June Holiday Escapades :: Zoo-per

The Typical Scenario

We finally made it to somewhere other than the Science Centre. Heh. And I think it was somewhat interesting for Jayden to see the animals he had previously only seen in books come to live. Whilst babyK was somewhat bored to death and dying in the heat. This picture sums it up — K’s bored stiff while J is again distracted by something else that passed his way.

Singapore Zoo

Yes, the zoo. Finally…!

Zoo-per Saver!

Two adult Zooper Saver tickets please!

Now if these were mine...

Was very tempted to rent this (or the electric sccoters!) but decided against it. Thankfully, else I’d have ended up carrying a sleeping K midway through the visit.

Touristy Shots

One of them obligatory shots

And you dragged me across Singapore for this?

I did say she wasn’t too happy…

Kangaroo Crossing

The fun stuff!

Suspension Bridge

I don’t quite remember the zoo having such a BIG children’s play area. But it is there right now. A reasonably large waterplay area, playgrounds and team building stations (flying fox, suspension bridge…) kept Jayden occupied for a chunk of time. The majority are actually better suited (and targeted at) older kids but he had fun nonetheless.

Random J speaks…

On seeing the lion poster. We asked what it was.
C.A.T CAT!
(technically, he’s not wrong!)

At the tiger enclosure… He started singing…

???? ????
??? ???
?????? ??????
??? ???

V and I were trying to walk as fast as possible, away from him.

At the giftshop…

Quite Literally Scaredy Cat

We discovered the soft toys scare babyK to tears.

Such fun!




June Holiday Escapades :: SAM Edition

So the June holidays have since rolled around and we are busy dealing with two boisterous children at a go. Thankfully Singapore isn’t all that boring for the kids and there are other options besides the shopping malls (though their aircon comfort makes them hard to beat).

After learning about Children’s Season at the museums last year, I have been meaning to visit. Was far too heavy with babyK in utero last year to even think of venturing out so we tried again this year. We made a stop at SAM@8Q and spent a delightful afternoon out.

And we are hoping to hit the National Museum next. Or maybe a second round at the Art Garden.

*It actually felt like the (unofficial) bring your kids to the museum day as we bumped into friends at the museum!
Singapore Arts Museum

Art Garden

I love museums :D

The Grass Is Always Greener On The Inside

Children Season @ SAM

Children Season @ SAM

Children Season @ SAM
I Do Not Like The Fake Grass

Leaving A Trail

And brownies to end off the fun day :D

I Want That!




need vs want

Jayden : tomorrow we go buy spectacles for me ok?
Me : whatever for?
Jayden : because I don’t have mah.
Me : but you don’t need them!
Jayden : but you all have mah. Your eyes all spoil need to wear. I want to wear also.
Me : o_O

Give it to a child to put the need vs want dilemma in a clear way.




J’s report card

Playground fun

The kindergarten has scheduled its first parent-teacher session on 30th April and well, I guess now would be a good time to do a roundup of what has been happening, because really, since baby K came along, time has become even more precious.

Most of what follows, true to report card style, is quite erhmm, boring. So skip along if you want. We won’t judge. :P

IMG_2345

Jayden has remained ‘true to form’ showing a fair bit of development this year. Since school started in January, you see him growing to be more sociable with children… his age. He has also begun to actually know their names although, he is very ’self centred’, prefixing everyone, name or thing, with ‘my’. Normal really. Because that is how children are.

He has dominated the toys at home, even gender specific ones like kitchen sets and cooking toys. I guess ‘playing house’ is something for both genders(?) and he can often be found wanting to clean, sweep and mop. In addition to cooking. His cooking, in the words of my dad, is a rip off. “Collecting real money (ok, 10, 20 cents) for fake food that he serves again and again.” No wonder his bank is well fed.

His numbers are really quite good. From not being able to count properly for the longest time, to laughable (and questionable) identification (imagine naming 10 as one-zero), he has since graduated to knowing zero through ten and scarily, other numbers as well.

Like… 53 (fifty three instead of five three).

His colours is being worked upon, and his alphabets too. Progress is slow and somewhat difficult to gauge because the cheeky boy always tries to be funny about it. We have watched Barney countless times. To the extent that we are going to be excellent voice-overs, and him, able to memorise the sequence, but I don’t think he has all 26 letters of the alphabet down pat.

On a positive side, he eats a whole lot more. Just minus the vegetables and over a very long period of time. Which creates for a lot of poop. And brings us to another point. We think we are on the home stretch to being diaper free. He could tell when he wanted to erhmm, go for the longest time, but perhaps he was not ready (as in, unable to control properly?). But right now, he usually goes to school in his favourite red (don’t ask!) underwear and has not had any accidents… at school. A couple at home but by and large most of it gets into the potty. Nights he still wears but we note that they are increasingly dry in the morning. Yay!

