Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

It's been 3 months since he started school and already I can see the positive effects. For instance, he will sprout 一二三 and 1,2,3 everytime he knows that counting is due or when he sees numbers. He will also say "push" and "pull" at the right timings, though I am upset when he actually pushes me and says "push!" when he's upset or don't get his way. But at least the idea is there.  He will also say "paste" when I give him stickers or anything that looks sticky. They must do a lot of pasting in school.  His vocabulary expanded this month to include short sentences . From simply “谢谢”，it's now "谢谢阿婆”. In fact that day, he "complained" to Ah Pa when he woke up crying at night that "Ah Pa, nei nei (milk). Mama, water". I guess I was mistaken for giving him water as I had diluted the milk as he seemed to have some cough. Or it could be because I didn't give him more milk (and only remnant milk) since he just

Even before the talks of Smart Nation or a cashless society, I was already operating on less than $50 in cash per week for all my expenditure. Given my love for credit card rewards especially cash rebates and convenience, going cashless was a no brainer. I'm an early adopter of most new payment methods in Singapore. This is how I survive without cash most of the time. Going to work: Set up the VCashCard arrangement so as to avoid having insufficient credit when crossing the ERP.  Breakfast: use credit card pay wave to pay for breakfast ; this was superseded by Apple Pay after that was launched  Lunch: Pay my colleague via Paylah as she helps me tabao / pack lunch or we split the bill when eating out:  Return home: Book cab using Uber/ Grab , where payments are all made using credit card. If I take MRT / bus, I have my handy Citibank SMRT card with auto top up function so I will never run out of credits.  For all other payments to friends or family, there's FAST payment via inte

Last week was International Women's week. For the first time ever, I attended two programs organised by my company. One of the sessions was interesting as they invited female leaders in Singapore to share their views and tips. What I found particularly interesting were the following : - choose a right spouse , one who believes your career is as important as his (I guess it's too bad if you have already chosen.. haha). If you are still single , perhaps you can check this out :  https://hbr.org/2017/10/if-you-cant-find-a-spouse-who-supports-your-career-stay-single - don't lean out   Many a times women will not try for a job or take a job if they feel they only have 6 or of the 10 requirements checked.  However, a man will go for it even if they only have 6. In fact they may package themselves as a 12.  - you can be your own role model  Many a times, we look at the job ahead, we give it a miss as we do not want to travel so much, spend so many overtime hours as the current pe

I was teaching Cayen about helping other people like distributing food to the people living in rental flats. He had some questions:  C:  But I have no strength to carry the pot of food  Me: No, it will be in pre packed boxes , like the chicken rice and duck rice that we buy.  C: Oh.. Like the foodpanda ? But I don't know how to ride the bike.  Me: No, no , we will just walk and distribute door to door. But wait, how do you know about foodpanda ? I haven't ordered it.  C: Oh, I see it when I'm with Cayson looking at buses (from the planter box). Me: You mean you can see foodpanda from 31st floor?  C: Yeah!  Me: (disbelief) what colour is the bike? C: Orange!  I'm not that sure myself but well, if he's correct, then his eyesight is more than perfect. Amazing is their sense of observation.  (Post the article, I did a google, seems their corporate colour is pink). 

Cayson was at the pool - he bumped into his usual friend.. and suddenly , he picked a flower and gave it to his friend.  The girl's parents were amused. They commented that he's a Casanova in the making  . The mum started plucking the flower petals, pretending and saying , "he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me."  Cayson looked on, horrified. " Oh no! " he exclaimed as he saw the petals being plucked.  The girl's dad quickly told the mum , "Stop it ! It's not yours" . Haha !  Pity I missed this funny scene as I was out. Apart from this, he also started to make this thingie with his lips (blu blu) whenever he feels angry.  He also can play some simple matching games now. He recognises horse and zebra as horses and would call them 马.  He also can complete the sentences when I sing the sun and the rainbow song with "me..."  He also says "happy", not sure if he knows the meaning of "happy". Two months in school

I didn't  follow every single speech on the Budget ... but these are my impressions and questions in my mind thus far . I read that one of the main reasons is that we need to fund for an aging population, provide more for those with those needy ones etc  and one of the best means is to increase GST from 7 to 9% , timing to be confirmed.  Questions : - Have we done projections and simulations of what's the incremental taxes we can get via GST increase vs other taxation means like luxury taxes or estate duties ? I saw some statements that the rest are not practical or sufficient but can we see some numbers to confirm ? These are important enough decisions to warrant some careful computations.  - Assuming GST is the only means to reach the target, can GST be waived for certain daily necessities like rice , baby food, milk powder, education , self improvement courses etc. If we do not segregate , everyone gets hit , be it the rich, the middle class or the poor. And the poor gets hi