Visit to Haw Par Villa (虎豹别墅)_29 Dec 09

I think I forgot to mention that I am currently on extended maternity leave. Initially, I was supposed to work for 90 days before entitling to the remaining extended maternity leave before baby Br turned 1 year old, which means that I should only start my remaining 40 days leave from mid Jan. However, I decided to heed a friend's advice and try to ask my director whether he could support me to go on leave earlier in December since it is the lull period now and I would be less disruptive to the work flow in January. Fortunately, my director saw the sense in my proposal that he wrote in to the personnel department for a special request and the approval came only in mid-December. So, I have been on leave for about two weeks and will return to work in mid January.

On Monday, while having dinner at my mil's place, we were chatting away and my mil asked whether the Haw Par Villa is still available for visit and she'll like to bring my nephew there to see the eighteen level hell (十八尘地狱). So, we went home to check on the internet and decided to bring the boys out the next day to Haw Par Villa.


On Tuesday morning, after breakfast, I proceeded to cook porridge so that I pack and bring along with us to the outing for my two dear son's lunch. It was free entry for the villa but we had to pay $5 for parking and $1 entrance fee for seeing the eighteen level hell. There were not many visitors at the place so we were happy that we need not jostle our way through and my nephew could spend a fair bit of time reading the description of the statues. I was pretty shocked that my nephew, C did not know many of the Chinese mythologies since his mum is a true blue Beijing lady and he has always been the first in his class in P1 and P2. He is definitely a product of our current education and social system which focused more on academic results since one of his daily activities involves working on the numerous assessment books. It was definitely a pleasant 2.5 hour day trip where we could allow our energetic toddler to run around and climb onto the statues. However, the many steps and narrow path in the park made it difficult for us to move around with our twin stroller.

Br sitting on top of the landscape while waiting for Ry, my mil and my nephew to explore the Journey to the West (西游记) statues.

Ry was most excited about all the different animal statues he saw in the villa.

Our last visit - inside the dark tunnel where the eighteen level hell is built. Ry is already tired and hungry, so he's quietly snacking away from his cheerios cup while the adults were busy explaining the statues to my nephew!

It's the Christmas Season again!

Look at baby Br's festive wear! Besides the festive red & white colour, there's something else too ....

It is the cute little reindeer on his butt!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone first!

This year, we did not have a white Christmas but instead we had a warm and loving Christmas celebration with close family members. It was nothing spectacular since we only had KFC and pizzas for our mini celebration followed by a mini log cake. More importantly, it was the family members' loving gestures and the excited squeals and laughter from our little ones when they opened their presents that make it a special Christmas Eve evening. It was also the day that little Ry finally understood the meaning of "present" and could finally anticipate and appreciate the unwrapping procedure. He could even point to the wrapped gifts and proudly said, "my present! 弟弟's present!" and "mummy, open present!" A huge improvement in his speech development even though he still could not say in complete sentences that are more than 3 words.

My sister-in-law, nephew and my 2 dear boys! Ry was not supposed to be in this picture but he managed to sneak himself in!

This year, we bought Ry a tool set consisting of screwdrivers, hammer, wrenches and others so that he could pretend to be a mechanic. He was ecstatic about it and couldn't resist playing with it throughout the night. K and I have agreed that we would only buy toys that are educational or at least provide some form of tactile experience for our little ones. So while searching for a Christmas present for baby Br, we simply could not find anything suitable as we already had plenty of toys for his age from Ry's collection and there were really nothing new out there that excite us into buying. So, we the cheapskate parents, decided to just wrap up one of Ry's old toy truck and passed it off as a present for Br. In this way, we not only saved some money and also managed to teach Ry to share and give his toy to baby Br. So now, whenever Ry sees the toy truck, he says that belongs to 弟弟.

The brothers playing with the new tool set! There are simply no dolls and other girly stuff in my home!

Other highlights of this month included us attending my brother's wedding that was host at both Singapore and JB as well as going back to Pasir Ris park again on Boxing Day and playing badminton at my brother-in-law's condo on the following Sunday.

Ry was so proud to have his tie on and he kept showing off to everyone! And welcome the bride to become a new member of my family!

Little Ry trying to play badminton and doesn't he look professional?

