last activity in 2012

we started our year with our first activity at the beach. we end our year with splashing fun at the swimming pool.

 

waiting for papa

upon reaching, yu ze asked for his spade which was in the car. darling had to walk back to the car to pick it up while i get them changed. while waiting, they were seated by the pool. since its a children pool, so i asked if they wanted to go in first. thinking that its quite shallow, water level at their waist only, should be quite safe. after i helped yu ze stand in the pool, yu xi wanted to go in too. they started to walked off once they are in it. yu xi had a little accident if you may call it, she didn't walk properly in the pool, slip and end up struggling inside. darling was walking back and saw it. he went down and hold her up. after this little accident, she refuse to go in again and requested to change.

 

playing with water structure

no matter what i said to her, she refuse to get into the pool. so i changed for her and she sit with me by the side. about 20 minutes later, she said she wanted gor gor to come up. so we walked along the pool to look for gor gor. then she slowly warm up again and started playing with the water structure out of the pool and had herself all wet again.

 

hugging the 'octopus'

i believe this 'little accident' will not keep her away from the pool. we also signed up for safra membership. we will be heading down to safra swimming pool pretty often when both of them start their class with berries.

genting & kuala lumpur

our long awaited short getaway is over. 5 days 4 nights trip to genting and kuala lumpur with jiali and family. this trip was booked way back in feb when air asia was having promotion. we bought our tickets at $50 each all in.

 

jiali don't want to travel down from genting in the night, so we decided to stay 2 nights in genting and 2 nights in kl itself. we booked our hotels on our own and got leelian to help book a mini van for our transfer.

 

queue for rides

genting seems to be pretty cold this year compare to last year. we checked our luggage in at the hotel and left for our lunch while waiting for our rooms to be ready. the kids goes crazy when they saw all the rides available at the indoor theme park. we bought 2 days, all park pass for all. jiali being preggy get a discounted adult pass.

 

bumper car

we covered all the available and suitable rides in the indoor theme park except for the reindeer ride (which we took last year). some of the rides, the kids went more than once. due to the cold weather, we covered some of the rides at the outdoor theme park. most of the rides at the outdoor theme park were not really suitable for them. they are either too young or too short for it.

 

yu xi developed fever in the late afternoon on the day of arrival. she was grouchy the moment the medication effect was over. her fever lasted for 2 days till we left genting. overall, she had enjoyed herself too despite the fever.

twin towers

as usual, we check our luggage in the hotel and left for lunch while waiting for the room to be ready. we spend our day shopping at mid valley megamall and the gardens. we went on the hop on hop off bus ride the next day. we took the train from mid valley station to kl sentral to take the bus. we went to twin towers, kl tower, bukit bintang and chinatown. we couldn't catch the last bus ride at 730pm so we took a cab back to hotel on our own.



kl tower

we checked out early on our last day for the driver to bring us to have local breakfast. he brought us to chocolate factory too though no production line to show. next, we went to batu cave. the 17 X ?? (don't know how many) steps were a killer. there were many monkeys along the stairs too. one of them give jiali a big fright that she screamed. then, we went to kidszania. however, we had to miss it cos they were fully booked for the morning session by 13 schools. :(  we had our lunch nearby and shopped a bit before the driver came back to pick us up for berjaya times square, which was our last stop.

overall, it was a fun and nice trip. though, i don't seems to have done any shopping. everyone did come back with something.  

fantastic mr fox & barney show

watching all these plays are very ex. i booked the tickets for fantastic mr fox very late and almost can't get any tickets. its a interactive and nice play. its a longer play then what we had watched so far. yu ze wanted to leave during the interval. i manage to get him to stay and finished it. it through it. at the end of the show, i asked him if he likes it. he say yes and wants to watch the next show, room on broom.

 

enjoyed the play

we went to united square for lunch and barney show. we started to queue for barney around 2pm after we finished our lunch though the show only starts at 3pm. i also manage to get a photo pass to take photos with bob the builder, wendy and spud.

family photo

we had a great time watching both the play and barney show.

lego land, here we come....

lego land, here we come......

