Our little family

Lunch at Yi-yi's house

2012-02-01T15:21:00.002+08:00

We had a 捞鱼生 session at my sis's house last Sunday, followed by a very yummy-licious and value-for-money Thai-Chinese 煮炒. The meal for 9 of us cost only $80. YZ, as usual, refused to eat, begging for those CNY goodies, sweets .. whatever that is not supposed to be eaten during lunch! When it's time to go back, it's YH's turn to make a fuss! He wanted to stay on to watch his cartoons on the cartoon network channel!! In the end, we managed to drag both boys into the car and YZ slept thru all the way until we reach home. Arghhhh KIDS .... They get super grouchy when it's time for their naps .......!! This marks the end of our CNY visiting -- the last event will be the celebration in school on next Monday afternoon.

Munching on the 旺旺biscuit ....

5-YO and 3-YO to-be

2012-01-30T17:23:00.002+08:00

In a weeks' time, the 3 boys in my family will be having their birthdays -- on 3 consecutive days. We've ordered the cakes and agar-agar to celebrate at home and in school. We intend to take a day leave on one of the 2 days to bring the boys out for some fun. Someone ever asked if it's deliberately planned?? But hmmm .. no leh ... It happened naturally, perhaps just fated. I will always remember that my water bag burst 2 times -- always the following day after we ate a birthday cake.

YH - sensible and inquisitive

YZ - cheeky-cute but hot-tempered

Visit to the dentist

2012-01-29T00:01:00.001+08:00

Our dear YZ fell from the bed few days ago and chip off on one of his front tooth. Except for crying a while, he looks ok, able to chew and bite without any complains. Hubby think is still better to bring him for a dental checkup, in case the strong impact affect the nerve of his tooth. An appointment is made for today and YH went along too for an annual checkup.

YH gave his 101% cooperation to the very pretty dentist lady. He likes it so much that he obeyed her instructions to brush his teeth (not just rinse) before he goes to bed at night. For YZ, no matter how we coax and psycho, he only let the dentist touch his teeth for a little while, when she offered him different fruit flavours of the toothpaste. In the end, YZ's one is considered "failed attempt" and she only charge us for YH's dental fee. Phew >__< Both the boys' teeth are ok, except the food/milk stains here and there. The dentist also advise to continue with kids toothpaste till they reach primary school as the fluoride content for the adult's one is too high for their tolerance, in case they swallow it.

Looks cool with the colourful specs @ the Dental Clinic!

Indoor playground @ Paragon Level 5

Whitish pearls now!!

V for Victory

2012-01-28T23:40:00.000+08:00

YZ is a happy-go-lucky boy. Despite the constant scoldings and shoutings from us, he's able to put on a cheeky smile the next minute! Sometimes, I'm really at my wits end of how to make him understand what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

CNY Visiting

2012-01-28T23:17:00.000+08:00

Our visits were mainly on the 1st and 2nd day of the Lunar New Year. We had a hard time controlling YZ! He ate non-stop, indulging in packet drinks, sweets, crackers ... whatever that's been offered to him. Not only that, he don't want to go home, screaming and crying in other people's house! I conked out after the 2 days, wishing to have extended holidays to rest >_< Actually we did ... keke .. I made an impromptu movie date with hubby on Wed morning, watching "The Great Magician" -- starring my fav Tony Leung @ Cathay Cineleisure.

At In-law's house

YZ 'kidnapped' my sis's teddy bear from her car and hugged it to Zzzz

新年快乐!

2012-01-22T11:06:00.001+08:00

Today's the eve of CNY ... As usual, we'll be having reunion meals at my parents' place (lunch) and my in-law's (dinner) .. The boys are excited not because of CNY but due to extended holidays for 2 more days, meaning more time to play!!!

Wishing my family healthy and happy always, 龙年行大运 ! HUAT BIG BIG !!

My last minute work on the dragon 2012 garland. Hubby say it looks like a gecko though .................

Slight Throat Infection

2012-01-16T12:55:00.001+08:00

YZ started coughing yesterday, and purged out lots of phlegm last night. We're unsure whether is due to allergy or infection, thus brought him to our PD to take a look this morning. His lungs are clear except for a mild throat infection. After the doctor visit, YZ refused to go back to school, keep mumbling "我有cough, 不可以去school, 我要回家" ... Based on our past experiences, once he reached home, he'll be so excited to be the king of the house that he'd refuse to nap, or only nap at evening hours. Looking at the so hot weather, we think is better to let him go back to school to take a nap, and we promise we'll pick them up earlier today. He kept crying the moment we dropped him off and requested for milk. Teacher D is so kind to let YZ have his milk earlier than the rest and made his mattress for him to take his nap.

Saw George? One of the casts from Peppa Pig :@)

Playing on the See-Saw while waiting for his turn

Mummy's new wallet become his new possession!

Sushi lunch

2012-01-15T13:19:00.001+08:00

Homemade sushi with tuna, crab stick, egg and ham for lunch. YZ had rice with star-shaped nuggets and pan fried teriyaki fish fillet instead as he don't like the seaweed on the sushi. I improvise on the sweet n sour fish sauce yesterday and it's much better than my first attempt! Thanks to the recipe book I bought sometime ago >_<

Will try to cook if I can on weekends ... The 便当物语 book by Chef Eric looks interesting .. Might get one to add to my cook books collection.

Quilting

2012-01-15T10:52:00.001+08:00

Just borrowed this book from NLB and browse thru the pages ... The quilt projects are so lovely and colorful! I've been hoping to do quilt blankets for the boys since a long time ago .. But looking at the amount of work, just the cutting itself freaks me out! Hundreds of pieces of fabric just to make a masterpiece. whoo .. and the tremendous time require to quilt the pieces together ..... whoo ...

New haircut to welcome the CNY

2012-01-14T22:28:00.001+08:00

We brought the boys back to our old place for their haircut. This neighborhood salon provides nicer and cheaper cut than those $10 shop. Looks much shorter but their hair grows pretty fast!

Funny Faces

2012-01-13T17:07:00.000+08:00

He likes to make such face and ask me to take photo of it!

The didi also follow .... But his tongue can't twirl!

New Class Photos

2012-01-13T17:02:00.000+08:00

Every beginning of the year, the class teachers will put up the photos of the students in the class. The N1 class make this colourful butterfly and stick their photo onto it.

The K1 class is a bit more challenging. They have to write (or rather copy) simple sentences about themselves.

A cute cat made by YH during their craft lesson

Conversation with my 3YO-to-be

2012-01-13T14:28:00.001+08:00

Yuzhe came out of the toilet after his pee.

Me : 你有洗手吗？
YZ : 没有
Me : 快点进去洗!
YZ: 要用soap吗?
Me : 不用，用水洗就好了
YZ : 可是有germs leh ....
YZ : 我用soap ok ? ....
Me : orh .... ok ........

I'm going to be outwit by these little fellows one day!

2012 K1 Schedule

2012-01-10T12:39:00.001+08:00

Starting from K1, the kids will be having their shower right after breakfast. By the time we arrive, especially now the University term has started, they'd have showered half-way thru or done already. So Yuheng will just have his bath once, after we come back from school. Actually, the morning shower is part of the development skills for the children to learn to self bath, but then looking at their superly wet hair after they come out of the bathroom, won't they catch a cold like that? The K1 schedule looks more structured, with lesser play and more work .....

Towards Diaperless

2012-01-10T12:28:00.002+08:00

We told Yuheng there won't be new diapers purchased after he finished the last 2 packs. True enough, the last piece worn was on Saturday night. The first night seems ok, with a bit of leakage. However, yesterday night, he had the full flush out on the bed!!! Everything is wet, the mattress, the blanket and his cloth. I don't think the training pants will help either, looking at the amount of urine he output each time. So either I make it a point to wake up middle of the time to ask him to wee, or we continue with the diapers until he is ready. Well .. I think the most practical thing to do right now is to buy more diapers first!

Toys Spring Cleaning

2012-01-08T16:07:00.000+08:00

I accidentally broke the kitchen cabinet while doing spring cleaning last week. Hubby arranged for a Handy Man to come over to repair and at the same time tidying up the huge wardrobe of the boys' toys.

Step one: Sorting then out

Step two:
Top layer : toys that are not interesting to them anymore, but
still in good condition.Other layers : toys that still interests them.

Step three: Gone for good

Welcome 2012

2012-01-02T20:59:00.001+08:00

This is my very first 2012 post! We spent the morning @ The Marina Barrage after the kids been asking to go picnic for a few days. As I'm totally unprepared, we grabbed some sandwiches/milk/milo/buns from the 7-11 kiosk at the petrol station.

