The social committee at work, which I am part of, organised a team-building event on Friday evening. We had some good fun bowling and thankfully, I didn't suffer from too much aches after that. Which reminds me that I need to stay active and keep going.

Yesterday morning, the hubs and I went to Woodlands food industry to load up on our supply of Chilean Seabass and Norwegian Salmon as well as some frozen soup. The only types of fish we cook at home are these 2 really. The seabass was sufficient for 5 meals and costs us almost $150! Anyhow, before we went, we gave K the option to either go with us or go over to Jerry's. She chose Jerry's and she brought along a box of blocks and a barbie. 

We started the day early and for the first time we were at the food industries, there were so many parking lots for us to choose from! We bought the fishes, frozen soup and jumbo eggs this time, had lunch and then went back to pick K up.

Thankfully, K took her nap when we reached home and I could continue with the house chores and finally, got to mop the house too. The hubs had suggested going out, again, but I had to shoot the plan down because I really wanted to mop the house! #houseproudmuch  Thus we had dinner at the market before taking a leisurely stroll back home to end the day.

As for today, we headed over to the Victors' for dinner with the Whites and a young couple. K had fun playing with the girls and as usual, the ladies and men had their own updates. The Victors and Whites are heading to the UK on Tuesday and Kenneth has passed his house keys to the hubs, in case they have interested buyers who want to view their place while they are away. They're looking to sell their place but it seems to be taking a much longer time than when we were selling our first home. I guess the $1 million + price tag is not exactly making it easy. 

On another note, while I have been interested in growing a herbal garden recently, the girl brought home a little tray of wheatgrass from her recent school outing to a local vegetable farm. How fast they grow! But I have no idea what to do with it. K says that we can trim it when it grows too long so that it can grow again. But when I ask her what do I do to it after cutting, she is unable to reply me. I guess I'll have to ask google. :p

Top picture taken yesterday and bottom picture today. Just a day apart and look how fast they grow! Thankfully, the girl doesn't grow as fast! Lol.

When we walking to the mini pasar malam on Saturday evening, I spotted a chilli shrub and so many cute little green chillis flourishing. I think they are chilli-padis. I egged the hubs to pluck a stem out so we can try replanting it at home. After enquiring about a longer planter at the pasar malam, we walked home only to notice that the leaves on the chilli stem seem to be withering. But we planted it into the soil in the same planter as the mint plant anyway.

After dinner on Sunday, we took a purposeful walk pass that block of flats to trim another stem off the chilli plant and this time with a pair of scissors. I thought that it could be the hubs' way of plucking it off which may have hurt the stem, that's why it sort of died on us. Anyhow, we replanted the new stem next to the withered on in the same planter.

If you are sharp, you may even spot the 2 little chillis!

Anyhow, it's just 3 days and the leaves on both stems are withering! So sad! Is it so difficult to plant them? There were 2 chest-high (my chest) flourishing chill shrubs where we pruned them off from. They were even selling potted chilli at the pasar malam! But why are they dying on me? *sob*

K's school was on 1/2 day yesterday and so I arranged for her to be placed at Jerry's after that. The hubs was able to pick K up after her lunch and sent her to Jerry's but because he has a company event after work, I had to pick her up.

There was a fire drill in the office building at about 4ish and after we assembled at the meeting point to have our attendance marked, most of us went back home. 

The 3rd SIL had messaged me earlier in the week to have dinner at their place before I fetch the girl for her phonics lesson. And so I did. Sent the girl for her phonics lesson and I went back home for a shower. It was too hot. Dumped her clothes in the wash before I went to pick her up again.

Today, we were invited to the hubs' relatives home and we went there in the late morning so that K could go for a swim as well. The hubs went to pick his mother up before coming back for us. After the fun swim for the 2 of them, showered, had lunch and then the girl was off with the cousin to watch cartoon. Thankfully, the youngest BIL came in the afternoon as well and I had company in the youngest SIL. We usually go over to the relative's in the later afternoon and then for dinner. But this time round, the hubs suggested going in the early afternoon, let K swim, have lunch and then come home so she can nap.

We ended up spending 5 hours there anyway. The youngest SIL opposes to the idea of going too early as well as more often than not, we end up spending the whole day there. Although I had wanted to leave at 3, we ended up waiting for the hubs to finish their game of blackjack. And by the time we reached home, it was almost 5 and K was so knackered, that she continued sleeping when the hubs laid her down on her bed.

I took a shut-eye as well for a short while and when K woke up, we had dinner nearby. So, another week that I did not mop the house. Urgh. 

