Far Away

I will be traversing around this country (see picture below) for 2 whole weeks. Away from my Bees. Away from Hubby. Away from the people I care about.



I just arrived a couple of hours back, and though the plane ride was too long, I do get to see some miraculous sights from the plane that took my breath away. Endless deserts over Saudi Arabia with mysterious, out-of-the-world gigantic circles, almost like crop circles! I think they just might be oil fields. Then, emerald and mocha farms with thick meandering rivers over Germany. Gorgeous.

The weather here is fantastic - cool and crisp with the perfect tone of dazzling sunlight that is mild yet tangerine-coloured. I took a solitary walk for a while, soaking in the relaxed alfresco cafe culture and the old traditional, tree-lined boulevards, and it felt rather good to be by myself, although I am missing the family greatly.

It is now 8.15pm and bright like 6pm back home with the sun still up in the sky. And from my hotel room, I can see right into the apartments of an old Edwardian/Victorian (I can't tell the difference, really!) service apartment block with such nostalgic essence of warmth and cosiness.

Right, it is now 3.30am in Singapore, and time for a sleep, although I am wondering how I am going to do that with magnificent sunrays slanting onto my bed! God, I miss the sweet smell of the Bees though :(

The Sports They Play

Big Bee enjoys a large plethora of sports very much. Although I outsourced most of the sports that she learns (tennis, swimming and ballet, which is somewhat a type of sport to me!), I decided to teach her badminton and yoga myself. Hubby had also taught her table tennis and billiard, both of which she can play fairly well now. In school, she just learned inline skating and she is so interested in that, making me promise to buy her a pair of skates the next holidays! So, I guess Big Bee is a rather active little girl! 

Once a week, we would have our badminton practice rounds in the peaceful courtyard. At first, she kept using tennis strokes to the extent that I was worried that she may confuse the 2 techniques together. However, I am elated that she can now play a smooth game of badminton with me - both she and I are always thrilled whenever we can hit the shuttlecock non-stop for a while, squealing and jumping away like silly girls. 

Big Bee and my mum playing a tough game together - Por Por even took off her slippers to play better with Big Bee!

Poor Little Bee would always try to join us, and I do let her practise a little with us, sort of a tripartite game - albeit with little success as she would just take the shuttlecock and throw it at us! Sometimes, my mum would join in, and I watch them play with sunshine in my heart, rejoicing in the fact that 3 generations can play a simple game of badminton together! 

Tripartite badminton game with Por Por, Big Bee and Little Bee. Sometimes I will join in to play doubles but will always lose to my mum! :) 

We are trying to get Little Bee more involved whenever we have our share of sports, and recently, during Big Bee's swim classes, we had been bringing her along for a good share of pool dipping (as well as exercise for us!). She loved it and never ceased to kick her legs haphazardly everytime! It was a wonderful quality bonding time between Hubby, me and the little one.

 

All ready for some serious swimming! 

Incidentally, Big Bee can swim very well now. She just swam 300 metres (6 full laps!) in her last class, something that I do not even have much stamina to achieve nowadays! She is now preparing for her imminent Bronze swimming exam, and she certainly feels liberated whenever she swims about in the pool, as I can see the pure delight in her face as she swishes in and out of the water like a pup seal. 

Although we would like Little Bee to learn the same sports as Big Bee so they can play together, I guess I will leave the choices to her when she is older :) She is beginning to show some extent of interest in yoga, golf and tennis though! 

Light From The Heavens

Ambling atop a grassy knoll

Last Saturday, we got together with PF and family at the Botanic Gardens for some close interaction with Mother Nature. 

We munched on loads of snacks and best of all, played lots of picnic games! Hubby bought this fantastic game Hyper Dash and we played endless rounds of it. Or rather, the adults played non-stop - it was so addictive! We all thought it was a wonderful form of exercise, and even had team competitions with the wives competing against the husbands. I wouldn't declare which team won here ;) The kids played a few rounds and steered clear thereafter, probably because of the competitive nature of the game. 

I also brought along other games like toss the rings, a ball (which the kids and Hubby played Monkey with) and bubbles that Little Bee was utterly obsessed with! She blew bubbles all the way, not joining the big kids for the games but just sitting or standing on the mat, blowing bubbles non-stop! 

All the activities around her, but all Little Bee wanted to do was to blow bubbles!

