I was packing the room and went through some of the haphazard drawings from Anna. Unlike Andrea who was drawing mainly girls and people around 5-6 years old, Anna seems to prefer to draw animals.

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Andrea always says Ashley looks like Mao Zedong, the man she saw on the photo in front of Tiananmen. "P



This is Ashley at taking a bath in her royal tub.

Eh... she does look rather stately here huh? "P

One of the questions that lots of people like to ask is "Who does Ashley look like, more like Andrea or Anna?"

Well, I guess her look seems to change every few days and I am not too sure too.. "P



Anna


Ashley


Andrea

So who do you think she resembles more?

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She is staying alert longer now, likes people to be around her and to talk to her, loves listening to music and songs, drinks about 120 ml every 3 hours, and so very cute when she's not crying. "P

I am relieve that there's no such thing as mid-year examination in Andrea's Primary School. The teachers had given her some test paper as homework over the long weekend though. With a new baby at home, we had been going out less and the girls spent quite a fair bit of time doodling at home. Andrea has recently been very keen on drawing comics and some of them are really very funny.

She was working on one over this past weekend which she named it as -- An Unlucky Day. Both Seong and I were laughing as she showed and read the comics strip to us!




A close-up of what she drew


(I copy what she wrote here)

The first scene was in school...
The teacher Mr Tan says: Revise! Exam is round the corner.
The children : Yes, Mr Tan.

After school...walking home
Boy : Mr Tan says "revise"
Mum : I will print test papers for you to do.

Doing the test papers
Boy : This is so boring. I rather go and watch Tom and Jerry

Bedtime
Boy : Uh 0h. I did not finish my test paper. Let me practise now. 1x1=1 2x2=4 3x3=9 4x4=16

Exam
Boy : I can't solve all these questions. Uh Oh.

The girls' recent lessons at Teacher Bernice's house were all about chairs.


From Teacher Bernice....

The history of the chair goes back two thousand years. Although its
style and design have changed, its core function has remained the
same. In its many different shapes and forms, a chair is an object
that "seats" us. In the course of our daily lives, we use a variety of
chairs- on buses and trains, and at school, work, and home. This
lesson explores a selection of chairs from the 19th, 20th and 21st
century:

1. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. (British, 1868-1928). Side Chair. 1897.
Oak and silk.
2. Eero Saarinen (American, born Finland. 1910-1961). Tulip Armchair
(model 150). 1955-56. Fiberglass-reinforced polyester and cast aluminum.
3. Josef Hoffmann. (Austrian, 1870-1956). Sitzmaschine Chair with
Adjustable Back (model 670). c. 1905. Bent beechwood and sycamore
panels.
4. Kazuo Kawasaki. (Japanese, born 1949). Carna Folding Wheelchair.
1989. Titanium, rubber, and aluminum honeycomb.
5. Fernando Campana and Humberto Campana. (Brazilian, born 1961).
Vermelha Chair. 1993. Iron with epoxy coating, aluminum, and cord.
6. Tokujin Yoshioka. (Japanese, born 1967). Honey-Pop Armchair. 2000.
Paper.

The children did drawings of chairs they use in their daily lives
before we studied pictures of the chairs listed above. We talked about
style, materials, forms and function. The lesson continued with the
children experimenting with assorted materials to design unique chairs.




This is Andrea's work


This is Anna's work

I went into the delivery suite armed with all the standard items to be included in the emergency bag: my pyjamas and change of clothes, baby Ashley's change of clothes, marriage certificate (to register the birth of Ashley at the hospital), toiletaries and most importantly ..........the cards that Andrea painstakingly made for me over the last few days.

My sweet darling had been "secretly" sneaking the cards she made into my emergency bag and told me not to see them till I went to the hospital. I kept to my promise and only looked at them when I was lying on the delivery bed. Awww...... her effort really melt my heart. :)

My favourite was this comic strip that she drew

Seong and I did some baby shopping yesterday, adding on a baby pram and a rocker cum baby chair. As the weather was very pleasant this morning, we decided to take a walk at the botanical garden and let the two BIG babies had a try on the pram first. :P

I deliberately chose a Maclaren pram this time as the saleslady told me this UK brand is made to withstand weight of up to 25 kg. Since our two big girls are around 20-22 kg, the pram would be able to take their weight if they decided to have a go. :P



Oh, both Seong and I were rather smittened by the Stokke pram which can be doubled up as a high chair. I think this must be the Lamborghini of all prams. :p


It's so chic and stylo. But, it also comes with a hefty price tag of SGD2,190!


