Then I persuaded hubby to get a lane so that we can have a game of bowling too. Guess what, I have NEVER play bowling in my entire life!!! It's not as difficult as I thought, just for fun.





Then, it's to the GREAT OUTDOOR!!! Where would be the best place to go, except the Pasir Ris Park, which is just a short few minutes drive from the Downtown East!

The kids spent 2 hours at this playground! So much fun for them, to run, to climb, to laugh and to explore!



Our two darlings trying out pony riding. The little girl is so cute with the helmet on, see how round her face is, haha.


Xi Yu was so tired, as she skipped her nap (no chance for her to nap, haha) and with all the heavy physical activities that she finally dozed off after the pony riding :-) While Hao Re was very energetic, didn't show sign of tiredness despite the 2 hours playground and lots of cycling. We have to cycle very fast as it's raining right after the pony riding, no shelter on our way back to the bike rental shop, so just have to ask him to cycle fast to follow us, and he did it! He is a real professional biker (with side wheels) :-)

Xi Yu continued to sleep, meaning she slept since just before 6pm and all the way to the next morning! Poor girl, she must be so tired :-P Hao Re went to the bed at his usual time, about 9+pm. He still wanted to talk to me but I just ignored him as he really need a good rest.

And there is Sunday for more fun!

Baba doesn't have to work this weekend :-))))




Nope, she didn't even a tiny bit of the cake. She ate two raspberry but not the cake. Didn't want to try it. The all 4 of us do not like cake. This small chocolate cake is still present in our fridge after 1 week, keke.
The birthday cake sampling the raspberry but not the cake.

Can you spot Hao Re? Right in the middle of the photo. He wanted to DESTROY all the sand castles, and he was actually doing it, Xi Yu joined in his force later! Annoyed some of the kids and they came to complain to me :-P

After seeing his very impressive drawing about a month back, he continues to draw to expressing himself whenever he wants to. Sometimes after going to a place or seeing something, I would encourage him and ask him if he would like to draw what he has just seen or been to, but it's not working. It's totally entirely up to him to decide when he wants to draw. Sometimes he wants to paint instead.

Hubby brought him a lot of A1, A2, A3 and A4 size of recycle paper. So we always get them to paint or draw on the recycle paper. We meant for them to use the blank page of the recycle paper, but Hao Re is funny, he doesn't want to use the blank page, he said must draw or paint on the used page. So his drawings get messy at times, and we have to find his drawings on the already very busy page.

One night, after playing with some of his toy cars and read a book on many different funny transports, he wanted to draw some cars. And these are all the cars he drew.

Hao Re with his imaginative cars


We are very glad that we bought the series of books, the one at the top left corner, for them, which helps them to be imaginative. Initially I thought this set of book may be a bit too advance for him, and it's pretty busy, with lots of things going on in each page, but it turned out that this is his favourite set! At this age, when we read to them, we do not emphasis on reading word by word, and do not teach them to recognise any word at all, what we emphasise is story telling. Hao Re has a very broad vocabularies by listening to the stories, but he can hardly recognise any word, except A-Z, which is absolutely fine with us. I do not intend to teach him to recognise words until he is older, or when he initiates word recognition himself. Now, what we want is to encourage their observation, imagination, and creativity.
As I shared here, in the book of 《走进孩子的涂鸦世界》, one of the main points the author, 鸟居昭美 made was that - Activities like colouring within lines and tracing the dots (to form a picture) should be discouraged or avoided totally. Ever since we have read this book, we do not let the kids do colouring within lines any more, have avoided that totally.

But, but, but, they do a fair bit of colouring at school. I think almost as frequent as a daily activity. We haven't done colouring at home for many months, and I have no clue how well he can colour until he brought back a few worksheets from school last Friday. I was so shocked of what I saw - such a neat colouring that I couldn't believe it's done by Hao Re. I am proud that he has such a good control of his motor skills of handling a colouring pencil. But hubby was not happy that the school let them do so much of colouring activities. Oh well, I told him as long as this doesn't kill his imagination, and he is still able to draw like how a 3 year old should draw (according to the book), we shouldn't worry so much, and just be relax about it and see.
Colouring within lines. Though he can do it well, but it's not something that we would encourage him to do.


