Day at the zoo - May08

Family went to the zoo. ZQ's third visit to the zoo and he is happy playing at the children playground and getting himself wet. Brought our new domestic helper and it's her first time there despite being in Singapore for 3 yrs. Her ex-employer does not bring her nor their own kids out to such places. She enjoyed herself too and also taken quite a few photos for her.

ZQ loves this swing at the zoo. His first try and he can swing by himself but we told him to hold on tight. A few times he tried the stunt to come down and almost fell - quite dangerous. Below also has him making faces - cheeky face. An enjoyable outing. ZQ slept for a short while during the penguin show .... by the time the show ended, he woke up! haha. Missing the most impt part of it.

Haircut @ the professional

This is ZQ's first haircut @ the professional. Previous disastrous haircuts were either by MIL or ex-maid. I am glad I finally did it. Just look at the difference. His old haircut does not make him look boyish at all. In fact, alot of people mistaken him as a girl, calling him meimei and I had to correct them. Now, I think it's hard to mistake him as a girl right? Of course the hair looks better after mommy's trimming.

Brought him for a professional cut. He has had his share of crying and wailing and we had to use alot of sweets to calm him down to get this decent haircut. Both hubby and I think it looks a bit too BENGISH for him so I had to do abit of trimming.

Final product - after going through mommy's magic hands. I think he looks much better after the slight trimming. So boyish now .... no longer can be mistaken as a girl anymore.

A happy mom.

ZQ's 2 year old birthday

It's been 2 months since his birthday and I am only finding time now to update his pic. See how he is enjoying his piece of cake, sitting on the birthday seat : )

New updates on ZQ - 2 yrs and 2 months

Songs
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ZQ has slowly mastered a few songs which he can sing and it's rather impressive - to me at least. I guess children nowadays are really very clever.

One of the songs he can sing is the chinese song "Ma Ma Hao". It melts my heart when he always sing it .... Another favourite is the chinese song "Huo Che Kuai Pao" - train running fast. He will sing this song day in day out ... sometimes he will even substitute the "Huo Che" with some other words. hehe quite ingenious.

Another one he used to sing is the "Ming Yue Ji Shi You" ..... which I taught him cos I had this poem written on my bedroom wall and he loves to have me sing it to him. He also picked up the first 4 phrases. There are quite a number of songs which he knows how to sing and sometimes even those I don't he will sing it to me. As I had been teaching him same songs, I think it's time to find new songs to teach him else he'd be like a broken recorder, always repeating the same things.

Playing Bubbles
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ZQ's new playtime fun is to play with bubbles. We bought 2 machine operated bubble blowing machines but it seems they are not working too well. Sometimes it does not work as well as we'd like it to be.

ZQ even learnt this "Tomorrow play bubble" .... and sometimes he will just tell me that after he has had his bubble session that day. So cute.

Whining & saying Bu Yao
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He has picked up this habit of whinning when he does not get his way. As I do not normally give in to him, he has learnt to turn to the new maid. As she is new, she gives in to him and I had to instruct her to be more firm.

ZQ seems to like her alot - perhaps she is vv slack with him? giving him whatever he wants?
I have to monitor as it's bad for someone to sing a different tune with me if I want to train and discipline ZQ. Once, he even turned to her cos I said No and insist that he cannot do it. He did not even want me to carrry him afterward and only asking for "auntie".

Kids are really smart to know who they can "bully".

Help arrived and life is much better now

Having extra help is a wonderful thing for a preggie. I finally managed to get my new domestic helper. It was by chance as I walked into a different agency which I meant to go and interviewed 2 domestic helpers which I found one rather suitable. It was within few days that she came on board to work for me.

She is so wonderful in comparison to my previous one. Not having another to compare we'd never know what we're missing out. It was a good thing that I stood by my decision not to renew my old maid as she was planning to go to Canada and was using us as her stepping stone. During her last few months, her performance deteoriated and her attitude was bad. Lots of arguments and excuses to go out of the house to do her personal things. Work was sloppy and badly done and causing me lots of stress and unhappiness.

When she left, I managed to do what she does in the entire day after my full day work and in fact I felt I did better! My house was not well cleaned and often she left my clothes unironed but to think I managed to do it myself though I am working full time - can imagine how slag she was. She talks more on her hp than anyone I ever know. The time she is not talking is prob when she is bathing.

Nonetheless, I have now a new helper whom I am rather satisfied to date. I hope that she will not turn out to be like the old one. She did all the work (cleaning the house, packing up stuff, ironed all the clothes - even my bedsheets, etc ) within 1 week of coming to my house. My hubby was vv impressed -- haha, of course now knowing what my old helper had not done.

My place is kept cleaned most of the time and she does not keep awake till midnite, yet she completes all her work. She even took initiative to pack my drawers, etc. Good work and hope she keeps it up.

The only thing she needs to improve is probably her cooking.