Church experience

It has been quite a while since I last brought Ethan along for a Church service, for fear of him creating a scene as he gets restless. Well, I thought of giving it another go last Sunday as Nicole was performing at the service.

E gave me almost 100% cooperation without making a fuss. Other worshippers sitting at the back row were helping to entertain him as he made faces at them. He was very curious as he entered the main hall. It was a typical church with long wooden benches which resembled the seats in the bus, in little E’s creative mind.

E “ Mummy, big bus! So many passengers!”
Me “ No no, Ethan. This is a church and these are worshippers, not passengers”
E “ No mummy, this is a bus. So many passengers! Hahaha” ( showing the cheeky side of him)

E “ Who is that man?”
Me “ Oh, he is the pastor”
E “ Pasta? I want to eat pasta. I want to eat him. Ump ump!”
Me “ hahaha, no Ethan, he is a PASTOR, not pasta”
E “ Eat pasta, eat pasta. Yummy!” ( I just gave up….:)

As we lowered our heads, with eyes closed to pray, E was observing.

E “ Mummy, the uncle is sleeping”
Me “ Shh…no, he is praying”
E “ oh…now his eyes are open. He is awake!”


Isnt E a fun little toddler?

Naughty E

Ethan kept asking for snacks. Biscuits, cheese, ice cream, you name it. I had to put a stop to his request.

E “ Mummy, one only. One chocolate biscuit only” (showing me his pointer with a pleading look)
Me “ No, Ethan. You had enough for the day. Now let’s read some books”
E “ No no, I want chocolate biscuits. One only”
Me “ No”

E “ Mummy, I want to eat grapes”
Me” Grape? You changed your mind now? Ok. Let’s get some”

E quickly ran ahead of me and positioned himself in front of the fridge door. As soon as I opened the door……

Me “Here, I will wash some grapes for you”
E “ No, I don’t want grapes. I want chocolate biscuits” (He grabbed the packet and ran out of the kitchen!!!)

Man! I was tricked by a 28 month old! All he wanted was for me to open the fridge where the chocolate biscuits were stored!

Milk teeth

Nicole recently discovered that one of her incisors is loosen. She is very much amuzed by this sudden development, so much so that she has been "shaking" them everyday.

Me " Nicole, don't put your fingers into your mouth. You may get sick cos your hands are not clean"

Nic " I am just trying to see if my teeth are going to drop off soon"

Me " At the rate you are shaking them, you will be left with no teeth by the time we visit Ah-Ma in Australia"

Nic" No way! I still have plenty " (she was annoyed by my statement and stopped shaking the teeth. At least, it served my purpose! heehee)

Lantern Festival

One year has passed by so quickly. This year Ethan was able to participate. His first lantern ever, and hence he was completely captivated by it.

There was a lantern making competition at our condo and as usual, Nicole’s 3 minute passion vanished within a span of 20 minutes when she couldn’t create a lantern superb enough to meet her own standard. She got frustrated and declared that she had withdrawn from the competition and off she went for her ballet lesson, leaving the mess behind. Sigh.

During the celebration, there were lots to eat and to play. Lollipops, mashmallows, chocolates, chips, and of course an assortment of mooncakes etc etc. Nicole surrounded herself happily with all these “once in a blue moon” goodies but I had to put a stop to it before her teeth were melted away by sugar and this triggered below conversation. (By the way, all the residents moved back to the clubhouse from the open area when it started to drizzle)

Nic “ Mummy, I want to go back to the game area to play some games”
Me “ It is raining. I did ask you to participate but you didn’t want to just now”
Nic “ I change my mind. I will come back very quickly”
Me “ Ok, I will ask Auntie rose to go with you. You need an umbrella”
Nic” No. I don’t want Auntie Rose to come with me. Then I don’t want to go anymore”
Me” Ha, I know. You just wanted to get those lollipops and mashmallows, right?”
Nic “ How did you know? I didn’t say it” (pulling an unhappy long face)

Oh Nicole Oh! How could I not know you when I have spent the past 5 years taking care of you and getting to know you better each day?

Sweet Little Conversation

When my office phone rang, I picked it up. Not looking at the caller ID, I assumed it was a business call and I answered it professionally. Guess what? It was from my little boy.

