20100501 labour day at the zoo

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

20100418 swimming update

Today brought Kate to the pool as papa came back from night shift and needed his beauty sleep.

After playing with her in the pool for a while, I noticed that she had actually lifted her legs up so that she is not standing in the pool, and with the float on her arms, she is able to float and bobbed on the water.  I even sweep my hand below her body to ensure that none of her body is touching the floor of the pool and that its not a optical illusion (like magic show ha ha). And the gal likes it alot as she keep doing it again and again with a cheeky smile on her face. 

I asked her to try to move her arms so that she can 'swim' but she did not do so.  Perhaps the floats on the arm is restrict her movement.  But this is a good start :) How I wish I have a camera with me to capture this special moment! :)

20100323 mommy's thoughts

After Chinese New Year, Kate started showing some refusal in going to school.  It escalated until she would cry every morning after she woke up.  Everyday.  Until today. Papa is going crazy.   On the only day which I sent her to school, she was alright, but that is not the long term plan, as papa is the one using the car, and if I have to send her to school, she will need to be in school before 7.30am, which I think is too early for such a young gal (especially when she had such a late bedtime).

She is also refusing rice during dinner.  So on certain evenings, she would not take in any solid at all.  Cannot remember if this started before or after Chinese New Year.  Sigh..there goes my plan to fatten her up.

I checked with my sis who also had a 3 year old and she confirmed that terrible twos does not run in our family.  Its the terrible threes instead, and she herself is having problem with her own child (who can understand more than Kate).  My sis said that based on her experience with her elder child, this TT stage will last for about half a year. Argh!

With my dilly dally, I have not visited any of my shortlisted primary schools, nor have I started drafting my parent volunteer letter. Argh!

Here are 2 pictures of her lying on my bed drinking milk.  As her mattresses are all on the ground, papa has to carry her mattresses and put them on our master bed on the evenings when the PT cleaner so that the PT cleaner can vacuum and mop the floor in her bedroom.  She like this arrangement, cos she like to jump on a highly stacked up mattresses, or to squeeze into the little gap left, and do her things (eg, read her books, or drink milk like what she is doing in this picture).

And finally here is a picture of her with her elmo and bear bear, her current bedtime story and tuina and sleeping mates. :)

Afternote (added 20100328) :

forget to add that nowadays, Kate likes to greet bus drivers. When she board the bus, she will shout HELLO to the bus driver very loudly (of course some drivers will say hello back while some will ignore her).  Previously she will say BYEEEEEE to all the passengers in the MRT after she got off the MRT.  And this is from a gal who will 'act shy' when she sees her neighbours and who will not greet her grandparents. 

And nowadays she also improvise lyrics.  When she does her things (playing mostly) she can sing songs with known tunes, but with her own lyrics, eg, talking about what she was doing then, etc.  She is beginning to show signs of being able to tell me what happened when I was not around (yes, most kids can do by 1.5 year old) cos that day she told me that her water bottle was broken in school, and when prompted, can tell me in her limited language that she was the one who pull the bottle off the shelf.  Similarly, yesterday, when I came home, she was able to convey the message that she asked papa where I was ('Mommy mommy') when she woke up and cannot find me.

20100320 here we go....

After numerous attempts of photo taking, shrink and crop, mommy finally manage to get a decent looking picture that kind of fulfill the ICA's requirements for a passport picture.

The unsuccessful attempt include blur pictures, background that are not white (mommy does not know how to use photoshop), shrunk result that does not fulfill the dimensions and size required by ICA.

After several tries, mommy finally figured out how to use the 'set white background (whatever)' to make a off white background looks white.  The final copy was smaller then ICA's required byte size, but they manage to process it! :)

So on a raining Saturday morning, everyone went to ICA to collect the passport.  Though we miss our appointment timing, the wait was not that long (though there was some technical glitch which does not show all queue numbers on all the screens which result in us nearly missing our queue number).

