Upper Seletar Reservoir

We had been really exhausted by the weeks activities and even more so for Mommy who's now going through all the preggy syndrome. Somehow Daddy who really prefers to stay home most of time, decided these few weekends to try to take evening out for walks which Mommy loved! Today, we ventured to Upper Seletar Reservoir and the sky was really lovely.

There was a little playground there and nontheless, it's one of those old few ones left which you find Merry-Go-Round, rickety see saw, hopscotch. Look at what Abel found! A budding coconut fruit.

How posey has our little girl become! Erm but looks like she learnt some kungfu or combat boxing somewhere.
Us FOUR...

There were loads of monkeys along the way but the kids loved seeing them!
Our dear girl suggested driving by the see the Christmas lightings and our dear Daddy gladly obliged. Brightly lit Orchard Road....

Holiday Programme....

For the week, Keziah and Abel have been attending a holiday class. It's Abel's first encounter in a big class setting and he was initially stuck like glue to Mommy and even started to cry when the welcome singing started. He must have been frightened by the noise level. Nonetheless, once he warmed up, he was fine and all over the place. The theme for Abel's class was fine feathered friends. Of course, he met with different kinds of birds. Everyday they got to do 2 art and craft pieces, stories, songs, play time and snacks. In this week, he picked up 2 letters: p (penguin, parrort, panda) and d (duck, dinosaurs, dog).

As part of the programme, the little ones visited the Jurong Bird Park. Frankly speaking, Mommy hasn't been there for ages and things have really changed. We had a great encounter with the parrots, lories and penguins, saw a whole lot of other birds at the Bird Show, and had our first ride on the Bird Park's monorail.

Some of his art pieces...

For Keziah, her class was up to Awakening the Puppet Master. Over the 5 days, she made 4 puppets which the kids took bits from them to make the magic potion to awaken the puppet master on day 5. It just so interesting to see the little ones put up the puppet show just that Mommy wasn't around to see it. Shu Shu had to accompany as Mommy was off for a church seminar.

Puppet Show clip...give us a bit of time to process it..

The Green Sheep

Holiday season is always a time where shopping centres start to put up shows for the kids. Here at Forum, there was a theatrical play "The Green Sheep" by an Australian cast based on writer Mem Fox. We had to queue for tickets 30 mins or so before the show as seats were limited albeit free. It was really a very entertaining show, with sound effects so real made from different instruments. We saw so many different kind of sheep and the kids, even Abel, were captivated by the show. After the show, the kids got to interact with the cast, play with the instruments and listen to the story being read again.

Thereafter, you could sign up for their workshop. The kids really had fun working on the crafts, moving from one station to another. In total, we brought back 3 art pieces each, with the final one to be displayed at Forum.

Yes, we met up with her exclassmate Sarah for the show as well. Just look at the girls enjoying their snacks after show!

Swim time

It's holidays! The kids were off from school and we had great fun swimming together! The two little ones were simply born to be in water that they couldn't be bothered with Mommy.

Keziah's been really a lover of water and now takes every opportunity to try to hold her breathe under, not to mention diving, splishing and splashing around. It would be just a matter of time and if Daddy or Mommy teaches her how to kick her legs that she'll be swimming like a fish.

Water Fun again @ Vivo

It was rather impromptu as Tata and Nei Nei picked up us from class and decided to take us out for lunch. As usual a sumptuous lunch, then it's play time for the kids. First time for Abel at this water play area...He sure enjoyed the fun of splashing around eventhough Mommy said she didn't bring extras. Our dear Keziah got her little treat of Boost after the play. How grandparents dote on the little ones!

What I want for Xmas?

Oh yes, Keziah's now of age to know how to ask for gifts. Whenever we go to Toyrus or ELC for a walk or just to buy birthday presents, she too takes the opportunity to shop for gifts for herself. You should see her browsing through the brochures we received from shopping centres filled with toys for the kids and thereafter asking us if we could get presents for her. These are the items that caught her eyes....

While little Abel would love this!

Will Daddy and Mommy buy? Erm...too much...Any sponsors?

Housewarming cum cousins gathering

Gathering with cousins...Seriously, Keziah doesn't meet with her extended cousins aside from Chinese New Year and dinner gatherings once awhile, not to mention playing together. Today, she had the chance and kids sure don't need much time to warm up to playing and eating together. Oh yes, common interests too - barbie and dress up dolls for girls and trains and cars for boys.

Thanks Ah Tong Shu Shu for inviting us to your housewarming..

Dinner Prep..

Thought to make dinner preparation more interesting, Mommy got the kids to explore the corn/maize. So we talked about the stem, the leave sheath, the kernels, and silk. The kids enjoyed tearing the leaves into pieces and we realised we can only do that lengthwise. It's real tough if you try to do it across the width. Afterwhich, it was simply wrapping it in foil and left in the oven to bake.

