New School New Adjustments

This Monday KK started a new chapter in his school life. It was his first day at his new Primary School. I woke up at about 7.45am to prepare breakfast and lunch for him before waking him up at 8am. For him, it was just another day....he lazed about, unwilling to get up until we told him there was cartoon downstairs.



The first day was uneventful and KK joined his new class in the assembly area without any fuss. We went home shortly after seeing him get into his classroom. The house is much more quiet and XX played peacefully on his own without KK around.



Today is his 2nd day. Despite us making attempts to get him to bed at 9.30pm last night, KK didn't sleep until about 10.30pm. Again, he refused to get out of bed and complained about the '6-hours' schooltime, he doesn't want 6 hours, 6 hours is too long, why 6 hours....blah blah blah. Already wasted time upstairs getting him up and changed, he next ate like a snail at the breakfast table. In the end, he could only finish his bread and half a cup of milk. In the car, I ordered him to stop whining about the "6 hours" school and told him to tell the teacher if he didn't like it. I was fed-up with his excuses.



I'd pack him an apple pie for lunch together with a bottle of water. Yesterday, I'd prepared ham and cheese sandwich for him. He returned home with half of the sandwich still in the box. He claimed he didn't like cheese. Fine. Today, his whole apple pie was untouched. He said there wasn't any microwave oven to heat up the pie that's why he didn't eat it. His water, he only drank about 50ml of it. I really blew my top when I think that he survived for 6 hours only on that 1 piece of bread and half a cup of milk he had in the morning. I seriously don't know which planet he comes from and what kind of petrol he runs on. He got a huge scolding from me and from his father for being rude when we lectured him. His punishment - standing in the garage for 5 mins and no treats like juice and chocolates that night.

Communication

Since moving to Australia, XX has advanced very much in his linguistic skills. I don't know, maybe it's because now I face him every minute, so I noticed his development more or our increased constant interaction with him has helped him to pick up words faster.

He has quite a lot of words in his vocabulary, sufficient to get him understood most of the time, although his pronunciation is still far from perfect, so you've got to pause a little to listen carefully. The most marvellous thing about kids, they're not afraid of embarrassment if they don't pronounce the words correctly and they sound cute mispronuncing it! So far, XX will try and succeed most of the time to follow the sound that we make with 90% accuracy. While he used to only pronounce the last syllabus, he's recently managed even 2 syllabus words like "cookie" and "mummy". Currently, his daddy is trying to teach him to say "A - Z" while he sits at the toilet bowl.

Here are some examples:

When he wants us to follow him somewhere:
XX: (pulls your hand) "Come! See!"
XX: (finger pointing) "Rage"(It took me awhile to understand he meant the 'ga-rage'.

Demanding for food:
XX: "Brad, brad, brad, BRAD! (bread)

or

XX: "kate, kate, kate!" (biscuit)

Declining an offer:
Me: "You want some rice?"
XX: "No need." (pushes spoon away)
Me: "You want noodles?"
XX: (looks serious and nods his head.)

Wanting to watch Spongebob Squarepants cartoon:
XX: "bob bob pants pants"

When driving, he'll point out and identify "cars", "buses" and "trucks".

When all his words fail him, our 19 month old boy can always fall back on the universal cry and his "ng..." to make his wishes known.

No Condensation!

If only the water was not so icy cold. Every morning, I wished I could brush my teeth without wetting my hands. However, despite the constant application of moisturizers and multi-layering of clothes, I realised that there are definite benefits to living in the cold and dry climate.

• No condensation. You can bring out your milk, juices from the fridge and they don't leave a wet patch of condensation on your dining table.
• Butter remains hard and requires no refridgeration.
• Rubbish don't stink and insects don't visit your trash even if you've forgotten to clear them the night before. Over here, the rubbish collection trucks comes by only once a week.
• Cornflakes and biscuits don't need to be stored in air-tight containers. In fact, just leave them in the cartons and they stay crisp and fresh for days.
• You always get ice-cool water without adding ice. Red wines need not be chilled before drinking.
• Ice-cream stays cold and hard longer after you take if out of your fridge.
• I get to wear all my winter coats, jumpers and woolies which I've been accumulating in the cupboard for years.
• You don't need to change your clothes everyday because you don't perspire at all. In fact, you don't even need to bathe everyday.
• I finally get to wear those knee-high boots and don't feel so out of place.