Jayden is also increasingly able to articulate what he wants. He gets on the imaginary phone and blabbers away for long stretches. Quite fun to eavesdrop because you learn interesting insights into what is going on in that little head of his. Things like who he likes, what happened in school, what happened when you were not watching… because you know, you don’t say such things to your parents. Not directly anyway. So… right now, he wants to go to the Science Centre (especially WaterWorks) but not the beach because he is scared of water. He loves shopping and is extremely observant. *orange juice for uncle K, milk for uncle T, long pants for himself, tea for me… yaddayaddayadda*
IMG_3025

Frightening sometimes because you realise that (like passion) it was caught and not taught. Like little quirks in our personalities / way we do things. He HAS to bring something to read at the potty even though he cannot understand a word of randomly grabbed flyer. He loves photos and can recall most of the details that took place at the time the photo was taken although he insists HE was the baby in one particular shot when really, it was baby K.

Jayden turns 3

All in, he is a very sensitive boy. For the first couple of months, he took the transition to going to school hard. Then we realised that he was vying for attention. Nowadays, the two show signs of bickering like cat and dog (hah, we got that one right) but also, that there is a strong sibling affection. They will both look for the other. And break out into a smile.We think the two will enjoy each other’s company even if they will rather die than admit it.

IMG_3632

We have been ‘going places’. Little trips out of country and out of home. The best thing about having flexi hours (dad) and working from home is that, sometimes you can just up and go. We have discovered some really child friendly places in Singapore. Not because it is exciting but because they have the space for the children to wreck havoc. It isn’t quite what is done but who is going along for the ride.

Has been an eventful ride thus far! And now, I wonder what the school’s report card is going to read. Hmm.




conversations with J

Today was interesting. It felt like a hotspot of meeting acquaintances and such. I bumped into my ‘jiemei’ from our wedding (would you believe, all of 5 years already?), an RC contact, ex-colleagues (ok, I did work there afterall) and my old Bio tutor from JC. Now did that feel weird.

Anyway, as we made our (slow) progress to class today, you could see Jayden’s eyes widen each time we stopped to exchange courtesies. Finally he chimed…

J : Mummy, WHO?
Me : Mummy’s friend. You have friends right? Mummy also has friends.
J : Oh (with a very incredulous look)
Me : ?!
why, I can’t have friends ah???




playtime

See saw

Playgrounds can be oh so much fun.




chicken little Jayden

On the way home today in the sweltering heat…

J : Mummy! Walk faster. Raining already!
Me : *incredulous look* HUH?

Turning to look at him, I discover his beads of perspiration… and found his ‘rain’.

FAIL.




learning

In a bid to keep him occupied, we have all sorts of odd activities for him to do. The latest is colouring. He is still not very adept at holding the pen(cils) and has a long long way to go. But it does get him seated. Most of the time anyway.

The sheet in the picture is a printable from Brittany Soucy. They are rather nice and well, better for older children. I was tired of doing ABCs!

** The boy came down with gastric flu over the weekend past. And boy, am I glad that the weekend of pee, poop and fever is over. On a sidenote, he is semi-toilet trained whereby he typically does not use the diaper when at home. Only when out or overnight. We had cajoled him to use his potty before the Hong Kong trip and oddly enough, he did.

Except it ‘backfired‘ on us where we had to work our way through 3-5 layers of clothing to get him ready to *ahem* pee in the cold spell that struck whilst we were in Hong Kong.




my first skool

Nazi, angsty mum strikes again.

You know, with all the talk about how fast kids learn to read, write and spell, more so with the use of flashcards, why on earth would a childcare centre name themselves “My First Skool”?

I’m sure there’s a good reason and most adults would smile at the kiddish spelling of school, but really. Seeing “Skool” spelt as such, everyday is not going to help the kid.

No?

Ok, random rant over and out. That aside, they just opened a branch within walking distance. Everything is NEW and utterly appealing. Plus, the student-teacher ratio is great as erhmm, no students yet. But it does seem depressing for the kids. They look so lonely in there.




telling it like it is

Jayden : Mrs S is not teaching us anymore. She got headache.
Me : Why does she have a headache?
Jayden : From teaching us.

The class has had a change of form teachers at the start of this new term. Haven’t talked to the new form teacher yet. I wonder how she is, having to deal with Mister Smartypants.




Snapshots

photo photo photo photo 

What's Up!

  • off to ikea! 18 hrs ago
  • supposed to spend the day at ikea... but bbK is enjoying the cold weather sleeping away. J went ahead with grandpa. hope they are ok! 20 hrs ago
  • scary to see how proficient K is on the toy car... 2 days ago
  • More updates...

Days Of Our Lives

March

3 : K is 7mth old
5-10 : HK Family Trip
10 : J is 37mth old
11 : J's back to school
10 : J is 33mths
16 : 59 Months

Recently

Talk Back

Categories

Archives

Pages

Meta



THE KIDDOS

Of siblings, a little man and a little miss, growing up in urban Singapore.

  • profileElder brother, Jayden; cheeky lil toddler going through the terrible twos and trying to assert his independence. Is currently easily bribed with POCKY.

  • profileYounger sister, Kathlene; sweet young thing that is still figuring her way out in the world. Is already exhibiting a strong character and looks likely to be the bully between the two. Is quite the charmer who loves being carried.

Shop @ Sparkle Thots


If you would like to get some shopping done, head on down to Sparkle Thots, the Store.

RSS Sparkle Thots

Tracking The Hits



visitors have said hi!