Friday, December 10, 2010 ;
9:22 PM
30 Sep
11.30am
Met my American friend at Thai Express for lunch. Brought dd only. I received a beautiful gift from Greece from her. Hearing her speak about her trip there makes me want to go there too! I will keep that place in mind, it is a coastal area near Athens, if I remember correctly.
She also invited us for playdates at her place, because there is a terrific swimming pool there. But I haven't yet gone cos it was flu season in Nov and Dec and till now, I think our family has gone through 3 rounds??!?
Other events, I will probably post the pics on Facebook so it would be quicker. And I'll just make a short record here, for my kids' sake and for my future self, in case, amnesia stirkes, and I can refer back to the blog. :)
Then I will revert to posting pics and updates here and try and be more current in 2011. Must be my new year resolution!
3 Oct
Sun evening
Had a rare dinner with my parents. Seldom eat with both of them due to my dad's schedule. Ate tze char at Boon Lay. It was delicious. After that, we strolled to their old place at Boon Lay and passed by the expat kids playing hockey. Apparently they play hockey every week at the Boon Lay CC. Some kind of coaching clinic or maybe a junior league.
9 Oct
12pm
Ladies Fellowship group
My group is the Wings Sisters this year.
We had lunch at Kichi Kichi at Ngee Ann City.
Dh ate with the boys and dd went with me.
We managed to get Josiah's birthday present there at Takashimaya, so happy!
After that we brought Meda along and went to Lai Mui's place for the singing session.
I let the boys swim at her mansion's pool. They had so much fun. I didn't bring dd down cos it was too much hassle for me. (the boys can shower by themselves, but I'd have to shower myself and dd if I went down, and I would have to bring all of my clothes/ swimwear etc. it's so easy for boys, but so troublesome for girls, many more pieces of clothing to bring, and more accessories to pack too)
Lai Mui's helper kept praising my boys for being so well-behaved. She was amazed that they could shower and change themselves. She said she was comparing them to another boy who's the same age as ds2 who often goes to her mdm's housr.
After that we were ushered into the guest room. Lai Mui kindly offered a bucket of toy cars, so the boys played happily, Dh and singers sang downstairs gustily, me and dd relaxed on the queen-sized bed. I lazily switched the TV on, and she had cable in the guest room! I ended up watching a korean movie while nursing dd, so lucky!
10 Oct
Sun
1-3pm
Bday party at philatelic museum.
ds2's classmate booked a Museum birthday party. Very interesting. The kids learnt more about stamps and played group games that involved running around the museum looking for clues. Us moms sat in the party room, drinking coke, munching on chips and chatting. Fun!
12 Oct
Tuesday
5pm
Dinner with Mel at Sakura, Science Center.
Our dear friend, who was a teacher at the intl school in Tianjin, visited Sg with her son. She is now teaching in the intl sch in Jakarta and used her short hol to vacation in Sg.
She came alone with her son, leaving her dd with her hubby in Jakarta cos she wanted to wean her dd off bm and it was impossible with her around, so she was going to give her dd the cold turkey.
I asked Dh if I could do that in future. haha. He gave me a look of horror. It takes a lot to be the parent at home with the bf child who wants bm and starts crying, and the source is nowhere to be seen! All I can say is, her hubby is very brave and her hubby must have had a week without much sleep at night. :)
Mel and her son were awesome company. She's Australian and her hubby's Indonesian. Her son is so so beautiful. Anyway it was good we met up cos they toured the science center before dinner and he got all wet. We have boys so it was easy to offer extra clothes, socks and shoes. She returned us the next day cos we planned to go to the zoo together.
After a good meal, we all squeezed into the car. Having been in Tianjin for a while, Mel was able to squeeze, no problem! (Most Americans and Australians would be concerned about safety, especially with the kids not in car seats) Dh sent me and kids back first, then sent her and son back to YMCA in Orchard.
13 Oct
Wed
Zoo
We don't often take the kids out of school. But friends from overseas who come once in a blue moon are an exception. We took both boys out of school to go to the zoo with Mel and son. We had an amazing day!! The boys took to each other so well, despite the age gap, and that while in Tianjin, they hadn't actually met each other before. (Mel's son was too young to go to school then)
Pics are on FB.
16 Oct
Sat
Josiah's bday party at Changi chalet.
Jon and Angelia rented the chalet. We had fun blowing bubbles and the boys played at the beach, wetting themselves fulling running into the sea, and then getting sand stuck all over their wet clothes.
I didn't bring any extra clothes for them cos it was supposed to be a short birthday celebration. Argh, they sat on trash bags in the car all the way home, wet, sticky and dirty. But they loved it. Reminds me of that old nursery rhyme: girls are made of all things nice.... then boys are made of all the yucky icky stuff like frogs and lice?
19 Oct
ds1 at mil: PSLE marking day.
There were 4 longs marking days! Holiday for ds1! So my mil said he could spend one day at her place. She wanted to bring him out and also do some activities with him, like listen to music and do calligraphy (but ds1 hated that). ds1 said by lunch time, he was very bored and asked for his gonggong (fil) to return from the factory to play chess with him.
After that, he was happy cos they played 6 straight sets of chess before fil had to return to work.
dd had her vaccination that same day. She was also weighed and checked by the doctor. Everything's fine. She is also slimming down, a natural progression with all my kids. She was then at the 97th percentile already, down from 100th.
