Piano practice

Been a long time since L last played on the grand piano. It was the first time for N to lay her hands on Papa's childhood piano. N was having an enjoyable time practising her pieces though the interest did not last very long. Soon, she was seen having another round of picnic on the sheepskin with E :(

Well, at least she gotta enjoy it while holidaying as it is almost an unimaginable item for us to own comfortably due to space constraint.

ShaoLin Kungfu

Looking out of the family living room, a much under utilised tennis court and swimming pool were in sight. I thought of gathering the 2 kids to help clean up the court for Ah Ma. I assigned them each with a tool as seen here. Instead of helping, both started swinging their respective tool around as though they are practising ShaoLin Kungfu. It was such an entertaining scene!

They ran and screamed at the top of their voice, having such great fun without the afternoon heat. Little E was trapped by the net as he tried to hang on to it! Thank God Ah Ma didnt see him in action :).

Soon, both were tired out by the good workout and I was spared for the evening, having some time to myself clearing some urgent emails :(

Farm Visit

E and N have very different interest indeed. E was all excited at the mention of visiting a farm while N frowned.

N " A farm? What do we do there? Is it going to be hot?"

E had a good time seeing different farm animals and he certainly had an memorable experience while N was complaining half the time. E was chasing after the sheep and he even attempted to climb into the pig den! My little boy was just so full of energy and he has never failed to amuse me :)

Cheeky E

E was playing wild with papa. Papa tickled him till he was running out of breathe. This little brat was certainly full of ideas. To get himself off papa's grip, he screamed,

" Papa, wo yao xiao bian " (meaning, Dad, I want to wee wee)

Immediately, L released him and off he went giggling and dancing away, as though displaying a sign of victory over his freedom. ( He tricked L into letting him go!. He was certainly much more advanced than N. N used the same trick when she was 3.5 years old and now this little rascal is barely 2.5 years old! We certainly did not instill this in both of them!)

Make do playhouse

Right after filling their stomach, both were running about in the house looking for new entertainment and one was found - a playhouse under the snooker table! It was indeed a refreshing idea. Clumsy E knocked himself against the "roof" but he didnt seem to care as he was too engrossed in playing. Well, that gave us a good 45minutes to entertain a friend for dinner with a glass of good red, vintage 1998.

Soon, both dozed off after a whole day of play and we continued catching up with Ken. What a good way to unwind after a full day of activities with the kids.

In door picnic

See the mess the kids made in Ah Ma's house? They claimed they were having a picnic on the carpet :( Ah Ma just frowned upon stepping on their picnic food!

Same flight different experience

We were on the way to Australia and E was all excited. The last trip was made when he was barely 10 months old. He was curious about everything and anything on board the aircraft, ranging from the remote control to the lavatory and the passengers around him. He was fascinated by all the little gadgets in the lavatory - the orange emergency button and the water tap and the air flush etc, so much so that he claimed 25 toilet trips within a span of 7.5 hours, out of which 10 were "droplet" efforts :(


The remote control kept him occupied for a good 15 minutes before he started getting restless. He climbed up the seat and looked back at the passengers and he pointed out,

E " Mummy, that man is having a fever. He is using a fever pad " ( haha, the man was resting his eye mask on his forehead...it certainly looked like a fever pad)

Throughout the flight, Nicole was putting up her best behaviour. She enjoyed every bit of the meals and the in flight entertainment. She was so used to SQ flights that she got an "unpleasant" experience on board QF flights when we moved about in Australia. When her meal was served on QF, she exclaimed ,

N " Mummy, is this what you called a meal? It is just a sandwich and it is cold!"

(haha, well, welcome home sweetheart! You have been away for too long. Sandwich is the way to go here....)

Embarrassment 2

Our neighbour, TaeYoon, aged 4 came over to our house to watch Little Eistein with Nicole. They were sitting quietly at the sofa while I was busy uploading the blog. Suddenly, Nicole came to me and whispered softly into my ears.

Nic” Mummy. Can you make me some milk in a cup please?”
Me “ Ok. I will get you your bottle shortly”
Nic “ No! I don’t want my bottle. Just in a cup “
Me “ Huh? Why not? I am surprised”
Nic “ I don’t want TaeYoon to see me drinking from my bottle”

Ha….so that was the reason!