Big Bee was enthusiastically fooling around with Eugene and Claire, running off with them to far corners of the lush grounds and creating their own little mischiefs. It certainly is good to bring big kids out because we no longer needed to guard keenly over them!

Top: Mischievous faces in front of an infinite spread of verdant green

Bottom: A pretty smiley little girl in front of a glimmering lake with pristine reflection

The gardens was gorgeous in the fading crepuscular light. Somehow, the luminosity of the waning sun was more spellbinding, more ethereal in this particular part of the gardens. The light was lucid, vivid and resplendent, transforming the green grass into emerald jade, enhancing pretty flowers into flaming, sanguine blossoms. 

This is such a rejuvenating end to a stressful week - almost a rebirth in preparation for the start of yet another week. 

Inexplicable beauty

Back To The Drill

Happy Bees during the holidays

School has reopened, much to my chagrin. Gone are the long, carefree days of no homework. Gone are the long leisurely nights where the kids can stay up till 10.30pm and beyond. 

Needless to say, Big Bee had a bout of Sunday blues the night before school started. We tried reassuring her the best way possible, and surprisingly, she was able to cope with her moodiness fairly well - no tears, no anger.

The next morning, I woke up at 5.40am to prepare a nice bento snack for her recess to cheer her up. I punched the letterings of "LOVE U" on her favourite raisin bread and scattered cheery, brightly-coloured froot loops onto her lunchbox. She told me at night that she loved the froot loops, and she seemed to like my little message for her. 

What I really like about school is the early morning walk with Big Bee, holding her hand, chatting about her friends, gossiping about the passers-by, fooling around with her.

However, I must add that Little Bee was rather distressed when she realised her beloved jie-jie was not around when she woke up. For the past month, they had been waking up together, giggling, playing around and yakking in the mornings. And this morning, she cried when she woke up and her jie jie was not in bed. Poor Little Bee! 

What I hate about school is the early sleeping time. By 9pm last night, Big Bee was off in sleepyland, but thankfully, Little Bee was up and about, doing some light learning with me till 11pm! 

The Genesis Of Rebellion

Here was what I saw on the door of the Bees' bedroom when I came home from work one day. 

I was fairly shocked and thought these messages were aimed at me. Big Bee claimed she wrote these "flyers" to deter Little Bee from entering her room and disturbing what she was doing. Then she told me, "Everyone can come in except Little Bee!". I told her that she has to share her room with Little Bee as the room belongs to both of them. How would she feel if mei-mei does not allow her into the room? 

And here was Little Bee, with her fair share of rebellion as well. I asked her to smile nicely when taking the photo, and she showed me this face. And when I sometimes want to read to her, she will brush away all the books, and uttered curtly, "Toys! I want toys! Don't like books!" *Faint*

Here I am, less than 8 years to the big barricade that all parents so fear - their children's turbulent adolescence - and I am already being put through the fearsome acid test! 

Gifts For Papa and Mummy

We sort of celebrated Father's Day last weekend with the Sentosa sleepover because this mummy here was confused over the date! I also got the girls to start preparing their Father's Day's gifts weeks ago, by letting them choose what they want to make for Papa. 

I am a fan of using recycled materials for most crafts, so they made the gifts from a shoebox and a toilet roll!

Big Bee decided she wanted to make an ambitious project for Papa - a 3D letter rack! Which means I must have an active role in helping her because it was an intricate piece of work! 

Little Bee wanted to make an airplane for Papa, which looked simple enough, so she can do it all by herself! I got her to write PAPA on the plane, and surprisingly, she could write it neatly, with a little guidance from me on alignment. 

Amazing what a painted toilet roll and a few pieces of paper can create

Little Bee liked her plane so much she almost didn't want to give it to Papa! 

We surprised Papa with a little present-giving ceremony and they were both very excited when presenting the gifts to their Papa. Hubby was really happy, giving bear hugs to them, and immediately displaying their presents by his bedside :) 

Incidentally, during Mother's Day, Big Bee made me a card by herself and I was so touched when I read what she wrote:

"Happy Mother's Day! I love you! I know you also love me. You help me do a lot of thing (sic). I am happy that you can pick me up from school the whole of May. I love you Mummy. You are excellent. You are the best in the world."

Everytime I read this, quivering tears are on the verge of welling up in my eyes :) 

Get-together

PF's kids and the Bees got together last weekend after a drought of no outings. They used to meet on a weekly basis for tennis classes (see below), but since we stopped their classes, there were not much chances to meet due to exams and school. 