So now Kate has her first passport and she can now go overseas! :)

And here is the picture inside her passport.  Doesn't she look sweet? :P

20100306 kite flying

On a humid Saturday evening, Kate and mommy took the MRT (NS line --> circle line --> NE line) to Buangkok MRT to meet up with some premmies and their parents for pinic and kite flying.  This is the first time she went for  kite flying.

Some of the mommies have kindly offered to bring food and drink, so Kate just need to bring her kite!  Thank you to the other mommies :)

The wind was pretty strong, but on and off, so mommy did not really manage to keep the kite up in the sky for a long time (no kungfu!). 

Here's Kate holding onto the reel (?) for the kite string.  She is very excited especially when the wind is so strong it just pushes the kite  higher and higher up and the string just keep unwinding as if it has a life of its own.

That's our kite ! (the one in the middle of the picture with the string)

After the wind died down, Kate and mommy joined the rest of the people for a picnic just outside the MRT station.  Here she is posing with a cute biscuit with a smiley face :)

Auntie Michelle with the lovely Paige...

Kate with Paige and Yilin's elder sis Weng (4 years old) behind them.

Auntie Eileen and Bryan with the snow white skin!

A group photo taken by Paige's daddy... (from left) Yilin's sister Weng, Bryan and mommy, Yilin (she is so sweeet!) and mommy, Jolie and mommy, Paige and mommy, and Kate and mommy.

After leaving, Kate and mommy went to Compass Point for dinner... Kate enjoyed the kite flying so much that when she went home, she told papa 'I fly kite' with her hands stretched open like a kite/aeroplane.  Mommy should bring Kate kite flying more often! :)

2010 the 15 days of CNY period

Kate's CNY celebration for this year started on the Thursday before CNY with a reunion dinner with her

爷爷 and family (and 叔叔's girlfriend! :P) at Pu Tien a Jurong Point.  The mee sua is yummy (the picture is that of the yu sheng)!

On Friday, Kate and 婆婆 and mommy went to the florists at Thomson Road to buy some flowers to decorate the house.


On Saturday, which is the eve of Chinese New Year, Kate and mommy and papa went to 婆婆's place for the steamboat.  This reunion dinner is noiser than usual as most of the 姨姨 (except for one) can make it back, so its the usual strength (and noise) of a Friday dinner!  Here's a picture of Charlie and Kate next to the lilies that were bought from Far East Flora. Can see that next time Charlie will grow up to be a big beauty...

Sunday is the first day, and Kate dress up to go to 爷爷's place.  But she did not manage to meet up with her 表妹 and 表弟 as 表妹 had her nap and was unable to turn up early, and mommy had to leave early for home to rest as she injure her back again (yes, first day and have to go to A & E!).


On lunar 2nd day, as with the tradition of the previous years, Kate rushed from 大姨姨's place to 二姨姨's place (where they have fun terrorizing the pet rabbit :P) back to 四姨姨's place before going to 婆婆's place for dinner.  Nicole was chaperone for the 2 gals for the day and she did a good job! :)

The 3rd day is also a public holiday, and 爷爷 and the 2 叔叔 and 叔叔's girlfriend and  姑姑 and 姑丈 and 表弟 came over to our place.  表妹 was unable to make it as she had fallen sick after consuming too much CNY goodies!

After that, Kate and mommy went to Auntie Xiaowen's place where she had a fun time with Cheyanne and Keondre.

The next day cc was closed, and mommy and Kate went to send the camera for servicing.

A few days later, on the Saturday, Kate and mommy was invited to a BBQ by Auntie Connie who have moved to a lovely area in central area.  She set up plenty of water play for the kids to play and also BBQ food for the famished adults!  The kids have lots of fun with the toys and the adults are impressed with the house and the plants (they have real passion fruit plant and starfruit tree. Wow!).  And also very impressive is Auntie Jamie who is now soooooo slimmmmmmmmmm and she does not look like the mother of 2 kids (mommy took a picture as proof! :P)!  It was a great gathering as mommy have not seen some of them for a longgg time, and had a good time catching up.

  

 

On the 15th day of CNY, papa and mommy gave up on the extreme heat and brought Kate for a swim at Safra.  The water was so warm it felt like its about 30 degree! 

