Kathleen

20120102 mommy's thoughts

2012-01-02T02:21:00.003+08:00

Mommy's thoughts to wrap up the year 2011....

.... went for McDonald's open house since it is her favourite fast food. During the short tour, daddy keep saying 'then why is it called junk food?' when the 'tour guide' talked about the healthy and hygiene standards used in McDonald's.

.... Kathleen tried her first half boiled egg and loved it (eating 2 at one go!)

.... Went for a children's play with some forum friends.....

Also started her 3 more enrichment classes - phonics (home based, just not my home! :P), swimming (nearby pool), and Chinese (at community centre).

enjoying herself before class starts

Of course, also organised a chalet and went on a trip to Hong Kong, and brought her to some free art performances (ok, 1 performance and 1 exhibition).

Managed to sign her up for berries starting 2012, so we will see how it turns out. Hopefully it will give her a good foundation to enable her to develop a like (love is abit extreme) for the language and to self read. But there goes my social life as both Saturday and Sunday will be busy.

The little girl promises the following for 2012 :
- no more carrying
- no more stroller (already asking for it)
- self feeding (already ask me to feed her)
- self bathing
- self wiping after pee and poo
- sleep in her own bedroom (never happen cos she still has a fear of fire)
For mommy, 2011 is abit too eventful. Something happened in the family, and we tried to rally around abit, and I wonder if K will get the same support from her friends (since she does not have siblings) or cousins if she encounter problems in her life next time. My health is not exactly good, some still unresolved. My netbook had a near-death experience (no thanks Samsung Kies!). Still have to juggle work, parent volunteer, and taking care of the little girl.

Might be restricting access to her blog after she goes to primary school. Am quite comfortable with the security level at her child care (there is usually an adult near to the main gate, and they had recently installed another gate inside to prevent adults from going in after this year's HFMD scare) but there is no guarantee of the security in primary schools since the compound is much larger, or in the student care if the arrangement comes to that. Or maybe might even stopped blogging and switch to facebook or other medium since I find it harder and harder to find time for anything. Even falling sick is a luxury (think many mommies agreed with this) that I can hardly afford.

Hopefully I can complete the parent volunteer soon (though balloting is almost guarantee), and clear up my health issues soon. And hope for less work! :)

20121225 Christmas

2012-01-02T01:54:00.000+08:00

Blink of an eye, and Christmas was here again.

This year, mommy is so busy that she did not bring Kathleen to the yearly Orchard Road Christmas lights viewing.

Kathleen had also asked for a Christmas tree, but mommy refuse to budge as she did not want to maintain another Christmas tree after throwing away the last one that was shedding so much leave it is a prime candidate for 'hair' transplant.

And as usual, mommy took shortcuts for the Christmas present exchanges (asked the kids what they want instead of racking her limited brain cells).

As mommy had told Kathleen that it will be a busy day, the girl actually woke up extra early that morning so that she could play with her own toys.

And mommy brought out the Christmas presents when she went into one of the bedrooms..

Kathleen unwrapped the first present from Auntie Long-legs. It was a Mother Garden picnic set! :) She liked it so much she totally forgot about the 2nd present that was from mommy and daddy (kick scooter that she had asked for). Hahahha...

The girl even wanted to bring the Mother Garden set to 四姨姨's place.

Thank you Auntie long-legs!

After that, we went to 四姨姨's place for lunch and a game of Xbox Kinect. The kids and adults all have a great time, but one thing about Kinect is that it cannot really detect short people (aka children) well enough.

K trying to bowl....

its a STRIKE!

After that, everyone went to po po's place for dinner and the Christmas presents.

Posing before ripping off the wrappers

Let the ripping begins!

As usual, mommy will try to take pictures of the individual kids and their Christmas presents. When she was asking Nicole to pose, her sister Julia who was seated next to her throw some wrappers into the air to try to block the photo shoot. Her aiming was so good that it was just in front of Nicole's face when the shutter was pressed! So mommy got that hilarious shot below.

Got to take another picture.

2 nici pencil cases, story books and hairband and some other stuff

toys toys toys

books! Julia is a book lover

toys toys toys

toys, books, clothes, a bandbag with Scrabble Dash inside

toys, books and accessories. The Sylvanian toys are at her request as her daddy Uncle Levin had bought her a Sylvanian house for her birthday

Everyone then got involved in setting up the Sylvanian ice cream store which has many parts and lots of stickers (= lots of fun, for kids their age)

K enjoying her kick scooter 2 days later

So that brings the end of another merry christmas! :)

20111224 East Coast Park

2012-01-02T01:21:00.000+08:00

On Christmas Eve, daddy indulged mommy's whims and the whole family (ok, 3 person only lah) went to East Coast Park for a cycling trip despite the gloomy monsoon weather.

Mommy is always thinking of getting a bicycle with a seat for Kathleen so that she can cycle her to nearby place, but before she put the money down for another bicycle (yes, there is one at home, a impulse buying which was unused because it is too high for mommy and her terrible cycling skills), she needs to know that she can balance with a kid in tow.

Daddy parked the car far away, and it was raining before we walked to the nearest bicycle kisok.

Its been a long time since mommy had been to the beach, and saw that nowadays, the bicycle kisok also rent out 4 wheels 'bicycles' that allows for 2 adults and 2 children, or 4 adults and 2 children. They move really slowly but its a good way for family to cycle together especially for people who cannot balance! :P

Seek shelter and waited for the rain to stop before we rented 2 bicycles, one with a child seat at the front, and one without. Mommy tried to cycle with Kathleen in the child seat, but cannot, so daddy took over. We took a break after 15minutes, and Kathleen just cannot wait to get back onto the bicycle again (despite her earlier reservations as her last experience on an adult bicycle was more than 3 years ago)!

trying to get back onto the bicycle while mommy still want to catch her breath

Mommy then took over, and cycle halfway from Area C to the hawker centre before Kathleen asked for a change of rider because mommy is 'too slow'.

Had lunch at the hawker centre before cycling back to Area C when it rained heavily again and we had to stop at the same shelter as before.

At the hawker centre, mommy showed Kathleen her shaking hands as she had not cycled for a long time, and Kathleen laughed and keep imitating mommy's shaking hands.

The rain stopped about 20minutes before the end of the 2 hour rental, and daddy went to exchange the bicycle with the child seat in front to one with the child seat.

K insisting on climbing onto the adult seat for a photoshoot

This time round, mommy found it easier to cycle, maybe because now her kneecaps are not pointing outwards (as her knees are blocked by the child seat if it is placed in front). So maybe a child seat at the back will be a better choice even though having a child seat in front is safer? Too bad they didn't have those bicycles with a normal black bicycle seat in front for younger children else mommy can try that out too!

All in all, think we cycled for 45 min to 1 hour during the 2 hour rental, the rest of the time being taken by lunch and all the resting due to the heavier rain (we cycled when its just drizzling).

After that, we let K went to the beach for some sand play. And she spent most of her time walking to the sea to get water into her pail, bringing it back to mat area, and then pouring it into the sand.

We also saw a man walking out to sea casting a net to catch fishes (we peeked into his pail, and yes, he got quite a few fishes inside) and a family of older children using a opened inverted umbrella to scoop sea water (errrrrr.....).

pouring sea water into the sea


Many ships at the horizon

Mommy got 'chicken wings syndrome (三姨姨's terms for muscle cramp at the armpit/upper arm area after gripping the bicycle's handle too hard)' on the left arm that day :P

20111218 Dreams and Reality

2012-01-02T01:20:00.003+08:00

National Museum recently had a exhibit Dreams and Reality, which features paintings, drawings and photography from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

And mommy brought Kathleen along when she found out that Passioncard holders are entitled to free entry during a particular 2 week period.

Here are some pictures especially for those who missed it (hardly any publicity or am I really out of touch with this country's happenings?).

Will try to label them correctly but pardon me if they are wrong as most of the photos that I have taken of the description turned out blur due to my lousy hp camera and the dimly lit venue (for ambience, I suppose).

This gorgeous huge picture was one of the first to greet us upon entry.

Young woman on the beach/Jetty - Philip Wilson Steer (1860 - 1942)

Spring - Jean-Francois Millet (1814 - 1875)

Needs no introduction. Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh

Summer Night - Winslow Homer

The Young Girl and Death - Marianne Stokes

Some other exhibits in the National Museum.

I enjoyed that silent hour or so inside the exhibit, and the booklet that the museum printed with simple explanation on impressionism does help for a newbie for me. There is even simple questions inside for older children, and an area at the end of the exhibition for children to doodle (with colour pencil and paper provide) and books provided for the visitors to read more about the artists.

While Kathleen did not run around screaming (she does talk too loudly once in a while), she was pretty bored and pretend to read 'The 3 little pigs' from the exhibit booklet. :P Her favourite? The Knight of the flowers, by Georges Rochegrosse, I think mainly because it is one of the most colourful painting in the whole exhibition.

20111223 Year End Concert

2012-01-02T01:20:00.002+08:00

Its year end again, and time for Kathleen's chid care's year end concert.

This time round, they change the venue from a primary school to Yishun Safra.

There are two K1 classes in her child care, and this year, both classes combined together to put together 2 performance - one in Chinese and one in English.

As usual, videos always take eternity to upload into youtube using my home's broadband, so here are some pictures instead.

They first perform the dance to a Chinese old song (a popular song from the early 80s). The girl and her friends all went to the wrong side of the stage (see picture below) and wander around for some time before they realise its the wrong side and move back to the correct side.

Dance to a Chinese OLD song

Their 2nd performance was to a English pop song from 2011 (hahahaha). The shirt says 'I Hip Hop'.

Posing for a picture with daddy after the show.

A funny thing happened after the performance. Mommy dumped her clothes into the washing machine, and when done, was surprised to find a new-looking white singlet inside the laundry. Then after taking out all the laundry, she found the cut-outs below (see below picture). Seems that their unique 'I Hip Hop' T shirt is actually a normal white singlet with the words (cut from felt fabric) glued onto it, and one wash is all it takes for the words to come out :P

20111117 Hong Kong Day 5 - Disneyland & home

2011-11-21T00:57:00.002+08:00

Next morning, we had breakfast at the Enchanted Garden where some of the Disney characters will turned up for photoshoots with the guests. There are 2 timings - 7.30am - 9am , and 9.30am - 11am. Mommy choose the first slot as she wanted to go Disneyland again.

Breakfast coupon

First character to pose with us is Daisy Duck already in Christmas wear

mickey mouse waffle

mickey mouse mini pancake

After waiting for a long time, we pose with our next character which is Goofy.

Add caption

Then, Mickey Mouse... no Minnie though..

Finally, Pluto....

Goofy acting cute in front of mommy's camera :P

After breakfast, we walked around the place and took photos of the outdoor and indoor pools.

We also visited the gift shop and one of the staff there gave Kathleen 3 stickers - for the 3 of us.

Check out of the hotel, left our luggage there, and went back to Disneyland again.

We saw the long queue to take pictures with Mickey and Minnie. Thinking that the queue will shorten after a while, we went on and queued to take pictures with Chip and Dale instead. However, after that, the queue for Mickey and Minnie did not seem to shorten, and we join the queue.

Queuing to take pictures with Chip and Dale...

Bored K while waiting for her turn to take pictures with Mickey and Minnie

After queueing for more than 1 hour, its finally our turn!!!!!

We then went to Fantasy Land and saw Aurora and Belle, but the Disneyland staff told us we cannot queue for photos anymore, so mommy asked K to stand far away to at least take a shot of 2 princesses. The staff told us Aurora will be back at 12.30pm but we did not find her when we went back to the same spot at 12.30pm. :(

Finally went for the Stitch Encounter. In Chinese though (they have shows in Cantonese, Chinese and English at different slots)

Taking a ride at the Autopia which we did not take yesterday as the waiting time then was 20minutes. It was just a boring ride which lets you control the speed by stepping on an 'accelerator'.

Then went to watch another show - the Golden Mickeys, which is like a musical drama for awards.

After that, we went to this far corner in Fantasy Land and saw 3 characters for photo taking - Minnie, Pooh and Donald. Quickly queued for Pooh.

Minnie back from her toilet break

Pooh back from his toilet break

Finally took pictures with Pooh.

And Donald....

After that, it started raining and we seek shelter at the photo place or the princess, near to the castle.

It was Cinderalla and Aurora's turn to appear, and we took pictures with Aurora. Never caught Belle and Snow White.. :(

Next, merry go round...

Even daddy took a ride!

The rain got heavier and heavier, and Kathleen put on her raincoat for the Dumbo ride.

After that, we caught abit of the Parade. It was the rainy day version,which has the characters in raincoats in the rainy day express. Did not take photo as Kathleen wanted to be carried again.

Went to one of the cafes for tea break. Mommy then do some shopping before we went back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage (and mommy did some more shopping and bought this very cute Minnie Mouse swimming robe with hood from the hotel gift shop).

Minnie Mouse robe (have Pooh and Stitch design too but K preferred this)

Leaving Disneyland hotel....

