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!

And brownies to end off the fun day

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.

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.

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*

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.

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.

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.

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???

Playgrounds can be oh so much fun.

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.

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.

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.

Updates have been very random and very late. So much so that sometimes I don’t quite feel like blogging anymore. It is quite a ‘chore‘ to blog when the event is long over. I find myself rambling on (ok, I do that a lot, no matter how ‘fresh’ the event is).

These days, there really isn’t much time to blog. BabyK sleeps really late. Following in the footsteps of her brother. More accurately, she is spoiled rotten and needs to be carried to sleep. She usually knocks off around 12plus (11 if we are lucky) and then wakes to nurse around 3plus or 6 (again if we are really lucky).

She then sleeps through till 9ish, 10. Sounds good, but then there is older brother J to think about. He wakes around the same time and the day begins with a struggle to get him ready for school with teeth brushed, breakfast in tummy and all changed (hopefully with a bath) and out the door. Usually babyK is fed her solid brekkie, ie, non-breastmilk food at the same time.

Then J’s off to school at 10plus and hopefully, babyK’s down for her nap. If she does her *ahem* business early, she gets an early bath. Otherwise, we’d play by ear. Then it is a constant sleep-wake-play cycle for her. Most of the time with her attempting to stick herself to me.

3 hours FLY by and I’m off to pick Jayden up from school. If the weather’s fine, we are all happy. If it is hot or rainy, I question whether it is a boon or bane to be staying so near. Although I have not tried, I’m positive  no taxi in their right mind would take us.

Back home again with the boy and we spend the afternoon cajoling him to have his food. We have activity time throughout. And the activity of the day depends on our mood. His as well as mine. Sometimes it is the tv as the babysitter to the rescue with Hi5 (current favourite) as he is somewhat obsessed with song and dance right now. Music he calls it. But any non-parent would be faster to call it noise.

By the time 6pm rolls around, we start him on his dinner and try to wind down his activities and pack him off to bed by 8. He gets some reading done (C.A.T cat!) and when he finally nods off, I get some peace. That is, if babyK allows.

Inbetween, I try and create new items, pack orders, list new items and blog. I wonder why I don’t get more done. Hmm.

And all this is only possible because my mum’s around to help (thank you mummy!).

From this trip, we learnt that babyK is a wonderful traveller whilst J has no concept of time. Nor space. It was a crazy trip, with the mercury dipping to 10 degrees (wth?!) and a mad rush to ensure that everyone is well insulated from the cold winds. Cold to summer hot Singaporeans that is.

We spent 6days 5nights in Hong Kong. Taking the early morning SQ flight and bumping into our pilots at T3’s Killiney. While the breakfast was nothing to shout about, we were suitably impressed by the features that newest terminal Changi had to offer. Baby wise of course.

We didn’t quite make use of our ‘privileges’ in having children in our traveling party to board early. In fact we were so slow and easy-going that we were at the final call on our return leg. Not that it really mattered. BabyK settled down easily, snacking on her biscuits and sleeping in her bassinet whilst older brother squirmed in his seat, spilled soya milk on it and went walking around the Economy class at every opportunity he had.

Landed in HK and took the road less travelled, staying at Sham Shui Po. With our party of 5 (3 adults and 2 kids), we went for a service apartment in the outskirts. It proved to be a fun experience, and surprisingly easy to travel as it was right smack between two MTR stations / lines.

Didn’t do much, as in, didn’t cover as much ground as we would have sans children. We did however, head to Disneyland. We went on the ‘coldest’ day on our trip, with the temperatures falling to 10degrees. It meant that both kids were well layered with clothing and that visitors were few. BabyK slept through anything. When she was tired, she’d sleep. Nevermind that Main Street was having a parade and Mickey and friends were out in full force.

We think Jayden enjoyed himself though. He hated the fireworks but LOVED Autopia. But most of all, he loves his $4 pizza set. The simple pleasures in life you say?

The full set of HK pictures… here.