Embarrassment 1

Nicole and I were playing with the Lego set, building houses. She built a large beautiful house with wings and was obviously very proud of it.

Nic “ Mummy, what do you think of my house?”
Me “ It looks great. You have good imagination. I like the wings”
Nic “ How can I make it better?”
Me “ You want my opinion?”
Nic “ Sure. That would be nice”
Me “ Hmm, perhaps you may wish to build your door outside, instead of inside, so that you could enter the house from the door”
Nic “ MUMMY! You are embarrassing me! I dont like your opinion…”

Me “ What? Why is it an embarrassment? It is a statement of facts”
Nic " What is a statement of facts?"
Me " It means telling the truth"
Nic "No, you are really embarrassing me!"

(…hahaaha…I was laughing away deep down when she used such bombastic word for her age)

Hello Kitty

Nicole's Hello Kitty. Looks cool heh?

Cute little boy

Ethan has been especially sticky to me of late. He would tail me wherever I go, whether it is to the kitchen, bathroom or bedroom. I was getting ready to go out for some grocery shopping with Lawrence and I heard some yelling from the bathroom.

E " Mummy, where are you going?"
Me " Oh, I am going grocery shopping"
E " Wait for me. I am going grocery shopping with you " (running out from the bathroom with his pants down 3/4)

We all just had a rib aching laugh at this cute little boy :)

Double celebrations

It was a double birthday celebration for Dad and Rose. Mango cake is the favourite of both and hence mango cake we had.

We tried out the new steamed boat restaurant and it was quite an experience. We each got a pot, so five pots altogether, all different soup base. There were a full selection of sauces to go with the food and it was pretty authentic.

E and N were the happiest of all as usual. They each had 2 slices of mango cakes though E's portion was a baby portion. On the way home, he fell asleep in the car, with a contented smiley face :)

A time for everything

I believe God has a time for every fine detail in our lives.

Recently, Nicole has been writing a fair bit, both English and Chinese. Relatively, she is stronger in English than Chinese. That said, she is able to write many Chinese characters with the correct sequence of strokes. All these traits were not quite visible 6 months ago. She used to “draw” the words according to her own liking. I would say, she is able to write between 150 to 200 chinese characters now though she is able to recognize a lot more. It just goes to show one thing – practice makes perfect :)

Polite yet crystal clear

Ethan loves to eat those multivitamin gummy bears. For his age group, he should be given no more than 1 a day but this little boy would persistently request for 3. So, the trick is pretty simple. I just cut the tiny bear into 3 pieces. He counts them and happily confirms that he has been given 3 gummy bears :)

Lawrence “ Ethan, may I have one gummy bear please?”
E “ Sorry Papa. NO WAY!” (running away from papa with his 3 gummies in his little plate)
Lawrence “ Ethan, can Mummy have one gummy bear please?”
E “ Yes”

Haha, Lawrence pulled a long face over it :)

Wet trousers

It has been quite a number of weeks since we last had dim sum for lunch and so we decided to have one. Nicole had her favourite custard buns – all 3 of them!!, on top of the yummy Ee Fu noodle and scallop dumplings.

Time at the table for the kids was surely short, 15 minutes at best. Thereafter, they went running about at the hotel second floor lobby where there was little human traffic. N was having so much fun chasing after E, so much so that she forgot that her bladder was very full. She rushed to the toilet but it was too late. She literally wee-ed in her trousers.

Rose “ Oh no. Nicole, you are all wet! Your shoes too”
Nic “ Ya. I can just stand in the car later. I won’t sit”
Rose “ You can wear Ethan’s shorts. I have it in the bag”
Nic “ What? Boy’s short?”
Rose “ Ya, it is better than wet trousers. Come on”
Nic “ Do I really have to? Ok ok”

When she got out of the toilet, I was surprised to see N in that cute little pair of shorts. She was very embarrassed and kept hiding behind popo. She was conscious that people may be looking.

All of us had a rib-aching laugh without her knowledge. Otherwise, she would have broken down to tears, knowing how prideful she is. J J Hahaha