Day out at Sentosa

It was a long weekend as Hari Raya Puasa falls on Sunday. So Monday was a public holiday for Singapore. It was a very last minute decision to go Sentosa and was only decided on Saturday night. My maid once mention the beach at Myanmar was very far from her house and she havent got much chance to go to the beach. So I thought it might be a good chance to bring her to some beach places in Singapore as a farewell for her since she is going back for good. It's also a nice place to let the 2 little girls explore the sand and build sand castles.

Thanks to Hui's 2nd sis and BIL, they went to get the ingredients for making sandwiches on Saturday night right after our discussion about the trip. They had also bought a set of toy for the girls which is used to build sand castles! Lovely!

Woke up early on Sunday morning, prepared the girls and left the house at 9am. Had our breakfast by the beach for about 45mins before proceeding to Dolphin Lagoon for the show at 11am. After that went for lunch and went back to the beach for the sand again. This time the beach was very crowded with many people compared to the morning time. Elsie had been a very brave girl to sit on the rough sand and playing with it using the tools her 2nd Gu Gu bought. Chloe on the other hand prefer to sit on the mat and refused to get down into the sand. She was still fine in the morning but later on seems to get scare away by the sand. She preferred to people-watch!

We tried to get both of them down into the water but they refused. Elsie pulled back her leg and struggled to climb up. Chloe being the more timid one only cry and cry non-stop and hugging her ball tightly which was bought from the souvenier shop earlier on.

We let the girls (or rather only Elsie) played for awhile at the beach before leaving for Underwater World.

The day seems to pass really fast. After Underwater World, we called it a day and went home feeling really tired! Overall it was a refreshing trip as weekend usually was spent at shopping centres. Will try to organise more of such outing so can also train the girls not to be afraid of the sea water, especially my darling Chloe!

Picnic at Palawan beach at 10am. Not much people at the beach yet. Shiok!
Elsie playing happily with Daddy. Look, where is Chloe?
Pink dolphin lagoon show
At the souvenier shop selling alot of 'Oscar the fish' products. This shop is near to 'Song of the sea' show.
So that explains the content of this shop.
After lunch, went back to the beach again for more sand!
This time was at Siloso beach and was packed with so many people!
At Underwater World
Cups for the girls. Bought a blue colored one for my maid too. Was selling 3 for $20.
Pretty & cute haversack bag for the girls. A gift from their Da Gu Gu & Er Gu Gu.
Will be very useful during CNY to store ANGBAOs!!
THANK YOU! ^_^

Crippled without a maid

My maid (AS) is leaving soon. Due to an incident happen at her hometown, her mother required either her sister (who is also working as maid here) or her to go back Myanmar for good to help out. The sister had asked my maid to be the one going back and my maid obliged! :(

So now, I am in a big headache to re-select a new maid and go through all the training again. Not sure if the new one will be as good as AS. Not sure if she will be able to cook as nice as AS. Not sure if she is able to speak and understand English as well as AS. Not sure if she will love my 2 darlings as much as AS. Not sure if she will be as automatic as AS when comes to do housework. Not sure if she will be as smart as AS. Not sure..not sure..not sure...many worries!

Initially we had plans to keep AS for a minium of 2 years. After which if she decided to go back Myanmar, we would not employ a maid anymore and put the kids at Childcare coz by then the girls would be 2years+. But if she decided to stay, then we would renew her contract again.

Now the plan is disrupted! We are still negotiating with her if she can stay until the new maid comes as she seems quite in a rush to return back home. According to the agency, new maid will need 3-6 weeks for processing before they can reach Singapore and currently the agency do not have transferred maid from Myanmar. I am reluntant to take Filipinos because of their overly protected law by their government which make these maids yaya papaya! I am not comfortable with Indonesia maid because of their language ability as mostly can only speak malay, which I don't! And worse is they cannot eat pork which make it a hassle to prepare separate meals for them, especially when we are outside dining!

We had also think of other possible solutions. What if we do not engage a maid??:
1.Can we find a nanny instead?
2.Can the girls go to infant care? *many concerns on this*
3.Can MIL take care of 2 girls herself?
4. Snce I can work from home, I could help out together with MIL? But what if I need to go back office, then who help MIL?
5. Can we stop all the cooking and order catering so MIL can look after them herself?

