Post christmas; Pre new year.

The list of parties that we had lined up over the period of christmas have ended one after another over the past few days. The feasting has also trickled down in accordance. The mountain of prettily wrapped presents that had been sitting in my room for the past few weeks have already been given away, and a pile of opened presents take its place. 

As I glance at the new boxes of toys stacked upon one other, it seems to me that the number of presents the kids received this year, doubled what we had given. I realise belatedly that most of the toys S had received were not of cars.

My son has this single obsession with cars since he was a toddler. His conversational topics often, if not always, revolve greatly around the subject of cars. Car models, brand names, racing terms and movies spew out endlessly and expertly from him while I listen on in befuddled confusion. The 101 questions that come from him are also often in relation to cars. ('Is the Acura NSX faster or the Nissan GTR R35?')

Due to his particular interest, we have amassed (both bought and received) countless toy cars throughout his growing years. In trying to 'diversify' his interest, we have experimented with buying him remote controlled cars, tamiya, and various sets of road and train tracks, on top of the many hot wheels and tomica that he already owns.

We have also tried buying him typically boy character toys such as Ben10, Ironman, Superman, TMNT, Maxsteel and the likes, but soon realise that non-car toys could only sustain his interests for a fleeting period of 2 days maximum. 

No matter what we bought, he would always go back to his little cars; running them along tracks, down makeshift slopes, pretend racing and drifting (complete with sound effects), watching the wheels turn. 

He especially liked the hot wheels and tomica range because they fit easily into his palm and/or pockets whenever he goes out. The number of 'travelling companions' that he brings along each time ranges from at least two (according to him 'one car cannot drag race') to six, or however many his pockets can hold. 

As such, we always fell back to buying him cars, or had people continually gifting him with cars simply because they were known to be his constant favourite.

This christmas however, he's received very little presents of cars, but we are thankful of it. We want to say thank you to each and everyone of you for the wonderful presents. But more than that, thank you for putting S's strengths and weaknesses into your thoughts, placing careful considerations in choosing him a gift that would help diversify and expand his interests away from cars, helping us along in our neverending efforts and attempts to exposing him to a wider range of experience. 

For those who had gifted him with cars, thank you, because you know he loves his cars best and that christmas for him wouldn't be complete without any presents of cars to open to. 

It's back to reality as I pick up remnants of torn wrappers strewn all over the floor, clearing (or attempting to clear) left over food in the fridge, and keeping away the presents that we have received. 

As the new year sets upon us, I bid a reluctant goodbye to the month long hols and prep myself and S for the new school cycle to come. Oddly enough, I (kind of) look forward to the beginning of the new school year, which will be re-opening in just a few days time. 

As S embarks onto a new journey in Primary 2, I am no longer the newbie schooling parent as I was at the beginning of this year. I shouldn't be nervous anymore, but yet I am. With bated breadth, I await with anticipation, the new experiences and challenges that may come, and hope to rise up to each one in my own way.

It is a mystery what 2015 will bring us. May it be a good and fruitful one for us and everyone around. Or with the recent trend on 'local upsize'; may it be a Great year!
Happy new year everyone.

Cinderella and a Christmas party

We arrived home at the stroke of midnight. As we turned into the driveway, the car was still a car, and not a pumpkin. And no one had turned into horses or mice. All I had were 2 sleepy children in the backseat. 

One fought sleep hard, but lost and was now exhaustedly sleeping away with her mouth wide open. The other looked on stonily, eyes kept wide open by imaginery toothpicks in the form of a mantra that went 'Go home can open presents. Go home can open presents.' Those words sustained him until we arrived home, torn paper wrappers and all. 

We weren't returning home from a ball. We had just came back from a yearly xmas gathering with my old school friends. Some of us had known each other for twenty three years. Some longer, at twenty nine. As we grew through the years, we watched alongside as each other experienced life going through the different phases. 

From individuals, we watched as some progressed into couples, and then to families of four, and some five. From childhood to awkward tweens, to motherhood and currently into middle age and beyond, we have certainly come a long way together. 

Our Christmas gathering has been a yearly affair for the past (six, maybe seven?) years. Due to various personal commitments, our meet ups throughout the year can get quite sporadic and random. It is also tricky trying to arrange a suitable timeslot for everyone. As such, our meetings are rarely in a complete group of six. But at the end of every year, we would all be anticipating and looking forward to this gathering where attendance was an (almost) unspoken compulsory. 

This year, to accomodate everyone's schedules, we had the gathering way ahead of Christmas. We spent a wonderful evening together with husbands and kids. The food that we had were simple; some bought, some made. But the conversations that flowed between us were rich. Good times, as always, simply pass by so quickly. 

Amidst rocking dining chairs and screaming children running up and down, we came together and shared, with the many years of our friendship, laughters, food and warm conversations all around. It was heartwarming not only to see and catch up with everyone present, but also to witness the growth of each others' children through the years. 

