SKYNI

Welcome home to Singapore. It has been a long time since you have been back from London. We hope you have a great holiday and wish that we are with you as well. In fact, we are super jealous!!!

Enjoy and have fun!

I picked up this strange princess the other day at the daycare!

One morning, Jonathan decided that he will start speaking swedish and now, he speaks Swedish all the time!

I am really stressed!! Am I the only one at home not speaking swedish?

I can spell my name with the bread!

7.30 am : Jon and Linn, come eat your breakfast!
7.35 am : Eat your food…
7.40 am : No Jon, you cannot get something else…
7.45 am : Jon, eat your bread
7.50 am : Now, hurry up and eat your food. We need to go to school.
7.53 am : Linn, stop playing with your food!
7.55 am : Ok, finish your food. We need to leave in 5 mins!!
8.00 am : If you don’t finish your food, I will take it away!
8.05 am : Now, finish your food! Mummy cannot be late for school!
8.10 am : Why must we go through this everyday? Now, it’s too late. Let’s go!
8.15 am : WE HAVE TO GO NOW!!!! PUT ON YOUR CLOTHES !!!!
(ARGGGGG!!! Now that is another monologue!!!)

Today is supposedly the last day of winter. It is still 0 degrees and white outside. Well, it is definitely an improvement from the -20 degrees we had in the last few weeks.

I cannot believe that we have been here for 7 months now. Definitely an interesting journey so far. Yesterday, I was reading Woffles Wu’s article in 8 Days. (Yes, my wonderful friend, Bert sent some old copies of my favourite magazine to me) His article was about how some people have emigrated over to another country thinking that the grass is greener over the other side but when they found out that it is not greener, they cannot bring themselves to return to their home country with shame.

Hmmmm….I wondered about our journey so far. The grass is definitely not greener and in fact, we have not seen much grass. We know exactly why we are here and we can only hope it will work well for Jonathan. It is great for the kids to know their swedish roots. Yes, I admit that it has not been exactly easy….specially for me. But I guess we all just need to embrace this new experience and make the best out of it!

Well, we survived our first winter!!! Hurray!

Is it possible that i get a good night sleep without someone calling ‘Mummy …mummy…i want you to sleep next to me” from the next room.

Little Miss Impossible has been really difficult for the past few days. She claims that there are monsters around and needs to be protected. As I looked into her big brown eyes, I cannot bring myself to tell her that she IS the little monster.

My little monster wants to do everything herself, refusing to take instructions and is really great at manipulating her brother. When Jonathan got his weekly candy reward (she got none for bad behaviour). she quietly brought her brother to their room and tricked him into giving her his candy! When I discovered her trick, she quickly spat out the candy.

How can my baby be absolutely annoying but yet adorable at the same time!!!

Jonathan has been attending many birthday parties lately. His friends at childcare invited him to the parties and he really likes them. In Oscar’s party, we were at first apprehensive about leaving him at the party because in the past, it did not work well and we had to be there. But Oscar’s parents said that it worked well and we were so proud of him.

Yesterday, I brought him to Luke’s and Lilly’s party. He was really good and had a great time at Lekiz (the likes of Singapore’s Go-Go-Bambini)

He was only upset when no goody bag was distributed at the end of the party!!!!

Jonathan looked really happy to see me a few days ago when i picked him up from childcare. He showed me a painting he was doing, gave me a nice big hug and sloppy kiss on the lips. Jonathan looked tenderly into my eyes and asked me sweetly……….”‘Mummy, now can I get some candy?

😐

We thought that winter is over as we started to see the grass beneath the snow. But it only went on holiday and got back yesterday. It must have been a bad holiday and so it decided to create some chaos. As we speak, we are having so much snow that I have not seen anything quite like this. The road conditions this morning are just unbelievable. Our new car was shaking so much that i had to hold tightly to the wheel. My neighbour told that it is because of the ice beneath the snow. I had to help my neighbour whose car is stuck in the snow. It seems like 4WD is a neccessity in this country. The buses are cancelled and we couldn’t even park the car in school properly because there was just too much snow.

