Little Miracles

Day 3 Singapore Getaway: Singapore Zoo & Chicken Rice Dinner

joyce — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:30:19 +0000

Day 3 was our trip to the Singapore Zoo (wouldn’t miss it for the world!) - It was Hannah’s first time, but Ethan could hardly remember his first, so it was sort of a brand new experience for both of them. We took the hotel shuttle to Orchard MRT and then boarded the MRT to a station near the zoo. Thereafter we arrived at the zoo via bus.

The weather was scorching hot, but still we managed to see a fair bit of animals. The kids were ecstatic to see the animals in real life, but when the kids got restless, the cameraman was still busy taking animal photos…

We ended up having our lunch in KFC and Hannah was especially excited about the animal shaped chairs, switching from zebra to elephant to lion to panda…

We couldn’t escape it. KFC was situated right smack in the middle of Rainforest Kidzworld, just next to the Wet Play Area. And of course Ethan and Hannah wanted in on the fun…this time (as opposed to when we were at Jurong Birdpark), I remembered to bring their swimming gear.

Ethan was well above the height requirement, but Hannah was at the height where she needed an adult to accompany her…so hmmm…what to do???

Since Mommy was the designated photographer, that leaves just Daddy…with one problem. I forgot to bring the ADULTS’ swimgear. So Daddy had to go in with his shirt and jeans…which actually turned out to be a splendid idea, up till the moment when a gigantic bucket of water poured water all over him!

Here are some other precious shots from the Wet Play area:

We made it a point to catch the Elephants of Asia show, which we remembered was really good, from our last visit to the zoo.

The children definitely agreed. The show was a full house, and we had to make do by sitting on the steps along the actual benches. But what made the experience memorable was when Ethan and Hannah experienced feeding the elephants some fruits and vegetables.

“Mommy, don’t we need to peel the bananas for the elephants?” Ethan asked.

Oh yeah…and Ethan will tell you that he witnessed an orang utan peeing from one of the overhead tree branches onto the road below. It was a good thing no one was standing there at that time!

We also succumbed to the temptation of an icy cold sensation in the form of Icy Slush…something like a slushee, but served in a really tall novelty container with a sippy straw. The kids LURVED it!!

Amazing how we managed to have loads of fun despite the hot hot weather…

Yes, the many different colorful elephant statues which were all over Singapore made their appearance in the zoo too…

…and then, just as we were wondering how the kids can still have so much energy left in them, little Hannah fell asleep on my shoulder as we were making our way out of the zoo in the evening (Carrying a sleeping toddler was like déjà vu from our last Singapore Zoo trip)

We decided to take a cab back to our hotel then, since we were running a little late and were meeting some friends for dinner later. Turned out we reached our hotel with a few minutes to spare for a much-needed toilet break and quick freshening-up.

Wonder why Ethan is so excited about dinner?

Our friends took us to supposedly the best chicken rice restaurant in Singapore…and it definitely did not fail to deliver.

The Boon Tong Kee restaurant we went to was the one next to the Boon Keng MRT station. Ethan had seconds and was enjoying every single morsel on his plate…while Hannah enjoyed nibbling on the soft and succulent roasted pork ribs.

See how yummy it looks?

All in all, a very eventful day which ended on a tasty and delicious note!

For the 3rd Year Running

joyce — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:23:14 +0000

This year marks the 3rd consecutive year in a row that Ethan’s picture has been featured on the Birthday Book on Astro Channel 613, previously Playhouse Disney, but now known as Disney Junior.

However, he did not receive any letter or birthday stickers from Disney Junior informing him of the feature, like he did in previous years. As such, we were not able to record the feature when it was shown on TV, as we did not know what time slots to wait for. Instead I managed to record it off the computer, from the Disney Junior site.

The background *accompaniment* you hear is courtesy of Ethan and Hannah…and sorry for the streaming of the video, which was not very smooth.

Hannah at 34 months

joyce — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:02:47 +0000

Scrap Credits
May Morn kit from Carjazi Designs
Stamp Cluster 7 from Lindsay Jane Designs
Romance elements from Valentina’s Creations

Weight

14 kilos (it was 14.3 kilos at the doc’s on Feb 1st)

Height

About 91 cm

Teeth

19 teeth, or almost there… Right now, she has 4 incisors on the upper jaw, 3 incisors bottom jaw; 2 canines upper jaw, 2 canines bottom jaw; 4 pramolars and 4 more back pramolars are making their appearance slowly but surely.

