The hubs invited the Victors and Whites for dinner on Friday evening at the club. Although I work further from home, I leave work earlier and so volunteered to pick the girl from school, go home for a change and meeting the hubs and our friends for dinner. I rather the travel then to stay in the office waiting for time to pass. Somehow the girl and I met Debs and her daughter at the club lobby and we were the last ones to arrive. Her husband too, went to the club directly after work.

And yesterday, the girl only had abacus in the morning. There is a break for her ballet and finally, it wasn't such a rush Saturday. As the hubs had an event at work, I sent the girl for abacus and came home to do whatever I needed to do before I had to pick her up again.

I cooked soup noodles for her lunch and M came with E a little later. I allowed K to play a while with her cousin while I mopped the house and in between couldn't help raising my voice at M who speaks so harshly about people. I felt bad after that. When I was done with the chores, I made K take her nap while M and E were still around and I napped too. 

When the hubs came home, the 3 of us went out shortly while M and E made their way back. 

We then took the train ride to the Pannu's for their Deepavali invite. It has been a long while since we connected back with them although I did meet up with the Pannu wife and daughter with K some months back. We met the Victors at their house and basically spent the evening there. The slight  headache I was nursing from the afternoon became worse and when we reached our block, I threw up a little downstairs and the hubs was quite sloshed by the time he washed up. *rollseyes*

Surprisingly, we still made it in time for church today. We were back again at the club for late lunch but this time with the eldest brother and SIL. We had so much that I had indigestion after that. Lol. 

They followed us home and I had to force the girl to take her afternoon nap again, especially since we came back so late last night and had to wake her up for church this morning. When I woke up, the eldest brother and his wife have left for home.

As much difficulty I had to make the girl nap, it was equally hard to get her to wake up. Her classmate's mother had gifted us with an invite to a mall's Halloween party and I had promised to bring her.

We did finally leave the house, like we were forcing her to. Sigh...some things we do as parents. She did eventually enjoy herself. There was a cute laughing pumpkin lamp as a door gift, a photo booth, a laser tag game, another game that required her to shoot the cards as well as a felt bag making station. After that, we went to some of the shops that were participating in the mall's event and collected candies.

                                    

Another fun weekend.

The difference to our Saturday morning routine is that the hubs will walk K to her abacus class while I stay home to do the household chores in peace and quiet. And if every Saturday would be like this, I would cook lunch and have it ready when the hubs returns home wif K after class ends. Despite the enrichment centre being only a 10 minute walk away, the hubs is sufficient with just his handphone, passing time in the air-con comfort of Mcdees while I work at home in the sweltering heat. I am so going to install air-con in our next home.

The hubs managed to pat the girl to her afternoon nap after lunch and 45 minutes later, had to wake her up for ballet. While the girl was at ballet, the 2 of us crossed over to the mall for some grocery shopping. At least we are making use of time. Otherwise, we would be wasting it sitting around for 45 minutes to pass. I told the hubs we should do our grocery shopping at times like this, when we have no plans immediately after ballet.

We then went home, I took a quick shower because the heat has caused my scalp to be so oily and my hair was so flat and messy. A while later, we were out again. This time to the hubs' nepalese aunt's home for the yearly traditional ritual and also our first time going there by public commute. But we had to make 1 transfer though. While we are usually the first few ones to arrive, this time, we were almost the last. But it doesn't matter because they were all time 'draggers'.

After church today, the hubs patted K and she actually had a 2-hour nap! She has not been taking her afternoon naps for the past few weeks and it means she will still do, if we enforce it with a lot of patting!

In the evening, in order to escape from the heat that has engulfed us for the entire week, we took a bus ride to Jurong Point and had dinner there. Thankfully, we had some cool breeze when we returned home in the evening.

It was a 1/2 day session at the girl's school yesterday and since I've taken the Children's Day off, it was the hubs' turn for yesterday. And a mother of another child, the girl's K1 mate, had text the hubs' about bringing her child over. However, she added that she will pick her daughter up at 6pm, which meant that she was not going to be around!

I was quite shocked as I would not in my wildest dream leave K alone in an environment I am not familiar with. Especially since it was only the hubs around with 2 girls! I trust the man but little children can say the most nonsensical things. The hubs too agree that he would never do the same. While we welcome K's friends to come over for play dates, we felt that the mother should have practiced more caution? I guess she trusts us. It is a different story if we are close friends.

Anyhow, as much as I wanted to leave work early I couldn't. The 2 girls had so much fun and the surprising thing was both even napped! During this time, the hubs was even able to cook dinner. The other girl's mother reached our home slightly after I did and even stayed for a while, just because the child did not want to leave yet. The hubs' had good sense in him to cook extra rice because the girl ended up wanting to eat dinner at our place. So her mother hung around. It was 7:30pm when they left and shortly after, Esther popped at our front door.

