From the Tooth Fairy

 

It says don't pull out your child's tooth, even if it is very loose.
It says encourage your child to pull it out herself.  (Waaa, okay then)

Next, I took the survey and noted that 53% of household get help from the Tooth Fairy, well, at least for a start. And also most Tooth Fairies leave a token of $1 (so I will probably reduce the amount gradually). Lastly, most household would keep up with the Tooth Fairy for as long as they possibly can (while I would prefer to let the cat out of the bag when I think she's ready to learn that the Tooth Fairy is actually her Mama).

September Weekend

As per usual, we went group music in the morning, followed by some playground time. But that morning, it was scorching so we didn't use the slides. Well, it was almost noon.

 

Used my free night stay randomly. KiCo likes using the bathtub mainly because it's a novelty for them.

They had so much fun crawling here and there, chasing each other and made such a din, I could hear them from the lift landing -_-", luckily, no guest complained. Kiki's other tooth (lower front) almost came off when Colin tugged at the pillow she was biting on -_-""""" she was very frightened and cried as a bit of blood oozed. That night, she cried herself to sleep and woke up with puffy eyes....

Very cheeky babies. I said - Common! Stand normally, take a NORMAL picture. NORMAL!
Then Colin mimicked me in a low, husky tone - "Normal" (which left Maricar in stitches, laughing)

 15 seconds short clip

 We went home cos the bed at home is more sleep inducing

 The Papa & I continued with our session.... this time, he got me in stitches with Ah Beng songs from the 80s. He said they were my songs.

 Pacified Kiki with nail stickers before heading out with the Papa for some very juicy Canadian burgers- Triple Os (website)

The rest of the night was spent watching TV till midnight  - The Crazy Ones, American Dad, and Oblivion for the second time.

Roti Prata 庆工宴

 We used to have many 庆工宴 many years back. They have been scaled down though I'm not too sure if it has anything to do with budget$. Today's was to celebrate achieving ISO stuff and also to commemorate delivery of a very huge (almost Guinness record size) Anaconda wire rope to a Dutch client. Anyway, absence makes the heart grow fonder; today we had very good Roti Pratas, very crispy and fragrant. The staff made a bee-line, we were lucky we were there early. Nevertheless the pratas were so good we had three rounds. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RajP0LtkZuc&list=UU9SMbGNZCQUiCM9Vs4G9kEQ

 Look at the layer of oil!

Idea

We've got three new words to learn this week and it's already Thursday... I've been so restless lately, slacking in violin practices, slacking in Chinese, basically didn't feel like doing anything...... Zzzzz,
But even as I slack, I still managed one 10-min session of picking up writing the new words. She could more or less write them but the left and right parts are too far apart. And she needs to exert some pressure on the pencil and also she needs practicing the grip too. Anyway, I chanced upon placing the worksheet under a piece of plain paper and thought she might be able to have a better perspective if there's a reference. Although there are workbooks featuring words with dotted lines for this purpose, the words on workbooks will not coincide with whatever 听写 words assigned. So I went to Popular bookshop to source for 70g paper. Voila! 

 This is normal printout

This is with a piece of paper over the printed page. (this is held against light, for illustration purpose).

This is with a piece of paper over the printed page with regular lighting, Voila! we could just write over this to learn to write proportionately. 

(Note: I didn't get tracing paper because (1) ready-cut ones are SO EXPENSIVE, (2) I am lazy to cut a roll of tracing paper into A4 sizes, (3) 70g paper works fine so there is no need to 钻牛角尖 )

Lunchtime DIY

 Lunchtime DIY

The 5Cs of an Effective Leader

Came across a video, in a nutshell:-

Equip yourself with these skills:-

1. Influence- to inspire action, to win people
2. Presentation- share your ideas with clarity, wow your audience
3. Networking - being able to connect with people; anyone, anywhere
4. Leadership - self-leadership  & results with high performing teams

The 5Csof an Effective Leader:-

1. Cheer- help people to see positivity, possibility, solutions, help them see the 'good' in themselves
2. Care- walk in the shoes of his men, have empathy
3. Confidence- confidence inspires confidence
4. Candor- being open to feedback & new ideas, being honest
5. Contribution- rally towards a goal that is bigger than yourself

