Back!

I had been on a hiatus from this blog for many many months..mainly because P went to Hong Kong and took the old laptop, leaving me with a new shiny tablet which i hated. Haha..he had good intentions, thinking that the tablet was more portable and I could let the children use it too, but it only had one USB port and it was a pain to transfer photos / backup stuff with. Given my limited time for blogging (10minutes after the children sleep and before the helper sleeps) grappling with all those technical issues was too much of a waste of my time and so I gave up.

P has brought the old laptop back on his own initiative..he says he wanted to “put me out of my misery”. I’m sure he’ll enjoy reading the posts from the tablet, instead.

So here’s the 1st back-post..Pictures from our outdoor photoshoot last year!

We went to the Fort Canning Park and it was rather fun, posing, running around, chasing bubbles..

Calista didn’t smile very much as usual, but we weren’t too bothered by that (especially since i still have some hazy memory of how ‘dao’ i would be in front of strangers, as a child). We did manage to catch a few rare smiles of hers when she was thrown in the air by P or when her brother teased her, so those are precious shots..

It was definitely a good bonding experience and gives us some concrete memories to keep, and act as triggers when we are old and senile, of how life was when we were a young family.

The pictures also made good Christmas presents for P and the MIL, who probably want nothing other than to see the children everyday..

Let's go to the beach

One of the children's favourite song to dance and bounce around to is "Let's go to the beach".

It's a repetitive ditty (as most kids songs are), and it goes like that:

Let's go to the beach
It's a sunny, sunny day today..
Let's go to the beach
It's a sunny sunny day today.

Christian hadn't been to his favourite beach in a while, so we decided to take the opportunity one day when it was sunny and we didn't have swim class to go to. The kids were so delighted! Christian dug around in the sand and played with the sand machines at Siloso beach, while Calista mostly watched. I took shelter in the shade, while feeling grateful that P was so hands-on. =P

Uma’s birthday

We went for Uma’s birthday party at Amazonia, Great World City about a month back.

Uma is Christian’s classmate; she happens to be half-Japanese and I think she is a pretty girly-girl :)

It was our first time at Amazonia (most of our visits to indoor playgrounds are a result of his classmates’ birthday celebrations) and it was less impressed than I imagined it to be but Christian disappeared in the play structure the minute we arrived and I enjoyed seeing his exhilarated self playing with his usual playmates outside of their usual venue.

Calista had fun at the baby play area for below-3s..and I spent most of my time watching her watch others. Her favourite activity was to pick up the balls that were strewn all over the floor, and return them to the ball pit. =/

Hopefully his classmates don’t suffer from “indoor playground fatigue” and enjoy his party this Saturday too!

At MBS

We skipped swim class last Saturday cos Christian was ill. We were at a loss as to where to go, and eventually decided to go to Marina Bay Sands since there was a festival going on that weekend and there would be face painting, balloon sculpting etc.

The children were delighted with the boardwalk at the promenade, and were fascinated with the Oculus. Christian stared at the whirlpool, and we ran to the basement to follow the flow of the water.

We decided to have breakfast at Coffee Bean’s beanstro, where we could watch the waterfall for awhile.

Next, we headed to my office to test out the gym ball I’ve bought together with my colleagues. At one point in time, others could see from the ground floor, my colleagues and I sitting on 3 red balls, all in a row.

After testing out the gym ball to see whether it suited P, we headed over to the museum.

I had read on some mummy’s blog that the Eames Essential exhibition was interesting and had more interactive displays for children. We paid for the kids and I (the proceeds were going to charity that weekend) and explored the life of the makers of the Herman Miller chairs.

This exhibition was definitely not as accessible to children as the Art Garden. Some of what was on display was also beyond me! A lot of it focused on the wonders of mathematics and physics, both of which were definitely one of my weaker subjects back in school. We spent a lot of time at an exhibit which was modeled to look like an outdoor garden.

 Christian had fun playing with the blocks there, and Calista had a good time running around, feeling the “grass”.

There was this machine which simulated the orbit of the planets and the effect of gravity on the speed of orbit. That was a favourite with Christian. We also spent some time at the “House of Cards” exhibit and tried to construct something with the cards available.

The last stop was the activity centre, where we were encouraged to help ourselves to a buffet of material, and construct something out of scrap material. That was fun, and I wish we had more time, but everybody was getting hungry so we did something really simple and headed off for lunch.