K definitely had a day of surprises. I had planned for Esther to stay over especially since she has finished her exams and having not seen the 3 siblings in a while, it was nice to have her come by to play with her little cousin. K has mentioned on few occasions that she has not seen her cousin for so long and I guess she misses her.

And today, we had another achievement unlocked! We took the public transport to the zoo and the journey turned out to be quite fast! We took the train to CCK and changed to a bus. Altogether, it was only about 30-40 minutes travelling time. Almost similar to driving.

Since the hubs' had with him 2 corporate passes from his office, he could sign in another 4 guests. So he was looking out for people he could extend the invite to. I told him to look out for foreign workers rather than the tourists that he was initially targetting. Tourists are here to spend their tourist dollar while the foreign workers hardly have days off to relax and the entrance fee is quite steep, in my opinion. So eventually he managed to bless a foreign worker and his foreign girlfriend. They were so happy and so would I be, if I were them.

We spent almost 6 hours at the zoo, taking in a show that we never caught before. It being a public holiday, the zoo was very crowded. But thankfully for the vastness in space, it didn't matter. Although it was scorching hot, I'm thankful too because the rain would have dampen our moods and we would not have been able to see as many animals. This time round, K and her cousin had the opportunity to pat 'free-roaming' monitor lizards, a snake, 2 dogs, a rat, a ferret and a rabbit.

And then we went back home the same way how we went to the zoo. The 3rd SIL came by to pick Esther up after dinner and K was so knackered, although she didn't show it, she took under 5 minutes to doze off.

The hubs had an early event yesterday morning but reached home before noon. So I got him to send the girl for her abacus class and buy me breakfast while I put her laundry to wash and hang. I also managed to wash the balcony and bathed before the 2 of us had to go pick her up.

It was quite a rush affair for us because the Salahudeens were sending over their carrom board, a air-hockey table and some stuff as they have sold off their house and were migrating to Australia sometime next year. They held a 'garage sale' some weeks back but since we no longer have the car, I told her to let anyone else who may want to buy what I was interested in instead. But she decided to provide delivery service. Lol.

We were supposed to lunch out together after they have set up the air-hockey table but they were late and so we ended up buying Macdees for the 3 of them, chit-chatting for a while and then them sending us to K's ballet class.

M who brought Esther out since the morning came by to give K a surprise when her class ended. But we could only take the train ride to JE together because we were heading out to the Victor's for a dinner invite. See, we can still travel to many places without the car! Ha.

After the boys watched their football, K had her fun with the younger daughter, we took a grab back home.

And today, while the 3 of us were walking to the train station to head to church, the hubs received several messages from work and had to go to 1 of the guild houses to look into a situation. So the girl and I made our own way to church.

While the brother stayed for Sunday School, K & I followed Ivy back home. We had lunch, stayed for a little while and were the first passengers while Bev drove! She only received her driving license about a week ago and not only were we her first passengers, the girl and I also met her boyfriend. She refused to let Ivy go down with us to take a look at him. Hahah...so in a way, I'm quite happy to say that she trusts me. Or maybe she was just worried that her mum would embarrass her? Lol....oh well...

That is our busy weekend.

It's been a while since I last recorded the conversations with K. So here goes:

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We were in the bus, headed for home, and across the aisle was a family with 4 children. All girls except for 1 we couldn't see who was under the mother's nursing cover.

K: Mummy see, the baby must be drinking milk.

Me: Hmmmm...maybe

Just a short while later,

K: Wahhh...Mummy, the mummy must have a lot of milk cos the baby still drinking.

Still looking over at the family, K who was sitting on my lap started elbowing me:

K: Mummy, can you PLEASE give me a mei-mei or di-di?!

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K and I were in the toilet at a church we were visiting, where some of the children were cousins.

K: Mummy, next time my children will not have any cousins. So sad.

Me: (Thinking not another one of this sibling request) Next time you give birth to 2 children then. 

K: But my children won't have any.

Me: -_-

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K: Mummy, next time when daddy die already, you can come over and stay with me and my husband. Just like mama.

Me: Then what if mummy dies first?

K: Then daddy can come over and stay with us.

Me: *rollseyes*

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While I was trimming K's nails one evening,

K: I am so scared....next time I will ask my husband to cut my children's nails.

Me: What if he has to work late and your children's nails are very long already?

K: Then I anyhow cut first and let him cut properly when he comes back. Eeeee...I'm so scared.

SO funny she is when she comes out with all these unexpected conversations. Lol......

