Been posting alot on Ike

as i have been swiping the photo's off the teacher's weekly report... I will have to take more pics of Nate. I spoke to Ike's class teacher today, she said on the english side he recognises letters that make up his name, not the full alphabet yet but they will go through that material this year. She said he is good at math and he understands chinese though reluctant to speak, as the teacher told a joke and he laughed.

I am now on the hunt for a chinese speaking helper. We moved to an apartment this week and am still unpacking. Loren has left for canada today.

Some Photo's from Ikes class

Moon Festival 2010

So we did not have a big party this year, just a quieter one where they boys got sparklers and lanterns and got to stay up a bit late. Am in Ko Samui with loren at the moment, we are on a yoga and meditation retreat, may muscles are all achy! We will be here till Saturday and when we get back we will be moving homes. We didn't get to buy a place yet as the government changed some rules and we are hoping the market comes down a bit. So we are renting for now...

School...

The kids are settling in quite nicely. Loren is going to be involved in the PTA this year. Here is a pic of Ike in school doing some art (he is quite confirmed a leftie).

We also went to the beach last sunday and they played alot, while I did this "artistic" pine seed on branch thing.

Nate's dental xray

Here is an xray of nate's teeth. It really looks like an alien's mouth, there is the set of his existing teeth and the adult teeth that are being formed below his baby teeth.

He also has 3 cavities. The dr has fixed 2, they were caught early so no pain. We now have to start flossing as well.

What we have been up to...

Today is Nate's birthday, we bought a cake for him to take to school and some photo's of when he was younger and his past b'day pictures along with his birth certificate. Had a brief chat with his teacher who said he has high IQ and EQ, is an average reader but not a risk taker. He is shy to read in front of his friends and doesn't like it when he can't read a word, though at home he doesn't seem to have that problem. I wonder how we step up our reading... maybe more reading time in bed, both chinese and english books. He does know big words like "republic" because it appears in star wars.

We went skating after school, ike tried for the first time, guess who is sore all over propping him up on the bar? he though is getting the hang of it and then passed out like a rock in the car. I think dada needs to take them more often! I thought I took a pic of him in skates but it didn't show up when I uploaded my pics.

Here is the school garden, now being dug up by other parents, its nice to have more company in the garden but I also have been spending more time there than the stuff that needs to get off my desk. We're going to put in a corm patch there.

Here is ike's teacher from last year, showing the kids how to feed the "banana eating plant". I remember that was so coool when I learnt that. I think I need to involve ike's classroom a bit more.

Nate jumping off some big logs at our dog walk at fort canning park and I have been showing nate more and more of Niubizi, the cartoon character created by my granddad and how to draw it (as its really easy, its just lines, dots and circles), nate is getting the hang of it but all his Niubizi created are of star wars... now thats an angle for my future marketing! yoda meets niubizi or alien morphs niubizi with yoda...

KL - Hari Raya 2010

We decided last minute to go to KL and the traffic was not bad at all, we left after the boy's school on Thursday at about 230pm and got into KL at about 6pm. The boys fell asleep in the car. No rain on the way. Similar on the way back too, no rain and although they woke up early, they slept just as we were about 10km from the border.

The 4 cousins really bonded this time and seemed to enjoy each other's company. My aunt is also back from Houston and came to stay with us for two nites. The boys got to go to 2 new play places and wear themselves out. In the afternoons we went swimming but the two days we were there it poured. We also got to attend JH's second son's one month birthday party. It was food, food and more good food.

I think we also figured out who the SIngapore PRs are going out to... apparently all the Malaysians that are defecting to Singapore! have succeeded in getting their PRs, while all the angmoh friends here that we know off that applied are just getting rejected left right and center. There has always been a priority for Malaysian Chinese in getting a singaporean PR, I guess they assimilate better but this is like the mass malaysian chinese exodus in the 1980s...

More birthday photos

Rosh Shana photos

I bought some sparklers (not enough though) and the kids wanted to swim at night, here is Ike being tossed high high by uncle allan.

Photos from Ikes first week back at school

Well day one on wednesday was just a 2 hour stint, on thursday, ike was acting up about not wanting to go to school. When I left him, he was yelling and screaming, oh it was not fun. By Friday, the nonsense was gone and he actually went without a fuss. Here are some pictures of him with the butterfly he made, a non-kosher looking mask and his show and tell of his pencil case, not sure why he is all slouched over.

Loren has been trying to figure out how to try and sort the school out and has already met with the principal and the admissions person about the school. The PTA leader has left and so there is a vacancy, I hope he takes it up as there is alot of support from other parents and not enough communication or "effective" communication from the school administration and owners.

Birthday Party 2010

Star Wars Jedi Training theme. Well at 4 am in the morning, there was a lot of thunder and lightning and rain. At 5am, there was still rain, and at 6 and at 7, that by 730 the clouds still looked thick and I sms-ed everyone on the change of location from Vinisha's outdoor party to our home, an indoor party. Many parents brought all their kids, ie other siblings as well and we packed about 70+ people in our house.

We had to go get the balloon tank from Vini's place and Lilin helped organise the kids games as Vini was sick and coughing terribly. Luckily for me, Lilin has good crowd control skills. Jin made this great R2D2 Pinata and the kids really seemed to like breaking it.

The rain finally did stop around noon. The food arrived late but luckily I ordered enough and there wasn't much leftovers. We got the chocolate cake from Lana Cake house and stuck on their mini figurines. The kids didn't say they liked this party so much... it was rather chaotic. I remember the Firehouse party and the gymnasium party, there were requests to redo those.

Yay another year before I have to think birthday party for them. Am all partied out after Rosh Shanah last night and today. Tomorrow loren heads to Brisbane for Hoffman and I think I will head to the spa or at least a massage.

Radish from our garden

So we made some make shift plots in our garden to plant "stuff", dehdeh has put in radishes and cabbage... this is our first radish harvest, it came out quite nice, am quiet pleased and will try it again. The same plants in the school did not turn out well as I think they did not have enough water. sigh. Loren had these radishes for dinner tonite.

Here is Ike, happy to have plucked them out... Here is Ike also doing acupuncture on his pooh bear. He does not know the concept of voodoo dolls yet. We are having rosh shannah a week early and the boy have their star wars birthday party on Sunday. They have their jedi costumes as well, I am putting together one for my self too a white shirt, my white yoga pants, loren's belt and a light saber, am deciding whether to cut up a bedsheet or not for my cape....