Ya Sure!

20 August 2007

“Ya, sure!” is Cayden’s favourite words to say recently, especially yesterday and today. Haha. Its quite cute actually, because his pronouciation is a bit off.

“Cayden, do you want some cereal?”

“Ya, sure!”

“Cayden, do you want to pee pee?”

“Ya, sure!”

“Cayden, do you want to play with Finn?”

“Ya, sure!”

My boy is so agreeable.

Cayden has also started to speak in 2 words or more. Like “Mama hug Ca-Kaen” (thats how he pronouce his own name), “drink milk”, “Come on, mama”. Its amazing how he has suddenly started to speak properly. My boy has definitely grown up.

Cayden has also started attending pre-school again since 15 Aug. He loves it there! The only down side of his pre-school is that the teachers don’t really teach anything educational. They teach them life skills like potty training, self feed etc, but nothing too educational.

Charlie (Finn’s mother) had a conversation with the director of the school recently, to understand the reason behind the increase in school fees. Apparently they have decided to increase the school fees but it is unclear if they will plough the money back into the school, like buying new teaching materials, getting a better teacher etc. Charlie has offered to show the school what other pre-schools do in other countries. Charlie just had a premature baby in March and she had to stay in Beijing for 4.5 months. While there, she sent Finn to a kindergarten in Beijing and she said the standard there is just so much better. I think its a good idea. I have offered some teaching materials on my end. Cayden will ultimately benefit from it, so why not?

Ebay

8 August 2007

I have been shopping on Ebay everyday these 2 weeks. Very bad, I know… Hubby started it all. He has been shopping on Ebay for Cayden’s clothes. I have to say, there are some extremely good deals! But we go to ebay.com, instead of ebay.com.sg. Why? Somehow the Americans have really nice kids clothes! Baby GAP, Sesame Street, Polo etc… Of course, not all are brand new. There are some excellent used condition pieces that are as good as new. Kids outgrow their clothes so fast, and Cayden doesn’t know any better anyway. The only downside is that some sellers refuse to ship to Mongolia, or they quote a much higher price for shipping. But it all works out for us.

After we’ve sorted out Cayden’s clothes, I decided to check out ladies clothes and I am absolutely hooked on the BCBG dresses! So far, I have successfully bidded on 7 items! Once I start, I can’t stop! Ok, I have to admit, not all good buys. Some pieces I overpaid (in my opinion) but I didn’t want to give up half way through! I got “hot” bidding on a certain piece and completely forgot to consider if the price was worth it! Terrible huh? I told myself to stop buying dresses, so next I ventured onto Outerwear! Thats one good thing about living in a place with 4 seasons. I can wear all my trench coats, long coats, winter coats etc… Now I have my eye on a BCBG trench coat. Bad girl!

These are some of my recent purchases:

Cayden's Favourites

6 August 2007

Cayden’s favourites (for the moment):

1. Favourite show: Blue’s Clues and Elmo. It used to be Hi-5, but he seems to be getting tired of it now. He loves Blue’s Clues. Every morning, whenever he watches the show on Nick Jnr channel, he was shout excitedly when he sees Blue’s paw print and shout “Clue! Clue hind!” (meaning he sees Clue behind). When he sees a hand print, he also thinks its Blue’s paw print and will excitedly say “Clue!”

2. Favourite beverage: Milk. Sometimes he goes bersek and will insists on wanting milk in a bottle. That day he cried for a whole hour, asking for a bottle but I insisted that he can only drink the milk from his sippy cup.

3. Favourite food: Udon noodles. It used to be eggs, but I guess he grew tired of it.

4. Favourite game/activity: Swim

5. Favourite friend: Zoe. Unfortunately, Zoe doesn’t seem to care much for him. Sob.

6. Favourite toy: Balls (soccer balls, base balls, basket balls, plastic balls, foam balls etc…)

7. Latest words he learnt: cookie, mama sit, dada sit, water, juice, wait a second, soccer ball, pain, toes, hand, come on, please mama, please dada, help, stuck. He still hasn’t mastered thank you yet.

8. Latest song he sings: Once I caught a fish alive. But of course he doesn’t know all the words, but at least he hums the tune.

Tagged - 8 Random Facts About Me

6 August 2007

I was tagged by Alternative Mom sometime in June on 8 random fact about me. So sorry that I took such a long time to do this.

I shan’t write the rules down or tag anyone else because I think it has been going around for a while…

1. I tend to procrastinate (surprise! surprise!) in most of the things I do.

2. I hate to exercise and I think I will suffer for it when I grow older. I used to give all kinds of excuses to my PE teacher when I was in sec school and JC. Whenever the teacher sees me walking to her (not changed into PE attire), she will say “You again ah?”

