It's a feasting weekend!

The past weekend has been a real feast of good food.

Aside from our indulgence on Friday, Ta Ta and Nei Nei decided to have a family dinner on Sunday as well. It was a splurge at Peach Garden with above average food which cost us a bomb! There were 2 more dishes of fried shark's fin and scallop asparagus which Mommy didn't manage to take coz her hands were full eating and feeding Abel.

Monday 22 Feb

Mommy wasn't expecting anything since we had our celebrations on Friday. Nonetheless, Daddy pleasantly surprised Mommy with cakes from Canele - something that Mommy had wanted to try but haven't quite told Daddy about it. The cakes were light and not too sweet, the chocolate ones were irresistable, melting in the mouth. Of course, nothing beats complimenting that with a glass of ice wine!

Couple date

TGIF!

Daddy took Mommy out for a date in celebrations of her birthday which falls on 22 Feb. It's our first date for the year and also one of the few rare ones after we had the kids! Now that the kids are older, and we have kind of settled for a routine of Friday nights at our in laws, hopefully there will be more of such times. Not to be greedy, hopefully at least once a month?

To Mommy's pleasant surprise, Daddy proposed watching a movie before our dinner. These days Mommy just wanted some brainless laughter, so we went for a silly Chinese movie "All well ends well". Really don't have to put any thinking into it.

Dinner was fantastic! Mommy loved the food at Shin Kushiya! It's our first visit and the food just taste absolutely heaven despite being just Japanese food. The freshness and taste were uniquely first class.

Sunny Valentine's

A surprise bouquet of flowers stood waiting for Mommy at her bedside tonight. Isn't Daddy sweet after all though it takes ages for him to buy Mommy one? 4-in-1 function!

Cousins@play

It's a pity these days that cousins don't meet often like in the good old days of the past where the extended family is closely knitted. Nonetheless, we try to make the most of our gatherings. Today, our eldest cousin invited us over for a swim and lunch.

Our little boy seemed to be more comfortable in water today after Mommy 'dragged' him in for a dip. Looks like he also wants to swim like the older sisters. Surprisingly, when Mommy asked him to go down to swim position, he really did and started kicking as well.

Nothing's more fun than piggy back Daddy in the water. He even attempted to stand on Daddy's back.

Reunion

As usual, we had 2 reunion dinners. One at Ah Ma's place and another at Nai Nai's.

To add on, at Nai Nai's, Wenying Gu Gu brought some sparklers and the girls had fun. Abel was invited to join the fun. However, he was not keen to try and only keen to just wonder around.
Our little precious wanted curly hair so just before bed, Mommy pleated her hair and she happily went to bed with it.
The outcome the next day! Heehee, many thought Mommy had permed her hair.

Zoo on CNY eve

Not sure if it was CNY eve or was it Universal Studio's opening, the zoo was rather quiet. For the first time, we decided to rent a tiny explorer to put the kids in so that they won't be too tired out.

Things are never bored at the zoo. There's always new things to discover. This time we managed to get a good seat for the Splash and Elephants@work show. The kids were really fascinated. Even Abel was sitting quietly watching intently at the show.
It's our 2nd time feeding the elephants. This time round, Keziah was keen on the feeding. In the past, she would shun once she right in front of the animal but this time, she just loved the experience. Not only that, our little Abel was just as excited despite facing such a huge animal.
Rest and relax...
We stumbled into the crocodile enclosure which we never seemed to have come by the previous many times. We were always watching out for them at the treetop walk.
We were just in time for giraffe feeding. We discovered that aside from having long neck and long legs, they have long tongues too!

Along the way, we bummed into the peahen and her chicks. They looked just so different!

Hey, orang utans chewed on sugar canes too!

Nothing beats filling our tummies after all the walk. It's KFC!
Our posy gal....

MOF - Yummy

Daddy had to meet a friend at Marina Square so Mommy took us out for some desserts while waiting for him. Ooooo....the cool ice cream though it's a little messy when the two both loved it and want it at the same time! Mommy was just relaxing over a cup of Matcha Latte - unique taste...

Sushi Day

We went to Isetan to get our fresh tuna and salmon for sashimi and of course, we're going to make sushi for dinner.

Our little girl is ever so excited to help!
Finally we got to use our Hello Kitty rice mould for the first time. Just look at what she stuffed inside. Nothing but rice and cucumber.

Ready for swim....

It's been a break from swimming for ages. Surprisingly, Keziah seemed more ready to swim. She's really kicking hard with her two legs and paddling, without fear of dipping her head down.

What about Abel? He's happy just sitting at the edge to play with water but he sure retaliates when you want him in it.

Good to be home early!