Once reached, we made our way up to the rooftop for Yuheng to have his sandwiches and milk. We strolled down the spiral path to the water playground. The boys initially were not willing to step into the water until we told them they had spare set of clothes to change. Once inside the water, they had so much fun and Yuzhe really made himself very very wet. The weather soon got too scorching hot that we think is better to call it a day. The boys request to come again and we promised we'll remember to bring along their swim suits as well. Actually I wasn't prepared that they'll like the splishy splashy water playground based on past experiences @ the Jurong Swimming complex. We had lunch @ the Citylink Mall and Hubby brought Yuheng to meet up with his friends while I took the MRT back with Yuzhe.

Tomorrow will be the start of work and school again. Yuzhe is already in a state of denial, telling me it's still Saturday and he don't wanna go school .... Me too, haven't rested enough to start 2012 yet ......

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-31T23:42:00.001+08:00

Year 2011 will be a history in less than 30 minutes time ... I spent my entire New Year eve spring cleaning the house!! The boys are entertained by their Papa most of the time so that I can concentrate on the cleaning. Tiring leh ... Glad to say it's about 80% done :) Hubby is assigned the toughest chore --- clearing the big wardrobe of toys to make way for the new ones.

I'm ending my last post for 2011 with a lunch buffet photo @ work taken on Thu .... The food is from Chili Padi and all those who ate compliment that it's nice >_<

Flowers

2011-12-31T16:13:00.001+08:00

Flowers drawn by Yuheng this morning ... One for Papa and the other for Mummy. He took the photos himself using my iPhone.

Spaceships

2011-12-27T22:34:00.001+08:00

Since the class promotions, the school been having non-structured activities. The kids will have fun at the playground, do lots of readings and drawings. Yuheng brought back quite a few masterpieces and this is something he hasn't attempt before, apart from cars, buses and houses. It's some spaceship stuff, like outer space battle yeah ...

Peppa Pig

2011-12-27T21:40:00.001+08:00

The boys are currently mesmerized with Peppa Pig .. It's first introduced to Yuzhe from the school teachers, where they'll watch video in the evening.

Hubby playing the Youtube Peppa Pig video on his new Xmas toy -- the Asus Eee Transformer tablet.

Boxing Day

2011-12-27T11:34:00.000+08:00

It's a public holiday on Boxing Day!! We went to our usual playground at Dawson to let the boys have some sun, and then to IKEA for some shopping. Yuheng wanted to go to the indoor playground inside IKEA but the queue was moving really too slowly. We managed to dissuade him of this idea, changed plan and had lunch at the opposite Anchorpoint mall instead. By the time we left, we saw 2 snakes of cars forming, one outside IKEA, and the other at Anchorpoint mall! SO MANY PEOPLE!!

Aloha Loyang Chalet

2011-12-27T11:28:00.002+08:00

We spent our Christmas eve at the Aloha Loyang Pool Terrace Chalet, together with my parents, bro, sis and bro-in-law. Hubby's family joined us for the BBQ in the evening. The Chalet is huge with 4 bedrooms, a big outdoor compound, living room, kitchen and a BBQ bit outside. We had a swim at the pool once we reached, though the weather was gloomy at times. Fortunately, the weather remains cool and dry until late at night, when it started downpour quite heavily. We had yummy BBQ + cooked food + dessert catered from Hungry BBQ. My sis bought another 2 cakes -- a delicious pomelo/mango cake made by her colleague and a log cake from Angie the Choice. I think we're all small eaters and there's quite a substantial amount of food leftover ...

The boys were showered with so much presents that it can last them for the next entire year!!!! They're really so very fortunate to have the love and blessings from the grandparents, aunties and uncles!!! Thank you so much for all your money spent and time taken to get the presents for Yuheng and Yuzhe >___<

We checked out early the following day to Downtown east for breakfast before heading home. It's really a nice gathering and mini celebration for our family :")

Some Xmas craft works

2011-12-27T11:12:00.001+08:00

Sling Zip Pouch with Hello Kitty Sario Fabric

Toddler Bag Pack with car fabric from Malin Textile

The Toddler bagpack looks kind of "squishy" though I already sandwiched a piece of felt in between. The 2 straps ought to be further strengthen and the bag bottom needs to be lined with a thick fabric-wrapped cardboard. A better choice is to use canvas cloth instead ....

After Yuzhe saw the backpack, he made a big fuss, saying his bag is also torn and ask me to make a new one for him. Though most of the people who bought the pattern feedback this bag is very easy to make, it took me 4+ hours to complete, excluding the cutting time! I'm so so so damn tired and groggy the following day due to the lack of sleep. If I'm making another one, this will be the design that Yuzhe will love it.

Potluck cum Year-End-Party @ Watten Estate

2011-12-26T20:41:00.000+08:00

We had a party @ Watten Estate on Christmas Day. I wanted to make Cocktail Prawn with Mango Mayonise Mini Buns after I saw the recipe from the I-Weekly magazine that afternoon. Hubby quickly drove to Seng Siong to buy the ingredients, but I forgotten about the mangoes. Quickly, I rushed down to the provision shop downstairs to get a can of mixed fruit cocktail instead.

Chef Lim @ Work

The result

We had a lovely night with good food, hilarious entertainment and great catchup with my buddies :)

MacDonald's Open Door

2011-12-23T16:21:00.001+08:00

I managed to secure a slot for the MacDonald's Open Door upon receiving the email alert weeks ago. I attended the tour with Yuheng @ the HarbourFront outlet last Sunday. Our MacDonald ambassador was a young chirpy lady who had worked in MCD for 14 years, counting the part-time days. We were told that all consumable products are imported from countries all over, including the breakfast pancake. It's actually in frozen form, and the staff just need to warm it. The burgers are now prepared upon request, following the requests displayed on the digital panel. The burger patties are all cooked using high pressure machines, and they stress that no oil is used in the grilling process. It's an eye-opener for us and at the end of the tour, we were treated french fries and soft drinks. There's a little paper bookmark given as souvenir as well.

The website to sign up for the tour is available here.

The happy boy posing with the souvenir
and munching his nuggets

Peek-a-Boo (JAC Year-End-Gathering)

2011-12-23T16:09:00.003+08:00

As members of the Thomson Junior Angel Club, we're invited to a year-end-party at Peek-a-Boo, an indoor playground @ Kallang Leisure Park. A sumptuous buffet is included, which we wasn't aware beforehand and had lunch @ Thai Express. The indoor playground is pretty small, but I think sufficient enough for our boys. Yuzhe like the slide very much and is willing to explore it on his own, without hubby following behind. There's also a talk on Paediatric tui-na, followed by lucky draw. Though there were only 20-odd names and 10 prizes, still, I never manage to win any. I'm never lucky in any lucky draws lo ... We left around 3.30pm, and the kids were so so so tired that they had a nice cosy nap in the car.

Weekends Updates

2011-12-19T11:29:00.001+08:00

Been sewing Xmas gifts for the past weekends that I'm too tired to put up any blog posts. Am happy to have completed the pyramid (or should I say dumpling) pouches for the teachers, lunchtime pouch and diaper bag for my good buddies and a sling bag for my niece. Am currently work-in-progress on a schoolbag for Yuheng. Just finished cutting the pattern and fabric. The pattern is bought from here. Hopefully, it'll turn out right.

We pop by Millenium Walk for a Hi-5 show few weekends ago. The actual cast -- 5 young chaps, came down from Australia to make this FOC performance. My kids aren't Hi-5 fans but won't mind sitting down to watch them singing songs and dance around. I'm amazed at how well the parents can memorize and sing the Hi-5 songs. I wonder if the parents are actually their fans .. hahahaa...

Here's a first version of the pyramid pouch I've made. The tutorial is available here.

PTC 2011 for #1

2011-12-08T15:00:00.001+08:00

We're back for Yuheng's PTC 2011, Semester 2. Glad to know that Yuheng is academically strong, has a good memory and so helpful to his friends that he even got himself punished. Teacher L related one incident of Yuheng trying to comfort his classmate, A, who has a phobia of thunder. However, instead of napping after that, both ended up playing! Another issue pointed out by Teacher L is the disciplinary problem when he and 3 other best buddies get together. The 4 of them tend to get out of hands once they're too engrossed in their play, affecting the rest of their classmates. To counter these 4 musketeers, the school has split them up for their K1 classes. Actually, half of Yuheng's class will be mix with another half from the other N2 class. Teacher L explain to us is a good for the children too, as they will get to interact more, and they will be separated eventually when they enter Primary 1.

As for Chinese, he is doing good too, in terms of conversing and recognition of words. This is mainly due to using Mandarin as our main conversation language at home. However, the Chinese teacher emphasize again on the importance of correcting him to use right hand. She points out the difficulty of writing chinese characters with left-handers. Actually, my sister is a left-hander and I don't recall her having problem with that. Anyway, my thinking is to be natural .. whatever will be, will be ....

