Wedding Bands Warehouse Sale

Graduation From Play Nursery

We made a graduation hat together the night before. When we were leaving the class, Teacher Neelam handed over Bevan's Graduation Book. She gave me a big, warm hug (I felt like I was the student graduating), and she said, unforgettably, "you are a great mum Amanda." I love her.

Bye bye to Play Nursery. Little Bevan is going to attend a "real" school next year!

Moving House 3: The Problems

Bevan and Berton are growing up in my shop.

My shop is in a shopping complex with shared aircon-duct. That means people who smoke illegally in the staircase or toilet, the smoke would pass through the aircon duct, and goes to my shop. For my 4 years rental experience there, the management has cleaned the aircon once, and the next day, we found the entire shop covered with black feathery particles that fell out during the cleaning.

To make things worse, my shop is laid with sweet pink carpet, including the kids’ room. Even with super duper power and expensive vacuum cleaner like our honourable Osim iEcologi, it’s still giving out visible dust everytime you stomp on the carpet. Kids do that all the time.

Plus, Bevan and Berton go to the public toilet.

Because of the above, Bevan suffers from an overall sensitivity. He has sensitive nose, eyes, skin and respiratory system. He rubs his eyes and nose very often, he has rashes every now and then, and he coughs till he vomits at night. Berton is expected to have the same problem very soon. You know how painful that is to a mother, especially if you think from the point of view that you are the one who caused the harm.

The people from other shops love them. The security guards give my then-newborn hi-5, the hairstylist pinches their faces alot, the tailor tickles them, the cleaner hugs them. As very young children, they are too exposed to the non-home-based surrounding.

The doctor sent an ultimatum - confine them at home.

Good Old Friend

One of my best friends from Malaysia came to Singapore with her hubby. They stayed with us for a night. I am surprise that I am still capable of this - We chatted till 5am!

We knew each other for almost 20 years. We used to grumble about classmates, boyfriends, and parents, those were the crazy days. This time round, ahem, we are so different - we chatted about our kids, our businesses (she has just started her beauty parlour!), our partners, and a little about the past, it’s one of those fantastic chats with a good old friend.

Moving House 2: 孟母三迁

在我们寻找新居的当儿，我们发现自己考量的，都仅是新居环境对孩子们的影响。我警惕自己不要成为愚疼妈妈。哈哈，幸亏这让我想起了孟母。既然古人在经济和生活环境欠佳的情况下，都能事事为孩子教育着想，我们所做的，也就是应当的。

在此，让我与大家分享 - 孟母三迁的故事。

Moving House 1

We are in the midst of moving house!

The surprise is - within these 2 months, we bought 2 new houses! It's a long story. We are glad that after the 2 months of property search anxiety, negotiation ups-and-downs, agents’ impact on our choices, purchase excitement, market slump after our purchase, and the sweet revisits to IKEA. I will pretend to be a star blogger and write down the episodes. It's more for myself to remember, it's a big step forward.

Finally we are closer to settling down.

An Extravagant Affair

Favourite Penguins

I wonder if this has anything to do with their difference in personalities.

Since they were little babies, Bevan never had any favourite soft toys, he was just ok to have them around. On the other hand, Berton loved Sponge Bob (who is not too handsome judging by my standard) when he was just learning to flip, like he would flipped and smiled looking at Sponge Bob.

Now the brothers fell in love with these 2 penguins. It's the first soft toy that Bevan likes, he often kisses him, and says "I am Penguin's Daddy". But they have very obvious different picks, Bevan likes the "more-handsome-one" and used to be quite fearful of the other one, and again Berton likes the not-so-handsome-one (the one with hair standing up). They bring them everywhere and anywhere (like the toilet).

Praising Kids

My dad gave the first gentle cautious reminder when we praised Bevan. And then, I noticed that even Bevan’s teacher, who is an Indian, said “touch wood” (and she really touches the woody table with both her hands) whenever she praised Bevan. Like

"He is so smart. Touch wood." And touched the table. I gather that the belief is that when we praise the children healthy/ smart/ well-behaved, they would turn otherwise. It’s totally unscientific. But this is how I am now totally convinced...

The first time I told Daddy Koh that Berton almost hadn’t gotten sick - He got a fever the next day.

The second time I said Berton seems healthier than Bevan - He got diarrhoea in Hong Kong.

The third time (last week) Daddy Koh praised Berton is strong - He’s down with flu almost on the same night.

I wonder how this could be explained scientifically. Even though those are the only 3 times Berton fell sick, I am quite happy about it, but I must say, he is not quite healthy. Yap.

My Life

Photography is the best invention, to show you how much you've aged.

It was baby Chloe's (my cousin's daughter) 1 year old birthday. We attended with my parents. It was held at a really nice chalet, the food was good, we chatted happily in front of the TV, which was showing a video clip of baby Chloe, like the clips play in weddings, created by Uncle Harry (Chloe's grandpa).

Uncle Harry went through a few operations. I knew he was a little depressed. He shared with us recently that - he planned for a retirement few years ago, so that he could travel around the world with my Aunt. But his health wasn't as good as he wished. We could only cheered him up as much as possible. He looked healthy and happy talking about taiqi during Chloe's party, we are very happy for him.

Half way through, Uncle Harry said he had a surprise for us. He changed the VCD, and it was a VCD about us! The littlekohs! I was so surprise! I watched feeling really emotional inside. I had to keep smiling so that I don't look too touched. It's the first time I saw my own life scenes from another person's camera, together with my family and my cousins, from single and available and pampered Daddy's girls (slim and pretty), to being mothers (put on weight and mature).

Thank you so so so much Uncle Harry.