6 Nov
Fri 7.30pm

Elias' full month celebration

Brought satay and durian to my sis' house that day. She asked me to get satay cos the satay from the Bt Timah FC near Pei Hwa is nice. We bought durian only because we happened to see a stall there and felt like having some ourselves.

Good thing we bought the durian cos everyone seemed to like it. My mom did, and we saw VJ's mom take durian first, even before she ate any other food. All of VJ's side ate durian too.

My sis said she catered food. I was looking forward to a big spread. You know the word "cater" conjures up a lot of food in my mind. Aiyah, her idea of cater means order pizza delivery.

But like she said, the fellowship is more impt than the food. We did have fun. (Although I like fun and good food even more when combined, hee hee).

Here's the "birthday boy". ds2 is warming up to him, it seems! He kissed Elias many times that day.

ds1's turn. Elias has a tuft of hair standing up on his head. It was the same with Eva 2 yrs ago. They share this in common for sure! Apart from that, I think Elias doesn't look much like Eva.


Oh ya, do you know why the durian was so yummy? We found this inside!
Ewww, yes disgusting.... But if you find a worm inside, it's bound to be good. We checked the rest of the seeds in that fruit and they were all good. We made both boys try to open the durian also (must train them). They did think it was fun (the opening of durian) but they still don't like to eat it.

Both sets of grandparents with the family.

Then the whole group. I put my cam on timer mode. Aiyah, I always end up sitting nearest the cam. Not a good idea. See, I end up looking so much bigger than everyone else, even my dad.

That aside, did you notice how VJ and his brothers all married very beautiful wives? His 2 sister-in-laws both looks like Bollywood actresses, very very pretty features and then both his nieces are also going to be beauties when they grow up too.

Funny how the sharp beautiful nose disappears when it comes to Eva and Elias. Fortunately they did inherit the big, double eyelided, long eye-lashed eyes from VJ. Of course VJ did well by marrying my sis too. She's also such a beauty, inside and out. (except for the food "catered" that day) hee hee



5 Nov
Thurs

Mil has relatives from China in Singapore for vacation. They've been busy entertaining and bringing them around from Mon to Wed. So I volunteered to bring them to the zoo and it was set for Thurs since that was the day they had free on their itinerary (sorry Jess, for postponing our meet up!).

Guess what, that day happened to rain so much! The rain was such a heavy downpour furthermore, with lightning and thunder. Sigh. I felt bad for wasting a huge part of the day for them. We wanted to walk the Fragile Forest and catch a few shows. Too bad.

This was in the morning when the weather was still fine. They managed to see the birds (parrots, macaws), the primates (white-faced ones, brown lemurs etc near the entrance, the gibbons), the otters, Orang Utans.. Then we walked toward the Australian Outback.

It was kangaroo feeding time, and this one was more worth it cos they said $5 for a family up to 5 members. Since it was just me and kids, plus 2 of them made 5 exactly, so we were all let in to feed the kangaroos. It was a fun time for them and the kids. I just played photographer, and helped them snap as many pics as possible.

They did enjoy all these close encounters with the animals cos they said most of the zoos back there have animals in cages or enclosures.

This was when we were waiting for the Elephants at Work and Play Show. However, just as we sat down, an thunderstorm ensued and the organisers let us wait for 20min, initially saying the show would be delayed. Finally, because the rain did not stop, they said it was not safe for the mahouts and the elephants to continue the show, so it was cancelled, after we waited for about 40min!!

I felt so bad for them. We have many opportunities to return to the zoo but for them, just this half day and it was all ruined by the bad weather.

So we went to KFC for lunch since it was raining so heavily most shows and feedings were cancelled and a lot of animals that were free-ranging went into hiding.

While I was ordering the food, they sneakily brought the kids to the souvenir shop (at Kidz Rainforest gift shop) and bought them what they wanted! And they chose Bakugan toy set which cost S$25 each. That set our guests back by $50 (that's 250 yuan!!). Argh... The boys were so thrilled of course, because I never would have bought them those toys.

After lunch, it was still pouring, so we decided to leave. They felt like shopping since the weather was so bad, so I sent them to Orchard Rd. Then I brought the boys to buy some gifts for them to bring home since they had to spend so much on the boys.

They love the chocolates so much, and fortunately it is close to Xmas now, so there were a lot of prettily wrapped choc boxes to choose from. Cadbury, Lindt.... spoilt for choice. Then I bought an umbrella for them cos I noticed their umbrellas were kind of worn out. You know, those kind so popular now, shaped like a wine bottle, but when you unscrew the top, it is the handle of a slim umbrella?

By the time we got home it was 4.30pm. My in laws had finished preparing the steamboat dinner already and they ordered us to rest, while they set off to pick up our guests from Orchard Rd at 6pm.

Everyone sat down for steamboat that night. I do enjoy steamboat normally, but not so much when I'm pregnant. It was so so hot. The constant steam emitted from the steamboat caused the dining room to become like a sauna. My in laws didn't have air conditioning, and the fans did not function well. I felt so hot to the point I was getting faint, so I couldn't enjoy the food much. The rest seemed ok, so it must be because I am pregnant?

After that my in laws brought them for a night drive around Chinatown and Geylang before sending them back to their hotel in Balestier. So Dh and I washed everything up. After that, I was ready to collapse. So I did, I fell onto the bed and let Dh shower the kids, brush their teeth and get them to sleep. It's good Dh can handle them by himself.

