The best June holidays...

Having my maternity leave through the June holidays is perhaps the best thing that ever happen... Hubby is home most days and we get to go out together (thankfully L latches so going out is considered a breeze). The June holidays is ending and how I wish it will not end!

I see lots of friends bringing their kids to museums but (ooops) I bring mine to shopping centre (bleah). 

Late evening Mac dinner at Ridout Gardens - good thing is both kids already had their dinner so they didnt need to eat junk. Then I took a nice shot of hubby and the kids (back).

Anyway today, we had an enjoyable day out at Singapore's most suay shopping mall - JEM - yup the one plaugued with calamities even before it open. We survived the trip without any fire, water sprinkler going off or ceiling falling off. For a mall so fraught with "negative news", it was pretty busy and the car park was full lor! 

Our main objective was actually to go to Robinsons which is a major anchor tenant- occupying level 1 to 4. The baby/kid section is still smaller (sharing floor space with kitchen and electrical appliance) than the one that closed at Centrepoint (which had one floor on its own). 

After making our purchases, L fussed for milk. Saw diaper changing rooms on almost ever floor at two corners of the mall. It was really nice actually - a family toilet of sorts - with diaper changing station, toodler baby chair, child sized toilet bowls and sink! Importantly, the toilet is big enough for a baby pram. They have a seperate toilet for the hanicap shoppers. ;) 

The parent room on Level 5 was really nice n spacious! 3 seperate breastfeeding rooms with doors that you can lock (comes with electrical points and can fit your pram), one family toilet (like the one above). The parent room also has three open diaper changing station and hot water dispenser! Totally love the clean and cool enviornment (i have been to stuffy nursing rooms!)

Hubby brought the kids to play while I fed L. The kids play area was also on level 5 with the food court.

Eventually, we had dinner at the food court which is part of the Koufu chain with Food Republic prices! Food was not exceptional - was ok only. Hubby was shocked the drinks stall did not offer coke or pepsi. Hubby rejected the "Sarsi" proposal... 

So off we went for ice cream - a promise I made to N if she was good to share a Jap bento (she wanted Pastamania initially) with M and finish her share. She finished half a bowl of rice with fish and almost the whole cup of steamed egg (all by herself!). 

Sometimes the best in life is not about going to expensive places, it is about savouring the company and the little things in life.

The first family "run"

This is an ultra back-dated post. Wrote it sometime back but never got around to posting it up with some photos...

Hubby signed the family up for a 5km Safari Zoo run. This run is in memory of Ah Meng, the very famous orang utan ambassador of Singapore Zoo. Little did he expect that I would get pregnant and be in my third trimster on the day of the run... The plan was to have N run with us while M is placed under my MIL's care.

Since I was not in the condition to run, we decided to bring M along and i would push her in the pram... It was our first Safari Zoo Run- the flag off was suppose to be 10am, we reached the outside of the zoo at abt 9.55am and only entered the zoo multi storey car park at around 10.15am. The traffic condition outside the zoo was horrid - very slow traffic... In all we were about 1/2 hr late and didn't get to run in the Safari zoo area which meant we only clocked about half the distance of about 2.5km. 

For me its a relief! And they captured a photo of us! Cool eh! ;)

During the run, we took some photos of the kids having their water parade. The magic words to make N run faster - "cold 100 plus up ahead!".

After the zoo run, baby M had her fish and egg macaroni in chicken stock for lunch. The rest of us had western food at Ah Meng Cafe. Expensive but still edible... We were expecting the KFC at the children play area to be ultra crowded (which turn out to be the case). Baby M thankfully was asleep after her lunch. 

We did a little walking around - visited the new polar bear enclosure. The kids loved the new display where there was a mini eskimo igloo which was pretty cold! Check out baby M! 

I think the most pitiful of all was hubby. I pushed the pram while he carried both kids- M on the pognae carrier while N was piggy backed... 

The whole day ended with waterplay (i hid in KFC in the aircon) and the animal/pet show at the kids area. M & N enjoyed the show and N got to stroke the cute dogs.  That marks a tiring day-  hubby was most tired among us... I guess he will think more than twice before signing up for such runs in future! :p

Baby M's swimming...

It's been almost a month since my last post! Time really flies and with two, the reality is I have lesser and lesser time to log in to blog...

Baby M is almost 5 months old (one more week left). At around 4 months plus, we decided it was time to expose her to "swimming" in a tub. The baby spa at Habourfront is still run by the same company and the aunty who helped N with her first swim was still there at the outlet.What was different was the price (from $26 per session it has increased to $38 (?)). They have also changed their single tubs - there is jacuzzi (bubbling water) and you can see baby legs kicking in the water through the "fish tank" side. There was also a bigger pool which can accomodate up to 3 babies at a time.

What I understand is that first and second timers will "swim" in the single tub to get them used to the float and kicking around in deep water... Subsequent sessions would require babies to be "upgraded" to the huge tub for them to socialise with other swimming babies.