How can it be possible to have so much snow overnight? See our patio, it was clean and snow free yesterday. The flowerpots were also empty.

The kids are having a hard time walking in the snow today. The snow reached all the way to their thighs. With the wind howling and the snow blasting in our face, I think I just want to stay in bed all day!

When I was little, I used to think that Chinese New Year (CNY) was uncool. Except for the goodies and the Ang Pow (red packet). I wondered why the adults made such a big fuss over Chinese New Year.

Now that we are so so far away, I really miss the celebrations. There is hardly any ÇNY átmosphere here in Stockholm. But that does not stop my friends from China. It is interesting to see them rush about their chores… such as spring cleaning their homes, putting up Chinese greetings in their homes, preparing a big feast for CNY eve. To the Chinese, CNY is as big as Christmas and it is important to follow the tradition…even to the extreme of not cleaning their homes for 15 days (now, that is quite a good excuse but I don’t think i can ‘tahan”).

Maybe I am becoming old and sentimental, I really miss the warmth of the family at the reunion dinner, the get-togethers of good friends, the smiles on the faces of kids receiving their red packet, the food and even the noisy Chinese New Year songs. So when we have no celebrations at all this year in Stockholm, I feel a little disappointed that my kids may forget this important tradition. They must know their chinese customs.

We tried to replicate this by inviting our swedish family for dinner last weekend. We had a small feast of homecooked Hainanese Chicken rice, Beef rendang, Samsui Chicken and Spicy brinjal. Nicke’s family exchanged oranges with us, we blasted CNY songs in the house and ate whatever cookies we can find.

So from now on, if we cannot go home for CNY, we decided that we will do our best to bring CNY to us in Stockholm.

We were really hoping to go home for Chinese New Year. However, Nichlas can’t take time off work, and the air-tickets were just ridiculously priced. I really miss my national carrier. Bringing my kids alone on a 18-20 hour flight with no good inflight entertainment system is quite a scary thought. Well, you can say that there is always the Ipad. But I have 2 kids who can’t quite ‘share’. I think there will be too many ‘angry birds’ on the flight.

So we are not going home this time round. We will definitely miss our Singapore family and friends, the Reunion dinner and all the Chinese New Year goodies, the friends gathering. And also the Yu-sheng. Thinking of the food just makes me salivate. Thanks Hock Yam for sending some pineapple tarts to me. It is really wonderful and kind of you.

So here’s wishing you my family and friends… Kung Hee Fatt Chai! Eat, drink and be Merry!

After a rather long and hard week, we are enjoying a very nice weekend. One of these rare weekend when we had sunshine. With the snow glitters in the sun, it can be really beautiful.

We went to Tom Tit (Swedish Science Museum). The kids really enjoyed themselves, specially Jon. Think it was a bit of a sensory overload for him. Linn and I baked her first cupcakes and she really enjoyed it. The problem is that she only wants to eat the icing but not the muffin. The kids then went out to the snow to play.

If you are wondering why there are so many photos of Linn but not Jon….the answer is because Jon always look away just when I am about to take the picture. Linn will happily pose. Hence, we don’t have many good pictures of Jonathan.

Thanks Chien for your very good response and sharing the hardship of motherhood. It is definitely more than a full time job requiring 24/7 focus and attention…and lots and lots of patience.

I agree with you totally about those ‘self help’ book on how to raise the perfect kid. I stopped at the ‘What to expect Toddler’ book and never was motivated to buy any other book. I prefer to read some chic fic – more entertaining and light-hearted. I also stopped watching Super Nanny because it only shows these success stories within minutes. I am unsure about the time-out naughty corner. I think my kids have a different interpretation of ”naughty corner”‘….they sit there and think of more naughty things to do.