As usual, our house was immersed in loud squeals and gigglings as Big Bee and Claire played gleefully with each other. This time round, Little Bee can participate fully with the 2 jie-jies, although sometimes I caught them looking at her cautiously as if she can have the destructive power to put their nicely arranged toys in disarray. Funnily, Big Bee used to play more with Eugene, but these couple of years, the girls are sticking closer to each other and he is more drawn towards his Wii game. 

In the kitchen, awaiting their cups of cold delicious strawberry milk

Looking at how fast the kids grow up always signifies how swift time can fly, reminding me that we really must enjoy the present moment and not dream about the past nor forecast too much into the future!

Some old photos of their tennis classes...

Big Bee looking pro, practising her backhand, with stylo Claire in sunglasses skipping behind!

Inspired, Little Bee tried her hand at serving the ball! 

The Sport Of Kings

My mum planted the idea of going to the Singapore Turf Club for a children's carnival last Thursday. It was indeed a revelationary experience for the Bees as there are horse races, lots of horses around, games, bouncers and their ultimate favourite - junk foods like cotton candy and popcorn!

It was the first time that they had seen so many tall, strapping racehorses together. The girls watched with gaping mouths and voluminous eyes as some of the more stubborn horses adamantly refused to be ridden to the racetrack, acting aggressively and stopping abruptly, resulting in one jockey falling off the horseback. I asked Big Bee if she missed horseriding, and not surprisingly, she shook her head vehemently after seeing all the above chain of events. 

The weather was superb, with the setting sun as a magnificent backdrop to the galloping, majestic horses. The sapphire sky of an impending twilight was speckled with clouds tinged with tangerine and crimson. Outside the track, we were surrounded by dense palisades of dark green trees. Birds in little family groups flittered past the racetrack ever so often that Big Bee commented with amazement, "Mummy, did they purposely make the birds fly past? Because they seemed to fly past right after every race and how can there be so many birds flying nicely like this?!" Ha, the repercussions of urban living! 

The Bees had a fantastic time observing all sorts of equestrian idiosyncracies, watching the races, milling with the crowds, munching on popcorns and sinking their teeth into soft, sweet cotton candy. What a fun weekday evening! 

Sleepover

We went for a "sleepover", borrowing Big Bee's words, in Sentosa's Siloso Beach Resort last weekend. Fantastic fun is an alliterative understatement of our experience there. In fact, the Bees were so thrilled that Big Bee asked me if they can stay in a hotel every weekend, and Little Bee wailed "I want beach!!!!" and threw a fit of torrential pampered tears the moment we stepped into our home after the stay! Boy oh boy. 

With the H1N1 viruses making its rounds mainly in airplanes, we decided that staying in Sentosa could recreate the whole idea of a short vacation for the Bees. And indeed they were not disappointed. 

We had a relaxing and leisurely lunch in a beach cafe, with the warm seabreeze, rustling of tree leaves and the tangy smell of the sea as our backdrop. We strolled around the family-friendly Palawan Beach, awed by the stupendous sand art crafted out by professionals on the beach - gorgeous castles, realistic fossils, snarling dinosaurs - all made out of pure sand! Amazing. 

The Bees were highly exultant and elated when we checked into the hotel. Big Bee had always loved hotels since young. Now Little Bee emulated her jie-jie by jumping in absolute delight at the slightest mention of "hotel"! They both bounced on the bed in joyful intoxication, squealing in happy hilarity. 

Happy girls in the hotel: (left) Just before a dip in the pool, and (right) beautiful sea and garden vistas from our room

We spent the early evening loitering at the beach again, with Hubby and them re-enacting a story using a whole box of toy dinosaurs - with the storyline of how a group of "good" dinosaurs saved a trapped Hello Kitty damsel from a ferocious group of big dinosaurs. The girls were suitably tickled by Papa's rendition of different dinosaurs. As for me, I had a wonderful time sitting on the mat, observing them, chilling out and totally relaxing right next to the people who matter most to me. 

Roar! Here comes the ferocious dinosaurs! 

After dinner, we brought them to watch "Song Of The Sea" and the 2 Bees, especially the little one, were enchanted by the laser show, pyrotechnics, explosive fire balls and water effects of the show. Hubby and I were not that impressed, on the contrary! 

The night was wrapped up with some cosy room service supper and warm snuggling under the blanket for all four of us on a bed. We all love sleeping together! 