3. I love to shop! Am kinda restricted now because we are living in Mongolia now. Think hubby is silently relived. But I give his wallet a good workout whenever we return to Singapore. heh heh.
4. I am in 2 minds about having a second kid. On one hand, love to have a baby girl and would like the age gap of Cayden and BB2 to be close. But on the other hand, I cannot imagine going through the sleepless nights again! So now, we are leaving it to fate. Let nature take its course.

5. I wish I was more creative or artistic. Unfortunately, I do not have that gift.

6. I am quite anti-social by nature. Before I was married and had a baby, my favourite past time was to stay at home and watch “Sex and The City” all day long.

7. I love baking, although I am not really good at it. The cakes I bake are only good enough for family members. Shy…

8. I love to read “trashy” magzines - those full of celebrities gossips like In Touch, US Weekly etc… Hubby thinks its a waste of money and time to read those. But its my thing…

Tired...

1 August 2007

I have not had the time to post recently. Been so busy, because my helper has gone to the countryside. In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that my helper quit. I think the main reason is because she resents the fact that I refused to pay her during her 2 weeks leave to the countryside. This is despite the fact that I have given her 2 weeks off when we went home to Singapore in early July. Anyway, that’s water under the bridge… I offered her the position of being my cleaner only - i.e. to come to my place to clean twice a week in the mornings. She agreed. So, all I need to do is to find a babysitter.

Have been spreading the word around that I need a babysitter, and coincidentally, one of my neighbour, Bernadette, offered to introduce her cleaner to me. She used to be a babysitter. Interviewed her yesterday, and decided to employ her. Her name is Undra and she will come in the afternoons from 3pm to 7pm.

For the past 4 days, I have been dealing with Cayden alone, playing, reading, doing arts and craft, while trying to tidy the house and cook. Oh man! It is so exhausting! I really don’t know how other stay at home moms do it, without help. Hats off to them! I have only done it for less than a week and I am whining about it already! Shame to me.

Undra is due to come at 3pm today. Lets see how well she can get along with Cayden…

Our Weekend

23 Jul 2007

Our weekend went well - slow and uneventful. On Saturday, it was hubby’s birthday, but I did not manage to bake him a cake because we had no electricity for most parts of Friday. Therefore, no cake. Sorry… We went to a Japanese restaurant, Sakura at the Khan Palace Hotel for lunch and enjoyed it very much. It was good Japanese food, although we only ordered all the cooked food. Still have not worked up the courage to try sashimi here in Mongolia because I am afraid to get food poisoning. Seafood is not exactly readily available here.

We went to Terelj again on Sunday. It was a spur of the moment decision to go. We left home at 11.30am and arrived there at 1pm. We could have arrived there earlier, but we took a wrong turn. Thank goodness Hubby had the sense to turn back. I would have just continued on the wrong path. haha.

Terelj was fun for Cayden. But he flew off the slide and landed on his face literally! It was like a scene from the cartoons! The slide was really steep and hubby was on top of the slide with him. As Cayden went down the slide, hubby then realised that he was going too fast and I wasn’t there to catch him. To Cayden’s credit, he did not cry. I think he was more shocked. But after a minute, he came to me and said “Mama, pain” pointing to his face. I couldn’t help it but laugh because he was so dirty! He looked like one of the homeless kids we see around the city. Evil mom.

Check out Cayden’s dirty face

Also took some pictures of the inside of the gers (mong gu bao). Its really like living in a tent, except the tent is not as flimsy as the ones we use for camping. Everything is small and low. There also isn’t space for any big appliances like the fridge, or stove cum oven. Many of the Mongolian still live in a ger.

bed

stove

overall view - to give an indication how small a ger is

Am I Vain?

20 Jul 2007

Went on Jean's blog and saw her post today. Decided to take the test too. Ok, I am quite-the-vain women. Haha.

You Are 59% Vain

You're a little vain, but more than anything you have a healthy amount of confidence.Thinking the world of yourself is great. Just don't think less of those who aren't as pretty as you!

How Vain Are You?

1. On days that I do not have appointments, I am actually quite low maintenance. I do my usual wash-tone-moisturize-sunscreen routine (ok i use more than just moisturizer. I use some serums too). No makeup.

2. I try remember to exfoliate and apply face mask once a week.

3. When I return to Singapore, I will go to my usual beauty salon and have a facial. That's when they clear all my oil clots, blackheads, whiteheads etc.

4. When I had shoulder length hair, I have to spend 10 minutes blow drying. Its a hassle. Now I have short hair, its fuss free.

5. I have to at least draw my eyebrows, apply some Benefit Lemon aid on my eyes before I make short trips - like picking Cayden up from school or run to the supermarket.

6. I love buying makeup. Love them, have loads of makeup. But I am quite lazy to do the full works everyday. Find it unnecessary since I am living in a vast land of nowhere - Mongolia. If I was a working woman, I will make the effort.

7. My eyelashes don't curl up, no matter what I do. They are lazy - kinda like me.