Gorgeous watercolor

I just HAD TO HAD TO HAD TO put this post up! The first photo was taken during Chinese New Year 2011 at Auntie Kai Chee's house, by my wonderful uber-talented cousin Seok Yam.

Few days later, she surprised us all with this watercolor painting, 80% done. I was so speechless! I can't believe how fantastic it looks!And finally two days ago, she presented the finished painting. I can't wait to receive the original one from her! I will find a special place to put it!

My cousin Carolyn will start painting lessons with Seok Yam's teacher today. I was going to sign up but with the pregnancy drawing to a close, with many things left undone/unfinished, I will postpone the start of the lessons until further notice.

The kids are growing up so fast!

Had a panic attack the other day. MIL was asking why we are not putting Renee in Haig Girls' School in 2 years time. I started worrying about having her go to school so nearby. What if she brings her friends back home while we are still at work? Worry worry worry.

I had decided to put her in my old school CHIJ in Katong, but MIL was worried that they'd still have to drive down to pick up Russell and Riley. The timing would be all over the place. How how how?

I'll just have to filter these thoughts and not let it worry us too much!

Just like clockwork, after turning 5, I feel that Renee's matured somewhat. She's receptive to explanation and reasoning.

Just the other day, we arranged to watch a movie while inlaws took care of the kids. She said NO, CANNOT! Inlaws and Eugene started coming up with excuses, saying I had to work. She knows that I do NOT work on Saturdays so she didn't accept it. She became sticky and whiny and weepy. In the end I said I was going to watch a movie with Papa. Every week, she goes to school for 5 days and on Friday she is rewarded with a cartoon movie. I explained to her that Mummy also works hard for 5 days and wanted to reward myself by treating myself to a movie. She accepted the explanation! No more tears or whining!

Yesterday she asked me, "Mummy, you are going to the hospital right?" I said yes, not yet but yes soon. Then she asked me, "They are going to do something to your body right?" using her hard to gesture around her chest and tummy! MIL, Eugene and myself were like so dumbfounded! Really didn't know what to say! So I told her, yes, sort of! She's been flipping through my pregnancy books by herself!

I've also started toilet training Russell in the day. Yes I know, he's almost three and some kids are already toilet trained by now. But really, Russell wasn't ready for it prior to now. Some months back, when we started toilet training him, he'd think it was really funny and would run to the toilet every 5 minutes and laugh his head off. Now, he's more serious and actually conscious about peeing when we bring him to the toilet. He's also able to accurately say when he wants to go. Except for Saturday morning when he ran to me and told me he'd peed on the floor. I pulled down his pants and saw some poop stains as well. I was rather confused as I'd put on a pair of clean pants for him and he only said he had peed. When I questioned him about the poop stain, he remembered and told me, "The poo-poo dropped out of my pants!!" Ha ha! No diaper/underwear to contain the poop so it fell out of his pants and onto the floor!!

I hope he will be toilet trained by the time Riley arrives. Too many things going on at once! This will be one thing less to think about!

3rd Trimester

Wow, without realising it, I'm already in my third trimester. That would explain the extreme tiredness every day! Weekends are also too short, the resting part I mean. If I didn't have the kid's birthdays to plan and the CNY holidays, I think I'd have lost my mind by now. It is the andrenalin that is pushing me along, I swear. Where else am I getting my energy from?

Work has been really hectic as we receive our first shipment of shredders from our German factory. From the day we returned to work after the CNY holidays on the 9th of February, I have not missed a beat, for the whole week and a half since then, most days I've had to ask my colleagues to packet my lunch for me. I had the longest week last week and I was so looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday morning. Unfortunately, both nights, both kids woke up and disturbed my sleep. Peeing 2 or 3 times a night doesn't really help matters....

Renee has been really excited about her other brother, she keeps asking me how to spell his name, which she has finally memorized! At first she'd ask me, does his name have a "B", does his name have an "R"? etc....haha! And after selecting a Chinese name for him, MIL said cannot use "Yong" as FIL's brother's name has a "Yong" in it. So it's back to the drawing board.

We celebrated Renee's 5th birthday at my in laws' house a week in advance and another time in school on her actual birthday. On Saturday, we brought both kids to Toys R Us to select their presents. After last year's treat, Renee has been asking for me to bring her again! It's gonna be a tradition I guess! Russell was clueless about what was going on because I didn't bring him last year. Renee selected a cash register! Ka-ching! She was very clear about what she wanted from the get-go! Russell, not so much. I think he hasn't seen enough TV commercials or have a clear opinion about what he really wants. He finally picked a really cute petrol station from Fast Lane but when he reached home, he wanted to play with Renee's toy, much to her annoyance! Ha ha!

Renee picked out the My Melody cake from Polar Cakes and Puffs and I got the Princess plates because everytime we pass the party store, she will always ask me to get it for her.....now that we were having a party, I figured why not!?!? It made her so happy. At $0.30 per plate, Eugene and my MIL wanted to wash it so it could be reused!!! Geez!

For the school celebration, Renee picked out a Winx Club cake, called Denim Divas. Prior to that, Mummy me had to conjure some magic, she's been asking me to prepare goodie bags. I swear all those other mothers are spoiling market lor. The goodie bags have been getting more spectacular with each party. I went to Daiso and got some lunch boxes for $2 and then to Candy Empire to get some chocolates and Chuppa Chups. I bought some raisins from Giant and voila, the semi-finished product!We were only given 20 minutes to sing the song, cut the cake, eat it. This year the kids are older so they swarmed in to the cake. I was so stressed trying to untie the string and cut open the taped box. "Auntie, what cake is it? Is it Ben 10, is it Princess, is it Mickey Mouse?" Questions shooting non-stop! My goodness! Last year Eugene managed to join us but this year he was busy with work so it was just my MIL, FIL and me. One person cutting, one person taking photos, one person distributing the cake. Some came back for seconds! It was so different from last year's Awfully Chocolate cake. The kids really enjoyed the cake and party this time!