Breakfast was a nightmare with so many people and a shortage of staff! But, as we were on "holiday", we took everything easy and managed to gobble down a decent amount of food. 

After incessant persuasion by Big Bee, we finally went into the chilly swimming pool with 2 really cool slides and a stunning waterfall. 

It was really amazing how time simply flew when we had so much fun! And this little sleepover was so enjoyable and felt so much like a "real" holiday. I guess short breaks are truly rejuvenating as well! More importantly, verdict from the Bees - they LOVED it! 

Forensic Scientist In The Making?

My secondary one classmate, P, got me to sign Big Bee up for a half-day forensic science course together with her daughter, Cheryl. 

With Cheryl, before class starts. 

It was an eye-opener for Big Bee. When we ambled back to the science lab to fetch her, I was amazed to find the entire class of about 8 kids decked in green hospital surgery gowns! They looked so professional! And of course, the dreams of my daughter as a medical doctor started populating my little mind again, ha. 

I peeped at their activities from the door, and felt that these were really interesting. When I was there, I saw her use a toothpick to swipe at the walls of her mouth, then dab the skin tissue onto a swap of clear plastic, before inserting it under a microscope! Wow, what a little scientist indeed! She told me her inner cheeks' cells looked really neat, little round cute circles. How cool! 

When she saw me peeping at the door, she pointed excitedly to a corner. I glanced at what she was pointing and a queasy sensation floated up my belly. It was a bloodied mass of brain tissue!

After the class, she told me that was a real brain! I almost fainted. She giggled and clarified that it was a pig's brain. But she told me she was cautious enough to ask the teacher if the brain has swine flu (!!??). Oh, she also asked me why the teacher was wearing a necklace on her teeth (!!!!!). 

Apparently, the teacher taught them how to dissect the pig's brain, the techniques of dissection, and horror of all horrors, passed parts of the brain to each of the groups for the kids to dissect it further! Poor pig's brain - separated literally to pieces! 

Pointing gleefully at the pig's brain, while her right hand is holding the swap with tissue from her mouth. 

Cheryl and her were forensic partners but apparently, they both closed their eyes when dissecting the brain. Hmph. Dashed were my medical doctor hopes! What was heartening was that she told me she was gradually not frightened of that bloodied mass of tissue. In fact, that evening, we spent almost an hour looking at dissection techniques on youtube - dissection of frogs, of pig's brains, injections, etc. My poor ebbing heart lurched with each new dissection *nauseous*. The usually squeamish her did not flinch at all! In fact, she seemed to have shown interest in this aspect of science! 

I was really glad she enjoyed herself. In the meantime, Little Bee had great fun shopping with Hubby who spent solo time with her while Big Bee was in class (I was at a medical appointment). What perfect Papa-daughter bond!

 

Guess what Papa bought? A life-sized Elmo! 

Looking REAL happy with the undivided attention and taking umpteen kiddie rides

Sand Zealots

The Bees are fervent devotees of the beach, complete with balmy breeze, gentle sun, soft sands and whispering trees. Just like Hubby and me. 

This June holidays was an exuberant abundance of beach expeditions. Whenever we told the Bees that we were going to the beach, their harmonious screams and squeals of approval were definitely resounding and almost deafening!

Who needs a beach resort in a foreign land when we can have these in good ol' Singapore? Alright, perhaps minus those ugly, cumbersome container ships in the cluttered horizon! 

Breakfast by the beach

All set to construct a magnificant sandcastle, complete with the right set of tools!

Gorgeous cerulean sky with pretty tree fronds framing a stray sunray

Big Bee was busy creating a walled fortress whilst Little Bee was more concerned with creative landscaping! 

Big Bee dug a knee deep trench and used sticks to disguise it so it can be a trap for poor innocent passers-by

Budding Novelist?

Big Bee and her best friend in school, Claire, are turning into fledgling authors. Their favourite activity during recess is to quickly gobble down their home-packed food, then they will rush up to their classroom to co-author self-made books! 

This was their first attempt which Big Bee brought home proudly a couple of weeks ago. The following week, I asked her if Claire got to bring it home to show her Mummy. Guess what she told me? They both sold it to another girl during recess for a neat price of $4! Apparently, they were both discussing about selling this little book of theirs in the canteen, when an older girl sitting beside them overheard and wanted to buy it. Talk about budding entrepreneurs too! I was seriously shocked for the rest of the evening, really. 

