Somewhere over the rainbow…

Piano!

I’ll be expecting our first piano tonight! It’s a second handed piano, and there is a deal of leasing it for 2 years, which we can change to any newer or better model at the same monthly payment, and by the 3rd year, we can decide if we will purchase the piano. Not bad huh?

Firstly, I thought of getting the piano after the renovation is completed but then we can’t wait! Justin’s sitting for the exam in 2 months, and he’s doing Fur Elise now, and the keyboard is out of key.

But then again, hubby said the piano we will be getting has some chips on the top, but it sounds fine. There are some scratches too, by stainless steel bracelets? Who knows. But since we can change to another model within these 2 years, it shouldn’t be a problem, as long as they can fix the piano in the small lift!!!

Time to clear out a spot for the piano in our tiny living room this evening.

Playdate

Justin’s invited some friends over to our condo tomorrow, and it’s the first time we are having guest friends at our new place. Before that, hubby’s family members came over to warm up the place, and until now, it’s still not ready. But who cares la, I will be hosting the playdate anyway.

I am tempted to try some steak seasoning, prepare some western finger food for kids and cook nasi lemak for the moms, but sadly the kitchen is not ready! So I shall just prepare some simple tea meals.

As for activities….I’m not sure yet. But ipads is out! Maybe we will do origami, some crafts, and simple food decoration. After that, the kids can have their decorated meal.

Counting Down to Christmas

Kids are still away back home and we miss them! Isabelle who couldn’t wait to fly back home to play with the cousins are now eager to come back. LOL! FIL said they are doing fine and very obedient, or should I say more obedient and good comparing to the time when we are around! So, either we spoil the kids or our kids love to bully the parents loh….

I was hoping to surprise them with a Christmas tree when they are back on Boxing Day, but it seems like we won’t be setting up the tree this year. The other half of the condo is not ready yet. I’m still waiting for my kitchen top!!! It’s been delayed for 3 months, and that area is just almost drying up now. Sien…

But I guess as long as I prepare the Christmas gifts, the kids will still be happy about Christmas. It’s easy to shop for Isabelle but it’s getting harder for Justin. I can’t find the toy he wishes to get from Santa! Maybe I shall try my luck again this weekend and see if I can find anything interesting that moves with duracell procell aa batteries?

Or maybe he’s ready for a small compact camera?

Aftermath

Kids are getting bored staying in FIL’s condo, doing nothing much but some work sheets and spend the rest of the day watching TV or playing iPads. I’ve brought out some toys for them from the flooded house, so at least they spend some time playing with their toys now.

However, Justin lost some toys which he placed downstairs, and I can’t seem to find them anywhere. Oh boy, all those Ben 10 figurines and some add on for his omnitrix are gone! But he’s cool about it, even if he said that those were from Santa Clause.

Since MIL is going back next week, she will bring the kids back to M’sia for 2 weeks. Besides that, their school will only start in January, so they have another month of holiday! It would be great for them to spend some time back home, playing wii game with their cousins and fight with them.

That gives me 2 whole weeks of kids free days, which I’ve planned to spend the time on furnishing our condo. We must move in before Christmas!!!

Don’t Fall Sick

A lot of people are falling ill due to the water borne diseases caused by the flood. Imagine living in this ironic situation for more than a month! BTW, my house has been flooded for 3 weeks. What a record.

I do feel that water should be allow to flow though inner Bangkok and let everyone share the burden. But then again, most humans are selfish. The government seems to be protecting inner Bangkok more, and rather let the giant industrial areas up north soaking in meters deep of water for more than a month now. As much as these giant foreign investors won’t leave the land of smiles this year, that doesn’t mean that they will stay here forever.

I keep telling the kids, don’t fall sick. No play play leh. It’s not a convenient time to be hospitalized as some hospitals won’t take in patients, unless it’s really an emergency and critically ill. I think one of my boy’s friends is being hospitalized now, but I’m not sure what’s the reason. Maybe we should send some personalized get well gifts instead of visiting. It’s not a good time to be visiting at hospitals now. Better be kiasi.

Sugar Sugar Sugar!

Both my kids love sweets and food which is high in sugar. I can’t blame them for having the sweet tooth as I myself love sweet cakes too.

Nonetheless, we are controlling their sugar intake these days for fear of diabetic and tooth decay. Justin had one of his molars extracted, even if it was fixed a year ago, but the fillings came off from the cavity and it took us too long to realize it. By the time I saw the cavity, it was too late to be fixed again. So, he went through a dramatic molar extraction which scared him till now! Isabelle was there at the dental clinic, and she was so terrified by korkor’s experience.

Sugar is definitely one of the most popular topics among parents nowadays. Even sugar content in formula milk is such a hot topic now. There are even websites claiming that a lot of growing up formula milk can have up to 13 teaspoons of added sugar, and linking all carbohydrates as sugar. That got me a bit suspicious. If all carbohydrates are translated to sugar, everything we consume is potentially damaging to health because most of the stuff we eat contain carbohydrates! Rice, biscuits, even potatoes are rich in carbs. Wouldn’t we be diabetic by now? Or is this just a marketing ploy?