It's definitely good to be back home early with the kids but days are not going to many with lesson proper starting next Tue. Today, we managed to do some craft and puzzles and simply snuggled together for a short clip of leapfrog talking words factory. How lovely it is to have a little bit more reading time together before bed!

Surprise that Abel can draw a face decently well at his age and could even tell that he's drawing 2 eyes.

24-pc Disney princess puzzle which took her awhile to complete but nonetheless she did most of it herself with some hints here and there.

Making his little pyramid

Ouch! "Dog" fight

We have always heard about cat fights among girls but rarely any for boys. Would we have called it dog fights for boys? Mommy was just so tickled when Abel's teacher called yesterday to say that he was bitten by his friend over toys. Guess age does not matter this young when you want something. Nonetheless, Mommy was surprised by the severity of the bite. Daddy told Mommy that his teacher told him that it was at the playground when it happened when he went to pick him up after school. Apparently, his teacher offered him to sit on the swing but he didn't want and who knows what happened next between Abel and this other kid coz when the teacher turned around, he was "attacked". Was it over the swing due to some miscommunication? Was it in defence or was it in anger? No idea.

Definitely this other kid must be a strong boy with a good set of teeth that left him with this red mark even after a day.

The Hair-cut Ordeal

Abel hasn't had a proper haircut since his birth. It had always been done by Ah Ma. We had once tried to bring him to QBhouse for a cut but failed. Today, we were determined to give him a "boy" haircut with the usual slope as his hair was getting really thick and long. It was definitely a fight that needed 3 persons to hold him down: one to carry him, another to entertain/hold his head down and last, to cut his hair. It was simply cries, screams and hands and legs everywhere. Even the Blue Clue video on Daddy's iTouch was insufficient to distract him. No pictures/videos to show the ordeal since both DAddy and Mommy were so involved in holding him down. Thankfully the hairdresser didn't give up half way and pity the other customer that was in the saloon. After all, it's only $5 for a cut.

Interestingly, when the hairdresser asked us how short, we said short, boy-cut. Guess what was the question that came: Huh, a boy? Not girl? Ah Ma had said many commented that he looked like a girl which we wondered why coz to us, he always had that boyish looks. What do you say?

The tearful Abel on exit from the ordeal.

BEFORE: What Abel usually looks like...our baby face...

AFTER: His NEW style after a clean up. He looks so grown up!

Don't father and son look even more alike now?

Mommy's shoes and Carousel @ Pasar Malam

Abel's picking up the habit from his sister: wearing mommy's shoes and going around. Looks like everything is fun!

The pasar malam just opposite our block has been on since last week. Keziah has been pestering us for a ride since then. Today, we decided to give her a treat and she definitely thoroughly enjoyed it. However, $3 for a rickety carousel was really expensive. Abel was asking for one but we decided it would be when he's older.

Botanic Gardens - church fellowship

Our church organised a fellowship meeting at Botanic Gardens. Naturally, our kids loved the idea of being able to be at the park to roam. As usual, they will never miss seeing the swans, fish and turtles and wanting ever so much to feed them. Today, we didn't bring any food but a nice lady, who was feeding the swans, spared the kids some.

We had fun reaching out to nature; climbing tree branches, feeling the leaves and looking at interesting flowers that were in bloom.

Keziah's activities

Working does take a great deal of time off the kids and so these days, we don't really do very much. Some flashcards, memory games, singing with the CD, reading and the rest are mostly activity books like dots-to-dots, colouring, mazes, tear-and-paste for the evenings that we have.

Keziah has never quite enjoyed memory games but surprisingly today, she took to it and could remember the sequence of up to 5 cards and almost striking bingo with 6 cards!

Keziah's little face...

Caught sight of Keziah's sketches which she does while waiting to go off to school in the morning. A face with a nice big circle and better proportions....

Bang....

It was the most unexpected for our safety driver Daddy to run into a taxi. We were on our way home when the taxi in front of us did an emergency brake. Yes, we didn't break in time and out of the blue, we jerked forward to an abrupt halt with a "bang". We knew immediately things weren't good. Thankfully all were safe aside from some relatively minor damages to the car and taxi.

Kite flying...

Finally Keziah had her first hand at kite flying. It was definitely not easy to keep the kite in the air and after a few attempts, even Daddy didn't managed to keep it up. Nonetheless, we just wanted it to be simply fun for the kids, so Keziah got her hands at just pulling the kite around. Needless to say, the kite didn't survive the crash landing. Interestingly, Abel was only interested in watching kites gliding in the sky and after awhile, he was just off running around the open space, walking along the raised platform.

Do you think we can win in the mother and child look alike competition?