Life in April!

This is my favorite photo of the month! Such a rare chance that I can get them to pose properly for me!

After almost a month long of cough and cold, baby Br slowly regained his health after the first week of April. This means that we can bring him to the swimming pool. It has been almost two months that we have brought baby Br to swim. On the other hand, KP has always brought Ry to swim almost every weekend. I'm glad that both boys love playing in the water and baby Br actually walked around the whole pool on his own even though he refused to walk on solid ground. Maybe, the buoyancy in the water made him less afraid of falling flat on his bum and hurting himself!

I just realised how much Ry has grown when I went swimming with him! He even know how to take a shower first before going into the pool and he has no qualms about jumping into the pool!

I think baby Br look much more handsome with his hair gelled up!

3 April, Saturday

In March, we happened to chance upon a dance studio at Suntec City for kids and they have a hip-hop dance class for kids from 3 - 6 years old. Since Ry likes dancing so much, we decided to sign him for a trial class on the Saturday morning. He was initially very happy to go for the trial class and kept saying he wanted to go "hip hip hop hop". However, he did not enjoy the class at all as he was clueless about real dancing. To make matters worse, the class did not allow parents to accompany the kids and we could only observe outside the glass window. After standing around for 30 minutes, Ry decided to call it quits and refused to join in the class anymore. In retrospect, maybe we should not have brought him to the trial class too and should have let him observe the class from the outside first. Fortunately, Ry did not lose his interest in dancing!

Ry had no idea what the instructor is doing!

Ry just stood still when the instructors were teaching them how to do catwalk!

Ry happily dancing to music!

11 April, Sunday

We finally brought the boys to Jacob Ballas garden, partly because we wanted to find a place where Ry can play with his baseball bat. Jacob Ballas is a quaint little garden in the old NUS or NIE location at Bukit Timah where only kids and parents can visit. There was a nice sandpit and water-play area for little ones. However, there was little shade in those areas and it really made it very hard for us to enjoy the park on a hot and humid morning. We nearly melted in the mid-morning sun there so we hastily left the place seeking for comfort in an air-conditioned place an hour later after we were there. Such a pity! I wished we have cooler weather so that the kids can enjoy one of the rare outdoor nature areas in Singapore!

18 April, Sunday

We also brought the boys to Changi airport last Sunday morning when most travellers were stranded and unable to travel because of the volcanic ash in the Europe skys. Terminal 2 was surprisingly quiet the morning we went there so that Ry had so much space to run around. We brought him to the viewing gallery to see the aeroplanes and I was quite surprised to see there were interactive exhibits around for kids to meddle with. After that, we had our lunch at Swensens before the boys fell asleep on our trip back. We fathomed that this was a nice and comfy way to spend our weekend morning, provided that the airport is not packed with people.

24 April, Saturday

We spent our morning at Pasir Ris park again where Ry engaged in some sand play at the beach. It was the first time that KP brought baby Br to cycling. I almost laughed till my tears came out when I saw Br's clueless yet serious face, putting his two chubby arms on the handlebars, with a Harley Davidson pose.

The si beh buay song face!

versus the

The smily cheeky face!

Backlog of March events

1 March 2010, Monday @ Kinderland Safra Tampines

I have already arranged with Ry's preschool teacher to have his birthday celebration on this day even though his actual birthday is supposed to be four days later because this was the only day in the first week of March that I could take leave. However, 1 March this year happens to be his lunar birthday, 正月十六, which later then I found out from my mil that it is the Monkey God's (孙悟空) birthday too. Btw, baby Br's lunar birthday on 二月初二 is 大伯公's birthday. So I got teased by my mil for being so lucky in choosing the days.

I ordered a 0.5 kg Mickey Mouse cake from Bengawan Solo and I picked it up at 930 am then went straight to the preschool. Ry was already waiting anxiously for me at the school and he even told his teacher that I'm going to bring him a Ben 10 cake. I have no idea why he kept having the idea that I am going to bring him a Ben 10 cake.

The teacher was asking Ry what was the picture on the cake.

When I reached the preschool, the teachers had already arranged the table and chairs and had the kids seated properly. I distributed the party hats and the teachers got the cake ready. It was really interesting how teacher L prep the class for the birthday celebration. She asked the class questions like "Whose birthday are we celebrating today?", "Who can blow the candle only?" I guessed this was in anticipation that kids are fascintaed by blowing candles and the teachers do not want other kids to spoil the fun of the birthday child. And I must say the prepping was done wonderfully that all the kids did not try to blow the candles so Ry has all the attention he could get as a birthday boy.

It was funny to see Ry trying to defend his cake by surrounding the cake with his arms so that other kids would not touch the cake.

Ry and his classmates. The boy standing right behind him is his best friend, Paco as they are the only two kids in the Pre-Nursery class that take school bus to school. The teachers commented that they were the most independent kids in the class.

14 March 2010, Saturday @ PeekaBoo

We decided to bring the boys to Kallang Leisurepark where there is an indoor playground known as "Peek - a - Boo". The admission fees are pretty reasonable as compared to the one at Downtown East. For Ryan, the charge is $12 and for baby Brendan, the charge is $8 and no admission charges for parents. For twenty bucks, we spent a whole morning at the playground. The happiest chap was definitely Ry. I guessed he missed indoor playground sorely as we have always visited My Gym when we were in Boston. He loved jumping at the trampoline and diving into the ball pool. There were not many kids there but there was a birthday party thrown by one of the Australian International School kids and so there were many Caucasian kids there. I guessed Ry must have felt the familiarity too seeing so many Caucasian kids, just like his days in Boston.

Ry missed the ball pool so much that he jumped straight into it.

The air-con was pretty strong there, so decided to let baby Br put on a jacket. But Ry is all sweaty and hot from the jumping and running.

Some friend commented that Ry has grown a lot!

7 March 2010, Sunday - Potty Training!

We have been planning to potty train Ry for quite some time but to no success. On Sunday, I decided to try again. I did not let Ry wear diapers after he woke up from his afternoon nap. I was constantly looking out to see whether he need to go to pee. Around 5 pm, he suddenly told me he wanted to go "shee, shee" so I quickly brought him to the toilet. I made him stand at the bathroom area to pee and he managed to do it. He was so happy and proud when I praised him. I rewarded him with some cookies and constantly reminded him to do the same again. He repeated three more times throughout the evening. I'm surprised at how the potty training happened so suddenly without any struggles and any accidents. Throughout the following week, he went without diapers after he got back home from childcare and he managed to go to the toilet to pee. There was no single accident even up till today. I'm so amazed by him, so I'm going to let him go diaperless for child care from April onwards.

21 March 2010, Sunday

We went to the zoo early in the morning at 830 am partly because K got to rush back home in the afternoon for his work. We had already decided to keep such visit short partly because the boys are small and they need their afternoon nap and partly also because SG weather is just too hot and humid for us to stay outdoor for prolonged periods of time. So for this visit, we have already decided to see the elephants which we have missed out in our previous trip and probably catch one show before moving on to the Rainforest Kidzworld where Ry could indulge in waterplay. It was a morning well-spent at the zoo. Needless to say, Ry and Br fell asleep in the car on our way back. They almost slept through the whole afternoon and I must admit I'm the happiest person because then I could catch up on doing the much neglected housework around the apt.

Ry was trying to show us the V-sign that he learnt from his teacher.

At the elephant display area.

While waiting for the show to begin.

Baby Br trying to sign to me "eat, eat, eat". He's getting better at signing and speaking. He can now call "daddy" very clearly!