Why English Can Be Difficult To Teach

You know how they say english is just difficult to teach. Some things you just know or you don't. And what I was teaching was just the alphabet....

Here's what happened when I was teaching Kaitlyn the letters of the alphabet:

Letter "I"
"Mummy, look at the turtle!"

Letter "F"
Me: (makes the sound of the letter F) That's the sound of letter "F". Can you say it?
Kaitlyn: No...."ribbit, ribbit"

I can't say she's wrong right?

My Little Miss Independent

At just 2 years of age, Kaitlyn has a mind of her very own, does things independently and has an answer for almost everything.....

Doing Work
Just like in the picture above, she climbs onto my chair, sits at the keyboard, picks up a pen and paper and starts writing and typing. She's all quiet, and when this happens, she's usually up to no good. So I asked, "Kailtyn, what are you doing?"
"I'm doing work." comes her very matter-of-factly reply.

And for a 2 year old, she really can hold a pen well!

Bearing Grudges
I was taking both the older kids to Ikea and asked them to belt up in the booster seats. Kaitlyn refused and our conversation went as such:
Me: You have to put on the seat belt.
Kaitlyn: Dowan
Me: You have to, if not you are going home.
Kaitlyn: Dowan. No need.
Me: If you don't want to belt up, I am going to send you home.
Kaitlyn: Ok, I go home.

So I turn back and headed home. She dropped off (with no tears!) and Kieran and I went off to Ikea. Apparently she sat at the dining table and sulked. And when asked why she came home, she said, "Because I dowan to wear seat belt."

And upon my return that night, while putting them to bed, this feisty little one simply refused me my goodnight kiss.

Crying on Demand
She was reaching for a cup of cold water when Ron said, "Kaitlyn, finish the food in your mouth first. If not, the food will all go into the water. Don't drink it first."

She looks at me and says, "Mummy, Papa scold me. I am going to cry already."
And a few seconds later, she was crying.

Tell me, what do the children of these times eat??

And They're Off To School!

It seems like only yesterday that they were born.....now my first and second born are already in school!

Enjoy school and the learning process my darlings!

Welcome Baby Kristian!

Sat, 3 November 2012
I had this sudden crampy feeling in the abdomen and it felt exceptionally heavier than normal. But it wasn't really the feeling of contractions. So I called my cousin to check and she said that it could well be the start of it. So I decided to call the labour ward, only to be told that it's hard to tell over the phone (duh!) and to just head down to the hospital since it's number 3.

We headed over to Thomson and upon checking, I was indeed having contractions and was 2 cm dilated.

You know how everyone says that each baby will take a shorter time to come? And that there will be no time for epidural, so the pain will only last for a short while, so no need epidural? And how people tell you that even with the water bag burst or the start of contractions, you still have time?

I'm glad I decided not to heed all those and just went in super early and asked for epidural super early.

I admitted myself at 9pm, and Dr Tan came in at 10pm to burst the water bag. Epidural was admistered at about 930pm.

And then I was dilated at 2cm for the longest time la! And like before, the epidural was only working on the right side! At 1am, Dr Tan came in again, saw me in pain and asked if I wanted to redo the epidural. REDO? It's really quite painful you know. But she suggested that we redo it as I was still only 2cm dilated. So the epidural was redone at 2am, and thankfully, this time it worked fully.

At about slightly past 3am, the mid wife came to check and I asked her if it has progressed. And she said: "Ya. 9cm." Then she started preparing stuff and said that I can try to start pushing. "But you have to call Dr Tan first. What if the baby comes before she's here?"

9cm???

Thankfully Dr Tan arrived soon after and within about 6 pushes Baby Kristian came out.

And as of Nov 4 2012, we've officially become a family of 5. :)

Trick or Treating

Kieran had fun at Halloween last year.

So this year, I decided to open our house for trick or treating as well. Kaitlyn is also old enough to go round trick or treating. The neighbourhood committee had also arranged so Halloween activities for the residents.

So here's our decorated gate....

As expected, not all the households opened their place for trick or treating. Like last year, it was mainly the expats who did it. I guess Halloween is still quite an "ang mo" thing.

Check out some of the costumes that were donned by the kids and adults....

 This last one got my son scrambling and my daughter in tears! It actually is quite scary!!!

The main draw for my kids, really, was going round to the houses collecting their treats.

Happy Halloween everyone!

24 June, Sun - Day 9, Melbourne

Headed down to Flemington market with my aunt and cousin Steph. Bought a painting and some wooden craft stuff which we plan to put up at our new place. If they don't fade by the time our place is ready, that is. :)

Lunch was Hong Kong fare at Box Hill and then we headed off for last minute shopping at Target again.

After shopping, it was off to Steph's place for some tea. Check out Kieran enjoying his jam doughnuts....

Headed for a quick Thai dinner (notice we've been eating Asian food throughout. The Asian food here is really pretty decent), then it was back to pack all the shopping and head to the airport. Would have loved to pack one more thing in, but alas, I think it would have exploded in the plane.

Why don't they have Schweppes Agrum in Singapore???

23 June, Sat - Day 8, Melbourne

This morning, Uncle Jerry took us to Grants on Sherbrook so that the kids could feed birds - another activity they were looking forward to. We had gone on another day to another park but that particular park had stopped the bird feeding.

To my surprise, the 2 kiddos had no qualms about the Cuckatoos and Rosellas landing on their heads, shoulders and arms to feed!

Lunch was yum cha with my aunt, uncle and cousin-in-law James. Thereafter we headed to Costco - this giant hypermart that sells everything (almost everything) in bulk and humongous sizes. The thing is, at Costco, you need to be a member to shop there. Funny, right? Pretty fun place to shop. We bought a huge (I didn't take a picture, but believe me, it was huge!) pizza for dinner that cost us only A$14. It's so huge you can't fit it into a standard oven. We had to cut it in half! Also bought fresh oysters, as my aunt planned to make "orh lua" with them!

So dinner was another yummy affair of salad, pizza, orh lua, and of course, on the way back home, we had to buy Nandos!