We then took the hotel shuttle back to Disneyland, took the MTR from Disneyland station to Sunny Bay, switch to Tsing Yi, then to the hotel.

Posing with the Disneyland MTR train

Our plane was supposed to leave at 8pm, but at 7.30pm, when its boarding/last call time, they suddenly announced that the plane will be delayed for 1 hour 45 minutes! That for a flight that is less than 4 hours. They offered a HKD75 credit for each passenger with a boarding pass, and as it is dinner time, alot of passengers are very hungry and wanted to redeem the credit. However, the restaurants are not notified until an hour later which is bad customer service.

Board the plane finally at 9.45pm.

K seriously reading the instructions provided in the seat pocket and following them diligently

This time we found a channel that show live footage from a camera installed at the bottom of the craft. Very interesting as you can see the exact moment when the wheels lifted off from the tarmac. But as it is a night flight, most of the time we can only see darkness in the grainy footage.

Hot food was served, but before it can cooled enough for Kathleen, at around 11.15pm, she suddenly declared that she wanted to sleep, then turned to her side and closed her eyes. Then opened her eyes, asked mommy to switch off the video (which was showing Cars 2), then continue to sleep. She slept all the way and did not awake even when the plane landed in Changi Airport (quite a smooth landing, compared to the drop-from-the-sky feeling we get on the plane that landed in Hong Kong 5 days earlier) at 1am +.

Mommy then carried her (which she looked up, and assured that she was still with her parents, feel asleep again), went through the customs with her asleep (thank you singapore customs for not asking me to wake her up in a bid to check if she is a child trafficking victim), took a cab (she looked up again when we got into the cab), then slept all the way through the night (yes, still no dinner) until the next morning 8am+ when she shook lazy mommy awake and told mommy that she wanted to go to school. :)

K asleep with her food untouched

At the airport while waiting for the delayed flight, Kathleen told mommy that she wanted to go back to Hong Kong on a Saturday in November i 2016, then changed her mind to 2013 cos mommy told her that 2016 will mean that she is 10 years old. But sweetheart, think mommy will wait till she is fully assured that Kathleen is willing to walk on her own before going on the next trip.

2011116 Hong Kong Day 4 - Disneyland

2011-11-21T00:33:00.001+08:00

On day 4, we checked out of Ibis North Point to go to Disneyland.

K doing a final round of bed jumping on Ibis bed :P

We took the MTR from North Point to Central, walked to Hong Kong station, before taking the Tung Chung line to Tung Chung line, then switch to Disney line at Sunny Bay.

mickey mouse window in the train used in Disney line

mickey mouse handles too

The shuttle service from the Disneyland MTR station to the hotel is behind the MTR station, and the lack of signboards immediately after leaving the MTR leaves mommy confused. Luckily instructions are given in the email.

We took the shuttle bus to the Disneyland Hotel to drop off our luggage and to pick up the 2 day Disneyland tickets. At the lobby, we saw Cinderella and queued for some pictures! :)

We then took the shuttle bus back to Disneyland again.

even the floor has mickey mouse outline

K posing with her favourite Tinklebell

A fountain. The mickey mouse can move up and down.

Adults with 2 day pass have to register their index finger prints upon entrance for verification on day 2. Children are excluded, perhaps due to the smallness of their fingers. Mommy has problem registering her index finger print too, and had to register using her thumbprint :P

Mickey mouse again

First, we went to the Fantasyland, and saw Stitch and queue for pictures. All the yee yees (when back at home) asked why is this Stitch so tall, when the Stitch in the movie is very short. Well, another yee yee's reply is that if this Stitch costume is short, Disneyland will have to hire a child to do it, and that will be child labour :P

The queue for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is short, and so we queue immediately instead of applying for fast pass. daddy videoed the whole journey, but the home broadband is so slow mommy has problem uploading the video. K wants a 2nd round.

Next, we went toPhilharmonic show which has 3 D effect, and comes with gusts of air (to simulate falling, etc) and water spray (to simulate water slashing). K likes this show too.

Posing with fake mushrooms.

Posing with Dumbo.

We also went on the Mad Hatter's tea cup ride. K keep turning the 'steering wheel' inside the cup which will spin the cup faster and faster. Mommy gets super giddy :P

K having fun making the cup spin faster and faster

After that, its another boat ride in Its a Small World.

We then went for the next land - Tomorrow Land. There is a ride called Space Mountain which is inside the building. K just made it for the height limit of 102cm, and we all happily went inside. Mommy heard the guy said 'its a roller coaster' but brush it aside. It turned out to be a indoor roller coaster, and mommy got out of the ride with jelly legs :P K sat with daddy and was not scared and did not scream or cry, though she did not want a 2nd round too. Brave girl (who obviously inherited her daddy's genes too)!!!

K posing with the Space Mountain ticket on day 5

Stitch Encounter has a long queue and so we went to watch the Parade instead. Its flights of fantasy - Disney's 5th anniversary!

first float

the usual disney mickey gang

eeyore

followed by pooh

Lion King float

The floats then stopped and some of the performers went down to perform in front of the audience. Some of the performers from the Lion King float then took out some musical stuff (like those from Australia - what do you call that) and let the children join them. K looked abit dazed cos mommy keep lecturing her not to follow strangers and now mommy let this stranger pull her away!

more rides....

Posing with Buzz Lightyear

Shooting the bad guys in a Buzz Lightyear ride

We missed the Stitch Encounter show again, and went to Adventure Land instead. It has a cruise ride that goes through 'adventures' - seeing elephants, apes, etc. But there is one part that has the 'river' ablaze with fire which scared Kathleen (who has a phobia of fire after watching too many rounds of the 'bomb video' that is always being shown in the MRT stations). Poor girl keep making mommy to promise that they won't go on the ride again.

Posing with Sleeping Beauty Castle

After that, we had dinner inside Disneyland before watching the nightly fireworks.

Kids sushi meal with mickey mouse sushi and watermelon

We left Disneyland after that and checked into the room (finally!).

The room consists of 2 double beds (daddy finally has his own bed) and is as big as a new HDB living room :P

K monopolises the TV as there is bedtime stories showing on channel 39.

They provide 7 kinds of toiletries with pictures of the 7 dwarfs :P

The bathroom comes with a bath tub which makes K very happy cos bath tub = private waterplay area. The bathroom is as big as a new HDB bedroom (just for comparison).

Knowing that there is a child in this room, they even provide a child sleeping robe for kid of her size, and also a pair of child slippers (besides 2 adult slippers). The sleeping robe cannot be brought home though.

family disney slippers

The toilet also comes with other dwarf pictures, and a low stool for kids to brush their teeth :P There is a also a plastic cup for kids to gargle their mouth so that they do not have to use the usual glass provided which will cut down on accidents.

Before going to bed, we walked around the place and took more pictures.

K opening the door to the room

20111115 Hong Kong Day 3 - Big Buddha

2011-11-20T23:51:00.000+08:00

On day 3, we went to the Lantau Island to visit the Big Buddha.

Before we left, mommy took some pictures from the sea view of the hotel room.

Panorama view of the sea view from the 26th floor of the hotel

A photo of the bus terminal between the hotel and harbour. We took bus 42 from this terminal. The green ferry goes to Kowloon City

We took the MTR to Tung Chung and transfer to the cable car. The waiting time to get the ticket for the cable car and waiting for the cable car is almost an hour. And this is on a weekday!

A view of the airport from the cable car

Some pictures taken from the Nong Ping Village.

As K does not want to go up the 100+ steps to see the Big Buddha (again, she claimed to be tired and wanted to be carried again), mommy and K waited below the steps while daddy went up on his own. The next 2 photos are taken by him at the top of the steps.

Management has arranged for some shows by some bubble masters, and there are also many bubble machines around the whole place. So K has some fun catching bubbles.

After that, mommy went to the Citigate outlets but did not manage to buy anything.

Went back to the hotel. Went ladies market at night but did not buy anything again. Disappointing trip. :P

Taken in the North Point MTR station

20111114 Hong Kong Day 2 - Ocean Park

2011-11-20T23:42:00.000+08:00

Mommy found out that there is a direct bus to Ocean Park, so we took the bus on day 2 instead of taking the MTR to Admiralty station and switching to the Ocean Park bus. Ocean Park is only 9 bus stops away via bus 42, and that took about 30minutes on a off peak morning.

Bus 42

Picture of Ibis North Point

From the upper deck of the bus, we can see trams moving by, and many of the old buildings, signages etc.

Sitting on the upper deck of bus 42.

We got off immediately after the Aberdeen Tunnel and toll gate. Following the signs, it took us another 15minutes of walk to reach Ocean Park (walked pass a bus terminal too).

Kathleen, as with the previous day, got tired almost immediately, and demanded to be carried for the rest of the day, including up the slopes, which there are many, in Ocean park.

Taking picture with the Ocean Park mascot

First, we visited the aquarium...

Then, the panda habitat.

The poor panda is all alone, and when we were there, just walked from left to right, and back again, all the time.

Carousel

Train ride...

Merry go round...

Balloon up up and away.... a small ferries wheel. Next to this ride was a small gravity defying ride, called the frog hopper. Asked K if she dared to ride it, and she said yes.

She sat on it with daddy, since mommy is scared of such rides, and she LOVED it! Begged for another round of frog hopper, and not to be outdone (else no face), mommy joined her for round 2. Daddy took video of that 2nd ride. Not uploading so as not to embarrass myself :P K wanted a 3rd round. Sorry but no thanks.

We then took the cable car to the upper area of Ocean Park. Can see the beautiful sea view from there.

Unfortunately, both the Rapids and Raging River (the 2 water rides) are closed.

Asked daddy to sit on The Flash, this ride which turned around and swing up and down at the same time. He is not scared (see that happy face in below picture when he got off the ride).

Next, we queued for at least 20minutes for the Ferris wheel. Hot.......and K refuse to stand, wanting to be carried.

A picture of K riding the scaring Abyss????

Sorry, its just a prop! :P

Then we took the 'express' back to the lower part of Ocean Park and took bus 42 back to the hotel.

K always like to open the hotel doors using the magnetic card

At night, we walked around the area, and found 许留山, the dessert chain that is famous for its mango desserts with its generous amount of sweet mango pieces. Even mommy, who is not a mango fan, loves it *drooolllllll*

We also found the famous 鸡蛋仔stall in North Point area, but too bad the 鸡蛋仔 is not piping hot, just lukewarm, which takes away some of its flavour, but K still likes it very much.

enjoying the North Point 鸡蛋仔

20111112/13 Hong Kong Day 0 & 1 - Dolphin and Symphony of Lights

2011-11-20T23:41:00.000+08:00

Daddy, mommy and Kathleen went on a trip to Hong Kong.

We took the midnight (ok, 1.15am) Cathay flight from Singapore to Hong Kong. It is Kathleen's first non-budget flight (and 3rd trip out of SG).

At the airport while waiting for the flight, a funny thing happen. We saw a fat lady trying out the weighing machines for luggage, and so asked K to try too. The first one she tried said 14.5kg. 500meters later, on the 2nd machine, it said 15kg! Wow...first time heard of putting on weight by walking :P

The soles of K's shoe came out at the airport. Luckily Daddy is able to find super glue at the Cheers outlet at T3 which is open 24 hours and glue it back, and the shoe held for the rest of the trip (did not bring extra shoes for her)

On the flight, K was 'loaned' child size head piece, and she was also given a children's kit which contains Mickey Mouse stickers, paper game, coloring booklet etc.

Not sure if its due to the bigger plane or weather or skill of the pilot, but this time round, there is no pressure on the ears when the plane take off, and K exclaimed in her usual dramatic voice 'Mommy! My ears are not painful!' several times.

posing with children's headset and cathay's kit for children

Cathay actually served dinner on board at 2am+!!!!! Which everyone is not prepared for. After that, everyone tried to sleep only to have the pilot interrupting our sleep by announcing 40minutes before ETA that we are going to reach Hong Kong!!!! Grumpy mommy swore that she will never travel midnight flight again (she used to travel midnight flight without any problem). So end up mommy only has 30minutes of sleep and K and daddy a little bit more.

After reaching the Hong Kong International Airport, everyone from the flight queued for the Airport Express ticketing counter to open to get the tickets. We got the group ticket for 3 at $210 (else 2A1C will be $250) and took the Airport Express to Hong Kong station, to switch to the Central station and then onwards to North Point where our hotel is.

Kathleen with the group tickets in the Airport Express train

The journey indicator for the Airport Express. Only 3 stations from airport but took quite some time.

We only found out at the Hong Kong/Central station that group tickets are not entitled to the free travel to another station within the hour (only valid for people using Octopus cards to pay the full rate for Airport Express). So had to rush to buy Octopus cards.

After dropping off the luggage (yes, only 1 checked in luggage because mommy think that it will be easier to handle if K fell asleep and one parent had to carry her), we rushed off to Tsim Sai Tsui MTR station, where Kowloon Hotel is. The reason? A trip out to sea to view the Hong Kong pink dolphins (yes, I hear laughter, but it has been mommy's dream to see the pink dolphins in the wild since she heard that Hong Kong has them).

