From A Distance

The feeling of missing the family whenever I am on an overseas work trip is truly inexplicable. When overseas, I used to derive news about the Bees when they were little toddlers from my mum or Hubby over the phone. Then, gradually, I got to converse with the kids a little over the phone. And since late last year, we had been using free internet video, and the Bees had been highly participative chatters! 

However, the crucial milestone would definitely be during my long 2-week trip to the UK in June last year. I started an email account for Big Bee, and we sent a couple of brief emails to each other! That was exhilarating and liberating, as in I could speak directly to her through my emails. 

And during my recent 9-day trip to China a couple of weeks ago, I just casually mentioned to her to email me. And I had the loveliest surprise when I received an email initiated by her on my second day abroad (in the past, it was usually me who would initiate the correspondence first). 

Furthermore, this time, her emails were a lot more informative, longer and were redolent with the hues of her personality. And the biggest bonus was that we were corresponding so regularly, once every 2 days (in the past, she only sent 1 to 2 emails at most)! What touched me the most was that after her very first email to me, I received a wonderful e-greeting card from her, with a little sad bear looking up at the moon, proclaiming "I miss you so much!".

I was almost tearing in the privacy of my hotel room - my eyes brimming with tears of happiness. 

The felicity of corresponding directly with a child is truly gratifying. It is so meaningful to hear our child's voice through the words she writes. 

Little Bee is a little young to correspond by email, but I was pleasantly surprised today again, when I flipped through her diary to find one more new entry that was not initiated by me! Once again, it showed fantastic motivation by Big Bee and excellent teamwork between the 2 sisters for Little Bee to write about her outing to my parents' house when I was away. Apparently, Big Bee was on a date with Papa, so she persuaded Little Bee to write about her grandparents' trip for her. 

Hence, these days, whenever I travel, it is indeed delightful to read about what the Bees are up to - from a distance, from their perspectives :)

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Little Bee's pages from her diary (with one page of illustration) could be found below.

Some excerpts of Big Bee's email can be found below mei mei's diary entry (she mentioned in one email that her emails are private, not to be shared with anyone else, so I need to be extra cautious to take away certain sentences with more personal information!). Max in her email referred to my cousin Irene's cute little Chihuahua that the family was helping to dogsit, much to Big Bee's thrill :) 

Little Bee's latest diary entry

Big Bee's 1st email excerpt:

Hello Mummy!!

Max is already here. He loves our house so much! He's so cute!!!   Max keeps staying on our carpet. Hope he doesn't pee or poop. BTW, Annette is extremely scared of Max. She says that all dogs bite people. Can you believe it, she doesn't even dare to touch him so she just ignored him!!!   Annette woke up SUPER late today. At 10.45 a.m. I can never wake up that late!!!! Nothing much happened today, so that's all.

Love: Nicole 

Waltzing With Van Gogh

We were transported back to the 19th century with Vincent van Gogh in the ArtScience Museum on 11 September. 

Little Bee was decked out in her princess dress because we were watching a Disney musical before this :)

It was a breathtaking experience to see such an exquisite abundance of paintings larger than life, projected as colossal images all over in a massive darkened hall. This was enhanced by hauntingly brilliant 19th century music, the most outstanding of which was by French composer and pianist, Erik Satie. 

The entire experience of inter-mingling images of his resplendent art and bewitching music was inexplicably hypnotizing. The whole family just sat in the middle of the gargantuan hall, transfixed, enthralled, enchanted. 

Big Bee meandering amongst the incessantly shifting images  

The Bees ventured a little out of our perch to sway and whirl to the alluring music and moving images. They loved being immersed in the world of Van Gogh's 19th century art, and were equally hushed and awestruck. 

I wasn't keen initially to visit this exhibition after knowing his paintings would be depicted as projected images, but after experiencing the magic, I think it was utterly worth a visit :) Sadly, the photos were taken from my iPhone, which did not do justice to the ambience of the exhibition.

