A 'Sorry' Note from 5 year old Cutie

Mummy was angry with my Cutie and scolded her for making me angry since the last 3 years.  Quietly, she went back to her room.  Then she came out with this 'sorry' note.

So sweet, Mummy was no longer angry, instead I was feeling guilty for saying such nasty things to her.

Darling, Mummy is sorry too.

Home Genius

Time flies, mummy will be going back to the workforce soon and we will not be able to stay at home as we used to be.  Going to miss the bonding time we had together.  Mummy is thankful for being able to be with them 24/7 ever since they are born.

Here's some of the fun they had for the last 6 months.

Both of them wanted to wear their nursery school uniform and said our house was their school.  They named it "Home-Genius" (guess they must have enjoyed their lessons at Igenius).  Quite creative though.

A session of fun with colours.

 When mummy cleared their clothes which they had outgrown, they decided to use them to dress up their bear.  What a Beary makeover.

  Last but not least, food is always part of the fun we shared.  See the beautiful faces we made.  See my Cutie's new broccoli hairclip and Sweetie's flower.  Yum, yum.

Merry Christmas 2011

The Christmas for this year came early.  My darlings had received their presents from "Santa Claus" early at the beginning of the month.  My darlings were very excited as the they finally going to have their own Barbie dolls.

 

Mummy felt that they are now at the suitable age to really enjoy playing with Barbie dolls.  Amazingly, each characters chosen for them matches their individual's personalities.  Santa Claus mentioned that they can have them on 25 Dec if they are well-behaved.

But 1 week before Christmas, Mummy decided to let my darlings open their presents instead as most likely they would not be able to play with their toys as much as they could this year.

As expected, they love their Barbie dolls very much.  Thank you, Santa.  Hee...

Cycling Fun

Finally, Daddy and Mummy felt that our darlings are ready to learn to ride outside the house (they are only allowed to ride their tricycle, scooter at home).  So, we got them this kid's bike with training wheels.  They were extremely happy and wanted to ride on it immediately after buying it at the shopping mall.

So instead of taking the car back home, my Cutie cycled the bicycle home with her sister on the backseat.  Poor daddy thus had to drive home alone.

Since then, we have been bringing them down to the park to cycle.  Mummy was very happy to see that they will take turns to cycle while the another will just run along (Mummy has initially wondered should we have bought 2 bicycles instead).  Then we will have extra "junk" (aka kid's stuff) at home.  Talking about junk, we had bought a pair of rollerblades for them since beginning of the year, which till date, had never been touched.  Luckily, the headgear and safety gears that we had bought with the rollerblades, can now get to see the light (ie. be used when cycling).  Must really find the chance to use the rollerblades one day, but for now, it's the season of cycling.

Holiday Workshop @HESS

Mummy had signed my darlings up for the Winter holiday workshop at HESS.  However, the teaching was a little too way-below Mummy's expectation in this workshop and thus did not continue after a week.  They were basically taught a few words that are associated with Winter eg. Hanukkah.  However, no explanation were given as to what the words meant or how the words were spelt (Mummy has tried to seek clarification from the teacher on a word they were unclear of and worst still, the teacher just told me the word but she was not able to spell nor explain to me its meaning to me, so till date I'm still wondering what was that word.).  Although the teachers were warm and friendly (haha... totally opposite of what they experienced in their ex pre-school), Mummy found that it was not worth my effort to travel to so far away to Katong.  Besides, it was not easy to get a cab in the morning and also having to experience traffic jam along the Eunos area.

My darlings actually joined in their Trick or Treat session in October. It was a good moment for the kids as Mummy did not know that they were scared of Hawolleen. The night before Hawolleen, they were so scared that they could not sleep. It was finally after some assurance from Mummy that the Trick or Treat session was not scary at all, then they managed to sleep. In the end, they had great fun collecting goodies at the Trick or Treat session that their impression of Hawolleen had changed completely, thus prompted Mummy to sign them up for the Winter holiday workshop.  However, Mummy feels that this school is more suitable for those foreign children who have no English language foundation, so guess that will be the last time we stepped into this school.

