Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Caterpillar died and teacher reviews





oh so sad, the tiny guy we found when he was a quarter of an inch and made it to about an inch and then he kaputted!

I had the teacher reviews and for ike, he is now confirmed a leftie, he is the only leftie in a class of 20. He is progressing well but lacks the confidence to speak up in show and tell. Maybe cos nate does many things for him he tries to wriggle out of being compared or to do them? He does however veer toward adult company and can talk alot in english (lacking confidence in chinese) and the teachers notice he pulls his arms up to his chest whenever he is nervous.

As for Nate, I have another review today with the homeroom teacher but the review with his chinese teacher was quite good, he is doing well, he likes chinese spelling and to date has had only perfect scores which I need to tell him that making mistakes are good too as you learn alot more there. His handwriting is still rather poor but when it comes to spelling he knows an extra stroke makes the character different so he is very careful and neat there. hmmm.

The boys have picked out their hanukka presents and are counting down... I find pistol and jake often in the boys room, sleeping there at night, since their door isn't closed... sneaky!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Nearing the end of 2010!











I can't believe its year end, the weather gives no clues and its already end november! We brought the caterpillar home over the weekend to observe and boy is that caterpillar a big eater and then a big poo maker. By sunday, its eating capabilities slowed down alot and then it wasn't moving and then furry bits fell off, we thought its head dropped off. We thought it died... but instead it molted to become a bigger. fluffier caterpillar.

If I am successful in uploading a video clip, its of jake playing football with us. Nate is very into his football and loves it, we practice everyday. To think I signed him up for lessons in South Africa and he absolutely hated it. Edward came by today as he was out from camp and he has his head shaven for national service.

Nate has been doing well in both his chinese and english spellings and here are some of ike's drawings. Ike's quite adamant about his favourite things like giraffes, snails, the color green, his pooh bear (soft things) and the gingerbread man.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Run up to hanukka 2010




Its that time of the year again. The boys have picked out their 8 presents and we have got 4 of them so far.... they keep them in a basket and stare longingly at the packaging till hanukka comes....

I got a nice break and went to HKG with a girlfriend last friday, we got back on monday. We had a very civilised time shopping, eating and most important sleeping and not needing to get out of bed till we felt like it. We had only adult company and it was a really nice break.

In the meantime.... ike had a chocolate croissant with dada when nate went to sunday school, ike slept with dada as he had a bit of croup and peed on my side of the bed and here he is doing a show and tell of a teeny tiny caterpillar that we got from the school garden.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Harvests





We are having daily harvests at the garden now which is really nice, not big harvests so I think I will start passing them on to the teachers. Ike's old chinese teacher at K1 got the beans and lady's fingers, since she has been here fm China, she has not had lady's fingers!

Here are pictures of nate cutting the ladies fingers and our small crop today. I now have a mom photographing the garden :). She sent me this cute picture of Ikey.

Our long bean patch and cucumber patch have been attacked by aphids. I wish I could buy a box of baby preying mantis or baby ladybugs here and set them loose! Get the predators going against the pests... I saw a few cute small lizards hunting for butterflies in the garden too.

Yuli our new helper has joined us today, she is indonesian and speaks only chinese to the boys, so far so good for day 1.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Diwali 2010






This week was a long weekend... it was the diwali festival of light. The kids and I started off with the movie Megamind with one of Nate's friends from school, Liyi. The boys had an active weekend, we headed to the botanical gardens, took the dogs for a long walk at fort canning, they went with loren to the mushroom play place where nate did the obstacle course, we also went to the library to borrow books, a friend's home for diwali and they went with loren to look at scooters. Uncle Oliver was in town as well, he had not seen nate since nate was 1! Loren and I managed to catch that new movie on Facebook as well.

I managed to get some time off too when loren took the boys. I got to bring my cousin Jin to see the place we bought and her thoughts on how we renovate. We could not see the actual unit as the seller is still in it but I managed to get a viewing at a unit that is being rented out. This week is lawyers and paperwork.

Here is ike painting his diwali candle holder and nate on the obstacle course. Our wall in the apartment is pasted with all the words nate (chinese words) and ike (ABCs) need to learn.