After hearing the feedback, we credit his good memory to his ability to stay focus in whatever things he do, including watching the TV! Recently, we refused to switch on the TV during his meal times. Only after he finished the meal, then the TV is switched on. So far, this change encouraged him to chew and eat faster :) Also, we will be borrowing more books, especially chinese books from the library to encourage the kids to have a good reading habit.

School Updates

2011-12-07T16:41:00.001+08:00

Received a few emails from the School on the shuffling and staff movements. 2 of the Chinese Language teachers have tendered their resignation. There will be a change of classrooms and teachers. The changes will take effect starting next week, with activities in placed to orientate the children. Also mentioned in the circular that the transition from N2 to K1 will be slightly different with more structured program and writings. We hope to make writing as interesting as possible for Yuheng ...

CMA Mental Arithmetic Trial Class

2011-12-05T14:48:00.001+08:00

Yuheng recently got interested in the mini abacus which belonged to my brother during his primary school days. At the same time, I came across a mummy's blog giving good review on the CMA Mental Arithmetic class that her daughter had attended. Thus, I contacted the Kim Tian Rd center to sign up for their holiday-promotion trial class. The place is very "tuition center-like" with a few classrooms and a small waiting area outside. There were lots of testimonials, posters and ranking charts of the internal exams pasted all over the walls.

The class which Yuheng attended is supposed to be around his age-group, but the kids looked much older. My boy showed a "stressful" look by the time he came out of the class, which lasted for 1.5hours. He refused to tell me what's happening during the lesson and perhaps is too "chim" for him to describe anything. The unfriendly lady at the reception never even bother to ask us how's the trial lesson, and whether we're keen to sign up for the commencing new term.

We think, at this age, is not appropriate to expose him to such academically demanding enrichment course. Imagine the amount of competition faced when that kind of ranking chart is published on the wall, or when parents themselves compared the achievements with one another.

I still think is better to go for sports enrichment like Wushu, Swimming, or as what hubby suggested -- Chinese Speech and Drama .. Less stressful, but at the same time, they have fun and learn something.

PTC 2011 for #2

2011-12-05T14:38:00.001+08:00

PTC for Alpha is spread across few weeks for different levels. Last week's was Yuzhe's PTC, conducted by Teacher N and 黄老师. The talk is very short, and basically is what we already expected to hear. Yuzhe is co-operative in school, doing what he's required, and at times helping his friends. His tantrum is much more controlled over there, and only occur at times. He is still picky with his food, don't like vegetables, but start asking for more portions recently. We tried to find out Teacher D's frequent absence, but the teachers don't really know or maybe not-in-a-position to deluge too much. Anyway, the classes will undergo a reshuffle by end of the year as some of the kids including Yuzhe himself will be advancing to N1.

SCM 2011

2011-12-05T14:02:00.001+08:00

This is my 2nd time joining the 10KM run. The race start off at 7.15am, but I only managed to cross the start line @ 7.45am due to my blur-mind-of-state.

WHY? That morning, I'm supposed to take the MRT to City Hall, then walked over to the Esplanade. However, I saw a group of SCM participants boarding the opposite train instead. I'm thinking they may have done their homework, and taking the circle line to Esplanade may be a faster option, and so without-any-thinking, I followed them. When I reached the BV Circle Line platform, looked at the route map stating a freaking 42mins to reach Esplanade, I knew I have to run back to the East-West line platform! That's why by the time I reached, the crowd is already terribly heavy and queues forming 1KM away from the starting point.

The route for this year is much easier, no slopes and nice cool weather for 80% of the time. Yet, with lack of practice for long distance jogging, I took 1Hr26Min to complete. I consoled myself that I'm 10 minutes faster than last year. Perhaps, I can aim to be 15 minutes faster for 2012. :)

My legs are aching now, fortunately not-as-bad as I've thought, after rubbing the complimentary tiger balm muscle relaxant cream. After this run, I still strongly think my limit is only 10K, anything more than that, I'll have to wave white flag.

This is me after completing the run.

Year End Graduation Concert 2011

2011-12-05T13:13:00.001+08:00

This mini concert is held in the center itself, with all the children participation from toddler to K2 classes. The parents response is so overwhelming that most of them are standing around, snapping photos here and there, giving their fullest support to their lovely children. My parents too attended the concert, feeling so excited when it's the boys turn to perform.

Yuzhe's class only perform one song -- 小花猫. He is one of the few kids, who wasn't afraid of the crowd, put on a smiley face and purr like a cat throughout the song. Well done, my little boy.

Yuheng had 3 items -- Pearly shells, All Black's Hakka and 我爱我家. I like the All Black's Hakka performance best. Teacher L painted their faces really "fierce"! All the boys have coordinated movements and "roars" .. Very man! Before the concert, I asked Yuheng to tell us his concert item. He can't describe it well, but just saying the boys have to be very fierce one. Ha .. sort of accurate :)

Electric Cars

2011-11-28T15:53:00.001+08:00

The boys had a ride on these electric cars when we were @ Bukit Panjang Plaza last weekend. The bigger war-car cost $4 while the scooter is $3 for a 10mins ride. Yuheng has no problem controlling the vehicle. Yuzhe seems more interested in the surroundings, than navigating his bike.

Updates

2011-11-26T04:00:00.001+08:00

It's been once-a-upon a time I wrote about the updates of the 2 boys. I think its time I make a note for our own reference before they turn another year older!

Yuheng -- 4 Years 22 months
Yuheng is very inquisitive, asking a lot of questions, and remembers what he's being told. He gets very focus in whatever he do, and lends a helping hand to his friends when needed. He loves Disney Junior channel but is sensible enough to switch off the TV by himself when the time is up. However, he tends not to bite his food, and stop moving his mouth when his eyes are glued to the TV, taking ages to finish the bowl of rice! He is eating well, and I'm amazed with his good appetite at times. He hardly takes vege at home, but told us he ate in school. He tends to get quite rowdy when with his few best friends and can be disobedient sometimes. He seldom throws temper but whines and cry when things aren't getting his way. He is still playing UNO, but already cut down when we feel he should focus on some other things. His favourite topic still revolves around cars, asking a wholesome of questions about cars he sees on the road the moment hubby drives out from the carpark. Overall, Yuheng is a sensible boy, knowing what's right and what's wrong, though he still crosses the border and do wrong things sometimes. We hope he'll build up a strong relationship with Yuzhe and guide him along the way.

Yuzhe -- 2 Years 22 months
This boy is what he is -- an ox. He can be very stubborn and don't give a damn who you are. He throws things, hits, bites and screams. Fortunately, his temper comes and goes very quickly, sometimes within seconds. At his age, he speaks very well, have a good vocabulary of words and responds very fast to our questions. He has good memory and plays the jigsaw puzzle very well! He can place a piece of puzzle onto the board, without the need to have the surrounding pieces intact! Perhaps due to Yuheng's influence, he also likes car, and joins in the "car conversation" with us during our morning ride. He loves Barney and request to listen to the CD whenever he is in the car. He is not eating a lot, and most of the time depending on his mood. I feel he is like a camel, able to store up reserves on those days when he eats more. Otherwise, he can just survive on milk. He loves to watch children's songs and hubby plays that to him with YouTube on his laptop. Recently he has been extra helpful, offering his service whenever he can. e.g. running all the way to the bedroom to fetch Tigger for his brother when we refused to get it for him. Keep it up, my dear boy !

Childcare Closed for Spring Cleaning

2011-11-26T03:45:00.001+08:00

The boys' childcare was closed for spring cleaning on Friday. We have a dine-out lunch @ Sakae Sushi. Yuheng loves sushi and is able to finish 1pc of raw salmon sushi. Yuzhe don't really like sushi -- he just want the white rice without the seaweed. They had kids meal as well, which comes in a cute Train bento box.

After the meal, Yuzhe wanted to nap and requested to go back home. Yuheng, however, was still fresh and wanted to stay longer. There's nothing much to do in the mall, except shopping, which is not possible with that boy. I suggested to watch a movie and Yuheng chose "Happy Feet 2" over "Puss in Boots". I feel it was a great show, with beautiful songs and superly cute penguins. My boy still can't catch the storyline, and kept asking when's the show going to end. Fortunately, he still managed to stay to the end. We had toast bread at Ya Kun before heading back. He was definitely satisfied and Yuzhe didn't even ask where we went when we reached home.

Funny Faces

2011-11-26T03:36:00.001+08:00

Yuheng finds it so fun to take snapshots of his funny faces! He laughed so heartedly when he saw the photos, and even do a self pose after checking with me how to do front camera shots!

