Why is our clock like that?

The two of them have been pre-occupied with wearing watches and telling the time these days. During dinner, we asked Zac to take off his watch, and he lamented that he wouldn't be able to tell the time then. We asked him to just refer to our wall clock. To which, my slightly off-centered and whimsical second-born replied, "But the clock just has one, one, one, one..." Did you get that?

I have missed you my dear blog...

And we finally have take off....

It has been some time.....
Nat's desire to crawl has finally outweighed her laziness to move her bottom...finally after 10 months she decides that now is the time to crawl!! We were almost expecting her to skip this stage altogether as our gentle encouragements to crawl were often met with cries of protest, she was often more willing to sit or move around on her tummy.
We have also spotted 2 front teeth emerging...again finally...but we were not too surprised as Zac also teethed late.
And so my little girl is slowly but surely growing up...and she is turning 1 in two months!!!
Now that Nat is alot more vocal and mobile, the sibling relationship has to be renegotiated. And there are days where Zac just goes berserk with wanting to do silly (often hurtful) thing to his sister, while Nat wails the house down in the process. Help! Just when i thought i had figured out how to juggle the very different needs of an almost-3-year-old and an almost-1-year-old now i have to deal with this very consuming issue! My goal now is to encourage greater mutual love for each other hence the photograph!

We are still here!

With God's grace we are still alive and kicking! It has been a tough month of January for us but things are starting to settle down alot more.
Zac has finally decided to stop the water works every morning when i drop him off to school...he seems to be pretty happy to go now. From the bits and pieces of information i get from him each day on our ride back home, i am starting to piece together what he actually does in school and what he enjoys doing. He has also been role playing scenes from school when he is at home so at the moment, he is Mrs Yap (his teacher), i am Mrs Tan (an assistant teacher) and Nat is Zheng lao shi (his chinese teacher, who happens to be slightly chubby like Natty too!)
Nat is blossoming (literally and figuratively)...she is alot more vocal (read: LOURD) and no longer satisfied with just sitting and watching, she wants in on the action around the house now. Good for her but BAD for mummy...
Eugene...still dragging himself off to work each morning and trying to fill his spare time with meaningful "daddy time" with the kids...
As for me....some days i feel like one of those pet mouse who runs on the spinning wheel continuously, physically and mentally drained but seemingly going nowhere? Does that sentence even make sense? Hard to describe how i feel, but at the end of the day i do still feel like i am at the right place and doing the right thing at this point of my life. This mouse just needs lots of caffeine and chocolate to get through the day....

A new start...

2009 came and went...2010 arrived...wanted to mention something in here but time flew away from me...I just praise and thank God for all that He has seen me through in 2009, giving me a very supportive husband and 2 beautiful children...
Today Zac went to school...the first of many firsts that he will be experiencing as he starts his journey through this labyrinth of education here in Singapore. I thought i would be more eager for him to start...seeing how that would free me from one child so that i have more time to spend with Nat...but i started having weird pangs of emotions building up throughout the week. Think i was a lot more anxious than he was.
He did well today...my brave boy...he held back his tears, held back his desire to ask to go home (although nearing the end of the school day, he did ask his teachers to let him go home!)...he must have held back his urges to go to the toilet to relieve himself as he came home with damp underpants...i thank God for watching over him today.
But i can see and sense that he had a lot going on in his mind today...not himself, and i just wished that i could read his mind and comfort and assure him. But i know he is in good hands...for Someone much higher knows what he needs.
Apart from that...i am BONE TIRED! And to add to that Eugene will be away on reservist for 2 whole weeks!!!! SIGH!!! Bad timing, now i have to explain to my little boy (who is already grappling with school) that he won't see his daddy for awhile as he as to go to the army to fulfill his national duties!!! SIGH!!! At the moment i am not a big fan of the government...

A sign of the times....

Eugene and i had date night, spanning across 2 nights...
- We finally watched "Slum dog millionaire" which has been sitting in our computer for months now.
- We had to use head phones as the volume had to be turned down so low we had problems catching the conversations.
- We couldn't keep our eyes open for long so it had to be continued the next night.
Boy, are we getting old! But it was pretty good movie!

All grown up...

This little boy is embarking on a new adventure come 7th Jan 2010....he is finally off to preschool. Attended orientation last Friday, Zac was bewildered and wide eyed over all the new things he saw and all the new information we were feeding him about school and what happens in school. He was introduced to his new teacher, Mrs Yuck (Yap actually but he can't seem to get the "p" sound going) and new uniforms were collected.
However, I left the place feeling uneasy, over whether i was starting him too early and worrying if he will enjoy school, but most of all enjoy learning. Discovery, curiosity and wonderment are all so important for children at this age and Zac has truck loads of that at the moment, i definitely don't want to kill that.
After much prayer and deliberation we decided that Zac is ready for school...and if we are wrong...then we will just hold him back again. Let's pray that Mrs Yap will turn out to be a wonderful teacher, one that Zac will always remember fondly.
On a side note...Zac has been doing great with toilet training (which is a requirement from the school) so another sign that he is ready i suppose.
Am going to miss my little helper!