Creative Invention

Do you have any idea what's the green lighted thing is?

Yup, that's a lamp.  It's my darlings' latest invention.

The amazing thing is it was made up of their froggie stools and LED light.  Haha... really don't know where they got the ideas from - to put both the stools together and placed the light inside.

Great idea.  Now who needs a table lamp?

Batik Art and Popular Fest

After our session at East Coast Park, we went to Suntec City as we wanted to go to the Popular Fest.  It was our first time there with the crowd, as both my darlings are quite independent now.

Along the way, we saw a funraising event whereby we paid for an art piece and painted it ourselves.  My darlings were very excited to do the painting.  They made the decision on the choice of colours and did the painting themselves (hee... with Mummy doing the final touchup).  It was the first time we did batik painting and it was quite a experience as it was quite different from the normal painting that we usually do.  Daddy was very happy as his darlings gave it to him to display in his office.

We were finally at the Popular Fest by evening.  Guess who's the happiest to go shopping, hee... it's none other than Mummy.  There were simply too many cute, cute things to buy, from stationery to toys for my darlings.  We had also bought the newly launched board game called Money Champ for them.  Luckily, we had our stroller with us else would have a hard time carrying so many bags of things to the carpark.  What a busy day we had.

East Coast Prawning

Yesterday, we went to East Coast Prawning Centre and we had another fun session of "fishing" for prawns.  My darlings remembered the yummy prawns that they had eaten the other time at Bottle Tree Park, thus they were very excited.

My Cutie was as hardworking as her Daddy to catch the prawns while my Sweetie chose to leave the chores to the "experts" (hee... just like Mummy) and both of us were busy playing the I-pad.  At the end of the session, the Cutie-Daddy team managed to catch 8 "live" prawns.  However, as we were not going home yet, it would not be wise to bring the fresh prawns along.

So we decided to enjoy our "reward" at the centre.  But to our surprise, the bbq grill here is not the electric type.  It was not easy to set up the fire with the charcoal at first, but after a while we had a lot of fun with our bbq session.  The owner was also very kind to give us a big plate of prawns free-of-charge.

While on our way to our car, we spotted the family bicycle for rent at the bicycle rental shop.  My darlings remembered that we rode on it before when we were in Korea.  Seeing their excitement, Daddy and Mummy decided to rent one.  But my Cutie has since grown a lot and she couldn't fit in the front seat anymore.  Nevertheless, it was a fun ride and my darlings enjoyed it very much.  Poor Daddy and Mummy, as we had to do the paddling for 4.  But we knew it was worth it seeing the smiling faces of our darlings.  Hee... got to think of the future... it will then be their turns to do the paddling, while we enjoy the rides, yippee.

The Elves and the Shoesmaker

Once again, Mummy brought my darlings to watch the theatre performance.  For the first time, we went without Daddy.  This time, we were watching "The Elves and the Shoesmaker" at the Drama Centre@ National Library.  It was a wonderful performance and my darlings enjoyed the performance very much.  At the end of the show, they also got to take pictures with the cast.  It was simply marvellous.

 

After the show, we went to the national library since we were already in it.  My darlings just love going to library to read books.  Somehow, there was a stage set up at the Children's Section.  So got my darlings to pose for pictures.

Soon it was evening time, so we went to Swenson's at Bugis Junction to have our dinner. 

Amazingly, when we were at Downtown East yesterday, there was a skit for the shoppers and it was also about the Elves and the Shoesmaker.  It was a good opportunity for my darlings to enjoy the story once again.  We were lucky to be there early and thus were given a ticket to have a phototaking session with the cast.

Cutie's Language Abilities

Today, we collected the test assessment result from the Singapore Brain Development for my Cutie.

The result indicates that my Cutie was quite advanced in the various areas and her average age is 8.06 years, which is much higher than her current age of 5.5 years old. 