After reaching TST, we found the hotel, and then proceed to the nearby Cafe De Coral 大家乐 (their local fast food restaurant) for breakfast. Daddy has yummy porridge with tea, while K has toasted bread with condensed and mommy had your typical boring tuna sandwich.

At Cafe De Coral

After that, we waited at Kowloon Hotel for the tour guide (in pink dolphin T shirt no less) from Hong Kong Dolphin Watch to appear. On the way to Tung Chung Pier, they told us about the living habits of the pink dolphins. The dolphins are suspected to be actually white (because the dead ones they found are white) and the pinkness are due to them flushing when they 'exercise (aka swim)'. The guide also told us about the dangers that they face from passing ships, and from sewage discharged into the seas. Despite having the pink dolphins as the mascot during the handover of Hong Kong, there was nothing much done to clean up the environment for the dolphins. And with the rapid expansion of the Hong Kong International Airport, another large part of the dolphins' habitats are being destroyed.

Boarding the yacht

Mommy, expecting cold airplane air, and cold sea winds, dressed K up in sweater, but the weather was super hot, and there is no other clothes to wear!

At the upper deck of the yacht

At the lower deck of the yacht

The yacht that we are on, and another boat carrying kids from a birthday party, coordinated to find the dolphins. We first encounter a mother-child pair (young pink dolphins are grey in colour who gradually turned pink as they grow up), then after some more searching, encounter a pod of about 5 or 6 dolphins.

The 2 boats would stop their engines when they are approaching the dolphins to prevent scaring the dolphins away and also to prevent hurting the dolphins.

The dolphins can be seen swimming out and diving back into waters, and some (or the same one) dolphins also like to poke its top half of the body out of the water (see picture below).

K kept asking why we cannot catch the dolphin which makes the caucasian tourists laughed.

Seen! Pink dolphins at sea!

Mommy asking K to pretend that its her personal yacht :P

The trip lasted the morning and we were later sent back to TST/Central area via the coach.

After that, we checked in into our hotel - Ibis North Point. It is a small room, with a small bed, and overly cold aircon that feels like 15 degrees when it says 30 degree. This room, is the coldest part of the whole trip (which is exactly what K told popo too when she was back in SG).

K and her bolster in the hotel room.

During the evening,we took the MTR to TST (alot of retracing on this trip), and took some Christmas photos before going for the Symphony of Lights performance at the sea area.

After the symphony of lights, we had wanted to go to Ladies' Street/Market but K said that she is tired and so we took the Star Ferry back to Wan Chai before going back to the hotel.

So ends day 1 of our trip.

kid's talk

2011-11-07T17:31:00.000+08:00

1)

Kathleen in her circus master voice : Ladies and Vegetables!!! Boys and Girls!!!!

(what an insult to the gentlemen :P)

2)

At the chalet when mommy is going to the supermarket to buy BBQ stuff, leaving her in the chalet with daddy.

Mommy : remember, stick close to daddy and don't go out of the chalet on your own.
Kathleen inched a little bit closer to daddy
Kathleen : I am very already close to daddy

3)

Kathleen : Mommy, can I marry you next time?
Mommy : Unfortunately I have already married your daddy
Kathleen : Why? Is it because I am a short girl?

(her ego already bruised by her short stature :P)

20111105 - 20111107 - Pasir Ris Chalet

2011-11-07T17:00:00.000+08:00

After a 2 year break (see here for a posting on the previous chalet), the extended family went for a chalet again.

This time round, the venue is at Costa Sands Pasir Ris Chalet, located near to the Pasir Ris Beach/Park.

二姨姨 and us are the first to arrive, and we checked in into the chalet.

It is a double storey unit with 2 mattresses (like gym mattress) on the lower floor and 2 single beds on the upper floor. And 1 toilet (logistics issue haha). Also comes with 1 table and 4 stools (not stated in the website so we end up bringing 2 stools for the old folks)

Kathleen 'open ceremony' by jumping on the bed on the upper floor.

大姨姨, 三姨姨 and Janice 表姐 are next to arrive. The 姨姨 decided to go to the nearest supermarket to shop for the BBQ food, while 三姨姨 and Janice 表姐 decided to go the library.

Everyone end up going to White Sands. 四姨姨, yy,Charlie and the grandparents also arrived at White Sands and so everyone went back to the chalet together.

The kids end up monopolising the air conditioned room upstairs and using it as their ipad/DS gaming room, exchanging gameset once in a while. This gives the adults enough time to do the BBQing as we do not need to entertain the kids.

see the sleeping bags in the foreground - KSism :P

The adults started to set up the fire. This time, with ample time (we brought alot of cakes from outside, and also bought muah chee, tu tu from White sands so everyone is quite full and not hungry so we have time to slowly set up the fire).

They marinated the raw food while the fire is being started. This time round, there is fish, teppanyaki pork, chicken patty, sausages, taiwanese sausages, beef (for the beef eaters, we cook them separately using a different tongs as 婆婆 and some of us do not take beef), chicken wings, fishball, crab stick, 豆苗, bean sprouts, onions, etc

大姨姨 brought a induction cooker and used it to cook pasta and heat up pasta tomato for everyone, especially the kids. 二姨姨 brought her teppanyaki set as contingency but luckily the weather is good and did not rain.

The food are well cooked this time, with only some chicken wings burnt. The adults take turn to BBQ and eat, and 大姨姨 (as usual) cook her 拿手好菜 - frying vegetables (including 豆苗 and bean sprouts) using little 'plates' folded using aluminum foil.

After we have finished eating the BBQ food, Uncle James left due to work, and its time for birthday celebration! Charlie and Kathleen are both November babies and they share a birthday cake.

Yuan yuan joining in to cut the cake and dictate where to cut

Enjoying the cake on the stairway

As usual, the kids have some glow sticks time after that.

Glowsticks time!

After having the birthday cake, the grandparents, 大姨姨 and daddy left. The rest of the people then take turns to bathe (taking a longggg time, but the TV is showing that Vampire movie, which takes out abit of the boredom) (I have to say, the 2 leads' acting, especially Kristen Stewart's, is terrible) and then went out for a walk to Downtown East (and buying 3-in-1 Milo) around midnight.

As the lower floor does not have any air con. We tried to squeeze everyone into the room upstairs by bringing the 2 gym mattresses upstairs. So end up, Janice, Kathleen, Charlie, Nicole and 二姨姨 slept on the mattresses upstairs, while mommy, Julia, 四姨姨, Yuan Yuan sleep on the gym mattress, while the healthiest/most physically active 三姨姨 slept on the sleeping bag.

The air con was very cold at night (it was only the next day that daddy discovered the hidden panel which allows us to change the temperature), and it rained the whole night. So everyone (well the skinny adults) felt very cold. And it was so cold, the adults had to go to the toilet at night. :P

The funny thing was, in the middle of the night, mommy looked up and noticed that Kathleen and Charlie had kicked off their blanket, so she covered up Charlie again, and carried Kathleen down to the gym mattress so that it is easier for her to make sure that Kathleen is well covered. Then, Charlie started tossing and turning (and she had this habit of sitting up and FALLING back onto the bed) and Janice, not realising that Kathleen was already transferred to another bed, keep shouting 'Oi, Yan yan, don't kick me' Mommy replied a few times that Kathleen is already 'down there' but Janice still think that the troublemaker is Kathleen! :P

The next day, we had breakfast (alot of leftover from the cakes that we bought for tea the night before, with the Milo) in the chalet before going out. 二姨姨 distributed lollipops to the kids, and they eat while they walked to the park.

Julia and Kathleen walking together and enjoying their lollipops

After finishing the lollipops, we went back to the chalet to rent bicycles. Charlie and Kathleen rented bicycles with training wheels, while 三姨姨, Julia, Nicole, Janice and Yuan yuan rented 2 wheeled bicycles.

Julia, Nicole and Yuan yuan are learning how to ride. Yuan yuan managed to learn how to balance within 15 minutes, which surprised 四姨姨 as she had tried teaching him a few times before, but the carefree atmosphere at the park with his favourite cousin seemed to help. Julia and Nicole did not manage to learn, and not-so-good bicycles did not help.

After cycling, we all went back to the chalet and reward ourselves with potong ice cream! :)

Then went for a swim in the pool!

After that, we went back to the chalet again and had instant noodles for lunch, using the water kettle-cum-noodle cooker that mommy had brought (each round can cook 2.5 packs, not bad!).

After that, the rest of the 姨姨 and kids left (after helping to pack most of the things), leaving Kathleen and daddy and mommy. Kathleen went for a nap. The plan was to go for another round of cycling after she had woken up since daddy was not there in the morning, but by the time we reached the bicycle shop, it was 6.30pm and they are preparing to close for the day (closing time is 7pm). Very disappointed :(

So off we went to Downtown East for McDonald's dinner. After that, we walked around E!Hub for a while and watch some bowling games (Kathleen like to watch bowling) before heading back to the chalet.

The next day, we woke up early, packed the remaining stuff, checked out, and went home. Tiring weekend, but with good memories that hopefully will last for a long time. :)

p/s 三姨姨 later sms-ed and said that Janice had 'chicken wings syndrome' - pain below armpits after flapping her arms too much while cycling. :P

20111008 DIY cake decoration

2011-10-16T10:55:00.000+08:00

Daddy's birthday fell on a weekday this year, and with the opening of the Icing Room near our place, what's a better gift than a self-decorated birthday cake? :)

Told the little gal the surprise I have in mind, and she promptly told her daddy 5 minutes later that we are going to get him a cake. Can't keep a secret....

We got a vanilla cake, 2 small bags of colourful cream, 3 bigger bags of cream (one with a tip), fish and silver ball decorations, and some cut fruits.

And when we went home, she keep telling daddy that the cake is nicely decorated (ahah.. when it is still supposed to be a surprise).

Simple vanilla cake with fruits in between the layers. Not bad... and Kathleen now even say she wanted the same thing for her birthday..hahahahha

First.. add the silver balls....

pretending to decorate with the cream... she is not strong enough to squeeze the cream out though

the final touches - the fish

pose!

happy!

enjoying the cake of her labour :P

201109 chicken pox!

2011-10-09T18:46:00.000+08:00

There was a Friday when the child care was closed, and it was also PC/IT show.

So silly mommy happily thought that she can take leave and bring Kathleen to squeeze with the Friday crowd.

On Thursday night, she saw what look like badly scratched marks on Kathleen's legs.

On Friday night, she saw more marks on the face. Oh no, better get some cream and clearance from GP before the cc rejects K on Monday, she thought.

And when mommy and K are at the GP, the doctor dropped the bombshell - its chicken pox!!!!!!

No PC/IT show for mommy :(

So for the next 2 weeks, daddy and mommy took leave to take care of K. Crazy because work is busy, still got to work from home on those days when mommy is not in the office.

Luckily her case is not very serious (and to think the GP gave some anti viral that he claimed will make 'more' come out and 'faster'). But naughty girl cannot stand the itch and scratched every single blister she has (so there goes the GP's advice of knowing when the contagious period is over, which , by right, is when the blisters dried up) (except for one). And some small 0.5cm blister in diameter becomes 2cm with her constant scratching until mommy had to use plaster on it at night so that she will not scratch it at night.

She also scratched the blisters on her scalp so badly (especially at night) that the pus from the blisters stick all her hair together. So in the end mommy had to slowly massage her hair during bath time to untangle the mess, and also clip up her hair in bits so that her scalp will not be damp. Luckily the cream given by the GP on the 2nd visit helps for her scalp too.

After 2 weeks, she finally got clearance to go back to school. Yipee!

And popo even report that after she came back to her place after 2 weeks, she told popo affectionally "popo, wo ai ni" (popo, i love you) which of course makes popo very happy! :)

20110809 zoo

2011-09-18T00:24:00.000+08:00

The cousins went to the zoo on National Day. The zoo was super crowded when we first arrived, which is not surprising as it was a public holiday.

We walked into the zoo, seeing exhibits along the way before reaching the elephant enclosure for the elephant show.

The elephants pretending to be helicopters with their trunks as the propellers

water break after the elephant show

Then, we went to watch the Rainforest fights back. After that, Janice and yy queued up so that they have a photo taken with the snake (Janice loves reptiles). Kathleen and Charlie are not interested of course. [Note : on a subsequent visit to the Science Centre, Kathleen was brave enough to stroke a bigger species of cockroach (which is so big it looks more like a beetle) which was available for touching after an insect talk]

Looking bored while waiting for Janice

Posing for photo with the snake around Janice's neck

yy given a chance to touch the snake too

Even si yiyi (4th aunt) give it a try!

We then walk some more before going to the KFC at the waterplay area for late lunch. It was crowded but luckily we managed to get some seats close together. After lunch, it was waterplay! There are so many people that the water looks dirty (blackish in colour) but the kids are oblivious to that. They spent at least one hour there playing non stop.