Next time, I need to tell overseas friends not to visit Singapore in Nov or Dec. It seems to rain everyday, bad for a vacation...



Both boys enjoy their twice weekly sessions at the pool. So when their coach is on a vacation in Msia and took a week off, I still brought them. But I realised how much work the coach has to put in when I myself bring them to the pool.

If I tried to do the same thing he does, that is. He coaches ds1 in something, makes him do it, and while ds1 is practising that, he coaches ds2. This goes on the whole 1 hour. I was totally exhausted after 15min, so I said, let's get out of the main pool (where the water is deeper and I cannot relax and just mind my own business) and go to the kiddy fun pool.

Thus we spent the rest of our time there in the smaller kiddy pools. I could just sit and spray my back and arms and shoulders with the jets of water, so relaxing, while they have a lot of fun screaming and laughing at the water slides, the water cannons and so on.

We also went to the SAFRA club one. It was my first time bringing the 2 of them alone and also the first time we even used the facilities. The pools were not more impressive than the Jurong West public pool. Although what wins would be the shower stalls and the heated water. It was lovely to have the nice warm jet sprays. Jurong West is very cold and if it happens to be a rainy cloudy day when I bring the boys, they will shiver and their little chins vibrate uncontrollably, very funny.

But they adapt quickly, and I think regular swimming is indeed good, cos after the first week of very purple lips and shivering bodies after getting out of the pool, they now seem to take the changes in temperature very well. Since this is monsoon season (Nov-Feb), there are thunderstorms everyday, and sometimes it is very cloudy and windy in the mornings, no sun at all, or even raining a few times when we got out of the pool (no lightning yet). I would be cold, but somehow they can cope with it now.

This is ds1 flashing a grin with a gap in his teeth, I still find it so adorable that I have to snap pics when I see him.

They haven't completed a month of swim lessons yet, but they're already very proud of themselves. They haven't learnt a proper stroke yet but if you ask them, they'll say "I can swim already!". *roll eyes*

But yes, they do learn much faster if it is done 2x a week. They don't forget what they've been taught and I think at the start, having personalised coaching is beneficial. They love their coach to bits and they look forward to every single lesson. There seems to be no reluctance whatsoever on their part, when the coach asks them to try new things.

ds2 is more timid and when the coach asked them to hold their swim boards, stand at the edge of the pool, and jump right into the pool, he would hesitate. But they trust the coach so much that they'd do it. ds1 just jumps, he doesn't hesitate. I wondered if ds2 would, but yes, he did in the end.

Later both will tell me what stories their coach tells them. I like it that he talks to them at their level and always makes everything he teaches them very interesting. He also is very encouraging and motivating, so they will listen to him.

That's the 2 of them. It was going to rain them, so the sky was grey. Otherwise it would be a clearer picture.


So far, the coach has used Transformers, Boat needing fuel, and various other stories to make them do what he wants. He told me ds1 should be able to swim by Dec (less than 2 mth's time??). We shall see. ds2 is still in the "play play" stage but at least he loves the water and enjoys holding his breath and going underwater.

In the changing room, the 2 of them do try my patience. I have to get them to shower and clean up via proxy instructions cos I am fully clothed, and do not get into the shower stall with them. They like to fool around or take their time, and most times they don't follow my instructions very well. So this is my least favourite part of the swim sessions.

Eg. I have to keep shouting "Rinse off the shampoo! There's still shampoo on your hair!"
"no! Not the back of your head! The front part!"
"Argh! No, not that part, put your whole face into the water, that would get the shampoo off!!!"
"No no no!!! The shampoo suds are still there! ARRRRRGGH!!!"
"T!! Rinse for J!"
"J! Stop singing, start soaping!"
"YOu have to use your hands to spread the shower foam around your body, not just let the water wash it away!!!!"
"Ok, you are done! Come out!!!"

Shout shout shout...
I am glad it's always a weekday morning and usually there is no one else in the changing room.

Sometimes I wonder if I should go and swim also, like at the SAFRA club, but then I don't like bringing an even heavier bag (cos I also needed a change of clothes, towel and stuff) and I don't like squeezing with them into one cubicle.

Normally when they are swimming, I like to daydream and watch others around the pool and look at the lifeguards and wonder why they gossip all the time, and what are they talking abt.

Swim sessions means checking on renovation progress too.

Now this is how the kitchen looks like. It was in ruins 2 weeks ago. Progress, to me, seems slow but my ID and contractor says it is on schedule. Maybe we're just too excited.

Bathroom progress. Tiles are up. What comes next? Cabinetry?

We can't wait to move back!!



Nov 7
Sat
Asian Civilisations Museum

[They were having a Philippines Fiesta festival, and there was free admission.]

This Sat morning started with a piano trial lesson first. Dh is working in a friend's shop now right? His friend's wife teaches piano and Dh heard she's really good with motivating kids. He then asked ds1 to try a short 30min with Ms J.

ds1 flat out refused. Said he only wants to learn piano from mommy. (I wanted to kiss him then, but we needed to persuade him...) We explained, which is truthful, that with mommy, lessons are not fixed or structured because something always crops up during the week that mommy needs to attend to. And when dd comes along, mommy will be even busier. That's why until now he is still at the basic level with a limited repertoire of piano pieces.

ds1 said he didn't mind. He preferred swimming, gym, rollerblading, table tennis.