Hope to share more of his drawings soon. And hope to put up some of Xi Yu's drawing soon.

To end this post with this quote from the book <走进孩子的涂鸦世界>,

~ Drawing is a way for the kid to express themselves, to express their feeling, to express what/how are the people and things they have seen or observed around them. It's a not a skill that they can or they should learn from art/drawing classes ~

This child-lock that we have for preventing the kids from opening the fridge works wonder! We have tried many different products (locks) to stop Hao Re from opening the fridge, none of the product, except this one, survived the destroying power of Hao Re when he was barely 1+ year old, yes, he was a strong boy :-)

We got this from IKEA, and it works for us for the past 2+ years! But just last week, Hao Re finally managed to unlock it. I guess he has grown even stronger now and also been trying hard to solve the problem of how to unlock. He solved his problem, meaning new problem just created for me!

The very useful lock from IKEA

Xi Yu turns 2 years old today, on the August 21st, 2011!

There was no celebration planned for her, as I am going for work trip at 9pm on the day of her birthday (I am on the plane now), and we didn’t plan to let her celebrating her birthday at her childcare since none of us could be around for her.

It doesn’t matter at all, it really doesn't, as she knows very well that Baba, Mama and Gorgor love her all the same!

She woke up in a very good mood, as if she knew it’s her birthday. Her dear Gorgor also remembered it’s her birthday. The first thing he said to me when he woke up was “is today Meimei’s birthday?”

Having a big brother who loves her dearly and who she grows up together with, is the best thing we can provide Xi Yu with (even better than breastmilk, definitely, hehe) :-)


Went to have our breakfast at the food court downstairs, and then we bought a small cake for her, a chocolate cake and what she and Hao Re asked for.

We then decided impromptu to make a trip to the beach. After I told hubby all the good things about the Pahlawan Beach at Sentosa, he wanted to see it for himself. Though we reached there just before noon, it’s okay as there are a lot of well shaded spots. Plus the sun was not too hot. And plus I remembered to bring a tub of sunblock (I don’t usually remember). The kids got changed into their swimming trunk and off they went for the sandplay and waterplay, both at the play area and in the sea. Ordered a pizza and some fries for lunch. Xi Yu was busy walking and running and exploring the place holding a stick of fries in her hand most of the times, she prefers water than sand play. Hao Re likes swimming in the sea so much, he spent a long time in the water, very daring this time round. Spent almost 3 hours there before we headed home. Both of them fell asleep during the car ride.

Birthday girl enjoy her day at the great outdoor!


As what I wrote on my FB, it’s the sun, the beach, the water, the family and the laughter that we have to celebrate Xi Yu’s birthday, not with birthday party and not with a birthday present :-) 淅瑜的生日在阳光、沙滩、海水、及家人与欢笑声的陪伴下渡过。没有party, 连礼物也没有哩，可怜哦 :-)A friend of mine commented that this is called simplicity parenting, and that children do not grow up remembering what we buy for them, but they remember what we give them – something that made me thinking.

Reached home, we made her sang the birthday song, then we sang for her, then she knowingly blew off the candle at the right time without prompting, and then we cut the cake. Only us adults ate the kids, both the 2 of them don't like cake, Hao Re ate the chocolate and Xi Yu ate the raspberry. That’s all we have for her birthday.

After that, I busied myself with some cleaning and washing, and then it’s time to go to airport. Leaving the kids with hubby and my dear cousin, CS, who came purposely from KL to help out with the kids while I am away this coming week. So blessed to have great families, right?

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About Xi Yu

At the age of two, she has superb memory and really amazing speech capability! She can memorise all the words of so many nursery rhymes, maybe more than 20, both in English and Chinese. We don't really teach her, but just need to sing to her for a few times, once she is confident with all the words, she would just sing it out, but prior to that, she won't. Like I sang to her a Chinese nursery rhymes 造飞机 for a few times during a bedtime routine, the next day she was humming the full rhymes already! We are really amazed on how fast she can learn and memorised things, and her very advance speech. She sings, she talks, she observes, she learns, she repeats after us, she is just growing fast without us noticing! Just yesterday, she started to say Monday to Sunday pretty accurately, we haven't had a clue where she learns it from.

