SKYNI

I love this picture of Jonathan that was taken by my cousin Waye on the Twin’s Birthday party. It shows me how Jonathan has grown in the past few months. His features have changed slightly and he looks less ‘babyish’.

Here he is still holding on to his Ironman after a great time in the swimming pool.

As I was was packing up, I found an interesting brochure about Swedish Kids. Here is an abstract. Itr’s great for Non-swedes.

I like the daycare and recreation centre. I made a note to find out more about the recreation centre.

It is also interesting to see riding (girls) is a popular sport.

Hi cousins

It will be great to have you in sweden.

Don´t worry it´s warm here to, right now about 28* C.

Gustav & Elin

It has been a really sick weekend. I can’t recall when i was this sick. Not being able to taste, smell and sleep for almost one week, it is really starting to hit my spirits.

On Saturday, I scratched the car as I was driving out of McDonald’s carpark. Really badly. But I couldn’t concentrate with kids screaming, a blocked nose and an infection that has affected my nerves.

And at the airport, Jon had an accident on the trolley and bruised his lips. Really badly!

And Jon’s and Linn’s first sleepover party at my sister’s place didn’t work too well. They just can’t sleep. I have to bring the screaming and sobbing kids home at 11.30 pm ( yes, in the middle of the Germany vs Argentina game).

I guess Saturday was really not my day!

The only relief was Nicke’s returned and it was good to have him home. Finally.

Maybe it’s the five days of heavy drugs and misery that makes me really short tempered but I am furious that Ironman is gone.

I asked Jonathan when I noticed that Ironman is missing…”Where is Ironman?”

Jonathan replied after a lot of pushing ” He has gone out the window”.

“Why did you throw him out the window?” I asked controlling my temper

Jonathan innocently said “He needs to go home”..”to get some energy”.

This is the second time he ‘lost’ the Ironman and I don’t think this time, there will be a replacement.

I wonder if I should be more worried if someone downstairs was hit by Ironman or my son’s wierd sense of humour.

After a very tiring evening with the kids, i am really looking forward to having my own R&R. But Linn will not let me get away with it and made me read Goldilocks and Three Bears thrice and The Goats and The Wolf twice in both English and Mandarin. She ignored me when I tried to tell her that I was tired. As I put her to bed, I tried to talk to her to test her understanding skills

I told her to reflect on the night at Ikea, her running around the store away from me and what if I cannot find her or cannot catch up with her. She will be lost and I will have to report to the police. She will be scared if she cannot find me and will panic. So, she should really hold on to my hand at the supermarkets and stores so that I will never loose her.

I asked her if she understood what I was saying. She kept very quiet and I can see tears in her eyes. Thinking that I must have frightened her, I asked her what’s wrong. She said that she will go to the toilet to look for me.

Ok, i conclude, there is no logic to this..and why would I hide in the toilet?

I guess it’s time to take action now. No more lazing around thinking that we still got lots of time to settle the move. This month we need to settle the following

* Termination of Electric Supply

* Termination of Phone

* Termination of Cable TV Supply

* Sell the car..Terminate the Car loan

* Book One-way Air tickets

* Seriously start packing.

* Fix up the furniture and house

* Change all addresses

Just looking at the list makes me tired. And I specially hate the last one. Because there is no ‘new’ address that i can redirect our mail to. Can I just put..’Addressless’ or ‘Address Unknown’. Nicke and I decided to put my Mom’s address as a temporary solution but it’s a pain when you know that you have the ‘redo’ it again once we find a new home….ie if we find our new home. (yes, i am thinking it is almost impossible now)

Better stop complaining and get down to work.

But then again, i still need most of the above so maybe this can wait for another few weeks

I must have contributed hundreds and hundreds of impresssions to this Hemnet.se and frankly, I am rather tired surfing for houses online.

A few months ago, i swear that there were nicer houses for sale. Is it because house sellers are taking a break during summer? Whatever it is, the houses we came across are not good in design and requires a lot of work. Seriously, some of the houses are so ‘ugly’ that i got a headache just looking at them. With our limited budget and our very demanding criteria, we are very very challenged. It is either the location, or the house, or the price that is not good.

To be honest, I am kind of discouraged after looking at hemnet for so long. And that is just online…

I won’t be surprised that a pop-up will just appear online the next time I go on hemnet saying …’For heaven’s sake, just buy something’!

As the days move closer to our move to Sweden, I only get the usual questions like

‘Have you started packing’?

‘Do the kids know that they are moving?’

‘When is your last day in the office?’

‘How is Nicke and does he like it there?’

Once, I got the ‘Why are you still here in the office?’ since Nicke has already gone to Sweden.