Can we do this? Can we do that?.....End up the answer is quite obvious. We still need a maid!

I guess when the new maid comes, I can no longer proceed into the study room for my conference call at night with Hui bathing and leaving the maid alone with the kids for that 10mins anymore. One of us had to keep a watch out until the other is totally available. It will take a few more months before I can confirm I am comfortable to place the girls playing alone with the new maid while we run other errands in the house.

Maid searching will start this evening at the agency. Wish me luck!

The Little Chefs

On Saturday, we were out shopping trying to look for a standing kitchen set because we discovered the girls like to do "cooking" alot! Everytime when we say 'cooking cooking', they will look for their mini cooking toy set. Each will take a toy spoon/folk and a plate/saucer and start to play as though they are cooking something. Sometimes we gave them a pen for example and a box/bowl/anything with a hole, they will do the action like you are frying or stirring something.

Morning when we were at my mum's place, my mum gave them a big bowl (used to do agar agar) and a long metal spoon to play so she could do her own things in peace. The girls were quietly sitting on the floor and doing the 'cooking' action again. That's how I managed to convince Hui that we need a kitchen for the girls! :)

We left my mum's place early around 4+pm after my aunties came over for the majong session. So off we went to Tampines Mall Toy 'R' Us for the kitchen set. But the cheapest was selling at $69.90 which we reckon was still too expensive. We proceeded to Kiddy Palace at Century Square and was so happy to find a great standing kitchen set at an absolutely reasonable price!

When the girls were asleep, Hui started to assemble the Kitchen set so we could gave the girls a surprise the next morning when they woke up. We placed the assembled kitchen set in the living room awaiting for the girls reaction the next day....

The 60+cm tall kitchen set

E&C running out of the room with their shocked face on a Sunday morning upon seeing their new toy!
They can't wait to lay their hands on their own kitchen. And trying to cook up a spread for Daddy & Mummy
But end up eating the "food" themself and creating a mess!
And later even tried to tear down the whole kitchen!
Luckily Daddy came to the rescue and save the kitchen before it got destroyed entirely by the 2 horrible chefs!
*Why is that fork hiding behind Chloe's back? We will need to ask Daddy!* After Daddy went for breakfast, they decided that the feng shui where the kitchen was located was no good. Hence decided to relocate their kitchen by pushing it around as though it was a push cart. They seems to be enjoying pushing their kitchen around!
But oops...they had push too hard and the kitchen fell!
Well, and this is what happen without parent's supervision.
They found that tearing the Kitchen apart is more fun than playing with the cooking!
What hatred does Elsie have with her Kitchen that she had to even step on it!
After Daddy finished his breakfast, he decided to confine the 2 little chefs and rebuild their kitchen!
Alas, the parents finally can have some peace watching TV while the 2 little chefs continued playing in their confined area without disturbing their Daddy & Mummy. But it only lasted for 10mins before we discovered a horrible sight! They DID it AGAIN! Once again, the kitchen was destroyed. This time even the legs were not spared. Guess what, they had later found that using 2 legs to hit one another makes a 'kong kong' sound and were so happy playing with it.
We had to clear up the mess after they went for their nap by re-assembled the parts back together again and putting everything back in place. Looking at how the girls enjoyed their new toy and how it can help to entertain them for quite awhile in the play yard without disturbing us, I believed it was a good buy! At least Hui & I get to enjoyed our lunch peacefully and watching TV quietly with them beside us in the yard playing happily!

We adults also enjoyed playing with them, seeing their innocence and adoreable act by feeding us empty food and drinks as though it was like real. They were even so sweet to put the toy orange and corn into the little pot and cook it under the stove. Then took the pot and pass to me like telling me it's hot and ready to consume. :) What a darling!

Never regretted getting this kitchen set. Good buy, Cheap buy, MUST buy! ^_^


Entry not ended yet....guess what Hui had for his lunch today??? He was so proud of it that he was even willing to let me take photo and post into my blog! So I had to leave a small portion in this entry to comment his "effort".

Curry chicken with steamed rice, Huat Kuey and Red wine!!! He was trying to recap the days back at Paris where the French always had wine for lunch and dinner
*speechless*