 

weather is good today and we are making our trip up north to the long await lego land. meet up jiali and family for breakfast before we drive up. traffic is not too bad at the checkpoint too. we missed the turn to lego land and make a big round back before we hit lego land.

 

lego express

the kids are so excited about the trip. we took all the rides that was available for their age and cover the whole of lego land (appropriate for their age). the queue for the rides range from 15 mins to 45 mins as stated on the sign at each ride. we didn't really time to check if the queue timing is as what is stated but its doesn't seems to long a wait though. for a school holiday fri, i think the wait is pretty reasonable. the park is not overly packed too. you will also notice that the crowd sort of die off by around 4pm.

 

driving at the junior driving school

we took some of the rides twice as requested by the kids. rides and activities suitable for young children of 2 and 4 years old includes:

• lego city airport
• junior driving school
• boating school
• lego rescue academy
• lego express
• duplo express
• observation tower
• duplo playtown
• musical fountain
• beetle bounce
• the shipyard
• miniland

we had upgraded our day pass to annual pass at the end of the day. we were there from 11am to 7pm. the kids were dead tired. fall asleep immediately when they were in the car. we will definitely come back for more fun.

babies prom

we are at esplanade again for our yearly sso babies prom concert. its their 10th anniversary concert. this year, we have yiyi andrina and anvelle joining us. thanks to yiyi eileen for getting the tickets for us, yiyi celine to pass us the tickets. this concert tickets are selling like a hot cake, tough getting the tickets if we are not given any priority.

 

the kids have fun and enjoyed the concert, so do us.

 

10th anniversary concert

Anvelle joining us for the concert (pic taken by yu ze)

 

hello kitty town & the little big club



in JB



we went to hello kitty town & the little big club!!! its so so fun for everyone of us except maybe darling (he enjoyed but not as much as we do).

 

i love kitty

i'm so so so in love with hello kitty town and turn into a little girl who is excited over all the things in there. hahaha..... i just want to take photo of everything in there. yu ze and yu xi had fun too. both of them were scared at the 'black wonder'. yu ze said that is for the bad kitty, he is scare. i didn't get to do anything from the 'wishful studio', must make sure i visit them the next trip.

 

the fat controller

there were two levels for the little big club, one level for thomas and another for barney, angelina ballerina, bob the builder and pingu. of course, we had lots of fun at thomas area. however, there are 2 rides that we were turn away due to height and age. yu ze was so sad that he cried. i had to comfort him and get to play at other stations. 

 

at the other level, we had skip angelina ballerina. they are not interested in her. her play area is simply a dress up area where you get to wear the tutu and dance like a ballerina. we just walked in and out of the place. they spent most of the time at bob the builder and barney. yu xi was a bit sad cos bj and baby bop didn't appear and bj was not feature there. she didn't even want to take pic with the barney mascot.

 

overall, it was a good trip and a place for everyone in the family (at least for mine). travelling time for one way was about 1.5 hours.  

thomas & friends

we are back at takashimaya again. this time is for thomas & friends show.we had our lunch at the same place again (japanese stall). yu ze wants to eat rice with 'cheese' (mayonnaise).

waiting for thomas

we are early but they refuse to go any other place. we end up waiting by the stage for 1 hour and we are first in the queue too.  as we suspected, we met the same thomas and same fat controller again. of course, we sing the same songs too. hahaha.... this year, yu ze decides not to take any pic with thomas and the fat controller.

photo taking

gardens by the bay

the 2 friends meet

we meet up with kat and her family for a cool evening walk at gardens by the bay. it has been a long since we meet up. we had planned to take the ocbc skyway walk. however, the queue is so long that we have to give it a miss. we end up walking around by the gardens, enjoying the cool breeze.

 

sitting on the big pebble

yu ze spotted the spider web by the side lamp. they spotted a few small frogs and a beetle along the walk. these are things that we adults will missed. i guess we are not observant for such things. 

spider web

its nice catching up with each other. small group meeting are good as well since its fuss free and less logistic to handle. as the kids grow, its harder for us to meet up. everyone is busy with their own activities or enrichment classes for the kids. hopefully, we can do more meet up in future.  

diaper free days???

yu ze has been off diaper for day for a long time. we have not gone into serious night training cos he is still drinking quite an amount of milk before bedtime. he always wake up with a full diaper. i think this will make night training very tough.