Day trips to Pasir Ris Park and Zoo

For two Saturdays in early December, we have been making day trips out of the house. The first Saturday was a trip to Pasir Ris Park where we brought Ry cycling and to the big playground where he could climb and tumble and spent the whole morning enjoying himself to the fullest. It was our first day trip since we are back in Singapore and it was a happy occasion since baby Br and I almost fully recovered from our cough that stretched for almost 6 weeks. We were pretty surprised by what Pasir Ris Park could offer and the cool weather that morning made it more enjoyable for us to spend our time there. I think we will probably spend more time there in future since it is just a short drive from our home and best of all, it offers free parking which is not commonly found in our little island.

K rented the bike for an hour and brought Ry cycling while I slowly pushed the stroller with baby Br to the playground.

The first time we saw the swing suitable for baby in Singapore. How Br missed the swing rides!

Ry wanted to climb this fixture despite it is for older kids and managed to make his way through with help from us. However, he said "scared" halfway through and refused to move along and we had to nudge him along to the end.

The following Saturday, we decided to go to the zoo with our nephew, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law since my sister-in-law had the Robinson's corporate pass. Although Ry had been to the Boston Franklin Park zoo two times but with him understanding and knowing more animals, I think he probably enjoyed this trip most. I must also attribute to the fact that Singapore Zoo's open concept make it easy for the kids to look at the animals and some of these exhibits are at children's height and eye level, which make it easy for them to look at the animals. After the visit to the zoo, Ry could still rattle off the animals he saw like giraffe, zebra, leopard, gorilla, lion, tiger, monkey and hippo. His favourite exhit is probably the hippo since he could see them swimming in the water through the glass window as he happily follows them to and fro when it swims and could tell me that hippo swim whenever I ask him about the zoo trip. Needless to say that the boys also spent a good one hour at the Rainforest Kidzworld where they frolicked in the water playarea. I bet I would definitely make use of the MOE corporate pass more often in future:> While writing this, I'm already planning whether to go to Science Centre or Jurong Bird Park in our next trip.

Ry had an elephant mask from the zoo and had the mask on for the first part of the trip despite the heat.

We spent a great afternoon at the Rainforest Kidzworld where Ry and his cousin played together at the water area!

Baby Br having a great time disturbing his gor gor when his Ry is napping beside him after a tired afternoon at the water play area.

Why do I miss Boston?

I have been retelling my life in Boston to many people I met recently including my colleagues, relatives and friends. The more I retell my time as SAHM, the more nostalgic I became of our life in Boston that was just merely two months ago.

What do I miss?
1. I miss the crisp, cool and fresh air in Boston!
Baby Br and I have been coughing non-stop since we are back in SG. The doctor said that I have bronchitis and it being a result of us not used to the dusty air in SG. Now, Ry is down with the cough too! I really miss our great health back in Boston!

2. I miss the fresh fruits like strawberries, blueberries and the crisp vegetables.
SG depends so much on the import of our fresh produce that it is difficult for us to get really fresh vegetables nowadays especially during rainy season or the price is extremely expensive! K and I think it is a joke that we call SG a food haven when most our food do not taste as nice and fresh without the extra seasonings.

3. I miss the four seasons and especially the winter and snow!
Although it is freezing cold in Boston, we would rather stay there then wilt in our humid weather where Br and I often gets bouts of eczema flaring because of the sweat and humidity. I sorely miss the winter now as Christmas creeps close and without the cold and snow, Christmas season just simply lost its appeal!

4. I miss the great service and friendly chit chats with strangers!
Enough has been said about the poor service in SG! I think I would rather pay the 15 - 20 % gratuity to ensure great and personalised service like those that I have encountered in Boston then to suffer generally poor service when I still need to fork out mandatory 10% service charge, without getting even the slightest smile and thank you from the service staff. Needless to mention that I do not expect to see greetings like "Good Morning" and smiles when you meet strangers on the street or on the trains.

5. I miss my life as a SAHM!
Most importantly, I sorely miss my life as a SAHM when I could whip up my own healthy meals, spend quality time with the kids and plan their daily activities.

Penguin Daddy!

Recently, TCS 8 has a new 9 pm show called Daddy at Home (企鹅爸爸) which talks about 2 stay at home dads. K and I have been watching a few of the episodes and are pretty entertained by the show. Most importantly, it is quite a reflection of our current life. K is still "jobless" and waiting for his deployment from his company while I have started work a month ago. So now, K is the penguin daddy who stays at home taking care of the two boys, cleaning up the house and doing grocery shopping twice a week.

Initially, I thought K would be quickly bored by the mundane routine but to my surprise, he actually find the whole process entertaining and rewarding as he gets to spend quality time with his two boys. To my envy and jealousy, my boys are turning to him for comfort and TLC instead of me. In fact, Ry is so close to him that I think Ry hardly miss me or think of me while I'm at work.