Kathleen initially only wanted to play the slides (handsome young man helping out there which she still talked about now :P) (very nice of the zoo to send crew there to maintain order) but with Charlie around, she was still adventurous enough to run around the other water features and even sit on the foam ground waiting for water to pour down from the buckets above!

She went down this slide at least 50 times?

Running through the rings spraying water. It looks as if Kathleen is pulling Charlie along, but in actual fact, she is just more afraid of the spraying water than her cousin and therefore run faster :P

It was such a hot and crowded day that when the yee yees went back to KFC to buy more drinks, they found out that most of the drinks have been sold out (bad planning on KFC's part)!

After the waterplay, we went for the newly revamped show at the water play area. The animals are still not very familiar with their parts, and it was funny seeing the crew unable to make the dogs do whatever they are supposed to do, and one dog even pee-ed in front of the audience! :P

During the show, Kathleen felt very tired and we left after the show with si yiyi, Charlie and yy, while energetic san yiyi and Janice continue to roam around the premises.

kid's talk

2011-08-14T17:26:00.000+08:00

1)

Kathleen waving her pencil which has a star on top. She calls it her 'magic wand'.

K : Look mommy I got a magic wand! I can make magic!
m : oh... can you make mommy taller
K : (immediate reply) Cannot
[conclusion : there are some things that even magic cannot fix]

2)

Kathleen always add 'es' to the end of singular word to indicate plural, despite many attempts on my part to teach her. Eg, her card will be cardes, etc. Then one day, in a eureka tone ...

K : mommy mommy I know, one man (men), many MENSES!
m : nonono!

[coincidentally, it was that time of my month...]

3)

On the MRT, Kathleen was digging her nose and trying to dispose of her nuggets onto the seat by rubbing her thumb and index finger together, all the while judging my reaction.

m : no
K : ok, (bend down) I will just pick it up and put it back into my nose
[and the thing is, she really did it!]

20110806 mommy's thoughts - life without daddy

2011-08-06T19:08:00.000+08:00

For the first time since Kathleen was born, daddy was sent overseas for 6+ weeks by his company.

Luckily for him, he is going to Australia, not Africa, so not much hardship on his side.

At home, mommy has to take over the chauffeur job of sending Kathleen to child care in the morning before rushing to work. Clocked a total of 2800km of driving during those few weeks! Mommy also cannot go back to office to work during weekends which means tougher time management!

For Kathleen, she has to wake up earlier since mommy work regular working hours. The poor gal and mommy just catch up on those missing beauty sleep on weekends :P And Kathleen had to follow mommy on all her wild trips all over the island on weekends to visit friends, look for the perfect bicycle, went Sentosa etc all using public transport (cos mommy got so sick of driving, she prefers to take the public transport where she can talk to Kathleen and show her things and play with her).

Mommy also got a children ezlink card for Kathleen.

Kathleen misses daddy and catches up with him by skyping with him during the weekend, when she will show him the new things she get (eg, birthday goodie bags, McDonald's free toys etc). And Kathleen also entertained herself in the car by recording her voice on mommy's handphone

Good thing she enjoyed is that she gets to share the king size bed at home with mommy (no more squeezing with daddy) but not good is that the lizard gets the upper hand at home! :P The house is also alot neater without daddy leaving his things around, and the tv only gets turned on twice in those 6 weeks!

Then one Friday night in end July, all this ends as Kathleen and mommy went to Changi Airport (via bus!) to pick up daddy, and now the days of slightly more sleep, squeezing in the bed, playing on samsung galaxy tab, messy house, TV perpetually on all the time, being chauffeured by a more experienced driver are back again.

And the lizard seems to know that it no longer has the upper hand and did not appear again (so far).

Ice cream

2011-08-06T18:48:00.000+08:00

With the hot weather, nothing beats ice cream and coke :P

Can't make coke at home, so made ice cream instead, without a ice cream maker.

The adventurous mommy did it one day in May when daddy is not at home. This is using the long winded recipe which requires using of egg, and also freezing the mixture and then beating them, several times.

I followed a mix of the 2 recipes found here and here. K wanted to join in, so I let her crack the egg and use her hands (washed thoroughly before that of course) to 'sieve' the egg white and egg yolk, beat the mixture, and even do the final act of breaking up the oreos and dropping them into the mixture.

I unintentionally curdle the mixture, is luckily is able to salvage it by beating it intensively to break up the mixture while adding the whipping cream (a solution found via googling, thank goodness!)

In the end, we manage to make enough for 2 boxes - one with and one without oreo pieces. Of course throughout the 'making', Kathleen will keep asking me if she can eat it, and asked so many times throughout that weekend when I am in between the process of freezing and beating the mixture.

Kathleen with the 2 final product after freezing overnight

Enjoying the fruits/ice cream of her labour :)

close up - looks good and yummy right? :P

When the final product is ready, everyone eagerly tucked in. Its yummy! :) Taste richer than supermarket variety. Even fussy daddy likes it. And then mommy brought one box to popo's place for all the yee yee to enjoy :) Best eat fresh, by the way, because after one week, we can start tasting the ice cuticles while crunching the ice cream.

Then in July, mommy to let all the kids try out DIY ice cream using this recipe. We had tins, ziplog bags for each kid. Mix the mixture in the inner bag, and then put the ice cubes and salt in the outer bag. The kids are supposed to shake so that the freezing outer ice mixture will freeze the ice inside, but in the end we gave up and put all the ziplock bags into the freezer at popo's place. The outcome? Another yummy (but sinful) ice cream with just 4 simple ingredients ! :)

Kathleen with her ziplock of half eaten ice cream

Think this is so fun we will be doing it again soon :)

20110422 chek jawa

2011-04-24T23:00:00.000+08:00

Everyone had wanted to go to Chek Jawa for a visit, but the timing is never right. Then mommy found out that it will be low tide in the morning of Good Friday, and so almost everyone (the females, that is) wanted to go!

Since we are supposed to reach Changi Point Ferry Terminal (opposite Changi Village Hotel) very early, we all decided to have a sleepover at 大姨姨's place the night before to ensure that everyone will be able to wake up. Yuan yuan even rushed over after his tuition had finished. Everyone except Daddy , that is, and Julia and Charlie (who is sick) and 四姨姨 (who have to take care of Charlie). So all of us sleep in 大姨姨's bedroom, with 4 sleeping bag (the kids sleeping on the 大姨姨's mattress), and 大姨姨 sleeping in the sofa bed in the living room (wise choice, because the kids refuse to sleep :P)

Besides the discomfort of the sleeping bags, we were not able to sleep well as the neighbours across the road seemed to favor talking in loud voices in the middle of the night. And there are also vehicles zooming past with their loud engines and horns despite the fact that it was supposed to be a minor road which is near to the dead end.

Poor 大姨姨 forget to reset her alarm and it woke her up at 5.30am when we planned to wake up at 6am! :P The kids are very tired to wake up so early. We then wait for Daddy to appear while having breakfast.

Daddy appeared on time and we left around 7 plus. We reached Changi Point Ferry Terminal with lots of empty parking lots to spare. One of the bumboat operators managed to squeeze us in with a few other passengers and we board the bumboat immediately after arriving at the jetty. There are some seats 'inside' the bumboat, and some outside (but still sheltered). The ride costs us $2.50 per person.

Boarding the bumboat

Bold Kathleen held onto one of the poles for a photoshot after seeing Janice doing the same

Lots of yachts behind...

The ride across the sea was smooth (Kathleen had asked mommy the day before we will encounter sharks or dolphins but thankfully we did not encounter the former :P) and soon we reach Pulau Ubin. Upon reaching dry land, an uncle asked us if we wanted a van ride and charge us $4 per person for both ways, and so we got our 'personal' van to Chek Jawa.

We went to the jetty first after consulting the staff at the information kiosk. It is still low tide and the sea moss is exposed (see picture below, all the green colour below the boardwalk is the slightly submerged sea moss). The older kids managed to spot mud skipper, sea coral, and even a school of fish! The weather is hot and sunny though.

a anemone in the middle of the picture


a school of fish that we encountered swimming at the end of the boardwalk. Someone did ask if they are edible .. :P

After that, we went to the other boardwalk and climbed up the 21m viewing tower which allow us to view the intertidal flats.

the pointy looking things on the right edge of the picture is the coastal boardwalk with people walking on the flats

We proceed to the coastal boardwalk and managed to see many fiddler crabs (those crabs with one big pincer and one small pincer)

Visitors are only allowed to go down onto the flats if they managed to book the group organised by the volunteers ($60 per group, max 15 person, usually have to book half a year in advance) which of course we did not manage to do.

One of the few shelters along the way

After we have finished getting lots of vitamin D, we called the uncle for the van and then made our way back to the jetty where Janice wanted to go to the tidal pool in search of marine animals. We found fishes and even hermit crabs in the pools!

hermit crabs!

The kids having fun in the tidal pool while the adults are suffering from the hot sun. The long white and brown line behind is the jetty.

It was about 10plus then, and alot of people have just arrived at the island (which made us wonder if they did not manage to wake up as early as us, or they simply do not mind the hot hot sun). We took another bumboat back to the mainland to see a long queue of people queuing to take the bumboats to Pulau Ubin (again, we wonder why).

We then proceed to have lunch at a nearby coffee shop before going back to 大姨姨's place. We rested for a while before (ahhh..children and their endless energy) going for some pool fun. After swimming, we went to to find Charlie and 四姨姨 there and then the cousins spent some time playing computer games before going home for the day.

Mommy asked Kathleen which is her favourite part of the outing, and her answer? The sleepover and swimming. The city kid just does not like lots of walking, especially under the hot sun. But for the adults, at least now we have finally made that long awaited trip to Chek Jawa... :)

Chinese New Year 2011

2011-03-07T22:18:00.000+08:00

Been so busy with work that I did not have time to upload the CNY pictures...

Firstly, below is the first human drawing (center of picture, with yellow face) that I have seen her draw. And she said the figure drawn is mommy! :) When I asked her where are my hands, she put her hands behind her back to indicate that I have my hands behind (which is why she did not draw the hands).

Here are the updates for Chinese New Year....

Day 1 : went to yeye's place. Kathleen has fun playing bubbles with her cousin...

Day 2 : went round the island visiting the different yee yee's house.

Vain mommy pasted glow-in-the-dark nail stickers on her fingernails and toenails ahahahah....

that wrinkled kneecap belongs to mommy...

Kathleen have a super fun time at er yee yee's place, cos they got a dog and the little girl was acting like a dog, jumping up and down and snatching Megan's (the dog) toys from her. At first, Megan was very scared and was even shivering at the sight of so many people, but after a while, she warmed up and have a fun time with Kathleen and even chase after Kathleen when she walked away!

Po Po this year planted the red carrot using soil and it was blooming so nicely! :)

Day 3 : went to mommy's secondary school's house

And the neighbour's next door hired a lion dance troop (its an annual tradition) and so Kathleen gets a close up with the lion dance!

lion dance got truncated cos some kid block the side with his/her elbow.

After the house visitation, mommy brought Kathleen to a nearby field to play their newly bought kite. Kathleen does not like her kite flying up high even though it was easy to do so with the strong winds. She like her kite low and within reach! So mommy and Kathleen walked home with the kite just 1 meter above their heads (see picture below) and Kathleen was beaming because she is so happy (the window is so strong there is not much problem in getting the kite to fly even though we only release a bit of the string)

Unfortunately, Kathleen later snapped the stick supporting the kite so no more kite flying.... :(

The next weekend, daddy, mommy and Kathleen made their way to Sentosa to visit the annual flower exhibition.

Kathleen consulting the Sentosa map...

A picture of the stain glass on the roof taken by Kathleen

The area, as usual, is pretty small, which makes it easy to go without over-tiring, though the heat is abit unbearable, and the crowd is there.

Kathleen's favourite part is the cool mist coming out of the holes on the ground, not the flowers..

this looks more like easter bunnies (one of them have an egg) rather than year of the rabbit.

another of her favourite - the water shooting out of the strange sculptures.

We went over to Festive Hotel, and the flowers there are shaped in the 12 zodiac animals. Very nice!

Peep through the gates of Universal Studio and see Kungfu panda....

After that, we went back to mainland via the boardwalk which is hidden in one corner of the RWS area. Nothing interesting, but Kathleen likes the travellator....

20110108 mommy's thoughts

2011-01-10T13:44:00.000+08:00

About 6 months since my last mommy's thoughts.

The lucky gal had gone overseas twice since then.

At my mother's place, my mother is now the main person to feed her.
She prefers my sister (3rd yee yee) than me when we go cos my sister is really really patient and good with kids.

KKH did a speech assessment for her and she is about average for her age for receptive and below average for receptive.

I baked with her again (chewy chocolate cookies, yummy!) and this time around she is more daring to participate, helping me with the mixer to mix the ingredients and also to scoop into the tray. And of course, EAT..ahahhaha. The daddy is not happy with the mess that comes with it though...

carrying a heavy tray of chewy chocolate cookies

She had started on her first enrichment lesson - music appreciation class. At first she cling onto me for every lesson, but after about 4 lessons or so, she began to loosen up and is now enjoying her music lessons (though doing homework is still a struggle on certain days!)

