2014 - Thanksgiving
Wow! I'm just so thankful that 2014 has been an awesome year for both Eve and I. It's tough, hectic, happy, enjoyable, tired, excited.. All these feelings are felt day in and day out! One thing for sure, I want to thank God for all these to be possible.
Family
Eve is able to help in the house budgeting. That up her skills in the area of finance in the house. She breaks them down into detailed weekly regular expenditures and we are able not to over spend every week! It's indeed an accomplishment! The daily tracking of the 'outs' is a joint effort and this is really important in every family, to minimize unnecessary expenditure.
We have also increased our frequency of home meals, and cater more to our liking too! I should update more often in that blog of mine. I have collated quite a number of pictures! I must have better time management to blog more...
Josh
This year, we have enrolled him to a few new classes such as piano lessons and gymnastic lessons. He managed to learn well in piano lessons, and have daily practices of at least 10 minutes after playtime. Luckily Eve learnt piano when she was young as she is the one who guides him at home and you can see the huge appetite of Josh wanting to learn so much of the minor and major chords! When he plays the songs like 'Jingle Bells', my hair immediately stood up! It's so touching that I, who don't know how to play piano at all, can have a son who knows and learns piano with his interests at heart! Hope that this burning flame of his will keep kindering.
For the gymnastics class, we enrolled him with his classmates and he enjoyed the fun with them and very thankful that the teacher engages with them very well! He attends twice a week, 2 hours per session and I feel it will help him in his physical growth and we see the improvement in his appetite too!
His interest in building train tracks with LEGO is even greater this year, with him playing everyday 20 minutes. It's his way of relaxation and I'm so amazed that he thought carefully where to place the tracks and imagining the stations he is building.
He also mastered the skill of riding bicycle too! From tricycle to bicycle took him about a month and a half to transit! So glad that he is able to go marketing with us on the bike and that shortens the marketing time too!
Every night, he will have 4 reading books and one of it is a his own reading book, which he will attempt to read by his own. Day by day, he will increase by one more page. And that exposes him to more words! So glad that he enjoys reading! And reading time is together with Kate. All these are all set by Eve!
Kate
She is a super caring girl, showing her love towards her siblings. She knows how to help out when her siblings cry or does the chores, with instruction.
She is a carefree and helpful girl and honestly, we are so happy that she brings us joy with her funny faces!
Her interest is scooting and I can say that she scoots very well for a 3 year old! Confident and she knows how to control very well. We bought MiDUO brand instead of the actual MICRO brand. Of course, she must always put on her safety helmet whenever she scoots!
She loves swimming and she manages to swim a little with a float and she dares to jump into the pool with me catching her! She even puts her head into the water to blow bubbles too! Swimming makes her very happy and she enjoys it, and we enjoy it too because it will make them sleep earlier for that day too!
I'm so thankful that she loves to drink goat's milk everyday, for breakfast, tea break and before going to sleep! That will help her grow much healthier and stronger! Feel that this sporty girl of ours may take up some sports this 2015.
For school wise, I'm very touched by her year end performance which she carried out very well! She even know everyone's roles including what her teachers said! She is also improved in recognizing some simple Chinese characters like 一，二，三，月，头，我，你，他，人，大，小，火，上，何，手. Of course this list should grow more this 2015!
She is also attuned to reading 3 story books before bed time and I'm very happy that she remembers the story lines and words! I would sometimes read wrongly and she will spot it! She will recognize words better this year...
Before every meal, she will say her grace and most of the time, she will thank us for cooking the delicious meals! So sweet right? That motivates us to cook even more meals for them and for us!
Gwen
Gwen has also grown up already! She walks so fast and loves to play with her siblings. She mimicks the movements and actions of us too! The words she speaks are Mummy, Daddy, No, 大便, Josh, Kate etc. And she will try her best to pronounce the words that we speak!
She is still partial breast feeding at this 18 months old but her main staple is solids. Her favorites are macaroni, biscuits, bread, blueberries, grapes, things on the floor (just joking). We have to be mindful of the things she puts into her mouth! This is to prevent chances of diahoerra.
She walks very fast now! And she can climb stairs easily! When the doors open, the next second, she is standing in front of the neighbour's door! I guess she is an amazing runner next time, just like Eve when she was in college time, topping the ladies' runs and marathons
We are trying to make her go on potty in the day, guess that it will take a few weeks for us to master this because she doesn't want to sit on the potty at all! Hopefully by this year, she will wean off diapers in the day!
Work
I'm so happy that this 2014, I managed to improve by 35%! It's really one of the best year yet for me and I really want to thank my clients once again for entrusting me to grow with them and giving me confidence in my 7th year in Insurance line. It's challenging, however with time management, it can be done! I want to thank God for his provision and feel really blessed.
Travel
This year, we travelled Taiwan, Ipoh and Penang as a family. Certainly very fun and memorable and I'm very glad that Kate remembers the places too! Next year probably we will have a few family overseas trips! Quite excited about it.
Exercise
Well, I have tried to incorporate at least 20 minutes of jogging 3 times a week! And it really makes me feel different and much healthier too. Usually I jog in the early mornings like 5-6am, or evenings 11-12am. Evenings are lesser now as I feel that I should let my body rest and have more energy for jogging the next morning! Nowadays the weather is cooling and it makes jogging so much easier!
For IPPT, I managed to get Silver too! So happy for it because I have extra $200! I can't wait for the new version because it has lesser stations and it's easier to get Gold!
2015
This year I'm coming 32! Wow what an age to do much more for the family. I felt that 2014 passed by so fast, and my children has grown so fast too.. I'm so glad that I'm with Eve in all these and it's an even better year for us! God is good and He is with us all the time :)
