My 2010

The year that I turned 30 year old! I am determined I shall appreciate my life more and make it a more meaningful one!


*Beware, it’s a super long-winded post ahead…
Jan 2010: We visited Lama Temple （雍和宫）in Beijing on 1st January, an eye-opener for us as the temple was super crowded with people praying for a good year ahead. A very cold winter and we had so much fun with snow! Shifting to our new house at Beijing, Oceanwide International Apartment 泛海国际。A bigger apartment of 200m2 for us, love it to bits! Bye bye Palm Springs!

Some unhappiness between me and my ayi, Xiao Chen. We decided to change another helper. Madness for me as we just shifted house and Chinese New Year was near. Did I mentioned An An loves to crawl on butt?! This funny boy! :p

Feb 2010: Craziness continued. What made it worse was that Zq was sick and need to hospitalized to be on drip, hubby was outstation and couldn’t rush back on time, I had no choice but to leave An An at home with a temporary ayi for a long 8 hours! And this poor boy decided to be on hunger-strike and ate/ drank nothing at all during this period. Luckily Zq’s teacher (Yuan Yuan laoshi) came and helped out at hospital, with her accompanied Zq, I was rest assured and back home to feed my lil boy. I was so helpess and torn-apart then. I weeped uncontrollably when I hugged my boys to sleep on that fateful night. Nothing matter more than their health. One-man show indeed wore me out, but something I looked forward had realized, my parent’s arrival to celebrate Chinese New Year with us. Hurray!!! We went to 庙会，Forbidden City and some other places. All the makan, shopping and bonding with grandsons, I certainly hope they enjoyed their coldest Chinese New Year here.

March 2010: We were very lucky to have our new ayi, Meng ayi. She was great and my boys adore her. We celebrated Dear’s 33 year old birthday, Zq and me baked some birthday cookies for him and Zq decided to give papa a big present that was his 1st poo in potty! Haa.

April 2010: 1st April is not April Fool for us, it’s Full of Presents day for us! Dear back from his 1 day Hong Kong business trip and got me a Prada wallet, a Vtech lappy for Zq and a walker for An An. We love papa so much! Muacks! Weather turned warmer means more outing for us. 天坛，香山，horse-riding, boating, etc. And Zq’s school celebrated Earth Day by inviting families to plant trees in a park, it was unforgettable experience. It’s a very happy month for me!

May 2010: Celebrated Mother’s Day at Zq’s class with all the little ones and their mummies. It was a lovely celebration; kids sang songs, presented flowers, cards and tea for their mothers. We back to Singapore to celebrate An An’s 1st birthday! Yeah! My little teddy bear turned one! We had a simple lunch & celebration at Grand Plaza Parkroyal, Haixiang restaurant. We had so much fun back home, Dear and me had a wonderful feasting time and the boys had a lovely bonding time with grandparents, relatives and their little friends. We stayed at Festive Hotel (Sentosa) for a night, enjoyed the beach, swimming and riding luge. We definitely want to visit again! And Zq was successfully off-diaper for daytime! Well done boy 

June 2010: I was officially 30 year old. And we made it to the Great Wall! With 2 young kids on tow, it was definitely challenging and tiring, plus the weather was hot and sun was super glaring. But it was all worthy, Zq could still remember he went to 爬长城 till date! Zq had his 1st bicycle and he could cycle well on his 1st attempt (with aided wheels of course :p)

July 2010: An An walked unassisted at 13.5 month old! Clap clap! Zq’s one month summer school holiday started. More places we visited, 前门，日坛，布拉格农场， Blue Zoo etc. It’s a month of Sun & Fun！

Aug 2010: Zq’s summer holiday started and it means more chaotic at home. Never seriously plan activities for him, just lots of art & crafts, jiao-zi making with ayi, picnic & boating at 玉渊潭, 四德公园. We made some Singapore flags on National Day and watched the NDP on CNAI! Count on me Singapore!

Sep 2010: Zq was promoted to Primary Class 1 wef 13th September. We had Mid-Autumn celebration at his school; he was reluctant to perform and was extremely stage-fright. I hope he will improve over time and willing to be under the limelight soon. More outings to parks for kite-flying, and I found my favourite park in Beijing, 地坛公园。

Oct 2010: My heroine’s arrival at Beijing! My mama traveled to Beijing all by herself, her 1st time taking flight alone and we are so proud of her. We spent the happiest 2 weeks here, shopping and sight-seeing. Thanks Dear for taking care the boys while I can shop with ease  We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and Zq’s 3rd birthday on 10th. I baked a fondant cake with theme of Toy Story 3. I was so proud of myself and Zq loved it so much!

Nov 2010: Our 1st family oversea vacation to Jeju (Korea). It was a lovely holiday for all of us. I would never forget the experience, just the 4 of us, exploring a totally different place with unfamiliar language, it was just so exciting. We enjoyed ourselves and the boys had been very cooperative throughout the trip, they sure deserved more holiday! And we want to make it a yearly event for us. Autumn was here, leaves turned yellow and leaving the trees bald. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Zq’s school, and An An had his virgin ride on pony!

