Tuesday, July 31, 2007 ;
10:56 AM
Just wanted to blog about this before I forget. Regarding the trip, the photos are still not organised yet. Been really busy with normal life, and also with the new car, and other stuff.
The kids sometimes say really funny things and I always wanted to record them but somehow forget, and then when I try to recall later on, I can't remember!
So now that I can, better jot it down.
ds2:
Since learning to count to 20, he has a funny quirk of saying "one one" for eleven, besides other amusing mispronunciations. So he will count: "1,2,3...9, 10, one-one, twelve, ter-teen, for-teen, five-teen, six-teen, say-teen, ay-teen, nine-teen, ten-teen".
1. He says "say" for "seven". He's still not good at pronouncing such words with 2 syllables. Words that have "v", "l", "r"...
2. For all the numerals, he can recognise them in symbol form, so 11, to him, may seem like 1 and 1 placed together. Maybe that's why he says it as "one-one".
3. For the rest of the numbers between 13 and 19, he just says the single digit name and puts the "teen" behind, so we get things like "five-teen".
ds1:
He is in the transition stage of not needing a nap in the afternoon. Or maybe, just not wanting a nap. So I do allow him to be awake on days we need not stay out late. But I told him he cannot choose on Wed or Sun, because there are evening services at church.
Recently though, he seems to have a lot of energy. And simply refuses to nap on Wed and Sun. I told him sternly that he didn't keep his promise. He promised to nap on Wed and Sun.
He said: I did keep my promise. I kept it so well, now I can't find it, so it's not my fault.
Me: Arrrghhh!!!
(seriously, napping for him is really a problem. i wonder if i should just let him be. when he doesn't nap, he does get through the whole day and still goes for the Wed Kids Bible Class as per normal. And though I half expected him to be cranky and misbehave in class, the teachers told me he did very well. They said they couldn't tell he didn't have a nap. On Sun though, sometimes he will end up sleeping on the pew in church.)
The previous Sunday before this one, we told him he couldn't fuss at all during evening service since he himself refused to nap.
Halfway through the service, I could tell he was very tired already. So I passed him some paper and markers and told him to do drawing. We also recently forbade him to draw superheroes during worship. Cos he loves drawing his superheroes and then once drawn, will make up his own stories, while making a lot of sound effect to go with it.
You know lah, the flying swishing noises, the fighting noises, etc etc. Too noisy and distracting for worship. So we told him he could only draw things related to worship, during sermon.
So from the corner of my eye, I saw him draw pews with him and dh on it, and some music notes in the air (following Little Einstein). Satisfied, I concentrated on the sermon and forgot about him. Awhile later, dh nudged me to look at him. I glanced over, and there he was! Sleeping so soundly, leaning against the back of the pew, still in sitting position, still holding the uncapped purple Crayola marker and paper! Some drool was already coming out from the side of the mouth. Aiyoh.
Today also marked ds1's 1st swim lesson. This being summer, I thought I'd let him try. There is an aquatics center nearby, and residents of this city could have discounts off the lessons and admission. It is something like Jurong East or CCK Swim complex, with the kids' play areas and normal pools, slides and so on. Maybe slightly smaller.
But because it is indoors, it costs much more for admission. Fortunately we could get in free if he has lessons. Else it is $5.25 per adult. ds2 gets in free (kids under 4). Swim complexes around here tend to be indoors else they can only operate half a year, not viable. The good thing is, no need to put sun block, and it is not so cold compared to if it were outdoors and there was a breeze.
The admission also covers the other facilities in the center, which includes a gym (dh was so excited), and childcare center (can drop kids off for just few bucks an hour so moms can get some exercise)... Yoga and aerobics also. I guess that's why it's a bit steep.
Some things I like about it: (didn't take pictures cos all of us were in the water)
1. An outdoor fountain for kids who don't want to get in the water and just want to run around with jets and spurts of water shooting at them.
2. The way the showers are designed. I always had this problem at public pools in Spore. I don't usually bring a very nice bag to pools, and hang my stuff at the hook on the door, then shower. Right? The shower always shoots jets of water so far and so powerful that my towel and bag will get wet.
Here, the shower is inside, there is a shower curtain, then an area for you to hook your stuff. Even a bench for other stuff or your kids who are done. Then outside of that, another curtain that shuts the whole cubicle out from the main locker room.