So here's a recap of how Kate spend her CNY! :) 

20100226 kate using laundry

Kathleen always like to do 'adult chores', be it preparing her own powder, helping with put clothes into the laundry bags, and the more babyish things such like pressing the lift buttons.

Here is a video taken of her helping mommy to put the clothes into the laundry bag.  On a regular day, she will put the clothes into the bag, zip it up, ensure that the zipper head is in the 'pocket' (to prevent the zip from being undone when it is in the washing machine), and then drop it into the washing machine.  But with the video on, she is more hesitant in her actions.

Notice how, near the end, she was trying so hard to push the corner of the laundry bag into the washing bag.

Enjoy.

20100212 mommy's thoughts

Yesterday at the reunion dinner, she got a red packet with a picture of tigger (its the year of the tiger next year) doing a handstand.  She loves tigger.

Me : look! Its tigger!

Then after some fussing.

Kate : Tigger is hot!
Me : why?

She was unable to answer. Was it because the packet is red in colour? was it because Tigger is not wearing any clothes?

After some more attempts in answering ...

Kate : Tigger has a hat.

The tigger has one of those chinese round hat/cap on.  And then it dawn on me that she thinks Tigger is feeling hot because the tigger has a hat on, and Kate herself always ask for her hat when we went out under the hot sun (and I always tell her that she must put her hat on when its hot).

What a lesson in looking from different angles. :)

20100207 Dino park and Jurong Bird Park

The extended family had bought the tickets to the Dino Prk since the beginning but never manage to arrange a time to go.

As the show will be ending soon, we have to (by hook or crook) go, and even knowing that it will be a disappointment as feedback by many other mommies.

So on a Sunday morning, the 3 families arranged to meet at the Jurong Bird Park.

The dinosaurs are mostly stationary, some of them not moving, some with abit of mechanical parts (blinking eyes, moving heads or tails).  Some mommies have talked about a guided tour which (thankfully) we did not encounter as mommy cannot imagine the rowdy kids having to follow a guide throughout the whole place!

 

The staff made the kids stand in front of this poster of a dino (t rex? don't ask me!) to take a photo which interested people can buy at the exit counter later.

 

Dino with moving eyes, head and tail.

We were asked to go into a 'tent' which will have a moving dinosaur.  Charlie is too afraid to go in so her mommy has to keep her company outside.

The moving dinosaur, which is a poor staff dressed in a dino costume and just walking around and swaying to the music.

 

More pics...with Kate eating her half-eaten breakfast... ahahhaa

 

 

'fossil' digging area.  After the kids are gone, the staff will scoop the sand to cover the 'fossils' again for the next group of children.

After visiting the dino park, Charlie left with her parents as she had a persistent cough and need to see a doctor which only opened half a day.  The rest then proceed to the Jurong Bird Park.

This is Kate at the toilet near to Bongo restaurant.  

 

The birds...

 

 

  

Kids' bird show with some tourist participating.  Janice wanted to participate very much but seems that they usually choose tourists to participate.

After the show.  The bird park is decorated with alot of Chinese-y in conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year.

 

walking up a slope.  One of those rare moments which Kate does not asked to be carried.

 

  

Kate walked away shyly as she realised that mommy wanted to take her picture.

  

 The lory aviary.  Kate managed to have hands on experience in feeding the birds as Janice shared her cup of bird water (sweetened, according to a staff) with her and yuan yuan.

 

A video of her feeding the birds...the expression on her face is priceless...

  

A picture of Kate's plasters as she fell earlier on while chasing after her older cousins.

 

Birds and buddies show which was delayed due to the rain.  And started with a flock of birds flying from one side of the stage to the another, and then the flamingoes going onstage

A pair of toucans...

Kate enjoying the show very much. She is now much older than the last time and appreciate the show more...

