1. Work
Leaving the kids now is more manageable. It helps that I like my main job (which is to teach).
(Repeat. I only like the main part. I still hate it how our focus can get drawn away from the main part because there are so many other things we are supposed to look at and give attention to. That's why I'm beginning to think that I'm better off as a relief teacher.)
(Sidetrack: I'll always remember this story that my favouritest supervisor in the whole wide world (I'm into drama and theatrics at time, just like my girls) told the school one day. It was about the difference between being a teacher and being a relief teacher. Being a teacher involves climbing mountains of paperwork and swimming through red tapes of bureaucracy. But if you want to teach, you have to apply to be a relief teacher.
Wait wait. Did I get the story right?)
Aaaaaanyway. For now, I'm coping well. Alhamdulillah. I just hope I won't be burdened by too many things in future.
3. The Girls
The younger girl is *really really* behaving like a true blue 2-year-old. She bites, she pushes her sister off the stroller (after first saying that she does not want to be in it), she pinches, she shouts, she wants her own way and nothing but her way, refuses her vegetables and wants to survive only on keropok, M&Ms and her 2 Dora t-shirts.
What do I do?
Exercise lots of patience and hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. (Besides scolding her
jialat jialat and giving empty threats occasionally.)
I use Supernanny's Naughty Corner and it is effective in curbing bad behaviour. Whenever she shouts, I give her a warning (which normally goes unheeded). A few milliseconds later, she'll shout again. Off to the Naughty Corner she goes. But I only use it for shouting offences. Normally, after a trip to the Naughty Corner, she will be well-behaved for the next 1-2 hours.
But, kids this age have the attention span of a goldfish. So, I can't expect her to remember how unattractive punishment is for too long.
Talking about goldfish's attention - she has this rather annoying habit of not remembering where she puts her things and she expects me to go hunting for her missing item. Yesterday, she couldn't find her wallet (one of at least 3000 wallets/purses that she has at home - all of which contain various bits and bobs of this and that) . Now, this wallet was lying on the floor, less than 1 metre away from her so I refused to provide any help. She whined incessantly about the whereabouts of her wallet and when she finally laid eyes on it, she nonchalantly picked it up and moved on to the next activity. Which was to put this wallet in a bigger purse she saw in the toy box. A few seconds later, with the purse in her hand, she started whining AGAIN about her missing wallet! It was no longer in her hand. Grrrrrr. I refused to help her and she eventually found the wallet beside the toy box. She put it there so she could free both hands to pull the purse out of the box. Gaaaaaah! Situations like this happen on a daily basis and I think I gotta start feeding her gingko biloba or something.
And then, there's the Dora fixation. These days, she MUST wear her Dora t-shirt and her Dora panties to my mother's house. The panties, however, cannot be inside her pants/shorts. It must be on the outermost layer so that she can see the Dora picture on the panties. This is fine when we go to my mother's house early in the morning. We set off at 6.20am; it's still dark and no one can see her. It is NOT fine when we are going anywhere else!! The howls of protest we have to bear as we pry the panties off her...
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The older girl is behaving like a fine young lady most days. Occasionally when she's tired, the cranky monster will get the better of her and she'll throw a mighty fit. These days, thankfully, are few and far between.
She's still the same shy girl when it comes to people she's less familiar with. A neighbour even asked if she could talk. Oh boy. If they only knew. TheHusband and I had to scold her just now because she was chattering non-stop when she was supposed to be sleeping.
She had her IQ test last month. She did okay. But her shyness really shows. When asked to describe the word shoes in as many words as possible. She just held up her leg and pointed to her shoes. When asked to describe a tree, she pointed at the trees outside the window. Aiyoooh. I was in the same room with her and I had to bite my lips to stop myself from interfering with the test.
For now, my main worry about her is the school she's going to in 2013. The school of choice is the same school that her cousins are in. It'll be administratively convenient for her to go to the same school as my sister's kids. (It helps that the school has a good Science programme - an area I so very very need remediation in.) Since last year, there's been no balloting for Phase 2C. I'm praying really hard that the parents in the area will still go the for other schools. The most annoying thing is that if I were to live in the block just next to mine, I'll be considered as being within 1km of the school. But as luck would have it, my block is considered as being within 1-2km of the school. Urgh. I must pray and pray and pray real hard that a) there'll be no balloting for the school again next year; b) they will consider my block as within 1km of the school; c) even if there's balloting, H's name will be picked. If she does not get a place there, the next choice will be a school within walking distance of our place. But, hmmmm. It's not really my first choice.
Nervous sigh.
It's still one year away. (Just calculated the exact distance on Google Maps. IF we manage to secure our Dream Home, it'll be just under 1km! We must, we must, we must get that flat. Salah. Checked http://www.onemap.sg/index.html just to be sure. Our Dream Home is not considered within 1km. Like this, might as well listen to the MND minister and put off getting a new flat by another 2-3 years.)
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Ooooookay. All this premature research work (which may be completely obsolete this time next year) is taking too much of my time. I told myself I must be disciplined and finish all my schoolwork on Saturday night so that I can breathe a little easier on Sunday night. But, it's now 10.40pm and 38 pieces of composition to read and grade doesn't excite me much.
Have a peaceful and blessed Ramadan, everyone! And in case there are no further updates, have a merry hari raya too!
(Psst. The date says 22 July but I just posted this a few moments ago on July 30. Started writing the first paragraph on 22 July but never got round to the next paragraph til today.)