It was a really pleasant stroll, I can't even remember when was the last time we came to the botanical garden. Anyway, this is the first time I saw this sculpture of Chopin which is a gift of the people of Poland to Singapore.

I am really looking forward to see baby #3 now. OK, give me one more week, just let me settled the jie jies back to school, celebrate Anna's birthday on Wednesday (which I brought forward a week in advance just in case), stock up more food and you can make your appearance! :DD

I bought the story book Marley & Me for myself and a simple version Marley for Andrea.  After watching the show, I guess Andrea was able to understand more as she reads the book.  The writing is the same just that in Marley, only the part with Marley is included making it an easy read for kids.

( <* O*> )

This is one rare Sunday in many weeks that we had nothing lined up for us. It felt so good to wake up to a day where we could just take our time and planned whatever we wanted. The morning weather was humid and hot and with my huge belly, I just wanted some passive activity. So off we went to catch the movie -- Marley and me.

I went with no expectation whatsoever but I must say this is one movie that really made me laugh at some part and teared a lot! It's a simple real life story about how a couple coped with their neurotic pet labrador, how they coped with loss, parenthood and the added responsibility as well as how their marriage evolved over time. In a way, I find it easy to relate to the movie, especially the parts when they were struggling with a baby and a toddler, a messy house made worse by a unruly pet. It was heart-warming to see that it got easier as the kids grew and the family, including Marley still stayed close together. I think the show delivers a nice message that dogs, like children and marriages, require commitment and work.

I am glad the show has been running for quite some time and so the cinema was rather empty when we watched it this morning. I could just laugh and cry with reckless abandon and let the girls voiced out their questions. It's an awesome movie, touching and inspirational.


choosing the clearance puppy -- Marley, amongst the others.


this is one hilarious part when Grogan can't keep Marley in a moving car "P

The afternoon shower had made it easy to spot these little creatures and the girls were thrilled to hold and watch them. With the help of our maid Srini, Andrea came back with 4 snails, all found around our estate. "p
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I must say I too was rather fascinated as I watch this li' creatures peeping out of their shell slowly and creeping around.



Looks like they are gonna be our pet for the next few days. :P

Anna has been telling me that her teacher told her a snail is both a girl and a boy and I was rather doubtful till I googled about facts of snails and realised that it's true! The snail is both male and female. Therefore, it can produce sperms and eggs at the same time.

Some interesting websites on snails.
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Snails/
http://www.geocities.com/sseagraves/allaboutsnails.htm
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Snails/snailstory.html



We also spotted a rainbow from the balcony after the afternoon shower.

This is one of my all time favourite dish -- braised pork with bitter gourd and moi choy (梅菜)! I made a BIG pot this morning and the whole house was infused with the smell of this mouth-watering dish. "P

( :P )

After reading another mummy's blog on the lion dance craft, I decided to engage Anna to make one as well.

As we ordered some grocery from NTUC and it came in a box, I promptly decided to make use of the box and an old bed spread for the chinese lion craft.


See our lion :P


The two girls had fun doing the lion dance.

Was trying to teach Anna how to tell time.

Chance upon some websites that is quite useful

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/time/
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/printable-worksheets/make-your-own/telling-time/index.php
These help generate worksheets to keep her busy

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/clock/clock7hour.html
This one is a simple game to reinforce what she learn on the worksheet.

And this is one rather baby game, counting fish. :P
http://www.primarygames.com/math/fishycount/index.htm

The girls did some still life painting at Teacher Bernice's house these two weeks.

 

These two are from Anna

 
These two are from Andrea. 
 

Two weeks ago, I noticed a caterpillar munching away on the lime leaves at our balcony planter.  It was a very green caterpillar and I decided to let the girls keep it as a pet.



I made a habitat in a bottle for our little friend and the girls were happily bringing it to their classes to show their friends and to their granny's house to show their cousins.



The caterpillar was indeed a very hungry little creature.  I got the girls to put in fresh stalks of lime leaves everyday and it just kept munching away. 
After a few days, we noticed it stopped moving and formed into a pupa (chrysalis).


See it stuck itself to the side of the bottle and stayed this way for about 5 days.