Linn has just been impossible these days. Maybe because she is very constipated but she disagrees and finds fault in everything. She whines all the time with “I don’t want this …”..or ‘”not like this'”. The princess wants everything to be done in a certain way. Her Way. When I lost my temper and told her loudly to give me a break…her retort is ‘I don’t want you to shout at me’. Really impossible.

And 1 + 1 is not equal to 2. Today, when I brought Jonathan for an assessment on his fine motor skills, he was the perfect angel, following instructions and completing his tasks. He is really fantastic when he is not with Linn. Somehow, together, they create more chaos!

Ok, enough of my whining. My kids drive me insane but I love them dearly and can’t live without them. These days, I just eat ice cream to cool myself down and to nurse my sore throat.

I am seriously wondering if there are any mothers out there who can get their kids (3-6 years old) to obey and do exactly what they are told PROMPTLY without shouting and without repeating the instructions. My kids just don’t listen and I have tried almost everything.

These days I have a ‘3 times’ rule. I will not repeat myself 3 times and after that, I will take away their toys or candy if they don’t listen and obey. I have also confiscated Jon’s iPad indefinitely. Sounds cruel? Yes, but i am going mental listening to my own voice.

Linn says she wants to be a ‘good’ girl but when I asked her to describe a good girl, she replies innocently ‘I don’t know’. As for Jon, I am seriously thinking of creating videos of myself and playing in front of him repeatedly. It seems like he can only pay attention to
ýoutube videos. He can remember and repeat the video script but not hear a word I am saying.

I have been reading some of the comments about Amy Chua …and don’t worry, i do not think I can use the same method, unless I don’t mind being banned from my Swedish community. But this is how my own mother brought me up. My sisters and I used to live in fear of offending her. We have a very strict Ámy Chua’ upbringing.

Of course, I want my kids to grow up in a loving environment and I want them to be happy. How can they be happy if they keep getting punished for disobeying and not listening? I really don’t want to shout. BTW, where can I get more patience?

Maybe I just need a good microphone and a good recorder!

Apologies for the long silence. We have been rather busy with the chickenpox and we have been visiting farmor in Köping over the weekend. The weather has been kind to us and finally we got a few days of sunshine.

Some of the snow started to melt due to the 1 degree temperature and but what is not so nice is that the melting snow and rain has caused a layer of ice on the road. Imagine walking around on ice and it is extremely slippery. The kids and I have slipped a number of times and it is really difficult to get out of the house.

Linn’s chickenpox subsided after 5 days (thanks to the chicken pox vaccination in Singapore….Sweden does not have this vaccination) but we stayed out of school for 7 days as per childcare’s requirement.

Just when I thought all is clear and I can continue with my swedish classes, the school called me today to inform me that they suspect Linn has a stomach flu and she needs to stay at home for the next 48 hours. I can only bring her back to the childcare on Thursday. And that is not all…I need to do the same for Jonathan as well as siblings may have the same illness and hence, should be kept out of school.

I know it is impossible to control these illnesses but I just wonder how is this possible if I am working and cannot stay at home with the kids. If i had been working, I would have to take at least 2 weeks off to take care of them in the past 2 weeks. That is why I think the swedish moms here are really super moms. They can work full time, do housework, spend quality time with their kids and come home in time to prepare all meals. How do they do this!!!! Maybe I am just spoilt!

Linn likes the snow. She can go for hours out in the snow, (pulka) sliding and making snow balls. Jon on the other hand grumbles and wants to go indoors. It takes a lot to coax him to climb up a hill to do a few slides. He won’t do it unless there is an incentive like candy, chocolate or ice cream. Yes, some of us still eat ice cream when it is freezing cold.

Looks like we cannot go to school for the next 2 weeks.

That boy is totally crazy about Star Wars…he even did a ‘Show and Tell’ in school showing his favourite YouTube Lego videos on his Ipad!