She is also big size for her age, weighing >14kg and standing at >90cm! That's the size of a 3 year old, no less.

She is still taking her pacifier at night. Blame me who doesn't have to the gut to cut her out on that, as she is still waking up at nights, on most nights, so it's most convenient for me to shove the pacifier into her mouth whenever she wakes, so that she and me, and Hao Re and hubby can all sleep well and not be waken by her loud crying sometimes. Her 2 bottom molars are out and fully grown, I couldn't see her upper ones as she refused to let me check and touch. Once I have made sure all the teeth are out, I would try to make a hole in the pacifier and see how she responds (have a spare one to stand by).

She hasn't really gone into a full blown "Terrible Twos" yet. It could be that she doesn't have a gentle temperament like Hao Re to start with, and she cries a lot more than Hao Re to start with, so maybe we don't feel that much of a different but in actual fact, she could have gone through or going through the "Terrible Twos" now. She has very strong temperament. There is often no rooms for negotiation or compromising, she either makes sure she gets what she wants or she cries loudly, pitifully and throw herself onto the floor. We are all trying to accommodating to her, including Hao Re. But many a times, a fight is unavoidable when she insists to disturb Hao Re or to fight for the things Hao Re has on his hands. I am hopeful things will get even better in a few months time, maybe another 2-3 months.

She is somehow a very lovable girl. She is sweet and she is cute. She knows how to win one's heart. She is the princess at home (the king and prince often give ways to her, but not the queen, hehe) lovable by all people who have had contact with her.

Our only wish for her on her birthday is that she is happy and healthy, and if I can be a little more greedy, I wish she would become more gentle, and cry less :-)

We love you very much, Xi Yu, and I am sure you know that.

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I have landed and arrived at the hotel, so can post this post online. Wish I have written a more touchy post but that's all the energy and brain power that I have left :-)

Have a great week ahead, my dear friends!

So nice to have an "extra" of 2 hours to spend today :-)
I knocked off work almost 1.5 hours earlier, as I wanted to go home and pack my luggage, without the kids around, for my upcoming work trip this Sunday night. But ended up I picked them up on the way back. They were so happy to see me earlier.

So our schedule went 1.5 hours earlier than usual, have dinner earlier, done with the washing at 7pm. Thought of bringing them to the library or the park nearby for a walk. But they were not interested. They were playing a game, that I am their toy, their climb up onto me, slided down, pulled my hair, tickled me, I did all the silly things with them, till they started to become pretty rough, and started to fight a little. I went in to the bedroom hoping to break this game. Ended up Hao Re said he wanted milk and wanted to sleep already, and that's only 7.30pm! I didn't expect them to really sleep that early. But they did! When I woke up later and looked at the clock, it's not even 8.30pm yet. Woah, this is the first time they both slept so early.

During this 2 hours, I have done ironing, cleaning the floor, hanging and folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, and packing the luggage. Amazing, ain't it :-) Yeap, our ex-part time cleaner who has been with us for almost 3 years is still not back. Think she will not be back, seeing that it's already 4 months (or 5?) since she last came. We are still undecided if we should get another part time cleaner or just try our best to survive like how we survive now. True that the house won't be as clean, there are things that need to be compromise. I don't know, let's see.

Now, I am "FREE" already, though there are so many things that I can do around the house, tidying and cleaning in particular. But no, I reckon I have done enough. It's time to sit down, time to go online, watch a little TV, and read the book that I just bought on Sunday "好妈妈胜过好老师", while waiting for hubby to come home.