Dh was surprisingly persistent this time. Previously, he was as relaxed as me. Perhaps because he had already talked to Ms J and it's his friend, so he really wanted ds1 to try.

I am glad I kept quiet and let Dh do his talking. Cos after the 30min FOC trial, ds1 said he would like to start piano lessons. I don't know what Ms J did, cos I was with ds2 at ground level of the condominium, playing with him in the playground and observing kids at the swim pool. So good then, Dh will start bringing ds1 for piano every Sat, it seems. As long as it doesn't add to my workload, I am totally supportive. :-)

After that we had lunch at the Concorde hotel food court, and Dh started work for the day. He had 2 clients to meet. Business seems to be rolling in now, which is great news for him, but it means less family time, of course. Since he is starting out, it is important though, so I just need to learn to spend my weekends alone with the kids.

It helps that he has always been actively playing in the orchestra and keeping in contact with all his music circle friends. They've been spreading word of mouth for him. And the first few customers he's had so far were all very satisfied with his work. I do not know much about bowmaking, bow rehairing and so on, but he does bring his creations home, and I must say they're beautiful and I cannot even imagine making something so complicated from scratch.

I've got all sorts of weird parcels coming in now (they're sent to the house via FedEx or USPS usually). There's toad skin, snakewood, ivory, silver, gold etc etc. All these are apparently used in the making of a bow. It used to be very environmentally/ animal-unfriendly in the past. Olden times, only the aristocrats could learn and play music, so they always wanted the best and most exotic of bows. Hence, the different parts of the bows are all made using fine animal/ plant parts.

Anyway, so with kids in tow, I checked the Street directory in my mil's car to see which museum I can bring the kids to. I saw the ACM was near the Concorde hotel. Guess what, the street map says ACM is at Fort Canning Park, near the Philatelic Museum we visited previously.

So ok, I parked at the same carpark at Fort Canning.

We walked and walked around the area. Substation, Peranakan Museum, Philatelic Museum... Hot scorching sun. Both ds perspiring like mad and my back with aching already. Ok, no ACM. Nevermind, ask someone.



All the 3 people we asked had no idea.

Checked the street directory again. It's the 2005 edition!!!!! **#@%^*!@^#&%&^

How come it's still in use in the car??? I always assumed people had the latest edition. Furthermore, Sg is a place that changes every few months. There are new devts all the time.



Something clicked at that time. I recall going to an Arts Fest near the Spore River long ago, maybe 2008, and I think I passed by the ACM. Don't tell me?!?!?

But I was so mad, cos I tore parking coupons from 1pm till 4.30pm already. That open air carpark was the coupon type. Grrrrrr. I wasn't about to waste 15min of my time tearing coupons nor the money involved, cos it was $1 for every 30min at that carpark. Simple math will tell you, I had torn tons and tons of coupons cos my mil's car had only 50cents coupon. So for every 15min, I had to tear 1 coupon, yup, with the year, month, date, and timing. I was ready to tear all my hair out.

Nevermind, with gritted teeth, I dragged both boys with me, and walked to Funan the IT Mall. By the time we reached Funan, I was ready to collapse. Yes, you may laugh that I am so unfit. But hey it was very very hot, and hot weather makes me faint.

So we went in for some air con, for the restroom and for a cold beverage.

When I came out again, we got lost. The tall skyscrapers all around did not allow me to look ahead to see where Victoria Theatre is. That's always my landmark for knowing where the Sg river is.

I asked many people. One lady at the bus stop. 3 taxi drivers (cos they were all in their taxis in a queue, but there were no customers)... Can you believe it? Taxi drivers, and none of them knew where the ACM is. I used English and Chinese to ask, you know. I was about to use the Malay language or Hokkien dialect already. Sigh.

Then I asked security guards, and other passers-by. No one had the slightest idea where the ACM is. Did I recall reading the Straits Times that Singaporeans seldom visit the local museums? It seems true indeed.

One security guard kindly suggested I go ask the customer service desk within Funan. Ok. I went up to the 2nd level. There were 2 very friendly well-dressed lady officers there. Both were not sure where the ACM is. But fortunately they were very helpful. They searched for a Singapore Map, and scoured the map for ACM, found it, circled it and passed the map to me. Ok, with a map, no problem.

i

sigh... It's still so far away. So we walked past the padang, City Hall, Victoria Concert Hall... Finally... ahhhh. I was never so glad for air conditioning in my life. Even the kids slumped down on the bench in the ACM foyer and we just sat there stupidly for 10min, recovering from the extreme humidity and heat.

Ok, fortunately from this part onwards, it was fun.

They had many activities going on. First, we headed for the River room where all the kids events are held. There were story telling sessions, craft, martial arts, and goodies.

ds1 went for the Filipino snacks. He munched and munched and I realised I hadn't snapped many photos of his toothless grin yet, so here's one.

He liked this sweet snack a lot. Can't remember the Filipino name but it's fav amongst Filipino kids. They ran out of 7D mangoes, else I love that the most. I saw empty wrappers though, so I knew they were giving those out earlier.

There was a paper craft where you can make Jeepneys and Filipino national costume cut outs. Both boys chose the Jeepney craft. Yup, but of course, vehicles are more interesting to them than clothes.

Then there was this station with 4 different stencils of Filipino symbols/ treasures. ds2 chose one and starting paint-brushing. ds1 didn't want to do this.

The boys with their Jeepneys done. The wheels can turn!