But the amazing thing is that.. I also realised that quite a few people do not know that we are together. Nicke and I work in the same marketing department and he sat in the next row in the office for the past 2 years. Which makes me wonder if I have been hiding our relationship too well. Some people only just found out recently as they query why I should be included in Nicke’s farewell outings. Today, in the lift, as I was telling a colleague from the same department, that I have been busy planning the move to Sweden. She mentioned that i can ‘hook up with Nicke when I am there’.

I guess I should take consolation that no-one talks about us in the office.

For some strange reasons, I can’t sleep last night. I tossed and turned from 1 to 5 pm and I was really frustrated.

If Nicke is here, he will tell me to get a sleeping pill. The problem is that the pill also makes you half asleep the next day. I can’t go around half awake.

So what’s keeping me wide awake? Am i thinking too much about the house that we are going to buy, renovating our dream house, our lives in the next 3 months, the packing required, how i should pack for the kids and how i hate living out of suitcases. Honestly, my mind was racing.

In such desperate times, I think of the favourite fantasy that Nicke and i share, and a sure way to fall asleep ….and that is ‘What if we win SGD2 million in the Toto?’

I think i should do something about my nose congestion as it could be the cause of my inability to sleep.

Here’s a picture of Jon’s and Linn’s cousins in Singapore. We have Ki-en and Juwin holding on to the twins, Evan and Kyle

We will definitely miss them when we move to Sweden. The thing I will miss most is watching them grow. I have seen how Juwin has grown in the last 12 years and it is interesting to get to know him as a teenager and not just a kid anymore.

I caught a really bad cold as a result of getting drenched in the rain on Friday. I haven’t been able to taste anything for the past 2 days and Nichlas would have said that i have ‘snot’ paper everywhere. But does that mean my 2 kids will let me just lie in bed and feel sorry for myself? The answer is obvious.

We went to a Birthday Party at the Zoo on Saturday to celebrate Janelle’s and Jerrisa’s birthday. It was fun except that i had to park like 2 km from the car park. (The usual car park was full). The kids had a great time with the carousel ride, magic show, KFC food, and cake. Linn and Jon were happy with their goodie present (Mr Potato Head for Linn and Buzz Lightyear for Jon).

I found out a few new things about my kids. Linn knows how to play ‘Musical Chairs’ and Jonathan is getting better at parties. But still, he likes to take refuge in his ‘throne’. So it was not surprising when Jonathan said that he wanted to do ‘No 2’ during the birthday party. At the toilet, I kept asking him the usual ‘Are you done yet?’ as I know he was doing this to avoid going back to the party. I had to tell him that we are going home to get ice cream in order for him to get out of toilet.

I brought Linn to my ‘soiree’ party organised by my colleagues. They can now understand why i look exhausted every Monday morning. One told me that she needs to lie down just by watching her in action after one hour.

Sunday was another fun-filled day of swimming class in the pouring rain, shopping in the afternoon, and then po-piah dinner at the Queks.

I wonder what kind of weekends we will have in Sweden. Definitely not a quiet one with my 3 kids.

It was scary driving to work this morning. I have to be extra careful as the roads were flooded and i want the kids to get to school safe and dry.

But sometimes, it is not up to us. We were hit by a car this morning along the CTE. . Linn was startled by the bump and immediately let out a cry. (Yes, she is a little dramatic). The guy came out of the car to inspect the damage. He assured me that there was no damage. I got out of the car in the pouring rain (after my umbrella refused to work) and checked to see if everything is ok. As I didn’t want to cause another traffic jam, we got back to our cars immediately. I should have taken his number as i discovered the damage only much later.

Linn was ok …she even asked me when i got back into the car ‘Is that your friend mummy?’ which made me want to laugh even though i was soaked wet.

We managed to get to school and work in very very bad road conditions.

I started to wonder if these freak thunderstorms exist in Sweden. At least, it is not cold here. I can imagine it being both cold and wet in Sweden…and how dreadful it will be. On the brighter side, we just make sure that we will be cuddled up together in a fireplace, toasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate during these times!

I caught Jonathan doing something strange lately. He has been undressing Barbie, taking out all her clothes and telling me that he wants to give her a bath. Does he think that Barbie can be a playmate for Ironman? I wonder if he is just curious.

Maybe i just take consolation that at least he knows how to undress her.

Jonathan is going through an Ironman phase. He has been holding on to his Ironman toy for the past month and does everything with it. He even swims with it.

Nicke has passed him the Ironman comic book and Jonathan has been asking me to read the comic book to him every night. The problem is…i don’t know Ironman stories. So I have to make up one every night about what Ironman does with Dr Doom.

Last night, when i was having a really bad migraine, I started with Ironman being good friends with Dr Doom and they went out to play together and then I said ‘The End’.