Here are some photos of  Baby M enjoying herself in the tub...

Side view of the tub...

The excited big sister encouraging baby M...

Looking at jiejie... :)

Smiling while kicking away in the tub...

 

 

When there is only you and me...

It was a date with little gal... ;) Picked her up from mother in law's place and brought her for tuina at TMC's TCM clinic. At almost age 4, bringing her out is easier...

We adjourned to Starbucks for her "cake". Starbucks at United Square shopping centre is always packed! (its perpetually filled with students and there is no seats for customers like me). *oh well* This time I managed to get a seat by "sharing" it with someone (who was not studying). He left soon after partly because no privacy... *haha evil laughter*

Here are shots of the little gal enjoying her hot chocolate & oreo cheese cake.

High tea with mummies - Rose Veranda

After a tuina session for little gal and Jinny's baby boy, we met Stella for lunch/high tea at Shangrila's Rose Veranda. It was really nice to catch up with fellow mummies in the 2008 group. ;)

Stella brought Evan along. Evan and little gal had loads of fun together making animal mask, colouring and doodling which the mummies sipped tea and ate.

Here are pictures of them colouring, with the animal mask and little gal's doodling... ;)

Little gal's colouring... If u noticed, she added a sun at the top of the picture. The butterflies are drawn by me. The one directly below the sun is drawn by her (and it looks like a dollar sign...).



Little gal drawing her "My family" - from her left: Mei mei, mummy, daddy and herself. (noticed she has got two pony tails)



I asked her who was she drawing and she says: "Mama". Haha, not bad at least I look decent. And I have long eye-lashes!

Lil gal's first movie - Disney's "Brave"

It was a movie which hubby and I wanted to bring the little gal to watch last week but failed because little gal went down with fever and a bad bout of cough.

Worried that the film will be taken off soon, we decided to bring her today! Golden Village has this offer where you can buy 2 tickets and get one free for the kid. We bought the tickets for the 1pm show at 12 noon. Luckily the gal had a fuss-free lunch @ Soup spoon. Enjoying the soup with bread... ;p

It was her first movie in the theatre - 100 mins. She manage to sit through munching through her pop corn and sips of warm water. She was however a little distracted during parts of the show and was more interested in distributing the pop corn to me and hubby.

Overall, she manage to catch the gist of the movie - like the queen/mother turning into a big black bear. She did like it and I sure hope she doesn't get nightmares from the images of a pretty fierce looking bear... :p

Strangely, the story to me was not about Princess Merida's bravery but more of how easily daughters can misunderstand a mother's love. The fight between the bears displayed the ferocity of a mother's love in protecting her loved ones. To hubby, part of the witch's hint was what he felt meaningful: "Fate be changed, look inside. Mend the bond torn by pride". Well that's very much the gist of the movie... ;)

裕廊飞禽公园!!!

It was hubby's company family day at the Jurong Bird Park and he bought some tickets for us to go. The last time I went was at least 6-7 years ago and I only remember the owl enclosure being v dark and it was really hard to spot the birds.

The little gal was very excited about the visit as she wanted to see owls, penguins and parrots. After a little research, we decided that we had to catch the shows - there are only 2.

The good thing about the bird park as compared to the zoo:
1. It was more managable - size wise it is smaller & lesser slopes to climb up and down
2. There were lesser mozzies (confirm)
3. Because the park was smaller, the exhibits are closer to each other - din need to walk so far to see the birds
4. Weather wise - despite it being hot, we did perspire BUT I did not feel sticky
5. I prefer the shows over the one in zoo (the handlers were more lively while the ones at zoo are like drones).

So here are some photos of us @ the bird park... : )

"I'm as tall as the King Penguin!"

Family photo while waiting for the Birds of Prey show to start! :)

Photos from the birds of prey show! :)

Photo with the grown up "ugly duckling"!

When first put on the boucy castle, she just stand there. After cleaning her feet, look at how happy she is jumping ard!

Caught on photo in mid-air! WoooHoooO!

Another family shot outside the owl exhibit... the air-con is SHIOK! and the enclosures are really nice as compared to my last visit there. :)

Ended off the day at the water play area (spot the little gal?) - concept is similar to one at zoo... With the big pail that splashes water and slides...

Ending off a happy family day!!! :)

The Christmas portraits...

The very classic snowman for the coming Christmas! ;)

You know your little one has grown up when she swings her hand over your shoulder to pull u closer and poses for a photo...

Little Megan's birthday party! ;)

We attended little Megan's party at Orchid Country Club - little ozone. The play area's pretty fun and the little gal enjoyed herself! ;)

Got to meet most of my forum friends and their toddlers! All are so grown already... ;)

Megan's birthday cake is really sweet and pretty! Adorned with lots of pretty flowers, butterfly and bees. ;)

Thanks to Phyl for inviting and we has great fun!