Kathleen dressed up as fireman during music class to learn F for fireman

Got a potty for her, and in the end still have to switch her FM to Nan HA so that she is less constipated. She got potty trained, and then in KL, managed to get her to use the toilet bowl, so now she is kind of fully toilet trained (just need mommy to support her to ensure she did not fall into the toilet bowl!). And she is also off diapers at night so yipee!!!! Hope this will maintain .... can save the earth with one or two less diapers each day :)

But personality-wise, she is still a shy little girl who seemed to be bullied and dare not speak up (and get ignored even she dare to!). Even her teacher feedback during the parent-teacher meeting that she got low confidence... sighhh...

At night, she likes to to sleep next to me, and hug each other or hold hands before she fall asleep. I still pat her to sleep, yep, abit too indulgence, but she is my only child, and this is only chance I will get to pat a little kid to sleep right? Of course on most nights I will be so tired I will sleep before her! :P [ ooppss bad luck.. was typing this and she had nightmares from skipping nap and overstimulation... she had not have this for almost a year!]

For the just ended Christmas, she knew how to ask for present. She still does not know how to convey her wish list (if she has any), but while seeing me wrapping the presents for her cousins, she asked something like 'where is my present'. I told her 'its that piano in the room'. She said 'Noooo..no that one, this one (kind)' pointing at the half-wrapped presents on the floor [in the end daddy and i wrapped some the new clothes that we have bought for her as a present].

Her cousins laughed at her constant wrong usage of english. (ask vs tell, for vs against). I wonder if the more advanced kids in her class laughed at her too when she uses the wrong words, and I wonder how she felt and if it breaks her heart the same way it breaks mine.

We had finally finished reading all the Buzzy (author : Harriet Ziefret) books and are now onto the rest of her non-Buzzy books.

I have started her on Peter and Jane series (only at book 1) but of course the girl still prefers me to read while she look at the pictures.

My sister passed me a training bicycle and she is starting to ride on it though she still preferred her toddler tricycle.

This year, I hope that she will outgrow her fear of auto flush toilets, and that I will be able to persuade her to learn swimming! :P And of course, to 'eat more, sleep more, study more, and grow taller!' (something I told her many times each week).

20101203 Year End Concert

2010-12-07T14:18:00.000+08:00

Kathleen's class performing Viva La Radio.

They also participated in some Chinese recital performance but really 'catch no ball'

20101127 - 20101201 - Cameron Highlands + KL trip

2010-12-07T14:15:00.000+08:00

Went for a trip with 婆婆, 三姨姨 and Janice 表姐.... This is Kathleen's 2nd trip overseas and her first trip without daddy.

Day 0

We took a Konsortium Coach from Singapore at night. The coach will travel to Cameron Highlands via Tuas 2nd link. Each seat comes with its own TV with quite up-to-date shows. The seat can also be reclined to about 45 degrees. Mommy watch Clash of the Titans (the 2010 version) and Kathleen watched cartoons (they on the TV only after leaving Singapore. Licensing issues?). She watched the cartoons until past midnight before she decided to sleep.

Kathleen trying out the headphones but the strap is too long for her and she had to hold on to it to prevent the ear piece from sliding down below her ears!

Day 1

The bus stopped for a few breaks throughout the whole night but Kathleen managed to sleep on-and-off throughout the whole coach trip including the winding journey up the highlands! It was freezing cold in the coach and Kathleen had to clothed in winter clothes and mommy had to wear 2 layers of socks!

Kathleen sleeping in her seat, with winter jacket, gloves and winter socks

The bus first reached Ringlet and then Tanah Rata. We tried to ask the coach to stop nearer to our hotel Century Pines but they refused and dropped us off near the tourism information center instead. From there, we had to walk about 15minutes to our hotel, with luggages and all. It was before 9am yet we could feel that it will not be a cooling day!

The hotel room was not yet available and so we decided to go out for breakfast. We had roti prata for breakfast. 三姨姨 checked out Kang Holidays nearby and the lady there is kind enough to advise my sister on the things to see, and that since there are so many of us, it is easier for us to get a taxi driver who charge by per hour rather than to join a half day tour. We also booked our Cameron-KL coach with Kang Holidays as they have a coach which will pick us up at our hotel and send us to Chinatown in KL rather than the usual big coach which requires us to go to the tourist information center for pickup and dropped us off at Bukit Jalil (the usual bus terminal is currently under renovation)

So we went to the nearby bus terminal and found a taxi driver who is willing to drive us around for RM25 per hour.

First destination is the Sungei Palais Boh Tea Plantation. The uncle stopped before the factory to show us tea bushes at the roadside and to see the wide expanse of the tea plantation. Each bush can grow for decades and plucking of the leaves is done once every 20 days, he told us. The people will pluck off the leaves at the stem, and the stem will shoot off another new stem at another corner and continue to grow again. He also explained that all taxis and tour coaches have a special pass pasted on the windscreen which allows them to drive up to the Boh factory while people driving their own cars have to park their cars at the car park lot and then walk a winding path up to the factory (lucky cos its definitely a winding uphill path!)

Uncle talking about tea leaves, leaving each of the kids a small branch each

We went to the factory and the short factory tour which showed how tea leaves are made before proceeding to the tea cafe for some photo taking and tea.

Kathleen with her favourite 三姨姨

Tea fields are seen from the balcony of the tea cafe

Next, we went to one of the rose gardens...

Flowers that look like high heel shoes

After that, we went to the Bee Farm (nothing much, though mommy did buy a set of wooden ladybird bracelets for Kathleen and she entertained herself with them throughout the whole trip pretending that they are daddy, mommy and baby ladybird) and Butterfly Park (lots of insects and reptiles which make Janice very happy). Janice forget to pack her camera and so borrowed mommy's camera and spent at least 20minutes taking pictures of all the insects and reptiles while the rest sat and wait. She later went into the enclosure and spent time catching butterflies (not by holding the wings which will kill the butterflies) and teaching other kids how to do it correctly.

Next is the Big Red Strawberry Farm. They have hydroponics vegetables and potted strawberries. 三姨姨'bought' 2 plastic baskets which will allow 2 person each to go into the strawberry areas to cut the strawberries. But there is no one guarding the individual gates to each row so all 5 of us went in. We are supposed to cut the strawberries by cutting the upper stem (rather than near to the fruit) and each basket is supposed to have minimal 1/2 kg of strawberries costing about RM20 each.

As there are many tourists, most of the ripe strawberries had been cut by the other tourists that appear before us. Kathleen is very eager to participate and had to be restrained by mommy cos she does not know how to choose the ripe ones. The weather is also hot and sunny which makes it not a very comfortable activity!

For those that are not able to fill up to 0.5kg, the weighing machine will top it up with the strawberries that they have plucked beforehand (from other places inaccessible to tourists I bet). So we got a little of topups. We wanted to have some food at the stalls there but the queue was so long we decided to return to Tanah Rata again.

The taxi uncle dropped us off at Tanah Rata and we had fast food at MarryBrown before walking back to the hotel.

the hotel room balcony at Century Pines. We are on the 2nd floor which is dangerous cos anyone can climb from one balcony to another using the lobby roof!

strawberry galore!

We tasted the strawberries and they are not very sour (either slightly sour or slightly sweet). Yipee! But Kathleen still does not dare to eat it.

Day 2

Next day is free and easy. We decided to hike trail number 4, the easiest trail in Tanah Rata which will lead to the Parit Falls. The trail happens to be just next to the hotel!

Buffet breakfast

Christmas decor in the hotel lobby

Signboard next to Century Pines indicating the path to Parit Falls

The path is supposedly paved, but some parts of the path has been overgrown with grass or broken down, and some are just well trodden mudpaths. On the right side is a steep fall into the river... dangerous! Janice found a broken off branch and use it as a makeshift walking stick. Kathleen is very afraid of the dirt and refuses to walk most of time. 三姨姨 to the rescue as she tried to keep Kathleen's spirits up and encourage her to keep walking! And sweets do the trick! Just keep feeding her with sweets! (bad mommy)

narrow path

strange looking grass found along the path

三姨姨 showing the seeds underneath the fern leaves

We soon reached a open space with a pavilion and there is a bridge ahead. On the bridge, we can see our first destination, a red bridge across the gushing river.

picture taken from the bridge

We finally reached the red sheltered bridge and took a breather! The hike from hotel to the bridge had taken us abot 45 minutes!

Janice wanted to continue to look for the view tower and so on we go. The steps are steeper and some parts are just muddy steps!

On we go!

We soon reached this cement steps on our right with the signboard that said the observation tower is under maintenance, while straight ahead is another path that goes down (we can hear cars in the distance). Thinking that the sign is outdated, we climbed up the cement steps, and then up alot of muddy steep slippery steps (sometimes 婆婆 even have to use her hands!).

Then then we saw it.. the viewing tower! Its really under maintenance!!!!! *wahhhhh* Still have to take some pictures to show that we walked more than 1 hour to reach there!

Janice posing with her walking stick with 婆婆

After resting, we went down all the slippery path again, and reached the cross junction (with that signboard). We decided to try the other path which leads towards the sound of the cars. Thank goodness it was a paved and short path and we reach the main road very fast.

Stop! Time to pop another sweet!

From there, we walked along the main road for about 20minutes before reaching our hotel.

The kids then went to the playground in the park across the road from the hotel. Kathleen had fun there, and Janice even found a colourful lizard to terrorise. But she later sprained her wrist then she missed her grip on a monkey bar and her right wrist was swollen.

It started to rain and we went back to the hotel. Once the rain stopped, we went out again, this time to try the highly raved scones at T-cafe! Mmm.. overrated, I have to say, and the service is quite slow....

Kathleen playing with the table number tabs while waiting for the food to come

A shot of the skyline taken from the hotel balcony

Went back to rest again, and then out we go again. This time round we took a taxi to Brinchang for their weekend night market (they are opened even on weekdays during the school holidays) and some steamboat.

One of the stalls selling cut honeycombs at RM2 per cup. Sweet!

cameron apples, anyone?

Started to rain again when we went to the restaurant and its cold! The steamboat comes in 2 soup base (chicken and tom yam) and mostly stuff such as fish ball and vegetables and bee hoon. Think it costs about RM18 per person (Kathleen dines free).

Day 3

Last day at Cameron Highlands. We wake up early in order to catch the coach which was supposed to pick us up at 8am.

finally, misty mountain!

The coach was on-time, and pick up other passengers before it goes the windy way down again. The winding path was supposedly (according to a signboard) 15km and took us about 1.5hrs (1 hr of really winding route before 0.5hr of less winding road) before it reaches the level ground and expressway. We also pass by the beautiful Iskandar Falls. Kathleen fell asleep after reaching Ringlet and did not wake up until we are on the highway so she was not giddy at all. Good!!!!!! :)

Travelling along the monotonous highway and then suddenly there are many tall concrete buildings in the horizon. We have reached Kuala Lumpur!

The coach dropped us off at Swiss Inn, and our hotel, The 5 Elements is just across the street! We check in (they have our room early. Yeah!) and then proceed to the famous chicken stall across the road for chicken rice. We sure are very glad to see some typical Chinese food and rice after the few days in Cameron :P

the fat pork with yam is yummy!

After lunch, went for abit of shopping at Petaling Street (Janice found her favorite designer tees!). We found a Chinese medicinal hall there and the uncle there just swing Janice's swollen wrist a few times and she can now turn her wrist! After shopping, we went back to the hotel for the kids to take their nap before we took the LRT from Pasar Seni to KLCC to meet up with Uncle Danny (Janice's daddy). The Malaysians are very nice. They gave up their seats immediately when they see the little girl though it is peak hour.

Kathleen on the LRT holding the magnetic ticket (like those with a mangetic striped that was used in Singapore MRTs many years ago). She is wearing the daddy, mommy and baby ladybird bracelets on her left hand

Had a reservation at Trader's Hotel's Sky Bar. We are late, but thank goodness our reservation is still available!

The skybar also has a swimming pool alongside

View from skybar to park next to KLCC. There is a beautiful fountain, a playground and even a children wading pool (light blue)!

Mommy had wanated to go up the Petronas Twin tower, but as the tickets are free and on first-come-first-serve basis (queueing up at 7am!), she looks for alternatives instead, therefore, the visit to Sky bar.

night view of Petronas Twin Tower as seen from Traders' Skybar (the bright oval shape on top right corner is the reflection of the Skybar's lighting on the glass)

Kathleen trying to get her favourite 姨姨 to pose with her

All of us shared some finger food, and then Janice followed Uncle Danny (he works in KL) home while mommy, 姨姨 and 婆婆 went for supper before we went back to the hotel.

