Kate's school Christmas concert

"Mommy, can you come watch me dance?"

And this is how I know that Kate will not get cold feet, nor is she stage shy! So today marks the last day of the school year and there's a Christmas celebration, as well as a concert. We received news of this through Kate very briefly, got the information from the teacher about the exact time, and truly, I was quite excited to attend it. Afterall, it's hard not to when Kate's obviously so enthusiastic about her performance and repeatedly reminds us to "come early and watch me dance ok!"

Her favourite nainai attended the concert too, along with the husband, Jake and me - I could see how proud Kate was that we were there - totally #proudparent moment.

Pre-concert; the kids were lined up in their respective classes. And Jake made himself comfortable amidst them.

Kate did a total of 3 performances, and this was one of my favourites because it's a clear demonstration of how she's enjoying herself! 

Truth - it wasn't all edge-of-seat type of performance (to me, anyway) but someone was obviously the target audience and totally deserves the "most attentive award" !

I do applaud the teachers and all the kids for their lovely efforts, and I'm so pleased and a little surprised to see that most of the kids do not suffer from stage fright, nor get anxious at all! Such brave little ones, these days. There was an odd boy or two who froze on stage (like, did. not. move. at. all.) but they didn't break out in tears. There was also a boy who semi-performed - he did only select actions and kept still for others. And there was only one teary girl who despite her tears, stayed on stage bravely and finished the performance. 

See how soppy the little girl in yellow/blue is? Poor thing, but she bravely stayed on-stage so kudos to her!

And this was a pretty lovely sight - live Christmas trees!

This shot is one of (hehe) my kids, not the performers. Top marks to both of them for audience participation!

After the hour of performance, the kids headed back to their classes for their party snacks. We watched Kate in her class for a bit before heading off. 

Kate, waving goodbye to me from her class. This is the last shot of her in her Nursery class!

This whole year has been pretty good for her. Academically, I think she can still improve, but she's definitely made some good friends, learnt a lot of new songs, learnt the concept of homework (that's for me too!) and I'm so proud that she enjoys school. She even loves going for her extra Chinese classes (twice a week) and actually groans in disappointment when she doesn't have Chinese classes. I hope that she continues to enjoy to learn, to have fun and to grow in school. I'm so proud of my little girl!

Little chef at work

Kate's been at play-doh the past few nights. I snapped this last night - watch how she's laid her masak neatly in front of her! "The chef says so" - haha! She loves to watch cooking videos off Youtube and well, I guess some good has come out of that! Loving how this little one is growing up so well!

10km in 66minutes

Just for the record, this is my result from the 10km I did last Sunday. It's not bad at all, I think. We did 2 water stops, some strolls, and not forgetting that I did this while on antibiotics and was hacking away through the run (sorry fellow runners, I did cover my mouth). Oh, and I had to inhale ammonia fumes - insider joke.

500 is me. 

Till next year!

Dear baby little

Hi baby Jake,

You turn 2 (TWO!) in about 4 month's time. Honestly, I cannot recall the last time I wrote to you, and truly, that is the story of a second born. I am a lot more relaxed, a lot less anxious, a lot more forgetful, somewhat less attentive. BUT - that doesn't mean that I care any less. And by the way, you're not really a baby anymore. 

You, my boy, are really such a special boy. In some ways, how you are is a reflection of how I am able to handle you. You're a lot less delicate compared with your sister. You can tumble rough, you fall over and pick yourself up quite fuss-free. You don't mind going into a room on your own just because you want to. It doesn't mean that you're a loner or entirely fuss-free – you do make yourself heard when you need something, and you do throw a tantrum when you don't get your way. 

Ever since our Japan trip a month+ ago, you seemed to have gone through a growth spurt and are significantly a bigger boy now. You have grown taller, your legs are longer, and your speech has improved by leaps and bounds! You parrot everything that we say, and you can form sentences and express your mind very firmly. Your pronunciation is less than perfect and only we understand 90% of what you say (even we have our dubious moments) - which means that outsiders probably only understand at-best 50% of what you utter. It is so terribly cute, this talkative Jake that I see, so full of opinions and wants. 