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Forgot to note down that Hao Re was sick on Monday and Tuesday. He suddenly developed high fever on Monday afternoon, around 5pm. His teacher observed that he suddenly became very quiet and didn't want to play with his friends. Took his temperature and he was 38.7C. He was very sticky when he got home, didn't want dinner, but I boiled an egg for him and he finished that. He "manja" a bit then went to bed early willingly. The next morning, fever had not gone. Hubby volunteered to take leave to take care of him. Thought hubby would enjoy a special day with his boy. But Hao Re slept the entire day away, from around 11am all the way till 430pm when I reached home. He knew what's best for him - rest properly! Fever had totally gone when he woke up. Supposed to be medicine free, but the funny hubby fed him one dose of medicine when they came back from the clinic (need to bring him to the doctor to get MC slip). He said such a waste if not to give him any, so gave him one dose. Hao Re loves it. But I stressed that's it, no more med.

The reason why I arrived at 430pm was because I received a call from Xi Yu's teacher, informing me that Xi Yu also developed a mild fever. She was totally okay though, ate her dinner, remained happy and active. But she walked in to the bedroom automatically at 9pm and slept. Fever had totally gone at around 11pm.

Guess it's a minor bout of viral infection. Not sure where they got it. They were having runny nose after swimming for 2 days (close to 2 hours each day) when holidaying in Malacca. Could be from the pool water?

Playing with play clay (or play dough) is one of the best activities for the young kids. It helps to fine tuning their fine motor skills, to be creative and imaginative, and most importantly, it offers unlimited hours of fun and kids are very unlikely to get bored with it!







This is a close-up of how it can be rolled flat nicely, get imprinted with a shape, and be cut out nicely! Honestly, many of the products we have tried couldn't give this kind of non-sticky, clear cut effect. I was pretty glad with this (yes, I like to play with play clay myself, though my creativity and imagination sucks big time!).

Lovely photos of our lovely pair kissing each other :-) It's actually the very first time when Xi Yu gave her gorgor such a nice sweet kiss! Hao Re was so happy to receive it!

We kiss them many times a day (usually on the lips, ops, yes, not so good practice, but we love it and the kids love it). We teach the kids to give us and to give each other hugs and kisses, and say "I love you" to one another.

The "scheduled" kisses and hugs would be early morning when waking up, dropping off them at the childcare, fetching up from the childcare, and right before bedtime.

And there are "unscheduled" ones when we would just plant kisses and hug them whenever we feel like, or when they do something cute, or they do something good, etc.

Hubby suggested to go for a short getaway. Wanted to go Kota Kinabalu to visit my brother or to Penang to drown ourselves with good food, Penang Assam Laksa for my hub especially, but because it's very last minute, air ticket for the 4 of us with budget airline would cost >$1k, not worth it. So decided to go to Malacca, which is only 2 hours away from Singapore and it's an easy drive.

We don't usually plan our travel itinerary, but would google and know a little bit about the place before travelling. Same as this time round. But because it's our home country, and we have been here a few years before, so we kinda knew what to expect. Just follow our gut feel and the behavior and request of the kids, and it worked out very well. Also note we don't do shopping at all, so no tips on shopping.


Hao Re was laughing listening to the Malay songs. It sounded really funny to him.



















It's SO RARE that my boy is willing to pose for the camera. My super handsome boy, love him!

Today's Singapore National Day, meaning a public holiday for us :-)

Both me and hubby took a day off on Monday, so we are off work for 4 days! We spent the first 3 days on a last minute (only decided and booked hotel on the same week) getaway to Malacca (post and pictures coming up soon). The last day, which is today, we spent it in Singapore, so that we all can rest well and go back work and to the childcare, the normal routine.
What does this have to do with the title of this post?
My dear hubby has, unfortunately, a very busy working schedule. He has to work late during weekdays (by late, I mean really late, that is the kids have already gone to bed when he arrives home) and often on the weekends too :-( He wants to strive a work-life balance, but with the nature of his line, it's not possible, not for now, at least. But whenever he is at home, he would spend all his time with the family, all his time. Especially on the weekends when he doesn't have to work, he would bring the kids out for some great family bonding time for sure.