I have been getting a sharp pain on  my left foot for a couple of weeks now. Yes, seems like my body is slowing breaking down. The pain comes and goes, regardless of the shoe I wear. Recently, I suspect it could be because of bunion when the hubs also noticed that the bone near the big toe looks bigger and even red at times. And then that big toe started to bend inwards.

I decided to order a bunion corrector on-line and it arrived yesterday. The seller also showed the feet of some international celebraties with bunioned feet. It's awful...the last resort is surgery.

Anyhow, I tried it on last night. The contraption on the left foot is for night time while the silicon one on the right is for day use. Thankfully, it's only affecting the left foot for now. (Oops, can't seem to rotate the photo)

This morning, my left big toe doesn't look like it's bent in so much anymore but the bone is still visibly bigger than the right and slightly sore to the touch. Hopefully, this device works for me.

Since my pilates classes ended last Monday, I decided to join my colleagues in a free piloxing session that they go for every alternate Monday. Why pay when you can get it for free? 

So, despite the heavy rain, the 5 of us made it to class. The instructor was petite but muscular. And when it started, I almost regretted it. It was so intense! She is like a instructor in a boot-camp! Instead of an hour's workout, it stretched for another 1/2 hour. At the end of it, I felt a little lightheaded and suspect I'm in for a body of aches today.

But no, I'm quite surprised that I'm not aching as much as I think I would be! Maybe Saturday's 5km walk did loosen some of those tight muscles for me. In fact, I feel, well, toned. 

My colleagues asked if I'm still going to join them next week because I was lamenting on how unfit I am at the end of the session yesterday. I should just pay and stick to my slow mat-work pilates. And although the pilates at the CC starts at an awkward timing of 8-9pm, I can spend some time with the 2 at home but for yesterday's session, I went straight after work and only reached home almost 9pm and the 2 of them were asleep already. But according to my colleagues, the sessions usually end promptly. 

Well, we'll see. I definitely need the exercise. So....let's spend the next few days to think about it.

After the show on Friday night, I reached home at about 11ish and quickly washed up to go to bed.

Come Saturday morning and the hubs and I had to wake up early and that is 5:30am, just so to take part in a morning walk organised by Fairprice. The 5km started at 8am but we have arranged to meet up with the Victors and Josephs at 7:15am at the car park. 

We had quite good fun at the walk and the organisers did a good job spacing out refreshment booths and booths for photo opportunities along the route. We also hauled back quite a lot of refreshments at the end of the walk! Just take! The only bug was that the pre-loved stroller we bought kept getting stuck along the uneven ground which thankfully, the hubs and I managed to fix later at home. Good thing, it's not a production problem but something we can fix ourselves. Phew. Otherwise, money down the drain.

K knocked out on the drive home for a good 3 hours and so did I because I had a really bad headache from all that sun, heat exposure and lack of sleep. My plans to cook were even thrown out of the window because I couldn't stand the pain. The girl must have been so tired, she didn't have appetite for lunch when she woke up. Of course she didn't walk the full 5km. What do you think the stroller was meant for?

The headache stayed with me through today, getting better only after our dinner. 2 days of head splitting pain after a 3 hour walk? Hiazz......so jia lat! But thank God for the rain that poured down hard and heavy this evening!

Our department spent the evening with 'The Illusionist' at the MBS today. Before the show, the 4 of us decided on a quick dinner at Sakae Sushi, a place I've not been to in a while but frequented often with the hubs before K came along. However, the quick dinner also came up to about $120 for the 4 of us. Thankfully, for the department budget meant for team bonding. Hehs.

The show was not too bad...it's amazing how they manage to pull off some of the acts. I appreciate it because I won't otherwise pay to watch such shows. I rather watch a musical anytime.

Having said this, the month of May is an activity filled one for the hubs and I. We have been taking alternate Fridays off for work related events. In fact, it started with my office last Friday of the even month 'celebration' on the last Friday of April at a bar, then followed by the hubs work-related golf game last Friday, which incidentally I think it's more golf than work. Today is my turn again, then next Friday will be the hub's bowling event at work and followed by my company's bowling event the Friday after.

So, our or my initial plans of working out a sweat playing badminton while the girl attends her phonics lesson has not materialise. I'm not sure if it's going to happen during the course of her lessons at all! Sigh. But I guess at least, the hubs and I get to have some time-off.

