Birthday Celebration

It was my birthday recently, and my dear brother, Kevin, bought me this sweet Precious Moments figurine and asked Dot to bring it over. Dot being in town was already a present in itself, and they both also gave me a lovely birthday card that read:

Happy Birthday to the girl I knew back when...

Happy Birthday to the woman I've come to admire...

Happy Birthday to the friend who's always there...

Happy Birthday to the sister we love...

Awwww...I'm so touched!

I spent my birthday going out shopping with Mum & Dot, while the kids were still in school, and it was a relaxing experience. After a hearty $$$ at Tangs, Dot treated us to Royal Plaza on Scotts Hotel for a sumptuous Hi-Tea buffet at the Carousel Restaurant. There was a good selection of savoury food, as well as desserts and pastries. The highlight of the buffet was the chocolate fondue fountain, much to my delight! Taste-wise, I think the food is OK, and the selection of condiments for the ice-kachang was the most I had ever seen! It was certainly value-for-money at S$24.80+++.

The highlight of the evening, was certainly the Haagan Daz ice-cream cake called "Demure Love" which SG bought for me.

Ooooo....mouth-watering.

Occupational Hazards of Being Parents

There are several occupational hazards of being a parent of 3 young children. Here's the list, just to name a few:

1. Dinner is not really dinner when you are trying to feed a 11mth old baby, and chase after 2 boys who insist on running away from the dining table to the arcade room next door. According to Dot, it's not dinner.

2. You know you are not digesting your food when you gulp them down so that you can take turns to take care of the kids who cannot sit throughout a 8-course Chinese dinner.

3. You call your son by his brother's name, or worse, you call your daughter by her brother's name - get it?

Solution offered by Jay: Call all 3 names at one shot when you call someone. He said that his Mum used to call all 3 names for one boy - Jay,Ty,Luke. You will never go wrong, since his name is in one of the 3.

Catch: My kids' names have more than 1 syllable : it's a mouthful to call Ethan, Zachary, Sophie at one time.

4. You get sick after the germs have taken full circle among the kids, and move on to the parents who are already weak from the late nights.

5. You get worried when you hear that your son says that he is not Chinese, because he prefers to speak English...so he is 'English'.

6. You have to drive around half of S'pore every day to fetch them to/fro infantcare and childcare centres - which is NOT at the same location for the moment.

7. You do not have any nightlife or chill-out nights 'cos this is the only time of the day you get to spend quality time with them, besides the weekends.

...the list goes on...

Notwithstanding all these hazards, a sweet look from Sophie (like the one here), a new word from Zack, and a simple remark from Ethan "I like you Mummy and Daddy" is enough to melt you heart out.

Of Creatures and Such

Today was one of those days that I had encounters with undesirable creatures - well, actually, just a centipede and a cockroach.

While I was bathing, I felt something wriggling on my toes, and guess what, a centipede was crawling it's way up my right foot! Eeeeeks! I shieked really loud, and hubby came to rescue. "Will I die, will I die?" (I ask frantically and madly) The picture here looks exactly like what I saw - I was too freaked out to take a picture of it myself before hubby disposed of it.

(Sigh). I could have been bitten by it's FANGS but hubby says no, it was climbing on to me for dear life, since it would be drown by my shower, and it couldn't possibly sting me with its tail, 'cos it's like a scorpion and it would have to sting me with an upright tail. Since it was wet, it was highly unlikely that I was stung! What a consolation!

In the evening, I saw a cockroach walking across the kitchen. IT seemed oblivious to a shieking me, as I had had enough of creatures for the day, and seeing a cockroach didn't help. As usual, hubby came to the rescue.

THANK YOU hubby!

Boat Asia 2007

It's amazing what 'freebies' can do to a Singaporean like me, especially when it means getting 4 free tickets to the recent Boat Asia show at Sentosa Cove from 19 Apr ~ 22 Apr. Symphony 92.4 FM was giving away their car decal, and part of the promotion that came along with it was free tickets to this annual Boat Asia event. I was 'kia-su' and charged all the way down to Dempsey Road carpark to get the car decal at 7am in the morning, and it seemed like I was the first to arrive, as there was no one else before me when I arrived around 6.58am.....

The trip was worth it. We went to Sentosa today, and as we arrived early (the event only starts from 11am), we popped by the Palawan beach area, and spent an unexpected 1hr+ at the playground and the beach. It is amazing what a toy spade, a log of wood, and lots of sand, can do for 2 bored boys. When they were done playing at the playground (which was pretty uninteresting when there are only 2 of you), Ethan & Zack started playing with sand. They worked on it for nearly at hour, playing creatively with anything they could get their hands on. They got really dirty, but it was worth it as I could see that they were enjoying themselves despite the hot weather.

Boat Asia this year attracted more exhibitors and boats. This year, the One degree 15 Marina Club was just open, and the boats were berthed at the club, and it was really cool! The boys were really excited that we could go on board some of the boats there. The first one we went on board was the Riveria Sports Cruiser collection. Being on board one of these really makes you salivate! The cabins, the deck, etc were so well-furnished.

Well, enough said. Go check out some photos we took at the event at my Flickr site.