PS: check out the cute little gal whose posing with the cake... ;p

The accidental friend?

Went to eat at a neighborhood where there was a shop selling household stuff. The shop seems to be run by two ladies and their daughter was there.

We hung in the shop for quite a while because ah gong couldn't quite decide whether to buy the light bulbs or not... The shop owner's daughter was super friendly... She first offered my little gal some "mamee" that she was having. The little gal took it and I reminded her to say thank you.

Well after this, my little gal received transformer stickers (free from the mamee pack) from her. The little gal was at first apprehensive but soon opened up when the older girl began "talking" to her. Both of them even sat at one of the shelves to share the pack of mamee. To me, I hope this spells the start of my gal's ability to socialise and open up to others of her age...

I hope my little gal can also learn the generosity the older gal possesed. Not only did the older gal share her mamee and stickers, she also gave one pack of mamee to my gal to bring home. Isn't that sweet?

Well a picture paints a thousand words, so here it is... Don't they look like they have been friends forever? ;)

Kiddy lunch! ;)

Had lunch at Sun with Moon Japanese restaurant at wheelock place today! Bought a kids meal for the little gal. When it came, she was so amused by the presentation, she went "happy birthday to me uh?". Lol, she thought it was a cake... :p As always, I learnt something - "forget abt kiddy meals!" because you land up eating more! Something I won't want to be doing!!!

Zoo zoo zoo!!!

The lil gal went to the zoo today. It's an excursion organized by her childcare centre.

The weather was pretty hot with the sun but I was glad it didn't rain. The little gal got to catch up with the orang utan, monkeys, snakes, zebra, giraffes, lion, leopards, etc. This time there was also the penguin enclosure which had re-opened.

Mama got to feed the giraffes bcos the lil gal refused! -_-" we manage to watch the rainforest show which features the spider monkey, orang utans and others. We headed home eventually with the lil gal falling asleep in the car all the way home...

Here's a pic of her with the "seals"...

The small things in life...

There is an unknown attraction between the little girl and the MRT. She gets all excited when it comes to taking a ride in the air-conditioned train... Maybe it's a novelty to scan the ez-link card and see the gates open... She got her fix on Sunday. One day before, she tried desperately to convince daddy that it is absolutely OK for him to take her on an MRT ride without mummy since mummy does not have her ezlink card (what more can I say right?).

Isn't it true that some small things in life can make one happy?  

The novelty of scanning the ez-link card... ;p

Kids and cold stuff... I remember loving ice-cream and yakult. This is totally random because I did not know that Ikea was giving away a soft-serve with every kids meal purchased! The cashier gave us a token and a cone. The machine is easy to use but I have serious doubts about the hygiene... ;p

 

Holding on to the ice-cream and trying to keep daddy and mummy distracted... 

*you cannot see the soft serve in my hands... you cannot see....* :p

 

Jacob Ballas Children Garden...

It's been such a long time since I blogged. I read in a parenthood magazine about stolen identities and how a blog exposes private life for everyone to see... So got a bit scared and took off the blog into a "private space". Nevertheless, without the blog, it seems I have stopped tracking the little one's growing up proccess... How could I do that?

It's been 3 months since the last blog. Recently, her school had an outing to Botanic Gardens - Jacob Ballas Children Garden. She had missed this little outing as she came down with fever and lack of appetite. Hubby and I decided to bring her there on a Sunday. The map of the garden can be found here (http://www.sbg.org.sg/bukittimahcore/images/map.jpg)

The Jacob Ballas Children Garden is a small cut out of the bigger Botanic Gardens. Abeit the lack of care in certain parts of the garden (such as the water plant section), it can be an educational place for the little ones to explore the different plants - the "Touch Me Nots", spices (such as Pandan, lemon grass, lime plants). The banana tree was flowering when we were there! :)

There are physical activities which kids can explore there! The sand playground (which we skipped as time was running out), waterplay area (small, we also skipped as we did not bring spare clothes or towels), tree playground (for active kids to climb around, features very long enclosed slides) and of course the suspension bridge!

Well here are some photos!

What's been up these days?

Coming close to 24 months, the little bundle has changed so much! Becoming more outspoken, she tries to converse with the adults in sentences! Although sometimes we cannot figure what she is trying to say, it's still cute. She also loves saying "hello" to kids about her age.
The witty little girl was quick to learn that adding the word "please" to her requests would gain her faster access to what she wants. And I am quite pleased that she can actually recognise the faces that she does not see on a very regular basis...

Here are some photos of what she has been up to these days...

Say "CHEERS!!!!"

Happiest with Papa!

 Little gal: Let me count... I have... 1...2...3...4...5!!!!

@ Clarke Quay with mama...

Happy walking @ Riverside!

Splashing FUN!!!



Opps... caught tasting water!!!

 Splashing good time @ JOM Clubhouse!