Mummy was glad that this analysis shows a mark improvement for her as compared to her 1st analysis done 6 months ago.  For my darlings have not been attending school for the past 6 months and yet this Cutie has progressed much better during this period.

Mummy was also very surprised that her English teacher in another enrichment centre had actually sought special permission from the centre HQ to emplace this Cutie in the class that caters only for Primary 1 pupils.  She has been very impressed with my Cutie's language ability.  Throughout their past 10 years of service, the centre has only given special approval for 3 pupils (including my Cutie).  My Cutie is the 1st to be emplaced at a level higher than her current age for this branch in Tampines. 

Mummy is so proud of my Cutie, but I'm not surprised with her abilities.  She has been scoring 10 /10 for her weekly spelling and her comprehension abilities of the language is very good too.  Her English teacher has conducted an impromptu test in class in October.  In total, my Cutie has scored 28.5 out of 30 marks, which is quite impressive for a girl at her age.  Three 1/2 marks were actually deducted as my Cutie did not place a full-stop at the end of 3 sentences.  So if we were to pardon her for that (especially being 5 years old only), she has actually scored a perfect score for a test that is inclusive of open-ended comprehension questions.

The picture on the left shows details about the flags of Jordan, Israel and Hungary.  My Cutie had actually drew and wrote them on the white board at home, on her own accord.

Well, Mummy just wants to tell my Cutie "I'm so proud of you, darling."  :) 

Tooth fairy

Since last week, my Cutie has been telling me about the tickling feeling she had on her tooth.  Finally, we found out the cause - her baby tooth is coming off.  Mummy is surprised as usually the baby teeth will drop when around 7 years old.

Guess what my Cutie told me, she must put her tooth under her pillow so that the tooth fairy will come to take it and then leave a candy for her.  Haha... Mummy really wonders where she learned this from.  Amazingly, Mummy's friend whose child is a year older, with her tooth coming off soon is also telling her mother about the tooth fairy.  Gee...

Finally, the D-day arrived and my Cutie's tooth came off.  She was very excited and constantly reminded me to place it under her pillow.

Guess what, the tooth fairy really "came" but she did not leave any candy for my Cutie.  Instead, my Cutie found a Hello Kitty folder and Princess stickers by her bedside and of course, her tooth was gone.  Hee...

My Sweetie who is into Disney Princesses, told me that she can't wait to have her 1st tooth drops off, so that she can have the beautiful stickers too. OMG.  Well, that's my sweetie pie. :)

Jumbo again (Singapore Indoor Stadium)

Hee.. we went to Jumbo again, this time to celebrate Mummy's birthday.

But instead of going to NRSCC, we went to the Jumbo at Kallang Indoor Stadium.  The outdoor view is beautiful (facing Tanjong Rhu).  Of course, the food was the main attraction and we had an enjoyable time savouring the yummy crab.  My Cutie was very excited to be able to help herself to the crab pincers again.

After our meal, the staff was very nice to bring out the cake that we had brought along.  Haha... it was a Hello Kitty design, chosen by my Cutie.  Then we decided to change to the outdoor seating (hee... away from view of the waitresses as well as to enjoy the beautiful views near the riverside).

We went for a short walk across the Tanjong Rhu bridge (fyi, it's Singpaore 1st suspension footbridge built in 1998).  The cool weather made the walk even more enjoyable.  Time has passed quickly, Mummy is now a year older. 

Actually to me, it's ok to grow old cos' if not how would my children grow up?  But of course, nobody wants to grow old, just pray that I will grow old beautifully and healthily, ok?

Bang, bang, bang

Lately, the only sound that is constantly surrounding Mummy is the "bang, bang, bang" sound coming from my darlings.

Hee... guess they have been influenced by their parents aka us who have been playing the xbox360 HALO games lately.  They are now very conversant with the various weapons terms like shotguns, grenade launchers, pistols, rifles etc.

