arithmetic up to three. His attention span is adequate but he can be distracted by peers or his environment.

Perceptual Development
Nate is able to build a 36 piece puzzle but must keep up the practice. He can copy four color patterns on a pegboard and sequence on the geostacks. Nate can name all appropriate shapes, colors, body parts and their functions.

General Comments
Nate is playful, imaginative little boy who is easily excitable. It is this energy that I will miss next year.

Candice Strachan, next year's class is the Leopards

Principal's Comments
Nate has spent a very productive year in teh Hedgehog class and has reason to be proud of himself.

Haircut with Mama...

well mama is not taking the boys on this activity anymore, they were behaving like such mama's boys! When loren takes them, there is no crying involved.

Loren thinks also the hairdressers went a bit over board with the "styling" and with a tattoo, we have a glimpse of their future as teenagers.

Another pic to flash on their barmitzvah.

Meals at Franshhoek...

... always involved wine...

The tasting room (you need to book as soon as you know you are going to Franshhoek, a 3 month waiting list), this time around the chef was quite into foam... there was foam between the very nice cookie thing on the first dish...

The concierge we had at Le Franshhoek hotel was also very good, she got us into Bread and Wine at La Motte and a nice picnic basket at Le Rochelle, definitely better than the oversold Boschendal's picnic basket.

The Medicinal Herb plant garden at the end of the quaint little town was not featured in the nice glossy book about Franshhoek (though the Chocolate shop, Huguenot Chocolates made it in).

Loren in the press...

Here are two shots of loren, one for a magazine and the other from the Nokia event in Cape Town, where they gave him a heavy long leather coat, made him come up (very slowly) on a ascending thing looking like Neo. He said the descent was painfully slow and he could not move at all cos the thing he was standing on could topple...

Need a detox!

Well Franshhoek is where the bulk of the Huguenots settled in the 1600s from France, creating a very quaint little town with good wine, great food, nice spa...

We slept in, drank alot, ate alot, spa-ed alot and did not hear a single child! aaaahhhh. Loren got to run, we even got a nice picnic in. bye bye south africa... we will miss Franshhoek for sure... hic! I mean sniff!

The kelp tank

The kelp tank is even colder than the predator tank, with a strong current! Here we got to feed all the fish, they come right in front you... big guys... one even wanted to play chicken, who will swerve? in the end the fish did... not before kissing my goggles.

So I kind of did the "two oceans", was glad to be out of the wet suit... and in the sun, watching the fatty seals sun bathe and float.... then we headed out to Franshhoek...

Santa's retirement job

I know where Santa hangs out now, having left the cold laplands, he now lives in Cape Town, in fact he works at the aquarium!! So since we did not have enough time to go to Gansbaai for a real shark dive... I did the cheat sheet one, at the aquarium.

They have 4 sharks in the tank and have released some before, all those released, immediately swam 500 to 700 miles up the coast and are still out there. This guy's name is noodle, for when he got there... he was as thin as a noodle, they sure fattened him up!

So Santa says to me, they were all fed on Sunday (this is Friday... are they not hungry yet?), well looks like they do not like chinese delivery food at all. Quite interesting to step into the back parts of the aquarium. Lots of fish and squid chopping going on, alot fishier smelling than the front area!

The "glass" is actually thick acrylic, 20 cm thick, shatter proof and no visual distortions, tho it can get scratched.

Had to put on really thick wetsuits (thats why i prefer dives in the tropics!) and the water was still cold! am glad i did the cheat one and not the real ocean and lengthy time in freezing waters. Basically you sink to the bottom of the tank, wave to tourists... let the shark, rays and turtles swim past you... even the yellowfin tuna are huge (tho it delicious as sushi).

The rays are really soft to touch... the sharks... well they have cold grey eyes... I found two shark teeth on the bottom, they make quite good toothpicks!

Kirstenbosch Cape Town

On Thursday morning, Avellyn comes and whisks the kids off to school... and I head out to Lanseria. 3 hours later, I land in hot hot cape town... and head to the botanical gardens. Here are some pics. Didn't make it to the commercial worm farm facility (bummer!) as the GPS took me to some strange place.

I like this pod statue, with all the pea pods. Loads of Fynbos' to check out. Succulents and cactus' here really flower in strange ways. Got my self a sandwich and had a nice picnic.

Nate pregnant?