Developmental Milestones

Can go to sleep on her own at times, but still wakes up at night crying sometimes. She’ll only want Mommy then. These few nights she has also been screaming a lot at night. Hopefully it’s just a phase and will end soon.
Her favorite position to fall asleep in is with my hand under her body and the other hugging her. She won’t hesitate to ask “I want someone to hug me”, or she’ll even instruct me to “Sleep straight, Mommy” and then she will position my hands
Loves going to school and will proudly tell us all her friends’ names and also that she knows her brothers’ friends’ names. She’ll also tell us what she did in school, and what she ate in school. And she’ll boast that she’s a “big girl”.

Toilet Training

Toilet training has seen a vast improvement in the recent weeks. She wears pull-ups when she is in school, which makes her feel like a “big girl”. And now she will tell us when she needs to go pee pee. When we are out, she’ll tell me, “Mommy, I need to go pee pee. I’m wearing pull-ups so I can go. I can hold, Mommy.”

I’ve told her that if she can keep her pull-ups dry, I’ll let her wear panties

Food and Feeding

Very adventurous in her food, and will try almost anything, as long as it’s not *spicy*

All Dressed Up for Chinese New Year in School!

joyce — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:35:45 +0000

Ethan and Hannah had a Chinese New Year school celebration last Friday, where the kids were requested to dress up in their traditional attire or something red. Managed to snap this cute picture before we left for school.

Adorable, ain’t it?

She specifically requested me to plait her hair that way for her.

No, I didn’t forget the Christmas 2011 post…

joyce — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:30:26 +0000

Before it goes way past Chinese New Year and I have another to-do post to publish, allow me to take you back to the not too distant past and share how we celebrated our Christmas last year.

Our Christmas Eve was spent in Taiping, and although most adults looked forward to the steamboat dinner, the kids’ highlight of the day would be the paddle pool session, courtesy of Ethan & Hannah’s Patrick Ah Chek. It was an impromptu session, so I did not pack the kids’ swimsuits, but we made do with shorts and tank tops anyways.

It was certainly a welcome activity in the hot scorching weather (if only the pool was bigger, I would have hopped in myself!). The kids really enjoyed themselves, save for cousin Jonathan, who was taking his afternoon nap.

Definitely a great prequel to the yummy steamboat dinner we had at home that night. No fancy restaurant could beat a cozy gathering at home with family, and warm food for the tummy…

…and that’s how it came to be…all the screaming and noise died down when the four cousins fell to the temptation of ice cream…

All the bowls had equal amounts of ice cream, but Hannah, no surprise at all, finished her bowl first and asked for seconds…look at her eyeing Phoebe’s bowl…

After-dinner activity for the kids: Uncle Tee Bin busy *hiding* candy canes on the Christmas tree, and then getting the kids to look for them.

Next: gift time! Because of logistic reasons and because “some people” were too eager to open their presents, we had a first round of gifts that Christmas eve.

We went to church after that, and only came back home after midnight. The kids were really tired and fell asleep soundly.

And so did I.

On Christmas Day we took a drive to Ipoh, and the kids were very excited to see Ah Ma and Ah Kong again. It was very apparent that they’d missed my Dad because they kept sticking close to him, especially Hannah.

We had a scrumptious dinner at a restaurant which frankly serves the best chicken chop ever

It was back home to Penang the next day where we had a few more presents to open. Ethan had handpicked a present especially for Hannah, from himself:

…and he was visibly touched when he found out that Hannah also had a gift for him. He was eagerly looking forward to opening it.

Oh How My Babies Have Grown!

joyce — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:41:14 +0000

They won’t let me call them “Baby” anymore, but I still do..sometimes.

Today both Ethan and Hannah got ready to go to school. Ethan is in Kindergarten 2 this year and Hannah is starting off in Playgroup level. They had both been looking forward to this day for months, and Ethan had been planning with his sister on how she should wait for him after dismissal, how he would hold her hand and take her to her class, etc. The night before, Ethan was too excited to fall asleep, and I believe he only slept at around midnight.

It was a miracle we managed to get ready and left the house at about 8:15a.m. this morning.