I am thankful of having a supportive hubby who's able to take care of the house and the two boys while I'm at work and doing such a great job that I do not have to worry about the boys. Even though there was this minor accident last week of which Ry fell down and had a small cut at the back of his head which resulted in us rushing down to Changi A & E department and giving me a big scare and made me really angry with K for causing this to happen.

However, having only boys also make me realize the importance of the role of daddy since he could understand their lingo and attend to their needs better than me, like knowing that boys love to play catching game, play trucks and cars better with more enthusiasm than the mommy who has little interest and is clueless on how to get the boys interested. I am glad that the SG government is now looking at the importance of the role of daddy in child raising that they are launching a campaign to support the cause. Definitely, I think that more could be done to levitate the status of dads in the children's life for which I think most Singapore daddys are still not doing enough.

At our 11 years anniversary (7 years wedding anniversary cos they share the same day - 20 Nov), I would like to say to my hubby, "Dear, thank you for whatever you have done for the family! I really appreciate you accepting and forgiving all my little flaws and mistakes! May we have another 10, 20, 30 .... more years to go hand in hand together!"

A photo taken when we sort of by the way celebrated our anniversary at a lunch at Swensen after Ry's speech therapy at Ion Orchard.

Hugz!!!

Every morning before I step out of the doors for work, Ry will run out of the room and shout, "Hug, Hugz!" with his arms open. As usual, I would always give him a big hug and plant him a kiss on his plump cheek before I grab my handbag and leave for work.

I'm awed by the amount of happiness and satisfaction that I can derive from such a simple routine. All I can say is that at this juncture of my life, I'm glad and contented to have become a mother of two boisterous boys that may possibly turn my hair grey and add a few lines to my forehead with their angst and nonsense in their teenage years. But before this happens, I think I'm still going to enjoy my daily morning routine and the bliss from the hug and the sweet little voice that say, " Hug ... mommie".

Our first 30 days back in SG!

Our first weekend in SG when we celebrated the Mooncake Festival - a first time for Ry who wanted to carry the same traditional paper lantern as his cousin and did not want the beautiful electric motor lantern that my mother in law bought for him.

I went back to work 2 weeks ago and I guessed my boys are adjusting well without my presence since daddy is still not working and is enjoying himself thoroughly as a Stay At Home Daddy (SAHD); so much so that my elder boy, Ry now only looks for daddy most of the time and only wants daddy to sleep with him and refusing to let me enter his own room at bedtime. Sigh!

The little boy, on the other hand, went on milk strike the first 2 days that I was at work, refusing to take any bottles of breastpumped milk / formula and only ate solids like cheerios and porridge in addition to the constant crying in his futile search for me. However, by the third day, he has accepted the reality and started taking small amounts of milk in the day at my mother-in-law's place but would stick by my side and crawled and wailed after me when I returned home from work, afraid that I would disappear again. We are really glad that we made the decision to send Ry to childcare in the day so that my mil can just concentrate on attending to little Br alone.

Little Br had started to crawl on all fours for about 2 weeks and is now getting on his gor gor's nerves since he can now crawl after him and has access to his toys!

Ry has adjusted to the childcare system pretty well, although he still cries a little in the morning when daddy sends him off to the classroom. However, we figured that Ry was just trying to "drama" only to test whether we would pull him out of the system. According to the childcare educators there, Ry stopped crying immediately as soon as K left the room and proceeded to play with the toys and his friends. Yesterday evening in our car ride to and fro to Woodlands, Ry was humming to the nursery rhyme, Old Macdonald and kept pestering me to sing along with him and his requests of including different animals. K commented that probably Ry had learned the song in the childcare center and we were really glad that he had enjoyed his lessons there. The only problem we have is his constant refusal of lunch served to him at the childcare center except fried rice since he does not eat noodles, bee hoon, bread etc. So, Ry had been surviving on one proper meal a day after he came back from childcare and snacks and fresh milk throughout the whole day. But, Ry is still growing well and in fact, had put on some weight and grown taller. So, I guessed I do not have to worry too much about his eating habits.

Ry's daily attire to school / chidcare center! This was his first day so he had no idea what was waiting for him, which thus explained his happy face!