They are very creative in using their toys like the golf clubs, water pistol guns etc and improvising the toys to be the various weapons.  Then they will go "bang, bang, bang" to shoot their imaginery enemies from morning to night.

In the end, we got them the Nerf guns and they are very excited to have a "real" gun which can really shoot.  Their guns are equipped with the aiming reticle beam which is great in ensuring shooting accuracy even in the dark.  Although the guns came with some targets, they actually prefer the target characters printed out by their Daddy.  Haha... cos' those were the characters in our Halo games.

With the Nerf guns, there is no more "bang, bang, bang" coming out from their mouth. 

Yeah, peace at last.

Excursions and more

The month of October was filled with excursions, excursions and more excursions.At the beginning of the month, my darlings had their first experience of longkang fishing using nets at the Kids' Kampung. Though it was not easy catching the fishes, it was fun.  There was also an animal show in celebration of the Children's Day.  My darlings were very excited to be able to hold onto the hamsters, gerbils and bunnies.

We also went to the Singapore Science Centre and there was an exhibition on how the wild animals were being kept or killed.  It strenthens their understanding of why we should avoid eating sharks' fins and how our simply gestures can help to save the animals.  My darlings also love the craft session which are manned by the student volunteers.  See both of them having so much fun, just by being elephants for a day.

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At the Asian Civilisation Museum, there was the Terracotta Warriors Exhibition at the Asian Civilisation Museum.  This is the first time my darlings got to see the terracotta warriors. They also learned about the Emperor Qin and how the terracotta warriors were being made.  We were very intrigued by the funky terracotta warriors with modern gadgets designed by Justin Lee.  We had a good laugh over these cutie modern terracotta warriors.

We also went to the Merlion Park nearby, they had finally got the chance to see the merlions in close proximity.  We had a fun time sitting on the steps near the big merlion and watching the junk boats cruising by.  My darlings remembered the time when we were on one of the boats.  We were very lucky to catch some fireworks performance at the Marina Bay Sands.

For the first time, we brought our darlings to the Night Safari.  My darlings were very excited to be in a zoo at night.  It was quite a total different experience compared to being at the zoo in the day.  We enjoyed watching the animal show and had a fun time exploring the zoo in the darkness on the tram ride.

Though it was tiring, it was fun to go on an excursion as a family.

[*Sigh*, a lot of our exursions photos were lost as one of our SD cards was spoilt.]

Cutie's first at Jumbo

It's been some time since we went to this Jumbo Seafood Restaurant at NRSCC, partly because we had to make a reservation beforehand.  Luckily, there's a famous "zhi char" stall at Hougang KPT that sells fresh and delicious chilli crabs too.  Though always crowded with customers, it was no hassle at all as we only need to place our order through the phone and then drive over to collect it.
At Jumbo, besides ordering the crabs, today we had also ordered the sharks' fins soup.  Mummy had wanted to let my darlings to know how the sharks' fins soup tasted like, before sharing with them on the cruelty of mankind towards the sharks.  Hee... guess this should be the last time we would be ordering the sharks' fin soup and Mummy is glad that my darlings understand and readily agreed too even though they love this delicious dish cooked by the chef.

Talking about the crabs, in the past, Daddy and Mummy would always be busy removing the crabmeat for my darlings.  For the 1st time, my Cutie wanted to try eating the crabs herself.  So we gave her a crab pincer and she was very happy to be able to hold onto the crab and feed herself.  Look at her happy expression.

Hurray... from now on, Daddy and Mummy will be able to have more time enjoying feeding ourselves.  But oh no, with her bigger appetite, that would mean everybody will get a smaller share of the pie then.  Think will have to order more crabs next time.

After the desserts, we were too full to enjoy the cake for Daddy's birthday.  So we just took a photo with it.  They do have a lot of fun transforming the bibs into their capes.

My 2 little darlings were so sweet to give their lovely Daddy a kiss on his cheeks.  Daddy said those 2 kisses are more than enough to keep him happy on his birthday.  Hee... I'm sure the delicious meal does help too.