 

a few weeks ago, we tried to start his night training by waking him up to pee. we end up with a crying yu ze cos we disturb his sleep. also end up with changing bedsheet almost everyday or every other day due to the many accidents despite waking him up to pee. in the end, we are the one giving up. since then he has been waking up in the middle of the night to remove his diaper, wear his brief and shorts and went back to bed.

 

mzybe its true that they will auto train when they are ready. he had gone diaper free (no diaper at all) and without wetting himself for the passed 2 nights. we didn't wake him up and he didn't wake us up too. i think he did wake up and pee and went back to bed. hopefully, diaper free days are not too far away for us.

present?

i was in a packing mood and was clearing up the house. i saw this soo kee box lying around. i thought it was my surprise gift. it was indeed a surprise gift when i opened it up. it was not a diamond ring, it was a minnie mouse plastic ring. yu xi saw me opening it, she came to me and said, 'its mine!'. and she walked away with the box.

 

gift for girlfriend not wife

 

i walked out of the room to look for darling.

 

me: darling, why you buy present for your girlfriend? i don't have any.

darling: (lost and shock) huh??? what present?

me: mei mei, can you show papa what you have?

 

yu xi walked over and show papa her soo kee's 'ring'. i gave darling a sulking face and walked off. hahaha.....

fun, exciting and busy dec

i didn't notice that we will be having an exciting dec till i listed them down.

dec

1 - a walk at the gardens with kat and family

4 - yu ze's camp in cc (eric carle's programme at science centre)
5 - yu ze's camp in cc (mad sciene at serangoon branch)
6 - babies prom concert
9 - fantastic fox
10 - yu ze's camp in cc (making an angry bird robot)
12 - yu ze's camp in cc (super hero dress up christmas party at serangoon branch)
13 - genting

14 - genting

15 - genting & mid valley

16 - kl

17 - kl & back to singapore
26 - darling must go back to school

27 - darling must go back to school

28 - darling must go back to school

i have 3 annual reports to submit to cpe by 28 dec. i can only work on them from 10 dec.

how to squeeze a hello kitty land and the litte big club trip in?

if possible, still need to squeeze another lego land trip. this can delay a bit since most of the rides have a min height requirement of 100cm. yu ze still a long way to that so we can hold this back a little more.

this dec is going to be fun, exciting and busy for all of us.

where is tutu???

we were watching tv while waiting for our dinner to be ready. yu xi walked to papa and asked for her tutu?

 

yu xi: papa, where is tutu?

darling: no more tutu.

yu xi: i want.

me: mei mei, no more tutu. tutu, you throw in the dustbin.

yu xi (look at papa): papa, where is tutu?

darling: no more. you throw in the dustbin, remember?

 

luckily, she only asked that one time and stopped asking. hope this was the one and only time she is asking for it. i'm prepared for her to cry the house down for it and not giving in to her. :P

its over!!!

critical day was over!!!! we had survived 2 days without tutu and no mention and asking for it too. well done, yu xi. she has decided to self wean at 2 years and 7 month old like yu ze.

 

yu xi is better in a way cos she never ask about it at all since she throw it away. yu ze was still asking it for that day that he threw away. he is ok after we explain that he threw it away. he will still go on a repeat mode of asking once a while throughout that day and only stop the next day.

 

i'm so happy that self wean can be so easy and no sweat.

today is critical

today is the critical day. self wean tutu is a happen or not depends on today's response and reaction. there is not a single request of it since morning. however, she did peep into the dustbin seems to be looking for her tutu when she throw rubbish in it. she didn't see it and just walked off.

 

before nap time, she was crying for her sheep. uh oh, is she asking for her tutu (the design on it is a sheep).

 

me: mei mei, what sheep you want? 

yu xi (still crying): mommy, papa take my sheep.

me (still blur): papa, take your sheep?

yu xi: yes, papa take my sheep. (then she walk into our room and point) see papa, take my sheep (her pillow with sheep design on it).