Yes, we had not converted to the Singaporean way of serving formula milk to toddlers and parents around us often gasped and wondered in surprise at our habits of serving cold milk to kids. For non-Singaporean's info, in Singapore, we have so many different concotions and brands of formula milk for kids up to the age of adults. There's also different types of milk powder for pregnant women, adults and aged people. In fact, it is more troublesome to serve fresh milk and we find ourselves constantly going to supermarkets to buy cartons of fresh milk since they do not come in big gallon sizes.


So, our usual weekday routine starts at around 630 am when we woke up from bed, while I get ready for work and K changes the boys out of their pyjamas. I usually leaves the apt at around 725 am and board the 730 condo shuttle to Bedok MRT station and K will pushed the two boys and cross over to my mil's place in the double stroller where he has his breakfast there too. It was really a good choice that we chose to rent the apt so near to my mil's place now that we saved a lot of time in travel. K would then send Ry to child care center later at 840 am and fetched him back at around 430 pm. In the meanwhile, K would sometimes spend some time at our own apt so that he can concentrate on his own work and tidy up the house while little Br is over with my mil. I would then return from work and reach my mil's place at 710 pm for dinner and after a quick dinner, we would whisk our kids back to our own apt at around 8 pm. By then, the boys are already ready for bedtime and it is another round of bathing, changing, feeding and reading to them. They would usually fall asleep by 930 pm. I do find myself interacting very little with Ry since I would be occupied with attending to baby Br in the night, which probably explains why now he only looks to daddy for comfort. So now, I really appreciate the weekend time when I could spend more time with Ry . I wondered how much of this routine would change when K starts working too.

I brought Ry cycling around our condo pool on a Saturday morning in the Kettler tricycle we shipped back from the States - my attempt at bonding with him!

3 Weeks in SG!

It is already 3 weeks that we are back in SG! Over the 3 weeks, we have found a 2 bed room condo apartment to rent that is just a stone throw away from my mother-in-law's place, found a new car, gotten the citizenship papers for baby Br and started Ry in preschool / child care for the past week. Not to mention, catching up with our family members, friends and savoring some long-missed local food delicacies like fried prawn mee, fried bee hoon and roti prata.

Having family members around us also mean that we can sometimes offload our kids to their care while hubby and I can have some private time together and could accomplish some tasks quicker without the kids' interruption. While I'm writing this blog, my older boy, Ry is out with his cousin, aunt and ah ma to Vivo City and we are home alone with baby Br waiting to take over the rented apt from its owner. This also means that I have to learn to let go of the caretaking duties of my two dear boys to others and learn to trust the caretakers wholeheartedlly. It is definitely easier to say then done since the two boys have always been around me every second of their waking hours for the past one and a half years. While typing this now, I'm already starting to wonder what is Ry doing now and is he eating his lunch.

Ry has started child care for one whole week and he has transited from a eager child to a crying child by the end of the week ever since he realised that the child care arrangement is permanent. It does break my heart to see him crying at the door and I often wondered at my decision whether it is right or wrong to send him away from home to the care of total strangers at such a young age. Baby Br is getting naughtier but stronger everyday. He had started crawling on fours a week ago and is now getting into fights with Ry since he likes to snatch the toys from his gor gor. We have been trying to bottle feed Br but had failed terribly and he rather wailed and starved himself while I'm away.

Updated vital stats of the boys:

Ry's weight: 13.1 kg (residing at 75th percentile according to SG weight chart)

Br's weight: 9.1 kg (residing at 90th percentile according to SG weight chart)

Trip to Disney _ 20 - 24 Sept

Our last week in US was spent in Disneyworld at Florida after a day of frantic packing and moving furniture out of our little apt. Fortunately, we only need to move the furniture to my SG neighbour's place who bought over the furniture. On the Sunday morning itself, we left our almost empty apt early in the morning for the airport. After a 3 hours flight, we finally reached Orlando International Airport at around 1230 pm. We then spent another 30 minutes trying to figure our way to the counter where we can board the Disney Magical Express - a complimentary bus ride to our Disney resort. Needless to say, we were impressed by the fuss free and convienient transport and the impeccable service provided by the Disney staff that we now understand how and why Walt Disney becomes a multimillion dollar service industry.

We finally reached Disney All Star Music Resort at around 2 pm and was checked into our room swifly. The hotel room was much nicer and spacious than we thought after reading so many horrible reviews online but because we were initially on a budget constraint that we chose the cheapest and valued for money resort. Later, although I decided to upgrade to a intermediate range resort, there were unfortunately no more vacancies so we still remained booked to this value resort.