Some of them that we've seen as babies, have now embarked onto primary school. One is still in the crawling stage, and another has just begun to speak in complete sentences. It is a sobering thought to know that as we see these children growing and progressing differently every year, we too, age in return as the years go by. 

In time to come, perhaps our gatherings will come to a full circle, when these same little children that we now tow along, attend future gatherings together as young men and women and with their own friendships forged amongst them. It would indeed be a heartening sight. 

When I left the party last night, I didn't leave behind a glass slipper. Instead, I left with a tummy full of food, an armful of presents, and a heart filled to the brim with gratitude and love for each and everyones' friendship. 

Thank you ladies, for making all of these possible. 

May we have many, many more gatherings to come. 

Merry christmas, and meet up soon.

P1 Term 4 - end of school

I watched with pride as his little footsteps hurried across the stage. He shook his VP's hand and stood posing as the photographer snapped pictures. My boy was up on stage collecting his Good Progress Award for Chinese language.

For a child with speech difficulties, struggling with daily conversations and in relating events, it was an immensely proud moment for hubby and I as we watched the scene unfold before us.

This same boy had once dreaded going to kindy because of his fear in chinese lessons, even feigning illness on several occasions just to skip school. Subsequently starting primary one with only a smattering of chinese in him, he had progressed over the year beyond our wildest imaginations, improving little by little, to receiving an award on stage.

Although his report card pegged him only at 53 for his chinese, we were nevertheless humbled and touched by his efforts and improvements. His progress then at kindergarten 2 had been deproving. It was only after months of pondering and probing did the teacher and I come to the conclusion that because he lagged too widely behind his peers, he had totally given up on trying to catch up. His confidence suffered and as a result, he dreaded attending chinese classes. 

I wasn't exactly overly worried then because for a child with learning difficulties, I knew that we were able to get him excused for Chinese in primary school. But shortly after he started school, we made a decision to engage a chinese tutor instead. Our intentions then were nothing academic. We had only wanted to try to bridge the gap since he was 'starting on a clean slate' with new peers. We were hoping that at the very least, we could reduce the fear he felt in things chinese, and improve his confidence in learning and grasping the language. Ultimately, our hopes for him were that he would be able to converse in simple mandarin.

Engaging a tutor didn't come cheap. But in wanting to prevent S from dreading school once again, we decided to give it a shot. I'm not sure if it was because the tutor was effective, or that we began to put in more effort to speak more mandarin to him at home, or a mixture of all the above, but over the months we noticed his confidence level creeping upwards. 

His outright rejection towards things chinese slowly decreased, and he was gradually more willing to answer in simple mandarin. Although we were heartened by his progress, we didn't think too deeply into it. So long as he was progressing, no matter how slowly, we were encouraged.

Seeing him walk up the stage to collect the award was truly the icing on the cake. Since S wasn't very often relating school events back to us, we only got to know that he was an award recipient moments before stepping foot into the auditorium. The school had recognised the efforts he put in and the progress that he had shown, and so did we. As he stood on stage, I clapped as loudly as I could with tears in my eyes. 

All the sacrifices that were made, the cancellation of appointments, the rushes home after work, the tight squeeze of time after dinner and before bedtime coaching him on his homework, the endless frustrations and worries expended throughout the months, the scarcity of me-time, these simply melted away the moment we saw him on that stage. He made us very, very proud parents with his improvements and progress.

The fall of those red velvet curtains after the award ceremony and year end concert also signified the end of school for the year. Over the year, S has developed from a scrawny, unsure boy, into one who is more outspoken and confident, filling out (a little too) snugly into his initially over-sized uniform. His preference is fast angling towards somewhat of a thrill seeker and sports enthusiast, showing so much more agility and dexterity in his movements. Evident in his taking of steps two by two, sometimes in threes, he also enjoys jumping off from a (short) height, and in taking the road less travelled (read as manouvering grassy slopes instead of walking on flat cement ground).

As I watch S lounging on the bed at home, playing on the ipad with intense concentration and deft fingers, rationing the amounts of nitro that he has in manouvering his golden Ferrari on Need For Speed, I realise that time will slowly develop this boy into a child of his own character. 

He needs much improvements in his other subjects (he failed maths) and many other aspects such as his patience, span of attention, cognitive and social skills, and his initiative to help, amongst many others. The progress will be slow, but nevertheless, we will get there by and by in his own time.

The closure of the primary one journey opens a new chapter for next year with new sets of books and bigger-sized uniforms. There is much more to accomplish with him in the neverending journey of education. I'm not sure how our journey will go, or where the road will lead us to, but as I hold my boy's pudgier hand, I steel myself for the similar but tougher cycles to come in Primary Two. 

In the meantime however, all that I will be doing is putting up my feet and enjoying the December holidays. 

Till the next year.