One Week Later

It's been slightly more than a week since our big move to Australia and we FINALLY got our internet modem this afternoon. So much to update...where do I start?

Well, the flight to Melbourne went rather smoothly. XX settled down to sleep (with the help of Ou De Yang on MP3) shortly after take-off and awoke only near to landing. The 3 of us also took a quick meal and decided to call it a night. It's gonna be a long day for us when we arrive, so better get all the rest I can. Unfortunately, this time round, the seats in Business Class are not lie-flat and the Inflight Entertainment is not AVOD. End up, I didn't even touch my headsets for the whole flight.

Our 200kg of cargo

The Melbourne airport segment was chaotic. The ground staff of SIA were supposed to "Meet and Assist" us, but we got a rude reply of "we don't carry luggage" and more than 5 repetitions of "we don't have porter service" from the ground staff meeting us on arrival. In the end, we picked up our 14 pieces of checked-in luggage ourselves and wheeled all of them, including the hand-luggage to clear customs. There were alot of flights landing there in the morning, so the queue for the customs was like 500 metres long. Thank God, half way through, a customs staff assisted us to a fast lane and we cleared through soon after. XX and KK were extremely good boys and behaved patiently throughout.




Thanks to Hubby making all the prior arrangements, by the time we collected the keys from the landlord and moved into the house, there was already electricity, water, gas and our mattresses were there waiting for us! The first hiccup was the Queen size bedsheet and quilt cover that I've bought in Singapore was too small for my Australian made Queen mattress and quilt! I used our old king sized bedsheet instead.

XX trying out our new Corolla Ascent

Since then, we've managed to unpack almost 90% of the boxes we've brought. We've also collected our car and bought our microwave oven, fridge and washing machine. We've also managed to buy a dinning table with 6 chairs and even a plasma TV. Now all that's missing would be a couch and a TV console....plus a few minor things, like a shoe rack, coat hooks etc. Hopefully we can make the house more comfortable before KK starts school next week.

Having fun in the carton for the TV

The cold and dry weather here demanded the greatest adjustment to our lifestyle. Bathing or having a shower was such a simple act in S'pore. Now, we can't just walk the kids into the bathroom for a bath. Before that, we have to turn on the heater in the bathroom to warm up the room. Then we've to make sure that the towels and clothes are all ready when they come out of the bath. I tried to shower KK and XX together for the first 2 days and it was crazy. XX has this phobia of water splashing on his head and face, so imagine a screaming baby in a slippery, cold and wet environment with a mummy who's wet and cold and a brother who's wet, cold and having fun.... It's a war zone. Anyway, we found a peaceful solution for the time being. Now the kids play in the bathtub filled with warm water in the heated bathroom. While watching over them, I or Hubby will take our shower in the shower cubicle next to it. After we're done, we'll slowly drain the water out so that XX will willingly come out. KK goes for a shower and we dry XX.

Bath time = Play time

After the bath, another thing that we have to do that we don't in S'pore is putting on moisturiser. For me, my skin will remind me that I have not yet moisturised. I try to apply for the children too, especially for XX whose face has developed some cold rash. Other minor adjustments includes always walking around the house with slippers and washing dishes/clothes with gloves.

Other than that, everything else is great. Shopping for groceries and cooking here is easier than I expected. I just pop into the car (parked right outside the door in our garage) and zip 1 minute away to the nearby Coles supermarket which is opened till mid-night everyday. I can park (for free) near the entrance and push out the trolley later all the way to the car when I'm done. In fact, I find it so much more convenient than shopping at NTUC in Eastpoint. Variety wise, of course you can't find stuff like 'tau kua' or xiao bai cai, but in general, there're enough choices for you to make a delicious meal.

XX having breakfast of chocolate milk and weetbix.

Ok, enough said for now. Will write more about my experience here next time.

Crazy Schedule

I've just realised that my last posting was almost 3 weeks ago! How time flies when you're busy.

Since my return from Melbourne, things have been happening with the speed of an airplane. I expected myself to be busy making the final preparations for the big move but I never expected my training assignments to pick up speed too. Suddenly, from no jobs for the last 3 months, I'm training 3 times a week in the month of June. I couldn't back out as I had previously agreed and they had no other trainer available.