Jon’s response was “But Mummy, ‘The End’ comes at the end of the book”…as he turned to the last comic page. “We can’t end the story in the middle”. He insist that I read the 100+ page book from the beginning.

Another job for Nicke to do when he gets back. Teach Jon how to read comics.

Jonathan and Linn really take after their father when it comes to swiming. They love the water.

They have been taking swimming classes for the past 6 months and i am very proud that Jonathan is now starting to make some progress. His stamina has improved and feels comfortable going to a deeper end to tread water. He even refused help when we try to pull him out of the water and continues to pop in and out of the water.

Linn on the other hand has her moments. She tells the swimming coach ‘Teacher Edward’, that she does not want to put her head in the water during her swimming lesson. But she loves to jump into the water using the dive board. Obviously she is so comfortable with Teacher Edward that she jumped 3 times yesterday with no fear.

Here we are celebrating cousin Evan and Kyle’s 1st birthday. When we first arrived at the pool side party, Jon and Linn immediately took off their clothes and jumped into the pool. The thing is, I wasn’t expecting them to swim and so didn’t bring their swimming costumes. So, they were the only kids running around in their underwear. Linn was the first to jump into the pool and refused to get out even after the party has ended.

A warning to mothers out there ‘Do not buy the Transformers toys if you are not able to put it back together’

How difficult can it be right? I thought to myself when I was choosing one for Jon. I picked Level 3 (max level 5) and it says for 5 year olds and above.

It was easy enough transforming it from a jetplane to ‘robot/alien’. But when Jon asked if I can help fix it back to Airplane…what was when the trouble started. I twisted, turned the darn toy till my fingers hurt. I still cannot put it back to an ‘Airplane’. I hid it from Jon hoping that he won’t ask for it again. And yes, i did think of throwing it away. Maybe, i leave it for Nicke to fix it when he gets back.

Maybe that is the objective of the toy…to spend hours trying to transform this toy. Can’t say that I had fun…more like tears.

I was putting Linn to sleep and she started to pull my hair. In anger, I told her to stop pulling my hair “If you pull my hair, i will loose all my hair and do you want me to look like Papa?”

She shook her head and I continued to pat her to sleep but accidentally pulled a knot on her hair. She immediately said

‘You pull my hair and afterwards, i look like Papa you know’!

I don’t know to laugh or cry!

My little princess is pretty drama these days. Where did she learn all these little actions from. Whenever I give her a little treat she goes …”REALLY? You got this for me, Mummy?’ .’Thank you’. As she smiles sweety.

She told me yesterday that I have to bring her to Sweden as it is her birthday she claims.

Unlike Linn, Jonathan will just give a small smile when he receives a treat. Sometimes, he will be coy when requesting for his favourite Oreo cookie. But he can be aggressive when he wants to. He will tell me that i must say ‘YES’ to his requests and not ‘No’.

He now understands the use of money specially in supermarkets and have been requesting for the green $5 note. He tells me that he wants to just hold it and will smile when he has it. I tried to trick him by giving him some other currency (Mauritius dollar) but he only wants the Singapore note. So monopoly money will not do. I have been explaining that he needs to work for the money. So i make him tell Linn and I a fairy tale to earn the money. But I really didn’t expect him to start asking for money at this age.:(

These days, Jon even negotiates. I have forbidden him to bring his Ironman to school as he lost the previous one. He told me that he wants to bring Ironman to school but he will leave Ironman in his schoolbag.

Who can say ‘No’ to Jonathan when he make a special request.

It’s hard to be a supermom. One who can hold a full time job, run a good household, and be there 24/7 for your kids and husband. I wonder how some women do it. Maybe it is in their genes. But definitely not mine.

Occasionally, i consoled myself that it is alright that i cannot be a supermom. I should just do my best and don’t be so hard on myself. I was watching the movie Sex in the City 2 and could totally understand what Charlotte went through with her 2 girls. They were driving her crazy but she loved them so much. And when her friends were concerned that her husband is having an affair with the sexy nanny, her main concern is that ‘she cannot lose the Nanny’!!!!

Motherhood changes you. Who would have thought that I will agree to move half way round the globe for the children’s sake. These days, my colleagues and people who knows about our move give me this look that says ‘Are you crazy? Do you know what you are doing’? A colleague reminded me yesterday that i will be ‘maidless’ and have to do cleaning myself.

I think they underestimate the power of love we have for our kids. This morning, when Jonathan’s school teacher called to say that I have to take him home as he was running a fever. I just packed my bags, dropped everything and rushed to school. Nothing is more important than the children’s well being and everything seems so unimportant. I guess for my kids, i am the world to them. …also their dishwasher, storyreader, cleaner, driver, TV remote control.

It doesn’t matter if I can never be a supermom. I will just be ME and love them the best way I can.