After the museum, the Bees were so inspired that they wanted to rush straight home to paint! Which was exactly what they did - all by themselves. I merely let them look at some Van Gogh's paintings from some of my art books, and let them dabble in their creativity while I took some private time of my own :) It was amusing to watch them emulating Van Gogh's short, expressive brush strokes though. 

Check out their Van Gogh-style paintings here :) 

Big Bee's "Lone Tree By the River"

Little Bee's "Lone Apple Tree By The Flower Garden" She was trying to emulate - without much success! - Van Gogh's sky in Starry Night

Earnest Reproduction

One evening last month, Hubby bought a painting from an art gallery, painted by an up and coming Filipino artist (see below). 

He was enthusiastically discussing the painting to the Bees and I, when I noticed the 2 girls taking out blank sheets of white paper, and emulating the painting in their sketches! 

I thought their different styles expressed each of their personalities very well. 

Big Bee's reproduction

Big Bee's final rendition in her own style (she likes music a lot too, which explains why she sketched a fair amount of musical notes)

Little Bee's reproduction. She likes fashion a lot, which explains why she drew another stylish model beside the original girl in the painting!

Though I had spent almost my entire childhood learning art, I had refrained from inducing the Bees into formal art lessons, preferring to let their creativity flow when coming to their sketches. 

However, their recent displays of keen interest might sway my opinion with regards to formal art lessons, and I might let them dabble a little in art classes only during the holidays, as I am trying hard to cut down their enrichment classes. That being said, I must admit I spent many happy hours as a child and teenager, indulging in self reflection and internalisation through my art creations, and I would love the Bees to be able to have similar gratifications. 

The Bees, like many children, love to doodle and sketch in their free time. They are particularly inspired by distinctive styles of great artists, and would try to emulate the various styles of paintings to their own creations. It is astonishing how their aesthetic creations and styles reflect their rather polarised personality traits!

More of their art adventures to come...

Lifecycle Of An Apple Tree

We are currently learning about lifecycles, so I thought it would be fun for Little Bee to create a lifecycle of an apple tree using a paper plate. This demonstrated the cyclical nature of a lifecycle and was extremely easy to make.

First, we read a book about how an apple seed became a majestic apple tree. Then Little Bee cut out pictures of each stage and wrote down the stages all by herself, having remembered vividly what each of the stages was. 

It was a fantastic activity for a lazy weekday evening, and we took only 30-40 minutes to complete this. Fun! I shall endeavour to do this in Mandarin too :)

Mid-Autumn Enraptures Us

After a rather long business trip that spanned almost 2 weekends, I came back to an enchanting Mid-Autumn Festival with the family. The Friday before I was back, Hubby and my mum brought the Bees for an enjoyable lantern walk with the rest of my neighbours around the estate. It had been a tradition that I had to sadly miss this year. However, I am glad that the Bees managed to enjoy themselves thoroughly with Hubby and my mum! 

Out with grandma and lanterns! 

Lanterns around my estate

The actual day of Mid-Autumn Festival fell on a hazy, smoke-infused Monday with fumes from the forest fires in Indonesia permeating the whole of Singapore. Therefore, the usually large and luminous moon was shrouded in nebulous clouds. 

Hubby and I had a lovely, quiet couple dinner that night, which was something so rare that we appreciated every minute of it, albeit it being a very brief meal. 

When we came home, I brought the Bees out to light some refulgent candles, ignite some effusive sparklers and ambled around the dark grounds with our lanterns. 

It was therapeutic, it was comforting. It was a wonderful homecoming for me to spend some peaceful time with my little ones after 9 days of being away.   

Thrashed!

On a lazy Saturday afternoon, I took out our trusty boardgame companion, Blokus, and challenged the Bees to one game. I was feeling rather smart and smug, thinking I could beat the 2 little girls flat in no time. Hence, I was a little complacent and a wee bit distracted.

The game started fairly smooth, with our 3 parties neck to neck along the race to victory. As the game progressed deeper, I was struggling and trying my best to regain any semblance of victory and confidence. Before long, I was deep in the mire of imminent defeat. And eventually, I was the first one to bow my way out of the game. 

