Claire Goes to School

Waiting for the school bus

Well, before I knew it, my little monster was turning 3, and I had to send her off to school. Our final choice was Gracefields @Teck Whye. Substantial reasons: small student:teacher ratio, good curriculum, gut feel. Superficial reason: They have the cutest uniform. But anywayyyyy, this is Claire on the first day of school, waiting for the school bus to pick her up. Me? I rushed off to school via LRT. Still did not get there in time to see her get off the bus though, because she is the last one picked up before proceeding to school. She is also the first one to be dropped off after school, so that's good because then she doesn't spend hours on the school bus.

Settling in at school and making herself at home, getting to know the toys.

My worries about her not being able to settle down in school were unfounded... Claire was oblivious to my presence and quickly settled down with the wooden puzzles. After about 10 min of feeling unwanted, I decided to step out. Loitered outside the classroom and chatted with some of the other parents. I think the one suffering from separation anxiety is me. :P

Timetable

Looks so packed right??? But the first three days were not like that; the children spent most of their time playing, and then there was some m & m at the end of the day. The teachers couldn't do anything else much either in any case because half the kids were still crying away. Thankfully though mine was her usual unperturbed, adaptable self.

Snack time - eating independently

Well I guess those snack times at Kidsloft must have helped somehow... the Clairester was very independent when it came to eating. She wasn't so adept at using the spoon to scoop up the kway teow though and was one of the slowest to finish. But hey, she did it without any help from the teachers. I thought she was a bit neglected the first couple of days because she was so independent and most of her other classmates attracted and needed more attention from the teachers. But the teachers and the other parents kept telling me about how good she was. oh well.

Time to go home!!!

So proud of my little N1 student! ;)

Homemade Fishcakes!!! (Mummy's entry)

I still try to cook for Claire when I have the time and energy, but I must admit I've grown a lot lazier from last time when I used to prepare 3 meals a day for her. Recently, my meals for her have been restricted to pasta with white sauce, bolognese pasta, stir-fried pasta... partly due to her pickiness with food, though I know pasta ain't always the healthiest meal! But it gets really discouraging after a while when you spend hours preparing something, only to have her take one bite and reject it. Lately I've had a conscience attack, so I dug out my cookery books and looked for something healthy again (as well as something I was reasonably sure she would eat), and the result was this:

Homemade (with love) fishcakes...

... Accompanied by Dolmio's Mushroom and herb sauce which we both love

Doesn't look appetizing, but tasted surprisingly good! Coz I adapted it from a recipe and I was not exactly accurate with the ingredient portions, the mixture did not stick together as well as I thought it should. Or maybe it was because I made them too thin as I was worried they wouldn't cook through, so they broke apart quite easily when I was picking them up to place in the frying pan.

Anyway, here are the ingredients I used:

portion of salmon

portion of cod fish

japanese sweet potato approx. equal to the amount of fish, when mashed up (the sweet potato, that is, not the fish!) - the actual recipe denoted potatoes, but I didn't get them, thinking that my MIL would definitely have them at home, only to find out that she didn't, so I improvised and used what she did have. anyway sweet potato is supposed to be more nutritious. This is also a good way of getting Claire to eat sweet potato, coz she's refused to eat sweet potato for months now. I was quite surprised that I couldn't really taste the sweet potato at all - it just went down really well with the fish, for some reason!

3 mini portobellos

a sprig of chinese coriander (wang sui)

egg

2 digestive cookies, crumbled (actually not enough, should have used 3)

butter (for frying)

The Clairester gobbled up an amount equivalent to her usual lunch and said she liked it. :) Will try to do the fishcakes up in nice shapes the next time to encourage her to eat more.

Halloween 2009

Estelle's mummy, Auntie Serene, invited us to go trick-or-treating with them this Halloween. Mummy thought it'd be an interesting experience for me, so off we went!

Luckily, Mummy saw this fairy costume going cheap in Perth in July and got it for me. She intended for me to use this next year, but then we decided to go trick-or-treating this year instead, so....

All ready to go. Mummy DIYed my treat-or-treat basket from materials from Golden Dragon store near her work place. Cute huh?

The two little fairies of the night - me and Deszi!!!

You didn't think I'd walk around on my own? right you are. Made my mummy carry me almost all the way. :P She's the one in the green tank, and I'm the one with the white hat, obviously. (didn't go too well with my costume, but there was a light drizzle)

And here we are again...

My loots. We ended ahead of time, as the rain started getting heavier. :( But my loots were still substantial.

Every Mommy's Secret Dream

When I was young, I loved poring through my mother's wedding album, and above all, totally, totally envying my cousin, who had the good fortune to be my mother's flower girl. My mother kept her flower girl's dress and I remember frequently opening my mother's wardrobe to sneak a peek at the dress, and wishing so, so hard that I'd get a chance to wear it. Unfortunately, my mother was not only the runt of the litter; on top of everything else, she married late in life (well, not THAT late, but considered quite late for her generation), so I never got the chance. *sad*

But anyway, to cut the long story short, even before Claire was born, I dreamed of her wearing a pretty, frilly dress and walking down the aisle as someone's flower girl. And so Claire and I would like to thank Audrey for giving her this chance, and down the aisle in a church, no less!!!

Most people, including Claire-papa, couldn't believe that a 2.5yr old could actually do it. Having heard stories of flower girls who got stage fright, even at 4, 5 years old, I was a little worried that Claire would pull a stunt on the day itself. But then she went for the rehearsal and met her partner, the very friendly and charming Dylan, as well as Dylan's very affable and sweet sister Ria, and after that I felt more relaxed about it. The 3 kids also got along famously, much to my surprise, as this was the first time Claire enjoyed playing with friends so much!

