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Sweetie (1 - 18 months) [click x if cannot view]

Cutie (1 - 18 months)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Finally. Home.

Yes, we are back in Singapore, ... for good (mummy hopes).











Mummy is tired from all the packing and upacking since October (from Korea-->Singapore-->Daddy's operation-->Korea-->Everland Tour-->Busan Tour-->Singapore). Packing for 4 (inclusive for 2 toddlers) during the cold season is no joke.

Really glad to back home in Singapore (tho' now got tons of unpacking and packing and cleaning to do). The feeling of being home is just great.

For my darlings, of course they are happier to be back home:
... more home space to run about
... more toys to play with
... more delicious choices of food to choose from
... more shopping fun

But... we miss the cool weather in Korea and also its beautiful scenery especially during Autumn.

The most wonderful thing of our stay in Korea for mummy is being able to get to know some lovely ladies from other countries
... Fiona (Taiwan), Ally (Japan), Yumiko (Japan), ML (Turkey), Myrtis (Brazil), Jinu (Thailand), Lina (Malaysia), Run (Korea), Song Keong (Korea) and more...

Also worth mentioning is Ajuma (the owner of an eatery) who made us feel so welcome with her warmth and motherly love.

Thank you, everyone. It has been a pleasure knowing you and hope we will continue to keep in touch.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Farewell, Everland

We didn't manage to go to Everland for one last time (sigh! could have... if... not due to some people...hee...ranting again??...no, no...).

Nevertheless, it has been a wonderful place to us (mmm... think it's more for my darlings) while we were in Korea.

Mummy did not keep tracks of the number of times that we've been there, but based on the number of group photos we had taken on different dates, mummy has managed to count to 14.

14 times to Everland??? Hee...guess we are the only Singaporeans to have achieved that. And to be exact, it is a total of 14 times during our last 6 months of stay in Korea (of which 1 month we were back in Singapore when Daddy went for operation).
Guess now you can understand why we called Everland our "hometown".

Friday, December 11, 2009

3-year old Proficient Reader

Now at 44 months, my Cutie is already a proficient reader. She can read almost any word, thus reading a book is not a problem to her. Too bad the video of her first reading of "The Ugly Duckling" was gone when Daddy lost the small camera. Thank God had captured this second reading on the DSLR camera.

Here's my Cutie reading to you the summary page of "The Gingerbread Man" storybook.


Every night, she will be busy her reading on her own after story time with mummy and Mei Mei.
In the following video, you can see that she has no problem reading the sentences found at the bottom of the pages. However, what surprised mummy was the fact that she was sharing and teaching her meimei the vocabulary of the pictures in the book. An elder sister teaching her younger sister, so sweet.

Click here to see the video of Cutie reading and teaching my Sweetie.

This Cutie is also able to do simple addition. Guess she's ready for some Mathematics lessons. *wink*

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Trip to Busan, Korea

Honestly, this was the worst planning for all the trips I've had so far (a long story which someone changed the booking date for us without consulting us!). Tho' it's a 3D2N trip, we had actually only a day to spend in Busan, to be exact.

On Day 1, we had a 2-hour journey to Busan via the KTX train and it was about 9pm when we arrived at the hotel (we were unable to go there earlier cos' it was Daddy's graduation ceremony which ended in the evening.

On Day 3, we thought we could leave our luggage with the hotel after check-out so that we could have more time to tour in Busan. But the conceirge staff says they do not allowed that. As it's not practical to travel around with a luggage, a stroller and 2 toddlers in this cold weather, so the only option was to go back to Daejeon after checking out.

Hence, Mummy was rather upset that our tour dates had been brought forward (we do appreciate the friend's help in booking for us, but would appreciate better if he could consult us and not make his own decision to change the dates for us based on his own logical thinking). Our 1st day was practically wasted and just going there just to check-in to the hotel to sleep. Mummy had initially planned to use that night to finish packing before the tour to Busan and it's really hard to enjoy a tour when things were left undone. *Sigh*.

Nevertheless, we did have some fun at the popular Haeundae Beach (해운대) and the Busan aquarium on the 2nd day, and thank God that both are located very near to our hotel.

Though it was a bit cold in Winter plus the sea breeze, my darlings did have a wonderful time playing on the sand and picking up seashells at the beach. The picture on the left shows the "cake" with 2 "candles" made by my darlings and you can see my Sweetie proudly telling me that she's 2 years old. After that, we sang a birthday song and then they blew the "flame" off the candles. That was fun.

At the Haeundae Beach, Mummy was surprised to learn that we were actually quite close to Japan's Tsushima Island (cos' we had a Japanese friend whom my darlings addressed as Uncle Tsushima). He had told us before that there's an island in Japan that was named after him. Hee... didn't know that it's actually so close to Busan. Too bad he doesn't own the island, else we could have drop by the island, hee...

The Busan Aquarium, however, was a little way-below my expectation as I thought there will be an open viewing area facing the open sea since it's situated underneath the beach. I remembered our tour to a Seahorse Aquarium in Tasmania (Australia) years ago, there's 1 viewing area inside facing the Pacific Ocean which left a deep impression in me. Hence, I was actually looking forward to that at the Busan Aquarium (the main reason of choosing this aquarium over the other located in COEX shopping mall in Seoul). Worst of all, there was the suspense-type of background music constantly being played in the dimly-lit aquarium, which drew more fear in my darlings when they saw the sea creatures.

Guess which creatures do my darlings like most at the aquarium? Haha... it's the soft toy pengiuns that were being displayed near the entrance (to give a Christmas mood).

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Fun in the Snow

It snowed earlier in the day, so Mummy brought my darlings out to have some fun before the snow disappeared. Haha... cos' the amount of snow here was so little that they will be gone once the afternoon sun shines.

We only managed to play with the little bit of snow found on the cars in the carpark. Tho' all we got were just a few small snowballs, it has been a fun experience for my darlings to play with snowballs for the 1st time.

See my Cutie throwing the "miserable" snowball on the floor, haha... will never get the chance to when back in Singapore. Mummy also had a great time chatting with a Taiwan friend (arrgh... gonna miss her when each of us returns to our country) while my darlings had fun playing with her kids.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Ladybug Princess

My little baby has grown up and now she's crazy over the princess. Hear her telling me that she's a "Ladybug Princess" and asking me if she is pretty. Haha...



See, how happy they were when mummy bought for each a box of princess panties. Anything associated with the word "princess" will just keep them captivated.

My Sweetie princess not just can converse quite well in spoken English, she understands perfectly on the usage of the possessive nouns.

Here's a transcript of 0ur conversation:
Mummy: This is A camera.
Sweetie : This is A camera.
Mummy: This is Mummy's camera. (it really is mummy's camera)
Sweetie: This is OUR camera.
Mummy: ???

Haha... Sometimes she is just so sweet, especially with her sweetie smile (minus away the whining and stubborness). Mummy just loves her much much.

Sisterly Love