Our hotel room

As mommy had booked twin beds, mommy pushed the small round PVC stool and small round table and put them between the 2 beds so that Kathleen will not fall off the bed at night. She then have a fun time using the stool as a bridge and keep jumping from one bed to another via the 'bridge'. Playful girl!

Day 4

Picture of hotel room window. The grey-blue curvy roof is Petaling Street, where there are stalls selling T shirts and DVDs etc

Checkout from the hotel and went for more shopping at Petaling Street and the nearby Central Market. Bought a cat T-shirt for Kathleen.

Janice visiting the Doctor Fish....

... while Kathleen enjoyed some ice cream with toasted bread at a Old Town White Coffee branch

We went back to collect the luggages from the hotel, and it started to rain heavily. So we took a cab to Uncle Danny's place and waited for the rain to stop.

Uncle Danny's apartment. The romain blinds are remote-controlled!

After the rain stopped, we went to KLCC again (cos we did not have time to take pictures of the place the day before)

Christmas decor at KLCC. She was wearing the newly bought cat t-shirt

The fountain. Lots of people sitting there waiting for the fountain to start at 6pm

After we took the pictures, 婆婆, mommy and Kathleen quickly took the LRT from KLCC to KL Sentral and then switched to the KLIA Express (both are under the same roof) (we took the Express instead of cab as it was peak hour and we are afraid of being caught in the famous KL traffic jam) for a half an hour non-stop ride to KLIA Main Terminal (adult RM35, child RM15 for the Express).

One strange thing that mommy noticed was that there are lots of people queueing at the ticketing machines at KLCC station to buy single trip tickets. Maybe they do not have stored value cards.....

On the KLIA Express

We reached the KL International Airport (KLIA) with less than 2 hours to spare, and have to quickly made our way to the boarding building (the connecting skytrain between the checkin building and boarding building is under revamp, and so buses are deployed to ferry the passengers, turning a easy 5 minute ride into a 15 minute rush) so we end up skipping dinner! The fun thing about the bus ride was that it goes onto the road which the planes are and you can see the planes close up.

on the bus on the way to boarding building

And on the jetstar flight, they run out of many choices of food so 婆婆 end up did not order anything to eat!

This time round, Kathleen is strong enough to unbuckle the seat belt on her own :)

We reached Singapore Changi Airport around 10.10pm and Kathleen was so tired she fell asleep before Daddy arrived at the airport. So ends her short trip to Malaysia.....

Too full to move

2010-12-06T13:23:00.000+08:00

Went to the nearby food court and ordered fried rice for dinner.

After dinner, Kate asked me...

Kate : mommy, are you full?

Me : I am so full I cannot move!

She then grab my left index fingers with both her hands and shake it vigorously and then declared :

Kate : Can move!!!!!!

:P

20101118 SSO Baby Prom

2010-11-19T13:35:00.000+08:00

Finally managed to get the tickets for the SSO baby prom (thanks S!) which is held at the Esplanade this year.

Here are some pictures to share...

the 3 princesses at the pre-performance party..

Kathleen and Caelan. Later mommy made Caelan cry....:P

Caelan went up to view the instruments but Kathleen did not manage to follow him and so sit at the edge of the stage instead where mommy was....

When we left, we saw Irene and Sophia in the queue for the next performance. Hi *wave*!!!

Kathleen is so happy with her balloon that she posed with it everywhere and place them on shoes and pretend to take pictures. Future advertising executive? :P

All in all, an OK performance. The children did not enjoy as much as we have expected but the mommies have fun catching up during lunch. :)

20101115 Happy 4th Birthday!!!!

2010-11-17T16:41:00.000+08:00

Whew!!!!!! Its finally over!

It all started that she wanted a Barney cake.... but Prima Deli encountered one problem after another (machine down, icing material not available) and therefore no Barney Cake!

Daddy got her a Dora cake instead, thanks to eCreative!

choosing her birthday cake from Prima Deli catalogue...

The Dora cake...nice!

posing with the female classmates

and the male classmates..gosh..half the class is missing!

And this year... she managed to blow out the candles on her own! Good job! :)

cutting the cake....

enjoying the cake with her friends with Dora paper plates...

taking a picture with daddy who took leave to deliver the cake and join in the celebration

doing her sand art which is one of the 2 gifts in the goodie bag. The other one is a magnetic photo frame.

Happy Birthday little girl! :)

20101031 Halloween

2010-11-01T13:52:00.000+08:00

Its halloween again, and this year we decided to go the annual free-for-all party at Woodsgrove.

Woodsgrove is a landed property area near the American School and it seems that every year they have a halloween party there. We are not sure if it is still on this year, but no harm trying!

Kathleen trying out her fairy costume, complete with wings, headband and magic wand!

back view of the wings.

Kathleen is very excited and keep wearing her costume throughout the whole day. And even keep waving her magic wand to perform magic (such as making herself and mommy disappear from the house!).

Uncle Levin drove us to the place, but the traffic jam starts 2 streets away so we have to drop off early!

The kids posing - fairy, princess fairy, a wizard with a horse and a knight. Janice is so good she filled up her pumpkin goodie bag with all kinds of sweets pretty fast!

The event is even bigger than we expected. There are lots of children and adults all dressed up as devils, ghosts, etc. Kathleen is easy the shortest person there but luckily the people are very orderly and there is hardly any pushing or jostling.

Many of the participants are very creative. For example, there is one with a robe taller than himself, with a Scream mask on top and his real face is placed with drawings of 2 hands cradling it as if his head was decapitated! And another group of ladies who are jellyfishes (see one of the pictures below).

There are many households along the few streets that form woodsvale and many of them decorated their houses with cobwebs and ghosts, and many of the households distributed sweets through the gate or simply opened the gate and welcome everyone into the porch to get the sweets! And we can see that some of them did not sting on the quality and the quantity of the sweets though they are distributing it mostly to people that they don't know. And of course, many of their houses are very big and beautiful.

The kids learnt to be thick skinned to queue up for sweets and to say Trick or Treat (although most people simple said Happy Halloween). The 2 younger kids - charlie and kathleen , are very happy that those 3 magic words will provide them with sweets!

After a while, both Charlie and Kathleen found their costume too cumbersome and took them off and their mommies end up wearing the costumes! Kathleen even misplaced her magic wand but she is alright after mommy told her that she can continue to weave magic without her wand.

Kathleen asking for 'treats'. This lady asked her to give her a hug before she will dispense the sweets and the usually shy girl did!

As night falls, si yee yee distributed glow sticks so that we can spot one another easier in the dark with so many people....

Creative group of ladies who tagged stings of bubble wraps to their transparent umbrellas to as as jellyfishes. They even have bubble guns to simulate water bubbles.

The familes are very enthusiatic about Halloween, especially the kids. Many households have the kids distributing sweets while the parents are hiding in the background. There was a family which the 2 daughters climbed on top of the pillars next to the main gate to distribute sweets to the passerbys. And the scariest of all is this man who acted as a tang kee (chinese medium) and it is so scary especially when we visited that household when the sky is already dark.

Yuan yuan and Janice's favourite? Must be the family who threw sweets into the air for everyone to grab! :P

After walking for about an hour, the kids are getting tired and its getting too crowded, so we decided to go to Causeway Point for dinner.

Waited for very long for the feeder bus but then managed to board the 2nd bus. They have dinner at McDonald's before heading for home (Janice and her mommy are going for round 2 near their home though!).

on the bus

Kathleen showing off her loot

A scary looking eyeball sweet which turned out to be marshmallow in a creative wrapper! :)

The kids have fun and we all agreed that we should come again next year! :)

20101009 wedding

2010-11-01T13:12:00.000+08:00

On a Saturday evening, mommy and friends made their way to a highly anticipated wedding. Auntie Pauline is getting married! :) Most of the pictures turned out blur though...

Kathleen and Cheyanne now know each other as friends. They don't chit chat about their lives, but insisted on holding hands and strolling slowly (too slow for the adults.. we are late!) along the river bank on the way to the wedding venue, occasionally stealing shy glances at each other or their hands. So cute!

a group photo with the keondre and the bride who look splendid in her wedding gown

The 3 kids have fun running around the venue (its buffet so its not sit-in-your-seats-till-10pm kind of function) and dancing to the music including those sang via karaoke! :)

20100830 Jurong Bird Park

2010-09-04T16:20:00.000+08:00

The child care center is closed for two days, and so mommy brought Kate and popo to the Jurong Bird Park for a visit.

The penguin enclosure was closed for upgrading, but anyway Kate's main interest is the bird shows. So we went from one bird show to another, and manage to catch the parrot show for children, birds and buddies and the birds of prey show despite the occasional showers.

Kate happy in her raincoat given by Auntie Winifred

We also managed to have spend some time at the lory loft which $3 will allow you to get a half-cup of bird liquid feed.

Kate feeding the parrots with the liquid feed

Popo's turn to hold the feed and she got a surprise when one of the parrots decided to stand on her shoulder instead!

3 parrots drinking from the same cup. It must be a slow day!

posing with the parrots after the birds and buddies show

And of course Kate gets to eat some ice cream. All in all a tiring but satisfying day! :)

20100829 mooncake making

2010-08-30T13:00:00.000+08:00

Mommy bought the mooncake snow skin pre-mix from Phoon Huat so that Kate can 'experience' mooncake making.

So on a Sunday afternoon, the cousins get together at 四姨姨's place to have a afternoon fun of mooncake making.

To prepare the snowskin, all we have to do is to mix the pre-mix with water, shortening, and then coloring and flavoring. Let the material settle down, then add the paste in the middle, put it into the mooncake mould and pop it out! Delicioso!

clockwise from top left : 二姨姨 with the first mooncake, Kate with the mooncake that she had popped, 2 pictures of mooncake making in progress, some of the final master pieces, and Kate hitting the mould against the table to pop out the mooncake.

20100807 YOG torch relay

2010-08-08T01:01:00.000+08:00

Today is the first day of the Youth Olympic Games' torch relay in Singapore.

We decided to bring the kids to view the torch relay.

Silly mommy thought that it will be super crowded with lots of people, since it is a Saturday and it is the first time Singapore host a Olympic games. But she was very wrong. The stretch of road which we went to only had only a few families.

taking pics of the kids while passing time...Janice was not around as her school was also cheering the YOG torch relay team!

The designated time passed by and still nothing happen.... then some police motorbikes appear....

... followed by a red bus which 'deposited' a gal which we later realised is the next person to run with the torch...

... then a red open top bus stopped and distributed 'paper fans' (which can be clapped together to make sound), and also air filled plastic 'clappers' (not good at explaining, pls see picture!). The blue bus did nothing.. (maybe they take turns?)

no action after the 3 buses left.... and then more police on motorbikes.. and then a white van with some runners...

... and then the torch appeared! so close to the van ... the runner with the torch quickly hand over the torch to the gal that had been waiting, and then she was on her way!!! It was only after the van passed us that we realise it was for the media (photographers).

handing over the torch....

the two runners posing for photos

the gal starting to run...

a picture of the photographers...

It is a special event though Kate will most probably not remember it (that's why we took tons of picture, thank you 大姨姨!) but it could be a long long time before Singapore will ever host such an event again!

Kate playing with the air filled plastics at home... one belonged to yuan yuan which was already deflating even before the torch bearers appear...

Still, mommy is quite disappointed with the turnout... hopefully people who read this blog will turn out in full force when the torch goes to their neighbourhood!

20100720 - 20100724 Phuket Trip day 5

2010-08-01T19:32:00.000+08:00

Day 5....

Day 5 is last day of the trip...

Kate on the bed. She likes to tuck the blanket under her armpits and then watch TV....

went to the beach again.but this time the moment we stepped on the sand, an extra large wave splash water on Kate and she immediately panicked and wanted to go back to the hotel room....

Here is a video of the traffic light there... the green man can dance! :P They also have timers on their traffic lights to count down to the end of the green/red light.

the beautiful beach

Went for lunch, then back to the hotel where papa and Kate took their nap, and then we went to the famous Mali restaurant for dinner (the salad bar soup is yummy and so is their pasta!) before Panny (the tour guide) took us back to the airport where we took a late flight back to Singapore.

Here is a video of Kate singing Mary had a little lamb at Mali Restaurant.... :P

And here are some pictures of the sunset taken at Kata Beach on the last day.

And on the airplane... Kate was looking at the pictures which show how to open the emergency door, and she self-improvised on this particular picture (of a woman opening the emergency door). 'If you sh-sh (urinate) on the floor, you will have to clean it up yourself'. Her cc teacher must have repeated that sentence very often! :P

Last but not least... a picture of Kate's return air ticket, and the stamp on her passport....

20100720 - 20100724 Phuket Trip Day 4

2010-08-01T19:19:00.000+08:00

day 4....

Free and easy day.. we went to the beach today. this time round, the red flags are out, which means that the current is too strong for swimming, but of course there are still people swimming, and people attempting to surf.

Look at the below picture. We stand very far from the shoreline but once the waves come in, it is huge. Note that the wave is so huge that it reaches Kate's kneecaps. Note that the 'shirt' on papa is fake.. cos he had taken off his shirt to enjoy the sea breeze.