 

then i realise what she is asking about.

me: oh, ok. (facing darling) papa, why you take her sheep?

darling: ok ok, give you. (take the pillow back to her room for her and she went to nap)

 

looking at each other, we just smiled. phew!!! she is not asking for her tutu.

 

we send warning to fil and sil before they came over too. not to mention anything about her tutu. they day ended in peace with no request at all. let's hope this will stay for a few more days to confirm the self wean is a success.

tu tu spoilt

i accidentally make a super big hole on yu xi's tutu. it was dirty so i wash for her. i try to make the hole a bit bigger so that she will eventually throw it away. however, i was a bit too hard and tore too much.

i return the tutu to her after washing. she bite for a while, took it out and see. then she realise the hole is so big.

yu xi: tu tu spoilt.

me: throw in dustbin

yu xi: no (continue to bite)

took it out again and looked at her tutu.

yu xi: throw in mommy's room

me: no, cannot. mommy's room has no dustbin

yu xi: throw in the fan

me: no, cannot its dirty. fan is not dustbin

she bite on it again and walk out. then she came back without the tutu. i found the tutu in yu ze's room dustbin. all went well till around 7pm, she suddenly appear with the tutu again. she picks up from the dustbin, wash and starts biting on it again.

7pm - tutu pick up, wash and bite again

7:10pm - tutu in kitchen's dustbin. she walked to kitchen quietly, threw tutu in the dustbin, gave it a last look and walked off.

9pm - tutu is being rescued from kitchen's dustbin to hide inside mommy's drawer. in anticipation for yu xi asking for it tomorrow.

she went to bed at 8:30pm without it and didn't ask for it too. 

good job, baby. if you really decides to wean off tutu from today, both you and gor gor did a self wean at 2 years 7 months old. will you then work towards diaper free after this and be diaper free in the day and nap at 3 years old like gor gor?

rabbit again

mommy & yu ze

yu ze drags me into his room again to draw a rabbit. he draws the purple one and says it's mommy. blue (mommy draw) one is yu ze, like thomas is also blue. 

drawing

bedtime activity for today is drawing. yu ze wants to draw rabbit so i got him to follow me stroke by stroke in the drawing.

say cheese with his rabbits

yu ze draws the purple rabbits by copying the pink one. he says
1. this is a family.
2. pink is mommy, blue is papa, purple are yu ze and mei mei.
3. papa and mommy wear specs so must draw specs for the pink and blue rabbits.

 

he drew the 2 purple rabbits while i drew the pink and blue.

 

yu ze's house

then he proceed to draw a house himself. he ran out of the room to take papa's key to show papa. he says must draw the key so we can open the door and go home. he doesn't know how to draw the key and get papa to help.

henna

henna

they have deepavali celebration in schoool. yu ze came back with henna on his hand.

 

me: yu ze, what was that?

yu ze: flower. i don't like this. this is smelly, yu ze don't like. chocolate (the paint) is for eating not drawing.

 

i like how school plans such activity for the kids to expose them to different types of religion and festive celebrations we have in singapore.

yu xi's favourite conversation

whenever we are back home late and pass yu xi's bedtime, the following conversation (similar content) will sure happen.

 

yu xi: mommy, how we go home?

me: we are going home now.

yu xi: how? how we go home?

me: we going home now.

yu xi: i want to go home, take tutu, ah low (bolster) and more ah low (2nd bolster) and barney and bj

me: ok. going home now.

 

this same conversation will get repeated depending on how far we are away from home. 'faint'

tiger bites again!!!

tiger bite

yu ze came back with a tiger bites on his chest.

 

me: yu ze, what happen?

yu ze: mei mei, bite me. she just bite then i pull away and painful.

me: why mei mei bite you?

yu ze: she just bite and bite and never let go. then i arhh..... like that

 

i turn to yu xi.

 

me: mei mei, why you bite gor gor?

yu xi: no. no bite. cannot bite.