Then we viewed all the exhibits in all the galleries. Some were general Asian ones. Like this is the section on Buddhism in Thailand. ds1 tried to do the Buddha action. They were enthralled by the many hands.

There were many interesting exhibits, especially in the Philippines section. Many private and rare collections were shown but they didn't allow any photography. It'd be difficult to take good pics too, since most stuff was enclosed in glass and the lighting was not bright.

This is a sampan. I think this is Indonesian or Malaysian?? I confess I didn't read the description for many exhibits cos the kids were rushing from one to the other.

Photo op area. Actually kids and adults can also dress up in traditional costumes from the Philippines, complete with props like beautiful fans and so on. But both boys were very repulsed by the idea, even though I was trying hard to persuade them to wear the costumes. Sigh.

They were very interested in the lethal weapons used by Filipino martial arts puglists though.

There was also necklace making, which was so exquisite and beautiful. ds2 was attracted by the beautiful shiny beads and did agree to make one. But we queued for a while and then decided to move on. The queue moved too slowly cos each necklace took a long time to make and only 4 can make at one sitting.

Every activity was free, by the way. The kids also received 4 magnets with Filipino symbols on it, and a goodie bag filled with traditional Filipino games, souvenir stationery, and snacks. We also received free ice cream each. We could choose between chendol, jackfruit, mango, yam and strawberry flavours. No prizes for guessing which the kids chose. With so many exciting and exotic flavours, they chose the most predictable and usual one.

There were also worksheets for the kids to fill up but the boys didn't do that. I intend to make them do it sometime this week though. It's all about the Filipino culture.

Then there were interesting Spanish bolero dances, Tinikling bamboo dances, songs and other performances.

We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It was worth the killing walk there and then the long walk back again. It was still so hot when we left at 4.25pm. And you know kids??

It must be the ice cream. Cos either boy always love to torture me. They love to visit the toilet to do the big business at the most inconvenient times. See, I was rushing back to meet the timing of my carpark coupon. Then ds2 squatted down halfway during our walk and needed the loo. So we had to go into Funan Mall again, to use the toilet. I don't like bringing both boys to the ladies and I don't like squeezing into one tiny cubicle with either boy and waiting with them while they finish their business. I wish they'd do all these at home but they love to do it outside.

Finally we got back to the car, and headed off to pick Dh up.
What a day, once again.



I mentioned before we've been making regular trips to the zoo.

The Sg zoo is wonderful. There are not many naturally beautiful places in Sg I can be proud of. Not that the zoo is a natural wonder. It's just very very well-organised, very child-friendly, and very animal-friendly.

The animals always look healthy and happy to me, and the breeding programmes are very successful. The grounds are clean and well-maintained and I love the many educational aspects. Not only the kids get to see, touch, feed, observe animals in their natural habitats, they also learn about the flora in those habitats.

Besides that, they also get to see many native plants of Sg. Trees, shrubs are not forgotten at the zoo, there are so many of them, and many have signs and educational facts written beside the plants.

Then of course, there is the new Kidz Rainforest area, where there are petting animal areas, a huge water play section, animal carousel and treehouse and so on. However, I realised it sucks up a lot of time once we enter that area, because which child can resist the water slides and guns and pools? And once in the water play area, it would take at least an hour before it is not cruel to ask them to get out.

So I think we've been to the zoo 3x already and we only went to the play area once. The other 2x, I told them we want to catch some animal feeding in action and there were some shows too, and they were willing to forego that (mainly cos they already go to the swimming pool 2x a week, I guess).

Also, it gets really hot once it's 12pm. Yet the kids often want to stay till 3pm at least (we reach the zoo typically at 9.30am). It gets exhausting for me towards the end because the heat and humidity is already bad enough, and then all the walking is so tiring with a 6.5mth pregnant belly to lug around.

Hence, after the 1st visit, I told them we can visit the zoo up to 2x a week, no problem, please let's just stick to one area per visit. They like to pore over the zoo map and pick out animals to see at random, so that first visit we were really walking/ taking the tram from one end to the other end of the zoo the whole time!

(We have the membership card so tram rides are free during weekdays but I realised the tram stops are too few and still involve a fair bit of walking , especially to view the animals they are interested in.)

That's the Lion habitat. We saw the Lion and his harem of 3 lionesses. ds2 is into reading all the signs, which is good. They take turns to carry a backpack which contains their swim clothes, towel, water, Ribena drink, apples (I cut them up into slices at home), notebooks and other snacks. It's actually really heavy so I am glad they carry it themselves.

They were so amused and laughed hysterically when they caught this cheetah in action - producing poop. Back home, it was something they brought up over and over again, to anyone who would listen. And they'd be falling over each other with laughter again.

There is one thing I like to indulge in. Different people go for different experiences. Some love the photo opportunities, to come up close with the snakes or the orang utans. Some like the rides, like the pony/ elephant rides. I like the feeding.

Before we went to Utah, when there was the old kids zoo area, we used to bring vegetables like carrots/ lettuce, fruits like bananas, to feed the goats/ rabbits/ horses in the kids zoo area. So on our first visit to the zoo this time, we brought carrots and celery sticks. We usually ask for permission from the zookeeper before feeding anyway, so we did the same at the Kidz Rainforest Area.

