Nadine's art class

Nadine loves to draw, so we decided to sign her up for art classes. Found one near our place, went for a trial class, and Nadine really liked it. So we signed up for a term.

The curriculum at Artary is a combination of art and craft. They teach various drawing, painting, colouring and crafting skills, and what I really like is that after each lesson, the teacher will debrief with the parents on the students' development and progress. They also have a 2:4 teacher-student ratio. And most importantly, Nadine is enjoying herself.

Aaron's hair-cut

For some strange reason, Aaron has developed a phobia of hair-cut. Brought him to the hairdresser twice and he simply refused to let the hairdresser cut his hair.

So we decided bring him to a place with novelty - Supercut at Nex, where children get their hair cut on either a car or a motorbike. And they get lollies too! So Aaron was bribed, and actually has been asking to go back for hair cut!

Fuss-free dental visit

Nadine's dental visit this time was absolutely fuss-free.

Aside from asking to lie on me at the beginning (to which I said no coz she's a big girl now, and too heavy to lie on me), she obediently did everything that the dentist asked for. And the good news, no worms nor decay this time round! All the candy restrictions, lollipop ban and insistence on brushing teeth before she goes to bed have certainly paid off! 

Nadine said to me when we got home, "Mummy, was I a brave girl? You know why? Because God told me to be brave!"

Sweet!

Nadine - start of the bye-byes to milk teeth

1 week ago, Nadine reported that her 2 lower front teeth are shaky. So we started to prep her for the dropping of her milk teeth. She was worried that she'd look like an old lady without teeth. We had to assure her that a new permanent set of teeth will grow in due time.

3 nights ago, while playing with Daddy, one of the teeth dropped out.

Aaron's water play

The Pre-Nursery kids get weekly water play in school. Aaron loves it. This week, his teacher, Mrs Shimbo took some photos and whatsapped to me. So grateful that she took the effort to show parents how the kids are enjoying school!

LSK playground

Since beginning of school, Nadine has been bugging me to fetch her from school. I finally did, and realised why.

Her classroom is now just beside the playground, and every day after school, some of her friends will dash to the playground to play for 10-15 min before being chased off by their parents. 

So now, whenever I can, I'll fetch them .... giving them a playground treat!

Big enough for the exercise stations

When we first moved into our current place, Nadine was 2+, still very young and too small for the stationary exercise stations next to the playground. But now, 3 years later, she's grown tall and strong enough to play on the stations.

Can do stuns some more!

Daddy reading

The kids love it when Daddy reads to them

Intermittent squint

We've been increasingly concerned about Nadine's eyes, which keep showing a squint, especially when she's tired. So we decided to bring her to the ophthalmologist again. This time, the clinic scheduled us to see a paediatrician ophthalmologist.

Poor girl had to endure some eye drops to relax her eye muscles, and she was allergic to one of the eye drops! Her left eye was super swollen after the eye drops, and she was of course, super upset and cranky.

And it was confirmed that she has an intermittent squint, but not bad enough to require glasses. The ophthalmologist taught us a set of eye exercise to do with Nadine every day, to train her eye muscles. We'll have to go back again in 3 months' time to see if the condition has improved. If the condition does not eventually improve, she may require surgery. Poor baby! We certainly pray she'll not have to go through surgery!

Chinese New Year 2014

Now that Nadine is 5, and a choosy little young lady who has a mind of her own with everything, especially her clothes, I can no longer buy new clothes for her without her around. She needs to be there, to approve as well as try the sizes of the clothes.

This year, in preparation of Chinese New Year, we brought her to OG People's Park to buy a "Chinese dress". So nostalgic to do CNY clothes shopping there! Reminded me of my childhood days!

The reason we had to buy Nadine a "Chinese dress" was because the school celebrated CNY 2 days before CNY, and the children had to go to school in ethnic wear. I remembered Nadine was very reluctant to wear the Chinese dress we bought her last year, and insisted that she was English, not Chinese. This year, she's a lot more cooperative, and picked a nice pink dress herself.

I kept telling myself that I have to take more photos this CNY. Was very disciplined on Day 1, and promptly took a family photo before we headed out to Po-Po's house. But that's the only photo we took that day!

Day 2, our usual group of "swimmer friends" came over. For the last 3 years, the Gans and Chuas have been coming over on CNY to "swim" - the kids will go swimming in the pool, while the adults will enjoy our annual mahjong!

Here's us resting after a yummy lunch, before the swim. One particular uncle resting more than the rest!

More friends joined us for dinner. It was a great time of fellowship over good food and even better company!

Photo: Courtesy of Auntie Lydia