Monday is my day with Athan.  Usually, we will drop Calvin at school in the morning and then we are off to the gym class.  After that, we can decide what to do together — grocery shopping, to the park, library — lots of options.  I love the time with with my little boy.  He usually has his best behaviour on. :)  However, today has been a little different as I had to stay home to finish off my presentation for the next 2 days.  And so, the husband brought the boy to the gym.

When they came home, Athan was still so full of energy.  He came running to me to show me the little certificate he got from the gym class.  He has finished a term of gym class! And then he looked eagerly at me with anticipation. I knew he was expecting me to bring him somewhere fun.  I felt really bad to disappoint him, but I had to gently tell him that I had to work today and that I needed him to play by himself for a while.  Surprisingly, he agreed.  He really did.  He entertained himself with my pens and paper after he got tired with his toys. He even took the pens apart and tried to put the pieces back together. What fun. I had to help him in the end, but it was fun watching him trying to solve a problem.

Then when Robin was having his  lunch and watching some lunchtime T.V, the boy sat himself on the couch waiting for the show to start! However, it was also nearly time for his nap.  He knew it, but he kept ignoring me. I had to physically remove him from the couch as he would not move.  He even tried to negotiate with me.  This was what he said: “我要陪爸爸 5 minutes 才睡, 可以嗎？” (I want to accompany papa for 5 minutes before going to bed, ok?). I was a little speechless as I did not expect such negotiation technique from my 3-year-old. Accompany his dad? As if the father needed company … 🙂 Well, I relented. After about 5 minutes, Mr A really did go down for his nap — for 2 hours.

This evening after dinner, while Calvin was practising his handwriting — writing numbers and his name, Mr A had this to say (while I was feeding him his dinner) to his brother: “good writing, Calvin!”, “good job, Calvin!”and “no! you write wrongly!” He even had the eraser in his hand ready to rub off what he thought was written wrongly. *sigh* He was imitating me. He did sound very much like me though. :)  Mr C was not impressed at all.  He had this annoyed look on his face that seemed to say “do you actually know what I have written wrongly, little brother?” I just sat there enjoying the moment and laughing to myself.

Such is a day with Mr A.  Always full of interesting conversations and surprises. Thank God.

I am without a voice today. I am also on sick leave today. That is why, I am writing yet another post here to give myself a distraction.  I’ve been working at home all day you see….. 🙂

I seldom fall sick, thanks be to God.  However, when I do get sick on the odd occasion, I do get quite sick. Like now. 🙁 I have been coughing for the past week and suddenly, the cough got worse last night and this morning.  And then, I lost my voice totally.  Nasty.

When the boys realised that I could not talk like normal, and had to whisper, this is what I get:

The little one looked at me with his cheeky little smile and said or rather whispered back to me “媽媽，為什麼你沒有聲音？” (mama, why don’t you have a voice?) I could only smiled at him.

The older boy was full of concern — this is they way he is — he is always very sensitive towards me.  Last night, when I was coughing madly and had a bad headache, and could not read to him, he said in his worried voice “mum, you have a headache and cough, I don’t want you to get sick. You need to see a doctor tomorrow, I think.” So adult-like, ya? I was touched by his concern and reassured him that I would be fine.  This morning when I was contemplating whether I should go into work, Mr C said “mum, if you are sick, you should stay at home, ok?” Following that he said:” mum, your friends will laugh at you when they see you talk this way! You should stay at home.” I was so very amused by my 5-year-old. Really amused.

The husband has been a great help today.  He took care of the boys so that I could rest. Bliss. When he came back from school, he told me out of the blue that we are very blessed to have the 2 (very precious)boys.  We have to bring them up well, by God’s grace and in God’s way. He is so right.

It was early morning. I was in the bathroom when I thought I heard Calvin talking to his brother in their room (their room is right next to the bathroom). It sounded like Calvin was instructing Athan to do something. Then I heard “then you put your leg over like this …”!  And, I was alarmed!

Mr C was giving Mr A instructions to climb down from his cot! Before I could rush to their room, I heard a big loud thud on the floor followed by screaming. I was too late. Mr A has fallen from his cot while trying to climb down. Thank God he did not hurt his head or had any serious injury except for his left leg that had hit a toy truck which was on the floor. No damage done. I was relieved and very thankful.

After much *interrogation* by the husband, Mr C admitted to instructing Mr A to climb down from his cot. He obviously did not realise the danger.  All he wanted was for his brother to come down from his bed and play with him. He was very very sorry, we could see that on his face. He even promised he won’t do it again.

After thought: I guess it is time to move Athan to a mattress on the floor like Calvin. This will prevent future problems. Yes, we still keep Athan in his cot (mean parents :)).

After the drama, it was back to our busy morning routine. As for our Mr A, he was back to his usual happy self. 🙂

Calvin’s Valentine’s Day craft from school.

This was what Calvin presented me (it was also for the father) when I picked him up at school yesterday. At a closer look, I think I love what he has done!

I was quick to ask him how he made the big heart, in particular how he managed to glue all the little pink muffin cases on it. After much pestering from me, the boy told me that everyone had to make one for their parents.  First, they had to cut the big heart shape from an outline on paper. Then they painted the heart red followed by decorating it in whatever manner they wished.  He chose to glue the cases along the outline of the heart but apparently the darker pink cases ran out and so he had to use the light pink ones. And, he emphasised that he thought of the design and he glued the cases all by himself.  I was proud of him. Really. He has done such a great job. He has a good sense of colour as well, I think.  He probably has inherited this trait from the father. 🙂

This year’s Chinese New Year happens to fall on the same day as Valentine’s Day. What a coincidence. Celebrations over here is limited. I missed all the good times I had during Chinese New Year when I was growing up in Singapore.  I wish one day the boys can get to celebrate this festive season in Singapore and Malaysia. We do still try our best to celebrate over here with our chinese friends.  We have two dinners lined up this weekend –  one at R’s sister home and the other with church friends. I am looking forward to all the good food and company. 🙂

Here’s wishing all our chinese friends and family a very Happy Chinese New Year! Hope you all have a great time with family.

The new term of school has finally started for Calvin.  He just can’t wait to go to school!  I pray and hope he will feel the same way about school 5 years later. 🙂

He is in pre-primary this year, just next door to his previous class.  He can still see his former teachers whom he loves.  In fact, he kept saying he wanted to go back to Mrs D’s (kindy teacher) class! Thank goodness his friends from last year are all in the same class as him this year.  This helps. To help the children adjust to the new routine (5 full days of school now) as well as helping the teachers to get to know them better, the class has been split into 2 groups on the first day of school. The first group has the morning session while the second has the afternoon session. Calvin has been assigned to the afternoon session (12.30pm – 3.10pm).

We were nice and early on the first day of school.  He was excited, but went all quiet when we met his new teachers Miss B and Mrs J. He was quietly observing his new teachers and new environment — very typical of Calvin (he has been this way since he was a baby). When the bell rang, a cue for the parents to leave, I looked at my boy who looked back at me and said “I won’t cry, mum”.  He seemed to know I was going to ask him whether he was going to cry. I felt very emotional at that moment and at the same time, I was so proud of my little boy! He seemed to have grown up all of a sudden. I knew he would do just fine in his new class and I left.

The rest of the week will be half-day school, slowly building up to full day every day over the next 2 weeks.  I know Calvin will take time to adjust to his new routine, he will be quiet for the first term, he probably will be teary at times when I leave him  etc etc. BUT I also know that he will eventually get used to the new routine, new teachers, new classrooms and make new friends. If you can, do pray for my little boy. Thanks.

 p.s: I did not take any photo because I have left the camera R’s car!