The final results: both the Bees had a tie! Amazing!

They first used teamwork to corner my moves, which led to my final setback and surrender. I also witnessed how Big Bee eventually helped Little Bee to think and rationalise harder without providing straightforward answers for her little sister, and this constant encouragement was truly comforting to my soul. 

This is a perfect game for teamwork (in their case to defeat Mummy!) and strategic thinking. In fact, these days, I had been using boardgames to encourage teamplay and to allay the constant and inevitable sibling squabbles. Such games work wonders to bring smiles and cooperation to the Bees. Beat the reclusive iPad, iPhone and computer games anytime!

词句重组

I use a lot of the 四五快读 books to teach Little Bee Chinese word recognition. Coupled with regular Chinese bedtime stories, I hope to be able to impart unto them a love of the Chinese culture and literature. 

However, as most parents can attest, this is an uphill task and we are faced with many obstacles. I still feel that it is not impossible for our children to be fluently bilingual in both Mandarin and English. We just need to encourage them to be receptive about reading Chinese story books. And being able to 认字, or recognise words, would be a fundamental step to enjoy reading Chinese stories. 

The 四五快读 concept works like the Peter and Jane ideology where children read high frequency words through flash cards and sentences within the books, thereby making them proficient readers. Peter and Jane works very well for Little Bee through their stories. My only qualm about these 四五快读 books is that there are no stories in them. 

However, it is still very possible to imbue interest in our children, and Little Bee enjoys our 四五快读 sessions while building up her 认字 capability. 

Recently, I incorporated games of 词句重组 and 造句 for Little Bee through these flashcards. She loves these little games and is able to re-arrange and complete the below sentences independently, without any assistance from me. We also created silly Chinese sentences to increase the element of fun, so it was really fascinating for Little Bee! 

Homemade Teacher's Day Cards

I always encourage the Bees to create homemade cards for friends and family during special occasions. And for Teacher's Day Celebrations yesterday, they were excitedly creating their own handmade cards for all their teachers in school. 

I usually left them to design their own cards by themselves, and refrained from inculcating any artistic licence on their creations. I had been pleasantly surprised over the years at the sometimes innovative and cute designs by the Bees. 

By getting them to constantly create cards for friends, family and teachers, I could also see how earnestly they worked on the cards, which is so heartwarming and endearing!

Here were what they created for their teachers this year. Zero input from me, with free creative licence from themselves! 

Big Bee's cards for 3 of her teachers

Little Bee's cards for 3 of her teachers

Grillicious!

Hubby's good friends SB and Jasper, together with their families, came for yet another grill party in our home on 7 August. Hubby and I love grill parties for the friendly alfresco camaraderie amongst the "grillers". This time round, the hubbies would be our butlers for the evening - grilling food galore for the lucky wives and kids! 

Our 3 hubbies were busy grilling and barbeque-ing all sorts of succulent delicacies like satays, juicy hamburgers and crayfish (which were sadly forgotten when the hubbies went out for a break, and hence burnt!). 

On top of that, we fried some bee hoon, ordered a pizza, and prepared salad for the kids and hungry mummies, while waiting for the hubbies to finish grilling! So it was truly food heaven!  

Meanwhile, the 6 kids and 1 baby had a fantastic time bonding over toys and games. It was encouraging to see all of them eating their dinners obediently and independently together - talk about positive peer pressure! It was even more heartening to see them giggling, chuckling and chatting with each other as the evening progressed, so that the mummies had all the time in the world to chat, while the daddies busied themselves in the sweltering outdoors, grilling our dinners! I think both daddies and mummies cherished the bonding sessions over these lazy chats and delightful discussions. 

With so much food on the dining table, and imbued with the contented feeling of being waited on, we mummies felt so blessed ;) 

But We're Trash...

It was electrifying. Dazzling. Sensational.

Hubby and I were rapturous. Delirious. Euphoric.

For we were experiencing the thrilling exhilaration possible only by watching one of our favourite bands performing 'live' passionately on stage. To our favourite indie rock tunes from the 90s. Transported back to a seemingly recent era of carefree, idyllic simplicity.