What made him deserved a post titled "A wonderful husband!" was that today, he spent the whole morning cleaning the entire house, he did everything including cleaning of the ceiling fans, scrubbing the toilets, wiping everything he can see. Not only that, when I was putting the kids to bed at night, he did ironing and the floor, and the laundry! He has done it all!!! I am so touched (though he didn't touch MY kitchen) :-)

This helps a lot as we do not have a part time cleaner now (which has been almost 4 months, really don't know how we survive, now we are pondering do we really need one as we have survived 4 months already). All that he has done today helps to free up a lot of my time for the rest of the week, hurray!

Hubby is a TV addict, he would sit in front of the TV and watch any TV programs for hours if no one or nothing distracts him. For today though, because I said the kids cannot watch TV for the entire day because Hao Re hasn't been behaving well. As a TV addict, he managed to hold on to the "craving" and supported me all day! And we succeeded - no TV at all for the entire day!!! I reckon it's such a great thing for the kids to find things to do, than to sit in front of the TV passively, plus Hao Re always fusses when it's time to turn off the TV.

In the afternoon, we brought the kids to the Zoo for some fresh air. In the morning though, I had been a pretty bad mum though, kept shouting and scolding the kids, all started with Xi Yu non-stop whining early in the morning :-( Really can't control it when she whines :-(

What else can I ask for - a wonderful husband and two lovely kids. I do think I am the luckiest and happiest women in the world!

Lesson learnt from the past 2 months - don't think/worry too much or unnessarily, don't proscatinate for too long, do what's the best you can do at that time, and then just live day by day! Live at the present moment 活在当下 is the key!!

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About my little girl
To observe and note how Xi Yu adapted to the change, i.e., from the delicate care of her ultra capable nanny to a group environment of a childcare, made me realised that things would just fall into place without having worry too much for it. Somehow it would work out. But I am surely grateful of the help of my parents, their help in the month of July certainly did help to ease a lot of my burden. Without them, we might do just fine, but with more struggles associated, probably.

Today, 5th August 2011, is the first day she didn't cry when I left the childcare since 1st July. Though she has adapted to the schedule on the 3rd of week of attending the childcare, whereby she can take her nap well, eat well, enjoy the lessons, and play with her friends. But she still cried pretty badly every morning when we dropped her off. Even though her dotting brother is there to comfort her and to sayang her, she still cries. Hao Re complains to me almost everyday "妈妈，我要生病了叻，妹妹一直哭，一直哭，哭到我要生病了！"  It's so funny that he said that, I told him Xi Yu's whining/crying makes me headache, but he translated to getting sick, ha! Hope from next week onwards, she would be crying less and less or best of all, really stop crying!

I worried that she won't eat well. According to her teacher, she is eating very well, self-feed very well, and often ask for a second helping. Was thinking that she sure lost weight after attending childcare, but she is not, she is still maintaining her weight at 14+kg.

She quit her pacifier for the nap time. And she can sleep well.

I worried that after I fetch them, reach home and cook dinner, it may be a bit too late for her dinner time, as she used to have dinner right before 6pm at her nanny, now dinner delays till 7 or 7+pm. But she is totally fine with the change. In fact, she doesn't mind at all as I would offer them biscuits or cheese or yogurt till dinner is served.

I worried how am I able to feed 2 kids at the same time. When my parents were around, no problem, as my mum helped me to feed her. On the same week when my parents left, Xi Yu decided to go full on self-feeding, she doesn't even let me feed her! Nothing to worry at all. She is doing pretty well on self-feeding, really.

Everything seems to go smoothly. Thanks goodness. As I expected, it's less hassle for me when dropping them off and picking them up, as I only need to go one place instead of two. It also makes it easier for both of them to get on the same schedule.

Now the only thing is to hope that Xi Yu will accept more vegetables, would accept more varieties, then it would be perfect (am I asking for too much?!). Hao Re shows an excellent example, he is not picky at all, he eats whatever I cook, he eats all types of vegetables, except bitter gourd, and he even accepts more non-homecook food now, making my life easier whenever I want to take a breather from cooking dinner on weekdays.