Then again, miracles happen when kids cooperate, wouldn’t you agree?

So anyway, we arrived in school and we found out the kids’ new class names. Ethan very independently walked up the stairs to his new K2 class and started playing with his friends again.

As for Hannah, since it is her first time in school, there is an orientation program that lasts till the end of next week, where the parent is allowed to accompany the child in class to sort of ease the process of being in school, away from the parent. This is a very important step to alleviate separation anxiety where possible, and during this period, Hannah’s class will only run for 2 hours a day.

Well, she seemed okay today, and was willing to sit on her own listening to stories and doing her art and crafts. She was also very happy and enjoyed herself while playing in the playground. Of course, it certainly helped that she had already been going to this same school for her once-a-week parent-toddler class the previous year and her teacher was the same one she had.

Lunch, consisting of meesuah soup, was served at about 11:30a.m., and Hannah readily finished the entire bowl. Afterward she even had a few slices of apples.

After her class had dismissed, we waited a few minutes for Ethan’s class to end and went for lunch.

In the late afternoon, Hannah fell asleep and took a very LONG afternoon nap. Must have been tired from all that running around in school!

Another day beckons tomorrow!

Sorting Beans Can Be Lots of Fun!

joyce — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:03:21 +0000

On one of the days when I was running out of ideas on how to occupy the kids’ time, I decided to try this Bean Sorting exercise I had read about in one of my newly-acquired homeschooling books. It was an activity I felt both Ethan and Hannah could share and enjoy..and I was right.

I made use of the Organic Soup Mix beans that I had, and explained to them both that the task was to sort the beans according to type and color into separate cups. They had to work together to complete the task.

It was fun to see how attentive both Ethan and Hannah were, trying to complete the task on hand. I assisted in telling them that they could each take a different type of bean and then sort that out.

They were done in about 15 minutes.

And then I asked them to count the beans in the individual cups and I provided some sticker labels to label the number of beans.

Kids enjoy simple pleasures in life - and they were so proud of their “completed assignment” that day and couldn’t wait to show Daddy when he got home.

Hannah at 33 months

joyce — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:48:55 +0000

Scrap Credits
Child’s Life Kit from Elo Designs

Weight

13.5 kilos or maybe more!

Height

Actually she was previously about 89cm or 90cm , but I recently took her height measurement, and it was around 91cm.

Teeth

Developmental Milestones

We can carry a decent conversation with Hannah now, and she is a joy to talk to. She is very inquisitive in nature and asks a LOT of questions, including follow-up ones.

Hannah: Mommy, what are you eating?
Me: Oh, I’m eating tomyam noodles.
Hannah: Is it spicy? Can I try?
Me: It’s a little bit spicy, Hannah.
Hannah: A little bit spicy?
Me: Yes
Hannah: Why only a little bit, Mommy? Why not a LOT?

She wants to be treated like a big girl most of the time now, and that has resulted in her rejecting the baby chair or high chair. ”I don’t need the baby chair now, I’m a big girl!”. And when taking her to the potty when we’re in the mall, “I can hold my poopoo Mommy, I’m a big girl now.”
Will ask for permission to do most things. “Mommy, can I drink some chocolate milk, please?” “Mommy, can I watch TV please?”
Can reason within means. One recent episode stays in my mind (and will stay there for a long long time). I was getting the kids to sleep and they both wanted to sleep together on the mattress on the floor. I was afraid they would kick each other accidentally, so I asked Hannah to let Ethan sleep on his own. And she replied, “I don’t hit my brother, Mommy…I LOVE my brother.” Awwwww…
Has an emerging fashion sense (and still learning). She knows now that dresses go with Mary Janes and shorts go with sandals. But occasionally, you’ll still see her in red socks and Mary Janes with a floral frock!
Tries her best to show her independence by feeding herself or dressing up, and when we try to assist her, she’ll protest and say, “No no, I CAN!!!”

Toilet Training

Toilet training for peepee still in progress. She can more or less tell us when she needs to poopoo and successfully does it in the toilet.

Food and Feeding

Still very much a food lover and is not choosy when it comes to food. Sometimes does not want the chicken pieces though, but still loving her fish balls and carrots.

