Back!

Wow! I cannot believe time passes so quickly that it has been slightly over a year since my below post. Originally I knew I was always going to post again but I guessed I have been too occupied with other things and after a while I actually questioned myself if I want to pick it up again. During this period of ‘absence’ I have been receiving some encouraging comments and feedback and what tipped the scale for me was the comment from Celine. I received an email on my phone totally out of the blue a couple of weeks back and to my surprise it was from a reader who left a comment in my blog. It was a pleasant surprise so I thought I should give it another go.

Besides getting comments and emails directly from readers I have also received some invites to write advertorials for products and services on my blog. Funny thing is these people never followed up after the initial contact has been made. I remembered I was invited to bring my kids to spend a couple of hours at a certain enrichment centre and all I have to do was to write about their experience in my blog. Phone calls were made and I was told they will check with the boss (who invited me) to firm up a date and time but that was it. There was also an online magazine that contacted me and again no follow up was made after the initial contact. Maybe the problem lies with me personally. I knew I should not have asked for $2 per word.

Much has progressed and changed this past year, for starters we now have an additional maid to help care for the 3 monkeys. She was handpicked by the Mrs and interviewed by Ani. In order to ensure that the 2 maids can work together we let Ani played a significant role in the selection process and we took the advice of the agency to employ a fresh maid for 2 experienced maids may not like working together under one house hold. We wanted to ensure the new maid wasn’t bullied so we told Ani upfront that should this new maid quits due to unfair treatment from her then we will not be hiring an assistance anymore.

I am happy to say that since Anah joined us back in October last year we have not had any problem with the two of them. She being new is generally slower but overall she is nice to the kids and the kids take to her too so we are happy.

The other major change is both the Mrs and I have moved from our previous jobs and it is also due to this new job that I was very tied up. I was travelling on an almost monthly basis. Now that things have settled and I am onto a certain routine I will try my hands at blogging again.

Enough about us for I know you readers are not here to find out more about us. You want to know what has been going on with the children.

For starters Isaac is now in Nursery 2 and is more talkative and cheekier then ever if that is possible. He is at the stage where he is asking all the why’s and the where’s which is very hard for me to answer sometimes. Take “where” for example, on the way to pick the Mrs from work Isaac asked where were we going and I responded by telling him we were going to mummy’s office to pick her up. His next question was where and I told him the name of the building and he followed up with “but where is it daddy?” I tried explaining the location but as a 3yr old he wouldn’t know the difference of course and hence the entire journey I was bombarded with “where”.

The twins are now in childcare and the weird thing is it is cheaper to enrol them for full day then half day. This is after the government subsidy of course. It is a very good pricing strategy by these centres if you ask me.

Anyway I was never in favour of placing the twins there for the entire day for I want the 3 of them to spend more time together. If they are placed there for most of the day then Isaac will have very little time with his siblings.

The two of them are enjoying themselves very much at the childcare and they are picking up new words and songs in both Mandarin and English which is good.

Thankfully amongst the 3 kids only Luke give us the “Terrible Two’s” for he is really demanding and cranky when he did not get his way. He will throw tantrum by screaming and kicking and he will not let up. He is getting better because we understand each other more but he is still the hardest to compromise.

Hayley is very interesting for on one hand she is the easiest to compromise but on the other hand she is also the fiercest amongst the 3 of them. Due she is easily pacified she ended up having to give in the most. At times when the 3 of them all wanted a certain toy for example, Hayley will most likely be the one who sacrifices for she is usually fine if she can get another toy. The trick is we must ask her nicely. If her brothers snatched her toys she will go after them with her mouth wide open to bite them. Some of you have seen the below picture on my Facebook but here it is again for those who missed it.

I am very happy that we have Hayley for the behaviour and character between the boys and her is really very different. I am thrilled to be given the chance to be a father to both genders. I will share with you my experience in the future posts.