The day itself - all went well, save for one very embarassing moment... Just when I was congratulating myself on how well-behaved Claire was, sitting quietly in the pew, half an hour into the ceremony....

Priest: (some blessing chant)
My feelings - absolutely awed by the beauty of the ceremony and the sanctity of the moment
SUDDENLY... drifts of a familiar strain in the background of the chanting: "A B C D E F G..... H I J K..."
Claire-papa: (nudges me) That's YOUR daughter singing!!!!
Me: *stares back in horror and runs to the front pew to retrieve the Clairester*

So, memories of Audrey and Mathew's very special day - thanks so much for letting us be a part of it!

Mommy, Clairester and Dylan. (P.S. The flowerball was handmade by the bride. So beautiful huh!)

Claire and Dylan.

Claire and Ria waiting for the commencement of the ceremony.

Yes, that was indeed me singing A B C in the middle of the wedding ceremony. *cheeky grin*

Enjoying her pappadum.

And the bonus for today, because I haven't blogged for so long (YES, I know I'm still not done with the Aussie entries), is the video of Claire doing her flower girl act... Yea, she made it to the end of the aisle!

Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi oi oi!!!!

We're back!!!! Hang on while Mummy tries to find time to upload some of our Perth trip pictures.... (Let's hope she keeps her promise this time because people are still bugging her for our US trip pictures back from Dec 08, which somehow never made it here??!!) We had a grand time, and Mummy wants to migrate there! I'm all for it, as long as you let me feed the kangaroos and stuff. I'd feed ANYTHING now! I love animals!!!!!

View from King's Park, Perth.

Day 5: Caversham Wildlife Park

We headed for Caversham Wildlife Park bright and early in the morning because Mummy wanted to make the most of our time there. Er.. actually we wanted to head out bright and early, but we got delayed because I was doing my business. So when we got there it was still bright, but not that early...



Anyhow, we really enjoyed ourselves there, and Mummy and Papa strongly encourage any families with young kids to allocate one full day for Caversham and Whiteman Park (where Caversham is located). We spent over two hours in the kangaroo enclosure because we loved getting upclose with the roos, and we also spent 1 hour just gazing at the koalas. P/S: It also helps to go on a weekday, where it is much less crowded.

Mummy raring to go; me grumpy at having been woken up from my hour-long nap.

Koala bear! It was also Mummy and Papa's first encounter with these furry cuties, and they loved them. Papa also commented that koalas reminded him of Stitch.

Me patting a koala. The keeper said you have to pat them with the back of your hand so that you don't hurt them.

This koala almost kissed Mummy! Mummy was wondering why Granny and Ah Gu were shrieking away as Papa took her picture.

Me running around while waiting for the Wombat and Friends show to commence.

Mummy made me touch this scaly thing even though she didn't dare to, because she says I should not inherit her fears, so she makes it a point to let me confront all her worst fears. Huh? Shouldn't she confront them on her own? LOL. Anyway I think this is a bobcat...

Picture op with a joey! Of all places I decided to rub the joey's belly.... well, since I, a human baby, liked having my belly rubbed, I guess she should too!

Feeding a kangaroo in the kangaroo enclosure. It's in the afternoon, so they are all lazing around in the hot afternoon sun.... And didn't show much interest in food...

This donkey looks EXACTLY like Donkey from Shrek, right down to the expression in his goofy eyes.

Hello. My mummy said you're a reindeer. We didn't expect you to be so big in real life. How come your nose isn't red, huh?

Feeding the rabbits. I had to tiptoe and lean over just to feed them.

The llama which looked exactly like the llama llama character in the 'Llama llama' series that I like so much.

Feeding the billy goat. See, I told ya I liked feeding animals! Mummy and Papa says this place is about 10,000 times better than the Singapore zoo because you don't have to pay to feed the animals here. All included in the AUD22 entrance fee.

Saying hello to the camel. Too bad we reached the camel enclosure too late and I couldn't get a camel ride.


Bonus: Video evidence of my over-enthusiasm in feeding kangaroos. LOL.

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Day 4 - Toodyay and York

Today the Sims attack Toodyay and York. on the way, we make a slight detour to a free-range emu farm. Quite an experience as we got to stand upclose to the emus (which by the way are pronounced e-mius rather than e-mus).

The Clairester and Mummy posing next to a nesting emu. This is, incidentally, Daddy, and not Mum. Apparently male emus hatch the eggs and look after the young. And this guy would watch over his eggs, come rain, shine or hail. He basically sits there for the 56 days of incubation and does not move.

Daddy's little preciouses.

Streets of Toodyay, a quaint town which reminds us of old western movies.

At the doorway of Newcastle Gaol. This place once housed WA's most infamous bush ranger, Moondyne Joe.

Sigh. I do not know why the parents find it so fun to torture me. First they try to lock me in a cage, next they pull me up to this thing. Oh well.

View of the Avon Valley from a lookout in Toodyay. View was nice, but nothing compared to what we saw from Mt Brown near York later.

York streets. Unfortunately we reached there late and just about everything was closed.

Someone keeps a llama for a pet! Spotted this as we went past a private residence on the way to the suspension bridge. The llama even has his own pond to wander around. Talk about a good life.

The Clairester and Mummy on the suspension bridge over the Avon River.

Dreamy Avon River view from the bridge.

Stunning view of Avon Valley from Mt Brown, at sunset.