We settled on Kraze burgers for lunch. Although it was pretty crowded, we didn’t have queue for a table, unlike Din Tai Fung. It was also near the skating rink so the children were entertained by people watching. We were also pleasantly surprised when a balloon sculpturist approached us and asked if the children would like to have something. Apparently he was hired by the restaurant to offer the service free to guests :) Christian asked for a gun and Calista got a flower..the two of them were most pleased with it and carried it themselves all the way home.

And that, is the end of that very long story of how we spent last Saturday morning.

Vivocity

Vivocity is our favourite shopping mall in Singapore. We used to visit almost every weekend cos we lived in the vicinity; we have so many happy memories of going to Sentosa from Vivo, letting the kids play and run around there, buying our birthday cakes from the Cedele there, visiting Daiso and Marche, and chilling out at the rooftop water play area.

I brought my parents there last weekend to try out the recently-opened Jamie’s Italian opened by Jamie Oliver. My dad is a closet fan of Jamie Oliver after watching his cook shows. I remember him saying that all that he cooks looks very delicious, although simple. Christian was so happy to be back there after such a long while. They had fun at Toys R Us (where I used up my voucher on a lego board, bubbles and magnetic alphabets), and where the grandparents bought him a Transformer as his advance birthday present. Gosh. Transformers. I remember playing with my brother’s Transfomers. Never thought I’d have a son who would be playing with the same toy..

 

We went to the outdoor playground at level 2 while my parents and helper started queuing at Jamie’s Italian. There are some new toys out there, like this jiggly caterpillar we’d never seen before -

They stared at the water jets for a bit, I bought Calista a pair of soft shoes she could put on and take off herself, and very soon, it was time for lunch!

JI’s was a visual treat for the kids. We were seated near the pasta machine and they saw how the pasta came flowing out and how the staff coiled them up,

there was a viewfinder which contained the kid’s menu,

and they even offered crayons and a drawing sheet!

Definitely kid friendly. We had some interesting food like polenta chips,

truffle risotto, fish in a bag, baked mushrooms, tagliatelle, fried squid, and Christian had the chicken lollipop (chicken on skewers) which was on the kid’s menu. His meal came with a salad in a jar which said “shake me”,

and they gave him a badge which said “I finished all my greens at Jamie’s!” =7 Good try at enticing kids to eat their greens!

We were too stuffed for desserts, which was a pity since I read that the best items on their menu are in fact the chocolate cake and tiramisu. Oh well, another time.

Art Garden 2013

I was racking my brains to think of where to bring the children over the looong weekend (where the hari raya and national day public holidays ran consecutively). My mum suggested the Bird Park, but I didn’t think it was worth the effort and money bringing Calista there at such a young age since she is unlikely to remember anything and since I can get free corporate tickets to the Zoo/Night or River Safari/Bird Park, next quarter.

I was reading some mummy’s blog for ideas when I noticed that the Art Garden exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum was still running, till 1 Sep. Off we went!

It was a great idea cos I brought the grandparents and maid along and not a single one of us had to pay admission :) I think it was probably my dad’s 2nd or 3rd time in a museum, but he seemed to enjoy it.

There were a few exhibits which reminded me of our visit in 2012, but I didn’t quite mind cos we enjoyed those.. such as the “The Incredibly Expanding Room”, where we had to shout into a microphone to effect change in the visuals on the wall.. and the “Moving Image Gallery”, where there was lots of short 4 minute films for children.

The children ran around in the “Enchanted Garden City”, where fairytales were given an Asian twist (think the Little Red Nonya with the Big Bad Wolf)

Christian doodled something within a “magic mirror” which was pre-printed on a piece of paper, and his doodle was projected onto this huge wall. He was so excited to see the fruit of his labour (as well as his name) up on the wall. It must have been magical for him.

 

The next room we went to, was called “Around the World in Eighty Days”. I wasn’t quite sure how the activities in the room were tied to the theme, although there was a hot air balloon postcard for Christian to colour..he dedicated that to Daddy.. :)

We had fun sitting on silly chairs, trying to throw hoops onto the targets, and even my parents and helper got in the act by searching for the 6 spiders hidden all over the kaleidoscopic wallpaper.

The exhibit that really awed me was the “Stellar Cave II” which was inspired by the prehistoric paintings in France's Lascaux Caves. Made entirely of thread and screws, it inspired wonder and we were all silent after the initial “Waaaah”.