Phuket - 10 Nov ~ 13 Nov 2011

2011-11-25T22:19:00.000+08:00

This is a postponed trip from Feb due to the flood. Thailand is still having floods but only in Bangkok area. I'm expecting a big crowd flocking to Phuket but fortunately, it's not as bad as I thought. 90% of the tourists are caucasian, mainly from down under. We flew by Silkair, a much smaller plane with 2 rows of 3-seaters. The moment the boys boarded the plane, they start asking for toys and apple juice! So pampered lor!! I had to thick-skinly request souvenirs from the air stewardess, who gave them each a mini writing board.

Upon arriving at the Phuket airport, we headed for the Holiday Inn counter, thinking they may be able to arrange transport for us. As I did not request for a limousine service, they do not have available vehicles to bring us to the hotel. The staff-in-charge brought us to a counter outside to get a taxi instead, charging at 650baht. Half-way through the journey, the driver suddenly stopped outside a tour agency and went inside leaving us in the car. Soon after, a lady came out and before she can start selling us the land packages, I told her we wanted to hurry back to the hotel, as the kids were sleepy already. She got very annoyed and told us off for not giving her a chance to speak. When the driver entered the car, he kept cursing and swearing in Thai and drove dangerously at amazingly high speed! We were very very shocked and scared at the same time fearing for our safety!! After 10mins, clinging tight to our seat belts, we started finding out what went wrong, and through his basic English conversation, he got a scolding from that lady who entered the car. It seems like the lady blame him for our hostile attitude, not even giving her a chance to speak. He stopped his cursing after a while but still drove quite recklessly at times. We feel really fortunate that we finally reach the hotel after almost 1 hour of journey. What a relief! I really should have requested for transport service from the hotel.

Anyway, we disregard the earlier incident once we check in to our room. It's the best we've stayed so far -- a family suite with so lovely cute kids room!!! The boys were hilarious and excited once they seen the room, jumping with joy. Check out the photos below. Not just kids, but we adults also love it very much. The room comes with little toys, XBox 360 (bundled with games), TV, DVD player and some movie discs. Due to the high demand of the family-suite room, we managed to get only 2 nights, and the 3rd night will be shifted to the normal superior room.

Basically, this is one of the most relaxing holiday trips we've gone so far! We're in the hotel 95% of the time, either soaking in the kids pool, watching the kids @ the kids club or lazing in the hotel room. The boys love the kids pool which has a mini slide attached to it. There's a bigger toddler pool but they still prefer this smaller pool, which is empty most of the time.

We had most meals in the hotel, and ordered room service for the 2nd night. The only 2 times we ventured out was taking tuk-tuk to Jungcelyon, a nearby shopping mall in Patong beach area. Had a lunch at a Japanese restaurant there and before we wanted to shop around, the boys requested to go back to hotel! And for the last night, we specially hired a taxi, spent 45 mins on the road due to traffic jam, and reached this weekend market at Phuket Town. It was a splendid huge market with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of stuff. After dinner at a nearby small cafe, we took a short walk in the night market -- carrying the kids! We left after 10mins as the boys were getting too heavier to be carried for long, and again, they whine to go back to hotel! We called up the cab driver to fetch us back, and waited for 10 mins before he could get to the heavy populated night market area.

Being mentally prepared that our kids don't like shopping, me and hubby took turns to walk around the Patong area. Though it's bored to shop alone, but at least we get to do something other than the kiddish stuff. While they were at kids club on the 3rd day, I signed up for a hands-on cooking class with the hotel. I guess this will be the traveling model for the time being until the kids grow older. Even my parents commented why are our photos So-Not-Phuket, just mainly shots of the hotel, pool, room, kids club etc, which might as well book a local hotel stay with such facilities. Ha! Funny right, but that's the way our holiday is about ;-)

RIP, Ms J

2011-11-21T22:58:00.001+08:00

I got a shock when I login to Facebook today. I saw a note titled "Last Message" from J. She's an ex-colleague of mine from another office in our department. J is a very friendly girl, full of zest and life. She loves outdoor and frequents the gym. I remembered the conversation I had with her on the MRT few years back. It was a chatty talk and she shared with me her interests and hobbies. That's the only time we talked so long, and soon after, she left the organization for another job.

Life is really unpredictable. Why do they take away someone who loves life so much, have so much ahead to be accomplished? She fought hard and tough, not giving up till the very end. This is her.

I feel very sad for a nice girl like her bidding farewell to the world at such a young age. This further affirm my belief of living life to the fullest when I'm still around. Be nice to the people around me before I realize I will not have a chance to do so.

Cooking class @ Holiday Inn Patong

2011-11-20T13:43:00.001+08:00

Before I get started on the Phuket post, I fast forward to the cooking class which I signed up during the trip. The hands on class is held in a nice kitchen next to the restaurant we had our breakfast. I was joined by an elderly Australian couple who loved Thai seafood. I was totally not aware that it was a cook as you eat class and I went after a full lunch! Unfortunately due to prior incidents, the food cooked in the class was not allowed to be brought out of the kitchen. The lesson is very fast pace, with all the ingredients prepared readily for cooking. The helpers were fast in clearing the table and utensils for the next dish and what we need to do us just to stir the pan! coolz! How wonderful to cook when I do not need to do any cleaning :)

I'm really too full to stomach much food that I can only take samples of the yummy Thai delicacies I've whipped up (with much help). At the end of the session, we're awarded a certificate and a box of recipe cards as well! Hmmm ... I do wanna try out the recipes for my family, which I hope will turn out edible.

My hatch day in 2011

2011-11-20T13:28:00.001+08:00

I feel very blessed this year to have a great pre celebration with my closest family, an actual day celebration with the 3 dearest boys of my life and a post celebration with my bunch of fun loving ex & current colleagues.

I sincerely thank all the lovely people for their wonderful presents!! To my bro for the so delicious cake from Flor. To my sis and D for the iPhone arm band and earphones. Its really something I wanna get and will come in useful for the coming SCM2011. To my colleague, HY for the nano Lego blocks. You know my mind!! I have fun piecing them up. To my dearest hubby for the mouse. It'll be the most touched gadget from Mon - Fri except Public Holiday and off days :) And for this year, I received cards from AWC and Holiday Inn! I especially love the AWC card, my forever handsome idol.
谢谢！

Indulging in Jelly

2011-11-20T13:11:00.001+08:00

Hubby SMS this photo while I'm away attending a Technical Talk @ Microsoft today. I find it very cute lor! The 2 boys concentrating hard to scoop out the jelly from the cup. Btw, they had jap bento for lunch which comes with jelly and watermelon.

The New Paper Big Walk 2011

2011-11-08T14:40:00.000+08:00

Our family is excited when we learnt about the The New Paper Big Walk 2011. This year's route will bring us from Vivo City, into Sentosa Resort World, Universal Studio and ends at the Siloso Beach, covering a total distance of 4KM. We remembered we attended the Big Walk so many years back -- 10KM at the City Hall area. It was really fun then. As we're expecting 18,000 participants, and with 2 young kids, we have to make sure we have transport back from Sentosa to main island. Hubby kindly parked his car @ the Beach carpark the night before and took MRT back that night.

We reached Vivo City around 7.30am, and was shocked to see a super long queue already snaking into Sentosa from the Boardwalk!! We joined in the queue, walking so slowly, almost like crawling with 2 prams, 2 grouchy sleepy kids and 7 adults. Inside the Universal Studio was worst! So many people posing for photos that it became a challenge for us to push the prams properly, so as not to knock onto people's feet. But at times, some are really so engrossed with photo taking that they knocked onto the prams wheels, giving us the very "buay gam guan" look. Too bad lor, we already tried to avoid but you keep squeezing into our way.

Anyway, by the time we reached the Imbiah station, covering only 50% of the distance, we think is a better idea to hop onto the tram, and drop off at the next Beach station instead. Ha! It was a brilliant idea as we saw the human traffic coming to almost a stop at certain parts where the path converged into single lane. At the beach station, we waited for my sis and bro-in-law to collect the goodie bags, and then drive out to the main island for our dim sum meal.

yeah .. kungfu panda came out to pose photos with the participants :)

Fever again

2011-11-06T10:05:00.001+08:00

Yuzhe woke up with a fever this morning .. The thermometer reads 38.3. As we will be going for our Phuket trip soon, we think is better to let the PD have a check, in case is some throat infection again.

The verdict is really throat infection and given some medicine and antibiotics to stand by.

Marina @ Keppel Bay

2011-11-01T16:02:00.004+08:00

Marina @ Keppel Bay! This is a nice place to look at Yachts!! I have a childhood dream to stay in a Yacht, allowing me to sail to whatever place I want at anytime. Hahaha .. since is a childhood dream, I wasn't aware of the affordability issues of owning a Yacht until much later. Anyway, this is still my dream and I actually hinted to hubby that if one day he feel rich enough, treat me to a luxury yatch cruise.