Dec 2010: The winter is so cold, and it’s -11 degree when I am penning down my post. An An attended his 1st class at Music Together, he enjoyed it and we noticed he’s really musically inclined! Cooking of 汤圆 to celebrate 冬至。We did lots of art & craft relating Christmas. Zq and me baked some Christmas muffins for his teachers and classmates. It’s a month of celebration! And as the year ending very soon, our stay at Beijing is nearing end as well. Opportunities are coming in from Singapore, Hong Kong and Abu dhabi, but till date, we yet to make our decision for our next move. I hope we will make the best decision for the family. Whatever decision it is, 2011 will be a very challenging year for us because of the move again. I hope I can have all the strength to settle down the boys well in the new environment.

In overall, 2010 is a happy and good year for me, as the boys are growing well and strong, learning things at an amazing rate. Zq is very interested in learning Chinese words now and An An able to speak in short phrases and shows great interest in music. My parents are generally in good health and my sisters are leading their blissful life. And I am a contented mother & wife of my doting hubby. What more can I ask for!

Adious Beijing & 2010!

When An An cried real hard...

In fact, i should say he seldom cries since newborn. He is a boy with few tears. BUT, he loves to fake cries alot! When we scold him for his naughty acts, he likes to pout his mouth and make those fake crying sounds. Really cant stand him! And when he really very sad, his tears just pouring down uncontrollably like this. I simply love his crying expressions, isn't it cute? Hee..

Big and small letters

The best way to stop the 2 crazy boys shouting and running around the house when they woke up from nap is to think of some spontaneous activity for them if there's no planned for the noon.

I wrote A to K in both big and small letters, and i asked Zq to circle the big letters using big circle of the stencil and small circles for the small letters. Then connect these pairs to complete his work! Simple instructions and almost costless material, 10minutes of quiet moments for me in return.. Happy! :)

Stickers

I must mention this as i find it's extremely cute and caring of Zq for saying these.
Pasting sticker book in one of our routine for nights, i am glad that sticker books here are so so cheap and they comes with wide varieties of selections, such as Maths, Languages, EQ, IQ and some thematic books.
It triggered my heartiest smile when we came to this page.

Zq: 妈妈，我不要贴这个鳄鱼。。

Me: 为什么呢？

Zq: 因为它会把小朋友吃掉的 (and he had a very worried expression)

Me: 不会的，有这些木头会挡着它，鳄鱼不会吃掉小朋友的

Zq: 木头会被水冲走的，这样子鳄鱼就会游到他们的旁边了。我不要鳄鱼吃他们，他们很可怜

Though i found it's rather amusing for him having such thoughts as it's only a sticker book after all, but i was heart warming by having this caring boy. He's always the 1st one to rush to didi if he falls or need help. And he certainly helps me lots day in and out, he's good at doing some minor housechores and more than happy to help. And he starts showing this greatest virtue of him since young ~ compassionate.

All i want for Xmas is...

a white xmas!

But am sad that there's no sign of snowing at all... Though it's freezing cold at -10 degree when i fetched Zq back from school just now. I dreamt of scenes that my boys making snowman in a whole white patch of ground, throwing snowballs at each other, how i wish my dreams can come true!

Please... let it snow let it snow let it snow.....................

冬至

This is one of my favourite Chinese traditional festive. I would make some 汤圆 with my kids every year and the kids love it! I love the meanings of this festive, 团圆, definitely means so much to me. While i was preparing the ingredient, it brought back vivid memories when i was young, my sisters and me enjoyed helping out in the kitchen, preparing the 汤圆 and helped my mama to bring bowls of cooked 汤圆 to altar as offerings. I missed those days, especially in this cold winter of Beijing, i miss my parents and sisters even more...

~ 冬至的典故 ~

冬至是全家团聚庆丰年的节日，在农历里，冬至是一年中排在最后的一个传统节日。这天家家户户吃“汤圆”，象征家庭的和谐与团圆。

“冬至”的意思就是“冬季到了极点”，这个“极点”指的不是气温，而是地球与太阳的关系，这一天，太阳直射南回归线（冬至线〕，北半球白 天最短，黑夜最长，这天之后，太阳又逐渐北移。“冬至”原是农民农忙 之后庆丰收的节日。

“汤圆”是冬至必备的食品，这是一种用糯米粉制成的圆形甜品。“圆”意味着“团圆”“圆满”。冬至吃汤圆，象征家庭和谐、吉祥。

This year, i decided to make the glutinous cake myself. And i used pumpkin and pandan leave juice for the colourings of my 汤圆 (though the effect is not that obvious! haa)

Serious boy @ work

Funny boy @ work

Our 汤圆！

This is the 1st time Zq cooks! I decided to let him try out under my close supervision. And he enjoyed it so much! He's really keen and insist to boil all the 汤圆 by himself, 有始有终。It's a good chance to show him some before and after effect, how foods are being prepared and cooked. So he will appreciate what's serve on his plates more and most importantly, i sincerely hope that he will appreciate my effort of preparing his meals everyday! Hoping that he is able to finish his food by himself  so not to waste my effort :)

Curtains can be so fun!

I wonder why An An loves to play with curtain so much! Or is it every kids at this age has the same fascination?