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

Sweetie's reading

Our cosplay activities came to a halt when my Sweetie was down with a high fever few days ago.  The fever was down and was up again.  But amazingly, the fever subsided after seeing the doctor, luckily before she took the anti-biotics medicines.  So, in all, we paid over $80, just to really "see" the doctor.  Mummy is glad that my Sweetie is well again.

Recently, my Sweetie is gaining interest in reading and is thus able to read a simple book on her own. Click on the video to hear her reading a story to you.  Mummy is glad to see her efforts in making out the words without much help.

Here is a picture drew by this Sweetie near the beginning of the year.  Mummy loves the way that she constantly expresses her love for me.  Whenever she has the chance to write, she will be writing "I love Mummy to be happy".

So sweet.

Fun with Cosplay

These few days were filled with fun as my darlings were dressed up as various characters that they chose to be.  Their first cosplay characters were Minnie Mouse and Bugs Bunny.  They had to tell Mummy the prominent features of the characters and then we will venture around the house to search for it.  See my Cutie with her Bugs Bunny's ears, tail, carrot as well as 2 big bunny teeth.  For my Sweetie, she added a scarf, watch and high-heel shoes and not forgetting to hold the jewellery casing in her hand.

On the second day, my darlings wanted a Princess theme.  So to match the costumes that they have, they were dressed up as Belle and Cinderella.  Mummy helped them to create new hairdos similar to the 2 princesses and not forgetting the tiaras to add a royal touch.  My darlings were full of joy being the princesses for the day.

On the 3rd day, seeing my darlings walking around the house with their luggages (like tourists), the idea of dressing up as flight attendants came to mind.  My darlings decided what to dress up as their airline uniform and they said they are the air stewardess of the "Powerpuff (girls) Airline".  Both their uniform has the same PowerPuff (girls) logo, however their designs differ because my Cutie was the Chief air stewardess.  Haha....

Feeling their enthusiasm, Mummy decided to create an "aeroplane" for them.  Gathering whatever we could find in the house (their kids' bubble chairs, stools, swimboards, car seat etc), we use them to transform into the seats inside the aeroplane.  The aeroplane were full of passengers (who were none other than their lovely softoys) and the youngest was a "baby" on the bassinet.  They would draw up and down the curtains to indicate whether it was day or night, then follow by meal times.

My darlings would then filled their trolley with foodstuff from their "kitchen".  They had a great time serving and keeping the passengers (including the kids who were given kids' meals) happy on board the plane, despite experiencing a few "turbulences" during the flight.  Mummy gave them 5 stars for their great service as flight attendants.

Watch the video below to see these 2 friendly air stewardess at work.

  

Mid Autumn Festival

How time flies!  Mummy still remembers 4 years ago that I would want to bring my darlings to join in the Mid-Autumn Festival activities in our neighbourhood every year.  But the following year, we were in Korea and only got to join in the celebrations last year.  But this year, maybe due to our tour to Melbourne, Mummy has forgotten totally about this festival until this evening when we saw a crowd gathering in the park below our house and many children walking around with their lanterns.

We had wanted to join in the fun too, however Daddy advised against it as the haze index for today was quite bad in the afternoon.  So, we only joined in the fun, hee... with us in the house.  Mummy took out their lanterns given by their enrichment school and these 2 darlings did not waste much time to be imaginative again.  This round of role-play, my Sweetie is the "Princess" and my Cutie is the "attendant".  Hence, she has to escort the "Princess" around the "Palace".  Mummy also had to join in as they need me to walk in front of the "entourage", even though my role then was the "Queen" (cos' they were afraid of the dark).  Indeed they have been influenced by the Korean Drama "Dong Yi" which they have been watching with Mummy recently.  After that, they got more excited when they found that their torchlights and the NDP LED lights were fun to play with in the darkness.   They were having more fun than the time when we joined in the Earth Hour campaign of switching off the lights for an hour.