The Reflection Condo is right in front of the Keppel Bay Waters!

Happily playing at the little playground

This tree looks like an umbrella!

We spent our morning there, the boys playing at the mini playground and strolling around, taking photos. Had lunch at the TCC located at 2nd level before we left for Bugis Junction. Nice food and great scenery, looking out to the waters from the restaurant.

Yuzheng @ TCC, drinking water from the cup with a spoon!

Happy hubby @ The Whimsy arcade ; See the long strand of tickets they won from this game :)

Alexandra Park Connector Walk

2011-10-26T20:54:00.001+08:00

Today is public holiday - no work, no school. A good sunny day for outdoor activity. Grab the kids water bottles, took out our tandem stroller and ready for the Alexandra Park Connector Walk.

We crossed over to Queenstown MRT and walk towards the Dawson housing estate to start the route. The entire distance is about 3 - 3.5km and we spent nearly 2 hours to reach Great World City, stopping by 2 playgrounds along Dawson. Had drinks and bought our lunch from Zion hawker centre. Fortunately we made the right decision to take a cab back as it started to rain heavily shortly after we reached home!

Overall, it was a very sunny and sweaty workout! Will be fun to do it again :)

Ho ho ho ....

2011-10-25T16:07:00.000+08:00

October is coming to an end, follow by November and .............. December !!

I've changed my blog design to welcome the Christmas Season >.<

Jingle bells, jingle bells ... jingle all the way .....

Puffer Fish

2011-10-25T00:11:00.001+08:00

The N2 kids learnt about Puffer Fish for today's Science enrichment class. They made a puffer fish by creatively stuffed a ball of newspaper in a paper bag, tied it up with a rubber band and drew eyes and mouth on it. I asked Yuheng what does he know about the fish and he imitate how it's bloated up like and told me it cannot be eaten.

Getaway to Kuala Lumpur (7 - 9 Oct)

2011-10-23T22:54:00.002+08:00

We're back from a 3D2N getaway trip to Kuala Lumpur. We took a SVIP coach with Five Stars Travel. Very luxury seat, with good movies selection and simple games to entertain the kids. The journey took about 5 hours to reach our hotel - Berjaya Times Square. The family package we booked includes a superior room with breakfast for 2A2C, and tickets to the Berjaya Times Square Indoor Theme Park. Quite a good deal!

I'm surprised by the superior room size. To me, it's considered a suite! There's a separate sleeping and living area, a little kitchen (with no cooking facilities) and huge bathroom. The living area consists of a dining table, 2 sofas and a long sofa bed. Most of our time were spent in Berjaya Times Square and the room itself. Other than that, we visited Pertaling Street Night Market on the 2nd night and KLCC for the 3rd day, before boarding the coach back. The kids enjoyed the indoor theme park so much that they only wanted to have lunch at 3pm!!

Yuheng also enjoyed the kids pool, that he request to go there consecutively 2 days. (was raining for the first day). The water for the 3rd day was so icy cold that it took me quite sometime to dip into the pool! Too cold for me that I'm having a blocked nose now!!

I would say it's a relaxing trip, considered we really didn't do much. Hubby and me took turns to walk around, be it Pertaling Street or the Berjaya Times Square Mall. From the short shopping time, I still managed to buy 1 top and 1 pair of shorts! As for the kids, they're forever throwing tantrums, crying, snatching things from each other. Sometimes, we just have to separate both, each taking care of one, to pacify the commotion.

Circle Line Exploration

2011-10-23T22:50:00.001+08:00

We took the new Circle Line today, boarding from Queenstown -> Buona Vista -> Serangoon Station. The total journey took about 37 minutes, inclusive of the transfer and waiting time. The Circle Line station at Buona Vista Station is not quite connected to the East-West line. Need to take the lift/escalator 3 times plus some walking before you can arrive at the station. I still prefer to take bus if I'm to take public transport from home to office.

UNO craze

2011-10-19T13:21:00.002+08:00

Ever since Yuheng learnt to play UNO, he's been asking everyone including my father, sister and brother-in-law to play with him, the more people the merrier! With 2 kids, it's not possible we focus all our attention to play the game together with him. There has to be some balance, especially when Yuzhe is not at the appropriate age to understand how to play the game yet. Not just that, Yuheng hates to lose. Sometimes, he'll burst out into tears and start whining if the player before him drops cards like Draw Two, Draw Four etc. He definitely cannot be the loser of the entire game. Maybe that's why he prefers more people to play, which has higher probability of not becoming the loser. Throughout the rounds, we tried to inculcate him the values that it doesn't matter who wins or lose. It's the process and companionship that he should enjoy. There bound to be a winner and loser in every game. If he lose this round, he can still make it the next. BUT then, he still can't get it. We're being forced to give up our good cards and continue the game until he finally wins. Ha ... where got such thing during our time???

At my parents' place, shuffling the cards

Sick angry boy

2011-10-19T13:11:00.001+08:00

Yuzhe been having a cough and flu since last week. Due to a lack of rest over the weekend, his cough and flu worsen and had a fever. The PD prescribed him antibiotics, and instructed for nebulisation. We took childcare leave on Monday to let him rest at home. But, no, he did not have a good afternoon nap despite we switch on the air-conditioner. There is heavy drilling nearby, which they're trying to knock down the whole building to make way for new development.

When we fetch him back yesterday evening, we received a complaint from the chinese teacher that he had bitten and pinched his classmates. This has never happened before, though he is infamous for his hot temper. We suspect is one of the medication which caused him to be cranky and lose control. Not only in school, he'd also displayed terrible and inpatient behaviour at home, screaming and crying for the past few days. We've stopped this medication and hopefully he'll be back to himself.

Japanese Sweet Corn Stew Mix

2011-10-19T12:51:00.001+08:00

Bought it from Cold Storage and tried it for one of our weekend lunches. Added some broccoli, carrots, and chicken fillets. The corn smell is very strong, and the mixture makes the stew sort of creamy texture. I find it quite tasty, but the kids don't like it. Hubby say it may be a better combination with spaghetti, instead of white rice. I wonder if I should try Japanese Curry mix next time? Haha ...

A Job Interview

2011-10-18T00:58:00.001+08:00

After working in this job for almost 12 years, I finally revised my long outdated resume, sent it out and received an interview! The motivation for job hunting arose from the diminishing passion that I derive from my current job. I feel I'm becoming stagnant and bored and demoralised. I want to spice up my working life and rekindle some sparks back!! I thought of a total career switch, like going into healthcare sector, taking up a full-time diploma in Radiologist or Physiotherapist. But this will mean taking miserable allowance for 2 years and getting a BIG FAT PAY CUT even after I completed the course. I thought of converting to Admin Track, which I often see the availability in our organisation's vacancy circular. But then, besides the 50% pay cut, I'll be surrounded with office politics where arrow stabbing is a common scene there, according to those admin office colleagues. Therefore, such bold decisions is a NO-NO, counting the number of financial baggages that I'm currently tied down with. To play safe, I just submitted those jobs which is still within my skillset knowledge, but yet another industry, which may also command a higher pay.

I get to taste how an interview is like after staying in an organisation for a decade! The interviewer bombards me with questions related to "Why in the right mind would you want to move out from your comfort zone and join the COPORATE WORLD!" Scary as it sounds, but it is. They stressed on late working hours and 24 x 7 support should the end users need SOS, be it middle of the night. There is no such thing as "Work from home". Every work they do have to be on-site, due to the security and confidentiality of information. Working environment aside, from this interview, I realised my technical skills is not on-par with the market demand! We so pamper our users that 99% of our systems are custom-built. Outside world talk about reconfiguring open sourced systems for their own use, greatly reducing the application development time, in turn, generate more revenue for the company.

Sigh, I think I fail badly for this interview, giving super frank answers that it's obvious I better hide in my turtle shell until I retire! In another way, I'm really grateful and count my blessings that I have this job. Maybe, otherwise, I won't be able to have 2 little kids! Alright, at least for the time being, I think I'll try to find some passion back, while waiting for my little ones to grow up. Will drinking passion tea helps?