On 3 August, Hubby and I yet again attended a concert that rocked our old, jaded world, thanks to my Mum who agreed to stay the night with the Bees.

We joined a few thousand fans in the Singapore Indoor Stadium to watch Suede perform all their glorious songs - and we were bedazzled to a frenzied mania. Yes. Even at our grand old age. This is what the brilliant vocals of Brett Anderson and the resplendent music of the rest of his Suede band can do to us.


Brett Anderson and the rest of Suede performing their magic

At the first song, She, followed by my absolute favourite Trash, we were up on our feet, dancing, singing, waving our hands and utterly immersing ourselves in the magic of their exquisite music. The concert peaked to a crescendo at one of the last songs, the crowd favourite of The Beautiful Ones, which got the entire stadium singing and dancing on their feet. But to me, every single song performed that night was bewitching.


Amazing crowd...

At times, I looked at Hubby in the middle of their songs, and we grinned foolishly at each other like we were crazy teenagers, unabashedly vellicating our bodies, contorting our mouths and gesticulating wildly to every song they sang. It had been quite a while since we had lost ourselves in this abyss of frenetic bliss, of sweet madness. But we relished the fact that somewhere deep within the recesses of our wearied middle-aged souls, there is still a sliver of youth waiting to be unleashed in such occasions.

This was our second Suede concert in Singapore, but we both agreed that this was our best concert ever, yes, better than Tears For Fears, Duran Duran and even Suede themselves back in 2000! Perhaps comparable to Depeche Mode for me, but that is another scale altogether :)

It was first-class performance by Brett Anderson, who amazed us with his 44-year-old sizzling, sexy energy and captivating showmanship! The rest of the band played magnificently as well. It was just pure, great music and total magic. Nothing else. No corny, flashy costume changes. No majestic stage backdrops. Just. Simple. Mind-blowing. Music.

The splendid 90s. A decade that remained in my memory banks as the years that I entered young adulthood from junior college to university. To getting to know Hubby in university.

From graduation to the first inklings of a career. From learning about books to learning about office politics. From university jam-and-hops to weekly clubbing sessions with wonderful girlfriends. To the ravishing songs of Suede.

From bohemian singlehood to Hubby's marriage proposal under the stars, amongst the mountain tops of Nepal. From living with parents to purchasing our first home together. From being a singular "me" to a double "us" after we registered our marriage as the 90s drew to a close.

All the while listening to Suede.

I do miss those times.

Her English Reading Progress

Little Bee has shown a tremendous interest in reading this year, especially since she is now a budding reader and appreciates interesting stories. Being such a girly little child, she particularly enjoys stories of fantasy, princesses, love and family. She is also starting to write little short phrases on her own here and there, and I had started her on journal writing since March (albeit rather infrequently!), which she is increasingly enjoying now. 

She was struggling with phonics in the beginning of the year, when she just turned 4, so I stopped teaching her phonics, and used the whole-word approach with her instead. Being such a visual learner, the whole-word approach appealed a lot to her, which is why she is also fairly proficient in recognising Chinese characters. 

Surprisingly, she loves the Peter and Jane stories, and is now into book 5b of the series, which she can read independently with very minimal help from me. 

These days, we only read Peter and Jane once a week, which is why the recent progress had been slower, because I want to expose her to other stories and also Chinese books. But it is heartening to see her opening up the Peter and Jane books eagerly, despite their 70s retro illustrations! I guess it helps that she "grew up" with Peter and Jane, right from series 1, so sometimes it is rather amusing to hear her discussing about them to me, as if they are her old friends! 

Her school teaches phonics in interesting and fun ways, and uses the Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) series, which is superb in building reading skills in little kids through progressive accumulation of vocabulary and same characters (like Peter and Jane) who grow up with the little readers. I guess for reading, it helps if we have some continuity of characterisation and plots for the children. She is now in Stage 3 of ORT, which is mainly for kids from 5 to 6 years old.

I hope she will be an avid reader just like hubby, Big Bee and me!

