weaving the rainbow

Monday, September 20, 2010 ;

11:57 AM

2 Aug
ds1 had a field trip to the Singapore zoo. He was supposed to bring a small bag, raincoat, snacks, water bottle, hat, sunscreen, insect repellent... Camera, clipboard etc optional.

They were also supposed to wear PE tees and shorts. I had planned to make sushi for him that day and also let him bring our old digital camera.

Guess what? I must be one of the few moms in the world who forgets such things which should not be forgotten!

I totally forgot he was going to the zoo, so he took only his normal pocket money, which is 80cents now. He wore his collared shirt and formal shorts. No sunscreen, hat whatsoever.

No sushi, no snack. I am not sure if he was a girl, whether he would cry. Fortunately he is a boy who can't be bothered about his clothes. He told me he ran as usual, climbed over railings, jumped down steps, ran around crazily with his friends at the zoo, and just braved the sun and the drizzling rain.

He also had the common sense to leave his heavy school bag in the classroom (although not safe, but still, he'd be silly to lug all his textbooks around the zoo). His classmate whose mom also forgot (I feel so relieved I am not the only one) brought his school bag along to the zoo and was scolded by the teacher.

He did bring his water bottle, thankfully, but had to hold it in his hand the whole time. Oh man, I felt so bad for forgetting. And then I was so worried he had nothing to eat. But the school catered free lunches from KFC at the Kidz Rainforest area, so he was happy just eating that and didn't mind not having a snack.

He came home very happy and with a set of very dirty school uniform. But he didn't think it was an issue that I forgot at all. At these times, I feel so relieved, and glad that he hasn't reached the age when he might blame me, yet.

(I have also forgotten plenty of other stuff. Like paying the school bus fees late, not being there to pick the kids up on time.... Thankfully he comes home on his own now, else I'd always have to feel bad for being late. I had also totally forgotten to even pick ds2 up from the school bus before. The bus auntie is very nice. I think she has walked him upstairs right to my doorstep at least 10 times this year already. And she never gets angry about it.)

I need to have less clutter in my brain. Will work on it... (maybe playing some Bejewelled will help. it sorts the coloured gems up, right?) :)

6 Aug
ds1 sch National Day celebrations
8-10am

ds2's school had some HFMD cases yet again so I kept him in and brought him along to ds1's school for the National Day celebrations. Let him wear red as well, so he feels part of the festivities! (of course, Dd was there with me too)

He's standing there, looking at his brother's class. Wonder what he's thinking. He often says he wants to go to his brother's school "right now". Then I reminded him of all the fun he has in kindy. They have toys in the classroom, but ds1 doesn't! Or I'll say, there's Ms M, won't you miss her if you go to Primary school so soon? Then he'll retract and say, yes, he wants to be in kindy. :)

My mil hadn't been to ds1's school yet, so I invited her along since this event was open to all the families. I also arranged to meet my American friend cos she wanted to take a look at the school to confirm if she would definitely register her son there.

What a difference in responses after both had a tour that morning. My mil told my fil and bil during the family dinner later that month that ds1's school must be the worst in Singapore. In Chinese, she said these words verbatim: "他的学校是新加坡最烂的学校！”
To be fair to her, she said it in a joking manner. We were all discussing Pr schools in general, comparing my bil's another cousin's and our kids' schools.

My bil's kids are in Jurong's most popular school, and the cousin's kids are in a SAP school in town. Naturally, with a popular school, the school compound could look grander maybe, and have more aesthetically pleasing features. The SAP school has many Chinese posters, banners, notices and murals on the wall which my mil said ds1's school doesn't. She walked around and didn't see any Tang poems, SanziJing etc.

Dh didn't even bother explaining that SAP schools have a majority or even 100% Chinese students, so of course they can hang Chinese stuff everywhere in school. In other non-SAP schools, there are Malays, Indians and many other ethnic groups who don't take Chinese as the mother tongue. Would not be fair to do so. If the school wanted to hang a Chinese banner up, then they need to do it for Malay, Tamil too, then the school would look very cluttered indeed, with hundreds of poems in different languages?