Childrens' Day 2011

2011-10-06T09:35:00.003+08:00

Childrens' Day in Singapore is revised to the first Friday of October starting this year. The kids will have a party in School today with teachers performing for them. So coolz! And that's not all .... We'll be out of town tomorrow for a short 3D2N Getaway .. YIPPEEE .. !! 儿童节快乐！！

Childrens' Day Gift from the school -- Jacket

My first jog back home

2011-10-05T09:33:00.002+08:00

Been thinking of jogging back home from office and finally I've done it today! A few push factors - 1) My boss been hawking on those who jog during official office hours ; 2) Cool nice weather 3) Time to do some long distance practice for SCM2011

I use the cycling route, which I think is the shortest for feet transport. The route started off with a huge slope from PGP, all the way to Science Park I, followed by a nice downward sloping path until Portsdown Bridge, a gentle slope up to Queens Close, and lastly all the way back to my home. The total distance is roughly 5KM and I took slightly more than 30mins. Yes, I enjoyed the jog, except for the occasional cigarette smoke and a few traffic lights which took quite long to turn to green. If time permits, I'm hoping to do it once a week :)

Relocation Updates

2011-09-29T21:53:00.001+08:00

It's been nearly 2 weeks Yuzhe has shifted to this centre. Other than the screaming and shouting every morning when we left, he seems alright, happy and satisfied when we picked him up in the evening. He's not as shy as before, giggles and talk to the teachers when asked to. And one interesting thing I observed is that his classmate, YY, who used to bawl and cry at the previous centre, is so joyful here, walking around with her milk bottle. Looking forward to next week, when the rest if the kids and teachers join the big family :)

Alexandra Park Connector

2011-09-26T11:47:00.002+08:00

The 3 boys explored part of the Alexandra Park Connector yesterday morning. The have lots of fun and came back sweaty and excited. I want to join them for next week, perhaps can walk all the way to Great World City, which is the end of the park connector route ... Or maybe I should cycle instead .. whahahaha ...

Relocation

2011-09-19T17:18:00.000+08:00

Today is the first day Yuzhe is transferred over to Yuheng's school. We reached just in time for the breakfast. Yuheng hurriedly finished his cereals and joins his classmates for lesson. We accompanied Yuzhe until he finished his breakfast and the moment we handed him over to Teacher N, he started crying. Cry very loud and pitifully :((( Teacher A got Yuheng over to stay with him a while and he seemed to have stopped after they came out from the shower room. Let's hope Yuzhe will slowly get use to this new place ... We really miss the previous location ....

Hongkong (14 Sep, Day 4)

2011-09-19T15:31:00.000+08:00

We had buffet breakfast at Chef Mickey, which is not included inside our hotel stay. The food looks cute, but not tasty. The bill totals up to a hefty amount of SGD$80 for 2 adults and 1 kid. We will never patronise the hotel breakfast if we were to stay there again.

We took the shuttle bus to another hotel -- Disneyland Hotel, which has a more grand and up-class look.

Got back to our room, packed up and check out to HK airport. *Sob* Holiday is coming to an end. It's soooooo short, I want to come to Hongkong again!

Breakfast @ Chef Mickey

Photo taking around Hollywood Hotel

More photo taking @ Disneyland Hotel

Hongkong International Airport -- Waiting to board the plane back

Hongkong (13 Sep, Day 3)

2011-09-19T15:29:00.000+08:00

We took a cab down to try this 澳洲牛奶公司 for breakfast. BUT, it as public holiday on that day, thus not opened for business. Sad. We had breakfast at the opposite 茶餐厅 instead.

After breakfast, we walk back to the hotel, did some laundry, packing and got ready to check out to Disneyland.

Initially, we were doubtful of whether to visit the disneyland park. Knowing that it's a HK public holiday, it may be too crowded to queue for those rides. But the moment we reached Disney Hollywood Hotel, Yuheng told us he wanted to see Mickey Mouse. Thus, in order not to disappoint him, we took the shuttle bus to the park. Surprisingly, there wasn't a big crowd there. The queue times were reasonable, ranging from 20 - 30mins. We waited for the 3.30pm parade, which is the only time we saw Mickey Mouse and stayed on all the way until 8pm for the fireworks. Eh.. both the kids did not enjoy the fireworks.

Back to the hotel room, Yuheng told us he actually preferred the previous one, which had a sofa/play area. He just like to stay indoors, play his UNO and cars, without needing to venture outside. We gave them a good bath, milk and both slept very early after a long fun day at Disneyland park.

Breakfast @ Parkes Street

DisneyLand!

Disneyland Park

DisneyLand Park

Disneyland Parade

Disneyland Park

Dinner @ Disneyland Land Restaurant

Hongkong (12 Sep, Day 2)

2011-09-19T12:57:00.003+08:00

The sun rise so early that the kids woke up at 6.30am! Since the hotel did not come with breakfast, we had takeaway MacDonalds breakfast from the nearby outlet. Shops in HK don't open so early, we had a playtime in the room before setting out to the Mongkok area.

After the lunch, we had a short walk along Ladies Street. Thereafter, Hubby brought the kids back to hotel to rest while I continued my shopping. Satisfied with my purchase, I walked over to the nearby street to takeaway the Michelin 3 star Dim Sum shop -- 添好運點心專門店. Again, there's queue forming outside the shop. I waited 30 mins for my order, quickly rush back in a cab, put down the food and rushed out again to meet my friends for the program of the day!

Hubby was in charge for the rest of the day. According to him, 3 of them played in the room most of the time as Yuheng refused to step out. They only managed to walk to the opposite street to have dinner but ended up Hubby finishing the food as both of them still were quite full from the yummlicious dim sum I bought bah.

At Langham Mall

Hongkong (11 Sep, Day 1)

2011-09-17T12:57:00.000+08:00

We took the 9.30am SQ, A380 flight from Singapore to Hongkong. This is the first time I'm taking an A380, pretty looking forward to it. The leg room is indeed wider but the airplane meals wasn't fantastic. Yuheng got himself comfortable with watching the kids channel on the inflight entertainment program. Yuzhe managed to take a nap half-way thru and woke up just in time after the plane landed at the HK airport.

At Singapore Changi Aiport Terminal 3

Inside the A380 plane

Our plan was to take the MTR to Kowloon, then change to a cab to the hotel. But the service staff at the MTR counter advised us that it's more convenient for us to take a cab straight to the hotel as the cost will be not much difference. Following her advise, we got onto the cab and reached our 1-bedroom service apartment within 30 mins. We're so impressed with the hotel staff service, who not only is the bell boy, but also take care of the reception duties, plus helping us to carry the luggage to our rooms and explained to us the facilities that we can make use of -- free WIFI, smart TV etc. There's also free laundry and dryer service at the rooftop.

On the way to Causeway Bay

@ Causeway Bay

Our apt room

After settling down for a while, we headed out to the nearest MTR station -- Yau Ma Tei, to take a train to Causeway Bay and had an early dinner. We wanted to go up to the peak thereafter as there's some activities there due to the Mid Autumn Festival. Also, I'm keen to visit the Madame Tussauds' Wax Museum, which I haven't been to.

The peak tram station was flooded with people when we reached! The head of the queue was nowhere to be seen and human traffic were seen forming outside the station. Since we were already there, we joined in the queue, hoping it won't take us too long. We waited and waited and waited, and the kids got impatient, asking to return back to the hotel. Eventually we gave up as it was still quite a distance away from the tram station and we have no idea how long more we need to wait. Sigh .. what a pity.

The kids slept quite early after a long tiring day. While I stayed back in the room, hubby went off to Temple Street, just opposite where we stayed, to wacky around and came back with delicious supper. Yummy! Yippee.. that's all for Day 1.

AL "五十年不变情浓夜宴“

2011-09-16T14:27:00.000+08:00

I'm so glad I attended this event. It's really eye opening for me and best of all, not only do I get to see AL, but also other TVB stars whom I like. Thanks to hubby to make this possible for me. Knowing that I really wanted to attend this celebration in HK, he made this a family trip and took care of the 2 boys in the hotel.

Directions to the hall from Expo MTR station

Souvenirs on sale

Fans lining up to purchase the goods

Banquet Menu

Inside of the banquet hall

The Enormous Turnip

2011-09-16T13:43:00.001+08:00

The N2 (together with K1 and K2) classes made their inaugural speech and drama performance yesterday. The title of the story is "The Enormous Turnip". The teachers script it in a way that every child will get to speak 1 sentence. We're very pleased with Yuheng's performance and hope that thru such public opportunity, he'll get to build up his confidence and self esteem. Good job, my boy :)

Back from HK!

2011-09-16T13:32:00.004+08:00

We're back from a short trip to Hong Kong from 11 - 14 Sep. It was a fun and enjoyable holiday!! Will be sorting out the photos and posting it up soon :)

OHHH... I MISS HONGKONG!!

Blogger app available in AppStore

2011-09-09T11:01:00.001+08:00

Argghhh .. why does this app appear less than a week I bought the Blogpress for USD$2.99!

Anyway, for those with blogger and has an iPhone, this app is cool! Able to upload photos as well.