Breakfast With A Peacock

Some time ago, we went to the newly renovated Rasa Sentosa Resort for an alfresco breakfast. It was such a restorative break from the hustle and bustle of urban Singapore, as we gazed out at verdant treetops, the serene sea and the azure swimming pool. It almost felt like a holiday!

As we chomped on our food, our idyllic chats were interrupted by a big, bold peacock ambling to the empty but yet uncleared table next to ours. The Bees watched it in fascination, as it pecked eagerly on the salad plate of the previous diners, gobbling down a cherry tomato and many more vegetables! 

The Bees then followed it all around the dining verandah, and Big Bee attempted to take photos of it. Here are her photos, enjoy! 

Hm, what shall I eat??

A-ha! I saw something d-e-l-e-c-t-a-b-l-e!

Yumz!

After a nice breakfast, the peacock hopped up to a shady tree and settled down for a nap

Love For Writing = Love For Reading

Big Bee writes every school composition with relish and gusto, focusing a lot on using apt, descriptive vocabulary to bring forth her points. I am thankful that she has a strong foundation in her English grammar as well, therefore, every once in a while, her compositions would be selected by the teacher to be displayed on the class' notice board. I thought this is a good practice to instill pride and accountability in the children with regards to their school work.

I guess her love for writing stems from her voracious appetite for reading. I could hardly buy or borrow enough books for her. After chomping through entire fantasy and boarding school collections of Enid Blyton (from Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair to Malory Towers and St Clare), this bookworm is now bulldozing her way through the Famous Five series, which consists of more than 20 books and, at $11+ a book which she can read in less than half a day, I thought they are rather expensive to buy! So, she ended up reading each of her books umpteenth times in between our book-buying sprees. 

She had also read Roald Dahl (not a big fan), CS Lewis (she loved "The Lion, The Witch..." book, but claimed that "Prince Caspian" was boring, so she stopped reading him!) and the abridged, made-for-children Shakespeare stories (which, strangely, intrigued her a lot!)...and many more. 

Last night, she came back and informed me that she was one of 3 kids whose compositions were selected to be displayed again. I thought of sharing this composition, written entirely in class, which garnered these comments from her teacher: "Good attempt! Interesting story with lots of details. Good job!"

Hope you will enjoy this as much as I do...

My challenge now is to ensure she has similar writing skills for Chinese, and a love for reading Chinese books. But sadly, that is still an uphill challenge for me!

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A Shopping Trip

“Could you help me buy some sugar and butter from the grocery store?” Mother asked me.

I took a brisk walk to the grocery store which was a stone’s throw away. While I was walking past the beautiful dress shop, I tripped over a small stone but did not fall. I did not realise that my precious ten-dollar note had dropped out of my purse.

I trudged to the grocery store to buy the sugar and butter for Mother. When I went to the cashier to pay, to my horror, I could not find my ten-dollar note anywhere in my purse! I stood rooted to the ground, shocked and not knowing what to do.

A kind shopkeeper asked me what I was looking for. I told her that my ten-dollar note was nowhere to be found. I stood there, wracking my brains to think how I could have dropped it. I was extremely worried. The kind-hearted shopkeeper helped me by telling me to retrace my steps.

I immediately did what I was told and when I walked to the dress shop, I found my ten-dollar note, swaying in the gentle breeze. I heaved a sigh of relief and picked it up. As quick as light, I ran back to the grocery store.

I paid for the sugar and butter and thanked the shopkeeper whole-heartedly. I was immensely grateful to the shopkeeper for her help. 

My Little Baker

July 30 marked the first of many consecutive weekend birthday parties that the girls would be attending - all the way till end August! On this day, Little Bee was invited to a baking party - her first! - for her classmate HY's birthday. 

With birthday girl HY

My 2 girls relish in making homemade cards for their friends, and here is one for HY! 

Little Bee, being the gregarious creature that she is, had been looking forward to this good friend's party the entire week! So, it was no wonder that she was hopping about excitedly, with zealous anticipation, the entire morning before the party. 