 

i can't get any answer out from my kids so i text yu ze's teacher. she had left the school when this happened. however, she managed to find out what happen from another teacher. apparently, they were sitting together watching tv and talking among themselves. the teacher can't hear what's their conversation is about. then yu xi just becomes unhappy and attack gor gor. poor gor gor.

pineapple tarts

kneading into a big dough

 

yu ze definitely love baking. he enjoys with all the kneading and mixing. i was preparing my dough for the pineapple tarts. he saw and run into kitchen, wanting to help. quickly run back to his room and carry his little chair out so that he can stand on it and be part of my gang in the making.

he has a part in this

 

i get him involoved in mixing the ingredients and knead them together to form a dough. once the dough is done, we put it in the fridge to rest a while. i guide him how to roll the dough into small balls, flatten it, wrapped the pineapple filling in, sealed it, roll them into balls again and lay them nicely on the baking paper. he enjoyed himself so much in the making but he doesn't like to eat them. when he is older, i will involved him in more cooking and not just baking.

signs of love

yu xi always leave her tutu and bolsters in the living room in the morning when we leave for school. this is to faciliate her recovering them when she comes back from school in the evening. this has becomes a routine for her.

 

as usual, she looks for her bolsters and tutu the moment she step into the house. somehow, she can't spot them today.

 

yu xi: papa, where is tutu?

 

yu ze saw it and pass to her.

 

me: mei mei, why you must look for tutu once you step in? (walking towards her)

 

yu ze quickly run in front of her to shield her from me.

 

yu ze: mommy, you cannot take mei mei's tutu, she wants eat tutu. She can.

 

i love these little action of yu ze. his little way to show that he loves mei mei.

airport

school is closed today. we went airport to see airplanes and let the kids run wild. 

 

yu ze thought we are going to take the plane. he told me must give auntie the bag to go to the box and come out. he meant the convey belts for security check. he was sad when I told him, we are going to see airplanes only not to take airplanes. 

minnie mouse plaster

the 'gift'

yu xi fall down at the escalator and had a small cut on her forehead. she was walking up the steps on the escalator but didn’t stand properly and fall forward, cried all the way up to the end of the escalator. I had to go to the pharmacy to buy antiseptic cream and clean up for wound for her. the pharmacist was nice, she helps me to clean up yu xi’s wound and put a cute mickey mouse plaster on. 

 

we took the sky train from t1 to t2 to t3, board and alight the sky train so many times. they enjoyed the sky train rides and not interested in the rest. we went to the viewing mall too to look at the planes too. 

naughty girl

today, yu xi collected her class photo. yu ze asked to see it, she refused to show him. both of them were whining in the car cos one wants to see, one refuse to let the other see. i told them we will go playground after dinner if they stop whining and yu xi to show gor gor the photo.

 

yu xi being naughty: 

• don't want to show gor gor her class photo. she insist that gor gor has already (she meant gor gor has his own class photo)
• don't want to get out of car and blocked gor gor at the door (i only open 1 car door and get them to come out from the same side)
• refuse to carry her own bag (i don't help them carry bags)
• reach home also don't want to show anybody (including me and papa) her class photo
• cry for no reason
• after dinner, i ask yu ze to wear shoes cos we are going to playground. i turn to mei mei and told her for all the naughty things, she can't go playground. she started crying.

 

yu ze heard and quickly came to me.

 

yu ze: mommy, mei mei is a good girl. she finished her dinner. stop crying and share. she can go playground.

me: but mei mei didn't share her photo with you

yu ze: have. she good girl, she can go.

 

since yu ze insists, we bring her to the playground too.

jab

arrange for their booster jabs for both at kk today. as usual, their weight and heights are taken before we wait for our turn. they will play in the play room.

weight and height

 

20 months difference yet not much difference in weight and height. either yu ze is short and skinny or yu xi is short and fat. oops, both reasons are no good as both reflect that they are short. hahaha.....



bear and heart balloon

 

they were both given a balloon too while waiting too. there must be some events going on to have this. pd are ok with their growth and no special instructions given. :)

thomas and the hidden treasures

thomas show

advertisement for the 'thomas and the hidden treasures' had been going on and on on okto. each time, yu ze will ask me if thomas is here. my one and only answer will be not yet. after seeing 2 thomas shows at shopping centre and in japan thomas land, i'm very reluntant to pay for this thomas show. i didn't manage to escape from this and we finally bought the cheapest tickets for it. 



t-shirt of the show

i'm so glad that we didn't miss this show. it was like a musical with the singing and dancing. its actually pretty good, better than our expectations. we had enjoyed it.

gathering for mid autmun festival

we had a little gathering at a friend's house for mid autmun festival for the kids. kids get to carry their lantern and walk round the neighbourhood while mommies get to catch up a bit. 