After the show, it rained again, and Janice and Yuan yuan changed and played at the water area while the rest sit under the shelter.  This picture is taken by Kate cos she wanted to take a pic of papa walking back to the shelter from the toilet.  But after that, when she off the camera, the camera jammed and is spoilt. :(

We went for abit of food (burgers, fries and Ben and Jerry's) after that before going home.  All in all, Kate enjoyed the outing very much. :)

20100123

On a hot afternoon, crazy mommy (on a bet on her back) decided to bring Kate to the MacRitchie Reservoir for a short visit.  Mommy rattled off alot about reservoirs and how the water will go to the tap, but not sure how much Kate absorbed.

It was hot, and the walk from bus stop to the shaded areas in the reservoir felt like eternity.  We went to the central pavilion (whatever you call it) and sit for a while enjoying the wind for a while before going home.

There was a surprise though.  We saw many monkeys in the reservoir!  First time Kate see monkeys so close to her.  :)

20100112 mommy's thoughts

End of a year, beginning of another one.

I ended the year with a visit to neonat clinic K at KKH.

Doctor's verdict?  She managed to put on a bit of weight and so there is no need to see the dietitian for the time being.

Beginning of the year started with an appointment to her speech therapist.  She can differentiate long and short, big and small now.  But still got homework as usual.  And the therapist still think that its good to continue to monitor her.

Back at home, her 2 best friends are now Elmo and Bear bear (basically all the bears at home are called Bear Bear).  They will join us for bedtime reading, and I also have to do tuina for Bear Bear and Elmo and Kate as part of the bedtime routine. :P  No prize for guessing how long is her bedtime routine.

I tried to start reading Chinese books to her,but is mostly unsuccessful. She will tell me 'this book cannot read' when she sees that its a Chinese book, and put it aside.  But at least she is not adverse to listening or speaking Mandarin.  So I guess now all I can do is to start teaching her one Chinese word by one word, before starting her on Chinese books.

I have started my physiotherapy and is now taking the daring step of carrying her more often :P

She is now 3 years old, and is a joy to be with.  Perhaps I am getting old, but nowadays it seems that she will become super cranky by evening time if she did not get her nap.  So I am trying to shift all her activities to morning. Ha ha.  She still cannot rationalize many things, and is still unable to answer many questions (eg, questions about what happen in childcare always drew a blank or some irrelevant answers) .  Just yesterday, I brought her all over the island, carrying her most of the time, only to realise at the end of the day when she slept after her milk, that she must have not have her afternoon nap in child care.  I have asked her a few times if she had taken her nap during the course of the day, and her answer was 'I sleep in Barney mattress cover' which I assume it means that she did sleep.  Apparently that was not so.  Sometimes I wonder if its genetic (her father is not much of a talker too), sometimes I wonder otherwise. [I was reading the blog of a mommy with a atypical child, and she was saying how people had marvel at how quiet is her son when he was younger, when it is actually a symptom.  Reminds me of how last time some people commented that she must be very intelligent, because her eyes will dart around as if absorbing the new environment, but she will be very quiet...]

This new year, I will have one more thing to start worrying about.  Its the year I have to decide which primary school I should send her to, and to do PV if required (yes, its the year of PV registration for  the kids born in 2006).  Gosh, I wonder how other people decide, since who can guess what can/will happen i 3 years time, if we will move,  or if the current planned arrangement will no longer work out.  Most probably she will end up in a student care,which is so sad (coming from me since my own mother was a SAHM during my school years so I will go home after school with warm meals and a bed) cos she will not really be able to rest before/after school.

20100101 New Year at Animal Resort

On the first day of the new year, Kate finally get a chance to go the Animal Resort at Seletar West Farmway.

Papa got a pack of carrots for her to feed the rabbits and she loved feeding them.  She also feed the horse with the rabbit and got a nip on her hand!

Kate enjoys the visit very much and had asked mommy to bring her back to the 'zoo' to 'feed rabbits' :)

After the animal farm, the family went to the nearby Myco mushroom farm for a brief visit and bought some mushroom products, including the yummy mushroom-cum-seaweed floss.

Here is a collage (mommy's first attempt with picassa) and some videos to enjoy!