Thaddeus is Scribbling

A first attempt to hold a 'pen' and scribble with the Magna Doodle board.

Thaddeus can now walk around the house with hand support, and even managed to climb up our sofa and our bed all by himself! It's getting dangerous to leave him alone to wander.

He also learnt to shake his head (when we say 'No'), and nod his head (when we say 'Yes'), though it takes a lot of coaxing and the right mood for him to do these on your command!

What is 19-1-2+2?

I think I now have 18 baby fishes.

It was 19, then -1 (because I miscounted), and minus 2 (because I found that 2 had died when I cleaned the tank), and plus 2 (when I suddenly realised that our longkang fish gave birth).

It happened yesterday, when I was staring at the longkang fishes (they are in a separate container from the rest), and then I saw 2 small baby fishes! It was so sad that I found only 2, as I was certain that they should have given birth to quite a number. I thought my baby guppy fishes did a wonderful jump from their 'tank' to the longkang fish 'tank', but realised that these 2 baby fishes are really bigger in size than the baby guppy fishes, and they are a little orange in colour!

Still cannot believe it!

I have 19 babies......

Baby guppies, I mean.

I recently adopted a fishtank of 7 guppies (3 females, 4 males) from my colleague. He already 'delivered' and gave away 1 batch of baby guppies from the 1st pregnant female guppy, and seeing that there was probably another one coming, I segregated the 2nd pregnant guppy on Saturday, and praise God I chose the correct one! Because I came back to work on Monday, not knowing that the guppy had already given birth, and promptly fed the tank as usual...and went about doing my work, as usual.

Then my same colleague walked in to my room, and said that the guppy had already delivered! I was flabbergasted as I didn't see them and suppose it happened during the weekend.

Stay tuned for the guppies' development. I brought them home today. They are so small you can't probably see them if I take a picture.

And Zack said...

"I love you Mummy".

It happened when I tucked him in to sleep and whispered an "I love you" to his ears on Friday. He then replied the above spontaneously to me. I was so happy!

Motherhood is made of such moments!

Trip to Pasir Ris Kids' Kampong

Recently, Ethan had a chance to go to Pasir Ris Kids' Kampong again with his friends, Faith, Li-Yer and En-Yer and her friend. It was hard work for them to try and catch the fishes, and everyone was sweating it out, but Ethan enjoyed the company and the activity very much.

He especially enjoyed touching the carps and letting them 'kiss' his hand.

What's around The Old School

Last month, I had some time to kill, and I had the chance to walk around "The Old School", where MGS used to be.

It is now home to a number of design houses. They also had 2 restaurants/bar, one called 'Timbre' and another called 'Chalk'. I also visited the 2902 Gallery where they were hosting a "The Dimension of the Plane - Communication Design in Germany". There were lots of information on the boards, but I learnt a few new things - there is such a thing as a font book, and the cover design of design books are really fantabulous.

I liked the fact that I was wandering around in a tranquil environment, at leisure and feeling refreshed along the way. This should be the way and I know why the companies decided to put up at this new location. It's very a calming and lovely place to be in. I felt inspired to do creative things.

My Art Pod - Day 4

The 4th lesson for Ethan's holiday Art program at "My Art Pod" features a study about Andy Goldsworthy, and his Land Art.

This is Ethan's version and intepretation of it. Quite cool right?

I especially enjoyed the choice of colour and the art work produced. Ethan said he had a lot of help from Teacher Noc.

The school also has an Art Gallery of Ethan's work. It's something which I haven't seen in other Art schools. They also do Art appreciation as part of the program, so besides completing the art work, Ethan has learnt about the artists as well.

My Art Pod - Day 3

When you are painting on canvas with acrylic paint, and it want it to dry really fast, and Mummy is trying to get out of the carpark within the 10mins grace period, a hairdryer comes in handy.

This is my art piece on the 3rd day at My Art Pod based on what I learnt about Georgia O'Keeffe. She was an American artist who specialises in flowers.

Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers. ...Well, I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower - and I don't.

- Georgia O'Keeffe

My Art Pod - Day 2

Today, Ethan learnt about Alberto Giacometti, who is a 20th Century Artist, who is remembered for his sculptures.

Here is what Ethan did as part of his Day 2 at The Art Pod. It is small, and about the height of a 30cm ruler.

My Art Pod - Day 1

It's the June holidays for Ethan, and for his 1st long vacation, I took a week off work, to spend time with him.

I enrolled him for an Art holiday program called "I am a Great Artist" at My Art Pod where children will be introduced to 4 artists: Frida Kahlo, Alberto Giacometti, Georgia O Keefee and Robert Laduke. This is a diverse program as children will experience using wires to make sculptures and paint their portraits on canvases using acrylic paints. They will also learn the techniques of perspective drawing as they work together on a group masterpiece replicating Robert Laduke’s ‘Big City’.

On his first day, he learnt about Frida Kahlo, and what I like about this program is that they incorporate art appreciation into the session before actually working on their art piece. You can see that he really enjoyed himself, even though he is the ONLY student enrolled in this program. Well, as long as he enjoys himself!

We spent the second part of Monday afternoon going for a Creative Thinking program which I enrolled him at Cairnhill Community Centre for 3 hours at S$20. He learnt the concepts related to "I M BAD" - I for Imgination, M - Mindmapping, B - Brainstorming, A - Asking questions, D - Dooling. All these are techniques for creative thinking, and the teachers said that he was participative in class and came up with good ideas. Good value for money, I must say.