 

The last was a rather spooky room full of ghoul-like forms. The only fun factor was the bed which was designed for visitors to sit on. It was attached to a wall that could be swivelled, transporting the visitors to another room. Christian was so thrilled he wanted to go on it again, but it was getting close to Calista’s nap time and I could tell the adults were getting restless so I distracted him.  

I had thought about how I could spend more time with Christian, given Calista’s need for nap at about 1.30pm everyday. It struck me while I was lying on the facial salon bed the other day that I should just get my father to go along (an excuse to drag him out of the house) and my parents and helper could head home after lunch while I went back to the museum with Christian for some mother-son time. So that was what we did. Lunch was at Yet Con at Seah Street..which made my dad happy cos it’s been a while since he ate there. We had helpings after helpings of rice thanks to the delicious chicken and pork chops..

Christian and I went back to SAM for more of the short films which we didn’t manage to catch earlier, and I finally managed to convince him to go for face-painting, which was a special National Day activity for the day. I was so glad he finally said yes, after I told him I’d do it too. I remember the last time we tried to persuade him to get his face painted like a tiger (in Perth, April 2011), he cried..! =7 He was very pleased with the blue car on his arm and red/white merlion on his face after the artist was done.

The last activity we did at the museum was a National Day hat.. using stencils, we traced the outlines onto our cardboard and coloured it. He was in charge of colouring whilst I was in charge of cutting and making the “springs”. The volunteer laughed as he saw Christian taking a photo of me and the front and back of my hat :)

We were tired by the end of all that..and walked to City Hall station to take the train home. That silly boy was so delighted when he heard we were going to take a train and bus home, it being such a novelty to him. We looked at the station names, I made him guess where we were going to alight, and we were fortunate to get the very front seat at the top of the double decker bus. I pretended to nap and asked him to look out for our stop :) He was so proud and happy to be given the task of getting us home.

It was such a great day and I think everybody was happy..I guess one doesn’t have to travel overseas to create happy memories..there are still lots for us to do in Singapore!

Last weekend

Christian’s swim class was postponed last Saturday so we spent the morning at the Botanic Gardens at P’s request. I think he suggested it because he missed out on so much of the previous picnic. 

The kids were happily chanting ‘picnic picnic’ as we left the house, and i’m glad to say that I enjoyed myself immensely this time.

We played catch with a tennis ball and a velcro catcher that Christian received from his school last year as a Children’s Day gift. We had so much fun a tourist couple came up to us and asked where we bought it. We also kicked ball and I laughed and laughed at the bad aims. Er. That is, P and I did the above. Christian did try but was more interested in running around and eating. =7

 

We blew bubbles, went hurtling down the hill again, looked at dragonflies at the pond, and finished off by helping Christian put his skates on and letting him skate about on the paved roads, ogling at the many dogs at the same time.

Everybody was tired and hungry by the time we left the Gardens at around noon. We drove to Somerset 313 to have lunch at Ootoya, where we had the most delicious charcoal-grilled chicken. It was a coincidence that we wandered in, cos it turns out that it was one of the Japanese restaurants i’d been meaning to try for sometime (but forgot)..

At the Gardens

P had to go for a insurance-related medical at Gleneagles 2 saturdays ago, so we decided to make a family outing out of it by waiting for him at the Botanic Gardens. P and I prefer the Botanic Gardens to the newer Gardens by the Bay which seems so manicured and artificial in comparison.

The Gardens was a hit with the kids. They were initially a little lost after having eaten all the food we brought..but I think it is good to let them be bored sometimes and think up their own games. And so..Christian became the commander who charged down the “hill” with his trusty lieutenant (Calista) behind him.. They blew bubbles,

kicked ball, played hide and seek behind bushes and trees,

took pictures of the sky,

chased a monitor lizard,

duelled with fallen palm leaves,

and rolled down the hill on their balance bike / skate scooter

It was hilarious watching Christian bravely hurtling down the slope on his balance bike, almost out of control..he had a stunned look on his face, but said he was not at all scared when I asked him.

All of us really enjoyed the time in the sun, and Christian even proclaimed that he prefers it to the beach! Well, I definitely prefer it to the crowded malls, so hopefully we’ll be able to find more Saturday mornings to go back and laze around.