Since it's already mid-autumn, guess Winter will be coming real soon.  Arrgh... it would then be New Year, which means another year has gone by once again...

Spin and Go Pro

Bought this Spin and Go mop before our tour, but haven't started using it until today.

When we were in Korea, Mummy was already itching to buy it then.  Yet back in Singapore, was confused with so many different similar brands of mops in the market and Mummy didn't know which to choose.

Finally, Mummy decided to buy this while at the John Little Sale without really checking out its specifications.  And it turned out to be a good buy as this is an improved version of the 1st generation.  Mummy only realised that it's called "Spin & Mop PRO" when registering the warranty on line.  The best is, it doesn't have the foot pedal (which most brands have) and the mop can be dried easily by just pushing the handle down.

With its ease of usage, Mummy decided to let this little Cutie to give it a try.  This Cutie has been constantly asking me why I never let her help in washing the dish, hahaha.... isn't she too young for that?  In fact, Mummy does get them to help out in other household chores, like folding their clothes and keeping them, keeping their study room and "kitchen" area neat etc.

My Cutie had a fun time mopping the floor, even though the mop is a little big for her size.  Nevertheless, she has no problem helping Mummy to dry the mop. 

It's great to have these helpers around (referring to the mop and my Cutie), they do make life better. 

Melbourne Tour (Part 7/7) -

Although our stay in Melbourne is short, it is a wonderful trip for all of us.  Besides the experiences with the various animals, we were lucky to have the experience of flying in the Jumbo Jet A380.  The visits to the A Maze N' Things, Queen Victoria Market, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fitzroy Garden, Captain Cook's Cottage etc have given our darlings the exposure of seeing the world from another perspective.  The beautiful flowers blooming in the season of Spring have been a great sight to behold too. 

We managed to experience a ride through the city on the City Circle Tram.  The sumptuous lobster dinner on Philip Island and the buffet lunch at the Cuckoo International Restaurant have also left deep memories on our minds. 

However, none beats our visit to the Winery.  It is not that we love the wine tasting session, but rather, it was the grapes farm that captured our hearts (cos' it resembles the Farm Story game that Mummy is constantly playing on the Ipad).

With my darlings getting older, it's no longer as tough as before when going on a tour (Mummy was glad that we had often chosen self-drive tours in the past when they were younger). 

The photo below was taken at a Hungry Jack restaurant (aka Burger King).

Melbourne Tour (Part 6/7) - the Photographer



Daddy entrusted this little Cutie with his DSLR camera.  She had a great time snapping the things that she sees.  Seeing her Jie Jie having so much fun, my little Sweetie also would want to have a go to take photos with Mummy's camera at times.  So that marks the birth of a new photographer to the family.

Mummy was impressed with the photos taken by my Cutie.  Well done.

Click the photo below to view the masterpiece done by this little photographer (too bad this slideshow only has space for 20 photos). 

Melbourne Tourpicture slideshow

Melbourne Tour (Part 5/7) - Dead tired

It must have been quite tiring for my darlings to be constantly on the move while on the tour (a drastic change from their normal routine) and having to battle with our bodies from going into hibernating mode in this nice cool weather.  The photo on the left is my Cutie sleeping on the mini-van.

So when we finally arrived back at the hotel, my little Sweetie just headed straight towards the sofa corner and slumped onto the cosy-looking, big ottoman seat.  This ottoman was in front of some sofas where 2 other hotel guests were seated.  So can you imagine what a shock these 2 gentlemen had when they saw a little girl suddenly "fainted" right in front of them.  Mummy also got a shock seeing the way she slumped herself down. 

Nevertheless, her actions brought smiles to everyone present and relieved us of our fatigue momentarily.  Subsequently, whenever we returned to the hotel, these 2 little darlings will just head to the same ottoman and re-enact the scene again (or is it that they were really tired again?).  Watch the video which of them doing that on our last night in Melbourne.