Day 2 Singapore Getaway: Jurong Bird Park

joyce — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:56:27 +0000

One of the first things we prepared before Day 2 was to get our ez-link cards to use on the MRT and the buses in Singapore. Kids up to 0.9m in height can travel for free, and Hannah just barely made it However, for preschoolers over 0.9m and below 7 years old, like Ethan, we got him the Child Concession Card, which entitled him to a 50% discount on all fares. Of course, Ethan was all happy and felt grown-up when he could also tap his very own card and walk across the gates.

On Monday morning, armed with our day backpack, camera and loads of energy (somewhat), we made our way on foot to the nearest MRT station near Bernard & Pei Ling’s house…..but….halfway there, Pete turned around and asked,

Pete: Did you bring the (Bird Park) tickets?
Me (giving him a blank stare): Nooo…..I thought they were in your bag!

So while the kids happily whiled away their time playing in the play structure in one of the HDB flats, I walked back to the house to get the tickets. It was a little extra exercise for me, and we haven’t even gotten on the train yet!

We had actually left the house quite late and when we boarded the MRT it was close to lunch time. So we decided to stop at Jurong Point Mall for lunch…instigated by pictures of Burger King’s food in the MRT too, actually!

Ethan was busy looking at the MRT map and telling his sister which station would come next and which station we would get off.

…and finally we arrived!

It was our first time at the Jurong Bird Park and one of the highlights the kids wanted to go to was the Lory Loft Feeding.

“Mommy, Mommy, can I feed the birds?” Hannah would ask, and hold up her hands as if holding the bird feed. But when we arrived, as soon as I was handed the sweet bird feed in the little plastic cup, I daresay at least 4 or 5 lory birds swarmed towards me and started eating from the bowl. The kids would not hold the bowl, and they were visibly afraid. We tried to cajole them into feeding the birds, but the most we got was them touching the feeding bowl together with Daddy (missed the chance to take a picture though. Boo.)

Other pictures from our enjoyable Bird Park trip:

It was a hot, hot, hot day that day (contradictory to the weather forecasted then), and the kids had their Kidz Banz sunglasses to protect their eyes (and look cool at the same time)!

Yup, those came in handy especially when we were watching the Bird Shows…

As you can see, there were lots of pretty, colorful and interesting birds to see…and we all had tons of fun!

…at Dino Dig, where kids can pretend to be archaeological experts or little paleontologists and look for fossils and hidden relics in the sand. Very cool!

…and possibly the kids’ favorite part of the excursion: the Panorail ride! It’s like a train that goes around the Bird Park but it’s high up above everything, so you get a panoramic view of the surroundings. We got unlimited rides because it was past 2p.m….see? Latecomers have privileges too!

The main reason the kids loved the panorail was because it is AIR-CONDITIONED!!

Here’s the photo that caused us to miss our bus back to the MRT station by a few seconds! I just had to take a picture of this rare multi-finger banana plant (forgot its name, but will google it later).

We reached Bernard and Pei Ling’s place after dinner and then made our way to our hotel near Orchard Road.

Here they are, at the end of the day, all ready for bed, and relaxing in our room at Traders Hotel, playing on Daddy’s iPad. Traders also had free wi-fi - hurrah!!

We were tired out, and were eager to rest for we knew the next day would bring another new exciting adventure!

Children’s Christmas Party

joyce — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:08:46 +0000

Last Saturday morning, Hannah’s parent-toddler class was more or less “transformed” into a Children’s Christmas Party for all the kids and their siblings. It was an annual affair for all the kids in the parent-toddler classes, and they had a garden party with Teddy Bear tents, splash pools, ball pits and also art and craft areas for the kids to explore.

Both Ethan and Hannah had a fun time making a Christmas wreath with Daddy. Check out the level of concentration on my little girl’s face…

And of course, a Christmas Party is never complete without food! Each family was asked to bring something to share with the rest and for a change from my usual cupcake fare, I decided to try my hand out at making Christmas sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees

I’d forgotten that I did not have enough icing sugar for the frosting, and my last minute attempt to buy it from Tesco the night before the party failed because Tesco had run out of it too. So I had to use whatever icing sugar I had left to make the royal icing and improvised. Not bad for a first attempt, eh?

The party ended with some songs and fun for the kids, and finally an appearance by “Santa Clause”, who gave away the presents to the kids as part of the gift exchange.

It was a fun Saturday morning for all, and a great way to end the year…