Hope Xi Yu would be like that one day. Now she eats mostly meat and fish, rice, noodle, egg, and only 1 vegetable - broccoli. It's so funny that she likes broccoli so much that she can eat a lot of it and never seems to get bored. Hopefully, hopefully, she will become a veg lovers like the 3 of us.
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About me
Have been with this new job for almost 2.5 months already. If I were to think to much, to worry to much at the beginning (that I need to travel etc), I may not even take up this offer.

For this, I have to really thank my dear hubby, who encouraged me to give it a try, who ensured me that things will be and can be worked out, we just have to make adjustments from time to time, and to find a solution whenever a problem arises, which is absolutely true, he is absolutely correct.

So far so good with the job. Most importantly, it's really, really very important for me as a full time working mum, that I am able to leave office on the dot, for the past 2.5 months! Guess what? There is even bonus added - compared to my previous job, this current job required me to report to work half an hour later and able to knock off half an hour earlier. This translated to 1) the kids (and me) can sleep later in the morning, and because there is no traffic in the later part of the morning, the kids actually arrive at the childcare almost an hour later; 2) same thing happened to the evening rush hour, because I can knock off at 5.30pm, traffic hasn't built up yet, so on a really good day, I can fetch them before 6pm, or usually just pass 6pm; 3) arrive home earlier so cooking dinner is not as rush. This means they spend less time in the childcare and more time at home!

Finally, I like this job. I like the nature of the business that it helps people. It's all good. I am such a lucky woman and I certainly be grateful for that. Positive thinking and having a right attitude bring me a long, long way!  

It's a very, very nice weekend, especially for me. Because hubby didn't have to work at all, it's so rare for hubby to have a totally free weekend nowadays. So poor thing, he must have been missing spending time with his darlings a lot. The kids were obviously excited about having Baba to bring them around for fun, to shower them and to play with them :-)

Hao Re has been asking to go to the Zoo for almost the entire week. Guess it's because we haven't visited the Zoo for slightly more than a month already. But it's such an uneventful visit - spent half an hour having breakfast, another half an hour waiting and getting our membership renewed. Then when we finally got in the park, Hao Re didn't want to leave the picnic area, which is between where the otter and the flamingo are. They were happily playing with the stones at the picnic area. Since they refused to leave the area, we decided to call it a day and went home. Glad that we got to see some very beautiful dragonfly near the picnic area. Visited a Zoo without seeing any animal, haha!

Reached home, quickly cooked noodle, they had lunch and rested. The kids refused to take nap. Hubby managed to take a nap though!




When we walked pass the Casa Verde restaurant near the entrance to the park, Hao Re insisted that we must have dinner there. We quite like the food (Italian) offered anyway, so we didn't mind to dine there, though have to queue for a while. Ordered a pizza to share, they both ate about half a slice each, the rest went into our tummy, we were so full. Luckily didn't order any pasta dish.

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The reason why we chose Rail Mall was because we wanted to do the most "IN" thing in town - walk to rail track! The kids enjoyed the new experience. We were there around noon time, so it's perfect for photography. Here are some of the photos taken:





Went back home to rest. Xi Yu asked to be put to a nap, how nice! Hao Re didn't take any nap though.

Went out again at about 4pm to the McRitchie Reservoir Park. It's a park which we haven't visited before. It's pretty nice. But with no children playground though (later we saw a small playground is under construction). We got them to play some pretend play with the grass and leaves. When they got bored of that and asked for playground, we walked along the reservoir and they were happily singing, hopping on and off the benches, playing with the chain, walking, running, and skipping. It's nice that they did enjoy the park without a playground. No photo taken though.

Later we have dinner at a nearby food court, think it's called the Long Beach, surprisingly, the food was pretty good. We actually prefer food court/hawker centre than restaurants. Now the kids have grown up, think we may dine in restaurants less. The kids were pretty well behave. They were able to have their dinner without a high chair.

Then we got some nice durians from the 717 stall at Highland Centre. Got Mao Shan Wang and D24. During the car ride home, both kids knocked out at around 8pm, and they continued to sleep when we reached home till the next morning, without changing their clothes :-)

Me and hubby got to enjoy a nice kids-free night, with some really yummy durian. What a special weekend!