Because K did not nap on Saturday, slept quite late in the evening because her mind was still in a hive of activity after the fun time she had at the restaurant and woke up so early on Sunday morning, she took a 3-hour afternoon nap when we returned home from church.

And getting quite sick of outside food, especially since I no longer cook on Mondays because of my pilates and Fridays because of K's phonics class, I decided to cook dinner on Sunday. In fact, I've been cooking lunch for the past 2 Saturdays too and I think it's a habit I'll like to continue. So technically, we have home-cooked food only 3 times a week, Tuesdays to Thursdays and hopefully at least lunch on Saturdays.

When K woke up after her nap on Sunday, I got her to help me out in the kitchen. I've been motivated to do so after meeting a parent of her nursery mate who told me that she gets her daughter to be involved in the cooking. But the slight OCD in me fears the mess K will make thus I decided to try her out on the simpler work first. She already helps me peel garlic and onions at times. Besides, K has been asking if she can help me whenever I'm in the kitchen but being typical parents, we fear the oil will splatter on her, the heat in the kitchen blah blah blah.

But since I wanted to use up the potatoes before they spoil, I decided to bake Tuna, Spinach and Potato Frittata, which incidentally does not require any cooking, I decided to let her help. She helped me beat the eggs, mix the spinach, onions, tuna, pepper and salt in the bowl, lined the potatoes on the pyrex plate and then spread mozarella cheese over. And I'm glad she enjoyed it!

After the meal, the 3 of us decided to check-out the pasar malam at the market. It was such a small set-up and pasar malams these days are nothing compared to those of old. We were only interested in the mini-nursery that occupied a stall there and bought ourselves a pot of sweet basil, a pack of soil for some re-potting work to be done later and a small pack of fertiliser.

I love, love the fragrance of the sweet basil! I also have a pot of mint plant which is not flourishing as much as it was when it was in my office. Hopefully, when the hubs re-pots it for me, it'll grow better. I do not mind having a herb 'garden' in my balcony but only if I can hang them up on the wall. But for now, I'll just stick to these 2 first and see how it works out. :)

The Mother's Day celebration started on Friday for my side of the family. Jerry had asked me if we can join them but I had declined initially because of K's phonics lesson. Jeremy had requested for me to skip the lesson for 1 time and upon the hub's 'suggestion', I took K off from class on Friday and joined Jerry's family, Jeremy, the eldest SIL and Bev for dinner, somewhere near Jerry's place. 

I had not told K of the plans at all and even when we walked a different direction, she didn't question me. How trusting she is. And I had to ask her why is she not asking why we're taking a different route. Anyway, it's a good break for her, I suppose. Especially with the bus-ride to Jerry's. That night, Jerry treated not just M for a Mother's Day dinner but Jeremy, Ivy, Bev, K and I scored a treat as well when he didn't want to be paid for our share. The hubs was away for a working golf game and so the eldest brother sent the 2 of us back home after dinner.

For the hubs' side of the family, we had dim-sum lunch, another treat we scored from the youngest BIL. We spent a short time at the 2nd BIL's after lunch and taught him how to use the stroller, remove the cover for wash and passed them the stroller that the youngest SIL passed to us recently. The 2nd SIL has also been discharged and will not return to work until her maternity leave is over. So that's some good news at least to know that the length of her cervix is slightly longer now. 

After sending the in-laws back home, I asked the hubs if he was still keen on going to the restaurant that I have made prior reservations for. I made reservations early part of the week, before the youngest BIL suggested the Mother's Day celebration and initially I thought I would have to cancel it. But thankfully, it was scheduled for lunch, short and sweet.

K napped only for 30 mins in the car and woke up when we arrived at the restaurant. She was greeted by a bouncy castle, a bouncy pirate ship, bubbles blowing and a craft area where she had her arm painted and a stick-on tattoo done. Initially, this was supposed to be my treat but the hubs decided to take the tab since it's yes, Mother's Day. There was also a live band performing and K, in her first of 4 years, was allowed to play in-between her meal time. Truth to be told, the food was blah but the concept was nice. The children were able to 'rough-it-out' in the field where at a later stage, K started running around bare-footed! Yikes!

And today, I had my 4th Mother's Day celebration when the church ordered in pizza after the service. Each of the mothers were also gifted with 1/2 dozen cheese salted egg tart, which is the current food craze.

A weekend full of celebration but 51 weeks of mom-slogging. To receive a happy and thankful smile from the family, it's worth it.

K did not take her afternoon nap in school, again, yesterday and the hubs was not happy. Well, neither am I but I've since more or less accepted it. Well, it isn't the first time and this has been happening since the previous school.