E “ Hello, Mummy”
Me “ Oh,,it’s u, baby!. How are you? Have you had your lunch?”
E “ Yes Mummy”
Me “ What did you have? Porridge?”
E “ No Mummy. Soup only. Soup is hot”
Me “ Oh I see. Why didn’t you eat porridge?”
E “ Sorry mummy. I don’t want porridge. I want to eat cheese and bread and I passed urine in the clubhouse”
Me “ What? Why didn’t you go to the toilet?”
E “ No mummy. Ethan passed urine in the clubhouse”

( I found out that he couldn’t hold his urine for long. As soon as he declared his urgency, within seconds he just wee-ed in his pants)

Me” That’ ok. I hope Popo cleaned up the floor”
E “ Yes mummy. Popo cleaned up the floor”
Me “ What are you going to do now?”
E “ I am reading the “Fire Engine Book” in the bedroom”
Me “ I am so proud of you Sweetheart. I will see you tonight. Good bye for now”
E “ Bye bye mummy. See you tonite”

It was really the sweetest call ever. That was the first time he asked to ring me in the office and he conducted such a polite and an intelligent conversation with me :)

Sunday dinner

Nicole's favourite Steamed egg!

Again, an easy to prepare dinner.

Pan fried organic minced beef and cod rice cake coated with egg.

This kept her happy for a moment, while we adults went out for dinner to our liking - spicy curry fish head! :)

Selamat Hari Raya

Selamat Hari Raya! A belated painting.....

E's car collection

Just a fraction of Ethan's car collection....I would say, 1/5 of his entire treasure fleet. More hidden inside the boxes and some left in the bedroom.

Everyday, without fail, he would spend hours with his vehicles, pretending he is driving the cars up and down the ramp.

I guess this is a typical boy's hobby?

Japanese again!

Another special day for the kids. How so?

We took a bus! L has been travelling back to back for 2 weeks and I would rather not risk anyone's life by attempting to drive out without an instructor next to me :)(

Upon arriving at our destination, nicole headed straight to the Japanese restaurant instinctively. She has recently acquired a taste for Japanese cuisine. Short of touching the raw fish, she has tried almost 50% of the menu. E.g. Chawanmushi, all sorts of sushi and rolls, soba, udon, ramen etc

E was introduced to Unagi chawanmushi for the first time and he fell in love with it instantly. Not so much the egg but the Unagi! He ate Nicole's share too!

E didnt quite enjoy his kiddy's set and Rose ended up eating his full share plus her own Unagi Handroll, Cold Soba and Chawanmushi! Nicole, of course, licked her plate clean!

As usual, E fell asleep in the bus on the way home. I ended up lugging him home and my arms almost disjointed! A good 16kg of weight (> 3 sacks of rice, in case you need to imagine how strong my biceps are). Truthfully, I dont need any weight lifting. Lifting E alone would get me a perfect score! :)

Casual art work

Nicole's casual creation at home.

1) Waterfall

2) Bathroom Note :)

TV snack

TV snack for Nicole.

Kiwi fruits

Grapes

Avocado

Strawberry

Easy to prepare and healthy to eat!

Dirty piggy

See the dirty little piggy? N was initially all excited about painting her piggy bank but, when she saw how small the piggy was, relative to the illustration on the box, she lost interest and decided to do some creative vandalism :(

I had to salvage it by repainting the dirty piggy with the remaining paint. Here you go.....

Yummy breakfast

Another simple breakfast creation for N during the school hols. I can only find the luxury of preparing N's breakfast during her school hols as I would usually take days off from work.

N had this after a half hour morning swim and she licked them sparkling clean.

First train ride

Both enjoying fresh juices and both insisted on the biggest cups! As usual, N benefited from it. She had 1.5 cups to drink as E couldnt finish drinking such a big cup of guava juice on his own!

We took a train ride home after spending an hour in the mall. First MRT ride for Chub...He was all thrilled but was eventually defeated by exhaustion.

See Ms Chubby No 1 squeezing her nose tight? That's because Chub's diaper was full with poo-poo and he just fell asleep with it ;(

Eat and Shop

We intended to take Nicole for a movie but the tickets were almost sold out and the remaining seats were too close to the screen. So, we changed our itinerary. We went to the mall to shop and eat instead.

N grabbed a set of toy tennis rackets and E wouldn’t let go of his truck and so they had their wish granted. They ran about in the mall, chasing after each other. Thankfully, the mall wasn’t crowded, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to have so much free space to stretch their limbs.

As we walked along, E spotted his favourite car being displayed at the display rack and that prompted us to have a Japanese meal. All E wanted was to play with the car! He didn’t want anything to do with the content of the car! I ended up eating his terriyaki chicken rice and my own bowl of beef noodles. Nicole scored some brownie points here. She enjoyed every bit of the California rolls and she polished the plate clean.

As soon as we got home, they wanted to unwrap the toys. Ethan being a rather big baby exerted too much force on the trailer and it got disjointed permanently! Now, he has gotten himself 2 new toys instead! What a good deal heh? J

Nutritional breakfast

During the school holidays, Nicole wanted

to make her own sandwich and this is what we did.

Mayo Tuna

Cheese slice

Tomato

Avocado

High calcium milk bread

(Of course, the strawberry did not go into the bread. She just popped them into her mouth!)

Nicole spread the tuna on her bread and we had the sandwiches toasted. Melted Tuna we had!