This morning, we were pleasantly surprised to see quite a big butterfly fluttering its wings about in the bottle!


Isn't it beautiful?

 

We set the butterfly free at our balcony planter, hoping that it will fly away to find his friends but when I checcked on it just now, it was still sitting on the same plant.  Let's hope it can go find it's mate soon and hopefully, flew back to lay more eggs!  "P

The girls have not been having very structured swimming lessons for many months.  We had been cancelling their supposedly weekly swimming lesson whenever the weather is too cold; or when one of them was not well; or when we had other more interesting plans which is quite often.  But after the Daddy swam with the girls for a few times, he felt that Andrea may be ready to go for the NASA Bronze Award and I signed her up a month ago.  As the swimming pool at our place is only 25m in length, we are not sure if she could get use to the 50m pool.  Before today, we only brought her for proper swimming at the 50m pool 3-4 times.  Anyhow, as I wasn't sure if she is up to it, I kept telling her, just take it as an experience.  If she feel tired or uncomfortable at any point in the Test, just swim to the side and call it quit.  We can always do it another time.  Hence, I was very happy and proud when she finished the whole procedure and emerged from the pool with a wide grin and asked me innocently "is that all? did I pass already?"  Aww............ at seven, she is already a much better swimmer than her Mummy. 


That's our young lady, getting ready for the test.  All the participants had to put on a swimming cap with their corresponding number tag and Andrea got the number 13.

The first thing they had to do was to jump into the pool and swim 50m (any style) in their pyjamas.  After which was to do drown-proofing (or the so-called dead man float) for 1 minutes followed by treading water for 3 minutes.  They were then have to take out their pyjamas, make a float with the pants and use it to swim 25m.


That's Andrea swimming with the pyjamas pant that she blew up.  She was always quite fascinated with using her pj pants as a float, see that grin on her?  "P

After that, they had to swim the 8 laps (400m) and do one surface dive.  The whole test took about 50 minutes.  Andrea was very happy to have completed the test.  I brought her and Anna to Burger King after that for a treat and amidst munching her favourite mushroom swiss burger, she declared in her half silly tone "I felt like I am on the top of the world!"  :D   Well girl, you really have a reason to be proud of yourself!

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Some things in life are bad,
They can really make you mad,
Other things just make you swear and curse,
When you're chewing life's gristle,
Don't grumble,
Give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistle]
Always look on the light side of life.
[whistle]

If life seems jolly rotten,
There's something you've forgotten,
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps,
Don't be silly chumps.
Just purse your lips and whistle.
That's the thing.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
[whistle]
Always look on the right side of life,
[whistle]

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word.
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin.
Give the audience a grin.
Enjoy it. It's your last chance, anyhow.
So,...

Always look on the bright side of death,
[whistle]
Just before you draw your terminal breath.
[whistle]

Life's a piece of shit,
When you look at it.
Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true.
You'll see it's all a show.
Keep 'em laughing as you go.
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
Always look on the right side of life.

The girls did some landscape painting with charcoal at Teacher Bernice class lately.


These two are Andrea's paintings


These two are Anna's painting.

Notes from the teacher:

Charcoal as a drawing medium encourages a broad and confident approach. It is expressive and flexible. It can produce strong or soft lines, all under the control of the children's hands. The character of tones and lines produced by charcoal has often been compared to the style of Chinese ink paintings.

Continuing the theme of making landscape drawings, the children studied these Chinese landscape paintings by the great classical masters:

1. Travellers Among Mountains and Streams by Fan Kuan, c.1000
2. Early Spring by Guo Xi, 1072
3. Elegant Rocks and Scattered Trees by Zhao Mengfu, early 14th century

Chinese landscape paintings, also known as "shan shui" ie. "mountains and water" combine mountains and water, passive and active, yin and yang.

Besides being interested to hunt for tiny trees, waterfalls, streams, houses, boats and people among the massive mountains, the children were interested to note how tones and lines are produced in Chinese ink paintings.

Zhao Mengfu's painting provided a good opportunity for studying the various types of techniques he used to produce the broken, almost threadbare strokes to render the ruggedness of rocks, while strokes of black ink capture the firmness of branches. Pronounced black strokes convey the fluid foliage of bamboo.

These effects observed in the Chinese paintings were taken as the basis for experimenting with charcoal. The children attempted to combine some of the effects in their work.