Busy like a bee
Kai and Ann can be a great team if they want to!


So busy the past weeks. Each time when they managed to find some free time after school and work, they would bring out their art and craft kit and started working.....



their very own chess set. Their own "how to play", their self-created rules

This reminded me when the board game Monopoly first started in Singapore (Yes, that long ago, many moons ago). My sister and I did exactly the same thing. We used the back of our drawing block. You know, the cardboard part. That would be the main board. We drew our own 'Go to jail', the various estates, the various railway stations. Made our own money and the 'Chance' cards and what's the other one...arrrrgh....sorry, brain cells not working. Anway, we both made our Monopoly board game, just like what Kai and Ann were doing. But we followed the rules of the game while Kai and Ann created everything from scratch. Hmmm, so nowadays, kids are indeed smarter.

Heater, heater everywhere

I thought I just kept them yesterday and now, I have to bring them out again. By the way, these are only three out of the seven portable heaters! Will we need all of them, just have to see if the floor heating works just as well as those we had in US.

Today's temperature is 13 deg C and we are only in October. When I went out, I could feel the cold wind piercing through my jeans onto my skin, the next stage will be into my bones. (Argh...) Technically, winter will only starts in December but this year, it is getting cold much earlier. The locals are bracing for the coldest winter ever experienced in Shanghai.

Thank God, we moved out of the crappy house, if not, we will sure to freeze with all the marble flooring. Now, I have to go and search for all the thermals and time to keep all summer clothes...a chore I don't really enjoy doing!

Still missing America
Come Feb 2011, it would have been almost two years now since we left America and I am still missing her so much.
The beautiful people, the wonderful environment, the freshest food I could find, having my own vegetable patch. Going to farm to do my marketing. Attending the various faires.

Even in the lifeless spring, just balding trees, it still evokes its special beauty. Then comes the nice and warm summer with laughters from kids all out to play. The multi-coloured autumn. With its leaves bursting with beautiful colours of red, gold, yellow and orange. It makes even the most dreary place cheerful. Then there is the white Christmas. Winter is heavenly with the snow-covered landscape sparkling like precious stones when the sun shines....

Experiences are only for a moment, memories are forever...

My son, my pride
Kai was made a student councilor. Am I proud of him? Of course I am. I am also very happy that there are teachers who trust him and see what lies beneath him.

I know my son. Often, I told him that he was inside me for nine months, how could I not know him. He is a bright boy and he often needs challenges. Believe me, it is not easy being his mum. He needs plenty of motivations and discipline. I need to give him lots of space yet not all the space. I have to give him lots of trust yet still watch over him like a hawk. Sometimes, an extra pair of shoes or an extra handbag has to make way for his ferocious reading habit! Thank God, he has the habit of re-reading his old books. Otherwise, I will be running a library! However, that also means we must make space not just for him but for his books too!

He drives me up the wall with his constant forgetfulness. Sometimes, I wonder if he needs a brain scan. At such a young age, he has such short memory, it also gets me worried. Just last week, he was to have his Science test. He came home without his Science textbook. I questioned him how would he expect himself to study without his textbook. I then made him sit down and write down all the information he knew about the topic to be tested. He really did, he gave me three full pages of them and they were mostly correct! Yesterday, he came home with his Science test paper, just five marks short of a perfect score! Perhaps, I need to change - one may not need to have his textbook in order to know the facts!

He has had his valley moments. In his 10 years on earth, he has crossed path with teachers who looked at his hyper thirst for knowledge as being 'naughty' and a 'nuisance'. He has been asked to leave his classroom, he has been pulled out of lessons, not because he was naughty but because he wanted more. It was one of his 'downest" moment and my darknest moment. How to you get a teacher to understand him when she is not trained to handle kids like him. How do you crack a nut head to see that his mum is not defending him but trying to help the teacher to help him.

Finally, we found a school with teachers who could look beyond that naughty handsome face! I pray that with this new role in his life, it will make him a better and wiser person! Dh is right to say that God sent us here for the kids.