This time, they said we can't feed with our own stuff. We can, however, BUY from them to feed the animals. Guess what, it cost me $5 for 2 bananas, 1 apple and 1 carrot to feed the elephant. The boys shared those fruits of course, but it's like.... ouch!! I can spend much less than that amount and get better quality fruits than what was offered to the elephant, cos from what I saw, the bananas were kind of blackish and bruised already. Humph!

That said, I still feel that feeding animals is a terrific experience - to learn what the animals eat, how they eat, and to come up close and personal with the animals. When kids actually do that, they remember the animals' diet and behaviour as well as other biological traits much better than if they just observed or read the signs.

So that's why I termed it an "indulgence" because I feel it is way too expensive, but I still told the kids they could choose ONE animal to feed per visit to the zoo. And they have to share the food in that one feeding session.

Therefore, we have fed the elephants, then the Giant tortoise and then the manatees.

Below shows the kids feeding the Giant Tortoises with apples. They were taught by the keepers not to let the tortoise step on their feet, cos then their feet would be flattened totally (more like crushed into pieces?), and to feed using the plant stems instead of their fingers, else their fingers would get chomped off as well. It was funny.

I noticed with each feeding session, the zookeepers always tried to make it very educational for the kids as well, and they allowed touching, photo ops, all in one. They'll teach the kids how to care for the animals and how to interact with them gently. The one in red is ds1, the one at the bottom right side of the pic is ds2 (in orange tee).

For other animals, we tried to catch as many feeding sessions as possible, just to watch and observe their behaviour and diet patterns. This is the Orang utan feeding session. They eat guava, dragon fruit and drink some kind of juice from the coconut shell. They seem to have higher quality/ more expensive diet than the tortoise, manatee or elephant!

Of course, the carnivores are more expensive to feed. We saw the jaguar feeding on chunks of meat, which the keeper said would be varied from chicken, beef, veal to other kinds I forgot.

The manatee feeding session. I was so surprised to see them being fed potatoes and carrots. That doesn't seem like something that grew underwater that manatees usually eat! So all I explained to the kids (my own opinion/ logic) is that manatees like veggies, but the veggies they normally eat are hard to obtain or more expensive so the zoo feeds them the same veggies we eat, which are also very nutritious. And manatees are mammals too, so errm, they share a lot in common with us!


We caught the otter feeding session twice. It's just so funny to see them grabbing the fish with their paws and munching and tearing away at the fish. They eat so quickly... they have to, I guess, which such a large group living together, they have to eat quickly to eat more, and survive better!

It's been fun, all these trips. I wonder if I can keep it up when I get even bigger. Cos the boys run and hop and skip all the time in the zoo, I already find it hard to catch up with them. Dh never has the time to go with us, so it's always just me and the boys. I hope I can have the energy to continue until end of the year, at least. Cos when baby comes, they can only wait for their daddy to be free to bring them. At least, till baby is older and doesn't need to poop and feed all the time.



This morning, bright and early, ds1 woke up and he remembered his tooth. He searched under his pillow and found a S$2 note. He was so excited.

So I smiled and exclaimed, "Ooh, the tooth fairy left something for you, huh?"

To me, he happily beamed and said, "Yes, I love the tooth fairy!"

He rushed to the toilet where his brother was and dashed in to show ds2 the $2.

He shouted, "Look! I got $2 from mommy because my tooth fell out!"

I was surprised.

Kids.... Actually they may know all along that Santa, Tooth fairy, Easter bunny, whatever, that these are all not real. But for the fun of it, THEY play along with us. It's not the other way around now, is it? Us making it fun for them?

ds1 never told me he thought I was the tooth fairy. He never said "nah, tooth fairies are not real". I read him those stories and showed them those video clips on YouTube, and they're all magical and full of fairy-tale fun. But somehow they assume and know in real life, the parents play the part of all these "nice magical characters".

It's good though. If he continues to play along, I can still have my own fun when it comes to no. 2 and no.3's turn.



2 Nov

ds1 lost his 3rd tooth. The first upper incisor.

I just wanted to make a record, and an observation.

Isn't it funny how sometimes a child could have done something many times before and not feel anything, but then suddenly be apprehensive?

ds1 has had both his lower incisors replaced with the permanent teeth already. I had also blogged about them. I pulled one off, and Dh pulled the other.

This time, I asked if he would like to pull it off himself. Then maybe the 4th incisor, ds2 can have the honour.

Funnily, this time, he said he wants to wait for it to drop off itself. Fine, it's like really wobbly already. But the permanent tooth is not sticking out yet and I can feel it right behind/ above the milk tooth. So we'll wait. I think we waited for 2 weeks?

For the past few days, ds1 had already kept saying he thought it would drop off the very minute, cos it was absolutely very wobbly and you could swing the whole tooth back and forth by more than 2 cm/ maybe an inch.

Today, when brushing his teeth for him (because he was afraid the tooth would fall off if he brushed it too hard), I felt that it could just come off with a simple tug, really. So I offered again, to just get it off for him. Otherwise, he was wondering all day everyday if it would drop off, if he would swallow it during his meals, or when he was asleep.... He had a lot of worries alright.

He said yes, but when I got some dental floss (didn't have thread in sight, cos we moved to in laws with very few belongings, and I didn't want to get out of my room to bother mil about thread at 9pm, and then get in laws both excited over his tooth), he changed his mind.

