Week 8: Single mom'ing it and my kids are criminals caught on tape!

Week of  March 5th

Early start to the week...well it started much earlier because Shaun woke up late/early in the night crying!!! I figured he had a bad dream but when I got into the room it was more than a bad dream. He must have got up to go pee but was either so tired or so disoriented that he just peed next to his bed. Then it looks like he went into the bathroom to pee too but the pee was gone. By this point his feet are soaking wet with pee and cold so he goes to his laundry basket...presumably to take his socks off but gives up at that point and starts crying...then comes my arrival. How do I know this is what happened you might ask...well I tried to ask Shaun but he was half sleep walking and not even close to helpful in assessing the situation. It was like I had to put my detectives hat on and trace the evidence. So that is what I came up with. I followed the pee pee foot steps back to the scene of the crime and that was my theory and there is no one to dispute it so I’m sticking to it. What the heck is up with this kid and peeing all over the place???? So after that initial early start I had another early start and thought things were going ok since We had our trauma for the day...that is until we missed 2 buses and I somehow over the weekend lost Shaun’s MRT card which makes it more complicated to take the buses & trains. So needless to say we were late getting in but hopefully the day will turn out ok.

Even though I’m not working it seem like an endless battle between me and the amount of crap I have to do. Shopping cooking cleaning and more cleaning and more cooking and don’t forget all the freaking snacks for the boys and laundry. It’s not stop. And this flower stand converted into a shoe rack we have at the front door is a joke. No one puts there shoes on it just around it and I’m no exception to the rule. I’ve got to tighten up on this bc it’s just funny to have it there empty and 10 pairs of shoes scattered all around it. I did find a little time to chat to my sis and I mean a little and got some advice from her about some stuff then as I was finishing up dinner prep I get a call from the school about Shaun. Shaun got called to the principals office and now I'm on my way up to the school for a "talk" about his behaviour...he apparently destroyed some property 😳 He told a girl last week that he was going to kill her and now I think they are keeping an eye on him for criminal behavior...great. So I had to drop everything, shower (because I didn’t want them to smell my sweaty Singapore musk) and rush to the school. I was a little nervous about what it was about because all they said on the phone was that it was about his behavior and some damage done to the secondary school. I was just like “Shaun??? He’s 5??? Damage to secondary school? Really”. The lady laughed at me on the phone, I mean actually laughed then said we will talk later and everything is great and Shaun is a great boy. Ok lady that sound so not true I can even begin to understand you. To contradictory comments and I’m suppose to be like “ok great! I can’t wait to talk to you!” I don’t think so. So my nerves were high and I had no one to even talk to before hand so that just made it even worse. So when I do talk to the Vice Principal and the other lady who I haven’t a clue who she was. They start out like always with all the good things about the school and how they want to be transparent and interactive with the parents & kids blah blah blah. Then she tells me that Shaun destroyed some property in the secondary area. Once she starts telling me the scenario I know exactly what happened...damn I kids are bad ass little fuckers and got caught on camera!! So basically after Lino’s basketball I had to go pee and told the boys to wait for me on the sofa just at the office area. When I got back, maybe 3min later they were in some office and I yelled at them to get out. There was a ball like where you would stand on for ergonomics and they were on it and messing with a few things on the desk. I really should have investigated more but I just didn’t think about it. Anyway apparently they not only were on this ball stand thing and messing with some items on the desk but apparently they also had some fun with staplers and stapled a bunch of papers together and basically ramshackle the desk!!! Great. Good job. And from the way the VP was talking to me about it they had it in camera...she had her laptop out prepared to show me the footage!!!!! Damn!!!! So now they are seriously labelled as the bad kids and the lady was like, maybe you can tell them not to mess with things that are not theirs? Me...really lady you think that’s a good idea? You don’t think that’s what I’ve been telling them their whole like? Well I guess it’s not easy to see based on the footage but believe me that’s what I get all my gray hairs from...telling them to be better than the other kids. Do goo. Be kind even when others aren’t but also not to take any crap...it appears the only thing that stuck is “don’t take any crap from anyone”. I’ve gotta change things around before they go to south to fix. Now I have to send them up to the secondary schools Principals office so that they can apologise and hopefully he will scare them straight! Well the boys were scared enough because they didn’t even want to go into the office. Eventually I had to force them in and they begrudgingly apologised. Lino did pretty much right away but Shaun wouldn’t even look at the man. I could barely look at him myself because I was so embarrassed by what they did. He was actually pretty kind and I was joint that he would be more tough on them so that they would be scared straight but there was no hope. He started telling me about how he came into the crime scene and before he could tell me how the figured out who it was (I really didn’t want to hear the details of the crime investigation) I told him that I knew exactly when it happened and that I should have checked the room myself but didn’t. He could tell that I was upset and told me & the boys that “mom is more upset that I am”...that was nice of him. So of course I scolded the boys all the way home. We tried to get a new MRT card for Shaun but the stupid ticket office was on a meal break from 3:45-4:45...seriously? So home we went and cue crying and complaining. I made Lino write the principal a letter of apology which took him over an hour to do. I tried to cut poor Shaun’s hair into a Mohawk which was a disaster but thankfully he is to small to notice or care. Then on to Lino’s hair for a small trim...only trimmed the top because it didn’t get cut last week at the shop. Shaun had his own homework to do...practicing his letters. He is not very good at identifying the different letters so I had him use one of his alphabet toys to practice finding letters. He hated it!!! If he can’t find it right away he gives up...that sounds very familiar to his brother. So needless to say it wasn’t a fun evening. I had fish planned for dinner and almost switched it to something else because I didn’t want to hear more complaining but to my great surprise they loved the fish!!!! Both of them!!! Lino had 3 helpings and Shaun had 2 which I was not expecting...not for Lino anyway. I had bought tilapia for Lino and salmon for me and Shaun but Lino had both because he said he loved it. I’ve never seen him eat fish like that. I had even forgot to get bread crumbs to make it crispy for him because that was the only way I could get him to eat it before but this time he just ate it pan fried no problem. And even commented on how good it was. These kids keep me on my toes that is for sure. Since they had such a rough day and me too I tried to get them into bed early which I did but it took over 1.5hrs for them to actually go to sleep. What is the point really...I feel like I waste more timing going back & forth with them but I think they need the sleep because they never want to get up in the morning. So while I was fighting with them to hoot bed I cleaned up the apartment...partially any way. The floors are most important and I’ve sprayed down the 2 bathrooms more times than I can remember so I think we are good. I couldn’t wait to get into the bed...it’s only Monday and I’m completely wore out!




