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!