 

having such fuss free, anyone can make it come gathering is great. there is no need for major organisation and logistic to work with. its not easy for big group gathering as the kids grow up. everyone is busy with their own enrichment classes or activities. 

 

thank you, cynthia for initaiting this gathering. we meet up at her place. have a little catching up, setting up the lanterns and headed down for the lantern walk. 



small gathering

there is a small breeze which make lighting up the candle a challenge but we still manage it. the kids have fun running around, walking around carrying their lantern. experience how lantern get burnt by the candle. looking at others playing the fire sparkles. 

 

as cynthia's youngest son (around 1 year old), can't really join in the fun with the kids, he sit around with us. darling play with him and carried him. yu xi saw it and started crying very loudly. we were shocked by her cries. papa cannot bao bao baby, she said. insist darling put the baby down and carry her. darling had no choice but to put the baby down and carry her. all of us laughed at her reaction and say she is a jealous pot.

upgraded



yu ze's room

yu xi's room

we got yu ze a new bed, yu xi a bookshelves and a set of table and chair for both from ikea. yu xi is upgraded to yu ze's toddler bed. she is no longer confined to her cot. hopefully, she won’t wake up and start climbing up our bed in the middle of the night and be a PR in our room.

which is a better route?

i take over the car and started sending them to school and myself to work. from yio chu kang road to marine parade can be a long distance. which way is cheap and good? 

 

route a - 26 km (25 mins)
yio chu kang road => cte (sle) => tpe => kpe => ecp => marine parade

route b - 17 km + $2 erp (18 mins)
yio chu kang road => cte (town) => pie => eunos => still road => marine parade

route c - 15.6 km + $2 erp (23 mins)
yio chu kang road => cte (town) => pie => kpe => ecp => marine parade

have discuss with darling, my boss and shared with friends. we had come to a conclusion that route a should be a better option. with route a, i would have travel on all the expressway daily. 

 

there is only 1 way to go to fetch them, kpe, pie, cte, yio chu kang road.

last day

today is the last day for them to take school bus to school. i bought a box of chocolate each for the bus uncle and aunties.  we had been using their service for 2.5 years. they have been very nice to the kids.

 

i think I'm having withdrawal symptom from this. i'm feeling sad. prepared the kids for today since last week, they don't seems to have any reaction to it. maybe having mommy to send them to school is a better choice for them. they can't wait for this day to come.

 

next week onwards, mommy has a new job role, personal taxi driver.

lelong for milk

buy 1 get 1 free promo is back. cheapo mommy here is out to stock up all that i can. took out all our empty friso tins and start counting our stocks.

80 tins of milk

 

out at the different outlets on different weeks, we stock up 70 tins of mamil gold fm for both yu ze and yu xi. 60 tins of step 3 and 10 tins of step 4, paid for 35 tins and get 35 tins for free. very good deal. these are just what we grab for ourselves, there are more for friends too.

we love this promotion, helps us save a lot. this is the 3rd time we had benefitted from such promotion. our exchange gets bigger and bigger each time. hahaha......

remote control truck

big truck



the day we have been waiting for is here. yu ze has been wanting to these trucks in action. however, our schedule just don't meet till today. thanks for uncle woo arranging it specially for us.

 

he had so much fun chasing after the truck up and down, round and round in circle. kids are easily satisfied by simple thing like that. though he didn't get to control the truck, just being there to see it in action is good enough for him.

 

peeping at the big ship

 

next, we hope to see the big ship in action. did you hear us, uncle woo?

 

ps: if there are trains, i'm sure he will be super happy and excited. he has this deep love for trains.