Since we have already decided to take it easy on this trip, we did not plan for a full itinerary ahead of us. For the rest of the day, we swam in the guitar-shaped pool followed by a trip to Downtown Disney and enjoyed our dinner at the restaurant there.

Our favorite activity - take a dip in the pool in the hot weather. I love the look on Br wearing his life jacket.

Borrowing the Mickey mouse ears for a shot!

The second day of our vacation was to Animal Kingdom where we get to see real animals up close. The weather was really hot and humid and the rainforest canopy there seems to make the weather more humid and unbearable for us. Fortunately, I heed the advice of a fellow SG friend to subscribe to the Ridemax program where I could plan my itinerary to each theme park beforehand and the program would plan it in such a way that we could reach each ride or place in the shortest possible time and spent the least time waiting. We just strictly followed the plan and went to each ride at the suggested timing. I think without the plan, we would definitely have been overwhelmed by the number of activities and people around and have no idea where to start going around. Our favorite ride of the day is the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride where we got to sit in a jeep and pretend that we are riding through a real Safari grassland with all the real animals roaming around minus the dangerous types like lions and leopards.

At the Rainforest cafe having lunch where we take a cool respite from the hot weather.

The third day was a trip to Hollywood Studios. In fact, this is our favourite theme park of our whole Disney trip. We got to see the exciting car racing and explosion scene that even our little toddler, Ry was memserized. There are also 2 very good musicals like Nemo and Beauty and the Beast that we all enjoyed tremendously. I am extremely happy that Ry enjoyed the musicals as well. At least, now I know who to ask to accompany me to future musicals and concerts since Daddy does not really know how to enjoy these shows and I do not have a little girl.

Our favorite show of the day!

The last theme park that we visited was Magic Kingdom. Initially, we thought we would be overwhelmed by the grandeur and the crowd but after orientating ourselves to the other 2 theme parks previously, we found ourselves pretty bored by the kiddiness of Magic Kingdom. However, Ry still managed to find himself amused by a few rides and the little playground where he can climb, roll and run around.

Overall, I would say that the Disney trip was a success even though we did not try many exciting rides since our boys were too young. I would definitely wish to revisit Disneyworld if possible when the boys are older which I believe the experience will be totally different.

Br wearing my sunglasses!

2 More Weeks to Home!

2 weeks from today, we should already be on the flight in the midair towards home! Recently, everybody around us has been asking how are we feeling to our departure from the place we have been calling home for the past 2 years. Our replies were always "mixed emotions" as we would definitely miss the people and the weather that we have come to love but lately, we have already starting to look forward to going back to our family, sort of yearning for the stability associated with it and knowing that our boys will definitely enjoy the love and pamperings from their grandparents, uncles and aunts.

Since my last entry, I have been busy selling and giving away stuff from our apt and also busy with helping a neighbour aka fellow MOE colleague settling into her new apt while she eases into her course at Harvard Ed School. I am glad that she's moving into the apt at my building, which makes it easier for me to handover the stuff and furniture that she bought from us. I am also thankful to her to let us continue using some of the stuff till the last day before passing them to her, so still making our last days at home at least comfortable.

A farewell dinner with another SG family, A and SX and their 2 adorable kids who are about the same age as ours.

Ry has been talking up a storm these days, spewing new words everyday and willing to parrot after us. However, his words are limited to single syllable types and anything with more than one syllable, he would only say the first only like "sor" for "sorry". I guessed only me and KP understand what he's saying and other people still have a hard time figuring out his hand gestures and his mono-syllabic utterances.

Ry's last second speech therapy session with M.

Ry would do anything promptly like eating his lunch or nap if I tell him that M is coming to play with him later. He just adores her.

Br on the other hand, is eating up a storm, probably in his "grow spurt" stage. He can nurse every 2 hours or so and still finish a bowl of rice cereal for lunch and dinner. I remembered Ry at the same age could only finish half or one-third a bottle of baby food at one go but our baby Br actually finished the whole bottle by himself and still wanting more. Also, he already likes to snack on Cheerios and yogurt. Needless to say, he's has put on quite a bit of weight and he now weighs at least 9 kg based on our rough estimate from our own weighing scale. Those Chinese grandmas and grandpas at the park often swooned at his fat thighs and commented how thick are they:)

K always complains that Br "sticks" to me all the time! I guessed that must be the "benefit" of direct breastfeeding!

Time Flies!