Big scolding

2011-09-09T00:02:00.001+08:00

After dinner, as usual, we went over to my parents house with the kids. Yuzhe brought over a pack of kiddy lego and that's when the commotion begins. Yuheng made his so called castle but was accidentally pushed over by Yuzhe. He kicked up a huge fuss, crying non stop and insisted me to make an original one back for him. I have no idea what his original castle looks like! No matter how I pieced, he shouted it's not correct and kept whining, crying. When my dad tried to help him, he asked him not to touch and wanted only me to fix it back. Absolutely ridiculous! Knowing I can't flare my temper in front of my mum, I dragged him back home instead. Gave him very stern scoldings. Brought out the cane to serve as a warning. Punished him to sit at one corner and go to bed at 9pm. In the bedroom, I reiterate my preachings and make him promise not to do it again.

Need to be more stern with the boys now than to wait till they grow older. By then, they would have 爬到我们头上来了!

Homebased Project - DIY Lantern

2011-09-07T23:42:00.001+08:00

We're given a home-based project to make a lantern for the coming Mooncake Festival celebration. My initial plan is this. But I still lack of the wire/bamboo sticks to make the frame after I managed to find red cellophane paper from the bookstore. Hubby and me sat down from 10pm, thinking, cutting and pasting until 11.30pm ....... We managed to make something that "looks like a lantern". But the end product is so not pleasing to look at at that I feel paiseh to take a photo of it. Eh, we will try harder next year.

Milk

2011-09-07T23:26:00.001+08:00

Yuzhe loves milk. He likes it so much that he can drink 2-3 bottles (~ 150ml - 180ml) before he finally fall asleep. He ask for milk when he throws tantrums. He ask for milk when he wake up middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep. Formula milk powder, though nowadays added more nutrients and rich in calcium, is not sufficient for good growth. We want to encourage Yuzhe to have more solid food intake. Thus, we use the "cold turkey" treatment. We will only give him 1 bottle of 180ml milk at bedtime. We reject his request when he ask for more, even during middle of the night, which is disruptive for our sleep and also for him.

So for now, we will always hear him saying this super early in the morning, most of the time before 7am. "爸爸，早上了，我可以喝 nei nei 吗 ? " So how not to give this boy a kiss when you hear this. By the way, he always wake hubby up because waking me up is like a mission impossible task.

美图秀秀

2011-09-06T09:27:00.001+08:00

Saw a friend using this cute photography app / software in FB. I googled for it and found 美图秀秀.

It can be downloaded to iPhone or installed on Windows PC. Yippee! I can now beautify my blog photos, and actually I'm already doing it :)

Batman and Puzzle-man

2011-09-05T22:08:00.001+08:00

Yuheng dug out a party mask and ask me to take a photo of him.

Yuzhe wanted a photo taken as well, showing him seriously piecing the puzzle ...

I noticed a scratch on Yuheng's right ear. He told me it was done by his classmate A, who used his nails to sting on his ear! I asked him why didn't he inform his teacher L, and realized she's on leave today. No wonder ... the boys can get quite rowdy when there's no stern teachers around.

Mooncake Festival @ Watten Estate

2011-09-05T10:05:00.002+08:00

This year's celebration is about 1 week earlier than the actual day. The turnout is much lesser compared to last year, perhaps due to the school holidays week. Anyway, we have yummy food and heart warming Japanese hosts. The kids were given fireworks to play, followed by a short lantern parade and then back to the estate for pomelo peeling game and dance performance. It ended rather early, and we were back home by 9pm.

beautiful bright sparks from the fireworks

Battery operated lanterns

Yuzhe too give it a try ...

Pomelo peeling contest .. the taller boy won

Dinner @ IMM

2011-09-05T09:58:00.002+08:00

We had dinner at IMM, since hubby need to pick up his tablet that has been sent for repair for 2+ weeks. Yuheng saw the outdoor playground and rushed towards it, excitedly!

Waited quite a while for our food to arrive @ Crystal Jade. I think Ding Tai Fung taste better ... in terms of quality and price ...

Jurong East Swimming Complex

2011-09-05T09:52:00.000+08:00

The CC is closed for Teachers' Day on last Friday. We brought the boys to the Jurong East Swimming Complex in the morning. This swimming complex is much more affordable than the Wild Wild Wet, with giant slides, lazy river, playarea etc. After we got changed and ready to get ourselves wet, Yuzhe clinged onto hubby, refused to go into the waters. He just want to soak his feet in 1 of the smaller baby pool. For Yuheng, he only want to float in the baby pool. In fact, I rented a big rubber float, as the smaller floats aren't allowed in some places. Unfortunately, due to my carelessness, the giant float was taken away in split second, which cost my deposit of $3 gone ($2 for the rental fee). We spent around 1hr there, have a bath and then to Jurong Point for lunch. Maybe the public pool opposite our house is good enough ....

Testing out shots from new camera

2011-09-01T22:58:00.001+08:00

The colours looks bright, much better than our 6 years old Sony Cybershot. It can do creative photography like toy camera, miniature effect etc too. By the way, Blogger updated their editor to a new UI .. Nice, like it :)

Comex (Sep 2011)

2011-09-01T22:53:00.000+08:00

Hubby and me took a break from work today to go for for the Comex Fair. The last time I went should be 2009, still pregnant with #2. We thought we're quite early, arrived at 11.30am, but the halls were already super duper crowded with people! Some booths were so packed that we cannot squeeze into the human jam. I think the best seller must be the HP TouchPad, all units sold before the official opening! We walked until 3 plus and went back satisfied with a new camera and portable charger for smartphone. For those going over the weekend, brave yourself for the crowd hoh.

Our new Canon IXUS 115 for the price of $269 with 2pc of 8GB cards,
4GB thumbdrive and a nice pouch

Speech and Drama Performance

2011-09-01T22:43:00.001+08:00

After almost 9 months of Speech and Drama lesson, the N2 class is going to have a performance titled "Enormous Turnip" in mid September. Yuheng enthusiastically showed me his script and told us that he needs to practice his lines at home. He will be either Grandchildren A or B and have 2 lines of speech. His friends will be dog, rabbit, mouse, turnip, grandparents etc .. Yeah .. we so looking forward to his virgin performance :)

First Vote of my life

2011-08-29T23:03:00.000+08:00

I finally get a chance to vote after 30 odd years of my life! Actually I was bypassed for the previous 4 rounds -- 2 rounds of Presidential Elections with no contestants and 2 rounds of General Elections with no opposition parties contesting for my GRC.

The voting station is so conveniently located (opposite block) that I took my own sweet time to cast my first precious vote. To support the candidate that I voted for, I stayed up by the TV to wait for the outcome. I waited and waited, refresh my phone frequently for the latest tweets on #sgpresident, and crossed my fingers that he will emerge as the elected President. My heart sank when it was announced that he lost by a tiny 0.34% votes to that pair of black framed spectacles!! A recount will be done and the results will only be made known few hours later. True enough, there wasn't any mistake to the original count. Even the overseas votes will not make any difference. Sigh.

However, looking at the statistics, the elected President only managed to secure 30% of Singaporean's hearts. Mine already given to the Palm tree. We shall see how will the new President change our quality of life -- a slogan I heard when that big trumpet blasted past my block during those campaigning days.

Days which I like

2011-08-29T12:23:00.000+08:00

Usually, Yuheng like Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and weekends.

Monday - Got science enrichment lesson in school
Tuesday - Yee Yee will come to Grandparents house
Thursday - Got speech & drama lesson in school
Friday - TGIF, the following day is Saturday
Saturday / Sunday / Public Holidays - Best days of all, because no school and can play whole day

And if that day happen to have school excursions, he'll like it too! And he is so excited today because they have a visit to the Library :)

Homecooked dinner

2011-08-29T12:14:00.001+08:00

At times when we get sick of eating outside food on weekends, we'll have home-cooked meals, prepared by erhmm .. myself. Hubby contributed his share by helping to tend to the kids and doing some washing later on. I only know that few dishes, due to my very limited cooking skills. I'm actually keen to attend some hands-on cooking class to improve my cooking, but the nearest CC don't have such courses. Sigh ...

Baked Teriyaki Salmon

Mushroom & Herbs Spaghetti with Broccoli

Omu Fried rice

HortPark

2011-08-29T12:09:00.001+08:00

Not satisfied with the previous day's outing, we visited the nearby HortPark. Should have went earlier, as the sun is quite scorching hot by the time they found fun @ the playground. I'm wondering if we continue the park path, will we end up at Kent Ridge park? I feel the park is not as cooling as the Botanical Garden, which has more trees and shades. But there's some indoor exhibits which we do not have a chance to visit it yet. Maybe next time :)

See-saw

Up and down

Went to VivoCity for lunch before heading back home. They must be so tired that both conk out for their naps.