(Source: Youtube. by Karen Leong, StreetSmartUniversity.info )

KSTDT

Me to Kiki: Do you Sayang Mama more or Sayang your Chu-chuk more?
Kiki: (paused) Chu-chuk. 
Me mock shocked-- Gained composure -- Mock sobbed.
Me: Boohoo... Mama loves you more than your Chuk-chuk but you love your Chu-chuk more than Mama?
Kiki: Ya... there is no sense (to this). 
Me surprised by her respond (for real this time)

Our negotiated terms: she is now on a two-day-on, one-day-off Chu-chuk schedule.

Other old jokes:-
Kiki: Mama, can I eat some raisins?
Me: Erm, yes but only five.
Kiki: Okay, I'll start with zero. 0-1-2-3-4-5


Me:  Wa Lau... no taxi....
Kiki: Mama, I know what "Wa Lau" means.
Me: (Uh oh.....)  What does it mean?
Kiki: Wa Lau means Oh My Gosh.





 

Sunday

We went for a dip after Chinese class. Colin didn't want to come.

 Then, the Papa & I went Paktor. As it was smacked in the middle of the afternoon, we went Teadance at Orchard Towers. It was an eye-opening experience for me. There was tonnes of Philippine women, mostly domestic helpers on their day off, Bangladesh workers, and other men including Malays, Indians & Singaporean Chinese uncles. (Didn't see Chinese-chinese there).

 Boy, can they dance!

 Then we popped by Hard Rock after reminiscing that we had dated for 20 years.

We remarked that between the two of us, we couldn't even finish a starter and just one main course. The portions are just too big for us. Next time we'll just order one dish.

While on the way home, we caught a glimpse of the F1 race track with an entourage waving at the fans.

Let there be Light!

I do not know why whenever I come across initiatives involving Solar powered lamps, I always have this - 一鼓作气 & 一鼓冲动 feeling. I don't get this feeling with other empowerment projects, so I guess there must be some kind of affinity with Solar that I have. I read about NDI Nusantara Development Initiatives from TODAY papers and discovered that the product manufacturer (D.Light) have what I've always said - would be a game changer - a portable solar powered battery pack that allows AC charging. Hopefully the day will come for one that allows two-pin & three-pin plugs and for it to be sold widely & cheaply. Then we could all run our electrical devices on Solar and eliminate extreme dependency on Energy as well as eliminate Energy poverty in rural places.

D.Light is a "for profit" organisation while NDI is its distributor in Singapore and is a profitable non-profit organisation that nurtures women from villages to become businesswomen.

NDI's website reads:- http://ndi.sg/buy.html 

Buy a Solar Lamp
Make A Difference

All proceeds go towards supporting our work in training rural women in Indonesia to be solar lamp entrepreneurs. Help us make their journey to become an Ibu Rumah Terang a reality. Ibu Rumah Terang - means- Mother of Light.

But their Paypal network is not working.... Hope they'll respond to my email, if not then I would have to go find them at SCAPE (Orchard).

Anyway, I'm using the other Solar torchlight every day - Little Sun


 Below photos are from NDI (from their Facebook)

Saturday

 Spent some "me" time strolling

The Papa sent me this photo above while I was gone.

Tamiya tracks, they love playing with these.

She left a sketch for me, and explained later that Colin was crying because his race car couldn't pass at the curves and got stuck hence he was frustrated and began to cry. I think the batteries were weak. Once a guy whose name is Patrick Wee, told me he used to be teased when his friends gave him a nickname-"Battery Weak" (sounds like Patrick Wee?) Anyway, I only remember his joke but not him -_-" 

Kiki's school is contemplating on an overnight camp at the Zoo. I've browsed the Zoo's website on the programme and thought it was interesting, especially if we were to go with school friends. Unfortunately, the date that the school is looking at coincides with our exhibition & dinner event =(   Kiki's getting all excited as her friends talk about the possible camp. I've explained to her that we will have to skip that unless in a remote chance the school changes the date. Hi-5 will be in town this December (same dates again 5-6 Dec) and I'm wondering if Hi-5 would bump off some disappointment in the event we don't get to go camping.