Since we didn't allow her to watch telly after dinner, as a means of 'punishment', I got her to do her activity book and she chose the numbers book yesterday. After 3 pages of number tracing, there was a page where she had to count the number of objects and write the corresponding number beside it. She couldn't write 5 or 7 properly and then the drilling started. I made her write the 2 numbers on a rough piece of paper until she got it right before writing it on her book. At 1 point, when I stepped away to attend to some chores in the kitchen, I heard the hubs raise his voice. 

Finally after an hour + and hopefully remembered by the girl, I went to bed with her. She did not take long to sleep and I was up again. The hubs then brought up my using the ruler to smack K's hand when she wrote wrongly for the 12345678 times. It was a short plastic ruler, those you get as part of a kids stationery set, and I lightly smacked her hand to 'alert' her of her mistake. And no, I do not regret it. The hubs on the other hand, laughed at her at certain juncture which I thought was a bit demeaning. Anyhow, I did tell him not to be so discouraging. If she continues writing her numbers in the opposite direction, it's not funny....it means she has a problem!

Well, the hubs did feel guilty and he sent this message to me this morning:

I know we are the least patient when it comes to teaching her. Being untrained for this is not an excuse. I am trying and I hope K understands my intention. It's not to hurt her but to help her.

For the May Day holiday today, we went to the River Safari and invited the Lees to join us. Especially since the hubs' company has a corporate card for the zoo, it makes sense that we enjoy the attraction as much as we can. 

This is also the first time we have seen the giant pandas so up close. Well, we've seen them walking around but not like today, especially since we were at their enclosure during their feeding time. 

We had expensive lunch at the panda cafe after enjoying the cool air-con at the panda enclosure and G's mum made K's share of lunch as well. She doesn't know how to cook so all she prepares for her 2 girls are always porridge and today's lunch for K was porridge with salmon, broccoli and carrot. I don't fancy cooking porridge and thankfully, most of the porridge cooking when K was much younger was done by the eldest SIL.

When we were done with the attraction, it started to rain and we had wanted to wait it out but unfortunately it started pouring. And so we had to shelf off our plan to visit the zoo.

While K napped for a very short while in the car, she was not keen to be put down at all when we reached home! Although the hubs and I slept, with the hubs napping more since Saturday, K was moving around on her mattress which made me so angry at one point that I brought the cane to use. On the mattress, that is. She cried but still didn't sleep when I checked on her 5 minutes later. So I got her to do her writing in her activity book.

In the evening, we went to the neaby malls for dinner and did some light grocery shopping at NTUC. And then we were back home before 8pm. Since K started her phonics lessons, we have not visited the malls that much already. 

Anyway, that concludes our 'long weekend' and we will be back to labour tomorrow. 

We were invited to the Chartering and Operation's party at a bar somewhere near the office on Friday. And so, happy hour started sometime about 4pm and lasted till 9pm. Well, for me at least. I had 1 1/2 glasses of Cider and 2 glasses of Bourbon Coke. Thankfully, I was still ok to take the train home and didn't make an embarrassment out of myself. But I did grab the next available seat when it was vacated a few stops after I boarded.

And on Saturday morning, while I put K's laundry to wash, hung it up to dry, magic-cleaned and mopped the house, scrubbed the balcony and made us lunch, the hubs and K went to the CC for an activity. Apparently, they have such craft activities bi-monthly and the hubs feels that he would like to attend such activities in future with the girl so as to allow me some time alone to do the house chores in relative peace and quiet. Well, bonding time for father and daughter as well. 

Look what they made for me! :)

It's a Mother's Day theme this time round.

And in the evening, we went to pick up a stroller from a seller on Carousell. Thankfully, it looks pretty new and lightweight enough to bring for our future holidays. But I worry that it will get dirty during baggage handling at the airport. Our previous Combi stroller has slight oil streaks on the canopy, making it look quite dirty.But thankfully, the seat cover is washable.

After inspecting the stroller and paying, we went off to meet the Victors for dinner at the club in Suntec. Then we called it a day after.

We didn't do much on Sunday after church. although we finally got to sit down for lunch with the 2 brothers and their family after we had to go off when service ended for the last 2 Sundays. This time we had lunch at a different place especially since the eldest SIL requested to go somewhere as she had been busy tending to her parents' needs, especially since both of them are back in the hospital again. And she needed that time-out, even if it's just a short while. Having to look after an infirm person is hard work enough. Just imagine that multiply by 2.