So here I am, making use of whatever available off days to give or pack away the million and one household stuff that I've accumulated over the past years. By now, most of the major items like furniture, electrical appliances and toys have already been settled. I'm really amazed that it's the little little things that are more stressful to decide what to do with them. I wish I could bring them along but I'm near my maximum luggage allowance already. Throwing them away would be a waste as they're still usable. The best option is to give away but then there's the question of who? Who needs more plates, bowls and cutlery? Not to mention water bottles, teacups, post-it pads, photo frames and plastic containers?

The most agonizing decisions are my clothes. I've given away 1 big carton and filled up 2 big vinyl bags (they used to come in blue/red stripes, but have now modernised to have cuter designs like Winnie The Pooh). But because of the limit, I've to leave 1 bag behind.

Thank God, slowly but surely, we're making progress. In between working and gatherings with family/friends saying farewell, transferring ownerships, we've managed to clear most of the items in our storeroom, cupboards and wardrobe. The next week is gonna be even crazier. As we countdown one week to our departure, we'll be moving out of the house, sending the maid home and giving up our car. For our relatives and friends that we've not been able to catch up before we leave, we are so sorry. We'll buy you tea the next time we meet again...

Get A Break

Last Sunday, there was a report in The Sunday Times about how jam-packed the June holidays are for some kids.

Yesterday, I brought KK and XX downstairs to cycle and play. It was about 12 noon and although it was the school holidays, the playpool and playground were deserted. I was wondering, hey, it's the hols and the midday sky that day is cloudy, so where are all the kids? Off to some school holiday remedial programmes, enrichment camps or overseas holiday? Well, there was ONE other kid, a girl with swollen eyelids riding on her skate scooter. (Maybe it's the swollen eyelids, that's why she's so free.) A friend who stays just nearby a school had commented that even though it's the school hols, every morning there are just as many parents dropping off their kids at school as per usual.

Yes, kiasu parents signing up enrichment classes for their kids is one thing, but schools too are not giving their students (nor teachers) a real break during the hols. I remember even during my time, the hols are precious times for poor performing students doing remedial lessons and to catch up with their work. Not to mention the ECA groups organising camps/activities etc.

On the adjacent page of The Sunday Times is a related report about how schools set overly difficult mid-year exams supposedly to spur their students to study harder for the finals. However, some parents have complained that the poor results only demoralised the students.

This revived my memory of how my 'elite' secondary school also used the same tactics. The Sec 4 Prelim exams was so difficult that I scored miserably, attaining 22 points, resulting in me not qualifying for any JCs during the first 3 months. When the 'O' Levels results came out, I scored 12 points, enabling me to get into any of the top JCs. Not only was my self-esteem hurt by the Prelim results, I wasted 3 months, doing nothing. When I entered Temasek JC, I was 3 months behind the syllabus and I struggled through the rest of the first year trying to catch up. Does this make sense? I agree that the exams should be set to an equivalent standard or a little more difficult to give students a sense of the real thing. But to make it overly difficult, where results can be 10 points different, that's too extreme. 10 points is a heaven and earth difference in terms of academic achievements.

I am glad to hear that from Jan next year, the Education Ministry will scrap the provisional admissions exercise under which students used their prelim exam results to enter a JC. That's 18 years late, if you ask me, but still better than never.

XX The Cute

I've crowned XX with this title - 'XX The Cute', as I (biasedly) think that he's so so so adorable.

XX The Cute

Well, 2 days ago, XX The Cute became 'XX The Constipated'. Yes, he couldn't move his bowels for one day and he really had this constipated look on his face. He tried three times on the toilet bowl but each time, nothing comes out. I can see the poop in his anus but it was too hard for him to push it out. The poor boy will cry and look so miserable, we felt pretty stressed as well.

XX The Constipated

Hubby immediately went out to get him some prune juice but returned with a mixture from the pharmacy that will relieve constipation instead. Just as I was about to feed him the first mouth of the medicine, XX suddenly wriggled out from my lap. As he stood, a lump of poop fell out onto the floor. Normally we would have exclaimed "OMG, XX, yucks!" But on that day, we cheered and clapped on seeing this lump of 'gold'!



From then on, XX was released of the new title and became XX The Cute again.