For my kids, because they take only bm for the 1st 6 months, absorption is very good and they put on weight quickly. After 6 months, they start having more and more solids. The more solids they have, the less efficient the absorption. Also, they start running after 1yo and then there is no looking back. They become thinner and thinner.
I also tend to control the amount of deep fried/ salty/ sugary stuff they eat at home, so I guess that's how they don't put on much weight thereafter. And of course, there is the genetic component. (The only time we all did put on weight was in Utah, I think. We ate a lot more fatty food, salty stuff and soda/ candy/ ice cream/ chocolate.)
21 Oct
Thurs
Rochester Park
Since ds1 was still on holiday, I took ds2 out of school, and we had a playdate with Eva and El and went to check out this new indoor play area. It is a 2 storey bungalow with all kinds of lovely playthings inside the house. Train sets, doll houses, ride-ons, dress-up and puppet play, kitchen sets... And Wii, Nintendo upstairs for older kids. Outdoors, there are sand pits, water play areas. But it was raining that day, so we only played indoors.
Surprisingly, halfway through, ds2's former music tr at his kindy walked in! He was a great music tr and taught them all kinds of dance, like hip hop, tap, and introduced them to a lot of different genres of music. He also played many musical games with them and sang very interesting songs. Ds2 came alive with music during the time Mr I taught them.
But sadly, he left. And then I found out he left to set up this new playcenter! Ahhhh, no wonder. He has his own "baby" now. He looked very happy, and was carrying a lot of props which he said were for birthday parties. The 2nd storey had party rooms and he said they were fully booked for parties till March 2011!
The boys got extra playtime without charge that day. :)
Pics on FB.
22 Oct
7pm
Dinner for guests.
When we were renovating our house, Dh and I dreamt of entertaining our friends at least once a month. We'd like to cook something special and invite a small group of friends over for a meal. Thereafter, we can chat or play games together.
After our house was renovated, we had dd and then were so busy trying to get the house in order. I think we only started having guests over for the kids' birthdays and other special occasions.
Then Dh had a coffee party idea, and we started the entertaining ball rolling.
This Friday night, we had some church friends over. We drew up lists of different "cliques". Those with young kids, those without, the youth etc. Because our house was small, we can only manage small groups. So we divided the groups up and lined them up to be invited. :)
So far, we had a few groups already. This particular Friday, we roasted lamb, steaks, pork, potatoes and I stir fried French beans with sze chuan veg. Then I made mushroom sauce (with red wine) using Portobellos and brown mushrooms, lots and lots of them. We used loads of the sauce with the meat.
After the meal, we played games, and I actually FORGOT to bring dessert out! Argh! can't believe it. There was ice cream from Island Creamery that Leon brought and lots of potato chips. I only remembered the strawberries and grapes from Peter and Sab.
Must be cos dd was bugging me non stop towards the end. All of us had a great time, especially the boys. They always get very hyper with guests around.
(This has now evolved into more of potlucks with games, cos I realised after all the cooking and cleaning while tending to dd, I am too tired to play games, haha. Next time when kids are older, I will start cooking more to entertain. Now, I rather prepare dessert only. :))
23 Oct
Sat
Met up with dear old ex-colleague HM at JP's Ichiban for dinner, then still adjourned to Bakerzin for desserts later. haha.
ds1 was very well-liked by her 2 girls. Pics on FB.
It was great catching up, especially since 2010 had been tough for her. And me, actually, come to think of it.
24 Oct
Very sinful feasting over the past few days!
Sunday evening, had a rare dinner out with Tim, Law, and Mary's family. All the way at Upp Bt Timah. There's this super famous tze char stall near the Hazel/ Dairy Farm area.
Very yummy indeed! And there are wildlife species to spot while eating too! It was a long wait, and the boys took a nice long walk with Dh along the canal. They saw monitor lizards, amongst other animals!
Pics on FB. And dd had her first prawn paste chicken wings there too! Thanks to Tim and Law for recommending.
27 Oct
Wed
Old friend returns with her hubby and dd from UK. She was my classmate in Sec sch and we went to different JCs. After that, she worked in the finance sector, all the way up. She's a vice-president of a certain dept in a big bank now, in London. She has a romantic love story too.
Met her British hubby in New Zealand while she was backpacking. How cool.
Anyway, they settled in UK but then as their dd grew, she felt that an education in Sg would be good for her dd since it is bilingual.
There are a lot of parents here who want to bring their kids overseas cos they hate the system in Sg, but then I meet lots others who want to come to Sg for their kids' education instead. I think it is just how different people think differently.
Anyway so she returned to buy an apt near a good school and we met up at Bakerzin. Her dd is so adorable and she loves dd very much, so dd was very entertained by this big sister while YP and I chatted. Her hubby is very easy to get along with and surprisingly he can join in our conversations with ease too. (I say this cos sometimes Dh gets bored when me and girlfriends yak non stop).
I had to leave cos it was time to pick the boys up from school, and we promised to meet up the next time she returns for CNY and then later on, for good.
28 Oct
Diana visited me with her dd, who is just a month apart from my princess. They had a fun playdate, eating their Baby bites together, while me and Diana chatted. Her hubby lectures at NTU. Sometimes she'll follow him and since I live here, she will visit with me till her hubby is done.
There are several times she smsed me to meet up but I was not available. Otherwise we'd have had many more playdates than the 3 we already had, I think.
Pic below: A quarry near in-laws' place. They like to walk to this quarry as a form of exercise, so they often ask us to go along. Sometimes they bring just the boys.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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