Papa writing her name on the sand..which was immediately washed away by the next incoming wave...

Then there was this wave that was so strong that it splashed water all over Kate's shirt and face, and she wanted to leave! But we managed to persuade her to stay for a while longer...

Then back to the hotel where Kate went for her bath, and after her bath, Mommy allowed her to soak in the bathtub. There is a window next to the bathtub so whoever that is in soaking in the bathtub can look out of the window at the TV in the room. Kate's favorite activities - playing in the bathtub and watching TV...

Usually we will eat at the restaurants about 2/3 streets away. Kate's favorite is the Red Tomato because it has the 'diong diong', this token toy game. She does not know how to play the game actually :P

During the evening, we went for an elephant ride at the nearby Koh Chang Safari. It was off peak season and we are the only customers there! We choose the shortest (20min) elephant as we are afraid that Kate will be afraid but she enjoyed the ride!

On the 20min ride, we saw elephant dung on the path , and also rubber trees which looked freshly tapped.

After the ride, we asked the staff how to feed the elephants and we are told to 'self service', take the bananas from the kiosk nearby and feed the elephant!

The view from Kata Point (where the elephant safari is) is spectacular but too bad we did not stay to view the setting sun...

After the staff sent us back to the hotel, we went nearby for dinner again. After dinner, papa and mommy went for a no-frills massage with Kate sitting between us. And she understands that silence is required so she entertained herself during that one hour by playing with mommy's hairclip and hopping around the beds, only breaking the silence when she went to the toilet (outside the massage room) and after the massage has been completed. Good gal! :)

and then back to the hotel room, Kate had some more fun in the hotel room before bedtime...

20100720 - 20100724 Phuket Trip Day 3

2010-08-01T19:04:00.000+08:00

Day 3....

On the 3rd day... we made an arrangement with the guy who picked us up on the first day (his name was Thosar) for a day trip at 1000baht for about 6 hours. However, his car broke down and his friend Panny came instead. Panny works a few jobs, teaching English to hotel staff, freelance tour guide, etc. She told us that Phuket is still largely dependent on tourism, so it was not surprising that all her jobs are tourism related.

this is a picture taken at the hotel lobby while waiting for Panny.

We first went to the Phuket Town, then to the View Point to see the scenery. The weather is very hot which makes us very sleepy. Kate even slept a few times in the car though she had awakened only a few hours earlier.

Picture taken from the view point

Then we went to some gems factory, then to Central Festival for shopping and lunch. Papa bought a pair of shoes while mommy bought NOTHING!!!!!

After that, we went to Wat Chalong... there are figurines of past abbots and many statues of the Buddha. In some of the wats they provide free sarong for the visitors to wrap around their shoulders/waist if the person wear too skimpy/short (according to Panny, other places might charge for the use of the sarong).

Next, we went to see the big Buddha. The car can only reach a certain height, and then we have to walk up many flights of stairs to go up to the top of the hill to reach the foot of the statue. there are many bells and countries' flags on the way up, and Kate had fun touching them.

The Big Buddha is 45meters tall, and had been under construction for many years and there are still many years of construction to go.

At the site,they have samples showing how the Big Buddha is tiled (yes, its using tiles on the outside, cement/clay on the inside). You can even write your name on a tile if you donated a amount.

Chalong Bay as seen from the foot of the Big Buddha. There are many yachts near the beach.

There is also a smaller Buddha statue which is about 10+ meters tall.

And of course,even smaller ones for photo taking...

Some bells tied to the trees. For good luck?

Last stop of the day was Promthep Bay , which is supposedly 'the place' to see spectacular sunset. But we reached too early and its too hot!

A hot hot day.... am glad when we are back to the hotel....

Here is a picture of Kate doing the usual naughty stuff, asking papa to lift her up so that she can use the room card to open the door (and subsequently to slot it into the slot just behind the door so that the electricity will be connected).

20100720 - 20100724 Phuket Trip Day 2

2010-08-01T18:43:00.000+08:00

Day 2 ...

Mommy had booked the deluxe room (the most basic room is superior) as she had seen that it had an extra day bed in the room, which can be used by papa if ever papa and Kate fight over bed space again (happens all the time at home). However, upon check in, there was no day bed, but 2 extra chairs instead! So the next day after breakfast, we went to talk to the receptionist and they switch us to another room with 2 single beds and 1 day bed. Papa then pushed the two single beds together so that Kate and mommy can sleep together... but guess what? even with that day bed, papa cannot resist the rest on the combined bed for the rest of the trip :P :P :P

This is a picture taken at the lobby. Their lobby has sofa and a few of those day beds for sitting...

Here are some pictures of the 2nd room that we switched to....

Here is a pic of Kate doing what she does often on beds..(taken in the first room).. jumping on the bed...

We then walked to the bed. Kata Palm resort and spa is about 15min walk from the beach. Along the way are restaurants, shops, and 1 7-eleven and 1 supermarket. So basically it is very convenient especially when tourists are advised against drinking from the tap water so we went to buy mineral water from the supermarket and carry them back (the hotel supply 2 bottles of free mineral water everyday but anything on top of that will be charged.)

Despite being monsoon season, it was very hot, and we only encountered heavy rain twice, each lasting less than half an hour! Other showers are just drizzle that lasted maybe 10minutes?

The sand and sea is very clean, and the waves is abit strong. We can see people trying to surf on the waves.

Kata Beach is very short, maybe 1 or 2 km.....

After going to the beach, we went back to the hotel for a swim. It is the only time Papa and kate swam in the hotel....

Here is a picture proof that now Kate dares to lift her legs up to float using her arm floats....

Here is a picture taken from the corridor from the reception to the room. You can see something 'white' on top of the hill just below the 3rd wire... (when you walk on the street, you can sometimes hear the sounds of the electricity running through... zzztttttt...!). That is actually the back of the Big Buddha which we will visit on the 3rd day.

After the swim, we went back to the room and rest but kate refuses to take her nap. After that, we took a tuk tuk to the Dino Park Golf Course. The ride was only 5min but they charged us 100baht. Seeing that its so near, papa decided to walk back after visiting Dino Park. The walk took less than 20minutes but is tiring as Kate refuses to walk again!

Kate does not really enjoy herself as she fell asleep while waiting for 7pm (the time when the lights will be on for the dino park) and then we wake her up so she is super grouchy!

After visiting dino park, we went for dinner at one of the nearby restaurants before walking back. Once back in the air con hotel room, Kate becomes active again and dances on the floor when she realises that she can glide on her socks on the parquet floor! She seemed to enjoy herself most in the room with the tv on!

20100720 - 20100724 Phuket Trip Day 1

2010-08-01T18:23:00.000+08:00

The family planned for a short trip out of the country. This is Kate's first trip.

Kate disturbing mommy during packing as she tried to squeeze herself into a 20 inch luggage... she almost made it.. :P

Our plane is supposed to depart at 8.45pm that night, but to our horror, it was delayed by 1 hour!!!! And mommy did not get any SMS notification but luckily papa did, so we left home 1 hour later than planned.

This is a picture of Kate trying to pull the luggage....

We checked in after reaching the airport. Here is a picture of Kate sitting on the luggage. This girl is very lazy,and refuse to walk most of the time when she is in Phuket, demanding to be carried instead.

Mommy saw a woman weighing herself using this weighing machine meant for luggages, so she asked Kate to take her weight too! 12.8kg! Small for a 3.5 year old eh?

Video of Kate speaking drama style on the travellator on the way to the departure gate...

Papa was not given the seat next to Kate and mommy by the counter staff, as she said that she was unable to accomodate our requests for 3 seats together. But in the end, the seat next to us was empty, so Papa shifted over.

The safety seat belt is easy even for a toddler, for Kate managed to figure out how to buckle on her first try! She was unable to unbuckle it as she does not have enough strength.

We travel via Jetstar which does not have any on board entertainment, so Kate has to entertain herself by drinking milk, playing scissors paper stone and sticking herself full of stickers while she is on the short 1 hour+ flight. Mommy got hungry and ordered herself a instant noodle cup, costing S$5.

At the airport, we are met by our pre-arranged airport transfer guy, and he drove us to Kata Palm Resort and Spa at Kata Beach. The ride took about 1 hour, and Kate fell asleep in the car, only to wake up when she reach the hotel room, and then cried cos she wanted to go home!

20100625 car ride

2010-06-25T17:20:00.000+08:00

I hardly drive. And my parking sucks. And having a kid behind threatening to do a 'incredible hulk tear off his shirt' stunt with her car seat constraints adds to the stress (so does having a long queue of cars behind me).

Recently, papa had some parking issues at his customer site, and so left the car at my mom's place so that I can drive Kate home at night.

On the first night, while driving into the multi storey car park, she said :

"Mommy, don't park for 3 hours OK?"

p/s fortunately I figured out what she was saying the next day when she said "dont' park for 3 hours, park for 1 hour." She mean minutes! :P

20100623 mommy's thoughts

2010-06-23T17:54:00.000+08:00

Three months since the last 'mommy's thoughts'.

First of all, terrible three is still here.

Thankfully, she (while still struggling, protesting, taking her own sweet time, complaining before and after every mouth, running around the house, turning her head left and right to avoid the spoon, etc) is still consuming rice. And on certain days when she thinks mommy is the evil rice mother, she will say that she want porpor to feed (thank goodness my mother have more patience than me!). And she must eat in front of the TV. When will I ever get her to eat at the dining table??? *sigh*

And TV? Previously she is fighting with her papa everyday after we reach home cos she will want to watch her kiddy videos and he will want to watch his cable TV. So now I bring 1 DVD to my parent's place everyday for her to watch, usually while having her dinner (see headache above). Did I say I got 2 kids? The eldest is already in his 30s, if you get what I mean.

And thank goodness for for okto channel, which while still showing some not-so-suitable cartoons (SpongeBob, Mr Bean, etc), they have Fingertips too :P And of course, all this are better than that never-ending Chinese show 'Your hand in mine'. She still like watching her Wheel of Fortune though, her favourite since her bbsitted days.

Added new routine at porpor's place which is to bath her because everyone complained that her hair stinks. I only found out later that sometimes even the auntie in childcare did not wash her hair on those hair washing designated days as she protested too much.

Kate's school taught them about feelings, and now she will occasionally ask me "mommy, are you happy?" or "mommy, can you smile?" especially when I am not smiling. Or "I don't want you to be angry" when she knows that I am angry.

She figured out how to pout. And do that very often nowadays, usually breaking into a wide grin just half a second later.

And when I told her that I am going somewhere (eg, meeting my friends), she will say in a bossy tone "I go with YOU!".

She finally made us understand via her words and gestures (she is still not good at verbalising things that are not often said) why she does not like to be carried by papa. Because he is taller and therefore her arms got tired easily when she hang her arm over his neck/shoulder.

She still plays with her PSP or handphone games in the car/public transport and sometimes try to bargain for more time outside the car.

Ever since a illness (which include throwing up) about 2 months ago, her milk intake had dropped from 8 oz to 5 oz. :( Cannot secretly increase the dosage as she scoops her own milk powder.

Her favorite website is www.miffy.com and she will bargain with me ("mommy said stop then stop OK" repeating word by word what I told her) at the carpark on the way home if she wanted to play Miffy game that night.

She still loved to dance, including leapfrog dances (she will dance together with frogs while watching Word Caper). She has such endless energy....

She still cries easily and get upset when her routine are changed.

We still rush through trying to get 'everything' done every night.

She still bargains with me on how many books to read almost every night (and usually I will give in since the time is better spent reading than bargaining).

She is still echoing and repeating phrases wholesale for those people that noticed.

Neonat said maybe she can be discharged in 6 months time if her speech improves and everything else is status quo (they have given up on her to be the same size as her peers :P)

added 20100625 : forget to add. She redeveloped her fear for auto flush toilet after one (at KKH) was triggered when she was sitting on it. So now she will refuse to sit on the public toilet bowl if she saw that it is one equipped with 'blink blink (sensor lights)'.

20100620 sleepover

2010-06-21T13:41:00.000+08:00

Sleepover!

It is the June holidays, and some of us decided to have a sleepover at 三姨姨's place. However, due to the last minute planning, we are unable to book a BBQ pit to BBQ dinner. The next best thing? McDonald's!!! :P

On Saturday, 三姨姨 went to the nearby supermarket to stock up on the food. We are supposed to join her for the grocery shopping but everyone was late so we only meet her after that. Mommy did not drive there which is a blessing in disguise as the parking is full at the shopping center (二姨姨, who was driving, have to wait for 20minutes before she allowed to drive into the carpark!).

Dinner is at the nearby McDonald's. Parking is full (alot of people went there to watch the World Cup matches), but luckily there are empty car parks lots outside. Everyone have dinner at the McDonald's and then the younger kids go to the playground inside McDonald's to play. After that, everyone went to the playground at the nearby park to play some more (the aim is to make them tired so that they will sleep! :P)

After all the playing, everyone went to 三姨姨's place and the sleepover started! Let the pictures tell the story....