As the title suggested, time flies and swoosh past us! We are coming to the end of August and are left with less than 5 weeks time in Boston. Whenever Monday arrives, I'll just think it is the start of a week and before I know it, Wednesday comes then followed by Friday and it is another weekend. Sometimes, I try to think what have I achieved in the week and I couldn't recall any significant activity and my list of "To Do" tasks just keep getting longer and none of it is ever completed. So below is just a record of my daily on-goings.

8 am - Wakey wakey time. Usually Ry wakes up around the time K leaves for work at 730 am.

8 - 830 am - Changing the boys out of their pjs and diapers.

830 - 9 am - Breakfast time together with some light reading of SG news, checking mails, FB etc.

9 - 11 am - Either watch TV with Ry or play with him. Followed by feeding Ry and Br cheerios and cereal respectively and hoping to get baby to take his nap after his feed.

One of the rare "good behaviour" mornings where both boys can sit down quietly together and play.

11 - 1 pm - Preparing lunch, cooking, feeding Ry his lunch and having lunch together with K. It can be either a smooth sequence as stated or an extremely interrupted and noisy session from Br's crying and Ry's tantrums.

1.30 - 3pm - Hopefully, Ry will take his 1 hour nap and I can take a slight rest and attend to baby Br alone, while surfing the net and doing some urgent chores. If not, it will be just TV time / playtime again!

3.30 - 5 pm - Playground time if weather is good. This is the time I most look forward to or else I think I'll lose my sanity if Ry never get to go out.

Our favourite time of the day - at the playground where there are toys and activities that can occupy the boys.

5 - 6 pm - Bath time for the boys.

6 - 630 pm - Preparing food for dinner. Hopefully, K can come home by 630 pm to entertain the boys while I can concentrate on cooking. Sometimes, I make dinner for Ry first and feed him.

630 - 745 pm - Cooking dinner followed by having dinner with K.

8 - 9 pm - Chill out time for me when K plays with Ry.

9 - 930 pm - Preparing boys for bedtime and hopefully, they can all go to sleep by 930 pm which happens like once in a blue moon. Ry usually sleeps by 930 pm.

930 - 1030 pm - May still be trying to put Br to sleep while he sleeps, wakes, feeds, sleeps and wakes and feeds again.

1030 - 11pm - Hopefully, bedtime for me! If not, it will just be the whole s,w,f cycle of getting Br to sleep soundly.


Wonders what will happen to my day when I get home to SG?

No more, kar!

"Where's our car?" That's one question I have been asking Ry after we handover the car to the buyer on Tuesday, 11 Aug. And Ry will look along the streets where we usually parked our car and shrugged his shoulders and sometimes mumbled, "no more" - a phrase he recently picked up. Initially, I thought it will be difficult for us to sell away the car and we are already resigned to selling it at a really low price at the end of the month. But sometimes things just turned out fine, and we got a buyer on Sunday night that was willing to pay us three hundred dollars more than what other potential buyers offered so we decided to sell the car immediately. This made our car depreciation to be only at $900 for the past year, which is really cheap compared to the depreciation of SG cars. In fact, we figured that this is cheaper than renting a car occasionally.

After confirming the sale, I was thinking of how am I going to be mobile with my 2 kids here for the remaining 5 weeks or so. I do not think me carrying Br in the carrier and wheeling Ry in the stroller is good for trips longer than 2 hours so I decided to buy a twin stroller, which will enable me to be moving around independently without K. And since I could not figure out how to use the $60 Amazon voucher that K had from his work, I decided to use it to pay for the Jeep twin stroller, which costs $100, meaning that I need to fork out only $40 only. I figured that it will be worth the cost even if I am able to use it for 5 weeks only and decided not to bring back to SG.

So, today, I managed to go to Chinatown and Downtown Crossing alone with the 2 boys to deregister the car and to do some shopping. Generally, the stroller is easy to push despite it is slightly heavy to carry and is sometimes difficult to manueaver through the door as it is wide, I guessed I can't complain much as this is already one of the most compact models I can find. Most importantly, the boys loved it and the seats can even recline individually to allow the boys to sleep comfortably in it. So, I will still recommend this stroller to parents who just want a cheap and functional twin stroller.

Signing Time = Speaking, Maybe?

Here's an update of Ry's language development over the past month since he started speech therapy with the Early Intervention. Ry has began making more sounds, saying more words and babbling more recently. In fact, he has a small expansion of vocabulary over the last two weeks and is willing to parrot the adults more. We have been exposing him to this DVD series - Signing Time as introduced by my friend who has an autistic kid to let Ry learn some sign language so that he can pick up signs to communicate with us. Also, research has shown that learning signs helps a child to learn to speak earlier too.