I love baking parties because typically, parents would not be allowed into the premises during the initial process for hygiene reasons. Hence, I was able to go for more an hour's shopping around the premises, while waiting for Hubby and Big Bee to join us after her usual classes. 

Eventually, I went to peep at Little Bee, and was proud to see her meandering around different friends and the baking instructor in full confidence and ease. I guess I could throw this little girl anywhere and she could survive on her own! 

With her best friend, Sara, and her beloved jie-jie

It was truly gratifying and a wee bit bittersweet to see my little one giggling and chuckling with her friends, frowning in concentration when it was time to ice the cupcakes, munching away on snacks while fooling around with good friends, and singing the birthday song heartily in her booming loud voice. 

With her 2nd best friend (in her own words) Chloe

My little one has indeed grown up, ready to join the ranks of her big sister...and now where would that leave me? Sigh. 

Hard at work lathering the icing on the cupcakes

Big Bee joined her little sister and provided her with some help during the icing of the cupcakes. It was beautiful to stand aside and observe the dynamics between the 2 of them - their teamwork, their mentor-student relationship, their cute little chats, and their little scuffles now and then! 

It was amusing to see Little Bee totally ignorant to the baking instructor's directions when helping to decorate her friend's birthday cake, and sprinkled rainbow rice and sugared hearts on the cake a few more times than was allowed. I guess it would take her some time to learn and understand the rules of establishment, being the maverick that she is now. 

In any case, it was a novel and meaningful idea for the kids to take turns decorating the main birthday cake with little sugared trinkets and rainbow rice. 

In all, we had a fun-filled afternoon in the party, and certainly looked forward to more of such parties to come! 

I must say these cupcakes were absolutely delicious!!! 

Lunchtime Painting...and Musings About Parenthood

As a working mother, I spend very little time with the Bees, unfortunately. However, as the Bees grow older with the commitment of long school days, especially in primary school, I stopped feeling guilty about not spending enough time with them at home - because they were simply not at home during substantial parts of the day! 

I do feel twangs at my heartstrings during school holidays though, because the Bees would be at home the entire day, and my mind would be constantly drifting to them at work! 

To ensure maximum time spent with my Bees despite the fact I work, I will 1) try to come home a couple of times a week during lunch so I could cuddle or do some simple learning with Little Bee and 2) leave work punctually on most days so I could run through Big Bee's homework and do my usual evening tutoring with her and Little Bee. If there is more work to be done, I will leave it till the Bees turn in for the night, before embarking on the 3rd shift of work. This arrangement had served me very well through the years, with the only disruptions in the guise of overseas work travel, which thankfully, I had been trying to cut down on. 

Hence, one lunchtime, when the Bees were both home on a single-day school holiday, I came home from work and decided to do some painting with them, before returning to work once they completed their paintings. 

I simply showed them some paintings in an art book and the Bees selected and painted their own preferred pictures.

It was such a relaxing activity and it truly rejuvenated me for the afternoon at work. The Bees were also much happier, even if it means spending a short 2 hours with me over lunch. 

Big Bee, who is an ardent beach lover like me, painted "Sunset On A Beach". She blended yellow, orange and red paints together to create stunning sunset hues. 

Little Bee painted "Outer Space". We used an old toothbrush, painted it white, and sprinkled white paint from it onto black paper to resemble the gazillions of stars in space. She then painted a rocket and a few other planets. 

I guess it is not the amount of time we spend with our children that matters, for I had seen far too many parents busy texting friends on their phones or playing games on iPad whenever they are with their children. To me as a working mum, every single precious moment counts (because I don't have much time with them!) and I try to make quality time for them as best as I could. 

Of course, as parents, there are days when the kids fight and make us so angry that I just want to hole up somewhere and ignore them altogether! There are also different phases in parenthood that really test us as adaptable parents. Phases where we need to adjust to changing mood swings from toddlers, then big kids, then tweens, then the scary adolescent stage (although tweenhood is beginning to scare me now!) and finally, young adults. Such undulating phases in our lives truly make parenthood very exciting, albeit challenging, and I am glad life is never boring after we have kids :)