After 5 min, he said he couldn't sleep. He was worried it would come off during the night and then he would choke on it. And worse, the tooth fairy can't get it. (he wasn't that concerned about the risk of dying from being choked up)

So he decided to have it pulled off. So I tied the dental floss around his tooth. Took a long time cos floss is so smooth and slippery. When it was tugging time, he chickened out again. Said he was afraid it would be very painful. I said, well, I pulled your tooth out the other time, you said it wasn't painful, and it was done so quickly and easily.

Still, he was apprehensive. Then he lay down to try to sleep again.

After 10min, he said he really decided to do it. Could I please use thread instead, like last time, and can he be doing something else so he won't know I was pulling it? No problem... (but he could sense I was getting impatient).

Ok, so there wasn't any thread. I saw the old blanket on the bed. You know those type the older generation loves? Those thin blankets with fraying edges? Ok, lots of loose sewing thread there. I pulled out a suitable length, and used my teeth to cut it. Washed under the tap. Dried with tissue. Tied the thread around his tooth.

I suggested he read a book. He protested initially - "What if there was so much blood that it dripped all over the book?" . I had to assure him, most certainly there won't be that much blood. And I got tissue, just in case.
He was almost at the end of Fantastic Mr Fox (Roald Dahl) currently, so he continued where he left off. I gave him about 2-3 min to get into the story again. Then I put my hands on the thread. He stiffened. I said no, I am not pulling it now, just putting my fingers there.

With my fingers still on the thread, I asked him to continue reading. I sacrificed my arm muscle strength and stamina by holding that position for another minute while he got back into his story. Just when he was engrossed with the mean Boggis, Bunce and Bean farmer characters, I said a little prayer (that it would be successful with just one pull, else he'll definitely chicken out again, and that there won't be any pain or blood, cos then it'd be uphill tasks for all the other teeth in future), and pulled hard with a sudden jerk.

Ahhh, the tooth came off so easily! Even I was surprised, cos this one was even easier than the very 1st one.

He was so shocked. He exclaimed, "It came off??? Any blood???" I took a look. Hmm, no blood, none whatsoever.
I asked him "Was it painful?"
He thought about it, "Err, yes, still painful."
Huh?? He didn't even know it came off, yet he is sure it's painful.

But he was very proud of himself. Asked to see the tooth, showed his brother, both the tooth and the gap in his mouth.

And then he couldn't sleep at once due to excitement over the impending visit of the tooth fairy, and also he was trying out all the "f", "l", "s", "th" sounds that he needed a lot more effort to pronounce now.

I wonder how it will be like when ds2's turn comes. All the unexpected and infinite things parents need to do... and we have no prior training or reference manual with our firstborn...

I just hope we don't make that many mistakes along the way... :-)



When we were at Jurong West, we tended to spend time around the area. So the kids go to the library, Chinese Garden, took bus to the entrance of the Bird Park (for fun), Science Center, Jurong West Swimming pool, SAFRA Club...

Now that we've moved to our in laws' place for the period of our apt's reno, we try to go to places around this area instead. Sometimes, I get the use of my mil's car when she's not using it. Then I bring the kids to the zoo (it's really very near, like 10min by car or less). Else there is the Bt Timah Nature reserve and its many "extensions".

They've built many park connectors, so there is the Dairy Farm and Singapore Quarry links now. We've walked to the Singapore Quarry about 4 times so far and tried the Dairy Farm Nature Park once (ds1 cried there cos an ant bit him! I was a little impatient cos it was, an ant, and I stressed that the ant is so many times smaller than him, so it shouldn't be that painful, but he insisted it was the most painful bite in the world etc etc etc).

Thereafter, ds1 was most concerned about not stepping near a crowd of ants. I hope it is a short passing phase. I read about fears and phobias in kids as developmental phases. And I remembered the times when they were younger and were afraid of the dark. They wanted the lights on even when they were going to sleep at night. Then there was the fear of loud aeroplanes flying past, or even the time when fireworks scared them to death.

During those times, it was always "oh man! how will we ever get to enjoy fireworks as a family if they're like that?!?!". Now, with more years of parenting, and on hindsight, every thing passes like a phase. So we can be a little more patient and more relaxed, just not be that worried and let it run its course.

Like my kids are finicky eaters, at least in the eyes of most Chinese in Singapore. Perhaps partly due to us being away from Sg for 3 yrs, there are some local yummy delights they still don't appreciate, or simply wouldn't touch. Or, they would like chicken rice without the chicken, pau without the filling, dumplings without the filling, and fishball noodles without the fishball.

A lot of people don't understand why they don't like prawns or crabs or abalone. To most Singaporeans, these are heavenly pleasures. I've had people say my kids are stupid, don't know how to enjoy life, "everything don't eat, that's why so thin" etc etc.

When they were younger, we'd really take these comments seriously. We'd try very hard to get the kids to eat whatever "offending" item that others deem necessary for kids to try or eat, sometimes to the point when the kids cry and we're still trying to get them to eat it.

Now, we just shrug. We'll encourage them to take a small bite or try it at least, if they don't like it, they need not eat anymore. It makes mealtimes much more pleasant and enjoyable, although we still have to endure comments from relatives and friends that our kids are fussy, poor eaters blah blah blah.

Dh is especially relaxed, when I am the one who would still worry what the boys will survive on if they were in school or worse, going through NS and have nothing they like to eat. Dh told me he ate the same thing when he was young (pork porridge) every single day for years, because he refused to eat anything else. So his mom had to cook that for his lunch, even after he started Primary school. Every day. But he still grew up strong and healthy. Yes, he and his siblings are genetically thin. But so are my sis and I. So how can our kids be nice and plump?? Unfair to expect them to be the sturdy muscular kind, isn't it?