It was really miraculous how Ry picked up hand signs as soon as he watched the DVDs. He can now sign to us to communicate to us what he wants and can even teach the speech therapist some animal signs too. The best part is that he actually starts saying words that he previously refused to say after learning the signs. So now, he can say words like "more", "dog", "bird", "goat", "cold", "coat", "cook", "wa" for water, "go", "top" for "stop". All these words are usually said together with the signs. My mum and my MIL were initially worried that he would stop learning to speak after he signs but the reality is totally different.

More recently, he even started saying "naught-che" for "naughty" when he tries to scold his little brother for being noisy or when Br touches him with his little feet and hands when lying beside him. He picked that up when I was scolding Br. It was really funny hearing him saying it while imitating me with my index finger pointing at baby Br.

I do think that signing helps Ry to speak sooner and now he has a repertoire of signs he can do and is still adding new signs to his expanding vocabulary. Needless to say, I have bought the dvds to bring back to SG. Below is a link to a videoclip of signing time series showing different animal signs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdhcH5nI45w&NR=1

It's the Blueberries Picking Season!

Despite having to deal with our conflict with our nasty neighbour over the last 2 weeks, we still managed to go out on 2 consecutive Sundays for some blueberry picking. We definitely won't miss the activity since it is our last chance here to pick Ry's favourite fruit. Initially, we thought we'll just do the activity for fun and did not expect great picking conditions since this July was the rainiest summer month for Boston in the last 10 years. To our surprise during our first visit at Parlee Farm, we saw big ripe blueberries and they tasted really sweet. Some of the biggest berries were only slightly smaller than a SG twenty cent coin compared to the usual tiny ones we see being sold in the supermarkets.

We enjoyed the two boxes of berries so much that we decided to go back again the following Sunday and this time round, we pick 4 boxes and till now, we are still enjoying our hand-picked blueberries every evening after dinner.

My little berry - picker.

Br as usual sitting comfortably in the carrier on daddy's back!

My boyz out in the field!

Ry stealing the berries off the box and popping them into his mouth!

Our 4 boxes of blueberries! Really yummy!

Sign ... Neighbours ... and Here We Moved!

About 8 weeks ago, we had new neighbours moving into the apt below us. Pretty soon after that, I heard tapping sound on our floors whenever Ry ran around the apt to remind us that we were being loud. I had been tolerating it for quite sometime as the loud tapping sometimes frightened little Br when he was lying on the floor. But always, we tried to stop Ry from running if possible.

However things took a turn when we came back from Maine on 20 July and discovered a note pasted on our door from our new neighbours requesting us to lower the noise level. In fact, the note requested us to stop the noise level and accusing us of making noises in the middle of the night at 2 -3 am. Immediately, K went to clarify with them and told them that we had a young toddler boy and a small baby and it is unavoidable for my boy to be running around the apt. Also, I had to wake up in the middle of the night to feed Br but I swear I would never use heavy footsteps and it is only a 10 steps walk from 1 bed room to the other. We were trying to tell them that we'll try to minimize the noise but this Caucasian lady was unreasonable and demanded us to stop. Since there were no resolutions, K ignored her and told her that the noise will continue, which I think infuriated her. So, she called the management and the police the next day and told them that K threaten her and we're increasing the noise level to intimidate her which we obviously didn't. The police came to investigate and did not find us at fault. In fact, I think the police were rather pissed off with the lady for making a mountain out of a molehill.

Since the police did not take any further action, our neighbour proceeded to "pester" the management and even get a lawyer to sue them. To cut the story short, the management in the end offered us two months free rent to move to a new apt on the first floor and even offered to pay for the movers to avoid long litigation and also to avoid us suing them for discrimination against family according to the housing laws here. After a short discussion with K, we decided to move last Tuesday and saved ourselves USD $4k in the event even though we were advised by my lawyer friend and Cambridge social workers that we need not move.

However, a windfall can never be too good! Just when we were thinking that now we have extra cash to pamper ourselves, K received an email from ASTAR saying that he is shortlisted for a very important interview that may boost his career on Sept 28 in Singapore. We have no choice but to reschedule our flights, shorten our Disney and Florida vacation and got to fly back on Sept 25 and reach SG on the 27th. In the process, we lost approximately $1k. Really heartache! Can't understand why the company could not be flexible with their interview dates! So now, we have to say goodbye to Boston earlier and could not get to enjoy the beautiful Florida beaches!