K attended her first abacus class today. She wasn't looking forward to it initially but thankfully when we picked her up at the end of the lesson, she seemed to like it. The teacher gave pretty good feedback too. The class is small, just the 4 of them, of varying ages. So K has more or less 1-to-1 attention because the other 3 girls have been there for a while already and only needs the teacher's help when they are unsure. 

The centre also happens to be a student care centre so if Ivy isn't able to look after K when she enters Primary 1, this will be the student care that we will send her to. There are pros and cons on sending K to after school care or to stay home. Of course, the ideal situation would be for me to stay home and look after her but then there goes my income...so there's really no such thing as a perfect situation.

Anyhow, the hubs decided to treat K to a Mcdee's lunch after class, with it being just downstairs. And as if it is becoming a trend, K didn't nap again when we got home. Then it was time to bring her for her ballet class. This time without the hubs because he had a dinner event so I let the only person who napped in the household continue in his beauty nap. *rollseyes*

We got home before it poured, after ballet and a while later, the hubs went off for his dinner. All spiffy in his shirt and pants with a coat over his arm and taking the express bus to town where the hotel is. Lol. Looks like he's getting used to it. He even took the bus back home and was so proud with how much he saved on transportation.

While the hubs was enjoying his dinner at some classy hotel, the girl and I had.....wrap. It was meant to be pizza but it ended up being wrapped. Lol.

I've been having good food for much of the week so it's time to lay off too. The youngest SIL had invited us and the 2nd BIL's family for a surprise birthday dinner buffet for the youngest BIL at M Hotel on Monday and on Wednesday, the boss and I had a networking lunch with our corporate travel agent and airline at a french restaurant. Then Friday, K & I were at JB and all you do in JB is indulge in good food.

I hope I don't get fat!

I had to take the day off today for Children's Day, because it is my turn to do so. Anyhow, I made prior plans to meet up with a friend whose daughter and K used to be at the same childcare centre. Both families have since moved and our 2 girls naturally joined other centres. However, after an interesting chat I had with the 2 other SILs, I cancelled the plan and went to JB with them instead.

The youngest SIL, in ranking not by age, is the only one whose family still has a car. So she picked the 2nd SIL and son up before coming for K and myself at the train station. And because I did not know it was only about a 1/2 hour or less train ride to the meeting point, K and I took a walk into the turf club and caught the morning exercise but because the place was huge, the horse was pretty far out.

We went to a newly opened mall in JB and spent the whole day there, although I didn't buy much. Just a pair of sandals and milk powder. So the 2 cousins spent time together except for the 1 year old who still doesn't have much clue to what's happening. Just 3 ladies with 3 kids. So brave uh.

In the evening, the 2 SILs checked that the causeway was jammed and so the youngest SIL suggested we drop by her younger brother's as they were celebrating her niece's 12th birthday as well. So we had light dinner there and left about 8pm. And this time, they could send me back because we left by the Tuas checkpoint. 

Almost 12 hours in JB with the out-laws and our kids. It was nice. Our first and probably not the last. :)

The hubs wanted to go to his parents' home on Saturday morning to deliver the kueh lapis he bought at his golfing trip in Batam, as well as a bottle of home-made pickled veg that Gaye helped him order. With Saturdays being quite busy for me now, I suggested going over to his parents on Friday evening instead. Since the hubs could not make it back in time to pick K from school, I suggested meeting him at his parent's block instead. 

After work on Friday, I took the express bus to the girl's school, picked her up, went home to change as well as pick up the stuff that the hubs had wanted to bring over to his parent's. I told him since we no longer have the car, to not buy anymore food stuff for them. Imagine to always have to send them over before the food turns bad. I told him to buy them non-perishables instead. Since he seems so into buying clothes for his mother recently, *rolleseyes*

The bus journey to the in-laws took merely 10-15 minutes from in front of our house and took another 5 minutes to walk to their block. The hubs bought dinner from his workplace and met K and I at the foot of his parents' block.

We had packed dinner with them, watched a bit of tv and left at 8:30pm. Short and sweet, like how I like it. Lol.

Saturday, I had no idea where time flew. By the time we came back from lunch with M, who came out of the lift just as we were waiting to go for lunch, it was already 2ish and I had to bathe and change to bring the girl for her ballet class.

All I remember doing in the morning was put K's laundry to wash and washed the balcony. I have no idea where the rest of the time went. M followed us to the CC but we went separate ways after it ended because we had a barbeque at his Nepalese cousin's condo to celebrate the Nepali New Year.

We took the train to Bishan where the youngest SIL picked us up and we went to the east together. I think I prefer gatherings with the Nepalese side because it is a cosier group of people compared to the big number from the MIL's side and they are ALWAYS gambling! And in a way, the Nepalese side is closer in blood terms also.

We left at 9ish, hitched a ride from the youngest SIL again to the train station and rode the long train ride home.