Mommy really didn't know what to do on top of the roast chicken that was in the oven, so it was just simply mash potatoes for the carbo, added with peas for vegetables (vitamins/proteins) and a whole load of cheddar cheese for calcium. Keziah did all the layering and grating of the cheese. Abel was none other going to be left out, wanting to be part of every step.

Sand art...Xxxx....Yyyy...

Our first attempt at sand art. My oh my, thank goodness that Mommy did it outside the flat, otherwise, we would be having a sand storm in the house. Keziah was really careful in her work and in fact, got so worked up that there was insufficient sand of the appropriate colour to fill her craft. She wanted to do it like the sample picture and when the colours ran out, she wailed and whined. Mommy had no choice but to stop everything to give her a lecture on being flexible.

Well didn't really do much with our dear letter X and Y. For letter X, we simply sang songs to do with X-ray and Xylophone, did a simple craft X-ray of a leaf by shading out its shape with a crayons of different colours. There was an intent to look for books on X-ray but somehow didn't find anything appropriate at the library. Will have to shelf this till our next library trip.

Y was a little more interesting. We were yakking away on the phone alot this week and eating yougart as snack. Yes, we managed to get a story book on the Lucky Baby Yak but sadly the storyline wasn't very fantastic and alot too wordy (actually a folklore which Mommy didn't think was too appropriate after reading more in detail - skip the book). Nonetheless, we made our hairy yak by using toilet roll as well as strips of paper which Keziah rolled to curl them using a chopstick. Looks like rolling paper strips wasn't an easy task afterall for the little girl. With the lack of patience, that explained the few strand of 'hair' that the yak had.

We messed around with fingerprinting together with Abel. However, our dear Keziah messed all the colours on the paintpad by rubbing across with her palm while Mommy went off to check on cooking in the kitchen. Ok, still usable but guess the colours are not so distinct from now on. With that, we made our little yacht.

@ 9 weeks

Doc said that our little one is growing well. The size has doubled over 2 weeks while Mommy lost a minimal of 300g. This is really a miracle as Mommy has been having weird tastebuds and has been eating supper of instant noodles. Yes, instant noodles is not very healthy but somehow Koka dried mee goreng and occasional Korean spicy noodles makes her feel better. Tried as best to take those that were without MSG. Otherwise, most of the time, though not throwing up, she's nausea and icky, not knowing what to eat as nothing taste good.

Hang on...

Visiting the exercise stations just under our block has been quite a routine in the morning. We had been walking in balancing beams, jumping from stump to stump, walking the steps and stairs and swinging off bars. Just these 2 weeks, Abel was able to hang on for a good length of 1-2min at least from the bar though today he's not quite pleased that mommy left him hanging there to take a picture.

Keziah, who is now off school, amazed mommy with the bar. Being able to jump and hang on to a bar beyond her height to even swinging her legs and finally landing reasonably well when she's tired. What strong arms!

Botanic Gardens Swan Lake

We took an early morning trip down to the Botanic Gardens to feed the swans at the lake. The kids were really excited at the feeding session. It's not just about seeing the swans but also the tortoises, catfish, kois and other little fish in the pond as well as a variety of birds along the path. We even caught sight of 2 squirrels!

We happened to bum into the recently erected sunflower exhibit in the park while strolling along. Look at these grey sunflowers!

Swimmy, Frederik and Inch By Inch

It's a puppet play by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Swimmy is a tiny insignificant fish in the vast ocean who uses ingenuity to fend off danger. Frederick, a mouse who is a poet from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail, makes everyday life an artful experience. The story of Inch by Inch features a lovable inchworm who is very proud of his facility for measuring absolutely everything, including a robin’s tail, a flamingo’s necks, a toucan’s beak, a heron’s leg and a nightingale’s song.

Keziah certainly enjoyed being out for a play but she still has some way to go, learning how to sit down and listen rather than keep asking mommy whys. Mommy really liked the puppets for their movements were really realistic.

Nothing beats a nice lunch after.

Keziah's Colouring

Keziah had been doddling for a good long time even past her 3 year old birthday. The first picture on the extreme left is the usual stuff we will see when we give her any colouring book. It was always one colour and all over the place. It was not until June or July that we saw her being more conscious of colouring within the lines. These days at 3.5 year old, she somehow became interested in joining the dots activities and filling up the picture with colours of her choice. The next 2 pictures following were her works done just last week. She could practically do one each day after her lunch as a wind down activity to nap time. She is still improving on her scissors skills when it comes to curves and small areas.

Salt Crystals...

Our attempt at making salt crystals. For today, we dissolved salt in hot boiling water and noticed that as we added more salt, the rate of dissolution slowed down. After we poured the solution onto some sponge to act as a bed for crystalisation, now it's just to wait for evaporation to occur to see the crystallisation. Till the next post...