SingKids PlaySystem

2011-08-29T11:20:00.003+08:00

I read some blog posts on this new SingKids PlaySystem and give it a try @ the Changi Airport branch. The entrance fee is quite expensive - $18 for 1 hr of play @ peak hours and $18 for 2 hrs of play @ off-peak hours. Initially we still skeptical that 1 hour might be too short to have an enjoyable play. But the moment we reached, we think 1 hour is already too long. The place is quite small with 2 sections opposite each other. The playground is based on some concept from Japan, but all I can relate is some Jap songs playing in the background. Yuheng only likes the push cart, making umpteen rounds inside the mini circuit until his stomach growls. Yuzhe sticks to the water-fall look-alike, LED-lighted slide. Well, this will be our first and last time there.

Created the below digital scrapbook pages using SmileBox.

Before 1 hour is up, I think only about 40mins, Yuheng say he is hungry, asked for lunch. We had our lunch at the foodcourt and some grocery shopping at the NTUC Fairprice and then to Ya Kun for kopi/teh/toast before going back home.

Weekend happenings

2011-08-22T16:26:00.000+08:00

Mummy,这个可以拿去 recycle 吗?

This cute boy took a piece of paper, asking me the above. Yeah .. he's been observing our regular fortnightly practice of bringing out the recycle bags to the corridoor for collection.

The game that cost USD$4.99!

Suddenly, I noticed 1 extra game being downloaded onto my iPad. Later on, I received an email from the iTunes store for an invoice of USD4.99. Gosh! It must be Yuheng's doings! He requested me to install a few games for him and I obliged. But I didn't realise that he added the last game himself and that is not free. Before I can scold him, he already broke down to tears, cried so damn loudly and snuggled into hubby's arms. ARRRGgggghhhhh ...

Puzzles

2011-08-22T16:16:00.000+08:00

Recently, I bought more puzzles for the boys since they like it so much. The Popular Bookstore has quite a good range of puzzles with reasonable price. Yuzhe is able to do those simple ones ranging from 6 - 9 pieces.

Lunch @ Clarke Quay Central

2011-08-22T16:11:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, hubby had a meetup with his friends @ Clarke Quay Central. We tagged along but had our lunch at another restaurant - Waraku. Both boys were eating their orange pudding while I continued to feed them their bento.

After the lunch, 3 of us walked around the mall, exploring the basement level and then to the ground floor where they found so much joy in pushing the artistic-looking chairs.

The outing ended with a kopi-break @ Ya Kun with hubby and his friends. Was glad that I can manage the 2 little monkeys for quite a while without any frustrations or shoutings. Maybe I should be a bit more adventurous the next round ^ ^

Ramblings

2011-08-19T17:27:00.000+08:00

I'm seriously lacking behind in my sewing projects .. piles of fabric still untouched ... Been occupied with work recently and by the time I settled down at night, I just want to couch on the sofa and watch TV only, nothing else. And for weekends, I sleep even earlier!! Hopefully will get something out from this weekend lah ...

EQ Theme: Life Skills-Responsibility

2011-08-16T09:28:00.000+08:00

Received an email from Yuheng's teacher that the EQ theme for this month is Life Skills-Responsibility. We have to submit a home-school project with photos of our child doing household chores plus some documentation. Quickly snapped the below photos when Yuheng helped to close the windows yesterday. Still lack of a few more to make into an A4 poster ... Project work makes me feel like a student again :)

Yuzhe follow his kor kor, wants a photo taken too

Tongue Curling

2011-08-15T13:51:00.000+08:00

Yuheng and me demonstrating our trademark :) Yuzhe trying to imitate ... Hubby say most probably he don't have that trademark, like himself .. hahahaha ..

The Botanical Garden

2011-08-13T22:32:00.004+08:00

We met up with Yuheng's classmate at the Botanical Garden, and later to the Jacobs Ballas Children's Garden. The older boys really enjoyed themselves, running everywhere and exploring. Yuzhe wanted playground, but the garden only has 1 big slide, which is not suitable for him.

By the way, in conjunction with the school's current Botany theme, they also have a visit to the JB Garden next Friday. Yuheng has shown a keen interest in asking the flowers alongside the road recently. My knowledge of flowers is limited to what I've learnt from the school science textbooks only. I borrowed a book on flowers from Singapore and Malaysia which provides sufficient information to satisfy the inquisitive boy :) He is so excited that there're flowers called "Mickey Mouse" and "Gardenia".

There're 2 lovely white swans in the Swan Lake

Captivated by the beautiful swans while I fearing for Yuzhe's safety of dropping into the lake

They fancy this little slope, running up and down

The 2 happy boys

Birthday Celebration

2011-08-13T22:12:00.000+08:00

We have a family birthday celebration dinner for my dad on Sunday. The dinner was so-so, should have ordered from ala-carte instead of the set meal. We finished off pretty early and stroll around City Square Mall, which was very quiet and empty on a Sunday evening.

bday cake made by my bro ...

2 oxes, apart by 60 yrs blowing the cake

posing beside the transformer ..

Happy 46th Birthday Singapore!

2011-08-10T09:17:00.000+08:00

The boys had a National Day celebration in school on Monday. Yuheng had a Singapore flag pasted onto his face. He is so reluctant to have it wash away and wanted me to take a photo of him. Yuzhe also wants a photo with his beloved New Water Plant plastic bottle. Currently, this is his favourite possession, bringing it everywhere he went, even to bed!

Relocation of School

2011-08-03T11:27:00.001+08:00

We received an email from Yuzhe's school that their current operation from this premise will cease by end of September. The reason is due to the weak enrolment for both infants and toddlers. A meeting with the parents will be held this Friday about the relocation plans. Most likely, the kids will be transferred over to the nearby LV center. So sad hoh .. LV@TLL is a nice cosy place, which both my kids loved very much.

Nexx

2011-07-31T22:56:00.000+08:00

This is our 2nd time there but still, I think we only managed to cover 20% of it! Ha .. it's really too big lah .. We hope to check out the outdoor playground next time ;-)

At Crystal Jade for lunch

Then to this dessert house for "糖水"

Singapore Art Museum

2011-07-31T22:53:00.000+08:00

We visited the Singapore Art Museum for the children program starting from 3 June to 30 August. Admission is free for Sundays :)

Stickers were given to the kids to paste on the elephants ..

Create your characters and dress them up!

Decorate the cake with different shapes and stuff ..

This is based on the "GO" game where coloured discs where slotted in to form pictures. I like that Angry Bird!

Resting on a coloured block

This is one of Yuheng's fav -- using train tracks to construct art

Open House (July)

2011-07-28T13:38:00.000+08:00

There's an exhibit of the students artwork on display in conjunction with the School's Open House for 2012 enrollment. Quite a nice range of works being put up. Good job!

July Projectwork

2011-07-28T11:33:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we attended a project work showcase for the N2 students. The theme is "Water". They did several experiments -- which materials will mix with water, understanding the 2 different states (solid, liquid), using balloons filled with water to explain that balloons filled with water will not float, what is dirty water etc etc. They visited the New Water Plant and the school organised a water play session at the Clementi Swimming Pool!! So very fun!!! The presentation ended with a short video of all the N2 students being interviewed with questions related to water.

Great thanks and hard work given to the teachers! They put in effort to prepare for the experiments and field trips. As the kids have so much fun during the waterplay session, they will make it a monthly event!! Learning can be as fun with little creativity applied ^ ^

What do they see inside the dirty water?

The concept web is a creative way of illustrating the topics

Before an experiment, they will have a pre-session to ask the kids to predict the outcome

What do you do with water?

Experiment on "What mixes with water"

The two N2 classes did a group project on making a waterfall

They painted a picture using water-coloured colour pencils

They tried with dry chalk to do a painting

Trying to tell a story from the pictures

Viral Fever Updates

2011-07-20T22:20:00.000+08:00

We sent Yuzhe to school this morning thinking the fever has cleared. Reached school, felt his body a bit warm but the thermometer shows 37.1. At 1.30pm, Teacher D called my mobile, informing Yuzhe is having a fever and not feeling good. Hubby took urgent leave and quickly went down to fetch him home. And at home, he's having a good time playing!!!! Only slept at around 2+, all the way until 7pm! My mum, so worried for his yo-yo fever has been brewing barley and ling yang (羚羊) water to reduce his heatiness. And now, he's fast asleep again... To play safe, I think we'll skip school for tomorrow.

Viral Fever

2011-07-19T15:53:00.000+08:00

Still no school for today. The fever went down from the scary 39.x to 37.x this morning. Other than the cough and runny nose, he looks fine and remains active. However, he barely eats for the past few days, surviving on milk diet most of the time. Hopefully no fever by tomorrow so that he can return back to school and starts regaining his appetite!

We went over to Novena Square to have lunch after the PD visit. He didn't eat much, not even finishing the barley water.

Drinking his fav -- barley water @ Hans

Poor boy .. the cheeks seems to have shrunk

Sitting on the floor when I refuse to carry him

Conk out in the car on the return trip home