Shoes and Kids

We recently bought a shoe rack because our 2 boys are having more shoes at the door that we can stack them up. It's crazy - I thought only girls or me for that matter, have more shoes. No, it's not true.

Don't ask me how we got so many shoes. Most of them were bought by SG's father, who sometimes buys shoes as he fancies them, and not necessarily when they need it. I'm not complaining. It's just that they become spoilt for choice now that there are so many to choose from.

Ethan is on a wearing shoes spree recently. He needs to wear socks with covered shoes to school, even when it is not required, and even when it is more troublesome to do so. Kids in childcare are encouraged to wear sandals as it is easy to wear in and out, when they move to the playgrounds.

Well, they even have more than 1 pair of slippers and I only have 1 pair! I wonder what will happen when Sophie starts having her own shoes - I think I don't have enough space outside my door to keep all their shoes!

Oh dear! I just cannot imagine. It's one of the challenges of having 3 kids, I suppose. hah hah hah hah.

First Time at the Beach

We took the boys out for their first time to the beach at Sentosa's Siloso Beach this morning from about 9.30am till 11am. It was a warm & sunny day, and the beach had a nice peaceful crowd, mostly tourists and some expats.....we were fortunate, as Siloso Beach is usually the quieter side compared to Palawan Beach.

Ethan and Zachary were rather cautious. At first, they only played on the sand near the water, and did not dare the venture out to the splashing waves coming in at the beach. Then graudally, as they warmed up to the experience, there were very soon, walking up and down the beach, finding creative ways to play with sand, toys and water. Zachary fell a few times on the beach as he lost balance trying to bring sand and water to and fro the beach, using his pail and sandplay toys. They also enjoyed splashing water at Laurence, who joined us for the beach outing today.

I must say the boys really enjoyed themselves!

Sophie Can Walk!

Sophie took her first few steps walking on her own today! She did it subconsciously while trying to move from the stool towards me, and she let go of her hands and started walking those tiny but 'big leap of faith' steps!

So cute! The moment cannot be described in words. I attempted to repeat this again with a camera, but she didn't do it again. (Sigh!)

Property Prices Skyrocketing

High-end property in S'pore is skyrocketing in price. The latest hype in town is Keppel Land's waterfront home project, called "Reflections at Keppel Bay" which is a premium waterfront enclave. It is designed by world-renowned architect, Daniel Libeskind, who built the extension to the Denver Art Museum which Dot visited in December 2006, and who is the same architect who designed "Memory Foundations - World Trade Centre Master Plan". Imagine, he is going to build a residential development in Singapore, his first ever residential project in Asia. Wow - I would want to own a piece of it too if I could!

According to a Channelnewsasia report, the average price of the condo is going at S$1,900 per square foot, which is wow-wow-wow.

Another condo, which is at the One-north development near Buona Vista MRT, called One-north Residences, went at $1,200 per square foot, where 80% was sold within 3 days in private previews.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not into real estate. Just that there's been so much talk about it, I couldn't miss it.

Ethan at Chinese Enrichment Class

I had been wanting to start Ethan for Chinese classes since he stopped it in Dec 2005. He attended N1 class at Berries World of Learning, and enjoyed it. Today, he took a trial class for K1 at the Berries branch near our place, and came home beaming with positive and enthusiastic feedback about his class.

I'm relieved that at least, he's not saying that he doesn't understand, or worst, the last time, he told me that "I am English and I am not Chinese" when I was trying to converse with him in Mandarin! I jumped out of my chair the last time I heard that, as he was trying to tell me that he doesn't speak Mandarin, so he is not Chinese....

Anyway, the things they learn in K1 for Chinese class - they are ALREADY learning sentence construction, and idioms!! I looked at some of the sample class work, and WOW - I can't even read some of the idioms....so scary!! I feel ashamed...

Will scan some of these idioms for sharing next time, as we move along in his Berries class.

Zachary's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Zachary's 3rd birthday in school today, and I took a half-day off from work, to celebrate it with him and his classmates.

Zack was really eager and wanted to cut the cake even before the kids sang the birthday song. We had to sing it twice 'cos the other kids were really enthusiastic and wanted to blow the candles...we ensured that Zack blew out his candles, albeit one by one, and he truly enjoyed the chocolate icing on his cake. That seemed to be the only thing he enjoyed on the cake, besides the figurines and the 2 toy cars.

Visit to the Zoo

Today, we went to the Zoo with my friends (Adrian & Jenny), and their kids, Elva (4) and Elvis (2). We saw the sea otters, and also fed the fishes in the pond. Ah, not exactly what you thought we would do at the zoo right?

Well, not true. We also saw the "Wonders of the Wild" show at the amphitheatre, as it was Elvis' first trip to the zoo. The weather was nice and cool, with intermittent scatters of drizzle which didn't bother us much. We also took a tram ride, and alighted at the last stop to see the Australian outback exhibit where the kangaroos and emus were hanging out. It was boring for the kids, as the kangaroos were fairly laid back, and did not hop around while we were there. Among the other animals we saw were the orang utans, the pygmy hippos, the chimpanzees, the giraffes, and the rhinos....

The kids obviously enjoyed themselves and were really tired by lunchtime. Will add more photos into photo album later.