Tuesday was a little easier thank god. We got out of the house at a descent time and was able to get Shaun a new card and make it to school just on time. I got my hair done in the morning and did some shopping for the boys that afternoon. Wednesday is world book day and Shaun wanted to be Black Panther which I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a costume but I said I would try. Lino wanted to be Spider-Man and since we had several of those costumes I wasn’t worried about him. It is impressive the selection that they have at some of these stores but I knew we were not in the right country for Black Panther so Shaun will just have to settle for Spider-Man. While shopping I had a call with the career lady and it was a lot more useful...time to start applying for jobs which is exciting and scary all at the same time. What’s the worst that can happen? No call back? Ok I can deal with that. Since I was in the city and it takes so freaking long to get to the boys school I basically didn’t have time to do anything else but to head to their school. I only barely had time to grab a small snack for them and for me before getting to the school. The good news is that both boys good pretty good reports from school which was great the bad news is that Shaun broke his water bottle that I just bought the day before!! This is an ongoing saga...the battle of the water bottles. We have been here 7 weeks and I’ve probably bought 10 water bottles for the boys! I’m so over it. Probably $100 worth of water bottles gone, broken or not good enough. I’m so over it. Apparently this last bottle lost its life to the cement sidewalk when Shaun dropped it as they were walking to the gardens. Lino has lost 3 bottles his self...just gone. This is such a pain.