Well there was a big hail storm yesterday, the boys wanted to watch the lightning and thunder, the rain was pellets of ice, the storm was moving fast, and it was here and gone quite quickly.

While taking a different route home, Nate said, when i grow up I will also have a baby in my belly (oookay, that is medically possible)... and I will have my own baby (hmm, my son seems quite the motherly type??), so I ask, how will the baby come out? oh like you mom, the dr will cut my belly and take it out, like I was taken out from your belly... (hmmm... quite observant and can link concepts, child genius after all or just potentially the first male to be pregnant in the future?), so how will the baby get in.... his response, I don't know, I will just take some skin and bundle it together, paint it silver and I will have a silver surfer baby. I will name him silver surfer.

ok so a superhero grandson is in my cards! Lets see what the clairvoyent says! bet she won't ever pick this one up. Sounds like a potential immaculate conception case. I should use this in his wedding speech.

So one of my friends (I shant name names...) said to me the other day, that I have rather big feet... hmm I said, that is interesting considering we have gone shoe shopping and we are the same size... and... guess what, you are shorter than me.

Here's Loren already in Cape Town. I have booked myself for Shark and Kelp Diving... in the aquarium tank... ok don't laugh... its the closest I could get to shark diving instead of going 3 hours out to Gaansbai. I knew my advance license would come in handy. I will soon find out whether I can see out of the tank and what it feels to be like to be watched. The last time I was at that aquarium, I said rather loudly to nate, mmmm look at all that swimming sashimi... had a few people look back. Wonder if the shark would think, mmm chinese delivery.

Here's nate and ike bouncing up and down the see saw. Nate at swimming, me waiting... he's getting quite good but will need to get rid of those floaties. Will try the throw in deep end method in KL. Ike found my yellow paper bag and since its his favorite color, has claimed it as his own.

Mini stream in Dainfern

Found this mini stream nearby one of the parks, I bet it doesn't exist outside the rainy season, the boys spent quite a bit of time tossing stones and getting messy, no little fish tho.

Nate is quite funny, when he wakes ups he tells me whether he watched a movie or TV on his pillow (ie dreamt of anything), one night he said he dreamt of an octopus that bumped into him and his buddy paul and how they were swimming in the ocean. i wonder if I can convince him that dreaming eats to his TV time?

Here's a little sand cake that Ike decorated with tumbleweed and little seeds. Poor guy, teacher just called, says he has loose poo, no fever but napped at 11am. I will now go out and get the Chinese medicine in pill form for children and tummy upsets. Am waiting for the teacher to call when he wakes up. Both of them are up at 5am!

We will be in Singapore Dec 1 to 3 to look at schools and homes. I called up the Ministry of Education today. There are no more public schools that are Chinese based!!! incredibly hard to believe but true. The only chinese they get is in Chinese class. So the Chinese International School is the only school with a higher chinese content. Hmmm, and that one has mixed reviews and teething problems.

My search for a Chinese maid has been slow going, not sure I'll find one in Malaysia and if I get one from China, I'll get a young (and inexperience?) one that can pass the simple english entrance test... or need a company to bring in an older experienced one.

Have also looked into housing. Looks like we may be able to get a black and white or maybe live in sentosa by the beach. So far the black and white... there have been comments in the forums like mosquitoes (I will plant pandan all around the house), I can have a big vege garden, the rats and bugs? I have rat and bug catchers (jake, bullet and pistol), the snakes?? sigh that one I am not sure... apparently there are spitting cobras (the dogs should keep them at bay) and pythons (please don't eat pistol or jake!).

The houses on the beach? they are new... look too modern with lots of sun (another bleached couch in my future??), too close to each other and the kids may be close to water without supervision? Bullet would love the swim everyday tho... who will clean him afterwards? Am looking forward to growing my own supply of orchids and staghorn ferns again!

We're off to Cape Town this Thursday! yay! I will be off to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and also look at large worm producer's farm. Then we head to Fransshoek and have reservations for the Tasting Room. It was spa, sleep, eat and drink or shark diving. Liver stress or adrenaline stress....

The SUN is out!!

Its been a really rainy week, am glad its cleared up, this gives me hope for nice weather as we are going to Cape Town (without the kids) next week. Loren has a conference there and i want to check out the Mount Nelson Hotel worm farm tour and also the Kirstenbosh botanical garden in Cape Town. I should really try and see Robben Island before they close it down!