I decided to google it and this website www.semakgula.org.my, which is developed by Dumex, gave a lot of useful information on why translating carbohydrates to sugar is inaccurate. Carbohydrates have a lot of components. Sugar is just part of that component. To lump all these components together and treat it as sugar is inaccurate. Moreover, not all sugars are bad for health. You can easily find more information on the website, and know that our bodies still need glucose, fructose and lactose to work properly.

Both my kids love sweet potatoes, which I pack in their bentos about twice a week. It’s sweet, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad because it’s rich in starch and fiber. Not all higher carbohydrate content typically equals high added sugars content, especially if it exists naturally in food.

But for sweetened drinks, it’s best if we try to control the intake. Both my kids took a lot of UHT milk for the past 2 years as their previous schools requested that parents provide milk at school, if the kids refuse to take the free UHT milk given by Thai government. You bet my kids picked a lot of sweetened UHT yogurt drinks!!! But their present school provides goat milk and soy bean, so I stop bringing milk to school, except for a packet which they take after school. Cutting down on sweetened drink is indeed a good thing. If I can read Thai, I would check out the sugar contain in the milk packet, but too bad yours truly here can’t even read the Thai alphabet!

Both my kids don’t take formula milk. But if yours do, don’t be misled by some claims made by certain brands. As far as I know, milk powder always go through stringent checks and sugar levels are within the necessary standards stipulated by the Ministry of Health. Kids need sugar in their diet to sustain energy – as long as they lead a healthy and active lifestyle, have essential nutrients and are protected against diseases, sugar levels in milk powder is the least of our concerns.

Lice

You read it right, LICE!!! Both kids are infected with lice eggs, and I’m still clueless where they got them from. My first reaction was from school since school started this week, but SIL insisted that it’s from my neighborhood playground. Kids have stopped going to the playground since last Friday, but then again, where they got it from it’s not that important now. The most important thing is to get rid of the lice eggs and make sure that they are free from the parasites.

It crossed my mind that we attended a birthday party on Monday where all the other kids are Indian. Don’t get me wrong ok??? It’s not a racial issue here. But there are girls with very long hair, like touching the bum kind of long, and our kids played together during the party.

We had got twice personalized invitations to these Indian kids parties, but I didn’t realized anything until now. It’s Isabelle’s teachers who found the lice and told SIL, who picked her up that day. I was told that there were other kids in the class which are infected too, and including SIL’s daughter. So, where it’s from? School? Playground? Parties? Who cares now???

No matter where, we must just kill all the blardy parasites!!! I used anti lice cream and shampoo for the kids already, and the office staffs helped to remove the dead / alive eggs from the kids’ hair. I must really thank them. Now only I know how the eggs look like!

New School & New School Year

Ok peeps, let me announce that the new school year is about to start NEXT WEEK. YIPPIE!!! Some Thai schools have started on 18th but our kids’ school will only commerce next week. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea. Maybe private schools can pick their own dates.

Anyway, it’s a brand new school for them again, and even our gal said, “When I was 3 years old, I went to T school. Then I transferred to P school when I was 4, and now S school when I am 5.”  Hopefully, you won’t be hearing me going on school hunting again, at least until Justin’s graduating from primary.

When we first moved here, I doubted that we should send our kids to Thai system. But now we realized that we did the right choice. For the first year, it was totally Thai, so both kids had no choice but to learn from scratch, they can really speak Thai now! At the second school, it provided more English, but I don’t like the kids to have only a small number of friends, and there is no point for Justin to get no. 1 among 10 kids. It’s not kiasu-ness, but I feel that the kids should have more friends to mingle around. So, we enrolled them to this new school, with 70% English, 20% Thai, and 10% Chinese.

We brought the kids for a brief orientation this week, and they quite like the school. Both has got their new uniforms, and Justin has tonnes of work books. OMG…That doesn’t include his text books from US, mainly in hard covers, which the school loans out for the students. Phew…

From the orientation, I was told that there will be 2 national exams for primary students, once at P3 and another at P6. SIL said some schools won’t allow the kids to advance to higher level if they fail. I’m not too sure about this private school though. So our kids must really put in some effort for both Thai syllabus and US Maths, Science and English.

I’ve almost bought everything for the new school term, except Justin’s black school shoes, white sport shoes and black socks. Yes, black socks!!! I’m so delighted!!! No more soaking and scrubbing dirty white socks. Ok, I still have to do so for Isabelle.

And we haven’t sent Isabelle’s uniform for name embroidery. That must be done latest on Sunday.

Right now, we’re training the kids to wake up on their own. It works for Justin, but Isabelle prefers to pull the blanket over her head and let the alarm clock ring…Sigh…

I shall train the kids on how to pack their own school bags too, after signing off their daily home work and message books. Isabelle has to pack a set of clean clothes, pajamas, and water tumbler every day. Maybe she will need 2 packets of milk and an after school snack box too. Justin needs to pack his work books according to the time table, which I will teach him next week. He has a locker in the classroom, so he doesn’t need to bring back all the books. Both kids need toothbrushes and mugs, and I’ve just bought them just now.

So I guess we are ready for school.