Also, I think when we want to think in a certain way, we'd just read and see things to support our already-convicted view. So mil read this announcement on the notice board listing the recent winners in a national Chinese Chess tournament (a major one). The front placings were all students from ds1's school, meaning they were the best in the whole of Singapore. There were all other prize winners listed too, and the schools they were from. The cousin's kids' school had several prize winners, but mostly at the bottom placings. And the school that ds1 was supposed to enter (that SAP school mil helped to register him in last year) had some students clinch some prizes too.

Not sure how she read it, but she said that school performed the best and even the cousin's kids' school did better than ds1's school. Dh refuted her and told her the actual results. Just goes to show that if she wants to believe this school is lousy, then it'll always be lousy in her sight.

Fil put in a rare word. He's usually a man of few words during dinner conversations but usually when he does speak up, everyone will listen, cos he only says things when it is important to him.
He said, last time they enrolled bil (Dh's older brother) in the nearest school to their house and it was one of Singapore's worst schools too (supposedly a lot of failures and gangsters there), but didn't he end up scoring the top/ near the top score for PSLE?

It didn't bother me too much, cos I understand why she feels upset. She had spent the effort and time to register ds1 in a SAP school last year, and we came back to Sg, took him out of that school and transferred him into this school near our home. Naturally she will be biased against it.

Anyway, my American friend walked around and liked what she saw. She liked the garden, the cheerfulness, the spaciousness and the vibrancy. So she at once decided she would register her son there, and she did (under Phase 3 for foreigners).

This is one of the games they were playing in the Telematch.

Another station in the canteen. Another game.

Mil gave us a ride back home, then I brought the 3 kids out to meet my sis at JP, and we had a wonderful lunch at New York New York, where the kids get free cotton candy after that. Each kid is entitled to one, but we made them share one instead because we wanted to bring them to the library after lunch and didn't want kids on sugar-high running around the library!

We borrowed tons of books for the long weekend and then adjourned to the rope-climbing playground beside the library for the kids to run wild, before my sis headed home with her kids and I brought mine home for a nice nap too.

7 Aug

After the usual weekly dinner with my in laws, this time at their place, Dh needed to meet a client at the Serangoon area. I had to bring all 3 kids there since the location was so out of the way. (Dh cannot send us back to Jurong then go meet the client- too late- and he cannot leave us at in laws' place and come back for us later - too inconvenient)

But the thought of hanging around the car and loitering around the void deck at 9pm with the 3 kids for maybe 1hr sounds tiring. So I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. My best friend from JC days lived there, and she is preggy with a girl.

I packed up some of the pretty clothes dd has outgrown and when Dh met his client, I brought the 3 kids to visit her and pass her the clothes. It was a great chance to catch up too, we had not met for several months. She visited me in hospital when I gave birth to dd.

Her hubby worked for MCYS that organised the Youth Olympic Games, so he even gave the boys flags, car decals and some stuff. The boys entertained themselves while I chatted with my friend.

After an hour, I decided to leave because it was 10pm and it wasn't nice to be in her house past 10pm even though she insisted it was ok, I felt I shouldn't keep her from resting.

So I brought the kids down where there was an open space and a long ramp leading down to the road, and told Dh we'd wait there for him, since he was not done yet. (That client must have lots of specific customisations he wants on his personalised bow)

What do kids, especially boys, do on ramps? No need to guess, they will definitely run up and down. The ramp was steeper than most, because the block of flats was on a hilly area, and the road was below.

Well, despite my telling them to be careful, they still ran too fast, playing catching, sliding on the shiny smooth railings and so on, while I waited with a sleeping dd at the top.

So this is what ds1 ended up with, at the end of the day: multiple wounds on his knees and elbow, and many bloody tissues.

Of course, he didn't cry when he fell at full speed and even slid downwards on the rough cement floor. He stood up and ran up to where I was, and hid behind me. (Must be afraid others saw). Then he slowly checked himself.

He didn't cry because he fell by himself, and he knew I already cautioned them. He would've wailed extremely loudly, even with the same wounds, if he fell because his brother pushed him or indirectly caused him to fall. Isn't it this way? :)

rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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