My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

I’m taking a break on Childrens’ Day - I haven’t had that in a long long while!  ZHANGDE did not tax teachers to put up some sing and dance type of performances on the celebrations as I thought they might have like other schools; instead, they hired a professional magician to entertain the children for a good hour or so.  I think most of them enjoyed the show.

FELIX’s milk rashes have recovered since the past few weeks.  He is, however, crying a lot.  He wants us to carry him whenever he is awake, and even if he falls asleep when we carry him, he’ll wake up when we put him down, almost seven times out of ten.  It had been taxing on YEN.  Sure, I’ll want to help out when I’m home, but I also need to work on some things in school like marking.  Other times, I’ll be too tired to render any help, as my eyes would be closing straight after dinner.  The result of waking up at two or three am to work; sigh!

RACHEL has grown taller, without our really noticing.  She can reach more things now and is a handful too.  Just a few moments ago, she flipped the little container we use in the kitchen to contain rice grains.  Luckily for us, she only managed to get not too much spilled onto the floor.  She has also grown some habits too - like wiping the balcony "glass" clean with her tongue (yuck! We have to keep it clean before she does it!), and she likes to lie in prone position on the floor out of a sudden, a la swimming on the floor…  Ha, the strange habits of our magnificent girl!

I don’t know if I should be glad that the year is coming to a close soon.  Glad because I can finally take a rest from the hectic and demanding schedule; not wanting time to pass on the other hand as I feel I can still offer the class I teach quite a bit more to aid them in getting better results in their English language work…  well, I’ll do the best I can, and hope that everything works out fine.

I must be mindful not to neglect my wife and two wonderful children!  I’ve been spending so little time with them, even when I’m at home with them!

Some friends visited us on Saturday to visit RACHEL and FELIX.  We are glad that we are all doing okay in our areas - JIANWEI and JIANHONG are slated to end their 10-year-long dating game by finally getting hitched next February, ZHENSHUN and partner are doing well, as always, in their field as lawyers, WENQIANG is getting along well with his partner, and SHIYONG is happily single and travelling the world as much as he can with his job.

RACHEL cried at first when the first of my friends reached, but warmed up to them slowly, and finally surprised us all when she willingly wanted her godfather, SHIYONG, to carry her in his arms.  Now, that has never happened before as she would cry when SHIYONG comes up close to her.  Well, perhaps she finally knows that SHIYONG had been getting her a few gifts and is showing signs of being grateful.  Ha!

FELIX has been sharing the bed with YEN and I.  We didn’t want to spend on a cot as the baby spends minimal time in his life in one, and RACHEL got by without having to actually sleep in one.  She did so by sleeping on a matress and I think FELIX could progress to that.  As for RACHEL, I am really hoping that she starts speaking to us meaningfully soon as I can then start to teach her reasoning and stuff like that.  She can then be more independent too and start sleeping in her own room.  Perhaps that will take a much longer time…

Wow, I had been planning for lessons for the class which I take in English language, and found that there is really a short amount of time left for teaching and their assessment.  The formative assessment element of things is good in a sense that it takes in daily work into consideration for final averages, and you don’t fail badly if you happen not to do well enough for the final examinations.

However, it is just really taxing to chase for work to help students get better scores - they don’t want to submit their work!  Plus, the amount of assessments we have to do to pick the best few scores for assessing means so much time is taken away from teaching of things!  Sigh, it never gets easier, really.  I’ll just have to do as much as I can to help…

FELIX has been getting better with the rashes.  He has been eating quite a lot - crying every other two hours most times to indicate he wants his meals.  RACHEL, on the other hand, is her usual bubbly self, running around to explore things (getting her hands on things she is not allowed to touch too, despite constant reminders of disapprovals from us).  I am very happy to see my wife and two children by my side, everything going well for them.  =)

I just attended KAIJIE’s and JOYCE’s wedding dinner last night.  They are the second couple from my secondary school class to have fell in love since those years and taken things further.  QIJIE and PIN PIN, being the first couple, brought their adorable two-year-old daughter there too.  Together with BOON PING, we are happily married parents of two children respectively.  I don’t think we would have expected this happening when we were in school years back.

I met two secondary school teachers who attended the dinner too.  They taught the bride and groom in their lower secondary years and had not taught me directly.  I still went over to greet them and was pleasantly surprised that they said they could recognise me (I’m not too sure if they remembered the wrong person!) and that I was alaways a "good student" (I’d be happy if they didn’t mistake me for someone else!).  I had a good laugh sharing this with YEN when I went home…  =)

I have survived my first overseas trip with the students from my school.  Though it was only a two-day, one-night trip, so much could have gone wrong.  We’re glad that its out of the way now.

I was originally chosen to go with the primary five level on a three-day trip to KUALA LUMPUR.  I didn’t want to leave YEN for a long period, being on confinement.  I spoke to my principal and informed her about my willingness to go for school trips, but not a lengthy one this time round.  Luckily for me, she understood and I was swapped to go for the primary four trip instead.  It makes more sense too, as I was teaching P4 GANNET the English language and I see them more than any other class in school a week.

FELIX had been having some pimple-like things on his face.  It got worse near the end of last week and we brought him to a General Practitioner.  He was diagnosed to be alright, the things on his face being "milk rash", common to babies.  His condition has improved since, maybe too, with the help of the Calamine lotion YEN applied on his face.  I can only hope it gets better.

The one-week break is coming to an end!  I feel so sorry that I have been working for most days of this much-awaited "break" and I haven’t spent as much time at home with my lovely wife.  She is really a great partner, I tell you, being ever supportive, understanding, thoughtful, etc.  The list just goes on.  I feel that I sometimes neglect her, putting my work in prime position due to the hectic school schedule, but she never grumbles.  I  have to make an extra effort to spend more time with her!