Selfies - I discovered these in my phone

Your favourite things in the world are the train ("I narn dake tain" - I want take train), the bus ("I narn dake bus" - I want take bus), milk ("I NARN NILK" - I want milk), nainai (nainaiiii – this is a constant for your sister and you), Kiki Maus (Mickey Mouse), hi-bai (Hi 5), and Papa (Papa). Your favourite activity has got to be swimming (dimming), reading books (I narn weed book), eating (I eat mum-mum), and playing bubbles (I NARN BARBLES). 

This speech burst-growth is really the most amazing thing that's happened in the past month and I cannot be prouder. It is extremely endearing to watch you express yourself, and you are so cheeky! It's so fun and I'm so proud that you're such a loveable little boy because everyone, and I mean everyone, adores you to bits. This last Saturday that we spent those precious hours together in the morning, made me feel so fortunate to have you as a son. You are fun, funny, adventurous, not-afraid… such great characteristics for a boy. 

Oh yes, your sleeping habits, are a little better lately. But I'm not giving you any medals until you become consistent with sleeping through the night. Keeping my fingers crossed in that department. 

Picture perfect

I'll try to spend more time with you, my precious. I love you so much and don't you forget that.

Love you always and forever,

Mommy 

Annual sister run - it really becomes tradition when it's the 3rd time, and counting

So, I was deluded that it's been more than the 3rd time that the sister and I have done this, but truly, it is (only) the 3rd time. Our past two runs are here, and here. 

Reading through the past two runs, both have been significant in different ways. The first was special because unknown to me, Jake had done the run with me.  The second was special because it was the year of the shoe-boo-boo. But both times, the consistent thing was that even though I'd been "exercising", I was in pretty poor shape. I whinged about how achey I was post-run and both times I wasn't fit and ready to take on the run at all - not that it stopped the sister and I from conquering the run. 

This year, however, what was different is that it is one run that I was ready for. True, my ultimate goal isn't this 10km, but the half-marathon that I've been steadfastly training for through the year, but the side-effect of this is that I'm fitter this time round and I'm so proud of that. 

Well, yes, I'd been ill and knocked down by a truck (not literally, but sure felt like it) just earlier last week; and I'm still on antibiotics when we did the run yesterday, but. Despite doing 2 water stops and strolling for bits and bobs through the run, we still did it within a really reasonable time (I'm waiting for the official time to be up on the website but the sister's watch clocked 68minutes) - and for that, I'm so pleased! It was also nice because we did most of the run together and it was, nice. 

For the first time ever, I decided to be somewhat creative with my alias. 

Sisters at 7am. 

Jump-shots, post-run. 

Not sure if you can see clearly, but we did funny poses for this (see pics below the main pic). The husband asked if there was an audience watching us monkey around during the picture-taking HA HA

OK, just kidding about the above. This is the true jump shot. Those were NGs. HA HA

Lovely Saturday morning with my boys

While I took a break from running after the virus attack, I took the opportunity to bring Jake to MacRitchie Reservoir as the husband still did his. I could choose to lie-in, but I didn't want to allow my body to veg too much and I figured being out in the sun could be good Vitamin D too. I was ready to just trek it through the trail to work my body into a light sweat, just to rev it up a little. It turned out to be a bonus that Jake awoke at 6am this morning, and I decided to bring him out. It was a nice time we had with each other, so rare to be alone with my little man. (Firstborn was with nainai and besides, she's not that early a morning person).

I watched Jake alone for the 1.5hours, and his antics were so adorable! We covered the green pastures, sat on the ground, got our bums dirty sitting on any surface, watched the kayaks, scored a ride (him) in one on dry land and watched the ants, fish, monkeys, plants in their natural habitat. It was really nice!

7.20am at MacRitchie Reservoir - bright and early! Today's weather was very cool, lucky us

Warming up. Ok, not really but it does look like he's doing that hah!

Watching kayaks

Little man, big wild trail (Truth: we made it in all of 10metres or something when J decided he doesn't want to proceed anymore. I fleetingly considered carrying him and trek as a workout but without proper carrier, I'd just be breaking my own back so... nope. We didn't do that)

Made a new friend, Jeff. He entertained Jake's request of sitting "in da boat". 

I have a whole series of Jake on this bench - it's so cute! 

Was a rather nice, healthy start to this weekend. 

This is me

Go away, virus! It's attacking the kids, me, and I cannot afford to fall sick! I need to be well, to run my home, to run my runs, to run work. Sniff