Also, if there are too many people and all the cubicles are occupied, There are main areas for showering (without curtains or partitions). So I just shower with my tankini on. There is a body foam dispenser there too. Which everyone uses to lather ourselves.
3. Better still, I like the family locker rooms. You know how sometimes a family has boys and girls, and then both parents share the same pool bag? So they can all get into the family locker room together and shower their mixed gender kids together. Much more convenient. Sometimes dh and I use that, although today only I showered both boys, so we used the female's. Easier and faster, cos both of us can shower the kids at the same time. Then one gets done first and take the kids out first, then the last adult can shower then come out.
I went into the family locker room today just to check it out, and sure enough, I saw this family with 4 young kids. The mom was showering all kids in the shower, the dad was holding all the towels, clothes and bathing stuff right outside the shower and could pass the mom things or catch each kid that was ready to come out. Convenient, instead of the mom and dad being separated in different rooms.
4. They let you bring your own floats. Unlike JE (i dunno abt now, but when i was there, they certainly didn't allow. everyone had to rent theirs). So there were all kinds. Big dinosaurs, small rafts, all inflatable toys you can imagine. A few very small infants (looked to me maybe just 2-4 months old?) were placed in inflatable toy cars or boats that their moms or dads pushed around in the water. The babies lay there, seemingly enjoying the splashes of water and the floating, drifting feeling! So cute. I got this urge to have another baby again.
These few weeks, I have also been very busy cooking all sorts of local stuff with the spice and paste mixes my mom brought over when she came. The trip to NYC and Boston let us have a chance at trying some really good Chinese food, so we missed it all over again. Didn't take any pictures, but we did Hainanese Chicken rice, nasi goreng, lemon chicken, laksa, tom yam again. For yesterday's church potluck, I made laksa fried rice, which is rice fried with laksa paste, so it is fragrant (with coconut milk and some spices). I cooked more rice than required by the packet mix, so it was not too spicy. The Americans seemed to take it well. Came home with an empty pot.
Last update:
on our car. Well, as expected from a 2nd hand car bought from a not-so-reputable car dealer, that is also dirt cheap, we found it was lacking a lot of stuff and the engine was not running so well.
With church friends' help, and with a lot of crash course learning, dh tinkered with the car a whole week, putting in all his spare time in making the car better.
The air con wasn't working well even after the car dealer "charged it up". Think they must have anyhow done it, cos it was no different. Dh was so fed up with them, he went to buy freon himself and charged it. Still not too good, found out the cooler system got problem, so got it repaired.
Then, we wanted a remote control central locking system. So dh went out to get the materials and fixed it up himself. These things seem to come as standard features of cars in Spore, but not so much here. So a lot of people sound like they are honking their cars when they activate their remote controlled locking device. Cos they hook it up to the horns. Always scare me when they lock or open their cars, cos it is really a loud honking noise!
So dh did a quiet one for our car, one beep for opening and2 for locking. Then he fixed up a silent mode too, for locking and opening silently. Then, he also wanted a light to indicate that it was really locked, so he connected the light too. This might seem standard, but then when he did it all himself, I was very appreciative. COs he was there, drenched in sweat in the garage, surrounded with a thousand tools (borrowed from others) and covered with wiring of all sorts, for hours.
And I had to come out a couple of times to help with the colours of the wires cos he's colour-blind. So I'd come out when he called, and say "oh this is brown and this is green, and this here is orange". :-) Cos red-green colour-blindness affects red and green and shades of such colours, so brown and orange are affected too. He can guess and estimate colours pretty well in normal life, but these are important connections and he doesn't want to get them wrong, so I had to confirm the colours for him. :-)
He also found a very nice car salesman who helped him obtain car parts at a very cheap price. He found loose connections in several areas of the engine, and some burnt out parts. Some were just missing a correctly-sized bolt. If dh brought the car to a mechanic, straightaway there'd be service charge and the parts charge would be much more expensive. But this salesman was so nice, he helped to obtain the parts cheaply, and dh paid $3.50 only. So nice of him to help. He wasn't even the one who we bought the car from.
Now, the church elder is going to do an engine overhaul on the old Dodge we own. Dh is keen to learn. Good, cos service is very expensive here, and the more you can DIY, the more you save. Seems like, if you DIY, you can just buy a 2nd hand engine for $400 and then put it in yourself. If you bring it in to the mechanic, it would costs thousands.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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