Dh said he went through NS without a hitch and always got gold for IPPT. He said he learnt to eat other things along the way, so I shouldn't worry. Still, I think I shouldn't cook the same thing everyday. Haha, but now, I cook the same things every week. As in, the menu is still limited, cos there are just those few dishes the 3 of them all like. But let's try and see if we can expand the repertoire over time!

We have a friend in church now who's from USA. He's here for a year to help teach in the Bible college. We dined with him a few times and realised our kids are very like him. He's been here for almost 11months, and he only likes roti prata, and iced Milo. The rest of the stuff in the hawker center doesn't interest him and some things, like sushi or BBQ stingray actually look disgusting to him.

ds2 is exactly like that. ds1 is just slightly better only. So I guess the 2 yrs spent in US has kind of Americanised them somewhat in their eating habits? Another fellow blogging mom talked about formula milk. My kids don't drink that, they only drink fresh milk. This is also because we were overseas. But anyway I like the taste of fresh milk more than formula.

Ok, back to the pics and about our Bt Timah capers. These photos are taken when we went for the walks to the Singapore Quarry.

Kids were introduced to mimosa, and they were gently swiping the mimosa leaves with their feet or shoes to see the leaves all close up. Kids always find that fun. I told them about mimosa before we left Singapore 3 yrs ago but they don't recall it at all. Glad to get the chance to show them again. ds1 was grabbing ds2's shirt as if he was scared the mimosa would eat him up.

After we reach the quarry. I had to explain to them what "quarry" meant, and how it is formed, cos to them, it looked like a pond. There were cattails, ducks, fish and tadpoles and all those pond creatures.

And plenty of mosquitoes as well!


I made them sit there for at least 20min. It was tough getting them to keep still and quiet, but I intend to train them to do so for longer and longer periods each time. Cos the signs said there were many different bird species to be spotted there, but I told them there was no way we would spot any if they ran around playing and shouting.

We did see ducks and a couple of little grebe. Very adorable, and amazing how the grebe dives into the water and can stay underwater for quite long!


The only problem with walking in Singapore is the heat and humidity. I miss the hiking in USA when I didn't have my whole head full of perspiration and going back with my clothes soaked. There was this sticky feeling all the time too. Sigh.



I check on our reno about 3x a week..

Wed and Fri cos the kids have swimming nearby, and Sunday cos we go to church in the vicinity too.

This past week's update would be that the tiling works have commenced in the kitchen and 2 bathrooms.

I have pictures and paintings and an assortment of furniture (from in laws' place, mom's and from Utah/ Tianjin), so I decided to keep floor/ wall colour neutral. No false ceilings or wall features that are bold or too funky, cos then it'd be tough to match our different stuff with the background colour.

This is the master bedroom bathroom wall tiling (work in progress). But the common bathroom is similar and the kitchen wall is also off-white. We chose larger and longer tiles though, because our apartment is small, and larger longer tiles would make the rooms look more spacious.

The kids liked walking in and out the hacked out part between the study room and living room. I think it's refreshing for them to see such a large hole in the wall. :-) The workers had to remove our window grill to carry out some works. So that's one of the window grills you see.

Huge piles of sand to mix the cement. I caught ds1 in time just before he started using that broom to sweep and mix both piles together!


This is totally unrelated, but I only have this photo to show for the visit I made to my friend who had triplets.

Mary and I went to visit her cos she's due back to teach on Friday (so we had our gathering on Thursday!). She'd taken most of the year off.

She's hired 2 full-time helpers. One to cook and clean the big house, and the other to solely take care of her 5 kids. But even so, she says it is too much work, and she might have to hire yet another helper. Her mom comes once a week, and is unable to help any more than that because her mom helps take care of her sister's kids.

I watched as the helper fed one baby porridge, then the other, and then the third. By then, the 1st one needed some attention so he could fall asleep, then not all would sleep at the same time, and so she was busy all the time. Then one would need a diaper change, and so on and so forth. Really, it is triple the work and more!

Cos they can't sleep together, they would tend to knock each other's heads as they roll about, and they don't wake or sleep or eat at the same time. So it's really tough to get even a minute's rest. Then the helper still has to do the kids' laundry, etc. And the older kids were asking her to get Playdoh and other toys out.

Fortunately, they don't seem to fuss or cry a lot. If they were like my niece or my boys, then that'd be triple the noise as well. They seem to be happy, contented and smily babies. Here are 2 of them. The 3rd one was having his porridge at that time.


They don't look too alike because they're fraternal triplets, not identical. But of course they share similar features just like siblings do.

My friend looks like she has adjusted to a suddenly bigger household pretty well! I take my hat off to her! She's all set to return to work now.

It was such a good chat and great to catch up with each other. Her other helper cooks very well too, so we enjoyed some goodies she whipped up and a slice of the apple strudel that I brought.

We were joking that the next time we meet up, we could do so with all the rest of our families (I only brought ds2 that day and Mary went alone). We won't be able to dine in a normal restaurant for sure! For our 3 families alone, there'd be 6 adults and 10 kids.



24 Oct
Sat

Dh had a lot of wood and supplies to bring in to work that day. Since we don't intend to get a car now that we will live right beside a huge and fully air-conditioned bus interchange, and MRT station, Dh has been taking the fast trains to work.