Here is a flower in my garden, as we can bring plants into singapore, I am wondering how I can bring my 6 month old wolfberry plant, in about 4 years I will have fresh wolfberries. Since gardening, I have taken an interest to cooking as well, to use all these herbs... and found 2 interesting recipes in this month's Taste magazine. Its baked salmon with a coconut milk infused with lemongrass, ginger, garlic (all from my garden) and it sits on a bed of veges, the watercress, spring onion, chilli and coriander, also from the garden, with a sprinkling of rocket flowers (for the peppery taste). Was not bad but I do need to improve on how to heat and serve and presentation, not as easy as I thought!

Then they had another one with Quinoa and pineapple with parsley (from our garden again) and cuke ribbons, its really hard to do good cucumber ribbons!!! but this was quite nice. So I think I may make it a point to cook for loren when he comes back from a business trip? The lunch box is the extra portion I made for his lunch today. Not as cutesy as the Japanese lunchboxes (yet!), maybe I'll try carving heart shaped carrots! ha ha, hope I don't lose my fingers.

Here's Ike, he had a black eye on monday, bumped it somewhere and then yesterday a cut on his nose. He likes the rice biscuits and calls them genggeng.

Took bullet for a walk in this nice nice weather, he sploshed through the puddles happily... and the ticks are back, found 2 big ones on him, they are like 5 times bigger than the asian variety! Bullet had an epilepsy attack last weekend, threw up all over the sitting room... he has not had an attack for over a year... I think he must have had the animal protein food from the other boys bowls. Sigh, hope he survives this move... only to land in HOT singapore and his scabby elbows may return. Picture of pistol, he's definitely gaining weight.

Rain rain and more rain

It has been a really cloudy week. Quite a nice break from the searing heat, I got a bit sun burnt on my back gardening this Tuesday. Wednesday I went to say hi to the gallery I would have gotten a part time job for, its very nice in Rosebank, a bit far though, but such nice people and such a nice gallery housed in an old house.

Speaking of old houses, I am tempted to put in a bid for one of those old colonial black and whites in singapore, tho I just read an entry from a newspaper article where an old tree (protected by the govt) collapsed into the children's room and luckily the husband had gone to pick the son up who was crying to get out as the tree completely crushed his cot. Then somehow I got on to the Kiasuparents webpage that had a lot of info on public school rankings etc., how to get your child into the school you want, its all quite funny. I just hope there is a chinese school near where we want to live.

It looks like the big thunderstorms in Singapore are so scary that some expats not accustomed to it are scared too. I think we used to just all huddle on something rubber based, like a sofa or bed.

Here's a picture of Ike, he now identifies with Mr. Strong instead of Mr. Bump... Dada took him to swim class and he performed like a star! Mama is off the hook to taking him to swim class (yay!).

Julian's birthday... very nice homemade cake!

Today the boys helped me pack the toys that they do not want and I have another 3 boxes to give out tomorrow.

Poor bullet today had an epilepsy attack, its almost a year since his last one and he's feeling out of sorts today. I wonder if he ended up eating the food of the other dogs over a few days and thus his liver malfunctioned? I hope he survives this move.

The week in short

The halloween party is supposed to be a children's party but with the hot summer sun, it slowly degenerated into a naked pool party, lucky nate with three uninhibited scandi blondes! and Nate dressed as invisible man heading home after the halloween party.

Have wanted to take the boys to this new spot, its a bit run down and not that great apart from the big bird cage where the boys enjoyed the screeching peacocks. I once read that in the old castles, the screeching peacocks made that haunting noise but their cries actually sound more like "iaow" (like Miaow, without the M). One even fluffed up his tail and did a mating dance for the boys to watch.

Considering the boys like to wear their singlets, I think we would fit right into any HDB or Phua Chu Kang area (don't pray pray!). They also like to go barefoot so... I am wondering how we will reverse that?

Took Nate to the dentist, he said both kids have lovely teeth as children but they are supposed to have big gaps, so in actual fact when their permanent teeth come out, it will be crooked as there isn't enough space in their mouth, unless they have taken my more evolved genetic DNA material and also not have wisdom teeth.

Ike went to see the surgeon today, his thumb is healing very nicely, the nail is about 1/3 back, I removed the bandages permanently 2 days ago and he's moving it around nicely not stiffly holding it upright.