Lots of toys there for the kids playing and 大姨姨 distributed the souvenirs she had gotten for everyone during her recent tour.

So what is everyone crowing around for? Its the donation card from Nicole's school! The parents contribute the money, and the kids tried to sign/initial their names! :P

Janice distributed bubble gum and then entrtained the younger kids with her bubble blowing skills when 大姨姨 showed us the pictures she had taken during her recent Turkey trip.

Yucky and sticky!!!!

But she has her fans in the form of Kate and Charlie who keep asking for more (via Janice's mommy)!

After the pictures, its time for movies... those with sleeping bags began to lay out the sleeping bag. Packets of titbits and turkish delights are laid out as everyone settled down to watch Kaiji - the Utimate gambler (not nice..)

The kids checking out each other's sleepwear...(yes, Kate is into nose-digging nowadays)

End of pictures for day 1.

Kate refuses to go to sleep even though she is tired. She was overstimulated and wanted to go home, but it was past midnight and all the public transport service had stopped for the day. She even cried, saying that she wanted to go back to 'No 4' (we live on the 4th floor) and that she wants to go back to be with daddy (she never miss papa even when he worked on his night shift). However, that was only on and off, and we did not go home.

She also cannot sleep, insisted on waiting until the show (yes that Kaiji movie) is over, and all the lights are off before she decided that she is not going to miss out any fun, and that its finally time to sleep. Almost everyone sleep in the living room, on the sofa, in their sleeping bags, and on mattresses dragged from the room, except for Kate, mommy and 三姨姨 who shared the master room.

We lighted glowing sticks to be placed around the house just in case someone wanted to get out in the middle of the night to use the toilet and then up stepping on someone else :P

Picture time again....

Next morning, we had pancakes for breakfast.....

this is a picture of Julia and 二姨姨 frying the pancakes... Julia is looking more and more like her mommy and sometimes we will turn and talk to her thinking that she is her mommy only to realise otherwise!

Then, the kids watch some disney cartoons before everyone went for a swim in the pool! The water is cold though the sun is blazing, but the kids enjoy themselves very much.

After the swim, its time for lunch which is spaghetti wth minced meat and ham and hot dog and tomato sauce.

After that, Julia finally got her wish of watching a horror show, and everyone watched a Korean horror show Possessed, but stopped halfway when Papa came to fetch Kate and mommy home.

That's the end of Kate's first sleepover!

20100602 four....

2010-06-21T13:08:00.000+08:00

Found this in Kate's file... the school has been teaching them writing.. and this time its the chinese word 'four'.

Look at how her writing 'progresses'. Most probably the teacher was guiding her at the beginning but afterwards let her write on her own.

So in the end (the last cell) it was looking more like a heart shape window with curtains ;P

kids say the darnest thing...

2010-06-04T09:42:00.000+08:00

Incident 1 - Charlie was explaining why her daddy was taking a nap at po po's place before dinner.

Charlie : my daddy sleep very late. He watch tv until very late.
Kate (limited vocab) : my daddy NEVER sleep
Charlie : .......

赢了!

Incident 2 - Kate playing with herself, alternating between speaking for Legoman (yes, blame the mommy for the lack of imagination, she just tell K the name is legoman) and his horse.
Kate (Legoman to horse) : I don't friend you
Kate (horse to legoman) : no, I want to be your friend
Kate (legoman to horse) : I don't want to friend you
Mommy to papa : see? This is what she learns in school
Kate (horse to legoman) : I want to friend you
Kate (legoman to horse) : I don't friend you. You are gay.
Mommy : !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Incident 3 - mommy in the bathroom with K during that time of the month...
Kate (very excited) : mommy, you got pampers!!!!

Talking about having something in common.... *roll my eyes*

20100530 Woodlands Waterfront

2010-05-30T18:43:00.000+08:00

A few days ago, the evening news did a broadcast about the newly opened Woodlands Waterfront. So mommy decided to pay the place a visit before the recent oil slick goes all the way from south of Singapore to the North.

The place is quite near to Republic Polytechnic and basically at the other side of Admiralty Park (the park which starts from the poly).

We went there around noon, and luckily it was not warm as it was cloudy, and with lots of wind too!

Near to the car park.... luckily we manage to find a place ..else we won't know where else to park!

Papa saw a ice cream man, and being the urban city boy, he immediately go and buy an ice cream cos he cannot stand the heat (though it was quite cloudy).

This is a panorama taken by mommy when Kate and papa are eating the ice cream. All those tall buildins at the background is basically the city skyline of Johor!

The ice cream man crack the ice cream cone, and so distribute the ice cream into 2 cones, so Kate has her own ice cream!

enjoying ice cream.. the jetty is behind them...

yes..city gal also refuses to walk under the sun... insisting on staying in the stroller.. genetics *shake head*

walking to the end of the jetty... there are alot of people fishing but mommy did not see any big catch... or maybe its just too early....

the princess finally decided to come out from the stroller at the end of the jetty...

We walked back to the front of the park and go to the playground. There is this big climbing structure. Mommy and Kate tried to climb and managed to get kate abit off the ground but papa is afraid that Kate will fall when mommy is not holding her and insisted that they came down.

tried crossing the minature rope climb at the playground instead.... nowadays she is more bold..but she is still afraid of the swing (government lah! so few swings in housing estates for children to play with ...)!

After that, its back to HDB we go, for NTUC shopping and lunch before going home... end of a long weekend...

20100522

2010-05-30T18:27:00.000+08:00

This is the first time mommy saw Kate saw a face with eyes and mouth. So of course must post about it!

20100516 Arts Fest opening....

2010-05-30T18:25:00.000+08:00

This must be the year of lowest attendance for mommy for these few years. Previous year's arts festival is always filled with many free activities, but for this year, most of the activities are held at Vivocity (the other side of the island with about 1.5 hour of travelling time) and the activities at Esplanade was not announced till 'god'-knows-when. So this year, the only thing that Kate and mommy attended is the opening ceremony held at Empress Place.

We went to po po, 3rd and 4th yi yi with Janice and Yuan Yuan.

It was raining heavily, so there is no picture taken since mommy is busy carrying Kate and the umbrella at the same time.

The kids like walking in the open when its raining though.

At the end of the walk (from City hall to Asian Civilisation Museum), we found that the museum has free opening for that day, and comes with free ice cream and kids activities too! :) So into the museum we go!

free ice cream.. of course, everyone have to pretend to love Kate's ice cream so much that the adults ate the majority of her ice cream...ahahahaa

running around....

.... and activities for kids (this is a stamping station where the kids can stamp pictures of different asian treasures on a piece of long paper and made their own bookmark!

20100513 rocker!

2010-05-20T17:06:00.000+08:00

This is a video of Kate 'serenading' the dancing rabbit (a battery operated rabbit that dances to its own music) by pretending to be a rocker playing on a electric keyboard/guitar. Potential to be a future rocker?

p/s the 'howling' that appears halfway through the video is from the electric toy piano.

20100510 new torchlight

2010-05-20T17:01:00.000+08:00

Mommy's colleage passed mommy a min handheld fan-cum-torchlight as mommy was looking for it due to the terrible weather recently.

Look at how much fun Kate can have with just a simple toy like this. That evening she was running and hopping around the house, and offering to fan everything from the shirt on mommy's back to the newspapers that she was reading..

Unfortunately, the fan was spoilt a few days later as mommy accidentally activated the fan when it was inside her bag. The fan's engine heated up and wasted the plastic... :( mommy really can stress test things...

20100513 mother's day present...

2010-05-13T18:04:00.000+08:00

So many of the blogs have shown the presents that the kids have made for their mommies from cc.. so here is kate's....

a flower made of paper plate...

20100509 MBS

2010-05-10T16:13:00.000+08:00

Papa and mommy decided to check out the newly opened MBS (Marina Bay Sands) shopping area plus the Helix Bridge.

Kathleen at the MRT station. Mommy teased her about having her pics taken with her mouth wide open and she find it so funny she decided to pose for most photos with her mouth big as a O. :P

Demure outfit.. but at the end of the day, she was more Katy perry with her shirt hanging out, her leggings half rolled down and her hair clips gone.

Switching to the new Circle line all the way to Promenade station... The station has an exit near Suntec Carrefour which is so convenient now that there is no need to go to Suntec via City Link. Mommy can imagine 1) the decrease in business for the City Link tenants 2) the crowd at Promenade Station when the PC/IT shows are held at Suntec.

Did some shopping at Suntec, went for lunch, more shopping and then tea break with Donut Factory (no more queue!). kate chose a smiley face donut for herself and a heart shape chocolate donut for papa.

Walking to MBS. The walk is from Suntec, pass Millenia, then pass Conrad, then the Helix Bridge (actually not totally completed) , and then another long walk to the end of the MBS building before reaching the shopping area. The bridge looks just like a normal bridge in daylight. The walk must have taken at least 20 minutes (though it feel more than half an hour), and luckily Kate did not fuss, instead she asked mommy to carry her and fell asleep within 5 minutes despite the humid weather.

Only a few shops are opened, and alot of the boards are still up, indicating that renovation is still undergoing. There is this funny concave glass design outside the 'back door' (facing esplanade, Shenton Way etc) which mommy later suspect is part of the fountain design (cos below it is a half completed fountain like structure).

At basement 2, there is a long structure along the stretch of the shopping hallway with could be a future canal for gondolas (like Macau casino?).

Panorama view from outside... mommy's jet can only take 4 consecutive shots, so the view is split into 2 stitched pictures....

the 2nd half with Esplanade...

After that... abit more jalan jalan (and Kate woke up) before taking the MRT home again..

Kate finding the MRT too noisy....

Mommy doesn't think she will be going back in the near future. The shops are too high class, the place is too far to walk with a kid. Maybe the night scene will be interesting thats all...

20100508

2010-05-09T13:38:00.000+08:00

Checking out the new play area at Northpoint Shopping Center. As expected, she avoided the wet play area...

20100506 drinking apple water from bowl

2010-05-07T14:01:00.000+08:00

In the 江湖，the heroes will drink wine from big bowls, as they celebrate heroism and battles won.

In the house of 婆婆，mommy will cut a apple after dinner, peeled it, and then put it into Kate's bowl and then wash the apples. The water will dripped and accumulated in the bottom of the bowl. Kate will then eat the apples (and shared with other people), and then drink the water from the bowl, as if it is the best wine in the world....

20100501 labour day at the zoo

2010-05-02T13:10:00.000+08:00

Its Labour Day, and papa worked late the night before, so mommy brought Kate to the zoo so that papa can have his beauty sleep.

At Mandai Road, mommy saw the cars all being directed to park at the side of the road by a staff. The zoo staff then explained to mommy that the car park is undergoing renovation (until next year!) and so we have to park at the roadside, unless we opt for valet parking (which most probably they will park at the roadside too? unless they cordoned some of the remaining carpark lots for valet parking usage).

So mommy and Kate parked the car at the roadside and walked to the zoo. *Sweat*

Just after the entrance, there is a few trees where some small domesticated monkeys are jumping from tree to tree just above our heads. Interesting! Mommy's hp is too slow to capture the monkeys who are very fast....

First visit.. the toilet.... mommy likes the toilet.. with its greenery etc. Remains her of the toilet at Sentosa....

Next, we rushed to the elephant enclosure for the show at 1130am, only to find that the show is cancelled due to upgrading. What a disappointment!

Then its time (yes) to find lunch. The air conditioned ah meng restaurant was packed so mommy and Kate made their way to the well ventilated eatery next door which sells only pasta. But lots of empty seats. The pasta are cooked one serving at a time which means a longgggg waittttt..... *snap* pictures of Kate with the wooden carved crocodile....

After that, we walked to the Kidz Rainforest. Along the way, we see other animals.

See this picture? The baby zebra was born only 3 days ago!!!!

Kate took a picture of the signage explaining about zebras..cos she liked the pattern at the side..she called it a (jigsaw) 'puzzle'.

Next, the fragile rainforest... where we saw the raffesia, the largest flower in the world, and a lemur sleeping in the bush behind it....

We finally reached the water play area.. where Kate dared not go to the areas with water spraying around/being poured from a great height. So she end up only sitting at the side of the play area playing with the water. Under the hot sun (that explains the hat). Mommy gave up after a while cos its hot, and Kate whined everytime another kid run by and splash water onto her.

So off we go, to watch the show the rainforest fights back, and then the splash safari. By then Kate is very tired so we left the show halfway.

Last stop of the day, Ben and Jerry's. Mommy bought a ice cream (she insisted on having one with the 'biscuit' (cone)).

And they shared the ice cream as they walked under the hot hot sun back to the roadside where the hot hot car (did anyone say 'freshly baked'?) car was waiting.

And home they go.. to where papa was waiting...

p/s mommy saw some adults riding on the motorised scooter and zipping around the zoo. Maybe next time she will do the same... getting old... very tiring to walk in and out with a kid under the hot.... :P