When we got home the boys were great...Then all of a sudden Lino asked to ride his bike to do his data collection for school and I said no because there were no bikes this week due to the incident with the principals office and Lino just lost his shit! 1hr screaming and yelling and crying because he couldn’t ride his bike...WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE KIDS? Eventually he calmed down and we went down to the courtyard area to collect his data and all of the sudden he is shy! The kid who will track down a waiter to get more food or drink is now scared to ask the kids he plays with all the time a simple question for his homework? I give up...these kids are nuts. I tried to help him but he wasn’t having it and I was tired so I had to leave him downstairs to figure it out. It only took 3 trips up and down for him to finally not lie and actually ask a few people the question to get his data. Why does everything have to be so complicated. And I knew they were tired so tried to get them in bed quickly but of course it took over an hour for them to finally go to sleep. I was dog tired myself but had to do an online training before I could go to bed. Unfortunately the training was excruciatingly boring and I fell asleep during it but somehow passed the exam so it’s done.

The rest of the week was pretty boring. I was super efficient in my chores and got a lot accomplished which was great. I finally posted my blog from 2 weeks ago and I’ve managed to put up a few pictures around the apartment so it’s starting to look a little like home...although my hanging skills are horrible because we don’t have the level ruler...that got put in the TX shipment... so other than my very not actuate but close enough measurements most pictures are mostly centered and mostly straight. It’s not easy hanging pictures with no hooks or nails...try it with only sticky tape and Velcro!!!! That’s what I used...the command strips and apparently they have Velcro ones that hold large size pictures... nothing to heavy but good enough.

Wednesday was world book day so the boys wore their Spider-Man costumes to school. I thought they were going to die from the heat but they preserved all day in those things. Friday I found some little guest in my rice which freaked me out!!!  I had to check with Ha Eun what the hell was going on and she just confirmed that it was the way of life in Singapore...and reconfirmed the importance of rinsing the rice which I actually do quite religiously here and now I see why.  Even still I can not accept this as normal!  I had the rice in air tight containers so there should not have been any bugs in there.  So either the containers are not air tight or the bugs were in there when it was packaged.  Either way its a mess and I am going to have to get to the bottom of the issue.  I did spend about 1hr picking out all of the bugs from my containers...I even let it sit on the counter for the day to make sure I got all the bugs out.  So now I can be sure it is bug free so if any more bugs arrive I will know that my containers need upgrading.  Ha Eun also scared me when she was telling me stories about how the bugs were in her rice back in Korea...I know its almost impossible to keep them out in this type of weather but man seriously.  I am happy that at least there were no gross bugs in there like maggots which apparently happens...I didn't even think maggots in dry rice was even possible...I guess its possible.  Lets hope it doesn't happen to us. Once the de-bugging was done on to the regular routine...the boys had swimming after school and after their lessons I met up with another mom and had an interesting conversation about block technology...apparently cutting edge stuff that she is getting into and she was using me as a test dummy to try and explain the whole thing. I must say I am even more confused than before but she promise in 2 weeks to know a little more and try again. It appears I’m a good test dummy since I’m so ignorant to the subject.  I can't wait for the update.  Saturday was a nice mommy & son day.  Shaun was up early so after swimming, soccer and dim sum I made a deal with the boys that we would take a little nap then go to the aquarium for the afternoon.  Shaun was dead tired and was happy to nap with me...Lino wasn't having any part of it but he did let us nap which was nice. 

So that afternoon we hung out at Sentosa and the boys made some friends at the aquarium...so friendly these boys.  And since we were having such a good day we ended up having a late movie and popcorn.  Even thought they were not paying me any attention I still enjoyed our little late night treat.  I need to make more memories like these...they won't be small for long (they are barely small now).  While we were having our movie Mike was meeting up with Ha Eun & Gernot in Ireland...wish I could have been there too.  Sunday afternoon we met up with Deanna & Eric at a cool cafe that I found on a website that had a nice sand play area for the kids.  There is a bunch of other kid friendly cafes on that website that we will have to try out eventually when we have more time but for today this place was perfect.  It was nice to chat and catch up and for the kids to play together too.  Actually, our kids teamed up with a few other kids to make this cool lake/mote...they only got in trouble with the waiters 2x during the making of the thing which I must say isn't too bad considering who we are talking about.  Mike made it back Sunday evening so back to the normal routine...whatever that is.