Here's their book below - enjoy reading :) (Don't mind some of the spelling and grammar mistakes though, as they wrote it without a dictionary or an adult around)

Cover of the book: The Story Of Cheeseland

Text of cover by Claire

Illustrations by Big Bee

(I find it absolutely hilarious that they even tagged promotions on buying the book, like magazines promotions!)

Left page: Text written by Big Bee, illustrations by Claire

Cheeseland is good. 

This is cheese land! I wish I can go there because the cow jump over the cheese moon. 

Right page: Text by Claire, illustrations by Big Bee

In space, you can see cheese planets like a cheese ball. Yummy!

Left page: Text written by Big Bee, illustrations by Claire

One day a cow went out to play but it was not night! The cow jumped over the sun!

Right page: Text by Claire, illustrations by Big Bee

But in the end the cow ate a bit of the sun. Yummy! 

Text by Claire, illustrations by Big Bee

And then, the cow's mouth began to get hotter and hotter. And then the cow cried. Wee wee wee.

In the end the cow spit out the cheese and lived happly ever after. 

The End. 

Back of the book: text by Claire, illustrated by Big Bee

About a wonderful Cheese Land. Non-coloured book (wonder what that means!?) Over 1 million copys (!!!) 

***************************************

This June holidays, she brought back 2 half-written books that they are currently working on and mentioned that they will complete the books in the new school term. One is titled "The Pink Dolphin And Friends" and the other is "The Magic Doughnut". Any buyers for now? ;) 

Learning At Home: Green For Nature

I am trying very hard to teach colours to Little Bee, who had not grasped colour identification very well yet. Her default answer whenever I asked her "what colour is this?" would always be "blue!" spontaneously. If the object in question is not blue, I would frown and asked her to think harder, and she would then observe the object with a keener eye before uttering "yellow!" or "orange!" or "black!" (sometimes the wrong answer!).

So, the week before, I was teaching her the colour green. It was an easy colour to identify as I used real life elements like the ubiquitous trees and plants just outside our house as examples. She loves leaves and flowers, so it was pretty easy to let her associate green with omniscient Mother Nature. For breakfast, she ate fruit loops and I got her to identify and eat up the green loops first. We also read Dr Seuss' "Green Eggs And Ham" although she did not have the patience to finish the whole book. And we painted with green paint. 

Eat the green fruit loops first! 

A pleased Little Bee after drawing a green tree...or is it a balloon? 

We decided to create a small orchard of fruit trees - or rather, just 2 trees! An orange tree and an apple tree. I cut out the shapes of the fruits and trees, and she painstakingly pasted the fruits neatly onto the trees. For the orange tree, she had this queer obsession of sticking the oranges around the perimeter of the tree. As for the apple tree, she patiently drew the stalks of the apples herself, which were a tad too long, so the apples looked like cherries!

We then stuck the completed foliage onto used toilet rolls, and voila! Standing 3D fruit trees! She gave the apple tree to jie-jie who was so pleased with this unexpected present after school. 

Check out how she stuck the oranges all around the perimeter of the tree! 

The next few days, the theme was extended to letter recognition of T (for tree) and L (for leaf) where she neatly traced these letters. I am happy that her writing skills had improved considerably recently. 

I also introduced the theme of insects, more specifically, ants, as she was very interested in ants. So I dug out one old story book of Big Bee that talked about ants, and Little Bee was fascinated by this book for days, often taking it out to read herself and I would see her in a corner, counting the immense number of ants in the book! 

Big Bee also wanted to dabble with the ants theme, so we created a craftwork for older kids - an ant maze! She drew the maze with lots of adorable intricate details, and I drew the ant. And remember our primary school days when we used magnets to create moving objects? Well, I stuck a magnet underneath the ant, and another magnet underneath the maze, and voila! A magical moving ant crawling by itself, finding its way home! Big Bee was fascinated by this maze, although Little Bee was not that interested. 

Big Bee's ant maze with the magnetic moving ant

We wrapped up this theme with Hubby's suggestion to go to the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden on a sweltering hot Sunday morning. We spent a couple of hours analysing all sorts of different plants like mosquito-repelling plants that Big Bee was amazed with (because she hates mozzies!), a gorgeous cherry tree (minus the famous blossoms) and even a quaint canopy of Chinese hu-lu plants! The girls had great fun, laughing - cheery and merry - running with their Papa across the lawns, meandering through the labyrinth, slithering down the slides. Great fun indeed!