In fact, he has tried driving to work using his mom's car before and incurred ERP charges, parking charges totalling more than S$30 in a day. He was horrified. This is not inclusive of the fuel costs and his time spent in the traffic jams along the way. It takes less time if he goes by train since it is just one train journey right to his office in town, without need to switch to buses or other modes of transport.

Car-driving in Singapore definitely is only about convenience, like if you don't like to walk, or have lots of things to carry around, or if you have babies and many kids to lug around.

So anyway, that day he had stuff to bring in, yet he was reluctant to pay the costly parking fees in town, so he got me to drive him there. Since it was a Saturday, I brought the kids along.

When he got to the office, the kids went in to take a look since they've not been to his Sg workplace yet.

There're many sharp or dangerous tools, so I told them to just look, and not touch anything. They were very curious about everything, but I was unable to identify most of the tools! Dh was busy at that time. Too bad.

Then we drove off to nearby Plaza Singapura. It was very early, around 9+am but there were so many shoppers there already! I found out why very soon.

Spotlight was having a grand opening sale. There were long queues for the free sculptured balloons, hand and face painting for kids, and long queues for the curtains and other craft material that Spotlight has big discounts on.

The kids initially wanted the fancy balloons, and this artist can indeed make very elaborate stuff. Unfortunately, because each creation was so elaborate, the queue was hardly moving, and we waited for about 30min with no sign of progress. I asked them if we wanted to go explore other things instead and they were ok with that. So we left the queue, and then I met an old friend!

He was our junior in NIE, and now I bumped into him with his 2 kids, a boy and a girl! Wow, it's funny how you realise a lot of time has flown by only when you meet old friends. I still remember the times when we all went hiking in Pulau Ubin during our college days, and we even stayed in this dilapidated dormitory resort there.

And then the days we spent in the Biology Labs, doing all kinds of weird things. He was a Bio and PE student. So now he is teaching PE instead. (We can be posted out to schools to teach either or both of our trained subjects). Teaching PE must have done him a lot of good cos he still looks fit and young as ever.

We just chatted for a while and exchanged contacts. His wife was shopping somewhere around Plaza Sing so I didn't get to meet her. He was taking care of both kids and had just gotten the balloons for them.

I brought the kids to Carrefour next and we just browsed everywhere aisle for fun. After that, we had lunch at Manhattan Fish Market and Dh joined us later. Dh enjoyed his flaming prawns, while the boys enjoyed mainly the flaming. Ds1 even asked the waitress if he could do the flaming himself.

After lunch, Dh headed back to work and kids and I walked through the entire Spotlight store. It's really fun to examine all the various tablecloths, or party supplies and exclaim how pretty each and every scrapbooking material is. The boys gamely browsed with me because there were enough items to keep their imagination running wild. There were many Halloween dress-up ideas too.

It was 2pm, we still had time to kill. Dh wanted to knock off only at 5pm. So I drove over to the nearest museum, The Singapore Philatelic Museum. It was so empty. The few other people were all tourists. The boys were the only kids, and we're probably the only crazy locals to spend money exploring this museum.

But surprisingly, we had a lot of fun! And we all learnt a lot. The curator or I/C was a very kind lady who saw how appreciative we were that she waived ds2's ticket fees. That saved me S$4.

The kids collected stamps into their notebooks, did wood block shadings, took silly pictures, and tried out every interactive exhibit.

That's the old mail carrier scooter. Nostalgic indeed.

They also learnt how stamps can be collected as a hobby, how educational stamps can be, and how mail is delivered - the entire process. Here they are, putting in mail, seeing how it is air couriered now, to reach the destination. There was also an exhibit to show the kids how mail was delivered by foot, bicycle, then horse, then ship/ train/ truck and then air. They were shown how much faster each mode could be.

Some silly pics...


Then there were cultural exhibits too. This was old Singapore, the historical past, I think. There were drums to play and clogs to wear. You can put on the lion's head and do lion dances.

Post office in Chinatown in the past?

Stereoscopes to view rare and old stamps in more detail.

A room dedicated to F1 Grand Prix races. The history, all the stamps involved and all the little die-cast model cars. ds2 was taking notes in his spiral bound notebook. He mostly drew his notes in, although he will sometimes copy what he sees on the board or exhibits. I gave them free reign, and did not dictate what they should write, draw or take down.

Hence their notes don't look very impressive, but they have a great sense of ownership in their learning and maybe it is a good start to a healthy note-taking habit?

I liked this exhibit cos it showed all the different postboxes countries around the world use. The actual replicas of the mailboxes are mounted onto the respective country on a big colourful map of the world.

They have many of the mailboxes for sale too, and I bought a modern Sg one and the old orange Sg one. We already have the USPS one that we bought as a toy and souvenir in USA, so now they can play air mail from Sg to USA at home, haha. We have the USPS mail truck toy also, and we have JAL and SIA airplanes, so somehow, they can string all these together.

I learn a lot more about how stamps are printed and made, things I never knew before. It was 4.30pm when we were done, just nice.

All in all, a great day spent downtown... :-)

-{dear-hubby}- dh
-{dear-son}-dsone T
-{dear-son}-dstwo J
singapore/utah/tianjin
Church of Christ
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huiming shaypiao chiuwai teck 03S73 05S73 05S75 05S78 05S7B janelle medalene eunice zelda maryGanMa meizan sheryl dory jessica danielle sammi jen OzSeow

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