Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

As Cayson shows signs of understanding peeing and pooping (by how he sometimes will pee on demand during shower time), we have started to ask him to tell us of his intent in advance. After doing that for a few weeks, and many false positives, yesterday he did it ! He told Ah Po that he wanted to pee and he did deliver a full potty thereafter.  This is quite an achievement in my mind , given that he has only recently started to utter short sentences. This s also I’m the context that Cayen took quite a long while to be toilet trained.  Perhaps the second in line really learns a lot faster in general.  Additionally, he has learned how to tiptoe , pull down the door handle and open the door. Whoa, so strong and so resourceful at such a young age.. he’s still two months to being two years old!  Not sure why but he’s been fussing about getting into the car seat every other day and he’s been quite insistent about it. His strong will seems to be appearing slowly not surely. ...

Today is Cayen's school performance day. As I sat in the chairs watching him perform, I can't help but feel that he has grown so much over the last two years - from running off the "stage" at 4 years old to dancing with ease at 5.5 years. No doubt he still feels shy but it wasn't obvious as he sang, read , danced and recited Chinese proverbs just now. And most importantly, he seemed to have made many good friends now.  Last night when I was asking him if he wanted to practise and rehearse, he said it was a surprise so while we can listen to the songs on Spotify, he couldn't dance for me. *funny*  Post the performance, we also had a glimpse of the new Young Spartan program that school is introducing. He didn't Join the Zumba warm up as he didn't warm up to the four super heros who were facilitating the games. Oops. But he did end up enjoying the subsequent activities involving obstacle courses etc.  As an encouragement to him, we brought him to Kidzania...

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 payme...

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 th...

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...