Maine Bar Harbour, Acadia National Park_17 Jul - 20 Jul

In the last few weeks, we have seen four SG families heading home to our sunny hot island which reminded us of our own departure from this faraway land that we have come to love in Sept. Before we will to sell our car in Aug, we decided to take our last road trip to Bar Harbour in Maine last weekend and also to celebrate my birthday, which is on 20 July. We left our apt on Friday, 9 am and drove non-stop for 3 hours before we stopped for lunch and then continued for another 2 hours before we reach our motel at Bar Harbour at 3.30 pm. By then, we were all tired and hot so we decided to take opportunity of the great summer weather to go for a dip at the swimming pool. Ry was definitely esctatic when he saw the pool. What was memorable was that this was the first pool experience for baby Br. We were a bit worried as the temperature had started to drop in the evening and we were wondering whether Br would like his first pool experience or would he be like Ry who screamed and cried when we brought him to the pool at around the same age at 4.5 months old. Surprisingly, Br took to the pool like a fish to the water and he totally enjoyed the experience without a single whim. And we totally loved his swimwear look which is simply adorable and cute since he's so much chubbier than his brother. Later in the evening, we just simply enjoyed a leisure stroll and dinner around downtown Bar Harbour with its old town charm.

Br's first dip in the pool!

We drove to Acadia National Park on Saturday, thinking that we might only be able to do the auto road drive only since it was raining in the morning and weather forecast said that there would be thunderstorms in the afternoon. However, after a heavy downpour around lunch time, the rain miraculously stopped and the cloudy skies cleared up. So, we decided to take a short walk along a 0.7 mile trail at Jordan Pond. However, a short walk turned into a 3 mile hike with some difficult rocky climbs around the pond as we kept walking along the circumference of the pond, thinking that it was the short trail we were on. We only have 1 backpack carrier with us since we did not foresee that we would be hiking in the bad weather. If we had known that the weather would turn out fine, we would have rented a second carrier.

It was raining at our first stop at Acadia Park - Sandy Beach so we had no chance to play by the beach.

Our lunch at Jordan Pond House! The famous popover on the left and their lobster stew! Yummy!

So, we carried Br in the backpack for the first half of the hike while Ry walked most of it. At times, when Ry was tired, K carried him on his shoulder and I took over the backpack carrier with Br inside. After about an hour plus hike, we reached a marking that said 1.5 miles either way to Jordan Pond house where we first started and that was when we realized that we had already lost our way in our initial walk. Since we were already halfway in the trail, we decided to push on. We took Br out of the carrier and I saronged him in front of me. K then carried Ry in the carrier since he was already by then exhausted from the walk. In the remaining hike, we met with some rocky parts that we had to climb over and a slippery boardwalk. We finally made it back to the starting point after another hour and by then, we were all exhausted and sweaty as the weather had turned humid after the rain.

At the beginning of the hike by which Ry walked and Br comfortably sitting in the backpack carried by daddy!

After the hike, we continued our drive up the Cadillac Mountains where it is the highest point in Maine. At the summit, we can see the whole Atlantic ocean and it is said that if one stays here at dawn, he would be the first person to catch the sunrise in the states.

All hot and sweaty at the Cadillac summit!

On Sunday, we went for a lobster fishing and seal watching cruise. On the 2 hour cruise, we were educated on how the Maine fishermen fished for lobster and the various sealife found in the Atlantic ocean. The sea was really foggy when we left for the cruise and I commented to K that it felt like a scene from the Pirates of the Carribean. After showing us lobster fishing, the captain drove us to Eggrock Light house to see the seals. We were given binoculars to see the seals and we did manage to catch a few seals frolicking in the waves before they climb up to the rocks for their afternoon nap in the warm sun.

Aboard on Miss Samantha, ready to sail the Atlantic ocean!

We're pleasantly surprised when Ry asked to hold the starfish and other sea animals.

K taking Ry for a ride on the rented bike in the afternoon!

If we had more time here in the states, I would definitely like to revisit Acadia National Park and explore the other half of the island and do more hikes. We then drove back home on Monday and this time, we drove a straight 4 hours before we stopped at the Kittery outlets for lunch and shopping. By then, Ry was already getting impatient and cranky in the car, which resulted him in throwing up during lunch due to his struggles in the car that ended up in motion sickness. So now, I know that 3 hours is the threshold for Ry to stay in the car.


A cute video of Br entertaining himself in the car!